Offseason questions
What story lines surround college football?
Two weeks have passed since Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sent that beautiful pass spinning through the air at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and beat Georgia with a stunning 41-yard touchdown in overtime to claim Nick Saban’s fifth national championship in the past nine years.
While the final game of the 2017 season might not have been the best overall championship game in recent memory — I’d rank 2016 (Clemson over Alabama) and 2013 (Florida State over Auburn) firmly ahead in terms of entertainment value and drama — the final play was one of those shocking, forever moments to end a game where it actually takes you a second to process everything and realize what happened.
So here’s to more terrific championship games as we move head-long into the offseason, where there are plenty of story lines simmering around college football. Here are some of them, in no particular order of importance. How long Nick Saban wants to coach is the biggest story line
It was sort of surprising, to me anyway, that much of the post-mortem on Alabama’s championship focused on the historical comparisons between Saban and Bear Bryant. While technically Saban’s sixth overall title (five at Alabama, one at LSU) tied him with Bryant, there already was a fairly broad consensus that Saban had surpassed Bryant as the greatest college football coach of all time. I conceded that with the 2015 title. It’s so much harder to win consistently at that level now than it was in Bryant’s era (largely because of scholarship limitations and other factors), it’s almost a different sport.
And it seems pretty obvious Alabama will be at or close to the top for as long as Saban, 66, wants to do it. Is that three more years? Five more? Who knows, but he hasn’t shown any signs that he’s slowing down.
However, from talking to several coaches around the SEC, there’s no doubt his age will be a factor in recruiting going forward. How much of a factor? Who knows? But it’s something Alabama will have to fight against, and it certainly seems to be reflected in some of the staff moves Saban has made this offseason.
It’s no coincidence Alabama’s staff makeover has focused on younger coaches and strong recruiters such as Jeff Banks (formerly of Texas A&M) and Josh Gattis, a 34-year old who was on the offensive staff under James Franklin at Penn State and Vanderbilt. Saban also remade his defensive staff by hiring Pete Golding from Texas-San Antonio and Karl Scott of Louisiana Tech, which are not your typical veteran SEC hires.
Though opinion across the country is mixed on Mike Locksley as offensive coordinator, bringing Gattis aboard could be a stroke of genius. It might be a handful of years away, but more than a few
people in the business have identified him as a potential head coach. Alabama-Clemson, Part 4 is probably looming
We’ll see how long it takes before people grow tired of this, but you should go ahead and mentally prepare yourself for another Playoff meeting. Barring some unexpected major development, the preseason polls for 2018 are likely to show Alabama at No. 1 and Clemson at No. 2, which reflects not only their recent consistency but the actual roster quality as well.
With Clemson returning Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell and Austin Bryant on the line — any or all of the three viably could have left for the NFL draft — the Tigers defense should be just as good or better than last season. The offense got exposed a bit by Alabama, but there’s certainly a possibility stud recruit Trevor Lawrence will surpass Kelly Bryant at quarterback. If Lawrence performs as advertised — he’s basically the highest-rated quarterback recruit ever out of Georgia — that could change everything, quickly. Either way, Clemson’s schedule is extremely favorable, and I’d say the odds are better than 50-50 that the Tigers are 12-0 going into the ACC championship game.
Alabama might have a few more roster questions than Clemson, especially with its entire secondary departing. But it’s Alabama, and the performances by freshmen such as Tagovailoa, running back Najee Harris and receiver DeVonta Smith in the championship game could foreshadow the next generation of Crimson Tide stars. They’ll be fine. Bobby Petrino is running a family business
It’s gone almost unnoticed, but the Louisville coach has reshaped his staff in a way that indicates he has no regard for the appearance of nepotism. On a staff of 10 coaches, three are related to Petrino: His son Nick Petrino (quarterbacks), son-in-law L.D. Scott (defensive
line, married to his daughter Kelsey) and son-in-law Ryan Beard (safeties, married to his daughter Katie).
That’s a bold move after going a disappointing 17-9 the past two seasons with the best player in school history. Louisville has question marks going into Year 5 of Petrino’s second stint, and his staff makeup will be fair game for critics if the Cardinals take a dip. Georgia might be the most intriguing team in the country
Despite a crushing loss to Alabama in a championship game they controlled for so long, the future certainly looks good for the Bulldogs. But there’s never a guarantee you’ll get another bite at the apple, and it will interesting to watch Kirby Smart deal with a different set of expectations going forward. Though quarterback Jake Fromm will be back with plenty of talent around him (including another elite quarterback recruit in Justin Fields), Georgia is going to be a very different team next season. Coaches who need a good year, in order of potential danger
David Beaty, Kansas; Derek Mason, Vanderbilt; Kalani Sitake, BYU; Major Applewhite, Houston; Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech; Lovie Smith, Illinois; Larry Fedora, North Carolina; Ed Orgeron, LSU; Clay Helton, Southern California Coaches who could move up
Lane Kiffin, FAU; Mike Norvell, Memphis; Geoff Collins, Temple; Jason Candle, Toledo; Bill Clark, UAB; Neal Brown, Troy; Scott Satterfield, Appalachian State Early Playoff picks for 2018 Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Washington Team nobody is talking about that could be a factor
Michigan State has a lot coming back, and with the player/staff exodus at Penn State and quarterback uncertainty at Michigan, perhaps the Spartans have an opening to challenge Ohio State in the rugged Big Ten East.