College football:
The No. 1 question going into training camps: Can anyone compete with perennial powerhouse Alabama?
Training camps for college football are opening as early as this week, with the regular season about a month away. UMass hosts Hawaii to officially kick off the season Aug. 26. The following day, Stanford opens in Australia and San Jose State at home. Cal opens its season Sept. 2.
With Pac-12 coaches gathering in Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday for the conference’s annual Media Day festivities, here’s look at our Top 10 story lines for 2017-18.
1. Can anyone compete with Alabama?
The Crimson Tide have won four of the past eight national championships and are loaded as usual. Antioch running back Najee Harris, arguably the nation’s No. 1 recruit and subject of The Chronicle’s six-part multimedia series “The Najee Chronicles,” may struggle to find carries behind yard-stockpiler Damien Harris and touchdown-vulture Bo Scarbrough.
Florida State, Oklahoma and Ohio State appear to pose the biggest threats to Alabama, which could leave the Pac-12 outside the Final Four.
2. Is USC back to being a national power?
Many of the country’s preseason polls rank the Trojans as the Pac-12’s top team, but last year’s champion, Washington, is plenty talented, too. USC enters 2017 streaking off last season, when they found a dynamic quarterback in Sam Darnold.
3. Which other perennial powers could re-emerge?
USC is by far the best of the group, but Notre Dame, Oregon and Texas are also trying to perform reclamation projects. At 4-8 last season, the Irish failed to reach .500 for the first time since 2007. Oregon has turned to head coach Willie Taggart, who completed a similar turnaround at South Florida. Texas made the biggest offseason splash by inking Houston head coach Tom Herman to try to right the ship.
4. Which “Group of 5” teams could crash the College Football Playoff ?
Of the American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt schools, Houston was the darling last season. But Western Michigan entered the bowl season undefeated. Appalachian State and Boise State could be in the mix this year, but it’s probably a team among the “Tiny T’s” that will make the most noise: Toledo, Troy or Tulsa.
5. Who wins the Heisman Trophy?
Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson put up video game numbers in winning the Heisman last season, accounting for 126 points. To put that in perspective, Connecticut’s entire team combined for 178 points.
Darnold, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, and Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett could all be in the national championship and Heisman hunts. In the non-QB field, watch out for Penn State running back Saquon Barkley, LSU running back Derrius Guice and Georgia running back Nick Chubb.
Jackson is trying to become the second player to win the Heisman twice, joining Ohio State’s Archie Griffin (1974-75).
6. Is this the “Year of the Quarterback?”
Fans of the 49ers and/or Cal probably won’t understand this, but there are elite quarterbacks zipping accurate passes all over the country. Barrett, Darnold, Jackson, Mayfield, Wyoming’s Josh Allen, Washington’s Jake Browning, Washington State’s Luke Falk, UCLA’s Josh Rosen and Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph already have NFL scouts drooling.
Add in Mississippi State’s Nick Fitzgerald, Marshall’s Chase Litton and Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham, and this year’s class could obliterate the 1983 draft crop, which included six quarterbacks selected in the first round, including John Elway, Jim Kelly, Ken O’Brien and Dan Marino.
7. How will new faces fare in local places?
Cal head coach Justin Wilcox takes over a team that hasn’t established a quarterback yet, is lacking depth and has gone 22-39 with one bowl appearance in the past five years. Brent Brennan returns to San Jose State, which has limped to a 38-61 record with two bowl appearances during the past eight seasons. Jeff Tedford was hired in Fresno State in an attempt to transform a squad that lost its last 10 games and finished 125th of 128 teams in scoring.
8. How will local faces fare in new places?
Former Cal head coach Sonny Dykes was hired as an offensive analyst/consultant at TCU, which did Dykes the favor of leaving his 19-30 record in Berkeley off his bio. Former Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin was hired at Florida Atlantic, which may have been the first time even the most ardent college football fans heard anything about the Owls.
9. Which departed star will be missed most?
Clemson’s Deshaun Watson may be the country’s most irreplaceable player, but local fans will argue for Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, who accounted for 40.1 percent of the Cardinal’s yards from scrimmage in 2016. The Cardinal hope Bryce Love will be their next breakout star. Love, who has breakaway speed, ran 23 times for 129 yards against Notre Dame and 21 times for 119 yards against North Carolina last year.
10. Which feel-good story is worth tracking?
With all the smut percolating around the Ole Miss and Baylor programs, it’s nice to have a little respite. Becca Longo, a placekicker who signed a letter of intent to Adams State, a liberal arts school in Alamosa, Colo., is the first woman to earn a football scholarship to an NCAA school at the Division II level or higher.