To say that Penn State has had a tumultuous offseason is a massive understatement. The criminal acts that took place on campus have taken this football program down a road no one could have ever expected. Bill O’Brien is tasked with the job of turning things around for the Nittany Lions program.
Southern Miss had a record-breaking season in 2011. The Golden Eagles went 12-2, which was the school record for most wins in a season. Nebraska went 9-4 in what was a somewhat disappointing first year for the Cornhuskers in the Big Ten.
The Urban Meyer era kicks off Saturday afternoon in Ohio Stadium. A year ago Buckeyes fans were down in the dumps as the program looked lost, but now the fan base is pumped up as one of the best coaches in football has taken over the program.
Troy Calhoun has done a great job at Air Force in his first five years. The Falcons are 41-24 during that time. Last year, the team failed to reach eight wins for the first time in his career at the school. A 42-41 heartbreaking loss to Toledo in the Military Bowl dropped them to 7-6. Still, it should be pointed out that no other coach has had this kind of consistent success at a service academy school.
Until last season, it hadn’t been since early in the last decade that the K-State football program had its time in the sun. Under longtime coach Bill Snyder (he enters his 21st year in Manhattan this season) the Wildcats reached the Fiesta Bowl in 2003, and finished the year ranked #8 in the country. In 2011, there was a vintage feel at Kansas State: the Wildcats finished ranked #11 and had a Cotton Bowl appearance versus Arkansas.
During the 12-year (and counting) tenure of head coach Gary Patterson of the football team at Texas Christian University, he’s always made sure his squad brings it’s A-game when the nation’s elite competitors were in town. That sort of caged-animal, “never say die” attitude is what precipitates TCU’s move from the Mountain West to the Big 12 this season. This is a tough program that relishes the chance to play the Oklahomas and Texases of the world.
For the past few seasons, the Sooners haven’t been the only team from the state of Oklahoma to be in the national picture. Under head coach Mike Gundy and offensive co-ordinator Dana Holgorsen (who left in 2011) the Cowboys of Oklahoma State have ridden tremendous offensive firepower to the BCS landscape.
In the move from the Big East to the Big 12 Conference, West Virginia gets a serious bump up in the week-to-week compete level. The shift to the Big 12 is fitting, as the Mountaineers are entering the second season under head coach Dana Holgorsen, who schemed the Oklahoma State offense to new heights over the past several years.
In 2010, San Jose State went 1-10 and didn’t win a single game in the WAC. Last year, the team went 5-7 and 3-4 in the WAC. Mike Macintyre did such a nice job getting the team going in the right direction that he picked up a contract extension through 2017. Can the Spartans keep progressing in their final year of play in the WAC?
Many will remember Utah State for their loss in game one of the 2011 season. The Aggies absolutely had the defending champion Auburn Tigers beat, but they let them off the hook in the last two minutes. Still, this team deserves lots of credit for putting it back together and finishing with a solid 7-6 record in 2011.
Texas is in a somewhat similar situation, on a big-picture scale, as the Florida Gators: a super prestigious football program that was among the nation’s elite just a few seasons ago, but has recently fallen on hard times. The fact that an 8-5 2011 record portrays “hard times” at UT should speak volumes for the high pedigree of this program under head coach Mack Brown. Still, the Longhorns need to right the ship.
Even with a program like Oklahoma, as steady as it comes, this is a team that’s ready to go to the big stage right now. The Sooners were ranked #1 in the AP poll last season, but injuries to their top RB and WR spurred the team to hit turbulence, and finish at 10-3.
In 2012, Boston College has the returning starters to be a much improved team from a year ago – which is a good thing indeed, because not much went right for the Eagles in 2011. The Eagles had a pop-gun offense and were outgained by virtually every conference foe, on their way to limping home with a 4-8 record.
Randy Edsall, the man that built the Connecticut football program from literally nothing (as far as the FBS is concerned) to a 2010 BCS bowl participant (the Fiesta Bowl vs. Oklahoma) took over Maryland a year ago with an aggressive approach. Things were going to be done Edsall’s way, and if you didn’t like it, you could leave. This is precisely what QB Danny O’Brien did, as he transferred to Wisconsin to do graduate work and play for the Badgers.
Brady Hoke turned this team around and Rocky Long did a good job of keeping it going last year. The job will get a little tougher now with a more difficult Mountain West Conference. It also gets more difficult now that the team won’t have Ryan Lindley or Ronnie Hillman in the backfield.
The most improved team in the nation was the Wyoming Cowboys in 2011. Wyoming followed up a brutal 3-9 season in 2010 with an impressive 8-5 turnaround in 2011. The team has done this in the past only to slip back the next season. Now, it is up to the Cowboys to keep moving forward even though the Mountain West Conference has gotten a little tougher for the time being.
