Texas Tech is still trying to get back to the success levels that they reached under Mike Leach. Tommy Tubberville is a proven coach who has the respect of the players, but the defense needs to get better. Texas Tech finished dead last in the nation in rushing defense last year. New defensive coordinator Art Kaufman’s job is to fix that problem.
Well, the Cardinal are a ranked team, but they have big shoes to fill since Andrew Luck and TE Coby Fleener are gone. Josh Nunes won the QB battle, but he has not thrown a pass for Stanford since the 2010 season.
The Ducks lost star RB LaMichael James and QB Darron Thomas, but they still are staked and their defense may be much better than last season.
USC heads into the season as the odds on favorite to win the BCS title and it not hard to see why with the great offense they have led by Heisman favorite QB Matt Barkley.
Iowa State hasn’t had a ton of success over the past decade, but Paul Rhoads is doing his best to change that. The Cyclones shocked the entire college football world when they beat then-unbeaten Oklahoma State last November.
Wake Forest has had the same coach now for 11 years. The Demon Deacons are always fighting an uphill battle as the smallest school in the Bowl Subdivision. Team depth has been an issue for many years. Jim Grobe thinks the team’s overall depth is a little better this season.
The marquee matchup of the first weekend pits the #8 Michigan Wolverines up against the #2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. This game will be played at Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. Brady Hoke returned the Michigan Wolverines to prominence last year, but now they have to take on the defending champions from Alabama.
Well, the Cardinal are a ranked team, but they have big shoes to fill since Andrew Luck and TE Coby Fleener are gone. Josh Nunes won the QB battle, but he has not thrown a pass for Stanford since the 2010 season.
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.
