Here’s a look at Legion Report’s College Football Pre-Season Rankings and Season Outlook Part 1 (Ranks 25-15) – Be sure to check out Pre-Season Rankings and Season Outlook Part 2 (Ranks 1-14) HERE.
25. Duke
Duke’s coach, David Cutcliffe, also coached both Manning brothers and has a ton of talent returning after a great season last year. The offense, who scorched Texas A&M in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl, has 8 returning starters in a proven system that has a basketball school believing in football! Duke has the talent to be a Top 25 team this year and they will repeat last season to play Florida State in the ACC championship game. The defense needs work, but they will survive in the ACC.
24. Washington
Chris Peterson went 92-12 in his tenure at Boise State; if he can couple this with finding the right quarterback to replace Keith Price this could be a scary Washington team. Washington returns all starters on the offensive line which which will be very beneficial against teams like Arizona, USC, Stanford, and Oregon. This team is capable of pulling some upsets off in the PAC 12, but expect 5-7 wins this season.
23. North Carolina
The Tar Heels have been surprisingly consistent and relevant in the ACC the past 5 years. The offense is fairly young all over and returning quarterback Marquise Williams will have to find a new favorite target as Eric Ebron left for the NFL. Their defense returns all linebackers and with a year’s experience under their belt they should fair better than their 2013 10th ranked ACC Defense. North Carolina will battle for the ACC Coastal Division Race at the end of the year.
22. Texas
Texas is a team that has all the athletes it needs in order to be a championship, with the exception of one important position, quarterback! Charlie Strong built Louisville into a powerhouse running team and eventually Teddy Bridgewater came along. This is the perfect set up for him because he has a trio in the backfield with Johnathan Gray, Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron. Charlie Strong is a coach that prides himself on running the ball and playing smash mouth in-your-face defense. He developed 3-4 star players at Louisville and should have no problem with 4-5 star players in Texas. Texas will have 8-10 wins this season and should build off of that heading into the 2015 season.
21. Wisconsin
It’s hard having Wisconsin this far back in the rankings. This is a program that constantly wins no matter the player or coach departures. The brutal running attack will once again have one of the best lines in the nation. Heisman candidate Melvin Gordon is returning, but unless quarterback Joel Stave can find some athletes to get yardage due to the graduation of Jared Abbrederis the Badgers are going to have to play smash mouth football. Wisconsin is always a contender for the Big Ten title and this year will be no different.
20. Ole Miss
Watch out SEC, Hugh Freeze has experience to go along with that 2012 recruiting class! This should be one of the toughest and surprising teams of the season with very high expectations coming from the defensive side of the ball. The Nkemdiche brothers will be leading the defense and All-American safety Cody Prewitt will be right behind them. If the Rebels can get consistent quality play from Bo Wallace this could be last year’s Auburn in the SEC…. well maybe that is a little too much, but they will be solid.
19. Clemson
Dabo Swinney is going through the same situation as Kevin Sumlin except he has a powerful and fast defense! The offense has a lot of positions to fill from QB, RB and WR. The defense has a 7 returning starters, including one of the best defensive lineman’s in college football, Vic Beasley. Clemson will be capable of making some noise in the ACC, but they don’t have enough to make the playoffs this season.
18. Texas A&M
Aside from the fact that we are headed into fall practice and the Aggies do not have a starting quarterback, I believe Texas A&M will have a great year. They are returning 10 starters on defense (if you watched any A&M football last year that could be a bad thing.) This team couldn’t stop anyone last year giving up just over 32 points a game. Their offense has to prove it does not need Johnny Football and their defense needs to show up in order to lead this team to the SEC championship.
17. Nebraska
Nebraska is heading into this season with Ameer Abdullah and Ameer Abdullah alone! This is not good considering that the O-line is bringing back 16 career starts total. Sophomore Tommy Armstrong will have to come in and become something that Nebraska hasn’t had in years, a quarterback. The line is very young and I personally do not see much upside this season for the Huskers. A strong defensive front and running back is all this team will have; consider Nebraska a four loss team this season.
16. Missouri
Missouri comes into the season with a rough road ahead of them after losing their quarterback, running back and Top 3 wide receivers on offense. This could be a long season for the Tigers! Although then freshman Maty Mauk showed his capabilities when starter James Franklin went down last season, there are plenty of holes to be filled including arguably the best wide receiver in the country, Dorial Green-Beckham. The D-line was the best in the SEC last season, but lost Michael Sam and Kony Ealy to the draft who combined for 33.5 tackles for loss and 21 sacks. These Tigers are coming into the season with need of new players to fit and fill the roles. I can see Missouri having a rough season ahead of them with a tough SEC schedule.
15. Notre Dame
Tradition and consistency is something that the voters look for in preseason rankings. Notre Dame has both of them which is why they will fall into the top 15. There is plenty of experience in the wide receivers and secondary that neither of those areas will fall off. There are two major concerns Notre Dame is facing heading into the season. 1 – QB Everett Golson who missed the entire 2013 season. 2 – The defensive line was gutted out from last season. Notre Dame will have to find out where Everett Golson stands and hopefully, for their sake, he didn’t lose a step from his year off.
Stay tuned as NCAA College Football Pre-Season Rankings 14-1 will be released tomorrow!