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As another off season of College Football material kicks off, this year marks the third year I’ll throw my hat in the ring and look at a number of topics and categories. In the process I’ll look to do everything from predicting next year’s 25 best teams, identify the games of the year, narrow down the Heisman field, identify those replacing 2012′s stars and ultimately make predictions for each league, culminating in a national championship pick. They’ll be many things I’ll be ridiculed for. There will be a number of things that will surprise some people. Ultimately you’ll come away from the next 6 months of material as ready for the college football season as I can possibly make you. While I’ll be sure to miss on things I would like to remind the skeptics I did correctly predict the same number of bowl teams preseason as Phil Steele a year ago as well as top him in BCS Bowl participants predicted before the year. Nonetheless I’m not putting out any magazines soon so keep buying his for the top preseason coverage available.
The key in any top 25 poll is understanding the premise on which the poll is based because not all top 25 polls are built the same way. Some people choose to rank teams 1-25 based on where they think teams will be ranked at year’s end. If they think a team will lose 5 games they won’t rank them. While that may seem logical I’ve never been a proponent of that style of poll and it has never been, nor will ever be, how I choose to do my top 25 polls. My polls reflect the 25 teams entering 2013 who I think are the top 25 teams on a neutral field if the country played a round-robin. If a team is likely to max out at 7 wins that doesn’t give me the urge to rank a nine-win team over them if the nine-win team is from a much weaker league. With that covered, let us continue the top 25 for 2013 as the official kickoff of the off season coverage here at The Sports Headquarters.
*Returning Starters Figures from Phil Steele’s Blog
Teams already ranked:
#25. Fresno State Bulldogs
#24 Vanderbilt Commodores
#23 USC Trojans
#22 Miami Hurricanes
#21 Ole Miss Rebels
#20 Boise State Broncos
#19 Wisconsin Badgers
#18 Oklahoma Sooners
#17 Florida State Seminoles
#16 Northwestern Wildcats
#15 Oklahoma State Cowboys
#14 Louisville Cardinals
#13 Florida Gators
#12 TCU Horned Frogs
#11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
#10 LSU Tigers
#9 Clemson Tigers
#8 South Carolina Gamecocks
#7 Texas Longhorns
Coming in at #6
Georgia Bulldogs
2012 Record: 12-2
Conference Finish: Tied for 1st in SEC East (Won Tiebreaker over Florida)
Bowl: Georgia won Capital One Bowl 45-31 over Nebraska
2013 Returning Starters: 10 offense, 3 defense
2013 Offense
While Texas A&M, Oregon, Alabama, Clemson and maybe a couple others would probably get nominations, Georgia can be thrown right in the thick of the debate for best offense in the country in 2013. The Bulldogs were a very potent offense a season ago and return essentially everything. One can only imagine the thought running through the minds of UGA fans as they watched Alabama dismantle Notre Dame in the national championship game. Inside the red zone with only seconds to play the Bulldogs came up yards short of the BCS title game and quite possibly a national title. With an entire offseason to think about it and dwell on what might have been the Bulldogs return in 2013 looking to get over the hump and win an SEC Championship which often goes a long way to punching a spot in the national championship game. Can the Bulldogs do it? If so the offense will likely have to do some heavy lifting.
Aaron Murray deciding to return for his senior season was the first major domino that fell favorably in Georgia’s favor as his return gives Georgia one of the top quarterbacks in the country this season. While he still struggled with decision making in certain instances and has the “can’t win the big game” tag placed on him (somewhat fair, somewhat not) reality is he’s put up monster passing numbers in the SEC two years running and can be penciled in for about 30 TDs and 3000 yards yearly. His return prevents Georgia from replacing an all-conference caliber performer and cements the offense as ready to go in 2013 with few issues.
When you have a quarterback of Murray’s talent and yet the scariest part of your offense might actually be the running game, your offense is in pretty good hands. The combination of Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall is as good as any in America and barring a sophomore slump should be poised for another great year, terrorizing front sevens of the opposition each week. Gurley rekindled talks of Herschel Walker with his freshman season rushing for nearly 1400 yards and 17 touchdowns. Perhaps as impressive as either of those totals was his 222 carries on the season showing he was an absolute workhorse and shined in the Capital One Bowl. Frankly he didn’t show the wear and tear you’d expect of a freshman back in his first year in the SEC. Keith Marshall carried the ball 117 times, went for 850 yards from scrimmage and totaled nine touchdowns as a freshman, and NOBODY talks about his season. Marshall ran for more yards per carry and basically the same (14.22 for Marshall, 14.30 for Yeldon) touchdowns per touch from scrimmage as T.J Yeldon and yet their seasons were recapped as if they weren’t in the same hemisphere. The Bulldogs will lean on these two backs again in 2013 and put enough fear in opposing defenses to open up the passing game even more for UGA.
Georgia’s wide receiver core is a test in an individual’s method of viewing the world. A glass half-empty person would point out Georgia lost its best receiver and home run threat Tavarres King to graduation as well as Marlon Brown, the team’s third leading pass catcher. They’ll mention that Malcolm Mitchell is in the process of coming back from surgery and Michael Bennett has to overcome a torn ACL from last year himself. A glass half-full person will tell you that no player on the team had more than 42 catches last season and that 11 players caught double digit passes. They’ll bring up the fact Murray threw for 3,800 yards despite not owning a second receiver that went over 600 yards. Mostly they’ll note that barring a setback from the injuries listed above the receiving core is deep, talented at wide receiver and tight end and in reality doesn’t need to be great. As we just discussed above, with Gurley and Marshall in the fold, your passing attack doesn’t have to be a near 4,000 yard unit again. The running game can do most of the dirty work in 2013, as Murray and the receivers simply must pick up the rest of the slack.
The entire offensive line is back featuring three senior starters which one would think would give the Bulldogs a lot of confidence in their front five. Sacks were an issue at times last season however, never moreso than in the lone regular season loss to South Carolina where (for the second year in a row) Aaron Murray was running for his life. With that said, outside of that area the Bulldogs were pretty good up front ranking favorably in tackles for loss allowed, red zone offense and third down conversion percentage. The Bulldogs are better offensively than South Carolina or Florida, the two biggest challengers in the SEC East. Due to the defensive edge those two might have, this group can’t afford to not show up in those games if Georgia wants a shot at returning to a third straight SEC Championship Game.
Rest can be seen here: 2013 CFB top 25
The key in any top 25 poll is understanding the premise on which the poll is based because not all top 25 polls are built the same way. Some people choose to rank teams 1-25 based on where they think teams will be ranked at year’s end. If they think a team will lose 5 games they won’t rank them. While that may seem logical I’ve never been a proponent of that style of poll and it has never been, nor will ever be, how I choose to do my top 25 polls. My polls reflect the 25 teams entering 2013 who I think are the top 25 teams on a neutral field if the country played a round-robin. If a team is likely to max out at 7 wins that doesn’t give me the urge to rank a nine-win team over them if the nine-win team is from a much weaker league. With that covered, let us continue the top 25 for 2013 as the official kickoff of the off season coverage here at The Sports Headquarters.
*Returning Starters Figures from Phil Steele’s Blog
Teams already ranked:
#25. Fresno State Bulldogs
#24 Vanderbilt Commodores
#23 USC Trojans
#22 Miami Hurricanes
#21 Ole Miss Rebels
#20 Boise State Broncos
#19 Wisconsin Badgers
#18 Oklahoma Sooners
#17 Florida State Seminoles
#16 Northwestern Wildcats
#15 Oklahoma State Cowboys
#14 Louisville Cardinals
#13 Florida Gators
#12 TCU Horned Frogs
#11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
#10 LSU Tigers
#9 Clemson Tigers
#8 South Carolina Gamecocks
#7 Texas Longhorns
Coming in at #6
Georgia Bulldogs
2012 Record: 12-2
Conference Finish: Tied for 1st in SEC East (Won Tiebreaker over Florida)
Bowl: Georgia won Capital One Bowl 45-31 over Nebraska
2013 Returning Starters: 10 offense, 3 defense
2013 Offense
While Texas A&M, Oregon, Alabama, Clemson and maybe a couple others would probably get nominations, Georgia can be thrown right in the thick of the debate for best offense in the country in 2013. The Bulldogs were a very potent offense a season ago and return essentially everything. One can only imagine the thought running through the minds of UGA fans as they watched Alabama dismantle Notre Dame in the national championship game. Inside the red zone with only seconds to play the Bulldogs came up yards short of the BCS title game and quite possibly a national title. With an entire offseason to think about it and dwell on what might have been the Bulldogs return in 2013 looking to get over the hump and win an SEC Championship which often goes a long way to punching a spot in the national championship game. Can the Bulldogs do it? If so the offense will likely have to do some heavy lifting.
Aaron Murray deciding to return for his senior season was the first major domino that fell favorably in Georgia’s favor as his return gives Georgia one of the top quarterbacks in the country this season. While he still struggled with decision making in certain instances and has the “can’t win the big game” tag placed on him (somewhat fair, somewhat not) reality is he’s put up monster passing numbers in the SEC two years running and can be penciled in for about 30 TDs and 3000 yards yearly. His return prevents Georgia from replacing an all-conference caliber performer and cements the offense as ready to go in 2013 with few issues.
When you have a quarterback of Murray’s talent and yet the scariest part of your offense might actually be the running game, your offense is in pretty good hands. The combination of Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall is as good as any in America and barring a sophomore slump should be poised for another great year, terrorizing front sevens of the opposition each week. Gurley rekindled talks of Herschel Walker with his freshman season rushing for nearly 1400 yards and 17 touchdowns. Perhaps as impressive as either of those totals was his 222 carries on the season showing he was an absolute workhorse and shined in the Capital One Bowl. Frankly he didn’t show the wear and tear you’d expect of a freshman back in his first year in the SEC. Keith Marshall carried the ball 117 times, went for 850 yards from scrimmage and totaled nine touchdowns as a freshman, and NOBODY talks about his season. Marshall ran for more yards per carry and basically the same (14.22 for Marshall, 14.30 for Yeldon) touchdowns per touch from scrimmage as T.J Yeldon and yet their seasons were recapped as if they weren’t in the same hemisphere. The Bulldogs will lean on these two backs again in 2013 and put enough fear in opposing defenses to open up the passing game even more for UGA.
Georgia’s wide receiver core is a test in an individual’s method of viewing the world. A glass half-empty person would point out Georgia lost its best receiver and home run threat Tavarres King to graduation as well as Marlon Brown, the team’s third leading pass catcher. They’ll mention that Malcolm Mitchell is in the process of coming back from surgery and Michael Bennett has to overcome a torn ACL from last year himself. A glass half-full person will tell you that no player on the team had more than 42 catches last season and that 11 players caught double digit passes. They’ll bring up the fact Murray threw for 3,800 yards despite not owning a second receiver that went over 600 yards. Mostly they’ll note that barring a setback from the injuries listed above the receiving core is deep, talented at wide receiver and tight end and in reality doesn’t need to be great. As we just discussed above, with Gurley and Marshall in the fold, your passing attack doesn’t have to be a near 4,000 yard unit again. The running game can do most of the dirty work in 2013, as Murray and the receivers simply must pick up the rest of the slack.
The entire offensive line is back featuring three senior starters which one would think would give the Bulldogs a lot of confidence in their front five. Sacks were an issue at times last season however, never moreso than in the lone regular season loss to South Carolina where (for the second year in a row) Aaron Murray was running for his life. With that said, outside of that area the Bulldogs were pretty good up front ranking favorably in tackles for loss allowed, red zone offense and third down conversion percentage. The Bulldogs are better offensively than South Carolina or Florida, the two biggest challengers in the SEC East. Due to the defensive edge those two might have, this group can’t afford to not show up in those games if Georgia wants a shot at returning to a third straight SEC Championship Game.
Rest can be seen here: 2013 CFB top 25
