USC
Head Coach: I have to admit I’m rooting for Lincoln Riley this year, if for no other reason than to shut college football analyst Paul Finebaum up who said last month that Riley’s era at USC is already in its final stages, that he’s lost control and that USC could finish the 2024 season with a losing record. Finebaum is one of those talking heads that has maligned the PAC-12 his entire life. He’s a writer, a journalist and an analyst who has never competed in any sport other than that of having an opinion—like an asshole, everybody has one. If new starting QB Miller Moss hits like I think he will and the USC defense improves under D’Anton Lynn like I know they will USC could very well be a force—and will need to be playing a schedule that includes LSU Week 1 and the likes of Michigan, Penn State, and Notre Dame.
Starting QB: Miller Moss, who although has played just a limited amount of time in his first two years has a career completion percentage above 70%. Moss closed out last season by setting the record for most TD passes thrown in a 372 yard, Holiday Bowl six TD victory over Louisville—tying the most TD passes thrown in a USC bowl game and the most TD passes thrown by a USC QB in his first Trojan start.
Utah
Head Coach: CBS Sports has ranked Kyle Whittingham as the top Big-12 Coach in 2024 and the sixth best coach in the country. With 20 years under his belt as head coach and 30 years total in the program there are only two coaches with longer tenures at head coach. The Utes return eight players on a defense that ended up ranked in the Top 15 nationally in total defense in 2023.
Starting QB: Cam Rising was ranked No. 8 on last year’s preseason list of the best QB’s – the highest of any returning quarterback. His career actually began at the University of Texas in 2018, a year in which he red-shirted. He transferred to Utah for the 2019 season in which he also red-shirted. In 2020 he ended up sitting out after suffering an injury in the only game he started. He led Utah in back-to-back PAC-12 conference championships in 21 and 22 and was MVP in the later game. He received a medical red-shirt due to a knee injury suffered in the 2023 Rose Bowl and as a result missed the entire 2023 regular and post season—giving him one more year of eligibility. Look for him to connect regularly with Senior Tight End Brant Kuithe, who like Rising, missed all last season due to injury. Whittingham is looking to keep Rising healthy the entire season and be part of that inaugural 12 team national championship playoff by giving him lots of targets to quickly throw to like USC and Syracuse transfers Dorian Singer and Damien Alford in addition to Money Parks, Mycah Pittman and Landen King—all back for a go at the playoffs.
Arizona
Head Coach: After Jedd Fisch took off to Washington to replace Kalen DeBoer who stepped into retiring Nick Saban’s job at Alabama, Arizona announced that Brent Brennan would take over as head football coach of the Wildcats. Brennan was a former Mountain West Coach of the Year in 2020 and has been the head coach at San Jose State for the past seven years. This is not the first time Brennan has coached for Arizona and comes with a history within the program. As a graduate assistant in 2000 he worked under Arizona’s winningest coach Dick Tomey and then again as an assistant coach from 2005 through 2009. His brother was a wideout under Tomey and his wife a graduate. He has a background of developing players with five all Americans and nineteen players who went on to play at the next level including Rob Gronkowski. He is fortunate that the Wildcats productive QB Noah Fifita and WR Tetairoa McMillan are coming back. That said, this will not be the team of 2023 that won ten games, beat Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl and ended up at the end of the year in the Top-20 nationally.
Starting QB: Noah Fifita—maybe the hottest signal caller in the country at the end of the season. Throwing for close to 3,000 yards with 25 TD’s and just 6 picks he led the Wildcats to seven straight victories including wins over five Top-20 ranked teams. He averaged 349.3 passing yards per game with 14 TDs against just three picks in Arizona’s last five games and comes into this season at No. 5 in ESPN’s 2024 preseason QB rankings.
Colorado
Head Coach: You only need to know that Deion Sanders is the only athlete to ever hit a major league home run and score an NFL TD in the same week to begin to understand how special he was as a player. He’s also the only man to ever play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. An all-state honoree in football, basketball, and baseball in High School, Sanders was recruited by Bobby Bowden to play football for Florida State. While playing football for Bowden, Sanders was a two-time consensus All American Cornerback, won the Jim Thorpe Award in 1988 as the nation’s top Defensive Back, led the nation in punt return average, intercepted 14 passes including 3 in bowl games—one with five seconds left to seal Florida State’s 13-7 win over Auburn in the 1989 Sugar Bowl. In 1986, playing baseball for Florida State, Sanders posted a .331 batting average and the next year was credited with 27 stolen bases.
Selected 5th overall in the 1989 NFL draft, during his career Sanders was named to eight Pro Bowls, was designated first-team All-Pro six times, appeared in back-to-back Super Bowls—one as a 49er in Super Bowl XXIX and one as a Cowboy in Super Bowl XXX—winning both. After nine seasons in MLB and 14 seasons in the NFL “Prime Time” was inducted into both the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame in 2011 after which he pursued a job as a sport’s analyst, which he landed with the NFL Network, and what he coveted most—a head coaching job at a major university. But, in spite of all his success, no-one was interested and as a result Sanders took his passion for football to the high school level, eventually landing a job as the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian High School in Cedar Hill, Texas where he coached two of his sons who played for the team. In that role he took a sub-500 team and turned them into a Division II state champion. That’s when Jackson State, an FCS Division 1 school with 4-8 record the prior year, came calling. In his first full season, Sanders led the Jackson State Tigers to the Southwestern Athletic Conference title and a school record 11 wins while also becoming the recipient of the 2021 Eddie Robinson Award as the season’s top FCS head coach. Counting an abbreviated and delayed COVID year along with two full years, Sanders’ overall record was 27-6,19-2 in conference with a perfect 8-0 conference record two years in a row. That’s when Colorado came calling.
After a 4-8 record in his first year—which is three more wins than the Buffaloes recorded in 2022—Coach Prime returns with 50 new players through the portal along with his QB son Shedour, his son Shiloh who plays Safety and the dual threat five star recruit Travis Hunter who turned down scholarships to Michigan, Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and others to go play at Jackson State, an FCS school whose football team was being led by Coach Prime at the time in order to learn how to play his defensive role, cornerback, from the best who ever played that position. When Sanders left for Colorado Hunter followed. In addition to recruiting through the portal with an emphasis on protecting Shedour this year, Sanders is doubling down on NFL experience in his coaching staff. Veteran NFL coach Pat Shurmur and Robert Livingston are the designated Offensive and Defensive Coordinators respectively. Shumur worked in the NFL from 1999 through 2021 including a stint as an offensive coordinator and two head coaching turns with the Bronco’s, the Browns, and the Giants. Livingston has been with the Cincinnati Bengals the last twelve years. The new offensive line coach, Phil Loadholt, and receiver’s coach, Jason Phillips, also have NFL pedigrees. After increasing their win total by three in his first year, I’m predicting that he increases it by at least another three this season resulting in the Buffaloes becoming bowl eligible.
Starting QB: Shedeur Sanders took a beating last year as the victim of 52 sacks—most in the nation by far—and eventually had to shut it down after fracturing his back in Week-12’s loss to the Washington State Cougars. In spite of the physical adversity he faced he still threw for well over 3,000 yards, completed 69+% of his passes and threw 27 TD’s against just 3 interceptions on top of four rushing TD’s. With added help on the offensive line to protect him and sitting at No. 8 in ESPN’s 2024 preseason QB rankings he is expected to have a great year and find himself near the top of the 2025 QB NFL draft boards.
Oregon
Head Coach: Dan Lanning returns for his third year after leading the Ducks to 10-3 and 12-2 seasons his first two years as well as victories in the Holiday Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. Prior to his move to the Pacific Northwest Lanning was at Georgia which had the top defense in the nation all three years that he was the defensive coordinator. Lanning is intense—maybe sometimes to his detriment—but he has his player’s attention and if Ohio State has a misstep don’t be surprised to find Oregon on top of the Big Ten next year. At this point in time they are more comparable to last year’s national champion Michigan than any Oregon team of recent memory. Lanning has a history of being a great recruiter and with 2 five star and 16 4 star recruits for 2024 the Ducks are ranked third, only behind Georgia and Alabama, in the 24/7 Sports Football Team Rankings.
Starting QB: Replacing Bo Nix—who is now Sean Peyton’s signal caller for the Denver Bronco’s—comes Dillon Gabriel through the portal, the highest ranked transfer QB in ESPN’S 2024 preseason rankings. He averaged 3,276 passing yards per season with 55 TDs and 12 interceptions the last two years with first UCF and then Oklahoma. He is expected to be a fit in the Ducks’ high-powered offense that averaged 44.2 points per game last season—2nd nationally—under Offensive Coordinator Will Stein who returns for 2024 . Gabriel also averaged 350 rushing yards and nine TDs per season with the Sooners. As a starter between UCF and Oklahoma he was 33-16.
Washington
Head Coach: As a Washington homer, last year was just about everything I could have hoped and dreamed for and if we could have only played as well in the final as we did against Texas in the semi—couldn’t even finish watching after Penix-Jr. missed what would have been a wide-open TD pass to Rome Odunze right before the half which would have gotten the Huskies to within three points at the break—uggh! And then the coaching dominos fell with Saban leaving Alabama, Washington’s head coach Kalen DeBoer going from the PAC-12 to the Big Ten to the SEC in a matter of weeks to lead the Crimson Tide, and Jedd Fisch—last year’s head coach at Arizona and a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year by the Football Writer’s Association of America—taking over as the new head coach for the Huskies, getting the call just four days after Washington’s appearance in the national championship and less than 24 hours after DeBoer announced he was leaving for Alabama. After working for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan for a couple years before taking the Arizona job, the opportunity to coach again in the Big-10 was too big to pass up. Man, between conference realignments and the coaching carousel what a whirlwind of change in a short period of time.
You had to be impressed with the job Jedd Fisch did at Arizona—what a turn-around. Took over a team whose head coach, Kevin Sumlin, was so bad he got fired mid-year and the team handed over to an interim. Fisch went 1-11 in 2021, 5-7 in 2022, and 9-3 in 2023—winning their last seven games, five against ranked opponents, as well as a 38-24 victory over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl—a game in which the Wildcat defense forced six turnovers, four of which turned into TD’s and giving them only the fourth 10 win season in the school’s history.
With all the coaching and player turnover and the success of 2023 it’s going to be hard to step back and rebuild, but that’s where we’re at. That said, after watching what Jedd Fisch was able to pull off at Arizona the Huskies rebuild will be in great hands. But with every starter gone from last year’s offense—including ten NFL draft picks, three in the first round—it will be difficult to say the least. Although his very impressive QB, Noah Fifita and Noah’s favorite target chose to stay put, the Wildcats leading rusher, Jonah Coleman, along with his two highest-rated 2024 commits followed their new coach to Seattle, not to mention Ephesians Prysock, an honorable mention All-PAC-12 cornerback. All toll Fisch said; “We have 15 players that were at Arizona or committed there (who) are now here; 38 players that were on this roster prior; and another set of 19 freshmen; and another 15 transfers outside of Arizona transfers. We have to get these four sets of players to play as one team ready for August 31st.”
As far as the coaching room goes you might be surprised at how many names you recognize including Bill Belichick’s son Steve who is the new Defensive Coordinator and Brennan Carroll, son of—well you know—who is the new Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach, replacing Ryan Grub who is the new Offensive Coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks. And who knows maybe even Pete—who Fisch actually worked for as an assistant with the Seahawks—and who no longer has a gig but still wants to coach, might even be seen hanging around practice and the locker room. As a matter of fact, back in April UW football shared a photo on social media of Carroll watching practice on a Tuesday and then the next Friday morning a two-minute video of Carroll, after being introduced to the team by Fisch, leading the team in one his trademark drills. Not sure how it’s all going to turn out this year, but at the very least it’s going to be interesting.
Starting QB: With last year’s quarterback Michael Penix-Jr now in the NFL the position of starting QB was up for grabs. Putting his hat into the ring was Senior signal caller from Mississippi State Will Rogers who will be competing with Demond Williams Jr., a freshman from Chandler Arizona, and Shea Kuykendall, a sophomore transfer from Northern Colorado. Williams, while quarterback for Basha High School, led the Bears to a 10-2 record and the state’s open division state championship semifinals in 2023 . In four seasons as the starting QB he completed 645-of-903 passes (.714) for 10,035 yards, 93 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions while also rushing for 2,783 yards and 42 touchdowns on 480 carries. Kuykendall, as a high school senior and offensive player of the year in 2021 at Long Beach Poly, threw for 2,840 yards and 32 TD’s with just five picks while also rushing for 274 yards in leading the Jackrabbits to the CIF Southern Section Division 4 Championship. Before hitting the portal to come to Washington he spent two seasons at Northern Colorado, red-shirting his first year and then starting in three games in 2023 connecting on 52-of-81 for 454 yards and 2 TD’s. But as Dan Raley wrote in his article for Sport’s Illustrated titled Lots of Changes for Huskies, But They Still Have a Southern Quarterback; “Rogers comes to the UW as one of the most storied quarterbacks to emerge from the highly competitive and always overly emotional Southeastern Conference (SEC) after throwing for 12,315 yards and 94 touchdowns while starting 40 games.” He’s the clear leader to start and as a kid who grew up watching Mississippi native Brett Favre and Drew Brees of the nearby New Orleans Saints throw the ball around the NFL and also attended the Manning Passing Academy for the past three years run by Archie, Eli and Peyton, he has his sites set on the next level. If Jedd Fisch can protect him the Huskies might not have the drop-off at QB that most folks thought they would.
UCLA
It’s one thing to lose your head coach, it’s quite another to also lose a great defensive coordinator, and if you add on top of that a really tough schedule it seems as though your chances are right up there with the proverbial snowball. With the exit of Chip Kelly to Ohio State as their new Offensive Coordinator and the defection of D’Anton Lynn over to the Trojans the Big Ten Media Poll has UCLA ranked below thirteen of the seventeen teams they’ll be competing against. However, there are some mitigating factors that make me think UCLA will not only become bowl eligible but might just surprise a few folks and even spoil the party for some. To start with, UCLA returns as many starters as do the two teams that played for last year’s national title—all three teams now in the same conference. As far as the rest of it read on . . .
Starting QB: 6’ 3” Ethan Garbers, with the right coach, has enough talent to be an NFL 1st Round Draft pick in 2025. He was a QB savant at Corona Del Mar High School throwing for well over 9,000 yards and 128 TD’s to just 15 interceptions. If you’ve ever taken statistics the 15 picks would be considered statistically insignificant—a TD to interception ratio very few QB’s could ever even hope to achieve. He also rushed for 784 yards and 18 more TD’s and in his senior year lead the Sea Kings to a perfect 16-0 record as well as CIF Southern Section and California State Division 1-A titles. He was recruited by Chris Peterson and accepted a scholarship to Washington only to end up on the bench during the disastrous Jimmy Lake coached season who for some reason decided to go with an undersized interception prone starter. Understandably the red-shirted Garbers entered the portal and left for UCLA with all his eligibility intact. The next two seasons he got in just a couple of times and only when the five year UCLA QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson was injured. In 2023 he started and played in a rotation with two other QB’s but came into his own in what was called a stellar performance in the Bruins LA Bowl win against Boise State. Enter Eric Bieniemy who has announced that there will be only one signal caller this year—Ethan Garbers.
Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator: UCLA is so fortunate to have Bieniemy in this position. Having been the Offensive Coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs for two of their recent Super Bowl wins it is amazing to me that he is not an NFL head coach—but I digress. He was a running back himself in college and came in third in the Heisman voting the year that his team, Colorado, played the toughest schedule in the country, beat Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, and won the national championship. As a coach he is credited with helping to develop Maurice Jones-Drew and Adrian Peterson for the Vikings as well as Jamal Charles and Kareem Hunt for the Chiefs. With a defense minded head coach in DeShaun Foster and Bieniemy most likely doing the signal calling you can beat that UCLA, who led the PAC-12 last year in rushing, with the returning talent of TJ Harden and Keenan James behind an offensive line that returns four starters will be doing a lot of running again this year which should keep the opposing defense very honest, setting the table for Garbers to serve up a really accurate and very mistake free passing attack to a good receiving corps that now includes 6’ 2” Notre Dame transfer Rico Flores who averaged 14.5 yards per catch last year. All toll—the Bruins are going to be much better than people think.
Head Coach: Having worked with D’Anton Lynn last year it will be up to DeShaun Foster to plaster together a defense that can hold up against the likes of LSU, Oregon, and Penn State come back-to-back-to-back Weeks 3, 4, and 5 without their two edge rushers from last year, now in the NFL, who accounted for 21 sacks and 37.5 tackles for loss. But as College Football News points out in their preview of UCLA they have two 300+ lb. tackles, a returning defensive lineman in 6’ 5” 270 lb. Devin Aupiu, and 6’ 4” Navy transfer Defensive End Jacob Busic that will try and fill that hole. They lost their leading tackler but the next two linebackers who were second and third are expected to be outstanding. They have two experienced returning corners and have picked up portal transfers from Oregon, Notre Dame, and Georgia Tech to take care of the Safety position. Last year’s place kicking for the Bruins, barely over 50%, reminded me of the days at Washington when we all used to cross our fingers and pray whenever a field goal was attempted. That’s a problem that Sophomore Cal transfer Maureen Bhaghani who hit all 29 of his field goals last year is expected to solve. Having the right coach and starting QB combo is probably the most important aspect of putting a winning NFL or college football team together. UCLA has that in spades with Bieniemy and Garber.
Arizona State
The Big-12 Media Poll has predicted the Sun Devils will be at the bottom of the pile at the end of the 2024 season while Athlon Sports has another view and writes; ‘It wouldn’t be a surprise if they became bowl eligible in their second season under head coach Kenny Dillingham. The overall trend line is on the upswing, as most of their starters won’t be seniors, and they’ve shown they can successfully evaluate and recruit the transfer portal.” One thing will be clearly obvious when they line up on offense this year—they won’t be using the “muddle huddle,” or what is better known as the Swinging Gate formation they were using last year while even placing non-quarterbacks under center due to injury. If you don’t remember or aren’t familiar with it, the offensive line positions themselves on one side of the field with the center, QB, and running back on the other—completely unprotected. It’s used primarily by teams, both high school and colleges, that are up against opponents of greater strength and size. The purpose of the formation is to facilitate a quick screen pass to a wide receiver or allow a short run by the running back. Different formation but it reminds me of the use of the Wing T offense by Bellevue High School in Washington who regularly took on and beat much higher nationally ranked schools. It’s an offense that, if done correctly, makes it almost impossible to know where the ball is once it’s snapped. But, back to the Sun Devils.
Head Coach: Prior to getting hired to take over for a fired Herm Edwards, Kenny Dillingham—now in his 2nd year and the youngest head coach in college football–had developed a well respected reputation as one of the best Offensive Coordinators in the country. First at Memphis where he put together back-to-back Top 5 offenses during his two year tenure; then at Auburn where he led the most improved offense in the SEC and helped Bo Nix because the SEC Rookie of the Year; finally at Oregon under Dan Lanning where he led the 10th best offense in the nation. So with 50 new-comers to the program including over 30 transfers it’s not a matter of if the Sun Devils will become highly productive on that side of the ball it’s really a matter of when. Regarding the less esoteric details of playing the game Dillingham seems to think that they are on the right track and uses as evidence of that his belief that the team’s gains in the weight room will transfer out to the field and says; “The size and strength of our football team is something we focused on, and now that we have hit our summer goals from that perspective, I’m excited to see it translate to football. Last year, we had only two players that could squat over 600 pounds. Now we have six in addition to 20 more guys that can squat 400 pounds from the 44 guys we had last year.” With an average of just 7 points difference in their four losses last year to USC, Cal, Colorado and Washington it is expected that a more physical football team will turn some of those close losses last year into wins this year.
Starting QB: Not sure as of August the 10th, but it could be 6’ 2” 200 lb. red-shirt freshman Sam Leavitt. According to Arizona Sports; “Leavitt has manned the first-team reps on all but one day of fall camp so far, but no official starter for Week 1 on Aug. 31 against Wyoming has been named yet.” As a senior at West Linn High School in Oregon Leavitt threw for over 3,000 yards, 36 TD’s with just 5 interceptions while also rushing for 720 yards and another 8 TD’s—leading his team to a 12-1 record and an Oregon 6A state title.
Cal
Head Coach: Justin Wilcox was introduced as the new head coach of the California Golden Bears in January of 2017 after spending lots of years in lots of different places primarily putting together highly nationally ranked defenses. In a way it was sort of a homecoming as his first job in college football after working as a graduate assistant at Boise State was to be hired as the linebackers coach for Jeff Tedford at Cal. After three seasons he returned to Boise State to become Defensive Coordinator for Chris Peterson. Over the four years that he worked there the Broncos only lost four games and the defenses he put together were very highly ranked nationally. After Boise State he took the same position for a couple of years at Tennessee under head coach Derek Dooley and then at Washington under Steve Sarkisian, eventually following Sark to USC. After five games in 2015 Sark was fired, followed by Wilcox after the Trojans lost to Stanford in the PAC-12 Championship game. In January of 2016 he became the defensive coordinator for Wisconsin and put together another Top-10 defense for a team that went 11-3 and won the Cotton Bowl. One year later he was named head coach for the California Golden Bears. Since then, his second and third years were the only ones in which Cal was able to post a winning record. They did make it to the post-season last year but lost to Texas Tech by 20 points in the Independence Bowl. It will be interesting to see how Wilcox and this year’s version of the Bears translate into the ACC. But with an overall record of 36-43 and not having a winning record since 2019, Wilcox could be on his way out after this season unless things improve.
Starting QB: Having been under center the last eight games of 2023 Fernando Mendoza, now in just his second year, will start for the Bears. He averaged over 200 yards per game and connected into the end zone 14 times but with 10 picks for a less than desirable TD-to-interception ratio. There were some bright spots that might be an indicator of success this year including a QBR of 157 or higher over a three game span and an uptick in points averaged per game to 41 against Oregon State, USC, Washington State and UCLA. I definitely get it against USC’s defense from last year but Oregon State and UCLA were really good on that side of the ball so maybe that, along the return of Top-15 nationally ranked RB Jaydn Ott who is second among all active FBS players with an average of 92.2 rushing yards per game and fourth in all-purpose yards with 119+, could portend for a better than projected 2024. In the two years Ott has been at Cal he has rushed for well over 2,000+ yards with a 5.3 yards per carry average as well as helping to move the chains in the air with 71 receptions for over 500 yards and five TD’s to go along with three kick returns for 144 yards and another score. Through his first two years he has the second most rushing yards of any player in Cal history. The way to keep Cal from beating you is to stop Ott because once he gets to 150 yards they usually don’t lose.
Stanford
Head Coach: For a team that has had some historically great receivers like James Loften, Doug Baldwin and Gene Washington, the fact that returning WR Elic Ayomanor holds the all-time single game receiving record with 294 yards is not nothing. Sports Illustrated seems to think that he could possibly be the cornerstone of the offense and write; “If Stanford can successfully get him the ball, anything can happen.” Making sure that happens will be second year head coach Troy Taylor who started a complete rebuild of the team in his first year. Considering that the Cardinal have failed to win more than four games in the past five years and are 3-9 in the last three, including Taylor’s 1st, a rebuild was certainly needed and is still on-going. Getting the job was a homecoming for Taylor who was a quarterback for the Golden Bears before joining the NY Jets in the 1990 NFL Draft. They were pretty horrible on the offensive line last year giving up 41 sacks and ranking in the bottom 25% nationally in rushing yards per carry. The only thing worse on the team than the offense was their defense who allowed over 450 total yards of offense per game and ranked in the bottom 5 nationally. According to Athlon’s preview; “the Cardinal return two playmakers at linebacker in Tristan Sinclair and Gaethan Bernadel. The secondary is headlined by Collin Wright, who could emerge as one of the better corners in the ACC. Defensive coordinator Bobby April III has preached that this unit just needs to get back to the basics.” Compared to playing against last year’s PAC-12, which was arguably the strongest in football that they had ever been, joining the ACC might be a big part of the answer for having a more successful season.
Starting QB: Ashton Daniels was recruited to Stanford from Georgia after leading his high school team to three consecutive state championships. As a freshman he was a situational wildcat QB for the Cardinal—rushed for more yards than he passed, but connected at an 80+% clip on those he threw and all without a pick while also averaging 5.6 yards per rush and picking up 3 TD’s on the ground. In his second year he threw for over 2000 yards, 11 TD’s in the air and another 3 on the ground but wasn’t as efficient in the air or as accurate. Of course, as noted above, it’s tough to be real efficient under center when you’re getting sacked 41 times and playing behind a bottom 25% offensive line. Sports Illustrated seems to think that if there can be some improvement in the offensive line and he starts off like he played the second half of last year they might be in good shape.
Washington State
Head Coach: Jake Dickert will be starting his fourth year in Pullman—third as head coach—taking the program over after the firing of Nick Rolovitch who replaced the late great Mike Leach after he left for the head coaching job at Mississippi State. At the time Dickert was the Defensive Coordinator having been hired by Rolovitch in what was his first Power 5 coaching job. He went 7-6 his first year, beating No. 19 Wisconsin and only losing to No. 15 Oregon by three points and No. 14 Utah by four. Last year, in spite of Cam Ward throwing for more yards and more TD’s the team regressed going 5-7 although came very close to knocking Washington out of the national semi-final loosing by only three points, 24-21, in front of a near panicked Husky home crowd. You would think that with eight games against Mountain West opponents this season that the Cougars should be able to do a lot better but probably only will if Eckhaus–if he gets the job–hits at QB which he will if the offensive line, who gave up 39 sacks last year, can only protect him.
Starting QB: The starting QB for the Cougars won’t be named until Sunday, August 18th with the final preseason scrimmage the day before being what head coach Jake Dickert called; “the final audition for John Mateer and Zevi Eckhaus to win the starting job.” Last year it was Cam Ward who, after winning the Jerry Rice Award in 2020 for being the most outstanding freshman player in the NCAA Division 1 of the FCS, played for two seasons with Washington State but left to the Miami Hurricanes via the portal. As far as this year’s candidates go John Mateer as a red-shirt freshman played in all twelve games last year off the bench with limited success completing 13-of-17 for 235 yards, two TD’s, and one pick to go along with 61 yards rushing and three TD’s on the ground.
Even though Dickert says he won’t make the final decision until this coming Sunday, August 18th, it would be a surprise if he does not announce that Senior QB Zevi Eckhaus is the starter. Eckhaus came through the portal with a stellar resume and, if Dickert has been able to solve the much less than inspiring offensive line play of last year, should be able to greatly mitigate the loss of Cameran Ward. According to his bio on the Cougar website as a Freshman Eckhaus; “was a finalist for FCS Jerry Rice Award . . . was the NEC Offensive Rookie of the Year . . . recording the greatest season for a freshman QB in program history . . . and started the final 10 games of the season, going 7-3 as a starter while completing 62.8 percent (233-of-371) of his passes for 2,392 yards, 21 TDs and just three INTs.” As a Sophomore in 2022 he; “had one of the greatest seasons for a QB in school history, completing 60+% of his passes for 3,228 yards and 26 touchdowns . . . and finished with school record 3,393 yards of total offense . . . while also posting six 300-yard passing games—including a school record 450-yard game. In his Junior year he was voted Big South Offensive Player of the Year, First-Team All-Big South and was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award while completing 62+% of his passes for 2,907 yards and 28 touchdowns—[finishing the season with] four-straight 300-plus yard passing games [while establishing] the Bulldogs record for career touchdown passes (75) including throwing for 1,437 yards and 18 TD’s at a 75+% clip in the last four games of the season.”
Oregon State
Head Coach: Prior to this season new head coach Trent Bray spent the last two years as Defensive Coordinator and Safeties Coach for the Beavers under head coach Jonathan Smith who, after the collapse of the PAC-12 left the Beavers and Cougars out of the conference realignment sweepstakes, left to become new head coach at Michigan State in the Big Ten. Bray, like Smith, was a former Oregon State player from 2002-2005 and earned multiple honors as a durable and tough outstanding linebacker. He learned much of his coaching skills working with two great ones—Dennis Erickson at Arizona State and Mike Riley at Oregon State. In 2018 he was hired by Smith to be the linebacker’s coach and was then promoted half-way through the 2021 season to be the interim defensive coordinator after the firing of Tim Tibersar and then elevated to full-time defensive coordinator at the start of the 2022 season in which they were second only to Utah in the conference in yards and points allowed per game with just a 6+ yard and less than 2 point-per-game difference. According to Oregonlive; “After seeing most of the key players from last season’s roster bolt in the transfer portal or leave for professional football, most national prognosticators are predicting a modest season for the Beavers, who will play a first-of-its-kind hybrid schedule featuring Power Four schools like Oregon, Cal and Purdue and a heavy mix of Mountain West opponents.” But Bray is much higher on his teams chances as you would expect even to the point of thinking about a post season berth in the 12 player national championship saying; “I think the physical talent is here. From a size, strength, speed standpoint, it’s here. We can win the games we need to win with the talent we have . . . our guys play fast and they play physical.”
Starting QB: Losing starting QB David John (DJ) Uiagalelei to Florida State through the portal when head coach Jonathan Smith decided to take the Michigan State opening has created quite a competition for his replacement. Joe Freeman of the Oregonian on August 14th quoted head coach Trent Bray as saying that the starting quarterback job is so close, “it will go right up to the end” of preseason camp. First year offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson is of similar mind and said; “the competition is so fierce, that [he’d] almost prefer that someone start separating themself in the three-man race,” between Ben Gulbranson, Gevani McCoy and Gabarri Johnson. According to Freeman’s article it’s the freshman Johnson that seems to be trending upward in spite of his lack of experience. As pointed out; “Gulbranson has guided the Beavers to seven victories and earned a Las Vegas Bowl MVP trophy [while] McCoy is a Jerry Rice Award winner and Walter Payton Award finalist who threw for nearly 6,000 yards at Idaho.” Both have far more game experience than the 5-foot-11 redshirt freshman. We should know soon, as kick-off is only a couple of weeks away.