I absolutely despise this time of year from a college football perspective. There are few actual college football headlines, so the media gurus are searching for, and sometimes making up, their own headlines. Thank goodness for the actual sports that we do have going on in the summer. Plus this year we have the World Cup.
I wanted to take this space and time to look at some of the contenders that have a realistic shot at making one of the four spots available for the newly formed College Football Playoff (CFP) I'll try to give you evidence as to what makes them contenders, not just my opinion. Feel free to leave comments on this post or any of our Social Media platforms. TWITTER, FACEBOOK, FANCRED, PINTEREST, GOOGLE+ or INSTAGRAM.
Since I am a firm believer that our Auburn Tigers are going to make the new playoff, I will only be looking at who our competition may be when the regular season ends.
The ESPN show that features college football had an interesting discussion the other night about how good the PAC 12 is going to be this fall. There was a lot of banter about whether or not the teams in the PAC 12 were as good as the SEC teams, and if the conference stacked up top to bottom with the SEC. I am not here to debate that, although it does lend some credence to what I am about to tell you.
U.C.L.A. will be a beast this year.
The Bruins are led by NFL experienced head coach Jim Mora. An added plus is that the Bruins are led offensively by former Auburn Offensive Coordinator Noel Mazzone.
Coming off of a 10 win season, including the drumming of Va Tech in the Hyundai Sun Bowl, the Bruins are returning a two year starter at the QB position.
Brett Hundley has amassed an impressive resume while leading his team with record setting performances in passing completions, passing yardage, and total offense. All were single season marks. There is no reason not expect these numbers to climb this season, and possibly have Hundley atop many career marks for the storied Bruins football record book.
Looking at the CFBStats.com page we see that UCLA was ranked 20th in scoring offense.While hanging around in the middle of the pack in total defense.
Defensively, UCLA probably won't rank well this season either because the PAC 12 returns so many good QB's much like the SEC did last season. This was one of the talking points analyst used to compare the two conferences for the upcoming season.
The Bruins' schedule includes five teams with offensive production ranked higher than their own last season in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, California, and Arizona State. This tough schedule also includes annual powerhouse Stanford.
Coach Mora has the luxury of returning nine players on each side of the ball. If the pass blocking can improve, and the defense against the run can improve, this team will make a run for the PAC 12 title, and the CFP.
Other possible contenders from the PAC 12: Oregon, Stanford, Arizona
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