1. UCF's follow-up season
Pay attention to UCF this season as it will be interesting what they do after losing Scott Frost to Nebraska. With McKenzie Milton returning for his senior year at quarterback, except UCF to be back in the New Year's Six conversations.
2. Clemson's stacked defensive line
Clemson might have the best defense in the nation at the moment. Dabo Swinney has done a terrific job recruiting players to Clemson as they have fought their way to the top of the college football world. The most notable spot on Clemson's defense is their defensive line. Their current starters are Dexter Lawrence, Christian Wilkins, Austin Bryant and Clelin Ferrell. With that much depth on the defensive line, Clemson will continue to be a dominant force in the ACC and beyond.
3. Pac 12's "Power" team
After going 1-7 in bowl games last season, the Pac 12 is struggling mightily to keep up with the other Power 5 conferences. Utah was the one team to win a bowl game last season. They took down West Virginia 30-14 in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. With so many average teams in the conference, does the Pac 12 have a power team like the SEC in Alabama? This remains to be seen as the college football season gets closer and closer to its start time.
4. FAU with Lane Kiffin
In his second season at FAU, Lane Kiffin is on the right track to win another conference championship. He drastically turned the program around from a 3-9 campaign in 2016 to an 11-3 campaign in 2017. FAU is looking like a New Year's Six team already. With a tough schedule featuring nonconference opponents Oklahoma and UCF, FAU could find itself in the College Football Playoff as well. For now, Lane Kiffin is here to stay in sunny FAU.
5. Auburn's Identity
Even after losing to both Clemson and LSU in 2017, Auburn manages to beat Alabama and Georgia in the same season. Yes, that's right. Auburn BEAT both teams that made it to the National Championship Game. They went on to play in the SEC Championship Game and lost to Georgia 7-28 after beating them earlier. To date, Auburn is one of the most inconsistent teams in college football ever. Later that season, Auburn loses to UCF in the New Year's Six Peach Bowl game. With Gus Malzhan's HC seat warming and their QB Jarett Stidham possibly leaving for the NFL next year, its do or die for Auburn football in 2018.
6. New rules in CFB
The college football world saw many new rule changes. Here is a short list of a few of them...
- When a player calls for a fair catch behind the 25-yard line on kickoffs, the team will be granted a touchback
- To make play faster, a 40-second play clock has been added after touchdowns and kickoffs
- Teams are now allowed to redshirt a player if the player participates in 4 games or less in any given season
- College athletes don't need permission anymore from their school to transfer
7. ACC and SEC scheduling 8 conference opponents
The number of conference opponents a team plays factors greatly into the competitiveness a conference would like to have. The more teams you play against in your conference, the more competition there will be. This is why 2 teams from the SEC played each other in the National Championship game. They have one less conference game to play than everyone else besides the ACC. For example, Alabama is scheduled to play The Citadel late in the season this year before they face off against Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Barring a miracle happens, this is essentially a bye week for Alabama and a complete waste of their time along with the rest of college football.
8. Michigan's struggle to beat top teams in the Big Ten
Under Jim Harbaugh, Michigan can't seem to beat the likes of Penn St., Ohio St., and Michigan St. at all. He is a combined 3-6 against these three teams and 0-3 against Ohio St. If Michigan wants to make any progress in the loaded Big Ten East, they need to figure out how to win against the harder teams. Aside from that, Michigan should still manage to be in the Top 25 for the whole year unless otherwise.
9. Texas A&M going all in on Jimbo Fisher
After letting Kevin Sumlin go, Texas A&M is taking a huge risk here. Sumlin was a special coach that fit well with their system and could recruit fairly well in Texas and neighboring states. He produced many winning seasons for A&M and left a reputation to be continued upon. To bring in Jimbo Fisher, a former Florida St. coach, is a bold move for many reasons. He has to transition from the ACC to SEC, the players and coaches don't really know him and if he doesn't make progress in the right direction Texas A&M is going to rethink their decision. We'll see how Texas A&M plays this year as they are trying to acquire the right pieces and make the right moves to win a division title and possibly an SEC championship game in the near future.
10. Notre Dame's history of tough schedules
Notre Dame is currently an FBS Independent team and that brings really challenging schedules on their part. This is very rewarding yet costly at the same time. It's rewarding because if they go 12-0 or 11-1 during the regular season, they almost certainly make the College Football Playoff. But, it can be costly because to play a formidable opponent every week and expect lots of wins is very hard. The players and coaches will both get tired as having to prepare for stiff opponents take a lot of hard work and effort. 2-3 slip-ups a year is all it takes to be knocked out of the playoff discussion. The good thing is that they are used to it so the pressure is eased off a little bit. From fbsschedules.com here is Notre Dame's 2018 schedule...
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