Tag: west virginia football

College Football Power Five Sleeper Teams: 20 For 2020 Offseason Topics No. 9

20 for 2020 key college football offseason topics: No. 9. Every Power Five league’s sleeper team. 

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20 for 2020 key college football offseason topics: No. 9. Every Power Five league’s sleeper team. 

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Really? Last offseason you actually thought that Baylor was going to be a player in the College Football Playoff chase?

You thought Virginia could end up in the Orange Bowl, and Illinois actually had a shot at going bowling?

Okay … we had those last two in the 2019 version of this, but please cheerfully ignore just how off we were on everything else. (Arkansas … really?)

Of course the Alabamas, Oklahomas, Clemsons and Ohio States of the world are going to do what they do, but other Power Five fan bases want to have some fun, too.

It’s always fun when teams rise up and be a factor? Which Power Five programs could be this year’s Minnesota, Louisville or Tennessee?

ACC: NC State Wolfpack

It was a whole lot of ugly last season.

NC State had turned into a consistent rock under head coach Dave Doeren – going to five straight bowls and winning nine games two years in a row before 2019. But last year was supposed to be a bit of a rebuilding campaign.

That should’ve meant winning six games and fighting to get into a bowl, but instead, all of the wheels came off with a six-game losing streak to finish up the season against a relatively easy schedule.

Let’s try this again.

The schedule is still relatively easy.

There’s a trip to Clemson that’s as tough as it gets, and the regular season is bookended by road games at Louisville and North Carolina, but that’s about it.

Oh sure, Mississippi State is a tough non-conference game, but that’s at home. Outside of the trip to Death Valley, the two other road games in the middle ten are at Troy and Syracuse.

Fine, but is the team any better after having major quarterback issues, massive turnover problems, and with the defense not able to overcome the problems on the other side?

QB Matt McKay is transferring to Montana State, but there’s a great chance that almost all of the offensive two-deep depth chart will be back. The hope will be that last year was a big step back to potentially see a giant leap forward, and for the D to be far stronger with nine of the top 12 tacklers are expected to return.

– NC State Schedule & Analysis

NEXT: Big Ten Sleeper

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5 Coaches Who’ll Be Much Better In Year Two: 20 For 2020 College Football Topics, No. 15

20 for 2020 College Football Topics, No. 15: The five second year head coaches who should have a much stronger Year Two.

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20 for 2020 College Football Topics, No. 15: The five second year head coaches who should have a much stronger Year Two.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Well that didn’t go so well.

25 college football head coaches are going into their second seasons at the helm, and now is where the production is supposed to start to kick in.

There’s usually a reason as head coach is taking over a program, and most of the time it’s because the last guy got canned. So there’s a grace period because of all the work there is to do, but there’s usually not enough of one.

Even so, Year Two is when the turnarounds are supposed to come. Unfortunately, unlike our piece last season on the 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches – which turned out to be close to the pin – the 5 Year Two Coaches Who’ll Be Much, Much Better really, really didn’t work.

And why?

Chad Morris at Arkansas … oops. Willie Taggart at Florida State … dropped too soon, but fired. And it goes on from there, so this time around these five have to be right.

Which five got through a slew of first year problems and are about to blow up?

The five coaches about to make the biggest instant impact in their second seasons are …

5. Tom Arth, Akron

There’s nowhere to go but up.

Win one game, and it’s already going to be an improved season. Win three, and it’ll be a huge step forward. Go bowling, and Tom Arth is your coach of the year.

Akron was easily the worst team in college football last season.

It was the only team that failed to win a game. It was dead last in the nation in total offense, couldn’t generate a lick of production on the defensive front, and it got worse as the year went on scoring six points or fewer in five of the last seven games.

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But to give Arth a little bit of credit, he had plenty of work to do after taking over a team team that closed out 2018 on a five-game losing streak.

The 38-year-old worked his way through D-III John Carroll – his alma mater, which he took to three D-III playoff appearances – before taking on the Chattanooga gig. He went 9-13 with the Mocs, but that was enough to get him the Akron job.

So what are things possibly going to be better in Year Two? Experience has to count for something.

With the season slipping away, Akron went young to get the time logged in. Now, if all goes according to plan, ten starters will be back on O, six should return on D, and there’s hope to get off to a hot start with Youngstown State, New Mexico State, Clemson …

Starting 2-0 is a possibility, with home games against UMass and Bowling Green to potentially crank up a few wins.

0-12 to 4-8?

NEXT: The adjustment continues …

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