The Next Generation

Rebuilding is something good teams never do, they reload. When they lose a star player, another one steps right in and does not miss a beat. Here are some players who will have to step in next season and will be expected to produce from Day 1:

Jarrett Brown taking over for Pat White

Pat White has been the face of West Virginia ever since he took over the quarterback position in his freshman year. He has lead the Mountaineers to 3 straight 11 win seasons and 2 conference titles and is looking to add another conference title to his belt this year. He has revolutionised the zone-read option offense and West Virginia fans will be sad to see him go. Jarrett Brown will look to take over for White in the 2009 season. Jarrett was a 3 star recruit coming out of High School in West Palm Beach, Florida (my hometown!). Jarrett is similar to White in the way he plays but is a lot bigger physically. Jarret has seen some action throughout his career, throwing for over 800 yards and rushing for 600 more. Jarrett Brown has more potential than White but he must be able to make better decisions (has thrown 4 interceptions in limited action) and grasp the offense.

Cameron Newton or John Brantley taking over for Tim Tebow

Tim Tebow may not leave after this year, but when he does it'll be up to one of these two to take over for him. While filling Tebow's shoes would be like a baby trying to fit into size 18's, if they can do half of what Tebow has done it will be considered a success. John Brantley is a prototypical quarterback with good accuracy but lacks the speed and strength that is needed to succeed in the Gators spread attack. Cameron Newton looks more like a linebacker than a quarterback (6'5, 240) which is similar to Tebow. Whenever one of these two QB's takes over, I'm sure Urban Meyer won't give them the freedom and the amount of touches that he gives Tebow. The Gators are building up a plethora of young skill-position players and that will help these quarterbacks out. I wouldn't be surprised if the Gators use a 2 quarterback system when Tebow leaves.

Get used to seeing a lot of this with Cameron Newton as QB.

Aaron Murray taking over for Matthew Stafford

Stafford has been a phenom ever since his high school days. He was a highly touted prospect and was even picked by Mel Kiper Jr. to be a #1 overall pick before even starting a college game. It didn't take long for Stafford to start. He took over at quarterback in his second career game and earned the starting position by his eighth career game after Mark Richt tested out his other quarterbacks. Stafford will most likely leave for the draft after this season and that will leave the Bulldogs with very little experience. Luckily, Georgia picked up a 5 star recruit from Tampa in Aaron Murray (coincidentally, Stafford was born in Tampa). Murray has all the talent in the world and is the second rated quarterback in the class of 09'. The big knock on Murray is his size. Murray stands only 6'1 and weighs 205 pounds. Murray may not be the starting quarterback to start the year but it wouldn't surprise me if he is named the starter before the season is over.

Jeremy Avery and DJ Harper taking over for Ian Johnson

What can we say about Ian Johnson? He will probably be missed the most. Everyone remembers him scoring the touchdown that knocked off Oklahoma and gave the Broncos a victory in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Then he proposed to his girlfriend on national TV and has been famous for that ever since. After this season, Ian Johnson will be gone and it will be up to another Bronco running back to make a name for himself. Jeremy Avery is the most likely candidate. Last year Jeremy Avery rushed for over 650 yards while filling in for Johnson. The concern with Avery is that he is only 5'9 and weighs less than 170 pounds. He doesn't have the size to be an every down back. Another candidate is DJ Harper who also rushed for a bunch of yards last year(350) while splitting time with Avery and Ian Johnson. The Broncos are known for using all of their backs and it will not be surprising to see both of these guys on the field at the same time, splitting carries.

Blaine Gabbert taking over for Chase Daniel

Chase Daniel is a big reason for the revival of Missouri football and although he may not lead Mizzou to a BCS game in his career, Daniel certainly has put them on the map. With their top two quarterbacks graduating, Mizzou will have to rely on a young and inexperienced quarterback in Blaine Gabbert. Gabbert has all the tools to thrive in Missouri's spread offense. Gabbert has speed, a good arm and great size (6'4, 226). Size is something that Daniel had lacked but had made up for it with his football IQ. If Gabbert can grasp the Missouri offense then he can be as good, if not better, than Chase Daniel.

Making it Work: Getting the Most out of what you got

In college football there are the traditional powerhouses that seem to have everything, large fan base, gigantic stadiums and blue chipper after blue chipper. Most of these teams come from the "loaded" states when it comes to recruiting. Some examples would be Florida, Texas, USC and Ohio State just to name a few.

But what about the teams that don't have the sufficient funds to travel the country and recruit these so called "blue chippers". How do these teams compete with the "big boys"? It's simple, they make the most out of what they got. These teams take the old saying "Work beats talent unless talent works" to heart. These teams cleverly develop gameplans and schemes and develop the little talent they have until they have a team that is mentally and physically strong enough to compete with the best. So getting into it, here are the teams that I picked in no particular order:

Wisconsin Badgers

The Badgers seem to always put a team that is able to compete with the best. They always find themselves near the top of the Big 10 at the end of the season. Wisconsin fields a team made up of mostly average players who excel in team roles and therefore are able to win as many games as they do. Over the last four years, the Badgers have won a "cool" 40 games. Not bad for a team who had only 7 four or five star recruits from 2002-2007 according to Scout.com. By the way, PJ Hill was only a 2 star prospect coming out of high school, now he is a Heisman candidate. This year, the Badgers return 19 starters and this is probably there best chance of finally playing in a BCS game.

Check out this sick video of Wisconsin's Jump Around.

BYU Cougars

BYU has found themselves a big advantage over other football programs. Most of their players have gone on two year Mormon missions and come back with the same eligibility. For example, if they recruited a 19 year old freshman and he decided to go on a Mormon mission, he would come back in two years as a 21 year old freshman and could therefore still be playing for BYU when he is 25. This maturity has proven to be effective on the gridiron. BYU, over the last three seasons have won 28 games with three bowl invitations and 2 conference titles. How can a Mormon school from Utah be able to compete with the rest of the Mountain West let alone be able to compete the way BYU does against BCS schools? According to Bronco Mendenhall, some of his starters for the past few seasons were 0 star prospects meaning that they shouldn't have been recruited. Period. The BYU recruiting staff must view game film of these guys and dissect it really well or BYU has just gotten lucky with all of these "hidden gems"

West Virginia Mountaineers

When watching West Virginia play, I get the impression that they are one of the college football powerhouses that bring in blue chipper time and time again. Such is not the case. From 2002-2007 the Mountaineers have brought in only 3 five star prospects according to Scout.com: Noel Devine, Durrell Robinson and Jason Gwaltney. I have only heard of one of those players. No one would think that over the past five seasons, the Mountaineers could win 49 games, 4 conference titles and appear in 4 BCS Bowls. The Mountaineers playing style suits their player's strengths. Take Pat White for instance, a 2 star prospect coming out of high school with no big expectations quickly became a Heisman contender by his junior year. That's what I call getting the most out of your players.

Photos courtesy of Flickr and Google

Leo's Crystal Ball: BCS Bowl Projections

With most of Week 1 in the books, I will give you my BCS Bowl Projections.

Rose Bowl

Pac 10 Champ vs. Big 10 Champ

Ohio State vs. Oregon

With USC playing for the national championship, Oregon gets the honors to play in the Rose Bowl. The intriguing part of this matchup would be how Ohio State handles the spread offense that they have had trouble with in the past. No matter how tricky Oregon's spread is, it is not equally as effective as the spread offense that Florida implied on Ohio State in the national championship game 2 years ago. Ohio State wins handily on a solid dose of Chris 'Beanie' Wells.

Projected Score: 34-17 Ohio State

Fiesta Bowl

Big 12 Champ vs. At-Large

Oklahoma vs. BYU

BYU runs the table and completes its "Quest for perfection". Oklahoma wins the Big 12 and is hungry for redemption after losing their last 4 BCS bowls. In another 'David vs. Goliath' BCS matchup, Oklahoma routs BYU.

Projected Score: 41-17 Oklahoma



Orange Bowl

ACC Champ vs. At-Large

Clemson vs. West Virginia


After getting embarrassed by Alabama in the first week, Clemson goes on to win their next 10 out of 11 games and finds themselves in the Orange Bowl facing a scary West Virginia team. West Virginia has no answer for Clemson's James Davis and CJ Spiller as Clemson goes on to win a close game.

Projected Score: 35-28 Clemson



Sugar Bowl

SEC Champ vs. At-Large

Auburn vs. South Florida


Matt Grothe leads the Bulls to their first ever BCS game. They face the SEC runner up, Auburn. Auburn lost to Florida in the SEC championship but is fortunate to play in the Sugar Bowl because Florida plays in the National Championship. In a hard fought game, South Florida prevails and wins their first BCS game.

Projected Score: 20-17 South Florida

National Championship

#1 vs. #2

USC vs. Florida

This is an epic battle between two college football powerhouses. Florida's high octane offense vs. USC's loaded defense. Each team is stacked with future NFL all-stars. The game does not disappoint. In a very high scoring affair, Florida comes away with the win and their second national championship in three years.

Projected Score: 42-34 Florida

Phots courtesy of Flickr