Maria Taylor’s Top 5 College Football Storylines
There aren’t any major changes going into the 2018-2019 season. Some small storylines could make a big difference in the season though. Maria Taylor lists her top 5 storylines going into the season.
Starting at No. 5, Maria put the six new head coaches in the SEC. Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Florida, Texas A&M, Tennessee and Arkansas are the six schools with new head coaches. Technically, Ole Miss had Matt Luke as their coach last year as an interim coach, but this is first year with the official title of head coach of the Rebels. Florida now has Dan Mullen, who previously coached at Mississippi State. Mississippi State has Joe Moorhead, previous offensive coordinator at Penn State. Arkansas has Chad Morris as their new coach, who turned the SMU program around in the past years. We will see what Morris can do for this Razorback team. Jimbo Fisher is now at Texas A&M. Fisher left Florida State, after coaching there from 2010-2017 as head coach and winning a national championship there. Jeremy Pruitt is now the head coach at Tennessee. Pruitt has won three national championships as an assistant coach, two under Nick Saban and one under Jimbo Fisher. How will do Pruitt in his first season at the head of the table against his old bosses.
Maria has Chip Kelly returning to college football at No. 4. Kelly changed the game of football, “the innovator of the up-tempo offense,” as Maria Taylor said. Now that defenses have adapted to the new faster offenses, how will Chip Kelly adapt to the new game on the UCLA sideline this year.
No. 3 is the quarterback controversy at Alabama. Will Jalen Hurts or Tua Tagovailoa be the starter for the Crimson Tide? Or will Saban keep both quarterbacks and play them both throughout the season? Everyone will be watching the Crimson Tide to see who will be leading the team.
Maria’s No. 2 is who will be this year’s Heisman Trophy winner? Bryce Love, Damien Harris, Khalil Tate and Jonathan Taylor are all candidates, but for the first time in the past few years there isn’t a front runner. Last year, there was no question it was going to be Baker Mayfield, and the year before that Lamar Jackson. We will see which players step up this season to be contenders for the trophy.
No surprise what the No. 1 storyline is, Bama or Bust as Maria calls it. Alabama dominates all the talk of every football season. Every year the expectation for Alabama is to win the national championship. All eyes will be on them to see if they can do it again this season.
