|
Posted 07/03/2008 at 12:42 PM
As we turn the calendar to July the college football season is now merely weeks away. For starters, let’s take a look at what teams have 17 or more starters retuning for the 2008 season. Seventeen is a good number to look at because these teams are more familiar with one another on the field giving them a big advantage over their opponents in the first few weeks.
Team (Offense, Defense, Total)
Temple (11, 11, 22)
Northern Illinois (10, 11, 21)
Ohio St (10, 9, 19)
Penn St. (9, 9, 18)
Florida International (9, 9, 18)
Florida Atlantic (9, 9, 18)
Ball St (11, 7, 18)
Texas Tech (10, 8, 18)
North Carolina (10, 8, 18)
Buffalo (10, 8, 18)
Bowling Green (8, 9, 17)
Connecticut (9, 8, 17)
Duke (7, 10, 17)
Miami (Ohio) (8, 9, 17)
South Florida (10, 7, 17)
Georgia (8, 9, 17)
South Carolina (7, 10, 17)
Fresno St. (10, 7, 17)
Marshall (8, 9, 17)
Western Michigan (7, 10, 17)
Wisconsin (8, 9, 17)
There are plenty of interesting teams on this list, as 21 teams will be returning 17 or more starts for the upcoming season. Ohio St seems to be a popular choice to be #1 this season, with 9 starters returning on defense this team will be scary. The Buckeyes pack a ton of experience returning 19 starters to a team that played for the National Championship last season. Georgia will be experienced as well returning 17 starters to a team that dominated Hawaii in the Sugar bowl, Texas Tech return s 10 starters on offense. Look for the Red Raiders to put up big points on opponents all season long.
If your looking for a “value” or sleeper team, the Duke Blue evils might be a great team to play early in the season as they bring back 17 to a team that was feisty last season, this team blew a couple of games that were winnable in 2007, look for them to gets some wins in 2008. Temple looks to improve again this season under head man Al Golden, the owls are on the rise as they have everyone back from a team that showed plenty of heart last season, the same goes with Buffalo, if these teams are big underdogs early in the season please make sure you give them a good look.
Now that we have taken a quick glance at what teams will be the most experienced for 2008, let’s go in the opposite direction and look at whit team will be taking a new approach. Here is a list of new head coaches for the 2008 college football season:
School - Head Coach
Arkansas - Bobby Petrino
Baylor - Art Briles
Colorado St - Steve Fairchild
Duke - David Cutcliffe
Georgia Tech - Paul Johnson
Hawaii - Greg McMackin
Houston - Kevin Sumlin
Michigan - Rich Rodriguez
Mississippi - Houston Nutt
Navy - Ken Niumatalolo
Nebraska - Bo Pelini
Northern Illinois - Jerry Kill
SMU - June Jones
Southern Miss - Larry Fedora
Texas A&M - Mike Sherman
UCLA - Rick Neuheisel
Washington St - Paul Wulff
West Virginia - Bill Stewart
Plenty of interesting changes this off-season, two teams on this list also appeared on our most returning starts list. The two biggest stories in the media were the arrival of Bobby Petrino and the way Rich Rodriguez left West Virginia. June Jones didn’t feel like he was getting his due in Hawaii so he took off for SMU. Baylor and Southern Miss might have a tough season ahead; both teams will have tough time going .500.
|
