Greg Hansen's Guide to the 2016 College Football Season
Hansen tells you what to watch for during the upcoming college football season.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
1. 2015, lost at Cal 73-14.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
2. 2012, lost at TCU, 56-0.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
3. 2009, lost at Oklahoma State, 56-6.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
4. 2007, lost at Pitt, 34-10.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
5. 2005, lost at Washington State, 48-7.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
6. 2000, lost at Louisville, 52-0.
1. With stadium capacity reduced to about 57,000, Arizona State will still have difficulty selling out Sun Devil Stadium. ASU has the least-attractive home schedule in the league: NAU, Texas Tech, Cal, UCLA, WSU and Utah.
2. Television programmers will schedule potentially season-defining night games at Washington’s Husky Stadium on cold and rainy nights Nov. 12 against USC and Nov. 19 against Arizona State. The Pac-12 won’t do anything to change it.
3. Sideline cameramen will capture angry tantrum-throwing images of UCLA’s Jim Mora, Arizona State’s Todd Graham and Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez, but no athletic director will suggest his coach should take anger-management classes.
1. Known as a defensive sharpie, the ASU coach watched in horror as his defense went bust last year. The Sun Devils were 112th nationally in yards allowed per game, permitting a Pac-12 worst 31 plays of 40-plus yards.
2. There are few game-ready replacements on Graham’s 2016 roster, so the Sun Devils recruited seven junior-college defensive players.
3. The Sun Devils have a schedule that sets up for a 4-0 start before they play USC and UCLA back-to-back. It gets even more difficult after that; ASU has perhaps the most difficult closing schedule in the league, a grind that includes Washington State, Utah and road games at Oregon, Washington and Arizona.
1. Sports Illustrated revealed that he has a bit of “Animal House” in him. He is a fraternity guy (SAE) who has a sign on the wall of his apartment that says “If You Miss the Dartboard, You Must Take a Shot or Shotgun a Beer.”
2. He bought an inflatable hot tub for his apartment, using a 20-foot beer funnel for a hose. He was pictured soaking in it with a UA coed who got his attention with a sign.
3. He wore a white “F— Trump” bandana while playing Trump National Golf Club for his birthday in April.
4. Except for his skill and projection as the overall top NFL draft pick in 2018, he reminds me of the college football players who lived in my SAE fraternity house at Utah State in 1972. Fun first, football in its proper place.
1. Oklahoma at Houston, Sept. 3. This might be the first time in history that newly-minted 2016 Cinderella choice Houston has a legitimate chance to beat the Sooners.
2. Florida State vs. Ole Miss, Sept. 5 in Orlando. The Rebels no longer have just the best-looking uni’s in college football, but they’ve won 34 games the last four seasons. If the Seminoles win, they could be No. 1 entering an Oct. 29 game against Clemson.
3. North Dakota State at Iowa, Sept. 17. The Bison are the best “small college” team in America, with five straight FCS national titles. The Hawkeyes, who won 12 games a year ago, are expected to contend in the Big Ten again.
4. Oregon at Nebraska, Sept. 17. A rematch of long-time Oregon State coach Mike Riley, now at Nebraska, against Team Nike. But this time Riley has most of the advantages, playing at home after two tune-up games against Wyoming and Fresno State.
If Rich Rodriguez makes another end-run to leave Tucson, as he did at South Carolina last winter, here are three possible replacements:
1. Lincoln Riley, offensive coordinator, Oklahoma. At 32, Riley is from the Mike Leach coaching tree, spending time as an assistant at Texas Tech and East Carolina. In his first year at OU, the Sooners were No. 7 in total offense nationally.
If Rich Rodriguez makes another end-run to leave Tucson, as he did at South Carolina last winter, here are three possible replacements:
2. Matt Wells, head coach, Utah State. Winning 19 games at Utah State the last two seasons, persevering despite QB injuries, Wells needs one more winning season to become a must-hire prospect. He’s photogenic, quotable and only 43. He paid his dues at Louisville, New Mexico, Tulsa and Navy.
If Rich Rodriguez makes another end-run to leave Tucson, as he did at South Carolina last winter, here are three possible replacements:
3. Bryan Harsin, head coach, Boise State. The Broncos have gone 21-6 in Harsin’s two seasons, and one of those 21 was a punch-in-the-face upset over Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl. At 39, Harsin has big-time experience as Texas’ offensive coordinator in 2011-12.
1. Ty Detmer, BYU offensive coordinator. The 1990 Heisman Trophy winner, a BYU quarterback, has never coached a down in college football. He coached St. Andrews Episcopal High School the last six seasons in Austin, Texas. His opening opponent last September was Faith Academy of Marble Falls, Texas.
2. Vince Amey, Arizona defensive line coach. Amey has never coached a play in college football. He had been part of Arizona’s strength and conditioning staff for the last three years. The former ASU defensive lineman is familiar with BYU, however. As a Sun Devil senior in 1997, Amey was part of an ASU team that lost to BYU 13-10.
1. Luke Falk, QB, Washington State. Anyone who throws the ball 644 times (as Falk did as a sophomore) and connects for 38 touchdown passes is The Man. If the Cougars can open with victories Sept. 10 at Boise State and Oct. 1 against Oregon, Falk will be on the Heisman Trophy radar.
2. Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford. As good as Ka’Deem Carey was at Arizona, gaining 1,885 yards as a 2013 junior, McCaffrey obliterated those numbers. He rushed for 2,019 yards, caught passes for 645 more, and was the nation’s most feared and productive kickoff- and punt-return man. It won’t take long to determine if McCaffrey will win the Heisman he probably should’ve won last year. Stanford’s first six games are ridiculously difficult: UCLA, USC, Washington, Notre Dame, Washington State and Kansas State.
3. Lowell Lotulelei, DL, Utah. The Utes are the Pac-12’s top defensive brand. It all starts with Lotulelei, a first-team all-conference as a sophomore, a 6-foot- 3-inch, 310-pound block of granite who might be better than his brother, former NFL first-round pick Star Lotulelei.
A year ago, the Ducks gave up 62 points to Utah, 722 yards to Arizona State, 641 yards to Washington State and wasted a 31-0 lead to TCU in the Alamo Bowl and lost. They hired former Michigan coach Brady Hoke to fix the defense, but it remains uncertain if coach Mark Helfrich can hang with the big boys unless he has most of the talent.
1. The Ducks lost four games in 2015, the first such total since 2007. On paper, the Ducks don’t appear to have a first-team all-conference defensive player, and maybe not a second-team pick, either.
A year ago, the Ducks gave up 62 points to Utah, 722 yards to Arizona State, 641 yards to Washington State and wasted a 31-0 lead to TCU in the Alamo Bowl and lost. They hired former Michigan coach Brady Hoke to fix the defense, but it remains uncertain if coach Mark Helfrich can hang with the big boys unless he has most of the talent.
2. Oregon is again filling in with a fifth-year transfer quarterback from the Big Sky Conference, Dakota Prukop of Montana State. Not that MSU was an FBS monster last year; the Bobcats lost to NAU and Southern Utah.
1. Utah’s Kyle Whittingham. The Utes have adjusted to the Pac-12 in a fashion similar to that of Arizona’s Larry Smith from 1980-86. They can play (and beat) anybody. But unlike Smith in an era when multiyear contracts weren’t common and coaches job-hopped to make more money, Whittingham is a Utah homeboy making in excess of $3 million a year. He doesn’t need to leave to make a name for himself.
2. Washington’s Chris Petersen. It took a lifetime-type job to get him away from Boise State. Now he’s on home turf and he has discovered what made the Huskies so successful under Don James in a previous generation. Seattle loves college football, and Petersen can recruit successfully against USC, UCLA and Oregon.
1. Mique Juarez, LB, UCLA. He might be the league’s top recruit, a Myles Jack-type who could be a force from Game 1.
2. Oluwole Betiku, DL, USC. The Trojans return all three defensive line starters, but Betiku, a five-star recruit, should be in the rotation soon.
3. Kaden Smith, TE, Stanford. If Stanford is Tight End U, and it is, Smith is the next in line to be a game-changer.
4. N’Keal Harry, WR, Arizona State. At 6-4, the Chandler High product has the size and physical nature that Arizona’s DaVonte’ Neal didn’t possess when he was Phoenix’s top receiving prospect in 2011.
1. Stability and patience are not part of the fabric of millennial football. Of the 24 coordinator positions in the league, 13 changed in the off-season. ASU has new offensive and defensive coordinators. Arizona has a new defensive coordinator, as do Oregon, Oregon State, USC and Utah. The league has new offensive coordinators at Cal, Colorado, Oregon, OSU, UCLA and USC.
2. No one counts pennies. The lowest paid head coach in the league is Colorado’s Mike MacIntyre, whose base salary is $2 million. Next “lowest” is Oregon State’s at $2.55 million in base pay.
1. The four leading offensive linemen — Jacob Alsadek, Layth Friekh, Freddie Tagaloa and Gerhard de Beer — must stay healthy and be productive. If you don’t have a prominent offensive line, you can’t win in the Pac-12.
2. Junior linebacker DeAndre’ Miller, or someone like Cal transfer Michael Barton, needs to become a stopper, a rallying force and playmaker on defense to offer resistance against QB-strong teams like UCLA, Washington, WSU and BYU.
3. The Wildcats absolutely, positively must be prepared to beat Washington in the Pac-12 opener Sept. 24. Even if the UA loses to BYU, the Huskies could be a big eraser. After that, Arizona can’t afford to lose one of the three most winnable league games: Arizona State and Colorado at home and a roadie to Oregon State.
4. Someone whose name wasn’t on anyone’s radar in training camp needs to emerge as a steady and useful contributor. Someone like receiver Cam Denson or cornerback Dane Cruikshank.
1. Apple Cup. Washington at Wazzu. Rose Bowl in the bank for the winner.
2. Mississippi State at Ole Miss. This is no longer just a nice little in-state rivalry.
3. Michigan at Ohio State. It’s Woody and Bo revisited; Harbaugh v. Urban, a 21st century rivalry with bite.
1. Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford. It’s strange, but Stanford’s final game is against Rice, not Cal. What’s up with that? He might gain 400 yards against the Owls.
2. Deshaun Watson, QB, Clemson. He’ll get a huge benefit from the eastern and southern voting blocs, and the Tigers play just two scary opponents, Auburn and Florida State.
3. Baker Mayfield, QB, Oklahoma. This is a conditional vote; if the Sooners win September, sweeping Houston and Ohio State, and then whip TCU on Oct. 1, every voter will know the QB with the easy-to-remember name.
Offensive player of year: Luke Falk, QB, Washington State.
Defensive player of year: Lowell Lotulelei, DL, Utah.
Newcomer of the year: Mique Juarez, LB, UCLA.
Coach to be fired: Mike MacIntyre, Colorado.
Upset of the year: Utah over Washington, Oct. 29 in Salt Lake City.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
1. 2015, lost at Cal 73-14.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
2. 2012, lost at TCU, 56-0.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
3. 2009, lost at Oklahoma State, 56-6.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
4. 2007, lost at Pitt, 34-10.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
5. 2005, lost at Washington State, 48-7.
In this century, Grambling State has only played six current FCS teams. The results have been a football disaster. Combined score: 319-37.
6. 2000, lost at Louisville, 52-0.
1. With stadium capacity reduced to about 57,000, Arizona State will still have difficulty selling out Sun Devil Stadium. ASU has the least-attractive home schedule in the league: NAU, Texas Tech, Cal, UCLA, WSU and Utah.
2. Television programmers will schedule potentially season-defining night games at Washington’s Husky Stadium on cold and rainy nights Nov. 12 against USC and Nov. 19 against Arizona State. The Pac-12 won’t do anything to change it.
3. Sideline cameramen will capture angry tantrum-throwing images of UCLA’s Jim Mora, Arizona State’s Todd Graham and Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez, but no athletic director will suggest his coach should take anger-management classes.
1. Known as a defensive sharpie, the ASU coach watched in horror as his defense went bust last year. The Sun Devils were 112th nationally in yards allowed per game, permitting a Pac-12 worst 31 plays of 40-plus yards.
2. There are few game-ready replacements on Graham’s 2016 roster, so the Sun Devils recruited seven junior-college defensive players.
3. The Sun Devils have a schedule that sets up for a 4-0 start before they play USC and UCLA back-to-back. It gets even more difficult after that; ASU has perhaps the most difficult closing schedule in the league, a grind that includes Washington State, Utah and road games at Oregon, Washington and Arizona.
1. Sports Illustrated revealed that he has a bit of “Animal House” in him. He is a fraternity guy (SAE) who has a sign on the wall of his apartment that says “If You Miss the Dartboard, You Must Take a Shot or Shotgun a Beer.”
2. He bought an inflatable hot tub for his apartment, using a 20-foot beer funnel for a hose. He was pictured soaking in it with a UA coed who got his attention with a sign.
3. He wore a white “F— Trump” bandana while playing Trump National Golf Club for his birthday in April.
4. Except for his skill and projection as the overall top NFL draft pick in 2018, he reminds me of the college football players who lived in my SAE fraternity house at Utah State in 1972. Fun first, football in its proper place.
1. Oklahoma at Houston, Sept. 3. This might be the first time in history that newly-minted 2016 Cinderella choice Houston has a legitimate chance to beat the Sooners.
2. Florida State vs. Ole Miss, Sept. 5 in Orlando. The Rebels no longer have just the best-looking uni’s in college football, but they’ve won 34 games the last four seasons. If the Seminoles win, they could be No. 1 entering an Oct. 29 game against Clemson.
3. North Dakota State at Iowa, Sept. 17. The Bison are the best “small college” team in America, with five straight FCS national titles. The Hawkeyes, who won 12 games a year ago, are expected to contend in the Big Ten again.
4. Oregon at Nebraska, Sept. 17. A rematch of long-time Oregon State coach Mike Riley, now at Nebraska, against Team Nike. But this time Riley has most of the advantages, playing at home after two tune-up games against Wyoming and Fresno State.
If Rich Rodriguez makes another end-run to leave Tucson, as he did at South Carolina last winter, here are three possible replacements:
1. Lincoln Riley, offensive coordinator, Oklahoma. At 32, Riley is from the Mike Leach coaching tree, spending time as an assistant at Texas Tech and East Carolina. In his first year at OU, the Sooners were No. 7 in total offense nationally.
If Rich Rodriguez makes another end-run to leave Tucson, as he did at South Carolina last winter, here are three possible replacements:
2. Matt Wells, head coach, Utah State. Winning 19 games at Utah State the last two seasons, persevering despite QB injuries, Wells needs one more winning season to become a must-hire prospect. He’s photogenic, quotable and only 43. He paid his dues at Louisville, New Mexico, Tulsa and Navy.
If Rich Rodriguez makes another end-run to leave Tucson, as he did at South Carolina last winter, here are three possible replacements:
3. Bryan Harsin, head coach, Boise State. The Broncos have gone 21-6 in Harsin’s two seasons, and one of those 21 was a punch-in-the-face upset over Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl. At 39, Harsin has big-time experience as Texas’ offensive coordinator in 2011-12.
1. Ty Detmer, BYU offensive coordinator. The 1990 Heisman Trophy winner, a BYU quarterback, has never coached a down in college football. He coached St. Andrews Episcopal High School the last six seasons in Austin, Texas. His opening opponent last September was Faith Academy of Marble Falls, Texas.
2. Vince Amey, Arizona defensive line coach. Amey has never coached a play in college football. He had been part of Arizona’s strength and conditioning staff for the last three years. The former ASU defensive lineman is familiar with BYU, however. As a Sun Devil senior in 1997, Amey was part of an ASU team that lost to BYU 13-10.
1. Luke Falk, QB, Washington State. Anyone who throws the ball 644 times (as Falk did as a sophomore) and connects for 38 touchdown passes is The Man. If the Cougars can open with victories Sept. 10 at Boise State and Oct. 1 against Oregon, Falk will be on the Heisman Trophy radar.
2. Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford. As good as Ka’Deem Carey was at Arizona, gaining 1,885 yards as a 2013 junior, McCaffrey obliterated those numbers. He rushed for 2,019 yards, caught passes for 645 more, and was the nation’s most feared and productive kickoff- and punt-return man. It won’t take long to determine if McCaffrey will win the Heisman he probably should’ve won last year. Stanford’s first six games are ridiculously difficult: UCLA, USC, Washington, Notre Dame, Washington State and Kansas State.
3. Lowell Lotulelei, DL, Utah. The Utes are the Pac-12’s top defensive brand. It all starts with Lotulelei, a first-team all-conference as a sophomore, a 6-foot- 3-inch, 310-pound block of granite who might be better than his brother, former NFL first-round pick Star Lotulelei.
A year ago, the Ducks gave up 62 points to Utah, 722 yards to Arizona State, 641 yards to Washington State and wasted a 31-0 lead to TCU in the Alamo Bowl and lost. They hired former Michigan coach Brady Hoke to fix the defense, but it remains uncertain if coach Mark Helfrich can hang with the big boys unless he has most of the talent.
1. The Ducks lost four games in 2015, the first such total since 2007. On paper, the Ducks don’t appear to have a first-team all-conference defensive player, and maybe not a second-team pick, either.
A year ago, the Ducks gave up 62 points to Utah, 722 yards to Arizona State, 641 yards to Washington State and wasted a 31-0 lead to TCU in the Alamo Bowl and lost. They hired former Michigan coach Brady Hoke to fix the defense, but it remains uncertain if coach Mark Helfrich can hang with the big boys unless he has most of the talent.
2. Oregon is again filling in with a fifth-year transfer quarterback from the Big Sky Conference, Dakota Prukop of Montana State. Not that MSU was an FBS monster last year; the Bobcats lost to NAU and Southern Utah.
1. Utah’s Kyle Whittingham. The Utes have adjusted to the Pac-12 in a fashion similar to that of Arizona’s Larry Smith from 1980-86. They can play (and beat) anybody. But unlike Smith in an era when multiyear contracts weren’t common and coaches job-hopped to make more money, Whittingham is a Utah homeboy making in excess of $3 million a year. He doesn’t need to leave to make a name for himself.
2. Washington’s Chris Petersen. It took a lifetime-type job to get him away from Boise State. Now he’s on home turf and he has discovered what made the Huskies so successful under Don James in a previous generation. Seattle loves college football, and Petersen can recruit successfully against USC, UCLA and Oregon.
1. Mique Juarez, LB, UCLA. He might be the league’s top recruit, a Myles Jack-type who could be a force from Game 1.
2. Oluwole Betiku, DL, USC. The Trojans return all three defensive line starters, but Betiku, a five-star recruit, should be in the rotation soon.
3. Kaden Smith, TE, Stanford. If Stanford is Tight End U, and it is, Smith is the next in line to be a game-changer.
4. N’Keal Harry, WR, Arizona State. At 6-4, the Chandler High product has the size and physical nature that Arizona’s DaVonte’ Neal didn’t possess when he was Phoenix’s top receiving prospect in 2011.
1. Stability and patience are not part of the fabric of millennial football. Of the 24 coordinator positions in the league, 13 changed in the off-season. ASU has new offensive and defensive coordinators. Arizona has a new defensive coordinator, as do Oregon, Oregon State, USC and Utah. The league has new offensive coordinators at Cal, Colorado, Oregon, OSU, UCLA and USC.
2. No one counts pennies. The lowest paid head coach in the league is Colorado’s Mike MacIntyre, whose base salary is $2 million. Next “lowest” is Oregon State’s at $2.55 million in base pay.
1. The four leading offensive linemen — Jacob Alsadek, Layth Friekh, Freddie Tagaloa and Gerhard de Beer — must stay healthy and be productive. If you don’t have a prominent offensive line, you can’t win in the Pac-12.
2. Junior linebacker DeAndre’ Miller, or someone like Cal transfer Michael Barton, needs to become a stopper, a rallying force and playmaker on defense to offer resistance against QB-strong teams like UCLA, Washington, WSU and BYU.
3. The Wildcats absolutely, positively must be prepared to beat Washington in the Pac-12 opener Sept. 24. Even if the UA loses to BYU, the Huskies could be a big eraser. After that, Arizona can’t afford to lose one of the three most winnable league games: Arizona State and Colorado at home and a roadie to Oregon State.
4. Someone whose name wasn’t on anyone’s radar in training camp needs to emerge as a steady and useful contributor. Someone like receiver Cam Denson or cornerback Dane Cruikshank.
1. Apple Cup. Washington at Wazzu. Rose Bowl in the bank for the winner.
2. Mississippi State at Ole Miss. This is no longer just a nice little in-state rivalry.
3. Michigan at Ohio State. It’s Woody and Bo revisited; Harbaugh v. Urban, a 21st century rivalry with bite.
1. Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford. It’s strange, but Stanford’s final game is against Rice, not Cal. What’s up with that? He might gain 400 yards against the Owls.
2. Deshaun Watson, QB, Clemson. He’ll get a huge benefit from the eastern and southern voting blocs, and the Tigers play just two scary opponents, Auburn and Florida State.
3. Baker Mayfield, QB, Oklahoma. This is a conditional vote; if the Sooners win September, sweeping Houston and Ohio State, and then whip TCU on Oct. 1, every voter will know the QB with the easy-to-remember name.
South champ: UCLA.
North champ: Washington.
Offensive player of year: Luke Falk, QB, Washington State.
Defensive player of year: Lowell Lotulelei, DL, Utah.
Newcomer of the year: Mique Juarez, LB, UCLA.
Coach of the year: Mike Leach, WSU.
Coach to be fired: Mike MacIntyre, Colorado.
Upset of the year: Utah over Washington, Oct. 29 in Salt Lake City.
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