Greg McElroy Names One CFB Power That Is 'Primed' To Be A Title Contender

The college football season is right around the corner and the 2024 season has the potential to be one of the best in recent memory.

In addition to our hankering for college football to return to action, some major changes have been made to the sport.

Programs from all over the country will have a new conference patch on their chests this season following a mass exodus from the Pac-12 and a change of scenery from the Big 12 for Texas and Oklahoma. We are also going into what will be the first rendition of the 12-team College Football Playoff.

With so much to look forward to, ESPN's Greg McElroy is already considering who could be the last team standing. On a recent episode of Always College Football, McElroy went through the SEC and ranked teams via a tier list.

His tiers range from title contenders to the conference's bottom feeders. Still, he feels one team in particular will return to national championship-level contention in 2024.

The program in question is actually new to the SEC, as when going over his second tier 1 team that he labeled "primed" for a title run in the description, McElroy highlighted Texas.

As a former quarterback, Quinn Ewers' improvement stood out to McElroy and was one of the key reasons he is so high on the Longhorns.

"Another team in Tier 1—that would be the Texas Longhorns," McElroy said . "Now Quinn Ewers progressed mightily...almost to the point in which his play last year from an efficiency standpoint was unrecognizable from where it was the year before. Now there were some really bright spots in his year one with Steve Sarkisian. There were some great moments but there were also some moments where you were kind of left scratching your head."

"Burned a lot of plays, wasn't crazy efficient, didn't anticipate the way he needed to anticipate. But here's the good thing he went from 73rd two years ago to 17th in QBR. His completion percentage went from 58.% to 69%. He went from 7.4 yards per attempt to 8.8 yards per attempt. That's all from year one to year two. Well, imagine just how much better he could get from year two to year three."

McElroy also raved about the Longhorns' transfer portal additions, including bringing in the No. 6 portal class, which is headlined by five-star Alabama receiver transfer Isaiah Bond.

McElroy highlighted the front seven, which lost Byron Murphy II and T'Vondre Sweat to the NFL, and the secondary as reasons for concern on defense, but is still confident that the Longhorns have the depth to contend despite how physical the SEC is.

"I hope there's not much drop off on that side of the ball," McElroy said of the defense due to how many SEC teams will try to impose their will via the run game. "I don't think there will be because they have depth and they've recruited at the position but that's something that I would be paying close attention to. The secondary and the front seven in particular the two defensive tackles. But still Texas they're a national championship contender, especially with what they bring back on the offensive side."

The Longhorns will look to build off their 2023 season, which saw them win their final Big 12 title and first since 2009, and also make the final four-team playoff. They will undoubtedly be more battle-tested in 2024, with meetings against defending champion Michigan, projected No. 1 team Georgia, and, of course, their annual meeting with Oklahoma all occurring before Halloween.

If they can improve in the secondary, which ranked No. 113 in passing yards allowed, and get a couple of guys to step up in the trenches, the Longhorns can make some major noise in their inaugural SEC season.