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5 College Football Teams That Will Surprise in 2024
By Pete Fiutak,
16 days ago
The surprises for the college football season, like the disappointments, are all relative.
Would it be a surprise if, say, Tennessee rose up and rocked its way into the College Football Playoff? Not really.
Would anyone be totally stunned if Wisconsin had a big year, or if TCU bounced back and was terrific? A little, but not much.
We try to take big cuts here with the surprises for the 2024 college football campaign. Who’s this year’s UNLV, Texas State, and Louisville?
Sep 16, 2023; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; A light show before the fourth quarter between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Northern Illinois Huskies at Memorial Stadium.
It’s time for the Nebraska Cornhusker football program to have nice things again.
No, the overall talent level isn’t quite there to be back among the superpowers, but it has a wonderful young quarterback prospect in Dylan Raiola, a quietly loaded defense that was great last year, and a schedule built for a possible 7-0 start with nine regular season wins not an unattainable goal.
It’s not like Texas A&M has been totally awful, but it’s flying a bit under the overall radar with Texas and Oklahoma coming in, Alabama changing its head coach, and with Georgia about to go all Georgia again.
New head coach Mike Elko might be just the tweak needed to get the Aggies into the - it’s okay to speak it into existence - expanded College Football Playoff.
The defensive front will be a terror, Conner Weigman might rise up and be the SEC’s IT quarterback this year, and the schedule is a gift from the SEC gods with no Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, or Tennessee to deal with.
(Shhhhhhhh. This is just between us. A crazy call that will be highlighted more in a different piece coming in a few weeks - A&M will beat Notre Dame to start the regular season, and Texas to end it.)
You want to talk about a program that went from loaded and great to off the map, is it still in the Big 12?
Yup, and it’s about to come up with a fantastic season.
The Bears might be just outside of the Big 12 title hunt, but the offense should be really, really dangerous with former Toledo QB Dequan Finn taking over. The O line has to be better - a LOT better - and the defense should be stronger with more of a pass rush.
It’ll take some work, but watch for Baylor to push for at least seven wins.
Every few years I develop a strange thing for a program. If I say it’ll be good over a long enough time, I’ll make it happen.
By predicting it to be large for five straight seasons, I demand credit for eventually making Michigan State great under Mark Dantonio.
And no one - not even Caleb Williams - had more to do with USC turning in a magnificent 2022 season than me with my USC Will Be REALLY Good Right Away. campaign for close to a year.
That’s me with Arizona State under Kenny Dillingham.
It might not be this season, but he needs one more year to build before things should get interesting. The O line has to show up fast in 2024, and the skill guys have to rise into the roles right away.
The D should carry things just enough to make at least a three-win improvement from the 3-9 run.
The Sun Devils will be a much tougher out this season. And so will …
I am buying into the idea that the Bloomington branch of James Madison football will be very scary, very fast.
Former JMU head coach Curt Cignetti brought in just about everyone of note from his last few teams that dominated defensively - at last count, eight transfers from the Dukes are at IU - to go along with former Ohio under-the-radar star QB Kurtis Rourke.
Start with this: FIU, Western Illinois, Charlotte - those three are in the first four games along with a winnable trip to UCLA.
The back half of the schedule is a BEAR, but there will be at least six wins, possibly seven, and at least two major scares will be thrown into the big boys on the slate.
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