As sports fans, we tend to gravitate toward the “Cinderella story” of an underrated team that plays well above their expectations. Every year there seems to be a G5 team in college football that surprises some, and ends up giving bigger programs everything they can handle.
With the College Football 12-team playoffs set to begin during the 2024 season, they bring the intrigue for the assumed “small school sleepers” to take an even bigger step forward. The highest-ranked G5 champion gets an automatic bid into the playoffs, making the race to the top so important.
Here are some of those Group of Five programs to keep a close eye on. The battle toward the top promises to be an interesting one.
Liberty is going to be the trendy pick amongst G5 teams that are able to make a run toward the playoffs in 2024. Coming off of a 13-1 season last year, with an undefeated regular season, is a lot to be optimistic about. After a lot of speculation, star quarterback Kaidon Salter returned to the Flames after spending some time in the portal.
The biggest key for Liberty will be to reload the passing game weapons. The offense should, at worst, be a dominant rushing team. As a group, they rushed for an average of 293.3 yards per game last season. They return their three leading rushers from last year, including Salter and star running back Quinton Cooley.
Things weren’t pretty for the Broncos last season, just sitting with a 5-5 record at one point under head coach Andy Avalos. When the program made the change to Spencer Danielson, things seemed to trend in a great direction. There are several key returners heading into 2024 that should have folks around the program very optimistic.
That includes star running back Ashton Jeanty , who may be the best all-purpose back in all of college football. He will be able to run behind left tackle Kage Casey, who is one of the more underrated offensive lineman in the country. The Broncos also bring back two impactful defenders in defensive end Ahmed Hassanein and linebacker Andrew Simpson. That duo combined for 32.5 tackles for loss and 19 sacks in 2023.
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The Tigers haven’t been afraid to flash the FedEx money this offseason in recruiting, whether that is in recruiting or through the portal. Things seem to be trending in a fantastic direction under head coach Ryan Silverfield, coming off of a 10-3 record in 2023. They also have a lot returning this fall.
It starts with their quarterback Seth Henigan, who has been very productive over the course of his career, throwing for 3,883 yards and 32 touchdowns last season. He also has his leading receiver returning in Roc Taylor, who should get more mayoral attention in 2024. Their leader on defense also returns with linebacker Chandler Martin, who led the team with 95 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss, and three sacks in 2023.
Appalachian State Mountaineers
While Appalachian State lost leading rusher Nate Noel to the transfer portal this offseason, we already started to see the offense begin to shift last season. The passing game took a massive step forward under quarterback Joey Aguilar. The talented signal caller threw for 3,757 yards and 33 touchdowns last season for the Mountaineers.
Now Aguilar returns in 2024, with a lot of expectations for what he can accomplish. As is pass rusher Nate Johnson, who was a sensation as a freshman. He exploded for 43 total tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks. The 6-5, 240-pound defender looks poised for some national recognition this fall.
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