The Blue Bloods Of College Football Are Trying To Reload

With the first annual College Football Playoff set to begin this week in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the four teams involved in the grand spectacle are the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida State Seminoles, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Oregon Ducks. These four teams have survived the riggers of another college football season and the survivor of the bunch will be the undisputed champion of the college football world of 2014 along with being the envy of the other college football programs around the nation. This new four-team format has provided a ton of excitement for fans while providing a vast amount of revenue for various school administrations around the nation. Make no mistake about it that money is the ultimate equalizer and in spite of what school administrators and the NCAA may attempt to pump to the public, these athletes are at these respective institutions because their athletic skills put meat in the seats at stadiums and keep eyes glued on the television. Ohio State and Alabama have long and storied histories on the gridiron that includes legendary head coaches such as Woody Hayes for the Buckeyes and Paul “Bear” Bryant for the Tide. Florida State began to ascend to national prominence in the late 1970’s under head football coach Bobby Bowden while Oregon has risen up through the ranks primarily because Nike provides them with a different uniform for every day of the year. Ohio State and Alabama are some of the blue bloods of the college football world and some of their fellow brethren are trying to re-tool in order to join them at college football’s grand party.

The Texas Longhorns just wrapped up their second losing season since 2010, but all is not lost in the Lone Star State. Charlie Strong just finished his first year as the head football coach at Texas and things there for the burnt orange are indeed a work in progress. Strong took over for Mack Brown who was forced out in 2013 and he is trying to get back to the basics. Strong has kicked several players off of team this year due to the fact that they were not living up to his standards. But for the players that survived under Strong’s hard-nosed philosophy, they will be a part of the foundation of getting the ‘Horns back to national prominence. What Strong is in the process of doing is getting back to putting a recruiting blanket over the State of Texas. For years the Longhorns didn’t have to do that much in order to get the top in-state players to come to Austin due to the fact that it was deemed that for every young high school football player in Texas, it would be their dream to play for the Longhorns. But schools such as Oregon, LSU, and Texas A&M have infringed on the Longhorns territory in recent years which is something that Strong is looking to rectify.

According to ESPN.com, Texas currently has the 11th ranked recruiting class for 2015 and with Strong known to turn around a program quickly, it shouldn’t be that long for Texas is back in the national championship mix.

The University of Southern California Trojans have finished the last three seasons with a different head football coach, but now they appear to be going places under Steve Sarkisian. The Trojans just wrapped up a 9-4 season and Sarkisian won the most games for a first-year head football coach at USC since John Robinson in 1976. The sanctions that have plagued the Men of Troy over the last few years are now a thing of the past as they look to once again put a recruiting blanket over Southern California. Like Texas, it doesn’t take that much for USC to get the top talent in their respective area as they have a long history of being a pipeline to the National Football League. With a young team and the potential of quarterback Cody Kessler returning to school for his senior season, USC will be favored to win the Pac-12 Conference in 2015.

When you say “Hail to the Victors” there is only one school and one football program which comes to mind which is the University of Michigan Wolverines. Michigan is one of the most winningest college football programs in the nation, but they have fallen on hard times recently. Since Lloyd Carr retired in 2007, Michigan has only had four winning seasons which is a no-no in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines are coming off of a 5-7 season, but things are set to change as Jim Harbaugh is the new head football coach for Michigan. Harbaugh was a quarterback at Michigan before embarking on a NFL career that saw him play for several teams including the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts. Once Harbaugh’s playing days in the NFL were done, he returned to college as a head football coach at the University of San Diego. In three years at San Diego, Harbaugh was 29-6. Harbaugh would then take over the fledgling Stanford Cardinal football program and in his four years there he would make them into a national power. Harbaugh just finished a four-year stint as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers where he had a record of 44-19-1 while leading the team to the NFC Championship in 2012.

Michigan missed out on Harbaugh four years ago when he decided to leave Stanford for the Niners, but this time around they got their man and it should be all systems go for the maize and blue. Michigan is indeed a sleeping giant in the realm of college football and Harbaugh’s presence alone should make them a better team next season as they will look to once again contend in the Big Ten Conference.

Sticking with the Big Ten Conference theme, the Penn State Nittany Lions are beginning the slow climb back. There are sanctions and then there is what Penn State had to deal with in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The NCAA fined Penn State along with stripping them of scholarships and handing down a four-year bowl ban. But after two years and the damage that it was doing to Penn State and the Big Ten, the sanctions on Penn State have been lifted which is a breath of fresh air to the folks in Happy Valley.

James Franklin just finished his first season as the head football coach at Penn State which was culminated with a Pinstripe Bowl victory over the Boston College Eagles this past weekend. The folks from Western Pennsylvania made the trek to the Bronx to support their team and with it they are looking for blue horizons going forward.

Penn State has always had a stranglehold on the football talent of Pennsylvania and with the sanctions lifted, Franklin can hit the ground running in the effort to recruit top-tier players from that state. It will take Franklin a few years, but Penn State won’t be dormant for long.

After winning 11 games in 2012, the Florida Gators have only won 10 games in the last two years which is unacceptable in Gainesville. Former Colorado State head football coach Jim McElwain was persuaded to leave Colorado Springs to give it a try as far as being a head football coach in the Southeastern Conference with Florida. McElwain is familiar with the SEC from his time as an assistant coach with Alabama and he has also built a reputation for his prowess on the offensive side of the football. Florida has a tradition of speed and high-scoring offenses. And with the State of Florida being a hotbed for speed, it shouldn’t take McElwain that long before the Gators are once again at the top of the SEC and back on the national stage.

With the 2014 college football season winding down, we are almost ready to flip the page to 2015 and the excitement is only set to intensify.

Source: Sports-reference.com