Now that college football teams are actually practicing, the scrutiny gets serious. And there seems to be two trends emerging with two teams who have coaches we know very well — Ohio State and Louisville.
The Buckeyes have received all kinds of pats on the back after last year’s 12-0 season, but I sense that there is some restraint when it comes to the possibility that Urban Meyer could do what he did at Florida — play for a national title at the end of his second season.
While Meyer gets a ton of respect as a coach, it’s almost as if the national media has suddenly realized Ohio State vastly overachieved last year record-wise. As a result, they can’t be good enough to go another season without a loss, can they?
Ohio State has a soft non-conference schedule and the Big 10 isn’t that tough. I heard Colin Cowherd railing the other day about how Ohio State would be a five-loss team with Alabama’s schedule. He’s probably right but the Buckeyes don’t play Alabama’s schedule.
In Louisville’s case, everyone wants to plug them into an unbeaten season because of the addition of running back Michael Dyer. Two things there — 1. He hasn’t played big boy football in a long time and 2. How do you know he’ll even get through the season without more trouble?
Still, Louisville is good enough to go unbeaten. The question then is whether or not Charlie Strong’s team will get a shot at the national title game. The truth is that it probably is going to take a surge by a couple of other teams in the American Athletic Conference to help Louisville.
They will almost have to be NASCAR drivers and draft on a team like Cincinnati. They really need the Bearcats and maybe one other team to have big seasons, then beat them to have an argument against a one-loss team from one of the Power Five conferences.
August is for speculation and conjecture. The real games are coming. Can you hear them approaching?
