Choose Your College Football Team (Part One)

Maybe you’re an NFL fan and you got into the college game after watching the spectacular College Football Playoff in January and you’re making a concerted effort to watch more football on Sundays – after all, the timing for us in Australia is perfect, with games for twelve or fourteen hours every Sunday from early September to early December, before a flood of Bowl games over Christmas/New Year.

But you don’t know who to follow? Well, here’s a handy guide that might help you choose a team.

In Part One, we’ll look at teams who favour either running the football or passing it on every down:

Teams Who Primarily Run The Football

Wisconsin: the Badgers, of the Big Ten, are famous for their ground and pound offence. Throwing the football is an afterthought in Madison, and usually only done to open up the run game. The Badgers have had a staggering array of running back talent over the years, most recently Melvin Gordon and James White, and Corey Clement looks set to be a star this year.

Pittsburgh: Out of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Panthers have a brilliant running back named James Conner, who quietly ran for 1765 rushing yards and twenty-six touchdowns last year, amidst a disappointing 6-7 record a season ago. Pitt figure to be better this year, and Conner is shaping as being a potential Heisman Trophy candidate.

Georgia: Todd Gurley and Knowshown Moreno have starred in Athens, Georgia in recent years, and the Bulldogs, who compete in the tough South-eastern Conference (SEC), will rely on Nick Chubb to carry their offence this season. Last year, he tied for the best in a very good conference, amassing 1547 yards and fourteen touchdowns. He’s sitting on a nice streak of eight consecutive 100-yard games. Chubb, who is like a tank rolling downhill when he gets going, is going to be a huge star in the SEC this year.

Auburn: the Tigers from the SEC are a team who have a quarterback in Jeremy Johnson who arguably runs the ball better than he throws it. They employ the option offence, and are lucky to have Roc Thomas in the backfield to tote the football when the quarterback isn’t doing the same. Auburn, under Gus Malzahn, are no strangers to scoring big, and to amassing huge rushing totals. They’re also hugely entertaining.

Teams Who Primarily Throw The Football

Baylor: the Bears, from the Big Twelve conference, are famous for lighting up the scoreboard by way of big passing plays. In contrast to Wisconsin, they run the football to set up the pass play, often via the quarterback, and with moderately-experienced signal-caller Seth Russell likely to assume the starting mantle from the departing Bryce Petty, there won’t be that much of a drop-off in production. Art Briles loves his air raid offence, and it’s undoubtedly spectacular to watch!

Washington State: the head coach in Pullman is a man named Mike Leach, who, along with the legendary Hal Mumme, crafted the air-raid offence as we know it today. Quarterbacks under Leach’s tutelage have regularly posted and broken NCAA records. The Cougars have been at the bottom of the heap in the Pacific-12 conference for years, but Leach’s arrival has begun to turn the program around. In 2014, it was not unusual to see WSU quarterbacks Connor Halliday and Luke Falk attempting up to seventy passes in a game. The Cougs can score, but their defence has been a serious problem.

California: the Golden Bears are another Pacific-12 team known for throwing the football like it’s going out of fashion. Some believe that QB Jared Goff is a sneaky Heisman candidate in the pass-happy “Bear Raid” system run by Sonny Dykes. He finished 2014 with 3973 passing yards, thirty-five touchdowns and a completion percentage of sixty-two. Goff seems poised for bigger numbers this year, and Cal look like a team who, with some defensive improvement, may shock a few opponents in the difficult Pac-12 North division. Their games are never boring.

Ohio State: once we find out who the defending National Champions will have in their backfield, we’ll know more about the tenor of their offence, but the Buckeyes know for sure they’ll have Ezekiel Elliott in the backfield. The hero of Ohio State’s somewhat unlikely run to the national title a year ago, Elliott is a definite Heisman candidate. He’s going to get a lot of the football, and Urban Meyer’s option-type offence will see the quarterbacks tucking the ball away and running with it often, too.

Oregon: the Ducks, who were beaten by Ohio State in the National Championship Game last season, have a potential Heisman Trophy candidate in their backfield. His name is Royce Freeman, and with the Ducks losing QB Marcus Mariota to the NFL, you figure they’ll spend a lot of their time handing off to Freeman. Why wouldn’t you? Despite a few key departures, the Ducks will be a Pac-12 force, no doubt.