College Football Preview, Part 4: Unit Rankings (Offense)
I’m not always a big fan of ranking positions units, such as quarterbacks, but position units that include multiple starters are always good to look at as a whole. I’ve voiced my opinion of how important I think the offensive line is, but don’t forget that having consistently top ranked units at all positions can be the sign of a very good team.
Let’s start with quarterbacks, who are really based entirely on who starts. Nobody in their right mind should ever employ a two quarterback system. It is important to have a good backup, but that is very minimal in comparisons to what I consider the starter to be.
- Stanford– Best QB in the nation with four backups who were ranked top 25 in their classes
- Oklahoma– Landry Jones is going to rack up numbers this year, and should be well backed up with highly ranked recruits
- Oklahoma State– Brandon Weeden was 4th in the country last year and has the experience to lead a powerful offense again
- USC– Matt Barkley could be the next QB taken after Luck next year and is backed up by a ton of top ten recruits
- Houston– Case Keenum is back and could set absurd records this year in Houston’s high flying offense
- Oklahoma State
- Northwestern
- Michigan
- Oregon
- Baylor
Next we have the running backs, which is often a deeper position because many offenses use two or even three backs now.
- Oregon– LaMichael James should be a Heisman contender again, and is backed up by Barner who ran for over 500 yards last year and two exciting freshman.
LaMichael James is poised to post huge numbers again as a Heisman contender
- Alabama– Trent Richardson might have been a superior back to Mark Ingram, and should have an awesome year. Lacy backs him up who had 400 yards last year.
- Auburn– Michael Dyer had over 1000 yards his freshman year, and Onterio McCalebb had 1300 yards as well.
- Arkansas– Knile Davis had 1300 yards in only 8 starts, and is backed up by Wingo who ran for almost 600 last year
- Wisconsin– Montee Ball, James White and Zach Brown are a three headed running machine will all the ability to go over 1000 yards
- South Carolina
- Michigan State
- Florida State
- Stanford
- Georgia
Receivers:
- Oklahoma– Ryan Broyles, Kenny Stills, and Dejaun Miller lead a great group of receivers who will have huge yards as a group this year
- Oklahoma State– Justin Blackmon is the nation’s best receiver, but is only one of many great receivers in the group
- Arkansas– They lost a great TE but return three extremely speedy receivers
- Arizona– Juron Criner is a top receiver and has two potential 1000 yard receivers behind him
- Texas A&M– Three guys had nearly 800 yards last year and they all return to lead a potent offense
- Notre Dame
- Georgia
- USC
- Missouri
- Baylor
Offensive Lines:
- Mississippi– They return ten guys who started a games last year for a 200+ ypg rushing attack
- Oklahoma State– They return all five starters from an offense that racked up yardage last year
- Alabama– They return only three starters but plenty of guys who contributed from the best oline in the country the last few years
- Miami FL– They return four starters from a team that was strong up front last year, they have great potential this year
- Clemson– They return four starters as well, and should thrive statistically in the new system
- Northern Illinois
- Wisconsin
- Ohio State
- BYU
- Texas A&M
Landry Jones will lead Oklahoma's offense which is complete with the best group of skill poisition players and offensive linemen
Best Offenses:
- Oklahoma
- USC
- Oklahoma State
- Texas A&M
- Alabama
- Notre Dame
- Arkansas
- Oregon
- Michigan
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Florida State
- Wisconsin
- Boise State
- South Carolina
- Michigan State
- Auburn
- Stanford
- Baylor
- Clemson
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