There is a world outside of the NFL and it is good, very, very good. If you haven’t been watching college football then you’re missing out. Year after year it delivers drama, skill and storylines in absolute buckets.
It is also one of the best places to make a football wager as you’re not going to be swayed by your pre-existing biases, what the pundits are saying on the television or any of your previous experiences of particular teams.
Interested? Well allow us to make the big sell even more appealing by covering some of the most exciting college football storylines to look out for this season.
Bill Belichick’s College Football Debut
To many, Bill Belichick is the greatest football coach of all time, so it’s going to be really interesting to see what happens this season after he took the decision to step down a level and take over at North Carolina.
After an aggressive offseason, the eight-time Super Bowl winner goes into the campaign not with high hopes of doing well, but with expectations of success. Those hopes and expectations took somewhat of a shellacking in his first game as the Tar Heels fell 48-14 to TCU Horned Frogs.
Impressive back to back wins over Charlotte and Richmond have settled those early doubts though and the Belichick era looks to be entering full swing in North Carolina.
(Not the ideal start for Belichick and North Carolina.)
Can Notre Dame Go Again?
After just two games last season the writing seemed to be on the wall for Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman. Despite an impressive win over Texas A&M, an embarrassing loss to the Northern Illinois Huskies looked to be spelling the end for the Freeman reign.
The Fighting Irish responded in sensational style to that setback by winning 10 straight regular games, with 9 of them being by at least two scores. A loss to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff National Championship stung, but can Notre Dame go again?
It could go either way. A disappointing 27-24 loss to Miami FL was followed up by a gut-wrenching 41-40 loss to Texas A&M. Early signs point towards a potential hangover from last season, but the quality is still clearly there on the field, how it all pans out though is anybody’s guess at this stage.
Penn State Perennial Pretenders or Potential Football Princes?
There was plenty of talk about Penn State last season, which is understandable considering that they won 13 games and lost in the semi-final of the College Football Playoffs. If you dig a little deeper below the surface though, you’ll see that Penn were somewhat of a flat track bully – beating the teams they should do and losing to the tough guys.
Some savvy additions and the return of existing talents should really put them in a place to go and beat some of the big boys this season. If they manage that, then they will really be in contention for the biggest prizes.
(Penn State fell to their first real test last season, can they overcome that weakness this campaign?)
Will Florida’s Extremes Continue?
In 2023 Florida pulled off a 13-1 season which left everyone with really high hopes ahead of last season. Then they went and dropped a 2-10 campaign with DJ Uiagalelei’s return going just about as badly as anyone could have envisaged.
Mike Norvell, the current coach in charge at Florida is quite rightly seen as one of the best coaching talents in college football, but will he get time to show that this season with Florida?
It’s debatable, two losses and one win from three games thus far has put him in some really hot water. Whether or not that reaches boiling point, we’ll have to wait and see…
Is There a Leader in the Big 12?
What has made college football such an entertaining watch in the last couple of years has been the unpredictability and lack of a real standout team in the Big 12. To be honest, we feel as if there’s scope to expand the Big 12 to a Big 16 this season, which should tell you everything you need to know about the level of competition.
If you want thrills, spills and unpredictability, college football is the only place you’re going to find it this season.
