Elite Team Surprises/Busts (relatively speaking)
FSU - QB is most important position in sports and they have a bottom 5 QB in the ACC, plus they did not replenish the elite talent that left in the draft. FSU will fall to 4-5 losses because of these things.
Bama - Huge talent drain on defense along with the best defensive coach of our time, think the D will fall to just 'average' causing Bama to be in the 3-4 loss zone for the first time in a long time
Michigan - Odd that nobody has them falling when almost all their elite talent left without obvious repllacements and they lost a top 5 head coach. They could lose 3-4 games coming back down to earth
OSU - Probably only lose 2-3 games, because of their elite defense but that will be a huge dissapointment and triple the losses under 2024 Heisman candidate McCord. All the talk of more running from the QB and the Chip Kelly influence causes Will Howard to have a Shrader/Dungey (not 2018) type year where he starts ok, but ends up hurt and their backup is no bueno. Also for all the talent they brought in, the OL has not seemed to be addressed and will be the same issue it was last year (was not McCord!)
VT - They seem to be everyones dark horse for a 9, 10, 11 win season but I am not sold on Pry. 50+ year old lifetime DCs don't have a great track record taking over programs. They are super over hyped based on a charmin soft 7-6 that featured the following P4 wins (Pitt, Cuse, WF, BC, VA) all of whom were borderline dumster fires last year when VT played them. VT loses 6 this year in a 'step back' (really a reality check)
U - Ward is a good but not elite QB and Mario needs elite to compinsate for his inadequacies on game day. They drop 4-5 games, including Thankgiving weekend of course. This shouldnt be a bust because this is what they always are, but this year Lucy has gotten Charlie Brown to try to kick the football again