CFB Mid-Season Review + Postseason Predictions

We are just about six weeks into the college football season, and the landscape is starting to take shape. Contenders are emerging, pretenders are slipping away, and new storylines are definitely rewriting preseason expectations. Let’s take a look at what we learned so far.

Texas, Penn State are UNRANKED

You heard that right, the two top teams in the preseason AP Poll with Texas being #1 and Penn State #2, are now unranked, after both teams have started 3-2 with quite disappointing losses. For starters, Texas opened up on the road in Columbus, Ohio, to take on the third ranked Buckeyes and they fell short, 14-7. Not a big deal right? They go back to Austin and get three wins, and then lose to a struggling Florida team at the swamp, 29-21.

Texas Quarterback Arch Manning has not lived up to his preseason hype whatsoever. “Texas needs some work. I don’t believe they have a very realistic shot to make noise in the postseason as well,” said senior Bobby Wade. Obviously, the season is not even close to over yet, but Heisman and playoff chances for Texas are starting to slip away as they are now unranked in five weeks, after being the nations #1 preseason team.

Penn State on the other hand, was preseason #2, with returning starters such as QB Drew Allar, and their stellar RB duo with Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. They were off to a somewhat sluggish start with beating three non-power four teams and it wasn’t that impressive whatsoever. However, the sixth ranked Oregon Ducks came into Happy Valley and stole a 30-24 win from the Nittany Lions in overtime.

Now, Oregon is a great team with current Heisman candidate Dante Moore playing his best football, but this was a very underwhelming loss because James Franklin’s record against Top-10 Big Ten teams was now 1-18. However, this wasn’t the end of it. Penn State then went on the road to face 0-4 UCLA, with former Tennessee QB Nico Iameleava struggling to get things going. Despite the horrible performances thus far, their first win would come in the hands of the #7 ranked Penn State, with a score of 42-37. Iameleava had a stellar game, with five total touchdowns, two passing and three on the ground. This set rampage throughout the Penn State fanbase, saying James Franklin’s time is up.

Senior Isaiah Davila, a big College Football fan, said, “I think it was bound to happen. They haven’t been able to perform in clutch moments for years now under James Franklin. Drew Allar and Franklin’s time seem to be over at Penn State, with minimal success to show for it.”

As of right now, there are many question marks on both of these teams, whether they’re still legit, have any chance of making the postseason, and more. Only time will tell if these teams can recover.

Besides the crumble of our top two teams, post-season aspirations are becoming real. This includes the 12-team playoff, Heisman watchlists, bowl projections, and so much more. It seems a lot of pre-season hype for these players hasn’t turned out great either. These names can include LaNorris Sellers for South Carolina, Cade Klubnik for Clemson, DJ Lagway for Florida, and many more. These big name QB’s falling early in the season leaves the door open like star receivers or under the radar QBs to get in the mix.

“I got Jeremiah Smith winning the Heisman this year,” said Bobby Wade. “He seems to have picked up right where he left off from last year, and last season was very Heisman worthy.”

Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith is having a phenomenal season so far, similar to his generational freshman year at OSU. Even with a new Quarterback in Julian Sayin, he’s doing just as well. Don’t be surprised if he runs away with this one, especially with very under-whelming QBs this year.

“I think Dante Moore currently leads the Heisman race,” said Isaiah Davila. “He’s led Oregon to a 5-0 record thus far, even with missing weapons like WR Evan Stewart. He’s the most pure QB I’ve watched this year.”

Opinions vary pretty far for postseason awards, and it’ll be very interesting to see how contenders, players, coaches all play out for the 25-26 season.