College Football's 30 most fascinating people of 2014

GoSooners · Feb 28, 2014

Okay, so the Dos Equis man’s title is safe for another year. College football, though, still harbors some very interesting characters, both on and away from the field.

A select handful of players, coaches and administrators are going to generate maximum attention and headlines over the next 12 months. Everyone has a story. The following people have angles so compelling that they warrant being talked about long before the opening kickoff of the new season.

30. Kain Colter’s Former Northwestern Teammates
College football is hard work, but is it a job?

The College Athletes Players Association, with Colter as its leading man, is petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to allow Northwestern football players to unionize. The case has been kind of weak so far, but it could divide the Wildcat locker room, regardless of the outcome. This is an evergreen and hot-button issue that’s unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Evanston has become ground zero for the debate about the handling of college athletes, which ought to make for some interesting offseason quotes and sound bites from the players and head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

29. QB Rakeem Cato, Marshall
Coming to Huntington theaters this fall, Shaun King: The Sequel. At least that’s the plan.

Back in 1998, King led Tommy Bowden’s Tulane team to a Conference USA title and a perfect mark, piling up monster numbers along the way. Cato could use that season as his own personal blueprint for success in 2014. An undersized Floridian, just like King, Cato begins his senior year with 91 touchdown passes to go along with a firm handle on the Marshall playbook. Oh, and the unbeaten campaign ought to be in reach throughout the fall since the Herd might be favored in every game of the regular season.

28. QB Kevin Hogan, Stanford
Even when Andrew Luck was still on the Farm, Stanford never asked its quarterbacks to fly solo. That dynamic could be shifting a bit this year.

Hogan will have help, and yes, the Cardinal still wants to power the ball between the tackles. But after losing so much talent on both sides of the ball to graduation, Hogan will have to shoulder more of the load in 2014. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s up to the challenge after making modest gains as a passer a season ago. Hogan should get ample support from an evolving corps of pass-catchers bringing back last year’s five best wide receivers.

27. DE Vic Beasley, Clemson
Few players delivered a more surprising decision on National Staying Day than Beasley did on Jan. 15.

It seemed for a while as if every junior with even a hint of an NFL future was bolting for the big city in December and January. Surely, the nation’s third-leading sacker would leave amateur eligibility on the table, right? Uh-uh. Beasley, the year after getting to the quarterback 13 times, opted to remain at Clemson for his final season. The All-American begins 2014 as one of the game’s most decorated defensive players, with a chance to boost his draft stock for 2015.

26. QB Davis Webb, Texas Tech
Now that you’ve run every other quarterback out of Lubbock, Davis, you better stay healthy.

Since Webb lit up Arizona State in December’s Holiday Bowl, three Red Raider quarterbacks, Baker Mayfield, Michael Brewer and Clayton Nicholas, have decided to transfer out of the program. Webb will now run unopposed for the right to be Kliff Kingsbury’s full-time triggerman, a plum gig for any young quarterback. As a true freshman, he took half the team’s snaps, yet still threw for 2,718 yards and 20 scores. With a year under his belt, and no one looking over his shoulder, Webb is poised to tap into his inner B.J. Symons or Sonny Cumbie or Graham Harrell … or Kliff Kingsbury.

25. QB Gunner Kiel, Cincinnati
Kiel has found a home in Cincinnati, just 90 miles east of where he played his high school ball in Indiana. And it looks as if he plans on sticking around.

The ever-indecisive former top quarterback recruit of 2012 is finally ready to compete for playing time and show off his strong right arm. Kiel, for those who forgot, is the kid who initially gave verbals to Indiana and LSU, eventually signed with Notre Dame and then transferred after just a year in South Bend. He’ll have to earn the right to run Tommy Tuberville’s offense in 2014 now that veteran Munchie Legaux has been granted an additional year of eligibility from the NCAA.

24. QB Chuckie Keeton, Utah State
Just when it looked as if Keeton was ready to go primetime, he suffered a devastating injury that prematurely ended his junior season.

The talented leader of the Aggies tore the ACL and the MCL in his left knee while being tackled in an Oct. 4 loss to BYU last fall. At the time, he’d already accounted for 20 touchdowns—and just two picks—while earning an increasing amount of national notoriety. Keeton is on track in his rehabilitation to begin participating in June workouts with the team. Good news for NFL scouts who feel he has a bright future on Sundays. Great news for Utah State, which believes it’s home to the single most underrated quarterback in college football.

23. Duke head coach David Cutcliffe
Go ahead and call Coach Cut a lot of things. Just don’t call him content.

The Blue Devils had a renaissance on grass last year, winning 10 games and the ACC Coastal Division. Cutcliffe is determined to make sure 2013 was the start of something bigger in Durham, rather than some cosmic, one-year anomaly. Duke is much more than just confident and hot these days. It’s also loaded with enough returning starters from the squad that went toe-to-toe with Texas A&M in the Chick-fil-A Bowl to repeat as division champs in 2014.

22. QB Nick Marshall, Auburn
So, what do you have in store for an encore, Nick?

Marshall was brilliant in his return to the SEC, following a brief one-year apprenticeship at Garden City (Kans.) Community College. Not only did he account for 26 touchdowns in his first season on the Plains, but he also quarterbacked the Tigers to an SEC crown and a spot in the national championship game. Take note, league defensive coordinators, that the Auburn staff is convinced Marshall can be even more dynamic now that he has a full season in Gus Malzahn’s system under his belt.

21. Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer
Meyer is off to a flying start in Columbus. But something is missing.

The Buckeyes have gone 24-2 in Meyer’s first two years with the program, and they haven’t lost a regular season Big Ten game. Finishing last year with back-to-back losses to Michigan State in the Big Ten title game and Clemson in the Orange Bowl, have left Ohio State hungry for some hardware in 2014. This is a huge year for Meyer. QB Braxton Miller is back for his senior season, and a top 10 ranking in the preseason is likely. Anything less than a Big Ten championship is going to be a big disappointment for Meyer and his team.

GoSooners · Feb 28, 2014

20. Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini
When did consistency become so doggone irritating?

Pelini has lost exactly four games in each of his six seasons in Lincoln. He’s 58-24 overall. He’s also firmly on the hot seat entering 2014, bearing the brunt of the reality that Nebraska is still fracking for its first conference championship of the 21st century. Of course, Pelini’s temper, both on the sideline and when a mic is in his face, has done no favors to his job security. The coach seems to have the support of Husker legend Tom Osborne, which is the vote of confidence that matters most in these parts. Still, Pelini can use a quieter season, preferably one that ends with fewer than four defeats.

19. QB Max Browne, USC
Steve Sarkisian failed to ink the nation’s top-rated high school quarterback in 2013. In an odd twist of fate, he inherits him at Troy.

Browne has many of the attributes needed to become the next great Trojan pocket passer, but first he’ll have to unseat incumbent Cody Kessler. Kessler showed steady improvement a year ago, capping a solid finish by outdueling Fresno State’s Derek Carr in the Las Vegas Bowl. Browne, though, appears to have a higher ceiling, blending a 6-5 frame with outstanding arm talent. Sark is installing an up-tempo, no-huddle offense similar to the one Browne ran at Skyline (Wash.) High School, adding a twist to an already intriguing quarterback battle.

18. QB Bryce Petty, Baylor
Now that Petty has introduced himself to a large chunk of the nation, he’s poised to become a household name.

Petty was prolific running Art Briles’ fast-paced offense, a fantasy football GM’s dream. He accounted for 46 touchdowns and 4,409 yards, while throwing just three interceptions. And it was his first season as the Bear starter. Expectations will be even higher in 2014. Petty is a year older and more experienced, and the ankle that reportedly hampered him late last year is all better. Think better overall decisions, more keepers on the zone-read and even gaudier numbers than last fall.

17. QB Keenan Reynolds, Navy
A member of a service academy has won the Heisman Trophy five times, but it hasn’t happened in more than a half-century, when Navy QB Roger Staubach nabbed the honor in 1963. Can Reynolds make a historic run to glory this fall?

Sure, Reynolds is a longshot, but you can bank on him getting pockets of passionate support throughout this season. Really, what’s not to like about a Midshipman fresh off one of the best seasons ever in the long and storied history of Navy football? As a sophomore, Reynolds rushed for 1,346 yards and 31 touchdowns, an NCAA record for a quarterback, and threw for 1,057 yards and eight more scores. The Mids open with Ohio State in Baltimore in a must-see game showcase showdown for voters wanting to champion the total package in a student-athlete.

16. Washington head coach Chris Petersen
Someone finally lured Petersen out of Idaho. Now, let’s see how he performs in a tougher league and with more pressure than he ever faced at Boise State.

If Petersen enhances what Steve Sarkisian started in Seattle, he’ll break a trend that’s seen former Broncos Dirk Koetter and Dan Hawkins stumble at Arizona State and Colorado, respectively. Petersen lasted longer than expected at Boise State, eight years, perennially turning down offers. Now that he’s at a higher-profile outfit, it’ll be interesting to see if he can maintain the magic and the penchant for coaching up players that he enjoyed for so long as a BCS buster out of the WAC and the Mountain West.

15. RB Leonard Fournette, LSU
Potential doesn’t amount to a whole lot until the games begin, but Fournette sure does look as if he might be a once-every-decade type back.

Big. Fast. Smart. Motivated. Fournette possesses an exciting mix of skills, especially at a position where rookies often make a smooth transition from high school to college. Yeah, comparisons are never fair, but it’s hard not to see a young Adrian Peterson when the tape of Fournette begins to roll. Oh, and the five-star stud happened to choose a program that was in the market for a feature back after Jeremy Hill and Alfred Blue left early for the NFL Draft.

14. OC Doug Nussmeier, Michigan
The Wolverines need a new direction. Head coach Brady Hoke hopes he found it in Tuscaloosa.

Hoke made what appears to be a shrewd hire, replacing Al Borges with Nussmeier, Nick Saban’s former offensive coordinator at Bama. Nussmeier has a budding reputation as a developer of quarterbacks, and he’s inherited a couple of talented ones in senior Devin Gardner and sophomore Shane Morris. The 43-year-old has a future as a head coach. For now, though, he’s just hoping to help save the job of the coach giving him another high-profile opportunity in a different region of the country.

13. DC Jeremy Pruitt, Georgia
When a coordinator leaves a national champ, it’s almost always for a promotion to a head coaching position. Pruitt is an intriguing exception to conventional wisdom.

Pruitt has dreamt of coaching for Mark Richt at Georgia for a decade, and he got his chance after Todd Grantham accepted an offer to be on Bobby Petrino’s staff at Louisville. Pruitt has been on the fast track since leaving the high school ranks for Tuscaloosa in 2007. In 2013, he did a bang-up job with a Florida State defense that led the nation in scoring D. Pruitt has been on the staff of the last three national champions, and now he inherits an emerging Bulldog defense brimming with untapped potential.

12. QB Marcus Mariota, Oregon
Mariota had a very good sophomore year by anyone’s standard. Not good enough, in his opinion.

Throw out the numbers when evaluating Mariota; they’ll always be impressive, especially in the Oregon offense. The sophomore failed to hit his mark in 2013 because a partially torn MCL limited his full potential down the stretch, and because his Ducks lost two of their final four regular season games. A healthy Mariota is back for his junior year, instead of preparing for the NFL Draft, in an attempt to erase last November’s memories and lead his team back into the Pac-12 penthouse.

11. LB Myles Jack, UCLA
If Jack improves on his smashing debut with the Bruins, Marvel Comics might be forced to create a superhero bearing his likeness.

The sophomore approached cult status in 2013, excelling on both sides of the ball like some kind of throwback from your grandfather’s generation. After beginning the season as the Pac-12’s best young linebacker, he reached a whole different level of publicity by rushing for 120 yards in an emergency assignment versus Arizona on Nov. 9. Jack has been trending ever since, riding a trajectory of popularity and national respect that’ll continue cresting in his second season of action.

GoSooners · Feb 28, 2014

10. Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino
As long as Petrino keeps winning and engineering high-powered offenses, he’s going to have job offers. Get used to it.

Petrino’s tarnished reputation, from poorly planned job exits to reckless motorcycle skills, has helped make him a pariah within the coaching ranks. While he has no chance in popularity contests, he is going to win a lot of games, which is why AD Tom Jurich called him after Charlie Strong left for Texas. Petrino will have a short leash in his second tour of duty with the Cardinals. Or not, depending on how quickly he can turn Louisville into a contender as the newest member of the ACC.

9. QB Trevor Knight, Oklahoma
On New Year’s Day, Knight was almost as anonymous as the Sooner punter. By the morning of Jan. 3, he was one of the buzziest names on the college football landscape.

Inconsistency slowed Knight in his first season of action, but it didn’t quash the staff’s excitement about its young playmaker. The switch turned on for the redshirt freshman against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, of all spots. He torched the Tide for 348 yards and four touchdowns on 32-of-44 passing, essentially ending any quarterback competition for 2014 before it could even get off the ground. The expectations are suddenly huge for Knight, who’s being counted on to blossom into the next prolific quarterback of the Bob Stoops era.

8. QB Everett Golson, Notre Dame
Golson’s career in South Bend suffered a false start last season, but he’s back to recapture the momentum he’d built toward the end of his rookie year in 2012.

Academic issues felled Golson in 2013, but it appears as if he maximized his time away from the field. The fourth-year Irish quarterback not only got his books in order, but he also matured, added muscle and sharpened his passing skills with the help of noted QB guru George Whitfield. Golson will still have to beat out teammates, like up-and-comer Malik Zaire, but that seems like a formality right now. Golson figures to be an instant upgrade for a Notre Dame attack that tolerated having Tommy Rees behind center last season.

7. QB Jameis Winston, Florida State
Winston experienced and achieved more in one season than most quarterbacks do in five. Can Jimbo Fisher keep such a precocious superstar motivated and focused throughout 2014?

Winston isn’t Johnny Manziel, but there are similarities between the two standout quarterbacks. Freshmen Heisman winners. Larger-than-life personalities. Off-field distractions. Unlike a year ago, Winston will have a target on his chest, for opposing defenses and fans, from the moment the Seminoles line up across from Oklahoma State on Aug. 30. Different set of challenges, to be sure, but Winston gave no indications during his incomparable debut that he is easily flustered by adversity. For the second straight year, Archie Griffin is in danger of having company in the multi-Heisman club.

6. Penn State head coach James Franklin
It was only a matter of time before some bigger school scooped Franklin out of Nashville. That Penn State landed one of the nation’s hottest young coaches was a shocker.

Bill O’Brien returned to the NFL after growing tired of Happy Valley, opening the door for the Lions to take its next major step toward a full football recovery. Franklin was revelatory for three years at Vanderbilt. He’ll have a chance to be even better at Penn State. He’s one of the top young recruiters, motivators and program-builders in America. And every day that passes brings the Nits closer to getting out of the NCAA hoosegow. Franklin can be a mega-star back in his home state.

5. QB Jeff Driskel and OC Kurt Roper, Florida
As pupil and mentor, respectively, Driskel and Roper will dictate the fate of head coach Will Muschamp in Gainesville.

If Driskel, now a senior, is unable to light a fire under the perennially necrotic Gator offense, AD Jeremy Foley will be interviewing Muschamp’s successor in December. Every bit as important as the quarterback is Roper, who was hired away from Duke to retool an attack that ranked 113th nationally in scoring. The stakes are extremely high for the trio, each of whom hopes to use this fall as a catapult to a bigger and better career path in 2014.

4. Soon-to-be Alabama QB Jacob Coker
For a guy who’s thrown exactly one career touchdown pass, Coker sure has been a popular topic this offseason.

As soon as the buzz started that Coker might want to transfer out of Florida State in order to get out from Jameis Winston’s shadow, he became the hottest free agent in college football. Coker is a rocket-armed 6-5, 230-pounder who put a genuine scare into Winston last summer in the race to replace EJ Manuel. Even better, he’s on track to graduate this spring, which means he’ll have a shot to immediately succeed AJ McCarron for a second time. Coker was also the heir apparent to McCarron at St. Paul Episcopal School (Ala.) four years ago.

3. Texas head coach Charlie Strong
Every college coach feels pressure. Few feel it the way the guy leading Texas does.

Strong left the relative coziness of Louisville for the cauldron that is Longhorn football. His detractors, especially the Mack Brown sympathizers, are out there, and they will not remain tight-lipped for long. Strong has entered college football’s high-risk, high-reward district, with an opportunity to be the guy who guides UT out of its four-year malaise. As the first African-American coach of any Longhorn men’s program, he also gets a pioneering chance to obliterate lingering stereotypes left over by past generations.

2. Johnny Football’s Successor at Texas A&M
Turns out Johnny Manziel is a shade under six-feet tall. His shoes are enormous, however, and someone in College Station must fill them in 2014.

There’s no tougher job in football than replacing an iconic, beloved quarterback. The good news for Aggie fans is that their program has recruited the position well in recent years. There’s a star about to be born at Texas A&M, with an offseason of practices, studying and conditioning to decide who gets first dibs on succeeding Johnny Football. Senior Matt Joeckel can’t be dismissed, but sophomore Kenny Hill and true freshman Kyle Allen are the clear-cut future for Kevin Sumlin’s fast-paced attack.

1. The 13 members of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee
Just because college football has a four-team playoff beginning this year does not mean that controversy has been eradicated from the process. Limiting the noise is now the responsibility of an eclectic committee in charge of selecting the playoff participants in December. Buckle up.

Barry Alvarez, Lt. General Michael Gould, Pat Haden, Tom Jernstedt, Jeff Long, Oliver Luck, Archie Manning, Tom Osborne, Dan Radakovich, Condoleezza Rice, Mike Tranghese, Steve Wieberg and Tyrone Willingham comprise an esteemed group of individuals with arguably the most important job in college football in 2014. Getting the first team or two into the fold ought to be academic. After that point, it figures to get tricky, putting the committee deeply under the microscope in its debut on the job.

cloverleaf · Feb 28, 2014

Fun stuff GS..............

Several on the list interest me. How will another successful Boise State coach do at a larger school (Chris Peterson)? Now the second highest paid coach in the Big Ten, can James Franklin produce like he did at Vanderbilt? Georgia's defense has under performed the past few seasons, can new defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt get the Dawgs back to playing like a tough SEC defense? Pressure, pressure and more pressure. Can Charlie Strong move from a confortable post at Louisville to a pressure cooker like Texas and stand the heat?

popcorn-eatinggif

GoSooners · Feb 28, 2014

I'll be curious to see how Bryce Petty does. He looked like he could do no wrong in the first half of the season when Baylor looked unbeatable. But when they actually started playing decent teams, in his last 6 games only once did he match his average QB rating of 174. And that was against Taco Tech. His percentage plummeted, his yards per attempt plummeted. But he did have a bad ankle. So we'll see how much that contributed to his poor finish. The problem with Baylor is they don't schedule any tough opponents for their non conference games. It can really hurt you down the stretch when you haven't been tested early. As for OU's Knight, he's got that dreaded sophomore slump to overcome. Plus the question still remains whether he can show the kind of consistency over a full season that he had in his bowl game. As for Charlie Strong, I think he's a very good coach. But I also think Rich Rod was/is too when he went to Michigan. Hopefully for the Horns sake they give him a chance long enough to do his thing. And the bigots down there at least pretend to support him.

MackDonald · Mar 1, 2014

GoSooners said:
I'll be curious to see how Bryce Petty does. He looked like he could do no wrong in the first half of the season when Baylor looked unbeatable. But when they actually started playing decent teams, in his last 6 games only once did he match his average QB rating of 174. And that was against Taco Tech. His percentage plummeted, his yards per attempt plummeted. But he did have a bad ankle. So we'll see how much that contributed to his poor finish. The problem with Baylor is they don't schedule any tough opponents for their non conference games. It can really hurt you down the stretch when you haven't been tested early. As for OU's Knight, he's got that dreaded sophomore slump to overcome. Plus the question still remains whether he can show the kind of consistency over a full season that he had in his bowl game. As for Charlie Strong, I think he's a very good coach. But I also think Rich Rod was/is too when he went to Michigan. Hopefully for the Horns sake they give him a chance long enough to do his thing. And the bigots down there at least pretend to support him.

JBLonghorn doesn't appear to be a "bigot" but, by his own admission, he does have a penchant to womanize....a characteristic that appears to be commonplace with a lot of hardcore male football fans....especially down in Texas.

GoSooners · Mar 1, 2014

I think the player they are underestimating and should be in the top 10 is Leonard Fournette of LSU. LSU isn't as deep at RB as they usually are. I think they've only signed one back in the last 2 classes. So Fournette could get as many as 25 carries a game. Barring injury it wouldn't surprised me if he runs for 1500 yards or more. The player I think is the most overrated on the list is Golson. I don't really get the hype on this kid. Two years ago ND got where they were by defense and the running game. Not so much because of Golson. He's still got a lot to prove. Especially being out of football for a year.

rolltide · Mar 1, 2014

fun list but find absolutely nothing fascinating about jeff driskell

Cato could be an interesting long shot to wager on for the heisman

MackDonald · Mar 2, 2014

Driskell never (IMHO) fit the mold of Florida Quarterbacks that have played in Ben Hill Griffin during the past 30 years......Perhaps, he doesn't have the supporting cast but his passing skills seem to be lacking.......Was he a (tail end) Meyer recruit or did Muschamp bring him to Gainesville.....I don't recall.