From new coaches to unproven players, these issues could trip up the best teams in the country.
It won't be long before college football teams hit the field in earnest as training camps begin in just a few weeks. Rosters are pretty much set, but even the best teams still have areas of uncertainty, from transitions to new coaches and coordinators to unproven players and thin position groups.
After an undefeated regular season last year, the Buckeyes got beaten up front in postseason losses to Indiana and Miami. Veteran startersplayed key roles during Ohio State's 2024 national championship run, when the Buckeyes dominated the line of scrimmage in convincing victories over Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame. Siereveld, Montgomery and Hinzman anchor a line that needs to be much better, especially with Ohio State facing one of the toughest schedules in the country.
--The Ducks are the envy of almost all of college football, so any concerns here are champagne problems. This is a roster that can -- and should -- compete for a national title. If the Ducks win the whole thing, it won't be a surprise. The question has become: Can the Ducks put it all together when it matters most?
They beat Ohio State in the regular season in 2024, then got run out of the Rose Bowl by the Buckeyes in the playoff. They were competitive against Indiana during the regular season last year, only to no-show again in the playoff rematch against the Hoosiers. This is a team that hasn't quite figured out how to peak in the playoff, and that's the important next step.
--Let's be honest: Georgia's receiving talent hasn't been elite since Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey departed after the 2023 season. Yes, Zachariah Branch became a real weapon last year, but he did the bulk of his damage after the catch, and that often limited Georgia's downfield attack. Even after last season's mediocre results, however, there are potentially more questions this season with Colbie Young, Dillon Bell, Noah Thomas and tight end Oscar Delp gone.
The Bulldogs added a solid transfer inIt was impossible to watch Carr's development last season and not be excited for what's ahead. He oftenlooked like a superstar, and his final season stat line -- 24 touchdowns, six picks, more than 2,700 yards passing -- means he'll enter this year as one of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy. But let's throw a small dash of cold water on the hype.
Carr is losing two elite players out of his backfield, as both Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price were selected in the first round of the 2026 NFL draft. Now the pressure is on Carr to carry the offense. And though the Irish don't face a particularly daunting schedule -- they won't play a team that won more than five games until Oct. 17 -- there's also this: Carr's stat line vs. FPI top-40 opponents last year?
Four games, 48.9 QBR, 63% completions, 6.3 yards per dropback, six TD passes and five interceptions. --Last year, Texas' rushing offense averaged the fewest yards of Steve Sarkisian's career as a head coach, which put a lot onat left guard, though he had to get a waiver and is joining the team in fall camp. With a star-studded cast of talented skill position players, this unit will be the key to Texas' offense.
-- Hoover obviously has big shoes to fill in replacing Fernando Mendoza, who won the Heisman, led the Hoosiers to the national championship and became the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. Hoover doesn't need to be Mendoza. But he needs to cut down on his negative plays -- his 24 interceptions the past two years were the most of any Power 4 quarterback.
Still, with 31 career starts, Hoover brings a wealth of experience -- and coach Curt Cignetti has thrived in Bloomington with seasoned transfer quarterbacks from Kurtis Rourke to Mendoza. --Miami feels good about the talent across its roster, but there are a few questions to answer headed into fall camp.
First and foremost, has highly touted true freshmansolidified the starting left tackle spot? He is projected to start there, but that was not a done deal after spring ball. Miami also wants to find a solid rotation among its defensive linemen with Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor gone.
Perhaps the biggest issue is deciding who will start alongsidePete Golding did a terrific job keeping Ole Miss together after the Lane Kiffin saga and making a run to the CFP semifinal. The biggest question is whether Golding can lift the program even further. Though Kiffin never won the SEC, he set the bar -- and expectations -- high after winning 10 or more games four times in the past five seasons.
Ole Miss returnsand a host of others, and it spent heavily in the transfer portal. Taking a step or two back is not something the program can afford given all the progress in recent years. -- Holmon Wiggins has worked under some of the best offensive minds in the country at Alabama and joined Mike Elko's staff in College Station coaching receivers under Collin Klein.
With Klein's departure to return home to Kansas State as head coach, Elko said it was time to give Wiggins the reins as coordinator. He takes over a playoff-caliber team, albeit one that struggled down the stretch offensively, with Reed throwing eight interceptions in his last five games against Power 4 teams and the Aggies scoring 17 points in a loss to Texas and 3 in the playoff defeat to Miami.
The Aggies have improved their skill position talent tremendously in Elko's time and took another leap this year, especially at wide receiver, but lost four offensive line starters. Wiggins will have to hit the ground running in his first year calling the shots. --We can just take "lingering" out of the subject line and go with the only question that matters: Will Kiffin transform LSU into a national title contender in his first year on the job?
He did not jump from Ole Miss to the Tigers just to be OK. There is a championship pedigree in Baton Rouge, and though Kiffin has never won it all as a head coach, the expectation among LSU faithful is national title or bust. Kiffin went into the portal and put together a roster that is capable, given its talent. Maybe his newly hired special assistant for recruiting and defense, Ed Orgeron, can give him a few pointers.
-- Coming off a CFP appearance, Texas Tech has bigger hopes after a shutout loss to Oregon in the Orange Bowl last season, and Hammond is the man in the spotlight. Joey McGuire said he wouldn't have sought out transferif Hammond, who filled in for injured starter Behren Morton, hadn't suffered a torn ACL last October. Sorsby's short Tech tenure ended before he ever played a game as he was ruled ineligible for placing thousands of impermissible bets.
Hammond, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound dual threat in his third season with Tech, threw for 680 yards with seven TDs and three INTs last year, running for five more scores. McGuire said Hammond has made significant progress and will be the Red Raiders' Game 1 starter against Abilene Christian if the medical staff clears him by Aug. 21.
-- As a true freshman, Bachmeier performed about as well as BYU could have hoped last season as the team piled up 12 wins. But there were times when the offense was held back by a reluctance to rely heavily on the pass game. Between running backand Bachmeier's bruising running ability, there was a formula that was good enough.
But when the Cougars fell behind big against Texas Tech, it was clear this was not an offense built to score quickly. That dynamic is a valid concern headed into 2026. -- Through the first month of last season, quarterback John Mateer was the clear Heisman front-runner. But after missing a game to undergo surgery for a broken bone in his right hand, Mateer was never the same.
Beginning with his return for a 23-6 loss to Texas, Mateer ranked just 69th with a QBR of 60.5 for the rest of the regular season, then threw a costly pick-six in Oklahoma's home playoff loss to Alabama. With a healthy offseason,Underwood, the nation's No. 1 overall recruit last year, immediately won a starting job as a true freshman.
But operating with limited weapons around him amid the chaos surrounding former coach Sherrone Moore, Underwood had an up-and-down debut season, completing just 60.3% of his passes with 11 touchdowns. Whittingham has said one of his primary goals is to turn the "mega-talent" Underwood into a "completely finished product.
" If that happens, Michigan could emerge as a surprise contender in the Big Ten. --When Franklin led Penn State to the College Football Playoff semifinal in 2024, it would have been outside the realm of possibility to think he would coach just six more games before getting fired. But a three-game losing streak to open Big Ten play spelled the end for the Nittany Lions coach.
The message was clear: There was a belief at Penn State that the Nittany Lions' recent success came despite Franklin, not because of him. Now that theory will be put to the test with Matt Campbell in charge. -- The only question that matters is a big one.
Alabama is one of a handful of teams that has not settled on a starting QB yet, and coach Kalen DeBoer reiterated as much last month during a radio interview when he said he still has no timetable on making a decision. Russell was the No. 2 prospect in the 2025 class; Mack has more time in the DeBoer system.
The Tide coach, entering his third year in Tuscaloosa, has praised them both for their ability to get the ball down the field and their accuracy, and said they are doing a good job as leaders in the offseason. But there is little doubt this decision could end up making or breaking the Alabama season.
-- Williams' flirtation with the transfer portal was an unfortunate offseason plot, but that shouldn't impact what matters now: If he performs at a high level, Washington is a team that can reach the playoff. If everything breaks right, Williams could be in line for more than 4,000 yards of total offense and 40 total touchdowns . And if it plays out that way, a 10-win regular season could be within reach.
--With Morgan Scalley taking the baton from Kyle Whittingham in Salt Lake City, the long-awaited succession plan has been implemented. Kind of. This was the plan for years, but the idea also assumed Whittingham's retirement and an easy transition with most of the staff. With Whittingham off to Michigan along with several assistants and staffers, Scalley had to rebuild much more of the program than he would have otherwise.
There's no saying what kind of impact that will make, but the Utes will be especially interesting to check in on early in the season. --will carry on into the fall after the two split reps during the spring. Hecklinski transferred to Iowa last year after taking three total snaps his freshman season in 2024 at Wake Forest. Brown spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons at Auburn, starting twice for the Tigers, before joining Iowa.
Brown is 6-4, 218 pounds with a big arm. But Hecklinski, who is just 5-11, can make plays with his feet. The Hawkeyes, coming off a nine-win season, figure to be stout again up front and on defense. But quarterback play will determine whether they can challenge in the Big Ten.
--USC's return to prominence is inevitable. There are too many resources, too many good players in Los Angeles and too many advantages for the Trojans to linger outside of relevance forever. And with the way college football is structured now, turnarounds can happen suddenly. But four years into the Lincoln Riley era, there still hasn't been a clear on-field signal the Trojans are ready to compete with the national elite.
It's time to show, not tell. --Jeff Brohm knows quarterbacks. He's arguably one of the top offensive minds in college football. But as a head coach, Brohm has never had a quarterback as dynamic with his legs as.
Yes, the jury is still out on Kienholz's ceiling. He has never started a collegiate game after serving as a backup at Ohio State. But his athleticism isn't in doubt, and that opens up a lot of new options in Brohm's already stellar playbook. Brohm went to the ACC title game in 2023 with Jack Plummer at quarterback, and he won nine games last year with Miller Moss.
Neither had high-end skill sets. Kienholz's floor could be lower than either if things don't go right, but his ceiling is much higher, and given Brohm's track record, it's a safe bet this new era of QB play at Louisville could be a game changer. --SMU played well enough to make it back into the ACC championship game in 2025, but ultimately too many defensive breakdowns cost the Mustangs.
That puts their defense squarely in the spotlight headed into this season, with seven starters and defensive coordinator Scott Symons gone. Coach Rhett Lashlee believes the moves the team made in the portal, along with the return of young players forced into action a year ago, are enough to get the Mustangs to play at a more consistent level.
Losing safety stalwartsand Isaiah Nwokobia leaves a big hole in production and experience, so finding the right players to replace them remains a question that needs answering. --. But Sonny Dykes has never had a problem overseeing prolific passing attacks.
However, in Kendal Briles' tenure as TCU's offensive coordinator, the Frogs struggled mightily on the ground, ranking 113th in 2024 and 100th last season , putting a lot of pressure on Hoover, who struggled with turnovers as the team ranked 102nd in that category, leading Dykes to search for balance and efficiency in his offense. He zeroed in on Sammis' wide-zone attack at UConn after Huskies backs averaged 5.1 yards per carry and Connecticut had just two turnovers on the season, the fewest in the country.
-- Last year, Hughes was among the most coveted transfers in the country and signed with Oregon after rushing for 2,779 yards and 22 touchdowns in two seasons with Tulane. But in 2025, Hughes got only 19 touches with the Ducks. Now at Houston, Hughes has reunited with Willie Fritz, who coached him at Tulane. During Big 12 media days, Fritz said Hughes is "looking forward to redeeming himself.
" If that happens, Houston -- coming off a 10-win season last year -- could become a legit contender in the Big 12. --It's not just the biggest question mark in Knoxville, but arguably one of the biggest in the country right now: Just who will be taking snaps as QB1 for the Vols when they open against Furman on Sept. 5? Entering spring, redshirt freshmanshowed out and now seems to have the edge in the competition.
Of course, a lot can happen between spring ball and fall camp, and both QBs figure to have sanded off some rough edges. MacIntyre has a slight edge in experience, but Brandon's rapid rise has Vols fans dreaming big. --
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