College Football Teams that will Regress the Most in 2019

John Galt

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Two of our opponents make the list: Fresno St and Northwestern - https://bleacherreport.com/articles...ball-teams-that-will-regress-the-most-in-2019

One of the only ways to remain a factor in college football year after year is to get old and stay old. You want senior leadership on the roster, but too much of it means a bit of a rebuilding year the following season.

And rebuilding is just a fancy word for regression—unless you get lucky and have a bunch of freshmen or sophomores break out a year ahead of schedule. We're not saying these eight teams are going to stink next year. Each one will likely be expected to win at least six games and make a return to a bowl game. But due to roster turnover, each of these teams should be expected to win at least two fewer games in 2019 than they won in 2018.

Fresno:

In 2016, Fresno State suffered 11 losses. Over the past two seasons, the Bulldogs have averaged 11 wins, including winning both of their bowl games. Were it not for Bill Clark's work reviving a UAB program that was defunct for two years, Jeff Tedford would have gotten much more deserved love for national coach of the year.

But now comes the hard part: replacing most of the offense.

Four of Fresno State's starting offensive linemen are seniors. So are five of the seven wide receivers who caught a pass this season, as well as two of the four tight ends. And worst of all, QB Marcus McMaryion will graduate after throwing for 3,629 yards with a 25-to-5 TD-to-INT ratio this season.

They do get to hang onto running backs Ronnie Rivers and Jordan Mims, and the top tight end (Jared Rice) ought to return as a fifth-year senior. At least there are a few building blocks there. That's still a lot of roster turnover, though.

And that's just the offense.

The Bulldogs are also losing three of their seven leading tacklers, one of which (Anthoula Kelly) was a cornerback who had four interceptions and 16 passes defended this season. The other two—outside linebackers George Helmuth and James Bailey—both ranked top three on the team in tackles for loss and sacks.


Northwestern:

Northwestern went 0-3 in nonconference play and got five of its eight Big Ten wins by a single-possession margin. Even without accounting for roster changes, some regression to the mean seems inevitable for one of the luckiest division winners in power-conference history.

There is quite a bit of attrition, though.

QB Clayton Thorson and top WR Flynn Nagel are both graduating, meaning the Wildcats need to replace both parts of their best offensive strike. While they're at it, three starting offensive linemen were redshirt seniors, so they'll be gone, too. (Maybe that will be addition by subtraction, though, because this unit gave up a ton of sacks and didn't do much run blocking, either.)
 



I expect NW to have a rough year unless Johnson can step in and look like he hasn't missed a beat. Their offense was rough even with Thorson and they lose Nagel on top of that. I'd expect a rocky start there. Their D will be solid as usual. I expect us to be favored

I feel good about the Fresno game given how much they lose and that we get them early. They may be more formidable later in the season, but I think their fans will be lamenting losing McMaryion much more than they let on after they lost to us when they were all saying they wish he'd get benched (sounded very gopher fan like)
 

I just hope this is more evidence that the stars will be in complete alignment for the Gophers to finally have their big breakout season.
 


They might be right but I thought I heard Fresno lost important people last year too, they did pretty good.
 

I think based on some earlier info Penn State could be a candidate too?
 

Didn’t the reserve QB from Clemson transfer to NW? He will replace Thorson.
 




I expect Hunter Johnson to be a nice upgrade from Thorson, who really was just an average Big Ten QB if you ask me.

Fresno St is losing a lot of key guys, but remember that Tedford won 22 games the last 2 years with a lot of the same guys that won 1 game in 2016. They will still be tough.
 

It’s quite obvious the point of this thread is to raise expectations for victories next year, and that’s not ok.
 

I'd like NU to regress but even though they seem to start slow every year, they never seem to completely blow up and have a 3 win season under Fitzgerald, and generally get very good by the middle of most years.

Fresno State has a great coach in Tedford, and he can recruit and get almost anyone into school. I think he probably restocked half the team (not literal)by now with transfers and JUCOs, so I would not expect a massive drop off this next year.

I expect a win at Fresno, but they may be tough.
 








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