Spring practices have been canceled, the offseason has become a desert of college football news and the desire for the greatest sport in the world to tee it up has never been higher. There’s going to be a lot of big games this 2020 season.

From Week Zero through conference championship weekend, the upcoming season is going to be filled with compelling games that will define the College Football landscape.

College football teams are turning the page to the 2020 season. For several of the sport’s historic programs, the importance to improve is greater than ever. We are examining four teams that have fallen on hard times and determine what each needs to do to get back on track this fall.

After breaking down USC, Nebraska and Florida State, we complete the series with the Texas Longhorns. Texas was supposed to be back, at least according to quarterback Sam Ehlinger, after a 2018 season that ended with a Big 12 championship game appearance and a Sugar Bowl win over Georgia. But the team slipped last year, going 7-5 in the regular season before a dominant Alamo Bowl win against Utah.

The Longhorns get a free pass for a loss after giving LSU its toughest battle of the season, and the Oklahoma defeat was more than acceptable, but other than that, they just couldn’t get the season going. The secondary was abysmal, no one in the Big 12 committed more penalties, and the offensive line almost got QB Sam Ehlinger killed.

If this seems familiar, it’s because Michigan State was on this list last year. And why? The 2017 team was fantastic with a 10-3 run and a Holiday Bowl win, but the 2018 version crashed and burned offensively, ruining a national championship-level season from the defense. Going 7-6 wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the season MSU was supposed to have.

Sun Belt Football Schedule Week 1

Saturday, Sept. 5
Morgan State at Appalachian State
Arkansas State at Memphis
Coastal Carolina at South Carolina
Georgia Southern at Boise State
Murray State at Georgia State
McNeese at Louisiana
Cal Poly at ULM
South Alabama at Southern Miss
SMU at Texas State
Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Troy

Sun Belt Football Schedule Week 2

Friday, Sept. 11
Appalachian State at Wake Forest A game to watch

Saturday, Sept. 12
Howard at Arkansas State
Coastal Carolina at Eastern Michigan
Campbell at Georgia Southern
Georgia State at Alabama
Wyoming at Louisiana
Grambling State at South Alabama
UTSA at Texas State
Troy at UMass

He’s an Alabama offensive tackle. Out of central casting, he’s an NFL left tackle to build an entire line around with the size to handle himself just fine against the bulkier linemen, and the experience to get the job done in pass protection. There are other terrific-looking tackle prospects this year, but Wills is it. He’s what the NFL wants.

NFL types want to see players not to be painful in the drills. There’s no real concern here, and there’s a chance he destroys a large portion of the workout, but as long as he’s fine and looks the part, everyone will be cool. 

There is track-star speed, and then there is track star Anthony Schwartz,who is the fastest player in college football. As a high schooler, Schwartz broke the youth world record in the 100-meter sprint, running the event in 10.15 seconds. He was also named the 2017-18 Gatorade Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year.

Derek Stingley Jr. is one of the brightest young stars last year being the second fastest in college football. He’ll be looking to build on his season in 2020 working to be the fastest in college football. The true freshman was a consensus All-American, dominating the competition while helping his team to a national championship. Stingley finished the year with six interceptions and 15 passes broken up. 

This year OSU should go 8-4 in there 12 game season. The Beavers have to go on the road to deal with Oklahoma State, and they pulled off a great win before going on a great run. They become a national thing when they won there home games against Colorado State, Portland State, and Washington State in a perfect September.

Realistically in a best case scenario, they’ll pull off two wins on there three away games in the next four days, but drop a few second half games like at Utah and against UCLA. Of course, in a best case scenario, they’ll pull off a win at home against Oregon.

The Cardinals will have to bounce back from the miserable 2019 season with a great start with three Pac-12 wins before October. They’ll be on the road against Arizona and UCLA, and they said that they’re back to have a great performance at home against USC. They’ll need to come with high intensity every game to have a 10-2 season.

They somehow got wins in two of the three road games at Notre Dame, Oregon and Washington, they also beat Cal, and hopefully don’t slip up at home. Everything works out just well enough with the right win at the right time to take the North and get to the Pac-12 Championship. The Cardinals have a high chance of making it to the Pac-12 Championship.

Fields first season with Ohio State will be remembered. He left the University of Georgia because he knew he had what takes to be a starting quarterback. Having a season total of 39 passes with 27 completions, throwing 69.2 percent from the field. He threw for 328 yards with 4 touchdowns, and he had 0 interceptions. Fields also rushed for 266 yards on 42 rushes and had 4 rushing touchdowns.

After leaving Georgia he became the starting quarterback for Ohio State. He finished this season off with a total of 354 passes with 238 completions throwing 67.2 percent from the field. He threw for 3,273 yards with 41 passing touchdowns. He also rushed for 484 yards with 10 rushing touchdowns. He was on the Heisman list for his great 2019-2020 season.

Chase is a dynamic receiver and he’s only a sophomore. He 23 receptions his whole freshman season at LSU. He caught for only 313 yards with 3 touchdowns. His longest receptions was a 45 yards and he ended the season with 0 fumbles and averaged 13.6 yards a catch. LSU expected more out of there top tier receiver not knowing that he would come back and have a sophomore season like this.

Ja’Marr Chase ended his sophomore year with 84 receptions which ranked him 17th in the most catches in college football. He also had 1,780 yards with 20 receiving touchdown putting 1st in both receiving yards and touchdowns for receivers. His longest reception in his 2019-2020 season was 78 yards. He also ended this season with 0 fumbles and averaged 21.2 yards a catch which ranked him 4th in college in yards per catch.