College football is less than two months away, and fans around the country are more than ready.
That obviously includes Memphis football fans, who are gearing up for what is potentially the most highly anticipated season in program history. The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams, and the Group of Five is guaranteed one of those spots.
The expansion comes at what looks like the right time for the Tigers. Memphis is one of the only successful Group of Five programs that returns its starting quarterback from a year ago, and Seth Henigan projects is the best in the Group of Five and one of the best in the country. The Tigers are also returning leading receiver Roc Taylor and leading tackler Chandler Martin and brought in a slew of highly touted transfers to bolster the roster.
For all those reasons and more, it hasn’t been a surprise that Memphis is getting picked as the top Group of Five team in plenty of preseason projects. But the Tigers have been far from a unanimous pick. Here’s a look at the other top Group of Five teams from around the country heading into the 2024 season.
Boise State
Memphis knows this Boise State team pretty well — the two teams played last season at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, with the Tigers erasing a 17-0 deficit to earn a critical non-conference win. It was a bizarre loss in a bizarre season for the Broncos, who fired coach Andy Avalos a few weeks later but then went on to win the Mountain West Conference title under interim coach Spencer Danielson.
Boise State also had an impressive offseason. Danielson got the full-time job, then got a huge boost when star running back Ashton Jeanty decided to return. Jeanty is the best player in the Group of Five, a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender who could have played anywhere in the country if he’d decided to enter the transfer…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/competing-memphis-football-group-five-100141414.html
Author : The Commercial Appeal
Publish date : 2024-07-02 10:01:41
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