Welcome to “I Got 5 On It”, each week I’ll be picking five news-worthy subjects based around college football to cover. Ranging from views on Devy prospects, general college football talk, interesting stats, and a little bit of hip-hop music mixed in now and then.
1. Conference Odds: Mountain West
The Broncos (-130) enter as the big favorite. The biggest question right now for BSU is the starting QB come week 1. Hank Bachmeier is a two-year starter but appears to be under fire from veteran and former USC Trojans QB Jack Sears. They bring back seasoned back George Holani and a do-it-all weapon in Khalil Shakir. The Broncos are in the middle of the MWC returning 84% of their 2020 production. While the Broncos have all those weapons on offense, I still like another option to win the MWC.
Nevada (+500) is just screaming bet me whenever I look at it. They have a potential first-round NFL QB in Carson Strong and NFL caliber receiving weapons in WR Romeo Doubs and TE Cole Turner. The Wolf Pack’s 93% returning production sits second in the MWC. The trio of Strong, Doubs, and Turner will be incredibly hard to shut down for any MWC defense. In 2020, Strong attempted nearly 40 passes a game that kind of volume is going to make it tough on MWC defenses to hold this Wolf Pack receiving core in check.
San Jose State (+400) is interesting for the sole reason of Nick Starkel. Who would have thought anybody would ever utter that phrase? Starkel’s 9.28 ANY/A in 2020 was the 13th best number in the nation last year.
Both Nevada and San Jose State have a QB that can topple Boise State in a one-game situation in the MWC Title Game.
Title Game: Nevada Vs Boise State
My Pick: Nevada
Dark Horse: Wyoming, cause why not? That’d be fun.
2. Conference Odds: PAC12
The Ducks (+260) fly into the season as the PAC12 favorite. They rank 11th in the conference returning 70% of their production. They lost Tyler Shough to a transfer to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, but it sounds like he had a fight on his hands with rSR Anthony Brown for the starting role. Brown isn’t flashy; he had his moments as the Boston College starting QB previously, but he’s a steady option for the Ducks. Oregon also has some questions on the outside at the receiver spot. Oregon currently is a tough sell for me to bet on.
The Washington Huskies (+350) roll in right behind Oregon. Dylan Morris was recently announced as the starting QB (to the outrage of the Devy world but the tFR QB is always the better option). He was a fine option in 2020 and should continue to develop. Look for a couple of the Huskies’ young receivers to break through in 2021. Jalen McMillan and Romeo Odunze are primed to make a name for themselves.
The Fightin’ Clay Heltons (+400) have received a lot of off-season buzz per usual. Drake London is on the verge of a monster season. Hopefully, a fully healthy Kedon Slovis can build upon his terrific 2019 season. I just can’t trust a Clay Helton ran team.
No option in the PAC12 feels right for me, but if I had to pick one I’d land upon Washington. They just feel like the sneaky option to screw the PAC12 out of another College Football Playoff.
Conference Title Game: Washington Vs USC
My Pick: Washington
Dark Horse: Arizona State, overcoming the off-field distractions will be hard.
3.Revisiting
Back in May, I discussed true freshman QBs starting week 1.
Sam Huard: Washington announced Dylan Morris as the starting QB to no surprise. As I mentioned above, Morris actually performed well in 2020.
Tyler Buchner: Is running with the 3s right now and seems to have quite a distance to travel to get to the other two QBs running ahead of him right now. If something were to happen to Jack Coan, the Irish would turn to rFR Drew Pyne to run the show. They aren’t turning the reins over to a raw and inexperienced tFR this Fall. 2022 is another story though.
JJ McCarthy: I’ve not seen a lot about McCarthy and UM’s fall camp so far, but indications over the summer were very strong that Cade McNamara was in the lead.
Preston Stone: Stone seems to be in the battle for the starting gig more than I previously expected, but the veteran Tanner Mordecai is still the odds on favorite to be the week 1 starter.
Much like every offseason, we hype up all the freshmen but it’s damn hard for a QB to come right in and start. There are so many variables to account for. Learning the position is hard enough, then you have to adjust for the difference in speed of the game. No longer are you able to outrun the 5’10” and 200lbs DE that runs a 5.4 in high school. You now have some mutant-like Joey Bosa chasing down your ass now. Playing QB at the college level is hard especially for a tFR.
4. Rising Senior Spotlight
In the past week, the Fightin’ Irish have pulled in commits from WR recruits CJ Williams and Tobias Merriweather. Both recruits rank inside of 247Sports top 11 receivers currently. A position the Irish solely need to hit on. The lack of playmakers on the outside is dooming against top competition. Merriweather resides in the state of Washington and stands 6’4” and 185lbs. His junior season didn’t get kicked off until this past spring and I’m unable to find stats from it. Merriweather is a big-bodied possession receiver that has decent top-end speed once he gets fully accelerated. I can envision Merriweather being used like Javon McKinley was in 2020 for the Irish. I believe the two have similar sizes and ability to win on the field.
Williams comes from the prestigious Mater Dei High School in California. Just like Merriweather, Williams played his junior season in the spring. Williams is a touch smaller of the two wideouts at 6’2” and 193lbs. Williams has a little more juice than Merriweather and is better at creating space. Williams looks to be an advanced route runner for an HS junior and displays good hands and catch radius.
Adding Merriweather and Williams to the already committed Amorion Walker gives the Irish quite the class at receiver to this point. Walker is very underrated at this point and is set to climb up the ranks when he gets on the field this fall. Since committing to Notre Dame, Walker has earned offers from Alabama, LSU, and Michigan. Team this trio with the trio of Lorenzo Styles, Deion Colzie, and Jayden Thomas who are already on campus and the Irish appear to finally be reloading at the position. After a couple of lackluster receiver classes.
5. Freshman Spotlight
Nittany Lion WR signee Harrison Wallace finds himself with a clearer path to playing time with the loss of his classmate Lonnie White to the MLB. Wallace is another prospect that 247 caught onto while the other recruiting services lagged behind. Wallace was rated as the 35th best receiver by 247 while the industry average has him sitting at 72nd. Wallace was a one-time Duke commit before blowing up during his senior season of high school. He earned offers from Maryland, Penn State, South Carolina, and Tennessee after a 27-696-7 (25.8 YPC) in 2020.” One of the things that really got us excited about him is if you watch his basketball tape and his dunks, he and Lonnie [White] could have a dunk contest against each other, which would be really exciting to watch. And to me, I’ve always felt like wide receivers and DBs that can play basketball, as well as football, and do it at a high level [is a good predictor for success] — the body control, the ball skills, all those types of things.
When we got a chance to watch his tape, as well as talk to a lot of people out there that had seen him live [it verified some things]. For us, probably more so than a lot of places, we’re a big testing numbers program. So being able to get guys in camp, whether they’re underclassmen or seniors and being able to get true testing numbers.”
Wallace is an effortless athlete. It makes it all look so easy. He’s got good speed and athleticism and can leap out of the building. Wallace has a lot of upside. Now PSU just needs a quarterback. Wallace is worth a C2C roster spot, the lack of a QB for PSU has me concerned for his upside on the Campus side, but Wallace has NFL upside. With the expected loss of Jahan Dotson to the NFL Draft following the season, Wallace could be in line for a starting gig in 2022.
