2013 College Football Preseason Top 25

The Crimson Tide are far and away the most dominant program in the country, and the reason is simple: Nick Saban is not only the best coach in the country at the moment, but also one of the very best coaches the game of college football has ever seen. He is a ruthless, unrelenting competitor—a man who cannot be satisfied even by his already stunning success. He’s won four national titles already, but there are surely more to come, because is there is a modern-day Frank Leahy, it is most certainly Saban.

There is only one man standing between the Big Ten conference and complete and utter irrelevancy. That man is Urban Meyer. He won at Bowling Green and he won at Utah, and then he won huge at Florida, where he did what many thought to be impossible—taking the Gators back to the heights of success that they enjoyed under the great Steve Spurrier. Then he got burned out, and then he recovered, and now he’s at Ohio State, the most SEC school in non-SEC country, and you can go ahead and figure it out from here. The man will win so long as he decides he’s still interested.

[Obligatory comment here about how Johnny Manziel needs to stay out of trouble if A&M is going to repeat their surprising SEC success in 2012]. But really, that’s about it. Walk the straight and narrow, Johnny Football. Aggie Nation is counting on you. Like, the entirety of Aggie Nation. Also, you have the chance to become the first three-time (and maybe four-time?) Heisman Trophy winner of all time. No pressure or anything.

Any discussion about the Ducks in 2013 needs to start with the obvious: Chip Kelly is gone, and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether his replacement, Mark Helfrich, will have what it takes to keep the Oregon program consistently up there in the Top 5—at least in the long term. In the short term, though, a talent-filled roster should make Helfrich’s job a lot easier. With the likes of De’Anthony Thomas and Marcus Mariota returning, the Ducks offense should be ridiculous once again, and it must be said that recent Oregon defenses have improved greatly, too. It’s hard to see this team winning any fewer than 10 games.

It’s never easy to trust Clemson. As has been written here and elsewhere countless times over the years, no program is so consistently inconsistent as is Clemson, a place that has all the trappings of football glory but never seems to make that leap into the truly elite. But with Tahj Boyd come back and a host of offensive weapons set to line up alongside him, the Tigers look like the best team in a somewhat muddled ACC. The expectations are there, because the talent is there. Now let’s see if the Tigers can deliver.

Doesn’t it always seem as though Georgia is eternally “the other team” in the SEC? Yeah, that’s what they’ll be next season, too. With ‘Bama the clear favorite to win the West—and, presumably, the league—Georgia stands out as the most legit contender from the East. Aaron Murray will be running the show for what should be a fairly dynamic offense, though one does have to wonder about a defense that loses some of its biggest stars. The Dawgs couldn’t stop the run last year with those guys; will they be able to shore things up in 2013?

I was very close last season to being revealed to you all as a true genius. Very close, you see, because when Brian Kelly was hired at Notre Dame, I proclaimed that he would win a national title by this third year in South Bend. Well, what happened? The Irish made it to the national title game. Then they lined up against Alabama, and it was over from the opening kick. That being said, Kelly has made impressive progress during his tenure so far. Whether you Notre Dame haters like it or not, they're here to stay. They may never be Alabama. But they're certainly going to be perennial Top 15 contenders.

While it is true that I firmly believe Ohio State is far and away the best team in the Big Ten headed into 2013, it is also true that if anybody can prevent Urban Meyer and his Buckeyes from winning the league title, it’s Michigan. Brady Hoke hasn’t gotten nearly enough credit for the job he’s done up in Ann Arbor, where he’s rebuilt a program that had been left in tatters by the end of the ill-fated Rich Rodriguez era. Michigan is better and stronger and faster than they’ve been in some time. A return to the era of the Big 2 and Little 8? Yep, it’s certainly possible. Except it would be the Big 2 and Little 12.

Not enough has been written in recent years about the remarkable fact that Stanford—academic powerhouse Stanford—has actually managed to turn itself into a football powerhouse, too. First under Jim Harbaugh and more recently under David Shaw, the Cardinal have established a winning mentality built not only on intelligence, but on toughness as well. With almost everyone returning from last year’s stingy defense, the Cardinal are almost assured to find themselves battling Oregon for the Pac-12 title. USC who?

The ‘Noles need to find a quarterback. Clint Trickett and Jameis Winston will be battling it out for the starting job, and much of the ‘Noles season will rest on how well the eventual winner handles the pressure of playing quarterback for a team that, year-in and year-out, promises so much, and yet ultimately falls short of fulfilling its full potential. This is another good Florida State team. But it’s not a great one.