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Miami Herald
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Air Force Football Preview 2025: Can Troy Calhoun Bring the Falcons Back?
Sometimes it just doesn't quite the other military academies, there's a fine line between the system working and it all breaking down, but under head coach Troy Calhoun, it's become a given that Air Force will be good enough to inflict its will on the way to ten Falcons won nine games or more four times in five years from 2019 to 2023, with the six-game 2020 the lone outlier. They were 4-for-4 in bowl games, were in the College Football Playoff rankings, and then came last what went wrong in the 5-7 season? X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN Air Force Offense BreakdownAir Force Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season The offense couldn't control games, the defense had a hard time getting off the field, there were a few special teams breakdowns, and then …It all started to kick in. Part of the good and the bad for all the military academies is their total reliance on the Next Man Up. They don't get the talent of other schools, so they build up their players for a few years - especially on the lines - and when it's your time, you have to rushing attack ran for 2,688 yards, when the year before it ran for 3,660. The defense couldn't hold up, and then, again, Air Force started winning. It started 1-7, closed 4-0, and now it returns a veteran offense, and the defense should follow the lead if the O is running like it normally aren't any Power Four teams on the schedule, the coaching staff knows how to overcome past issues, and the last time Air Force finished 5-7, it went 11-2 in 2019 in the program's most successful season ever. However …There was a problem with several Falcons being investigated for Honor Code violations, and that's about the mess up the … Air Force Offense BreakdownAir Force Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
30-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Oregon Football Preview 2025: Is This the Year the Ducks Win Something Really Big?
For people of a certain age, the idea of Oregon being a college football powerhouse among the blue-bloods is still a little bit hard to program didn't have a nine-win season from 1949 until the out-of-left-field run to the Rose Bowl in 1994, and it took 82 years to enjoy a double-digit win campaign until Mike Bellotti's 2000 team finally broke the last 27 seasons, Oregon has missed out on just two bowl appearances, won 13 of them, made it to a BCS Championship, won the inaugural College Football Playoff game, played in the first CFP National Championship, took home nine conference titles, and …Oregon has won as many national championships as you have. X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN Oregon Offense BreakdownOregon Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season It almost pulled it off in 2010 under Chip Kelly, losing a tough national title battle with Cam Newton's Auburn, but it never had a chance in the first CFP national title against Ohio State to end the 2014 season - and I have the receipts on that one, telling over 80,000 people in the room that there was "no reason to watch the game."And yeah, the Big Ten Champion Ducks caught an awful break being the No. 1 overall seed last year and drawing Ohio State in the Rose Bowl - instead of the free space scrimmages against SMU and Boise State that Penn State enjoyed - but that goes to the point. Oregon was never winning that game against that Buckeye team, either. Ohio State had a whole other level of talent, infrastructure, history, and institutionalized unrealistic demands and expectations. So did 2023 Michigan. So did Georgia in 2021 and 2022. So did 2020 Alabama. So did 1999 LSU ... Oregon has only been doing this for a few decades. But it's very, very close to busting through that blue-blood door. Dan Lanning is young. It's just his fourth year as a head coach, he's 35-6, and five of those six defeats came to teams that played in or won the national championship.(BTW, after bringing up my Ohio State prediction for the CFP pregame and halftime shows in AT&T Stadium, balloon will be popped by certain "friends" reading this, with a polite reminder that I spent six months calling Oregon over Georgia to start the 2022 season - it was 49-3 Dawgs, and it wasn't even that close - in 3 ... 2 ... ) Do Lanning's Ducks have the talent this season to win the national title? Absolutely, only this time around it's the defense that will be the they have the depth? Yeah, it's young in certain spots, but Oregon has plenty of options to work with. Do they have the experience? Ehhhhhhh, but the coaching staff does, and that should be enough to get the team back in the tournament. And will they get all of the right breaks?There's no Ohio State or Michigan this year, and Oregon will almost certainly be favored in every game but the trip to Penn State. Take out 2020 - Oregon won the Pac-12 title in the abbreviated season, though - and the Ducks have averaged over 11 wins a season since 2019, and it's about to come up with double-digit wins yet you can reasonably ask for now in the College Football Playoff era is to get your team in a position to make a run year after year after year, and eventually, it'll be your most of the last 25 years, that's what Oregon has done. Its time is coming. Oregon Offense BreakdownOregon Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Georgia Tech Football Preview 2025: A True Breakthrough Year for the Yellow Jackets
Georgia Tech was 2024 SMU before 2024 SMU was 2009 Yellow Jacket team won the ACC title and would've been in a 12-team College Football 2014 team came from out of nowhere, as it fought its way to the ACC title game, but lost to a powerhouse Florida State squad. Even with that, it would've been just on the cusp of the is a program that knows it's possible to win. And now, in his third full season, head coach Brent Key might be close to having one of those teams that, if it stays healthy, can catch the right wave at the right time and do something didn't happen last season. X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFNGeorgia Tech Offense BreakdownGeorgia Tech Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to SeasonOutside of ending Florida State's season before September, 7-6 Georgia Tech didn't get the right mix of things needed to be fantastic. But to be fair, there were plenty of forgivable at Notre Dame? No shame there. Lose a tough fight at Syracuse and have problems at Louisville? That's the cost of doing business in a Power Four in eight overtimes at Georgia? Yeah, there's no dogging that. But the offense didn't get going in a loss to a mediocre Virginia Tech, and to close out with a bowl loss to Vanderbilt when things didn't quite work right … year, there's no Notre Dame. There's no Miami, or SMU, or Florida State, or Louisville. The ACC road games are Boston College, Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest. All of them are landmines, but that's about as reasonable as any big-school away slate can get. Star quarterback Haynes King is still around - it only seems like he started his career in the Bill Curry portal should fix a few problems - be stunned if there isn't more of a pass rush and a lot more of a downfield passing attack - there's more depth, more talent, the coaching staff knows what it's doing, and this should be a true breakthrough Tech Offense BreakdownGeorgia Tech Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Illinois Football Preview: It's Okay for the Fighting Illini To Have Nice Things - Like the College Football Playoff
X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFNIllinois Offense BreakdownIllinois Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to SeasonDon't screw this up, 1997 Fighting Illini went 0-11 in Ron Turner's first season. In 2001, Turner's team went 10-1 in the regular season and went to the Sugar Bowl. This was a new era of Illinois football, the program was finally going to be a player, and ...Illinois won a total of 13 games over its next five seasons. Ron Zook was able to lead the 2007 team to the Rose Bowl. It lost, but it really was possible to recruit in Champaign, the team broke through, and ...Illinois went 8-16 over the following two the end of the Zook run, to Tim Beckman, to Bill Cubit, to Lovie Smith, Illinois went 14 seasons without an eight-win season. And then came Bret Bielema. He brought the attitude and a style that grew into a 10-win season, highlighted by living in South Carolina's kitchen and making waffles in a troll job of a Citrus Bowl victory. Now, in Year Five, he has a team that's worthy of a preseason top 25 slot, probably top 15 in some circles. And now the Illinois football program has a shot at back-to-back double-digit win seasons for the first time since ...Ever. Illinois should be consistently good at football. It has the proximity to Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis, just like Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri do. It has the coach who knows how to get to the Big Ten Championships and, back in the day with the Badgers, Rose year, it has the skill parts, one of the best defensive back eights in the Big Ten, the kickers, the building buzz, and the schedule that misses a slew of top conference teams; it's there. It's okay for Illinois to have nice things. Like a trip to the College Football Playoff, if it plays up to the experience and potential. Illinois Offense BreakdownIllinois Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
01-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Oklahoma State Defense Preview 2025: How Fast Can the Cowboys Improve?
X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFNOklahoma State 2025 PreviewOklahoma State Offense Breakdown Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season - The defense played like it had nine guys on the field. Only Kent State was worse than a Cowboy D that allowed 501 yards per game. The pass rush wasn't bad, but the pass defense was awful, the run defense worse, and here comes the transfer portal to change everything. - Again, the defense was able to get into the backfield. But here comes the improvement with Kyran Duhon (UTEP) coming in to take over on one side. DeSean Brown looks the part, but he needs to get behind the line tackles are getting a boost with the addition of De'Marion Thomas from Vanderbilt. He's a 333-pounder who needs to be a rock against the run from the start, and Michael Diatta (Virginia) will be a quicker option. Veteran Iman Oates is a 315-pounder with enough experience to be a plus. - The portal is helping out the linebacking corps, too, with Malik Charles a dangerous pass rusher from West Georgia who can do a little of everything. He and Jaleel Johnson will be true hybrids on the Bryan McCoy made 204 tackles and eight tackles for loss over the last two years. Now he'll be a key option on the inside along with Trip White (Ole Miss), a veteran coming in looking to jumpstart his career. - Cam Smith is a veteran at one corner, Dylan Smith, David Kabongo, and Parker Robertson will once again be among the team's leading tacklers at safety, and the portal will take care of the rest. Mordecai McDaniel (Charlotte) will push for one safety gig, and Jeremy Cook (Louisiana) was brought in to be a key Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season Oklahoma State 2025 PreviewOklahoma State Offense Breakdown © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
