The 2016 college football season is just around the corner and it should be a fun year for all fans. Media outlets everywhere will be making predictions all throughout the season and it looks like ESPN is certainly included in that.
Monday morning, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach released some of his bold predictions for the upcoming season. The first prediction probably won’t surprise most as he picked the Alabama Crimson Tide to win their second straight national title and their fifth in the last eight years.
Here’s what he had to say about the Crimson Tide’s 2016 season:
“Alabama’s season is going to look a lot like the last one — the Crimson Tide will struggle at quarterback early, might even lose to Ole Miss again, and then they’ll figure it out and start rolling. By the end of the regular season, Alabama’s running game will be punishing people and its defense will be stuffing everyone.”
He also went on to say that the College Football Playoff field will look very similar to last year’s with Clemson and Oklahoma making an appearance and Michigan replacing Michigan State. The Tigers will be led by 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Deshaun Watson, who Schlabach says will win one of the closest races in history over Baker Mayfield, Leonard Fournette, Dalvin Cook and Christian McCaffrey.
Speaking of McCaffrey, Schlabach said the Stanford do-everything guy will kick an extra point, return a fumble for a touchdown and score another touchdown on an onside kick. For the Group of Five, he said that a Power Five school will steal Houston head coach Tom Herman away and San Diego State will also finish the regular season undefeated.
The college football season officially kicks off on Aug. 26 with Hawaii and Cal facing off in Sydney, Australia. Until that happens, all predictions are just speculation, but it will be a fun year nonetheless.
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