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2009’s Super Six
by Paul Hopkins, James Izzard and Brian Davis
2/9/2009
With the top three players in the country all shunning the NFL to stay in college for their final year, 2009 promises to be one of the most exciting college seasons for quite some time.
After all the spring practices, recruiting seasons and the usual slew of academic suspensions, injuries and off-the-field misdemeanours the start of the 2009 season is just days away. To bring everyone up to speed, three of the Diner’s resident college football anoraks have picked out who they see as the six top teams entering the 2009 season.
1. Florida Gators
 Florida Gators are the pre-season number 1 everywhere you look and the Diner is no exception. The Gators ultimate goal for this season is to create history and win their 3rd National Title in 4 years and they have every chance to do so.
From the moment Florida defeated Oklahoma in the BCS Championship Game in January, talk of a repeat started. The argument that Florida could repeat became a whole lot stronger when Tim Tebow announced that he would be coming back for his senior year as the former Heisman winner is arguably the greatest current player in college football. Tebow will be back determined to win a 3rd BCS championship, 2nd Heisman trophy and perhaps most importantly, prove to NFL scouts that he is good enough to play on Sundays.
Tebow leads an offence filled with potential game breakers with Deonte Thompson and Tight End Aaron Hernandez as his primary receiving targets, and a backfield loaded with fast explosive players and an incredible kick returner in Brandon James. There is potentially a future star in freshman receiver Andre Debose who is already drawing comparisons to Percy Harvin after a strong showing in spring practices.
The strongest part of the Florida team however is its Defence, returning 11 starters it should be even tougher than last year. It starts up front with strong defensive tackle Omar Hunter, who is flanked with two potential NFL players in pass rushers Jermaine Cunningham and Carlos Dunlap. The linebacking unit is fantastically strong with All American Brandon Spikes being the inspirational leader of the unit. The secondary is full of depth, strong tacklers and ball-hawks, with cornerback Joe Haden being the stand out player.
 Heck, even the kicking teams units are strong!
If Florida don’t buy into the outside pressure and hype that surrounds them they will have a very real shot and creating history and winning the national title. The schedule doesn’t stand out as being particularly strong for SEC standards. Their out of conference games provide little challenge until Week 13 where they renew their rivalry with the Florida State Seminoles.
2. Texas Longhorns
 After being shunted out of the National Championship picture in 2008 due to the technicalities of the BCS system, Mack Brown’s Texas Longhorns have one goal in mind for 2009 winning the National Championship come January.
The leader of not just the offence, but the team is senior QB Colt McCoy. McCoy who finished third in the Heisman ballot last year is entering this season as the favourite and with good reason. Put simply, without McCoy, the Longhorns are an average college football team. With him, they are arguably the best around.
In 2008 he finished with 3,859 yards and 34 touchdowns to only eight interceptions with a simply phenomenal completion rate of 76%. Add in his team-leading 561 rushing yards (with 11 TD’s) and McCoy arguably was wronged by his third-place finish. Coach Brown and OC Greg Davis probably don’t want McCoy to be running the ball as much this season, and will be hoping that one of a talented but so far, underachieving group of running backs step up and take the initiative.
Fozzy Whittaker, Vondrell McGee, freshman Jeremy Hills and Cody Johnson all had opportunities to shine in 2008 as well as in spring practice, but none of them made a strong case for themselves. This could lead to highly regarded recruit Chris Whaley getting an early shot at making the position his own, but the starting spot is McGee’s on day one.
 Out wide, McCoy still has his go-to guy in Jordan Shipley, but Quan Cosby’s 92 catches will have to be made up somewhere. Expect Colt to be looking at Malcolm Williams and Brandon Collins to step up. Williams has all the physical attributes to become a big-time playmaker for the Longhorns and after a slow start in 2008 began to blossom towards the end. Behind those two, James Kirkendoll and Dan Buckner can expect to see considerable playing time.
With the lack of any form of recognisable tight end due to a succession of injuries, expect Texas to load up with four and five receiver sets, and bring in an extra offensive lineman when Texas look to the run. Defensively, Sergio Kindle is now the figurehead of the defence, provided he keeps out of trouble. Expect more big plays in 2009. Alongside him, Muckelroy and Norton will be as solid and consistent as ever. Watch out for Keenan Robinson to make an explosion on defence; Will Muschamp loves him and will get him involved.
In the secondary, the Horns have assembled a cast of talented youngsters. Earl Thomas is probably the best of the group, and became a bit of a playmaker in 08 with interceptions and forced fumbles. Chykie Brown has a lot of upside at safety but needs to add some interceptions to get the recognition. As a unit though, under Muschamp’s tutelage they perform well.
Overall, Texas must be targeting the BCS National Championship game. However, they first have to navigate the Big XII South and as always, one game in Dallas in October will likely determine their season.
3. University of Southern California Trojans
 Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Mark Sanchez, even John David Booty and Matt Cassel, all recent products of the USC production line of Quarterbacks who all played on winning sides under Pete Carroll. All of whom are now on current NFL Rosters. Leinart and Palmer also winning Heisman Trophy’s in their time in LA.
2010 will see that production line continue to produce, as high School grad, Matt Barkley now gets the start. He has already been described gushingly as a cross between Joe Montana and Tom Brady AND touted to be the Number 1 pick in the NFL draft in 3 years time by Mel Kiper. High praise indeed. Red Shirt Freshman Aaron Corp had looked favourite to get the starting nod beating out Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain, but failing to recover from his niggling injuries has let Barkley make the spot his own.
The last time USC had this close competition though was back in 2003 when Leinart beat out competition from Cassel and later Booty to earn the starting role With only three defensive starters returning, Taylor Mays will no doubt become key and a leader in his final season at SC before entering the 2010 draft.
Sure, they’ll feel the loss of Clay Matthews, Brian Cushing, Rey Maualuga, Kyle Moore and Fili Moala but you can be sure that come October time, some of the new crop will have become household names including Defensive End; Eversen Griffen, who, when only playing a bit part last season, notched six tackles for a loss and recorded 4.5 sacks. Top rated High School linebacker for 2007 Chris Galippo will step into Maualagua’s middle linebacker role whilst Malcolm Smith will fill the weak-side role and be a key blitzer and pass defender.
 As for the Secondary, it will probably grade out as the best in the nation, so unless Quarterbacks somehow find themselves with all day to throw, then expect these guys to stick with their receivers and be as stingy as they were in 09 where they only gave up 6 passing Touchdowns in 13 games. They have the best Safety tandem in the game, with plenty of depth at Cornerback.
Having the best recruiting system in College football makes it embarrassingly easy for USC to blood new talent and appear as one of the national favourites every season, however, they still have a nasty habit of managing to stumble along the way somewhere. Still, a bad season for Pete Carroll is losing one game a season, how many other coaches can you say that about? Which in my opinion; puts him as the greatest modern day coach in College Football.
The PAC10 as a whole, behind USC, is becoming better, with Cal and the Oregon Ducks being this year’s toughest test to SC. Cal only gave up 17 points in LA in 2008. With Cal returning most of their defensive starters, against a first season Quarterback at the Memorial Stadium, they’ll be hungry for the W.
Will they be National Champions in 09? No. But they will be likely candidates for the Rose Bowl, once again.
4. Oklahoma Sooners
 We have become somewhat accustomed to watching Oklahoma blow everybody that stands in their way out of the water in recent seasons, except for two anomalies; the Texas Longhorns and their Bowl game opponent. With last years Red River Rivalry loss and losing 5 straight BCS games, to deem the upcoming season a success Oklahoma will have to prevail in one if not both of the aforementioned fixtures.
Despite these very public defeats on the national stage it would be foolish to rule Oklahoma out as a national title contender. They are right up there with Florida, Texas and USC in terms of quality and talent in depth.
The offence is lead by quarterback Sam Bradford. Bradford is a special player who has poise, accuracy, leadership and playmaking ability. Like Tebow and McCoy he has chosen to play another year in Norman when arguably he could be in training camp with the New York Jets right about now.
The talent surrounding Bradford is also strong albeit taking a hit in graduated talent including a two headed dynamic running back duo in DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown. If both stay healthy you will not find a stronger tailback pair in the country and Jermaine Gresham is an All-American tight end.
The receiving core and offensive line are both unknown factors heading into the season, with 4 changes to an O-Line that yielded just 13 sacks last season it will tough for the new unit to replicate this success.
 The Big 12 isn’t renowned for strong defensive teams, Oklahoma isn’t an exception to the rule but the defence performed to an above average standard which separated them apart from other high powered divisional rivals such as Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. The anchor to the Sooners defence is defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, the highly recruited player had a tremendous campaign in 2008, making 21 Tackles for loss and 8 sacks. McCoy is part of a strong front seven with potential NFL prospects littered along the defensive line rotation and linebacking core. Big XII rivals may see the secondary as an area they could exploit. Junior cornerback Dominque Franks is the stand out player.
Oklahoma start the season with an interesting out of conference match up against Bingham Young, BYU are of similar mould to Boise State, Oklahoma will be keen to avoid the same outcome of the 2006 Fiesta Bowl where Boise surprised the nation in one of the greatest bowl victories in modern times.
Although not an easy schedule there is nothing to suggest that Oklahoma cant win eleven games this season, but as it often does the Red River Rivalry could decide the winner of the Big 12 South.
5. Ohio State Buckeyes
 Coming into 2009, the Buckeyes will again face questions about their legitimacy at the top of the CFB rankings. But just like every other year, they’ll remain there and thereabouts and make it to a BCS Bowl.
Unquestionably, the star of this team is Terrelle Pryor. The QB who ran a 4.4 40 yard dash has worked on his passing this off-season to the point that he developed tendonitis in his throwing arm. So combine a big arm that is improving all the time and the ability to make a play with his legs from anywhere and Pryor will no doubt lead the Buckeyes to the top of the Big Ten. 2009 will be the year the next college superstar will be fully unleashed.
Elsewhere on offence, the names that have been synonymous with Ohio St have now gone. No more Beanie Wells, no more Maurice Wells at running back. However, in Dan Herron and Brandon Saine, the dynamics will change. These two offer an abundance of speed which, when taken with Pryor could make the Buckeyes offence explosive.
At wide receiver, the Buckeyes again have got quicker and more athletic which makes things even more frightening for opposing defences. Out have gone Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline and in has come the likes of DeVier Posey, Taurian Washington, Ray Small, and Lamaar Thomas. All of whom offer big-play threats to Pryor and Jim Tressel.
 On the O-line, Pryor arguably did not receive the protection he would need last year and they will be the focus of much scrutiny. With three good starters returning, led by centre Michael Brewster, and with the addition of former Michigan man Justin Boren, to bring more of an attitude to the offensive front, the line should be better and should allow all the speedy skill players time to do their thing.
After losing Laurinatius and Jenkins on defence, the Buckeyes lack a figurehead. Step forward junior defensive end Thaddeus Gibson. Whilst the rest of the Buckeye defence are solid and unspectacular, last years sack leader Gibson will continue to make plays and with a strong cast alongside him should cement his status as one of college football’s premier pass-rushers. He is a 3-4 NFL linebacker in the making.
The Buckeyes have developed a stigma as a side that coasts by year on year, and that belies the job that Jim Tressel does in recruiting high quality athletes. But consider that the Buckeyes have the longest streak in the nation of not losing to a team that didn’t end up in the BCS, last suffering a defeat to a non-BCS bound team in November 2004 against Purdue making it 53 consecutive games which is light years ahead of all the other CFB powerhouses. In week three when USC come to the Horse Shoe, the Buckeyes have a chance to reassert their position near the top of the college football mountain in front of a worldwide audience.
Expect to be watching them New Years Day in Pasadena.
6. Virginia Tech Hokies
 The Hokies come into the season with not just aspirations for a third straight ACC title, but to be contenders for the National Championship. We’ll have a good idea of how serious they are about becoming National Champions after an opening day matchup with The Alabama Crimson Tide.
Tyrod Taylor returns under Centre and he’s been through plenty of strength and conditioning to work on his pass accuracy and ankle strength over the spring and summer, in what might turn out to be a more interesting and less conservative offense.
Taylor will be backed up by his own escapeability, as well as a very healthy backfield of runners with a young group of very good receivers, as well as one of the most experienced Offensive lines to assist him.
Look to see more of the fantastically named, “Wild Turkey” in operation, with 6’3″ 285lb Tight End Greg Boone (who was a High School Quarterback) taking direct snaps and battering his way forward. He should get the chance at possibly throwing some passes as well.
Bud Foster’s 7th ranked defence from 2008 return with no major weaknesses. Whilst the loss of Cornerback Victor “Macho” Harris, starting linebackers Brett Warren and Purnell Sturdivant and Defensive End Orion Martin will hit the Hokies quite hard, there is already enough depth to suggest that they can easily become one of the meanest defences in the nation once again, led by star defensive end Jason Worilds who racked up 8 sacks in the 2008 season. The secondary is also strong; Cornerback Stephan Virgil equalled Harris last year for passes picked.
If they beat ‘Bama in Week one, there could be no stopping the Hokies as they march towards a date with the NCS game. If they start as they did in 2008 then it will be the Orange Bowl at best once again.
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So there you have it. These are the six top teams in the country according to our experts. Between now and January expect more twists and turns, teams to rise and fall and as always a BCS busting side to emerge from the pack.
Who do you think will be the top teams in 2009? Who’s going to the National Championship game? Who is your BCS-buster for the season? Give us your thoughts on our writers views and keep up to date with all the latest news from the Football Diner on Facebook and Twitter feed
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