College Football

College football offseason storylines: Who needs a fast start in 2023?

Published Jun. 8, 2023 3:08 p.m. ET

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Anyone who thought that college football has a long, boring and uneventful offseason has been given a few things to think about already this summer.

Since spring football wrapped up around the country, the sport has consistently found itself in the news, whether it's continuing chatter around potential realignment, coaches complaining about tampering, or a national landscape that continues to shift, there has been plenty to talk about.

Just last week, the bulk of the broadcast schedule for the upcoming season was released, giving fans an early chance to plan out their viewing schedules.

With that in mind, it's time to take a look at some of the key items that have been in the news over the past week.

FOX Sports college football writers RJ Young and Bryan Fischer are here to weigh in on all of it.

College football broadcast schedules were revealed last week, with a host of great early-season matchups on tap, including Ohio State at Notre Dame, Texas at Alabama and of course Colorado at TCU (Sept. 2 on FOX). When it comes to the chase for a berth in the College Football Playoff, for which team is it most crucial to get off to a fast start?

Bryan Fischer: I think it’s probably Florida State. We will know quickly if the ‘Noles are for real this season as a true contender — not just for the ACC — because their schedule is loaded early and tricky late. The opener against LSU in Orlando is the big one in what should be a top-10 battle but don’t overlook that trip to play at Clemson in Week 4. If Mike Norvell & Co. can get through that unscathed, then go ahead and commence the CFP talk down in Tallahassee.

I also think the same applies to Texas. That trip to Bryant-Denny to play Alabama looms large and feels very much like a tone-setter game for both Steve Sarkisian and the program as they prepare to go into the SEC next season. A win there followed by tricky games against Baylor and Kansas before Red River will give us a good indication of whether a million ‘Texas is back’ jokes can be unleashed upon the world with vigor.

RJ Young: Bryan hit on it in his answer, and I'll double down and say Texas. The Longhorns have the most talented roster in the Big 12 this year and they return all of the pieces that helped them nearly pull off the upset against Alabama last year. While there's a Bijan Robinson-sized hole in the backfield in 2023, the running back room is as deep as it's ever been in recent memory and Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense feels like it is capable of becoming a top-15 scoring defense after finishing 28th last year. To do that, they'll need to hold folks to just two fewer points on average this season.

There's a chance the Longhorns could be 5-0 when the Red River Shootout kicks off this season, and Longhorns will be the first to tell you they welcomed Brent Venables to head coaching in Norman by taking a 55-gallon drum of ass whoop and pouring it all on the Sooners — a favorite to win the Big 12 this year.

Several coaches, including Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer, have been vocal in stating that college football has a tampering problem, with coaches actively looking to poach players from other teams. Others, though, say that tampering has always occurred, it’s just happening more frequently now in the transfer portal era. Is this a problem for the sport? If so, what can be done about it?

RJ: There is no sport more resistant to change or more conservative in its approach to progress than college football and its head coaches.

Tampering isn't a new phenomenon. Neither is paying players, nor players transferring. The frequency of movement, the cavalier nature of coaches hell-bent and hammering down to get the best players in the sport on their roster is called being one good recruiter.

If you get paid six, seven or eight figures to oversee the program, combating tampering with love, affection and whispering sweet nothings into the ears of your scholarship players is just a bullet point on the list of job responsibilities of a head coach.

Bryan: Is it a problem giving coaches gray hairs on a regular basis? Yes. Are they well compensated as a result of those issues? Yes. Can anything be done about it? No — unless the coaches want to start going public with the accusations on a regular basis like Pat Narduzzi did with USC/Jordan Addison last year.

Unless that happens, this will just be a ton of bluster about nothing.

Even with expansion looming in 2024 with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma next season, the SEC has elected to stick with an eight-game conference schedule, rather than switching to a nine-game schedule, which the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 all play. Why did the SEC make this choice, and why does it matter?

Bryan: The lack of support from the bottom half of the SEC for moving down to nine games centers wholly on the thought that it would make it harder to reach a bowl game. However, that magical six-win threshold and what constitutes a bowl-eligible team could be changing in the near future, and it feels short-sighted to think of that instead of the massive benefit of better games for fans and additional revenue.

I also think it says something about Commissioner Greg Sankey. While he rightfully earns the label as one of the most powerful figures in college athletics, the fact that he couldn’t get consensus and a firm decision on the move to nine games suggests he doesn’t quite have the same sway within his own league. Even before Texas and Oklahoma’s arrival, it feels like there are some factions developing that have led to disjointed decision-making, and the schedule question seems like a perfect encapsulation of that.

RJ: Remember when I said no sport more resistant to change or more conservative in its approach to progress than college football and its head coaches? Add athletic directors and even most fans to this.

This is less about what is good for the SEC and its legion of fanatics and more about protecting the crappy half of the league that will be in a position to get to 6-6 or 5-7 with a tidy APR score — I’m nose-to-nose with you, Vanderbilt. I think the format will eventually change to one where SEC teams play nine league games, but not before postseason eligibility changes completely with the implementation of the 12-team College Football Playoff.

If you think SEC shot-callers shot themselves squarely in the foot, just know that they hit right where they were aiming.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The Number One College Football Show." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The Number One College Football Show" on YouTube.