Spring buzz: Bama expectations, Texas upgrades and a freshman QB making waves

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said he knows what fans expect -- and it's more than his 20-8 record over the past two seasons there.

"Ever since I came here, I knew it was always 'must-win' all the time," he said. "We're going to do things the right way. I feel like we took a good step from Year 1 to Year 2 and are looking forward to doing that again this year, but don't get too far ahead of ourselves."

DeBoer is hardly the only coach at a blue-blood program who entered this spring shouldering pressure. USC coach Lincoln Riley, who is in his fifth season with the Trojans, is looking for his first College Football Playoff appearance with them.

"We were one snap away from it last year, and those are some of the margins that you get into," he said. "We put ourselves in that position. This team excites me a lot."

Welcome to spring ball, where everyone is undefeated, optimism is soaring, rosters are finally set and coaches are probably the most amenable to interviews. From the White House to the Big House, there's been no shortage of news, but thankfully -- mercifully -- there's also football practice. There are six new SEC head coaches, playoff pressure on veteran head coaches and maybe a new favorite in the Group of 6 race. From scouting reports to dreams of dynasties (hello, Alabama), here's what everyone is buzzing about in college football this spring.

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Around the country | Playoff talk

Around the country

Oregon: The Ducks' biggest win this offseason wasn't the transfer portal.

Coach Dan Lanning said there were at least eight players who turned down the NFL draft to return for another season, including starting quarterback Dante Moore. That also includes defensive linemen A'Mauri Washington, Bear Alexander and Matayo Uiagalelei, and linebacker Teitum Tuioti. Lanning said it's the biggest returning group of NFL prospects he has experienced in Eugune as he enters his fifth season as head coach of the Ducks.

"All those guys could have gone and declared for the draft and would have been drafted," Lanning said. "They bet on themselves to come back and accomplish a little bit more."

Lanning said players are getting more "sound advice" about the decision-making process, and trust has developed within the program.

"Ultimately I think they all felt like they had something left on the table, and they're mature enough to know that they could do that, and they also knew they could make some money."

Texas Tech: Coach Joey McGuire said his son, running backs coach Garret McGuire, recently told him about this year's team goal: become the first Big 12 school to win back-to-back conference titles since Oklahoma won six straight from 2015 to 2020.

The Sooners are the only team to win back-to-back outright Big 12 titles, and also won three straight from 2006 to 2008

"He goes, 'Dad, all I'm concerned about is being the next team. OU's the only team to do it. So how do we figure this out?'" Joey McGuire said. "And [Bob] Stoops is one of my favorite dudes. And his book is probably my favorite. I'll read it at some point every year. It's called 'No Excuses.' This might be the no excuses year. We're a really talented football team. There's no excuses why not to do it."

Texas Tech returns 14 starters from last year's Big 12 title team, though three of the defensive players not returning are ranked in ESPN analyst Jordan Reid's top 50 players following the NFL combine. On the offensive side of the ball, McGuire said he expects the Red Raiders to be better on the line.

"What's crazy is, I thought we were a big team last year," he said. "We're an even bigger team than we were last year. When you see us get off the bus, we look the part. At different times at different positions we haven't. Mass kicks ass. Let's just keep getting bigger up front."

USC: The Trojans have a starting quarterback returning this season -- and coach Lincoln Riley is thrilled to have redshirt senior Jayden Maiava back -- but there's excitement brewing within the program about 17-year-old true freshman Jonas Williams.

Williams, who was ranked the No. 1 player in the state of Illinois, graduated from Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort (a suburb southwest of Chicago) a semester early to enroll at USC this spring. He holds the Illinois High School Association state records with 11,347 passing yards and 147 touchdown passes in his career.

"He's carried himself up to this point like he's a little bit older," Riley said. "He's got a good skill set. He's a good athlete, he's got a good mind for it. ... He's going to get a lot of reps. He's going to have a great opportunity to improve and have a chance to really develop just because we don't have a ton of guys in the room right now."

Alabama: Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said that although there's more parity in college football and the transfer portal makes continuity challenging, he still believes it's possible for one program to consistently dominate for "quite a few years consecutively."

"We want to build it up to where that's us again," DeBoer said. "It's definitely harder. I can't say it could never be done much like it has where there's cycles, especially here at Alabama, where that did occur."

DeBoer said continuity on the roster and staff is the key, and he feels like for the most part, the Tide have that this season. DeBoer said he didn't go into the transfer portal for a starting quarterback because, much like a year ago with Ty Simpson, he's confident in what he has returning, this time with Austin Mack and Keelon Russell.

Mack, who transferred with DeBoer when he was hired, is entering his fourth season in the system, and Russell has "a high ceiling." Neither has starting experience, but DeBoer said he thought Mack looked "like he belonged out there" in the Rose Bowl against Indiana. Mack completed 11 of 16 attempts for 103 yards after Simpson was injured.

"He runs well, especially when he gets moving, and he can cover a lot of ground in a hurry," DeBoer said. "From an arm strength and arm talent standpoint, he can make all the throws. I mean, he can rip it from one hash to the opposite sideline. He can throw it down the field. He's really improved just his timing and anticipation. A lot of that is he knows the offense. Now it's just a matter of playing ball."

Texas: Yes, quarterback Arch Manning is back and should be better in his second season as full-time starter, but his supporting cast has also gotten an upgrade. Coach Steve Sarkisian is expecting the Longhorns to have a more explosive offense this fall, "and that's when we're at our best," he said. The two running backs out of the transfer portal -- Hollywood Smothers (NC State) and Raleek Brown (ASU/USC) -- are versatile enough to catch the ball out of the backfield, "which is something we like to do that we didn't have at our disposal a year ago," Sarkisian said. The addition of transfer receiver Cam Coleman (Auburn) on the outside will create a deep threat to alleviate some of the pressure from Ryan Wingo.

"There's some real pieces in place that we feel very confident about," Sarkisian said. "I think we will be a better running football team, but I definitely think we're going to be a more explosive offensive football team, which is something that we're accustomed to being."

Auburn: First-year Auburn coach Alex Golesh is excited about his linebackers, his defensive line and the safeties. He's curious about his corners. Offensively, Golesh is excited about quarterback Byrum Brown coming with him from South Florida, and he has a talented group of running backs to work with.

As for the offensive line?

"I think if you asked me every year for the last 20 if I was nervous about any group, it'd be the O-line group," Golesh said. "Nervous in the sense kind of in the same breath as the corner room -- excited to see who the five are, what depth we have, and then truly build a system around what we're good at, but it's virtually a whole new group."

Boise State: After winning three straight Mountain West titles, Boise State is headed to the Pac-12 this summer, where coach Spencer Danielson said "it's going to be even more difficult" to reach the CFP.

"You've got really good coaches, really good players, and everyone's investing in football and continuing to push forward to be that fifth conference," he said, referring to the pecking order behind the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12. "That's a big push, and I really believe it's going to be that."

The Broncos have a chance to make a huge playoff statement early with their season opener at Oregon -- a game Danielson said the staff will start preparing for in May.

"I've been very open with our team about this game," he said. "We've played them a lot in the past. We are very open about this game and the task at hand -- Dante Moore coming back, what they're going to be ranked -- we're just not running from it."

UNLV: Boise State has been a constant contender for a CFP spot and beat UNLV twice last year to win its third straight Mountain West Conference title. But the Broncos are moving to the Pac-12 this summer, which means UNLV could have an easier path to the conference title -- and in turn a CFP bid -- in just the second season under coach Dan Mullen.

"Goal No. 1 is the one we can control, which is winning the Mountain West championship," Mullen said, "and then hopefully we'll be able by doing that to put ourselves in a position for the playoff. That was the idea behind scheduling Memphis and North Texas. I was trying to get two of the top American teams on the schedule. We play Cal, so we have a Power 4 game, and we have two data points against American conference teams. That's a schedule that gives us the opportunity to have a résumé to get into the College Football Playoff."

BYU: Coach Kalani Sitake wanted to take a minute to remind everyone that his starting quarterback, Bear Bachmeier, was a true freshman last year who didn't arrive on campus until June. He learned the playbook during the season, which meant the staff couldn't really "open it up" until the very end.

Now?

"Now that he knows the offense, it's like night-and-day difference," Sitaki said. "It just helped that he was able to win us a lot of games last year while he was learning. Now I'm excited to see what happens with him knowing the offense. The spring ball has already been different because he's not learning -- he's refining, which is good, but that comes with a lot of expectations, too."

The entire team is facing lofty expectations after being on the brink of a CFP berth last year as the Big 12 runner-up. BYU doesn't face Texas Tech this year but does have an Oct. 17 home game against Notre Dame.

"I think Indiana has really shown what you can do with great strategy and great culture and playing a team game," Sitake said. "That's been a good example for not just us, but everyone out there -- 'Hey, you can do some really good things if you're playing cohesively as a team.' So that's a goal, but we've got a long ways to go, a lot of work to do."

Florida: First-year coach Jon Sumrall said he isn't "in awe" about entering the SEC during its first season in a nine-game league schedule, but he certainly has respect for the difficulty of it. He faced Ole Miss twice last year as Tulane's head coach -- including in the first round of the CFP -- and in 2024 he lost at Oklahoma 34-19. He also lost to Florida that season, 33-8, in the Gasparilla Bowl.

Now he has more resources, a bigger staff ("What the hell do I need all these people for" he joked), and a Power 4 transfer quarterback from Georgia Tech in Aaron Philo, who is competing with Tramell Jones Jr. for the starting job.

"It's probably going to be Philo or Tramell Jones Jr.," Sumrall said, "but I've had this happen before where I thought it was going to be one guy or another and then someone else emerges, so I'm not assuming anything."

SMU: SMU senior linebacker Alex Kilgore, one of the Mustangs' team captains, recently told coach Rhett Lashlee that this year's team has a similar vibe to the one in 2024 that went undefeated during regular-season ACC play and earned a spot in the CFP.

"I think we have the making of a group that - just from those intangibles - is going to have the things we need," Lashlee said. "And I think we've upgraded our talent. So that's another win."

Heisman hopeful quarterback Kevin Jennings returns, and the staff lured in key players from the portal and its recruiting class, particularly on defense. Lashlee said he expects the corners to be better and the defense as a whole to be better against the pass. They also return the most experience they've had on the interior of the defensive line, he said, and should be stronger up the middle and deeper on the edge. SMU should have a more consistent running game, and if they can navigate a tricky start to the season - and a November trip to Notre Dame - Lashlee said this could be the best team he's had yet.

"Look, I'd rather you tell everybody we're gonna be terrible," he deadpanned, "but we've gone three straight years now where SMU either started the season in the top 25, finished in the top 25 or both. ... I think we have the potential to be the best team we've had since we've been here."

Playoff talk

When leaders of the College Football Playoff decided to stay with the current 12-team format, the SEC coaches weren't thrilled -- especially as they prepare to enter their first season in a nine-game league schedule.

"Sitting at our conference meetings a couple of weeks ago, that was everybody's bitch, was, 'Man, we went to a nine-game schedule, but we didn't get a 16-team playoff, and we're all being evaluated on whether we made the playoff,'" an SEC coach said. "That's how everybody sees it. And by everybody, I mean the entire room, from who was in the playoff to the teams that weren't. Everybody sees it the same way."

Many coaches want to know specifically how the committee weighs certain metrics such as scoring margin and schedule strength -- factors that have been subjective for all 12 years of the system. One asked if he should keep his starters in and run up the score or if it's OK to take them out and develop younger players.

"In the NFL, you know who gets in and you know who doesn't because of the way the structure of the playoff is set up," another SEC coach said. "Ours is set up so poorly and it's up to a committee to decide who gets in? You have to give us something to say, 'This is what you need to do to earn more points in favor to get in.' The strength of schedule is bulls---. That doesn't matter."

USC coach Lincoln Riley said he's in favor of a larger format that would give schools "a little bit more leeway in scheduling," because right now, it's more uneven than ever.

"I do feel like one of the weaknesses of the system is still the scheduling inequities," Riley said. "I think the gaps right now in scheduling and college football have never been bigger. You've sacrificed some of these nonconference games and then the Big Ten and SEC have added all of these really good teams and are now a long ways ahead of these other leagues. They just are. It is what it is. I'm not saying there aren't good teams in the other leagues -- there are -- but it's more different than it's ever been.

"Something's got to give," Riley added. "Our group has been proactive about finding solutions. Some groups sit there and say no and try to find something wrong and don't really provide any kinds of solutions for things that need to be fixed. I'm glad that we're being active."

Although the Big Ten's push for 24 teams remains on hold for now, decision-makers in every conference have become more open to the idea. The question is if enough SEC leaders will latch on.

"Let's see how this season plays out," one SEC source said. "There may be a change in our attitude depending on how this plays out, that we may be more amenable to 24 than we are at this time right now. I think you'll have some schools in our conference that are going to say, 'We think 24 will be good.' I think some coaches in our conference would like that because most of our teams, if you have a decent year, you're going to be in the top 24."