Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell’s Three-Point Stance is here with his ranking of the key new coaching hires so far, the most intriguing bowl games when it comes to recruiting and playoff predictions.
1. RANKING THE MAJOR COACHING HIRES
There have been four big coaching hires so far this off season and one coach who replaces a surprise. Here’s how I rank them.
1. Mike Norvell, Florida State – I like this hire quite a bit. Novell has a very good offensive mind, works hard and develops talent. Recruiting will take care of itself. He can’t be worse than Willie Taggart, but they want national titles in Tallahassee and that will be what he’s judged on.
2. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss – This is a very good hire for Ole Miss. Kiffin is an elite recruiter and will bring talent to Oxford and, more importantly, keep it home. He will always be controversial, which will keep Ole Miss in the news. Can he get the Rebels back to the heights they reached under Hugh Freeze? Time will tell.
3. Greg Schiano, Rutgers - Rutgers could not have done better with this hire because Schiano knows the lay of the land and recruit. The problem? He has so much work to do with the roster and the Big Ten East is a beast.
3. Jimmy Lake, Washington – Chris Petersen stepping down was a shocker and little is known about Lake at this level, although he’s set up the best of all the new hires. Lake has been around the block, but Washington is his biggest stop so we’ll see how recruiting goes. He’s known as an excellent evaluator of talent and a good recruiter.
4. Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri – I like this hire because it’s risky. Drinkwitz has done a great job as a head coach on a smaller level and he was an excellent talent developer at NC State. He’s an offensive mind and while there are many unknowns, this could be a home run hire. So why is he fourth? Again, it goes back to the unknown especially in recruiting.
5. Sam Pittman, Arkansas – Pittman is one of the best offensive line recruiters in the country and has been for a long time. However, this is his first head coaching gig and Arkansas is a really tough place to start with how competitive the SEC West is.
2. BOWL GAMES WITH BIG RECRUITING IMPLICATIONS
Bowls games are sometimes important and sometimes meaningless. Which non-playoff bowls will have the biggest recruiting impact for the teams involved? Here are the nine biggest.
Citrus Bowl: Alabama, Michigan – Alabama will have no problem recruiting, even coming off a sub par year by its standards, but this is a great opportunity for Michigan to make a statement on a national stage. Short of making the playoff, this is as good as it gets for the Wolverines when it comes to impressing potential recruits.
Alamo Bowl: Texas, Utah – Utah recruiting is a mystery to me. How a team with so much success reaches on so many kids is odd, but the Utes obviously do a great job of developing that talent. This game is intriguing because of Texas. Tom Herman needs a big win to gain some recruiting momentum heading into 2021.
Holiday Bowl: USC, Iowa – Iowa could use a big win like this to boost recruiting efforts but this is about USC and Clay Helton. A loss would continue to set the Trojans back in recruiting and things aren’t going so well in that department to start with.
Cotton Bowl: Penn State, Memphis – Penn State needs a victory here to keep recruiting going well. A loss to a Group of Five program might hurt a bit on the trail.
Orange Bowl: Florida, Virginia – The Gators would have liked a bigger name opponent as this almost becomes a no-win situation. If they beat Virginia they were supposed to and if they lose it will be used against them. A blowout win however will cement their advantage in the state.
Sugar Bowl: Georgia, Baylor – Matt Rhule has some momentum in Texas and around the country and he will continue to find and develop talent. Georgia is among the recruiting elite but a loss would be damaging. Georgia needs this more.
Rose Bowl: Wisconsin, Oregon – Wisconsin does what it does in recruiting and that won’t change – the Badgers find players and develop them. This is more about Oregon as the Ducks are recruiting far and away better than any Pac-12 program. A big win here would help those efforts.
Outback Bowl: Auburn, Minnesota – Auburn is always around the national top-10 in recruiting so this is about Minnesota. The Gophers and PJ Fleck can make a big national splash finishing off this great season with a big win over an SEC program.
Texas Bowl: Oklahoma State, Texas A&M – This is one of the few bowl games that pits regional opponents in recruiting and the Aggies have clearly been more effective on the trail. But a loss to Oklahoma State could hurt them greatly in the crowded state of Texas.
3. PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS
Here are my predictions for the College Football Playoff.
... The LSU-Oklahoma matchup will be fun to watch but the Tigers have too many offensive weapons for an improved Oklahoma defense and the LSU defense has too many playmakers to let Jalen Hurts run wild. LSU wins 41-24.
... The Clemson-Ohio State matchup is a great one and hard to call but I like the Tigers playing with a chip on their shoulder winning 30-20 in a great battle of talented rosters. Trevor Lawrence vs. Justin Fields? I can’t wait.
... And in the title game Clemson takes it all with a high scoring 44-38 thriller over LSU in a game where both offense overwhelm very good defenses.
