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With reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams orchestrating a potent offense and some upgrades on defense through the transfer portal, the USC Trojans are a legitimate threat to reach the College Football Playoff for the first time. It’s hard to imagine a fabled program like Southern Cal’s not being a part of the national title picture in the decade since the CFP was inst... 

The UCLA Bruins are coming off their best season under Chip Kelly going 9-4 with the most program wins in a decade. After a sputtering start to his tenure in Westwood, Kelly and the Bruins averaged 8.5 wins the last two seasons with that number the target point for their 2023 campaign. Winning nine games won’t be easy with the Bruins replacing a number of key starters on offen... 

Playing in the toughest conference and division in college football limits what the Mississippi Rebels program can and has achieved over the years. There is hope that the team can do something remarkable in 2023 with Lane Kiffin running the show. In three seasons since taking the gig in Oxford, Kiffin and his Rebels have the third-most wins in the SEC behind Alab... 

There were probably some fans who didn’t even know where Tulane University was located. That is until last season when coach Will Fritz and the Green Wave executed a remarkable turnaround putting the program on the map with 10 regular season wins, an American Athletic Conference title and Cotton Bowl victory over USC. After winning just two games in 2021, bitcoin betting on the Green Wave last season was profitable since they exceeded their win total of 5.5 by mid-October en route to a program record-tying 12 victories. With the AAC losing three prominent programs Tulane has a chance to be the class of the league. ... 

Forgive the fans in Lubbock if they’re all giddy about the prospects of their 2023 Texas Tech Red Raiders. Under first-year head coach Joey McGuire Tech closed last season with four straight wins, eclipsed its projected win total of 5.5 and won eight games overall for the first time in nearly a decade. All that brings hope to a program that’s been good a ... 

I think the Texas A&M Aggies are the only program in the country that expects so much yet delivers so little. The hiring of Jimbo Fisher in 2018 was supposed to turn the program into an annual contender, but the Aggies haven’t won more than nine games under his guidance and last season posted their first losing campaign since 2009. There is reason to believe t... 

Entering a season with lofty expectations is nothing new for the Texas Longhorns. Living up to the hype, though, has been a problem. As the Horns enter their final season in the Big 12, they are positioned as the betting favorite to win their first conference championship since 2009, but they’ve found ways to stumble in previous years. The team did improve in Steve Sar... 

Prior to going 10-2 during the 2022 regular season and finishing off the campaign with an impressive Orange Bowl victory over Clemson for their first double-digit win season since 2007, the Tennessee Volunteers hadn’t won more than eight regular season games since Phillip Fulmer went 9-3 in 2007. Are the Vols back or was last season a one-off? Hard to say, bu... 

The chances of the TCU Horned Frogs duplicating their impressive run to the College Football Playoff in 2023 are slim. So slim in fact that oddsmakers set their win total at just 7.5. Nobody expected TCU to have an undefeated regular season and play for the Big 12 title in 2022; they did. Nobody had the Frogs getting an invite to the playoff party; they did that as w... 

You’ll have to forgive fans of the South Carolina Gamecocks if they were a little overzealous over last year’s 8-5 record. You see, winning eight games or more in season isn’t a regular occurrence. Prior to 2022 it happened just once in eight years. There is reason to be excited about the 2023 edition following massive wins over Tennessee and Clemson ... 

If the Penn State Nittany Lions weren’t in the same division as two other college football heavyweights, they would get more recognition as being an elite program. For the fourth time in seven years the Nittany Lions won 11 games and both setbacks last year were to the teams ahead of them in the Big Ten East. There’s no shame in losing to Michigan and... 

After seeing nearly all their Pac-12 brethren abandon ship for other leagues during the latest round of realignment and getting overlooked themselves, the Oregon State Beavers might just have that added incentive to do something special in 2023. Last year the Beavs had one of the most successful seasons in school history winning nine regular season games to easily ec... 

Before the Oregon Ducks begin their journey in the Big Ten they have one more chance to extend their legacy as a member of the Pac-12. And it might be a good idea to stay focused on football in 2023 instead of beyond since the Ducks are loaded for another run. Last season had its ups and downs with nine regular season wins and a Holiday Bowl victory over North Carolina. We a... 

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have long played second fiddle to their nemesis OU in the Panhandle State. But as far as success on the gridiron goes the Pokes have strung together 17 straight winning seasons under Mike Gundy while being a competitive force in the Big 12. There are some questions surrounding the program ahead of the 2023 campaign, though, afte... 

Maybe Lincoln Riley read the tea leaves leaving Norman just before the Oklahoma Sooners posted their first losing season since John Blake was running the outfit in 1998. There was some bad luck in the first year of the Brent Venables era with injuries and the inability to win close games leading to a 6-7 record. Oddsmakers, and I’m sure fans of the program, expect a ... 

If the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are going to get back to the College Football Playoff they certainly will have earned it. There are some positives to being an independent in the chaotic landscape these days. Several conferences were bolstered by the latest round of realignment yet the Irish pick and choose who they play. And they have a few dandies in 2023 with matchups against Ohio State, USC and Clemson. The first full season under Marcus Freeman didn’t start so well with losses to OSU and Marshall. There was also a head-scratching setback to Stanford. The club picked it up over the second half winning six of their final seven games, including a Gator Bowl win over South Carolina to finish 9-4. The schedule is tough but the Irish should be better with their projected win total of 8.5 definitely within reach. ... 

It seems like all the Ohio State Buckeyes have to do is step on the field and they’ll win 10 games. Over the last 10 full seasons they’ve won at least 11 games hitting that mark last season before dropping their final two contests. OSU’s perfect season ended with a loss to arch rival Michigan in the regular season finale yet the Buckeyes still earned a College ... 

There was a mixture of good and bad with the North Carolina Tar Heels from a season ago. The club won nine games, the second-most in a single season since Mack Brown was in his first stint with the program in 1997. And they did that in their first 10 games of the year before ending the campaign with four consecutive losses. The Heels won the ACC Coast... 

Only once in the entire history of the program has the North Carolina State Wolfpack hit double figures in wins. Under current coach Dave Doeren they’ve been close winning nine games three times and eight games on three other occasions, including last year when the Pack went 8-4 during the regular season. In fact, NC State has won at least e... 

Right when the Mississippi State Bulldogs were succeeding on the gridiron the program, and all of college football, suffered a terrible loss with the untimely passing of Mike Leach. A winner at every stop of his coaching career with an innovative game plan, Leach has the team on the rise. In his first season the Bulldogs won four games but improved to 7-6 in 2021. The 2022 season ranked as one of the best in program history. The club went 8-4 during the regular season and somehow found a way to ... 

The Michigan Wolverines return a number of key players from a club that went 12-0 last regular season, rolled over Purdue for the Big Ten Championship and reached the College Football Playoff for the second consecutive season. An upset loss to TCU as a 9-point favorite in the CFP semifinals denied Jim Harbaugh and his group a chance at a national championship a... 

The first year of the Mario Cristobal era didn’t go according to plan for the Miami Hurricanes, who went 5-7 matching the 2007 team for the fewest wins since the turn of the century. The Canes aren’t going to suddenly become a powerhouse and challenge Clemson and FSU at the top of the ACC. What they can do with the talent assembled is post a winning record and return... 

The first season under Brian Kelly was a banger for the LSU Tigers winning 10 games and the SEC West. Kelly has been a winner at every stop of his coaching journey and turning the program around after a two-year stretch that produced an overall 11-12 record was epic. Now, with the bar raised the task is getting back to the conference championship and into the CFP, which is no ea... 

With Texas and Oklahoma grabbing the headlines for their impending move to the SEC and TCU with its run to the College Football Playoff last year, let’s not forget that it was the Kansas State Wildcats who won the Big 12 championship in 2022. Coming off a 10-win season that included an upset of TCU in the Big 12 title game, the Cats posted their first doubl... 

They’re not flashy and a lot of times they’re downright boring and difficult to watch, but the Iowa Hawkeyes have won a lot of games over the years. Getting eight victories last season marked the seventh time in as many full seasons that the program reached that number with an average win total of more than nine wins in those seasons. And in order to cash the OVER on the 2...