2008 COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW Day 11

Teams #15-11

#15 Arizona State Sun Devils (10-3 last season)
In his first season at ASU Dennis Erickson had the Sun Devils playing at a high caliber. He returns Rudy Carpenter as well as 5 others on offense this year. Carpenter ranks 3rd on the schools all-time passing list and will almost certainly take over the #1 spot if he performs to his potential this year. The Sun Devils started out last year 8-0 before losing 3 of their last five in blowout fashion (3 loses by total of 50 points). For ASU to be successful they will have to play some defense this year. They return 7 starters on that side of the ball, but when you give up 20+ points in 8 of your final 10 games it may not be a good thing that you return that many starters. We know the Sun Devils will score, they had just better hope they can stop teams from scoring.

#14 Illinois Fighting Illini (9-4)
Ron Zook made a big splash last season taking a 2 win team from '06 and winning 9 games in '07, including a win in Columbus against #1 ranked tOSU. Juice Williams will have to run the offense solo this year since Rashard Mendenhall in now going to be lining up on Sundays this year which could cause the offense to stumble out of the gates in their openers against Missouri. Luckily, after that game they have 2 cream puffs then a week off before they start the Big Ten slate in Happy Valley. The defense will have to replace their top 3 tacklers from last season, but since the only teams in the Big Ten that put up a lot of points are Illinois and tOSU that shouldn't hurt them that badly.

#13 Oregon Ducks (9-4)
The Ducks were 1 ACL injury from playing for the national title last season. This year they are still without Dennis Dixon but will also have to replace RB Jonathan Stewart, combined the 2 accounted for over 4,000 yards and 40 TD's last year. The QB spot is still up in the air with either Justin Roper or Nathan Costa most likely coming out of camp with the job. The RB job will go to Jeremiah Johnson, who played as a backup to Stewart last year. The defense will be solid, very solid. If it wasn't for USC maybe having the best defense in the country this year, it would be the Ducks that Pac-10 coaches would be talking about. Oregon got no favors form the scheduling committee though this year playing road games at Purdue, USC, Arizona State and Cal, the last 3 all being the top challengers to the Pac-10 crown.

#12 Auburn Tigers (9-4)
What is a coach supposed to do when every team in their conference runs a version of the high powered spread offense? Tommy Tuberville went out and hired a defensive coordinator that can stop it. Tuberville hired DC Paul Rhoads away from Pitt this off-season after watching Pitt completely stifle the inventor of "the spread" Rich Rodriguez and his West Virginia offense. The defense returns 7 starters from a squad that finished the year ranked 6th in overall defense and should be strong again this year. The offense will have a new leader in fleet-footed Kodi Burns which will allow Tuberville to run a little of the spread option attack himself. The Tigers do return their 4 leading rushers from last year and 5 of their top 6 pass catchers. Auburn misses Florida this year and gets LSU, Tennessee and Georgia all at home this year. They do travel north to take on WVU in a can't miss showdown in October, a lot should be riding on that game for both teams.

#11 Clemson Tigers (9-4)
Same old story Coach Bowden is favored to win the ACC, this year there is a twist, it is Tommy Bowden. The offense at Clemson is loaded with the 2-headed rushing attack of James Davis and CJ Spiller along side QB Cullen Harper. The RB combo last year averaged over 5 ypc and had 13 TD's on the ground, while Harper threw for another 27 TD's. The question mark is whether or not the O-line will be able to protect Harper this year. The O-line allowed 35 sacks last year and will be replacing 3 of the 5 starters from that less then stellar bunch. The defense will be fast and aggressive this year and should continue the string of 3 straight seasons averaging less then 20 ppg on defense. The biggest obstacle with Clemson might just be not beating themselves. The past few years Clemson has beaten some really good teams, only to lose games they had no business losing. If they can take care of business they will be in Tampa for the ACC title game December 6th.

TOMORROW:
Teams #10-6

ONLY 18 DAYS UNTIL THE FIRST SATURDAY OF THE SEASON!!!!!