From the Texas offensive line to Michigan RB room, these non-QB questions need answers ahead of 2025 season
Few college football teams have every little detail figured out by the time the regular season arrives. You can count on unexpected bumps in the road, and it normally takes a few games before a team hits its full stride.
Still, fall camp is an extremely valuable time to develop a roster, evaluate where it stands and squeeze in every rep possible before actually lining up against another team. Coaches want finality, but questions always emerge in the early week of August.
Even potential College Football Playoff teams are susceptible to major concerns. Quarterbacks steal all the headlines, so it felt appropriate to look at some burning non-quarterback questions facing prominent teams around the nation, and how things stand with the start of the regular season -- Week 0, at least -- just one Saturday away.
Offensive line was a huge question mark for Texas entering fall camp. The Longhorns have to replace four of five starters from their 2024 squad, including starting left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., who was the No. 9 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, and starting right tackle Cameron Williams, who made the surprising decision to test the professional waters a year early.
To make matters worse, the Longhorns lost potential starting tackle Andre Cojoe for a significant amount of time due to a knee injury suffered Aug. 4. That leaves Texas dangerously thin on options and proven experience. Cojoe was battling Brandon Baker, a former top-50 prospect in the 2024 class, for the starting right tackle spot. Baker now has no choice but to elevate his game after playing just 64 offensive snaps last season.
Guard DJ Campbell is the veteran of the group, and the only returning full-time starter, and tackle Trevor Goosby did play plenty of meaningful snaps due to injuries ahead of him last season, but Texas has some holes to patch in the wall in front of quarterback Arch Manning.
Does Tennessee have an adequate supporting cast?Nico Iamaleava's spring departure stole all the headlines and created an unexpected fall quarterback battle for the Vols. While it's obviously important that Tennessee finds a solution at the most important position on the field, its lack of a proven supporting cast may be a bigger concern. The Vols lost all three of their leading receivers and running back Dylan Sampson, the 2024 SEC Offensive Player of the Year.
Tennessee should be in good hands at running back, at least. DeSean Bishop, who spelled Sampson at times last season, is primed for a bigger role, and Peyton Lewis' speed makes him an ideal fit in a Tennessee offense that creates plenty of space for its backs. The Vols also got proven transfer experience from former Duke running back Star Thomas. All three will see plenty of work in 2025, and all three are having a solid fall camp. Even freshman Daune Morris could get some run.
Wide receiver is in significantly worse shape. Chris Brazzell II is Tennessee's only wideout with more than seven career catches, and he's missed most of fall camp with an injury. The Vols' other expected starters -- Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley -- have also missed time this August with various ailments. That's not ideal, given that quarterbacks Joey Aguilar -- who transferred to Tennessee after spring practice -- and Jake Merklinger need to establish chemistry with that unit as they battle for the starting job.
Will a Penn State wide receiver please stand out?Penn State's roster looks fairly complete less than three weeks from the start of the season. There's a reason why the Nittany Lions rank so high in preseason polls. There's still some uncertainty at wide receiver, though.
Penn State hasn't had a true wide receiver eclipse at least 800 yards in a single season since 2021, when Jahan Dotson was giving opposing Big Ten secondaries fits. Its top two wideouts from 2024 are gone, and stud tight end Tyler Warren isn't around as a top-tier safety valve and multi-dimensional offensive threat anymore.
Identifying the position as a weakness entering 2025, Penn State took a big swing at wide receiver in the transfer portal. Three of the Nittany Lions' transfer signees play the position, and there's a chance all three start. Kyron Hudson is a traditional big-bodied possession type player, Devonte Ross brings some much-needed agility to the slot and Trebor Pena is a route technician that can recoup some of the reliability lost with Warren. Both Ross and Pena recently landed on the Biletnikoff Award watch list, so there's hope that they'll elevate PSU's offensive ceiling.
LSU's secondary has talent, but will the pieces fit?Brian Kelly hasn't really figured out the whole defense thing during his LSU tenure, and that has kept the Tigers out of the CFP over the past few seasons -- even though they produced a Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Jayden Daniels. Specifically, LSU had the SEC's 10th-ranked pass defense last season while allowing 224.3 yards through the air per game.
Upgrading the secondary was a huge emphasis in the transfer portal. There's a good chance that three of LSU's top five defensive backs are transfers, including a pair of new safeties in Tamarcus Cooley (NC State) and AJ Haulcy (Houston). Mansoor Delane (Virginia Tech) will undoubtedly occupy one of the cornerback spots.
There are a couple in-house options that shouldn't be discounted, though. Ashton Stamps was a rare bright spot in the defensive backfield -- starting all 13 games at cornerback last season -- and second-year corner PJ Woodland is turning heads as fall camp progresses, according to a recent report from Geaux247. The next couple of weeks will be crucial for figuring out how all the pieces fit.
Can Georgia continue its run of EDGE dominance?Georgia has to replace each of its top three sack artists from the 2024 season. EDGEs Mykel Williams and Jalon Walker were both first-round 2025 NFL Draft selections, and Chaz Chambliss ran out of eligibility. That's a lot of talent to replace in one offseason cycle.
Georgia moved 2024 signee Kris Jones from linebacker to EDGE and also has players like Joseph Jonah-Ajonye and Quintavius Johnson to help pick up the slack, but the name worth watching is Army transfer Elo Modozie. Defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann has heaped praise on Modozie through his first handful of practices with the Bulldogs.
"He's a really good athlete," Schumann told reporters Aug. 7. "This guy played wideout in high school. So when he does need to drop and do those things, he's unique in that sense. But he's still -- we're six practices in. It's his first six practices. So even though, you know, he's an older guy, he's out there adjusting like some of the other new players.
"So he's only going to get better from here."
Does Michigan have its next great running back?Michigan coach Sherrone Moore has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to developing running backs, but that position is somewhat of an unknown for the Wolverines after Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards left for the NFL. As a result, Michigan got a lot younger -- and significantly more unproven -- at a crucial position for its offense.
The Wolverines did snag former Alabama back Justice Haynes from the transfer portal. Haynes actually entered the 2024 season as Alabama's primary backfield option, but his opportunities waned as the season went on, as he had just 16 carries for 75 yards in the last three games of the regular season and just two 50-plus yard rushing performances all season.
Then there's the 5-foot-11 and 210-pound Jordan Marshall, who played sparingly as a true freshman last season but broke out in Michigan's ReliaQuest Bowl win against Alabama with 23 carries for 100 yards. Those two are going to see a healthy amount of touches, though they will be much different than what we've come to expect from a Michigan running back. Haynes and Marshall are both very athletic, but neither are viewed as power runners. It will be fascinating to see how they fit in Michigan's ground-and-pound scheme.
cbssports
