CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

The offseason has been dominated by transfer madness and people complaining about eligibility waivers. The in-season storylines promise to be a bit more intriguing, so we’ve elected to ignore portal chatter in favor of a look ahead. This week’s in Rob’s Rankings we examine and rank the storylines that will likely dominate the news when the 2019 season gets under way.

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The nuances of this storyline are subject to change depending on how the year ahead unfolds, but there will be no shortage of takes on the matter either way. Dabo Swinney and his Clemson program certainly have the look of dynasty so it won’t take much to produce a passing-the-baton narrative. The Tigers have now won two of the last three national titles, beating Nick Saban’s Alabama dynasty in both title games.

If it happens again, it will become nearly impossible to deny that Swinney has swiped college football’s coaching throne. Of course there’s also the prodigal son angle, as the Clemson head coach played at Alabama and once served assistant coach at the school. Both Saban and Swinney are now armed with Heisman trophy contenders at quarterbacks, removing any doubt about the overarching theme of 2019. What happens this fall will determine the narrative’s direction, but its existence isn’t up for debate.

Trevor Lawrence began his freshman season as part of a platoon with now-departed quarterback Kelly Bryant and ended it with the starting job, a national title and a reputation as possibly the best player in America. Not a bad run, right?

This season, all eyes will be on Lawrence from the jump as he’s one of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy and seen as the likely top pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. It’s too late for managing expectation now, as everyone expects a historic year from the sophomore quarterback, who looks to have the makeup of a generational talent. More ink will be dedicated to Lawrence than any other player in the country, so let the scrutiny begin.

Sick of this one yet? Hopefully not, because everyone is in for another massive helping of it this fall. Nobody can shut up about Texas, even when the Longhorns are bad. So now that the program appears to be somewhere between good and extremely good, the takes will come early and often. Tom Herman is as polarizing as the team he leads and he’s likely to do or say something that adds to the buzz. Texas played for a Big 12 Championship last season and should be in the thick of the hunt to do so again, so it’s not as though this year’s round of “Is Texas Back” will be without merit. If Herman and company beat LSU and head into their rivalry game with Oklahoma boasting a 5-0 record, the hype train will deservedly be churning at 1,000 miles per hour.

A coach with his back against the wall is always a story. When that coach happens to be at USC, things are amplified. A segment of the Trojan fan base believes Helton should have been removed after last year’s 5-7 finish, so the ice in Los Angeles seems especially thin.

It’s been a bad year for the school’s athletic department as a whole, but the spotlight on Helton will be especially bright, as any early-season stumble against Fresno State, Stanford or BYU could turn the heat up to a boiling point. A midseason stretch that includes game against Utah and at both Washington and Notre Dame looks ominous. It seems the embattled Trojan head coach will need to make a push for a Pac-12 title to save himself. If he’s fired midseason, USC’s coaching search will be dominate the national headlines.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and Lawrence will dominate the Heisman talk, but there’s always a media golden child to go along with the favorites. For reasons I still cannot figure out, this was Ed Oliver a season ago. This year, the “other” Heisman contender could be Boston College running back AJ Dillon, an elite talent on an under-publicized team. Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert is also an option, while Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor will also get plenty of mentions if he starts hot.

It’s 2019 and Mack Brown is the head coach of a major college football team. Seriously.He is. Look it up. His solid recruiting start at North Carolina puts us just a few wins away from a slew of old-dog-new-tricks columns. Brown started his UNC tenure by stealing four-star quarterback recruit Sam Howell from Florida State and will open the season with a pair of chances to make statements against South Carolina and Miami. North Carolina took a risk with this hire, so the praise will be plentiful if it pays off. If things go to hell under the 67-year-old Brown, however, the jokes will rule the day. Either way, Brown’s return to Chapel Hill is wildly intriguing.

For reasons I cannot explain, a decent portion of the college football media decided that downtrodden Kansas made a poor decision by hiring a coach with a 142-55 career record and a national title. Les Miles is polarizing for whatever reason, and it seems like people are ready to verbally drill Kansas should the marriage not work out.

What will be more interesting, however, is if it does. KU made obvious strides a year ago, so it’s not totally inconceivable that Miles could turn the Jayhawks into a competitive team with realistic postseason dreams. Either way, expect to hear a lot about Miles. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground when it comes to the things people will say about his first season.