Michigan State will open fall practice with most of its two-deep intact after entering last season with fewer returning starters than all but a handful of teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. They can use ’18 to reestablish themselves as legitimate national title challengers.
The Spartans used 2017 to prove that their 3–9 nightmare of 2016 was a blip rather than the onset of a new, lowly existence in the Big Ten cellar. If you ignore the indignity of needing to reschedule a canceled game against Louisiana Monroe in order to preserve the nation’s longest bowl streak, Florida State did end its miserable season on a positive note by stringing together four consecutive wins, though they came against one Football Championship Subdivision team (Delaware State), two Group of Five teams (Southern Miss and Louisiana Monroe) and fifth-place SEC East finisher Florida.īy Wilton Jackson Michigan State (2017 record: 10–3) There should be measured expectations for what the Seminoles can achieve in 2018, which definitely was not the case last fall, when they entered Week 1 as a popular national champion pick and ranked third in both the AP Top 25 and Coaches Polls. Here’s an early look at five teams SI.com thinks are primed to rise in 2018.
Those developments could scramble the national landscape over the next seven months, but it’s still possible to identify some teams that should be better than they were in 2017. In the meantime, players will transfer to different schools and suffer serious injuries, and don’t rule out the possibility of more head coaching changes. Between now and the start of the 2018 season, teams will finalize their recruiting classes on National Signing Day, go through spring practice and meet for fall camp.