College Football: Group of Five Breakout Teams (Part 2)
Read part one of this series here.
The MAC has been a recruiting ground for head coaches since Mark Dantonio and Nick Saban coached at Kent State. Dino Babers, Dave Clawson, and PJ Fleck are the more recent examples of head coaches that made the power five jump. Miami of Ohio and head coach Chuck Martin is going to be the breakout team of the MAC. Martin previously coached at Grand Valley State winning back to back National Championships in 2005 and 2006. Martin has increased his win total while at Miami of Ohio from two, three then six games last season. Two other factors will contribute to the Red hawk’s breakout: both offensive and defensive coordinators return and the fertile recruiting grounds of Ohio.
The Mountain West Conference has seen some of their best teams leave the conference for the Power Five in the past few years: Utah left for the Pac-12 and TCU left for the Big-12. Boise State owned this conference until Chris Peterson left for Washington in 2014. San Diego State has won back to back conference championships in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Air Force, Nevada and Fresno State are all solid programs that have enjoyed recent success within the Mountain West. The most obvious answer for a breakout team would be Wyoming with Head Coach Craig Bohl. Bohl won three consecutive championships (and laid the foundation for two more) at North Dakota State before becoming the Cowboys head coach in 2014. Bohl turning Wyoming into a winner is not that surprising but Tony Sanchez at UNLV is. Sanchez won six consecutive High School state titles. During his six-year tenure, he was 85-5. Yes, it is high school ball, but winning more state titles than losses is certainly impressive. So far UNLV has improved their win total in each of Sanchez two seasons and has improved recruiting from the bottom of the conference to the middle of the pack.
The remaining Conference in the group of five is the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt should be named the fun belt with the offensive prowess that exists within the conference. Three schools last season averaged over thirty points a game (Appalachian State, Troy and Idaho) during the 2016 season. 2015 had four schools average over thirty points a game (Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, and Idaho). Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern are all perennial contenders for the Sun Belt. Idaho joined the upper half of the conference this season under Paul Petrino going 9-4. The Vandals would have been an obvious choice for a breakout team in the Sun Belt has Petrino improved the Vandals win total every year since 2014, but it was announced that Idaho will be dropping to the FCS in 2018 joining the Big Sky Conference. The 2017 breakout team for the Sun Belt is Texas State. Texas State was 2-10, so why are they a potential breakout team in 2017? Several reasons: 1. Texas recruiting, any school located in the state of Texas has a recruiting edge on the competition. Everett Withers is a proven recruiter has well landing NFL talents Eric Ebron, Landon Turner, and Sylvester Williams in his lone season with the Tar Heels. Withers had a winning record at North Carolina in 2011 after Butch Davis left the program under NCAA sanctions, Withers was the architect at James Madison University laying the foundation for a National Championship team at JMU. Last season JMU won every game in the FCS playoffs by more than ten points including five-time champion North Dakota State. Every player from that Championship team was recruited and coached by Withers.
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