Randy Smith: Much Too Early Predictions

We still have a little more than two months until the 2018 college football season kicks off. We still have family vacations to get through, school clothes and supplies to buy and a lot of really hot weather to survive before the season begins. Even though, I have been contacted by a few of my fellow college football fans with questions like, how will Tennessee do this fall, who will win the national championship and can anybody beat Alabama? I will answer them today, even though I reserve my right to change my mind between now and when I make my official picks in about six weeks.

How will Tennessee do this fall?  I really have no idea and neither does anyone else for that matter. The Vols are coming off their worst season ever in more than 122 years of football, they have a new head coach who is a head coach for the first time in his career, and after Butch Jones was let go as Tennessee's head coach, no one has any idea what kind of talent the Vols are working with. The starting quarterback has not been determined, and neither has a starting running back. The receivers are still a big question mark even though Jujuan Jennings is back after being injured all of last year, and then kicked off the team by interim head coach Brady Hoke in December. Coach Jeremy Pruitt's initial recruiting class was nothing really to get excited about. Tennessee was ranked 20th in the country according to Rivals.com. That's not bad at all but there is really no one in the class that appears to be a difference maker.

Once again, Tennessee has one of the nation's toughest schedules which doesn't bode well for a lot of wins. The Volunteers were winless in SEC play a year ago which has never happened before but I don't see that happening again. Two maybe three wins are possible but that's about it in league play. A lot of questions will be answered in the season opener with West Virginia but I look for the Mountaineers to be a solid favorite in that game. Prediction?  5-7, 2-6 in SEC play.

Who will win the national championship?  Alabama or Clemson...take your pick. These two programs are currently on top of the pile in college football and neither school shows any sign of dropping off anytime soon. The Tide and the Tigers have met in the college football playoffs three straight seasons, twice in the championship game and there is much better than a 50-50 chance they will meet again in 2018. As for the other two playoff teams? Take your pick.

Can anybody beat Alabama? Yes. Auburn did it last year and Clemson the year before. The Crimson Tide has shown some signs of vulnerability and had Coach Nick Saban not changed quarterbacks at halftime of last year's championship tilt, Georgia would be your defending champion, not Alabama. With all the equity now in college football, it's really hard for teams to go through an entire season unbeaten. Twelve regular season games, a league championship game and then two college football playoff games is a very tough haul. Just about every team slips up at least once in fifteen games each season. And for the first time in years, Alabama may have a quarterback controversy in Tuscaloosa. Jalen Hurts or Tua Tagovailoa take your pick. On defense every year 'Bama just reloads but this year's reloading could be a bit tougher to get the same result. Still, until somebody can knock them off, the Crimson Tide is the dominant program in the country's most dominant conference. You can take that to the bank.