We made it through another offseason and Week 0 of the college football season is now just a week away. To celebrate the start of another season, I wanted to share my favorite longshot future bets for 2024.
Of course, we have to check all of the boxes with this one. I've got a longshot National Champion pick, a Heisman pick, and a CFP pick that is way off the radar.
Sometimes the new kid in class isn’t anything special. However, this Utah team’s entrance into the Big 12 is going to shake some things up, especially in the newly expanded College Football Playoff.
The Utes are returning incredible Senior QB Cam Rising who took the squad to two straight Rose Bowls in 2021 and 2022 which resulted in close losses en route to a 10-4 finish. With Rising back alongside top TE Brant Kuithe and starting RB Micah Bernard, this offensive unit is due to light up the Big 12’s notoriously weaker defenses.
After throwing 46 TDs and over 5,500 yards during his first few seasons before a knee injury sidelined him during the 2023 campain, Cam Rising and this Utes team is bound to finish inside of the top 12 and gain entry into this CFP, where anything is possible.
A team with NFL talent that finished inside the top 12 rankings in seasons where their Quarterback was healthy, give me Utah to win the Big 12 and get into the CFP where they could match up well against an SEC or Big 10 team that went through a gauntlet of a regular season.
Ohio, Georgia Tech, Holy Cross, Stanford, and UNLV.
The Orange’s first five games should go 5-0 in their favor with newly acquired transfer portal QB Kyle McCord at the helm of this offense with All-ACC performers Lequint Allen and Orondae Gasdon looking like key impact players that could end up with NFL looks in the near future.
Syracuse’s schedule gets more difficult towards the back end of the season, but Miami and North Carolina State remain as the only two preseason-ranked teams on tap. With Fran Brown’s solid recruiting class and transfer class, Syracuse could end up making a surprise run in 2024 as long as the defense holds up.
This was an issue with Dino Babers during his tenure as the season started off strong (6-0 start in 2022, 4-0 start in 2023) and then resulted in a downfall where they couldn’t get any momentum going on either side of the football.
With Coach Brown coming over from Georgia, he has the schedule in place to turn this program around in an inaugural expansion playoff that will result in at least one or two wildcard teams making the dance.
Sticking with the brand new Big 12, Noah Fifita and Arizona have a great chance to get back into the mix of basketball schools making a splash in football this season. In 2023, the Cats won 11 games including the Alamo Bowl in a thriller against Oklahoma, giving Jedd Fisch his complete program turnaround: 1-11 in Year 1 to 10-3 in Year 3.
After moving to Washington Arizona will find themselves with a new scheme but familiar faces. Fifita is still paired up with his high school teammate Tet McMillan who got some NFL and transfer looks last season.
Looking back on Arizona’s campaign last season, they lost games against Washington, at USC in OT, and at Mississippi State in OT. These guys were extremely close to winning the Pac 12 or at least playing for a chance at a trip to the CFP. Between Arizona and Utah, one of these squads is heading to the big dance - in football.
Rising’s 54 total touchdowns during his ‘21 and ‘22 campaigns should tell you all you need to know about the Utah Quarterback - he’s a gamer. In a conference with minimal defensive weapons and a schedule that lines up in the Utes’ favor, Rising should start as one of the favorites to win this award and instead sits as the 17th player on the Heisman board per DraftKings.
Similar to Jayden Daniels’ rise to the trophy with LSU, older and more experienced college Quarterbacks are always a solid bet to win this award especially if Rising can use his legs to extend plays in the red zone in big-time Big 12 games.