Ranking college football teams we're excited to watch in 2025, and why

College football teams are made during the offseason, out of view from fans, as coaches and their assistants go through the long work of recruiting and transfer portal scouting and answering depth chart questions, and some schools have done a better job than others.

More: AP top 25 preseason college football rankings

Now, as we move into fall camp with under a month until the season kicks off, and we get our first real glimpse of the preseason top 25 college football rankings from experts around the country, let’s take a look at the teams that put in the best work this offseason.

College football teams we’re excited to watch in 2025

Miami

The popular preseason consensus is that Clemson will walk away with the ACC championship, but the Hurricanes are one of the few teams in that conference that could stand in the Tigers’ way, and it’s in large part because of their new quarterback.

Carson Beck surprised everyone by turning down the NFL Draft and signing with Miami, and while he will work behind a very solid line, he’s also throwing to a group of receivers who lack experience.

Can the Hurricanes change the narrative in the ACC this season? If so, Beck will be instrumental, but first they have to find answers on a defense that allowed more than 30 points per game in five conference games a year ago.

Nebraska

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Matt Rhule arrived at Nebraska with a reputation as a turnaround artist, stepping into apparent disasters and within a short time, saving programs and winning double digit games.

That sudden improvement has come in Year Three wherever Rhule has been: that’s when Temple went 10-4 after winning eight games the two years prior, and when Baylor went 11-3 after winning 1 game in Rhule’s first year and 7 in his second there.

Dylan Raiola will be the reason the Cornhuskers’ offense can answer the call, now with Dana Holgorsen calling his plays and surrounded by some intriguing transfers at receiver and on the offensive line. Rhule needs to win 9 or more games in 2025 to not lose confidence from the fanbase.

Oklahoma

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Winning six games in a season isn’t in the same universe as what Oklahoma hired Brent Venables for, especially not as the program enters its SEC era, and especially as rival Texas is in contention to win this conference yet again this year.

Injuries, meager quarterback play, and lousy protection torpedoed the Sooners’ offensive effort a year ago, but the program got aggressive in the transfer portal, signing quarterback John Mateer and running back Jaydn Ott, two instant-impact players who can credibly test SEC defenses this season.

Penn State

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If offensive continuity is a key ingredient to making a deep College Football Playoff run, then the Nittany Lions are in position to do it again this postseason.

Drew Allar at quarterback, Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen at tailback, and four returning offensive line starters form the core of what should be the Big Ten’s most accomplished offense, and one of the nation’s best.

The question is how Allar can maintain his production in the postseason, where his completion marks dropped from 74 percent to under 60, and whether Penn State has put reliable receiving talent around him to help out.

Jim Knowles came over to replace Tom Allen as defensive coordinator in one of college football’s most high-profile coaching changes after he helped lead Ohio State to a national championship, loaded at defensive end and in the secondary.

This is the year Penn State should be able to get over the Ohio State hurdle, with the Buckeyes replacing a ton of its national title roster, and make a run at the Big Ten title.

Florida

Three years into his tenure, Gators head coach Billy Napier started the 2024 season just 4-5 with losses to three top-five ranked SEC opponents in which his team didn’t surpass 20 points on the scoreboard.

Then came a four-game win streak that included bombshell wins over ranked LSU and Ole Miss, effectively ending both teams’ playoff chances, and a bowl win over Tulane, setting up a much firmer foundation for Florida to work from in 2025.

Once again, the Gators will play college football’s toughest schedule, at least according to ESPN’s computer models, but they return DJ Lagway, one of the nation’s top quarterbacks, aided by a promising receiving corps, a gifted backfield rotation, and an experienced line in an effort to shake things up in the SEC.

Texas Tech

Playing in the Power Four’s most competitive conference and sitting on a massive investment from the Red Raiders’ NIL collective, the pressure is on Joey McGuire to take the big leap forward and get Texas Tech into a more rewarding national position.

The immediate beneficiary of the school’s spending spree will be a defense that ranked 132nd against the pass and was 99th in sacks last season. Returning skill at linebacker is key, but newcomers on the line could prove more impactful in the long run.

David Bailey from Stanford and Romello Height from Georgia Tech are coming off the edges, while Lee Hunter from UCF and Skyler Gill-Howard from Northern Illinois are critical upgrades on the interior.

Behren Morton was third among Big 12 quarterbacks in production last season, and he has a supporting cast of skill players who can stretch the field and put Texas Tech squarely in the picture to earn consideration for the playoff.

LSU

LSU was a top-10 team in late October before a three-game disaster that blew up its playoff chances and bounced the Tigers out of the rankings in November.

Now, a very promising group of transfers in a class College Football HQ ranks as the second-best in the country should keep this team in contention all year.

Patrick Payton and Jack Pyburn are coming off the edges, helping returning stars Harold Perkins and Whit Weeks in the middle of this defense, and Nic Anderson and Barion Brown are in at receiver.

Garrett Nussmeier returns after leading college football’s 7th-ranked vertical attack, stacking up 4,052 yards and 29 touchdowns, but he’s working behind what will be a basically new offensive line.

Baylor

Dave Aranda’s team started 2-4 last season, leading to speculation that his tenure had peaked, but the Bears won their next six games.

Sawyer Robertson is back after throwing for over 2,600 yards with 24 touchdowns, along with tailback Bryson Washington, a thousand-yard rusher who had a dozen TDs while posting 6 yards per carry.

Alabama

After years of relying on Alabama to be college football’s standard-bearer, that lofty position is no longer a sure thing after Kalen DeBoer won “just” nine games in his debut as head coach replacing Nick Saban.

Sure, there are plenty of programs that would love to win games, but Alabama expects to be in the College Football Playoff picture every season, especially now that the field has expanded to 12 teams.

For the Crimson Tide to not be considered one of the dozen best in the country again would be a severe indictment of DeBoer’s coaching bona fides.

Now, he’ll have to do it without Jalen Milroe putting up those highlight plays after the dual-threat star quarterback hit the draft, but Alabama returns stars at receiver, on the line, and in a defense that returns much of last season’s production.

No one is going to be Milroe at quarterback this year, so how DeBoer and new coordinator Ryan Grubb design this offense to tailor his successor will go a long way in showing if this team has staying power in 2025.