Incorrect. He's returning. Not that I necessarily agree with this, but I think this will be the pre-season top 5 as determined by the AP/USA Today: 1. Oklahoma 2. Oregon 3. Ohio St. 4. Boise St. 5. LSU
Count on it. I don't think that they belong there, but they are the media darlings and are returning their starting QB (eventually). It's a given at this point.
I don't see how Alabama can be at number 2 when they lose McElroy, Jones, Ingram, Dareus, Barron, Dial. They are going to be starting AJ McCarron, who looked like absolute horse sh!t every time I watched him play this past season. I had them at 4, but that may be too high. But whatever, we play em, so doesn't matter.
The tide being that high is an utter joke. No team that loses it's starting QB, RB, and all-world WR should ever sit at #2. I don't care how good the replacements are supposed to be, they're still largely unproven (I realize that Richardson has gotten a lot of carries, but he's unproven as an every down back). You know how Saban likes to protect inexperienced QBs. So I expect their offensive production to take some hits.
Oh, wait. Hasn't it been determined that Rivals is run by a bama boy? That would make sense of it. Kind of makes this sentence. . . . . .read more like "We know they're losing all the skill positions on offense, but we're homers, so we're going to make up some BS to justify this unrealistic ranking.