Other teams of note: Notre Dame #9, Clemson #11, UF #14, Va Tech #23, Louisville #24, Miami #25
CFB Future Power Rankings
"It's Insider's second go-round projecting college football's next three years in our Future Power Rankings.
What did we learn from our first edition? For one, teams can make a substantive move in just a year's time. Just look at Auburn, which jumped from 23rd to fifth after a run to the championship game. USC, now with coaching stability, made the biggest leap (25th to sixth). Oklahoma, UCLA, FSU and Baylor were among other risers, and you'll soon read why.
On the other side, we were high a year ago on Florida and Michigan. Oops. The Gators' injury-plagued 4-8 season dropped them from No. 4 to No. 14, while the Wolverines, who lost five of their last six games, fell from fifth to 20th. We know Will Muschamp's job is in danger, but is that an omen for Brady Hoke's future in Ann Arbor?
Alabama is again our No. 1 team, but with two losses to end the season, its lead shrank. Is that a subtle signal that the Tide might have peaked under Nick Saban?
We'll examine those topics and more in the Future Power Rankings.
Here's how we compiled it: Our panel -- myself, Brad Edwards, Brock Huard, Tom Luginbill and Mark Schlabach -- provided 1-10 ratings in five different categories that we found to be comprehensive in determining current positioning, as well as a projection for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Here are the top 25 college football teams over the next three years:"
The bar graphs reflect the average points given by the voters for each category. Category averages are weighted by importance to generate overall score.
Coaching: Fisher (and his staff) improved by nearly a point and a half from last year. Fisher was always respected by fellow coaches, but last season did wonders for his rep nationally.
"The question was whether he was more of a recruiter," Schlabach said. "In three years, he had upgraded FSU's talent level tremendously, but we hadn't seen the on-field results."
Fisher's peers always told me how uptight he coached, with that tone trickling down to his players. QB EJ Manuel, I had heard, was typically paralyzed by the fear of incensing his coach. Jameis Winston and a core of veterans got Fisher to chill; it resulted in a long-awaited championship.
What might be construed as a bit surprising is that the rating didn't take a hit with Jeremy Pruitt heading to Georgia, meaning FSU will be on its third defensive coordinator in three seasons. I heard Pruitt's replacement, Charles Kelly, speak last month at a coaching clinic and I thought he was outstanding. He's dynamic, personable and knows the game inside and out.
Current talent: FSU being "back" is a long-obsessed-about national narrative. Well, here's how back FSU is: A coach in the Big Ten told me not long ago that the Seminoles are still as loaded as any team in the country. Everyone is taking notice.
"They've got first-rounders at every position," he said. "It's where it was when [Bobby] Bowden was there." As far as our panel, FSU is the only team rated higher than Alabama in terms of talent. And that's after the Seminoles had 18 picks selected in the past two NFL drafts. Beyond Winston, who looks like a top-10 lock, the Noles return four of five offensive linemen, including Cam Erving. On defense, top NFL prospects dot both the line and the secondary.
Recruiting: If Fisher built FSU on the Bama model, which Fisher learned when he was on Saban's offensive staff at LSU, the Seminoles are doing a great job of matching the Tide on the recruiting trail. Even in retooling the majority of the staff a year ago, Fisher found some real recruiting all-stars -- and good position coaches, such as running backs coach Jay Graham and Pruitt/Kelly.
Title path: The Seminoles' road in 2014 is more challenging than last year, beginning with the Cowboys Classic against Oklahoma State, plus the ACC additions of Louisville and Notre Dame. The Noles haven't added any 2015 or 2016 opponents of note, but they actually haven't shied away from having a decent home-and-home series in recent years. The reason the 2012 and 2013 schedules got watered down is because West Virginia swapped leagues and had to drop a series.
Florida remaining mediocre would help greatly, because it's still a "name" opponent, but I would not count on that. As of now, the schedule, while no joke, is not stopping FSU from doing what it wants to do as a program.
Program power: Bowden obviously made FSU a brand, but Fisher has done something quite incredible by righting things so quickly. Step back and think about it: He was on staff during an incredibly awkward ouster of a legend, yet he took over, figured out how to be a head coach and rapidly turned the Seminoles into what we were used to in the 1990s. It's no wonder FSU is up to No. 2.
"He's as much like Saban as any of his former assistants," Schlabach said of Fisher. "I think he's re-established FSU as one of the country's premier programs."
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