It feels like the 2024 college football season just finished and yet spring practice is already here.
While more and more programs are ditching the traditional spring games, the spring slate still offers an early peek at what offseason moves should pay off and where improvements are still necessary.
With that in mind, it felt like the right time to assess the programs that have fared the best this offseason in building toward the 2025 season and beyond. We aren’t counting any programs that made head coaching changes in this exercise – so no Bill Belichick and North Carolina – but instead highlighting the schools that did the best job of retaining and adding player, coaching and personnel talent in recent months.
There is still a lot that can change between now and August, particularly with a spring portal period to come, but here are the 10 programs that have fared best so far.
Bringing Ryan Grubb back in the fold – assuming he coaches a game this time – was a huge win for Kalen DeBoer after a disappointing 9-4 first season at Alabama. Grubb, who Nick Saban badly wanted to hire on his last staff at Alabama, brings strong knowledge of DeBoer’s offense and the kind of creative play-calling that was missing last season. Alabama should send Seattle a thank you card for moving on from Grubb after only a single season as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator. We would have liked to see Alabama be a bit more aggressive in the transfer portal but look to have added at least a few likely contributors in Miami receiver Isaiah Horton, Colorado linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green and Utah cornerback Cameron Calhoun.
After a disastrous 5-7 2024 season, Hugh Freeze had to be aggressive about upgrading the roster ahead of a critical Year 3. Consider that mission accomplished as the Tigers signed the No. 4 overall (Eric Singleton), No. 9 (Xavier Chaplin) and No. 28 (Horatio Fields) transfers according to 247Sports. Singleton, the former Georgia Tech receiver, is the crown jewel of the No. 8 transfer class but Oklahoma transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold is the most important. Freeze badly needs the former five-star recruit to live up to the hype on the Plains after disappointing QB play plagued the first two years of his tenure.
Dabo Swinney has shown an increased willingness to make the hard personnel decisions when he senses his program isn’t maximizing its potential. First it was ditching Brandon Streeter after only a season as offensive coordinator to bring in Garrett Riley in 2023. After the 2024 season, Swinney determined the defense wasn’t getting it done under Wes Goodwin and reeled in Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen. Adding the former Indiana head coach, who seems like a perfect culture fit at Clemson, should elevate a defense that has plenty of talent like Peter Woods. The Tigers did a great job retaining talent, too, and enter 2025 with the most returning production in college football, according to Bill Connelly.
The bottom completely fell out on Florida State last season in one of the most shockingly bad seasons in recent memory. If there’s a silver lining to a 2-10 season, only a year removed from a perfect 13-0 regular season, is it forced Mike Norvell to evaluate every aspect of his program and fix what ailed it. The result was a major staff overhaul, spending big money to bring in Nebraska’s Tony White as defensive coordinator and new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who left his UCF head coaching position to come to Tallahassee. There is some skepticism around FSU’s big bet on Boston College QB transfer Thomas Castellanos, but overall the Seminoles fared well in the nation’s No. 7 portal class. Surrounding Castellanos with transfer receivers Duce Robinson (USC) and Squirrel White (Tennessee) and veteran offensive linemen like Ole Miss’ Micah Pettus and Vanderbilt’s Gunnar Hansen was smart. Jayson Jenkins, an edge-rusher transfer from Tennessee, has NFL potential.
After underachieving last season, in part because of a reticence to spend top dollar for impact players, it was clear LSU would be much more aggressive with its portal shopping this time around. Other than the significant blow of losing No. 1 overall recruit Bryce Underwood to Michigan, LSU may have had the best offseason of any program. You can even argue losing Underwood and the requisite money it would have taken to sign him allowed LSU to be more aggressive (and successful) in the portal. The Tigers signed the No. 1 transfer class, headlined by three top 15 transfers in Oklahoma receiver Nic Anderson, Florida State edge-rusher Patrick Payton and Northwestern offensive lineman Josh Thompson. Beyond simply upgrading the player talent, Kelly also added multiple veteran coaches like former Florida State offensive coordinator Alex Atkins and former Miami defensive coordinator Lance Guidry who should help. Add all that plus QB Garrett Nussmeier’s return and there’s reason to feel bullish about a resurgence in Baton Rouge.
Dan Lanning’s Oregon program feels like a well-oiled machine at this point. The Ducks are aggressive yet strategic in their recruiting and transfer portal additions. The biggest win, literally and figuratively, was No. 1 overall transfer Isaiah World, a massive 6-foot-8, 305-pound offensive tackle who looks like a future Day 1 NFL draft pick. Oregon didn’t overdo it with transfers, taking only 10, but you can talk yourself into each one having a real impact this season. I love the additions of Tulane running back Makhi Hughes and Purdue safety Dillon Thieneman. Keeping offensive coordinator Will Stein was a plus, too, as he should be in the mix for more and more head coaching openings in the future.
Penn State
James Franklin pulled off perhaps the biggest staffing coup of the offseason when he swiped defensive coordinator Jim Knowles away from national champion Ohio State. It was a strong response to losing Tom Allen to Clemson and showed how intent Penn State is in putting serious resources behind the program. So, too, did retaining stars like quarterback Drew Allar, running back Nick Singleton and defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton. After back-to-back “Last Dance” style approaches working for Big Ten programs, could Penn State be the third in a row to win it all? We’d still like to see Penn State add at least one more viable, proven receiver to the mix, especially after losing Harrison Wallace to Ole Miss, but it’s been a very good offseason in State College.
In what was a wild winter portal cycle with NIL money going through the roof, South Carolina retaining quarterback LaNorris Sellers and defensive end Dylan Stewart is huge for what Shane Beamer is building in Columbia. Sellers and Stewart give South Carolina a nucleus of two of the nation’s top young talents and a reason to believe the Gamecocks can improve upon a breakthrough 9-4 season in 2024. Replacing Kyle Kennard and Rocket Sanders won’t be easy but Utah State transfer Rahsul Faison will help in the running game. I like the decision to promote Mike Shula to offensive coordinator and think the veteran QB guru can help Sellers and incoming Ohio State QB transfer Air Noland.
The Red Raiders caught the college football industry off-guard with an aggressive transfer portal approach that should make them a viable Big 12 contender. Even better, Texas Tech was able to hold off prospective suitors like Notre Dame for general manager James Blanchard, the architect behind Texas Tech’s audacious plan. A transfer shopping spree that cost more than $10 million, according to ESPN, resulted in the nation’s No. 2 overall class. Texas Tech heavily invested in its defensive front, adding Lee Hunter (UCF), Romello Height (Georgia Tech), Skyler Gill-Howard (Northern Illinois) and Anthony Holmes Jr. (Houston). There’s inherent risk in investing so much money in outside players and rival programs grumbled about Texas Tech overpaying for its additions. But if it works in Lubbock this season the way it could, it’ll be remembered as one of the boldest and most important offseasons in Red Raiders history.
USC
In the short term USC suffered significant impact player departures in receivers Duce Robinson (Florida State) and Zachariah Branch (Georgia), and offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon (Oregon). But big picture, I love that USC is building out an extensive personnel department of some of the nation’s most highly-regarded people. It started with hiring Chad Bowden away from Notre Dame after a national runner-up season for the Fighting Irish. Bowden has since added a who’s who of personnel executives like Dre Brown (Illinois), Max Stienecker (Wisconsin) and Zaire Turner (Notre Dame). It’s a long way to early signing day but those moves already look to be paying off with the Trojans currently holding the nation’s No. 1 2026 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.
Five that just missed the cut: Indiana, Michigan, Miami, Missouri, Ole Miss
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