Seems like everybody was dying to get to Arlington this year.
The Big 12 Conference, the American Athletic Conference, and Conference USA all had their media days in Arlington within just a couple of weeks of each other.
And thefootballbeat.com was blessed. We were able to staff all of them, and a couple more conferences, to boot. Talked with a ton of people – name it. From Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy to TCU coach Sonny Dykes, from Central Florida coach Gus Malzahn to new Alabama-Birmingham coach Trent Dilfer to Texas-San Antonio quarterback Frank Harris, we talked to about everybody.
We were impressed by all of them.
Dilfer will be in his first season of coaching major college football. Harris is probably the best quarterback you’ve never heard of. And he might – might – just shock Houston this weekend.
If Malzahn’s program has a defense, they may be a very dangerous team in the Big 12.
But we’re not talking Big 12 here. We’re talking American Athletic and Conference USA, where – maybe somewhat surprisingly – there are some very, very good coaches.
Check out Athlon’s American Athletic Conference preview here (https://athlonsports.com/college-football/american-athletic-conference-football-2023-predictions) and their Conference USA preview here (https://athlonsports.com/college-football/conference-usa-football-2023-predictions), both written by the very thorough Steven Lassan. We think these guys may very well rival the big boys for excitement this year.
Heck, these guys may BE the big boys by season’s end. Seriously, there may be a couple of programs that can compete with the upper echelon of college football. And Dilfer? Check out his fire. https://youtu.be/scPRh0FpYrc?si=xFukWYfjx6DFjZba
