Last year, in an act of pure apathy, I wrote probably my shortest blog post ever. The post was my preview of the 2014 college football season. In it, I incorrectly picked Oregon to beat Florida State in the national championship and (correctly) Marcus Mariota to win the Heisman. I went out on no real limbs, except with South Carolina making the playoff, which they, um, didn’t. But let’s move on from that.

This season’s post will be slightly more exhaustive. For that I am sorry. But I can’t help but be slightly more excited about this college football season because the race is wide open.

It’s just that “the race” is the race to lose to Ohio State in the National Championship game.

Armed with their third-string quarterback, Ohio State dismantled Wisconsin to win the Big 14 last season and sneak into the first ever college football playoff. From there, they easily dispatched with Alabama and Oregon, looking at times like an NFL team scrimmaging Elon University.

So talent-laden at the quarterback position are the Buckeyes that this offseason, their former All-Conference quarterback and Davey O’Brien Award finalist Braxton Miller had to switch positions to wide receiver.

The Buckeyes quarterback job will be won by either junior Cardale Jones, who led Ohio State to their stunning playoff victories, or sophomore JT Barrett who was excellent prior to the injury that opened the door for Cardale Jones.

I think at the end of the day, though Urban Meyer would probably prefer the more mobile Barrett, he’ll go with the better quarterback in Jones. Really, he can’t go wrong with either guy.

And if the embarrassment of riches at the quarterback position weren’t enough in Columbus, the Buckeyes bring back Heisman candidate Ezekiel Elliott at running back and potential top overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft (unless Jones gets taken ahead of him), defensive end Joey Bosa, along with preseason All-American safety Vonn Bell. No team can match what Urban Meyer has assembled in Columbus.

Are there roadblocks along the way? Of cour….Actually no. Ohio State’s schedule is laughably easy. Unlike Alabama in previous years, the defending champs won’t have to travel to Auburn, Baton Rouge, Oxford, or College Station. Instead, they’ll travel to Blacksburg, Bloomington, Piscataway, Champaign-Urbana, and Ann Arbor.

Realistically, the only hiccup could come against Michigan State in the penultimate game of the regular season, but that game will occur in Columbus. And sure, Jim Harbaugh might have assembled some kind of wunder-team at Michigan, but I think that will take a couple seasons. And if you think that Virginia Tech’s win over Ohio State in 2014 means anything a year later, I’d like to place a friendly wager on that game and rob you and your family of a satisfying financial future.

Who Can Challenge Ohio State?
No one. I already told you that. Why can’t you listen?

Who Can Lose to Ohio State in the National Championship?
In some order: Baylor, TCU, Auburn, USC, Florida State, the winner of the October 3 game between Alabama and Georgia, and Clemson.

Let’s look at each case:

Baylor
The only question is, “What quarterback will slot into an easy-to-run system filled with athletic receivers who are YAC machines?” Once that question is answered, Baylor should run the table this season with an experienced, improved defense led by human destroyer Shawn Oakman.

TCU
Gary Patterson returns the Heisman front-runner in Trevone Boykin, but an inexperienced defense. Yes, this team absolutely destroyed Ole Miss in their bowl game, but they won’t get to face Jim Bob Levi Bo Wallace at quarterback every week this season. The offense will put up points at a rapid pace, but I don’t expect the defense to be as suffocating as they were when we last saw them. The entire season for both of these schools comes down to the de-facto Big TwelveTen championship on November 27 in Fort Worth.

Auburn
All things considered, a fairly pedestrian schedule, with only LSU (a team that will struggle to score 14 points a game despite having one of the best running backs in the country) on the road. Jeremy Johnson should prove himself to be a more capable quarterback than Nick Marshall, who led Auburn to their improbable BCS Championship game appearance in the 2013 season.

USC
Someone is coming out of the Pac-12 and it’s down to USC, UCLA, the Arizona schools, and Oregon (Nearly half the conference). USC has the most talent on both sides of the ball, so despite their difficult schedule that sees them traveling to Eugene, Tempe, Rehab possibly (in the case of coach Steve Sarkisian) and South Bend, I’m taking them as the best bet to escape from what will be the most exciting conference to watch in college football this season. That said, I see a lot of 10-2 and 9-3 teams in the Pac-12. Which means I don’t necessarily see anyone getting into the Playoff.

Florida State
Lots of talent, none of the discretion, morals, self-awareness, or social graces. Florida State is back on the map!

Alabama/Georgia
I’m back and forth on this one. Neither are likely to get great quarterback play. Georgia has the best all-around player in running back Nick Chubb, but Alabama has an All-American run stuffer in A’Shawn (?) Robinson. Both teams will still have to play Auburn, and in the case of Georgia, will likely have to play one of the Alabama schools twice.

Clemson
I mean, Clemson isn’t actually going to get into the playoff. Easy schedule and talented quarterback aside, c’mon. This is Clemson.

What About Horses? That Are Dark?
There can always be a 2014 TCU that gets close or a 2013 Auburn that gets there or that random year when Kansas and Missouri were in the Big XII and traded weeks as the number one team in the country.

(An aside: seriously, Kansas’ football program. Kansas.Todd Reesing, come back and save the Jayhawks!)

So who can surprise us this year?
Here are the five teams that could make a run but will all likely finish around 8-4 and play in the Alamo Bowl. All of them. At the same time!!!!:

Washington, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Arkansas.

What Will The Playoff Look Like
Ohio State (#1) over Auburn (#4)
Baylor (#2) over Georgia (#3)

(Note: I think a one-loss (to Auburn) Georgia team beats a previously undefeated Auburn in the SEC Championship game, seeing both teams sneak in ahead of #5 TCU who will have lost at home to Baylor by 2 touchdowns, for their only loss of the season.)

And, well, you know how this ends.

Heisman Trophy
Here are a list of players that I would say have a chance to win the Heisman this season:

Trevone Boykin (QB/TCU)
Cardale Jones (QB/Ohio State)
JT Barrett (QB/Ohio State)
Ezekiel Elliott (RB/Ohio State)
Nick Chubb (RB/Georgia)
Leonard Fournette (RB/LSU)
Duke Williams (WR/Auburn)
Everett Golson (QB/Florida State)
Malik Zaire (QB/Notre Dame)
Joey Bosa (DE/Ohio State)
Shawn Oakman (DE/Baylor)
Myles Jack (LB/RB/UCLA)
Christian McCaffrey (RB/Stanford)

That’s a lot of players. Much like the race to lose to Ohio State, the Heisman race might too be a race to lose to an Ohio State player. Right now, I’ll take Cardale Jones to win the Heisman. What I saw (what we all saw) last year was stunning from him. He looked like a professional quarterback running really good college defenses into the ground. It’s risky to bank on a guy who hasn’t technically won a starting job yet, but I’d take the risk on Jones.