CBS Sports' Bud Elliott talks top storylines as Week 0 kicks off on Saturday

On Saturday, Haynes King and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will face off against DJ Uiagalelei and the Florida State Seminoles to kick off the 2024 season. CBS Sports' Bud Elliott joined TexAgs Radio to talk some Texas A&M along with other national storylines.

Key notes from Bud Elliott interview

• I am just getting ready for college football season. I am looking over all these preseason notes and figuring out the year.
   
• I am pretty excited. It is the matchup of the weekend. Week 0 is a nice little appetizer for the year. Haynes King was effective at times last year. Georgia Tech has a really good offensive coordinator. They bring back quite a bit on defense. It was a bad defense, but maybe they will be better this year.
   
• Florida State is a different team this year. They are not as explosive at receiver. I think it is the best offensive line since 2014. All seven of the top offensive linemen are 23 years or older and finally healthy. Last year, they were pretty banged up. Defensively, I knew they were good up front. Pete Thamel said they are the best line in the country, period, with A&M the only one even in the conversation. He expects all four of FSU's D-Line to go top 100 in the draft. If they play like that, they will win in Ireland. The corner combo is very good. Virginia Tech and Ohio State are the only combos I would take over them. There are some pieces, but it will be a defense and run game-type team this year.
   
• I think Florida State, Miami and Clemson are about even. Miami probably has the highest ceiling. That also counts on Mario Cristobal coaching well. When I do my power rankings, I start with talent and then make coaching adjustments. I am sure you can guess which direction that adjustment typically goes for Miami. They could win the ACC. Clemson could as well. NC State, Virginia Tech and Louisville could win it if everything clicks for them. I think it is kind of wide open.
   
• I like how the schedule falls for the most part for Texas A&M. I like when and where they get their games. It is kind of like the conversation we had with FSU. If they are going to be good, it is because the defensive line eats people alive. They scrounge together enough points on offense, punt and kick well, play smart football and execute in the redzone.
   
• I kind of like how they matchup against Missouri. Missouri has a lot of turnover on the offensive line. Texas A&M can probably score against that defense. I actually like the +350 bet for A&M to make the playoffs more than l like the over 8.5 wins. I think it should be more like a +250 shot, so I thought there was some value there. I like this A&M team. For a long time, A&M fans did not want to have me on the air. Now, we kind of agree on the last hire. 
   
• I had my doubts in 2017. We had vibes that something was up in Tallahassee. Jimbo Fisher was not the same guy that he was as a coach in 2010-2014. It was very different. He was really stubborn. We knew he had some guys on his coaching staff that were not FSU quality. We were proven right about that when he did not take any of those guys with him to A&M. He took zero or maybe one guy. He is a really smart guy, but managing and communicating with people is important. 
   
• The job that Elko did with that staff was really impressive. Elko finds ways to win and does not make excuses. I think Jay Bateman is an underrated hire. People want to say he benefitted at Army because of the tempo that they played at. If you adjust for tempo, Army played well above its talent score for me.
   
• I don't think anyone will succeed running a defense at UNC because of the lack of physicality. I think it is a soft program. The tempo they run with is also difficult. I like the Bateman hire a lot. I think the staff Elko has put together is pretty good. The receiver coach, Holmon Wiggins, is interesting to me. I thought Alabama's receiver development had been horrid over the last three to four years. Maybe Elko knows something there that I don't know. The rest of the staff I love. I thought the offensive line coach was a great pickup, too.
   
• I think the beginning of the year is huge. If you beat Notre Dame, A&M will be favored to make the playoffs. That is how hard the line is going to shift. Florida's practice reports do not look great. Maybe they are not much better than they were last year. I have them as improved, but they played poorly at times. I like McNeese State. I picked Bowling Green to win the MAC. That is a team they should pretty easily handle. I have not read a single good thing about Arkansas' offense. They threw eight picks in their last scrimmage. A&M gets Missouri at home. Then, going to Mississippi State after the bye, you get the bye to work on that interesting offense. Getting off to a fast start is really important. 
   
• I think Miami is the better team, but playing in The Swamp is really hard. Fans will pack that thing out. It will be sold out. There is renewed hope in year three of Billy Napier. They return a lot on both sides of the ball. I just don’t know how much better Florida is, and I think Miami is a lot better. I would generally say Florida has the coaching advantage, but they played like dummies a lot. In critical situations, they either had too many men on the field, were false-starting or did not have enough men on the field. It was kind of a clown show over there.
   
• I think Miami is going to win this game. I trust Cam Ward more than Graham Mertz. I do not think Florida's weapons are all that amazing. They took a lot of transfers in the offensive line room. Florida State is really happy with Richie Leonard IV, who they got from Florida. Most Florida fans believe their offensive line is upgraded. I'll believe it when I see it. Even people who are typically conservative on Miami predictions are all in and are predicting 11-1.
   
• If I'm an LSU fan, I am like, what are we doing in the transfer portal this offseason? You've got four linemen on offense who are probably going to be drafted. They think Garrett Nussmeier is sneakily one of the best QBs in the SEC. I have been betting him 60/1 to go No. 1 overall in the draft. You think you've got pretty good receivers to replace the two first-rounders you lost. Why are you not all in to get an extra defensive tackle in the portal? Why are you not getting another corner? To me, that's a miss by LSU. I think their portal stuff is bad relative to how they are at high school talent acquisition. I think LSU's offense will score. I think they will be a little more physical than USC and probably be able to push them around. I am a little skeptical that the LSU defense is going to be fixed because of the coaching change. 
   
• I think Conner Weigman's ceiling is really high. He's gotta stay healthy. I am curious if A&M is going to run him because Collin Klein ran the ball with the QB both as a player and play-caller. He does not look to me like a guy who's going to be a great rusher, so they're going to have to call it a little bit differently. I heard in spring he was toughing through some stuff.
   
• Losing Nick Saban is a big loss, but the rest of that staff wasn't great. You saw that with Bobby Bowden in Tallahassee. Eventually, your tree will run out because you haven't personally worked with these guys. At that point, you are relying hard on your agent to suggest guys to you. Sometimes those hit, and sometimes they don't, but I think the hit rate is higher on guys you've worked with. Saban sustained for so long bringing in guys that he really had no connection. It was mighty impressive. I think it ran out eventually. He had some guys on his staff that weren't the same quality as the guys he had on his staff a decade ago. The way they got Alabama to the SEC title game was super impressive. Their coaching staff adapted during the season. Would it have been sustained if Saban had stayed? Probably not. I don't think Alabama embraced the NIL stuff as early on as some other schools. Kirby Smart is clearly doing his thing at Georgia.
   
• To me, there is a clear top two in the sport and then everybody is pretty consensus that Texas and Oregon are No. 3 or No. 4 in some order. I get that from a number ranking, but I think No. 3 and No. 4 are close to No. 12, No. 13, and No. 14. There is a lot of clustering there, at least in my model. 
   
• In the preseason, I am not super confident that Texas is No. 3. They could be No. 9. I am a little concerned with their red zone offense. They were poor in the red zone last year. Think about who they lost at receiver and tight end. They got a lot smaller. Silas Bolden is 5-foot-8, Isaiah Bond is 5-foot-11, Matthew Golden is 6-foot and Amari Niblack is smaller than the tight end they lost. They also lost their bigger back in CJ Baxter. Are they better in the red zone? The offseason narrative is that they will be better in the red zone. Most teams don't get better in the red zone by having a QB that does not run, losing their power back and getting smaller at TE and WR. That's just my opinion. Maybe they can find a way to scheme it up better. That is possible, but they are going to have to show me that. If I am playing Texas, I am not allowing the big play over the top. You gotta show me you can win in the red zone. 
   
• I think the game plan is simple in most of Michigan's games. In about nine of their games, I think they will be able to win because their opponent can not handle what they have up front. I think their front is potentially better than last year. Adding Jaishawn Barham from Maryland is not fair. The secondary is a little thin, so that will be a spot to watch. If they get injuries there, maybe they're a little bit vulnerable. The offense is the question in their three difficult games.
   
• In the Texas, Oregon, and Ohio State games, can they score 20 points? Can they score 27 if they need to? My guess is that they are going to run with Alex Orji and play really slow again. There has been a lot of Davis Warren chatter. Is that because Orji can't play, or do you actually like Warren? If so, who are you throwing to? I don't know that I love their receiving options outside of the tight end, Colston Loveland, who is a stud.