There is Ryan Day and James Franklin pressure, and there is Billy Napier, Dave Aranda and Sam Pittman pressure.
These things, like apples and oranges, are not the same.
But, the pressure is real nonetheless.
Ohio State's Day has one of college football's most expensive coaching rosters ever, highlighted by offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, while Franklin has stacked a bunch of really nice years but nothing elite for Penn State in (mildly) Happy Valley.
Even Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel have spoken about the Buckeyes' prodigious talent for the upcoming season, which features expectations of returns to both the Big Ten Championship game and the all-new, expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
It's more of a "How can we survive?" pressure for the likes of Arkansas' Pittman, Baylor's Aranda and Florida's Napier.
Few schedules anywhere match the demands that Arkansas faces, including as Zach Barnett astutely notes five games in five different stadiums to open the season -- including roadies at Auburn and Oklahoma State as well as a "neutral site" tilt against Texas A&M in Dallas' Jerry World.
In a crucial Year 3 at Florida, Napier merely confronts a schedule that opens with preseason No. 19 Miami at home and includes an additional seven teams ranked in the top 20 to start this 2024 season.
And Shane Beamer, after an electric close to the 2022 season that included resounding wins against both Tennessee and Clemson, ending CFP hopes for both, now doesn't lack for pressure in the sport's greatest pressure-cooker league, the SEC.
After a losing season in 2023, the Gamecocks merely face seven preseason top-25 opponents as well as an early-season trip to face Mark Stoops's Kentucky squad that has been tabbed by many as a potential surprise contender in the SEC.
We debate it all, coast to coast and conference to conference, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, in our latest FootballScoop Podcast.
We open with discussions in the SEC, with Arkansas leading us off, touch on Florida five minutes into the FootballScoop Podcast, Beamer's Gamecocks at the 10-minute mark.
Around 15 minutes in, we shift to the Big Ten and examine Franklin at Penn State, Day's Buckeyes behemoth at 20 minutes, roll through Big 12 programs Baylor, Nebraska and BYU and then dial in on Mario Cristobal's Miami program around 36 minutes into the pod.
Our resident President, Scott Roussel, shares a Bobby Petrino anecdote, we discuss who was on the sidelines the last time Nebraska made a bowl game and we hardly stop at just the aforementioned coaches.
Expanded playoffs. NIL. Revenue Sharing. And drama like never before all lie ahead in 2024.
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