The CFP Committee has spoken and their selections for the four playoff teams have been announced. Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Alabama will be battling it out to become College Football’s newest Champion, and no matter what a new champ will be crowned for the first time since 2020.
Due to the extent of talented teams and more importantly resumes this season, the committee is facing the most backlash for their decision since the creation of the playoff system.
Each of the teams in the playoffs are going to need one of their stars to work their way to superstar status on the Road to Glory. Here is who we believe needs to be their teams “X-Factor” if they plan on holding up that CFP trophy on January 8, 2024:
Michigan Wolverines: QB JJ McCarthy
Despite the Wolverines claiming there would be a two week competition at the beginning of the 2022-23 season between Cade McNamara and McCarthy, we all knew whose job it was going to end up being. We’ve known since McNamara got benched in Georgia’s absolute smackdown of the Wolverines in the 2021 Orange Bowl and CFP Semifinal. Despite McCarthy playing in that game, that loss can’t really be pinned on him.
McCarthy’s big knock right now is his inability to win a playoff game. Granted, it is a small sample size(one playoff game in 2022). Michigan failed to beat a TCU team in last year’s playoff that many believed was unworthy of being in the playoff. The JJ McCarthy led Michigan offense was able to outscore the Horned Frogs 39-30 in the 2nd half, but the hole they were climbing out of was just too large as they were down 21-6 at halftime.
Some still question what JJ McCarthy is truly capable of as a QB, with many noting that in many games it feels like McCarthy is carried by his elite backfield in Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards.
Michigan was handed arguably the hardest matchup of the playoff when the committee chose to put Alabama’s Crimson Tide in over the FSU Seminoles. An early season benching of QB Jalen Milroe humbled the young QB, and he has been the clear leader of a rolling Tide team ever since. The Tide have been scary and showed what type of team they have developed into when they survived a late comeback push by the Bulldogs, winning the SEC Championship 27-24.
As a QB with questions surrounding his ability to win the big game, McCarthy is going to have his hands full in the Rose Bowl. However, if McCarthy is able to make plays(outside of handing the ball to his two headed monster in the backfield) and can take down the Tide all doubters should be silenced.
Washington Huskies: WR Ja’Lynn Polk
We know people are going to look at this and think this is dumb. Michael Penix needs to be the X-Factor or Dillon Johnson should be, and we absolutely agree with you… However, those are two guys that we already consider X-Factors for the Huskies. We shouldn’t need to explain why we consider Penix an X-Factor, he was a Heisman Finalist. As for Johnson, when you look at his statistical breakdown, his overall season numbers are good not great, but he shows up in the biggest matchups and has been really been heating up over the last few weeks.
The reason we chose Polk as our X-Factor is because of how much he gets overshadowed by Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan. Odunze has been one of the best WRs in all of college football, and is highly regarded as one of the 2024 Draft’s best prospects. On the other hand, McMillan isn’t as held in as high of regard as Odunze, but is a GAME CHANGER. McMillan has missed a good handful of games this year due to injury, and Polk is the man who steps up in his absence as WR2. Anyone who watched the last ever PAC-12 Championship understands how much McMillan was able to help open up the offense against the Oregon Ducks. His speed and ability to stretch the field has been missed.
Despite being a 1,000 yard receiver, Polk becomes an after thought with Odunze and McMillan both on the field. Again, anyone who watched the PAC-12 Championship will understand what we’re talking about because they talked about this throughout the game.
Unless something crazy happens in practice, Penix should have his full armory of weapons for their Sugar Bowl showdown with Texas. Odunze is going to get the brunt of the attention, with McMillan drawing a lot of the deep coverage. Washington does not in the slightest feature a TE or it doesn’t feel like it at least, so with all healthy we believe that Polk, who should be in the WR3 role(less attention on him), is going to need to have a big game and be a go to option for Penix when they need to convert. Despite being “WR3”, Polk actually has a grand opportunity to lead in receiving and be a key factor in a Washington Championship push.
Texas Longhorns: RB CJ Baxter
CJ Baxter is a true freshman RB for the Longhorns. He was the #1 RB and #30 overall recruits in his class. The Longhorns lost two premier backs to the NFL Draft this past year, and Baxter (in the minds of many) is the guy who is supposed to succeed both Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson. However, he was not asked to do it as a true frosh. Instead it was redshirt Sophomore Jonathan Brooks as the lead back this year. Unfortunately Brooks went down in the game against TCU with a Torn ACL. Since Brooks’ injury, Baxter has led the backfield, but has split with Jaydon Blue and Savion Red with a few others mixed in here and there. We understand that Sark and the Longhorns don’t want to put the pressure on a freshman, but Baxter needs to step up and show why he was the top ranked running back in this year’s class. Washington’s defense looked top tier against the Ducks, and Texas can’t afford to be one dimensional. Texas has the weapons and QB to give the Husky defense problems, but the Longhorns needs to establish a run game that Washington will respect. They have to be able to open up the play action and overall pass game.
Alabama Crimson Tide: The Front Seven
Alabama is an interesting one, Zach and I debated back and forth between a couple of possible X-Factors. Obviously our conversation started with “Gimme that Heisman” QB Jalen Milroe. As mentioned earlier, Milroe has been rolling since his early season benching; however, over the last couple weeks against Auburn and Georgia, Milroe has been the spotlight of the defensive gameplans. Milroe not being able to run around as freely and play how he does, puts the offense in a tough spot and the team in a closer game, and we are sure Michigan is going to go watch those games when they gameplan for the Tide.
Zach’s biggest point when it came to Milroe though was that if we made him the X-Factor we had to clearly state that it had to be as a passer since that’s the area he could improve most in. Which then made me think, if we are going to make the presence of the passing game the X-Factor why not spotlight WR1 Jermaine Burton. Michigan has a very stout secondary with Will Johnson and Mike Sainristill leading the charge at CB. It should be no shock to anyone when we say, this has to be the worst Alabama WR room we’ve seen in a long, long time. Burton is good, but man is Bama missing their stereotypical alpha.
Despite having good arguments for both Milroe and now Burton, we still felt we didn’t have the right X-Factor. So then we started to have a discussion about the defense since Bama is usually known for that and we had all offensive X-Factors to this point. This is where we set our sights on the front seven of Bama. Michigan HEAVILY relies on their two headed backfield. Bama’s front has to out-physical the reigning Joe Moore award winning O-Line in Ann Arbor, like Georgia did to them two years ago. McCarthy has not had to carry this team. I mean against Penn State this year Michigan, up only 14-9 at half came out and decided they weren’t going to throw the ball at all. They are convinced that as long as Corum and Edwards are going, they don’t need McCarthy to do much of anything. Look at what happened when they needed McCarthy to be a dude last year in the shootout with TCU, he could not get the job done. Bama’s front seven needs to minimize the run game to near nothing and put Michigan in a panic by making McCarthy have to beat them.