Top CFB Storylines to Watch During 2026 Spring Practices

Yes, the long, hot summer days without football are right around the corner, but if you can believe it, spring practice is already here. That means—at least for the next few weeks—we'll have college football.

This is the time of year where we begin to learn about how our favorite teams are going to look next year. And the 2026 rendition of spring drills is full of reasons to scour the headlines.

From marquee coaches in new spots to some good, old-fashioned quarterback battles to all the roster tumult in the wake of transfer portal additions and subtractions, Spring Practice 2026 is juicy.

Lane's in Louisiana, Kyle Whittingham traded his Ute Red for Big Blue, and plenty of transfer portal signal-callers are getting ready to carve out their playing-time paths in championship runs.

It all starts with chemistry-building during 15 days in March. So, here are the top storylines to pay attention to this year.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti may have gained the reputation as being the top program-builder in the nation with his work over the past few years, but now we can call him a national champion.

Can the Hoosiers build a dynasty in Bloomington?

They've proven they've got the resources, and they've certainly got the right coach. But it's not going to be easy to repeat as champs in '26. 

Gone is Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the two-headed running back monster of Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby, four of the top five pass-catchers and defensive stars galore. 

It's a bit of a roster overhaul for the Hoosiers, and Cignetti already has shown he can concoct chemistry, and he knows the players who fit what he wants to do. He goes and gets veterans with playing experience, and that's what he's done again this offseason.

Quarterback Josh Hoover, receiver Nick Marsh, running back Turbo Richard and plenty of others are this year's reinforcements. Do they have enough juice to go back-to-back? The roster-building begins now.

The best part of spring practice is quarterback battles, but with the recent churn of the transfer portal doling out sure-fire starters to teams that lose their field generals, the signal-caller derby has fallen to the wayside.

Not this year.

We've got two good, old-fashioned quarterback battles between (mostly) homegrown talent at SEC rivals Alabama and Tennessee. Duke, Iowa, Florida and possibly even Clemson and Nebraska have QB situations worth watching, too.

But the highest-profile battles are in the Capstone and on Rocky Top.

Alabama has tall, big-armed Austin Mack (who followed Kalen DeBoer from Washington) going against elite, former 5-star redshirt freshman Keelon Russell in an anybody's-guess race. As if it wasn't tense enough in a battle, the winner gets thrown into CFB's biggest pressure-cooker.

With Joey Aguilar getting denied another year of eligibility, Tennessee will trot out tall, lanky redshirt freshman George MacIntyre against true freshman 5-star Faizon Brandon. The Vols have tons of offensive talent, but relying on a freshman under center is dicey, at best.

Could TJ Lateef usurp veteran transfer Anthony Colandrea? Did Florida grab Aaron Philo in the transfer portal only to watch him lose to Tramell Jones Jr.? Does Chris Vizzina have the job locked up at Clemson? We'll get some answers this spring.

Nobody makes headlines quite like Lane Kiffin, and now he's LSU's problem.

The Bayou Bengals are grateful for that, too.

After the coach backed up his brashness by leading Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff, he decided to leave the Rebels for the hated rival Tigers. Ole Miss returned the favor by keeping Kiffin from coaching in the postseason.

Kiffin hit the ground recruiting in Baton Rouge, locking up top-tier recruits and signing a transfer portal class that is the envy of college football. 

Superstar players like quarterback Sam Leavitt, offensive tackle Jordan Seaton, edge-rusher Princely Umanmielen, linebacker TJ Dottery, cornerback Faheem Delane, offensive lineman Devin Harper, receiver Winston Walker, safety Ty Benefield and edge-rusher Jordan Ross highlight a loaded portal class of 40.

Truthfully, LSU looks like it could be a national championship contender right now, and with Kiffin leading the offense with coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and keeping Blake Baker to run the defense, the sky is the limit.

With Kiffin's recruiting acumen, it's always about whether the chemistry comes about and the new faces jell. The Tigers could make noise right away.

It's going to be weird seeing Kyle Whittingham leading Michigan out of the Big House tunnel, but he's the stabilizing force that program needs.

Can he win a national title, though? There are certainly a lot of quality newcomers who wore Utah red last year coming to Ann Arbor to surround star sophomore signal-caller Bryce Underwood.

Whittingham may be the biggest name besides Lane Kiffin in new territory for '26, but lots of other high-profile coaches changed allegiances, too.

We'll talk more about James Franklin, but his arrival in Blacksburg to coach Virginia Tech feels like a match made in Hokie Heaven. Penn State fired him midway through the season, giving the Nittany Lions plenty of time to hire a coach.

Despite that fact, they meandered their way around a botched search, only to stumble upon a solid hire in Iowa State's Matt Campbell.

Plenty of other intrigue surrounds the trifecta of former AAC coaching stars who went to the SEC in Jon Sumrall (Tulane to Florida), Alex Golesh (South Florida to Auburn) and Ryan Silverfield (Memphis to Arkansas). Eric Morris also is taking his high-octane offense from North Texas to the Big 12's Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Don't forget Bob Chesney's College Football Playoff pedigree going from James Madison to UCLA. And Pete Golding already has a CFP semifinal run to his credit in an interim swing with Ole Miss.

Caught all that? It's going to take some getting used to.

Ohio State avoided disaster when offensive coordinator Brian Hartline left for South Florida just before signing day, steadying the recruiting ship and signing several high-profile offensive recruits that were wavering.

Now, they've replaced him with a second intriguing coordinator hire in as many years. Last season, coach Ryan Day went outside-the-box and brought in former NFL defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to lead the Buckeyes defense, a move that worked brilliantly.

He's gone that same route with Arthur Smith (who formerly was head coach of the Tennessee Titans and, most recently, offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh) to lead the offense. He inherits a stable of horses like elite receiver Jeremiah Smith.

In Knoxville, Tennessee's putrid '25 defense got a portal overhaul, courtesy of veteran defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who could be a godsend for a program that underachieved on defense a season ago.

Jason Beck followed Kyle Whittingham from Utah to Michigan, and he will be called upon to develop Bryce Underwood's ridiculous skill set. Charlie Weis Jr. (LSU) and Buster Faulkner (Florida) have spotlights on them, too.

There are tons of others, but we're excited to watch Will Muschamp get to lead a defense again at Texas, replacing Pete Kwiatkowski, who resurfaced quickly at USC. Lots of great coordinators hit the carousel.

The Big Ten rules college football right now with the past three national championship winners hailing from the conference (Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana).

Oregon could be next in line.

There's no roster in the sport better than the one coach Dan Lanning will trot out there, led by quarterback Dante Moore, who left a huge NFL payday that would have seen him selected near the top of the draft for nice money to stay in Oregon for a season.

The playmakers on both sides of the ball returning with him or coming in from the portal are just silly. Nobody is luring top-tier talent right now like Lanning, and the Ducks have everything in place not only to win the natty in '26 but in years to come.

The biggest question standing between them and a dynasty is just how well the new coordinators mesh. The Ducks lost offensive coordinator Will Stein to be Kentucky's head coach and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi to be Cal's new coach.

Replacing them are Drew Mehringer (offense) and Chris Hampton (defense), both assistants on last year's team who know the system and have a level of comfortability with the current players.

If everything comes together, we could see the origins of something special. The prediction here is Oregon wins the championship, and all that acclimation with the new coaches needs to heat up this spring.

It's not a shocker that the Miami Hurricanes went out and got an elite quarterback in the transfer portal. They've done it the past two years with Cam Ward and Carson Beck, and both worked out tremendously.

But how the 'Canes lured Darian Mensah from Duke in the 11th hour rubbed plenty in college football the wrong way and left the Blue Devils scrambling for a quarterback for '26.

That's not Mario Cristobal's problem. The U nearly returned to glory with a magical College Football Playoff run last year that fell just short in the title-game loss to Indiana. He's trying to break through in Coral Gables, and Mensah gives Miami a huge chance once again in '26.

You can't really fault Mensah, either. Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson's offenses showcase quarterbacks, who use their tenures with the 'Canes as a springboard to the NFL.

With guys like Malachi Toney already in the fold and some talented youngsters coming in, Mensah is set up to be successful. Veteran Mark Fletcher Jr. will be standing behind him to take handoffs, too.

Miami could be right back in the championship next year if Mensah settles in quickly. He'll be learning the offense this spring and ready to roll in the fall.

This is the time of college football where the word "rebuild" should just be a one- or two-year endeavor. Coaches won't get much more rope than that.

The transfer portal enables teams to reload every single season, and if you're willing to invest in a coach and a roster, you can compete quickly. Just ask Texas Tech, which committed to being some of the biggest spenders in the portal and went from nowhere to the playoffs in a year.

Miami always goes and pays big bucks for quarterbacks, and that pays off. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti meticulously plots out his portal class, and while it's never ranked the highest, he's got a veteran group of reinforcements on which he can rely.

All those teams got better through the portal again in '26. 

But there are lots of players we're excited to see, too. Brendan Sorsby could be dynamic for the Red Raiders after moving from Cincinnati. Leavitt has to get healthy, but he's Lane Kiffin's newest toy in Baton Rouge. 

Cam Coleman at Texas, elite safety Koi Perich at Oregon, explosive edge Chaz Coleman at Tennessee, the terrific tandem of Drew Mestemaker and Caleb Hawkins at Oklahoma State, Byrum Brown at Auburn, Quincy Porter at Notre Dame—all those guys could be stars.

There are just too many to mention. But you'd better have the portal rankings handy. Pretty much every team uses the portal or gets left behind (right, Dabo?).

Last year, the Texas Longhorns were ranked No. 1 in the preseason, but an early-season loss to Ohio State was just the beginning of a three-loss campaign that saw them get left out of the final 12.

That may have been a year premature.

Coach Steve Sarkisian went out and got stars in the portal such as receiver Cam Coleman (Auburn) and running backs Hollywood Smothers (North Carolina State) and Raleek Brown (Arizona State) to give Arch Manning some firepower. Now, watch out for the Longhorns.

They aren't the only Lone Star State team ready for bigger and brighter things, though.

A big season for Texas A&M fell flat in '25 after a season-ending loss to Texas kept the Aggies from the SEC championship, then Miami came to College Station and ended their season in the first round of the playoffs. But coach Mike Elko has tons of young weapons, and they could be right back in the mix.

Don't forget about the Big 12's beast, the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who replaced a lot of senior transfer portal departures with yet another massive year in luring newcomers to play for head coach Joey McGuire.

This is going to be a Texas-sized race to the playoffs in the Wild, Wild West.

One of the most intriguing storylines to watch this spring is what's going on in Los Angeles with the USC Trojans.

They may not be quite ready to compete for championships in an absolutely loaded Big Ten in their third season in the league, but coach Lincoln Riley isn't just going out and getting quick fixes in the portal. He's building USC for the long haul, and there will be a youth movement.

The Trojans only brought in 10 total transfers, led by need-pulls like receiver Terrell Anderson (North Carolina State), edge rusher Zuriah Fisher (Penn State) and cornerback Jontez Williams (Iowa State).

But the biggest story is Riley signed the nation's top-ranked recruiting class in '26 for a program that had been fairly dormant luring top-tier talent the past couple of years. They were anything but that this year.

Star youngsters like edge Luke Wafle, offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe and defensive tackle Jaimeon Winfield are in LA and ready to roll this spring along with potential stars like sophomore Jahkeem Stewart, quarterback Jayden Maiava, running back King Miller and more.

Riley has some studs in the stable with more on the way. This is a team for the future building now.

After the fall-on-face tenures of Justin Fuente and Brent Pry, the Virginia Tech Hokies needed a golden goose to fall in their lap.

Penn State's trash is the Hokies' treasure as James Franklin landed in Blacksburg after getting fired in Happy Valley. And you can only call 128-60 (.681 winning percentage) "trash" if you're ignorant.

Regardless, Penn State brass elected to move on, and that's big news for the Hokies, who hired him. And Pry actually stuck around to be the new defensive coordinator for his old boss, holding the same position he did with the Nittany Lions before taking over as head Hokie.

Tech saw an immediate talent surge when Franklin took over, nabbing guys like quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer (Penn State), tight end Luke Reynolds (Penn State), receiver Que'Sean Brown (Duke).

They also surged to 30th in recruiting rankings, bringing in guys like running back Messiah Mickens, quarterback Troy Huhn, linebacker Terry Wiggins and much more.

A lot of those guys will get on the field this spring, and Franklin isn't just content with treading water in Blacksburg. They want to win now. The odds are he builds a team that knows how to compete very quickly.