50 things to know about college football 2015

WHILE THE PROS are still trying to figure out their 53-man rosters, college football opens up tomorrow night.

So don't mind the kid from Arkansas who is a little screwy, tell the Wolverines to put down that marsupial, and root even harder for Pittsburgh's star running back.

We love the offbeat here in the annual 50 things to know about the upcoming season, so this year's version includes the debut of Attila the Hun.

1 If Persistence 101 was a class, Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield would easily get an "A." Mayfield walked on at Texas Tech and became the first true freshman without a scholarship to start a season opener for a D-I school. Now he's the starter at OU, the school he grew up rooting for.

2 Coach Bob Stoops called Mayfield's transfer one of the strangest episodes in his career because Mayfield sort of showed up without prior clearance from the coach. "If I had said no," Stoops told the Oklahoma Daily, "he might be in a fraternity [right now] playing yardball."

3 The removal of the Confederate flag from state buildings has opened up the likelihood that a bowl game will be held in South Carolina as soon as 2016. The NCAA had boycotted holding postseason events in all sports in South Carolina because of the flags.

4 Arkansas offensive lineman Sebastian Tretola is the one of the funniest guys in the locker room, but also one of the most obsessive-compulsive if things are not perfectly neat in his stall. "I think about it all day," he said. "It will just be sitting in my head all day, irritating me like, 'I didn't fold those pair of shorts.' "

5 Tretola (6-5, 334) threw a touchdown pass last year on a fake field goal and then struck the Heisman pose.

6 Notre Dame's $400 million stadium project includes the removal of the scoreboard in the north end zone, which will open up an even better view of Touchdown Jesus.

7 The cable network Showtime is following the Irish around for the season and will air "Hard Knocks"-esque episodes on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. If there's as much cursing as on "Hard Knocks," Touchdown Jesus will need to be fitted for earplugs.

8 Amazingly, Ohio State is the first unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason poll. It's the eighth time the Buckeyes have been No. 1 in the preseason. They did not win the national title in any of the previous seven occurrences, including in 2006 when they lost the BCS Championship to Urban Meyer and Florida. Meyer, of course, is now Ohio State's coach.

9 Meyer said he won't announce whether J.T. Miller or Cardale Jones will start at quarterback for Monday's opener at Virginia Tech until game day. After V-Tech, the Buckeyes host Hawaii, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan before opening Big Ten play. The total point spreads for those latter three games figure to be north of 100.

10 After USC's Steve Sarkisian stepped into a pile of Trojan horse mess with an alcohol-infused rant at a team function, he had to face his players. The USC leadership council ordered Sarkisian to run, run and run in the searing Los Angeles heat.

11 Southern Cal, eighth in the AP preseason poll, hasn't played in a New Year's Bowl since the Rose Bowl after the 2008 season when Pete Carroll was still the coach.

12 Michigan State, at No. 5, has its highest preseason ranking since 1967 when Sparty was ranked third. As coach Mark Dantonio is quick to point out, the '67 Spartans went 3-7.

13 The Spartans should have another fierce defense and will lean on fifth-year senior Arjen Colquhoun to help replace star corner Trae Waynes, an NFL first-round pick. Colquhoun, from Windsor, Ontario, is nicknamed the "Canadian Flash" and his Twitter handle is @TheCanuck36. Nice.

14 Vernon Adams is taking Marcus Mariota's place as No. 7 Oregon's starting quarterback. Adams threw for 10,438 yards and 110 touchdowns in 37 games for I-AA Eastern Washington.

15 Shawnee High product Jake Pisarcik is in the Oregon offensive-line rotation, reader Adam Dvorin points out. Pisarcik, son of former NFL quarterback Joe, played in all 15 games for the Ducks last year as a redshirt freshman.

16 The Ducks open with Eastern Washington on Saturday and play at Michigan State on Sept. 12 in one of the top games of the early season.

17 Michigan senior guard Kyle Kalis said training camp with new coach Jim Harbaugh has "been an experience that I'll probably tell my kids about." Practices from 1-4 p.m. were held to "shape the body and mold the mind," Kalis said.

18 Harbaugh's debut is tomorrow against Utah (8:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1). How much has the game changed? In Harbaugh's senior season as quarterback at Michigan, he had 10 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, finished third in the Heisman voting and was an NFL first-round pick.

19 When it was discovered that a wallaby was staying at the house of some of Michigan's football players, PETA was hopping mad. The players quickly returned the marsupial to the breeder, though PETA would have preferred a local zoo. "A wallaby doesn't belong in a private home any more than a wolverine does," said Brittany Peet, a lawyer for PETA.

20 The teams in last year's inaugural four-team playoff and where they were ranked in the preseason: Florida State (1), Alabama (2), Oregon (3) and champion Ohio State (5). Oklahoma (4) went 8-5.

21 Alabama's defense understands where the blame lies after last year's late-season meltdown, including the 456-yard torching at the hands of Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall in a game won by the Tide. "Our secondary has been decreasing as far as the [statistics]," said safety Geno Matias-Smith. "It hasn't been good. We definitely know when big plays happen, it's normally the secondary. We've just got to change that."

22 The new video board at Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium is the largest in college football, measuring 57 feet high and 190 feet wide. By comparison, the two large boards at Lincoln Financial Field are 27 by 96 feet.

23 Snoop Dogg's son, wide receiver Cordell Broadus, quit the UCLA team. It's OK, though. Arizona's Scooby Wright III is still hanging in there. In fact, he's one of the best linebackers in the nation. The 22nd-ranked Wildcats' first national-TV game is Sept. 12 against Nevada (6 p.m., CBSSN).

24 Tom Bradley, the man who held the Penn State program together after Joe Paterno's firing in 2011, is UCLA's defensive coordinator. He had been an associate head coach at West Virginia.

25 UNLV's new coach, Tony Sanchez, is the fourth man in 40 years to make the leap from high school head coach to Division I head coach. The previous three - Iowa's Bob Commings, Notre Dame's Gerry Faust and North Texas' Todd Dodge - went 53-101-1 in 14 combined seasons, with Faust getting to the only two bowl games.

26 Sanchez was at Bishop Gorman, the Las Vegas high school that produced DeMarco Murray. Sanchez did not coach Murray, however.

27 Clemson is picked to win the ACC Atlantic Division over Florida State. Nationally, however, FSU is 10th in the AP preseason poll and Clemson is 12th. They meet at Clemson on Nov. 7.

28 Despite the expectations, Tigers fan Micah Rogers won't get to see many of his favorite team's games. Rogers, who was 18 in 2013 when he broke into Clemson's stadium and chipped off a brick-sized piece of famed Howard's Rock for a personal souvenir, was found guilty of a vandalism charge, fined $750 and ordered to do community service on Saturdays during the college football season. Moron.

29 Georgia Tech is favored to come out of the ACC's Coastal Division, though things are so wide-open that six of the seven teams received at least one first-place vote in media balloting.

30 Will Muschamp, who went 11-2 as Florida's head coach in 2012, went 11-13 the next two years and was fired. He's been replaced by Jim McElwain, who had been the head coach at Colorado State.

31 Florida's offensive line added something unique this season: a graduate transfer from Fordham. Mason Halter, twice named first-team all-Patriot League, is eligible to play immediately. If he pancakes a defensive lineman, it should be called a "Halter Top." Groan.

32 And when Texas Christian offensive tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai opens a hole, it should be called a "Vowel Movement." OK, that's enough.

33 TCU averaged 46.5 points per game and has 10 starters back on offense, including quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Trevone Boykin. The No. 2 Horned Frogs host No. 4 Baylor on Nov. 27 - the day after Thanksgiving. Last season, in a game played on Oct. 11, Baylor rallied to stun TCU, 61-58, in the highest-scoring contest ever between Top 10 teams.

34 The only time TCU has ever been ranked No. 1 was in 1938 when Heisman Trophy winner Davey O'Brien was the quarterback. Baylor has never been No. 1.

35 Baylor does not have its starting quarterback back, but it does have its entire offensive line, top three running backs and two 1,000-yard receivers returning. Oh yeah, Laquan McGowan, a 6-7, 410-pound tight end whose only catch last year was an 18-yard touchdown in the Cotton Bowl, is back.

36 McGowan says he's not proud to be 400 pounds and that he's constantly battling to watch his weight. After he pulverized a teammate during spring camp, coach Art Briles had to install a noncontact policy whenever McGowan caught a pass. He's been clocked in the 40-yard dash at 5.42 seconds.

37 The Big 12 again will be the only power league without a conference championship game, something that's likely to change next season. The by-law requiring leagues to have 12 teams in order to have a championship game is expected to be repealed with little opposition. Not having a title game likely cost the 10-team conference one of the four playoff spots last year.

38 Delaware County native and former Widener coach Bill Cubit's first game as interim coach at Illinois is 9 p.m. Friday against Kent State on the Big Ten Network. Cubit, 62 in October, was promoted from offensive coordinator last week as the Illini fired Tim Beckham for alleged player mistreatment. Illinois visits Penn State on Halloween and hosts Ohio State on Nov. 14.

39 "[Coach Cubit is] like a father to most of us," quarterback Wes Lunt told the Chicago Tribune. "He's a really good football coach, but he truly cares about his players. We're behind him because we believe in him."

40 Houston's new head coach is Tom Herman, who had been the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. The Buckeyes, because of injuries, used three different quarterbacks and still went 14-1 and won the national title.

41 Former Baylor offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery is the head coach at Tulsa. Tulsa and Houston are in the AAC West. Neither plays Temple this season.

42 Navy becomes the AAC's 12th team this season, the first time the Midshipmen have been in a conference in the program's 134-year history.

43 It will be a little odd if the Mids makes it to the inaugural AAC title game on Dec. 5. The Army-Navy game, which Navy has won for 13 consecutive years, is the week after that at Lincoln Financial Field.

44 Temple opens with Penn State on Saturday, but the following week's game at Cincinnati actually is more important to the Owls because Cincy is favored to win the AAC. Bearcats cornerback Adrian Witty, one of the team captains, is in his sixth season. When he was injured last year, he often attended coaches' meetings and occasionally wore a headset during games.

45 Nebraska senior defensive end Jack Gangwish was a walk-on up until last year when the Cornhuskers ran out of scholarship bodies and were forced to play him. Gangwish performed so well, he earned a scholarship for this season and is one of six team captains. His dad, Paul, also walked on at Nebraska and earned a letter in 1985. "The fact is, [walking on] doesn't always pay off," the father told the Associated Press. "That's what makes me so proud . . . I understand that so intimately."

46 Looking for a sleeper? Ole Miss, ranked 17th, has seven starters back from a defense that allowed the fewest points per game. The Rebels play at Alabama in Week 3.

47 Steve Spurrier turned 70 in April and vowed he is not going anywhere any time soon, despite what other coaches might be whispering to recruits. To reinforce his commitment to South Carolina, Spurrier even quoted Attila the Hun: "It's a simple truth that the greater your accomplishments . . . the greater opposition, torment and discouragement your enemies will throw in your path."

48 Add the Cure Bowl to the list of 41 bowl games. This game is not named for the insurance company, however. Its mission is to generate revenue to advance a cure for breast cancer. The AAC and Sun Belt each will send a team to the Dec. 19 contest at Orlando's Citrus Bowl.

49 The national semifinals are Thursday, Dec. 31 at the Cotton and Orange Bowls. The championship game is Monday, Jan. 11 in Glendale, Ariz. The first College Football Playoff rankings will be released on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

50 Pittsburgh running back James Conner, last year's ACC player of the year after running for 1,765 yards and 26 touchdowns, was honored this offseason by the National Kidney Foundation for his volunteer work. "People are going to have their eye on you, the things you do off the field," he told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "So it's my responsibility to act right."