College Football 2019 Group of Five preview: A Saturday Blitz Podcast

The Saturday Blitz podcast crew continues their preview of the 2019 college football season, turning their attention this week to the Group of Five.

We are entering the home stretch of the offseason, and the 2019 college football season is now just over a month away. With the light at the end of the tunnel shining ever so brightly, now is the time for further prognosticating about the upcoming season.

After diving into the FCS race last week, John and Zach now turn their full attention to the FBS starting with what should be a fascinating Group of Five race in 2019.

UCF has left little doubt about its standing atop the group-of-five mountaintop, running the table the last two regular seasons and grabbing the automatic bid into the New Year’s Six. The first time around, the Knights proved they belonged on the biggest of stages by upending Auburn in the Peach Bowl. Last year, UCF still looked the part, but they were unable to quite pull off the upset of LSU in the Fiesta Bowl.

With McKenzie Milton out for the season, can either Notre Dame transfer Brandon Wimbush or rising sophomore Darriel Mack Jr., who replaced the injured Milton last season, lead the Knights back to the New Year’s Six?

UCF figures to have stern challengers in their own league with Cincinnati, Memphis and Houston all chomping at the bit to dethrone Josh Heupel’s squad.

Elsewhere, the Mountain West once again looks to be every bit as talented and deep as the American. Boise State, even after losing long-time starting quarterback Brett Rypien, figures to be among the contenders in the New Year’s Six race. Fresno State took the league last year, and Utah State returns arguably the conference’s best offensive player in quarterback Jordan Love. Our podcasters also like Hawai’i to make some noise in the Mountain West this season.

The American and the Mountain West have dominated the group-of-five race in recent seasons, but there’s a lot of talented teams in the other leagues as well, and teams from the C-USA, MAC, and Sun Belt could ultimately challenge for that coveted selection.

John and Zach make their picks for each league, and are fully prepared to be old takes exposed after their selections go belly-up once the season gets started. Along with picking every league, John and Zach also make their pick for each Group of Five team that will represent the leagues in the New Year’s Six.

Spoiler: Both have a new team taking UCF’s spot at the top of the mountain.

The Saturday Blitz Podcast is part of the FanSided Radio Network at Spreaker. The show goes live every Wednesday morning. You can reach John Mitchell at @jlmitchell93 and Zach Bigalke at @zbigalke on Twitter.