2023 College Football Predictions: Sun Belt

Photo by Reinhold Matay from USA Today Sports

One final preview with only 5 days left in the offseason before we hit week 0, and what a final preview it is.

The Sun Belt is establishing itself as the G5 conference of note, and for good reason.

The standard of football in this conference has really risen in the last few years.

And it begins with their newest member.

East

1. James Madison Dukes

The Dukes went 8-3 last year in their first year in the FBS, and while they lose their quarterback, they return all 5 offensive linemen and running back, with a remarkable defense to boot.

Shame they can’t play for their conference title this year though, because of rules that for some reason exist for FCS schools jumping to FBS.

2. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

And that’s why the East representative for the Sun Belt will be Coastal Carolina.

Tim Beck leaves NC State to join Coastal, but he doesn’t do it having to rebuild anything, as star QB Grayson McCall has stayed for one more year at Coastal.

The East is wide open, so I’ll stick with a known commodity at quarterback to be successful.

3. Appalachian State Mountaineers

App State went 6-6 last year, which isn’t good at all by their standards.

But I’ve said it countless times in these previews, one score wins and losses are the likeliest to flip the other way the following season.

5 of App’s losses last year were by one score, so you can expect that to switch to 2 or 3 more wins.

4. Marshall Thundering Herd

The team is good, but the schedule is brutal.

The Herd play at Appalachian State, at Coastal Carolina and at South Alabama, who we’ll get to a little bit later.

Just a bad luck of the draw, unfortunately.

5. Georgia Southern Eagles

Clay Helton left USC and immediately found happiness at Georgia Southern, taking the Eagles to a 6-7 record.

That doesn’t sound good, but it’s a year removed from the Eagles going 3-9, and included a big upset win over Nebraska in Lincoln.

So there’s no reason to believe that progress won’t continue.

6. Old Dominion Monarchs

ODU’s defense is good, and the offense has a new offensive coordinator to help kickstart a lifeless offense.

The issue is, the pieces on that offense aren’t there to be kickstarted.

Maybe they will be eventually, but they aren’t yet.

7. Georgia State Panthers

Georgia State is literally in downtown Atlanta. It should be easy to get really talented college football players from Atlanta to join the Panthers and be a successful, if not the best G5 school.

But they aren’t. And they haven’t been for a long while.

That comes from coaching, and Shawn Elliott needs to do a better job.

I don’t think he will, and I bet State gets rid of Elliott and finds someone that will.

West

1. Troy Trojans

There are realistically only two options to win the West, and that’s Troy and South Alabama.

They are the top tier in the conference, and this year Troy plays South Alabama at home.

Yep. It’s that close that that’s what I’m giving the edge to.

Well that and Troy’s stifling defense.

2. South Alabama Jaguars

But South Alabama is absolutely nothing to ignore this year.

Where Troy’s defense is what makes the magic happen, it’s the offense for South Alabama that makes them tick.

Even if they fall short to Troy, this should be a very, very good football team.

3. Southern Miss Golden Eagles

Southern Miss is in a weird spot in the West this year.

They clearly aren’t as good as Troy or South Alabama, but they’re clearly better than everyone else in the West.

But hey, spend your time watching Frank Gore Jr. (yes, that Frank Gore) as he is the most exciting player in this conference by far.

4. Louisiana Ragin Cajuns

Losing Billy Napier to Florida was hard for the Cajuns, and that showed with many transfers out and a 6-7 season.

But Michael Desormeaux did a decent job and should do a decent job again this year.

But it’s a hard division.

5. Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks

The Warhawks being 5th is part Terry Bowden doing a good job in Monroe, but also part the other two teams in the West being not good.

But that shouldn’t take away from the job Bowden has done. He’s been very impressive thus far with a very tough job.

6. Arkansas State Red Wolves

Butch Jones just isn’t very good at Arkansas State.

And I don’t see it getting any better, especially defensively where the Red Wolves were horrendously bad.

7. Texas State Bobcats

This team isn’t good to begin with, let alone with a brand new first time FBS head coach.

Does that mean Texas State will always be bad? No, not at all.

G.J. Kinne comes from Incarnate Ward, one of the most exciting FCS schools in the country, and it should be super fun to watch what he can do at Texas State.

But this rebuild is going to take a lot of time.

A LOT of time.

Sun Belt Championship Game: Troy vs Coastal Carolina

This game would probably be more fun if James Madison could play in the Sun Belt title game instead of Coastal, but rules are rules!

And because of those rules, I’m not expecting much of a battle here.

Troy wins the Sun Belt Championship.