Coaches Preseason Top 25 Football Poll Out On Thursday Afternoon

The preseason USA Today Coaches Poll comes out on Thursday at 10 a.m. MT. At the conclusion of the 2011-12 college football bowl season, Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide was atop the Coaches Poll after defeating Les Miles' LSU Tigers in the national title game.

Both teams have solid cases to be the No. 1 team. Alabama returns A.J. McCarron at quarterback and has Eddie Lacy carrying the rock as the replacement for Trent Richardson, now of the Cleveland Browns. The LSU Tigers have a strong defense with Barkevious Mingo and Sam Montgomery on the line and Tyrann Mathieu in the secondary. Zach Mettenberger under center will likely be an improvement on Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson.

The Air Force Falcons, Colorado Buffaloes and Colorado St. Rams obviously won't make the top 25. But the Pac-12 and Mountain West should have teams in there. In particular, the Pac-12's USC Trojans are also a potential No. 1 team, especially with Matt Barkley at quarterback and the newly-arrived running back Silas Redd transferring from Penn State. Out of the Mountain West teams, the Boise St. Broncos might find themselves in the back-end of the top 25. The team does have plenty of holes to fill with the loss of quarterback Kellen Moore, the winningest QB in NCAA history, as well as his fellow senior defenders, including Shea McClellin, George Iloka and Billy Winn.

Check back later when we breakdown the first preseason poll.

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