Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram make national title and ‘dark horse’ picks for 2025
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Urban Meyer and Mark Ingram are now staples of FOX’s college football coverage, and the former SEC legends are ready to weigh in with their full picks for the 2025 national championship.
During the latest episode of The Triple Option Podcast, co-host Rob Stone reminded the group of their way-too-early 2025 predictions. Those came at the conclusion of the 2024 season before embarking on the wild and tumultuous offseason that has since taken place.
For Ingram, he had Texas as his early title pick and Alabama as a dark horse contender entering Year 2 under Kalen DeBoer. Those are picks that Ingram is standing by with the offseason now fading into the rearview mirror.
“I still like ‘em still to this moment,” said Ingram about his picks. “You talk about Texas with Arch Manning taking over at the helm. He had some big game experience last year, some very important reps he took last year with Quinn Ewer’s being injured… They return 6 starters (on defense). You talk about Steve Sarkisian and what he’s been able to do.
“It pains me to say it, but I like Texas with their outlook right now with what they have going on… and then Alabama, man, they’re still the Alabama.”
It’s no surprise to see Ingram remain high on his former Crimson Tide program, but there’s some merit to that pick. DeBoer made it through the offseason without losing the key pieces of his roster.
As for Meyer, he’s sticking with a split pick of Ohio State and Texas as the potential national champions. However, he had said Tennessee was his dark horse, but that pick is long gone with the Nico Iamaleava saga playing out.
“I like Ohio State (and) Texas, that makes sense. Tennessee is gone. I had them (as my dark horse). This was before the Nico transfer, which still to this day, I’m scratching my head saying, ‘What in the world happened there? There’s going to be a story some day about what happened there,” predicted Meyer. “I don’t know what it is. Why would you leave a team that just made the College Football Playoff?”
For a new dark horse, Meyer is going with Penn State under James Franklin:
“Penn State is the one team that is kind of following the pattern that the Wolverines did and the Buckeyes did with their extremely veteran team, which I think is now the playbook to go win a championship,” Meyer claimed.
To no surprise, the teams picked by Ingram and Meyer all reside in the top-6 odds to win the national championship, according to the latest preseason odds produced by BetMGM. Fans can grab those latest odds through the top sports betting apps.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
