The first rankings of the season are out and a lot of familiar faces show up at the top of the Dirty 30 Preseason Rankings. With a ton of time before the first snap is taken, Iowa Western College heads the list from JCGridiron.com.
No matter who you put at No. 1, there is always going to be some that are offended. The same could be said for my national championship rankings or week five rankings. Someone always thinks they got slighted.
THE TOP 4
Iowa Western (1) finished No. 2 in the rankings last season, an eyelash behind Fullerton College and tops amongst the NJCAA ranks despite getting closed out from the NJCAA title game. They earned that spot by streaking past Northwest Mississippi in the Graphic Edge Bowl, a team that had beaten NJCAA title-winner East Mississippi earlier in the season. The Reivers landed a couple of bounce back quarterbacks during the offseason and should be very stingy on defense. They open the season at Coffeyville College on August 23. Coffeyville enters the season ranked No. 21 in the Dirty 30 Rankings.
East Mississippi (2) is a football factory and last season had a crazy number of guys transfer to four-year schools. However, when all those guys transfer it means that someone else has to replace them. Fortunately for EMCC, they have endless tentacles and should have no problems rearranging the furniture. The Lions landed a bounce back quarterback from the Big Ten, a defensive end from the SEC and should be one of the more athletic teams in the nation. East Mississippi opens the season at home against Hinds on August 30. Hinds starts the season at No. 23 in the JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 Preseason Rankings.
Another team that has sky-high potential is Arizona Western (3), who starts the season at No. 3 but received a ton of consideration for the top spot. The Matadors are stacked with D1 bounce backs, with over a dozen guys transferring into the program from such places as West Virginia, Pitt, Kentucky, Michigan, Washington State and Penn State. They even landed one of the top linebackers from the California ranks in the past few weeks, reaching across state lines for added talent on the defensive side of the ball. The only problem to start the season is a lack of experience under center. Their only freshman from a year ago signed at Oregon State during the offseason, leaving a bit of a hole at an important position. Arizona Western opens the season on August 24 at home against New Mexico Military before a crazy road trip to Georgia Military.
The California ranks have been wild and wacky in recent years, but we list Riverside City College (4) as the team to beat in 2018. The Tigers were manhandled in the SoCal title game last season by Fullerton, which head coach Tom Craft will constantly remind them about for the next five months. Riverside lost one of the best linebackers in the country to Arizona Western a few weeks back but may have landed a wild card as 2017 quarterback and Minnesota commit Vic Viramontes opted to leave the Gophers after a semester and return to RCC to reportedly play linebacker. The Tigers landed another bounce back quarterback and should be very competent on offense, with Viramontes as an added insurance policy should something happen under center. However it shakes out, two quarterbacks is a great problem to have and the Tigers are always one of the more athletic teams in the Golden State. RCC opens the season at El Camino College on September 1. El Camino opens the season on the bubble at No. 40 in the preseason rankings.
I know the next question you are going to ask. Where is Fullerton? Trust me, I get it. I understand. The Hornets have spent the past two seasons on top of the mantel. Fullerton has won 25 of its past 26 games and at times made it look simple. Unfortunately, our preseason rankings are based upon information received and thus far we haven’t received any. We know there is a handful of returning guys on defense and some holes to fill on offense due to graduation. Is the talent there? In all likelihood, yes. Fullerton opens the season with a road game at Golden West College on September 1 before traveling to Riverside in week two. That should be fun.
The rest of the JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 Preseason Rankings follow. Just a reminder, our rankings/records do not include games against prep schools or non-affiliated programs.
JCGridiron.com enters its 14th season of ranking junior college football programs. Previous winners of the national title include;
