Category: College Football

The Texas Longhorns will make their debut in the SEC this season as arguably the biggest team to change conferences in college football history. Texas, the defending Big 12 champions, have won three Big 12 titles since 2005, and even in years where they haven’t been as strong, their name appeal is always one of the biggest in the country. Texas has arguably the most recognizable player in college football and if all goes well for the Longhorns, he won’t even see the field. Arch Manning, the son of Cooper Manning and nephew of Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, is scheduled to back up Quinn Ewers as a redshirt freshman entering Texas football camp.

Ewers held off the pressure of playing in front of a Manning last year by throwing for 3,479 yards and leading Texas to the Big 12 title. If he does so again, he’ll do it without many of the top playmakers from last seaso,n as Texas graduated its top five pass-catchers on the Texas football roster. That means Texas football fall camp has been filled with competitions at running back, receiver and tight end, so who will emerge as the top playmakers for the SEC version of the Longhorns in the 2024-25 college football season? If you want to see the latest Texas football camp news, be sure to see what the proven team of insiders are saying at Horns247, the 247Sports affiliate that covers Texas.

Horns247 has two of the most experienced journalists in the Texas market in Chip Brown and Jeff Howe. They have broken countless stories over the last two decades. Newcomer Eric Henry has already made his presence felt in the market, and Hank South and Jordan Scruggs have Longhorns recruiting on lockdown. Get all the inside scoop and VIP intel on Texas football and more, plus check out their VIP message board for more….

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Benedictine football Coach Danny Britt has led the Cadets to four state titles since he took over the program in 2011, and he has no qualms about testing his team by stacking the schedule with premium opponents.

This year, the Cadets are playing in the rugged Region 1-4A, which many consider to be the toughest in Georgia, and Britt set up a formidable non-region slate featuring Buford and Archbishop Moeller along with an opener with Rabun Gap-Nacoochee. Calpreps.com ranked BC’s schedule as the toughest in Georgia.

On Saturday night, BC faced its first test and didn’t play to the level at which Britt was hoping as Rabun Gap took down the Cadets 41-17 in a game in the Erk Russell Classic played at Georgia Southern’s Paulson Stadium.

Rabun Gap is stacked with Division I talent including senior offensive lineman Justin Hasenheutle (committed to Georgia Tech), tight end Marshall Pritchett (committed to North Carolina), defensive back Patrick Williams, who is headed to Cincinnati, linebacker Antoine Deslauriers (committed to Syracuse) and defensive lineman Terry Nwasbuisi-Ezeala, who is headed to Wake Forest.

Gavin Owens, the left-handed senior quarterback, holds offers including Kentucky and Boston College, and he was on point in the passing game as he completed 21 of 32 passes for 313 yards and three scores, with one interception. Running back Anthony Quinn Jr. was tough between the tackles as the senior ran for 101 yards and two scores on 18 carries.

Benedictine also lost two starting lineman to knee injuries as defensive lineman Isaac Scott III and offensive lineman Carlton Hall both left in the first quarter with what seemed like serious knee issues.

“We didn’t perform as well as I thought we would tonight, but we knew these first two games (BC is on the road next week at Buford) were going to be extremely difficult,”…

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A quarter century ago, a then-obscure former indoor football star named Kurt Warner led the Rams to an unexpected title after starting quarterback Trent Green suffered a season-ending injury in the preseason. While no one knows how the Vikings’ 2024 season will play out, it’s beginning is strikingly similar to the 1999 Rams. 

On Friday, Minnesota formally placed rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy on injured reserve after he suffered a season-ending knee injury during the Vikings’ preseason opener against the Raiders. In a corresponding move, the team signed Matt Corral, whose professional career so far has just as many ups and downs as Warner’s did at the same point in his career. 

Like Warner, Corral has had success in an alternative league. He recently won each of his three starts for the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions. In this year’s UFL conference championship game, Corral came off the bench to go 9 of 11 for 120 yards with two touchdown passes in leading the Stallions to a win over Michigan. Birmingham then went onto win its third consecutive league title. 

“I think Matt is a very talented individual, but more than anything, I think today is an unbelievable lesson in resolve,” Stallions coach Skip Holtz said after the win over Michigan. “Not in four quarters of resolve but in two months of resolve, as he has had to stand on the sideline. And yet, he has taken every week in practice, they’ve split reps to keep them both sharp and ready. It would have been real easy for him to hang his head, sulk, pout, and yet, he’s been completely in it and ready for his opportunity.”

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Connor Stalions has a new job, and he’s staying right here in Michigan.

Stalions has joined Detroit Mumford as its defensive coordinator, new Mumford head coach William McMichael confirmed to the Free Press on Friday.

Stalions became a national name last October when news broke of Michigan football’s alleged sign-stealing operation, identifying him at the center of it. Stalions was quickly suspended with pay by the university, and the school announced his resignation a few weeks later Nov. 3.

He was thrust back into the news in early August, when the NCAA sent a draft Notice of Allegations (NOA) to Michigan from its investigations into a multi-year illegal sign-stealing undertaking and recruiting violations during a COVID dead period in 2021.

Stalions was one of four Michigan staffers, including head coach Jim Harbaugh, accused in the draft of Level I violations, the NCAA’s most serious offense in its enforcement process.

And first-year head coach Sherrone Moore is facing a Level II violation, according to the NOA draft, and could face a suspension and show-cause penalty for allegedly deleting 52 text messages with Stalions on the same day news broke of an illegal sign-stealing scheme. The texts were later recovered through “device imaging,” and Moore in time produced them to investigators, according to the draft obtained by ESPN.

The NCAA’s draft also confirmed evidence of Stalions disguised in Central Michigan coaching gear with a sideline pass while patrolling the Chippewas’ sideline during their 2023 opener at Spartan Stadium vs. Michigan State.

Stalions is scheduled to discuss the scandal in a Netflix episode of “Untold” airing Aug. 27. The special, titled “Sign Stealer,” will give a voice to Stalions and “his side of Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing scheme that turned him into a viral villain.”

Free Press special…

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The 2024 season will bring about major changes to the sport. Most notable, of course, is the College Football Playoff tripling in size from four to 12 teams. The format will reward the four highest-ranked conference champions with the top four seeds and byes to the quarterfinals.

Because the byes will be handed to conference champions, it’s possible the teams that earn byes will not actually be the four highest-rated teams in the final CFP Rankings. In our CBS Sports preseason projection, only two of the top four teams, No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Ohio State, receive byes to the quarterfinals. The other teams skipping the first round are No. 7 Utah and No. 8 Florida State, projected champions of the Big 12 and ACC, respectively.

That means No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Oregon would host first-round games as the respective fifth and sixth seeds. No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Texas A&M are the seventh and eighth seeds, respectively. Yes, that is four SEC teams among the top six teams in the rankings. The Crimson Tide and Aggies do not play each other in the regular season, which helps to make this possible.

The Big Ten is the only other conference with more than two teams in the projected playoff. Penn State would play at Texas A&M in the first round. The fifth conference champion in the playoff will be the highest-rated Group of Five league winner; Boise State holds that projection, but as it is not projected high in the final CFP Rankings, would take the 12th and final seed.

Let’s take a look at how this shakes out.

College Football Playoff

Quarterfinals

Jan. 1

Sugar Bowl
New Orleans

(1) Georgia vs. (8/9) Winner

Jan. 1

Rose Bowl
Pasadena, Calif.

(2) Ohio State vs. (7/10) Winner

Jan. 1

Peach…

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Apple Podcasts | Spotify

• Hosts: Tony Garica (@RealTonyGarcia) and Rainer Sabin (@RainerSabin)

• Editor: Robin Chan

• Producer: Andrew Birkle

• Email: apgarcia@freepress.com

On this episode: Say what you want about the Michigan football program, but it sure isn’t boring. It was another busy week in Ann Arbor as Sherrone Moore held his first and only media availability of fall camp, with multiple storylines coming out of the press conference. First and foremost, former Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh will now NOT be returning to the Big House for the Wolverines’ season opener. However, there was some on-field news that surfaced as well, which Tony and Rainer spend the first half of the show discussing.

Then after the break, Andrew joins the guys to discuss some recent college football head coaching situations that are comparable to what Sherrone Moore has stepped and what it can tell us about Moore’s chances for success. Is Sherrone in a better place than Lane Kiffin was when he took over for Pete Carroll at USC? What about Ed Orgeron taking over for Les Miles at LSU? If you’re a diehard college football fan who likes to go into the weeds, this conversation is for you.

GARCIA: Michigan football’s Sherrone Moore ‘looks forward’ to release of Connor Stalions texts

SABIN: Sherrone Moore wanted Michigan (football) vs. Everybody. That’s what he’s going to get.

WINDSOR: Replacing a championship coach is hard. But Sherrone Moore has to clean up his mess, too.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: ‘Hail Yes’: What history tell us about Sherrone Moore’s odds of success

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Championships aren’t won in fall camp, but they can be lost. Camp is a critical time to ramp up for the upcoming season. It is when new players acclimate, veterans grab needed reps and depth chart battles are won.

It’s also when injuries pile up.

That’s what’s happening in Austin, Texas at running back. Expected starter CJ Baxter, a five-star prospect coming off 659 yards last year as a true freshman, went down last week with a season-ending knee injury. Then on Monday the Longhorns lost another expected contributor when true freshman Christian Clark suffered a season-ending Achilles tear.

Just like that, Texas is down to three scholarship running backs. Nobody’s going to cry for Texas, the preseason No. 4 team who just spit out the top running back selected in the 2023 and 2024 NFL drafts in Bijan Robinson and Jonathon Brooks, respectively. Running backs grow like trees on the 40 Acres, though that fact doesn’t make this week any less devastating. 

There are ways around those losses. The Longhorns are working redshirt freshman linebacker Derion Gullette (6-foot-3, 235 pounds) in the backfield behind the scholarship trio of junior Jaydon Blue, sophomore Tre Wisner and freshman Jerrick Gibson. Longhorn fans know well that converting players into running backs — Roschon Johnson, anyone? — can be done with great success.

But losing Baxter (RB1) and Clark (expected RB5) are still massive blows in the context of Texas gunning for a national championship in its SEC debut.

Running back depth is critical to survive the week-to-week rock fight that is SEC football. Pull the lens out wider, when a potential national champion will have to play 17 games in the debut of the 12-team College Football Playoff, and expecting three running backs to…

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Ohio State Buckeyes linebacker C.J. Hicks (11) lines up behind defensive end Jack Sawyer (33) during the spring football game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on April 16, 2022. Ncaa Football Ohio State Spring Game

We continue to scan the college football universe for the plethora of preseason watch lists and the latest comes in the form of the Butkus Award.

Named after the late, great, NFL and College Football Hall-of-Famer, Dick Butkus, the award goes out to college football’s best linebacker annually. On Tuesday, the award released its preseason watch list and two Ohio State linebackers landed among the fray.

C.J. Hicks and Sonny Styles were two of the 51 names appearing in the announcement. Both appear to be in a close competition for the starting Will Linebacker spot with the Buckeyes, but there’s no doubt you’ll see both on the field a lot because of their playmaking ability.

Nov 18, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes safety Sonny Styles (6) tackles Minnesota Golden Gophers running back Zach Evans (26) during the first half of their game on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023 at Ohio Stadium.

Both players were five-star prospects in the 2022 recruiting class, and both are expected to bust out potentially in 2024. Styles appears to have a slight lead on the position because he took most of the first-team reps so far in preseason camp, but the coaches insist things are near kneck-and kneck.

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.

This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Two Ohio State players appear on Butkus Award watch list

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