Category: College Football

Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne has entered the NCAA transfer portal, 247Sports confirmed on Sunday, bringing some clarity to the Spartans’ quarterback competition and making valuable name with Power Five starting experience available for programs seeking a new signal-caller. Thorne enters the portal as a graduate transfer. 

Thorne’s struggles in 2022 opened the door for him to be challenged this spring for the starting spot. Fourth-year junior Noah Kim was the primary challenger with redshirt freshman Katin Houser also in the mix. While Thorne did have a decrease in touchdowns and a slight increase in interceptions from 2021 to 2022, he also admitted he played much of last fall’s campaign while dealing with injuries.  

“Since last year, walking off the field at Penn State, I feel like I’m a lot better than I was, I feel like I’m more myself, healthy again, able to move around,” Thorne explained earlier in spring practice, via the Lansing State Journal. 

Thorne threw for 6,493 yards and 49 touchdowns in his career with the Spartans. He led Michigan State to an 11-2 record in 2021 that culminated with a Peach Bowl win over Pitt, but that was followed up with the disappointing 5-7 season that followed in 2022. 

With Thorne gone, the race narrows, for now, to a battle between Kim and Houser. Kim has drawn positive reviews for his performance this spring. Unless the Spartans add another quarterback from the portal before fall camp, Kim will head into 2023 as the presumed leader ahead of Houser, a former four-star prospect who has blue-chip projections but may be another year of development away from meeting those expectations. 

And whomever ends up getting the job will take over a Michigan State offense that could be losing…

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Texas Longhorns running back Roschon Johnson (2) runs the ball forward during the Texas Longhorns football game against Kansas State at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022.

On Saturday, Texas senior Roschon Johnson was selected by Chicago Bears in the 4th round of the NFL draft. He was the 115th overall pick.

Now, if you had told someone a few years ago that Johnson was going to be drafted by Chicago, they may have assumed he’d be the answer the Bears had long been searching for at quarterback. Johnson, after all, was a four-star prospect at that position when the Port Neches-Groves product signed with UT’s 2019 recruiting class.

But the NFL draft was just the next chapter in Johnson’s story as a running back. The 6-foot, 219-pound Johnson switched positions shortly after arriving on campus and became a valuable contributor at the position. He is the eighth running back selected in this year’s draft.

Over his four years at Texas, Johnson rushed 392 times for 2,190 yards. That ranks 18th in school history. Used as both a Wildcat quarterback and a traditional runner, Johnson produced five 100-yard games in his UT career. He also caught 56 passes and scored 26 offensive touchdowns at Texas.

In Chicago, Johnson won’t be the only Longhorn on the depth chart for running backs. D’Onta Foreman, who was a third-round pick by Houston in the 2017 draft, signed with the Bears this offseason.

Key play: Johnson wasn’t just a versatile weapon for the Texas offense. Additionally, the Longhorns used him on multiple special teams units.

In a game against Iowa State during the 2022 season, Johnson sprinted down the field on a kickoff and recorded a thunderous tackle of the Cyclones returner. “I’ve been telling defensive coaches I can play on that side of the ball too,” said Johnson, who figured that he…

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Colorado enjoyed what was considered a wildly successful spring game this past weekend under first-year coach Deion Sanders, but despite that, the Buffaloes roster is poised to look massively different by the time fall rolls around. On Monday, a slew of players hit the transfer portal with the exodus including everyone from star players in 2022 to once-promising prospects who are now looking for new homes away from the Coach Prime era in Boulder. More players followed the Monday departures on Tuesday.

Wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig is one of the highest-profile players to make the decision to leave Boulder. The junior made waves on Saturday by catching three passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns during the first spring game for coach Deion Sanders. One of those passes was a 98-yard score from transfer quarterback Shedeur Sanders. The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder from Inglewood, California, was the Buffaloes second-leading receiver last season with 23 catches for 359 yards and three touchdowns.

Fellow wide receiver Jordyn Tyson also announced Monday that he is hitting the portal after a successful first season in Boulder. Tyson finished last season as the top receiver on the roster with 470 yards on 22 receptions after joining the program from Allen (Texas) High School. 

Deion Smith, last season’s top running back, also entered the portal on Monday. The 6-foot, 190-pound senior led the team with 393 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns last season. He had 653 yards rushing and four rushing…

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The seismic shifts rippling through college football haven’t yet reached the Atlantic Coast Conference so far as its membership lineup is concerned. But there are changes afoot in the ACC nonetheless as the 2023 season approaches.

For one thing, the Atlantic and Coastal divisions are no more. But beyond that structural alteration, a changing of the guard on the field might be in the offing as well.

In the end, it might indeed be Clemson raising the championship trophy once again, but the Tigers’ grip has loosened a bit in recent years. But if the door is indeed ajar, is anyone else positioned to barge through it?

With spring practice wrapped up, here’s a look at how we think the conference stacks up with the biggest question for each team.

1. Florida State

Will the offensive line hold up?

The biggest reason for the program’s decline in prior to last season was a leaky front that couldn’t open holes or prevent quarterbacks from getting pounded. That unit appears to be a lot deeper now, and with incumbent quarterback Jordan Travis and receiver Kentron Poitier ready to shine next to star Johnny Wilson. The Seminoles will look to hit the ground running and avoid the early skid that effectively eliminated them from the championship picture in 2022.

Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis (13) run with the ball against Florida during the second quarter of their 2021 game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

2. Clemson

Where will the big passing plays come from?

Cade Klubnik is now firmly entrenched as the starting quarterback, but the dynamic plays from the wide-outs that have largely been missing over the last couple of seasons were again absent in the spring. The defense should be fine as usual, and the running back room has plenty of options as well, but the Tigers might need to hit the portal for some long pass catchers to…

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Colorado enjoyed what was considered a wildly successful spring game this past weekend under first-year coach Deion Sanders, but despite that, the Buffaloes roster is poised to look massively different by the time fall rolls around. On Monday, a slew of players hit the transfer portal with the exodus including everyone from star players in 2022 to once-promising prospects who are now looking for new homes away from the Coach Prime era in Boulder. 

Wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig is one of the highest-profile players to make the decision to leave Boulder. The junior made waves on Saturday by catching three passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns during the first spring game for coach Deion Sanders. One of those passes was a 98-yard score from transfer quarterback Shedeur Sanders. The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder from Inglewood, California, was the Buffaloes second-leading receiver last season with 23 catches for 359 yards and three touchdowns.

Fellow wide receiver Jordyn Tyson also announced Monday that he is hitting the portal after a successful first season in Boulder. Tyson finished last season as the top receiver on the roster with 470 yards on 22 receptions after joining the program from Allen (Texas) High School. 

Deion Smith, last season’s top running back, also entered the portal on Monday. The 6-foot, 190-pound senior led the team with 393 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns last season. He had 653 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns during his four seasons with the Buffaloes.

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Florida football wrapped up its spring practice season on Thursday, April 13, with the conclusion of the annual Orange and Blue game — the pinnacle of the program’s intrasquad scrimmages. Since then, the remainder of the Southeastern Conference’s member schools also wrapped up their spring schedules after the Alabama Crimson Tide and LSU Tigers played theirs last Saturday.

The SEC has at least four — and potentially as many as six or seven teams – with legitimate playoff hopes, including the Tennessee Volunteers and even possibly the Texas A&M Aggies who cratered in 2022. Unfortunately, things still are not looking great for Billy Napier’s Gators.

With spring football ostensibly in the rearview mirror, take a look at how Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY Sports ranks the conference schools along with his biggest question for each respective team ahead of the 2023 season.

Georgia Bulldogs

Joshua L. Jones-USA TODAY NETWORK

Who is the starting quarterback?

The competition to replace Stetson Bennett continues past the end of spring practices even as junior Carson Beck seems to stack some distance between himself and competitors Brock Vandagriff and Gunner Stockton. For Kirby Smart, the possible benefits to extending this competition are to push Beck to raise his game before the season opener and to give all three quarterbacks the chance to get more comfortable with any changes new coordinator Mike Bobo has made to Georgia‘s offense. But Beck remains the heavy favorite to draw the starting nod.

Alabama Crimson Tide

Vasha Hunt/AL.com

How do the new coordinators mesh?

For all the hubbub around this offseason’s coaching moves — Bill O’Brien and Pete Golding are out, Tommy Rees and Kevin Steele are in — don’t ignore just how often this has happened to Alabama and coach Nick Saban. Including his debut season in…

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LSU surprised many college football fans last season when the Tigers won the SEC West over perennial favorites Alabama in coach Brian Kelly’s first year as coach of the Tigers. Kelly arrived at LSU with high expectations, and his debut season only raised the level of the optimism that followed his arrival. What will he do for an encore? We’ll get a glimpse on Saturday in the Tigers’ annual spring game.

Quarterback Jayden Daniels came on strong late last season and was one of the driving forces behind the Tigers’ return to national prominence. The dual-threat star was so impressive, in fact, that he is +1600 to win the Heisman Trophy, according to the latest odds from Caesars Sportsbook. Defensively, rising sophomore linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. burst onto the scene with 73 tackles — 14 of which went for a loss. That performance earned him Freshman All-SEC honors from the conference’s head coaches. 

What should you be looking out for on Saturday? Let’s take a look.

How to watch 2023 LSU spring game live

Date: Saturday, April 22 | Time: 2 p.m. ET
Location: Tiger Stadium — Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Live Stream: SEC Network+

2023 LSU spring game storylines

1. Does a RB1 emerge? Daniels was the Tigers’ leading rusher last year with 885 yards, and no running back had more than 536 yards. Granted, Josh Williams, Noah Cain, Armoni Goodwin and John Emery Jr. worked well as a committee, but it’s risky to have Daniels take over the primary role. Kelly’s history suggests that he wants a quarterback to move, but not necessarily one who’s the focal point of the rushing attack. Will any of the running backs emerge as a true No. 1? Do any of them really have to if Kelly wants to go the committee route again? We should get a good idea of Kelly’s plans…

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The Oregon Ducks saw more roster turnover this week as a former member of the 2023 recruiting class was deemed no longer with the program, a UO spokesperson confirmed.

Trejon Williams, a former 4-star safety, has been removed from the team’s roster online, and was not seen with the team at Oregon’s 10th spring practice on Thursday inside the Moshofsky Center. After redshirting as a freshman in 2022, Williams leaves the Ducks having played zero snaps.

Williams was an Oregon native, playing his high school ball at Jefferson High School in Portland. He came to the Ducks rated as the No. 30 safety in the 2022 class, and No. 363 overall player in the nation.

He is the fourth player to leave the Ducks since the transfer portal opened on Saturday, joining Keith Brown, Jalil Tucker, and Treven Ma’ae.

More Football!

Spring Ball Takeaways: Ducks move indoors for 10th practice of spring season

National brand makes recruiting at Oregon easier for Ducks’ coach Chris Hampton

‘I wish I did it earlier;’ Jamal Hill discusses move from safety to linebacker

Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire

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