Category: College Football

  • WATCH: Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh helps police officer clear fallen tree from road during ice storm

    WATCH: Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh helps police officer clear fallen tree from road during ice storm

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    When a tree fell onto the road in Ann Arbor, Mich. during a recent ice storm, a police officer trying to clear the path got help from an unlikely stranger: Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh.

    According to the Ann Arbor police department, officer Howard Cooper was trying to remove a large tree from the road on Wednesday night. The department was spread thin, so he had no other choice than to tackle the task by himself. While Cooper was still trying to figure out how to get the job done, a man wearing jeans, a plaid sweater and a beanie parked his vehicle and approached him to volunteer. 

    In an interview with The Detroit News, Cooper said at first he was trying to wave off the van and told the driver to turn around because there was a tree blocking the road. The driver, who turned out to be Harbaugh, insisted he could help. 

    “I was like, ‘No way.’ And the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Hey, let’s try to move this,’” Cooper said. “It was just kind of cool that he just hopped out. I would have never thought Jim Harbaugh, of all people, would hop out to help out.” 

    The Ann Arbor police department shared footage of the two men working together to clear a lane.

    Winter conditions across the nation are causing havoc and, as reported by CBS Detroit, and many people in Michigan have had to deal with blocked roads and power outages because of fallen trees due to Wednesday’s ice storm. 

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  • Only concern is Washington, we can talk about being a head coach next year

    Only concern is Washington, we can talk about being a head coach next year

    New Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy says now is not the time to talk about becoming a head coach.

    At his introductory press conference in Washington today, Bieniemy said it wouldn’t be fair to the Commanders or his players if he were focusing right now on his desire to be a head coach.

    “Right now I’m the offensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders,” Bieniemy said. “Being a head coach, if that’s to happen it will take care of itself. We’ve had a great deal of success. We went to five straight AFC Championship Games, three out of four Super Bowls, two out of those we won. Being a head coach, it hasn’t happened, it’s not anything that’s going to impact me moving forward because the only thing I need to be concerned with is what’s important today.

    “Today, I’ve got to be the best person I can be, I’ve got to be the best coach I can be, and on top of that, I’ve got to get these guys in this building to learn to trust me, to get to know me, but also to understand what the term accountability means. I have to be accountable to these men. All that stuff about being a head coach, we can talk about that next year some time. Right now I need to focus on the job at hand.”

    Despite the Chiefs’ success with Bieniemy as their offensive coordinator the last five years, Bieniemy has been repeatedly passed over for head-coaching jobs. A good season for the offense in Washington could earn Bieniemy a head-coaching job a year from now, but Bieniemy says that is not his focus at the moment.

    Eric Bieniemy: Only concern is Washington, we can talk about being a head coach next year originally appeared on Pro Football Talk

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  • 2023 AAC football schedule by team: Key games, dates as league gets new look by expanding to 14 teams

    2023 AAC football schedule by team: Key games, dates as league gets new look by expanding to 14 teams

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    The American Athletic Conference released its complete schedule for the 2023 college football season on Tuesday as the league prepares to undergo a major realignment. Houston, Cincinnati and UCF are headed to the Big 12 and the league added six new squads to take their place: North Texas, UTSA, Rice, FAU, Charlotte and UAB. 

    Navy kicks off the AAC season with a trip to Ireland to play against Notre Dame during Week Zero. The rest of the conference begins with a bang as AAC schools play Houston, Michigan and Texas in Week 1. Clemson, Alabama, Washington and Oklahoma rank among other key nonconference games as the conferences attempts to build its brand on the national stage. 

    The schedule also features headlining matchups moving off Saturdays. SMU will play rival North Texas on Friday, Nov. 10 in their first intra-conference matchup. Tulane also travels to Memphis on Friday, Oct. 13, while new member UTSA could play its final two games on Friday nights. 

    Cincinnati, UCF and Houston represent more than half of the championships in AAC history. With those three gone, there’s an opportunity for new powers to rise. 

    The AAC opted to keep scheduling flexibility for television during the last week of the season. Four conference matchups involving eight of the 14 conference teams could be flexed to Black Friday, including a marquee matchup between reigning AAC champs Tulane and Conference USA champs UTSA. The 2023 AAC Championship Game will take place on Dec. 2. 

    Here are the 2023…

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  • XFL’s three-point conversion creates new late-game strategies

    XFL’s three-point conversion creates new late-game strategies

    Whether either of the two minor football leagues playing this year will get fans to care remains to be seen. But with the latest edition of the XFL kicking off this weekend, some of the new rules make for some interesting strategic discussions.

    One such discussion took place on the Houston Roughnecks’ sideline on Saturday night, while they had a 30-12 lead in the fourth quarter. In the NFL, that would be a three-possession lead, but in the XFL it was only a two-possession lead: The XFL has three-point conversions, where the offense snaps the ball at the 10-yard line and gets three points for running or passing it into the end zone, so a team trailing by 18 could tie the game with two touchdowns and two three-point conversions.

    Roughnecks coach Wade Phillips was cognizant of that with his team in field goal range, and he decided to kick a field goal to make it a three-possession game.

    “We’re 18 points ahead. We go to 21, they’ve got to score three times,” said Phillips, on the XFL broadcast where coaches where microphones and their comments are aired live.

    Houston made the field goal and won 33-12.

    XFL’s three-point conversion creates new late-game strategies originally appeared on Pro Football Talk

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  • Notre Dame promotes Gerad Parker to offensive coordinator: Irish tight ends coach replaces Tommy Rees

    Notre Dame promotes Gerad Parker to offensive coordinator: Irish tight ends coach replaces Tommy Rees

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    Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman has promoted tight ends coach Gerard Parker to offensive coordinator, the school announced on Saturday, ending a lengthy search kickstarted by Tommy Rees’ departure for the same job at Alabama. The Fighting Irish previously had reported interest in Kansas State offensive coordinator Collin Klein and Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, the latter of whom stayed with the Utes despite being a prime candidate for this job. 

    “I am excited to announce Gerad as our new offensive coordinator,” Freeman said in a statement. “I know firsthand the person, teacher, recruiter and innovative football mind he is. I look forward to watching our offense flourish under Gerad’s leadership and direction.” 

    Parker joined the Notre Dame staff as tight ends coach prior to 2022 after spending two seasons as West Virginia’s offensive coordinator, moving on after Neal Brown hired Graham Harrell to take over the offense. He had short stints at Penn State (2019) and Duke (2017-18), plus a four-year run as an assistant for Darrell Hazell at Purdue from 2013-16 that ended with Parker being named the team’s interim coach after Hazell was fired.  

    Freeman finalizing the offensive staff comes as the Fighting Irish are preparing for spring practice next month, which will wrap with a Blue-Gold spring game set for April 22. Promoting Parker was not the only piece of the puzzle, though. Notre Dame is also reportedly set to hire offensive assistant Gino Guidugli away from Wisconsin to serve…

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  • Commanders announce Eric Bieniemy as offensive coordinator

    Commanders announce Eric Bieniemy as offensive coordinator

    It’s official: Eric Bieniemy is the new offensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders.

    After much speculation that Bieniemy could leave Kansas City for Washington, Bieniemy signed his contract this morning and the Commanders announced the move.

    Bieniemy also has the title of assistant head coach, he has the ability to truly run an offense while working for a head coach who primarily coaches the defense, and he has a multi-year contract — all things he didn’t have in Kansas City.

    The Chiefs have had an excellent offense in Bieniemy’s five seasons as offensive coordinator, but some questioned how much of the credit he should get while coaching Patrick Mahomes and working for Andy Reid. If he can run a great offense in Washington, he may finally get the head-coaching offer that has eluded him for so long.

    Commanders announce Eric Bieniemy as offensive coordinator originally appeared on Pro Football Talk

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  • Will the Pac-12 break up? Where each team would go if league disintegrates over media rights deal

    Will the Pac-12 break up? Where each team would go if league disintegrates over media rights deal

    A college landscape without the Pac-12 has become a storyline worth considering, though a break-up of the 107-year-old league isn’t particularly likely.

    Industry sources still project a media rights deal split between ESPN and Amazon for the embattled conference. However, dissolution of the Pac-12 is being talked about openly in those same industry circles as a potential consequence if the league does not wrap up its new deal soon.

    The fact that it could happen in these tenuous times is enough to project what the process might look like.

    Multiple sources tell CBS Sports the league is struggling to match its desired value for its 10-team league (south of $400 million annually, $40 million per school) following the departures of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.

    The most compelling reason: As it stands, the Pac-12 inventory of games is not something broadcast, linear cable or streaming must have at this point.

    Not without USC and UCLA. Not with the league is in its eighth month since losing its two flagships. And not with 3.5 months having passed after the Pac-12 was leapfrogged by the Big 12.

    The Big Ten is now coast-to-coast, spread across the three major broadcast networks (CBS, Fox, NBC). ESPN has gone all in on the SEC with an exclusive deal including the lucrative 3:30 p.m. ET window on Saturdays as well as the primetime slot with some of the highest-rated inventory in the sport. The ACC is locked in through 2036 at a stable number that is expected to grow as the ACC Network continues to throw off revenue. The Big 12 has staked its claim with Fox and ESPN, and it is looking to get bigger with expansion.

    There is a finite amount any potential rightsholder is willing to pay for a damaged conference that is the last among the Power…

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  • Blue-chip OT locks in return visit with Florida after earning offer

    Blue-chip OT locks in return visit with Florida after earning offer

    The Florida Gators offered four-star Pine Forest (Pensacola, Florida) offensive tackle Jonathan Daniels on Thursday and have locked in plans to host him on a March visit, according to Gators Online.

    “I will be down there March 4 for an unofficial visit,” Daniels said. “It will be for a practice.”

    It’ll be Daniels’ second time in the Swamp. He was there for Florida’s Orange and Blue Game in 2022 and met with the staff briefly, but this visit should give him a closer look at what life would be like at practice with the team.

    It should also help Florida catch up in a race that already features Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee. Florida State is the favorite, according to the On3 recruiting prediction machine, but Auburn and Georgia aren’t too far behind.

    Daniels’ recruiting ranks vary drastically depending on which service is considered. On3 independently has him inside the top 50 at No. 47 nationally and No. 3 among offensive tackles, but he falls to Nos. 149 and 9, respectively, on the On3 consensus, which considers all four major services equally.

    247Sports grades him as a three-star recruit that’s ranked No. 41 at his position and No. 71 in the state. The 247Sports composite, which favors the site’s rankings slightly, has him even lower than the On3 consensus at No. 160 overall and No. 10 positionally.

    More Football Recruiting!

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    Gators hoping to get another visit from 4-star two-way athlete

    Florida football working on official visit from this 4-star EDGE rusher

    Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida…

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