Category: College Football

Rutgers University Football schedule for 2025

Rutgers University Football schedule for 2025

PISCATAWAY – The idea of someday coaching with Rutgers football had appealed to Zach Sparber for a long time.

He grew up in Norwood, played at Bergen Catholic and later spent a year there as a coach. But being able to compete at the highest level of college football and to do some in his home state seemed like a perfect fit.

Sparber put the work in, climbed the ranks of coaching and impressed the right people along the way.

Now he finds himself right back at home, realizing that opportunity to coach with the Scarlet Knights as co-defensive coordinator.

“I have tremendous affection for this state and Rutgers being in the Big Ten, this is the highest level of college football,” Sparber said following the Scarlet Knights’ spring practice. “To have the opportunity to coordinate defense here and work for Coach (Greg) Schiano is something I’ve always thought about in the back of my head.”

Sparber, also Rutgers’ linebackers coach, officially joined the program in February after spending last season as the linebackers coach at James Madison. He’ll lead the defense with Robb Smith, whom he worked for at Duke in 2022 when he was a graduate assistant and Smith was the defensive coordinator.

The chance to reunite with Smith while also working for Greg Schiano is an opportunity Sparber is relishing just a couple months into the job.

“It’s been fantastic,” Sparber said. “Coach Schiano is such a beacon of football in this state, so for me to be able to work with him is really, really exciting. Then to get back together with Robb Smith – we were together in 2022 at Duke – we had really good experiences playing quality defense and taking the football away from people. Really excited to be back with Coach Smith and now add…

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The 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four has a case for the most stacked ever. The last time four 1-seeds reached the Final Four was 2008. Amazingly, all four national semifinalists rank inside the top 10 teams in KenPom history. 

With that in mind, we decided to think about some of the best potential matchups on the football side heading into the second year of the 12-team College Football Playoff. The first iteration delivered some legendary games, including Notre Dame’s win over Georgia, a Texas barn-burner against Arizona State and Ohio State exorcising demons to win the natty. Next year could be even bigger. 

The criteria to judge quality CFP Final Four matchups is subjective. Some of it comes down to the entertainment factor and quality of play. Others involve key storylines, like a player or coach spurning a program. For at least one, the pregame trash talk would make for a legendary leadup. 

Several of the brackets are realistic and could deliver historic matchups in the coming months. Others require a little more suspension of belief. With that in mind, here are eight potential CFP Final Four brackets that would deliver a thrilling finish. 

Heavyweight Bracket

Teams: Ohio State, Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame

Consider this to be the college football equivalent of the 2025 Final Four. These are four of the unanimous most powerful programs in college football. Georgia and Ohio State have combined for three of the last four national championships. Texas has appeared in back-to-back national semis. Notre Dame reached the title game and returned the core of the team. The only drawback is that Texas will likely have played Georgia and Ohio State previously. If they earn their way back, though, it will be well deserved. Every…

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Recarder Kitchens of Muskegon, Mich. will reportedly visit Michigan State on Thursday for a spring practice

Michigan State football will be hosting a five-star elite edge rushing prospect on Thursday.

Recarder Kitchen of Muskegon, Mich. will reportedly visit Michigan State for a spring practice on Thursday. Multiple recruiting insiders posted about Kitchen’s upcoming visit today, including Jason Killop of On3.

Recarder is a five-star edge rusher in the 2027 class. He holds a rating of 99.05 on 247Sports’ composite.

Recarder is ranked as the No. 1 player from Michigan in the 2027 class, according to 247Sports composite. He is also listed as the No. 3 edge rusher and No. 6 overall prospect nationally in the class.

Michigan State is one of 15 programs to already extend an offer to Recarder, according to 247Sports. He also holds offers from Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Pitt, Rutgers, Texas A&M, USC, Toledo, Central Michigan and Liberty.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5.

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Andrew Luck almost retired one year earlier. Entering the 2018 season — his seventh with the Indianapolis Colts — fresh off of a 2017 campaign spent on the sidelines due to a shoulder injury, Luck had serious questions about his future. 

Then came new coach Frank Reich, who had a hand in convincing Luck to stick around for at least one more go. 

“Frank preached trusting the process and trusting getting better every day,” Luck said at Reich’s introductory press conference as Stanford’s interim head coach Tuesday. “I tried to embody that, and we did. I think I remember that training camp, by the time the season had rolled around, I don’t think I had thrown a pass more than 40 yards in practice. I didn’t know if I could. But we just kept trusting our process.”    

Under Reich’s guidance, Luck was named the 2018 NFL Comeback Player of the Year while posting a career-high 98.7 passer rating. The Colts made it to the NFL Playoffs after a 1-5 start to the regular season. Luck’s delayed decision to step away from playing football finally came in August 2019. 

Now Luck, in his role as Stanford’s general manager, is entrusting Reich with a different project: keeping Cardinal football afloat. 

Reich was named Stanford’s interim head coach on Monday. During his introductory press conference on Tuesday, both Reich and Luck emphasized that Reich’s tenure will not extend beyond the 2025 season. 

“This is the perfect scenario for both of us,” Reich said. “It fits absolutely perfect. Just because it’s a one-year deal does not mean that we can’t take a major step to helping fulfill this vision and have massive success.”  

Stanford hires Frank Reich: Ex-NFL coach will serve as…

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Stanford Cardinal edge rusher David Bailey has entered the transfer portal after the dismissal of his former head coach Troy Taylor. The Georgia Bulldogs stand out as a college football team should target Bailey for their defense in 2025.

Bailey is the top ranked uncommitted player in the transfer portal, so there’s no doubt that he’ll have a lot of suitors. Bailey has an excellent combination of size, production and experience. 247Sports ranks the Stanford transfer as the No. 10 player in the portal and the third-best edge rusher.

During his three years at Stanford, Bailey recorded 111 total tackles, 14.5 sacks, and 23 tackles for loss. His most recent season was his most productive, featuring seven sacks, eight tackles for loss, eight quarterback hurries, and five forced fumbles.

Bailey consistently performed at his best against strong competition. Four of his sacks came against ranked opponents like Syracuse, SMU, and Notre Dame. SMU and Notre Dame both made the College Football Playoff. He also recorded two sacks against North Carolina State in 2024.`

Georgia is actively recruited edge players from the transfer portal to replace for their significant NFL draft and transfer portal departures this winter.

Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams, both projected first-round picks, entered the 2025 NFL draft. Georgia had transfer portal exits from 2023 signees Damon Wilson and Samuel M’Pemba, who are staying in the SEC at Missouri and Texas A&M, respectively. This offseason, Georgia lost over 75% sack production from 2024 and needs someone like Bailey to replace that lost production and experience.

Only Georgia pass rusher Gabe Harris returns after having meaningful snaps last season within the edge group. An addition like Bailey would be substantial for the Georgia defense. Georgia has a strong recruiting pitch for Bailey. UGA…

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In a first year that ended in a 71-53 NCAA Tournament Round of 32 loss to Alabama in 2023, new Maryland coach Kevin Willard had complaints. Plenty of them.

He was quick to tell anyone who would listen how much better things were in the Big East, the league he had just left after 12 seasons at Seton Hall. The scheduling, the travel, the emphasis on college basketball above all else. 

Willard had issues with the Big Ten’s schedule and travel situations, which would only get worse when USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington officially joined the conference, but it didn’t raise alarms early on the way maybe it should have. Many Maryland boosters and athletic department staffers were already used to dealing with similar complaints from Mark Turgeon, Willard’s predecessor, who frequently complained about the school’s decision to leave the basketball-fabled Atlantic Coast Conference for the Big Ten in 2014. 

The hope was that Willard would settle in at the Big Ten school and get it back on track to the heights of the Gary Williams era that resulted in a 2002 national championship. 

In hindsight, though, Willard’s comparisons to the Big East should have been a sign. Over the next two years, there were consistent whispers that Willard wasn’t particularly happy at Maryland and was frustrated that the perceived “basketball school” didn’t devote more resources to his program. It all came to a head in an ugly, more than week-long public saga that finally ended late Saturday night when Willard marked his return to his beloved Big East as Villanova’s new head coach. 

Maryland basketball’s collapse continues: Two ‘Crab Five’ stars hit transfer portal after Kevin Willard exits

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Guy goes in-depth on Nick Davila heading to Rattlers Ring of Honor

Arizona Rattlers head coach Kevin Guy explains former Rattlers quarterback Nick Davila’s upcoming Ring of Honor induction.

After a few glitches to open the 2025 Indoor Football League season, the Rattlers settled in and blew out the rival Tucson Sugar Skulls 56-28 on Sunday, March 30, before 9,345 fans at Desert Diamond Arena.

The Rattlers unveiled their 2024 championship banner, then, after the fans sang the national anthem a cappella due to a technical issue, the Rattlers’ offense needed a few plays to get into a rhythm.

It was a quick fix.

Quarterback Dalton Sneed, needing only a few days of practice, showed why he was the IFL championship game MVP last year, knocking off the rust and leading the Rattlers to a 35-10 halftime lead.

Other than a fumble exchange between Sneed and running back Ron Brown Jr., and an interception he threw during a lackluster third quarter, the Rattlers were clicking as if it was late in the season and the championship on the line.

“Maybe it was nerves in that first quarter, jumping off sides,” Sneed said. “Or that exchange. It’s little things, but it’s a sense of focus. We have to be locked in. We can’t allow our emotions to be so hyped up that we’re not thinking clearly.

“I tell these guys all the time, ‘Practice like we play.’ When we step out in practice, we should be of the midset that, ‘OK, here’s the first drive. The expecations is to score.’ Calm down and be us. Nobody can stop us but ourselves.”

Sneed threw two touchdown passes and ran for another in the half. The defense made a quick statement with Ethan Caselberry intercepting Jordan Ambrose on Tucson’s opening drive and returning it 40 yards for a score.

Nick Davila honored

Legendary former quarterback Nick Davila was inducted into the Rattlers’ Ring of Honor at…

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Colorado and Syracuse won’t scrimmage together this spring, after all.

Despite the pitch from Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders and the quick social media acceptance from Orange coach Fran Brown, the two sides were denied a waiver for a joint spring game, the Division I FBS oversight committee announced Friday.

Denying a joint scrimmage is a blow to spring football, which has otherwise become nerfed in importance nationally as major schools cancel their games with coaches hoping to make it through spring without a major injuries and transfer defections. 

The NCAA’s explanation mostly focused on timing. Most schools already planned their spring practice schedule and didn’t have the opportunity to match Colorado. The Buffaloes would have a competitive advantage in recruiting for their spring game that other schools would lack. The NCAA also brought up academic concerns, which is important but always funny reasoning in the 2025 revenue sharing and NIL landscape.

Those are all workable roadblocks into the future, and the oversight committee said as much in a memo obtained by The Athletic.

“The committee agreed to discuss, during a future meeting, a concept that could permit joint practices.”

There seems to be growing support for the idea.

Houston coach Willie Fritz told CBS Sports earlier this spring that he’s tried to get the idea implemented “for years” to compete against other teams in spring ball.

“You’ve got a 50% less chance of guys getting injured,” Fritz said. “I think it’d be something that’s neat for the crowd to see. You could probably use to help your collective as well. I think it’d be awesome, good for both teams. One year they go to your place, the next year you go to the other place. I think it’d be something you’d get even…

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