October 11, 2024
College football 2023 live news updates: Coaching changes, roster moves and analysis

January 12, 2023 at 2:57 PM EST

Can Alabama respond to Georgia’s dominance?

By now, you probably have seen the clip: David Pollack, an ESPN analyst and a Georgia legend, stating that Georgia “has taken hold of college football,” sitting next to Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who sat stone-faced, perhaps wondering why he bothered to fly to Los Angeles just for this.

Or maybe he knew, and that was the point.

In the context of the past two years, Georgia is clearly on top of college football. But is it permanent, or is Alabama still laying in wait? Where do things go from here? The two writers on the ground in Tuscaloosa (Aaron Suttles) and Athens (Seth Emerson) discuss.

Read more here.

(Photo: Getty Images)

The Athletic College Football

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Can Nick Saban and Alabama respond to Kirby Smart and Georgia’s dominance?

January 12, 2023 at 2:57 PM EST

Deion Sanders, Luke Fickell and coach turnaround chances in 2023

The 2022 college football season ended Monday — sometime during the first quarter, if we’re being honest — and you already have questions about the 2023 season …

Which first-year coach do you see being the most successful or having the biggest turnaround in their first year? — Clay

Everyone taking over a program this offseason faces a high bar set by one Daniel Dykes — bet you didn’t know Sonny’s real first name — after Dykes took TCU from 5-7 to the national title game in his first season. Can any of the newcomers put their team in the title game in 2023? Doubtful. Can some new coaches help their teams make big jumps? Absolutely.

Read more here.

Andy Staples·

Senior Writer, CFB

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Dear Andy: Deion Sanders, Luke Fickell and new CFB coach turnaround chances in 2023

January 12, 2023 at 2:07 PM EST

What Bryan Brown brings to Cincinnati football in 2023

A swarm of students returned to the Cincinnati campus this weekend to mark the end of winter break and the start of the spring semester. That included several Bearcats football players, many of whom hadn’t been in town since returning from the Fenway Bowl on Dec. 17.

Head coach Scott Satterfield and the team held a return meeting Sunday, which offered the first opportunity for some of the recently hired coaches on Satterfield’s staff to meet with players in person.

That was not the case for new defensive coordinator Bryan Brown and much of Cincinnati’s returning defensive line.

“They were here working out over the break, here every day getting it in,” Brown said Tuesday, speaking with local media for the first time since arriving in Cincinnati. “I haven’t seen anything like it.”

Read more here.

(Photo: AP)

Justin Williams·

Staff Writer, Cincinnati

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What Bryan Brown brings to Cincinnati football in 2023: ‘Attacking-style defense’

January 12, 2023 at 1:26 PM EST

Minnesota hiring Nick Monroe as its cornerbacks coach

Minnesota is hiring Syracuse safeties coach Nick Monroe as its cornerbacks coach.

Matt Fortuna·

Staff Writer, CFB

January 12, 2023 at 1:25 PM EST

Oklahoma State DC Derek Mason will not return next season

Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Derek Mason will not return to the program in 2023, he announced in a statement Thursday. Here’s what you need to know:

Mason said he’s taking “a sabbatical from coaching in college” at the end of his current contract.

Mason joined the Cowboys last January after a one-year stint as Auburn’s defensive coordinator in 2021.

He served as Vanderbilt’s head coach from 2014 to 2020, compiling a 27-55 overall record.

Read more here.

Daniel Shirley·

Senior Editor, College Football

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Oklahoma State DC Derek Mason will not return next season, taking ‘sabbatical’ from coaching

January 12, 2023 at 1:22 PM EST

Georgia wins a title, but Iowa’s defense takes own crown

Georgia won back-to-back national titles thanks to an excellent defense loaded with NFL talent that once again played its best on the biggest stage. This year, though, the champs did not finish No. 1 in stop rate.

What is stop rate? It’s a basic measurement of success: the percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. This simple metric can offer a more accurate reflection of a defense’s effectiveness in today’s faster-tempo game than yards per game or points per game. We’ve been tracking this for each of the past five seasons (here are the final standings for 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017) along with every defense’s points per drive average.

Read more here.

Max Olson·

Senior Writer, CFB

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Final FBS Stop Rate standings: Georgia wins a title, but Iowa’s defense takes own crown

January 12, 2023 at 12:55 PM EST

Minnesota makes 2 additions to coaching staff

Minnesota is hiring Andrew Sowder as tight ends coach and Nic McKissic-Luke as running backs coach.

Sowder was offensive coordinator at Kent State and a finalist to succeed Sean Lewis as head coach there. McKissic-Luke coached RBs and special teams at Northern Illinois.

Matt Fortuna·

Staff Writer, CFB

January 12, 2023 at 12:39 PM EST

Ten thoughts from Lincoln Riley’s state of the USC program discussion

Lincoln Riley spoke with the media for two hours on Tuesday morning. While the news that Alex Grinch will be retained as defensive coordinator was the headline, Riley also talked about the new transfers, some young players to watch and his quality of life as the Trojans coach, among other topics.

So let’s sort through some thoughts on the year-end news conference.

Riley was less guarded and more relaxed with the media than he’s been at any point in his first year and change at USC. That meant there were some pretty blunt assessments about what he inherited from a roster standpoint.

Read more here.

Antonio Morales·

Staff Writer, USC

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USC football: 10 thoughts from Lincoln Riley’s state of the program discussion

January 12, 2023 at 11:59 AM EST

Who will replace Kevin Warren?

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is off to the Chicago Bears after spending fewer than 30 months in Rosemont, Ill. It was a short but eventful tenure — from facing a pandemic just months into the job and canceling the Big Ten’s college football season before restarting it, to adding USC and UCLA and signing a record-setting seven-year, $8 million media rights deal.

The open Big Ten job is one of the two most powerful positions in all of college sports, alongside SEC commissioner Greg Sankey. The two leagues bring in significantly more money than their peers on an annual basis, with the gap only widening in the coming years.

So, where does the Big Ten look? Almost the entire Council of Presidents and Chancellors has turned over since Warren was hired, which makes it harder to predict — and presidents tend to be an unpredictable group in the first place. Do they opt for another outsider like Warren, who had no college sports experience when he was hired? The Big 12, Pac-12 and even the NCAA just opted for outside hires for their biggest jobs. The potential remains for the Big Ten to go outside of college sports once again.

Read more here.

The Athletic College Football

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Who will replace Kevin Warren? A list of Big Ten commissioner candidates

January 12, 2023 at 11:22 AM EST

Cade Klubnik’s time, offensive evolution, D-tackle dominance

The 2022 college football season just ended Monday night, but it’s never too early to start thinking about 2023.

The usual contenders will likely again be in the mix for the College Football Playoff. But where does Clemson fit in after winning national titles in 2016 and 2018 but losing three games in each of the past two seasons? The Tigers debuted at No. 15 in Stewart Mandel’s Too Early Top 25 rankings this week. As coach Dabo Swinney and his staff enter another critical offseason, here are 10 thoughts on the 2023 Tigers.

Quarterback Cade Klubnik looked like a true freshman and struggled with pocket presence in the Orange Bowl against Tennessee in the first start of his career. He’ll have to step up in the pocket better as a sophomore. But the former five-star prospect — and the nation’s top quarterback in the Class of 2022 — should be talented enough to return Clemson to national prominence. He dazzled in the ACC Championship Game against North Carolina — he was named MVP — and is only going to get more confident now that he no longer has to jockey with DJ Uiagalelei, who is off to Oregon State as a transfer.

Read more here.

(Photo: USA Today)

Grace Raynor·

Staff Writer, Clemson

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Cade Klubnik’s time, offensive evolution, D-tackle dominance: 10 thoughts on ’23 Clemson

January 12, 2023 at 10:50 AM EST

Bears expected to hire Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren

The Bears are expected to hire Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren as their team president and CEO, multiple people close to the situation but not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to The Athletic. Here’s what you need to know:

Warren was interviewed at least twice with the Bears at Halas Hall, according to sources.

The Bears have been searching for a new president and CEO after Ted Phillips announced his plans in September to retire at the end of the 2022 season.

Warren became commissioner of the Big Ten in 2020 after more than 20 years working in the NFL with the Rams, Lions and Vikings.

Read more here.

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Bears hire Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren as team president, CEO

January 12, 2023 at 9:40 AM EST

Who’s next year’s TCU? And who’s the next non-SEC national champ?

On Monday, for the first time in three years, media were allowed back on the field for the postgame celebration at a national championship game. As Georgia coaches and players celebrated in the rain (because apparently it can rain sideways in a stadium with a roof), I had déjà vu to Alabama’s 2012 championship win over Notre Dame in Miami Gardens.

Not so much because they were both blowouts, but because of the feeling of inevitability. Knowing I was probably going to be covering a lot more of these.

Read more here.

Stewart Mandel·

Senior Columnist & EIC, College Football

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Mandel’s Mailbag: Who’s next year’s TCU? And who’s the next non-SEC national champ?

January 12, 2023 at 9:03 AM EST

Which of Washington’s 2022 signees are ready for bigger things in Year 2?

By the time coach Kalen DeBoer finished his first recruiting class at Washington, it included only eight high school prospects, and only four who had previously committed to former coach Jimmy Lake. Numbers were tight to begin with, and the Huskies also had immediate needs — quarterback, cornerback, linebacker — best addressed through the transfer portal.

As might have been expected, then, Washington didn’t rely much on its true freshmen in 2022. The eight-player class — not counting junior college transfers — combined to play 350 snaps on offense and defense, per Pro Football Focus, or about 1.7 percent of Washington’s total snaps. The most significant single-game action: cornerback Jaivion Green’s 70 snaps against Oregon in relief of an injured Jordan Perryman, which accounted for nearly one-third of Green’s snaps this season. He played more than twice as much as any other Washington true freshman in 2022.

Read more here.

Christian Caple·

Staff Writer, Washington

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Which of Washington’s 2022 signees are ready for bigger things in Year 2?

January 12, 2023 at 8:04 AM EST

Who will replace Stetson Bennett as Georgia’s starting quarterback?

There’s a house in the Five Points section of Athens that could end up having a big impact on the Georgia football team’s quarterback situation. The house has a linebacker who cooks and two offensive players named Brock who appreciate it.

“It’s three big dudes in there,” said Brock Vandagriff, the second-year quarterback. “Chaz (Chambliss) loves to cook, and me and Brock (Bowers) love to eat. We cook a lot of deer burgers and play a lot of games. It’s a really competitive house.”

Speaking of competition, Vandagriff is about to be engaged in a much more high-profile one.

Stetson Bennett’s college career is finally over, and Georgia needs a new starting quarterback. The favorite is Carson Beck, who was the top backup this season and was briefly ahead of Bennett early in the 2021 season. That has created speculation that Vandagriff, who was a five-star recruit two years ago, would leave, but he has vowed during the past two weeks he plans to at least stick around to see what happens in the spring.

Read more here.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Seth Emerson·

Senior Writer, Georgia

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Who will replace Stetson Bennett as Georgia Bulldogs’ starting quarterback in 2023?

January 12, 2023 at 7:42 AM EST

Why Penn State football can expect big things from 2023 defense

During the final minutes of Penn State’s Rose Bowl victory, Joey Porter Jr. celebrated on the sideline with Kalen King and Johnny Dixon. Porter could become the first Nittany Lions cornerback ever to be drafted in the first round, and yet the talent returning should allow the position to continue to be a strength in 2023.

That’s not the only position group on Manny Diaz’s defense that appears well-positioned next season. Here are my thoughts on Penn State’s defense and special teams as we look toward the 2023 season. (Find first thoughts on Drew Allar and the Penn State offense here.)

The linebacking corps was the biggest unknown heading into 2022, but Diaz found answers, aided by a strong freshman year from Abdul Carter and Curtis Jacobs’ position flexibility. Tyler Elsdon became the first option at middle linebacker and played 402 snaps to Kobe King’s 296, per TruMedia. The best is yet to come from this group, with Jacobs announcing he’s back for 2023.

Read more here.

Audrey Snyder·

Staff Writer, Penn State

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Why Penn State football can expect big things from 2023 defense under Manny Diaz

January 12, 2023 at 7:18 AM EST

Charles White dies at 64

Former USC Trojans running back and Heisman Trophy winner Charles White died Wednesday in Newport Beach, Calif., the school announced. He was 64.

“Charles White was one of the all-time great Trojans,” said USC athletic director Mike Bohn. “A Rose Bowl legend, a two-time unanimous All-American and an NCAA record setter, he made USC proud donning the cardinal and gold.”

White played for the Trojans from 1976 to 1979, finishing his college career with 6,245 rushing yards and 49 touchdowns. He starred on USC’s national championship team in 1978 and twice led the NCAA in rushing yards.

In 1979, White rushed for 2,050 yards on 332 carries, scoring 19 touchdowns and becoming USC’s third Heisman Trophy winner.

Read more here.

(Photo: AP)

The Athletic College Football

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Former USC Heisman Trophy winner Charles White dies at 64

January 11, 2023 at 7:07 PM EST

Clemson’s Joseph Ngata headed to NFL

Clemson wide receiver Joseph Ngata tweeted Wednesday night that he is entering the NFL Draft. Ngata caught 88 passes during his Clemson career for 1,287 yards and six touchdowns.

Daniel Shirley·

Senior Editor, College Football

January 11, 2023 at 3:30 PM EST

Ubben: Kirby Smart proving Georgia is the best job in college football

Kirby Smart is the answer to college football’s scariest hypothetical question. What if Georgia ever gets the right head coach at the right time?

Georgia, quite obviously, has surpassed Alabama as the sport’s standard bearer. In a legitimate rebuilding year after losing 15 NFL Draft picks and five first-rounders off its defense, Georgia became just the third team in the College Football Playoff era to go 15-0.

Kirby Smart spent nearly a decade working underneath the sport’s best coach ever: Nick Saban. Now, Smart is applying that blueprint to one of the only jobs in college football with a bigger upside than the program Saban operates.

Two decades after leaving Athens at the end of his playing career, Smart is back. And he’s tapping into Georgia’s limitless potential.

Read more here.

(Photo: USA Today)

David Ubben·

Staff Writer, College Football

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Ubben: Coach Kirby Smart proving Georgia is the best job in college football

January 11, 2023 at 2:50 PM EST

Colorado-Arizona State game won’t be moved to Week 0

There will not be a Week 0 college football game between Colorado and Arizona State to open the 2023 season, an administrative source involved in the process confirmed to The Athletic on Wednesday. The news comes two days after ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit suggested during the broadcast of the national championship game that the Week 0 game would take place.

Read more here.

Nicole Auerbach·

Senior Writer, CFB

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Colorado-Arizona State game won’t be moved to Week 0 after wavier denied by NCAA: Source

January 11, 2023 at 2:37 PM EST

Chicago State to explore adding Division I football program

Is Division I football on its way to Chicago’s South Side?

That’s the question that Chicago State University is hoping to answer, as the university is putting together an exploratory committee to study the impact of a football program and provide recommendations to the school president.

“I think it would be huge,” athletic director Dr. Monique Carroll told The Athletic. “We would be Chicago’s only Division I football program, so a city that has as much going on especially in the sports landscape as Chicago does, to add to that with Division I football, I think that would be awesome. And then the campus, we are trying to grow enrollment. We’re doing different things strategically to see how we can make the university better. I think this enhances the student experience on campus. This engages the South Side community.

Read more here.

Matt Fortuna·

Staff Writer, CFB

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Chicago State to explore adding Division I football program following feasibility study