LAWRENCE, Kansas — The Kansas student known as Plunger Boy showed up to David Booth Memorial Stadium at 5:30 a.m. Saturday to make absolutely sure he would get his front row seat for the football game against Duke. He had waited overnight for basketball games at Allen Fieldhouse countless times. But getting to a football game early? Well, there is a first time for everything. So Plunger Boy, otherwise known as Noah Ginsberg, arrived with a group of friends, a handful of signs, the trademark plunger headband he wears on his head (a gag gift from his dad, he says), and waited.
Around two hours before kickoff, about 100 students had gathered, waiting for the gates to open, a giddy buzz filling the air as they wondered, “Are we really good at football?”
“Nothing gets a college fan base excited like a football team,” Ginsberg says.
Even here?
“Even here,” he continues. “We’ve been begging for football to be back. I’ve been waiting for a long time. My cousins go to Clemson, so I have to hear about that. Football, it brings people together, and that’s what we want KU football to be. I know it starts on the field, but it also starts with the fans. If we get fans back here, that’s where it starts.”
Getting fans to games has been tough sledding for Kansas football. Before this season, Kansas had gone 12 straight years with three wins or fewer — tied with Kent State (1989-2000) for the longest streak by a FBS team since the FBS/FCS split in 1978. Over 122 seasons, Kansas has made 12 bowl games and has an all-time record that sits below .500.
Meanwhile, Kansas men’s basketball has one of the best (the best, if you ask Kansas fans) home atmospheres in America at 16,300-seat Allen Fieldhouse — with a sellout streak of 336 games dating back to 2001. Fans come because they know they will see an elite team — Kansas is the defending national champions, with four total national championships. Last season, the Jayhawks passed Kentucky to become the winningest all-time Division I men’s basketball program.
But there are hardcore football fans in Kansas, and they were proud to share their stories on Saturday. Ginsberg has been coming to games since he was 8. He went to the 2008 Orange Bowl when Kansas beat Virginia Tech 24-21 and finished with a 12-1 record. He has attended every game as a student. So has his friend, Alex Ailey, also a senior. On this particular day, Ailey is wearing a red and blue spiked wig and a shirt that says quite simply, “We are back,” purchased three years ago in anticipation of this moment.
“You sit here and you say, ‘I’ve watched us lose by 45 every week,'” Ailey said.
“I’ve watched us lose by 60,” Ginsberg chimes in.
“But I fell in love with this team, my freshman year, when we lost to Nicholls State,” Ailey says. “That was my first KU game. Even though we lost to an FCS team, I saw this was a team worth sticking behind. I knew one day we would get there.”
Freshman Bryce Erickson chimes in next.
“There’s something about getting behind a team that’s trying to get over the hump, which makes it so special to be here,” Erickson said. “You know KU basketball is going to be good, but you don’t know KU football is going to be good every year.”
On the other side of the stadium, Dave Couch and his son, Colin, take their usual spots to greet the football team on arrival. They have done this for so long, the Couch family has become Kansas family. Coach Lance Leipold, and before him Les Miles, and well before him, Charlie Weis, would always make sure to stop and say hello. So do players, administrators, the parents of the players and security guards. If you follow Kansas athletics, you know the Couches.
They got season tickets in 1996, the year Colin was born. Colin is in a wheelchair, the result of a traumatic birth. Dave explains doctors didn’t know whether Colin would survive. But he did, and as he grew up, he connected with football in a way that made him the team’s biggest fan. As Dave talks, Colin makes sure to high five players and assistants as they head to the field for pregame warmups. One assistant screams, “It’s a great day to go 4-0!”
“Colin has got this mentality about being a warrior, because he’s fought since the day he was born just to be here,” Dave Couch says. “So he can relate to what it means to be pushed into a corner, but to not back down from it. Sports in general has that, but with football, you’re fighting on every play to try and win. Whether Colin knows it or not, that’s who he is, and that’s who he’s always been. I love the fact that this might have something to do with his love for football, too.”
Just behind them, the large grassy hill that leads up to the landmark Campanile is dotted with white tailgating tents as far as the eye can see. Freshman Quin Wittenauer is standing with a group of friends and shouts, “We’re a football school!”
Wait, Kansas a football school?
“It’s a dream come true,” he says. “I’ve been waiting for this since I was 5 years old. I’ve watched every KU game. It makes me want to cry. I’m in a KU uniform in my baby pictures.”
His friends AJ McDonald, Drake Doser, Mason Johnston, Adrian Dimond and Cadynce Marlow all start shouting in unison, their voices indistinguishable as they try and top one another on their Kansas football predictions.
“We want Bama!” they yell.
“No, no we want Georgia!”
“No, no no … Alabama wants US!”
Doser points out the white tent behind them. His parents and their friends decided to get a tailgating tent for this game around the time the season started, since it was parents weekend.
“We were supposed to have 10 people in the tent,” Shannon Doser says. “I think we have 100.”
At the top of the hill, on a bench that has a clear view of the stadium, Scott Johnson takes in the view. A Kansas graduate, class of 1970, he remembers going to games in the 1960s to watch Gale Sayers, Curtis McClinton and John Hadl.
“You know, they’ve had great football teams through history here,” Johnson says. “But the last 10 years have been rough. Really rough.”
Johnson drove 585 miles from his home in Colorado to come to the game, believing he could just get a ticket on game day like he always does. But when he arrived in town on Thursday, he learned the game was sold out — the first sellout since 2019.
“I’m kind of amazed,” he said.
So he decided he would sit on the bench to take it all in — even with an obstructed view of the field, thanks to the scoreboard behind the end zone.
Had Johnson made it into the stadium, he would have been a part of a loud, raucous crowd, one that was on its feet throughout the game. With Kansas leading late, security guards stood in front of the Kansas student section holding a rope — a signal they would not be allowed to come onto the field.
After Kansas made a defensive stop to seal the 35-27 victory and move to 4-0 for the first time since 2009, the crowd was at its loudest, waving white towels in the air to punctuate the moment. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, a will-they-or-won’t-they dance ensued between security and the students.
After a few moments delay, one segment of the rope was let down, and students poured onto the field in a fairly orderly fashion, without pushing, shoving or trampling but rather pure elation and some disbelief, streaming for the players chanting, “4-0! 4-0!”
“That was crazy,” receiver Luke Grimm said. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I guess we’re doing this. You’ve got the announcer in the background, saying, ‘We expect to win, don’t run on the field,’ and the students are just like, ‘Whatever, we’re running on the field.’ So, you’re with family at that point because you’re just having fun and you just experienced something together.”
About 10 minutes after the students made it onto the field, they were asked to leave. As they trudged for the exits after filling their cell phone camera rolls with pics, one student turned to her friend and screamed, “I can’t believe we f—ing won!”
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick said Friday he will not pursue any NFL head coaching vacancies after his name surfaced in connection with the vacant New York Giants job.
After the Giants fired Brian Daboll on Monday, Belichick became the subject of speculation around the opening. In a statement posted on Instagram, Belichick said, “Despite circulating rumors, I have not and will not pursue any NFL head coaching vacancies.”
Before coming to college coaching, Belichick spent his entire career in the NFL — winning six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
But he won two Super Bowls with the Giants as a defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells in the 1986 and 1990 seasons.
“I have great respect and genuinely care for the New York Giants organization and both the Mara and Tisch families. The New York Giants played an important role in my life and in my coaching journey. It was a privilege for me to work for the Mara family and be a member of Coach Parcells’ staff for over a decade.”
Belichick is in his first season with North Carolina, which has won two straight games to bring its record to 4-5. He was asked during his news conference Tuesday about the speculation concerning the Giants and he reiterated he was focused on Saturday’s game against Wake Forest.
The statement Friday also reiterated his commitment to North Carolina, saying that has not wavered.
“We have tremendous support from the university, our alumni, and the entire Carolina community. My focus remains solely on continuing to improve this team, develop our players, and build a program that makes Tar Heel fans proud,” Belichick said.
In a letter to the USC fan base Friday, athletic director Jen Cohen addressed the school’s stance on the pending Big Ten private capital deal that could infuse the conference with up to $2.4 billion.
“As we continue to evaluate the merits of this proposal or any others, our University leadership remains aligned in our stance that our fiduciary obligation to the University of Southern California demands we thoroughly evaluate any deals that could impact our long-term value and flexibility, no matter the short-term benefit,” Cohen said in the letter.
The proposed deal would extend the league’s grant of rights an extra 10 years to 2046 and create a new business entity, Big Ten Enterprises, that would house all leaguewide media rights and sponsorship deals. Each school, as well as the league office, would get shares of ownership of Big Ten Enterprises, while an investment fund that is tied to the University of California pension system would receive a 10% stake in the new entity in exchange for an infusion of over $2 billion to conference athletic departments.
USC and Michigan are the two Big Ten schools that have pushed back on the deal, which has otherwise been supported by a majority of the programs in the conference, as well as Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti.
In a call last month between USC and Michigan trustees, sources told ESPN’s Dan Wetzel that both programs were skeptical of the deal and talked about how it does not address the root issue — soaring costs — that has made cash so imperative for athletic departments. Just providing short-term money, sources said, does not solve that issue.
The schools also noted pending federal legislation that makes predicting the future of college athletics difficult, as well as a general apprehension about selling equity in a university asset — the conference media rights.
Beyond the potential impact to long-term value and flexibility in exchange for a “short-term benefit” that Cohen suggested (an extension to the grant of rights to 2046 could limit conference expansion and the departure of any programs, for example), she also noted in her letter that the $2.4 billion would be “unevenly distributed” among the schools and “create a tiered revenue distribution system moving forward.”
According to reporting from Wetzel and ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the exact equity amounts per school in Big Ten Enterprises are still being negotiated. There is expected to be a small gap in the percentage of the remaining equity among the schools that would favor the league’s biggest athletic brands, but it’s likely to be less than a percentage point. A tier system for initial payments is also expected, but with the lowest amount in the nine-figure range. Larger athletic departments could receive an amount above $150 million.
“We greatly value our membership in the Big Ten Conference and understand and respect the larger landscape,” Cohen said. “But we also recognize the power of the USC brand is far-reaching, deeply engaging, and incredibly valuable, and we will always fight first for what’s best for USC.”
The Big Ten is in the middle of a seven-year, $7 billion media rights package that runs through 2030. The money infusion is believed to be acutely needed at several Big Ten schools that are struggling to pay down debt on new construction and budgeting for direct revenue ($20.5 million this year and expected to rise annually) to athletes.
In a move that altered the college football landscape, USC left the Pac-12 and joined the Big Ten conference in 2024, alongside UCLA, Oregon and Washington, pushing the league to 18 members.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Celebrated former football coach John Beam, who was featured in the Netflix series “Last Chance U” that showcased the connections he made with players others wouldn’t gamble on, has died after being shot on the college campus where he worked, the Oakland Police Department said Friday.
The suspect, who police say knew and targeted Beam, 66, has been arrested.
Beam’s death a day after he was shot at Laney College rattled the community with scores holding a vigil outside the hospital before he died and remembering him as someone who always tried to help anyone.
Oakland Assistant Chief James Beere said the suspect went on campus for a “specific reason” but did not elaborate on what that was. “This was a very targeted incident,” he said.
Beere did not say how Beam and the suspect knew each other but said the suspect was known to loiter around the Laney campus. The suspect had played football at a high school where Beam had worked but not at the time the coach was employed there.
The suspect was taken into custody without any altercation and a gun has been recovered, the assistant chief added. Charges were still pending.
Authorities credited technology, specifically cameras at the college campus, private residences and on public transit, in tracking the suspect identified as Cedric Irving Jr.
Irving was arrested without incident at a commuter rail station in Oakland just after 3 a.m. on Friday and police recovered the gun. He was being held at a local jail on charges of murder and carrying a concealed weapon, according to Alameda County’s inmate locator. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday morning. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Irving’s brother, Samuael Irving, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was stunned to learn of the arrest and that his brother excelled academically and athletically in high school, where he ran track and played football. The brother said Cedric grew distant from the family in recent years after an argument with their father. Irving recently lost his job as a security guard after an altercation, his brother said, and then was evicted from his apartment.
“I hope it isn’t him,” Samuael Irving said quietly. “The Cedric I knew wasn’t capable of murder – but the way things had been going, I honestly don’t know.”
Police said the shooting happened Thursday before noon, and officers arrived to find Beam shot. Few other details were available. It was the second shooting in two days at a school in Oakland.
The Netflix docuseries focused on athletes at junior colleges striving to turn their lives around, and Beam’s Laney College Eagles starred in the 2020 season. Beam gambled on players nobody else wanted. He developed deep relationships with his players while fielding a team that regularly competed for championships.
Beam’s family said in a statement that he was a “loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, coach, mentor and friend.”
“Our hearts are full from the outpouring of love,” the family said, requesting privacy.
Piedmont Police Chief Fred Shavies, who previously served as a deputy chief in the Oakland Police Department, said he was a friend, mentee and longtime admirer of Beam.
“John was so much more than a coach,” he said. “He was a father figure to thousands of not only men but young women in our community.”
Shavies said that he met Beam when he was in the eighth grade and that he supported him after Shavies lost his father in high school, calling him “an absolutely incredible human being.” He asked how Beam left his mark on so many people “with just 24 hours in a day, right?”
“You mean the world to me,” Rejzohn Wright said in a post with a photo of Beam.
His brother shared a photo of the coach alongside a broken heart emoji.
Mayor Barbara Lee described Beam as a “giant” in the city who mentored thousands of young people, including her own nephew, and “gave Oakland’s youth their best chance” at success.
“For over 40 years, he has shaped leaders on and off the field, and our community is shaken alongside his family,” Lee said.
Beam, who was serving as athletic director, joined Laney College in 2004 as a running backs coach and became head coach in 2012, winning two league titles. He retired from coaching in 2024 but stayed on at the school to shape its athletic programs. According to his biography on the college’s website, at least 20 of his players have gone on to the NFL.
Beam’s shooting came a day after a student was shot at Oakland’s Skyline High School. The student is in stable condition. Beam had previously worked at Skyline High School, and the suspect had played football there after Beam had already left for another job.
Lee said the back-to-back shootings on Oakland campuses demonstrate “the gun violence crisis playing out in real time.” She gave no indication that they were connected.
