Former Carolina Panthers and Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera is returning to the University of California, his alma mater, to help the football program.

“Coach Belichick has made going back to school, cool,” Rivera posted to X. “Stay tuned I am coming home.”

Coach Belichick has made going back to school, cool. Stay tuned I am coming home. @CalAthletics @UCBerkeley @Cal #GoBears🐻

— Ron Rivera (@RiverboatRonHC) February 5, 2025

Rivera’s role would primarily be administrative, and he would be involved in oversight of the program and its big-picture needs, including budget, coaching staff and the student-athlete experience, a source told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.

Belichick was hired as North Carolina’s head coach in December after a decorated NFL coaching career in which he won eight Super Bowls, including six as the New England Patriots‘ head coach.

Rivera, 63, is a member of the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame and had 337 tackles for the school as a linebacker. He was an All-American in 1983 when he set a school record with 26.5 tackles for loss, including 13 sacks.

Rivera, who was fired by the Commanders last year, interviewed for both the New York Jets and Chicago Bears head coaching vacancies last month.

Rivera, 63, has spent his entire coaching career in the NFL, beginning in 1997 when he was a defensive quality control coach for the Chicago Bears. Before being hired as the Panthers’ head coach in 2011, he served as a defensive coordinator with both the Bears and San Diego Chargers.

He has a 102-103-2 record as an NFL head coach and led the Panthers to the Super Bowl in the 2015 season.

Before becoming a coach, he played nine seasons as a linebacker for the Chicago Bears, who selected him in the second round of the 1984 draft. He was a member of the Bears’ 1985 Super Bowl champion squad.

Five-star offensive tackle Ty Haywood — the top remaining uncommitted prospect in the 2025 class — signed with Michigan on Wednesday morning, capping a torrid finish to the recruiting cycle for coach Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines in the early hours of national signing day.

Haywood, a one-time Alabama commit, is ESPN’s No. 16 overall recruit and third-ranked offensive tackle prospect in the 2025 class. The 6-foot-5, 285-pound lineman chose not to sign during the early signing period in December and decommitted from the Crimson Tide last month before he formally committed to Michigan on Wednesday in a ceremony at Ryan High School in Denton, Texas, amid heavy interest from Florida State and Texas Tech.

Haywood stands as the second-highest-ranked member in the Wolverines’ 2025 class, trailing only No. 1 overall prospect and five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood among recruits set to join Michigan for the 2025 season. With Haywood in the fold, the Wolverines hold signatures from 11 ESPN 300 recruits in the latest cycle, including eight from the top 100 in a high school recruiting class that began Wednesday ranked ninth nationally in ESPN’s class rankings.

“We all have the same mindset of winning,” Haywood told ESPN. “We’re going to go in and do what we’re supposed to do. But we’re also going to have fun with this process and this next chapter of life. I’m ready to go dominate, win games and make it a fun time in our lives.”

Closing out with Haywood’s commitment, Michigan has executed one of the strongest recruiting runs across the country in 2025 in the final stages of Moore’s first cycle in charge of the program, surging late in spite of the Wolverines’ 8-5 finish to the 2024 season.

Michigan held pledges from just four eventual blue-chip signees when four-star offensive tackle Andrew Babalola (No. 28 overall) committed to the program on Oct. 21, 2024, kicking off a series of six top-100 pledges who joined the Wolverines’ 2025 class in the seven weeks before the early signing period began Dec. 4.

Underwood’s flip from LSU to Michigan was the most significant domino to fall over that span. But the Wolverines also bolstered their defensive class with a series of late additions, pulling in top 100 recruits Shamari Earls (No. 68 overall), Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng (No. 76), Nathaniel Marshall (No. 77) and Jordan Young (No. 96) all after Nov. 1.

In Haywood, Michigan has its second five-star signee and another cornerstone in Moore’s inaugural recruiting class.

An imposing tackle with elite length, Haywood initially committed to Alabama over Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Florida State in July. The opportunity to play in the SEC, Haywood told ESPN, was a dream, and he would have been the second-ranked member of coach Kalen DeBoer’s debut class if he had ultimately landed with the Crimson Tide. Yet Haywood never signed, reopening his recruitment in the new year.

“Life doesn’t always happen the way you want it to happen,” he said. “You find better options in life. I was hoping to explore my options more in the recruiting process.”

Michigan, Florida State and Texas Tech quickly emerged last month as the primary contenders to land Haywood. The Wolverines and Seminoles made home visits to Haywood in January before Haywood said his recruitment swung on an official visit to Michigan on the weekend of Jan. 17, where his comfort on campus, as well as with Moore and offensive line coach Grant Newsome sealed his commitment.

“They made sure my mom was OK,” he said. “They made sure my brother who came with me had fun. When you pick a place, it’s not only for you, it’s for your family. That’s part of what did it for me.

“Coach Moore is a former offensive lineman and Coach Newsome is a great guy, too,” Haywood continued. “Those guys understand what it takes to prepare every day, workout and win games. They know what it takes.”

Haywood and Babalola — ESPN’s No. 8 offensive tackle — now represent Michigan’s top offensive line signings in the ESPN recruiting rankings era, which dates to 2006. Between them, the program has not only a pair of blue-chip linemen to protect Underwood, but elite bookends to an exceptional recruiting finish for Moore and the Wolverines in the 2025 class.

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean said he will earn “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in compensation if he receives an injunction enabling him to maintain his eligibility and play for the Badgers this fall.

Fourqurean testified during a U.S. District Court hearing Tuesday. Fourqurean has argued that the two seasons he played at Division II program Grand Valley State shouldn’t count against his college eligibility.

During the hearing, Fourqurean said he earned $5,000 in name, image and likeness opportunities in 2023 and $45,000 in 2024. Fourqurean didn’t specify how much he could earn in 2025 but said it would be “hundreds of thousands.”

On cross examination, Fourqurean said there isn’t a signed contract specifying how much he will receive if he plays at Wisconsin this season.

Fourqurean is hoping to get a decision on his request before Friday’s deadline for opting out of consideration for the NFL draft. He took his case to court last week after the NCAA denied Wisconsin’s request for a waiver granting him another year of eligibility.

U.S. District Judge William Conley didn’t make a ruling Tuesday, but said he’s aware of the narrow window he has before the draft deadline.

Conley had requested to know the amount Fourqurean stood to earn because part of the cornerback’s case involved the NIL opportunities he would lose by not being granted more eligibility. Fourqurean said he received no NIL compensation during his years at Grand Valley State.

Fourqurean’s attempt to continue his college career comes after a U.S. federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in December enabling Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who spent two years at a junior college, to get another year of eligibility.

The NCAA is appealing the Pavia case but also issued a waiver enabling athletes who played at a non-NCAA school for more than one year to compete for one more year if they otherwise would have exhausted their eligibility in 2024-25.

A difference in this case, as Conley noted, is that Pavia was at a non-NCAA school during his junior college years, whereas Fourqurean attended an NCAA institution, albeit at a non-Division I level.

Conley also mentioned the possibility he could grant an injunction that later might get overruled by another court, leaving Fourqurean without any college eligibility or any opportunity to enter the draft.

Michael Crooks, the lawyer representing Fourqurean, said their hope is that in that instance the NCAA would do what it did in the Pavia case by offering his client an extra year of eligibility even as it appealed the ruling.

Fourqurean enrolled at Grand Valley State in 2020, when the pandemic led to the season being canceled. He then played at Grand Valley State in 2021 and 2022 before transferring to Wisconsin in 2023.

In the complaint he filed last week, Fourqurean noted that the death of his father in the summer of 2021 impacted his mental health and limited his offseason training that year. Fourqurean participated in 11 games for Grand Valley State but played only 155 snaps.

Lawyers for the NCAA said snap counts shouldn’t be taken into consideration because that would enable former Division II backups to request waivers for those years.

That 2021 season came two years before the NCAA rule change that enabled Division II athletes to redshirt seasons in which they played three games or fewer. Fourqurean noted that as soon as he stepped on the field for the first time that season, he had exhausted his eligibility for that particular year.

Fourqurean had 51 tackles and one interception last season while starting all 12 games for Wisconsin. He started five of the Badgers’ last six games in 2023.

His Tuesday hearing occurred on the same day that baseball player Trey Ciulla-Hall, who also began his college career at a Division II school, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts seeking an extra year of eligibility enabling him to play for Maryland this season.

Ciulla-Hall played the past four seasons at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts. The NCAA announced Jan. 28 that it was denying Maryland’s bid for a waiver granting Ciulla-Hall another year of eligibility.

In his complaint, Ciulla-Hall notes that he participated in one game beyond the normally scheduled legislated limits in 2021 “due to considerable confusion regarding the COVID season of competition relief at the Division II and III levels.” The complaint also notes that Ciulla-Hall faced financial challenges that year as he traveled home to help his siblings while his mother was going through an illness.