Eating to win: NHL stars find an edge by focusing on nutrition
Philipp Grubauer didn’t feel bad, exactly. He didn’t feel good, either.
The goaltender was merely coasting along during his inaugural season with the Colorado Avalanche in 2018-19, preparing for games as he always had and ignoring — at first — his body’s increasing lethargy.
At the time Grubauer was like most of his NHL peers, wielding a meticulous and well-thought-out pregame routine that didn’t include questioning how — or, more importantly, why — he was eating certain things. Convenience trumped everything.
And then, Grubauer hit a wall.
“I didn’t really pay attention to food my first years in the league. It wasn’t a big thing,” Grubauer told ESPN last month. “But the more I thought about it, I was actually feeling pretty tired [during games]. Like probably around the first or second period, I was usually pretty tired, and I would pump myself full of energy bars and all that [processed] stuff in between periods.
“It probably wasn’t right. But time is really short to cook something at home. By the time you get home from morning skate and have your nap, you almost have to get right back. I needed a way to make food easy so I could focus more on the game.”
It was around then that Grubauer, who now plays for the Seattle Kraken, received a call from Amanda Gyuran. She’s a Denver-based performance chef and co-founder of Elevated Eats, a meal prep service for professional athletes. The two got to talking, and Grubauer thought he had found a perfect solution, someone to design and execute an eating plan with minimal effort required on his part.
He signed on to be Gyuran’s client. It was the first step in an eye-opening journey ahead.
“At first it was just about the food,” Grubauer said. “And then we got rolling and we did a couple of tests, like gut tests and DNA tests where it shows what your body can absorb or what nutrients it can’t absorb. Like, from eating steak, your body might not pull iron out of the steak; it might pull it better out of salmon for example or from a different vegetable. So, from the time Amanda started cooking for me, we got it dialed in a little bit more and more.”
Welcome to the world of designer athlete nutrition. It’s an increasingly popular trend in an industry where longevity is paramount, execution is key and finding the slightest edge can add extra zeros to a paycheck.
GYURAN WORKS WITH players across every major sport, each with their own motivations for seeking out an alternative health approach but with a common goal of maximizing their potential. That requires taking an individual outlook on each person and getting down to the nitty-gritty of what makes their body tick.
“Before anything else, I have all my athletes go through advanced functional lab work with medical and naturopathic doctors,” Gyuran said. “That’s really their blood markers, stool, urine, genetics. That really helps us to customize both the supplements and meal plans we give them based on exactly what’s going on inside. We also test what antioxidants their bodies respond best with, and everyone is so different.”
That might be true on the genetics side. But through uncovering the unique variabilities of each client, Gyuran also found that athletes within certain sports were more alike internally than you’d expect.
“What’s kind of cool is that, especially with hockey players, they have a lot of similar things in their lab work around hormone levels and vitamin deficiencies,” Gyuran said. “It’s the lab work that really makes what we do most effective, because really anyone can make healthy foods for an athlete. But adding in all of these really specific ingredients helps us to give every meal a purpose.”
It’s an approach tailor-made for an athlete’s framework, the same way his skates are sized to an individual foot. When Kylene Bogden, a board-certified sports dietitian and functional nutritionist, was working at Cleveland Clinic early in her career, she began seeing players drawn to that more holistic, progressive approach in addressing not just food issues but overall health concerns.
She recalls one athlete who had no idea he was living with a dairy allergy. His daily bowls of cereal were causing unexplained chronic congestion and fatigue that wouldn’t resolve and ultimately impacted his performance. Bogden discovered the issue via blood work and within a day, she realized, “he could breathe again.”
“You’d see some of these athletes, and they weren’t healthy,” Bogden said. “They were bloated after every meal or they had a face full of acne, eczema, psoriasis, hives. They’re taking [medicine] every day to get through the season because of how crazy their allergies are. This is not OK. We have to dive deeper than this basic surface-level, conventional nutrition approach because it’s one thing to have a low body fat. But if your total body health is not in line, you’ll never reach peak performance, and we need to start making this unique to players.”
Having access to that standard of care and information is a privilege professional athletes have over the average person. Ditto being able to afford services like Gyuran’s that hand-deliver an optimal diet. It’s not a position Grubauer takes being in for granted, especially when the benefits of implementing his assigned changes came about more rapidly than expected.
“I would say [I felt different] in, like, a week,” he said. “Your body has to adjust a little bit, but once you eat the right stuff, your body starts to adapt right away. We were eating better, eating cleaner, and I didn’t have that tiredness anymore. So it started off just with food focus, and then once I got more knowledge behind her food and what she makes and the science behind it, it moved on to a different perspective.”
CALE MAKAR DOESN’T leave anything to chance. Not on the ice, not on his plate.
Colorado’s top-pairing defenseman found Gyuran when he ran up against some new dietary restrictions. Makar aimed to tackle the challenge head-on, and he relied on Gyuran’s adjustments to find a path forward supporting both his body and his play.
Makar was so impressed with the offerings and overall food philosophy that he began shunning some team-provided meals in favor of fueling road trips with Gyuran’s cooking too.
So Gyuran would pack Makar coolers to take with him. Then, rather than risk eating unknown fare in an unfamiliar city, Makar finds access to a microwave and heats up those preferred, pre-prepared dishes.
The reigning Norris and Conn Smythe trophy winner has no regrets.
“I take the pregames on the road, and I love it,” he said. “It can be a little bit of a hassle sometimes, but at the end of the day, I know exactly what I’m putting in my body, and there’s a convenience to it, for sure. It goes to the mental aspect of the game, knowing you don’t have any questions in the back of your mind: Did I do something wrong during the day? Did I not have the same pregame meal?
“You try to maintain and control everything that you can, and for me the diet aspect of it is definitely important.”
Not every athlete will be so fastidious about their eating, but Gyuran has seen a genuine uptick in the number who are. Like Makar, many are driven by mitigating the risk of switching up habits or by run-of-the-mill superstition that what worked well before one game will be the right choice again.
“A lot of the guys use the excuse of, ‘Oh, I’m already bringing so much stuff on the road’ or they don’t care enough to do it,” Gyuran said. “But the ones who do, they want to eat the food custom-made for them. So I vacuum seal meals in a cooler with their pregame meals or snacks in there. They’re getting muffins or recovery electrolyte gummies, or sometimes I’ll pack them up pregame drinks that really help to boost nitric oxide and blood flow and support their energy with beet juice and pomegranate juice. And then I add in specific ingredients based on their labs, whether it was B12 or the mushrooms that can help with energy and endurance.”
Those performance boosters were, until recently, a foreign concept to Makar. He admits to being a “picky eater” for much of his youth and to exploring the many dining hall options available during his first season at the University of Massachusetts in 2017-18.
When Makar arrived in the NHL two years later, he saw that some players were more careful about what they put in their body, and he got an education in the dressing room on how doing the right things nutritionally could lead to better results in his game.
Pivoting to Gyuran’s style of eating made that message hit home.
“Basically, all of my guys eat a Paleo-ish [diet],” she said. “It’s all gluten-free, soy-free and mostly dairy-free, with the exception of eating grass-fed butter and ghee sometimes. It’s refined-sugar-free and mostly grain-free. They’ll have white rice occasionally. But the focus is on high-quality organic grass-fed proteins. Starchy veggies and fruits are the carbohydrate sources. I find that a lot of athletes feel better on that.”
A typical meal for Makar consists of “sweet potato, maybe a little bit of rice, chicken, probably some salmon in there as well, and then usually there’s just some vegetables like a salad or some broccoli just to help digestion,” he said.
It’s a far cry from the stereotypical sustenance players are thought to be downing, such as sauce-laden pasta dishes or regular postgame pizzas. Those are still on the menu for some — and can certainly be seen now and then in the hallways outside an NHL dressing room — but Makar is among those who stick to what’s in his lunchbox.
“If you feel good when you’re eating a certain way, then it’s a no-brainer,” he said. “And in my mind, it’s just, ‘Why give up on that?’ Everybody’s always trying to get better, and that’s the atmosphere that you want. So regardless of if it’s during the game or food-wise, people are always looking for that edge.”
JAMES VAN RIEMSDYK recalls receiving some critical advice early in his career.
“I knew this performance coach years ago,” the Philadelphia Flyers winger said. “And I asked him, ‘What’s the one key thing that you’ve noticed from the guys that have longevity?’ And he goes, ‘They cut out all the bulls—.'”
That could be van Riemsdyk’s new mantra. The 33-year-old is in the latter half of his career and experiences the body changes that come with it. So even though van Riemsdyk gets “great care” from Philadelphia’s staff, he started exploring how to raise the bar in every health category and ensure more good years ahead on the ice.
“What [that coach] meant was that guys who last are very specific and intentional and targeted about what they’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “That’s training on the ice with skill work, but it’s also nutrition, sleep; they have it all in a good spot. You’ve got to know where your core principles should be. Those aren’t necessarily the flashiest things, but I think those are how you get the best results.”
Gyuran, who also works with van Riemsdyk, said the most common feedback she gets after a client switches diets is they “feel lighter and they can recover faster.” That was the most immediate change van Riemsdyk felt after implementing his own new regime, which includes functional mushrooms for focus, sunflower butter cups for a treat and a wide range of cuisines.
“The two biggest improvements are recovery and energy levels,” he said. “And then just how you sleep and how refreshed you feel waking up. I’ve always been into these sorts of things over the years and different edges you can find, whether it’s supplements or nutrition or training. There are different times where you have to get educated about how to support what you want to try to accomplish, and then how you can supplement your recovery and energy and all the good stuff.”
The process itself requires effort, though. Dr. Stephanie Canestraro is a certified functional medicine doctor and founder of the Vagus Clinic, through which she and her staff work with a wide range of athletes. Canestraro earns new clients via word of mouth from players who have shared her method on expanding good overall health. And that can be extensive. So Canestraro has to see where the commitment level is for each individual.
Basically, how bad do they want to feel good?
“We ask, ‘How many supplements are you willing to take?’ And we ask them how intense they want to be,” she said. “Because if a player gets supplement fatigue, they’ll stop. But when we have a full buy-in, we see results really quickly, even from adding one simple thing. A common issue we see is mitochondrial dysfunction. That’s how your cells make cellular energy. So if we do a test and see an area is low, we can add in one change [with a supplement] and they feel [improvement] right away. The more I explain to them why they’re taking each thing, the better they stick to it, and we try to make it as simple as possible.”
Canestraro said players who remove her protocols in the offseason frequently come back once preseason training ramps up again. It can be difficult to stick with the schedule she provides, but that looming issue of longevity — or lack thereof — brings athletes back.
“They know retrospectively that they felt better on the program,” she said. “And it’s a difference for them between potentially millions of dollars by playing better and getting a better contract the next year, or staying in the NHL and not going down to the AHL. So there’s a lot of stakes, and that’s when they’re usually more willing to really commit.”
Grubauer might be one of those well-paid players at the top of his game, but it isn’t lost on the 30-year-old that everyone has a shelf life. It’s worth embracing the Brussels sprouts to extend it.
“The biggest change since [getting a new food plan] is I think it almost cuts the recovery time in half. You have to take care of yourself to have a long career,” he said. “I introduced a lot of teammates to [different food ideas] because they’d go to McDonald’s after the game to get some food versus getting actually a good meal. That’s something that helps their body to recover and be ready for the next day, and that’s good for all of us.”
THE TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS love blasting music at practice. Behind the scenes, Margaret Hughes is their real master mixologist.
The Leafs’ lead performance dietitian makes it her mission to stave off nutritional boredom for players with an ever-changing playlist of post-workout provisions. It has become Hughes’ thing.
“The guys come off the ice, and I’ve prepared two or three different flavors of recovery shakes,” she said. “They get excited about taking the shake because they don’t know what flavor Margaret has come up with today. I come up with fun names too. I just really try to make food exciting and enjoyable for them as opposed to this traditional vanilla protein shake. In an 82-game regular season, that is going to get old very quickly.”
If there are more options than ever for getting outside help with diet, consider Hughes part of the in-house counsel for Maple Leafs players. About half of the NHL’s 32 clubs have dietitians and nutritionists working daily with players to promote their health goals, whether individually or in tandem with another trusted professional.
“We need to be collaborative,” Hughes said. “Our job is to ensure that every athlete is supported from all angles. My job is basically to complement them and ensure that whatever program is being recommended, I also support that and ensure that the athlete gets the best care that they possibly can. There’s lots of conversations and meetings between many professionals and practitioners.”
Hughes has a wide-ranging role with the Leafs that includes creating menus for the team plane, at hotels on the road and within visiting arenas. Toronto has two cooking staffs — one each at their home and practice rinks — with whom she designs the various plans. Chef Je-Marr Wright is at the helm of bringing Hughes’ culinary visions to life, and he shares her desire to keep things interesting for the players.
“I always try to make sure that September is different than October and then October is always different than November, and that way there’s always a variety of meals,” Wright said. “Players are really conscious about what they put into their body. They’ve definitely taken a big interest in actually knowing what they’re feeding themselves.”
Food is at the heart of Hughes’ focus. On the team side, they’re not providing “pills, powders and potions” so much as fresh fuel for players to choose from that’s readily available when they need it.
“We want to make sure that they’re consuming real food in real time,” she said. “We start with conversations around, ‘What part of the season are we in? What are the training demands? Which individuals may require more carbohydrates, less carbohydrates, more protein, less protein? Is it the day before a game?’
“Then maybe we focus more on carbohydrate-rich foods. Do we have a couple of days in between games? Then we start to look at how we can fit more vegetables and nutrient-dense foods in.”
That includes a keen focus on culturally appropriate meal offerings as well as introducing players to foods they might not have tried before. Wright said he recently added okra to the Leafs’ lunch options, a less familiar vegetable he hoped would land with guys, and perhaps become part of their eating rotation.
It’s a world away from the traditional white-carb-with-a-protein options — which Hughes acknowledges are still a go-to for some — but teams are cognizant of players seeking out nutrition-dense alternatives and have worked hard to provide them.
“The athletes are human, first and foremost. I think my job is to know them as people,” Hughes said. “We have players who come from various cultures, and we also try to understand how ethnic and cultural food preferences or traditional foods fit into their lives. Having access to whatever they need is the best way to optimize an athlete’s nutrition that matches their training demands, at the time that they need it.”
FOOD IS FUEL. Food can also be about pleasure, or having a good time with friends and family.
Even the most dedicated athletes deviate from their meal plan once in a while. But, like Makar making a bad read in front of the net, it doesn’t happen often.
“You allow yourself a few cheat meals,” Makar conceded. “Everybody would be lying if they said you’re eating the exact same way during the summer as you are in the season, for example. But for the most part, you don’t want to lose track of that sense of performance or trust in the eating habits that you have. You never stop doing what you can do to get that edge.”
When Grubauer was selected by Seattle in the 2021 NHL expansion draft after three seasons in Colorado (and nearly that long working with Gyuran) it was “really difficult” being in the Pacific Northwest without access to her meal prep. He actively tried bringing her out to cook for him, and she eventually trained someone Seattle-based in her method so there was a person with whom Grubauer and players like him could work.
“In our schedule and with the timeline during the season, you need to eat as well as you can to fuel your body,” Grubauer said. “And you want to get the best nutrition in order to be 100% the next day and perform at the highest level again and do it over and over again. I’m pretty superstitious, so if I felt like I had a good game, I want the same thing again.”
It’s about removing guesswork. Players spend hours studying video of opponents, searching for weaknesses to exploit and advantages to gain. Now that same focus is being turned onto the players themselves. Opening the door to individualized eating is a natural progression of dedication in athletes craving improvement by that proverbial 1% each day.
“I’m in the mindset that doing the right things is going to lead to better results,” Makar said. “And for me, the mental aspect of it and knowing exactly what you put in your body is a big part of it as well. It’s so important to just have all that super figured out and make sure there’s no surprises in terms of eating anything that I can’t control. You can never really go too wrong with that.”
While optimism runs high at most every college football program this time of year, even the rosiest picture has some lurking shadows.
That is true even for the 25 teams in our post-spring Power Rankings. No matter how deep the rosters seem, everyone has some question marks or potential weak spots.
Our college football reporters take a look at the biggest areas of concern for each of the top teams, the potential Achilles’ heel that could keep them from reaching their goals for the season.
Area of concern: Wide receiver
The Nittany Lions addressed the wide receiver spot in the portal with Syracuse’s Trebor Pena and others, but until they actually elevate their production, questions will linger. Penn State has had only one wide receiver rank among the top 10 in the Big Ten in receiving in the past three seasons (Tyler Warren played tight end). Both Warren and top receiver Harrison Wallace III are gone, and Penn State needs its portal haul — Pena, a second-team All-ACC wideout in 2024, as well as Devonte Ross (Troy) and Kyron Hudson (USC) — to give quarterback Drew Allar enough capable targets this fall. Although Allar’s big-game struggles are also concerning, he hasn’t had a great group of receivers at his disposal during his Penn State career. — Adam Rittenberg
Area of concern: Running back
The position group that has been discussed more than any other since the spring at Clemson is running back — the only position on offense that loses the bulk of its production with Phil Mafah off to the NFL. But the Tigers have plenty of depth at running back, and that should help ease any concerns as they move into fall camp. Particularly because running back traditionally has been an area where Clemson has excelled, even when other groups on offense took a step back. (Clemson has had a 1,000-yard rusher 11 of the past 16 years, and that does not include 2023, when Mafah and Will Shipley split the carries nearly evenly and combined for more than 1,700 yards.) It is easy to see true freshman Gideon Davidson as a breakout player, considering the success Clemson has had with true freshman backs since Dabo Swinney arrived. Clemson also has receiver Adam Randall taking reps at running back to help round out the depth in a room that also features Keith Adams Jr. and David Eziomume. Jay Haynes continues to rehab a knee injury. — Andrea Adelson
Area of concern: Offensive line
The Longhorns lost four starters on the O-line to the NFL draft and are breaking in a new quarterback, although Arch Manning made two starts last season, as well as several key receivers with the losses of Matthew Golden, Isaiah Bond and tight end Gunnar Helm. They lost tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., the 2025 No. 9 draft pick, but Trevor Goosby got some key playing time last year at the position when Banks was injured. The Longhorns also lost 56-game starter Jake Majors at center and face Ohio State in Week 1, posing a quick learning curve for an almost completely new offensive line group. — Dave Wilson
Area of concern: Pass rush
The Bulldogs lost six veteran contributors on their front seven on defense, none more important than edge rushers Jalon Walker, Mykel Williams and Chaz Chambliss. Walker and Williams were first-round picks in the NFL draft, and Chambliss was an unheralded contributor over four seasons. They combined for 18 sacks and 28.5 tackles for loss in 2024. Making matters worse, Damon Wilson, a projected replacement on the edge, transferred to Missouri. Georgia feels good about Gabe Harris Jr., and it added Army transfer Elo Modozie, who had 6.5 sacks for the Black Knights last season. — Mark Schlabach
Area of concern: Quarterback
Quarterback Will Howard was everything the Buckeyes could have hoped for last year in his lone season at Ohio State. He was spectacular during the College Football Playoff, posting a QBR of 97.2 over four games during the Buckeyes’ march to the national championship. With Howard now in the NFL, the Buckeyes will be turning to either former five-star freshman Julian Sayin or Lincoln Kienholz this season, pending who wins the job during camp. Throwing to all-world wideout Jeremiah Smith will bolster whomever the starting quarterback winds up being. But even with Smith and All-American safety Caleb Downs anchoring each side of the ball, it’s difficult envisioning the Buckeyes truly contending again unless Ohio State gets good-to-great quarterback play like it did last season. — Jake Trotter
Area of concern: Offensive line
I don’t know that LSU has to necessarily worry about the offensive line because of moves made this offseason, but it has to be something to keep an eye on just because of the magnitude of the losses. The Tigers had one of the best tackle duos in all of college football last season in Will Campbell and Emery Jones, who were first- and third-round NFL draft picks. They lost four starters across the line in total. DJ Chester and Tyree Adams are back in different spots, while Brian Kelly added Braelin Moore from Virginia Tech. — Harry Lyles Jr.
Area of concern: Tight end
Since 2011, the Fighting Irish have had a whopping 10 tight ends selected in the NFL draft, including last season’s leading receiver, Mitchell Evans, who had 43 catches for 421 yards with three touchdowns. While the Irish feel they’ve upgraded their wide receiver group with the additions of Virginia transfer Malachi Fields and Wisconsin’s Will Pauling, tight end remains a bit of a question mark heading into preseason camp. Senior Eli Raridon has the size (6-foot-7) and hands to excel at the position, but he was plagued by injuries during his first couple of college seasons, after tearing an ACL as a freshman. He had 11 catches for 90 yards with two touchdowns in 2024. The status of another tight end, Cooper Flanagan, who tore his left Achilles tendon in the Sugar Bowl, is in question. — Mark Schlabach
Area of concern: Defensive line
It’s hard to say whether this is an area of concern just yet, but there are question marks with Oregon’s defensive line as the Ducks lost both Derrick Harmon and Jordan Burch from last year (as well as Jamaree Caldwell). Defensive end is a strength with Matayo Uiagalelei holding down the edge, but the rest of the line will require some newcomers to step up, such as USC transfer Bear Alexander and rising lineman Aydin Breland, who could be in line for a breakout season. A’mauri Washington, one of the few returning players, will likely be a fixture of the new-look line as well. — Paolo Uggetti
Area of concern: Pass rush
Alabama finished 13th in the SEC last season in quarterback sacks, and while sacks aren’t the end-all when it comes to rushing the passer, the Crimson Tide need to be more consistent in getting to the opposing quarterback. There’s not a pure edge pass rusher in the mold of Will Anderson Jr. or Dallas Turner on this roster, meaning Alabama will need to get more pressure from its interior linemen and perhaps a breakout season from redshirt sophomore outside linebacker Qua Russaw. — Chris Low
Area of concern: Quarterback
When the season ended, quarterback figured to be an obvious strength for BYU considering Jake Retzlaff was set to return. But with him expected to transfer as of late June, the Cougars are left without an established starter. McCae Hillstead showed flashes at Utah State in 2023, Treyson Bourguet started eight games in two years for Western Michigan and true freshman Bear Bachmeier was a big-time recruit who enrolled briefly at Stanford earlier this offseason before leaving for Provo. The expectation is that all three will have a chance to earn the starting job in fall camp, without a clear-cut front-runner. — Kyle Bonagura
Area of concern: Offensive explosiveness
The Illini had a good and efficient offense in 2024, but they weren’t particularly explosive, tying for 64th nationally in plays of 10 yards or longer and tying for 66th in plays of 20 yards or longer. Although quarterback Luke Altmyer and a veteran offensive line return, Illinois needs to replace its top two receivers in Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklin, who are off to the NFL, and leading rusher Josh McCray, who transferred to Georgia. Offensive coordinator Barry Lunney thinks Collin Dixon, who averaged 14.7 yards per catch in limited work last fall, and incoming freshman Brayden Trimble can spark the offense. “Overall, we’re going to have a little bit more vertical speed in what we’re doing to stretch the defense than what we did,” Lunney told me. “That’s no slight on Zakhari or Pat at all. Those were just kind of bigger, stronger guys.” — Rittenberg
Area of concern: Pass rush
ASU’s late-season surge, from a decent team to one capable of coming within one play of the CFP semifinals, took place primarily thanks to players who are returning in 2025. Obviously losing star running back Cam Skattebo hurts, but the Sun Devils have some of the best overall returning production numbers in the country. We don’t know that they have a pass rush, though. It was an issue last season — ASU ranked just 110th in sacks per dropback — and while both of their sacks leaders (Clayton Smith and Elijah O’Neal) return, that duo combined for just 8.5 sacks between them. Kenny Dillingham evidently thought he had the answers in house, as he didn’t add a single edge rusher in the transfer portal, but while the secondary is sound and experienced, giving QBs too much time to find receivers can bring down even the most seasoned defense. — Bill Connelly
Area of concern: Defensive front
What was perhaps South Carolina’s biggest strength last season could be its biggest concern going into 2025. Gone up front are stalwarts Kyle Kennard, Bam Martin-Scott, Demetrius Knight and TJ Sanders, among others. That left a lot of holes to fill, and the Gamecocks largely addressed them by hitting the portal hard. Rising star Dylan Stewart will be the flashiest player and Bryan Thomas is the lone established senior, with transfers Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy, Davonte Miles and Justin Okoronkwo filling a big void. But perhaps the biggest name to know is sophomore Fred “JayR” Johnson, a rangy linebacker with lauded leadership skills who South Carolina hopes will blossom into the centerpiece of the defense after playing a small role as a freshman in 2024. — David Hale
Area of concern: Wide receiver
With receivers Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins both off to the NFL — having been drafted by the Houston Texans in back-to-back rounds — receiver is a good place to start. Noel and Higgins combined for nearly 2,400 receiving yards last season and that type of production will need to be replaced by more than just two players. But even with those holes to fill, the lack of a pass rush last season remains a glaring question mark. If the Cyclones can’t improve upon their conference-worst sack total, it’s hard to see how they can make a run at the Big 12 title, especially given the unknowns at receiver. — Bonagura
Area of concern: Defensive line
One of the most underappreciated keys to SMU’s playoff run last season was the veteran talent up front on defense. Elijah Roberts, Jared Harrison-Hunte and Jahfari Harvey all came from Miami and had multiple years as a starter under their belts in 2024. There won’t be nearly so much experience this year. Add in the departures of Ahmad Walker and Kobe Wilson at linebacker, and there’s a vacuum waiting to be filled in terms of leadership. SMU does return safety Isaiah Nwokobia, who was an All-ACC performer last season, and there’s buzz surrounding East Carolina transfer Zakye Barker at linebacker, but establishing some key voices — and performers — on the D-line remains a question. — Hale
Area of concern: Defense
Does the defensive makeover actually work? The Red Raiders’ D can’t get much worse than what it was in 2024, and that’s not hyperbole. Texas Tech finished 126th in total defense in 2024. The secondary was 132nd in passing yards per game. Shiel Wood takes over as defensive coordinator, and there have been tons of portal additions to this side of the ball. Players such as Stanford linebacker David Bailey and Georgia Tech end Romello Height stand out, along with five transfer defensive backs. There’s really only one way for this group to go, and it’s up. — Lyles Jr.
Area of concern: Defense
Despite the fact that talented defensive end Mikail Kamara is returning, the transfer-heavy unit that allowed the fewest rushing yards per game in the Big Ten last season lost some key contributors. Gone to the NFL are CJ West and James Carpenter, and while Indiana did not hesitate to dip into the transfer portal to reload with players such as Hosea Wheeler (Western Kentucky), Stephen Daley (Kent State), Dominique Ratcliff (Texas State) and Kellan Wyatt (Maryland), one of the Hoosiers’ strongest position groups last year has a lot to prove and live up to in 2025. — Uggetti
Area of concern: Stopping big plays
K-State’s offense was delightfully explosive last season, but the defense often gave up as many big plays as the offense created. The Wildcats blitzed a lot and harassed QBs well, but they ranked 110th in Total QBR allowed and 107th in completions of 10 or more yards allowed. That’s a concern considering the defense lost both leading pass rusher Brendan Mott and four of last year’s five starters in the secondary. Defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman might have to fiddle with the risk-reward balance to get the most out of this defense and help the Wildcats contend in the ultracompetitive Big 12. — Connelly
Area of concern: Wide receiver
One of the reasons Florida is expected to improve in 2025 is because of the talent that quarterback DJ Lagway brings. But the Gators’ top receivers from last season, Elijhah Badger and Chimere Dike, left for the NFL. Eugene Wilson III is back, but also coming off season-ending hip surgery. It will be up to Vernell Brown III, Dallas Wilson, Naeshaun Montgomery and J. Michael Sturdivant (UCLA transfer) to help establish themselves. — Lyles Jr.
Area of concern: Wide receiver
The Wolverines ranked 129th last season with just 1,678 passing yards. Quarterback play was part of the issue, as Michigan cycled through three quarterbacks (Davis Warren, Jack Tuttle and Alex Orji) in its first season after losing national champion JJ McCarthy. But Michigan’s receivers collectively didn’t make enough plays, as no wideout caught more than 27 passes or totaled more than 248 yards. The onus will be even greater on Michigan’s receivers with tight end Colston Loveland — the Wolverines’ only reliable target last year — now playing for the Chicago Bears. Instant impact from transfers Anthony Simpson (UMass) and Donaven McCulley (Indiana), combined with internal improvement from the likes of Fredrick Moore and Semaj Morgan, will be paramount if Michigan is going to threaten opposing defensive backfields in 2025. — Trotter
Area of concern: Linebacker
The Hurricanes did another fantastic job shoring up positions across the roster in the transfer portal, especially considering how much turnover they had from last season. But if there is one position that still has some questions, it is linebacker, mainly because depth may become an issue as the season wears on. Miami returns three key veterans in Wesley Bissainthe, Jaylin Alderman and Popo Aguirre, and signed NC State transfer Kamal Bonner and Rutgers transfer Mo Toure. Miami often looked slow and out of position at linebacker last season, but the new scheme from defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman should help. The player to keep an eye on here is Toure, whom Hetherman coached while he was at Rutgers. Toure is coming off a knee injury (his second torn ACL in three years), but his potential to fit into this defense, considering his past with Hetherman, is huge. — Adelson
Area of concern: Defensive end
For the past three years, Louisville was able to rely on a genuine star off the edge in Ashton Gillotte, who racked up 21.5 sacks from 2022-24. Gillotte is off to the NFL now, a third-round pick by the Chiefs. That leaves a major void at defensive end. Louisville has a couple of transfers — Wesley Bailey from Rutgers and Clev Lubin from Coastal Carolina — hoping to fill the void, but the strength of the D-line will certainly be on the interior, where the Cards have much more established depth. As Louisville works to remedy issues defending the pass, finding someone — or, ideally, a few guys — who can get after the QB will be one of the most critical jobs for the defense as it prepares for 2025. — Hale
Area of concern: Wide receiver
Just like last season, a big question for the Aggies’ potential is how their wide receiver room will shake out. The Aggies lost Noah Thomas, a bright spot in an otherwise spotty position for A&M and new offensive coordinator Collin Klein, to Georgia after Thomas caught 39 passes for 574 yards and eight touchdowns last year. No other player caught more than two TDs or eclipsed 400 yards on the season as the Aggies fought through a QB change from Conner Weigman to Marcel Reed. This year, the Aggies are looking toward NC State transfer KC Concepcion (71 catches, 839 yards, 10 TDs in 2023, 53-460-6 last year), Mississippi State transfer Mario Craver (17-368-3 as a freshman), as well as returners Ashton Bethel-Roman, 6-2, 220-pound freshman four-star recruit Jerome Myles and dynamic 2024 five-star recruit Terry Bussey, who played something of an all-purpose role last year. As this group goes, so will Reed and the offense. — Wilson
Area of concern: Quarterback
Austin Simmons seems like a talented individual — we’re talking about someone who is athletically gifted enough to play baseball for Ole Miss as well. But anytime you are replacing one of the better quarterbacks in your conference, in this case Jaxson Dart, who was a first-round NFL draft pick, there has to be some level of concern. But from what we’ve seen out of Simmons, there’s promise. His drive against Georgia last season, where he led a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to tie the game while Dart was injured, should give the Ole Miss faithful something to be excited about. — Lyles Jr.
Area of concern: Tight end
It’s been a struggle at tight end for the Sooners, and there’s again uncertainty around the position heading into the 2025 season. Granted, there was plenty of blame to go around for Oklahoma’s struggles on offense last season, but finding more consistency at tight end in both the receiving and blocking categories would be a big boost for an offense that has tons of new faces. There isn’t a definitive starter at tight end entering preseason camp. Transfers Will Huggins (Kansas and Pittsburg State) and Carson Kent (Kennesaw State) are expected to battle with converted linebacker Jaren Kanak for the job. — Low
-
Adam Rittenberg
FRISCO, Texas — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is “doubling down” on the so-called 5+11 future College Football Playoff format, while acknowledging that it might benefit his league more in the future than currently.
The Big 12 and ACC have pushed the model, which would award automatic bids to the five highest-rated conference champions, plus 11 at-large bids determined by the CFP selection committee. The 5+11 model gained some support at the SEC’s spring meetings, while the Big Ten has focused more on a model that would award four automatic bids to Big Ten teams and to SEC teams, plus two apiece to the Big 12 and the ACC.
Yormark, his fellow commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua must determine the CFP format for 2026 and beyond by Dec. 1.
The Big 12 had only one representative, champion Arizona State, in the inaugural 12-team CFP last year. Arizona State lost to Texas in two overtimes in a CFP quarterfinal matchup at the Peach Bowl.
“Five-11 is fair,” Yormark said Tuesday in his opening address at Big 12 media days at The Star. “We want to earn it on the field. It might not be the best solution today for the Big 12 … but long-term, knowing the progress we’re making, the investments we’re making, it’s the right format for us. And I’m doubling down today on 5+11.”
Yormark added that he expects ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to take the same position when that league holds its media days this month in Charlotte, North Carolina. The ACC sent two teams, champion Clemson and runner-up SMU, to the 12-team playoff last year. Yormark touted the Big 12 as the “deepest football conference in America” and said he believes the league will have multiple CFP entries this season.
“I have a lot of faith in the selection process,” Yormark said. “They are doing a full audit of the selection process to figure out how they can modernize and contemporize and how they use data and how certain metrics can be more heavily weighted.”
Yormark told ESPN that he’s “relatively confident” that the CFP will go to 16 teams in 2026 and laid out the next steps to making it happen.
“The first step is we got to figure out, with the selection process, we’re kind of doing a deep dive,” he said. “Where can we improve it? Where can we modernize it? Are we using the right metrics? Are things weighted appropriately or not? So we’re going through that conversation, and I think on the heels of that, we’ll move into the format because I think for the room people need to get confident, more confident, in that selection process. And assuming they do, which I’m confident they will, we’ll be able to then address the format that makes sense.”
In March, the CFP named a Big 12 athletic director, Baylor’s Mack Rhoades, as the chair of its selection committee. Yormark said that in addition to schedule strength, “new metrics” will be added to the selection process to ensure fairness to all conferences.
The Big 12 will have the Week 0 stage as Iowa State and Kansas State renew their rivalry in Dublin. Other key nonleague Big 12 matchups include Baylor-Auburn, Baylor-SMU and Iowa State-Iowa.
“I’m confident we’ll get to the right place,” Yormark said. “And ultimately, I’m confident we’ll go to 5+11.”
ESPN’s Pete Thamel contributed to this report.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike