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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Aug. 31. Rodriguez is a nominee for AL Rookie of the Year, which will be announced Monday night.

JULIO RODRIGUEZ WAS barely 18, playing baseball in the United States for the first time, when he made his biggest impression on a Seattle Mariners franchise that now adores him.

It wasn’t how he hit or how he fielded or how he ran — it was how he watched.

Minor league spring training can be long and arduous, with early wake-up times and heavy conditioning before players even pick up a bat or a glove. Rodriguez got his first taste of it in 2019, less than two years after signing out of the Dominican Republic. But he quickly carved out a routine. After his day was finished, he’d walk to the main field of Peoria Sports Complex, stand against a brick wall on the walkway behind home plate and watch the major league spring training game with noticeable intent — backpack on his back, brim of his cap pulled down above his eyes, a budding superstar hiding in plain sight.

Many of those responsible for rewarding Rodriguez with a record contract have harkened back to those moments in recent weeks. To them, that time embodied three defining characteristics that are as pronounced as his five tools — a youthful obsession with baseball, an unconditional devotion to his teammates and a quiet, assertive confidence that is ever-present.

“He’s watching because he’s fascinated with what’s happening with the major league players and because he knows that that’s where he’s going to be,” Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said. “And he’s been sizing it up since he was 18 years old.”

With less than five weeks left in his rookie season, Rodriguez, now 21, is the best player on a team poised to snap a historic postseason drought, a favorite for the American League Rookie of the Year Award and, as of Friday, owner of a long-term deal that will pay him anywhere between $210 million and $470 million over the life of his career, an unprecedented — and highly complex — contract for someone with less than a full year of major league service time.

The Mariners’ principal decision-makers were initially captivated by Rodriguez’s ceiling, then awed by how he changed his body to become a dynamic center fielder. They marveled at how he handled torturous early struggles to somehow become an All-Star at midseason and were drawn by how his rise has helped propel the group that surrounds him. But they were also moved by his infectious joy and unwavering authenticity.

They saw it in how his eyes lit up when his name was listed among potential fill-ins at a major league spring training game for the first time and how he went around the room high-fiving everyone on the list with him. In how he traveled to West Virginia to boisterously cheer for teammates at the South Atlantic League All-Star Game, even though an injury had kept him from participating. In how he became a beloved figure within a big league clubhouse full of accomplished veterans who would typically scoff at a young player who promotes himself so aggressively.

“As good a player as he is and as fun as he is to watch, he’s so much more than that,” Dipoto said. “He’s just such a genuine human being.”

THE “JROD SHOW,” a popular moniker for the palpable energy that seems to surround everything Julio Rodriguez does on a baseball field, finally received a national audience during the Home Run Derby. Julio Rodriguez Sr. took it all in from behind the first-base dugout, watching as his son stirred a sold-out crowd while surging past Corey Seager and two-time reigning champion Pete Alonso in the first and second rounds. Everyone seemed to wonder how a young rookie would handle a big stage stuffed with so many headliners and yet Rodriguez had taken the liberty of turning Dodger Stadium into his own personal playground. He advanced into a final-round showdown with Juan Soto, then called his father down to the edge of the railing, wrapped him in a long embrace and uttered two words that still give Julio Sr. chills.

“We’re here.”

Julio Sr. had spent the afternoon broadcasting each of Rodriguez’s swings on his Instagram page. His son’s performance, which ended in a runner-up finish, qualified as appointment television for the people in Rodriguez’s hometown of Loma de Cabrera, a small Dominican city of roughly 20,000 located near the Haitian border.

It made Julio Sr. think back to the way his son used to wow crowds during batting practice as a child. The most memorable of those performances came on a rainy summer afternoon in 2012, in a town called Tamboril, a municipality within the Santiago province. Rodriguez was 13, swinging a comically small, light-brown Axe Bat that a friend had lent him — and he pelted baseballs to places none of the bigger kids could reach.

“Everybody started coming up to me and asking me where he’s from right after he took that first swing,” Julio Sr. said in Spanish. “That’s where Julio’s story began.”

His exploits sent him to another showcase in Tamboril, at the site of a program run by a man named Juan Francisco Peña, known throughout the island as “Kiko.” Rodriguez showed up with another Axe Bat — this one black, in noticeably worse condition — and cracked its barrel with a double off an 18-year-old pitcher throwing into the mid-90s, cementing his place as one of the most tantalizing teenagers on the island.

Rodriguez is now a lean, muscular 6-foot-3, 228 pounds, but it wasn’t long ago that he was noticeably pudgy. His father began training him as a catcher when he was 12 because, Julio Sr. said, “He was a big kid who ate a lot.” His move to the outfield less than a year later was a reaction to a sudden growth spurt — immediately, and coincidentally, following a harrowing bout with the chikungunya virus — and a belief that his bat was too valuable for the rigors of squatting behind home plate. As he continued to develop in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez began to profile as a power-hitting corner outfielder. Few saw a five-tool phenom.

“If you speak to any of the scouts that scouted him as a young kid, I could tell you 99.9 percent of them would say he was going to be a corner guy,” Brian Mejia, one of Rodriguez’s representatives at Octagon, said. “Big power, big kid, thickness to the lower half. And this guy just changed himself into who he is.”

Andy McKay, the Mariners’ director of player development, began working with Rodriguez at the onset of his professional career and was always struck by his desire to embrace challenges.

Rodriguez was only 17 and had yet to play a single game in the U.S. during the summer of 2018, but he was hellbent on playing in the Arizona Fall League that year and asked what he needed to do to make it happen. McKay was shocked. “That’s not how it works,” he told him. As his development continued, McKay frequently noticed how badly Rodriguez wanted to face the opposing team’s best pitchers, often counting the number of baserunners required for him to square off against a lights-out closer. When Rodriguez told him he wanted to become a center fielder, McKay knew he’d work for it.

“He wanted to improve his game, he wanted to play faster and he wanted to play center field,” McKay said, “so he took it upon himself to do the things that he needed to do.”

Rodriguez wanted to play center field largely because of what it meant — that he was the leader of the outfield, a five-tool threat, up there with the greatest talents in the sport. His transformation played out gradually, subtly, most of it in the offseason months at a Tampa, Florida, facility run by his agents — and then it smacked his organization in the face.

The Mariners began to play Rodriguez in center field on a semi-regular basis near the tail end of the 2021 minor league season, then invited him to their monthlong high-performance camp, a holistic spin on baseball training that has replaced instructional league for the organization’s brightest prospects. Rodriguez had spent the previous few weeks talking about how he could beat fellow outfield prospect Victor Labrada, one of the fastest players in the minor leagues, in a footrace. Few believed him — until he made good on his promise, dusting Labrada in what amounted to a 30-yard sprint as fall approached.

Suddenly the expectations around him changed.

“It really did open our eyes to like, ‘Holy cow, this is a different kind of athlete than what we had originally signed and the work he has done has really changed how the whole thing works,'” Mariners assistant general manager Justin Hollander said. “We always had him as a future corner outfielder. Julio’s probably going to laugh when he sees this because he thrives, like most great players, when you tell him he can’t do something.”

FIVE MONTHS AGO, around midday in spring training, Julio Rodriguez sat next to Dipoto in the dugout holding one of his favorite Victus bats — black, with the sobriquet “JRod” graffitied in various teal-colored fonts around the barrel.

“That,” Dipoto exclaimed, “is sweet.”

“Papi,” Rodriguez responded, “they made it especially for me.”

Rodriguez — with light, droopy eyes and a smile that often stretches out beyond the edges of them — seems to live in a state of perpetual wonder. His trademark joy stems largely from gratitude. The signature confidence, he’ll say, comes from “the work.” And the work is driven largely by a desire to prove others wrong.

Rodriguez approached Dipoto that day in search of motivation. He began to grind on his bat and asked Dipoto, seven years into his run as the Mariners’ head of baseball operations, whether he truly believed he could handle center field.

“I know a lot of people don’t think I can play center field,” Rodriguez said. “I thrive when people don’t think I can do stuff.”

“Well,” Dipoto recalled saying, “unfortunately for you I actually do think you can do it because I’ve been watching you, and I’ve learned not to bet against you.”

Silence followed.

“You know what I don’t think you can do?” Dipoto finally said, and Rodriguez suddenly perked up. “I don’t think you can do 30-30, or ever win a Triple Crown.”

Rodriguez looked at his bat again, then looked back at Dipoto.

“All right,” he said, “it’s on.”

The final month of the regular season is approaching, and Rodriguez still stands a decent chance at accomplishing the first of those challenges, while on pace for 27 home runs and 30 stolen bases. If not for the wrist injuries that forced him to miss 15 games earlier in the second half, his pursuit of 30-30 might be a forgone conclusion. He’s the third-youngest player in the majors this year and yet his slash line sits at .264/.324/.468, with 21 home runs and 23 stolen bases through his first 112 games. He’s also providing Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field, where he has accumulated six outs above average.

It’s easy to forget, given the way it’s going, that Rodriguez entered 2022 as an unfinished product. He produced spectacular numbers at every level, but his brief development track was interrupted by fractures to his left hand and later to his left wrist, a Bronze-medal-winning Olympic stint with the Dominican Republic and a COVID-19 pandemic that wiped out an entire minor league season. Rodriguez arrived in spring training this year with less than 1,000 minor league plate appearances under his belt. But the Mariners made him their Opening Day center fielder regardless. McKay had known him long enough to believe he’d possess the appropriate mindset.

“Everybody has confidence that ebbs and flows and comes from different sources,” McKay said. “Julio’s, a big part of his is how much he loves to compete. It removes the fear of failure for him. Nothing is a challenge for him; it’s all an opportunity. But it all stems from this genuine love of competing and being on a baseball field. It’s just pure joy for him. He’s not threatened by the situation. It’s an opportunity for him.”

A defining opportunity arrived during his first month in the major leagues. It marked the first time Rodriguez had ever truly struggled on a baseball field. He went homerless through April, finishing with a .206/.284/.260 slash line and 30 strikeouts in 20 games.

Ten of those punchouts were called strikes on pitches outside of the zone, at least five more than any other player that month, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information. Rodriguez was clearly getting the rookie treatment from the industry’s umpires, exasperating many of the people around him. But he hardly complained and never really wavered in his approach. His chase rate remained steady and his exit velocities remained high. He seemed to carry himself with a belief that the results were inevitable, as if no other outcome could possibly exist.

“He understood who he was, he understood this is what happens in this league, and I think he gained a lot of respect from us for doing that,” Mariners starting pitcher Marco Gonzales said. “I was frustrated for him. I think a lot of people were. But he never let that show.”

Julio Sr., who still makes his home in the Dominican Republic, flew to the United States with Rodriguez’s mother and two of his siblings for the start of the Mariners’ season and watched as his son went 1-for-21 with 12 strikeouts through the opening road trip. When the team got to Seattle, Julio Sr. thought about cutting his trip short. He was afraid his presence was causing a distraction. Regardless, the pain was too much to endure up close.

“You don’t believe in me?” Rodriguez asked.

Julio Sr. shook his head. It wasn’t that, he said. He told him young players get sent down when they struggle like that, and he didn’t want that for him. He knew how hard he worked, how badly he wanted it and he was afraid of what a demotion might do to his psyche. Rodriguez put his hand on his father’s shoulder and looked him dead in the eye.

“Nobody’s sending me down,” he said. “Bet on me.”

EARLY FAILURES CAN often ruin the careers of highly regarded young players. Cautionary tales are littered throughout baseball. But Rodriguez quickly recovered, in a way fellow Mariners prospects Evan White and Jarred Kelenic famously couldn’t.

“He has such a good way of slowing the game down,” Mariners first baseman Ty France said. “It takes some guys a long time to figure that out and he figured it out right away.”

Rodriguez was named AL Rookie of the Month in May, then again in June, then got invited to the All-Star Game in Los Angeles, which evolved into something of a coming-out party. Media hounded him, the game’s legends flocked toward him, but one conversation with Mike Trout, lasting no longer than 10 minutes, qualified as his favorite moment. Rodriguez’s eyes seemed to glisten at every mention of it.

The end of the Derby’s first round had triggered a prolonged break, during which many of the All-Stars escaped the summer heat inside their respective clubhouses. Trout was within eyesight, playing with his young son, Beckham. Rodriguez found a rolling chair, pulled up uncomfortably close and asked the question that had been on his mind.

“How do I become you?”

Trout’s response was, essentially, “You already are.” He then proceeded to talk to him about why his confidence was his greatest gift.

“I just love the way he plays,” Trout said later. “A lot of guys with all that hype come up and struggle, and he’s had success right away.”

Rodriguez grew up idolizing Alex Rodriguez and has created a buzz in Seattle that has drawn comparisons to the initial excitement around Ken Griffey Jr., but many, inside and outside the organization, see him as a more boisterous, outgoing version of Trout — the tools he possesses, the joy he exudes, the wonder with which he plays.

“I hate making those comparisons because I think it’s really unfair; they’re two very different people in a lot of ways,” said Hollander, the current Mariners and former Angels executive who has witnessed the entire development path of both Trout and Rodriguez. “But the unshakeable confidence in their own abilities, combined with supernatural gifts that most other people don’t have, and their ability to quickly forget failure and focus on success — those characteristics and those qualities are similar.”

The major difference, however, is their approach to the public sphere. Trout is understated and private; Rodriguez wants the world to know him. He made it a point to learn English because he wanted to communicate with as many fans as possible, insisting on the language in his earliest interviews as a professional. He now shows it off through his YouTube channel, which is already populated with 18 videos.

Among the highlights: taking batting practice with pineapples; driving a rental car through Arizona to surprise unsuspecting Mariners fans with tickets; a breakfast in which he waxes poetic about hot chocolate; and a visit to a shoe store in which he talks about an emerald-green-colored pair of low-top Nikes as if they were sent down from heaven.

Rodriguez has gone out of his way to market “JRod Show,” designing the phrase as a bejeweled pendant on his diamond-encrusted chain and flaunting it on all of his designer bats. He has emblazoned the name on hoodies and T-shirts, one of which was worn by his traveling party during the All-Star Game’s red-carpet ceremony. His marketing team is working diligently to procure the original username on Twitter.

It has become clear to many that Rodriguez doesn’t just want to be great at baseball.

He wants to be a transcendent star.

“That’s my vision,” he said. “A lot of people close to me, they know that.”

But those closest to him will tell you there’s more to it, that his immersion into the limelight is the natural course of an outgoing, overly enthusiastic spirit, not a desire to create a persona for marketing purposes.

Rodriguez recently read the James Clear book “Atomic Habits” and recommended it to his agent, Ulises Cabrera, a Vanderbilt graduate with an MBA who has been speaking English a lot longer than his client. A video series in which Rodriguez teams with one of his financial partners to provide financial literacy to children is in the works. He’s also working to procure an ambulance and a fire truck for Loma de Cabrera, which currently doesn’t have either. It’s why Cabrera believes the label that typically follows a young, flashy, outgoing player like Rodriguez can be wholly incomplete.

“What happens a lot of times is young guys aspire to be big in the game; they aspire to what greatness brings,” Cabrera, an agent for 15 years, said. “Julio is aspiring for greatness for what it does to the team. He wants to be the best player so that it can help his team win. He wants to be the best person so that it can help his community be impacted better. It’s not for the individual benefits and accolades that can potentially come as a result of who he is and what he does.”

IT WAS A day game on July 27 and Rodriguez was having a rough go of it. He had been jammed badly in his first plate appearance, had swung through three sliders out of the strike zone in his second and had produced a weak grounder in his third. As he readied to bat in the bottom of the seventh, with the division-rival Texas Rangers leading by a run, Mariners manager Scott Servais noticed that Rodriguez had switched his black-colored bat for a maple one.

“I had to,” Rodriguez explained. “The other one is sleeping.”

Moments later, Rodriguez turned on a chest-high slider and launched the 416-foot three-run homer that ultimately won the Mariners a game. Rodriguez made it a point to find Servais as he made his way back into the dugout. “I told you it was sleeping,” he said. Servais howled.

“He’s a kid,” Servais said recently. “He’s an absolute kid playing the game.”

What follows, then, might not surprise you: Rodriguez draws a lot of his motivation from anime. As a child, he said, he’d leave school and “literally be running to my house” to watch episodes of Naruto, a popular Japanese manga series. Now Naruto Uzumaki, the young ninja who aspires to become the leader of his village, is depicted on the back of Rodriguez’s signature “44” chain. It reminds him, he said, to “always see the bright side of things” and “never give up.”

Rodriguez maintains a 2.57 win probability added through his first five months in the major leagues, a total surpassed by only 12 position players. His ascension has in many ways mirrored that of his team, which started off slowly before taking off and establishing itself as one of the best in the sport. The Mariners were 10 games below .500 as late as June 19 but have since won 42 of 61 games and find themselves in the thick of a heated wild-card race with three AL East teams. France has been a revelation, Eugenio Suarez has been a godsend and their starting pitching — further bolstered by the midseason addition of Luis Castillo — has been a major strength. But Rodriguez, who has accumulated a team-leading 4.4 Baseball-Reference wins above replacement, has been their catalyst.

The Mariners have been powered by his energy, which has electrified their city. The line at the team store next to T-Mobile Park extended out the front door on the morning of July 16, with fans clamoring for Rodriguez’s newly-released All-Star jersey. They sold out in less than an hour. Three sections near center field are now dedicated exclusively to him, with fans receiving giveaway Rodriguez T-shirts and holding up giant “X” placards in honor of how he crosses his arms after highlight-reel catches. Center field in Seattle has been deemed the “No Fly Zone.” Seattle has waited 20 years for a playoff team, which qualifies as the longest drought in North American professional sports, and just as long for a fresh new face to rally itself around.

A buzz like this hasn’t been experienced there since a certain teenager showed up with a backwards cap and a sweet swing and became a cultural icon of the 1990s.

“I don’t compare,” Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. said during the All-Star Game, noticeably trying to ease some of the pressure that surrounds Rodriguez. “You got to let Julio be Julio. It’s not fair to him to compare him with anybody. I didn’t like it when I got compared to Willie Mays when I was 20 years old and Willie was 25, so let Julio be Julio and enjoy what he’s doing.”

Rodriguez arrived in the Mariners’ clubhouse the way Griffey did — young, cocky and exuberant, though oftentimes, in a sign of how different the world works for the modern player, with a video crew documenting his every move.

Major league clubhouses don’t typically tolerate that type of self-promotion from rookies. Usually, at the very least, there will be a handful of veteran players who will absorb it with a crooked eye, and the Mariners clubhouse was no different. But Rodriguez is now genuinely beloved by teammates. They love him for his play as much as they love him for who he is. He has genuinely won them over, a nod to what many identify as his greatest tool.

“He doesn’t change who he is, regardless of what he’s doing or who he’s around,” Gonzales said. “When you see him smiling on the field, that’s who he is, and that’s who he is every single day. If that was all an act, then yeah, it would rub us the wrong way. But it’s not.

“He’s very genuine. And so I think that it restores a lot of our faith in the game, in the youth, of where baseball’s headed, with guys like him.”

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Iowa State extends Campbell, bumps pay to $5M

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Iowa State extends Campbell, bumps pay to M

  • Max OlsonAug 1, 2025, 04:59 PM ET

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    • Covers the Big 12
    • Joined ESPN in 2012
    • Graduate of the University of Nebraska

Iowa State and coach Matt Campbell have finalized a contract extension through 2032 after the winningest coach in program history led the Cyclones to their first-ever 11-win season in 2024.

Campbell will earn $5 million per year in total compensation, according to a copy of the contract obtained by ESPN on Friday. The three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year honoree took a discount on the deal, sources told ESPN, to ensure that his staff salary pool increased and to allow Iowa State to allocate an additional $1 million to revenue-sharing funds for its football roster.

Campbell earned $4 million in 2024 while leading the Cyclones to a Big 12 championship game appearance, an 11-3 record and a No. 15 finish in the AP poll. He’s entering his 10th season in Ames and has won a school record of 64 games during his tenure.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders will be the Big 12’s highest-paid head coach this year at $10 million after landing a five-year, $54 million contract extension in March. Campbell’s new salary will not rank among the top five in the conference, but he prioritized maximizing Iowa State’s ability to invest in its football roster following a historic season.

Campbell, 45, told ESPN in July at Big 12 media days that “probably our top 20 guys took a pay cut to come back to Iowa State” for 2025, relative to what they could’ve earned in NIL compensation by entering the transfer portal.

The head coach’s deal includes performance incentives based on the Cyclones’ regular-season record, starting at $250,000 for seven wins and climbing to $1.5 million for a 12-0 season. He’ll earn at least $100,000 for a Big 12 title game appearance and up to $500,000 for a Big 12 championship. The deal also permits him to distribute up to $100,000 of his performance incentive earnings each year to his football staff.

If Campbell accepts another Power 4 head coaching job before the end of his contract, his buyout would be $2 million. He would not owe liquidated damages if he departs for an NFL coaching opportunity. Campbell interviewed with the Chicago Bears in January during the organization’s head coaching search.

Campbell surpassed Dan McCarney as the program’s winningest head coach last season and has led the Cyclones to bowl games in seven of the past eight seasons, including a Fiesta Bowl victory and a top-10 finish in 2020.

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Stanford hires former Nike CEO Donahoe as AD

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August 2, 2025

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Stanford hires former Nike CEO Donahoe as AD

  • Seth Wickersham

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    Seth Wickersham

    ESPN Senior Writer

    • Senior Writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine
    • Joined ESPN The Magazine after graduating from the University of Missouri.
    • Although he primarily covers the NFL, his assignments also have taken him to the Athens Olympics, the World Series, the NCAA tournament and the NHL and NBA playoffs.

Jul 31, 2025, 11:10 PM ET

Stanford has hired former Nike CEO John Donahoe as the school’s new athletic director, the university announced Thursday.

Donahoe, 65, will arrive in the collegiate athletic director space with a vast swath of business experience, as Stanford officials viewed him as a “unicorn candidate” because of both his business ties and history at the school. Stanford coveted a nontraditional candidate for the role, and Donahoe’s hire delivers a seasoned CEO with stints at Nike, Bain & Company and eBay. He also served as the board chair of PayPal.

He also brings strong Stanford ties as a 1986 MBA graduate. He has had two stints on the Stanford business school’s advisory board, including currently serving in that role.

“My north star for 40 years has been servant leadership, and it is a tremendous honor to be able to come back to serve a university I love and to lead Stanford Athletics through a pivotal and tumultuous time in collegiate sports,” Donahoe said in a statement. “Stanford has enormous strengths and enormous potential in a changing environment, including being the model for achieving both academic and athletic excellence at the highest levels. I can’t wait to work in partnership with the Stanford team to build momentum for Stanford Athletics and ensure the best possible experiences for our student-athletes.”

Donahoe replaces Bernard Muir, who announced in February that he was stepping down after serving in that role since 2012. Alden Mitchell has been the school’s interim athletic director.

The hire is a head-turning one for Stanford, bringing in someone with Donahoe’s high-level business experience. And it comes at a time when the athletic department has struggled in its highest-profile sports, as football is amid four consecutive 3-9 seasons and the men’s basketball team hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament since 2014.

In hiring Donahoe, Stanford is aiming for someone who can find an innovative way to support general manager Andrew Luck and the football program while also figuring out a sustainable model for the future of Stanford’s Olympic sports.

“Stanford occupies a unique place in the national athletics landscape,” university president Jonathan Levin said in a statement. “We needed a distinctive leader — someone with the vision, judgment, and strategic acumen for a new era of college athletics, and with a deep appreciation for Stanford’s model of scholar-athlete excellence. John embodies these characteristics. We’re grateful he has agreed to lead Stanford Athletics through this critical period in college sports.”

Stanford’s Olympic sports remain the best in the country, as Stanford athletes or former athletes accounted for 39 medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. If Stanford were a country, it would have tied with Canada for the 11th-most medals. Stanford has also won 26 of the possible 31 director’s cups for overall athletic success in college, including a 25-year streak from 1995 to 2019.

School officials approached Donahoe in recent weeks about the position, with both Levin and former women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer among the chief recruiters. Donahoe has a long-standing relationship with both, as he maintained strong ties to the school throughout his career.

Sources said Luck will report to Donahoe. Luck spent time with him in the interview process and is excited to work with him, sources said. It’s also a change from the prior structure, as upon Luck’s hiring he had been slated to report to Levin.

“I am absolutely thrilled John Donahoe is joining as our next athletic director,” Luck said in a statement. “He brings unparalleled experience and elite leadership to our athletic department in a time of opportunity and change. I could not be more excited to partner with and learn from him.”

Stanford is set to begin a football season in which it is picked to finish last in the 17-team ACC. Former NFL coach Frank Reich is the interim coach, and both sides have made clear this is a definitive interim situation and that he won’t return after the 2025 season.

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What you missed from college football recruiting this summer

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August 2, 2025

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What you missed from college football recruiting this summer

  • Eli LedermanAug 2, 2025, 07:33 AM ET

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      Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.

The busiest 60 days of the annual recruiting calendar are officially behind us. And while another four months still remain before the December early signing period, college football’s top programs have already wrapped up the majority of their business in the 2026 cycle.

Per ESPN Research, a total of 155 prospects in the 2026 ESPN 300 made commitments in an avalanche of summer recruiting business from June 1 to July 31. In the wake of that, only 16 uncommitteds remain in the ESPN 300 as of Saturday morning. Within that group are just nine top-100 recruits, with five-star defensive end Jake Kreul, No. 2 running back Savion Hiter and No. 2 defensive tackle Deuce Geralds among those expected to come off the board in August.

More settled by this point of the cycle than any other in recent memory, college football’s 2026 class is unfolding against the backdrop of yet another moment of change in the sport. The House settlement and earliest ebbs of college athletics’ revenue sharing era have already shaped the 2026 cycle, and their effects will continue to ripple across the class until February’s national signing day.

As the recruiting trail prepares to take a (relative) back seat to fall camp practices, here’s a look at how the cycle played out this summer and what could come next for the class of 2026:

Revenue sharing and a new era in recruiting

The House settlement, which now permits schools to pay their athletes directly, among other sweeping changes, officially took effect July 1.

But according to personnel staffers, agents, recruits and parents surveyed by ESPN this month on the condition of anonymity, byproducts of college football’s new reality and the initial revenue sharing cap of $20.5 million across all sports have been steering the 2026 cycle for months. “In the past, collectives would always say we’re only going to offer what we know we can pay you,” a player agent told ESPN. “Now programs know what the budget will be, and harder numbers were discussed earlier than usual. The ability for programs to get those numbers out there early was huge.” As schools prepared roster budgets and braced for post-settlement oversight this spring, a number of Power 4 programs began front-loading their 2025 rosters in the lead-up to July 1.

In some cases, that meant negotiating updated, pre-settlement contracts with transfers and current players, deals that will not count against the post-July 1 revenue share cap. In others, sources told ESPN that programs and collectives found workarounds on the recruiting trail, doling out upfront payments as high as $25,000 per month to committed recruits in the 2026 class, primarily through advantageous high school NIL laws that exist in states such as California, Oregon and Washington.

Those front-loading efforts helped several programs jump out to fast starts in the 2026 cycle. Per sources, the impending arrival of revenue sharing also played a significant role in speeding up the 2026 class this spring. With programs in position to present firmer financial figures, a flurry of elite prospects committed to schools on verbal agreements before July 1.

“People rushed to get deals done pre-House,” a Power 4 personnel staffer told ESPN. “You know there’s only so much money available, and schools let kids know that. The first one to say yes gets it.”

Friday loomed especially large in the short-lived history of the House settlement.

Per the settlement, Aug. 1 was the first official date rising seniors could formally receive written revenue share contracts from programs and NIL collectives, the latter of which will now operate under looser regulation from the newly founded College Sports Commission, per a memo sent to athletic directors on Thursday. Put another way, Aug. 1 was the first day committed prospects and their families could officially learn whether terms they had agreed to earlier this year were legit.

“We’re going to see how serious these schools are,” said the parent of an ESPN 300 quarterback. “I think we might see some kids decommit and find new schools this fall.”

Across the industry, sources believe programs will, for the most part, deliver on the verbal agreements. Multiple agents and personnel staffers told ESPN that a number of programs have also generally ignored the Aug. 1 stipulation across the spring and summer, presenting frameworks of agreements to prospective recruits or flouting the rule entirely. Another question hovering over the months ahead: How much will these agreements do to contain the annual shuffle of flips, decommitments and late-cycle drama in the 2026 class?

“These deals should keep things more in check,” another Power 4 personnel staffer said. “But I’m not naive to think some won’t flip. There’s some snakes out there.”

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No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown commits to LSU

No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown stays home and commits to play for the LSU Tigers.

Where do things stand with the 2026 five-star class?

Oregon offensive tackle commit Immanuel Iheanacho, No. 13 in the 2026 ESPN 300, initially planned to announce his commitment Aug. 5. But, like many of the 2026 five-stars who entered late spring still uncommitted, Iheanacho felt the heat of an accelerated market in June.

“There were a couple of schools I was looking at that asked me to commit early, really wanting to get me in their class,” Iheanacho told ESPN. “Oregon didn’t rush me at all.”

Even so, Iheanacho eventually shifted his commitment timeline forward more than a month. ESPN’s second-ranked offensive line prospect picked the Ducks over Auburn, LSU and Penn State on July 3, landing as one of 11 five-star recruits to commit between June 14 and July 20.

As of Saturday morning, only one of the record 23 five-star prospects in ESPN’s class rankings for 2026 remains uncommitted. LSU secured a class cornerstone and the highest-ranked pledge of the Brian Kelly era in No. 1 overall recruit Lamar Brown on July 10. Meanwhile, Florida (McCoy) and Texas A&M (Arrington) each landed a top-15 defender, Ojo landed a historic deal with Texas Tech, and Texas closed July with the most five-star pledges — four — in the country.

With Kreul, the skilled pass rusher from Florida’s IMG Academy nearing a decision from among Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Texas, ESPN’s 2026 five-star class could be closed out before Week 0.

No matter how it plays out from here, the cycle’s five-stars are already historically settled. As of Saturday morning, 95.6% of the five-star class is committed among 14 schools across the Power 4 conferences. Per ESPN Research, it’s by far the highest Aug. 1 five-star pledge rate in any cycle since at least 2020. Just over a decade ago, only six of the 20 five-stars (30%) in the 2015 cycle were committed on Aug. 1, 2014; nearly half the class committed after New Year’s Day.

Highest rate of five-star pledges by Aug. 1 since the start of the 2020 cycle

  • 2026: 95.6%

  • 2024: 76.1%

  • 2025: 72.7%

  • 2021: 66.6%

  • 2020: 58.8%

A number of factors — the early signing period, NIL, transfer portal, new rules around recruiting windows and on-campus visits — explain why elite recruiting continues to inch further and further from the traditional February signing day. Amid the fallout of the House settlement, the latest five-star class seemingly received another nudge this summer.

What’s left for the 2026 QB market after summer moves?

The last major quarterback domino in the 2026 class fell July 18 when four-star Landon Duckworth (No. 178 overall) committed to South Carolina. More than four months from the early signing period, the quarterback market in 2026 is effectively closed.

After Ryder Lyons (BYU), Bowe Bentley (Oklahoma) and Jaden O’Neal (Florida State) found homes in June, Duckworth was the last uncommitted ESPN 300 quarterback. Further down the class, several major programs across the Big Ten and SEC dipped into the flip market or outside the top 300 to secure their 2026 quarterback pledge(s) this summer.

Notable quarterback moves since June 1:

Oregon ended its monthslong chase for a quarterback pledge June 25 with former Boise State commit Beaver. One of the cycle’s top summer risers after a standout Elite 11 finals showing, Beaver landed with Ducks coach Dan Lanning and offensive coordinator Will Stein over interest Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss in whirlwind, 13-day rerecruitment.

Alabama has five-star freshman Keelon Russell. But still repairing the program’s quarterback pipeline under coach Kalen DeBoer, the Crimson Tide added two pledges this summer between Thomalla — an Iowa State flip — and Kaawa. Across the state, Auburn and coach Hugh Freeze made their move June 26 flipping Falzone from Penn State before Ohio State (Fahey) and Kentucky (Ponatoski), another pair of quarterback-needy programs, landed pledges in July.

For now, the quarterback class is settled and only so many major programs are still searching in 2026.

Among the 68 Power 4 programs and Notre Dame, only 10 reached August without at least one pledge among the 106 quarterback prospects rated by ESPN: Colorado, Georgia Tech, LSU, Iowa, Iowa State, Maryland, Stanford, UCLA, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

Who might still be looking within that group?

Colorado (Julian Lewis), Maryland (Malik Washington) and UCLA (Madden Iamaleava) each signed a top-300 quarterback in the 2025 class. With all three programs in the midst of roster rebuilds, none is likely to make a serious push at the position this fall.

With Garrett Nussmeier out of eligibility in 2025, and after the LSU lost No. 1 overall recruit Bryce Underwood to Michigan last fall, the Tigers remain a program to watch in the coming months.

What did ESPN’s top five classes do this summer?

The Trojans got the bulk of their work done on the trail this spring and began June with the most ESPN 300 pledges of any program nationally. That remains the case as USC has bolstered its top-ranked incoming class with five more ESPN 300 pledges over the past eight weeks, adding defenders Talanoa Ili (No. 54 overall), Luke Wafle (No. 104) and Peyton Dyer (No. 269), a July 4 pledge from No. 3 wide receiver Ethan “Boobie” Feaster (No. 25) and the commitment of highly regarded four-star offensive guard Breck Kolojay (No. 198) on Friday.

Can USC hold on to secure its first No. 1 class since 2013? Time will tell. Sources told ESPN that the Trojans’ biggest moves in the cycle are likely finished while the program continues to target the tight end and safety positions, but there’s still time for plenty more to unfold this fall.

The Bulldogs went for volume and quality this summer, collecting 19 commitments including 12 from inside the ESPN 300. Georgia continued to build around five-star quarterback Jared Curtis with five-star tight end Kaiden Prothro, top-50 offensive tackle Ekene Ogboko, running back Jae Lamar and pass catchers Brayden Fogle and Craig Dandridge. On the other side of the ball, defensive backs Justice Fitzpatrick, Chase Calicut and Caden Harris, and defensive tackle Pierre Dean Jr. rank among the newest arrivals in an increasingly deep Bulldogs defensive class.

Georgia’s summer wasn’t without a few major misses. Losing out to Texas on No. 1 outside linebacker Tyler Atkinson — a priority in-state target — stung. Top running back Derrek Cooper’s subsequent pledge to the Longhorns marked another blow, as did wide receiver Vance Spafford‘s decision to flip to Miami in late June. But the Bulldogs are loaded up once again on top during this cycle and will hit the fall in line to secure the program’s 10th straight top-three signing class for 2026.

The Aggies landed a key local recruiting win over Texas on June 17 with a commitment from No. 5 running back K.J. Edwards, the state’s No. 6 prospect in 2026. But Texas A&M’s summer of recruiting was defined on defense, where coach Mike Elko is building another monster class.

Five-star athlete Brandon Arrington, who will play defensive back in college, became the program’s top-ranked 2026 pledge on June 19. Behind him, the Aggies have added top-150 defenders Bryce Perry-Wright, Camren Hamiel and Tristian Givens, and top 300 linebacker Daquives Beck since June 1 to a defensive class that features nine ESPN 300 pledges.

Even after narrowly missing on top defenders Lamar Brown (LSU) and Anthony Jones (Oregon) in July, Texas A&M holds one of the nation’s deepest classes and appears poised to contend later this year for its first top-five class since the Aggies went No. 1 in 2022.

It was a five-star bonanza for coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns this summer.

It began with a late-June pledge from Oregon decommit Richard Wesley, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive end. From there, Texas went on to secure its latest pair of recruiting wins over Georgia last month, swooping in to land Atkinson on July 15 before earning Derrek Cooper’s commitment five days later. With No. 1 quarterback Dia Bell already in the fold, the Longhorns have as many five-star pledges in 2026 as the program signed across 11 classes from 2011 to 2021.

Top-50 offensive lineman John Turntine III marked a key addition July 4, and the Longhorns got deeper on defense with commitments from cornerback Samari Matthews and former Georgia defensive tackle pledge James Johnson. But the five-star moves have been the story for Texas this summer, and Sarkisian & Co. might not be done yet with the Longhorns heavily in the mix for Jake Kreul, the last remaining five-star in the 2026 class.

After a productive spring, the Irish landed five ESPN 300 pledges after June 1, plugging the few remaining holes in the program’s 2026 class with a series of elite high school prospects.

Notre Dame landed its top two defensive back commitments within hours of each other on June 20 with pledges from cornerback Khary Adams and Joey O’Brien. On June 26, the Irish secured their highest-ranked tight end commit since the 2021 class in four-star Ian Premer. And in early July, Notre Dame bolstered its wide receiver class with an infusion of talent and NFL pedigree, adding Kaydon Finley (son of Jermichael Finley), Brayden Robinson and Devin Fitzgerald (son of Larry Fitzgerald).

Notre Dame’s trip to last season’s national title game arrived amid the program’s steady rise on the recruiting trail under coach Marcus Freeman. That has continued in 2026, where the Irish are poised to sign more ESPN 300 pledges — 17 — than in any cycle since at least 2006.

Five programs poised to push for a top-five finish this fall

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 6

Only one program can match USC’s count of nine top-100 pledges in 2026: Alabama.

The Crimson Tide’s second class under coach Kalen DeBoer boomed in June and July as the Crimson Tide secured a slew of commitments on defense with five-star safety Jireh Edwards (No. 23 overall), No. 3 outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 30) and defensive ends Nolan Wilson (No. 53) and Jamarion Matthews (No. 92). Priority in-state offensive targets Ezavier Crowell (No. 31) and Cederian Morgan (No. 47) marked two more key additions this summer.

Alabama whiffed on another major in-state recruit Thursday when four-star outside linebacker Anthony Jones, the state’s No. 1 prospect in 2026, committed to Oregon. Jones represented one of the last elite targets on the Crimson Tide’s board. But Alabama has already flipped four Power 4 commits this summer and could continue to climb this fall as long as DeBoer and his staff remain active within the class from now to the early signing period.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 11

LSU enters the month with ESPN’s No. 1 overall recruit, a five-star wide receiver in Tristen Keys (No. 10 overall) and 10 total ESPN 300 commits in the program’s incoming recruiting class.

How can the Tigers climb into the upper reaches of the 2026 cycle this fall? First and foremost, they have to hang onto Keys, ESPN’s No. 3 wide receiver. He has been committed to LSU since March 19, but that didn’t keep him from taking multiple official visits in the spring or shield him from serious flips efforts from Miami, Tennessee and Texas A&M this summer.

The Tigers’ battle to keep Keys could stretch all the way to the early signing period.

Sources expect LSU to ramp up its own flip efforts with in-state safety and Ohio State pledge Blaine Bradford (No. 34 overall) in the coming months. The Tigers are also finalists for Deuce Geralds and remain top contenders in the recruitments of offensive linemen Darius Gray (No. 73) and wide receiver Jase Mathews, both of whom are set to commit in August. LSU can’t be counted out from renewing its work in the 2026 quarterback this fall, either.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 7

The defending national champs had a relatively quiet summer atop the 2026 cycle, adding only four ESPN 300 pledges highlighted by the in-state pledges of outside linebacker Cincere Johnson (No. 82 overall) and running back Favour Akih (No. 160). Fahey, ESPN’s No. 28 pocket passer, will pad Ohio State’s future quarterback depth after Air Noland‘s offseason transfer, too.

One priority target who could help push the Buckeyes over the edge is four-star prospect Bralan Womack (No. 32). Ohio State has been consistent a leader in the recruitment of ESPN’s No. 3 safety through the spring and summer, and coach Ryan Day & Co. will have to hold off late pushes from fellow finalists Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M from now until Womack’s Aug. 22 commitment date. The Buckeyes also remain involved in the recruitments of No. 2 running back Savion Hiter and Darius Gray, the nation’s 10th-ranked offensive lineman.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 8

Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore has filled out his class with nine ESPN 300 pledges since June 1, headlined by top-100 defender Carter Meadows (No. 88 overall), who trails only quarterback Brady Smigiel (No. 44) among the top prospects pledged to Michigan in 2026.

Who could be next for the Wolverines? Michigan are finalists for ESPN 300 defenders Davon Benjamin (No. 63) and Anthony Davis Jr. (No. 299) with each set for a decision Saturday. More prominently, the Wolverines remain focused on Hiter (No. 24 overall), a top priority for the Michigan staff this summer whose commitment date is set for Aug. 19. The Wolverines also continue to be linked with Syracuse wide receiver pledge Calvin Russell (No. 28). ESPN’s No. 4 wide receiver closed a narrowing process with a commitment to the Orange on July 5, but sources expect Michigan and Miami to remain involved with Russell this fall.

Current ESPN class ranking: No. 10

No. 2 outside linebacker Anthony Jones committed to the Ducks on Thursday, joining five-stars Immanuel Iheanacho and Jett Washington in a string of high-profile pledges for Oregon this summer.

Insiders believe the Ducks have backed off at the very top of the 2026 class after spending in the 2025 cycle, but Jones’ pledge could be the first move in a late-summer surge for coach Dan Lanning. Oregon is viewed as the front-runner for both Deuce Geralds and Davon Benjamin as the pair of top-65 prospects prepare to announce their commitments Saturday afternoon. If the Ducks land both, Lanning & Co. could be in position to sign another top-five class by December.

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