Caleb Williams, Shedeur Sanders represent CFB’s changing landscape
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Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
LOS ANGELES — On a recent Saturday night in September, Lincoln Riley leaned forward in his chair to answer a question, searching his mind for a reason not to agree with its premise. USC had just dominated Stanford 56-10 for its third win of the season and looked every bit the part of the best offense in the country.
Is there anything not clicking on offense for you guys right now?
“It’s one game,” Riley said, downplaying the notion. He glanced at the box score. “I mean, how long do you have?”
Over Riley’s left shoulder, a relaxed Caleb Williams leaned back in his chair after only needing to play one half of football and answered the same inquiry without saying a word. The defending Heisman Trophy winner smiled, pressed his lips together and shook his head.
The truth was that, as much as Riley’s propensity is to look at opportunities for improvement, the Trojans’ offense appeared smoother than ever in that game — Riley and Williams, in sync in their approach and execution as it’s felt from the moment they both arrived in Southern California. After Williams followed Riley’s shocking move to USC from Oklahoma with one of his own, the pairing created an immediate foundation from which to not just build out a roster that fit their style and skill set, but also to turn around a program that had won four games the year prior into one that turned over its roster, which saw immediate results and attracted national attention.
This week, they’re facing an opponent who has also done just that. Through four weeks under Deion Sanders, and after bringing in 51 new players by way of the transfer portal (USC, by comparison, had 26 last year) Colorado has tripled its win total from 2022 and is the talk of the sport.
“There are a lot more similarities in the transformation here and what [Sanders] has done at Colorado than there is not,” Riley said this week of the Buffs’ roster overhaul. “He’s done a great job with the roster. Look at the results.”
Even Williams complimented the turnaround in Boulder.
“It’s been good for ’em, something that Colorado’s needed and haven’t had in a while and Deion and his son and Travis [Hunter] and all those other players have done a good job,” Williams said.
At the center of a matchup that feels dreamt up by TV executives, with Colorado’s record-breaking attention and the Prime Time effect colliding against Lincoln Riley and the brand of USC, are two quarterbacks who have no shortage of hype surrounding them on their own.
Williams is the presumptive No. 1 pick in next year’s draft, often lauded as a generational talent who would have been the top pick in this past draft had he been eligible. Shedeur Sanders, meanwhile, has silenced any notion of him being just Deion’s son and had been one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the country until the most recent game against Oregon. The way he has continued his success from Jackson State to a Power 5 program has the junior as the No. 3 quarterback in this year’s class, according to ESPN’s Mel Kiper (and the potential No. 1, should he wait, for 2025).
But beyond their talent on the field and prospects going forward, Shedeur and Williams — and their respective coaches — represent something larger in the sport: the ability to move from team to team in the era of the transfer portal and help jump-start a quick turnaround that attracts talent to a team due to a coach, a system or a star player. Or, in their case, all of the above.
“I think it’s a key part,” Riley said of having a tight-knit coach and quarterback relationship. “You got two coaches that came in with guys that they’ve obviously trusted in and I don’t think you can put a price tag on that from the team aspect and building the culture in the beginning.”
COLLEGE FOOTBALL HAS, especially in recent years, been ruled by the pairing of coach and quarterback. The system that once made coaches the fixtures amid constantly evolving rosters has now elevated the quarterback position to what is seen in the NFL, where the player under center is the face and fulcrum of the entire franchise as well as the ticket to a title. The advent of the transfer portal and NIL has only highlighted this.
Where before certain loaded recruiting classes were formed around high school teammates or friends, now players can look at what Williams has done at USC alongside Riley or what Shedeur and Deion have going on in Boulder and decide, in tandem, to go there by way of the portal two or even three years into their initial college choices.
At USC, this happened before Williams even took a snap. By the time the 2022 season started, the team had added Jordan Addison, the Biletnikoff winner, to its ranks. In the lead-up to this season, with Williams already having shown the rest of the country what he could do, the influx of talent to USC continued. Players from Arizona, South Carolina, Georgia and other programs made the move to play alongside Williams and Riley.
At Colorado, the polarizing overhaul Deion engineered featured four- and three-star wide receivers and running backs from Auburn, Houston, Kentucky and South Florida making their way to Boulder. The expectation is that once the portal opens up this season, players with more talent and from better teams will want to join.
“Now that there’s some proof of concept there, they’re going to be a monster,” said Zach Soskin, who helps broker NIL deals between team collectives and players and is familiar with the inner workings of the transfer portal. “Coaches around the country are already worried their players are going to leave for Colorado.”
It’s evident that what is going on at Colorado almost goes beyond results. Due to the hot 3-0 start Deion’s team engineered, the first impression is already taken care of. During that time when the Buffaloes have attracted eyes from every corner of the nation, they’ve already sold their product: Colorado football is cool now. Deion has made it so. Shedeur and players like Hunter have only solidified that notion. And in the Sean Lewis offense, Shedeur in particular has shown what kind of potential any player who might join it will tap into.
“What you see is an explosive offense and a quarterback and someone in the vicinity of 80% completion percentage, which obviously raises eyebrows,” USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said of Shedeur. “The ability to extend plays and still throw the ball down field is obviously alarming as you watch it.”
Already this season, Shedeur has thrown for 1,410 yards and 11 touchdowns and engineered clutch drives against TCU and Colorado State. But for all the hype Shedeur has welcomed this year, it’s crucial to note that he had been doing this at Jackson State, where he threw for 3,732 yards and 40 touchdowns last season as well as 3,231 yards and 30 touchdowns the year before.
Deion knows what he has in his son. He’s been saying this since he was at Jackson State and it’s why now, every time he gets asked about any struggles, like the ones Colorado faced against Oregon in a blowout loss where Shedeur struggled (159 passing yards and only one touchdown, albeit a 70% completion rate), he repeats the same refrain.
“We got to do a better job protecting him,” Deion said this week after Shedeur was sacked seven times in Eugene and pressured all throughout the game.
Williams knows a thing about that, too. His success and ability to showcase the peak of his talent last season was aided by having a strong relationship with his offensive line, whom he brought to the Heisman ceremony and his first pitch at a Dodgers game. Yet even when they have stumbled, Williams has been able to extend plays and throw down the field, turning every snap into a potential highlight reel.
After a Heisman season that featured over 4,500 passing yards and 42 touchdowns, Williams is well on his way to an encore. The junior has 1,200 passing yards and 15 touchdowns (plus three rushing scores) and zero interceptions through four games this season, three of which he barely played, if at all, in the second half of the game.
Deion, like the rest of the sports world, has taken notice of Williams’ escapades, but as a showman and a prolific brand himself, he’s also taken note of something else.
If there’s another through line between the two quarterbacks so far, it’s this: Williams and Shedeur, often alongside Deion, have been staples of several commercials.
“I love seeing his personality,” Deion said of Williams’ appearances, which seem to have doubled since he won the Heisman.
Their participation in those has been by design as both have been selective in which name, image and likeness deals they choose to partake in. Both, in fact, share an NIL sponsor: Beats by Dre.
For Shedeur and Colorado as a whole, the process of acquiring NIL deals has taken on a new form. Due to the team’s growing popularity, Shedeur has his choice of deals as brands are actively seeking out Colorado for deals in order to get a piece of the excitement surrounding the team. An NIL agent who brought Shedeur a six-figure deal recently said the quarterback turned it down without a counteroffer.
Williams, who seems to appear in a new college football-adjacent commercial every Saturday, was, alongside his dad Carl and team, patient and savvy when it came to NIL. When Williams began to attract interest while at Oklahoma, they mostly waited, banking on their belief that Williams was headed for bigger things. Following his Heisman season, everyone from Dr Pepper to AT&T wanted in. They know they’re now investing in the next No. 1 pick.
While Williams seems like a shoo-in to be the first name NFL commissioner Roger Goodell calls next year, Deion has been vocal about the fact that Shedeur will bide his time before going to the NFL, noting that with NIL, Shedeur can “make just as much money here as you can [in the NFL] unless you’re one of the first five picks.”
“Shedeur doesn’t want to be two to nobody,” Deion said in an interview with Bleacher Report. “He don’t get down like that. People are projecting him behind Caleb Williams. And Caleb Williams is phenomenal. But Shedeur ain’t no backseat rider. He drives his Maybach. He doesn’t have a driver in it — he drives it.”
PERFORMANCE AND POPULARITY aside, the persona that both of these quarterbacks have has its equal pull on skill players around the country, which has already had a direct effect on recruiting.
Players like running back MarShawn Lloyd, wide receiver Dorian Singer and offensive lineman Michael Tarquin, who represent transfers USC brought in this season in large part due to the success that Williams and the offense had, have only been reaffirmed in their choice once they arrived on campus and began playing alongside Williams.
“It’s everything I thought it would be,” Lloyd said.
It’s important to note, however, the uniqueness of Williams’ situation. The blueprint he’s crafted as not just an athlete but a brand, combined with his appeal to every player or opponent that seems to be in his orbit, is not easily replicable.
But while Williams’ situation is special, Shedeur’s is too. Within the eye of the Deion hype storm, Shedeur has stood out on his own and created his own storyline. Colorado’s not just set to bring in talented players via the transfer portal, it’s also bound to continue to improve on its high school recruiting from the effect of this season alone.
It’s why even if Shedeur and Colorado go on to lose to USC after losing to Oregon, in some ways, they’ve already won this season. Their first impression combined with the sheer gravitational pull of Deion and everything he’s doing in Boulder has set the Buffs up to be a destination for players next year and beyond.
“I think part of it is their personality that is appealing to other players, too,” Soskin said. “And more importantly, their coaches let them be them. It’s in line with player empowerment.”
Soskin believes that, when surveying the coaching styles across the country, more and more players are gravitating toward styles and systems like Riley’s and Deion’s. Most players may eventually want to be turned into a first-round draft pick by Nick Saban, but that path isn’t for everyone, especially when plenty others have shown alternatives.
“At the end of the day, our job as coaches is to do what’s necessary to help make these programs the best we possibly can,” Riley said. “I don’t know [Deion], I’ve never met him, but he seems to be very genuine and in his approach. And listen, everybody’s different. Everybody’s got different personalities. I think leadership … when you’re fake and try to be something you’re not, I think people see right through that.”
While Riley and Deion will espouse the many different, valid factors it’s taken for USC and Colorado to be turned around in such short order, it’s hard to see a world in which each team would be in its respective place without its quarterback, let alone the partnership it has with the head coach who has let his team be itself on and off the field. With Shedeur, the relationship is obviously a familial one. But with Williams, it may as well be.
“It’s unique,” wide receivers coach Luke Huard said of the relationship between Riley and Williams. “The communication that he has with Caleb, it’s fun to watch. There’s no doubt that they have a special language for sure. And, when you have the play caller and the quarterback that are so much on the same wavelength, you know, it’s so much easier to make adjustments.”
The partnerships, of course, can’t last forever.
Despite the off-field appeal Williams and Shedeur both possess, come Saturday and come the first snap of the football, they’ll be opponents nonetheless. And while both Deion and Riley have drowned each other in respect and admiration so far, there’s no doubt each of them want to emerge on top, not just Saturday but beyond.
Soon, perhaps after both of their foundational quarterbacks have moved on to the NFL, they’ll likely find themselves fighting for the same players.
Jack Eichel has signed an eight-year contract extension with the Vegas Golden Knights that carries a $13.5 million average annual value, the team announced Wednesday.
The agreement came just hours before the Golden Knights open their season against the Los Angeles Kings in Las Vegas. The sides intensified talks as training camp opened, with both focused on getting a long-term deal secured ahead of the season.
The extension begins in the 2026-27 season, and Eichel will be 38 when it ends. He will be the third-highest player in terms of AAV in the league, following Kirill Kaprizov ($17 million) and Leon Draisaitl ($14 million) going forward.
Eichel, 28, was entering the final year of an eight-year contract that carried a $10 million cap hit, a deal he originally signed with the Buffalo Sabres, who drafted him.
Buffalo traded Eichel to the Golden Knights in 2021.
The deal stemmed from his desire to get an artificial disk replacement (ADR) to correct a neck injury, a procedure that never had been done on an NHL player and therefore was considered a risk. Eichel’s agent, Pat Brisson, helped facilitate the trade.
The Golden Knights allowed Eichel to get the surgery, which was such a success that several other NHL players have had it.
The U.S.-born center helped Vegas win its first Stanley Cup in 2023, scoring 26 points in 22 games during the playoff run.
“On or about four years ago, Jack was getting the first ADR surgery for an NHL active player,” Brisson told ESPN on Wednesday. “He is a pioneer. Vegas stepped to the plate and helped the process occur. They’ve since won the Cup. It’s a great place for him, and he’s really happy with the decision.”
Eichel is one of the six players already named to Team USA for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
The Golden Knights are expected to be Stanley Cup contenders, especially after adding winger Mitch Marner this summer. Eichel and Marner are expected to play together on Vegas’ top line in its opener against the Kings.
The agreement takes another big name off the list of what could have been a star-studded free agent class next summer. Connor McDavid re-signed for a two-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers earlier in the week, and Kaprizov inked an eight-year deal with the Minnesota Wild ahead of the season.
The 2025 MLB playoffs are here — and for some teams, October is going to last a lot longer than it is for some others.
We start with the wild-card round, where the Cincinnati Reds became the first team eliminated from postseason contention — on the very first day of October, no less — with a two-game series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The next day, the Cleveland Guardians lost their series to the Detroit Tigers, the San Diego Padres fell to the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox were knocked out by the New York Yankees in a trio of Game 3s.
In the division series, the first team to go: those same Yankees, who were defeated by their American League East rival Toronto Blue Jays in four games.
What’s next for the teams and towns that won’t be celebrating a World Series parade this fall? As each contender is eliminated, ESPN MLB experts Bradford Doolittle, Alden Gonzalez and David Schoenfield will list that club’s key free agents and biggest offseason questions and make their predictions for the long, cold winter ahead.
Teams eliminated in division series
Eliminated by: Blue Jays
Key free agents: 1B Paul Goldschmidt, CF Trent Grisham, RHP Luke Weaver, RHP Devin Williams, OF/1B Cody Bellinger ($25 million player option)
Biggest offseason priority: With Bellinger almost certain to opt out after an under-the-radar 29-homer, 5-WAR season, and Grisham coming off a shocking 34-homer season, the Yankees will have not only two big hitters to replace but a hole in center field. Jasson Dominguez is not the answer there given his poor defensive metrics in left field, so there might be pressure to re-sign either Bellinger or Grisham, with Bellinger the more desirable player given that Grisham had hit under .200 in the three previous seasons. Bellinger’s ability to play first base is a big plus, although Ben Rice will likely take over there on a full-time basis. Outside of Kyle Tucker, the rest of the outfield free agent class is pretty thin, however, so the Yankees will have competition for Bellinger’s services.
The other option is to hand center field to Spencer Jones, the 6-foot-7 slugger who hit 35 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A. Although he also struck out 179 times in 116 games, he leaves a lot of questions as to how the bat will translate to the majors. Despite his size, he’s a good athlete (he also swiped 29 bases) with the instincts to remain in center field.
The Yankees have finished seventh in the AL in runs allowed three seasons in a row. How can they improve that figure in 2026? Well, they played all of 2025 without ace Gerrit Cole after his spring training Tommy John surgery, so getting him back will help. Luis Gil, coming off his Rookie of the Year season, didn’t make his first start until August. Cam Schlittler started the year in Double-A and ended it with a 2.96 ERA in 14 starts in the majors, living off 98 mph heat. Max Fried and Carlos Rodon will be back after winning 37 games, and while Clarke Schmidt had TJ surgery, Will Warren adds even more depth. The Yankees might project as the best rotation in the AL.
The bullpen obviously didn’t have its best season, but the reinforcements Brian Cashman made at the trade deadline — David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Jake Bird — will help the depth in 2026. Still, you could see a move here, maybe re-signing Weaver, who has been a durable, valuable arm the past two years.
Offseason prediction: With most of the roster set, it shapes up as one of the least active Yankees offseasons in years. While last year the prediction was re-signing Juan Soto (a swing and a miss), let’s go with re-signing Bellinger while working Jones into the lineup. With Marcus Stroman and Aaron Hicks (yes, they were still paying him) coming off the books, that’s $28 million in savings. Goldschmidt made $12.5 million in 2025. DJ LeMahieu has just one year left on his bad contract. The pitching is in good shape. Jose Caballero gives them an excellent utility player who can play anywhere. Yes, it was another bitter ending for Yankees fans, and 2009 looks like a very long time ago, but the Yankees will enter 2026 among the clear favorites in the AL, especially if Cole can return to where he was before the injury. — Schoenfield
Teams eliminated in wild-card series
Eliminated by: Dodgers
Key free agents: RHP Nick Martinez, RHP Emilio Pagan
Biggest offseason priority: Flipping their home run differential. The Reds badly need middle-of-the-order power, the kind that will better align their lineup with the long-ball-friendly vagaries of Great American Ballpark. The Reds gave up 25 more homers than they hit in 2025, postseason included, the fifth-worst differential in the majors. That differential was minus-18 at home. The Reds have the pitching they need to win the NL Central, but they need a major uptick in firepower to support the arms. With Martinez’s salary coming off the books, Cincinnati has a wide-open payroll, which — one would think — means lots of flexibility, whether it’s a free agency splurge or a high-impact trade.
Is it time to really unleash this rotation? The Reds have collected quite a collection of high-upside young pitchers. Some of them have established themselves in the majors — Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott. Abbott had a career season in 2025, but Greene still hasn’t paired his dominance with season-long durability. Lodolo produced 28 mostly excellent starts but has plenty of room to grow in his innings count. Then you have Chase Petty, Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder, along with the veteran stability of Brady Singer. The ideal for 2026 would be for manager Terry Francona to push this group of seven for a full season and perhaps lighten up a bit on the innings management side of the equation. This has the potential to be among MLB’s best rotations.
Offseason prediction: The Reds will get aggressive. No, they won’t go wild, of course, but besides having a contention-worthy rotation and a star in Elly De La Cruz who is edging toward his prime, they have a 66-year-old future Hall of Fame manager in Francona who isn’t going to be around forever. — Doolittle
Eliminated by: Tigers
Key free agents: OF Lane Thomas, C Austin Hedges, RHP Jakob Junis
Biggest offseason priority: The term “Guards Ball” caught on during Cleveland’s unlikely second-half run. It was fun to watch and even inspiring. It’s also not generally how championships are won in baseball these days. The Guardians need more firepower on offense, and while there are a lot of promising bats in the system, maybe for once the team will splurge on a middle-of-the-order anchor? Yeah, that’s probably wishful thinking.
What will Cleveland get from its young hitters? It’s not hard to imagine some of the Guardians we saw on the playoff roster getting better — Kyle Manzardo, CJ Kayfus, Johnathan Rodriguez, Jhonkensy Noel. It’s not hard to see Chase DeLauter becoming an AL Rookie of the Year favorite. Given his numbers at Triple-A, it’s a little harder to see Travis Bazzana being part of the Opening Day mix, but it’s not difficult to envision him making a leap during the 2026 season. The crucial question the Guardians have to answer is: What will this group do to lift the offensive profile of a lineup led by Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan? The Guardians won a division title despite scoring more runs than just two other teams. That’s not a sustainable formula.
Offseason prediction: The Guardians, with prospects on the way and the roster full of players under team control, won’t do much in the offseason. They certainly can afford to with so little future guaranteed funds tied up — a big pillow contract to someone like Ohio native Kyle Schwarber would be amazing — but it’s not likely. So, take heart, Cleveland fans, and enjoy the Guardians’ still-spewing fountain of youth. — Doolittle
Eliminated by: Cubs
Key free agents: 1B/2B Luis Arraez, SP Dylan Cease, SP Michael King ($15M mutual option), CL Robert Suarez ($8M player option), 1B Ryan O’Hearn, OF Ramon Laureano ($6.5M club option), INF Jose Iglesias, RP Wandy Peralta ($4.45M player option), C Elias Diaz ($7M mutual option), SP Nestor Cortes
Biggest offseason priority: Cease and King will venture into free agency, and the Padres will have to replace them in the rotation. San Diego will have Joe Musgrove back in 2026, but he’ll be coming off Tommy John surgery. Yu Darvish will still be there, but he’ll be in his age-39 season, having accumulated fewer than 100 innings each of the past two years. The depth beyond them, outside of Nick Pivetta, is suspect. First base will also be a priority unless the team brings Arraez back.
Will they spend again? The Padres lost their local-television contract in 2023, then missed out on the playoffs despite fielding arguably the most talented team in franchise history. Shortly thereafter, Peter Seidler, their beloved, free-spending owner, died. The Padres dropped the payroll by roughly 30% the following year. A 25% increase followed in 2025, putting them at roughly $215 million. Where will they go in 2026? It’s hard to say. But Manny Machado‘s salary will keep increasing — from $13 million in 2025 to $21 million in 2026 and $35 million thereafter. If they want to keep surrounding him with talent as he ages, they’ll have to keep spending.
Offseason prediction: The Padres will pay six players — Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatis Jr., Darvish, Musgrove, Machado and Pivetta — a combined $120 million in 2026. The team’s success will come down to the production of those players — along with Jackson Merrill and Mason Miller, who are still not in their prime earning years. But A.J. Preller will look for ways to acquire a front-line starting pitcher and will get creative if he has to. Last offseason, he landed Pivetta on a deal that paid him only $4 million in 2025. This offseason, that front-line starter might have to come via trade. — Gonzalez
Eliminated by: Yankees
Key free agents: 3B Alex Bregman (opt-out), RHP Lucas Giolito ($19 million mutual option), OF Rob Refsnyder, RHP Dustin May, LHP Steven Matz
Biggest offseason priority: Re-signing Bregman if he opts out … and improving the starting pitching depth. Bregman had a solid season, hitting .273/.360/.462 around an injury, but aside from the numbers he also brings fire and leadership to the team. It’s also possible Bregman will opt back in at $40 million per season (for 2026 and 2027), but he had a good enough season that he’ll probably opt out. Yes, Marcelo Mayer is a possible replacement — especially if the Red Sox direct that money instead to the pitching staff.
Giolito had a solid season as a low-volume starter in his return from Tommy John surgery, so there could be mutual interest there on a longer deal. But outside of Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and perhaps rookie Connelly Early, who looked good in four late-season starts, the projected rotation is unsettled.
Will the Red Sox trade any of their outfielders/young players? It’s still a crowded outfield picture with Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu (plus Masataka Yoshida, signed for two more years, as a DH option). It played itself out this season as Abreu and Anthony both missed time with injuries, while Rafaela played some infield. But Rafaela is such a wizard in center field, you’d like to keep him there. Throw in Mayer and Kristian Campbell, and the Red Sox have a deep group of young players who could be used to acquire pitching help. Craig Breslow refrained from trading anyone at the deadline, but let’s see what he does this offseason.
Offseason prediction: I think the Red Sox will play it safe and bring back a similar roster, starting with re-signing Bregman. They could then slide Mayer to second base. That still would leave four outfielders plus Campbell, who started the season with a lot of helium after making the Opening Day roster, but his defense at second wasn’t good, and he didn’t rip up Triple-A after getting sent down. If anyone is the odd man out, it’s probably him, so he’s the one most likely to get traded. Bringing back Giolito — assuming he’s healthy after missing the postseason with an elbow injury — also makes sense, as he wouldn’t break the bank but would fill a need. If he’s deemed too risky, a veteran such as Merrill Kelly or, if the Red Sox want to spend bigger, Framber Valdez or Shane Bieber, makes sense. — Schoenfield
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