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Texas and Miami battled to the finish before four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench, No. 17 in the 2025 ESPN 300, committed to Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns on Friday morning during a pep rally at Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, Florida.

Ffrench is the second-ranked wide receiver in the 2025 class and No. 3 player in the state of Florida in this cycle. A former Alabama commit, Ffrench entered Friday with finalists Texas, Miami, LSU and Tennessee following visits to each school in the spring. The skilled playmaker is now the second-ranked member of the Longhorns’ rising 2025 class, which sits at No. 17 in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the current cycle.

Ffrench told ESPN that a tight recruitment ultimately came down to Texas and Miami in recent days. The Hurricanes fought into the final hours of the process, pitching a Power 4 experience closer to home, before Ffrench decided on the Longhorns, swayed by Texas’ recent success in the 2025 class, the program’s development track at wide receiver and a strong relationship with wide receivers coach Chris Jackson.

“The people and the coaching staff — they show you why they want you,” Ffrench said. “And what they’ve built as a class is really appealing.”

Ffrench’s commitment continues a monumental month for Texas on the recruiting trail.

He follows four-star wide receiver Kaliq Lockett (No. 23 in the ESPN 300) and five-star defender Jonah Williams (No. 8) as the third top-30 prospect to pick the Longhorns since Aug. 7. Ffrench is now the top offensive pledge in a Texas class that includes Lockett, quarterback K.J. Lacey (No. 110), tight end Nick Townsend (No. 196) and running backs James Simon (No. 287) and Rickey Stewart (No. 295). The Longhorns now have 11 ESPN 300 prospects committed in the current cycle.

Ffrench will become the third of his brothers to reach major college football when he joins Texas in 2025. Maurice Ffrench broke Larry Fitzgerald’s single-season reception record at Pitt in 2019 before stops in the NFL and CFL. Another brother, James Tarver, signed with UCF in the 2019 cycle.

Ffrench’s own recruitment took off after he caught 44 passes for 671 yards and five touchdowns in a productive sophomore season at Mandarin. He committed to Alabama in July 2023, then pulled his pledge and reopened his recruitment following Nick Saban’s retirement in January, eventually narrowing his finalists to Miami, Texas, LSU and Tennessee, taking official visits to each school between May 31 and June 21.

Ffrench, who spent a portion of his childhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said he felt the pull of LSU. The Tigers offered an opportunity to play in front of family and a chance to work with LSU wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton, who first offered Ffrench as an assistant at Georgia. In Tennessee, Ffrench saw an appealing offense scheme and held a relationship with coach Josh Heupel, who had recruited Tarver to UCF in 2019.

Ffrench established a strong connection with Jackson, Texas’ second-year wide receivers coach, and the Longhorns emerged as front-runners in his recruitment in the final week of the process.

However, a late push from Miami centered on connections with Hurricanes wide receivers coach Kevin Beard, along with a pitch to remain close to home, nearly turned Ffrench up to his commitment to Texas Friday morning.

“I wanted to play in the SEC,” Ffrench said. “I’m excited to close it up and be done with it all, committed to the place I want to be.”

Ffrench recorded 62 catches for 1,247 yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior last season. He caught four passes for 116 in Mandarin’s season-opener Aug. 23. The fourth-ranked Longhorns open the 2024 season against Colorado State at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

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Florida freshman WR Wilson to debut vs. Texas

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Florida freshman WR Wilson to debut vs. Texas

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has offensive help on the way with a freshman receiver who just might make a difference against No. 9 Texas on Saturday.

Dallas Wilson is practicing for the first time since injuring his left foot in training camp and is scheduled to make his collegiate debut against the Longhorns, coach Billy Napier said Monday.

Napier called Wilson’s availability “a big deal.”

“Three good days of work last week, and I thought he handled the load well,” Napier said. “He feels really good. So far, so good.”

Wilson, a 6-foot-3, 213-pound newcomer from Tampa, was the star of Florida’s spring game in April. He caught 10 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns, and all indications in fall practice pointed to it not being a fluke.

But Wilson injured his foot late in camp, spent weeks in a protective boot and watched from afar as the Gators (1-3, 0-1 SEC) struggled to move the ball and find the end zone. Florida scored 16, 10 and 7 points, respectively, in consecutive losses to South Florida, LSU and Miami, raising speculation about Napier’s future in Gainesville.

Quarterback DJ Lagway has been the focus of the team’s offensive woes. The sophomore who went 6-1 as a starter last season missed most of the year dealing with injuries and looked rusty when the season began.

Although Lagway’s mechanics seemed improved in the team’s 26-7 setback at Miami on Sept. 20, his offensive line got manhandled and allowed way too much pressure for anyone to notice. Lagway completed 12 of 23 passes for 61 yards against the Hurricanes.

Napier used the off week to get Lagway more live-action reps in hopes of getting him “caught up.” But he also reiterated the need to “play better around him.”

“Each position group needs to step up,” Napier said. “More detail, eliminate errors, eliminate penalties, whatever the case may be. I just think more detail and better overall play around him. And, obviously, he needs to continue to get back closer to being himself.”

Adding Wilson to the mix should help.

The Gators haven’t shown much depth at receiver. Freshman Vernell Brown III has been Lagway’s go-to guy, catching 18 passes for 219 yards. But Eugene Wilson III, J. Michael Sturdivant and Aidan Mizell have been mostly underwhelming.

Dallas Wilson has been unable to help — until now. The Gators are confident he will change the narrative against the No. 1 scoring defense in the SEC.

“Just having him out is going to be amazing for us,” Lagway said. “His ability to go deep, his ability to make plays underneath and be able to make miraculous plays with the ball in his hands, it’s going to be great to have him back.”

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Finebaum mulls leaving ESPN for U.S. Senate run

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Finebaum mulls leaving ESPN for U.S. Senate run

SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said Monday that he would consider leaving ESPN to run for the U.S. Senate, representing Alabama.

The 70-year-old Finebaum said during a recent interview with Outkick that he’d run as a Republican to fill the seat vacated by former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, who has said he’ll run for Alabama governor in the 2026 elections. Tuberville’s current Senate term ends in 2027.

The qualifying deadline to run for Senate is Jan. 26, 2026. Finebaum said he would likely have to leave his hosting and analyst duties if he decided to run. He told Outkick he’d make a decision within the next 30-45 days.

Finebaum said he hadn’t seriously considered politics, but the assassination of Charlie Kirk was the impetus to give a run at politics further thought. He noted that he had received a “text” from “one or two people in Washington” gauging his interest in politics.

“[It was] something I never thought about before,” Finebaum told Outkick.

Finebaum is currently registered as a Republican in North Carolina, where he works for the SEC Network. He told Outkick he recently moved to Alabama, where he hosted a radio show for years, and would re-register there.

Finebaum hosted radio shows in Alabama for almost 30 years before joining ESPN and the SEC Network. He started his media career as a newspaper writer and columnist.

“Alabama has always been the place I’ve felt the most welcome, that I’ve cared the most about the people,” he said. “I’ve spoken to people from Alabama for 35 years, and I feel there is a connection that is hard to explain.”

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Petrino overhauls staff, fires defensive assistants

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Petrino overhauls staff, fires defensive assistants

Bobby Petrino has fired three defensive assistants just one day after being named interim head coach at Arkansas as part of an overhaul of the Razorbacks’ coaching staff.

Petrino dismissed defensive coordinator Travis Williams, defensive line coach Deke Adams and defensive assistant Marcus Woodson in the latest moves after being appointed interim coach for the rest of the season to replace Sam Pittman, who was fired Sunday following five-plus seasons as Arkansas’ head coach.

“I just felt like how we performed on Saturday gave me an indication that maybe Sam had lost the team a little bit because they generally had played really hard for him throughout his tenure,” Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said of the move, which came on the heels of a 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame.

Petrino, 64, returned to Arkansas in 2023 as offensive coordinator after serving in a number of jobs. In four years as the Razorbacks’ head coach, he went 34-17, including consecutive seasons with double-digit victories in 2010 and 2011.

“Coach Petrino, as we met yesterday, he accepted this opportunity with the understanding that he also wanted an opportunity to formally be a candidate for our head coaching position, and he will have that opportunity, but we’ll also subsequently run a search for our next head coach at the same time,” Yurachek said.

Pittman’s dismissal, Petrino’s temporary promotion and the defensive assistant dismissals weren’t the only changes. Chris Wilson was named the team’s interim defensive coordinator.

Petrino had high praise for Wilson, who was in his first year with the Razorbacks as an assistant defensive line coach.

“My experience [with Wilson] goes way back to having to battle against him when he had all the great defensive linemen at Mississippi State,” Petrino said. “Very, very impressed with what he’s done throughout his career. Guy’s got a Super Bowl ring. He brings a lot of credibility into the room.”

Several defensive players posted cryptic messages on social media following the firing of Williams, who had served as the team’s defensive coordinator since 2023. Yurachek and Petrino encouraged players to welcome change amid a 2-3 start to the season.

“The No. 1 thing is, you have to get used to change. You know, your whole life there’s going to be change. So how we handle that, our attitude on how we handle that, will determine how quickly we improve,” Petrino said.

Petrino was involved in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in April 2012 that left him with four broken ribs. At first, he said he was riding alone, but a police report revealed a woman was riding with him. The woman turned out to be a former Arkansas athlete who was in a romantic relationship with the married Petrino. The coach had given her a job in the football program and a $20,000 gift.

Petrino was fired by then-athletic director Jeff Long for misleading his bosses about what happened with the accident and his relationship with the football staffer.

Pittman, 63, went 32-34 with the Razorbacks.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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