Ryan Day’s trust in Chip Kelly began decades ago in small-town New Hampshire
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Jake Trotter, ESPN Senior Writer
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS ago, Delaware was rolling over New Hampshire, leading 31-3 late in the third quarter. The second-ranked Blue Hens were a perennial Football Championship Subdivision power. But UNH had something Delaware didn’t: Ryan Day and Chip Kelly. Two of the game’s most innovative offensive minds, who, even then, had an inherent trust in each other, molded from their Manchester roots.
Long before he became Ohio State’s head coach, Day quarterbacked one of the biggest comebacks in college football history. Kelly, then UNH’s offensive coordinator, kept dialing up creative passing plays, and Day kept completing throws. Then, on a fourth-and-19, Kelly called “Charlotte Angle.” Day hit Brian Mallette on a slant, and Mallette flipped the ball to a receiver sprinting the opposite direction for a touchdown, tying the game. In overtime, Day found Mallette again on his school-record 65th passing attempt on a wheel route, giving the Wildcats a stunning 45-44 victory.
On the victory bus, Day called his buddies back home. They didn’t even realize UNH had won. They had turned the TV off by the third quarter.
Today, Day and Kelly are together again.
They reunited this offseason when Day relinquished playcalling and convinced Kelly to leave his post as UCLA’s head coach and become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.
On Saturday, in a Big Ten showdown, their second-ranked Buckeyes travel to No. 3 Oregon, where more than a decade ago, as Day put it, Kelly made his name “revolutionizing” offense.
Now on the same side again, they’re hoping to capture their elusive first national championship.
“We’ve been around each other for so long that we share a lot of the same views of how the game is supposed to look,” Kelly said. “That makes it so much easier. … It’s been great.”
Though he’s now the boss, Day is 15 years younger than Kelly. Still, the two have a unique bond forged by a shared history and shared experience growing up in Manchester, where they played sports for the same youth coaches, attended the same high school, played quarterback for the same college and later coached on the same staff there.
“Probably the biggest influence in my life in football,” Day said of Kelly. “From my hometown. … He was the first one to really get into college coaching and then he recruited me. I shared with him then that I wanted to be a coach and then he kind of took me under his wing. … Kind of gave me my start.”
That came in Manchester — New Hampshire’s biggest city, with a population just a bit larger than the capacity at the Horseshoe. It’s where Kelly and Day discovered a common calling coaching football.
AS A TEENAGER, Chip Kelly seemed to thrive in just about anything he tried. The Manchester High School Central Class of 1981 yearbook named Kelly its “most athletic” and “best looking” student.
The son of a local attorney, Kelly was quarterback captain of the football team, a star ice hockey player and a state champion in track, running the second leg of the 4×100-meter relay team. Frank Kelley, one of Kelly’s football teammates and who ran the first leg on that relay team, remembered taking Kelly water skiing for the first time on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire’s largest lake.
“Usually people who’ve never water-skied before, they’re not up there for very long,” Kelley said. “He’s water skiing and the guys are getting pissed off because he’s not falling. So we start throwing stuff at him, life preservers. … He was just a natural at a lot of the stuff he did.”
Kelly attended Central in its heyday, when enrollment was among the largest in New England. The public school blended students from all parts of Manchester, including the affluent north end, the middle class on the east side and the inner city.
“You had friends from all walks of life. … it was wonderful,” said Selma Naccach-Hoff, who has taught at Central for 40 years and had Kelly in a mythology class. “It’s a nurturing place.”
Kelly was a senior when Central’s most famous future alum — actor and comedian Adam Sandler — was a freshman. One of Frank Kelley’s sisters was Sandler’s bar mitzvah date when he turned 13. Sandler, Kelly and Day have all been inducted into the Central Hall of Fame. Sandler has given the Central commencement address several times over the years, especially when he has had a niece or nephew graduate.
Central, however, hadn’t had a winning football team in years until Kelly came through the program. Bob Leonard took over as Central’s head football coach, just before Kelly’s freshman year. As a sophomore, Kelly took over as starting quarterback.
“He was a coach when he was a kid,” said Leonard, who also coached Kelly in track. “He understood what we were doing, and he always wanted to know more about what we were doing.”
Kelly didn’t live far from Leonard, who was then in his 20s and lived with the other coaches. On Sunday afternoons, Kelly and some of his teammates would walk or bike to Leonard’s house to watch film in the living room. Leonard would hang a sheet over the fireplace, serving as the screen for the 16-millimeter projector.
If Leonard’s players were out on the town, he didn’t worry — as long as Kelly was with them.
“He was a good leader,” Leonard said, “and the group of kids he played with, they were good kids, they hung together and stuck together.”
Kelly led them on the field, too. Leonard gradually gave Kelly freedom to call the plays he wanted out of their I-formation, bootleg offense.
“If he looked at me and his eyes said, ‘I know what I want to do,'” Leonard recalled, “I’d tell him, ‘Go with it.'”
Kelly also played deep safety defensively, and, as Leonard noted, “was there to clean up the mess” if any of his teammates got beat.
“He didn’t scream and yell,” Leonard said. “He always had a big smile — ‘Let’s go and do this.'”
The Little Green won as many games as they lost, a big step forward from where they had been. Leonard noted that Kelly and his class “left a legacy” and a foundation for players who would come later, including Day and his younger brother, Timmy, who would go to play quarterback for UMass.
Leonard resigned from Central after Kelly’s final game to get married (Kelly attended the wedding) but later returned to coach defense under Jim Schubert, who remained Central’s head coach for 16 years through Day’s career.
After graduating from UNH, Kelly also came back to Central on Schubert’s staff, running the offense for a season. Kelly began experimenting with a fast-paced tempo that would later change football. That came with growing pains and, at times, exasperated his former coach.
“There’s a picture somewhere with my arms around his neck on the sideline,” Leonard said, laughing, “I say, ‘You go three-and-out again, I’m going to kill you right here because the defense can’t stand this anymore.’ But it was fun watching the offense. He had free reign. That’s where it all started. And we had a lot of fun that year.”
SELMA NACCACH-HOFF never had Ryan Day in class. But she had Day’s future wife, Nina Spirou, and her twin sister in world literature, an advanced placement course.
“So I did see a lot of Ryan,” Naccach-Hoff said. “They were a cute couple, really. His rosy cheeks distinguished him back then, and they still do now. It’s really quite fun to see.”
Naccach-Hoff remembered Day being sweet, “almost embarrassingly so,” to Spirou and his teachers and other classmates.
“You got a sense of Ryan’s character,” Naccach-Hoff said. “Supportive, kind, doing the right thing.”
Day has spoken out about his father, who died by suicide when Day was just 8 years old. He would say that loss gave him an “edge” on the field. But the family tragedy also put the onus on Day to help his mother raise his two younger brothers, Chris and Tim.
“He kind of became the father in a way to them,” said Mike Murphy, who coached Day in Pop Warner football. “He became a little more mature. And he played that way, too.”
Murphy’s son, Matt, one of Day’s friends growing up, remembered how Day always seemed older than other kids their age.
“A lot of things in some ways were beneath him,” said Matt, now a middle school teacher in Manchester. “Like, ‘You guys are going to go egging houses? That’s not really my thing.’ He was not interested. Like, ‘I’m not going to let people down. I’m going to do the right thing.'”
Following in Kelly’s footsteps, Day developed into a star athlete. He played point guard in basketball, was a standout catcher in baseball and became a three-year starting quarterback.
“Leadership was not in question when you talked about Ryan Day — he always stood out that way,” said Schubert, who had also played quarterback at Central. “I don’t think he ever criticized another player the entire time he played for me. His teammates followed him in every sport. Great character, great individual.”
The team had a motto going into Day’s junior year: “Believe and achieve.” The players wore that phrase on the back of their team T-shirts during offseason lifting and conditioning. Before the season, Day and Murphy found a piece of plywood and painted it green and white, the school’s colors. On it, they wrote, “If you believe, you will achieve today.” Mimicking the sign from Oklahoma and Notre Dame, “Play Like a Champion Today,” Day and Murphy hung up theirs on the wall right outside the Little Green locker room. The players would slap the sign before their home games while taking the field.
“Maybe it was kind of dorky,” Murphy said, “but we thought it was cool.”
That season, Central advanced all the way to the 1995 state championship game against Merrimack. The Little Green fell behind early.
“We were struggling,” Schubert said. “He brought the team together during a timeout. Ryan said, ‘Look, let’s get this together, men.'”
Led by Day’s arm, Central roared back to win by 17 points for its first state title in 25 years. Down the road as an assistant for UNH, Kelly was paying attention, salivating at the opportunity to recruit Day to the Wildcats.
SEAN McDONNELL WAS coaching receivers for Boston University in the 1980s when he received a call from a player he’d once coached against in Manchester.
Chip Kelly was still an assistant at Central but was hoping to move to college. He knew McDonnell was from Manchester and wondered whether he could come up to Boston and talk offense. McDonnell figured they’d chat for a few minutes. Instead, the two exchanged ideas on the chalkboard for several hours.
McDonnell was so impressed that when he ended up at Columbia, he told then-Lions head coach Ray Tellier that he should interview Kelly. After the interview, Tellier told McDonnell, “We’ve got to turn this interview into a recruiting session. He’s good, I really like him.”
Kelly joined the staff at Columbia, then followed McDonnell to UNH. In 1999, when McDonnell was promoted to head coach, Kelly became his offensive coordinator. One of their first moves was naming Ryan Day the starting quarterback.
“We were at the incubator stages of us starting to do some creative things on offense,” McDonnell said. “Then we had Ryan, just an unbelievable sponge with Chip. … And besides being a great player, his leadership abilities were tremendous. Those guys would run through a wall for Ryan. It was a pretty cool thing to see.”
McDonnell recalled even then Day and Kelly working well together executing game plans. And game-to-game those plans could change. One week, Kelly would implement the speed option and run the ball every down. The following week, the Wildcats would spread the field and pass it almost exclusively. McDonnell said the endless series of wrinkles kept practice fun while keeping opposing defenses guessing. But whatever the Wildcats did then, they went fast.
Day’s ability to lead and adapt made it all work.
“There was so much innovation happening then,” Mallette said. “And Ryan was the kind of leader, you just looked at him in the huddle and his eyes and just saw how determined he was going to be in whatever situation that was coming. … He was such a fierce competitor.”
That was on display in one of the biggest victories of Day’s career. In 2001, UNH trailed in-state rival Dartmouth 38-35 with under 2 minutes left. The Wildcats had blown a 21-point lead in the second half and seemed destined for a gut-wrenching loss. Mallette recalled the Ivy League students chanting “safety school” thinking the win was all but in the bag.
But then Day drove UNH down the field. With only a few seconds remaining, he rolled right. As he was about to get pummeled, Day lofted a pass toward Mallette at the back of the end zone for the winning 24-yard score.
“Ryan was the same [then] as he is now,” Kelly said. “Very well prepared, knew what he was facing. … You knew [then] that guy has it.”
As others had seen a future coaching star in Kelly coming up, Kelly saw the same potential in Day. Kelly brought Day on the offensive staff at UNH in 2002. Then in 2005, Kelly called another Manchester native in Dan Mullen, who was offensive coordinator at Florida under Urban Meyer. Mullen hired Day as a graduate assistant.
In 2017, after stints under Kelly with the Eagles and 49ers, Day joined Meyer’s staff at Ohio State.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be around great coaches and great mentors,” Day said. “And [Kelly] was obviously a big part of that.”
SEAN McDONNELL TRAVELED to Columbus last month to watch Ohio State defeat Marshall 49-14. He spent time with Ryan Day on Friday night, watching Day’s son play high school football. After the Buckeyes won Saturday, McDonnell hung out at Chip Kelly’s house with Day. While talking football like old times, they all watched Michigan knock off USC that evening together.
“It’s good to see both of those guys in a position where they feel very comfortable,” McDonnell said. “Chip’s having a ball coaching the offense. I think Ryan’s able to do some head-coaching things. … By not having to call the plays and be so involved in the offense, he’s in a very good place, from my observation.”
McDonnell came away from his visit believing this could be a special season for the Buckeyes. He noted the trust the two had at Manchester seems as strong as ever. Day used that same word this week when reflecting on his relationship with Kelly all these years later.
“When you have trust, you can get through a lot,” Day said. “Because you can be direct with somebody and know that you care about him, and no matter what is said, you can put your arm around each other afterwards.”
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
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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.
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