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  • Paolo Uggetti, ESPNOct 25, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

BOISE, Idaho — On a gloomy October morning, Boise State‘s Albertsons Stadium was nearly empty but full of action. There were a few scattered donors among the grandstands and a handful of NFL scouts dotting the sidelines of the blue turf during this bye-week practice.

All of them want to catch a glimpse of Ashton Jeanty.

It doesn’t take long to see that inside this universe, Jeanty has become the sun. The 2023 Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year is no sudden revelation, but the season that the 20-year-old junior running back has put together is turning him into a local phenomenon and a nationwide sensation.

“I did have high hopes for myself,” Jeanty told ESPN. “I had it in my mind that this was going to be a legendary season, but I didn’t know exactly how that was going to unravel.”

The traditional traits and stories that accompany an athlete of Jeanty’s makeup are there. Yes, he’s the humble, down-to-earth star, and wouldn’t you believe that he’s also the first one in the building? Or that he is the one who doesn’t turn down an extra workout even if it’s in the snowy winter and after the season has ended?

There are the superhuman tales of his strength that follow him, too. The 320-pound bench press? That’s Jeanty. A 300-pound power clean? Jeanty. The 600-pound squat?

“He once did 605 like it was nothing and he had to be cut off,” Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said. “He lifts with the offensive linemen.”

Yet any display of strength can often mask Jeanty’s unique speed and agility. During a run this season, he was clocked at over 22 mph. On his way to a nation-leading 1,248 yards and 17 touchdowns, he has outrun some of the fastest defensive backs in the sport and rumbled his way through entire defenses. It’s as if a semitruck could drive like a Ferrari.

“The first guy never brings him down,” Broncos running backs coach James Montgomery said. “Then he puts everybody in slow motion.”

The results have made Jeanty undeniable. Through six games, he’s on pace to break Barry Sanders’ single-season records for rushing yards (2,628) and touchdowns (37). Defenses know he’ll touch the ball over 20 times a game and have sold out to stop him. It hasn’t mattered.

“Domination,” Jeanty said of what he thinks when he runs. “To dominate whoever’s in front of me, to make them quit. And it doesn’t happen on the 10th run, it doesn’t happen on the second run. It’s usually somewhere around the 15th or 20th run.”

During a time in the sport when running backs are no longer as en vogue as they once were, Jeanty feels like a throwback. His particular combination of size, speed and intelligence has allowed Jeanty to turn what could be a monotonous ground game into a blockbuster.

Boise State — ranked No. 17 in the AP poll — has put together a 5-1 season (its only loss being to now-No. 1 Oregon) and forged a path to a College Football Playoff berth ahead of Friday’s game with UNLV. The Broncos have done it behind Jeanty, who has made a handoff one of the most exciting preludes in the sport. Once the ball is cradled against his chest and he takes the first step, anything is possible.

It’s why everyone from Idaho to Italy is watching.

AT 3 A.M. ON a Sunday in September near the seaside town of Naples in southwest Italy, Jim Davis was barely hanging on.

There’s no shortage of espresso in this part of the world to keep the head coach of the Naples Wildcats awake — and trust me, he said, plenty is consumed — but there was something else that had him laid out on his couch instead of his bed, straddling the line between somnambulant and alert.

On the naval support base about 18 miles east of the Tyrrhenian Sea where Davis has coached since 2016, the American Forces Network allows him to tune in to Jeanty’s games. At times, with a time zone difference of anywhere from 8 to 11 hours, Davis has allowed himself to catch replays or highlights after the fact. Lately, Jeanty’s play has made the early wake-up call essential.

“It reminds me of the feeling I had before when he was here, when you know he’s got the potential to score every time he touches the ball,” Davis said.

Jeanty arrived in Italy as a 12-year-old whose father, Harry, was a commanding officer on the naval support base in Aversa, a small town near Naples. In middle school, there was no tackle football team, so Jeanty tried his hand at basketball and track and field and bided his time.

He made the varsity football team as a freshman at Naples High and was thrust into the team’s offense. Davis’ initial reflex was to put Jeanty at quarterback. The experiment didn’t go poorly, but it was short-lived. After two games, Jeanty settled in running back, where Davis’ strategy became simple.

“This kid just needs to touch the ball every down,” Davis said. “He had the speed and power, and he was hungry for more yards. We were restricting him at quarterback. I thought, ‘I could find anybody to just hand the ball off to him.'”

The football season in Naples is short, but the journeys it took Jeanty on were not. A nine-hour bus ride to Aviano in Northeast Italy to play Naples’ closest opponent at an Air Force base there. A flight to Spain, another trip to Brussels and even an 18-hour, multiday trip to Spangdahlem, Germany, where Davis remembers having to ice and treat teammates for injuries on the bus. Some stadiums didn’t even have lights, forcing games to be played in the afternoon in the middle of the hot, humid weather. Despite it all, Jeanty dominated. In one season, he had 1,223 yards on 97 carries (over 12 yards per carry) and totaled 21 touchdowns in just six games.

“I’m trying to remember, did we lose any games?” Jeanty said. “I don’t think we lost any games.”

They were 6-0.

Even at that age, Jeanty was thinking ahead. He would take the footage of games and put together a reel of his best highlights. After his freshman year, he told his parents that he wanted to go back to the States and play football. Davis was neither surprised nor disappointed. He knew Jeanty needed exposure and that, if given the opportunity, he would flourish.

“He didn’t think that he was the best and didn’t need to work hard,” Davis said. “He was the best, but he had that desire to get better.”

Jeanty’s journey continued 5,700 miles west in Frisco, Texas. The staff at Lone Star High School didn’t know much about Jeanty beyond his highlight reel against competition abroad. But any mystery was short lived.

“Once he showed up, obviously, his physical stature, I mean, he’s built like a Greek god,” Lone Star head coach Jeff Rayburn said. “We were like, ‘Alright, I bet you can we can find something for this kid to do.'”

After two seasons of playing him all over the field on both sides of the ball and backing more experienced runners, the backfield became Jeanty’s his senior season.

“We gave him the ball and just got out of the way,” Rayburn said of Jeanty, who had over 2,000 rushing yards, over 1,000 receiving yards and 41 touchdowns that season. “He did everything for us.”

As a three-star who burst onto the scene later than most, Jeanty received offers from only two Power 4 programs — Cal and Kansas. How did a kid from Jacksonsville, who lived in Italy and Texas end up Idaho? Through his recruiting process, Jeanty was not afraid to go anywhere to pursue his dream. In Boise State, he found the right people and the right place to develop. Nowadays, Rayburn likes to joke with the Broncos coaches who visit Lone Star that he did them a favor.

“You’re welcome for not playing him full-time at running back his junior year,” Rayburn tells them. “He would have been a national recruit.”

Rayburn claims he has not been surprised by Jeanty. In fact, before this season began, he asked his former player for one thing in advance: “Just make sure when you go to New York [for the Heisman], you get me an invite to go out there with you.”

THE VISITING COACHES’ booth atop Autzen Stadium is where Boise State offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter could see what Danielson wasn’t able to just yet.

Jeanty had broken through the Ducks’ defensive line and found daylight on the other side. Ten yards ahead, a lone safety awaited. Danielson thought Jeanty would be tackled. From above, Koetter saw it differently.

“It’s out,” Danielson remembered hearing Koetter say through the headset. Sure enough, Jeanty made a cut toward the right sideline, and everyone was left staring at the back of his jersey.

Throughout this season, the Broncos’ coaching staff, from their various vantage points, have tried their best to identify the exact moment when they realize that Jeanty’s runs will turn into a breakaway touchdown. Koetter’s bird’s-eye view makes him particularly well positioned to make the call. But from the sideline, Danielson and Montgomery have enjoyed the feeling of experiencing a Jeanty breakthrough with the entire team.

Sometimes, Danielson said, Jeanty’s explosiveness through the line of scrimmage has made him call his shot early. Other times, such as against Washington State, they have thought the play was over, that Jeanty was tackled, only to find that he remained upright and was running all the way to the end zone.

The way in which Jeanty has traversed the field has varied, but the results haven’t. Give him the ball, and he’ll make magic.

“We use him as a decoy. We hand him the ball, we fake it to him,” Koetter said. “I mean, he’s the centerpiece of our offense. We don’t try to hide that.”

Even as a freshman who enrolled early as a 17-year-old in 2021, Jeanty showed flashes.

“You could tell he was going to be good,” Koetter, who was an offensive analyst and eventually interim offensive coordinator in 2022, said. “But the best player in the country? Maybe not.”

Montgomery saw it coming perhaps more than most. The Broncos’ running backs coach had seen Jeanty’s progression from his freshman season through last year, when he split carries with George Holani. Jeanty was “fanatical about getting better at every aspect of the game.”

And once the team began practices for this season, Montgomery was blown away. Jeanty’s work ethic and effort have been high since his days playing for Davis in Naples or in Texas for Rayburn, who said Jeanty “only knew one speed.” This, however, was on another level.

“He came out like an animal. He was practicing hard,” he said. “Every single rep, didn’t matter what the drill was, special teams, offense. And then we got to the first scrimmage, and we’re like, ‘Nah, we better tone it back a little bit.'”

Even though they dialed back the intensity, it only increased the anticipation. Montgomery knew everyone was awaiting what Jeanty would do in the season opener.

Jeanty didn’t disappoint. He broke the school record for most rushing yards in a game and found the end zone six times. From there, he was off and running. He has now had three games of at least 200 rushing yards and four games of three or more touchdowns.

“I always say we’re chasing perfection, so that’s what we’re chasing with him,” Montgomery said. “But he’s played as close as you can get to perfect this year. “

There’s an alternate reality where Jeanty’s perfect season happens while he is wearing a different jersey. Once last season ended, the phone calls to Jeanty and his family from coaches came in droves telling them Jeanty should enter the transfer portal and play for a bigger program on a bigger stage.

Danielson, who was thrust into the interim head-coaching position last season after the Boise State fired Andy Avalos, knew what his first move needed to be once he was hired as the permanent head coach.

“Keeping him was such a huge priority for us,” Danielson said. “Beyond what he does on the field, he’s a culture changer, he’s a culture igniter.”

Jeanty didn’t want to leave. His teammates and coaches knew he could have gone anywhere, but after a single meeting between Danielson, Boise athletic director Jeramiah Dickey, Jeanty and his dad in which they outlined Jeanty’s role as well as the name, image and likeness opportunities and support the school would offer, Jeanty didn’t hesitate.

“I knew in the back of my head I was never going to leave,” Jeanty said while adding that the money was never his top priority. There are reports that Jeanty received a base compensation package of $300,000 to stay. One industry source familiar with the NIL market said Jeanty could have gotten upward of $750,000 had he opted to leave.

“Now did some of those calls about this money and this and that sound good? They sure did,” Jeanty said. “I mean, to any 19-year-old, those things would sound good. But just realizing your values and priorities was also sounding good, too. And those thoughts were stronger than the others. Doing this here means more than anything you could get somewhere else.”

MOST OF US will never know what it’s like to run 70 yards for a touchdown while barreling through linebackers and speeding past cornerbacks. Even Jeanty’s own teammates can only draft off the feeling from their respective positions.

Quarterback Maddux Madsen relishes having “the best seat in the house” to watch the Jeanty show. Once he hands the ball off, he watches the play develop in front of him and stands back in awe.

“As soon as he gets past the first level and second level, I’m just like, all right, I probably could realistically just walk to the sideline,” Madsen said. “It’d be totally fine.”

Wide receiver Latrell Caples can never truly see the play in real time. While focused on blocking, he often has to rely on the video board or the highlight reels postgame to fully appreciate the latest offering from Jeanty.

“I’ve never seen anybody do the stuff he does at practice, let alone the game,” Caples said.

Defensive end Ahmed Hassanein joked that while he enjoys watching Jeanty dominate from the sideline, it also means that the defense has to go back out on the field sooner.

“Somebody needs to stop him, because I need a break on the sideline,” Hassanein joked. “One attempt, and he already scores, so I’m like, ‘Damn, that’s good, but give me some time. I need a breather.”

Jeanty’s roommate, safety Zion Washington, has a unique perspective, too. As a defender, he has seen firsthand how hard it is to contain him.

“I would hate to play against him in a game,” Washington said. “The things he does is just different — you don’t see them from a regular back.”

Washington, a high school friend of Jeanty’s, has seen the running back go from a confident, quiet kid to the center of attention. The guy who often asks Washington to keep the apartment clean and trash-talks during video games is also the one who now makes their Sunday church trips longer. Everyone there wants to talk to him or take a picture.

“It is hard sometimes to see all the positivity around me, all the attention,” Jeanty said. “I’m not really a guy that wants attention. If you ask anybody about me, I’m chill. I’m an out-the-way type of guy. I don’t really need all the spotlight on me, but it’s cool for what I’m doing to be able to have that.”

A natural byproduct of success on the field is success and fame off it. But Jeanty’s eye-popping runs and stats have brought about a reverence and even an obsession from the college football world and beyond that harkens back to his days in Europe.

“I remember being in Belgium, that was an international school we played, and it was funny how many parents and moms came up to him from the opposing team wanting to take pictures,” Davis said. “They were like, ‘You’re going to be famous one day.'”

Now, he is.

His teammates don’t let him forget that he’s just one of them even if they can’t go anywhere on their phones without seeing praise being heaped on their friend.

“I’m scrolling through my phone. Everything’s Ashton. Everything’s Ashton,” Washington said. “One day we were just chilling and Kevin Durant followed him. He was like, ‘KD just followed.’ We’re like, ‘What?’ That’s not normal. We go through things like that. It’s just like, that’s crazy. But it doesn’t faze him.”

For Washington, it’s validating to witness it all happen after he was part of the conversations aimed at keeping Jeanty in Bronco colors. Now, his guy — their guy — has the potential to be the first Group of 5 Heisman winner since BYU’s Ty Detmer in 1990 and the sixth first-round draft selection from Boise State. For some, it might be too early to start thinking about how they will be remembered. Not Jeanty. He has made the Heisman and the NFL his long-term goals, and he has already launched a football scholarship in his name for future players.

“We told him, ‘You can do something that no one’s ever done,'” Washington said. “‘You could do things out here in this city where you’ve already been accomplishing big goals that no one has ever, ever done. You could break records here and win the Heisman here. That’s a legacy.'”

WHEN IT COMES to one of his iconic runs, no one has the vantage point that Jeanty does. So after a recent Boise State practice, I asked Jeanty to put me there — inside his helmet, yes — but more importantly inside his brain as he takes the ball and launches into one of these runs that are a staple of his highlight reels.

Of course, Jeanty quickly points out that I have gotten ahead of myself. It does not begin when the ball touches his hands but rather well before the ball is even snapped. His stance, which he notes that some people have joked about because of its stoic posture, is part of the method to his madness.

“I’m just back there relaxed,” Jeanty said. “I’m just analyzing the defense, I’m seeing what type of front we’re getting, the linebacker placement, not too worried about the corners, but really the safeties to see the shell of the coverage and see what we’re running against.”

In the span of less than a minute, Jeanty is analyzing which defenders he’ll likely have to run through and which he’ll have to make miss, as well as how the run might affect the defensive line based on their placement. Each run has a key and a read on a defender he’ll have to make to determine how it changes “my fit to the run.” The goal, he said, is to be ready to troubleshoot once the play begins.

“If anything goes wrong or they fit it differently than I think they will or whatever it may be, I kind of already analyzed it before so I’m able then to react,” Jeanty said. “And football, especially running back, it is all reaction based after the ball snaps.”

Hear him speak further on the matter and you’ll realize that the way his roommates describe him — “extremely neat” — translates onto the football field. When he’s running downfield, the way he has studied opposing safeties’ movements and tendencies allows him to make an instinct-based but informed view on whether he’ll try to run through them with force or around them with speed.

“That’s the easy part,” Jeanty said. “I feel like people kind of skip past this, but I played defense a lot of my career, so I know what the defensive guys think when he comes downhill to tackle.”

When Jeanty reaches the end zone these days, the feeling is a familiar one. He has experienced it 17 times this season. The records, accolades and praise are nice, he said, but what he’s chasing goes beyond anything tangible and back to the sensation that set him on this path, one he still remembers to this day.

“After I scored my first touchdown [as a running back], I was in sixth grade and it was just a unique feeling,” Jeanty said. “I was like, ‘Man, I got to have this feeling for a while. I got to keep doing this.'”

Whatever happens this season for Boise, bigger things await for Jeanty. An invitation to New York for the Heisman ceremony seems inevitable, and Jeanty is also projected as a top-15 NFL draft pick.

For now, Jeanty is zeroed in on what’s immediately ahead: winning the following game, maximizing another run, overpowering more defenders and reaching the next end zone.

Even if his demeanor might not always show it, Jeanty’s confidence is at an all-time high, and who can blame him?

No one has been able to stop him.

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GameDay Kickoff: Expectations for Jeremiah Smith, LSU-Clemson and more ahead of Week 1

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August 28, 2025

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GameDay Kickoff: Expectations for Jeremiah Smith, LSU-Clemson and more ahead of Week 1

Aug 28, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

Week 1 is finally here and there’s plenty to know about ahead of this weekend. Top 25 matchups will be played, and many freshmen will have the chance to show if they can shine under the bright lights for the first time.

All eyes will be on No. 1 Texas-No. 3 Ohio State as the Longhorns travel to the Horseshoe Saturday. What can we expect to see from Texas quarterback Arch Manning and Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith in Week 1? No. 9 LSU travels to No. 4 Clemson in a tough road matchup to start off the season. While Brian Kelly and LSU have yet to win a Week 1 matchup the past three seasons, will this be the game that changes that? As we look forward to a jam-packed weekend, we take a look back at some of the best quotes of the offseason.

Our reporters break down what to know entering Week 1.

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Expectations for Arch and Jeremiah
LSU-Clemson | Freshmen to watch
Offseason quotes

Texas-Ohio State preview

What do we need to see from Arch Manning Week 1?

We can expect Manning to take some deep shots, especially to receiver Ryan Wingo, who Manning has raved about all offseason. The Longhorns weren’t great at stretching the field last season with Quinn Ewers, but whenever Manning got in, he looked to make big plays. Texas’ offensive staffers said this spring they keep reminding Manning that he just needs to keep the offense moving forward and to take the easy throws when he can, especially while breaking in four new starters on the offensive line. Similarly, Manning, who has open-field speed, has been reminded by everyone — including his grandfather, Archie, who liked to run around a little bit — to get down or get out of bounds, and not to drop his shoulder and try to run anyone over. Manning doesn’t have to be “superhuman” or “do anything that is extraordinary,” Steve Sarkisian said on Monday. But a solid performance on the road at No. 3 Ohio State to open the season would set the Longhorns on a national championship trajectory. — Dave Wilson

What can we expect from Jeremiah Smith in his sophomore debut?

Smith noted during Big Ten media days last month that with a year of experience behind him, he expects to play even faster this season. That’s a scary proposition for the rest of college football, considering Smith put together one of the greatest true freshman seasons in college football history, capped with his game-clinching reception that lifted Ohio State to a national championship. The Longhorns were one of the only teams to keep Smith in check last year, holding him to just one catch for three yards. Of course, the attention on Smith allowed Carnell Tate and Emeka Egbuka to thrive, combining for 12 receptions in the 28-14 Buckeyes win. Still, Smith said he has been waiting for this opportunity to face Texas again. How new quarterback Julian Sayin performs could dictate the quality of Smith’s opportunities. Either way, Smith is primed to put on a show on the big Week 1 stage. — Jake Trotter

What each team needs to capitalize on to win

LSU: Four starters from last year’s starting offensive line were selected in the 2025 NFL draft, but that doesn’t mean LSU was elite up front. The Tigers ranked last in the SEC in rushing offense and mustered just 1.5 yards before contact on dropbacks, ahead of only Vanderbilt. This year’s unit will need to improve dramatically on that clip if LSU wants to contend for a playoff berth and that starts with the opener against Clemson. Clemson’s defensive front, manned by Peter Woods and T.J. Parker, is stout, and new coordinator Tom Allen will have his sights set on making LSU one-dimensional. The key to getting the ground game going will be a youth movement in the backfield led by Caden Durham and five-star freshman Harlem Berry. — David Hale

Clemson: As Hale mentioned, Clemson needs to dominate up front — as much as that sounds like a cliché. LSU coach Brian Kelly said he planned to rotate as many as eight offensive linemen in the opener, which is a nod to team depth, but may not be conducive in the type of environment they will be playing in. Clemson is eager to show that it has vastly improved in its front seven under new defensive coordinator Tom Allen, who brings a far more aggressive approach with his scheme. That aggressiveness was missing a year ago, as Clemson struggled to stop the run and consistently get after the quarterback with its best pass rushers. Clemson ranked No. 85 against the run a season ago while Penn State, where Allen coached, ranked No. 9. The same can be said on offense, where a veteran offensive line must help Clemson get the ground game going. Cade Klubnik was more effective as a passer last season because the Tigers had balance in their ground game. Converted receiver Adam Randall gets the nod at running back, and true freshman Gideon Davidson is expected to play. — Andrea Adelson

Five freshmen to watch in Week 1

Bryce Underwood, QB, Michigan, No. 1 in 2025 ESPN 300

Underwood shook the recruiting world with his late-cycle flip from LSU to the in-state Wolverines last November. Ten months later, ESPN’s top 2025 recruit is set to be the program’s Week 1 starter when No. 14 Michigan hosts New Mexico on Saturday.

Underwood’s elite arm talent, pocket awareness and mobility has impressed the Wolverines’ coaching staff since he arrived on campus in January, as has his accelerated knowledge of the game. The young quarterback will get his first chance to flash that talent alongside fellow Michigan newcomers in running back Justice Haynes (Alabama transfer) and wide receiver Donaven McCulley (Indiana) in Week 1 before Underwood and the Wolverines stare down a much stiffer challenge against an experienced, Brent Venables-led Oklahoma defense on Sept. 6.

Elijah Griffin, DT, Georgia, No. 3 in 2025 ESPN 300

For the first time since 2021, the Bulldogs landed the state of Georgia’s top-ranked prospect in the 2025 cycle, and Griffin already appears poised to be a Day 1 contributor for the No. 5 Bulldogs.

Like many of the elite defensive line talents before him at Georgia, Griffin possesses top-end traits — speed, physicality and SEC-ready size at 6-foot-4, 310 pounds — that have had onlookers drawing comparisons to former Bulldog Jalen Carter throughout the spring and summer. Griffin’s maturity and ability to pick up the defense has also stood out as he vies for snaps along a revamped Georgia defensive line that returns multiple starters from a year ago. Whether or not he starts against Marshall on Saturday, Griffin is expected to play early and often in a significant role within coordinator Glenn Schumann’s defense this fall.

Dakorien Moore, WR, Oregon, No. 4 in 2025 ESPN 300

Moore has been one of the nation’s most productive high school playmakers in recent seasons, and his elite speed and playmaking talent are expected to earn him early opportunities this fall as he steps into an unsettled Ducks wide receiver group.

Missing top 2024 pass catchers Tez Johnson (NFL), Traeshon Holden (NFL) and Evan Stewart (injury), No. 7 Oregon is screaming for fresh downfield producers in 2025. The Ducks have plenty of experienced options between Florida State transfer Malik Benson and returners Justius Lowe, Gary Bryant Jr. and Kyler Kasper, but none offer the brand of electricity Moore presents. One of ESPN’s highest-rated wide receiver prospects since 2006, Moore should be an asset for first-year starting quarterback Dante Moore as soon as Oregon takes the field against Montana State on Saturday.

Demetres Samuel Jr., DB/WR, Syracuse, No. 223 in 2025 ESPN 300

Samuel reclassified into the 2025 class to enter college a year early. At just 17 years old, the 6-1, 195-pound freshman is set to feature prominently for the Orange this fall starting with Syracuse’s Week 1 matchup with No. 24 Tennessee on Saturday in Atlanta.

A speedy tackler from Palm Bay, Florida, Samuel has legit two-way potential, and the Orange intends to make the most of it in 2025. Syracuse coach Fran Brown announced earlier this month that Samuel will start at cornerback against Tennessee while also taking snaps at wide receiver, where the Orange are replacing their top two pass catchers from a year ago. With Travis Hunter in the NFL, Samuel stands as one of the most intriguing two-way talents across college football.

Jayvan Boggs, WR, Florida State, No. 284 in 2025 ESPN 300

Boggs joins the Seminoles after hauling in 99 receptions for 2,133 yards and 24 touchdowns in a wildly productive senior season at Florida’s Cocoa High School last fall. Listed as a starter in Florida State’s Week 1 depth chart, he has an opportunity to pick up where he left off in 2025.

Boggs combines a thick build with sudden route running and knack for yards after the catch. Alongside transfers Gavin Blackwell (North Carolina), Duce Robinson (USC) and Squirrel White (Tennessee), he’s positioned to emerge as a reliable downfield option from the jump within a new group of Seminoles pass catchers around Boston College transfer quarterback Tommy Castellanos, starting with Florida State’s Week 1 meeting with No. 8 Alabama (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). — Eli Lederman

Notable offseason quotes

“I depend on Depends. … I’m making a joke out of it, but it is real. It is real. It is real. If you see a port-a-potty on the sideline, it is real, I’m just telling you. You’re going to see one at practice, on the sideline [in games].” — Colorado coach Deion Sanders, joking about his cancer recovery.

“But since we’re in Vegas, it seems like the right time to say it, our theme for this team is double down.” — Oregon coach Dan Lanning, on expectations coming off last year’s undefeated regular season.

“We figured we would just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy, you know? Some people don’t like it. I’m more focused on those nine conference games. Not only do we want to play nine conference games, OK, and have the [revised] playoff format [with automatic qualifiers], we want to have play-in games to decide who plays in those playoffs.” — Indiana coach Curt Cignetti on criticism of the Hoosiers’ light nonconference schedule.

“The recent NCAA ruling to not punish players that weren’t involved is correct. However, this ruling also proves that the NCAA as an enforcement arm no longer exists.” — Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, on the sanctions against rival Michigan.

“They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.” — Florida State QB Tommy Castellanos to On3 in June about the opener vs. Alabama.

“I’m 21 so I can do shots at a bar.” — Texas quarterback Arch Manning, joking after being asked about how he has to carry himself in public.

“They can have their opinion. We’re going to handle all that on Aug. 30.” — Clemson DE T.J. Parker on the battle over the stadium nickname “Death Valley” between Clemson and LSU.

“I still have the [Catholics versus Convicts] shirt. I do. It’s well documented that’s as intense if not the most intense rivalry that at that time it felt like the national championship went through South Bend or Coral Gables. Intensity was high, physicality, the edge that game was played with was next level.” — Miami coach Mario Cristobal on the Notre Dame rivalry. Cristobal played in the game and will now coach in it as Miami opens vs the Irish.

“Be delusional … It means no cap on the jar, no limitations, dreaming big. With the College Football Playoff where it is, as Indiana showed last year, anybody can get there. If we’re delusional enough to know we can do that, we can get there … Take the cap off the jar. Limitless.” — Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck, speaking at Big Ten media days.

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East Carolina-NC State and other under-the-radar rivalries really pack a punch

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August 28, 2025

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East Carolina-NC State and other under-the-radar rivalries really pack a punch

  • Ryan McGeeAug 28, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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    • Senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com
    • 2-time Sports Emmy winner
    • 2010, 2014 NMPA Writer of the Year

Let’s start with a personal memory, shall we?

Saturday, Sept. 10, 1983. Night had fallen and traffic was moving slowly as our aircraft carrier Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale was sitting in line attempting to leave Raleigh’s Carter-Finley Stadium. My mother had a white-knuckled grip on the polished wooden steering wheel. I was riding shotgun, dressed head-to-toe in North Carolina State red and white. My little brother was in the backseat, donned in East Carolina purple and gold. He loved the Pirates because our father was an alum and had pitched for the East Carolina Teachers College baseball team back in the day. But I loved the Wolfpack because we were living in Raleigh in the Jimmy Valvano era and, did I mention it was 1983?

ECU had just defeated State for the first time in six years and did so by stopping the Pack on fourth down deep in Pirates territory in the waning seconds, preserving a 22-16 victory in front of 57,700 fans, at the time the largest crowd to ever witness a college football game in the state of North Carolina.

My brother was very happy. I was not. Mom, flying solo because Dad was away officiating another game in another town, had to physically separate us as we walked through the gravel parking lot to the car. Now we all watched as no one was bothering to separate a pair of bourbon-soaked gentlemen throwing hands in that same parking lot right beside our car. They were also dressed in opposing colors. When the guy in red had enough, he got back into his car and power-locked the doors. So the guy in purple walked around behind the car, ripped the license plate off with his bare hands and threw it like a frisbee into the dark pine trees that lined the lot.

“Just so you know, that’s what you two looked like walking to the car,” Mom said to us, our preteen faces still flushed. “If you’re still doing that when you’re their age, don’t come home.”

My brother mouthed silently at me from the backseat: “Go Pirates.”

I responded in kind, perhaps even with a middle finger extended: “Go Pack.”

Army-Navy, the Iron Bowl, The Game, the Big Game and more Cups than you would find at a Bed Bath & Beyond going out of business sale. College football, far more any other sport, is built atop a foundation of rivalries. But while we as a helmeted nation tend to focus on the biggest brand-name showdowns — the ones that determine conference titles, steer national championship pushes and have long held down prime network time slots on late November weekends — they aren’t always the most fun or even the most furiously fought football fracases on the calendar.

That’s why my personal favorite rivalries are the ones that set fire to their particular corner of the map with a crazed college football intensity but are games that people who live outside that immediate area might not fully understand or appreciate.

The contests when towns, counties, particular pages of state atlases and individual homes are divided by laundry. When autumn Saturday evenings aren’t just a football game, but rather a fistfight at a family reunion. And who doesn’t want to watch that?

It’s Akron and Kent State, stars of the Bottom 10 Cinematic Universe, located only 10 miles apart, who have a snafu in the snow every November over the possession of a Wagon Wheel. It’s North Dakota State vs. South Dakota State, Bison vs. Jackrabbits, in a contest that almost always has huge FCS national title implications and also almost always ends with postgame finger-pointing that will last for the next 364 days. It’s basically the entire Sun Belt Conference, where divisions still exist, teams still ride buses to games, bad blood has flowed through reluctantly shared veins of the likes of Georgia Southern vs. App State and where soon-to-be member Louisiana Tech is resuming the Rivalry in Dixie against Southern Miss. Football feuds that reach back through years gone by in lower divisions and long-abandoned small college conferences.

Central Michigan vs. Western Michigan for the Victory Cannon. Kansas vs. Missouri, a rivalry that next weekend will be reinstated as the Border Showdown, formerly called the Border War, a title with roots back to an actual border war between the two territories. Montana vs. Montana State in the Brawl of the Wild. Even the big brand likes of Clemson vs. Georgia, stadiums only 80 miles apart, and the game we just watched in Ireland to open the 2025 season, Iowa State vs. Kansas State, aka Farmageddon.

Why do I so relish these raucous regional rivalries? Because as you are now aware, I grew up right in the middle of one — maybe the best example there is. East Carolina versus North Carolina State, who will meet for the 34th time Thursday at 7 p.m. ET on the ACC Network.

Will the nation be riveted? No. But will my neighborhood of that nation be hotter than a bottle of Texas Pete? Oh, hell yes.

“I call them cookout games because if there is ever an argument at the family cookout, then it’s probably about a game like this one.” That’s how it was once explained to me by Ruffin McNeill, a Lumberton, North Carolina, native and former all-star ECU defender who became the coach at his alma mater in 2010 and led the Pirates to four bowls in six years before he was controversially dismissed. Now Ruff is a special assistant at … wait for it … NC State. “To me, it’s what makes college football the best sport in the world. When you look at your brother or your cousin and you say, ‘You know I love you, but for a few hours this weekend I’m not going to love you as much as I usually do.'”

That’s how a lot of North Carolina families will be rolling Thursday night, especially those who reside between the state capital and the Outer Banks, what we call Down East. From Nags Head to New Bern and Scotland Neck to Smithfield, one giant barrel of red and white and purple and gold, all swirled together in the same living room. And man, do those colors clash.

“So, I’m from Texas, right? We have a lot of really intense rivalries that mean a lot inside the state of Texas but that people outside of Texas don’t really understand,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said earlier this year. He was East Carolina’s offensive coordinator for five years, 2010 to 2014, coaching under McNeill. “When NC State came to our place in 2010, I remember in pregame, it was already so tense. I said, ‘Oh man, this is how this is?’ Ruff said, ‘Yes, it is. Now imagine what it’s going to be like when we go there. Buckle up.'”

BACK TO THE memory banks.

Jan. 1, 1992. The final Peach Bowl was played in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. It was a drizzly day, but that didn’t prevent nearly 60,000 people from attending the last college football game played at the home of the Braves, soon to be replaced by the Georgia Dome. Both ECU and NC State were in the Top 25. After nearly two decades of annual contests, they hadn’t played since 1987. Why? Because after another win in Raleigh, Pirates fans stormed NC State’s home field and pillaged the goalposts. By this time Valvano was NCSU’s athletic director and, angered by the damage done to his football stadium, he immediately discontinued the series. So, when it came time for the Peach Bowl to send out its invites, the powers-that-be wisely made phone calls to two schools located only 80 miles apart and only a day’s drive down I-85 to their stadium.

There, in the stands, sitting with my family and surrounded by ECU fans, I began openly gloating about State’s imminent victory. After all, the Pack led by 17 points with less than nine minutes remaining. It was over, right? Wrong. Pirates quarterback Jeff Blake, amid chants of “We … believe!” and a sea of foam yellow buccaneer swords, orchestrated a comeback that made him not merely an East Carolina football legend, but the forever Pirates football deity.

I was so bitter about that day for so long that it pained me the first time I finally interviewed Blake, and he was such a genuinely nice guy.

“Everywhere I go, it’s about the ’92 Peach Bowl,” he said to me for a 2014 story about bowl games. Blake threw for more than 21,000 yards over 14 NFL seasons and is now director of the IMG QB Academy in Florida. “If I had won a Super Bowl ring, it would still be second in [Greenville, NC] to people wanting to see my Peach Bowl watch. At a big school, those moments might not mean so much. For the rest of us, those are the moments.”

ECU vs. NCSU has provided so many of those moments.

That game that Lincoln Riley spoke of in 2010 began with a 21-0 ECU lead in the first quarter, but Wolfpack QB Russell Wilson led a comeback of his own, sending the game into OT. But in that extra frame, Wilson was intercepted to secure the victory for the Pirates. It was a revenge game for their last meeting two years earlier, when it was NC State who celebrated at the end of the series’ first-ever overtime contest.

In 2022, ECU had a chance to tie and win the game late but missed a PAT and field goal as time expired, preserving NCSU’s 1-point win. And, oh yeah, there’s their last meeting, only eight months ago in the Military Bowl, where a sellout crowd in Annapolis got a red-hot game and a bloody ref as the result of a fight at the end of the game, à la those drunk dudes in the parking lot in ’83.

Speaking of, I failed to mention this when I shared that story, but those guys totally knew each other. They looked similar. Had the same nose. One even called the other by name. So, it should come as no surprise that the prize awarded for winning this game is directly based on that kind of kinship. The Victory Barrel, which wasn’t introduced until 2007 but has been retroactively marked to represent every result since the series began in 1970, was rolled out with a backstory about two ultracompetitive brothers who grew up on an Eastern North Carolina farm but attended the two different schools. Eventually, they donated the pork barrel that they had once kept in a barn, whittled with the results of their own hometown competitions, for the schools to keep track of their football games.

“Those games are the ones where you look at the other guy and you know that guy, or you at least recognize that guy, because that guy either lives in your neighborhood, or hell, he might be your brother,” explained Jerry Kill when asked about the intensity of overlooked rivalries. Now he’s a special consultant at Vanderbilt. Prior to that, he was the coach at New Mexico State, one half of the Rio Grande Rivalry versus New Mexico, aka the Game When The Diego Pavia Logo Urination Video (ahem) Leaked, which holds its115th edition later this season. “If you like western movies, you know how it works. This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.”

North Carolina has never been big enough for all its college football teams. Tobacco Road has long belonged to what used to be called the Big Four. Beginning at the western edge of the middle region of the state, aka the Piedmont, with Wake Forest, then moving east into the Triangle, with Duke and UNC in the middle and NC State on the eastern flank. But as Appalachian State began to gather steam, it challenged from the mountains after East Carolina did the same from the coast. Both have always coveted the power conference ACC membership of the Big Four, but both have also proudly owned the little brother chip on their shoulder pads. All while Wake and State have done the same, as they’ve had to watch the nation become obsessed with the Blue Devils and Tar Heels during hoops season.

NC State head coach Dave Doeren, who made headlines this summer at ACC media days when asked about ECU and replied, “I want to beat the s— out of that team,” has never shied away from the perceived “haves vs. have-nots” syndrome when it comes to UNC. See: When he also made headlines in 2022 saying, as paraphrased by a TV crew, that NC State is blue collar and UNC is elitist. On the flipside, ECU coach Blake Harrell recently suggested that his entire roster was making less NIL money than Pack QB CJ Bailey.

“Whatever you need to motivate yourself, you do it,” Torry Holt said, laughing, prior to his induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2022. The former NC State All-America wide receiver grew up in Gibsonville, North Carolina, just off Tobacco Road. He even picked tobacco as a kid. He also went 1-1 versus East Carolina during his four years with the Pack, highlighted by a backbreaking 68-yard TD catch to open the second half in Raleigh in 1997 that paved the way to a 37-24 win. “The important thing for me is that the last time I played them, we won. We lost the first one. But you don’t want to lose the last one. That was the last time I played them and the last time I will ever play them.”

He laughed again. “So … scoreboard.”

ONE MORE FROM the memory bank. It’s all you need to know about ECU vs. NCSU, and it easily applies to all those other underappreciated pigskin passion plays throughout this great college football nation.

It was spring 1997 and I was a young feature producer for ESPN. My primary beat was NASCAR, and I was covering a race at my hometown Rockingham Speedway. That’s when the governor of North Governor, Jim Hunt, who was an NC State graduate and former NCSU student body president, wandered into the media center during a rain delay, making small talk. He said to us, “You guys are with ESPN? Well, I have a story for you. Our state legislature is introducing a bill to try and mandate that East Carolina plays State every year. Y’all ever been to one of those games?”

I told him that, yes, I had, growing up in Raleigh in the 1980s. My camera operator said he had been a Wolfpack athlete, a swimmer. What we know now is that the bill never passed, but it did lead to more frequent Tobacco Road bookings for the Pirates.

That ’97 day in rainy Rockingham, Hunt sighed. “If that bill passes, then y’all know what I’m going to have to do?”

We looked at the governor, quizzically. He winked. Then he joked. At least I think it was a joke.

“We’re going to need to hire a lot more state troopers for Down East. Or wrestling referees.”

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Deion’s pitch: Pay players NFL-style playoff bonus

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August 28, 2025

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Deion's pitch: Pay players NFL-style playoff bonus

  • Associated Press

Aug 28, 2025, 08:56 AM ET

Leave it to Deion Sanders to come up with an idea for the College Football Playoff that nobody has really mentioned yet: Pay the players for making the tournament, and pay them more when their teams win.

If they do that, then “now it’s equality, now it’s even and every player is making the same amount of money,” the Colorado coach said.

Sanders and former Alabama coach Nick Saban talked to The Associated Press as part of their unveiling of a new Aflac commercial that rolls out this week with a storyboard ripped from today’s headlines: It opens with Sanders complaining: “This game has gotten out of control. All the money. All the unpredictability.”

He is talking about health insurance, of course, and the commissioner he wants to see run it isn’t Saban, but that kooky duck who wears the same powder-blue sportscoat as the two football legends.

It’s an endorsement that Sanders says hits home some two years after his diagnosis with bladder cancer, from which he says he is fully recovered.

“I’ve been walking with my coaches over a mile” after practice, he said ahead of Friday night’s season opener against Georgia Tech. “Exercising, lifting.”

Saban will be back on the set with ESPN in his second year of “retirement” after leaving the Crimson Tide, where he won six national titles. He insists he wants to help college sports find its footing, but not via a commissioner job that was floated last year with his name coming up as the ideal fit.

“I don’t want to be in that briar patch of being a commissioner, but I do want to do everything I can to make it right,” he said.

He and Sanders agreed that there needs to be more structure around the deals players sign. Since July 1, schools have been able to start paying up to $20.5 million each to their athletes over the next year under the House settlement alongside third-party NIL deals that have turned some players into millionaires.

Saban said he believes that forgotten amid all the hype about name, image and likeness deals — deals Sanders says are a joke because “there are only three or four guys who you might know their NIL, and the rest you’re just giving money to” — is what happens to the vast majority of these players after they leave school.

“For years and years and years as coaches, and when we were players, we learned this, we’re trying to create value for our future,” Saban said. “That’s why we’re going to college. It’s not just to see how much money we can make while we’re in college. It’s, how does that impact your future as far as our ability to create value for ourselves?”

Currently, conferences whose schools advance to the 12-team playoff receive $4 million for making the bracket, with payments increasing for every round they win.

Saban said Sanders’ idea about spreading the wealth with an NFL-style playoff bonus structure for players (winners of the Super Bowl got $171,000 last year) sounded like a good idea to him. He also had no love for proposals coming out of the Big Ten that would give that league and the Southeastern Conference multiple automatic bids.

“The NFC East has the Cowboys, Eagles and Giants, they have the biggest fan bases of anyone and they have to play their way in,” Saban said. “Everyone should play their way in. One year, a conference might get five teams in, another it might get three. But there’s no [scenario] in any competitive venue where you get a guaranteed playoff spot.”

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