CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Running back Mark Fletcher Jr. is coming back to Miami next season, saying Tuesday that he plans to postpone his NFL plans for one more year.

Fletcher made the news official just a few days after the best game of his college career – a 172-yard rushing effort that helped No. 10 Miami top No. 7 Texas A&M 10-3 in the opening round of the College Football Playoff.

The Hurricanes (11-2) play No. 2 Ohio State (12-1) on New Year’s Eve in the CFP quarterfinals.

“Yeah, it’s true. I’m coming back another year,” Fletcher said. “I have another year. You know, I’m a true junior. Another year guaranteed.

“I love this team. I love this organization. I love this culture. And I just want to spend more time with my brothers while I can.”

Fletcher has rushed for 84 or more yards eight times in his Miami career, six of those games coming this season — including four of his six 100-yard efforts.

“We were just excited to help Mark Fletcher do his thing,” offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa said Tuesday, when asked about Fletcher’s numbers at Texas A&M. “You see him — he’s a bad guy out there.”

Fletcher — who has career-bests of 857 yards and 10 touchdowns this season — started the year 39th on Miami’s all-time rushing list. He’s now 13th, having passed passing Alonzo Highsmith, Leonard Conley, Lamar Miller, Tyrone Moss, Stephen McGuire and Frank Gore last weekend alone.

He’s up to 1,978 yards in his career, 22 yards shy of becoming the 11th 2,000-yard rusher in Miami history. And more impressive than his stats last weekend, at least to Miami coaches, was the way he helped calm freshman Malachi Toney down after a fourth-quarter fumble. On the next possession, after Fletcher helped get Miami down the field, Toney wound up scoring what became the winning touchdown.

“He played like a man possessed,” Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said of Fletcher. “And we needed it. We needed his leadership in a lot of ways on the sideline and his calmness. And I don’t think you can say enough about Mark as a human being and as a player. What a leader. Just a special person.”

A federal judge has denied a motion by former Michigan co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss to have 10 aggravated identity theft counts against him dismissed.

Weiss, 42, was indicted in March for allegedly stealing private videos and photos of more than 3,300 student-athletes — mostly women — from over 100 universities across the country. Federal documents allege that Weiss hacked into the accounts to view and download personal or intimate photographs and videos and took notes commenting on the students’ bodies and sexual preferences.

His attorneys tried to argue that Weiss using stolen passwords is like using a stolen key to unlock a door and doesn’t equate to aggravated identity thefts. But U.S. District Court Judge Nancy G. Edmunds disagreed.

“The fact that using a house key is not identity theft only reflects that the statute was not written to cover house keys — it does not show that using another person’s login credentials without permission cannot be part of an identity-theft crime,” Edmunds wrote in her ruling.

The 10 aggravated identity theft counts carry the most federal prison time if Weiss is convicted. He also faces 14 counts of unauthorized access and is being sued in a separate case by more than 70 women who claim that he illegally hacked into their private accounts and stole their personal photos.

Weiss was fired by Michigan in January 2023, after spending the previous two seasons on Jim Harbaugh’s staff as an assistant. The former co-offensive coordinator’s alleged crimes also date back to his time with the Baltimore Ravens, where he coached for more than a decade.

Weiss faces more than 70 years in prison if convicted.

Former Georgia pass rusher Damon Wilson II says the school’s athletic department is attempting to illegally punish him for entering the transfer portal in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, part of an ongoing dispute that could have far-reaching implications on how player contracts work in college sports.

Wilson transferred last January to Missouri, where he was the team’s leader in sacks during the 2025 season, weeks after signing a term sheet for a 14-month name, image and likeness contract with Georgia’s booster collective. He collected $30,000 in an initial payment for what was a $500,000 deal before leaving the Bulldogs. Georgia filed a lawsuit last month claiming that Wilson owed the athletic department $390,000 in liquidated damages for leaving the team.

Wilson’s countersuit, filed in Missouri state court, claims that Georgia has “weaponized” a liquidated damages clause in an unenforceable way to “punish Wilson for entering the portal.”

Many schools have inserted liquidated damages clauses in their contracts with athletes since starting to pay players directly earlier this year. Several legal experts who reviewed player contracts for ESPN in the past say schools are inappropriately attempting to use liquidated damages as a de facto “buy out fee” for players who break a contract to transfer. Experts say liquidated damage fee must be tied to actual damages suffered by the party and can’t be used as punishment for breaking a contract. Wilson’s case is one of the first major tests of whether schools can effectively enforce these clauses to try to dissuade players from transferring.

“Georgia appears intent on making an example of someone, they just picked the wrong person,” said Jeff Jensen, one of Wilson’s attorneys. “Damon never had a contract with them. I don’t see how Georgia thinks intimidation and litigation will help their recruitment efforts — maybe players could bring lawyers with them to practice.”

Georgia spokesman Steve Drummond said the school had no comment because it involves pending litigation and referred to a previous statement he shared after Georgia filed its initial claims against Wilson.

“When the University of Georgia Athletic Association enters binding agreements with student-athletes, we honor our commitments and expect student-athletes to do the same,” Drummond said in early December.

The new lawsuit filed Tuesday claims that Drummond’s statement is defamatory and intended to harm Wilson’s reputation. The suit also claims that Georgia, the Classic City Collective and the collective’s operators committed tortious interference and civil conspiracy against Wilson.

The lawsuit states that Georgia officials told coaches at other football programs that Wilson had a “$1.2 million buyout” in an alleged attempt to dissuade other schools from recruiting him.

Wilson’s lawyers argue that the three-page term sheet he signed last December is not legally binding because it isn’t a full contract. The document, which was shared as part of Georgia’s lawsuit, states that it will “be used to create a legal binding document.”

Wilson and his attorneys have yet to file a response to the school’s claim, which was filed in Georgia and asks a judge to force both parties to settle their dispute in arbitration. State judges in both cases will have to parse through the case to determine who has jurisdiction to make a ruling.

Wilson will play in the Gator Bowl this Saturday with Missouri to finish his junior season.