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  • David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterOct 13, 2024, 02:43 AM ET

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    • College football reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

Change can be scary. It’s easy to look around at the college football landscape in 2024 — realignment, playoff expansion, NIL, the portal, lawsuits, Michigan’s offense — and think the whole thing’s gone haywire. The sport certainly looks little like it did 25 years ago or, really, 25 months ago.

And yet Saturday offered us a vivid reminder that change can be a good thing. It can be refreshing and rewarding and exhilarating. It can show us a path forward we never would’ve imagined, but once it exists, we wonder how we ever lived another way.

It can give us the absolute fireworks of Oregon 32, Ohio State 31.

It can give us the dizzying back-and-forth of Penn State 33, USC 30.

It can give us playoff previews, star-making performances and Big Ten football that looks more like Pac-12 After Dark.

Let’s face it, the Big Ten has a track record of easing into most seasons like an old man into a warm bath. The traditional powers of Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan tend to backload the slate in favor of MAC showdowns, Rutgers beatdowns and the occasional slugfest against Notre Dame. So many of the league’s recent seasons have played out like the “Surf Dracula” meme about prestige TV. The whole season is spent explaining how Dracula bought his surfboard before we ever see him catch a wave. So it is with the Big Ten: a long slog of pointless diversions before The Game.

Not in 2024, though. Not with Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA joining the conference.

Now, we have real stakes before the ground freezes in Ann Arbor.

Now, we have epic battles that look less like the traditional heavyweight slugfests between two aging boxers plodding their way toward a 12-round decision and more like a toddler’s birthday party — controlled chaos, where every moment requires some entertainment lest someone set the curtains on fire and a parent eventually has to step in when a game of pin the tail on the donkey goes awry.

How different is the Big Ten this year? Iowa put up 40 points, Wisconsin seems to have figured out the Air Raid and Purdue showed signs of life in Week 7. Heck, Michigan had the week off but still threw for 50 yards more than its season average. But the main events came in Los Angeles and Eugene, Oregon, and boy did they deliver.

For the opener Saturday, Penn State erased a 13-point second-half deficit, delivered a drive for the ages to tie the game at 30, then connected on a kick to win it in overtime.

Drew Allar threw three picks, but that’s not what anyone in Happy Valley will remember. Instead, it’ll be the two magical completions he made on fourth down on that game-tying drive — 17 yards to Julian Fleming on fourth-and-7 at his own 44, then a nifty escape from a collapsing pocket to hit Fleming again on fourth-and-10 at the USC 39.

Tyler Warren caught 17 balls for 224 yards, a thing receivers in Michigan didn’t think was possible in a full season. He was somehow always open throughout the first three quarters, forcing USC to adjust just enough to leave Fleming free for those big grabs down the stretch.

It was a game in which Penn State showed more offensive creativity than it had during the entirety of Allar’s first season at the helm in 2023.

That it all fell apart for USC because of Lincoln Riley’s brutal clock management on the final drive — somehow getting off just five plays in the final two minutes, possibly because the Trojans are on Pacific time while the Big Ten refs only operate on Central time — and a missed kick in overtime does nothing to make it less of an epic.

But then there was the headlining act at Autzen Stadium, where both Oregon and Ohio State absolutely looked the part of top-five teams, there were seven lead changes in the final 40 minutes of action, and in a running theme that must’ve completely baffled any Florida State fans watching, a player named Uiagalelei made one critical play after another down the stretch.

The game had its share of ridiculousness: a missed PAT, an onside kick that resembled an NBA out-of-bounds play, a player ejected for spitting, and, again, some brutal late clock management.

More than anything, though, it had two of the best teams in the sport playing at their peak.

Freshman Jeremiah Smith looked like a superstar once again, catching nine balls for 100 yards and a score. Emeka Egbuka was just as good. And QB Will Howard threw for 326 yards, but his lack of clock awareness in the final 30 seconds of the game proved Ohio State’s undoing.

Dillon Gabriel had 373 yards and three touchdowns. Evan Stewart, oft criticized for his lack of physicality, absolutely devoured Ohio State’s secondary to the tune of 149 yards. With star edge rusher Jordan Burch out with an injury, Matayo Uiagalelei had 5 tackles, a sack, 2 TFLs and 2 QB hurries in the win.

None of this is to suggest there’s no need to complain about this new era of college football. For every Ohio State-Oregon we’ll get this season, there will be a Rutgers-UCLA. And for all the excitement in Autzen on Saturday, the game likely meant little beyond flip-flopping spots in the top 25 for Oregon and Ohio State. Odds are, these two will see each other again — in the Big Ten title game or the College Football Playoff or at Chip Kelly’s annual above-ground pool party.

That’s the thing about change. It’s never all good or all bad. It’s just different — sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, and always just another step on an ever-evolving ride. The point is to enjoy it all while it lasts because, if the past year has taught us anything, it’s that nothing lasts forever, but there are still so many memories to be made in those amazing moments, like Week 7, when the world slows down just long enough for us to realize how good we have it.

Jump to:
Alabama survives | Red River | Big 12 race
Midseason awards | Vibe shifts
Heisman five | Under the radar

Alabama survives — barely

It’s been a long week in Tuscaloosa. After the loss to Vanderbilt, the Tide faithful have been left shell-shocked — parting their bangs at a reasonable point, dipping sourdough into their Dreamland BBQ sauce, utterly melting down when calling in to Finebaum.

But what was essentially a “sad middle-aged dad considers life after divorce” week came oh-so-close to melting down into a full-blown “We’re getting hair plugs and a Cybertruck” scenario as Alabama saw a 14-0 lead evaporate against South Carolina, then struggled deep into the second half.

Want a truly wild stat to fully grasp how different this season has been at Alabama? The Gamecocks took a 19-14 lead midway through the third quarter after a 16-play, 85-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 1-yard run from Raheim Sanders. It was the third touchdown drive of 16 plays or more against Alabama this year, after Wisconsin and Vanderbilt both had 17-play TD drives. From 2014 through 2023, Alabama’s defense surrendered exactly one such drive (against Ole Miss in 2020).

But set aside the esoteric stats and concentrate on something more troubling: After the Tide couldn’t get off the field late against Vandy last week, they had the same struggles against South Carolina on Saturday. Leading 27-19 with just 1:54 to play, Alabama allowed the Gamecocks to march the length of the field on six plays for the score. Only a failed two-point try kept the game from being tied.

The Gamecocks weren’t done, though. They perfectly executed an onside kick with 43 seconds left for a chance to win, but poor clock management and a passing game that resembles a roomful of toddlers running into the walls for fun doomed the effort.

So, Alabama survived 27-19, which staved off full-blown anarchy for now. But a week after its defense imploded against the Commodores, its offense mustered just 313 yards — the Tide’s fewest against an unranked SEC foe since facing LSU in 2021 — and its special teams nearly cost the game.

In other words, Finebaum should be good again on Monday.

Texas owns the Red River

Coming off the field at halftime, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables was stopped for his TV interview and was asked a simple question: With his Sooners trailing 21-3, would Venables make a QB change away from Michael Hawkins Jr.?

Venables answered instinctively: “No, he’s been — ” then caught himself, thought about it for a second, and concluded, “He’s been — OK.”

It was like when a coworker says, “How’s it going,” and you reply, “Good,” even if your car is currently on fire.

So yes, Hawkins was OK, insofar as he did not set Venables’ car on fire, but by virtually any other standard, the Sooners’ offense remains an unmitigated disaster. Oklahoma mustered just 237 yards of offense in a 34-3 loss, averaging less than 5 yards per pass and less than 3 yards per rush.

On the other side of the Red River Rivalry, Texas benched Arch Manning in favor of some guy it found selling deep-fried Beef-N-Cheddars at the state fair. It was like going to see Taylor Swift and instead getting Katy Perry. One is a goddess. The other was upstaged at the Super Bowl by a felt shark.

Anyway, Quinn Ewers played well, completing 20 of 29 passes for 199 yards and accounting for two touchdowns. It almost seems unfair for Texas to have two good QBs when Oklahoma is forced to use three toddlers in a trench coat.

Regardless, Texas is now 6-0 with two dominant wins against top-25 opponents and has totally upended any “Texas is back” jokes, which now seem completely anachronistic. Gen Z ruins everything.

Big 12 leaders keep winning

Attempting to decipher the pecking order in the Big 12 is basically like looking at those old Magic Eye posters — just stare deeply for an extended period of time, then announce you saw a sailboat or Iowa State.

In other words, it’s complicated.

Week 7 did little to offer more clarity, aside from pushing Colorado to the back burner either because the Buffs lost or, more likely, because the standings are biased against Coach Prime.

In Morgantown, Carson Hansen ran for 96 yards and scored three times, as Iowa State beat West Virginia 28-16 to move to 6-0 on the season.

In Provo, BYU moved to 6-0 also, upending Arizona 41-19 on the strength of four takeaways.

In Tempe, the surprise team of the Big 12, Arizona State, stunned Utah 27-19. Cameron Rising, whose latest facial hair style makes it look as if he spent the past week marauding on the high seas, threw three picks in the game and did little to rejuvenate the Utah offense. Instead, it was Kenny Dillingham’s crew moving into a power position in the Big 12, and he was ready to celebrate afterward.

With Arizona State at 5-1, Dillingham has to be among the favorites for Coach of the Year honors, and he’s clearly the runaway winner for “most likely to have a drawer full of glow sticks in his office.”

And then there’s Kansas State, which is also 5-1 after defeating Colorado 31-28 on Saturday.

Deion Sanders was upset by the late kickoff time — 10:15 p.m. ET — because everyone knows TikTok traffic dips by 16% after 9 p.m.

Travis Hunter‘s first-half injury added to the woes, but Shedeur Sanders still nearly rallied the Buffaloes to a win, pulling ahead 28-24 on a touchdown throw with 3:12 to play. But Kansas State answered less than a minute later, as Avery Johnson found Jayce Brown for the game winner.

In retrospect, rushing for minus-29 yards might’ve been a problematic offensive strategy for Colorado after Hunter went down, but running the football is just so boing. Well, not so much when DJ Giddens does it. He rushed for 182 yards in the win for K State, but how many followers does he have? Case closed.

Midseason awards

Seven weeks of the college football season are in the books, which means it’s time to hand out some midseason hardware. So, put on your best evening gown or tuxedo T-shirt and get ready for the red carpet.

Best actor in a drama or football game: Ole Miss

No team in the country has the acting chops of the Rebels. They’re the Meryl Streep of college football. Or, at least the Vin Diesel.

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Ole Miss’ Matt Jones fakes injury

Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart tells running back Matt Jones to go down with an injury.

Already this season, Ole Miss has seen players require an injury stoppage due to narcolepsy, the meat sweats and every side effect listed in the Jardiance commercial.

Indeed, the fake injuries have caused a bit of a stir, and this week, the Rebels admitted fault, releasing a statement noting they would “conduct ourselves properly” moving forward.

It’s sad to see such expert thespians retire from the profession, but as Lane Kiffin noted, Ole Miss is still big. It’s the game that got small.

On the field Saturday, Ole Miss led LSU until the final 23 seconds, when Aaron Anderson drilled a 23-yard kick to send the game to overtime in spite of several Rebels players falling to their knees before the snap, fanning themselves dramatically and declaring, “I do believe I have a case of the vapors!”

Nevertheless, Ole Miss settled for a long field goal in overtime, while Garrett Nussmeier hit Kyren Lacy for a 25-yard game-winning touchdown.

The win moves LSU to 5-1 on the year, ensuring Brian Kelly’s meeting with his anger management counselor on Monday will involve far less screaming into a pillow than usual.

Best Plucky Underdog (player): Desmond Reid

The Pitt tailback is 5-foot-6, 170 pounds and somehow is the most electric all-purpose player west of Travis Hunter.

On Saturday, Reid ran 16 times for 120 yards and two touchdowns, added a 19-yard catch and also lifted a 1983 Chevy Malibu over his head to entertain the crowd at halftime.

Reid keyed Pitt’s 17-15 win over Cal with a 72-yard touchdown run, moving the Panthers to 6-0 on the season.

But Reid and Pitt aren’t the only amazing underdog stories this season.

Pitt, BYU, Arizona State and Indiana were a combined 14-34 last year. Through Week 7, they’re a combined 23-1 and absolutely drenched in Banana Boat.

Best Plucky Underdog (team): Louisiana-Monroe

ULM upended Southern Miss 38-21 on Saturday, moving to 5-1 on the season.

Ahmad Hardy ran for 121 yards and two touchdowns in the win, marking the first time ULM has won five games in a season since 2019.

In the Book of Revelation, this start for the Warhawks comes just after the locusts but just before the horsemen, so the good news is we’ve all got some time to put our affairs in order.

Best idea whose time has come: Goalpost lasers

Washington pulled to within a touchdown late in the first half courtesy of a controversial made field goal.

The kick certainly looked wide right, but that’s hardly the point. The bigger issue is why, in 2024, we’re still arguing about this. After all, didn’t Jimbo Fisher advocate for goalpost lasers a decade ago? Somewhere Saturday, Fisher was pointing at his TV like DiCaprio in “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood” before sitting back down onto his couch made out of money and lighting a cigar with a $100 bill.

Regardless, Iowa went on to win 40-16, which is yet another reminder that, if the Hawkeyes can hang 40 on someone, surely we can figure out a way to measure if a field goal above the uprights is good or not.

Best performance in a superhero movie: Army‘s Bryson Daily

The Black Knights moved to 6-0 with an emphatic 44-10 win over Trent Dilfer’s flaming husk of a UAB football program Saturday, and Daily was the indisputable star. He ran for 136 yards and four touchdowns and threw for 102 yards and a score and also delivered a truck stick that was the equivalent of Thor’s hammer.

For the season, Baily has racked up 20 touchdowns without a turnover, while also saving several infinity stones and successfully halting that pipeline project set to run through his fortress of solitude.

But still, danger lurks in the distance. Blake Horvath and Navy are also undefeated, setting up a showdown between these two bitter enemies in Commander In Chief Cup: Endgame. Coming this December.

Week 7 vibe shifts

Each week, the college football ecosystem sustains its share of seismic disruptions, but plenty of other, more subtle stories fly beneath the radar. We try to capture them here.

Trending up: Vanderbilt‘s bowl odds

Diego Pavia threw for two touchdowns, and Vandy went 8-of-13 on third down to escape Kentucky 20-13 on Saturday.

It was a woeful offensive game all around, with Pavia throwing for just 143 yards and Kentucky QB and noted Foghat enthusiast Brock Vandagriff throwing for just 158.

Nevertheless, Vandy is 4-2 through six games for the first time since 2008 and now needs to just beat Ball State and win one of its final five SEC games (Texas, at Auburn, South Carolina, at LSU and Tennessee) to make its first bowl since 2018.

Trending down: Florida‘s bowl odds

The Gators had their shots against Tennessee on Saturday, but after five possessions in Vols territory in the first half — including four in the red zone — they managed just three points. Still, Tennessee’s own offensive struggles continued after last week’s ugly loss to Arkansas, with sophomore Nico Iamaleava effectively offering up the QB equivalent of that sound ketchup makes when you squeeze a nearly empty bottle.

The upshot of it all: Florida scored with 29 seconds to play to send the game to overtime but missed a field goal try and ultimately fell 23-17.

Afterward, Billy Napier said it was for the best the game didn’t go to additional overtime periods, because he’s working the overnight shift at a convenience store and his boss docks his pay if he shows up more than 15 minutes late.

The loss is particularly problematic for the Gators, who are now 3-3 with only two remaining games against teams currently unranked. That makes getting to a bowl game an uphill battle that will require beating both Kentucky and Florida State and pulling an upset somewhere along the way against Georgia, Texas, LSU or Ole Miss.

Trending up: Our AARP membership

In the fall of 2005, a time we’re pretty sure was, like, six months ago, the QB depth chart for the Arizona Cardinals included starter Kurt Warner and backup Josh McCown.

On Saturday night, the QB matchup in the UTSA–Rice showdown: E.J. Warner (Kurt’s son) and Owen McCown (Josh’s son).

Both QBs were exceptional. McCown threw for 260 yards and three touchdowns. Warner threw for 347 and accounted for three scores of his own.

But it was ultimately Warner who stole the show, engineering an eight-play, 65-yard drive in the final two minutes, capping it with an 18-yard TD to Matt Sykes for the game winner with 4 seconds to play. Rice prevailed 29-27, and we’re going to just go ahead and cover our furniture with plastic and start yelling at kids to get off our lawn.

Trending down: Maryland and Rutgers

The Terps and Knights are essentially the Big Ten’s version of the Philadelphia Phillies — much more enjoyable before the calendar turns to October.

On Friday, Maryland was whitewashed by Northwestern, 37-10, thanks to four turnovers.

On Saturday, Rutgers was demolished 42-7 by Wisconsin, allowing more than 300 rushing yards to the Badgers.

Maryland had started 3-1 but has now lost two straight. Rutgers started 4-0 but has also lost its past two.

And this is all part of a far longer trend line. In the past five seasons, those two have opened 3-1 or better nine times. In August and September games since 2020, they’re a combined 29-6. And if they could spend the rest of the season playing Akron and Temple, there’d be a lot to like about both teams. Unfortunately, October begins conference play, and the Terps and Knights fall off a cliff. From Oct. 1 on, the two are a combined 22-46. The story goes all the way back to Maryland and Rutgers joining the Big Ten in 2014. Before Oct. 1, their win percentage is .687. After Oct. 1, it’s .258.

On the upside, Greg Schiano loves pumpkin spice season, so he’s got that going for him.

Trending up: Interesting road trips

On Saturday, Missouri — once the No. 6 team in the country — played on the road at UMass.

Yes, that UMass.

This is the rough equivalent of Gordon Ramsay shoveling fistfuls of nachos grandes into his face while sitting in his 1994 Ford Tempo at the Taco Bell drive-through. In other words, utterly great.

And true to form, UMass didn’t disappoint the home fans who showed up for the big game, making it through almost an entire 10 minutes of football before the game was sufficiently out of hand. The fans also got to see Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz showcase the SEC’s latest technology, which sadly became sentient at halftime, realized it was watching UMass football and immediately activated its self-destruct mode.

Missouri ultimately won 45-3, while the bulk of the team hit the road midway through the third quarter so it could enjoy some of the majestic New England foliage.

Trending up: Frontiersmen on the sideline

Jacksonville State downed New Mexico State 54-13 on Wednesday, moving to 2-0 in Conference USA play. More importantly, however, this member of the Gamecocks staff raised a barn, enjoyed a raucous Rumspringa and churned some of the best butter south of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Trending up: Motivational pharmacology

Last week, Minnesota coach PJ Fleck credited his team’s upset win over USC to a brilliant bit of symbolism, when he had his team take an “antidote of confidence” — or, more literally, a capsule filled with Sprite.

For Week 7’s showdown with UCLA, Fleck’s plan to build on the motivational gambit by having the team down Mountain Dew: Code Red and Pop Rocks was less successful, as the Gophers fell behind 10-0 at the half. But Max Brosmer rallied the team late, and Minnesota escaped 21-17.

Now riding a winning streak, Fleck plans to have his starters chug a gallon of milk in an hour right before kickoff.

Trending down: The Calgorithm

The vibes around Cal were off the charts for the first month of the season, thanks in large part to a brilliant social media presence that involved an esoteric mix of politics, Photoshop and some stuff they found in one of Jerry Garcia’s old coats.

But what Cal has learned in these past three games is that there is no positive counterpoint to the power of #goacc.

After a 3-0 start, including a win at Auburn, Cal has lost three straight ACC games.

A recap:

Outgained Florida State by 126 yards but lost by five. It’s still FSU’s lone win of the year.

Led Miami by 20 with 14 minutes to go but lost by one.

And on Saturday, held Pitt to just 277 yards of offense, gaining seven more first downs than the Panthers, and lost by two.

The ACC life ain’t for the faint of heart, but just remember, Cal: You’re also not getting any TV money for this.

Our Heisman favorites dealt with an off week, an injury and a pregame meal that was mostly Spam in Week 7, so the results weren’t entirely exciting.

1. Miami QB Cam Ward

The Hurricanes were off in Week 7 after narrowly escaping in each of the past two weeks thanks to Ward’s heroics. Instead, Ward spent Saturday teaching school children how to talk smack to D-linemen and do that “Zombieland” hand gesture he makes after touchdowns.

2. Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty

Boise State struggled for a good part of its game against Hawai’i late Saturday, but of course Jeanty powered the Broncos with 217 yards en route to a 28-7 win. At this point, Jeanty’s season is like one long episode of “Jackass” — like, let’s see if Jeanty can win without any other offensive support, or run for 200-plus with eight defenders in the box on every carry or score five touchdowns while covered in bees. And somehow, he makes it all look reasonable.

3. Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel

Gabriel has been exceptional all season, but until Saturday, it was easy enough to overlook the success because Oregon had been — well, boring. But Saturday was never dull, and Gabriel was a big reason why, throwing for 341 yards and two scores, rushing for 32 and another TD in the 32-31 win. Should Gabriel win the Heisman this year, he’ll be the first player to both secure the trophy and social security benefits in the same year.

4. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter

It’s hard to believe anyone playing 120 snaps a game would get hurt, but that’s exactly what happened to Hunter against Kansas State. He left in the first half with a shoulder injury and did not return, leaving Colorado to try to rally back from a deficit with only Shedeur Sanders and 21 guys who will be played by non-union background actors when they make the movie of this season.

5. Army QB Bryson Daily

We’re still keeping Navy’s Blake Horvath in the mix, too, but the Middies were off this week, so Daily gets a solo mention. He totaled 238 yards and five touchdowns in a 44-10 win over UAB on Saturday, and the U.S. Department of Defense announced it would be replacing all propaganda pamphlets on the front lines with Daily’s box scores.

Under-the-radar game of the week

On Saturday, Illinois survived a scare from Purdue, taking home the prized trophy of a cannon of some sort.

The Illini led 27-3 early in the second half and 40-28 with just 5:05 to play, but Purdue roared back in the final 2 minutes of play to take a 43-40 lead. Devin Mockobee scored on a 2-yard rush with 1:35 to play, Illinois recovered the onside kick, then Mockobee scored again on a 13-yard pass with 46 seconds to go.

But Purdue has firmly established it can’t have nice things, and promptly allowed Illinois to set up a 38-yard kick to send the game to overtime. The two teams traded touchdowns in OT, but Purdue’s 2-point try fell incomplete, giving Illinois the 50-49 win.

Purdue is now 1-5 overall and 0-3 in Big Ten play this year, and now the only trophies the Boilermakers currently retain are the Old Oaken Bucket (vs. Indiana), the Golden Deep-Dish Pizza (vs. Minnesota) and a dead pigeon (vs. Rutgers).

Under-the-radar play of the week

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart delivered an emphatic blow against Mississippi State QB Michael Van Buren Jr. while trying to get defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann’s attention during the Bulldogs’ 41-31 win Saturday.

The form is solid. Smart takes off his hat before contact, so he can’t be called for leading with the crown of his helmet. He hits Van Buren square and knocks the QB back. And the hit sends a clear message that Smart isn’t going to take no for an answer.

It was actually some of the best defense shown by the Dawgs, who never were in any real danger, but also never quite could put Mississippi State away.

Scouts from the Eagles are rumored to be interested in selecting Smart on Day 2 of next year’s draft.

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Bowling Green hires Eddie George as head coach

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Bowling Green hires Eddie George as head coach

Former Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George was named the next head coach at Bowling Green on Sunday.

George agreed to a five-year deal, sources told ESPN.

His hiring came two days after George, who spent the past four seasons as the head coach at Tennessee State, was one of three finalists to interview for the position.

“Today, we add another transformative leader to this campus in Eddie George,” Derek van der Merwe, Bowling Green’s vice president for athletics strategy, said in a news release. “Our students are getting someone who has chased success in sports, art, business, and leadership. As our head football coach, he will pursue excellence in all aspects of competition in the arena. More importantly, beyond the arena, he will exemplify what excellence looks like in the classroom, in life, in business, and in relationships with people.”

George emerged as a successful head coach in the FCS at Tennessee State. This past season, he led the program to the FCS playoffs and a share of the OVC-Big South title, the school’s first league title in football since 1999.

“I am truly excited to be the head coach at Bowling Green State University,” George said in the news release. “Bowling Green is a wonderful community that has embraced the school and the athletics department. We are eager to immerse ourselves in the community and help build this program to the greatness it deserves. I am overwhelmed with excitement and joy for the possibilities this opportunity holds.”

George returns to the state where he rushed for 3,768 yards over four seasons as a running back for Ohio State, winning the Heisman Trophy in 1995.

George went on to star in the NFL for nine seasons, rushing for more than 10,000 yards. He was a 1996 first-round pick of the Houston Oilers and made his name by playing seven seasons in Nashville for the Titans, becoming the franchise’s all-time leading rusher. The Titans retired his jersey in 2019.

Tennessee State hired George despite his lack of traditional coaching experience, with the school president at the time calling the move “the right choice and investment” for the future of TSU. George has worked as an actor and entrepreneur and earned an MBA from Northwestern.

George paid back the administration’s faith by building Tennessee State into a winner, including a 9-4 season in 2024 that culminated in its first FCS playoff appearance since 2013. Tennessee State lost to Montana in the first round.

George’s hire at TSU continued the trend of former star players being hired at historically Black colleges and universities. Jackson State made the biggest splash in hiring Deion Sanders, who went on to a successful stint at Colorado. Michael Vick’s hire at Norfolk State and DeSean Jackson’s hire at Delaware State continued that trend in the current hiring cycle.

George will replace Scot Loeffler, who left the school to become the quarterbacks coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Bowling Green has become one of the top coaching springboards of this generation, with Urban Meyer, Dave Clawson and Dino Babers all advancing from the school to power conference jobs. Loeffler went 27-41 over six seasons, a run that included bowl appearances in each of the past three seasons.

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Top 2027 DE recruit Wesley reclassifies to 2026

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Top 2027 DE recruit Wesley reclassifies to 2026

  • Eli LedermanMar 7, 2025, 12:02 PM ET

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      Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.

Defensive end prospect Richard Wesley, one of the nation’s top recruits in the 2027 high school class, has reclassified into the 2026 cycle and will sign with a college program later this year, he told ESPN on Friday.

A 6-foot-5, 245-pound pass rusher from Chatsworth, California, Wesley completed his sophomore season at Sierra Canyon (California) High School this past fall. His move marks the latest high-profile reclassification in the current cycle, following wide receiver Ethan “Boobie” Feaster (No. 21 in the ESPN Junior 300), tight end Mark Bowman (No. 23), running back Ezavier Crowell (No. 29) and cornerback Havon Finney Jr. (not ranked) in the line of the elite former 2027 prospects to reclassify into the 2026 class since the start of the new year. 

ESPN has not yet released its prospect rankings for the 2027 class, but Wesley is expected to slot in among the nation’s top five defensive line recruits in 2026. He took unofficial visits to Oregon and Texas A&M in January and holds a long list of offers across the SEC, Big Ten and ACC. 

Following his reclassification, Wesley told ESPN he will take trips to Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Miami, Oregon, USC, Ole Miss and Texas A&M across March and April before finalizing a slate of official visits for later this spring.

“I really can’t say what the future holds for me,” Wesley said. “I’m excited for more opportunities to go talk with these coaches and see what they’re about. I’m really open to everyone that’s offered me and who really wants me in their program.”

Wesley emerged as one of the nation’s most coveted high school defenders after he totaled 55 tackles and 10 sacks in his freshman season at Sierra Canyon in 2023. He followed this past fall 44 tackles (16 for loss) with nine sacks and four forced fumbles as a sophomore.

The rash of reclassifications into the 2026 class comes after a series of top prospects opted to reclassify during the 2025 recruiting cycle, headlined by five-star recruits Julian Lewis (Colorado) and Jahkeem Stewart (USC) and Texas A&M quarterback signee Brady Hart. Wesley told ESPN that his decision to enter college early was motivated by conversations with college coaches and his belief that he will be physically ready to compete at the next level by the time his junior season ends later this year. 

“All the colleges I talk to have shown me their recruiting boards and told me I’m at the top of their list at the position regardless of class,” Wesley said. “They’ve told me good things and they’ve told me the things I need to work on. I need to work on my violence. I’ve been grinding at that every single day.”

Wesley now joins a talented 2026 defensive end class that features 11 prospects ranked inside the top 100 in the ESPN Junior 300. 

Five-star edge rusher Zion Elee, ESPN’s No. 1 defender in the class, has been committed to Maryland since this past December and closed his recruitment last month. JaReylan McCoy, a five-star prospect who decommitted from LSU in February, and four-stars Jake Kreul (No. 19 overall) and Nolan Wilson (No. 54 overall) stand among the cycle’s top uncommitted defensive ends.

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Big 12 moves 10 games to Friday night in 2025

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March 10, 2025

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Big 12 moves 10 games to Friday night in 2025

  • Associated Press

Mar 7, 2025, 02:29 PM ET

IRVING, Texas — The Big 12 has moved six of its conference football games to Friday nights next fall, along with another matchup of league teams that won’t count in the standings.

Those were among the 10 games involving Big 12 teams selected Friday by the league’s television partners, ESPN and Fox, for Friday night broadcasts. There will be two games on three of those nights.

On the opening weekend of the season, Baylor will host SEC team Auburn and Colorado will be home against ACC team Georgia Tech on Aug. 29. Arizona plays at Arizona State and Utah is at Kansas on Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving.

There will also be two games Sept. 12, with Colorado at Houston and Kansas State at Arizona. That matchup of Wildcats won’t count in the Big 12 standings since it was part of a preexisting schedule agreement between the two teams before the league expanded to 16 teams last year.

The other four Friday night games are Tulsa at Oklahoma State (Sept. 19), TCU at Arizona State (Sept. 26), West Virginia at BYU (Oct. 3) and Houston at UCF (Nov. 7).

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