Texas, Miami re-creating glory days of decades past, trouble in the SEC and more drama in Week 2
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
We’ve been here before. It’s September, which is the time of year when we can announce, for a few days at least, that a formerly great program has risen from the ashes to reassert its dominance. In a small sample size, we see visions of better days.
Miami has been back before. It never lasts.
Texas is back nearly every September, and that hope ends quicker than the average Matthew McConaughey nude bongo solo.
For more than a decade, the “they’re back” moment has been less a proclamation than the setup to a joke, with fans all too certain the punchline will come soon enough.
But on this September Saturday, it doesn’t feel like a joke.
Texas didn’t simply beat Alabama 34-24 in Tuscaloosa. The Longhorns threw haymakers, following each Tide touchdown with their own, getting up off the mat to stare down Nick Saban like Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania. This wasn’t a fluke. Texas was the more talented team with the far better quarterback.
A year ago, Quinn Ewers starred as the frontman for Austin’s top Molly Hatchet cover band (Prolly Hatchet) but was, at best, a case in mediocrity at QB. Then he got a haircut and returned to the Horns for 2023 as a genuine star. Ewers threw for 349 yards and three touchdowns, torching the Alabama secondary — including routinely attacking All-American Kool-Aid McKinstry. Not since Hi-C released Ecto Cooler in 1989 has anyone delivered such a blow to Kool-Aid.
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 9, 2023
Just as Texas and Alabama kicked off, Miami was putting the finishing touches on its own impressive win over an SEC power. The Hurricanes spotted Texas A&M 10 points to start the game, but then turned the screws on Jimbo Fisher, with QB Tyler Van Dyke tossing five touchdown passes in a 48-33 win.
It was, at long last, proof of concept for coach Mario Cristobal’s promised revival of the Canes, a defining win against a team that, just a year ago, had utterly stifled Miami’s offense.
That the teams on the wrong end of these momentous wins both belonged to the mighty SEC was its own unlikely statement.
For Alabama, all the concerns about an offense without a clear identity and a defense that had softened in recent years were on display against the Longhorns.
For the Aggies, the loss to Miami was so decisive that Bobby Petrino likely offered to interview for Jimbo Fisher’s job on the plane ride home.
The SEC has six nonconference losses in two weeks already, including four to the ACC. (Though, if commissioner Greg Sankey just wants to expand and add North Carolina, Florida State, Miami and, um, Wake Forest, we can chalk it all up to the grind of a tough SEC schedule.) According to ESPN Stats and Information, this marks the first season since 2002 in which Alabama, LSU and Florida have an L by the end of Week 2.
What a brave new world this could be.
There are 12 weeks remaining, of course, and the story of a college football season never plays out just as we’d expect. September foreshadowing is as likely to be a red herring as it is honest data on a trend line.
Still, for this week at least, 2023 felt something more akin to the glory days of decades past.
Texas looks to be back.
Miami looks to be back.
It’s either the start of a genuinely fun season or the sign that precedes the horsemen’s arrival in the Book of Revelation.
Colorado’s instant turnaround and Nebraska’s never-ending rebuild
Sequels so rarely live up to the original, but Colorado‘s second act against Nebraska was, if anything, a more emphatic performance for coach Deion Sanders’ team.
Colorado demolished Nebraska 36-14 on Saturday, as Travis Hunter again made an impact on both sides of the ball with three catches for 73 yards and four tackles, Xavier Weaver looked like an emerging superstar with 10 catches for 170 yards, and Shedeur Sanders followed up his 500-yard passing performance against TCU with another 393 yards and three touchdowns. And while Week 1’s win over the Horned Frogs hardly showcased an elite defense, the Buffaloes held Nebraska to just 11 completions and had four takeaways.
But as with most genuinely good sequels, the real entertainment is less in what we learned of an already established hero but more in the complexity of the antagonist.
And in this case, Nebraska offered no complexity. The story of the Cornhuskers is simple: They’re bad.
Saturday’s loss was the 18th in Nebraska’s past 23 games. Jeff Sims, the quarterback coach Matt Rhule handpicked to lead the Huskers’ resurgence, was dreadful for the second straight week, turning the ball over three times. The defense, which held up well early, fell apart down the stretch.
The only thing that looked much different from past Nebraska misery on Saturday is that the game was never actually all that close.
There are still nits to pick with the Buffaloes. In their two otherwise impressive wins, they’ve allowed 12 sacks and rushed for just 1.7 yards per carry. And it’s certainly possible Colorado has yet to see a truly challenging opponent.
A year ago, however, the Buffs were an embarrassment, hardly capable of taking the field without tripping over their own shoe laces. Now, you have to squint to find any flaws in their game.
0:31
Colorado forces big interception, celebrates on turnover throne
Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig snags the interception as Colorado takes over with good field position.
The problems at Nebraska are so much bigger — bigger, perhaps, than they were even a year ago, amid embarrassing losses to Northwestern and Georgia Southern and, well, Huskers fans don’t need reminders.
Two games isn’t enough to judge a rebuild, of course. Rhule has a long history of winning college football games, and life gets at least marginally easier in the next couple of weeks.
But Sims is now 7-18 as a starting QB with 39 touchdowns and 37 turnovers. Is there a reason to think that résumé changes in the months to come?
Those Blackshirts on defense, once the soul of one of the great programs in the country, have been beaten down by one showing of offensive ineptitude after another.
And while the party in Boulder is just getting started, hope for Nebraska still feels like it’s a long ways off.
Pac-12 keeps humming
No league stays perfect forever, even if “forever” for that league is about eight more months.
So it was that the Pac-12’s undefeated start to the season came to a halt in Week 2, when Arizona fell to Mississippi State 31-24 in overtime.
And yet, Week 2 was another reminder that, in what sure seems like its last season of existence, the Pac-12 isn’t going out without some fireworks.
Oregon overcame a 27-18 deficit and picked off its former QB Tyler Shough three times, including a 45-yard pick six with 45 seconds left to seal a 38-30 win over Texas Tech.
Washington State knocked off No. 19 Wisconsin.
UCLA dominated San Diego State.
Utah escaped Baylor, Colorado was exceptional again, and the Washington Huskies are tossing touchdown passes like Oprah giving away cars.
USC‘s game ops even get credit for being way cooler than the officials. Listen, Stanford had no chance to win this game, and the people just wanted to listen to “Free Bird.”
“No foul for false start, music was playing distracting the players.” ?
That’s a new one ? pic.twitter.com/tX0p0SLAfU
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 10, 2023
Michael Penix Jr. has now thrown for 400 or more yards in four of his past six games. At Rutgers, that’s called “a good century.”
Dante Moore looks like an emerging star at UCLA, throwing for 290 yards and three touchdowns against San Diego State on Saturday.
USC is already a video game on offense. This kind of stuff is just terrifying.
TO. THE. HOUSE. ??@zachariahb03 X @uscfb pic.twitter.com/YeUB2rRl2b
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 10, 2023
Even with Saturday’s losses, the Pac-12 figures to have six teams ranked in the top 20, which gives the league a good case as the nation’s best.
And sure, Stanford looked awful and Cal lost. But that’s the ACC’s problem.
Heisman Five
We’re two weeks in and, honestly, the hardest part is deciding how many Colorado players to include among the Heisman favorites.
1. Colorado do-it-all star Travis Hunter
Hunter had three catches for 73 yards on offense, four tackles and a PBU on defense, and singlehandedly swayed the international markets to send corn futures plummeting. It was a thorough beating of Nebraska.
2. USC QB Caleb Williams
Williams threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns against Stanford. Oh, that was just in the first half. If he keeps doing this to teams he’s going to ruin his Heisman chances by never playing in the second half.
3. Florida State QB Jordan Travis
Travis had just two touchdowns against Southern Miss, but only one of them was to Keon Coleman, so the degree of difficulty was higher. Regardless, Florida State rolled 66-13.
4. Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders
Sanders has 903 passing yards and six passing TDs through two games. Last year, Colorado as a team had 2,075 passing yards and 10 passing TDs. That puts Sanders on pace to top the Buffs’ season totals from 2022 before the end of this month.
5. Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman
Hartman’s Notre Dame career so far: Three wins, 10 touchdowns, no picks, one rib necklace. Your move, Caleb Williams.
Big Ten vibe check
It was another dull week atop the Big Ten, as Michigan and Ohio State were favored by a combined 83 points. So the results were less about wins and more about vibes.
After all, just a week ago, Ohio State’s offense scuffled against Indiana and, while the Buckeyes won easily, there were some reasonable concerns. So, what did we learn in Week 2? Maybe not much more than we did in Week 1. It was an easy 35-7 win over Youngstown State, and Kyle McCord threw for three touchdowns, but really, Ohio State spent the bulk of the second half on cruise control.
The Buckeyes have scored 58 points so far, which is their fewest through two games since 2014.
Oh, they also won the national title in 2014. Ryan Day really is playing chess when the rest of us are playing Hungry, Hungry Hippos.
As for Michigan, the Wolverines topped UNLV 35-7 in their second of three games without head coach Jim Harbaugh, who spent the afternoon running the chain gang of a high school football game and then, we assume, sifting through his collection of old MAD Magazines so he could do all the fold-ins.
Jim Harbaugh spent the morning working the chains at his son’s football game. pic.twitter.com/RPqy4m4DkI
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) September 9, 2023
J.J. McCarthy tossed two touchdown passes and Michigan had 300 passing yards for the second time in its past three games — something it had done just twice in its prior 16.
Meanwhile, the Michigan defense has allowed 10 total points so far this season, and with Bowling Green and Rutgers on deck, that number might not move much anytime soon.
Historic win for Iowa
It wasn’t easy, but anything else wouldn’t have felt fitting, as Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz picked up career win No. 200 with a 20-13 victory over rival Iowa State.
During the course of Ferentz’s 200 wins, Iowa has scored upward of 600 total points on offense, including 13 on Saturday. The defense added a pick-six, which for reasons we cannot fathom still counts toward Brian Ferentz’s quest for 25 points per game — the number Iowa has to hit for the younger Ferentz to keep his job.
Cade McNamara, the QB brought in from Michigan to invigorate the passing game, threw for 123 yards and a pick. Iowa averaged nearly 4 yards per rush. It was truly a fireworks display.
The Hawkeyes nearly blew a 20-3 lead, which actually might have been a brilliant turn for its offensive coordinator. Overtime would’ve given OC Brian Ferentz a chance to pad an extra three, maybe six points to his total. Alas, it was not to be.
Instead, his quest for 300 — 25 points over 12 games — stands at 44. Since Oct. 1 of last year, Iowa has hit that magical 25-point mark just once.
Still, the Ferentz family has lots to celebrate after such a historic win, and we assume Kirk & Co. will all have a blast at Applebee’s, while Brian naps in the backseat of the car.
Under-the-radar play of the week
The race for the best big-guy touchdown of the season is already over. Colorado Mesa’s Cooper Mumford recovered a fumble on a trick play, scrambled outside, then tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass.
0:39
An O-lineman tossing a TD? That’s not something you see every day
Colorado Mesa OL Cooper Mumford picks up a loose ball behind the line of scrimmage and recovers by throwing a touchdown pass.
Under-the-radar game of the week
Once upon a time, Luke McCaffrey was a QB prospect for Nebraska. A lot has happened since then. McCaffrey ultimately transferred to the Rice Owls, lost a QB competition, and moved to wide receiver. Nebraska also gave up on playing a quarterback.
On Saturday, McCaffrey reminded the college football world that he may not have been an elite QB, but he’s a heck of a player.
McCaffrey hauled in a 34-yard touchdown pass with one hand, giving Rice a 21-0 lead.
0:26
Rice’s Luke McCaffrey makes ridiculous one-handed TD grab
Luke McCaffrey, brother of 49ers running back Christian, hauls in a jaw-dropping catch to increase Rice’s lead over Houston.
Rice appeared to have the game in hand, up 28-0 at the half, but Houston had other ideas.
The Cougars roared back, scoring the final 28 points of regulation, including two touchdowns in the last four minutes, to send the game to overtime.
The two teams traded touchdowns in each of the first two frames of OT, but while Rice connected on its 2-point try, Houston failed to, giving the win to the Owls.
McCaffrey finished the game with 99 yards and two touchdown grabs, and Rice nabbed its first win in the intra-city rivalry with Houston since 2010.
Four downs
Maryland was nearly doomed by a slow start against Charlotte, falling behind 14-0 and trailing 14-9 at the half. Could Charlotte coach Biff Poggi have caused this by, say, pulling the fire alarm in the Terps’ hotel, forcing an evacuation, then changing the AM/PM setting on all their alarm clocks? Did he possibly do this while wearing a Speedo and drinking Olde English out of a foam dome helmet? No, it’s not likely, but with Poggi, we’re ruling nothing out. Either way, Maryland came back and won 38-20.
A year ago, North Carolina and Appalachian State played in a shootout for the ages, with the Heels prevailing 63-61 after the two teams combined for 62 fourth-quarter points. Saturday’s rematch wasn’t quite as explosive, but the Heels and Mountaineers did rack up more than 1,000 total yards as UNC missed a late field goal that would’ve won the game, but held on to prevail in double OT.
Tulane was without star QB Michael Pratt for its matchup with Ole Miss. Typically when things go bad in New Orleans, we recommend having a few hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s and hoping it’ll all work out, but the Green Wave foolishly shrugged off that option and instead sent Kai Horton out for the start instead. He held his own for a half, but things fell apart after the break, with Jaxson Dart (267 yards, 2 TDs) leading Ole Miss to a 37-20 win.
Clemson got off to a miserable start against Charleston Southern, with a pick-six by Cade Klubnik putting the Tigers in an early 14-7 hole. Klubnik & Co. figured things out in the second half, however, and outscored the Buccaneers 42-0 to close out the game. Klubnik finished with 315 yards and four touchdowns, and afterward Dabo Swinney passed around to each media member a beautifully designed note card with the words “I told you so” in hand-written calligraphy.
A minor victory
In life, great success begins with a small step forward. Perhaps that will be true, too, for the NAIA’s Texas College Steers.
In Week 1 of the season, Texas College was walloped 90-0 against Texas-Permian Basin (which, in fairness, is among Texas’ finest basins).
In Week 2, a similar result seemed in the offing. At the end of the third quarter, Central Arkansas (an inherently middling Arkansas direction) led 70-0, but our beloved Steers wouldn’t go down without a fight.
After a Texas College interception, Central Arkansas started a drive pinned deep in its own territory. That’s when Steers legend Dylan DuBois delivered a play for the ages. On a handoff to the tailback, Dubois delivered a hit in the end zone for a safety.
And thanks to Dubois’ patented last-second magic, the final score was Central Arkansas 70, Texas College 2.
Did you say ‘Utes’?
No Cam Rising? No problem. Well, OK, a few problems. But Utah‘s offensive woes against Baylor on Saturday weren’t enough to keep the Utes from moving to 2-0 on the season.
Baylor led 13-3 midway through the third quarter, but coach Kyle Whittingham pulled his starting QB, Bryson Barnes, and went with freshman Nate Johnson, who engineered a late comeback. Johnson completed 6 of 7 throws for 82 yards and added another 32 yards on the ground, including a touchdown — one of two Utah scores in the game’s final two minutes.
Still, Baylor nearly stole the win.
After Jaylon Glover scored to give Utah a 20-13 lead with 17 seconds to play, Baylor connected on a 47-yard throw to Hal Presley, setting up one final heave to the end zone with one second left on the clock.
Technically, the pass fell incomplete. But that’s not how Baylor fans will remember it.
1:52
Baylor’s last-ditch drive cut short by controversial no-call
Sawyer Robertson connects with Hal Presley to set up one last chance for Baylor, but it comes up short in the end zone.
After years of enduring Pac-12 officiating, this must have felt like an early welcome into the Big 12 for the Utes. What looked like a clear defensive pass interference didn’t earn a flag, and the Utes escaped 20-13.
Irish keep ACC streak alive
Notre Dame is not going to join the ACC. Oh, sure, it’s technically a full voting member and spent a portion of this summer nudging the league to add Cal and Stanford, ostensibly for the good of college football, but make no mistake, the Irish are only here to bring the ACC down from the inside.
On Saturday, the Irish toppled NC State 45-24, with Sam Hartman — the ACC’s all-time leading passer whom the Irish swiped from Wake Forest this offseason — throwing for four touchdowns.
It was the first time in 17 games NC State has allowed more than 30 points. The last QB to do it? That’d be Sam Hartman.
Notre Dame has now won 29 straight regular-season games vs. the ACC. Syracuse, which joined the ACC full time in 2013, has just 26 total wins against the conference since then.
Indeed, since the Irish joined the ACC in all sports but football — they typically play five games per year against the conference — in 2014, they’ve racked up 42 ACC wins. Only Clemson, Pitt and Miami have more. The other 11 full-time ACC members have been left in Notre Dame’s dust.
If the ACC were the cast of “Succession,” Notre Dame is Tom Wambsgans. He was welcomed into the family, pushed for a big merger to go through, then stole all the power for himself. (Side note: Miami is definitely Cousin Greg, right?)
This is all incredibly problematic for the ACC, but it’s worth remembering that, starting next year, SMU, Stanford and Cal can also lose games to Notre Dame.
You know, for the good of the league.
Bad day in the First State
Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. constitution on Dec. 7, 1787. It’s been mostly downhill since then, save Elena Delle Donne and a few good shows at the Bottle & Cork. But Saturday might have been the state’s nadir.
The Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens visited Penn State, and it didn’t go well. The Nittany Lions won 63-7.
The Delaware State Hornets visited Army, and it didn’t go well either. The Black Knights won 57-0.
If you’re keeping track, that means the two Division I teams from Delaware lost by a combined score of 120-7.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, however. All the big name, image and likeness money in Delaware is being funneled through its famous chicken farms right to Florida State, keying that program’s return to greatness.
The #FloridaState program is being funded by a shady Delaware chicken farmer. pic.twitter.com/WHAok0ZH3n
— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) August 20, 2023
We knew once they started opening Wawa locations in Florida, it was only a matter of time before this happened.
Big bets and bad beats
Well, we think it’s safe to say Georgia has lost its edge. The Bulldogs allowed Ball State to drive down the field and boot a meaningless 27-yard field goal with 9 minutes, 5 seconds to play, making the score 45-3. That’s how it ended, which meant UGA (-42) hit the spread right on the nose.
Wake Forest opened its win over Vanderbilt with an interception that set the Deacons up with a first-and-goal at the 10. They settled for a field goal. Wake got the ball with seven seconds left in the first half and moved into field goal range, but it missed a 44-yarder. Vandy had four plays inside Wake’s 3 but turned the ball over on downs. Wake had a first-and-goal at the Vandy 2 but fumbled. None of that made much difference in the Deacons’ impressive enough 36-20 win, but all those miscues were worth noting if you bet the over, which came up a half-point shy (56.5).
Syracuse led Western Michigan 45-7 at the half, having scored on its first seven drives of the game. With 52 points already on the board, it was fair to say the game was trending pretty heavily toward hitting the over of 56. So, what happened in the second half? One stinking field goal. Syracuse punted four times (and kicked the aforementioned field goal), while Western Michigan turned the ball over on downs on both of its final two drives deep into Orange territory.
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Dodgers have added left-hander Tanner Scott, arguably the best relief pitcher on the free agent market, agreeing to terms on a four-year, $72 million contract, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Sunday.
The addition of Scott likely puts the finishing touches on another busy offseason for the reigning World Series champions.
Before Scott, the Dodgers signed Blake Snell, one of the best starters on the market; brought back Teoscar Hernandez and signed Michael Conforto, solidifying the corner outfield; signed Korean second baseman Hyeseong Kim, freeing up a trade of Gavin Lux; extended Tommy Edman; and, in one of the winter’s biggest developments, lured phenom Roki Sasaki.
Now Scott, 30, will slot into the back end of a dominant bullpen alongside Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia and Ryan Brasier, among other high-leverage arms.
Originally a sixth-round pick in 2014, Scott has established himself as a dominant force over these past two years. With the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres from 2023 to 2024, Scott posted a 2.04 ERA in 146 appearances, striking out 188 batters and issuing 60 walks in 150 innings.
With Scott, the Dodgers’ luxury tax payroll is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $375 million, about $70 million more than that of the second-place Philadelphia Phillies.
The New York Yankees are the only other team with a competitive balance tax payroll projected to be over $300 million.
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
ATLANTA — “Think traditionally, but without traditional thinking.”
Those were the words of Ross Bjork, the still-new Ohio State athletic director during the Saturday morning media day ahead of Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship game. The question was about the balanced approach taken by his football program, and also by the opponent, Notre Dame. The Buckeyes and Fighting Irish inarguably rank among the most tradition-rich teams in the 155-year history of college football. Yet, here they are, after a combined 271 seasons, the second- and fourth-winningest programs of all time, having steered their way to the final game of this season by embracing modernized approaches to the sport while honoring the history that is as much a part of their DNA as helmets and shoulder pads.
Maintaining the shine on those silver and gold helmets by piling up silver and gold in the form of NIL money.
“We want to work at these places because of what they are and what they have been and the success they’ve enjoyed,” Bjork said. “But we have also been charged with ensuring that’s what they continue to be.”
Bjork said that just as the Buckeyes were ending their media day session and the players who earned a spot in the title game, the ones who cost $20 million to assemble, according to Bjork, filed in around him and headed for the team bus. His mantra about respecting the past while moving toward the future was uttered as 45-year-old head coach Ryan Day was holding court at a podium just over his boss’s shoulder. Day’s big-game failures lit the spark needed to raise those millions to sign those players who are now in Atlanta needing only one more win to earn Ohio State’s first national title in a decade.
When the Buckeyes exited the room, their seats were filled by their counterparts at Notre Dame, whose roster includes 10 additions via transfer, once a taboo subject in South Bend, Indiana. The players opted to play in northern Indiana partly due to the just-established coffers of name, image and likeness money. Those new arrivals included the quarterback from Duke who led the Irish downfield late against Penn State in the CFP semifinals, setting up the transfer kicker from South Carolina who kicked the game-winning field goal. Now, Notre Dame football is on the cusp of its first national title since 1988, when cell phones were still carried in shoulder bags. As the Irish players took their places, coach Marcus Freeman, the human energy shot, immediately and unknowingly parroted Bjork.
“Our everyday walk is spent with one foot firmly planted in our past, but that other foot is always stepping in our future.”
Is that easy, Coach?
“No. But it’s also not a burden. It’s a privilege. Once you understand that, it’s worth it. And what makes it worth it is … well …”
With a smile, the 39-year-old coach — a former All-Big Ten Ohio State defender — swept his hand broadly, toward Mercedes-Benz Stadium across the street, toward the gold-wearing Notre Dame faithful in the nearby Playoff Fan Central craning their necks to see their Irish, and toward the cylindrical gold CFP championship trophy, sitting atop a podium in Freeman’s sightline.
“You win football games by being smart and working hard, that’s no secret,” Freeman’s quarterback, Riley Leonard, said. “But you also have to evolve. I think that in college football now, as much as it keeps changing, programs and universities have to change with it. Your choice is to either do that or get left behind.”
But evolution is also a choice. The dinosaurs didn’t have to walk into the tar pits. And college football programs — even old-timers such as Ohio State and Notre Dame — don’t have to walk into the quicksand of mediocrity, led there by the blinders of obligation to keep on keeping on the same way that Knute Rockne and Woody Hayes did.
“The greatest challenge isn’t changing the minds of the people inside the football building. They are living it. They are going to do whatever it takes,” former Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn, now a college football analyst for Fox, said in December as his alma mater began its CFP run. “It’s making the people who support the program understand what needs to be done. Making them understand that the way it always worked, the way their favorite teams were built, is not how it works now. And then explaining that their support that might have always just been rooting for the team, even buying season tickets, that support needs to be backed monetarily. That makes some people uncomfortable, but it is also the reality. And it pays off. Literally.”
Freeman’s predecessor at Notre Dame, Brian Kelly, has come under fire from those who love the Irish, and some of that is warranted. But criticism that he didn’t understand the modern business model like Freeman does isn’t entirely accurate. That model has changed dramatically since Kelly’s sudden departure for LSU three years ago. Even while he still had the job, finishing his 12 seasons only 13 wins shy of Rockne’s record 105, Kelly openly described the daily tug-of-war between pulling Notre Dame into the current times while also wrestling with the longtime program backers who resisted change, aka “the Gold Seats.”
For example, replacing the analog clock and scoreboards that had long sat atop the end zone edges of Notre Dame Stadium became a battle as Kelly hoped to add videoboards. After a years-long debate, the compromise was to add the TV screens, but keep them to a modest size, similar to the old scoreboards, and immediately prior to and after games, the displays on those screens were to be changed to digital images of the old clock and scoreboard.
“Those are the challenges that you face at a university like Notre Dame that I don’t believe you do anywhere else, and I certainly coached at a lot of other places,” said Lou Holtz, chuckling when discussing his 11 years in South Bend, winning that 1988 national championship and finishing right behind Rockne with 100 victories. “There is no question that it took cooperation from the administration, after some hard conversations about where we wanted Notre Dame football to be in the future, for me to get a player like Tony Rice [QB on the ’88 team] into school. I went to [then-president] Father Joyce and appealed to him directly. But I was told he would be admitted only if he proved himself academically for a year, to go nowhere near a football game. And guess what? Tony Rice has his degree from Notre Dame and to this day, is one the most beloved players in the history of the program. We found his place, and we did it within the framework of what one might call the Notre Dame Way.”
It was with that same mentality that Freeman went about selling the idea of bringing in transfers — a practice rarely entertained by a school understandably proud of its academic reputation — as something that could still fit into the parameters of the Notre Dame Way. The 2024 roster additions were carefully selected. They were established stars but also largely graduate transfers already with college degrees. Two players were required to wait until summer to enroll after their degrees were completed, and in the meantime, were relegated to spring practice observers.
Leonard is an undergrad, but no one questions Duke’s academic credentials. He is also a Notre Dame legacy, the great-grandson of James Curran, a 1940 Irish graduate who played football under head coach Elmer Layden, one of the fabled Four Horsemen.
“The transfer portal has really helped us because it’s allowed us to address specific needs, but it’s also helped us distinguish ourselves as a program in the sense that our kids are still picking Notre Dame for a host of reasons, not just NIL,” said Jack Swarbrick, who served as Notre Dame’s AD from 2008 to 2024 and made the decision to promote Freeman after Kelly’s departure. “No one would come to Notre Dame just for NIL. It’s too hard. If all you worried about is the compensation, you’ll go get it somewhere else. … So, for all the schools that are just recruiting with an emphasis on compensation, we’re now even more distinct than we used to be, and I think that’s helped.
“We have to be very careful in the transfer portal. It’s why nine out of 10 are grad students. It’s just really hard to get undergraduate transfers into Notre Dame.”
As Freeman bolstered his roster in the most gold-helmeted fashion, many who had worn those helmets paved the NIL road. That effort was anchored by a collective kick-started by Quinn, with a stated mission of proving to those Gold Seats who feared the future that their shared alma mater could keep up with the times and still do it on their terms. Friends of the University of Notre Dame — FUND — paid athletes for charity work. Now that the NIL structure has changed again, FUND has been closed, handing over the reins to for-profit collective Rally, designed to better handle the next imminent sea change — revenue sharing.
“It is very important to all of us to do everything we can to honor the hard work and investment that so many people are putting in us, especially the former players,” said sophomore defensive back Christian Grey, who hauled in an interception that set up that final CFP semifinal-winning drive for Leonard & Co. “To me, that’s also learning the history of Notre Dame football. My high school English teacher [in St. Louis] was a Notre Dame grad and he taught me that as soon as I committed. He gave me a Four Horseman poster and it’s been on my wall ever since. It reminds me of what we are playing for. Past and present.”
Meanwhile, it was Ryan Day who spurred the NIL and roster revolution in Columbus. Bjork took over as Ohio State AD one year ago, mere days after Buckeyes archenemy Michigan had won its first national championship in 26 years — this after beating OSU for the third straight season. Bjork hadn’t even unpacked his office when Day approached him with a detailed plan on how to catch up to Michigan. Together, they drummed up financial support, having to point only to the Wolverines’ title run as the reason to start cutting checks. Among those listening were former players.
“We had started a collective, the Foundation, in 2023 because we saw what was happening at places like Texas, Alabama, Michigan, you name it, and we knew our school was falling behind,” said Cardale Jones, quarterback on Ohio State’s 2014 team that won the inaugural CFP title. “Sadly, we didn’t get a lot of support from the school itself. But once that commitment started coming from the inside, you see what happened.”
What happened was that $20 million shopping spree that led to a stunning influx and retention of talent, the most impressive offseason this side of the Philadelphia Eagles. And just when it appeared that de facto Avengers assemblage might not pay off — see: two regular-season losses, including a fourth straight to Michigan — the team that entered the newly expanded 12-team CFP as an at-large invitee has been a Buckeye Buzzsaw. A return on investment.
So is there a long-term place in a universe of perpetual college football change for stuff like gold helmets and Buckeye helmet stickers? The House that Knute Rockne Built and the Horseshoe? “Wake Up the Echoes” and the script Ohio? Stories of Paul Hornung and Hopalong Cassady, or George Gipp and Archie Griffin? Is this fast-forward sport of checks and cascading spreadsheets a place where lighting candles in the Grotto and chanting “O-H! I-O!” is anything other than outdated?
Day and Freeman not only believe all of that can coexist within the framework of the modern college football world, but the two head coaches who will shake hands at midfield Monday night — one a champion — believe that all of the above is the key to survival. The grounding rod. The only way to properly digest — or enjoy — what this world has become.
It’s why Freeman reinstated the lost tradition of Notre Dame football players attending Mass as part of their pregame routine; he has converted to Catholicism. It’s why Day got misty-eyed Saturday morning when asked about Ohio State’s Friday night golf course dinners, with the homemade pecan rolls that became a staple of the Woody Hayes experience, and leading his team into pregame Skull Session pep rallies.
“We are in this to win games and championships, but also to do right by our players and by those who have spent their lives dedicated to the idea of Notre Dame football,” Freeman said. “You lose sight of any part of that, and you’ve lost sight of what this all means.”
Added Day: “As long as they have been playing college football, the greatest programs have stayed great by adapting to the times they are in. You evolve your defense. You evolve your offense. So you also have to evolve how you run your program. But you can’t run away from who you are. You cannot let that happen. Ever. That’s when you lose a lot more than some football games.”
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