2025 College Football Thread

[Billy Hoyle]

I started reading this a couple minutes after my post, and I was like: "Wait, players have massive buyouts now?"

Then I saw Bucky and Fickel ...

sooner or later, they will.

[RJax55]

Pat Fitzgerald settled his lawsuit against Northwestern today and is eager to get back on the sidelines.

The settlement acknowledged that hazing took place, but Pat did not know about it. His camp seems to be spinning that fact as some sort of vindication. Not sure about that. Brings up a lot of questions about Pat's oversight of the program, the culture he established and the coaches he hired.

Will be interesting to see what jobs he is linked to as the carousel gets going this fall.

[Uncle Rico]

Pat Fitzgerald settled his lawsuit against Northwestern today and is eager to get back on the sidelines.

The settlement acknowledged that hazing took place, but Pat did not know about it. His camp seems to be spinning that fact as some sort of vindication. Not sure about that. Brings up a lot of questions about Pat's oversight of the program, the culture he established and the coaches he hired.

Will be interesting to see what jobs he is linked to as the carousel gets going this fall.

Head coaches like him are notoriously hands off

[MU82]

There are only three choices:

++ He knew exactly what was going on and endorsed/encouraged it.

++ He knew exactly what was going on but turned a blind eye to it.

++ He didn't know what was going on in his program right under his nose even though college coaches are famously OCD.

Either of the first two should be automatic disqualifiers for any future employment as a head coach. The third should be, too, but I could see administrators at another school talking themselves into it being something they could spin.

[Uncle Rico]

Stanford loses to HawaiiS. That trip back to the Atlantic Coast will be that much longer.

No WIAC action yesterday.  Teams return next week to help Marquette's cause

[Pakuni]

Stanford loses to HawaiiS. That trip back to the Atlantic Coast will be that much longer.

No WIAC action yesterday.  Teams return next week to help Marquette's cause

Andrew Luck hiring his pal with zero college experience to coach that team may not turn out to be a good decision.

[The Sultan]

He is only interim. We will see how this goes.

[JWags85]

He is only interim. We will see how this goes.

Yea, getting a guy with a solid pedigree (pre-Carolina disaster) on short notice after the coaching carousel and after athletic department scandal after 2 terrible seasons isn't the worst outcome.  They were likely gonna stink regardless.

Speaking of stinking, its nice that the kickoff game in Ireland is becoming an annual tradition of lame matchup that nobody would watch if it was the standard 11AM kickoff on a normal Saturday, but people do cause its the first game of the year.  And it lived up to it.  It ended up being a wild and mildly entertaining 4th quarter after 3 quarters of absolutely wretched football and Kleiman calling a game like he was drunk and playing Madden with his friends.

[MU82]

I liked the K-State coach going for it on 4th down to clinch the victory instead of attempting a FG that would have only put them up by 6 with 2+ minutes on the clock. You trust your guys, including a veteran QB, to get the 4 yards you need to end it. Nice.

[MU82]

Stanford loses to Hawaii

The Japanese kicker who made the game-winning FG for Hawaii, Kansei Matsuzawa, taught himself how to kick by watching YouTube.

[WhiteTrash]

Your next MU head coach..... ChatGPT!

[Pakuni]

He is only interim. We will see how this goes.

Hiring an interim in March also was dumb.
I get that they were unlikely to pull a quality HC from another program at that point, but landing a top coordinator - which they may end up with anyhow - was doable. Plenty of coordinators would leave in late March/early April for a head coaching gig.
Instead, they're not only punting on a season, but also on another recruiting cycle, which is going to make the job even less attractive.
And if Luck didn't already have a list of candidates at his fingertips - and possibly contacted agents through backchannels - when he fired Taylor, then that's another mistake.

[The Sultan]

Hiring an interim in March also was dumb.
I get that they were unlikely to pull a quality HC from another program at that point, but landing a top coordinator - which they may end up with anyhow - was doable. Plenty of coordinators would leave in late March/early April for a head coaching gig.
Instead, they're not only punting on a season, but also on another recruiting cycle, which is going to make the job even less attractive.
And if Luck didn't already have a list of candidates at his fingertips - and possibly contacted agents through backchannels - when he fired Taylor, then that's another mistake.

I disagree. Wait until you get a deeper pool instead of settling for a smaller one. And with the transfer market, you are going to lose your players anyway, but you also have the ability to build quickly.

[MU82]

What college football player in recent years has gone into a season facing more pressure than Arch Manning?

He's the Heisman favorite despite having played very little against legit opponents in 2 years, he plays for the #1 team, he's a Manning, he's in a storied program with a demanding fan base, he makes a gazillion bucks in NIL. And it seems like he's been The Anointed One for a decade already!

[JWags85]

What college football player in recent years has gone into a season facing more pressure than Arch Manning?

He's the Heisman favorite despite having played very little against legit opponents in 2 years, he plays for the #1 team, he's a Manning, he's in a storied program with a demanding fan base, he makes a gazillion bucks in NIL. And it seems like he's been The Anointed One for a decade already!

Sure, but at the same time, I don't know if anyone has ever been more prepared and in a better position to handle that burden than him.

He's been brought along slowly and has basically shed the #1 recruit label pressure.  He's got a QB whisperer as a HC.  He's been fantastic and poised when he has played.  And he has a Natty contending team around him so he doesn't need to be superhuman to make up for deficiencies.

And to round it off, he has 2 uncles who were Heisman finalists, #1 picks, and SEC legends to advise and guide him, plus a dad who handle his recruitment and assorted chaos around him to perfection.

Is he gonna have an insane year and look like the Heisman favorite wire to wire?  Maybe not.  But I'd honestly be more surprised if he has a disappointing or underachieving year, I think his floor is super high for this year.  Saturday is a hell of a setting to kick off a campaign

[swoopem]

What college football player in recent years has gone into a season facing more pressure than Arch Manning?

He's the Heisman favorite despite having played very little against legit opponents in 2 years, he plays for the #1 team, he's a Manning, he's in a storied program with a demanding fan base, he makes a gazillion bucks in NIL. And it seems like he's been The Anointed One for a decade already!

Tebow's senior year? Although that was 15 years ago

[JWags85]

Tebow's senior year? Although that was 15 years ago

Not even close, IMO.  Tebow didn't even win the Heisman as a Junior.  He obviously was still a huge name and UF was still a title favorite, but McCoy and Bradford were entering that season with as much buzz and hype as he was.

[swoopem]

Didn't Tebow win the Heisman as a sophomore and then the natty as a junior (and freshman)? There was tons of hype for his senior year

[RJax55]

Didn't Tebow win the Heisman as a sophomore and then the natty as a junior (and freshman)? There was tons of hype for his senior year

Yes. And the Gators were ranked #1 to start the season.

[JWags85]

Didn't Tebow win the Heisman as a sophomore and then the natty as a junior (and freshman)? There was tons of hype for his senior year

Yea, but I think there was a ton of hype for the Gators as a team and what he would do in his senior season for his legacy.

He was neck and neck with Colt McCoy going into the year.  Not that there wasn't buzz and hype for his senior year, but not the singular "he's the man" that Manning is seemingly getting.

[WhiteTrash]

I remember before Manning's HS senior year many scouts said they had never seen a better prospect ever. By the end of that year some had moved him out of the #1 spot to lower in the top ten. Still an amazing, high caliber recruit that any school would kill to have, but it appeared the family name created a bit more accolades than his actual play commanded.

Maybe the same situation is playing out now at Texas. Some may be disappointed if he turns out to be a top 3 college QB and a top 10 NFL pick.

[wadesworld]

How much hype was there surrounding Trevor Lawrence going into his sophomore year?  He was the #1 recruit overall in the country, was 53-3 in high school including wining the last 41 games of his career there, and then won the national title his freshman year going 15-0 while throwing for 3,280 yards, 30 TDs, and 4 INTs.

[cheebs09]

How about Jimmy Clausen? I remember the hype when he was growing up.

[The Sultan]

How about Jimmy Clausen? I remember the hype when he was growing up.

Yeah, and I remember people saying after they saw him at practice that his arm strength was questionable.

He was the highest rated ND recruit since Ron Powlus, who Beano Cook said was going to win the Heisman "at least twice" at Notre Dame and be the best quarterback in their history.

[MU82]

Even if Tebow or Clausen is the answer to my question (and I don't really think either is), that was 15 years ago.

Lawrence accomplished all of the things as a freshman that wades documented. Had he not followed up with a great season, I think he would have mostly received a pass (as long as it wasn't awful) - "He won us a title last year, that was an impossible act to follow, etc." Maybe he would have then faced more pressure as a junior?

Manning has accomplished precisely bupkis ... except for being a Manning. The amount of pressure he's facing is incredible, maybe even unprecedented. In this age of social-media douchebaggery and podcast screamers, I sure hope he is mentally strong.

Of non-QBs, Herschel Walker is the most-hyped player I can remember. He was hyped as much as any high schooler could have been back in the pre-interwebs days, and he then had an amazing freshman year that he was expected to replicate, and he then had an awesome sophomore year that he again was expected to replicate.