Pats, WashComs fill key gaps … Both Washington and New England, which have the 2nd and 3rd picks at the 2024 draft respectively made key hires today. New England named former Patriots LB Jerod Mayo as the team’s new head coach replacing Bill Belichek. Mayo had been the Patriots’ ILB coach the past 5 years, but in effect… Read More »
To QB or not to QB: Bears mum; Falcons not so much … It is always interesting at this time of year to see if the GMs of team’s with early draft picks give away any hints as to what their team might be thinking about in their end-of-season pressers. Of course, the general rule is that that… Read More »
Clock ticking on remaining undeclared underclassmen … There is now less than a week until the deadline for underclassmen to file paperwork with the NFL if the want to be eligible for this year’s draft. The applications must be in the league office by 4 PM ET on January 15th. In fact, most prominent 3rd year players have… Read More »
Huskies to battle Wolverines for national CFP title … The final national championship game of the 4-team playoff era goes Monday evening in Houston with a little bit of a different flavor as for the first time in 8 years there won’t be a team from the SEC. Instead it’ll be the Big Ten versus the soon-to-be Big… Read More »
Home cooking to help settle early draft order … With just weekend’s to go in the NFL regular schedule, the #1 pick at the 2024 draft has already been settled – Chicago will have the first pick with Carolina’s #1 selection – the rest of the top 10 is still to be decided. And as luck would have… Read More »
FCS title game Sunday … While needless to say THE big game in college football is Monday night’s CFP championship game between Michigan and Washington; however, its not the only college football title game this weekend as the defending champion and top-ranked South Dakota State Jackrabbits (14-0) take on the Montana Grizzlies (13-1) for the FCS championship at… Read More »
College wire update … Just a couple or three notes on draft-related player moves that we need to catch up on. BYU OT Kingsley Saumataia, a solid second-day prospect for the upcoming draft, did in fact declare last month. On the other hand, a couple of 3rd year receivers will be back at school next fall; USC’s Dorian… Read More »
Pair of DBs to stick with school; QB Ewers leaning to return … A couple of solid second-tier defensive backs have indicated that they will will be returning to school in 2024. Florida CB Jason Marshall, for example, announced on social media that he plans to return to school for the 2024 season, while Notre Dame S Xavier… Read More »
If its January … And all the bowls – but one – are done, a young football player’s fancy naturally turns to the post-season all-star games. In fact, the Senior Bowl, the gold standard for the star games will be played one month today in Mobile as we speak. And while the Senior Bowl roster is still far… Read More »
Will they or won’t they?? … With Chicago having finally clinched the #1 pick at the 2024 draft last weekend the chorus of questions whether the Bears should select a QB or not has reached literally crescendo level here and here and here and here and here and here. The question for the Bears, of course, is whether… Read More »
#1 MICHIGAN versus #4 ALABAMA; 5 PM ET; ESPN: It really doesn’t get much better than this in college football with two of the games longtime powerhouses going at in the Rose Bowl for the right to play in next week’s national championship. Of course, Alabama has been a regular in the national title game in recent years,… Read More »
#2 WASHINGTON versus #3 TEXAS; 8:45 PM ET; ESPN: A most interesting match-up in the day’s second semi-final between two teams that come into the Sugar Bowl thinking they had something to prove as neither were ever considered virtual locks to make it this far. And very much like the story line in the Rose Bowl where Michigan’s… Read More »
Selection order updated … With just on week to go in the 2023 NFL regular season, the first-round selection order for next April’s draft has been updated.
Crunch time for draft order … Chicago can clinch the #1 pick at the 2024 draft Sunday afternoon if Carolina loses in Jacksonville. The Panthers could still technically tie Arizona with 3 wins if they were to lose to the Jags while the Cardinals lose both their remaining games, but Arizona still has a much stronger SOS figure… Read More »
Couple of biggish bowls on tap … The preliminaries are almost done in the lead-up to Monday’s national semi-finals. However, there are a couple more of note on Saturday with Georgia facing Florida State in the Orange Bowl and Penn State meeting Mississippi in the Peach. And while there are a number of opt outs in those two… Read More »
They could just as easily refer to Saturday’s Peach Bowl match-up between Penn State and Mississippi (Noon ET; ESPN) as the ‘Poor Cousins Bowl!’ Penn State, of course, has played third fiddle to Michigan and Ohio State in the BIG10 for what seems like forever, at least in Happy Valley, while Ole Miss has had some pretty good… Read More »
Orange Bowl notes … This year’s Orange Bowl (4 PM ET; December 30th; ESPN) could really be called the ‘Consolation’ Bowl, although its likely hardly any consolation at all to either Georgia or Florida State, both of which figured they were pretty close to locks to make the actual 4-team CFP playoff heading into their respective championship games.… Read More »
Buckeyes-Missou in Cotton classic … Friday’s Cotton Bowl (8 PM ET; ESPN) between Ohio State and Missouri could just as well be called the ‘will he or won’t he’ bowl with the HE played by Buckeyes’ star WR Marvin Harrison (#18, 6-4, 205), the consensus best non-QB prospect in the entire draft class who isn’t likely to make… Read More »
Irish versus Beavers in cereal bowl … There was a time when Notre Dame disdained playing in any bowl; later they at least disdained playing in anything but a big New Year’s game. Friday, they’ll play Oregon State in a bowl named after the mascot for a kid’s breakfast cereal. Time’s have changed! For the record its actually… Read More »
Another day; another set of bowls … There will be four more bowl games on Thursday including the Fenway Bowl with Boston College essentially hosting SMU (11 AM ET; ESPN); the Pinstripe Bowl with Rutgers essentially hosting Miami (2:15 PM ET; ESPN); the Pop-Tarts (really!!) Bowl between North Carolina State and Kansas State (5:45 PM ET; ESPN); and… Read More »
Selection order updated … With another week down and just two to go in the regular season, the first-round selection order for next April’s draft has been updated.
Giants up to 5th spot; rest of top ten set … With their loss in Philadelphia in this afternoon’s late game, the Giants will move up to the 5th spot in this week’s selection order for the 2024 draft. They’ll be followed by the LA Chargers, Tennessee, Chicago, the NY Jets and Atlanta who round out the top ten.… Read More »
Bears inch closer to top pick as Panthers lose tough one … Carolina threw something of a scare into Chicago when the Panthers rallied from two TDs down to tie Green Bay late in the 4th quarter, but the Packers were able to secure the win with a last minute FG to drop Carolina to 2-13, still the… Read More »
Bowl build-up continues Saturday … Each day that passes gets us that much closer to the CFP semi-finals, the only bowls that really matter, on New Year’s Day. However, for those that just can’t wait the bowl build-up continues on Saturday with another half dozen games plus and while there won’t be a lot of top draft prospects… Read More »
Would the real ‘Year of the QB’ please stand up! … Back at the beginning of the current season the word around the NFL was that any team looking for an upgrade at QB probably didn’t want to delay as the 2024 class at the position looked to be potentially one of the best ever while pickings in… Read More »
