The Oregon Ducks improved to 10-1 overall and 7-1 against Big Ten Conference opponents on Saturday night as they handed the USC Trojans a 42-27 defeat.
With the win, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning endorsed his team for the College Football Playoff. The Ducks were ranked No. 7 in the latest reveal, moving one spot up from the previous week. Oregon would have been pitted against No. 10 Alabama, according to the latest release.
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, center, calls instructions during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Southern California, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Eugene, Oregon.(AP Photo/Lydia Ely)
It would mean that the Big Ten gets three teams in the College Football Playoff.
“I think proof’s in the pudding,” Lanning told reporters, via ESPN. “We can beat you in multiple ways, right? We can outscore you at times, right? We can hold you to the 18-, 16-(point) type of game, win in tough environments, any weather, put the ball down, let’s go play football. That’s the kind of team that we have.”
Lanning also pointed to the difficulty of the team’s schedule, contrasting it with some of the SEC schools. Oregon will take on the Washington Huskies to finish the year.
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning greets fans before an NCAA college football game against Southern California, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Eugene, Oregon.(AP Photo/Lydia Ely)
Ducks quarterback Dante Moore was 22-of-30 with 257 passing yards, two touchdown passes and an interception in the win. Oregon had a 28-14 lead over USC at halftime.
“At the end of the day, I kind of just kept telling the team it was going to be an emotional game, because it was senior night, but also you can’t let emotions take over because with the emotions come negativity. So it’s been a lot within this game,” Moore said. “But I feel like we pushed out ourselves Monday through Friday to get the result we wanted.”
USC head coach Lincoln Riley lamented the team’s struggles as their College Football Playoff hopes were seemingly dashed.
Oregon quarterback Dante Moore (5) looks for an opening in the Southern California defense during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Eugene, Oregon.(AP Photo/Lydia Ely)
“We’re disappointed, didn’t play our best. We had some penalties that we haven’t been having that showed up and definitely hurt us,” Riley said. “We were gutsy, made a lot of plays, but in the end we were just a couple of plays short.”
BATH TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Carrie Brown was an exasperated middle-school teacher who had a famous student she knew she could count on.
In the fall of 2017, Brown was teaching social studies at Old Trail School, a small, private institution of about 500 children from ages 2 through the eighth grade on a sprawling 62 acres inside Cuyahoga Valley National Park, a few miles northeast of Akron, Ohio.
Each day at recess, as Brown looked out onto the outdoor basketball court at the bottom of an old amphitheater, she watched her sixth-grade students bicker intensely over who should have the ball or take all the shots.
She knew Bronny James was the opposite of that when he was her student the year before, so she asked the seventh grader for help.
“I pulled him aside and said, ‘Hey, would you mind giving up a recess and talking to my sixth graders?’ But I didn’t tell him what to say,” Brown said during a recent tour of the school and visit with several of Bronny’s former teachers and coaches, in which Brown allowed The Athletic into her classroom where she once taught Bronny.
The hallways inside the Old Trail campus building where most classes are taught are long and narrow. The walls are white and the lockers red; there are hooks on both sides for younger students to hang their coats and backpacks.
Brown said she wasn’t surprised when Bronny, 13 at the time, agreed to forgo his recess, stroll down the long hallway past the lockers and the hooks and into Room 616 where she taught him world history to deliver his message.
But she was stunned by the poignancy and clarity of what he said.
“It was like I paid him,” she said. “He said perfectly that, ‘If you ever want to play competitively, like for real, they’re not going to take you unless you’re a team player. You could be the best of the best. But if you don’t know how to work with other people, then they don’t want you on their team.’
“Coming from him, it meant so much, because he could speak to it.”
If all you know about Bronny James, 20, the eldest son of the world-renowned basketball megastar and billionaire LeBron James, is that Bronny is young, rich and famous, that he plays on the Los Angeles Lakers because his dad, who is the all-time leading scorer in NBA history and also a Laker, wanted it to be so, then the way the people of Old Trail remember him might surprise you.
Old Trail School is just minutes from Bronny’s family mansion in Bath Township and about 25 miles from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, where LeBron, Bronny and the Lakers will play the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
LeBron, or Dad, whichever you prefer here, built the house and moved into it early in his career with the Cavs. For a time, Savannah James, LeBron’s wife and Bronny’s mother, sat on the board at Old Trail.
Bronny went there for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and part of first grade before moving to Miami when his dad joined the Heat for the 2010-11 NBA season. When the family returned to Cleveland in 2014, Bronny, his younger brother Bryce and their baby sister Zhuri were all enrolled there. Bronny was back at Old Trail from fourth through seventh grade, before the family relocated to Los Angeles.
Bronny, his former teachers said, would occasionally miss a homework assignment. They learned to chalk that up to the time demands of a hectic life he led as the son of arguably the greatest NBA player ever, whose legend is even larger in the Cleveland and Akron areas.
To this day, though, Brown keeps in her desk a sample of Bronny’s creative writing and a picture he drew as part of a lesson on Greek mythology. “Bronny, this is excellent! I’m proud of you!” Brown wrote on his paper – a piece of historical fiction imagining how the children of Zeus plotted against one another to create the Olympics.
The accompanying art Bronny turned in as part of the assignment is neatly drawn and animated so that there are no crayon marks outside the contours of what he drew: a Black Trojan warrior with a red cape and galea on top of his battle helmet.
It’s almost eerie; six years after Bronny drew the picture he wound up playing basketball for the USC Trojans in his lone college season. But that’s not why Brown keeps it and shows it to her class each year.
She shares it as an example of good work from a child who could have ignored school and the people he met because of the fame and fortune he was born into, but didn’t.
“He’s a great kid — I miss him a lot,” Brown said.
Sarah Johnston was, and still is, head of school at Old Trail (like a principal). She has countless memories of Bronny, including the time she pulled him and his classmates out of a study hall, as she did from time to time, for a sojourn down to the school gym with the rubbery green floor for basketball.
Johnston still has the video on her phone. Bronny, a sixth grader, gets a jogging start from half court and dribbles toward a springboard which catapulted him into the air. Johnston, on both knees for the stunt, shrieked as Bronny skied over her for a dunk.
But she also remembers a class trip to one of the dozens of small parks on campus (Old Trail is the only school in the U.S. in a national park) when Bronny and his classmates were situated in a circle for some bonding exercises.
“You stepped into the circle if that’s something you relate to, you step out if it’s not, and I remember the teacher was like, ‘Who doesn’t have a cell phone?’ And everyone was like ‘Bronny,’” Johnston said in her office at Old Trail, a big smile across her face.
“He was like the last one to get a cell phone,” she continued. “I think LeBron and Savannah made really clear decisions about their kids having a lot of access to a lot of things, and they didn’t need that. … But the kids always had nice shoes though.”
Here are more stories of Bronny from the people who knew him at Old Trail.
They saw Bronny’s humility, grace and kindness while managing his celebrity.
Johnston: I ultimately think the lasting impression I had from this short period of time that I was with Bronny was that he was a natural leader. He was there not to show off his talents in ways that would make anyone else feel badly about themselves. He was there to pump people up and bring out the best in them. He wasn’t above anyone else.
Tim Weber, Bronny’s basketball and lacrosse coach at Old Trail: I remember being truly flabbergasted that a kid with the amount of attention he was getting was able to keep track of who had scored and who had not scored on our team and made sure that they got opportunities to do so. He did everything possible when he was in there to give everybody a shot and hopefully a bucket.
Johnston: I remember sitting in class one time with Bronny, and it was like a coding class. But there was this little kid next to him who was, I mean, very young and very tiny little guy or whatever, and they’re laughing and playing this coding thing together, doing their thing. I mean, he was certainly not someone who would elevate himself above anyone else.
Ronald Teunissen van Manen, Bronny’s former gym teacher, athletic director and soccer coach: When he was in sixth grade, we won the league championship in triple overtime thanks to Bronny. It was a Sunday morning, and it was an unbelievable game. But I remember that after the game was over, the opposing team came to Savannah and asked, ‘Can I get Bronny’s signature or can I get a picture?’ And I remember her saying, ‘You know what? You got to ask him.’ And they asked him, and that’s sort of from where I witnessed the first time that he had to deal with that end of things.
Brown: We were doing a cyberbullying curriculum, and we were talking about what social media (is) and things that you don’t share and information you don’t share. And he’s like, ‘Well, what if you have like four Instagram accounts that you didn’t start?’ And I was like ‘Oh, I have things I’ve never heard before.’ But that was his world, right?
Will Harding, Bronny’s teammate in basketball and soccer, who was one year ahead of him: Bronny showed maturity. He didn’t try and be the superstar. He knew how to share the ball. He knew he had other good teammates around him.
They saw the James family engage the school.
Johnston: The first time I met them, we have this back-to-school get together at the beginning of the year, and everyone comes in and you can get your books and your room and everything. They all came in kind of as a family. LeBron wasn’t there, but Savannah was, and I think her sister was with her. And Bronny came in carrying Zhuri, and they were all together and like, I just always remember them being such a unit, you know what I mean? I remember one time Bryce got hurt, like a playground or something. I remember he split his head open, and I was with him in the nurse’s office and he had glasses, so I think he hit his head and the glasses broke the skin. And we went and got Bronny, and Bronny came and sat with him, held his hand. That tightness, I think (Savannah) really drove a lot of that too.
Harding: LeBron was a really cool, good dad. He showed up to the school events we had. I remember one time you had to dress up as a book character and give a report on a book you read, and it was kind of a big thing. LeBron was at the school walking around just like a normal dad. He’d come to games like a normal dad. If you didn’t know basketball or if you were an alien or something and somehow didn’t know who he was, you would just think he was any other dad because he would be at our games, he’d be cheering everyone on, yelling at Bronny, yelling at Bronny’s friends and all of our teammates if they made a good play or if they did something funny.
Brown: I never met LeBron. I only saw him. I was doing crosswalk duty with my little stop sign. And I see this man coming in like, ‘Oh, he’s very tall.’ I did talk to Savannah quite a bit, like about work and that kind of stuff.
Johnston: I loved Savannah’s dad. He was at everything.
They saw Bronny play soccer, lacrosse and of course basketball. But also, the violin?
Harding: He was in the orchestra. I know that because I was in the orchestra. I think he played the violin. So it was just like another thing where he’s like, he’s just one of us.
Teunissen van Manen: I don’t think he had a huge amount of exposure to soccer prior to being on that team, but he just intuitively understood the game and he had the athleticism to back it up. He was a center forward; he was quite good. He was so fast, and especially in his first couple of steps, if somebody would send him the ball, at that point, he had already beaten his defender and all he had to do was touch it three more times and it would go in the goal. I don’t know what the number of goals were that season, but it was significant.
Weber: Bronny definitely took to lacrosse easily. And coaching lacrosse is very similar to coaching basketball, so I worked with him on a couple of fundamental moves. He was able to master them pretty much in a few practices, and that would get him in front of the goal. But, you know, his engine never stopped. He’d be getting ground balls off the field. He’d be chasing guys down from behind.
Harding: I know now the Lakers really like him for his defensive instincts. And I definitely could see that. He would go take out the other team’s best player when we were teammates. He would argue with some of our other better defenders saying, ‘No, no, no, I want to get on him. Let me guard him.’
Bronny James, left, poses for a photo with his Old Trail School basketball teammates. (Photo courtesy of Will Harding)
Weber: Bronny made it easy to coach him in basketball. When we played lesser competition, I certainly was not going to hold him out because that would have denied the opportunity for the kids that we were playing against, to go back to their friends and family and say, ‘Man, I played against Bronny James today.’ And even when Bronny was 10, 11 or 12 years old, I don’t need to tell you that (playing against him) was a big deal. He understood. I would certainly start him in the games, and then when it got lopsided pretty quickly, which it often did, depending who we were playing, I’d sit him in the second quarter, the entire quarter, and, you know, people would say, ‘My God, LeBron was at the game. How can you sit Bronny?’ I’m like, ‘Well, LeBron James knows that when you’re up 24 after one quarter, the game’s probably not in jeopardy.’
Teunissen van Manen: When Bronny was in seventh grade, the buzz in (the basketball gym) was pretty amazing. In that year, Bronny’s year, we had him and a couple of other very good players, and the place was packed. If we had charged a fee, we would have made a fortune.
Harding: It was me, three other eighth graders and then Bronny, and all of us ended up playing a Division I sport; Bronny was the only one that ended up playing basketball. I don’t think we lost a game.
Weber: He may have been a better free-throw shooter in fifth and sixth grade than his dad was at the time. He had great mechanics, wonderful follow through. Elbow in. Even back then he took pride in playing defense. But if somebody fell down, he would help the kid up, whether it was our team or somebody else’s team. He was just a real joy to work with.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Jesse D. Garrabrant, David Liam Kyle / NBAE via Getty Images; Ethan Miller, Cassy Athena / Getty Images)
Lincoln Riley is the fourth-highest-paid coach in college football, according to USA Today’s database. It’s a pretty safe bet to assume USC is in the top 10 — and probably closer to the top five — in assistant coach salaries.
Theoretically, the return for that sort of pay should be top-10 results. It’s Year 3 of Riley’s tenure. His roster. His staff. His program. His vision. This probably sounds like a broken record, but Riley is simply not delivering on the investment USC made in him.
That much has been clear for a few weeks, but it should be crystalized for everyone now after the Trojans suffered a catastrophic 29-28 loss to Maryland on Saturday night.
USC (3-4, 1-4 Big Ten) is good enough to have been in every game. The Trojans have led in the fourth quarter in each of their losses. All of those games have been winnable.
But USC keeps faltering again and again. This time, with two minutes left, Maryland blocked Michael Lantz’s 41-yard field goal attempt. The Trojans didn’t block correctly up front and instead of leading 31-22 in the game’s final stages, USC was forced to send its defense back on the field. Less than a minute later, Maryland scored the go-ahead touchdown. The offense made it across midfield but couldn’t march into field goal range.
Afterward, Riley was asked why USC has struggled to close out games.
“I don’t know,” he said.
It doesn’t really matter what Riley says. What matters is that he finds solutions to whatever his team is failing to accomplish on the field. To this point, he hasn’t done that.
And there lies the problem. Week after week, it’s USC’s defense failing to come up with a fourth-down stop when it absolutely has to. It’s the offense faltering in a critical moment when it has an opportunity to salt the game away. It’s the special teams making a massive mistake at a crucial juncture.
This team just finds ways to lose games.
“We’ve been a good enough team to have a chance to win every game but we haven’t been quite good enough to separate,” Riley told reporters after the loss, “and when you put yourself in these moments you are going to have to make some plays to beat somebody. Especially on the road. You’re going to have to make that field goal or make that fourth-down tackle or make that catch or throw or block or whatever it is because it’s not going to be handed to you.”
I know what the recruiting rankings suggest. I know where USC is ranked in the 247Sports Team Talent Composite. And I know the Trojans have more talent than Minnesota and Maryland. But I also know USC is not talented enough to separate from its opponents. Not where it matters — in the trenches — and not in the way Riley described above. And even if this team is more talented than the Golden Gophers or Terrapins, it’s not by a decisive enough margin that it can make sloppy mistakes and get away with it.
Riley’s had three years to build this roster. It’s on him if the Trojans aren’t talented enough right now. The talk about how he can’t wave a magic wand should probably stop. There are not a lot of reasons to believe USC will be dramatically more talented in Year 4. The Trojans’ 2025 recruiting class is ranked in the top 10 nationally, but counting on true freshmen is a fool’s errand.
Keep in mind next year’s schedule features road games at Notre Dame and Oregon and a home game with Michigan.
If USC does manage to upgrade its roster in a significant way, it’ll still have to address its attention-to-detail problem. It’s been lacking throughout Riley’s tenure. Whether it’s Mario Williams failing to fair catch a critical kickoff against Tulane in the Cotton Bowl two years ago, John Humphrey and Kamari Ramsey failing to tackle Michigan running back Kalel Mullings — which turned a 15-yard gain into a 63-yard run that set up the Wolverines’ game-winning score — in September or the missed block on Lantz’s field goal attempt Saturday night.
Coaches often say, “You’re either coaching it or allowing it to happen.” Those sorts of errors are a reflection of the head coach, just like all these close losses are. USC has blown 14-point leads in each of the past two weeks. Riley has lost 12 games as the Trojans coach. His teams have blown a 14-point lead in five of them.
Sure, each one can be explained away in a vacuum, but these losses have become a pattern. One that can’t be explained away.
“We’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting, which is put yourself to win games against good teams,” Riley said, “but the inability to finish them off — it eats at you.”
At 3-4, USC has fallen below .500 for the first time in Riley’s tenure. He has to change something structurally with the way he runs the program. There will naturally be some who will call for his firing, but unless those calls come with about $80 million, that is not realistic.
So Riley and USC are likely in this together for a while. The Trojans coach can’t double down on how he is running the program. He’s 11-11 since the 11-1 regular season in 2022. Whatever he’s doing is not working. That sort of reflection will likely take place once the offseason rolls around. But why wasn’t that done last offseason, after a disastrous 7-5 regular season?
The culture seems better than last season, but that’ll be tested over these next few weeks.
The Trojans couldn’t look any more disinterested last season in the rivalry game against UCLA. So Riley has to prove he can keep this team motivated.
It’s late October and USC already has nothing to play for but pride. That’s just not where things are supposed to be in Year 3.
College football conference play is (mostly) underway and the stakes will be raised accordingly. The sport dips its toes this weekend with ranked matchups in the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC featuring College Football Playoff favorites and some remaining question marks.
Let’s rank the top 10 games of Week 4, starting with a few honorable mentions and counting down.
(All point spreads come from BetMGM; click here for live odds. All kickoff times are Eastern and on Saturday unless otherwise noted.)
10. San Jose State (3-0) at Washington State (3-0), Friday, 10 p.m., The CW
What a win for Wazzu last week. It upset Washington in a new, strange rendition of the Apple Cup rivalry, secured by a dramatic goal-line stand by the Cougars. Quarterback John Mateer is a dual-threat firecracker, head coach Jake Dickert brought a celebratory cigar to the postgame news conference, and Washington State is one of the early feel-good teams. Now the Cougars have a different type of grudge match against San Jose State, which might feel scorned by WSU for helping lead the Pac-12’s poaching of the Mountain West. The Spartans haven’t faced anyone as good as Wazzu yet, but former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo abandoned the triple option and has SJSU airing it out to an undefeated start, including a road win over Air Force.
Line: Washington State -11.5
Rough start for NC State. Following the 51-10 blowout loss to Tennessee, the Wolfpack lost starting quarterback Grayson McCall to injury in a 30-20 win over Louisiana Tech. True freshman backup CJ Bailey will start against Clemson and led the comeback over Lousiana Tech, but NC State hasn’t looked at all like a team deserving of its preseason Top 25 ranking. This will be an interesting test for Clemson, as well, coming off a bye following the blowout loss to Georgia and blowout win over App State. Are the Tigers still a legit threat in the ACC and Playoff race? The spread in this one suggests as much. Either way, Saturday’s result should get us a little closer to those answers.
Line: Clemson -20.5
Clemson QB Cade Klubnik threw for a career-high 378 yards on a 92.3 percent completion rate against App State. (Alex Hicks Jr. / USA Today Sports via Imagn Images)
It’s tough to properly articulate in text, but this game just feels like leaf-changing college football in the fall. The game is on ESPN now instead of CBS, neither team is expected to be in the mix for the SEC title or CFP, Arkansas’ Sam Pittman is on the hot seat — but there’s an ineffable nostalgia hit with this matchup. It should be an interesting quarterback matchup between Arkansas’ dual-threat Taylen Green and Auburn redshirt freshman Hank Brown, who threw four touchdowns in his first start against New Mexico last week. Both teams have gantlet schedules ahead and could really use a win to keep fans from getting restless.
Line: Auburn -3
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How about Kenny Dillingham and the Sun Devils? The second-year head coach has ASU — picked dead last in the Big 12 preseason poll — off to an undefeated start with three solid wins, including a barnburner over Texas State last Thursday. Quarterback Sam Leavitt has been workmanlike, running back Cam Skattebo is a wrecking ball, and Dillingham’s commitment to recruiting Texas is already paying dividends. Whether ASU can make any noise in the Big 12 race remains to be seen, but it could start against a puzzling Texas Tech team that escaped in overtime against Abilene Christian, got smoked by Wazzu and then hung 66 on North Texas.
Georgia Tech got right with a blowout over VMI following the close loss to Syracuse, and with a brief stay in the Top 25, it’s clear the Yellow Jackets are better than most anticipated this season. But Louisville is the team I’m more curious about. The Cardinals have climbed into the top 20 almost by default on the strength of easy wins over Austin Peay and Jacksonville State. Transfer quarterback Tyler Shough has impressed against inferior competition, but with a road trip to Notre Dame next week, this game should provide a much better sense of how viable an ACC and Playoff contender Louisville can be this season.
Line: Louisville -10.5
5. No. 8 Miami (3-0) at South Florida (2-1), 7 p.m., ESPN
Mario Cristobal’s year-three warpath makes an intriguing stop in Tampa. Quarterback Cam Ward has been spectacular for the Hurricanes, ranking second in FBS in passing yards, first in passing touchdowns, third in yards per attempt and fourth in QB rating, lifting Miami into the top 10. But now it has to face a USF squad that gave Alabama fits for 3 1/2 quarters. Bulls quarterback Byrum Brown has run the ball effectively but struggled through the air, and USF’s defense fissured late against the Tide, allowing 21 points over the final six minutes. A decisive road win, in prime time on ESPN, would shift the Miami hype train into high gear.
Line: Miami -16.5
Cam Ward transferred to Miami from Washington State in the offseason and is leading the Hurricanes toward their CFP hopes. (Sam Navarro / Imagn Images)
4. No. 24 Illinois (3-0) at No. 22 Nebraska (3-0), 8 p.m. Friday, Fox
The ranked Big Ten matchup you didn’t know you needed in your life. Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola and his Patrick Mahomes cosplay will get another turn in the spotlight Friday night against the undefeated Illini. Raiola has been impressive for a true freshman with heavy expectations and a fan base that is desperate to return to winning football. The Cornhuskers haven’t been to a bowl game in seven seasons, haven’t beaten a ranked team since 2016 and haven’t done so at home since 2011. Enter an Illinois team that is second in FBS with a plus-8 turnover margin. The Illini haven’t been elite in other areas thus far but are stout enough to keep the optimism in Lincoln on high alert.
Line: Nebraska -8.5
3. No. 11 USC (2-0) at No. 18 Michigan (2-1), 3:30 p.m., CBS
It’s Alex Orji time for Michigan. The speedy junior takes over at quarterback for Davis Warren, who threw six interceptions in three games at the helm of a dismal offense. Can Orji provide enough of a spark to turn things around? The Wolverines are a home underdog for the second time in three weeks. They got clobbered by Texas in Week 2 and now get USC coming off an idle week. The Trojans are surging in The Athletic’s Playoff projector after the opening-week win over LSU and with what looks to be a much improved defense under new coordinator D’Anton Lynn. A road victory over Michigan would further boost those CFP hopes, especially with a favorable schedule the rest of the way: no Ohio State, no Oregon, and Penn State, Nebraska and Notre Dame all at home.
Line: USC -6
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Utah quarterback Cam Rising is expected to play after suffering an injury to his throwing hand in the Week 2 win over Baylor. The Utes have been predictably strong on defense and remain the highest-ranked team in the Big 12 but are traveling into the thunderdome of Stillwater. The Pokes have been somewhat of an enigma. Doak Walker-winning running back Ollie Gordon II has been mostly held in check, averaging just 3.5 yards per carry, but seventh-year quarterback Alan Bowman has picked up the slack. Bowman is sixth in FBS in passing yards along with eight touchdowns and two interceptions. This is a crucial stretch for Oklahoma State, which travels to Kansas State next week and is still without star linebacker Collin Oliver. With Utah headed to Arizona next week, we should have a better handle on the top of the Big 12 by the end of the month.
Line: Utah -2.5
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The big storyline is Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel returning to Oklahoma, where he quarterbacked the program to a national championship and was later fired as offensive coordinator. Joe Rexrode penned a great retrospective on how the reunion has unfolded for all involved (worked out for Tennessee!), as well as the stakes for a game Joe describes as an “early College Football Playoff clarifier.” The Vols look like a wagon, leading the FBS in points per game at 63.7. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s 10.4 yards per attempt ranks eighth among all quarterbacks and the offense is averaging 8.1 yards per play. The Sooners are on the other end of the spectrum, averaging just 4.9 yards per play under quarterback Jackson Arnold, who is averaging 5.6 yards per attempt and still trying to find his groove. (Potentially getting wide receivers Nic Anderson and Andrel Anthony back from injury could help on that front.) Brent Venables’ defense has been solid, but it’s Tennessee that is allowing 3.1 yards per play and 4.3 points per game, both in the top three in FBS. ESPN’s “College GameDay” heads to Norman to see if the Sooners can slow down Tennessee in the first SEC showdown for Oklahoma.
Line: Tennessee -7
(Top photo of Jackson Arnold: Aaron M. Sprecher / Getty Images)
It’s a little after 11 a.m. on an unnervingly cold December day, and Isaac Prewitt exhales. Hands on hips, cheeks puffed out, the whole deal. His morning had been relatively easy for a while: Play dummy defense against pick-and-rolls; needle his friend about an incoming shipment of Gatorade Fit drinks; run some zone offense. A graduate student, whiling away winter break in a gym, doing a job that’s never work.
For the last few minutes, though, his job stinks.
Because his job is Caitlin Clark.
He wears a blue scout-team pinnie and pursues his pal with the Gatorade hook-up during an Iowa women’s basketball practice, slaloming around bodies trying to bump him off course, doing what he can to prevent a generationally gifted scorer from, well, scoring. At one point, Prewitt challenges a Clark 3-pointer so aggressively that his fingers interlock with Clark’s on her follow-through. She makes it anyway. Prewitt laughs.
Male practice players have been around women’s basketball for at least a half-century, mimicking the opposition’s schemes and personnel. They’re generally in the gym to help, not to win, often getting nothing except cardio for their effort. But unfair fights are one thing. How about a 6-foot-4 Stanford forward with an impossible wingspan and deceptive speed? A teenage prodigy at USC with a bottomless bag of answers? The Iowa guard who might score more points than any player in college ever has?
What, in fact, do you do about all that?
For starters, you keep coming back for more. After that deep breath, Prewitt lines up across from Clark. “Talk to me, talk to me,” he calls out, wary of a screen. It comes. Help defense does not. He lunges at Clark as she hoists another 3-pointer. She cashes it. And Isaac Prewitt throws his hands in the air.
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder has seen this before, and seen enough. “Let’s let blue get a drink,” she says.
In 1974, eight years before the NCAA even began to sponsor women’s basketball, Pat Summitt took over as Tennessee’s head coach. She signed up men to compete as practice players immediately. “The most natural thing in the world for me,” Summitt told Sports Illustrated a quarter-century later. Thing is, the Hall of Fame coach didn’t claim the idea as hers. No one seems to know who came up with it, only that it’s been a ubiquitous and useful resource for women’s hoops as far as they can remember.
“They’re essential to our success,” says Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks, a few months removed from a Final Four run in 2023. “We don’t have the budget that when we get rings, they do. But I wish we could. I really do. They’re that important.”
Enough that, these days, they’re often recruits of a different sort. Scouted not in grassroots showcases but in intramural runs at the campus rec center. Wooed not with letters and photo shoots but via want ads on social media.
At South Carolina, Denton Rohde went from standard incoming student to guarding future No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston and now 6-7 center Kamilla Cardoso, all thanks to a Facebook post his mom saw. (“We like tall freshmen,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley told the 6-6 Rohde at his first workout.) Hasani Spann had Division III offers, opted for an academic full ride to Stanford, got directed to the women’s hoops practice squad by a men’s assistant coach and now chases Hannah Jump around the 3-point arc or tangles with two-time All-American Cameron Brink on the block. Jared Wilson went from pickup games at Southern Cal’s Lyon Recreational Center to trying out for the club team to guarding JuJu Watkins, the nation’s top freshman, whose precocious talent has drawn the likes of Kevin Hart and LeBron James to home games. “I had no idea,” Wilson says, “it would totally consume me.”
“We always say time doesn’t exist when we’re in there,” says Rohde, who’s now a senior. “School doesn’t matter. Whatever’s stressing you out – drama in your personal life, whether you’re down that month – it just doesn’t matter. You’re focused, you’re practicing, you have the player you’re scouting for, you have plays you have to know. You’re trying to compete in every single drill and you’re playing a team that is quite literally the best team in the country. There’s just no other feeling like it.”
A fair enough summary of what they get out of it, besides getting cooked.
Most played at least through high school. (Prewitt, in fact, logged one season at NAIA Dordt University before transferring to Iowa.) They are good enough to be told to hold back, occasionally; after Rohde once scored for the scout team on a Eurostep reverse, South Carolina’s coaches reminded him: Your player is a post. You cannot do that. Some, like a trio at Southern Cal, use it as an entry point to careers in the sport. One of Brooks’ former practice players, Aaron Smith, is now an NBA referee. But regardless of their trajectory relative to the game, reckoning with the end of the competitive line can be a direct hit to the feels. These tours of duty delay the inevitable. “It was great to find a way to still be on the court, pumping my blood,” Spann says. “The girls? Oh, they hate you. They hate if they lose to you. Our primary job is to get them better, but getting them better is not giving them leeway. It’s not letting them do what they want.”
An itch, scratched daily. “It’s hard for us to check our ego at the door,” says Will McIntire, who shares Caitlin Clark duty at Iowa while aspiring to a coaching career in women’s hoops. “That’s the best part about it. If we’re whupping the girls one day, we’re getting buckets on them, and some days they’re getting buckets on us and we’re chatting back and forth – (the coaches) eat it up. They love to have that competitive energy.”
The utility for the programs is plain. Everyone gets quality reps against theoretically bigger or stronger or quicker or more explosive bodies without getting hurt. Down-the-roster players don’t waste time learning plays only for scout-team purposes. “That isn’t helping them be better Iowa players,” as Bluder puts it. And over a long season, it mitigates teammate-on-teammate wear-and-tear. “Elizabeth Kitley doesn’t need to practice two to three hours a day, getting every rep,” Brooks says of his All-America center at Virginia Tech. Instead, Brooks can work through a full seven- or eight-player rotation, both to build chemistry and ease up on legs.
The guys take the beating. The women take breathers. “It’s a huge help,” says Stanford’s Brink, who otherwise would be colliding with 6-3 teammate Kiki Iriafen, the Cardinal’s second-leading scorer. “Kiki and I, things can definitely get heated when we’re going against each other. For me to get a break guarding her, and for her to practice guarding guards, it’s great. They help us expand our games and make us better, for sure.”
Often, of course, at their own expense.
“In short, it’s not going too well for me,” says Gavin McDonnell, a Stanford practice player who, pushing 6-5, spends most of the season on a very perilous Brink. “Just kind of a massive nightmare.”
The job is about what you’d expect. In certain locales – the 2023-24 season features nine players who earned All-America nods last year – it’s perhaps as onerous as it’s ever been.
Rohde’s initiation at South Carolina came by way of three-time All-American Aliyah Boston – “She was patient, smart and had a counter to anything you could throw at her,” he says – but the days, and the opposition, remain long. The 6-7 Cardoso has filled the space vacated by Boston, shooting 60.3 percent and averaging 21.6 points and 16.3 boards per 40 minutes. Sagging off and giving Cardoso a midrange look is no longer an option for Rohde. Nor is betting that she won’t put the ball on the deck. All while she’s enhanced her capacity to baffle Rohde at the rim, particularly with one move in which Cardoso essentially goes under the hoop and fades away, erasing all angles for a possible block. “I’ve played against people who are in the NBA, like, right now,” Rohde says. “I played against many 6-8, 6-10 Division I players and I’ve never had as many moments with a player where there’s absolutely nothing I could have done to block that.”
His counterparts on the other side of the country can sympathize. Brink currently produces at a preposterous rate of 31.5 points, 20.4 rebounds and 5.7 blocks per 40 minutes, all of which are career-bests. “You pick your poison with her,” McDonnell says. “It’s so hard to guard her closely and not foul. She’s super-quick, too. … She’ll slip right by you.” McDonnell has the height and reach and frame to challenge Brink with physicality and contest shots – and it’s futile. “She usually just scores,” he says with a laugh.
These are the known quantities, though. No one’s opening a mystery box daily. What’s coming is clear.
It’s a little different when you see the comet right before it passes the sun and starts to glow.
JuJu Watkins arrived at Southern Cal as the nation’s No. 1 recruit last summer, as conspicuous as prospects get. Everyone wanted to see the video highlights cut-and-pasted into real life. On the first day of workouts, Watkins crossed over a practice player so badly that Reagan Griffin Jr., another squad member, thought to himself: Is it really like that? When the women and men scrimmaged in the preseason, and Watkins scored six points on three possessions against a 6-4 former California high school state champion, the answer was clear.
“Homey is looking at me from the court like, what’s going on?” Griffin Jr. remembers. “At that point, everyone knew who the best player in the gym is.”
Still, she’s 18. She may be a budding genius with endless counters – “You can’t ever really stop her because her bag is so deep,” says Wilson, who is her primary practice foil – but she’s nevertheless budding. She may be physical – on the first day Yusuf Ali guarded her, the first-year practice player remembers Watkins nearly knocking him over when she engaged her off-hand – but she’s also growing.
Early on, Ali could fake a stunt when Watkins drove, making her think a kick-out was available, and then jump the passing lane for a steal. It’s why Watkins takes a moment after a recent practice to find the right word to describe her foils. Annoying, she says, isn’t quite it. Very active is what she settles on. “It definitely forces your IQ to really show up in moments where the defense does have somewhat of an advantage, just making sure you’re making the right play every time,” Watkins says. “To get that in practice every day just makes the game that much easier.” Watkins indeed learned with each noon-run-at-the-YMCA trick. And then the fakes stopped working.
“She’s gotten harder and harder to guard each week,” Ali says. “Each time I’ll try something new, she’ll have a counter for it the next practice.”
This is what Southern Cal’s practice squad gets in addition to its troubles: fascination. The idea that Watkins is all of this, and yet not what she’ll be. The satisfaction in helping her figure it all out.
“On a day-to-day basis,” Griffin Jr. says, “you feel like you’re watching greatness.”
About 1,800 miles east, they can relate.
Giving Caitlin Clark a good practice look means being physical and cramping her space. But that requires catching her first. (Kirk Irwin / Getty Images)
It’s fair to wonder why Will McIntire and Isaac Prewitt choose to live in an Iowa City time loop – stand in front of the No. 22 bus, get run over, wake up and do it all over again – beyond the hazard pay they earn after being promoted to team managers.
Then you hear about one Monday in December.
It’s McIntire and Caitlin Clark, matched up in a scrimmage period during preparation for a game against Loyola-Chicago. McIntire hits a jumper with the shot-clock expiring. Clark protests vehemently. Insists the player McIntire is supposed to mimic wouldn’t take that shot. McIntire counters that she will, if Clark leaves her that open.
“And then she comes down and calls me a bitch,” McIntire says, smiling in a Carver-Hawkeye Arena courtside seat. “I’m like, ‘What? Say it again! Say it again!’ She said it again. And I was running back, laughing. Oh, I loved it.”
The planet didn’t tilt off its axis. Iowa’s coaches didn’t stop practice, aghast. Clark and McIntire ate lunch together after, like nothing happened. A practice player’s job, at Iowa, isn’t guarding Caitlin Clark. The job is dealing with Caitlin Clark. Every day. She will take jump shots and pot shots. She will burn you and serve burns. Everyone in the operation understands the dynamic by now, nobody more than Prewitt and McIntire, who effectively trade days of tying themselves to the track. Everyone understands the best thing they can do for a superstar transcending the sport in real time is give as good as they get. Or try.
Try to knock Clark off balance, in every way, because every opponent is going to have the same plan. “I love it,” Clark says, leaning against a wall in an arena tunnel and, notably, smiling. “We should talk crap with each other. They should be super competitive. Sometimes I joke with them: ‘Guys, there’s no NBA scouts here today watching you. I’m sorry.’ But that’s how hard they go.”
What’s become more than a working relationship – Prewitt and McIntire live in the same complex as the players and socialize with them regularly, and McIntire is roommates with sixth-year wing Kate Martin – likely makes it easier to go harder on each other, with no sour feelings. “Off the court,” Clark says, “they’re like our best friends and brothers.” But siblings typically don’t grasp the concept of mercy. So it goes with one of the premier shotmakers in college basketball.
Iowa opponents get that treatment two or three times a season at most. Prewitt and McIntire volunteer for it daily. “It’s the best job on campus, in terms of every life skill,” McIntire says. “You learn how to handle everything.”
Ask about basketball-specific tactics they use to make their on-floor life less difficult, and they exchange weary grins. “It’s not easy to guard her,” McIntire deadpans. “She runs around a lot.” Clark presents an endurance test; giving her a good practice look means being physical and cramping her space. But that requires catching her first. “It doesn’t get talked about enough – she’s the fastest player on the court, with the ball, that I’ve seen,” Prewitt says. “She’s the fastest player downhill at any time.”
Objective No. 1, then, is to not let Clark get involved. “You’re trying to deny and keep the ball out of her hands,” Bluder says, “because you’re stupid if you don’t.” It’s a quixotic quest. Yet inside Iowa’s walls, there’s a method to it: hone Clark’s all-around production that much more – she leads the nation in scoring (32 points per game) and ranks second with 7.6 assists per night – and set the tone for team success. “I want to try to get her to get everyone else involved and see that she has all these other pieces around her,” McIntire says. “I love watching her share the ball, because I know she’s going to get hers anyway.”
Two days in December confirm this.
It’s the ramp-up to Loyola-Chicago, the last game before a holiday break. Across a couple practices, Clark hits the 3-pointer with Prewitt’s fingers interlaced with hers. She staggers the defense with a hesitation dribble and drives to the rim for a bucket. She runs McIntire into a screen but doesn’t quite extricate herself from traffic, wobbling a little off-balance … and then she banks in a floater from about 15 feet regardless. Everyone shakes their heads. Bluder drops her hands to her knees, laughing. Clark jogs off the floor to get some hand sanitizer, because she hit the shot with a runny nose, to boot.
“There’s a lot of ‘F yous’ thrown back at her when she makes those,” McIntire says.
“It’s a mix of, ‘Damn, that was sick,’” Prewitt says. “And also, gosh, I want to get around that screen better so she can’t get that look.”
It’s ego subjugation for the greater good. Show up fully invested in stopping a superstar … and only occasionally doing so. “I think they think it’s kind of cool,” Bluder says. Of course, when McIntire misses a fast-break layup against Iowa’s second unit, he draws a roar of pure schadenfreude from the starters on the sideline.
“Aw,” Clark says as McIntire sprints back. “He’s mad.”
It’s all in something like fun, underpinned by appreciation. Clark will rewatch games and get a kick out of the guys’ overreaction from the bench to big shots or massive plays. “It’s really cute,” she says. She’s also gifted Iowa’s practice players Bose headphones and Nike shoes and intends to restock Prewitt on his beloved Gatorade Fit drinks, sharing the bounty of an elevated profile with a few good men. “Going against a little bit bigger, stronger, faster guards – for me, personally, that’s the biggest thing,” Clark says. “They give me good looks. Things I’m going to see in the game, and maybe even making it harder than what I’m going to see.”
A few practice players trickle down the arena ramp and catch her eye. As they pass by, Clark announces that she’s talking trash about them.
All Iowa’s star gets is a smile in return.
“I love it,” Clark says again, like she can’t say it enough. “They’re perfect players for us to go against.”
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; photos: Courtesy of USC, South Carolina; Brian Ray / Iowa)
Bronny Jamesplayed in a college basketball game on Sunday, and now comes the fascinating part. He’s a teenager burdened by his birth certificate. He’s months removed from cardiac arrest. He is, without much exaggeration, the scion of new American royalty. And he tucked in his white USC jersey and walked onto the Galen Center floor to a standing ovation in the middle of a December afternoon, revealed and unsheltered, instantly compelled to figure out who he is in the full view of the world.
It’s OK to watch. It’s OK to be interested. Now is actually very much the time for that.
These were the first lines of a deeply and uniquely intriguing story, or at least the part of it that gets good. Before, he kind of existed as a character. The prince glimpsed from the balcony. Now there are 16 minutes and one made shot and a competitive disaster of an overtime loss to Long Beach State, and all of it serves to ratify LeBron Raymone James Jr. in a way mixtapes and myths and social media posts can’t. He is real and out front, bearing the weight of blood and expectation in public. He has a lot to handle from here.
And he is anyone’s business if anyone cares to pay attention.
Which they will do. In apparently preposterous numbers.
Lines of fans snaking around the arena and down the street, hours before tipoff Sunday. Courtside seats on the secondary market for roughly the price of a used car. Still, all of it was speculation. Prospecting. Shoving a pan in the river and hoping something shiny comes of it. Everyone had an idea about Bronny James, but probably not a lot to go on that was substantial and real.
That changed around 1:19 p.m. local time on December 10, 2023.
“Look who’s coming to the scorer’s table,” play-by-play announcer Jacob Tobey intoned to whomever could find the Pac-12 Network this weekend. Dad stood up and pulled out his phone and started recording. It was an undeniably triumphant human moment; the kid who collapsed at practice in late July, who had a congenital heart defect no one knew about and who stared down a life without basketball, checked into his first college game. Worth the price of admission — well, maybe some prices of admission — all by itself.
It is also surely true that people filled the gym and tuned into the broadcast not to watch Bronny James return but to arrive.
An unreasonable ask, and a reminder that there will be nothing reasonable about this.
James was good, under the circumstances. “Very solid,” as Trojans coach Andy Enfield put it afterward. Three rebounds. Two assists. Two steals. One chase-down block to add to the family stockpile. And, unavoidably, a missed free throw in the final minute that essentially made it easier for Long Beach State to take the game to overtime.
He looked like a player who could be a very nice addition. He left everyone wondering just who he will be.
That is what’s real now. Bronny James is essentially the progeny of modern American aristocracy, doing his particular duty in plain sight. Noblesse, obliged. He could be what Michael Jordan’s kids never were. What Gigi Bryant never had the chance to be. He could be something entirely different and all his own. Whatever happens will be the product of an immense and unfair and inevitable life now lived with more people watching and waiting than ever before.
Sunday wasn’t a culmination, even if it felt like one. It was the beginning of a deeply and uniquely intriguing story. Or at least the part where it gets good.
(Photo of Bronny James waiting to catch the ball as LeBron James looks on: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
If the hope was that two weeks of basketball would have given a clearer picture of the hierarchy in women’s college basketball this season, that has not been the case. In fact, most of my conversations since Nov. 6 have featured some variation of, “Wait, is Team X good?”
Aside from South Carolina at the top — stop me if you’ve heard that before — every other projected contender has taken its lumps. While the Gamecocks roll through their opposition, most teams around the country need some time to figure out new rosters and systems. Growing pains were expected, like LSU and Virginia Tech integrating new transfers, or Maryland and Indiana dealing with the graduations of WNBA first-round picks.
Nevertheless, on the whole, the quality of play around the country has been better than expected. But given my regional biases, and the fact that this is the final year of the Pac-12 as we know it, these inaugural rankings will focus out west on the conference that is in the midst of an epic going-away party.
Is the promise of Stanford’s frontcourt being realized?
The Cardinal had an embarrassment of riches at the forward positions last season, but there were too many options for any individual players – other than Cameron Brink – to get sufficient run, especially since Stanford so often went small with Haley Jones at the four. Now the rotation is shorter, and the primary beneficiary is Kiki Iriafen, who is thriving with the larger minutes load.
Carolyn Peck called Iriafen a mix of Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike with a dash of A’ja Wilson on the Stanford-Duke broadcast Sunday, and though the praise seems hyperbolic, Iriafen’s start has been noteworthy. The junior is averaging 21 points and nine rebounds per game through four contests, blowing away her per-minute averages from the prior two seasons. The Cardinal were already a good paint offense in 2022-23, converting 63 percent of their shot attempts at the rim; Iriafen’s success rate thus far is almost comically impressive, as she has made 25 of 31 shots at the basket. Brink’s ability to space the floor as a shooter and a high-low passer allows Iriafen the room to operate, and that frontcourt tandem is the primary reason Stanford sits undefeated despite welcoming two strong opponents (Indiana and Duke) to Maples Pavilion to start the year.
One of the most confounding storylines of Stanford’s 2022-23 campaign was the way the Cardinal used (or perhaps, failed to use) Lauren Betts. The No. 1 recruit in the country was an afterthought in Stanford’s rotation, averaging fewer than 10 minutes and getting DNP-ed twice, so it wasn’t exactly surprising that Betts sought out a different location for the rest of her collegiate career.
Betts’ move to Los Angeles cleared up the frontcourt situation for the Cardinal, and it’s also been a boon for the Bruins. UCLA plays an active brand of defense, swarming ballhandlers and applying heavy ball pressure, but that can create openings at the rim if the opponent gets behind the defense, especially when the Bruins spent much of the season without a traditional center on the court. That is no longer an issue with Betts, who serves as an eraser in the paint, but more often deters opponents from even attempting shots in her vicinity. Opponents are taking less than 15 percent of their shots at the rim against UCLA, better than 97 percent of defenses, per CBB Analytics.
What’s interesting is that Betts’ impact has actually been more pronounced on offense. Through four games, UCLA is 38 points per 100 possessions better with Betts on the floor, with 25 of those points coming on offense. She works hard to seal her defender so that the Bruins can deliver her the ball inside, but when that doesn’t work, she’s a willing and effective screener who creates space for her guards to get to the basket. Against Princeton, Betts made all nine of her field-goal attempts through three quarters, but didn’t get any shot attempts in the fourth as the Tigers did whatever they could to deny her the ball. She responded by playing pick-and-roll with Charisma Osborne, and as one defender stayed glued to Betts, Osborne had open jumpers and driving lanes.
Charisma Osborne & Lauren Betts combined for 4️⃣3️⃣ points to push No. 3 UCLA past Princeton at Pauley on Friday 😤
Iriafen, Brink and Betts have brought the goods to start the season, and although the Utes were the first Pac-12 team to register a loss in 2023-24, that doesn’t diminish how good the reigning conference player of the year has been. The only way to stop Alissa Pili is by getting her off the court, because Pili can do just about anything on offense. She entered Sunday having made nearly 79 percent of her field goals on the season; her jumper has been on point, an almost unfair complement to her beautiful footwork in the post.
This reverse finish from Pili against Baylor high off the glass was hard to even comprehend in real time.
This is honestly solid defense, but Alissa Pili just has angles and footwork down to a mastery
Like backwards off the spin off the top off the glass? Who does that lmao
At a later date, we’ll dive into the defensive improvements Utah needs to make and how it can stay afloat when Pili is in foul trouble. For now, it’s more fun to simply appreciate what a uniquely skilled offensive player Pili is.
Why the Buffs are in the national conversation
We’re weeks away from conference play, and I’m already giddy about the potential Pac-12 player of the year race. The league is filled with dominant frontcourt players, but through two weeks, I can’t take my eyes off of Jaylyn Sherrod. At 5-foot-7, she finishes 60 percent of her shots in the restricted area and gets there nearly five times per game. It takes a rare combination of speed and strength to make her way to the basket so often and so effectively, especially when her long-range jumper is essentially nonexistent. Even when defenses go under on Sherrod since she isn’t a threat to pull up off a screen, they can’t corral her on her path to the hoop.
What’s been most impressive about Sherrod is her ability to adapt to any pace. Colorado is comfortable executing in the half court, whether that’s letting Sherrod dictate the action from the top of the key or using its forwards as hand-off hubs on the elbows. Sherrod can also push the ball down opponents’ throats with her speed in transition. Against LSU in the opener, the Buffaloes excelled in the open court, and against SMU Saturday, Colorado had to execute against a set defense. Both games resulted in comfortable victories.
From a fifth-year senior to an audacious rookie, the state of guard play in college basketball is at an all-time high. It’s hard to believe that Hidalgo is in her first year at Notre Dame, because she has commanded that team on both ends of the floor like a seasoned veteran. The injuries to Olivia Miles and now Sonia Citron (though coach Niele Ivey was relieved to reveal that Citron should be back in a few weeks) have given Hidalgo more responsibility for the Irish, but it seems like — with her confidence — she would have seized a larger role regardless.
Hidalgo has been a one-woman wrecking crew for Notre Dame, and it’s fitting that the player who sealed a gold medal for Team USA at the FIBA U-19 World Cup this summer with a steal has brought that level of defensive prowess to South Bend. She is averaging nearly seven takeaways per game — for context, 117 teams in Division I are recording fewer — and had a 12-steal night that tied a program record with fellow New Jersey fireball Marina Mabrey.
It’s baffling to see opposing teams try to bring the ball up against her full-court pressure or go right at Hidalgo on defense without attempting to screen her off the ball. She has an unending motor as a point-of-attack defender and tremendous instincts in help defense. Notre Dame is 22.1 points per 100 possessions better on defense alone when Hidalgo is on the court, which seems like a misprint until you realize opponents turn over the ball 11 percent more often in those minutes. Two weeks into her college career, Hidalgo might be the most exciting defensive playmaker in the country.
Monika Czinano attempted 10.6 field goals per game last season, with another 7.7 coming from McKenna Warnock. That’s about 18 shots per night that Iowa had to reallocate for this season. The ideal outcome would be Hannah Stuelke assuming the bulk of that workload, but she’s added only four more attempts per game. Sharon Goodman and Addison O’Grady have each added three more shot attempts to their averages, but that still leaves about eight more field goals per contest, and most of those are going to Caitlin Clark.
In theory, giving more shots to the best offensive player in the country isn’t a problem, but Clark’s workload is a little overwhelming for Iowa right now. And the reigning national player of the year admitted after the Hawkeyes’ loss to Kansas State that she needs to be better at getting everyone involved. Coach Lisa Bluder further drove that point home when she said about her post players: “We have to have more faith in them.”
The magic Clark created with Czinano can’t be easily replicated, even if it seems like Iowa is constantly churning out one great post after another. But the only hope of that happening is for Clark to at least give Stuelke, Goodman and O’Grady a chance.
(Photo of Te-Hina Paopao: Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)
The No. 5 Washington Huskies are headed to Los Angeles, CA, to take on the No. 20 USC Trojans on November 4 at 7:30pm ET.
You can listen to every snap live from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on the SiriusXM app and in car radios with your choice of the home or away feed.
USC’s offense ranks second in the nation with an average of 45.9 points per game. They also come in third in the nation for first downs, tallying an impressive 212. When it comes to passing, they are seventh in the country with an average of 328.3 yards per game, and their team passing efficiency ranks eighth at 172.21.
USC’s Caleb Williams dominates stats. He tops the nation in points responsible for with 208, averaging 23.1 per game. Also nationally, Williams shares the lead in passing touchdowns with 25 and sits at number two in passing yards with 2,646. He is tied for the number one spot in rushing touchdowns in the conference with 9.
Away: Washington Huskies
Washington’s quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is making waves with his arm, leading the nation in passing yards and yards per game. He’s third in the nation in passing touchdowns with 24 and fifth in yards per pass attempt (9.98).
The Huskies have a fierce aerial assault, featuring a dynamic receiving corps. Eight different receivers have reached the end zone, with Rome Odunze and Ja’lynn Polk leading the charge, each boasting seven touchdowns and over 100 yards per game.
USC Trojans Home Feed:
SiriusXM channel 82 in your vehicle
Channel 82 on the SiriusXM app
Washington Huskies Away Feed:
SiriusXM channel 83 in your vehicle
Channel 83 on the SiriusXM app
National Feed:
SiriusXM channel 81 in your vehicle
Channel 81 on the SiriusXM app
Want to listen to more games? Throughout the 2023 College Football season, SiriusXM listeners get access to dozens of game broadcasts each week involving teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC, and other conferences — plus Army, Navy, HBCU football and more. For more information about SiriusXM’s college football offerings, click here.
Every Saturday night, Ari Wasserman and David Ubben react to the weekend’s slate of games on “Until Saturday.” On Mondays, they revisit the biggest takeaway from Saturday night’s instant reaction. This week: Ari and David examine the 10 fan bases that should be most disappointed with the start of the 2023 season.
College football Saturdays can be filled with happiness. But not for everyone. The beauty of the sport is that horror is waiting around the corner for more than a few teams every fall, too.
No matter what Ted Lasso says, it truly is the hope that kills you. And for many fan bases, preseason hopes have given way to the crushing reality of the 2023 regular season. Which fan bases are most disappointed with what they’ve seen?
We examined the top 10.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman and the Irish are coming off a loss at Louisville. (Jamie Rhodes / USA Today)
Call the Tigers overhyped if you must, but coach Brian Kelly and the Tigers beat Alabama and won the SEC West in his first year on the Bayou. Kirby Smart played for a national title in his second year at Georgia, so why couldn’t Kelly see the year two bump that coaches like Smart, Alabama coach Nick Saban and former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops have seen in the past?
Instead, LSU gave up a 38-3 run to Florida State in an embarrassing Week 1 loss that was only a preview of what was to come. Ole Miss scored 55 in a Week 5 win over the Tigers, and LSU needed a 15-point comeback to survive a trip Saturday to Mizzou. And superstar defender Harold Perkins’ misuse throughout the first month of the season has been maddening for anyone watching.
In a season that began with national title chatter, the Tigers look certain to take a step back this season under Kelly and need something borderline supernatural just to win the division again. Quarterback Jayden Daniels has improved, but the defense ranks an embarrassing 127th nationally in yards per play allowed.
2. Texas A&M
Maybe Texas A&M wasn’t supposed to win the SEC at this point in its build. After all, it spent the entire offseason trying to fix its dysfunctional offense, and it moved to a new quarterback. But we entered the weekend with many thinking the Aggies could (or should) win at home against Alabama.
With a win, Texas A&M would have earned the notch on its belt teams get for beating Alabama, and it would have been the favorite to go on to win the SEC West. Texas A&M has been dying to get to the SEC Championship Game, and this year should’ve been an opportunity to get there.
Instead, Texas A&M played the exact game it wanted to play and lost. Now, the Aggies have two losses — one to Miami in nonconference play — and we’re heading into mid-October with more of the same stuff from coach Jimbo Fisher. Because of Fisher’s enormous buyout of around $77 million, making a change in leadership is more complicated in College Station than it would be at other places. The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman has reported that A&M will “find that money” if Fisher doesn’t get things going.
Notre Dame nearly had Ohio State. It was the Irish’s time to go out and beat a team loaded with talent, something they were incapable of doing under Brian Kelly. For the majority of the game in South Bend, Ind., Notre Dame was in control. But Ohio State mounted a comeback and won on the last play of the game. Infamously, there were only 10 players on the field on the final two plays of the game. Ohio State barely got the ball into the end zone running to the area where the defender was absent. Torture.
Two weeks later, Notre Dame’s offense appeared completely broken in a loss at Louisville. Coach Marcus Freeman may still be in the building portion of his tenure, but there are real questions about his ability to manage the game on Saturdays. If Notre Dame can’t do it with Sam Hartman at quarterback, what’s it going to take?
GO DEEPER
Sampson: Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman must do more to help Sam Hartman
4. Clemson
Clemson has been sliding out of the same tier as Georgia and Alabama for the past few years, but this season seemed to promise a return. Coach Dabo Swinney hired Garrett Riley to run his offense, the Tigers boasted one of the most talented rosters in the country and quarterback Cade Klubnik came in with some game experience.
Clemson began the year with an embarrassing loss to Duke — one where its offensive deficiencies from a year ago were still present — and the season began in a way that was too similar to the past two years.
After Clemson lost a hard-fought game to Florida State at home, the Tigers are sitting with two losses and are out of the College Football Playoff picture before October. It also has a head coach who seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of how important the transfer portal is in 2023 and beyond.
The Red Raiders were a trendy pick to contend for their first Big 12 title and send Texas and Oklahoma off to the SEC looking up at those in Lubbock. Instead, Texas Tech lost at Wyoming after racing to a 17-0 first-quarter lead and dropped to 0-2 with a home loss to Oregon a week later in a game it led by nine in the fourth quarter.
It fell to 1-3 two weeks later with a road loss to West Virginia in which it mustered just three points in the first three quarters and never led. And making matters worse, quarterback Tyler Shough might be out the rest of the year with a broken fibula.
The offseason was full of such promise, but Joey McGuire’s team didn’t need to wait long to be humbled.
It’s never a good sign when the head coach deletes his social media and the first-year offensive coordinator on his second run at the program gets in hot water for sending snarky emails in response to angry fan mail.
But this is where Arkansas currently resides. The Hogs were replacing both coordinators this offseason but still had quarterback KJ Jefferson and running back Rocket Sanders returning, one of the best and most experienced one-two punches among any offensive backfield in the SEC. Coach Sam Pittman had won 16 games and two bowls in his last two seasons, but the Razorbacks’ big step back has put plenty of sudden heat underneath Pittman’s seat.
Arkansas lost at home to Liberty last season, lost at home to BYU this year and is mired in a four-game losing streak as it prepares to travel to Alabama. The Hogs coughed up a winnable game at LSU, too. Despite all the experience and proven ability on offense, Arkansas under coordinator Dan Enos ranks last in the SEC in offensive yards per play, in part because of major struggles along the offensive line. That doesn’t play well with fans when the head coach is an offensive line coach by trade. Arkansas’ only FBS win is over a depleted Kent State team that hasn’t beaten an FBS team this season. A loss to Alabama would mark Pittman’s first five-game losing streak in Fayetteville.
Two years ago, Dave Aranda was hoisting a Sugar Bowl trophy and celebrating a Big 12 championship. Now, the Bears have a case as the Big 12’s worst team. Uncompetitive losses to Texas Tech and Texas followed a lopsided loss to Texas State and a fourth-quarter home debacle against an injury-riddled Utah team. It’s already been a nightmare on the Brazos, but the slow decline of the program has been curious — and a concern, especially in a year Baylor was picked to finish sixth in the 14-team league.
In the only win over an FBS team this season, Baylor needed to erase a 35-7 deficit against a UCF team that has yet to win a Big 12 game and is in its first year in the league.
Baylor has missed bowl games only twice since 2010, in the first seasons under former coach Matt Rhule and Aranda. But this Bears team looks a lot like some of the Baylor teams that became accustomed to being the Big 12 doormat in the early years of the league and didn’t play in a bowl game from 1994 to 2010.
The Roadrunners won 23 games the past two years and were a trendy pick to compete for a New Year’s Six bid after moving up to the AAC this season. Star receiver Zakhari Franklin’s late defection to Ole Miss came as a surprise and a huge blow, but Jeff Traylor’s team is 2-3 with losses to Houston and Army and a 31-point loss at Tennessee where the Roadrunners were barely competitive. Star senior quarterback Frank Harris missed the Army and Tennessee games, and the reasons the year has gone awry are easy to pinpoint. But this was a young program’s first and best shot to break through to mainstream success, and it’s clear it won’t be happening this year.
9. Miami
Can someone explain how coach Mario Cristobal had a hard-fought win over Georgia Tech in the bag and single-handedly blew it for his team and fan base? Instead of taking knees to end the game, Cristobal ran offense and handed the ball off. His running back fumbled the ball with fewer than 30 seconds remaining. Georgia Tech recovered. A few defensive breakdowns later, Georgia Tech found the end zone and a win.
It’s inexcusable.
Miami started 4-0, which included a win over Texas A&M, and it was about to go to 5-0. But fundamental misunderstanding of how the QB kneel works (he hasn’t kneeled all year) cost it a win and derailed all of its momentum.
Miami is dying for a winner. It may have been on the way to getting one. Then its head coach lost a game in inexcusable fashion.
GO DEEPER
Miami’s mind-numbing loss to Georgia Tech defies explanation. Now what?
10. Pitt
Former Notre Dame and Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec came to Pitt to reunite with offensive coordinator and QBs coach Frank Cignetti Jr. Instead, Jurkovec is exploring a move to tight end.
Coach Pat Narduzzi had won 20 games and an ACC title in the past two seasons and finished in the Top 25 in both seasons. It was a bit lofty to expect to compete for an ACC title this year, but no one expected the Panthers to be flirting with the basement of the league. The Panthers don’t have an FBS win but did lose to first-year Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield and rival West Virginia. They also suffered a pair of 17-point conference losses to North Carolina and a meager Virginia Tech team.
Pitt skidded into its idle week on a four-game losing streak, but the program’s face plant has been hard to believe. The ACC preseason media poll had Duke and Pitt tied for sixth place.
USC is 6-0, what do Trojans fans have to be upset about? Well, they know the bear is coming for them.
They may feel a little sense of comfort in the fact that USC is undefeated, but after barely skirting by Arizona in triple overtime late Saturday in Pac-12 After Dark action, it is clear yet again that the Trojans don’t play defense. Heck, if Arizona coach Jedd Fisch would have gone for it at the end of the first overtime, there is a legit chance Arizona would have won.
Go look at the back half of USC’s schedule. Five of its last six games in the regular season are against opponents that came into the weekend ranked. Notre Dame, Utah, Washington, Oregon and UCLA are all waiting. And they are salivating watching coordinator Alex Grinch’s defense give up big play after big play.
Everyone loves to talk about how awesome Lincoln Riley is with quarterbacks, and it’s true. But is there a bigger waste of talent than what USC is bound to do with Caleb Williams? He’s a generational quarterback prospect, and he’s likely going to miss the College Football Playoff in both years in Southern California.
Williams won a Heisman Trophy and will be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, but what could USC have been this year or last with a semi-functional defense?
(Photo of LSU coach Brian Kelly and quarterback Jayden Daniels: Michael Chang / Getty Images)
The 2022-23 women’s college basketball season ended on a high note as nearly 10 million viewers tuned in to watch LSU and Iowa — two teams on seemingly fate-driven runs — collide in the national championship. The Tigers took home their first title under Kim Mulkey and then turned the offseason into more wins by signing the top two players out of the transfer portal and welcomed the No. 1 high school recruiting class to Baton Rouge.
But now, it’s a new season. Every team is 0-0. And though the Tigers remain the top team in our preseason projections, several other programs — some perennial powers, some new faces and some programs with chips on their shoulders — look like they could be holding the trophy in Cleveland in April.
As squads rebuilt, reloaded and re-tooled this offseason, The Athletic took notice (and took lots of notes). With teams across the country kicking off practices this week, it’s the perfect time to debut our preseason top 25.
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LSU has an abundance of offensive talent, starting with the 2023 Final Four Most Outstanding Player Angel Reese. Nobody works harder in the paint than Reese, who relentlessly attacks the offensive glass and has a superior second jump that keeps her in every play. The Tigers’ offensive rebound percentage of 45.3 last season was due in large part to Reese rebounding one-fifth of the Tigers’ misses. Reese is also a great rebounder on the other end of the floor and showed the ability to grab-and-go on occasion, giving LSU another way to score in transition.
In addition to Reese, Flau’jae Johnson is guaranteed to get into the paint on drives. Aneesah Morrow scored efficiently at the rim and in the midrange to the tune of 25.7 points per game last year. Hailey Van Lith is another big-game player who averaged 21.1 points during last season’s conference and NCAA tournaments and can consistently get her shot in isolation. Add in super freshman Mikaylah Williams and Kateri Poole’s 38 percent shooting from 3-point range, and there are plenty of sources of scoring on this roster.
The graduations of two veterans could create some holes. Ladazhia Williams was LSU’s best rim protector, and the Tigers’ only true center now is freshman Aalyah Del Rosario, who will need some time to adjust to the speed of the college game. LSU also relied heavily on Alexis Morris to organize the offense, and none of their perimeter stars are true point guards. One will have to shift her game to run the show – likely Van Lith, since that’s the role she’ll have to play at the next level – but it isn’t certain they’ll adapt as well as Morris.
Nevertheless, there’s too much talent on this roster to count out the Tigers, even if they take time to grow into themselves like last season. They should be favorites to once again cut down the nets.
+Star power
+Championship experience
+Paint scoring
+Offensive rebounding
+Depth
–Rim protection
–Point guard play
Is this the season when all of the injuries and adversity that hit Storrs over the past two years finally makes sense? As if it was building to something? Think of it this way: The silver lining of injuries to stars — like Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd — is that it forces other players to step up, and step up the Huskies did. Nika Mühl has made a name for herself in a vaunted history of UConn point guards, Aaliyah Edwards expanded her role and has become a top player heading into her senior season, Caroline Ducharme played like a former top-10 recruit who wasn’t just complementary to other top-10 recruits. And if all of those players can come together for the Huskies this season, the end of UConn’s historic Final Four streak could feel like a distant memory if this team is hanging a banner in Gampel Pavilion.
But then comes in the cloud that has hung over UConn the past two years: Can the Huskies stay healthy? Because every time this group seemed as if it were finding momentum, there was an injury. Can that be avoided this season? And specifically, can it be avoided when it comes to Bueckers and Fudd. Even without those two, this is one of the most talented rosters in the country. But it needs those two to be healthy (or heck, even one of them) if the Huskies are going to make a run to the national title.
Edwards, the reigning Big East’s Most Improved Player, will anchor the paint alongside Griffin, but Geno Auriemma will need to fill out depth behind them. Ayanna Patterson and Amari DeBerry got limited minutes last season, and freshman Qadence Samuels got some run with the starting group in Europe when Ducharme was out with injury, but the Huskies will want to be able to run with a deeper rotation in the paint.
+Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers together
+Backcourt play
+Talent
–Remaining healthy
–Experienced post depth
Aubrey Griffin
Guard / Forward
UCLA returns eight players from a rotation that went nine deep last season, headlined by fifth-year guard Charisma Osborne and sophomore Kiki Rice. Between Osborne and Rice, the Bruins have an abundance of shot creation and one of the stouter defensive backcourts in the country. Both guards need to expand their shooting range for UCLA to hit a higher offensive ceiling — Osborne was effective in the midrange and corners but stands to improve above the break, and Rice was paint-bound other than the left elbow.
The paint will be more occupied this season with the addition of 6-7 Lauren Betts. The Bruins needed a fulcrum in the paint, as they played mostly without a traditional center, and she should immediately be the team’s most efficient scorer. That will allow Emily Bessoir and Lina Sontag to defend down a position and play on the perimeter on offense. Both players are gifted passers as well, opening up the possibility for high-lows with Betts.
UCLA will be able to shape-shift depending on the matchup given their surfeit of depth. Londynn Jones provides an active point-of-attack defender off the bench who can also hit 3s. Fellow sophomore Gabriela Jaquez has some old-school post moves to bully smaller wings, while veteran Camryn Brown is another potential defensive stopper on bigger guards. But the Bruins need their stars to be among the nation’s best.
+Playmaking
+Depth
+Offensive rebounding
+Continuity
–Shooting
–Defending without fouling
It feels fair to say that we’ll never see another class quite like The Freshies (especially with the advent of the transfer portal). Led by Aliyah Boston, South Carolina’s 2019 recruiting class went 129-9 (including 60-1 at home) during their four years. Given the amount of talent and experience with that group, there was obviously a bit of a vacuum when it came to experience for players outside of The Freshies. So, entering 2023-24, Dawn Staley will be going through a transition and rebuild, though she certainly has the kind of roster talent needed for a deep run.
Kamilla Cardoso is one of the country’s most exciting players. At 6-7 (and with a wingspan that can feel like 7-6 to opposing players), Cardoso will anchor both ends of the floor. If Staley can bring out a bit more of an edge in her, there won’t be a team in the country that can contend on every play in the paint against the Gamecocks. Cardoso could simply be that good and that dominant if she takes her game to the next level.
The big remaining question will be the same one that was a downfall for South Carolina last season: lack of consistent outside shooters. There seem to be options, though. Bree Hall was a 36 percent shooter in limited minutes last season, and Te-Hina Paopao should help out in that area — the Oregon transfer shot a career-best 42 percent from long range last season — as will the freshman star MiLaysia Fulwiley, who is dangerous from deep.
+Defense
+Paint play
+Rebounding
+Ballhandling
–Experience
–Outside shooting
The Utes came into last season flying under the radar. They were unranked to start the season and didn’t crack the top 15 until Week 5, when they were 7-0. Under coach Lynne Roberts, Utah has built methodically. But with a regular-season Pac-12 title, a run to the Sweet 16 last year, and the return of its starting five this season, there’s no doubt: Utah has arrived. So, what do they do now that they’re here? (And, especially now that everyone knows it.) Handling that pressure will be one of the biggest storylines to watch with this motivated group that played eventual champs LSU the best of any tournament opponent.
On the floor, Gianna Kneepkens, Kennady McQueen and Maty Wilke — the Wisconsin transfer — will stretch the floor with their 3-point shooting while Alissa Pili takes advantage of any space defenders give her. She and Jenna Johnson should be able to contend in the paint with any Pac-12 team, but the big remaining question is what happens when Roberts needs to turn to her bench for some post depth and production. Dasia Young and Samantha Crispe provide college experience, but a major potential difference-maker is Néné Sow, the 6-8 JUCO transfer from Belgium. She redshirted last year, so she has had a chance to get acclimated in the system, and if she’s ready to go, her length and size would be a real change up for a post group that could be the difference between a Final Four run or another second-weekend tournament exit.
+Continuity
+3-point shooting
+Go-to scorers
–Post depth
–Being targeted
Last season’s assignment for opponents will be the same this year: Stop (or, at least, slow) Caitlin Clark. This season, there are a few wrinkles. Though Clark is a thrilling scorer and playmaker, part of her efficiency last season was that defenses couldn’t sell out on her entirely. They still had to contend with Monika Czinano in the paint and the established chemistry those two had using one another. Now, Czinano is gone, and Addison O’Grady and Hannah Stuelke — who can both be effective and efficient in their own ways — are not going to be stepping into Czinano’s shoes entirely on their own.
If Gabbie Marshall or Kate Martin become similar complementary scorers to Clark that Czinano was a season ago, that will take some pressure off the paint and off Clark, helping the Hawkeyes find ways to win. But make no bones about it: Iowa will go as Clark goes. If she’s dropping 40-point triple-doubles, watch out. If she’s not, there better be at least two others going for 15-plus.
Ultimately, more questions linger for Iowa than most teams. But the Hawkeyes have a player no other team has, and the kind of player who can more than make up for a plethora of questions.
+Caitlin Clark’s scoring
+Perimeter shooting
–Paint play
–Scorers outside Clark
–Depth
Addison O’Grady
Forward / Center
How does the Ohio State defense that led power conferences in steals per game last season (11.3) come into this season even more terrifying? Just go ahead and add the ACC defensive player of the year to your backcourt, why don’t ya? Celeste Taylor’s pickup was one of the best overall fits for any player coming out of the portal. Coach Kevin McGuff will have the ability to rotate through Taylor, Jacy Sheldon, Taylor Thierry and Rikki Harris — all of whom are absolute ball hawks — as the Buckeyes ramp up their full-court defensive pressure and drive opponents into mistakes and turnovers.
With Taylor Mikesell’s graduation, the Buckeyes’ offensive identity needs to evolve. Mikesell accounted for almost a quarter of Ohio State’s shot attempts over the past two seasons, including more than one-third of its 3-point attempts. In her absence, Cotie McMahon — the reigning Big Ten freshman of the year — should become an even larger offensive centerpiece, especially as the Buckeyes don’t return any long-range shooters who are nearly as consistent as Mikesell.
Though the Buckeyes lack a tall, traditional big who would be able to match up one-on-one with some of the posts on the other top-10 teams, it ultimately might not be as big of an issue for OSU given the potential of its full-court pressure and pestering perimeter defense.
+Backcourt play
+Full-court press
+Perimeter defense
+Guard depth
–3-point shooting
–One-on-one post depth
Taylor Thierry
Guard / Forward
Rebeka Mikulášiková
Forward
The return of Elizabeth Kitley and Cayla King for another season, alongside Georgia Amoore, guaranteed this group would be a preseason top-10 team and the ACC favorites. That trio is well established in Kenny Brooks’ system, and they’ll be able to help this group weather early season bumps that come along with a slew of transfers and young players entering the rotation.
Last season, Virginia Tech relied on its starters more than almost any other team in the country. The five starters played 81 percent of the Hokies’ minutes and accounted for 88 percent of their scoring. And though Amoore, King and Kitley are talented and have an established chemistry, they won’t be able to carry the full load through the full season. But by bringing in so many transfers, it seems to indicate that Brooks might go a bit deeper into his bench if the Hokies can get production and efficiency out of that group. And that’s a fair wager considering Virginia Tech’s recent success with transfers — look no further than Taylor Soule, who came in as a grad transfer and was a bedrock for a team that went to the program’s first Final Four.
+Rebounding
+Outside shooting
+Half-court offense
–Bench production
–Rotation
Matilda Ekh
Guard / Forward
Olivia Summiel
Guard / Forward
Indiana played eight games in the middle of the season with this starting five when Grace Berger was hurt, and the Hoosiers finished 7-1 against quality opponents, including tournament teams North Carolina and Illinois. This group knows how to play together and has a dominant offensive unit, even if there is nothing flashy about it. Mackenzie Holmes is one of the best screeners and pick-and-roll finishers in college basketball, and she’s afforded the space to work thanks to shooting threats surrounding her. Sara Scalia, Sydney Parrish and Yarden Garzon all shot at least 38.7 percent from 3-point range last season, and Chloe Moore-McNeil wasn’t too far behind at 36.2 percent.
Defensively, Indiana is solid, if predictable. The Hoosiers execute man coverages well and don’t send extra help on the pick-and-roll, trusting their guards to maneuver through screens and Holmes to navigate the space between the ballhandler and the roller. A healthy Holmes had the mobility to contend with just about everyone the Hoosiers faced last season other than Caitlin Clark.
The formula works, but Indiana will have to introduce some wrinkles to adapt to specific opponents. The Hoosiers don’t have a great answer for teams with deep shooting threats or athletic guards who can muscle their way to the basket. Indiana needs to find some diversity in its blueprint during the regular season to avoid being matchup-dependent in March.
+Offensive flow
+Pick-and-roll scoring
+Ball control
–Depth
–Athleticism
–Paint defense
Rori Harmon will be the focal point on both ends of the floor — the defensive stalwart and first point of attack in full-court pressure, and the offensive catalyst that makes Texas run. As a junior and three-year starter, she’s an obvious name in the small circle of the most elite point guards in the country, and Vic Shaefer should rest easy that Harmon is his coach on the floor.
While every Shaefer team is known for its defense (and this year’s iteration will be no different), the reigning Big 12 champs were also one of the country’s most balanced offensive teams last season. But without a single focal point, Texas struggled to close out tight games when it needed a scorer to step up. Case in point: The Longhorns didn’t lose a single regular-season game by more than 10 points last season. The other side of that coin? In games decided by 10 or fewer points, Texas went 4-9.
One puzzle piece that could help there: Aaliyah Moore, a player who seemed like she would have grown into that last year. But the junior suffered a season-ending ACL tear nine games into the 2022-23 season. Her status hasn’t been made public yet but her return would be key. If she’s not ready right away, Texas won’t need to fret — Shaylee Gonzales, Taylor Jones, DeYona Gaston and Harmon can carry the load while working freshman Madison Booker into the mix.
+Defensive pressure
+Transition offense
+Point guard play
–Free-throw shooting
–Avoiding fouling
–Closing out games
Notre Dame had an outside chance at national title contention before two knee injuries derailed last season, and the injury to Olivia Miles is the biggest cloud hovering over this year.
Even without Miles available at the start, this is one of the best guard groups in the country. Sonia Citron is an elite shooting guard who made 51 percent of her 2-pointers and 40 percent of her 3-pointers as a sophomore while routinely guarding opponents’ best players. The Irish should be able to leverage her off the ball even more as KK Bransford and Cassandre Prosper grow as ballhandlers and with the addition of super freshman Hannah Hidalgo. Hidalgo’s rampage through the U19 World Cup over the summer showcased her advanced playmaking on both ends of the court — a team that struggled to create turnovers last season now has a ball hawk at the point of attack.
The path to victory will be pushing the pace and letting the guards get downhill early and often because the Irish are a little small, and beyond Citron, a little light on shooting. Transfer Anna DeWolfe made 35 percent of her 3-pointers at Fordham, and Maddy Westbeld was at 34.4 percent, but neither is the long-range shooter that defenses have to stay glued to. The Irish will be at their best leaning into their speed by being disruptive on defense and playing in transition offense as much as possible. When Miles returns, she’ll fit in seamlessly to that style.
+Playmaking
+Pace
+Paint scoring
–Olivia Miles’ knee
–Jump shooting
–Post depth
The potential scoring trifecta that Jewel Spear, Rickea Jackson and Tamari Key could be this season is really something, giving the Lady Vols a “pick your poison” type offense for opponents to try to stop. The addition of Wells — the Belmont transfer who dropped 22 on Tennessee during the 2022 NCAA Tournament — gives the Lady Vols a fourth double-digit scorer in the form of a point guard who can be both a pass-first player and a shot hunter (she shot 46 percent from beyond the arc last season).
Even with all that offensive potential, this is Tennessee after all, so defense will be prioritized. And even without Key for the full season, the Lady Vols’ interior defense performed well, holding opponents to 47 percent shooting at the rim, per Pivot Analysis. Having Key (6-6), Jillian Hollingshead (6-5) and Jackson (6-2) gives them defensive length, versatility and shot adjusting potential in the paint that could take this defense into pretty terrifying territory. Tennessee lost its leading rebounder in Jordan Horston, but this trio should be able to clean up the glass.
Tennessee hasn’t won the regular-season conference title in nearly a decade, but there are some promising indicators that this season in Knoxville could be special (which is something we’ve said before to no avail). But with the returners as well as the personnel turnover on other SEC teams, could this be the year that Kellie Harper gets Tennessee over the hump and brings her first banner to Rocky Top?
+Rebounding
+Scoring potential
+Half-court defense
+Late shot-clock defense
–Bench production
–Transition defense
Jillian Hollingshead
Forward
Tess Darby
Guard / Forward
Sara Puckett
Guard / Forward
Coach Courtney Banghart’s first recruiting class has reached its senior season, and this should be the best North Carolina team yet of her tenure. The Tar Heels needed to add some offensive firepower this offseason, and they did so in two distinct and important ways. Lexi Donarski helps fill the role of Eva Hodgson as a designated spacer, but the former Big 12 defensive player of the year also has some teeth at the other end as a perimeter stopper. Maria Gakdeng is an offensive hub in the post as a rim protector and by providing efficient scoring, which North Carolina sorely missed last year.
UNC resorted to one-on-one basketball too often last season — its assist percentage was in the 19th percentile of Division I, per CBB analytics. Deja Kelly turning into more of a distributor will help, but having more capable ballhandlers on the floor should improve the overall flow on offense. Paulina Paris at least took care of the ball as a freshman; now she has to figure out how to move it. Transfer Indya Nivar didn’t get much time on the ball at Stanford but should get a chance to show off what made the Apex, N.C., product one of the nation’s top guard recruits.
North Carolina has depth in the frontcourt, too, with returning starters Alyssa Ustby and Anya Poole complemented by Gakdeng and incoming freshman Cierra Toomey, who was No. 4 in ESPN’s rankings of the class of 2023. Rotating in more bodies is a necessity considering how physically the Tar Heels play.
+Rim pressure
+Transition defense
–Outside shooting
–Rebounding
–Ball movement
Alyssa Ustby
Guard / Forward
Maria Gakdeng
Forward / Center
A year ago, no one was talking about Ole Miss. Heck, heading into the NCAA Tournament last season, no one was talking about Ole Miss. The Rebels didn’t appear in a single AP Top 25 last season. Even though they played LSU and South Carolina well in mid-February, few outside of Oxford took notice. Then they held perennial mid-major power Gonzaga to 48 points in the first round and knocked off No. 1 seed Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. People across the country took notice of Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s vaunted defensive team.
Now, as a top-15 team with a lot of hype coming into this season — and in the SEC that feels a bit more up-for-grabs this year — how do the Rebels respond … especially with so many new faces on this roster?
Ole Miss added transfers Kennedy Todd-Williams (North Carolina), KK Deans (Florida) and Kharyssa Richardson (Auburn). As she predicted, McPhee-McCuin did “damage in the portal,” complementing an already-established Davis-Collins-Scott starting core. So, the talent is there and the fits — on defense, especially — seem obvious.
Offensively, considering the Rebels lost five games last season by single digits, this side of the ball could see some growth. One big area: the 3-point line. Though Ole Miss’ offensive system isn’t predicated on a ton of long-range shots, the Rebels shot worse than 30 percent from deep last season (and their highest-volume 3-point shooter only 28 percent). That’s not a great recipe for success even if the 3 ball isn’t the highest priority. But McPhee-McCuin might’ve started to answer part of this question with two transfers — Deans shot 38 percent while Todd-Williams hit 32 percent on 3s last season.
+Defensive execution
+Paint protection
+Rebounding
+Transition defense
–3-point shooting
–Handling increased expectations
Kennedy Todd-Williams
Guard
Kharyssa Richardson
Forward
No matter how much continuity Maryland has, Brenda Freese manages to consistently construct one of the country’s best offenses. The Terrapins play fast and have pristine spacing. Abby Meyers may be gone, but Maryland still has three players who shot at least 39 percent from 3-point range last season (Lavender Briggs, Brinae Alexander and Bri McDaniel), plus Jakia Brown-Turner, who made nearly 42 percent of her 3s in four seasons at NC State.
The problem for the Terrapins is lack of playmaking. Shyanne Sellers returns as the point guard, but she’ll have to score more with the graduations of Meyers and Diamond Miller, and there isn’t as much ballhandling in the starting lineup. Perhaps Maryland won’t have to worry about half-court execution if it can get out in transition and rain 3-pointers, but defenses that can slow the pace may find success against the Terrapins.
Maryland’s depth could be an issue. Three of last season’s freshmen transferred, leaving five returnees and two incoming transfers. The good news is that the Terrapins brought in the No. 7 freshman class in the country, led by McDonald’s All-American wing Riley Nelson. Hawa Doumbouya also adds some needed size in the middle – at 6-7, she’s the only player on the roster taller than 6-2. They could be called upon to contribute right away.
+Coaching
+Offensive spacing
+Transition
–Frontcourt rotation
–Isolation scoring
–Depth
Brinae Alexander
Guard / Forward
Faith Masonius
Guard / Forward
The Seminoles return their three top scorers while adding multiple players who should bolster their offensive potential. Alexis Tucker, the UCSB transfer, averaged 14 points a game last season while Sakyia White averaged 18. Throw into the mix Carla Viegas, the Spanish sharpshooter who shot 45 percent from beyond the arc at the FIBA U18 European Championship. She and Amaya Bonner will bring a one-two scoring punch off the bench.
Those additional scorers should make life slightly less difficult for Ta’Niya Latson, the reigning ACC freshman of the year who was an absolute matchup nightmare last season. Though FSU should have scoring threats across the board, make no bones about it, Latson will be the No. 1 option. Despite missing the postseason with an injury, she has been 100 percent since the spring and will come into this season with a similar offensive propensity, but with a focus on becoming a more disciplined defender.
Post depth and paint presence will be the real question marks for the Seminoles, who have only three players 6-2 or taller. Makayla Timpson was one of 11 power conference players to average more than two blocks per game last season (she averaged 2.6), and the Seminoles’ overall rim protection was quite good (per Pivot Analysis, FSU’s opponents shot just 44 percent at the rim). But developing depth in the paint will be key to fight Virginia Tech and Notre Dame for control of the ACC.
+Transition offense
+Pace
+Latson’s injury recovery
Fresh off its first Sweet 16 appearance in 21 years, Colorado returns six of its top seven players in total minutes and is in prime position to contend for a Pac-12 title in the conference’s swan song.
The Buffaloes are once again led by Quay Miller and Jaylyn Sherrod. Miller’s versatility as a forward shines, especially in her ability to operate in the midrange and beyond the arc as a scorer and passer. Sherrod’s game is a little more paint-bound than ideal for a 5-7 guard, but her ability to turn the corner, get to the basket and spray out to the 3-point line is useful when she’s surrounded by shooters. Miller has upped her 3-point percentage every year at Colorado, getting to 33 percent in 2022-23, and she’s joined by some veritable scorers in Frida Formann, Kindyll Wetta and incoming players Maddie Nolan and Kennedy Sanders.
With a frontcourt of Miller and Aaronette Vonleh each standing at 6-3, the Buffaloes can get outmatched inside. They shot just above league-average in the paint and weren’t very good at getting second-chance opportunities or blocking shots last season. The defense holds up due to its speed and activity, especially on the perimeter. However, bigger opposing posts like Rayah Marshall and Cameron Brink, along with guards who put pressure on the rim, could present a problem.
+Continuity
+Forcing turnovers
+Transition offense
–Fouling on defense
–Drawing fouls
–Interior size
Outside of Cameron Brink, Hannah Jump and Haley Jones, rotations for the Cardinal last season seemed to vary wildly. That might not be as much of an issue this season given the shorter roster for Tara VanDerveer. And though that lack of depth could be a downfall (especially if particular players get into foul trouble — cough, Cam Brink, cough), fewer players might also end up being a good thing as Stanford potentially settles on — by necessity — a core group more quickly.
With that smaller rotation, every player will need to expand her game. While Brink will anchor both ends of the floor, she’ll need to make sure she plays within herself and the system so her minutes aren’t limited by fouls. Stanford will be significantly worse off anytime Brink needs to be on the bench. If Talana Lepolo makes a jump similar to Kiana Williams from her freshman to sophomore seasons, the Cardinal could be in good hands as she becomes more consistent and gets more involved as a scorer. Jump has been an excellent 3-point shooter, but if she can at least threaten more as a three-level scorer and distributor, Stanford will be much better off.
Kiki Iriafen could raise the ceiling. Her potential on offense and defense could help separate this group. Her free-throw shooting needs to improve, especially as she gets more involved in the paint on offense, but the possibilities for Iriafen and Brink playing in tandem and off one another could give the Cardinal a dynamic unit to build around.
+Rebounding
+3-point shooting
–Depth
–Multiple distributors
Jeff Walz is well aware of the new reality of college basketball. As he said during the NCAA Tournament: There’s Selection Sunday, then Portal Monday. And even though the Cardinals lost one of the country’s best players (Hailey Van Lith) as a transfer, Walz reloaded in impressive fashion.
Jayda Curry is the new jitterbug scoring guard running the show, and her hot shooting stretch (48 percent on 2-pointers and 3-pointers in the last five games) to end the season for Cal provides excitement for playing off the ball with more help. She’ll get that in the form of Sydney Taylor, who averaged at least 15.6 points each of the last three seasons while improving her 3-point percentage every year, and Kiki Jefferson, who put up at least 16.2 points per game the last three seasons. Combined with Olivia Cochran inside, scoring shouldn’t be an issue. Curry and Jefferson will need a crash course in defending the Louisville way, however, because neither came from programs that emphasized that end of the floor.
The Cardinals have grown accustomed to integrating hordes of transfers over the past few years. But Walz doesn’t have a veteran floor general or even a natural point guard this year with the departures of Van Lith and Mykasa Robinson. Still, expect Louisville to once again coalesce by March, even if there are growing pains.
+Coaching
+Shot creation
+Perimeter scoring
–Post depth
–Point guard play
–Chemistry
In coach Nicki Collen’s third season, Baylor has a serious chance to put up massive offensive numbers despite losing two of its top-three scorers. Andrews returns as the Bears’ leading scorer (15 points per game last season), and she has around her five others who scored in double digits in their most recent full seasons — Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (11 PPG, Baylor), Aijha Blackwell (15 PPG, Missouri 2021-22), Jada Walker (13 PPG, Kentucky), Dre’Una Edwards (17 PPG, Kentucky 2021-22) and Madison Bartley (14 PPG, Belmont). Balancing expectations and shot distribution with so many scorers is ultimately a good problem, but it’s a problem nonetheless.
Add to that core scoring group Yaya Felder, the Ohio transfer who can attack the paint and put pressure on defenses, as well as 6-7 freshman Lety Vasconcelos, a solid passer with good touch around the rim who gives Baylor a lob option deep. Each brings a unique skillset, allowing the Bears to go through different players as Collen throws out versatile lineups without many redundancies at each position.
The flip side? Players will need to adjust to working in Baylor’s schemes with teammates who attack the game in distinct manners. Building cohesion while maintaining that versatility will be Collen’s priority through camp and in early games.
+Scoring potential
+Ball movement
+Depth
+Pick-and-roll action
–Cohesion
–Shot distribution
Bella Fontleroy
Guard / Forward
Aijha Blackwell
Guard / Forward
Darianna Littlepage-Buggs
Guard / Forward
In Shauna Green’s first year, Illinois put together one of the most impressive year-over-year turnarounds in women’s college hoops. Now in Year 2, with all five starters returning, the Illini are a dangerous top-25 team in a conference that could prepare them for a deeper postseason run.
Last year, lack of depth hurt the Illini, especially as the season wore on, but with another full season of recruiting (and transfer portal recruiting), Illinois could prove to be a deeper team. Illinois’ top six will look the same but the two key additions — Camille Hobby and Gretchen Dolan — could be big difference makers.
Hobby comes to Illinois from NC State, where she averaged eight points and four rebounds a game as a senior. As a 6-3 center, she gives the Illini more depth in the paint alongside Kendall Bostic and Brynn Shoup-Hill. Dolan, a freshman, averaged 39 points a game as a senior and ended her high school career with 2,622 points. To bring Hobby, Jada Peebles and Dolan off the bench should give Green the kind of depth and fresh legs she didn’t have last season.
+Experience
+Half-court offense
+3-point shooting
–Defensive consistency
–Rebounding
Last season, USC played in the muck. The Trojans worked so hard to slow the pace and be disruptive on defense to break opponents’ offensive flow. It was tough to execute, and tough to watch for long stretches, but it was how they had to play to account for their offensive deficiencies.
Now, the Trojans have 3-point shooters by raiding the Ivy League for McKenzie Forbes (Harvard) and Kayla Padilla (Penn) and adding an off-the-bounce scorer and creator in JuJu Watkins. If Watkins is as dynamic as advertised, she’ll be an offense unto herself. She and Rayah Marshall, who was already one of the nation’s finest defensive centers as a sophomore, are the foundations for USC on both ends. For the Trojans to take a meaningful step forward, however, Marshall has to become a passable scorer — her true shooting percentage of 42.4 was in the bottom fifth for centers last year.
This is the second straight season that Gottlieb must weave together a patchwork roster, as only three rotation players (plus Clarice Akunwafo) remain from last year’s roster. The hope is that Watkins can provide some structure on offense while the defensive integrity from 2022-23 remains.
+Interior defense
+Athleticism
+3-point shooting
–Passing
–Experience
–Paint scoring
It’s not out of the question to think Wes Moore might have four freshmen in his main rotation, as the Wolfpack welcome four top-100 recruits, including ninth-ranked Zoe Brooks, who famously won the 2022 WNBA All-Star skills challenge alongside Sabrina Ionescu. But at the start of the season, expect Moore to lean on whatever continuity and veteran presence NC State does have, as well as the Wolfpack’s pace.
Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers are two of the nation’s fastest players with the ball, each dynamite at getting into the paint, and together create a devastating open floor attack. The two guards had the best plus-minuses on the team last season, suggesting the Wolfpack are better off when they lean on that athleticism. Neither is a pure point guard, but their ability to turn the corner on defenders allows them to make plays. Brooks has this same burst to keep the tempo going when she comes off the bench.
Katie Peneueta arrives from Sacramento State having canned 46 percent of her 3-pointers over two seasons, and River Baldwin likes to spot up from distance and hit trail jumpers in transition. But if the frontcourt needs shaking up, reigning WAC defensive player of the year Lizzy Williamson is ready to step in for Baldwin, and Madison Hayes provides a small-ball spacing element that Mimi Collins doesn’t.
+Speed
+Athleticism
+Dribble penetration
–Youth
–Chemistry
–Ball movement
Creighton is a model of consistency in an otherwise chaotic college basketball landscape. Jim Flanery has been a part of the program for more than 30 years, the last 20 as head coach, and his offensive system has remained relatively unchanged the past few seasons. It helps that the core four Bluejays (Lauren Jensen, Morgan Maly, Molly Mogensen and Emma Ronsiek) are all entering at least their third year at Creighton. The Bluejays will get into their offense deliberately and methodically, using east-west ball movement and screening actions to get layups and 3s. Their shot chart is an analytics dream.
The only problem on offense is when jumpers don’t fall. Opponents can’t really take them out of what the Bluejays do — the movement generally works, but there is volatility in relying on such a high percentage of outside shots. Defense is another story. Creighton still doesn’t have the size inside to effectively protect the rim, and teams with more strength and athleticism can blow by its perimeter defense. Creighton should try more switching this year considering the players’ familiarity with one another and the like-sized rotation, or even throw out some junk defenses to keep opponents out of the paint. Flanery needs to take advantage of team chemistry on defense as well.
+Offensive system
+Continuity
+Efficiency
–Size
–Interior Defense
–Athleticism
Morgan Maly
Guard / Forward
The only team on this list that didn’t make the tournament last year, Texas A&M is in line to be one of the most improved programs in the country. Fortunately, there’s nowhere to go but up after finishing 9-20 overall and 2-14 in the SEC last season.
The main source for optimism is second-year forward Janiah Barker, who was an absolute force in the 19 games she was available during her freshman year. Barker is excellent driving to her right and is an awesome play finisher on cuts, as a spot-up shooter, and in transition. The less creating she has to do, the better, which makes it important that the Aggies cleaned up in the transfer portal, starting with point guard Endyia Rogers.
Rogers has been a disciplined distributor at two stops before College Station and has oodles of talent to work with between Barker, Sydney Bowles, and transfers Lauren Ware and Aicha Coulibaly. Texas A&M also brings in three top-100 perimeter recruits in Kylie Marshall, Solè Williams and Erica Moon, allowing Joni Taylor to use multiple ballhandlers when necessary.
Coulibaly and Ware add paint protection to a team that has struggled defensively. Ware can play next to Barker in the frontcourt in smaller lineups, or the Aggies have enough depth with Jada Malone off the bench to play units with three bigs. Things didn’t come together for Texas A&M in Year 1 of the Taylor era, but Gary Blair went 2-14 in the SEC in his first year with the Aggies, too. There’s reason to have hope with this new roster.
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photos, from left, of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers: Maddie Meyer, Justin Tofoya, G Fiume / Getty Images)
On Saturday, Clemson turned the ball over four times, trailed by as much as 14, benched its starting QB and won. That, Dabo Swinney said, is the headline.
Got it?
No, don’t ask about that quarterback controversy. It doesn’t exist. Figment of your imagination. Swinney is essentially Kevin Bacon at the end of “Animal House,” standing in the midst of a stampede and yelling, “All is well!”
Swinney spent the entire offseason hyping DJ Uiagalelei, despite his struggles in 2021. The coach has spent the first seven weeks of this season dishing out one “I told you so” after another, including as recently as last week, when he called doubts of Uiagalelei “embarrassing” and a product of “the world we live in now.”
And when Clemson was trailing by 10 and Uiagalelei coughed up his third turnover of the game midway through the third quarter, Swinney came with the hook.
Why? Swinney believed freshman Cade Klubnik could give the offense a spark, and the move worked. Clemson scored on three of its next four drives. Sure, Klubnik completed just two passes in the game, so his inspiration was more Rob Schneider in “The Waterboy” than Bill Pullman in “Independence Day.” But hey, a win is a win.
In the aftermath, Swinney emphatically assured Clemson fans that Uiagalelei is still the starter as the Tigers, now 8-0, head into an off week with their ACC Atlantic Division crown all but assured. They will not play another ranked opponent this year.
play
2:26
Clemson switches quarterbacks in the second half and overcomes four turnovers to beat Syracuse 24-21.
But Swinney is right. The world is a cold, callous place, and so we must also ask the bigger question: Is this an 8-0 team capable of winning a national championship?
Before last season, the answer might have been an emphatic, “Yes!” After all, we’d seen Clemson shrug off mediocrity before and still keep winning. Look back at Swinney’s first national title in the 2016 campaign. That season, the Tigers struggled against Troy, only beat NC State because of a missed chip shot as time expired and lost to Pitt. But Deshaun Watson still found Hunter Renfrow in the back corner of the end zone at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium in the title game against Alabama, and no one needed to remember those regular-season struggles after that.
But then 2021 happened, and despite its 10-3 finish Clemson was clearly vulnerable. The wins were less destiny than they were rugged determination. That is commendable but perhaps not sustainable.
Clemson needed double overtime to get past Wake Forest and nearly coughed up a big lead a week ago against Florida State. And if not for Syracuse‘s utterly mind-boggling decision to put Sean Tucker into witness protection Saturday — “I felt like he was the one guy who could flat-out beat us,” Swinney said afterward — there’s every reason to think this might be more 2021 than 2016.
And yet, is this question any different from the ones posed at Oregon or Alabama or Michigan and on down the line?
The Ducks demolished UCLA on Saturday and established themselves as the clear front-runner in the Pac-12, but does that matter when they’ve already been curb-stomped by Georgia in the opener?
Should we forget the way the Bulldogs demolished them way back when if the recent data points are far more impressive? Do we need a rematch of a game that was over by the end of the first quarter? It’s complicated.
Ole Miss offered the SEC an alternative to the Crimson Tide, but LSU sent the Rebels scurrying on out of Louisiana like a crawdad in a steam pot, as Brian Kelly would say.
But Lane Kiffin’s crew will still get its shot at Alabama, and if it should win, wouldn’t the Rebels be a playoff team? It’s complicated.
Or how about those Crimson Tide? Nick Saban likely spent this week of practice like Jigsaw, planning ever more sadistic dilemmas for his team to maneuver, but the rat poison was successfully expelled from Alabama’s system with a 30-6 win over Mississippi State. Yes, the Tide have appeared vulnerable against Texas and A&M and lost to Tennessee, but does anyone really think Alabama can’t be a playoff team? Well, it’s complicated.
Despite the easy win, Alabama finished with just 290 yards of total offense — its lowest production in an SEC game since 2014.
Are we sold on Tennessee? Has Georgia just been easing into the season like it’s a warm bath? Is Michigan a fitting adversary for Ohio State?
Max Duggan wasn’t perfect Saturday in the 38-28 TCU win, but he was exceptional when he had to be, and the Horned Frogs’ ground game pounded away at Kansas State until the Wildcats finally gave way. TCU has been tied or behind in the second half of each of its last three games, including against Kansas State’s backup QB on Saturday, all of which might underscore just how narrow the margin is for the Horned Frogs, but it’s a line they’ve yet to cross. Does that make TCU a playoff team? Well, it’s complicated.
If we’re nitpicking, we’ll find nearly all teams left wanting. In other words, it’s all complicated.
But Swinney isn’t nitpicking. Well, sure, he picked a few nits with his starting quarterback Saturday, but bygones are bygones now. The point is, Clemson won. So, too, did Alabama and Oregon and Penn State and Oklahoma State. Their chase continues.
In the end, Clemson is 8-0, one of just six teams (Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio State, Michigan and TCU) left with a zero in the loss column.
And when it comes time for the committee to pick nits and split hairs, that zero looms awfully large because winning every game is the one way to erase all the complications and make the committee’s decision simple.
Nix, Ducks roll past UCLA
We would like to issue a formal apology to Bo Nix. He is not the reason Auburn fans spent four years beating their heads against a wall, shouting “Make it stop! Make it stop!”
Nix bested UCLA 45-30 with a brilliant performance Saturday, completing 22-of-28 passes for 283 yards and five touchdowns. He ran for 51 more yards. He electrified a fan base that remains blissfully unaware of all the pain he once helped inflict in his old life.
Yes, the numbers at Auburn seemed to suggest Nix was at the root of the problem, but as Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies and statistics, and Nix’s numbers were the most insidious of lies.
Yes, we watched Nix struggle in his Oregon debut as the Ducks were steamrolled by Georgia, but that was an unfair sample. It was like starting fresh at a new high school with a chance to finally fit in with the cool kids, only to bump into an old classmate at the mall. Georgia knew Auburn Bo Nix too well.
But look past all that. Look at what Nix has become now that he’s clear of Auburn, past Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin and … boy, it feels like there were six or seven other coaches in there, too. Oh, sure, Nix was an Auburn legacy and a five-star recruit, but The Plains has eaten up better men than that. But after years of tumult, Nix finally realized that this relationship was toxic, that he had to move on. Nothing in Taylor Swift’s discography captures the emotion of this breakup.
And when Nix left, he got as far away as he could go. And at long last, he was free.
Nix has Oregon at 6-1 and undefeated in Pac-12 play. Despite that brutal opener against Georgia, the Ducks have miraculously forced their way back into playoff conversation. Nix’s performance Saturday helped the Oregon fan base fully exorcise one of its demons, forcing Chip Kelly to return, defeated, to the sad suburban condo with the empty pool that we all assume he lives at.
What happened at Auburn was inevitable. Nix just happened to be playing QB at the time, like the activities director on the Titanic. So, consider this Nix’s “Good Will Hunting” moment. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.
Eight is enough
Over the summer, Mario Cristobal wanted to assure the public that Miami was serious about winning and didn’t need any gimmicks to get the job done. So, Cristobal said, no more turnover chain.
Big mistake.
The turnover chain was not a gimmick. It was a sacred relic, and its destruction has signaled the end times in Coral Gables.
Duke annihilated Miami 45-21 on Saturday, as the Hurricanes coughed up the football eight times.
Eight. Times.
Now, it’d be easy enough to chalk up all the turnovers to the simple fact that Miami is a very bad football team. But that would be like suggesting there are so many “Fast and Furious” movies because Vin Diesel is America’s greatest living thespian. Both things are true, but those facts alone cannot explain such prolific output.
No, for Miami there can be but one obvious culprit: Cristobal angered the football gods, and he must now go on a mythic quest, through corridors haunted by the ghosts of Al Golden and Randy Shannon, scale the unconquerable mountains of the ACC Coastal Division and survive an epic freestyle battle with Uncle Luke to retrieve the turnover chain and return it to its rightful place on Miami’s sideline.
Quinn Ewers has had some rough moments this season. His car was towed. He hurt his shoulder. He had to watch Oklahoma play for an entire game. But Saturday was his rock bottom.
Ewers completed just 19 of 49 throws and tossed three interceptions in Texas’ 41-34 loss at Oklahoma State.
The Pokes were playing with a battered offensive line, but Spencer Sanders still delivered some critical throws, tossing two touchdowns, while Jaden Nixon showed he could’ve run over Texas’ defense wearing bedroom slippers.
It was a huge bounce-back win for Oklahoma State after blowing a late lead against TCU last week. The Cowboys are 6-1, and Sanders has firmly established himself as either the best bad QB or worst good QB in the country.
After the Longhorns lost twice without Ewers earlier this season, Saturday’s defeat can at least remove any linger “What if” debates and allow Texas to completely turn its attention to keeping trick-or-treaters safe from monkey attacks this week.
Iowa finally benched Spencer Petras on Saturday, after he managed just eight completions — six to his team, and two to Ohio State. But honestly, benching isn’t enough salvation for Petras. It’s time Quarterback Protective Services steps in and removes him from his home. He deserves to run free on a farm upstate.
Even after Petras was benched, things didn’t get better for the Hawkeyes. Alex Padilla completed just five of 10 passes for 32 yards and an interception, essentially assuring Iowa’s QB depth chart is just the two Spider-Mans pointing at each other meme.
How bad was it?
Iowa was 1-of-13 on third-down tries.
Iowa had six turnovers. (Miami can expect a thank-you card from coordinator Brian Ferentz this week.)
Iowa averaged 2.2 yards per run and yet the QBs were so bad the Hawkeyes still chose to run it 35 times.
There’s only one logical solution to Iowa’s offensive woes at this point. It’s time for Kirk Ferentz to fire his son and hire Jeff Bowden.
Under-the-radar play of the week
If you missed the ending to Stanford vs. Arizona State, we understand. Watching that game was punishment for shoplifting in several states. And perhaps fittingly, the final moments were every bit as unfortunate as a matchup between two bad teams would suggest.
Trailing 15-14, Arizona State chucked a Hail Mary throw down the sideline on fourth-and-19, which appeared to be hauled in by Elijhah Badger to set up a game-winning field goal with just seconds remaining.
play
0:52
Arizona State falls to Stanford in the final seconds as Emory Jones has one foot out on the 4th-and-19 catch that would have set up a game-winning field goal.
Upon replay review, however, the call was overturned, with officials saying Badger had a toe out of bounds on the catch, allowing Stanford to snap a 10-game conference losing streak.
Under-the-radar game of the week
Rhode Island and Monmouth put on a marathon Saturday, playing seven overtimes before the Rams emerged with a 48-46 win. Not since the famed Texas A&M-LSU epic has a college football game between two teams no one cared about gone on so very, very long.
The game featured seven ties and four lead changes. Monmouth QB Tony Muskett — who also may have been a character on “Bonanza” — threw for three touchdowns. Rhode Island QB Kasim Hill threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns, including a 73-yarder to Marques DeShields with 3:23 remaining to tie the game at 35, but he also tossed three picks.
In the first OT, both teams traded touchdowns. Both went scoreless in the second frame. Then it went to 2-point tries, and the Rams and Hawks stayed even through four more frames. In the seventh OT, Rhode Island broke up a pass in the end zone, and Hill completed his throw to Ed Lee to secure the win.
Sadly, Jimbo Fisher’s nephew was not able to attend, so this seven-OT game did not end with fisticuffs, and frankly, we cannot truly embrace seven overtimes unless someone wearing khakis starts taking swings at complete strangers.
We hate to be the ones to bring this up, but it needs to be said: Liberty is 7-1.
We know, we know: When quarterback Malik Willis left, we all hoped we could safely stop paying attention to the Flames. But somehow, they’ve kept winning, including a 41-14 stomping of BYU on Saturday behind 213 rushing yards from Dae Dae Hunter.
Liberty’s lone loss came on a missed 2-point try against 6-1 Wake Forest.
Liberty has won with three different starting QBs.
Liberty is — deep breaths — good.
Is it possible Hugh Freeze is fueled by the country’s anger at him, like the emperor in “Star Wars?” (We also assume that if Twitter existed in a galaxy far, far away, Palpatine would slide into Obi-Wan’s DMs to complain about rebel criticisms too.) There’s simply no keeping the guy down (even when he is literally kept down).
So, do we need to take Liberty seriously? The only acceptable answer is yes. To embrace Freeze is to take away his power. Or, if not that, maybe Iowa should hire him.
Heisman Five
Even in a week in which three of the nine remaining undefeated teams lost, there wasn’t much room for shake-ups at the top of the Heisman hopeful list.
Tee Martin won a national championship at Tennessee. UT Martin, on the other hand, struggled badly at Tennessee on Saturday. The Skyhawks had no answers for Hooker, who averaged more than 11 yards per throw and tossed three more touchdowns.
Exposure to the Hawkeyes’ offense took its toll on Stroud, who struggled through the first half, but thankfully Ryan Day was able to perform a full Iowa exorcism (it involves spewing creamed corn instead of pea soup) and Stroud rebounded with four second-half TD throws.
Young did all he could to pull Alabama over the finish line last week against Tennessee, but we were still worried he might catch some strays from Saban during practice this week. Thankfully, he survived, and he returned with another strong day, throwing for 249 yards and two touchdowns in the Tide’s 30-0 win over Mississippi State.
Wake is 6-1 after drubbing Boston College, and in the lone loss, Hartman had six touchdown passes. He nearly matched that total Saturday, throwing for five touchdowns and running for a sixth in the win. Hartman now has the third-most passing TDs in ACC history (93), trailing only Tajh Boyd and Philip Rivers, all despite also working part time as a 1920s mafia hit man.
No. 2 Sam Hartman, Wake
Really good balance between clean lines and fullness of the beard. Worked better before he cut his hair though. He looks like a shampoo commercial model now rather than last year’s Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. Borderline elite, 4.5 stars pic.twitter.com/sRh8c0Urfy
The most college football thing to happen Saturday
We talk often about the plague of #CollegeKickers, with flubbed chip shots invariably costing teams a needed win on an almost weekly basis. Long-snappers, on the other hand, tend to fly below the radar.
Unfortunately for Weber State‘s Grant Sands, his Saturday will be remembered for a long time.
Sands snapped the football over the punter’s head and out of the back of the end zone for a safety four times against Montana State on Saturday, handing the Bobcats eight points in a game that Montana State ultimately won 43-38.
play
0:41
Weber State is on the wrong end of the record books as it surrenders four safeties on errant special teams snaps.
Big bets and bad beats
Miami has been favored to win four times this season. The Hurricanes are now 1-3 in those games after a miserable eight-turnover loss to Duke on Saturday. Miami has now lost as a 25.5-point favorite to Middle Tennessee, a 10-point favorite to Duke and a four-point favorite to North Carolina. The Hurricanes’ lone win as a favorite came against Virginia Tech, after they failed to cover a nine-point spread in a 20-14 victory.
Clemson trailed Syracuse 21-10 at the half on Saturday, which was just about the perfect spot for the Tigers — or at least for sharp bettors. The Tigers were -9.5 in the second half, and they covered that number easily, outscoring the Orange 17-0 in the final two frames. That makes Clemson coach Dabo Swinney 11-2 against the second-half spread in his career when trailing at halftime.
We’ve reached the midpoint of the 2022 college football season, and some new faces — both teams and players — have navigated their way to the front of the line.
Tennessee is unbeaten and ranked No. 3, the Vols’ highest in-season AP ranking since 2001. Ole Miss also is unbeaten and the No. 7 Rebels have won 11 straight regular-season games dating back to last year. TCU and UCLA cracked the AP top 10 this week. It’s the highest ranking for the Horned Frogs (No. 8) since 2017 and the highest for the Bruins (No. 9) since 2015.
The fresh faces extend to ESPN’s midseason All-America team, which includes only five players who were on our preseason team. Alabama, Ohio State and Tennessee each placed two players on the team. Overall, the 26 players selected on offense, defense and special teams come from 23 teams:
Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud are special players, but Hooker gets the nod. The sixth-year senior has been the heart and soul of Tennessee’s resurgence. He’s third nationally among Power 5 quarterbacks in total offense (350.7 yards per game) and has accounted for 18 touchdowns with just one interception, and he’s done it without his most accomplished receiver (Cedric Tillman) for much of the season.
The 5-foot-8, 210-pound Corum is a dynamo. Opposing defenses know he’s going to get the ball, and it doesn’t matter. He just keeps piling up the yardage. Corum has 666 of his 901 rushing yards in his past four games and has rushed for an FBS-leading 13 touchdowns. He leads all Power 5 running backs with 11 runs of 20 yards or longer and is averaging 6.2 yards per carry.
One of Robinson’s many specialties is making defenders miss. Pro Football Focus has him No. 1 among Power 5 backs when it comes to creating missed tackles. The 6-foot, 222-pound junior, who is a carryover from our preseason team, also catches the ball like a wide receiver. He’s the only FBS player to have more than 700 rushing yards (780) and 200 receiving yards (239). He has 11 total touchdowns, including 10 on the ground, and has rushed for more than 100 yards in each of his past five games.
When has Ohio State not been loaded with talented receivers? Emeka Egbuka and Harrison have formed an explosive one-two punch with Jaxon Smith-Njigba slowed by a hamstring injury. Harrison, a 6-4, 205-pound sophomore, is tied for second among Power 5 players with nine touchdown catches and is averaging 17.3 yards per catch. He has the most targets (46) without a drop in the Power 5, according to Pro Football Focus.
Hyatt has been one of college football’s most compelling stories and also one of the nation’s most improved players. He torched Alabama with a school-record five touchdown catches and has 10 touchdowns for the season. The 6-foot, 180-pound junior has elite speed and has been much more consistent in every area of his game. He had made just two career starts prior to this season and has stepped in for the injured Tillman as the Vols’ go-to receiver.
Johnson’s move from guard to left tackle has been a big reason Ohio State’s offense has been as explosive as ever. The Buckeyes rank first nationally in scoring offense (48.8 points per game) and have given up just three sacks. The 6-6, 310-pound Johnson, one of the three offensive linemen who also made our preseason team, hasn’t allowed a sack since the 2020 season, and his tackle cohort on the right side, Dawand Jones, also is a top NFL prospect.
This is Broeker’s third straight season as a starter, and he has blossomed as the Rebels’ starting left guard after playing left tackle as a sophomore and junior. Lane Kiffin’s offenses always run the ball effectively, and the 6-5, 315-pound Broeker has been a mauler. Ole Miss is third nationally in rushing (271.4 yards per game), and Quinshon Judkins and Zach Evans have made a living running behind Broeker.
One of college football’s most experienced and dominant interior offensive linemen, the 6-4, 320-pound Schmitz has 29 career starts. The sixth-year senior has helped clear the way for Mohamed Ibrahim, who is fourth nationally in rushing yards per game (138.8). Schmitz’s 91.2 run-block grade, according to Pro Football Focus, leads all other centers by a wide margin. Schmitz is a carryover from our preseason team.
After starting 11 games at center a year ago, Avila shifted to left guard this season. He’s the unquestioned leader of the TCU offensive line and has played his way into being a top NFL prospect. A 6-4, 330-pound senior, Avila has made starts during his career at center, guard and tackle. His play in the interior of the TCU offensive line has helped the unbeaten Frogs move into the top 25 nationally in both rushing and passing offense.
The Wildcats have struggled, but Skoronski continues to play his left tackle position as well as anybody in the country. The 6-4, 315-pound junior has been a fixture in the Northwestern lineup since his true freshman season in 2020, when he stepped in for Rashawn Slater. Skoronski, who also made our preseason team, has the footwork and strength to play anywhere on the offensive line, but he has excelled at tackle.
There are a lot of good tight ends to choose from. Utah’s Dalton Kincaid and Georgia’s Brock Bowers are both having big years, but Mayer has been the most complete tight end to this point. He leads Notre Dame in catches (33), receiving yards (351) and touchdown catches (five). The 6-4, 265-pound junior is a good runner after the catch and more than holds his own as a blocker.
The transfer from Georgia Tech has been invaluable for an Alabama offense that has had to rely far too much on Young. Gibbs is the only FBS player with more than 600 rushing yards (635), 200 receiving yards (268) and 150 return yards (164). He has five rushing touchdowns and three receiving touchdowns and is one of those players who looks like he’s going to score every time he touches the ball.
Tuipulotu has been one of the most disruptive defenders in the Pac-12 after earning first-team all-conference honors as a sophomore. The 6-4, 290-pound Tuipulotu is athletic enough that he can do a little bit of everything. He leads all FBS defensive linemen with 12.5 tackles for loss and leads all Power 5 defensive linemen with seven sacks.
A dominant pass-rusher on the interior, Kancey had 3.5 tackles for loss and a sack against Georgia Tech and heads into the second half of the season with a total of 8.5 tackles for loss and three sacks while generating six quarterback hurries. The 6-foot, 280-pound Kancey has also freed up other teammates to make plays because he’s constantly facing double teams and crushing the pocket.
Chris Klieman’s Wildcats (5-1) are contending in the Big 12 and their defense has led the way. They’re ranked 14th nationally in scoring defense (16.7 points per game), and the 6-4, 255-pound Anudike-Uzomah has picked up right where he left off a year ago. He has 6.5 sacks (11 last season) and two forced fumbles (six last season), and his constant pressure off the edge has fueled Kansas State’s stifling defense.
Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr. returns interception 25 yards to the house.
Alabama used Anderson a little differently in the loss to Tennessee, and he didn’t have big numbers, but he’s still one of the most feared defenders in college football and a player who must be accounted for on every play. The 6-4, 243-pound junior, the final carryover from our preseason team, is tied for sixth nationally with 10.5 tackles for loss, including five sacks. He has nine quarterback hurries, an interception return for a touchdown and blocked a field goal attempt in the 1-point win over Texas.
Campbell is a fierce leader and competitor and has been one of college football’s most productive defenders from his middle linebacker position the past two years. The 6-5, 246-pound senior has 63 tackles, including three for loss, and recorded a safety in Iowa’s 7-3 win over South Dakota State. Campbell’s presence in the middle is a big reason the Hawkeyes have held opponents to just two rushing TDs this season.
Pace didn’t have to look far for his new home, and his transfer from Miami (Ohio) has paid dividends for both him and Cincinnati. After opening the season at outside linebacker, the 6-foot, 235-pound senior has created havoc from his middle linebacker position and is tied for the FBS lead with 12.5 tackles for loss, including five sacks. He’s been remarkably consistent with an average of 10.3 tackles per game.
The Alabama transfer — and a player the Tide could use right now on defense — moved to inside linebacker at Arkansas and has been a force for the Hogs. His defensive coordinator, Barry Odom, says the 6-5, 233-pound junior is playing at an “elite” level, and Sanders’ numbers back up those words. He has 7.5 tackles for loss, including 6.5 sacks, and has forced three fumbles. He ranks fourth in the SEC with 63 total tackles.
Phillips has started every game since he came to Utah, including all five games during the 2020 shortened season when he was a freshman. During that time, Phillips has developed into one of the top corners in the country and is tied for the FBS lead with five interceptions this season. He had interception returns for touchdowns in back-to-back games earlier this season against Oregon State and UCLA.
Wherever the ball is, you’ll find Forbes. He’s one of the best cover cornerbacks in the country and already has five interceptions this season to add to the three he had a year ago. The 6-foot, 180-pound junior has returned two of his interceptions for touchdowns this season against Texas A&M (33 yards) and Kentucky (59 yards) and has five pick-sixes in his Mississippi State career.
It’s no secret how much talent the Dawgs lost on defense to the NFL last season, and they’ve also been hampered by injuries to some key players. But Smith’s consistency and experience have been vital to a Georgia defense that ranks second nationally in scoring defense (9.1 points per game) and third in total defense (247 yards per game). The 5-11, 195-pound senior has three tackles for loss, two interceptions and one fumble recovery.
Illinois and Bret Bielema have something special brewing in Champaign, and it starts with a defense ranked first nationally in scoring defense (8.9 points per game). The Fighting Illini (6-1) have been especially hard on opposing passing games. They’ve allowed just two touchdown passes and collected 12 interceptions. Martin is part of a safety tandem along with Kendall Smith that has been terrific. Martin is second on the team in tackles (33) and has also intercepted two passes.
There’s perfect, and then there’s Christopher Dunn. He’s 14-of-14 on field-goal attempts and hasn’t missed an extra point this season. Eight of Dunn’s field goals have been from 40 yards or longer. The Wolfpack (5-2) would have a third loss had it not been for Dunn making all four of his field goals in the 19-17 win over Florida State. He kicked a 53-yarder in the fourth quarter of that game and the go-ahead 27-yarder with 6:33 to play.
Baringer has been booming footballs seemingly forever in the Big Ten. He started his career at Illinois and is now in his sixth collegiate season. It’s been his best to this point, as he leads the country with a 51.4-yard average (the only FBS punter over 50 yards). He’s had seven of his 30 punts downed inside the 10-yard line and has a long of 70 yards, the best in the Big Ten this season.
Garror, a fifth-year senior cornerback, is the only FBS player with two punt returns for touchdowns. Garror had an 83-yard return for a score in the Ragin’ Cajuns’ opener against Southeastern Louisiana and took one back 69 yards for a touchdown against South Alabama. Garror is averaging 18.4 yards on 13 returns, and he also had a 34-yard return to set up a touchdown against Eastern Michigan.
We’re officially over halfway through college football’s regular season, so what better time to check on the Heisman Trophy race than now?
After several high-profile games this past week, our Heisman watch has been turned upside down with three new faces on the list since our last check in — congrats on making the cut once again C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young.
This week, you’ll see our Heisman standings, top Heisman moments of the week, what to watch for in Week 8, plus a Q&A with Michigan RB Blake Corum.
Voting methodology: 13 voters ranked their top five candidates, with five points for a first-place vote down to one point for a fifth-place vote.
Notable: Hooker has been the breakout star of the college football season so far and his best came last Saturday against Alabama. He finished 21 of 30 for 385 yards and five touchdowns as the Volunteers beat the Crimson Tide for the first since 2006.
Notable: Stroud has been the picture of consistency this season as the No. 2 Buckeyes are off to a 6-0 start. Stroud has thrown for over 350 yards three times this season, including his last time out when he threw for 361 yards and six touchdowns against Michigan State. He’s thrown for 4+ touchdowns in four games this season.
Notable: The Crimson Tide may have taken a loss at Tennessee but Young’s return was still something to behold. He threw for 455 yards and two touchdowns while keeping Alabama in the game as Hooker was lighting up the scoreboard. Young is looking to be the second player in history to win back-to-back Heisman trophies.
Notable: The Bruins are off to the program’s best start under Chip Kelly and the success starts with the quarterback. Thompson-Robinson put UCLA on the map on Sept. 30 when he threw for 315 yards and three touchdowns in a 40-32 win over a ranked Washington team. If Thompson-Robinson wants to thoroughly place himself in the Heisman conversation, a big performance in Eugene this week against Oregon will do it.
Notable: Much like Young, one of Williams’ best performances of the season came in loss. The Trojans fell late to Utah this past week but Williams threw for 381 yards and five touchdowns in the 43-42 defeat. He also ran for 57 yards against the Utes.
Heisman odds: +800
Others receiving votes (total points in parentheses): Blake Corum, RB, Michigan (8); Drake Maye, QB, North Carolina (3)
Q&A with Blake Corum
After Michigan’s 41-17 win over Penn State in Ann Arbor, ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg and Chris Grandstaff talked with Corum about his season and the Heisman.
ESPN: Reggie Bush has attended your last few games [as a Fox analyst]. What have your interactions been like with him?
BC: I’ve become really cool friends with Reggie the last couple weeks. I talked to Reggie after every game. The respect is mutual. Reggie is one of the best running backs ever, especially when you talk about college, he killed it. He told me what he thought about my cutting ability and what type of running back I am. He said I’m one of the best. He is the best, so getting those words from him meant a lot. I talked to them after the game yesterday, and then when he was leaving, the police were escorting their cars, and I was walking out with fans, and he saw me, he rolled his window down [and said], ‘Keep being great.’ Then he told me, ‘You’re the best running back in the nation.’ That meant a lot. If I’m able to win the Heisman like Reggie, it would be a blessing.
ESPN: Did you see Charles Woodson at the Penn State game?
BC: Yeah, I’ve met Charles Woodson a couple of times. I talked to him before the game, he came up to me. Desmond Howard, I’m really cool with him. I know a bunch of guys who used to play here.
ESPN: Obviously those two guys won the biggest award you can win in the Heisman. What would it mean to be in that mix and ultimately have a chance?
BC: It would be amazing, but I’m not looking too far ahead. I’m really focused on trying to get better, how can this team get better and keep winning? When you’re winning, everyone’s looking at you. Those awards that happen at the end of the season, they’re at the end of the season for a reason. I’m not going to win the Doak Walker [Award] today, I’m not going to win the Heisman today. I have to keep producing, I have to keep eating, and that’s going to take work. Obviously, it would be a blessing to be up there on that wall next to the greats. It would be a dream come true.
ESPN: Growing up, what was your Heisman Trophy memory? What player do you remember most?
BC: I don’t have too many Heisman memories, because more times than not, it’s a quarterback winning it. But when I committed to Michigan, I went on YouTube and actually looked at the [Heisman] ceremonies of Desmond and Charles. Obviously, Johnny Manziel, that was cool with the money sign, that was a big year, that was fun, everyone was rooting for him. He was a heck of an athlete.
ESPN: How do you view your role last year as opposed to what they’re asking of you this season?
BC: I look at it as Donovan [Edwards] took my role and I took Hassan [Haskins’] role. Hassan last year, he set it up for me. He got those hard yards, and then I come in and break a 50-yarder. It’s a little different now because he wasn’t really breaking too many 50-yarders. I’m still breaking some long ones, but he was getting 20-plus carries a game, really inside zone, he wasn’t going outside too much. I feel like I’m that thunder with some lightning as well. That’s what my role is. I can take the load and then Donovan comes in and does his thing, too. I was lightning last year. Now I get to the goal line, like third-and-1, I’m in as a power back. Red zone, I’m in.
ESPN: How important has it been for you to prove you can do that and still break a 60-yarder?
BC: It’s been very important. A lot of people have doubted my durability, maybe my size, it starts with my height [5-8], but at the end of the day I’m 210 [pounds], weighed in at 212 today. So the weight isn’t a problem. But being able to get 28 to 30 carries in the last four games, I feel has shown a lot to whoever may have been doubting that.
ESPN: Who have you tried to model your game after?
BC: I love Barry Sanders. He was a little before my time, so I didn’t really get to watch him on TV, but I love watching him on YouTube, just how elusive he was and how he was able to get out of cuts and get out of tackles, break tackles, not get touched. I admire his style. Then, when it comes to power, because I like inside zone, I like running up the middle, I’m not afraid of contact, so I like Marshawn Lynch. He likes getting hit, he likes hitting people. He has that thing where he says, ‘Hit ’em over and over and over again.’ I like that mentality.
ESPN: You mentioned earlier that the Heisman is often a quarterback’s award. What would it mean to win it as a running back?
BC: It would mean a lot because it is kind of like a quarterback award. Obviously, [Michigan defensive end] Aidan [Hutchinson] went last year, didn’t get a chance to win it. If I’m able to go [to New York] and win it, I don’t know what I would do, honestly. I just know it would mean the world to me. I would definitely have come back and give my offensive linemen and big ol’ present. If I’m able to win it, I don’t know what the emotions would be like. It would mean a lot, especially another No. 2 at the University of Michigan winning it. They may have to retire the jersey after that. I thought they would have already retired it after Charles, just because of the legend he is, but if someone else wins it wearing No. 2, oh man, it would be a blessing.
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Blake Corum gets down to the 1-yard line with a 50-yard run. On the next play he finished the drive off with a short touchdown run.
Top Heisman moments this past week
1. Let’s be honest, Hooker’s entire performance against Alabama is why he’s No. 1 on the list this week. But here’s one of his many dimes from the 52-49 win.
No. 9 UCLA at No. 10 Oregon (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, Fox)
As previously mentioned, if Dorian Thompson-Robinson is a true Heisman candidate, this will be the game to show it — until the USC matchup, of course. ESPN’s College GameDay is heading to Eugene for the game and, with both teams in the top 10, UCLA coach Chip Kelly’s return to Oregon should be one of the Pac-12’s most electric games of the season. Oh, and Oregon quarterback Bo Nix isn’t too shabby, either.
Coming into the college football season, a lot of focus was put on the Week 6 slate. Jimbo Fisher against Nick Saban after an offseason of chatter and the new age of the Red River rivalry ahead of an SEC move highlighted what was supposed to be the week that made contenders and pretenders.
We were just off a week, it turns out.
Week 7 brings all the fireworks we were ready for last week as Alabama heads to Tennessee in a top-six SEC showdown that could very well be the conference championship game, while Kentucky and Mississippi State try to keep up with the current front-runners in another top-25 matchup. The Big Ten has a top-10 battle of its own this week with Penn State traveling to Michigan in what could be a College Football Playoff-defining game.
Set aside the unknown of Bryce Young‘s health and how it will impact Alabama’s offense on Saturday afternoon. We saw against Texas A&M last weekend that Young’s backup, Jalen Milroe, might not be ready to go into Tennessee and come away with a victory.
Instead, look to the battle of Tennessee’s offense vs. Alabama’s defense as the key factor in this clash of unbeaten teams.
The Vols’ offense is first among FBS teams in score rate, yards per game and points per game.
“They’re probably one of the most explosive offenses, if not the most explosive offense, in the country,” Saban said.
But the Crimson Tide’s defense is no slouch. It ranks in the top 10 in opposing score rate, yards per game and points per game.
Something has to give. And that something will likely be determined by Alabama’s ability to put pressure on Tennessee star quarterback Hendon Hooker, who has four talented receivers at his disposal with Jalin Hyatt, Bru McCoy, Cedric Tillman and Ramel Keyton — all of whom have more than 200 yards receiving this season.
In the past, Alabama has struggled against teams that go up-tempo, and Tennessee is the fifth-quickest team in the country in terms of time of possession per play (21.3 seconds). The Vols have allowed the second-lowest pressure rate in the country (16.1%), which looks at any time the quarterback is sacked, under duress or hit.
In other words: Getting a hand on Hooker won’t be easy.
But Alabama has generated the sixth-highest pressure rate in the country (37.0%) for a reason. Just look at the Texas A&M game, in which the Tide debuted their so-called “Cheetah package” that featured speedy edge rushers Will Anderson Jr., Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell on the field at the same time. Saban said simply, “It was effective.” No kidding. The defense racked up 28 total pressures against the Aggies. Anderson had a season-high 12 on his own.
“Between their personnel being good enough to win a lot of one-on-one matchups and then all their pressures and all their games up front, you gotta do a really good job,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said of his offensive line. “You have to win the one-on-one matchups and then you gotta do a great job working together as all five guys.” — Alex Scarborough
The last time Michigan and Penn State met at Michigan Stadium, they played in a virtually empty building because of COVID-19 restrictions. Penn State was 0-5 for the first time in team history. Michigan wasn’t much better at 2-3.
The teams are much better, and the stakes are much higher Saturday. Both teams are undefeated and in the top 10. Saturday’s winner will be labeled the primary challenger to Big Ten favorite Ohio State, and a bona fide College Football Playoff candidate. Michigan is defending its league title, but Penn State hasn’t been in this position since an 8-0 start in 2019.
“We know that these types of games every year are critical,” Penn State coach James Franklin said.
Penn State’s fortunes could hinge on an emerging run game and a pressure-heavy defense under first-year coordinator Manny Diaz. A Lions offense that hasn’t averaged more than 200 rush yards per game since 2018 has averaged 216.3 rush yards over the past four games with 14 touchdowns. Freshmen Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton are combining to average 153.2 rush yards per game.
They face a Michigan defense that, despite the NFL draft losses of star pass-rushers Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo, ranks seventh nationally in rush yards allowed per game (81.7) and sixth in yards per rush (2.62). Penn State’s run game could take some pressure off senior quarterback Sean Clifford, whose numbers to date mirror those of past seasons.
“It’s about execution, but it’s also about keeping people on their toes,” Franklin said. “If you can run in predictable passing situations and be efficient and effective, that’s what you want to do, and vice versa.”
Michigan also wants to broaden its offense as sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy makes his sixth career start and first against a ranked opponent. McCarthy’s athletic ability and overall skill set give Michigan a chance to open up the offense in ways it truly hasn’t under coach Jim Harbaugh. But McCarthy has operated a mostly conservative scheme, showing accuracy on high-percentage routes while struggling on deeper ones.
McCarthy’s decision-making and execution will be tested by Diaz’s defense, which has pressured quarterbacks 85 times on dropbacks, more than all but five FBS teams.
“When you look at what we have as a group and who we’re coached by, and you look at what we’re doing on the field, it’s just not matching up with our potential and where we should be, and where we’re going to be,” McCarthy said. “We should not be getting stopped offensively.” — Adam Rittenberg
The Clemson-Florida State matchup used to be the can’t-miss game in the ACC, but it has turned into a relative afterthought over the past five years.
Perhaps the Seminoles can change that Saturday.
Though it has lost its past two games, Florida State (4-2) is in position to challenge the No. 4 Tigers (6-0) based on the improvements the team has made across the board. Much of that starts on offense, where Florida State has one of the best rushing attacks in the country.
Florida State has 32 explosive run plays this year on offense, 12th most in FBS and tops in the ACC. Clemson, on the other hand, has allowed just four explosive run plays — best in the nation. What’s more, Clemson is expected to have its top five defensive linemen — Bryan Bresee, Tyler Davis, Xavier Thomas, K.J. Henry and Myles Murphy — available to play for the first time this season on Saturday.
On the other side, the status of Florida State leading rusher Treshaun Ward remains unclear after he sustained an injury last week against NC State and was seen with a sling on his arm on the sideline. Florida State coach Mike Norvell said the injury wouldn’t require surgery but has not given a timetable for his return. If Ward cannot play, Trey Benson and Lawrance Toafili will carry the load.
That matchup is one of the most intriguing to watch in this game — especially if Florida State has any shot at breaking a six-game losing streak to the Tigers. The results have been ugly over that stretch, though the Seminoles had their opportunities in a 30-20 loss last year, a game in which they led 20-17 midway through the fourth quarter.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said during his news conference this week he “wanted to vomit” watching the game tape from last year, then noted how much better the Tigers are this year — most especially with an improved DJ Uiagalelei and better offensive line.
“Grading our tape this year versus last year is night and day in every area,” Swinney said.
Clemson is now the overwhelming favorite to win the Atlantic Division, while Florida State is just hoping to avoid a third straight loss after starting the season 4-0. Of course, this is also the third straight AP-ranked opponent the Seminoles will face, the only team in the ACC scheduled to play Wake Forest, NC State and Clemson in a row.
“I love this team. I love the mindset of what they bring,” Norvell said. “Nobody wants to have a disappointing outcome in any game or in any play, but how you choose to respond to things is really what’s indicative of the character that you have and the identity of what you are going to put out. These guys continue to work, they continue to believe. We’ve got to have a great week of prep to capitalize on what’s coming here Saturday night.” — Andrea Adelson
The two “Wills” were always going to dominate the buildup to this football game — Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers and Kentucky quarterback Will Levis.
But there’s a bit of a twist.
Levis has generated much of the buzz this season from pro scouts and is widely regarded as one of the top quarterback prospects in the 2023 NFL draft. He’s also not healthy and is battling a turf toe injury that kept him out of the South Carolina game a week ago, a 24-14 home loss that saw the Wildcats average just 4.7 yards per play and go 3-of-12 on third down with redshirt freshman Kaiya Sheron making his first career start at quarterback.
The Wildcats (4-2) are hopeful that Levis can return for this game, although it could still be a game-time decision. Whoever is at quarterback, the Wildcats have to find a way to protect him better if they’re going to avoid their third straight loss. They’ve allowed 25 sacks in six games, which ranks them 129th nationally out of 131 teams in sacks allowed. Zach Arnett’s 3-3-5 defense at Mississippi State has feasted on forcing turnovers (12 in six games) and has allowed just 16 touchdowns in six games. Two of those TDs came in the fourth quarter of blowouts.
The Bulldogs (5-1) have been a more balanced team all the way around this season, be it running the ball more consistently on offense or playing the kind of defense that’s going to keep them in every game.
But the centerpiece remains Rogers, who is the only quarterback in the country with more than 2,000 passing yards (2,110) and more than 20 passing touchdowns (22). If he ever was truly underrated, he’s not now. The 6-2, 210-pound junior, who still has two years of eligibility remaining, has established himself as one of the most productive quarterbacks in college football. He passed Georgia‘s Aaron Murray last week as the SEC’s all-time completions leader. Rogers did it in only 28 games. Murray set the mark over a span of 52 games.
“He’s a guy that elevates even the other sides of the ball,” Mississippi State coach Mike Leach said of his quarterback.
Rogers has been masterful at spreading the ball around this season. Six different Mississippi State receivers have caught at least 20 passes. No other SEC school has more than three (Georgia).
Kentucky has had trouble scoring against SEC foes. The Wildcats have yet to score more than 19 points on offense in their first three conference games, which becomes even more of a problem depending on Levis’ health.
On the flip side, few teams in college football have been better at scoring in the red zone than Mississippi State, which leads the nation with 19 touchdowns in 21 trips inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
The last thing the Wildcats want is to get into a scoring match with the Bulldogs, who are 12-0 under Leach when they score at least 30 points. — Chris Low
When NC State hosted Syracuse a year ago, the defensive game plan for QB Garrett Shrader was simple enough: Make him throw the ball.
Shrader had proved an exceptional runner in 2021, and indeed, he carried 17 times for 70 yards and a score in last year’s 41-17 loss to the Wolfpack. But throwing the ball was misery. Shrader completed just 8 of 20 throws for a measly 63 yards, plus an interception for good measure. The passing game was Syracuse’s kryptonite. For the year, Shrader completed just 52.6% of his throws.
Enter Robert Anae. The new offensive coordinator for the Orange has refined the passing game and worked wonders.
“Everyone thinks Syracuse can just run the ball, and that’s it,” receiver Oronde Gadsden II said. “We wanted to develop a passing game so that when they’re running Cover 1, Cover Zero, we’ve got some dudes out there that can beat man and get open and score touchdowns.”
Syracuse can certainly run the ball. Shrader’s mobility is a weapon, but so, too, is tailback Sean Tucker, who was an All-American last season. But now there’s a genuine alternative when teams stack the box, and Shrader has proved he can find receivers downfield.
So far this season, he’s completing 71% of his throws with 10 passing TDs and just one pick. He trails only North Carolina‘s Drake Maye in passer rating among ACC QBs.
“Last year, I thought he struggled throwing the football,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said. “Now he has a 70% completion rate and is playing really well.”
Shrader is one of just four QBs in the country with 1,200 passing yards, 200 rushing yards, 10 passing touchdowns and five rushing. Add in a completion percentage of more than 70%, and the only other QBs to match those marks through five games in the playoff era are Brock Purdy, Justin Fields and Jalen Hurts.
Doeren said the priority remains containing Shrader in the pocket — something NC State struggled to do against another mobile QB, Florida State’s Jordan Travis, just last week. Travis ran for 108 yards in the 19-17 NC State win, a week after Clemson’s DJ Uiagalelei ran for 70 against the Wolfpack. NC State has allowed just 745 rushing yards (not counting sacks) this season, which ranks among the best marks in the ACC. But 358 of those yards (48%) have come from QBs. And the fact that the Wolfpack must now respect Syracuse’s passing game opens up even more avenues to run.
“It’s 11-man football in the run game, and sometimes the run is just created in a pass where a guy jumps back and takes off,” Doeren said. “We have to do a great job with their quarterback and not allowing him to get out.” — David Hale
When asked earlier this week what it would take to duplicate USC’s undefeated first half over the next six games, coach Lincoln Riley said with a smile: “Just six?” alluding to wanting to play for not just the conference title but perhaps a playoff game, too. “That’ll get quoted, oh boy. Everybody calm down.”
The unprecedented run to an undefeated season, though, gets tougher for the Trojans this week. Few places have given USC as much trouble as traveling to Salt Lake City in the past decade. Before the Trojans beat the Utes in a fan-less Rice-Eccles Stadium during the COVID-shortened season in 2020, USC hadn’t won there since 2012.
This weekend’s matchup lost some of its luster after UCLA beat Utah at the Rose Bowl, but the importance of this game — for both teams — has not been diminished.
Though Utah has not met preseason expectations, Kyle Whittingham’s team is stronger at home, and the expectation is that the Utes will bounce back from Saturday’s loss, especially after an uncharacteristic two-turnover day from quarterback Cameron Rising.
Earlier this week, Riley waxed poetic about Rising, whom he recruited out of high school. And by all accounts, Rising might be the best quarterback USC’s turnover-happy defense has faced so far.
For the Utes, dropping a third game (second in conference) would mean that the road back to the Pac-12 championship would require not just winning out, but hoping one of the L.A. teams and Oregon falter. For the Trojans, a win would not only keep their undefeated record intact heading into an easier stretch (and a bye week), but it would also create a simple path toward the title game: Beat UCLA.
“This is when it gets the most fun,” Riley said. “You put yourself in a great position, now it’s time to go accelerate and be our best.” — Paolo Uggetti
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