It was weird to watch Oregon with Dillon Gabriel, former OU QB, and Ohio State with Will Howard, formerly of KSU, both former Big 12 QBs. Did those 2 QBs just jump ship to a better program?
Absolutely! I was actually doubtful on Gabriel switching from OU to UO, but he's gone to another level. Ducks were very shaky in earlier games but they've found their footing. The pass rush was gutted without Jordan Burch and they still won, which was very impressive. Ohio State playing in Autzen is a good thing for college football.
I find this interesting: Such a ploy will no longer work going forward, as NCAA football secretary-rules editor Steve Shaw said in a statement that they were looking to "take away any gain for the defense" from committing an intentional penalty. "Football is a very dynamic game," Shaw said. "Occasionally there are specific situations where committing a penalty can give a team an advantage. A guiding principle of the NCAA Football Rules Committee is that there should be no benefit when a team commits a penalty." If you're going to get beaten on a deep pass, defenders will intentionally commit pass interference to limit the damage to 15 yards. How is that any different? It seems like a benefit to the team committing a penalty. In the Oregon case, they used 12 men on the field, but they could just as easily have done it with 11 men and having their two defensive ends lined up offside (but not moving, so they don't blow the play dead). At the snap, they get an easy free run at the QB and can just get a sack and have the same result. Or they could just have tacked every receiver on the field at the line of scrimmage.
As soon as Dan Lanning opened his big mouth, I expected the NCAA to act. Didn't think they would make the change immediately effective.
IU's QB suffers a hand injury and the backup QB is even better. They are nuking Nebraska 42-7 and will go 7-0. Looking at their remaining schedule, they have a good chance to finish 11-1 if they can beat Michigan at home. That would be a historic season for them. Their coach used the transfer portal and brought players and coaches with him from James Madison. I'm from Indiana and it's just plain unnatural for IU football to be good.
Cignetti is impressive as hell. Dude just wins, everywhere. From espn, article's about how the 14 new P4 coaches built their rosters: During his first 20 days at Indiana, Curt Cignetti did not see much daylight. Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson sent the plane to pick up his new coach on Dec. 1. What Cignetti and his staff discovered upon landing in Bloomington was a roster crisis. Nineteen scholarship players were already in the transfer portal, including 13 who'd started. They had three weeks to rebuild a Big Ten team. Cignetti drove to work in the dark before 5 a.m. He'd typically work out of his new office until 11 p.m. One night, it was 12:30. "Haven't done that since 1986," he joked. He was proud that, at 63, he could still do it. The process of assembling the 2024 Hoosiers required an incalculable amount of film, phone calls and coffee. "It was pedal to the metal, full-steam ahead," Cignetti said. ... Transfers: 30 Starts by transfers: 80 Snaps by transfers: 4,399 Six games in, it's clear Cignetti knew what he was doing. Indiana is 6-0 and ranked No. 16 thanks to those tireless transfer portal efforts in December. Of all the newly hired coaching staffs going through Year 1, Cignetti's crew has arguably Moneyballed the transfer portal better than anyone. This year's Indiana team began its breakthrough season with 30 transfers and a total of 54 newcomers. The undefeated Hoosiers haven't trailed in any game, but Cignetti was absolutely playing from behind on Day 1. "It got to the point where, yeah, it hit me where we were: Not in a very good spot," Cignetti now says with a laugh. "But it actually turned out to be a blessing. Because it was very evident to me, after talking to a lot of the guys that were here last year, that we needed as many new names here as possible." Cignetti inherited a 3-9 team but fully expected to win. "We're going to do it now," he said. "We're not building it and trying to get it done in four years. Nowadays in college football, you got to win now. The portal allows you to do that." Cignetti and his staff were able to sign 13 of their former players from James Madison, an important first step for resetting their program culture. Eight of the JMU imports -- running back Ty Son Lawton, receiver Elijah Sarratt, tight end Zach Horton, defensive linemen Mikail Kamara and James Carpenter, linebackers Aiden Fisher and Jailin Walker and cornerback D'Angelo Ponds -- are starters and leaders for the Hoosiers. Cignetti insists he never expected that many to make the move to Bloomington, but their decisions helped generate momentum. When it came to recruiting transfers he didn't know, Cignetti had a clear objective: Production over potential. Multiyear starters over blue-chip backups. The transfers he signed came from all over -- Wisconsin, Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Old Dominion, Kent State -- but came with experience. There's an intangible factor there, he reasons, that you have to trust. "There's something that guy's got that keeps him on the field for 12 games a year for two or three straight years, you know what I mean?" Cignetti said. "I just put a premium on those guys that are out there practicing day in and day out, playing game in and game out and producing year in and year out." That's what he loved about quarterback Kurtis Rourke. Cignetti had no prior connections to the sixth-year senior from Ohio. He just liked his tape and his résumé: 33 career starts, almost 1,000 career pass attempts, lots of touchdowns (61), not many interceptions (16), MAC Player of the Year in 2022. Rourke was lightly recruited when he entered the portal, earning offers from Wake Forest, BYU and Vanderbilt, and thought about going pro. Cignetti sold him on his track record: four consecutive James Madison QBs earned conference Player of the Year honors. Rourke, the Big Ten's second-leading passer, might make it five. Dolson, Indiana's athletic director, watched the December recruiting rush with amazement. His new coach had a blueprint and attacked it with efficiency and confidence. "He does not waste time," Dolson said. The last answer Cignetti offered when he interviewed for the job has stuck with the AD to this day. "I remember at the very end, I said: Do you think you can win here?" Dolson said. "He said, 'Scott, believe this. Honestly, if I had just average resources, I will win there. Trust me.'" In November, the Indianapolis Star reported Indiana was committing $3 million in NIL funding to support its new coach. Dolson said they ended up doing "a lot better than that." Competing in the Big Ten -- and in the portal -- required significant investment. "Our fans and donors stepped up in an incredible way that really put us in a position to be able to build a roster," Dolson said. By the time Cignetti got to signing day on Dec. 20, he liked their haul. He vowed they got the right guys off the bus and the right ones on it. Among the 40 players who started games for Indiana in 2023, only 14 remain on the roster. When the Hoosiers beat Northwestern to secure bowl eligibility, they did so with a starting lineup featuring just three returning starters and 14 new transfers. It's a brand-new squad in so many ways that just keeps winning. The coach knows having a senior-heavy roster this fall means they'll need to heavily recruit the portal in December. "You're going to have to do it again," Cignetti said. But at this point, it's easy to trust his plan. "I've said to anyone who will listen, and most importantly our fans: He's not a one-hit wonder," Dolson said. "He's a program builder, and that's what we want to do here." https://www.espn.com/college-footba...ter-first-year-coaches-texas-alabama-michigan
Been coaching hoops all day but I see Baylor scored over 50 today just as we all expected. WT(actual)F
My son is an insanely good coach. His team won 55-10. It was wild. They play for the championship tomorrow.
