NCAA NCAAF 2025 Offseason

[RIPPA]

Washington State has hired Jimmy Rogers away from South Dakota State

[EVA]

I’ll just say that there was an interesting trend this hiring cycle of non-P4 schools hiring FCS coaches, and that should probably tell us something about how those universities see their future in CFB.

[RIPPA]

Miami has fired DC Lance Guidry

[RIPPA]

Also the new word of the day is Tampering

Jim Mora is yelling that all the schools are tampering with his players

Meanwhile - Quinn Ewers reportedly was offered 6 million to return to college and enter the portal

[EVA]

There was some recent rumbling that Jalen Milroe might also be the subject of an NIL bidding war to remain in college for another season, but he put that to be today by declaring for the Draft. I think Quinn Ewers will ultimately do the same. Both are very flawed prospects, but the 2025 QB class is so shallow, they’ll still be picked within the first couple of rounds based on natural talent and potential. Some NFL coach will think they can fix them.

Milroe leaves behind an enigmatic legacy of some incredible highs, dumbfounding lows, and a frustratingly high level of variance between the two extremes.

[Brian Fowler]

2 minutes ago, EVA said:

There was some recent rumbling that Jalen Milroe might also be the subject of an NIL bidding war to remain in college for another season, but he put that to be today by declaring for the Draft. I think Quinn Ewers will ultimately do the same. Both are very flawed prospects, but the 2025 QB class is so shallow, they’ll still be picked within the first couple of rounds based on natural talent and potential. Some NFL coach will think they can fix them.

Milroe leaves behind an enigmatic legacy of some incredible highs, dumbfounding lows, and a frustratingly high level of variance between the two extremes.

Milroe seems to have been, basically, a slightly better version of Alabama Jalen Hurts. Both devastating runners and great deep ball throwers, both wildly inconsistent at pretty much everything else. 

If course, Hurts did transfer, and had an absurd season for Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma that would've probably won the Heisman in 90-95% of seasons, but happened to be the same year Joe Burrow broke football.

[RIPPA]

One of them will definitely be a Giant

[Tabe]

Add Dirk Koetter to the list of coaches quitting because they hate players job-hopping like coaches have for the last century:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/01/03/why-is-dirk-koetter-retiring-boise-state-offensive-coordinator/77434037007/

Koetter at least had the good sense to mention other stuff like the timing of the transfer portal.

[Cobra Commander]

Huge game scheduled for next season 

https://pittsburghpanthers.com/news/2025/1/7/pitt-to-open-2025-football-season-against-duquesne.aspx - Pitt to Open 2025 Football Season Against Duquesne

[Dewar]

Northern Illinois to the Mountain West for football approved today. Non-football sports need to find a new conference. Missouri Valley, Horizon and Summit all make sense. 

[Craig H]

Early rumblings that Golden may be offered the DC job with the Bengals, which really, really, really sucks for Notre Dame because he's been amazing with them.

[EVA]

It is BLEAK in the mid-major world right now. Any good player who emerges is getting snatched up by the majors like it’s a farm system.

I’ve seen someone recently suggest that CFB should take a page from pro soccer and make schools pay a transfer fee to the school the player is leaving, and I don’t hate that idea.

[Brian Fowler]

3 hours ago, Dewar said:

Northern Illinois to the Mountain West for football approved today. Non-football sports need to find a new conference. Missouri Valley, Horizon and Summit all make sense. 

I thought the plan was to keep the rest in the MAC?

[EVA]

Carson Beck is retuning to college for another year…but not to Georgia. Interesting development there.

[Dolfan in NYC]

10 minutes ago, EVA said:

Carson Beck is retuning to college for another year…but not to Georgia. Interesting development there.

Pete Thamel is reporting (via ESPN) that Beck is probably going to Miami.

[Craig H]

I know we're still early in the process with the transfer portal and everything, but for QBs, I wonder what it will do for them when it comes time to declare for the NFL draft. If more and more QBs keep hopping from one school to the next and essentially have success with one particular school in a bubble, then I wonder if it's going to be more harmful for QBs going forward entering the NFL, if it will benefit them from having more knowledge from working under different systems, if we'll see QBs drop further down in the draft except for the one or two standouts and those are usually the guys who have probably stayed with the same college the entire time. 

And then there is I guess the question of what happens with QBs who were sitting behind another QB for however many years and then had to sit behind a portal transfer and then decided to enter the portal and play elsewhere for one season. Let's say they have a good season there and then all you have to go off of is basically their high school career and one season of college. QBs are already a crapshoot when it comes to the NFL, but I don't know, this seems to make it even more of a crapshoot. You still have to go through the combine and everything, but that's also not the most reliable system for judging talent.

[Cobra Commander]

I'd think that QBs who didn't experience some sort of stability bouncing between schools would counterbalance the situation and maybe get some guys noticed who spent 2/3 years somewhere and had more consistent results than the guys bouncing around

[Brian Fowler]

Cam Ward declared for the draft last year, was widely projected as a day three pick, changed his mind, entered the portal, went to Miami for one year, and is now a potential first overall pick, and looks like a lock for the top five.

So that's a point in favor of bouncing I guess?

[Craig H]

Man...A day later and I can't believe where my team is at. I'm incredibly proud of those guys even if I think Riley Leonard doesn't have book or street smarts and barely has enough football smarts, but man, he just finds a way to win and make it work. J Love has a busted up leg and still has insane hurdles and strength to drag defenders into the end zone. This defense has more injuries than more than any team in the CFP and yet next man up has been the mantra all season and their backups and backups to backups have played their asses off. This is awesome.

Thank you and fuck you, Brian Kelly. You wanted to go somewhere where you had the resources to win a National Championship? You may have the money, but you'll never have the ring. And maybe Freeman won't either. He at least got his team to win in more high pressure situations than Kelly ever did and he's not screaming at his players and making them pick between the belt, stick, or wrench for what you're going to get beaten with.

[Dolfan in NYC]

23 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Pete Thamel is reporting (via ESPN) that Beck is probably going to Miami.

WSVN has confirmed Beck will be a Cane.   His contract ( "NIL Deal" ) is for a year at $4 million.

[EVA]

I’ll be interested to see how Beck does there. He is not a Cam Ward type. As we’ve seen for the past two years at Georgia, he is proportionately as good as the talent around him. He’s not a guy who plays outside the system and elevates lesser players through force of will/talent.

So the real question is, what else does Miami got in 2025?

[Brian Fowler]

Shocking development: Nick Saban has been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame 

[Dolfan in NYC]

5 hours ago, EVA said:

I’ll be interested to see how Beck does there. He is not a Cam Ward type. As we’ve seen for the past two years at Georgia, he is proportionately as good as the talent around him. He’s not a guy who plays outside the system and elevates lesser players through force of will/talent.

So the real question is, what else does Miami got in 2025?

An open checkbook.

[RIPPA]

Today I learned that Carson Beck is dating Hanna Cavinder

Clearly a WWE NIL deal is in his future

[Brian Fowler]

Legendary Colorado coach/man of questionable socio-political views Bill McCartney passed away after a several year struggle with dementia. Part of the strange "Riverview, MI to the University of Missouri to play football, then become a wildly successful football coach" pipeline that also included Woody Widenhofer and Lloyd Carr. Has by far the best record in Colorado history, was the coach for their only national championship (split with Ga Tech and always colored by the infamous 5th down) and brought them their first win over Nebraska in two decades and two other top five finishes.

Retired rather abruptly following the 1994 season (where they went 11-1 and finished #3) to focus on Promise Keepers, which he had founded a few years earlier. Also turned down the Michigan job a few months later after Gary Moeller got fired for his drunken rant.