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Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
23 Days Until 2025 Purdue Football: Jaheim Merriweather & Trey Smith
We are just over 3 weeks away from the kickoff of the 2025 Purdue football season. Today we've got two players on the countdown. So let's get started! #23 – Jaheim Merriweather Running Back 6'2', 215 lbs Sophomore Jackson, Tennessee 2025 Outlook: Running back rotation Merriweather is one of the few returning players from last year's team. He appeared in 11 games as a freshman. He only carried the ball 15 times for 77 yards, but just to see the field at the running back position as a freshman is a great accomplishment. The hope with this position is obviously that Devin Mockobee will hold down the starting role and hopefully reach 1,000 yards this season. However, even the best of running backs needs breaks. Merriweather could be one of the players to step up into a backup rotation role at the RB position. Opportunities will be available at nearly all positions this season and RB is no different. #23 – Trey Smith Defensive End 6'4', 255 lbs Sophomore (redshirt) Apopka, Florida Previous School: Illinois 2025 Outlook: Defensive end depth Smith comes to Purdue after playing at Illinois last season. He'd been at Illinois for two seasons appearing in 11 games over those two seasons. No huge stats to speak of during that time with only two tackles including one tackle for loss on the season. Now he will look to make an impact on a different Big Ten team just down the road. Smith certainly has some good measurables, now it's a matter of putting it together on the field with a new playbook.
Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Fox Sports
'Humble and Hungry': Indiana Isn't Settling Under Curt Cignetti
College Football 'Humble and Hungry': Indiana Isn't Settling Under Curt Cignetti Updated Aug. 7, 2025 7:52 p.m. ET share facebook x reddit link LAS VEGAS — In the immediate aftermath of Indiana's season-ending loss to Notre Dame during the opening round of last year's College Football Playoff, its lightning rod head coach, Curt Cignetti, trudged into the visiting media room at Notre Dame Stadium with hollow guts and wounded pride. For the better part of five months, Cignetti and his players had transformed into nationwide darlings while authoring one of the greatest turnarounds the sport has ever seen. But on this December evening in South Bend, as the 12-team format was unveiled for the first time, the Hoosiers endured a one-sided whipping. All that separated Cignetti & Co. from a more humiliating scoreline were two late touchdowns once the outcome had long been secured. "The hardest thing on a night like this is saying 'goodbye' to your kids," Cignetti said to begin the news conference after sharing a postgame embrace with his family. "They're hurting because their old man got his a-- kicked." The emptiness of it all transported Cignetti back to a lowly moment from 2011, during his first season as a collegiate head coach, when he allowed a similarly painful defeat to hover over his program, much to the detriment of everyone involved. Then in charge at IUP — that's Indiana University of Pennsylvania for anyone unfamiliar with Division II football — Cignetti wallowed in the wake of a 20-6 loss to Slippery Rock in which the Crimson Hawks' quarterbacks combined to throw four interceptions. It gnawed at him for days. ADVERTISEMENT "I just couldn't let it go," Cignetti said when retelling the story at Big Ten Media Days last month. "And it hurt us the next couple of weeks, too, you know? You can't let this one [against Notre Dame] hurt you. It's over, you file the lessons away, you learn and you grow from it." That was the message Cignetti and his players conveyed to reporters inside the South Seas Ballroom at Mandalay Bay, where far more attention was paid to the Hoosiers than anybody could have imagined prior to last year's remarkable ascendance. By winning 11 games for the first time in school history and earning an at-large berth in the College Football Playoff — something traditional powers like Miami and Florida still haven't done — Indiana catapulted itself to a level of relevance normally reserved for the school's basketball program, a five-time national champion. And with that kind of attention comes an intoxicating blend of scrutiny and expectation most frequently bestowed upon teams and coaches for whom winning is an annual tradition. How close Cignetti can come to replicating what happened in 2024, when the only defeats Indiana suffered were against Notre Dame and Ohio State, two teams that went on to reach the national championship game, will be among the Big Ten's most interesting storylines this fall. That the Hoosiers were picked sixth in both preseason league polls circulated last month will not preclude them from being comfortably included in the national top 25 when the preseason AP Poll surfaces next week, something that has only happened once since 1969 and only three times overall. But in typical grandiose Cignetti fashion, the idea of simply matching a campaign he described as "the best season in Indiana history" isn't lofty enough for his liking. "I get questions [about] 'How are you going to sustain it?'" Cignetti said. "We're not looking to sustain it. We're looking to improve it. And the way you do that is by having the right people on the bus, upstairs in the coaches' offices, downstairs in the locker room. Having a blueprint plan and process, high standards of expectations [and] never lowering your standards." Head coach Curt Cignetti of the Indiana Hoosiers reacts during the fourth quarter against Michigan. (Photo by) For Cignetti, improving rather than sustaining began with intense player-retention efforts sought to both dissuade key contributors from entering the transfer portal while simultaneously rewarding veterans who passed on the NFL Draft to spend another year at Indiana. The former was successful enough that Cignetti said the Hoosiers didn't lose "a single player that we wanted to keep," even though 27 players wound up exiting the program, including five who ended up at Power 4 schools — tight end Sam West (Mississippi State); offensive tackle Austin Barrett (Iowa State); cornerback Jamier Johnson (UCLA); quarterback Tayven Jackson (UCF); wide receiver Donaven McCulley (Michigan). McCulley was the highest-rated former Hoosier in the portal at No. 285 overall, according to 247Sports. Indiana's portal strategy was buoyed by strong financial offers to players who might have been chosen in the middle or late rounds of the draft. Leading receiver Elijah Sarratt, who caught 53 passes for 957 yards and eight touchdowns, said he and Cignetti reached a monetary agreement shortly after the loss to Notre Dame that cemented his decision to return. The Hoosiers also brought back three potential draft picks on defense in edge rusher Mikail Kamara (nation-leading 68 quarterback pressures), inside linebacker Aiden Fisher (team-high 118 tackles) and cornerback D'Angelo Ponds (first-team All-Big Ten). Indiana DE Mikail Kamara #6 pressures Michigan QB Davis Warren #16 during the first half at Memorial Stadium. (Photo by) "I think last year [the mindset] was to go in here and win a couple games, you know?" Kamara said. "Maybe go and win a bowl game. If we're being quite honest, I think that was kind of the goal. And once we started rolling, the goal started to change a little bit. So I think the way that it changed is we expected to win games and we expected to win games big. And we expected to make the playoffs and try to go to the national championship, right? "So I think the difference is that mindset that we had maybe midway, maybe in the back end of the season, is the mindset that we have going into the first game this season: Win a championship and that's it." Predictably, that mindset starts with Cignetti himself and a challenge the head coach issued to everyone within Indiana's program. Regardless of what the outside world is saying about the Hoosiers — and many analysts believe they could be in the mix for a second consecutive playoff berth — Cignetti wants them to approach each day "humble and hungry versus noise and clutter," which means understanding that last year's success guarantees Indiana nothing in 2025 and beyond. His message is already being carried out by some of the team's best players, a handful of whom are still holdovers from Cignetti's last job at James Madison and followed him to help overhaul the culture at Indiana. For Kamara, who enters 2025 as one of the conference's most feared edge rushers, that has meant improving his conditioning and body composition so that he can play to his full potential for all four quarters, an improvement he believed was necessary after admitting he faded late in games last year. For Sarratt, whose goal is to become a first-round pick in next year's NFL Draft, that has meant shoring up his blocking, sharpening his route running and becoming more consistent as a pass catcher to avoid the untimely drops that resulted in him falling just short of 1,000 yards — a statistic that he said still irks him. "We don't want to go to the College Football Playoff and lose in Round 1 again," Sarratt said. "That's not the goal. The goal is to win a national championship. That's what we're working hard to do every single day." Indiana WR Elijah Sarratt (13) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during a game against Michigan. (Photo by Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Their belief that Indiana is a program capable of contending for the playoff most seasons began trickling down to the team's newcomers during spring practice, where Cignetti welcomed a high school recruiting class that ranked 49th nationally and a transfer portal class that ranked 25th nationally — two spots behind Texas and one spot behind Ohio State. The additions of high-profile transfers like former Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza (No. 22 transfer, No. 4 QB), former Notre Dame offensive lineman Pat Coogan (No. 138 transfer, No. 9 IOL) and former Maryland tailback Roman Hemby (No. 236 transfer, No. 15 RB), all of whom will start for Indiana in 2025, are a direct result of the program's headline-generating trajectory in 2024. In listening to the Hoosiers speak at Big Ten Media Days, where they exuded far more confidence than Indiana players of yore, any concern Cignetti might have had about a hangover from the loss to Notre Dame seems like it can be safely erased. They filed those lessons away, they've learned, and they've grown — just as Cignetti did when he lost to Slippery Rock so many years before. "If you are resting on your laurels," Cignetti said, "and you got the warm fuzzies based on what social media is telling you, or what you read on social media, and you think it's just going to happen again because it happened before, [then] you ain't going to be a very happy camper when the season is over. My job is to make sure that doesn't happen. "I know I got to improve in a lot of ways, but I'm really good at keeping the main thing the main thing and being a watchdog for complacency and stomping it out. When we go to camp and we get ready for that first game, these guys will be thinking like we need them to think." And that means dreaming of a national championship. Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience Indiana Hoosiers share
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
One player to watch at each defensive position in Eagles' preseason opener vs. the Bengals
With kickoff fast approaching, we're looking at one player to watch at each defensive position. The Philadelphia Eagles will face the Cincinnati Bengals in the first preseason game of the summer, where there will be plenty to watch. It's unknown if Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, running back Saquon Barkley, and any of the key starters will play. At the same time, Thursday night offers a debut opportunity for Jihaad Campbell at linebacker. For Cincinnati, head coach Zac Taylor has already confirmed that his starters will play at least a series, and could play into the second quarter. With kickoff fast approaching, we're looking at one player to watch at each defensive position. DB Maxen Hook – Toledo #37 A former teammate of star cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, Hook was a first-team All-MAC selection in 2024, his third straight season earning the honor. He was the third Toledo Rocket to make an All-MAC team in four seasons. Hook could be this year's Reed Blankenship. DB Brandon Johnson – Oregon #35 Named All-Big Ten honorable mention in 2024, Johnson played in 14 games for the Ducks, logging 45 tackles, five pass breakups, and 4.5 tackles for loss. Johnson played three seasons at Duke before transferring to Oregon. DE Antwaun Powell-Ryland Jr. Philadelphia drafted All-American pass rusher Antwaun Powell-Ryland in the sixth round, and the former Virginia Tech star will look to show his explosiveness off the edge. DT Gabe Hall A rugged and versatile player at Baylor, a rookie free agent out of Baylor last season (6-6, 295 pounds), was on the practice squad for the entire season. He'll need a decisive training camp, but he can rush the passer and bring athleticism to the defensive tackle position. LB Dallas Gant A rookie free agent signing of the Vikings following the 2024 NFL Draft, Gant (6-2, 224 pounds) was a college teammate of cornerback Quinyon Mitchell at Toledo. CB Tariq Castro-Fields Castro-Fields was drafted in the sixth round of the 2022 draft by the 49ers. After a few months with the team, he was waived. The Commanders then picked him up, and he played in eight games, recording four tackles. Castro-Fields was picked up on waivers by the Panthers to begin the 2024 season, and he played nine snaps on special teams. He will be looking to establish himself as a key player in the Eagles' talented secondary. S Andre Sam Sam spent the season on the Philadelphia Eagles' practice squad. Sam (5-11, 191 pounds) jumped from FCS after starting his career in 2017 at McNeese State, where he was selected First Team All-Southland Conference twice. Sam transferred to Marshall for the 2022 season before spending his final season at LSU. Overall, he played 58 games in college, registering 144 tackles, ten pass defenses, and nine interceptions. Sam has spent the past two off-seasons training with C.J. Gardner-Johnson and could prepare to carve out a key role in year three.
