Bill Belichick's secretive past at odds with messy present, plus Florida QB recruits

New York Times

01-05-2025

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Today in college football news, Chvrches is on pace for generational numbers in my Spotify Wrapped this year.
To be clear, I still don't exactly care about the details of Bill Belichick's personal life. But I am fascinated that the personal details being broadcasted all over the place for months are his, of all people's.
There are at least three Belichicks. You tell me whether these are all the same person:
I guess I can imagine a way to tie those things together. When he has control, he wields it thoroughly by punishing and rewarding inquiries based on how they suit his goals. But once his control gets wobbly, gosh, does it wobble.
Most recently on One Tree Chapel Hill:
Also, I keep thinking about this: Belichick and Nick Saban have often been compared to each other, and for a lot of obvious reasons. They're decades-long friends who were on the same Cleveland Browns staff, they've won a combined 4 million championships and they're both brilliant at explaining football, despite being gruffly dismissive at least half the time.
The past few months have presented a blatant distinction, though. The idea of Saban's off-field dealings somehow becoming the heart of rampant internet gossip among even people who don't care about sports at all? Totally unfathomable.
💰 Remember all the headlines last year about eventual national champ Ohio State's $20 million roster? Is Texas really doubling that this year? Let's come back to Sam Khan Jr.'s exploration another day, after you read it today.
🌲 Kinda got used to that Stanford-being-good-at-literally-everything stuff, right? That makes it easy to forget the Cardinal were bad at football for a long time. 'The level of arrogance at Stanford is unique,' one admin said in this story by Stewart Mandel and Lindsay Schnell on whether these nerds can hang in this era.
💰 Missed this late last week: 'The NCAA announced the renewal of an agreement with Genius Sports that will require bookmakers to drop wagering on individual performances if they want access to real-time statistics from March Madness.'
🫡 Jordan Travis, the former Florida State quarterback whose injury somehow resulted in the undefeated Noles missing the 2023 Playoff (still working my mind around that one), has retired from the NFL due to the effects of that same injury.
⛽️ The latest big-name 'general manager' in college sports: Dr. Shaquille O'Neal, volunteering to help Mike Bibby's hoops staff at Sacramento State. (Shaq's son Shaqir is on the roster.)
Since the state of Florida is always so clearly loaded with high school football talent, how come it rarely generates top-end quarterback recruits?
As a longtime member of the recruiting map's Big 3 states (or Big 4, depending on whether you place Georgia alongside California, Florida and Texas, as you should), the nation's dangly appendage should have a steady share of top QBs. However, as Manny Navarro wrote yesterday:
'From 2010 through 2025, Florida produced only three quarterbacks who ranked among the top 100 prospects nationally — Jeff Driskel (No. 17 in 2011), Feleipe Franks (No. 54 in 2016) and Deondre Francois (No. 66 in 2015). Eight states have produced more top-100 quarterbacks during this stretch.'
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Elsewhere in Manny's story, former Miami high school QB Teddy Bridgewater 'said his mother couldn't afford private coaching,' a common experience in a state where one QB coach 'blames the developmental issues on the lack of financial support in Florida's public school system.'
To some extent, that's also a self-perpetuating stigma. Remember the years of debate about the Miami area's Lamar Jackson, a Heisman winner and two-time NFL MVP, allegedly being better suited to play wide receiver?
'I never took quarterback seriously,' says Bridgewater, an 11-year NFL veteran and championship coach at his old high school, 'because you knew your chance of making the league at quarterback was scarce.'
More here in Manny's story.
Next, it's mailbag time, and then I'll see you next week!
Of the CFP hopefuls, does any team have a more glaring hole at a position than wide receiver for the Nittany Lions? Do you think this will hurt Drew Allar's draft stock? — Zachary S.
The news got lost over draft weekend, but Penn State did finally land a proven receiver: Syracuse's Trebor Pena, aka the guy coach Fran Brown suggested may have asked for $2 million to stay there.
Pena is a sixth-year senior who broke out last season in Brown's pass-heavy offense to the tune of 84 catches for 941 yards. He's not exactly a home-run threat, but he finds ways to get open, and Syracuse used him in a variety of ways.
Pena completes a near-total makeover of a position group that infamously caught zero passes in the CFP semifinal against Notre Dame. Pena joins 1,000-yard receiver Devonte Ross out of Troy and USC veteran Kyron Hudson as transfers, plus three incoming freshmen. I wouldn't say 'problem solved' yet, but it's certainly a more promising group than last year's.
Among other CFP contenders, a lot of teams addressed the biggest concerns I had for them in January. Georgia added Illinois running back Josh McCray, coming off a 114-yard performance in the Citrus Bowl against South Carolina, for some much-needed depth behind Nate Frazier. Texas added two pass-catchers in Stanford's Emmett Mosley V and Cal tight end Jack Endries.
Everyone has question marks, but none I'd consider glaring.
More here from Stewart's mailbag.
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