Latest news with #BroylesAward
USA Today
7 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Al Golden dedicates his acceptance of the 2024 Broyles Award to Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame
Al Golden may no longer be directing the defense in South Bend, but the former Notre Dame coordinator has not forgotten about the Fighting Irish. The now-Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator was greeted by representatives from the Broyles Award on Sunday, and he dedicated his acceptance of the 2024 Broyles Award (given to the nation's top assistant) to Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman, the entire 2024 ND football team and all of the coaches he has worked with in the past. "Other than being called 'dad,' being called 'coach' is the greatest thing in the world, right?," Golden asked. Class act by a class guy. Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions. Follow Dave on X: Miller_Dave
Fox Sports
11-08-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
2025 Tennessee Football Predictions: Volunteers Ranked 13th in RJ Young's Ultimate 136
College Football 2025 Tennessee Football Predictions: Volunteers Ranked 13th in RJ Young's Ultimate 136 Published Aug. 10, 2025 9:16 p.m. ET share facebook x reddit link This isn't your average college football ranking. My Ultimate 136 is a set of rankings that is fluid, but it's my job to look ahead and make a claim for all FBS teams based on what I know and why I know it. Here are the three pressing questions I started by asking when putting together this list: Who do I think is good? Why do I think they're good? What are the chances they will finish above or below my expectations? Here is a look at where Tennessee lands in my Ultimate 136. Tennessee Volunteers ranking: 13 Last year's ranking: 13 Top player: DB Jermod McCoy: AP Second Team All-American selection last season; his 13 passes defended ranked fourth in the SEC, also had an 89.6 coverage grade from PFF, which ranked ninth in FBS among cornerbacks. [Tennessee's 2025 schedule] RJ's take: Josh Heupel returns Broyles Award finalist and defensive coordinator Tim Banks to a program that made its first appearance in the College Football Playoff this season. But he lost QB Nico Iamaleava in the biggest offseason story of the year. Iamaleava's move to hold out of spring practice and threat to enter the portal if he wasn't provided a raise in NIL pay from his 3-year, $8 million contract led to Tennessee telling him to kick rocks. ADVERTISEMENT He landed at UCLA, and penciled Bruins starter Joey Aguilar transferred to Tennessee in what will look like a trade in print but a sign of the times for those of us who lived through it. Now, Heupel is forced to hold together a program that got its first taste of the CFP in a first-round appearance and was promptly dismantled by Ohio State in it. But it's possible if his offense can run the ball effectively. Aguilar has thrown for 6,760 yards and 56 touchdowns over the last two seasons at Appalachian State. Notre Dame transfer and guard Sam Pendleton and returning left tackle Lance Heard will help fortify the offensive line that will lose four starters from last year's team. In the last three years, the Volunteers are 23-0 when they run for at least 185 yards in a game. That includes an 8-0 mark they hit with running back Dylan Sampson leading the charge with 1,491 yards and 22 touchdowns last year. DeSean Bishop, Peyton Lewis and Star Thomas are among those who will be tasked with helping Tennessee reach that magical 185 mark in 2025. McCoy, defensive tackle Bryson Eason and EDGE Joshua Josephs might be the three best players on the team, and they all play defense. McCoy led the Vols with 13 passes defended, including four interceptions. Eason and Joseph combined for 16 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks in 2024. However, the Vols open SEC play against Georgia, a team it hasn't beaten since 2016. Games against Oklahoma, Florida and Syracuse round out a tough schedule, but it's basically the same schedule as their 2024 season in reverse. A 10-win season ought to be treated like winning the national title in Knoxville, given the hand it's forced to play this year. [Check out RJ Young's Ultimate 136 College Football Rankings here] Tennessee Win Total Odds: Over 8.5 (+100) Under 8.5 (-122) Have an issue with my rankings? Think your alma mater is too low, or your school's rival is too high? Get at me on X, @RJ_Young , and I'll select my favorite tweets and respond to them in a future article. RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young. FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience College Football Tennessee Volunteers share
New York Times
13-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Bengals' bet on new DC Al Golden has shifted from safe to reckless during free agency
This was supposed to be a rebuild, remember? How could it not? Maybe the surge of the final five games or the glitz of the award shows honoring Trey Hendrickson, Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase made people forget. For a refresher, during a critical five-game stretch midseason, the Bengals' defense allowed an average of 35 points per game while going 1-4 and seeing an MVP-caliber season from Burrow sink into the Ohio River. Advertisement Sound familiar? They tied for most losses in a season this century when scoring at least 25 points in a game. They somehow went 5-6. The NFL winning percentage in those circumstances is 81 percent. Old players fell off, young players regressed and the quarterback became a weekly embodiment of exasperation while publicly pressuring the front office to pay its stars. The Bengals brass shared the same emotions. 'We're a championship-level team that didn't get an opportunity and that irritates us,' director of player personnel Duke Tobin said at the NFL Scouting Combine. 'It irritates all of us. It irritates our fans and we're not happy about it and we're going to attack the offseason to make sure it doesn't happen again.' In response, the Bengals fired defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. A man once believed to be the club's secret weapon in toppling Patrick Mahomes became its scapegoat. They hired Al Golden, fresh off a legendary three-year run turning Notre Dame's defense into one of the best in the country and winning the Broyles Award as top assistant coach in college football. Voices get stale, even respected ones. A collection of recent premium draft picks who failed to develop could use fresh motivation. Cool. Great. Makes sense. What's happened since suggests the Bengals forgot what transpired last season. Or, maybe more precisely, have made clear their opinion on what happened last season. That failure was Lou's fault. Had to be, apparently. How else would you explain not only failing to add impact players to a defense lacking across multiple deficient position groups but doubling down on players who lived at the scene of the crime? Blow it up? Nope, that was far from the theme of this week for the embattled Bengals defense. They opted for 'Run it back.' They brought back defensive tackle B.J. Hill ($11 million/year), along with edges Joseph Ossai ($7 million) and Cam Sample to the defensive line. All fine enough bets in a vacuum, but outside of 330-pound, run-stuffing nose tackle T.J. Slaton ($7 million/year), Cincinnati didn't add a single new player to a group among the worst pass-rushing teams in the NFL. They didn't go there for the Raiders' Malcolm Koonce (one year, $12 million), Detroit's Levi Onwuzurike (one year, $5.5 million) or even Azeez Ojulari (still a free agent), to name a few who all owned pressure rates higher than everyone not named Trey Hendrickson on the team last year. Lack of activity cleared the path for 2023 first-round pick Myles Murphy to assume a starting role in the wake of Sam Hubbard's retirement. This comes after touching the quarterback three times in 215 pass-rush attempts last season, contributing zero sacks. For even the most ardent supporter of his upside and win-rate analytics (I sheepishly raise my hand), that zero is hard to look past. Advertisement They didn't add any of the big-name linebackers amid a trade request from Germaine Pratt, who appears out of their future plans. Time still remains for a solution there, but outside of replacing Akeem Davis-Gaither with Philadelphia's Oren Burks, the group currently looks the same. They could have demanded more from the safety position, specifically last year's free-agent Geno Stone, who only trailed Pratt in missed tackles with 17 and struggled to look comfortable in a new system. Maybe the area worthy of the most optimism is at cornerback where the Bengals also stood pat with a projected starting group that all either got benched or tore their ACL last season. Try saying that sentence out loud and gauging the response. All this before mentioning that Hendrickson, the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year and producer of more sacks than anybody in football, is in a contract dispute and has been given permission to seek a trade to assess his market. The offseason is a marathon. Riding the daily transaction wire and doom-scrolling 'Do Something' memes isn't recommended. There will be some kind of move at linebacker. One or two potential safety upgrades are available, too. A draft overflowing with defensive linemen, particularly those capable of bringing pass-rush juice, awaits. It could also deliver an answer at safety and linebacker (and offensive guard). The Bengals only possess six picks. The 'winners' of free agency are essentially non-correlative to the winners in the regular season. Perhaps this was a knee-jerk reaction to failed free-agency periods of the last two years and a reemphasis to invest in those you know best. Even Slaton was coached by new defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery in Green Bay. Don't judge a book by the first chapter, of course. You should patiently follow the plot twists between now and September. Those mantras still ring true. Advertisement What we learned about the Bengals' plan to fix their historically poor defense was abundantly clear: Bet on Golden. Few, however, could have expected a bet this big. The man with a track record for developing young players, attention to detail and familiarity with the Bengals' model will be given the same core of players that got Anarumo fired last year and be asked to deliver dramatically different results. Perhaps, along with Montgomery, Murphy develops into a solid No. 2 edge, Kris Jenkins and McKinnley Jackson take a Year 2 leap and Ossai's contract-year December surge proves his new normal. Perhaps this draft class hits the Bengals just right and pass-rush juice comes from two breakout draft picks in the same vein as it did for the Rams with Jared Verse and Braden Fiske last year. Perhaps young DBs DJ Turner, Cam Taylor-Britt, Jordan Battle and Dax Hill all morph premium-pick flashes into consistency that matches their elite athleticism. Perhaps. None of these quantities are known, proven or reliable. The Bengals believe Golden can make them all three. Even for a coordinator who felt like a safe hire, that's a daring bet. Then the Bengals doubled down on it this week. How much difference can a coordinator make? The Bengals are about to find out while hoping this big bet doesn't bust another year in Burrow's Super Bowl window.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Fans react as Iowa football hires former Wake Forest OC Warren Ruggiero
Iowa football made a splash on Monday by reportedly hiring former Wake Forest offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero as a senior analyst. Ruggiero spent the past 11 seasons with the Demon Deacons as Wake Forest's offensive coordinator. Ruggiero was a Broyles Award finalist in 2021 when he combined with star quarterback Sam Hartman to lead the nation's No. 4 scoring offense. Wake Forest scored a program-best 574 points and averaged a school-record 41.0 points per game during the 2021 college football season. A 1988 graduate of the University of Delaware, Ruggiero was previously the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Bowling Green (2009-13) and the quarterbacks coach at Kansas State during the 2008 season. As Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz added to his coaching staff with the addition of Ruggiero as an analyst, here's how Hawkeye fans and sports fans took in the news from Monday night. It's safe to say that fans are excited to see the "Slow Mesh" arrive in Iowa City. Iowa has hired former Wake Forrest offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero to be a senior analyst We're back — Barstool Iowa (@BarstoolUIowa) March 4, 2025 Since the start of the 2017 season, Wake Forest's 185 touchdown passes are the most of any school in the ACC and that total ranks tied for seventh nationally during that span (prior to start of 2024 season)Iowa's new senior analyst Warren Ruggiero was the offensive coordinator. — David Eickholt (@DavidEickholt) March 4, 2025 A little over 1 year ago we had Brian we have Tim Lester and Warren Ruggiero.I can't believe this is my life. — Phil Parker fan (@dmcbride77) March 4, 2025 You can just tell the Warren Ruggiero hire was more of a Tim Lester move than a Kirk Ferentz Tim cook — Phil Parker fan (@dmcbride77) March 4, 2025 Pretty interesting news with the Hawks hiring OC Warren I had to take a guess…he's being brought in to help speed up the RPO process that Lester wasn't able to incorporate last year. — JeffreyTheGreek (@JeffreyTheGreek) March 4, 2025 Gronowski seems like the perfect QB for the slow mesh — FullbackU (@u_fullback) March 4, 2025 Get ready to learn the slow mesh, Hawk fans — Hawkeye Historian (@Hawk_Historian) March 4, 2025 Mark Gronowski and Kamari Moulton with the minds of Tim Lester and Warren Ruggiero is going to absolutely feed families — Hawkeye Enjoyer 🐤 (@HawkGuyEnjoyer) March 4, 2025 I have a confession.I went to bed thinking of Iowa mastering the #SlowMesh after Kirk Ferentz's latest hirehttps:// — Doug Samuels 🏈 (@CoachSamz) March 4, 2025 Slow mesh with only Tight Ends could go extremely hard. — RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) March 4, 2025 The potential Iowa Slow Mesh has me kinda excited. — Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) March 4, 2025 Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Josh on X: @JoshOnREF This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Fans react as Iowa football hires Warren Ruggiero as senior analyst
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Petal coach receives 2024 High School Broyles Award
PETAL, Miss. (WHLT) – Leaders with Petal High School announced that Offensive Line Coach Matt 'Pete' Holeman was named the recipient of the 2024 High School Broyles Award. The award recognizes the top high school assistant football coach in every participating state. Petal High leaders said the award highlights Holeman's dedication, leadership, and lasting impact on the Petal Panther football program, as well as his unwavering commitment to developing student-athletes both on and off the field. Hattiesburg High welcomes new head football coach 'Coach Holeman's passion for coaching and commitment to students is truly exceptional. We are so Panther Proud to see him recognized for his impact on our football program and the district,' said Dr. Matthew Dillon, Superintendent of Schools. The Broyles Award was established in 1996 to honor the legacy of Coach Frank Broyles. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
