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Ten roster moves that shaped the Big 12 football offseason

New York Times

2 days ago

Sport
New York Times

Ten roster moves that shaped the Big 12 football offseason

If the newest era of college football has taught us anything, it's that roster management is now the most critical task for a coaching staff. From the transfer portal to recruiting, it's a constant numbers game for coaches hoping to strike the perfect balance to field the most competitive team possible. Advertisement The Athletic is examining 10 key roster developments that shaped the offseason in each Power 4 conference. Up Monday: The Big 12. Let's dive in. No school in the Big 12 was more productive in the portal than Texas Tech. Coach Joey McGuire and the Red Raiders brought in 20-plus commits, including 13 four stars, as ranked by 247Sports. Outside linebacker David Bailey comes to Lubbock by way of Stanford, where he played three seasons and finished 2024 with seven sacks. Howard Sampson returns to his home state after spending the 2024 season at North Carolina, where he logged more than 800 snaps and started 12 games at left tackle. Linebacker Romello Height is a fellow former ACC starter, having helped anchor Georgia Tech's defense a season ago. And former five-star wide receiver recruit Micah Hudson is back with the program after transferring (briefly) to Texas A&M. Thanks to this influx of talent, along with the return of quarterback Behren Morton, the Red Raiders should be among the favorites to win the league. The Sun Devils were one of the fun surprises of the 2024 season, reaching the College Football Playoff and taking Texas into double overtime at the Peach Bowl. Just six days after the loss, Leavitt announced he'd be returning to the Sun Devils for another year. Leavitt — who set a school record for total offense by a freshman in 2024 with 3,328 yards — lost his star running back, Cam Skattebo, to the NFL but will be in good company in the backfield with Army transfer Kanye Udoh (1,117 rushing yards in 2024). Where else would I rather be?! 🔱#forksup @SunAngelNIL — Sam Leavitt (@S_leav10) January 7, 2025 Avery Johnson, the exciting, young Kansas State quarterback, would have had plenty of suitors had he decided to leave the Wildcats and enter the transfer portal. But Kansas State retained him and should be a contender to win the conference as a result. Johnson, a former four-star recruit in the Class of 2023, finished the 2024 season with 2,712 yards and 25 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. He'll need to improve his accuracy, but should feel extra comfortable in the system now that quarterbacks coach Matt Wells has been promoted to offensive coordinator. Advertisement Kansas State also added a key offensive piece in Linkon Cure, a top-40 national recruit who signed with the home-state Wildcats despite a late push by Oregon. Cure, the program's highest-rated signee of the modern era, is also a state championship-winning hurdler who gives Kansas State an athletic presence in the passing game. A 5 star who stayed in high school to set state records did just that on Saturday in Wichita! Linkon Cure ran a 14.36 to be the new 3A boys state record holder in the 110 meter hurdles! Take a look at history! @goodlandAD @sportsinkansas @KSHSAA @kansasrunning — KCMCsports (@KCMCsports) June 2, 2025 Cam Rising, who led Utah to Pac-12 championships in 2021 and 2022, announced last month that he was medically retiring from football after a tumultuous few years dealing with injuries. The Utes have their next quarterback in place, though. Devon Dampier transferred into the program in December from New Mexico, where he became the first QB in program history to earn first-team All-Mountain West honors. Dampier, like Johnson at K-State, will need to be more accurate in 2025 after throwing 12 interceptions and completing under 60 percent of his attempts in 2024. But he is a legit dual-threat who threw for 2,768 yards and ran for 1,166 with 31 total touchdowns last season. Even better: His offensive coordinator from New Mexico, Jason Beck, also made the move to Utah this season and is the team's new play caller. All eyes are on Colorado and coach Deion Sanders, who must replace his son, QB Shedeur Sanders, along with Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter. The Buffs have a couple of options. Kaidon Salter, the likely starter, transferred from Liberty after throwing for 1,886 yards and rushing for 579 in 2024. Four-star quarterback Julian Lewis also enrolled in December after flipping from USC to Colorado in November. Lewis, the nation's No. 50 prospect and No. 6 quarterback, is considered the future of the program. Advertisement Coach Rich Rodriguez's return to West Virginia was one of the more fascinating developments of the offseason. The Mountaineers will have an entirely different roster in 2025, with 40-plus players having transferred out and 30-plus transferring in. That's in addition to the 25 high school prospects the program signed. Defensive linemen Jimmori Robinson from UTSA and Eddie Kelly Jr. from Missouri, as well as offensive lineman Carson Lee from Eastern Michigan, headline the transfer class. Robinson was particularly disruptive for the Roadrunners a season ago, finishing with 10 1/2 sacks and 17 tackles for loss. On the high school front, four-star cornerback Dawayne Galloway and four-star defensive lineman Taylor Brown are the two blue-chippers in the class. Rodriguez is looking at 50-plus new players in his first season back with the Mountaineers. Iowa State lost its top two receivers from 2024 in Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins, who are now both with the Houston Texans. The hope is that Chase Sowell, a transfer from ECU, can slide in and give the Cyclones a big-play threat. Sowell dealt with a hamstring injury late last season but still had 678 yards receiving and three touchdowns. Perhaps most impressive: his 19.9 yards-per-catch average. In case you missed it, the 2024 season was a rough one for Oklahoma State. The Cowboys won just three games, the fewest in coach Mike Gundy's 20 seasons at his alma mater. The response? Gundy cleaned house with his staff and beefed up his roster. Markell Samuel should be able to provide immediate help up front after starting 11 games at left tackle for Appalachian State in 2024. Wide receiver Terrill Davis set single-season records at Central Oklahoma last year with 1,609 receiving yards and 15 TD catches. Quarterback Hauss Hejny comes to Stillwater by way of TCU, and former Marshall wide receiver Christian Fitzpatrick finished 2024 as the Thundering Herd's leading receiver with 576 yards. Defensively, look for end Kyran Duhon to make some noise. The UTEP transfer earned second-team Freshman All-America honors from The Athletic in 2024 after recording seven sacks in 12 games. Arizona knew it would need some help at running back after its leading rusher, Quali Conley, wrapped up his eligibility last season and headed to the NFL. Enter Ismail Mahdi, a first-team All-Sun Belt selection last season who comes to Arizona from Texas State. Mahdi rushed for 2,322 yards and caught 44 passes for 470 yards in two seasons with the Bobcats. He should be an enticing plug-and-play option for the Wildcats, who ranked No. 120 nationally in rushing a season ago. Advertisement Conner Weigman, the 2022 five-star prospect, had a tough time with the Aggies, largely due to injuries. But at his best — and healthiest — he's still a productive quarterback with plenty of tread on the tires. He and Houston need each other, which could make this a nice little marriage. The Cougars finished No. 128 nationally in total offense and No. 126 in passing offense in coach Willie Fritz's first season. They need some help, and Weigman needs a fresh start. Fritz also brought in a handful of players around Weigman, including Dean Connors from Rice at running back and Tanner Koziol (Ball State) and Luke McGary (Tulsa) at tight end. Slade Nagle is the new offensive coordinator, which reunites him with Fritz from their Tulane days after Nagle spent the 2024 season at LSU. (Photo of Devon Dampier: Jake Crandall / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

Mandel's Mailbag: Could the NCAA's House settlement kill some sports?

New York Times

10-04-2025

Business
New York Times

Mandel's Mailbag: Could the NCAA's House settlement kill some sports?

Apologies for the inconsistent mailbag schedule recently. I was off last week and spent Monday in a courthouse all day. (As a reporter, not a defendant.) The plan is still for this thing to run every Wednesday. Except when it doesn't. With all the money spent this year, is Joey McGuire now in a prove-it year at Texas Tech? — Bill A. Advertisement Absolutely. Those donors didn't pitch in for the No. 1 transfer class in the country – one that got even stronger last week with the addition of Stanford defensive end David Bailey (14.5 career sacks) — to keep going 8-5 or 7-6. Granted, both of those records are right in line with the historic norm at Texas Tech, which has not won nine games in a season since Mike Leach's final year in 2009. The program hasn't won an outright conference title since 1955! But times have changed. Billionaire booster Cody Campbell, who last year gave star softball pitcher NiJaree Canady an unprecedented (in softball) seven-figure deal, told my former colleague Max Olson the team's backers spent more than $10 million on this year's transfer class. And that was before bringing in Bailey, who surely commanded seven figures on his own. Then on Wednesday, All-American basketball player J.T. Toppin announced he's returning to the Red Raiders. I'm told that deal is for more than $3 million. It must be nice to have a whale who recently sold his oil company for $4 billion. Throw in all the money they must have spent to retain their current players and it's not a stretch to think the Red Raiders' 2025 roster is making as much, or more, than Ohio State's $20 million national championship team last season. No one is expecting Tech to reach that pinnacle, but it should have the pieces to win double-digit games. But there remains one unresolved question: Can McGuire pull that off? We know the longtime Texas high school coach can recruit. Three years in, though, it remains a question whether he can break through as a college head coach. I'll say this: Tech went 6-3 in a tough conference last year, beating both Big 12 title game participants, ASU and Iowa State. But the Red Raiders weren't consistent enough to contend themselves. We'll see if he can address that with a more talented roster. Advertisement You were at the House settlement hearing on Monday. It seems like the judge is inclined to accept the settlement. Do you think that's correct, and what sports will be the first to become extinct at the D-I level? — Jesse K That was my takeaway, yes. Especially since, after listening to a day-long parade of objectors, Judge Claudia Wilken flat-out said, 'Basically, I think it is a good settlement.' She does have concerns and gave the parties a week to address them. Regardless, the whole thing felt like a formality. The judge, the plaintiffs and the defendants all know there's a ticking clock and that coaches need certainty over what their world will look like come next school year. Is the settlement 'correct?' No, I wouldn't use that word. It's deeply flawed. I still don't see how you can resolve an antitrust suit with more restrictions — both a salary cap ($20.5 million per school) that the athletes did not negotiate and a third-party clearinghouse that could squash outside NIL deals it deems above 'market value.' But Wilken basically said that's not her problem. All she's trying to determine is whether the settlement is a fair compromise for the two sides. And as the NCAA's primary lawyer, Rakesh Kilaru, kept saying: It's a better system than the one we have now. As for the last part of the question, no one can say with any certainty what the unintended consequences will be. Entire sports programs going away seems fatalistic, but we know not everyone will be able to afford this new model. Especially the farther you go down the ladder. I just hope the Power 4 programs don't use this as an excuse to cut sports. They can afford them. They just have to stop burning money on raises for mediocre coaches with no leverage and the enormous buyouts that follow them. Recently, analysts like Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal have come under fire for potentially being too negative when discussing the NBA, and they have been posited as a reason for why the league's ratings have declined. Where does CFB reside here? Do you think we get enough optimism about the state of the game from the media? Do we get enough healthy criticism? — Jessica S., Los Angeles Advertisement Great question. It's something I keep in mind. It's not my job to promote college football, and I'm not afraid to give critical opinions about various aspects of the sport when warranted. But it does feel at times like I'm more bullish about the future than some of you who post comments on my stories. Anyone who regularly reads this column knows I'm a big fan of the 12-team College Football Playoff, and that I do not hold alarmist views about NIL and the transfer portal. For all the griping, I think they've been net-positive for college football. But you also know I'm deeply concerned about the effects of realignment and the potential to alienate diehard fans of disaffected teams. I get the sense many of my peers on the national beat feel similarly. That said, I do notice more complaining from ex-coaches and players on television. Everyone from Kirk Herbstreit to Nick Saban to Joel Klatt to Scott Van Pelt has gone on an NIL and/or transfer portal rant at some point, and theirs are the opinions that go viral. One big difference between the NBA and college football: You don't often hear notable NBA coaches and players (save for Draymond Green) complaining about their sport. So they get more annoyed by the TV commentary. Meanwhile, every college football coach hates the sport's current model and will gladly say as much in front of a camera and microphone. Most importantly, NBA complaints are generally about the league's product — the players are soft, they shoot too many 3-pointers, blah, blah, blah. The product of college football is thriving. Tens of millions of people watch it every week. The problem is … everything else. Who could be considered sleeper Big Ten title favorites? (Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, etc.) — Sarah K. It might be time to recalibrate expectations when it comes to conference titles. With 18 teams and no divisions, I don't know that any former West division team will be capable of unseating Ohio State/Michigan/Penn State/Oregon. Still, the Big Ten could certainly produce a sleeper Playoff team, just as it did last season in Indiana. Advertisement Start with Illinois, which is coming off a surprise 10-win season and has 18 starters returning, an extreme outlier in the era of little continuity. And that was before adding three former Wisconsin defensive starters: Curt Neal and James Thompson Jr., both D-linemen, and linebacker Leon Lowery Jr. Plus, the Illini play a seemingly manageable schedule, with Ohio State and Indiana the only ranked teams from last season. Washington also intrigues me. Jedd Fisch managed to field a bowl team in Year 1 despite the Huskies losing nearly every key player from their 2023 run to the national title game. Dynamic quarterback Desmond Williams Jr. takes over full-time after shining at the end of last season, and he gets a new target in Penn State transfer wide receiver Omari Evans. Star running back Jonah Coleman and established receiver Denzel Boston are back, too. Admittedly, the defense lost a ton of production and will rely heavily on transfers. And finally … I wouldn't assume Indiana immediately falls back into the pack. Yes, Curt Cignetti lost a lot of production from last year's 11-win team, most notably QB Kurtis Rourke, but the guy has quite a track record of reloading at his previous stops. Cal transfer quarterback Fernando Mendoza has a lot of experience and may finally get some pass protection, what with IU bringing in ex-Notre Dame center Pat Coogan and Ohio State tackle Zen Michalski. The main issue, of course, is that the Hoosiers may have to face more opponents with a pulse this year. Will the SEC be able to build on its success as a basketball conference to become nationally competitive in football? — Michael M. I don't know, it could be a long road. In the meantime, though, if you think the SEC dominated in basketball, you should check out the current baseball and softball rankings. The conference's teams at least have that going for them. With Nick Saban no longer in coaching, who do you consider 'The Godfather' of college football now in terms of head coaches? — Marc U. I suppose it depends on the criteria. Kirk Ferentz, now entering his 27th season at Iowa, has been doing it the longest of anyone by a healthy margin. (Utah's Kyle Whittingham and Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy are next at 21 seasons each.) Clemson's Dabo Swinney is arguably the most accomplished, with two national titles and six Playoff berths, though you could make a similar case for Georgia's Kirby Smart, who has two rings, four CFPs and eight straight top-10 seasons. When I picture Saban as 'The Godfather,' I mainly think of his insane coaching tree. He truly was a figurative father to two decades of college head coaches, from Smart to Jimbo Fisher to Lane Kiffin to Steve Sarkisian and more. Ferentz doesn't really have one. Swinney's is small (mainly Virginia's Tony Elliott, ex-USF coach Jeff Scott and Florida's Billy Napier), which has not been particularly successful so far. Advertisement So I think you have to go with Smart, who can claim Oregon's Dan Lanning, South Carolina's Shane Beamer, Arkansas' Sam Pittman and Syracuse's Fran Brown. (I assume he's disowned Mel Tucker.) Not bad for a guy who, as wild as this sounds, is only now entering his 10th season as a head coach. Stanford has turned over the football program to Andrew Luck, and now donors at Cal want to do the same with Ron Rivera. Is it smart to keep the highest-profile part of most major athletic programs, which typically serves as the main financial engine, siloed off from everything else? — Dan G., Los Angeles It's quite a unique twist to the rivalry. Stanford not only named Luck as general manager and put him above the head coach (whom he recently fired), but also he reports directly to the president of the university, not the athletic director. (Stanford does not have one at the moment.) So yes, a silo. And as of this moment, an entirely unique one in college football. While Rivera has the same title at Cal, and also reports directly to the chancellor, it does not appear he has oversight of head coach Justin Wilcox, whose boss remains AD Jim Knowlton. This has miffed the folks at Cal's collective, who are threatening to withhold donations unless Rivera is given the same level of authority as Luck. In general, it makes sense to me why a modern college football program might be structured like an NFL franchise, with the general manager in charge of roster construction and the coach charged with getting the most out of that roster. Most coaches did not get into the profession to negotiate NIL deals. They're more comfortable yelling at the right tackle for bad technique in a practice drill. I do, however, question the concept of said GM having no real oversight. There's no equivalent to the team owner in college. You could say the university presidents, but they're a little busy running the institution to get immersed in the day-to-day of the football team. In Cal's case, is Rivera the primary fundraiser for football while Knowlton only gets to do that for the other sports? We're talking about a former NFL head coach here, not an experienced capital development professional. Advertisement Ultimately, we're still in the infant stages of this new era of college football, and I'd expect these types of models to keep evolving. If the Stanford version takes hold, though, and schools start giving increased autonomy to football, it raises an obvious question: Why doesn't the entire sport of football break away from the others? As long as I can remember, you have only covered college football and college hoops. If that was no longer an option, would you rather shift to those sports but at the professional level or keep covering college sports exclusively? — Todd B. Were that to happen, I would immediately shift to my new favorite sport, college softball. I got my first few reps in last year. Also, as I learned last weekend, college dodgeball is a thing. I feel like I could dominate that beat. I want to change beats. — Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 6, 2025 How does the SEC get away with setting a conference-wide 85 scholarship limit for football? Isn't the House settlement supposed to eliminate scholarship limits for rosters? Has any other conference set scholarship limits post-House? — G M M. That is partially correct. The settlement will set roster limits for every sport (105 in football) but also requires that the NCAA eliminate all scholarship limits. While the Power 5 conferences were also defendants in the lawsuit, there is nothing that says they can't implement similar rules. I'm no antitrust lawyer, but my understanding is that a conference-specific rule is not considered anticompetitive because the athletes have alternative options outside the SEC. That doesn't mean someone couldn't challenge the rule, but they'd have a better case if the other conferences all imposed the same rule and there was proof they colluded with each other. Advertisement At this point, no other conference has a similar policy, and I'm hearing some schools in those leagues plan to go above 85. However, new scholarships count toward each school's $20.5 million spending cap, and many schools may need to add them in other sports to address Title IX concerns. Florida just became the only school with three men's hoops national titles and three football titles. How many years until the Gators get their fourth football title? — Gene S. I'm bullish on quarterback DJ Lagway and the 2025 Gators, but a national title? I think we'll sooner see Jaden Rashada finally get some of that $13.85 million. I think the extra COVID year of eligibility has run its course. What were the pros and cons? What are the implications going forward? — Kevin, St. Louis Mo. There's actually one more year before expiration. True freshmen in 2020 are entering their sixth season this year. If they redshirted at some point, they would still have eligibility. But it's probably not a significant number of players. The extension had tremendous implications. You can go back and play all kinds of sliding doors scenarios. Michael Penix Jr. would not have remained at Washington for the Huskies' amazing 2023 season. Dillon Gabriel would not have had the chance to lead Oregon to a No. 1 seed in last year's CFP. Miami wouldn't have Carson Beck for this coming season, and even a favorable judge might not have saved Diego Pavia's last season at Vandy. (Technically, he might not have even made it to 2024.) And that's just the quarterbacks. Lots and lots of super seniors at other positions have played key roles on lots of good teams. Important caveat, though: This one-time extra year happened to coincide with the dawn of NIL. You can't unwind them. Does Penix use his sixth year if he's not getting a seven-figure deal to put off the NFL? Probably not. Even among non-NFL prospects, there are probably guys who might have otherwise moved on with their lives but had a chance to make $80,000 if they came back for one more year. Advertisement The biggest implication going forward is that the powers-that-be have been talking for years about just giving everybody a blanket five years of eligibility rather than deal with waivers and redshirts. Perhaps the normalization of longer college careers helps put it over the top. Why can't the Big 12 have nice things? Did the refs really need to hand the SEC a natty in bball? — Themanebro! It didn't seem like the Gators needed help, given that a Houston player left the ball right there on the court for them.

One-on-one with Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire

Yahoo

05-02-2025

Sport
Yahoo

One-on-one with Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire

Latest news with #JoeyMcGuire

Ten roster moves that shaped the Big 12 football offseason

Mandel's Mailbag: Could the NCAA's House settlement kill some sports?

One-on-one with Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire

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