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USA Today
2 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Texas Tech running back Quinten Joyner suffers season-ending knee injury
Two weeks before its 2025 season opener, Texas Tech football has lost a player who was expected to be one of its top offensive players. Red Raiders sophomore running back Quintaelyn "Quinten" Joyner, a USC transfer, will miss the season due to a knee injury he suffered on Aug. 16 during the team's second preseason scrimmage, the university confirmed to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, a part of the USA TODAY Network, on Aug. 18. Last season at USC, Joyner rushed for 478 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 7.6 yards per carry. He was rated by 247Sports' composite rankings as the No. 145 overall player and the No. 9 running back in the transfer portal last offseason. REQUIRED READING: Penn State, Georgia lead preseason college football NCAA Re-Rank 1-136 Joyner entered fall training camp atop the team's depth chart at running back. While he's sidelined, the No. 24 Red Raiders will turn to sophomores J'Koby Williams and Cameron Dickey. Last season, Williams and Dickey each had 41 carries, with Williams rushing for 236 yards and two touchdowns and Dickey running for 225 yards and one touchdown. Williams rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown on just 15 carries in the team's Liberty Bowl loss to Arkansas. An Austin, Texas native, Joyner was a part of a 22-player Texas Tech transfer class that 247Sports ranked second among all FBS programs, behind only LSU. Joyner was one of 13 players in the class rated as a four-star transfer. The Red Raiders have enjoyed a sharp rise in spending on name, image and likeness deals for athletes in recent years, buoyed largely by mega-donors Cody Campbell and John Sellers, the co-founders of the school's Matador Club collective. Softball pitcher NiJaree Canady transferred to the school from Stanford and earned a record-setting seven-figure deal before leading Texas Tech to the championship series of the Women's College World Series. All-American men's basketball forward JT Toppin was lured back to the school with a deal worth more than $3 million. In all, Red Raiders athletes will reportedly earn a combined $55 million during the 2025-26 academic year. Texas Tech opens its 2025 season on August 30 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Though the league didn't conduct an official preseason poll, the Red Raiders are widely viewed as one of the favorites to win the Big 12 and earn an automatic berth to the College Football Playoff.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Texas Tech football 5 position battles to watch after first scrimmage
The Texas Tech football team staged its first preseason scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 9, putting the Red Raiders three weeks away from the season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Jones AT&T Stadium. The depth chart probably won't change much between now and then, but the amount of experience the Red Raiders possess means there'll be a lot of competition for playing time. Starting jobs are unsettled at a few positions. Here are five position battles to watch: Star safety: John Curry, Mike Dingle and A.J. McCarty Tech coach Joey McGuire revealed Saturday that his staff has switched Curry's position again, trying to find him playing time. The sophomore from Coronado has gone from Ben Roberts' backup at field inside linebacker last season to Jacob Rodriguez's backup at boundary inside linebacker coming out of spring to, as of the past few days, star, the hybrid safety/outside linebacker position. He might not be a backup there. "I think there's a battle at star," McGuire said, "because John Curry wants to be on the football field. So somebody's going to have to sit down if that dude makes his mind up and says, 'You're not starting in front of me,' and that's what he's doing right now." More: Texas Tech football future non-conference schedules, game guarantee amounts More: How Texas Tech football's landing LaDamion Guyton differs from recruiting wins past Dingle and McCarty were the 1-2 going into camp. McCarty, who started 11 games last season, has been out with a hamstring injury since the start of preseason practice. "We've got to find a way to get John Curry on the field," McGuire said Saturday. "We have three different packages with different people size-wise. He had an interception today and two huge tackles in the open field. He is really having a great camp, and he showed up today. Really impressed with him." Right tackle: Jacob Ponton and Hunter Zambrano This is another position where the candidate with the most experience has been on the sideline. Though he's expected to return this coming week, Zambrano missed nearly all spring recovering from surgery to fix torn labrums in both hips and has been sidelined the past few days by a lower-back issue. The transfer from Illinois State also had core-muscles surgery in April 2024, plus a surgery on his nasal passages and a tonsillectomy, the latter two procedures done at the same time, after spring practice this year. The sixth-year senior has starter potential, but he needs practice time to crack the lineup. In the meantime, Ponton has taken advantage of his absence by building up repetitions with the rest of the first unit. The redshirt freshman started the Liberty Bowl last season. More: What's next for Texas Tech football o-line with Vinny Sciury, Hunter Zambrano down? Cornerback: Brice Pollock, Maurion Horn and Dontae Balfour Three candidates are fighting for the two spots. All were full-time starters last year: Pollock at Mississippi State, Balfour at UNC-Charlotte and Horn for the Red Raiders. Pollock and Horn were first team after spring ball. Balfour's not giving in. "Man, he is really having an incredible camp," McGuire said. "He's really physical. He's long. I love watching him practice, because he loves playing football. He had another really good scrimmage." Asked which two would start if the season started next week, McGuire said, "It's almost like flip of a coin or do a little rock, paper, scissors between them, because I really wouldn't mind any of them out there. They've all done different things." McGuire said Horn and Balfour started the scrimmage Saturday. Horn's been practicing with a bruised heel. More: Dontae Balfour eyes role with Texas Tech football secondary Left guard: Will Jados and Vinny Sciury Jados started 38 games for Miami (Ohio), and Sciury started 33 games at Toledo and the first two last year for Texas Tech before season-ending knee surgery. The latter sidelined Sciury through spring practice. Although he was back on the field in June, he's been out this past week with what McGuire described as an intestinal problem. Sciury's edge is having established himself in the program for more than a year. Jados' advantage is he's stayed healthy and on the field since he arrived in January. He also offers positional versatility, having played almost exclusively at left tackle during his four years at Miami (Ohio). Backup boundary edge: Terrell Tilmon, Cheta Ofili and Dylan Spencer So much attention's been shown to touted transfers David Bailey and Romello Height it's easy to forget they won't play every snap. Who comes in when they need a breather? McGuire lists steady veteran Charles Esters III behind Bailey at field end. The boundary edge is harder to handicap. Tilmon was second on the team with 3 1/2 sacks last season and started the bowl game, but the fifth-year senior hasn't practiced yet because of the broken toe he suffered at the end of spring ball. Ofili and Spencer, a redshirt freshman and a sophomore, respectively, are practicing, Spencer coming back from the torn knee ligament that cost him the 2024 season. This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football top 5 position battles after first scrimmage
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Where does OU land in ESPN's preseason bowl projections?
The Oklahoma Sooners are two weeks away from kicking off their 2025 season. OU's first game will come at home against Illinois State on August 30th. The Sooners are looking to keep their 26-season streak of making a bowl game alive this year, but they hope to achieve much more than just another bowl game in 2025. Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach cover college football for ESPN, and they released their preseason bowl projections on Friday morning. Both believe that Oklahoma will make it to a 27th-straight bowl game, but will fall short of the College Football Playoff. Bonagura has the Sooners slated to play in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, which will be played in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 30th. Oklahoma's projected opponent in that game is Minnesota, out of the Big Ten. The Sooners are undefeated all-time against the Golden Gophers, with both wins coming in the late-Barry Switzer era. OU won a close 13-7 contest on the road in 1985 on its way to a national title, then dominated Minnesota 63-0 at home in 1986. Missouri beat Iowa in the 2024 edition of the Music City Bowl. Meanwhile, Schlabach has Oklahoma renewing an old conference rivalry with Baylor. He has the Sooners and the Bears facing off in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, which will be played in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 2nd. The two teams have faced off 33 total times. OU owns a 28-5 advantage in the series, but Baylor has won the last two matchups, which came in 2021 and 2022. The two teams played two thrillers in 2019, with Oklahoma ruining Baylor's undefeated season by coming back from a 28-3 deficit in Waco in the regular season to win 34-31. The rematch came in the Big 12 Championship Game, where the Sooners won in overtime 30-23, bumping the Bears out of the College Football Playoff race and securing a spot themselves. Arkansas beat Texas Tech in the 2024 edition of the Liberty Bowl. A berth in the Music City Bowl or the Liberty Bowl certainly isn't where Sooner Nation hopes this season will end up. However, the opportunity to play a historic team from the Big Ten or get some revenge against an old league foe would, at least, be a fun consolation prize if that's how 2025 turns out. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
ESPN projects these two bowl destinations for Florida football in 2025 postseason
The start of the 2025 college football campaign is just over the horizon and the fanbase is frothing at the mouth for the return of their favorite fall game. With a fresh schedule ahead, hope springs eternal among the schools competing for a national title. However, the reality of the gridiron grind lurks just around the corner, when lofty aspirations are often dashed bringing everyone back to earth. The 12-game regular-season slate becomes a marathon rather than a sprint as each program paces itself for the postseason. Among the goals every team sets ahead of a new campaign is earning a bowl game bid, which requires that a school finish at least with an even .500 mark. While this is one of the lower bars aimed for, it had been a struggle for the Florida Gators to reach up until last year. This year, the Orange and Blue come in amid high expectations, with the possibility of cracking the College Football Playoff field if everything goes right. Of course, nothing ever goes perfectly to plan so there are still some doubts that Billy Napier can earn his first CFP bid. ESPN projects Florida football's bowl games So where will Florida play once the regular-season schedule and conference championships are played? ESPN's Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach both offered up their postseason predictions with the Gators landing in two different bowl games. Bonagura forsees Florida playing in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee, against the Kansas Jayhawks on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. The Gators have never played in this game nor have they ever faced Kansas in a bowl matchup; the Jayhawks have made two prior appearances — in 2022 against the Arkansas Razorbacks (L, 55-53) and in 1973 against the North Carolina State Wolfpack (L, 31-18). Schlabach has Napier and Co. playing on the same day in the Duke's Mayo Bowl held in Charlotte, North Carolina, against the Duke Blue Devils. Again, Florida has never played in this bowl game nor have they ever faced Duke in the postseason; despite the shared name, the Blue Devils have never played in the Mayo matchup either. Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
USA Today
4 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Tennessee football projected for bowl game rematch versus Kansas State
No. 18 Tennessee will open its 2025 regular season on Aug. 30 versus Syracuse in the Aflac Kickoff. Rankings reflect the US LBM Coaches Poll. Kickoff between the Vols and Orange is slated for noon EDT in Atlanta, Georgia, and the contest will be televised by ABC. Tennessee's other nonconference matchups in 2025 are against East Tennessee State, UAB and New Mexico State at Neyland Stadium. The Vols will also host Georgia, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, while playing at Mississippi State, Alabama, Kentucky and Florida during the regular season. Ahead of Tennessee's season opener, Brad Crawford of CBS Sports released bowl projections. The Vols are projected to play Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2, 2026. The contest is slated for 4:30 p.m. EST in Memphis, Tennessee. Kansas State leads the football series versus Tennessee, 1-0, all time. The Wildcats defeated Tennessee, 35-21, on Jan. 1, 2001 in the Cotton Bowl. PHOTOS: Tennessee-Kansas State 2001 Cotton Bowl in snow and ice Follow Vols Wire on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
