We need to talk about Heisman winner Caleb Williams, and why USC losing three games this year might be the best thing for college football in 2023.
Caleb Williams is electric. He might be the most elusive quarterback behind the line of scrimmage of all time. That’s right, I said it. All time.
He’s an elite passer, has game changing speed, absurd pocket awareness, and is one of the most sound decision makers in all of college football.
The thing I like most about Caleb Williams is that he has the mindset at all times that no one is going to outcompete him.
Every good story needs a villain, but the best villains are the ones you secretly like.
Stephanie Garber
Now, I’ve been accused of being a USC hater, so to some, this is going to sound like I’m celebrating the Trojans demise after Tulane scored 46 points in the Cotton Bowl, despite only EIGHT pass completions, to move Lincoln Riley to 1-4 all-time in New Year’s 6 Bowl games.
I’m not celebrating, but I’m also not mad about it.
USC losing that football game, as well as losing twice against Utah in 2022, sets college football up for an incredibly compelling narrative heading into the 2023 season.
There’s a Stephanie Garber quote that says “Every good story needs a villain, but the best villains are the ones you secretly like.“
In a vacuum, it’s impossible to hate Caleb Williams, or to think of him as a villain. But when you put his 11-3 season, and Heisman run in context, you see Williams’ villain arc come into focus.
Everyone is a villain to somebody, so of course USC’s natural rivals, Notre Dame and UCLA both have a reason to hate Caleb Williams. And of course the entire Pac-12 is sore about USC heading to the Big 10, so there’s 10 more teams rooting on Williams’ demise. But when you add in Williams fingernails being painted to say F ASU and F Utah, you now add an extra bit of spice to those games next year.
Plus, let’s not forget all of Sooner nation praying on Williams downfall for following Lincoln Riley from Norman to Los Angeles. And you know that Texas fans haven’t forgotten Caleb Williams coming in down 28-7 in the Red River Showdown and leading the Sooners on a 48-20 run, and a win. I can’t imagine Longhorn fans are rooting for Williams just because he left Oklahoma.
And I’ve heard from enough Tennessee and Texas Christian fans that think Caleb Williams shouldn’t have even been the Heisman winner, and when you consider that Williams had the lowest percentage of available points for any QB winner since Robert Griffin III, it would seem that a decent amount of this country’s sports media agrees with that sentiment.
2023 is setting up to be a high stakes revenge tour that that we probably wouldn’t have gotten if USC had made the college football playoff in 2022. Williams still having a year of eligibility left, with the target on his back of being the defending Heisman winner, and the surefire #1 overall pick in 2024, in the Trojans last year in a conference filled with players poised to make their own Heisman runs in Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr, and with Utah returning as the bully on the block?
You couldn’t script a better drama than this.
Get your popcorn and your fancy fingernail polish ready, because next year’s fixing to be a movie.
We need to talk about the new NBA Individual Award trophies, and the decision to omit Kareem Abdul Jabbar from being included amongst the honors.
If you haven’t seen it yet, the NBA decided to re-name its awards to honor the contributions of past greats. Most championship trophies have names, for example the Larry O’Brien trophy that goes to the NBA’s champion. But honoring former NBA greats on the individual awards is new.
Let’s go through them-
The league’s Most Valuable Player will now be awarded with The Michael Jordan Trophy. You’d have to be insane to think there was an honor that could be given out that didn’t deserve to have Michael Jordan’s name on it, but Kareem won this award six times. More than any other player in NBA history. And even if you say to yourself, but surely “Michael Jordan deserved the MVP award more than the five times he won it,” don’t forget that in 1973 Kareem Abdul Jabbar averaged 30 points and 16 rebounds per game, and finished second to Dave Cowens, who averaged 20 and 16. MJ ain’t the only one with a legitimate complaint here.
The NBA has redesigned 6 new trophies:
🏆 Michael Jordan Trophy: MVP 🏆 Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy: DPOY 🏆 Wilt Chamberlain Trophy: ROY 🏆 Jerry West Trophy: Clutch Player of Year 🏆 John Havlicek Trophy: Sixth Man of Year 🏆 George Mikan Trophy: Most Improved Player of the Year pic.twitter.com/rk4xY0LwgO
The NBA is introducing a new award at the end of the 2022-23 season, the Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year. This trophy is named after Jerry West. Love Jerry, but he’s already the logo, and do I have to remind you that at 1-8, Jerry West has the worst NBA Finals record of all time. His nickname might have been “Mr. Clutch” back in the 1970’s, but if Jerry West existed with this record in today’s hot take economy, you’d go to sports entertainment jail for calling him the most clutch player of all time. Kareem not only has six NBA championships, he owns the longest win streak in college basketball history, and was on the other end of snapping the longest win streak in NBA history by dominating Wilt Chamberlain and the Lakers. If anyone is clutch, Kareem is clutch.
And speaking of Wilt Chamberlain, the Rookie of the Year trophy has been named in honor of Wilt. I’ll admit that the man had the craziest debut in NBA history, coming out of the gate with almost 40 points a game. But if we’re keeping it a buck, Wilt wasn’t technically a rookie when he was a rookie. Through no fault of his own, Wilt was forced to wait to enter the draft after leaving Kansas, and spent time with the Globetrotters. Kareem, who went by Lew Alcindor when he came out of UCLA, turned down the Globetrotters money, and also won rookie of the year, improving the Bucks record by 29 games and setting a record for 20 point playoff games by a rookie that stood until 2018.
The Most Improved Player award is being named after George Mikan, whose scoring average dropped every year from 1950-1956, and who never won MVP again after his first season with the Minneapolis Lakers. I mean, what are we even doing here.
Until LeBron breaks Kareem’s all time scoring record, we’re talking about the all-time leader in scoring, wins, MVP’s and all-star selections, and is tied for most all-NBA selections. And while I get naming the NBA Defensive Player of the Year trophy after Hakeem Olajuwon, guess who “The Dream” had to pass in order to be the NBA’s all-time blocks leader? That’s right, Kareem. I don’t care what the NBA has to do to make this right- whether it’s a citizenship award, or an award that goes to the total points per game leader, Kareem Abdul Jabbar deserves something. Especially if we’re inventing new awards to hand out to Jerry West because he hit four buzzer beaters in a 14-year career. You know who more than doubled that amount? Michael Jordan. We should be naming the clutch award after him, and the MVP trophy after the guy who won the award more times than anyone.
We need to talk about the rivalry between Tua Tagovailoa vs Justin Herbert.
I mean we don’t, because it’s not a rivalry, and it will never be a rivalry.. but for some reason enough of you got tricked into engaging in something that has no business being a debate, so here we are.
The only thing Tua and Herbert have in common, besides the position they play, is that if I had to name two NFL quarterbacks that would rather face a free-rushing Aaron Donald than be included in a synthetic rivalry for the sake of ’embracing debate,’ it would be these two men right here. Both are humble, hard working, and embrace the challenge before them without any prima donna tendencies.
If anything, they could both use a bit more ego. Maybe then, Herbert would protect his ribcage and Tua would protect his medulla oblongata, instead of putting their health at risk for the benefit of their teammates and the fans that root for them.
But for some reason, we’ve been roped into comparing their skillsets.
Are you kidding me?
I get that most sports debates are subjective. Statistics go a long way to scaffold and support an argument you’re presenting in one of those debates, but for the most part, a person makes up their mind, AND THEN finds the numbers that will buttress their claim. But that’s only a process people go through when there’s a debate worth having. Or at least, it used to be.
If you were walking a busy downtown street and saw a man holding up a sign that said “Tom Brady or Peyton Manning?” You might stop and give the question your time and energy. But if that same man held up a sign that said “Puppies or Tax Audits?” You don’t need to add your voice to that.
It’s not anyone’s fault Herbert went after Tua in the draft. He had some training wheels on him in Eugene, and despite the fact that he was clearly built in the same quarterback lab that gave us Josh Allen, at the time of the 2020 draft, Allen hadn’t finished evolving into his highest form yet. And to even become the sixth pick in the draft, Herbert had to outshine his initial three star ranking out of Sheldon High, while also languishing on Larry Scott’s inaccessible television network.
Tua was always that dude. ESPN and Rivals had him as a top 60 prospect. 247 had him as a five star, which if you’re not familiar with the rankings, five star means projected first round NFL draft pick. Nick Saban clearly thought he was worthy of a spot on a championship roster out of Alabama, and he lived up to every bit of the hype while in Tuscaloosa.
But one of these men is 6-6, 240, has Michael Vick’s arm, and Rob Gronkowski’s athleticism, and was drafted with the full understanding that all those tools had yet to be tapped into to their fullest extent. And all he’s done since landing with the Chargers is save the entire franchise from drowning in the irrelevance that moving out of San Diego created.
Meanwhile, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, Stephen Ross, has his entire franchise being sanctioned over trying to get rid of Tua for everyone from Deshaun Watshon to Tom Brady. Tua is a very good quarterback, but not good enough to have the man that signs his paychecks convinced he’s the future.
Do you understand how concerning that is? It’s pretty clear that Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill might hate his starting quarterback, and vice versa, but even that dysfunctional mess of a relationship doesn’t go as far as denying that Kyler is the future of the franchise.
Herbert and Tua’s skillsets, and their place with both their own franchises, and as the future of the NFL aren’t even in the same neighborhood. And the worst part about engaging in this conversation at all is that it steals the joy from Dolphins fans who should be able to enjoy being competitive in the AFC East for the first time in decades.
Instead they have to mount up and defend a point that they don’t even believe.
Imagine being a Dolphins fan last night when Justin Herbert and the Chargers had a two-score lead in the fourth quarter, and Herbert had thrown for more yards against your defense this year than anyone outside Josh Allen. Imagine sitting there knowing that your franchise quarterback, who had been artificially inserted into a debate he wanted no part of, was simultaneously putting together the worst game of his career. Instead of just taking the L and moving on to next week, you’re having to consider whether to delete all the social media apps off of your phone, or to mentally deconstruct your own understanding of both facts and truth so that you can engage in living an obvious lie without it causing permanent brain damage.
Last night should be the end of a conversation that never should have started, but in the hot take economy anything can happen. And if Justin Herbert vs Tua can heat up the internet streets, anything can. Guard your hearts and minds, folks, because if not, you might find yourself skipping dinner with the family to write ten paragraphs about why Jalen Hurts is better than Davis Mills.
When a thing is true, it should be able to Speak for Itself.
I’d love to talk about one of the best women’s basketball players of all time returning home after being held as a political prisoner over a vape pen… but enough of you have made today’s events about YOU, YOUR morals, YOUR preferences, and YOUR politics, that I’m not sure it’s even possible to talk about Brittney Griner.
So let’s talk about you.
You don’t think the Biden administration should have traded a convicted arms dealer for a female basketball player, especially with former Marine reservist and Iraq War veteran Paul Whelan going on four years behind bars for what may or may not be false charges of espionage.
That’s sensible I guess.
But my question for you is this. When did you first learn Paul Whelan’s name? When was the first time you appealed directly to the Biden administration for his release? Or the Trump administration before that? Or at the very least, publicly posted on any social media platform to alert your followers of a cause that today’s events have revealed is apparently so near and dear to your heart?
Go ahead. Pause the video and look it up for me.
Was it before Brittney Griner’s detention? And if not, are you prepared to keep that same energy from here forward, to pressure our leaders to negotiate the release of political prisoners from vindictive, undemocratic countries?
Maybe you’re completely committed to fighting the injustice of Brittney Griner’s release in the face of Paul Whelan’s continued detention on behalf of the Whelan family. Surely they must be furious at this inexplicable injustice, and you’re just doing your part on their behalf, with their blessing.
It’s not like Paul Whelan has a twin brother out here saying something to the effect of “I am so glad Brittney Griner is on her way home,” or “The Biden Administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, and make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going to happen.”
Can you imagine if Paul Whelan had a twin brother named David that said those exact things today? That would mean that your outrage wasn’t about the family at all. Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
Or maybe you just want to make sure that a member of the United States armed forces is treated with dignity and has his needs prioritized. You’re pro-military. That’s it, right? You’re so pro military you have the same rules as USAA- you don’t just care about our troops, you care about their families. So if former Marine Paul Whelan hypothetically had a daughter imprisoned in Russia, you’d probably rather have her home than Brittney Griner, right?
Wouldn’t it be crazy if there was someone out there named Raymond Griner that served two tours in Vietnam and spent 30 years as a cop, hoping for someone as pro military as yourself to come along and reward the sacrifice he made on your behalf to help get his daughter home? I’d imagine that would motivate someone as pro military as yourself into action.
Or maybe you just spent too much time on ESPN’s trade machine, and you don’t want a war criminal back on the St. Petersburg streets because it’s an objectively unfair price for this country to pay. Certainly you’ve known of Viktor Bout’s imprisonment since the Bush justice department pursued him, and the Obama administration extradited and imprisoned him. And I know that you can provide lots of public evidence that you’ve posted about how important an asset he is to the American government in hostage negotiations. Posts that you definitely made before Brittney Griner’s arrest. You can show me all that, right?
Look, maybe you just want the Secretary of State to publicly acknowledge how lopsided and unpopular this is. I’ll do you a favor. Let me read this direct quote from the Secretary of State. “We acknowledge that the release of these prisoners is unpopular, but this difficult action will lead to an important result…”
Oh wait, my mistake. That was Donald Trump’s Secretary of State talking about the release they negotiated of 5,000 imprisoned members of Taliban and ISIS, 400 of which were said by the Afghan government to be “convicted of serious crimes, including the killing of Afghans and citizens of the international community.”
Ah, that’s my bad guys. I’m positive you’ll also be able to provide me with several examples of the outrage you publicly expressed when Donald Trump’s treaty to get us out of Afghanistan called for the release of nearly 5,000 Taliban and ISIS soldiers. I didn’t mean to make more work for you, but I know you’re consistent, so I’ll wait here while you gather that up.
It doesn’t matter that Brittney Griner was specifically protesting the unjust killing of Breonna Taylor at the hands of the Louisville, Kentucky police. It doesn’t matter that Griner repeatedly said that she loves the police, and grew up wanting to be a police officer like her father. It also doesn’t matter that she repeatedly said she supports the idea of a new national anthem, rather than stand for one that includes an unsung third verse about hunting down rebel slaves.
It’s the principle of the matter. This is America. You can’t just go around protesting our hallowed institutions because a woman got shot by law enforcement. And you, you’re consistent. It’s not like you’re out here calling for justice for Ashli Babbitt.
Are you?
Certainly you’ve thought this through. You’ve been consistent. You cared about the executive branch’s role in political prisoner negotiations long before Brittney Griner was detained, and you’re going to keep caring long after she’s been freed. I’m definitely going to see you at the rallies to release Paul Whelan, and I’m definitely not going to see you doing anything but deferring to the statements and wishes of his loved ones.
You certainly condemned Trump’s prisoner release, and you’re not partisan at all, so you’ll do the same when the next republican president is faced with a similar decision.
And every time someone brings up January 6th, I’m going to hear you talking about how the police have a hard job, and how anyone that protests the convictions that came out of the events that day hate America, and are criminals that deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Because today’s energy has always been your energy, right?
We need to talk about these restless college football youths.The transfer portal is a good thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
I love players being able to transfer, and have the same freedoms as the coaches and administrators that make a living off of their blood sweat and tears.
But just like how not every coaching move is the right one, there’s often a price to pay for movement for the sake of comfort or short term gains.
Have you ever been driving the speed limit, and someone comes along whipping in and out of traffic like they’re in a Fast and Furious reboot, only to end up sitting at the same exact red light.
Now they won’t look you in the eye because you know and they know they didn’t have to do all that movement for the sake of movement?
Some of these players are hitting the portal two or three times only to end up in the exact same place as they would have had they just stayed the course.
Fans used to be able to invest their interest in 90% of any given roster to stick around for anywhere from 3-5 years. While most people are fans of the laundry above all else, many did invest deeply in the personalities and talents of the young men that elected to represent the university they love.
Now you have NFL-level roster turnover in the NCAA.
Whether or not it’s a fallacy that fans were able to separate the NFL being a business from the so-called purity of the NCAA’s “amateurism cartel,” the fact that players stuck around and earned their place both on the field and in the hearts of the fans is a very real reason why people love the sport.
I don’t fault people for hating that the transfer portal takes them out of the fantasy that college football isn’t a business.
But it is a business. And if we’re being honest, some of these players and their families are out here making Sam Bankman-Fried style short term business decisions.
Your business might be booming today, but if you’re not smart, it could be belly up tomorrow.
Look, there are a lot of lies told on the recruiting trail, but the whole thing about how your college choice is a 40 year decision isn’t one of them.
I cannot tell you how blessed I’ve been to be part of the Oregon Duck community as I’ve gotten older. Do you think I’d have the same networking and relationship benefits if instead of jumping to the NFL after three years in Eugene, I’d treated my lack of playing time as a freshman like it was everyone else’s fault but mine? Or what if I’d decided to take this smile to Seattle for the million dollars my mother says it’s worth?
You’d be surprised how fast a million dollars gets spent. Even a million after tax. And now I’m old and wise enough to know there’s no amount of money I’d take to be a Husky.
I’m just playing, Washington fans.
My point is this. If you’re out here selling yourself to the highest bidder, don’t sell yourself short.
Yes, having a bank balance is better than being broke. Yes it feels better to be built up by recruiters than broken down by coaches, and yes it’s sometimes hard to reconcile when the recruiter and the coach are the same person.
But nothing feels better than proving yourself where you planted yourself, and discovering that your worth goes beyond your net worth.
Maybe the best spot for you is somewhere else. And every case is different. Especially for quarterbacks, or other positions where only one person can play. But wherever the best spot for you is, it will only be because you brought the best version of yourself to that spot.
And if you haven’t brought the best version of yourself to the spot you’re already in, you might want to try that before jumping ship.
I think you might find that it’s good for business.
I said I’d roast Deion Sanders if he left Jackson State.
I said I would.
But if Prime can switch up, so can I.
Let’s get into it.
My main issue is that I felt like the job at Jackson State, of getting eyeballs on the HBCU as a viable academic and athletic option, wasn’t finished. And to be honest, I still don’t think it’s finished. But who says it has to be Deion Sanders that finishes it?
In a metaphor I’m sure Deion could appreciate, Moses didn’t see the promised land. Some progress is generational, and it’s very possible that the foundation has been laid for people to come in and build the house that will stand for years to come.
Look, I get it. When Deion said “you either get elevated or terminated” as a coach, I felt that. In the performing arts world, he’s following the credo of “leave them wanting more.”
In the process, he’s trying to create opportunities for some of his assistants by recommending his own replacement at Jackson State, and create an opportunity for more assistants in his new position at Colorado.
I cover the Pac-12, and everybody that knows anything about college football knows what a special place Folsom Field is, and wants to see a competitive Buffaloes team instead of the doormat they’ve been for the last two decades.
Deion making his way to the Conference of Champions is only going to make my life more fun. He’s one of the biggest stars in all of sports, and he’s going to stand out spectacularly in a conference that isn’t exactly known for its dynamic coaching personalities.
And in thinking about myself and how this impacts me, I came to the re-realization that none of this is charity. Deion Sanders wasn’t at Jackson State to change lives and elevate the HBCUs. The fact that he did that is simply a byproduct of who he is. And Deion isn’t headed to Boulder because he has fond memories of Kordell Stewart and Rashaan Salaam, he’s there because they’re offering him market value for his services, and he’s ready to elevate to meet the next challenge.
Colorado administrators have to know that Prime is only here until the next challenge presents itself, and kudos to them for understanding that they need a jolt like this and still making the investment. Some people are here for a long time, and some people are here for a good time. In business, there are operators and there are owners. Operators are in love with running the business. Owners are about investment and returns. Maybe Deion’s calling is to be an owner.
And in the end, Colorado, just like Jackson State, will be better for it.
As its “jumping off point,” the article used a 1957 photo of a then 14-year-old Jerry Jones standing in the background while his white classmates attempted to intimidate six black students as they became the first to desegregate schools in Little Rock Arkansas.
That photo has understandably ignited some furious debate online, and it’s been fascinating to watch people put fairly recent historical events through the modern meat grinder of what some refer to as cancel culture, and others maintain as consequence culture.
I’m not here to talk about the way we’ve come to conflate social justice and social media justice. There’s not anything you or I can do to stem the tide of social media platforming everyone’s feelings all at once. The reality of the situation is that Jerry Jones isn’t losing the Cowboys over this. I’m asking you to acknowledge that reality so that we can talk about one way that Jerry Jones could actually do some good here.
Tensions in this country might feel at an all-time high right now, but the truth is this might not even be a top 5 era for American division. Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that because white people don’t agree on major issues across party lines, that’s the definition of division. How about the division that existed in the 1950’s- when it was an everyday public debate whether or not Melanized people like myself were worthy of basic Constitutional protections? There wasn’t a public consensus on whether or not we were even human beings.
Jerry Jones cited “curiosity” as his reason for making his way into the photo that day. On some level, I believe him. After all, curiosity isn’t the absence of hate, it’s often just attraction to spectacle. Cowboys fans should know this better than anyone- 90% of the people tuned in to watch the Boys in Blue on any given Sunday are active haters who are attracted to spectacle.
Jerry Jones answered at length questions about Washington Post story and photo of Jones 65 years ago at an Arkansas HS where four Black kids were denied entry because of their race. Jones said he was present out of curiosity and didn’t understand the magnitude of the event. pic.twitter.com/HU0ZM37DWs
Jerry Jones likely spent his childhood in a homogenized environment surrounded by people that carried the popular public sentiment of the time, which was one that was coming to grips with the idea that black people weren’t quite property, but they also weren’t quite people. And it’s Jerry Jones’ direct connection to that time period that gives him an opportunity to talk about the exact path he and others like him had to travel to evolve out of that mindset.
I know for some, it’s never going to be enough for someone to repeatedly denounce the popular sentiment of the era they were raised in, they have to be a leader in every facet of every kind of socially progressive movement to perpetually atone for the sins of themselves and their kin. My message isn’t for people that carry that standard.
But for everyone else, with more realistic expectations of a billionaire born in the American South at the height of Jim Crow, what we really need is honesty.
We’re living in a time when the very idea of educating people on the history of how the dehumanization of black people has shaped our experience as a nation has become too bitter a pill to include in the educational curriculum of some Southern states. We can spend a semester talking about the revolutionary spilling of unjustly taxed tea, but we can’t spill the tea on the subsequent injustice of an unfairly taxed race.
Jerry Jones’ experience as a still-living, still-thriving, white, southern, American billionaire whose boyhood friends gathered to hatefully block the path of children whose only crime was desiring equal access to education has value.
Encouraging Jerry Jones to slink away into obscurity with billions in cash like Donald Sterling isn’t going to bring society maximum value here. Forcing an apology for something that happened seven years before the Civil Rights Act was passed, and 20 years before Tom Brady was born isn’t going to accomplish anything either. What we need from Jerry Jones at this moment is for him to open up about his time in a segregated south, and to use his platform to put context to all facets of that photograph. The visible anger. The fear. The spectacle. The bravery of the North Little Rock 6.
I’m not suggesting that Jerry Jones can solve racism, but I am saying that there are plenty of curious people gathered around the spectacle of this story- craning their necks for a better view. A story that at its root is one of triumph over hate. A story whose main characters shouldn’t be Jerry Jones, but instead be about Richard Lindsey, Gerald Persons, Harold Smith, Eugene Hall, Frank Henderson, and William Henderson, who showed up to North Little Rock High despite the school board telling them not to.
Jerry Jones has the opportunity here to make sure we know those names, and how their courage in the face of his “curiosity” helped push this country toward a more just future for everyone.
It’s an opportunity I hope he’s curious enough to take.
We need to talk about the new age of parity in college football.
It’s never been harder to be great in college football, but it’s never been easier to be good.
One of the things that has kept the NFL the most compelling American sport is its parity- the ability for a team that is completely out of the playoff picture to make a couple of staff adjustments, hit on a few draft picks, and make a splashy free agency signing to all of the sudden flip from pretender to contender.
But it also means that the opposite can happen. Look no further than last year’s Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams sitting at 3-8, the worst record in the entire NFC.
I’m not sure college football fans are ready for that kind of volatility, but they better get ready, because we’re already seeing it to a certain extent.
With the emergence of the transfer portal, and the ability of schools to tap into Name, Image and Likeness as an enticement for athletes looking to monetize their skillset, every school could potentially be its wealthiest donors shifting focus toward direct player benefits away from being immediately competitive.
Arizona State went 3-9 this year. Could they be 9-3 next year? With looming sanctions, it’s unlikely, but in this new age of college football, it’s not impossible.
Look at USC. They were 4-8 last year, hired Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma, they started buying up players through their NIL collective and now they’re one win away from a College Football Playoff appearance.
Look at Washington. They went from 73rd in the country in passing offense in 2021 to being the best in the country in one year thanks in part to the transfer portal.
Tennessee used to have to fill McDonalds bags with recruiting enticements, and now they can do it out in the open. Not only did they just put together a 10-win season with a victory over Alabama, they have one of the top incoming freshmen QBs in the country headed their way with reportedly the largest sum of NIL money to date involved.
It’s never been easier to spark positive change in a program. If your school has an alumni base with deep pockets, you might just find yourself in the hunt. Shoot, if Donald Trump and Elon Musk wanted to make nice and stop competing with each other for world domination, they could put together a hell of a football team at University of Pennsylvania.
But the trick is going to be staying good, and making that spark into a flame. Michigan State went from 11-2 last year, and Mel Tucker getting a market-resetting contract extension, to 5-7 this year. And what the football gods gave to USC this year, they took away from University of Oklahoma, who finished the season with their worst record since yours truly was in high school.
And all these sparks will come at the expense of someone. It’s going to be harder and harder for Nick Saban to run the table. Are Alabama fans ready for that?
Look, just because college football is changing, and things might be more volatile, doesn’t mean you’re not going to still get solid, homegrown, underdog teams that go on magical runs like Cincinnati last year, and TCU this year, who despite changing head coaches, isn’t overly reliant on transfers. Sometimes the volatility of everyone else actually provides more of an advantage for teams with a steady hand and a brick-by-brick mindset. Just look at University of Utah.
But if you’re a fan of the sport, and you want to keep being a fan of the sport, you need to be open to the idea that the new reality is that anything can happen in any given year.
It’s Thanksgiving Season, and this year, the thing I’m thankful for is something I never could have expected.
I’m thankful for Bo Nix.
Last year at this time, I was still healing from Oregon’s 38-7 beatdown at the hands of the Utah Utes, and was convinced that the loss would cause then head coach Mario Cristobal to redouble his efforts to chase after a National Championship in Eugene.
A lot changed in a very short amount of time.
Mario Cristobal went to Miami. Georgia won a National Championship, and the Ducks hired Defensive Coordinator Dan Lanning as Cristobal’s replacement.
It wasn’t hard to get behind Dan Lanning, but when I heard Bo Nix was transferring in from Auburn to reunite with former Tigers Offensive Coordinator Kenny Dillingham?
Like any cranberry sauce that wasn’t made by yours truly, that was a hard bit to swallow.
You can check my Twitter history, I’m not sure I’ve been harder on any college quarterback over the previous three years as I was on Bo Nix. I thought he stunk.
His first college game was against my Ducks, and outside of one throw, I thought he looked terrible. It would be one thing if it was just a random Auburn freshman that had won the job, but this was the #1 Pro Style QB in the class of 2019 according to Rivals, while 247 had him as the #1 Dual Threat QB.
When I watched at Bo Nix, I didn’t see the #1 anything. And after the first game against Georgia? I might have used the number two to describe some of what I saw. But definitely not #1.
But after the Georgia game, Bo Nix quit being a turkey, and started bringing the stuffing. The stat stuffing.
Nine wins, 3,500 yards of combined offense, and 40 combined touchdowns later, not only did the Bo Nix help my Ducks get revenge over Utah, they’re on the verge of playing for a Pac-12 title against fellow 5-star transfer QB Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans.
Bo Nix is having a breakout year in his first season with @oregonfootball 💪
He chats about his transfer, the Ducks' improvement, his playing style, and more with @BruceFeldmanCFB. Full video ⤵️
The job’s not done, but this is a heck of a redemption story for what everyone who knows him swears is an excellent human being. Whether it’s this year or next, he’s going to have a shot at making his NFL dreams a reality, and might even find himself in New York for the Heisman ceremony.
One thing that anyone that has overcome adversity will tell you, is that it teaches you gratitude. Bo Nix has been through a lot as a college quarterback, and while I’m sure he’s grateful for his situation in Eugene, I can speak for the entire Oregon alumni and fan base by saying that after the roller coaster of temporary coaches and inconsistent QB play we’ve had over the past couple seasons, we’re just as grateful for Bo Nix, if not moreso.
