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Johnny Manziel to boycott Heisman ceremony until Reggie Bush is reinstated
The thing that makes the argument more complex is that the Supreme Court's given a unanimous decision that the NCAA's rules at the time were illegal and unconstitutional.
Should the NCAA double-down on rules that have been deemed illegal and unconstitutional?
I'm a rule-follower, so I see the point of those who say that Bush broke the rules that were in place at the time, but I also think that, now that NIL's in place, it really doesn't matter that much. Reggie Bush was fun to watch in college, and I don't see the harm in giving the Heisman back. It's just a trophy and giving it back doesn't hurt anyone.
If a decision "rests with the NCAA", I think you can be pretty certain that it'll never happen. Unless it involves screwing up the sport or a player's career. They seem to be pretty active in those endeavors.
Sounds like he might get a chance to play on offense in some pretty limited and special situations. Gadget plays would be a good way to use him. He's played well as a QB, WR, and running the ball in addition to being great on defense. Everything we hear about these players is filtered through layers of people, but I hear he's interested in playing some on offense, and if he can pick up a few plays during the season, it adds to what the team can do. Travis Hunter's definitely not the model to use for that, though.
If you watch those highlights, you'll see him backpedaling on just about every single one of those TD throws with a defender running right at him. I'd forgotten how poorly our OLine played the pass rush. IT's a shame we wasted him last season. Hoping for a better OLine which should show us all what Conner can do.
Agree. The NCAA was slapped by Congress and the SCOTUS, but they're acting like they were completely neutered. I really don't understand that part. Their unwillingness to do anything substantive about the bigger problems in the sport is setting the stage for another body to form and take over where the NCAA is leaving things hanging. With all the money on the line, it's easy to imagine a playoff-related body taking over more policy control over the sport. 2026 is the year we'll see changes one way or another, so it's just around the corner that we'll start to see how this is going to go.
Oddly, it makes me happy to see Durkin land at Auburn.
I suspect most of the players still love the game, but you're right, the addition of this kind of money this fast without guardrails has created an unsustainable situation. Something will change before long. I just hope it's the universities who band together and create a solution rather than having Congress step in and try to fix the problem. Congress the one and only thing that could make the whole thing worse.
Agree. I'll always follow the Ags and I suspect I will watch every football game they play as long as I'm around. I do find it difficult to adjust to some of the roster changes, though.
The current situation is dysfunctional, and it will be fixed and returned to a more stable situation before long. Either the NCAA will need to fix it or CFB might need to develop a new governing system either in conjunction with other sports or separate from them.
Portal losses have to be expected anytime a team loses a coach these days, especially when you go from the GOAT to someone lesser (no offense to DeBoer, who's a really good coach).
But Caleb Downs leaving has to hurt. He's a good player. Hate to see the wild swings of player movement, but that's what the game's come to.
Haha. He says that, but he did hire the guy who gave the extension and also went after Mark Stoops as his #1 target.
In this age of college football, I don't believe that what a team did back in '98, '05, '15, or even '20 matter one bit in terms of how a team does on the field this coming season. We'll still probably have one of the top 5 most talented teams in the country starting this Fall. We've had a significant coaching upgrade, and gained more talent through the portal than we lost, especially when you consider shoring up areas of need, so I don't see it unreasonable to expect a significant improvement over last year.
Pretty good list, even including Milroe. He needs more consistent growth in his game as a QB before he's able to play in the NFL, although those teams have shown they're willing to take a flyer on an unpolished athletic QB.
Agree. It's way too early to start grading coaching hires even before their first practice. If you're going to rank them, I'd think you'd need to include his early attention to repairing TAMU's relationships with Texas HS coaches and his excellent work in the portal repairing known deficiencies as being a good bit better than B-level work. See problem, fix problem.
We've seen that splash hires don't necessarily work. Elko's the right guy for the moment.
"Ricks will have 1 season of eligibility remaining."
???
He was recruited out of HS in the 2023 class, so I'm guessing that's a typo in the article.
Elko's done a great job shoring up the secondary. Our DL was extremely talented last year and did a great job, but were hampered because our secondary couldn't force the QB to hold the ball when needed. I don't see that being as much an issue for next season. Even having lost Nolen and some others from the defense to the portal, I'd say our defense overall has significantly upgraded.
Great ending. Nice way to honor the goat without overdoing it. Time goes on, right?
Wow, a part of me is surprised and another part just sort of sad. Saban's the greatest.
Now that's good humor.
The past few years, it's seemed to me that Harbaugh's tried getting cute in the playoffs and moving away from his team's most successful tendencies right when his team needed them the most. that cost them the game against TCU last year with the failed trick plays giving TCU just enough room to eke by.
I think UGA would have beaten any team that made the playoff, but as other commenters have said, they lost the one game this year that they couldn't afford to lose. That happened to them before and, when given a chance to make it right in the playoffs, they did exactly that. Alas, no such chance this year, so we can only speculate.
You're right. He has a ton of potential, but didn't get much of a chance to show it on the field. I am glad he's not coming back next year, though. If/when he puts it all together, he'd be scary to see on the opposite line.
So this is what it's like having a coach that uses the portal. I'd almost forgotten it existed until a few weeks ago. Elko's cooking.
Hard to say. I'd tend to agree with you, but I don't see an issue with Elko meeting him and talking. If he were to come back, I could see a probationary arrangement where one screwup and he's out of school again.
Awwww yeah. Boom!
This guy should wreak havoc next year along with our interior DL as long as we can get a bit better in the secondary. We've added some great pieces to the secondary, but still probably need another good one or two.
Excited about this guy.
Haha - Give Elko time to cook. Just brought in the Big 10 sack leader while you guys are losing your leading RB.
The carousel is making me dizzy. Baker's a really good DC, and I'm guessing LSU would offer him a lot of $$$$. Mizzou's gonna have to pony up. DCs like Baker don't grow on trees, and they should do everything within their power to keep him on board. LSU would give him a pretty clean canvas to build on, though, with an easier time recruiting talent.
Well, I didn't see that coming. Well done, Coach Elko.
Some more than others. Harbaugh has played his biggest games at Michigan exactly that way, getting cute and playing differently than they usually do when they get in the playoffs. It certainly cost them big team last year against TCU and it almost cost them last night with the trick play.
Regarding Reed, a lot of us are wondering how in the world Jimbo could have buried Jaylen henderson and Marcel Reed behind Max. Max is a tough QB in every sense of the word, but had obvious deficiencies, particularly with a slow release playing behind a porous OLine. We watched him get buried on play after play, the most hit QB in the league but far. It seems like real dual threat QBs like Reed and Henderson should have probably been played before they became the only remaining option. A little insight into Jimbo's choices.
Elko and Bateman go way back after working together back in 2004. The hire wasn't on anyone's radar and was a bit of a surprise, but early returns are that he's experienced and his scheme fits what Elko wants to do. Elko should be pretty comfortable with him implementing Elko's defense. I'm thinking this could turn out to be a great hire to break the scattershot approach to hiring-with-scheme-as-an-afterthought of recent years.
I'm really excited to see what Klein can do with our offense. As for the defense, I feel pretty comfortable trusting that Elko knows what he's doing in that department.
It's hard to predict which coaches will be successful at times. Napier's a head-scratcher for me since I thought he'd do really well there.
I just wanna say that it's refreshing to not have to read another "hot seat" article about Jimbo.