Gig 'em

Regarding the Aggies, I have no problem with everyone being in "wait and see" mode after the Jimbo experiment failed so spectacularly, so I don't have any heartburn with the ceiling projection of 8 & 4. With that said, Connor's reasoning has to do with Jimbo's pathetic road record. I don't believe Jimbo's road record will have any bearing on Elko's team. Aggie positives this season: 1. I trust Elko to get more from his players than Jimbo did, and players not committed seem to have been shown the door. Read that as improvement of culture added to the high level of talent still here. 2. Incoming portal players allow a quicker transformation of culture in #1. This applies to every team having good coaching. 3. The new S&C staff (Tommy Moffitt) will help long term, and we will likely start to see an improvement this season. 4. Elko and Klein will put them in a better position to compete than in recent years. 5. Easier schedule than in recent years. No problem at all with "wait and see", but those are my thoughts.

Man, what a tear he went on, striking out a couple of the best hitters in the country with that mean 2-strike fastball. Incredible amount of spin he got on it - they were all swinging right below where the ball was. Incredible spin. Wow, how'd he do it?

No joke. He was a great player, and I loved what he did at Jackson State. We're in a new era of CFB where payers will be openly paid to play directly by the schools within a year or two, and that kind of frank talk about the need to perform or hit the portal is becoming the norm, so he's doing well to have those conversations with players. I understand the player didn't like it, but that's the way the rest of the world works - if you don't work to the level expected, you portal out to a different company. CFB is becoming the same. He's going to flame out at CU, though, if he keeps up with those antics. It's like watching a flush in slow motion at this point.

That was a crazy game. What a momentum swing in an instant.

It's hard to say how Ewers will play this season when he faces SEC defenses week-in and week-out. His history with injuries and occasional head-scratcher decisions tells us there's a good chance Manning gets to start this year. Probably not game 1, but eventually. What happens then will be interesting. Naysayers will say what they will, but Arch has a great chance of becoming a really good SEC and NFL QB.

He really was the star yesterday. Spring games are spring games, but seeing him play that way just sort of confirmed what most expect to see from him in the fall. We've lost some talent on the DL, but the bulk of that talented group is still around and will benefit from a return to Elko's blue collar mentality and Moffit's S&C program. The DL will definitely be the strength of the team. Expect to see a pretty dynamic offense this fall too, although that's still a work in progress with Klein and will depend on getting the OL stabilized. The OL will be the key to how the season goes, and it still has a long way to go. Luckily, they still have a few months and picked up a pretty goo C in the portal. Scourton, though - beast.

I know it's just a slate of spring games, but hey, it's finally football - for a day.

I'm interested in seeing the difference Petrino can make at Arky. Can he get Pittman off the hot seat? Petrino couldn't save Jimbo's job, but it's sounding like Jimbo still had a big say in how Bobby structured the offense instead of just letting him cook. Pretty sure Pittman's just going to hand over the keys to the offense, so we should see what Petrino's really capable of. I expect an improved Hogs offense this year, but not sure exactly where they are in terms of player personnel.

I can't really argue with you because that's the natural progression. The NCAA has shown its ineptitude and it can't be trusted to do the right thing for CFB. I hate what this will do to the non-revenue sports, but this has already been decided, in my mind.

Well said.

Agree, and we need to stop thinking the NCAA deserves to continue running and policing college football. The NCAA is inept. I see no real reason why it can't continue running other sports, but it's wholly incapable of running CFB due to the size and scope of the product on the field and the revenue it generates. Whatever form the next phase of CFB governance takes will be better than what we're seeing now. One option to keep the NCAA in charge would be to have student athletes become employees of the university, but that would most likely have to include paid positions for all mens' and womens' sports. Maybe they could find a way around it, but the non-revenue generating sports could become very expensive if not handled the right way, and if the NCAA excluded them, we'd probably see another round of lawsuits, and the NCAA doesn't handle those well. The alternative is for the NCAA to cede control of D1 CFB to a playoff committee very much subservient to the broadcast networks. There are good things and bad things that would result from it, but it's a way to improve on the "NCAA has no balls" issue. Kirby has it right. It's not just a disservice to coaches that they don't know how their team's players will be until fall semester starts. It's also a disservice to the student athletes. What's coming next month is going to be very bad, but probably necessary to either get the NCAA to finally fix the problem or cement consensus to move away from the NCAA for governance of CFB. Either way works. It can't stay like it is.

Dang. disappointing end to the season, but it was a wild game from wire to wire. Gig 'em!

It was a good one to watch. We've had the classic up-and-downs this season in a big way, so it's hard to know what we'll see. They've been able to put together a nice upside toward the end of the season though. We lost to Houston by 4 earlier, but that was a different night and both teams have changed. Can't wait to see the Sunday game, win or lose.

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.