It looks like Wilson is heading to familiar territory when the season comes to a close.

Wilson will reportedly join Pete Golding‘s staff at Ole Miss after LSU faces Houston in the Texas Bowl, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz and Chris Hummer. That game is set for Dec. 27.

Oxford was previously home to Wilson, as he was the Rebels’ running backs and special teams coach from 2005 to 2007 under Ed Orgeron. It’s also a reunion for Wilson and Golding. Golding was Wilson’s defensive coordinator at UTSA in 2016 and 2017 before taking the same role at Alabama under Nick Saban.

Wilson was a popular figure around the Tigers program. He was previously LSU’s associate head coach, running backs coach, and recruiting coordinator from 2010 to 2015. After serving as head coach at McNeese State and then UTSA, he returned to Baton Rouge, serving as associate HC and RBs coach once more.

Wilson was 2-2 as the Tigers’ interim head coach. LSU lost to Alabama in his first game before beating Arkansas and Western Kentucky. It ended its regular season with a loss to Oklahoma.

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First, though, is the Tigers’ bowl game, as they face Virginia in the Gator Bowl on Dec. 27 in search of a ninth and final win on the season.

“Everybody who’s in this building’s focus has to be, what do we got to do to win the bowl game?” Drinkwitz, who will be the offensive playcaller during the game, said, via KMIZ-TV’s Nathalie Jones. “And with Kirby getting his opportunity, my entire focus for the last 72 hours has been preparing and getting this offense in the best position possible for us to win.”

From there, Drinkwitz said, the search for a new OC will begin in earnest. Whoever it is will need to have plenty of experience.

They’ll also need to help the Tigers put together a legitimate passing attack. While Mizzou’s 234.1 rushing yards per game led the conference and was eighth in FBS — thanks to Ahmad Hardy — its 195.3 passing yards per game was at the bottom of the league.

“This league doesn’t allow for training wheels. There’s not a lot of first-time play callers having a lot of success in this league,” Drinkwitz said. “You’ve got to have some battle scars. You’ve got to have a level of toughness. You’ve got to have an understanding of who you are, what your identity is. For me, that’s going to be a priority in this thing.”

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Alabama RB Jam Miller, who was hurt during the Iron Bowl and missed the SEC Championship Game, and Oklahoma defensive lineman R. Mason Thomas, who suffered a hamstring injury against Tennessee on Nov. 1, aren’t on the first player availability report ahead of the Crimson Tide and Sooners’ College Football Playoff first-round game on Friday.

Miller has totaled 493 yards and 3 touchdowns on 123 carries for the Tide in 2025. During the Tide’s last game against the Sooners on Nov. 15, he was held to just 27 yards on nine attempts. He had 15 carries for 83 yards before leaving against Auburn two weeks later.

Thomas has been a key run stopper for a Sooners team that’s allowed the fifth-fewest yards per game on the ground. The first-team All-SEC selection has 9.5 tackles for a loss, third among Oklahoma players. He also leads the team with 6.5 sacks.

The Tide and Sooners are set to meet for the third time in just over a year. During the Tide’s last trip to Norman in 2024, Jalen Milroe threw three interceptions as they fell 24-3.

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The Notre Dame junior, who was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy after rushing for over 1,300 yards and 16 touchdowns, announced on Tuesday that he will forgo his final year of eligibility. Love revealed the news via a statement.

“Those who know me best know that I am very direct, so I am going to get straight to the point and share that I have made the decision to declare for the NFL Draft,” Love wrote.

Love, a four-star recruit out of St. Louis and considered a top-five high school running back, signed with the Fighting Irish out of the class of 2023. He played behind starting RB Audric Estime, totaling 385 yards and a touchdown as a true freshman.

After Estime entered the draft, Love emerged as the starter in 2024 and finished with 1,125 yards as the Irish appeared in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. His 17 rushing touchdowns were tied for ninth in the country.

In 2025, Love put together his best season. His 1,372 rushing yards, the fourth-highest single-season total in program history, ranked fourth in FBS. He ran for 228 yards against USC, the Irish’s sixth-most yards in a single game. After the season, he finished third behind Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and Vanderbilt‘s Diego Pavia in voting for the Heisman Trophy.

Love leaves Notre Dame with 2,882 rushing yards, No. 7 all-time in school history. His 36 rushing touchdowns are tied for the third-highest single-season total among Irish players, with his 18 TDs in 2025 tied with Estime atop the program record books.

Love is widely considered a first-round pick in the NFL Draft.

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In 2024, the Crimson Tide took a 3-0 first-quarter lead in what was just the program’s second-ever visit to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The Sooners took over from there, pitching a shutout the rest of the way en route to a 24-3 win.

After losing to the Sooners again in 2025 — this time in Tuscaloosa — the Tide hope to come out on top when the two teams meet in Norman on Friday, this time in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Playing there last time was a bit of a struggle for a couple of reasons, including the configuration of the stadium lights, Bernard said on Tuesday.

“Their lights, it kind of got me last time that we played,” Bernard said, via a video from AL.com. “The lights were kind of, I don’t know, in a weird position, I guess you could say.”

The senior, who had four catches for 60 yards against the Sooners in 2024, also mentioned issues with the playing surface.

“I think our equipment staff has done a great job at putting us in the right cleats and whatnot, so we won’t have that issue (on Friday),” he said.

Bernard, to his credit, had a decent performance. Outside of that, though, Jalen Milroe was just 10-of-26 for 102 yards and threw three interceptions as his receivers dropped five passes during that game, per 247Sports’ Mike Rodak. Alabama couldn’t run the ball either, going for just 70 yards on 30 carries. Meanwhile, Oklahoma rolled up 257 yards on 50 carries as both Jackson Arnold and Xavier Robinson ran for over 100 yards.

Kickoff from Norman on Friday night is set for 8 p.m. ET.

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Crawford announced the news on Tuesday night via a post on X, as you can see below:

A Memphis area native, Crawford’s story is interesting. As he said in his post, he didn’t start playing football until transferring to Briarcrest Christian Academy as a senior in high school, instead playing basketball.

He ultimately received nine offers before signing with Arkansas State out of the 2022 recruiting class. There, he totaled 58 tackles, 13.5 tackles for a loss, and 6.5 sacks across two seasons. That included 2023, when he made 44 stops, 10.5 TFLs, and 5.5 sacks. His TFL and sack totals were second among Red Wolves players.

He then entered the transfer portal before signing with Auburn. In his first season on The Plains, he made 22 tackles. His involvement increased in 2025 as he recorded 9.5 TFLs and 5.0 sacks, both second on the team. He earned 3rd team All-SEC honors when the season came to a close.

With his college career behind him — one that included a pair of seasons in the SEC — Crawford now will hope to land on an NFL roster in the spring.

The post Keyron Crawford, Auburn DE, announces decision on 2026 season appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Bey’s recruitment has been a roller-coaster. He initially committed to play at Tennessee after taking an official visit there. He later visited Ohio State in November, ultimately flipping his pledge.

However, when the Early Signing Period came around, he surprisingly decided to sign with Tennessee after all. That was reportedly after his mother wouldn’t sign off on his NLI since Tennessee, not Ohio State, was said to be her preference. Since Bey was 17 years old, he needed the signature of a parent or legal guardian before his paperwork could be submitted.

On Tuesday, Bey was released from his NLI. That has paved the way for him to sign with Ohio State when the regular signing period commences in February.

A 5-foot-10.5, 175-pounder, Bey played quarterback at North Forney (Tex.) but signaled his desire to play wide receiver in college. According to 247Sports, he is the No. 24 player in the state of Texas and the 175th-ranked player in the country.

Ohio State’s class is ranked No. 6 in the nation by 247Sports. Tennessee is at No. 7.

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Moss was on the practice field in College Station on Tuesday, with the Aggies gearing up to face the Hurricanes at Kyle Field at noon on Saturday. The winner plays second-seeded Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl semifinal on Dec. 31.

Needless to say, the Aggies are hoping to have their top running back on the field as they embark on their first-ever Playoff appearance, with offensive coordinator Collin Klein — who takes the reins at Kansas State at season’s end — calling Moss a “sledgehammer.”

“It’s probably a little unfair, just because our running back room, we’ve been able to run the ball through the course of the season, even since he got hurt, at a really, really high clip. So, obviously, really excited about him,” Klein said, according to KBTX-TV’s Travis L. Brown. “Happy for him to be able to finish this season and be able to get back out there on the field and want him to finish strong. And obviously, he’s a difference-maker with the ball in his hands.”

Moss accumulated 70 carries, 389 yards, and six touchdowns in six games in 2025. But a leg injury against Florida means he’s been sidelined up until this point.

Rueben Owens Jr. has taken over as the Aggies’ lead back, totaling 112 carries for 618 yards and five touchdowns.

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Bey was granted his release from his NLI on Tuesday, according to KnoxNews’ Adam Sparks. But how things got to this point in the first place makes for an interesting story.

The North Forney (Tex.) product was a dynamic dual-threat quarterback in high school but opted to switch to wide receiver in college. After collecting a host of offers, including from Tennessee, he committed to Josh Heupel and the Vols in June, weeks after an official visit.

That was before he took an official visit to Ohio State in November, leading him to flip his pledge to the Buckeyes. With all signs pointing to him signing for Ryan Day’s program during the Early Signing Period, though, he instead signed with the Volunteers, reportedly because his mother wouldn’t sign off on his NLI to play for Ohio State.

It didn’t end there, though, per Sparks:

As a coveted recruit, Bey undoubtedly signed a lucrative NIL deal with Tennessee. But by rule, a university cannot pay direct school-to-player NIL money until the student-athlete is enrolled and on campus, which means UT had not paid him any money yet.

That brings us to Tuesday. With Bey no longer part of Tennessee’s 2026 recruiting class, all signs point to him signing with the Buckeyes in February. That is, of course, barring any more twists and turns.

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“We are proud to have Coach DeBoer leading our football program at The University of Alabama,” Byrne said. “He is an incredible coach and does an excellent job with the development of our student-athletes, both on and off the field. Just as he is committed to this team, we are committed to him.”

DeBoer was thought to be a possible candidate for the Michigan job due to his existing ties to the Midwest. However, DeBoer stated that he was not interested in other jobs.

After missing the College Football Playoff in 2024, the Crimson Tide lost their season opener against Florida State. They recovered from that defeat and are back in the 12-team field in 2025. They’ll face Oklahoma in the first round, with the winner playing top-seeded Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl quarterfinal.

“We look forward to taking the field Friday in the first round of the College Football Playoff,” Byrne concluded.

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On Sunday, that speculation increased. Reports from the AP stated that the firm handling Michigan’s search had reached out to DeBoer’s representatives.

Later in the afternoon, Kalen DeBoer issued a statement addressing the links, saying that he and his family “are very happy in Tuscaloosa” and that he had “no interest in speaking with anyone else about any other job.”

“We have an incredible opportunity in front of us, so my sole focus is on Alabama football and our preparations to play Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff,” DeBoer wrote.

The second-year Crimson Tide head coach went 9-4 in 2024 as his team missed the Playoff. They’re back in it in 2025 after a 10-3 mark and an SEC Championship Game appearance.

“I am fully committed to this program and look forward to continuing as the head football coach at the University of Alabama,” DeBoer concluded.

Alabama and Oklahoma meet on Friday in Norman in a first-round Playoff game. The winner takes on top-seeded Indiana.

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It’s a return to Oxford for Spurlock. He was a wide receiver for the Rebels from 2003 to 2005 under David Cutcliffe and Ed Orgeron. Later, he was an offensive assistant for the program under Lane Kiffin in 2020 and 2021.

Spurlock spent nine seasons in the NFL, playing for eight different teams. After his retirement in 2014, he turned to coaching. He was an assistant coach at Philadelphia High School in his native Mississippi before moving to the JUCO ranks.

Following a season on the Dallas Cowboys’ staff, he returned to the college sidelines this time with UTSA and later for Southeastern Louisiana. He returned to Ole Miss in 2020 and was there for two seasons before going back to the pros to take a quality control position with the Green Bay Packers.

In 2023, Spurlock was named wide receivers coach at Western Kentucky. That was followed by a two-year stint as RBs coach at Southern Miss before becoming WRs coach at Ole Miss on Sunday.

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Tony Washington Jr. will be the program’s new defensive ends and outside linebackers coach, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Washington is currently an assistant on the staff of Ryan Day at Ohio State, where he works with the team’s defensive line.

Prior to his time at Ohio State, Washington was at UCLA for a single season. There, he was a DL and OLB assistant coach on DeShaun Foster’s staff. Before that, he was at Nebraska and Oregon.

While at Oregon, Washington served as the Ducks’ OLB coach. There, he worked with Stein while the latter was the team’s offensive coordinator. Now, the two are set to reunite at Kentucky.

Stein is taking the reins of a Kentucky program that parted ways with longtime head coach Mark Stoops after 13 seasons. In 2023, Stein’s first season in Eugene, the Ducks were second in FBS in total yardage. It led the country in passing yards per game and finished second in scoring.

Currently, Oregon ranks ninth in the country in scoring and 13th in total offense heading into the College Football Playoff.

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Tramond Collins, who carries an ATH designation, has reopened his recruitment. That’s according to Rivals’ Hayes Fawcett.

According to 247Sports, Collins’ primary recruiter was Florida wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales. Gonzales, though, reportedly will not be a part of new head coach Jon Sumrall‘s staff. So it’s not hard to connect the dots as it relates to the decommitment of Collins.

Collins, an in-state product from Cottondale, Fla., is a four-star recruit. He is rated as the No. 11 player in the state by 247Sports’ Composite and as the No. 128 recruit in the country regardless of position.

Collins was offered by Florida in April and committed a couple of months later. Billy Napier, of course, was fired seven games into the season, with Sumrall eventually being named his replacement.

Outside of Florida, Collins has a total of 13 offers, including one from Florida State. Collins took two unofficial visits to Tallahassee in November. Auburn, Louisville, Maryland, Miami, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt are among his other offers.

Below, you can watch Collins’ highlights from his junior season from Hudl:

The post Florida loses commitment from 4-star in-state 2027 recruit appeared first on Saturday Down South.

According to reports, the search firm handling the search has reached out to the representation of a current SEC coach. But it’s not Kalen DeBoer.

Per the AP’s Larry Lage, it’s Eli Drinkwitz, who in November agreed to terms on a contract keeping him at Mizzou through the 2031 season. That includes a raise that would make him among the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the country.

It hasn’t stopped Michigan representatives from apparently making overtures for him, though.

Drinkwitz is 46-28 in six seasons in Columbia. In 2023 and 2024, he led the Tigers to back-to-back 10-win seasons. Before their 11-win campaign in 2023, the Tigers hadn’t achieved double digits since 2014.

That said, while Drinkwitz has seen success there, Mizzou has yet to truly emerge as one of the SEC’s elite. While he’s agreed to a new deal with the Tigers, if he were to head to Michigan, he’d be at the helm of a program with a much richer football history.

According to Lage, Michigan’s search firm has also reached out to Kenny Dillingham. The Arizona State head coach, a native of the Phoenix area and a graduate of the university, has on numerous occasions indicated that he has no intentions of leaving. Dillingham and Arizona State are reportedly nearing terms of a salary increase.

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Saturday also included a personal milestone for Johnson: he became the program’s latest member of the 1,000-point club. He achieved the mark with 90 seconds left in the game. Here’s the video:

The Gamecocks, who moved to 7-3 with the win, are certainly glad to have Johnson back in the fold. He began his career at Ohio State in 2020 and spent two seasons there before transferring to South Carolina.

In 2022-23, he was the Gamecocks’ second-leading scorer with 12.7 points per game. He was then the team’s leading scorer in the 2023-24 season with 14.1 points per outing, being named second-team All-SEC in the process.

Johnson returned to Ohio State for the 2024-25 season but played in just 10 games before taking a leave of absence from the team. After receiving a sixth year of eligibility on a medical hardship waiver, he returned to Columbia. He’s picked up where he left off, averaging a team-high 15.5 points.

Johnson and the Gamecocks are back on the court on Tuesday as they visit archrival Clemson.

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The outspoken signal-caller transferred to Vandy from New Mexico State in 2024 and immediately helped elevate the program. The Commodores — who won nine games in the previous three seasons combined — finished 7-6, made a bowl for the first time since 2018, and won a bowl for the first time since 2013. The season also featured a 40-35 win over Alabama, the program’s first-ever win over a No. 1 team.

In 2025, though, after an injunction allowed him another year of eligibility despite playing two seasons at the junior college level, Pavia stepped things up in a big way. He was third in the SEC in passing yards with 3,192 and led SEC quarterbacks with 27 passing touchdowns. He also added eight touchdowns on the ground, ending the regular season having accounted for 35 touchdowns. Pavia was the driving force behind the Commodores’ first-ever double-digit win season.

Though Pavia ultimately didn’t win the Heisman, he became the first player in program history to finish top three in the voting. It caps what’s been a tremendous two years in Nashville.

Heisman Trophy vote totals 2025

According to the official Heisman Voting totals, Pavia finished 2nd behind Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza. Pavia earned the second-most first-place votes with 189 while Mendoza totaled 643.

Here are the final Heisman Trophy voting numbers for 2025:

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The Midshipmen haven’t won back-to-back meetings against Army since winning 14 in a row from 2002 to 2015. That changed on Saturday. After trailing 16-7, they pulled ahead 17-16 with six-and-a-half minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

The box score will read that it happened on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Blake Horvath to Eli Heidenreich. But that doesn’t tell the entire story.

Navy had second-and-goal from the Army 1-yard line. After Horvath lost the ball, Heidenreich recovered it to maintain possession for the Midshipmen. On third-and-goal, Horvath just barely avoided getting sacked, getting rid of the ball as he was going to the ground. It was initially thought to be a fumble but was instead called an incomplete pass.

On fourth down, though, Horvath found the end zone, capping a bizarre sequence.

After forcing a Black Knights three-and-out, the Midshipmen burned off the remaining time to secure the win.

Before Navy’s win in 2024, Army had taken six of the previous eight meetings. That was after Navy’s near-decade-and-a-half dominance in the series.

Navy, though, now leads the all-time series 64-55-7 with Saturday’s victory.

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Pavia was a handful for defenders. He threw for 3,192 yards, third in the SEC. He led the conference in passing touchdowns with 27. He also ran for 826 yards and nine touchdowns, including two 100-plus-yard rushing games.

That earned him the Herbie Award for Offensive Player of the Year, beating out Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza.

“This is a guy that … took Vanderbilt to a whole different level, running, throwing, doing so many things, not to mention bringing an attitude and just a determination to kind of go to that next level as a player and as a team,” Herbstreit said.

Pavia will be in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. He’s the first Heisman finalist in program history, a testament to the stellar season he had in 2025.

“Every single time it just seems like he would step up, make plays,” Herbstreit said. “He had some swag, of course, which I think was new for all of us to see that Vandy uniform having a guy doing things like that. …

“I look at any of these individual awards and how they impacted the team, and in my opinion, I don’t know if anybody in the country impacted their team the way Diego Pavia did.”

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He turned things around in a big way down the stretch, though. That was enough for him to earn a Herbie for “Redemption Player of the Year,” beating out Alabama‘s Deontay Lawson and Notre Dame‘s Boubacar Traore.

“A lot of people wrote (Manning) off (and) thought, ‘Oh, this guy, all that hype, he’s terrible. He’s not worth all that hype,'” Kirk Herbstreit said. “All he did was finish the year with three 300-yard passing games in his final five games, capped off with a huge win against Texas A&M, the number three-ranked team.”

Manning finished the season with 2,942 yards, 24 touchdowns, and just seven interceptions. However, five of those interceptions were thrown in the first five games of the season. Half of his touchdowns were across the final five games of the season.

As for the criticism Manning faced, Herbstreit chalked it up to “unrealistic expectations.” That mostly came through the lens of what Manning’s grandfather and uncles did at the position.

“People were talking about, ‘He’s going to win the Heisman Trophy. He’s better than Peyton. He’s better than Eli. He’s better than his grandpa. He’s going to win a national championship, and he’ll be the first pick next year in the draft.’ And when that didn’t pan out in the first half ot the season, people were very, very critical,” Herbstreit said.

“He blocked all of that out, didn’t take any of it personally. If anything, I think it motivated him to go out and help his teammates win games. And I was really happy for him enduring that … and coming out on the other side.”

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One tradition that occurs before the game involves both branches. When their respective service academy takes the field, the Army and Navy each conduct a flyover.

While the fans in Baltimore saw it, no one at home did. While it’s normally shown on CBS, it wasn’t this time around.

Fans watching the game at home weren’t happy about the flyover being cut from the broadcast. It’s especially noticiable considering the fact that the game was not only celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Army and Navy, but it’s the last one to be played before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration on July 4.

Here’s a sampling of some of the social media reaction:

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After taking the reins at his alma mater, a program beset by recruiting violations under Herm Edwards, Dillingham went 3-9 in 2023. In 2024, the Sun Devils were 11-3, won the Big 12 Tournament, and were in the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. Despite an 8-4 mark in 2025, Dillingham has led a remarkable turnaround.

The 35-year-old has repeatedly said that he is happy in Tempe. He attended high school about a half-hour north of Mountain America Stadium. But that hasn’t stopped speculation linking him to other jobs.

That includes Michigan, which fired Sherrone Moore on Wednesday.

Dillingham was asked about those links on Saturday. While conceding that it was “cool” to be linked to a program that he called “one of the best jobs in the country,” his voice broke while talking about his ties to the area in which he was born and raised.

“That doesn’t change how I feel about here,” he said, per video from PHNX Sports. “That doesn’t change that my sister’s my neighbor. That doesn’t change that my parents live three doors down. That doesn’t change that my son’s best friend is my sister’s daughter. So, none of that changes, but it is one of the best jobs in America. It’s an unbelievable brand, iconic brand, and it’s a great opportunity for somebody. “

In fact, per Yahoo Sports’ Chris Karpman, Dillingham hasn’t discussed the Michigan job with school officials.

“I love this place,” he said, while taking a long pause to gather his emotions. “It’s a special place to me.”

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Xzayvier Brown and Nijel Pack combined for 39 points as Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State 85-76 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. The win was the fourth straight for the Sooners in the Bedlam Series and the Cowboys’ first loss of the season.

Derrion Reid chipped in 10 points and Tae Davis added a game-high 10 rebounds as the Sooners improved to 7-3 on the season. The Cowboys fell to 9-1.

This was a 79-76 game with 1:37 to go in regulation. That was before Davis powered home a dunk to extend the Sooners’ lead to five. Brown and Dayton Forsythe then made clutch free throws down the stretch as Oklahoma sealed the victory.

The Sooners led 46-37 with just under two minutes gone by in the second half. But the Cowboys went on a 16-5 run spanning nearly seven minutes to take a 53-51 lead with 11:32 to go.

That was the last lead Oklahoma State had in this one. Oklahoma responded with a 7-0 run to go up 58-53 with nine minutes remaining. It was able to hold the Cowboys at arm’s length the rest of the way to pick up the win and put an end to what had previously been a perfect start to the season for Steve Lutz’s team.

Oklahoma outrebounded Oklahoma State 46-36. It shot the ball at 44% to the Cowboys’ 38%.

Both teams have Kansas City on their schedule next. The Sooners host the Roos in Norman on Tuesday. The Cowboys then face them in Stillwater on Thursday.

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Yormark appeared at the Sports Business Journal’s annual Intercollegiate Athletics Forum on Tuesday. The obvious topic of discussion involved the College Football Playoff, with the Big 12 commissioner applauding the Playoff selection committee after the 12-team field was revealed on Sunday.

“I think overall they did the right job. It’s progress over perfection. The selection process will never be perfect. And our goal as commissioners and the management committee is how do we improve?” Yormark said.

Yormark, though, was critical of Bevacqua’s response after Notre Dame was left out of the Playoff field in favor of Miami. The Fighting Irish refused to play in a bowl game of any type after the snub, ending their season.

Bevacqua has lashed out at the ACC in recent days, saying that Miami’s inclusion over Notre Dame has “permanently damaged” the long-term relationship between the university and the conference, while accusing the conference of conducting a “social media campaign attacking (the) program.“

Yormark called Bevacqua out on the matter, saying that Notre Dame should have anticipated the possibility of such a scenario playing out.

“I will say this, and I’m a little outspoken about it — I don’t like how Notre Dame has reacted to it,” Yormark said. “I think Pete, his behavior has been egregious. … Hunter (Yurachek) was very transparent about it, the (selection committee) chair, that as Notre Dame and Miami got closer together, head-to-head would be a factor.

“BYU lost. If they came closer together head-to-head, it would make a difference in that decision. So I think he’s totally out of bounds in his approach. And if he were in the room, I would tell him the same.”

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Of course, the five highest-ranked conference champions make the field. That means the SEC and Big Ten are all but guaranteed a berth, with the Big 12 sending Texas Tech this season. However, the American and Sun Belt’s champions — Tulane and James Madison, respectively — received autobids as well.

Some across the country may see this as a feel-good story. Not Finebaum.

“It’s time to get rid of the G5 schools,” Finebaum said on Tuesday’s “Get Up” on ESPN. “And I know how they got in there. It was a compromise. But America does not want to see Tulane, nor do we want to see James Madison in the College Football Playoff. This is great in the NCAA basketball tournament (where) there are 68 schools. There are only 12 here. And we don’t need them around.”

While Finebaum wants a Playoff without teams from the Group of Five, not one, but two, are in the field in 2025. And, for the foreseeable future, the door is open for at least one team outside of the four most powerful conferences in the country to make it in each year.

That prospect clearly doesn’t sit well with Finebaum.

“I don’t really care about Tulane or James Madison. They’re both going to lose by 25 to 45 points. They’ll be unwatchable games (so) get them out of a Playoff,” he said.

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Now, Kalen DeBoer and his staff are working on 2027’s class, and on Tuesday, they added their fourth player of the cycle. New Jersey’s Colt Lumpris verbally committed to the Tide, per Rivals’ Hayes Fawcett.

According to Fawcett, Lumpris’s finalists were Michigan, Ohio State, Ole Miss, and Tennessee.

Lumpris, who is about 6-foot-6 and weighs 225 pounds, carries an athlete designation on 247Sports, but he is being recruited as a tight end. Among players at that position, he is No. 17 nationally according to 247’s Composite. He is also considered the No. 6 ranked player in New Jersey.

While there’s still a long way to go, DeBoer’s 2027 class has gotten off to a decent start. In-state product Jabarrius Garror, the nation’s No. 13 edge rusher, has been pledged since 2024. Another in-state recruit, quarterback Trent Seaborn, committed in October, as did Atlanta-area cornerback Nash Johnson.

The 2026 class, which inked their NLIs just days ago, ended up being ranked No. 2 in the country. It’s a class headlined by a trio of 5-stars in edge Xavier Griffin, cornerback Jorden Edmonds, and running back Ezavier Crowell, all ranked in the top 30 nationally.

As for Lumpris, here are his junior year highlights on Hudl:

The post Alabama lands 2027 commitment from 4-star recruit from New Jersey appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Mitchell, though, is on the hunt for a new destination once more. He plans to enter the transfer portal when it opens in January, according to On3’s Pete Nakos.

A product of Thompson High School in Alabaster, Ala., Mitchell was rated by 247Sports’ Composite as the No. 9 safety in his class. At Alabama, he played in seven games as a true freshman in 2023.

After Saban retired following the season, Mitchell, who had been hampered by injury, joined East Mississippi CC. There, he made 16 tackles and recovered a fumble.

With a year of JUCO ball under his belt, he made his way back to the FBS ranks in 2025 as he signed with Mississippi State. He finished the season with 25 tackles and four tackles for a loss.

After one season in Starkville, Mitchell appears poised to be on the move again as what was projected to be a successful college career hasn’t quite turned out the way he has hoped.

The post Former Alabama DB plans to re-enter transfer portal after 1 season at Mississippi State appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Vontrell King-Williams, who joined the staff in 2023, will return for 2026, the program announced on Tuesday. He will remain the Tigers’ defensive line coach.

King-Williams initially was hired as an analyst as part of Freeze’s initial staff. He was promoted to defensive line coach after Jeremy Garrett departed the Plains after a single season to enter the NFL coaching ranks.

King-Williams was on Freeze’s staff at Liberty for two seasons, serving as a graduate assistant and heading to UTSA prior to reuniting with Freeze. He has also had a stint at Eastern Michigan, where he aided in the development of NFL star Maxx Crosby.

Alex Golesh takes over an Auburn program that has put together five straight below-.500 finishes. That’s one of the longest stretches in school history. The Tigers haven’t bowled in back-to-back years.

Golesh will now look to turn Auburn around the same way he reversed the fortunes of South Florida. He was 23-15 in three seasons, including a 9-3 mark in 2025. The Bulls had won a total of eight combined games in the four seasons before he arrived in 2023.

The post Alex Golesh retains Auburn assistant as part of initial staff appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Kiffin’s first game as head coach isn’t until 2026. But his hiring has led to plenty of interest in season tickets for LSU football, from the sounds of it. According to WAFB-TV’s Jacques Doucet, over 15,000 requests for season tickets have been made. Doucet adds that it’s led to more potential opportunities in fundraising and corporate opportunities.

Kiffin quoted Doucet’s post on Tuesday, adding the words “Thank you.”

The Tigers weren’t in terrible shape under Brian Kelly. However, they couldn’t find themselves able to compete near the top of the SEC, leading to his ouster.

In came Kiffin, after a long, protracted waiting period and off the back of leading Ole Miss to its first College Football Playoff appearance in program history. He’ll now look to return LSU to the Playoff for just the second time overall and for the first time since winning a national championship in 2019.

As for the Tigers’ home schedule in 2026, they face Clemson and McNeese. Alabama, Mississippi State, Texas, and Texas A&M also come to Death Valley as part of LSU’s conference slate.

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The Bulldogs’ No. 3 seed means that they won’t begin their quest for a third national championship in four seasons until the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 against either Ole Miss or Tulane. Last year’s Sugar Bowl, of course, saw Notre Dame silence the Dawgs en route to a national championship game appearance.

Back to Saturday, though. While Georgia knew that it had sewn up a Playoff spot regardless of what happened against Alabama, it flexed its muscle during a 28-7 win. Gunner Stockton threw for three touchdowns, and Nate Frazier added a score on the ground, as the Dawgs held the Crimson Tide to -3 yards rushing on 16 attempts.

On Monday, Georgia released its cinematic recap of Saturday’s SEC Championship victory, the Bulldogs’ second straight and their third in four seasons.

The Dawgs should be favored against whoever they face in the Sugar Bowl. They have already faced Ole Miss, beating them 43-35 at Sanford Stadium on Oct. 18. Against Tulane, they have a 14-10-1 record, with the last meeting between the two programs coming in 1985.

The post Georgia releases cinematic recap of SEC Championship win vs. Alabama appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Corso’s farewell episode in Week 1, the most-watched in GameDay history, kicked off a historic ratings season for the program. According to ESPN’s PR account on X, 2025 was the most-watched season in the history of College GameDay. In fact, the top nine highest-ever-rated episodes came in 2025.

Per ESPN, this season of GameDay has averaged 2.7 million viewers. That’s an increase of 22% over last year.

Looking closer, Saturday’s episode in Atlanta for the SEC Championship pulled in 2.3 million viewers, the show’s second-most-watched show for a conference championship weekend.

The last few years have been a transitory period for the long-running program. Nick Saban joined the team ahead of the 2024 season after retiring from coaching, while Pat McAfee joined as a full-time analyst in 2022. Meanwhile, David Pollack, a member of the cast for over a decade, was laid off in 2023.

As for Rece Davis, he is set to wrap up his 11th season as host of GameDay, having taken over for Chris Fowler in 2015. Following the retirement of Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, who joined in 1996, is now the longest-tenured analyst. And Desmond Howard has been at the desk over the last two decades, coming on board in 2005.

Despite the changes, the show continues to chug along as a core part of Saturday mornings in the fall.

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Chad Scott, who joined the Longhorns in February, is out after a single season. That’s according to a report from FootballScoop’s John Brice.

Scott was previously the running backs coach at West Virginia for six seasons. He also served as co-offensive coordinator before taking sole control of the offense in 2023 and 2024.

He then joined Steve Sarkisian‘s staff in Austin. But the Longhorns struggled to run the ball consistently. After a 1,000-yard season for Tre Wisner in 2024, he ran for 597 yards and three touchdowns in 2025 as he was limited by a leg injury. Collectively, Texas averaged 129.7 yards per game, the fifth-lowest total in the SEC.

Prior to his time at West Virginia, Scott was at North Carolina, where he coached tight ends under Mack Brown. That followed three seasons at Kentucky as the program’s running backs coach. Scott’s other stops were at Texas Tech and Troy.

While they await Wisner’s decision for 2026, the Longhorns will see some change in their running backs room. CJ Baxter announced on Monday that he would enter the transfer portal.

The post Steve Sarkisian dismisses Texas assistant ahead of bowl game, per report appeared first on Saturday Down South.

“As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season,” a statement from the program read. “We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we’re hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”

The Fighting Irish just last season faced Ohio State in the national championship game in Atlanta and entered 2025 with hopes of lifting the trophy.

Their season didn’t get off to the best of starts as they lost their season opener to Miami before falling to Texas A&M. They didn’t lose a game the rest of the way, though, thanks to an offense led by quarterback CJ Carr and running back Jeremiyah Love.

It wasn’t enough to get the Irish in the Playoff. Notre Dame spent much of the season ranked ahead of Miami in the Playoff’s top 25. That was until Sunday, as the Hurricanes made the field as an at-large team.

Now, the Irish have decided to sit out the postseason altogether after their hopes of a second straight Playoff were dashed in heartbreaking fashion.

The post Notre Dame announces decision on bowl game after Playoff snub appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The Playoff committee’s decision to put Miami in the field over Notre Dame drew massive criticism across the college football world. At the Irish’s selection show watch party, the mood was understandably dark.

Freeman, who tried to address his players after learning they wouldn’t be in the Playoff, was at a loss for words, according to a conversation ESPN’s Jen Lada had with Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua.

“(Bevacqua) said Marcus did get up and speak to the team immediately afterward. .. He said that usually he has answers or reasons for why these things happen. He has none, and that was unusual. He said he has no answers, it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t add up why Notre Dame is not in this Playoff field.”

Freeman certainly speaks to a great deal of the college football world, both inside and outside the Notre Dame fanbase. It was the most controversial moment from a selection process that admittedly didn’t have much in the way of controversy.

The post Marcus Freeman was ‘speechless’ after learning Notre Dame’s CFP fate, per report appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Mississippi State will play in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Jan. 2, the program announced on Sunday. The Bulldogs will face an ACC team to be determined.

The Bulldogs’ participation in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl comes as a pair of other teams opted out of the postseason amid coaching transitions. Kansas State saw Chris Klieman retire, but won’t have Klieman’s replacement, Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein, in place until after the College Football Playoff. Iowa State saw Matt Campbell announced as Penn State’s head coach on Saturday, with Washington State head coach Jimmy Rogers hired in his place.

That opened the door for Mississippi State, which is in a bowl game for the first time under Jeff Lebby. Its last time in the postseason was in 2022 as it won the ReliaQuest Bowl.

The Bulldogs opened the season with a 4-0 mark before losing their next four. Three of those losses were by one score and two went to overtime. After snapping their skid with a win over Arkansas, Mississippi State lost its next three.

The post SEC team to receive bowl bid despite going 5-7 in regular season appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The Rebels will be on the hunt for a new defensive coordinator once the season ends. For now, though, Golding will serve as the team’s defensive playcaller. That’s according to ESPN’s Alyssa Lang.

Ole Miss’s offense has been one of the best in the country. Its defense has held up its own end of the bargain, though. The Rebels are No. 20 in the country in passing defense, allowing 182.6 yards through the air per game. That’s good for third in the SEC.

Pete Golding has been with Ole Miss since 2023 as the program’s defensive coordinator. In 2024, the Rebels’ defense was terrific. It was second in the country in points allowed per game, second in rushing defense, and 14th in total defense. Of course, Golding has Playoff experience. As Nick Saban‘s defensive coordinator at Alabama, the Crimson Tide won a national championship in 2020.

In this Playoff run, though, we know that Golding will serve as his own defensive playcaller. We’ll see if that extends to 2026, his first full season as the Rebels’ head coach.

The post Pete Golding reportedly decides on Ole Miss’s defensive play-calling plans for CFP appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The Rebels, thanks to a high-octane offense, are a good bet to at least make a deep run in the Playoff, if not among a handful of favorites to win it all. First, though, they’ll need to get past the Green Wave, a team they beat 45-10 on Sept. 20.

According to Circa Sports’ opening odds for the first-round matchup in Oxford, another blowout could be in the making. The Rebels are a 16-point favorite:

The game on Sept. 20 was all Rebels. They opened up a 23-3 lead and added 22 more in the fourth quarter to cruise to a win. Trinidad Chambliss threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-27 passing, adding 112 yards on 14 carries. In fact, Chambliss’s passing yardage was greater than the Green Wave’s entire offensive output.

That’s been just one of Tulane’s two losses on the year. On Oct. 30, it fell to UTSA.

It won’t be the last time Golding faces Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall, who will take the reins at Florida when the season ends. The Gators will host the Rebels at the Swamp in 2026.

The post Ole Miss opens as massive betting favorite over Tulane in College Football Playoff appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Unsurprisingly, just like computers, the human element isn’t devoid of controversy. Just ask Notre Dame fans, who found out that their Fighting Irish won’t make the Playoff field.

What if the BCS system was still around in 2025, though? BCSKnowHow.com on Sunday posted a simulated bracket based on hypothetical BCS rankings, as you can see below:

The top three are the same in both the official CFB bracket and the simulated BCS bracket. The latter, though, has Oregon at No. 4 and Texas Tech at No. 5. Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma are 6-7-8 with Alabama No. 9 in the actual Playoff rankings and No. 10 in the BCS rankings.

Notre Dame, JMU, and Tulane would all make a theoretical BCS playoff field; they’d be 10-11-12. One missing team from the BCS bracket, though, is Miami.

Could computer models play into the College Football Playoff selection process in the near future? That remains to be seen. In any event, there seems to be a consensus that a 16-team Playoff field isn’t too far away.

The post Here’s how the final CFP bracket compares to simulated BCS rankings appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Indiana is No. 1 for the first time in program history. The Hoosiers, ranked No. 2 headed into conference championship weekend, locked down the top spot by virtue of a win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Buckeyes dropped from No. 1 to No. 2 as a result.

Georgia locked down the No. 3 spot with its win over Alabama in the SEC title game. The Crimson Tide, No. 9 coming in, stayed where they were with the loss.

Texas Tech and Oregon rounded out the top five. The Red Raiders, who beat BYU in the Big 12 Championship Game, are No. 4 ahead of their first-ever Playoff appearance. Oregon, idle during championship weekend, is No. 5.

Spots six through ten have a heavy SEC lean. Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Alabama are in spots six through nine, respectively. Miami is the lone ACC team in the top 10 at No. 10.

All told, the SEC led the way in teams in the top 25 with eight. The Big Ten landed six teams in the rankings, followed by the Big 12 with five and the ACC with three. The American and Sun Belt had one team each in the rankings.

Here’s the final College Football Playoff top 25:

The post College Football Playoff announces final top-25 rankings for the 2025 season appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Instead, it was Miami getting into the field. The Hurricanes and Fighting Irish had identical 10-2 records, with the Canes beating the Irish in Week One. But despite the Irish being ranked ahead of the Canes in previous weeks, the Canes got in.

CBS Sports college football analyst Damien Harris agreed that the Irish should have made the Playoff. But the Alabama great argued that it should have been at the expense of his alma mater.

“I thought they deserved that spot more than Alabama. I’m going to get ridiculed all over social media,” Harris said on Sunday.

Despite the Crimson Tide’s 10-2 mark going into the SEC Championship Game, many of their wins “haven’t been convincing enough,” Harris added. A 28-7 loss to Georgia on Tuesday in Atlanta that saw the Tide rush for -3 yards should have sealed the team’s fate, in his eyes.

“I’ll go back to that Oklahoma game. And then you look at LSU. I wasn’t impressed then. We weren’t impressed after Auburn, damn sure weren’t impressed after what we saw last night, and there was just no movement,” he said.

Back to the Irish, who started the season 0-2. Harris, though, pointed out that their second loss was to Texas A&M. The Aggies were among the top-ranked teams in the country most of the year. Miami’s losses were to Louisville and SMU.

“Looking at what Notre Dame has done, they had the two best losses in all of college football, and they passed the eye test as one of the 12 best teams in the country, if you ask me,” Harris said.

The post Damien Harris says Notre Dame ‘deserved’ CFP spot over Alabama appeared first on Saturday Down South.

There was little debate over much of the way things played out, as a number of teams were a shoo-in to claim a spot. That being said, the biggest debate will surround the case of Miami making the Playoff over Notre Dame. That led to a groundswell of criticism across the world of college football.

Is the solution to situations like this simply expanding to 16 teams? Herbstreit thinks so.

Expanding to a 16-team field appears to be the next logical step in the evolution of the Playoff. The question is how that will look, exactly. Will it take on a 5+11 model, where the top five conference champions and eleven at-large teams are selected? Or could it be a 4+4+2+2 that favors the Power Four? In a 16-team playoff, a 5+11 model would see Notre Dame and BYU make the field as they were considered the First Two Out.

At the end of the day, sixteen teams in the Playoff seem to be an inevitability, and it has been for some time. The only question is what form that would take.

The post Kirk Herbstreit calls for expansion of College Football Playoff to 16 teams appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Now, the Sooners are in the College Football Playoff.

Behind a 10-2 record in 2025, Brent Venables‘ team is in the field for the fifth time in program history and for the first time since 2019. They’ll be the No. 8 seed and will host a first-round game at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. ET, the opening game of the Playoff.

The Sooners’ opponent is a team they know well: Alabama, the No. 9 seed. Of course, this is the same Alabama team that Oklahoma beat 23-21 on Nov. 15. That was arguably the win that sealed the Sooners’ spot in the 12-team field as they went on to defeat Mizzou and LSU to close the regular season.

After a 5-0 start to the season, Oklahoma lost two of its next three. It fell 23-6 to Texas in the Red River Rivalry before getting back on track with a 26-7 win at South Carolina. But it dropped a 34-26 decision to Ole Miss at home on Oct. 25.

The Sooners have responded by winning their last four games, securing an at-large bid to the Playoff and setting up a rematch with the Crimson Tide, a team they’ve beaten twice in a row. A win in the first round sets up a date with No. 1 seeded Indiana in the quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 1.

The post Here’s who Oklahoma is playing in the first round of the College Football Playoff appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The Aggies entered Week 14’s game against the Longhorns with an 11-0 mark, needing a win to punch their ticket to the SEC Championship Game. For the third time in a row, though, the Longhorns got the better of their in-state rivals.

A&M, however, is in the Playoff for the first time as Mike Elko has presided over one of the best seasons in program history in just his second year. That said, the loss to the Longhorns means the Aggies will be the No. 7 seed. They will host 10th-seeded Miami at Kyle Field in the first round.

Should the Aggies win that one, they’ll move on to the quarterfinal. There, they’ll face second-seeded Ohio State, the No. 2 seed. The Buckeyes suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday against Indiana in the Big Ten Championship Game.

The Aggies will look to add a fourth national championship to their trophy case and their first in 86 years. Texas A&M hasn’t won a national championship in football since 1939. Before that, it won titles in 1919 and 1927.

The post Here’s who Texas A&M is playing in the first round of the College Football Playoff appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Despite a historic run of success under Lane Kiffin before he left Ole Miss for LSU, could the Rebels program as a whole be better off without him? Based on what McCarron has heard, that might be the case.

“From my sources at Ole Miss, I don’t know if they’ll be better as a team, but they feel more confident and more structured from (an) inside-the-building standpoint by losing Lane,” McCarron said on “The Dynasty” podcast he co-hosts with Trent Richardson and Crimson Tide broadcaster Chris Stewart. “He’s a Top 3 offensive mind in all of college football, probably in the history of college football, but it’s all the other antics that come with him.”

Kiffin’s departure was messy for all involved. That certainly includes the players, with a couple of them pushing back on Kiffin’s assertion that they asked him to remain with the team during the Playoff.

That’s not all, though. McCarron’s sources discussed that they felt Kiffin’s recruiting work was lacking.

“There’s been a lot of former staff members and current staff members that have spoken out about how he’s lazy with recruiting, and how Pete Golding and other coaches on that staff held that building together from a recruiting standpoint, especially,” McCarron said.

Those certainly won’t be the only stories we hear of how Kiffin left Oxford. With the Tigers visiting Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in 2026, the welcome — or lack of welcome — he receives will be interesting.

The post AJ McCarron claims Ole Miss football feels ‘more confident’ in post-Lane Kiffin era  appeared first on Saturday Down South.

That might be a little bit easier said than done. Neither Brown nor Anderson will sign their NLI during the Early Signing Period, which begins on Wednesday. Their agents broke the news to Rivals’ Sam Spiegelman on Tuesday night.

“They’re staying committed, but we don’t know what the future holds,” Spiegelman reported Brown and Anderson’s agents as saying.

ESPN 104.5 in Baton Rouge initially reported on the possibility of Anderson not signing his NLI during the Early Signing Period while noting an official visit he took to Texas not long ago. Anderson’s hesitance to sign reportedly comes as he is unsure whether or not Frank Wilson, his primary recruiter, will remain as part of Kiffin’s staff.

Meanwhile, Brown committed to LSU in July. However, other top programs such as Texas A&M have continued to push for his commitment since the firing of Brian Kelly.

LSU currently has the No. 12 recruiting class in the country, according to 247Sports.

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Hours later, another Ole Miss recruit announced his intent to instead play for LSU and join Kiffin in Baton Rouge. Offensive lineman Ryan Miret, a Miami product, revealed his decision to Rivals’ Hayes Fawcett.

According to 247Sports, Miret, from Southridge High School in Miami, is a three-star recruit who currently has 25 offers. The 300-pounder verballed to Ole Miss in June but took official visits to Georgia Tech and Miami. But with the Early Signing Period opening on Wednesday, he appears poised to sign with Kiffin and LSU.

With Miret’s pledge, LSU currently has 15 verbal commits from the class of 2026. That includes the country’s No. 4 player, Lamar Brown, who Kiffin checked in on just hours after arriving in Baton Rouge. As for Richard Anderson, the top defensive lineman in the nation, ESPN 104.5 in Baton Rouge is reporting that he may hold off signing due to “uncertainty” around his primary recruiter, Frank Wilson, remaining on staff.

Despite that, Miret is now in the fold. Here’s his highlight video, courtesy of Hudl:

The post LSU flips another Ole Miss commit as Lane Kiffin finalizes 2026 recruiting class appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Kiffin’s statement on X announcing his departure from Ole Miss for LSU noted that Carter’s refusal to let him stay on board through the Playoff came even after “the team also (asked)” him to remain “so they could better maintain their high level of performance.” But according to a couple of Rebels players, that wasn’t quite the case.

Take Brycen Sanders, a member of Kiffin’s 2023 recruiting class and a four-star recruit from Chattanooga who was considered one of the country’s top interior offensive linemen. The redshirt sophomore has appeared in all of the Rebels’ games so far in 2025. In his own post to X quoting Kiffin’s statement, it’s fair to say that he isn’t quite buying his former head coach’s assertions:

If that’s enough, here’s junior Suntarine Perkins’ take:

Kiffin will be credited for his success with the Rebels during his six seasons in Oxford. Aside from its upcoming Playoff appearance, four of the program’s eleven double-digit win seasons came during his tenure. His 55 wins ranks third in school history. The only Ole Miss coach with a better winning percentage than Kiffin’s 74.3% mark has the stadium named after him.

That said, if you ask some players in the Rebels locker room, any goodwill between them and their former coach is long gone.

The post Ole Miss players dispute Lane Kiffin’s claim that team wanted him to continue coaching in CFP appeared first on Saturday Down South.

While the Gators’ season is over, the Hurricanes have at least one game remaining. Will it be a traditional bowl game or in the College Football Playoff?

If you’re a Canes fan, there’s bad news. The latest CFP bracket projections have Miami on the outside looking in. While Mario Cristobal’s team did itself no favors with losses to Louisville and SMU, it did beat Notre Dame — which is projected to be in the Playoff and has an identical 10-2 record — in the season opener.

During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday afternoon before the rankings were revealed, Rubio noted the possibility of what he felt was a worthy Canes team being left out, adding that the selection process might be better off with Donald Trump at the reins.

“I just want to say, as a point of personal privilege, and I’m a Florida Gator, but if the University of Miami gets screwed out of the college football playoffs after going 10-2 and beating Notre Dame, the whole thing should be scrapped, and you’re going to have to take over next year,” Rubio said, referring to Trump.

Needless to say, there will be plenty of handwringing in Coral Gables from now until the 12-team field is announced on Sunday. There’s a possibility, per committee chair Hunter Yurachek, of the Canes jumping past the Fighting Irish despite both teams being idle during conference championship weekend.

Whether or not that actually does happen, though, remains to be seen.

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Not only do the teams have identical 10-2 records, but the Hurricanes defeated the Fighting Irish in the season opener. The Irish’s other loss has been to Texas A&M. The Canes have fallen to Louisville and SMU. Under current bracket projections, the Irish would make the 12-team field, but the Canes wouldn’t.

With neither team playing during conference championship weekend — Miami failed to qualify for the ACC championship and Notre Dame, well, is Notre Dame — Rece Davis asked Yurachek about the possibility of the Canes leapfrogging the Irish.

“Yes, teams that are idle can move up or down,” Yurachek said, noting that data points such as strength of schedule could come into play.

“So we’re not set with Miami definitively being behind Notre Dame no matter what. Is that fair to say?” Davis asked.

“Rece, following the championship games, we will re-rank the top 25 teams, and we’ll see where they fall,” Yurachek responded.

That sounds like a “yes” from the selection committee chair, albeit a very non-committal “yes.” As of now, Hurricanes fans will be hoping that the above scenario materializes.

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As far as Tuesday’s rankings, Ohio State and Indiana still hold down the top two spots and would receive a first-round bye based on the latest bracket projections. The Buckeyes and Hoosiers are set to meet in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship game. Meanwhile, Georgia and Texas Tech moved into No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, after Texas A&M‘s loss to Texas dropped the Aggies to No. 7.

If the Playoff was based on Tuesday’s rankings, the Buckeyes would be projected to play either eighth-ranked Oklahoma or ninth-ranked Alabama. The Sooners would host the Crimson Tide in an all-SEC first-rounder in Norman. The Hoosiers would play seventh-seeded Texas A&M or 10th-seeded Notre Dame in a quarterfinal.

Right now, the SEC, B1G, and Big 12 champs are projected to get into the field automatically. But the two remaining autobids will appear to come down to the ACC, Sun Belt, and American champions. Ole Miss — and new head coach Pete Golding — would host the fourth-ranked conference champion, with the winner playing Georgia. Oregon, the fifth-ranked team, is projected to host the fifth-ranked conference champ, with the winner squaring off against Texas Tech.

But back to Texas which, despite winning six of its last seven and knocking the Aggies from the ranks of the unbeaten, wouldn’t make the field based on these projections. Neither would Miami, which is ranked No. 12 and also below the cut line.

Here’s a look at the post-Week 14 projected Playoff bracket in visual form:

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