Was he hurt? I’m at the game and he looks like he really belongs in the starting lineup. Really active defense and good spacing on offense. He’s talking to players and refs like he’s a Senior who’s been around. A real ‘presence’ about him. There are other positive roster developments hinted at at this early stage but they are transfers (or Gealer who showed something last year). Cammann is really surprising me.

Does anyone know when they’ll announce kickoff time for big game?

Trying to plan an overseas trip with our daughter around it. Thanks!

Read and watch that here.

Read and watch that here.

September thread is here. I’ll add a breakdown in here when I can, but I at least wanted to get the thread created.

This argument, repeated over and over on the board, is horse manure.

Do you think Michigan doesn't care enough or won't pay a competitive salary?

They lost by 21 to Oregon. They lost by 10 to Washington. Currently 10th in the B1G.

Stanford doesn't do this because it is easy.

In case you are like me and just sort of lumped SMU into G5 obscurity with the likes of Memphis and Houston, they are currently one of only four FBS teams ranked in the Top 15 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. They had 52 pts against Tulsa at halftime yesterday, a feat they also accomplished against Houston last year. They don't have that marquee win recently (though they did come close against national runner up TCU last season), but appear to be on the rise. If their recruiting gets a bump by virtue of joining the ACC, I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the ACCCG soon.

Or whatever the equivalent in College Football program stewardship is...

This is an embarrassment to the University. Fire him now. Meet him on the tarmac.

Let the next person fix football.

Read and watch that here.

Read and watch that here.

NC State is only a 9.5 point favorite over Stanford.

Stanford is 2-5-1 ATS this season, meaning they in general underperform their expectations.

LAY the 9..5 and you can at least make money off Stanford losing. If Stanford beats the spread, you at least get some satisfaction that they were competitive against a team that beat Cal.

FWIW, Stanford was 5-7 ATS in 2023.

I talked to an individual who has some intel on how the basketball team is looking. Just some nuggets:

Anthony Batson, Jr. is very athletic. That’s an exciting thing he brings.

Oziah Sellers can really shoot. That’s standing out in practice. Like a legit 3-point threat.

Chisom Okpara looks like the real deal. Could be a 15+ points per game kinda dude.

Physicality is going to be a main point of emphasis for this year’s team. Kyle Smith felt like the key to beating Stanford last year was just being more physical than them. The individual I talked to agreed that Spencer Jones brought that physicality and toughness, but alas, he was hurt too much. They also felt Brandon Angel was the most complete player on the team last season. Just in terms of all-around play. Too bad he left for Oregon, but he had his reasons. I think he just wanted a change of scenery. Can’t blame him.

That’s about it. But still kinda interesting to get their insights nonetheless.

I was thinking it would be interesting to try to get a picture on who these last few wild years of college football (transfer portal, NIL, realignment) have been good to and who they have been bad to. There are lots of ways to look at this but the one that pops in my mind as interesting for the moment is to compare on-paper talent from before things really took off and now. Different baselines would lead to different results and other analyses may be interested in looking at on-field results rather than on-paper talent, but at least for my purposes for now I was interested in this. Power Four teams ranked in terms of +/- placements in the 2021 vs. 2024 247 team talent composite rankings:

1. Colorado (+32)
2. SMU (+30)
3. Louisville (+23)
4. Kansas (+22)
5. Syracuse (+18)
6. Purdue (+16)
7. Arizona State (+13)
8. Missouri (+12)
8. Cincinnati (+12)
10. Vanderbilt (+10)
11. Texas Tech (+7)
12. Kansas State (+6)
13. Minnesota (+5)
14. Penn State (+4)
14. Florida State (+4)
14. TCU (+4)
17. UCF (+3)
17. Pitt (+3)
19. Texas (+2)
19. Oklahoma (+2)
19. Florida (+2)
19. Tennessee (+2)
19. Ole Miss (+2)
19. Kentucky (+2)
25. Oregon (+1)
25. Nebraska (+1)
25. Wisconsin (+1)
25. Virginia (+1)
25. Wake Forest (+1)
30. Alabama (even)
30. Georgia (even)
30. Ohio State (even)
30. Clemson (even)
30. Notre Dame (even)
30. Auburn (even)
30. South Carolina (even)
30. Utah (even)
30. Cal (even)
30. Virginia Tech (even)
40. LSU (-1)
40. Arkansas (-1)
40. Iowa (-1)
40. Rutgers (-1)
44. Miami (-2)
44. UCLA (-2)
44. BYU (-2)
47. Texas A&M (-3)
47. Michigan (-3)
47. NC State (-3)
47. Baylor (-3)
51. USC (-4)
52. Mississippi State (-5)
52. Arizona (-5)
54. North Carolina (-6)
54. Northwestern (-6)
54. Illinois (-6)
54. Duke (-6)
58. Michigan State (-7)
58. Iowa State (-7)
60. West Virginia (-10)
61. Houston (-11)
62. Oklahoma State (-13)
63. Washington (-15)
64. Georgia Tech (-16)
64. Maryland (-16)
64. Boston College (-16)
67. Indiana (-18)
68. Stanford (-19)

No longer Power Four (or do they count for now?):

Washington State (-2 but already a cellar talent level))
Oregon State (-19)

This does not precisely measure who is up/down due to transfer portal, NIL, and realignment. As we know very well from the David Shaw Experience, there are other factors - like an imploding program - that can impact this. Some programs may be up/down due to the three environmental factors I mentioned but also due to other rhythms in their programs or even just variance. Nonetheless, I think it's interesting to get a picture on whose talent is most/least changed from a few years ago.

Caveat aside, the above does provide a bit of a picture. Everybody knows Colorado, SMU, Louisville, and Kansas have been the biggest winners nationally of the last few years. Interesting for us to see Syracuse as a third ACC team near the top of the mover's list. On the other side of the spectrum, nobody has experienced a bigger negative shock than us the last few years and only a handful are even in the vicinity.

In terms of the conference we're joining, seven teams are on the positive side of the ledger, three are in the middle (as is Notre Dame), and seven are on the negative side of the ledger (including us). Some up, some down, no clear bonus or detriment to the ACC relative to the rest of the power conferences when it comes to on-paper talent shifts the last few years. But again, the ACC does have a striking concentration of the very most benefited teams. It strikes me that the SMU, Louisville, Syracuse trio's gains are a significant thing in the ACC landscape. And on the flip side Stanford, Boston College, and Georgia Tech make a striking concentration of the most disadvantaged teams. I don't know what to make of these polarities.

Read and watch that here.

I just listened to Ben's question and TT's answer again and noticed something. His answer is very specific and it comes across like he has answered this question before. Listen to what he says:

"When we first arrived here we lost 17 players in the transfer portal. 13 of them starters, 6 of them offensive linemen. And then we lost another 6 starters this past in this past cycle. So we lost our most experienced players and have had to replace them with young guys ...."

He rattled that off in a way as if that was very much not the first time he has given this explanation, whether it be to the members of his staff, recruits, Stanford administration etc.

Very enlightening in my opinion. Again, amazing question Ben, we learned a LOT from his answer into what his happening behind the scenes

Read that here.

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As I have said before, Stanford is not going down to FCS. There is a better chance Harvard/Yale act more like Stanford than Stanford acting like Harvard/Yale.

Scholarships are next. Once that dam breaks it will be interesting. Harvard vs Yale is a valuable matchup for tv networks, I think they will get courted to leave for a bigger football conference.

Head coach Troy Taylor, junior tight end Sam Roush, and freshman cornerback Brandon Nicholson will speak to the media. I’ll drop a link to the presser in here once it is live.

Read and watch that here.

Read that here.

Read and watch that here.

Read and watch that here.

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