Our "starting" center was the starter last season due to injury. Apparently he's already been passed up this spring, so no surprise he's deciding to test the waters. Someone posted that 2/3 of the kids that went into the portal from A&M back in Nov/Dec... have not found a new home. Wow.
The council adopted new recruiting rules for official and unofficial visits. Moving forward, prospects will no longer have a limit to the number of official visits they can make to NCAA member schools. Prospects will be limited to one official visit per school, unless there is a head coaching change after an official visit, in which case prospects would be able to complete a second official visit to the same school.
So I can see the potential for some abuse here, with recruits taking advantage and doing a grand tour even to schools they truly are not considering. Just for the free weekend and maybe a game they want to see.
This mess is completely out of control. It's a circus of basically unlimited free agency. it's the NFL with far less restrictions as to player movement. Fans will begin to follow their teams on a season to season if not game to game interest and will lose interest because they no longer identify with the players who come and go. The school connection is already gone; we are now rooting for brands and we are not all that invested any more.
Besides the Longhorn Spring game and the public's first view of Arch Manning in a Texas uniform, they have announced 2 things. 1. A new indoor practice facility and 2. They are going to get rid of the Field Turf in the Stadium and go back to grass. It's been a long time since there has been grass in the stadium, since 1969
Nice warm day in Austin for the Spring game. Looked to me like there were about 30K fans in the stands. Nothing like the sellouts you get at Nebraska but there are a lot of things to do in Austin Texas in the Spring! My take away from the game, RB's looked good to me. Transfer WR from UGA, AD Daniels looked very good, Malik Murphy the QB from California looked like the 5 star he was when he was recruited. He's a big QB, 6"5" with a gun for an arm. I don't know how they will keep hin around to tell you the truth. He's been injured since HS and is, at least for now, healthy. I won't be shocked if he decides that sitting behind Quinn Ewers who had a good game and Arch Manning is what he see's as his future.
Went to the Aggie game today with Kesley. Couldn't tell you much from it... they allow the kids to draft rather than going 1's vs 1's, and 2's vs 2's so you get a mishmash OL, and DL... impossible to tell who has a lot of work to do. Weigman and Johnson played QB most of the 3 quarters we watched... and dropped some nice dimes on downfield passes. Weigman also threw a silly INT later in the game. I really went to see the new suites in my section which will move me from a 7th row seat to a front row seat. Can't tell much at this point:
The Ohio State Spring game certainly did not answer and questions at QB. I think we will be much better this year defensively, but the QB problem troubles me. Hopefully with more time and no injuries to anyone, the problems can be worked out.
Portal opened yesterday, Longhorns had four guys jump in it. No starters, all had barely played Also Sark named Ewers as the starter at QB.
I'm worried about the QB situation at Alabama as well. We also need some WR's to step and play like the 5 stars that they supposedly are.
I just scratch my head when I read that a guy who played as a true freshman on a Nat'l Championship team loaded with veterans, decided to enter the portal...why? He'll be the 12 UGA player to enter the portal since the end of last season. On the first day of the spring transfer portal window, Georgia defensive tackle Bear Alexander told ESPN that he is planning to enter his name in the portal. On3 reported the news first, and Alexander became the first big name to announce his intentions to transfer in this spring period. He was the No. 56 ranked prospect in the 2022 class and the No. 5 defensive tackle, and he chose Georgia over nearly every major program in the country. Alexander played 163 defensive snaps as a true freshman this past season and had 9 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and 2 sacks.
File this under what not to do after the conclusion of spring practice and after the spring game at 1:30 AM. Fingers crossed for speedy recovery for Coach Hart..... Ohio State football's Brian Hartline remains hospitalized after crash
The Deion effect. Colorado sold out its spring game — still to come on April 22, and televised on ESPN — at a capacity crowd of 45,000 people at Folsom Field, more than doubling its previous spring game attendance record of 17,800 set in 2008. And on Monday, Sanders made another major announcement on the sellout front. Sanders told the media on Monday in Boulder that Colorado season tickets have sold out for the first time in 27 years.
Honestly... I didn't think there were enough people in Colorado left that cared about football to sell out.
And thanks for all the condolences about my sister. She was over 5 years younger than me. I turn 86 next month and today is our 60th wedding anniversary. Feeling very good about the 60 years and also feeling pretty good physically. Know this has nothing to do with football and sports but whatever.
Roster management in the NIL/Transfer era. Many teams, the Irish included, now have GM's/Player Personnel Directors to manage rosters into 85 players by August.