Tag: 247Sports

This one stings – Notre Dame loses four-star commitment in 2021 class

Notre Dame lost one of its biggest recruits in the 2021 class on Friday.

Notre Dame has received bad news this week in regards to a COVID-19 outbreak that postponed their scheduled game at Wake Forest for this Saturday until December.  Now the Fighting Irish have taken a hit in the recruiting game, too, four-star corner back Philip Riley has de-commited from 2021 recruiting class.

Riley, a four-star corner from Valrico, Florida helped raise up the spirits of Notre Dame fans when he committed to the program shortly after the Irish lost out on prized running back Will Shipley earlier this year.

Riley seemingly has his pick of the litter in terms of college choices as he holds 41 offers from schools. For what its worth, 247Sports has now listed USC as the only program as “warm” under Riley’s potential choices.

It’s hard enough to make a college decision to begin with but then factor in that Riley wasn’t being able to make an official visit to Notre Dame due to the NCAA restrictions right now and it’s hardly a surprise.  I would expect plenty more de-commitments coming nationwide, not just with Notre Dame, as a result of an incredible unique recruiting cycle.

Riley exiting the class leaves a whole at defensive back where now only Ryan Barnes, Chance Tucker and Justin Walters remain committed.  Expect Notre Dame to try and fill this sudden void before National Signing Day in late December.

Related – Get familiar with Notre Dame’s current 2021 recruiting class

Badgers offer one of the top wide receivers in the class of 2022

If there’s one knock you could have on Paul Chryst’s recent recruiting classes it’s the lack of big-time talent at the wide receiver…

If there’s one knock you could have on Paul Chryst’s recent recruiting classes it’s the lack of big-time talent at the wide receiver position.

Him and his staff have worked to change that and today offered 2022 four-star wide receiver Kaleb Brown, one of the top receivers in the class.

The Chicago, Illinois native is the No. 44 player in the class of 2022, the No. 6 wide receiver and the No. 1 player from the state of Illinois.

At this point in his recruitment Brown has three crystal ball projections to Michigan, though there is time left for Chryst and company to work towards bringing him to Madison.

 

For everything Wisconsin Badgers and the class of 2021 check out the 2021 commitment tracker and follow @thebadgerswire, @benzkenney and @alow_33 on Twitter.

Bowl Projections have Texas in New Year’s Six, rematch with Georgia

The week three bowl projection have the Texas Longhorns heading to the New Year’s Six. Two have UT in the Fiesta Bowl and one the Cotton.

With the Big Ten Conference back in the fold for the college football season, the postseason could get interesting.

Prior to the conference’s decision to delay the season until spring, Ohio State was a virtual lock for the College Football Playoff. Once it appeared the Big Ten and Pac-12 would wait until the spring to play, Texas seemed to be heading back to the New Year’s Six. What about now?

The Longhorns are looking to return to the New Year’s Six or, better yet, qualify for the College Football Playoffs. While the only Big 12 team to make it into the playoff is Oklahoma, early on it feels as though analysts are starting to look toward Texas. The Sooners are still the overwhelming favorite, but the Longhorns could make a little noise. For now anyway, the Longhorns are being picked to play in one of the premier bowl games by season’s end. ESPN released their latest bowl projections.

Mark Schlabach is sticking with the Longhorns returning to the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. Setting up the battle of Sam Ehlinger vs. Kellen Mond. Tom Herman vs. Jimbo Fisher. Texas vs. Texas A&M.

Would it be great television? Absolutely. Is it going to happen? Probably not. Seems like each time a prediction has been released, an analyst picks this game and it never comes to fruition.

The pick by Kyle Bonagura feels like the more appropriate prediction: Texas vs. Georgia in the Fiesta Bowl. A rematch from the 2018-19 All State Sugar Bowl, these schools have met five times over the last 70 years. The Longhorns lead the series 4-1 and are 2-1 in bowl games. Texas beat UGA in the 2019 Sugar Bowl and the 1949 Orange Bowl. The Bulldogs lone victory in the series game in the 1984 Cotton Bowl.

Brad Crawford of 247Sports, put the Longhorns up against the Central Florida Golden Knights. Texas and UCF have matched up twice before with the Longhorns winning both matchups. The last coming in 2009 when Texas won 35-3 in Austin. That would make for an interesting bowl game, especially given how much most analysts love UCF.

Analyst Bowl Game Opponent
Schlabach Cotton Bowl Texas A&M
Bonagura Fiesta Bowl Georgia
Crawford Fiesta Bowl Central Florida

Irish losing grip as Clemson’s main challenger in ACC?

A few analysts see Notre Dame trending in the wrong way. Should the Irish be concerned at all?

After one week of play, there is a concerning trend that some analysts have taken when looking at Notre Dame. The Irish are on the verge of losing their grip as Clemson’s main challenger for the ACC crown.

Eric Mac Lain, an analyst at the ACC Network, has the Irish behind North Carolina. Both teams won, both teams needed big second half’s to secure those wins.

Over at 247Sports, they looked at week two overreactions and the Irish showed up. Brandon Marcello stated the obvious that the passing game needed to be better, but his assessment after was concerning. Marcello noted “North Carolina, meanwhile, looks like more of a challenger than Notre Dame in the ACC.”

Yes, this was a look at overreactions, but it’s still a reaction. One that doesn’t have the Irish trending in the right direction. The good news is that after Kelly’s meeting with the media yesterday, he shed some light on the offense. A new zone blocking scheme held the offense back a bit, without live reps in preseason camp, there were kinks to be worked out.

Could that have been why quarterback Ian Book struggled? There were other reasons, his receiver with the most reps in camp, Bennett Skowronek, got injured and didn’t return. All new skill position players needed to be broken in.

North Carolina returned a 1,000 yard rusher, two 1,000 yard receivers and quarterback Sam Howell. They have the chemistry but still struggled.

Yes, some have “dropped” the Irish a notch in there rankings but it doesn’t matter much. Notre Dame’s schedule is set up for them to be able to break in a new offense, while still being able to win. Louisville and Pittsburgh are ranked opponents, but would they be in a normal season? Doubtful.

The defense looks like it won’t skip a beat from last years very good group. They will give the offense a cushion to get comfortable. Brian Kelly’s group should be fine going forward as they compete for the ACC title.

 

WATCH: Highlights from Wisconsin commit TJ Bollers’ game

Friday night, 247sports insider Evan Flood covered the second game of four-star Wisconsin commit TJ Bollers in Ceder Rapids, Iowa…

Friday night, 247sports insider Evan Flood covered the third game of four-star Wisconsin commit TJ Bollers in Ceder Rapids, Iowa.

Bollers played well in the highlights from Flood and showed great power in his game for Clear Creek Amana. The four-star recruit has been able to play his senior season in his home state of Iowa, unlike many other Wisconsin commits in states like California. The Tiffin, Iowa native had offers from Alabama, UC-Berkeley, Florida, Iowa, Notre Dame, Penn State, and others before his verbal commitment to Wisconsin in June. In his conversation with Flood after the game, Bollers stated, “I feel like I found my home.”

It is great to see an incoming edge rusher for Wisconsin play with such physicality and gets me even more excited to see what the class of 2021 can do when they get to Madison.

Lane Kiffin: ‘No way they could play’ this week according to two SEC coaches

On Thursday, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin joined the Pat McAfee Show to talk turkey about the upcoming football season.

Only three weeks separate us from the opening Saturday of the Southeastern Conference’s 2020 football season despite the continued persistence of the novel coronavirus pandemic. While questions still swirl in a maelstrom of speculation regarding whether or not the season will kick off on time — much less play through its completion — some doubt still hovers over like a thick, southern fog.

On Thursday, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin joined the Pat McAfee Show to talk turkey about the upcoming football season. When asked about his confidence in the league’s ability to get the season underway on time, he offered the following.

“This isn’t 100 percent. You know, we’ve still got a ways to go to get through this because there are some teams right now in the SEC — you know, I heard from two coaches today, that there’s no way they could play that game this week.

The two coaches Kiffin references remain unclear, but given the SEC’s insistence on moving forward with its 10-game, conference-only schedule, it is unlikely that two of 14 total member schools struggling to get on track will be a significant trammel to the upcoming football schedule. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen how all of this will pan out.

[lawrence-related id=21775,21772,21758,21747,21732]

[vertical-gallery id=20711]

[vertical-gallery id=20730]

USC offers Wisconsin’s top quarterback target in the class of 2022

The Wisconsin Badgers have been on a quarterback recruiting tear recently with commitments from 2019 four-star Graham Mertz and 2021…

The Wisconsin Badgers have been on a quarterback recruiting tear recently with commitments from 2019 four-star Graham Mertz and 2021 four-star Deacon Hill.

Their top target at the position in the class of 2022, now, is three-star pro-style quarterback Devin Brown.

Brown currently has a 247Sports crystal ball prediction to Wisconsin but yesterday picked up an offer from the USC Trojans.

247Sports currently has the Queen Creek, Arizona native as the No. 466 player in the class of 2022, the No. 25 pro-style quarterback and the No. 3 recruit from the state of Arizona.

USC obviously has the track record at quarterback that the Wisconsin football program lacks, with names including Carson Palmer, Matt Leinhart, Mark Sanchez, Matt Barkley and Sam Darnold.

If the crystal ball prediction were to hold up the Badgers’ recent quarterback recruiting success would continue for another class. This USC offer is significant, though, and only time will tell what it means for Brown and his recruitment.

 

For everything Wisconsin Badgers and the class of 2021 check out the 2021 commitment tracker and follow @thebadgerswire, @benzkenney and @alow_33 on Twitter.

2021 Gators Football Recruiting Profile: Desmond Watson

This is a prospect player profile for defensive tackle Desmond Watson of the Florida Gators football recruiting class of 2021.

Name: Desmond Watson

Position: Defensive Tackle

Height: 6’5″

Weight: 380 lbs

Hometown: Seffner, Fla.

High School: Armwood High School

Twitter: @DesmondWatson12

247Sports Composite: ⭐⭐⭐

Rivals.com: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overview:

Successful in landing four-star running back/wide receiver Charles Montgomery’s commitment on May 24, the Florida Gators landed another Armwood High School Hawk, located in Seffner, about 130 miles south of Gainesville, in three-star Desmond Watson on July 30.

A massive defensive tackle at 6-foot-5 and 380 pounds, he is the No. 21 player at his position and a top-55 player in the state, per the 247Sports Composite.

The whirlwind life of a Power Five student-athlete is not unfamiliar to Watson, as his half-brother, Darrian McNeal, a three-star prospect in the 2017 class, played one season for then-head coach Willie Taggart’s Oregon Ducks, catching two passes for 10 yards (five avg.) and adding three rushing attempts for 21 yards (seven avg.).

Unfortunately, McNeal’s athletic career took a dark turn, as he left the Ducks in the spring of 2018 and was arrested and charged with first-degree theft and second-degree robbery in June 2020, following an incident at a Eugene apartment.

As for Watson, he originally picked up his Florida offer on January 17, 2019, and he attended two Junior Days in an approximately five-week span from February 1-to-March 7, 2020. Primarily recruited by defensive line coach David Turner and cornerbacks coach Torrian Gray, he chose the Gators over the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Atlantic Owls, South Florida Bulls, West Virginia Mountaineers and 16 reported others.

Andrew Ivins, a Miami Hurricanes insider for 247Sports, highlights Watson’s quick hands and effectiveness against double teams as some of his strengths and points to his weight as a possible concern.

Overall, he is the fourteenth-highest rated of the program’s 24 commits in the upcoming cycle and the eighth-highest on the defensive side of the football. Turner has picked up pledges from three defensive linemen in the class, with Fort Lauderdale’s Tyreak Sapp and Sumter, South Carolina’s Justus Boone, both four-stars, joining Watson.

Video

[protected-iframe id=”6bf56330f48b0e6b3838adfab2c3d1f9-170030122-27167360″ info=”//www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/10293967/5dee972bb3c9950c6856a398″ width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]

2020 Gators Football Recruiting Profile: Jeremy Crawshaw

This is a prospect player profile for punter Jeremy Crawshaw of the Florida Gators football recruiting class of 2020.

Name: Jeremy Crawshaw

Position: Punter

Height: 6’3″

Weight: 190 lbs

Hometown: Sydney, Australia

High School: ProKick Australia

Twitter: @jeremy_crawshaw

247Sports Composite: ⭐⭐

Rivals.com: ⭐⭐

Overview:

For the first time since the 2012 season, the Florida Gators’ roster will not feature one of the Townsend brothers.

The older brother, Johnny, exhausted his eligibility in 2017, finishing as the program’s all-time leading punter with 11,090 yards on 240 punts (46.2 avg.). The younger Townsend, Tommy, joined the Gators in 2016 after spending his freshman year with another Southeastern Conference (SEC) East Division school, the Tennessee Volunteers, then-coached by Butch Jones.

Tommy was required to sit out his first season on-campus in accordance with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) transfer guidelines and redshirted in 2017, but handled the punting duties each of the last two years, totaling 4,162 yards on 93 punts (44.8 avg.).

To fill the void left by Townsend’s departure, Florida is expected to utilize redshirt senior Jacob Finn, a Jacksonville native, this fall, but Australian Jeremy Crawshaw, a member of the 2020 class, will compete for the job, too.

Presented annually to college football’s most outstanding punter and first gifted in 2000, the Ray Guy Award has seen five of Crawshaw’s countrymen capture the honors, the Memphis Tigers’ Tom Hornsey in 2013, Tom Hackett of the Utah Utes in 2014-15, Mitch Wishnowsky, another Ute, in 2016, Michael Dickson of the Texas Longhorns in 2017, and the Kentucky Wildcats’ Max Duffy in 2019.

The long-term hope in Gainesville is Crawshaw can add another name to this list.

Listed at 6-foot-3-inches and 190 pounds, the Australian took his official visit to campus on September 20, 2019 and committed three days later. Interestingly, he holds the distinction of being the earliest enrollee in program history, faxing his Letter of Intent (LOI) to the school’s compliance office on Tuesday, December 17, 2019.

How is this possible with last winter’s Early Signing Period not beginning until December 18? Crawshaw’s hometown is 14 hours ahead of Gainesville, meaning it was Wednesday there.

Video

Texas Football: ESPN Analyst calls Longhorns his ‘sleeper team’ of 2020

ESPN College Football Analyst Trevor Matich calls the Texas Longhorns his sleeper team in 2020. Are they worth the hype?

With the season approaching for the major conferences in college football, media outlets will be putting out their picks to win the conference, qualify for the playoffs and of course the upset picks. ESPN Analyst Trevor Matich recently gave his sleeper pick for the 2020 college football season, the Texas Longhorns.

247Sports wrote about the Longhorns as a sleeper in which they talked about Matich’s comments.

ESPN college football analyst Trevor Matich, who appeared during a game-break at halftime of Saturday night’s Austin Peay-Central Arkansas season opener, revealed Texas as his sleeper team in 2020 for one primary reason — Longhorns’ starting quarterback Sam Ehlinger.

There’s no player in college football I have more confidence in as a leader or as a guy who can carry a team on his back than Sam Ehlinger,” Matich said during ESPN’s halftime break on Saturday night. “He’s back for his senior season and I expect big things.”

Related: ESPN predicts Longhorns schedule game-by-game

Brad Crawford went on to say the Longhorns have their most talented team under Tom Herman in Austin. Given that his confidence derives from the quarterback, shows you the impact that Ehlinger has had on this team. The senior quarterback is without a doubt the leader in the locker room.

Under new offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, Ehlinger is expecting to carry the load for this team. Brennan Eagles, Jake Smith and Jordan Whittington are all expected to play larger roles in the offense. Losing Collin Johnson and Devin Duvernay puts more pressure on Sam to succeed this coming season. However, he has plenty of help in the backfield with a trio of runners that will get their opportunity.

On the other side of the ball, the defense is expected to be much improved. Chris Ash is an “elite coach” according to former head coach Urban Meyer and he will have ample opportunities to prove it. Deploying a new pass rush that includes Joseph Ossai should generate more pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

On the backside D’Shawn Jamison and Caden Sterns are the guys expected to take the ball away in 2020. Chris Adimora is your likley starter at nickel and big things are expected of him. As a whole, the secondary has plenty of depth including B.J. Foster who could play multiple spots in the defense. All in all the Longhorns look to be a much better team than some think in 2020.