Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
If you could bring back any former defensive player at Texas for this upcoming season, who would it be?
There have been numerous talented defensive players attend the University of Texas. Continue reading “Texas Roundtable: If you could bring back one defensive player”
Longhorns Wire staff each chose one specific offensive player that they’d bring back to this current roster for the upcoming season.
There have been numerous talented offensive players attend the University of Texas. Continue reading “Texas Roundtable: If you could bring back one offensive player”
Oklahoma’s Joe Castiglione has set a timeframe for when he thinks the decision on a football season needs to be made.
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There is not many athletic directors more respected out there than the one at Oklahoma.
Joe Castiglione has guided the Sooners through its current age of football and has put in place championship level programs in almost every sport at Oklahoma.
There has been plenty of talk of timelines, formats and planning for the college football season. Those ideas and contingency plans have gone from rational to out-of-this-world, but Castiglione offered up where he has at with the impending college football season.
He went on play-by-play voice of Oklahoma, Toby Rowland’s, radio show again on April 23, and Castiglione was asked when a decision needs to be made on the football season.
“My view is we need to make a decision somewhere in the early to middle part of June to know whether we are going to be having football start on time or even to have football at all this fall,” he told Rowland, “I’m not sitting there and circling a date on the calendar saying it has to be this particular day, but as we followed this, I think that’s a timeframe that is reasonable. We’re not knowing what is going to happen by then, it’s hard to imagine that 10 or 15, or 20, days after that will tell us anything more. …
“… I think that is the timeframe to decide. Now, a lot of people want to say you need six weeks, seven weeks, eight weeks—I think we can figure all the tactical part out in probably less time than that. I think it’s also important for us to remember that it’s not going to be like we walk student-athletes on to the campus and boom like a light switch, they are back in shape or we are ready to start practicing at the highest level. Shoot, it might take us a week or two to figure through the medial protocols.”
Castiglione said he thinks a decision on whether students will be allowed back on campus should come in early to mid-July, but a decision on football needs to come sooner in order for planning to take place.
Oklahoma is currently scheduled to begin the 2020 season on Sept. 5 against Missouri State.
Brett McMurphy polled college ADs to determine how optimistic they are on if we will have a 2020 college football season.
In recent weeks, there have been plenty of talks as to what the future holds for the 2020 college football season.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve seen multiple options presented regarding the 2020 season.
Delay the season, shorten the season, scrap the season altogether. We’ve heard it all, but for the time being all we can really do is just wait and see.
Quite honestly, I don’t care about your opinion on the matter and you probably don’t care about mine. If there’s a group of people who have an opinion worth caring about, it’s the college athletic directors — the ones actually faced with the task of making the best decision for the players, fans and coaches.
Thankfully, Brett McMurphy of Stadium reached out to all FBS collegiate athletic directors, receiving 114 out of 130 possible responses, to determine just how optimistic they are on if we will have a 2020 college football season.
Here are the numbers:
99% of the FBS athletic directors do believe we will have a 2020 season in one form or another. Only one anonymous Power Five AD does not believe there will be any college football played this year.
That’s a nice number, but that does not mean they don’t think the season will be delayed.
Only 24% of the ADs think the season will actually begin as scheduled.
20% predict the season will begin in October or November and will include only conference play. 41% predict the same timeframe (Oct. or Nov.) for the season kickoff, but expect a full 12 game schedule. In total, 61% of the ADs predict the season won’t begin until October or November.
14% do not expect the season to begin until the spring semester in January or February.
“Given the medical and governmental leadership opinions, it is reasonable to believe some compromise to the start of the season lies ahead,” a Power Five AD told McMurphy.
To read the full story, click here….
They really shouldn’t be giving out game lines for the broken college football fans, but BetMGM delivered early lines for 2020 matchups.
They really shouldn’t be giving out game lines for the broken college football fans, but BetMGM delivered early lines for matchups in the 2020 season.
Oklahoma is an odds on favorite to win the Big 12 again in 2020. That comes with big matchups against Texas in Dallas, Oklahoma State at home and on the road at Iowa State to get there.
According to BetMGM., Lincoln Riley and the Sooners are early favorites in seven of their 13 regular season games.
Odds via BetMGM. Access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated April 21 at 10:50 p.m. ET.
BetMGM has Oklahoma as a 14-point favorite for its conference opener against Baylor. With Texas returning Sam Ehlinger and a host of elite secondary members, the Sooners are an early 2.5-point favorite over their biggest rival. In a trap game of trap games on the road in Ames, Iowa the next week, Matt Campbell and the Cyclones are only 6.5-pont underdogs.
In what is currently circled as the marquee non OU-Texas game of the season, Spencer Sanders, Chuba Hubbard and Tylan Wallace waltz their way into Norman, Oklahoma, the very next week on Oct. 24. Bedlam is the third game of a five-game stretch that should define Oklahoma’s season, and the Sooners are a big favorite at 8.5-points.
Want to get in on the action? Place your bet now at BetMGM.
Oklahoma plays TCU the next week, where BetMGM has the Sooners are 7.5-point favorites over Gary Patterson and the Horned Frogs. Riley and his 2020 team are big favorites in the final two games currently on the board as 15.5-point favorites on the road at West Virginia and 28-point favorites at home against Kansas.
The Sooners are currently slated to start the 2020 season against Missouri State on Sept. 5.
*Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.
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Georgia football adding Jamie Newman is one of the leading storylines heading into the 2020 CFB season, as well coronavirus.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to find a college football storyline bigger than what’s going on at the moment.
Will we even have a 2020 college football season? Will there be fans if we do? How will recruiting be impacted? Will we have to push back National Signing Day? What about future player eligibility? Will the financial impact be too much to overcome?
Coronavirus will be at the center of college football storylines up until we kickoff the 2020 season (fingers crossed).
However, there’s only so much coronavirus that we can discuss before we drive ourselves crazy, if it’s not already too late.
That’s why I give props to Saturday Blitz, a Fansided college football website. Jake Mitchell wrote a story titled ‘College Football: 5 biggest storylines to follow during summer 2020,’ and did a nice job of talking about things other than the obvious – coronavirus.
Of course he had to make mention to the pandemic that is putting the season in jeopardy, but he touched on some of the storylines that would be front-page news if COVID-19 never came about.
In ranking his top-five storylines, how Jamie Newman will perform during his lone season at Georgia made the list.
Is Jamie Newman the Guy in Athens? — That’s what Mitchell ranked as the fourth biggest storyline heading into the 2020 season.
Right now there’s obviously no way of answering that, but after seeing Jake Fromm’s unexpected struggles in 2019, Georgia fans are hopeful that the offense can’t get any worse.
Newman is a dual-threat quarterback transfer from Wake Forest. He’s already receiving Heisman-hype and is considered one of college football’s top returning passers this year.
Mitchell wrote:
There’s never been a question about talent during Smart’s tenure in Athens. The thing that’s held the Bulldogs back has been an offense that stalls frequently and the lack of a quarterback who has the ability to make things happen on his own when these stalls occur. Fromm is a fine player, but he wasn’t that guy.
The one thing that will make this hard for Newman will be the shadow that hangs over him. Georgia already had the dynamic quarterback that could make things happen himself, and his name was Justin Fields. Smart chose Fromm, and Fields left for Ohio State.
Georgia football HC Kirby Smart talks the 2020 college football season and the possibility of playing in empty stadiums due to coronavirus.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, whether or not we will have a 2020 college football season is a mystery right now.
Different coaches and analysts have given their opinions on the matter.
Kirk Herbstreit said he’d be shocked if we had a season. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney seems completely unbothered by what’s going on and is fully preparing to play in 2020.
South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp has a different outlook on things.
On SiriusXM with Peter Burns and Chris Doering, Muschamp pointed to July 13th as an ideal date to get these players back to campus and into shape.
Here’s Muschamp’s full quote:
“When it’s safe to do those things, great. If it’s not, then we’ll continue to do what they’re doing right now.”
As for Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart, he’s been asked the same question on a number of occasions. However, when answering the questions from beat writers and Paul Finebaum, he gave a classic Kirby answer — not too much info, but also not much info.
Then again, how much can Kirby really tell us? He does not know when this thing is ending, nor will he know how long it’ll take for people to be comfortable leaving their homes again. There’s only so much he can say.
He opened up a little bit more about it when remotely interviewed by the SEC Network’s Laura Rutledge the other day. Rutledge asked Smart what his thoughts were on Muschamp’s comment.
Remember, Smart and Muschamp go way back and have been friends for 20 years.
“I would argue that’s speculative,” Smart said of Muschamp’s comments. “I understand Will and I have shared and talked ideas as well as most of the SEC coaches. We’re kind of in that same fraternity together and we all talk.”
“Everybody has their opinions, but ultimately I don’t know as coaches if our opinion will ever come near outweighing our athletic trainers and the medical staff and safety and well-being of the players. I certainly think that our players are young, they’re very resilient, they can get ready in a quick turnaround.”
“A lot of us as coaches got to be smart about what that turnaround may be. Whether that’s July 13, whether that’s in August, there’s a lot of football season’s been played where guys didn’t get time leading in to prepare maybe as much as they have. As long as it’s equal then we’re all going to be on the same footing. We’ve got to get by with what they give us.”
Recently on the Finebaum Show, Smart said that in the meantime, we need to practice social distancing and follow the guidelines from the CDC. If we do that, Smart said everything else will take care of itself.
There’s also the possibility of playing the 2020 college football season in empty stadiums.
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We’ve voiced our opinions on that matter, and Smart seemed to have a similar stance. It’s just not college football without the fans.
“I think that’s tough,” Smart said. “I think it’s really tough. If it happened as a one-off or as a one-time special scenario, which we saw happen a little bit early on in basketball and we thought it might be that way. But to look at that as a long-term or even season answer, I just think that’s tough. Not that we play just for the fans, but we certainly are there to entertain. It certainly affects the kids and the performance. Like you mention, if the safety of the fans is at risk, we’re going to feel the same way about the players.”
The conversation is already running rampant, and OU athletic director Joe Castiglione spoke about the possibility of a 2021 spring season.
“I haven’t done any polling (among other athletic directors), but in my mind absolutely,” Oklahoma’s athletic director said. “I think anything short of no football season at all is something we’d have to talk about.
“We look at what you need to be prepared for the season and then start counting backwards,” Castiglione said. “Optimal would be having our players back on campus practicing sometime after the first of July. That would be optimal.”
“We understand that we’re dealing with something much bigger than sports, but you’re talking about our job, you’re talking about things that help make our athletic program operate, you’re talking about the economic engine for our entire program,” Castiglione said. “And if we’re not playing football at all in the upcoming year, that is something no one has ever imagined. But now we’re having to do that. What does that look like financially? It’s not a pretty picture at all. That’s the daunting part of having to do these contingency plans and scenarios.”
The SEC announced that it has extended its suspension of all in-person athletic activities through at least May 31st due to coronavirus.
On Friday, the SEC announced that it has extended its suspension of all in-person athletic activities through at least May 31st.
Originally, the league had suspended all activities through April 15th.
Here is the statement that the conference issued on Friday:
The Southeastern Conference today announced that all in-person athletics activities, including team and individual practices, meetings and other organized gatherings, whether voluntary or required, as well as camps and coaches clinics, will be suspended through at least May 31, based on public health advisories related to continuing developments associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The SEC had previously announced that in-person athletics activities were suspended through April 15.
In addition, virtual film review that does not include physical activity is permissible. Effective April 6, activity of this nature will be expanded to four (4) hours per week consistent with an NCAA rule waiver and NCAA legislation, an increase from the previously permissible maximum of two (2) hours per week. Any such activity must be scheduled in accordance with the institution’s established Time Management Policy and must not interfere with required class time for online instruction.
SEC member institutions will continue to provide their student-athletes with care and support to meet needs in areas including academics, medical care, mental health and wellness, nutrition and housing as needed.
Clemson football HC Dabo Swinney is confident that we will have a 2020 college football season despite growing concern over coronavirus.
Concerns over whether or not we will have a 2020 college football season is continuing to grow.
ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit said that he would be “shocked” if we were to have any football, collegiately or professionally, this fall given the current coronavirus pandemic in the United States and around the world.
Fans were split on Herbstreit’s statement. Many agreed but a bigger number thought it was far too early to even discuss the possibility of no football this fall.
One man who does not agree with Herbstreit is Clemson’s two-time national title winning head coach Dabo Swinney.
Swinney discussed the pandemic and its potential impact on the sport we all love during a conference call with the media on Friday.
“My preference is let’s get to work and go play,” Swinney said. “That’s the best-case scenario, and I think that’s what’s going to happen. I don’t have any doubt. I have zero doubt that we’re going to be playing and the stands are going to be packed.”
Swinney sounds very optimistic that there will be a 2020 college football season despite concerns of it being delayed from a number athletic directors and analysts.
He is not thinking like that just yet. For the time being at least, Swinney is preparing as if his team will be reporting to camp in August.
He told the teleconference participants that he has created a T.I.G.E.R.S. acronym for his team. It stands for “This Is Gonna End Real Soon.”
“That’s just my mindset. I’ve got one plan, and that’s to get the Tigers ready to play in late August, early September,” Swinney said. “I’ll leave it to the smart people to figure out the doomsday scenarios. We’ve got one scenario, and that’s to run down that hill and kick it off in the valley.”
Swinney also mentioned that he is hopeful that players may actually be able to return to campus as early as next month, even if classes are still being conducted online only.
“This is America, man. We’ve stormed the beaches of Normandy. We’ve sent a rover out on Mars and walked on the moon. This is the greatest country. We’ve created an iPhone where I can sit here and talk to people in all these different places. We’ve got the smartest people in the world. We’re going to rise up and kick this thing in the teeth and get back to our lives.”
