Sam Hart came to Ohio State in 2021 as a four-star recruit from Colorado. Now the former Buckeye is heading back home as he announced on his personal X account (formerly Twitter) that he will be transferring to Boulder.
Hart entered the transfer portal in January as a grad transfer after three seasons in Columbus. During his time in scarlet and gray, Hart saw action in five games as a redshirt freshman but is still looking for his first collegiate reception. He’ll have a chance to do so under Coach Prime when enrolls at Colorado in June.
With the departures of Cade Stover, Joe Royer, and Hart, Ohio State will lean on Gee Scott Jr, Jelani Thurman, and Bennett Christian to man the tight end position. The Buckeyes will also welcome in freshman Max LeBlanc and Damarion Witten, as well as transfer Will Kacmarek from Ohio University.
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Eric Bieniemy left his offensive coordinator position with the Washington Commanders to become the associate head coach and offensive coordinator for the UCLA Bruins under new head coach DeShaun Foster.
Bieniemy explained his decision to step away from the NFL in an e-mail shared by ESPN: “I have had countless conversations and interviews with many teams, and I have been applauded and lauded. I can’t say why certain decisions were or were not made but it had nothing to [do] with a lack of anything on my end.
“My self-dignity, worth, integrity, personhood, manhood will never be questioned or compromised. It is not always about money, either. With everything in life, it is often all about timing. At this time in my life, the opportunity affords me the pleasure of continuing to be a maker and leader of men, to do what I love, follow my passion and my dreams while not compromising on who I am as a man.”
Before becoming the associate head coach and offensive coordinator for the Commanders, Bieniemy had been working under Andy Reid in Kansas City since 2013, starting as the running backs coach and being promoted to offensive coordinator with the Chiefs in 2018. Despite frequent mentions for head coaching positions in the NFL, Bieniemy has yet to secure one.
Bieniemy’s college coaching career began at his alma mater, the University of Colorado. From 1987-1990, he was a standout running back for the Buffaloes, helping them win the national championship in 1990. After playing nine years in the NFL with the Chargers, Bengals, and Eagles, he returned to Colorado as the running backs coach in 2001. He then joined Karl Dorrell’s staff at UCLA from 2003-2005 as the running backs coach, where he developed running back Maurice Jones-Drew. After testing the NFL coaching waters as the running back coach/assistant head coach, Bieniemy returned to Colorado for his first offensive coordinator position from 2011-2012.
Bieniemy, who has been passed up for many head coaching positions in the NFL, emphasized in an email that his goal is to assist Foster in being a successful head coach. This move to UCLA could be the next step for Bieniemy to become a college head coach in the near future.
Former Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is finalizing a two-year deal to join UCLAâs staff as its Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator, sources tell ESPNâs @PeteThamel and me. pic.twitter.com/v9EFyoU19B
Oregon women’s basketball had a chance to shock the world with an upset over OSU, but the defense broke down late in the 64-60 loss.
It’s a game that was there for the taking.
The Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team is going to look at film on this game and kick themselves as they let a huge upset over No. 18 Oregon State slip away. But it was the Beavers that escaped Matthew Knight Arena with a 64-60 win in front of 8,602 fans.
Not a whole lot has gone right for the Ducks this season, but they found themselves down just one at 54-53 with 4:30 left in the contest. But the Beavers took advantage of some huge holes in Oregon’s 2-3 zone to go on an 8-2 run in two minutes to pull away.
Phillipina Kyei led the Ducks with 16 points and 18 rebounds, while Grace VanSlooten added 14 points. Chance Gray poured in 15 points on 6-of-15 from the field.
Timea Gardiner had a career-high 19 points for the Beavers with Raegan Beers adding 14 and Talia Von Oelhoffen scoring 10 points. But it was Lily Hansford’s two long-range bombs on consecutive possessions late in the game that was too much for the Ducks to overcome.
Hansford shoots over 50 percent from the three-point line and somehow she was the one left open in the zone and the left-hander knocked down the big shots.
Oregon State threatened to run the Ducks out of the building early as they took a 26-15 lead in the second quarter. Oregon’s offense wasn’t hitting on any cylinders and the Beavers were finding their way. But a 10-0 Duck run towards the halftime break brought them back into the contest and it was just 30-25 OSU after 20 minutes of action.
With the loss, the Ducks now have a losing overall record at 11-12. Oregon State continues its hot play as it improves to 18-3 overall and 7-3 in Pac-12 play.
It’s not going to get any easier for the Ducks as they now travel to the Mountain schools with No. 6 Colorado next on the docket on Friday.
Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning goes into detail about the pregame speech he made vs. Colorado that ended up going viral.
One of the most noteworthy events that took place during the 2023 college football season for the Oregon Ducks came in Week 4 during their first conference game against the Colorado Buffaloes.
It was Dan Lanning vs. Deion Sanders, and after the noise that both teams had made in the weeks prior to the game, as well as the hours leading up to the game, all eyes were tuned into Eugene for this clash between undefeated teams.
Of course, the lasting memory for almost everyone who watched that game was Dan Lanning’s quote from a pregame speech that was aired by the telecast in the first quarter.
âTheyâre fighting for clicks, weâre fighting for wins,â Lanning said to his players. âThereâs a difference. This game isnât going to be played in Hollywood, itâs going to be played on the grass.â
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The clip of Lanning saying that in Oregon’s locker room quickly went viral online, and in the days after Oregon’s blowout over the Buffaloes, sports media talking heads had a field day with the topic, leading the Ducks’ head coach to ultimately address the surprising backlash that he received from the comments.
This past week, Lanning talked about the events in an interview with Ryen Russillo on The Ryen Russillo Podcast, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. The Oregon head coach said that he was ultimately surprised that was the clip of his pregame speech that the TV network decided to air.
âAt that point, I think I had coached 17 games as a head coach,” Lanning said. “Iâd never had a crew ask âHey, can we be in the locker room?â And I’ll be honest, I thought that there was a lot that would be trimmed out â because you leave the locker room and go straight to the field â and obviously, that didn’t happen. So if you’re asking me âWas that gonna play out like it played out?â It didn’t play out like I thought it would play out. I thought there were some really cool things in there about us talking about connection with our team, and the roots of a tree and what that looks like, but I guess that’s not as good for TV.”
It’s not hard to see why the TV production crew chose to use the sound bites from Lanning that they did. With all of the hype that Coach Prime had built around the Colorado program in the first three weeks of the season, having an opposing coach passionately declare that “the Cinderella story is over” certainly makes for good television.
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“Now that being said, I donât regret anything that happened in that locker room,” Lanning said. “But I don’t know that I’ll ever have a camera in the locker room again that does not come from our staff or our people. That was for our team and I was talking to our team and so people happened to capture a moment that got released.”
As was the case all year long, the Ducks did have a crew of their own cameras in the locker room, and some incredible footage was released as part of Oregon’s cinematic recap for Week 4. That video, which depicted more of Lanning’s locker room speech, as well as a lot of trash talk that was coming from Buffaloes players before the blowout ensued, ended up being among the most-watched videos that the team released this year. It garnered millions of views on various platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
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As a recruiting tool, it certainly worked, giving the college football world an inside look at Lanning’s program, and some of the braggadocious style with which they carry themselves. Lanning seems to have learned from the entire process, though.
âPeople have asked since, âHey, can we throw a camera in a locker room?â” Lanning said. “I learned my lesson. So no, you can’t have a camera in our locker room anymore. That was the first time I was ever asked to have a camera in our locker room and it was the last time I’ll probably ever have one in there.
“Was it a bad thing for Oregon? No, I mean, at the end of the day, it ended up being a good thing for Oregon. But it was never about any other team than us.â
Stanford is currently alone in first place in the Pac-12 at 7-1. Colorado’s loss slides the Buffs to 6-2.
The USC Trojans defeated the Oregon State Beavers earlier this season. That win looks better and better for the Trojans, given how well OSU has played since then. Oregon State just knocked off No. 3 Colorado on Friday night in Corvallis, shaking up the Pac-12 women’s basketball title race.
Oregon State allowed 24 points to Colorado in the game’s first 11 minutes but then allowed just 30 points in the following 28 minutes to subdue the Buffs, 68-62. Oregon State allowed just three 3-point makes to Colorado and forced 17 turnovers from the Buffs. The Beavers are a very difficult team to play against, especially in Gill Coliseum.
The result knocks Colorado to 6-2 in the Pac-12, out of first place. Stanford is all alone in first with a 7-1 league mark. The Cardinal blew out Arizona State in Tempe on Friday night.
UCLA is half a game behind Colorado for second place in the Pac-12 standings. The Bruins are 5-2 in the league after beating Washington on Friday, but did not have center Lauren Betts available. There are concerns about Betts’ injury status which bear monitoring in the days and weeks to come.
Utah rallied to beat Oregon in Eugene on Friday. The Utes and Oregon State are both 5-3 in the conference as they meet in Corvallis on Sunday afternoon.
Elsewhere in the Pac-12 on Friday, Arizona beat Cal in Tucson.
Dana Altman, head coach of the Oregon Ducks, spoke to media about Oregon’s recent defensive struggles.
âWeâve gotta guard. God dang it.”
That was the start of Oregon Ducks head coach Dana Altman’s message to the team this week following back-to-back losses to Colorado and Utah. The Ducks allowed an average of 83 points in the two games and their worst defense came down the stretch.
“We’re 1-5 in games we gave up 80 points. Easy baskets,” Altman continued. “We’re just not as committed on the defensive end as we need to be. Kevin gave me some stats: weâre 2nd in the league offensively and 11th defensively. So that’ll give you an idea of how far we have to go.
“Yesterday was our day off, today we did nothing but defense. I don’t know if it will help us for Thursday, but weâve got to get better. You know, we know that we can’t give up 80. (Utah) shot 68% in the second half and scored 48 points. Not going to win many games.â
The Ducks’ biggest struggles on defense have come on the perimeter. Colorado and Utah both shot above 40% from three-point range against Oregon because the Ducks weren’t closing out shooters well enough. The game against Utah was decided by three points, so one more defensive stop could’ve been the difference in the game.
One of the bright spots on Oregon’s road trip was N’Faly Dante, who was playing his second and third games back after being kept off the floor by injury for two months. Dante was impressive on both ends of the floor, and the Ducks are visibly a better team with him in the game.
âYes we need that, we need that,” Altman said about Dante’s defensive effort. “We all know that we need that. Everybody bought in and I think weâre going to pick it up. We donât have any other choice but to pick it up, all of us.”
This week, Oregon matches up with the Arizona schools, first with Arizona State and then with Arizona. If the Ducks want to ditch their losing streak, defensive improvement will be paramount as Altman said. It will be especially important on Saturday when Oregon hosts Arizona. The Wildcats score 89.9 points per game, the third most of any team in the country, and they do it with a 48.8 field goal percentage. The Ducks will need more than just Dante to be engaged defensively for 40 minutes.
Deion Sanders talks to RG3 about a change in college football that he thinks needs to happen immediately.
On the most recent episode of Robert Griffin IIIâs podcast RG3 and The Ones, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders asserted his biggest complaint with college football today.
Deion tells Griffin of a rather disingenuous strategy that he has seen other programs use, calling it ânegative recruiting.â Sanders says that multiple recruits have told him that schools will try to sway a recruit by talking harmfully about other schools the recruit is considering, including Deionâs Buffaloes.
“Now, kids have recorded conversations with head coaches â not just assistants â head coaches, downing us and selling us out and just talking about us like a dog,” Sanders said. Coach Prime goes on to tell Griffin that there should be no place for this in the sport.
“I don’t allow our coaching staff to ever comment on another school⌠You don’t have to put another school down to put us up. I don’t play that.” Sanders made it very clear to his staff that if he found one of them doing this, they would be fired immediately.
As many know, Sanders has never been one to shy away from confrontation, and it appears that he has not been letting this ânegative recruitingâ slide. “I just politely call the head coach and say ‘Look here man, I don’t really know you, I wish the best for you, but be careful, because when these kids bring phones into your meetings, you are exposed to certain things. I’m not going to put you out there, but just keep my name out of your mouth,’â Sanders tells Griffin.
After going 4-8 in his first year as head coach, it appears that Sanders might have some additional motivation going into the 2024 season.
Oklahoma offered five-star 2026 prospect Justice Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick is the younger brother of NFL star Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Oklahoma has been on an offer spree in January, and it’s very apparent the Sooners are attempting to build their recruiting board for 2025 while also starting to piece together their board for the 2026 class.
While the class of 2025 is the next up, relationships start years before they become seniors, which rings true as the Sooners’ offer 2026 five-star defensive back Justice Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick is already a composite five-star across the primary recruiting services and is ranked in the top 30 on most recruiting websites.
He stands six feet tall now and showcases a level of feel and understanding for football beyond his years. He’s played both cornerback and safety in his two years at the high school level. He is also a track participant and is the brother of one of the best defensive backs in the NFL, Minkah Fitzpatrick.
He is already a state title winner at St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the most well-known football programs in the country. Alabama, his brother’s alma mater, has yet to offer, but some heavy hitters, including Oklahoma, have entered the pursuit for the talented and versatile defensive back.
“Lewis, who committed to USC in August, also plans on visiting Auburn this upcoming weekend and Georgia in early February, the report stated. While Lewis remains a Lincoln Riley pledge, he should be on flip watch moving forward.
“After reclassifying from the 2026 class earlier this week, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Lewis is now the second-ranked 2025 QB, per the 247Sports Composite.
Colorado football currently has the No. 106 recruiting class in college for the 2024 cycle, according to 247Sports, and has only signed six commits through the high school ranks in that class. Deion Sanders and the Buffs are in the top 20 in the transfer portal rankings, but they clearly need to beef up their recruiting for the 2024 and 2025 class through the prep ranks.
Should USC fans be worried about this development? Probably not. Colorado took such a big hit late last season that the Buffaloes’ reputation is at low ebb right now. This seems like a curiosity visit by Lewis more than anything else, not a serious reconsideration of his plans.
The Trojans aren’t happy with moral victories, but they should gain a lot of wisdom from this experience in Boulder.
The USC women’s basketball team did not win in Colorado on Sunday afternoon. No one is happy after the Trojans lost, 63-59. This team doesn’t do moral victories, and it shouldn’t. This is a Final Four contender, and it is a Pac-12 title contender. Losing games hurts, and this one should sting. Let’s be clear about that.
However, while moral victories are empty, the process of learning is also important for this team. That’s where this loss can provide real value and become a positive experience for everyone in the locker room.
USC watched JuJu Watkins foul out with under six minutes left in regulation on a highly questionable foul call. Playing the final five-plus minutes without their superstar player was expectedly rough for the Trojans, but they can certainly learn from the experience. McKenzie Forbes committed multiple turnovers against Colorado’s defensive pressure with JuJu out. Those turnovers led to Colorado baskets and were important in shaping the ultimate four-point final margin for the Buffs.
Rayah Marshall and Kaitlyn Davis had to find ways to contribute on the court with JuJu out. Davis scored the tying basket with under 1:40 left, but missed a go-ahead free throw. Marshall, who played just 16 minutes on Friday against Utah after being sick a week ago versus UCLA, is still trying to find her rhythm on the court. They can learn from this game.
Kayla Padilla and Taylor Bigby tried to help the offense with JuJu out. Padilla hit a big late 3-pointer. Bigby missed a go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minute with USC down two. They can learn from this game as well.
Lindsay Gottlieb and lead assistant Beth Burns won’t be happy with the offense scoring just 12 points in the second and fourth quarters. They won’t be happy with the turnovers which enabled Colorado to win. However, they know they have a team which fights hard. USC struggled without JuJu, but it didn’t collapse without JuJu. Despite playing nearly the final six minutes without her, the Trojans still had a chance to win or tie in the final 10 seconds. That’s a championship-level effort. USC simply didn’t have championship-level precision or quality.
Everyone can learn from this, and that’s very encouraging, regardless of the final outcome.
