Tag: josh pate

Bob Stoops, others supportive of Mike Leach to the College Football Hall of Fame

Mike Leach may not meet the criteria for consideration into the College Football Hall of Fame, but Bob Stoops believes he’s more than deserving.

Few coaches have had as much influence on the game of football as former Oklahoma Sooners offensive coordinator and long-time college football head coach [autotag]Mike Leach[/autotag]. His deployment of the Air-Raid first with OU as the coordinator and then as the head coach at Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State revolutionized offense at every level of the sport.

His passing in December of 2022 was felt by coaches, players, and fans around the sporting world. He was beloved for his personality and for the way he supported his players over the years.

After the most recent group of nominees for the College Football Hall of Fame was released, support for Leach has come from all corners of college football. Fans of teams he coached and those of rival programs took to social media to critique the Hall of Fame’s criteria for induction.

According to the College Football Hall of Fame’s website

A coach becomes eligible three full seasons after retirement or immediately following retirement provided he is at least 70 years old. Active coaches become eligible at 75 years of age. He must have been a head football coach for a minimum of 10 years and coached at least 100 games with a .600 winning percentage.

Leach’s career-winning percentage is just shy of the .600 threshold. But that didn’t stop Hall of Fame coach and former colleague [autotag]Bob Stoops[/autotag] from throwing his support behind Leach for the Hall of Fame. Oklahoma’s former head coach argued his winning percentage of .596 rounds up to .600.

Stoops said on X, “Mike is deserving of the College HOF! His influence in football is as strong as any Coach I can think of. RIP Mike.”

Josh Pate of the Late Kick Show also lobbied for Leach to receive consideration because of his influence on the sport back in 2022, but reiterated that support this week.

Social media account Blinkin Riley had an idea for both Texas and Oklahoma to vacate a win over Leach’s Red Raiders to help get him into the hall.

Leach is one of the sport’s legends, and his influence extends beyond his coaching record. At some point, that influence needs to be recognized and enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Or, as College Sports Wire Regional Editor Patrick Conn put it:

Despite the fact that he has under a 60% winning percentage, despite the fact that he hasn’t won a national championship, I would say that Mike Leach is definitely one of those cases I would make to either change the criteria or have a way to say this guy deserves it… the fact that he changed the game of college football is why I would say he deserves to be in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on X @john9williams.

CBS Sports’ Josh Pate has high praise for Wisconsin and head coach Luke Fickell

CBS Sports’ Josh Pate has high praise for Wisconsin and head coach Luke Fickell:

The Wisconsin Badgers football team is entering its second season with Luke Fickell at the helm and Josh Pate, host of the Late Kick podcast, is a big fan of the head coach.

Pate evaluated the strength of the Big Ten moving forward as the conference expands ahead of the 2024 campaign. He points out that the conference has put added pressure on their programs to take football “more seriously” in recent years, explaining how the mid-tier teams were the focal point.

When using Wisconsin as an example, he points out how Wisconsin went from 58th to 23rd in the last two recruiting cycles. He goes on to praise Luke Fickell for his ability to evaluate talent and uses his success at Cincinnati to support his claim.

The Badgers went 7-6 in year one under Fickell and they’ll face a rather tough schedule in 2024, but compared to where they were before his hiring, Wisconsin is in a better spot now.

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National Analyst Weighs Notre Dame Title Chances in 2024

Playoff or bust, sure…but what about Notre Dame’s actual championship chances?

What are fair expectations for Notre Dame in 2024?

Personally I look at pretty much any year going forward being a disappointment if the Irish aren’t hosting a first round playoff game in the middle of December.

Anything short of a College Football Playoff appearance, essentially being one of the nation’s top 12 teams, would certainly be seen as a failure.

But what about more than that?

What about winning a national championship for the first time since 1988?

To do so will require beating multiple powerhouses in the postseason, something Notre Dame hasn’t done a single time since the 1994 Cotton Bowl when they beat Texas A&M.

Josh Pate of CBS Sports and host of The Late Kick Podcast recently discussed Notre Dame in the 2024 season to come.  Check out how Pate handicaps Notre Dame’s chances both at the playoff and at actually ending their title drought below:

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UGA’s Carson Beck ‘the most important player’ in the SEC for 2024 season

Carson Beck receives high praise from national CFB analyst…

Carson Beck has come a long way since playing backup to Stetson Bennett during back-to-back national championship seasons.

Despite the opportunity to play elsewhere in the transfer portal-era, Beck stayed in Athens and it has paid off. After an outstanding first year as a starter in 2023, leading the Bulldogs to a 13-1 record and a narrow miss at the College Football Playoff, Beck finds himself as one of the most talked about players in the sport ahead of his senior season.

While signal-callers like Quinn Ewers (Texas), Jaxon Dart (Ole Miss) and Dillon Gabriel (Oregon) are uber-talented in their own right, Beck leads arguably the best overall program in college football.

It’s not far fetched to say that the quarterback leading the football team which has won 29 of its last 30 games is important. For CBS Sports analyst Josh Pate, Beck should be considered the most important player in the SEC and possibly the nation ahead of the 2024 season.

“I think Carson Beck is the most important football player in the conference this year, because if I knew nothing more about the SEC this year then Carson Beck’s going to play at an A-minus or B level, I wouldn’t need to know anything else.” Pate said on a recent episode of the Late Kick podcast. “That’s the best team in the conference. They’re going to win it and may go on to win it all if Carson Beck does nothing more.”

Questions about Beck’s ability to step up in Bennett’s place were quickly answered with two second-half comebacks against Auburn and South Carolina early last season. That seemed to be the turning point in his confidence. Beck went on to lead the conference with 3,941 yards passing and 24 touchdowns to six interceptions and the Bulldogs finished fifth in the nation in points and yards.

“If I know nothing more than that dude is just going to play to his full potential, he’s going to justify everyone who’s mocked him in the first round of the NFL draft next year,” Pate continued. “Georgia’s good enough everywhere else. Georgia has got quarterback, head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator. They got continuity across the board. It’s one of, if not the best, cultures in college football.”

The Bulldogs return 16 players from the 2023 season, including Beck’s favorite target — outside of Brock Bowers — in Dominic Lovett at wide receiver. They also added seven transfers this offseason, including projected starting running back Trevor Etienne (Florida).

“They got a really good, and probably underrated, crop of receivers and that includes the tight end position. And that includes that dude out of the back field they got out of Florida.”

Beck’s prowess shouldn’t only strike fear into the hearts of opposing SEC teams. With the playoff expanding to 12 teams, Beck and the Bulldogs will likely be on a national stage in the postseason. Winning the SEC and securing a bye week is the first step in that direction.

“I think Carson Beck is an extremely important player, the most important in the SEC. You may be able to say he’s the most important player in the country, because a lot of the hopes that any other team has of getting through the SEC to Atlanta and winning has to do with maybe there being, oh, a wobbly tire or something along those lines, in Athens. If there isn’t, it’s going to be a tough out.”

Oklahoma is a spring transfer portal winner according to 247 Sports’ Josh Pate

Josh Pate of 247Sports thinks the Oklahoma Sooners are one of the big winners of the spring transfer portal window in 2024.

The Oklahoma Sooners were very busy in the spring [autotag]transfer portal[/autotag] window. It’s caught the eyes of at least one national college football analyst.

247Sports’ Josh Pate named four teams that were transfer portal winners from the spring window on his show The Late Kick with Josh Pate. Oklahoma was the very first team he mentioned.

“I think Oklahoma is one of the winning teams,” Pate said, “When they got [autotag]Damonic Williams[/autotag] … it is symbolic that Oklahoma gets where they are.”

Pate is referring to Williams’ high-profile recruitment earlier this month. It was a battle that [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and [autotag]Todd Bates[/autotag] won to get the All-Big 12 honorable mention defensive tackle to Norman.

Williams’ commitment sent a signal to Pate and the rest of the college football world. That signal is that the Sooners are going to do whatever it takes with name, image, and likeness to acquire talent, especially now that they’re in the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].

“Oklahoma’s not taking a backseat to anyone when it comes to aggressiveness and when it comes to exploring every possibility to fortify their roster,” Pate said.

Pate also highlighted [autotag]Branson Hickman[/autotag], who transferred to Oklahoma from SMU. Hickman was a big get for [autotag]Bill Bedenbaugh[/autotag] at the center position. He should start right away after starting all 14 games for the Mustangs last year and with more than 2,400 snaps to his name.

[autotag]Deion Burks[/autotag], the Purdue transfer was also mentioned, though he came in the winter portal window. Burks dominated in the [autotag]2024 Spring Game[/autotag], and could be the go-to option in the passing game this season.

Pate’s other three spring portal winners were Miami, UCF, and Oregon. The Ducks added former OU quarterback [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] in December and were busy again this spring. He also chose four losers from the spring window with LSU, who missed out on Williams when he chose the Sooners, Michigan State, Colorado, and Clemson making the list.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @AaronGelvin.

Josh Pate believes ‘There’s no definitive proof that they’ve fallen off’ regarding Clemson

247Sports analyst Josh Pate doesn’t believe there’s definitive proof that Clemson has fallen off.

Dabo Swinney has helped build Clemson into a powerhouse in college football, but many question the program’s leader and believe that the Tigers have “fallen off” during the NIL era of the sport. 

Someone who isn’t buying the falloff is 247Sports analyst Josh Pate. In a recent edition of Late Kick with Josh Pate, the analyst labeled Clemson as a top 10 college football program. Ranking No. 10, Pate still sees the Tigers as one of the top programs in the country, with Swinney leading the program. 

“I think it’s important to use the same scale here. By the Clemson scale, it feels like this program has ‘fallen off’ so to speak a lot more than they actually have,” Pate said. “So by the Clemson scale, you ought to be right in the thick of the national championship conversation every year, and they haven’t necessarily been that the last couple of years. That’s not the worst thing in the world. In the storm-chasing world, sometimes we have a tornadic supercell. It’s already got a history of producing and then it has to cycle…Well, Clemson, maybe they’re just backbuilding. Maybe they’re just cycling. There’s no definitive proof that they’ve fallen off. And by the way, fallen off is a first-world term here.”

“It’s why I’m talking about scale. If you use the same scale for Clemson as you do for everyone else, they’re still winning a lot of games. I’m not putting them in the Top 5, by the way. So don’t argue with me that they’re overrated if you’re going to…I do have them ahead of a Tennessee or a Utah because the results have been comparable, and I still think there’s a lot to say for the stability there. I think there’s a lot to say for the culture there.”

Pate makes some excellent points here regarding the scale in which you assess Clemson as a program. While the Tigers haven’t been in the conversation for a National Championship recently, there is no definitive proof that they have fallen off as a program.

Like other things, football can come in waves. Michigan recently won the National Championship for the first time since 1997. Are they not a top-tier program? Of course, they are. It is important to understand that you will not always be that top dog.

“Now, I think a lot of people have opinions on their talent acquisition strategy and how resistant they’ve been to really embracing the transfer portal,” Pate said. “We’ve talked about that a lot on the show. Difference is Dabo Swinney isn’t a rookie head coach. Might he be stubborn on this front? Might he be really entrenched in his ways? Yeah, but at least there’s a proven philosophy there. And so, if he’s going to fail, it really will just be because they didn’t evolve with the game, but I’m always going to give guys with proven track records benefit of the doubt. It wouldn’t be the first time that the sport has sort of left a philosophy behind or passed a philosophy by. But it’s also well within his right to continue to evolve, too.

“And just because they’ve had a 9-10 win season the last couple years, I don’t start etching dates in their headstone. I’m not quite there yet. I have them well down — imagine a few years ago saying they’re barely in the Top 10 of college football programs. Again, it’s a very first-world slight to throw at someone. They could elevate as well. We’ll see. Hearing some good things about a certain freshman receiver over there, Cade Klubnik offense this year — Garrett Riley second year as the coordinator, we’ll see.”

Pate has a rational thought process here that is tough to argue against. It’s just incredibly easy for people to see a decline and immediately assume the world is ending. Clemson’s world is not ending!

CFB analyst believes there could be way more post-spring portal action

Josh Pate can see more post-spring transfer portal shakeup than we’ve seen in early portal action.

The transfer portal has been active this offseason. It could see even more change once spring football is over according to one college football analyst.

247Sports’ Josh Pate shared the following on his Late Kick podcast of what could happen in the portal over the next couple months.

“The post-spring transfer portal cycle coming up may actually be wilder than the December window. There are no rules.”

Pate continued on what the lack of regulation means for the rest of the offseason.

“The impact is going to be enormous. A lot of you are nervous. Frankly, you should be nervous because there are no players who are safe right now.”

What does it mean for Texas? Like every other college football team, the Longhorns will likely have to continue to recruit their own players. Why? Because college football teams tamper. They do so because they can with little to no repercussions.

The above has become the new normal for Texas, and they’ve done a good job fending off teams trying to lure away their top players. Unfortunately, it could mean the Longhorns lose quality depth this offseason. After all, backups can play more and see better NIL opportunities elsewhere.

Despite the difficulties Texas will face in maintaining its roster, its challenges are shared with every other team in college football. The Longhorns will simply need to be one of the best at retaining their players to enter the season with an advantage.

Wisconsin football one of Josh Pate’s ‘mystery teams’ entering 2024

Wisconsin football one of Josh Pate’s ‘mystery teams’ entering 2024

CBSSports’ Josh Pate labeled Wisconsin one of his ‘mystery teams’ entering 2024 on his podcast Sunday night.

The Badgers were included along with Texas A&M, Arizona and Syracuse — all three programs with new head coaches entering 2024 (Mike Elko, Jedd Fisch and Fran Brown respectively). The Badgers have more stability than the other programs but also have a high bar which the 2023 results fell well short of.

Related: Which Big Ten football team has the toughest conference schedule in 2024?

“Wisconsin is a big mystery team in 2024,” Pate said on his show. “They were 7-6 last year, it was a lot of internal transition, first-year staff going from Paul Chryst to Luke Fickell, that’s understandable. Their key offensive numbers were not good enough. They were in the 60s and 70s in terms of national rankings of key offensive metrics…So now they’ve brought in Tyler Van Dyke at quarterback, they’re 20th in returning production, they return 70% of a top-40 defense. It’s year two under Luke Fickell…I feel very, very comfortable in betting on a program in year two under that guy and under his staff.”

Wisconsin’s season can certainly go one of a few ways. The gauntlet schedule may lead to struggles and a poor record, or that schedule could become a stellar resume if the Badgers pick off big wins.

Either way, it should tell us a lot about what the future holds under Fickell and his staff.

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Where the Wisconsin Badgers program falls in Josh Pate’s Big Ten Power Rankings

CBSSports’ Josh Pate agrees with our power rankings:

The Big Ten is in the midst of major changes entering the 2024 football season.

The East-West Division model is gone as the program welcomes top programs USC, Oregon, Washington and UCLA into the conference.

Related: Way-too-early record predictions for every Big Ten football team in 2024 

Wisconsin’s place in the new 18-team conference is yet to be seen. Much will depend on the job Luke Fickell and his staff can do over the next few years, but it will also rely on the performance of the traditional powers up top.

I recently ranked every program in the conference with a forward-looking perspective — in other words, ranking the programs instead of just the 2024 teams.

Related: Win totals released for Wisconsin, every Big Ten team in 2024 football season

CBSSports’ Josh Pate did the same yesterday. He and I view Wisconsin the same way, but have some disagreements at the top of the conference:

Josh Pate high on LSU in current SEC program power rankings

The Tigers lose a lot of pieces in 2024, but the foundation for success is there.

The SEC is set for a major sea change in 2024.

Texas and Oklahoma are joining the conference as it expands to 16 teams, and with LSU facing what could be a transition year, it’s fair to wonder where this team stands in the new SEC.

While there are questions about the Tigers, Josh Pate of Late Kick is very high on them. Pate released his offseason program power rankings which, he said take a three-year rolling snapshot of on-field performance, talent acquisition, stability and resource pool.

Pate ranked the Tigers fourth in that regard, sitting behind Georgia, Alabama and Texas but ahead of newcomer Oklahoma.

With a new quarterback, receiving corps and defensive staff, we still don’t have a clear picture of what this team is going to look like in 2024. But the foundation is there for this team to be successful in the new era of the SEC.

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Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno