Penn State is home to the first Biletnikoff Award winner, but Alabama, Pitt, and Oklahoma State are tied for the most all-time entering 2022.
The Biletnikoff Award is presented annually to college football’s top receiver, regardless of position. The award is presented by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation and is named in honor of Fred Biletnikoff, a College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame legend.
First presented in 1994, the Biletnikoff Award has been won each year by a wide receiver. Of course, for years the award was only available to wide receivers. But in recent years, the eligibility requirements have been expanded to any player who catches a pass. But the wait for the first non-wide receiver to take home the Biletnikoff Award continues.
Two players share the rare distinction of being two-time Biletnikoff Award winners. Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech was the first to do so in 2007 and 2008. Shortly after that, Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon became the second back-to-back and two-time winner of the Biletnikoff Award in 2010 and 2011.
The Pittsburgh Panthers are home to three all-time winners, including the most recent recipient of the award, Justin Addison. Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh, and Alabama are tied for the most Biletnikoff Award winners entering the 2022 season, although Oklahoma State’s three awards were won by just two players as opposed to three individual winners for the Panthers and Crimson Tide.
Here is a complete look at every Biletnikoff Award winner.
Two former James Franklin assistants have teams bowl eligible in their first years as a head coach, including Ricky Rahne and Old Dominion in an improbable run.
While much of the focus around these parts may have been on Penn State’s regular-season finale loss at Michigan State, it was quite an eventful day around the world of college football. Between intense rivalry games having an impact on division, conference, and playoff scenarios and teams battling for bowl eligibility, there was a lot going on in Week 13 of the college football season. Among the schools fighting to become bowl-eligible was Old Dominion, coached by former Penn State offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne.
And in his first season on the sideline with the Monarchs, Rahne is hoping to take Old dominion to a bowl game. And how Rahne’s program got there is quite a story to tell.
First, Rahne was hired to be the new head coach of the Old Dominion program following the conclusion of the 2019 season. Unfortunately for Rahne, he would have to wait longer than anticipated to coach his first game in Norfolk, Virginia. Old Dominion made the decision to not play a college football schedule in 2020 due to concerns revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic. Old Dominion was one of three FBS programs that chose not to play any college football in 2020, joining UConn and New Mexico State in that decision. That put a pause on the debut of Ricky Rahne as a head coach, although he issued a statement at the time remaining committed to the future of the program.
Old Dominion returned to the field this fall, of course, and for a while, it looked like a team that took a year off from playing football. Old Dominion was blasted by Wake Forest and Liberty in two of their first three games of the season, although few would have guessed at the time Wake Forest would be playing in the ACC Championship Game back in Week 1. Rahne got his first coaching victory in Week 2 with a win against FCS Hampton, but the Monarchs started the year off on a 1-6 start to the season. While the first two losses were in blowouts, Old Dominion kept things close in losses to Buffalo, UTEP, and Marshall before suffering a 23-point loss at home to Western Kentucky.
Playing in a bowl game looked like a near impossibility after the 1-6 start to the season. Had Old Dominion lost just one more game, they would have been ineligible for postseason play per NCAA postseason regulations requiring a minimum of six wins to play in a bowl game.
But that’s the thing. Old Dominion didn’t lose another game.
A 23-20 victory against Louisiana Tech at home was the start of a seemingly unlikely five-game winning streak that culminated with a 56-34 victory over Charlotte in the final game of the regular season to clinch bowl eligibility.
Rahne is likely taking Old Dominion to its second bowl game in program history, and its first since the 2016 season. The school moved up to the FBS level from FCS in 2014, when it made the quick jump into Conference USA during a time of significant conference realignment changes around the country.
Rahne is now in a position to have the second winning season in Old Dominion’s brief time as an FBS program, but the Monarchs will have to win their bowl game to do so. And whether or not they will get that opportunity remains to be seen.
Wins by LSU, Memphis & West Virginia makes it 83 bowl-eligible teams for 82 bowl spots, meaning a 6-win Group of 5 team will not go bowling
There are 82 bowl spots to fill this season, and 83 teams clinched bowl eligibility. That means unless one team pulls out of the bowl season, some program is going to be left at home. And it’s not going to be one of the 13 bowl-eligible teams from the SEC staying home. It’s going to be a Group of 5 program, and Old Dominion could be on the chopping block.
There is still a decent chance Old Dominion will get to play in a bowl game somewhere, and perhaps we will learn more in the coming days. Bowl game matchups will be made official no later than Sunday, December 5.
We’ll be keeping an eye on Rahne’s Old Dominion program.
Charles Huff has Marshall bowling too
Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
Another former James Franklin assistant is also taking his program to a bowl game. Charles Huff, who left Penn State and his role as a running backs coach and special teams coordinator to join former offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State in 2018, just wrapped up his second season as head coach at Marshall. Huff will also be taking his program to a bowl game following a 7-5 season.
This was Huff’s first season as head coach of the Thundering Herd, who came up short of winning the Conference USA East Division crown this fall. Huff did win the head-to-head matchup with Rahne earlier in the season, as referenced above.
We’ll watch to see where Huff will be coaching in the postseason as well.
Penn State completed its 2024 football schedule and added two more additional games to the future schedule in 2026.
Penn State and the rest of the Big Ten opted to play a conference-only schedule in 2020 after modifying the season due to the impact and concern of the COVID-19 pandemic. That scrapped three games from Penn State’s schedule, but two of those games have now officially been rescheduled.
On Thursday, Penn State announced the addition of three games to the future non-conference slate, two of which are opponents originally scheduled for 2020. Penn State will host Kent State in 2024 and San Jose State in 2026 after both teams were unable to make the trip to Beaver Stadium in 2020. In addition, Penn State announced a future matchup with Marshall, also to be played in 2026.
Penn State will host Kent State of the MAC on September 21, 2024. Penn State leads the all-time series 6-0.
The Nittany Lions will host Marshall in a season opener on Sept. 5, 2026. The two programs have not played a game against each other since 1930, with Penn State owning a 65-0 decision in their favor. Penn State is 2-0 against the Thundering Herd, who are now coached by former Penn State assistant Charles Huff.
Penn State will play host to San Jose State of the Mountain West Conference on Sept. 19, 2026. Penn State has never faced the Spartans before.
Penn State now has a fully booked schedule through the 2024 season with nine Big Ten games and three non-conference games currently scheduled for each season. The 2026 season is also full, although the Big Ten schedule for that season has not been officially released at this time. Penn State will also face Temple in non-conference play in 2026.
There are still two non-conference scheduling vacancies to fill in the 2025 season. A non-conference game against Villanova is the only game outside the Big Ten currently scheduled for Penn State in 2025.
NOTE: Obviously, no one knows what’s going to happen to the 2020 college football season. We’ll take a general look at where each team stands – doing it without spring ball to go by – while crossing our fingers that we’ll all have some well-deserved fun this fall. Hoping you and yours are safe and healthy.
5. College Football News Preview 2020: Marshall Thundering Herd Offense 3 Things To Know
– It’s not like the offense was totally awful, but it didn’t have enough pop, consistency, or scoring punch. It failed to score more than 36 points against any FCS team, and it stalled out a bit too often. However, the team was 8-0 in the regular season when scoring 20 points or more – losing to UCF 48-25 in the Gasparilla Bowl – and the program is 19-0 when scoring 28 or more over the last three years.
Eight starters are back to what should be a solid offense, even if it’s not anything amazing, starting with …
CFN in 60 Video: Marshall Thundering Herd Preview
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– He’s only a junior, but does it seem like Isaiah Green has been around Marshall since the Randy Moss era? He needs to be more accurate – hitting just 56% of his passes with 11 picks – but he’s a solid veteran who can run a little bit.
He loses top target tight end Armani Levias, but he gets back just about everyone else. Four of the top five wide receivers are back – including Willie Johnson and his gaudy 26.9-yard average on just 13 grabs – but Levias was the only one who broke the 350-yard mark.
– Brenden Knox was promising as a freshman, and then took over as a sophomore with a team-high 1,387 rushing yards and 11 scores. He has help with Green a runner, and junior Sheldon Evans was able to come up with five yards a crack in the rotation.
Even with 2018 star Tyler King dismissed from the team early on, the ground game was still the best by far since 2014. It should be even stronger with four starters expected back on the line, but losing all-star center and leader Levi Brown hurts.
The line was fantastic at limiting the tackles for loss, and the slightly-high sacks allowed total is a bit misleading thanks to Green trying to make big things happen.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Marshall Thundering Herd Defense 3 Things To Know
Previewing Monday’s Gasparilla Bowl between the UCF Knights and Marshall Thundering Herd, with NCAA football betting odds, picks and bets.
The Central Florida Knights (9-3) and Marshall Thundering Herd (8-4) will battle in Monday’s Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. Kickoff will be at 2:30 p.m. ET. We analyze the UCF-Marshall odds and betting lines, while providing college football betting tips and advice on this matchup.
UCF vs. Marshall: Three things you need to know
Central Florida sports a high-octane offense which ranks sixth in the nation in scoring (43 points per game) and fourth in total yards (536.6 yards per game). Many of those yards and points have been piled up in short order. In 64-of-79 scoring drives, the Knights marched down the field to score in under three minutes. Twenty of those drives took less than 60 seconds.
UCF’s numbers and game results have an underpinning which has painted the Knights as a moderate-to-heavy play over much of the second half of the season. Bettors were rewarded with a tepid 2-4 against the spread mark, mostly due to non-covers of big spreads. Similar game-by-game analytics are a lean away from Marshall in this bowl matchup. A couple of UCF’s recent ATS losses were away from home; perhaps an in-state contest sways the result, here.
Marshall should be comfortable at Raymond James Stadium. The Herd is back in this bowl for the second straight season after beating South Florida, 38-20, last December. Marshall also won here in 2011 and 2015 – all under current head coach Doc Holliday.
Get some action on this game or others by placing a bet at BetMGM!
PASS on the juice-heavy moneyline here, although there’s a slight lean toward Central Florida (-667). It’s just too much chalk, with a $10 bet on the Knights to win outright returning a profit of just $1.50.
Central Florida is riding an eight-game winning streak against Marshall and is 7-2 ATS in the last nine head-to-head meetings. UCF is 8-3 ATS over its last 11 games when favored by 10.5-to-21 points. The Knights own that same mark over their last 11 non-conference tilts.
This line started at 18, went straight to 18.5 and then down to its current number over ensuing days. A move back toward UCF before kickoff wouldn’t be a surprise. CENTRAL FLORIDA (-15.5, -110).
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Previewing Friday’s Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Marshall Thundering Herd college football matchup, with NCAA football betting odds, picks and best bets
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (8-1, 5-0 Conference USA West) visit the Marshall Thundering Herd (6-3, 4-1 C-USA East) Friday night in Huntington, W. Va., at 7 p.m. ET.
We analyze the Louisiana Tech-Marshall odds and betting lines, while providing college football betting tips and advice on this matchup.
Louisiana Tech at Marshall: Three things you need to know
1. While this is a cross-divisional matchup in C-USA, it’s a key game. The Bulldogs hold a slim one-game lead on Southern Miss in the West Division, while Marshall is a half-game back of Florida Atlantic in the East.
2. The Bulldogs rank 18th in the nation in total yards (479.1), 23rd in passing yards (292.1) and 13th in points scored (38.1).
3. Marshall ranks 50th in the country with 426.0 total yards per game, and 50th defensively with 371.1 total yards allowed.
Get some action on this game or others by placing a bet at BetMGM!
Louisiana Tech at Marshall: Odds, betting lines and picks
LOUISIANA TECH (+170) is a rather moderate underdog on the road despite an 8-1 SU record. Marshall (-209) is favored at home, but is a little short-handed with WRs Obi Obialo (foot) out indefinitely and WR Artie Henry (undisclosed) done for the season.
New to sports betting? A $10 wager on Louisiana Tech returns a profit of $17 if the Bulldogs prevail.
Take LOUISIANA TECH (+3.5, +105) catching the points. The Bulldogs are 4-0 ATS in the past four, 4-1 ATS in the past five C-USA battles and 6-2 ATS in the previous eight games against teams with a winning record. La. Tech is also 10-4 ATS in the past 14 on the road.
On the flip side, Marshall (-3.5, -125) is just 2-12 ATS in the past 14 games at home and 2-5 ATS in the past seven conference tilts. It’s also just 2-5 ATS in the past seven overall and 1-4 ATS in the previous five coming off a bye week.
The UNDER (56.5, -115) is the play. The under has cashed in seven of the past nine road games for Louisiana Tech, while going 10-4 in the past 14 conference battles. The trends points to the over for Marshall, but injury woes in the pass game will force the Thundering Herd to try and run a lot more. Usually, ground-based attacks equal under results.
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