UGA football offers five-star Texas quarterback commit, son of NBA veteran
The Georgia Bulldogs have offered a scholarship to five-star Texas Longhorns quarterback commitment Dia Bell.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound quarterback plays high school football for American Heritage in Plantation, Florida. Bell is the No. 13 recruit in the class of 2026 and is the top-ranked recruit in Florida, per On3. Bell is the fourth-ranked quarterback in the 2026 recruiting cycle. Bell is the son of former 12-year NBA player Raja Bell.
Coach Kirby Smart and Georgia have been heavily recruiting five-star quarterback Jared Curtis, who was previously committed to Georgia. However, UGA is not counting on Curtis committing to UGA, so the Bulldogs are looking to land an elite quarterback in the class of 2026.
Bell has been committed to the Texas Longhorns since June. Georgia is trying to flip Bell. Smart, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and wide receivers coach James Coley are the main ones recruiting the five-star quarterback. Georgia landed a pair of five-star recruits from American Heritage: Marvin Jones Jr., who is now with Oklahoma, and Tyson Campbell, who plays in the NFL for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Texas football is spending to keep a former LSU football quarterback in town. GM contracts may grow as college football adapts.
A former LSU quarterback is making a name for himself in the personnel world.
Brandon Harris, who played at LSU from 2014-16, signed an extension with Texas that will make him one of the highest-paid general managers in the sport.
“Harris has been a key figure behind the scenes in Texas’ run to back-to-back College Football Playoff appearances and 25 total wins the last two years,” Zenitz wrote.
With the college football landscape changing, the importance of the general manager position is growing. Revenue sharing is approaching and a competent general manager can be a real edge for a program.
Harris signed with LSU as a four-star recruit in 2014. He saw action as a true freshman before taking over the starting quarterback role as a sophomore. Harris led the SEC in yards per completion in 2015 but struggled to find consistency as a passer.
Harris finished his football career at North Carolina in 2017.
Former Texas tight end Amari Niblack has the skillset to become a reliable receiving option for the Aggies in 2025
On Monday morning, it was announced that junior tight end and former four-star prospect Amari Niblack would transfer and sign with Texas A&M for the 2025 season after starting his career with Alabama and spending the 2023 and 2024 seasons as a member of the Texas Longhorns offense.
This offseason, coach Mike Elko and his staff have rebuilt the Aggies’ wide receiver room, including KC Concepcion (NC State), Micah Hudson (Texas Tech), and Mario Craver (Mississippi State), bring more explosion and route running prowess to the passing game.
Niblack joins a veteran tight end room after former Nebraska TE Nate Boerkircher and former Auburn tight end Micah Riley were added to the portal class, but on film, Niblack offers the most as a received. In contrast, the latter tight ends are purely blockers.
Niblacks’ play time with the Longhorns decreased this past season due to tight end Gunnar Helm’s ascendance. His inability to block consistently didn’t help his chances of seeing the field, leading to just five receptions and 33 yards.
However, Niblack’s ability to expose the seam and find holes against zone defense was evident throughout the 2023 season. The then-sophomore recorded 327 receiving yards and four touchdowns, including a key touchdown against his former team, Alabama.
Niblack’s freaky athleticism and wide receiver-like route running provide OC Collin Klein plenty to work with alongside returning tight end Theo Melin Öhrström, who showed flashes as a receiver this season.
This is an upside acquisition, and the hope is that the coaching staff reignites Amari Niblack’s ability.
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Cameron on X: @CameronOhnysty.
Georgia football transfer defensive lineman, who is now on Texas, announces his NFL draft plans
Former Georgia Bulldogs defensive lineman Bill Norton has declared for the 2025 NFL draft. Norton played at Georgia from 2019-2022 before transferring to the Arizona Wildcats.
Norton, who is not ranked in Pro Football Focus’ top 250 NFL draft prospects, played rotational snaps for the Texas defensive line in 2024.
Norton totaled 12 tackles over four seasons at UGA before transferring to the Arizona. With the Wildcats, Norton posted a career-best 31 tackles, three pass deflections and two forced fumbles.
After the 2023 college football season, Norton transferred to the Texas Longhorns. The 6-foot-6, 335-pound defensive lineman recorded 14 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble for the Longhorns this season. Norton had just one sack in his college career, but he recorded it in the College Football Playoff.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart spoke about Norton’s time in Athens back in October.
“What a great kid man, this guy worked his tail off here and worked really hard,” Smart said. “One of his key roles was with special teams, he played on our field goal protection unit and was the best at doing it.”
Norton’s contributions on special teams don’t show up in the box score, but there’s no doubt it is an important role. However, the ability to play on special teams helps his cause in the NFL.
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Norton was part of an elite Texas defense in 2024 and will hope to carve out a role in the NFL. He won two national championships at UGA, but went 0-2 against the Bulldogs in 2024.
Tim Tebow joined McAfee’s broadcast, and during the fourth quarter with the game tied at 14-14, the former Florida quarterback perfectly predicted what Ohio State and quarterback Will Howard — who was playing with a gnarly knot on his hand — would do on fourth-and-short.
With 9:50 left in the game, Texas took a timeout before the Buckeyes’ fourth-and-2 snap from the Longhorns’ 34-yard line, and Tebow offered some spot-on analysis about Howard.
Tebow said during the Texas timeout:
“You know one other thing that we haven’t seen today, we haven’t seen a keep by Will Howard. On a zone read when they think it’s going to a TreVeyon [Henderson], a Quinshon [Judkins] — that could be a really perfect time to pull that out too because he’s a capable runner just ask the Big 12 of what he did to them.”
Tim Tebow — on the Pat McAfee broadcast — was all over the Will Howard keeper run on 4th-and-2 for Ohio State. #CFPpic.twitter.com/SBITryFwkJ
Tebow nailed it. Howard kept the ball and took off for an 18-yard run that likely would have been long had the quarterback seemingly lost control of his legs, causing him to stumble.
Either way, Ohio State picked up a first down and eventually scored the Buckeyes’ last go-ahead touchdown.
The game was within Texas’ reach with about half of the fourth quarter left against Ohio State. Or, at least, tying it was within reach — until it suddenly wasn’t.
Trailing the Buckeyes by a touchdown in Friday’s College Football Playoff semifinal game at the Cotton Bowl Classic, the Longhorns were marching up the field, and with the help of a couple pass interference calls against Ohio State, they were at first-and-goal on the one-yard line with less than four minutes left.
First up was a run from Jerrick Gibson for no gain. Then it was running back Quintrevion Wisner’s turn to try, and while he briefly looked like he had a chance, he was ultimately taken down by Buckeyes safety Lathan Ransom for a loss of seven. Then an incomplete pass from Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers on third down, followed by the final dagger: a strip-sack from Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer (and Ewers’ former roommate) that he returned for a touchdown.
Ohio State won, 28-14, and advanced to the national title game, while the Longhorns lost in the CFP semifinals for the second straight year.
“When we got down to the one, we went to a heavy package, which is Jerrick’s package. So we ran it, and we obviously didn’t get much movement at all.
“And we had a plan to try to get the ball on the edge when we got down there. They went to big people. I can’t quite tell — it was on the far side of where it got leaky.
“But that’s one of those plays, if you block it all right, you get in the end zone, and we didn’t, and we lose quite a bit of yardage. And at that point, you’re kind of stuck behind the eight ball because we knew we were in four-down territory because of the score of the game.”
Of course, the strip-sack turned touchdown sealed the win for the Buckeyes, but you could argue they had already lost after going from first-and-goal on the one-yard line to third-and-goal at the eight.
Moving backwards, especially that close to the goal line, is never good.
Sarkisian continued to explain that he was prepared if the Longhorns didn’t score on that drive, figuring Texas would have a shot at one more possession after Ohio State’s hypothetical subsequent drive would have started with terrible field position. Sarkisian continued:
“I was OK even if we didn’t score. Not that I didn’t want score, but thinking, ‘All right, they’re going to have to be backed up, and we’ll probably get one more possession with good field position.’
“The last thing you think is the sack, and it’s going to bounce right to the guy, and he’s going to run for a touchdown. So it’s unfortunate that that was the circumstances because it was a really nice drive by the offense to get all the way down there.
“First-and-goal on the one and we don’t score, you, quite frankly, probably don’t deserve to win that way.”
Not sure how comforting that is to Texas fans, but at least we now have a clearer picture of the late-game strategy.
Before Quinn Ewers transferred to Texas, he was Ohio State DE Jack Sawyer’s roommate.
It couldn’t have been scripted more poetically or heartbreakingly, but the way Ohio State secured its College Football Playoff semifinal win over Texas on Friday felt cinematic.
Trailing by a touchdown with a little more than two minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Cotton Bowl, the Longhorns were on Ohio State’s eight-yard line with one more chance to score and tie the game. On fourth-and-goal, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers — who transferred from Ohio State — dropped back before quickly being sacked by Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer.
But Sawyer wasn’t done there. He stripped the ball from Ewers, recovered it and took off down a wide-open field for an 83-yard touchdown, putting Ohio State up, 28-14 — the eventual final score.
An incredible play, and Sawyer later said he blacked out on it. But the real dagger against Texas, and specifically Ewers, is that Sawyer was the quarterback’s roommate when he was still at Ohio State, as NBC News and ESPN noted.
After the touchdown return, the ESPN broadcast played an interview clip of Sawyer talking about Ewers. He said:
“Quinn was my roommate when he was here. So me and Quinn, we have a good friendship, and I’m excited to play against him. He’s a great player, had a great year, had a great career at Texas.”
In his postgame interview, Sawyer told ESPN he saw Ewers for a moment after the game, and the pair shared a cheeky moment. Sawyer told Holly Rowe of Ewers: “He was walking off, and he said, ‘Screw you.’ That’s my boy.”
Obviously, Ewers would want that play back regardless, but it has to sting a little bit more because it was Sawyer who forced the fumble. It was straight out of Hollywood with flashes of A League of Their Own.
Sawyer was already a star but became an instant Ohio State legend with that play against his old roommate.
Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes or Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns? Here’s who the GOAT picked.
Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban has been high on the Ohio State Buckeyes since the College Football Playoff began.
Saban, who blasted some Ohio State fans for their fury over the team’s 13-10 loss to hated rival Michigan on Nov. 30, has arguably been the Buckeyes’ biggest supporter from the standpoint of respected media voices during his various appearances on ESPN’s “College GameDay” and other platforms (Pat McAfee’s show).
The college football legend has consistently touted the job of Ohio State coach Ryan Day, as well as the play of Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard, freshman sensation wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, and his former safety Caleb Downs, who spent his freshman season at Alabama before transferring to Columbus.
So it’s no surprise who Saban picked to win Friday’s CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl. From his seat on “College GameDay” set, which broadcast live from inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Saban picked the Buckeyes to beat the Texas Longhorns and advance to the national championship game on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
The winner of tonight’s game will meet Notre Dame, who defeated Penn State 27-24 in the Orange Bowl on Thursday to advance to their first national championship game since the 2012 season.
When picking the Buckeyes, Saban said:
“To me, the most physical team is going to win and whichever quarterback plays the best and takes care of the ball. Ohio State has shown that in these playoffs so far, so I’m going with Ohio State.”
Earlier in the broadcast, Saban offered plenty of praise for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, who won a national championship as Alabama’s offensive coordinator on Saban’s 2020 staff.
“Sark is a great play-caller and a great planner. He’s a great teacher and he’s got a really good system that’s hard to defend, so Ohio State’s going to have their hands full. I think the key is, can Sark create balance by being able to control the line of scrimmage and run a little bit?”
Ohio State got to the Cotton Bowl by whipping the No. 1-ranked Oregon Ducks, 41-21, at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. Texas survived Arizona State 39-31 in double overtime at the Peach Bowl.
The Cotton Bowl can be seen on ESPN.
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Shaw entered the portal after UNC fired former Texas coach Mack Brown in November. The 6’5.5, 330-pounder has one season of eligibility remaining. Shaw was one of Brown’s biggest signings in Chapel Hill. In 2022, he was a 5-star and the No. 20 player in the nation according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
In his three seasons at North Carolina, Shaw had a hard time being consistent. But his junior campaign showed a lot of improvement, recording 26 tackles, up from his freshman high of 18.
Shaw becomes the second interior defensive lineman added by the Longhorns during the transfer portal window. The Horns signed former Purdue DT Cole Brevard in December. Brevard has been practicing with the team during the playoffs.
This former Alabama receiver is back in the transfer portal.
Former Alabama Crimson Tide and Texas Longhorns wide receiver Agiye Hall is back in the transfer portal.
A five-star recruit by On3 out of Bloomingdale, Fla., Hall committed to Alabama in 2021 but left the program after being suspended by Nick Saban in April 2022 for violating team rules. He had four catches for 72 yards in his freshman season at Alabama in 2021.
Hall joined Steve Sarkisian at Texas in 2022 but was arrested before the season on criminal mischief charges. He was suspended before appearing in three games, making one catch for seven yards. Hall left the Longhorns after the 2022 season.
More recently, Hall had committed to play for Gus Malzahn at UCF in 2024 but never joined the program. He sat out the entire 2024 season after the Birmingham News reported that Hall had been arrested in December 2023 on charges of drug trafficking.
AL.com’s Matt Stahl reported that Hall “pled no contest to first-degree felony charges of trafficking in 300 plants or 25 pounds of cannabis in Florida, according to court documents obtained by AL.com.”
On3 first reported that Hall had reentered the transfer portal.
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