Tag: The Athletic

Ducks see movement in updated 2024 Top 25 rankings from The Athletic

The Oregon Ducks saw a bit of movement in the latest updated version of the 2024 Top 25 rankings from The Athletic.

One thing that has become commonplace in the world of college football these days is everyone putting out their way-too-early rankings for the upcoming season as soon as the previous season comes to an end.

What isn’t as common, though, is the top of the football world seeing a major shift in the days and weeks after those rankings come out.

That’s what happened this offseason, though, with legendary coach Nick Saban retiring in early January, leading national championship runner-up coach Kalen DeBoer to leave the Washington Huskies and take the head coaching job for the Alabama Crimson Tide. This then led Arizona Wildcats head coach Jedd Fisch to leave Tucson and head north to Seattle. Meanwhile, Jim Harbaugh announced his departure from Michigan to the NFL, taking over as the new head coach for the Los Angeles Chargers, though that move didn’t cause as much upheaval as the previous trio.

It’s safe to say that there has been a lot of movement since those initial top-25 rankings came out earlier this month. It caused us to update our preseason rankings, and now it’s led The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel to do the same.

Here’s where he had the Oregon Ducks ranked in his updated way-too-early top 25 for the 2024 season:

Florida basketball ‘needs signature wins,’ per The Athletic

Florida’s 14-6 record looks strong enough for an NCAA Tournament bid, but experts at The Athletic say the Gators need one big win in February.

Florida seemed like a shoe-in to make the NCAA Tournament after a strong finish to the non-conference, but the Gators have not been able to secure a signature win this season, and that could be what holds them back from making the field of 68, according to The Athletic’s Justin Williams.

Williams broke down each of the teas “on the bubble” in the latest Bubble Watch update from the publication. Tennessee is the only lock to make the tournament from the SEC, but Alabama, Auburn and Kentucky all have a good chance to make it (barring complete collapses).

Things get murkier beyond those four teams, though. Florida, which checks in at 14-6 overall and 4-3 against the conference ahead of a rematch with Kentucky on the road, might be the most interesting team “on the bubble.”

“The Gators are one of the most fascinating bubble teams,” Williams wrote. “All six losses are to Q1 opponents — three in nonconference play and three in the SEC. Up next? Three straight Q1 matchups: at Kentucky and Texas A&M, then home for Auburn. If they leave that game against the Tigers on Feb. 10 with a 0-9 mark in Q1 games, combined with what would be a 1-5 road record, it will be tough to justify keeping them in the bubble conversation…

“…Florida needs to start clocking some signature wins if it wants to see its name pop up on Selection Sunday.”

Beating Kentucky on the road will be tough, but Florida had a sizeable lead against Big Blue in their first meeting. The Orange and Blue haven’t fared well away from the O’Connell Center this year, though.

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Florida ‘broke even’ in transfer portal, per The Athletic

Florida lost a ton of talent to the transfer portal over the offseason, but Billy Napier and Co. have worked hard to recoup those losses.

With the 2023-24 winter transfer cycle almost over, Manny Navarro of The Athletic is picking which team he believes won and lost college football’s version of free agency.

The Florida Gators fall into neither category, though. The Athletic says that UF “broke even,” meaning it lost as much as it gained.

Florida lost a ton of talent to the portal this offseason. Florida lost half of its run game with running back Trevor Etienne (Georgia) and guards Richie Leonard (Florida State) and Micah Mazzccua (Nebraska) transferring out. The defense took a hit at every level, losing JACK Princely Umanmielen (Ole Miss), linebacker Scooby Williams (Texas A&M), cornerback Jalen Kimber (Penn State) and STAR Jaydon Hill (Texas A&M).

Still, Billy Napier did his best to recoup any talent lost. Graham Mertz gets a new favorite target to replace Ricky Pearsall in former Wisconsin teammate Chimere Dike, and former San Diego State offensive tackle Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson should start immediately. On defense, the Gators added defensive lineman Joey Slackman from Penn, Northern Illinois EDGE George Gumbs, Oregon starting cornerback Trikweze Bridges and Washington safety Asa Turner.

“It’s probably a bit of a stretch to say the Gators didn’t lose more than they gained in the portal,” wrote the Athletic’s Manny Navarro, “but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and put them in this category because Napier also picked up two young former blue-chip recruits in linebacker Pup Howard (South Carolina) and 2024 Alabama cornerback signee Jameer Grimsley.”

Billy Napier’s seat only got hotter as the transfer portal opened, but he’s done a decent job recovering from what many viewed as insurmountable losses.

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The Athletic: Stop crying ‘Michigan football cheated!’ Ohio State fans

It’s about time the national media said it. #GoBlue

Ever since news broke in October that the NCAA was investigating Michigan football for alleged illegal sign stealing, Ohio State fans assumed the worst. And there was no room for vindication in their minds.

The 2021 and 2022 wins by the Wolverines over the Buckeyes were simply due to Connor Stalions having such a mastery over the signals that every single play was mapped out to a tee and the maize and blue took advantage. There’s no way Jim Harbaugh did anything less than orchestrate the whole ordeal out of his desperation following the 2-4 campaign in 2020. And that’s why Ohio State lost those two games.

It wasn’t because Michigan completely revamped the coaching staff, ushering out Don Brown, Ed Warinner, Ben McDaniels and Mike Zordich in favor of Michigan alumni Ron Bellamy and Mike Hart. It wasn’t because Michigan changed its defensive scheme to one built to better defend the OSU offense with Mike Macdonald (who just won assistant coach of the year in the NFL) leading the charge. It wasn’t because the team went from a coach-led leadership to one led by the players, with Aidan Hutchinson, Mike Sainristil and others taking the mantle. It wasn’t because Michigan finally received above-average quarterback play, especially in 2022-23 when J.J. McCarthy took the helm. Nope. It was all — grainy iPhone film.

While the NCAA may still punish Michigan if it determines Stalions’ scheme was against the rules, which is its prerogative, fans in Columbus have long been unable to face reality. And The Athletic’s Ari Wasserman, who used to cover the Buckeyes, has had enough of it.

In an op-ed penned by Wasserman (subscription required), he didn’t downplay the Michigan scandal during the season but he cannot circle the square that the Wolverines didn’t win the national championship fair and square, just as NCAA president Charlie Baker proclaimed in the immediate aftermath. It’s a long and worthwhile piece, and highly deserving your time.

(We’ve added a bit but truncated as much as possible to encourage you to read the whole thing.)

Everything is so different now as Harbaugh is leaving Ann Arbor a champion and the man primarily responsible for reviving the greatest rivalry in college football. Ohio State fans loathe him. They’ll call him a cheater or a fraud. But nothing or nobody will be able to take away the fact that he is one of the rare high-profile coaching hires who actually lived up to — no, exceeded — the immense hype.

Those who stay will be champions. Harbaugh, a former Wolverines quarterback and the epitome of a Michigan Man, proved that statement — easy to mock a few years ago — to be true.

For that, he’s a coaching legend. Forever.

For many of you, reading that was difficult. Some of you have probably already scrolled to the comments section below to recycle cheating jabs. You can’t mention Michigan’s national title run this year without also acknowledging there is hard evidence the Wolverines engaged in a cheating scandal. (…)

But here’s what’s not complicated: If you’re still yelling about cheating or delegitimizing what Harbaugh and Michigan did this year, you didn’t pay attention to the run. It’s weak. It’s crybaby-ish. It’s, frankly, fragile.

Yet, it’s so profoundly beautiful. (…)

There’s no denying Michigan broke some rules. Though it’s hard to determine what (if anything) the NCAA will do in the coming months, whatever it decides will be warranted. Crime and punishment. The results of the season can’t — and shouldn’t — take away from what Connor Stalions did or the scheme Michigan ran.  (…)

But that’s not why Michigan won the national title. Two days later, NCAA president Charlie Baker even said the Wolverines won it all “fair and square.” Even if you don’t want to take Baker’s comments seriously, you have to acknowledge Michigan beat Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama and Washington after the scandal broke. Those were the only games Michigan could have possibly lost on its schedule, cheating or not.

It’s certainly not enough to quiet the scarlet and gray faithful from standing strong on their moral mountain (read the comments, if you dare). But after Michigan was in the news for all the wrong reasons for the entirety of the season, and still kept winning — without Connor Stalions, without Jim Harbaugh, without linebackers coach Chris Partridge — with a never-ending set of obstacles placed before it, give Harbaugh and the champions their due.

NBA fans were baffled when CNN Sports (of all outlets) reported that the Bucks hired Doc Rivers

This whole saga is incredibly bizarre!

After the Milwaukee Bucks suddenly fired head coach Adrian Griffin, NBA champion Doc Rivers emerged as a leading candidate to replace him.

Despite the winning record in Milwaukee, Griffin’s departure wasn’t exactly shocking. Rivers, who was the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers until last season, makes plenty of sense as his successor. Rivers was already serving as an “informal consultant” for the team, per The Athletic.

What baffled everyone, however, is that the first outlet credited with breaking the news was CNN Sports. Even though CNN is a trusted news outlet, it isn’t a desk known for its sports department.

So what exactly happened here? How did basketball insiders like Adrian Wojnarowski (currently Rivers’ colleague at ESPN) and Shams Charania get scooped by an outlet that doesn’t have much of a sports presence?

During a broadcast of NBA on TNT, host Adam Lefkoe relayed that CNN Sports was reporting that Doc Rivers was accepting the head coaching gig with Milwaukee.

Jamal Crawford, the longtime NBA player who is now an analyst on the show, immediately asked Lefkoe to confirm that the outlet was indeed CNN. How is this possible? Others had the same question. Here is more from Awful Announcing:

“This Doc Rivers report is the first time CNN Sports has been mentioned as a thing in literally decades. CNN Sports Tonight, the highlight show alternative to SportsCenter from Turner, hasn’t aired since 2001. CNN was linked with the Sports Illustrated brand before the platform was taken over by Bleacher Report sports content in 2013. In fact, all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports branding had transitioned to Bleacher Report in the last several years before it literally just rebranded to TNT Sports earlier this month.”

A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports later reported, however, that the news was fully vetted by CNN before it was passed along to TNT.

It is important to note that CNN and TNT are both owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. But at the time of the broadcast, there was nothing on the CNN Sports website that mentioned Rivers.

Perez was told this was likely due to CNN’s coverage of the GOP primary in New Hampshire.

As noted on Twitter/X by New York Times reporter Kevin Draper, a CNN Sports correspondent named Coy Wire appeared on NBA TV (also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) to confirm that Rivers was hired by Milwaukee.

Draper added that he was also told by a CNN spokesperson that all of the reporting went through their “editorial process” at the network.

Later in the night, CNN Sports eventually published a story that credited “a source with knowledge of the conversations” but the reporting had no byline.

But this was far from the end of the story and the confusion continued.

Chris Haynes, who is widely considered the network’s top basketball insider and news breaker at NBA on TNT and Bleacher Report (which is also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) refuted the report.

He claimed there is “no agreement” yet in place for Rivers to take over as the head coach of the Bucks. Bill Reiter of CBS Sports also reported that there is no agreement in place.

So what exactly happened here? Was this a giant miscommunication or was CNN Sports the first publication to break this news? Basketball fans had a lot of questions.

The Athletic predicts the Texas Longhorns’ football record in 2024

The Athletic has Texas going 11-1 in 2024. You’d never guess who the loss is against.

The Athletic is nothing if not bold. The publication has released its early SEC record predictions for the 2024 football season.

This season’s prediction does not have Texas going 4-8 although such a prediction has happened before. This year, the publication has Texas going 11-1 in its first season in the SEC. The lone loss? The Athletic has the Longhorns falling to the rival Texas A&M Aggies in their final regular-season game.

This 2024 prognostication isn’t as far-fetched as the one from the 2022 season that had the Longhorns winning just four games. Albeit, it is surprising to predict that Texas will beat Michigan, Oklahoma and Georgia in the same season it loses to a rebuilding Texas A&M squad. That said, it’s hard to beat an 11-win season prediction in the team’s first season in the SEC.

Despite the upset prediction in favor of the Aggies, The Athletic does not seem high on the Longhorns’ rivals. Texas A&M is predicted to go 6-6, while Texas’ more bitter rivals, the Oklahoma Sooners, are predicted to go 7-5.

The Athletic has Oklahoma dropping games to Texas in Dallas, Alabama at home, and three games on the road against Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU. In College Station, Texas A&M is predicted to lose to Notre Dame, Missouri and LSU at home with road losses to Florida, South Carolina and Auburn.

National media often miss what those close to the teams can see, but their predictions might not be that far off in this instance. We see the Longhorns as a double-digit win team, although the Sooners might be underrated nationally.

Way-too-early predictions will continue to roll in for the 2024 college football season. We will have a better idea of what players will make an impact for each team after their spring games.

Florida still outside of The Athletic’s bracketology after Tennessee loss

Another week, another bracketology with the Gators on the outside looking in.

The Gators are off to a rough start to both the calendar year as well as this season’s Southeastern Conference schedule, sitting at 1-3 since 2024 began. The latest loss at the hands of the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville demonstrated how far Florida has to go to get back to the top.

The Athletic’s Brian Bennett published his latest updated bracketology for men’s basketball, and in this edition, the Orange and Blue were once again nowhere to be found. It is his second update that has omitted Todd Golden’s gang.

The last time Florida was in Bennett’s bracket was just before the opening pair of SEC losses when it took the No. 12 seed in the Midwest Region (based in Detroit, Michigan) and was relegated to the final spot of the last four byes group.

SEC schools included in the bracket are Tennessee (No. 2), Auburn Tigers (No. 2), Kentucky Wildcats (No. 3), Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 4), Texas A&M Aggies (No. 8), Mississippi State Bulldogs (No. 8), Ole Miss Rebels (No. 11) and South Carolina Gamecocks (No. 12); South Carolina is also among the last four in.

Florida remains on the road for its next matchup, traveling to Columbia, Missouri, to take on the Missouri Tigers on Saturday, Jan. 20. Tipoff is slated for a late 8 p.m. ET start and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

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Florida’s finish in The Athletic’s stop rate rankings is embarrassing

Florida defense was among the very worst in college football last fall, per The Athletic’s stop rate rankings.

It was a season to forget when it came to Florida football in 2023 as the Gators once again limped to a sub-.500 finish for the third straight season while missing a bowl bid for the first time since 2017. Had it not been for some bone-headed mistakes, the team might have finished 7-5, but instead floundered to 5-7.

One of the major Achilles heels for the Orange and Blue was on defense, which was a young and inexperienced corps that had some bright spots but far more black eyes. As such, it should not be much of a surprise that Billy Napier’s team finished near the bottom of The Athletic’s final stop rate rankings.

The last time author Max Olson published his update, Florida was ranked No. 122 in the nation after a precipitous slide through the season. The Gators remained in that same spot, recording a 53.4% stop rate allowing 2.65 points per drive over 118 drives in 12 games.

The ranking represents the worst for a Sunshine State program, the second-worst team in the Southeastern Conference ahead of the No. 129 Vanderbilt Commodores, and only 11 spots away from the absolute worst out of 133 Football Bowl Subdivision schools.

Florida sits between the No. 121 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes and No. 123 North Texas Mean Green. Not exactly the company one wants to see their favorite college team surrounded by.

The highest-ranked SEC team in the final tally was the Georgia Bulldogs, who came in at No. 13. The Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 22) was the only other conference school to crack the top 25 while in-state rival Florida State Seminoles checked in at No. 14.

The South Florida Bulls also finished at No. 54, followed by the Florida Atlantic Owls (No. 58), Miami Hurricanes (No. 59) and Central Florida Knights (No. 104).

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The Athletic predicts Florida, SEC outcomes for 2024 football season

The early outlook for the Gators is not great, according to The Athletic.

The start of the 2024 college football season is still several months away but that is not stopping The Athletic from casting its early predictions for the upcoming Southeastern Conference campaign. Now expanded to 16 teams with the additions of the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners, it truly does mean more in the SEC.

The outlook is not great for the Florida Gators in these prognostications as author Seth Emerson foresees a second-straight 5-7 season — and fourth-straight losing season — with a record of just 2-6 in conference play. Woof.

Emerson expects the Orange and Blue to prevail at home over the Miami Hurricanes, Samford Bulldogs, Texas A&M Aggies, Kentucky Wildcats and UCF Knights. However, he predicts them to fall on the road at the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Tennessee Volunteers, Florida State Seminoles and Texas; against the LSU Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels at home; against the Georgia Bulldogs on neutral ground in Jacksonville.

LSU is expected to headline the conference this coming fall with a perfect 12-0 record plus an 8-0 mark in conference play. The ‘Dawgs, ‘Horns and Missouri Tigers are all projected to finish with 11-1 overall marks — all of their losses coming in SEC play.

The South Carolina Gamecocks are also predicted to finish like the Gators at 5-7 with a 2-6 record against SEC competition.

The three schools with worse projections than Florida are the Arkansas Razorbacks (4-8, 1-7 SEC), Mississippi State Bulldogs (4-8, 1-7 SEC) and Vanderbilt Commodores (3-9, 0-8 SEC).

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Vikings fortify trenches in Dane Brugler’s mock draft

Is taking back-to-back trench players a smart idea for the Vikings? Dane Brugler thinks it is

Mock drafts are coming out more often now that there are only eight teams left in the National Football League playoffs. There are multiple directions that the Minnesota Vikings can go in the 2024 NFL draft but it will be determined by how the top of the draft.

In the latest mock draft from The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, the top three quarterbacks are all gone by the eighth overall pick so the Vikings have to change their direction.

At the 11th overall pick, Brugler has the Vikings selecting UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu and he had great things to say about the talented Bruin.

Over his two seasons at UCLA, Latu accounted for 34 tackles for loss, 23.5 sacks and five forced fumbles. He has first-step quickness and bend, but his crafty handwork and ability to diversify his attack separate him as a pass rusher. His injury history could be an issue, but this Vikings regime has taken chances with those risks in the past.

As Brugler states, the injury history could become a really big issue with Latu, especially since he medically retired due to a neck injury.

With their second pick in Brugler’s two-round mock draft, he has the Vikings taking another piece to add to their defensive line in Clemson defensive tackle Ruke Orhohoro.

The Vikings double up on the defensive line. Well-built at 6-4, 295 with 34-inch arms, Orhorhoro is an impressive mover and offers a high ceiling after he was late to the game of football.

This isn’t the sexiest mock draft for the Vikings but sometimes you need to eat your oatmeal and get back to the basics. This accomplishes that and more.

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