A lot of these kids, nowadays, they want a check. They don’t want physicality. If you have the check and no physicality, you end up with nothing. We’re not just getting checks at our place. We’re hitting people.
- Kirby Smart, football coach (2025)
Some (Semi) Interesting Stats
There are twelve 3000-yard passers as of week 12. Four of the top five are G5 players: UNT’s Drew Mestemaker, Delaware’s Nick Minicucci, UConn’s Joe Fagnano, and FAU’s Caden Veltkamp. I would guess that only Mestemaker and Veltkamp were drafted in the majority of CFF leagues this offseason.
There are only two QBs with 30 or more passing TDs after week 12, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza (30) and Baylor’s Sawyer Robertson (30).
There were 12 1000-yard rushers entering week 13, and all 12 were RBs. There are now 21, and all of them are RBs. However, the next two leading rushers are QBs (Cale Hellums, Blake Horvath). Jax State’s Cam Cook leads the FBS with 1451 yards.
Akron’s Jordan Gant ranks ninth in the FBS for most carries, with 213. He didn’t even begin the year as the starter for the Zips.
As we enter week 14, only twelve RBs have 200 or more carries. I would guess this is one of the lowest totals ever in CFB.
USC WR Makai Lemon (1090) joined Danny Scudero (1155) and Skyler Bell (1151) in the 1000-yard receiving club in week 12. After week 13, there are now seven receivers with 1000+ receiving yards. Bell still leads the FBS with 101 receptions, the next closest WR (Easton Messer) has 94.
The 2025 edition of the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn will be the seventh straight matchup with a unique head coaching matchup.
Texas is currently 11-4 against SEC opponents since joining the conference, three out of the four losses coming to Georgia.
The three games of the lowest rush yards per carry in the Steve Sarkisian-Texas era are 1.4 (vs. UGA 2025), 1.3 (vs. TCU, 2022), and 1.1 (vs. Georgia 2024 x2).
Ohio State ranks dead last in the FBS in seconds per play (31.7).
Only one team averages 80 or more plays per game: FAU.
Only two teams have a 3000-yard passer and a 1000-yard rusher & receiver: North Texas, and UConn.
News This Week: Franklin to VT, Lane, Morris, Others + Some Random Stuff
IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK, we have more coaching carousel dynamics at play. Obviously, everyone is aware of the Lane Kiffin saga, will he stay, will he go? Where will he go? LSU, to me, always made more sense. They’re just better than Florida from my view.
Florida has the historical ties with Kiffin (I believe his dad coached there or something), and it sounds like he has a desire somewhere in the back of his mind to coach the Gators before his coaching tenure is through.
However, if I were advising Kiffin, I just don’t think now is the right time to jump in on the Gator train. You don’t want to be the one competing with Kirby’s UGA every year—being primarily measured by whether you can take that behemoth down each year—just seems like an unreasonable bar to have to clear. Indeed, I’ve lost count on how many coaches prime Nick Saban at Alabama banished into obscurity from seemingly well-intentioned programs.
Florida, as a state, also just seems like a place where players are very willing to leave, from my view. Especially in the NIL era. So the recruiting footprint there is, I think, overrated, especially considering that you have to compete with an NIL giant in Miami, and another group who get offers on kids when they’re in fucking middle school (FSU), probably because they know they can’t compete with the big boy recruiting machines.
And then you throw in the fact that UGA, Alabama, and Ohio State, probably the three premier programs of CFB, all come down to Florida and recruit the state like it’s their own on an annual basis. Yea… count me OUT on that if I’m Kiffin.
On the other hand, you have LSU. People party hard there, they all love Louisiana, there’s strange voodoo magic, some fun French influence. You’re competing with Louisiana Lafayette and Tulane as your primary in-state competitors. Sure, Texas and A&M come in hard now, swinging their stupid fucking oil money, but it’s still better than that goddamn warzone that is Florida. It’s like early 2000s Baghdad over there from a recruiting standpoint.
And when you inevitably don’t sign enough of the best players in Florida, you try to supplement the roster with Georgia talent, where you’re competing with that fucking maniac Kirby, who says shit like the above quote on this article, and one has stop and wonder: is this really a great job right now??
Anyways, by the time this article comes out, it’ll likely be the case that the answer to this question will already be solved. Ole Miss and Mississippi State face off in the Egg Bowl as we speak, with a decision on Lane’s future apparently coming shortly after the final whistle.
NOW, HERE’S A MOVE I REALL LIKE—James Franklin to Virginia Tech. I love the move for many reasons. Franklin already has incredible familiarity with the area from a recruiting standpoint (this has already availed itself as VT has climbed like 50 spots in recruiting rankings over the past week). Second, I think Franklin fits the ACC. No disrespect to my Atlantic Coast Conference compadres (and the Pacific Coast ones too now, I guess), but that conference just isn’t very good relative to the B1G and the SEC. That’s part of why we love it so much for CFF.
At the very least, I think we can all agree that the top end of the conference is not the same as the B1G/SEC, and thus I think Franklin’s VT program could do some really good things here. The MO on Franklin throughout his PSU tenure was that they’d always lose to teams that were ‘real’, which I’ll define as rosters that have four and five star players (i.e. the requisite talent to at least seriously compete for a natty, and beat other natty competitors). But when they outclassed their opponent, save for this past season, they’d always demolish them.
Clemson, FSU and Miami are the only three programs that should routinely outclass VT in terms of talent, but even then, the discrepancy shouldn’t tremendous; and, because conferences are just way too big right now, as we’ve seen this season, it’s very likely VT will waltz through several seasons without having to play the best teams in the conference. This, in my opinion, sets Franklin up well to get VT back to relevancy and potentially sniff the CFP on a semi-regular basis.
ON TO ANOTHER MOVE I REALLY LIKE—the fit from a CFF perspective of UNT’s Eric Morris to Oklahoma State couldn’t be any better. He brings with him an impeccable pedigree of QB development, mentoring the likes of Patty Mahomes, Cam Ward, and of course, Drew Mestemaker this year. But beyond even those names, if you track his tenure at UNT, every QB he had was at least solid in CFF.
The question becomes: who does he take with him? The RB, Caleb Hawkins, ought to be in the P4. I don’t know if that’s with Morris at OK State, but he’s not staying in the G5 next season.
I would think Mestemaker and some of the WRs will likely follow Morris to Stillwater, and they’d be wise to do so in my opinion. Unfortunately, that means Mestemaker will probably be drafted very high in CFF drafts this offseason, which is not really my jam when it comes to roster building strategy.
A PUZZLING MOVE—I get that former UConn coach Jim Mora is a west coast guy, but the transition from the Huskies to Colorado State is a bizarre one in my opinion. I’ve commented on the Rams’ organization before in these articles, and I believe I described them as the Auburn/Florida of the MWC.
They do have considerable resources relative to other G5/MWC programs (apparently), and so that’s probably why they keep attracting these hot coaches (yes, believe it or not, Jay Norvell was a hot name after several successful seasons at Nevada). I think the unanimous reaction to this hire on the twittersphere can essentially be summarized by this clip with Nick Saban, 1) some surprise about why Mora would do such a thing and 2) that’s a good get for CSU.
OREGON STATE HIRES ALABAMA WR COACH—Jamarcus Sheppard is a highly regarded assistant, and while we know it wasn’t OSU’s first choice (that was Montana State’s head coach), I do think they’re thinking here is sound.
Sheppard has ties to the Northwest, some good experience at elite programs, and was probably cheaper than hiring a head coach from somewhere else to join the program. It wasn’t that long ago that Oregon State was a very successful mid-major program in the PAC12. They were knocking on top 10 poll positions at one point under Jonathan Smith if I’m not mistaken.
While we’ll have to see what happens regarding player retention, the one thing the Beavers had going for them this season was the talent at WR. Trent Walker is the alpha, who is listed as a senior by Fantrax but has only played three full seasons, so I assume he can return for another year if he wants it. You have David Wells and Tastean Reddicks behind him, who could each evolve into CFF stars should Walker move on. I’m intrigued at the very least about what’s to come here.
VANDY IS SERIOUS ABOUT FOOTBALL—Head coach Clark Lea signed an extension this morning, and with that they will flip five star QB Jared Curtis from Georgia. In fact, I believe they already have behind the scenes, all there is now is to wait for Hayes Fawcett to make one of his goofy graphics so Curtis can announce it.
I think this is a big move for Vandy, not necessarily because I’m convinced that Curtis is a program changing player (I do not), but the optics of signing (and flipping!) a five star QB from Georgia is uncharted territory for a program like Vandy. It’s sort of similar to Nebraska with Dylan Raiola. I did not care about him flipping from UGA at the time (especially because it probably increased the chances of flipping safety KJ Bolden, which is a good trade off), only because I know that most highly touted QB prospects will end up transferring anyways (which, in fact, could be imminent with Raiola).
The value to me in signing a five star QB is the optics, and the gravitational pull of brining other good players with them. If signing a five star QB means you get an additional elite OL and WR, then it is worth it, even if the QB never starts for your program and transfers out after a few seasons.
For Nebraska, specifically, just because we’re on the topic, even if Raiola were to transfer this offseason, I would categorize their move with him as a success. They got a lot of good pub from flipping him from the (at the time) back to back national champions. He most likely helped bring other players that would otherwise not choose Nebraska. He elevated the profile of the program. Success, success, success. It doesn’t matter that he was just a average-to-below average QB performer in the B1G during his stay there.
It’s the same deal for Vanderbilt, in my opinion. Curtis plays very low level ball in what is considered the south’s worst state for high school football: Tennessee. He has bust written all over him, but as a Georgia fan you of course still wanted to sign him—again, not because he will realistically have a tremendous impact on the program (highly unlikely), but because of his gravitational pull and the optics that signing him brings.
Vanderbilt signing him is an automatic win, even if (read when) he transfers out. Or if he’s a total bust. It doesn’t really matter. Just the fact that they can do this, shows they have elevated as a program, and that in turn helps them recruit other players, who actually might make a big impact on their program.
For the salty Georgia fans who read these articles, I suppose I would pose the question, would you really rather have Dylan Raiola, or even Arch Manning, right now? I know what my answer is.
CAL FIRED THEIR HEAD COACH, AND WITH THAT, THE HIGHEST PAID PLAYER IN THE 2026 TRANSFER PORTAL WILL BE… the QB, JKS, who will probably end up playing for Miami next season. With all three of UGA, OSU, and Alabama likely to bring their staring QBs back next year, other programs can breath a sigh of relief when it comes to how much funds they’ll have to shell out for elite QB talents this cycle.
Miami is expected to be a strong bigger (shit, what else is new, am I right?), and I wouldn’t even be surprised if Texas kicked the tires to see what they could do. Sure, that seems asinine to the reader, but may I remind you that jobs are on the line down there in Austin, TX. You don’t go two seasons in a row of massive disappointment.
Manning name or not, that motherfucker better start performing soon or the only playmaking he’ll be doing is at the local Lamborghini dealership writing up audit reports and/or handing sets of keys to JKS every other week when he comes in to make a new purchase. It would be a fitting figurative and literal handoff of the baton, so to speak.
THERE IS ANOTHER NICO IAMALEAVA, AND HE RESIDES IN THE BAY AREA OF THE G5—Some of you might have observed SJSU starting QB Walker Eget sustain injury last week. I had hoped that it would quell Danny Scudero’s performance that day as I was facing Nate Marchese in my home league, and Scudero is on his roster.
Unfortunately for me, the change in QB did nothing to stop the OC from pummelling Scudero with targets. One thing I did make note of, however, was that the new SJSU QB had an uncanny physical resemblance to UCLA and former Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava. His name is Tama Amisone, and he also likes to throw INTs, apparently, finishing the day with no passing scores and 1 INT.
He did show himself to be a capable runner, however, and I observed enough arm talent to intrigue me for next year should he move on elsewhere, or Walker Eget do the same. As far as I know, Eget has another season of eligibility. Though I don’t think his primary receiver will be sticking around in the G5 much longer.
It’s Time to Have a Serious Conversation About the Heisman
This is me starting the #Stockton4Heisman campaign. That’s it. Also—suck it Texas! 3-0! Happy Thanks giving to the American Readers! ◾
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