Urban Meyer has long been an advocate of keeping the College Football Playoff field at four, but he’s had a change of heart.
On Saturday’s “Big Noon Kickoff,” Meyer admitted that he has come around on expanding the playoff. His key reason is different than that of most other expansion advocates, though: he wants to encourage more players to play in games of importance.
“I have had some really deep conversations with some of my colleagues, and the game is changing,” Meyer said. “I can’t believe I’m saying it, because I’m a traditionalist. I love the bowl games, I love the bowl experiences. But you have two different sets of groups. You have the elite group, the high-profile players and the maybe not so high-profile.
“There’s two things important to elite players: NFL, College Football Playoff. If that doesn’t happen, they’re not going to play in bowl games. I’m not saying all of them, but I know coaches are dealing with that on a day-to-day basis. I say expand the playoff — I can’t believe that came out of my mouth. I know you guys are saying more teams are going to be involved. I say more players are going to be involved.”
Whether the playoff should be expanded is a very heated talking point. Group of 5 teams feel left out of the process, and a four team field ensures that at least one Power 5 conference will be excluded every year. On the other hand, there are concerns about the academic calendar and how many games a team can be reasonably asked to play in one season.
Meyer has been critical of the current CFP format before, but he’s never favored expanding it. If colleagues in the game convinced him that it’s the right solution, one has to wonder how many rank-and-file coaches would privately agree with the former Ohio State coach.
The Ohio State Buckeyes will compete for the Big Ten Championship on Saturday, and they’ll be doing it without a lot of players.
The Buckeyes’ availability report lists 22 players as out for the game against Northwestern on Saturday night. The biggest name on the list is wide receiver Chris Olave, whose 528 receiving yards rank second on the team.
No reason was cited for the absences. However, Kyle Rowland of the Toledo Blade notes that the players would be in danger of missing the College Football Playoff semifinal if any of the players tested positive for COVID-19.
Ohio State will be without 22 players for the Big Ten championship game, including WR Chris Olave, LB Baron Browning and P Drue Chrisman. If they’re out because of positive COVID tests, they could miss the CFP semifinals because of the Big Ten’s 21-day rule.
The Buckeyes must beat Northwestern to keep their playoff hopes alive. As deep as they are, that will certainly be tougher with this many players sidelined. That said, given the team’s many critics, winning this game without key players may make their resume look stronger.
When the Cleveland Browns face the New York Giants this Sunday, there’s a growing chance that it will be Colt McCoy under center for New York. That actually has Myles Garrett rather excited.
Garrett and McCoy share a financial adviser, the Browns defensive end said Friday. And yes, that does factor into Garrett’s motivation heading into Sunday’s contest.
“Me and Colt have the same financial adviser so if he’s under center I’m going to bust his a– and tell our adviser about it,” Garrett said, via Camryn Justice of News 5 Cleveland.
That’s not great news for McCoy. Garrett has 10.5 sacks this season, and as we’ve seen on plays like this, when he wants at a quarterback, he usually gets him. The Giants backup could be in for a rough game at this rate.
After years of rumors, Bret Bielema is officially headed back to the Big Ten.
The Illinois Fighting Illini announced Saturday that Bielema would become the team’s new head coach, replacing the fired Lovie Smith. Bielema signed a six-year contract with a base salary of $4.2 million per year.
In a statement issued by the school, Bielema made clear that one of his priorities will be to keep recruits from Illinois from leaving the state.
“Illinois and the Big Ten is home for me, and I can’t be any more excited about the opportunity in front of me with the Fighting Illini,” Bielema said. “We want to build a program that makes Illini Nation proud and regain the passion that I’ve seen when Illinois wins. We want the young men playing football in the state of Illinois from Freeport to Cairo and from Quincy to Danville dreaming of wearing the Orange and Blue and playing at Memorial Stadium. I look forward to re-connecting with the high school coaches around the state making it clear we intend to keep our players home.”
Bielema, an Illinois native, had a highly successful run in the Big Ten previously. From 2006 to 2012, he went 68-24 at Wisconsin, guiding the team to three consecutive Rose Bowls. He most recently served as the linebackers coach for the New York Giants.
The former Arkansas coach has often been linked to Power 5 openings at schools in need of a rebuild, including another Big Ten program this past year. Now he’s finally landed one.
Vanessa Bryant honored her late husband with a touching tribute she posted on Instagram on Friday.
Friday marked the three-year anniversary of Kobe Bryant’s jersey retirement ceremony from the Lakers. Both numbers worn by Bryant during his Hall of Fame career (8 and 24) were retired by the team on Dec. 18, 2017.
Three years later, Kobe is no longer alive, but his wife is keeping up the memories. She posted a video clip from the ceremony and said “no one like you” and called Kobe “irreplaceable.”
Kobe and daughter Gianna died on Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash that killed all nine people aboard the chopper. Nearly a year later, it’s still so hard to believe Kobe and Gianna are gone. At least the memories they gave us and their family are still alive.
“I’m 38 years old.” Roethlisberger said. “I’ve played football for 17 years. I’ve had multiple surgeries. I saw that report. I don’t know where it came from. I think it was the one that said the Steelers were concerned. I would love to know who that was or who told him because the week before against Washington I was having issues with my knee, landed on it, had something going on, but other than just an old knee and arthritis, my knee actually feels really good this week, especially after playing on an artificial surface. Typically, that is another issue that makes it kind of ache. After last week, it feels pretty good. That report to me is just one of those phony kinds of things that people sometimes want to make up. I actually feel pretty good.”
La Canfora isn’t the first one to say that Roethlisberger has been dealing with a knee injury. What would you expect the quarterback to say? Make an excuse and tell opponents that he is weak? Or brush it off so nobody thinks about it? Roethlisberger is doing the latter.
After missing all but two games last season due to his arm injury, Big Ben has played in 13 games this season. He has passed for 3,292 yards, 29 touchdowns and just nine interceptions this season.
Moss was a guest on Terrell Owens’ “Getcha Popcorn Ready Podcast with Terrell Owens and Matthew Hatchette” podcast. The episode was published in two parts.
Moss was asked to give his rankings of the best wide receivers of all time.
“I’ll put myself first, I’ll put T.O. second. Jerry’s probably third or fourth. I’m talking about dominating the game and changing the game of football. I don’t live on statistics because if you live on statistics and live on championships that’s all political. You’ve seen guys released or cut from a team just by a couple words in the media. You’ve seen guys not given contracts just because of the color of their skin. You’ve got to throw politics out of the game of football, and look at the impact of what each individual was able to make in the game of football,” Moss said.
Now that’s a load of rubbish. Absolute rubbish.
I love what Moss did on the field. He was great. I even wrote that Moss got off to a better start to his career Rice. But Moss didn’t do enough after that, while Rice continued to be great for several more years. T.O. was great on the field too, even if he was a terrible locker room presence. But if anybody alive actually thinks either of those guys rank ahead of Rice, they’re crazy.
Rice led the NFL in receptions twice (Moss never did). Rice led the NFL in receiving yards six times (Moss never did). Rice led the league in receiving touchdowns six times (Moss did five times).
Rice has 50 percent more career receiving yards and receptions and a third more touchdowns than Moss. Rice is the best ever. Period. Joe Montana was right when he said this about the two receivers.
Dallas Cowboys long snapper L.P. Ladouceur received an unlikely honor on Friday — special recognition from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
On Sunday, Ladouceur will play his 251st NFL game, making him the all-time leader in NFL games played by a Canadian. In response, Prime Minister Trudeau released a statement congratulating Ladoucer as “one of the most prolific Canadian football players in NFL history.”
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, sent this message to Cowboys’ long snapper L.P. Ladouceur, who will play in his 251st NFL game Sunday and pass former kicker Eddie Murray for the most NFL games played by a Canadian. pic.twitter.com/9s9dZIYMCj
The 39-year-old Ladouceur, a Montreal native, debuted for the Cowboys in 2005. He’s been their long snapper without interruption ever since.
No, this won’t make up for the fact that the Cowboys’ season has been an unmitigated disaster. It’s still a nice memorable moment for a workhorse who has performed consistently at a position that often goes underappreciated.
The San Antonio Spurs have gone over two decades without blowing up their roster, but they could be coming dangerously close this season.
Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix quoted an unnamed NBA scout this week who said that the Spurs are in “flux.” The scout also indicated that it is likely LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan get dealt by the trade deadline.
The Spurs do not appear to be a playoff team with their current Aldridge-DeRozan core. They missed the postseason last year for the first time since 1997, finishing up with a sub-.500 record of 32-39. Aldridge is an expiring contract, owed $24 million this season. DeRozan is also in the final year of his deal and is due $27.7 million.
The two ex-All-Stars were linked to some top contenders in trade rumors this offseason. If they can increase their value with strong play in the first half of the 2020-21 campaign, one or both could easily be sent packing.
