ArizonaLonghorn

You'll need a sub to The Athletic (NY Times) to read the article but you might find it reassuring that slow starts ran in the family. All four had 4-1 records as a starter after their first five games. Arch has thrown for almost as many yards as Peyton and Archie combined (though fewer than Eli). Arch has as many TD passes as Peyton and Archie combined, though fewer INTs, and he has ran for more TDs than the three older Mannings combined. ( quote ) [Arch] Manning ranks 83rd nationally in passing efficiency. He’s completed only 55.3 percent of his attempts for 579 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions through three starts this season — underwhelming numbers for the preseason Heisman favorite. But he’s hardly the first Manning to get off to a slow start when handed the reins of an SEC offense. Uncle Peyton was benched in his fifth career start as a true freshman at Tennessee in 1994. Uncle Eli put up sterling numbers his first season as the starter at Ole Miss in 2001 as a redshirt sophomore, but he lost three of his last four games and threw eight interceptions over his final five starts. [ Eli had the best rookie season by far. ] Grandpa Archie threw 17 interceptions in his first season as the starting quarterback at Ole Miss in 1968. So, maybe, slow starts are just the way things go for the Mannings. (/quote) How Arch Manning’s first 5 starts compare to uncles Peyton, Eli and grandfather Archie ($)

Thanks for the link Dread. For those who don't have a subscription to the New York Times or Athletic here's the money quote - [quote] "So is the face Manning made Saturday simply a habit? Even he wasn’t 100 percent certain. “Yeah, probably so,” Manning said. “I don’t even know.” Well, we do. The Athletic reviewed the TV copy of each of Manning’s 155 career pass attempts at Texas to get to the bottom of Grimace Gate. Here’s what we found. Most TV replays don’t zoom in on the quarterback’s face while he’s throwing. Of Manning’s 155 pass attempts, 73 didn’t even have a replay, either because they were short completions or incomplete passes. Another 51 had replays but did not show an angle where his face could be easily seen. ... [ skip paragraphs explaining why you can only see his facial reaction in a few throws ] So, what about the rest? Does he grimace? Yes. Our review discovered at least 13 instances over the last year in which Manning grimaced, dating all the way to his appearance in relief of Quinn Ewers against UTSA on Sept. 28, 2024. Early in the third quarter against the Roadrunners, Manning made a face that looked almost identical to the one he made last week against San Jose State. The result was a 15-yard completion on a slant to Matthew Golden. [skip other examples, including videos] And there are photos that 247Sports dug up from past Manning throws, even dating to his high school days, that show the grimace. So there you have it. Perhaps this is Arch’s version of “Manning Face,” but there’s no supporting evidence to conclude that he’s dealing with an injury." --- [/quote] Personally I'm just glad someone didn't start a thread titled "Is that Arch Manning's orgasm face?" TMI

Sure, someone will take him and be glad to get him. Watched parts of the Arizona State v Mississippi State classic (lol) last weekend and there were probably 6 or 7 guys on the two rosters who had washed out at Texas and moved on. Several were big contributors even though they didn't crack the lineup here. The obvious comparison would be to Brenen Thompson, the very fast but undersized (5'10" 165 lbs) kid from the 2022 class. I think he caught one pass at Texas, then went to Oklahoma and didn't do much there, but at MSU he was their best weapon, catching 6 passes for 133 yards, including the game winner in the last minute from 58 yards out. I'm guessing there are dozens of teams that would take Hampton and hope he could help them, but they'll keep him on a short leash like we did with Agiye Hall

"PFF Sucks!" - JJ Watt, who should know

Always ready for a party

From an ESPN article - https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/46154733/more-8300-nil-deals-worth-80m-approved-new-commission For me the key takeaway is that > 8,300 deals, worth $80 million, have been approved. None have been rejected totally - "332 deals had not been cleared to date and 75 had been resubmitted, while none had entered arbitration, which is available for parties who feel their deals have been wrongly rejected." This is good news for the student athletes, great news for the rich schools (like Texas) equipped to play the new NIL game, bad news for the bagmen of old. Quotes, in case you have problems accessing the link "The new College Sports Commission has cleared more than 8,300 name, image and likeness deals worth nearly $80 million, it said Thursday in its first full update on how the new system is working. The commission, which is in charge of approving contracts worth $600 or more between college athletes and third-party companies, said 28,342 students signed up on its NIL Go platform between June 11, when it launched, and Aug. 31. Nearly 3,200 "representatives" or agents had also signed up. ... The commission said the most common clearance issues were delays in attesting to or providing required information; contradictory deal terms; misreporting of deal terms or mistakes in entering deal terms; and deals that don't satisfy the "valid business purpose" requirement that caused confusion when the platform first rolled out. [ this valid business purpose clause was what most NIL co-ops were most worried about ] The CSC said values of the deals ranged as high as $1.8 million [ so probably they are just going on an annual basis instead of multi-year deals? Assuming the reported numbers for say Felix Ojo and Mark Bowman etc were accurate ]

$70,000,000 buy out ... he ain't getting fired until that number goes down. Bama doesn't have A&M booster money ...

Hopefully the numbers for next year's game will be even higher, given that game will feature the past two national champions.

I feel extremely confident in predicting that the Tigers from Death Valley will win the LSU @ Clemson game. Like, 100% confident.

Did anyone else think the answer to this pop quiz was "Win the turnover battle"?

Three GOATs and one kid? Might have a better ring to it, yeah? Congrats Blake, sounds like a great idea.

When they discussed this earlier it was mentioned the league would revisit the "permanent three" every four years (after the home/away is done with the rotating 12) and adjust if someone ended up with too brutal a grouping. The goal would be to try to keep it fairly even SOS wise. This was from an article in The Athletic - so the league is aware of the potential problem.

The numbers wouldn't work out as cleanly for a 9 game conference schedule with 4 permanent. You'd have 4 permanent + 5 rotating but there would be 11 alternate year teams so you wouldn't get to play every team home/away every four years. Three permanent + 6 rotating among the 12 remaining teams would be symmetrical - perfect.

This was supposedly proposed by the SEC three years ago Annual opponents Two years ago, back when nine games seemed a fait accompli, the SEC office came up with three potential annual opponents for each school. Historic rivalries received heavy consideration, as did a formula that analyzed every team’s record over the past decade and tried to create some parity. The conference never released or confirmed the opponents, but various outlets, including The Athletic, reported the list below. Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee Arkansas: Missouri, Ole Miss, Texas Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt Florida: Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina Georgia: Auburn, Florida, Kentucky Kentucky: Georgia, Mississippi State, South Carolina LSU: Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M Mississippi State: Kentucky, Ole Miss, Texas A&M Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt Oklahoma: Florida, Missouri, Texas Ole Miss: Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State South Carolina: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M Texas A&M: LSU, Mississippi State, Texas Tennessee: Alabama, South Carolina, Vanderbilt Vanderbilt: Auburn, Missouri, Tennessee