ArizonaLonghorn

How about the Sooner Schooner ponies? Bevo has it easy compared to them.

I remember many years ago they took on the NFL, specifically the Green Bay Packers, demanding the nickname be changed. 'Packers' was originally short for 'meat packers', I guess a common job in stockyards when the franchise first started. PETA picketed, demanding the name be change to Green Bay Pickers, for fruit pickers. Still waiting for this idea to catch fire ...

From the local Phoenix newspaper & from Sam himself The final piece: Arizona State QB announces his return for the 2025 season "It’s officially official. After dropping breadcrumbs over the past few weeks, Arizona State redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt announced that he is returning to the school for the 2025 season after agreeing to an NIL deal with Sun Angel Collective. Leavitt posted the announcement to his X, formerly Twitter, profile."

"Locked in" but still finds time to give a video shout out to a Longhorn alum appearing at the Golden Globes. The man is a multi-tasking demon. Two things I didn't know about Glen Powell until watching this short video - his dad is a graduate of Ohio State and the University of Texas. Who is he pulling for? Says "Hook'em" so ... Also, according to Golden Globes emcee Nikki Glaser she and Glen are "balling". At least in her dreams while she's making love to her boyfriend (have to watch her opening monologue to hear the joke, sorry).

From a 247 article by Gabe Phillips about the "All Lobby" guys who looked the part at the Navy All-American Bowl - "Texas cornerback signee Kade Phillips, a top 40 overall prospect in the Top247 rankings, boasts one of the most impressive track and field ledgers in the class. Not only has he hit 21.50 seconds in the 200 meters and broken into the 49s in the 400, Phillips owns an absurd 24-foot, 7 1/2-inch long jump. So to add to that elite athletic profile, Phillips measured exceptionally well Monday: just shy of 6-foot-1, 184 pounds with 10+ hand, 34+ arm, and a 6-foot-8 1/2 wingspan." Kaliq Lockett was also mentioned - "Kaliq Lockett, 2025 Top247 5-star WR, Texas signee One of the longest-framed receivers in attendance, Texas five-star signee Kaliq Lockett out of the DFW Metroplex showed up with offensive line-like length numbers, including a 33+ arm and a wingspan pushing 6-foot-7. Almost 6-foot-2 and 175 pounds, Lockett boasts enormous hands (10 1/2), which certainly aid his pass-catching abilities. Lockett caught more than 100 passes for almost 2,000 yards across his final two high school seasons."

To quote myself (haha) - while looking at what Gerry said about Georgia just now I noticed that in today's version Barron is now listed above Cam Williams in round one, so we currently have three first rounders. This 'Consensus' is made up of several hundred data points and changes every time new mocks are released, so it can change as new info is added and old mocks are removed. In case anyone is wondering why I had Barron in the 2nd round - that was so yesterday 🙂

There's a Consensus Big Board site that looks at several hundred mock drafts and calculates the most likely results. You can compare past years and drafts and see how well (or not) the actual first round draft compares with the 'consensus'. I checked it once, I think 26 or 27 first rounders were actually taken in round one (though not necessarily by the predicted team), most of the other predicted 1st rounders in the first few picks of round 2. This actually seems to be more accurate than Mel and the other gurus. You can check it out here ... https://www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com/big-boards/2025/consensus-big-board-2025 For Texas they have 13 players listed in the Top 256 with Banks and Williams in round one, Barron, Bond and Ewers in round two. https://www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com/colleges/2025/texas-longhorns (couldn't help but compare this to A&M since they are next in line at this site - even with the highest ranked recruiting class in history A&M only has 4 going in the Top 256 and two of them transferred in)

Backup quarterback

Defer

I think he was implying that just as the Texas class would potentially implode if Sark left for the NFL we could assume (hope?) that the Oregon class would implode if Lanning left. That's all. But I am often wrong.

No, no - every move Rashada made makes perfect sense, assuming you want a LOT of $$ and feel you are so good you shouldn't have to actually, you know, COMPETE to become the starter. Miami commit for supposedly a $9 million NIL deal, then switched his commitment to Florida for $13.85 million (there is a copy of this contract available on the internet). I mean, who would turn down a 50% raise? Not me. Smart move. Florida - oops, they didn't actually have that much NIL money in petty cash so when the first payment became due (I think it was $250,000 in December but could be wrong - it's in the contract) and the check didn't even arrive, much less clear, he backed out just before class started. Can't blame him, no pay no play, right? Arizona State - like thousands of California kids who couldn't get in to USC or UCLA this was his 'safety school' (looking at you Lori Laughlin's daughters), in part because his dad had played there. Competed for the starting job as a freshman and actually played a few games before injury (I'm guessing the NIL was at most 5% of the Florida offer but just play well and get a bigger payday and maybe a Heisman somewhere else, like Jayden Daniels). He had mediocre numbers (54% completion, 4 TD, 3 INT) as a frosh but the future looked open until ASU brought in Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt to compete for the QB job. COMPETE? With low pay already? So he bailed on them and went to mighty Georgia, where he would sit and watch behind Carson Beck for a year. Georgia - well, he was only 4th string at Georgia and I can't find any stats for him. Then Gunner Stockton looked OK and UGA is bringing in a 4* recruit from Ohio, so he's off to hopefully greener pastures. Apparently the goal is to strike it rich with NIL but so far he hasn't shown enough talent or patience to stick it out anywhere. Will be interesting to see where he lands next.

Below is a screen grab of the top 20 college QBs by QBR scores for the season. To answer your question Will Howard is well ahead of the other three, roughly 10 points - helps to have first round NFL receivers and a strong run game. The other three are pretty close together, within two points. The entire list at this link. # 2 Will Howard OSU # 15 Drew Allar PSU # 17 Riley Leonard Notre Dame # 20 Quinn Ewers Texas Couldn't help noticing the two QBs Texas just beat, Cade Klubnik at # 11 and Sam Leavitt at # 9. They put up over 900 yards total against us. If you limit it to just the bowl games then Howard has the top 2 performances among all bowl quarterbacks, not just guys in the semis, Quinn comes in at # 8 (ASU) and # 15 (Clemson) in the two playoff games. His scores in both games were higher than his total season average, so he has picked it up in the post season (no Georgia, cough). Allar scored poorly in the playoffs (# 51 against SMU, # 63 against Boise State). Leonard's game against Georgia was # 38, against Indiana # 43, so better than Allar against tougher defenses. So you could make an argument that Quinn played similarly to Allar and Leonard in the regular season and better in the two playoff games, but using QBR Will Howard has been playing the best.

I was gonna go with "Linda Evans turning 82" but I get your drift ...

Here in the desert the locals think ASU showed the world exactly how underrated the team (and by extension the entire Big 12) are. No kidding. They are treating it like they showed the world they are ready for the big stage and well positioned for the future. Arizona State football made statement for Big 12, begins 2025 with unprecedented momentum (article in the main Phoenix newspaper) Some quotes - "The Sun Devils did themselves proud and repped their new conference better than anyone probably expected. The Big 12 was a one-bid conference in the first-ever 12-team playoff. Should it have been? In hindsight, probably not." (makes the case that BYU and Iowa State were overlooked - haha) "In the end ASU proved it deserved that first-round pass. It also boasted four wins over nationally ranked teams this season, highlighted by a 45-19 beatdown of Iowa State in the Big 12 title game that was the most impressive performance in any conference title game." "The Sun Devils will surely go into next season nationally ranked, with the balance of the team back, led by quarterback Sam Leavitt, who is already getting Heisman Trophy buzz for his showing this season as a freshman." (OK, but there are probably 20 guys getting Heisman 'buzz' right now ... I doubt Leavitt will do as well without Skattebo) "The Sun Devils are set up for success like never before." (Maybe, maybe not. They aren't a big NIL player, they recruit poorly and they are in a weak conference, so it could be more 'lightning in a bottle' this year and 'back to normal' next - I moved here in 1986 and ASU had a big year, winning the Rose Bowl over Michigan, then that coach left for Ohio State (and went something like 2-10 vs Michigan before being fired) and ASU fell off. Made a 2nd Rose Bowl in 1996 with Jake Plummer and a miraculous undefeated regular season, losing in the last minute to OSU in the Rose Bowl. Since then, mostly mediocre results. This year's team was basically one of three really good teams the past 40 years.) I will believe it when I see it.

That's actually where we are now, with # 5 vs # 8 and # 6 vs # 7 But in general I disagree with reseeding - if you as an underdog beat a high seed you should inherit that high seed's supposedly easier bracket as a reward.

NFL Passer Rating Calculator - link to how to calculate it here

If only he could play OL for us ...

Looking like the 1-2-3-4 seeds are out before the semifinals, a bit of a surprise at least for # 1 and # 2 And the 5-6-7-8 seeds are in (unless Notre Dame craps the bed). Hmm, wonder if the extra time off was a factor? I guess Boise and ASU are understandable - both big underdogs - and Georgia just lost their QB and punter in the SEC championship game - and Oregon had a bad matchup, against an angry OSU team that Oregon barely beat at home. Still, kind of weird.

Are you confusing him with Jonah Williams?

Why? Because his A&M team just lost to App State and among other things he criticized Jimbo's offense. So he livestreamed himself speeding in a parking garage. And yeah, he didn't hit 120 but it wasn't for lack of trying.

They never disappoint over there

We do, it's called "Ignore" - just click on someone's avatar and it's in the bottom-right corner

The headline threw me for a minute, I thought we suddenly had guys hurt on defense and on the injury list. CJ, next time change to "Defensive Player MEDIA Availability" lol

Yeah that was a terrible move on his part, the difference between 29-10 and 30-10. Unforgivable. I'm thinking the Chiefs will probably cut him from the roster for that before the playoffs begin.