Good morning, and welcome back to CFB Roundup from CFB Home – the first daily newsletter that’s all college football, all the time with no bias, no slant, and no fluff.

YESTERDAY’S RESULTS:

TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

Betting Information as of time of writing

Memphis Upsets #17 Tulane in NOLA, Possibly Knocking AAC Out of CFP Conversation

Memphis beat #17 Tulane 34-24 in a game where Memphis outgained Tulane by 80 yards and finished with almost 250 yards rushing.

Memphis scored on its first drive and never looked back, only briefly trailing 10-7 before scoring 20 unanswered points from the end of the 1st quarter until Tulane finally scored against a couple minutes into the 4th quarter.

It was a game to remember for Mario’s, as Memphis RB Mario Anderson Jr. led all rushers with 177 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. And then for Tulane, WR Mario Williams had a great game finishing with a statline of 7/130/1.

Tulane QB Darian Mensah finished 21/33 with 317 yards, 2 passing touchdowns, and an interception. The Green Wave rushing attack struggled to find any consistency on the ground, as starting RB Makhi Hughes finished with just 15 yards on 9 carries. On top of Williams’ solid performance in the WR room, Yulkeith Brown also played well, finishing with 4/93.

For Memphis, the combo of Roc Taylor (7/96) and Greg Desrosiers Jr. (8/84/2) really did wonders as they combined for 180 of QB Seth Henigan’s 218 yards and both of his touchdowns on 22/29 passing. Henigan also became the all-time leading passer in AAC career history. Desrosiers also ran for a touchdown, finishing with 6/41/1 on the ground.

With the win, Memphis gets to a 10-win season but did not have a path to the AAC conference championship due to the 2 losses coming in conference play against Navy early in the season and then a loss to UTSA which is even more confounding with hindsight. The Tigers also have been receiving some votes in the last couple of weeks, so it’s also possible that this Memphis team backdoors its way into a ranking as something to hold its hat on for the second consecutive season with 10+ wins.

For #17 Tulane (9-3, 7-1), the Green Wave still will compete in the conference championship against Army, but now the game will be hosted by Army and will not likely provide the AAC with any path to the playoff unless something unthinkable happens in the Mountain West.

Ole Miss WR Tre Harris Now Doubtful for Egg Bowl

Ole Miss WR Tre Harris is on the injury report this week for the Egg Bowl again, and he has unfortunately been downgraded from questionable to doubtful on Thursday’s injury report.

Here’s the rest of the injury report:

Mississippi State:

OUT: QB Blake Shapen, CB Tre Wright, WRs Creed Whittemore & Trent Hudson, DLs Kedrick Bingley-Jones & Kalvin Dinkins, OL Canon Boone, and RB Keyvone Lee

Ole Miss:

OUT: DB Yam Banks, RBs Henry Parrish Jr. & Rashad Amos

DOUBTFUL: WR Tre Harris

QUESTIONABLE: RB Logan Diggs

PROBABLE: WRs Izaiah Hartrup & Jordan Watkins, EDGE Princely Umanmielen, TE Dae’Quan Wright, OL Reece McIntyre, S Jadon Canady

North Carolina Coaching Search

ESPN’s Pete Thamel recently took some time on the College GameDay podcast to discuss who North Carolina might be looking to replace Mack Brown with.

Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson and Minnesota’s PJ Fleck both were on the list of names Thamel shared.

Thamel then shared 4 sitting G5 coaches who could be on UNC’s short list: Jon Sumrall (Tulane), Bob Chesney (James Madison), Barry Odom (UNLV), and Jeff Monken (Army).

Insight Into Why North Carolina Pulled the Trigger on Mack Brown’s Coaching Tenure

Within the last 3 days, Mack Brown went from announcing he intended to be back in 2025 to being fired within the next 24 hours.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel also shared on the College GameDay podcast a little bit more on some of the reasoning as for why, as well as clarifying some of the questions surrounding Coach Brown’s firing.

For one thing, Thamel did share, “he was fired, there’s no gray area there. And I don’t think North Carolina wanted to fire Mack Brown.” Thamel also shared that even though Coach Brown was interested in returning, there was no open invitations from the North Carolina Athletic Departments that they were excited for Coach Brown’s return in 2025 and beyond.

Thamel continued, “I think midseason after the JMU loss and the Duke loss, I was pretty convinced that Mack was going to be gone one way or another. … Mack gobbled up some power back with some wins, and I think Mack really wanted to stay and he thought he could win his way to one more year to go out the way he wanted. … I just think the Carolina brass, when you take out the emotion and take out the sentimentality, just said we need to change the direction of where we’re going.”

Thamel finished by sharing, “Mack Brown not being the coach of Carolina in 2025 is not surprising to me. Like, is it surprising he was fired less than 24 hours from saying he intended to be back? Yes, that’s surprising. Because it’s almost a very un-Carolina move. Right? Carolina is not like Auburn with coordinators, it’s not a kneecap kind of place. And I think that tells you a little window into their conviction and a little bit of their annoyance into how he handled the last two weeks.”

Rece Davis also shared some insight on the podcast, saying, “it looked as if Coach Brown tried to force their hand after maybe some early disillusionment in the season led them to the belief that everybody was sort of on the same page and it would be handled gracefully. Then when he changed his mind, it looked like he was trying to force their hand. That’s what it looks like to me … that Mack thought he had enough power to sort of steamroll his way through, and he didn’t.

Clemson’s Dabo Swinney: Prefer Bye to Momentum from First Round Win

There’s been much made lately about the different possible paths in the CFP, and whether it would be better to be the 5th seed or get a bye week.

Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney recently was asked about this, and he’s pretty clear that he would much rather have the bye over a first round game that either starts as a “softer” matchup or has a “softer” second round matchup.

Coach Swinney said, “are you asking me if I would like a bye week? Well, I guess I would say this, my preference would be to win the ACC and get a bye to the second round. That would be my preference, but sign me up for whatever happens if we can find a way in there. … I would love to win the league and get a bye into the second round and all of that stuff.”

For Clemson to get a chance in the ACC Championship, it needs Miami to lose to Syracuse this weekend. And no matter what Miami does this weekend, SMU has already clinched a spot in the game to face either Miami or Clemson.

If Miami does beat Syracuse, Clemson’s best bet is going to be picking up a decisive win over a South Carolina team, which the Committee clearly respects, to try and propel themselves into one of the 7 at-large spots.

Consensus 4-Star EDGE Jesse Harrold Decommits from LSU

Consensus 4-Star EDGE Jesse Harrold decommitted from LSU yesterday after committing to the Tigers back in late June.

Harrold also has taken official visits to Texas A&M and Illinois at some point this year, but it’s unclear who the leader in the clubhouse is for Harrold.

Every major recruiting site places Harrold in the 4-star range, but 247 ranks him the highest, ranking him 143rd nationally and 13th at the edge rusher position. According to the On3 industry composite, Harrold ranks 144th nationally and 19th at his position.

After the decommitment, LSU’s 2025 class now is 6th nationally and 5th in the SEC, as the class now has 18 Blue Chip commitments and 25 commitments overall.

3-Star OT Dennis Uzochukwu Flips from Georgia State to Georgia

3-Star OT Dennis Uzochukwu flipped his commitment from Georgia State to Georgia while also holding offers from Ole Miss, Georgia Tech, and others.

Uzochukwu took an official visit recently to Athens, sharing that it went perfectly, and going to a place like Georgia is what he’s looking for based on how the Bulldogs’ program develops players.

Uzochukwu’s rating and ranking has improved signifcantly lately since Georgia has been hot in pursuit. On3 rates him the highest at 4-star and ranks him 189th nationally, but the On3 industry composite ranks 448th nationally and 28th at his position, with ESPN by far the lowest (146th at his position).

Georgia is now up to 27 commitments for the 2025 class as the Bulldogs’ continue to have the top ranked class according to On3’s team rankings.

3-Star LB Grant Beerman Flips from Purdue to Illinois

3-Star LB Grant Beerman flipped his commitment from Purdue to Illinois he announced yesterday.

Beerman originally committed to Purdue back on July 6th, but he is now part of the FamILLy and will be heading to Illinois instead of Indiana.

Beerman is rated as high as a 4-star according to Rivals, but the On3 industry composite has him as a high 4-star who is ranked 508th nationally and 55th at the LB position.

Beerman’s commitment brings the Illini into the Top 50 – right at 50th nationally and 14th in the Big Ten with its current class of 18 commitment.

3-Star WR & Top JUCO WR Jordan Scott Flips from Arizona State to Florida State

WR Jordan Scott announced yesterday he was flipping his commitment from Arizona State to Florida State.

Scott committed to Arizona State earlier this month, but now is looking to take his talents to Florida State.

Scott is ranked as the 17th ranked JuCo product and top rated JuCo WR according to the On3 industry composite.

This is Florida State’s 13th commitment in the 2025 class, a class which ranks 28th nationally and 4th in the ACC, as Scott’s commitment brings the Seminoles back ahead of SMU’s first full class as a member of the ACC.

2026 4-Star TE Corbyn Fordham Commits to Ohio State

2026 4-star TE Corbyn Fordham committed to Ohio State yesterday, publicly announcing his intentions after committing privately to the Ohio State staff a couple weeks ago after his visit.

Fordham was impressed by how big of a priority he felt when he was visiting there.

Fordham is ranked 348th nationally and 16th at the TE position for the 2026 class according to the On3 industry composite, though ESPN and Rivals are higher on him, rating him as a 4-star and Top 9 player at the TE position.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (87) OT Kuol Kuol flips from Purdue to Iowa State

3-Star (86) LB Kenyon Rivera flips from Kansas to Memphis

2026 3-Star (86) CB Lennie Brown commits to Kansas

3-Star (83) OT Tyler Folmar commits to Louisville