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.

Mario Cristobal Provides Carson Beck Injury Update

Miami Head Coach Mario Cristobal was on SportsCenter yesterday, where he gave a great update on Beck’s health and Beck’s transition to the Hurricanes program.

“He’s doing well. He’s running really fast. He’s not throwing the ball yet, but he’s very close to doing so, so he’s taking part in all that he can do. And he should be throwing soon, maybe in a couple of weeks or so.”

Beck recently had his elbow brace removed following the torn UCL he suffered at the end of the first half of the SEC Championship game.

Coach Cristobal also praised the role that he sees Beck fitting, comparing him to last season’s Heisman finalist Cam Ward: “a lot of the reasons why we liked Cam – besides the accuracy and the strong arm, and the ability to just elevate a football team, the guy is just poised to have a great season with the right protection, the right scheme. Our scheme fits him, our scheme is designed to be really powerful and strong upfront, to get the ball to the playmakers outside, to protect him really well and a very diversified passing game that has a lot of autonomy to it. So, he fits us perfectly.”

In speaking on Beck’s mental makeup, Coach Cristobal shared, “I think he’s made of the right stuff. I think guys that are competitive by nature, they might lead in different ways, but their intent is pure, it’s natural. They want to win, they’re not concerned about accolades and awards, they just want to win. They want to make guys around them better, they want to do it as a team. So I think those qualities and just an internal drive to be great are a great combination for what we need.”

Mark Stoops Non-Committal on Spring Game Format, Still Figuring Things Out

In a changing landscape where more and more programs are cancelling their spring game due to concerns of portal tampering, Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops was non-committal on what his plans are for Kentucky’s spring event this year.

Coach Stoops does know that he does still want to have an event of some kind, sharing, “yeah, I want to do something. So, it’s a little early. I think we’re in really good shape health right now. I want to open it up and show you guys and show the fans, and make sure you guys and the fans get access, whether it’s a practice or a spring game, however we format it, I want to do something. And yeah, I don’t think we’ll put it on TV, we haven’t talked about it or anything, but I want to open it up to you and to our fans, and even if it is practice.”

Coach Stoops also spoke on some of the positives of treating it like a practice instead of a traditional spring game, sharing, “at least, you know, a lot of times you can see more [from a practice] than a spring game. Understand what the spring game for football is, if we split up two teams, you’re diluting it, you know? And it just doesn’t always look as good as it can in the fall, when we put them all in one team, right? So, if we go offense against defense, at least, you get a good vision. You get to see the players play, so we’ll do something.”

3-Star EDGE CJ Edwards Commits to Tennessee

3-star EDGE CJ Edwards committed to Tennessee yesterday over offers from Michigan, North Carolina, Syracuse, Pitt, and others.

For Edwards, the persistence from the Tennessee staff was what stood out: “their level of commitment when it came to recruiting, as well as the staff and the winning culture they have built. [Coach Heupel] has built something impressive that I can see myself being a part of and contributing too, and I’m excited to be a Vol.”

Edwards ranks 503rd nationally and 46th at the EDGE position according to the On3 industry composite.

With Edwards’ commitment, Tennessee is up to 8th commitments for the 2026 class, a class which ranks 9th nationally and 5th in the SEC.

Tennessee Starting DB Rickey Gibson Plans to Enter Portal

Tennessee starting DB Rickey Gibson has shared with On3 that he plans to enter the transfer portal after spending 2 seasons with the Volunteers.

Gibson appeared in 12 games for Tennessee last year, finishing with 32 tackles, 6 pass breakups, 2 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble.

As a true freshman in 2023, Gibson played in 13 games and finished with 9 tackles, as he primarily played on special teams.

Gibson was a 4-star cornerback prospect from Alabama where he was ranked 322nd nationally and 35th at the CB position. Now, he is ranked as the 221st player nationally and 23rd ranked CB in the portal.

Penn State EDGE Smith Vilbert Enters Portal

Penn State EDGE Smith Vilbert has entered the transfer portal after six seasons with the Nittany Lions.

Vilbert has one more year of eligibility, and evidently will look to do that somewhere new for the first time in his career.

Vilbert was part of the 2019 recruiting class and has appeared in 35 games in his career with Penn State, tallying 20 total tackles, 8 tackles for loss, and 4.5 sacks. He also forced 2 fumbles this past season, including one in the Big Ten Championship against Oregon.

San Diego State AD on Future of Pac-12 and Timeline for Media Rights Deal

San Diego State AD JD Wicker shared with fans recently that both a Pac-12 media deal is expected to be announced in the next month or so, and that the new Pac-12 will continue to expand after that.

Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould shared, as covered here, last week that there would be multiple broadcast partners, which is a line Wicker repeated. Wicker did share about the partners: “at the end of next month, we will have the [Memorandum of Understanding] done for our television deal. So, we will know what our TV deal is going to be, who our partners are going to be. I will say this, they’re entities you’re familiar with, that you would recognize. We’re going to get great exposure, and the really good thing is we’re going to get more exposure. It’s not just going to be football and men’s basketball, but it’s going to be all of our sports are going to have the opportunity for this increased exposure. It’s going to be increased revenue, which is a big thing for us. … Once we know that, then we can go recruit that eighth football-playing member.”

As it stands right now, the Pac-12 is going to have Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State to join with Oregon State and Washington State as the seven football playing programs in the conference. Gonzaga is also joining, but does not sponsor football.

CFP Updates Ahead of 2025 Season Regarding CFP Seeding

The conference commissioners met yesterday, and ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips shared with some reporters some of the discussions were had and where the state of the CFP stands as of now.

There was discussion about changing the seeding format from 2024 for 2025, but the commissioners who were in attendance yesterday determined that they need more information before making any proposed changes. The next meeting is slated for March.

Any potential changes for the 2025 postseason must be a unanimous change from the commissioners.

Mark Stoops on State of CFB: Enjoying It Now As Much As Ever

Mark Stoops took the Kentucky job over a decade ago, and the game has changed a lot since then.

He spoke yesterday on how he feels about the game now, and if he is still enjoying it like he was when he started:

“I enjoy it right now as much as I ever have. It is what it is. Last year was not what I wanted, not what anyone wanted. That falls squarely on me. There’s a lot of things you have to adapt to and one way or another, it ties back to me. I could not be more energized and focused and determined to get this thing back and keep rolling the program like we once did as good as anybody with the sustained success that we had for a long period of time. That is hard to do in our league. We’re highly motivated to get back on track and get going. Nobody likes the year that we had but I like where we’re at right now. We’re aiming to push forward and aim for the future. It’s fun coming in early in the spring, attacking the day, and getting around these players and getting better.”

Consensus 4-Star RB Brian Bonner Names Top 8

Consensus 4-star RB Brian Bonner shared with On3’s Hayes Fawcett yesterday that he had narrowed his recruitment down to 8 programs: Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Penn State, UCLA, Stanford, and Washington.

Bonner has visited a few of the schools on his list, like UCLA, Nebraska, and Georgia, sharing that he was particularly fond of his Nebraska visit and the way he thinks he could fit in the Nebraska offense.

Right now, the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine places his Top 5 odds at UCLA (34.6%), Nebraska (20.5%), Stanford (9.2%), and then Georgia and Oregon tied at 7.7%.

Bonner ranks as high as 54th nationally and 4th at the RB position (On3), but the On3 industry composite ranks him 103rd nationally and 8th at the RB position.

4-Star IOL Grant Wise Names Top 5 Schools

4-Star IOL Grant Wise shared with recruiting site Rivals yesterday that he’s narrowed his recruitment down to five programs: Alabama, Clemson, Miami, Oregon, and Tennessee.

The On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine gives the clear edge to Alabama, with 22.0%, with the next programs in his top 5 all below 5% (Miami, 4.9%; Clemson, 4.9%; Oregon, <1%; Tennessee, <1%).

Wise ranks as high as 99th nationally according to Rivals, but the On3 industry composite ranks him 241st nationally and 18th at the IOL position.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (85) RB Jerod Terry commits to Sacramento State

3-Star (83) LB Iosefa Lealofi commits to Sacramento State