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Will Howard Named Ohio State’s Starting QB

Ohio State has named QB Will Howard the starting QB going into the 2024 season.

Ryan Day shared during a press conference that after 27 or 28 practices since Howard transferred in, Howard has graded out significantly higher than any of the other quarterbacks, like Devin Brown or Julian Sayin, who are still battling over the backup QB job – though, Devin Brown is currently ahead according to Day.

Based on the quotes which have recently come out from members of Ohio State’s offense like Emeka Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith, this is not a particularly surprising decision. Ohio State begins the season against Akron on August 31st, when the Will Howard era will officially begin for Ohio State.

4-Star DL Iose Epenesa Commits to Iowa

High 4-star DL Iose Epenesa has committed to Iowa over Miami, Missouri, Penn State, and Utah, among other offers.

Iose joins his brothers AJ and Eric, as well as his father Eppy, in the lineage of Epensas to attend Iowa.

Epenesa is ranked highest by 247Sports and ESPN, who tab him as the 16th best national recruit and best DL recruit, respectively. Due to more moderate 4-star ratings from On3 and Rivals, Epensa’s On3 industry composite ranking is a still-impressive 35th nationally and 3rd at his position.

This is Iowa’s 14th commitment for the 2025 class, which currently ranks 37th nationally and 11th in the Big Ten.

Dabo Swinney Announces Three Injuries to Miss Entire Season

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney announced yesterday that three players, who were described as “key reserves” will be out for the 2024 season: OLs Watson Young and Ian Reed and CB Myles Oliver. Reed hurt his knee, Young and Oliver are dealing with lingering injuries.

Reed is a redshirt freshman OL who the Clemson staff has previously shared excitement over his development.

Young is a true freshman who just signed with Clemson.

And Oliver was part of the class of 2022 and has not played much due to injuries during his career, but with DB depth at a premium after Andrew Mukuba transferred out and other injuries to players ahead on the depth chart, it looked, on paper, like Oliver might have had a chance to see some time as a rotational piece.

Group of Five Exploring Their Own Playoff

A report from Yahoo! Sports has recently revealed that the Group of 5 conferences (American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, MAC, and Conference-USA) are all meeting next week in Dallas to discuss the future and direction of college football and its evolving landscape.

The biggest change, allegedly, is discussing a reshaped postseason which would could create some sort of Group of 5 playoff.

Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez has wondered if it could be something like the NIT of football.

Former Clemson CB Andrew Mukuba on Transferring: I Felt Like I Wasn’t Getting Better

Texas CB Andrew Mukuba transferred from Clemson this past offseason.

On a recent episode of the “Behind the Facemask” podcast, Mukuba shared that he felt like he wasn’t pushed to reach his peak as a football player, and he wanted to transfer somewhere that could develop him further.

Clemson had made the playoffs 6 years straight before Mukuba got there and then proceeded to note make the playoffs once in his three seasons there. Between that and the fact that Mukuba felt like he wasn’t getting any better, he decided that it was time for him to explore another opportunity.

Ultimately, between Oregon and Texas, Mukuba found the allure of playing in the SEC appealing and chose the Longhorns.

ESPN Ranks Top 10 QBs Going Into 2024

ESPN recently released its list of Top 100 players, which means fans can also know who ESPN’s top 10 QBs are.

At the top of the list is Georgia’s Carson Beck, followed by Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders.

Rounding out the top 10 is Jalon Daniels from Kansas, Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss, Noah Fifita from Arizona, Cam Rising from Utah, and Cam Ward from Miami.

In this top 10, Ward is the lone ACC representative and Gabriel is the lone Big Ten QB. The Big 12 and SEC house the most QBs with 4 of the Top 10 each.

ESPN’s Top 25 Players Going Into 2024 Season

As mentioned above, ESPN has released its Top 100 players, which means they also released their Top 25 players, a more concentrated and digestible list.

Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr. tops the list at #1, with a pair of Michigan defenders at 2nd and 4th (Mason Graham, Will Johnson) and Colorado’s Travis Hunter 3rd.

Looking at the schools, Georgia is the only one with 3 representatives in the Top 25 (#7 Carson Beck, #10 Malaki Starks, and #17 Tate Ratledge).

Looking at the conferences, the SEC features the most players on the list, with 11, followed by the Big Ten (7), Big 12 (4), ACC + ND (2), and Group of 5 (#25 Ashton Jeanty).

Doak Walker Award Betting Odds

FanDuel recently released its Doak Walker Award preseason odds.

Unsurprisingly, reigning winner Ollie Gordon leads the pack at +340 (22.7%).

Below is a list of the Top 6 RBs and their odds:

1. Ollie Gordon, Oklahoma State: +340 (22.73%)

2. Quinshon Judkins, Ohio State: +430 (18.87%)

3. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State: +750 (11.76%)

4. Damien Martinez, Miami: +1200 (7.69%)

5. Omarion Hampton, North Carolina: +1500 (6.25%)

6. Jaydn Ott, Cal: +1500 (6.25%)

CBS Sports Drops Preseason Projections for Playoff and Bowl Games

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has projected the 12-team CFP field and the rest of the bowl game matchups as we are fewer than two weeks away from the start of college football season.

Palm’s playoff bracket has Georgia and Ohio State as the top 2 seeds, with Utah and Florida State both earning first round byes, as well.

The rest of Palm’s bracket includes No. 5 Texas hosting No. 12 Boise State, No. 6 Oregon hosting No. 11 Kansas State, No. 7 Alabama hosting No. 10 Miami, and No. 8 Texas A&M hosting No. 9 Penn State.

Some other interesting projected bowl matchups include Nebraska vs. LSU in the Music City Bowl, Michigan vs. Ole Miss in the Citrus Bowl, Liberty vs. James Madison in the Myrtle Beach Bowl, and Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

Oregon and Hawaii Agree to Cancel Remaining Two Non-Conference Games, Oregon Pays $1 Million

Oregon and Hawaii agreed last night to cancel the last two matchups in their non-conference series that they previously had scheduled according to James Crepea of The Oregonian.

Back in January, the schools agreed to cancel this season’s previously scheduled matchup, but now the 2031 game in Eugene and 2032 game in Honolulu have both been cancelled. Oregon has paid Hawaii $1,000,000 to not play these games.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (84) Edge Axel Ramazani commits to Wyoming

Unrated LB Landon Marsters commits to Air Force