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.

Ohio State OC Chip Kelly A Top Candidate for NFL OC Jobs

CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones is reporting that Ohio State’s Chip Kelly is considered a top candidate for several OC positions in the NFL.

There is no information currently on how receptive Coach Kelly would be to jump back to the NFL.

Jones shared, “with all but one head coaching vacancy filled in the NFL, the attention now turns to who will get the offensive coordinator spots that are open around the league. And sources tell CBS Sports that at the top of the list for several teams is former NFL head coach and current Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. Kelly is considered a target for both the Jaguars and Texans OC positions, sources say. He also could get looks in Tampa Bay, among other potential landing spots.”

Ohio State DC Jim Knowles Being Made Offer from Ohio State to Be Highest Paid DC

Ohio State DC Jim Knowles is being made a massive offer by Ohio State – one that would make Coach Knowles the highest paid DC in the country. However, Coach Knowles is weighing options from other places, including Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and Penn State, who are all in search of a DC.

No matter where he chooses, he will likely end up the richest DC in the country. In 2024, that honor was held by LSU’s Blake Baker, who made $2.5M, while Michigan’s Wink Martindale is slated to also make $2.5M in 2025. Currently, Coach Knowles makes $2.2M per year with Ohio State.

2026 4-Star RB Jaylen McGill Commits to Rutgers

2026 4-Star RB Jaylen McGill committed to Rutgers yesterday over offers from in-state South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida State, and others.

McGill has been tremendously productive as a high school running back, going for over 2,000 all-purpose yards and over 30 total touchdowns (1,600+ rush yards, 24 rush TDs, 22 receptions, ~400 receiving yards, 7 receiving TDs).

McGill ranks as high as 184th nationally (On3) and 17th at the RB position (ESPN), but he ranks 215th nationally and 19th at the RB position according to the On3 industry composite rankings.

He is the 3rd commitment this month in the 2026 class for Rutgers, a class which now has 2 Blue Chip commitments and 4 commitments overall for a class which ranks 15th nationally and 5th in the Big Ten.

Florida Hires Jacksonville State DC Vinnie Sunseri to Be Florida’s New Co-DC and Safeties Coach

Gators Online (of On3) has confirmed that Florida has hired Jacksonville State DC Vinnie Sunseri to be Florida’s new co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

Former DC Austin Armstrong left for Houston, which left an opening that Coach Sunseri interviewed for late this week.

Coach Sunseri went to Alabama, where he played safety, before being a 5th round draft pick by the New Orleans Saints. In his 3 seasons in the NFL, he also spent time with the Patriots and 49ers organization. He then went to Alabama to be a graduate assistant in 2019 before being hired as a defensive coaching assistant by Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. He then spent 3 seasons as the RBs Coach before joining Steve Belichick’s Washington staff as the Safeties Coach in 2024. This offseason, he was hired to be the DC at Jacksonville State, but that is evidently short-lived, as Coach Sunseri becomes Florida’s newest coaching hire.

USC Poaches Notre Dame GM Chad Bowden

USC has hired away Notre Dame’s GM Chad Bowden to the same position with the Trojans.

A source familiar with the situation confirmed to Front Office Sports that Bowden will be receiving roughly $1M per year from USC, which is allegedly more than triple the amount Bowden was being paid by Notre Dame, though this cannot be entirely confirmed because both programs are private schools and their contracts are therefore not public records.

Bowden is the son of former Reds and Nationals GM Jim Bowden, and he chose to stay at Notre Dame for the 2024 season after Michigan tried, unsuccessfully, to hire him away from the Irish.

Texas A&M Hiring Rutgers’ John Perry for Offensive Assistant Role

ESPN’s Pete Thamel is reporting that Rutgers’ John Perry is being hired by Texas A&M. Coach Perry was most recently an Assistant WRs Coach for Rutgers. He also has worked in the state of Texas before as the Houston Texans TEs and WRs Coach.

With Rutgers, Coach Perry helped coach 3 different WRs to 400+ yards, as Dymere Miller, Ian Strong, and KD Duff all eclipsed that number. Strong, for his efforts, was named an Honorable Mention for All-Big Ten honors.

Coach Perry also was the OC and QBs Coach for Sam Houston State in 2022.

Ryan Day Credits Chip Kelly and Offensive Staff for Their Role in Winning National Championship

Recently, Ryan Day shared the following of Chip Kelly and his Ohio State offensive staff:

“You know, for him to come and leave the head coaching position, to come work with me meant a lot, because he’s obviously someone who’s a mentor to me, and certainly would not be where I am without him, and he has just a great feel for the game. He really helped me this year (and I) spent more time outside of the quarterback room. Certainly, I was involved very much with the offense, but it allowed me to spread out a little bit and spend more time with the guys on defense, again. Not as much as I’d like to, but still enough to just bounce in and out. And I think it brought us all together.”

Coach Day also spoke on the entire offensive staff and how they worked in tandem to bring out the best in each other and their players:

“I think the guys would agree and wouldn’t have got that done without Chip. But I also want to just make sure that I recognize the guys on offense, you know, the offensive staff. … Between Brian Hartline, Justin Fry, Kenan Bailey, Billy Fessler, you know, Carlos Laughlin, you know, go through all the different guys in that room. We got a great staff in there. And I thought, again, they came up with a great game plan but they work at it. I mean, work their tails off at this thing. And, you know, it really showed itself … when you get in the playoffs … it becomes almost what I feel, almost more like the NFL. You got to wipe the slate clean, and you go to, you got to put a whole new game plan together in about 10 days, and you got to go put it on the field. And hats off to our coaches.”

Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy Still A Football Guy

Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy is one of the biggest football guys around, and he recently shared that he has not lost any of that passion that the entire college football world has known to be the quintessential Coach Gundy attitude that made him a legend.

“But I’ve said this a number of times, I still wake up in the middle of the night and football is on my mind. Unfortunately, at my age, when I have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, walking toward the bathroom and walking back from the bathroom, football is on my mind. I wish it wasn’t, but it is. When I shower in the morning, football is on my mind. So, my energy and passion for where we’re at, and you guys have covered me specifically, you know, this press conference is not about me, this is about a team, and you know our future here at Oklahoma State. But you guys know that the season that we had last year is not going to sit well with me.”

Senior Bowl Honoring Tiger Bech with Helmet Sticker

Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy posted on Twitter yesterday morning that every player in the Senior Bowl will have a sticker with No. 7 on it to honor Tiger Bech.

TCU’s Jack Bech, younger brother of Tiger Bech, has also switched his number from 18 to 7 to honor his brother, who was killed in the Bourbon Street attacks.

Another NCAA Championship Selector Has Listed Oregon as National Champions

The Anderson Sports rankings have officially listed Oregon as the National Champions, narrowly ranking ahead of Ohio State, who both have a healthy lead over Notre Dame, who then has a healthy lead over Penn State, Texas, Georgia, and Indiana.

This means there are now two major selectors of the National Champions that have awarded Oregon over Ohio State, as the Wolfe Ratings were the first to officially announce it listed Oregon ahead of Ohio State. The last time there was a non-unanimous National Champion was 2017, when UCF finished first in the Colley Matrix over Alabama, who won the CFP.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (88) LB Tyler Houser commits to North Carolina

2026 3-Star (88) CB Julian Peterson commits to Penn State

2026 3-Star (88) ATH Josh Galbreath commits to Kansas

2026 3-Star (86) RB Davis Penn decommits from Baylor

3-Star (83) IOL Jeremiah Stallworth commits to Sacramento State

2-Star (75) QB Axel Newell commits to Tiffin University (D2)

Unrated LB Lantz Pascal commits to North Carolina

2026 Unrated IOL Steven Pickard commits to Syracuse

2026 Unrated CB Victor Lincoln decommits from SMU