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.

Texas AD Chris Del Conte: Texas Will Play Tough Opponents Because Texas is the Best

There’s been a lot of questions about the value of scheduling tough non-conference competition, but Texas AD Chris Del Conte does not share that skepticism – he believes in Texas playing the biggest brands and a tough schedule.

Del Conte shared, “our brand – and I firmly believe this – our brand should play the greatest brands in college football because we’re the best. We’re going to play Ohio State, we’re going to play Michigan, we just signed a home-and-home with Notre Dame. Those games matter. With a 12-game Playoff, those games matter. They matter to me. They should matter to you. You want to play the very best. I’m not issuing a cupcake schedule. Our coaches and our student-athletes aren’t. They want to play the very best. But we owe it to college football, we owe it to this organization to play the very best. That’s what we’re going to continue to do. We just announced Notre Dame a couple weeks ago, and keep your eyes peeled. We’ll have another one. I just don’t want to get too far out.”

Oklahoma Hires Senior Bowl Director Jim Nagy as General Manager

Some news out of Norman, OK yesterday – the Sooners have hired Senior Bowl Director Jim Nagy to be the new General Manager of the program.

Nagy has been the Executive Director of the Senior Bowl since 2018, running both the football and business operations.

Coach Brent Venables said in the statement released by Oklahoma, “the work required to manage a roster, including contract negotiations, player evaluation, strategic planning, recruiting, and retention, requires full-time focus and skill sets. Nagy’s high-caliber, extensive experience in scouting, recruiting, and retaining top talent will pay dividends across our roster and ultimately on the field.”

Thamel: Nebraska Just Didn’t Want to Play Against Tennessee

ESPN’s Pete Thamel said on the College GameDay podcast yesterday that Nebraska cancelling the home-and-home against Tennessee, “just comes down to Nebraska just didn’t want to play this series.”

To be clear, Thamel did preface it with “I think,” and Nebraska did cite renovations to Memorial Stadium and the ensuing reduced capacity as for part of the reason. But Thamel is not completely convinced:

“The one piece of empirical evidence we have of this 12-team Playoff indicates murky rewards for a tough non-conference schedule. That’s the data set we’re dealing with right now. … Nebraska - Bowling Green … is not great college football. But I can’t fault the strategy with the evidence we have.”

4-Star S Xavier Lherisse Commits to Oregon

4-star S Xavier Lherisse committed to Oregon yesterday over offers from Notre Dame, Alabama, Auburn, and over a dozen other offers.

Lherisse recently set official visits to other schools, like Auburn, Florida State, and Notre Dame (as well as Oregon), but now, those visits appear to be in doubt as Lherisse is all in on the Ducks.

Lherisse ranks as high as 7th at his position according to Rivals, but the On3 industry composite ranks him 326th nationally and 27th at the S position.

This is the 8th Blue Chip commitment and 10th commitment overall for an Oregon team that is crushing the early 2026 recruiting rankings. The class is top-ranked in the country as the only program with multiple 5-star commitments and 1 of only 2 programs with 8+ Blue Chip commitments (Texas A&M has 8 4-star commitments).

Matt Rhule on Scheduling Challenging Games: Why Would You Do That?

Nebraska Coach Matt Rhule recently went on the Triple Option Podcast with Urban Meyer and Mark Ingram, and Coach Rhule had an immediate answer when asked by Meyer about playing high profile non-conference games:

“Why would you ever play one of those games? If we’re being completely honest, Coach Meyer, I’m at a point in my life where in my fourth job and after getting fired in the NFL, I kind of say what I feel nowadays, I could care less. Why in the world would a Big Ten team who’s already playing nine conference games, why would you ever play one of those games?”

Coach Rhule continued, “you look at a lot of teams, and this is not anti-SEC, but there’s some SEC teams last year that only played three away games in another team’s stadium. Three. We’re in a league where some years you have five Big Ten home games, some years you have five road. You have to go on the road five times in the Big Ten with no like Florida–Georgia in a neutral site.”

“They proved to us this year when they did the seeding and all this stuff that early season wins didn’t mean a thing. … I don’t know what the incentive is, unless the SEC and Big Ten get together at some point and say, ‘we’re doing this, we’re doing that.’ … Now [teams like Oregon are] in the league. USC’s coming here next year. Going to UCLA. We’ve already added in those big games. So, I don’t see much cause for it.”

Updates on LSU Star LBs Harold Perkins & Whit Weeks

According to Wilson Alexander of The Advocate, Coach Brian Kelly has shared that both Harold Perkins and Whit Weeks will miss spring ball but are currently on track for preseason practice.

Weeks suffered a gruesome ankle injury during the Texas Bowl, and Perkins tore his ACL in his right knee during Week 4 against UCLA.

Weeks and Perkins have been one of the best combinations at LB in the country, having combined for several dozen tackles for loss and hundreds of tackles.

Chris Del Conte on How Texas Will Replace Spring Game

Texas AD Chris Del Conte confirmed yesterday that Texas will host a “Fan Day” on April 26th to replace the cancelled spring game.

Del Conte shared, “So, we’re not going to have a traditional spring game, but we’re going to have Fan Day. Think about SEC blowout. Think about Bevo, about what we do. We’re going to try to have an incredible – we’ll still have the Fire Sale. We’ll do all the things we’re going to do. We’re going to have interactions with our student athletes, but it will not have a traditional spring game. Y’all okay with that? Understand the rationale why? I hear you, ‘just win.’ But I know people are like – we’re all jacked up to see Arch, buddy. We’ve got enough of that, you know. Our appetite has been whistled, but we got so many young guys, I can’t wait. You can see the rest of them.”

Matt Rhule Defends Nebraska Cancelling Spring Game

Yesterday, Nebraska Coach Matt Rhule defended his decision to not have a spring game this year.

“Our game last year was televised. A ton of people watched it, and then on Monday, it was, ‘hey coach, I got a call from so and so.’ You think about the risk-reward when we’re paying players already, and then with the portal in spring, some guys will graduate, it’s just – I just don’t know that I want to showcase for people what’s out there. Plus, we have two new coordinators. Like, why let them see it?”

As for how the spring and summer is going to look for Nebraska, it’s not like they aren’t going to have something for the fans:

“we’ll go out there and we’ll have 7-on-7 competitions. We’ll probably bring back some former players, we’ll do some skills challenge. We’ll do all those things because I do want all the kids across the state of Nebraska who maybe can’t get to a game, to be able to come and sit in Memorial Stadium and watch their players.”

UNC GM Michael Lombardi on How NIL Funds Will Be Distributed at UNC

UNC GM Michael Lombardi, who was recently reported to be getting paid $1.5M as the GM of the UNC Football program, opened up a little on how he plans for NIL funds to be distributed to the Tar Heels players:

“We have a collective. So, we know what’s in the collective, but in any system, you have to have a monetary value, you have to have a system. So, if you’re a starter on the team, there’s going to be a certain value placed on what level of starter you are. That’s why you have to have a grading system. … And so then the grade reflects what you pay.”

In factoring in the transfer portal, that complicates things a good bit, “If a starter starts for three years in your program, he’s going to make significant money. The guy who starts one year, he’s going to make a little bit the next year, he’s got to prove himself again. Because every year, every player could leave. And so you have to have some kind of way, or else you have anarchy. You don’t have any system. That’s why you have to have a grading system. That’s why you have to grade your players every single day. You have to grade every player so you know what you’re losing and what you have to expect to get back.”

South Dakota Transfer OT Bryce Henderson Signs with Vanderbilt

South Dakota transfer OT Bryce Henderson signed with Vanderbilt for his final season of eligibility yesterday.

Henderson has started in each of the last three seasons at left guard and right tackle, primarily playing RT lately.

In 2024, Henderson started at RT in every game and was named 2nd Team All-Missouri Valley.

Henderson has been with South Dakota for five seasons and is going into his sixth and final season with Vanderbilt.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (86) WR Tyren Parker commits to Kansas