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.

UNLV to Hire Dan Mullen as Next HC

UNLV is set to hire former Florida Coach Dan Mullen to replace new Purdue Coach Barry Odom.

Coach Mullen was most recently a coach at Florida, but has spent the last couple of seasons with Matt Barrie at ESPN as an analyst for ESPN’s Thursday night games and some other assorted CFB studio shows on ESPN.

With Florida, Coach Mullen tallied a 34-15 record, which included a 21-14 conference record. He was 69-46 in 9 seasons before that at Mississippi State.

Coach Mullen’s name has been a hot one in hiring circles lately, but he had yet to jump at any opportunities, probably largely because the television gig was a fairly comfortable one, sharing, “I love doing the TV. I love the situation I’m at. You never say never to go back to coaching. It would have to be the right head coaching opportunity for me and my family. … you never know, I might go back. But I’m really enjoying this kind of media, TV life.”

Former Consensus 5-Star EDGE Williams Nwaneri Commits to Nebraska

Missouri EDGE Williams Nwaneri has announced his commitment out of the transfer portal to Nebraska.

Nwaneri hit the portal yesterday with a do-not contact tag, which is usually a pretty clear sign that Nwaneri knew where he was going to end up.

The consensus 5-star in the previous recruiting class is now bestowed a modest 4-star transfer ranking, but is a Top 2 EDGE according to both the 247 transfer rankings and the On3 composite transfer rankings.

Nwaneri was a consensus 5-star coming out of high school when he decided to stay home and commit to Missouri, but he appeared in just 4 games this past season and redshirted, meaning Nwaneri will have 4 seasons of eligibility, potentially, with Nebraska.

Bill Belichick Contract Details

A couple days ago it was reported that Coach Belichick had signed a 5-year deal with North Carolina to be its new Head Coach, but many of the terms were still unclear. There are some new details shared, but the more that is learned, the more uncommon some of the contract provisions appear.

For example, Coach Belichick’s buyout is $10M before June 1st of 2025, but then it goes down to $1M. So, for a 5-year deal, if – for example – an NFL team were to come calling, it would cost just $1M for them to hire him away 7 months into his 5 year deal.

Further, the first 3 seasons of his 5-year deal are guaranteed at $10M per year, with the final 2 years unguaranteed. $10M per year places Coach Belichick tied for 6th with Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Florida State’s Mike Norvell.

There are also plenty of incentives in the contract to boost that number up by an additional $3.5M per year, potentially, including $150k for getting to 8 wins, with an additional $50k per win. A conference championship appearance is worth $200k, with a win being worth $300k. $150k is paid out for a non-CFP bowl, with $350k for “Elite” bowl appearances outside of the CFP (unclear what “Elite” bowls are). A Playoff berth is worth $750k, with an additional $250k per win in the bracket.

There are also ranking incentives: $250k for Top 25, $300k for Top 20, $375k for Top 15, $425k for Top 10, and $500k for Top 5. The contract also promises that the school will share $13M in revenue sharing with the football program.

He also will get $10M for assistant coaches, $1M for strength and conditioning staff, and $5.3M for support staff, including the GM role for former NFL GM Michael Lombardi.

Bill Belichick On Leaving UNC For NFL: I Didn’t Come Here to Leave

Based on what was written above about new North Carolina Coach Bill Belichick, there is some speculation that the barrier for Coach Belichick to leave and go back to the NFL is remarkably low.

However, Coach Belichick has no interest in going anywhere, any time soon. Coach Belichick, in his introductory press conference, gave a very Belichick-ian response to a question about his intent to be in Chapel Hill long-term, “yeah I didn’t come here to leave.”

When asked why, at 72, he still wanted to keep coaching, Coach Belichick did allow for some humor, sharing, “it beats working. My dad told me this: when you love what you do, it’s not work. I love what I do, I love coaching. I love the interaction with the players, I love building a team, working with the assistants, game planning, the game itself.”

Arkansas QB Taylen Green Announces Return for 2025

Arkansas QB Taylen Green announced yesterday that he will return to Arkansas for 2025.

Green could have left to try his hand in the NFL Draft or could have transferred again after having transferred in to Arkansas from Boise State. However, Green has decided to come back for one final season in 2025.

Green finished 2024 with 2,813 passing yards and 13 touchdowns while also rushing for 521 yards and 7 rushing touchdowns.

Ohio State AD Ross Bjork on CFP’s Handling of First Round Home Games

Ohio State, along with Penn State, Texas, and Notre Dame, will host the first round of the College Football Playoff, and Ohio State AD Ross Bjork answered some questions recently to provide some insight on what the home teams have control over versus what is controlled by the CFP.

According to Bjork, the CFP is in charge of music and entertainment, and Ohio State is responsible for everything else, like gameday staffing, administrative duties, etc.

For example, Tennessee, as well as SMU, Clemson, and Indiana, will all have an entrance video played on the home stadium’s video board when they enter the field pregame.

This lines up, slightly, with some of the comments James Franklin had, where Coach Franklin shared they don’t control the tickets and therefore do not get recruit tickets and do not keep any revenue.

Boise State QB Malachi Nelson, Former 5-Star Planning to Enter Portal Again

Boise State QB Malachi Nelson is reportedly planning to enter the transfer portal after having spent one season with Boise State.

Nelson was a 5-star prospect who signed with USC out of high school, but left USC after being lower than he was hoping to be on the depth chart after one season.

After a transfer to Boise State, where he was beat out by Redshirt Sophomore Maddux Madsen, he played in 3 games and finished with 128 total passing yards. But it looks like Nelson will once again be on the move for a new home.

He will be immediately eligible with 3 more years of eligibility.

Clemson Using Portal?? Tigers Hosting Purdue EDGE Will Heldt for Visit

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Clemson is set to host Purdue EDGE Will Heldt for a transfer visit in the near future.

Heldt is one of the top transfer portal edge rushers available, but this is particularly notable news because Clemson is using the portal, something which does not happen often (or hardly ever).

In fact, Clemson has never taken a scholarship defensive player from the transfer portal. And the offensive players that Clemson has taken were fairly insignificant in terms of overall production in the grand scheme of things. Heldt would have two years of eligibility, and brings 24 games of production, in which he tallied 68 tackles, 10 TFLs, and 5 sacks.

Heldt is also strongly considering LSU and Texas A&M.

USA Today’s Top 25 Highest Paid Assistants in CFB

USA Today updated its table of assistant coach salaries, with the following 25 comprising the 25 highest paid assistant coaches in college football, though some have been fired, like Florida State’s Adam Fuller, and others have moved to other assistant positions, like Tony White (going from Nebraska to FSU) or have moved from assistant to head positions, like Joe Harasymiak (going from Rutgers’ DC position to UMass’ HC position):

1. Blake Baker, LSU DC ($2.5M)

2. Wink Martindale, Michigan DC ($2.3M)

3. Jim Knowles, Ohio State DC ($2.2M)

4. Pete Golding, Ole Miss DC ($2.15M)

5. Andy Ludwig, Utah OC/QBs ($2.05M)

6. Adam Fuller, Florida State DC ($2.015M; fired)

7. Glenn Schumann, Georgia DC ($2.003M)

8. Chip Kelly, Ohio State OC ($2M)

9. Morgan Scalley, Utah DC ($2M)

10. Tosh Lupoi, Oregon DC ($1.9M)

11. Phil Paker, Iowa DC ($1.9M)

12. Pete Kwiatkowski, Texas DC ($1.8M)

13. Garrett Riley, Clemson OC ($1.75M)

14. Brad White, Kentucky DC ($1.75M)

15. Charlie Weis Jr., Ole Miss OC ($1.65M)

16. Tony White, Nebraska DC ($1.6M)

17. Collin Klein, Texas A&M DC ($1.6M)

18. Brian Hartlin, Ohio State Co-OC ($1.6M)

19. Kane Wommack, Alabama DC ($1.55M)

20. Travaris Robinson, Georgia Co-DC ($1.503M)

21. Tim Banks, Tennessee DC ($1.5M)

22. Bobby Petrino, Arkansas OC ($1.5M)

23. Joe Rossi, Michigan State DC ($1.5M)

24. Kirby Moore, Missouri OC ($1.5M)

25. Joe Harasymiak, Rutgers DC ($1.5M)

College Football’s Most Watched Teams in the 2024 Regular Season

According to TV ratings data compiled by Joe Pompliano, here were the 10 most watched teams during the 2024 regular season:

1. Georgia – 8.6M

2. Ohio State – 6.8M

3. Alabama – 6.6M

4. Texas – 6.4M

5. Tennessee – 5.4M

6. Michigan – 5.2M

7. Texas A&M – 4.9M

8. LSU – 4.8M

9. Kentucky – 4.5M

10. Florida – 4.3M

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (86) TE Jon Grimmett flips from UNLV to Purdue

3-Star (84) CB Gionni McBride flips from UNLV to Missouri State

3-Star (82) QB Garyt Odom commits to Purdue