7:00 AM ET HE WAS BURIED on the Alabama depth chart, way down deep where the sun never reached, so Mac Jones‘ most urgent reason for existing in this moment was to make Nick Saban’s defense better, more fearsome, the ilk of defense that wins championships five times in nine seasons. Jones knew well his
NCAAF
10:00 AM ET Welcome back to our weekly Heisman Watch for the 2020 college football season. Throughout the season, ESPN.com writers will vote on their top Heisman Trophy candidates. To get the final rankings, we use the following methodology: 13 voters, five votes each. Points system: five points for first-place votes, four points for second-place
9:10 AM ET For the first time in more than a century, Indiana and Purdue won’t play for the Old Oaken Bucket. In a joint statement Tuesday, the Hoosiers and Boilermakers announced that they’ve canceled Friday’s scheduled game in Bloomington, Indiana, because of COVID-19 concerns in both programs. The game was originally scheduled for Dec.
8:48 PM ET Lane Kiffin has long credited Nick Saban for helping to re-energize Kiffin’s head coaching career, but that doesn’t mean Kiffin is opposed to poking fun at his old boss. In fact, Kiffin jokingly went into full Saban mode on Monday at his news conference when asked if he was a candidate for
10:29 PM ET SMU will have to bow out of this weekend’s Tropical Smoothie Frisco Bowl against UTSA because of COVID-19 issues, a source confirmed to ESPN on Monday. The news was first reported by 247Sports. The status of the bowl game, scheduled to be played Saturday at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, has not
8:44 PM ET Vanderbilt has hired Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea as its new head football coach, the school announced Monday night. Lea, a Nashville native who finished his college career as a fullback at Vanderbilt, will be introduced next week. He will continue working with No. 2 Notre Dame, which faces No. 3
4:43 PM ET South Carolina defensive back Shilo Sanders, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal. Shilo Sanders’ name appeared Monday morning. The redshirt freshman from Cedar Hill, Texas, had 32 tackles and a pass deflection in nine games for the Gamecocks this season. He appeared in
12:50 PM ET Georgia freshman quarterback D’Wan Mathis, who opened the season as the Bulldogs’ starter, announced Monday that he will be transferring to Temple. Mathis last week entered the NCAA’s transfer portal. He completed 8 of 17 passes for 55 yards with one interception in Georgia’s opener at Arkansas before being benched in favor
5:28 PM ET For the second time in 10 days, Georgia’s scheduled game against Vanderbilt has been called off because the Commodores couldn’t meet the SEC’s minimum roster and position requirements, the SEC announced on Monday. The No. 9 Bulldogs were scheduled to play the winless Commodores at home in their final regular-season game at
3:57 PM ET ACC commissioner John Swofford pushed back against the notion that it had given Clemson and Notre Dame last weekend off as a way to protect their College Football Playoff chances, telling ESPN the complaint “rings pretty hollow.” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has been critical of the ACC’s decision to give both teams
1:04 PM ET With two days until the start of the early signing period, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh says he has had conversations with recruits about the status of his contract, which is without a resolution on an extension. Harbaugh has a year remaining on his current deal, but talks of an extension have been
2:28 PM ET Oregon will replace Washington as the Pac-12 North representative in the conference championship football game, the conference announced Monday. It was determined the Huskies would be unable to field the 53 scholarship players needed to play because of positive cases for COVID-19 and the related contact-tracing protocols, the conference said. The Huskies
1:46 PM ET Former Baylor head coach Art Briles resigned as head coach at Mount Vernon (Texas) High School on Monday, the school announced. Briles, who was 20-6 at the small East Texas school in two seasons, led the Tigers to the state semifinals this year. It was his first coaching job back in the
11:00 AM ET There were a number of reasons Gus Malzahn was fired by Auburn on Sunday after eight up-and-down seasons, but none were as ironic or as frustrating as the regression of the offense. The struggle there represented the crumbling of the foundation of the program and the core of who Malzahn was as
11:00 AM ET Vanderbilt has zeroed in on Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea as its top target to become the Commodores’ next football coach and hopes to finalize a deal within the next day, sources told ESPN. Lea, 38, oversees a Notre Dame defense ranked 12th nationally in scoring defense (17.1 points per game)
8:55 AM ET Mark Schlabach Close ESPN Senior Writer Senior college football writer Author of seven books on college football Graduate of the University of Georgia Paula Lavigne Close ESPN Staff Writer Data analyst and reporter for ESPN’s Enterprise and Investigative Unit. Winner, 2014 Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award; finalist, 2012 IRE broadcast award;
8:34 PM ET Jeremy WillisESPN.com At least Florida Gators corner Marco Wilson has some company. The Gators cornerback made a big tackle on LSU Tigers tight end Kole Taylor that would have had the Tigers facing a long fourth down late in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game in Gainesville, Florida. To celebrate, Wilson threw
6:47 PM ET Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Sunday that he has “no doubt” his Tigers and Notre Dame are both among the four best teams in the country, shrugging off complaints by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey that the ACC was protecting its prized programs by giving them Dec. 12 off. On Saturday, Sankey was