NCAAF

7:00 AM ET ESPN staff Between recruits, transfers and new coaches, even the best teams in college football look different year to year. From defending champ Alabama breaking in a new offensive coordinator to Ohio State’s ready-to-contribute true freshmen, these are the most intriguing newcomers for each of the Way-Too-Early top 25 teams. The Tigers

1:47 PM ET Tennessee is set to hire Penn State co-defensive coordinator Tim Banks as the Volunteers’ defensive coordinator, sources told ESPN. Banks, 49, has spent the past five seasons at Penn State, where he also coached the Nittany Lions’ safeties. Before that, he was the co-defensive coordinator at Illinois, the co-defensive coordinator at Cincinnati

10:37 AM ET As an adjunct professor at DePaul University (go Blue Demons!), I always review my class rosters with a hint of trepidation. I love teaching and enjoy the students (most of them, anyway), but more of them equals more grading for me. This year’s college football coaching carousel is a lot like a

10:15 AM ET Former Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn will be UCF’s next head coach, sources told ESPN. A deal is being finalized, and an announcement from UCF could come as soon as Monday. Malzahn emerged Sunday as UCF’s leading candidate. Yahoo first reported the hire. Malzahn, 55, was fired on Dec. 13 after eight

7:05 AM ET Newly hired college football coaches are given some leeway when being judged on how well or poorly they’re recruiting. Most coaching hires happen only weeks or days before the early signing period, so that initial class is always tough to measure. Second-year coaches, however, have had more time to recruit, build relationships

5:17 PM ET New Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian got a commitment from the No. 2-ranked quarterback in the 2022 class on Saturday when Maalik Murphy announced his intention to play for the Longhorns. Murphy is a 6-foot-5, 220-pound signal-caller from Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, California. He chose Texas over offers from Baylor,

3:30 PM ET Todd McShayESPN Senior Writer Close ESPN College Football and NFL Draft Analyst Joined ESPN in 2006 Played quarterback in high school and was a backup QB for the University of Richmond. Follow on Twitter Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email On Friday morning, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence — the expected No. 1

2:46 PM ET Oregon Ducks quarterback Tyler Shough announced on Friday that he’s entered the transfer portal. In a social media post, Shough said he’ll have three remaining years of eligibility, and will move on from Oregon as a grad transfer. Shough won the starting job in fall camp in 2020 and started all seven

1:45 PM ET Maryland is set to hire Baylor cornerbacks coach Brian Stewart as defensive coordinator, sources told ESPN. A deal is being finalized with Stewart, who served as Maryland’s defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2014, when current Terrapins head coach Mike Locksley was the team’s offensive coordinator. Stewart, 56, spent the 2020 season at

7:00 AM ET HE SHOULD HAVE been a priority for SMU. In 2013, Ra’Shaad Samples was a four-star receiver at Dallas’ Skyline High School. Playing for his father, Reginald, a Dallas-area football legend, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of Texas football and grew up with a love of the city’s football culture. While Samples fielded

3:29 PM ET The Big 12 has released its schedule for the 2021 college football season, so it’s time to start breaking down your team’s slate and projecting wins and losses. Steve Sarkisian will start his tenure at Texas with a home game against Louisiana on Sept. 4, but what else is in store for

7:15 AM ET The 2021 recruiting cycle is mostly finished with all but two ESPN 300 prospects committed. The player rankings are subjective, but they give us a good look at what these college football programs could be adding to their roster. The class rankings give us a look at the totality of a class

1:25 PM ET Clemson linebacker Mike Jones Jr., who started seven games last season, is transferring to LSU, he announced Wednesday. Jones, who has three years of eligibility, recorded 30 tackles, including four for loss, and had two interceptions and a forced fumble in 10 games for Clemson last fall. The 6-foot, 220-pound Jones also

11:35 PM ET The Buccaneers’ dominant Super Bowl win on Sunday closed the 2020 NFL season and swung open the door on what promises to be an eventful and unusual offseason — which of course includes the 2021 NFL draft. The Tampa Bay defense showcased what smart drafting can do for a team, with recent

10:33 AM ET Notre Dame and Florida have agreed to a home-and-home series in 2031 and 2032, the schools announced on Tuesday. Notre Dame will open the series by hosting the Gators on Nov. 15, 2031. The next season, the Irish will visit Florida on Sept. 11, 2032. The two schools have only met once

7:30 AM ET The 2020 college football season might have been the oddest we’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t mean my offseason calendar has to change! Last week, I shared my returning production rankings for 2021, and now that the 2020-21 recruiting cycle is (mostly) complete, it’s time to share my annual SP+ projections. As

6:36 PM ET Associated Press PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State starting quarterback Jayden de Laura has been suspended from the team after his arrest in Pullman on suspicion of driving under the influence. The freshman started all four games for Washington State last fall. The Spokesman-Review reports that the 19-year-old de Laura was arrested on

5:59 PM ET Iowa State coach Matt Campbell has agreed to a new contract through the 2028 season, the school announced Monday. The new deal expires Dec. 31, 2028, and adds three years onto Campbell’s current agreement with Iowa State. Campbell in 2020 won Big 12 Coach of the Year for the third time in