Nothing is Better Than College Football Every Day!

November 7th:

• Worked on updating my Most Played FCS Series piece yesterday with year-to-date results. While doing that, I realized that I have about 20 more games to add to make it complete - at least for the moment because more series will be added as they hit the century mark.

• I’m hoping to get a chance to work on the Regional Rankings for Divisions II and III before the weekend so that I can pull out key games - though there are already numerous rivalry games.

• One thing that baffles me - and I know that the ratings/numbers are based off of what games a team has played, but how can the #1 team in Division II (Valdosta State) be the 3rd-ranked team in Super Region 2? While the 24th-ranked team in the Coaches Poll be the top-ranked team in the same region? One set of the rankings is off…

• A new rivalry game that is actually being played for the first time: Hope vs. Calvin. The two schools are 35 miles apart, with Hope being practically on Lake Michigan, and are rivals in other sports. Calvin started their football program this season, so it’s already a natural rivalry…

• Following Ohio’s win over Kent State and Northern Illinois upset of Western Michigan last night, there is now a four-way tie atop the MAC standings. Miami (Ohio), Bowling Green, Ohio, and Western Michigan are all 4-1 in conference play. Next Tuesday, Nov. 12th, Western Michigan will visit Bowling Green.

• Before the season began I thought that tonight’s game between Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina would be critical for the East Division’s lead in the Sun Belt, but both teams currently have losing records in conference play and are looking up at not only James Madison, but also Georgia Southern and Old Dominion.

• A new game that I just added to my Games to Follow spreadsheet: Virginia vs. West Virginia in Charlotte, NC on 9/19/2026. These schools started their series back in 1898, but have only played 23 times (UVA leads 12-10-1) and haven’t played a regular season game since 1985.

• This weekend I will be keeping a close eye on the Oklahoma at Missouri game - a renewal of an old rivalry. The overall series between the Tigers and Sooners dates back to 1902 with Saturday's contest marking the first meeting between the two schools since 2011. The two programs met every season from 1910 until 1999, with the Tigers and Sooners competing as conference foes for the majority of that span.

November 6th:

• The first CFB Playoff rankings for 2024 are now out - and frankly no surprises. So far, a very solid field with some exciting games to come!

• In beating Clemson for the first-time ever, Louisville effectively ended the Tigers hopes for a playoff bid in 2024

• The Baylor-TCU series is the most played rivalry in Texas at 120 games, but this year’s renewal of the Texas - Texas A&M series is the by far the biggest rivalry in the Longhorn state. The stakes could be bigger than ever this year because it could be a playoff eliminator for the loser.

• This week’s Alabama-LSU game should be an elimination game as well!

• Doesn’t seem possible that Ohio State and Penn State have now met 32 straight years since 1993 - the year the Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten. Time seems to fly.

• On the flip side, Penn State and Pitt have only met eight times in the same timeframe. Doesn’t seem right.

• Updating my Games to Follow spreadsheet the other day, I was so surprised by the lack of matchups between Virginia Tech and Syracuse, that I had to double check my numbers. But it was true - the Hokies and Orange have only met 21 times. The series started in 1964, but they didn’t play again until 1985, and then after their Big East years, they have only played four times in the ACC.

• Seems like a late start this year, but MACtion got under way last night. Both Bowling Green and Miami (Ohio) improved to 4-1 in conference play and got within one win of bowl eligibility. And the RedHawks won the Redbird Rivalry Trophy for the seventh time in eight games since its inception back in 2017.

November 5th:

• Glad to see that Lincoln is taking my advice - just hope it gives them the necessary spark to salvage their season - if getting a bowl bid is considered salvaging USC’s season.

• Spent the morning (when I could) pouring over the Regional Rankings for both Division II and III. Hope to get more time with the info and find the key games for the next two weeks for playoff hopefuls. Very exciting to pour over the numbers!

• Speaking of numbers - I must admit that I have been looking at and studying the numbers on my website for weeks now. Visits, pages looked at, time spent on pages, etc. Very pleased to see growth over last year - and it appears as though I have achieved my goal of growing the number of blogs that are getting viewed daily during the season. I now have twenty different pages that average at least one visit per day!

• Going back to regional rankings for a moment, the NESCAC - which doesn’t play non-conference games or send their teams to the playoff - has two different teams that appear in the Region 1 rankings. And, if the teams were allowed to participate, both have the numbers to qualify! That was a great thing to see!

• With any luck, the Ivy League will send their champion to the FCS Playoffs in the near future! Saw an article stating the the league is seriously considering it!!!

November 4th:

• Kudos to Indiana for having their first-ever 9-0 start to a season. The Hoosiers have never had a ten-win season, but they have four chances (including a bowl/playoff game) to achieve that goal.

• Iowa State also had a chance to achieve something they have never done before - start a season 8-0, but their loss at home to Texas Tech ended that.

• When SMU lost to BYU back in early September, I was thinking that the Mustangs weren’t going anywhere this year. Never thought that both teams would have a chance to make the playoff.

• Hugh Freeze hasn’t figured out how to beat Diego Pavia in three tries. Maybe he should have recruited Pavia to “the Plains” instead of letting him win at Vandy.

• Oklahoma State is on the brink of seeing their streak of 18 straight winning seasons end in 2024. And another loss in their next three regular season games will end their active bowl streak - also at 18 seasons.

• As Virginia Tech and USC continue to lose one-score games, does anyone agree with me that it’s on the coach and not the players? One more thing about the Trojans - why hasn’t there been a change at quarterback? Miller Moss is a serviceable player, but we have found out that he isn’t the quarterback we saw last year against Louisville in USC’s bowl game.

• Aidan Warner, who entered Florida’s loss against Georgia after DJ Lagway exited the game with an injury, redshirted at Yale in 2023 before joining the Gators this spring as a walk-on.

November 3rd:

• I got thoughts about Indiana, SMU, USC, Virginia Tech and probably a few others, but they will have to wait until tomorrow since it’s bedtime and I have been outside all day - except for some All-American binge watching.

• One thought I will quickly write about tonight is about North Park - a division III school in Illinois. The Vikings had a 5-2 record heading into yesterday’s game against Carthage, whose only win this year was against a fellow winless team last week. Carthage ended up knocking off North Park 22-21 at home, which has put a serious dent in the Vikings hope for a winning season. There are two games left in the season for this team, and North Park is looking up at both schools in the CCIW standings. Why is this so big to me? Because the Vikings haven’t had a winning season since 1968!

November 2nd:

• Frosty exchange between Tom Herman and Alex Golesh after last night’s game between Florida Atlantic and USF. Golesh hadn’t forgotten what Herman did last year, as FAU attempted an onside kick and went for it on 4th down late in game - while being up big. Looks like we have ourselves a rivalry brewing in the AAC.

• Columbia’s win over Yale gives them a 5-2 record heading into their last three games. One more win will give them 5 winning seasons in the last seven years. Doesn’t seem like much, but the Lions had only one winning season in the last twenty years before this stretch.

• It will be strange not seeing best friends Buddy Teevens and Tim Murphy on opposing sidelines when Harvard visits Dartmouth today. But by the looks of the two programs, Sammy McCorkle and Andrew Aurich are well on their way to establishing a solid rivalry.

• On Halloween night Westfield State beat Mass. Maritime, 13-10. The Owls started their program in 1982 (42 years ago - not including 2020), and every year they have played the Buccaneers - as well as two other MASCAC foes, Bridgewater State and Framingham State.

• I earmarked the SMU/Pitt game before the season began because I thought it would be a fun matchup - but now it has grown into a big ACC game! Can’t wait to follow this one…

• I don’t like that the Ohio State - Penn State game is on at noon today, as I am one of many who believe it should be a primetime matchup.

• Not getting much attention is today’s Kentucky at Tennessee game. The rivalry game was once known as the “Battle for the Barrel”. The beer barrel trophy, introduced in 1925, was painted half blue and half orange, and had a label that read “Ice Water” - a nod to Prohibition-era sensitivities. This tradition ended in 1998 after a tragic alcohol-related accident involving two Kentucky players.

November 1st:

• Was intending to make entries much sooner than this (3:00pm), but work got so busy I didn’t have time - but I did look spend some time poking around various websites and articles.

• Army will be wearing an awesome Skull & Crossbones helmet when they take on Air Force tomorrow at Michie Stadium, 12:00 kickoff on CBS! I know it conflicts with a certain game on FOX, but the game will be worth checking out anyway because it’s the second leg of the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy. The Falcons are hoping that they don’t get eliminated with another loss. Unfortunately, the Black Knights have not trailed in a game at any point this season.

• I thought that Tulane would get tripped up - or at least get challenged, against Charlotte last night, being that it was Halloween night, but the Green Wave handled the 49ers easily. Tulane and Army don’t meet in the regular season this year, but what a competitive AAC Championship it would be if they both remain on tract!

• Speaking of getting spooked last night, in a Division II matchup last night, #3 Ouachita Baptist was going up against winless Southern Nazarene at home. Unfortunately for them, Southern Nazarene came out on top, 18-17 - handing the Tigers their first loss of 2024.

• That upset was the 100th all-time win for Crimson Storm since they started their program back in 2000. And it was their first win in 11 tries over the Tigers.

• Another spooked team this week - Liberty. Last week they were shocked by winless Kennesaw State, and this week visiting Jacksonville State beat the Flames, 31-21 - officially putting a nail in their coffin regarding a playoff invite in 2024.

• Big Ivy League game tonight between Yale and Columbia as another Bulldog loss will eliminate them from the Ivy League title, while the Lions could create a three or four-way tie for first with a win, if Harvard beats Dartmouth (which I expect) and Brown beats Penn (toss up). Columbia and Yale are meeting for the 102nd time in a series that dates back to 1872. The Bulldogs have a commanding 72-22-2 lead in the series all-time against the Lions, and they have won 21 of the last 25 matchups. A stiff challenge for the home team!

• Bowdoin begins their CBB (Colby-Bates-Bowdoin) series as they head to Lewiston to play the Bobcats. Back in early October, Bates fell to Colby, 28-26, so they must beat the Polar Bears to have any hope of a three-way CBB tie this year. Bowdoin currently holds the trophy, and a win on the road will set up a CBB championship game next Saturday in Brunswick against the Mules.

• By the way, this game is the tenth-longest in Division III history, as the teams have met 125 times dating back to 1889. Bowdoin holds a 68-50-7 in the all-time series, but they haven’t won in Lewiston since 2007.

October 31st:

• This is a callout to my friend Eric - who is a huge fan of college football, like myself, and he has been with me every step of the way regarding this website! We have had countless conversations about the sport and every one of them has been a joy for me - and as he knows, they bring out a ton of excitement as I am like a kid in a candy store! Eric - our responsibilities at work have kept us apart and my emailing has been spotty at best, and I want to tell you that I have really missed our day-to-day discussions! Starting tomorrow, I am going to use this blog on a daily basis, like I should, to reignite our talks - though it won’t be the same as a face-to-face conversation! Just bear with me if I get chatty about the lower divisions too much! Love you my man!

October 21st:

• First off - I did not watch a down of college football on TV on Saturday, but what a day of college football I had! Starting with our tailgating, of which we were allowed to park in the area that we have been at for the past 20+ years - even though it was reserved for family of players! We then walked into the game, walked the sidelines and soaked in the sounds of the game! And then we repeated the process again for halftime. To top off the afternoon - we visited Joshua Chamberlain’s grave after the game!

• Not sure how to get started with action I missed - though maybe the Nebraska at Indiana game is where I should begin. Never thought that the Hoosiers would be as dominant as they were! There next four games will determine if they are playoff contenders or pretenders, but their fans must be soaking up the limelight!

• I couldn’t help but be concerned when SMU lost to BYU early in the season and when they switched quarterbacks, but here they are nationally ranked and outside challengers for the ACC Championship!

• The SEC is down to just two unbeaten teams in conference play - LSU and Texas A&M. And after this Saturday it will be one as the Tigers visit the Aggies in College Station. Now doubt that November is going to be wicked exciting in this conference!

• Jumping to the Big 12 - two teams that have exceeded expectations so far, Arizona State and Cincinnati faced off, with the winner still in serious contention for the Big 12 title. The Bearcats had a dominating first half to take down the Sun Devils - who were playing without their starting quarterback.

• The way Kansas State handled West Virginia in Morgantown makes me think that they will be in the championship picture - though I’m sure that the Jayhawks would like to destroy that dream, in Manhattan no less.

• Every time I see Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech on the schedule I can’t help but think about the movie “Rudy”.

• I love seeing Army and Navy both being ranked in the AP and Coaches Poll! It now makes this weekends’ Notre Dame vs. Navy a ranked vs. ranked matchup - only the 11th time it has happened in 97 meetings!

October 19th:

• I have really enjoyed the new conference matchups created by the most recent realignment, but must admit that I get lost while going through the list of teams in the standings. It’s not good at all to be the team at the bottom - right Oklahoma State?

• Before the season started, I never thought that the result of the bowl games between Georgia and Florida State would a sign of the things to come for the Seminoles.

• I didn’t include the Indiana-Nebraska game in my Games to Follow spreadsheet, but a lot of eyes are on the matchup in Bloomington today. The Hoosiers were the first team to become bowl eligible, and with a win today the Cornhuskers will join them.

• The team with the longest bowl drought, the ULM Warhawks, have a bye week - but they are only one win away from getting a chance to go bowling. They do have a rough road ahead though - four road games, and their two home games are against Texas State and rival Louisiana. Won’t be easy!

• Today’s oldest series game in the FBS is Wisconsin at Northwestern - as they first played in 1890. The Badgers lead the overall series 62-38-5, but since 1985 the series has been back and forth as Wisconsin holds a slim lead in games during that time, 17-16.

• When Miami (Ohio) takes on Ohio today, it will be the 100th meeting between the two schools. The rival programs have faced off every year since 1945 except for 2020. And the last two times that the RedHawks beat the Bobcats, they went on to win the MAC Championship (2019, 2023).

October 18th:

• Must admit that I am getting excited for the Bowdoin-Wesleyan game tomorrow! Perfect weather…tailgating…NESCAC action. A GREAT combination!

• Nice to see that tonight’s Brown-Princeton game is being nationally televised on ESPNU. Always good to see the Ivy League getting some recognition!

• While on this game, the Bears and Tigers will be meeting for the 90th time since 1898, with Princeton leading the all-time series 60-29. Lastly, Brown Head Coach James Perry was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Bob Surace at Princeton from 2010-2016 before becoming head coach at Bryant and later Brown (his alma mater).

• Before the season started, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Duke and Florida State met with opposite records - but never would I have thought that the Blue Devils would be the 5-1 team. Can Duke beat the Seminoles for the first-time ever, as they are 0-22 against FSU since 1992.

• If Oklahoma State loses to BYU tonight, the Cowboys will have to win four of their five remaining games to keep their 18-straight winning seasons streak alive.

• Fresno State and Nevada were charter members, along with San Jose State and UC Davis, of the Far Western Conference back in 1925. The Bulldogs leads the all-time series 32-22-1 that actually got started in 1923.

• In Division III action tonight, UW-Stevens Point will travel to UW-Whitewater to take on the Warhawks - a series that dates back to 1895. Unfortunately the Pointers have lost ten straight to UW-Whitewater, and they have lost 26 straight conference games.

October 17th:

• Can’t think of a better way to go get going again with putting my thoughts to keyboard than to say that I will be attending my first game at Bowdoin since before the pandemic. Looks like it will be a beautiful day in more ways than one!

• Doesn’t seem possible that we are getting started on the second half of the season already! I find at my age I say this phrase over and over - where does the time go? At least we have games to watch and follow five days a week for the near future! CUSA and Sun Belt will be featured for the next few weekdays, and then on November 5th we have the start of MACtion.

September 19th:

• Appalachian State has struggled a bit to start the year, but the atmosphere at the Rock will be rockin’ when the Mountaineers open up their Sun Belt season by hosting a tough South Alabama team.

• For some Division II action tonight, tune into the Glenville State at Fairmont State via their websites. This is the 99th meeting between the long-time rivals with Fairmont State holding a slim 51-44-3 lead in the Battle for the Bit. Both teams are coming off non-conference losses to PSAC teams, so the rivals will be looking to get back in the win column as well as claiming the Bit Trophy.

• Three new conference games that are scheduled for Saturday are going to be spectacular! Love all three of them, but I’m thinking that the Tennessee at Oklahoma game will be the best one.

• Can’t believe that it has been 66 years since USC has played in the Big House! By the way, the Wolverines have won both regular season meetings - back in 1957 and 1958.

• Josh Heupel returns to where he won the 2000 National Championship, and to where he got fired in 2014 as the offensive coordinator of the Sooners under Bob Stoops.

• FBSchedules has a brief history of the Minnesota-Iowa rivalry, and what led to the Floyd of Rosedale trophy. A must read I think.

September 18th:

• Not sure how six days have gone by since I have jotted anything down here. Actually, I haven’t done too much regarding the site either, because of…life. It has been busy.

• But I started my day watching and re-watching Alabama players doing the “jump around” at Wisconsin on twitter (ESPN). Got the day off to a great start…

• Got a good chuckle out of this statement - again ESPN is the source, “Turns out, Colorado took the trash talk personally (from CSU players), which isn't really saying much since Deion Sanders takes it personally when the power company sends a reminder that his electric bill is due.”

September 12th:

• Been torn today and for the last couple of days/weeks about adding new content or massaging existing pieces. So I have dabbled doing both - well mostly researching the future additions to the site. Yesterday I enjoyed updating my streak pieces - as it’s good to keep track of how programs are doing, primarily the ones with long losing streaks.

• A new piece I that I added is the Week Zero schedule for 2025. I have gotten Week Zero schedules posted in the past, but it had fallen by the wayside the last couple of years. Now that it has a new home under the FBS tab (there is a FCS game listed on the schedule), it will become a staple piece again to the site.

• There are four games being played tonight - and I must admit, the two Division II games don’t interest me in the least. I’m surprised that I am saying that because I’m always looking for reasons to watch the lower divisions during the week. All attention this evening should be directed to the Arizona State at Texas State matchup, as both teams have looked solid so far in 2024.

• Only two installments left of the oldest non-conference rivalry remain with the all-time series knotted up at 60-60-7. The first meeting between Miami (Ohio) and Cincinnati took place in 1888, as it was the first football game played in the state of Ohio, and now after having played 112 times in the last 115 years, these rivals are only scheduled to meet once more after Saturday’s game.

• I can’t believe that the Boston College at Missouri game this weekend will be a matchup of Top 25 teams!

• Also, it’s hard to believe that the Oregon at Oregon State and the Washington State vs. Washington games will be non-conference matchups - much like the Backyard Brawl - though most of that series was a battle of Eastern Independents. And, it’s cruel that all three of those games are scheduled to be played at the same time!

September 10th:

• It only took two minutes and nine seconds for the Anderson Trojans to make history - scoring the team’s first-ever touchdown. The new football program was playing Saint Andrews (NAIA) in their first game - a good opponent for a new team as the Knights were winless last year. Anderson would go on and beat Saint Andrews 51-14 for their first-ever win.

• Another team, the Calvin Knights, also won their inaugural game as a football program when the Knights thrashed Oberlin at home, 50-6. Calvin displayed a balanced offense, but it was their defense that had an impressive effort as they held the Yeoman to just 145 yards, and kept them off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter.

• Meanwhile Centenary football team took the field for the first time since 1968. It was felt that the Gents would have a chance against Hendrix, but the Warriors had other thoughts as they went on to beat the new team 43-20. Centenary will get their next chance at a win against Texas Lutheran this Saturday.

• In FCS action, Campbell made program history when they beat Western Carolina. It was the Camels first-ever win over a ranked opponent.

• VMI is a FCS program that I like to follow, and like Wyoming I am concerned about the team only two games into the 2024 season. A season opening 41-7 loss to William & Mary wasn’t good because it was supposed to be a competitive game, but to fall behind a weak Bucknell team 35-14 at home before scoring two touchdowns late is not a good thing. Another favorite team with a long season ahead of them…

September 9th:

• Last week I got focused on my new tabs and blogs (Streaks, Transfers, Winless Teams, First Wins for Head Coaches), and what I can do for them. To get them where I want them to be, it will take time to do the updates, but the time I spent thinking about them a few days ago was well worth the effort and has given me a plan. It will be put into motion this season - but being realistic, the payoff will probably be in 2025.

• Illinois’ win over Kansas and Nebraska’s two solid wins to start the year has me looking forward to their matchup in Lincoln on 9/28. And it’s a primetime game on Fox! And it will be the 400th straight sellout for the Huskers!

• I like to follow Wyoming, and the start to their 2024 season is very concerning. It started with a blowout loss in Tempe to Arizona State, and then the Cowboys lost at home to Idaho - and the Vandals were playing their backup quarterback. We will see what kind of coach Jay Sawvel is, as his team prepares to host old conference rival (WAC and Mountain West) BYU.

• Speaking of the Sun Devils, after they beat Mississippi State last week and Texas State clobbered UTSA, it makes Thursday’s matchup between these teams in San Marcos very intriguing.

• Will also have to watch the Friday game between UNLV, led by former Holy Cross quarterback Matthew Sluka) and Kansas - but there will have to be some channel changing because Arizona will be playing Kansas State an hour later.

September 3rd:

• With FSU losing to BC last night (which was BS), does that mean that the Hurricanes will win their first ACC championship since joining the league twenty years ago?

• Forgot to mention that I saw Arch Manning’s first touchdown pass as I checked in on the Texas-Colorado State matchup for a bit even though the game was well decided at that point.

• Sam Houston’s win over Rice was their first over the Owls since 1939, but to be fair - this was only their fifth meeting since that time.

• After week 1 performances, how can you not be excited about this weekend’s matchup between Dylan Raiola and Shedeur Sanders? Unfortunately, this will be the last scheduled meeting between these two former Big 8 rivals.

• Texas Southern won the only trophy game played in Division I this past week. The Tigers had lost 15 of the last 18 Labor Day Classic contests with Prairie View A&M, but new head coach Cris Dishman outdueled former Oiler teammate Bubba McDowell to claim the Durley-Nicks trophy for the first time since 2014.

• Just a couple of days after playing each other (Texas State won 34-27), the Bobcats and Lamar announced that they will play each other again in 2029.

• Four teams have already lost two games this year: Florida State, New Mexico, Norfolk State and North Alabama

• It’s not a good sign for Norfolk State when East Carolina turned the ball over six times, but the Pirates still beat the Spartans 42-3.

• Despite their win over Virginia Tech this past weekend, Vanderbilt is the lowest rated Power 5 team - according to Jeff Sagarin’s College Football Ratings. Stanford is just six spots ahead of the Commodores.

• Meanwhile, Mercyhurst is the lowest rated Division I football team according Sagarin - but at least they won their first game of 2024, though it was against a Division II foe.

• VMI will now have to wait until 2027 to see if they can end their 26-game losing streak to William & Mary.

• Speaking of Division II, William Jewell running back Keaundre McCullough ran for 402 yards and scored 5 touchdowns in the Cardinal’s 35-20 season-opening win over Fort Lewis - a team mired in a 40-game losing streak.

• Also in that division, Nebraska-Kearney beat in-stat rival Chadron State, 18-6, to take home the newly added “Good Life” Trophy - which looks like the Super Bowl Trophy.

• Should also mention that Clark Atlanta quarterback David Wright threw for seven touchdowns against Fort Valley State.

September 2nd:

• Spent today updating my tab on Streaks - working on all the divisions less Division III which starts their season this weekend.

• Did spend a little time as well working on my Games to Follow spreadsheet - which led me to the discovery of SMU hosting former SWC rival Baylor next year.

• No matter the winner - great game last night between USC and LSU! Wouldn’t mind a rematch later this year!

• Lastly, Maryland opened up as a favorite over Michigan State which is no surprise. Just hope that they can back it up because it’s an important game for both teams.

September 1st:

• Have to start off with some love for Texas A&M wearing white helmets against Notre Dame! I hope it is worn more this season and that others like it as much as I do…

• Also have to mention how nice it was to see the Terps handle UConn as easily as they did. Hopefully they can handle Michigan State next week in their first Big Ten conference game of 2024.

• Cam Ward had a great start to his Hurricane season, but I liked Ashton Jeanty 6 TDs against Georgia Southern and Tetairoa McMillan 304 yards receiving and 4 TDS against New Mexico performances a bit more.

• Was surprised to see Ole Miss and Tennessee outscore their two Southern Conference opponents (Furman and Chattanooga) by a combined 142 points!

• You never want to read too much into first week performances, but Oklahoma State and Penn State showed me that they want to be playoff participants this year.

• I remember seeing that folks were concerned about how challenged SMU was against Nevada in Week Zero - but Nevada beat Troy on the road this week and the Mustangs beat Houston Christian 59-7 (scored 42 points in the first half).

• St. Thomas was supposed to compete for the Pioneer League title - but losing to Sioux Falls by 21 points this week won’t help them.

• Both Mercyhurst and West Georgia won their Division I debuts.

• The Citadel beat rival Charleston Southern to start 2024 off on the right foot - after going winless in 2023.

• I like both Rhode Island and Holy Cross, but I was happy to see the Rams come out on top, 20-17.

August 31st:

• Before things get rolling today, I just have a couple quick thoughts about the last two days of this great game…

• Cam Rising made a great return for the Utes - which makes them very formidable to their Big 12 opponents this year.

• Colorado’s win over North Dakota State was solid because everyone knows that the Bison are on very tough opponent.

• The way that Western Carolina battled against NC State, gets me looking forward to their Southern Conference matchups against Chattanooga and Furman.

• Was surprised at how easily Coastal Carolina handled Jacksonville State - on the road no less.

• Will have to follow Michigan State a bit after their close call with Florida Atlantic last night.

• The Colgate at UMaine game was evenly matched - so a good one for the Black Bears to win!

August 29th:

• Wasn’t sure I would get completely through my Coaching Records spreadsheet before the season really got rolling this weekend - but I did with just hours to spare. Will be very happy to have this document as a resource throughout the fall.

• Time will tell to see how this goes, but I am hoping to update my Games to Follow spreadsheet throughout the season so that I have less to do on it during the offseason - which will allow me to pull together my blog on Games to Follow in a timely fashion. The week of the games doesn’t give enough time for it to trend on the web, so doing it months in advance will give it a chance. Which gives me an idea…I have games for 2025 and 2026 already identified. Hmm…

• Realized I missed a head coaching change in Division II when going through my list of head coaches looking for their first win as college coaches. Jermaine Gates had resigned as the Lincoln (MO) head coach - which was probably a good thing for the Lions because he was 0-22 in two seasons. He was replaced by Moses Harper, who will probably be a bit faster with his first win…

• By my count, 81 head coaches (the complete list is posted on this site) will be looking for their first college football win in the coming weeks - hopefully for them sooner than later. James Colzie got his first W last week when Florida A&M got by Norfolk State.

• The first game that I was going to watch tonight was Howard at Rutgers, but then I noticed that Youngstown State at Villanova starts at the same time - so that will be a much better game to get into.

August 28th:

• Tomorrow night Ken Niumatalolo begins his new coaching career. The all-time winningest coach in the Naval Academy, Niumatalolo, was named San José State’s head football coach last January.

• Lafayette travels to Buffalo - a team that has lost its last two games to Patriot League members (Holy Cross and Fordham).

• The Lakers of Mercyhurst will begin a new era as they will be playing their first Division I game tomorrow - on the road against Wheeling, a Division II team.

• William & Mary has won the last 25 meetings with VMI to take a 53-33-2 series lead against the Keydets.

• Last season marked just the fourth time in 20 years in which VMI won at least five overall games and four league contests. The Keydets would cap off their impressive 2023 with a 27-24 win over No. 14 Western Carolina, scoring their first top-25 win since 2021.

August 27th:

• North Dakota State is 9-4 against FBS opponents, having won six straight (from 2010 thru 2016 - except 2015) before losing to Arizona two years ago, 31-28.

• Minnesota is handing the keys to the offense to sixth-year transfer quarterback Max Brosmer from the University of New Hampshire. Brosmer last year completed 294-of-459 passes (64.1%) for 3,464 yards and 29 touchdowns against five interceptions, while also rushing 57 times for 126 yards and three scores.

• Mack Brown is one of only three active head coaches who has won a National Championship. Brown, who won the 2005 title at Texas in 2005, is accompanied by Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney.

• The season opener vs. Western Carolina will mark the 14th consecutive sellout for NC State Football - the longest sellout streak in school history. The streak dates back to Sept. 17, 2022 vs. Texas Tech. In fact, the next two home games (Louisiana Tech and Northern Illinois) are also sold out.

• Jacksonville State was the first team in FBS history to win a bowl game in its first season and just the sixth team in FBS history to win nine games in its transition season.

• Illinois will host a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Memorial Stadium's dedication. Memorial Stadium's Dedication Game famously occurred against Michigan on Oct. 18, 1924, when Illini legend Red Grange gained national headlines after scoring four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes to take down the previously undefeated Wolverines. 

August 24th:

• Will be on the road today as I have a family matter to attend, so I am not sure what I will be able to watch for games today. I do know that I will be following the scores on my phone.

• One game I haven’t covered in the slate of Week Zero games is the Florida A&M vs. Norfolk State game in Atlanta - the MEAC/SWAC Challenge. This will be NSU first appearance in the Challenge, while it will be the third appearance for the Rattlers.

• Florida A&M returns to Atlanta after finishing the season there winning the 2023 Celebration Bowl.

• The Rattlers and Spartans were in the MEAC together from 1997 through 2021 - with A&M holding a 15-3 series edge over NSU.

• Norfolk State finished their 2023 campaign with a 3-8 record, with four of its losses coming by a single possession.

• Before signing off this morning, it finally hit me how not to be overwhelmed in the upcoming weeks regarding my Games to Follow entries and Game Notes that I try to catch up on and read. My Games to Follow blogs will mirror my New England Weekly Schedule model - which will greatly simplify things, and I will include all the games I have included in my detailed spreadsheet. It will basically be a condensed schedule. And as for Game Notes - I will again follow my spreadsheet and just focus on those games - which will be more than enough.

August 23rd (Part Two):

• Going back to the Montana State at New Mexico game tomorrow for a moment - I read that the Bobcats are 13.5 point favorites on the road. Don’t see that very often, a FCS team favored over a FBS team.

• Dating back to 2001, Hawaii has won twenty straight games against FCS teams by an average win margin of 25.9 points per game, so they should be in good shape to snap a their current three-game losing streak in season openers.

• The Rainbow Warriors will only play one of its four rivalry trophy games in 2024, and it will be against UNLV for the Island Showdown Trophy on November 9th.

• Delaware State returns 15 starters from last year’s 1-10 team, and they come into this game being the first HBCU to play Hawaii since 1979.

• In last season’s opener. Tarleton scored 35 unanswered points in the second half to beat McNeese 52-34 in Lake Charles for their first win in the series.

• Clifton McDowell comes to McNeese after a short stint at Montana, where he guided the Grizzlies to the 2023 FCS National Championship game.

• The Texans went 8-3 last year, their most wins in a single season since becoming an NCAA Division I program. They became just the fourth D1 reclassifying institution to win 8+ games in a season since 2004 (North Dakota State twice in 2006-07, Central Arkansas twice in 2006 and 2008, North Dakota in 2011).

• North Alabama will be playing in the FCS Kickoff for the second-straight year, while SEMO makes its first-ever appearance in the game that kicks off the 2024 football season.

• The Redhawks are looking to snap a four-game losing streak in season-opening contest as SEMO's last season-opening win was on Aug. 29, 2019 vs. Southern Illinois (44-26).

• North Alabama won the only matchup between the teams 68 years ago as the Lions beat the Redhawks, 61-13, during the 1956 campaign.

August 23rd:

• Not sure why I have followed quarterback Stone Earle’s travels, though it might be his name. Earle started his career at Abilene Christian, followed by a transfer to North Texas for the 2023 season. He beat out Chandler Rogers, a transfer from ULM, for the starting quarterback job of the Mean Green, but after an 0-2 start Coach Eric Morris made a change to Rogers for the remainder of the season. When the 2023 season ended, Earle opted to return to Abilene Christian - but reversed course once Rogers transferred to Cal. Then Chandler Morris came to the program from TCU, so as of two months ago Earle has now decided to hightail it again - this time to Marshall for the 2024 season. Two things stand out to me about Earle’s case: 1) The ability to transfer so much without having to sit out a season is out of control. 2) Earle is not living up to his name because it appears as though he doesn’t have the stones to stay in one (or even two) place to compete.

• As for Chandler Rogers, he has gone from a bottom feeder program at ULM, to establishing himself as a solid QB at North Texas, to competing for a starting job with Justin Wilcox at Cal - a Power 4 team in a new conference. Another success story thanks to the transfer portal. Kind of makes me look like I am talking out of both sides of my mouth as I have given two examples from players who are playing at their third program. There is one big difference - one has decommitted twice after transferring, and could do it again if he doesn’t get on the field.

• SMU is getting ready to embark on a new chapter for their football program. Almost 40 years after receiving the death penalty (imagine - they paid their players almost $61k over two years!) and 30 years of competing in non-Power Five conferences (WAC, CUSA and AAC), the Mustangs are back among the elite. SMU Athletic Director Rick Hart says “this is really the culmination of 37 years of investments and efforts and outcomes, the excitement level is off the charts.” Go Mustangs!

• Saturday’s meeting will be the seventh all-time (five meetings as WAC foes) between Nevada and SMU. Each team has won three times in the series, with SMU taking the last two. The most recent meeting of the teams came in the 2009 Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl, when the Mustangs beat the Wolf Pack, 45-10.

• Last year SMU went unbeaten during its final year as a member of the AAC, capturing its first conference title since 1984, and the Mustangs broke into the final College Football Playoff rankings for the first time in program history finishing at 24th.

• Meanwhile, even though Nevada has gone through back-to-back 2-10 seasons, the Wolf Pack have gone to 14 bowl games in the past 18 years.

• This will be the first meeting between New Mexico and Montana State since the Harbor Bowl (only played from 1947 to 1949) on New Year’s Day in 1947 which ended in a 13-13 tie, and the Bobcats first visit to Albuquerque (took me a while to spell it right!) since 1923!

• Bronco Mendenhall returns to head coaching for the first time since 2021, as he attempts to turn around a struggling program for the third time - BYU and Virginia being the others. Mendenhall, who has a career record of 135-81 over 17 seasons, was the Lobos defensive coordinator from 1998-2002.

• Montana State led the Big Sky in scoring offense with 39.9 pints per game in 2023, one season after topping the loop at 42.9 points per game. MSU finished third in the FCS in scoring offense in 2022, second in 2023.

• The Lobos will be looking for their 500th win in program history, while Montana State, which is ranked #4 in the FCS Coaches Poll, has put together a string of five straight eight-win seasons - the longest in school history.

August 22nd (Part Two):

• Florida State, the defending ACC champions, has won 16 ACC championships and have enjoyed 10 undefeated ACC seasons since joining the league in 1992, both of which are tops in the conference in that span.

• The Seminoles have won 12 consecutive conference games, the 3rd-longest active conference win streak in the nation - behind Michigan (25) and Washington (16).

• Although the Yellow Jackets are crossing the Atlantic Ocean, it is only tied for the second-longest trip in program history. The longest was a 4,490-mile journey to Honolulu, Hawaii for the 1991 Aloha Bowl.

• Georgia Tech P David Shanahan, from Castleisland, Co. Kerry, Ireland (about three hours southwest of Dublin), is believed to be the first Irish native ever awarded a full scholarship to play American college football.

• Since 2003, the Yellow Jackets have won 4-of-5 regular season matchups with the Seminoles and Georgia Tech is 4-0 in games against nationally ranked ACC opponents since Brent Key took over as the Yellow Jackets' interim head coach four games into the 2022 season.

• Saturday's game marks the third time that Georgia Tech and Florida State will meet at a neutral site. FSU won both of the previous neutral-site matchups in the 2012 and 2014 ACC Championship Games in Charlotte, N.C.

August 22nd:

• Week Zero is now less than 50 hours away with the first game coming to us from Ireland! What’s most exciting about that? Sheamus will be the guest picker on College GameDay!!! I wonder if he and Pat McAfee took the same flight - and if so, I am sure that it was a very amusing time for those around them…

• Meanwhile the day of games wraps up with Delaware State flying to the Islands to take on Hawaii. The Hornets, who are already predicted to finish at the bottom of the MEAC, missed their original flight to Hawaii because of shuttle bus issues getting them to New York, but they did manage to get an alternate flight the next morning - which required three separate flights instead of the original direct flight. Not a good start to the Hornets seasons - but at least they get to play in Hawaii!

• White helmets were revealed by Texas A&M yesterday. The question hanging out there - is it an alternative for a game or two, or the new helmet for 2024? No brainer in my book, I love the white helmets - always have since seeing them in the 70s.

• Having a blast going finding and going through game notes! Will share tidbits that I found hopefully before 7:00 pm this evening!

August 19th:

• And now it begins - the first Game Notes was published today. The team: Florida State. Go Seminoles! More on this later…

• Pains me to admit it - but Ohio State is loaded and ready to claim a national championship! I’m not a fan of the Buckeyes or the Ducks, but I can’t wait for the game in Autzen Stadium on October 12th between these two title contenders. It’s going to be a real slobber knocker!

• UIW just scheduled another FBS opponent from Texas - as the Cardinals will now play Texas Tech in 2029. They have now scheduled UTSA, Texas State, and Texas Tech while also scheduling tough non-conference FCS opponents such as South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, Eastern Washington and Montana. Love this scheduling!

August 18th:

• I can now say, “College football begins next Saturday!” as Week Zero is upon us. This is the first year that I haven’t dedicated a blog or article to the week that starts things off. And unfortunately my viewing plans have changed as I must make a day trip to Fall River, MA.

• All week I will be visiting school websites to see which team puts out the first game notes of the year. I’m thinking I will find something on Monday - and my guess is that it will be Georgia Tech getting their notes out first. Montana State might be the first FCS school - but I wouldn’t be surprised if Tarleton State beats them to the punch.

August 14th:

• With the season ten days away, I should probably do my best to get in as many daily entries as I can over the next 140+ days. The season is like a vacation - you want it to get here, but when it does it is over so quickly.

• Unfortunately, according to ESPN, some players have had their seasons end before it ever began - which is the case every year. The Longhorns have been hit hard as they have lost two running backs that were going to be key contributors. Guess it is “Next man up” for Texas and their fans.

• Something I found out today in reading another conference preview - new Mercer head coach Mike Jacobs has now replaced Drew Cronic twice, first at Lenoir-Rhyne, and now at Mercer. Cronic is now the offensive coordinator at Navy after leading the Bears to their first FCS playoff berth.

• Not a surprise that Tyler Van Dyke won the starting quarterback job for Wisconsin, but I was surprised when ESPN stated that the Badgers are out of the Preseason Top 25 poll for the first time since 2016!

• The American Football Coaches Association has released their Preseason Top 25 poll for Division II. Opening weekend will see a Top 10 matchup (#3 Ferris State at #6 Pittsburg State) and a Top 25 matchup (#13 Minnesota State at #22 Northwest Missouri State).

• Roanoke College, who will be joining Division III football next fall, has released their new uniforms. Basic - but very sharp I think!

August 13th:

• For a couple of weeks since my last entry to this blog I have been working strictly on other blogs and updating spreadsheets - which I am convinced are in constant need of attention. But I must admit that for the last few days I have not done anything to the website - though I have spent time reading through preseason polls and conference previews.

• I saw that starting this season Harvard is offering “skyboxes” to all of their home games for between $1,200-$1,500 per game. They set aside a section of the field behind an endzone for up to twenty people per group. Seems pretty tempting to me - though it could be rough if it was a rainy day, but I think it’s safe to say that it will be added to my bucket list..

• Poking around Tufts football website, I discovered a new website - newenglandfootballwriters.com, which has already provided me a great service. On their site they have posted a composite schedule for all New England football games for 2024! This will save me from having to visit several sites to ensure that I am getting all the games as I now have nine pages of games broken down by day and time.

• Lastly, the other day I was delivering a package to a neighbor that got dropped off at our door by mistake. The neighbor is a visiting nurse, who lives in Montana - and I couldn’t help but notice the return address was from Bozeman, which is the hometown of Montana State. Of course, I couldn’t help myself - so I asked her if she was a Bobcat fan or a displaced Griz fan. She proudly informed me that she had attended Montana State so she was a ‘Cat fan. Makes me wonder if I can call them the ‘Cats as well or if that term is reserved just for those that attended the school…

July 24th:

• Towards the end of my work day, I felt like I was missing something for college football news because I hadn’t visited FBSchedules. Opened it just before heading out for the day - and they hadn’t posted anything since yesterday. Made me chuckle.

• Printed off some FBS and Division II preseason polls as well as a newly posted Top 25 for Division III off of D3Football. Hope I can get some good stuff posted on these divisions during the season!

• Doesn’t seem possible that it’s been pretty close to a week since I added some really good non-conference games to my Top Non-Conference Games Scheduled in 2025 blog. Not easy looking ahead but it’s my chance to get a jump on other sites and establish my post.

• I liked seeing that UT Martin and North Alabama agreed to another home-and-home series starting in 2029. For a time they were Division II Gulf South opponents, and they had played every year from 1960 to 1990 before the Skyhawks moved up to FCS. The two teams play each other this year after re-starting their series last year - a 37-21 Skyhawk victory.

• A great piece on “The Rise & Fall of the Nebraska Football Dynasty” by Husker fan Chris Fort (6 pieces? - 3 parts have been published) which can be found on SI.com. They did have a great run from the 60s through the turn of the century. Wouldn’t mind seeing them recapture a bit of that glory.

• Two days ago, the story about the new “Potato State Trophy” created for the Idaho-Idaho State rivalry appeared on my phone (the Vandals website). Was surprised when I saw the same piece appear on FBSchedules and then was floored when it was covered on ESPN! Hahahaha

• The ULM Warhawks revealed their new primary helmet. Very cool!

• Lastly - what if the SEC poached some Big Ten schools?

July 20th:

• Five weeks until Week Zero! Starting to see Media Days and Preseason Polls. Love it!

• Having Steve Sarkisian commenting that Arkansas fans hating Texas more than liking themselves will make their meeting on November 16th even more exciting!

• Realignment speculation is part of July as well. Florida State and Clemson will be the lynchpins with the next round - but what will they, or more importantly, what will the Power 4 conferences do? The Big Ten and SEC appear to be uninterested - but can the SEC truly ignore these two powers? The Big 12 will have to be careful and not let these teams have special privileges (like they did Texas and Oklahoma), but can they resist the temptation of a 20 or 24 team conference? Lastly - maybe everyone stands pat. I like that option myself.

• Back to Week Zero…when New Mexico hosts Montana State, the Lobos must be thrilled that they will be televised on Fox Sports. Of course it might not be so good if they get beat by the Bobcats.

• Even the Norfolk State vs. Florida A&M game is getting primetime coverage on ABC that Saturday!

• There’s another matchup between MEAC and SWAC teams on Labor Day weekend (Sunday, September 3rd) that now has my attention after seeing a preseason poll of the SWAC. The Head Coaches and Sports Information Directors picked Alabama State to finish 1st in the East Division over Florida A&M. Meanwhile, the MEAC will release their preseason poll on the 23rd, but I expect NC Central to be on top - or certainly very near the top. Now I intend to follow this game between the Hornets and the Eagles!

July 17th:

• I have had my head down trying to complete my spreadsheets before the end of the month. Just today I finished my Games to Follow spreadsheet - which contains over 1,900 games between all the divisions. How many will I get to follow is the question?

• Also updated four coaching changes today - one FBS (Jeff Tedford stepped down) and three Division III changes, though one remains to be filled for the season.

• Some exciting future games that have been scheduled the last couple of weeks: Colorado State vs. BYU, Utah vs. Miami (FL), UCLA vs. Utah, UCLA vs. Cal, and on the FCS side: Eastern Washington vs. both Northern Iowa and IUW - both quality opponents for the Eagles.

• And a couple of FCS series that got extended which caught my attention: Towson vs. Morgan State and Illinois State vs. Eastern Illinois.

• Lastly, the Uni Watch website has recently posted some new uniform designs for the upcoming season. Some are similar to prior seasons, but have had some fine tuning - and I have to say that they are looking sharp. Can’t wait to see them on the field.

• And before I forget - as if I need any firing up for the upcoming season, I watched “Remember the Titans” (I know it is high school level) which always gives me a chuckle, as well as the Hokies “Enter Sandman” entrance. Always gives me goosebumps! Circle their Thursday night game against Boston College on October 17th…

July 2nd:

• Hard to believe that Maryland has now been in the Big Ten for ten years! Doesn’t that decision look awfully smart now - at least from a financial standpoint…

• The Terps former conference could look entirely different a year from now. Won’t be long before Florida State and Clemson get out - followed by others. Can’t help but think that the ACC will soon look like a Group of Five conference.

• Not sure what’s going on with USC. Two big 2025 recruits have left - and now five-star quarterback Julian Lewis looks like he might be out the door as well. I didn’t expect this when Riley was hired away from the Sooners!

• This fall, Kyle Whittingham will be turning 65 (November). He will also be entering his 20th year as the head coach of the Utes. Sensing that he won’t be around for much longer, Utah has announced their head-coach-in-waiting: Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley - who will be entering his 17th season with the program.

July 1st:

• A day of conference realignment - so I spent my day making the remaining adjustments to my spreadsheets in order to reflect this realignment for 2024. With the changes there is one new football conference starting this fall - the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.

• We are also witnessing the end of another FBS conference - at least I think that it is officially done. The Pac-12 will exist in name, but not really on the field. Not a new thing though because I have seen the Big 8, Southwest Conference, the Big East and the WAC (FBS level) all go by the wayside since I have followed college football - so this Pac-12 issue isn’t a new thing.

• A positive development with Division III - it appears as though the playoff will expand out to 40 teams - as opposed to the most recent format of 32 teams. With 28 conferences (I believe all will have an automatic bid), that will now allow for 12 at-large bids this fall, giving some very deserving teams a chance to play into December. I am all for this change!

June 30th:

• As June comes to an end - we are now halfway through 2024! Last year at this point in time, I had just over 3300 visitors for the year - and so far in 2024, this site has seen over 6500 visits. Hopefully these gains continue into the season!

• I also have to say that I am very happy with the reorganization I did on the site - which has enabled me to add quite a few blogs this month. A very exciting month it has been for me!

• Lastly, I have to admit that I caved - and placed an order for Phil Steele’s Preview magazine. Can’t believe the price! I think that I have sucker written on my forehead. Oh well….maybe I will get his online FCS preview…lol

June 28th:

• Another day, another thought where I have to make a tough, but right decision about looking ahead instead of being behind bigger sites regarding Top Non-Conference Games. Since many sites have posted stories on this year’s best non-conference games in the FBS, I’m thinking it’s best for me to post blogs on the best non-conference games in 2025 and beyond, at least for the FBS, instead of taking the time to do what has already been done. I will still do stories on 2024 non-conference games in the other divisions.

• I have typed up and posted the list of FBS quarterbacks that transferred to the FCS in 2024 in hopes of finding playing time. Must admit, I could only identify four names out of the 49 listed. Twelve FCS teams got two quarterbacks from the FBS - so not everyone on this list is guaranteed more playing time in 2024.

• Appalachian State posted on their website that their game home game against Liberty on September 28th is already sold out - and that is before individual tickets were put up for sale to the public. Should be a great Group of Five matchup as both teams won their respective conference championships. By the way, this will be their 11th meeting - but their first one as FBS opponents.

• Had to laugh at myself when I wondered why SMU and Marshall would agree to a home-and-home series with an FCS team. Well - I had forgotten that Missouri State is moving up to the FBS in 2025…

• Can’t help but laugh at Florida A&M and their relationship with their former conference - the MEAC. The Rattlers left the conference twice, for a total of three years to try their hand at independence before leaving for a third time after the 2020 season to join the SWAC. Hopefully they have found their true home.

June 27th:

• I have both started and finished a few pieces and amended others this week that will enhance the website for this fall as well as future years. The foundation is now set - so all I have to do is build upon it brick by brick.

• Took a break from creating today, so I have been spending time updating my Games to Follow spreadsheet. Division III schools have for the most part have released their schedules. Out of 749 games, I have updated 466 of them - so only 283 left to go!

• It was awfully good to see the report about Notre Dame and Michigan State agreeing to a home-and-home series in 2026 and 2027. I was aware of their playing in 2026 (no specific date though), but I was thinking it might be a one game matchup. Even though the Irish lead the all-time series, the two programs have split their last 22 meetings (if my math is correct) since 1992.

June 26th:

• Started this morning on the current memberships (and past) of FCS conferences - and two of the conferences I completed couldn’t be any more different. The Big Sky has existed for just over 60 years and they have only had four programs leave - two (Boise State and Nevada) that have moved up to the FBS ranks. While the Big South has been around for 20+ years - and they only have two current members, and thirteen teams have left for other conferences. Granted, three teams have joined the FBS - Liberty, Coastal Carolina and Kennesaw State.

• Going back to Boise State and Nevada for a moment - since the two teams moved up from Division II in the late 70s, their conference membership has intertwined. They have both played in the following conferences: Big Sky, Big West, WAC and Mountain West.

June 25th:

• I can’t help but like the recent home-and-home series that was just announced yesterday between Northern Colorado and South Dakota. Former North Central Conference (Division II) for just over twenty years (1978-2002), the Bears lead the all-time series 20-16, but the Coyotes have won three of the four meetings as Division I foes.

• Pawing through Northern Colorado’s Record Book reminds me that I need to put together a blog on programs that have reclassified since 2020…and their successes or lack of success.

• And reading about Purdue announcing its 2025 matchup with Southern Illinois gets me to thinking that I should probably start gathering the numbers on FBS payouts to FCS programs in 2025 (and beyond?)

• The Western Carolina - Campbell home-and-home that was just reported might not seem like much since they have met only two times prior to this year, but they are now scheduled to play each other for the next four years. And they are in-state opponents, plus they are both from solid conferences (CAA and Southern) - so maybe this series will gain traction and become more relevant.

• Just noticing Presbyterian’s non-conference schedule beyond 2024 - and the Blue Hose have only ONE non-conference game scheduled, and it isn’t until 2027 when they meet Murray State.

June 20th:

• Spent some time this morning making a couple of updates to both my Division II and Division III Coaching Changes documents. By my count, I have a total of 111 coaching changes across all divisions for the 2024 season - and there is still one vacancy (Rowan - Division III) that I am aware of.

• I like the announcement that East Carolina added Western Carolina to their 2027 schedule. These two teams met every year from 1946 through 1963 when they were both part of the North State Conference - which would later evolve to the Conference Carolinas. The Pirates have won the last eight meetings dating back to 1963, and lead the all-time series 18-13.

June 19th:

• First off - I am very excited because this afternoon I added a couple of different tabs, phased out a couple - and now I feel like I have the tab format the way I want it going forward. I certainly have my work cut out for me to add pieces to each tab, but there’s no doubt that I feel much more organized - which can only enhance the site in the coming months.

• Also, I am feeling better about not recording my thoughts every day because it has allowed me to think more clearly as to how I want this website to move forward to the coming years. Believe me - daily thoughts are part of my day every day, and when the season begins, I hope that I will make the time to record my thoughts again each day (preferably in the morning).

• I noticed that UTRGV (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley University) has officially scheduled/announced their very first opponent. On August 30th 2025, the Vaqueros will host the Sul Ross State Lobos - who are transitioning to Division II this fall.

• FYI - the translation/meaning of Vaqueros: it’s Spanish for Cowboy or Herdsman, and the word is used in Mexico and southwestern United States.

• Unfortunately USC and Ole Miss canceled their home-and-home series that was to begin next fall. Can’t help but wonder if the Rebels are preparing for a nine-game conference schedule…

• Added the recently signed home-and-home series between East Tennessee State and Murray State to my Games to Follow spreadsheet. The two teams met every year from 1958 to 1978 as Ohio Valley Conference opponents - and the series is tied 9-9-3.

June 8th:

• A couple of days ago, the 2023-2024 Bowl Schedule was released. Two things that stuck out to me: Two bowls are being played on December 14th - when Army-Navy meet for the 125th time, and there are only three bowls being played on New Year’s Day. Of course, all three of those games will be playoff games, so it won’t get much better than that.

• Was reading Stewart Mandel’s Mailbag on the Athletic website, and he was asked which college football preview magazine he preferred. It was Athlon - the magazine I put down. His reasoning - he likes the depth charts.

• The Minnesota Gophers released a video and a media statement revealing their new uniforms for 2024. They look pretty sharp. My favorite - the gold helmet.

• Old Dominion added a second future game with Norfolk State in 2027. The other matchup is scheduled in 2026. I love these games because the campuses are separated by only 3.5 miles.

• Also on the scheduling side - I like how Eastern Kentucky recently added both Chattanooga and Dayton to their future schedule. All three teams are solid programs, and always a threat to sneaking into the playoffs. They are also cross-border matchups, so the schools are in close proximity to each other.

June 5th:

• Had a very productive day yesterday as I was able to cross things off my To Do list - including schedule changes, coaching changes and finding opponents for Mercyhurst so that they can be listed in the Games to Follow spreadsheet.

• Spent a good chunk of this morning on looking up whatever series history I could for NESCAC teams. Led me to discover that there were some games missing on the Games to Follow spreadsheet that were actually worthy of being listed.

• I see that Colorado is a 7.5-point favorite over North Dakota State as of yesterday. Something to consider - the Bison are 9-4 against FBS opponents since 2011.

• I really like the Boise State-Notre Dame game in 2025 that was announced yesterday. Funny thing - that makes it back-to-back first meetings for Notre Dame that season as they play Arkansas for the first time the week before (9/27/25).

• Another intriguing matchup, from a historical perspective, announced: Utah vs. Idaho in 2026. These teams first played in 1908, and played a majority of their games between 1937 and 1964. The Vandals won the only game since 1964, 28-17 back in 1993.

June 4th:

• Yesterday ESPN posted that they would televise close to 1000 games. That should be enough for any college football fan!

• Black Friday is going through some significant changes in 2024. Two underrated rivalry games are moving to Friday (Georgia vs. Georgia Tech and Minnesota vs. Wisconsin), while the Egg Bowl can now be watched during the day - and Iowa vs. Nebraska will now be under the lights. Add in the renewed Oklahoma State vs. Colorado series and you have a darn good day of football.

• Have to say - I like the Thanksgiving night matchup between Memphis and Tulane, as it could be a preview of the AAC Championship or perhaps it could be for a berth in the game. The Tigers lead the all-time series, but the Green Wave have won four of the last six matchups, including last year’s game in Memphis.

• Craig Haley (theanalyst.com) provides a solid and thorough Week-by-Week Guide of FCS games that are worth following this fall, but I’m surprised that he didn’t include more Ivy League games - from both a competitive and historical perspective. Missing matchups that come to mind: Yale-Dartmouth, Yale-Princeton, Harvard-Dartmouth, Princeton-Penn.

• Just updated a couple of coaching changes for Division II (one change) and Division III (two changes) for the upcoming season.

June 3rd:

• Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans are taking flak for trying to wiggle out of their non-conference game with LSU. One has to wonder if the recent realignment in the Big Ten and SEC will bring these great matchups to an end…

• The Florida Cup makes a welcome return this year - for only the fourth time in the last twenty years. My thought, and this is hard for me to say, is that the Hurricanes will hold the cup for the first time since 2004 based on them hosting the Seminoles - though going on the road to Gainesville to open the season won’t be a cakewalk.

• Any chance of Dabo leaving Clemson to coach the Gators in 2025?

• And would Utah leave the Big 12 if asked to join the ACC?

• 2024 will be the 100th anniversary of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium - and to celebrate they plan on wearing three different throwback helmets. Though the underlined Illinois helmet from the 1990s isn’t bad - I like the other two options that much more. The 1960s design (four stars above a number) and the arched Illini from the 70s and 80s are slick.

• Got to looking at the latest Football Power Index posted on ESPN. After looking at the top three Group of Five teams (Boise State, James Madison, and UTSA), I’m thinking I would put more stock into the SP+ rankings that have Boise State, Memphis, and Liberty lumped together as the best Group of Five teams. That grouping makes more sense to me.

• Looking into the Tennessee Tech at Middle Tennessee upcoming game, I didn’t realize that they played for a trophy from 1960 to 1998, as the Totem Pole now sits behind glass in MTSU’s Hall of Fame building. The trophy had two names - the Blue Raiders named the pole Harvey, while the trophy at Tennessee Tech became known as Shinny Ninny.

June 1st:

• Had a strong start to the week, but things slowed down as work got busier. So a tad disappointed in my progress, but expecting a big week the next few days.

• Posted my initial start to Games to Follow Week 1 FBS - more to follow.

• Also, got going again on updating the Coaching Records spreadsheet, and with that started created a Longest Tenured FCS Head Coaches spreadsheet.

• Got two College Football Preview magazines - Lindy’s and Athlon. I’ve decided that I like Lindy’s quite a bit better because of its FCS and Divisions II and III coverage. Athlon has very good FBS coverage and that’s it. They have also gone to lesser quality paper - but they charge a lot more than they did a few years ago.

• Was very excited to get my “new” Phil Steele magazine before these other two, which didn’t make sense to me when ordering it since Steele’s comes out in June. Well - it was his 2023 version! And I call myself a detail oriented person on my resume! LOL

May 27th:

• Today we honor the men and women who have died while serving the United States Armed Services.

• Good luck to the Terps today as they take on Notre Dame for the 2024 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship. Surprise visit to the finals for Maryland - so nothing to lose today in Philadelphia!

• Currently working on my Games to Follow Week 1: FBS document. Hope I get to post it before the month ends.

• Saw a quick piece on a college football fan who displayed his collection of more than 400 helmets on his front lawn a couple of years ago. That number has grown to more than 550 today - and he might have to do another display if he gets more than 100 retweets to his original post. I have to admit that I am very jealous of that collection!

May 23rd:

• Almost all Division II schedules are released and I have gone through them with a fine-tooth comb in figuring out the games that I hope to follow this fall. Some games I have selected might be considered a reach - but for some reason I will curious as to the result.

• My Games to Follow spreadsheet for 2024 is now just over 1200 games between the three divisions (each are around 400 games!) that I have completed. Once I work my way through Division III, the total number of games will probably be about 1800. Division III will have the most games to follow just because of the sheer number of teams.

• I like the games that FOX will be televising on Friday nights this fall - and with any luck I will get to watch some of them. My two favorites are the Arizona at Kansas State game and the Iowa at UCLA matchup - which reminds me of an old Rose Bowl matchup.

• Of course the Rutgers at USC game is crazy for the East Coast Scarlet Knights as it’s like playing a game at 11:00 pm for them!

• I like how Maryland extended their series with the Towson Tigers by a couple of games. Visited the school once while I was a student at Maryland - nice enough site north of Baltimore.

• Also like how Maryland will renew their series with Delaware - especially since the Blue Hens will be moving up to CUSA. Delaware leads the all-time series, that began in 1899, 5-4-1 even though they have lost four straight to the Terps and haven’t won a game in the series since 1917.

• Must order my College Football Preview magazines tonight!

May 22nd:

• Spent the day at home yesterday overlooking some electrical work on the house, and was without power for close to six hours. Was smart enough to have a full battery on my laptop so that I could work on a document or two of mine.

• Created a new document on conference alignment that I have thought about for a while since I was looking for a better format than the one I have been resourcing on the NCAA Records website. When all is said and done, I will have conference alignment for all divisions - both current and discontinued conferences.

• When that document is created, I will reference it to create a spreadsheet by team to highlight both current and former conference opponents - and how many years they have been in the same conference with each of those teams. Not sure I explained it correctly, but it will be posted on the site when completed.

• I’m also in the process of creating a Rivalry tab (well creating documents that will lead to a tab), after organizing all my info on rivalry/trophy games. It’s funny how it has taken me this long to do it when it was my love of these games that got me going on this hobby of mine…

• A lot of news about the state of the Colorado football program, but the school must be thrilled that they have already sold out their season tickets - with this being the first time I believe that it has happened before August.

• Not sure why Princeton and North Carolina A&T have agreed to a home-and-home series starting in 2030. I would think that the Tigers could stick to older opponents in their Mid-Atlantic area.

• Army continues to cut games from their future schedules as they get ready for a conference schedule. Marshall now has some games to schedule - maybe some old MAC foes, or better yet - how about West Virginia?

May 20th:

• Didn’t get the lacrosse rematch that I was hoping for between Maryland and Johns Hopkins, but they do get a rematch against former ACC rival Virginia.

• Gettysburg College will be installing lights this summer - and they will be ready to go for the upcoming season. The Bullets will play their first game under the lights against rival McDaniel on October 4th, and have another Friday night game the following week against Johns Hopkins. I will enjoy checking these games out!

• Dakorien Moore, the #1 WR in the 2025 Top Football Recruits ranking according to 247Sports announced recently that he is no longer committed to LSU. He has three official visits set up in the coming weeks: Ohio State, Texas and Oregon. 247Sports speculates that he will settle in with home state team - Texas. Who wouldn’t want to be Arch Manning’s target?

• Troy was really busy last week scheduling non-conference opponents. In one week’s time they were able to fill their non-conference schedule through 2028 by lining up games against Buffalo, SE Louisiana, Miami (FL), West Georgia, and Alabama State.

• Nice to see NC State and Virginia schedule two non-conference games against each other in 2025 and 2026. Unfortunately the Wolfpack are now over scheduled for non-conference games in both years - and their matchups with Appalachian State are now in jeopardy.

• Mercyhurst is stepping up to Division I (NEC) this fall, and in an attempt to fill their schedule the Lakers added Buffalo State for a matchup in early October. These teams have met a total of 16 times since Mercyhurst started their football program back in 1981.

• I came across an article where Birmingham Southern (Division III) athletic department was holding their first of two merchandise sales in an attempt to help pay off the school’s debt. The college is closing its doors in two weeks. Sad situation.

• Another transfer name caught my attention this morning: Pig Cage. The defensive back, who has played for Nicholls, LSU and UTSA has now committed to Louisiana Tech for his final season of eligibility.

May 18th:

• A big shoutout to the Maryland men’s lacrosse team for beating No. 2 Duke this afternoon! Hope this leads to a Johns Hopkins rematch!

• How about the three games that ABC will televise on Saturday, August 31st: Clemson vs. Georgia (Atlanta), Miami (FL) at Florida, and Notre Dame at Texas A&M. The only other FBS game that might persuade me to change channels would be the Penn State at West Virginia game.

• Backtracking for a moment to Week Zero, there is a new game added to the docket - making it seven games that weekend. The McNeese at Tarleton State game has been moved up from its originally scheduled date of 9/14. Might not look like much on paper, but might be worth checking out because the Texans have been successful in their transition to Division I - and they could be a playoff contender in 2024.

• After 115 seasons, Whittier College (nickname The Poets) shutdown the football program to save money. Now under new leadership, there is hope that the team will go the route of UAB and Maine Maritime, and get resurrected. It looks like the school needs to raise $250k - which doesn’t seem like a huge amount of money.

• On the recruiting side of things, it looks like Ryan Fitzgerald (the son of Pat Fitzgerald) has committed to Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes. A big shocker that he didn’t want to play quarterback for the Wildcats!

May 17th:

• Back to sharing my thoughts (my apologies for keeping a lot to myself), but another chunk of time off has further cleared my head as to how I would like this site to go heading into and going through the 2024 season. Now I just need to be very productive with the limited time I have!

• I must admit, Heroesports gave me the idea of what my Daily Thoughts should be - they gave me focus: feature an assortment of news and rumblings, and quick commentary on various topics. And looking back at notes (back to 2021) I made about what I would like to do and create for this project, they gave me the jolt I needed as to what I would like to include in my Rants and Raves and topics for upcoming (2028?) articles. So I have been very busy these ten or so days - just not on the written side of things.

• So to get things restarted…I got a good laugh when I saw that the quarterback that transferred from Oklahoma to ULM is named General Booty. If I were in the broadcast booth, I’m not sure if I could contain my laughter if he were to be in the game.

• By the way - former LSU quarterback (and MLB player) Josh Booty is an uncle of the Booty General.

• Michigan and Eastern Michigan will play each other in 2027 and 2030. After finding out that their campuses are less than six miles apart and that they first met back in 1896, I had to add them to my Games to Follow sheet. I’m surprised that they have only played ten times - all Wolverine wins.

• Was very surprised to see that Richmond will be joining the Patriot League in 2025. I’m really happy for the Patriot League, and I am excited from a historical standpoint about having the series between Richmond and Georgetown resume. since the schools are from the two capital cities during the Civil War. Maybe there is a trophy or rivalry name in the future for these two opponents.

• On the flip side, I am concerned about the CAA, as it is seeing its top teams leave: James Madison, Delaware, and now Richmond. What happens if Villanova and William & Mary follow Richmond out the door? If that happens, my interest in that conference, even though it still has Maine, UNH, and Rhode Island, dwindles even more…

• A transfer that might require some following this fall - Terrell Allen, who just committed to Tulane. The former Tennessee State defensive end, won the 2023 Buck Buchanan Award (Most Outstanding Defensive Player in the FCS), had 14.5 sacks and 28 tackles for loss last season.

• Another recent transfer, this one from Division II up to the FCS), will be interesting to see as well. Former Lenoir-Rhyne running back Dwayne McGee has followed his head coach (Mike Jacobs) to Mercer. A two-time D2 All-American, McGee has rushed for 4,574 yards in forty games, and scored 46 touchdowns in that time.

May 6th:

• I was shocked this morning when I saw that New Mexico State had fourteen 2023 players transfer up to Power 4 teams for the upcoming season. This program had a record of 8-30 from 2018 thru 2021…

• Dave Aranda avoided the hook at the end of last season when his Baylor teams endured their third sub-.500 season in four years. 2024 will be a make-or-break year for Aranda, whose team’s power ranking in the Big 12 is in the bottom third - so it looks like an uphill climb for both coach and team.

• Other head coaches to keep an eye on in 2024 to see if they make it for another year: Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State, Scott Satterfield at Cincinnati, and even Deion Sanders in Boulder.

• Guess which Big 12 team has played the most games since their program started: West Virginia with 1,352 games played since 1891. Kansas trails them with 1,342 games played since 1890. Other teams with more than 1,300 games played: Cincinnati (1,317), TCU (1,316) and Colorado (1,303).

• Some win milestones for Big 12 programs this year: Both Utah and Colorado (725 wins), Texas Tech (600 wins) and perhaps UCF (300 wins).

May 5th:

• Added the 9/21 Kansas at West Virginia matchup as a “Game to Follow” as it is a crucial game for both teams jockeying for positioning in the Big 12.  I’m thinking it will come down to whichever team’s defense makes the most key stops.

• Also scheduled on that day is Utah at Oklahoma State, which is expected to be a Top 20 game.  It’s also a first-time matchup of two coaches that are entering their 20th seasons as head coach of their respective teams, and were both hired within days of each other.

• Speaking of Kyle Whittingham, back in December 2024 he was offered the head coaching job for the Utes and Brigham Young – his alma mater.  After taking a few excruciating days to think about it, he ultimately picked Utah’s offer.

• I couldn’t help but add the Houston at Kansas game on 10/19 as another “Game to Follow” because of the head coach matchup between Lance Leipold and new Cougar head coach Willie Fritz. Leipold is resurrecting the Jayhawk program, and Fritz will be trying to do the same at Houston. Both coaches have won wherever they have gone, so this should be a great matchup!

• Ironically Willie Fritz will coach against two teams that he coached previously. Georgia Southern had originally been scheduled to play the Cougars in 2020 and 2021, but the home-and-home series got pushed back to 2026 and 2027, while Sam Houston was scheduled three years ago to play Houston last year, and again in 2028. Fritz was successful at each school, going 40-15 in four years as coach of the Bearkats - twice making the FCS Championship game, while he went 17-7 (14-2 conference record) for the Eagles as they transitioned to the FBS.

• Last year the Jayhawks ended their 14-year losing season streak, which they did quite easily - as they went 9-4. Now, Kansas must end their 15-game losing streak to in-state rival Kansas State! Unfortunately, only three of the fifteen games in this streak have been close - one of them being last year’s matchup in Lawrence.

May 4th:

• While working through the spreadsheets I have put together for the 2024 season, I had forgotten about my new one that I created back in early January which lists each team and their current streak of winning or losing seasons…

• Memphis is one of eleven FBS teams (one of three Group of Five) that currently has 10+ straight winning seasons.  Within that streak they have won 10+ games three times.

• Though they have played in bowl games the last two years, Rice has endured nine straight losing seasons.

• When UAB returned to FBS football in 2017, winning seasons were the norm while the Blazers were in CUSA, but a new head coach and their move to the AAC led to a 4-8 year in 2023.

• Now SMU is moving to a new conference in 2024, and the question is whether or not they will be able to extend their consecutive winning season streak to six years. Conference previews have the Mustangs in the middle-of-the-pack, so a winning season seems likely.

• Clemson has had a winning season since 2011 under Dabo Swinney, and up until last year they had won at least ten games in each of those seasons. During this time the Tigers had also won two national championships.

May 3rd:

• So far this morning, I have been scanning my “Go-to” websites for news and discovered, among other things, that as of this past Tuesday there is another head coach change - this one at Hampton (FCS). It reminds me to review my Coaching Changes spreadsheets (Divisions other than FBS) and give update them as needed.

• Still not sure what I think of Brian Ferentz being hired by Maryland as an analyst. I guess that he has benefits for the program - but I just ask that they keep him away from the offensive coordinator on game days.

• I’m a big fan of Houston wanting to keep and use their “Luv Ya Blue” alternate uniforms.

• Speaking of uniforms, West Virginia revealed their new alternate black uniform that honors the state’s mining and coal industry. Love the look and love the thought!

• Getting tired of the Sanders family with their social media posts. Just seems like they are going about things the wrong way, and it’s not sitting well with many. For me - I’m no looking forward even more to the Colorado at Nebraska game on September 7th!

• Looking to see if St. Augustine (Division II) had hired their head coach yet for 2024, and I found out that they have suspended their football program for this season. The school’s financial issues are the cause. Last month the IRS placed a lien on the school - and the school hasn’t payed some of its creditors for two years. Doesn’t look good…

• It took me a while, but I have updated my Coaching Changes blogs for FCS and Divisions II and III. Can’t believe that it has been just over two months since I last went through them.

• Looks like the only head coach vacancy left for 2024 is Rowan (NJ) - longtime coach Jay Accorsi retired back in mid-April.

May 1st:

• Spring Game Attendance:  Ohio State (80k), Alabama (72k), Penn State (67k), Nebraska (60k), Georgia (55k)

• Colorado was criticized for their spring crowd (28.5k), but they were still ranked at #13 – just 2.5k behind Michigan

• Navy will be the third college program to play a total of 1400 games (Penn – 1433 and Rutgers – 1408).  The Midshipmen will play their milestone game against Air Force on October 5th.

• Two other teams will be playing their 1400th game in 2024:  Michigan and Lehigh.  Michigan will hit this milestone on 10/19 against Illinois, while Lehigh will do it against Georgetown two weeks later.

• I added the 2026 Michigan at Rutgers game to my Games to Follow spreadsheet because it looked like the first matchup of programs each with more than 1400 games played, but it looks like the 2025 Nebraska-Penn State game might beat them to it if their game gets scheduled no sooner than early November.

• The ACC looks good to me when breaking it down between original/older conference members and former Big East members – but adding Stanford, Cal and SMU just doesn’t make sense to me…

• ACC Program Milestones that can be reached in 2024:  Clemson – 800 wins (certainty), Boston College – 700 wins (likely), Syracuse – 750 wins, Cal – 700 wins and Wake Forest – 500 wins (maybe)

• Team with the 2nd most All-Time wins in ACC behind Clemson:  Virginia Tech (772 wins at start of the season)

April 30th:

• If my count is correct it is now 116 days until college football kicks off its 2024 season in Ireland.

• On September 28th, NC State entertains Northern Illinois – where Dave Doeren was HC from 2011-2012.  He went 23-4 in his two seasons as the head coach of the Huskies.

• Mack Brown trails Brian Kelly by one win (282 vs. 283) for most wins by an active head coach in all divisions.  Currently seven (five of them are in the FBS) out of 700 active NCAA head coaches have more than 200 wins…

• Meanwhile, Fran Brown at Syracuse is one of five FBS head coaches looking for his first win as a college football head coach.  The others:  Jay Sawvel (Wyoming), Trent Bay (Oregon State), Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State), Gerard Parker (Troy).

• Gerard Parker failed to win any of his six games as the interim head coach of Purdue back in 2016.

• Last year, Dabo Swinney passed Frank Howard for most wins (166) as a Clemson football head coach against Notre Dame on November 4th, and he became the second head football coach to surpass 100 wins in ACC history.  The other being Bobby Bowden, who retired with 117 career ACC victories (105 after vacated wins) as Florida State’s head coach.

• Something that should impress anyone about Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson, who attended Williams College (Division III NESCAC school), – he is the only head coach in NCAA History to win 10 or more games in a single season at four different Division I schools.

April 29th:

• With realignment running rampant, I added the Memphis at USF (10/11 - Friday night) game as a game to follow since the schools are two of the three remaining charter members (the other being Temple) of the AAC. The Tigers lead the series 8-4 since the teams first met in 2001.

• Another Memphis game that got added: at Florida State (9/14). Seminole head coach Mike Norvell was the head coach at Memphis from 2016-2019, where he compiled a record of 38-15. FSU leads the all-time series with the Tigers, which started in 1959, 10-7-1. This will be their first meeting in 34 years.

• North Texas head coach Eric Morris played wide receiver for Texas Tech from 2004 thru 2008 under Mike Leach. During his time as a Red Raider, Morris earned the nickname “the Elf”. The Mean Green will take the field against Texas Tech on 9/14 with the all-time series tied 4-4.

• Looking forward to the Duke at Miami (FL) matchup on 11/2, as Blue Devil head coach Manny Diaz hopes to beat the team that he coached from 2019-2021. The Hurricanes lead the all-time series 15-5, but the Blue Devils have won three of the last five since 2018.

• Something I had forgotten about - the man on the opposite sideline in that matchup, Mario Cristobal, was once the head coach of Florida International. In six years, from 2007-2012, he led the Panthers to a 27-47 record - which got him fired. So far at Miami his record is 12-13, a unimpressive start to his tenure as the head coach of the Hurricanes.

April 28th:

• The 2024 NFL Draft came and went in a hurry. Must admit that I like the current format - though I wouldn’t mind more rounds. Even if the late rounds don’t have many players that stick to see the season start, it’s still wonderful to hear your name announced on Draft weekend.

• Congratulations to Jalyx Hunt - the first Houston Christian player to be selected in the NFL Draft. Hunt was selected in the third round by the Philadelphia Eagles.

• Also selected in the third round was Kiran Amegadjie, an offensive tackle out of Yale. I was hoping to see more Ivy League players selected this year, but Amegadjie was the only one.

• There was one Division II player selected yesterday: Michael Jerrell. The offensive tackle out of Findlay participated in the Hula Bowl and put on a show at Ohio State’s pro day. Jerrell was selected by the Seahawks.

• Lastly, the Janke brothers out of South Dakota State were selected in the draft, but the wide receiver duo will stick together as they both signed Undrafted Free Agent contracts with the Houston Texans.

April 26th:

• There has certainly been some gaps in my Daily Thoughts since March 1st, but during this time period, my love of college football has continued to grow as I have learned to appreciate the connections and meanings of less mainstream games that would tend to fall through the cracks. My creating and maintaining of numerous spreadsheets (which has taken up much of my time the last couple of months), along with numerous websites for research has brought to light many games that would have gone unnoticed - as well as missed milestones. It is my hope to share these findings this year on the website in a way that will make the game more meaningful for my visitors!

• One thing that I will be doing in hopes of improving cfbeveryday is that I will not post the weekly schedules for the FBS and FCS games - but instead will be posting weekly Games to Follow for all Divisions. With any luck I will get the weeks posted before Fall Camps begin, and will continue to adjust and massage them as necessary throughout the season because I know that when the games are played - there will be new games to track later in the year…

April 1st:

• Florida State and Clemson to the Big Ten in 2025…April Fool joke or not?

• Not an April Fool joke, I haven’t sent out any thoughts for almost a month, but I have been working on the site behind the scenes by working on and adding to my spreadsheets as well as organizing all of my paperwork - either filing it or recycling it…

• I have focused primarily for the last month on my Games to Follow spreadsheet - making a conscious effort to get through all of Division I before getting on to the other two divisions. That was done because schedules are pretty much finalized for all Division I schools - while Division II and III teams will be posting them over the next two months. More efficient for me to focus on what is out there for schedules.

• With that being said, I have a total of 850 lines of Games to Follow in the FBS, but just over 400 of them are scheduled in 2024. Another 230 are scheduled between 2025 and 20234 - which leaves just over 200 games not scheduled currently. Too many good games not scheduled because of realignment or bad feelings between the schools…

March 7th:

• I have had a lot of squirrels running around in front of me for the last few days - quite distracting to my thoughts. Though this site and beautiful game have been a great distractor, I have realized that from time-to-time I need to remove the blinders and take in all that is around me…

• With that being said, I’ve been thinking that perhaps other subjects might pop up here from time-to-time. For example, the last few years I have overlooked March Madness to work on this hobby of mine, but it’s time that I give a bit of focus and attention to another great sport. And I am doing this even though my beloved Maryland team might struggle to even make the NIT!

• I’m looking forward to seeing some conference tournament play for the next 10+ days! The last couple of days I have printed off some conference brackets hoping it will help keep me organized and focused on what I would like to watch and follow. I’m sure a couple of stories will pop up here!

• Another challenge of mine - besides time, time, and less time, is to effectively use these spreadsheets that I created last year and am updating/maintaining this spring. So much information (I think) which somehow needs to be summarized in many thoughts or in new blogs.

March 1st:

• First thing I saw this morning was the sad news that Notre Dame College (OH) is closing its doors after the spring semester. The school was founded as an all-women’s institution in 1922, and didn’t become co-ed until 2001. Football was launched eight years later in 2009, and it didn’t take long for the Falcons to establish themselves as the won four straight Mountain East Championships from 2018-2021. In 2018 they reached the Division II semifinals, where they lost to eventual champion Valdosta State. Just three weeks ago, the school announced its signing class - 17 players, all from Ohio.

• On the other end of the spectrum, I was looking at the schedule of the Greensboro College (NC) Pride, and I noticed some unfavorable series results. Further digging, and I noticed that the Pride haven’t had a winning season (3 seasons they were .500) since they started up their program by in 1998. In fact, they haven’t won more than one game in a season since 2015!

• So far a day for small schools…yesterday I came upon what is being called the “Oregon Cup”. Created last summer, four Oregon-based Northwest Conference colleges (Willamette, George Fox, Pacific, and Lewis & Clark) will play a round robin schedule (non-conference) which started last fall and will continue for another two years. Then in 2026, there will be a Championship Game to determine who wins the Oregon Cup and Third Place Game. The standings after the first round of play: Lewis & Clark (1-0), George Fox (1-0), Willamette (0-1) and Pacific (0-1).

• Back to the FBS for a moment, schedules are being released fast and furious as the Sun Belt has now sent out their conference schedule for the 2024 season.

February 29th:

• Finished up my binge watching last night (Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Boba Fett), so my distractions as I head into March should be limited - though I have to finish up watching the 2023-2024 Biathlon schedule, which I’m sure will take me through March.

• About an hour ago, I clicked on FBSchedules and saw that the American Athletic Conference released its schedule, and then moments ago I was on the site again and there was the Mountain West schedule! If I am correct that leaves only two conferences in the FBS that haven’t released their schedules yet: MAC and Sun Belt.

• Adding a bit more context to Oregon canceling their Week Zero matchup with Hawaii…it was done so that the Ducks could schedule Oregon State. Well worth it in my eyes, and just think about what it does for Delaware State!

• We haven’t even had a chance to have a 12 team playoff, and the Big Ten and SEC already want to expand it to 14 teams - and their initial proposal was to have four teams each! Not a fan of that proposal - or giving two berths to the ACC and Big 12. Let the best teams in after doling out the automatic berths.

• 247Sports has published a couple (3?) Way-too-early conference predictions, and the first one I checked out was their thoughts on the Big Ten. Three things that caught my attention: 1) Nebraska was listed in a three-way tie for third with USC and Iowa. 2) Rutgers was listed higher in the standings than Wisconsin and Michigan State. 3) Poor old UCLA and Purdue are predicted to finish at the bottom - along with Minnesota.

• Lastly today, what a story on Ray Davis (RB from Kentucky/Vandy/Temple) on the Athletic website! An amazing story about an amazing individual!

February 28th:

• For the last week, I haven’t had any fewer thoughts about this wonderful game (though I have binge watched some Disney+ series), I have just had a harder time getting those thoughts out to my fingers. I have realized that the sooner I get my thoughts down in the day, the better off I am…lol

• Realignment has hit again on a small scale, but it can lead to more, as UMass announced that they will be returning to the MAC - in all sports this time. I feel bad for the basketball program leaving the A-10, but this should be beneficial to the football team. Is Western Kentucky ready to join the MAC now that they don’t have to be a package deal with Middle Tennessee? And will this bring Missouri State up from the FCS ranks to join Delaware as new members of CUSA?

• Now that big brother Texas has joined the SEC, will Texas A&M look for a move to the Big Ten so that they can stand alone again? Will the Big Ten do this to the SEC? Remains to be seen.

• Finished updating my coaching changes documents with all the new hirings, though I still need to provide notes on some of them - mostly in the Division III document. Can’t believe that it had been a month since my last update!

• After Oregon had to cancel their Week Zero game against Hawaii, the Rainbow Warriors were left with only 11 games on their schedule. Yesterday they announced that they would host the Delaware State Hornets on August 24th instead of the Ducks. Hawaii can still add a 13th game - but since they already have two FCS opponents, they would have to find a willing FBS partner which doesn’t seem likely at this stage of the game.

February 26th:

• Worked on my Coaching Info spreadsheet during the day - kept me busy all the changes in the smaller divisions…need to get back to schedules soon…

February 25th:

• Hopefully I have updated the Longest Tenured FBS Head Coaches blog for the final time this year - well at least until coaches get fired during or after the season. May Dell McGee be the last FBS head coach hired for a while…

• The conferences with the most changes to their head coaches with five each: Mountain West (Jeff Choate, Bronco Mendenhall, Sean Lewis, Ken Niumatalolo, and Jay Sawvel) and Sun Belt (Dell McGee, Bob Chesney, Bryan Vincent, Major Applewhite and Gerard Parker)

• FBS Head Coaches looking for their first win at the college level: Fran Brown (Syracuse), Jay Sawvel (Wyoming), Trent Bay (Oregon State), Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State), and Gerard Parker (Troy). The first four coaches will also be coaching in their first game, but the first game of 2024 will be Gerard Parker’s 7th attempt to get his first win as he was Purdue’s interim coach in 2016, and he went 0-6.

February 24th:

• Missed my first day of writing my Daily Thoughts yesterday - and haven’t been productive the last three days with them, though I have been doing quite a bit of thinking. Should be back to normal either tomorrow or Monday…

February 22nd:

• Realized today that I have some catching up to do on my coaching changes blogs…

February 21st:

• Typed up another week of FCS games and made some progress on Week 3 FBS games…lots of typing.

• Just tallied up how many games I have identified to follow this upcoming season: 442. I expect the number to get up to 1800 by the time all schedules are scrutinized. With out year, it should get above 2000 - though that might be a good goal for just 2024!

• Really good article on Buddy Teevens on ESPN.com. Thoroughly enjoyed the read!

• Had another good find tonight - D3 Posting Boards, which break down a lot of sports, football included. Had fun reading NESCAC posts.

• Today, someone posted Williams College recruits for the upcoming season. Pretty cool to see when the school hasn’t posted anything for news on their football website since December 19th!

• One of the Ephs recruits was a kid from Falmouth, ME! William Gale is a 6’3”, 300 lb offensive lineman. Should be fun to follow him for the next four years…

February 20th:

• Typed up the first two weeks of FBS games and FCS games this morning, and got them posted on the website moments ago. Not sure that I am convinced of the format that I created for this year - but I am going to give it a chance before jumping into another format.

• Looking at games by week gives me another perspective for games to follow this fall, and should be a good complement to going through a team’s schedule on its own. Two games that I can use as examples would be Georgia Tech at Syracuse and Michigan State at Maryland. When looking at each of these teams’ schedules, these games wouldn’t stand out, but when looking at the Week 2 schedule - these are two of the three conference games for the week. Therefore the results of the games could be important for both the winners and the losers - as it might impact bowl eligibility and could be circled as a “must win” for all four squads.

• Another thing that will more than likely impact games to follow this fall: the SP+ Rankings found on ESPN.com. Right now the rankings are before spring practice and they are bound to change - for some significantly, but they certainly give one a perspective as to where teams stand against each other, especially in non-conference matchups. It’s also gives insight as to how conference standings might play out. What stood out to me in the first version - the gap between the first team and the second team in these conferences: AAC, MAC, and CUSA.

• Looks like Georgia State is going with their strength coach, Trent McKnight, as their interim coach. It certainly isn’t because of his “X’s” and “O’s”, but it might just be what the Panthers need to keep them together during this challenging time.

February 19th:

• Spring games begin in earnest in April, but there are two games in February: the 25th (Hawaii) and the 29th (Charleston Southern). And there are three more in March: March 2nd - Liberty, March 9th - William & Mary, and March 16th - Furman. No TV listings at the moment for these games, but I’m sure that they can be streamed on the school’s website.

• As of today, more than 50 FBS (FBS only!) quarterbacks are still in the transfer pool uncommitted. The pool just doesn’t work for everyone.

• Florida has the longest streak of games without being shut out in the FBS, as they currently sit at 449 games through the 2023 season. The longest streak of games without being shut out in all of College Football: 546 games. This streak is held by Mount Union - and the streak began back on November 7th, 1981.

• 25 FBS rivalry games have been played at least 110 times, but four of them haven’t been played going as far back as 2010 (Nebraska-Kansas). Fortunately, three of them will be played either this year (Texas-Texas A&M and Utah-Utah State) or next (Missouri-Kansas). Two more of these rivalry games have fallen victim due to conference realignment (Oregon-Oregon State, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State) and might not be played very often - though it appears that the Ducks and Beavers are making an effort to play every year.

February 18th:

• Was just comparing last February to this February regarding visits. Last year, I had 20+ visitors five times in February, and so far this year, I haven’t had a day below 20 visitors - though today will have to close fast to get there again. By the end of the month I expect Feb. 2024 to be about 50%-70% above Feb. 2023. I’ll take that!

• Looking at the records of the Findlay Oilers (Division II) yesterday, I noticed the the NCAA had them vacate 8 wins for infractions. When comparing my All-Time Records spreadsheet to the NCAA’s All-Time Records by school, I noticed that I was off by about 4 wins - even after accounting for the vacated wins. Made me realize that I will have to compare my spreadsheet to the NCAA’s Records later in the spring (or maybe summer) after they have updated their Records to include the 2023 season.

• Felt pretty good about my progress on updating things for the website, but then I looked at my 2024 Agenda, and I counted 27 things that I would like to add before the season begins. I probably should be happy with 10-12 additions! Hahaha.

• As more and more schedules get posted for the upcoming season, I should probably consider getting my Weekly Schedules typed up and uploaded - hopefully by the end of March…

February 17th:

• I didn’t realize that spring practice had already started for Georgia State when Shawn Elliott resigned as head coach. Now their spring practice has been canceled. Not fair to the team at all!

• The Gulf South Conference will be losing two more teams (after recently losing North Alabama and West Georgia to the FCS) when Conference Carolinas restarts football in 2025. Funny thing - of the five remaining teams, all have won national championships, though West Alabama’s 1971 NAIA title was a claimed championship…

February 16th:

• Random thought…I wonder how James Madison will be this year after former coach Curt Cignetti taking several assistant coaches and four standout players (ten overall) with him to Indiana. Bob Chesney has been very successful at each of his stops, so the Dukes are in good hands.

• Looks like we could have a Division III Top 10 non-conference game in early September as both Saint John’s and Wartburg released their 2024 schedules on Wednesday - and the schedules included each other. The last three times the teams have played (1994, 2015, and 2022) it was in the postseason, so this will be the first regular season meeting since 1971. The Johnnies lead the all-time series 3-2, but the Knights have won the last two meetings.

• At the bottom of the Johnnies 2024 schedule announcement, they included some attendance numbers from last fall. St. John’s led their conference in attendance, with an average crowd of 8,176 - which was good for second in all of Division III. Only UW-Whitewater had a higher average crowd number - as the Warhawks approached 8,900 fans per game.

• A couple of other things regarding this attendance number of St. John’s - their number was better than 91 FCS schools (71% of them) and 31 FCS schools don’t have the stadium capacity to match their number!

February 15th:

• For those out there counting - there are only 290 days until Texas visits College Station for their first game with the Aggies since 2011!

• Officially announced (I have been anticipating for close to a year when I first heard) yesterday - Notre Dame and Army will play at Yankee Stadium on November 23rd! The teams first met in 1913, and the Black Knights will be looking for their first win in the series since 1958 - and common sense says that they will continue looking for it for the next few years/meetings.

• Another FBS head coach has resigned to become an assistant as Shawn Elliott has stepped down after seven seasons as the head coach of Georgia State to take an assistant coach role at South Carolina.

February 14th:

• Very hard to get thoughts about college football today as Deb and I are very concerned about two very dear friends that are getting test results today regarding a serious health issue. Our love, thoughts, and support are with them and their family as they get ready to navigate a very difficult journey.

• Almost four hours after my first bullet, Deb and I visited my brother earlier this evening and we had an adjustment to our perspective, which got us back on track. Just over a year ago, my brother lost his wife of 40+ years and these last few months he has found the strength to carry on with his life - for him, for Betsy, and for his family. So, just when you think that you have life figured out, something cruel might happen and you need to keep moving forward with the change while looking back in the past fondly.

February 13th:

• Was looking at Gardner-Webb’s upcoming schedule and I was trying to figure out if I should add their matchup with Eastern Illinois to my Games to Follow spreadsheet, as the Bulldogs have made the FCS playoffs the last two years and the Panthers are expected to be a serious contender this season. Then I got to thinking that G-W lost their head coach (Tre Lamb) to East Tennessee State - and with him went 20 transfers! Seems like I should wait a bit and see how the Bulldogs do the first month of the season.

• Top 2024 Recruiting class in FCS: Houston Christian. Complete surprise! Sacramento State, Jackson State, Cal Poly and Campbell round out the Top 5. Courtesy of 247sports.com

• The Top 2024 Recruiting class in Division II: Ferris State. Out of 12 commits - they were able to sign four 3-star recruits!

• Found a listing on herosports.com of how transfers going from the FCS up to the FBS performed. A lot of names and a lot of numbers, but I’m thinking that it would be fun to summarize it. We’ll see how that goes since I have so much time…

• Last fun thing I had fun looking at this fine morning…2024 FBS payouts to FCS teams. The biggest ones: $700k to North Dakota State from Colorado and the same to Florida A&M from Miami (FL). Should be interesting to see if the Bison can collect a check and a W from the Buffs…

February 12th:

• Very quick thoughts tonight as I must clean up the kitchen before bedtime - which is fast approaching…

• Former Bruin DeShaun Foster has been hired as the next head football coach of UCLA. Hopefully he will be able to minimize transfer damage in the next few days.

• Hopefully we have all the coaches in place at the FBS level heading into the fall season.

• This morning Harvard officially announced Andrew Aurich as the man replacing Tim Murphy on the sidelines this season - and hopefully for many seasons ahead.

• Have a new opening in Division II. Truman State head coach Gregg Nesbitt has announced his retirement after 40 years of coaching - with the last 14 seasons as head coach of the Bulldogs. His accomplishments will soon follow in my 2024 Division II Coaching Changes document and blog.

• Was excited to see two new games scheduled for this year in the FCS: Eastern Kentucky vs. Morehead State (EKU leads the all-time series 53-16-4) and Furman vs. Presbyterian (Paladins lead the all-time series 43-12-1).

February 11th:

• Today I discovered that I had already had the North Carolina A&T vs. Elon game on my spreadsheet. Not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that I double count a game in my list.

• Once again going back to Game Picking for recently released Fall 2024 schedules. Kind of like that name…Game Picking. Much better than nose picking.

• Marist: This team from Poughkeepsie, NY also made the jump up to Division I from Division III back in 1993 after 15 years in the lower Division. One year later they played Georgetown, another Division III jumper, as a conference opponent in the MAAC. The Hoyas left the MAAC for the Patriot League in 2001, but the teams have continued to play as non-conference opponents. This year’s game will be the 25th meeting between the two teams.

• Morgan State: I think that I will pick Beltway Rival Howard - as I have traveled the Beltway many times between Baltimore (Morgan State) and Washington D.C. (Howard). These current MEAC teams have played 76 times (Morgan State leads 43-32-1), but the Bison have won six straight games going back to 2017.

• Prairie View A&M: The Panthers play a trophy game against Texas Southern, but this year I am choosing A&M’s 90th matchup against Southern - a game known as “Clash of the Cats”. The Jaguars hold a sizable lead in the overall series, 57-29-3, but Prairie View A&M has split the last 18 games with Southern going back to 2005.

• Lastly tonight - Shane McMahon’s son Kenyon has committed to play football at North Carolina. Kenyon’s brother Declan plays football for Indiana, but has yet to play a game in his two seasons there.

February 10th:

• So - not only does Nevada get to host a Power conference team (SMU), but they are also receiving $450k from the Mustangs!

• Also, not only did a head coach give up his position to be a offensive coordinator, but Ryan Grubb has already left his offensive coordinator role at Alabama to become the OC of the Seattle Seahawks.

• While looking into the upcoming South Carolina State vs. North Carolina A&T game this fall, I discovered that I needed to add the North Carolina A&T vs. Elon game to my Games to Watch and Follow spreadsheet. The Aggies and Phoenix have been off and on again opponents since 2009, are only 18 miles apart in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, and they are now in the same conference (CAA).

February 9th:

• Don’t know how many times I have said it, but it’s amazing how different websites can be regarding college football teams - and on all four levels. Some are so user friendly, and you can get oodles of info - while others are like pulling teeth to find tidbits, as well as poor navigation. I’m savvy in things I find and how I do it, so if I have trouble perusing a site, then maybe it isn’t very user friendly.

• In the FBS head coaching ranks, one is filled (Boston College - Bill O’Brien) and another opens (UCLA), as Chip Kelly appears to have jumped ship quickly to join Ryan Day in Columbus - stepping down to an offensive coordinator role. Day was the New Hampshire quarterback while Kelly was the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator and Day was an assistant coach for Kelly at two NFL stops - the 49ers and the Eagles. Poor Bruins - they are in for a long season or two or many more as they start playing in the Big Ten this fall.

• And though there hasn’t been a formal announcement, the Harvard Crimson newspaper announced Andrew Aurich as the next head coach of Harvard football. The players advocated for an internal hire (especially Scott Larkee), but the selection team went outside the Crimson family and Aurich, despite him never having been a head coach.

• We have a new Week Zero game: SMU at Nevada. This game completes the Mustangs’ schedule, while the Wolf Pack gained a 13th game (play at Hawaii) - but more importantly, the gained a seventh home game. Looking up their series history, I noticed that they had played each year from 2000-2004, which then reminded me that they were in the WAC together during that time. SMU would move on to CUSA in 2005.

• Athlon Sports does a great job detailing players transferring into the FBS (from all divisions) or from another FBS school, while Hero Sports does well tracking folks transferring from FCS to FBS, vice versa, and FCS to FCS. Something I am hoping to do is something similar for Division II this year - with any luck.

• Lastly, I discovered yesterday…I left a trophy game (Wyoming-Hawaii for the Paniolo Trophy) off my Games to Watch and Follow spreadsheet last year. It is corrected now for 2024.

February 8th:

• Nice to see Andy Staples get to the bottom of the Kirk Herbstreit controversy regarding Dylan Raiola’s commitment. Staples talked to Kirk directly about the conversation with Raiola’s father - and as I expected Kirk did nothing wrong. Not that I worship the guy. lol

• Looks like Boston College and Harvard will be announcing their new coaches by the end of the week. The Crimson’s candidate (Andy Aurich) surprised me - but after reading his credentials I wouldn’t be surprised if he would do well. After all - they did awfully well with their last hiring.

• Didn’t take Nick Saban long to get a new gig. His addition to College GameDay will make it a must see this fall! Sadly it gives me the sense that Lee Corso will slowly be phased out.

• Last night I added the Georgia State at Georgia Tech to my Games to Follow spreadsheet. Surprised that it took me this long because they are crosstown opponents - their football stadiums are about 3.5 miles apart.

February 7th:

• Finished my first of four tabs (FBS) in my 2024 Coaching Info yesterday morning. Had a lot of thoughts as I did some cutting and pasting and plugging in new numbers - but I didn’t write them down. Hopefully I will remember a couple of them, as well as think of new ones for this blog.

• And this morning I pulled together a list of players transferring up to the FBS from Divisions II and III. I just have to think about the format/presentation that I want to use before posting it.

• Was wondering how I could see who is transferring to Division II or III teams, and I happened to look at a Division II site that I peruse at least once a week, and they are providing links for National Signing Day - which is today. The links I looked at listed Transfers as well as High School signees. Nice!

• Also noticed a great Division II non-conference game that has been scheduled for August 29th: Minnesota State at Northwest Missouri State. These two frequent playoff teams have played 17 times since 1972 (Mavericks lead the all-time series 9-8), but haven’t met since the 2012 playoffs. Great way to start off the 2024 season!

• Back to picking a game to watch in recently released schedules:

• South Carolina State: The Bulldogs haven’t officially released their schedule, but they just added their last non-conference game, and they conference games have been scheduled for a while - so I feel like I can pick a game. And it is their first game of the year - against former MEAC opponent Florida A&M. The Bulldogs and Rattlers will be meeting for the 58th time (FAMU leads the all-time series 34-23) since the series began in 1930.

• Hampton: The Pirates released their schedule, which didn’t catch my eye until FBSchedules had a piece on them playing Morgan State in the Brick City HBCU Kickoff Classic this upcoming season. Then as I looked closely, I noticed a matchup against Virginia Union - which was just a quick one line mention in their official schedule release. Digging a bit - I found out that these teams first met up in 1906, and they have played 83 times - but only once since 1994! A very worthy game to follow on September 7th!

February 6th:

• In the last week we have seen four conferences (2 FBS and 2 FCS) release their 2024 conference schedules. The Big 12, CUSA, NEC and Southern have posted their games, so I have more work to do on my Games to Follow spreadsheet.

• Yesterday brought about a few more schedule releases, so I continue with looking at games that I will be keeping a close eye on this fall.

• UMass: The Minutemen started their series with UConn back in 1897 and were conference opponents for over sixty years starting with the Yankee Conference back in 1947. This year UMass will have to win in order to keep their slim series lead, which is currently 38-37-2 in their favor.

• Sacred Heart: After being a part of the NEC for 26 years (1998-2023), the Pioneers will be playing an independent schedule in 2024 since their new conference (MAAC) doesn’t sponsor football. Picking one game out of a handful of former NEC opponents is a challenge, but I will go with Stonehill - even though they have met only eight times. My reasoning: The Pioneers played the Skyhawks from when the program started as a Division III independent in 1991 through 1996, when Sacred Heart joined the ECFC in Division II.

• Northern Arizona: With my first glance at the Lumberjacks’ schedule, I was tempted to go with their games against Arizona, but quickly realized that their matchup with Weber State is the way to go. The series started back in 1964, they have been Big Sky opponents for over 50 years, and they created a trophy (Red Rock Trophy) just two years ago. To top it all off, the all-time series is tied at 28 wins a piece.

• UIW: The Cardinals have a competitive non-conference schedule this fall as they want to continue their climb as a championship-contending team. So it’s easy to go with one of these games as opposed to their conference schedule. Their game against Southern Illinois on the road will be their measuring stick I believe, as this should be a battle of nationally ranked teams. Two years ago the Cardinals won easily at home against the top-ten ranked Salukis, so it goes without saying that they will be out for a bit of revenge against UIW.

February 5th:

• A continuation from last night, as I pick one game that I am most looking forward to from schedules released since February 1st:

• Norfolk State: Though it would be easy to choose their Battle for the Bay rival Hampton, I am going with the Spartans vs. the Virginia State Trojans - a bit of Greek mythology. This series dates back to 1939, and is lead by the Division II Trojans, 31-22-2 - though the Spartans have won 8 of the last 10 matchups going back to 2007.

• Texas Southern: I’m going with the Tigers first opponent - Prairie View A&M. The 2024 season will be the 39th edition of the Labor Day Classic, and the 79th meeting overall between the two schools. Though the Tigers lead the all-time series, 41-36-1 and the Labor Day Classic series 20-18, Prairie View A&M has won 15 of the last 18 Labor Day Classics.

• Texas A&M - Commerce: The Lions just moved up to Division I two seasons ago, so finding a team on a schedule without a Division II team in 2024 is a bit challenging. Lamar is my choice for this year, as they played each other in the Lone Star Conference from 1951-1962. In fact, when the Lions and Cardinals met last year, it was their first meeting in 60 years.

February 4th:

• Since February 1st, seven teams have announced their 2024 schedules. Tonight and tomorrow (if needed) I will pick out one game that I am looking to the most from each of the schedules released this month.

• New Mexico State: A tough choice between New Mexico and UTEP - but I am going with the game against the Miners because it is a conference game. The Miners lead the all-time series 59-39-2, but the Aggies have won four of the last six matchups.

• South Dakota: Favorite game is when the Coyotes go on the road to take on South Dakota State. In a series that dates back to 1889, South Dakota held the series lead 48-34-7 through 1989. Since 1990, the Jackrabbits have won 23 of 28 games to take their first series lead, that now sits at 57-53-7.

• St. Thomas: A couple of days ago, I talked about how Dayton, like the Tommies, jumped from Division III up to the FCS back in 1993, so it seems easy to pick this game as the one to watch for St. Thomas. The two teams met last year for the first time, and St. Thomas came away with a 20-14 victory on the road.

• Southern Illinois: Another MVFC team, so there are many games to choose from for the Salukis. This year I am going with their rivalry game with Southeast Missouri. The schools are separated by 48 miles, and they have played games dating back to 1909. SEMO holds a slight series lead, 43-40-8, but Southern Illinois is currently in possession of the Wheel Trophy because of their 26-25 win last year.

February 3rd:

• A discouraging and disturbing piece in USA Today about the Lincoln (CA) Oaklanders - a football team (that I didn’t realize) that doesn’t belong to any division or conference - not even the NAIA.

• Looking at the FBS head coaches that either retired or resigned after the 2023 season, five of them (Terry Bowden, Craig Bohl, Jerry Kill, Nick Saban, and Jim Harbaugh) combined for 961 wins - with Saban leading the way with 292 wins. A lot of experience is leaving the profession!

• As Bronco Mendenhall returns to coaching to take over the New Mexico program, he will have more career wins than any of the other active Mountain West head coaches - five more than Air Force’s Troy Calhoun.

• I was expecting to fill in zeroes for career wins and losses for new Buffalo head coach Pete Lembo, so I was very surprised that he had coached successfully for fifteen years (2001-2015) at Lehigh, Elon and Ball State. Lembo’s all-time head coaching record is 112-65.

• Less than three years ago Big South opponents Gardner-Webb and Campbell announced that their annual game would be the “North Carolina East/West BBQ Bowl” game. After two years, that series ended because the Camels headed to the CAA. Now Gardner-Webb will have a barbeque game with Charleston Southern, and it will be known as the “North-South BBQ Bowl”, so the barbeque tradition in the Big South continues.

February 2nd:

• Started work on my 2024 Coaching Info spreadsheet yesterday - and it’s good I got started because it will take me a bit as I am still making FBS coaching changes. I will then have to update all the coaching records of the existing coaches before moving on to the other levels.

• While doing this work yesterday I realized that there are stories out there about both departing and incoming coaches that deserve a mention or thought in this blog - especially since there is no detail in my Longest Tenured FBS Head Coaches.

• Speaking of that blog, it has caused me frustration the last few days as I have spent way too much time and thought as to how to update it on the site after my old copy and paste from a word document wasn’t working anymore - all it was doing was turning my text into a link and not updating at all. Finally I figured out that I should copy the new info into a blank space on the blog and then just delete the old info.

• St. Thomas posted their 2024 schedule yesterday, and I poked around their website for a bit as I was trying to find out their history with Sioux Falls (SD). Unfortunately, the Tommies Division III history has been removed from their Media Guide as they now only have their Division I history. In my eyes, not a good move as they should have the entire history of their football program.

• One of the Tommies opponents next fall will be Dayton - another team that made the jump from Division III to Division I. The Flyers did it (along with Buffalo) thirty years ago - back in 1993.

• Going back to Sioux Falls (SD) for a moment…Kalen DeBoer was their head coach from 2005 thru 2009. During that time, he had a record of 67-3, and he led the Cougars to three NAIA championships and they were the runner-up another year.

February 1st:

• One thing that I have been avoiding that I should get starting on today: 2024 realignment changes on my spreadsheets. Not a long process but just a pain as there are other things I would rather be doing.

• FBSchedules posted the NEC 2024 schedule yesterday. They are feeling the impact of realignment as Robert Morris rejoins the conference while Sacred Heart and Merrimack are leaving. The Pioneers will be an independent this year, while there is still uncertainty as to what the Warriors will do this season.

• I thought that we would be done with FBS head coaches in terms of hiring, but yesterday BC’s Jeff Hafley resigned so that he could take the defensive coordinator position for the Green Bay Packers. It seems that he wants to get back to coaching and not deal with fundraising and the transfer portal.

• To see articles about how Michigan and Washington are going to take a step backward this year makes me chuckle. Doesn’t it happen yearly (for the most part) to teams that make it to the National Championship game? And to see the losses that both these teams have endured makes it even more obvious.

• This time of year I enjoy reading articles about how players are performing in practices at the East-West Shrine game and the Senior Bowl.

January 31st:

• If there is only one thing that I have time to type today/tonight, I want it to be me saying that it has been a great month on the site and I have loved working on it so very much!

January 30th:

• The Big 12 will release their 2024 conference schedule today. Anxious to see where the most anticipated games land on the calendar. Those would be any combination of matchups between Arizona, Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Kansas. And there is always TCU - who were in the National Championship game just two years ago.

• Looking at Utah’s schedule, I had completely forgotten that they had agreed to a three-game series with Utah State back in mid-December. They first met in 1892, with the Utes leading the all-time series 79-30-4. This is one old rivalry game that I am very happy to move from “not scheduled”!

• Must be a schedule type day because I was looking at UMass’ schedule after it was announced that they added Central Connecticut State. Their docket is interesting in that it includes what seems like an annual matchup with UConn, 2 games with NEC teams, and five teams from the MAC. Then swinging the pendulum in the exact opposite direction, the Minutemen will face off with three SEC teams. Could be fun to follow along and see if they can get themselves qualified for a bowl bid.

• Saw someone wearing a Colgate sweatshirt and I almost hollered over to him that I love that brand of toothpaste. I stopped short so that I didn’t look like an ass. Besides…I like the college.

January 29th:

• A busy social schedule this weekend (shocking!), led to my most unproductive weekend in terms of the website. It was fun - and hope to do things like that again very soon.

• How long before Texas A&M joins the Big Ten? I’m thinking that they are very much against having “big brother” in the SEC, and the first chance they get, they will leave the SEC and get away from the Longhorns again.

• Last year I was thinking that Notre Dame and Army were going to play in 2024, but there has been no official announcement, so I removed the game from my Games to Watch spreadsheet. But both teams have November 23rd as an open date, so with a few details to work out, we might be seeing these teams faceoff at Yankee Stadium in late November!

• A fantastic out-of-conference game in Division II has been signed - Ferris State and Pittsburg State, two Top 5 programs have agreed to a home-and-home series in 2024 and 2025. This will be only the second and third time these (almost) perennial playoff teams have played each other!

• Division III could lose Birmingham-Southern (Southern Athletic Conference) before the upcoming season because the school is at risk of closing its doors this spring. The Panthers restarted their program in 2007, and just finished with a losing record for the first time since 2017.

January 28th:

• Tim Lester, former Western Michigan head coach, was hired to be the offensive coordinator at Iowa - only the fourth one during Kirk Ferentz’s tenure as Hawkeye coach. Seems to me that Lester is in a no lose situation because Iowa’s offense can only improve from where it has been.

• As the Big Ten and SEC try to leverage their own playoff, might Notre Dame finally join the Big Ten?

• I must say, despite their poor historical record (325-562-16), Austin Peay has an impressive website. Lots of information on a team that has had little success.

• Speaking of Austin Peay, former head coach Scotty Walden was the Governor’s only head coach to win more than one conference championship.

January 27th:

• No surprise that Sherrone Moore was named head coach of the Wolverines, but I thought that it would have been announced two days ago - not yesterday. At this point in time and with Moore’s success during Harbaugh’s suspension, this was the right choice to make.

• At the beginning of this month Willie Simmons resigned as Florida A&M’s head coach to take a position with the Duke Blue Devils. James Colzie was named the interim head coach of the Rattlers while a search for Simmons’ replacement took place. Well today it was announced that Colzie would become the 19th head coach of Florida A&M.

• Another new head coach has been announced. Fairmont State has hired Luke Barker, the offensive coordinator at the University of Charleston (WV). Barker, just finished his third season at Charleston and his offense led the conference in scoring, yards, touchdowns and several other categories.

January 26th:

• Quick thoughts today and I hope to have some for tomorrow…

• Was noticing last night that Auburn was denied their 800th win as a program three times to end the season - starting with that loss to New Mexico State.

• Think of it - New Mexico State went to Auburn, beat them, and collected a check for a bit under $2M - not a bad day!

• Recently Army announced that they have moved their season-opening game with Lehigh up to Friday, August 30th. The Black Knights and Mountain Hawks first met in 1893 at West Point, with Army holding a series lead of 8-2-1.

January 25th:

• Just a week ago it looked like there was going to be a serious quarterback competition at Texas State between TJ Finley and Jayden de Laura - but as of yesterday the Bobcats are now without an established quarterback option because de Laura withdrew from the university and on Monday of this week, Finley announced his commitment to Western Kentucky.

• Hard to fathom that this fall Washington will have at most two remaining starters from their national championship game against Michigan.

• Speaking of the Wolverines - will Sherrone Moore be named their head coach today?

• For the last two weeks I have seen Division II and III teams list 2024 schedule needs in footballscoop.com. At this point in time, trying to find a fall opponent must be rough - which could explain some of the oddball non-conference games you see on all levels.

• One recently signed home-and-home series that caught my attention: UAB and Jacksonville State. The Blazers will host the initial game on Sept. 11, 2027, and make the return trip to JSU Stadium, Sept. 2, 2028. The two teams have met six times six 1994 with UAB owning a 4-2 series lead after dropping the first two games in the Blazers’ final two seasons as a Division I-AA (FCS) program. This is the first time both teams will meet as FBS-level programs as Jacksonville State just completed its inaugural season as a member of Conference USA, the former league home of UAB from 1999 to 2022.

• Another good home-and-home…Delaware added a familiar foe to their schedule as the team prepares for its transition to FBS football in 2025. The Blue Hens will play a four-game series against James Madison over a six-year period with a pair of home games for each program. The series will start in 2027 and will feature games in 2028, 2031 and 2032. Delaware and JMU are no strangers to each other on the football field, having met 27 times previously, with all but three of those meetings taking place as conference opponents. The Blue Hens hold a slim 14-13 advantage in the all-time series though the Dukes have won the last five meetings.

January 24th:

• With one week to go in the first month of 2024, I am proud to say that visits to the site are 133% over last year, which is a very pleasant surprise to me. In actuality, I would be extremely happy to see a trend of 50% over last year through August! My most viewed page in January 2023 was Current Winning Seasons Streak - FBS, with 232 visits. So far this month, I have had three blogs already exceed that: Oldest College Football Programs, Longest Tenured Head Coaches - FBS, and Longest Active Bowl Streak - which has seen the greatest growth, going from 27 views last January to 395 views this month.

• Also, I made an effort to improve my Coaching Changes (FCS, Divisions II and III) from a year ago by being up-to-date with the changes and also providing some blurbs about the coaches exiting their 2023 positions. If the first month is any indication, that has been a success for me! Between the three blogs last year at this time, I had 87 visits, and this month that total has gone up to 300 - with the Division III piece going from just 2 to 69!

• Uga X, whose eight-year run included back-to-back national championships, passed away yesterday. He was two when he began his run, died at the age of 10 in Savannah, GA.

• Notre Dame has added Eric Goins as a walk-on kicker for 2024. Goins graduated high school in 2012 and graduated from the Citadel in 2015 - so it will be almost nine years since he kicked in his last college football game for the Bulldogs. The two biggest kicks of Goins’ career came during the 2015 season. A 48-yard field goal during the fourth quarter helped propel the Bulldogs to a major upset win over South Carolina on the Gamecocks’ home field. Then during the 2015 FCS playoffs, Goins hit a 42-yarder as time expired to capture the first road playoff win in Citadel football history against Coastal Carolina.

• Not sure why the ACC is releasing their schedule over three days - just send it out all at once! The five games I look forward to in Week 1 that include ACC teams: Clemson vs. Georgia, Miami (FL) at Florida, North Carolina at Minnesota, Boston College at Florida State, and TCU at Stanford. Best FCS vs FBS matchup involving the ACC: Richmond at Virginia

• One team’s website that I vow not to visit again in 2024: Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Nothing there is worth anything to me…

January 23rd:

• Last night I started to finally assess and document the different websites of FBS teams based on Game Previews, Game Notes, Series Records and Results, Media Guides and Record Books. Just like what I found in Divisions II and III, the amount of information differs greatly. For example, Akron had decent Game Previews, good Game Notes (when published), but no record book or history - while Alabama’s Record Book was a whopping 364 pages! I had glossy eyes after scrolling through that! Also, I would have thought that Arizona State would have some great history and such about their program - but outside of their Game Previews, I was quite disappointed with their content.

• Nice to see that 18 FCS players were invited to play in this year’s East-West Shrine game on February 1st. Five of the players were from South Dakota State - all on offense (2 WRs, TE, and 2 Offensive Linemen). Impressive!

• Spent some time looking at Eastern Illinois this morning. From 2019 thru 2022, the Panthers had won only 8 games, but last year they matched that count. In 2024, they should be considered one of the favorites coming out of the Big South-OVC! I also love their non-conference schedule - Illinois and Northwestern, along with two long-time FCS rivals - Indiana State and Illinois State. As a bonus, they are once again conference rivals with Western Illinois! A team worth tracking next fall…

• This morning’s rabbit hole - which sometimes amuses me and at other times frustrates me because I go into the day wanting to accomplish certain things…

  Well, it all started with checking out TJ Finley’s commitment to Western Kentucky, which sets up a potential competition between him and Caden Veltkamp - who played in the Famous Toastery Bowl even though he was in the transfer portal. And while going through the list of Hilltopper qbs I noticed that Bronson Barron, who once had started for Weber State, was transferring back to Utah - but to play for Southern Utah, a former Big Sky rival of the Wildcats. And, while poking around Southern Utah’s website, I saw that the Thunderbirds had revived the “Battle of the Ax” rivalry with Utah Tech. This in-state rivalry had started back in 1937 when both schools were junior colleges, but ended when Southern University gained four-year status. The original Battle of the Ax ended abruptly, and the Ax was split in half so that each school could display it on their respective campuses. I learned something new today about the game I love!

January 22nd:

• Shuffled through a fraction of my paperwork for the site this weekend - and already a chunk of it (Bowl Game Info) went into the recycle bin. I did get the remaining sheets organized by category so that is a positive.

• All the FBS head coach positions are filled for the 2nd time since December. I wonder if a certain team from up north shakes things up for a third time…though they might hire from within.

• The Nuts continue to reel in great transfers - this time Julian Sayin commits to the Buckeyes. Competition at the quarterback position is going to be some fierce this spring and fall as it appears as though that they have five quality quarterbacks looking for snaps. When it all shakes out, who will be moving on? Just sayin…

• I could be wrong, but it looks like Week Zero took another hit. Now there are only three games scheduled after the Eastern Illinois at Illinois game got moved back a week to August 31st. The three games that remain are Florida State vs. Georgia Tech, Montana State at New Mexico and Norfolk State vs. Florida A&M.

January 21st:

• I like the destination that Kadyn Proctor chose for himself after leaving Alabama: Iowa Hawkeyes. He had committed to the Hawkeyes last year before rolling off with Tide, but now the Des Moines product is home.

• I also like (very much) that Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan have decided to stay put and play for the Wildcats in 2024. Having these two stick with the Arizona program makes me want to see them win the Big 12 and qualify for the playoffs next season.

• Next year, there are five third-year coaches firmly planted on the hot seat: Billy Napier (Florida), Joe Moorhead (Akron), Mike MacIntyre (FIU), Sonny Cumbie (Louisiana Tech), Stan Drayton (Temple). One other to watch - Clay Helton at Georgia Southern.

• One coach that didn’t make it for a third season - Ken Wilson at Nevada. His teams went 2-10 each of the last two years (though he did win two conference games this year), but the school didn’t think that there was progress enough.

January 20th:

• The Buckeyes surprised at least me by landing Kaleb Downs out of the transfer portal. With their additions via the portal and with others staying and not declaring for the draft, OSU looks to be in good shape for a run at the National Championship next season. Will the Big Ten take another title and keep it away from the SEC?

• October 12th is shaping up to be a big day for both the Buckeyes and the Ducks as they will meet as Big Ten foes for the first time at Autzen Stadium. Could it be the first of three 2024 meetings???

• Saw a list of the most-watched games of 2023 college football season. Couple of highlights: The Rose Bowl was the most-watched game (27.76 million viewers), 2.75 million more than the National Championship.. The most-watched regular season game was Ohio State - Michigan, with 19.07 million viewers. Eight games had more than ten million viewers: Michigan-Alabama, Michigan-Washington, Ohio State-Michigan, Washington-Texas, Georgia-Alabama, Florida State-Georgia, Colorado-Oregon, and Michigan-Iowa. Just missing ten million viewers: Ohio State-Notre Dame and Penn State-Ohio State.

• The ACC will now release their weekly schedule on Wednesday, January 24th, which is one week earlier than originally planned. They will tease us with first week matchups on Monday, and weekday matchups on Tuesday.

January 19th:

• It’s good to have your best laid plans either done in pencil or written on paper - because you can erase your scribbles or crumple the paper and play hoops with the wastebasket. Or in my case - just don’t read emails you sent to yourself for today’s ideas for the website. I must have seen a few squirrels today because I didn’t look at any of my notes. The best part - they still sit in my inbox and I can look at them and use them tomorrow. I think…

• Something I learned today…there is a Lenoir, North Carolina - but Lenoir-Rhyne (Division II football team) is located in Hickory, North Carolina, which is about 20 miles southeast of Lenoir. Both towns are northwest of Charlotte.

• I bring this up because the head coach of Lenoir-Rhyne (Mike Jacobs) resigned from the Bears to the Mercer Bears in Macon, Georgia. Since Jacobs left, I have had four visits to my website from Lenoir and one from Hickory looking at my 2004 Division II Head Coaching Changes blog. Makes me feel a bit relevant regarding my website!

• Seeing Major Applewhite get the head coaching job at South Alabama made me happy. He deserves a second chance after his first stint as head coach at Houston ended abruptly (to me). The Jaguars have made a good choice!

• Another learning: BYU is well known for it's connection with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but this season, junior Jake Retzlaff became the first Jewish athlete to start at quarterback for the Cougars. In fact he is one of only seven Jews at a school with an enrollment of 35,000 students. He has earned the moniker of the “Hebrew Hucker” and he is working on getting the trademark for BYJew. You can’t make this stuff up.

January 18th:

• One of the strangest hires you will ever see is Northwestern Oklahoma State (Div. II) bringing in Jerry Glanville as their new defensive coordinator. How many teams would have someone who is 82 as a key staff member? Let alone someone who has left Houston Oiler tickets in will call for Elvis Presley. Well, if Elvis wants to attend a Rangers game, there will be plenty of seats available…

• On the other hand, Mercer made a great hire I think in Mike Jacobs. No doubt that many haven’t heard the name, but Jacobs has compiled a 74-17 record across coaching stops at Notre Dame (OH) and Lenoir-Rhyne. This past year he led L-R to an appearance in the Division II playoff - losing to eventual champion Harding in the semifinal round.

• Sounds like it is official - John Carroll is moving on from the Ohio Athletic Conference after the 2024 season to join the North Coast Athletic Conference. The NCAC is a conference of 10 full-time members with schools from Ohio and Indiana. This will be the second time the Blue Streaks have left the OAC, as they previously competed the the conference from 1932 thru 1949 before subsequently joining the Presidents’ Athletic Conference for 34 years after five years of independence.

• Back to the North Coast Athletic Conference for a moment. Not sure how it got its name because the states of Indiana and Ohio touch the southern edges of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan (barely). And not being a lake expert - is that even considered being on the coast?

• Got lost this morning in Bluffton’s (Division III) schedule and trying to decide if I should add any of their games to my spreadsheet. Not sure why I spent so much time poking around because there is only one game of theirs that I will really pay attention to…Defiance. Actually it will be pretty darn important because their 2024 game will be their 100th meeting! Bluffton currently leads the all-time series by a slim margin, 50-47-2, thanks to winning three of the last four matchups.

January 17th:

• A second FBS head coach has resigned to become an assistant at Alabama under Kalen DeBoer. Yesterday, Buffalo head coach Maurice Linguist announced that he was leaving the Bulls after three seasons to become a co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach. During his three seasons at Buffalo Linguist went 14-23 with one winning season.

• I feel bad that Taulia Tagovailoa wasn’t granted an additional year of eligibility, even if he had gone on to play at another school. It was awfully nice having him at Maryland all those years, and I know that I will miss him as it was nice having the Terps be competitive in the Big Ten these last few years.

• The quarterback competition for Texas State that I alluded to yesterday will not materialize as TJ Finley announced that he was entering the transfer portal after the Bobcats landed Jayden de Laura. Finley will leave after setting the program record for passing yards in a single season with 3,439.

• I read this morning that the son of Jeff George, Jayden, is leaving the Hurricanes and entering the transfer portal for the third time. George started with Alabama and moved on to Bowling Green for one year before joining Miami (FL). One thing that is consistent with each of his stops - he hasn’t seen any game action.

• Poking around the NCAA website for Division II football, I came across the Way-Too-Early Power 10 rankings for 2024. Much like the FBS or FCS early rankings, there are no big surprises, but these teams are all replacing key losses, so things could change by the time the playoffs arrive next November.

• Harding (AR), who won the Division II championship this year, amazingly ran for over six thousand yards (6,161) as well as having 48 rushing touchdowns. Wow!

• Lastly…not that I am counting, but that is 17 days of Daily Thoughts in the first 17 days of 2024. Love it!

January 16th:

• Have seen reports today that South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack will become the new defensive coordinator at Alabama. He and Kalen DeBoer were coordinators together at Indiana back in 2019. I won’t update my Longest Tenured Head Coaches - FBS sheet until Wommack officially resigns at South Alabama.

• Will we see an announcement soon that San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan will become the new man at Arizona after being a finalist the last go round three years ago?

• Hope that I’m not the only one disappointed (trying not to say disgusted) with all the transfer commitment flips. I understand that it is like coaches moving on to better opportunities, but do you have to play at four schools in six years or flip like a fish when deciding where to play your next down?

• With linebacker Shawn Murphy announcing his commitment to Florida State, he is the fifth Alabama player to transfer to the Seminoles this year.

• It looks like Texas State will have some competition at the quarterback position this coming season. Former Arizona and Washington State quarterback Jayden de Laura has announced that he will be playing for the Bobcats in 2024. It’s an interesting decision because last year’s starter TJ Finley returns this fall. Guess it is a testament to what head coach G. J. Kinne can do with an offense…

• Per On3’s website, 2,294 FBS players have entered the transfer portal as of January 15th.

• I heard yesterday that Gage Goldberg, son of WWE superstar Bill Goldberg, announced his commitment to Colorado. I wonder if he has as good a spear as his father…

January 15th:

• Saw a piece about how Mario Cristobal is recruiting Miami (FL) into a national powerhouse. I can’t deny that Cristobal is doing a solid job recruiting, and that he is getting ready to reap the benefits of his feats, but results on the field are what count, and I don’t see the Hurricanes as a powerhouse now or in the near future. After my saying that, watch the Hurricanes make the playoff in 2024.

• Brad Crawford, who works for 247Sports, has an article out showing his playoff and major bowl projections for 2024. His omissions are almost as interesting as a couple of playoff participants he is predicting. No Alabama, Penn State, Clemson, Oklahoma or Miami (FL), but he has Kansas State as a four-seed and USF making it out of the AAC. I know someone who will like the semifinal matchups…

• In May, South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski will graduate. In three seasons as a starter, he has made it to the FCS title game each season and has won back-to-back titles the last two years. Someone will get some bad news soon…he will either stay as the Jackrabbit quarterback for another season (maybe two) and torture SD State opponents. Or he will leave Brookings, and disappoint a lot of Jackrabbit fans.

• Nice to see UNLV fans showing some enthusiasm for quarterback Matthew Sluka, the former Holy Cross signal caller who announced his decision to transfer to the Rebels per a source from 247Sports. He has 5,916 career passing yards, 3,583 career rushing yards and 97 career total touchdowns. I would love to see him duplicate what he did for the Crusaders out west.

January 14th:

• I thought that maybe Ryan Grubb would have a really good chance to succeed Kalen DeBoer at Washington, but it was revealed this morning that he would not be the next Husky coach. I won’t feel bad for him because chances are he will become the next offensive coordinator at Alabama. Not a bad gig.

• Didn’t take long for Jedd Fisch to prove his doubters wrong. His hiring at Arizona was not without criticism, and now after turning around the Wildcats, he has been hired by Washington. I think that he really liked Tucson, but the call of the Big Ten over the Big Twelve was too much to resist. Good for him!

• This morning I actually thought that Kyle Whittingham might be lured away from Utah to take over the reins at Washington. Now I’m thinking that Utah might win the Big 12 next year and not Arizona.

• I was updating my Longest Tenured FBS Head Coach piece and I noticed that James Franklin just completed his 10th season at Penn State. Where has the time gone? I would have thought that it was more like six or seven years since he left Vanderbilt.

• Cam Ward reversed direction and now will be Miami’s quarterback next year instead of jumping into the 2023 NFL Draft. As an anti-Hurricane fan, I’m not happy by the decision, but I have to admit that I believe that it is the right one for the young man.

January 13th:

• Not much time for thoughts today as the mind has been occupied with today’s storm and what damage it will inflict. Spent a couple of hours this afternoon with neighbors as their basement got a good two or three inches of water.

• Yesterday I was reading that the playoff field for Division III could be expanded out to forty teams. I think that it would be good because there were only four at-large teams this year, and some good teams were left out of the field. Also, I can hold out hope that the NESCAC would send their winner to the playoffs for the first time.

• I was just looking at the CAA, and now with the addition of Bryant, there are now four teams in the conference that were formerly in the Northeast Conference: Albany, Bryant, Monmouth and Stony Brook.

• Speaking of Albany, back in July 2022, Idaho announced that they would host the Great Danes this September, and for traveling to Moscow, Idaho - Albany would receive $250k for the game. Funny thing is, Albany was matched up against Idaho in the 2023 FCS Playoffs - and the Great Danes won and advanced to face South Dakota State.

January 12th:

• Might we hear as to who will be the next Alabama head coach in the next day or two? The school wants to wrap it up sooner than later and interviews are taking place. Hadn’t thought of it, but Mike Locksley has gotten quite a bit of support from former players and a big booster! Seems like it Kalen DeBoer and Mike Norvell should be considered front-runners, while Eli Drinkwitz could be a dark horse.

• I didn’t think that there would be “violations” with NIL, but the NCAA found some and handed down penalties to Florida State. This was the first but it certainly won’t be the last because others will be caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

• Saw an interesting transfer this morning…Tevin Griffey, son of Ken Griffey Jr., has transferred to Boise State after four years at Florida A&M. Griffey appeared in 22 games the last two seasons for the Rattlers as a cornerback and totaled 23 tackles and one interception - which he returned for a touchdown. He also blocked a kick on special teams.

• Someone else that has a famous father is transferring as well. E.J. Smith, the son of Emmitt Smith, is moving on from Stanford’s backfield after four seasons of plaguing injuries which limited him to just 24 career games. Hopefully his luck will change at A&M…

• Another transfer that caught my attention this morning…Former Texas, Nebraska, and Florida Atlantic quarterback Casey Thompson has committed to the Sooners. Thompson, who will be entering his seventh season of college football, is expected to serve as Jackson Arnold’s backup

• Four Power 5 teams still haven’t brought in a transfer this year: Clemson, Iowa, Northwestern, and Stanford

• William & Mary posted their 2024 schedule - and I like their non-conference contests! The exciting slate starts with a games against VMI, a long-time rivalry that hasn’t been played since 2011. W&M controls the series (53-33-2) thanks to winning the last 25 meetings. The Tribe then goes on the road to have their first-ever meeting with Coastal Carolina, followed by their first trip to Spartanburg to take on Wofford, a team they beat last year 23-6. Their non-conference slate wraps up when they host Furman - one of the nation’s top teams last season.

• Was just reading a rumor that Virginia Tech might be trying to buyout their remaining eight games with Old Dominion…

January 11th:

• A very busy day at work, followed by devouring takeout while watching some biathlon has put me behind on typing in my thoughts. Actually, if I hadn’t looked at today’s analytics before continuing my research on new head coach hirings - I would have forgotten.

• A lot of Way-Too-Early Top 25s for next season. One thing that is crystal clear - the Top 8-10 will be heavy with teams from the new SEC and Big Ten. As much as I am not a fan of realignment (YES - I am very much a traditionalist), there are going to be some new conference games to get very excited about!

• A good many of the Preseason Top 25s have Arizona on the fringe of the Top 10 - both inside of it and outside. Who would have thought going into the 2023 season that the Wildcats would be a serious contender for a playoff berth?

• But my favorite piece thus far is the Never-Too-Early Outlook for the 2024 FCS Season - though I must admit I have skimmed over parts of it. I did notice that the Bison could very well come out on top since they returns some key pieces, while the other top teams will have questions about replacing production.

• I had forgotten that Merrimack and Sacred Heart could very well leave the NEC next year since they are joining the MAAC in all other sports this fall. The schools could stay for just football - but they have other options as well. Maybe Bryant joining the CAA wasn’t such a bad idea for the Bulldogs…

January 10th:

• Went to Footballscoop.com moments ago to see how many coaches have been hired the last few days as there has been a flurry of activity. At the top of the news page was a piece on Nick Saban retiring! Jumped over to ESPN to confirm, and sure enough it is true…how many new hires will this cause??? Will Clemson be the next school needing a head coach???

• I will have to spend some time tomorrow in updating my blogs regarding coaching changes as the three remaining divisions have all made new hires in the last few days. It also gets me to thinking how many changes will I stumble upon as I visit team websites for Divisions II and III over the next couple of months…

• 2024 Schedules are coming out pretty steadily for both teams and conferences - the latest today was the CAA revealing their 2024 matchups. And from their UMaine and William & Mary also announced the full schedule for the new year.

• Speaking of the CAA, Bryant will get their first taste of this conference. I’m happy that they will now have in-state rival Rhode Island as a conference opponent, but I can’t help but think that they would be better suited for a return to the NEC like Robert Morris is doing. Those two teams would have added some more quality games to that conference which is becoming pretty solid as former Division II teams start gaining traction!

• I have spent the last couple of days scrubbing the Games to Follow for some Division II teams. Must admit I have enjoyed getting to know this division and look forward to finding more and more games to keep an eye out for in the coming season.

January 9th:

• Must confess, with having to get up at 3:00am I missed the entire game last night. I was surprised at the final score, but after watching the highlights it was a much closer game than what was on the scoreboard. Hard not to notice the dominant Wolverine running game though.

• Happy for Donovan Edwards! Taking a back seat to Blake Corum must be tough, but what a great game Edwards had on the biggest stage of them all! I know someone who must have had terrible flashbacks to his dominance in the 2022 game in Columbus…

January 8th:

• Hate to see the 2023 college football season ending (for that matter - any college football season), but it is going to be a very exciting game for two fanbases, and very entertaining for the neutral fan - if there are any.

• Congratulations to the Jackrabbits on their second straight FCS Championship! Eighth team in FCS history to win 2+ consecutive national titles. Georgia Southern did it three times between 1985 and 2000 before they moved up to the FBS.

• Also - Jimmy Rogers became the 8th first-year coach to with the FCS title. If he is able to repeat next year I will be really impressed as the Jackrabbits are going to lose a ton of talent! Looking forward to seeing how many of them get their names called in the 2024 NFL Draft.

• Discovered this morning that I should comb over my All-Time Records spreadsheet - which I have used the NCAA records as my jumping off point. But it seems strange to me that they include will include a school’s NAIA record (Pitt State), while excluding another’s (Black Hills State). Also, if a program restarts their team (Allen - Division II), the prior run isn’t always included in the NCAA Records.

January 7th:

• Less than twenty minutes to go until South Dakota State - Montana kickoff! Not sure why I have held off on removing the snow from the driveway until now - but this game will motivate me to get through the chore a bit faster!

• Oregon canceled their Week Zero game with Hawaii due to their move to the Big Ten and wanting to schedule Oregon State as a non-conference opponent. That leaves Week Zero with just three games at the moment (Florida State vs. Georgia Tech, Montana State at New Mexico and Eastern Illinois at Illinois), but I would rather have the Ducks playing the Beavers than the Rainbow Warriors.

• Recent news has John Carroll (Division III) leaving the OAC for the NCAC in 2025. Primary advantage I see to this move by the Blue Streaks - it gives them a better/clearer path to the playoffs. With so few at-large playoff spots, and Mount Union ruling the OAC, John Carroll’s path to the postseason is rough, as they were left out this year with a 9-2 record and their only losses were to Mount Union and UW-Whitewater.

• Spent a chunk of time yesterday on updating my All-Time Records spreadsheet. I have almost made it through the Division II tab, so when the FCS Championship game is wrapped up today, I will be ready to go through the FCS teams this week.

January 6th:

• Monday’s National Championship game is going to be an exciting one to watch! But I can’t help but think that both teams will looks so different when it comes to their matchup in early October - so they better get their Natty now…

• I wrote about it a while back, but with the expanded playoff coming next year, what better time to add a Group of Five playoff? I am sure that I’m not the only one thinking that - at least one person at ESPN agrees with me.

January 5th:

• Spent my morning updating Head Coach hirings - which I hadn’t done since before Christmas. Had a few changes to the FCS and Division III lists. So far across all divisions, there have been/will be 84 head coaching changes - 47 of them in the FBS and FCS. And as of this moment, there are now only 3 openings in those divisions - all of them in the FCS (Florida A&M, Murray State and Texas Southern).

• I think that I am avoiding all the changes that I need to make to my spreadsheets caused by all the realignment planned for 2024! And even with all that, I still want to pull together a couple of Conference Alignment documents - which I think is important to help understand this wonderful sport.

• As far as I can tell, there will be three new programs in 2024 (Anderson University - Div. II, Calvin - Div. III, and Centenary - Div. III) and four teams reclassifying (Kennesaw State - FBS, West Georgia - FCS, Roosevelt Univ. - Division II from NAIA, and Sul Ross State - Div. II)

• All this looking forward made me almost forget about the FCS Championship game going on this Sunday! The Griz have won ten-straight after being upset by Northern Arizona and written off, while the Jackrabbits, the defending national champions, have won 28-straight games since losing their 2022 season opener to Iowa. This is going to be a slugfest between two great programs!

• Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss have had quite a haul in the Transfer Portal so far this year, but I didn’t realize how they much of the experience they have gotten from SEC opponents/rivals - three of which they play in 2024 (South Carolina, Arkansas and Florida)!

January 4th:

• This morning I was looking into the history of the Tennessee vs. Chattanooga series, and the Mocs’ Game Notes had an interesting tidbit…it was the Vols’ record at Neyland Stadium (467-133-17 at the time - back in 2019) and they said that it was the second-most wins of any program at a current stadium. First thought - another project for the year…so I added it to the other 100 things I want to do. LOL

• By the way - that old rivalry (got its start in 1899) is being renewed on 8/31/24! The Mocs have some other decent non-conference matchups over the next five years: Memphis, Tennessee Tech, Gardner-Webb, and Middle Tennessee. All are listed in my Games to Follow spreadsheet!

• Another Moc discovery - I didn’t know until today that there was a Dixie Conference, which consisted of nine programs from the SIAA (Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association) forming the conference mentioned to facilitate the scheduling of games between the group. It lasted from 1931 up through 1941 because the schools suspended athletics once the USA entered WWII. Samford and Mercer, also current members of the Southern Conference, were also a part of this short-lived conference.

• All this is tied to project number 101 this year - do a thorough Conference Alignment History of as many conferences that I can discover - both current and discontinued.

• Which leads to this - Conference Carolinas will be sponsoring football in 2025 for the first time since 1974! Football members will be: Barton, Chowan, Erskine, UNC Pembroke, North Greenville, and Shorter. Division II programs.

January 3rd:

• Spent time last night thinking that I want to do blog or document regarding transfers - especially transfers from smaller schools that move up a level or two. A great example is Jaden Richardson, an exceptional wide receiver for Tufts (Division III), who is moving on to USC next fall. Wonderful story!

• Spent some time looking at LSU’s Game Notes for their bowl game against Wisconsin two days ago. I noticed that the NCAA had them vacate 37 wins from 2012 thru 2015 (Les Miles years). This brought their all-time record to 806-434-47 after the 2023 season - per the NCAA, but they have won 843 games played on the field.

• I was digging around the record book and information guide for UC Davis this morning and I noticed that they had 37 straight winning seasons (1972 thru 2008) and at one point won 20 straight conference championships from 1971 to 1990. Pretty damn impressive I say!

• A couple of interesting FCS vs FBS games being played in Week Zero this year: Montana State at New Mexico and Eastern Illinois at Illinois. Can’t wait to get started!

January 2nd:

• The new year has started off well in terms of visits to the site - good to know that the momentum from the last two months of 2023 has carried forward into 2024!

• Exciting games, for various reasons, from start to finish! The Big Ten has to be thrilled with the results! LSU and Tennessee rolled out their expected new quarterbacks - and got solid results. The Ducks said goodbye to a future NFL QB in Bo Nix, who made a great decision to transfer to Eugene.

• Speaking of Oregon - why can’t they wear those uniforms all the time? Guess I am showing my age…

• The official fall transfer window closes today. I am happy that the kids have the option to move on to greener pastures, but I disagree with the NCAA ruling that allows those who have entered the portal twice to have immediate eligibility. Sends the wrong message I think.

January 1st:

• Happy 2024 To Everyone!

• No matter who is playing in the Rose Bowl - it has always been and will always be my favorite game of the year, with the Army-Navy clash a close second.

• Where did the bowl season go? Seems like it just got started. But then again, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day always goes by quickly.

• And lastly, no matter the changes in store this year, this sport will always be the greatest in my eyes. There are four super games still to be played this season, but I am already looking forward to the 2024 season in 237 days!