As signing day approaches a few questions come to mind…how many Oregon recruits will be left after Urban Meyer is done raiding them all? I bet the NCAA is wishing the Miami mess would go away, because it keeps getting worse, with more evidence turning up. Anyone want to bet that #1 recruit Robert Nkemdiche will sign with an SEC team? Just a few of the newsworthy topics going on this week.
1. The deeper things go in the Miami scandal, the worse the NCAA screws it up. The more I hear about the NCAA and the mess they are in, the more it makes me agree that the NCAA needs reform. Someone needs to step in and fix the NCAA before they become more corrupt than an SEC football program. Make the sport about the athletes and fans again, not just let the dollar sign trump everything.
2. What does Johnny Football do when there’s no football to play? Some pretty crazy stuff with the guys from Dude Perfect. That’s one good way for players to keep themselves out trouble is to make them watch that video and see if they can out-do it. Too many times players are “bored” during the off season and end up getting in trouble with the law. I like how Johnny Football is spending his time, especially with other offseason headlines he has been making.
3. Finally someone is making sense during all this conference realignment. Conference USA just announced their divisions, and will actually be one of the few conferences that has the divisions making geographical sense. Not to be out done, the Mountain West Conference also made their new divisions and set up a title game. They did stick with one division being named Mountain, while the other division is West…clever? Well, it is a lot better than what the ACC and Big Ten have done with their divisions.
4. Top recruits are getting ready to make their visits, and let’s hope they have better luck than Virginia recruit Taquan Mizzell. It makes you wonder what an actual recruiting visit consists of. I know a player can come to a school and meet the coaches and see the facilities, but it likely comes down to the current players and “student escorts” showing the recruit a good time. As signing day approaches, I hope everyone’s favorite school lands the recruits they are after, and does so in a somewhat honorable way. (On a side note…how the HECK is Lane Kiffin landing all these top recruits with down years, scholarship reductions, backing out on recruits and is a less than average in-game coach… maybe the NCAA better look into them. Again.)
5. Since this is an Oregon fan site I will just open it up….thoughts on the new coach? Will Mark Helfrich continue to “Win The Day”? Does anyone worry that Oregon could be looking for a replacement in 2-3 years, either for good or bad? (Comment below.) He’s lucky to have most of the key offensive players coming back for his first year, that’s for sure. I like how this article puts it, “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” He needs to just keep the same attack mentality they had under Chip Kelly, and Oregon will be back in the Rose Bowl again.
The offseason is rolling and next, we have signing day to look forward to. Also, Oregon fans can look to the Super Bowl next weekend and to see if LaMichael James has any big plays for the 49ers and represent Oregon! We also can look more into the Notre Dame dating scene this week to help Te’o meet a real person this time. I think after Signing Day things will be quiet, but then when we expect quiet, we get a few key players making headlines for all the wrong reasons and some big school decides to jump conferences (I am looking at you Florida State and the Big 12.)
NATIONAL NEWS:
1. Stewart Mandel lets the NCAA know it’s losing ground.
2. UCLA vs. USC with recruiting.
3. One of the nation’s best HS RBs says Go Blue.
4. Penn State is still paying.
5. Ted Miller has thoughts in his PAC-12 mailbag.
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Jeff Hostetler may not have won a Super Bowl with the Giants ( though his uncle of the same name did). He has been an obsessed college football fan living in Florida ever since the Gators beat FSU in the Sugar Bowl to earn the UF’s first national championship.
Ever since Jeff has immersed himself in everything possible related to college football. He enjoys watching, writing, playing, and otherwise obsessing over all things football. A graduate of the University of Florida, he brings a perspective to FishDuck free of our extreme green & yellow homerism glasses to look at the current landscape of collegiate athletics.