Player Notes

By Aaron McMann |Two new Michigan names appeared on a preseason watch list Friday, while a third showed up for a second time.Tight ends A.J. Barner and Colston Loveland are on the John Mackey Award watch list, and center Drake Nugent appeared on the Rimington Trophy watch list, both unveiled this afternoon.Barner and Loveland are among 48 names on the Mackey Award list, handed out annually to college ...

Posted: 8/4/2023 1:57:00 PMAustin Ertl has come a long way since starting the season opener back in 2019 at Iowa. The Wauwatosa, Wisc., native enters his senior year with 82 career tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks from his nose tackle position. He has also played in 42 games, making 31 starts, and has loved every minute of it.

UPDATED AUGUST 04, 2023 5:12 PMA six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Friday:▪ One of interesting subplots of this season will be seeing which of the seven new running backs and receivers can crack the rotation.I would give the best shot to receiver Tyler Harrell (the Louisville transfer) and freshman running back Mark Fletcher. Harrell has played with the second team early in camp, and both are ...

AUGUST 05, 2023 2:57 PMUniversity of Miami fans distraught about last season’s under-performing offense should be in for a treat in 2023.Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, known for his prolific passing with the Air Raid offense at Houston, spoke about his position groups Saturday, saying that the Canes have “a long way to go,’’ but more than hinting that the touches should be plentiful come this ...

HUNTINGTON — Cam Fancher took on the mindset that his on-field play and off-field preparation would speak for themselves, and in many ways, they did.After taking over as Marshall’s starting quarterback halfway through last year and going 6-1 down the stretch, there’s plenty of reason to believe he’ll be under center again for the Thundering Herd.Charles Huff made that much clear in his season-opening ...

Lafayette Daily AdvertiserBATON ROUGE — Four-star wide receiver Jelani Watkins has committed to LSU football, he announced Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter.At 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, Watkins is the No. 176 player and No. 26 wide receiver in the nation from the Class of 2024, according to 247Sports Composite. He attends Klein Forest High School near Houston, Texas and is the No. 32 player in ...

There’s no way around it: LSU special teams were a problem in head coach Brian Kelly’s first season.From the blocked extra point in the season-opening loss to Florida State to dropped kicks and mental gaffes, those often-overlooked units had issues throughout the year. Punt returns became such an adventure that fans understandably cheered for successful fair catches.The Tigers’ overall roster depth ...

UPDATED AUGUST 04, 2023 8:14 PMThree takeaways from Friday’s Kentucky Football Media Day at Kroger Field:1. MARK STOOPS SAYS HE’S LEARNED FROM HIS MISTAKESMark Stoops didn’t want to get into specifics. The Kentucky coach rarely does. Still, what Stoops touched on in the spring, he reiterated Friday as fall camp opens. Mistakes were at least partly to blame for last season’s slip back to a 7-6 season. ...

AUGUST 04, 2023 6:51 PMWhat high school quarterback recruiting drought?For all the success Mark Stoops, Vince Marrow and the rest of the Kentucky football staff have had elevating the Wildcats’ recruiting over the last decade, the one consistent struggle was landing top-level high school quarterbacks.No high school signee recruited as a quarterback has been the primary starter for a UK team with a ...

AUG 4, 2023Andy Kotelnicki, the Kansas football team’s offensive coordinator, envisions the Kansas football team’s workload as a pie.That pie, he said Thursday, comprises 803 cumulative snaps — the average of 73 offensive plays per team in a Big 12 Conference game, with 11 players — to be distributed among the different members of his unit.Even within the tight end room, his primary responsibility ...