It is very fitting that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish only trail the Ohio State Buckeyes on FanDuel for the best national championship odds for the upcoming college football season. It would not be a surprise at all if the two programs met in the College Football Playoff National Championship game this season. Again. The two teams are loaded on both sides of the ball, and each has a quarterback who very well could win the Heisman trophy this fall. The Irish have won fewer than 10 games just once since the start of the 2017 season, while the Buckeyes have won fewer than 10 games, pandemic-shortened season aside, just once over the last twenty years. What I wonder, though, particularly this upcoming season, for the Notre Dame faithful, is how much fun this fanbase can really have before the calendar flips to December?

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Last season, Georgia Bulldogs fans finally had the home schedule they dreamed of with Texas, Alabama, and Ole Miss all traveling to Athens for a road contest inside Sanford Stadium. Before the Bulldogs’ home loss against the Crimson Tide, head football coach Kirby Smart’s team had won thirty-three straight ball games at home. Even before the 2025 season kicked off, you looked at Georgia’s home slate of games and knew there was a strong possibility that the Bulldogs’ incredible home winning streak would end, but that’s what made the schedule so exciting for that fanbase. For the first time in years, there was a real chance they could walk out of Sanford Stadium following a Georgia loss. That’s what makes a great conference schedule, particularly at home, so much fun – a great schedule doesn’t necessarily mean a great result for your team.

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This season, Tennessee’s home schedule is extremely enticing. Texas, Auburn, LSU, and Alabama will travel to Neyland Stadium to face the Volunteers. With a freshman or redshirt freshman under center, I think every Vols fan would happily take a 2-2 split, with victories over the Bayou Bengals and Crimson Tide being the preferred two wins. Sure, the schedule is more arduous than what Tennessee had on the docket in 2025 and 2024, but as much as the powers that be try to fight it, the regular season is what makes this sport great. Huge games on college campuses. The more big games on your favorite school’s campus come with a price, though, and that is more losses, if you’re a glass-half-empty person. It can also come with more wins if you’re a glass-half-full person. I don’t know how many of those huge home games the Vols will win this fall, but I do know how electric the lead-up to each of them will be this fall, and, wouldn’t you know it, I’m way too ready to start next season, and it’s still just the latter part of May.

Ohio State fans haven’t experienced this for a long time. Notre Dame fans are experiencing it now. On one hand, it has to be a comforting feeling to have such a high floor every season, regardless of how many players from last year’s team move on to the NFL. On the other hand, doesn’t it kind of stink to know how high a floor your team has every season? With longtime rival USC off the schedule, Notre Dame has one big game at home this fall against the Miami Hurricanes, and that game doesn’t take place until November 7. It should be a fantastic game at a fantastic venue with a whole lot of extra juice after last season’s CFP last-one-in drama between the two schools.

But that’s it.

Wisconsin, Rice, Michigan State, Stanford, Boston College, and SMU are the remaining home games. Part of that is not their fault, of course, with both the Badgers and Spartans currently in rough patches for their storied programs, but which game outside of Miami are you really fired up about as a Fighting Irish fan this fall? This is what Georgia fans felt for years before last season’s home slate. I imagine it’s what Ohio State fans have felt for many years. Although the Buckeyes schedule, particularly early, is as dangerous as it’s been in the regular season in a long time. Ohio State has to play at Texas, Iowa, Indiana, and USC, along with home dates against Oregon, Illinois, and Michigan. There are more potential land mines on this schedule than there have been in a long time for the Buckeyes.

There aren’t many potential land mines on Notre Dame’s schedule. The Fighting Irish will play the four ACC schools with the worst projected conference championship betting odds this fall – North Carolina, Stanford, Boston College, and Syracuse. They will not travel to USC. Their biggest test, in a battle of national championship runner-ups the last two seasons, is in South Bend. There are no preseason CFP locks in college football, but the combination of Notre Dame’s talent, coaching staff, and schedule is as close as anyone in the sport this season.

But it’s the kind of season that if you’re a fan, you want to fast-forward to December. Texas could win it all, and they’re all-in, but their schedule is tough. Oregon has Michigan and Ohio State back-to-back. Indiana is as close as any contender to Notre Dame’s, but all this winning is so new that I don’t imagine the cupcake schedule is all that bothersome for Hoosier fans, at least for now.

Until that ostensibly inevitable CFP expansion, the regular season is still the most special part of the sport, but there is nothing special about Notre Dame’s regular schedule this fall. It’s the opposite. But head football coach Marcus Freeman’s team could win it all. The Hoosiers went undefeated with a similar schedule last year, and the Fighting Irish could do it this season, something Notre Dame hasn’t done in my lifetime. All of that is well and good, but I don’t think it’s fun or healthy to want to fast-forward your team’s regular season for a couple of postseason games on neutral sites. Do Notre Dame fans share this perspective? I don’t know, but I do know that I hope it never feels this way at Tennessee in late May.

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It was a very successful season for both the Detroit Pistons and the Atlanta Hawks in 2025-26. I don’t suspect it would be a surprise to anyone if they both won 50-plus games next season. Both franchises are in a great position to win many basketball games over the next couple of seasons with at least one certified star player in Cade Cunningham and Jalen Johnson, respectively. Two stars that fans of both franchises should be delighted to watch lead their basketball team for a long time. They also have one other interesting thing in common right now — both franchises used a top-5 pick on a wing in the 2024 NBA Draft that fell out of the rotation down the stretch this season. Those two players, Zaccharie Risacher, who the Hawks selected at No. 1 overall, and Ron Holland II, who the Pistons selected at No. 5 overall, are suddenly on the outside looking in on two franchises that are trying to become real, bona fide championship contenders.

For the Hawks, the Risacher dilemma stings a bit more. Frankly, it has to sting more with Hawks taking Risacher at No. 1 overall, weak class or not. Atlanta lucked their way into the No. 1 overall pick between Victor Wembanyama and Cooper Flagg draft classes. It’s not Atlanta’s fault, but it doesn’t make it sting any less.

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The Pistons missed at No. 5, No. 7, and No. 15 in recent years, but their No. 1 overall pick is already a top-10 player in the NBA. Detroit also lucked out in having the No. 1 overall pick in a draft where the No. 1 overall pick was obvious.

The Hawks took a player at No. 20 overall a few years prior and have developed him into a star who joined a select few to put up the kind of numbers he did in his first All-Star season in Atlanta. Different paths for both franchises to find their franchise cornerstone, but both drafted and developed their best player.

Time is more on Atlanta’s side, though, as the Pistons were the best regular-season team in the East this season. The timeline in the Motor City has sped up. There is a lot more pressure to win now in Detroit than there is to win now in Atlanta. Similar to the angst of whiffing on the No. 1 overall pick, there is a lot of angst that follows being the No. 1 seed in your conference and not even advancing to the conference finals. (Not to mention narrowly avoiding a first-round upset to an eight-seed, too.)

The Pistons have huge offseason decisions to make on their core guys in Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson, among several other key players, while the Hawks have already locked up their key core guys in Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Oneyka Okongwu. Sure, they have to decide on what to do with guys like Jonathan Kuminga, Corey Kispert, CJ McCollum, Buddy Hield, and Jock Landale. Most of those are big decisions for Atlanta, yes, but you could argue that the electric run of wins and fun from the middle of February onward bought the franchise a lot of grace, even with the brutal demise at the hands of the New York Knicks in their first-round series. The Hawks were a delightful underdog story this season in the East after the Trae Young and Kristaps Porzingis trades, while the Pistons looked like Goliath, only to be eliminated in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

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It’s not as though the Hawks don’t have any big decisions of their own to make this summer. Atlanta has the No. 8 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, and it would be an upset if the franchise did not take a guard or a big man with the selection if they stay at that spot. The last time we saw Atlanta, they averaged 88 points per 100 possessions in their blowout elimination loss to the Knicks, per CleaningTheGlass. Their offense, particularly in the halfcourt, got away from them after Game 3. While it was a jarring way for the Hawks to be eliminated at the time, New York is up 2-0 on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals as of this writing and has won nine-straight playoff games. That first-round exit, as painful as it was, proved to be perfectly reasonable.

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To advance further in the postseason next year, Atlanta has to get bigger to help Okongwu, and perhaps that includes Michigan’s Aday Mara and his outrageous wingspan at No. 8. They also need their first-round pick from a season ago, Asa Newell, to become a factor, too. The Hawks have a long offseason ahead of them, but as thin as the frontcourt was down the stretch for Atlanta, the depth there could be flipped in quite a hurry. Mouhamed Gueye is in the final year of his deal, and Atlanta has a team-option decision to make on him, but you hope that’s picked up, and then see where things are next summer. He’s a plus-defender and a winning player for Atlanta. Landale proved to be a welcome late-season addition and provided another look inside for Snyder. His absence was felt majorly in that series against the Knicks. Okongwu is a fantastic player on a fantastic contract. That’s several different bigs with several different skillsets for Snyder to mix and match next season. It doesn’t mean Atlanta will be able to have quite that much depth, and we’ll see what they do at No. 8, but there are lots of reasons for optimism to help support Okongwu and prevent the Hawks from finding themselves in a situation inside as they did against New York this postseason.

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The Pistons have to pay Duren this summer. Tobias Harris is an unrestricted free agent. They’ve got fine rotation bigs Isaiah Stewart and Paul Reed under contract for next season, but Detroit, like Atlanta, is in a position where finding the right amount of shooting and defense to advance further in the postseason is quite complicated. Thompson and Duren are both tremendous players, but can they both be in Detroit’s best five-man lineups that advance to the NBA Finals? Do they prioritize selling high on one of those two guys to find Cunningham a veteran All-Star or borderline All-Star as the Robin to his Batman? What we know is the Pistons are a great team now with a top-10 player, well, now. Do they roll the dice with Thompson and Duren developing more offensively to make it all work with Cunningham and company?

I wonder if the same angst is shared by the Atlanta front office when it comes to Kuminga and Risacher, particularly due to the unique kind of all-around awesome player that Daniels is. The Great Barrier Thief is, admittedly, my favorite player on this team and an absolute delight to watch with the ball and without it. He is a winning player in so many ways, as evidenced by his +10.8 rating per 100 possessions, behind only McCollum at 10.9. (It should be noted that McCollum did play around 1,400 fewer minutes with the team than Daniels did last season after being acquired by the team in the Trae Young trade with the Washington Wizards.) He is a critical core piece, and while his three-point shooting improved a bit down the stretch – he shot 3-of-7 from deep in the final two games against the Knicks – you can’t bet on a major leap forward in the long-distance shooting department for a player like Daniels with just how bad it was over a huge sample size this season. You live with that, though, because he is an excellent driver, finisher, defender, and passer. It just means that Kuminga and Risacher have to be reliable threats from deep. More is on everyone else’s plate offensively, particularly Risacher and Kuminga. It means Risacher has to give you more, or it means Kuminga has to give you more, particularly in the postseason when things slow down, and the Hawks can’t crush teams in transition nearly as often.

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It would not be a surprise for Risacher and Holland II to play in the NBA for many years to come, but most of those years may not be with the team that drafted them. If the Hawks decline Kuminga’s team option, but then elect to re-sign him to a long-term extension, that probably does not bode well for Risacher’s long-term future in Atlanta. Or maybe they find a taker for Kispert’s contract this summer, and the team kicks the can down the road on having to decide between Kuminga and Risacher. If the Pistons envision Thompson and Duren as part of their long-term core with Cunningham, how does Holland II still fit into those plans after shooting under 25 percent from deep in his first two seasons in Detroit?

The Hawks and the Pistons are two teams in the East trying to become what the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks have been the last two seasons. Two teams that have the right combination of offense and defense to be considered bona fide contenders. To get there, they will have to make tougher, faster decisions on players like Holland II and Risacher. The Wizards can wait on Alex Sarr. The Utah Jazz can wait on Ace Bailey. The Hawks and Pistons can’t wait for Risacher and Holland II.

With Daniels and Thompson, does that cancel out Risacher and Holland II? Do they have to move them now rather than risk another season where they aren’t mainstays in the rotation on two teams trying to compete at the top of the East? What the Pistons and Hawks resolve to do with both former lottery picks will be fascinating nonetheless. The teams have done so many things right, particularly on the margins, of late, and have a strong foundation. Now, though, to get to that next level, it’s almost a game of Jenga, where one bad decision here on one of these guys could bring the whole thing tumbling down.

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Matt Ryan is the President of Football for the Atlanta Falcons. He also happens to be the best quarterback in franchise history. Below Ryan, it’s either Michael Vick or Steve Bartkowski. What the latter two have in common, outside of being great quarterbacks for the franchise, is that they both went No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft in their respective classes. The aforementioned Ryan went No. 3 overall. All three were the first quarterbacks off the board in their respective drafts.

Atlanta’s current franchise quarterback hopeful, Michael Penix Jr., was the fourth quarterback taken in the 2024 NFL Draft. The three quarterbacks taken before him, Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye, have each already proven they’re franchise quarterbacks, and each has already made the postseason, with the latter leading his team to the Super Bowl this past season.

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The Falcons have not hosted a playoff game in the no-longer-new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and have the second-longest playoff drought in the NFL at eight seasons overall. The quickest way to resolve that embarrassing mark for the franchise is to get the quarterback position right. With Penix Jr. coming off yet another knee injury and the team signing Tua Tagovailoa as insurance, I can’t help but wonder where Ryan is when it comes to the most important position in football with the Atlanta Falcons, a position he knows and understands better than anyone in that building.

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Ryan, along with new general manager Ian Cunningham, did not draft Penix Jr. Along with the two new leaders in the Falcons’ front office, the team has a new head coach and new offensive staff underneath Kevin Stefanski. In college football, the term Year 0 is used frequently. For instance, with the amount of roster turnover and looming sanctions at Tennessee when Josh Heupel first arrived in Knoxville, it was understood the 2021 season was an evaluation year – a year to reset the deck. Year 0, not Year 1. With how the Falcons have operated in free agency thus far, it certainly does look like an evaluation and reset year is what’s on the menu for the Falcons in 2026, and for good reason. If Ryan, Cunningham, and Stefanski tie themselves to Penix Jr., and that decision proves to extend the team’s playoff drought to double-digit seasons, that’s a huge problem for the trio.

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Former longtime Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff, who has now become vastly underrated by the fanbase over the last six years, used his first selection on Ryan in the 2008 NFL Draft. He led the franchise for over a decade in large part because he got the quarterback right right away in Atlanta. Ryan and Cunningham did not use their first selection as top decision-makers for the franchise in 2026 on a quarterback – the team did not even have a first-round pick this season after the previous administration traded back into the first round last year for Tennessee LEO James Pearce Jr. 2026 was also one of the weaker quarterback drafts with just two quarterbacks taken in the first round and just one taken in the top-10, Fernando Mendoza, who went No. 1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders. However, Atlanta has its first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. Next year’s draft is one that analysts believe to be loaded at the quarterback position, headlined by Texas’ Arch Manning.

The trio of Ryan, Cunningham, and Stefanski has all seen what happens when your team takes the first quarterback off the board in any particular draft. Ryan saw the longterm success he had with the franchise after being taken No. 3 overall and the first quarterback off the board in 2008. Cunningham was with the Bears when they selected Caleb Williams No. 1 overall. Stefanski, who won Coach of the Year twice during his tenure in Cleveland, was most successful with a quarterback the Browns took No. 1 overall in Baker Mayfield. Kind of like the NBA, where the San Antonio Spurs look like they’re headed towards another long-term all-time great run with former No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama. The Detroit Pistons broke through this season, a season where their best player, Cade Cunningham, a former No. 1 overall pick, broke through as a top-10 guy in the League. Sometimes, you just need a little luck and the best bets to become stars become, well, stars.

For the Falcons to get there, the 2026 season has to be different, and not just the uniforms. The seemingly never-ending march to eight or nine wins has to cease. It’ll be painful to have to invest another first-round pick on a quarterback in 2027 after just doing so in 2024, along with the Kirk Cousins debacle, but none of that is on this current administration. What this administration has to do is reset the rookie quarterback contract clock in 2027. What they can’t do is stumble their way into eight or nine wins again with up-and-down play from Penix Jr.

But I wonder if Ryan sees it that way? Has he seen enough in the previous two years watching from afar to believe Penix Jr. can be the franchise quarterback former general manager Terry Fontenot thought he was getting two years ago? Or does he, along with Cunningham and Stefanski, look at the 2027 quarterback class and believe 2026 needs to be a Take Your Medicine year?

This season and the next are so critical to building out something that works long-term in Atlanta. The Falcons have won seven or eight games in seven of the last eight seasons. It’s a ride every Atlanta fan desperately wants to get off. I suspect more fans than not, like a lot of Steelers fans, would gladly take a rough step-back year if it meant taking potentially the top quarterback in next year’s class.

The last time the Falcons won four games or fewer, they took a tight end at No. 4 in what turned out to be a disastrous quarterback class. Still, the first quarterback taken in that draft worked out – Trevor Lawrence to the Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 1 overall. The Falcons went 4-12 the season before they took Michael Vick No. 1 overall. The Falcons went 4-12 the season before they took Matt Ryan No. 1 overall. Perhaps it’s time for the Falcons to go 4-12, er, 4-13, this year.

I wonder if Ryan, Cunningham, and Stefanski look at it through a similar lens? It’s better to rip the Band-Aid off early in a new tenure when hope and optimism are at their highest. Stefanski got Mayfield early. Ben Johnson got Williams early. Dimitroff got Ryan early. Will Ryan, Cunningham, and Stefanski follow what worked in the past? Or will they try to make it work through the middle, a path that has failed the franchise for nearly a decade now? I don’t have the answer, but I hope Ryan does because his long-term future in Atlanta, along with Cunningham and Stefanski, will depend on it.

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It was not that long ago that Florida State head football coach Mike Norvell was on top of the college football coaching landscape. Following the 2023-24 college football season, Norvell was not only reportedly in the mix to replace the greatest college football coach of all time, Nick Saban, at the University of Alabama, one of the greatest college football programs of all time, but he also had just gone 23-4 across two seasons in Tallahassee. It was understood at the time that Norvell was one of the best head coaches in the sport. (The same was true around that time for Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell, just a year early, but that’s a story for another day.) Now, from the outside looking in, it seems like the end of the line for Norvell at Florida State is as close as it’s ever been. Can you imagine telling a Florida State fan after the 2023-24 season everything that happened the following two seasons, actually, well, you know, happened?

At the time, Norvell not leaving Florida State for Alabama felt like a major win for the Seminoles. He even won the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year honor that same offseason. He won ACC Coach of the Year, something a Florida State head football coach had not done since Bowden won the award in 1997. It was all going great until it wasn’t. The contract extension to keep Norvell at Florida State long-term was massive, yes, but the huge financial commitment ostensibly signaled that the Seminoles, like where rival Miami is now with Mario Cristobal, were back.

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Flash forward two offseasons later, and Florida State is now coming off back-to-back seasons in which it went a combined 7-17, which included a brutal 2-10 blemish in the 2024 season, the school’s fewest amount of wins since the 1974 season, long before the school joined the ACC. In my 35 years of watching, writing, and reading about sports on this planet, the drastic pendulum swing between the 2023 Florida State Seminoles and the 2024 Florida State Seminoles might take the cake as the biggest head-scratching surprise. It was a disaster of a season in every respect, and this was a program exactly one year prior that could have very well won the national championship had its star quarterback not gotten injured and lost for the season.

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Last season, Norvell and the Seminoles got the train back on the track, at least a tad. The offseason hirings of Tony White to call the defense and Gus Malzahn to call the offense were both interesting and wise. The former is back for Year 2, while the latter rode off into the sunset as one of the best offensive minds this sport has seen this century. Although it was ultimately Washington’s Kalen DeBoer who replaced Saban at Alabama, it was Norvell who beat DeBoer in Tallahassee to kick off last season in a stunning upset. It was one of the best college football moments in the regular season last season. The ‘Noles smashed a nine-win Wake Forest team at the Doak. They lost a one-score game to the National Championship runner-up in Miami. They also lost to a dreadful Stanford team on the road. They got blown out in Gainesville against an interim Florida head football coach to conclude the season. All in all, it was a mixed bag for Norvell and the Seminoles.

2026 will be Norvell’s third season since the special 2023-24 campaign at Florida State. With all the changes to the sport, particularly NIL, it’s never been harder to gauge how good or bad a job any coach is doing right now. Did Fickell, who made the College Football Playoff as a G5 head football coach before expansion to twelve teams at Cincinnati, forget how to coach once he got to Madison? Did Mike Gundy or Dabo Swinney, two of the best coaches the sport has seen this century, forget how to coach the last couple of seasons in Stillwater or at Clemson? Norvell has seen the most drastic swings in Tallahassee, but had he been named the successor to Saban at Alabama, what are people saying about the guy who still maintains an overall head coaching record of 76-49? Was the guy who was regarded as a top-5 head coach in all of college football now one of the worst in the P4 two years later?

It all just doesn’t compute.

We’ll never know the answer to the question of how Norvell would have fared the last two seasons in Tuscaloosa. What we do know, though, is that Norvell’s comments at the ACC Spring Meetings were hopeful. With Malzhan’s retirement this offseason, Norvell will be calling plays for the Seminoles this fall. Norvell spoke about the upcoming season and reportedly said, “I expect this year to be the best year of his life.” This perspective is both a bit fascinating and a bit inspiring. The results of the last two seasons have put Norvell in what seems to be a perilous place going into this season. And yet, Norvell is seemingly choosing to take the last two years in stride and ride into the 2026 season with optimism and belief.

I don’t pretend to have any idea how successful the Florida State offense will be with Norvell calling plays and Ashton Daniels under center. However, I do know that I hope it works out for Norvell and for Daniels, the latter of whom has been in some truly awful offensive situations the last couple of seasons at Auburn and Stanford, respectively. The same was true last season when Malzahn and Norvell got the band back together and rolled with former Ware County great Thomas Castellanos under center.

I believe that Norvell is still a great head football coach. Maybe he reminds people of that this season in Tallahassee, or maybe he reminds people of that at his next stop, like Dan Mullen reminded folks in Las Vegas this past season. Norvell’s attitude is the right one to have, and his decision to bet on himself this fall and do so with both hope and joy after how much has gone wrong since that magical 2023 season is one of the best offseason storylines of the 2026 college football season.

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It’s the middle of May, and we do not know who will be under center against Furman to open the 2026 college football season for the Tennessee Volunteers. The same was true this time last year, too, after Nico Iamaleava’s sudden spring departure and Joey Aguilar’s late-spring arrival. In a perfect football world, you would prefer to know who will be your team’s starting quarterback sooner rather than later. However, as you saw with Tennessee’s offense last season, particularly out of the gate, the musical chairs at quarterback turned out to be a nothing burger for the Vols. Perhaps once the George MacIntyre vs. Faizon Brandon quarterback battle is settled, I’ll look back this time next year and write something similar. Sticking with this upcoming season, though, I do wonder how much I will end up writing about the quarterback play this fall for the Tennessee Volunteers.

If you’re a glass-half-full person, the offensive line is where you look first to make the case that the quarterback play of either MacIntyre or Brandon will be just fine this upcoming season. You feel good about David Sanders going into his first full season as Tennessee’s left tackle, and the hit-rate for blue-chippers at this premium position of late. Tennessee also returns Sam Pendleton, their starting center last season. They return Wendell Moe Jr., their starting left guard last season. They return Jesse Perry, their starting right tackle and, at times, right guard last season, and they return Sham Umarov, who started 10 games at left guard for the Vols last season. Outside of the departure of last year’s starting left tackle, Lance Heard, who transferred to Kentucky this offseason, the Vols are bringing a whole lot of production and snaps back to protect MacIntyre or Brandon this season.

The difference in playmakers out wide and at tight end will also be vastly different for MacIntyre or Brandon than it was for Iamaleava as a redshirt freshman in 2024, not to mention the offensive scheme changes. One of the most fascinating developments will be Tennessee’s projected top-two tight ends, Ethan Davis and DaSaahn Brame, and how big a role they play in the passing game as a reliable safety valve for Tennessee’s quarterback. Under Josh Heupel, the Vols have not had this much receiving upside at tight end. We saw in the NFL Draft this year, and with the Los Angeles Rams last year, that 13 personnel is all the rage in 2026, so it’s fair to wonder how much Heupel and his staff utilize the two extremely talented playmakers this fall. If you’re MacIntyre or Brandon, you have to be excited about the playmaking potential of Tennessee’s top two tight ends before even getting into the wide receiver spot.

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Speaking of the wideouts, Tennessee’s two breakout wideouts, Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews, are back. Now, who takes Chris Brazzell II’s place as the third starter will be interesting to see play out over the next few months. It could be Radarious Jackson, Travis Smith Jr., or Tristen Keys. Whatever combination wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope elects to roll with this fall, the Vols will have former four or five-star options in every combination he uses until he finds his best three. It’s another great development for a young quarterback to walk into.

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Tennessee might even have an award-winner at tailback in DeSean Bishop. The former Karns star was a Second-Team All-SEC player for Tennessee last year. He rushed for over 1,000 yards to keep that Volunteer running back streak alive. He averaged nearly six yards per carry in his first full season as the Vols’ lead tailback. Bishop might not be as explosive as former Tennessee star Dylan Sampson, but he could be just as valuable. Like Sampson significantly helped Iamaleava in 2024, Bishop should provide similar consistency and stability to help MacIntyre or Brandon.

I suspect the defense, particularly the front seven, will be the dominant talking point this fall, not the quarterback once a starter is named for the latter. There are too many positive and safe indicators around them not to expect the offense to be just fine for the majority of the season.

With the change at defensive coordinator from Tim Banks to Jim Knowles, the latter a championship-winning coach who completely stifled Tennessee’s offense in the first round of the 2024-25 College Football Playoff in Columbus, and a young quarterback under center, the Vols need the defense to be a whole lot better than it was in 2025 because the offense isn’t likely to be better, or as explosive vertically, as it was in 2025.

There is uncertainty at LEO. Former blue-chippers Caleb Herring and Jordan Ross transferred to rival SEC programs. Joshua Josephs was drafted in the fifth round by the Washington Commanders. Chaz Coleman, Tennessee’s big splash at LEO out of Penn State, is the biggest unknown on the defense. If he’s not a factor, and Tennessee’s pass-rush is non-existent in conference play, that’ll matter a whole lot more than who is under center for the Vols.

At linebacker, Tennessee has lots of talent, but lots of unproven talent behind Arion Carter and Amare Campbell. If the spring transfer portal window were still a thing, I do wonder how much movement there would have been at this position and at LEO. The Vols have more than enough capable bodies at linebacker, but might not have nearly enough off the edge. You can never have enough pass-rushers off the edge, but we will find out this fall if you can have too many linebackers. Just how realistic is it for linebackers coach William Inge to be able to rotate so many talented blue-chippers with two veteran leaders like Carter and Campbell at the top? It’s a good problem to have in mid-May, but that might not be the case in mid-October if the Vols’ defense can’t get off the field on third down because the pass rush can’t get home consistently.

In the secondary, Tennessee could have its best overall unit to this point in the Heupel era in Knoxville. You feel pretty set there, particularly with how productive and how experienced the vast majority of the transfer portal additions they made in this position room are. Tennessee really needs Daevin Hobbs to get healthy and stay healthy along the defensive interior. They need Coleman to be a factor off the edge. They need Ethan Utley and Isaiah Campbell to take a step. They need Marion Dye and Tyree Weathersby to be anchors at defensive end. I’m not in the business of doubting Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner, but how the defensive line performs figures to be a much larger season-long talking point than how the quarterback performs. The floor of Garner and new LEO coach Andrew Jackson’s defensive line is uncharacteristically uncertain. Football is a team game, and the Vols averaged 1.80 sacks per game in their five losses last season and 3.5 sacks per game in their wins.

Yes, quarterback is the most important position in the game, but as everything stands right now for Tennessee, the best bet for the biggest talking point all year for the Vols will not be MacIntyre or Brandon – it will be Tennessee’s defensive line, as their productivity will be the biggest needle-mover in wins and losses all season long.

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Before Sunday afternoon’s NBA Draft Lottery event, the Atlanta Hawks had the best odds at landing the No. 8 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. After leaving Sunday afternoon’s NBA Draft Lottery event, the Hawks landed the No. 8 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

It’s an undeniable bummer for Hawks fans, but it wasn’t a devastating development Sunday afternoon like it was for the Indiana Pacers or the Brooklyn Nets.

There is plenty of time to write about who the Hawks should target with the No. 8 overall pick, but for now, I thought it’d be best to simply write my three biggest reaction thoughts coming out of Sunday afternoon’s developments.

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Let’s start with the biggest positive: the reason the Hawks were even in a position to be drafting this high after winning 47 games this season is that Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh fleeced the New Orleans Pelicans front office a season ago in a trade that ultimately netted the Hawks Asa Newell and the better of the Pels and Milwaukee Bucks pick in this year’s draft for the latter to move from pick no. 23 to pick no. 13 and take Derik Queen.

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There were no guarantees where that NBA lottery pick would ultimately land for the Hawks, though. The Hawks prepared for this opportunity to capitalize on a bit of lottery luck, were it to find them this year. Their process for the last year has been sound: trading Trae Young, trading the No. 13 pick for No. 23 and a 2026 unprotected lottery pick, acquiring Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Kristaps Porzingis, and re-signing Dyson Daniels to a team-friendly extension. All of which were very smart moves in Saleh’s first season as the lead decision-maker for the Hawks.

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It’s not Saleh’s or the Hawks’ fault that their lottery luck came in perhaps the worst year possible this century. Obviously, sneaking into the No. 1 overall pick in 2026 rather than 2024 would have been the preferred result for the Hawks, but that is not what happened.

Saleh, who just finished as a runner-up for the NBA Executive of the Year award, has hit a lot more than he has missed in his first season. His trade with the Pelicans last summer was a great one, even with the pick ultimately landing at No. 8. Both things can be true.

Second, with the eighth pick, the Hawks will need to take a lead ballhandler to eventually replace CJ McCollum or a big man to share minutes with Oneyka Okongwu. It’s early, but the NBA Draft Knowers seem to be mocking former Louisville one-and-done guard Mikel Brown Jr. to the Hawks, which makes a bunch of sense. The most realistic options seem to be some combination of Houston guard Kingston Flemings, Michigan big Aday Mara, fellow Michigan big Yaxel Lendeborg, Tennessee wing Nate Ament, and Arizona wing Brayden Burries.

The most important thing is that the Hawks will be able to add a really good prospect at No. 8 who can help them in one of those two ways. The absence of Porzingis for much of the regular season was a major problem for Atlanta, and the same was true with the absence of Jock Londale in the team’s first-round series with the New York Knicks. McCollum was a key part of Atlanta’s dominant five-man starting lineup down the stretch of the regular season. His struggles in the series against the Knicks also shone a bright light on what Atlanta needed help with going into next season. In a perfect offseason, McCollum returns and Londale returns, as both proved to be fantastic fits for head coach Quin Snyder’s team. They just need additional reinforcements. Perhaps that’s just a year older Asa Newell inside and a guard like Flemings or Brown Jr.?

That’s why an Ament or a Burries would be harder to see than a Flemings, Brown Jr., or Mara. Atlanta already has a logjam of unproven long-term answers there between Zaccharie Risacher and Jonathan Kuminga, along with Corey Kispert’s contract. You also learned that Dyson Daniels, who does everything well except shoot threes, and Alexander-Walker, who just won Most Improved Player of the Year, are two core guys on great contracts with the team, along with Johnson and Okongwu. If Saleh strictly goes best player available at No. 8 and on Atlanta’s board that player happens to be another wing, I would understand making the selection. However, it would also really complicate things with the roster, particularly in that one area.

Lastly, there is a bit of additional pressure on Saleh here. With Atlanta winning 47 games a season ago and a large portion of their core locked up on fantastic contracts for the next several seasons, this could be the last time Atlanta is drafting this high for a while, even with the pending NBA Lottery reform. (Unless New Orleans or Sacramento calls, then you never know.) Whether it’s Brown Jr., Flemings, or Mara, or whoever, they really need to hit. With the uncertainty surrounding what Risacher is or can still be going into Year 3, it’d be huge for the franchise if they can add one more key high-lottery piece to their young, fun core of players in Johnson, Daniels, Okongwu, and Alexander-Walker. If you nail this pick, you worry about what Kuminga or Risacher are or could still become less. You’ve just got to nail this pick because Atlanta is very close to another run of sustained success if the team can find one more long-term answer at No. 8 to pair with that five-man lineup that was a +21.4 per 100 possessions last season.

It can happen.

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With spring practice in the rearview mirror, I’m going around the country to write about a couple of different teams in each conference that are most interesting to me right now.

We’ll start in the SEC, where the Oklahoma Sooners and the Florida Gators are the two most interesting teams in the conference this season.

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This time last year, much of the preseason conversation about the Gators and the Sooners revolved around three things: 1) Both had the toughest schedule in all of college football, 2) Both head coaches were on the hot seat, and 3) Both had the potential to make the College Football Playoff. The Sooners made the CFP, while the Gators crashed and burned, fired their head football coach, Billy Napier, and lost former five-star recruit quarterback DJ Lagway to the transfer portal.

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Enter Jon Sumrall, the new head football coach at Florida. Like Brent Venables at Oklahoma, he, too, made the CFP last season with his Tulane squad that won the AAC and 11 games overall. Across his four seasons as a head coach at Troy and Tulane, he’s 43-12. He’s never lost more than one conference game in any of those four seasons. Interestingly enough, Napier also arrived in Gainesville with four years of head coaching experience and a nearly identical record at 40-12. Will things be different for Sumrall in Gator Country?

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His coordinator hires were a good start, on both sides of the ball. With Kentucky moving on from Mike Stoops, longtime defensive coordinator Brad White, with whom Sumrall was co-DC in 2021 in Lexington, became available. Together, White and Sumrall coached a Kentucky defense that finished 26th in all of FBS in scoring defense and 4th in the SEC. The Gators have finished inside the top-10 in the SEC in scoring defense once since the start of the 2021 season, and it was 10th in 2022. On offense, stealing Buster Faulkner away from The Flats could prove to be one of the best coordinator hires of the offseason in all of college football. Former Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King flourished under the former Parkview star quarterback’s tutelage. If Georgia Tech transfer quarterback Aaron Philo can come close to replicating what King did, just on the ground, where the Jackets were 8th in FBS in yards per carry, the combination of the former Prince Avenue Christian star and Jadan Baugh could be devastating for opposing defenses.

For Oklahoma, the Sooners made the CFP last season. They beat Josh Heupel and Tennessee inside Neyland Stadium. They beat Alabama again, this time on the road in the regular season. (Although they did lose to the Crimson Tide in their CFP rematch in Norman a month later.) Brent Venables led a defense that ranked first in the SEC and fifth nationally in DFEI, per BCFToys. The problem, though, was that while the Sooners’ defense was championship-esque, the offense was nowhere close. Oklahoma was 117th in rushing yards per game last year. They were 84th in points scored per offensive drive, per BCFToys. In November, the Sooners were 91st in passing yards per game. The stark contrast between Venables’ defense and first-year Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle’s offense was plainly evident week in and week out. And yet, they still won double-digit games and hosted a CFP game.

All eyes will be on John Mateer because all eyes are always on the quarterback. We all get it, but part of the reason Mateer and that Sooners’ offense a year ago was hamstrung in the passing game was injuries, yes, which has been the case the last two years in Norman, but also Deion Burks going scoreless between Game 3 and Game 11. Mateer’s favorite target, Isaiah Sategna, is back and pushed for 1,000 yards receiving last year. Around him, the Sooners added Trell Harris from Virginia and Parker Livingstone from Texas. The latter was extremely productive and available in Austin a season ago. The former had two games in which he went over 140 yards receiving and was a chunk-play assassin for a Virginia team that won double-digit games and reached the ACC championship. Surrounding Sategna with Harris and Livingstone may not be the flashiest wide receiver trio in the SEC. Still, it could be one of the safest in the production department, which is ultimately all that matters anyway.

Whether it’s Philo or Tramell Jones Jr. under center at Florida, they’ll have talent out wide to work with, too. Similar to Oklahoma, there is just a whole lot to like in the top three with Eric Singleton Jr., Dallas Wilson, and Vernell Brown III. Singleton Jr. has two years of proven production in Faulkner’s system, dating back to his days at Georgia Tech. Brown III flashed as a YAC machine last year, too. Wilson has the highest upside of the group as a former five-star wideout. In his four games played last year, Wilson reeled in three touchdowns. He nabbed two and accumulated 111 yards and six receptions in the Gators’ win over Texas. He’s got to stay healthy, but like Oklahoma, the wideout trio in Gainesville has a lot to like.

What also works in both schools’ favor, outside of a more manageable schedule than a year ago, is that both are flying under the radar a bit in the SEC. For Oklahoma, its arch-rival Texas, is all-in once again, and all eyes are on Steve Sarkisian’s team in Austin. That’s where you want to be if you’re Venables and the Sooners in Mid-May. For Florida, LSU is the school with the new head coach and sky-high expectations.

The Gators had those expectations coming into last year. Sumrall is in a great spot to overachieve and flash a bright future in Gainesville, particularly with Philo and Baugh on the ground and a much-improved defense. Sumrall starting off his Florida tenure with its 2026 football schedule rather than its 2025 football schedule could also prove to be one of the more important first-year developments in the SEC. The path to eight or nine wins is there for the Gators.

The path to nine or ten wins is there for the Sooners, if they can survive a brutal September. They get Texas coming out of a bye week, and the Sooners have the kind of schedule where it could go on a run from Mid-October onward.

It might not all happen for the Gators and the Sooners this season, but it could, and it makes them two of the most interesting teams in the SEC.

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Thomas: Which NL East disaster should we have seen coming more: the Mets or the Phillies?

Tayler: The easy answer to this question is “the Mets” because the easy answer to any question about which disaster was foreseeable is always “the Mets”. But I want to zag and say the Phillies, largely because the Mets actually tried this offseason, while the Phillies sat around and counted the days until spring training. That’s not to say the Mets had a perfect winter, because they certainly did not. The plan at first base was to hand it to someone in Jorge Polanco who had never played the position before; the plan at second base was Marcus Semien coming off the worst season of his entire career; the plan in center field was “Luis Robert Jr. until he breaks down” (which, for the record, was all of 24 games). But on the other hand, David Stearns went out and added a reliable top-of-the-rotation starter in Freddy Peralta and a good top-of-the-order hitter in Bo Bichette, and even if Devin Williams and Luke Weaver floundered last year in the Bronx, they still represented two of the best relief pitcher options on the market.

The Phillies, on the other hand, re-signed Kyle Schwarber in early December and then settled in for a long winter nap. Granted, re-upping with Schwarber was a good idea no matter the cost, but the rest of the offseason reeked of few ideas and even less enthusiasm to execute them. To replace Nick Castellanos, a dead man walking in Philadelphia since the end of October, the Phillies landed on Adolis Garcia, whose last good season at the plate was 2023. To the bullpen, which was crying out for reinforcements, all the Phillies could come up with was Brad Keller, a bad starter turned unlikely relief ace for the Cubs — not a bad move, but not one you’d associate with a title contender gearing up for another shot. And when the Mets gazumped Bichette out from under his nose, Dave Dombrowski’s comeback was... re-signing J.T. Realmuto, whose offensive output crumbled last year.

Part of the difficult calculus for Dombrowski is that his core is productive but expensive, leaving little financial room to bolster them. But it felt going into the year that the Phillies’ plan for supporting their stars was built more on hope than reality — that Taijuan Walker would turn the clock back, or that Justin Crawford and Andrew Painter would hit the ground running as rookies, or that, most crucially of all, Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott would take the step from uneven complimentary roster pieces to steady producers. The cracks were there to see before Opening Day, and while the severity of the Phillies’ struggles might have been unexpected, the fact that things have gone sideways shouldn’t be a surprise.

Thomas: You’re right, it’s always ‘The Mets’, isn’t it? Even if it isn’t this time. The Mets certainly did try, but there were also warning signs with just how much David Stearns was trying this offseason. It’s not like Pete Alonso is having an AL MVP-worthy season at the moment in Baltimore, but it was always a risk to let him walk and take a big gamble on Jorge Polanco. It felt like they fell into Bo Bichette, too, didn’t they, after the Kyle Tucker debacle? To me, it seemed like New York attempted to do too much in one offseason.

The Mets certainly did a lot more than the Phillies this offseason. However, I think there was more reason for urgency in New York than in Philadelphia. The Phillies won 96 games last season and 95 the year before. They’ve won at least 90 games over the last three seasons. Dave Dombrowski should have done more than just re-signing Adolis Garcia, but if the Mets don’t swipe Bichette away from Philadelphia in stunning fashion, how much would that change your perspective on their offseason? The Phillies felt more proven and safe than the Mets, and while their age was going to catch up to them at some point, I didn’t think it’d be this dramatic to start the year.

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Tajuan Walker was a disaster of a signing, but the drop in production from Aaron Nola, I think is fair to say has been a surprise. With Zack Wheeler back, their top three of Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez, and Jesus Luzarado is a really good one. I still like a whole lot more about this Phillies team than I do the Mets. Dombrowski has pushed a lot of the correct buttons in Philadelphia the last few years, and while he didn’t press many this offseason, I can’t say I blame him after winning so many games the last two years.

It’s the Mets for me.

Tayler: I also think the Phillies are, by and large, the better roster right now, though that’s thanks mostly to the injuries that New York has suffered. There was no version of a Mets team without Francisco Lindor that was going to contend, and it’s probably not a coincidence that they went 3-12 while Juan Soto was on the injured list. As of right now, the Mets are missing not only Lindor but also Polanco and Robert, as well as their backup shortstop in Ronny Mauricio and the generally useful Jared Young. The result is a patchwork lineup with way too much MJ Melendez and Tyrone Taylor in the mix. And the less said about the disintegration of Kodai Senga, the better.

It also can’t be stressed enough that the Phillies’ opening stretch of hell came against a tough slate: from April 13 through 26, they only played the Cubs and Braves and went a gag-inducing 2-11 against two of the NL’s best teams. Since then, things have predictably gone better, with Philadelphia ripping off eight wins in nine games against the woeful Giants, the spunky-but-limited Marlins, and the uneven A’s. And things don’t get appreciably tougher until a West Coast swing against the Padres and Dodgers starting on Memorial Day, giving the Phillies plenty more time to right the ship. Helping matters, too, are the returns of Wheeler, Realmuto and Jhoan Duran; the Phillies are at full health, and it shows.

All of which is to say, I think I’m coming around to your argument that it’s the Mets, because while the Phillies were an abject catastrophe to start the season, they’ve rapidly found equilibrium, whereas it’s hard to see how this compromised version of the Mets can do the same. Lindor and Robert will be down for a while, and Polanco might be limited all season. New York climbing back into contention will depend heavily on Bichette finding his stroke, on Brett Baty and Mark Vientos reaching their potential, on Carson Benge making the adjustment to MLB pitching, on Semien finding the Fountain of Youth, on Williams avoiding blowups, and most importantly, on everyone staying healthy. Neither team has much of a margin for error left, but in the Mets’ case, they need more to go right at this point than the Phillies do.

Thomas: Man, that is a whole heck of a lot of things that need to go right for the Mets, and fast. I do wonder what Bichette is thinking about all of this, besides getting to play shortstop again? Very quickly, he’s become John Travolta in that PULP FICTION scene. I wonder what the Mets’ last two huge offseason signees — Bichette and Juan Soto — are thinking about their decisions here in early May?

It seems very unlikely that both teams are ultimately able to get up off the mat, and to your point, it is already looking like the team more likely to pull it off is the Phillies. It’s funny how different a brutal start to the season can be for a franchise. Last year, a disastrous start for Atlanta proved to be too much for the Braves to overcome. In 2019, the Washington Nationals started 19-31 and won the World Series.

As you wrote, you can very easily and understandably explain the Phillies’ brutal start — injuries and a brutal early schedule. If you’re Bichette, though, are you having second thoughts about not ultimately choosing the Phillies? If you’re Soto, though, are you having second thoughts about not ultimately choosing the New York Yankees? The Phillies seem to have just needed better schedule luck and to get more key guys healthy to get back on track.

The Mets feel like a college football powerhouse that relied too much on the transfer portal and not enough on player development and player retention. They feel like 2025 LSU a bit. New York overhauled their roster because there is a healthy appetite to win and win big. The same was true for the Tigers in Baton Rouge last year with their No. 1 overall transfer portal class. The season was a disaster, their head coach got fired, and they were one of the sport’s biggest disappointments. Well, they followed that up with another No. 1 overall transfer portal class and a new head coach.

One bright spot, if you’re a Mets fan, is that you have an owner who really wants to get this right. That’s not a universal perspective in this sport. This season is likely a wash, but New York is not doomed to be a perpetual cellar dweller like the Colorado Rockies or Los Angeles Angels for years to come. I’d actually be more nervous about being a Phillies fan after this year than a Mets fan. When it’s truly over in Philadelphia, it’s going to be a brutal transition. New York can claw their way out of this hole, just not this season. That work begins in December.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers are waiting on Aaron Rodgers. The 42-year-old future NFL Hall of Famer could return to Pittsburgh for a second season with the black and gold. He could also sign with another quarterback-needy team in the desert, too. The 2026 NFL Draft has come and gone. NFL Free Agency kicked off nearly two months ago. A lot has happened in the NFL, but one thing that has not happened is Rodgers signing with an NFL team, the Steelers, or anyone else.

Historically, the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers have not had much in common. However, the two AFC North rivals do have something in common at the moment – neither franchise is settled at quarterback this year and beyond. Both franchises have taken fliers on mid-to-late-round quarterbacks the last two draft cycles. For Pittsburgh, it’s been Will Howard and Drew Allar. For Cleveland, it’s been Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, and Taylen Green. You wondered if either would take a first-round chance on former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson this year, but neither franchise did. Both the Browns and Steelers have a lot of different options at quarterback this season, but this is one of those positions where you don’t want a lot of different options. You want to be like the other two teams in the division, with Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow in tow, where you have your franchise quarterback, and that’s that.

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The Steelers went 10-7 with Rodgers last season and won the AFC North. They did, however, of course, get clobbered by the Houston Texans at home in the Wild Card Round, 30-6. The Steelers are closing in on a full decade since their last playoff victory. With or without Aaron Rodgers in the fold this season, it seems very unlikely that the streak ends this year. One worry of a Rodgers return, though, is that even at 42 years old, he is still excellent enough to keep the Steelers from drafting anywhere near the top of the 2027 NFL Draft. It’d be one thing if the roster around Rodgers were built for a Super Bowl run this season like it was for Tom Brady in Tampa Bay, but that’s not the case in Pittsburgh. The roster is a whole lot closer to the Atlanta Falcons than it is to the Seattle Seahawks.

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It certainly seems clear with the hiring of Mike McCarthy this offseason and the continued chase of Rodgers that Pittsburgh is not interested in tearing it down to the studs like Miami. The Falcons are doing the same. The Green Bay Packers never do. Not every team has to or maybe even needs to. But if there were ever a year to tear it down just a tad, and not sign Rodgers, 2026 would be the season to do it. Even with how loaded the 2027 quarterback class portends to be, the Steelers just won double-digit games with Rodgers last season, and, if he returns, you have to wonder how many quarterbacks are taken ahead of where Pittsburgh would end up making their first selection.

The 2003 Pittsburgh Steelers went 6-10 and used the No. 11 overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft to select Ben Roethlisberger. With a full season of Rodgers like we saw in 2025, winning six or fewer games in 2026 doesn’t seem likely. On the other hand, a collection of starts at quarterback between Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, and Drew Allar could put Pittsburgh in a better position to not have to potentially use additional draft capital to move up for a quarterback next year that they like a lot. The Steelers might not need to tear this thing all the way down, but they do need to take another swing on a quarterback high atop the first round like the team did all the back in 2004.

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If Rodgers returns, there is a lot to like about the 2026 Steelers’ offense. The wideout trio of DK Metcalf, Michael Pittman Jr., and Germie Bernard could be really good. Rico Dowdle has rushed for over 1,000 yards the last two seasons and should complement Jaylen Warren nicely in the backfield. The Steelers have invested premium draft picks at the tackle spots over the last couple of years. While Pittsburgh declined left tackle Broderick Jones’ fifth-year option a few days ago, the Steelers used a first-round pick on former Arizona State right tackle Max Iheanachor in this year’s draft. They used a 2024 first-round pick on former Washington right tackle Troy Fautanu. Tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington are a nice combination, too. Rodgers has a lot to work with in 2026 if he indeed returns to Pittsburgh this fall. Even better, a quarterback taken early in the first round of next year’s draft by Pittsburgh would as well. The problem is that you might not be able to get to the latter with the former.

The biggest quarterback question in Pittsburgh is not what Rodgers elects to do this offseason. It’s what the Steelers elect to do at quarterback next offseason. If the class is as loaded as many folks predict it to be at quarterback, 2026 needs to be a step-back year for Pittsburgh. The Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets, Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, and the Minnesota Vikings could all take a quarterback in the first round next season, and it wouldn’t be all that surprising.

That’s a lot of competition.

The Steelers didn’t need to go 2-14 the last time they drafted their franchise quarterback, but they did need to lose double-digit games. If Rodgers returns, that seems unlikely. Rodgers spurning Pittsburgh for the Cardinals or even retirement might sting at first, but it also could be something we say was the best thing longterm for the franchise this time next year, too.

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The Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees have had splendid starts to their 2026 MLB regular season campaigns. The Braves are 23-10 and winners of seven of their last ten games. The Yankees are 21-11 and winners of eight of their last ten games. The Braves have the best run differential in baseball at +68, and the Yankees are two spots below them at +52. The Braves are third in offensive WAR, while the Yankees are fifth, per FanGraphs. (The Yankees are No. 1 in pitching WAR, too, with Cam Schlittler at No. 1 in all of baseball and fellow teammate ace Max Fried right behind him at No. 3.) Wherever you look, there is so much to like about both Atlanta and New York’s starts to the 2026 MLB season. However, if you had polled both fan bases before the season, I don’t think either would have overwhelmingly predicted the starts both teams have had to this point.

The Braves lost their big free-agent retention piece, shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, to a bizarre injury that has caused him to miss the start of the season. We all know what happened with left fielder and designated hitter Jurickson Profar. Starters Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach haven’t pitched for the big-league club yet due to different injury issues. The team did not add a high-priced starter and opted to roll with internal options, such as Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes, and Reynaldo Lopez. There was quite simply a lot of angst before the start of the 2026 season, and wouldn’t you know it, Elder is 16th in all of baseball in Pitching WAR.

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The Yankees did re-sign outfielder Cody Bellinger. Something that had to happen after the team lost Juan Soto to the New York Mets the previous offseason. They brought Trent Grisham back. They traded for Ryan Weathers. Like the general manager of the Braves, Alex Anthopoulos, general manager of the Yankees, Brian Cashman, put together the kind of offseason that makes a rabid fanbase angsty. And yet, the Yankees lead the AL East here on May 2. The Yankees are 13-4 since the Tampa Bay Rays swept the club on April 12. The Yankees are No. 1 in pitching and No. 5 in batting through May 2. Only the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers can also say they’re in the top-5 in both categories. That’s pretty elite company for Cashman’s team to be in through 32 games.

If you’re a fan of either team, you’re obviously excited about how your team has started the season. However, it’s in our nature to always be looking ahead. It’s why college football recruiting is still such a big deal for so many programs across the country. For New York fans, you can’t help but notice that Carlos Rodon just completed his second rehab start. Ace Gerritt Cole completed his third rehab start this week, too. The cavalry is coming to the Bronx, to be sure, but as I’ve previously written in this very piece, they’re coming into the best pitching situation in baseball. The Yankees are the only AL team in the top-6 in run differential, and barring any unlucky setbacks for Rodon or Cole, have two additional looming big-time arms to cement themselves as the best team in the AL by a wide margin.

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For the Braves, Elder’s surprising dominance has been huge. Even more so when you factor in the rough start to the season for fellow starter Reynaldo Lopez. It looks like Strider is expected to make his season debut in Colorado on Sunday. If Strider can reestablish himself as one of the top arms in the NL once again, that’s obviously huge for Atlanta, particularly with Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep not in the starting rotation picture anytime soon. If either young, high-upside arm J.R. Ritchie or Didier Fuentes can find their footing as a long-term answer in the rotation, that would obviously be fantastic for Atlanta, too. Still, the team has the best offense in baseball, and closer Raisael Iglesias is reportedly close to returning, too. The Braves don’t need to have a top-10 Pitching WAR – they were 14th in 2021 when they won the World Series – but at the very least, you would feel a lot more comfortable about this rotation if Strider looks close to the old, dominant version of himself from a few seasons ago.

There are so many great stories for these two teams to start the season, too. First basemen Ben Rice and Matt Olson are tied with ten home runs apiece, and are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in 1B WAR. Both teams have two starters in the top-15 in xERA at the moment – for New York, it’s Schlittler and Fried, and for Atlanta, it’s Elder and Chris Sale. For New York, Will Warren and Weathers are in the top-12 in K/9 with great FIP numbers, but quite unlucky BABIP numbers. Ozzie Albies has a 150 WRC+ and is crushing lefties with a .370 average and also hitting .417 in high-leverage situations. There are just great stories everywhere you look for both teams.

Yes, it is still May 2. A lot can change between now and the end of the season. However, both Atlanta and New York’s hot starts are a welcome reminder that offseason anxiety isn’t always warranted. Baseball is weird. The Braves can have the best offense in baseball without Kim and Profar and without Ronald Acuna Jr. and Austin Riley hitting like we all know they can. The Yankees can have the best pitching staff in baseball without Cole and Rodon. Will it all keep up for both teams? Who knows, but for now, the two best stories in baseball to start the 2026 season went into it with all kinds of similar questions and concerns. That’s what makes sports great, right? Sometimes all that worrying can be for nothing.

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Interestingly enough, a lot of folks who write and talk about the NFL Draft loved what the Browns were able to do last year, too. The Browns took former UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger in the second round of the draft last year, and he won the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year. The Browns took former Ohio State and Ole Miss star tailback Quinshon Judkins, and he tallied over 800 yards on the ground in 14 games, in the second round, too. Their third-round selection, former Bowling Green tight end Harold Fannin, reeled in 72 receptions for 731 yards and six scores. A whole lot of production from their early-draft choices in 2025, which doesn’t even include top-5 selection Mason Graham, who did have 7 TFLs and 4 QB hits to pair with 17 starts.

All of this first-year production should excite Browns fans when you consider general manager Andrew Berry made five additional selections in the first three rounds in this year’s draft. With nine picks in the first three rounds across back-to-back seasons, Cleveland could really have a stew going.

But they also took two quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft – Dillon Gabriel in the third and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth. They took Taylen Green in the sixth round this year. They still have Deshaun Watson on the roster. Barring a breakout season from Gabriel, Sanders, or Green, it should not come as a surprise if Cleveland takes another quarterback in the 2027 NFL Draft, given how loaded a class it portends to be. That’s right, Cleveland could take four quarterbacks across three consecutive drafts, and chances are you would still look at what Cleveland did in 2025 and 2026 on the whole and commend them on a job well done.

How interesting is that?

The Browns are in a unique spot in which they have earned back-to-back ‘A’ grades for their draft choices while using three of their seventeen picks on quarterbacks. A lot of that obviously has to do with when they’re taking the quarterbacks. Berry took fliers on Gabriel and Sanders after four other positions: defensive tackle, linebacker, tight end, and running back. This year, Berry took a flyer on Green after addressing six other positions: offensive tackle, wide receiver, safety, center, linebacker, and tight end. The Browns have poured a whole lot of draft capital into areas of need while also taking fliers on quarterbacks in the third, fifth, and sixth rounds, respectively, over the last two seasons. If one of the quarterbacks hits during this period, great, but if not, that’s perfectly fine, too, because they haven’t reached for anyone in the first or second round.

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It’s not a coincidence that the last homegrown quarterback to flourish in Cleveland also happened to be Cleveland’s last No. 1 overall pick in Baker Mayfield. The best way to find your franchise quarterback is in the first round. It doesn’t mean that’s the only way, but it has proven to be the most common way. The Browns haven’t taken a quarterback in the first round since Mayfield in 2018. With Arch Manning and more talented quarterbacks looming in the 2027 class, it wouldn’t be surprising if Cleveland finally dipped their toes back into the water when it comes to taking quarterbacks in the first round of the NFL Draft.

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If that is the route the Browns go in 2027, the team will have threaded the needle of drafting well in preparation for that kind of quarterback investment. The Browns have used their first picks in the first round the last two seasons in the trenches – defensive tackle last season and offensive tackle this season. They took two offensive tackles and two wide receivers across the first 86 picks of the 2026 NFL Draft. They have invested in running back, at linebacker, and at safety, too. They’ve retained the NFL single-season sack leader Myles Garrett through it all, too.

Cleveland currently has four gigantic unknowns at quarterback in Watson, Gabriel, Sanders, and Green. It remains to be seen if the team will use its own first-round pick on a quarterback next season. What we do know is that Berry and the front office are building a foundation for potential success in Cleveland for whichever quarterback ultimately figures it out under center with the Browns. Devoid of context, how many folks would assume Cleveland has nailed back-to-back drafts if you lead with they took three quarterbacks? Probably not many, and while Cleveland must solve the most pressing need for their franchise sooner rather than later, it does not have to be solved this season. Cleveland can nail back-to-back drafts while also throwing dart after dart when it comes to the quarterback position at present. Even better, the team’s new head football coach, Todd Monken, had a lot of success as the offensive coordinator at Georgia when the quarterback situation was certainly uncertain.

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Cleveland is probably not going to be a great team in 2026, but their last two drafts are putting them in a position to become one if they can solve their quarterback conundrum sooner rather than later. 2027 is the year the Browns should take a real swing at taking a quarterback in the first round of the draft. The team hasn’t found consistent success since they last used a first-round pick on a quarterback. They could have reached for a quarterback in the first or second round this year. They could have last year, too, but to their credit, they were patient and took their fliers in the third round and beyond to ensure that when they do take a big swing in the first round, perhaps next spring, that quarterback is walking into a great situation where early-round draft capital the last couple of cycles has been used smartly. If this year’s class is as productive as last year’s for Cleveland, that just might be the case for the Browns next franchise quarterback.

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Enter in-state conference rival Virginia Tech and James Franklin.

The Hokies received a major jolt this offseason when the school hired former Penn State and Vanderbilt head football coach James Franklin. The Cavaliers won 11 games last season, and the Hokies haven’t won 11 games in 15 years. Franklin won 11 games six times during his tenure at Penn State. In my lifetime, the Hokies have finished the season with double-digit wins 14 times. What Elliott did at Virginia in 2025 was what so many college football fans around my age grew up routinely expecting out of Virginia Tech year after year. What Elliott accomplished at Virginia in 2025 was what every Penn State fan expected out of Franklin every season in Happy Valley. Something has to give in 2026 and beyond, though, as the Cavaliers and the Hokies have never won double-digit games in the same season. With Elliott and Franklin now leading these two rival in-state programs, combined with the ACC's openness outside of Miami, it has never felt more possible.

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But there are a lot of questions for Elliott’s Cavaliers in Year 5 and Franklin’s Hokies in Year 1. It starts at quarterback, where Virginia has to replace Chandler Morris with either Pittsburgh transfer Eli Holstein or Missouri and Penn State transfer Beau Pribula, and where Virginia Tech has to replace Kyron Drones with either Penn State transfer Ethan Grunkemeyer or North Carolina transfer Bryce Baker. If Pribula beats out Holstein and Grunkemeyer beats out Baker, both schools will be led by former Penn State backup quarterbacks this fall. However, the experience in the Cavaliers’ room is very different than the experience in the Hokies’ room. With Elliott’s team, he won 11 games last season and is trying to keep the momentum going with a veteran quarterback like Pribula or Holstein. With Franklin’s team, he is trying to build momentum with an unproven but talented former blue-chip recruit like Grunkemeyer or Baker.

It’s all incredibly fascinating at quarterback for the Cavaliers and Hokies in 2026.

Even with the two rival in-state schools coming off very different seasons, their projected win totals are separated by only one game in next season, per FanDuel. Virginia’s projected win total sits at 7.5 while Virginia Tech’s sits at 6.5. It’s not inconceivable that when these two schools meet on November 28th in Blacksburg, the Cavaliers and the Hokies will have identical records. Wouldn’t it be something for the first year of Elliott versus Franklin rivalry to feature those kinds of stakes, where the winner in Blacksburg finishes the regular season with the better record?

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Elliott broke through in Charlottesville in Year 4, where he doubled his win total from 5 to 11. In an open ACC outside of Miami, it will be fascinating to see how the former longtime Clemson assistant builds off last season’s rousing success. Back-to-back double-digit win seasons are obviously the goal, but with the potential drop-off at quarterback from Morris to either Pribula or Holstein, 8-4 would be a very nice follow-up to last season’s magic, right? In a lot of ways, it seemed like the 2025 ACC Coach of the Year overachieved with his group last year. The Cavaliers were 53rd in OFEI, per BCFToys. They were seventh in scoring offense in the ACC. They weren’t elite at throwing the football, and they weren’t elite at running the football. The best numbers were found on the defensive side of the ball, where Virginia and CFP runner-up Miami were the only two teams to allow fewer than 20 points per game in the ACC last season. It’s fair to be concerned about QB1 at Virginia, but to win eight or more games in 2026, a lot of it might depend on whether or not the Cavaliers’ defense is one of the premier units in the conference once again.

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Both Elliott and Franklin were offensive assistant coaches before they were head coaches. However, the in-state battle between Virginia defensive coordinator John Rudzinski and Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Brent Pry will be just as intriguing. The two ACC schools that finished No. 1 and No. 2 in scoring defense in the conference last season won double-digit games. Virginia Tech’s best finish since 2020 was 5th in 2021. Under Franklin in Happy Valley, the Nittany Lions were 8th nationally in scoring defense in 2024. They were third the year prior. They were 9th the year before that. It was the defense over the last several years at Penn State that raised the school’s floor so consistently year over year.

Yes, the offense and quarterback matters at Virginia and Virginia Tech this year and beyond, but I suspect who wins more games between the two head coaches will have a lot more to do with their scoring defense than with their scoring offense.

I don’t know how it will all play out for Elliott and Franklin in Charlottesville and Blacksburg, respectively, but I do know it will be quite enjoyable to see how it all unfolds. Does Elliott keep things on track at Virginia in Year 5? Does Franklin come in and win immediately, even with a far more daunting schedule, in Year 1? Does Pribula or Holstein become a cool Bounce Back Season story? Does Grunkemeyer flash as a future first-round talent in the NFL Draft? I don’t know, but I do know the Virginia vs. Virginia Tech game in late November will be a must-watch event for the first time in a long time, and that’s a great thing for fans of both schools and college football fans as a whole.

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This week, Sports Renaissance Man had the opportunity to interview Alabama State head football coach Eddie Robinson Jr.

Read the full interview below.

The biggest reason your team had such a special season and went from 7 to 10 wins?

Robinson Jr: Well, I think it was definitely our offensive production. We went from 22 points per game to 40. So that’s probably the most obvious choice, and to have some explosive guys. Of course, you have to start with Andrew Body. He was the HBCU Player of the Year, so that was a big part of it. The offensive line played a lot better as well, but I just think, just overall, from an offensive standpoint, we executed at a high level, and we had some explosive guys.

How do you manage expectations from the fanbase now that you just won double-digit games the previous season?

Robinson Jr: Well, I don’t think you manage outside the room. You manage inside the room. And I think for us, you know, our expectation has been to win at a high level every year. So we expect it. We know the challenges that are involved to make it happen. You know, every win is a big deal. In college football, I tell my guys, half the teams in college football lost this weekend. So when you win, I don’t care who you’re playing. It’s something to appreciate and enjoy. And then on Sunday, you get back to work. So we have a motto about winning today. And so we just focus on winning each day, just getting like marginal gains, getting a little better every day at something. And I think if we keep having that approach, then at the end of the year, you look back and say, ‘Hey, this is what we accomplished.’ And for us, we focus on that. And then, you know, outside the building, the fans should expect to win a championship every year. I mean, that’s the expectation of what fans are. They’re fanatical. They’re supposed to expect to win, right? And it’s our job to deliver that.

What gets you most fired up about spring practice leading a program in 2026?

Robison Jr: I think you can be physical because you don’t play for another six months, and so the guys can really hit. Like, we can watch the guys tackle, and I’m trying to find the guys who are physical, who are tough, some violent guys, who can make people miss, and who can make tackles, who can make throws and catches under pressure. And we still kind of control it a little bit, but we won’t be this physical and violent once the season starts, OK. And so for right now, you can really kind of let them go and practice really hard and have some big collisions and contacts. And then, you knock on wood. You don’t want anybody to get hurt, but you know, to make a good omelet, you've got to break some eggs. So it’s just how it goes.

Does it change with the portal season and everything else? Do you change your install schedule here in this new age of college football? Or has it still been just about what it was when you first got there?

Robinson Jr: I think it’s about the same. I think without having a portal window this spring, it definitely helps us out just from a standpoint of, yeah, maybe a couple guys that you’re hoping to still bring into the program, you’re always recruiting. But at the same time, you’re not spending a whole lot of time concerned about, ‘Hey, this kid is having a great spring, will he try to take this tape and leave?’ You know, and I think that was the part that was just really crazy the last couple of years, when guys are going through spring, and I’m uncertain whether or not they’re going to stay. So now I can’t even really plan for next year because, yeah, I look really good at the defensive end spot, but I don’t know if two of those guys in their mind, they’re thinking that they’re going to leave, and they haven’t told me yet.

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Your offense led the SWAC in scoring last season, but was last in total plays in the SWAC. Was that kind of efficiency mostly due to the consistent chunk plays your offense produced?

Robison Jr: Well, I think it was two things. So I’m always looking at the different stats, comparing year to year, comparing with the conference champ and the top-25 teams in FCS did the year before, and what makes a successful team just from a stats standpoint, because you want to try to mimic those things. So I think more specifically for us, I don’t think of the intention, like every play you’re trying to score, right? But we had some very explosive guys who were taking a normal play and making two guys miss and going 30, 40, and 50 yards, and sometimes scoring. So that’s a good problem to have. So I don’t think you ever scale back from how fast we can score. I think the other part of that equation was that we were horrible in third-down efficiency. We were close to last in the conference. We gave up more than 50% on third down and fourth down. And so what was happening was we were scoring really fast, but then we couldn’t get off the field on third down defensively to get the ball back to the offense. So it was, it was, the success on offense, and I think the lack of being productive in third-down efficiency on defense. And so we understand what we have to be better at. You can be better on third down. And, of course, you want to still be explosive. But we always have a mindset of tempo and controlling the clock and those types of things. But I think that third-down efficiency on defense will allow the offense to have more opportunities to score, and hopefully, we can be just as efficient as we were last year.

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What’s the secret to improved third-down defensive efficiency?

Robinson Jr: First of all, you've got to know it’s third down. It sounds like a simple thing. So what we’re doing now, we’re getting into spring, we’re doing situational football. And the kids know my favorite day of the week during the season is Thursday because we really focus on situational football. You focus on two-minute, you focus on third downs, you focus on red zones. So now it’s more specific, we’re not just running plays 1st and 10 from the 30. We’re looking at, hey, it’s 3rd and 3, it’s 3rd and 5, it’s 3rd and 7. And so it sounds like an easy deal, but everybody on the team, especially guys on the field, have to know, ‘Hey, it’s 3rd and 3.’ And so the way you’re going to play cornerback or linebacker at 3rd and 3 is different between 3rd and 9 or 3rd and 10. So once you know the down the distance, then you can start getting to what’s the formation, anticipating the play, what’s my responsibility, et cetera, et cetera. Third down is my favorite down. That’s the money down. But then you have to execute once you get them into 3rd and long, and then you have to get them off the field. And I think the trend in college football is now to go for it on fourth down. So now we’re really having that mentality of if it’s 3rd and 9, we know if it gets to a 4th and 2 or 3, most offensive coordinators are going to go for it. That’s what happened against us. So we’re kind of preparing the kids. So we’re doing a lot of third and fourth down type things now, so we can be in that mindset of we’re going to have to stop an offense on third and fourth down.

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What’s next for Andrew Body’s development after such a dominant 2025 season?

Robinson Jr: Yeah, I tell him all the time. I mean, you can’t be a running quarterback. You have to be a quarterback who can run, and it’s a big difference. And so, and I tell them, you look at, you know, some of the guys, I go way back, not way back, but I played against them, so I don’t want to say I’m that old, but, you know, Johnny Five, you know, Donovan McNabb, you know, he was one of those guys who could run, but he ran on his terms. Even Mahomes, you know, Mahomes can run, but he’s not a running quarterback per se. And so I think for me, ultimately, you have to win in the pocket from the quarterback position, or you have to get out of the pocket, but eyes downfield to try to make explosive plays. But then, when you have to run, man, you can really punish the defense. So I think just going through that first, second, and third read, getting the ball out to the check down, like, be the point guard. And then when it’s time to take over, you take over when it’s necessary. But don’t force it. Let the game come to you.

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Thinking back to Year 1 as the head football coach at Alabama State to now, going into Year 5, how have you evolved as a leader and coach?

Robinson Jr: Yeah, so I think now I say what needs to be said, and I do what needs to be done. And so I think a simple way to look at that is like we had a practice. It was raining that morning. It was really one of those early spring mornings. It was really, really cold, and it was raining hard, so the team is anticipating and the coaches that practice will be canceled. But with me looking at my trusty weather app, I understand that the weather is about to clear up at 6:30, so we’ll be perfectly fine. So I’m getting in the car in the mindset of it’s going to be a cold, wet, rainy day, ready to practice, and I think everybody else had the mindset of practice will be cancelled, right? So, going through the first 20 minutes, you know I usually take my notes on the things I need to correct at the end of practice. I had five things in the first 20 minutes. I was like this is going nowhere fast. This is about to be a wasted day, and I think in my first year, I probably would have asked another coach, ‘Hey man, how do you think this is going, man? What do you think we need to do to get it going?’ I would have asked permission to be the head football coach. Well, this year I brought everybody up to the 50. A couple of expletives. ‘Like, hey, we’re going to, this thing is horrible. We’re going to start this practice over. I don’t like this tempo. This is not championship tempo. Even though it’s in the spring and we don’t play for six months, this is not a good practice. So let’s get it changed right now.’ And then it went on to be a pretty good practice. So, you know, right now I’m going to be more, I’m going to trust my instinct. I’m going to go with my gut. And maybe I’m wrong sometimes, but as the head coach, you get the right to be wrong. So it’s like, it’s one of those things I’m going to trust what I feel and not always ask permission. I think my first year, I probably would have asked permission to kind of have that same type of, you know, response.

Do you have a take on the Titans’ new uniforms?

Robinson Jr: You know, I’m going to reach out to my guy, Keith Bullock, and talk with him. He came and talked to our team last year. You know, I started off as a Houston Oiler. I was on the team with, you know, Warren Moon and all those guys. Ernest Givins, you know, Haywood Jeffires, all those guys. I mean, I’m a true-blue Houston Oiler, right? So, part of me loves the Columbia blue and red. That’s like, it’s like, man. And so, but part of me still likes the old Titan logo. So, to answer your question, I do like it because it merges both aspects of it. I think it... kind of gives that connection because there is still a lot of Oilers fans in Texas who still follow the Titans because they still have that connection because all of the franchise records, you know, the Robert Braziles, the Earl Campbells, the Warren Moons, they’re still with the Titans franchise, even though they were Oilers. So I think I love the connection of the Columbia blue and red to kind of tie those old guys in and I still go back when I’m able to when we have the reunion days, I still go back to Nashville for the reunion days because for the Oilers, it’s still and my old Oiler friends they show up for that and my Titans guys, so I like it. I’m thumbs up with it.

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Texas Tech football and Ohio State football have something in common right now. For the latter, winning lots of regular-season games has been the standard. The Buckeyes have lost more than one conference game just once since the start of the 2012 season. Since 2005, Ohio State has failed to win double-digit games twice. Of those two seasons, one was the COVID-shortened season. Funny enough, the one year the Buckeyes lost more than one Big Ten game for the first time in 2011, head football coach Ryan Day’s football team won the national championship. Last year, Ohio State went 8-0 vs. Big Ten teams, and they won by two or more scores in every single game. Last year, Texas Tech went 8-1 vs. Big 12 teams, and they won by two or more scores in every victory. Red Raiders fans are now in a shared place with Buckeyes fans when it comes to the college football regular season.

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Could you imagine telling college football fans in 2006 that Texas Tech was on a path to being just as consistently dominant in their conference as Ohio State has been in the Big Ten? If you take a look at the 2026 college football win total projections, you will find that Texas Tech’s projected win total sits at 11.5, which is what it has felt like at Ohio State for years and years. (Although the Buckeyes have an eyebrow-raising 9.5 win total this year. Traveling to Austin for your season opener can have that kind of effect, I suppose.) Texas Tech’s one blemish in conference play last year came on the road in Tempe against the Arizona State Sun Devils. This year, they get Kenny Dillingham’s team at home. BYU isn’t on their schedule next season. It would be a huge upset for the Red Raiders not to be favored in every game they play this upcoming season.

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It certainly seems like this is the new standard for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders were ranked No. 1 by On3 in their team transfer portal rankings last year. They were ranked No. 2 this latest cycle. Their big get last cycle was former Stanford edge David Bailey, and he had a fantastic lone season in Lubbock and projects to be a top-10 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. This cycle, you could argue it’s former Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby. You could argue it’s former Wake Forest defensive tackle Mateen Ibirogba or former Kansas State linebacker Justin Romine. Only time will tell, but the Red Raiders are rolling in a way similar to the Buckeyes, where it would be jarring to see Texas Tech not win double-digit games at the end of the season. Texas Tech fans are starting to experience the regular season like Ohio State fans have experienced it for decades now, where you expect to win just about every regular-season game you play. You know your team has more talent, more years than not, in your conference.

How soon before SEC fans start to view Texas Tech the way they have viewed Ohio State for years and years? The strength-of-schedule conversation isn’t going anywhere, especially with the SEC going to nine conference games this year. If Texas Tech finishes a perfect 12-0 this season and becomes a yearly lock to make the College Football Playoff, how does that change the conversation around them? In my 34 years on this planet, the Red Raiders have always seemed like one of the fun underdogs in the sport. That’s not who they are anymore, though. While it is impossible to know for sure how they’d fare in the SEC, the same as with Ohio State, it is going to be interesting to see how they are viewed by fanbases in SEC Country, particularly if they don’t make a deep run in the CFP sooner rather than later.

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If you’re an Arkansas football fan, you’re a bit jealous, right? You don’t have to squint too hard to envision an alternate world where you’re doing what Texas Tech is doing in the Big 12. A perfect world for Razorbacks fans is one where they remain in the SEC for every sport except football, right? The Hawgs have never won the SEC and don’t look to be particularly close to winning it in the not-too-distant future. A far more appealing future would be battling the Red Raiders atop the Big 12 every year and going to the CFP more years than not, right? Texas Tech is the kind of powerhouse in the Big 12 that Arkansas could be if it made the switch, right?

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For Ohio State fans, the high floor must be the best part of watching your beloved Buckeyes over the years, right? In the FBS, you can count on one hand the schools that have similar year-over-year floors to Day’s team. It includes Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs. It used to include Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide. It seems to include Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Dan Lanning’s Oregon Ducks. Tennessee fans have enjoyed the consistent high floors that Josh Heupel has created in Big Orange Country over the last half-decade.

This is a new world for Red Raiders fans, where they’re the school with the highest floor in their Power 4 conference more years than not. They are now a school where it’s expected that they win double-digit games every year. It’s a school where a 9-3 finish is a colossal failure. The Buckeyes have lived in this world for a long time, but look out, the Red Raiders are here now, too.

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The Atlanta Hawks continued their winning ways in Detroit on Wednesday night. The Detroit Pistons were without their star guard, Cade Cunningham, but the No. 1 seed in the East still gave Atlanta head basketball coach Quin Snyder’s team all it could handle.

With the victory, the Hawks would be the five-seed in the NBA Playoffs and would face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round, rather than either the New York Knicks or Boston Celtics, who are both battling it out for the two-seed down the stretch of the 2025-26 NBA regular season.

The Hawks, who have now won fourteen of their last fifteen basketball games, made a statement on the road last night in their overtime victory over the best team in the East, a team they’d lost to in all three of their previous meetings this season.

Let’s dive into my three takeaways from last night’s victory.

Atlanta’s Backcourt Was Everything Last Night

Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 14 points in the first quarter. Both teams were on fire from everywhere on the floor to start the ball game. With around six minutes to go in the opening frame, the Hawks were shooting over 80 percent from the floor. It looked as though it was going to be another big scoring night for the NAW, but he only scored seven more points, including overtime, the rest of the game.

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It was the Hawks’ other backcourt starter, the veteran McCollum, who carried Atlanta to victory last night. He, like Alexander-Walker, started the game hot. McCollum connected on his first three attempts from deep. When McCollum and Alexander-Walker are rolling, particularly from deep, the Hawks are a really tough team to deal with, particularly because of how consistently good Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels are around them, with both being triple-digit threats every night out.

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But it was McCollum, late in the fourth quarter, and then in overtime, making one big shot after another. In the fourth quarter in particular, McCollum was hitting shots in a variety of ways. He was drilling shots from deep, sometimes on one foot with the shot clock winding down, hitting huge and-1 opportunities, and even some in the mid-range. The longtime NBA veteran is a delight to watch when he’s playing like he did last night in Detroit, and he was the biggest reason the Hawks beat the Pistons for the first time this season.

What The Heck Happened In The Third Quarter

The Hawks had a 92.7 percent chance of winning this basketball game with 52.9 seconds remaining in the second quarter when Atlanta led 69-50, per ESPN. The Hawks took an eighteen-point lead into halftime. It looked as though there was going to be a lot of garbage-time minutes in the fourth quarter, given where things were headed.

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Then the second half happened. The Pistons started the third quarter on a 16-0 run, and in less than half a quarter, the Hawks’ nearly 20-point lead had completely evaporated. They trailed at points in the third quarter. It was a jarring turn of events and a testament to J.B. Bickerstaff and his team for how they rallied at home after getting blown out in the first half.

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It was another veteran, not McCollum, who came up big for the Hawks in the third quarter, though – Gabe Vincent. He hit two huge threes in the third quarter and scored all of his points in this brutal frame for Atlanta. Without his jolt off the bench, that also included two steals, Atlanta might not have won this game. (Alexander-Walker also hit a huge pull-up three in transition late in the third quarter that felt huge at the time, too.)

Dyson Daniels And Jalen Johnson Were Great, Too

Johnson tied McCollum in most points scored for the Hawks last night at 27. However, it’s easy to recount all of the latter’s makes, while Johnson is so good and so efficient that he can coast to 27. He was two rebounds shy of another triple-double and played winning basketball all night long. He passed the ball, drew a lot of fouls, converted at the line, and continued to be the do-it-all star for Atlanta. But on nights where McCollum is hitting some of the shots he did, particularly late in the game, Johnson’s consistently elite play can be overlooked.

For Daniels, who continues to be the best watch for Atlanta, does so many things that impact winning, too. He nearly finished with ten offensive rebounds alone and finished with 13. He added two steals, assisted on two threes for the Hawks, and nearly had a triple-double when he took zero free throws and made zero threes.

Atlanta doesn’t have enough remaining games to catch the Cavaliers, New York Knicks, or Boston Celtics, but they will face the latter in two of their next three games. The first one is Friday night in Boston.

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The Tennessee Volunteers are headed back to the Sweet Sixteen for the fourth straight season under men’s head basketball coach Rick Barnes. The 6-seeded Vols beat the 3-seeded Virginia Cavaliers 79-72 to advance to the next round of the men’s NCAA Tournament, where they will face off against the No. 2 seed Iowa State.

Let’s dive into a few of my takeaways from Sunday night’s instant classic in Philadelphia, where the Vols were able to stay dancing.

The Free Throws Ended Up Being Huge

For a lot of this game, I wondered if Tennessee would run into a math problem against Ryan Odom’s Cavaliers. The Cavs were taking, and, well, making lots of threes early in this ball game. Virginia made five threes on eight attempts within the first eight minutes, which did not seem like a recipe for a Volunteer victory on Sunday night.

Tennessee weathered the hot shooting from deep by Virginia, though, and pounded the latter inside. There was a point late in the first half where Tennessee had outscored Virginia 14-4 in the paint, but, again, I wondered if this would ultimately spell doom for the Vols with Virginia’s three-point shooting and the Vols continuing to play with two bigs, even after JP Estrella picked up two early fouls in the first half.

However, the Vols and Cavs finished with 28 and 26 points in the paint, respectively. The Vols and the Cavs finished close in three-pointers made, with 8 and 12, respectively. The disparity in points came at the free-throw line, as Tennessee’s top two scorers, Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Nate Ament, combined to go 13-of-14 at the charity stripe. Ultimately, the Vols went 19-25 at the free-throw line, and it proved to be the key scoring difference for Tennessee, stealing one over the higher-seeded Cavaliers.

Bishop Boswell Had Himself A Night

The sophomore guard had himself a game, didn’t he? As worried as I was about Tennessee’s math problem against Virginia early, Boswell played a significant role in the Vols’ winning this game and advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. Boswell hit three first-half threes and another big one in the second half, as he went 4-of-10 from deep overall on the night.

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Tennessee needed every one of those first-half threes from Boswell. There was one possession where Boswell even passed up an open three-pointer to drive and kick to Gillespie for an even better look from deep, which the latter drained. Boswell made so many different winning plays for Tennessee in this game and even added nine assists for good measure.

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Boswell can shoot, and the Vols need him to remember that he can shoot against the Cyclones in the Sweet Sixteen. Spacing can be tight for the Vols in the halfcourt, so Boswell must fire those open threes when he gets those kinds of looks because he can make them, and Tennessee needs him to take them. Boswell doesn’t need to fire any midrange shots, and he doesn’t really need to try to finish at the rim.

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He has to continue a similar shot diet to the one he had Sunday night moving forward. That doesn’t mean he needs to take ten-plus threes a night – it all depends on the flow of the game and what opposing defenses are showing him. Still, the Vols need more three-point shooting like that from Boswell, and they’ll always need his ability to drive and find Ament or Gillespie open for three around the perimeter.

Tennessee Turnovers Didn’t Cost Them

I think every Vol fan was a tad nervous as the second-half turnovers really started to mount late, although some of them were the result of some questionable non-foul calls on Virginia. The Vols finished the game with ten turnovers, and had they not found a way to beat the Cavs Sunday night, that likely would have been the leading takeaway after the game as to why.

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It got wonky down the stretch, but there were a lot of positives, too. Gillespie was clutch from the charity stripe. Ament, too. Even after missing most of the game due to foul trouble, Estrella had two huge buckets inside, one with two guys on him, late in the second half. Tennessee even lost the lead late in the game, but they still found a way to close and advance.

The Vols’ toughest test awaits in Iowa State, but we don’t have to think about that match-up yet. Tennessee has reached its fourth consecutive Sweet Sixteen and is just one win away from three-straight Elite Eights. What a run by Rick Barnes. What a run.

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The Toronto Raptors are smack dab in the middle of the Eastern Conference. At 39-29, Toronto would be the No. 5 seed in the NBA Playoffs if the season started today. The Raptors are likely to finish with their best record since their 2021-22 squad that won 48 games and lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Raptors under Darko Rajakovic have gotten a little bit better each of the last three seasons. It’s a similar rise to that of former Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, who went on his first three seasons at the helm after replacing Jay Triano. Toronto went from 23 to 34 to 48 wins in those first three seasons under Casey. Interestingly enough, the Raptors’ Net Rating in Year 3 under Casey was +3.5, and it’s now +2.2, good for 12th in the NBA. Casey guided those Raptors teams in the mid-2010s to 48 or more wins for five consecutive seasons. Is history about to repeat itself in Toronto?

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The Raptors’ preseason win-loss projection was 39.5, and with 14 games remaining on their schedule, Toronto should clear that number with ease. Coming into the year, Toronto had finished the regular season with a winning record just once in the last six seasons. The preseason expectation was more in the Play-In Zone, but to Rajakovic’s credit, the team has exceeded preseason expectations and could certainly make it out of the first round in the East for the first time since 2020. Toronto is 6th in the NBA in defensive rating, and their Expected W82 is 47.4, so right at that 48-win total, the 2021-22 Raptors team hit.

Toronto had two players make the All-Star team this year in Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram. Barnes and Ingram, along with Jakob Poetl, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett, are all signed through next season. That’s important, as the five-man unit that’s totaled 647 possessions together is +10.7. In fact, Toronto’s top-6 lineups in possessions played all have positive plus-minuses. It’s a solid team across the board. The Raptors are a solid professional basketball team that is also having a very solid season in the NBA.

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It has to be a bit of a sigh of relief for Bobby Webster and Toronto’s front office that the Raptors are playing at the level of a team pushing for fifty wins in the East, per CleaningTheGlass. We already knew the team nailed the Scottie Barnes selection years ago. In three of the last four seasons, Barnes has been in the 80-plus percentile in Efficiency Differential. Barnes is a winning player in so many ways, but he is shooting 29 percent from three this season, his second-worst percentage in his young NBA career. However, he also has the best eFG% of his career this season. Through five seasons, his shot diet has never included enough threes to account for 30-plus percent of his overall attempts. Barnes is just a very unique best player to have on a very solid team in 2026.

It’s fair to wonder with this team if they can be the Detroit Pistons of next season. The Pistons won 44 games a season ago and sit at 50-19 with thirteen games remaining in the regular season. The key difference is the ceiling, particularly on offense, between the Pistons’ star Cade Cunningham and Barnes. So there are some obvious similarities and some key differences between the two franchises. The Raptors’ calling card is their defense. Both are top-10 defenses this year, but the Pistons are right on the line of having a top-10 offense. It’s imperative to be in the top 10 in both to be a serious contender, as the Raptors were fifth in both metrics when they won the title in the 2018-19 season. The biggest wonder this year has been if the Pistons could get into the top-10 in offensive efficiency, and I suspect the same will be true for Toronto if this season is the start of another great run in Raptors basketball. You know they can defensively, but, as of right now, you have to really squint to see a top-10 offense in their immediate future.

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Perhaps a lot of it comes down to the development of Ja’Kobe Walter, a 2024 first-round pick. Or maybe it’s their 2025 Lottery pick out of South Carolina, Collin Murray-Boyles. The latter has been a plus-player in the 5-man lineups he’s played the most with this season. He’s played with two five-man lineups that have amassed more than 100 possessions together this season to a final total of +13.6. Murray-Boyles’ shot chart is significantly different than Poetl’s and is likely a big factor in where Toronto’s offense can go in the next couple of seasons, particularly next to Barnes at the 4. Similarly, Walter’s development in the backcourt is also important. With a modern shot-chart diet of threes and shots at the rim, what he ultimately evolves into on the offensive end matters for Toronto. 61 percent of his shots this season are threes, and he’s shooting better than league average at 37 percent. He’s shooting a super-efficient 44 percent on corner 3s, too. RJ Barrett will be an expiring contract next season, so Toronto needs to find out what Walter is or could be sooner rather than later.

Early returns on Murray-Boyles and Walter have been good. The Raptors have seemingly advanced out of the Lottery for a while, which makes Murray-Boyles and Walter, too, extremely important over the next several seasons. Ingram has been a success story and an All-Star in Toronto. Quickley and Barrett have been excellent in their increased roles. Poetl’s a seemingly Forever Solid big. It’s been a surprise to see Toronto be firmly out of the Play-In conversation this season, but the Raptors are in the middle of the East now. It can get old fast for fanbases to be stuck there, just as it can get old fast for fanbases to be stuck in the Play-In. Toronto probably needs some development luck with Murray-Boyles or Walter to move out of the middle, or maybe it’s just Barnes reaching another unexpected level offensively. Either way, the Raptors are a good team that figures to be good for the next couple of seasons. There is nothing harder in sports than going from good to elite, and that’s now the big question that faces Toronto this season and beyond.

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So, which fanbases should be excited about these early odds? Which fanbases should be concerned? Which fanbases, honestly, should have no idea what to think?

Let’s dive in.

Who Should Be Excited?

Let’s start positively. Tennessee fans should be excited that their win total is up to 7.5 from 6.5, where it was when the projections came out a few days ago. With a redshirt freshman or true freshman under center, I’ve long maintained this offseason that the goal, or hope rather, is eight wins for the Volunteers. Young quarterback, new defensive coordinator, new strength & conditioning coach, thirty-plus true freshmen, compounded with nine conference games and a real road test at Bobby Dodd Stadium against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. If the Vols reach nine wins, Tennessee head football coach Josh Heupel is your Coach of the Year in the SEC. If the Vols reach eight wins, I suspect it will look and feel very different than Tennessee’s eight wins last season.

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Another school with a projected win total of 7.5 is Florida. If you are a Gators fan, you should be really excited about that number. Florida, Auburn, LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Kentucky all will have new head football coaches this fall, and only the Bayou Bengals go into next fall with a higher projected win total than the Gators at 8.5.

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Florida was able to pry Jon Sumrall away from Tulane, where he went 20-8 and made the College Football Playoff last season. Across his four seasons as a head football coach in the FBS, Sumrall has gone 7-1 in conference play every year. He’s won at multiple stops, has played in this conference at Kentucky, where he was the Wildcats’ leading tackler in 2004, and hired a heck of a staff around him. Buster Faulkner as offensive coordinator and Brad White as defensive coordinator is a strong duo, particularly the former.

The Gators retaining star tailback Jadan Baugh could prove to be a huge offseason win for Sumrall’s staff, with the Jackets under Faulkner sitting in the top-10 in yards per carry on the ground in two of the last three seasons, per CFBStats. Like Tennessee, the Gators have a true quarterback competition on their hands between Aaron Philo, who followed Faulkner from Atlanta, and roster holdover Tramell Jones Jr, a Jacksonville native. Whoever wins the QB1 battle will have a star tailback behind him and a litany of playmakers out wide to throw the ball to in Dallas Wilson, Vernell Brown III, and Eric Singleton Jr.

Outside of Kiffin at LSU, no fanbase that hired a new coach this offseason in the SEC should be more excited than Florida fans.

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Who Should Be Concerned?

This will probably be a yearly deal for Kalen DeBoer, unfortunately. Even if he wins a championship at Alabama this year or next, the pressure never ceases at a place like Alabama. That’s both a blessing and a curse for the head football coach and the fans. Georgia and Texas are tied atop the win-total projections at 9.5 wins. Alabama is right below them, tied with Texas A&M and LSU. Those five schools should be the favorites to make the CFP this season out of the conference. If you're a Bulldog fan, you feel the best out of this group, but if you’re a Crimson Tide fan, you’re already a little anxious about next season.

You would like to be at the 9.5 win total where the Longhorns sit alongside the Bulldogs. You missed the CFP last season, and there is all sorts of pressure in Tuscaloosa for that not to happen in back-to-back seasons. However, Ryan Grubb is back for Year 2 as offensive coordinator, so that continuity should help on the offensive side of the ball. It’s unlikely the Tide could run the ball any worse than they did a year ago. Ryan Coleman-Williams, Lotzeir Brooks, and Rico Scott at wideout have lots of potential with two young, blue-chip wildcards behind them in Derek Meadows and Cederian Morgan.

Like Tennessee and Florida, there is a real quarterback competition happening in Tuscaloosa. The floor for the Tide is safer than the Vols or the Gators if the wrong quarterback wins the job to start the season, but if you’re a fan of the Tide, you hope the right guy wins and runs with it, whether that’s Austin Mack or Keelon Russell. While the latter is still just a redshirt freshman, the CFP expectations will remain whether he or Mack wins the competition. If Alabama bests its projected win total in March, that still may not be enough to reach the CFP at 9-3. It’s a march to double-digit wins, with a new quarterback and a nine-game conference schedule that includes trips to Knoxville, Baton Rouge, and Nashville, along with Georgia and Texas A&M coming to town.

Who Should Have No Idea What To Think?

Several schools fit the bill here: LSU, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt.

For the Tigers, 8.5 is a nice first-year number for Kiffin, but the school also just brought in the No. 1-ranked transfer portal class, highlighted by a big-time, win-now quarterback in Arizona State transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt. In four of Kiffin’s final five years in Oxford, he won double-digit games every season except one. With more talent in Baton Rouge, you feel great, but it’s still Year 1, and you aren’t sure what the fairest expectations are for Kiffin this fall. It’s probably just make the 12-team field, something LSU has not done yet, and go from there.

Assuming star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss is under center for the Rebels, 7.5 seems awfully low. Sure, Kiffin is gone, and Pete Golding is in. The latter was awesome in the CFP under brutal circumstances, but Ole Miss will have a different offensive coordinator with John David Baker coming in from East Carolina. Like Kiffin and LSU, the Rebels reeled in another elite transfer portal class on paper. How Syracuse transfer wideouts Darrell Gill Jr. and Johntay Cook come in, and mesh matters a great deal, and you still have five-star, in-state product Caleb Cunningham waiting in the wings behind Deuce Alexander.

Oklahoma broke through and made the CFP with arguably the toughest schedule in all of college football last year. Heisman hopeful John Mateer is back. And yet, Sooners fans see their win total at 7.5, alongside the Gators and the Vols. The Sooners were 79th in offense last season in scoring. Ben Arbuckle is back for his second season in Norman. The passing game in particular has to have more juice if the Sooners are going to hit the over and expect to win multiple games in the CFP. Isaiah Sategna III is back as Mateer’s safety net, and transfers Trell Harris and Parker Livingstone need to be plug-and-play guys right away.

The defense finished 7th in scoring defense last year, and under Brent Venables calling the shots, it’s hard to see a major drop-off there, so their floor is high. The offense has to click across the board a lot better, so OU is in one of the stranger spots in the conference.

Finally, the Vanderbilt Commodores. They won double-digit games last season, led by a quarterback who probably deserved the Heisman. Even though they missed the CFP, Vandy fans watched their school trounce the Volunteers in Neyland. They beat LSU and Missouri at home. They trounced South Carolina and Kentucky. They fell to the Longhorns on the road by three. A whole lot went right for Clark Lea’s team in Nashville last year.

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Now, Diego Pavia is out, and true freshman Jared Curtis is in. Across the state, rival Tennessee is dealing with the same dramatic shift, going from Joey Aguilar to either George MacIntyre or Faizon Brandon. Like Tennessee, though, there is a belief in the ‘Dores with a young quarterback under center. You should feel good about the 6.5 if you’re a Vanderbilt fan, but you have to wonder what the offense will look like with such a dramatic change from Pavia to Curtis, even with offensive coordinator Tim Beck back. It’s already going to be weird to see Curtis in black-and-gold after being a longtime Georgia commit the Commodores flipped late in the process, but how will last year’s success and offensive dominance shape Vanderbilt fans’ likely up-and-down nature of this year’s team?

I can’t wait to watch how it all plays out, in, well, six months.

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Well, FanDuel released its early 2026 SEC win total projections this week. That obviously included the Tennessee Volunteers, who now sit at 7.5 wins, a number shared by fellow SEC rivals Ole Miss, Oklahoma, and Florida. Interestingly enough, this will be the third straight season Tennessee’s preseason win total projection has fallen from the previous season. In 2024, it was 9.5 wins. Following Nico Iamaleava’s stunning spring departure the following season, it was 8.5 wins. With an additional conference game and an early road game on The Flats against Georgia Tech this season, it’s down to 7.5 wins.

Even with the additional conference game on the docket, and no Joey Aguilar or big-time, veteran transfer quarterback under center, that 7.5 total feels about right. 6.5 was too low, but 8.5 would have been too high. Head football coach Josh Heupel has won fewer than eight games just once at Tennessee. Even with so much change this offseason, particularly on defense and the defensive coaching staff, along with the uncertainty at quarterback, Heupel has earned the benefit of the doubt.

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However, one of the major worries I have about Tennessee’s schedule next season is the long wait before the first bye week for the Vols. Whether it’s redshirt freshman George MacIntyre or true freshman Faizon Brandon under center, they will face Texas, Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, and South Carolina before that first bye week. What makes the slate a bit easier – although easier feels like the wrong word there – is that the games against the Longhorns, Tigers, and Crimson Tide all take place in the friendly confines of Neyland Stadium. It’s fair to project that Arkansas and South Carolina, the two road games for Tennessee during that stretch, will be the weakest of the bunch amongst that group this fall.

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It’s a better year to get Arkansas, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Georgia Tech on the road. The Hawgs will look vastly different under new head coach Ryan Silverfield, with a projected win total of 4.5. The Gamecocks are already dealing with brutal injury luck on the offensive line with a projected win total of 5.5. The Commodores will go from a 24-year-old Heisman-worthy player at quarterback in Diego Pavia to an 18-year-old true freshman in Jared Curtis with a projected win total of 6.5. The Yellow Jackets lost their brilliant offensive coordinator, Buster Faulkner, to Florida, and their three-year starter at quarterback, Haynes King, who exhausted his eligibility with a projected win total of 6.5. This is not to say that I expect the Vols to beat all of these teams on the road this fall. However, outside of Tennessee’s visit to College Station on November 14 against Texas A&M, it’s not all that crazy to envision a world where Heupel’s team is favored in the majority of these ball games.

Tennessee will certainly have its hands full in Knoxville, though. Texas, LSU, and Alabama all have College Football Playoff aspirations and expectations. All might be favored the week they travel to Knoxville. One of the stranger aspects of Tennessee’s 2025 season was how the Vols fared at home. After not losing a home game in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons, the Vols went 1-3 at home against conference foes in 2025. Their lone home win against SEC competition was a one-score win over Arkansas. If you’re a glass-half-full person, you point to the Georgia loss in early September as to how advantageous playing in Neyland against big-time competition can still be, even in a down year. Is there a Tennessee fan or analyst who would have predicted before the season that the Vols’ best showing at home last year would be against Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs?

I suspect not, but that’s what happened. Sure, the result was not what any Vol fan hoped for, but for the first time in the Heupel era, Tennessee gave the Dawgs fits for four quarters. Aguilar tossed four touchdown passes and threw for nearly 400 yards. Chris Brazzell II had his breakout game against the back-to-back SEC champions with six catches for 177 yards and three scores. Yes, Tennessee did not win the ball game, but the Vols throwing all over the Dawgs for the first time in the Heupel vs. Smart series was an important development both for the team and the fanbase.

Before that ball game in September, Heupel had beaten Alabama twice. He had beaten Florida twice. He led the Vols to the College Football Playoff. He finished a season with the No. 1 scoring offense in FBS. He just hadn’t pushed Smart’s Bulldogs for four quarters. Of course, the Dawgs ultimately prevailed with a fourth-down throw for the ages, but the Vols were right there, in Neyland Stadium, to beat the team that would ultimately win the SEC once again.

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Iamaleava did not lose a home game at Tennessee. Sure, the 2026 home slate is a lot tougher than the 2024 home slate, but it is workable. The Longhorns nearly fell to Kentucky and Mississippi State last season. LSU went 0-4 on the road in SEC play last season, albeit with a different coach. Lane Kiffin has been really good on the road in SEC play the last couple of seasons at Ole Miss, 5-3 overall, but winning on the road in this conference is hard. The Crimson Tide has traveled to Knoxville three times in the Heupel era, and they’ve lost all three ball games. Neyland Stadium is going to be rocking, particularly early, when Arch Manning and Texas visit Knoxville on September 26 to begin SEC play. That matters for those coin-flip, one-score games.

I don’t think the CFP is in the cards for Tennessee in 2026, but I do think the schedule is more workable than it might appear after a first glance. The Vols catch some teams on the road at a good time. The Vols catch some teams at home at a good time, too. The grind before the first bye week is a bit worrisome, but the Vols, particularly with Jim Knowles installed as the team’s new defensive coordinator, should hover around the eight-win mark this fall. A nine-win season with a nine-game conference schedule and a freshman quarterback would be dynamite, no question, but it’s a march to eight wins in the regular season for me, and while that would match last year’s disappointing final win total, the context could not be more different. Eight wins in the regular season this year would be a whole lot different than eight wins in the regular season last year.

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SRM: Biggest reason the South-Doyle job was the right job for you for right now?

Gibson: I think the biggest part of this job that made it so appealing to me is the rich tradition that they have there, and knowing that football matters to that community and to that school, and that the administrative team, the staff and faculty, and especially the kids and their families that are a part of the program right now, they are absolutely starving for success. I’ve seen first-hand coaching against them, what those teams look like, and what they can do, and the same kids have still went to the same hallways out there, and football still matters just as much now as it did five, ten, fifteen years ago, and there is no reason that it can’t happen. I think that’s really, really important to look at when you look at the big picture of how much does football really matter to a school and to a community, and South Knoxville is definitely one of those around here.

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SRM: How did your time at Powell prepare you for this spot?

Gibson: I cannot, and I’ve told a lot of people, I cannot thank Matt Lowe, the head football coach at Powell High School, enough for preparing me, not only for this, but just for so many other situations as a man to face and to learn how to handle the right way. He did a great job at teaching me all the ins and outs trying being a successful head football coach and all the things that a lot of people don’t see on the surface because there’s a lot more to it that comes to than just playing football games and winning football games. You’re running a business when you do it the right way, and being sure that you know how to interact with people and treat people the right way, and be sure things are done with respect and dignity all the time. That, and then the administrative team at Powell, too, and people that I’ve worked with one-on-one, the teachers, faculty, staff, everybody from the cafeteria staff, everybody over there, has just been so wonderful to me and my family and such a blessing at teaching me how to grow up as a 24-year-old coach when I first got over there to a 34-year-old man now just trying to keep things rolling the right way and everything they’ve taught me I’m so thankful for.

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SRM: What is the biggest difference between you as a football mind, coach, temperament, personality than Coach Lowe?

Gibson: Oh man, that’s a really good question, because Matt Lowe and I were alike before we started working together, but then after working with somebody for eight years and being side-by-side with them, hand-in-hand with everything that’s been going on I’ve become a lot more like him than I think some people realize which has been good, but I would say Matt Lowe is a lot more patient than I am. I think a lot of that comes from his experience — there’s not a lot that Matt hasn’t seen in his time being a head coach. I think this is coming up on Year 20-ish, somewhere like that, for Matt being a head football coach, and so, again, the landscape of high school football has changed a lot since Matt’s first year, but he’s done a great job of evolving with it and being sure that he’s adaptable and flexible and things like that. And so there’s not a lot that comes up that Matt either isn’t prepared for, hasn’t seen, or doesn’t know how to handle or can’t get a grip on. And I think just his patience with a lot of that stuff is something that I’m trying to be a little more like on my end because I have a tendency to not be quite as patient as he does sometimes.

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SRM: Best advice you got from Matt Lowe after you got the job at South-Doyle, and the best piece of advice you got during your time working under him at Powell?

Gibson: I would say since I’ve gotten the job, the best advice from Matt is just take it one day a time. He knows how I’m wired, I’m a ‘go, go, go’, ‘now, now, now’ type of person, and that’s just not realistically for the program or for me, how it’s going to happen. I know it’s going to take some time, and like I just said, I know I need to be patient with some of that stuff. As long as we keep chipping away at it the right way, going the right direction, which I feel like that we are with the kids in the program, the coaching staff coming together, and the people that support the program I think that’s definitely happening so far it’s just I’ve got to be patient to know that it’s not going to happen overnight. Working for Matt, no doubt, the best advice and best lesson that I’ve learned from him that I keep telling people and will always tell people is be sure your people are taken care of. Your coaches, your kids, your support staff, the people in the building, everybody that helps the program, like I said, it’s running a business when you do it the right way everybody that helps keep that business efficient and afloat and trending the right way doing things the right way to compete at a high level all the time, be sure that they’re seen, that they know that they’re seen, that they know that their voices are heard, and that they’re respected. Because at the end of the day, this is all a people business, and if you don’t treat your people right, you’re not doing anything right.

SRM: Do you have a rigid offensive philosophy or will it evolve later this spring and summer when you get a better feel for your personnel?

Gibson: Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. So with me, obviously, working with Matt for the last eight years, and I was really fortunate to work with Ron Gray at Halls for four years before that, and just kind of blending all that together, I kind of have an idea of what the system looks like, and I know what’s effective and what’s not, things like that. Especially for the two years that I worked on the offensive side of the ball with Matt and the one year that I worked on the offensive side of the ball with Coach Gray at Halls, has helped me grow, but at the same time, kind of like with just the landscape of high school football you have to stay on the cutting edge all the time. You can have your identity, and know what your structure is, and what the bones are going to be, but if you are not keeping up with the Joneses, then you’re going to get left behind — you can get outdated and lapped in a hurry.

SRM: How to succeed as a defensive coordinator with how modern high school offenses function now is what?

Gibson: Yeah, absolutely, especially around here with some of the offensive minds that we see in our region and on our schedule. I would definitely say, one, the preperation part of it, I take a lot, a lot, of pride in how I prepare, how the assistants prepare, and then how we transfer all of that information over to the kids, so that they get what they need, that they can learn easily and then not only learn it but then apply that in a fast way, when the lights come on on gameday. Then the other part of it is, it’s another lesson I learned from Matt Lowe, I’m not trying to trick or outsmart the 40-year-old coach on the other sideline all the time, that is part of it, you’ve got to be sure your ducks are in a row on that, but I’m trying to manipulate and take advantage of and trick the 16-year-old that just had a math test that afternoon and then he’s got to worry about buying prom tickets on Saturday and all this other stuff that teenagers have going on. That’s the person that if you can figure out how to make it hard on the kids, then that’s where you’re going to have your real success.

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SRM: Money is no object. Where are you going for Spring Break?

Gibson: I’m going to Destin, Florida, with my family, and I’m sitting on the beach where it’s hopefully quiet, with white sand, and clear water, and it’s about eighty degrees, and there’s not a cloud in the sky, and I get to go to all of my favorite restaurants for about five or six days and then watch Hudl on my phone while my son goes to sleep.

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