Great moments in big fella history. The inaugural Piesman Trophy ceremony was Friday night, and after much deliberation and careful consideration by our panel of voters, the winner is Southeastern Louisiana defensive tackle Ashton Henderson. Henderson’s 45-yard fumble return for a touchdown had everything the award hopes for: speed, power, awareness and an incredibly disrespectful stiff arm.
Texas had to fly its university president to Tulsa just to hire an offensive coordinator
Good morning! This is your wakeup roundup of college football stuff.
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
THE INAUGURAL PIESMAN WINNER https://t.co/NNYbp7d0cx pic.twitter.com/pAZJuXnDzC
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger_sherman) December 12, 2015
Our sincere respects to Michigan State’s Jack Allen and Miami’s Ufomba Kamalu, the other finalists who didn’t get to go home with the hardware on Friday night. Their accomplishments will not be forgotten.
Army-Navy Day. The lone FBS game of the day is the hallowed Army-Navy Game from Philadelphia. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. ET, but make sure you look at this intriguing new evidence that Navy is, in fact, the Illuminati.
We need to talk about Texas. The Longhorns’ search for an offensive coordinator went completely sideways.
- Last we left our intrepid heroes, they were hot on the trail of Tulsa’s Sterlin Gilbert. Gilbert reportedly turned Texas down on Friday afternoon. For many, the question of head coach Charlie Strong’s job security loomed.
- In response, Strong, athletic director Mike Perrin, and university president Greg Fenves flew to Tulsa Friday night to meet with Gilbert*, who wasn’t even their reported first choice.
- Apparently, it worked.
- If Strong’s future with the program is what’s holding them back from being an attractive job for assistants at lower level schools, maybe Burnt Orange Nation is right that they might as well just get it over with and get rid of him now.
* There’s video of all this:
EXCLUSIVE: Charlie Strong & UT prez and AD meeting with Tulsa co-OC's Sterlin Gilbert and Matt Mattox near Tulsa. pic.twitter.com/CLDajhiwxf
— Charlie Hannema (@CharlieHannema) December 12, 2015 Summiting ANFapurna. Spencer Hall chronicled Michigan State’s 22-play game-winning drive from the Big Ten title game in the style of Maurice Herzog’s Annapurna. If you’re into both classic mountain climbing literature and Midwestern football, this is certainly for you.
Coaching moves! The new head coach at Tulane is Willie Fritz, leaving Georgia Southern after a 17-7 record in Statesboro. It might feel like a lateral move, but Fritz will reportedly be getting a substantial raise. As for Georgia Southern, that’s a good job whose list of candidates includes some interesting names.
And in assistant coaching news:
- Georgia’s Jeremy Pruitt is heading home to Alabama to take over as defensive coordinator following Kirby Smart’s departure to become head coach at ... Georgia.
- Ohio State’s new defensive coordinator is former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano.
- Florida State defensive coordinator Charles Kelly will reportedly remain with FSU after advances from his alma mater, Auburn.
Imagine the possibilities. This is the time of year when people talk about what an eight-team Playoff would look like. Here are what the fields of prospective six-, 12- and 16-team playoffs would look like this year. Better or no?
It’s never over. Conference realignment, that zombie that will never stop chasing you in your nightmares, reared its ugly head as reports surfaced that the Mountain West is considering adding Rice and UTEP.
Try again. The latest argument against paying college athletes: they’re too dumb to handle it.
Time for a change. Maryland’s Board of Regents voted to change the name of Byrd Stadium to Maryland Stadium. The stadium had been named for Curley Byrd, former university president and athletic director “whose segregationist policy positions kept black students off Maryland’s campus until courts interceded in the 1950s.”
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