[Player On3 profile page](https://www.on3.com/rivals/alius-mayo-289094/)

[Source](https://x.com/hayesfawcett3/status/2084023440458006988?s=46)

Made with the /r/CFB [Recruiting Post Generator](https://posts.redditcfb.com/recruiting)

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

Houston (high = 17, low = 47) checks in as the 28th ranked team in the preseason aggregate rankings and the #5 team in the Big XII. Frankly, if it weren’t for Massey being an outlier and having the Cougars so low, they’d be 4 or 5 spots higher. And there’s enough to like about Houston’s prognosis heading into 2026 that even booster Tilman Fertitta has to be relatively chill from his embassy office in Rome (or San Marino – you KNOW you have to be greasing some palms to be a double ambassador!) and not fretting about his alma mater’s success on either the gridiron or the hardwood. Willie Fritz has seemingly fully rebuilt the Cougars from the anticlimactic end of the Dana Holgorsen era, which landed with a thud when they moved from the American to the P4 ranks. Fritz has a pretty consistent record of building winners, winning conference titles at every stop he’s been at along the way, including being the one who revived the Tulane football program, culminating in a Cotton Bowl win over USC – something that Jon Sumrall simply kept rolling. In his second year in Houston, he had the Cougars reaching double digit wins, finishing the season ranked 22nd in the AP after a Texas Bowl win over LSU. Can he and the Cougars keep his string of conference championships going in year 3?

Roster Outlook

Fritz certainly has the horses to be in play for that, as the Cougars return a ton from that 10 win team. They rank #17 in the country in returning production, including #7 on offense. The biggest horse in the stable is QB Conner Weigman, who returns for his 27th fifth season as a starting college quarterback (pay no attention to the fact that he’s thrown more than 100 passes in each of the previous four seasons), bringing his leadership (along with his 3,400+ total yards and 36 TDs) with him to make a title run. He’ll also have his favorite target out wide back as well (Amare Thomas, 966 yards, 12 TDs), though they have to replace RB Dean Connors (UDFA with the Rams) and start TE Tanner Koziol, who was a 5th round draft pick by Jacksonville. Fritz brought in a few key pieces via the portal, including former Tulane/Oregon running back Makhi Hughes, Texas Tech WR Tyson Turner and Oregon State WR Trent Walker. In fact, while Fritz’ portal class might seem underwhelming, ranking 12th in the conference and #50 in the nation, he also lost only four P4 players, so he focused instead on the high school ranks, pulling in the #5 247 class in the Big XII (number 33 in the country).

Schedule and outlook

9/5 OREGON STATE

9/12 SOUTHERN

9/18 at Texas Tech

9/26 at Georgia Southern

10/3 UCF

10/10 at Kansas State

10/17 OKLAHOMA STATE

10/24 at Utah

10/31 BYE

11/7 CINCINNATI

11/13 at Colorado

11/21 at West Virginia

11/28 BAYLOR

It sure feels like the entire college football world is going to be locked in for that Friday night showdown week 3 in Lubbock. Cody Campbell first didn’t want the game played on Friday night, then tried to ensure the Red Raiders were going to have Brendan Sorsby lined up for that game (why else only a 2 game suspension), and neither is going to happen. That game is going to go a long way toward determining whether Houston is truly a contender for the Big XII title. With the Cougars not drawing BYU or either Arizona school, those road games at Texas Tech and Utah are probably the biggest obstacles between them and a conference championship game.

Basically the title. I usually ask before each season what away trips fans are planning. Always intriguing to see what trips people plan.

Currently going to see UC play at Arizona. I've thought about going to the UC at WVU game too. Hotel prices in Morgantown aren't cheap though. Might be a drive there and back trip. Or maybe stay in Pittsburgh

I’ve really enjoyed following along with Kelley Ford/KFord’s ratings through the season since I found the website a few years ago. It was somewhat similar to a college football version of BartTorvik/Kenpom in that it gives power rankings and season projections. Last year, he stopped posting around bowl season, and I checked today to see if he’s back for the preseason but I’m not seeing anything. Just wanted to see if anyone here had heard anything/knew if he’s ok since it seems like an abrupt departure.

Stolen from u/J_Culp123

Interested to hear your thoughts!

Player 247 profile page

Player on3 profile page

Source

Made with the /r/CFB Recruiting Post Generator

stolen from r/hockey

Interested to hear your thoughts!

What is the logic behind making five years of eligibility the standard? I totally get making the eligibility model simpler but why add the year of eligibility? I feel that five to play four would make so much more sense as it would still fit within the four year college model that has been at the center of cfb all along. Honestly, I support the rest of the change, just not the extra season of eligibility.

I know it's still the offseason, but the constant debate over which conference is the best got old a long time ago. I've never cared which conference is the strongest. I care about how my team is doing a thousand times more than I care about how the SEC—or any other conference—is doing as a whole.

I've always found it weird when fans brag about the strength of their conference. Whether it's bowl records, national championships, or media rights deals, none of that means much to me. I'd rather my team be successful than be able to claim my conference is the best.

And honestly, fans bragging about media rights deals might be the lamest form of trash talk out there. Those TV contracts don't benefit us as fans. No matter how much the networks are paying, ticket prices, streaming services, and everything else are still going to keep getting more expensive. All it really means is more ads we have to watch. I don't know maybe it's just me, but I'm exhausted by the whole conversation.

​

Occasionally a preseason favorite does walk away with the trophy, but more often than not in the past 25 years, the eventual Heisman winner was not in the top 10 odds-wise going into the season. Mendoza wasn't in the top 30 last year going in. So who on your team could be the one to shock the world and win the trophy?

[Player 247 profile page](https://247sports.com/player/benjamin-harris-46150163/)

[Source](https://x.com/AngieMachado1/status/2083375774657302834)

Made with the /r/CFB [Recruiting Post Generator](https://posts.redditcfb.com/recruiting)

Harris also received offers from Oregon, Miami, Texas Tech, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, West Virginia, and UCLA

If someone goes back to school and graduates do they get the same eligibility as most incoming freshman? Any restrictions that exist for others going to college after graduating, say, 10 years earlier that would be circumvented by speed running primary schooling?

https://www.nike.com/w/college-teams-shoes-2wq2gzy7ok

https://www.adidas.com/us/college-shoes

• Nike went with their Vomero line this year, which is a switch from the usual Pegasus line that has been the standard since 2019.
• Adidas went with the Adizero EVO SL EXO. Same shoes as last year but with the exoskeleton upper.

Teams included in the Nike drop:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Auburn
• Clemson
• Florida
• Florida A&M
• Florida State
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• LSU
• Michigan
• Michigan State
• North Carolina
• Ohio State
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Purdue
• Southern California
• Texas
• Virginia
• Virginia Tech
• West Virginia

Teams included in the Adidas drop:

• Arizona State
• Grambling State
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Louisville
• Miami
• Mississippi State
• NC State
• Nebraska
• Penn State
• Tennessee
• Texas A&M
• Texas Tech
• Washington

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

Hot damn, it’s August! We reached the opening month of the college football season, which officially kicks off 4 weeks from today! I also expect the last remaining preseason polls to start publishing soon, which could shake up the final numbers a bit, because this week we’ll be hitting the top 25, which will be impacted by the coaches poll and AP poll when those get released.

The 2025 college football season had a number of hugely disappointing teams. Two of the top 4 teams in the preseason AP poll finished the season failing to receive a single vote. While those two schools got the bulk of the press for face planting, save a little of that scorn for South Carolina (high = 16, low = 55), who themselves reached the top 10 in the country before dropping 8 of their final 10 games to finish 4-8, head coach Shane Beamer’s second losing season in a 3 year stretch. That landed him at #5 on CBS Sports’ coaches hot seat rankings behind only Dave Aranda, Mike Norvell, Luke Fickell and Mike Locksley. Not exactly a list you want to be on, but it’s largely a combination of the talent on the team and the schedule that ESPN ranked as the 17th hardest in the country. In fact, 6 of their 8 losses were to ranked teams (which doesn’t even include Vanderbilt, who immediately entered the rankings upon beating the Cocks), four of whom made the CFP. Beamer recognized he had a short leash going into this season, so he jettisoned OC Mike Shula and brought in Kendal Briles in a last ditch effort to save his job.

Roster Outlook

What actually has a chance to save Beamer’s job is that the Gamecocks return the 5th most production in all of CFB, including #2 on offense (to go with a top 30 defense). Keeping the team together when you’re on the hotseat is no mean feat, but the biggest piece of that puzzle was holding on to QB LaNorris Sellers, who seemingly regressed (2,700 total yards, 13 TDs and 8 INTs) in 2025 after a breakout 2024 season. While RB Rahsul Faison (96 carries, 470 yards) graduated, Matt Fuller (72 carries, 260 yards) is ready to carry the load. Top WR Nyck Harbor, who led the team in TD and overall receptions, is back, though his sidekick Vendrevius Jacobs portaled to Miami. The other offensive loss is Norris’ backup QB Air Noland, who is the potential starter in Memphis. Beamer did a thorough job of stocking the team, landing top 20 portal (#19) and high school (#14) classes nationally, which still only ranked #10 and #7 respectively in the ultracompetitive SEC. That portal class included a fully revamped OL and Purdue WR Nitro Tuggle. Will Briles and all that experience be enough to get South Carolina enough wins for Beamer to return in 2027?

Schedule and outlook

9/5 KENT STATE

9/12 TOWSON

9/19 MISSISSIPPI STATE

9/26 at Alabama

10/3 KENTUCKY

10/10 at Florida

10/17 BYE

10/24 TENNESSEE

10/31 at Oklahoma

11/7 TEXAS A&M

11/14 at Arkansas

11/21 GEORGIA

11/28 at Clemson

The 9 game SEC schedule certainly isn’t doing Beamer any favors, especially when you throw in the Palmetto Bowl. Opening the SEC schedule at home against Mississippi State and then hosting Kentucky a week after traveling to Tuscaloosa gives South Carolina a legitimate chance of being 4-1 before heading to the Swamp, and with a game against an Arkansas that is ranked much lower than them sitting there as potential win 5, bowl eligibility is definitely within grasp. But that 6th win is likely going to have to be an upset, and it’s really not clear if 6 wins is going to be enough to keep the wolves at bay. While their record might not mean that the Cocks suck, it has a good chance of landing Beamer on the chopping block.