College football is back and along with it are numerous local connections. We count several.
Georgia is on the cusp of history and Tykee Smith, a senior defensive back from Imhotep, figures to have plenty to do with them getting there.
On the West Coast, if USC is to finally get to the playoffs, it will need to improve on defense, which puts linebacker Eric Gentry (Neumann Goretti) in the spotlight.
And in the middle of the country, another local guy (Will Howard) is pumped to be finally running the show at Kansas State.
Week 0 offered a nice appetizer, but the college football season begins in earnest this weekend. Here are some notes, quotes, trivia, and other insanity to put us in the mood.
1. Omar Speights, a senior from Imhotep, was given the “Iron Tiger” award for his offseason dedication in the weight room and beyond by LSU coaches. He’s 6-1, 235, and considered the strongest pound-for-pound player on the team.
2. Speights was sent by his mother from Philadelphia to live with family in Oregon following the 2018 murder of his close friend, Kristian Marche. Speights played four seasons at Oregon State and earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration before transferring to LSU. Tigers coach Brian Kelly said Speights, who was first-team All-Pac-12 last year, has the rare ability for a linebacker to both stuff the run and be effective in space covering the pass.
3. Fifth-ranked LSU is playing No. 8 Florida State on Sunday night (7:30 p.m., ABC) in the marquee game of Week 1. Speights’ jersey number is “1″ for the Tigers.
4. Clemson linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. (St. Joe’s Prep) was named preseason all-ACC and was fourth in voting for the league’s preseason player of the year. North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye, Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis, and Clemson running back Will Shipley were 1-2-3.
5. Trotter, who led the Tigers in tackles last season, is one of seven defensive players on the Walter Camp National Player of the Year preseason list. The other 38 play offense — including 20 quarterbacks.
6. Clemson (No. 9) hosts No. 8 Florida State on Sept. 23 in an interesting early-season conference game. Clemson has won seven in a row in the series. Rugged start for FSU.
7. Some stats from their first full seasons as a starter:
1993: Marvin Harrison Sr., Syracuse: 41 receptions, 813 yards, 7 touchdowns.
2022: Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State: 77 receptions, 1,263 yards, 14 touchdowns.
8. The younger Harrison’s head injury late in the third quarter coincided with the Buckeyes blowing a 14-point lead to Georgia in last year’s College Football Playoff semifinals. The St. Joe’s Prep product is healthy going into this season and could be a top-five pick if he decides to enter next year’s NFL draft.
9. Area players selected in the top 5 of the NFL draft since 1970:
1984: Irving Fryar, Rancocas Valley, No. 1 by New England
1990: Blair Thomas, Frankford, No. 2 by N.Y. Jets
2008: Matt Ryan, Penn Charter, No. 3 by Atlanta
2021: Kyle Pitts, Archbishop Wood, No. 4 by Atlanta
10. Harrison’s odds to win the Heisman (as of Aug. 26) at DraftKings was 20-1. At FanDuel, he’s 30-1. Don’t take this as an endorsement, but it definitely shows that ya gotta shop around.
11. Former St. Joe’s Prep teammate Kyle McCord, a junior, battled all summer with sophomore Devin Brown for Ohio State’s starting quarterback job. As of Thursday evening, coach Ryan Day still hadn’t made a decision. “I think they’re both gonna do the right thing from a quarterback standpoint and make the right reads,” Harrison told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “They both definitely have the arm talent to be able to make any throw in the offense that we’re asking them.”
12. Defensive lineman Fadil Diggs (Woodrow Wilson High) was a team captain as a sophomore last year for Texas A&M. He’s one of four local players expected to contribute for the 23rd-ranked Aggies, who are coming off consecutive disappointing seasons. Fellow D-linemen Isaiah Raikes (St. Augustine Prep) and Enai White (Imhotep) as well as cornerback Tyreek Chappell (Northeast High) also are in the rotation. The Aggies host No. 4 Alabama on Oct. 7, and visit No. 5 LSU on Nov. 25.
13. Sam Salz, who attended Kohelet Yeshiva in Merion Station and did not play football in high school, is again a walk-on at Texas A&M. A 5-6, 155-pound junior wide receiver, Salz’s primary contribution is as a practice player. He is thought to be the only Orthodox Jewish player at the FBS level. Longtime associate athletic director Alan Cannon called Salz a “great young man.”
14. Michigan’s No. 2 preseason ranking is its highest in 30 years. The Wolverines added a particularly physical practice period in the spring called “Beat Georgia,” which whacked the Wolverines in the 2021 semifinals and also annihilated TCU (65-7) in last year’s championship game for its second consecutive title.
15. Speaking of the Bulldogs, Georgia is the overwhelming favorite to make it three in a row, something that has never happened since the AP started crowning champions in 1936. Senior Tykee Smith (Imhotep) is being asked to do even more on defense, playing the “star position,” a hybrid of linebacker and nickel back. Smith is two years removed from a torn ACL and had an excellent spring.
16. The mentality for this year is “really just getting better, never rest,” Georgia junior cornerback Kamari Lassiter told USA Today. “We’re trying to eat off the floor. We are not trying to be complacent this year. We are trying to uphold our standard and keep the main thing the main thing.”
17. Not entirely sure about Lassiter’s dining metaphor, but Georgia’s regular-season schedule is mostly soft except for a visit to No. 12 Tennessee on Nov. 18.
18. Last three-peats or better in various sports:
Professional:
NFL: Green Bay Packers (1965-67)
MLB: New York Yankees (1998-2000)
NBA: Los Angeles Lakers (2000-02)
NHL: New York Islanders (1980-83)
Colleges:
Men’s basketball: UCLA (1967-73)
Women’s basketball: UConn (2013-16)
19. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that wide receiver Zeed Haynes (North Penn) “showed flashes” during training camp. But he’s a freshman and at the moment is well down on Georgia’s depth chart.
20. Curious to see what kind of season 18-year-old Nyck Harbor has for South Carolina. He’s 6-5, 241, and runs the 100 meters in 10.2 seconds. “I think my concern is just the expectations that maybe the outside puts on him,” coach Shane Beamer said. “That he’s the savior coming in here and he’s gonna come in and just take over college football. The guy’s a true freshman. ... So let’s temper the expectations a little bit.”
21. South Carolina is at Georgia on Sept. 16. Redshirt freshman defensive back Keenan Nelson Jr.(St. Joe’s Prep) was taking reps with the first team late in camp.
22. Deion Sanders’ first game as Colorado head coach is not an easy one — Saturday at No. 17 TCU. His nickname was “Prime Time,” but Sanders will have to wait until Week 3 for a night game. The Buffaloes’ first two games, in fact, start at 10 a.m. local time.
23. Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton is in his sixth and final college season. He began at Michigan, where his first pass was an interception. Like so many others, COVID-19 interrupted his career, but he still got his degree at Michigan in 2021 in American culture.
24. Milton’s been at Tennessee for the last three years and is closing in on another degree; this one in arts and sciences. He’s 6-5, 235, and has a cannon for an arm. If he can gain some consistent accuracy under head coach and noted quarterback guru Josh Heupel, the Volunteers should be in for another 10-win season (at minimum).
25. The clock will no longer stop on first downs to reset the chains except in the final two minutes of the second and fourth quarters. Sharp sports bettors have noted that there will be fewer plays, which would affect scoring and over/under totals.
26. DraftKings’ line on Penn State’s win total is 9.5. For Temple, it’s 5. Georgia has the highest at 11.5. UMass had the lowest at 2 wins, but that was before the Minutemen surprised New Mexico State on Saturday. Odds vary, so shop accordingly.
27. The Rose and Sugar Bowls will serve as the playoff semifinals on Jan. 1. The championship game is Jan. 8 in Houston. The playoffs will expand from four teams to 12 teams in 2024.
28. USC quarterback Caleb Williams is favored to win his second consecutive Heisman, something that’s been done only once in history (Archie Griffin, Ohio State, 1974-75). Williams is the only player in the top six in voting who returns. Max Duggan (Chargers), C.J. Stroud (Texans), Stetson Bennett (Rams), Hendon Hooker (Lions), and Bryce Young (Panthers) are in the NFL.
29. Starting Oct. 14, USC plays four ranked teams in five weeks: at No. 13 Notre Dame, home with No. 14 Utah and No. 10 Washington and at No. 15 Oregon before facing rival UCLA on Nov. 18. Junior linebacker Eric Gentry (Neumann Goretti) is a key part of the defense which will have to be better than last year when it was 94th in the nation, allowing 29.2 points per game.
30. Oregon’s defensive backfield got a boost when safety Tysheem Johnson (Neumann Goretti) transferred from Ole Miss. Johnson was third on the team in tackles last year.
31. Johnson has said that the constant crime in his North Philadelphia neighborhood was the reason he chose to play at Mississippi. Even Maryland, which recruited him, he said, was too close. Now he’s in Eugene, Ore. — 3,000 miles away.
32. Alabama coach Nick Saban took his wife, Terry, to Italy over the summer to finally make good on his gift to celebrate the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary, which was in 2021. “I would recommend anybody go,” Saban said. “Florence is fantastic. Rome is fantastic … and we got ‘Roll Tide’ everywhere we went. If you think you’re gonna be incognito over there, that’s not gonna happen.”
33. BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston are now in the Big 12.
34. Next year, Texas and Oklahoma bolt from the Big 12 to the SEC; Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington head to the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah move to the Big 12, leaving the Pac-12 in tatters.
35. When the music stopped, Cal, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State were all that was left in the former “Conference of Champions.” Washington State fans are so angry with Washington that they’re pressuring athletic director Pat Chun to discontinue the annual Apple Cup rivalry game.
36. Washington went 11-2 last year and is ranked No. 10 in the preseason. It will host Washington State on Nov. 25 in the 115th edition of the Apple Cup, which likely will be the most hostile.
37. “I fully recognize the anger Cougs have for the University of Washington, and I believe it’s sourced correctly. And I don’t blame them,” Chun, Washington State’s athletic director, said a few weeks ago. “Those are real emotions. That’s real frustration. And they wouldn’t be Cougs if they didn’t express their emotions. … But I also recognize from a TV partner standpoint, [that there’s] high value in a national rivalry like the Apple Cup. … Our responsibility, [Washington State president Kirk] Schulz and I, is to make sound financial decisions for the athletic department.”
38. For the first time in his career, Kansas State senior Will Howard (Downingtown West) is the Week 1 starter. Howard stepped in admirably in the middle of last season when Adrian Martinez got hurt. He led the Wildcats to five consecutive wins, including a thriller over TCU in the Big 12 championship.
39. “Going into this year having it be my team and being the guy is a big-time difference for me,” Howard told the Topeka Capital-Journal. “Because I’ve been here for three years, and it hasn’t been my time yet. It hasn’t been my season yet.”
40. The pick: Georgia is the easy selection, but the call here is Ohio State. If the Buckeyes can win at Notre Dame on Sept. 23, then they should have enough equity built up to withstand another loss to Michigan and still sneak into the playoffs. Love their offense. Good luck shutting down those receivers.
