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Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe has made strides throughout his first season as the team’s starter, and he has Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s full attention as the Bulldogs prepare to face the Crimson Tide on Saturday in the SEC Championship Game. During his Monday press conference, Smart went so far as to liken Milroe to Baltimore Ravens star quarterback and former Louisville Heisman winner Lamar Jackson, comparing Milroe’s elusiveness to a video game-like advantage for Alabama.

“[Milroe] is like when I used to ask my sons on ‘Madden’ — they wanted to play with the Ravens, and I’d ask ‘Why are you playing with the Ravens?'” Smart recalled. “They’d say ‘I’ve got Lamar Jackson, and nobody can tackle him.’ This guy is a bigger, more physical version of that. He is playing in a different speed than anybody else when you watch him.”

Two weeks removed from a six-touchdown performance — three passing, three-rushing — at Kentucky, Milroe’s abilities were on full display again in crucial moments during Alabama’s 27-24 win at Auburn. On the game’s final drive, Milroe nearly picked up a first down on a third-and-20 after evading multiple defenders and punctuated the game with arguably the touchdown pass of the season. Facing fourth-and-goal from the Auburn 31-yard line in the final minute, Milroe found wide receiver Isaiah Bond in the end zone for a dramatic go-ahead touchdown, capping off a wild Iron Bowl.

Ask Smart, and more plays like that will be inevitable from Milroe on Saturday. It’s simply a matter of Georgia limiting them.

“He is going to make plays,” Smart added. “That is a given. You watch every game, and he has made plays. He has an uncanny ability to extend plays. Whether it is that he knows he is about to take off and he’s setting you up and then pump fakes, he does a lot of things with the ball that makes him hard to defend. He makes plays, and we’re going to make plays. So you have to have confidence that you are going to make more than what they are going to make.”

Improvement from Alabama offense apparent
Milroe enters Saturday having passed for 2,526 yards and 21 touchdowns with six interceptions, plus 439 yards and 12 touchdowns rushing. He’s come a long way from struggles to limit turnovers early in the season, which hurt the Crimson Tide in their lone loss to Texas back in Week 2. There were serious questions about Alabama’s offense and first-year coordinator Tommy Rees at that point, but the Crimson Tide have since won 10 straight, including a perfect 8-0 mark in SEC play to earn a date with the Bulldogs.

Although Alabama has checked it at No. 8 in each of the first four batches of College Football Playoff Rankings this season, Smart knows the pitfalls of underestimating Nick Saban and company, especially with the growth Smart sees from his team’s opponent Saturday.

“They are playing as good of football as anybody in the country,” Smart said. “And don’t talk to me about them playing [a close game] at Auburn, because I know [what that is like]. They have played really good football and they have evolved from the start of the year to now. They are not the same team they were at the beginning of the year.”

SMU starting quarterback Preston Stone suffered a broken leg during the Mustangs’ regular-season finale against Navy and will miss the remainder of the 2023 season, coach Rhett Lashlee revealed Monday. Stone’s injury occurred in the second quarter of the team’s 59-14 rout of the Midshipmen. Redshirt freshman Kevin Jennings, one of several quarterbacks to see action after Stone left the game, will start for the Mustangs in the upcoming AAC Championship Game at Tulane on Saturday, Dec. 2.

Stone was on pace for a career day against Navy, passing for 322 yards and three touchdowns in less than a half of football before suffering the injury. He was named AAC Offensive Player of the Week for the performance against the Mids despite the early exit. Jennings, who initially replaced Stone, was just 2 of 4 passing for 26 yards. Iowa transfer Alex Padilla and freshman Keldric Luster also saw action.

Stone’s injury not only comes at an inopportune time for a Mustangs team that has won eight straight games — SMU went a perfect 8-0 in AAC play, and its only losses this season came on the road against Oklahoma and TCU in the nonconference — but also ends a prolific year for Stone in his first season as QB1. The Dallas, Texas, native finishes 2023 with 3,197 yards passing and 28 touchdowns to just six interceptions. Stone passed for a season-high 371 yards with three touchdowns during the Mustangs’ 69-10 win against Tulsa in late October.

SMU’s goals get tougher without Stone
Prior to Stone’s injury, SMU looked like a team capable of putting Tulane on serious notice in the AAC title game. Now without its star signal-caller available, the Mustangs will have to dig deep in order to clinch an 11-win season for the first time since 1982 and their first conference championship since winning the now-defunct Southwest Conference in 1984. Both feats predated the infamous NCAA death penalty handed down to the Mustangs in 1987.

The injury is also a blow for SMU’s New Year’s Six hopes as the Mustangs wrap up their last season in the AAC before making their way to ACC in 2024. The highest-ranked Group of Five team in the College Football Playoff Rankings is guaranteed a spot in the New Year’s Six, and SMU stands an upset of Tulane away from giving itself a great shot at earning that title. The Green Wave are currently on pace to receive that bid with the latest College Football Playoff Rankings set for release on Tuesday.

In the event Liberty drops the Conference USA Championship Game to New Mexico State and SMU then beats Tulane, the Mustangs would likely be the in clear favorite. Without Stone, however, it’s a tall task.

Former Michigan linebackers coach Chris Partridge denied knowledge of the sign-stealing scandal surrounding the Wolverines program, according to a statement released on Monday. Partridge also refuted a previous report that he destroyed evidence after the NCAA’s ongoing investigation became public. Partridge was relieved of his duties from coach Michigan’s staff earlier on Nov. 17 — one day after coach Jim Harbaugh was issued a three-game suspension by the Big Ten.

“I want to be clear: I had no knowledge whatsoever of any in-person or illegal scouting, or illegal sign stealing,” Partridge wrote. “Additionally, at no point did I destroy any evidence related to an ongoing investigation. As explained to me by Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel in person on the morning of November 17, 2023, and as set forth in my termination letter of the same date, signed by Doug Gnodtke, Michigan Athletics Chief of Staff, I was terminated because of a failure ‘to abide by the University directive not to discuss an ongoing NCAA investigation with anyone associated with the Michigan Football Program.'”

Michigan did not disclose specifics of Partridge’s dismissal but stressed its commitment to “seeking due process and allowing the NCAA to conduct a fair and deliberate investigation.” Partridge was in the first season of his second stint at Michigan, where he served in various roles under Harbaugh from 2015-19. Past roles with the Wolverines for Partridge included special teams coordinator from 2016-19, linebackers coach 2016-17 and safeties coach from 2018-19.

Allegations of illegal advanced scouting by Michigan, an effort spearheaded by ex-Wolverines staffer Connor Stalions, prompted the Big Ten to suspend Harbaugh for the team’s final three games of the regular season on the basis that Michigan violated the league’s sportsmanship policy. The Wolverines went 3-0 during Harbaugh’s absence to complete an undefeated season and clinch a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game against Iowa on Saturday, Dec. 2.

College football bowl season is just around the corner, and it brings some intriguing bowl traditions from the Duke’s Mayo Bowl to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. During the 2023 bowl season, the new Pop-Tarts Bowl will have its first installment.

As a part of its birth, the winning team will have a chance to physically eat the mascot, according to The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach.

The Pop-Tarts Bowl will feature a team from the ACC and a team from the Big 12 and will take place on Dec. 28. In each of the past three seasons, the bowl was known as the Cheez-It Bowl and has been played in Orlando since 2001 despite undergoing several sponsorship and name changes.

The 2022 Cheez-It Bowl ended up being one of the more entertaining games throughout the bowl season. Florida State defeated Oklahoma 35-32 behind a 418-yard performance from Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis.

With Pop-Tarts now being the main attraction when it comes to this specific bowl, it should be an interesting display to watch once the final whistle blows. How many bites will be taken out of this Pop-Tart mascot? It’s certainly going to be up there with Duke’s Mayo being dumped on the champion of the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

The Mike Elko era is underway in College Station after Texas A&M hired the now-former Duke coach and ex-Aggies defensive coordinator Monday as its replacement for Jimbo Fisher, who was fired earlier in November in his sixth season guiding the program. And after Texas A&M awarded Fisher a mammoth contract — 10 years at $75 million on the initial deal back in 2017 — that ended with the school owing Fisher more than $77 million in buyout money, the Aggies are taking a bit of a different approach to the terms of Elko’s deal.

Shortly after the introductory press conference got underway on Monday, the terms of Elko’s contract with Texas A&M were revealed. The deal is for six years at $42 million in total value, which boils down to Elko having an annual salary of $7 million. The buyout on his contract is set at flat percentage, which increases at the halfway point of the deal, and there are also plenty of incentives featured. The basic terms for the Aggies’ new headman are outlined below:

Six years, $42 million total value (runs through Jan. 31, 2030)
A flat-rate buyout of 75% of the contract’s remaining value in Years 1-3
A flat-rate buyout of 80% of the contract’s remaining value in Years 4-6
$11,000,000 staff salary pool
As far as incentives are concerned, Elko will be awarded $50,000 if named SEC Coach of the Year and $100,000 should he win a national coach of the year award. A $100,000 paycheck also comes his way for each SEC Championship Game appearance. Beyond that, Texas A&M also has included a list of postseason incentives for Elko, which are outlined below. Should Elko achieve any of the postseason incentives, he will automatically receive a one-year contract extension.

$1 million for a CFP appearance
$1.5 million for a CFP Quarterfinals appearance and/or SEC championship
$2 million for a CFP Semifinals appearance
$2.5 million for a CFP National Championship Game appearance
$3.5 million for a CFP National Championship
Elko, who was 16-9 in two seasons as the coach at Duke, will kick off his Texas A&M tenure with a marquee home matchup as the Aggies begin the 2024 season by hosting Notre Dame on Saturday, Aug. 31. Elko served as Fighting Irish defensive coordinator in 2017 before first arriving to Texas A&M as defensive coordinator in 2018.

The Florida Gators have parted ways with co-defensive coordinator Sean Spencer and secondary coach Corey Raymond, sources confirm to CBS Sports. The Gators ended the season 5-7 in Year 2 under coach Billy Napier with a 24-15 loss to in-state rival Florida State capping the 2023 campaign.

This season, Florida’s defense allowed at least 39 points in four consecutive games — the longest streak in school history — and gave up 701 yards in a loss to LSU earlier this month. In fact, it allowed more than 1,200 yards combined in consecutive games against LSU and Missouri.

Spencer joined the Florida coaching staff in 2022 after a stint with the New York Giants as a defensive line coach. Spencer, who coached the same position for the Gators, previously had stops at Penn State, Vanderbilt, Bowling Green and UMass as a defensive line coach. He served as Florida’s co-defensive coordinator first alongside Patrick Toney and then under Austin Armstrong this season.

As for Raymond, he was also part of Napier’s initial staff in 2022 when he served not only as cornerbacks coach but a key recruiter for the Gators. Last offseason, he was promoted to defensive backs coach earning a $30,000 raise and one-year contract extension.

Before his arrival in Gainesville, Florida, Raymond coached at LSU from 2012-21 where he was known for recruiting and teaching an immense array of talented defensive backs. He served as the defensive backs coach at Nebraska in 2011 before heading to the SEC.

The Orlando Sentinel first reported the dismissals of Spencer and Raymond, which may be just the start for Florida.

Napier is under pressure to shakeup his staff after the Gators failed to reach a bowl game this season for the first time since 2017. Florida started 5-2 but ended with five consecutive losses to Georgia, Arkansas, LSU, Missouri and Florida State, three of which were top-10 teams.

Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke has entered the transfer portal, according to 247Sports, closing a rollercoaster chapter on a career in South Florida that featured plenty of promising moments but ultimately fell short of expectations. Van Dyke will have one final season of eligibility at his final stop of his college career.

Though Van Dyke finished the 2023 season with 2,703 yards passing and 19 touchdowns, he also had a career-high 12 picks — eclipsing his previous combined total from 2021 and ’22 — and was benched in the Nov. 11 loss to Florida State only to reenter the game after an injury to freshman signal-caller Emory Williams.

The writing was on the walls for Van Dyke’s future when coach Mario Cristobal appeared on The Joe Rose Show this week.

“We feel really strongly about the young guys,” Cristobal said. “Super proud of what Tyler did. Gotta figure it out, man.”

The likely exit comes in stark contrast to Van Dyke’s breakout debut in 2021 in which he started the final nine games of season in relief of the injured D’Eriq King on his way to being named ACC Rookie of the Year. The success was short-lived, however. Van Dyke’s follow-up in 2022 was hampered by injuries and the 2023 season never came close to reaching the heights he first achieved as a redshirt freshman.

With Van Dyke entering the transfer portal, Miami only has two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in Williams and redshirt freshman Jacurri Brown.

Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown has emerged as the top target for the Syracuse job, according to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman. Though he’s finishing his second season in Athens, Georgia, for the two-time reigning national champions, the New Jersey native has plenty of experience in the Northeast with previous stops as an assistant at Rutgers and Temple. He was hired by the Bulldogs in 2022 to replace former DB coach Jahmile Addae, who departed for the same position at Miami.

Brown, 41, is considered one of the best recruiters in the nation. In Georgia’s top-ranked 2024 recruiting class alone, Brown helped land five-star DB Ellis Robinson IV, five-star LB Justin Williams and four-star DB Demello Jones, among others. Brown ranks as the No. 1 national position group recruiter, according to 247Sports.

Syracuse moved on from eighth-year coach Dino Babers earlier this month after losing six of its final seven games. Babers was 41-55, including a 20-45 mark in ACC play, during his time with the Orange.

Former Florida and Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen previously emerged as a possible candidate to succeed Babers, but the current ESPN college football analyst shot down the rumors with a social media post on Monday. Mullen’s buyout from UF will net him at least $1 million each year through 2027.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — When Texas A&M hired Jimbo Fisher in 2017, the Aggies hoped to make a statement. The program gave him a dateless national championship plaque in expectation that he would lead it to the promised land. As Fisher exited his private jet as coach for the first time that December, he was greeted with a maroon carpet and military band serenade. He was handed one of the most eye-popping contracts in college football history before coaching a game.

In Mike Elko, the Aggies have hired Fisher’s foil.

“My vision for the program is very simple,” Elko said at his introductory press conference. “We are going to build the premier football program in the country. We are not going to talk about it anymore, we are going to be about it.”

Elko arrived in Aggieland for the first time as part of Fisher’s initial staff in 2018. With Elko in the program, Texas A&M went 34-13, including an Orange Bowl victory in 2020. That success landed Elko the Duke job, which he immediately turned into a nine-win debut in 2022. That was followed by a 7-5 campaign in 2023 that, although disappointing in some respects with the injury to QB Riley Leonard, still represented achievement in Durham, North Carolina.

As such, bringing Elko back to College Station made all the sense in the world, but the process wasn’t as cut and dry. He emerged from the morass following a kerfuffle over the weekend in which Kentucky coach Mark Stoops appeared to be Texas A&M’s top target … before he wasn’t.

Regardless, Elko remains a familiar choice. Aggie higher-ups are hoping it’s the right one.

Elko’s contract is one of the most unique in the SEC. He’ll earn a competitive base salary of $42 million over six years. The incentive numbers are off the charts, however. Elko will make a $1 million bonus for making the College Football Playoff. It extends to $1.5 million for winning the SEC or reaching the quarterfinals. A national championship rewards him with an exorbitant $3.5 million.

If Elko reaches any of the postseason incentives, an extra year is automatically added onto his contract. In contrast, Fisher signed a 10-year, $75 million contract that was fully guaranteed. He was fired just two years into a 10-year, $95 million extension, leaving him more than $70 million in buyout money.

“We wanted to be fair in the market, but we also wanted to say, ‘Hey, look, I think the landscape can change where you actually have to earn things,'” Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said. “And if somebody believes in themselves, believes in their plan, they have the right approach, they’ll earn it.”

If Elko is fired in the first three seasons, he will be owed 75% of the remaining money on his contract. If he’s fired in the final three seasons, that number jumps to 80%. Elko has signed a memorandum of understanding, but will officially sign the contract after it is presented to Texas A&M’s Board of Regents.

Back to basics
Since 2000, Texas A&M has been focused on making a statement about its place in the world. In a much different time, Texas A&M poached Dennis Franchione from Alabama and Mike Sherman from the NFL, where he was an offensive coordinator. Later, Kevin Sumlin flew on the “SwagCopter” after Johnny Manziel brought Texas A&M’s attention to new heights. And then there was Jimbo.

To the contrary, Elko is a blue-collar throwback. The New Jersey native’s first coordinator job was at the Division III Merchant Marine Academy before rising up through the Northeast and Midwestern coaching worlds. Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson brought him to FBS prominence before he landed at Notre Dame and later Texas A&M.

Bjork acknowledged that he spoke to at least 25 coaches as part of the search, including at least five on Saturday alone. Ultimately, after the Stoops situation settled, Elko emerged as the leader.

During a 9-1 campaign in 2020, the Aggies defense ranked No. 28 nationally in scoring defense under Elko, holding opponents to just 21.7 points per game. During this season at Duke, the Blue Devils held opponents to just 19.8 points per game. Duke went 16-9 over the past two seasons under Elko. Texas A&M went 12-12 in the same span under Fisher.

“It’s really hard when you have high expectations and come up short,” Elko said. “As hard as that is for the fans and people who support the program, it’s even harder for the kids who put in all of the work and the coaches who put in all of the work.”

He continued, “Some of it is just recharging, providing a fresh perspective, giving them something to rekindle that fire, and give them something to believe in moving forward and holding them to that every step along the way.”

Don’t think Elko is overlooking offense, though. Promises of an explosive, modern unit would be a direct contrast to the archaic systems of the Fisher era. Elko’s $11 million assistant coach budget is smaller than the one Fisher enjoyed but still ranks among the best in college football. A star offensive coordinator will be a key hire.

Elko represents a throwback to one of the most beloved Texas A&M coaches of all time. R.C. Slocum coached under Jackie Sherrill for seven seasons as defensive coordinator. In 1989, he was promoted to the full-time job and went on to lead Texas A&M to four conference championships in 14 years. The Aggies have not won a conference – or even a divisional – championship since he was fired in 2002.

The blue-collar mentality with a modern approach neatly fits Texas A&M. The historically agricultural institution has built its identity through toughness and grit, largely in contrast to the glitzier University of Texas down the block in Austin, Texas. Slocum brought blue-collar, physical defenses to Texas A&M during his successful tenure. He left as the winningest coach in Texas A&M history. Elko made sure to stop and shake Slocum’s hand on the way off the podium.

Texas A&M just completed 84 years without winning a national championship, dating back to 1939. While no blank plaque is coming Elko’s way, his contract structure leaves no doubt of the ultimate goals.

“I just think when you look at what this program is capable of, what we’ve got to do is we’ve got to fulfill that potential, I think that happens with wok,” Elko said. “We can’t just say we want to arrive somewhere. We’ve got to be committed to all the work that it’s going to take from today until we kick off next September of doing that.”