CFB DeptHITS: Friday, February 14
The HITS will take you through the need to knows from the past 48 hours. It includes some player portal news, coaching changes galore and other 'off field' news & notes.
Today, we’ll get you all caught up on the ‘need to knows’ from a slowing news cycle. Though, as we know, it never really ends. Coaching movement is dominating for now as the portal movement has slowed to near halt. Also, our State of the Chart™ updates are in full swing as we are rolling through the SEC first. We have convenient links for you to get all caught up (don’t fall too far behind) at the end of the HITS. Enjoy!
|||||| THE HITS
USC ::: EDGE Solomon Tuliaupupu [12.4] is hitting the portal as a grad transfer. The former 4-star prospect way back in 2018 has managed to continue to have eligiblity and will go somewhere he can play a bit more. He played in nine games for the Trojans in 2024, accumulating just 17.5 snaps per game. He has 3.5 career sacks.
Ohio State ::: RB Sam Williams-Dixon [12.2] has removed his name from the portal. He entered a couple of weeks ago potentially looking for more touches. Either that didn't materialize or he sees a path to more playing time with those horses ahead of him in the Buckeyes backfield (namely TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins) leaving the program. Ohio State did land West Virginia transfer CJ Donaldson to likely take on a lead back role in 2025.
Ohio State ::: The search for the replacment for Jim Knowles as defensive coordinator at Ohio State has ended with former NFL head coach and defensive coordinator, Matt Patricia. He was a long-time Bill Belechick protege and now brings his talents to the highest level of college football. He inherits quite possibly the most talented defensive roster in the game. It's likely a play to get back to the NFL.
Other impacts to the Buckeyes defensive staff includes the promotion of secondary coach Tim Walton to co-defensive coordinator and Matt Guerrieri being elevated to pass-game coordinator, along with his current duties coaching the safeties.
Buffalo ::: Buffalo has rewarded head coach Pete Lembo for a solid nine-win season, giving him an extension and raise. Pete Thamel reports that it reportedly comes with added resourses for assistant coaches and staff. This is the move that the Marshall administration should have taken with Charles Huff before it was too late. Huff has moved on to Southern Miss and is building them up while Marshall will be in a rebuild mode. It could have been avoided.
|||||| OTHER NEWS & NOTES
FootballScoop reports on allegations of fraud involving the “Prokick Australia” organization. This includes the falsification of academic transcripts for Australian punters recruited to college football programs. This would be a major black eye and a big disappointment for what has become a fun-to-follow pipeline of some really talented punters entering our game from down under.
Tyler Roehl took the running backs coach job at Iowa State with Matt Campbell around this time a year ago. Now, he heads to the NFL to join the Detroit Lions staff. He was the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at North Dakota State prior to his one-year stint with the Cyclones.
The Trump administration has wasted no time reversing and removing any mention of the Title IX impacts on NIL spending that was passed through by the Biden administration on their way out the door. The mere mention of the directive was completely removed from the Education Department’s website. So, that didn’t last long.
Nigel Madison has been hired at Colorado State as their cornerbacks coach. He spend 2024 at FCS Sacred Heart as the linebackers coach. Prior to that, he spent tine at Oregon, Buffalo, FIU and Concordia University (Ann Arbor) where he played and was a two year starter, graduating in 2017.
DeMarco Murray was being courted by James Franklin and the Penn State staff to try to lure him to State College after they lost their own running backs coach, Ja’Juan Seider, to Notre Dame. Murray reportedly has decided to stay at his alma mater as he is reported to have developed a good working rapport with new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, who comes to Norman from Washington State.
Texas had an opening after Georgia Tech poached safeties coach Blake Gideon to be their new defensive coordinator. The Longhorns are hiring Mark Orphey, most recently the cornerbacks coach at Rutgers, to take over Gideon’s safeties spot. Orphey spent three seasons with Mark Schiano at Rutgers and prior to that was as Alabama as a defensive assistant coach. He also earned his stripes at both Utah State and Montana State, coaching their secondaries.
West Virginia legend Pat White is returning to Morgantown in a coaching role. He’s been named by his former head coach Rich Rodriguez to the staff as “assistant quarterbacks” coach and also holds a title of “assistant to the head coach.” White’s coaching chops includes a stint as an offensive assistant in the NFL (Chargers) in 2022-23.
Alabama is following Georgia in the state legislature as they have also introduced a bill that would make NIL earning non-taxable.
|||||| STATE OF THE CHART UPDATES
We are rolling through our ‘off-season’ State of the Chart team-by-team updates. Don’t fall too far behind. Here are links to each of them thus far. We are starting with the SEC and then moving to the Big Ten next.
2/1: Alabama Crimson Tide
2/3: Georgia Bulldogs
2/4: LSU Tigers
2/5: Auburn Tigers
2/6: Arkansas Razorbacks
2/7: Florida Gators
2/8: Ole Miss Rebels
2/10: Tennessee Volunteers
2/11: Missouri Tigers
2/12: Texas A&M Aggies
2/13: Oklahoma Sooners
These updates will be coming (just about) once per day and will lead us into the month of June when we really start ramping up the prognosis of each roster, set some playing expectations and release this puppy…
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