CFB buzz: Army-Navy's future, last JMU Hoosier, la…

Yes, it’s May.

Yes, Ohio State travels to Texas on Sept. 12 for what will be one of the biggest games of the season.

And yes, Ohio State coach Ryan Day has already begun to prepare for it.

“We’re always looking at Texas,” he said. “We’re always looking at the first few teams on the schedule.”

Spring football is over, but the path to the 12-team playoff is just beginning with plenty of developments this spring. Ohio State should again be one of the Big Ten’s CFP representatives, but Washington could surprise some teams in its third season under coach Jedd Fisch. In the ACC, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has reason to believe his Tigers are on the upswing, but Miami coach Mario Cristobal still has the team to beat. In the SEC, Ole Miss coach Pete Golding is relying on some familiar faces — including his new offensive coordinator. Though Texas Tech and BYU are the early Big 12 front-runners, Arizona would like a word.

From conference spring meetings and potential calendar changes to Notre Dame’s defense and the next Mendoza, here’s what we’ve heard from around college football this spring.

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Week 0 | CFP schedule
Around the nation | Spring meetings

Week 0

College football is on the brink of an earlier start in 2027. The NCAA’s football oversight committee has proposed a standard start before Labor Day weekend that is expected to be approved in June.

Under the proposal, the regular season would begin on the Thursday of what is now called Week 0, and still end on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Schools would have 14 weeks to schedule 12 games. This model would give teams two open dates and allow for “flexibility for potential changes to the postseason.”

That’s significant, considering the College Football Playoff’s management committee is also expected to meet in June to continue discussions about the event’s future format. The ACC has long been a proponent of the earlier start, and commissioner Jim Phillips, who is on the CFP’s management committee, told ESPN the league’s coaches unanimously support 14 weeks to play 12 games.

“To me it’s critically important for us to have that flexibility,” he said. “… It alleviates some of the increased travel everybody’s feeling, it alleviates wear and tear for all of our teams. This to me is the modernization of scheduling and we have to do it in unison with the entire football schedule, whether it’s the start of the season, the College Football Playoff with potential expansion on the horizon, with the offseason, spring practice, the transfer portal, and obviously we don’t talk nearly enough about the academic schedule. All of those things come together and to me it really makes sense that we should start the season in Week 0 and make it permissive and take advantage of it.”

The SEC is interested in it, commissioner Greg Sankey said, but it’s “not at the finish line yet,” and if it’s going to change, it has to be done right.

“Are you doing it to start the playoff sooner?” Sankey asked. “Are you doing it to have two open weeks? Our tendency has been, you want the two open weeks.”

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Army-Navy and the CFP schedule

As leaders of the CFP continue to take a deeper dive into the ramifications and benefits of a 24-team field, they do so with a desire to protect the unique tradition of the Army-Navy game. The storied rivalry is played on the second Saturday each December, and if the CFP field expands to 24 teams, at least one more week of games would be added. That could mean an earlier December start to the postseason. If conference championship games are eliminated, which would probably be the case, and the season began in Week 0, it could end on Thanksgiving weekend. That would free up the first Saturday in December for the Army-Navy game, and the playoff could start the following week.

There has also been some chatter about possibly moving Army-Navy up to Thanksgiving, but Navy athletic director Michael Kelly said that would “be less than ideal from a business standpoint and from a showcase standpoint for the Army and Navy.”

“But probably most importantly, it doesn’t work for the brigade and the Corps, in my opinion,” Kelly said. “It’s in essence asking the entire student bodies of two schools to give up Thanksgiving for this. It’s something that’s certainly not a priority for me.”

What is a priority for both schools is protecting the game while also ensuring inclusion in the CFP if warranted. Where it becomes problematic is if the CFP begins the same weekend as the Army-Navy game and one or both of those teams are chosen in the 24-team field — not an outlandish scenario given recent history. In March, President Trump issued an executive order barring the CFP and other postseason games from airing during the annual Army-Navy matchup in December. Kelly said Navy football is the top brand in the Group of 6 and the American Conference. He pointed out that Navy has won 21 games in the past two years, which is the eighth most in the FBS.

“Between our overall significance as a brand and our relevance as a football program, I think we certainly deserve to be included when warranted,” Kelly said. “Obviously we’d have to follow up. I don’t want to be excluded by a technicality that I think can be worked through.”

Army athletic director Tom Theodorakis said both programs have had seasons where they were “knocking on the doorstep to the College Football Playoff.” He said he understands a need to be flexible, but said the game deserves to be on “the biggest stage possible.”

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Around the nation

Arizona: Coach Brent Brennan’s “favorite thing” about this spring?

Veteran quarterback Noah Fifita, college football’s active leader in touchdown passes with 73, was wearing an Arizona uniform. Brennan said Fifita “is the best story in college football” because he took $3 million less to stay with the Wildcats.

“That shouldn’t surprise me, considering he’s the most loyal, special young adult I’ve ever met,” Brennan said, “but everybody keeps trying to buy him and it doesn’t stop. And he keeps saying ‘No,’ because he’s loyal to the U of A. … I think we put some good pieces around him offensively, in the wide receiver room, and for us, so much of that was also just retention.

“I’m sure you have some understanding of what the economics are of us compared to the rest of the Big 12, but we’re not the f—ing Yankees, I can tell you that,” he said. “So the fact all these kids chose to stay for less money because they love each other, they love this school, they love the coaching staff, I think it’s pretty special.”

Clemson: Coach Dabo Swinney didn’t hesitate when asked what position group he was most excited about coming out of the spring.

“Secondary,” he said. “I mean, we were the worst pass defense I’ve had ever. Since I’ve been a head coach. And we still somehow won seven games. Just terrible. I just think we’re much better in that area. We improved in every defensive statistic except pass defense. We were horrible. If we can stay the course in Year 2 with Coach [Tom] Allen and what we’re doing but improve in that area, then I think that makes a difference on the field and in close games.”

After ranking 118th nationally in passing yards allowed, Clemson added cornerbacks Elliot Washington from Penn State, who brings top-end speed, and Auburn transfer Donovan Starr, who was recruited by Clemson when he was in high school. Ronan Hanafin, who moved from receiver to safety, returns and is expected to have an increased role. Safety Jerome Carter III is another transfer, coming from Old Dominion. He will join veterans Ashton Hampton and Branden Strozier.

Georgia Tech: Coach Brent Key has had an important reminder for new QB1 Alberto Mendoza: Georgia Tech wanted him — not his brother, and not the Yellow Jackets’ last QB1.

After watching his brother, Fernando, lead Indiana to a national title, win the Heisman Trophy and go No. 1 in the NFL draft, it would be easy for Alberto to feel he has a lot to live up to. Add in the fact that he’s stepping into some very big shoes in Atlanta, where Haynes King became something of a cult hero during his three seasons with the Jackets. But Key said Alberto Mendoza’s success depends largely on avoiding those expectations and simply playing his own game.

“Alberto craves and relishes being in that underdog role,” Key said. “Then all of a sudden, he transfers here, he’s got that same last name, and there’s this expectation that he’s walking in as a five-star, multiyear starter. He hasn’t started a football game. I told him, ‘I don’t care about your brother. I didn’t recruit your brother to come here. I recruited you, and there’s no expectations on you other than what Alberto Mendoza can do.'”

Key said he has been impressed with Mendoza’s quick release, ability to process information at a high level and strong work ethic. That’s more than enough to build a winner, Key said, but the QB’s quest for perfection — particularly in the shadow cast by his brother and by King — can be a double-edged sword.

“The biggest thing we’ve worked on is getting away from the last play,” Key said. “Let go of the last play, the last drive. He’s made a ton of progress.” — David Hale

Indiana: When IU coach Curt Cignetti came to Bloomington, 13 players followed him from James Madison.

Redshirt senior defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker, a native of Norfolk, Virginia, is the only player from that group still on the roster.

“We all came, we all achieved,” he said.

Tucker said he followed Cignetti “to be a part of something that was pretty big now.”

“I kind of had a feeling,” he said. “I trusted the coaches and trusted the scheme. Knowing what I could do and what we could do in this scheme at the next level really stood out to me.”

This year? None of the players in IU’s transfer portal class were from JMU — and it’s one of the top five classes in the country.

“I’m the lone wolf,” Tucker said.

Miami: True freshman offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell, the No. 3 overall prospect in the class of 2026, enrolled early and hasn’t wasted any time this spring.

Miami advanced to the national championship game last season in large part because of how strong and talented the Canes were up front, but four starters from that offensive line are gone, along with more than 100 combined starts. And on the defensive line, standout ends Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor leave gaping holes after getting selected in the first round of the NFL draft.

“We take a lot of pride in developing the trenches here at Miami,” coach Mario Cristobal said. “These guys go at it all spring … a lot of live work, everything good on good and, you know, ‘old and experienced teams win college football,’ is why the world’s been so effective. Well, the guys that aren’t old, they have to get older and more experienced by getting a lot of reps.”

Cristobal said Cantwell “gets better every single day.”

“We stay away from expectations and comparisons, because all that matters is making sure we do everything we can to help him and the rest of his teammates get better and be able to play winning football, contributing to the team, and he has not disappointed,” Cristobal said. “… But the sky’s the limit, and we’re just going to keep working.”

Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish are No. 2 in the country in returning defensive production (77%), and the talent in the secondary is something cornerback Leonard Moore said could be quantified in the 2027 NFL draft.

That includes Moore, too.

Safety Adon Shuler turned down the NFL to return to earn his degree, cornerback Christian Gray is a consistent playmaker and returning starter, safety Luke Talich had three interceptions last year, and Brauntae Johnson is facing surging expectations.

“We’ve got some speed on the back end I’ve never really seen,” Moore said. “We might have the deepest DB room in all my three years being here and I don’t know, the deepest DB room I’ve ever seen in college football. I’m not just saying that. The dudes we brought in, plus the dudes that are returning, I could see more than a few of us going to the NFL after this year.”

Ohio State: Receiver Jeremiah Smith was the blueprint for playing receiver as a true freshman, and coach Ryan Day sees that potential in standout freshman Chris Henry Jr.

“I’d be surprised if he’s not definitely making an impact in the fall for us,” Day said of the top-ranked receiver in the 2026 recruiting class. “The question is how fast? He’s definitely going to play. How much and how quickly he plays is going to be up to him in terms of the type of summer he has, and then obviously preseason.”

The entire offense has been working with first-year coordinator Arthur Smith, a longtime NFL coach who will take over playcalling duties from now-USF coach Brian Hartline. Day said he never contemplated returning to playcalling this fall after Hartline left.

“That was why hiring somebody with Arthur’s experience was important,” he said, “somebody who has done it before at a high level.”

Ole Miss: When Ole Miss coach Pete Golding replaced Lane Kiffin last year during the season, there were daily headlines about whether offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. would still coach the team through the CFP.

The Rebels have officially moved on from their former OC, but staff familiarity remains.

Ole Miss offensive coordinator John David Baker is back for his second stint with the Rebels. He was their co-offensive coordinator in 2023 when Golding was hired as the defensive coordinator. Baker was also with Kiffin at USC, and Golding hired him back because he “wanted to keep the stability in the system for the locker room.”

“He was kind of my first one, that, if you ask anybody that had been in that system, they felt like he was the next Charlie, so to say,” Golding said. “So it’ll be very similar.

“What I appreciate about him is he went off and kind of streamlined it a little differently, changed some of the terminology, which I like,” Golding said. “I didn’t want him to come back like, ‘Hey, here’s the ’23 playbook’ when I interviewed him. So the concepts, protections and run game and those types of things, but the vocabulary is a little different, a little more user-friendly and easier to process and learn, especially in a short period.”

Penn State: Quarterback Rocco Becht and two wide receivers who transferred with him from Iowa State are in sync on and off the field: They all had the same surgery on the same shoulder on the same day — the Monday after coach Matt Campbell took the job and Iowa State decided it wasn’t going to play in a bowl game.

“They had their non-dominant shoulder labrum surgery, and they literally had it at 7 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 11 o’clock,” he said. “They’ve all been on the same process of rehab literally the entire winter.”

The Nittany Lions have been in dire need of an upgrade at receiver, and Campbell thinks they got it in Brett Eskildsen (30 catches for 526 yards and five touchdowns) and Chase Sowell (32 catches for 500 yards and two touchdowns), who was the Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year.

“They’re both just trying to find the consistency it takes to be elite,” Campbell said. “It’s the natural growth pattern that you’ve had in the development process. They’re both really on the cutting edge to having really special years. They both can really run. I think they’re both draft picks for sure. We’re really bullish on this and we would have said even if we were at Iowa State their evolution to going from good to great would have been the key to our team having great success.”

Becht was able to return for the last three and a half weeks of spring practice to throw 7-on-7, and while Eskildsen and Sowell weren’t allowed to do those, they were cleared for individual route running.

“They just didn’t get the team stuff in,” Campbell said. “I thought those guys got good work. This summer will be huge for that group.”

Virginia Tech: New Virginia Tech coach James Franklin said one of his biggest points of emphasis when he arrived in Blacksburg was getting his team to understand the importance of depth — particularly in a CFP era when teams are playing 16 games.

In conversations with former head coach Brent Pry, who stayed on with the Hokies as defensive coordinator, Franklin said the feedback he got was, “We had pretty good talent, we just didn’t have the depth at every position to maximize it.

“We have to have 2½ to 3 deep at every position,” Franklin said. “We are in a much better position with that right now, and our guys have embraced that.”

Take defensive end, one of the deepest positions on the team. Virginia Tech brought in three transfers in Javion Hilson (Missouri), Cortez Harris (Penn State) and Mylachi Williams (Penn State). But both Franklin and Pry noted that returning end Aycen Stevens is among the most improved players on the team. Pry said that Deric Dandy, another returning player, was vastly improved as well.

Defensive back, tight end and quarterback are other notable positions where depth has been vastly improved.

“With the guys that we brought in and the retention of the roster, I think we’re in a pretty good place,” Franklin said. “We’ve got a ton of work to do between now and training camp and then before our first game. I also think having a guy like Brent Pry on the staff that has the institutional knowledge, that has the community knowledge [is] extremely valuable.” — Andrea Adelson

Washington: For a fleeting moment in January, Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. was ready to transfer — even going so far as to announce he was leaving before changing his mind two days later. This spring, though, with the offense back in his hands, Williams has “done a fantastic job of moving past it,” coach Jedd Fisch said.

“I’ve tried to educate our team,” Fisch said. “‘A lot of you guys have aspirations to be in the NFL. You’re going to be in a locker room where there’s going to be a player on your team that’s going to hold out. You’re going to be in a locker room that there’s going to be a player that talks about getting traded … wants to test the waters of free agency. A lot of times that player might get franchised and they’re right back at it. It doesn’t mean they can’t help you win a Super Bowl or a national championship.”

With Williams’ return, Washington could be a surprise team in the CFP race this year. He threw for 3,065 yards with 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions last year, adding 611 yards and six rushing touchdowns. It was the defense, though, that stood out to Fisch this spring.

“I think our defense is playing at an exceptionally high level,” he said. “Really excited about our linebacking corps. They’re all returning. We have a ton of starts underneath our belt and you can see the leadership coming out of them.”

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Spring meetings

Big Ten athletic directors met last week in Chicago and a continued connection with the SEC is quietly growing along with the frustration of too many voices trying to fix college athletics. A future scheduling partnership in football is still on the table, and if both leagues can eventually agree to a 24-team playoff, we could have more matchups like the ones we’ll see in Week 2 between Texas and Ohio State and Michigan and Oklahoma.

The Big Ten and the SEC have the bulk of control over the playoff’s future format, and the two leagues remain at an impasse over what it should look like — which means it will continue to be a topic of conversation at their respective spring meetings later this month.

The Big Ten’s 24-team model has been gaining traction, even among some SEC leaders, but the SEC presidents and chancellors still favor a 16-team model that includes five conference champions and 11 at-large teams.

Before the powers-that-be figure out the format, Ohio State’s Day said, they need to reexamine the timing of the playoff. The Big Ten will meet first, May 18-20 in Rancho Palos Verdes just outside of Los Angeles.

“We’ve got to look at the calendar of why we have this giant break, taking a hard look at the conference championship games, and then we can figure out the number of teams,” Day said. “But to me, the break in between the last game and that first game for the bye teams, and then the portal being open while the playoff is going on are two things we really have to get addressed.”

The SEC will hold its annual spring meetings May 26-28 at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa in Miramar Beach, Florida. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne agreed there are other issues that need to be addressed before focusing on the playoff format.

“I want to see us have recognized strength of schedule,” Byrne said, “and when teams play nine conference games and a Power 4 — especially a high-level Power 4 nonconference game — that gets looked at differently compared to teams that don’t. We have mostly seen from the playoff committee teams being put in buckets — a one-loss bucket, a two-loss bucket, a three-loss bucket. And I think a two-loss team with a tougher strength of schedule should be looked at differently than a one-loss team with not as strong of a nonconference schedule. I want it to continue to be part of the overall discussion.”