Player Notes

Tar Heels football coach Mack Brown joined The Observer’s Talking Preps show to speak his mind on a variety of topics and how he’d really like to see the ACC stick together.UNC football coach Mack Brown took a very strong stand defending a wide receiver from Charlotte against an NCAA eligibility ban.Brown wrote a public letter of support for former West Charlotte High School star Tez Walker, ending ...

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart and Kentucky coach Mark Stoops threw compliments each other’s way before their matchup of unbeaten ranked teams last Saturday.It was like a mutual admiration society.Then Stoops let down his guard Monday night on his weekly call-in show when he said that Georgia “bought some pretty good players,” with NIL money and encouraged Kentucky fans to step up their donations ...

Atherton, Calif. • The freshman runs a hitch-and-go for Menlo School on a play called “X train.”This is Laila Young’s first flag football game, but she looks like she played in a previous life, moving so smoothly and decisively. Her sister, Summer, a senior, is also a natural, covering big chunks of turf with long strides.Laila plays the X position — “I tell her she’s John Taylor, the most underappreciated ...

With an extra week to prepare, what Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze saw on film was an LSU offense that resembled arguably the best collegiate group of all time — one that wore the exact same yellow helmets Freeze will see this weekend.“I think their offense is the most explosive that I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Freeze said Monday. “I wasn’t coaching when they had their run with Joe Burrow and them. ...

Matt Calkins By Matt CalkinsSeattle Times columnistCould this be where it peaks?No doubt that the most heated annual contest in the Pacific Northwest is the matchup between the Washington and Oregon football teams.Scrappy as Oregon State and Washington State have been in years past (and, yes, both are capable of knocking off their in-state rivals), the Apple Cup and the game formerly known as the Civil ...

Lincoln Riley shook his head, shrugged his shoulders and offered a tight smile.“How long do you got?” the USC coach responded when faced with yet another question about his defense.After the team’s Heisman-winning quarterback provided unprompted, emphatic support of USC’s embattled defense last weekend, the coach provided his own Tuesday, saying the outside perception of the Alex Grinch-led unit fails ...

UCLA has had stability at the quarterback position the past four seasons. And while there have been strides toward a level of stability at the position this season, Dante Moore is still on a learning curve.While most true freshmen usually spend the first year of their college season on the sideline and some as a redshirt, UCLA coach Chip Kelly has given the 18-year-old a vote of confidence by sticking ...

COLUMBIA — It isn’t going away. Name-Image-Likeness compensation for college student-athletes may have its regulations tweaked in the future, but paying athletes these days is legal and allowed, and to the richest programs often go the best players.South Carolina coach Shane Beamer was asked about it on Tuesday, and as he always has, he supports his players getting whatever they can. While clarifying ...

If you’re wondering how Pitt’s quarterbacks prepare for a game, let new starter Christian Veilleux take you behind the curtain.First of all (and of least importance as it relates to Pitt’s game Saturday against undefeated No. 14 Louisville), the Canadian-born Veilleux prefers the pronunciation of his name to be “Vay-er,” such as you would say conveyor belt. His father, Martin, prefers Vay-u — as in ...

As Oklahoma prepares to move on from its biggest win of the season, it will have to do so without the help of one of its top pass-catchers.On Monday head coach Brent Venables revealed that junior wide receiver Andrel Anthony will undergo season-ending surgery after going down in the second half of Saturday’s win over Texas.The transfer from Michigan led the Sooners with 27 catches and 429 receiving ...