Latest news with #KirbySmart
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Paul Finebaum Takes Huge Shot At Big Ten Football Coach
Paul Finebaum Takes Huge Shot At Big Ten Football Coach originally appeared on The Spun. Paul Finebaum didn't hesitate to take a personal shot at one Big Ten coach after they seemingly eluded to Georgia's Kirby Smart tampering with one of their school's best players. Advertisement Appearing on the "The Triple Option" podcast, Bret Bielema seemed puzzled by running back Justin McCray's transfer to the Bulldogs this offseason. Saying: "We did lose a guy to Georgia. Somehow, he found his way to the portal and 12 hours after being in the portal, he was on a flight to Georgia. I don't know how that happened, but it's crazy." Those comments pretty quickly led to a response from Finebaum, who wasted no time firing back at the Fighting Illini HC for his claims against Kirby and one of the SEC's top powers. "Knowing Bret Bielema for a long time, the only thing that surprised me is understanding his voracious appetite that he didn't bit the microphone and try to swallow it because he doesn't seem to mind running his mouth," the CFB personality said. Advertisement "I would worry more about maybe being successful on the football field so he doesn't get fired there like he did at Arkansas. As opposed to running his mouth and making allegations that there's no chance in the world he can back up," Finebaum concluded. STARKVILLE, MS - SEPTEMBER 16: Paul Finebaum broadcasts from the game between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the LSU Tigers on September 16, 2023 at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi. (Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Finebaum's assessment was certainly a low blow— especially for a coach who's had his share of successes over the years. But the SEC commentator's brand has been one of defending his conference at every turn. Related: Jim Harbaugh Added To Disturbing Lawsuit Against Ex-Michigan Coach Paul Finebaum Takes Huge Shot At Big Ten Football Coach first appeared on The Spun on Jun 28, 2025 This story was originally reported by The Spun on Jun 28, 2025, where it first appeared.
USA Today
a day ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Every Georgia football rushing leader during the Kirby Smart era
The Georgia Bulldogs have had a lot of running back talent come through the program during the first nine seasons of the Kirby Smart era. Georgia's running prowess is a big reason why the Bulldogs have won three SEC championships and two national championships since Smart took the head coaching job ahead of the 2016 season. Running the football is still a big part of Kirby Smart's brand of football, but over the years he's changed to a more balanced approach. Smart and Georgia have had seven running backs selected in the NFL draft over the past decade (through the 2025 NFL draft). Over the years, Smart has used a bit of a running back by committee approach. The Bulldogs have not had a running back take over 200 carries since Nick Chubb in 2017. Additionally, Georgia hasn't had a 1,000 yard rusher since D'Andre Swift in 2018. Who are Georgia's annual rushing leaders during the Kirby Smart era? 2024: Nate Frazier Frazier teamed up with Florida transfer Trevor Etienne to form a dynamic duo in 2024. Frazier ended the eight overtime Georgia Tech game with a walk-off two-point conversion and Etienne won the SEC championship with a walk-off touchdown. Stats: 133 rush attempts for 671 yards and eight touchdowns 2023: Daijun Edwards Daijun Edwards helped Georgia's potent 2023 offense go undefeated in the regular season. The Bulldogs lost to Alabama in the SEC championship, but crushed Florida State in the Orange Bowl to cap off a 13-1 season. Stats: 165 rush attempts for 880 yards and 13 touchdowns 2022: Kenny McIntosh McIntosh was a key factor in Georgia's 2022 national title run. He contributed both as a rusher and as a receiver along with Daijun Edwards. Stats: 150 rush attempts for 829 yards and 10 touchdowns 2021: Zamir White White helped UGA win the 2021 national title and is the last Georgia running back to lead the team in rushing in back-to-back seasons. Nate Frazier will have a chance to accomplish that in 2025. Interestingly, James Cook never led the team in rushing. Stats: 160 rush attempts for 856 yards and 11 touchdowns 2020: Zamir White White had a strong season for Georgia in 2020 especially when considering that Georgia only played SEC competition during the regular season. The Bulldogs played in just 10 games during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season. Stats: 144 rush attempts for 779 yards and 11 touchdowns 2019: D'Andre Swift Swift's memorable 2019 season is the last time a Georgia Bulldog ran for over 1,000 yards in a season. In 2019, he memorably ran for 179 yards and two touchdowns in a rainy 21-0 win over the Kentucky Wildcats. Stats: 196 rush attempts for 1,218 yards and seven touchdowns 2018: D'Andre Swift Swift proved ready for a larger workload in 2018. He helped Georgia make the SEC championship and fooled numerous defenders with his legendary juke move. Both Swift and Elijah Holyfield topped 1,000 yards in 2018. No UGA running back duo has accomplished that feat since then. Stats: 163 rush attempts for 1,049 yards and 10 touchdowns 2017: Nick Chubb Nick Chubb was the bell cow back of Georgia's 2017 team. The Bulldogs advanced to the national title game and won the SEC thanks in large part to UGA's elite backfield that also featured Sony Michel and D'Andre Swift. Stats: 223 rush attempts for 1,345 yards and 15 touchdowns 2016: Nick Chubb Nick Chubb led Georgia in rushing during three of his four seasons at UGA. His injury-shortened 2015 season is the only time he did not lead the Dawgs in rushing even though he was part of some amazing backfields. Stats: 224 rush attempts for 1,130 yards and eight touchdowns Follow UGAWire on Instagram or Threads!
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New College Football 26 Details on Dynasty Mode Revealed
The post New College Football 26 Details on Dynasty Mode Revealed appeared first on ClutchPoints. A new College Football 26 Dynasty Deep Dive has arrived, sharing tons of new information about the returning mode. For newcomers, Dynasty acts as the game's Franchise Mode. You control a coach on a College Football Football Team with the purpose of helping them win it all. This year, College Football 26 adds real coaches, but there's a lot more under the hood when it comes to Dynasty. College Football 26 Dynasty Deep Dive – Everything You Need To Know Overall, here's all the biggest details from the latest College Football 26 Deep Dive. Advertisement Real Coaches & Coach Progression Over 300 authentic coaches will be available to choose from in College Football 26. Replace Kirby Smart and become the next Georgia HC, or control Kirby Smart as you try to win his third National Championship. Each coach comes with their own playbook, scheme, play-calling tendencies, career stats, archetypes, and abilities. However, you can still create a coach, and CFB 26 offers more customization settings. From coach demeanor to stances, you can edit the look and emotions your coach conveys. In terms of gameplay, College Football increases the maximum coach level cap to 100 (previously 50). This will make the experience of upgrading your coach last longer as you try to upgrade everything. Additionally, EA Sports created a new level progression curve to help you level up early on. Advertisement Furthermore, the developer rebalanced all archetypes — Recruiter, Motivator, and Tactician. And the amount of XP needed from each perk scales by the tier of your archetype. Archetype cost also scales with each purchase. Additionally, abilities (and their costs) within archetypes have been rebalanced. Therefore, you'll need to think a bit more about which archetype would suit your playstyle and team best. Fortunately, staff members have their own active archetypes, contributing to your gains as well. But to really help with the rebalance, EA updated several archetype perks to help you earn XP. Choose the right coordinators to maximize your gains and build an incredible team. But keep in mind that you'll now need to unlock your archetype. You must reach a minimum level in order to unlock these archetypes, which in turn help your team. You won't be able to switch between archetypes so quickly now either, forcing you to really think about what you should choose. Advertisement Of course, some archetypes allow you to bend the rules a little bit, so keep on the lookout for our guide when the game comes out. When it comes to the carousel, EA Sports made a few updates. You now receive notifications when coordinators accept or decline offers. Furthermore, the same applies when current coordinators plan to leave you. To help with this, the game added new abilities to help you attract and keep the coordinators you want. Along with these changes comes rebalanced offer logic, as well as the option to see your coaching staff's previous jobs. Want to know if they were fired or just let go? The world is your oyster! The Trophy Room College Football 26 adds a Trophy Room where you can your accolades across a variety of modes. From every National Championship to every Heisman, all your records will be stored here for your viewing pleasure. Each Dynasty comes with their own Room to help keep info organized. Advertisement Overall, the game features 160 trophies to earn across four different categories. Recruitment, The Transfer Portal, & My School In College Football 26, players can expect to see roughly 2,000 players enter the transfer portal annually. To help compensate, they changed how they assigned star ratings to prospects. Now, their rating is more influenced by a player's position & class year. But as a coach, this means you need to keep your players satisfied. Whether it's through reps, success, brand exposure, and more, your players need to be convinced that your school is the best place for them. Advertisement Dealbreakers return, with the developers refining the system. It now factors in snaps played, regardless of where they sit on the depth chart. Not everyone's Dealbreaker will be playing time, but it still plays a role in their decision. This is especially the case for high-rated players. CFB 26 also introduces Dynamic Dealbreakers. Overall, this system takes into account that a player changes their demands over time. A five-star player want to focus on his brand, causing him to play elsewhere. But you can also alleviate these demands with certain abilities. But if you don't like how the current Transfer Portal System works, EA Sports added the following new settings for you to customize it with: Max Transfers Per Team – Anywhere from 0-30 (0 disables Transfer Portal) Adjust how many players can transfer from a single team (0–30). Setting this to 0 disables the portal entirely for a more traditional experience. Transfer Probability (User Teams): How likely a user team's player is to transfer Transfer Probability (CPU Teams): How likely the computer team's player is to transfer My School Grades return, with 14 categories for players to consider. These all affect your Team Prestige Grade, which represents how attractive you are as a program. This year, the developers lowered the amount of teams in the A and B grade range. They also added Pro Potential which represents how likely the program is to produce NFL talent. Advertisement The developers, also re-adjusted, and re-evaluated all the different Grades for every team to help reflect how they are for the upcoming season. Recruiting has also seen a big change. With Location Based Recruiting, it's cheaper to bring closer recruits to your facility. Conversely, it also costs more to bring in recruits from farther away. Now you will either be more flexible or restricted with your budget, depending on where your located. And if you coach in Hawaii, then we feel sorry for you. But like everything else, you can unlock certain abilities to maximize your scheduling efficiency and more. Additionally, the game made two major improvements to the scouting system: Re-ordered how attributes are displayed Expanded Mind Reader Ability and reveal Dev Trait directly through scouting But keep in mind that you'll battle with other teams to recruit the players you want. Recruiting battles now trigger if a school gets a commit but with another school right behind them. This creates a higher commitment threshold, giving both teams a small window to impress them one last time. Therefore, pull out all the punches when this phase strikes. Advertisement Speaking of recruits, there'll now over 4,000 recruits per season (4,100, specifically). To compensate for this, the developers rebalanced their physicals, mentals, attributes, and much more. However, there will be fewer top tier recruits for you to choose from, making the battles for them all the more exciting. Along with these rebalances comes with adjusted dealbreakers, player weight, and so much more to change up the experience. To help snag recruits from other teams, EA Sports improved the Sway mechanic. Overall, if a recruit really wants to play closer to home, you can sway them by showing them what your program has accomplished. Playing close to home is nice, but how about playing for a team that's produced a lot of NFL talent. This year, you now see the chances of your Sway success before beginning. This gives you a bit more confidence in each decision. When Sways are successful, you'll see so on the recruiting board. Advertisement Lastly, EA Sports made several quality of life improvements to the recruiting process: Team Needs now pinned on top of Prospects List Arrows to indicate whether you moved up or down a prospect's list. A Red Dot will notify you when new recruiting actions are available Favorite Recruits by double tapping triangle/Y New filter that lets you quickly look at your favorite recruits Advanced search filters: Player Progression, Abilities, & Training – College Football 26 Dynasty Details College Football 26 rebalances the way your favorite players progress on the field. Development traits play a bigger role in offseason progression. And speaking of the offseason, you'll see physical changes to player bodies after offseason workouts. Players with Impact, Star, and Elite Traits now progress faster, making them better to use in the long run. And if your school boasts a nice athletic facility, it'll help further development even more. Advertisement Players are only as good as their abilities, and this year, CFB 26 adds new abilities. In addition to new abilities comes new modified requirements to unlock them. You may need two attributes to have a certain rating before unlocking a higher-tier ability. Additionally, archetypes saw a huge overhaul. CFB 26 adds new player types, ergo, more physical combinations to increase the diversity of play styles. Players who perform extremely well can upgrade their Development trait in the offseason. While not guaranteed, it gives you extra incentive to reach that milestone with your player. It becomes more difficult with each tier your try to increase. Speaking of development, training results now provide more clear information on your player's growth. This gives you a good idea of where they've improved with each practice. Advertisement When it comes to manual progression, you have the option to enable that in the league settings. This feature lets you earn Skill Points which you can use to upgrade their attributes. In the Player Card, you can see a player's full stats, and which ones you want to improve. But keep in mind that using this feature nerfs your progression by 25% (However, this is fully customizable). Depth Chart Positions, Player Health, & Sub Formations – College Football 26 Dynasty Details Players can change their positions in CFB 26, but there's things to keep in mind. They must develop into the role, and will only maintain abilities that both positions share. However, you can adjust their skill group caps baed on how close the new position is to the old one. Fortunately, the game lets you know in advance what will be affected before each move. Advertisement Wear & Tear returns to College Football 26, with some big expansive changes. Firstly, the game now has Season & Career Health pools for you to watch over. They determine how much a player recovers over the season and their career. When a player recovers, it draws from these health pools. Once that pool depletes, they can no longer recover for the rest of the season. Health changes Season to Season. If you have a nearly empty health pool one year, you'll start the next season with a small health pool. Therefore, you really need to manage player health in order to keep them safe for their whole career. These details are available almost anywhere in Dynasty. Subs saw some nice changes in CFB 26. Firstly, the game features four new sub strategies to choose from: Advertisement Keep Fresh – Rotate players often to limit damage Normal – Balanced rotation Grind It Out: Players stay on field no matter what Custom: Use a variety of sliders and settings to completely customize the Wear & Tear System Additionally, College Football 26 adds new positions to the game. Like Madden 26, you'll have access to the SAM, WILL, and MIKE Linebackers. Additionally, you'll have Nose Tackles and Long Snappers, increasing your versatility. Players also can use Formation Subs to make their roster alignment more convenient. New Teams, Old History – College Football 26 Dynasty Details Two new Schools are coming to College Football 26 – Missouri State and Delaware. This expands the list of teams to 136. Furthermore, the game is adding a new feature called College Football History. This hub allows you to view all sorts of stats going as far back as 1869. See all the National Champions, Conference Champions, Player award winners,, and much more. From Heisman winners to champions of every division, you'll see almost everything you need to know. Advertisement This information updates too with every season. So continue to make history with your school! You can also see a player's individual awards on their player card. Additionally, the game added 14 new awards, including the Maxwell Award & Walter Camp Award. Additionally, the developers adjusted how defensive stats are evaluated. Plus, stat tracking has been expanded giving you access to more information with much more convenience. Quality of Life Improvements – College Football 26 Dynasty Details The Following Quality of Life Improvements also make their way to Dynasty: Updated Tiebreaker logic, which considers: Added columns to show team's point differential and average margin of victory Deeper stat tracking Across all positions and sides of the ball Expanded Archetypes (59 now) Quick Access to player info & schedules Easier Access to player stats and attributes Members Tab to see every user and coach character in a Dynasty. Custom Conferences, Schedules, & More – College Football 26 Dynasty Details In College Football 26 Dynasty, you can now set and lock protected opponents. This allows you to lock-in annual matchups and ensure certain games always happen. Advertisement The developers also added all known schedules and kickoffs through 2040, ensuring a higher level of authenticity. Furthermore, they event accounted for annual updates. Florida vs. Georgia will no longer be played in Jacksonville in 2026 and 2027, and the game will reflect that change. Additionally, they updated conference rotations for the MAC and Conference USA conferences. And speaking of authenticity, the newest playoff format arrives to CFB 26. Play in the new CFP format before it happens in real life this July! Crossplay For Dynasty Mode in College Football 26 Perhaps the best detail of all, Online Dynasty is now cross-play enabled. This means you can play with friends on another system and fight both for a natty and a console war. Advertisement Overall, that includes all the major updates in College Football 26's Dynasty Mode. We're pretty impressed with what we've seen. EA Sports has clearly put a lot of work in upgrading the authenticity of the game. But we'll see if it all comes together in the final product. Lastly, for more gaming and NCAAF news, visit ClutchPoints. Furthermore, subscribe to our gaming newsletter for more weekly info. Related: F1 25 Update Fixes Bugs In Career, Braking Point, & Other Modes Related: College Football 26 presentation, uniform, & more details revealed
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart gets offseason win in Bulldogs-Florida rivalry with homegrown commit
The post Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart gets offseason win in Bulldogs-Florida rivalry with homegrown commit appeared first on ClutchPoints. Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart picked up an offseason win over Florida with the commitment of a coveted recruit. The Bulldogs are coming off a third SEC Championship under their program leader. Smart has built a Hall of Fame-caliber resume in Athens, already winning two national titles. The 49-year-old is not even close to calling it quits as he continues to add to his highly ranked recruiting classes. Advertisement On3's national recruiting/transfer portal reporter Hayes Fawcett confirmed that Class of 2026 edge rusher Corey Howard has committed to the Bulldogs. The Valdosta, Georgia native chose Smart's program over the likes of Florida. Howard is a 3-star recruit who is ranked 60th overall at his position. As Smart continues to bring in formidable recruiting classes, Georgia football is entering a new era at quarterback. Carson Beck is off to Miami, while Gunner Stockton takes over under center. The Tiger, Georgia native had to step in for an injured Beck toward the end of the season and filled in admirably. Stockton was critical in the Bulldogs' SEC Championship win over Texas and was not necessarily poor against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff. Still, the 2024 season came to a disappointing end for Georgia football by the hefty standards Kirby Smart has established during his tenure. And the Bulldogs again expect to contend for a national title and rebuild what looked like college football's next dynasty. Georgia football's schedule in 2025 won't be easy. While Gunner Stockton and company have a manageable nonconference slate, the SEC teams the Bulldogs will face are formidable. Georgia will clash with the likes of Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss, and Texas, which all could be inside the top 25 and contending for a playoff spot. Advertisement One facet that this group will need to improve on is in the trenches, where the program has dominated during its recent past. Georgia struggled to run the ball in 2024, losing the line-of-scrimmage battle against a physical Notre Dame team. The twelve-team College Football Playoff has leveled the talent across the sport a little more, with more programs having a realistic shot of contending for a national title. Still, expectations are suitably high for the Bulldogs, as they should be. Even in a somewhat off year, Georgia football won the SEC Championship with newcomers like Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference. The argument can be made that the Bulldogs, alongside Ohio State, are the gold standard in college football. Still, there is much to prove for the 2025 team. Related: Arch Manning's dad gets brutally honest on Peyton, Eli's influence Related: EA College Football 26 – Top 25 Toughest Places To Play
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Georgia football secures massive 4-star commitment over Texas, Michigan
The post Georgia football secures massive 4-star commitment over Texas, Michigan appeared first on ClutchPoints. Kirby Smart and Georgia football didn't hang her heads for long after a disappointing finish to last season, as the Bulldogs were soundly beaten by Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Sugar Bowl. Instead, as he always does, Smart got right back to work building another contender for the 2025 season and beyond. Advertisement Georgia did some good work in the transfer portal to bolster the roster heading into next season, but they have also been hard at work on the recruiting trail stocking the cupboard for the future. Georgia got another big-time commitment in the class of 2026 on Friday, securing a commitment from four-star defensive back Chace Calicut, according to Hayes Fawcett of On3 Sports. 'BREAKING: Four-Star CB Chace Calicut has Committed to Georgia, he tells me for @on3recruits,' Fawcett wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 'The 6'3 195 CB from Houston, TX chose the Bulldogs over Texas and Michigan.' Calicut also sent a message to Bulldogs fans to celebrate his commitment. 'There's not a better program producing dbs than UGA,' he said. 'Dawg nation I'm home!' Advertisement Getting a talented defensive back is a big win for Smart and the Dawgs, but it will be even sweeter for them considering that Texas, one of their biggest rivals, was also in on the coveted corner. Calicut is a Texas native, so this is a very impressive feat for Smart to steal him away from Steve Sarkisian and company. Following this commitment, Georgia now has the No. 3 overall class in 2026, according to On3 Sports. That group is currently headlined by five-star quarterback Jared Curtis and includes a number of highly sought-after players all over the field. While it comes as no surprise to see the Bulldogs near the top of those rankings as they do seemingly every year, that doesn't make it any less impressive. In the meantime, Georgia football will be pushing for another national title in 2025 while Calicut plays his final season at North Shore High School. It certainly has the talent to do so, and now it is better set up to continue the run through the end of the decade. Related: South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers drops 'cool' take on lucrative NFL hype Related: Michigan football secures a pair of commits over Georgia, Texas, and SMU
