College football notes: UK figures among SEC’s most influential; WKU loses receiver
Some college football notes for Tuesday:
▪ John Talty of the Birmingham News talked to various sources and ranked the SEC’s 25 most influential people. UK’s John Calipari, Mitch Barnhart and Eli Capilouto made Talty’s list.
▪ Saturday Down South makes 10 bold predictions for Kentucky football, including that the Wildcats will pull a shocker from its trio of games against Auburn, Tennessee and Georgia. Alas, SDS says the Cats will also suffer an upset loss.
▪ Tennessee Coach Jeremy Pruitt said Monday UT is waiting for a waiver from the SEC for offensive lineman Cade Mays to play against South Carolina on Saturday. Because he transferred from one SEC school (Georgia) to another, Mays must get a waiver from both the NCAA and the conference. The NCAA granted Mays a waiver on Thursday.
▪ Kentucky is dealing with a similar situation for quarterback Joey Gatewood, who transferred from Auburn. UK Coach Mark Stoops indicated Monday that the school is waiting to hear from the SEC. Stoops denied a rumor that Kentucky and Auburn had a “gentleman’s agreement” that Gatewood would not play against his former school.
▪ Kentucky will have a different player wear No. 22 each game this season to honor linebacker Chris Oats, who will miss the season because of an undisclosed illness. Fellow linebacker DeAndre Square will wear No. 22 at Auburn on Saturday. Tight end Keaton Upshaw, Oats’ roommate, will wear No. 22 for the home opener Oct. 3 against Ole Miss.
▪ It has been a rough start for Western Kentucky, which is 0-2 after losses to Louisville and Liberty the first two weeks. Then word came Monday that wide receiver Jahcour Pearson is no longer a Hilltopper. The senior from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., caught nine passes for 96 yards the first two games. He caught 76 passes for 804 yards and seven touchdowns last season. No reason for Pearson’s departure was given.
▪ According to Jon Wilner of the Mercury News, the Pac-12 paid performance bonuses to executives and staff one month before it laid off or furloughed 94 of its 196 employees.
▪ Off to a 2-0 start, Notre Dame knows it’s in the CFP hunt. That is, says Coach Brian Kelly, if the Irish can keep away from COVID-19. ND had four players test positive in latest round of tests. It plays Wake Forest on Saturday.
“We can’t afford to lose guys each and every week,” Kelly said in the postgame locker room after the 52-0 win over USF last Saturday. “We’re not going to be able to be the championship football team that we want to be, so I can’t be the guy, Coach can’t be the guy reminding you every single time to put your mask on. The mask will beat this. The mask will beat it.”
▪ BYU quarterback Zach Wilson said he and some teammates contracted COVID-19 after a “gambling night” get-together. Wilson claims he is fine now. The Cougars haven’t played since beating Navy 55-3 on Sept. 7. Their scheduled game last week against Army was postponed. They are to play Troy this Saturday.
▪ Kentucky is 17th in the CBS Sports 76. That will expand when the Big Ten comes aboard in October. Louisville dropped from No. 18 to No. 21 after its home loss to Miami last Saturday.
▪ Conference breakdown in the latest AP poll, with caveat that the Big Ten teams will be added next week:
- SEC — 8 (2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 16, 23)
- ACC — 7 (1, 7, 11, 12, 20, 21, 24)
- Big 12 — 3 (3, 8, 15)
- American — 3 (13, 14, 17)
- Conference USA — 1 (25)
- Sun Belt — 1 (19)
- Independents — 2 (18, 22)
▪ Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowen is in the hospital after having cancer spots removed from his leg. Bowden, who turns 91 in November, is expected to make a full recovery.
▪ Current Florida State Coach Mike Norvell will miss Saturday’s game against Miami after testing positive for COVID-19. Norvell says he does not know how he contracted the virus.
▪ Alabama has named Mac Jones as its starting quarterback for Saturday’s opener against Missouri. The former UK commit threw for 1,503 yards and 14 touchdowns last year for the Tide. He was 3-1 as the starter after Tua Tagovailoa was injured. A junior, Jones beat out freshman Bryce Young.
▪ LSU named Myles Brennan as its starting quarterback for Saturday’s opener against Mike Leach and Mississippi State. The junior from Long Beach, Miss., has some big shoes to fill in Heisman Trophy winner, No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. The 6-foot-4 Brennan has completed 42 of 70 passes for 600 yards and two scores in his LSU career.
▪ Georgia is still waiting for quarterback JT Daniels to be cleared to play Saturday. The transfer from Southern Cal underwent a second knee procedure in January after tearing his ACL in August 2019. Daniels has been practicing. He has competed with redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis after Jamie Newman, grad transfer from Wake Forest, opted out of the 2020 season.
▪ Betting lines for SEC Week 1, via ESPN.
- Florida 14.5 over Ole Miss
- Auburn 10.5 over Kentucky
- LSU 16 over Mississippi State
- Georgia 26.5 over Arkansas
- Alabama 27 over Missouri
- Texas A&M 31 over Vanderbilt
- Tennessee 3.5 over South Carolina
▪ Florida starting center Ethan White will miss Saturday’s opener against Ole Miss after undergoing knee surgery. Coach Dan Mullen said “we expect him to be back shortly, though.”
▪ Kansas State says it has lost “probably another 10 players” to COVID-19, said Coach Chris Klieman during the Big 12 teleconference Monday. That was after the Wildcats had 12 players return from the coronavirus following the 35-31 loss to Arkansas State on Sept. 5. K-State plays at Oklahoma on Saturday.
▪ Oklahoma says it tested 583 student-athletes and 177 staff during the week of Sept. 13-19. Eight results came back positive. There are currently 20 active cases among OU athletes.
▪ Texas Tech’s top running back, SaRodorick Thompson, has been charged in connection with a summer street racing incident that happened June 27. He was racing teammate Caden Treg Leggett, who was arrested and charged at the scene. Thompson fled the scene. He rushed for 117 yards in the 35-33 win over Houston Baptist on Sept. 12.
▪ Pro Football Focus has West Virginia quarterback Jarret Doege listed at No. 8 in its Heisman Trophy rankings. Doege is a transfer from Bowling Green. Neal Brown’s Mountaineers play Oklahoma State on Saturday.
▪ Was Nebraska football punished by the Big Ten for its critical stance against the league’s shutdown last month? The SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum thinks so, pointing to the Cornhuskers’ first four games against Ohio State, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Penn State.
“I think the Big Ten, while some of the schools grudgingly appreciate Nebraska for being out there first and screaming and hollering, I doubt seriously they cared about that at the Big Ten headquarters,” Finebaum said during a recent radio interview, via Saturday Down South. “I think they were looking around while doing the schedule and saying, ‘Who could we punish the most?’ And I think the answer was Nebraska. So it was ‘Let’s knock them out early, send their fans home.’”
▪ Southern Illinois decided it will play a fall football game against visiting rival Southeast Missouri on Oct. 23.
▪ The state of Minnesota reversed an earlier decision and voted to play high school football in the fall. A six-game season was approved, starting Oct. 9.
This story was originally published September 22, 2020 at 9:09 AM.
