SI:AM | College Football’s New Faces in New Places

January 18, 2023 Jimm Sallivan

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Shame on Ivan Provorov for refusing to wear a Pride Night jersey.

In today’s SI:AM:

🔄 Where college football’s biggest names are headed

If you’re reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.

Portal season ends today

Now that the national championship is in the rearview mirror, it’s time to start looking forward to the next college football season. And with the sport’s still relatively new transfer system, the season never really ends. The flurry of players entering the transfer portal began in earnest at the end of the regular season and now that the dust has settled after bowl season, it’s a great time to take stock of all the movement. (The portal closes today but will be open again from May 1 to 15, so players who haven’t made a decision yet can still change schools.) Let’s take a look at some of the biggest names who are on the move.

Sam Hartman (QB, formerly of Wake Forest)

Hartman left Wake Forest after five seasons (including four in which he started at least nine games) and is headed to Notre Dame for his final year of eligibility. He’s the best quarterback on the move this season, having finished seventh in the nation in passing yards in 2021 and 11th this season. Hartman will replace Drew Pyne as the starter at Notre Dame after Pyne transferred to Arizona State. Hartman should be a serious upgrade over Pyne, who wasn’t asked to do much in the Irish’s run-heavy offense. After being ranked No. 5 in the preseason AP poll, Notre Dame had an up-and-down season, leading to a 9–4 finish under first-year coach Marcus Freeman. Adding a quarterback of Hartman’s quality should set expectations high for next season.

Brennan Armstrong (QB, formerly of Virginia)

After Hartman, Armstrong was the top quarterback in the portal, with North Carolina State, Auburn and Oklahoma State pursuing him. Ultimately, he decided to remain in the ACC and join the Wolfpack. Armstrong had an excellent season in 2021, passing for 4,449 yards (fourth-best in the nation) but threw for just 2,210 this season while his completion percentage dropped from 65.2 to 54.7. Armstrong’s decline coincided with the departure of offensive coordinator Robert Anae, who left Virginia after Bronco Mendenhall resigned. But Armstrong and Anae will be reunited in Raleigh after NC State hired him as offensive coordinator. The Wolfpack lost their quarterback, Devin Leary, to Kentucky. Virginia, meanwhile, added former Monmouth quarterback Tony Muskett (a two-time All–Big South selection) in the portal.

Other quarterbacks

Among the other signal-callers on the move are Hudson Card (Texas to Purdue), D.J. Uiagalelei (Clemson to Oregon State), Kedon Slovis (Pitt to BYU) and Graham Mertz (Wisconsin to Florida). Washington’s Sam Huard, a former five-star recruit whose father (Damon) and uncle (Brock) also played quarterback for the Huskies, was a late entry to the portal after Michael Penix Jr. announced his return to Washington.

Deion Sanders’s “luggage”

Remember in Deion Sanders’s first address to his new team when he said, “I’m bringing my luggage with me, and it’s Louis [Vuitton]”? This is what he was talking about. Travis Hunter Jr., the No. 1 high school prospect in the class of 2022, is following Sanders from Jackson State to Colorado. So is Sanders’s son, Shedeur, a quarterback who was a four-star recruit out of high school. Colorado also added four-star tight end Seydou Traore, who caught 50 passes for Arkansas State this season, and receiver Jimmy Horn Jr., a former four-star from USF.

One unheralded player I’m looking forward to watching

South Carolina’s starting running back, MarShawn Lloyd, who averaged 5.2 yards per carry this season, transferred to USC, where he’ll help make up for the loss of the graduating Travis Dye. (Austin Jones, who split carries with Dye, is unsure whether he’ll be back next season.) The Gamecocks’ running back situation was so dire that when Lloyd missed three games with a knee injury, their primary ballcarrier was Jaheim Bell, who’s actually listed as a tight end. South Carolina went way off the beaten path to find their next running back, signing Mario Anderson as a transfer from Division II Newberry College. His stats at Newberry this season were preposterous. He ran for 1,560 yards on 211 carries (7.4 yards per carry) and 19 touchdowns in 10 games. In one game, he ran 25 times for 246 yards and four touchdowns. Division II is a long way from the SEC, but it’ll be fascinating to see how he fares for a South Carolina team that was one of the biggest surprises in the conference this season.

The best of Sports Illustrated

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Damian Lillard’s 30 first-half points against the Nuggets. (He had 14 in the second half, and the Blazers lost 122–113.)

4. The sudden blackout during Wolverhampton and Liverpool’s FA Cup match.

3. A similar situation in the Raptors-Bucks game.

2. 19-year-old Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott’s long-range goal.

1. Connor McDavid’s speed on this goal that left the entire Kraken defense in the dust.

SIQ

Rutgers and Princeton’s role in college football history as participants in the first intercollegiate football game is well known, but until now I had no idea who played the first game in men’s college basketball history. On this day in 1896, which Big Ten team faced the University of Chicago in the first five-a-side game of college basketball?

Iowa
Illinois
Minnesota
Michigan

Yesterday’s SIQ: Who leads all Jamaican-born players in Baseball Reference WAR?

Chili Davis
Devon White
Oscar Levis
Justin Masterson

Answer: Devon White. In 17 seasons, the speedy outfielder racked up 47.3 WAR, compared to 38.3 in 19 seasons for Davis.

There have been five players born in Jamaica who played big league baseball: Davis, White, Justin Masterson, Oscar Levis and Rolando Roomes. Levis played seven seasons in the Negro Leagues for the Cuban Stars East, a traveling team of mostly Caribbean players. Roomes played 170 games as outfielder over three seasons with three different teams. Masterson pitched eight seasons in the majors from 2008 to ’15.

White won three World Series as a player (two with the Blue Jays and one with the Marlins), as did Davis (one with the Twins and two with the Yankees). Davis went on to become the hitting coach for four big league teams, most recently with the Mets in 2021. White has been a coach with the Blue Jays’ Triple A affiliate since ’17. White’s daughter, Davellyn Whyte, is a former WNBA player. Why the different spelling of her name? White changed it in ’03. It turns out that when his family immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica when he was a child, their name was mistakenly recorded with an incorrect spelling.

Sports Illustrated may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.

27 Feb 24 Jimm Sallivan

Men’s Bracket Watch: Washington State Locks in, Wake Forest Breaks Through

Fewer than three weeks remain before we’ll have a bracket in hand for the 2024 men’s NCAA tournament. In that time, much will change: Huge late-season clashes and conference tournament action will play a part in who ends up dancing on Selection Sunday. However, each week brings us more and more clarity on how the field of 68 will look. For instance, the Washington State Cougars locked themselves into the field last week by winning at the Arizona Wildcats, while other teams like the Butler Bulldogs and Utah Utes continued recent swoons to knock themselves out of the picture.

Here’s a look at where things stand in Sports Illustrated’s latest projection.

On the Bubble

Welcome to the projected field, Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons finally got the breakthrough win they needed to back up their lofty performance metrics, beating the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon in a win that pushed them into the Big Dance field, at least for now. A 3–1 finish to the regular season should have Steve Forbes’s team sitting pretty, though 2–2 wouldn’t be catastrophic.

In a bad weekend overall for bubble teams, no team had a worse go than New Mexico, which lost a ghastly Quad 4 home game to the Air Force Falcons to seriously jeopardize the Lobos’ NCAA tournament hopes. It doesn’t knock them out just yet, but the margin of error is now incredibly slim, especially given New Mexico’s entire résumé has been built on the work it has done in league play. The Lobos would be advised to win at either the Boise State Broncos or Utah State Aggies down the stretch to secure a bid.

* indicates a projected automatic qualifier

Midwest Region

No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers* vs. No. 16 Grambling State Tigers*/Merrimack Warriors*
No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners vs. No. 9 Boise State Broncos
No. 5 Kentucky Wildcats vs. No. 12 Princeton Tigers*
No. 4 San Diego State Aztecs vs. No. 13 Akron Zips*
No. 6 Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. No. 11 Indiana State Sycamores*
No. 3 Duke Blue Devils vs. No. 14 Charleston Cougars*
No. 7 South Carolina Gamecocks vs. No. 10 Nevada Wolf Pack
No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks vs. No. 15 Eastern Washington Eagles*

The UConn Huskies’ stay at No. 1 overall is short-lived, with Purdue reasserting itself in the top spot following the Huskies’ loss to the Creighton Bluejays. The Boilermakers could add some distance between themselves and the field with a strong finish against a schedule that features games against Michigan State, the Wisconsin Badgers and Illinois Fighting Illini before conference tournament time.

Meanwhile, it’s worth zooming in on Kansas’s potential case for a No. 1 seed after the Jayhawks dominated the Texas Longhorns over the weekend. Kansas has an elite win over UConn and 12 total wins against the top two quadrants. The Jayhawks may have the best chance of anyone to usurp Arizona for the fourth and final No. 1 seed.

East Region

No. 1 UConn Huskies* vs. No. 16 Eastern Kentucky Colonels*/Norfolk State Spartans*
No. 8 Northwestern Wildcats vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic Owls
No. 5 Clemson Tigers vs. No. 12 Appalachian State Mountaineers*
No. 4 Illinois Fighting Illini vs. No. 13 McNeese State Cowboys*
No. 6 Florida Gators vs. No. 11 Grand Canyon Antelopes*
No. 3 Iowa State Cyclones vs. No. 14 High Point Panthers*
No. 7 TCU Horned Frogs vs. No. 10 Seton Hall Pirates
No. 2 Tennessee Volunteers* vs. No. 15 Sam Houston State BearKats*

Predictive metrics love Illinois, but the Illini haven’t been quite consistent enough to surge up the seed list. Last week’s road loss at the Penn State Nittany Lions wasn’t disastrous, but it did serve as a fairly effective momentum-killer for any sustained climb toward a No. 2 or 3 seed. The Illini play three Quad 1 games in their final four Big Ten games though, so the chances are there if they can take advantage.

Is Florida Atlantic safe? For now, yes. The Owls have slowly trickled down to a No. 9 seed after losing at Memphis and have a bit of a strange résumé overall, with a monster neutral court win over Arizona but two horrific losses and a few Quad 2 losses more recently have made things somewhat dicey. Winning two out of three down the stretch would do the trick, but 1–2 could see the Owls in somewhat precarious shape heading into conference tournament time.

Washington State Cougars forward Andrej Jakimovski (23) shoots a basket against the Arizona Wildcats during the first half at McKale Center in Tucson, Arizona, on Feb. 22, 2024. — Washington State forward Andrej Jakimovski shoots against Arizona during their game last week.
Zachary BonDurant/USA TODAY Sports

South Region

No. 1 Houston Cougars* vs. No. 16 Fairfield Stags*
No. 8 Mississippi State Bulldogs vs. No. 9 Nebraska Cornhuskers
No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers vs. No. 12 Richmond Spiders*
No. 4 Auburn Tigers vs. No. 13 Samford Bulldogs*
No. 6 Washington State Cougars vs. No. 11 Virginia Cavaliers/New Mexico Lobos
No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. No. 14 Oakland Golden Grizzlies*
No. 7 Colorado State Rams vs. No. 10 Michigan State Spartans
No. 2 Marquette Golden Eagles vs. No. 15 Morehead State Eagles*

Houston took over the No. 1 spot in the AP poll this week. For now, the Cougars stay as our third overall seed, but the gap is narrowing as the Cougars rack up wins in Big 12 play. The Cougars are a ridiculous 13–3 against the top two quadrants and own five Q1A wins, the best possible wins on the NCAA’s team sheets. Like with UConn vs. Purdue, for geographic purposes Houston is happy to land in the South and should end up there regardless of where on the overall seed list they land. Still, it would be quite the achievement to land as No. 1 overall in the program’s first year in the Big 12.

Michigan State is officially back into the danger zone after consecutive home losses to the Iowa Hawkeyes and Ohio State Buckeyes. At 17–11, the Spartans’ record is generally underwhelming, and they’ve beaten just two surefire NCAA tournament teams. Tom Izzo’s NCAA tournament streak is in some jeopardy, though it would take a rough finish to land outside the field altogether.

West Region

No. 1 Arizona Wildcats* vs. No. 16 South Dakota State Jackrabbits*
No. 8 Utah State Aggies* vs. No. 9 Texas Longhorns
No. 5 Saint Mary’s Gaels* vs. No. 12 South Florida Bulls*
No. 4 Baylor Bears vs. No. 13 UC Irvine Anteaters*
No. 6 Dayton Flyers vs. No. 11 Wake Forest Demon Deacons/Gonzaga Bulldogs
No. 3 Creighton Bluejays vs. No. 14 Vermont Catamounts*
No. 7 BYU Cougars vs. No. 10 Providence Friars
No. 2 North Carolina Tar Heels* vs. No. 15 Colgate Raiders*

Creighton may have lost Sunday at St. John’s, but the Bluejays are up to a No. 3 seed after landing a top-tier win over UConn last week. There’s a lot to like here: strong metrics across the board, 12 Quad 1 and 2 wins and now a win over a likely No. 1 seed. The ceiling here is probably the No. 3 line, but either way, Creighton now looks well-positioned for a protected seed.

Texas stayed just above our true “bubble” but hasn’t quite locked up a bid just yet. The Longhorns have a pretty 17–10 overall record, but are just 6–8 in league play and accomplished nothing of substance in the nonconference. A 1–3 finish in league play could make things very interesting in Rodney Terry’s first season on the job.