Despite the fact that the season has been over for a while at this point, that does not mean that the news cycle has stopped for college football. While some players are preparing for the draft, programs are looking for how to replace those players leaving and, in some cases, finalizing the coaches that are going to lead their teams for the upcoming season.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the news from around the country this week from the world of college football.
Tucker New Michigan State Coach
While it initially seemed that Mel Tucker was content staying at Colorado, it turns out that he has ultimately decided to lead the Spartans next season. For Tucker, this is not his first go-around with Michigan State. He worked as a graduate assistant for the Spartans back in the late 1990s before moving onto other stops.
Still, the opportunity to come back to Michigan State was too enticing to turn down ultimately.
What may have been the hardest thing to turn down was the money that he will get. It has been reported that Tucker will basically double his salary. And while that is satisfying enough, he will also have more money to work with when it comes to hiring assistant coaches.
Speaking of assistant coaches, it appears that Tucker will not be retaining any of the incumbents. According to the Detroit Free Press, Tucker has elected not to keep any of former coach Mark Dantonio’s assistants. Instead, Tucker will bring in his own people for a fresh start for both him and the Michigan State program.
It will be interesting to see how Tucker does in the long run. This will be just his second season serving as a head coach after one season with Colorado that finished with a 5-7 record. Still, he will certainly have more to work with in both resources and recruiting power with the Spartans and will look to make his mark on the program starting this upcoming season.
While no official decisions have been made yet, it appears that Colorado may be looking to a former player to fill Tucker’s spot as head coach. Eric Bieniemy is being strongly considered for the position. Bieniemy has been working in the professional ranks and actually just won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs as their offensive coordinator.
He had served in the same role for a couple of seasons with Colorado years ago and some believe that he may be on his way back to Boulder to take over as their next head coach.
Two Buckeyes Kicked Off Team
In sad news, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced this week that he has kicked two players off of the team after they were accused of rape and kidnapping. Amir Riep and Jahsen Wint were both booked on Wednesday after accusations came forward that they had sexually assaulted a woman last week. Both of the players were defensive backs for the team.
This last season, Riep had appeared in 10 games. He had 20 total tackles as well as two interceptions. For Wint, he had appeared in six games, accruing nine tackles. While losing neither one of these juniors will hurt the program too much, it certainly does not reflect well on the program; hence the reason coach Day was quick to remove them.
Florida Atlantic Releases Defensive End
Ohio State wasn’t the only program to have to kick a player off of their team this week. Florida Atlantic University announced that defensive end Travon Thomas has been removed from the team.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Thomas had been arrested multiple times over the last several months for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend and even threatening to kill her.
A three-star recruit for Florida Atlantic, Thomas did not play in a game this year, and after these incidents, won’t be playing football anytime soon for Florida Atlantic and possibly any other school either.
Houston Dismisses Anoma
One last dismissal came this week in the form of Eyabi Anoma from Houston. The school announced that he had been kicked off of the team due to violating team rules. This is actually not the first time that he has been dismissed from a team as the former five-star recruit was also dismissed from Alabama.
In his freshman year with Alabama, Anoma played in six games accruing nine tackles. He was expected to help Houston on the defensive side this upcoming season but instead finds himself again without a college to play for.
Oregon Loses Four-Star Recruit
When cornerbacks coach Donte’ Williams left the program to head to USC, it ended up having ripple effects for the Oregon Ducks. Shortly after his announcement, 2021 recruit Anthony Beavers Jr. de-committed from the Ducks, and many suggest he could be following Williams to USC.
While nothing is set in stone right now, it appears that Beavers is looking elsewhere, with USC being atop his list.
