Ari Wasserman

Well, it finally happened. coach Nick Saban, who won six national championships in 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide, . So what happens next? How will his departure affect the college football landscape? We asked five members of The Athletic ’s college football staff for their thoughts on the Saban era. Where does Saban rank all time among college coaches? David Ubben: He’s the best to ever do it. It’s that simple. Sustaining success in college football has never been more difficult and no one h…

Recruiting never stops. Neither do your questions. And if we didn’t get to your question, don’t be discouraged! We will be addressing some on “Stars Matter,” our recruiting podcast. Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Did just have the most impressive offseason … of all time? — Braden R. Be honest, you think Ohio State is the national title favorite right now, don’t you? — Anonymous It seems Ohio State is pushing all its chips (NIL) to the center of the ta…

Five years ago, I sat in the Michigan Stadium press box following ’s 56-27 blowout of . It wasn’t a game, let alone The Game. One team was competing for national titles, the other was stuck in a state of mediocrity. One team was recruiting at peak levels, the other couldn’t even find a quarterback. So I wrote that . It’s funny to look back at days like that given what we now know about Jim Harbaugh, the national champion and the new head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Through the first five…

The 2024 recruiting cycle is all but complete. Seven teams in the new-look Big Ten finished with a top-25 ranking, led by newcomer Oregon at No. 3 and at No. 5. Antonio Morales, Ari Wasserman and Grace Raynor of The Athletic ’s recruiting staff share their thoughts on some of the most intriguing storylines in the Big Ten. Biggest winner Raynor: Ohio State. Not only did the Buckeyes finish with the highest average player rating in the conference (and third-highest nationally), but they managed t…

The 2024 recruiting cycle is all but complete. Thirteen teams in the new-look SEC finished with a top-25 ranking, led by at No. 1 and at No. 2. Manny Navarro, Grace Raynor and Ari Wasserman of The Athletic ’s recruiting staff share their thoughts on some of the most intriguing storylines in the SEC. (Check out our roundtables on the , and .) Biggest winner Navarro: Georgia. Never mind that the Bulldogs landed the No. 1 recruiting class for the third time since 2018. The headline here is Nick…

The 2024 class is in the books, and the next crop of prospects has already taken center stage. Ten of the top 15 players in the 247Sports Composite have issued commitments. So, who is going to build off their momentum from the previous cycle? Who is going to get back on track? Which new coaches are going to disrupt the status quo? These are the storylines we’ll be following through the next year. This is your first big board of the 2025 cycle. This isn’t only about rankings. This is a list of re…

An Until Saturday listener submitted a voicemail for the podcast last week simply asking: Who would be on your Mount Rushmore of college football coaches? Talk about an impossible task. How could anyone whittle down a list from more than a century of greatness to only four people? David Ubben and Ari Wasserman tried anyway. Our answers are written out here. For full context, you can also listen to us and Mitch Light tackle this question on , which published Friday morning wherever you consume po…

We know what the recruiting rankings say. We know which programs sign the best — and worst — classes. But which programs have the highest potential with what they currently have in place? Which ones are set up to recruit the best moving forward? Ten members of The Athletic ’s college football staff — Sam Khan Jr., Mitch Light, Antonio Morales, Manny Navarro, Max Olson, Grace Raynor, Kennington Smith III, David Ubben, Ari Wasserman and — submitted their own rankings of the power-conference progr…

Texas is a mecca in college football recruiting. It’s loaded with elite players, but there is intense competition for that talent. The 13 FBS programs in the state do their best to keep the top talent at home, but pretty much every school around the country makes an effort to have a presence in the Lone Star State. Advertisement Last month,. This week, we turn our attention to understanding Dallas’ recruiting dynamics. We spoke with eight high school head coaches across the metro area. They were…

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — emerged from Texas A&M’s Bright Football Complex at dusk in early February, eager to explain how he got here. “Over there,” he pointed, patting down his yarmulke with his other hand. “That’s where it happened.” The patch of land in the distance sat adjacent to where the football team practiced. Salz, just a student with a dream in the spring of 2021, would arrive at the field every day an hour before Texas A&M practiced and stay an hour after the practice concluded. Ad…