David Jones

Only two reads today, but one big one up top. We begin with the injury to Drew Allar in the penultimate game of a frustrating season for the sophomore quarterback. Then, it’s on to another young prodigy on the defensive side who had a better day.

When the crowd gets jacked up and the band starts blasting at a college athletic event, the sound goes through your body. It’s a spiritual experience. But that’s not the sound I’m hearing in most college venues anymore. It’s a fabricated noise that’s anything but joyous.

The mailbag was dumped and a lot of unopened letters to Manny Diaz fell out. Then, under the pile were appraisals of the exodus of talent at Ohio State, some scattered CFP references and uh… is anyone talking about the Peach Bowl?

Florida State’s overt attempt to leave the Atlantic Coast Conference through a lawsuit, and the ACC’s countersuit intended to enforce its binding Grant of Rights through 2036, has shaken the power league to its core and threatened to tear it apart.

The mailbag is coming to you live from Atlanta where Penn State is preparing to play Mississippi. But we aren’t limiting ourselves to Peach patter. We touch on the prospect of all-week NFL games, whether the Bama coach could retire at 72 and what next year’s CFP might be like in northern climes like Beaver Stadium.

Bowl season now falls smack in the middle of a manic musical chairs game, players either transferring or leveraging their loyalty against immediate NIL compensation and playing time. It’s chaos. On Friday morning I asked both coaches involved in the Peach Bowl how they keep their players engaged and their teams cohesive in this wild new world.

The reads are brief this morning, owing to an early flight back to Atlanta. But there’s some history involved in both takes. Perfect for those of a certain age with eyewitness heritage to draw from.

Caitlin Clark has changed my mind about women’s basketball. She has proven me wrong. And she’s made me a fan. I never would’ve thought it possible back around the turn of the century.

The Big Ten Network’s lead studio men’s basketball analyst took time Tuesday to opine on a wide array of topics, including a surprising take on Mike Woodson at IU, why his old coach Matt Painter deserves Coach of the Year consideration, and what a fabulous job Mike Rhoades has done at Penn State.

Maybe his infamy is why the former NFL star’s passing last week from cancer came and went without all that much notice. But the way he exploited and revealed the sociology of this country can’t be minimized.