Devin Willock, a redshirt sophomore on the University of Georgia football team, and Chandler LeCroy, a football recruiting analyst, died in a car crash early Sunday morning, several hours after the team was feted in Athens, Ga., with a parade for winning a national championship. “The entire Georgia family is devastated by the tragic loss … Read more
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Since the College Football Playoff’s inception, the Big 12 conference has generally been in the conversation but never good enough to make an appearance in the title game. There were the many Oklahoma teams: one led by Kyler Murray, who went to the Arizona Cardinals, and another led by the eventual Philadelphia … Read more
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — It’s hard to know when it was over. At the national anthem? The coin flip? The opening kickoff? Or perhaps even before that — the moment Noah Ruggles’s kick for Ohio State sailed far, far left on New Year’s Eve, giving Georgia a second life and scaring the Bulldogs straight in the … Read more
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — There are many ways in which the College Football Playoff national championship game is different from other postseason events in the sport. To start, the matchup scheduled Monday night between Georgia and Texas Christian has much less of the circus of activities and events for players and fans that generally surrounds bowl … Read more
LOS ANGELES — As the stampede into the college football transfer portal continues, there is a popular conception of how it works: Players enter their names and are immediately deluged with calls from coaches; recruiting visits are lined up; and within days every player has a new home, where the grass is greener, the playing … Read more
ATLANTA — The high-wire art of survival returned Saturday night — and then early Sunday morning — to the College Football Playoff semifinals. No. 1 Georgia, pummeled to the point of repeatedly trailing by 14 points, surged and scored in the Peach Bowl’s final minute to overcome fourth-seeded Ohio State, 42-41. No. 3 Texas Christian, … Read more
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Sonny Dykes is not the ideal of the jut-jawed football coach. He opens his program up, instead of building walls around it. He freely acknowledges there were times when he was a younger coach — several, in fact — that the pressure of winning games became suffocating. And he is not afraid … Read more
The modern-day sports stadium is something like an enormous outdoor (or indoor) living room. Roomy seats — even for those who can’t afford suites. Gourmet food. High-tech gadgetry. Video screens that are nearly the size of the field itself. The Rose Bowl it isn’t. This relic of a stadium, with its cramped seats, narrow tunnels, … Read more