r/CFB

Hey all,

Giants fan here. I was going down a rabbit hole looking up some of our former coaches, and when I got to Joe Judge I noticed something that confused me.

He’s currently listed at Ole Miss Rebels football as “Head Coach of Offense / Quarterbacks Coach.”

I’ve been following football (NFL + college) for years, and I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen the title “Head Coach of Offense” before.

At first, I assumed it was just a fancy way of saying offensive coordinator. But then I saw that Ole Miss also hired John David Baker as their actual offensive coordinator.

So now I’m even more confused.

What does “Head Coach of Offense” actually mean?

Do you think this is just a made-up title to give him more status? Especially considering the head coaching situation when Lane Kiffin left—was this possibly a way to bring Judge in (or keep him happy) without giving him the full HC job?

Curious if anyone has insight into how this actually works behind the scenes, because this feels like one of those modern CFB staff structure things that didn’t really exist even 10–15 years ago.

by Joe Smith

If you drove by Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown on Monday and saw some hulking Power 4 linebackers picking up garbage in the stands, don’t be alarmed. It’s just a part of the fallout  from Saturday, when the West Virginia Mountaineers hosted their Gold-Blue Spring Festival to cap spring practices

The event featured a hefty dose of scrimmaging between two intrasquad scrimmages drafted prior to the game. The Mountaineers kept score between the two teams – albeit in a fashion that didn’t strictly follow the scoring rules you’ll see during a real game – and head coach Rich Rodriguez wanted to give players some extra motivation, as the biggest thing he wanted to see was a ‘hard edge’ in the players’ intensity levels. They ended up living up to those expectations.

“I was [happy],” Rodriguez said. “I think the competitive part, going blue against white – I had thought, okay I’ll give the winners steak and the losers hot dogs, but I'm like, that’s not enough separation. So I said okay, the losing team has got to clean up the stadium, and that got their juices going.”

“But we have a great cleanup crew, so it might already be clean by the time Monday gets here. So we’ll figure out some way to reward the winners and punish the losers. That competitiveness, when we first did it a week and a half ago, I could see that going through. These guys love to compete, if nothing else.”

A small but still sizable group of fans, listed 18,475 by the program, turned out for the festivities, which was followed by a concert by country star Jake Owen (not Luke Owen, as the PA announcer for the afternoon suggested twice). Who ended up "winning" didn't really prove important, as there's only so much you can take away from this kind of scrimmage. But all in all, Rodriguez thought it was a great finish to a spring that he seems pretty satisfied with.

“It was a nice atmosphere, we had a good crowd, and I think our players really enjoyed it,” Rodriguez said. “It was pretty competitive. I’m not sure we executed really well at times, but I thought they played hard. But all in all I thought it was a pretty good spring. I think we found some things we wanted to find out.”

“I think we’ve probably got some more competition at most of the positions. We’re getting a little bit deeper, which is a good thing. I think for lack of, everybody uses this word, culture, but I like where the culture is at, and I think it will continue to get increased and be exactly where I want it to be.”

When pressed on things he wasn’t fully happy with and what he needs to see from the team in the interim between the end of spring practices and the first game this September, he highlighted the team’s physical conditioning, but shrugged it off a bit as “no team is in shape in spring ball.” But one thing he is really hoping to see is his team take the next step in understanding why they’re being asked to execute calls, schemes, and strategies certain ways. 

“I still think our guys may know what to do but they may not know why they're doing it and I think that's a challenge for both our players and our staff, as I want our guys to know why they do this  in a certain play or a certain call,” Rodriguez said. “I know we’re not there yet, and that’s not just quarterbacks, that's everyone.”

“I think it’s critical all the time,” added defensive coordinator Zac Alley. “The situation dictates how you play things. The way we may play a call on 1st & 10 is not the same as 3rd and 1. If the ball is on the five yard line, it’s different than if it’s on the minus ten…just having the guys understand why we do what we do both situationally in the game and what call do we like in these scenarios.”

But Alley also felt like he’s seen the players in the locker room step up and take the initiative to get to that level, even when it means they’re putting in extra work. It’s given him a sense of the culture fully settling in the staff’s second offseason with the program, as Rodriguez alluded to himself.

“Absolutely,” Alley said. “One thing I’d say about our players this year is I have a lot of respect for who they are. I think the character of the individuals is really special. We have a lot of guys who are bought into who we are and what we’re doing. They’re compelled to be here and be committed to the program”

“And it’s encouraging to see that, because when you walk by the meeting rooms and now there’s five, six guys in there on a regular basis, you know that understanding is coming along…We finish practice and Geimere Latimer and Andrew Powdrell beat me in the room. That way they play well, because they understand what’s coming and they have an understanding of the stress of the call. From that standpoint, our guys have really stepped up.”

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

Next up in the countdown is Georgia State (high = 129, low = 133), who enter year 3 of the Dell McGee era as the preseason pick to finish last in the Sun Belt’s East division. Things took a turn after previous coach Shawn Elliott hit the eject button in the middle of spring practice in 2024 to GTFO and move back to South Carolina, and Atlanta hasn’t seen a retreat that fast since Confederate General John Hood 160 years prior. It’s unclear if he knew that the Panthers were headed for a downturn after he’d coached them to 4 bowls in his last 5 seasons in charge, winning 3 of those including the 2023 Potato Bowl over Utah State, but things pretty well fell apart fast after he left. After a promising start that included a win over Diego Pavia and Vanderbilt in week 3 of 2024 that in retrospect is a shocking upset, McGee has only led Georgia State to 1 more win over an FBS opponent, and clearly needs to show something in year 3.

Roster Outlook

Georgia State ranks 121st in returning production, with the 6th worst returning defensive production in the country and ranking 83rd on offense. Season starting QB TJ Finley is transferring to his 6th school (Incarnate Word), but leading passer Cameran Brown is back. Leading rusher Jordon Simmons also hit the portal (hasn’t landed anywhere yet), but the Panthers are bringing in Clemson RB Keith Adams is the presumptive starter since the only guy who ran for more than 100 yards who’s back is Brown. 1,000 yard receiver and TD reception leader Ted Hurst is out of eligibility, and with #2 WR Javon Robinson off to Utah State, the Panthers will look to LSU transfer Isaiah Stone to be their likely top target. With 5 P4 transfers on the OL, though, things might be OK if they can gel. It’s on defense that things look pretty dire. Every player with more than 50 tackles is gone to the portal or eligibility, and with only former Michigan LB Jaydon Hood coming in from a P4, any defensive improvement is going to be a pleasant surprise. McGee brought in the 88th ranked high school recruiting class according to 247, which counts for 8th in the Fun Belt, and paired that with the 95th rated portal class (9th in the conference), which leads to the 93rd best overall incoming class (good for 7th in the SBC).

Schedule and outlook

9/4 NORTH CAROLINA A&T

9/12 at Kennesaw State

9/19 at UCF

9/26 NORTHERN ILLINOIS

10/3 OLD DOMINION

10/10 BYE

10/17 at James Madison

10/24 at Arkansas State

10/31 COASTAL CAROLINA

11/7 at Appalachian State

11/14 GEORGIA SOUTHERN

11/21 at Marshall

11/28 LOUISIANA

Honestly, if McGee really does have things turned around, this is a good schedule to try to build some team confidence. The Panthers only leave Georgia once before October 17th, and that’s for their payday game at a rebuilding UCF. If things break right and they manage to get to the bye at 4-1, this could be the year that things start to rebound for Georgia State. On the flip side, if they drop not only that road game at Kennesaw State but also the home game against Northern Illinois, then it’s hard to imagine McGee returns for year 4.

NCAA has relaxed its stance on uniformity and adopted the model MLB has for unique fields. However, they really went the extra mile and has given each team full creative control for whatever changes they want to apply to their fields.

Fundamental rules of football are the same but each field is varied. Think “this is a home run in 22 ballparks” but in football terms. Changes can be size, surface played on, etc.

Ones I’ve considered:

Iowa: football field is extended out to a mile long. Good luck scoring. Punts all day, err day.

Georgia: remove the grass field and play on asphalt. Hash marks use similar lines and colors as your standard road/highway. Sideline has metal guardrails. Traffic cones in place of pylons. Maybe throw in a concrete divider in the back of the end zone for funsies.

Army/Navy: Both want the field to be the size of a 10X10 room. Eliminate the forward pass unless you want a goal line fade route.

Penn State: regular field but concession stands have crayons for distraction and consumption

The best group of 12 schools I can think of that have an FBS football team is:

- UConn

- Duke

- North Carolina

- Arizona

- Purdue

- Syracuse

- Illinois

- Kansas

- Kentucky

- Cincinnati

- Michigan State

- UCLA

Other options:

- Indiana

- Virginia

- Louisville

- Houston

- Florida

At that point, McCall was coming off his third straight Sun Belt Player of the Year, having taken Coastal Carolina as high as #7 in the country. Coach Jamey Chadwell had left and was replaced by Tim Beck. From then on, he would struggle with injuries that would force his eventual medical retirement.

McCall had been mocked as high as the early 2nd round. Does he go there in the 2023 draft, and without the injuries does he have a decent career in the NFL?

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

It took almost a week before we hit our first team that will be in a new conference in 2026 – UTEP (high = 129, low = 134). The Miners are hoping they’ll find gold in the Mountain West after 21 years in Conference USA, a conference in which they haven’t finished above 6th place in for over a decade. Scotty Walden is hoping for a full reboot as he enters his 3rd season in El Paso, cleaning house and bringing in new coordinators (co-OC’s Lanear Sampson and Joe Pappalardo from Austin Peay, with Kyle Beyer getting promoted to DC after Bobby Daly returned to his alma mater, Montana State). After a 2 year campaign that has seen the Miners go 5-19 without a single FBS win outside of CUSA (and a 1-1 record against FCS)… Magic 8 Ball says “outlook not so good.”

Roster Outlook

UTEP ranks 126th nationally in returning production (which, believe it or not, isn’t even the worst in the new Mountain West). They’re equally depleted on both sides of the ball, ranking 129th on offense and 99th on defense. Gone are both QBs (Malachi Nelson to Syracuse, Skyler Locklear following his OC to Missouri State) who completed more than 3 passes in 2025, along with starting RBs Ashten Emory (to Cal) and Hahsaun Wilson (eligibility) and WRs Wondame Davis (to Wake Forest) and Kenny Odom (to USF). Perhaps the biggest bright spot is that LB Jayden Wilson, second on the team in tackles, returns for his senior season. Walden brought in the 92nd ranked high school recruiting team according to 247 (good for 4th in the new MWC), which when coupled with the 122nd ranked transfer class (amazingly enough ranking 5th in the conference) adds up to the 3rd best Mountain West overall class (still only 92nd nationally). It sure seems like the Miners are going to have to rely primarily on youth to turn things around in El Paso.

Schedule and outlook

9/5 at Oklahoma

9/12 TEXAS SOUTHERN

9/19 at Michigan

9/26 OREGON STATE

10/3 at New Mexico

10/10 NEVADA

10/17 SAN JOSE STATE

10/24 BYE

10/31 at North Dakota State

11/7 HAWAII

11/14 WYOMING

11/21 at Air Force

11/28 at Northern Illinois

If you were going to draw up a schedule that would help shepherd in a young roster, I’m pretty sure road games at Oklahoma and Michigan in the first 3 weeks wouldn’t be on your wish list. If the Miners can survive those early September body bag games, they actually get 5 of their next 7 at the Sun Bowl, with only a relatively short trip to Albuquerque and their first trip to the Fargodome before closing the season at Air Force and Northern Illinois. If UTEP really does have the 3rd best overall incoming class in the Mountain West, and by missing UNLV, things might be sunnier than they appear in 2026.