Three weeks after the Wisconsin’s contract with Under Armour officially started, Badgers fans got a look at what the football team’s new “look” will be.

On Thursday evening, UW showcased more “New Red Threads” — their football uniforms for the upcoming 2016 season, via Twitter. Under Armour showcased the jerseys at their event in New York City (h/t ESPN’s Hannah Storm).

Upon initial look, it looks similar to the normal look seen with their former apparel provider, Adidas. Honestly, many realized there wouldn’t be much modification from the brand Wisconsin has developed over the years. However, there are some differences:

• The font of the number looks different
• Instead of Adidas’ logo above the numbers, the motion W adorns the top half of the jersey
• There are now “arrows on the jersey, pants, helmet reflect the idea of being “Forever Forward” inspired by our state motto: Forward,” as stated by the football program’s Twitter profile.
• On the pants, UA’s logo replaces Adidas’

With 44 days left until LSU and less than a week until Big Ten media days, Wisconsin fans just got another taste to whet their appetites for college football to return. And, as Sconnie Sports Talk noted earlier on Thursday night, they are available for sale at the UW Bookstore:

Arkansas went under the radar to add one more (final?) piece to its 2016 recruiting class on Thursday with the commitment of juco defensive end Michael Taylor.

Taylor hasn’t been rated by the recruiting services, but according to his coach at Riverside Community College, Taylor was a full qualifier out of high school in Orlando, but ran track at a small school before transferring to Riverside to play football last fall. As a result, Taylor will have three years to play three instead of the normal JUCO setup with two years to play.

There were other schools interested in Taylor. He reports offers from Colorado, Wyoming, Utah State, New Mexico and others. He makes 23 commitments for the 2016 class. There’s apparently still a chance his enrollment could be delayed depending on some paperwork, but he’d then be able to enroll in 2017. However, the expectation is he’ll be on campus and part of the team this fall.

Arkansas isn’t particularly hurting for talent at defensive end, so it will be interesting to see what kind of role Taylor will fill this fall.

While the 2016 campaign hasn’t even kicked off for the Kentucky Wildcats football squad, future schedules are beginning to take shape.

Today it was announced that the Kentucky Wildcats will take on the University of Toledo Rockets on August 31, 2019. With it being such an early matchup, it is assumed that this game will be the Wildcats’ home opener.

Despite being three years away, the 2019 non-conference schedule is nearly complete, as Kentucky now has scheduled Toledo to go along with matchups against Eastern Michigan and rival University of Louisville.

It should be noted that University of Kentucky Tight Ends Coach Vince Marrow is a Toledo graduate.

Toledo has been rather successful over the course of the last few years, finishing with a 10-2 record (including wins over top 25 teams Arkansas and Temple) in 2015, preceded by a 9-4 campaign in 2014. However, their previous head coach Matt Campbell left for a head coaching job at Iowa State and is being replaced by newcomer Jason Candle.

If Toledo can continue the success they have experienced the last few seasons, the Rockets will provide a competitive and challenging non-conference matchup for the Wildcats in 2019.

While Michigan may be considered the underdogs by pundits and Ohio State, if the money being bet on the Wolverines in Las Vegas could talk, it would loudly be saying “We disagree with your assessment!”

According to ESPN writer David Purdum, Michigan has received more bets to win the National Championship than any other team at multiple sportsbooks. Their odds of winning it all have went from 15-1 to 7-1, which is second behind the Alabama Crimson Tide at WestGate sportsbook, which is the largest superbook in the world.

When it comes to who will win the showdown of Michigan on the road against the Buckeyes, the sportsbook director of South Point Casino says that 88% of the money wagered on the game is on the Wolverines. The line is currently Ohio State -5.

What does this all mean? Michigan is gaining a ton of interest nationally. Michigan fans, college football enthusiasts, and gamblers alike all seem to have a tremendous amount of faith in Jim Harbaugh and his second year arsenal of players and coaches. It doesn’t hurt in the recruiting department either, as being #1 in this area is a good place to be and a reflection of which direction this program is trending.

There are games to be played to decide if the bets were warranted, quarterbacks still to be named starter, Michael Jordan’s still to be an honorary captain, but this is a fun bit of news before the season begins.

(*Editor’s note…What the heck does “Commitment to Eight” mean? It is our new recurring title for recruit commitments referencing a commitment to work towards the Gopher’s Eighth National Championship. A little bit tongue in cheek, but why not right?)

Unexpectedly on a Thursday afternoon the Gophers picked up their 8th commitment of the 2017 class and third offensive lineman.  With local linemen Blaise Andries and Eric Abojei on board and likely guys who will play tackle, it was important for the staff to secure a couple interior linemen in this class as well.  Gaynor is the first and will come to the program as a guard.

The Florida native had offers from Pitt, West Virginia (arguably the favorite to land him), UCF and quite a few smaller schools.  I think there is risk that later in the year one of the big Florida schools (primarily Miami) will give him a late offer as they miss on some other guys and then we will see just how committed Gaynor is.  But for now he is committed and excited to be a Gopher.

#GOGOPHERS 〽️〽️ pic.twitter.com/qWExO2pDMY

— Corey gaynor (@Corey_Gaynor) July 21, 2016

Quotables

Ryan Burns of GopherIllustrated ($cout) pulled this from Gaynor last month when he announced that he had the Gophers in his final 2 schools.

“I’m hearing the most from Minnesota, Pitt, Miami (Fla.) and West Virginia,” Florida OL Corey Gaynor said to GopherDigest. “Pitt told me that I’m a physical hard nosed football player and they need me to join their team. Minnesota said they love my style of play and think I would be a great big 10 lineman and huge addition to the team. Miami told me to be really patient with them. I had a great day at their camp and am nearing an offer and West Virginia told me they love my brand of football and want me to be the next commit in the class. So it’s been pretty busy.”

(Likely Fraudulent) Measurables**

** The section title is intentionally facetious regarding how recruiting sites (and even some college coaches) notoriously exaggerate traditional combine measures — especially the 40. No offense is meant.

Height: 6′ 4″
Weight: 280 lbs.
Fake 40 Time: seems fast-ish

Big 4 Ratings:

At this point of the year we can lament how stars don’t matter but then come February we (or others) lament about how the Gopher class ranks so poorly compared to its Big Ten piers. So do stars matter? Not really, but kind of.

Highlights

Junior year highlights:

TDG Analysis

In Two Words – if you have to remember just two things about this player…

• Physical
• Tough

Absurd Comparisons

Due to his physicality and toughness, I would put Gaynor in the same class as Zach Epping.  Hard to make a real strong comparison when he doesn’t have the red hair, but I think the way he finishes plays and plays with some nastiness, we have another Epping type interior lineman on our hands.

Scheme Fit

This is the type of interior lineman I think we can start to expect a little more.  Gaynor has some mobility but he’s also big and physical.  Watch how he seems to relish finishing plays with the defensive player laying on the ground. Of course this is a highlight tape so they aren’t going to show his bad plays, but he definitely plays with a physicalness and an attitude.  He’ll fit in nicely.  I do believe that if we can hold off the big Florida schools who may offer late, we will have a multi-year starter on the line here.

Impact on Other Prospects?

I would say that the Gophers will bring 1 more interior lineman and possibly adding one more lineman that could be any position.  Brett Kitrell is a Nebraska kid who will be a Husker if he gets that offer.  If not the Gophers would probably be the favorite and he would come to the program as a center.  Kendrick Green is listed as a center but it is unclear if he would be a center or a DT here.  Either way, adding Gaynor does not preclude the Gophers from taking of their primary targets.

Gopher Recruiting Map

If the Michigan Wolverines lose to the Hawaii Warriors in the 2016 season opener, it would be an upset of record proportions.

Per VegasInsider and MLive.com, UM is favored by 41 points for the Sept. 3 matchup at Michigan Stadium. Hawaii finished 3-10 last season.

The all-time record upset point-spread wise was set in 2007 when Stanford beat USC as a 41-point underdog. Stanford’s coach? Jim Harbaugh. So it’s possible, but very, very unlikely.

As the ACC Kickoff is underway in Greensboro, Georgia Tech announced today that redshirt sophomore B-Back C.J. Leggett has been dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules. The nature of the violation is unclear.

Leggett redshirted as a freshman in 2014 and was in line to be the team’s starter at B-Back for 2015, before a torn ACL late in spring practice ended his season well before it could begin. He returned to the team for spring practice back in April, but was held out of the spring game as a precautionary measure. After Marcus Marshall’s performance as a true freshman, it’s unclear whether Leggett was in position to start in 2016, but he certainly would have received an extensive amount of playing time as a primary backup. With his dismissal, the B-Back starting role is likely to be filled by either Marshall or senior Marcus Allen, and the chances that we see Dedrick Mills on the field as a true freshman also increase noticeably.

The other tidbit of news that dropped during the media event is that, according to Kelly Quinlan of JacketsOnline.com, junior DE Antonio Simmons has returned to the team after not being in school during spring practice. Simmons is a very physically gifted pass-rusher who has played situationally and as a backup to KeShun Freeman over the last two seasons, making 18 tackles and a sack along the way. It’s still unclear as to why he missed spring practice, or if he’ll see any type of discipline as a result, but having Simmons on the roster undoubtedly boosts Georgia Tech’s depth and talent level at the pass-rushing WDE spot.

Pro Football Focus has put together an impressively research ranking of the 101 best players in college football. A list that, while long, still doesn’t even include one player per team in the 120-plus school FBS.

One Georgia Bulldogs star made the list in the form of running back Nick Chubb. The junior came in a No. 12, with the following comments from the site:

Coming off a season-ending injury, Chubb has averaged 7.4 yards/carry on his 311 career carries, as he runs through tacklers like a bowling ball while showing the speed to create big plays. One of the best parts of Chubb’s game is his ability to create yards on plays with subpar blocking as he’s willing to jam the ball into the line and create yards through contact. Chubb’s +21.0 overall grade ranked sixth in the nation as a true freshman in 2014 and he was well on his way to another strong season in 2015 before the injury. If he comes back healthy, expect another year of tacklers bouncing off Chubb in both the run and pass game.

He’s the third-highest ranked running back overall, behind Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey (No. 1) and Florida State’s Dalvin Cook (No. 11).

Hopefully Chubb will get to show why he’s better than both of them by the end of the 2016 season.