According to Chris Balas of The Wolverine, Michigan defensive end Taco Charlton could be back on the field soon. The athlete was spotted on campus walking without crutches and without a limp after going down with an injury against Hawaii.

“I don’t think either one (of those guys) will be available this week,” Harbaugh said Monday afternoon. “I don’t think Bryan Mone or Taco will be out … It’s hard to say at this point. It’s hard to say at this point. I don’t have an update on how long they’ll be out, but I don’t anticipate them playing this week.”

Charlton left the 63-3 win over Hawaii with an ankle injury in the first half. He was then ruled out for the rest of the game.

Without Charlton or Mone, true freshman Michael Onwenu will see more time on the defensive end.

“That’s possible,” Harbaugh said. “He played well (Saturday). He played more snaps on offense but he’s somebody who played in the game, played well, stood out as a very good player in the game.”

Today it was announced that 4-star recruit Christian Wallace will join the football team on Thursday, in Corvallis. He is planning on playing this year as well. He will not redshirt, according to his Twitter.

The 6’1 Athlete was back in Texas taking care of academic issues. This is big news for Oregon State. He was considered one of the top athletes in the Nation and was among the top 150 overall prospects in the 2016 class.

Wallace, who runs a 4.78 40, could help Oregon State right away. He will wear #29 and is listed as a Cornerback. He played running back and cornerback at Sealy High School and rushed for over a 1000 yards and 10 touchdowns his Senior season, leading SHS to the second round of the class 4A Playoffs.

In other news, Rahmel Dockery has been moved to Cornerback. The former Wide Receiver, adds depth to the defensive backfield. The former Washington State Transfer at the very least will provide speed to the secondary.

It’ll be interesting to see where Wallace and Dockery fall on the depth chart. The good news is that they will both have a little extra time to get situated because of Oregon State’s early bye week. They return to action on Sept. 17th, facing Idaho State at home.

The No. 1 player in the 2017 class has made his decision.

DeAndre Ayton will (maybe) play college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats, who he committed to on Tuesday. Ayton made his announcement on the evening edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter, which came to the surprise of everyone following his recruitment.

Picking Arizona was NOT the expectation, and no one saw Ayton making a decision within the first week of September, let alone picking these Wildcats. He’s previously stressed his desire to visit the Kentucky Wildcats among other schools, but he has yet to take any official visits.

The five-star center out of Phoenix’s Hillcrest Academy was down to Kentucky, Kansas and Arizona, though the Jayhawks had been viewed as his favorite for several months now.

A big reason why was all of the eligibility concerns surrounding Ayton, which caused UK to back off and take a hesitant approach in this recruitment. There were also rumors that Ayton had no plans or desire to attend college, but he has since stated that’s not true and he wants to go to make his mother happy.

In the end, this has been one of the weirdest recruitments we’ll see in the 2017 class, so it doesn’t seem all that surprising that, out of nowhere, he decided to commit to the school viewed as the third-place team in his recruitment.

Brian Kelly was still being asked about Sunday night during his Tuesday press conference. There was not one questioned asked about Nevada. Members of the media were still asking about the repercussions from the Texas game, mainly the QB situation and the suspect defense.

I said it yesterday in the Sunday presser, Kelly has to know who his quarterback is. Kizer played too well for him not to be the guy. Also it’s been a day and half since the end of the game it’s hard to believe that Kelly hasn’t said anything to them at all, but hey maybe he hasn’t. It’s hard to figure out what Kelly is trying to accomplish by keeping the situation quiet. He should name his guy and just go.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Kelly plays both again against Nevada. Not that would be the right decision, but if that happens don’t be shocked.

Torii Hunter Jr. was popped pretty well on that should-be targeting call on Sunday night and in the process was concussed. Hunter is still in the concussion protocol, and would be no shock if he doesn’t suit up on Saturday vs Nevada.

Why week 10 of year three coach? That’s what it’s going to take for you to understand the questions about the defense? Shouldn’t you already be fed up with your defense’s lack of performance? The defense hasn’t been very good for the past two seasons. Kelly had the chance to make a change after the bowl game last season and he didn’t. They are wasting a top-flight offense by running a bad defense week in and week out.

This should hammer home the point even more that people should start to worry about the defense. Last year’s defense wasn’t very good even with all those NFL players. There is a whole lot of new personnel on defense this season. How could it possibly get better?

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Avery Sebastian is also in the concussion protocol and on top of that he didn’t really play well on Sunday night. Studstill will give the Irish a better athlete with more range in the secondary.

Other News and Notes

• Kelly said that if Hunter can’t go either Kevin Stepherson, Corey Holmes or Javon McKinley will take his place. He has no intentions of moving Equanimeous St.Brown from the W position
• Josh Adams and Tarean Folston got banged up against Texas, but both should be fine and should play against Nevada
• Kelly reiterated that Brian VanGorder is still the right man for the job
• Kelly did say he needs to have whoever is the No.2 quarterback has to have the right mindset whenever he does make a decision on who is the starter
• Ashton White, Kevin Stepherson, Dexter Williams and Te’Von Coney all played against Texas on Sunday. Notre Dame’s office of community standards still has yet to make a ruling on them.

As the Bruins prepare to take on the Rebels this Saturday, let’s take a look at their coaching staff, which is actually one of the most successful in UNLV football history.

Tony Sanchez is in his second year as the head coach of the UNLV football program. He was hired in December of 2014 and was previously head coach for the powerhouse Bishop Gorman High School, whom he led to an impressive 85-5 record and six consecutive state 4A championships to go with a top-25 national ranking each year. While his three wins in 2015 may not look impressive on paper, Coach Sanchez was only the second coach at UNLV to reach three wins in his first season, and it was only the fourth time in the last 12 years the program saw more than two wins. In nine of their 12 games, the Rebels trailed by a touchdown or less in the fourth quarter.

Coach Sanchez has an impressive list of accomplishments as a high school coach. He led Bishop Gorman to a 15-0 season and a national championship in 2014. During his tenure, 41 of his players received college football scholarships, 31 of those to FBS schools. I expect to see more coming from Coach Sanchez, and even some improvement from last year. When he was hired, he definitely made a statement with the hiring of two extremely experienced coordinators, Nebraska offensive coordinator Barney Cotton and Colorado defensive coordinator Kent Baer.

Barney Cotton has over 20 years experience in the college football world. He was the interim coach at Nebraska in 2014, coaching them through the Holiday Bowl after serving eight seasons as the associate head coach. That was actually his second stint at Nebraska, as he was the offensive coordinator/offensive line coach at Nebraska in 2003. He was hired again in 2007 and lasted through to the end of the Bo Pelini’s tenure. Cotton helped the Huskers finish in the top 20 nationally in rushing in each of his last five years, averaging over 215 yards per game in 2013. In 2014, the Rebels averaged 129.2 yards rushing per game and 3.6 yards per rush. Clearly, we are not talking the same level of talent as Nebraska. Last year the Rebels averaged 194 rushing yards and 211 passing a game, but this year, that should change. He is no stranger to revamping offenses, and while UNLV is breaking in new quarterback Johnny Stanton, Cotton feels they are still a lot further along than previous years. We should see the numbers increase and more points on the board.

Kent Baer hails from fellow Pac 12 team, University of Colorado, where he was the defensive coordinator from 2013-2014. Baer took a huge pay cut to move to Las Vegas, and came into a less than idea situation last year. UNLV has a history of horrible defense, allowing 218 yards rushing per game in 2015. They have eight returning starters to work with, but Coach Baer definitely needs to beef up the front seven. He had success at Colorado and in his first season with the Buffaloes, his defense improved significantly in 12 major statistical categories. Most notably, the Buffs jumped from 92nd to 58th in the NCAA in third down defense, 116th to 60th in turnovers forced, and 119th to 61st in red zone defense. I think we can see why Tony Sanchez went after him. According to an article by Keith Scheessele, Baer saw an opportunity to be a “part of something special”, and is looking for an opportunity to continue revamping the Rebel defense.

Overall, this may not be the same team the Bruins easily handled in Vegas last year. While the Rebels may put up more of a fight, I also expect us to get a win at our home opener.

Go Bruins!

Saturday was a lot of fun. While college football was making it’s triumphant return, the birth of a new era was beginning in Champaign. It started at 7:00am when the new Illinois AD Josh Whitman went for a pregame run around campus with John Groce and a host of Illini fans. After tailgating for a bit in Grange Grove, Whitman watched his new football coach win his opening game in convincing fashion.

You can read more about that dominating 52-3 victory right here. Today, we’re going to be taking a closer look at each Illini position group while rating them on a scale of 1-5 Champagne bottles.

*****

Fighting Illini Offense

Quarterbacks

Wes Lunt started the game off strong with a drive that saw him complete toss three passes for 22 yards and a touchdown. From there, the senior would finish the game 15/21 (71.4%) for 226 yards and 3 TDs. Lunt looked very calm and collected under center, and didn’t really try to force anything in the season opener. It was also nice to see Chayce Crouch getting reps in the second half.

Running Backs

There was some good and some not-so-good out of the running backs. Kendrick Foster was good great with 4 rushes for 118 yards and 2TDs. Reggie Corbin impressed while logging 7 carries for 71 yards and a TD. Heck, even Tre Nation had a great debut with 8 carries for 47 yards. Ke’Shawn Vaughn ran well, but his numbers weren’t the best against a weak run defense (17 touches, 49 yards, and a TD). He needs to be a dominating force next week if the Illini want to compete against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Wide Receivers

Lovie Smith made it clear that running the ball would be a priority. That being said, any and all passing attempts will be critical in setting up the rushing attack this season. On Saturday against Murray State, the Illini were extremely successful in spreading out Murray State’s 4-2-5 defensive scheme. Malik Turner was the most targeted receiver with 3 catches for 87 yards and 2 TDs, while Desmond Cain caught the 3rd and final passing TD for Illinois. Drops were limited, which was a refreshing sight after last season.

Tight Ends

Good to see Caleb Reams getting some catches in this game, as well as Andrew Davis. I would like to see Garrick McGee get them even more involved in the passing game, but I feel like that may be something we see next week against UNC.

Offensive Line

With the exception of blocking for Ke’Shawn Vaughn (which was a bit iffy sometimes), the line did a nice job of protecting Lunt while opening up gaps for a couple huge runs. Moving forward, controlling the line of scrimmage during Big Ten season will be crucial to setting up the rushing attack.

Fighting Illini Defense

Defensive Line

Murray State finished the game with -10 yards rushing. Gimel President and Chunky Clements were in the Racer backfield on every drive, and with a total of 6 sacks and 11 tackles for losses as a unit, the defensive line deserves a LOT of credit for their play. Racers’ quarterback KD Humphries is a great player, and he wasn’t able to get going the entire afternoon.

Linebackers

Hardy Nickerson was all over the field, finishing the game with a team-high 11 tackles. Behind him was James Crawford with 7 tackles. Both players were swarming the ball well, and here’s hoping we see more of their dynamic play this season.

Secondary

TURNOVERS!!! 2 OF THEM!!! It was a little depressing to see that Murray State managed to find 175 yards through the air, but we have to tip the cap to Julian Hylton’s play; not only was sophomore disruptive to the Racers’ passing attack, but he intercepted a pass in his first start. Great stuff to start the year.

Fighting Illini Other Stuff

Special Teams

For the most part, Illinois’ special teams were fine on Saturday. Chase McLaughlin was perfect on PATs, and he absolutely drilled a 48-yard kick in the 4th quarter. Ryan Frain was consistent and the kick coverage did a nice job flipping the field throughout most of the game. However, there were way too many penalties on punt coverage and returns. Thankfully Murray State was the opponent, as that won’t be able to fly against Power 5 teams.

Coaching

Lovie-ball looks really, really good in Orange and Blue. And while this was not a perfect game by the Illini by any means, the coaching staff had them prepared to isolate Racers playmakers and take them out of the game. Next week’s matchup with North Carolina will be the first true benchmark in the 2016 season, and it could give an early indication of whether or not this team is bound for a bowl game.

You may have heard the Hawkeyes had a game yesterday. They won. Patrolling the interwebz reveals that there is a bit of discomfort within the fanbase. Unfulfilled expectations of a 30+ point beatdown with plenty of reserves in the second half left some fans wondering if the #17 Hawkeyes lived up to its hype. So let’s take a look. What went right and what went wrong in the Hawkeyes’ opening game?

What went right?

Special Teams: I will actually start with what I thought was an underrated aspect of the game. News flash: Ron Coluzzi has a leg. The graduate transfer boomed touchback after touchback on kickoffs and had three punts for a respectable 41.7 average, with a long of 50 yards. I wasn’t crazy about the rugby style punt since it seemed to take away from his natural power. Regardless, any potential return game that Miami had was neutralized. And then Keith Duncan was 6/6 on extra points and had a field goal. New Kirk didn’t let him kick a 35ish yarder in the second half when he opted to go for it on 4th and 6, but I think that is more on Kirk than Duncan.

Running Game: The two-headed monster of Akrum Wadley and LeShun Daniels took care of business. As expected, the offensive line imposed their will on an overmatched front 7 from Miami and pushed Wadley and Daniels to 22 attempts, 204 yards, and 4 touchdowns. Not a lot to report here, other than in watching the Iowa State game, they really struggled to stop the UNI rushing attack. Granted, UNI is a spread rushing attack instead of power-style. Regardless, Iowa should have a solid advantage here next week.

Hard hits and fumbles: The Hawkeyes forced three fumbles, which made up for allowing way too many yards. I didn’t keep a tally, but there were several times where I was impressed with the hard-hitting and physical nature of the Hawks defense. Having said that, Brandon Snyder’s tackling will need to improve. Like a young Jordan Lomax before him, he focused alot on the big hit instead of wrapping up and planting the runner. He will learn, but he may get burned on that a few times against the Justin Jackson’s and Corey Clement’s of the world.

Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images

Anthony Nelson and Jack Hockaday: Good to see the newcomers contribute, although Hockaday wasn’t exactly planned. These two have lots to work on, but their ceiling appears to be relatively high. I thought A. Nelson greatly outplayed M. Nelson strictly in the pass rush. Hockaday did an admirable job filling in for Josey Jewell with 6 tackles and a forced fumble.

What went wrong?

Greg Mabin: Ok I hesitate to pick on Mabin here. When the Jim Thorpe award winner is on the other side of the field, you will naturally get thrown at more than him. Having said that, Mabin was pretty late in his break on the ball many times and his size should have been adequate to somewhat neutralize the big Miami receivers. But Mabin was picked on, and picked on a lot. To be sure, a lack of a pass rush and schemes that didn’t provide much safety help didn’t do Mabin any favors. But my fear is that next week, Iowa State will constantly line up Allen Lazard on Mabin’s side of the field and throw to him until Iowa stops it.

Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images

Short passing defense: This kinda goes hand-in-hand with the Mabin piece, but despite Miami surprisingly gaining 158 yards on the ground, I was never really worried about that. What was frustrating was Miami being able to comfortably dink-and-dunk its way down the field, the way many inferior opponents have been able to do against Iowa in the past. Allowing 424 yards to a team that was near the bottom of the MAC last year is pretty indefensible. I would throw a caveat in here though. With Jewell’s almost-immediate ejection, the defense was forced to run a 4-3 base, cover 2 nearly every play the remainder of the game. I can only recall maybe one blitz from Iowa the entire game. Iowa’s DL is not good enough to generate a solid rush on its own, so it will need some help. UNI was able to trash ISU’s inexperienced OL by blitzing the crap out of them. Once again, I fear Iowa will not play that game and exploit that weakness.

No play action or Kittle: The offense was kept pretty vanilla, in the same way the defense was. Fortunately, the offense was further along than the defense at this point. The offense in the first half looked sharp and crisp. And then Old Kirk made an appearance and kept everything simple in the second half. One of the more frustrating things for me was next-to-no play action and only one target to George Kittle. Those are two very important weapons in the Iowa offense arsenal and they were not used nearly enough, in my opinion. Of course, Kirk and Greg Davis may have just been content with the running game doing its thing and going from there.

All in all, it was a win, although the feeling was kinda ‘meh.’ No rational fan was ever really worried, but we all wanted to see a bit more probably. Bring on the Clones next week and give new coach Matt Campbell a proper introduction to Kinnick Stadium.

The longest possible college football off-season has to be the one endured by the team that lost in the national championship game the year before. For Clemson and its fans, that off-season finally ended tonight on the road in a tough match-up with Auburn. My initial reaction is welcome back Mike Williams, and hello big Dexter Lawrence.

The Clemson offense is loaded with talent, but they got off to a slow start. Deshaun Watson looked a bit rusty tonight. Eventually they found their rhythm and were able to move the ball when they remembered that they had this wide receiver named Mike Williams. He made several plays on a touchdown drive in the second quarter that ended with Wayne Gallman waltzing into the end zone behind the 650+ pounds of Dexter Lawrence and Christian Wilkins. Even if opposing teams know what’s coming, I doubt Clemson will have any trouble converting 3rd-and-1 or 4th-and-1 situations this season. On the next series Big Dex showed how freakishly athletic he is for weighing nearly 350 pounds by chasing down the Auburn QB for a sack.

In the second half, Clemson fans were probably having flashbacks to last year’s national championship game when Auburn appeared to have a long kickoff return, but an Auburn penalty negated it. The defense held, and in Clemson’s first offensive series, Williams made a beautiful catch, with Wayne Gallman making a great blitz pickup block. The drive sputtered, and placeholder Seth Ryan made an impressive hold on a high snap to allow Greg Huegel to salvage the drive with a field goal.

The defenses continued to play well, with Jadar Johnson making a touchdown-saving interception, but on the ensuing series Deshaun made a bad throw that was picked off. The Clemson defense came through with a great 4th-and-1 stop to shut down another Auburn drive.

In the 4th quarter, Clemson had a good drive going but Mike Williams, in one of the very few miscues on his part in this game, dropped a sure touchdown. But Mr. Hands, Hunter Renfrow, made a great catch in the end zone, facilitated by another great blitz pickup by Gallman, to put six points on the board.

Bad coverage mistakes and penalties by Clemson on the next Auburn drive allowed them to move down the field. Big Dex showed just how difficult he will make life for opposing offenses when he stuffed a double-team block and stopped a 3rd down conversion by Auburn. Unfortunately, bad pass coverage allowed Auburn to make the 4th down conversion. Ben Boulware ended the Auburn drive with an interception.

On the next Auburn drive, Boulware committed a roughing the passer penalty that a senior defensive leader simply should not make, and Auburn scored on the next play, making for a very tense last few minutes of the game. Clemson was able to move the ball down the field, punctuated by a great catch by Williams and a good run by Gallman (assisted by a good downfield block from Williams), but they weren’t able to run out the clock. The Clemson defense came through on Auburn’s final possession, in particular Jadar Johnson, to keep the offense out of the end zone and preserve the victory for Clemson.

Look for detailed analyses on STS in the coming days, but Clemson has a few things to work on next week. There were many good things in the game, but also many mistakes. Fortunately, they were able to go into a very hostile environment and come away with a win against a good Auburn team. The offense showed flashes of dominance, but still needs to work on a few things. Coming into this season, the big questions were on the defensive side of the ball, but the Tiger defense played well. They too have a few things to work on, but overall they showed that they can be a strength for the team this season. With a tough win on the road, the Tigers are off to a good, if shaky, start.

Florida cornerback Duke Dawson and wide receiver Dre Massey both left the Gators’ season opener against UMass with apparent injuries in the first half, and did not return.

Dawson appeared to hurt his arm or shoulder on a tackle in the first half, while Massey appeared to sustain a right knee injury. Dawson was examined on the sideline, then returned to the locker room prior to halftime, while Massey did not return to the field after halftime.

Florida coach Jim McElwain addressed both injuries — sort of — in his postgame press conference.

“Dre Massey went down early. We’re going to have to take a good look at that. I’m not sure where that’s going to be. Duke Dawson went down with an arm injury. We’ll get that looked at. We held him out, but it enabled us to get Chauncey (Gardner) and (Joseph) Putu and Chris (Williamson) in there at corner a little bit. I thought that was good. That’s going to help us down the road a little bit.”

Dawson is Florida’s starting nickel cornerback and was a starter outside against UMass with Teez Tabor serving a one-game suspension, reportedly for his role in a fight with teammate C’yontai Lewis. He wasn’t targeted much while he was in the game, but his absence hurt the Gators, as Williamson was badly burned on a 53-yard completion that was the Minutemen’s longest play of the night — and one that accounted for more than a third of their total offense.

Massey is the Gators’ starting slot receiver, and returned the opening kickoff for 21 yards. He was not targeted on the night, but it appeared that his confusion on where to line up at one juncture forced Florida to burn a timeout.

Dawson tweeted on Sunday morning that he will be back for Florida’s game next Saturday against Kentucky.

Preseason rankings are now moot for all but four teams.

My new Top 10: https://t.co/sCVA0sPhYd

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) September 4, 2016