Residents in Louisiana are still working to recover from the disastrous floods that ravaged the state last month. UW, with a couple of partners, is working to assist relief efforts.

Two organizations, 100 Black Men of Madison and ASPIRE, have donated goods that will be distributed to families in need. 100 Black Men of Madison, in conjunction with the United Way of Dane County, has sent backpacks and school supplies for grade school children. The official sports drink of Wisconsin Athletics, ASPIRE has given one palette of drinks, about 2,000 bottles.

The donations will be loaded onto Wisconsin football’s equipment truck as it travels up to Green Bay on Thursday. UW’s equipment staff will coordinate with LSU’s staff to load the supplies onto their truck, so when they return to Baton Rouge after Saturday’s game at Lambeau Field, the supplies will be delivered to the 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge for distribution to those affected in the area.

Here’s the official release from the Wisconsin athletic department:

Badgers to make special deliveries this weekend

UW to partner with 100 Black Men of Madison, United Way of Dane County, ASPIRE and LSU to help deliver items to flood victims in Louisiana

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin football team’s equipment truck will have some special packages to go along with the helmets, shoulder pads and cleats it will be transporting to Lambeau Field for the Badgers’ game against LSU on Saturday. Thanks to generous donations from 100 Black Men of Madison (in conjunction with the United Way of Dane County) and ASPIRE, the truck will be transporting supplies to help the victims of the recent flooding in Louisiana.

“We’re very appreciative of the interest of the 100 Black Men of Madison, the United Way of Dane County and ASPIRE to join in the effort to provide needed relief to folks in Louisiana,” UW Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez said.

100 Black Men of Madison is donating backpacks and school supplies for grade schoolers while ASPIRE, the official sports drink of Wisconsin Athletics, is donating a palette of drinks (2,000 bottles). The items will be loaded onto the Wisconsin football equipment truck and driven to Green Bay on Thursday.

The Wisconsin equipment staff will then coordinate with their counterparts from LSU to load the supplies onto the Tigers’ truck. When it returns to Baton Rouge, the backpacks, school supplies and drinks will be delivered to the 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge for distribution to families in need.

About 100 Black Men of Madison, Inc.

100 Black Men of Madison, Inc., began its operation in 1994 and was incorporated in 1995 as a nonprofit organization comprised of members from many professional disciplines in the greater Madison area. The Madison chapter was established with the concept that it would make a positive difference in the lives of area youth, especially African American males, through mentoring, education, health and wellness, and economic development programs. 100 Black Men of Madison, Inc. is an affiliate of 100 Black Men of America, Inc.

About ASPIRE Beverage Company

Founded in 2012 by two coaches and former athletes that were concerned about the prevalence of sugary, caloric, neon-colored drinks being consumed in the name of sports, ASPIRE Beverage Company makes better-for-you, low-osmolality sports drinks that are designed to improve the health and performance of athletes. The great-tasting ASPIRE FIRE, ICE, STORM, RUSH and RISE sports drinks contain beneficial electrolytes, vitamins and minerals without the artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives found in other brands. ASPIRE sports drinks are sold at schools, sports facilities and retailers throughout the United States including Target, Costco, Kroger, Whole Foods, Safeway, Sam’s Club, H-E-B, Life Time Fitness and Amazon.com. More information is available at www.ASPIREbeverages.com.

The Fighting Illini athletic department is preparing Grange Grove for its second season, and they’ve announced several new pregame features for the tailgating zone. The most noteworthy addition is a ‘beer garden’ that’ll be selling $5.00 Coors Light inside of a tent.

Here are the details for that particular section:

A new feature of Grange Grove this year will be a covered beer garden. Illini fans can purchase $5 Coors Light inside the tent, so there will be no need to bring your own cooler!

All drinks purchased in the beer garden must remain inside the tent, and no outside drinks will be permitted inside the tent. The tent is open to Illini fans of all ages, but wristbands and ID checks will be required in order to purchase a beverage.

The beer garden will open three hours prior to kickoff and last call is 30 minutes before kickoff. The tent will close at kickoff.

Coming from someone who’d eventually like to see alcohol sales inside Memorial Stadium, I think this is a really great idea. The only minor bit of negative feedback I have is in regards to the location restriction. I understand that Illinois wants to prevent underage drinking, but why not just ID/wristband everyone that walks into Grange Grove? Doing so would allow patrons to wander around and enjoy all of the provided amenities. Plus, I think it’d be a fairly easy policy to implement considering there’s only a few entrances to the gated-off area.

An on-site location for Gameday Spirit will also be featured inside Grange Grove; the 900 square-foot space will be open starting at 10:00am on Saturday morning. Lastly, a variety of food trucks are set for fans, including Cracked, Good 2 Go, Caribbean Grill, Kona Ice, and The Dinner Bell.

These all sound like some more fantastic improvements to the tailgating experience. I’m looking forward to seeing how everything operates this weekend!

Perhaps the weakest unit on the West Virginia defense, at least on paper, the Mountaineer linebackers will have long road ahead of them as defensive coordinator Tony Gibson tries to replace three starters and two backups from last year’s defense.

The 2016 Linebacker Corps

Key Losses

The Mountaineers lost first team All-Big 12 Conference linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski, Jared Barber and Shaq Petteway, all three of whom are currently on NFL rosters. West Virginia will also be without Edward Muldrow III and Isaiah Bruce, who both saw action in 2015 and graduated this past Spring.

West Virginia also lost a potential starter during training camp when true freshman Brendan Ferns went down with a knee injury, sidelining him for the season. Ferns has since underwent surgery, and is expected to recover in time for the 2017 season.

The Breakdown

SAM Linebacker

At least for the Missouri game, former walk-on Justin Arndt will get the nod at SAM. Arndt has impressed the West Virginia coaching staff enough to get the start in Xavier Preston’s absence while he is serving a one-game suspension. Arndt and Preston were locked in a position battle through camp, so it’s up in the air who will get the start after Preston rejoins the team.

Behind Arndt, and eventually Preston, is true freshman Zach Sandwisch. Sandwisch was the Ohio Defensive Player of the Year in 2015, and has put in enough work since he arrived in Morgantown to forgo a redshirt for his freshman season.

MIKE Linebacker

Al-Rasheed Benton steps into the middle linebacker role, and should be the most well-rounded player in the Mountaineer linebacking corps. Benton saw a decent amount of time last season, and looked solid. West Virginia will need Benton to use his experience and become a leader among the linebackers.

Spelling Al-Rasheed will be fellow junior Hodari Christian. Christian looked good during the annual Gold-Blue Spring Game at The Greenbrier in April, and should fill in nicely when Benton needs a rest.

WILL Linebacker

Redshirt senior Sean Walters is currently listed as the starter at WILL, which came as a surprise to most as the Mountaineer coaching staff have really been talking up David Long, who is listed as the backup. Walters saw some action at linebacker last season but was mostly used on special teams, where he really stood out.

In Long’s case, it may be a situation where the coaching staff is trying to motivate a player by pushing him to fight for a starting job. Last season, Tony Gibson noted that he was ready to burn Long’s redshirt because he had made such a great impression during practice as a true freshman. I believe by the time Big 12 Conference play kicks off Long will have claimed the starting job, but Walters will still be seeing a good amount of playing time.

Player To Watch

I’m going to go ahead with my gut feeling and name David Long as the player to watch this season. Dana Holgorsen and Tony Gibson couldn’t stop talking him up during the spring and summer camps, and I believe the cream will rise to the top, as they say.

Last night on his weekly “Trojans Live” show, USC Head Coach Clay Helton announced that sophomore linebacker Osa Masina would miss the first game of the season against Alabama due to a “violation of team rules.”

Today, news broke from KTSU in Utah that Masina was under investigation for sex crimes that took place in Salt Lake County this summer.

As told to KTSU by the Cottonwood Heights Police Department, Masina could face charges for rape, forcible sodomy, fondling, and “exploitation by telecom.”

It was also reported that the LAPD interviewed Masina on a case last week though the nature of the interview is unknown.

USC released a statement today to KTSU regarding the situation:

“USC is aware of the investigation involving student-athlete Osa Masina. USC is cooperating fully with authorities in Utah, the lead agency in the investigation. Due to privacy laws and to protect the rights of our students, we are not able to discuss this matter further.”

We will keep you updated as this story develops.

Head ball coach CJF gave his first presser of the season, and he, like us, can’t wait for Saturday— “It’s amazing to me that time has flown by and we’re already in week one of the season. I am excited to watch the team open the season in Beaver Stadium starting at home.” Same, coach. Same.

Some nuggets from the presser:

• According to Franklin, PSU has the 2nd fewest senior eligible players on the roster
• Will Fries, Michal Menet and Connor McGovern are three freshmen Franklin specifically name-checked as young guys on the line performing well in camp
• On Evan Schwan: “He’s a guy that I think studied Carl Nassib and all the things that Carl did when it comes to sleep, nutrition and training last season. He’s tried to model a lot of the same behaviors and I think it’s really paid off for him.” Giggity.
• He’s expecting Mike Gesicki to have a breakout year—and with Nick Bowers out (Franklin confirmed he’s out with injury for the full season) this should be #88’s year. Tom Pancoast has also stepped up for the TEs.
• Even though Alex Barbir is third on the depth chart, he was name-dropped as helping out special teams—even if only in competition
• Curtis Cothren is still “in the mix” even though he wasn’t on the depth chart
• Changes on defense might get fans excited if they work— “Having a little bit more personality, defensively, being able to disguise some things. And we still want to continue to have a personality on defense that we are not going to give up the big play. That’s very, very important.”
• CJF is *still* pushing Saquon Barkley as a special teams returner
• Kevin Givens might be a big deal at end— “Typically you have under-sized guys that have tremendous quickness, but they can get overpowered at times. Kevin is pound-for-pound probably one of the strongest guys on our team, and on top of that, he’s got tremendous quickness and athleticism for that position…Sometimes length is a factor at those defensive line positions, as well, when you’re going against offensive linemen with really long arms. But Kevin, his hand placement is excellent, and he’s able to really get leverage from his height and also from his hand placement. And you combine that with his quickness, his athleticism and his strength, and he’s been a problem [for the offensive line].”
• On what Kent State’s defensive game plan might be— “I think they are going to go into the game saying ‘we’re going to overload the box, take Saquon Barkley out of it as much as we can and force a new quarterback to beat us.’ So we’ve spent a lot of time working on those type of schemes. There are a lot of different approaches that you could take.” The Golden Flashes have a good returning defense, and Franklin wants to mitigate that.

Full transcript available here.

BONUS: Video press conference content from the University with players

Just four days stand between now and the start of Iowa football season, and since the two-deeps were released last week, there has been speculation over who’s going to see playing time where, which freshman will see the field and what’s going on with the quarterback/kicking situation.

Kirk Ferentz addressed those questions and more in his presser leading up to Miami, and he also took the opportunity to dwell on an Iowa team from 10 years ago, surprisingly.

There were questions over who C.J. Beathard might be throwing to this season, and when Jay Scheel appeared in front of Jerminic Smith—with Riley McCarron earning a starting role—on the depth chart, we got a look at who might be catching the ball this year:

But I think we’ve made good strides. Matt VandeBerg has been a good player for us for a long time. If you talk about improved players, Riley McCarron really did a nice job for us on a lot of levels last year, but I think we’ve really seen him take a big step. I think he was a better player in the spring than he was last fall, and certainly he’s taken another step forward, so he’s really done a good job against some really good players out there in camp, and that’s encouraging.

Jay Scheel is making progress, and I think the rest of the younger guys are stepping forward, too, but how ready we are I think we’ll find out Saturday, but I think we’re making progress there.

I like the idea of C.J. building a rapport with a young guy like Scheel, while still having guys like VandeBerg and George Kittle around as a security blanket. And if McCarron really has improved that much, all the better, though I am a little skeptical.

Eight freshman on the two-deeps was talked about on the interwebs. A lot. So reporters did their jobs and asked Kirk how that came to be, and how many will actually see playing time on Saturday. That answer probably hinges on whether Iowa is up 50 points at half, or just 30:

How they’re going to play Saturday or beyond, who knows. How many will play Saturday or beyond, who knows that, either. But I think it’s fair to say we’ll have a bigger number than normal. Based on what we’ve seen in practice, we’re really optimistic they’ll play well, and we’re going to need that to have a good football team.

One of those true freshman could be quarterback Nathan Stanley, who currently has a weird and/or thing going on with Tyler Wiegers:

We haven’t made that decision yet. It’s kind of like any of those slashes right now, those are both basically coin tosses at this point.

The last time Iowa and Miami squared off, Ben Roethlisberger was quarterbacking the Redhawks, while Iowa had Nathan Chandler under center. The year before that, Brad Banks was slinging for the Hawkeyes when they squared off against Roethlisberger. And that’s when Kirk opened up the history book.

It really was. I’ll go back to the year before, and you remember that just as well. We were lucky to get out of there with a victory. It was really — that was a tough day. I think their quarterback threw about 70 passes and I think 60 of them went to the right side that day if I recall right, and we had to really fight, and I remember Brad Banks making a great completion down the middle that really kind of ignited us.

As it turns out, that was a really good football team. Both those years they were really good. That was a big win certainly, and what their quarterback went on and has done is really impressive. Yeah, it was a good effort on all parts for us.

Roethlisberger did in fact sling it a lot—51 times! In that game in 2002. Let’s just look at that box score for fun:

Oh baby.

People have always been knocking the fact Iowa doesn’t play some foe from the SEC or Big 12 in a glitzy game to kick off a season, and yeah well it’s not our fault Iowa State is Iowa State.

Someone brought that up to Kirk, and I can’t really argue with his answer:

You know, we’ve got 12 games scheduled. We play in a really good conference. My guess is we’re going to — every one of the 12 games will be challenging. Just look back last year, we were relaxed in one game in the fourth quarter a little bit, but after that it’s college football. So to count on games like that, that’s still iffy, if you think those are going to happen. If they happen, great, but you’d better expect a real battle, and I think you just have to look historically, it’s kind of the nature of football as you look around.

You know, we’ll get plenty of excitement all season long. Hopefully we’ll be ready to go Saturday.

Ferentz is right here. Iowa already has its hands full with a schedule that includes Michigan, Northwestern, Penn State and the conference championship, and locking in Iowa State every year doesn’t lend much in the way of flexibility. Teams still need to play tune-up games (and I’ll argue all day that NDSU is better than around 50 percent of mid-majors) so I’m pretty sick of hearing about schedules, and he probably is too.

The Kirby Smart era gets underway Saturday afternoon at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta when the Bulldogs square off against North Carolina. It is an intriguing matchup for both teams. Georgia has a new coaching staff but returns enough players that they may not look that much different in 2016. North Carolina finally broke through last season and wants to prove that was no fluke with a new signal caller for this season.

Here is a look at some of the key players for Saturday’s game:

Nick Chubb

I know what you are thinking. Chubb could be a key player for the Bulldogs every game this season but his spot on this list is warranted due to it being his first action since suffering a season-ending knee injury during last season’s Tennessee game. Chubb is reportedly 100 percent and news came this week that he won’t be facing any sort of workload restriction.

That is good news for the Bulldogs and bad news for a Tar Heels’ defense that struggled at times in 2015. Gene Chizik’s squad returns a number of starters from last season’s defense, but a healthy Chubb will put them to the test quickly.

Chubb’s return for Georgia was critical especially given that it appears Sony Michel is unlikely to play in the game. With questions at the quarterback position, Chubb gives the Bulldogs a big bullet in the chamber.

Jacob Eason/Grayson Lambert

As good as Chubb is, Georgia is going to need whoever its starting quarterback is to make some plays down the field. New offensive coordinator Jim Chaney has had a lot of success adapting to his personnel. There isn’t a lot of experience in the wide receiver group but there is tons of playmaking potential there. Chubb’s presence alone will give Georgia’s quarterbacks and receivers opportunities to make plays and the Bulldogs need to capitalize on them.

Mitch Trubisky

Mitch Trubisky steps in for graduated starter Marquise Williams and hopes that the Tar Heels’ offense won’t miss a beat. He performed really well in mop up duty a year ago but faces a stiff challenge in what should be a good Georgia defense.

Carolina returns a boatload of talent at running back and receiver. It will be up to Trubisky to get the ball to the right people at the correct times.

Elijah Hood

Elijah Hood is perhaps the guy that no one seems to be talking about that everyone should be heading into this game. He rushed for over 1400 yards last season averaging 6.7 yards per carry and piled up 17 touchdowns on the ground. Hood was really in elite company according to SB Nation’s Bill Connelly as far as 2015 running backs go:

Of the 53 players who rushed at least 200 times in 2015, only two combined an opportunity rate of at least 46 percent with an explosiveness average of at least 6 highlight yards per opportunity: Hood and Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott. That’s awfully good company to keep.

Georgia’s defensive line is a question mark entering the season. It is a group that is long on talent but one that is short on experience. There was also a bit of turnover at the linebacker position, but there is enough depth that it shouldn’t be as big a concern.

Having Hood gives North Carolina the luxury of protecting Trubisky to an extent. If the Bulldogs can limit Hood’s effectiveness, then they may be able to put Trubisky to the test early and often.

The Sooners lost a ton at wide receiver after last season in Sterling Shepard and to a lesser extent Durron Neal

While I don’t think you can ever just plug in a player(s) and fill the void left by Neal and Shepard (my pick for NFL rookie of the year if he stays healthy), the Sooners will be attempting to do just that.

Shepard had 86 receptions for 1,288 yards and 11 touchdowns. Then when you factor in the quiet production of Durron Neal (44 catches for 559 yards), you are looking at total of 130 receptions for 1,847 yards and 14 TD’s that the Sooners will be looking to replace.

Here are a few players that MUST step up and become an even greater part of the Sooners offense this season. If they don’t, it will be a long, long year in Norman.

The Obvious Choice

Ultimately THE guy this year has to be Dede Westbrook. Westbrook finished last season with 46 receptions for 743 yards and 4 touchdowns. I don’t in any way believe that it’s crazy to say that Westbrook needs to at least duplicate those number (if not flirt with a 1000 yard season) for the Sooners to be successful.

The Seemingly Forgotten Man Last Year

For all the hype (and rightfully so) about Mark Andrews had just 19 catches for 318 yards although he did have 7 TD receptions. This number HAS to increase. It might be a stretch to say he should come close to Jermaine Gresham numbers (66 receptions for 950 yards and 14 TD’s), but I will definitely be disappointed if Andrews doesn’t catch at least 40 passes.

The Newcomers

Someone out of the group of AD Miller, Jeffery Mead, and Dahu Green needs to provide something. My bet is on AD Miller. This group will hopefully have 25 receptions between them.

The Grandpa

Graduate transfer Geno Lewis will play at role at some point. Considering he already has his degree we will simply refer to him as grandpa. I believe Lewis will have 15-20 receptions this season.

Joe Mixon

Mixon quietly had 28 receptions last season and should have every chance to improve upon that this season. He is quite possibly the Sooners most dangerous and explosive player on offense. You simply must get him the ball in a number of different ways.