Football Writers Association of America

Everybody wants Jason Eck. He won’t promise he’s staying at New Mexico. He won't lie about it either. “If I ever leave here, I'm going to be very selective." 23 years as an assistant. 12 head coaches. 5 kids. Years of debt. The Era of Eck is here. 📝 cbssports.com/college-footba…

From @Schrotenboer | After Blue tsunami, the Protect College Sports Act is now 'very much on life support.' usatoday.com/story/sports/nc…

Dave Aranda might have his next job cbssports.com/college-footba…

“It truly means the world.” @FSUFootball WR @Ducerobinson2 shares what it means to be named a finalist for the 2026 William V. Campbell Trophy, college football’s premier scholar-athlete award. With a 3.90 GPA and an impressive career on the field, Robinson represents excellence in the classroom, on the field and in the community. The winner will be announced Dec. 8 at the NFF Annual Awards Dinner in Las Vegas. #CampbellTrophy #FSUFootball #CollegeFootball #NFF

NEW: Indiana's Curt Cignetti on the College Football Playoff rankings: "SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN, you know, and all their writers that they don’t technically pay, but march to their drum. So, and that’s why you see all these SEC teams up there, you know, and some good two-loss teams from the Big Ten, not quite as high. But like I said, it’s all going to be played out on the field." (via @TheHoosierOn3) on3.com/news/curt-cignetti-c…

Sources tell @On3 that Texas RB Hollywood Smothers is out for the foreseeable future and there’s no timetable at this time. on3.com/news/colin-simmons-c…

Truly humbled and honored to be recipient of the 2026 Bronco Nagurski Legends Award on December 7 in Charlotte. Proud to represent EC High School and the community where my football journey began. Grateful for everyone who’s been part of the journey! 🙏💪❤️#bronconugurski#eastcentralHS#918

Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy is this week’s nominee for the 2026 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. Hardy, a junior running back, returned to action Saturday for the Tigers just five months after he was shot in the leg. “It felt the same,” Hardy said afterward, according to the Associated Press. “My body is fully healed, so it’s nothing different. … Everybody has been there every day (supporting), literally from coaches to staff to the players. Everybody has been really supportive, and I’m taking heed to that.”

There are 15 remaining regular season games b/w current @AP_Top25 ranked teams: 10 SEC vs. SEC 2 Big 12 vs. Big 12 2 Big Ten vs. Big Ten 1 ACC vs. Notre Dame

Tarleton State is one of the fastest growing universities in America. The football team No. 1 in the FCS and on the short list for next FBS newcomer. On a program, and a school, with no ceilings. @TarletonFB @TarletonState davecampbells.com/articles/2…

CFP chair Hunter Yurachek: "They are a very good football team. But when you look at Notre Dame's schedule and the wins they have vs. the teams that are ahead of them, they don't have that signature win right now. They lost in their only Top-25 matchup at BYU. Their next-best-win is on a neutral site against Wisconsin. They've got a great opportunity in front of them this weekend at home vs. Miami to get that signature win that I think they need to move up in the rankings."

Russell Wilson has interviewed at NC State for the head coaching job, per @AdamSchefter.

Bob Chesney Senior is 76 and he's in the UCLA football building early in the morning and he's still in there at night. He's in the staff meetings. He works with the DL. He's got no title, he's not on the payroll and nobody ever asked him to come. The players call him Coach Senior. He got there this summer and has been there since. His son is the head coach. UCLA are 5th in the country this week (first time they've been in the top 10 since October 2001) and they're 8 and 0. Now back up 26 years. Bob Chesney grew up in Kulpmont, PA (population at last census 2,758). It was a coal town, with a corner store and a bar on pretty much every block and a social life that went through the clubs, the Knights of Columbus, the VFW and the American Legion and the Polish and Irish clubs. His dad coached at the Catholic high school. So did his uncle. So did his grandfather. Chesney was the ball boy before he was old enough to play. His parents couldn't afford his schooling so he went back home in the summer and worked. Some summers that was doing the landscaping. Some summers it was at the mine. 'The toughest one was mining coal.' "Back in Kulpmont that's what you did." Years later as a young assistant at Johns Hopkins (making around $28k) he was sharing a 4 bedroom house with his future wife and two roommates and was tending bar at a club in Baltimore at night (four or five hundred a shift). "Got me through those years." He started out as a graduate assistant at a DIII school in 2000. Then Delaware Valley. Then King's College. Then Johns Hopkins. Then head coaching jobs at Salve Regina, Assumption, Holy Cross and James Madison. 8 conference titles. A career record of 132 and 52. Martin Jarmond (the AD who hired him) put it in seven words. "Everywhere he's been he's turned it around." Be absolutely clear about what his father actually watched, as it wasn't anything quick and it was by no means glamorous. Bob Senior saw all 26 years of it from the very start and that's how he describes it. He did it one rung at a time. He didn't skip a single one. A 76 year old man who coached high school football in a coal town is now standing on a practice field in LA with no title and no pay at all, just watching his son coach the 5th best team in the country. I do get choked up about it. I'm an emotional guy. Somebody asked Chesney what the best bit about having his dad there was. "Well that he is my dad."

Our @PFN365 highest-graded FBS safeties this season: Rabbit Evans, Utah: 92.8 Amare Ferrell, Indiana: 91.3 Dylan Smith, Memphis: 90.9 Robert Fitzgerald, Northwestern: 90.5 Jaylen McClain, Ohio State: 89.6 Damon Walters, Northwestern: 89.2 DJ Coleman, Florida: 89.0 Dwayne McDougle III, Nebraska: 88.4 Kingston Lopa, California: 88.4 Tyren Polley Jr., SMU: 88.1 Peyton Bowen, Oklahoma: 87.7 Jessiah McGrew, Arizona State: 87.6 Tamarcus Cooley, LSU: 87.6 Colby McCalister, Baylor: 87.5 Tanner Heckel, Illinois: 87.3 Quan Sanks, Indiana: 87.3