7:00 AM ET NEW ORLEANS — When Texas coach Steve Sarkisian connected with one of the country’s most famous high school football players on FaceTime one afternoon in July, he couldn’t hear the prospect because of a pinging noise in the background. “Are you at an arcade?” Sarkisian asked. “Where are you?” “Coach, it’s kind

8:52 PM ET North Carolina added five-star offensive tackle Zach Rice to its 2022 class on Wednesday. Rice chose the Tar Heels over his finalists that included Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Virginia. He’s a 6-foot-6, 285-pound tackle out of Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg, Virginia, and is the No. 13 ranked recruit in

12:20 PM ET Georgia got its third ESPN 300 commitment in eight days on Thursday when defensive tackle Bear Alexander announced his plans to play football for the Bulldogs. Alexander is the No. 61-ranked prospect overall and a 6-foot-4, 335-pound recruit from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. He had originally committed to Georgia in February

6:00 AM ET Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett is off to an exceptional start to the season, and he’s worked his way into the Heisman conversation while putting the Panthers in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal. Still, this is just a good QB having a great season, right? Perhaps not, says Clemson defensive coordinator

8:14 PM ET Mark Schlabach Close ESPN Senior Writer Senior college football writer Author of seven books on college football Graduate of the University of Georgia Chris Low Close ESPN Senior Writer College football reporter Joined ESPN.com in 2007 Graduate of the University of Tennessee An attorney representing Jeremy Pruitt has given University of Tennessee

7:31 AM ET KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Lane Kiffin stood outside the visitors locker room at Neyland Stadium in the wee hours of Sunday morning proudly twirling a beaten-up yellow range ball and searching for a new visor. He’d just tossed his old visor to the jeering Tennessee fans as he exited a field littered with

7:00 AM ET A quarterback of one of the country’s leading quarterback factories, one of the nation’s top recruits, was yanked from the lineup and replaced with a young firebrand who rallied the team. “It’s uncomfortable, it’s awkward, it’s unfortunate,” he said on Monday. We’re not talking Spencer Rattler — at least not yet. But

5:45 PM ET The American Athletic Conference has received applications from six schools hoping to join the conference, and the AAC is expected to send them each a formal letter by the end of the week detailing the terms of expansion, a source with knowledge of the process told ESPN on Tuesday. Florida Atlantic, Charlotte,

12:17 PM ET Clemson football’s Dabo Swinney said Tuesday that he had no interest in the LSU coaching vacancy at this point, joking that he was surprised to be considered “a big-time coach.” “This is the only Death Valley I’m concerned with right here,” Swinney said, referring to the stadiums in Clemson and Baton Rouge,

4:05 PM ET The Southeastern Conference announced Monday that it was assessing Tennessee a $250,000 fine in the aftermath of fans throwing bottles and other debris onto the field last Saturday at Neyland Stadium near the end of Volunteers’ 31-26 loss to Ole Miss. With 54 seconds to play, the game was stopped for 20