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UCF inquires about USC coach Lincoln Riley: Sources

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UCF inquires about USC coach Lincoln Riley: Sources

By Bruce Feldman, Antonio Morales and Ralph Russo

UCF has inquired about the availability of USC coach Lincoln Riley as it searches for a replacement for Gus Malzahn, three people who have been privy to those conversations told The Athletic on Wednesday.

There has been no indication Riley is interested in making the move, the people said. He is three seasons into a reported 10-year contract that pays him about $10 million per year.

The people spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity because all the discussions were private and UCF was not publicly revealing details of its coaching search.

Riley’s contract is not publicly available because USC is a private school, but extracting him from Southern California — if he wanted to leave — would likely cost tens of millions of dollars for either the Trojans or the school looking to hire him away.

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Representatives from UCF reached out to Riley’s representatives last weekend to inquire about his interest in making a move across the country, one source said. Any discussions about adjusting the terms of Riley’s contract would be between him and USC, sources said.

The first source added that UCF has not received any word from Riley’s camp that he is interested in leaving USC, and the school is still looking at multiple candidates to fill its head coaching vacancy.

Firing Riley, whose win total with the Trojans has decreased in each of his three seasons, would cost USC about $90 million, according to one of the sources. If Riley were to leave for another school, he would owe USC nothing. But UCF is not in position to replicate the deal Riley has at USC. Malzahn made $4 million in 2024 at UCF.

Two sources said even if Riley had an interest in making the move, it would require some payout of his current deal with USC to make up for what he would be giving up in the transition — like a professional sports trade where one team pays a chunk of a player’s remaining salary on a large contract and the receiving team picks up the rest.

Riley was hired at USC by former athletic director Mike Bohn, who resigned amid controversy in the spring of 2023. University president Carol Folt oversaw the hire as well and will retire this summer, which means two of the main parties involved in bringing Riley to USC will be gone.

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Jen Cohen, the former Washington athletic director, was hired in August 2023 to lead the athletic department. She inherited Riley and his contract.

She’s in the unenviable position of having an underperforming football program but a coach who is too expensive to move on from. In the spring, Cohen navigated a delicate situation with men’s basketball coach Andy Enfield, whose tenure had run its course but his track record was too good to justify a firing. He eventually took the SMU job, and Cohen hired Eric Musselman from Arkansas to replace him.

Even with a suitor for Riley, getting out from under his deal looks more difficult.

Malzahn left UCF after four seasons as head coach to become offensive coordinator at Florida State. The Knights have gone 10-15 overall and 5-13 in league play in their first two seasons in the Big 12 after making the move from the American Athletic Conference. UCF received only a partial share of Big 12 revenue last year, about $18 million, and is scheduled to receive about $19 million for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The number jumps to a full share in 2025-26, which should be about double those figures.

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Riley is 25-14 at USC since being lured to Los Angeles from Oklahoma after the 2021 regular season. It was a seismic move for the Trojans, swiping away a coach who had a 55-10 record in Norman and two Heisman Trophy winners in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.

The Trojans went 11-3 in Riley’s first season with another Heisman winner in Caleb Williams, the star quarterback who followed the coach from Oklahoma to USC. But the results have been trending in the wrong direction since.

USC went 8-5 in 2023, its final season in the Pac-12, and wrapped up its first regular season in the Big Ten with a 6-6 overall record (4-5 in league play).

After the 2023 season, Riley told The Athletic that he “didn’t come here (USC) for some short-term thing and as long as SC continues to give us the support and the things we need to continue to build this, this was not a two-year rebuild.”

Recruiting hasn’t lived up to the high expectations that came with Riley’s hire. USC continues to regress on the field each season, and the program doesn’t appear to have much direction moving forward, making the outlook for Riley look hazy at best.

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(Photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)

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Chiefs offense benefitting from Travis Kelce’s new signature move: The lateral

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Chiefs offense benefitting from Travis Kelce’s new signature move: The lateral

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A particular element of the Chiefs offense this season has led coach Andy Reid to smile and chuckle multiple times.

“He’s been doing it for a few years,” Reid said Monday of tight end Travis Kelce. “We do it in practice every day. This isn’t just something that we throw out there on game day. It’s something we do. Everything is OK with that — just as long as you complete them.”

Kelce, a 12th-year veteran, has a pretty unassailable resume. He’s a future Hall of Famer, a three-time Super Bowl champion and a tight end who holds the record for the most touchdown receptions in Chiefs history (76, along with Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez).

This season, though, Kelce has added another wrinkle to his game: He has perfected the lateral pass.

In the Chiefs’ win Friday over the rival Las Vegas Raiders, Kelce’s most memorable highlight came when he avoided being tackled in the middle of the field by pitching the ball backward to running back Samaje Perine, who then gained a critical first down.

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“Yeah, man, right place, right time,” Kelce said on Wednesday’s episode of “New Heights,” the podcast he hosts with his brother, Jason. “I’m happy it worked. … This is just an instinct that I had and I’m lucky we were able to get a fresh set of downs.”

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Kelce hasn’t gotten in trouble with Reid this season because he’s successfully executed his two lateral attempts, tossing the ball to Perine each time to help the Chiefs reach the red zone.

“It started off as kind of a joke,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said of Kelce’s combination of skill and boldness. “Now, it’s become a thing. As long as he completes it, Coach is going to keep letting him do it.”

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That thing helped the Chiefs score their lone touchdown against the Raiders in the second quarter, just before the two-minute warning. On third-and-10 just outside the red zone, Mahomes completed a short pass to Kelce, who immediately made eye contact with Perine, who released from the backfield into the flat. With an unusual motion, Kelce jumped forward and threw a pass as if he were Mahomes, a perfect spiral to Perine.

The Arrowhead Stadium crowd roared as Perine finished the play with a 15-yard gain. Perine acknowledged Kelce by pointing back to him like an NBA player acknowledging his point guard after an assist on a fast break.

“Don’t forget, he was a (high school) quarterback,” Amazon Prime analyst Kirk Herbstreit said of Kelce after the highlight. “That’s a no-look (pass). That’s just a feel. That’s something you mess around with at a practice, and it gets so comfortable that all of a sudden you’re able to unveil that and do that in a game. That ball is pitched perfectly.”

Three plays later, Mahomes threw a perfect lob pass to receiver Justin Watson for a six-yard touchdown.

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After the game, some analysts and fans wondered if Kelce’s lateral was a designed part of the Chiefs’ play call.

“It’s not designed at all,” Mahomes said. “(Kelce’s) the only person who would do it. I know sometimes it looks (designed), but it’s more of him just being in this offense for so long that he knows where guys are that are running different routes.”

Mahomes said he hoped that Kelce gained at least eight yards on the play, so he could persuade Reid to let the offense stay on the field for fourth down.

A similar scenario occurred in early October in the Chiefs’ win over the New Orleans Saints. In the second quarter, the Chiefs faced a third-and-21 snap. Mahomes threw a short pass to Kelce, who attracted three defenders in the middle of the field before making an underhand pitch to Perine.

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“I saw it and I was like, ‘Dang!’” right guard Trey Smith said after that game. “That’s classic Kelce, just to make a play when the team needs it. It was really dope, man. Every time you see something like that, it’s really cool.”

The Chiefs gained 20 yards on the play, leading Reid to keep the offense on the field to convert a fourth-and-1 snap to continue the drive.

“It was not scripted, I tell you that much,” Perine said smiling. “I saw him doing it a couple of times in practice. I was just staying (ready) just in case. Sure enough, I saw him switch the ball (to his right hand) and wind his arm back. I was ready for it.”

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The first time Kelce attempted a lateral was in the Chiefs’ 2019 championship season in a comeback victory over the Detroit Lions. With the Chiefs near midfield, Mahomes started the fourth quarter rolling to his right before connecting with Kelce, who caught the ball in the intermediate area of the field. Realizing he was about to get tackled before he could gain yards after his reception, Kelce flipped the ball back to running back LeSean McCoy, who gained an additional 23 yards for a 33-yard highlight. The Chiefs finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

Not counting end-of-game desperation, Kelce has lateraled the ball to a teammate five times since the start of the 2019 season, according to TruMedia. Other than the Chiefs, only six teams have had more offensive lateral plays than Kelce himself in that span. And just four teams have more in the first half than Kelce’s four.

“It’s the most underused rule in the game,” Kelce said of the lateral on his podcast. “I think I heard (NFL Network broadcaster) Rich Eisen mention that early on in my career. I was like, ‘Damn, he ain’t lying, man, that s— would be sweet if we were out here just f—— flipping it around every single play.’  That’s what football used to be.”


Travis Kelce is dangerous in the middle of the field because he can predict where defenders should be and can gauge the spacing between them and his teammates. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

Kelce knows the best scenarios to unleash his trick. He has enough experience to anticipate when the opposing defense will play a soft zone coverage. He also has caught enough passes in the middle of the field during his career to predict where certain defenders should be and the spacing between them and his teammates.

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“Or you catch them in man-to-man (coverage) and you beat your defender and now, all of a sudden, you know there’s only one guy for every other route around you,” Kelce said on the podcast. “That’s what happened (against) Buffalo, ironically, last year.”

It didn’t count, but Kelce’s lateral late in the fourth quarter in a loss to the Bills last season was probably his greatest mid-play assist.

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Kelce surprised everyone at Arrowhead when he threw an across-the-field lateral to receiver Kadarius Toney, who appeared to score the go-ahead touchdown while fans released unbridled cheers. The viral highlight, however, was marred by a penalty: Toney began the play offside as he lined up in the neutral zone.

“Honestly, man, it was such a bang-bang (decision),” Kelce said on the podcast a few days after the game. “I caught (the ball), turned upfield, saw the single-high safety and knew it was man coverage and knew I broke the contain angle of the guy chasing me.

“When I broke the safety’s angle, I knew there was only one (defender) left on that side of the field. I knew (Toney) was over there from the route he ran and I saw him out of the corner of my eye in a lateral position. I knew if I could get him the ball, I knew he had space to score a touchdown.”

The next time Kelce tried a lateral was in late July during training camp. During team periods, Kelce experimented with arm angles — underhanded, an end-over-end pitch and a two-hand chest pass — for his laterals to running back Isiah Pacheco.

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Perine, a seventh-year veteran, joined the Chiefs on Aug. 30, less than a week before the team played its season opener against the Baltimore Ravens. In his first practice with the Chiefs, Perine was stunned when Kelce lateraled the ball to him.

“He’s playing backyard football,” Perine said smiling. “Just to experience it firsthand, it was crazy. But it’s fun.”

(Photo: Jay Biggerstaff / Imagn Images)

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Ding dong, Miami’s dead, but did Ole Miss deserve the CFP rankings nod over Alabama?

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Ding dong, Miami’s dead, but did Ole Miss deserve the CFP rankings nod over Alabama?

The College Football Playoff selection committee made the words of their chairman from a week earlier look silly, and they should all be commended for it.

To a point.

To the point of the Miami Hurricanes being eliminated from CFP contention with Tuesday’s penultimate rankings. That’s the big thing the 13-person committee got right Tuesday, and it came off as a pleasant surprise after several weeks of overrating the Canes, after chair Warde Manuel seemed to telegraph that the relative weakness of Miami’s profile would not count against it.

“Teams can only play the (conference) schedule that’s in front of them,” Manuel said after the previous rankings. “They can only play the opponents that they have. So we take the stance that we’re going to really look at these games, we’re going to look at the stats, we’re going to look at the strength of schedule, but we’re also going to look at how teams are performing against the competition that they have. From our perspective, if it was just about strength of schedule, we wouldn’t be needed.”

That comment came before Miami lost 42-38 at Syracuse. Still, it could have been used to justify keeping the 10-2 Hurricanes in, and it almost did. They dropped from No. 6 to No. 12, with 9-3 Alabama jumping two spots to No. 11 and taking the last at-large bid as of now — if No. 17 Clemson beats No. 8 SMU in the ACC title game, SMU could hang in and bump Alabama out.

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In penalizing Miami, the committee thought beyond the simplicity of counting loss totals, valued good wins over “good losses” and ejected a team with a poor strength of schedule and no ranked wins. It’s not Miami’s fault that it didn’t play Clemson and SMU this season, but it’s not to Miami’s credit either.

It is to the credit, or good fortune, of The SEC Three — three-loss Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina — that they played and beat better teams than Miami. The Hurricanes should have dropped below all of them, which has nothing to do with ACC/SEC and everything to do with body of work.

Also, the more I look at it, the more I think No. 13 Ole Miss should have received the nod over Alabama. That one is very, very close. No. 14 South Carolina has a case, too, but when it’s this tight and the Gamecocks lost to Alabama and Ole Miss, the head-to-head results should register and differentiate. And they did.

First, let’s celebrate the positive, all due respect to Miami. The committee seemed in previous rankings to be valuing those confounding “good losses” over quality wins (that’s still the case with Penn State, for the record). As someone who has done the mock NCAA men’s basketball selection process and has observed that process for a long time, wins mean more to that committee than losses. That committee, in essence, asks: “Can this team win games in this tournament?”

Miami could have done damage. Certainly, Cam Ward and the Hurricanes can score, leading the nation at 44.2 points per game. ESPN’s Heather Dinich, who covers the committee, noted it “likes this offense and Cam Ward” in predicting Miami would make the cut Tuesday.

Ward is second in the nation at 343.6 passing yards per game, behind only Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord — has anyone mentioned recently he once played for Ohio State? — at 360.5 per game. McCord helped those numbers with a cool 380 and three touchdowns in Saturday’s upset of the Hurricanes to push 9-3 Cuse into the rankings at No. 22.

That dropped Miami to 60th nationally in scoring defense (23.9) and 42nd in yards per play allowed (5.19). Against a schedule ranked No. 68 in The Athletic analyst Austin Mock’s metric.

Sure, the most recent outing to cost Miami a spot in the ACC title game was a close loss, just like a 28-23 loss to 7-5 Georgia Tech on Nov. 9. But the Hurricanes’ best win this season continues to be a 52-45 escape of a Louisville team that couldn’t quite sneak back into the rankings after thumping rival Kentucky.

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The SEC Three also could only play the schedules that were in front of them, and Ole Miss came away with a 28-10 home win over No. 5 Georgia and a 27-3 road win over South Carolina. Alabama beat Georgia 41-34, South Carolina 27-25 and No. 19 Missouri 34-0, all at home.

South Carolina might be playing as well as anyone — and that’s something the committee should be discussing as well. Is a team getting better or worse? South Carolina and Miami, for example, would appear to be teams going in different directions. South Carolina just beat Clemson 17-14 on the road. The Gamecocks also beat Missouri 34-30 and newly unranked Texas A&M 44-20.

All of those wins from The SEC Three are better than any of Miami’s wins. Transitive football does tell us Miami crushed 7-5 Florida on the road, 41-17, while Ole Miss blew it by losing 24-17 at Florida on Nov. 23. That counts as the other mentionable win on Miami’s schedule, but anyone who has watched Florida this season also sees dramatic improvement from September to November.

Ole Miss also lost at home to 4-8 Kentucky, which is bad. And had a 29-26 loss at LSU, which isn’t. I give Ole Miss the edge over Alabama (which is a change from the 12 I submitted after Saturday’s results, for the record) based on current quality of play.

Alabama lost 40-35 at 6-6 Vanderbilt, 24-17 at No. 7 Tennessee and, recently and alarmingly, 24-3 at 6-6 Oklahoma. That one pushes Ole Miss ahead in my mind. South Carolina actually has the best losses, to the other two of The SEC Three, and to LSU. Again, wins beating losses. Yay, committee.

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Strength of schedule rankings? South Carolina 12, Alabama 19, Ole Miss 51. Maybe that’s the difference for Alabama. I don’t think it’s brand name, though I expect Lane Kiffin to amplify all such complaints from Ole Miss fans in the days to come.

It’s just so close. Certainly closer than Miami compared with any of the three.

(Photo of Mario Cristobal: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)

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Juan Soto bidding reaches $600M, MLB sources say; process of eliminating teams underway

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Juan Soto bidding reaches 0M, MLB sources say; process of eliminating teams underway

By Ken Rosenthal, Evan Drellich and Brendan Kuty

LOS ANGELES — The floor for Juan Soto is $600 million.

The bidding for the free-agent MLB outfielder has surpassed that amount, according to two people briefed on the negotiations who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Agent Scott Boras said Tuesday at Dodger Stadium that Soto has started the process of eliminating potential landing spots, but did not specify which ones.

The clubs publicly known to be most serious about Soto are the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. The two people briefed on the negotiations said that all remaining contenders have made offers above $600 million.

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The expectation within the industry is that Soto will make his decision by the end of the Winter Meetings, which begin in Dallas on Sunday, and possibly even before the meetings kick off. But Boras said he doesn’t expect an “imminent” decision.

“When you’re going through these things, he’s just got a lot of information to meld through,” Boras said Tuesday. “We’ve had meetings with a number of franchises. He’s begun the process of eliminating teams and doing things. Juan is a very methodical thinker, so we’ll see, but I don’t think anything is imminent in the near future.”

Soto, 26, is on the verge of a landmark contract for two reasons: He is young for a free agent, and teams consider him a once-in-a-generation offensive talent.

His deal is expected to be for at least 12 years, and its present-day value almost certainly will beat the record Shohei Ohtani set with the Dodgers last offseason when he signed a heavily deferred 10-year, $700 million contract. Ohtani’s deal was valued at $460 million for luxury tax purposes, and $438 million by the players’ union.

Soto, in his first season with the Yankees, batted .288 with a career high 41 homers. His .989 OPS ranked third in the majors behind Aaron Judge and Ohtani, and he finished third in American League MVP voting

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The Mets are widely regarded as the favorite for Soto, with many in the industry believing the team’s owner, Steve Cohen, will top any rival bid. But the Yankees desperately want to keep Soto as a complement to Judge, and the Red Sox have emerged as a surprising force in the negotiations. The Blue Jays and Dodgers are considered longer shots, though the Jays were willing to match the Dodgers’ bid for Ohtani last offseason, and seem to be just as intently focused on Soto.

That said, Boras was at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday for the introduction of a different client, left-hander Blake Snell, who signed a five-year deal for $182 million. Snell settled for a short-term contract last offseason, which moved slower than this year’s.

“Clubs weren’t interested. They just didn’t call,” Boras said. “The market for free agents last year started maybe in the middle of February, it was that different. People like to register that it has something to do with me — I’m just a functionary of the system. We’ve signed six, seven players already this year. These are the processes of demand and when teams and ownerships choose to move in the marketplace.”

Boras said he wasn’t sure why teams were moving faster this year, but pointed to MLB’s future plans for local media rights as one reason.

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“I wish I could answer those questions, I do,” Boras said. “I think a lot of it has to do with media certainty. … This streaming thing that they have going on is very viable, very profitable. I don’t think they like to say that, but obviously the markets indicate that there is a different attitude about what it is.

“Who’s in the market has a lot to do with things too. You have major-market franchises, you have a generational talent in the market (in Soto).”

The Dodgers’ payroll, including luxury tax projections, is around $310 million for 2025, per Cot’s Contracts. Boras was asked whether the Dodgers are attempting to buy championships, and he invoked the team Soto played for last season, the Yankees.

“I would say that, as George … Steinbrenner said, whatever you do to compete, the fact that I can compete in a different way than others, so be it,” Boras said. “I don’t think that has anything to do with the number of trophies that hang over your stadium, I don’t think fans remember that.”

(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

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