Florida

Notre Dame football brings boom to Florida State with eight sacks

Published

1 year ago

November 10, 2024

Notre Dame football brings boom to Florida State with eight sacks

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Maybe Notre Dame defensive tackle Rylie Mills will get a shout-out from the “Costco Guys” for his three-sack performance against Florida State on Saturday night.

Following the 52-3 win over the Seminoles in Notre Dame Stadium, Mills gave credit to the viral father and son duo of A.J. & Big Justice for his favorite sack celebration. The dance, which involves a double-armed flex over the shoulders with some toe tapping, started to become popular in sports after it was paired to the duo’s song, “We Bring the Boom.”

Mills, a 6-foot-5, 295-pound graduate senior, and Notre Dame’s defense had plenty of opportunities to celebrate Saturday. The CFP No. 10 Irish (8-1) recorded eight sacks, intercepted two passes, one of which safety Luke Talich returned for a 79-yard touchdown when the backups were in the game late, and limited Florida State to 208 yards of total offense.

“I think as a defense we brought the boom,” Mills said.

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Florida State’s offense felt the doom. The Seminoles (1-9) managed to kick a 23-yard field goal to end a 16-play, 75-yard drive on their opening possession of the game, but they fell apart from there. Florida State punted on its next five possessions before halftime and finished the game with six three-and-outs.

The interceptions came in the second half as Notre Dame’s pass rush started to wear on Florida State’s two-quarterback rotation. Starter Brock Glenn threw both of them, the first of which nickelback Jordan Clark snagged to end FSU’s first drive of the second half. The interception came one play after Mills’ third sack of the game.

Clark credited Notre Dame’s defensive line for pressuring Glenn into throwing a bad pass to tight end Kyle Morlock.

“I didn’t have to work too long or too hard tonight,” Clark said. “All credit to those guys. They work their tail off. [Defensive line] Coach Wash (Al Washington) does such a great job just keeping them ready, keeping them dialed. You saw that tonight. You’ve really seen that all year. They make our job as a secondary really, really easy.”

The job could have become harder for Notre Dame’s defensive line when starting nose tackle Howard Cross III left the game with a left ankle injury early in the second quarter. Mills stepped up immediately with back-to-back sacks in the next two plays after Cross’ injury.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman described in the postgame press conference Cross’ injury as an ankle sprain. He thought Cross may have been able to come back into the game if needed. But in the moment, Mills didn’t know how seriously Cross may or may not have been hurt.

Earlier in the week, Freeman praised the Mills-Cross duo for playing a big role in Notre Dame’s ability to generate a pass rush despite losing its top two vyper defensive ends, Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore. Mills did enough for the two of them Saturday night with five tackles, three sacks and another quarterback hurry.

“When Howard went down, I was just gutted for him, because I know how much he put in this week and how much he makes everyone better,” Mills said. “For me, it kind of gave me a little frustration. We saw our guy go down, which you never want to see. Hopefully, that led to that.

“I just wanted to make sure Howard was OK. He was great after that. He was a leader on the sideline, talked to young guys, talked to me and kind of gave everybody words of encouragement.”

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Junior Donovan Hinish played more with Cross sidelined. He took advantage of the opportunities with five tackles and two sacks of his own. Senior defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio recorded one tackle and batted down a screen pass to make his presence felt.

The rest of Notre Dame’s eight sacks came from junior vyper Junior Tuihalamaka, junior linebacker Jaylen Sneed and a shared sack between freshman defensive end Bryce Young and sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry. The Irish reached eight sacks in a game for the first time since totaling eight against Virginia in 2019.

“Rylie got some individual glory today,” Freeman said. “He got the sacks, but there’s a lot of people that contributed to Rylie having the sacks. You talk about coverage, and you talk about some other guys up front.”

Florida State’s quarterbacks combined to complete just 10 of their 26 passes (38.5%) for 88 yards. Glenn finished 5-of-18 for 51 yards. Luke Kromenhoek was 5-of-8 for 37 yards.

Those numbers aren’t possible without good play in the secondary to complement Notre Dame’s pass rush. But Clark wanted the big fellas to received the glory.

“It was really the D-line,” Clark said. “Honestly, we’d like to take credit for it, but when you got guys pass rushing like Rylie Mills was pass rushing tonight and the rest of those guys, it makes it really easy for us.”

Florida State became the fifth team to fail to reach the 250 yards of offense against Notre Dame this season. Notre Dame hadn’t limited so many teams to so few yards since the 1988 season.

Even though a strong performance was expected against a feeble Florida State offense, the accomplishments for this defense are starting to pile up and add to a College Football Playoff résumé that will be stamped with three more wins.

“I think from the whole defense it was dominant,” Mills said. “That just kind of shows when the front end and the back end are on the same page. When you see the backs covering like they did, it’s hard to get completions on us.

“That’s one of the great things about our defense. We feed off each other. If the D-line’s doing really good, the corners, they’re coming up to us being like, ‘You guys are killing it. This is great.’

“And then vice versa. They’re getting picks, and we’re like, ‘Dude, this is great. Make them hold the ball.’ It works both ways.”

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Florida

Liz Barker: Florida’s voucher program at a crossroads

Published

7 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Press Room

Liz Barker: Florida’s voucher program at a crossroads

What if a state program were bleeding billions of taxpayer dollars, providing funds to nearly anyone who applied, with minimal oversight?

Fiscal conservatives would demand immediate intervention. They would call for rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, insist on accountability from those in power, and demand swift action to protect public money.

While much public attention has focused on charter school expansion, including Schools of Hope, this discussion concerns a different program altogether: Florida’s rapidly expanding, taxpayer-funded voucher program.

That program, particularly the unchecked growth of the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES), now allows public dollars to fund private school and homeschool education on an unprecedented scale.

State officials tout a budget surplus, but independent analysts project that an additional $4–5 billion in annual voucher spending will lead to an imminent budget deficit.

The findings of a recent independent audit of FES are alarming. It examined what happens to these public funds and whether they truly “follow the child,” as Floridians were repeatedly promised.

They did not.

The auditor general was blunt: “Whatever can go wrong with this system has gone wrong.”

The audit raises more questions than answers:

— Why would state legislators steer a previously healthy state budget toward a projected deficit?

— Why is the state unable to account for roughly 30,000 students — representing approximately $270 million in taxpayer dollars — on any given day?

— And why is voucher spending deliberately obscured from public scrutiny by burying it in the public-school funding formula?

According to auditors, Florida’s voucher program has grown faster than the state’s ability to manage it. They identified gaps in real-time tracking, limited verification of eligibility and enrollment, and financial controls that have failed to keep pace with explosive growth.

These are not minor administrative errors; they are flashing warning lights.

Waste, fraud, and abuse are not partisan concerns; they are fiscal ones. Any government program that cannot clearly show where public dollars are or whether they are used appropriately represents a failure of the Legislature’s duty to safeguard taxpayer funds.

It is also important to be honest about what voucher growth truly represents. Despite frequent claims of a mass exodus from public schools, data show that roughly 70%of voucher recipients in recent years were not previously enrolled in public schools.

This is not a story of families fleeing public education. It is a story of public dollars being quietly redirected away from it.

That distinction matters because Florida’s public School Districts remain subject to strict accountability standards that do not apply to private or homeschool programs that receive voucher funds. Public schools must administer state assessments, publish performance data, comply with open-records laws, and undergo regular financial audits.

Public education across Florida is not stagnant. School Districts are actively innovating while serving as responsible stewards of public dollars by expanding career pathways, strengthening partnerships with local employers and higher education, and adapting to an increasingly complex choice landscape. When Districts are supported by stable policy and predictable funding, they lead.

But choice only works when transparency and quality accompany it. If state dollars support a student’s education, those dollars should be accompanied by state-level accountability, including meaningful oversight and participation in statewide assessments.

State dollars should meet state standards.

The audit also makes clear that technical fixes alone are insufficient. As long as voucher funding remains intertwined with public school funding formulas, billions of dollars in voucher spending will remain obscured from public scrutiny. The program must stand on its own.

Florida’s fiscally conservative Senators recognized this reality when they introduced SB318, a bipartisan bill to implement the auditor general’s recommendations and bring transparency and fiscal responsibility to school choice. The House must now follow suit.

Families like mine value school choice. But without meaningful reform, the current system is not financially sustainable.

Fiscal responsibility and educational opportunity are not competing values. Floridians must insist on both.

___

Liz Barker is a Sarasota County School Board member.

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Florida

SpaceX targeting Thursday for Cape Canaveral’s second rocket launch of 2026

Published

20 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Press Room

SpaceX targeting Thursday for Cape Canaveral’s second rocket launch of 2026

Bolstered by more than 300 Falcon 9 rocket launches — primarily from Florida’s Space Coast — SpaceX’s 9,000-plus Starlink high-speed internet satellites now serve more than 9 million customers in more than 155 countries and markets, the company reported last week.

Now, the burgeoning Starlink constellation is slated to expand again. SpaceX is targeting Thursday, Jan. 8, for an afternoon Falcon 9 liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launch window: 1:29 p.m. to 5:29 p.m.

The rocket will deploy 29 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit. Similarly, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster should wrap up its 29th mission by landing aboard the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles southeast of the Cape.

FLORIDA TODAY Space Team live coverage of Thursday’s Starlink 6-96 mission will kick off roughly 90 minutes before liftoff at floridatoday.com/space.

The first launch of 2026 from Florida’s Space Coast took flight at 1:48 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 4. That’s when a Falcon 9 lifted off from the Space Force installation, then deployed a batch of 29 Starlink satellites.

What’s more, SpaceX has another Starlink mission in store this upcoming weekend. More details:

Launch window: 1:34 p.m. to 5:34 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10.
Trajectory: Southeast.
Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Sonic booms: No.

In a 2025 progress report, Starlink officials reported crews equipped more than 1,400 commercial aircraft with Starlink antennae last year. That represents nearly four times the number of aircraft outfitted during 2024.

More than 21 million passengers experienced Starlink’s “at-home-like internet” last year aboard United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JSX, WestJet, Qatar Airways, Air France, Emirates, Air New Zealand and airBaltic flights, per the report.

For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space. Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY, where he has covered news since 2004. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

Space is important to us and that’s why we’re working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.

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Florida

IOL Harrison Moore expected to transfer to Florida

Published

1 day ago

January 5, 2026

Press Room

IOL Harrison Moore expected to transfer to Florida

Former Georgia Tech interior offensive lineman Harrison Moore is expected to transfer to Florida, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz.

The direct connection between Moore and Florida is offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner. Moore, a former three-star recruit, played in 10 games as a true freshman under Faulkner, playing 184 total snaps at left guard, center and tight end. Pro Football Focus gave him a 68.8 offensive grade — No. 12 among freshman interior linemen with 100 or more snaps — 67.8 run-blocking grade and 72.0 pass-blocking grade.

He became a starter in 2025 — five games at left guard and four at center — playing 11 games. His PFF grades took a dip to 63.6, 65.5 and 68.4, respectively, but still ranked inside the top 30 among underclassmen with 500 or more snaps.

247Sports ranks Moore No. 229 overall among all players in the 2026 transfer portal cycle and No. 11 among interior offensive linemen.

Florida’s interior offensive line room

Florida’s interior offensive line returns starting left guard Knijeah Harris and backup guards Roderick Kearney and Tavaris Dice Jr. Moore slots in nicely at center with All-American Jake Slaughter out of eligibility and Marcus Mascoll moving on. Noel Portnjagin and Marcus Mascoll are in the portal, and Damieon George Jr. and Kamryn Waites have exhausted their eligibility.

Moore would compete with redshirt freshman Jason Zandamela for the starting center role, or Kearney could move to center and Moore could play guard.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

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