Oregon was perfect all the way through its first season in the Big Ten, mowing through the regular season at 12-0 and handling Penn State in the conference championship game.

Then the Ducks were dropped by eventual national champion Ohio State, 41-21, in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl to end the season as a national afterthought to the likes of Notre Dame, Texas and the Buckeyes, a team Oregon beat in the regular season.

With a pair of trophies on display on either side of his dais at Mandalay Bay for Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday, Oregon’s coach shared his uncomfortable truth.

“I think every coach probably feels this way, but we always remember the losses over the wins,” said Oregon coach Dan Lanning.

“I think there’s a lot you can learn from that. It doesn’t take away from what we were able to accomplish, but we lost to a great team. Coach (Ryan) Day did an unbelievable job last year of having his team in position to have success there. There’s some things I think I could have done better at the end.

I don’t think we played our best football. That being said, we did go undefeated in the conference and won the Big Ten Championship in our first year. That said, double down. Focus on our process. What do we have to continue to improve? There’s always learning lessons, but it doesn’t necessarily impact the future.”

The future in Eugene is bright. But success is going to be relative at Oregon, a reality Lanning has embraced and knew well from his background at Georgia, where he knows the one trophy every team wants — the national title — is the goal on constant repeat.

Marinating, and believing there is victory in the process, and avoiding the “microwave” are themes in his locker room in 2025.

Dante Moore is competing at quarterback to replace Browns third-round pick Dillon Gabriel as the maestro of a system full of skill-position weaponry. Moore said Lanning consistently reminds him and other team leaders “pressure is a privilege.” He’s locked in a duel with fellow sophomore Austin Novosad to start for the Ducks.

“I think probably what impressed me most with Dante is not wanting to be in a microwave society, not wanting to just get it fast because there’s an opportunity in front of him,” Lanning said, “but to have the slow-cooked meal, to have the opportunity to sit back and mature and learn, learn from experiences that you don’t necessarily have to be on the field to feel. The same goes for Austin. The same goes for Luke (Moga) and the other guys in our program.”

Either quarterback would be thrilled to have the security of a sure-handed and big-play tight end the likes of Kenyon Sadiq. The junior might not be a household name nationally, but no matter which iteration of Oregon uniform he’s wearing on game day, opponents are fully aware of his whereabouts.

Lanning said he played some video-game football with his son before Wednesday’s session, and Sadiq was a stud in the virtual world, too.

“I need to make sure I bring that up to our quarterbacks: throw it to Kenyon because he’s been unbelievable this offseason,” Lanning said. “Like I said, if you just see him work, it’s not a secret.”

–Penn State’s 2024 season came to a bitter end when quarterback Drew Allar threw a costly interception on his own side of the field with 33 seconds left in the College Football Playoff semifinals. The pick set up Notre Dame’s winning field goal in a 27-24 victory that put them into the national championship game.

Allar received plenty of heat over the play, but Nittany Lions coach James Franklin prefers looking at the big picture. From his perspective, Allar has thrown just nine other interceptions at Penn State to go with 53 touchdown passes in three seasons.

“I’m a big Drew fan. You guys get a chance to get around him, you’ll feel the same way,” Franklin said. “He’s really what it’s all about. It’s team, team, team, it’s community, it’s Penn State. He does things the right way, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Allar passed for 3,327 yards and 24 touchdowns last season and was billed as a probable first-round pick. He considered leaving for the NFL before electing to return for another season.

“For me, the feedback I heard (from the NFL) was consistent footwork,” Allar said. “… It wasn’t that I had bad footwork, but I was putting myself in not optimal positions to throw certain throws and that caused some inaccuracy decisions.”

Franklin sees big things ahead this season.

“He’s gotten better every single year, really, in every single area,” Franklin said. “He’s 6-foot-6. He’s now 235 pounds, can make every throw on the field. Has shown that he can hurt people with his feet … We expect him to take another significant leap this year.”

–Northwestern quarterback Jack Lausch has departed the program to focus on baseball. He started the Wildcats’ final 10 games last season.

SMU transfer Preston Stone was named the starting quarterback, leading to Lausch’s decision to focus on baseball.

“What Jack did last year starting 10 games in the Big Ten as a quarterback and then going on to play baseball at an extremely high level, Jack ultimately made a decision to solely focus on baseball moving forward,” said Northwestern coach David Braun. “I’m excited for Jack to dive into that endeavor, which he currently is this summer. Jack has a bright, bright future in the game of baseball for a long, long time.

“We will miss his leadership, miss having him as a part of the team, but excited and so impressed with everything that he achieved over the course of the last year.”

Lausch passed for 1,714 yards, seven touchdowns and eight interceptions last season. He batted .268 with six homers and 28 RBIs last spring.

–Minnesota is 6-0 in bowl games under coach P.J. Fleck, but few people are impressed by success in that category in the playoff era.

Now in his ninth season with the Golden Gophers, Fleck said there is proof out there that a team like Minnesota could have a magical season.

The evidence? Indiana making the playoffs last season and finishing 11-2. The Hoosiers were a combined 9-27 over the previous three seasons.

“With the College Football Playoff where it is, as Indiana showed last year, anybody can get there,” Fleck said. “If we’re delusional enough to know we can do that, we can get there. When you’re somewhere long enough, the standards are one thing, but then you continue to raise the expectations, and that’s what we want to continue to do. We want to do that off the field as well. … Take the cap off the jar, limitless.”

–Field Level Media

CHARLOTTE — New Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos made the most of the talking season that is college football’s summer tradition.

In an interview with On3 in June, Castellanos talked boldly about FSU’s season-opening matchup against Alabama, saying, “They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”

Those strong words inspired some attention in Tuscaloosa and led to plenty of questions for the FSU quarterback Wednesday at ACC Kickoff ahead of the Aug. 30 matchup with the Crimson Tide in Tallahassee.

“We stand on what I said,” Castellanos said. “There’s no disrespect (towards) that team or anything like that. It’s just the confidence that I have in my teammates and the way we’ve been preparing and putting this preparation together this offseason.”

Castellanos transferred to FSU after spending the prior two seasons at Boston College. In 2023, the dual-threat QB was a sensation at BC with 2,248 passing yards, 1,113 rushing yards and 28 total touchdowns (15 passing, 13 rushing). In 2024, he didn’t adapt especially well to a new offensive scheme and left the team midway through the season after he was removed as the starter.

Now Castellanos is tasked with providing a spark to an FSU team that struggled mightily in 2024, limping to a 2-10 record that was the program’s worst since 1974.

“Being a part of Florida State is a dream come true,” Castellanos said.

–Miller Moss excited to start at Louisville after bowl breakout vs. Cardinals
The best football game of Miller Moss’ career to date was a Louisville game. He just happened to be playing for the other team.

The then-USC quarterback made his first career start in the 2023 Holiday Bowl vs. Louisville, throwing for six touchdowns and 372 yards. Moss is expected to be Louisville’s starting quarterback in 2025 after spending the past four seasons with the Trojans.

“It’s kind of a random coincidence or full-circle moment, whatever you want to call it,” Moss said. “Fans will come up and say stuff to me (about the Holiday Bowl). I’ll just let them know that we’re going to make up for it this year.”

Moss got the first extensive playing time of his career in 2024, playing in nine games and throwing for 2,555 yards and 18 touchdowns. He’ll now be tasked with following Tyler Shough, who was drafted 40th overall in this year’s NFL draft by the New Orleans Saints after a one-year Louisville career.

–Georgia Tech out for respect in the ACC
Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key didn’t beat around the bush. He believes his team has been underappreciated the last two years in the ACC.

In Key’s first full season at GT in 2023, the Yellow Jackets were picked 12th in the ACC and finished fourth. In 2024, they were picked ninth and finished tied for fourth.

With quarterback Haynes King and running back Jamal Haynes back after strong 2024 seasons, that respect could come from ACC voters this year.

Key knows that’s not what matters at the end of the day.

“We’ve got a great opportunity in front of us. We really do,” Key said. “It’s not about other people’s expectations that matter. The only expectations that matter are ours.”

–Curt Weiler, Field Level Media

The debut season of coach Bill Belichick at North Carolina is a home sellout.

The university announced Wednesday that all season and single-game tickets at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill have been sold.

The school, instead, is directing fans seeking tickets to SeatGeek, the official resale marketplace of the Tar Heels.

The home season begins Sept. 1 with a nonconference game against TCU. Also visiting Chapel Hill in 2025 are Richmond (Sept. 13), Clemson (Oct. 4), Virginia (Oct. 25), Stanford (Nov. 8) and Duke (Nov. 22).

The Tar Heels signed Belichick, 73, to a five-year deal through the 2029 season to replace Mack Brown. He will earn $10 million a year, plus up to $3.5 million in performance incentives. The first three years of the contract are guaranteed.

Belichick won six Super Bowl championships as the head coach of the New England Patriots and two more as an assistant coach with the New York Giants.

Interest in “Chapel Bill” and the Tar Heels is so high that multiple outlets reported last week the start of production on a docuseries that will chronicle the North Carolina season and later stream on Hulu.

–Field Level Media

Chace Calicut, a four-star safety committed to the University of Georgia, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with an alleged shooting on July 6 in Houston, according to multiple media outlets.

Calicut, a rising senior at Houston North Shore High School who committed to the Bulldogs on June 27, appeared on Tuesday in a Houston court. His bond was set at $20,000.

According to court documents viewed by media outlets, Calicut, 17, pulled up in his car behind a car driven by an unidentified 17-year-old boy with a 17-year-old girl in the passenger seat. The teen driver said Calicut passed them, swerved in front of their car and braked, forcing him to brake to avoid hitting Calicut’s car.

The teen drove around but Calicut again pulled alongside him, according to the documents, and allegedly was swerving around the car. The teen driver said a man in Calicut’s passenger seat pointed a gun at him. The passenger was later identified as Isaiah Brice Phillip, 17, whom Harris County officials said was shot at a July 20 pool party and died on July 21.

The 17-year-old in the other car said he drove away and heard gunfire, per the documents, and a friend in a separate vehicle told investigators that he saw Phillip firing a gun out of Calicut’s car window.

Listed at 6-feet-3 and 190 pounds, Calicut is ranked the No. 114 player in the country, No. 9 safety overall and No. 17 player in Texas regardless of position, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

He visited UGA on June 6. He also made visits to Texas, Michigan and Ole Miss.

–Field Level Media

CHARLOTTE — Carson Beck hasn’t exactly had a typical first offseason at Miami.

The Georgia transfer quarterback suffered a UCL injury in his elbow in the Bulldogs’ 22-19 SEC championship game victory over Texas. That injury unceremoniously ended his five-year career in Athens and kept him sidelined this spring at his new school after transferring in January.

But Beck said Tuesday at ACC Kickoff that he’s now back to 100 percent after starting to throw again in April.

“It was a hard process,” Beck said. “It was a hard journey to go through that and get what I love the most taken away from me.”

He arrives in Miami coming off two productive seasons with the Bulldogs in which he threw for 7,426 yards, 52 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

After replacing Stetson Bennett, who led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022, he now replaces another local legend in former Miami quarterback Cam Ward, who was a 2024 Heisman Trophy finalist and the No. 1 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft.

“We’re thrilled to have had Cam and we’re thrilled to have Carson here now,” Miami head coach Mario Cristobal said. “Carson has as good of experience as a quarterback as you can have. He’s played in monster games, and he’s played at a high level.”

–Lashlee speaks out against CFP committee approach

Rhett Lashlee’s first season in the ACC as SMU head coach was a smashing success.

He led the Mustangs to appearances in the ACC championship game and College Football Playoff behind an 11-1 regular season (8-0 ACC).

And yet, even if his team benefited from the subjective nature of the CFP committee last season, Lashlee talked at length Tuesday about why he believes college football needs to move away from using a selection committee to determine the playoff field.

“I respect what (the committee has) to do,” Lashlee said. “But honestly it’s a situation that’s set up for failure because there’s human bias and there’s always going to be.”

Lashlee was fierce in his belief that the CFP should settle at 16 teams. To avoid the subjective arguments that the committee would have to handle, he wants to see automatic bids expand dramatically and for conferences to have play-in games for CFP spots after the regular season ends.

“It would be like March Madness Thursday and Friday,” Lashlee said. “It would be the best Saturday that college football could ever manufacture.”

–ACC instituting player availability reports for 2025-26 season

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips announced during his address on Tuesday that the conference will be introducing a few new rules and regulations in 2025 that will move the conference in line with current college athletics trends.

Most notably, the ACC will mandate player availability reports ahead of all conference football, basketball and baseball games. This follows in the footsteps of the Big Ten mandating availability reports starting in 2023 and the SEC introducing them in 2024.

“This decision is directly connected to our ongoing commitment to best protect our student-athletes and our multi-faceted approach to addressing the effects of sports wagering,” Phillips said.

The initial reports will be published two days before each conference game and will be updated the day before and day of each game.

–Curt Weiler, Field Level Media