CFP Championship; Coaching Carousel; Stanford Staffing; Portal Updates

The college football season concludes tonight with the CFP National Championship game between Indiana and Miami.

This is not a matchup anyone expected for the title game. When the season started back in late August, all the pundits and experts had tabbed Texas, Ohio State, Penn State and Clemson as the four top contenders for the national title.

Only one of them (Ohio State) even made it into the playoff.

It's become increasingly clear in the era of NIL and the transfer portal that the field has been leveled, iconic programs are no longer guaranteed success, and upstart programs can achieve national prominence almost overnight.

Both of tonight's teams feature transfers at quarterback--Indiana's Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winning transfer from Cal, and Miami's Carson Beck, who came over from Georgia, where he won two national championships as a backup.

But the key figure in this game isn't either of the quarterbacks. It's Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who has taken the losingest program in college football and turned it into a powerhouse. It's ironic now to consider that many questioned his hiring when the unknown 62-year old was chosen after highly-successful stints at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Elon, and James Madison.

The Hoosiers win because they rarely make a mistake. They have lost one fumble all year. That's not a typo. One fumble lost. And they are the second least penalized team in the country behind Army. Which means they avoid drive-killing motion and holding penalties on offense and drive-extending pass interference and personal foul calls on defense.

They're too well-coached and well-disciplined for Miami. Expect Indiana's rise from the ashes to culminate in a national championship tonight. Call it Indiana 34, Miami 17.

Coaching Carousel: Football coaching is not for the faint-hearted. Everyone is going to get fired. It's only a question of when.

Consider Greg Roman, who many people—not me—were pushing as Stanford’s head coach on a couple of occasions. Roman was fired last week by his longtime benefactor, Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh. 

Roman had been Offensive Coordinator for the Chargers, who lost 16-3 to the Patriots last week in the first round of the playoffs. The week before they lost 19-3 to the Broncos. 

Before his Chargers gig, Roman was OC for the Ravens and was let go there. Many years ago, he'd been OC at Stanford under Harbaugh. He was a finalist when Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby hired David Shaw to succeed Harbaugh.

Another interesting firing came at the Washington Commanders, where OC Kliff Klingsbury was fired and assistant quarterbacks coach David Plough was promoted to replace him. 

Stanford's new head coach, Tavita Pritchard, had worked as QB coach under Klingsbury, so it would've been interesting to see if he was also sent packing or instead promoted. Either way, the offensive implosion at Washington wasn't a resume builder.

Stanford's Staff: Pritchard is still working on filling out his staff at Stanford. Apparently the university's background check process is as difficult as its admissions process, which has delayed announcement of some pending hires.

So far, the staff is a combination of retreads and holdovers.

Pritchard has elected to retain four coaches from interim coach Frank Reich's staff, three of whom also served under fired coach Troy Taylor: inside linebackers coach Andy Thompson (who was co-defensive coordinator under Reich and Taylor); tight ends coach Nate Bynum; running backs coach Malcolm Agnew; and safeties coach Kodi Whitfield.

Apparently, background checks weren't required on those individuals.

Under Thompson, Stanford;s defense was among the worst in the country this year, ranking 103rdh among Division 1 FBS programs in yards per game allowed (408), right behind Ball State and Kennesaw State, and 95th in points per game allowed (29), right behind Tulsa and Texas State. 

Bynum has done an excellent job with the Cardinal tight ends.

The new coaches are offensive coordinator Terry Heffernan and quarterbacks coach Brian Lindgren.

Heffernan was offensive line coach and run game coordinator for ACC co-champion Virginia this year. The Cavaliers posted an 11-3 record, best in the school's history, and averaged 179 yards rushing. Three of Heffernan's linemen received All-ACC honors.

Previously, he coached the o-line for the final two years of David Shaw's Stanford tenure (2021-22), both disappointing 3-9 seasons in which the running game was abysmal (87 yards per game in '21), and two years as an assistant offensive line coach with the Buffalo Bills. Earlier in his career he worked for many years at Wayne State and Eastern Kentucky.

Lindgren comes to Stanford after serving over the past 16 years as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Michigan State, Oregon State, Colorado, San Jose State and Northern Arizona. 

Among the quarterbacks he has tutored: Aidan Chiles (Michigan State and Oregon State); D.J. Uiagalelei, Jake Luton and Chance Nolan (OSU); Sefo Liufau and Steven Montez (Colorado); and David Fales (San Jose State).

He followed former OSU coach Jonathan Smith to Michigan State and then was dismissed with Smith and the rest of the staff last month.

Portal Update: Stanford starting quarterback Elijah Brown has entered the transfer portal and won't be returning to the Farm this fall.

The highly-touted recruit from Mater Dei H.S. never achieved the heights Stanford hoped for when it recruited him.

This year, he completed 74 of 127 passes (58%) for 829 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions after taking over from Oregon State transfer Ben Gulbranson as the starter midway through the season. He frequently missed open targets and held the ball too long, resulting in drive-killing sacks and incompletions. He was sacked nine times in Stanford's loss to North Carolina.

With Brown out of the picture, the Cardinal quarterback room will include Michigan transfer Davis Warren,  Dylan Rizk (transfer from UCF last year), Charlie Mirer, and incoming freshman Mike Mitchell from Archbishop Riordan H.S. in San Francisco, the NorCal Player of the Year.

Warren overcame leukemia in high school and walked on at Michigan. He was the Wolverines' starting QB in 2024, completing 134 of 209 passes (64%) for 1,199 yards, seven touchdowns and nine interceptions. 

He missed the '25 season with a knee injury and entered the portal after Michigan's $8M recruit Bryce Underwood announced he was staying in Ann Arbor after an up-and-down freshman season.

Rizk, as a part-time starter at UCF in 2024, completed 72 of 117 passes (62%) for 904 yards, five TDs and two INTs.

Mirer, the son of former Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer, appeared in Stanford's 49-20 loss to the Irish, completing two of three passes for 22 yards and a touchdown. He briefly entered the transfer portal, then was re-recruited by Stanford to return.

Mitchell threw for 10,251 yards and 123 touchdowns during his four seasons with Riordan, including 3,471 yards and 46 touchdowns last fall when he led his team to an undefeated regular season and the NorCal finals.

New coach Pritchard, himself a former Stanford QB and quarterback coach, will have the challenge of developing his next starter on the fly.

Elsewhere: Darian Mensah was one of the many transfer quarterback success stories this season in college football.

Mensah transferred from Tulane, where he led the Green Wave to a 9-5 season in 2024, to Duke, where he led the Blue Devils to the ACC Championship, throwing for 34 touchdowns with just 6 interceptions. His price tag for the transfer was reportedly in excess of $3 million.

After declaring his intention to stay at Duke on Dec. 19, Mensah shocked his coaches and teammates by changing his mind at the last minute and entering the portal hours before last Friday's deadline.

Rumor has it that he will pack his bags for Miami and receive a bounty of over $6 million.

The Hurricanes were willing to throw ridiculous money at Mensah after missing out on Arizona State's Sam Leavitt (who went to LSU), Cincinnati's Brendan Sorsby (Texas Tech) and Alabama's Ty Simpson (NFL).

Miami coach Mario Cristobal, who you might have expected to be preparing for his national championship matchup with Indiana, apparently was also desperately worrying about next year's starting quarterback.

As for Mensah, it's all about the money, I guess.

All I can say is, whatever happened to loyalty? Whatever happened to playing with the same guys for four years, building something together, and developing relationships that last a lifetime? Whatever happened to choosing a school at least in part because of the academics?

Those days are gone.