QB Quits Over Broken Promi$es; Boise's Back is Best; Pac-12 Update; Surprising Unbeatens; Stanford's Missed Opportunity; Cal Gets GameDay

We all knew this was coming.

It was only a matter of time before a college player who'd been promised a boatload of NIL money to transfer to another school quit on his team when the promises weren't kept.

Last week UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka, not exactly a household name, announced he would take a redshirt year and sit out the rest of the season because "certain representations" were unfulfilled.

His NIL agent explained that Sluka had been "verbally promised" at least $100,000 by one of the Rebels' assistant coaches to transfer from Holy Cross, but so far has received only $3,000 in moving expenses.

Sluka's decision came at an interesting time. He had led UNLV to three straight wins, throwing for 318 yards and six touchdowns, and rushing for 253 yards and a score, putting the Rebels in early contention for the Group of Five playoff spot.

UNLV also just rejected an offer from the Pac-12 to jump conferences and got a "signing bonus" from the Mountain West of $25-30M, according to reports..

Last year Sluka was named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year after he passed for 1,728 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushed for 1,247 yards. 

Perhaps he was hoping UNLV would counter with a big check. But the Rebels denied extending an official offer and made no effort to persuade Sluka to stay.

And they certainly didn't miss him on Saturday night. The Rebels crushed Fresno State 59-14.

The man who replaced Sluka, senior Hajj-Malik Williams, a transfer from Campbell, had quite a night. Williams completed 13 of 16 passes for 182 yards and 3 TDs. He also rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, pal.

The Best Running Back You Never Heard Of: Boise State's Ashton Jeanty is the best running back in the country. Many fans have never heard of him, because he plays for Boise State and most of his games have late kickoffs.

Saturday night Boise beat Washington State 45-24. Jeanty rushed for 269 yards and four touchdowns. 

If you get a chance, pull up the highlights of his touchdown runs of 64, 14, 59 and 2 yards. He broke at least a dozen tackles on the four runs. And on the two long ones (he already has five TDs over 50 yards this year), he accelerated past several WSU defenders who had the angle on him.

Jeanty is only 5-9, but he weighs 215, his legs are like tree trunks, and he has tremendous power. For the season he has 82 carries for 845 yards, a 10.3 average per carry and 13 TDs.

Boise State is undefeated but for a 3-point loss to Oregon. At the time, we thought it showed Oregon might be over-rated. Now we realize how good Boise is. Hopefully Jeanty will get a chance to show his stuff in the College Football Playoff.

Pac-12 Expansion Update: The Pac-12, which added Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State to holdovers Oregon State and Washington State, has been having some difficulty filling the final two spots needed to get to the NCAA "league" threshold of eight teams. 

Last week the conference was turned down by Memphis, Tulane, South Florida, UTSA and UNLV.

The four American Athletic Conference teams were apparently dissuaded by a $25 million exit fee and the Pac-12's willingness to only cover 10% of that penalty.

UNLV was reportedly persuaded to stay in the Mountain West with a $25-30M signing bonus.

Then Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould went back to the Mountain West trough and added Utah State. So the league is at seven and counting.

Hawaii applied for membership, but the league demurred because of travel costs and stadium concerns.  Sacramento State is also pitching Pac-12 membership; don't hold your breath on that one.

The situation is very fluid, so stay tuned.

Surprising Unbeatens: Five weeks into the 2024 college football season, we have several surprising unbeaten teams. Here are a few of them:

UNLV, 4-0, as noted above.

Army and Navy, both 4-0 for the first time since 1945.

Duke, 5-0, despite losing coach Mike Elko to Texas A&M and quarterback Riley Leonard to Notre Dame.

Rutgers, 4-0, after a big win over Washington.

Indiana, 5-0, under new coach Curt Cignetti, who CBS analyst Rick Neuheisel predicted on Saturday would be the "next Nick Saban."

BYU, 5-0, after a big win over Baylor.

Cardinal's Missed Opportunities: Stanford's 40-14 loss to Clemson Saturday night sounds like a blowout. But the game was much closer than the final score indicated.

In fact, Stanford could've won the game. There were so many missed opportunities, so many ill-advised turnovers near the Clemson goal line, and so many head-scratching short-yardage play calls.

Stanford had no trouble moving the ball against a Clemson defense featuring several future NFL first round picks. The Cardinal had more first downs, dominated time of possession, rushed for 236 yards and outgained Clemson until the final minutes.

But three drives inside the red zone yielded zero points. Twice quarterback Ashton Daniels threw horrible interceptions, once in the end zone and once inside the 10. And Stanford was also stopped on fourth down inside the Clemson 5 yard line, one of three failed fourth-down attempts in the game.

You have to admire coach Troy Taylor's confidence in frequently going for it on fourth down, but his insistence on inserting backup quarterback Justin Lamson in such situations is getting too predictable.

When Lamson is brought in on fourth-and-one, everyone in the stadium knows he's going to run the ball. 

One must ask, why not leave Daniels in the game? Daniels is an excellent runner (he rushed for 87 yards against Clemson), and a decent passer, when he isn't throwing ill-advised interceptions. His presence means the defense can't focus on the run.

On the bright side, the Cardinal looks to be more competitive in upcoming contests against Virginia Tech, SMU and Louisville, unless Daniels' late injury keeps him out of the lineup. 

Unfortunately, freshman Elijah Brown, who looked so impressive in mop-up duty against UC Davis, was injured in practice and will be unavailable for the next few weeks. Unconfirmed reports suggest he has a broken finger.

GameDay Comes to Berkeley: Cal football has hit the big time. ESPN's popular College GameDay pregame show will originate from Berkeley this Saturday before Cal hosts Miami at Memorial Stadium. It marks College Gameday's first-ever appearance in Berkeley.

The Bears (3-1) and No. 8 ranked Hurricanes (4-0) will kick off Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The pre-game College GameDay, which travels to a different college campus game site each week, will air on ESPN from 6-9 a.m. Pacific.

I thought it was curious that the official press release from Cal included a quote from UC Chancellor Rich Lyons, who said he is "thrilled" GameDay is coming to his school. This may have been an effort to counter all those naysayers who claim the university administration doesn't support the football program at Cal.