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XFL names ex-WVU AD, current NCAA official Oliver Luck commissioner

By John TaylorJun 5, 2018, 10:52 AM EDT
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Yet another strong connection to the game of college football has been lost to the professional ranks.

Tuesday morning, the XFL, which is expected to relaunch in 2020, has named Oliver Luck as its first commissioner.  Luck will also carry the title of Chief Executive Officer.

“Oliver and I share the same vision and passion for reimagining the game of football,” said Vince McMahon, XFL founder and chairman, in a statement. “His experience as both an athlete and executive will ensure the long-term success of the XFL.”

“Football has always been a constant in my life and I’m excited about the unique opportunity to present America’s favorite sport to fans in a new way,” said Oliver Luck. “The XFL will create first-class organizations that local cities across the country will be proud of.

Luck, the father of Stanford quarterback great Andrew Luck, played his college football at West Virginia in the late seventies and on into the eighties, and became the athletic director at his alma mater in 2010.  In December of 2014, Luck was named by the NCAA as its executive vice president of regulatory affairs, a post he had held for more than three years before leaving to become the commissioner of the XFL.

In between his stints at WVU, Luck, among other endeavors, served as a general manager in the World League of American Football and NFL Europe; as an executive in the latter league for a decade; and as president of Houston’s Major League Soccer franchise.

Louisville not looking for new naming rights sponsor for Cardinal Stadium until the spring

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By Bryan FischerOct 19, 2018, 7:39 PM EDT
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It’s been nearly three months since Louisville took Papa John’s name off Cardinal Stadium and it sounds like the status quo will be that way for a while more.

Speaking to the Louisville Courier Journal on Thursday, Cardinals AD Vince Tyra sounded as though finding a new sponsor for the stadium naming rights is far from his (or anybody else at the school’s) mind at the moment.

“There’s no deadline for us on that,” Tyra said. “I think we wanted to, as we’ve said before, let’s get through the season, let’s kind of move our way into the spring and distance ourselves from it.”

Those comments probably are not to surprising considering the team is 2-5 at the moment and dealing with plenty of issues under Bobby Petrino but it’s notable in the grand scheme of things considering how visible Papa John’s was at the school previously and how much founder John Schnatter donated to the program.

It will be interesting to see just how much Louisville can get for their naming rights when they do go through a bid process given the school’s location, recent performance and the fact that these deals are few and far between at the Power Five level nowadays. Just recently, Colorado State secured a $37.7 million deal for their new on-campus venue while USC cashed the richest deal in college football for a whopping $70 million.

The Cardinals figure to be somewhere in between those two numbers but any little bit could help if the school wants to consider cutting ties to their head coach any time soon.

Duke backups 3D-printed brace to help QB Daniel Jones return from fractured clavicle

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By Bryan FischerOct 19, 2018, 6:35 PM EDT
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File this under stories that can only happen at a few schools across the country — that are very on-brand for the academic reputation of the place too.

A story published in The Chronicle this week detailed the efforts that Duke utilized to get quarterback Daniel Jones back from a fractured clavicle in a remarkable three weeks. One unconventional part of the recovery? A 3D-printed brace that was designed in conjunction with backup center Clark Bulleit and reserve linebacker Kevin Gehsmann.

In order to implement any of their ideas, Bulleit and Gehsmann needed approval from the team’s medical personnel. The training staff did more than just simply give the okay, opting to fully collaborate on the process.

“The training staff helped us to identify pressure points, and took Daniel through his range of motion, telling us where the brace could or could not go,” Bulleit said. “We would determine how to change the shape of the brace to cover the collarbone and retain its integrity while not hitting the pressure points.”

Jones wound up missing just two games with the Blue Devils and has played well with the brace underneath his pads in recent weeks, completing over 63% of his passes with four touchdowns as Duke has cracked the Top 25 with a 5-1 overall record.

While it’s still crazy that the signal-caller was even able to bounce back from a fracture so quickly, the extra bit of help he had (in the most unconventional way possible) from his teammates certainly made things a lot easier on Jones and the Blue Devils overall.

Baylor, Oregon schedule home-and-home series for 2027 and 2028

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By Bryan FischerOct 19, 2018, 5:27 PM EDT
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If you like neon colors on college football uniforms, boy have we got a future series for you.

In an announcement made on Friday, Oregon and Baylor confirmed the two schools have agreed to a home-and-home series on the gridiron in their first-ever meeting between the two programs. The Bears and Ducks will play at McLane Stadium in Waco on Sept. 11, 2027; while the return game will take place at  Autzen Stadium in Eugene on Sept. 9, 2028.

The move certainly beefs up the non-conference slate for both sides after years of rather lackluster scheduling for various reasons. Baylor recently scheduled a series with Auburn for 2025/2026 and Oregon was similarly busy over the summer adding an SEC opponent with a future date with Georgia in 2022.

This series between the Ducks and Bears is the first on either team’s schedule for the 2027/2028 seasons so each has a few more slots to fill nearly a decade ago.

TCU safety Innis Gaines out for Oklahoma showdown and more likely done for season

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By Bryan FischerOct 19, 2018, 4:34 PM EDT
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TCU will be without a key member of its defense for this weekend’s showdown against Big 12 rival Oklahoma as starting safety Innis Gaines will not play on Saturday — and possibly not again this season.

Speaking on his radio show on Thursday night in the DFW Metroplex, head coach Gary Patterson ruled the junior out against the Sooners and cautioned that he was “likely” done for the year after suffering a leg injury against Texas Tech last week.

Gaines himself seemed to suggest that he also will be out a significant amount of time with the injury in a Twitter post.

Gaines has been a key member of the Horned Frogs defense the past two years and has been one of the program’s best players on defense in 2018, ranking second on the team in tackles (31) and tackles for loss (6.5), as well as recording one interception, a forced fumble and a sack.

Compounding the loss of Gaines is the fact that fellow safety Niko Small has been out since the loss to Texas, leaving TCU fairly thin in the one area that you can typically count Patterson’s defense to be strong in. Freshman La’Kendrick Van Zandt is likely to be elevated into the starting role based on the team’s depth chart but you could also see an increase in playing time for Trevon Moehrig-Woodard as well.

Either way, this is not exactly the kind of news you want to hear just days before facing off against Kyler Murray and the Oklahoma offense.