With the NBA draft lottery (hello, Dallas Mavericks) and draft combine over, teams and prospects now turn their attention to pro days and mostly private workouts where even more impressions are made.

Murray State University men’s basketball coach Ryan Miller visited the Hopkinsville Kiwanis Club on Thursday and brought the local organization up to date with what’s happening with the Racers’ program.

Miller, who was hired in March, said he spent most of his first few months building a team and a coaching staff. Six seniors graduated and several players transferred leaving him with nearly an entire roster to fill.

However, he has signed several high school players and filled the roster with college transfers. While he says he still is looking to sign a few more players, he’s happy with his roster to this point.

Miller, who came to Murray from Creighton where he was an assistant for four years, said NIL and the transfer portal has made college basketball more of a business environment.

While some may think that navigating the constant change in rosters and working with NIL, Miller said parts of recruiting actually have become quicker and easier on coaches.

A major part of every college basketball program now is making sure that they have funding to not only be competitive on the floor, but also in the recruiting of players. He said Murray State has done a great job of providing him with the tools necessary to find top players.

Miller is considered one of the nation’s top recruiting coaches and helped Creighton become one of the top mid-major programs in the country. His success with the Blue Jays is one of the main reasons he was attractive to Murray State.

However, Miller said Murray’s history of success actually drew him to the school.

Miller said players would begin arriving on campus in early June and he was looking forward to getting to work installing his offense and defense and creating a culture Racers’ fans will be pleased to see.

Photo by Dionte Berry

College Football and NIL now go hand in hand from here on out, and until further notice, it’s fair to expect highly random yet interesting deals to be made with some of the more high profile players within the Power 5 conferences, especially the SEC.

While Texas QB Arch Manning’s lucrative deals with with Panini America, EA Sports, Red Bull, Uber, and Vuori are unsurprsing given his skillset and namesake, Texas A&M’s starting QB has just signed on the the more intriguing deals of the summer.

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Earlier this week, there were rumblings regarding Marcel Reed signing an NIL deal with private jet company, which were confirmed on Thursday, as the Tennessee native is now a partner with ENG Aviation Group, joining Miami quarterback Carson Beck as the other active college signal caller to sign a private jet deal.

For those who are unaware of how private jet services are utilized outside luxury travel for high net worth individuals, ENG Aviation Group has a different and honorable mission, which Boardroom described in detail to provide an in-depth look of Reed’s NIL deal.

Texas A&M QB and rising star, Marcel Reed, just became the fourth college athlete to land a private jet NIL deal—but this one’s different. In a first for both sides, Reed has partnered with ENG Aviation Group not just for flights, but for a mission with real impact: raising awareness for organ donation.⁠

ENG runs a premium charter jet service, but when those jets aren’t in the air with private clients, they’re flying something far more important: life-saving organ transplants. Every empty seat, every available flight path is a chance to deliver hope to someone in need. Now, Reed is helping spotlight that work on a national stage.⁠ ⁠

As part of the deal, Reed will use his platform to share stories, stats, and ways fans can register to become organ donors. This summer, he’ll also visit a Houston hospital to meet with organ donors, recipients, and medical teams—turning a high-flying NIL deal into something grounded in purpose.

ENG offers a potential life-saving service, and Marcel Reed, who has been consistently praised as a locker room leader, is showing said leadership off the field and bringing an important issue to the forefront. If this is the future of NIL, I can safely say that everyone will be on board.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Cameron on X: @CameronOhnysty.

This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed signs NIL deal with ENG Aviation Group

BLOOMINGTON— A former IU basketball player is putting his business degree to use and creating a platform to help other student athletes.

Anthony Leal played for Hoosiers and graduated from the IU Kelley School of Business. His junior year, he came up with an idea to help athletes with NIL deals.

“The final class of my entrepreneurship degree was to kind of try to start a business, so I started doing that and it started at just an NIL focused thing since NIL was so brand new so I started with that and realized you know there’s a lot bigger problem can be solved,” said Leal.

Leal was just starting his college career when in 2021 NIL came into play and athletes could capitalize on their name, image, and likeness.

“It was so new, and for me personally, my own NIL I tried to do as many deals as I could and raise as much as I could and try and save and do it for a good cause,” said Leal.

Leal did show that good can come out of NIL. He chose to pay off his sister’s student loans as a Christmas gift and a video of it went viral.

“I had athletes from all around the country reaching out to me asking for advice. Basically asking me to help them do the same thing I was doing,” said Leal.

“I think if you learn one thing about Anthony he’s usually on the cutting edge of applying his business experience to being an athlete and how he can monetize that and be a business and a brand,” said Jay Townsend, one of Leal’s business partners.

Leal teamed up with Townsend and Nate Ebel, both IU graduates, to co-found Motion Sports Inc. It’s a technology platform for college athletic departments putting team management, compliance, and NIL deals all in one place.

“It’s everything a college athletic department needs for how to function and manage the day to day,” said Ebel.

Ebel and Townsend helped Leal expand the app beyond just NIL. The money side of the platform is still developing as the House vs NCAA Settlement play outs, which could create revenue sharing.

“That gives the athletic department the opportunity to directly pay students athletes from a university bank account,” said Townsend.

Right now Motion Sports has deals with five athletic departments. The goal is to help them operate more efficiently and with everything in one place.

“We don’t think they should be spending lots of hours in the day to day of what the new revenue sharing looks like or what the new academic requirements are or how many hours you can spend on a practice field. We want to have their back on that,” said Townsend.

Following its 5-1 loss to Oklahoma on Tuesday in the First Round of the 2025 SEC Baseball Tournament, the Kentucky Baseball team made a stop in Russell County to aid with cleanup efforts following the weekend’s deadly tornado outbreak.

“Today’s story is quite remarkable! The University of Kentucky Baseball team, en route back from Hoover, Alabama, made a noteworthy stop in Russell County, lending a hand with cleanup efforts following this past weekend’s devastating tornado,” Laker Country 104.9 WJRS wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. ‘The team and coaches provided valuable assistance with cleanup operations in the John St. area.”

Last Friday night, an EF-4 tornado that boasted winds of 170 mph tore a 55.6 mile-long path across multiple Kentucky counties. In the following days, relief efforts have spawned from all across the state and even the country. Prominent Kentucky figures in Mark Pope and Reed Sheppard have been amongst those helping with the efforts, and they were joined by Nick Mingione and the Bat Cats on Wednesday.

In the pictures posted, the team is seen disposing of limbs, trees and debris in the John St. area of Russell County.

Although it has lost four consecutive games heading into the 2025 NCAA Tournament, Kentucky has dropped just one spot to No. 37 in the RPI Rankings. The ‘Cats are 11-19 against Quad One teams and remain a consensus No. 3 seed in the latest Field of 64 Projections. 

Kentucky will now have to wait until the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Monday, May 26, at 12 p.m. ET to learn where (or if) it will be traveling next week.

More Kentucky News and Views on the KSR YouTube Channel

Kentucky Sports Radio has expanded its coverage of the Wildcats in the most ridiculous manner possible on our YouTube Channel. Here you will be able to find interviews with coaches and players, as well as commentary from the KSR crew. From Rapid Reactions following big events to our lengthy lineup of live shows, subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel to stay up to date on everything happening around the Big Blue Nation.

There is no calm period in the college football offseason, especially in this day and age with NIL, the transfer portal, recruiting and coaching movement.

What was once considered a slow month on the college football calander, May has been anything but slow, with headlines surrounding just about everything from Bill Belichick’s first season in Chapel Hill to early recruiting wins for traditional powerhouse programs like USC and Miami.

But when taking everything into account that has occurred from the second the final buzzer sounded in Ohio State’s memorable national championship win over Notre Dame until now, which program has had the best offseason?

FOX Sports college football writers Laken Litman, Michael Cohen and RJ Young provide their answers to that question here.

Laken Litman: Texas seems poised to make a national title run this season. The Longhorns are back-to-back CFP semifinalists who also made it to the SEC championship game in their first season in the league. Steve Sarkisian’s team was close to looking the part of a contender last year, but this year, they’re even more intriguing.

That’s simply because of the X-Factor that is Arch Manning. It’s so rare in this era of college football for a quarterback to sit on the bench for two years and develop while waiting his turn. But Manning was patient while Quinn Ewers started and led the Longhorns deep into the playoffs two years in a row. Now it’s Manning’s turn, and he has plenty of support around the roster. Sure, Texas lost four of five starting offensive linemen, but the guys returning gained valuable experience last year when they stepped up for injured teammates. Texas also lost its top three pass catchers from 2024, but Sarkisian has already reloaded there and in the backfield where CJ Baxter returns after missing last year with a torn ACL. Defensively, the Longhorns return safety Michael Taaffe, the team’s most vocal leader, as well as All-American linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. and freshman All-American edge rusher Colin Simmons.

An additional tidbit that shouldn’t go unnoticed is the fact that this team will be coached by three coordinators – Kyle Flood, Pete Kwiatkowski and Jeff Banks – who have been with Sarkisian since he joined the program in 2021. That kind of cohesion is also unusual in the sport these days, and a huge bonus for a team trying to win a national championship.

Texas & Ohio State in Joel Klatt’s Post-Spring top 5 teams

RJ Young: Clemson. The Tigers have a third-year starter at QB in Cade Klubnik and two bonafide first-round talents on the defensive line in Peter Woods and T.J. Parker for former Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen to deploy. This 2025 team could be Dabo Swinney’s best since Trevor Lawrence last stalked Death Valley. 

Also coming from the Big Ten is former Purdue defensive end Will Heldt, who was a star during a mostly forgettable team and season in West Lafayette. Heldt had 56 tackles, including 10 for a loss, and five sacks as a sophomore last season. With Parker and Woods alongside him, this could become the best defensive line Swinney has had at his disposal since 2018.

From 2018 to 2020 — the Lawrence years — Clemson scored at least 43 points per game. Since then, no Clemson team has scored more than 34.7. Now, with Klubnik entering his third season as a starter and offensive coordinator Garrett Riley calling plays, the Tigers are expected to leap back into scoring on opponents at will. 

Clemson opens the 2025 season against LSU, perhaps the only program to acquire more talent in the offseason on the field than Texas Tech. Swinney is going to lean on the maturity of his quarterback and wide receivers, as well as Allen’s talent for fielding defenses that can compete against the nation’s best in December.

Michael Cohen: Had Penn State not lost leading wide receivers Harrison Wallace III (Ole Miss) and Omari Evans (Washington) to the transfer portal, imperiling an offense that is otherwise stocked with talent, the Nittany Lions would have been an easy choice here. The efforts from head coach James Franklin and his staff to retain the bulk of their 2022 recruiting class, which includes the likes of quarterback Drew Allar, running back Nicholas Singleton, running back Kaytron Allen, edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton and defensive tackle Zane Durant, have positioned the program among the most experienced rosters in the country — not unlike the cores that fueled national championship runs by conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State in recent years. What might have been a debilitating loss when defensive coordinator Tom Allen, who oversaw the seventh-ranked unit in the country last season, departed for the same role at Clemson was quickly offset by the aggressive and high-priced hire of Jim Knowles, arguably the best defensive coordinator in the sport, given what he achieved for the Buckeyes in recent years. There’s plenty to like about how Penn State is shaping up for 2025. 

But another team worth noting here is Texas, a College Football Playoff semifinalist from the other side of the bracket. Head coach Steve Sarkisian nimbly navigated what could have been a prickly situation at quarterback had veteran Quinn Ewers, who guided the Longhorns to back-to-back playoff appearances, decided to return for another season with understudy Arch Manning, the former No. 1 overall recruit in the country, primed to ascend the depth chart. That Sarkisian never closed the door on Ewers in public, even though it was widely assumed Manning would take over ahead of the 2025 campaign, showcased the head coach’s loyalty at a time when such a trait is becoming harder and harder to find. Sarkisian also retooled his roster with a transfer portal haul ranked seventh nationally in average prospect score (88.40) thanks to high-profile commits like former Syracuse defensive lineman Maraad Watson (No. 56 transfer), former Purdue defensive lineman Cole Brevard (No. 105 transfer), former North Carolina defensive lineman Travis Shaw (No. 119 transfer) and former Cal tight end Jack Endries (No. 131 transfer). It’s a group that should pair nicely with the Longhorns’ sparkling high school recruiting class that ranked No. 1 in the country for the 2025 cycle and includes a quintet of five-star prospects, tied with Georgia for the most in the country: safety Jonah Williams (No. 10 overall, No. 1 S); defensive lineman Justus Terry (No. 12 overall, No. 2 DL); wide receiver Kaliq Lockett (No. 18 overall, No. 2 WR), edge rusher Lance Jackson (No. 21 overall, No. 2 edge) and cornerback Kade Phillips (No. 27 overall, No. 5 CB). 

Texas is locked and reloaded for another run at the College Football Playoff this fall. 

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of “Strong Like a Woman,” published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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