USC defensive tackle Devan Thompkins, a 6-5, 290-pound veteran who started 12 games in 2025, announced his intention to enter the NCAA transfer portal on December 17. 

Thompkins finished the 2025 season with 31 combined tackles (18 solo), three sacks, two pass breakups, and a forced fumble; across three seasons at USC, he compiled 56 total tackles (32 solo), 4.5 sacks, and five pass breakups.

Those figures made him one of the more productive interior linemen on a unit that struggled at times but improved to finish ranked and bowl-eligible.

USC closed the 2025 regular season 9–3 (7–2 Big Ten) and will face TCU in the Valero Alamo Bowl on December 30, a season that left the program ranked inside the top 25 (No. 16) but short of College Football Playoff contention.

The Trojans’ record and bowl bid reflect progress under head coach Lincoln Riley while also exposing lingering gaps across the roster.

Those gaps have since been amplified, as Thompkins’ departure brings USC’s total number of players set to test the transfer market to 15.

The list of known departures is sizable and spread across position groups. 

According to 247Sports, the 15 players who have announced portal entries include: WR DJ Jordan, RB Bryan Jackson, CB Braylon Conley, DE Gus Cordova, OL Makai Saina, S Steve Miller, LB Matai Tagoa‘i, DL Carlon Jones, S Anthony Beavers Jr., OL Micah Banuelos, LB Garrison Madden, RB Harry Dalton, WR Prince Strachan, TE Walker Lyons, and Thompkins.

That grouping hits starters across the trenches, secondary, and skill positions — areas that will require immediate replacements via the portal, incoming freshmen, and retained depth.

After a successful five-year run at Oklahoma from 2017 to 2021, Riley took over as USC’s head coach in November 2021 and has delivered steady results built on quarterback development, high-powered offenses, and aggressive recruiting, highlighted by USC securing the No. 1-ranked 2026 recruiting class.

The current exodus provides the latest test for Riley as USC works to build toward a stronger Big Ten finish in 2026.

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The last of the Power Four college football head coaching openings remains available at Michigan.

The Wolverines decided to part ways with head coach Sherrone Moore on Dec. 10 due to inappropriate relations with a staffer. Michigan had its sights set on Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham and Washington head coach Jedd Fisch.

Though nothing was made official, Fisch was the first to bow out of the race. Alabama’s College Football Playoff victory over Oklahoma eliminated DeBoer from the conversation, and Dillingham inked an extension with Arizona State on Saturday.

With all of those candidates off the board, one who has emerged in the next round is current Wolverines interim Biff Poggi. The interim said he had been interviewed for the job on multiple occasions this offseason.

Poggi began his college football coaching career as an assistant with stops at Brown, Temple and the Citadel in the late 1980s. He coached at his high school alma mater, The Gilman School, as an offensive coordinator and offensive line coach from 1988 to 1995. He spent the next 20 seasons as Gilman’s head coach before returning to the college ranks.

The now 65-year-old spent two prior stints with the Wolverines under Jim Harbaugh. He worked as an analyst with the 2016 team and served as Michigan’s associate head coach in 2021 and 2022.

Poggi was hired away from Michigan to succeed Will Healy as Charlotte’s next head coach in the 2023 offseason. The 49ers were 3-9 in Poggi’s first year at the helm, tying for eleventh place in the American Athletic Conference.

After a 3-7 start to the 2024 season, Charlotte decided to part ways with Poggi. The 49ers hired Tim Albin as his replacement for 2025.

This will not be the first time Poggi has served as the Wolverines’ interim head coach. He was the interim for Michigan’s games against Central Michigan and Nebraska.

The Wolverines accepted an invitation to the Citrus Bowl at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. No. 18 Michigan (9-3, 7-2) will face No. 13 Texas (9-3, 6-2) on Dec. 31 (3 p.m. EST, ABC).

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Bob Chesney was hired at UCLA at the beginning of December, with the official announcement released Dec. 6th.

He spent two whirlwind days — Dec. 8th-10th — in Westwood for his introductory press conference and a few other media moments. 

He then spent most of his time back in Harrisonburg, Virginia, preparing his James Madison team to face Oregon in the first round of the College Football Playoffs. 

On Saturday, the Dukes lost, valiantly, to Oregon, 51–34.  That ended the JMU season and Chesney’s coaching tenure there.

And the Bob Chesney era at UCLA begins. 

Of course, the coach was doing UCLA-related things for the past three weeks, but now he’ll be fully focused and engaged as UCLA’s new coach.

What to do, what to do?

One of college football’s greatest rivalry games is set to come to an abrupt end as it was about to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

The annual Notre Dame vs. USC football rivalry game is no more after the schools failed to reach an agreement on future matchups, ending one of college football’s most recognizable traditions, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.

Representatives from both schools had been involved in negotiations to preserve the rivalry over the last several months, but could not agree on terms going forward, at least temporarily ending a football series that had been ongoing since 1926.

Gone, but not for good?

Yes, there is some hope that we could see USC and Notre Dame on the same field in the future.

Administrators from both schools did reach an agreement to resurrect the series as soon as the 2030 season, according to the report.

Until now, just a world war and a global pandemic had prevented Notre Dame and USC from playing each other every season, but now the pressures of the modern college football season, and its postseason format, appear to have played a role.

Whose fault is this?

Concerns about scheduling and how the game would affect College Football Playoff positioning were the decisive factors in bringing an end to the rivalry, according to the report.

Most of that concern seemed to arise from the USC side of the equation, which felt that certain precedents established by the selection committee in punishing teams for losses put the program in a disadvantageous position.

USC hinted this would come

USC head coach Lincoln Riley signaled as much when speaking on the future of the rivalry last year.

“There [have] been a lot of teams that sacrifice rivalry games,” Riley told reporters at Big Ten Media Days last summer.

“As we get into this playoff structure, and if it changes or not, we get into this new conference, we’re going to learn some about this as we go and what the right and best track is to winning a national championship, that’s going to evolve.”

Still, even amid those comments, reps from USC signaled a desire to keep the Notre Dame rivalry, and Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman was adamant on keeping the matchup, too, reflecting the position of his school.

Instead, Notre Dame is poised to finalize a home-and-home series with BYU over the next two seasons that will take the place of USC on its schedule, according to the Yahoo report.

We saw this coming

A recent Sports Illustrated report indicated that USC was hesitant to pledge itself to a long-term agreement with Notre Dame, citing concerns over the future of the College Football Playoff format and the Trojans’ existing schedule and travel demands.

“I want to play USC every year because I think it’s great for college football, that rivalry, USC-Notre Dame,” Marcus Freeman said.

“Before I even got to Notre Dame, everybody watched that game. Everybody remembers moments from that game that just stick out in their mind.”

Another college football tradition bites the dust

Losing a historic rivalry of this pedigree would be another stark reminder of the very strict conditions that schools have to work in in a new environment where playoff selection, and appeasing the College Football Playoff committee, is king.

Known as the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football, USC and Notre Dame have met almost every year since 1926, with World War II and the Covid pandemic being the only exceptions.

Now, to that list of historical anomalies, the very format of modern college football itself could be the decisive factor that puts this great rivalry on the shelf.

(Yahoo)

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