The one thing missing from the festive football

“Why have you got a set of orange footballs?” asked my son as we went through my Subbuteo collection. “Just in case it snows,” I replied, safe in the knowledge that a game of table football has never been called off due to the weather. The joke was lost on him – he had no idea what I was talking about. In an era when you can seemingly buy any colour of ball you want, the significance of an orange ball appears to have bypassed a whole generation of fans. For them, the sight of an orange ball on a snow-covered pitch would probably be met with apathy. What's so special about a coloured ball?

Yet there was a time when a mere dusting of snow would send schoolboys up and down the country giddy with excitement at the thought of being able to use a ball that otherwise lay dormant at the bottom of their cupboards for the rest of the year. I remember forcing a relative out into a blizzard on a cold Saturday night in the late 1970s just so I could use my orange – albeit plastic – ball in the conditions for which it was intended. This excitement was equalled, if not bettered, when such a ball made an appearance at an actual match, generating a buzz around the ground the moment it was produced by the referee.

Perhaps it was the feeling that you were about to witness something out of the norm that heightened expectations but such games were inevitably more entertaining than those played the week before (although this had probably more to do with the weather conditions than the ball itself ). It also helped that a fair share of FA Cup giantkillings took place on a frozen pitch in front of the TV cameras with an orange football, which further added to the mythology.

Surprisingly, the novelty value was still going strong 40 years after the idea of fielding an alternative to the, at the time, new-fangled white ball during the winter months was first mooted by the Football League. The sight of Kasey Keller trying to come to grips with a tangerine ball when a blizzard blew up before a south London derby between Millwall and Charlton Athletic provided much hilarity at The Den in December 1995. And the press went into overdrive when Chelsea played Tromso of Norway in arctic conditions during their triumphant 1997-98 Cup Winners' Cup campaign. However, by then such sightings had become sporadic to say the least.

A succession of increasingly mild winters during the 1980s, coupled with improvements in under-soil heating, made the need for a “snow” ball all but redundant. Even when it did snow heavily, legions of fans would be employed to sweep the stuff off the pitch. Gone were the days when they only ever bothered with the touchlines. By the end of the millennium a new “hi-vis” yellow alternative that had been introduced for when the clocks went back had seemingly replaced the orange ball altogether.

A decade later and games were being called off not because of frozen pitches but due to “health and safety” concerns relating to the frozen concourses by clubs worried about possible legal action. As a result, the opportunities for using a bright orange ball have been few and far between, even though the official ball suppliers to both the Premier and Football Leagues still produce a version for use on snow-covered pitches.

Lowa football embraces the graduate transfer craze

This may make me a rare bird (or a birdbrain) in these parts, but I prefer pro sports over the college variety.

Don't get me wrong. I watch more college football than NFL on television. It's a wackier game, and more emotional. Plus, it's played in weirder locations than the pro variety. You'd never have heard of Tuscaloosa, Clemson or Norman were it not for their football powerhouses.

And, it's on at 11 p.m. on a Saturday, when I'm unwinding after covering a game at 11 a.m. on a Saturday.

Basketball-wise, if it's a regular-season game I usually have little interest in either the NBA or NCAA versions unless it's meaningful to doing my job. If it's an NBA playoff game or an NCAA tournament game, though, gimmee.

No, I like pro sports more because they don't pretend to be something noble. They're entertainment. They're raw commerce.

The players are the stars, not the coaches. Which means the players have certain amounts of leverage. Which is how the world should work. The people who draw the crowds get paid.

So I like the graduate-transfer rule in college sports. If you have earned a degree and still have athletic eligibility left, you can transfer somewhere if you continue your education there.

It's a watered-down version of free agency. Were I emperor of the world, all players could immediately play elsewhere the following season if they so chose. It would be chaos, and the players would be kings.

But that will never happen because the power is the power, and the power never has any intention of ceding the power. So, let's savor grad transfers. Iowa has certainly begun to do just that.

The Hawkeyes have dipped into the graduate-transfer pool again, with the addition of former New Mexico wide receiver Nick Quarells.

This is a relatively new avenue for Kirk Ferentz's program, but one it seems to now be embracing. Last year, the Hawkeyes welcomed punter Ron Coluzzi from Central Michigan, and he worked out beautifully for them.

Recently, Iowa added running back James Butler. Nice get. Butler is coming off two straight 1,300-yard rushing seasons at Nevada.

Quarells is a graduate with two seasons of eligibility left. That's a sweet deal for an Iowa program that desperately needs ball-catchers.

Quarells had 11 catches for 180 yards and a touchdown last season for the Lobos. That's more career catches in itself than any wide receiver on Iowa's roster other than Matt VandeBerg.

Graduate transfers have been a significant part of the college basketball landscape for the last few years. Iowa State has added Hans Brase of Princeton, Jeff Beverly of Texas-San Antonio and Zoran Talley of Old Dominion this year alone.

Grad transfers have become more of a thing in college football lately, it seems.

Purdue has gained a half-dozen grad transfers since Jeff Brohm became coach after last season. They have arrived from Baylor, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Rhode Island, Northern Illinois and Western Kentucky.

Northwestern added offensive lineman Trey Klock from Georgia Tech and receiver Jalen Brown from Oregon.

Rutgers secured quarterback Kyle Bolin from Louisville, fullback Gus Edwards from Miami, and receiver Damon Mitchell from Arkansas.

Graduate transfer Chris Laviano left Rutgers for to play quarterback at San Diego State. That tells the world he not only is a college graduate, but he has common sense.

Memphis football is back – and it's a blast

Riley Ferguson has figured it out. He has figured out what it feels like to walk on to the football field and see Anthony Miller out there, ready to catch anything, and to see Phil Mayhue lined up on the other side, poised to make a defense pay for doubling Miller. To have Doroland Dorceus lined up behind him, or maybe Darrell Henderson, or possibly Tony Pollard. To have Sam Craft on his offensive team, as well as Damonte Coxie and Patrick Taylor.

"It's unbelievable, honestly," Ferguson said. "I'm like a little kid in the backyard with the best players in the neighborhood."

The best players in the neighborhood. And a coach who can draw up plays in the dirt as well as anyone.

So welcome to Memphis football, 2017. It's going to be good, yes. But it's also going to be something many people never thought Memphis football could be.

Fun. A blast. A wildly-entertaining civic happening.

Memphis football has become what Memphis basketball once was, what Grizzlies basketball has been for the last seven years.

"It's the best thing I've ever done in my life," Ferguson said. "I love it, being the quarterback at Memphis."

This is how everyone talks about the program these days, even if they're not the quarterback. The fans talk this way. The players talk this way.

Here's Spencer Smith, the punter: "It's fun every day, even if we're in there, and they're kicking our butts on the field or in the weight room. It's just fun to be here and be around this group of guys and around this coaching staff. It's fun every day regardless of what we're doing."

Much of the fun comes from winning games, of course. That's a prerequisite. But at least some of it comes from the way the Tigers win them.

They fling the ball all over the place. They set records upon records.

Last year, with a brand new coach and a brand new quarterback, Memphis racked up 6,028 yards (second all-time), 505 points (second all-time), 57 touchdowns (second all-time) and 34 touchdown passes (first all-time).

And, yes, the game of football is very different than it used to be. But it wasn't so long ago (2013, 2011 and 2010, to be exact) that the Tigers averaged 19.5, 16.2 and 14.4 points a game. Last year, they averaged 38.8 points a game, and this year could be even better.

"Definitely," Dorceus said. "We left a lot of plays, we left a lot of yards, touchdowns, off little mistakes that we made, not that the other team made, that we made. If we fix that, that's another 1,000 yards for us that we left out there."

Said Pollard: "If I played defense, I would be scared going against us because on offense, we have an unlimited number of players that we can go to and rely on in game-time situations."

Pollard is a perfect example of this. Along with Henderson, he may be the fastest player on the team. He showed that last year when he scored two touchdowns on kickoffs. But at receiver, he shares time with Miller (who had 95 catches for 1,434 yards and 14 touchdowns last year) and Mayhue (a 6-3 monster who catches everything) and Craft (who has already scored 17 touchdowns over the course of his career) and Coxie (who may have the best physical tools of any of them).

At running back, Pollard has to fit in with Dorceus (who has 1,881 career rushing yards) Henderson (who is simply electric) and Taylor (a 6-3 battering ram who was second in rushing as a freshman).

So you understand why Ferguson is so pumped, and why fans are pumped right along with him.

"There's literally nothing a defense can do to be right if the quarterback makes the right decision," Ferguson said. "The defense can never be right. There's always an answer no matter what the defense does. Literally, there's nothing the defense can do as long as we're on the same page and make the right decisions."

So here's to being on the same page in 2017. And here's to making the right decisions. And here's to the return of Memphis football, which is suddenly the most fun team in the neighborhood.

Familiar names will be seen all over college football in 2017

As it happens, Miami football players Scott Patchan and Vincent Testaverde took the same geography class their first semester on campus. After class wrapped one day, professor Thomas Boswell called them both down.

"I recognize you two," he told them. "You're spitting images of your dads."

Patchan and Testaverde had heard stories about their dads their entire lives, but the vast majority centered around what made their fathers famous: football exploits at a time when Miami began its rise as a national power. Vinny Testaverde won the Heisman Trophy at Miami and became the No. 1 overall pick in the 1987 NFL draft; Matt Patchan blocked for him on the offensive line.

Now the two younger Miami football players stood listening to stories about what their dads were like inside the classroom, insight they never would have gotten had they been anywhere else.

"I have a lot of teachers at Miami that have tenure and taught my dad. It's very funny," Scott Patchan said recently. "Apparently, my dad was very smart in the way he could retain information. That's cool to understand. I'm the same way."

That experience is not exclusive to Patchan and Testaverde. Four players currently on the Miami roster have fathers who starred with the Hurricanes, all during the team's championship run in the 1980s. ESPN 300 prospect Al Blades Jr., whose late father, Al Sr., and two uncles played at Miami, recently committed to sign in the Class of 2018.

Many other legacy players across the country have also chosen to play where their fathers did, highlighted in recent years by Christian McCaffrey, Barry J. Sanders and Marlon Humphrey.

The list is long, and the questions the players get are always the same. Rather than feel any pressure to match or surpass what their fathers did, the seven players interviewed for this piece described a sense of love, tradition and familiarity, as well as the idea that the place where Dad set his footsteps is the only place that feels like home.

"Why are they saying my name, dad?"

Every player whose father played big-time football has an a-ha moment when he realizes his dad is more than just ... Dad. For Miami tight end Michael Irvin II, the moment happened when he was a youngster, when he was in the car with his NFL Hall of Fame father.

"We were driving, and he had a Mercedes. He had the top down, and people were screaming, 'Michael! Michael! Michael!' And I asked him, 'Why are they saying my name, dad?' And he said, 'You're a superstar!'"

When young Michael got home and relayed the story to his mother, she broke the news to him.

"They were saying your dad's name," she told him.

Puzzled, Michael asked why. "Your dad is a famous football player."

Kirk Johnson and Collin Johnson knew that their dad, Johnnie, played football at Texas in the late 1970s. But they did not realize what a remarkable player he was until 2007, when Johnnie took his family with him to New York to attend the College Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

"Seeing the way my dad was treated and seeing his Hall of Fame plaque and hearing his name called out on the stage, it was unreal," Collin Johnson said. "That's when my eyes were opened, and I'm sure Kirk's and my whole family as well."

At a banquet that weekend, then-Texas coach Mack Brown made an even bigger impression. As Johnnie Johnson recalls it, Brown told the audience, "I want you to know that all three of the Johnson kids have standing scholarship offers to the University of Texas, and they can play any sport they want to play." That included daughter Camille.

"I can't tell you the impact he had on our family," Johnnie Johnson said. "Those comments Coach Brown made in that public setting, that planted a seed."

But he also knew his children had to work for those scholarships, and he continued to teach them the intangibles that he said make athletes successful.

Kirk Johnson ended up a four-star running back in the Class of 2015. Collin Johnson was rated an ESPN 300 receiver in the Class of 2016. This fall, Camille will join her brothers at Texas as a javelin thrower on the track and field team.

"It's just something in our blood"

Kirk Johnson's favorite color is orange. It has been that way since he was 3 years old.

Although they might not have recognized their dads as famous football players until they got older, with television sets tuned to their fathers' alma maters on Saturdays, these legacy players knew exactly where their loyalties stood at an early age.

"Ever since I really knew what football was, I always wanted to put on burnt orange and play for Texas," Kirk Johnson said.

That idea grew after Texas won the national championship in 2005.

"When they won the national championship, we were jumping all over the living room," Collin Johnson said. "Me and Kirk instantly envisioned ourselves playing on that stage at UT."

For Tennessee defensive back Todd Kelly Jr., memories of watching the Volunteers on Saturdays remain vivid. His father played at Tennessee in the early 1990s and settled down in the Knoxville area. The family had season tickets, so until Kelly became a recruit, he had been to every Tennessee home game.

As one of the top prospects in the nation in the Class of 2014, he took multiple official visits to other campuses, including Alabama, Florida and Georgia. But Todd Jr. couldn't find a better place than the one in his backyard. He has three teammates whose fathers also played at Tennessee.

"With the Kelly Jr. on the back of my jersey, it meant a lot to my family, my friends," Todd Jr. said. "Playing for Tennessee each and every year, I know how much it means because I used to sit on the couch and watch the boys playing every Saturday. Just to know there are kids looking up to me like I looked up to the former players means a lot, and that's why I work hard for Tennessee every day."

Al Blades Jr. lost his father in a car accident when he was 3 years old, but there was no way he would grow up without Miami in his life. Not only did his uncles Bennie and Brian play at Miami, but his large, extended family also remains in South Florida and continues to root on the Canes.

"It's just something in our blood, not something they forced down your throat," Al Jr. said. "Whenever a UM game was on, you were just there watching it. You don't really realize that you're being groomed to become a diehard Cane, but at the end of the day, that's what it becomes."

"... the odds are against players that go to their dad's school"

Family names are impossible to ignore, and that becomes harder for legacy players as they begin playing football and get recruited. Imagine the pressure when outsiders automatically expect you to be a carbon copy of your famous parent.

"Of course, there was a lot of extra pressure," Michael Irvin II said. "I would have liked to have gone and seen a bunch more places, but some of them didn't offer me because they thought, 'Oh, he's going to Miami.' Everybody was telling me, 'Oh, we can't wait to see you at Miami.'"

Patrick Bethel had a similar experience when he started the recruiting process. He piled up offers from Alabama, Tennessee, Clemson and dozens of others as an ESPN 300 defensive line prospect, but he would always hear: "You're going to Miami. Your dad went there."

Randy Bethel, who won national championships with Miami in 1987 and 1989, tried to stay out of his son's recruitment process. Patrick eventually chose his father's alma mater, but he insists that the decision was his alone.

"I almost got tired of hearing it. I was like, 'Dude, you're not in my head. You don't know what's going on.' Yeah, I knew he went here. It was very cool. He's got his two rings. He knows what it takes, but it's been both a blessing and a curse in terms of people bringing it up all the time. I don't know why it's so hard for people to believe it, but it wasn't much of a factor because I'm my own person."

Football in dark ages over homophobia

Football risks "being left in the dark ages" unless more is done to tackle homophobia in the game, ex-Wales rugby star Gareth Thomas has said.

Thomas came out as gay in 2009 after hiding his sexuality for years.

He admitted it almost drove him to suicide after his wife Jemma left him when he told her the truth.

Thomas said unless homophobia in football was "policed as stringently as racism is policed, then it will always be a problem".

Thursday marks 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality between men aged 21 and over in England and Wales.

The former Cardiff Blues player looked at the issue in a documentary for BBC Wales.

There have been no openly gay professional footballers in the top four divisions since former Norwich striker Justin Fashanu in 1990, who killed himself in 1998.

Thomas spoke to Amal Fashanu, Justin's niece, who made a documentary on the issue in 2012.

"In that five years, from talking to her, absolutely nothing has changed," he said.

A spokesman for the FA said the governing body was "committed to tackling homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in football at every level of the game".

Wales' governing body - the FAW - has been asked for comment.

In recent years, ex-Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger and former Leeds United and United States player Robbie Rogers have revealed they are gay.

Hitzlsperger had retired and Rogers plays in the US' Major League Soccer.

In 2015, 2% of UK men identified as gay or bisexual but none of the approximately 5,000 professional footballers have publicly come out.

Thomas said they would be "walking into the unknown" as governing bodies had not done enough "to create an environment for a player to feel like he can be himself".

While great efforts have been made to tackle racism, Thomas said homophobia was not treated as seriously.

He spoke to a steward who had thrown out a fan for using racist language and asked him if he would have done the same had he used a gay slur.

"His honest answer, which is the truth of it, was very much the case he doubts it would have been," he said.

While those throughout the game have supported efforts to rid football of racism, Thomas said "you'll struggle to get a single player to openly talk about his support against homophobia because he stands the backlash of guilt by association.

"It does feel like football is not ready for it. If a player is ready it could be a great success or it could be a great disaster.

"I think they need reassurance that everything will be OK and they'll be judged on their footballing ability and not their sexuality."

The FA said it worked with leagues, LGBT clubs and campaign groups to sanction and educate perpetrators of abuse and encouraged "players to be themselves and support their teammates to do likewise".

Thomas said while there was "no excuse" for homophobic language, he thought some fans singing anti-gay chants felt "they can be somebody who, on the outside of that stadium, would be somebody that they might look down their nose at".

He believes change must come from the top of the game: "Unless football wants to be left behind in the dark ages then it has to [improve].

"But until it's policed as stringently as racism is policed, then it will always be a problem."

Football on front foot to halt junior decline

A number of initiatives are being put in place to stop the drop in teenagers playing football in the South West.

On Wednesday, July 12 a meeting was held between senior and junior football stakeholders to address a decline in junior football, which has seen the number of teams from Year 7 to Year 11 in the South West Junior Football League drop from 51 teams in 2012 to 42.

The most alarming drop has been in the Year 11 competition, which has gone from 10 teams to just four.

South West Football League executive Shaun Quaife, one of the driving forces behind the meeting, said the attendance of more than 50 people showed there was concern for the sport in the region.

"The clubs as well as junior and senior associations are genuinely concerned," he said.

"There is a sense of urgency from the clubs that we really need to address this."

A number of plans and initiatives have already been put in place since the meeting, including having more footballs at training.

Each club is also set to appoint a coaching coordinator ahead of next season to support the junior coaches.

"There needs to be more support and up-skilling of our junior coaches," Quaife said.

"We need to provide more engaging training to keep them working on their football skills."

Quaife said only half the junior players made the transition to senior football.

He said the stakeholders were aiming to increase that to 70 per cent

"If you look at it in terms of a Statewide issue, well we are no worse off than any other competition, but we really want to address it," Quaife said.

"We have strong numbers coming from our Year 8 teams and we want to address this. We need to provide a more engaging package so they stay in football."

Another meeting is set to be held in August.

How much Alabama football players spent in first year of unlimited meals

Much was made about the 2014 NCAA ruling to allow unlimited food for scholarship athletes.

It certainly added value to a full ride while adding to expenses. How much and who ate the most became clear when the 2015-16 NCAA budget information was collected.

According to the document Alabama filed with the NCAA, those meals and snacks cost a total of $838,187 (or 0.58 percent of the department's total expenses).

The NCAA document also provided a snapshot of who ran up the highest bill. And it should not be a surprise.

The Crimson Tide football team accounted for 61.2 percent of the money spent on meals.

The total: $512,656.

Alabama's men's basketball team wasn't far behind in the per-athlete spending. The 12 scholarship players on Avery Johnson's team got an average of $5,725 per player.

For football, that number was $6,031 per athlete.

These totals don't account for meals on the road traveling to games.

Several teams had scholarship totals redacted, making it impossible to calculate the per-player cost. Golf spent the least on the men's side at $6,299 total -- a shade higher than the average football player spent alone.

The men's teams spent $677,088 compared to $161,099 for the women's squads.

"Unlimited snacks? That sounds like good thing," Alabama linebacker Denzel Devall said about the rule when it passed in 2014. "I'm all for it."

A full team-by-team breakdown of how much was spent on unlimited food in 2015-16.

Men's teams	Total	% of total	Schol. athletes	Per athlete
Baseball	$32,485	3.9%	28	$1,160
Basketball	$68,700	8.2%	12	$5,725
Football	$512,656	61.2%	85	$6,031
Golf	$6,299	0.8%	Redacted	n/a
Swim/dive	$28,899	3.4%	29	$997
Tennis	$11,176	1.3%	Redacted	n/a
Track/XC	$16,873	2.0%	28	$603
Women's teams
Basketball	$5,713	0.7%	Redacted	n/a
Golf	$3,595	0.4%	Redacted	n/a
Gymnastics	$13,117	1.6%	Redacted	n/a
Rowing	$42,170	5.0%	37	$1,140
Soccer	$17,379	2.1%	24	$724
Softball	$14,277	1.7%	Redacted	n/a
Swim/dive	$28,497	3.4%	32	$891
Tennis	$5,754	0.7%	Redacted	n/a
Track/XC	$17,073	2.0%	43	$397
Volleyball	$13,524	1.6%	Redacted	n/a

Tyreek Hill headed for expanded Year 2 role in Kansas City

Chiefs coach Andy Reid gave Fantasy owners another reason to be excited about Tyreek Hill heading into the 2017 season when he said at the Pro Bowl that Hill is headed for more work.

Hill already caught our attention after he played well in his rookie year as a receiver, running back and return man, and he finished as the No. 20 Fantasy receiver in standard leagues. He only averaged 26 snaps on offense in 2016, but Reid said he's ready for more.

"Maybe he can double that or at least take it up a couple notches and allow him to get in more in a starting role," Reid said on SiriusXM NFL Radio during the Pro Bowl. "We use him a lot on special teams, obviously. When he came to us, that's what we originally thought we had. He then said, ‘Listen, I can do this offensive thing.' He's innately a smart kid. We kept adding to it, and he got it. I'd expect him to learn that whole (playbook) by the end of all the OTAs and training camp and then be even more of a threat."

Fantasy owners would love to see that happen for Hill. Despite his limited role, Hill still had 61 catches for 593 yards and six touchdowns on 83 targets and 24 carries for 267 yards and three touchdowns. He also added 14 kickoff returns for 384 yards and one touchdown and 39 punt returns for 592 yards and two touchdowns, and his role as a return man earned him a trip to the Pro Bowl.

Hill was electric in his rookie campaign, and he was actually clocked as the fastest player in the NFL in 2016, according to NFL.com. He had the two fastest plays of the season when he got up to 23.24 mph in Week 2 on a 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown at Houston and 22.77 mph in Week 12 on an 86-yard punt return for a touchdown at Denver.

Now, imagine Hill touching the ball more on offense. That idea excites Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith, who was with Hill at the Pro Bowl.

"He's obviously an extremely unique player," Smith said in an interview with CBS Sports. "He has so many strengths and can do so many different things. We'll build on it, and we have time this offseason to look at it. You have to balance it. You want to have him out there as much as possible, but you don't want to wear him thin. Obviously, he's a guy that you want out there as much as possible because any time he touches the football he has that play-making ability."

Hill ended up being a good Fantasy option by the end of the season, although he was touchdown dependent. He scored double digits in Fantasy points in four of his final six games, but he scored in all four of those outings.

Over those six games, Hill touched the ball an average of just 6.5 times with 25 total catches and 14 total carries. He did have 37 targets over that span, but he only averaged 5.2 targets per game for the season. And he had just seven games with more than five targets in 2016.

As Reid said, the goal is to get Hill more involved, and he had seven games where he had at least six touches last season. He averaged 10 Fantasy points in a standard league over that span, including five games with at least eight points.

That's the player Fantasy owners will be looking for when they invest in Hill in 2017, but Reid said even as a starter, Hill will remain more of a niche player than a featured receiver or running back. Reid said not to expect Hill to dominate touches at running back given his size (5-foot-10, 185 pounds) because of the blocking responsibilities.

The Chiefs could have a need at running back with Jamaal Charles, 30, coming off knee issues and not a lock to return to Kansas City, and Spencer Ware was ineffective as a starter. But Hill is not the answer, according to Reid.

"He's not real big -- he's not over 200 pounds," Reid said in the Kansas City Star. "To ask him to do that ... I don't think that's where you're going to make your living with him."

Hill needs to improve as a receiver in his sophomore campaign and continue to be the No. 2 option behind tight end Travis Kelce, who had 85 catches for 1,125 yards and four touchdowns on 117 targets. But there are two factors to consider with Hill when it comes to his situation as a receiver with the Chiefs.

The first is in regards to Jeremy Maclin, who was miserable in 2016 with 44 catches for 530 yards and two touchdowns on 76 targets in 12 games. Maclin had 87 catches for 1,088 yards and eight touchdowns on 124 targets in 2015 and could get back to that level or close to it, which would impact Hill.

And the other factor with Hill is Smith and this passing game. The Chiefs aren't going to open up the offense with Smith, so this passing game will always have a low ceiling. It could be hard for Kelce, Hill and Maclin to all post dominant stats without some game-breaking plays, which is where Hill has an edge. He had seven catches and three carries of 20-plus yards, and clearly his speed is a difference-maker the Chiefs would like to exploit.

Is answer to athletic director instability making more familiar hires?

There is newfound stability in the ACC head-coaching ranks, a nod to not only the high-quality hires who have come into the league, but also the idea that these programs are no longer viewed as "stepping-stone" jobs.

Where the turnover has come is on the athletic director level. During the past year, four athletic directors have departed for other jobs. Three spent three years or less in the ACC. Two spent less than two years in the ACC.

There is one thread that ties most together: Each cited a desire to be in a much more familiar place. When Mark Coyle left Syracuse for Minnesota after just 11 months on the job, he gave family reasons. Mike Bobinski left Georgia Tech for Purdue to get back to his roots in the Midwest. Scott Barnes left Pitt for Oregon State to be closer to family and his native Pacific Northwest. The only outlier is Boston College athletic director Brad Bates, who announced Monday that he was stepping down to join a consulting firm based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

What followed the Coyle and Bobinski departures was another similar thread. To fill the open jobs at Georgia Tech and Syracuse, the schools turned to alums with long-standing ties to their respective universities. The Jackets hired Todd Stansbury, and the Orange hired John Wildhack. Pitt is still looking to replace Barnes, while Boston College must find an AD who understands where the Eagles fit into the landscape given a much smaller athletic budget.

A trend appears to be forming, especially when you begin looking a little bit deeper. Going back to 2013, seven athletic directors have been hired in the ACC. Four had ties to either the university or area where they landed. All four remain in those jobs today: Blake James at Miami and Whit Babcock at Virginia Tech join Stansbury and Wildhack in that category. In all, six ACC athletic directors had previous ties to their respective programs.

So is this all a coincidence? Or is there a growing trend toward hiring athletic directors with program ties as a way to gain stability and the nuance needed to address the unique challenges that face every athletic department?

"I don't know if that's the trend, but I think what institutions hope for is that stability, and when you have that, a lot of times you're hiring somebody who is familiar," Barnes said. "For us, we want this to be a destination place. There are all types of reasons we think it is. Is it a trend? Every institution has a different view, but I do believe that a lot of folks are looking for leadership, continuity and stability."

Stansbury also described Georgia Tech as a destination job. He departed Oregon State after just 15 months because the pull of his alma mater was too strong. (In what is absolutely a coincidence, Barnes replaced him at Oregon State.) Stansbury not only played football at Georgia Tech in the 1980s, he learned under athletic director Homer Rice, one of his first mentors in the business.

"I just knew that if I passed on it this time, it may never come back around again," Stansbury said. "That's what it really came down to. If I'm going to do it, now's the time, and this has been the goal all along. I remember the day I left and walked out of the athletic department, and so the day I walked back in 22 years later was a pretty surreal experience."

The most dramatic exit belongs to Coyle, who took the Minnesota job while the ACC spring meetings were going on last May. Football coach Dino Babers was caught so off guard, he had no idea what to say. Wildhack brings the complete opposite profile to the table: a Syracuse loyalist who remained close to the program during his many years working at ESPN.

Though he never worked in an athletic department previously, many of the skills Wildhack used to negotiate deals and lead his various teams at ESPN have translated perfectly to his new job. His ability to understand what makes Syracuse run has been instrumental as well.

"I did do my due diligence and research on this," Wildhack said. "While it's certainly a place I care about a lot, I wanted to make sure that if I do this, we can have the success that we all want. One of the things I've tried to do is take some of that culture at ESPN and instill it here. The staff has been very receptive to that."

Stansbury described another added benefit to being at his destination job: a different view to future planning.

"It's the end of the road, so your purview changes a little bit," Stansbury said. "You're at a place where this is where you plan to stay for the rest of your career, and I think it does make you a little more reflective on the decisions that you make today. You are the one who's going to inherit them down the road, so you want to make sure you're making good decisions."

To be sure, there is not one cookie-cutter formula that works, and where a Power 5 program rates has plenty to do with the job applicant pool. Fresh perspectives are welcome, too, especially at programs where new vision and direction are needed.

But in these specific cases, it's completely understandable why so many of these programs opted for somebody with long-standing ties. Especially since an athletic director's job increasingly relies on fundraising and tapping into the community and alums for more and more support.

It has worked for Miami. James got his very first job working in ticket sales at Miami. Before he was elevated to athletic director, Miami went through two athletic directors over a four-year span. Now, the Hurricanes have much-needed stability at the top.

In the end, that's what any athletic department wants. Someone familiar with the fabric of a university's culture may be better suited for the job.

LSU seeks edge rushers during Arden Key's absence

Although LSU expects defensive end Arden Key to return to the active roster before the 2017 season begins -- probably this summer -- his indefinite absence will create uncertainty for the Tigers this spring.

Without Key, who set a school record with 12 sacks last season, or 2016 seniors Tashawn Bower and Lewis Neal, who can defensive coordinator Dave Aranda count on to supply a steady pass rush off the edge?

This is most likely a temporary concern. Key will rank among the nation's top pass-rushers once he returns, whenever that may be. The school announced last week that its star junior will spend time away from the team to tend to personal matters, with head coach Ed Orgeron adding that he looks forward "to welcoming him back home to the Tiger family at the appropriate time."

In the meantime, Orgeron and Aranda can offer extra practice reps to the contenders at a spot that has no proven performers behind Key. Here are some of the players who should get a long look this spring:

Andre Anthony: The 2016 ESPN 300 honoree is one of LSU's more intriguing contenders because we have yet to see what he can do. The NCAA ruled Anthony ineligible last season in a dispute over his academic transcript from New Orleans' Miller-McCoy Academy, which shut down in 2015. Anthony was on campus all of last season and was finally cleared to participate by bowl practice last December.

Sci Martin: The resemblance between Key's game and Martin's was a big reason why Martin was such a big get when he officially joined LSU's 2016 recruiting class more than a month after national signing day. Listed at 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, Martin is not quite as rangy as Key (6-6, 238), but he's close. Martin got a taste of SEC competition last season, participating in five games and making two tackles. He should be in line for a lot more action this fall.

Ray Thornton: Thornton redshirted last season after signing with LSU as the No. 61 overall prospect on the 2016 ESPN 300. He turned heads with his performances in practice late last year, though, and could compete for a starting role this season. Listed at 6-3 and a chiseled 222 pounds, Thornton already looks like someone who can contribute in a hybrid end-outside linebacker role in Aranda's defense. This spring we'll see whether he can continue his progress from late last fall.

Isaiah Washington: Don't sleep on Washington, whose first two seasons at LSU were impacted by injuries. He missed the beginning of the 2015 season after breaking his hand during preseason camp but later appeared in six games, notching three tackles plus a forced fumble against Ole Miss. A preseason knee injury knocked him out of the 2016 season, but he should be good to go this spring.

More help is on the way, too.

Signee K'Lavon Chaisson will not be on campus for spring practice, but he could make an instant impact in this department once he arrives in the summer. Orgeron mentioned several times on national signing day that Chaisson was the top pass-rusher in the 2017 class, and the No. 34 overall prospect on the ESPN 300 seems able to do many of the things that make Key so dangerous.

Once the Tigers are able to team up Key and Chaisson on the edge, their pass rush might give opposing quarterbacks nightmares. But LSU is not to that point yet, and this spring will offer their position mates an opportunity to carve out roles for themselves too.

What to know about new Alabama offensive coordinator Brian Daboll

Nick Saban took his time finding his new offensive coordinator at Alabama.

Brian Daboll will be Saban's third coordinator in three months.

On Monday -- nearly two weeks after Steve Sarkisian surprised everyone by becoming the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons -- Saban announced that Daboll, the former New England Patriots assistant, will be Bama's OC.

Daboll, 41, has an interesting resume, replete with five Super Bowl wins.

To get you better acquainted with the Canadian-born former defensive back, here are four factors to consider:

1. He's a graduate of the Saban-Belichick coaching tree

Of the many interesting things Lane Kiffin said on his way out the door as Alabama's OC, his comments about how he might not have been the best fit personality-wise with Saban were interesting. It was an admission that, yes, Kiffin and Saban butted heads from time to time. And watching them from afar, it was easy to see that in their three years together, they never quite figured out how to deal with one another.

But that learning curve shouldn't be such an issue with Daboll. The fact is that he and Saban are cut from the same cloth.

Daboll got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant in 1998 at Michigan State, where Saban was the head coach, and credits him as an important career influence. Daboll spent the 1998 and 1999 seasons in East Lansing before Saban left to become the head coach at LSU. But in the process of moving on, Saban helped get Daboll a job with Patriots coach Bill Belichick, one of Saban's closest friends in coaching.

Belichick and Saban had worked together with the Cleveland Browns, and Belichick hired Daboll as a defensive assistant coach in 2000 and later promoted him to wide receivers coach in 2002. He spent a total of 11 seasons in two stints in New England before accepting the job at Alabama.

2. He left the Patriots in 2007 for a reason

When Sarkisian left Alabama, one of the primary questions about what to do with the vacant OC position was whether to target a candidate who had a wealth of quarterback experience. Jalen Hurts played remarkably well as a true freshman last season, but he struggled throwing the ball down the stretch and could have benefited from a coach with a strong history of developing quarterbacks.

Daboll, for better or worse, is not necessarily that guy. He isn't a former QB, which Sarkisian and Kiffin are. Instead, he was a safety at the University of Rochester and coached the defensive side of the ball until Belichick moved him to receivers coach in 2002.

But it's important to note why he left New England after the 2006 season. It wasn't just to follow fellow Patriots assistant Eric Mangini to the Jets. Daboll wanted to build his resume working with quarterbacks as well.

During his first season with the Jets, he had to navigate starting two quarterbacks when Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens combined to throw for 15 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. The next year, however, Daboll was able to work with future Hall of Famer Brett Favre.

Although Daboll didn't work hands-on with Tom Brady during his time in New England, having that level of proximity to a quarterback many already consider the best of all time can't hurt in his new role as coordinator and QB coach of the Crimson Tide.

3. He was an offensive coordinator three times

Judging harshly, you could say that Daboll has been a failure as a coordinator in the NFL. In his four seasons as offensive coordinator with the Browns, Dolphins and Chiefs, his teams ranked 29th, 31st, 20th and 32nd in scoring.

But that's not the entire picture, of course.

The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, and you have to look at who he had to work with at the position. In Cleveland, it was Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson one year, and Colt McCoy and Jake Delhomme the next. Daboll had Matt Moore and Chad Henne in Miami, and Matt Cassel and Quinn in Kansas City.

What's more, Daboll wasn't equipped with much skill elsewhere. His most productive receivers were Mohamed Massaquoi, Brandon Marshall and Dwayne Bowe.

4. He knows about running the football

If you're one of the many disgruntled Alabama fans starving for a return to a more consistent running game, we've saved the best for last. If there's one takeaway from Daboll's time in the NFL, it's his willingness to rush the football.

Most recently with the Patriots, in addition to coaching tight ends, he and offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia helped coordinate a running game that relied on a number of backs through the years, including LeGarrette Blount, Jonas Gray and Dion Lewis.

But even before that, as an offensive coordinator, Daboll liked to feature running backs. With the Browns, Jerome Harrison and Peyton Hillis had productive years. And with the Dolphins and Chiefs, Reggie Bush and Jamaal Charles each rushed for more than 1,000 yards.

Police charge woman with falsely reporting rape by 2 Sacred Heart football players

A New York woman is facing charges after police say she confessed to lying about being raped by two football players from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, because of fears a third student would lose romantic interest in her.

Nikki Yovino of South Setauket, New York, has been charged with falsely reporting an incident and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

The 18-year-old Yovino said two football players sexually assaulted her in a bathroom in October during an off-campus party.

The men said it was consensual.

Capt. Brian Fitzgerald told WABC-TV that another student informed authorities of explicit text messages among the three. He says one man also recorded some of the incident on his cellphone.

Yovino's lawyer, Mark Sherman, told The Connecticut Post that he hadn't seen the arrest warrant affidavit, and his client stands by her original story.

The Connecticut Post also reported that the students were dismissed from the team, stripped of their scholarships and had withdrawn from the school, but Sacred Heart provided a conflicting report in a statement.

"The federal Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act prevents us from providing information about specific students. However, I can say that some of the early information that was released is inaccurate. Sacred Heart never expelled the two students nor was any student stripped of scholarships because of any allegations," Deb Noack, Sacred Heart University's director of communications, said in the statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.