Kris Jenkins is 6'3" 285lb senior defensive tackle. He was a 3 star prospect from Olney Maryland back in the 2020 class, he chose us over offers from Penn State, Virginia Tech, Iowa and Sparty among others. He played tight end and defensive end in HS making plenty of highlights, but Michigan saw a lot of potential in him as a run stuffer and moved him to DT.
He is one of the special dudes Harbaugh refers to as a "football guy", you can always see how genuinely happy and excited playing football makes Kris, he's living his best life!
He certainly had the opportunity to go to the NFL, but chose to return for 2023 for "unfinished business". His dad, Kris Jenkins SR, was a really good player in the NFL for a long time, same goes for his uncle Cullen Jenkins. Our guy clearly comes from a football family and now he is getting talked about as a potential first round pick for next year!
"At the end of the day, this place feels home to me. The culture we have here with the coaches, my teammates the players, the fans even, this whole place feels like home to me. It didn't feel like anything was wrong with coming back here for one last time. Continuing to grind with my boys and get after it, we love what we do here. They make me really love being here, I just love being here." @ kjj_18 on IG, give the man a follow!
He made his first appearance in 2020, but it would be the 2021 and 2022 seasons where Kris would really make a name for himself as an immovable object plugging up rushing lanes. I have slimmed down his logs from mgoblue to give you just the highlights:
Sophomore (2021) • Appeared in all 14 games with four starts along the defensive line; made 22 tackles including a shared tackle for loss, and one quarterback hurry to earn his second varsity letter • Played along the defensive line against Western Michigan (Sept. 4) • Against Washington (Sept. 11), made five tackles (one solo) with a shared tackle for loss playing along the defensive line • Made his first career start against Northern Illinois (Sept. 18) and was credited with one assisted tackle • Started at the end spot against Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game (Dec. 4) and contributed four tackles • Credited with seven tackles playing along the defensive line against Georgia in the Capital One Orange Bowl/CFP Semifinal (Dec. 31)
Junior (2022) • Started all 14 games at defensive tackle; led all defensive linemen with 54 tackles and added 3.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and two quarterback hurries to earn his third varsity letter • All-Big Ten selection (honorable mention, coaches and media) • On five occasions, shared Defensive Player of the Week honors for his performances against UConn, Penn State, Michigan State, at Iowa, Illinois • Made two solo tackles, including a sack, in a start against Colorado State (Sept. 3) • Started at end against UConn (Sept. 17) and led the defense with five tackles (three solo) • Had a five-tackle day starting along the interior against Maryland (Sept. 24) • Contributed three stops starting at Iowa (Oct. 1) • Started against Penn State (Oct. 15) and made four tackles (one solo) from the interior • Registered one TFL among five stops in a start against Michigan State (Oct. 29) • Delivered three solo tackles inclduing a five-yard sack at Rutgers (Nov. 5) • Notched five tackles starting on the interior against Illinois (Nov. 19) • Led all defensive linemen with five tackles (three solo) at Ohio State (Nov. 26) • Made two tackles against Purdue in the Big Ten Championship (Dec. 3) • Notched four tackles against TCU in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl/CFP Semifinal (Dec. 31)
As you can see, Kris was a huge contributor to our success last year, dude had multiple run stuffs in literally every single game so I had to do some editing lmao! You can find the full logs in the first link.
So, where do things go from here for Kris? The former Academic All-Big Ten honoree ('21) wants to get his degree, win his 3rd Big Ten Championship and capture that elusive National Title!
A couple things you may not know about Kris, he's one of five players who are featured on our new NBC intro for games on their network (along w Corum, Edwards, McCarthy, Sainristil), and he also featured in the super bowl commercial for Mike Morse (along w Morris, Colson, Oluwatimi, Keegan).
This is part of a series breaking down Michigan players for 2023, if you want to check out the previous post about Alex Orji you can at the link here.

Baylor Baylor @ Iowa State Iowa State
Game Start Time: 12:00 PM ET
Location: Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, IA
Watch: FOX
Baylor Baylor

Total Passing Yards	Total Rushing Yards	Total Yards	Interceptions Lost	Fumbles Lost	Field Goals	Time of Possession	Timeouts
322 yards	36 yards	358 yards	0	0	1/1	13:52	2

Iowa State Iowa State

Total Passing Yards	Total Rushing Yards	Total Yards	Interceptions Lost	Fumbles Lost	Field Goals	Time of Possession	Timeouts
0 yards	278 yards	278 yards	1	2	1/1	14:08	3

Drive Summary
away for 24 yards in 57 seconds ending in punt
home for -1 yards in 33 seconds ending in turnover
away for 14 yards in 66 seconds ending in field_goal
home for 2 yards in 43 seconds ending in punt
away for 45 yards in 105 seconds ending in turnover
home for 73 yards in 51 seconds ending in touchdown
away for 18 yards in 92 seconds ending in punt
home for -5 yards in 44 seconds ending in punt
away for 82 yards in 186 seconds ending in touchdown
home for 0 yards in 12 seconds ending in punt
away for 5 yards in 7 seconds ending in end_half
home for 64 yards in 240 seconds ending in field_goal
away for 49 yards in 120 seconds ending in turnover
home for 53 yards in 114 seconds ending in turnover
away for 14 yards in 42 seconds ending in turnover
home for 24 yards in 64 seconds ending in touchdown
away for 80 yards in 83 seconds ending in touchdown
home for 43 yards in 119 seconds ending in turnover
away for 3 yards in 15 seconds ending in end_half
away for 25 yards in 0 seconds ending in touchdown

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Total
Iowa State	7	0	3	7	6	23
Baylor	3	6	0	8	7	24

Game thread
Plays

Game complete, Baylor wins!

Source: https://iphone-gratuit.net/blog/good-times-2023-18/
More Memes at :
https://rextester.com/RVZEZ68067
https://yamcode.com/bidens-state-dinner-is-more-than-just-a-state-dinner-update-2
https://yamcode.com/judge-devin-nunes-not-defamed-by-esquires-iowa-farm-story-update-5

1: University of Illinois 2: University of Georgia 2: University of Iowa 4: University of Florida 5: University of Alabama 6: Indiana University - Bloomington 7: BYU 8: UNC 8: University of Texas at Austin 10: William & Mary 11: Ohio State 12: University of Minnesota 13: University of Wisconsin 14: Temple University
If you too want to manipulate the data and talk about how "USWNR is overrated", go to yourrankings.org/dynamic-ranking-2
I'll post again once I finish a few final updates to the site and the system, but ive put a good 100 hours into what was supposed to be a tiny pet project, over the last month, and a longer post now would just be incoherent ranting.
In short, I overhauled the hopefully-helpful tool I made about a month ago, and it can now do a bunch of cool new stuff, from location filtering, dynamic ranking by three-year averages, detailed financial info, and a streamlined UI. Still a work in progres, but hopefully yall continue to find it helpful!
Full shiny new site at Yourrankings.org

A terrifying movie or book or show gets your blood pumping in the moment of consumption, sure—we covered our eyes in Squid Game with the rest of the world. But for the most part, you rest easy afterward knowing that what you've witnessed is fiction, deliberately spun up to creep you out. When the real world gets eerier than anything Stephen King could dream up, that's when you have every right to get a little scared of the dark.
Once in a while, a story of a dreadful disappearance, demonic possession, or devil worship will land in the local paper instead of a pulpy old paperback. We've rounded up the most unnerving real-life tales below. In honor of spooky season, here are eleven we can't stop thinking about.

The Axe Murder House

The Villisca Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa is a well-known tourist attraction for ghost hunters and horror lovers alike. The site of a gruesome unsolved 1912 murder, in which six children and two adults had their skulls completely crushed by the axe of an unknown perpetrator, was purchased in 1994, restored to its 1912 condition, and converted into a tourist destination. It costs $428 a night to stay at the old haunted home, where visitors always report strange paranormal experiences, such as visions of a man with an axe roaming the halls or the faint screams of children.
But in November of 2014, the haunting took a darker turn. Robert Steven Laursen Jr., 37, of Rhinelander, Wisconsin was on a regular recreational paranormal visit with friends when true horror struck. Per VICE:

His companions found him stabbed in the chest—an apparently self-inflicted wound—called 9-1-1, and Laursen was brought to a nearby hospital before being helicoptered to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said Laursen suffered the self-inflicted injury at about 12:45 a.m., which is around the same time the 1912 axe murders in the house began.
Laursen recovered from his injuries, but has never spoken publicly about what occurred that day. For Martha Linn, the owner of the home, the incident was very upsetting. "It's publicity, but it's not exactly the kind of publicity you desire to have. I don't want people thinking that when they come to the Villisca Axe Murder House something's going to happen that's going to make them do something like that.” The house remains open for tourist visits and overnight stays today.
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The Haunted Doll

When you think of haunted dolls, it’s likely the creepy old Victorian-looking porcelain kind that springs to mind. None of which you probably have laying around. Still, don’t get too comfortable around any kids toys too soon, though: a Disney’s Frozen Elsa doll that was gifted for Christmas 2013 in the Houston area made headlines earlier this year when it seemingly became haunted.
Per KPRC2 Houston News:

The doll recited phrases from the movie Frozen and sang “Let It Go” when a button on its necklace was pressed.
“For two years it did that in English,” mother Emily Madonia said. “In 2015, it started doing it alternating between Spanish and English. There wasn’t a button that changed these, it was just random."
The family has owned the doll for more than six years and never changed its batteries. The mother says the doll would randomly begin to speak and sing even with its switch turned off.

The family decided to throw the creepy doll out in December of 2019. Weeks later, they found it inside a bench in their living room. “The kids insisted they didn’t put it there, and I believed them because they wouldn’t have dug through the garbage outside,” Madonia told KPRC2 Houston News.

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At that point, Elsa ceased to sing the English rendition of “Let It Go” altogether, speaking only Spanish when pressed. The family then double-bagged the bizarre doll and placed it at the bottom of their garbage which was taken out on garbage day. They went on a trip shortly after, but when they returned, Elsa too had come back, and was waiting in the backyard of their home.
This time, the family mailed Elsa to a family friend in Minnesota, who taped the haunted doll to the front bumper of his truck. It doesn’t seem to have made its way back to Houston yet, as per Madonia’s latest February Facebook update on the creepy doll.

A Deadly Exorcism

In August 2016 in North London, 26-year-old Kennedy Ife began acting strange and aggressive following a pain in his throat. He reportedly bit his father, threatened to cut off his own penis, and complained of a python or snake inside of him before his family restrained him to a bed with cable ties and excessive force.
As the BBC reported:

“The family then set about attempting to ‘cure’ Kennedy through restraint and prayer over the next three days, the court was told.”

His brother, Colin Ife, told police:

“It’s clear that thing was in him, what we believed was a demon because it was not natural. It was clearly trying to kill him,” he said.
“We had to restrain him for himself. It was clear if we didn’t restrain him, he could have tried to harm people in our family.”

Kennedy Ife had been bound to his bed for three days without medical attention when his brother called emergency services, explaining that Kennedy Ife was complaining of dehydration. He appeared to have developed breathing issues, and was pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m.
As The Independent reported:

While police were at the house Colin Ife allegedly carried out an “attempted resurrection” by chanting and praying for Mr. Ife.

All seven of Kennedy Ife’s family members were accused of manslaughter, false imprisonment, and causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult. A post-mortem examination revealed over 60 wounds including a possible bite on Kennedy Ife’s body, and his father, Kenneth Ife, along with four of his brothers, sustained injuries as well.
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The BBC reported:

Kenneth Ife told jurors he ordered his sons to take shifts and use "overwhelming force" but denied that an "association with cults, occults and secret societies" played any part in the death.

After a four day jury deliberation, all seven family members were cleared of charges on March 14, 2019.
📷Witches prepare themselves for a journey by broomstick to the Black Mountain, circa 1650. From a 17th century Dutch copperplate by Adrianus Hubertus.Hulton Archive

Dead Animals in the Walls

When the Bretzuis family decided to insulate their home in Auburn, Pennsylvania in 2015, they discovered that it had already been—with scores of dead animal carcasses.
As Fox reported:

The dead animals were wrapped in newspapers from the 1930s and 40s and were among half-used spices, and other items.
After removing the items they sent hundreds of artifacts and carcasses to an expert in Kutztown.

The expert attributed the rotting animals in their walls to Pow-wow or Dutch magic, a ritual originating in the culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch to treat ailments and gain physical and spiritual protection. The Pennsylvania Dutch were a group of German-speaking settlers to Pennsylvania in the 1600 and 1700’s, and are often of Lutheran, Mennonite, or Amish faiths.
The Washington Post notes on the magic:

Many of the spells deal with the care of livestock, finding water, or the treatment of minor ailments, reflecting the conditions and concerns of early American settlers.
But powwow also has within it a tradition of darker spells, and even of such things as conjuring demons.

One notable ritual in their tradition is this hex to create loyalty in a dog:

To attach a dog to a person, provided nothing else was used before to effect it: Try to draw some of your blood, and let the dog eat it along with his food, and he will stay with you.

The mold found on the rotting carcasses in the Bretzuis home has caused illness among the family members, and they say that the odor hasn’t gone away.
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Florida Devil Worshipping

Friends noticed that Danielle Harkins, a 35-year-old schoolteacher near St. Petersburg, Florida, started acting strangely in June of 2012, developing an interest in demonic rituals.
Soon after, she was arrested for abuse of seven of her former students, as the Tampa Bay Times reported:

Danielle Harkins told the kids they needed to rid their bodies of demons as the group gathered before dusk Saturday around a small fire near the St. Petersburg Pier. They should cut their skin to let the evil spirits out, police said she told the children. Then, they needed to burn the wounds to ensure that those spirits would not return.
When Harkins held a lighter to one teen's hand, wind blew the flame out, police said. That prompted her to douse his hand in perfume before setting it on fire. The boy suffered second-degree burns, police said.
Another teen was cut on the neck with a broken bottle, police said. Harkins used a flame to heat a small key, which she then used to cauterize the wound.

The police were notified because a friend of one of the students who participated in the ritual raised alarms. However none of the students themselves told their parents about the event or would comment following the arrest of Harkins for aggravated battery and child abuse.
NBC reported:

Investigators said they've spoken to Harkins, but she didn't spell out what type of religion would require such drastic measures.
"She hasn't informed us exactly what she was trying to accomplish with this," Puetz [of the St. Petersburg Police Department] said.

The Death of Elisa Lam

Elisa Lam was last seen on January 31, 2013 in the lobby of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. She was vacationing through the West Coast, documenting the trip on her blog, and checking in with her parents every day. On January 31 those calls stopped. Lam had vanished. Soon the police were involved and her parents arrived to help with the search.
They had nothing. That February, LAPD released elevator surveillance footage of Lam before her disappearance. The footage shows Lam behaving strangely in the elevator, appearing to talk with invisible people, peering around the corner of the door, crouching in the corner, and opening and closing the door. But what exactly is going on in this video raises more questions than answers. Theories range from psychotic episodes, to demonic possession, to unknown assailants just out of the camera's view:
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Around that time, hotel guests started reported weird things happening with the Cecil Hotel water supply. As CNN reports:
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"The shower was awful," said Sabina Baugh, who spent eight days there during the investigation. "When you turned the tap on, the water was coming black first for two seconds and then it was going back to normal."The tap water "tasted horrible," Baugh said. "It had a very funny, sweety, disgusting taste. It's a very strange taste. I can barely describe it."But for a week, they never complained. "We never thought anything of it," she said. "We thought it was just the way it was here."

On the morning of February 19, a hotel employee climbed to the roof and used a ladder to investigate the hotel's water storage tanks. That's where authorities found the decomposing, naked body of Lam, whose personal items were found nearby. After an autopsy, her death was labeled accidental. NBC Los Angeles reported at the time about the strange circumstances in the hotel's past:

The tank has a metal latch that can be opened, but authorities said access to the roof is secured with an alarm and lock.The single-room-occupancy hotel has an unusual history. "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, who was found guilty of 14 slayings in the 1980s, lived on the 14th floor for several months in 1985. And international serial killer Jack Unterweger is suspected of murdering three prostitutes during the time he lived there in 1991. He killed himself in jail in 1994.In 1962, a female occupant jumped out of one the hotel's windows, killing herself and a pedestrian on whom she landed.

In February 2021, a Netflix doc called Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel explored Elisa's tragic case and the history of the "cursed" Cecil Hotel.

An Exorcism in Indianapolis

Last year, the Indianapolis Star published a lengthy report on a family terrorized by three children allegedly possessed by demons. The account of Latoya Ammons and her family tells disturbing stories of children climbing up the walls, getting thrown across rooms, and children threatening doctors in deep unnatural voices. It would seem like something straight out of a movie–a work of fantasy, except all of these accounts were more or less corroborated with "nearly 800 pages of official records obtained by the Indianapolis Star and recounted in more than a dozen interviews with police, DCS personnel, psychologists, family members and a Catholic priest."
One of the more chilling sections of the report includes a segment about the possessed 9-year-old:

According to Washington's original DCS report—an account corroborated by Walker, the nurse—the 9-year-old had a "weird grin" and walked backward up a wall to the ceiling. He then flipped over Campbell, landing on his feet. He never let go of his grandmother's hand.

Another segment of the piece reads:

The 12-year-old would later tell mental health professionals that she sometimes felt as if she were being choked and held down so she couldn't speak or move. She said she heard a voice say she'd never see her family again and wouldn't live another 20 minutes.

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Utah Murder-Suicide

In September of 2014, a Utah teen returned to his home to find his parents and three siblings dead. "In a notebook, a 'to-do list' had been scribbled on the pages ... The list looked as if the parents were readying to go on vacation—items such as 'feed the pets' and 'find someone to watch after the house' were written," The Salt Lake Tribune reported. It appeared to be murder-suicide, but there was no suicide note, no prior indication that they would do this, no explanation. Police could not figure out why two parents would kill themselves and three of their four children.
For a year, no one knew exactly what happened to the family, or what would drive the parents to do something so unthinkable. In January, police released more chilling details in the case. According to accounts from family members and an investigation by police, the parents were driven by a belief that the apocalypse was coming and an obsession with a convicted killer. As the Washington Post reported:

Friends and family told police that the parents were worried about the "evil in the world" and wanted to escape a "pending apocalypse." But most assumed they just wanted to move somewhere "off the grid." Investigators also found letters written by Kristi Strack to one of the state's most infamous convicted killers, Dan Lafferty, who was convicted in the 1984 fatal stabbing of his sister-in-law and her 1-year-old daughter. According to trial testimony, he killed the victims at the order of his brother, Ron Lafferty, who claimed to have had a revelation from God. The story became a book called "Under the Banner of Heaven."Police said Kristi Strack became friends with Dan Lafferty, and she and her husband even visited him in prison.

The Phone Stalker

In 2007, ABC news documented a series of cell phone calls to families with terrifyingly specific death threats. The unidentified callers knew exactly what families were doing and what they were wearing.

The families say the calls come in at all hours of the night, threatening to kill their children, their pets and grandparents. Voice mails arrive, playing recordings of their private conversations, including one with a local police detective.The caller knows, the families said, what they're wearing and what they're doing. And after months of investigating, police seem powerless to stop them.

This went on with the Kuykenall family for months, who reported a caller with a scratchy voice threatening to slit their throats.

When the Fircrest, Wash., police tried to find the culprit, the calls were traced back to the Kuykendalls' own phones -- even when they were turned off.It got worse. The Kuykendalls and two other Fircrest families told ABC News that they believe the callers are using their cell phones to spy on them. They say the hackers know their every move: where they are, what they're doing and what they're wearing. The callers have recorded private conversations, the families and police said, including a meeting with a local detective.

"The Watcher"

After moving into their $1.3 million dream home, a New Jersey family started receiving creepy death threats from someone who identified themselves as "The Watcher." As CBS News reported earlier this year:
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Since moving in, the owners said they have received numerous letters from the mysterious person. "The Watcher" claimed the home "has been the subject of my family for decades," and "I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming," Castro reported.The new owners have several children, and other letters asked, "Have they found out what's in the walls yet?" and "I am pleased to know your names now, and the name of the young blood you have brought to me."

The family was forced to flee from their home and later filed a lawsuit against the previous owners.

Issei the Cannibal

In 1974, 24-year-old Wako University student Issei Sagawa allegedly followed a German woman to her home in Tokyo, Japan, broke into her apartment while she was sleeping, and attempted to cut a piece of flesh off her body to consume. When she awoke, she reportedly fought him and he was later captured by the police. According to a 2012 Vice documentary that covered Issei's bizarre story, he was mistakenly charged with attempted rape and his wealthy father paid the victim a settlement outside of court to have the charges dropped.
Seven years later, in 1981, he allegedly committed a murder in France—shooting and eating a fellow University student, Renée Hartevelt. Issei creepily documented the entire experience with photographs and he was captured by authorities once again while attempting to dump the rest of her body in the Bois de Boulogne lake. He was deported back to Japan and committed to a mental institution. For reason unknown, his psychologists in Japan declared that he was sane. Furthermore, a legal technicality involving the French government refusing to turn over the documents from his case meant that his murder charges were dropped completely. He checked himself out of the mental hospital and has reportedly been walking the streets as a free man ever since. Issei has even become a controversial celebrity, writing over 20 books. According to Japan Today, he most recently fantasized about an unnamed TV actress, saying:
"I'll catch a glimpse of her thigh and think, 'That sure looks tasty.' But I don't feel like I actually want to eat it. As I accomplished the act of cannibalism once, there's no meaning to maintaining the desire for it anymore. In my book, I wrote that it [human flesh] was tasty, but that was not really true; I'd much rather eat Matsuzaka (Kobe) beef. But because I'd desired to consume human flesh for so long, I'd managed to convince myself that it would necessarily be delicious."
Issei Sagawa was also referenced in the Rolling Stones song "Too Much Blood," with the lyrics reading: "And when he ate her he took her bones/To the Bois de Boulogne." He is currently 73 years old and continues to live in Kawaski City, Japan. To this day, no one knows why France did not allow Japan to give him a trial.
📷MATT MILLER

To celebrate the "Return" of the "Big Gold Belt" on Raw, I thought I'd make a history combining all title runs from the first world heavyweight championship, through it's time in the NWA, its two off shoots in WCW and its appropriation by WWE. All lineages combined, all vacancies ignored, all reigns recognized and all champions holding the belt once.
​

Name	Date	Location	Days
George Hackenschmidt	May 4, 1905	New York, New York	1,065
Frank Gotch	April 3, 1908	Chicago, Illinois	1,824
Americus	March 13, 1914	Kansas City, Missouri	55
Stanislaus Zbyszko	May 7, 1914	Kansas City, Missouri	176
Charlie Cutler)	January 8, 1915	N/A	178
Joe Stecher	July 5, 1915	Omaha, Nebraska	644
Johan Olin	December 11, 1916	Springfield, Massachusetts	142
Earl Caddock	April 9, 1917	Omaha, Nebraska	1,026
Ed Lewis)	May 2, 1917	Chicago, Illinois	34
Wladek Zbyszko	June 5, 1917	San Francisco, California	5844
Wayne Munn	January 8, 1925	Wichita, Kansas	1360
Gus Sonnenberg	January 4, 1929	Boston, Massachusetts	705
Ed Don George	December 10, 1930	Los Angeles, CA	1693
Danno O'Mahoney	July 30, 1935	Boston, Massachusetts	216
Dick Shikat	March 2, 1936	New York, New York	54
Ali Baba)	April 25, 1936	Detroit, Michigan	48
Dave Levin)	June 12, 1936	Newark, New Jersey	109
Dean Detton	September 29, 1936	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	273
Bronko Nagurski	June 29, 1937	Minneapolis, Minnesota	507
Jim Londos	November 18, 1938	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	2628
Orville Brown	July 14, 1948	Des Moines, IA	501
Lou Thesz	November 27, 1949	Los Angeles, California	2300
Leo Nomellini	March 22, 1955	San Francisco, CA	359
Whipper Billy Watson	March 15, 1956	Toronto, ON	609
Édouard Carpentier	June 14, 1957	Chicago, IL	153
Dick Hutton	November 14, 1957	Toronto, ON	421
Pat O'Connor)	January 9, 1959	St. Louis, MO	903
Buddy Rogers)	June 30, 1961	Chicago, IL	145
Killer Kowalski	November 22, 1961	Montreal, Quebec	254
Bruno Sammartino	August 2, 1962	Toronto, ON	16
Bobo Brazil	August 18, 1962	Newark, NJ	1239
Gene Kiniski	January 7, 1966	St. Louis, MO	1131
Dory Funk Jr.	February 11, 1969	Tampa, FL	1563
Harley Race	May 24, 1973	Kansas City, KS	57
Jack Brisco	July 20, 1973	Houston, TX	500
Giant Baba	December 2, 1974	Kagoshima, Japan	373
Terry Funk	December 10, 1975	Miami Beach, FL	1350
Dusty Rhodes)	August 21, 1979	Tampa, FL	616
Tommy Rich	April 27, 1981	Augusta, GA	143
Ric Flair	September 17, 1981	Kansas City, KS	355
Jack Veneno	September 7, 1982	Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	122
Carlos Colón	January 6, 1983	San Juan, Puerto Rico	487
Kerry Von Erich	May 6, 1984	Irving, TX	1238
Ron Garvin	September 25, 1987	Detroit, MI	515
Ricky Steamboat	February 20, 1989	Chicago, IL	502
Sting)	July 7, 1990	Baltimore, MD	257
Tatsumi Fujinami	March 21, 1991	Tokyo, Japan	116
Lex Luger	July 14, 1991	Baltimore, Maryland	363
Big Van Vader	July 12, 1992	Albany, Georgia	21
Ron Simmons	August 2, 1992	Baltimore, Maryland	10
Masahiro Chono	August 12, 1992	Tokyo, Japan	145
The Great Muta	January 4, 1993	Tokyo, Japan	48
Barry Windham	February 21, 1993	Asheville, NC	210
Rick Rude	September 19, 1993	Houston, Texas	178
Hiroshi Hase	March 16, 1994	Tokyo, Japan	123
Hulk Hogan	July 17, 1994	Orlando, Florida	42
Shane Douglas	August 27, 1994	Philadelphia, PA	85
Chris Candido	November 19, 1994	Cherry Hill, NJ	97
Dan Severn	February 24, 1995	Erlanger, KY	247
The Giant	October 29, 1995	Detroit, Michigan	29
Randy Savage	November 26, 1995	Norfolk, Virginia	974
Goldberg	July 6, 1998	Atlanta, Georgia	174
Kevin Nash	December 27, 1998	Washington, D.C.	78
Naoya Ogawa	March 14, 1999	Yokohama, Japan	29
Diamond Dallas Page	April 11, 1999	Tacoma, Washington	167
Gary Steele	September 25, 1999	Charlotte, NC	57
Bret Hart	November 21, 1999	Toronto, Ontario	56
Chris Benoit	January 16, 2000	Cincinnati, Ohio	8
Sid Vicious	January 25, 2000	Las Vegas, Nevada	83
Jeff Jarrett	April 16, 2000	Chicago, Illinois	9
David Arquette	April 25, 2000	Syracuse, New York	75
Booker T)	July 9, 2000	Daytona Beach, Florida	71
Mike Rapada	September 19, 2000	Tampa, FL	6
Vince Russo	September 25, 2000	Uniondale, New York	50
Sabu)	November 14, 2000	Tampa, FL	12
Scott Steiner	November 26, 2000	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	149
Steve Corino	April 24, 2001	Tampa, FL	91
Kurt Angle	July 24, 2001	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	6
The Rock	August 19, 2001	San Jose, California	26
Chris Jericho	October 21, 2001	St. Louis, Missouri	55
Shinya Hashimoto	December 15, 2001	McKeesport, PA	186
Ken Shamrock	June 19, 2002	Huntsville, AL	49
Ron Killings	August 7, 2002	Nashville, TN	26
Triple H	September 2, 2002	Milwaukee, WI	76
Shawn Michaels	November 17, 2002	New York, NY	236
A.J. Styles	June 11, 2003	Nashville, TN	401
Randy Orton	August 15, 2004	Toronto, ON, Canada	231
Ray González	April 3, 2005	San Juan, Puerto Rico	>1
Batista	April 3, 2005	Los Angeles, CA	77
Raven)	June 19, 2005	Orlando, FL	126
Rhino	October 23, 2005	Orlando, FL	112
Christian Cage	February 12, 2006	Orlando, FL	49
Rey Mysterio	April 2, 2006	Rosemont, IL	231
Abyss)	November 19, 2006	Orlando, FL	133
The Undertaker	April 1, 2007	Detroit, MI	37
Edge)	May 8, 2007	Pittsburgh, PA	70
The Great Khali	July 17, 2007	Laredo, TX	46
Adam Pearce	September 1, 2007	Bayamón, Puerto Rico	303
CM Punk	June 30, 2008	Oklahoma City, OK	33
Brent Albright	August 2, 2008	New York City, NY)	84
Blue Demon Jr.	October 25, 2008	Mexico City, Mexico	29
John Cena	November 23, 2008	Boston, MA	196
Jeff Hardy	June 7, 2009	New Orleans, LA	296
Jack Swagger	March 30, 2010	Las Vegas, NV	110
Kane)	July 18, 2010	Kansas City, MO	212
Dolph Ziggler	February 15, 2011	San Diego, CA	19
Colt Cabana	March 6, 2011	West Hollywood, CA	48
The Sheik	April 23, 2011	Jacksonville, FL	148
Mark Henry	September 18, 2011	Buffalo, NY	91
Daniel Bryan	December 18, 2011	Baltimore, MD	105
Sheamus	April 1, 2012	Miami, FL	215
Kahagas	November 2, 2012	Clayton, NJ	67
Alberto Del Rio	January 8, 2013	Miami, FL	67
Rob Conway	March 16, 2013	San Antonio, TX	294
Satoshi Kojima	January 4, 2014	Tokyo, Japan	407
Hiroyoshi Tenzan	February 14, 2015	Sendai, Japan	196
Jax Dane	August 29, 2015	San Antonio, TX	419
Tim Storm	October 21, 2016	Sherman, TX	414
Nick Aldis	December 9, 2017	Sewell, NJ	266
Cody	September 1, 2018	Hoffman Estates, IL	1093
Trevor Murdoch	August 29, 2021	St. Louis, MO	167
Matt Cardona	February 12, 2022	Oak Grove, KY	273
Tyrus)	November 12, 2022	Chalmette, LA	196
Seth "Freakin" Rollins	May 27, 2023	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia	1+

​

The Big-12 doesn't have divisions, so I decided to split the conference by geography. Today will the Texas and Oklahoma teams while tomorrow will be the rest of the conference plus the other three newcomers. The four teams joining the conference aren't officially members yet, but I thought it would be informative to include them on this list. Even more so since they all have yet to beat certain big 12 programs. As always, the year in parenthesis is the date each team last played each other. If I missed any dates or matchups, please let me know!
​

1. Oklahoma

Arizona State (0-1) (1983)
Boise State (0-1) (2007)
BYU (0-2) (2009)
Georgia (0-1) (2018)
Illinois (0-1) (1917)
Indiana (0-1) (1928)
Navy (0-1) (1965)
Ole Miss (0-1) (1999)
George Washington (DC) (0-1-1) (1934)
Hawaii All-Stars (0-1) (1931)
Dallas AC (TX) (0-1) (1902)
Camp Doniphan (KS) (0-1) (1917)
​

1. Oklahoma State

Air Force (0-1-1) (1967)
Florida (0-1) (1990)
LSU (0-1) (1956)
Michigan (0-2) (1992)
Minnesota (0-2) (1931)
Ohio State (0-2) (2004)
Ole Miss (0-3) (2016)
Oregon (0-1) (2008)
Tennessee (0-1) (1995)
Wisconsin (0-1) (2022)
William & Mary (VA) (0-1) (1948)
Tulsa Businessmen (OK) (0-1) (1905)
Oklahoma City HS (OK) (0-1) (1909)
Norman NAS (OK) (0-2) (1944)
Jefferson (TX) (0-1) (1932)
Fort MacArthur (TX) (0-1) (1917)
Emporia St. (KS) (0-1) (1925)
Duquesne (PA) (0-2) (1935)
Centenary (LA) (0-2) (1937)
​

1. Texas

Air Force (0-1) (1985)
Minnesota (0-1) (1936)
North Carolina State (0-1) (1999)
Northwetern (0-1) (1942)
South Carolina (0-1) (1957)
Syracuse (0-2-1) (1993)
Virginia Tech (0-1) (1995)
Randolph Field (TX) (0-1-1) (1944)
Kirksville Osteopath (MO) (0-1) (1901)
Harvard (MA) (0-1) (1931)
Fort Worth AC (TX) (0-1) (1897)
Colorado College (0-1) (1908)
Chicago (IL) (0-1) (1904)
​

1. Texas Tech

Alabama (0-1) (2006)
East Carolina (0-1) (2000)
Georgia (0-3) (1996)
Georgia Tech (0-2) (1970)
Iowa (0-2) (2001)
LSU (0-3) (2015)
Miami (OH) (0-1) (1948)
Ohio State (0-2) (2002)
Oregon (0-2) (1992)
Penn State (0-1) (1995)
San Jose State (0-1) (1949)
Southern Cal (0-3) (1995)
South Florida (0-1) (2017)
Washington (0-2) (1982)
Saint Mary's (CA) (0-1) (1938)
Detroit (MI) (0-2) (1937)
​

1. Texas Christian

Arizona State (0-2) (1975)
Auburn (0-3) (1981)
Georgia (0-5) (2023)
Georgia Tech (0-2) (1968)
Kentucky (0-1) (1952)
Michigan State (0-2) (2012)
Notre Dame (0-1) (1972)
Tennessee (0-2) (1976)
Washington (0-1) (1896)
Houston AC (TX) (0-1-1)
Oklahoma City (OK) (0-1) (1910)
Northwestern St. (LA) (0-1) (2001)
Haskell Indian Nations (KS) (0-1) (1921)
Fordham (NY) (0-2) (1941)
Detroit (MI) (0-1) (1940)
Decatur Baptist College (TX) (0-1) (1919)
Centre (KY) (0-1) (1920)
Carruthers Field (TX) (0-1) (1918)
2nd Texas 132nd Infantry (TX) (0-1) (1917)
​

1. Baylor

Alabama (0-2) (1981)
Arizona State (0-1) (1990)
Boston College (0-3) (1999)
Duke (0-3) (2018)
Florida (0-1) (1960)
Georgia (0-5) (2020)
Liberty (0-1) (2017)
Michigan State (0-2) (2015)
Minnesota (0-1) (2000)
Notre Dame (0-2) (1998)
Ohio State (0-2) (1982)
Penn State (0-1) (1975)
Purdue (0-1) (1930)
UAB (0-2) (2004)
UCF (0-1) (2013)
UConn (0-2) (2009)
Fort MacArthur (TX) (0-1) (1918)
Central Oklahoma (0-1) (1924)
Barron Field (TX) (0-1) (1918)
​

1. Houston

Alabama (0-10) (1999)
BYU (0-3) (2020)
California (0-2) (1998)
Colorado (0-1) (1971)
Fresno State (0-1) (2017)
Hawaii (0-2) (2020)
Kansas (0-4) (2022)
Michigan (0-3) (2003)
Notre Dame (0-1) (1978)
Ohio State (0-1) (1994)
Oregon (0-3) (2007)
Southern Cal (0-3) (1996)
Washington (0-2) (1985)
Saint Bonaventure (NY) (0-2) (1950)
​
https://larrybrownsports.com/college-football/big-12-split-college-football/561059

I'm not based in the US but have seen this pop up several times.
How can any State pass this without massive backlash?
I may be unimaginative but surely there's not a good way to spin child labor leaning either way?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/27/republican-iowa-governor-rolls-back-child-labor-law-protections?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

"Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley will participate in a live CNN presidential town hall next month in Iowa, the network announced Wednesday.
CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper will moderate the event, which will air at 8 p.m. ET on June 4.
The former South Carolina governor is one of many Republicans in a growing field of candidates who are vying for the party’s presidential nomination and who are heavily focused on Iowa – a state early in the primary election calendar that can make or break a campaign’s momentum.
Haley, who served almost two years as US ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, has had to navigate running against her former boss and the current GOP front-runner.
The first woman elected as governor of South Carolina, Haley is also running against South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who she first appointed to the US Senate in 2012 to fill a vacancy left by Sen. Jim DeMint upon his retirement.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and talk radio host Larry Elder are also running for the GOP nomination, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to announce his candidacy for president Wednesday evening.
The event will be the second in CNN’s series of Republican presidential town halls for the 2024 cycle. The first, moderated by Kaitlan Collins, featured former President Donald Trump in New Hampshire. The Iowa venue will be announced in the coming days.
The town hall will stream live for pay TV subscribers via CNN.com and CNN OTT and mobile apps under “TV Channels,” or CNNgo where available. The town hall will also be available On Demand to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN apps, and Cable Operator Platforms."
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/politics/cnn-town-hall-nikki-haley/index.html

Main hub thread with the full 131 rankings
Hoosier Daddy? Indiana finally comes in at 90 after weeks of clamoring from their fans. The Hoosiers don’t have a lot of historical success, with just 2 AP top 10 finishes since 1936, when the poll originated. What they do have, is a loyal and passionate fanbase. I can’t imagine they’ll continue to struggle forever, as each of their last 3 coaches have gotten them to a bowl game, and they have a strong alumni base. Still, they come in as the 4th worst Power 5 team on this list and the last placed team in the Big Ten.

Best Seasons and Highlights

1. 1988: 21. Indiana: 8-3-1 (16.958) 2. 2020: 25. Indiana: 6-2 (14.813) 3. 1987: 26. Indiana: 8-4 (10.760) 4. 1993: 27. Indiana: 8-4 (9.215) 5. 1991: 32. Indiana: 7-4-1 (8.940) 6. 2019: 50. Indiana: 8-5 (-0.987) 7. 1990: 52. Indiana: 6-5-1 (-6.329) 8. 1994: 51. Indiana: 6-5 (-6.404) 9. 2007: 60. Indiana: 7-6 (-6.490) 10. 2001: 61. Indiana: 5-6 (-9.143) 11. 1986: 54. Indiana: 6-6 (-9.350) 12. 2015: 72. Indiana: 6-7 (-10.429) 13. 1989: 62. Indiana: 5-6 (-12.269) 14. 2018: 78. Indiana: 5-7 (-12.319) 15. 2013: 75. Indiana: 5-7 (-12.406) 16. 2016: 69. Indiana: 6-7 (-12.984) 17. 2017: 82. Indiana: 5-7 (-16.099) 18. 1992: 66. Indiana: 5-6 (-16.837) 19. 1998: 67. Indiana: 4-7 (-18.081) 20. 2006: 73. Indiana: 5-7 (-20.689) 21. 1999: 76. Indiana: 4-7 (-20.726) 22. 2022: 94. Indiana: 4-8 (-23.599) 23. 2010: 83. Indiana: 5-7 (-24.550) 24. 1996: 78. Indiana: 3-8 (-24.727) 25. 2014: 92. Indiana: 4-8 (-25.542) 26. 2009: 93. Indiana: 4-8 (-27.758) 27. 2000: 86. Indiana: 3-8 (-28.932) 28. 2012: 90. Indiana: 4-8 (-29.149) 29. 1985: 81. Indiana: 4-7 (-29.364) 30. 2005: 98. Indiana: 4-7 (-30.671) 31. 2004: 90. Indiana: 3-8 (-32.732) 32. 1983: 85. Indiana: 3-8 (-32.762) 33. 1995: 91. Indiana: 2-9 (-38.537) 34. 2008: 105. Indiana: 3-9 (-39.597) 35. 2002: 100. Indiana: 3-9 (-42.548) 36. 2021: 114. Indiana: 2-10 (-43.031) 37. 1997: 100. Indiana: 2-9 (-45.071) 38. 2003: 108. Indiana: 2-10 (-50.839) 39. 2011: 114. Indiana: 1-11 (-56.035) 40. 1984: 105. Indiana: 0-11 (-57.235) Overall Score: 8059 (90th) 

• 181-281-3 record
• 0 conference titles
• 2-9 bowl record
• 4 consensus All-Americans
• 55 NFL players drafted

Woof. The only reason Indiana’s this high is because of strength of schedule being a Power 5 team. Other than that it’s been rough, with no top 20 finishes in 40 years according to the JB Rankings. One thing Indiana’s been underrated at? Producing a few extremely good RBs. All 4 of their consensus All-Americans are shared between 3 RBs (Anthony Thompson 1988 and ‘89, Vaughn Dunbar 1991, Tevin Coleman 2014). Tevin Coleman ran for 2036 yards and 15 TD on 7.5 YPC, finishing 7th in Heisman voting in 2014 for just a 4-8 team. Notable NFL players include Coleman, QB Trent Green, OL Roger Saffold, WR Antwaan Randle El, and CB Tracy Porter.

Top 5 Seasons

Worst Season: 1984 (0-11 overall, 0-9 Big Ten)
1984 Indiana wouldn’t have even been the best team in their state if they went down a level—Indiana State was ranked atop the Division 1-AA polls for most of the year after a 9-0 start. Still, the theme of the season for the 1984 Hoosiers was “growing pains”. Led by first year head coach Bill Mallory, Mallory would go on to become the school’s winningest coach with a record of 69-77-3 from 1984-96, making 6 bowls and appearing in the AP Top 25 in 6 separate years. So for the 1984 season, it was about laying the foundation to break a losing culture that had lasted over 3 decades. After starting the season losing 24-31 to (eventual) 2-9 Duke and 14-48 to Kentucky, Indiana slowly improved throughout the year, losing 6 Big Ten games by one possession. QB Steve Bradley threw for 2544 yards 10 TD 20 INT, but somehow was drafted in the 12th round of the 1986 NFL Draft despite never posting a single season with more TDs than INTs. OT Kevin Allen was by far the most talented player on the team, picked with the 9th overall selection by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1985 NFL Draft, but would go on to be a collasal bust and despised in Philly. Allen was ranked as the 4th worst player in NFL history by Deadspin in 2011.
5. 1991 (7-4-1 overall, 5-3 Big Ten)
We’ll see 4 seasons from coach Mallory in this top 5. After a great 1987 and ‘88, Indiana had fallen back into their old ways in ‘89-90, going 11-11-1 and 6-9-1 in the Big Ten. Mallory brought Indiana back to the Big Ten’s top 4 in 1991, mostly thanks to the consensus All-American season by RB Vaughn Dunbar, but also because of the emergence of QB Trent Green. Dunbar finished 6th in Heisman voting, amassing 2068 yards and 12 TD from scrimmage. He set the school record for rushing yards with 1805, unbroken until Tevin Coleman in 2014. Green led the Big Ten in TDs with 25, completing 59% of passes for 2627 yards and 12 TD 14 INT, while rushing for 202 yards and 13 TD. Indiana mostly beat up on teams that finished with losing records (but are known today as solid programs) like Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. One possession losses to #4 Michigan and #19 Ohio State showed they could compete with the big boys too. The season came down to 5-4-1 Indiana vs 4-6 Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket and a bowl appearance for Indiana. Purdue lined up for the winning 36 yard FG with 30 seconds left…and sailed it wide right. Indiana took the Bucket, made the Copper Bowl, and trounced Baylor 24-0 to finish 7-4-1 and 32nd in my rankings.
4. 1993 (8-4 overall, 5-3 Big Ten)
This was the last great Mallory-coached team, and the last Indiana team to make a bowl game until 2007. The run game was much weaker than usual, but this was easily the best defense in the Mallory era, giving up just 16.4 PPG with 9 players that played in the NFL. Indiana jumped out to a 5-1 start, giving up just 12.3 PPG, then shut out Northwestern 24-0 and #22 Michigan State 10-0. Indiana was ranked #17, at 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten, and had one of the best defenses in the country giving up just 9.3 PPG. A pivotal game against #19 Penn State was one of the biggest “prove it” games in recent memory for Indiana, and they nearly delivered, losing just 31-38. Indiana would also put up a great fight against #5 Ohio State, losing 17-24, before finishing 8-3 with a win over Purdue for the 5th time in 7 years. #21 Indiana lost 20-45 to #22 Virginia Tech in the Independence Bowl to finish the year 8-4, 4th place in the Big Ten, and #27 in my rankings.
3. 1987 (8-4 overall, 6-2 Big Ten)
This Indiana team was subtly stacked. This was Mallory’s 4th year as head coach, going from 0-11 to 4-7 to 6-6 the previous 3 years. 1987 was when they put the Big Ten on notice for the first time, and was in serious contention for the Big Ten title. After starting 3-1, Indiana headed to #9 Ohio State, who was coming off 8 straight years of AP top 15 finishes. The game wasn’t close—and not for the team you think. Indiana held Ohio State to just 10 rushing yards in the 2nd half of a 31-10 win, which Buckeyes coach Earle Bruce called “The darkest day in Ohio State football since I have been associated with it,” dating back to 1979. After a win over Minnesota, #15 Indiana hosted #20 Michigan in front of a nearly sold out crowd of 51,000, and caused delays on Michigan’s drives in the 2nd quarter because of crowd noise. The Indiana defense dominated yet again, winning 14-10, and this was the last time Indiana would beat Michigan until 2020.
The Big Ten was suddenly an unexpected 2-horse race between Indiana and Michigan State. #11 Indiana, their highest ranking in 18 years, made the trek to Kinnick Stadium, where dreams go to die, and Iowa beat the Hoosiers 29-21. Following up with a win over Illinois—Indiana controlled their destiny: Beat Michigan State and Purdue, and you’re Big Ten champions. Playing on national TV, #13 Michigan State dominated #16 Indiana 27-3, and the Spartans won the conference title. Purdue kicked the (old oaken) bucket in the rivalry game, and Indiana rolled to a 35-14 win and a 3rd place finish in the B1G. A close loss to Tennessee in the bowl and they finished 8-4.
The team was subtly stacked as I mentioned. RB Anthony Thompson ran for 1000+ yards and would go on to become a 2x consensus All-American. WR Ernie Jones caught 66 passes for 1265 yards and 13 TD, and was the Big Ten co-Player of the Year and a 1st Team All-American. OT Eric Moore was 2nd Team All-Big Ten and a top 10 NFL Draft pick in 1988. LB Van Waiters was 3rd Team All-American. Coach Mallory won Big Ten Coach of the Year. This has a real claim as the “best” Indiana team due to the wins over Ohio State/Michigan.
2. 2020 (6-2 overall, 6-1 Big Ten)
One of the darlings of 2020. The Penix → Fryfogle connection took the Big Ten by storm first in name, then in production. Indiana was coming off an 8-5 year in which they nearly missed out on 9WINDIANA status, and brought momentum into 2020. It seemed like everyone else overlooked them, though. The turning point in the season came immediately—week 1 against #8 Penn State. Down 35-28 in OT, Indiana scored on a 9 yard TD and elected to go for 2. Going for the left corner, Penix DIVED from the 5 yard line, reaching for the pylon…GOT IT! INDIANA WINS 36-35! 2 weeks later they’d beat #23 Michigan 38-21, their first win against the Wolverines since 1987. 1 week later Indiana would beat Michigan State 24-0 thanks to a standout defensive effort and a breakout 200 yard receiving performance from WR Ty Fryfogle.
That set up #9 Indiana at #3 Ohio State, the top 10 matchup we all saw coming. And boy, Indiana came to PLAY. Ohio State narrowly escaped with a 42-35 win, with Justin Fields throwing 3 INTs and Fryfogle going for 7 catches, 218 yards, and 3 TD. This Indiana team was legitimately a really good team, and they even beat #16 Wisconsin 14-6 to finish off the regular season. They’d lose the Outback Bowl in an upset to 4-5 Ole Miss, but finished #12 in the AP Poll, the highest in over 50 years. Penix finished 2nd Team All-Big Ten with 1645 passing yards 14 TD 4 INT. Fryfogle won the Big Ten WR of the Year, catching 37 balls for 721 yards and 7 TD. A whopping 4 defensive players finished 1st Team All-Big Ten, with the entire secondary making the 1st-3rd Team. Even special teams had no weaknesses, with kicker Charles Campbell going 10/11 on FGs. Penix has since transferred to Washington and continues to live up to his potential, finishing 8th in Heisman voting in 2022.
1. 1988 (8-3-1 overall, 5-3 Big Ten)
2020 was good…but 1988 was dominant. They opened with 41-14 and 35-16 wins over Rice and Kentucky. After tying Missouri and blowing out Northwestern, Indiana hosted Ohio State a year after the “darkest day” in Ohio State history. This was arguably worse. Indiana scored on 4 of their first 5 possessions, held a 28-0 lead at halftime, and big brother’d the Buckeyes 41-7. An unthinkable result today. Fast forward a few weeks later, 5-2 Indiana hosted 4-2-2 (their record, not a soccer formation) Iowa. Iowa QB Chuck Hartlieb would set the single game school record with an insane 558 passing yards, and Indiana RB Anthony Thompson broke a school record with 47 carries. Indiana won 45-34, after Iowa nearly came back from a 35-3 deficit. In the last week of the regular season, Indiana blew out Purdue 52-7 on their home turf, in one of the greatest performances in the rivalry’s history. Even the bowl game was a wipe, beating 8-3 South Carolina 34-10.
Indiana scored 33.0 PPG while giving up just 19.6 PPG. 7 wins were by 20+ points, and 4 by 30+. QB Dave Schnell, former 1985 high school player of the year, was 2nd Team All-Big Ten, leading the conference in yards per attempt. RB Anthony Thompson won his 1st of 2 Big Ten POTYs, rushing for 1686 yards and 26(!) TD on 4.7 YPC. 9 players total were 1st/2nd Team All-Big Ten. Kicker Pete Stoyanovich was 1st Team All-B1G, and went on to be Dan Marino’s kicker on the Miami Dolphins for 7 years from 1989-95. He also served as a kicking double in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (1994).

5th Quarter

Will Indiana ever surpass Purdue as a football program? Why hasn’t Indiana been as good in football as they’ve been in basketball? Did Penix score that 2 point conversion against Penn State in 2020? Who was really the best Indiana squad between 2020 and the 1980’s teams? And where do you think Indiana stands as a program going forward?
If you appreciate the effort, please consider subscribing on substack!

So much for controversy. UCLA made the statement they had to, taking out Kentucky and running the table to be the only unbeaten team remaining. The race now is for the remainder of the Top 5, as the Power Five seem to have a monopoly on the games. The Big Ten has several contenders just outside the Top 5, while the mid-majors are getting a reality check as only one of them was even voted on.
*****
OVERALL TOP 25

1. UCLA (9-0) [2t] -- defeated then-1 Kentucky, defeated then-5 Kansas, defeated then-6 Michigan State
2. North Carolina (8-1) [2t] -- defeated then-25 Arizona State, defeated then-8 Michigan, defeated then-22 Alabama
3. Kentucky (8-1) [1] -- lost to then-2t UCLA, defeated Florida State, defeated then-16 Louisville
4. Duke (8-1) [4] -- defeated then-19 Houston, defeated then-12 Indiana, defeated Iowa
5. Kansas (8-1) [5] -- defeated then-13 Illinois, lost to then-2t UCLA, defeated then-15 Southern Cal
6. Michigan State (7-2) [6] -- defeated Arkansas, defeated then-11 Arizona, lost to then-2t UCLA
7. Syracuse (8-1) [7] -- defeated Washington, defeated then-9 Connecticut, defeated then-13 Illinois
8. Michigan (7-2) [8] -- defeated then-16 Louisville, lost to then-2t North Carolina, defeated then-18 Notre Dame
9. Notre Dame (7-2) [18] -- defeated Kansas State, defeated then-17 Texas, lost to then-8 Michigan
10. Indiana (7-2) [12] -- defeated Wake Forest, lost to then-4 Duke, defeated then-25 Arizona State
11. Ohio State (7-2) [10] -- defeated Pepperdine, lost to then-15 Southern Cal, defeated South Carolina
12. Connecticut (7-2) [9] -- defeated Boston College, lost to then-7 Syracuse, defeated Old Dominion
13. Texas (7-2) [17] -- defeated then-20 Minnesota, lost to then-18 Notre Dame, defeated Drake
14. Arizona (7-2) [11] -- defeated Drake, lost to then-6 Michigan State, defeated Texas A&M
15. Southern Cal (7-2) [15] -- defeated West Virginia, defeated then-10 Ohio State, lost to then-5 Kansas
16. Maryland (7-2) [14] -- defeated UTEP, lost to then-16 Louisville, defeated Dayton
17. DePaul (7-2) [23] -- defeated Northern Illinois, defeated Colorado, defeated Auburn
18. LSU (7-2) [24] -- defeated Providence, defeated Detroit Mercy, defeated Kansas State
19. Georgetown (7-2) [NR] -- defeated Oregon State, defeated then-21 UNLV, defeated Washington
20. Minnesota (7-2) [20] -- lost to then-17 Texas, defeated San Francisco, defeated Georgia Tech
21. Alabama (7-2) [22] -- defeated Washington State, defeated Villanova, lost to then-2t North Carolina
22. Florida (7-2) [NR] -- defeated Temple, defeated Miami (FL), defeated Oklahoma
23. Iowa (7-2) [NR] -- defeated NC State, defeated Marquette, lost to then-4 Duke
24. UNLV (6-3) [21] -- defeated Tennessee, lost to Georgetown, defeated Saint Bonaventure
25. Illinois (7-2) [13] -- lost to then-5 Kansas, defeated Oklahoma, lost to then-7 Syracuse

DROPPED OUT: #16 Louisville, #19 Houston, #25 Arizona State
ALSO RECEIVING VOTES: NC State (7-2), Auburn (6-3), Louisville (7-2), Cincinnati (7-2), Houston (6-3), Arizona State (6-3), Arkansas (7-2), Washington (6-3), California (7-2), Georgia Tech (6-3), Oklahoma (6-3), Wake Forest (6-3), South Carolina (6-3), Villanova (7-2)
*****
MID-MAJOR TOP 25

1. UNLV (6-3) (#24 in Overall Top 25) [1]
2. San Francisco (5-4) [2]
3. Wichita State (6-3) [5]
4. Memphis (6-3) [3]
5. Louisiana Tech (7-2) [12]
6. Detroit Mercy (6-3) [14]
7. Western Kentucky (6-3) [4]
8. Dayton (6-3) [6]
9. Princeton (6-3) [18]
10. Fresno State (6-3) [17]
11. Temple (6-3) [25]
12. Santa Clara (5-4) [11]
13. Saint Louis (6-3) [8]
14. Bradley (5-4) [19]
15. Seattle (5-4) [20]
16. New Mexico (6-3) [21]
17. La Salle (5-4) [NR]
18. Gonzaga (5-4) [13]
19. Rhode Island (6-3) [22]
20. Pepperdine (5-4) [7]
21. Marshall (6-3) [16]
22. Drake (6-3) [24]
23. Jacksonville (5-4) [15]
24. Massachusetts (6-3) [23]
25. Bowling Green (6-3) [NR]

DROPPED OUT: #9 UTEP, #10 Southern Illinois

(Fell asleep early last night. Apologies.)
*****
#2t UCLA 87, #6 Michigan State 64. Can anyone beat the Bruins? Teams are going to line up and take their shots now.
Kiki Vandeweghe took his turn to step up with 22 points as the Bruins (9-0) sealed their spot atop the Top 25 by routing the Spartans (7-2) before a stunned crowd expecting a heavyweight fight.
"We know if we're all playing well, we'll win," Vandeweghe said after the game. "I'm not the guy, I know I'm the fifth guy in the [starting] lineup, but I gotta do what I'm called on to do. Today, they had guys all over the bigs, they had Magic [Johnson] on [Reggie] Miller, and that left me."
Michigan State kept it close early and was only down 43-35 at the half. However, UCLA switched to a 2-3 zone to stymie the outside shooting of Magic Johnson (11 points) and Jason Richardson (10 points). Attempts to drive also failed, as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar converted for 7 blocks.
#2t North Carolina 105, #22 Alabama 58. When UCLA beat Kentucky earlier, the controversy of the Bruins-Heels game meant #1 could be considered up for grabs. Here's Carolina's rather convincing argument.
Vince Carter went for 33 points and Michael Jordan recorded a triple-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists as the Tar Heels (8-1) mugged the Crimson Tide (7-2) before a delirious home crowd.
"Everyone did their job," coach Dean Smith said after the game. "You saw Vince make the big shots, Michael did everything on the court today, we played solid defense, and you saw the result. When we get momentum going, it can be hard to stop, and that's what I'm hoping for."
It became clear from the opening tip that Alabama was in over their head. Bob McAdoo blocked a Latrell Sprewell layup on the opening play. Jordan picked up the loose ball and threw a half-court alley-oop pass to Carter, who slammed it home to set off a raucous ovation. From there, North Carolina never looked back.
"We couldn't do anything right tonight," Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson admitted. "We have to get better."
#7 Syracuse 81, #13 Illinois 69. Maybe the ACC will be more than a two-horse race this season; meanwhile, maybe the Big Ten West is still behind the East in competition if their top team struggles.
Derrick Coleman's 19 points lead the way as Illinois was held to 3-18 from long range by a tough zone defense as the Orange (8-1) took out the Illini (7-2) to make a statement of intent to be a part of the ACC Title race.
"We're tired of hearing about Duke and [North] Carolina," Coleman said after the game. "We joined the ACC to make the best conference in the country and we're going to show that right now. We are the reason it's the best."
Coleman took over in a key stretch in the second half. A three-point play after challenging Eddie Johnson, followed by a dunk spurred by a Rony Seikaly block, lifted the Orange from only up 5 to up 10. Illinois could not get closer than 7 for the rest of the game.
Meyers Leonard led Illinois with 15 points.
#1 Kentucky 102, #16 Louisville 61. The two rivals took the court anticipating a knock-down, drag-out affair. It turned almost instantly into a laugher.
Cliff Hagan had 15 points and all nine Kentucky players who played scored at least 8 points as the Wildcats (8-1) dominated the Cardinals (7-2) in a game with a surprisingly short bench from Kentucky.
"When we have to shorten our bench, we can do it," coach Adolph Rupp said after the game. "I wanted to simulate what we might see in the [NCAA] Tournament. The scoreboard wasn't what mattered; our performance is what mattered. The boys came through today."
The list of scoring was impressive. Cliff Hagan had 15; Devin Booker had 14; Louie Dampier had 13; Dan Issel and Antoine Walker had 12; Anthony Davis had 10; John Wall and Jamal Mashburn had 9; and Rex Chapman had 8. Everyone in Kentucky's starting five outscored everyone on Louisville's squad -- Pervis Ellison led the Cardinals with a mere 11.
"This week's been a wake-up call for us. Let's do better," Cardinals coach Denny Crum said.
#8 Michigan 86, #18 Notre Dame 63. Chants of We Want Kansas could be heard from the visiting Michigan faithful during the game. They just might get them if the team continues performing.
Glen Rice had 20 points, Chris Webber had 17 points and 14 rebounds, and in a matchup of football superpowers on the hardcourt, the Wolverines (8-1) took care of business against the Fighting Irish (7-2).
"Oh yeah, we would love to face Kansas," Rice said with a smile after the game. "You get to be the best by facing the best. That's our goal."
Bill Laimbeer led the Irish with 16 points, but the outside shooters for were shut down by defense from Jalen Rose and Jamal Crawford. Austin Carr in particular finished with 6 points on 2-15 shooting.
"We need our scorers to come through," Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps noted.
#5 Kansas 82, #15 Southern Cal 67. Southern Cal recovered quickly from their opening day loss to Kentucky. Unfortunately, they still seem a step behind their cross-town brethren if this game is anything to go by.
Joel Embiid, Wilt Chamberlain, and Paul Pierce each had 16 points as the Jayhawks (8-1) eased past the Trojans (7-2) and looked to solidify their spot in the Top 5.
"We feel like we can be a top seed," Chamberlain said to reporters in the post-game press conference. "We know there's competition, we know people are looking past us, but we feel we can compete with anyone at any time."
Gus Williams was held to 5 points by an incredible defensive effort from JoJo White, though he did make up for it partially with 9 assists, including four to USC's leading scorer on the night DeMar DeRozan (15 points).
#12 Indiana 82, #25 Arizona State 69. There was a bit of concern that Arizona State was a paper tiger, one that wouldn't survive the Pac-12 schedule to make the NIBL Tournament. While a win would silence the critics, this was a fair showing.
It still wasn't enough to get over the top.
Isiah Thomas had 19 points and 11 assists to lead his team in both categories as the Hoosiers (7-2) took out the Sun Devils (6-3) to bounce back and reclaim their winning ways.
"I think we showed what we can do out there," Hoosier coach Bobby Knight told reporters. "We have a top team, and we know we can dominate in the Big Ten and in the tournament. Isiah had a great game, the twins [Rick and Tom Van Arsdale] played well, and I think we can outplay and outcoach anyone when we have to."
Joe Caldwell had 16 points to pace the Sun Devils.
Arkansas 100, #19 Houston 85. Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson loves to play a full-court defense that he dubs "Forty Minutes of Hell". It tends to lead to more possessions for each team, and if the opponents aren't prepared for it, it can lead to trouble.
Tonight, it paid off.
Joe Johnson had 22 points, Sidney Moncreif had 18 and 6 steals, and the Razorbacks (7-2) stunned the Cougars (6-3) in a high-octane game that took Houston's best weapon -- interior offense -- almost completely out of the equation.
"If you don't let them get set up, you don't let their bigs go to work," Richardson explained to the press. "We knew their two big guys, [Elvin] Hayes and [Hakeem] Olajuwon, they like to get set up and aren't used to running. It was our best chance to pull something off."
While the concept didn't always pay off -- Olajuwon recovered to get 14 points and 5 blocks -- it did upset the natural order for Houston. Outside shooters had to step up, and guards had to make quick passes. Clyde Drexler did his part, leading the team with 18 points, but Damon Jones turned the ball over 7 times to the press.
"This loss is on me," Jones said.
*****
HOW THE TOP 25 FARED

1. Kentucky 102, 16. Louisville 61
2. UCLA(t) 87, 6. Michigan State 64
3. North Carolina(t) 105, 22. Alabama 58
4. Duke 95, Iowa 66
5. Kansas 82, 15. Southern Cal 67
6. Michigan State 64, 2t. UCLA 87
7. Syracuse 81, 13. Illinois 69
8. Michigan 86, 18. Notre Dame 63
9. Connecticut 100, Old Dominion 57
10. Ohio State 92, South Carolina 53
11. Arizona 92, Texas A&M 50
12. Indiana 82, 25. Arizona State 69
13. Illinois 69, 7. Syracuse 81
14. Maryland 85, Dayton 58
15. Southern Cal 67, 5. Kansas 82
16. Louisville 61, 1. Kentucky 102
17. Texas 84, Drake 55
18. Notre Dame 63, 8. Michigan 86
19. Houston 85, Arkansas 100
20. Minnesota 77, Georgia Tech 70
21. UNLV 107, Saint Bonaventure 84
22. Alabama 58, #2t North Carolina 105
23. DePaul 86, Auburn 78
24. LSU 82, Kansas State 77
25. Arizona State 69, 12. Indiana 82

22 Blue in 2022: 'THE LIST'

Build Supermajorities of Democrats in the US House and US Senate

Here’s “22 Blue in 2022: ‘A Quick List’”:

1. Florida 2. Ohio 3. Kansas 4. North Carolina 5. Kentucky 6. Arizona7. South Carolina 8. Georgia 9. Texas 10. Michigan 11. Nevada 12. Pennsylvania13. Missouri 14. Wisconsin 15. Iowa 16. Arkansas 17. Oklahoma 18. Indiana19. Colorado 20. Alabama 21. South Dakota 22. North Dakota

The 2022 Midterm Election is the most important midterm of our lifetime.Democrats must behave as if our lives depend on this midterm, because our future depends on the outcome.
”We the people” must deny the Republican party political power at every level of government for decades to come “in order to create a more perfect union.” With 48 States having some statewide contest(s), November 8th, 2022 is our best chance the Democrats will get to do that for the rest of this decade, at least.
”The List” encourages the election of a Democratic Supermajority in the US Senate in 2022. This is the best chance we will have to create a Democratic Supermajority in both Chambers of Congress for the remainder of this decade. This midterm could be a devastating loss for the democrats if good patriots ignore this election. If Americans of good conscience band together instead, we could could begin the exile of the Republican party from power, not for years, but for decades to come.
“The List” is a set of suggestions about where to focus collective activism today.
The election of Democratic Supermajorities to both chambers of the US Congress is the best outcome we can strive towards in the 2022 Midterm Election for many reasons. Among them: breaking the decade of gridlock in Congress, supporting President Biden’s agenda, and his re-election in 2024. My personal favorite is that this could commence the decades-long political banishment of the GOP from power, which the Republican Party so richly deserves.
The Republican party has proved itself treasonous on many levels. They are traitors to Humanity by supporting Trump. Traitors to the Nation for supporting Putin. Traitors to the government and betrayers of the constitution through their apologies for the 1/6/21 insurrection. To safeguard our country and the world, we must block the Republicans from power at the ballot box, at all levels of government, for at least a generation.
Political game playing may be inevitable among humans. Change the numbers, and then change the rules, if not the game. Cynical refusal to play at this time in history cedes power to NAZIs manipulated by Active Measures. That is a surrender to crypto fascism, not radical thinking, mere cynicism, or hipsterism.
In 2022, Patriots must unify to crush the Republican Party at the ballot box. We can defeat them in every State, at every level. We need the biggest turnout at the voting booth of any Midterm ever. We need to raise more money for candidates and organizations than we did during the entire 2020 campaign season if we are to accomplish this. We need to do this in the next six months.
This is what a “Blue Tsunami” REALLY looks like.
Electing a Democratic Supermajority in Congress is our hope for the future and retribution for America’s enemies. “22 Blue in 2022” is a roadmap to the beginning of that journey. “22 Blue in 2022” is our war plan. ”22 Blue in 2022” is our electoral battle cry. “22 Blue in 2022” is a way forward out of gridlock, a way to non-violently thwart those who would poison the body politic with their hate.
If we don’t try this hard in 2022, Trump will go unpunished and metastasize by 2024.
Resist In Power, my sisters, my brothers, and my others.
Resist Together, and elect a Congressional Supermajority in 2022!
See The “FULL 22 Bue in 2022 List”, With Dozens more links to the organizations and candidates that you can support to help Create a Democratic Congressional Supermajority in 2022!
National Democratic Organizations
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2022 Senate Republican Target Races: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2022senatetargets
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Hey all! Thanks for stopping by. Looking to apply to about 25 schools. I am feeling lost regarding where I should apply and would appreciate any recommendations/advice. I am looking for OOS friendly schools, I have no close family elsewhere so justifying to OOS unfriendly schools will be difficult I feel.
Would not mind adding any NY schools but not interested in California or Texas
Additionally, I know I am doing myself a disservice by not having many reach schools. It's not my style to aim highly so I would appreciate any reach school recommendations as I am having a hard time seeing where I land.
Stats: - White male, first generation, from Florida - 4.0 GPA (State school in Florida) - 514 MCAT (130/128/128/128)
Extracurriculars (Lowballing my hours): ~ Managerial position at a nonprofit clinic (65 hours, projected 1200 hours) ~ ED scribe (1200 hours) ~ Clinical volunteering (250 hours, got hired there, listed above) ~ Non clinical volunteering (250 hours, projected 350, Foodbank/Crisis Text Line) ~ Tutoring (200 hours) ~ Shadowing (91 hours) ** NO RESEARCH **
School List: In State:

• UF
• UM
• Nova Southeastern University
• UCF
• Florida Atlantic University
• USF
• FSU

Out of State (in no particular order):

• Tufts
• Wake Forest
• UNC Chapel Hill
• Emory
• University of Colorado
• University of Vermont
• Boston University
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Brown University
• Dartmouth
• Albert Einstein
• University of Cincinnati
• Ohio State University
• University of Wisconsin
• University of Maryland
• Albany Medical College
• Rush
• West Virginia University
• University of Iowa

Worth Applying? (I want to have some reach schools but I don't know what's a reach for me)

• Duke
• University of Virginia
• University of Michigan

Last night Iowa’s governor signed a law banning teaching gender identity to those under 6th Grade and requiring schools to inform parents of any desire a child has to change their name or pronouns. This is the fifth anti trans bill to pass in Iowa following a ban on trans female participation in student athletics, a law requiring people to use bathrooms matching their gender assigned at birth, a ban on support for alternate genders in high schools, and a total ban on gender affirming care for minors.

”Short” recap of the Jets' 2022 Season

The Jets had a noisy offseason in 2022 as they were big spenders in free agency, bringing in CB DJ Reed, TE CJ Uzomah, and OG Laken Tomlinson. The also had 3 first round picks and an early second rounder to give the team one of the youngest roster in the NFL by snaps given. The main headline going into the Jets regular season was, like most NFL teams, centered around the quarterback position. The Jets drafted BYU QB Zach Wilson #2 overall in the 2021 NFL draft. Statistically, Zach's rookie campaign was off to an abysmal start with 4 TDs and 9 picks in his first Five starts before having his midseason interrupted by a knee injury. Zach would return and threw 5 touchdowns and just two picks in his last seven games, playing less dynamically than he had in Tennessee but smarter and safer. Zach went into the 2022 season looking to improve on his 2,334 yards passing, 55.6% completion percentage, 9 passing touchdowns, 4 rushing touchdowns, and 11 interceptions from 2022.
However, Zach would miss September due to a miniscus tear he suffered in the preseason. The Jets started Joe Flacco at the quarterback position for their opening three games; going 1-2 with a historical comeback win at Cleveland (I didn't have to mention this but it's the most exciting Jets football you'll ever see). After Zach returned, the Jets opened out on a winning streak. However, this had more to do with the star performances of the Jets rookies, namely WR Garrett Wilson, RB Breece Hall, and CB Sauce Gardner. In Denver, the Jets suffered a pyrrhic victory at hands of the Broncos as the team won 16-9, but suffered season ending injuries to OL Alijah Vera-Tucker and Breece Hall. Hindering the offensive line and prematurely ending Hall's OROTY campaign. This altered the course of the Jets' season for the worse. While young stars Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner continued to shine, the team's offense couldn't make up for the loss of Breece Hall as they were forced to look to Zach Wilson to lead the passing offense. Zach Wilson regressed heavily from his already terrible rookie season and as a result of his poor performance and attitude, was benched. The Jets attempted to salvage their season by looking to Mike White, who almost immediately went out with injury, and then later to Flacco (and at one point, Chris Streveler, fresh out of the CFL). Only two seasons into Wilson's career, he's cemented himself among the greatest draft busts in NFL history and for the sake of playefan morale, is completely unplayable in 2023. He isn't going to be cut until at least August, as there's no financial incentive to give up on him until after next season. The Jets missed out on the playoffs in 2023 for the 12th straight season, the second longest drought in North American sports. The silver lining for the Jets this season is that their roster is still full of young talent across the board, as AVT should be back by the preseason, Breece Hall should be back in the early regular season this year, and Garret Wilson and Sauce Gardner are back for their sophomore seasons after winning Offensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Rookie of the year, respectively. The Jets had very little coaching staff/front office turnover from 2022. The main exception is the Jets moved on from young offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur to sign veteran OC and recently fired Denver Broncos' head coach, Nathaniel Hackett. This move was met with middling reception by fans. As many cited him as an underwhelming retread, though there was potentially one huge upside to signing Hackett and his name is...

Aaron Freaking Rodgers

After acknowledging his failure in drafting and developing his franchise QB, New York Jets General Manager Joe Douglas, scrambled to find a QB the Jets can compete with during their current window where their most talented players are on rookie deals. Joe Douglas doesn’t have the luxury of trying again with rookie QB roulette as he’s already four years into a rebuild that has yielded zero winning seasons. Many considered his huge failure with Zach Wilson to be a fireable offense, but due to his success in building the rest of the team, Jets owner Woody Johnson publicly voiced his confidence in Joe Douglas and let him have another offseason to try to pull a rabbit out of his hat at the QB position. The Jets were connected to almost every veteran QB that might conceivably be on the market from January to March. Around the time of the NFL Combine, the Jets had their options narrowed down to Tannehil, Cousins, and Aaron Rodgers headlining the group. With Rodgers’ ending his career in Green Bay, he then descended into a Darkness Retreat. Afterward, Aaron decided to tell Schefter to lose his number and went on the Mcafee show to announce that he had decided to play for the Jets, despite still being on contract with the Packers. After a month and a half of Jets and Packers fans taking to Reddit and Twitter to argue endlessly about Leverage, the Jets and Packers finally worked out a deal on April 24th, just days before the 2023 NFL Draft. The Jets acquired Aaron Rodgers and a 5th round pick in 2023 in exchange for a 1st round pick swap (Jets go 13 to 15th overall), a 2023 2nd round pick, a 2023 6th round pick, and a 2024 second round pick that can become a 1st if Rodgers plays >65% of snaps in 2023. Many were quick to declare an immediate winner to the trade, though I think with trades like these, you need to see how things play out and what will happen on the conditions before knowing for sure. My knee-jerk reaction to the trade is that it’s an overpay if Rodgers were to retire after 2023, but if he comes back for 2024 like he says he’s going to, then this is fair overall. If Jordan Love doesn’t pan out and the Jets make a Super Bowl over the next two years, people will look back on this trade as a steal for the Jets. Time will tell.

Jets Free Agency

Contrary to popular belief, the Jets did more this offseason than roll out the red carpet for Aaron Rodgers. In free agency, the Jets rolled out the red carpet for all of Aaron Rodger’s favorite teammates. In Free Agency, the Jets brought in:

• WR Mecole Hardman (KC)
• WR Allen Lazard (GB)
• OL Trystan Colon (BAL)
• OL Billy Turner (DEN)
• P Thomas Morestead (MIA)
• C Wes Schweitzer (WAS)
• QB Tim Boyle (DET)
• DT Quinton Jefferson (SEA)

Over half the names on this list have some kind of connection to Aaron Rodgers. Allen Lazard was the biggest swing for the Jets in free agency with $44MM over 4 years. The Jets cut bait by trading Elijah Moore to Cleveland, but are going to keep Corey Davis for the third year of his contract despite disappointing availability and stats by Davis. Lazard has experience in the slot, despite being primarily an outside the numbers receiver. With Moore and Berrios out, the Jets are a little bit heavier on outside receiver and light on slot receiver, so they’ll likely focus on size over shiftiness over the middle. However, bringing in Mecole Hardman brings a lot of the speed over the middle that the team is missing. Outside of WR, the Jets added more depth on the offensive and defensive lines. The main highlight of free agency for Jets fans was, strangely enough, the punter they signed- Thomas Morstead. Morstead punted for the Jets in 2021 filling in for an injured Braden Mann with an average of 48 yards/ punt and 7 punts within the 20. The Jets let Morstead go to let Braden Mann return. Mann was a decent punter for the Jets at best, but was infamous in NY for a shank a game that eventually became too much. The Jets have also worked out with P Matt “Punt God” Araiza, but that’s a can of worms I won’t get into. The Jets also brought back:

• LB Quincy Williams
• K Greg Zuerlin
• DT Solomon Thomas
• RB Ty Johnson
• C Connor McGovern

I have much less to say about these players. Ty Johnson has already been cut, which has been a small controversy due to his surgery that was allegedly recommended by the Jets. But especially after the draft, the Jets have a glut of runningbacks on the roster. I don’t see what the Jets see in Solomon Thomas but HC Robert Saleh really likes him. Greg Zuerlin has been a replacement level kicker for the Jets. Quincy Williams is back, which is mostly interesting as his older brother, Quinnen Williams, is in a contract holdout with the Jets. The number for Quinnen Williams is likely going to look similar to what Dexter Lawrence got from the Giants.

The New York Jets 2023 NFL Draft

Pre-Draft Needs

Positions of Need going into the Draft: OT, FS, DT, RB
The Jets' strength on the defense was on the outsides, both on the passrush with Carl Lawson and Jermaine Johnson coming back and in the pass defense, with Sauce Gardner and DJ Reed returning after being arguably the best CB duo in 2022. The weakness was over the middle in the passing game and between the tackles in the run game. The Jets have Quinnen Williams on the 5th year option looking for a new deal this year and don't have another quality DT to complement him on the interior of their 4-3 front. Jordan Whitehead was disappointing for the Jets last year at SS and Ashtyn Davis hasn't fully panned out at FS.
On the offense, the Jets have fewer holes, but have positions like RB, TE, and WR where they can afford to add more talent. The biggest liabilities for the Jets are on the offensive tackle, where Mekhi Becton is coming back from two whole seasons of injury and Duane Brown is 38 and playing likely his last season of Pro Football.

1st Round (15th Overall) Will McDonald IV, EDGE – Iowa State

Before discussing McDonald as a player, we should discuss the Steelers’ trade with the Patriots at 14th overall. This trade led to a lot of criticism of the trade back with Green Bay for Rodgers as well as Joe Douglas’s composure as a drafter. The main thing we know about Broderick Jones is that the fact that Pittsburgh was interested in trading up for him long before the Rodgers trade. Jones to the Steelers was one of the worst kept secrets of the NFL draft this year and the New England Patriots (while not to pretend that Belichick doesn’t love to screw the Jets over) are notorious for trading back in the first round. I’m not going to assert that the Jets weren’t interested in landing Broderick Jones, I think the people who are skeptical of Douglas’s claim that McDonald was their top target are missing two things: the first is that Robert Saleh is a defensive minded coach who is obsessed with having an excess of edge rushers with good bend. Saleh and Douglas are still on good terms, and I would be very surprised if during the draft Saleh wasn’t pounding the table in Joe Douglas’s ear for Will McDonald. The second is that while Jones was on board, Douglas himself said that McDonald was his number 1. You can debate if the Jets should’ve taken Jones if he were available, but he wasn’t and so, the Jets picked McDonald. Will McDonald is a 6’4” 236 lbs Edge rusher from Iowa State University who turns 24 years old June 6th. He was considered a high draft prospect after his 2021 and 2020 seasons where he had 11.5 and 10.5 sacks respectively, but still decided to come back to school in 2022. This, plus the fact that he didn’t begin playing football until he was 17 years old, contribute to Will McDonald IV’s advanced age as a prospect. Some might have called this pick a reach due to his age, but it’s worth noting that McDonald isn’t exactly a “late bloomer” as a player, but rather he has been a competitive pass rusher in the Big 12 since about 2019 and is tied for #1 overall in the Big12’s career sack list. Another reason why Will McDonald IV is an underrated prospect is that many people aren’t familiar with the defense that Iowa St. and how it deflates pass rusher numbers. Iowa State runs something called a STAR defense, or a 3-3-5 (3 DL, 3LB, 5 DBs). This helped the Cyclones against pass heavy, air raid and/or spread style offenses, but means that a premier pass rusher like Will McDonald will get basically zero help in the box. The traits that scouts fell in love with that made Will McDonald IV a first-round talent were his bend around the edge, his top end speed, and his usage of his hands. The weaknesses that were brought up centered mostly around his smaller size, power, and lack of body of work on run defense. But his overall athleticism and potential to bulk up are the main thing the Jets are banking on as they look develop him going forward. McDonald’s athleticism is so over the top, that he’s made a hobby of jumping over cars and doing other acrobatics that will keep the Jets management up at night if he keeps it up through his rookie contract.
The main thing to understand when watching McDonald as a prospect is that the Jets are going to play him a lot differently than the Cyclones did. Due to the ISU 3-man front, McDonald was often moved inside if he wasn’t double or triple teamed as a 5 tech. When Robert Saleh called Will McDonald to let him know the Jets were drafting him, Saleh said “We’re getting you out of that 4i and into that Wide 9”. That meaning, that instead of playing him between the guard and the tackle, they’re going to put him as far out as the o-line is built. I think the Jets will try to get him standing up; even though they typically have four defensive linemen down as I trust Robert Saleh to not pigeonhole a guy to a set role and will just try to set him up to succeed as a pass rusher. The important thing to remember when evaluating McDonald’s upcoming rookie season (or Jermaine Johnson’s rookie season from 2022), is that the Jets have a religious dedication to cycling their defensive linemen in and out regardless of how well or poorly they’re playing. So, for young players like McDonald, Johnson, and Michael Clemons, they’re guaranteed to get a shot, but even if they succeed, they’ll get cycled out. But this does mean that in 2023, we’re guaranteed a chance to see the speed and shiftiness that Will McDonald IV will be bringing to the Jets defense for years to come.

2nd Round, 12th pick (43rd Overall) Joe Tippmann, C – Wisconsin

After the first night of the draft, most were shocked over the Jets’ selection of Will McDonald. And many more in Jets land were disappointed that the team couldn’t find any offensive line help for newly acquired QB, Aaron Rodgers. Fortunately for the Jets on night 2, the board broke their way positively, unlike on night 1. With most of the premier tackles off the board, the Jets then turned their attention interior offensive line. The Jets re-signed Connor McGovern to a 1 year $1.915 million deal after the main rush of free agency subsided and McGovern was unable to find a better deal. McGovern was a serviceable Center for the Jets on his previous 3 year deal, but at 30, the Jets are starting to look for long term options with higher upside. With McGovern making barely backup Center money, the Jets had basically no assets committed to the center position. With every center in the 2023 NFL draft on the board, I don’t think I need to do as much defending of the positional choice for center as I had to do for Edge rusher in the first round. The Jets selected Joe Tippmann with the 12th pick of the 2nd round. The Wisconsin Badger is one of the taller Centers we’ve seen at 6’6” (not including the mullet) and 313 lbs. However, Tippmann has shown on film that he’s able to get low off the snap off the height and in the later block can leverage his size. He had the highest athleticism score at his position (which is going to be a consistent theme for the Jets in this draft). He started his last two full seasons at Wisconsin, shining as a run blocker and allowed only on sack and five pressures over 338 pass blocking snaps. His strengths coming out of Wisconsin are his fluid movement and rotation, his high football IQ, and his size. His main weakness is his sense of balance and his high point of contact. Some might have questioned why the Jets chose Tippmann over John Michael-Schmitz and, while I would’ve been happy with either, I personally believe the Jets made the slightly better choice in banking on a player who is younger, bigger, healthier, and possibly has higher upside. The Jets have been looking for the heir apparent to Nick Mangold since he’s retired. While McGovern was a serviceable stop gap for the last three years and will get a chance to compete with Tippmann this summer, I believe this pick is a great chance for the Jets to find a new leader of their offensive line for years to come. The Jets are at their best in their franchise history when they have a Center with leadership, strength, and durability to support the offense.

4th Round, Pick 18 (120th Overall) Carter Warren, OT – Pittsburgh

In 2022, the New York Jets offensive line was a revolving door as the offensive line was decimated by injuries before they even started the regular season. They were able to mitigate these issues for the first few weeks of the season by deploying Alijah Vera-Tucker as a Swiss Army Offensive Lineman, but when he suffered a season ending injury, that had to come to an end. In this offseason, the Jets didn’t add many players who will contend for starting positions at guard or tackle in 2023, but Joe Douglas has made a point to bolster the depth at these positions so they’re better prepared for when Mekhi Becton, who hasn’t played a full game since mid 2020, or the 38 year old Duane Brown get injured.
To prepare for this, the Jets picked New Jersey native Carter Warren in the fourth round out of Pittsburgh. With his 7 foot wingspan, core strength, and leadership experience, Warren has the traits of a prototypical NFL Tackle. Carter Warren’s athleticism graded highly at the combine at the workouts he performed despite not being 100% from his shoulder injury. He fell to the fourth round in the draft as expected due to his season ending injury in 2022 and his overall lack of power and ability to sustain blocks for longer drives. The Jets are looking for Carter Warren to develop into a capable swing tackle or high end backup LT. The team is possibly still banking on Becton serving as the long term starting Left Tackle, but we’ll sort that out when training camp gets here. With veteran Billy Turner on the team and second year Maxx Mitchell returning as a swing tackle, the Jets are hopeful that they won’t rely on a rookie tackle in 2023. But if they do, Carter Warren has the traits needed to keep the offense on schedule when injuries inevitably come.

5th Round Pick, Pick 8 (#143rd Overall) Israel Abanikanda, RB – Pittsburgh

After selecting the Pittsburgh Panther from New Jersey in the fourth round, the Jets elected to take his teammate, RB Israel Abanikanda from Brooklyn, with the very next pick. In the last two years the Jets have brought in a lot of young runningbacks from the draft such as Michael Carter, Breece Hall, and Zonovan Knight. The Jets running back room looked like it was on the road to being elite after Breece Hall’s early career breakout before his tragic season ending injury. Breece Hall had emerged as a physical, downhill runner for the Jets and Michael Carter and Bam Knight were capable change of pace backs, pass blockers, and receiving backs. Breece Hall is going to go back to being the Jets premier runningback if he comes back to be 100% of what he was last year, even with Abanikanda on the roster. But what the Jets were lacking, even with Hall on the roster last year, was a shiftier, higher end speed running back that can break open in space. Hall checks off a lot of these boxes, but did so by being more physical over the middle. In 2022, Izzy Abanikanda’s stats were impressive. He reached 100 yards rushing in 9 out of his 11 games and rushed for 20 TDs on the season. With Hall, Izzy can be a dangerous lightning to Breece Hall’s thunder as the Jets look to round out their offense. Izzy’s athleticism is (say it with me now: ) really good. He ranked 5th out of running backs in this draft despite being a 5th round pick. The biggest weakness commonly cited about Izzy Abanikanda is his pass protection. This has been a recent focus on running backs in the NFL and something that will likely limit Izzy’s day one impact. But the Jets can keep things simple on the offense and just focus on getting the ball of playmakers like Abanikanda. The most exciting thing about Abanikanda is that he’s young, not turning 21 until October 5th of this year (making him born in 2002, if you wanted to feel old today). Abanikanda is an extremely speedy player with home run ability. The value in the 5th round is great for the Jets here and they are now hedged against a key RB injury like they suffered last year. This pick may spell trouble for fans of Michael Carter and Zonovan Knight (apologies to /DynastyFF), but it puts the Jets in a position to be dynamic in the ground game to capitalize on defenses thinking they can afford to sell out against the Aaron Rodgers-led passing offense.

6th Round, Pick 7 (184th Overall) Zaire Barnes, LB – Western Michigan

Getting later into the draft, the Jets start to look for roleplayers and positions where the team is light. Zaire Barnes fills both of these criteria with his special teams experience and coverage linebacker experience. The Jets have Quincy Williams and CJ Mosely playing in the box to handle secondary running coverage. The team may still bring back Kwon Alexander to return as the WILL linebacker in space, but the Jets are looking to bolster their coverage over the middle. The Jets have arguably the best cornerback duo on the outside with DJ Reed and Sauce Gardner and a capable slot corner with Michael Carter II. This means that most of the teams that threw the ball on the Jets did so over the middle.
At Western Michigan, Barnes lined up close to the line of scrimmage and focused mostly on man coverage. In order for him to unlock his potential and make this pick a steal, he needs to unlock his ability to use lateral movement to help in zone coverage. At 6’1” his height is unremarkable but more than adequate for a linebacker within the box. If Zaire Barnes can make himself valuable on special team and take advantage of the opportunities to make a play in coverage over the middle or to make an impact in the run game where the Jets are also light, Zaire Barnes will be able to be a part of this Jets team for a long time.

Round 6, Pick 27 (#204th Overall) Jarrick Bernard-Converse, DB – LSU

In writing Bernard-Converse’s position on the headliner, I opted to just write DB, as he’s played all over the secondary. Looking at JBC’s skillset and the holes the Jets have in their roster, it would seem Bernard-Converse’s best outlook on the Jets is to move to the Safety position. With good tackling ability, high athleticism, and four years of starting experience at the Power 5 level, the Jets are banking on Bernard-Converse’s ability to adapt to a new role as opposed to being a true CB. In coverage at LSU, he did have some issues letting players get behind him due to his ability to trail and backpedal, another sign that he’s likely better suited for the safety role. With Jarrick Bernard-Converse, the Jets are banking on his adaptability and Robert Saleh’s ability to develop a player with raw talent into a contributor on the backend.

Round 7, Pick 3 (#220th Overall) Zack Kuntz, TE – Old Dominion

The Jets have looked to rebuild their TE room after years of it being in disarray. Unfortunately, the group that Douglas has put together, CJ Uzomah, Tyler Conklin, and Jeremy Ruckert, didn’t quite pan out in 2023. Part of this was on the quarterback play, but part of this is that the tight ends on the Jets didn’t quite have the plus abilities the team needed to get production from their Tight Ends. This is just the beginning of why Zack Kuntz is an exciting pick for the Jets. Kuntz (pronounced KOONTS, unless you’re Australian) was primarily a receiving tight end for Penn State and Old Dominion in college. At 6’8” 255lbs, Kuntz has more than the prototypical size of a blocking Y tight end, but he instead spent his college career using his 4.55 speed to be a menace over the middle. His most productive season was only 692 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns, which is a bit less for the insane athleticism that a speedy and shifty tight end such as Kuntz possesses. Still, it’s hard to imagine how 32 GMs looked at Kuntz and decided over 200 times that they don’t need this freak of nature on their team. The Jets may look into developing his blocking a bit more, but I think they’re probably more excited by refining his hands and getting him over the middle to create some size mismatch. With Zach Kuntz elite size and speed, he’s truly a menace with the ball in his hands.

UDFA Rapid Fire

The Jets traded back in the 6th round at a pretty heavy loss. I believe this is because they wanted special teams and depth and were relatively satisfied with most of the starters they had going into the NFL draft. So, the Jets will likely not have a ton of contributions from UDFAs this year. Here are the 13 players the Jets have currently signed as UDFAs and I’ll highlight a few of the ones I think I have a chance at making the 53 man roster below:

• Jason Brownlee, WR Southern Mississippi: Despite receiving a combine invite and showing a good vertical and 40 yard dash, Brownlee ends up unsigned on the Jets. I think the Jets will look to leverage his athleticism on special teams, as most of the WRs on the roster have little experience/interest in playing special teams.
• Trey Dean, Safety Florida: A former starter as a freshman for the Gators in 2017, he’s got a lot of experience. As mentioned earlier, both safety positions are weakspots on the Jets roster, so a safety with Dean’s experience might be able to stick on.
• Deslin Alexandre, DL Pittsburgh: Joe Douglas sure does love his Pittsburgh guys. Deslin played as an edge rusher in college, but went undrafted due to weak bend (which is an important trait in an EDGE rusher, as I’m sure you can imagine). Still, a player with his size could still be a valuable Defensive Tackle in a 4-3 defense such as the Jets’. The main thing for Alexandre will be improving his run defense, as that’s currently a sore spot for the Jets DL.

53 Man Roster Projection

POS	1st String	2nd String
QB	Aaron Rodgers	Tim Boyle	Zach Wilson
RB	Breece Hall	Israel Abanikanda	Michael Carter, Zonovan Knight
WR	Garrett Wilson	Corey Davis	Mecole Hardman
WR	Allen Lazard	Randall Cobb	Jason Brownlee
TE	Tyler Conklin	CJ Uzomah	Jeremy Ruckert
LT	Duane Brown	Warren Carter
RT	Mekhi Becton	Maxx Mitchell
LG	Laken Tomlinson	Wes Schweitzer
RG	Alijah Vera-Tucker	Billy Turner
C	Connor McGovern	Joe Tippmann
DT	Quinnen Williams	Al Woods
DT	John Franklin-Myers	Deslin Alexandre
DE	Jermaine Johnson	Isaiah Mack
DE	Carl Lawson	Michael Clemons	Solomon Thomas
ILB	CJ Mosely
OLB	Quincy Williams	Bryce Huff
OLB	Will McDonald IV	Zaire Barnes
CB	Sauce Gardner	Michael Carter II	Brandin Echols
CB	DJ Reed	Bryce Hall	Javelin Guidry
FS	Ashtyn Davis	Jarrick Berndard-Converse
SS	Jordan Whitehead	Justin Hardee	Chuck Clark
K	Greg Zuerlein
P	Thomas Morstead
LS	Thomas Hennessy

Notes on 53 man roster

• Yes, the front seven is a complete mess. The Jets move guys around so much that even trying to delineate between a LB or a DE can be difficult. This is a rough guesstimation of what players will make the final roster, not necessarily where they’ll play.
• The NFL has a new rule that allows teams to carry 3 QBs and still be under the 53 man roster. So that's why you may count 54 on this.
• I only did this with players currently either on contract or drafted by the Jets. I think Kwon Alexander will eventually sign but for now, he’s not on here.
• I really wanted to find a spot for Zach Kuntz, but it was tough since there’s a lot of dedicated money to TEs. I thought maybe we could cut Randall Cobb, but we’ll see.

Final Thoughts

This offseason will be remembered as the offseason where the Jets made a huge swing for a future Hall of Fame QB. It’s impossible for me to try to put this draft class up against that. But the Jets got a lot of athleticism in this draft that can set them up to be competitive in the long term. It was surprising that they traded back, seeing as they’re in a win now mode, still. I think the Jets got 2 or 3 starters from this draft, likely some combination of Abanikanda, Tippmann, and McDonald. Certain players like Warren and Kuntz do have some longer term potential, too. Nothing will ever touch Joe Douglas’s 2022 draft class, but I thought this class was solid and built a lot of overdue depth. Still, when July rolls around and it’s time for camp, it’s going to be the QB that all Jets fans are looking at.