Asked if playing in near-freezing weather at Ohio State might pose a challenge for his team, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel quickly noted that it wouldn’t be the Volunteers’ first rodeo with the cold.
Kicker Max Gilbert even posted a photo last week standing with teammates as light snow fell before a morning practice. And, Tennessee beat cross-state rival Vanderbilt last month on a tundra of sorts with a kickoff temperature of 41 degrees before dropping to the 30s in the fading daylight. A combination of heated benches, portable heaters and extra layers helped take the chill off, along with a 36-23 comeback victory.
The Saturday night forecast calls for temperatures in the high teens and low 20s with a slight chance of snow for the first-round College Football Playoff matchup in Columbus, Ohio. But with few degrees of separation between climates in the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, it won’t feel much different when the Vols venture 350 miles north to face the Buckeyes.
“Yeah, it’s a June day in South Dakota,” Heupel joked this week. “It’s going to be great football weather. A couple of weeks ago we played in 30 degree weather. We practice in the morning, still a chill, as cold as it will be around this area. And at the end of the day, you get between the white lines, weather doesn’t matter. The temperature doesn’t. And we’ll be ready to go play. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
The playoff this year for the first time is holding first-round games on campus and that opens things up in terms of potential weather. Whether this weekend’s official start of winter has a chilling effect on the outcome in the expanded 12-team playoff remains to be seen, but it’s a definite departure from warm climates Power Four teams are used to for postseason games.
The prospect of spending the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays preparing for a bowl in a sunny locale is considered an incentivizing finish to a long season.
Warmer destinations and indoor stadiums await the first-round winners in the quarterfinals, but no one’s complaining about the chance to play in “ideal” football weather that many players grew up with. This additional postseason layer may require, well, layering for players, but cold comes with the territory and is worth the sacrifice of playing for a national championship.
“Whether there’s snow or not snow, whether it’s really cold or just kind of cold, it is what it is,” said SMU coach Rhett Lashlee, who noted his players’ aspirations of an NFL career certainly can and should include the likelihood of wintry weather.
“They aspire to play championship football, which we’re getting to do right now,” said Lashlee, who played his high school and college football in Arkansas. “The weather is only going to be an issue if we allow it, so we know it’s going to be really cold. It’s going to be really cold for them as well. So it’s our 11 versus their 11.”
Ditto for fans who willingly accept cold hands, feet and noses if it means rooting on their teams.
“They get a little bit more snow but as far as temperature, we’ve been mostly in the 30s for the last couple of weeks and been in the 20s for two nights,” said longtime Tennessee season ticket holder Earl Brown, 72, who will be in The Horseshoe with wife Judy and three others. “Plus, the game’s up there and it will be my 355th consecutive game. So, I don’t think it really matters if it’s snow, rain and sleet or 85 degrees. I will be in the stadium.”
“We’ll put on six, seven layers, probably,” Judy Brown said.
The State College forecast calls for low 20s dropping into the low teens when Penn State hosts SMU on Saturday night. Lashlee jokingly lamented pleasant 70-degree temperatures in Dallas for workouts but doesn’t expect a huge adjustment for his team after playing last month’s Atlantic Coast Championship in the 30s in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The coach added that non-bowl December football is also new territory for Penn State, which means it will also be cold on the Nittany Lions’ bench.
Temperature-wise (low to mid-20s), Indiana players and fans won’t notice much change between Bloomington and what the Hoosiers will face 200 miles upstate in South Bend for Friday night’s matchup at Notre Dame. The daytime forecast includes a 63% chance of snow, conditions the Fighting Irish embrace in a hype video featuring clips of the white stuff.
Having won at Purdue in the snow and seeing it elsewhere while playing at Ohio, Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke looks forward to whatever awaits in Notre Dame Stadium — including noise to wake up the echoes.
“Having snow fall in the stadium, that was pretty cool,” Rourke said. “Snow games are pretty fun, so I’m looking forward to it if that’s the case.”
WAKE HIRES DICKERT
Wake Forest moved quickly in reaching across the country to find its next football coach.
The school hired Washington State’s Jake Dickert on Wednesday, two days after Dave Clawson resigned unexpectedly following 11 seasons that included regular bowl bids and an Atlantic Coast Conference division title.
“Coach Dickert’s approach to building a program — through evaluation and development of talent with a plan rooted in detail, discipline, and an unwavering commitment to student-athlete development — reminds me of what made Dave Clawson so successful during his 11-year transformational tenure as our head football coach,” athletic director John Currie said in a statement.
“Jake’s philosophy of fostering personal growth, cultivating trust within the team, and relentlessly competing for championships embodies the principles we hold dear.”
Dickert, 41, had been the defensive coordinator when he took over during the 2021 season as the Cougars’ interim coach after Washington State fired Nick Rolovich for refusing a state mandate that all employees get vaccinated against COVID-19. Dickert led the team to a 3-3 finish to earn the permanent job, then went 20-17 in the three seasons since.
The Athletic first reported that Wake Forest was set to hire Dickert, whose introductory news conference was scheduled for Thursday.
“We will have a clear focus on retaining our current roster while adding valuable pieces that fit our program and Wake Forest University,” Dickert said in a statement. “Additionally, I am excited to immerse myself in this special community as throughout this process my belief that this is the perfect place for our family and our program only strengthened.”
PAVIA RETURNING
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge granted Diego Pavia ’s request for a preliminary injunction allowing the quarterback to play the 2025 season and told the NCAA the organization cannot take any action against Vanderbilt or any other university that Pavia plays a fifth season for next year.
U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell issued the injunction Wednesday after a hearing Dec. 4. Campbell had asked attorneys both how quickly they could be ready for trial and the transfer portal window, which closes Dec. 28.
“With Pavia as quarterback, Vanderbilt has seen historic success — Vanderbilt beat both the University of Alabama and Auburn University — and the team will be playing in a bowl game for the first time since 2018,” Campbell wrote in an opinion issued with the injunction. “Those familiar with college football appreciate this remarkable accomplishment. Pavia estimates that he could earn over $1 million in NIL compensation in the 2025-26 season.”
Campbell noted current NCAA bylaws make Pavia ineligible to play Division I football in 2025 simply because the quarterback started his career at a junior college.
Pavia filed his lawsuit seeking an additional season Nov. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville. He has applied to Vanderbilt’s masters’ program for legal studies starting in January in case he won the injunction.
He did not get an offer from a Football Bowl Subdivision school coming out of Volcano Vista High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He went to New Mexico Military Institute in 2020 and led the junior college to the 2021 national championship. He went to New Mexico State in 2022 and won 10 games in 2023.
The Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year then followed his head coach, Jerry Kill, and offensive coordinator Tim Beck to Vanderbilt this offseason.
Pavia is a big reason why Vanderbilt is 6-6. The Commodores play Georgia Tech on Dec. 27 in the Birmingham Bowl — the program’s first since 2018. The Commodores wound up ranked twice in the AP Top 25 and that win over then-No. 1 Alabama snapped a 60-game winless skid over over AP top-5 teams.
COLORADO ADDS QB
The Colorado Buffaloes have landed ex-Liberty quarterback Kaidon Salter out of the transfer portal to possibly step in and replace Shedeur Sanders next season.
Salter figures to compete with five-star high school recruit Julian “JuJu” Lewis for the starting job. Lewis is expected to join the 20th-ranked Buffaloes (9-3) in the spring semester.
A dual threat, Salter is coming off a regular season for the Flames in which he ran for 579 yards and seven TDs while throwing for 1,886 yards and 15 touchdowns. His total yards per game (224.09 yards) was fourth-most in Conference USA.
Salter led Liberty to an 8-3 mark this season. His former team will play in the Bahamas Bowl on Jan. 4 against Buffalo.
Colorado offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur recently spoke of the need to bring in a player such as Salter as Lewis develops. Shurmur called Lewis a “great decision maker.”
“He has a real sense of timing. He’s a very accurate passer,” Shurmur added of Lewis, a star at Carrollton High School in Georgia. “He has a heroic nature. He has all those things you’re looking for. … If he does the things that he’s done in high school and continues to improve at this level, then he will have a bright future.”
There are big shoes to fill at quarterback once Sanders wraps up his career following the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28 against BYU. Sanders broke many school records, including the single-season yards passing mark (3,926) and for passing TDs (35). The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm recipient has a TD throw in 48 straight games, dating to his days at Jackson State.
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