Syracuse legend.

Newsletter: Gio Lopez, ‘80s sitcoms and Boz Scaggs. It all makes sense in context, I promise. davidhale.substack.com/p/everyone-g...

Ellison really pulling strings at Paramount.

Very disappointed to find out today that I was not chosen as the new director of The Louvre despite clearly noting on my resume that I’d read most of “The DaVinci Code” in 2003. Stupid woke hiring practices.

On Inside ACCess tonight (5 pm, ACCN)… - Who’s poised to be this year’s Virginia? - NC St & Clemson set to open spring - Cal coach Tosh Lupoi talks about building his culture in Berkeley - Gio Lopez joins us to talk about leading Wake w/former OC Rob Ezell

Wes Rucker loved his work in an industry that never pays enough for a respectable life. Now he's gone, and he's left a young family behind. Anything you can spare to help is the grace they need: www.gofundme.com/f/support-te...

It's not my fault! The stats provider we use has that logo and won't update it. They don't even HAVE a logo for Air Force, which feels unpatriotic.

On this week’s Inside ACCess, we ranked the ACC’s QB situations headed into spring. I went into a bit more detail in this week’s newsletter… open.substack.com/pub/davidhal...

Oceans 12… the part where they have Julia Roberts’ character pretend to be Julia Roberts would’ve been better if, before the movie, they’d just had her agent punch everyone in line to buy a ticket in the balls and take their money.

On today's Inside ACCess... @ESPNRittenberg sits in for Andrea & we rank the ACC's QB situations 1-17. Also, @LarryWilliamsTI joins us to talk about Vezzina/Morris combo at Clemson & I catch up with NC State's CJ Bailey on his return to Raleigh. Today, 5 pm, ACCN.

Which SEC teams aired it out the most in 2025?

Newsletter: The most perplexing QB class ever… Ashton Daniels’ backpack & FSU’s offensive woes… VT’s rebuild… the best Little Caesar’s crime story… and some thoughts on the state of print journalism… open.substack.com/pub/davidhal...

ICYMI: important discussion with FSU QB Ashton Daniels about rocking an Auburn backpack on his recruiting visit to Tallahassee. Catch the whole interview here: linktr.ee/InsideACCess

FSU’s week 1 QB will be its 7th diff starter in its last 29 games. In the 27 games since Travis injury, Noles are 9-18 with a Total QBR of 50.5. QBs have 75 TD, 45 TO. 27 prior games: 22-5, 78.1, 130 and 24.

We’ve got a really big show today on Inside ACCess (5 pm/ACCN)… FSU QB Ashton Daniels on Gus’s goodbye Eli Lederman on James Franklin’s recruiting at VT Brent Key on GT’s 2026 outlook Plus me & AA’s grades/expectations for NC St, Duke, Lou & Cuse Pod: linktr.ee/InsideACCess

11 QBs return for 2026 w/50+ career passing TDs Noah Fifita, 73 Josh Hoover, 71 Mikey Keene, 65 Rocco Becht, 64 Byrum Brown, 61 Brendan Sorsby, 60 Darian Mensah, 56 Kevin Jennings, 55 Caden Veltkamp, 54 Jayden Maiava, 52 Jaylen Raylor, 52 *Joey Aguilar is pending (80)

I’ve been working on this for a while: I wrote about Ryan Adams in the 2020s, the “third act of TÁR” part of his career marked by constant social media meltdowns and scores of nondescript albums. Also, Rec Corner picks for Westside Cowboy and Guv! tinyurl.com/bdfn5uhu

Portal talk: I looked at 62 established starters in the ACC from 2024 who transferred for 2025. Some became superstars -- Mendoza, Bailey, Delane. But more than half saw a marked decline in stats & 45% got less playing time. open.substack.com/pub/davidhal...

Man this hits hard. When I covered the Phillies, Dan was basically the voice of Philly fandom online. God bless his wife and kids.

A twist in the Ole Miss "tampering" probe... NCAA investigators are looking into illegal contact the Rebels allegedly had with a star Fresno State player. "Fresno State has receipts," source tells me. More:

Big show today on Inside ACCess (5 pm/ACCN) -NIL/sports law expert Kristi Dosh tries to explain Darian Mensah, Luke Ferrelli & other chaos - SMU coach Rhett Lashlee instills some wisdom - and AA & I begin our ‘25 grades/‘26 expectations series w/BC, Stanford, UNC, UVA & WF.

Here's the whole story behind this very real sticker www.ncrabbithole.com/p/mr-wuf-nc-...

My concern in how this Mensah story has played out is the lessons will be: - Schools need to write better rev share contracts - Athletes can always leave if the money’s right And nothing substantive was accomplished.

Duke and Darian Mensah have come to terms on an exit for the QB, who is widely expected to join Miami. Here’s Duke’s statement…

Newsletter: Dabo Swinney laid bare the chaos of college football’s current landscape. Did we all miss the point? open.substack.com/pub/davidhal...

The ice maker in our fridge stopped working so all we have are giant cocktail cubes and for some reason my wife doesn't think that's a valid reason to only drink bourbon for the foreseeable future.

Vandy finished 15th in the AP poll... it's best since 1948.

Virginia finished 16th in the AP poll... it's highest finish since 1995.

Duke is 35-18 over the last 4 years. 18 P4s have a better record. Those teams have avg 46 weeks ranked in that span. Duke has 8. Duke's 1 of 12 teams to win 8 in each of last 4 years; Devils are the only 1 not to finish ranked in any of those seasons.

Indiana has been ranked for 29 straight weeks. Indiana was ranked 27 weeks total in the prior 25 years.

A complicated legacy: Carson Back lost just six games in his college career. In four of them, the final offensive play was a Beck INT with a chance to win the game.

Indiana is the first first-time national champion in 29 years -- since Florida in 1996-97. Gators had won 9+ games in 9 of 13 seasons before that title. Before last year, Indiana hadn't had a 9-win season since 1967. Friggin' incredible.

From 2020 through 2023 -- four seasons -- Indiana won 15 games total. Indiana won 16 games this year.

Alright stop, collaborate & listen… Inside ACCess is LIVE from Hard Rock Stadium tomorrow at 5 pm on ACCN… - Andrea’s sit down w/Mario Cristobal - ACC commissioner Jim Phillips - Talk matchups w/Adam Rittenberg - And visit w/Miami super fan… Vanilla Ice!

Thing that really stumped me from today at Champ Game media day... There was a dude there in the fan section wearing a Maurice Clarett Ohio St jersey -- which feels like a Miami slight -- but also a Miami TrUmp hat. I had so many questions but definitely wasn't going to investigate the answers.

Syracuse AD John Wildhack wants to see a holistic reimagining of the CFB calendar, collective bargaining with players and consolidated media rights, among other changes to “build on [success] and make it better.” www.espn.com/college-foot...

A pretty sizable % of people on this flight to FLL are wearing Indiana gear. Hoosiers fan base is ridiculous.

Newsletter: Shannon Dawson’s humility in putting together the offense Miami needs, not the one it wants, is a big reason the Canes are here. That + Tony Elliott on Chad Morris, Dan Radakovich on Miami’s $$, a new redshirt rule and lots more. davidhale.substack.com/p/the-scorpi...

Great show coming up today on Inside ACCess… We talk Miami’s playoff windfall w/AD Dan Radakovich Break down the Canes-Hoosiers matchups w/Matt Fortuna Check in on Virginia’s next steps w/Tony Elliott And contemplate Dabo as a Vegas wedding chaplain. Today. 5 pm. ACCN.

Our last lawyer screwed our affairs so badly.

This was a good one.

@sickoscommittee.org also has an A+ starter pack for a lot of folks out there go.bsky.app/HmAYTAQ

Non-EV parked across two EV spots. Suck on that, commies!

Mark Fletcher’s mom, Linda, hates to fly. So she drives to every game. She’s driven about 18,000 miles — nearly 150 hours on the road — this season to support her son, including more than 10k in the playoff alone. What better reward for her than a home game for the natty?

The SEC has now gone 3 years without a participant in the national championship game. From 2006-2022, the SEC accounted for 19 champ game teams. All other conferences accounted for 15. All time champ game teams by league: SEC - 21 ACC - 9 B1G - 8 B12 - 8 P12 - 5 BE - 3 Ind - 2

Miami was 11 of 19 on converting third downs tonight. It's the most third down conversions for the Canes in any game since the 52-10 win over FSU in 2020.

Ole Miss has run 5 plays on third down. They've gained: -13, 0, 0, 0, 0.

Just a FWIW... Demond Williams vs. Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon -- the only 3 ranked teams he played -- in 2025: 0-3, 49.0 Total QBR (28.8 raw QBR), 6.1 yards/pass, 4.5 yards/dropback, 2 total TD, 5 INT, 16 non-sack rush yards.

ICYMI: a 5-year-old male Harris Hawk who, admittedly, isn’t a huge football fan, picks the winner of the Fiesta Bowl…

Today’s Inside ACCess is gonna be a banger… * @aadelsonESPN and I break down Miami’s defensive dominance w/Keionte Scott * Mark Schlabach takes inside Ole Miss’s Fiesta prep * Jimbo Fisher joins us to dig into matchups * a live hawk picks the winner Coming up at 5 on ACCN…