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Today in college football news, I finished a large order of Five Guys fries. I feel so fortified for the coming winter. Summer’s next, you say? Yeah, that’s how fortifying it was.

Grad School: Diverging paths for Manning and Ewers

In 2021, Texas high schooler Quinn Ewers was one of the highest-rated quarterback recruits ever. Right now, 247Sports still lists his teenage self as tied with Vince Young and others at No. 13 on the all-time prospects list, right ahead of names like Travis Hunter, Adrian Peterson and … Arch Manning.

Ewers transferred to Texas (after first becoming a bit of an NIL pioneer at Ohio State), where the younger Manning mostly sat on the bench. Their storylines were publicly intertwined during their two years in the Longhorns’ QB room, where Ewers even played along with jokes in commercials about having a Manning nephew as a backup, one of the most tantalizing backups ever.

Imagine being possibly the most-hyped QB recruit ever (at the time), but then being immediately overshadowed by the guy right behind you. I bet that sucks!

After last weekend’s NFL Draft, their trajectories are about as different as could be. In some ways, this feels like a fresh reset, even if Ewers’ path has gotten more treacherous:

• Ewers was drafted in the seventh round by the Miami Dolphins, where former top-five picks Tua Tagovailoa and Zach Wilson have depth-chart spots. What a landing. Some might second-guess whether he made the right call when he could’ve found a decent NIL deal for one more year in school, but … that sounds kinda awful, man. Laboring to lead a mid-level power toward a solid bowl game while all eyes swing toward your former backup, the early Heisman favorite likely to reach the CFP? Get me outta there.
• Yet another layer of awkwardness Ewers avoided by leaving: Manning is the current likeliest choice to be next year’s No. 1 pick, per Dane Brugler’s way-too-early mock. I keep looking ahead to this season, when Manning becomes a 2023 Colorado-esque sensation among people who usually watch much more NFL than college football. I think Dane confirmed that’s unavoidable. If I’m Ewers, no way do I wanna hassle with clawing to be a day-two pick in, as noted, my former backup’s draft class. “Oh, my team missed on Manning, but maybe we can look into the guy who used to start ahead of him.” Brutal. No thanks.

Elsewhere in draft stuff:

• Ohio State finished one pick shy of tying Georgia’s record of 15 picks in a single draft. Scott Dochterman has all the stats, showing the SEC and Big Ten becoming even more dominant. Alabama A&M on the board, though!
• The Athletic’s NFL beat writers named their favorite picks. Yeah, Giants fans are gonna adore Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo. New Yorkers love using TOUGH as a compliment.
• Sooooooo, yeah, the Shedeur Sanders thing. His plummet from the first round to the fifth — which made Mel Kiper lose it on air — could probably make for five or six entire newsletters. For now: Per Bruce Feldman’s notes, NFL bigwigs found Sanders to have “no awareness about how he’s coming across,” and Dianna Russini said the QB seems to have “approached these visits with teams as a recruiting trip versus a job interview.”
• OK, a bit more Sanders: The Cleveland Browns’ quarterbacks room has entirely too much stuff going on now. There was already way too much going on even before they drafted Sanders and Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel!
• Oh, and last Sanders note: Let the experiences of both Sanders brothers serve as an argument for letting an agent guide you through acting like a normal draft prospect. (If you ever find yourself in the predicament of being a talented recent former college athlete. I believe in you.) Undrafted safety Shilo, who ended up signing with Tampa Bay, semi-joked about having fired his father as his agent — while signing with an actual agent, Drew Rosenhaus.

Since I know you mostly just wanna see that 2026 mock draft, here it is again. I won’t tell anybody you clicked on a forecast for an entire year from now.

Quick Snaps

Awkwardness: It would be OK if this weren’t any of my business

Bill Belichick is the 73-year-old head coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels football team. Jordon Hudson is a 24-year-old college grad who seemingly works as his professional manager in some capacity — emails reveal she takes an active role in the Belichick brand at UNC — and also is his girlfriend.

I would be completely fine with knowing no more information about their relationship beyond that. It doesn’t even rise to the level of Trying To Respect Their Privacy. I would simply give a thumbs up to the idea of having ignorance about them. I didn’t spend a lot of time prying for personal details about Nick Saban and Miss Terry when she was a widely beloved football celebrity, for instance.

Except Belichick-Hudson continues to be a storyline that is constantly asking me both to ignore it (acceptable) and to care about it (no thank you). She was in a Super Bowl commercial with him, and, this past weekend, she appeared in a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview as something like his PR handler. (If Belichick didn’t want her to be a public figure, he could ask her to be less visible on the field during UNC’s spring football, right? He’s the head coach!)

The awkward moment: When Belichick was asked how he met Hudson, the person who publicly oversees parts of his work life and was literally on camera at that moment, she shut the question down, saying, “We’re not talking about this.”

Great! I don’t care either! Except this has been known for a while now. They met on a flight a few years ago, something she’s even posted about. Great! Case closed! Right? Please?

I hope this goes great for everyone, and I will not complain if we indeed are “not talking about this.” But yes, the most surreal part of the whole thing is that Bill freaking Belichick, the NFL’s bluntest and most football-obsessed coach, has elected to take part in one of the most chattered-about off-field dramas in all of sports.

(I gotta be honest, though. Belichick aligning himself with somebody who has even less patience than he does for media questions? That part’s really impressive.)

OK, that’s all for today. Email me at [email protected] with any thoughts!

Last week’s most-clicked: Why are so many former top-100 recruits hitting the transfer portal so quickly?