Dan Lanning? Shedeur Sanders? Greg Sankey? Who is the brand-new

• Ryan McGee, ESPN Elder WriterAug 28, 2024, 09:00 AM ET Close Senior writer for ESPN The Publication and ESPN.com

• 2-time Sports Emmy winner
• 2010, 2014 NMPA Writer of the Year

Only 2 of in 2015’s top 10 Heisman Trophy vote getters are back on the field this season. Only 4 of the 26 consensus All-Americans from one year ago have returned.Nick Saban, he of the

7 championship games, 7 of the past 10 SEC titles and the “a’ight “that has actually always brought the weight of Thor’s hammer, is off the sidelines for the first time because 1970, now on the road with ESPN’s”College GameDay.”So in this season of shift, of confusion, of a constantly shapeshifting college football atlas, who now stands alone as the beacon of the sport? Who sits atop the game’s greatest peak, as the individual who rightfully surveys their football domain? Whom do we now pick as CFB’s picked one, the human finest equipped to represent and possibly speak on behalf of every team, school, conference and even the future of this significantly complicated world?Who is the Face of College Football? And yes, that title is profited from purpose.”Well, it’s not me,”Saban said in July throughout SEC media days, his very first official gig through the looking glass and on the other end of the unlimited concerns to the limitless conga line of coaches who marched to the podium. As he stated it, the search his face was that of happiness and relief, with a dash of confessed confusion.” Now I get to express my opinions, which I have actually definitely not had a problem with in the past. Possibly this is an even bigger platform now. We’ll see. But does that effect modification? I’m unsure I had that strong of a result when I was training, but your possibilities are better to end up being that individual when you are one who is really in the arena.”OK, GOAT, let’s peer into that arena, holding our flashlight in one hand and our college arena hopes in the other, looking for that perfectly procured pigskin prophet to lead us through the 2024 darkness.The nine-year veteran We have actually already established that the huge bulk of in 2015’s stars

have proceeded. That’s absolutely nothing new in a sport where every player’s time on the roster features an expiration date. But what is still brand-new is the manner in which date slides. A timeline that used to be modified just by injuries, redshirts and mandated one-year sit-outs after transferring is now enhanced by greyshirts, blueshirts, greenshirts, the pleasure principle design of the transfer website and that little global pandemic all of us withstood a few years earlier. Yes, there are still college professional athletes on lineups today who were on lineups when COVID-19 arrived. A pillar of perseverance, Miami tight end Webcam McCormick remains in his ninth year in college football. Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

Miami tight end Cam McCormick actually was on a college football roster a complete four years before the world entered into lockdown, redshirted by Oregon for his freshman year of 2016. The Bend, Oregon, native appeared in all 13 games for the Ducks in 2017 however suffered a devastating left leg break that shredded the ligaments in the leg. Over the next 3 years, he underwent 3 surgeries, which carried him through the 2020 season, consisting of having actually a screw installed in his ankle that malfunctioned, triggered another fracture and sidelined him once again. He returned in 2021, just to be removed by an Achilles injury after two games. He played in 13 games in 2022 before transferring to Miami to be reunited with his former Oregon coach, Mario Cristobal.After the redshirt, medical waivers, COVID eligibility waiver and, finally, one last NCAA waiver approved for this season, Webcam McCormick, the 26-year-old who has already earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees, will be playing his ninth season of college football, the very first– and most likely last– time we’ll ever see such a thing.So does that make him the face of this craziest of college football eras?”I like that concept because of

what it represents, “Cristobal said ahead of Miami’s season opener at Florida this weekend.”There are people who appear to want to slam his situation, just as they like to criticize whatever about college football today. However in Cam’s case– and when it comes to all these kids who have overcome a lot and worked so difficult or made very hard decisions that they know could really affect their lives and the lives of their families– we could do a lot even worse than to give Camera that job.”The superstar As long as college football has actually been played, there have actually been those whose

faces and names

have actually represented the sport, from Red Grange and Doug Flutie to Herschel Walker and Tim Tebow. Their names end up being transcendent, even though their real time on school is transient. In recent years, thanks to the increase of freshmen(who weren’t even enabled on university rosters until 1972 )and the relaxing of the unwritten agreement amongst Heisman voters that the youngest players couldn’t win the sport’s most prominent award, not to mention the current nitrous increase of NIL advertising superstardom, family names have garnered more attention than ever. They’re on signboards en route to said houses and part of computer game on the TVs inside those houses.So who finest represents those names-in-neon national stars? The veteran quarterbacks of the SEC? Quinn Ewers of Texas? Carson Beck of Georgia? Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss?

“Yeah, I will take that job, however only after I seem like I have actually made it– and I haven’t yet, “Alabama returning QB Jalen Milroe stated when inquired about the Face of College Football gig previously this summer, before adding with a smile,”However I’m close. “ Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders has actually ended up being a lightning rod for fans, just like his well-known daddy. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images But when Cristobal made his remark about people being unfairly vital about all aspects of college football, it may also have been a Mad Libs sentence with a blank line at the end where written in Sharpie is the name: SHEDEUR SANDERS (once again, caps on purpose). Sanders is a transfer trainee, pertaining to Colorado with his coach/father– Deion? Ever become aware of him?– after an award-winning 2 seasons at FCS and HBCU Jackson State. He helms a group that is riding the realignment wave, as the Buffaloes move from the Pac-12 to the Huge 12. He amazed the country one year earlier, slinging 27 goal passes and only 3 interceptions even while running for his life– Colorado surrendered 56 sacks, one of the most of any power conference group. But he likewise ended up being the tip of the lightning arrester for a country divided about the Buffs, who ruled college football after a 3-0 start, then crashed back into the Rockies as they lost 8 of their last 9 games.Shedeur makes vibrant predictions. He has no problem setting fire to his social media timelines. His NIL evaluations have him nearing the$5 million mark, tops in the sport, and he has actually rolled up to practice in a$350,000 Rolls Royce, a$ 175,000 Mercedes-Maybach and most recently in Colorado’s very first recognized $110,000 Tesla Cyberbeast supertruck. To many of the grey-haired college football fan set, it feels like method excessive, like it constantly did back then with his dad, Coach Prime. To the more youthful crowd, it feels a lot more normal, like, simply the way the world is now. “Are you asking, do I want the pressure of this job?” the 22-year-old stated in reply to the concept of being the Face of College Football.” Pressure has actually been a part of my life my whole life, definitely my entire football life. Simply as it was and is for my dad. I already know what the expectations feature. The objective is to remain level-headed. To remain grounded.” You can’t be the face of anything if you don’t perform and benefit from the chance you have actually been provided, that you have actually made. That’s power. But power can be lost. By losing.” The power broker Ah, power. With the best regard to Saban, the genuine power in collegiate sports may not belong to anyone in the arena, however rather

to the ones who operate that arena. The masters who eventually figure out the construction and governance of the rosters, personnels and money that circulation through those arenas, and even how the games on the arena floorings and stadium fields

are scheduled and played.This prospective Face of the Sport uses no eye black. It isn’t enclosed in a helmet. It’s not even under a ballcap. It’s framed by a tailored match, and rather of speaking into a headset to send in a play, it’s leaning into a microphone, either in front of the put together national media or at a special hearing of a Congressional committee, stating stuff like:” We as leaders are responsible

for navigating what actually are for us in college sports uncharted waters of change. ” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has actually revealed there’s power behind a podium, not just on the field. Tim Warner/Getty Images “We’ve been exceptionally effective, and I comprehend why many from outside of the school and conference realm have an interest in coming in and belonging of it, but that duty lies with us to bring people into the solution, not to deliver authority to external actors.””It’s time to update your expectations for what college sports can be.”Greg Sankey stated all of that and more as he moved his way through the hotel ballrooms of Dallas at SEC media days. This is the male who has had his hand on the steering wheel (purposeful motorsports metaphor, he enjoys racing)of the Southeastern Conference since 2015. All he has done considering that is broaden the league to include Texas and Oklahoma, and guide all of college football through the 2020 pandemic, all while also serving on the

NCAA committees put together to identify the future of college sports and the governing body itself, which yes, includes traveling to Washington, D.C., to consult with elected officials who operate at a strength that makes his SEC head coaches look calm and reasonable by comparison.So … Mr. Commissioner, you desire the job?”Well, first I don’t understand if anybody desires this face to be the face of anything,”the 59-year-old replied, chuckling, as he sat next to Saban, who also laughed.”But I believe the task of people in my position is to create the very best world possible for those who should truly be the face of the sport, which would be the rivals.”And that brings us back into the arena … The coach Saban’s ring collection is now kept at his home, which leaves only 3 active FBS head coaches with championship game jewelry. North Carolina’s Mack Brown, who won his natty in 2005, and two men who have

earned two titles each in the College Football Playoff age and will begin their roads towards a third this weekend versus each other, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney (2016 and 2018) and Georgia’s Kirby Smart(2021 and ’22). Both are fairly young but still veterans. Both are outspoken. Both are currently arguably the faces of their conferences, the ACC and SEC. OK, fellas, who wants it?Editor’s Picks 2 Associated”

I think when there’s something you philosophically think in that assists or harms the game, it’s my job to make the game much better and keep the game around for my kids and my kids’kids, “Smart stated.”I believe football’s an actually good game, and if you don’t do things that you believe in, then why are you training?”Nick taught me that, to look at things through a lens of what’s best for the game of football and perhaps not what’s best for you. I’m a big follower in leaving the game much better than you found it.”All right, Coach Smart! Folks, I think we have a ready candidate!”No one replaces Nick. “Aw, dammit.”The area he was at was up until now ahead of everyone else, the mantle fits him and not any

of us,”Smart stated.”There’s a group of

college coaches who are knowledgeable and have won games and done a fantastic job, but there’s none of them in Nick’s stratosphere.”OK, fair enough … Dabo?” I have actually got a task to do, and my task is those players and serving them and my personnel. Ideally, I can do my task in a way that can be a good example to people,

“stated the man who confesses he has worked to go back from the spotlight so that others can have it. Therefore as not to get burned. “There was a time I responded to every question that any person ever asked me. I never ever entered into interview with pre-planned responses. I’m simply readily available. I would address any question any person asked me about anything. But as we had success, it became a point where they just wanted to ask me a concern to attach their program, and it’s just not worth it. It’s a diversion for my team. So you need to be protected. I wish I might always speak exactly how I wish to, however you need to be guarded. That’s simply the world we live in now

.”Possibly Swinney and Smart, even at only 54 and 48 years of age, are too connected to the method the game used to be, too hectic wrestling with what it is now, to free up the time it requires the Face. Because case, we need to go more youthful. With a 22-5 record in 2 years at Oregon’s head coach, Dan Lanning has actually won 2 nationwide titles as an assistant. AP Photo/Amanda Loman How about 38? How about a guy who invested a season working for Saban as a graduate assistant at Alabama, where he won a ring, then invested four years under Smart, winning another title as defensive planner? And how about a guy who has been at his present job for only two years, however is already 22-5, has set up an SEC-type recruiting mentality on the West Coast, seems to have mastered the transfer website and is one of if not the headliner of the Pac-12’s migration into the Huge Ten?Hey, Dan Lanning, head coach of the always trendy Oregon Ducks, do you have anything big and philosophical you ‘d

like to add? “The game today is as fun as it has actually ever been to enjoy,”Lanning stated. “We’re seeing a lot of different teams in a position to contend at the end of the season now, and that’s only going to improve with the expanded College Football Playoff. The sport, to me, is in as great a shape as ever, however with a lot modification, that’s most likely polluted a lot of individuals’view. We begin playing games and I believe it will advise everyone that this sport is as excellent as it’s ever been.”I suggest, dang, y’ all. Those sound like words that would come from a fresh, new Face of College Football to me. Whaddya say, Lanning?”No!!! Sounds like a task for Kirby. Lane Kiffin

for entertainment. “Speaking of home entertainment, perhaps the Duck is available?Facing the truth of The Face Nobody actually wants the gig. At least, that’s what

they claim. But when one recalls through the history of the Face of College Football, it is a yearbook of people who all said the exact same thing, that they weren’t searching for the task, but the task found them. Even when that has been true, it was only to a point.Grange, Flutie, Walker and Tebow. Jim Brown. Roger Staubach. Peyton Manning. Walter Camp. Knute Rockne. Woody Hayes. Jimmy Johnson. Lou Holtz. Saban.Natural leaders naturally lead. The position finds them, even if they state they don’t want it. Because the reality is that deep down, they actually do. In the end, we can try as hard as we may to assign the task and title from the outside, however becoming the Face of College Football, just like any face, is something we become.”

Nobody wants additional work, especially in these jobs as coaches and players and administrators, “Saban said earlier this summertime. “But if you really like something, if you really want it to be something that other individuals will love like you do even after you’re gone, then you handle that work. Because it has to be done.”ESPN reporter David Hale contributed to this report.