Colorado Exodus, NFL Draft Primer & Futuristic Basketballs

Happy Thursday! Starting tonight, it's a three-day smorgasbord of football with the NFL Draft. Well, it's basically three days of football-themed filler content, but it's late April and this is what we have. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

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Here's my very unofficial ranking of the 5½ things that got the juices flowing over the last week of college football and beyond:

1) Last one out, turn out the lights

By nearly every metric, Colorado's spring football game was a raging success with 47,000+ in attendance to witness the start of the Deion Sanders era in Boulder, as well as that sweet cowboy hat. Well, every metric but one: Outgoing transfers.

Fifteen Buffaloes entered the Transfer Portal just this past Monday and more have entered in the days since. In total, at least 48 players have transferred out since Sanders arrived on the job. Yes, I'm qualifying that number because it changes everytime I look.

For his part, Coach Prime has remained his upbeat — if not bombastic — self. Exhibit A: This interview with Pat McAfee:

I appreciate the "we don't settle" mantra. But... the Buffs are running a little thin...

I can't wait to see Coach Prime's master plan, if one really exists. At this rate, he's going to need most of his roster to play both ways to field a team in 2023. Regardless, we can all agree that he's going to need some time to rectify the situation. This was never going to be a first-year wonder like we saw last season at TCU.

Meanwhile... there are many other notable names that have also entered the Portal, and even some that aren't from Colorado! And as of an hour ago, Tyler Buchner announced he's transferring to Alabama to join former offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.

2) Your requisite NFL Draft primer

The 2023 NFL Draft gets rolling tonight at 8:00 pm ET when the crowds boo Roger Goodell and the Carolina Panthers make their first overall pick, widely expected to be Alabama's Bryce Young. But that's where things could get weird.

With the potential for five first round quarterbacks and an overall class that has a thinner-than-usual top tier, there is a ton of potential for trades and panic picks. To bring yourself up to speed on what the experts are saying about the other 31 picks in tonight's first round, take a quick look at this site, which does yeoman's work by creating a composite from the hundreds of mock drafts created each year.

We also connected with Nate Tice earlier this week to get a sense for his favorite players in this year's Draft and some of the trends he's seen while researching the class. Nate's an encyclopedia and his wisdom is guaranteed to make you a little smarter. Did you know that specific elements of the Josh Heupel offense were incompatible with the NFL? Me neither.

3) Get ready for the clock-troversy of 2023

If you've been a Quick Slants reader for the last few months, you'll know that we discussed a handful of proposals that were being floated in an effort to shorten games. The reason: Trends have been pointed in the wrong direction. Games lasted, on average, 3 hours and 27 minutes in 2022. With a longer season on the horizon, the NCAA Rules Committee decided to take action to not only interrupt the trend but also ease the physical burden, marginally, for student athletes.

For the first time since 1968, college football will keep the clocks running after first downs, with the exception of the last two minutes in either half. The Rules Committee expects this move will cut 7-8 plays out of each game, with the ultimate goal of shortening contests by around 7 minutes.

Do you like the move? From what I can tell, it's a mixed bag among diehard fans. I don't think the change is drastic enough to prevent comebacks or make the game feel different, though I can see an advantage for teams like Michigan who control the clock with dominant rushing attacks. More importantly, the race is on to see which high-profile coach will forget the new rules and screw up first.

4) DJ U sounds off on Clemson

DJ Uiagalelei had a lot to say in a piece published this week by friend of the pod Bruce Feldman, which is well worth your time. Uiagalelei, now with Oregon State, was brutally honest about his time at Clemson and the circumstances that brought him to Corvallis.

On the offensive scheme: "I didn’t want to do what I was doing at Clemson ... I didn’t really like what we did there scheme-wise. I didn’t think we did very much. I thought it was very basic."

On being a running QB: "I didn’t want to run as much. I got tired of running the ball. Sophomore year, I was hurt, tore my PCL, had a broken finger. But I wanted to stay there and stick it out. But my junior year, towards the end, I knew, ‘I want to get out of here. Yeah, I need to leave and get a fresh start.'"

On getting benched in favor of Cade Klubnik: "I don’t think my offensive coordinator knew either (that head coach Dabo Swinney wanted to make the change) .. (Dabo said) 'I just want to get a spark.' I was pissed, like, ‘What do you mean a spark? We just had our best drive right there. I’m doing exactly what you’re telling me to do.'"

And there's a lot more where that came from. It's rare to get this level of honesty from anyone prominent in college football, and though I pulled a few of the more stinging quotes, I don't think this was an attempt by DJ U to air dirty laundry. It's more a look behind the curtain at the personal frustrations that led him to the Pacific Northwest. For what it's worth, he seems to love Oregon State.

5) Chris Fowler is staying with ESPN

Good news: Chris Fowler is staying with ESPN. Per reports, Fowler inked an extension with the network for a "small" pay increase.

Fowler has been at the network since 1990 and its top college football play-by-play voice since 2014. Despite his deep ESPN roots, media reporters speculated that Fowler could look elsewhere if the network played hardball amid ongoing layoffs. Clearly, the network didn't want to mess with those pythons.

This is a big win for ESPN and college football fans. Fowler has become synonymous with important college football (and tennis) moments in his time as a commentator. He genuinely seems to enjoy the goofy nuances of the sport that make it so damn addicting. Retaining Fowler means some continuity for fans in a sport that is rapidly changing.

More importantly, It means that we can continue using our Jacked Chris Fowler scale to rate our excitement about various games this fall. I'm giddy.

Others Receiving Votes

• Once a year, my text thread with friends comes alive with this legendary YouTube video of Draft blunders by the New York Jets.

• Do you believe this story about time travel?

• Yes, these new basketballs ARE very weird!

THE VERBALLERHOOD

WHAT'S GOOD IN THE VERBALLERHOOD?

This week, we tackled the NFL Draft with Nate Tice of The Athletic and finally circled back on some of the bigger news stories we missed while doing a month's worth of interviews about first year coaches.

Listen to the podcast by clicking here or check out our individual episodes below. You can also view full episode videos and smaller clips on our YouTube channel.

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST EPISODES:

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Thanks for reading. Until next week, stay solid!-Ty Hildenbrandt