With the college football season concluding only five weeks before the NFL Scouting Combine, many draft prospects had their alma maters on their minds in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
Indiana players mostly tried to nudge the conversation away from their team\u2019s College Football Playoff title and toward their NFL futures. Others were eager to talk about their former coaches and discuss the changes at their schools, including the Ole Miss players still harboring animosity toward former coach Lane Kiffin<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here are five more college football storylines from the NFL combine that bear watching for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next for Clemson?<\/p>\n Clemson has reached a crossroads after the program\u2019s second 4-4 ACC record in the last three seasons. The Tigers finished 7-6 in 2025, their worst overall record since 2010.<\/p>\n For Clemson\u2019s former players, 2025\u2019s performance was a major disappointment. The Tigers began the season ranked No. 4 and were considered a CFP title contender.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of the reason we all came back, we had our goals set on one thing, and that was a national championship,\u201d receiver Antonio Williams said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go according to plan.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tigers sat at 3-5 in early November but won their last four regular-season games to land in the Pinstripe Bowl, where they lost to Penn State. For a program with a pair of national titles under Dabo Swinney, just a few years removed from a streak of 12 straight double-digit winning seasons, something needs to change.<\/p>\n \u201cCoach Swinney has a process,\u201d linebacker Wade Woodaz said. \u201cHe\u2019s had a lot of success. He knows what to do. I think they\u2019re back on the right track. I\u2019m not happy that my senior year we went 7-6, but I think it was needed for the trajectory of Clemson.\u201d<\/p>\n And how should Clemson get back on the right trajectory?<\/p>\n \u201cI would say, just get the guys in the room who love Clemson,\u201d Woodaz said. \u201cI think coach Swinney did that, using the portal this year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey have all the pieces,\u201d Williams said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get that mentality back where nothing\u2019s given to you or everything\u2019s earned. Five years ago, they were at the pinnacle of sports, and Clemson was the team everybody wanted to watch. And we\u2019ve kind of taken a step back in recent years and haven\u2019t been as dominant in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n Swinney famously avoided using the transfer portal for years, but the down season led to changes this winter. The Tigers signed 10 transfers, including four defensive backs and four defensive linemen, according to 247Sports.<\/p>\n The Tigers\u2019 draft prospects have faith that Swinney will steer the program in the right direction.<\/p>\n \u201cI love coach Swinney,\u201d quarterback Cade Klubnik said. \u201cOne of the things that I appreciate most about him is he\u2019s always able to tell us the truth. If we needed to get better at something, he would tell us, and I always really appreciate that. But he was always encouraging, not discouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCoach Swinney will never shy away from the truth and what he believes,\u201d Woodaz said. \u201cIn today\u2019s world, it\u2019s not very common. So, I\u2019m so grateful for him for that, and a lot of times the truth is not what we want to hear, but it\u2019s what we need to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis year we\u2019re gonna be back,\u201d cornerback Avieon Terrell said.<\/p>\n Iowa State\u2019s Orange on Matt Campbell\u2019s big move<\/p>\n Perhaps no program experienced greater upheaval this offseason than Iowa State, which lost head coach Matt Campbell and much of his staff to Penn State. After Campbell\u2019s departure, 55 Cyclones players entered the transfer portal, and new coach Jimmy Rogers brought in at least 50 newcomers.<\/p>\n At the combine, Iowa State defensive tackle Domonique Orange straddled the line of representing his alma mater while still praising Campbell, with whom he was close.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople can hate me all you want, argue with me all you want, but he\u2019s the best coach in college football, in my opinion,\u201d Orange said. \u201cCoach Campbell was the reason why I went to Iowa State and I stayed at Iowa State.\u201d<\/p>\n Campbell became the winningest coach in program history over his 10 seasons in Ames. Before his arrival, the Cyclones had finished above .500 in conference action just once in the 20 years since the Big 12 began play in 1996. Iowa State posted a winning record in Big 12 play eight times over his final nine seasons.<\/p>\n Orange nodded to the differences in history and financial situation between Campbell\u2019s old school and his new one during an animated discussion.<\/p>\n \u201cHe better win a national championship,\u201d Orange said. \u201cHe\u2019s got all the resources. It ain\u2019t Ames, Iowa. He better win. I\u2019m still a Cyclone for life, but I got a little Nittany Lion in my heart, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Penn State had at least 49 players enter the transfer portal, including 12 who followed former coach James Franklin to Virginia Tech. The Nittany Lions then signed 38, including 24 who came from Iowa State.<\/p>\n One of Campbell\u2019s first moves at Penn State was to retain interim coach Terry Smith, a decision that helped stabilize the program after a prolonged coaching search. Smith, who played receiver at Penn State (1987-91) and has served as associate head coach since 2021, guided the Nittany Lions to four straight wins to close the season, including a bowl victory.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s major, man,\u201d Penn State defensive tackle Zane Durant said. \u201cTerry Smith knows everybody at Penn State. He kind of was the key holder to us last year, all that adversity that we had. So, I think bringing him back was a must to keep the tradition, the culture at Penn State intact.\u201d<\/p>\n New leadership in Utah<\/p>\n Utah had its own coaching whirlwind this winter when longtime head man Kyle Whittingham announced on Dec. 12 that he would step down after the Utes\u2019 Las Vegas Bowl appearance. Two weeks later, Whittingham accepted the head coaching job at Michigan, five days before he was supposed to lead the Utes into action one last time. Coach-in-waiting Morgan Scalley assumed full control of the team for the bowl.<\/p>\n The situation left Utah players like linebacker Lander Barton with mixed emotions.<\/p>\n \u201cCoach Whittingham, I owe it all to him,\u201d Barton said. \u201cI believe he\u2019s gonna do amazing things in Michigan, but Utah is a hard place to play. It\u2019s a hard program to grow into, and you\u2019ve got to battle every single day. And he kind of instills that in you when you get there. He always said, \u2018You become us. We don\u2019t become you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Scalley, who had worked under Whittingham since 2006, was tabbed as coach-in-waiting in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that program can be in any better hands,\u201d Barton said of Scalley. \u201cHe really just embodies the Utah culture. He\u2019s been there for forever. He\u2019s an extremely intelligent coach, and he knows how to coach players well.\u201d<\/p>\n Barton added that Scalley will infuse the entire program with \u201chis defensive culture.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a coordinator, he wasn\u2019t able to share his philosophies, his culture with the entire team,\u201d Barton said. \u201cNow in the head coach role, he can do that.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been talking to my buddies on the team, and they\u2019re holding team meetings where they\u2019re not really talking football, they\u2019re just talking straight culture and what\u2019s expected of the players. And that\u2019s something I like.\u201d<\/p>\n Carson Beck on his former coaches\u2019 roast<\/p>\n Last weekend\u2019s Steve Spurrier Awards, which honor the nation\u2019s top freshman players and head coach, turned into an impromptu roast<\/a> between Miami (Fla.) coach Mario Cristobal and Georgia\u2019s Kirby Smart. Hurricanes receiver Malachi Toney won offensive freshman of the year and Georgia defensive back Ellis Robinson IV earned the top defensive honor, but their coaches stole the spotlight<\/a> during the ceremony with multiple zingers at each other\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great piece right there to watch what a player like Carson Beck can do with great coaching,\u201d Cristobal said to laughter.<\/p>\n Smart shot back with, \u201cYou ought to spend more time with Steve Spurrier because he won more conference championships at Duke than you have in Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n Beck spent four years at Georgia and was the backup quarterback for the Bulldogs\u2019 national championship teams in 2021 and 2022. He helped Georgia win the 2024 SEC championship but transferred to Miami in the winter and guided the Hurricanes to a CFP title game appearance in his final college season.<\/p>\n So, what did Beck think of the exchange?<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my boys had walked up to me, and he\u2019s like, \u2018Dude, you\u2019ve got to see this, this is hilarious,\u2019\u201d Beck said. \u201cIt had me rolling and laughing, and those two are going back and forth. I mean, all jokes, all fun, but I thought it was pretty funny.\u201d<\/p>\n Beck was asked about his current relationship with Georgia, which was rumored to have deteriorated leading up to his transfer<\/a>. The quarterback refuted that notion.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no bad blood. I\u2019m really never sure where that came from,\u201d Beck said. \u201cI love the University of Georgia. I love coach Smart, coach (Mike) Bobo, coach (Todd) Monken, all the other coaches that I was able to have there and all my teammates there as well that I\u2019m still really, really good friends with today.\u201d<\/p>\n North Dakota State steps up<\/p>\n