FSU fires AD Alford as questions loom over football program

FSU fires AD Alford as questions loom over football program. Florida State fired athletic director Michael Alford on Monday as the Seminoles grapple with looming decisions about their football program.

What happened

Ohio State Buckeyes2dHeather DinichWetzel: Sports should be a unifier, not a political dividerTexas Longhorns17hDan WetzelNFL draft risers, notes off Saturday's college games: Questions at the top of the QB class? Follow on XMultiple AuthorsEmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsYou could say that college football college football'd particularly hard in Week 2. In a world in which elite college football teams might play as many as 17 games in a season, Ohio State coach Ryan Day has made the decision to slow his offense down as much as humanly possible.

Over the past three seasons, the Ducks had lost only to teams that made the national title game; they were seemingly upset-proof, and with quarterback Dante Moore returning I had only a couple of real questions: Was their defense disruptive enough, and was their offensive line good enough? I didn't expect to need answers to these questions for a few more weeks — such as when the Ducks visit USC in Week 4, for instance, or when they visit Ohio State in November.

Oklahoma has solved none of last year's issuesOklahoma reached the College Football Playoff thanks in part to a 4-1 record in one-score finishes last season, but that's a pretty unsustainable way of doing your business. We paint with a broad brush when talking about college football's enormous conferences, and we always lose some nuance by doing so.

The wider picture

Four Touchdowns. @KamarioTaylor ➡️ @AnthonyEvansIII #HailState || 📺: @CBS https://t. co/AAUteQFaRU pic. twitter. com/Vo8LfXiB97— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) September 12, 2026 Let's Go, @frisco_magee! 🙌#HailState || 📺: @CBS https://t. co/mCUZJAhWTq pic. twitter. com/aJ9hebbCK4— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) September 12, 2026 Week 4 is a mammoth affair, featuring four games between ranked teams, including a top-10er in Texas A&M at LSU. This is basically the first time since 2022 that the MSU program seems like it has some genuine momentum.

Skip to main content Skip to navigation Week 2 truths: Ohio State's big-game problem; Oregon and Oklahoma still haven't fixed thingsTexas Longhorns2dBill ConnellyProjecting the CFP top 12 after Week 2: How far does Ohio State fall? Oregon Ducks2dMel Kiper Jr. and Jordan ReidplayTexas completes 20-point comeback and stuns No. 1 Ohio State (1:38)Bill ConnellySep 13, 2026, 05:00 PM ETCloseBill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. A week after Tulsa walloped Oklahoma State, the Cowboys beat No. 6 Oregon by eight — Oregon was lucky to be even that close — while the Golden Hurricane nearly lost to Sam Houston.

After losing by two scores to Idaho State last week, Utah State came within a successful Hail Mary of beating Washington.

What has been reported

Cal visited Syracuse with a minus-21 point differential for the season versus Syracuse's plus-63; the Golden Bears won. After humiliating Clemson, LSU found itself leading Louisiana Tech by only six late in the third quarter before accelerating. Five teams — Florida Atlantic, Kennesaw State, NC State, Oklahoma State and Utah State — have already both overachieved and underachieved against SP+ projections by at least 20 points in a game, while 10 have done so by at least 14 points.

The sport has already left us with conflicting impressions about nearly every damn team in the country. But if seemingly everything has already happened once this year, what has happened multiple times? What truths can we potentially start to glean from this odd sample and, frankly, odd sport? At the very least, here are a few things I've started to believe. Ohio State has a close-game — and close-game-urgency — problemI keep coming back to tempo.

What happens next

It's probably a "me" thing at this point, but I can't get past it. And there's logic behind it: The difference between 60 and 80 snaps per game, over that many games, is over 300 snaps and, consequently, over 300 opportunities for injury or wear and tear. But there's a trade-off in that calculation: By shrinking games down into a much smaller number of plays and drives, you give yourself less of an opportunity to maximize your superiority. In the first half against Texas on Saturday night in Austin — a shocking 24-23 comeback win from the Longhorns, if you somehow weren't paying attention — the Buckeyes were rolling.

Texas had some deer-in-headlights moments, losing a fumble on the game's first play and suffering a fluky interception on an open deep ball to Cam Coleman and a dropped touchdown pass from Ryan Wingo. 1 and generated five red zone trips to Texas' one. Jeremiah Smith would finish the half with six catches for 110 yards.