It’s never too early to look ahead at the 2026 college football season. Around the country, quarterback battles are still underway. Here’s the way we see the Top 10 battles shaking out...

Alabama: Keelon Russell versus Austin Mack. Russell seized the spring game with four touchdowns while Mack sat hurt. Mack knows Grubb’s offense from Washington and has taken some fall drills. Steady hand against raw fire. Russell’s upside—especially the threat that might finally force the Tide’s run game awake—claims the throne.

Arkansas: wants ball security above all. KJ Jackson left spring as the favorite—cleaner decisions, better command. Hill already knows Cramsey’s scheme from Memphis. Jackson holds the thin lead.

Arizona State: runs four deep. Cutter Boley threw twelve picks at Kentucky but has cleaned it up and carries Power 4 miles. Keene owns thirty-nine games and accuracy. The untested wait. Boley’s polish wins the crowded fight.

Clemson: Christopher Vizzina versus Tait Reynolds. Vizzina threw for 317 and three scores in his only start last year. Reynolds has the arm, the scramble, and mental growth that keeps Swinney’s door cracked. Vizzina’s live audition still edges the promise.

Duke: Devils Face an unenviable task. San José State transfer Walker Eget and redshirt freshman Dan Mahan fight for the right to replace Darian Mensah, whose messy portal exit on the final day left the Blue Devils bloodied at the position. Eget brings two full seasons of starts with the Spartans. Mahan knows the Blue Devils’ offense better. As long as Eget’s turnover ghosts stay buried—nineteen interceptions across the last two years—he holds the pole position. Predicting the winner: Walker Eget

Florida: Aaron Philo against Tramell Jones Jr. Philo already speaks Faulkner’s language and won the spring. Jones owns the stronger arm. Philo opens Week 1. Sumrall has already admitted this fight may spill into the season, so Jones remains a loaded threat on the bench.

Iowa: refuses the portal glitter. Jeremy Hecklinski and Hank Brown, both former three-stars, share six career games. Hecklinski climbed the depth chart last season and flashed real damage. Slight edge to him in this pure coin-flip.

South Florida: replaces Byrum Brown’s rare 3,000-1,000 season. Michael Van Buren Jr. and Luke Kromenhoek both carry Power 4 scars. Van Buren’s late LSU starts tip the dead heat.

Tennessee: under Heupel demands vertical punishment. Faizon Brandon’s howitzer can throw seventy yards and he runs when the pocket collapses—Hooker’s ghost in fresher legs. MacIntyre sees the field cleaner now. Brandon’s zip and dual-threat fit win it.

There you have it, a who’s who look inside the top ongoing battles for starting QBs in the FBS to date.

Enjoy the weekend’s games and the best of luck, as always.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that the 2025-26 NFL offseason tied the league record with ten head-coaching changes.

Owners displayed the patience of a toddler at an ice-cream counter.

These are the ten coaches entering 2026 on the hottest seats, per Nate Davis of USA TODAY...

10. Mike Vrabel, New England Patriots
Vrabel lifted the Patriots from the AFC East basement to Super Bowl 60 in one season and collected his second Coach of the Year award. That should buy peace. Instead, off-field noise has turned the miracle into a subplot. From penthouse to hot seat in twelve months? Only in this league.

9. Joe Brady, Buffalo Bills
Sean McDermott made seven straight playoffs before one interception ushered him out. Owner Terry Pegula’s message is simple: Super Bowl or else. Brady, Allen’s 36-year-old former coordinator, inherits a loaded roster and a ticking clock. Anything short of January football and the honeymoon ends faster than a Buffalo summer.

8. Klint Kubiak, Las Vegas Raiders
This ranking is less about Kubiak than the franchise. He arrives with a Super Bowl ring from Seattle, but the Raiders have chewed through five coaches in five years. Top pick Fernando Mendoza offers hope; history offers a warning. In Vegas, NFL still stands for Not For Long.

7. Matt LaFleur, Green Bay Packers
Nearly two-thirds winning percentage and one missed playoff in seven years look solid—until you notice three straight No. 7 seeds and one lonely postseason win since trading Rodgers. Micah Parsons is recovering, Josh Jacobs faces possible discipline, and the offense is under the microscope. That new contract extension may prove thinner than advertised.

6. Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles
Five playoff berths, two Super Bowls, one Lombardi. Untouchable anywhere else. This is Philadelphia. A rookie coordinator, the loss of Jeff Stoutland, and the trade of A.J. Brown have the city sharpening its knives. Sirianni’s franchise-best winning percentage won’t matter if the whole thing cracks.

5. Dan Quinn, Washington Commanders
One NFC Championship in year one raised the bar higher than anyone planned. Now Jayden Daniels must recover from an injury-plagued 2025, learn a new coordinator, and trust a rebuilt line and defense. If the magic stays missing, Quinn may discover success is the most dangerous thing a coach can have.

4. Zac Taylor, Cincinnati Bengals
A Super Bowl run in 2021 has been followed by one playoff appearance and endless spinning. The front office finally spent to keep Burrow’s window open. If 2026 brings no payoff, Taylor becomes the next line item they can afford to cut.

3. Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Three division titles in four years look better on paper than on the field. Bowles is .500, owns one playoff win, and watched a 6-2 start collapse into 8-9. Fifth offensive coordinator, aging stars gone, Baker Mayfield and Vita Vea reportedly restless. His margin for error is thinner than a Florida snow forecast.

2. Aaron Glenn, New York Jets
A 3-14 debut that included five straight losses by 23-plus points wasn’t a skid—it was a demolition derby. Three first-round picks and Geno Smith arrive, but another franchise quarterback could be next year’s problem. For a defensive coach, the needle has no visible eye.

1. Shane Steichen, Indianapolis Colts
An 8-2 start dissolved into nine straight losses and a 44-year-old Philip Rivers cameo. CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon kept Steichen and Ballard but left no doubt: deliver now. With Jacksonville and Houston pulling away, Steichen sits on the league’s hottest seat with the thermostat already stuck on broil.

Bart Scott spent years launching verbal grenades on “Get Up” and “SportsCenter,” the kind of unfiltered heat that makes producers sweat and viewers lean in.

Then, this summer, ESPN decided the temperature had gotten a little too high.

Last month the network trimmed its roster of NFL voices. Ryan Clark, Cam Newton, Tom Pelissero—gone. Damien Woody’s long-running contract simply wasn’t renewed.

Scott’s exit was pure phone-call awkwardness. He was heading into his radio show when the call came.

“They said they wished they could do it in person,” Scott recalled. “I’m like, no you don’t. Contract’s up in September. We’re not renewing. Part of the business.”

He’d never been in that spot before. Usually, the renewal talk started a year out. This time it didn’t.

“Sometimes losing the job is the biggest blessing,” he said. “Forces you out of the comfort zone.”

Ryan Clark’s goodbye was even more cinematic. Eleven years in, and the news landed mid-episode of “NFL Live.” The plan had been a quiet Tuesday morning chat. Then the phones started ringing, and the show became the messenger.

Clark and Scott won’t stay unemployed long. Talent like that finds new microphones. As for ESPN, the chairs are open. Fresh voices will step up, drop their own hot takes, and by midseason half the country will swear they’ve been household names all along.

The corn stood taller than most of the outfielders, whispering secrets only Iowa understands, while the lights of the Field of Dreams stadium cut through the dusk like a director’s final cue.

Getting there had been pure logistical farce for Yahoo! Sports senior writer, Jake Mintz. Chicago flight, three-hour slog across Illinois, a Dubuque hotel, then forty-five more minutes of Route 20. Yet 7,163 fans, 54 active players, and 26 Hall of Famers still made the trip Thursday, drawn by nostalgia thicker than Midwest butter.

MLB first rolled this out in 2021. White Sox versus Yankees. Tim Anderson’s walk-off homer felt scripted by Hollywood itself. The 2022 encore, Cubs and Reds, was quieter but gifted the world Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. emerging from the stalks together. Three seasons of silence followed while the temporary park grew permanent. This year Netflix brought the cameras back.

The game itself was a 7-1 Phillies clinic against the Twins. Box scores will forget it by morning.

The night’s real heartbeat arrived earlier. Netflix host Elle Duncan asked Barry Bonds about his father. Bobby Bonds—300 steals, 300 homers, one of only eight ever. Barry became the ninth.

Bobby was gone at 57, lung cancer and a brain tumor, years before his son rewrote history. They had been close. Barry’s long war with the press always carried the faint echo of a son defending his dad.

His voice softened. Tears arrived uninvited.

“What I wouldn’t do to have my dad walk out that corn,” Bonds said. “Play catch with my father.”

In a carefully staged spectacle of pomp and cornstalks, the purest magic was a grown man wishing the field would part and give him one more game of catch.

From the 256-page 2026 PLAYBOOK Football Preview Guide Magazine is in stock now – get your copy before they sell out!

Baltimore

As Dave LaMont noted in his 2026 AFC Preview, the AFC North is football’s ultimate steel-cage match — and right now the Ravens are holding the key. After 18 seasons, John Harbaugh is gone. New head coach Jesse Minter takes over. The son of longtime coach Rick Minter, he spent the past two seasons as the Chargers' defensive coordinator and the two before that running Michigan’s defense. History favors Baltimore. Since 1996, the Ravens are a stellar 52-29 in the five seasons following a sub-.500 campaign with nary a losing season. Lamar Jackson remains a dynamic dual-threat force at age 29. Derrick Henry is coming off a massive 1,595-yard, 16-TD season. Zay Flowers (1,211 yards) and Mark Andrews give Jackson proven weapons. The offense gets a major boost from offensive line upgrades, including first-round guard Olaivavega Ioane, plus a revamped pass rush featuring Trey Hendrickson.
The Playbook Bottom Line: The Ravens have the talent, the bounce-back pedigree, and the coaching bloodlines to rule this brutal division. But nothing is guaranteed in the steel cage. Sharp money will be watching how quickly Minter’s defense comes together. So will we.
STAT YOU WILL LIKE: The Ravens are 15-4-1 ATS as a division home dog against sub-.400 foes.