If you’re a young college football offensive mind, things are good for you right now. Make that two coaches under the age of 33 who will hold significant roles for college programs across the US. The football world was treated to a heck of a game last night in Denver between the Browns and Broncos, we’ll detail that. The new college basketball top 25 rankings came out yesterday, too, and there was a lot of movement! All of this, and more, in todays edition of The Daily Stump!

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Today’s Trivia🧠

(answer at the bottom of the Stump!)

On This Day…

🏈 On this day in 1950, the Cleveland Browns were the last team in NFL history to play an entire football game without throwing a single pass.

Imagine that, running the dang ball every single down. Now that’s electric. The Browns won the NFL Championship that year. How the mighty have fallen…

Today’s Stump Story…

🏈 New Kid on the Block

Taking over a college football program never is an easy task, but to do it when you’re 33 seems like another level of difficult.

Florida Atlantic University has never shied away from hiring big-name football coaches. Lane Kiffin, now the head coach at Ole Miss, took over the program in 2017 and moved on prior to the end of the 2019 season. From there, they hired Willie Taggart, a guy who had been the head coach at the University of Oregon and Florida State University. When he was fired, they hired Tom Herman, who was previously the head coach at the University of Texas. Herman was fired a few weeks ago. Besides Kiffin, hiring big-name former Power Five head coaches hadn’t really worked out.

So what did FAU do? They went in the complete other direction; they hired a guy who has never been a head coach. A guy who isn’t a wily veteran, but an untapped prodigy. That guy is Zach Kittley.

The 33-year-old is now the youngest head coach in the FBS.

Kittley comes to Boca Raton from Texas Tech, where he’s spent the majority of his career. Kittley is a Kliff Kingsbury protégée, working as a Student Assistant and Graduate Assistant with Kingsbury from 2013-2017 at Tech. From there, he was named the Offensive Coordinator and QBs coach at Houston Baptist, spending three seasons there (2018-2020). Where he really came to the forefront of conversations was in his one season at Western Kentucky.

Kittley led the Hilltoppers to become the No. 1 passing offense and No. 2 scoring offense in the FBS. That season, WKU QB Bailey Zappe threw for 5,967 yards and 62 touchdowns in just 14 games. Those of us who enjoy knowing obscure NFL QBs, Zappe is now a Cleveland Brown!

If you like an offense that throws the heck out of the ball, you’re going to look what you see in Boca Raton in the coming years. Kittley, much like Kingsbury, will absolutely chuck the ball down the field. He runs a high-powered, big play oriented, north and south offense that will stretch the field.

I’m really not sure what I’ll be doing at 33 years old, but man does this guy have an idea what he wants to do.

Quick Hitters

🏈 Monday Night Football: In a world where two Cleveland Browns break records, they will go home losers. Jameis Winston had the most passing yards in Cleveland Browns history (497), while Jerry Jeudy had the most receiving yards by a player in his first game against his former team (235). It was not enough to defeat the Denver Broncos, who took two of Winston’s three interceptions back for touchdowns, the difference in the game. The Broncos, the surprise of the NFL, move to 8-5 on the season.

👶 It was a good day to be a young offensive mind in college football yesterday. Not only did FAU hire Zach Kittley, the 33-year old, to become the youngest head coach in college football, Oklahoma matched by adding their own young mind. Ben Arbuckle, the 29-year old offensive coordinator at Washington State, has been hired at Oklahoma in the same role.

🏀 Former UConn and Rutgers standout, Cam Spencer, lit up the stat sheet last night in the G-League. The rookie second round pick is currently down playing with the Memphis Hustle, and he doesn’t plan on staying there long. Spencer dropped 51-points on 75% shooting, including 12 threes!

🏈 Another day, another college football program based in North Carolina is moving on from it’s head ball coach. Appalachian State, after it’s first losing season since 2013, has fired football coach Shawn Clark. In his five seasons in Boone, Clark went a total of 40-24.

🏀 New College Basketball Poll Drop! It’s no surprise to see LOTTTTSSSS of movement after last week’s midseason tournaments. Here are the highlights:

• UConn fell from (2) to (25) to avoid becoming the second team since 1986 to fall from (2) in the polls to unranked.

• (1) Kansas stood pat at the top of the college basketball world, but new (2) Auburn received just 9 less first-place votes than the Jayhawks after winning the Maui Invitational.

• Oregon jumped all the way from unranked to (12), (18) Pittsburgh, (19) Illinois, (21) Oklahoma, and (24) San Diego State also entered the Top 25

• (5) Marquette, (8) Purdue, (13) Florida all jumped up 5 spots

• Indiana, Arizona, Creighton, Xavier, Arizona, and Mississippi State all fell out of this weeks polling

💯Top Performers:

• 🏈 Jerry Jeudy (CLE): 235 receiving yards, 1 TD

• 🏀 Cam Spencer (MEM): 51-points, 12 threes, 75% shooting in the G-League… CALL HIM UP

• 🏀 Payton Prichard (BOS): 25 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists off bench

• 🏈 Denver Broncos: Two pick sixes!!

Stump Top Plays❗️❗️ 

🏈 JAMEIS TO JEUDY! 70-YARDS!

🏈 NIX TO MIMS! 89-YARDS!

🏀 Cam Spencer went OFF in the G-League!

🤣 Simon Says at an NBA Game! Electric!

💯 Full Scoreboards: MLB, Soccer, PGA, NFL, WNBA, NCAAF, NHL

Today’s Slate

*All times are ET*

🏀 NBA: Wizards @ Cavs (7:00 PM), Bucks @ Pistons (7:00 PM), Magic @ Knicks (7:30 PM on TNT), Grizzlies @ Mavericks (8:30 PM), Spurs @ Suns (9:00 PM), Warriors @ Nuggets (10:00 PM), Rockets @ Kings (10:00 PM), full schedule

🏀 CBB (M): (14) Cincinnatti @ Villanova (6:30 PM on FS1), Syracuse @ (3) Tennessee (7:30 PM on ESPN), Michigan @ (11) Wisconsin (9:00 PM), GA Tech vs (21) Oklahoma (9:00 PM), Wake Forest vs (22) Texas A&M (9:00 PM), (23) Ole Miss @ Louisville (9:00 PM), (4) Kentucky @ Clemson (9:30 PM), full schedule

🏀 CBB (W): Holy Cross @ (2) UConn (7:00 PM), Mount St. Mary @ (7) Maryland (7:00 PM), Eastern Illinois @ (13) Kansas State (7:30 PM), California Baptist vs (6) USC (9:30 PM), full schedule

🏒 NHL: Red Wings @ Bruins (7:00 PM), Avs @ Sabres (7:00 PM), Panthers @ Penguins (7:00 PM), Kraken @ Carolina (7:00 PM), Canucks @ Wild (8:00 PM), Blues @ Jets (8:00 PM), Oilers @ Golden Knights (10:00 PM), full schedule

Trivia Answer:

E. Josh Giddey! On January 2, 2022, Josh Giddey became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double. Giddey was 19 years old and 84 days old when he scored 17 points, had 13 rebounds, and 14 assists as a member of the Thunder versus the Dallas Mavericks. Actually, Giddey has all 4 of the youngest triple-double in NBA history…

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