Think College Football Is Ruined? Think Again.
NIL, transfer portal, realignment…none of that can stop the joy of college football
They say this is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the college football year—that Goldilocks period in which we’re reveling in the wake of conference championships, awaiting bowl season, and picking apart Heisman resumés. Yet everywhere you look, people are claiming that college football is tearing apart at the seams. “Change is coming for everyone in college football—even Alabama,” proclaimed The Ringer’s Kevin Clark this week, ominously. The transfer portal opened to record entrants, and your favorite team has likely lost at least one starter. Coaching carousel spins again. Realignment talk is back. And yes, the college football playoff is expanding.
The joy, many people seem to be saying, has been sucked from the game, the pageantry just feels forced, and the wins are becoming less meaningful every year.
If anybody feels that way, I’d like to ask a simple question: Have you watched TCU’s Max Duggan this year?
Duggan will be in New York tomorrow for the Heisman ceremony, and he’ll lead the Horned Frogs against Michigan on New Year’s Eve in the College Football Playoff. His journey, from heart surgery, to losing his starting job, to starring in the sports’ most enjoyable Cinderella story, is all the proof you need that college football is alive and well—and NIL, the transfer portal, and realignment can’t stop stories like his.
After arriving in Fort Worth as a four-star prospect, Duggan earned the starting job by the end of his freshman season. But during a Covid screening during the preseason in 2020, he learned he had a heart condition known as Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Essentially, he had an extra electric connection to his heart, meaning that he could experience heart palpitations. But WPW syndrome is relatively common and can be healed with surgery. Yet following that surgery, Duggan developed blood clots. Doctors wheeled him into emergency surgery. “It kind of just puts a stop to your life,” Duggan said.
Not too much of a stop, though. Healed up, Duggan led the Horned Frogs to a 6-3 record. He seemed ready to take a leap in 2021, but in the offseason, he broke a bone and a tore a tendon in his foot. He needed more surgery. But if Duggan opted for the surgery, he’d leave his team without a quarterback, and so he decided to tough it out and play anyways. He threw three touchdowns in the season opener.
Limited with his mobility, he struggled in 2021, and the Horned Frogs struggled too, finishing 4-6. Longtime head coach Gary Patterson resigned in the middle of the year. Sonny Dykes, from SMU, came to replace him. It seemed like it would take years to rebuild the program.
Like most new coaches, Dykes wanted to rebuild the program in his image, which meant that he wanted his own quarterback behind center. Last Spring, he sat down with Duggan and told him that going forward, he’d be the second stringer. Dykes had to have expected Duggan to hop in the transfer portal. Instead, the quarterback looked his new coach in the eyes and declared that he was going to become the best backup quarterback in the country.
Not long into the new season, Duggan made good on that promise when the starter went down with an injury in the opening game. TCU won the game. Then they won the next game. And the one after that. Duggan hasn’t come off the field since, tossing 29 touchdowns to only three interceptions while guiding the Horned Frogs to a 12-1 record and their first ever trip to the College Football Playoff.
“The quarterback position by nature, in a lot of ways, is kind of a narcissistic position,” Dykes told the media late this season, “It has to be about you a lot of times, and Max is one of the few guys I’ve been around, it’s never about him. It’s always about his teammates and trying to make those around him better. And I think that’s why people appreciate him so much. He cares more about the team than he does himself.”
Or, says sixth-year offensive lineman Wes Harris: “I’d do anything for that guy. He’s got the heart of a warrior, and he’s just a leader.”
You saw it last weekend in the Big 12 Championship, when TCU came heartbreakingly close to completing an undefeated season but ultimately fell to Kansas State. Duggan led a furious comeback, improvising his way down the field. Certain players have an ability that make you believe that no deficit is too great and that nothing is impossible. Duggan, as he screamed with joy and pounded his fist into the turf, had that aura around him.
After the loss, Duggan addressed the media in tears in a press conference reminiscent of Tim Tebow’s famous “I Promise” speech. “It’s gonna hurt,” Duggan said. “Let it fuel you. And then get back to work.”
Duggan likely won’t win the Heisman tomorrow night; the prize will almost certainly go to USC’s mercenary quarterback Caleb Williams. Pundits will point to Williams, who transferred to the Trojans from Oklahoma to follow his coach, Lincoln Riley, as proof that the glory days of college football are behind us. But don’t let Williams’ night blind you from Duggan’s season.
College football has always been the wackiest, most absurd sport we have. Randomness reigns supreme. It’s a vessel for joy. And no matter how much the sport changes, there will always be underdogs and undersized quarterbacks who become folk heroes. There will always be another Max Duggan, because in a game like college football, passion is king. Anything can happen. And it might be the last sport left where the adage of, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” remains true.
God bless it.
🎙️ ICYMI Olympian Lindsey Jacobellis joined David Green on this week’s episode of In the Moment to talk about her heartbreaking defeat in the 2006 Olympics, and the incredible comeback nearly two decades in the making.
🇲🇦 Morocco has become everyone’s favorite underdog at the World Cup. Just how much does their run to the quarterfinals mean to Moroccans? Check out this video of a Moroccan security guard sneaking a glimpse at the game winning penalty kick.
🏈 Allow me to be the 20th person to recommend Seth Wickersham’s incredible Andrew Luck profile. It should be required reading for anyone, even if they’re not a football fan, and offers wisdom and insight into growing up, the ways we measure success, and how to find joy.
🎄 Super Bowl Shuffle? The Philadelphia Eagles have recorded a Christmas album with a little help from Philly music legends the War on Drugs, Dr. Dog, and the Hooters. Stereogum has the awesome story of how “A Philly Special Christmas” came to be.
⚽ Remember the name: Julianne Sitch just led the UChicago Maroons men’s soccer team to an NCAA championship. In doing so, she became the first woman to ever lead a male team to an NCAA soccer championship.
