Last winter, USA TODAY Sports ranked this season’s crop of first-year coaches based on best fit and the best chance for immediate and long-term success. With the 2021 regular season complete, let’s reassess how programs fared on the hiring circuit:
If a team is unavailable to play in College Football Playoff semifinals on New Year’s Eve because of COVID-19 issues, the game will be forfeited and the available team will advance to the championship.
PITTSBURGH – Kenny Pickett walked into Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi’s office last week and spent 30 minutes laughing about the 13th-ranked Panthers’ remarkable season, one that carried them to the program’s first ACC title and Pickett to a prime spot on NFL draft boards.
ABILENE – The McPherson varsity wrestling team finished seventh among ten teams on Saturday at the Abilene Invitational with four Bullpups earning third place finishes. Earning 99 team points, the Bullpups finished behind Salina Central who was sixth with 118.5 while Scott Community ran away with the team title with 218 points.
SHAWNEE MISSION – It was truly a tale of two games on Saturday as the McPherson boys and girls took to the road and played a pair of upper-class teams in Shawnee Mission. The big story was the Bullpup boys as they took on the Class 5A fourth-ranked Basehor/Linwood Bobcats and scored a wild, stunning three-point, 57-54 win, while the Lady Bullpups, after holding an early 10-point lead, faltered to a three-headed scoring monster belonging to Class 6A ranked Blue Valley and came home with a 15- point- 60-45 loss.
HALSTEAD – It was terrific way to close out the pre-holiday break schedule for both the boys and girls Smoky Valley basketball teams as they both scored important and dominating wins over Halstead on the road Friday.
GOESSEL – In a battle of McPherson County Eagles, the Elyria Christian Eagle boys took an early lead and held on throughout the game Saturday to defeat the Canton/Galva Eagle boys, 42-34, and win the Goessel Bluebird Classic Tournament Championship.
MCPHERSON – For two games at home in the Roundhouse, the McPherson boys and girls basketball teams battled the teams from El Dorado, one turned out to be a dominating bury the other team type of game while the other became an offensive slugfest with one team out dueling the other. For the Lady Bullpups, they buried the Lady Wildcats early and never looked back in a dominating 52-point, 66-14 victory, while the Bullpup boys took an early lead but had to hold on for a final 12-point, 80-68 win over El Dorado that may have been closer than the score made it appear to be.
MOUNDRIDGE – With Moundridge playing without their leading scorer, they were able to take advantage of miscues by Little River and earn a 10-point, 48-38, victory on their home court Tuesday. Led by Logan Churchill, the Wildcats took a slight, three-point lead at 13-10 at the end of the first quarter before extending it out to nine at 30-21 as they and the Redskins headed to a halftime break.
ANDOVER – The McPherson boys swim team with just a single day of rest took to the competitive swim pool again on Friday in Andover and came home with a 10th place finish among 13 teams participating.