College football has been dominated by a select few programs in recent years, particularly since the College Football Playoff was launched in 2015.

However, things are slowly changing.

Michigan cracked the CFP field for the first time in the event’s nascent history last year and has returned in 2022. TCU is making its first appearance this season. USC was in line to make the four-team field for the first time before losing to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game.

ESPN analyst and 1991 Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard likes that there is “new blood” in the CFP.

“I think that’s just good for college football,” Howard said. “You have different fan bases now who are interested, so that’s always good. People get tired of seeing the same teams every year and I think some people just started to lose interest. So having a TCU in and people are saying ‘wow, this is cool.’ Obviously, Michigan was in a year ago, but is still relatively new (to the CFP).

“It’s like, OK, it’s not just Alabama every year. That’s not an insult to Alabama but when you get new teams, I think it just brings a lot of energy to the whole college football playoff system to have some new eyes on it.”

The CFP semifinals will be played Saturday. Michigan faces TCU in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., then top-seeded and defending national champion Georgia takes on Ohio State in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

The national championship game is set for Jan. 9 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

Howard has an affinity for college football fans, who he believes are the most loyal in all sports. He has partnered with Modelo, which is the official beer sponsor of the CFP, to celebrate what it calls the “Fighting Spirt” of college football fans.

Modelo is holding a contest in which one fan will win a $100,000 “salary” prize along with tickets to the championship game.

Howard obviously has a vested interest in Michigan as one of the greatest players in that program’s storied history. The Wolverines have made a surprising rise to two-time CFP participant immediately after coach Jim Harbaugh was forced to take a pay cut to stay in Ann Arbor.

Howard believes Harbaugh’s willingness to shake up his coaching staff has paid major dividends.

Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis won the Broyles Award, which goes to the nation’s top assistant coach, in 2021 during his one year at Michigan. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was a Broyles Award finalist this year in his first season on the job.

“Jim Harbaugh has been able to really recruit great coaches,” Howard said. “People always talk about the recruiting classes, these players, and blah, blah, blah. But you have to have like, a really, really good coaching staff in place to change a culture and there was an uphill battle for Coach Harbaugh.

“He understood it and (athletic director) Warde Manuel understood it and that’s they were able to weather the storm and it was a rough and ugly storm. People wanted (Harbaugh) fired but he made changes and look where Michigan is now.”

Georgia is favored to defend its national championship by the oddmakers. The Bulldogs are 13-0 and have won all but one of their games by double digits.

As Howard put it, Ohio State “got its door blown off” in a 43-22 loss to Michigan in its regular-season finale. However, the door opened for the Buckeyes to get into the CFP when USC lost and Howard believes they at least have a chance to knock off Georgia.

“I don't think that there's any team that can't be beaten, but it’s going to take just a fantastic effort by a team to be able to beat Georgia,” Howard said. “Georgia is always in the top five when it comes to recruiting classes. So, they have a lot of talent there. But the crazy thing is Ohio State has had top-five recruiting classes most of the last five years. They have a lot of talent, too.

“Georgia is the team to beat but you never know what might happen in college football. It’s going to be fun.”

. With the College Football Playoff upon us, I’m reaching out to offer you the opportunity to speak with college football legend, Desmond Howard, about his partnership with Modelo as he prepares to watch his alma mater face off against Texas Christian University in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.

As the Official Beer of the College Football Playoff, Modelo teamed up with Howard to celebrate the Fighting Spirit of fans across the nation this season by offering one dedicated fan a chance to win a $100,000 “salary” prize and tickets to the National Championship. Howard will present the winning fan, who he hand-selected from the entries, with their “salary” prize in Los Angeles while they enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime college football experience that only Modelo can provide.

Thank you for making the test. I really do appreciate you. And we know that as a college football analyst, you know, we talked about the spirit of the players talk about the coaches, but we also talked about fans and I believe that fans have caused some problems as the best fans at supporting the country, instead of fighting spirit that that players coaches that they feed off of. We talked about that on a weekly basis and modelo recognized that and they've decided to have the full time fan Contest, which was a property a year ago, decided to run it back this year. And though the contest is going to provide one lucky winner with the chance to go out to the national championship game, they also get like a six figure salary where they pretty much get paid to watch college football, so maybe you get paid to watch college football, and drink the best beer but dello and then they also get to hang out with me down in the national championship game which, quite frankly, I'm very excited about that because I love interacting with passion.

So listen with all around and obviously, the Delta was the official sponsor of the college football playoff. It just makes perfect sense. I'm excited about this campaign. Yeah, it must be pretty cool at all a fan that they're getting 100 grand to I think that'd be pretty fun to see the look on their face. Absolutely.

College football has been dominated by a select few programs in recent year, particularly since the College Football Playoff was launched in xxxxx.

However, things are slowly changing in the sport.

Michigan cracked the CFP field for the first time in the event’s nascent history last year and has returned in 2022. TCU is making its first appearance this season. USC was in line to make the four-team field for the first time before losing to Utha in the Pac-12 Championship Game.

ESPN analyst and XXXX Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard like that there is “new blood” in the CFP.

“I think that’s just good for college football,” Howard said. ““You have different fan bases now who are interested, so that’s always good. People get tired of seeing the same teams every year and I think some people just started to lose interest. So having a TCU in and people are saying ‘wow, this is cool.’ Obviously, Michigan was in a year ago, but are still relatively new (to the CFP).

“It’s like, OK, it’s not just Alabama every year. That’s not an insult to Alabama but when you get new teams, I think it just brings a lot of energy to the whole college football playoff system to have some new eyes on it.”

The CFP semifinals will be played Saturday. Michigan faces TCU in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., then top-seeded and defending national champion Georgia takes on Ohio State in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

The national championship game is set for Jan. 9 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

Howard has a vested interest in Michigan as one of the program’s all-time greatest players.

“Jim Harbaugh has been able to really recruit great coaches,” Howard said. “People always talk about the recruiting classes, these players, and blah, blah, blah. But you have to have like, a really, really good coaching staff in place to change a culture and there was an uphill battle for Coach Harbaugh.

“He understood it and (athletic director) Warde Manuel understood it and that’s they were able to weather the storm and it was a rough and ugly storm. People wanted (Harbaugh) fired but he made changes and look where Michigan is now.”

I think everyone's been, I don't think that there's any team that can't be beat that's going to take just a fantastic effort by the team that was able to beat them.

And, you know, they got lots of talent around him. You look at Georgia. I mean, they're the crazy thing is like, they're always in the top five when it comes to recruiting class. So you know, they have like, a lot of talent there. But the crazy thing, John is we look at Ohio State.

More of the last five years they've had top five recruiting classes.

Howard

This we're all gonna ask you about the college football playoff coming up. It looks like a pretty intriguing field here for teams in you know it's been a an interesting calling season like it usually is. How excited are you about these? This field and the games coming up with some eyes and then of course obviously the fun material you excited about the cost? Is because we're starting to see some new blood get to the college football playoff and I think that's just good for college football in general.

“You have different fan bases now who are interested, so that’s always good. People get tired of seeing the same teams every year and I think some people just started to lose interest. So have a TCU in and people are saying ‘wow, this is cool.’ Obviously, Michigan was in a year ago, but are still relatively new (to the CFP). It’s like, OK, it’s not just Alabama ever year. That’s not an insult to Alabama but when you get new teams I think it just brings a lot of energy to the whole college football playoff system to have some new eyes on it.”

that get it now Yes. It's like okay, now you guys have it's not the it's not the Alabama Alabama this year. This is not an insult to me. When you get the new teams. You get some new blood. I think it just helps to use the whole college football playoff system with a lot of energy because now you have some new eyes on it. People are interested and curious to see what the outcome was going to be the have a storyline like you know, we should have been a USC team but you don't they they lost another different team in college football playoff but Ohio State Senate so I think people not curious to see hey, last time we saw you know they got the doors blown off by their rival at home in the shoe against viscous and now people okay. How are they going to respond now? Because the number one team in the country in Georgia, which is the battle home game, because the game is in Atlanta right down the street from Athens. So there's like a lot of storylines still, in these games, these matchups and so, we got to talk about TCU and Max Dugan was able to watch these guys 333 times a season to talk about fighting spirit. That's a young man who has had just numerous surgeries but to begin the season. He wasn't even the starter for TCU. And as opposed to you know how the transfer portal and being a distraction. He chose other rallies that might be the best team and that could be the star got injured. He got the NOD is the regular season. And you know, this this the regular season with a trip to New York runner up for the Heisman, a bunch of storylines and a bunch of things that to me that very intriguing about this year's playoff.

I was wondering obviously you're Michigan man. And they're going back to the playoff here for the second year in a row. Why? Do you think they've gotten back to that level here the last two years. I mean, they've been winning but not to the level they had. They're kind of getting back to be Michigan again here the last two years. One funny thing that's happened on the surface.

“Jim Harbaugh has been able to really recruit great coaches,” Howard said. “People always talk about the recruiting classes, these players, and blah, blah, blah. But you have to have like, a really, really good coaching staff in place to change a culture and there was an uphill battle for Coach Harbaugh.

“He understood it and (athletic director) Warde Manuel understood it and that’s they were able to weather the storm and it was a rough and ugly storm. People wanted (Harbaugh) fired but he made changes and look where Michigan is now.”

and he, when he went to Michigan, as the head coach tried to change the culture, and, you know, he understood that they ultimately, the ad Ward manual understood it and that's why they were able to weather the storm and it was a rough storm. It was a rough ugly storm and people were calling for our boss. Hey, he wanted to get fired.

They the word mango. He's a former player. He's a well seasoned athletic director. And he understood what Harbaugh was up against and they restructured the contract or they relinquished some of his duties and let coaches do their job assistant coaches and he hired some fantastic assistant coaches. I mean look at offensive coordinator a year ago Josh Gattis he was a bro so what was the top assistant in the country? He's no longer today he came down to Coral Gables to come don't see Miami and then sure all war gets elevated. And he's done a fantastic job. I think that people aren't even talking about him. Although Jesse mentor, defensive coordinator, he takes over Mike McDaniel who went to Baltimore become a DC. Jessie mentor was one of the top five finalists for the Brewers award. He's a DC. So he's been able to like bring in some really good coaches or hire coaches within who have been able to keep the culture going so to speak.

And when to ask you about Georgia. I mean, clearly, you know, they're the favorites, at least on paper going into these playoffs.

Can anyone beat them? I mean, they don't seem to have any real vulnerabilities, at least on the surface, but do you think somebody might be able to beat them?

I think everyone's been, I don't think that there's any team that can't be beat that's going to take just a fantastic effort by the team that was able to beat them.

So, but they're a hell of a team and you look at Stetson Bennett.

Look at him in his story. I mean, this kid. Wow. You talk about the ultimate story of a person who battled himself like this.

I think everyone's been, I don't think that there's any team that can't be beat that's going to take just a fantastic effort by the team that was able to beat them.

And, you know, they got lots of talent around him. You look at Georgia. I mean, they're the crazy thing is like, they're always in the top five when it comes to recruiting class. So you know, they have like, a lot of talent there. But the crazy thing, John is we look at Ohio State.

More of the last five years they've had top five recruiting classes.

And so they are supposed to be on par talent wise, with a George. So when I talk about Michigan, Michigan, that conversation we're talking about top five short classes like last five or six years, but yet they weren't able to do what they've done to high status like they've been playing with house money. With Ohio State. On the other hand, they're recruiting on the same level as a GA as Alabama as a clubs. So it's gonna be really interesting to see that because from a talent standpoint, they're supposed to, they're supposed to match up pretty good, right? I mean, Georgia got this shutdown corner. Number five. They love Ringo. Well, he's under the house day. They got like all America receiver and Marvin Harrison Jr. I want to see good old good it's gonna be a great matchup to watch. So I'm excited about that matchup and to see just how well they play Georgia, especially because of the way they get into the college football playoff to know you mentioned Mike Stewart at TCU. And I mean, they've won so many close games here. I mean, they just seem to have that defect. Some teams for whatever reason, just develop that and it just becomes kind of their year. Things are just going to break their way.

Yeah, well, that's a labyrinth three times and they have like that, that that fighting spirit like they never think they're out of the game. Like they always think they have a chance to win. And it takes that to be able to pull off so many victories in the second half of the game. So the other resilient team, they shown the fight spirit, but you know, the coaching staff has done a really good job of preparing the TCU Horned Frogs, or just the situations that they've been up against and we talked about what game we're watching this.

We know they need to feel though to win the game and they don't have any more time out. And now they have to rush the offense. Off the field. As the clock is ticking.

We'll go to one to the field everybody's lined up in sync and get the kickoff before the clock strikes zero and they were able to do it and win the game with the last second field goal so let you know just how well culture how well they will prepare it they were but that specific moment, which is something that was both their coaches, that they they do that every Thursday then that same exact drill is how they start their practices every Thursday.

Just one last thing here and I'll let you go Do you have any prediction? Pretend it's gonna win at all? Are you saving it for closer to game time? Yeah, I have to save it for close to the game time. Yeah, that's what we'll does. That'll do it for me. Again, I really appreciate you making the time and a lot of fun talking with you. I could I could talk all day about this with you. I love college football. So I appreciate the time. Dad, listen, I would love to talk to you about college football when the time presents itself. So thank you for the opportunity. Thanks.

Appreciate that support. So thank you very much. You're welcome. Okay, we'll take care and have a happy holiday season.