College football mood check, plus a playoffs-opening fight

The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.Good morning! A huge sports week is underway. Inside: 🏈 Just 19 weeks away 🐺 Lottery talent stays in school 🔄 A huge Giants-Bengals swap Ball: The CFB contender offseason checkupSome NFL Drafts have more of a college football flavor than others. There are years when the top prospects are highly projectable, raw prospects who weren’t huge stars on campus. (See 2016 No. 1 pick Jared Goff, who had finished third in the Pac-12 in passer rating while playing for an 8-5 Cal team the season before.) And then there are years when the college game’s main characters immediately head to the next level. This is one of those years: Forthcoming No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza (once a Cal QB like Goff!) just went 16-0 and won both the Heisman Trophy and national championship at Indiana, which is still unbelievable. Three of the top five prospects on Dane Brugler’s board were defensive studs for an Ohio State program that won it all in 2024. Edge Arvell Reese is the most noteworthy prospect who has a big delta between anticipated NFL production and what he was in college (a good player among many other good players). Safety Caleb Downs and LB Sonny Styles will be the other two OSU defenders drafted earliest. No. 2 on the board is Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love, one of the best college backs in years and a true thrill to watch. He just finished third in Heisman voting. We are, by the way, almost exactly halfway through college football’s offseason. (I count the offseason as starting at New Year’s, around when the transfer portal window opens.) Time for a quick offseason mood check around all 12 of last year’s playoff teams: Living on cloud nine: Indiana. The reigning champs went right back to the portal factory after winning the title. It will probably work out again, although it will be interesting to see a Curt...