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The new best team in the NFL, plus sorting through the college football mess

December 2, 2025
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The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.

Good morning! Let’s sort some things out.

While You Were Sleeping: Yeah, the Patriots are elite

If you weren’t watching “Monday Night Football” closely, the game got away quickly. Patriots jumped out to a solid 10-0 lead early. You put the kids to sleep. Wait, it’s 24-7 already? You finally relax for the day, tidy the house, whatever you need to do. It’s 30-7 at the half?

This is life under Mike Vrabel in Year 1 as Patriots coach, which is just an incredible reality. New England’s 33-15 win over the visiting Giants pushed them to 11-2, the best record in the NFL. Drake Maye went 24-31 for 282 yards and two touchdowns to solidify his MVP case. The second-year QB is completing 71 percent of his passes this season. 

It all looks so … casual. Normal. 

It’s hard to square, but we’re here, and unlike a certain team in Indianapolis, it appears this surprise AFC contender isn’t going anywhere. The only moment of controversy last night came with this hit:

Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart has drawn a lot of contact this year, to put it mildly. This wallop started a scuffle, too. Oh, and Abdul Carter was benched for the first quarter. 

New England, fittingly, is No. 1 in our latest Power Rankings, published this morning. Per our playoff simulator, the Patriots are also tied for the highest chance to win the Super Bowl. Wild. 

Let’s get insular:

Questions: Just bear with me

Tyler Kaufman / Getty Images

The college football world right now, in a word, is overwhelming. Coaches are moving across the country for new jobs during one of the biggest recruiting weeks of the year. Oh, and outside of all that, we have legitimately important games ahead, including that College Football Playoff that seems to be taking a back seat right now. 

I sat at my computer for hours yesterday trying to sort through it, then I thought I should invite you along for the ride. The questions rattling around my brain yesterday: 

1. Is the Lane Kiffin furor over?
Guffaw. This thing is only starting, as emotions are running high on both ends of the spectrum. Details emerged about Kiffin’s new contract at LSU yesterday: seven years at $13 million per, with a buyout at 80 percent of the remaining salary and a bonus for any Ole Miss CFP success this season. So, LSU will pay its new coach if its rival school succeeds, and if it wants to fire said coach after next season, it’ll cost $62 million. Remember when Louisiana’s governor got mad about paying Brian Kelly a $54 million buyout? I love consistency!

2. Hey, what about the actual Playoff?
We should probably talk more about that, since everyone is rightfully mad for the Ole Miss team Kiffin left behind, which is a lock to make the 12-team field. Austin Mock published a bracket prediction this morning that has the Rebels at No. 6, sliding ahead of Texas A&M. We’ll see tonight if the committee agrees to keep Ole Miss stable. 

3. Wait, back up. There are still some open jobs, right?
Yes, actually. Lost in the dust of the Kiffin news and ensuing coaching carousel shuffle was a huge job: Penn State, which has reportedly zeroed in on BYU coach Kalani Sitake as its lead candidate. Sitake sidestepped questions about the job yesterday. Also, the Cougars are the first team out of the Playoff in Mock’s prediction. Two other hires to discuss: 

  • Kentucky moved quickly after firing Mark Stoops and hired Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein as its new head coach. Smart.
  • UCLA is hiring James Madison coach Bob Chesney to its top role after Chesney’s incredible two-season run that followed Curt Cignetti’s move to Indiana. 

4. These all feel messily connected, right?
There will be plenty of chatter about college football’s scheduling problem going forward, and its issue is laid bare here. Two head coaches in Mock’s predicted Playoff field are leaving or have already left their schools. Add in Sitake, Chesney and Tulane coach Jon Sumrall — whose Green Wave play North Texas for a possible Playoff spot Friday — and that makes five head coaches whose futures are either undetermined or at a different spot while their team competes for a chance to play for a national title. 

Yikes. To make this full circle, Kiffin said the last two days “sucked” in his introductory news conference yesterday, which was understandable but won’t make anyone feel better. 

Thanks for listening to my brain. Let’s keep moving:

News to Know

It’s another shutout
The goal above is courtesy of Jaedyn Shaw, who laced it into the net for the U.S. women’s national team’s second goal of the night in a 2-0 friendly win over Italy yesterday. Catarina Macario added the other, giving her three total in the Americans’ two consecutive shutout wins over the Italians. More on the match here.

Giants won’t pay for Imai
Japanese pitching prospect Tatsuya Imai made waves last week after saying he would rather beat the Dodgers, a haven for top Japanese players, than join them, which led many to believe the Giants would be well-positioned for the 27-year-old’s services this offseason. Instead, as The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly reported yesterday, San Francisco is choosing to sit out any negotiations. See more in Andrew’s full story.

More news

📰 Find more news here 24/7.

What to Watch

📺 NBA: Knicks at Celtics
8 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock
Watch this on name value alone, but also peep Boston’s surge back into relevancy during what was thought to be a lost season without Jayson Tatum. This game matters. Warriors-Thunder follows, too. 

📺 NCAAM: No. 15 Florida at No. 4 Duke
7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
The defending national champs travel to Cameron Indoor to face the country’s buzziest team. Should be a fun atmosphere. 

📺 EPL: Tottenham Hotspur at Newcastle
3:15 p.m. ET on Peacock
Two proud clubs both mired in the mushy middle of the Premier League table, but on opposite tracts. Newcastle is still basking in its first away win while Spurs manager Thomas Frank is already asking for patience, which is never a good sign.

Get tickets to games like these here.

Pulse Picks

Everyone is worried about Laveranues Coles, the former Jets wideout who decided to skip any leisure time in his retirement. At 47, Coles became a police officer. Dan Pompei has a great feature explaining why. 

Make time for this story on Islanders wunderkind Matthew Schaefer and his bond with the Foligno brothers over their shared trauma of losing a mother. Powerful stuff. 

MLB formed a Fan Council that was, for a few months, a fun thing. Now league executives are seeding labor arguments in this forum. 

It’s gift-giving season, officially. We have a general sports gift guide and a golf-specific gift guide. Eat up. 

Wait, why do NFL referees keep messing up the overtime coin toss? 

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The worst MLB contracts. It is interesting. 

Most-read on the website yesterday: Stewart Mandel’s column about the Lane Kiffin move, of course. 

📫 That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com, and check out our other newsletters.




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