Notebook: Clemson DT Wilkins to return for senior season

Clemson announced Monday that two-time All-American defensive tackle Christian Wilkins was returning for his senior season.

The deadline for undergraduate declarations for the upcoming NFL draft was 5 p.m. ET Monday.

Wilkins, a Lombardi Award finalist, was considered to be a first-round pick if he entered the NFL draft after making 55 tackles, including 4.5 sacks this past season.

--Georgia junior Roquan Smith, the Butkus Award winner as the nation's top linebacker, announced he will enter the NFL draft.

Although it took him until the deadline day to declare, his decision comes as no surprise, considering he is a potential top 10 pick. NFLDraftScout.com rates him as the No. 9 prospect.

Smith (6 feet 1, 225 pounds) led the charge on defense for Georgia, which lost 26-23 in overtime to Alabama in the national championship game. He made 137 tackles, including 14 for loss and 6.5 sacks, in 15 games. He earned SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors, was the Defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl victory over Oklahoma, and took home MVP honors in the SEC title game.

--Alabama linebacker Mekhi Brown had a meltdown during the College Football Playoff national championship game against Georgia last week and now he's transferring to Tennessee State to continue his football career, according to reports.

Brown was last seen attempting to attack an Alabama assistant coach on the sideline after he received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for punching Georgia's Wyatt Payne.

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound sophomore must have had in his mind earlier in the fall that he would leave after the season because he had already been admitted to Tennessee State. Brown apparently will have to comply with stipulations set by Tennessee State before he can play there.

In 12 games during the 2017 season, Brown had three solo tackles and four assists for a total of seven tackles.

--Washington backup quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels is leaving as a graduate transfer for UCLA, CBS Sports reported Monday.

Carta-Samuels, who served as Jake Browning's backup the past two seasons, will enroll at UCLA this spring and be eligible to play in the fall.

He will stay in the Pac-12 and have one year of eligibility remaining.

Carta-Samuels leaves Washington with 27 of 47 career completions for 310 yards and three touchdowns in 25 games.

--Tennessee junior quarterback Quinten Dormady is headed elsewhere for his final season of eligibility.

Dormady won a preseason battle for the starting job with Jarrett Guarantano and started the first five games of the 2017 season. His season ended in late October when he elected to have shoulder surgery. His passing numbers for 2017 looked like this: 925 yards with six touchdowns and six interceptions with a .555 completion percentage.

With Dormady gone, Guarantano, sophomore Will McBride and freshman JT Shrout are the only scholarship quarterbacks left on the Vols' roster.

--On the heels of an 8-5 season, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh continued tinkering with his staff, bringing in Sherrone Moore to coach tight ends.

Moore held the same job with Central Michigan the last four years and added the duties of assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator during the 2017 season.

Moore started his coaching career at Louisville, where he spent five seasons, beginning as a graduate assistant coach from 2009-11 before spending the final two years as the Cardinals' tight end coach (2012-13).