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Saturday, November 14, 2026Nov 14

5-at-10: Weekend winners and losers, Peyton, Braves shopping Freeman, Rushmore of pure shooters

From left, Alex Bran, Duke Ethridge and Johnathan Burroughs-Cook chase a loose ball during a UTC intrasquad scrimmage in the preseason. Burroughs-Cook had 23 points Friday night as he made his Mocs debut in a road win against Georgia.
From left, Alex Bran, Duke Ethridge and Johnathan Burroughs-Cook chase a loose ball during a UTC intrasquad scrimmage in the preseason. Burroughs-Cook had 23 points Friday night as he made his Mocs debut in a road win against Georgia.

No time to dilly dally.

From the “Talks too much” studios, let’s roll.

Weekend winners

photo UTC men’s basketball coach Matt McCall shouts instructions during a scrimmage last month. The Mocs face NCAA Division III member Covenant College in an exhibition game Friday and open the season Nov. 13 at Georgia.

UTC. Wow. What a weekend. Let’s start with basketball on Friday, with the women – who opened the season ranked in the top 25, a fact that we have underplayed in retrospect – winning their home opener. In Athens, Ga., the men upset UGA behind a balanced an impressive offensive showing to put Matt McCall No. 1 all time in winning percentage among all college basketball coaches ever. (Well, at 1.000, he’s no worse than tied for first.) Then the Mocs football team on Saturday handled its BID-ness (and in this case, BID-ness is doubly appropriate) to make sure this star-laden senior class will play beyond Saturday’s regular-season finale at Florida State. Add in the volleyball win Friday that gave UTC a share of the SoCon title, and as TFP ace sports columnist Mark Weidmer pointed out, it was a weekend UTC will always remember.

photo Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (7) prepares to throw in the first quarter of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Ben Roethlisberger. OK, dude has been battered all year, and was supposed to miss two weeks after spraining his left foot last week. Well, he talked his way into dressing out and being the back-up. Then when Landry Jones was injured, all Big Ben did was come in and top Wade Wilson’s record of 374 passing yards in a relief role. Roethlisberger threw for 379 as the Steelers continued to duct tape their way toward the playoffs with a 30-9 win over the Browns.