Weekend winners
Washington and Michael Penix Jr. The Huskies delivered at home over Oregon, and Penix is now the Heisman front runner. Question for the group: Is the PAC-12 > SEC this year? Discuss.
Football in Michigan. The Wolverines can make a strong case that they are the best college football team, and after a couple of shocking losses by San Fran and Philly, the Lions can make a strong case about being the best NFL squad.
Texas Rangers. So, the Rangers have played six postseason games this year. They are 6-0 after last night’s win in Houston. And they have added trade deadline acquisition and future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer to the ALCS roster and the playoff veteran could get the Game 3 start.
Taylor Swift. Man, that young lady is printing money at this point and her concert movie — along with her partnership with AMC — is certainly not going to hurt the bottom line either.
Weekend losers
The Braves. Yeah, we’re still lingering on that heart-wrenching debacle that will be the punctuation on the most-entertaining Braves season since 1991. That loss and the D-Backs destroying the Dodgers means my MLB viewing is done for 2023.
Desmond Ridder and Arthur Smith. The Falcons are infuriating, and Smith’s play-calling is puzzling. And that’s the most euphemistic way I know to describe it. Do we have enough evidence to make a decision on Ridder at this point? Because if we do, the verdict seems pretty clear that the Falcons will be in the first-round QB market next spring.
Deion Sanders. Coach Prime has already done more than most would have expected, winning four games with a completely rebuilt Colorado roster for a program that was 1-11 last year. But Friday’s loss was inexplicably bad. Up 29-0 over a less-than-good Stanford bunch and losing 46-43 in overtime is a bad, bad, BAD loss. I blame the Aflac commercials.
Auburn. I know LSU is good offensively and playing in Red Stick at night is never easy, but that’s what you had brewing with two weeks to prep? C’mon Hugh. I expected more from a varsity letterman.
Jimbo Fisher. Does the high eight-figure buyout save Fisher? And what happened to Mark Stoops and Co.?
The 49ers. A week 6 loss is far from the end of the world, but even a roster as loaded as San Fran’s will suffer when dudes the caliber of Deebo Samuel and C-Mac are injured and cant’ return.
Option or stunt
So Alyssa Nakken, the first woman to be on an MLB coaching staff, has interviewed for the managerial job with San Francisco.
Nakken, who is on staff with the Giants, would be the fist woman head coach/manager across all the major sports in the U.S.
This is intriguing to me.
Could this work? Would this work? Do you think she would have the respect of the locker room?
By almost every measure, Nakken is a great assistant, and yes, in the coaching world, there are great 2s who are terrible 1s and vice versa, regardless of the XX or XY chromosome combinations.
So that has to be part of the conversation too.
But it’s impossible not to discuss her gender and the effects — good and bad — that would have on the Giants.
If she was indeed interviewed and got hired, she and the Giants instantly become the biggest off-season story across all sports. And this would be NBC nightly news stuff, not just SVP’s late-night SportsCenter lead.
The reverse is also true, because if Nakken did interview and then does not get the job, there will be whispers and wonderings about whether she was denied the gig because she is, well, a she.
Which is unfortunate but also undeniably predictable, you know?
That said, I believe there are a whole lot of Braves fans will to trade Snitker for her right now.
This and that
— Here’s Paschall’s SEC wrap column. Rules being rules and all.
— The five sports that were suggested to be added to the 2028 Olympics were officially added to the slate over the weekend. Cricket, baseball/softball, squash, lacrosse and flag football will be Olympic sports in L.A. in five years. Side question: If you had the first pick of every NFL player ever to start your flag football franchise, Mike Vick goes 1 overall right?
— Luke List tied for 18th at the PGA event over the weekend and took home more than $111,000. After winning the week before, that’s back-to-back big paydays for the former Baylor School and Vandy star.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers, go.
Multiple choice Monday looks like this:
Which top-five squad appears to be Georgia’s biggest threat?
— Michigan.
— THE Ohio State.
— Washington.
— FSU.
As for today, Oct. 16, let’s review.
Tim Robbins is 65 today. God bless you Ebby Calvin LaLoosh.
Man, “Bull Durham,” “Shawshank,” “Mystic River” and “The Player” is a boss top four you know it?
It’s also national boss day. Rushmore of TV bosses. Go, and enjoy the day.