Weekend winners
› Brent Key. The Georgia Tech head football coach went to Ireland and came back with everyone’s eyes open and likely a spot in the top 25 when the polls are announced today. Tech was a double-digit underdog against 10th-ranked FSU and won outright 24-21 on a last-second field goal. The better team won.
› Mark Mariakis. In game one of year one for the veteran area high school football coach at Signal Mountain, his Wing-T offense was every bit as efficient and overpowering as we remembered it being. Signal generated right at 500 yards of total offense and scored 45 points — 28 on its first four possessions of the game — in a shockingly easy win at McMinn Central Friday night.
› Shohei Ohtani. Dude is at 40-40 this season, and we still have roughly a week of August left. Yes, the unimaginable 50-50 is within reach. And, oh yeah, it was not that long ago he went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and 219 Ks as a starting pitcher.
› Aaron Judge. It’s been like 19 minutes since Judge has homered. He surged by the 50-homer mark Sunday with two more bombs. Thought this stat was amazing: Judge is now one of five MLB players to hit 50 or more homers in at least three seasons. Can you name the other four without Googling? Answer in the This and That.
› Keegan Bradley. Dude has had a heckuva of a summer. He was named the 2025 Ryder Cup captain earlier this season, and after making the top-50 as the last qualifier for the BMW this weekend, dude promptly went out there and won the whole shebang.
Weekend losers
› Atlanta Falcons. Yes, QB1 and QB2 sat out this weekend’s preseason finale, but a 31-bagel butt whipping is inexcusable even in a meaningless game.
› Trey Lance. The former No. 2 overall pick is trying to stake a claim on the Dallas QB depth chart. There is potential there — he rushed for 90 yards and a score over the weekend — but Lance threw five picks as he played the entirety of the Cowboys’ third and final preseason game.
› The defenses in the Ohatchee-New Hope high school football game Friday night in Alabama. Final score: 76-71 with Ohatchee winning on a Hail Mary on the final play of the game.
› The Chicago White Sox. Dude, that team is now 31-100. How’d they ever win 31? It’s a miracle.
› Michigan. Another weekend, another round of NCAA notifications of allegations and improper acts. Must be one of those days that ends in “y” in Ann Arbor, I guess.
College football countdown
As we promised in Friday’s mailbag, we are going to have a lot of college football preview stuff this week.
It’s here. It’s happening. And congrats to Spy — a monster GT fan who made the trek to Dublin for the opener — and the rest of the Tech faithful.
A bona fide moment for Key and Co.
This morning, we are looking at your Tennessee Vols. I know you’re giddy, DD.
Tennessee starts the season ranked 15th in the AP poll. How tough is the SEC this year, UT is 15th in the country, which makes them only the seventh highest-ranked SEC team. Yikes. (Add in Oklahoma at 16, and half the top-16 in the AP voters’ eyes are from the league where it means more.)
As Paschall told us over the weekend — rules being rules and all — a lot of those high hopes in Knoxville are centered on the multidimensional skill set of Vols QB1 Nico Iamaleava. And if judging by the bowl game against a salty Iowa defense is any indicator, those expectations are well-founded.
I love James Pearce as a pass-rusher, and he likely will be a top-half-of-the-first-round draft pick next spring.
I think Bro McCoy is the real McCoy, and the offensive line is experienced.
There are a lot of things to like about Josh Heupel’s crew, and Heupel’s offense is one of them.
Defensively, the secondary is a complete unknown, and in a league with this many good-to-very-good QB1s, that could be an issue.
My projection: Tennessee wins nine games and if it can find a win in Norman or against Alabama, this could be — cover your eyes, DD — a playoff team.
Thoughts?
This and that
— The Greg Maddox doc was awesome. We will discuss more tomorrow to make sure everyone has had a chance to see it.
— The other four fellows with 50-plus homers in at least three seasons are Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez. Barry Bonds did it once — when he hit 73 — and Hank Aaron’s career single-season high was 44.
— Speaking of the Babe, his game-worn jersey from the World Series game that he allegedly called his shot sold at auction over the weekend for $24 million. Wowser.
— At the other end of the Falcons in the “does it matter” mumbles of the preseason are the 3-0 Tennessee Titans. Winning is always better than losing. Think I read that in a fortune cookie. Or on the back of a Topps card.
— Pat McAfee is by far the most entertaining sports media personality on the Four-letter network, and it’s not close.
— Stephan Jaeger, the former Baylor School and UTC star, finished T39 with Justin Thomas at the BMW event and made $102,000. Jaeger did not finish among the top-30 and will not be in the field this weekend at East Lake for the season finale.
— Crazy story here on how an FBI informant stopped a Florida KKK crew from an assassination attempt on Barack Obama in 2008.
— Braves took two of three from Washington over the weekend. They really need to rattle off something like 10-wins-in-12-games kinda streak, you know?
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Go.
Multiple choice Monday will go this way:
Which rookie QB1 impressed you the most this preseason?
› Caleb Williams
› Jayden Daniel
› Bo Nix
› other (and specify)
As for today, Aug. 26, let’s review:
“Hey Jude” was released on this day in 1968.
Bob Barker died on this day last year.
Wanna feel old? Macaulay Culkin is 44.
Most famous child movie stars of all-time (pre-teens). Go.