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Center stage
If you enjoy high school football, the TFP has had you blanketed over the last couple of weeks, and will have you covered for the next several months.
Because tonight it starts. It’s here. It’s happening.
Baylor vs. Brentwood Academy tonight down by the river.
The top two teams in the state of Tennessee in the private school rankings, and maybe overall.
The best single high school football prospect I have ever seen and maybe the best ever in the state of Tennessee.
The game is on ESPN2, friends. Not the Ocho or ESPN+.
This is one of the main channels that even Spy can find.
That’s the power of interest and talent and star power, led by Baylor superduperstar RB1 David Gabriel Georges, who rightly was the numero uno in the annual Dynamite Dozen. Rules, people.
I am planning on watching. I also am planning on extending the conversation here through the evening about his exploits and the game in general. Who’s with me?
Side question on an AGT: This being on a Thursday and with the hype and interest in future UT star-in-waiting DGG, how many folks would have paid to watch this game at Finley? If I set the over/under at 20,000, where you going?
But it’s high school football time in Tennessee, and consider me stoked.
Through the looking glass
Of all the craziness that has completely transformed college sports in so many inexplicable ways, college football has crossed over to the dark side on arguably the worst of these trends.
Forget the NIL or the portal. Forget the nebulous eligibility rules. Forget coaches leaving playoff teams before the postseason starts. Forget conference expansion that trades tradition for cash.
The most egregious of the court-generated loopholes/appeals-that-become-precedent starts with the Alabama basketball scenario of Chuck Bediako being allowed to play for the Crimson Tide last winter despite entering the NBA draft, getting drafted and playing professionally in the G-League.
So, naturally, the legal beagles (Side question: “Three’s Company,” the TB show back in the day, overrated, underrated, properly rated?)
Well, now the same theory is being used for college football players.
A temporary restraining order from a Louisiana judge granted plaintiff Jack Pyburn and almost 30 others an extra year of college eligibility. Sixteen of that number are football players, and many are in NFL preseason camps.
Uh, Pyburn currently is trying to make the Tampa Bay Bucs and had two sacks in the Bucs’ preseason opener.
From The Athletic story on this: “In addition to Pyburn, Ole Miss defensive back Wydett Williams Jr. is with the Arizona Cardinals, Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright is with the Cleveland Browns, and Oregon State running back Anthony Hankerson is with the Seattle Seahawks.”
What are we doing?
I try to listen and at least comprehend divergent opinions, especially in sports.
You think UT stinks? OK. I disagree, but can certainly listen to your reasons.
But there are two that I can cordially listen to and remain polite, but I have a hard time finding even a shred of legitimacy in terms of talking points.
The first is transgender athletes in female sports.
The second is athletes who have moved on to professional sports returning to play college sports.
My hard stance on those two is based on the illogical premise for each.
Pyburn could really play, and he went undrafted and looks poised to potentially be a practice squad player for the Bucs after his fast start.
If a rookie like Pyburn makes the practice squad and stays there all year, he would make $247,500 for the season. That’s good coin.
But here’s betting the Lane Change Train could make two calls and double that if Pyburn wanted to return to Red Stick.
On an AGT, we’ll ask the simplest of anything goes Thursday, “WTF?”
More college football unknowns
OK, gang, we’re getting closer and closer to kickoff in the college football realm.
This makes me happy. I am SOOOOOOO ready for the summer of 2026 to be in the rearview.
And we are talking big-picture issues and predictions and even going team-by-team, if you folks have specific team questions.
It’s that time of year, right?
In fact, I am pretty sure I’ve done a dozen podcasts for Southeastern 16 already this week. Catch up on any and all of them.
Well, a conversation I’ve had multiple times among friends and on SE16 are teams that could really surprise, but in a good way.
I am bullish on South Carolina. Bigly bullish boys.
I think LaNorris Sellers will be much closer to the guy who was a possible top-10-projected pick this time a year ago than the borderline starter he was in 2025 under the broken Mike Shula regime.
And it’s not like Sellers is going to be distracted by his academic schedule. News came out Wednesday that the USCe QB1 is on track to graduate in December, and his class schedule is … drum roll … an internship at a driving range.
I am not alone in thinking South Carolina could be a real problem. Here are five unranked teams that CBSsports.com thinks could crash the party.
Thoughts?
This and that
> Rory McIlroy dropped the mic on the LIV conversations Wednesday. When asked about some of the stars who defected to LIV and whether their return to the PGA Tour could bring value, Rory simply told reporters, “I mean, I would argue, have they brought value to LIV? I think the PGA Tour’s in a really good spot.” Next question.
> Pat McAfee is now being added to “Monday Night Countdown” on ESPN. McAfee is ubiquitous, friends. And there is talk he may sign a $60 million-per-year extension. Lord.
> Just saw this. Apparently a deputy sheriff unsuccessfully tried to serve Deion Sanders with some papers to testify in his son’s bankruptcy hearing.
> Braves played. Braves lost. They got swept in Minnesota. Man, the Braves are like Michael Corleone in “Godfather 3” — in both directions. Right when we think they are good, they completely push us away. And right when we think they stink, they pull us back in.
Today’s questions
On an Anything Goes Thursday — the AGT, as the kids call it — we have a few above to get you started, so fire away.
We’ll add to that as we hearken back to our “Three’s Company” question, but with this spin:
If I start with “Three’s Company” and add “The Andy Griffith Show,” what other famed sitcoms primarily had one storyline for most of its episodes?
Think about it. “Three’s Company” was almost always Jack Tripper, who pretended to be gay so he could live with two female roommates (yes, that feels like a supremely dated appositive phrase), playing off that. Andy, at least every other episode, was about Barney getting in a pickle and Andy figuring a way out of it without Barney’s feelings getting hurt.
What other show joins those?
As for today, Aug. 20, let’s review.
Amy Adams is 52. I enjoy her work.
Andrew Garfield is 43. I recently watched “The Social Network.”
Today is also National Bacon Day.
Rushmore of bacon and have some fun. And remember the mail.