Weekend winners
All of us. It's game week for every college football team. UTC and UT are among those playing Thursday. The rest of the country gets rolling on the weekend. Good times. Strike that. Great times. (Side note: Speaking of that, for every college football fan in the area, the annual College Blitz preview section hit the streets Sunday. Excellent work by all.)
Chip Kelly. What a roller coaster, and it's impossible to know what he inherited there. I do know I thought he was a home-run hire. But I also know he was entering year four at UCLA with a 10-21 record. But UCLA handled its business on Saturday, and yes, Hawaii is not a playoff contender, but the Bruins made easy work of the Warriors. (Side note: That said, give me all I can handle on LSU minus 3 at UCLA Saturday. And then give me a little more.)
Cooper Kinney. The former Baylor School slugger who was a first-round pick by Tampa Bay also delivered a grand gesture of thoughtfulness. Kinney submitted a video tribute for the Southside baseball effort to Gatorade and it landed a national grant worth $10,000. Here's more from Weeds from over the weekend. Kudos, young man.
Patrick Cantlay. Wow, what a gutsy performance. Dude can seriously play.
Trevor Lawrence. Yes, it was a meaningless preseason game, and yes, he's a rookie and will make mistakes, but that dude has it. And we all can see it, right?
Weekend losers
Fantasy owners who drafted JK Dobbins. Dobbins was poised to be the bell cow ball carrier in the Ravens offense, but a torn ACL means he will miss the season. Yikes.
Scott Frost. An easy choice. Like Kelly, this was viewed as a home-run, can't-miss hire that continues to miss on almost every meaningful moment. Nebraska - knowing the stakes for coach and program - got outworked and beat themselves with a slew of self-inflicted miscues against an Illinois team with a backup QB and a first-year coach. And the 30-22 loss was not as close as the score indicates. What a mess, and not unlike the emotional and sticky situation in Ann Arbor, if Frost is not the guy for the Cornhuskers, who is?
The Atlanta Falcons. Wow, I want to be optimistic. I really do. But it's tough to find much to believe in with this bunch outside of the skill sets of Kyle Pitts and Calvin Ridley. Wowser.
Mets players. Really, you're going to boo the fans? Hey, there are a lot of bozos in the stands, but you're the professionals here. Act like it. And when you are playing as poorly as the Mets are, booing comes with that territory.
Our friends and fellow Americans in Louisiana. Please pray for the area and help if you can, however you can.
Fun fore-sure
Yes, there is a lot of football, and we will get to a lot of it in the coming days.
But the golf grabbed me Sunday. Well, it did when I was not at the ball park.
Patrick Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau were involved in an epic playoff, and that seems like an afterthought.
Consider the following story lines:
- DeChambeau is a gift to the game. Yeah, I don't like him - and the hat is awful - but he's what individual-based sports must have: Someone you care about, good or bad. The height of golf was Tiger in his prime (the height of boxing was Ali and/or Tyson in theirs) and they had almost as many (or more) haters as they did supporters. DeChambeau is a 375-yard-driving villain, and the game is better with him involved. (Side note: It's strange, but all the obnoxious heckling is kind of making Bryson a sympathetic character now, if that makes sense.)
- The golf fun police - in an effort to curb Bryson's bombs and the rest of the long-driving stars - are looking at curtailing the length of the driver. Phil Mickelson is less than impressed, and while he clearly has a vested interest, he's right on this one.
- The final 30 are set, and here's where they stand heading to East Lake. Patrick Cantlay will start at 10 under, Tony Finau at 8, Bryson at 7, Jon Rahm at 6. Harris English - with Jordan Spieth and JT among others - starts at 4 under.
- And following the conclusion at East Lake, the Ryder Cup team will be picked.
Good times, friends.
This and that
- Reunited, and it feels so good. Now the question appears to be whether Joey Gatewood or Gus Malzahn is Peaches and who is Herb. The former Auburn quarterback - who left the program after Beau Nix took the job - is now a former Kentucky quarterback who has been granted immediate eligibility at UCF, where Malzahn, the former Auburn coach who recruited Gatewood to the Plains, is now the head coach.
- Wow, according to this report from Opendorse, a tech company that helps college athletes cash in on NIL deals, the projected amount of endorsement dollars for 2021-22 is around $1.5 billion. Yes, billion with a "B."
- Rest easy, Ed Asner. You were great as Lou Grant.
- We posted - albeit late - our Fab 4 picks Friday afternoon. We will be back in the saddle on Thursdays starting this week. We went a very Seinfeld-like 2-2. Thanks, Scott Frost. Thanks for nothing.
- Holy cow, this midfield goal for Winthrop was nuts. Looking good, Billy Ray. Feeling good, Louis.
Today's questions
You know the drill, winners and losers, go.
As for a multiple-choice Monday, we'll go here: OK, looking back since, say, 1980, what college athlete in your opinion would have made the most in NIL dollars?
As for today, Aug. 30, let's review.
Happy birthday to Cameron Diaz. She's 49. And to Warren Buffett. He's older than 49.
On this day in 1146, European leaders outlawed the crossbow in an effort to end all current and future wars. How'd that go?
Teddy Ballgame would have been 103 today.
Rushmore of "Ted," and have some fun.