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Welcome back to the November Test series.

After last year’s Autumn Nations Cup and the delayed Tri Nations, the northern and southern hemisphere nations will finally come together across Europe for a busy schedule of Test matches.

As it stands, the top three spots in the rankings are all held by the southern powerhouses. However, playing at home in conditions they know and love, the Home Unions and France will each fancy their chances of a rise up the Test ladder.

So what’s been going on this year? And exactly what shape is each nation from the current top 10 in?

Read on as we bring you up to speed.

No. 1 – South Africa

Tests: Wales, Nov. 6; Scotland, Nov. 13; England, Nov. 20.

Having emerged triumphant from a dramatic British & Irish Lions series, and back-to-back wins over the Pumas, an unusually inaccurate Springboks team then failed to adapt to Australia’s width and speed of recycle in successive defeats to the Wallabies. But South Africa raised their game again to face the All Blacks, with late penalty goals deciding two hugely physical and memorable encounters that finished one win apiece.

The Springbok blueprint for success hasn’t changed, and no matter of online chatter about the style of their play will force coach Jacques Nienaber and director of rugby Rassie Erasmus into a change of thinking. When it is executed with accuracy, the Springboks’ mixture of tactical kicking, relentless breakdown pressure from the “bomb squad”, and lineout superiority, is incredibly tough to wear down, as the All Blacks discovered in the closing weeks of the Rugby Championship.

The Boks will be hoping Handre Pollard has shaken off the worst of his form slump from his time in Australia, however, particularly with the indefatigable Faf de Klerk missing the November Tests through a hip injury. The Boks are also still without brilliant winger Cheslin Kolbe and 2019 World Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit, who were both badly missed during the Rugby Championship. At their very best, the Boks are capable of a November sweep.


No. 2 – New Zealand

Tests: Wales, Oct. 30; Italy, Nov. 7; Ireland, No. 14; France, Nov. 21.

Last week’s training run in Washington D.C. extended the All Blacks’ season record to 10-1 for 2021, with a last-gasp loss to the Springboks in the Rugby Championship finale the only blemish in what is Ian Foster’s second season in charge. The coach was mid-year granted a two-year extension through to the next World Cup, just reward for retaining the Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations/Rugby Championship crowns in each of the past two years.

On the paddock, the All Blacks are without their key backline lynchpin, Aaron Smith, for their northern tour. The veteran No. 9, who had been in sensational touch this year, remained in New Zealand for the birth of his second child after the Bledisloe Cup, and then was given the chance for some extended family time. Finlay Christie started against the States as a result, but you should expect Brad Weber and TJ Perenara to fight out the starting position for bigger Tests later in November.

Sam Cane, meanwhile, cautiously made his return from a pectoral injury on the weekend after six months out; Sam Whitelock, however, has been installed as the tour captain. Just where Foster lands on his back-row composition for the Tests against Ireland and France carries huge intrigue – so too whether the All Blacks can better manage the aerial assault that brought the Springboks success in both Townsville and the Gold Coast. Lock Brodie Retallick has also spoken of the need for greater focus and execution in the All Blacks’ lineout drive, after the pack had little success with the rolling maul against South Africa.

Nipping at the Boks’ heels, the All Blacks will be ready to pounce for the No. 1 ranking should South Africa slip up in any of its three November Tests.


No. 3 – Australia

Tests: Scotland, Nov. 7; England, Nov. 13; Wales, Nov. 20.

Dave Rennie has brought significant improvement to the Wallabies in just his second year in charge, coupled with changes on and off the field that have propelled Australia to a five-match winning streak. While it was far from convincing, the Wallabies’ 32-23 win over Japan last weekend reflected the team’s set-piece growth and ability to close games out, something that was badly missing in Rennie’s first season.

Earlier in the year, Australia boosted their confidence with a 2-1 series win over France in July. They then however quickly received a reality check from the All Blacks who romped away with a sweep of the Bledisloe Cup.

But the return of Samu Kerevi in the series’ final Test in Perth was to prove a turning point as the Wallabies then went on to record four straight wins to close out the Rugby Championship on the back of the centre’s powerhouse running. Quade Cooper’s return also provided backline stability.

Cue another twist in the Wallabies’ season, as Kerevi and Suntory teammate Sean McMahon decided to withdraw from the U.K. leg of Australia’s spring tour. Quade Cooper is expected to follow suit. How the Wallabies manage Kerevi’s absence, in particular, will go a long way to deciding whether their current 7-4 record for 2021 takes a hit or potentially even finishes with a squared ledger.

Northern rugby fans should keep an eye on back-rower Rob Valetini, who has grown with every Test in the gold jersey this season, while the return of Will Skelton and Rory Arnold should stiffen up the Wallabies pack.


No. 4 – England

Tests: Tonga, Nov. 6; Australia, Nov. 13; South Africa, Nov. 20.

Eddie Jones has drawn a line in the sand with his England squad for the November Tests. Billy Vunipola, Mako Vunipola and George Ford are all exiled, while he has welcomed in a host of young prospects as he moves this England team onto their next stage.

They have Tonga, Australia and South Africa lying in wait, and will be captained by Owen Farrell, who will likely feature at inside centre alongside the outstanding Marcus Smith at No. 10. Smith is just one of several exciting prospects to keep an eye on over the course of the November Tests with Sale scrum-half Raffi Quirke likely to feature, as is Newcastle winger Adam Radwan and Leicester fullback Freddie Steward. But their build-up was tainted by injuries to Luke Cowan-Dickie and Anthony Watson.

After a Six Nations which saw England finish fifth, and comfortable wins in the summer over the USA and Canada, England expect three from three this November from their new-look side. It’ll also be a new-look England coaching set-up behind the team, with Jones now joined by Martin Gleeson, Richard Cockerill, Matt Proudfoot and former Brisbane Broncos coach Anthony Seibold.


No. 5 – Ireland

Tests: Japan, Nov. 6; New Zealand, Nov. 13; Argentina, Nov. 21.

After a summer which saw them defeat Japan 39-31 and ease past the USA 71-10, expect to see a few of those fresh faces thrown into the mix for the November internationals, but this will be evolution, rather than revolution for Ireland. The Andy Farrell blueprint was laid out against England back in the final match of the Six Nations – a game Ireland won 32-18. That’s the Ireland the fans will want to see in their three Tests this autumn against Japan, New Zealand and Argentina.

Ireland have their injury concerns with captain Johnny Sexton currently nursing a hip injury, so Harry Byrne or Joey Carbery will be in the mix to start at least one of the three Tests at fly-half. Of the returning British & Irish Lions, Robbie Henshaw is yet to play this season due to a foot injury. But Simon Zebo earns a recall having last featured for Ireland in 2017.

Six of the players who won their first caps during the summer series have been included in the squad, with Robert Baloucoune, Byrne, Gavin Coombes, James Hume, Tom O’Toole and Nick Timoney all named, while there are two uncapped players named in Leinster duo Dan Sheehan and Ciaran Frawley. Expect to see a similar spine of the team that dominated England back in March as Ireland look to make it three from three this autumn.


No. 6 – France

Tests: Argentina, Nov. 6; Georgia, Nov. 14; New Zealand, Nov. 20.

With their home World Cup two years out, Fabien Galthie’s side will look to put down a statement this autumn against Argentina, New Zealand and Georgia. They fell 2-1 to Australia in a thrilling summer series but will look for a clean sweep this November.

With Charles Ollivon injured, Antoine Dupont will captain the side, having been picked ahead of Gael Fickou, Gregory Alldritt and Julien Marchand. Elsewhere, keep an eye on the fly-half situation and whether Matthieu Jalibert will get the not ahead of Romain Ntamack. Then there’s also the interesting subplot of which uncapped players will force their way in, with second-row Thibaud Flament at the forefront there.

France will be without Uini Atonio and Virimi Vakatawa through injury. This will be a true acid test of where France are, with the match against the All Blacks the barometer to judge whether they are on the right path to be challengers for rugby’s biggest prize in 2023.


No. 7 – Scotland

Tests: Tonga, Oct. 30; Australia, Nov. 7; South Africa, No. 13; Japan, Nov. 20.

This autumn will see us learn more about Scotland’s depth ahead of the 2023 World Cup, with Gregor Townsend’s men facing four matches. Up first is Tonga on October 30 – a match falling outside the international window – so Townsend is unable to pick Scotland players based in England or France. As a result, there will be plenty of new faces on show for that opener, and expect that to continue in their remaining three matches with 12 uncapped players in their 42-man squad for the autumn series as a whole.

Sale’s Ewan Ashman, Bath’s Josh Bayliss, Glasgow’s Rory Darge, Sharks’ Dylan Richardson, and Edinburgh quartet Luke Crosbie, Jamie Hodgson, Marshall Sykes and Pierre Schoeman are all included as forwards. Glasgow Warriors’ Jamie Dobie, Rufus McLean, Ross Thompson, and Sione Tuipulotu are the other four uncapped players.

Once Tonga have visited Murrayfield, Townsend’s side have Australia, South Africa and Japan up next, where the likes of Chris Harris, Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell, Jonny Gray, Rory Sutherland, Duhan van der Merwe, and Adam Hastings will come back into the mix. Scotland will be without and Mark Bennett due to injury.

Given Scotland’s gradual improvement under Townsend, they’ll expect at least three victories from four this autumn but like the other home unions, they face the challenge of getting their Lions contingent up to speed after their delayed start to the season.


No. 8 – Argentina

Tests: France, Nov. 6; Italy, Nov. 13; Ireland, Nov. 21.

It was not a happy Rugby Championship campaign for the Pumas, who were again forced to complete the entire tournament on the road. Six straight defeats have all but wiped the memory of their stellar performances of 2020 when, despite significant hurdles, they defeated the All Blacks, and twice drew with the Wallabies in a truncated Tri Nations. Six players and two staff were also caught up in a state border breach ahead of their Test with Australia on the Gold Coast.

Former skipper Pablo Matera was among those border busters, but he has still been included in the Pumas touring squad alongside prop Santiago Medrano. Fly-half Nico Sanchez should also be available, after he missed the closing three rounds of the Rugby Championship through injury.

Two years out from the World Cup, coach Mario Ledesma won’t want his side’s losing streak to really take root, putting huge pressure on the second of their three November Tests, against Italy, as matches against France and Ireland appear tough assignments. The Pumas were well off the pace in the Rugby Championship, but should be better suited to the style of play up north.


No. 9 – Wales

Tests: New Zealand, Oct. 30; South Africa, Nov. 6; Fiji, Nov. 14; Australia, Nov. 20.

Wayne Pivac’s Six Nations champions face a brutal November with New Zealand, South Africa and Australia all coming to town, and the squad will have a familiar look with just two uncapped players in the 38-man party. Scarlets prop WillGriff John and Exeter Chiefs’ 19-year-old second-row Christ Tshiunza will both hope to make their debuts, but Wales have got the spine of their team already established ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Alun Wyn Jones will look to add to his astonishing tally of 148 caps this autumn, and he is joined in the squad by their British & Irish Lions contingent. There’s also a recall for Rhys Priestland, who last featured for Wales in 2017, while Gareth Anscombe will look to play his first Test for Wales in two years after recovering from the major knee injury he suffered in August 2019.

But that first Test against the All Blacks will be an even tougher task for Wales given they won’t have their England-based players available, which will see them be without Dan Biggar, Taulupe Faletau and Louis Rees-Zammit, plus the likes of Nick Tompkins and Callum Sheedy.

For Pivac, the challenge will be to get this team back up to their 2021 Six Nations standards. By his own admission, several of the squad haven’t played that much rugby this season and haven’t yet found form, while they also have issues in the back-row with Justin Tipuric, Josh Navidi, James Botham, Josh Macleod and James Davies all injured, while Ellis Jenkins is unlikely to face New Zealand.

So, while Wales will be aiming for a clean sweep, this will be a true test of their depth.


No. 10 – Japan

Tests: Ireland, Nov. 6; Portugal, Nov. 13; Scotland, Nov. 20.

Japan have been one of the big losers of the pandemic in rugby’s Test arena, with the Brave Blossoms having played just three internationals since they exited their home World Cup in the quarterfinals. They were a late scratching from last year’s Autumn Nations Cup, before at last returning to the field against the British & Irish Lions and then Ireland in mid-2021

Given it was basically four months between those games and the weekend’s Test with the Wallabies, the 32-23 defeat was a fine effort against an Australian team hardened by the Rugby Championship. Jamie Joseph’s side were just four points adrift of the Wallabies with five to play, too, showing they are truly capable of mixing it with world rugby’s top 10.

The Brave Blossoms are superbly coached, understand how they want to play the game and boast a growing list of players of genuine attacking quality. With a little improvement at set-piece, Japan could worry both of Ireland and Scotland — whom they beat at RWC 2019 — and the Brave Blossoms should be far too strong for Portugal. Building squad continuity this November will set Japan up nicely for the two-year run to France, where they will again fancy their chances of getting out of pool that features England and Argentina.

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How a Sugar Bowl scramble exemplified the best of Riley Leonard at Notre Dame

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How a Sugar Bowl scramble exemplified the best of Riley Leonard at Notre Dame

The easiest way to understand why quarterback Riley Leonard has Notre Dame on the verge of its first national title game in more than a decade is to watch him run.

Really, any run will do. But perhaps the best — or at least, most recent — example is the run on third-and-7 with 5:53 left in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The Irish were nursing a 23-10 lead, chewing up the final minutes in a game of keep-away, and Leonard needed a conversion. He took the snap, took a half-step forward, then tucked the ball and darted outside. He slid out of a tackle behind the line with a stiff-arm, then outran a defender to the perimeter. At the line to gain, he met Georgia star Malaki Starks head-on. Starks went low. Leonard leaped — flew almost — in a head-first jailbreak for the marker.

Leonard soared over Starks, landed 3 yards beyond the line-to-gain, popped up with the ball in his hand and signaled for the first down.

The crowd went wild. His teammates went wild. Leonard, the kid from a little town in southwest Alabama, at least reached something close to wild.

“Everybody keeps telling me to stop doing that,” Leonard said of the hard run. “I did it. And it worked out. But we’re in the playoffs, so it’s like — put your butt on the line.”

Notre Dame’s drive ate another four minutes off the clock, and after stuffing Georgia on downs, the Irish celebrated a Sugar Bowl win — their biggest victory in more than 30 years. Now, their next biggest game is a date with Penn State in the playoff semifinals on Thursday in the Capital One Orange Bowl (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN).

Notre Dame is here for many reasons, but perhaps the biggest one is Leonard’s drive to win at all costs. Not that anyone doubted Leonard’s competitiveness when he arrived at Notre Dame in January as an injured transfer from Duke. But what he has shown in the past three months since the Irish last lost a football game — a loss Leonard took full responsibility for — is that he’ll put his butt, his shoulder, his head and anything else he needs to on the line if it means winning a football game.

“It’s in his DNA,” said offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. “I knew he was a competitive guy. That’s a strong trait we knew he had. But it’s so much greater than I’d imagined. He’s a winner, and he brings people around him to his level. And I think that’s the biggest compliment you can give a quarterback.”

Those runs like the Sugar Bowl scramble are the height of playoff football, but Leonard has been doing this since he was young. He played some wide receiver growing up, and he loved going across the middle. He torments defenders at practice, teammate RJ Oben said, because he’ll run hard even wearing a noncontact jersey. He played baseball, too, and his father, Chad, jokes that Riley knew how to slide feet-first then, but he refuses to do it on the football field.

“I hold my breath waiting for him to get up,” said Heather Leonard, his mother, “but when they need something, he’s always going to get it.”

It’s the dichotomy of Riley’s approach. He is overlooked, polite, smiley and understated, and yet at the same time he’s utterly driven to win at a level even other players find hard to capture.

Perhaps that’s the secret to those runs. He’s underestimated, and he’s relentless.

“I don’t understand why I’m hard to tackle, honestly,” Leonard said. “I don’t have very good juke moves. I’m very tall. Not intimidating, at least on the field. But guys just miss.”

Plenty of people missed on Leonard coming out of high school.

Back in Fairhope, Alabama, he played football and baseball, but basketball was his passion. College basketball was the dream until COVID-19 hit and scuttled Leonard’s best opportunities to impress college recruiters. That’s when he started to seriously consider football as an alternative. Turns out, one of his coaches was pals with former Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who liked what he saw in Leonard. Duke was Leonard’s only FBS scholarship offer.

Leonard’s first college start came on Nov. 13, 2021. It was 17 degrees in Blacksburg, Virginia. Winds swirled, and the crowd was ferocious. Leonard was so out of sorts, he forgot his mouthguard leaving the locker room, then amid the team’s run onto the field for kickoff, he turned and retreated, pushing his way through a sea of charging teammates to retrieve it, like an overwhelmed performer retreating from the stage.

Leonard threw for just 84 yards in that game. Three weeks later, Cutcliffe was fired at Duke after the team finished 3-9. Mike Elko arrived for 2022, and Leonard opened fall camp that year in the midst of a QB competition, which he narrowly won before the opener.

He won that game. Then another. And he kept on winning.

Duke finished 2022 a surprising 9-4, Leonard started gaining legitimate attention from NFL scouts, and after upending Clemson in the 2023 opener, the attention reached a fever pitch.

None of it fazed the kid from Fairhope.

Back in his high school days, he began a tradition with his mom. He wanted to avoid the pitfalls of success and stay grounded in the work, so he asked her to text him with the same message before every game: “You suck.” He now wears a green wristband with the same words. Leonard’s biggest fear has always been forgetting how hard it is to win. Appreciating the difficulty is his secret weapon.

Football delivered another reminder of its fickle nature just as the wave of Riley-mania reached its zenith in Durham. Duke was 4-0, and Leonard had the Blue Devils on the brink of a program-defining win over Notre Dame. But the Irish broke a late run to take the lead, Leonard injured his ankle in a failed comeback attempt, and over the next eight months, he struggled to get back on the field, endured three surgeries, and ultimately transferred to South Bend, joining the program that had effectively ended his miraculous run at Duke.

For Leonard, Notre Dame represented a chance to finish his college career at a level that might have seemed unimaginable when it began.

“I wanted an opportunity to reach my potential as a player,” he said. “I’m at a point in my career now where I have the most confidence in my game. I understand this offense probably more than any offense I’ve ever been in.”

It didn’t start out that way though.

Notre Dame opened its season with a hard-fought win over Texas A&M, but one in which Leonard and the offense struggled to move the ball through the air. A week later, the one-dimensional attack proved costly. Northern Illinois‘ defense utterly flummoxed Leonard, and the Huskies stunned Notre Dame 16-14. It was arguably the biggest upset of the college football season, and any hopes for the playoff were on life support.

That version of Riley Leonard looked lost.

“I don’t even think I’d recognize the player that was playing earlier on in the season,” he said recently.

Leonard isn’t into making excuses, but he had missed all of spring practice and much of the summer. He simply hadn’t had enough reps with his new team. He was frustrated — even if he rarely let it show, Heather said.

“That was one of the hardest weeks of his life,” Heather said. “It definitely took a toll on him, but he also knew he had to move on.”

Leonard promised his team he’d be better. He took the blame for the loss, and he assured his teammates he’d approach the rest of the season the same way he does those third-down runs. He would leave nothing in the tank.

“He took it on his shoulders,” said tight end Mitchell Evans. “You could see it in the way he practices, his mindset, his confidence — he has grown in a remarkable way. That’s what you have to do to be the Notre Dame quarterback.”

After four games, Leonard had yet to throw a touchdown pass in a Notre Dame uniform.

But in the 10 games since, Leonard has completed 68% of his throws, has an 81.1 Total QBR, and has 17 touchdown passes to just four picks. And the 13-1 Irish haven’t lost again.

“Riley has shaken off the ‘he’s just a runner’ thing people were saying about him,” said tailback Jeremiyah Love, “and we’re more explosive in the passing game. The running game is better than it was, and the offensive line has come together. We’re way better now.”

And so what if it was still a run — a hard, physical, acrobatic run — that served as Leonard’s highlight in Notre Dame’s biggest win of the year? He was hurting after the NIU loss because he felt like he had let his team down, but he had never listened to any of the criticism about his arm. He said he doesn’t care how he’s perceived.

“The moment I start to say I need to throw this many yards or score this many touchdowns is when I get off track,” he said. “My job is to win the football game however that may look.”

He is two victories away from claiming his place among the greatest winners in the history of one of college football’s most storied programs. That’s a long way from the basketball courts in Fairhope.

But Leonard has never paid much attention to how far off his destination might seem. He likes to dream big, and if there are obstacles in his way, well, Georgia’s defenders found out how that goes.

The one thing that has changed in the waning moments of his unlikely college football career is Leonard is trying to take some time to reflect.

“I don’t think I would’ve written the story any differently,” Leonard said. “It’s cool now to go back and look at it. I don’t really do that too often, but I’m very proud of the person I’ve grown into.”

He still hasn’t watched film from that NIU game, but he said he will once the year’s over, because it’s a moment he now cherishes, one that helped him get to where he is now. It’s supposed to be difficult, he said. That’s what makes it fun.

“I try to remind myself to appreciate it — like, you’re living your dream,” he said. “I don’t want to live my dream and then end up thinking you shouldn’t have taken that for granted. But moments like these make me appreciate it.”

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Can Penn State coach James Franklin win the big one?

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Can Penn State coach James Franklin win the big one?

There’s no sugarcoating it: As Penn State‘s coach, James Franklin owns an abysmal 4-19 record against opponents ranked in the Associated Press top 10 — and is just 3-10 in such games when his team is also in the top 10.

It’s a mark that saw a small but significant boost with Penn State’s resounding 31-14 College Football Playoff quarterfinal win against No. 8-ranked Boise State in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, but with each step forward in the CFP bracket comes a greater opportunity — and louder doubters about Franklin’s ability to beat the best.

As the Big Ten runner-up and No. 6 seed in the College Football Playoff, the narrative surrounding Penn State was that they had arguably the easiest path to the national title — a home game against overmatched No. 11 seed SMU, followed by a matchup against Mountain West Conference champion and No. 3 seed Boise State. The Nittany Lions outscored their first two playoff opponents by a combined 69-24.

Now Franklin is two wins away from the school’s first national championship since 1986, but in order to win it, he has to do something that has eluded him during most of his career: beat a top-5 team. He is 1-14 at Penn State against AP Top-5 teams, the lone win coming in 2016 against No. 2 Ohio State. By comparison, former Alabama coach Nick Saban (30-16), former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer (14-5) and Georgia coach Kirby Smart (11-7) all have winning records against AP Top-5 opponents, according to ESPN Research. Ohio State coach Ryan Day, though, is 5-6 against them, and former Penn State coach Joe Paterno was 3-12 in his first 15 games against AP Top-5 teams at Penn State.

Franklin is also 0-5 against teams ranked in the top five by the CFP selection committee, and he has lost those games by an average of 20.4 points according to ESPN Research. The Nittany Lions will face Notre Dame (No. 3 AP/No. 5 CFP) on Thursday in a College Football Playoff semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) in what is undoubtedly the biggest game of Franklin’s career.

Franklin “understands” his fans’ frustration. He declined to comment for this story but said this following a 20-13 loss to No. 4 Ohio State on Nov. 2: “Nobody is looking in the mirror harder than I am. I’ve said this before, but 99% of the programs across college football would die to do what we’ve been able to do in our time here.”

Despite his struggles against top teams, Franklin enters the Orange Bowl with a record of 101-41 and is 64-33 in the Big Ten over the past decade in State College. That includes five top-10 finishes, a Big Ten title (2016) and regular appearances in New Year’s Six bowl games. Under Franklin, Penn State joins Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State as the only programs that have ranked in the selection committee’s final top 12 at least seven of the past nine seasons.

He has six years left on his contract and the support of his administration.

“I’m not going to give credence to the criticism, because I see it differently,” said Penn State athletic director Patrick Kraft, who was hired at Penn State on July 1, 2022 after serving two years as the athletic director at Boston College. “When I got here, I was really surprised where just the infrastructure and how everything was set up, how behind we really were. Yes, wins and losses are what we are all judged on, but I will tell you, the culture of that building and the young men he brings in and graduates are second to none.

“You don’t see behind the curtain as a fan or just someone watching,” Kraft said, “and when you get behind the curtain, the thing that oozes out for me is culture and family. That’s really how it’s built, but the infrastructure behind it wasn’t matching that culture and we still have a ways to go. So yes, we want to win every single game — that’s the expectation for every program, but to see what he has done and that consistency is what’s remarkable to me.”

As a former Big Ten head coach who spent seven seasons leading Indiana, first-year Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen has studied the Nittany Lions from the inside out. He has game-planned against Franklin, and now he’s trying to help Franklin win his first national title. Allen heard Franklin’s critics when he was at Indiana, and he has heard them again as a member of Franklin’s staff.

“Now that I’m here and I see the behind-the-scenes and the day-to-day and see how much of a bulldog he is — that’s the word I use — he’s a bulldog for the details and the little things and just being on top of everything,” Allen said. “To me, those criticisms, they’re not fair, but until you win those big games, they’re going to be there. And I think we all as coaches understand that.”

What Franklin has accomplished so far is often overshadowed by what he hasn’t. According to ESPN Research, when Franklin won his 100th game at Penn State in the first-round against SMU, he became the fourth FBS coach to win 100 games at a single school since he headed to State College in 2014. The career milestone put him in elite company, joining Dabo Swinney at Clemson (129 since 2014), Nick Saban at Alabama (127 from 2014-23) and Kirby Smart at Georgia (105 since 2016).

There’s one thing separating Franklin from the rest of the group, though — multiple national titles.

“We don’t run away from the expectation,” Kraft said. “Being the head coach of Penn State, there’s so much scrutiny on him and he handles it really well internally. He and I are partners in this.”

One current Big Ten head coach said the expectations of Franklin should mirror the resources he has to work with.

“Ryan Day has been in championships, Clemson has been in championships, Bama has won them, Michigan has won them,” he said. “If the Penn State expectation is they should have at least played for championships in 10 years of his tenure, then no, he’s not successful, right? If their expectation is, ‘Hey, we only have resourced him to be a 10-win team, January 1 bowl team, right at the bottom of the blue bloods from a resource standpoint — which I don’t know — then yeah, he matches the expectations of a 10-win guy. If you’re a blue blood, are you being resourced like Clemson, like Michigan, like Ohio State, like the people we’re comparing them to, because it’s not fair to have that expectation if he hasn’t had the resources.”

Kraft said so much of Penn State’s growth under Franklin has come behind the scenes with things like working to build the budget for NIL, salaries for assistant coaches, stadium renovations and improvements for Penn State’s student-athletes in all sports in areas such as mental health, nutrition and travel — all things that ultimately contribute to winning a national title but happen off the field.

“You have to build the infrastructure in-house,” Kraft said. “That is what I think has really improved is allowing him — and all of our sports — to go and do the things they need to do internally to get to the championship level.”

A second Big Ten head coach said the most noticeable improvements with Penn State and Franklin this year are twofold: the hire of two proven coordinators in Allen and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, and Franklin’s overall growth as a head coach in certain situations.

“James has surrounded himself, in my opinion, with maybe the best coordinator combo in our league,” the source said. “Now James has been able to manage games and do the things he’s good at for the first time. He’s at a different level as a head coach.

“I get it, I get the narrative,” the coach said, “but that’s probably based on more of the past than the present. Even him having a better understanding of how you’ve got to use your players. He’s been at Penn State so long, he’s always been the favorite, so when he gets in these games where he’s the underdog, you’ve got to not only play different, you’ve got to strategize different. And when he ran that fake punt against Minnesota … I don’t think he’s ever had to do that before, and he’s kind of realizing, this is what I’ve got to do to win this game. I can’t just win it on my talent alone. And there’s a learning curve for that.”

Kotelnicki said Franklin doesn’t get enough credit for being as consistently good as he has. From 2016 to 2019, Franklin led Penn State to 42 wins, the most in program history for the Big Ten era, and a school-record 28 conference wins.

“It’s really hard to win, and to do it over a decade like he has as a head football coach here, it’s really hard,” Kotelnicki said in the Nittany Lions’ locker room following their win against Boise State. “I’ve had the opportunity in my life to work with some pretty good head coaches. He’s in elite company for sure. So I don’t know if [beating Boise State] is going to silence the critics — probably not. … But I hope it does [calm down] a little bit for his sake. He deserves a little, ‘Alright, OK, I guess he’s OK.'”

Penn State’s defense was more than “OK” in the Fiesta Bowl win against Boise State, and it will have to play at a championship-caliber level for Franklin to improve his record and advance against the Irish. According to ESPN Research, the defense is at the heart of Penn State’s problem in previous top-10 matchups. The Nittany Lions have allowed 31 points per game in those matchups and 422 total yards. The defense has also allowed 190 rushing yards per game under Franklin in top-10 matchups.

Against Boise State and Ashton Jeanty, the Heisman runner-up was held to a season-low 104 rushing yards. That trend will need to continue: Notre Dame has relied on its running game this season, ranking in the top five in yards per rush and rushing touchdowns.

Penn State will be playing its third AP Top-5 matchup of the season, losing the previous two games against Ohio State and Oregon. The program’s woes run deeper than Franklin, too: The Nittany Lions haven’t won a top-five matchup since 1999 against No. 4 Arizona.

“You just have to do a great job of blocking that out, but also not being afraid to dig and find ways to create change,” Allen said. “That’s what I see him doing, is, ‘Hey, what can we do?’ and there’s this constant evaluation of how we practice, the game plans if something doesn’t go a certain way. I see him just being so relentless in that as the leader of our program. So to me, I just think it’s a matter of time.”

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‘I get to be one of the funny trivia answers!’ Meet the only NHL teammate of Ovechkin and Gretzky

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'I get to be one of the funny trivia answers!' Meet the only NHL teammate of Ovechkin and Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky scored 894 goals in 1,487 career NHL games. Alex Ovechkin is poised to shatter that record, having scored 872 times in 1,451 games through Wednesday night.

That’s a combined 2,938 career games played between the two players, sharing the ice with hundreds of teammates, spanning from Hall of Famers to one-night wonders. Yet there’s only one player in NHL history that was a teammate to both Wayne Gretzky and Alex Ovechkin.

His name is Mike Knuble, a winger who played 16 hardscrabble seasons in the NHL. And he was as surprised as you are to learn he’s the unexpected link between two hockey legends whose careers didn’t overlap.

“I get to be one of the funny trivia answers! Got to put that in Trivial Pursuit or a bar game or something,” he told ESPN recently, with a laugh.

As Ovechkin neared the Gretzky record, Knuble started wondering whether he was the only player to have skated with both the Washington Capitals star and The Great One as a teammate.

“I kind of was spitballing with somebody: ‘Well, who’s played in Washington and with the New York Rangers that’s also about my age?’ I’m like, ‘There’s nobody really. So maybe it’s just me,'” he said.

Knuble was a 26-year-old forward with the New York Rangers in 1998-99, the final season of Gretzky’s career. He played three seasons with Ovechkin in Washington (2009-10 through 2011-12) before finishing his career at age 40 with the Philadelphia Flyers.

“The fact that Ovi is nipping at Gretzky’s heels is just crazy,” Knuble said.

Gretzky was in his elder statesman era with the Rangers, and Knuble got to witness the mania when it was announced he was retiring after 20 seasons. But Knuble was the elder statesmen when he arrived in Washington to find a 24-year-rock star in Ovechkin, who had just won his first Hart Trophy and scoring title, as the face of the Capitals’ “Young Guns” resurgence.

“I just felt so fortunate to play with them. They’re both such superstars,” he said.

In the process, Knuble became someone uniquely qualified to compare, contrast and analyze the two greatest goal scorers in NHL history as teammates.


KNUBLE WAS DRAFTED 76th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 1991. After four seasons at the University of Michigan, and some time in the AHL, he joined the Red Wings as a rookie in 1996-97.

Knuble was no goal-scoring slouch, tallying 278 times in 1,068 NHL games, but he had a different approach to that art than Gretzky or Ovechkin did: He was famous for parking himself inches from the goaltender’s crease and scoring short-distance goals while being mauled by opposing defensemen.

“[Hockey Hall of Famer] Dino Ciccarelli was the pioneer of that. He was undersized, under-gunned and got the s— beat out of him all the time,” Knuble said. “He scored 600 goals back when they could be really mean to you. I went [to the crease] when they weren’t as mean.”

Knuble chuckles when he sees goal-scoring heat maps in coaches’ offices that show an intense crimson around the crease.

“I’ll be talking to young players and I draw the East Coast of the United States. I draw Florida and then I draw Cuba and then a draw a big shark further away,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘If all the fish are right here between Florida and Cuba, why would you be swimming all the way over here if you’re a shark and you’re hungry? All the fish are right here! Go to where the fish are!'”

For most of the 1980s and 1990s, the fish were wherever Wayne Gretzky had the puck on his stick.

Knuble had never met Gretzky before, but he was a fan — not just as a kid growing up in Toronto, but as an adult playing in the NHL.

Before the 1998 Olympics, he cornered Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman in the weight room to sheepishly ask if he might bring home a signed Gretzky stick from Nagano, Japan. Knuble was stunned when Yzerman returned with a personalized autographed stick, the butt end burned with an Olympic logo that incorporated Gretzky’s initials into it.

A few months later, the Red Wings traded Knuble to the Rangers for a second-round draft pick. Which meant the guy asking for Wayne Gretzky’s autograph was now Wayne Gretzky’s teammate.

“You see his jersey and you see your jersey, and it’s the same color as his. And you’re just like, ‘Holy s— here we go,'” Knuble said. “I remember saying my hellos and then just sitting in my stall, not talking to him for a couple of weeks. I was quiet on the bus with him, too. I’d just sit and listen to his recollections about his time in Edmonton, dropping names and telling stories.”

Time with Gretzky away from the rink was fleeting. There were cities on the road where Gretzky could grab dinner with his teammates and not get mobbed — mostly “non-traditional” hockey markets, according to Knuble — but everywhere else, fans would swarm the most famous hockey player in the world.

“He’d give the time, but it wasn’t going to be too much time. He knew how to handle that balance,” he said.

Gretzky wasn’t a boisterous presence in the Rangers’ dressing room. That’s partially because the Rangers had other leaders to whom he would defer, such as captain Brian Leetch. “He wasn’t trying to outshine anyone. But everyone knew that when he wanted to say something, the floor was his,” Knuble said.

Knuble wasn’t a primary linemate for Gretzky during his time with the Rangers. He’d watch from the bench as The Great One operated from his office behind the opponent’s net, and wait for his chance to join the Gretzky scoring ledger.

“You’re just hoping that he scored and you got a point with him. You just want to hear your name linked with him,” said Knuble, who scored two goals assisted by Gretzky in 1998-99.

Those goals by Knuble were some of the final points collected by Gretzky in his legendary career. That season would be his last.

The Rangers weren’t going to make the playoffs that season. As the games dwindled on the schedule, the speculation about Gretzky’s future grew louder. Knuble remembers the Rangers players purposefully avoiding the topic inside the room, but then it happened: It was officially announced very late in the season that Gretzky would be retiring.

The Rangers’ next game after that announcement was at the Ottawa Senators on April 15, 1999.

“We were in Ottawa and the Canadian National Guard surrounded our hotel because it was his last game in Canada,” Knuble recalled. “I’ll never forget coming out of the hotel for the game and seeing guys with rifles.”

The hotel restricted access to guests only, having people show some form of ID to get into the lobby, which was still jam-packed with people trying to find Gretzky. The Rangers’ bus would park in front of the hotel, drawing all of the attention from fans as Gretzky found another exit.

“Wayne was always really good about going out the back door, sending diversion out in the front, and then he’d slip out,” Knuble said. “And I’m sure Alex got good at playing those games, too.”


KNUBLE CURRENTLY COACHES teenage hockey players in Michigan. They know about his NHL career. They’ll ask whether he has Alex Ovechkin in his phone contacts list.

“I’ll show it to them and tell them that he’s probably changed his number like eight times. But go ahead and call him. Go knock yourselves out,” he said, laughing. “But I’m super proud to have it. The kids appreciate that. It’s a good cocktail party conversation, too.”

Knuble was in his third NHL season when he became Gretzky’s teammate. He was entering his 13th season when he signed with the Capitals as a free agent in 2009, having previously battled against Ovechkin & Co. as a member of the Flyers.

As much as he knew about Gretzky before becoming his teammate, Knuble knew little about Ovechkin before joining him.

“There was a little bit of mystery,” he said.

Ovechkin had scored 219 goals in his first four NHL seasons and would add another 50 goals to that total in Knuble’s first season in Washington. He skated fast, blasted more shots than anyone in the league and hit like a truck. He was a force of nature. Knuble said one of his biggest challenges as a teammate was not to be in awe of Ovechkin’s abilities.

“As a player you had to be very careful that you didn’t defer to him too much. You knew what he could do, but it wasn’t like ‘force it, force it, force it’ to him all the time,” he said. “I think you had to get him the puck when you could and do some of the legwork. But when you had a chance — and you were in a high-end, high percentage scoring area — you had to shoot the puck. You couldn’t defer all the time.”

Knuble assisted on 14 goals by Ovechkin during his 220 games with the Capitals.

“I think the biggest thing is you didn’t want to slow him down. He’s trending to be a hundred-point guy, and now you’re playing with him, you’re linked to him, you don’t want his percentage go down,” Knuble explained. “If he’s down to an 80-point pace, well, who are they going to point the finger at? It’s not because of him, it’s because of me. So you didn’t want to be that guy.”

Off the ice, the two didn’t spend much time together. Knuble was older and had children. Ovechkin hung with younger players, a crew who all grew up together on the Capitals. Knuble understood the dynamics.

“When I was in Detroit, it wasn’t like I was hanging out with Yzerman. You’re with your peers,” he said. “Maybe there’s the odd time you end up at the same restaurant or you have a team event where you hang out, but your boys are your boys.”

As he watched Ovechkin continue to pile on goals, playing with a variety of teammates — Knuble, for the record, thinks Ovechkin might already have the record if Nicklas Backstrom could have remained healthy — he figured Ovechkin had a shot at catching Gretzky if his body cooperated.

“If he stayed healthy, with the way he finishes … could he be second or third all-time? And then he stayed really healthy and kept playing well,” Knuble said. “He’s always been blessed with great health on the ice, where nothing super fluky happened to him. The most impressive thing about him is his longevity.”

Ovechkin’s maturity was a factor in that longevity, according to Knuble.

“I think Alex has just stood the test of time a little bit. You’re a young guy, you kind of live hard on and off the ice, and then when you’re older you realize, ‘I can’t be doing this as much,'” he said.

Finally hoisting something other than an individual trophy also helped.

“I think winning a Stanley Cup was really big for him, too. I think that was a big feather in his cap. You don’t want to be a golfer that’s never won a major, you know?” Knuble said. “I think him winning the team thing was just basically the last box he needed to check.”

Ovechkin is now older (39) than Gretzky was (38) when Knuble played with him in New York. The Capitals captain has matured, but Knuble still sees that spark of youth in his game as he chases Gretzky’s record.

“It’s fun to see him just happy, see him in his joy,” he said. “I think when he was younger, the joy that carried him was the most noticeable thing. Eventually you get older and the joy settles down a little bit, but still he plays with so much of it.”


KNUBLE ADMITS THAT Ovechkin and Gretzky are “different in the way they do their things,” but share one key similarity: the way the understood their responsibilities in selling the sport they love.

“Wayne was very good at being an ambassador of the game. He knew that it’s super inconvenient for him, but he’s going to do it with a smile on his face. He’s not going to bitch about it. It’s his job to move the game forward,” he said. “Alex is pretty good about that stuff too. And it was hard for him. He’s not a North American, but certainly Alex has been a great ambassador of the game here.”

Part of being an ambassador of the game is inspiring subsequent generations to pick up a stick or watch a game. Knuble said both players accomplished that during their careers.

“They’ve both been so good to the game, to the NHL and great role models for kids,” he said. “Wayne revamped the game in his way. And then Ovi revamped it again with his way — a little more flash, a little more flare. We all copied Wayne and then kids today copied Ovi.”

There have been other all-time players who starred in their respective eras, from Mario Lemieux to Sidney Crosby to Connor McDavid. But Knuble believes there’s something different about the way Gretzky and Ovechkin have broken through as sports celebrities.

“People coast to coast in the United States know who [Ovechkin] is, and what more can you ask for, especially as a hockey player?” he said. “You go to California and you can be on the beach there playing volleyball and be like, ‘Who’s Alex Ovechkin?’ And they’ll be like, ‘Oh, that Russian dude in D.C., right? Hockey player?’ If you can get that kind of thing, then that’s a successful athlete.”

As Knuble watches the Ovechkin record chase unfold, his thoughts are with Gretzky. He believes The Great One has shown exemplary class in watching an all-time mark potentially fall. Like Gordie Howe did when Gretzky chased his records, Gretzky has blessed Ovechkin’s own record pursuit.

“Wayne’s such an ambassador, saying, ‘Hey, I can’t wait to see this come to fruition. I can’t wait to see him chase it down. I’m going to be there and be thrilled for him when the time comes.’ And that’s not a lie. That’s not bulls—. And it’s just great,” Knuble said. “The league is thrilled that another generational player has come through. It’s just crazy that this even remotely had a chance to happen.”

Almost as crazy as an NHL veteran who kicked around with five different franchises being the only player to have called the top two goal scorers in league history as his teammates.

“I was on the ice with both. Got sticks signed by both. Got to say that I spent with each of them,” he said. “Again, I just feel so fortunate.”

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