ANN ARBOR, Mich. — No. 5 Michigan bullied No. 10 Penn State on Saturday, from the line of scrimmage to the scoreboard to the newly named Lloyd Carr Tunnel at Michigan Stadium.
Tempers flared as both teams entered the shared tunnel with the Wolverines holding a 16-14 halftime lead. While video showed the teams exchanging verbal volleys, the situation never became physical.
“How they were emotionally all game, I wouldn’t be surprised if [it was] them starting it,” Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy said of the altercation. “We just finished it.”
Michigan defensive lineman Mike Morris said the standoff stemmed from Penn State players talking trash on social media before the game.
“We all told each other, ‘They want to have those Twitter fingers, they want to talk on social media,’ and then they didn’t talk on the field,” Morris said. “They wanted to talk at halftime because they got lucky.”
After dominating the stat sheet but not the scoreboard in the first half, the Wolverines finished Penn State with a resounding third quarter en route to a 41-17 victory. Michigan took some time to pull away but held massive advantages in rushing yards (418-111), first downs (28-10) and possession time (41:56-18:04).
In a game in which Penn State briefly had more touchdowns (2) than first downs (1), Michigan looked every bit like the defending Big Ten champion and a team poised to push Ohio State for the league crown and a likely College Football Playoff spot.
“Like Coach [Jim] Harbaugh said in the locker room, ‘It was a butt-kicking in every which way a butt could be kicked,'” McCarthy said. “Just being able to do it in the fashion that we did was just awesome to see. Obviously, the first half, we wish it went a little different way scoreboard-wise, but they only had one first down and we had 18. We’ll take that any day of the week.”
Harbaugh was more diplomatic but clearly pleased, acknowledging that Michigan’s line-of-scrimmage dominance is his favorite way to win games. Despite a 6-0 start, Michigan had not been fully branded a CFP contender because of its competition. Penn State also came in undefeated but was no match for the Wolverines.
“The team made a real positive statement today,” Harbaugh said. “They call it a statement game? OK, it’s a statement game.”
Harbaugh’s team wasn’t concerned at halftime, even though it led by only two points after holding Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford to 17 passing yards, the lowest for a Nittany Lions starter since at least 2004, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Penn State allowed more rushing yards to Michigan than it had in its previous five games (399), as Donovan Edwards and Blake Corum combined for 339 yards and four touchdowns. Michigan’s inability to convert red zone opportunities into touchdowns plagued the offense in the first half, but Edwards and Corum had touchdown runs of 67 and 61 yards, respectively, in the third quarter to break the game open.
“I feel like [I’ve] been [ready] for a game like this for a while now,” said Edwards, who missed two games with a leg injury in September. “I had to just sit back and wait my turn and show the world what I’m capable of being able to do.”
Corum has 666 rushing yards in his past four games, the most by a Michigan player since quarterback Denard Robinson in 2010 and the most by a Wolverines running back since Mike Hart in 2004, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Hart, who had a medical emergency on the sideline last week at Indiana and had to be hospitalized, returned to his duties as running game coordinator Saturday.
Corum and Edwards became the first Michigan tandem to each eclipse 150 rushing yards and record multiple rushing touchdowns since 2017.
“Blake’s really fast, Donovan’s really fast,” Harbaugh said. “When they get in the open, they’re rolling.”
McCarthy, who threw his first interception of the season last week at Indiana, had a pass tipped, intercepted and returned for a touchdown in the second quarter. He had a season-low 145 passing yards as a starter but added 57 rushing yards in the win.
“I keep saying week-to-week that I need to use my legs more,” McCarthy said. “When you go back to the 2019 season and [former LSU quarterback] Joe Burrow and everything he was able to do with that, and I’m faster than Joe Burrow, so I should be able to do it.”
Clifford left the game in the second half with an injury and was replaced by heralded true freshman Drew Allar, who completed 5 of 10 passes for 37 yards. Michigan had two sacks and five quarterback hurries.
Other than Clifford’s 62-yard run to set up a first-half touchdown, Penn State had 49 net rushing yards on 21 carries.
“People look at it as we haven’t played anybody, but in reality, we have, and we showed up and showed out,” said Morris, who had a tackle for loss, a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry. “Now people say we haven’t played anybody, and now Penn State, again, we showed up and we showed up. That narrative can keep going, but we’re in the business of proving people wrong.”
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves signed veteran outfielder Mike Yastrzemski to a two-year deal Wednesday that includes a club option for 2028.
The 35-year-old Yastrzemski hit .233 with 17 home runs and 46 RBIs in 146 games last year between San Francisco and Kansas City.
Yastrzemski, who spent the first six-plus seasons of his career with the Giants before being sent to the Royals in July, will make $9 million in 2026 and $10 million in 2027. Atlanta holds a club option for 2028. Yastrzemski will make $7 million if the Braves pick up the option. He will receive a $4 million buyout if they do not.
The versatile Yastrzemski, the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, can play all three outfield positions and is a career .238 hitter. His best season came in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign, when he batted .297 with 10 homers in 54 games and finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The New York Yankees made their first selection in a Rule 5 draft since 2011 on Wednesday, taking right-hander Cade Winquest from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Winquest was one of 13 players — and 12 right-handed pitchers — chosen in the major league portion of the draft.
The Rockies took RJ Petit, a 6-foot-8 reliever, with the first pick from the Detroit Tigers. Petit, 26, had a 2.44 ERA in 45 relief appearances and two starts between Double A and Triple A last season. The Minnesota Twins chose the only position player, selecting catcher Daniel Susac from the Athletics.
Clubs pay $100,000 to select a player and must keep him on the active major league roster for the entire following season unless he lands on the injured list. Players taken off the roster must be offered back to the former club for $50,000.
The 25-year-old Winquest recorded a 4.58 ERA with a 48% groundball rate in 106 innings across 25 games, including 23 starts, between Single A and Double A last season. He features a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and touches 98 mph plus a curveball, cutter and sweeper. He is expected to compete for a spot in the Yankees’ bullpen next season.
Right-hander Brad Meyers was the last player the Yankees had chosen in a Rule 5 draft. He suffered a right shoulder injury in spring training and was on the injured list for the entire 2012 season before he was offered back to the Washington Nationals. He never appeared in a major league game.
Also picked were right-hander Jedixson Paez (Colorado from Boston), right-hander Griff McGarry (Washington from Philadelphia), catcher Carter Baumler (Pittsburgh from Baltimore), right-hander Ryan Watson (Athletics from San Francisco), right-hander Matthew Pushard (St. Louis from Miami), right-hander Roddery Munoz (Houston from Cincinnati), right-hander Peyton Pallette (Cleveland from Chicago White Sox), right-hander Spencer Miles (Toronto from San Francisco), right-hander Zach McCambley (Philadelphia from Miami) and right-hander Alexander Alberto (White Sox from Tampa Bay).
Even though Joe Buck is more widely known these days as the voice of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” his broadcast career is rooted in baseball, including calling the most World Series games on television.
On Wednesday, Buck received a call that he thought was at least a few years down the line. He found out he received the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting by baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Buck is not only the 50th winner of the Frick Award, he joins his father, Jack, to become the only father-son duo to win the honor. Jack Buck, who broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games from 1954 until 2021 and was the lead announcer on CBS’ baseball package in 1990 and ’91, received the award in 1987.
“I am shocked in many ways. I didn’t think this was coming right now,” Buck said. “I was saying to the group that called to tell me that my best memory of my father as a Major League Baseball broadcaster was in 1987 in Cooperstown, New York, and what it meant to him, what it meant to our family to see him get the award. To see the joy and the pride that he had for what he had done.”
Joe Buck will receive the award during the Hall’s July 25, 2026, awards presentation in Cooperstown, a day ahead of induction ceremonies. At 56, Buck becomes the second-youngest Frick Award winner, trailing only Vin Scully, who was 54 when he was named the 1982 winner.
Buck grew up in St. Louis and called games for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds in 1989 and ’90 after graduating from Indiana University. He joined his father for Cardinals broadcasts in 1991, a job Joe held through 2007. Jack Buck died in June 2002 at age 77.
“I was lucky to call Jack Buck my dad and my best friend. I’m lucky that I’m Carol Buck’s son. I tend to downplay awards and what have you because of always feeling like I had a leg up at the start of my career and I did. I’m the first to admit it. But I am happy that when I was a kid, I paid attention and I wanted to be with him. I think the greatest gift my dad gave me was allowing me to be in the room with him. I’d like to think there’s still some stuff out in front of me, but this is the greatest honor I could receive. And to know what he would be thinking and feeling on this day, that’s the part what makes it special.
“I recall him saying [during his speech] that he was honored to be the eyes and the ears for Cardinal fans, wherever the Cardinals went, and he was very proud of being the conduit between wherever the Cardinals were playing and those fans that were listening. That always resonated with me.”
Buck joined Fox Sports when it started doing NFL games in 1994. Two years later, it got the rights to Major League Baseball and Buck was made the lead announcer with Tim McCarver as the analyst. McCarver retired from broadcasting after the 2013 season and received the Frick Award in 2021.
Buck was 27 when he called his first World Series in 1996. He would go on to do the Fall Classic in 1998 and then annually from 2000-21. His 135 World Series games make him one of six U.S. play-by-play announcers to reach the century mark calling either the Fall Classic, NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Finals. Scully had 126 World Series games on radio and television.
Buck also worked 21 All-Star Games and 26 League Championship Series for Fox before joining ESPN in 2022 as the voice of “Monday Night Football.”
Since going to ESPN, Buck called a game on Opening Day last year and worked a Cardinals game with Chip Caray in 2023. Buck said there is the possibility of doing a couple more games for ESPN in the future.
“I think of myself as a baseball announcer probably first because that’s what I was around the most. I love the game. I’m a fan of the game,” he said. “I still dream as a baseball announcer at night. I think all announcers have the same nightmare where you show up at a game and you can’t see anybody on the field, you don’t know anybody’s name and you’re trying to fake your way through a broadcast. Those are all baseball games in my dreams. So it’s in my genetics, it’s in my DNA. I grew up at Busch Stadium as a kid and yeah, baseball is always kind of first and foremost in my heart.”
Buck also becomes the sixth broadcaster to win both the Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, joining Jack Buck, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels and Lindsey Nelson.
A broadcaster must have 10 continuous years of experience with a network or team to be considered, and the ballot was picked by a subcommittee of past winners that includes Marty Brennaman, Joe Castiglione and Bob Costas, along with broadcast historians David J. Halberstam and Curt Smith. At least one candidate must be a foreign-language broadcaster.
Voters are 13 past winners — Brennaman, Castiglione, Costas, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Michaels, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Dave Van Horne and Tom Hamilton — plus historians Halberstam, Smith and former Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn.
John Rooney of the Cardinals and Brian Anderson of the Milwaukee Brewers were ballot newcomers this year, joining returnees Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper and John Sterling. Buck was on the ballot after being dropped last year, and Dan Shulman was on for the third time in four years.