JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Kirby Smart is pretty sure late Georgia coach Vince Dooley was looking down on the No. 1 Bulldogs on Saturday and probably enjoyed the first half — but not so much the second — in a 42-20 victory over the rival Florida Gators.
Dooley, who guided the Bulldogs to a national championship in 1980, died on Friday at his home in Athens, Georgia. He was 90.
“To the Dooleys back home in Athens, I know they are together,” Smart said. “It meant a lot for us to win that game for them. All that Vince has meant to our university and such an ambassador of our program and really all of college football. … He has meant so much to us and in honor of him and their family, it was special. It was a tough time for that to happen.”
After taking a 28-3 lead at the half, a multitude of Georgia errors allowed the Gators to cut the deficit to only eight points after Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson threw a 78-yard touchdown to Xzavier Henderson with 3:31 left in the third quarter.
A Georgia personal foul helped set up Florida’s first touchdown of the second half, and then Bulldogs tailback Kenny McIntosh lost a fumble on the first play of the next drive. Gators defensive back Trey Dean III recovered the ball at Georgia’s 27, and Florida ended up kicking a field goal to make it 28-13.
On the Bulldogs’ next possession, quarterback Stetson Bennett underthrew a pass, which was intercepted by Florida’s Amari Burney. Richardson connected with Henderson three plays later, after the Bulldogs busted coverage in the secondary.
Georgia scored touchdowns on each of its next two possessions to end the threat and beat Florida for the fifth time in the past six meetings.
“I’m sure Coach Dooley enjoyed that; I’m sure he was watching,” Bennett said. “You know, sometimes you take what they give you and sometimes you give them what they’re going to take.”
Smart knows his team will have to clean things up before next week’s showdown against No. 3 Tennessee at Sanford Stadium. That game will go a long way in deciding which team will win the SEC East, and it will be the first top-five matchup played at Sanford Stadium since the No. 4 Bulldogs lost 13-7 to Bo Jackson and No. 3 Auburn in 1983, ending a 23-game SEC win streak, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“Any win, any win exudes confidence,” Smart said. “You guys criticize the wins, I am great with the wins. In the SEC, when you beat Florida, any win, they are hard to come by. They are tough, they are physical, they are hard-fought. I am proud of them and the way our guys played.”
Smart, a former Georgia defensive back, said he didn’t learn of Dooley’s death until the team landed in Jacksonville on Friday. Smart said he received a text from Dooley’s son, Derek, a former Tennessee head coach.
“We took off and were not aware of anything and then the phones started dinging and the text messages started coming through,” Smart said. “We knew that it was kind of imminent. I got to visit with him a little last week and sat down. He was in the training room and we got to talk for a while, and of course I did not know that it would be the last time, but that is probably my fondest memory.”
Smart said Dooley was in a suite with his family during last year’s SEC championship game and CFP National Championship, in which Georgia defeated Alabama 33-18 to win its first national title in 41 years.
“My kids have gotten to be around him, and it’s funny because my kids had no idea,” Smart said. “They were like, ‘Who is this old coach? Who is this old guy?’ Now they know the history and what all he stood for and what his family did for this university. Got a lot of respect for him.”
WASHINGTON — Shohei Ohtani got going again at the plate Monday night, falling a double short of hitting for the cycle.
The three-time MVP homered, tripled, singled and walked, finishing 3-for-4 with two RBIs in the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ 6-4 loss to the Washington Nationals. It was a nice bounce-back for Ohtani after he went 1-for-11 in a weekend series at Philadelphia.
With the Dodgers down two runs and Max Muncy on third base with two outs in the ninth inning, Ohtani walked on a full-count splitter from Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan.
“He had some really good takes there,” Finnegan said. “He knows the situation, too. He knows I’m not going to give him anything too good to hit. He’s a pro. He worked his at-bat and I was able to sneak back in there 3-2. If I was going to get him out, it was because he was going to chase something out of the zone and he did his job and took ball four.”
Ohtani, however, focused more on the called third strike he took with a runner aboard in the eighth.
“My approach doesn’t really change — it’s to really get on base,” he said through an interpreter. “That fourth at-bat I really should have just taken a hack and see what happens.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani was unselfish in his final plate appearance when he drew a walk with the game on the line.
“It’s kind of hard to say he was struggling, but tonight he was locked in,” Roberts said. “Even that last at-bat to earn the walk versus Finnegan and not try to chase a cycle speaks to being a team player and passing the baton. He had an excellent night.”
On the pitching side, Ohtani is throwing bullpens and getting closer to live batting practice as the two-way superstar rehabs from elbow surgery.
“I feel pretty good with where I am at physically,” he said. “There’s some limitation on how hard I am supposed to throw or how many types of pitches I’m allowed to throw. Once that’s cleared, I will be able to do all of the above. I feel pretty good about throwing live BP.”
Hockey fans often hear about the dreaded Stanley Cup hangover, when a team falters in the season after their championship. But a Presidents’ Trophy hangover?
Last season, the New York Rangers finished on top of the regular-season standings. This season, it’s looking less likely by the day that they’ll even make the playoffs.
When play begins Monday, the Rangers will be six points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. With only six games left, they’ll need to come close to running the table, and will also need help from Montreal’s opponents.
Monday’s game is home against the Tampa Bay Lightning (7 p.m. ET, ESPN+). The Lightning have clinched a berth but will still be playing hard as they have a chance to catch the Toronto Maple Leafs for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
As noted, New York will need to gin up a winning streak here to bolster its chances. As for the Canadiens, they close out with a somewhat easier schedule: home against the Detroit Red Wings, at the Ottawa Senators and Maple Leafs, then home for the Chicago Blackhawks and the Hurricanes.
So that’s the task ahead for the Blueshirts. Will they come through?
With the regular season ending April 17, we’ll help you track it all with the NHL playoff watch. As we traverse the final stretch, we’ll provide details on all the playoff races, along with the teams jockeying for position in the 2025 NHL draft lottery.
Points: 83 Regulation wins: 27 Playoff position: N/A Games left: 5 Points pace: 88.4 Next game: @ DAL (Tuesday) Playoff chances: 1.4% Tragic number: 2
Points: 74 Regulation wins: 23 Playoff position: N/A Games left: 6 Points pace: 79.8 Next game: vs. EDM (Monday) Playoff chances: 0% Tragic number: E
Points: 72 Regulation wins: 27 Playoff position: N/A Games left: 5 Points pace: 76.7 Next game: @ LA (Monday) Playoff chances: 0% Tragic number: E
Points: 50 Regulation wins: 14 Playoff position: N/A Games left: 6 Points pace: 54.0 Next game: vs. CGY (Monday) Playoff chances: 0% Tragic number: E
Note: An “x” means that the team has clinched a playoff berth. An “e” means that the team has been eliminated from playoff contention.
Race for the No. 1 pick
The NHL uses a draft lottery to determine the order of the first round, so the team that finishes in last place is not guaranteed the No. 1 selection. As of 2021, a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots if it wins the lottery, so only 11 teams are eligible for the No. 1 pick. Full details on the process are here. Matthew Schaefer, a defenseman for the OHL’s Erie Otters, is No. 1 on the draft board.
The Utah Hockey Club will open a new practice and training facility for team use on Sept. 1, the team announced Monday.
The 115,780-square-foot facility, built on the southeastern end of a Sandy shopping mall, will house two NHL standard ice sheets. It will also include training, medical and dining facilities as well as team locker rooms.
Building a practice facility quickly was one of the immediate challenges Utah owner Ryan Smith faced in bringing an NHL team to the Beehive State. The Utah Olympic Oval, which is primarily used for speedskating events, served as the team’s practice facility this season, but it was intended to be only a temporary solution.
“We want to be competitive in the NHL, and to do that you got to have a place where these guys can practice and they can recover, and it’s home,” Smith said. “We did a miraculous job with the Oval, but at the same time that’s not this.”
Players on Utah’s roster had input on the practice facility’s design from the dining areas to the locker rooms. The facility incorporates many of their suggestions.
“We tried to involve them as much as we can in every part of this,” Smith said.
Utah’s practice facility will also be ready for public use next January. It will feature event venues, eight community locker rooms, equipment rentals and a team store. The ice rinks will be available to the public when not in use by the team.