LOS ANGELES — TCU starting running back Kendre Miller told ESPN on Saturday that he has a sprained MCL in his right knee, which is about half-healed, and is giving him a 50-50 chance to play Monday against Georgia in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game at Sofi Stadium (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Miller, who said he was wearing a brace on his knee under his black sweatpants at media day, plans to suit up and go through warmups.
“Tomorrow definitely is going to be pretty much the deciding factor if I can go or not, but I’m going to definitely try,” said Miller, who leads the Horned Frogs in rushing with 1,399 yards. “It’s kind of like a 50-50, but I’ll most definitely suit up either way and try.”
Miller said team doctors have left his playing status up to him, and they have seen his MRI and how loose the knee is. Miller said it continues to improve every day, but nobody is going to force him to play if it’s not right.
“If it’s not stabilized, I wouldn’t feel comfortable going out there and playing,” Miller said. “That’s kind of why I didn’t play in the second half of Michigan. I tried.”
Miller had 57 yards on eight carries in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl against the Wolverines before he was injured. He is the only player in Big 12 history to record a rushing touchdown in 13 games in a season and has totaled 17 rushing touchdowns, fourth-most in a season in TCU history and the most since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2000.
TCU coach Sonny Dykes said the staff wanted to give Miller time to rest and recover. The running back woke up Friday “a little sore” but feels better Saturday.
“I think in the next 24 hours we’ll have to make a determination or have a pretty good idea of what he’s going to be able to do going into the game Monday,” Dykes said. “We’re optimistic he’s going to be able to play. We’ll see how he feels today. Today is going to be important. The biggest thing obviously is he’s confident and feels good about it.”
When Miller was injured, the Frogs turned to Emari Demercado, who had a career-high 150 rushing yards against Michigan, the most allowed to a single rusher by the Wolverines this season.
“When Kendrick goes down, you see Emari come in, and those guys, we leaned on them,” quarterback Max Duggan, a Heisman finalist, said of his offensive linemen. “They have kind of a chip on their shoulder to help us and lead us in all of our games. They have an understanding of the type of D-linemen we’re going against and linebackers, all that, but they’re taking a great mindset of they want to be as tough as they can.”
Dykes said establishing a running game against Georgia is critical. The Bulldogs’ defense is tied for No. 2 in the country in rushing touchdowns allowed and second in the FBS in runs over 10 yards allowed. The Bulldogs have not allowed a rushing touchdown of 10 yards or more, the only team to do that this season.
“That’s the thing you have to be able to do,” Dykes said. “If not, you’re playing right into their hands. … I’m not saying you need to rush for 300 yards, but you have to consistently run the ball and stay out of third-and-long situations.”
Demercado, a native of Inglewood, California, the site of this year’s national championship game, had the second 100-yard game of his career in the CFP semifinals and posted his sixth rushing touchdown. He had a total of four rushing scores in his first four seasons at TCU. Demercado’s 622 rushing yards and 5.8 yards per carry are both career highs.
“All of our running backs can do a lot of the same work,” TCU offensive lineman Steve Avila said. “[Demercado] is a tough guy and loves to get those yards, so we’ll do our best to make those holes for him.”
Miller ranks first nationally among active Power 5 players with 6.7 yards per carry in his career. He said his family was flying in for the game Saturday.
“It’s hard mentally to embrace and take it all in, but I’m not going to let my emotions get in the way of my teammates,” Miller said. “I’m going to keep Emari calm and the rest of the dudes on the sideline if I don’t play and be there to support them.”
“I want to play, but what’s right for me is the question. I’ve been fighting it all week, because I know what’s right for me, but it’s just being there for my team. They’re understanding. We have trust in Emari and what he has to do, but I’m going to be there for them no matter what.”
Allar missed the second half of last week’s win over Wisconsin after suffering a left knee injury, but he was not listed on the injury report for the No. 3 Nittany Lions on Saturday morning.
Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week that Allar could be a game-time decision and that backup Beau Pribula would take snaps with Allar in practice.
Allar ranks 10th nationally with a QBR of 83.6. He has completed 71.3% of his passes for 1,640 yards and totaled 15 touchdowns with four interceptions.
Penn State starting defensive lineman Dani Dennis-Sutton will be a game-time decision, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Dennis-Sutton, who is listed as questionable, is expected to warm up and try to play.
Information from ESPN’s Jake Trotter was used in this report.
WEST POINT, N.Y. — Army star quarterback Bryson Daily will miss Saturday’s game against Air Force with an undisclosed injury/illness, Army officials told ESPN.
Daily leads the country with 19 rushing touchdowns and leads all FBS quarterbacks with 909 rushing yards. He was unable to practice this week. The No. 21 Black Knights had a bye last weekend after beating East Carolina 45-28 on Oct. 19 to win their seventh straight game this season.
In the win over ECU, Daily carried the ball 31 times for a career-high 171 yards and accounted for six touchdowns, five rushing and one passing. The 6-foot, 221-pound senior has already set Army single-season records for touchdowns responsible for (26) and rushing touchdowns (19) in seven games.
With Daily sidelined, junior Dewayne Coleman will fill in at quarterback and make his first career start. Daily, one of four team captains, has been Army’s starting quarterback over the past two seasons and the main cog in a Black Knights offense that has eclipsed 400 yards of total offense in all seven games this season.
Army (7-0, 6-0) travels to North Texas next week for an AAC contest. They get a bye week on Nov. 16 and then face Notre Dame on Nov. 23 at Yankee Stadium.
There’s no timetable at this point on how long Daily might be out of the lineup, but Army officials don’t think it’s a season-ending setback.
Army, off to its best start in nearly 30 years, will be one of the top contenders for the Group of 5’s spot in the College Football Playoff if the Black Knights can win the American Athletic Conference championship.
The 2024 World Series ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the championship in a stunning comeback in Game 5, with Walker Buehler the unlikely pitcher to close out the 7-6 win over the New York Yankees. First baseman Freddie Freeman was handed the World Series MVP award for his record-tying 12-RBI performance.
But that doesn’t tell the full story of everyone who played a starring role in October — a postseason that featured a record six grand slams, among other wildness. So, to honor the best of the entire postseason, we’ve created our first MLB All-October Team.
From wild-card-round sensations to World Series standouts, here are the players our ESPN MLB panel of experts voted as the best of the best at every position along with some award hardware for the brightest stars of October.
Why he’s here: To be honest, it wasn’t a great playoffs for catchers — they hit just .184/.254/.310. Higashioka is the one catcher who did hit, belting three home runs and driving in five runs in the seven games the Padres played.
Honorable mention: Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
1B: Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why he’s here: Freeman didn’t have an extra-base hit and drove in just one run in the first two rounds of the playoffs as he tried to play through the severely sprained ankle he suffered at the end of the regular season. He didn’t even play in two games of the NLCS and required hours of physical therapy before each game just to get on the field. But the five days off before the World Series clearly helped, and he homered in the first four games, including his dramatic walk-off grand slam in Game 1 that will go down as not only the signature World Series moment of 2024 — but a World Series moment for the ages.
Why he’s here: Torres had a solid October as he heads into free agency, although he had little competition here. Indeed, second basemen collectively hit just .219 with three home runs the entire playoffs — two of those from Torres — and drove in 24 runs, with Torres driving in eight himself. He had three multihit games and scored five runs in five games in the ALCS, while also taking walks to help set the table for Juan Soto.
Why he’s here: Max Muncy set a record when he reached base 17 times in the NLCS, including a single-postseason-record 12 times in a row, but he went hitless in the World Series. Vientos, meanwhile, had a stellar first trip to the postseason, hitting .327/.362/.636 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in 13 games. That followed a breakout regular season in which he posted an .837 OPS with 27 home runs in just 111 games. He looks like he’ll be a fixture in the middle of the Mets’ lineup for years to come.
Why he’s here: Edman was an under-the-radar pickup at the trade deadline, in part because he was still injured and hadn’t yet played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Most of Edman’s starts came at shortstop, especially after Miguel Rojas was injured in the NLDS, but his bat got him here. Edman was the NLCS MVP after hitting .407 with a record-tying 11 RBIs in the series. He had started at cleanup just twice in his career but was slotted there twice against the Mets, driving in seven runs in those two games. Then he went 2-for-4 in each of the first two games of the World Series, including a home run in Game 2, and finished the Fall Classic hitting .294/.400/.588 with six runs.
Why they’re here: Betts entered this postseason in a 3-for-38 postseason slump going back to the end of the 2021 NLCS — and it initially looked like it would be more of the same when he went 0-for-6 the first two games of the NLDS, including being robbed of a home run courtesy of Jurickson Profar. Everything turned in Game 3 when Profar almost robbed him of another home run — but didn’t. After that, Betts was in the middle of most of the Dodgers’ big rallies, hitting .321/.394/.625 with four home runs and 16 RBIs over the Dodgers’ final 14 playoff games.
Soto’s at-bats spoke for themselves: He never seemed to have a bad one. His big at-bat was the three-run home run in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series. Getting intentionally walked twice while batting in front of Aaron Judge speaks to Judge’s struggles, yes — but also to how locked in Soto was all postseason. He finished the postseason slashing .327/.469/.633 with 4 home runs, 9 RBIs and 14 walks in 14 games.
Hernandez actually began October on the bench, but we’ve seen him perform big in the postseason before, and he stepped up when Rojas was injured in the NLDS. Hernandez homered in the Dodgers’ 2-0 victory to close out the Padres in the NLDS, had a big two-run home run against the Mets in Game 3 of the NLCS and got the series-turning five-run rally against the Yankees in Game 5 started with a leadoff single in the fifth as well as the series-winning rally in the eighth with another leadoff base hit. Overall, he hit .294/.357/.451 with 11 runs and six RBIs.
Why he’s here: The Yankees were often a two-man show in the postseason, just like they were in the regular season — except it was Soto and Stanton, not Soto and Judge. Stanton blasted seven home runs in the playoffs, including in the final three games of the ALCS (earning MVP honors) and in Games 1 and 5 of the World Series. He finished the playoffs hitting .273/.339/.709, and those seven homers are the most in a single postseason in Yankees history.
Why they’re here: Certainly, it seems as if the status of the starting pitcher in the postseason continues to decline — although, that doesn’t mean they’re not important. There were certainly some stellar individual outings along the way: Corbin Burnes allowed one run in eight innings (but lost 1-0) for the Baltimore Orioles; Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler allowed one hit in seven scoreless innings (but that would be his only start); and the Padres’ Michael King fanned 12 to beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. Skubal had two scoreless starts against the Houston Astros in the wild-card series and Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS, confirming his status as one of the best in the game — or maybe the best, as his soon-to-be AL Cy Young Award will attest.
Cole was really the one consistent starter throughout the postseason, making five starts with a 2.17 ERA. Unfortunately, that ERA doesn’t register the five unearned runs from the final game of the World Series when the Yankees’ defense turned into a comedy of errors — including Cole himself opening up the floodgates by failing to cover first base to get what would have been the inning-ending out.
Why they’re here: It also wasn’t the best of postseasons for closers — not even great ones. The Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase allowed five earned runs all regular season — and then eight in the playoffs. Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams blew that wild-card game against the Mets. All-Star Jeff Hoffman lost two games for the Phillies. Weaver, however, was the one consistent late-game performer and was great while often pitching more than one inning. He posted a 1.76 ERA across 15⅓ innings. Who knows how the World Series ends if Yankees manager Aaron Boone keeps Weaver in the game in the 10th inning of Game 1. (Weaver had thrown just 19 pitches.)
Treinen, meanwhile, capped his comeback season — he had missed almost all of 2022 and then all of 2023 — with a 2.19 ERA across 12⅓ innings, winning two games and saving three others. In the World Series clincher, he recorded seven outs and got out of a two-on, no-out jam in the eighth inning to preserve the Dodgers’ 7-6 lead before handing the ball to Buehler to close out the ninth.