‘That’s some bad clock management’: How MLB teams are preparing for new rules
On the first day of live batting practice at Chicago Cubs camp, right-hander Adrian Sampson stood on the mound ready to face his teammates — just as he had done to start preparation for the season in his 11 previous years of professional baseball.
But this time, there was a clock hanging high on the backstop behind the hitter and catcher.
When Sampson received the ball after each pitch, the clock reset to 15 seconds and started counting down. He wasn’t just working on the pitches he was throwing, but how quickly he could throw them. Several times, the clock ran out on him. In the dugout, teammates shook their heads in mock disappointment.
“That’s some bad clock management right there,” catcher Yan Gomes said with a smile.
Welcome to spring training 2023, where a new term has entered the baseball lexicon.
“It will be front and center with everything that we do throughout the spring,” Cubs bench coach Andy Green said. “It needs to get to a point where it doesn’t rattle anyone when the regular season starts. We’ll push those buttons now to get them ready for April.”
During visits to a dozen teams over the opening weeks of camps, it became clear that adjusting to a massive overhaul to the rulebook will make this a spring training like no other. In discussions with players, coaches and executives, it’s easy to see that this isn’t just about getting a pitch off within 15-20 seconds.
“I imagine the conversation around the shot clock in the NBA was similar to the ones we’re having here,” Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said. “Same with the [football] play clock, in a way. Both of those sports have evolved to the point where players are competing within the new constraints and not thinking about these clocks. We’re going to get there. The goal is to get there as fast as we can.”
From adapting to the pitch clock and shift regulations to using bigger bases on the field, performing at a high level under the new rules is as important as conforming to them. And there is no consensus among players who will have to make the bigger adjustment with a clock ticking down.
“Generally speaking, it will advantage the pitchers more,” Atlanta Braves starter Spencer Strider said. “We can still control the tempo.”
His teammate, standing a few feet away, disagrees: “I’ll stay in the box a pretty good bit,” first baseman Matt Olson said. “I think for pitchers it will be a bigger transition. They may have to take a ball [violation] or just throw a pitch at the last second.”
Players have more than 30 spring training games to prepare for the changes before the bright lights and scrutiny of the regular season arrive.
“The best part of all this is we have a month of games where the results do not matter,” Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “Players can make mistakes and there is no essential penalty for it, in terms of win/loss.
“Let them experience it. That will be a great teacher for all of us and how we have to adjust. And what we’re going to be facing once the season starts.”
The pitcher
Not only are pitchers learning to work with a ticking clock, but for the first time they can call their own games from the mound. PitchCom is now available to communicate both ways between a pitcher and catcher, after being introduced last season with only catchers able to choose pitches.
St. Louis Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright used it on his first day of live BP, telling his catchers what he wanted to throw by clicking them into a device on his own body. And according to the 17-year major league veteran, the new technology could be a key to adhering to the pitch clock.
“As soon as I get the ball back I’m going to be pressing buttons,” he said after his throwing session.
Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy identified a potentially comical snag, though: “We worry about if the catcher is hitting [PitchCom] and the pitcher is hitting it at the same time. They’re going back and forth and time runs out.”
There’s also a greater potential for human error with the advanced technology. If a player clicks the wrong button for a pitch, time could become a factor.
“I had to shake myself off a couple of times,” Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito said, laughing. “Was just getting used to the buttons and where everything is. I accidentally called a pickoff with no one on base during a live BP session.”
Streamlining the process will take time and every little tweak to a pitcher’s routine will have an impact, which is why pitch clocks and PitchCom devices are prevalent even on the back fields of training camps.
“The thing that is coming out of this is you can’t be that pitcher that is consistently the same when he releases the ball,” Colorado Rockies manager and former MLB pitcher Bud Black stated. “We’re working on that.”
Pitchers were confident in their early adjustments when pitching with the bases empty at camps. But live batting practice can only prepare them so much, adding importance to spring games as an opportunity to work on what at times can feel like a completely new job description.
“I feel like a QB now. I’m reading the defense, keeping the play clock in mind and making sure I get the ball off in time.” Strider said. “We may have to have a default play [pitch] if time is running down.”
Pitchers appearing in the World Baseball Classic this month face an added challenge. The tournament will not have any of MLB’s new rules, so they’ll have to adapt again when they return to spring training.
“I’m going to enjoy the heck out of no clock,” Rockies and Team USA reliever Daniel Bard said. “I’m going to cherish 40 seconds between pitches. It’s the last time in my whole life I’ll get to pitch without a clock.”
Bard represents the most common anti-clock player: the high-leverage reliever who often has to face another team’s best hitters with the game hanging in the balance.
“Selfishly, I want more time if I’m facing the middle of the Dodgers lineup,” Bard said. “Why would you want to rush through that?”
Teammate Kyle Freeland nodded in agreement but added: “I think we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s adapt or die.”
The hitter
Though there have been more pitching violations than hitting ones so far, there’s an equally big change coming for hitters, who are required to be in the batter’s box and alert to the pitcher with eight seconds remaining on the clock.
This became an early talking point of the spring when a Grapefruit League game between the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves ended with the bases loaded and the score tied because strike three was called on a violation against Atlanta’s Cal Conley for not being in ready position.
While live BP didn’t allow hitters much practice in these situations — many teams didn’t have clocks positioned for them to see — spring games will give them plenty of reps, especially as they face one of their toughest new decisions: whether to stay in the box after a pitch, as stepping out might eat up valuable time.
“Maybe taking one step out of the box instead of both feet,” Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar said. “Just do a quick refocus thing. I hope not to change too drastically but these games will help.”
Spring training games are also giving hitters a chance to fine-tune their approaches against another major change that the league hopes will bring more action to the sport: rules governing the shift.
With defenses now having to play two fielders on each side of second base and all four infielders on the dirt, holes are opening where a shifted defender stood in recent seasons. Traditional pull hitters often felt like they had to try to do too much at the plate because defenses were set up to take away their natural tendencies.
In fact, runs and batting average were both up in early games compared to spring training a year ago. Players were hitting .272 through Feb. 28, with an average of 11.9 runs. That’s up from a batting average of .259 and 10.6 runs through the same period in 2022.
Part of the rise can be attributed to being able to replace attempts to go the other way or hit over the shift with a simpler approach.
“Just going to let my natural swing play,” Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger said. “I don’t have to think about the shift. It’s going to be super interesting. I’m interested to see how it plays out on the dirt. No one [extra] in right field. That takes away so many hits.”
The defense
While defenders will have fewer options for where they stand on the field, the rules preventing an extreme shift will actually cause teams to put an even greater emphasis on pregame defensive prep.
“There are a couple positioning dynamics to put our players in [places] that they never really have been in the recent past,” said Green, the Cubs coach. “With runners on base, you might see some infielders closer together than you’ve ever seen them before.”
The positioning of the shortstop and third baseman are impacted the most. With a lefty pull hitter up, the hole at third base can still be open like it has been in the past — the third baseman would fill the shortstop position and the shortstop would play up the middle near second base.
“We have to be even more intentional with how we’re positioning players because second base is an even more difficult position than it has been over the past seven or eight years,” Harris said.
One of the bigger questions that remains unanswered in spring training is if teams will come up with untraditional defenses to get around the shift.
“The only thing we’ve talked about is we could see some teams that could be radical with some outfielders,” Black said of the possibility.
An example that has been mentioned is deploying a left fielder in short right field, potentially leaving a lot of room to cover for the other two outfielders. The Red Sox tried this out against Joey Gallo during a recent game and weren’t any executives, managers or coaches who would commit to using the strategy during the regular season just yet — but no one would rule it out.
“There might be a team that does it,” Green said. “It’s hard to see the value in it. There’s a reason teams haven’t done that. Has to be a unique situation. A really high ground ball guy that pulls it. And you need an outfielder that can stand in that hole and make a play at first base on a hot smash.”
Even though the use of bigger bases has been mentioned more frequently in conversations involving their impact on baserunning, they are another change that fielders will have to get used to this spring.
“There might be a small transition in terms of having more base to work with,” Olson said. “The footwork is second nature so that could be a little different.”
The base stealer
There are two factors in the new rules that lead to a belief that stolen bases will increase: Pitchers can step off the rubber only twice — unless the third time results in an out — and the bases are 3 inches bigger on each side, producing a slightly smaller distance between them and a more enticing target for potential base stealers.
“You have to pay attention to controlling the running game and how the disengagement rule is going to play into it,” Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “You don’t get those tossed over to first base anymore. You need intent. So we’ll stress that.”
The proof has been evident in the minor leagues, where stolen-base rates have spiked as a combination of the new rules has been tested in recent seasons. One of MLB’s elite base stealers, Billy Hamilton, is cautiously optimistic about the impact it could have — but he also sees a potential downside for runners trying to take advantage of the new rules.
“The limit to pickoffs makes it a little bit easier. If he’s used two, you can be aware of that but you still have to be careful,” the White Sox outfielder said. “The clock isn’t behind the pitcher when I’m looking at him so if I take a peek [behind the plate], I might get picked off. Can the dugout count it down so I know what’s going on?”
Since pitchers can no longer vary their timing to the plate to hold runners on base, it will give base stealers an opportunity to time their jumps to when they know the ball has to be thrown to home plate.
“You’re going to have to come set very early or learn side steps and go quickly to the plate.” Strider said of how pitchers can adapt. “Being ready ahead of the hitter is important, so you have several seconds to leverage against the baserunner.”
Whether or not there is a noticeable rise in stolen bases during spring training games, this new pitcher/baserunner dynamic is something teams are expecting to play out throughout the season.
“When guys pick [to run] based on the clock is something we’ll be watching,” Green said. “There’s a lot of smart people looking for edges. It’s a new frontier.”
The manager
Between the number of adjustments needed from players across their rosters and new strategies introduced because of the changes, the role of managers will be heightened this season. Never one to miss an edge, New York Mets skipper Buck Showalter has been studying for any advantage since last season.
“I went to the [Arizona] Fall League for that purpose,” Showalter said. “We spent a lot of time talking to our Double- and Triple-A people because those are the ones that have lived it. We have people constantly asking umpires and the replay group a lot of what-ifs. What if we did that, what if we did this? When we get to the point where they say, ‘hmm, we have to think about that,’ then I know I’m onto something.”
But Showalter isn’t about to give away any of his findings until the games start counting.
“If you have an advantage, you don’t want to show it down here,” he said.
Other managers acknowledge that one of the biggest ways to succeed with so many changes occurring at once will be simply by being the team that doesn’t let the inevitable learning curve wear it down.
“Everyone will adjust to the times but the mental side is what we’re talking about. Pitch. Bad result. Get emotional, mad at yourself,” Black said. “Without the clock you have more time to take a breath and gather yourself. Now, you have to get back on the mound and get going. The mental part of this is what we’re talking about.”
Managers agree that the best way to get their teams prepared for the mental side of the new changes is by working on everything so consistently during camps that it becomes second nature by the time the season begins.
“We’re doing a lot on a timed basis. That’s the main thing. Working within the timeframe that we’re allotted. Let’s build our stamina, our mental toughness, the speed in which we work,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “If we get 15 seconds, let’s get everyone within 12 so you never feel rushed. When the game starts, it slows down instead of speeds up.”
As much as teams are using the spring to adapt to MLB’s new rules, they all know there is still some mystery to how a sport that has been hesitant to change will look when the regular season begins and the stakes are that much higher.
“Baseball has not been comfortable with rule changes compared to other sports,” Counsell said. “We have to be OK with a rule change that can improve the game. That’s what we’re stressing. Get comfortable.”
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Adam Rittenberg
Indiana is expected to finalize a new three-year contract with offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, a source confirmed to ESPN on Thursday, as the school reinforces its commitment to coach Curt Cignetti’s staff.
The deal will keep Shanahan as Indiana’s offensive playcaller for the 2026 season and potentially through 2028. Shanahan has worked on Cignetti’s staffs since 2016, at IU-Pennsylvania, Elon and James Madison before coming to Indiana in 2024.
Indiana last week secured a new contract for defensive coordinator Bryant Haines that will make him among the nation’s highest-paid assistants. Cignetti lost only one assistant from the 2024 staff and will have at least his two primary coordinators back next fall.
The (Bloomington) Herald-Times first reported Shanahan’s new deal with the Hoosiers, who secured their first outright Big Ten title since 1945 and have the top seed entering the College Football Playoff. Indiana will face Oklahoma or Alabama on Jan. 1 in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl presented by Prudential.
Led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Indiana’s offense ranks third nationally in scoring (41.9 PPG) and rose to 10th in rushing (221 YPG), a significant increase from 2024. Since Shanahan’s arrival, Indiana leads the FBS in scoring at 41.6 points per game.
Shanahan, 35, is a former Pitt wide receiver who started his career at his alma mater before joining Cignetti.
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Max Olson
The Texas Longhorns are bringing back Will Muschamp to replace defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, who was fired along with defensive passing game coordinator Duane Akina on Thursday.
Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian announced that he wasn’t bringing back Kwiatkowski, who had served as his defensive coordinator since 2021, and Akina in a major shakeup for a unit that didn’t meet expectations during a 9-3 season in which the preseason No. 1 failed to make the College Football Playoff.
Sarkisian is turning to Muschamp, who returns to Austin after serving as Texas’ defensive coordinator from 2008 to 2010 and was once the program’s head coach in waiting under Mack Brown.
“Having the opportunity to hire Will Muschamp provides us the leadership to take our defense to another level,” Sarkisian said in a statement. “Will is a guy I’ve known for a long time, always admired and is as good of a defensive mind and coach as I’ve ever coached against. His defenses are relentless; he absolutely gets the best out of his staff and players and is such an extremely well-respected coach.
“I know Longhorn Nation knows him well. He led some incredible defenses here on the Forty, and I’m so fired up to be bringing him back to Texas. He’ll be an awesome addition to our staff.”
In his previous stint at Texas, Muschamp helped the Longhorns get to the BCS national championship game in 2009 with a unit that ranked No. 1 against the run, on third downs and in takeaways. He was set to someday succeed Brown, but he instead departed after a 5-7 season in 2010 to become the head coach at Florida, succeeding Urban Meyer.
Muschamp went 56-51 as a head coach at Florida and South Carolina. He joined Kirby Smart’s staff at Georgia in 2021 and served as the Bulldogs’ co-defensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023 before transitioning to an analyst role in 2024 and then stepping away from coaching in 2025 to spend more time with his family.
Muschamp has done some advance scouting for Georgia during the season while spending most of his time in Tennessee, where his son, Whit, is a quarterback at Vanderbilt.
“This is an exciting day for the Muschamp family,” Muschamp said in a statement. “We loved our time in Austin and truly enjoyed everything about working with Texas Football. We’re thrilled to be coming back to a program with one of the richest and proudest histories and traditions in college football. With what Coach Sark has done in rebuilding this program — knowing there are even better days ahead — I was fired up for the opportunity.”
Texas’ defense was expected to be among the best in the country in 2025, with several returning All-SEC starters, but it gave up 29 points in a road loss to the Gators and allowed 30 or more points in four of its last five games, including a 35-10 loss at Georgia that effectively knocked the Longhorns out of the CFP race.
Kwiatkowski was a finalist for the Broyles Award as one of the top assistant coaches in college football in 2024, and the Longhorns finished with the No. 3 scoring defense in FBS during a 13-3 season that ended in the CFP semifinals against eventual national champion Ohio State. During his five years in Austin, Kwiatkowski helped Texas achieve back-to-back CFP appearances and top-four finishes, and developed 12 NFL draft picks on defense, including first-rounders Jahdae Barron and Byron Murphy II.
Akina, a former longtime Texas defensive backs coach, just finished his first year back with the program after stints at Stanford and Arizona. The Longhorns’ pass defense ranks No. 102 in the FBS this season.
The No. 13 Longhorns will finish their season against No. 18 Michigan in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31 (3 p.m. ET, ABC).
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Andrea Adelson
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Carson Beck remembers the first time he saw Malachi Toney making plays against the Miami defense in the spring. He was running routes like a veteran and making moves that Beck calls “inexplicable.”
Beck stood on the sideline, unable to throw while rehabbing an elbow injury, but he had seen enough to know the receiver would be a star. He asked Toney to watch game tape with him, so they could be on the same page once fall camp started. The two spent hours together inside the Miami facility: Beck, the sixth-year veteran; Toney, the 17-year-old true freshman who should have been preparing for his senior year of high school.
They watched tape of Georgia, where Beck played the previous season. He pointed out the way receiver Ladd McConkey, tight end Brock Bowers and running back Cash Jones ran option routes to perfection.
“I want you to do it this way,” Beck told him.
Toney listened and nodded.
“Sure enough, we go out to practice in the fall, and everything is identical.”
But the moment that Beck knew Toney was different came during Miami’s game against Florida State, in early October. Miami lined up to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Florida State 40-yard line, hoping to build on its 14-3 lead. Toney lined up just behind the right tackle, and the Florida State defense showed a specific look the two went over in the summer.
When the play started, Toney ran around the right side of the tackle to an open spot beyond the first down marker as the Florida State defense lost track of him for a split second. That was long enough. Toney quickly turned around, Beck got him the ball and Toney made one juke move to get him racing past the defense and into the end zone for a touchdown.
Beck stood there, incredulous. Toney had remembered exactly what to do, months after they went over the play. What Beck did not know was that Toney had been waiting all season for that moment.
“I knew once I got that look, it’s a touchdown,” Toney said. “It was all like slow motion.”
Toney finished with seven catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns in the 28-22 win. He had a third score that was called back because of a penalty. Afterward, Toney deflected praise, instead thanking the coaches and his teammates for believing in him while crediting his mom for his work ethic. “Getting up early and staying late, that comes from watching my mom,” he said. “If she can do that, why can’t I?”
Early the next day, at around 3 a.m., Toney sent a message to his high school coach, Mike Smith. It included a picture from the state championship game his freshman year in 2022, when Toney fumbled as the team was driving for a game-tying score.
Toney wrote, “This changed my life forever.”
AS MIAMI PREPARES to play Texas A&M in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Saturday (noon, ABC), Toney has emerged as one of the most fascinating players in the 12-team field. The ACC Rookie of the Year, Toney had 84 catches for 970 yards and seven touchdowns, rushed for another and threw for two more, lining up at every position on offense minus the offensive line.
“Hell, he even might be able to do that,” Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson says.
Texas A&M defensive coordinator Jay Bateman said this week that Toney is “maybe the best player we’ve played all year.” Beck heaps even bigger praise on Toney, saying he is already one of the best players he has played with in his entire career. “If he continues on the path he’s on,” Beck says, “he will be the best that I’ve ever played with.”
At 5-foot-11, 188 pounds, he is not the biggest player on the field. Nor is he the fastest. But Dawson says Toney’s football knowledge, capability, body control and peripheral vision set him apart now, just as they set him apart as a youth football player in South Florida.
The Toney legend grew early on, when he started playing quarterback at age 7 because his team needed one. On his 8U team, he scored a game-winning touchdown on a quarterback sweep that went 40 yards to get his team into the playoffs. One of his youth coaches dubbed him “Baby Jesus,” and the nickname took off from there — though the devout Toneys avoid using it themselves.
Once Toney arrived at American Heritage High in 2022, the plan was for him to play receiver. In his very first game, he had 100 yards.
Toney was a bona fide varsity star, and it was hard to keep him away from football. He’d plead with his coaches to play in junior varsity games, too. He spent all his extra time on the game. Then came the Florida Class 2M state championship game against Miami Central. American Heritage trailed 38-31 with two minutes left and started driving for the tying score.
Toney caught a pass in the flat, and he took off. But as he was getting hit, he fumbled at the 28-yard line. Future Miami teammate Rueben Bain Jr. recovered with 1:17 remaining to give Central the championship. Toney sobbed as he headed for the sideline, inconsolable, believing he had cost his team the game.
His mom still has a photo of him on the floor of the locker room, in tears.
“That feeling that you cost your team a great moment, like a moment that will never be remade, that was the turning point for me,” Toney said. “Knowing that feeling will never go away, that’s why I work so hard.”
His mom saw a different Malachi from that moment forward.
“That freshman season put something different inside of him,” Shatravia “Toni” Toney said.
Malachi Toney doubled down on the work. Every day during lunch, he would go on the Jugs machine and catch 200 balls. He watched game tape religiously, competing against Smith for most hours watched in a week. Once, he got up to 14 hours and told Smith, “I’m going to catch you.” Toney would often call Smith in the middle of the night with questions about coverages, and plays they should run.
“Malachi,” Smith would say. “Go to sleep.”
By the time his junior year rolled around, Toney decided to reclassify and leave high school one year early to play in college.
“I had some coaches ask me, ‘Do you think he’s ready? Is that a smart idea?'” Smith says. “For 99 percent of kids I would say, ‘No.’ But for Malachi? I knew that kid was ready. This is what he’s been wanting to do his whole life.”
American Heritage made the playoffs again, but Toney was out of the regional semifinal against Fort Lauderdale’s Dillard with a sprained ankle. By his own admission, Toney was hobbled and unable to run at full speed. But trailing 14-0, Smith felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Coach, can I go suit up?” Toney asked.
Smith held him off, but only for so long. Toni saw her son, in a walking boot, headed back to the locker room and ran after him, knowing he was getting ready to put on his uniform to play.
“Malachi, you can’t do that,” Toni said.
“I’ve got to try something,” he told her. “We can’t go out like this.”
Toney came out after halftime to play receiver, but a few plays into the second half, starting quarterback and Texas commit Dia Bell went down with an ankle injury of his own. Smith turned to Toney and told him he would have to go in at his old position: quarterback.
Coming in cold with literally zero quarterback reps in three years? Toney smiled at Smith, the way he always did. Toney used to joke around in practice that he was a human Jugs machine because he could deliver the ball with both speed and precision. He threw his first pass so hard that his receiver dropped it. No biggie. Toney proceeded to lead American Heritage to 24 unanswered points and the victory.
They rolled to wins in their next two games before meeting Orlando Jones in the state championship game — the moment Toney had waited on since his freshman year. Only this time, he had the ball in his hands as the quarterback. Toney threw one dime after another — starting the game 15-of-15 as American Heritage won its first state title since 2020.
“I feel like I repaid the program,” Toney said. “I stayed down ’til I came up.”
“When he came in as a freshman and they were like, ‘This is Baby Jesus,’ I’m like, ‘I am not calling that kid Baby Jesus,'” Smith said. “But by the end of his career, after the state championship, I said, ‘You know what? I will call you Baby Jesus now.'”
TONEY ENROLLED AT Miami in January. He took his work habits to a new level with the Hurricanes. Every minute of every day was dedicated to either football or class, with little time for anything else.
What Beck saw in those first practices is what the coaches saw: a player who was not only hard to cover, but fearless. Put him in a two-minute drill and watch him make every catch and score. Jump up for a catch, land with perfect balance, then keep going? Check. That is why Mario Cristobal said last March, after a handful of spring practices, “They keep calling him Baby Jesus. You guys know who I’m talking about, right?”
Everyone in South Florida knew exactly who Cristobal was talking about. The rest of the country would find out soon enough. Miami opened the season against Notre Dame, in a national spotlight prime-time game.
“It was easy for us to see this kid’s special,” Dawson said. “Then it went to: ‘Let’s don’t talk about it too much, because he’s never done it in a game.’ Then he just made plays against Notre Dame. The game was not too big for him. He had no fear of failure.”
Indeed, Toney had six catches for 82 yards and a touchdown against the Irish, finding ways to repeatedly get open against one of the best secondaries in the nation. Afterward, Cristobal lamented, “We tried to keep him a secret, but it didn’t take long.”
The word was out, and defenses adjusted. Toney saw more double teams. He heard more trash talk, as players yelled at him, “This isn’t high school anymore!” He got pushed more when he got tackled to the ground. Toney never said a word back.
Dawson got creative with the way he lined Toney up. Because he played quarterback, Toney has a unique ability to understand not only what everyone on offense should be doing, but what defenses are doing, too. That ability, matched with his desire to learn, gave Dawson more options.
“You move him around, it doesn’t faze him,” Dawson said. “If you show him something on a whiteboard, or you show him something that somebody did — and it may not be his position — but we’re going to line you up here, and you’re going to do this. Then you go out to the field, and it looks better than the damn kid that you showed him.”
That includes lining Toney up in the Wildcat position, or as Dawson has coined it, the “Malicat.” In the regular-season finale against Pitt, Toney lined up in the Malicat and took the snap. He dropped back to pass. His first read, a post route, was covered. So he threw a wheel route instead to Elija Lofton for the touchdown.
Cristobal has repeatedly praised Toney for carrying himself like an NFL veteran, pointing to his work ethic as exemplary.
Every morning, Toney wakes up at 4:55, the same time as his mother. He arrives at the facility 30 minutes before he is supposed to, then proceeds to get taped up and stretched before going to meet with coaches upstairs to go over the practice script and take notes.
After practice, he spends more time on the Jugs machine, gets in the cold tub, heads to class and comes back to the facility to watch more tape before going back home to do it all again the next day.
“I know what I had to do to get to this position, so I was willing to sacrifice things like sleep, not going to parties, missing out on time with my mom,” Toney says. “What you put in is what you’re going to get out, so that’s how I go about it. If I want to go out there and have a big game, I’ve got to put in the work.”
Once rivals, now teammates, Bain has watched Toney work since his arrival in January. When the offense has a 30-minute break between the end of practice and a lifting session, Bain sees Toney lead the receivers on the Jugs machine. “He’s the last guy to leave the building and the first guy to be in,” Bain says. “It’s a mindset for him, and it’s a way of life.”
He has not let Toney forget that fumble. This past Wednesday, after the first-team offense went against the first-team defense to close out practice, he went up to Toney and could not help but talk some trash, telling him, “I’ve got a play in your mind that will last the rest of your life.”
Toney played it off, but Bain is right.
Because every time he takes the field, Toney remembers the way he felt three years ago in the state title game. He channels that pain into action. He grips the football tight.
He has not fumbled since that night.
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