How the Rays proved in May that they can win it all in October
-
David Schoenfield, ESPN Senior Writer
For a long time, I’ve considered the Tampa Bay Rays to be baseball’s little miracle, succeeding in the sport’s toughest division — the American League East — despite low payrolls, low attendance figures and a stadium situation that remains unresolved.
That view is a little unfair, though, because in one sense, the Rays are no different from the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers or Houston Astros or Atlanta Braves — they expect to contend for a World Series every season.
They have made the playoffs the past four seasons, but there always seems some surprise that they’re doing it again. Perhaps that’s because they turn the roster over rapidly and often rely upon depth more than star power. In 2019, they won 96 games, but their four best players that season (Charlie Morton, Austin Meadows, Willy Adames and Tommy Pham) are long gone. They reached the World Series in 2020, but that was kind of a scrappy team with a great bullpen. The 2021 team hit a lot of home runs and won 100 games even though its two pitchers with the most innings had ERAs over 5.00. Last year’s team snuck in with 86 wins mainly due to the emergence of Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs. Now two of those three are injured — and this still looks like the best Rays team ever, except with two young stars to build around in McClanahan and Wander Franco.
Since 2019, only the Dodgers and Astros have won more games; since 2008, only the Dodgers, Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. The Rays are not a miracle — they’re an exceptional organization, only one that’s less celebrated.
The national spotlight fell on them after they began the season with 13 consecutive wins and finished April at 23-6 with an incredible plus-103 run differential. That first month put them on an early pace to become one of the greatest teams of all time. There were still skeptics, however, since the Rays dominated a soft schedule and in their two toughest series, against the Toronto Blue Jays and Astros, they dropped four of six games.
May, on the other hand, presented a much more difficult slate of opponents, so we got a better idea of the Rays’ potential greatness. Let’s go back series by series and see what we learned.
The Pirates entered this series nearly as hot as the Rays, with a 20-9 record and as winners of 11 of their past 13 games. The Rays beat them 4-1, 8-1 and 3-2. In the finale, Zach Eflin tossed seven scoreless innings and struck out 10 with no walks — the first time in his career he recorded double-digit strikeouts with no free passes. Eflin was one of the more intriguing free agent signings of the offseason as the Rays gave him a three-year, $40 million contract — not only the largest free agent deal in franchise history but one to a pitcher with a 4.49 career ERA who had pitched just 181 innings over the previous two seasons.
What did the Rays see? A guy who throws strikes — Eflin averaged just 1.5 walks per nine over the 2021-22 seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. “In an era of power and velocity, he’s an artist,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said in December when the club signed Eflin. A better defense behind him — certainly better than the ones the Phillies have thrown out there during Eflin’s career — combined with the Rays’ ability to improve a pitcher’s repertoire meant the signing made a lot of sense.
Indeed, Eflin improved to 4-0 after beating the Pirates and is now 7-1 with a 3.17 ERA — allowing just seven walks in 54 innings. Sure enough, the Rays have tweaked things a little bit. He has increased his cutter usage from 15% to 31% and nearly completely ditched his four-seamer, which he threw 16% of the time last year, to stick with his sinker, with the cutter/sinker combo playing successfully off each other. The biggest change, however, might simply be the defense: He had a career .303 batting average allowed on balls in play with the Phillies and it’s at .280 with the Rays.
“Some guys out-stuff you. Some guys out-execute you. He’s got a little bit of a combination of both,” manager Kevin Cash said of Eflin after the win on May 4.
With the sweep of Pittsburgh, the Rays improved to 26-6 — the best 32-game start since the 1984 Detroit Tigers went 27-5.
Lesson learned: They already had one ace in McClanahan. They potentially had a second in Springs, but he went down for the season with Tommy John surgery in April. The Eflin signing now looks not only particularly astute, but necessary.
May 5-7: vs. New York Yankees
OK, so the Pirates had cooled after that hot April. This would be the first real test for the Rays — and it was a terrific series with three one-run games, two of those going the Rays’ way.
The Rays won the first game 5-4 while wearing their old Devil Rays uniforms — the retro look that’s now much more appealing than when the Devil Rays were losing 100 games every season. The go-ahead run scored in the seventh when Yankees left fielder Jake Bauers dropped a catchable fly ball and turned it into a double — and then kicked the ball, allowing Yandy Diaz to score from first base (instant replay overruled the tag play at home, as Diaz was originally called out). While bad Yankees defense lost the game, the Rays won with some good defense of their own. Jose Siri ranged into deep center field to corral the final out of the game, while Josh Lowe earlier made a diving catch in right field with two runners on.
When the Rays acquired Siri last season from the Astros, they knew he could play center field. Outfield defense has long been a Rays trademark, and when longtime center fielder Kevin Kiermaier left as a free agent, Siri was given the chance as the regular. He missed two weeks in April with a hamstring strain, but he’s now hitting .243/.292/.563 with nine home runs. He’s not going to be a high-average or high-OBP guy, but the power and defense make him useful. Lowe, meanwhile, has broken out in his sophomore season, hitting .300/.349/.581 with 11 home runs.
The Yankees won the next game 3-2 with three runs in the eighth off the Tampa Bay bullpen, but the Rays won the finale 8-7 in a game Gerrit Cole started for the Yankees. Christian Bethancourt hit a big three-run homer off Cole in the sixth, the Rays threw out a runner at home in the top of the 10th and then Isaac Paredes singled in the winning run.
Lesson learned: With guys like Siri and Lowe contributing, the Rays’ lineup is deeper than ever and much more powerful than last year’s team, which ranked 11th in the AL with 139 home runs. Through Monday, this year’s team already has 101 home runs — most in the majors — and owns a 136 wRC+ (park-adjusted weighted runs created), which easily leads the majors. In the wild-card era (since 1998), the highest single-season wRC+ belongs to the 2019 Astros at 124.
The Rays won 3-0 behind McClanahan to improve to 29-7, but then lost 4-2 and 2-1. At this point, the Rays were 29-9, on pace for 124 wins — but the Orioles were only 4.5 games back, off to their own blazing start.
Lesson learned: The AL East is going to be absolutely brutal and wonderful all season long.
May 11-14: at New York Yankees
In the first game of the series, Drew Rasmussen pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, as the Rays won 8-2. In recent years, no team has been more astute at finding pitchers from other organizations than the Rays, and Rasmussen had been a shining example of this — although his journey to the majors began when the Rays drafted him 31st overall out of Oregon State in 2017. The Rays didn’t sign him due to concerns with his post-draft physical (he had Tommy John surgery as a sophomore), so Rasmussen returned to OSU, where he did indeed undergo a second TJ surgery. The Brewers drafted him in the sixth round in 2018, and he reached the majors as a reliever in 2020. The Rays acquired him early in the 2021 season along with J.P. Feyereisen for Willy Adames and Trevor Richards (in a deal, to be fair, that worked out for both teams).
The Rays eventually moved Rasmussen back into a starting role. He developed a new cutter and had a breakout season in 2022 (11-7, 2.84), and after his gem against the Yankees, he was 4-2 with a 2.62 ERA. Going back to 2021, he was 18-9 in 46 career starts with a 2.63 ERA. While still relatively anonymous, he had become one of the better starters in the league. Then came the crushing news: The day after his start, the Rays placed Rasmussen on the 60-day injured list with a flexor strain in his forearm, announcing that he would be shut down for eight weeks and then would start building up again — assuming all goes well, given that a flexor strain is often a precursor to Tommy John surgery.
This gets us to the dirty little secret with the Rays: As good as they are at finding and developing pitchers, they have trouble keeping them healthy.
They had turned Springs from a journeyman reliever into a potential Cy Young candidate before his injury. In recent years, Tyler Glasnow, Yonny Chirinos, Colin Poche and Jalen Beeks all underwent Tommy John surgery. So did Shane Baz, who is out for all of 2023 while rehabbing. Reliever Andrew Kittredge, an All-Star in 2021, pitched just 20 innings last season and has missed all of 2023 with elbow issues. Colby White was one of the best relievers in the minors in 2021 but has yet to reach the majors after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Brendan McKay had shoulder issues and then underwent Tommy John surgery, which has him sidelined for all of 2023.
With Rasmussen injured and Glasnow out since the start of the season with an oblique strain, the Rays would now have to get through this difficult stretch of May without three-fifths of their projected starting rotation. Throw in a season-ending knee injury to key reliever Garrett Cleavinger and the assumption that the Rays have an endless supply of pitchers that they pluck out of Durham or off the waiver wire — or from some secret underwater lair in the Gulf of Mexico — will be severely tested.
Meanwhile, the Yankees won 5-4 the next night when Anthony Rizzo hit a two-run homer off Jason Adam in the eighth inning and then won the third game 9-8 as New York knocked out McClanahan after four innings and Aaron Judge homered twice. Rays exposed? Hardly. They bounced back with an 8-7 win as Taylor Walls belted a grand slam — yet another player hitting much better than projected. After hitting .172 with eight home runs in 466 plate appearances in 2022, the switch-hitter made some minor mechanical tweaks after visiting a hitting instructor outside the organization. The changes have produced more hard contact and a higher launch angle that has already produced seven home runs and a .488 slugging percentage.
Maybe it’s a surprise that some of these guys are hitting at this level, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’ve improved. “They have shown the ability coming up through the minor leagues that they can hit,” Cash said after Walls’ grand slam. “I think we thought it was more a matter of time. It doesn’t always come out of the gate.”
Anyway, the Rays hold on to split the four-game series when Judge flew out to Siri on the warning track to end it. Adam left a first-pitch sweeper over the middle of the plate and hung his head as Judge connected — sure he had just allowed the game-tying home run. “I thought it was 30 rows deep,” Adam said. “But thankfully, [Judge] missed it more than I thought.”
Overall, the Rays played the Yankees seven times in 10 days with six of the games decided by one run — two of the best series we’ll see all season. The Rays went 4-3 — and then came perhaps the most exciting game of the season so far.
Lesson learned: The Rays’ pitching depth will be tested — but if the offense keeps rolling, it might be dominant enough to cover the injuries to the rotation.
On May 16, the Rays beat Justin Verlander, knocking him around for eight hits, two home runs (both by Paredes) and six runs. Then came the game of the year. The Rays led 2-0, the Mets tied it in the bottom of the seventh, the Rays took a 6-3 lead, Francisco Alvarez hit a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth off Adam, the Rays scored twice in the 10th and then Pete Alonso won it with a three-run walk-off blast off Pete Fairbanks. Wow.
Therein lies the biggest concern I have about this Rays team: Is this a championship-caliber bullpen? Adam, let go five times in his career, came out of nowhere last season to post a 1.56 ERA and hold batters to a .147 average. He’s got kind of a funky short-arm delivery and isn’t overpowering for a modern closer, relying on a changeup and sweeper. He has been a little more hittable this season with a .200 average and four home runs allowed. Meanwhile, Fairbanks has a 1.26 ERA over the past two seasons — but has pitched just 35 2/3 innings and is once again back on the IL with hip inflammation.
Factor in that the Rays have had to return to using an occasional bullpen arm to open due to all the injuries in the rotation and the bullpen depth is hitting a crisis point: The Rays have already churned through 26 pitchers (not counting two position players who have pitched). Rays relievers lead the majors in innings — yes, even more than the Oakland Athletics — and rank last in strikeout rate (yes, lower than the A’s). We know the Rays’ history of conjuring up good major league relievers out of thin air — Adam and Fairbanks being two examples — but that supposition is being stretched to the limits.
The Mets took the third game to take the series and drop the Rays to 32-13 — still on pace for 115 wins. But the Orioles at this point were still just 3.5 games behind.
Lesson learned: Strong bullpens have been a hallmark of the Rays in recent seasons, but this might be the team’s soft spot in 2023, especially if Fairbanks can’t stay healthy and Adam continues to be homer-prone.
After those intense games against the two New York teams, a more subdued series followed against the Brewers, with the Rays taking two out of three, including a 1-0 victory behind McClanahan. In the Saturday night game, Diaz returned after missing four games and hit his 11th home run. Let’s talk about Diaz, who is second in MLB in wRC+ through Monday, sandwiched between two much more famous hitters in Judge and Yordan Alvarez.
I don’t know if Diaz is the strongest player in the majors, but he’s certainly the most likely to win a Mr. Universe contest. Despite his stature, he has never hit for much power — though he possesses excellent plate discipline and doesn’t strike out much. He hit nine home runs last season in 473 at-bats and his career high is 14 back in the rabbit-ball year of 2019. His issue has been getting the ball in the air enough to take advantage of his strength. His average launch angle so far this season is a career-best 9.3 degrees — still below the MLB average but high enough that his fly ball rate has improved from 19.6% last season to 27% this year. He’s also simply barreling up more balls than he has in the past with a hard-hit rate that ranks in the top 10 in MLB. Add it up and he’s hitting .320/.420/.598 with 12 home runs and nearly as many walks (26) as strikeouts (29).
It’s certainly unusual for a 31-year-old to break out with a career season like this, but Diaz has always had a good approach to build off — and he did hit .296 with a .401 OBP last season. Even though he’s not the fastest guy around, Diaz has been hitting leadoff to take advantage of his on-base ability, a lineup Cash started deploying last season. It’s another example of the Rays thinking outside the box, using a non-conventional slow runner in the leadoff position.
“To see Yandy Díaz come up as the first hitter an opponent team faces is incredible,” Eflin said after the game on May 20. “He’s everything you want in a leadoff hitter.”
Lesson learned: Diaz has been hitting like an MVP candidate — although he might not even be the best MVP candidate on the team. Franco is tied with Freddie Freeman for second in MLB (behind Judge) in FanGraphs WAR among position players and leads in Baseball-Reference WAR. Diaz is eighth. And Randy Arozarena is 10th. The Rays have many weapons.
May 22-25: vs. Toronto Blue Jays
The Rays took three of four from the Jays — although a 20-1 loss cut into the team’s run differential (a category that the Rangers now lead). While Diaz doesn’t run, the Rays have other players who can do that — as witnessed by the seven stolen bases they recorded in a 6-3 win on May 25. The Rays have always loved fast, athletic players, and they’re certainly loving the new rules that benefit teams that steal bases. They lead the majors with 75 steals, 17 more than the No. 2 team, and when they face an especially weak pitcher-catcher combo, they can go wild: two games with seven steals and four others with at least four. Franco leads the team with 20 steals, Walls is a perfect 14-of-14 and Josh Lowe has 13.
So, to sum up: The Rays lead the majors in home runs and stolen bases. And they’re tied with the Reds for the highest percentage of extra bases taken (advancing more than one base on a single or more than two on a double). Oh, and they’re also tied with the Nationals and Royals for the youngest group of position players, averaging 26.9 years of age (weighted for playing time). That gets back to Cash’s comment about the improvement in some of the younger players: It shouldn’t be unexpected. Even Franco is still just 22 years old — and while his bat has been impressive, his defense has also taken a huge step forward, to the point where he looks like a Gold Glove candidate.
Lesson learned: No team can blow off a 20-1 loss like the Rays. And fast players are fun. And 22-year-old shortstops who can hit, run and field are really fun.
May 26-28 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
The Rays took two out of three. Sunday’s game was an 11-10 affair with Adam getting a two-inning save with four strikeouts, perhaps a sign he’s getting back into his 2022 groove.
Lesson learned: Yeah, the Rays are for real. We’ll throw out the Pirates series and the Rays still ran through a 23-game gauntlet against the Yankees, Orioles, Mets, Blue Jays, Brewers and Dodgers and went 13-10. The pitching depth is a concern, although Glasnow made his first start in this series and struck out eight in 4 1/3 innings. A top three of McClanahan, Glasnow and Eflin is a quality trio, and rookie Taj Bradley has a 42-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in six starts. We’ll see if Rasmussen can make it back after the All-Star break.
The Rays did lose two in a row to the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 on Monday and 2-1 on Tuesday, to drop their overall May record to 16-12. The Orioles are still breathing down their necks, and the Yankees — and Judge — are finally heating up. The Texas Rangers have looked impressive in the AL West, and the Astros are playing well after scuffling in April. But these Rays are absolutely loaded on offense, McClanahan is 8-0 with a 1.97 ERA and Cash certainly seems to usually get the best out of his bullpens.
The Rays are 39-18, on pace for 113 wins, and they proved in May that they’re the best team in baseball as we start the summer.
-
David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
If we are, as some scientists have hypothesized, living in a multiverse in which all possible outcomes occur along some timeline, then we can still rest easy knowing that our lives are in fact unique and special and touched by some higher power because in no other possible universe could what unfolded on Saturday in college football happen again.
It was a rough Saturday for the top teams in the sport, and none suffered a more horrific fate than Alabama.
A week ago, the Tide escaped Georgia in what seemed like the best game of the year, a harbinger that their dynasty didn’t end with Nick Saban’s departure; it was simply a changing of the guard to Kalen DeBoer’s Bama.
And on Saturday, the king was replaced again, usurped by the court jester’s good-for-nothing roommate.
Vanderbilt did the impossible, knocking off No. 1 Alabama 40-35 in a game that might not technically qualify as the biggest upset in the sport’s modern era but certainly fits the bill in spirit, but it was really just the beginning.
Nothing about Week 6 screamed drama. It was a week in which just one pair of top-25 teams met on the field — and that turned out to be a snooze, as Texas A&M romped over No. 9 Missouri. The other powers — Georgia, Penn State, Ole Miss and Oregon — seemed to sleepwalk to easy enough wins.
Then No. 10 Michigan lost to unranked Washington. Then No. 11 USC lost to unranked Minnesota. Then No. 4 Tennessee lost to unranked Arkansas. The weekend that was supposed to provide only the dullest of chalk ended up giving us one of the most stunning strings of upsets we’ve had in years — five of the nation’s top 11 losing on the same day for the first time since 2016. A sixth team, Miami, needed a miracle (and a helpful review) to escape at Cal.
Saturday delivered utter absurdity, a Mad Libs of final scores that left the AP poll in tatters. But no outcome was more incredible than what happened in Nashville.
That Alabama found itself suffering through a hangover in Nashville is no surprise. The win over Georgia had felt so seismic, an exclamation point for a program used to making statements.
By halftime on Saturday, the hangover looked a bit more serious than we might’ve expected. But by the time Commodores tight end Kamrean Johnson hauled in a 6-yard touchdown pass from Diego Pavia with 5:07 to play. we’d reached a “Let’s DoorDash Arby’s” level of hangover.
And yet, it still felt almost inevitable that Alabama would find a way — just as it had a week ago, behind quarterback Jalen Milroe‘s arm and wide receiver Ryan Williams‘ magic.
Then Pavia threw a 19-yard completion.
Then Sedrick Alexander ran for 13 yards through the teeth of Alabama’s flummoxed defense.
Then Pavia scrambled for 8 yards and a first down with 1:10 to play — and all Vandy had to do was take a knee to secure its first win over a top-five opponent in 60 tries and leave the bachelorette parties downtown squealing and whooping incoherently (though that last part might have been unrelated).
It was the type of mythical David-over-Goliath win they write songs about, if only Nashville had any songwriters.
For the Commodores, there were so many small storylines that felt, in retrospect, like genuine foreshadowing. There was coach Clark Lea’s promise in the summer of 2022 that Vandy would one day be the best program in the country. He might as well have told the assembled masses at SEC media day that Saban was going to retire and start riding around in a van with his dog solving mysteries. It was nonsensical. And yet, here we are, witness to Vandy toppling the No. 1 team in the nation.
It was less than 11 months ago that Pavia and Jerry Kill led New Mexico State into Jordan-Hare Stadium and utterly embarrassed Auburn. Now, both are at Vandy — Pavia as QB, Kill as advisor to Lea — and they’ve beaten Bama too. Pavia yelled into a microphone on live television that Nashville would be “f—ing turnt,” and somehow that seemed a perfectly natural reaction — subdued, even — to what happened but also an earned celebration for a kid who grew up idolizing Johnny Manziel and dreaming of a moment like this. That Kill has helped turn around both New Mexico State and Vandy in consecutive years is probably enough evidence to warrant sandblasting Jefferson off Mount Rushmore and carving out Kill’s likeness instead.
In its opener this season, Vandy escaped Virginia Tech in part because it got a second chance after the Hokies inexplicably sent two players onto the field wearing the same jersey number during a Vanderbilt punt. The Commodores eventually turned that second chance into a touchdown in a game ultimately won by one possession. And on Saturday, the same thing happened. The difference between 3-2 Vandy with two epic wins and 1-4 Vandy being completely ignored on the national stage is literally another team’s laundry.
It was another résumé win for a school whose résumé previously just read: “Technically a football team.” For virtually the entirety of its history, Vandy was essentially the SEC’s version of the dead body at the start of each episode of “Law & Order.” That’s essential to the plot of the show, but it isn’t supposed to have any dialogue and mostly exists to allow the stars to make a few dark jokes. And now the Commodores have wins over Virginia Tech and Alabama, a narrow defeat to a top-10 Missouri and a close loss to an unspecified team from Georgia. (Let them have their moment.)
What was most exhilarating and confounding, though, was that Vandy absolutely deserved this win. It had nine more first downs than the Tide. It ran for more yards, often straight up the gut against a Bama front that looked a shell of what we saw a week ago against Georgia. It refused to let drives die, converting 13 of 19 third- and fourth-down tries, and as a result, the Dores held the football for more than 42 minutes.
And when it was all over, Vandy not only rushed the field, not only celebrated with its fans and basked in the win and cursed on live TV, but it had the gumption to stick it to Bama’s former coach, replaying a Saban sound bite in which he said the only easy venue in the SEC was at Vanderbilt.
NO WAY#Vandy played this quote from Nick Saban after the upset over Alabama:
“The only place that’s not hard to play in the SEC is Vanderbilt.” pic.twitter.com/QDfGufSQol
— Billy Derrick (@billyderrick10) October 5, 2024
Whichever staffer on Vanderbilt’s stadium ops crew dug up that clip in advance of the win needs to be carried down Broadway like a conquering hero.
It is fair to suggest this isn’t your father’s Vandy team (or, more accurately, the Vandy team from the last time you wore that sport coat hanging in your closet). Lea has these Dores playing good football. Pavia is a swashbuckling underdog who’s entirely deserving of Manziel’s mantle. And as is required by federal law to note in situations like this, there are no easy weeks in the SEC, despite Saban’s now-infamous hot take.
But make no mistake, this was a genuine one-in-a-million outcome — not because Vandy is bad or Alabama is preordained or because this weekend seemed so entirely fluke-proof. All of those things could be true and they still wouldn’t capture the magnitude of what happened.
This was an outcome that a thousand monkeys typing on a thousand typewriters for a thousand years couldn’t script on accident because things like this simply don’t happen. It was the Washington Generals toppling the Harlem Globetrotters, Charlie Brown kicking the football and Dabo Swinney taking a transfer all rolled into one.
In other words, things like this don’t happen in any universe. None but this one, on this beautiful blue marble on this particular Saturday on a field in Nashville that even Saban didn’t take seriously.
Lucky for us, it’s the universe we’re all living in, and we get to go along for the ride.
Jump to:
Tennessee tumbles
Miami survives again
ACC troubles
Army/Navy 5-0
Gift trash talking
Vibe shifts
Under the radar
Heisman
Down go the Vols
The SEC opened Saturday with four undefeated teams and ended it with just one.
This wasn’t the week for No. 4 Tennessee to lay an egg against Arkansas, because it really opened the door to some jokes from its in-state neighbors who toppled Alabama earlier in the day.
Vanderbilt fans watching Tennessee struggle with Arkansas pic.twitter.com/lVLpJXqrI6
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 6, 2024
Tennessee couldn’t do anything in the passing game, with hyped quarterback Nico Iamaleava completing just 17 of 29 throws for 158 yards. Arkansas got plenty of QB Taylen Green, but he left with an injury in the fourth quarter, putting backup Malachi Singleton in position to play hero.
Singleton had a 13-yard completion and an 11-yard touchdown run on the game-winning drive, scoring with 1:17 to play.
It was proof of the important lesson offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino had taught this Arkansas team: When you fall off your bike — then get fired under embarrassing circumstances, spend a decade bouncing around various jobs then help Jimbo Fisher get fired at Texas A&M — you always get back up on that bike and sooner or later, all will be forgiven.
Miami escapes again
The Bermuda Triangle of college football chaos exists in Berkeley, California.
On one leg of the triangle is Coastal chaos. On another is “Pac-12 After Dark.” And on the third, ACC officiating. Mix them all together and what you get is the utter insanity that was Miami–Cal.
The Golden Bears hosted “College GameDay” based on the strength of their darkly subversive Twitter presence and a deeply talented defense, and both showed out early. Jaydn Ott scored two first-half touchdowns, making his case for what the Calgorithm calls the Heisperson Trophy, while the Bears’ D utterly frustrated Cam Ward and the Canes’ offense. By the time Cal kicker Ryan Coe drilled a 37-yard field goal with 14:13 left in the game, Miami was down by 20 points and its No. 8 ranking — and playoff hopes — seemed on shaky ground.
That’s when Ward came to life.
In the fourth quarter, he completed 15 of 22 passes for 238 yards, ran for another 39 yards and accounted for three touchdowns.
0:27
Cam Ward gives Miami late hope with resilient 24-yard score
Cam Ward keeps Miami within striking distance of Cal after powering into the end zone on a 24-yard rush late in the fourth quarter.
And yet the game was not without controversy. Trailing by six points, Miami looked to force a Cal punt with 1:50 to play, but linebacker Wesley Bissainthe collided with Cal’s Fernando Mendoza on the tackle, smacking helmets along the way.
Replay looked to show a clear targeting, but no flag was thrown on the field. The booth reviewed the play, but allowed the non-call to stand, despite what looked like clear evidence of a launch and a hit with the crown of the helmet.
This follows a similar incident last week in which Miami prevailed only after review overturned a Hail Mary touchdown by Virginia Tech, despite minimal video evidence.
A targeting call would’ve almost certainly won the game for Cal, but instead, a punt followed and Ward delivered a 77-yard connection with Xavier Restrepo on the next offensive play.
Cal fans were rightly furious. Unfortunately, no one in Berkeley knew a good way to signal their disapproval of a decision made by a more authoritative enemy.
Miami still tried to upend its own good fortune with an atrocious unsportsmanlike penalty in the red zone. But Ward delivered a checkdown throw just inches from crossing the line of scrimmage that picked up a key first down, and he then hit Elijah Arroyo for the go-ahead touchdown.
The result: Miami is 6-0, the ACC review booth is 2-0 and Cal is going to invent an app that somehow brings down the entire college football industrial complex as punishment.
Other ACC powers struggling
Louisville’s defense couldn’t find a solution for Kevin Jennings and SMU on Saturday, falling 34-27. Meanwhile, Boston College got its starting QB, Thomas Castellanos, back from injury but blew a 14-0 lead and lost to Virginia 24-14. Wake Forest managed its first ACC win of the year, erasing a 10-point deficit to beat NC State 34-30.
And then there’s Florida State, a school whose fans are going through some things right now.
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) October 6, 2024
In the Billable Hours Bowl, the two teams suing to leave the ACC faced off in Tallahassee, and while FSU occasionally showed signs of life with Brock Glenn at QB, the end result was still the same.
In fact, here’s a quick recap of what happened in the game.
Clemson: Hey, the SEC’s on the phone. They said they’re ready to expand.
Florida State: Really?
Clemson: No. They said they don’t need you. They have Vandy.
With the Tigers’ victory, Dabo Swinney became the winningest coach in ACC history, passing Bobby Bowden on the field that bears his name. Swinney did it, too, by taking the same number of transfers as Bowden.
Also Cade Klubnik threw for two touchdowns and Phil Mafah ran for 154 yards in what was an appropriately ugly 29-13 decision.
So, to recap where the ACC stands: Florida State, NC State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Louisville all have multiple losses already and sport a combined record of 13-16.
Meanwhile Pitt, Virginia, Syracuse and SMU are a combined 18-3.
You can take the Coastal out of the ACC, but you can’t take the ACC away from the chaos.
Sluggish day for the top teams
No. 3 Ohio State: Had little trouble swatting away Iowa 35-7. Still, it had to feel like a loss for the Buckeyes, who are the first ranked team to allow points to Iowa’s offense since Michigan surrendered two touchdowns in a win over the Hawkeyes in Week 5 of 2022.
No. 5 Georgia: Responded to last week’s loss to Alabama with an entirely reasonable 31-13 win over Auburn. Carson Beck was 23-of-28 passing, and Trevor Etienne scored twice, and yet it was hardly the offensive performance that offered significant reassurance this uneven start to the season is insignificant. More than anything, Georgia wore down Auburn rather than delivering any sort of statement. If anything, it was a bit embarrassing not to get a single Payton Thorne interception. Typically, Auburn is giving those away with the purchase of any large soft drink.
No. 6 Oregon: Beat Michigan State 31-10 on Friday, despite two red zone picks by Dillon Gabriel. It was another utterly dispassionate performance from the 5-0 Ducks, who’ve basically become college football’s version of “According to Jim” — on every week, with roughly the same plot, perfectly successful without a single memorable storyline.
No. 12 Ole Miss: Cruised past South Carolina 27-3, but those third-down woes that cost the Rebels last week against Kentucky were still on display Saturday. Ole Miss was 3-of-13 on third down (and 1-of-3 on fourth) against the Gamecocks, and Jaxson Dart went without a touchdown pass against an unranked team for the first time in two years. It was entirely meh.
No. 16 Iowa State: Flirted with disaster against Baylor, but because Matt Campbell is a nice guy, the Cyclones ripped out Dave Aranda’s heart by late in the third quarter rather than waiting until the final moments of the game. Rocco Becht remains the sport’s best player named Rocco, throwing for 277 yards and two touchdowns in a 43-21 win.
The end result: Few top teams looked good, but at least these guys got to have a good laugh at Alabama’s expense anyway.
Army, Navy 5-0
In the fall of 1945, Army and Navy defeated fascism then both started 5-0 on the football field.
That was the Greatest Generation.
In the fall of 2024, Army and Navy are again 5-0 for the first time in 79 years, making this at least a pretty good generation despite otherwise being ruined by TikTok and avocado toast.
Navy demolished Air Force 34-7 on Saturday, with Blake Horvath rushing for 115 yards and two touchdowns and at least six good “zoomies” taunts at his opposition.
Not to be outdone, Army went to Tulsa and dominated 49-7 behind 250 combined passing and rushing yards and two touchdowns from Bryson Daily. Daily completed all five of his pass attempts, averaging 28 yards per throw, which served as a reminder to people in Michigan that it’s OK to employ the forward pass from time to time.
What does it mean that Army and Navy are off to their best combined start to the season since World War II in the larger scope of international diplomacy? It’s impossible to say at this point, but just to be safe, it’s probably a bad idea to invade Poland in the next few weeks.
A&M gets last laugh
Le’Veon Moss and Amari Daniels combined to run for 172 yards and five touchdowns on 21 carries as Texas A&M routed No. 9 Missouri 41-10 on Saturday.
Missouri QB Brady Cook completed just 13 of 31 passes, an ugly performance somewhat predicted by the gift wideout Theo Wease Jr. received in his hotel room upon arrival in College Station.
Mizzou WR Theo Wease Jr. received this message after arriving to the team hotel in College Station…
“Get used to this blanket … It will be real tomorrow.”
Texas A&M CB Will Lee III is officially the new king of trash talk pic.twitter.com/wVvoJp8zaa
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) October 5, 2024
Now, we should point out this is technically a throw, not a blanket. It says so right there on the label. And, as such, Wease did actually haul in Missouri’s only touchdown of the day. Next time, Will Lee III should consider a nice duvet cover.
Still, Lee’s gift was an undeniably great bit of smack talk, and we’d like to think more players will follow his lead by leaving gifts for the opposition before the game — a bag of potatoes with a note, “enjoy the sack; there’ll be plenty more tomorrow” or a box of Bisquick with the message “prepare to get pancaked” or a bag of those hint-of-lime Tostitos. No note with that last one. Just impossible not to eat the whole bag, thus leaving your opponent listless and dehydrated for game day. Those are good chips.
Week 6 vibe shifts
Each week, there are big wins and painful losses that help shape the story of the season. But there also are more subtle shifts — small movements in the larger ecosystem that don’t garner headlines but can prove to be just as important. We work to capture them here.
Trending down: Billy Napier seat temperature
Florida is officially over .500, and it won’t finish as the worst Power Four team in the state. Given that the expectation for the Gators after an early loss to Miami involved a slew of defeats, a likely coaching change and a photo surfacing of a naked Napier hugging a shark on the back of a boat, this is nothing short of a massive success.
The Gators toppled UCF 24-13 on Saturday, giving Napier consecutive wins versus Power Four opponents for just the third time in his Florida tenure.
Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway were near flawless again, completing 23 of 28 passes for 229 yards. Over their past two games, they’ve tossed just six incompletions on 56 passes.
Honestly, what are the odds we could write that many consecutive positive things about the Gators this year?
Trending up: The apocalypse
It was 97 degrees at kickoff for Rutgers-Nebraska on Saturday, enough heat to make the corn in the stands go best with movie-theater butter.
It also was enough to stifle most of the offense. Neither team managed more than 264 yards, and Huskers QB Dylan Raiola was just 13-of-27 with a pick. But two Rutgers turnovers and a stout defensive performance from Nebraska secured an ugly 14-7 win.
Given the extreme temperatures and the fact that Nebraska won a one-score game (8-26 in games decided by a TD or less since 2019), coach Matt Rhule announced afterward that, in fact, the end times were upon us and we should seek shelter and hug our loved ones.
Holding steady: Hoosier State football
Indiana’s rollicking start to the 2024 season continued unabated Saturday, as the Hoosiers dismissed Northwestern 41-24 while also leaving a pretty unimaginative three-star review on the lakefront Airbnb where the Wildcats are playing this season.
If you had Indiana as the first team to qualify for bowl eligibility in 2024, congratulations. You’re a winner. After making just five bowls in the past 30 years, Indiana is now 6-0 and virtually guaranteed to beat Kentucky 12-9 in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
That hot start has to be frustrating for Purdue, which can usually count on Indiana to be so embarrassing no one notices how bad the Boilermakers are. Sadly, Purdue’s misery is on full display in 2024. On Saturday, the Boilermakers lost 52-6 to Wisconsin, mustering just 216 yards of offense and converting just 1 of 11 third-down tries. They’re 1-4 on the year, the lone win coming against Indiana State (which didn’t have Larry Bird so really never had a shot) and has now lost each of its four games by at least 17.
Trending up: QB changes in Ann Arbor
Michigan made its second QB change of the season, benching Alex Orji in favor of Jack Tuttle midway through its game against Washington. But the end result was the same: The passing game struggled, and a late pick proved the difference in a 27-17 Huskies win.
Tuttle threw for 98 yards, which believe it or not is the fourth most by a Michigan QB this season, but his interception with 3:24 to play allowed Washington to ice the game with a late field goal.
Michigan threw for just 113 yards in the game — 20 of which came on the final drive — its fourth straight with 134 or less through the air. The last time a top-20 team did that in four straight was Georgia Tech in 2014 and 2015 when it ran the triple option. That, by the way, might not be such a bad idea for the Wolverines moving forward.
Trending down: Lincoln Riley narratives
It’s not exactly Vandy-over-Bama weird, but USC’s defense has been good and the Trojans are struggling because they can’t score points.
USC was again reminded that football in the Big Ten is intended to be ugly and slow — and occasionally results in winning a trophy shaped like a jar of pickles or a bronze bedpan that once belonged to William Henry Harrison — falling at Minnesota 24-17 after turning the ball over three times.
The Golden Gophers scored on each of their final two drives, while USC wasted a 17-10 win with two picks and a three-and-out in their final three drives.
Honestly, Riley didn’t bolt Oklahoma to escape coaching in the SEC just so he could lose Big Ten games like this. Very disappointing.
Trending up: Last year’s new FBS teams
On Friday, Jacksonville State pulled a nifty trick in the second half of a 63-24 win over Kennesaw State.
The Gamecocks had just five possessions in the second half, and yet they scored a total of 42 points.
Some basic math would suggest that’s six touchdowns, which is accurate. Not only did Jacksonville State find the end zone on each of its five possessions, it also had a 30-yard pick-six.
It’s just the fourth time in the playoff era a team has scored 42 or more points with five or fewer drives in the second half of a game. Oddly, San Diego State did it earlier this season against FCS Texas A&M-Commerce but only scored four offensive touchdowns, adding two on defense.
Jacksonville State isn’t the only second-year FBS team to add a big win in Week 6 though. Sam Houston beat UTEP like it was former Ohio Sen. William Stanbery, 41-21. Sam Houston is now 5-1 on the season, with its only loss coming at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Or maybe UCF. We only skimmed the Sam Houston Wikipedia page.
Trending down: Dilfer’s dimes
Tulane hung seven dimes and a penny on Trent Dilfer’s UAB team Saturday with a 71-20 win that moves the Blazers to 1-4 on the season. They are just 5-12 under Dilfer, including eight losses by 20 or more. Only Temple and Kent State have more such defeats during that span.
Under-the-radar drive of the week
Normally, we don’t put a spotlight on a single drive in a game. But this week, we felt it necessary to highlight North Carolina’s slow decline.
Leading 7-3 against undefeated Pitt, the Heels ran 19 plays, including two fourth-down conversions, covering 81 yards and chewing up 9:03 of clock.
The result: Squat. Nada. Zilch.
A Jacolby Criswell throw on fourth-and-2 at the Pitt 9 fell incomplete, making it just the second drive of the season of 19 plays or more not to end with points. (Western Kentucky had a 21-play scoreless drive against Alabama, so at least UNC can say it has something in common with Alabama.)
The Tar Heels still had chances to win, but that only served to provide just enough hope to make the inevitable ending — a 34-24 Pitt win — all that much more infuriating for coach Mack Brown, who is approximately one more loss away from ripping off his shirt, shouting incoherently and running into the woods to live with a family of badgers.
On a more positive note, Pitt is 5-0 for the first time since 1991 — a time when Curtis Martin roamed the backfield, Pirates baseball wasn’t a national embarrassment and Barry Bonds’ head didn’t have its own satellites. And Eli Holstein is the first Pitt QB to win his first five career starts since Dan Marino, who would go on to have a successful career as a glove salesman.
Under-the-radar play of the week
Penn State continues to be the Big Ten team that wins every game against noncontending opponents in the least noteworthy way possible after Saturday’s 27-11 dispatching of UCLA. But while the bulk of this game could’ve been scripted in advance like a WWE match, there was one small wrinkle that made the whole affair worthwhile.
The Nittany Lions sent 350-pound offensive lineman Olaivavega Ioane in motion, and he delivered by possibly sending UCLA D-lineman Luke Schuermann backward in time.
An offensive lineman in motion is a scary sight 😳
Still not over this hit from @PennStateFball‘s Olaivavega Ioane 🥞😱 pic.twitter.com/M6NN7eoIqY
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 5, 2024
The first hit, of course, is monstrous, and that’s the point in which Schuermann’s buddies should be telling him, “Bro, just stay down.” Unfortunately, Schuermann ignored the fact that he has an entire family somewhere who cares about him, and he got back up for more.
This was, in many ways, a nice microcosm of UCLA’s shift to the Big Ten — a normal dude wrestling an F-350. The Bruins are 1-4 overall and 0-3 in conference, and they have led for a grand total of 2:16 this season — the final 56 seconds against Hawaii and for 80 seconds in the first half against LSU.
The takeaway: LSU is the worst team UCLA has played this year.
Under-the-radar game of the week
In most weeks, watching a game between UConn and Temple would be punishment for shoplifting in some more draconian jurisdictions. But on Saturday, it was actually pretty fun.
There were seven different lead changes in the game, including UConn going up 23-20 with 3:46 to play. Temple, however, had a shot to win it on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line and 3 seconds to play, but Tyler Douglas fumbled on an attempted “Brotherly Shove,” and UConn recovered for a scoop and score.
TEMPLE TRIED THE BROTHERLY SHOVE FOR THE WIN AND THE BALL POPS OUT!! UCONN SCOOP AND SCORE FOR THE WIN!! pic.twitter.com/QMNkSciLGA
— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) October 5, 2024
This is a good reminder to the folks at Temple: While you are located in Philadelphia, you are not the Philadelphia Eag– what’s that? By 17 to the Bucs, you say? And they’ve lost seven of their past 10? Ah. Well then. Carry on, Temple.
Heisman Five
Consider Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia an honorary Heisman winner, regardless of his actual standing in the race. In fact, let’s just change the trophy to look like him yelling four-letter words into a microphone.
1. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter
Colorado was off in Week 6, though somehow Hunter still got 104 snaps.
2. Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty
Let’s check in on Jeanty’s first carry of the game against Utah State in Week 6.
ASHTON JEANTY’S FIRST CARRY TODAY 🔥 @BroncoSportsFB pic.twitter.com/utOfPL02gv
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 5, 2024
Honestly, it’s time teams consider just negotiating a deal with Boise State before kickoff. Just go ahead and assume Jeanty is going for 220 yards and four touchdowns, let him watch from the sideline to preserve everyone’s dignity and spot the Broncos 28 to open the game.
3. The ACC review booth — er, Miami QB Cam Ward
For the second week in a row, the ACC officials stole the storyline of an incredible ending, but also for the second straight week, Ward was a hero. He finished with 437 passing yards and three total touchdowns. It’s Ward’s seventh straight game — dating back to last season at Washington State — in which he threw for 300 yards and accounted for three touchdowns. Only WKU’s Bailey Zappe (8 straight) had a longer streak in the past 16 years. Assuming the ACC doesn’t review that, it’s a pretty impressive feat.
4 (tie). Army QB Bryson Daily and Navy QB Blake Horvath
Two weeks ago, an Army fan emailed us and made the case that Daily belonged on this list on account of his exceptional start to the season for the undefeated Black Knights, so we put him at No. 5 last week.
Then a Navy fan reached out and lambasted us for adding Daily while overlooking Horvath, whose numbers are even better for the undefeated Midshipmen.
Never let it be said we aren’t pushovers for peer pressure — particularly when that pressure comes from veterans.
Now, if anyone from the Merchant Marines wants to make the case for their QB, however, you’re going to need our Venmo to make it happen.
5. Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith
It’s not even clear Smith is the best freshman wide receiver in the country; Alabama’s Ryan Williams had another nice game Saturday. But one guy lost to Vandy and the other one did this.
UNREAL. JEREMIAH SMITH DID IT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/dHHGgdfeG5
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) October 5, 2024
Once Urban Meyer stopped paying the coaching equivalent of Uncle Rico to oversee receivers, the Buckeyes have churned out one elite prospect after another, but there’s a real chance Smith ends up the best of the bunch.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports6 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports11 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway