Connect with us

Published

on

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Devin Leary is always ready to answer the question. He thinks about it a lot.

He mentioned it when he first met Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops and he brought it up with offensive coordinator Liam Coen during spring exit interviews. It’s the whole reason he’s here, really. Leary would be cashing NFL checks already if it weren’t for that big, looming question about his health.

Leary is injury-prone. Like it or not, the narrative persists. Oh, he can argue against the label and make a compelling case, but the details are often ignored in favor of the big, glaring headline.

“Man, I just took two bad hits,” Leary said, beginning a speech he has repeated again and again since his 2022 campaign ended suddenly after a wonky throw against Florida State.

Leary was a burgeoning star quarterback for NC State in 2021, throwing 35 touchdowns and just five interceptions, but that season was bookended by a broken leg after a seemingly routine slide five games into the 2020 season and a torn pectoral muscle after his right arm hit a defender following a throw six games into 2022.

No pulled hamstrings. No ACL tears. No sprained ankles or sore elbows. Leary hasn’t dealt with any routine injuries that typically befall a QB. Indeed, after renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews assessed Leary’s MRI last fall, he lamented it was the first time he’d ever seen a QB with that type of pec injury.

Injury-prone? Heck no, Leary insists. Strange things happen, and he was just unlucky enough to have them happen to him twice.

The more Leary dodges the label, however, the more it feels like it defines him as he prepares for his sixth season of college football and his first at Kentucky. He entered the transfer portal in December as one of the most sought-after players in the country. He has legitimate NFL aspirations when this year is done. But for now, what’s on his mind is simply proving he can get back on the field, escape the wrath of the injury gods for another year, and fight that narrative with his arm instead of his words.

“I pride myself on being tough and taking hits and standing in there,” Leary said. “But that’s just a part of my journey, and I’ve learned to embrace it.”

Leary’s journey was never supposed to include a pit stop in Lexington. After his stellar 2021 campaign ended with a canceled bowl game, he considered leaving school for the NFL, but instead opted to polish his résumé for one final season at NC State. Last summer, he worked out at the Manning Passing Academy with soon-to-be draft stars Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson and Will Levis, and he held his own. By the time the 2022 season began, NC State was ranked in the preseason top 10, and Leary was named the ACC’s preseason player of the year.

And then it all fell apart.

In the days after the injury, NC State coach Dave Doeren said he was hopeful Leary could return later in the 2022 season, but Leary said he instantly knew his year was over. His final numbers for the season that was supposed to propel him into the NFL: 11 touchdowns, four picks and less than 1,300 yards of offense.

Leary flew with his mother to Alabama for a consultation with Andrews, still hopeful he could recover in time for the NFL combine. The news wasn’t good.

Andrews offered two options. Leary could attempt to rehab the injury, and if all went perfectly, he could possibly throw during the combine or a pro day. But if the rehab didn’t remedy the problem, he’d need surgery, and he’d set his return date back even further. If he opted for immediate surgery, he faced an extended recovery that would see him plummet on draft boards. Oh, and just to add another wrinkle, it would be the first time Andrews would ever perform the required procedure on a quarterback.

“It turned my whole world around in one conversation,” Leary said.

Leary and his mother retreated to a waiting room and called his dad. The three talked it over and opted for surgery. Once that decision was made, it opened the floodgates for even more world-altering choices.

“I had to reevaluate everything that I was planning for the following year,” Leary said, “… and that included where I was going to play.”

Leary said he kept Doeren informed each step of the way, but after five years in Raleigh, he ultimately decided it was time for a change of scenery and entered his name into the transfer portal.

The first call Leary got came from Kentucky receivers coach Scott Woodward. Back in high school, Leary had attended a camp at Wagner University at the behest of a coach from Florida, but it was Woodward, then an assistant at UMass, who made a real impression on the young QB. Six years later, that relationship paid dividends for both.

Leary was widely considered among the best players available during the winter portal window, and he had interest from dozens of schools. Leary eventually narrowed his options to five and took just two official visits — to Kentucky and Auburn.

He knew before he left campus in Lexington, however, that he wanted to play for the Wildcats.

Woodward was the one who opened the door, but Leary found support in Kentucky’s most recent QB, Levis. The two actually met while at the airport waiting for a flight to the Manning Passing Academy in 2022. At the time, they talked about possibly sharing a stage at the 2023 NFL draft. When they met again at UK, just two months before Levis would head to the NFL combine, the conversation was much different.

“I’m sitting with Will, and he’s talking about why I should come to Kentucky,” Leary said. “It’s crazy how the world spins around sometimes.”

It was Kentucky’s new offensive coordinator who sealed the deal for Levis, however. Coen helped Levis blossom into a star as a transfer QB in 2021, but Coen soon departed to work as the OC for the Los Angeles Rams. At the end of 2022, Coen opted to return to his college roots, coming back to Kentucky to groom another transfer. Still, it was that one-year hiatus in L.A. that convinced Leary he’d found a home with the Wildcats.

“He pulled up three or four plays they ran here in 2021,” Leary recalled, “then they pulled up three or four plays from the Rams, and Matthew Stafford is running the exact same concepts.”

Leary’s NFL dreams have been delayed a year, but in Coen, he saw a coach who could make him a better QB when those dreams finally become reality.

Coen did his homework on Leary, too. Years ago, Coen had worked with a QB at Maine named Danny Collins. Coen loved the guy. He was tough, singularly focused, lived in the film room. He had a big arm but thrived by reading a defense. He played with a chip on his shoulder, Coen said, was beloved by his teammates and played with a little New Jersey swagger. Leary checked all those same boxes, right down to his home state.

“You see the ball jump off his hand on the film,” said Coen, who even watched Leary’s NC State teammates’ press conferences to see how they spoke about their QB, “but you see a player who everyone gets better when he plays.”

The key there, however, is the last part: “When he plays.”

Leary’s missed 15 games over the past three seasons, and when he arrived at Kentucky in January, it was with no guarantees he’d be throwing without pain.

Andrews helped provide a protocol for Leary’s return, slowly ramping up his workload until he’d regained his lost arm strength. Leary tested his arm for the first time in early March, just before Kentucky began spring ball. The goal was 60 throws vs. air.

“The first 10 throws,” Leary said, “my arm feels shot.”

Slowly, things improved. Doctor’s orders limited how many throws he could make each day, and by Kentucky’s first scrimmage of the spring, Leary looked like his old self.

“You can see the toughness, and he has the ability,” Stoops said. “We were trying to limit his throws a little bit, but there were certain throws that jumped out at us.”

His new teammates had taken notice, too. At NC State, Leary was the unquestioned leader after five years of hard work and big wins. At Kentucky, he took a more measured approach, hoping to earn respect with his game rather than rock the boat in a new locker room.

It was that first scrimmage when it all came together. The offense was down and needed a big play. Leary read the defense, took the snap and zipped a laser over the middle between two defenders for a huge gain. The entire tone of the practice changed. With one throw, it was clear: Leary’s arm was back, and his role was established.

“All the guys were juiced up,” said right guard Eli Cox. “And that’s when you know.”

There are still some unknowns for Leary. Coen wants him to work more under center this season — something he rarely did at NC State. Coen has been impressed by Leary’s field awareness — a gift, he said, that reminds him of Stafford — but he also thinks Leary sometimes lets the big picture get in the way of his precision. Leary has earned the respect of his teammates, but this summer, during seven-on-seven drills, is when he’ll need to become a more vocal leader of the offense.

And yes, there is still the question of his health, because after two serious injuries in three years, the narrative won’t die until Leary puts it to rest on the field.

Continue Reading

Sports

Stanton won’t blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

Published

on

By

Stanton won't blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.

Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.

“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”

Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”

He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.

“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”

While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.

Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells were among the Yankees who used torpedo bats during their season-opening sweep of the Brewers.

Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.

Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.

“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”

Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.

“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.

“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”

As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.

“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Rangers’ Eovaldi gets season’s 1st complete game

Published

on

By

Rangers' Eovaldi gets season's 1st complete game

CINCINNATI — Nathan Eovaldi pitched a four-hitter for the majors’ first complete game of the season, and the Texas Rangers blanked the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 on Tuesday night.

Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.

It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.

“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”

In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.

“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”

The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.

“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”

Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.

“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”

Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.

The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

Published

on

By

Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

Continue Reading

Trending