Blake Baumgartner, ESPN Staff WriterAug 14, 2023, 01:49 PM ET
Eliah Drinkwitz and Missouri scored a big win off the field Monday by securing a commitment from five-star defensive end Williams Nwaneri.
Nwaneri, No. 12 overall in the 2024 ESPN 300 and the cycle’s No. 2 defensive end, is a product of Lee’s Summit North High School (Missouri) and becomes the highest-ranked prospect in the Tigers’ 2024 class.
He would be the highest-ranked player to sign with the program since wide receiver Luther Burden (No. 5 overall) in 2022 and the highest-ranked defensive lineman since Terry Beckner Jr. (No. 2 overall, No. 1 DT) in 2015.
“I’d say really ever since they started recruiting me I feel like it’s been consistent,” Nwaneri told ESPN. “But I have a good relationship with the coaching staff and I feel like it’s somewhere I could go and be successful as a student and as an athlete.”
He cited “great conversations” with Drinkwitz and defensive line coach Kevin Peoples as reasons he’ll stay close to home.
“It’s my home state,” Nwaneri said. “It’s like me being a hometown hero, so it’s a pretty big deal to me.”
He also considered Oklahoma, Georgia and Tennessee. Nwaneri joins St. Thomas Aquinas High School (Florida) wide receiver James Madison II (No. 284 overall) as ESPN 300 recruits in the 2024 cycle for the Tigers.
Missouri’s classes in recent cycles have been up and down: 53rd in 2020, 32nd in 2021, 11th in 2022 and 37th in 2023. Nwaneri believes Drinkwitz is on the cusp of building something great.
“I think this changes the class completely,” Nwaneri said. “I feel like I’m going to have a lot of [people notice]. It’s going to give them a little bit of momentum. Recruits are going to see it and I feel like it’s going to probably be very, very good for the class.”
Last season, the Tigers’ defense tied with Alabama for second in the SEC in sacks (36) and was fourth in total defense (337.3 YPG). That represented a huge improvement from 2021 when Missouri was 13th in the SEC both in total defense and scoring defense.
“They run a lot of different things, like different types of formations and all that,” Nwaneri said. “But mainly like a four-man front. I’m going to be coming off the edge rushing the quarterback. There will be times where they drop me into coverage. That’s what I’d like to see myself doing.”
In 14 games, the 6-foot-7, 260-pound Nwaneri recorded 56 tackles (31 solo) with 10 tackles for loss and 12 sacks as a junior in 2022.
“I really feel like I’m a very position-flexible defensive lineman,” he said. “But I can play all the way down the line. I feel like I can use my length to my advantage. I feel like I got a good get-off. I feel like I’m just a great defensive lineman all around.”
MADISON, Ill. — Denny Hamlin remained perfect in qualifying during the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, capturing the pole position Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway.
It’s the 46th career pole and third this season for the Joe Gibbs Racing star, who also qualified first for last week’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway.
“We made some great adjustments from where we were in practice,” said Hamlin, who turned a 139.190 mph lap in his No. 11 Toyota. “That’s what they did so well last week for qualifying. Now we’ve got great track position and just got to maintain it, and we’ll be in good shape.”
Kyle Larson will start second alongside Hamlin, earning his first top-10 qualifying effort on the 1.25-mile oval east of St. Louis.
It was a notable departure from how the playoffs began at Darlington. Only four championship-eligible drivers finished in the top 10 of the Southern 500, a record low for a playoff opener.
Among the disappointments was Larson, whose 19th at Darlington continued a five-race drought without a top-five finish.
“I think our team needs it more than anything,” the 2021 Cup champion said. “We haven’t been able to celebrate a whole lot, so we will definitely celebrate a front row starting spot at Gateway. It’s been a rough, inconsistent couple of months, so even just qualifying good feels really nice.”
Alex Bowman, who has finished no higher than 13th at Gateway, qualified 25th as the only playoff driver who will start outside the top 20. Bowman is tied with Josh Berry (who qualified 12th) for last in the points standings among the 16 playoff drivers.
“It’s great,” Belichick said, “but it’s really about the team. It was disappointing Monday night against TCU, but these guys bounced back — players, coaches, staff, support people — and just got back to work. They were determined to have a better outcome. I’m really proud of what they did. They deserve the credit for tonight.”
After a 48-14 blowout loss that included two defensive touchdowns by the Horned Frogs, Belichick praised the team’s ability to shrug off the performance and focus on the fundamentals.
UNC led 17-3 at the half, rushed for 148 yards, and didn’t turn over the ball against Charlotte. Meanwhile, the Tar Heels’ maligned defense held the 49ers to just 21 yards on the ground, five days after TCU ran for 258.
The news cycle after Monday’s loss had been ugly for Belichick and the Tar Heels — “a lot of negativity from the outside,” he said — including reports from multiple outlets, including ESPN, that scouts from the New England Patriots, with whom Belichick won six Super Bowls, have been banned from North Carolina’s facility.
Belichick confirmed those reports Saturday, saying the decision was in response to a closed-door edict in New England.
“It’s obvious I’m not welcome at their facility,” Belichick said, “so they’re not welcome at ours.”
Belichick has had an acrimonious divorce from New England and owner Bob Kraft since he left the Patriots after the 2023 season, with multiple spats erupting in the media in recent months. Belichick took issue with comments from Kraft that hiring him had been a “big risk,” releasing a statement in July saying that he was the one who took a risk by accepting the job. In a Boston Globe story last month, Belichick appeared to take another swipe, saying that one of the perks of his job at North Carolina is that “there’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son,” the latter a reference to Jonathan Kraft.
On Saturday, Belichick seemed in far better spirits, though hardly effervescent in his celebration.
Asked if the team had given Belichick a game ball to celebrate his first win with the Tar Heels, senior Gavin Gibson laughed and said, “If we’d tried, I think he’d look at us like, ‘Nah.'”
Instead, Belichick pointed to UNC’s determination to wipe the slate clean after Monday’s ugly loss and offer some renewed hope that the Tar Heels wouldn’t roll over.
“It was clear in the locker room and as we got out on the practice field there was a … higher level of determination and commitment,” Belichick said. “That was good to see us improve.”
North Carolina hosts Richmond next week before heading to UCF to close out its nonconference schedule.
BALTIMORE — Jackson Holliday homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to deny Yoshinobu Yamamoto a no-hitter, and the Baltimore Orioles weren’t satisfied with that, rallying for four runs in the inning to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 in a delirious comeback Saturday night.
Scott came on with the bases loaded, and Rivera lined a single to center.
According to Elias, the Dodgers are just the second team in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to lose a game in nine innings after carrying a no-hitter through 8⅔ innings. On July 9, 2011, the Dodgers broke up the Padres’ combined no-hitter to win 1-0.
Los Angeles had a win probability of 99.6% with two outs before Holliday’s ninth-inning homer, according to ESPN Analytics.
Yamamoto came within one out of the major leagues’ first no-hitter of 2025. He allowed only two baserunners, both on third-inning walks, before Holliday’s drive. The 27-year-old right-hander tied a career high with 10 strikeouts. He threw 112 pitches, also a career high since coming to the U.S.
Yamamoto was removed after that and received a standing ovation by fans of both teams.
Camden Yards has hosted only one no-hitter since opening in 1992, and it was by another Japanese star. Hideo Nomo threw one on April 4, 2001, for the Boston Red Sox against the Orioles.
Shohei Ohtani hit an RBI grounder in the third. Mookie Betts added a run-scoring single in the fifth and an RBI triple in the seventh.
The Dodgers have not thrown a no-hitter since May 4, 2018, when Walker Buehler, Tony Cingrani, Yimi Garcia and Adam Liberatore pitched a combined effort against the San Diego Padres in Mexico. The last solo no-hitter by the team was Clayton Kershaw’s on June 18, 2014, against Colorado.
The last time the Orioles were no-hit was by Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma of the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 12, 2015.