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BOULDER, Colo. — Two games into the Coach Prime era and the bar has already been raised at Colorado.

After upsetting national runner-up TCU last week, the No. 22 Buffaloes cruised to a 36-14 win against longtime rival Nebraska in the first regular season home game under coach Deion Sanders.

“We didn’t just want to win, we wanted to dominate,” Sanders said. “The first half, we weren’t dominant, the second half, we got it together and we began to dominate. We wanted to really impose our will.”

All week, Sanders preached to him team how the game against the Cornhuskers would be “personal.” He asked each of them to find a way to make it personal for them and to let that carry into Saturday morning. For Sanders’ son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the Huskers made it easy.

“It was extremely personal,” Sanders said. “We go out there to warm up and you got the head coach for the other team (Matt Rhule) trying to stand in the middle of the Buff. It’s OK if a couple of players do it, it’s fine. Just enjoy the scenery, but when you’ve got a whole team trying to disrespect it, I’m not going for that at all, so I went in there and disrupted it.

“The Buff means a lot to me.”

Shedeur Sanders also hadn’t forgotten about offseason comments from Rhule, he interpreted as disrespectful toward his father. Shortly after being hired, Rhule said in an interview that he doesn’t “let cameras in, there won’t be a camera following me around. I want it to always be (about) the players.”

This came shortly after Deion Sanders’ arrival in Boulder, where cameras seemingly following him everywhere he goes.

“The coach said a lot of things about my pops, about the program, but now that he want to act nice — I don’t respect that because you’re hating on another man, you shouldn’t do that,” Shedeur Sanders said. “It was just, all respect was gone for them and their program. I like playing against their DC, I like playing against them, but the respect level, it ain’t there cause you disrespected us first.”

After an elusive scramble and a completion on a two-point conversion attempt that would end up overruled on replay, Sanders celebrated by taking his helmet off in the end zone. The decision drew a 15-yard penalty and his father’s ire.

“I went over and said, ‘You cannot do that. You cannot take your helmet off.’ He said, ‘Dad, it’s personal,'” Sanders said. “I was really upset and he broke up the monotony with, ‘It’s personal.’ They really took it to heart, that whole thing.”

Colorado started the game slowly, but after Nebraska cut the deficit to 13-7 early in the third quarter, it was all Buffs the rest of the way before a sold-out crowd of 53,241 – the largest at Folsom Field in 15 years.

Sanders finished the day 31 of 42 for 393 yards with a pair of touchdowns, including 10 passes to South Florida transfer Xavier Weavers (170 yards, 1 touchdown).

“First of all, a lot of credit to them,” Rhule said. “They are well put together, fast, dynamic and explosive. Sean (Lewis) with the offense does a great job and a lot of credit to Coach Sanders and his team. They played well today.”

ESPN’s College GameDay will be on site next week as the Buffaloes wrap up nonconference play against Colorado State.

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2025 World Series: Live updates and analysis from Game 4

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2025 World Series: Live updates and analysis from Game 4

Let’s play another 18!

After an epic Game 3 that went a record-tying 18 innings, Game 4 of the 2025 World Series will be a true test for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. Can the Dodgers ride the high of Freddie Freeman‘s walk-off home run to a third straight victory, or will the Blue Jays’ bats bounce back to tie the Fall Classic at two games apiece? What will Shohei Ohtani — who will be on the mound for L.A. — do for an encore after a history-making night at the plate?

In other words: What can we expect?

From the pregame lineups to in-game analysis and our postgame takeaways, we’ve got you covered on another big (and long?) night at Dodger Stadium.

Key links: World Series schedule, results

Live analysis

Gamecast: Follow the action pitch-by-pitch here

Lineups

Dodgers lead series 2-1

Starting pitchers: Shane Bieber vs. Shohei Ohtani

Lineups

Blue Jays

1. Nathan Lukes (L) LF
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (R) 1B
3. Bo Bichette (R) DH
4. Addison Barger (L) RF
5. Alejandro Kirk (R) C
6. Daulton Varsho (L) CF
7. Ernie Clement (R) 3B
8. Andres Gimenez (L) SS
9. Isiah Kiner-Falefa (R) 2B

Dodgers

1. Shohei Ohtani (L) P
2. Mookie Betts (R) SS
3. Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
4. Will Smith (R) C
5. Teoscar Hernandez (R) RF
6. Max Muncy (L) 3B
7. Tommy Edman (S) 2B
8. Enrique Hernandez (R) LF
9. Andy Pages (R) CF

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14% drop in U.S. viewers for 1st 2 games of WS

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14% drop in U.S. viewers for 1st 2 games of WS

LOS ANGELES — U.S. viewers for the first two games of World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays dropped 14% from last year’s matchup between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees, but Canadian and Japanese audiences set records.

Last year’s first two games averaged 14.55 million and this year’s first two averaged 12..5 million on Fox, Fox Deportes, Fox One streaming, the Fox Sports app and Univision, Major League Baseball said Tuesday.

MLB said the combined 32.6 million viewers for the opener in the U.S., Canada and Japan were its highest since the Chicago Cubs‘ ended their 108-year title draught by beating Cleveland in Game 7 of the 2016 Series.

Toronto’s 11-4 win in Game 1 averaged 13,305,000 and Los Angeles’ 5-1 victory in Game 2, which did not include Univision coverage, averaged 11.63 million, Fox said.

Los Angeles’ 6-3, 10-inning win in last year’s opener that ended with Freddie Freeman‘s grand slam was seen by 15.2 million, the most-watched Series game since 2019. The Dodgers’ 4-2 victory in Game 2 last year was viewed by 13.44 million.

Game 1 this year drew 7 million viewers in Canada and Game 2 was watched by 6.6 million, the two most-watched Blue Jays games on Sportsnet. The network is owned by Rogers Communications Inc., the parent company of the Blue Jays.

The opener also was broadcast with French-language commentary on TVA Sports and drew 502,000, that network’s most-watched game.

This year’s opener averaged 11.8 million on NHK-G, the most-viewed World Series game in Japan televised by a single network, and Game 2 averaged 9.5 million on NHK-BS for a two-game Japanese average of 10.7 million.

The two-game average in the U.S., Canada and Japan was 30.5 million.

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Injured Springer out of Jays’ lineup for Game 4

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Injured Springer out of Jays' lineup for Game 4

LOS ANGELES — Toronto Blue Jays star George Springer was not in the starting lineup for Tuesday’s Game 4 of the World Series after leaving Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers with right side discomfort.

Springer, 36, suffered the injury on a swing in the seventh inning of Game 3, exiting not long after calling for the athletic trainer.

Springer underwent an MRI, but the team wasn’t forthcoming about the results, with manager John Schneider indicating only that Springer was “hour-to-hour.”

“I think swinging will be the key to kind of determine if he’s in there or not,” Schneider said earlier Tuesday, not long before the lineup was announced. “But he was the first one here, a lot of treatment, a lot of work, and George is going to do everything he can to be ready.”

Springer has been a key offensive cog and leader during the Blue Jays’ postseason run. He has four home runs this month to go along with an .884 OPS, including a three-run homer in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners.

He injured his right knee on a hit by pitch in that series but was able to start the next day.

Bo Bichette replaced Springer as Toronto’s designated hitter in Game 4, with left fielder Nathan Lukes leading off. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. batted second followed by Bichette and then right fielder Addison Barger.

“Whenever this season is over, you guys will be surprised to see how much [Springer] has grinded physically,” Schneider said.

Springer’s status for the rest of the series is unclear, but he remains on the Toronto roster.

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