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  • Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior WriterNov 13, 2023, 07:00 AM ET

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    • ACC reporter.
    • Joined ESPN.com in 2010.
    • Graduate of the University of Florida.

Every day for the past year, Virginia athletic director Carla Williams has made sure to check in with the families of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry. Today, on the one-year anniversary of their tragic deaths, she will do the same. She knows their pain has been a constant, no matter what the calendar says.

On Nov. 13, 2022, Chandler, Davis and Perry — Virginia football players, friends and teammates — were shot and killed on a bus after returning to campus from a field trip to Washington, D.C., to see a play about Emmett Till.

Their deaths remain hard to fathom.

“It may be the one-year anniversary for some people,” Williams said, “but it’s just like yesterday for a lot of us.”

To mark the anniversary of their deaths, the university, athletic department and football program have planned tributes to honor Chandler, Davis and Perry. Happy Perry, D’Sean’s mother, will serve on a university panel focused on community and individual healing in the aftermath of gun violence. The UVA Chapel will chime bells in their honor following the panel.

Coach Tony Elliott said the football team will take care of its football responsibilities in the morning before an optional gathering later in the day. Happy Perry said a private lantern lighting and release is planned.

“There’s so many different visuals around here that spark thoughts about Lavel, Devin and D’Sean,” Elliott said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t have feelings about them. On this day, I want it to be a true remembrance of the legacies of those young men.”

The ones who knew them keep those legacies alive. Take former Virginia offensive coordinator Robert Anae. He uses Davis in the teaching tapes he shows his players at NC State.

“So as long as I’m involved in the game, he will be on the cut ups,” Anae said. “Because he does it right.”

Take Virginia kicker Will Bettridge. He thinks about his former high school and Virginia teammate, Perry, before he lines up to take every kick. Wearing Perry’s No. 41 this season, Bettridge has had a career year — making 12 straight field goals after missing his first attempt in the opener.

“If I can bring him with me and he’s there with every kick, I just continue to do that,” Bettridge said.

Take Lehigh freshman Cam Gillus. He looks down at his wrist and sees “DC15,” the initials of his cousin Chandler. On especially tough days, he stops and remembers the joy with which Chandler lived his life.

“I’m excited to go out and play for him this season,” Gillus, a member of the basketball team, said. “That’s something that holds him near to me.”

The impact these three players left on their communities, and those who love them, goes beyond anything they did on the football field. They are remembered for the way they made people feel, for the way they gave to others, for their big smiles and relentless perseverance. They have made those who knew them want to be more like them.

That is why there is so much determination to keep their legacies alive — in Ridgeville, South Carolina; Miami, Florida; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Charlottesville, Virginia. Their friends and family will not allow them to be forgotten.

“Their loss has taught and continues to teach a lot of people about empathy, overcoming adversity, living for something bigger than yourself,” Williams said, “which in sum total is being remembered for something that everyone can be proud of.”

Lavel Davis Jr.: ‘I feel like he’s still here’

THERE ARE REMINDERS of Davis everywhere in Ridgeville, South Carolina, his one-stoplight hometown about 30 minutes west of Charleston. Davis loved Ridgeville, and if anyone questioned that, he could point to a tattoo on his arm with the exit number to town off Interstate 26.

There is off-ramp construction at the exit these days, which will ultimately help ease congestion into the growing area, but as soon as that clears, there is quiet. Trees, lakes and single-family homes dot the landscape until you reach the main street.

Across the railroad tracks is the elementary school Davis attended and where his little brother, Teigan, is currently a fourth grader. After Davis died, the school principal, Dr. April Sanders, started the Good Character Award in his honor. The first one went to Teigan, “for being determined, resilient, and committed to a legacy of excellence.”

Teigan and Lavel were close. The coaches at Woodland High School, where Lavel attended, recall Teigan tagging along whenever possible. “We used to do yoga during track season, so Lavel’s senior year — Teigan was maybe in kindergarten at the time — he would come with Lavel and do yoga with us,” said Woodland track coach Chavez James.

“Teigan was always with him,” said Woodland volleyball coach Kayla Klinger, who now coaches their sister, Taniya, a sophomore.

Both James and Klinger said Teigan is always around his sister. Sometimes he works the scoreboard at the high school, and he often asks if he can come run while Taniya is at track practice. She’s a member of the team, just like her big brother, Lavel, was. Simone Davis, their mom, is a constant presence at Taniya’s sporting events. She declined comment for this story, wanting the Woodland coaches to speak on her behalf.

When those coaches see Taniya, they see some of Lavel, too — tall and gregarious, with an easy smile.

“There are times she will say things and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s her brother,'” Klinger said. “She has the same smile, she has the same passion.”

“There are so many memories of him here, such good memories,” James said. “We can bring them up, we can laugh and smile, and it lifts our spirits.”

They laugh about Lavel’s affinity for wearing short shorts — especially funny considering he stood 6-foot-7. Or the way he would be the DJ in the locker room and raid the fridge in the guidance office. They laugh about Davis’ decision to use Klinger’s car, a compact Chevy Cruze, to take a driving test for his license. “Just picture this tall man in this mini car parallel parking and driving,” she said. “It was funny.”

“I think about him every day,” Klinger said. “It’s been harder with football season. I’m used to watching him on Saturdays. I don’t know if I’ve grasped …”

James picked up. “I feel like he’s still here. I just haven’t talked to him for a while.”

They sit in football coach Eddie Ford’s office. On the whiteboard above them, Ford has written the names of all the Woodland players who have received football scholarships since he became head coach in 2019. He points to Davis’ name under 2019: Lavel-UVA, the only player to go to a Power 5 school that year. “His senior year he was double covered on probably every play,” Ford said. “There would be a guy in his face, and a guy over the top. But when we needed it, we threw it to him anyway because he could jump up and get it.”

In the gym, Woodland athletic director Tydles Sibert has a framed poster of Davis hanging on his office wall. Just below it, a No. 1 Virginia jersey is draped over the chair Davis would sit in every time he came in to talk. “That’s Lavel’s chair,” Sibert said simply.

Sibert was Davis’ first coach at Woodland, and the two grew close. When Sibert was going through a difficult time after he lost his father, Davis would call to check on him — repeating the same words Sibert told his players: “‘Coach, do what your dad taught you, and what you tell us. That pain you’ve got right now, turn it into your passion.’

“It’s like he was coaching me.”

Sibert jumped from memory to memory — all the times he drove Davis home, the FaceTime calls, watching him outjump players as a middle schooler, reading to elementary school kids on Fridays.

Like so many who knew Davis, Sibert has grappled with questions since the shooting.

“We have to turn to our faith,” Sibert said. “I know some people might say this is crazy, but maybe God needed him more. I mean, why the other guys? They were great guys, too. Why the situation? When kids from our area go to college, we celebrate them. You don’t think in your wildest dreams that would happen. Lavel did all the right things, he went to class, he didn’t party. You’re talking about a school field trip. That’s the part that gets me.”

Woodland retired Davis’ No. 13 jersey this season. The football team wears No. 13 and Virginia decals on their helmets. Last April, a stretch of Highway 78 that connects Ridgeville to Woodland High was renamed the Lavel “Tyler” Norman Davis, Jr. Memorial Highway. The highway also leads to where Davis is buried, just down the road from his elementary school.

His gravesite is impossible to miss. Flowers and two white crosses ring the headstone. At night, solar lights flick on, shining directly onto the headstone so there is no mistaking who is here. A pair of running shoes sit unlaced. Anae, Davis’ former offensive coordinator at Virginia, left them there after he participated in a 5K Memorial Walk/Run through town last January on what would have been Davis’ 21st birthday. The event drew hundreds of people.

“My thought was that boy is a great gift to mankind and he gave me a gift of how good people can be,” Anae said. “Every time I go down there, if I’m free and available, I will do [a 5K] whether they schedule one or not. Just a token of how that kid has influenced my life.”

Devin Chandler: ‘I aspire to be the person Devin Chandler was’

THE FIRST TIME Cam Gillus saw Devin Chandler play high school football in person, it felt surreal. Gillus had already seen all the video clips of Chandler. But this was different.

Chandler served as a de facto big brother to Gillus. Though the two cousins never lived in the same city, they grew close over family trips and Christmases spent at their grandmother’s house. In Chandler, Gillus saw a fun-loving guy with a big smile whose personality drew everyone to him. But he also saw what he himself could be: a college athlete.

Gillus and his family made the five-hour drive from their home in Virginia to show their support that Friday night outside Charlotte. Gillus saw his cousin speed past defenders, score and celebrate. Chandler loved to dance and played with a joy that was unmistakable from where Gillus sat in the stands.

That, combined with the hard work Chandler put in his senior season, served as a road map for Gillus as he approached his own basketball recruitment.

“He set that standard and allowed me to see something that I could achieve as well,” said Gillus, now a freshman on the Lehigh basketball team.

Chandler and his mom, Delayna, moved to North Carolina, in part, to be closer to family. His junior year in Tennessee had been especially tough. Chandler’s father, Quentin, had died of brain cancer, devastating the family. Though Chandler was starting at Hough High School as a senior, only months removed from the loss of his father, he arrived for his first practice with his usual smile.

Curt Neal, who played with Chandler at Hough and later at the University of Wisconsin said, “Devin was always so happy. He was so strong-minded. He was a leader on that team. You could never tell when he was down or going through something. He was always a shoulder we could lean on.”

Chandler was determined as a senior in high school to impress colleges and raise his recruiting profile. He succeeded, receiving multiple offers before opting to go to Wisconsin.

“He was so focused,” said D.J. Boldin, who coached him in Tennessee and grew close with the Chandler family. “It was almost like he knew he didn’t have time, as weird as that sounds now.”

Chandler transferred to Virginia after the 2021 season in search of more playing time and to be closer to family. His mother had moved to Virginia Beach. Chayce Chalmers and Hunter Stewart had an opening in their apartment when Chandler arrived in Charlottesville, so he moved in with them. Chalmers remembers how energetic Chandler was about everything — including trying a new chicken dish Chalmers cooked for his roommates as part of a Virginia video series called “Cooking with the Cavs.”

At the end of the video, Chandler takes a bite, nods and says, “Yeah! You did that!”

“It was always great coming home, hearing him, laughing, talking, having a good time,” Chalmers said. “He made the apartment feel lively.”

Gillus and his parents took an unofficial visit to Virginia in September 2022 and spent time with Chandler in Charlottesville. At the time, Gillus had one scholarship offer — similar to Chandler heading into his senior year. Chandler told Gillus, “Keep working, and they’ll come, and you’ll be on the college stage as well. Eventually, they’re going to recognize your talents and abilities, and all the hard work you’ve put in.”

“Hearing that from him, that meant something to me,” Gillus said.

That was the last time Gillus saw his cousin.

It has been particularly difficult for those close to the Chandlers to comprehend the magnitude of losing Quentin and then Devin within four years — especially for Delayna Chandler.

“Lightning hits you twice,” Boldin said. “Just when you thought she was healing from her grief with her husband, another blow. My heart just goes out to her.”

Delayna has not spoken publicly since Devin died.

Neal has had a hard time, too. He and Chandler were best friends, and he feels his loss every day.

“It’s not really something you accept,” Neal said. “You just learn to live with it. You don’t know why. He wasn’t a bully. He wasn’t none of that. There’s not a narrative you can paint to get me to believe there was a reason my best friend was murdered in his sleep.”

Neal said he honors Chandler every day, not with initials on his helmet or wristbands, but in the way he lives his life. “I feel like he was always a strong-minded, happy person. I try to live my life like that even though it’s so hard, and he should still be here,” Neal said. “I aspire to be the person Devin Chandler was.”

D’Sean Perry: ‘He’s still serving a purpose’

D’SEAN PERRY LOVED many things, but one of his greatest passions was art. He dreamed of one day having his own display at Art Basel in Miami Beach, an annual event showcasing the works of prominent and up-and-coming artists from around the world.

After he died, his family and local community officials wanted to find ways to honor him and keep his legacy alive. Art was an obvious answer, so they created an exhibit for Perry at the South Dade Black History Center in his community in southwest Miami, across the street from the park where he played. When officials chose the date for opening night, Oct. 27, they had no idea Virginia would be playing in Miami the next day.

An hour before opening, volunteers quietly put the finishing touches on the reception outside. In front of the exhibit hall, they positioned a large backdrop with Perry’s photo in his Virginia jersey. Soon, his parents, two sisters, extended family, friends, community officials and high school coaches and teammates arrived — many wearing orange UVA Strong shirts.

Virginia athletic director Williams was there. So, too, was Brenda Hollins, whose son, Mike, survived the shooting and was best friends with Perry. “I couldn’t stay away,” Hollins said. “We’re family now. We’re tied together. We were before this because Mike and D’Sean were like brothers, and now it’s for life. There’s no other place I would be than here.”

The Friday of the art exhibit had already been emotional for the Perrys. Earlier, a group of Virginia players and coaches went to visit D’Sean’s gravesite with the family, after their arrival from Charlottesville. D’Sean’s mom, Happy, was celebrating her birthday Saturday — the day of the game.

The team presented her with flowers and a piece of art as a birthday gift — a portrait of D’Sean painted onto a canvas, with a smaller image of him in his football uniform, a helmet and his No. 41 jersey. Williams had portraits of Davis and Chandler commissioned and made by the same artist, Steve Penley, for their mothers as well.

“That was …” Happy said before stopping to wipe tears. “I had to go home and lay down and give myself a moment.”

Now outside the exhibit, Happy greeted attendees with long, meaningful hugs, thanking them for coming. Inside, the exhibit entitled Love-Art-Football featured Perry’s artwork — both drawings and sculptures. Among them: a colorful anime drawing, also featuring images of a dog and elephant, and a pencil sketch of “The Simpsons” characters Marge, Homer and Bart.

The pottery was on another side — a large lion’s head on a podium to itself, the intricate detail in its mane impossible to miss. The exhibit is more than Perry’s art, though. It is a loving tribute to all that Perry was — football player, artist, brother, son, friend and teammate. Perhaps above all else, to him as a giver — of his time, his talents and his love.

“Whenever you can recognize God’s goodness in human form, it touches you and it leaves an impact,” said Gulliver High School coach Earl Sims, who coached Perry. “I wish he was still here, he still had more things to do. But look at what he’s doing. Look at what he’s done. So I think it’s important to remember and never forget. He’s still serving a purpose.”

A Virginia graduate himself, Sims went with the family to the first home game against James Madison in September, when the university honored all three players with permanent tributes, plaques for each player on the Legends’ Walk in the north end of Scott Stadium and the Nos. 1, 15 and 41 inside diamonds on the south end. Sims said he could feel Perry there with him.

“Going through the tunnel, I felt something different,” Sims said. “I could feel the essence — maybe it’s the memories, maybe it’s the emotions, but it compelled me to write something to explain how I felt.”

Last month, Gulliver retired Perry’s No. 10 high school jersey in a ceremony, and Sims read his poem, “A Love That Remains” that says, in part:

Just as seasons change
Life will never be the same
But one thing that will remain …
Is the LOVE
D’Sean Emir Perry
A true gift from above.

Sims took his Gulliver team to the game against Miami. The Perrys were there, too, watching from a suite behind the Virginia sideline. The family has chosen to remain close to the football team and active on social media. Sean Perry, D’Sean’s father, posts daily about his son, or scripture verses, or words of encouragement.

“It actually helps me because that’s my way of grieving as well,” Sean said. “I post to keep me strong, really. It helps me every morning when I wake up, and I see something that encourages me, I try to get it out there. It’s still a long journey. It’s rough at times. Very rough. We’re still heartbroken. But I know that’s something that he would like for us to continue on and keep going.”

Happy often visits Charlottesville and attends practice. When she does, she rents an Airbnb so she can have a kitchen to cook meals for the players. “It’s not just us grieving,” Happy said. “They’re grieving, too, and I feel like we can help strengthen each other. These are D’Sean’s friends. I feel like it’s what he would have wanted.”

At halftime in Miami, a cake was delivered to the suite, and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to Happy. She blew out the candles and smiled, but there was a sadness there, too. Virginia fought to the end against the Hurricanes. Bettridge, who went to Gulliver with Perry and wears his No. 41 now, made four field goals — including one in overtime.

“I always think about it right before I kick,” Bettridge said. “I’m like, ‘This kick is for D’Sean,’ and it’s been working.”

For a moment, it felt as if Bettridge would be the hero — playing in their hometown, in front of their friends and family, wearing Perry’s number. But Miami scored a touchdown on its overtime possession and won 29-26 — one of five games this season the Cavaliers have lost by a touchdown or less.

“It would have been great to get a win here,” said shooting survivor Mike Hollins, Perry’s best friend. “But I’m leaving everything on the field. We did all we could. And I know our three angels are smiling down on us. They couldn’t be happier for us.”

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The U is back … in the Bottom 10

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12 hours ago

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October 22, 2025

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The U is back ... in the Bottom 10

  • Ryan McGee

Oct 22, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

Inspirational thought of the week:

(Cole Trickle drives his mangled Chevy Lumina into the pit stall)

Buck Bretherton: “Well, how about that? Something we don’t have to fix!”

(Crew chief Harry Hogge walks over and kicks a dent into the side of the car Bretherton is looking at)

Harry Hogge: “I don’t want you to get spoiled, Buck.”

— “Days of Thunder”

Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located behind the footlocker on the “College GameDay” bus where Nick Saban keeps his secret stash of “Anchor Down” Vanderbilt football apparel, we are beginning to worry that perhaps those of you who visit these rankings, as the kids say, “on the regular” might be like those who benefited from Saban’s time in Tuscaloosa. You’re getting a little spoiled.

Just two weeks ago, we had an all-time majestically meh Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year Mega Bowl matchup between UMess and State of Kent, winners of a lot of the most recent Bottom 10 titles. (We tried to look up exactly how many, but someone spilled Yoo-hoo on the archival floppy disk.) Then, this past week, we had the Sam Houston Bearkats kutting it up with UTEPid. Now the stage is set for a third consecutive PFOWY, as Georgia State Not Southern hosts the South Alabama Redundancies. And, as you will read in the words ahead, this is just the tip of a season-sinking iceberg of not-big games coming, as the spotter on the Titanic shouted way too late, “Right ahead!”

So, for all the talk about Power Autonomous Haughty Four conference realignment, in-conference scheduling, CFP committee résumé reading and the headliner showdowns that all of the above seem to bring with them, how about some props for the same happening down here with us? And by props, I totally mean rubber chickens, whoopee cushions and one of those Groucho Marx plastic-nose-on-the-glasses things.

With apologies to former Wichita State wide receiver Mike Proppe, former Drake tight end Hal Proppe, USC DB Prophet Brown and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 8 Bottom 10 rankings.

The Minuetmen continued their Backtion in #MACtion schedule, playing a former fellow Bottom 10 anchor, the Buffalo Bulls Not Bills. With 59 seconds remaining, the Amherst Amblers hauled in an interception that seemed to ice a 21-20 win. As the ESPN Analytics Ouija board said they had a 90.9% chance of victory, UMass players proceeded to demonstratively wave goodbye and do faux snow angels in celebration, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. After a three-and-out followed by a punt, the Minuetmen surrendered a four-play, 50-yard, 22-second TD drive to lose in the closing seconds, their lead turning out to be as real as that snow.

The bad news? The Bearkats lost the Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year Episode II: Attack of the Groans to UTEPid 35-17. The good news? If they don’t tell anyone it happened, no one is likely to ever know, because the crowd they played in front of was so small it would have saved time in the pregame to have had the PA announcer introduce the people in the stands to the starting lineups instead of the starting lineups to the people in the stands.

What a stretch for the Beavs. They finally won a game, beating the Lafayette Leopards, current leaders of the Patriot League. After a week versus the Fightin’ Bye of Open Date U, they will play the first of their in-season home-and-home double feature against Washington State, with whom they are currently tied for first in the 2Pac. Then they host Sam Houston State in the Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year Episode IV: A New Dope.

The Minors won their second game of the season, but their boat remains mired in the Bottom 4 because Pillow Fight victories over other teams in the Bottom 4 come with trophies made of lead. Plus, that pickax of theirs is always accidentally punching holes in the boat.

Ah, the rites of autumn. You can set your clock to their inevitability. The cool dip of the evening temperatures. The changing colors of the leaves. Suburban moms mainlining pumpkin spice. The Miami Hurricanes interrupting their latest “We’re back!” campaign with a midseason loss that lands them in the Coveted Fifth Spot. And the fans of those Canes not understanding what the Coveted Fifth Spot is despite the fact that they are here every year and thus raise Cane by filling my social media timelines with strings of cuss words stronger than Cuban coffee.

The Woof Pack keeps losing close games, the latest being their two-point defeat at the paws of New Mexico. But you know what they say. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. And atomic bomb tests, which happened about 300 miles east of Reno. Feels pretty close to us.

Much like we should all keep a safe distance between ourselves and atomic bomb testing, the Blew Raiders have a built-in buffer between Murfreesboro and the Bottom 5 in the form of Novada, whom they edged by the closest of margins, 14-13 way back in Week 3. But their Nov. 22 visit from Sam Houston does have the makings of a possible boundary-smashing Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year Episode VII: The Farce Awakens.

Meanwhile, the Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year Y’all Edition was won by Georgia Southern Not State over Georgia State Not Southern. I made a joke last week that the loser would have to change their name from GSU to GUS but was angrily informed that this game already has a GUS in the form of the Georgia Southern Eagles mascot named, yes, Gus. The nastiest letter I received wasn’t signed, but it was covered in white feathers.

Our second-favorite red, white and blue team named USA returns to these rankings just in time for its matchup with Georgia State Not Southern, a meeting of the last-place teams in each division of the Fun Belt, aka the Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year Episode V: The Empire Looks Wack.

In my mind I can see this one resident of Massachusetts who had his heart broken by the Red Sox to start the MLB postseason … so he decided to go to the UConn-Boston College game to clear his head, only to watch the Eagles get run over by the Artist Formerly Known As U-Can’t … but then had the thought, “Hey, I can make it out to Amherst for the second half!” and started waving bye with 0:59 remaining when he thought UMass was going to win and watched the Minuetmen blow it … so, when he finally got home to Southie, and after his dog bit him, he made himself feel better by opening a six-pack of Sam Adams and going on the new ESPN App to watch the replay of Bill Belichick’s Tar Holes losing to Cal by fumbling the ball at the goal line late in the fourth quarter.

Waiting list: Northern Ill-ugh-noise, State of Kent, EMU Emus, Oklahoma State No Pokes, Charlotte 1-and-6ers, Wisconsin Bad-gers, Akronmonious, UNC Chapel Bill, the USC-Notre Dame series ending.

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‘This didn’t happen overnight’: Why the Mariners are built to be back after a crushing ALCS loss

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15 hours ago

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October 22, 2025

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'This didn't happen overnight': Why the Mariners are built to be back after a crushing ALCS loss

  • David SchoenfieldOct 22, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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    • Covers MLB for ESPN.com
    • Former deputy editor of Page 2
    • Been with ESPN.com since 1995

Seattle Mariners pitcher Bryan Woo was being interviewed in the clubhouse following the team’s Game 7 loss in the American League Championship Series to the Toronto Blue Jays when, suddenly, in the background, you can hear an anguished scream.

Mariners’ fans understand heartbreak — they can relate to that scream.

For most of the 49-season existence of the Mariners, fans of the club relied on hope: hope for the first winning season, hope the franchise didn’t relocate, hope of making the playoffs for the first time, hope to end a 20-year playoff drought. Hope for a World Series. And with one crack of the bat on Monday night, that hope was crushed.

It didn’t start out that way, though. The Mariners won the first two games of the ALCS on the road in Toronto — and teams that won the first two on the road in a best-of-seven series had gone 26-3 in MLB history (excluding 2020).

After dropping the first two games in Seattle, they won a dramatic Game 5 on Eugenio Suarez‘s grand slam to take a 3-2 series lead. The winner of Game 5, when a series was tied, had gone on to win a best-of-seven series 69% of the time in MLB history.

The Mariners went on to lose Game 6, playing about as sloppy a game as you can play, and then lost Game 7 on George Springer‘s three-run home run in the seventh inning — only the second come-from-behind home run while trailing by multiple runs in a winner-take-all game in playoff history (Pete Alonso hit the first last year for the New York Mets).

That’s a lot of qualifiers, but it hammers home the despair: That was an especially difficult defeat, eight outs away from the franchise’s first ever World Series, a moment Seattle sports fans will forever remember, alongside not giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch in Super Bowl XLIX. The Mariners remain the only one of the 30 franchises never to play in a Fall Classic.

The pain will linger. Soon enough, however, thoughts will turn to 2026, as they must — and Seattle is well-positioned not only for next season, but for the long term.

While the Mariners have just two playoff appearances in the past five seasons, they’re one of the most stable organizations in the sport, one of just six with winning records every season since 2021 and seventh in wins in that span. They have a strong farm system that features eight players ranked in Kiley McDaniel’s August top 100 prospects update, including shortstop Colt Emerson, the No. 7 prospect, and pitcher Kade Anderson, the No. 3 pick in the 2025 MLB draft, who ranks No. 16.

The Mariners also have a stable group of core players: Of the 17 who were worth at least 0.8 WAR in 2025 — MVP candidate Cal Raleigh led the way with 7.3 — all except free agent Josh Naylor and second baseman/DH Jorge Polanco are already signed to new contracts or remain under team control (Polanco has a $7 million player option that he will likely opt out from).

Both remain good fits in the lineup after strong 2025 campaigns, especially Naylor. Other than a couple of solid years from Ty France in 2021-22, first base has been a revolving door — and a problem — for the Mariners ever since John Olerud was traded more than 20 years ago. Re-signing Naylor, in part because he also provides some much-needed contact skills in a strikeout-heavy lineup, feels imperative.

It’s not an old team either. Polanco (31), J.P. Crawford (30) and Randy Arozarena (30) are the only regulars older than 28 years old, while Luis Castillo (32) is the only starting pitcher older than 28. Castillo is signed for two more seasons while the other rotation members are also under control for at least two more years — Logan Gilbert (2027), George Kirby (2028) and Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller (2029). Having that kind of potential stability in the rotation is an enviable position — with Anderson likely to move fast through the minors and Ryan Sloan, a second-round pick out of high school in 2024 and now No. 43 in ESPN’s prospect rankings, flashing top-of-the-rotation stuff in his first minor league season and also capable of a quick rise to the majors.

The foundation for the team’s current success can be traced back to the 2018-19 offseason. Jerry Dipoto, the president of baseball operations, took over the top job for the Mariners after the 2015 season. They had winning seasons in 2016 and 2018, but after the second one, Dipoto was worried about the future of the organization.

“We were just coming off an 89-win season,” he told ESPN during the ALCS. “At the end of the regular season, I’ll sit down with our owners and talk through what the plan is for the year ahead. I thought the right thing to do after visiting with our front office group was just to reboot. We were a little too old, we were a little too top-heavy, and we had very little in the way of prospect capital. We weren’t going to be able to continue to beat that engine and sustain a competitive, championship-level team.”

The front office produces a flowchart of the organization each year that maps out the next six seasons, trying to estimate what those six years will look like. It didn’t look good, so the Mariners committed to a rebuild. It began with Crawford, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies for Jean Segura (after the Phillies had first asked for Edwin Diaz, who was instead traded to the Mets), and he’s been the team’s starting shortstop ever since.

Seattle also watched Julio Rodriguez, signed as a 16-year-old in 2017, flourish and develop into an immediate star as a 21-year-old rookie in 2022. His inability to lay off sliders low and away — like the final pitch of the 2025 season — can certainly be frustrating, but he’s had two 30-30 seasons by age 24 while averaging 5.7 WAR. His 6.8 WAR in 2025 ranked fourth among AL position players.

That he’s turned into a potential Gold Glove center fielder (he’s a finalist for the award this season) is just an added bonus.

“We all thought that he was going to wind up being a corner man,” Dipoto said. “And, you know, between the ages of 19 and 21, he leaned out, turned into athletic Adonis, and unbeknownst to us, coordinated with his agent, Ulises Cabrera, and invested in an Olympic running coach. He came to spring training in 2022, and he said, ‘You think I can play center field?’ Because he made it a goal of his to be a center fielder.”

Rodriguez not only impresses on the field, but off as well, with Dipoto speaking highly of his star player’s focus, how he wants to be great and how he has studied the careers of great athletes.

“When Julio is in a quiet space, he’s a deep thinker,” Dipoto said. “He is focused on becoming as great as he can become.”

Maybe there’s even more to come — especially if Rodriguez can learn to lay off those sliders.

Along the way, with Dipoto at the helm, the Mariners were drafting pitchers — and doing a great job of developing them. In 2018, they drafted Gilbert in the first round. In 2019, it was Kirby in the first round. Miller was a fourth-round pick in 2021 while Woo was a sixth-rounder that year. They acquired closer Andres Munoz and setup man Matt Brash in two separate trades with the San Diego Padres on the same day in 2020, giving up nobody of major consequence in either deal.

Dipoto credits Scott Hunter, his scouting director since 2016, and Hunter’s staff, as well as Justin Hollander, who is now the team’s general manager. It’s rare to find rotation stalwarts such as Miller and Woo at that point in the draft — let alone two high-leverage relievers in one day.

“Every player that’s been acquired in a trade or drafted was acquired while we were here, and that makes it really special,” Dipoto said. “This didn’t happen overnight. We’ve bumped our head, we’ve stubbed our toe, we’ve put our foot in our mouth. Literally. And you learn.

“To see J.P. Crawford out there since 2019. He’s the rock. To see Julio, who we signed as a 16-year-old, standing out in center field, doing things that really are on a Hall of Fame trajectory. To see Cal Raleigh, who we drafted and developed, go out there and have maybe the best catcher season in history. To see a starting rotation that is 80 percent homegrown.”

Dipoto first signed Crawford to a long-term deal in 2022, then Rodriguez later that same summer and Raleigh before this season. With J-Rod and Raleigh signed through at least 2031, the offensive foundation in Seattle is there, with that group of prospects on the way.

The ultimate key for 2026 sits with the rotation — it struggled in the ALCS with a 6.37 ERA and averaged less than four innings per start. Its collective WAR took a big dip from 2024:

Baseball-Reference
2025: 7.8 (19th)
2024: 11.7 (10th)

FanGraphs
2025: 11.0 (14th)
2024: 14.9 (fourth)

Some of the decline can be attributed to injuries — Gilbert, Kirby and Miller each missed significant time with them — but note the home/road splits in ERA for Seattle’s starters over the past two seasons:

2025
Home: 3.30
Road: 4.67

2024
Home: 2.74
Road: 4.05

Given the quick hooks manager Dan Wilson deployed throughout the postseason, it seemed he didn’t exactly trust his starters to go deep either (Woo, the best starter in the regular season, wasn’t at full strength and pitched only out of the bullpen in the ALCS).

It makes you wonder: Does this team need an ace? Perhaps one like Tarik Skubal, who is entering his final year with the Detroit Tigers before free agency and will see trade speculation follow him all winter if the Tigers don’t sign him to an extension. The Mariners have the prospects and the pitching depth to at least make a serious inquiry into Skubal.

Emerson is likely to take over at third base in 2025 and will eventually replace Crawford at shortstop in 2027 after Crawford’s deal runs out. That means letting the popular Suarez, the third baseman who the Mariners traded for at the deadline this year, leave as a free agent. Second baseman Cole Young (No. 57 on the preseason top 100 prospect list) played 77 games as a rookie this season and will get another shot after starting well before slumping to a final line of .211/.302/.305. He hit just four home runs, but he’s only 22 years old and there might be more power to come (“You should see his BP sessions,” Dipoto said). Rookie catcher Harry Ford, No. 65 in the August update, should take over the backup duties behind Raleigh after a strong showing at Triple-A, perhaps letting Raleigh take a few more DH at-bats and rest those legs after playing all but three regular-season games for Seattle in 2025.

Everyone around the team says that the oft-mentioned good vibes with the Mariners were the real deal, with a clubhouse that got along and a good-natured group of players. The ALCS defeat was disappointing, but the Mariners will be back.

“Players come here and they fall in love,” Dipoto said. “They fall in love with the environment. It’s a beautiful ballpark. It’s the clubhouse. It’s the camaraderie. It’s the 25 teammates. That’s an awesome thing that’s been happening here for a number of years.”

The foundation has been set. Now the organization just needs to figure out how to go one — or, preferably, two — steps further.

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Rising son: Gators task Spurrier Jr. to help QB

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17 hours ago

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October 22, 2025

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Rising son: Gators task Spurrier Jr. to help QB

  • Associated Press

Oct 22, 2025, 01:08 PM ET

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators are turning to Steve Spurrier to help fix the team’s floundering offense.

Steve Spurrier Jr., anyway.

Interim coach Billy Gonzales said Wednesday the younger Spurrier, who was hired as an offensive analyst earlier this year, will be more involved with quarterback DJ Lagway when the Gators (3-4, 2-2 SEC) play No. 5 Georgia (6-1, 4-1) in Jacksonville on Nov. 1.

Gonzales will have tight ends coach/offensive coordinator Russ Callaway organize the offense alongside quarterbacks coach Ryan O’Hara in the booth. O’Hara will be on the headset calling plays to Lagway.

Spurrier, meanwhile, will be on the sideline working directly with the sophomore quarterback.

“What we’re trying to do right now is tweak a couple things so we can put our players in a better situation to go out and make plays and perform at a higher level,” said Gonzales, named the interim after Billy Napier was fired Sunday. “We all understand that’s what we need to do. So that’s the No. 1 goal for us as a coaching staff right now.”

Napier was dismissed, in large part, because he failed to get Florida’s offense on track in his four seasons. The Gators totaled a combined 50 points in losses to South Florida, LSU, Miami and Texas A&M this fall, and they rank 15th in the league in scoring.

Facing the Bulldogs without Napier could show how much of a hindrance he was to an offense that believes it has enough talent to compete in the SEC. Gonzales has made it clear he wants to open things up more and get the ball down the field to receivers.

Spurrier is a part of the plan. The 54-year-old son of a Hall of Fame player and coach who is a living legend in Gainesville, Spurrier spent the past two years at Tulsa. He also worked at Mississippi State (2020-22), Washington State (2018-19), Western Kentucky (2017) and Oklahoma (2016). Before that, he spent a decade working under his famous father at South Carolina (2005-15).

“Whenever you’re around one of the greatest offensive minds in history, it’s obviously going to rub off on you as well,” Gonzales said. “He’s been involved, but now he’s going to have more of a role because he’s going to be down there on the field with the quarterback looking in his eyes and getting a chance to talk to him and review the film that’s being relayed.

“It’s going to put us in a great situation to help DJ and the quarterbacks perform on the football field.”

Lagway has thrown for 1,513 yards, with nine touchdowns and nine interceptions, this season while playing behind a shaky offensive line. He has looked better of late as he moves closer to fully recovering from a derailed offseason that included core-muscle surgery, nagging shoulder pain and a strained calf muscle.

“It’s been a long journey, and I’m thankful for the good and the bad,” Lagway said. “God doesn’t make any mistakes. I’m just excited to see where my journey continues and how I can continue to get better.”

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