The ultimate guide to the weirdest moments, unforgettable plays and defining quotes of Rivalry Week
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally was published in 2021.
It’s finally here, the week that hate — the clean, old-fashioned kind, mind you — is in fashion.
If you’ve ever been accused of firing a contractor because he wore a rival’s shirt to your house, this is your time. Put the flag up outside your house. Get the group texts fired up. Add a little school spirit to your Zoom background for your next meeting.
It’s Rivalry Week!
To celebrate, our reporters recap the excessive celebrations, tree desecrations and trash-can-fueled altercations from some of college football’s greatest games. Turn the fight song up and get the memes loaded up in your camera roll. Here we go.
Jump to a rivalry:
Ole Miss-Miss. State |
Oregon-Oregon State | Ohio State-Michigan
Kentucky-Louisville | Texas A&M-LSU
Alabama-Auburn | Arizona-Arizona State
Virginia-Virginia Tech | Washington State-Washington
Kentucky-Louisville | Florida State-Florida
Georgia-Georgia Tech | Clemson-South Carolina
North Carolina-NC State
All times Eastern
Thursday
Better known as: Egg Bowl
This year’s game: Thursday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN & ESPN App
All-time record: Ole Miss 64-47-6 (according to Ole Miss); 66-46-6 (according to Miss. State)
Current streak: Mississippi State, 1
Wildest on-field moment: Where do you start? Most recently, there was Ole Miss wide receiver Elijah Moore dropping to all fours in the end zone, lifting his leg and pretending to urinate like a dog in the 2019 Egg Bowl. His actions drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The Rebels missed the ensuing 35-yard extra point attempt and lost 21-20 to the Bulldogs. Three days later, Ole Miss fired coach Matt Luke, which precipitated the hiring of Lane Kiffin. Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead was probably under more pressure coming into that game. There was a feeling, fair or not, that he was an odd fit in Starkville after previous coaching stops at Penn State, Fordham and Connecticut, among other non-southern schools. Moorhead famously said that Thanksgiving night after the game, “This is my team, this is my school, this is my program. You’ll have to drag my Yankee ass out of here.” A little more than a month later, Moorhead was fired on Jan. 3, four days after Mississippi State lost to Louisville in the Music City Bowl. That’s despite going 2-0 against Ole Miss as Mississippi State’s coach. The ironic thing is that Moore’s stunt wasn’t original. DK Metcalf did it two years earlier in the end zone after catching a 63-yard touchdown pass in Ole Miss’ 31-28 win over Mississippi State. Three days later, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen bolted for the Florida head-coaching job.
Strangest off-field moment: Steve Robertson, a lifelong Mississippi State fan who has the school’s logo tattooed on his left hand, was researching former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze’s phone records on July 5, 2017, for a book Robertson was writing and found a call associated with advertisements for a female escort service.
Robertson, who had been covering Mississippi State sports since 2001, relayed his findings to attorney Thomas Mars, who was representing former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt in his lawsuit against Ole Miss. Mars alerted the Ole Miss general counsel in a July 13, 2017, email about the call, and a week later, Freeze was out as Ole Miss’ coach despite beating Alabama in back-to-back seasons, in 2014 and 2015, and guiding the Rebels to their first Sugar Bowl victory in 50 years to cap the 2015 season.
Robertson said he received multiple death threats and shared one with ESPN back in 2017 in which someone wrote on a message board that he “won’t be around much longer.” — Chris Low
Quote that defines the rivalry: C.R. “Dudy” Noble, the namesake for Mississippi State’s baseball field, played four sports at Mississippi State (then known as Mississippi A&M) then coached baseball, basketball and football at Ole Miss for parts of the 1917 to ’19 seasons, before returning to coach at Mississippi State, most notably baseball. He later became Mississippi State’s longtime athletic director.
Noble famously told a sports writer: “I already know what hell is like. I once coached at Ole Miss.”
A close second place in the quote department goes to former Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill. When Sherrill was hired in 1991, Ole Miss coach Billy Brewer called Sherrill a “habitual liar.” Sherrill countered by saying that Brewer “didn’t know what the word habitual meant.”
Friday
Better known as: The schools did away with Civil War moniker in 2019
This year’s game: Friday, 8:30 p.m., Fox
All-time record: Oregon, 67-49-10 (acc. to Oregon State); Oregon, 66-51-10 (acc. to Oregon)
Current streak: Oregon State, 1
Wildest on-field moment: It’s tough to beat the 1998 game. No. 15 Oregon was, of course, favored in the game, yet the nighttime setting in Corvallis made it ripe for an upset. The back-and-forth affair led to overtime, when a failed fourth-down try appeared to give Oregon State the victory. The fans rushed the field and surrounded the goalposts without noticing that there had been a flag thrown for pass interference. Security and team officials took more than 15 minutes to get all of the fans on the field back to their seats in order to continue the game. Oregon scored a touchdown to tie the game at 38 then added a field goal to start the second overtime.
The Beavers then handed the ball off to running back Ken Simonton, who had 157 yards on the ground and four touchdowns on the night, and he pranced into the end zone for a winning 16-yard touchdown run. The field was re-rushed, and the win not only gave the Beavers their first five-win season since 1971, it also set the stage for going 11-1 and winning the conference in the 2000 season.
Strangest off-field moment: This rivalry is no stranger to strange moments, but how about one that involved actual fire? In 2010, after the Ducks beat the Beavers in Corvallis to advance to the BCS title game, a group of Oregon fans were seen holding up an “I hate your Ducks” T-shirt that was on fire while they tried to light their celebratory cigars with it. The burning shirt soon ended up burning the turf and damaged the field. At the time, Oregon State’s assistant athletic director said the entire logo at midfield needed to be replaced, which would cost over $5,000. It was later determined that the damage was closer to $1,500.
Police found cigar wrappers on the field and eventually were able to catch the Oregon student via a photo in the Portland Tribune and a YouTube video in which the 20-year-old student was seen throwing the burning jersey onto the turf. Though he was not the one who lit the shirt on fire, he was charged with one felony and four misdemeanors. — Paolo Uggetti
Quote that defines the rivalry: At the risk of leaving out “No Natty for you” guy, this quote by running back Ryan Nall in advance of the 2017 matchup sums up the dynamic the two schools have with each other.
“I remember [at last year’s game] seeing that our sideline was jumping around, and we didn’t have raincoats on,” Nall said. “And then I saw the fancy Nike Duck raincoats on. And I remember thinking, ‘We’re going to beat them. They’re not prepared for these elements.'”
Nall was right. Oregon State beat the Ducks that day. But his trash talk was thrown back in his face during the 2017 game, as Oregon trounced the Beavers 69-10.
Saturday
Better known as: The Game
This year’s game: Saturday, noon, Fox
All-time record: Michigan, 60-51-6
Current streak: Michigan, 2
Wildest on-field moment: There was Desmond Howard striking the Heisman Trophy pose as Keith Jackson yelled, “Hello, Heisman.” Charles Woodson and David Boston going after each other in 1997. The 1950 Snow Bowl, a game that featured 45 punts and ended with a 9-3 Michigan win. The controversy over whether J.T. Barrett got a first down in the 2016 game. But one of the wildest moments came in 1973, when Ohio State ran onto the field to a roar of boos and ran straight toward Michigan’s “Go Blue” banner that the Wolverines jump and touch before every home game. The Buckeyes jumped up, grabbed the banner and tore it down in the middle of the field, which caused the boos to grow louder. That incident led to former Michigan players defending the banner in 1977, which caused an incident of its own. As Ohio State players ran under the banner, the Michigan alumni stood in the middle of the lane while body checking and pushing the Buckeyes players as they ran through. The incident caused Michigan announcer Bob Ufer to exclaim, “Oh brother, are you and I in for 60 minutes of football!”
Strangest off-field moment: This probably could have served as the wildest on-field moment, but it technically happened off the field. A dustup occurred in the 2013 game, and Ohio State offensive lineman Marcus Hall was ejected. He stormed to the sideline, threw his helmet to the ground, kicked a bench and left the field. As he made his way into the tunnel, he extended both arms and flipped off the Michigan fans as he exited. That moment went viral, and T-shirts were even made with a silhouette of Hall flipping the double bird. — Tom VanHaaren
Quote that defines the rivalry: “I can assure you that you will be proud of our young people in the classroom, the community and, most especially, in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan.” — new Ohio State coach Jim Tressel at a Buckeyes basketball game after being hired to replace John Cooper, who went 2-10-1 against Michigan.
Better known as: Governor’s Cup
This year’s game: Saturday, noon, ABC and ESPN App
All-time record: Kentucky, 19-15
Current streak: Kentucky, 4
Wildest on-field moment: Louisville was a massive, four-touchdown favorite entering the 2016 game, with future Heisman winner Lamar Jackson leading the way. But the Cards’ season had already begun to fall apart the week before when Jackson was bludgeoned by Ed Oliver and the Houston defensive front. Against Kentucky, Jackson struggled badly, throwing three interceptions. Still, Louisville had a shot to win, with a first-and-goal play, tied at 38 with 1:45 to go. Instead, Jackson was hit in the backfield and fumbled. Kentucky recovered, drove 60 yards on seven plays and kicked a winning field goal to hand the Wildcats their first Governor’s Cup since 2010.
Strangest off-field moment: OK, this happened on the field — but not during a play. Louisville was looking for revenge in 2017 after Kentucky pulled the massive upset the year before, and Jackson was the catalyst. The emotions were high from the outset, and when Jackson scored in the first quarter, a skirmish broke out on the sideline. Jackson got into it with Kentucky’s Jordan Jones, but it was Wildcats linebacker Denzil Ware who stole the show by picking up a plastic trash can and attacking a Louisville player with it. — David M. Hale
Quote that defines the rivalry: Although the two schools initially played in 1912, the rivalry went dark from 1924 until 1994. When the rivalry kicked off again, Louisville was considered an upstart program, while Kentucky was already battling in the difficult SEC East. Former Kentucky coach Bill Curry summed up the general feeling for the Wildcats, who saw the game as an obstacle, while Louisville saw opportunity: “To add another stem-winder, another gut-check game, was just not smart scheduling on our part, whereas for Louisville, it was a great thing.” Kentucky prevailed 20-14.
Better known as: Nothing, but Les Miles once had an idea: “We need a trophy. Somebody needs to come up with a trophy. There’s so much petroleum right? On both ends. Maybe some kind of big petroleum something. No, not a barrel. A wrench or something.”
This year’s game: Saturday, noon, ESPN and ESPN App
All-time record: LSU, 35-23-3
Current streak: Texas A&M, 1
Wildest on-field moment: The two teams played 50 times before they were ever in the same conference, so there is plenty of history. But we just have to go back to 2018 for this one, to when A&M beat LSU 74-72 in an epic, seven-overtime game that set the FBS record for the most points in a game and lasted nearly five hours. That, in itself, was wild. But afterward, with fans storming the field and Texas A&M receivers coach Dameyune Craig — who was fired by LSU coach Ed Orgeron following the 2016 season — jawing at LSU coaches, a melee broke out. LSU offensive analyst Steve Kragthorpe (himself a former A&M offensive coordinator) intervened with Craig, and A&M student manager Cole Fisher, Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher’s nephew, shoved Kragthorpe. Cole Fisher then traded punches with LSU running backs coach Kevin Faulk and was punched by LSU safety John Battle. “I didn’t appreciate getting punched in my pacemaker,” Kragthorpe told Gannett Louisiana newspapers afterward, though video showed it to be a shove, albeit in his chest. Jimbo Fisher said “the matter has been addressed internally” on A&M’s end; and Kragthorpe, who has Parkinson’s disease, was OK. But that game supercharged the now-divisional rivalry.
Strangest off-field moment: The two are fierce recruiting rivals. But no signee was under as much scrutiny as Billy Cannon Jr., son of LSU’s legendary 1959 Heisman Trophy winner. The younger Cannon chose Texas A&M in 1980, saying he didn’t “owe LSU his blood” and that he wanted to leave Louisiana. LSU retired the elder Cannon’s No. 20 jersey in 1960, but after his son picked the Aggies, there was a failed movement to unretire the father’s jersey. LSU and the Aggies also went to the wire in 1986 for the services of one of the nation’s top recruits, running back Harvey Williams. Williams, a star at Hempstead (Texas) High School, just 42 miles from College Station, told Sports Illustrated he was set to sign with the Aggies but that he heard a cheerleader singing the “Aggie War Hymn” on the way to his announcement, got annoyed and changed his selection to LSU. For a little extra fuel, he added: “All that military and uniforms and yell leaders, I don’t get off on that stuff. And that dog — Reveille — that dog is so sorry. I can’t stand that dog.” — Dave Wilson
Quote that defines the rivalry: “I hope they enjoyed it. I hope they put the score of last year’s game too. I bet they didn’t sell many cups on that one.” — Orgeron to WAFB-TV in the spring of 2020, following LSU’s 50-7 defeat of the Aggies in 2019 after Texas A&M sold cups at Kyle Field concessions stands with 2018’s 74-72 score on them.
Better known as: Iron Bowl
This year’s game: Saturday, 3:30 p.m., CBS
All-time record: Alabama, 49-37-1
Current streak: Alabama, 3
Wildest on-field moment: At first, it looked as if the official review might save Alabama, which was one win away from reaching the SEC title game in 2013 and a shot at a third consecutive BCS National Championship appearance. With the contest tied at 28, running back T.J. Yeldon sprinted across midfield and ran out of bounds right as the play clock hit 0:00 on the field. But officials took another look and decided one second should be placed back on the clock — enough time for Alabama coach Nick Saban to have his place-kicker attempt a 56-yard field goal.
And just like that, the Kick Six was born. Adam Griffith’s kick fell short. Chris Davis caught the ball in the back of the end zone, started running toward the middle of the field, then veered to his left. Alabama’s field goal team was late getting into coverage and couldn’t stop Davis from breaking containment, and he danced down the sideline for a touchdown. Auburn won the game, fans stormed the field and Alabama was stunned. Auburn went on to the SEC championship game and the BCS title game.
“First time I’ve lost a game that way,” Saban said. “First time I’ve ever seen a game lost that way.”
Strangest off-field moment: Al from Dadeville wasn’t Al from Dadeville at all. His real name was Harvey Updyke, and he was from Louisiana, and he called in to Paul Finebaum’s radio show one day with a story of how overheated the Iron Bowl rivalry can get.
Updyke, an Alabama fan, said he was at the 2010 game in Tuscaloosa when he saw someone place a Cam Newton jersey on former Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s statue.
“Let me tell you what I did,” Updyke told Finebaum. “The weekend after the Iron Bowl, I went to Auburn, Alabama, because I live 30 miles away. I poisoned the two Toomer’s trees. I put Spike 80DF in them.”
Finebaum, who wasn’t taking it all that seriously, asked, “Did they die?”
“They’re not dead yet, but they definitely will die,” Updyke said.
Finebaum then asked, “Is that against the law to poison a tree?
“Do you think I care?” Updyke said. “I really don’t. Roll damn Tide.”
Updyke did poison the famed oaks on Toomer’s Corner, which had stood for more than 70 years as a gathering place for Auburn fans to celebrate. The school fought to save the trees, but in 2013, they had to be removed.
Updyke, who died in 2020, was charged with criminal mischief, desecrating a venerated object and damaging agriculture. He was later convicted of felony criminal damage of an agricultural facility, served more than 70 days in jail and was ordered to pay about $800,000 in restitution. — Alex Scarborough
Quote that defines the rivalry: From 1904 to 1988, every Iron Bowl was played in Birmingham, which was only an hour’s drive from the University of Alabama but twice as far from Auburn. When Pat Dye took over as coach at Auburn in 1981, he wanted to change that. But his former boss, Bryant, said they’d never agree to it as long as he was still coaching. To which Dye famously replied, “You ain’t gon’ coach forever.” Bryant reminded Dye that they had a contract to play in Birmingham through 1988. Fine, Dye said, they’d play the game in Auburn in 1989 then. And they did. The 11th-ranked Tigers upset No. 2 Alabama 30-20 in the first rivalry game ever played in their home stadium. Afterward, Dye told his team how much that meant to him: “Sure I’d like to be 11-0, but I wouldn’t swap this year for any year that I’ve been at Auburn.”
Better known as: Territorial Cup
This year’s game: Saturday, 3:30 p.m., ESPN and ESPN App
All-time record: Arizona, 50-46-1
Current streak: Arizona, 1
Wildest on-field moment: Arizona State had already locked up a berth in the Rose Bowl when it traveled to Tucson in 1986, and the only blemish on its record was a tie. Down 24-10 late in the third quarter, the Sun Devils were driving with a chance to make it a one-score game. On third-and-goal, Chuck Cecil stepped in front of a Jeff Van Raaphorst pass six yards deep in the end zone and returned it for a touchdown. The touchdown sealed a famous win for Arizona and, perhaps more importantly, prevented Arizona State from finishing undefeated. For Arizona, Cecil’s interception return stands as one of the most iconic moments in program history.
Strangest off-field moment: Unlike most long-standing rivalries, there hasn’t been one iconic trophy on the line in the Arizona-ASU football game for a significant period of time. Multiple trophies have cycled in and out over the past 70 years or so. Still, the Territorial Cup is the oldest rivalry trophy in college football, dating back to 1899. After its debut more than a century ago, the Cup went missing for the next 80 years, only to be discovered in a church basement in 1980. It has been awarded to the winner of the game since 2001. — Kyle Bonagura
Quote that defines the rivalry: “This rivalry goes back [to 1899]. The Territorial Cup has really emotional fan bases when it comes to this football game. It’s one of longest rivalries in college football, so that’s always good. The guys that have played in this game have competed in it; they understand the validity of it.” — Sun Devils coach Herm Edwards, 2018
Better known as: Commonwealth Cup
This year’s game: Saturday, 3:30 p.m., ACC Network and ESPN App
All-time record: Virginia Tech, 60-38-5 (acc. to Tech); Virginia Tech, 58-38-5 (acc. to UVA)
Current streak: Virginia Tech, 2 (and 17 of the past 18)
Wildest on-field moment: Virginia held a commanding 29-14 lead entering the fourth quarter of the 1995 installment of the Commonwealth Cup. The Hokies stormed back on the arm of signal-caller Jim Druckenmiller, taking a one-point lead with 47 seconds to play. UVA’s final comeback attempt was thwarted when Virginia Tech’s Antonio Banks picked off a pass and returned it for a score. But what’s most remembered from that play is Virginia trainer Joe Gieck sticking his foot out in a feigned attempt to trip Banks as the Hokies’ defender raced down the Cavaliers sideline. Gieck insisted the incident was just a joke and that he never came close to tripping Banks, adding, “I’ve seen too many people break a tibia [doing that] in soccer.”
Strangest off-field moment: These days, Virginia Tech players expect wins against their chief rival, but at the turn of the 20th century, things were different. Hence the story of the long career of Hunter Carpenter, a future Hall of Fame halfback who played for the Hokies from 1899 through 1903. In 1899, Carpenter’s team was demolished by Virginia, and he vowed revenge. Unfortunately for Carpenter, he lost again in 1900 and 1901 and 1902 and 1903. Inexplicably, Carpenter then enrolled at North Carolina — a far better football program at the time — in hopes he might finally beat Virginia in 1904. He lost again. In 1905, Carpenter returned to Virginia Tech — his eighth year playing college football — and faced allegations by the UVA newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, that he was being paid. He was forced to sign an affidavit denying it, and he finally got his win. The outcome became so contentious that Virginia refused to play the Hokies again until 1923. — David M. Hale
Quote that defines the rivalry: In 1989, former Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer was dealing with heart problems, which raised alarms when he collapsed on the sideline during the Hokies game with Virginia that year. It turns out, Beamer had actually been on the receiving end of an errant elbow during a tackle attempt. “So, I got this heart issue going,” Beamer said, “I got a tooth knocked out, and we lost the game.” No doubt the score was the one that bothered Beamer most.
Better known as: Apple Cup
This year’s game: Saturday, 4 p.m., Fox
All-time record: Washington, 75-33-6
Current streak: Washington, 1
Wildest on-field moment: When an individual game within a rivalry is branded with its own name, it’s a good indicator that something unique took place. For the Apple Cup, the Snow Bowl is that game. After climbing to No. 13 in the AP poll a few weeks earlier, Washington State had lost three of four and entered the 1992 Apple Cup at home against No. 5 Washington. The Huskies had been ranked No. 1 until a loss to No. 12 Arizona two weeks prior but had still already locked up a trip to the Rose Bowl.
It began to snow the morning of the game and really started to come down after kickoff. At halftime, Washington, which was led by quarterback Mark Brunell, led 7-6 at halftime as neither team could find any sort of an offensive rhythm. In blizzard-like conditions in the second half, everything changed. WSU quarterback Drew Bledsoe caught fire and led the Cougars to 29 third-quarter points, including one of the most iconic plays in WSU and Apple Cup history: a 44-yard touchdown pass to Phillip Bobo, who slid into a snowbank underneath the goalpost after making the catch.
Strangest off-field moment: A lot of what made the 2002 game strange — for all the wrong reasons — technically took place on the field, but not until the game was over. Unranked Washington beat No. 3 Washington State 29-26 in triple overtime in a game that ended when the officials ruled a WSU bubble screen was a backward pass and recovered by Washington. The response from the crowd at Pullman’s Martin Stadium was ugly, as fans rained down bottles and whatever else they had at their disposal toward the field. Washington star wide receiver Reggie Williams was pelted with a bottle, and UW athletic director Barbara Hedges stated she “feared for her life,” marring the end of one of the best WSU regular seasons in history. — Kyle Bonagura
Quote that defines the rivalry: “One game doesn’t make a season, but the people who say that haven’t participated in the Apple Cup.” — former WSU coach Mike Price
Better known as: Sunshine Showdown
This year’s game: Saturday, 7 p.m., ESPN and ESPN App
All-time record: Florida, 37-27-2
Current streak: Florida State, 1
Wildest on-field moment: It is so hard to choose between the Choke at Doak in 1994 or the Sugar Bowl in 1997 when Florida won the national championship or Florida upsetting No. 1 Florida State 32-29 by rotating quarterbacks in 1997 or Doug Johnson throwing a football near Bobby Bowden’s head during a pregame brawl in 1998 or a postgame fight between the teams in 2003 after Florida State started stomping on the logo at midfield (a game marred by horrific officiating calls). As you can see, there have been plenty of wild moments. But if we had to choose one, the most notable has to be the Choke at Doak, when Florida blew a 31-3 fourth-quarter lead in Tallahassee. The game ended in a 31-31 tie, but it felt like a win to many Seminoles. Florida coach Steve Spurrier said of the game, “They were all bragging about the tie. I said, ‘Hell, it’s the same for you as it is for us.'” Spurrier never did beat Florida State in Tallahassee.
Strangest off-field moment: Perhaps the most contentious moment in the rivalry happened after their 1996 regular-season matchup, when Spurrier accused Florida State coach Bobby Bowden of trying to deliberately take out quarterback Danny Wuerffel. Florida State won the game 24-21, but the teams ended up in a rematch in the Sugar Bowl to decide the national championship. Bowden said of the accusations: “We might hit ’til the echo instead of just the whistle. We try to do it legally. They usually call it if it’s too late.” It was not a good enough explanation for Spurrier, who said, “We are not going to go to the Sugar Bowl and take the crap that we took in Tallahassee. Maybe we’re declaring war on the Seminoles, and maybe they’ve declared war on us, but we’re looking forward to competing with them — not for a national championship, not for anything except trying to beat them. That should be as big a goal as we could possibly have.” Florida won the rematch 52-20 to claim its first national title. — Andrea Adelson
Quote that defines the rivalry: “You know what FSU stands for, don’t you? Free Shoes University.” — Spurrier
Better known as: Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate
This year’s game: Saturday, 7:30 p.m., ABC and ESPN App
All-time record: Georgia, 70-39-5 (acc. to Georgia); 70-41-5 (acc. to Tech)
Current streak: Georgia, 5 (and 18 of the past 21)
Wildest on-field moment: In the 1999 edition in Atlanta, the score was tied at 48 with 13 seconds to go. Georgia had the ball at Tech’s 2-yard line on first-and-goal. Instead of kicking a field goal to potentially win the game, Georgia coach Jim Donnan elected to go for a touchdown. Jasper Sanks took a handoff, dove for the goal line and — depending on which side you were on — either fumbled or was down before losing the ball. TV replays showed Sanks was down, but it was before the introduction of instant replay rules. So, the only thing that mattered was the officials ruled Sanks fumbled the ball, and Georgia Tech took possession at its 1-yard line. The game went into overtime, and Tech’s Luke Manget kicked a field goal to give the Yellow Jackets a controversial 51-48 victory. The next week, then-SEC commissioner Roy Kramer suspended referee Al Ford and his six-man crew from working the SEC championship game.
Wildest off-field moment: The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets don’t agree about much of anything, including the all-time series record. Georgia says it has a 68-39-5 advantage; the Yellow Jackets claim 41 victories in the series. The dispute lies in games played during World War II, in 1943 and 1944, during which Georgia Tech won by a combined score of 92-0. Many of the Bulldogs’ best players from their 1942 national championship enlisted in the war, so there wasn’t a single returning starter. In fact, most of Georgia’s players were under the age of 18 and weren’t eligible for the military draft. Conversely, Georgia Tech benefited from having an on-campus Navy V-12 Program, from which it was able to recruit football players, as well as a Navy flight school, which attracted players from other schools. Georgia still distinguishes the disputed games in its media guide and record books with asterisks. — Mark Schlabach
Quote that defines the rivalry: “Lose to Tech, you don’t put up a Christmas tree. That’s my rule.” — Erk Russell, whose family apparently went without the holiday tradition only four times in his 17 seasons as Georgia’s defensive coordinator from 1964 to 1980.
Better known as: Palmetto Bowl
This year’s game: Saturday, 7:30 p.m., SEC Network and ESPN App
All-time record: Clemson, 72-43-4
Current streak: South Carolina, 1
Wildest on-field moment: The nation’s second-longest continuously played rivalry (it ended at 111 games last year; thanks COVID-19) is packed with title-worthy moments, from The Return and The Brawl to The Catch and The Catch II (or as Gamecocks fans call it, The Push-Off). But the peak pissed-off moment of the game’s history happened in 1992. That’s when cocky, rattail-wearing quarterback Steve Taneyhill took over a South Carolina team that had started the season 0-5 and led the Gamecocks to four wins in his five starts, including an upset 24-13 victory over the reeling Tigers. Taneyhill threw for nearly 300 yards in the cold rain, and along the way, he stood on the bench and taunted the orange crowd, swung an imaginary baseball bat, was carried off the field by jubilant fans and, most notably, ran to Death Valley’s midfield and acted as if he was signing his autograph atop Clemson’s sacred Tiger Paw logo. A poster of that moment is still on display in sports bars and man caves from Charleston to Greenville.
Strangest off-field moment: OK, so it was on the field, but it involved a bunch of guys who should have been off the field. In 1961, Clemson took the field in Columbia and started their pregame warm-ups, but they were the weirdest warm-ups ever, including dancing and stumbling and dropping passes. They even convinced the Clemson band to play the “Tiger Rag.” But when the real Tigers jogged out, confused and then angry, the crowd realized that the “team” they’d been watching was instead members of South Carolina’s Sigma Nu fraternity. — Ryan McGee
Quote that defines the rivalry: “They ain’t Alabama. They ain’t LSU. And they’re certainly not Clemson. That’s why Carolina’s in Chapel Hill and USC’s in California and the university in this state always has been, always will be, Clemson.” — Tigers coach Dabo Swinney, 2011
Better known as: Carolina-State
This year’s game: Saturday, 8 p.m., ACC Network and ESPN App
All-time record: UNC, 68-38-6
Current streak: NC State, 2
Wildest on-field moment: This game has never been as big of a deal as it should be, at least not nationally. When these squads met as ranked teams one year ago, it was only the third time in 110 meetings that both teams were in the AP Top 25. But forget that neither one of these Tobacco Road anchors has been as good at football as they should be or that they have inexplicably kept this game off the final weekend of the schedule more often than not; this is a game that generates plenty of heat across the Old North State. (Trust me: I grew up dodging postgame fights in the Carter-Finley Stadium parking lot.) The 2004 edition of the game was in Chapel Hill, and the home crowd was left heartbroken when Wolfpack tailback T.A. McLendon rumbled into the end zone for a game-tying TD in the closing seconds, with the would-be game-winning PAT forthcoming. As one goal line official signaled touchdown, another ran in and said McLendon’s knee had hit the turf before the ball crossed the goal line. On the next play, McClendon ran it in again, this time going airborne. UNC’s Khalif Mitchell blasted the ball from McClendon’s grasp, and the game ended with a Tar Heels fumble recovery and a 30-24 win.
Strangest off-field moment: After the 1905 game ended in a 0-0 score, the third straight tie in the rivalry, the NC State football team received a congratulatory telegram from Trinity College, a little school in nearby Durham that had yet to start a football program. In 1925, Trinity changed its name to Duke. — Ryan McGee
Quote that defines the rivalry: “You might not hear much about that game around the country, and that’s fine. But if you ever walk into a bar anywhere in the state of North Carolina and you see a guy in khakis and his Carolina polo staring at a guy in his jeans and an NC State T-shirt, clear the room, because it’s about to go down.” — Philip Rivers, NC State quarterback, 2000-03, who posted a 3-1 record vs. UNC
-
David Hale
CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney has a knack for finding a silver lining. It has been his defining trait over the past five seasons, as Clemson has hovered near the top of the ACC, but frustratingly far from the run of dominance it enjoyed in the 2010s. In a loss, Swinney found lessons. Even after a blowout, he saw hope. Even in the midst of fan revolt, he found all the evidence he needed of an inevitable turnaround within his own locker room.
Perhaps that’s what’s most jarring about Clemson’s most recent bout with mediocrity. It’s not just that the Tigers, the prohibitive favorite in the ACC to open the season, are 1-3 heading into Saturday’s showdown with equally disappointing and 2-2 North Carolina (noon ET, ESPN), but that Swinney’s usual optimism has been tinged with his own frustration.
“It’s just an absolute coaching failure,” Swinney said. “I don’t know another way to say it. And I’m not pointing the finger, I’m pointing the thumb. It starts with me, because I hired everybody, and I empower everybody and equip everybody.”
Record aside, Clemson has been here before — after slow starts in 2021, 2022, 2023 and last year’s blowout at the hands of Georgia to open the season. And yet, at each of those turns, Swinney remained his program’s biggest salesman.
Now, after the Tigers’ worst start since 2004, not even Swinney is immune to the reality. The questions are bigger, the stakes are higher and the solutions are more ephemeral.
In the aftermath of an emphatic loss to Syracuse in Death Valley two weeks ago, ESPN social posted the historic upset in bold type. The response from former Clemson defensive end Xavier Thomas echoed the frustration so many inside the Tigers’ once impenetrable inner sanctum are feeling.
“At this point,” Thomas replied, “it’s not even an upset anymore.”
Two months remain of a seemingly lost season. There is a path for Clemson to rebound, as it has before, and finish with a respectable, albeit disappointing, record. But there is another road, too — one hardly imagined by anyone inside the program just weeks ago. A road that leads to the end of a dynasty.
“He’s definitely bought himself some time to be able to have some hiccups along the way,” former Clemson receiver Hunter Renfrow said. “He’s an unbelievable coach and leader, and he’ll get it figured out.”
FORMER CLEMSON RUNNING back and now podcaster Darien Rencher banked a cache of interviews with star players during fall camp that he planned to release as the season progressed. Most have been evergreen. At the time he talked with Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, that one did, too. Looking back, it feels more like a time capsule, one that can’t be unearthed without a full autopsy of what has unfolded since.
“A month and a half ago, we’re talking about him being a front-runner for the Heisman, a top-five draft pick,” Rencher said. “I mean — my gosh.”
Any unspooling of what has gone wrong at Clemson must start with the quarterback.
Klubnik’s career followed a pretty straight trend — a rocky rookie season primarily as the backup to a sophomore campaign filled with growing pains to a coming-out party last season that ended with 336 passing yards and three touchdowns in a playoff loss to Texas. The obvious next step was into the echelon of elite QBs — not just nationally, but within the pantheon of Clemson’s best, alongside Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence.
Instead, Klubnik has looked lost.
“It can’t be physical unless he’s got the yips, which maybe he does,” former Clemson offensive lineman and current ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain said. “It’s bad sometimes. You’ve got guys screaming wide-open, and he’s looking at them, and the ball’s just not coming out. That’s the unexplainable thing.”
Through four games, Klubnik has nearly as many passing touchdowns (six) as he does interceptions (four).
There are, however, more than a few folks around the program who believe they can explain the struggles — for Klubnik and other stars who underwhelmed in September.
“We don’t got no dogs at Clemson,” former All-America defensive end Shaq Lawson posted in early September. “NIL has changed everything.”
It’s telling that even Swinney also has been vocal in his critique of Klubnik.
“It’s routine stuff. Basic, not complicated, like just simple reads, simple progression,” Swinney said of Klubnik’s play in Week 1, a performance that has been mirrored in subsequent games. “Holding the ball and running out of the pocket. Just didn’t play well, and so I didn’t have to talk to him. He already knew. He knows the game.”
This is a different era of college football, and while Swinney often sought a measure of patience with his players before, Klubnik is, by most reports, the second-highest-paid person inside the football building after Swinney, so the expectations have changed.
“If [Klubnik] ain’t a dude, we ain’t winning,” Swinney said after the loss to LSU in Week 1. “Dudes got to be dudes. This is big boy football.”
That massive NIL paydays and equally immense hype might underpin Klubnik’s struggles is not without anecdotal evidence. Look around the country and there are plenty of others — Florida‘s DJ Lagway, Texas‘ Arch Manning, UCLA‘s Nico Iamaleava, South Carolina‘s LaNorris Sellers and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier — who’ve endured rough starts to seasons that were supposed to be star turns.
And yet, for Klubnik, this feels like a hollow excuse. He is, according to numerous coaches and teammates, unflinchingly competitive and talented. If anything, the knock on Klubnik the past few years has been his eagerness to play the role of hero, to do too much.
Perhaps the bigger impact of NIL on Klubnik’s performance comes in how far he has been from earning the paycheck. The millions could be an excuse to relax or a burden to live up to, and Klubnik’s tape through four games shows a QB scrambling to look the part rather than simply playing the game as he always has.
“It’s a tough sport and a team sport. There’s no perfect quarterback,” Klubnik said. “For me, I’m not paying attention to how other quarterbacks are playing, but I’m competitive whether we’re good or not, and I’m going to fight to the very end. I feel like the tape shows that, but you ask anybody in this facility about who I am and who this team is, we’re going to fight and we’re not going anywhere.”
SWINNEY HAS OFTEN bristled at outright criticism of his own performance, like his tirade in response to one apoplectic Clemson fan — Tyler from Spartanburg — who called into Swinney’s radio show after a 4-4 start to the 2023 season demanding change. Swinney’s rant was largely credited as inspiring a five-game winning streak to end the year, an emphatic rebuke to those ready to write his epitaph.
“He’s done it his way,” Renfrow said of Swinney. “And he’s built a really good roster. Three months ago, everyone was crowning us as the best team to play this year.”
The narrative has quickly changed, and Swinney isn’t arguing.
“Everybody can start throwing mud now,” Swinney said even before this latest round of mudslinging began in earnest. “Bring it on, say we suck again. Tell everybody we suck. Coaches suck, Cade stinks. Start writing that again.”
During Clemson’s past four seasons — years of 10, 10, nine and 10 wins — the underlying narrative was that the Tigers remained good, but they were slowly falling behind the competition due to Swinney’s stubborn insistence on remaining old-school. He was tagged as reluctant to embrace the NIL era due to comments he made in 2014, seven years before NIL began (though Clemson was heavily invested in its players via its collective at the time), and for multiple seasons, he refused to deal in the portal, retaining the vast majority of his recruited talent but adding nothing in the portal until this offseason.
And yet, Swinney has evolved — even if a bit more gradually than most coaches.
“One of the lazy takes on Swinney is he hasn’t changed,” Rencher said. “He did what he needed to do to give them a chance. He went and got the best offensive coordinator [Garrett Riley] in the country to come to Clemson. He got one of the most renowned defensive coordinators [Tom Allen] in the country who was just in the playoffs to come to Clemson. He went in the portal and got a stud D-end [in Will Heldt]. He paid his guys, retained his roster. These guys got paid.”
Even amid the hefty criticism coming from former players, little has been directed at Swinney. They played for him, they know him, and they’re convinced he’s not the source of Clemson’s struggles.
The new coordinators — Riley was hired in 2023, and Allen was hired this offseason — and current players, however, are a different story.
“They want to win more than we do,” former edge rusher KJ Henry posted amid Clemson’s stunning loss against Syracuse.
The outpouring of frustration from former players — many, such as Henry, who endured a share of setbacks during Clemson’s more rocky stretch in the 2020s — has been notable.
Heldt said he has not paid much attention to outside criticism, but he understands it.
“They’ve earned the right,” Heldt said. “They put in the time and have earned the right to say how they feel, but I don’t put too much thought into that.”
If the commentary hasn’t seeped into the locker room, the message still seems clear.
Swinney’s scathing review of the coaching staff — himself included — this week was evidence that the whole culture is off. Swinney was lambasted for years for an insular approach to building a staff, hiring mostly former Clemson players and promoting from within, but those hires at least maintained a culture that had driven championships. But now, the disjointed play and lack of any obvious identity on both sides of the ball has made Riley and Allen feel more like mercenaries than saviors, and the result is a sum that is less than its individual parts.
Riley’s playcalling has been questioned relentlessly. In the second half against LSU, with Clemson either ahead or within a score, the Tigers virtually abandoned the run game entirely.
Allen was brought in to toughen up a defense that was scorched last season by Louisville, SMU, Texas and, in the most embarrassing performance of the season, by Sellers and rival South Carolina. And yet, with NFL talent such as Heldt, Peter Woods and T.J. Parker on the defensive line, Syracuse owned the line of scrimmage in its Week 4 win in Death Valley.
Meanwhile promising recruits such as T.J. Moore and Gideon Davidson have yet to look ready for the big time, and the transfer additions beyond Heldt — Tristan Smith and Jeremiah Alexander — have offered virtually nothing.
Start making a list of all the things that have gone wrong, and the frustration is apparent.
“Dropped balls, Cade misses a guy, the offensive line gets beat, Cade has PTSD and rolls out when he shouldn’t — it’s just all these things,” Rencher said. “You can blame a lot of things but it’s just too much wrong to where it can’t be right. It’s too many things everywhere so it can’t come together. You can overcome some things, but they’re just all not on the same page.”
BEFORE HIS GAME against Clemson, which Georgia Tech ultimately won on a last-second field goal, Yellow Jackets coach Brent Key set the stage for what he knew would be a battle, despite the Tigers’ rocky start.
“No one’s better at playing the underdog than Dabo,” Key said.
Swinney has resurrected his teams again and again, swatted away the critics, stayed true to his core philosophies and emerged victorious — if not a national champion.
So, is this year really different? Has Clemson lost its edge? Has Swinney lost his magic?
“I see an extremely talented team,” Syracuse defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson said. “Those guys are dangerous. I don’t care what their record is. That’s not just a team, that’s a program. Dabo Swinney does a great job, and they went out and lost the first game last year and went on to win the conference. A lot of these kids, when I was at Texas A&M, we tried to recruit them. People can think what they want when they look at the record. I’m not looking at the record at all.”
Added another assistant coach who faced Clemson this season: “It wouldn’t surprise me if they run the table the rest of the way.”
Winning out would still get Clemson to 10 wins, a mark that has been the standard under Swinney. Winning out would likely shift all the criticism of September into another offseason of promise, such as the one Clemson just enjoyed. Winning out is still possible, according to the players there who’ve said a deep breath during an off week has been a chance to reset and start anew.
“The college football landscape has changed so much over the last 10 years,” Renfrow said. “But developing, teaching, coaching, bringing people together — that hasn’t, and Swinney’s as good as I’ve been around at those things.”
That’s largely the lesson Florida State head coach Mike Norvell took from his team’s miserable 2-10 performance a year ago. In the face of a landslide of change and criticism, the key is doubling down on the beliefs that made a coach successful to begin with, not a host of changes intended to appease the masses.
“The dynamic of college football and being a part of a team and the pressures that are within an organization now are greater than they’ve ever been,” Norvell said. “You put money into the equation, and you have all the agents and people surrounding these kids, when things don’t go as expected, you’ve got to really stay true to who you are and make sure you’re connected with these guys at their needs. The example we had last year, we didn’t do a great job at that because as the tidal wave of challenges showed up, it’s critical to refocus and revamp the guys for what they can do. It’s not fun to go through, but I think you’ll continue to see more and more.”
The game has changed, and Clemson, for all of Swinney’s steadfast resolve, has been swept along with the currents.
There’s a legacy at Clemson, one it helped build, and for all its faith in Swinney’s process, it’s not hard to see the cracks in the façade.
Never mind the record, Rencher said. Maintaining the Clemson standard is what’s at stake now.
“That, more than any loss, would be the most disappointing thing, if they didn’t respond,” Rencher said. “Swinney’s optimistic. They’re built to last. He said they’re going to use all these things people are throwing at us to build more championships, and I believe him. Clemson is built on belief and responding the right way. It would be unlike Clemson to not respond. That would be so much more disappointing than going 1-3 if we just laid down. If this is the class that just lays down, I can’t imagine that.”
-
Alden Gonzalez
WHEN THE LOW point arrived last year, on Sept. 15 in Atlanta, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts broke character and challenged some of his players in a meeting many of them later identified as a fulcrum in their championship run.
This year, he attempted to strike a more positive tone.
It was Sept. 6. The Dodgers had just been walked off in Baltimore, immediately after being swept in Pittsburgh, and though they were still 15 games above .500, a sense of uneasiness lingered. Their division lead was slim, consistency remained elusive and spirits were noticeably down. Roberts saw an opportunity to take stock.
“He was talking to us about the importance of what was in front of us,” Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said in Spanish. “At that time, there were like seven, eight weeks left because we only had three weeks left in the regular season, and he wanted all of us, collectively, to think about what we were still capable of doing, and the opportunity we still had to win another championship.”
Later that night, Yoshinobu Yamamoto got within an out of no-hitting the Baltimore Orioles, then he surrendered a home run to Jackson Holliday and watched the bullpen implode after his exit, allowing three additional runs in what became the Dodgers’ most demoralizing loss of the season. The next morning, though, music blared inside Camden Yards’ visiting clubhouse. Players were upbeat, vibes were positive.
The Dodgers won behind an effective Clayton Kershaw later that afternoon, then reeled off 16 wins over their next 21 games — including back-to-back emphatic victories over the Cincinnati Reds in the first round of the playoffs.
It took a day, but Roberts’ message had seemingly landed.
“We needed some positivity,” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said, “to remove all of the negativity that we were feeling in that moment.”
As they approach a highly anticipated National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Dodgers once again look like one of the deepest, most fearsome teams in the sport.
But the journey there was arduous.
A Dodgers team many outsiders pegged as a candidate to break the regular-season-wins record of 116 ultimately won only 93, its fewest total in seven years. Defending a championship, a task no team has successfully pulled off in a quarter-century, has proven to be a lot more difficult than many Dodger players anticipated. But they’ve maintained a belief that their best selves would arrive when it mattered most. And whether it’s a product of health, focus, or because the right message hit them at the right time, they believe it’s here now.
“We’re coming together at the right time,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said amid a champagne-soaked celebration Wednesday night, “and that’s all that really matters.”
BUSTER POSEY’S San Francisco Giants became the most dominant team in the first half of the 2010s, during which they captured three championships. They won every other year — on even years, famously — but could not pull off the repeat the Dodgers are chasing. To this day, Posey, now the Giants’ president of baseball operations, can’t pinpoint why.
“I wish I could,” Posey said, “because if I knew what that one thing was, I would’ve tried to correct it the second, third time through.”
Major League Baseball has not had a repeat champion since the New York Yankees won their third consecutive title in 2000, a 24-year drought that stands as the longest ever among the four major North American professional sports, according to ESPN Research. In that span, the NBA had a team win back-to-back championships on four different occasions. The NHL? Three. The NFL, whose playoff rounds all consist of one game? Two.
MLB’s drought has occurred in its wild-card era, which began in 1995 and has expanded since.
“The baseball playoffs are really difficult,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “You obviously have to be really good. You also have to have some really good fortune. The number of rounds and the fact that the very best team in the league wins around 60% of their games, the very worst team wins around 40% — now you take the upper-echelon in the playoffs, and the way baseball games can play out, good fortune is a real part of determining the outcomes.”
The Dodgers, now 11 wins shy of a second consecutive title, will hope for some of that good fortune this month. They’ve already encountered some of the pitfalls that come with winning a championship, including the one Posey experienced most vividly: the toll of playing deep into October.
“That month of postseason baseball — it’s more like two or three months of regular-season baseball, just because of the intensity of it,” Posey said.
The Dodgers played through Oct. 30 last year — and then they began this season March 18, nine days before almost everybody else, 5,500 miles away in Tokyo.
“At the time, you don’t see it,” Hernández said, “but when the next season starts, that’s when you start feeling your body not responding the way it should be. And it’s because you don’t get as much time to get ready, to prepare for next season. This one has been so hard, I got to be honest, because — we win last year, and we don’t even have the little extra time that everybody gets because we have to go to Japan. So, you have to push yourself to get ready a month early so you can be ready for those games. Those are games that count for the season. So, working hard when your body is not even close to 100%, I think that’s the reason. I think that’s why you see, after a team wins, next year you see a lot of players getting hurt.”
The Dodgers had the second-most amount of money from player salaries on the injured list this season, behind only the Yankees, the team they defeated in the World Series, according to Spotrac. The Dodgers sent an NL-leading 29 players to the IL, a list that included Freddie Freeman, who underwent offseason surgery on the injured ankle he played through last October, and several other members of their starting lineup — Will Smith, Max Muncy, Tommy Edman and Hernández.
The bullpen that carried the Dodgers through last fall might have paid the heaviest price. Several of those who played a prominent role last October — Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips — either struggled, were hurt or did not pitch. It might not have been the sole reason for the bullpen’s struggles — a combined 4.94 ERA from free agent signees Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates played just as big a role — but it certainly didn’t help.
“I don’t know if there’s any carryover thing,” Treinen said Sept. 16 after suffering his third consecutive loss. “I don’t believe in that. We just have a job, and it’s been weird.”
IN FEBRUARY, ROJAS made headlines by saying that the 2025 Dodgers could challenge the wins record and added they might win 120 games at full health. An 8-0 start — after an offseason in which the front office added Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Michael Conforto, Hyeseong Kim, Scott and Yates to what was arguably the sport’s best roster already — only ratcheted up the expectations.
The Dodgers managed a 53-32 record through the end of June — but then, they went 10-14 in July, dropped seven of their first 12 games in August and saw a seven-game lead in the National League West turn into a one-game deficit.
From July 1 to Aug. 14, the Dodgers’ offense ranked 20th in OPS and 24th in runs per game. The rotation began to round into form, but the bullpen sported the majors’ highest walk rate and put up a 1.43 WHIP in that stretch, fifth highest.
The Dodgers swept the San Diego Padres at home in mid-August, regaining some control of the division, but then Los Angeles split a series against the last-place Colorado Rockies and lost one in San Diego. The Dodgers swept the Reds, then lost two of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks, dropped three in a row to the Pirates and suffered those back-to-back walk-off losses to the Orioles.
Consistency eluded the Dodgers at a time when it felt as if every opponent was aiming for them.
Before rejoining the Dodgers ahead of the 2023 season, Rojas spent eight years with the Miami Marlins, who were continually out of the playoff race in September and found extra motivation when facing the best teams down the stretch. Those matchups functioned as their World Series.
“I think that’s the problem for those teams after winning a World Series — you’re going to have a target on your back,” Rojas said. “And it’s going to take a lot of effort for your main guys to step up every single day. And then, at the end of the regular season, you’re going to be kind of exhausted from the battle of every single day. And I think that’s why when teams get to the playoffs, they probably fall short.”
Travis d’Arnaud, now a catcher for the Los Angeles Angels, felt the same way while playing for the defending-champion Atlanta Braves in 2022. There was “a little bit more emotion” in games that otherwise didn’t mean much, he said. Teams seemed to bunt more frequently, play their infield in early and consistently line up their best relievers. Often, they’d face a starting pitcher who typically threw in the low-90s but suddenly started firing mid- to upper-90s fastballs.
“It’s just a different intensity,” said A.J. Pierzynski, the catcher for the Chicago White Sox teams that won it all in 2005 and failed to repeat in 2006. “It’s hard to quantify unless you’re playing in the games, but there’s a different intensity if you’re playing.”
BEFORE A SEASON-ENDING sweep of the Seattle Mariners, the 2025 Dodgers were dangerously close to finishing with the fewest full-season wins total of any team Friedman has overseen in these past 11 years. Friedman acknowledged that recently but added a caveat: “I’d also say that going into October, I think it’ll be the most talented team.”
It’s a belief that has fueled the Dodgers.
With Snell and Glasnow healthy, Yamamoto dialing up what was already an NL Cy Young-caliber season and Shohei Ohtani fully stretched out, the Dodgers went into the playoffs believing their rotation could carry them the way their bullpen did a year earlier. Their confidence was validated immediately. Snell allowed two baserunners through the first six innings of Game 1 of the wild-card round Tuesday night, and Yamamoto went 6⅔ innings without allowing an earned run 24 hours later.
“For us, it’s going to be our starting pitching,” Muncy said. “They’re going to set the tone.”
But an offense that has been without Smith, currently nursing a hairline fracture in his right hand, has also been clicking for a while. The Dodgers trailed only the Phillies in slugging percentage over the last three weeks of the regular season. In the Dodgers’ first two playoff games, 10 players combined to produce 28 hits. Six of them came from Mookie Betts, who began the season with an illness that caused him to lose close to 20 pounds and held a .670 OPS — 24 points below the league average — as recently as Aug. 6. Since then, he’s slashing .326/.384/.529.
His trajectory has resembled that of his team.
“We had a lot of struggles, really all year,” Betts said. “But I think we all view that as just a test to see how we would respond. And so now we’re starting to use those tests that we went through earlier to respond now and be ready now. And anything that comes our way, it can’t be worse than what we’ve already gone through.”
The Dodgers still don’t know if their bullpen will be good enough to take them through October — though Sasaki’s ninth inning Wednesday night, when he flummoxed the Reds with triple-digit fastballs and devastating splitters, certainly provided some hope — but they believe in their collective ability to navigate it.
They believe this roster is better and deeper than the championship-winning one from last fall. And, as Rojas said, they believe they “know how to flip the switch when it matters most.”
“It’s been a long year,” Muncy said. “At this point, seven months ago, we were on the other side of the world. We’ve been through a lot this year, and to end up in the spot we’re in right now — we’re in a great spot. We’re in the postseason. That’s all that matters. That’s what we’ve been saying all year. Anything can happen once you’re in October.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment12 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024