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Clemson cornerback Nate Wiggins will leave school early and declare for the 2024 NFL draft, he told ESPN in a phone interview Wednesday.

Wiggins projects as one of the draft’s top cornerbacks, as ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has him in the top 25 of his latest Big Board rankings. Wiggins will have a chance to earn the top cornerback spot in the pre-draft process after a strong close to his junior season.

He told ESPN that he is not planning to play in Clemson’s bowl game.

“I just feel like it was that time,” Wiggins said. “All the hard work I’ve put in, I feel like it was time for me to declare.”

Also on Thursday, Clemson wide receiver Beaux Collins told ESPN that he is entering the transfer portal. Collins, who has 38 receptions for 510 yards and three touchdowns this season, would be immediately eligible to play in 2024.

Wiggins is a 6-foot-2, 185-pound junior from Atlanta. He emerged as one of the county’s best cornerbacks this season and will compete for the top corner draft spot with players such as Iowa‘s Cooper DeJean, Alabama‘s Kool-Aid McKinstry and Georgia‘s Kamari Lassiter.

Wiggins’ strengths will be speed and length, as he projects to be a prolific tester at the upcoming NFL combine. He finished the season as well as any cornerback in the country, including a forced fumble, interception, deflected pass and seven tackles against North Carolina on Nov. 18.

He is considered the fastest player on Clemson’s team and earned first-team All-ACC honors for his 2023 performance.

“I feel like I’m the fastest, and I feel like I’m the most complete corner in the draft,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins has been a productive player his entire career at Clemson, as he registered 14 pass deflections in 2022 and had eight breakups with two interceptions in 2023. Scouts have noticed his instincts and ability to get his hands on passes.

He returned an interception for a touchdown in each of the past two years, including intercepting Drake Maye in the ACC championship game in 2022 for a title-game-record 98-yard touchdown return. (Wiggins has two of Maye’s 16 career interceptions.)

“I’m a cornerback who is going to lock down the best receiver and bring ball skills,” he said. “They’re going to get a hard worker, someone they can depend on and someone who can get the job done and love their teammates.”

Wiggins said he appreciated his time at Clemson and credited all the staff, including coach Dabo Swinney, chief of football administration Woody McCorvey and cornerbacks coach Mike Reed, for the help in his development.

“I’m thankful for Clemson,” Wiggins said. “They developed me into a wonderful man. Dabo and the whole coaching staff are so loving and pour out energy every day. They love everyone who goes through Clemson. They played a big part in my development.”

Wiggins also thanked his mother, Tamika Lucas Baker, for her guidance to get him to this moment.

“This was a dream that I always wanted and it came fast,” he said. “My mom has had a huge impact on me. She pushed me through the hard times. She always stayed on my side and believed in me.”

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Journalism rallies in $1M Haskell Invitational win

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Journalism rallies in M Haskell Invitational win

OCEANPORT, N.J. — Journalism launched a dramatic rally to win the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

It was Journalism’s first race since the Triple Crown. He was the only colt to contest all three legs, winning the Preakness while finishing second to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Heavily favored at 2-5 odds, Journalism broke poorly under jockey Umberto Rispoli and wound up trailing the early leaders. He kicked into gear rounding the final turn to find Gosger and Goal Oriented locked in a dogfight for the lead. It appeared one of them would be the winner until Journalism roared down the center of the track to win by a half-length.

“You feel like you’re on a diesel,” Rispoli said. “He’s motoring and motoring. You never know when he’s going to take off. To do what he did today again, it’s unbelievable.”

Gosger held on for second, a neck ahead of Goal Oriented.

The Haskell victory was Journalism’s sixth in nine starts for Southern California-based trainer Michael McCarthy, and earned the colt a berth in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

Journalism paid $2.80, $2.20 and $2.10.

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Heavy rain helps Elliott to pole for Dover Cup race

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Heavy rain helps Elliott to pole for Dover Cup race

DOVER, Del. — Chase Elliott took advantage of heavy rain at Dover Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

Elliott and the rest of the field never got to turn a scheduled practice or qualifying lap on Saturday because of rain that pounded the concrete mile track. Dover is scheduled to hold its first July race since the track’s first one in 1969.

Elliott has two wins and 10 top-five finishes in 14 career races at Dover.

Chase Briscoe starts second, followed by Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and William Byron. Shane van Gisbergen, last week’s winner at Sonoma Raceway, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch complete the top 10.

Logano is set to become the youngest driver in NASCAR history with 600 career starts.

Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He will top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months.

The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Reddick vs. Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.

The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, according to Sportsbook.

All four drivers are winless this season.

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Hamlin on 23XI trial: ‘All will be exposed’

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Hamlin on 23XI trial: 'All will be exposed'

DOVER, Del. — NASCAR race team owner Denny Hamlin remained undeterred in the wake of another setback in court, vowing “all will be exposed” in the scheduled December trial as part of 23XI Racing’s federal antitrust suit against the auto racing series.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to continue racing with charters while they battle NASCAR in court, meaning their six cars will race as open entries this weekend at Dover, next week at Indianapolis and perhaps longer than that in a move the teams say would put them at risk of going out of business.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell denied the teams’ bid for a temporary restraining order, saying they will make races over the next couple of weeks and they won’t lose their drivers or sponsors before his decision on a preliminary injunction.

Bell left open the possibility of reconsidering his decision if things change over the next two weeks.

After this weekend, the cars affected may need to qualify on speed if 41 entries are listed – a possibility now that starting spots have opened.

The case has a Dec. 1 trial date, but the two teams are fighting to be recognized as chartered for the current season, which has 16 races left. A charter guarantees one of the 40 spots in the field each week, but also a base amount of money paid out each week.

“If you want answers, you want to understand why all this is happening, come Dec. 1, you’ll get the answers that you’re looking for,” Hamlin said Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway. “All will be exposed.”

23XI, which is co-owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan, and FRM filed their federal suit against NASCAR last year after they were the only two organizations out of 15 to reject NASCAR’s extension offer on charters.

Jordan and FRM owner Bob Jenkins won an injunction to recognize 23XI and FRM as chartered for the season, but the ruling was overturned on appeal earlier this month, sending the case back to Bell.

Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, co-owns 23XI with Jordan and said they were prepared to send Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst to the track each week as open teams. They sought the restraining order Monday, claiming that through discovery they learned NASCAR planned to immediately begin the process of selling the six charters which would put “plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.”

Hamlin said none of the setbacks have made him second-guess the decision to file the lawsuit.

“Dec. 1 is all that matters. Mark your calendar,” Hamlin said. “I’d love to be doing other things. I’ve got a lot going on. When I get in the car (today), nothing else is going to matter other than that. I always give my team 100%. I always prepare whether I have side jobs, side hustles, more kids, that all matters, but I always give my team all the time that they need to make sure that when I step in, I’m 100% committed.”

Reddick, who has a clause that allows him to become a free agent if the team loses its charter, declined comment Saturday on all questions connected to his future and the lawsuit. Hamlin also declined to comment on Reddick’s future with 23XI Racing.

Reddick, one of four drivers left in NASCAR’s $1 million In-season Challenge, was last year’s regular-season champion and raced for the Cup Series championship in the season finale. But none of the six drivers affected by the court ruling are locked into this year’s playoffs.

Making the field won’t be an issue this weekend at Dover as fewer than the maximum 40 cars are entered. But should 41 cars show up anywhere this season, someone slow will be sent home and that means lost revenue and a lost chance to win points in the standings.

“Nothing changes from my end, obviously, and nothing changes from inside the shop,” Front Row Motorsports driver Zane Smith said. “There’s not typically even enough cars to worry about transferring in.”

Smith, 24th in the standings and someone who would likely need a win to qualify for NASCAR’s playoffs, said he stood behind Jenkins in his acrimonious legal fight that has loomed over the stock car series for months.

“I leave all that up to them,” Smith said, “but my job is to go get the 38 the best finish I can.”

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