
‘Obnoxious’ trash-talker and faster than you’d think: What Georgia coach Kirby Smart was like as a player
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Alex Scarborough, ESPN Staff WriterDec 28, 2023, 07:00 AM ET
Close- Covers the SEC.
- Joined ESPN in 2012.
- Graduate of Auburn University.
At 47 years old, despite two decades of wear and tear from coaching college football, Georgia’s Kirby Smart exudes a boyish enthusiasm on the sidelines. Following a hard-fought win at Auburn in late September, he grinned wildly while cheering on visiting fans dressed in red and black, tossing his visor into the crowd as he walked into the locker room to celebrate with his players.
In many ways, he hasn’t changed much from his days as a Georgia player. Same love for the game. Same boundless energy. Same haircut. Same school.
Defenders Smael Mondon and Javon Bullard weren’t alive when Smart arrived in Athens as a freshman defensive back in 1994. But they know the backstory. Mondon recalled watching a clip of Smart’s playing days during a team-building meeting in camp last summer. Bullard said they’ll occasionally dig up Smart’s old highlights on their own, texting them to mess with their coach.
Mondon said “every now and then” Smart will talk smack about how he could’ve hauled in an interception they missed.
“He’ll rub those picks in your face,” Bullard said, smiling.
Smart might be better known as one of the top coaches in college football now, armed with two national championship rings. But before that, he was one of the best players in the SEC.
Smart will coach Georgia in the Orange Bowl against Florida State on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, ESPN), but 25 years ago, he hauled in a league-best five interceptions on his way to first-team All-SEC during his senior season with the Bulldogs. And that was after leading the league with six picks as a junior.
In an effort to better understand Smart’s origins, ESPN spoke to more than a dozen former teammates and coaches. Together, they painted a picture of a brilliant, driven player who they suspected one day would make a great coach. In many ways he was already a coach on the field.
“Thirteen picks?” Bullard said of Smart’s final total, which still ranks in the top 10 at Georgia. “You can’t argue with that. Hell of a career, hell of a DB and one hell of a coach.”
Steve Dennis remembers the marching orders he got shortly after Georgia coach Ray Goff hired him to coach defensive backs in the winter of 1993. “You need to go down there to Bainbridge and check out this DB,” Goff told him. When he got there, Dennis didn’t think Kirby Smart was much of a physical specimen. He was only about 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds at the time. But Dennis found Smart to be quick and intelligent, and he liked that he came from a football family — the son of a longtime high school coach. “Hey,” Dennis told Goff, “I want to coach him.” Smart signed with the in-state Bulldogs and made a strong first impression.
Richard Seymour, Georgia defensive end (1997-2000) and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame: First of all, what I’d say is — and this is no slight to anyone — you don’t see a lot of white defensive backs, right? I mean, it just kind of stood out.
Corey Johnson, Georgia defensive back (1993-96): He didn’t have any muscle tone or anything like that. You would be like, “Man, is there somebody else at your high school that we really want? Or is your dad a coach and somebody owes him a favor? Like, why are you here?”
Glenn Ford, Georgia defensive back (1994-98): I used to cut his hair. I was pretty good with him, Paul Snelling, all those guys.
Matt Stinchcomb, offensive lineman (1995-98) and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame: [His hair] was actually a lot better in college. He’s let it poof out — but I don’t have enough hair to comment.
Ford: He won’t change it. [Laughs.] We used to cut a little bit more on the sides, but … I’m talking about it’s the same Charlie Brown haircut since we’ve been in school.
Dustin Luckie, linebacker (1995-98): He had the khaki shorts and the fraternity shirt, so it looked like just be a normal guy. But I want to get this straight: Even though Kirby didn’t look imposing, he was quite an athlete.
Stinchcomb: Let’s just speak plainly and dispense with all the faux — oh, he’s a heady player and tough over the middle and a good route-runner and a lunch-pail guy and a coach on the field and all that other garbage. He’s a white guy, so you wouldn’t think he would be that fast. But he was faster than people would’ve anticipated.
Champ Bailey, defensive back (1996-98) and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame: The way he was built, you had to be some type of athlete. … You better be good at something. And he returned punts, and I’m like, nobody just goes back there and returns punts unless you are pretty good at it.
Johnson: He enrolled early, and he was just bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, just eager to learn, competitive. He was like a sponge. He wanted to hang around the older guys from both sides of the ball. I can remember him spending a lot of time with Brice Hunter and talking about the receiver side of the ball. He just wanted to touch on every angle that the game had. And that wasn’t really typical of a high school kid.
Brandon Tolbert, linebacker (1993-97): I thought I knew a little bit about football, but you could tell Kirby really knew a whole lot.
Ford: Very, very competitive. I don’t care what it was. It could be marbles, it could be debating. He wants to win ev-ery-thing.
Johnson: He’s still a high school kid and you are out there trying to go 7-on-7 and he would take his lumps. And he didn’t have to; it was not like any coaches were out there watching, but he wanted to get back out there because he wanted to get better. He wanted to be the best at what he did. He never shied away from jumping back up there and trying to apply the knowledge.
Seymour: He was always going to be in the right places. And I think as a safety, we knew he was well prepared. So just as a student of the game, obviously A-plus.
Joe Kines, defensive coordinator (1993-97): When he talked, his teammates listened. And he was fun to be around because he knew what he was talking about. He had been around [football] since he was in the fifth grade.
Bailey: He had a good time. He hung out with the guys. He was never one of those just always in a book.
Tolbert: He was very interested in what you had to say or what anybody had to say about it. He was dialed into that. And I think that helps him today.
Trey Sipe, defensive back (1993-97): He’s a fun guy, and the media never sees that because he’s always Mr. Serious and all that. He can take ribbing. And the group we had, he was one of the younger guys. But, buddy, he was witty and he could give it right back to you, dude.
Tolbert: I can’t remember if it was at lunch or breakfast, but [quarterback Mike Bobo] was just kind of messing around with him. Kirby forgot his napkin or something. He went back up there to get his napkin, and Bobo put a little hot sauce in his drink. He came back, took a sip of it, and I can’t remember exactly what Kirby said, but he jumped in him pretty good. I don’t think Mike ever did it again. Kirby’s got a pretty good vocabulary, so it’s probably one of those words.
Sipe: You couldn’t ever one-up him, man. He’d always have something in the back of his mind that he’d throw at you. You’re like, “Man, what in the world?”
Stinchcomb: He’s got a pretty active mind, a busy mind. Maybe it was him thinking about football or whatever, but it always seemed like there was something else running on his desktop, so to speak. Like, he could be sitting in class and be there in class and capturing whatever’s going on in class, but also have two or three other things that were occupying his thoughts.
Sipe: You definitely didn’t have to be around him very long to realize that he was a pretty smart cat.
Stinchcomb: I always hesitate when I talk about him as being a future coach because oftentimes it’s associated with guys that are out there just because they’re smart and maybe can anticipate and all that other stuff — that was all true — but in lieu of being a good athlete. But the guy was a good player. So even if he was half-witted, he was still a good football player. You could blitz him, he could get a quarterback on the ground. He’d come up and run support. He could play the ball in the air, and just the things that you would look for in a safety and could quarterback the back end and would.
Sipe: When he had a chance to shine, he did. I’ll never forget, we’re practicing, and they throw out the freshmen there to give us a look. It’s a live kickoff. Well, Kirby was back deep and he takes the dadgum thing all the way back for a touchdown. That’s when I knew. I was like, “This guy’s a little different, man.”
Chris Scelfo, offensive line coach (1996-98): He carried himself with this, as we say nowadays, swag. But it was just confidence because he knew what he was going to do every day. You got a consistent person every single day.
Stinchcomb didn’t mince words about what Smart was like in practice. “Obnoxious,” he recalled. “Because, yeah, he’s a talker.” Stinchcomb described Smart as “mouthy” and always “stirring it up.” And his recollection was shared by others. Johnson said Smart often boasted that he was faster than him, to which he’d reply, “Whatever, Kirby.” Ford said, “If he’s right, he’s going to let you know.” It was all in fun, though. Smart was able to talk to anyone about anything, which is how he established himself as a leader at an early age.
Seymour: One thing that stuck out to me was he was a great teammate on and off the field. I remember being a freshman in the lunchroom and him coming and sitting at my table and talking about football and life and his family and where he grew up. It was refreshing to get to know him. He was a football guy, and he was sold out for the game of football. But he understood how to bring people together.
Luckie: That’s his leadership skills. He was probably thinking, “We got to be a family,” and he took it upon himself.
Seymour: He had the ability to connect to everybody, and he was smart in how he did it. He was very natural. You know how when you’re talking to somebody and they’re not trying and just being themselves?
Tolbert: That’s why he is very good at recruiting today.
Seymour: And I thought he had a sense of accountability to his teammates to make sure that everybody is on the same page and have the same expectation level. So it created a sense of, you don’t want to let your brothers down.
Sipe: He’s highly competitive, and if there’s a breakdown, he’s going to let you know.
Ford: That was just who he was. And he was supposed to do that because he could see stuff that we couldn’t see.
Kines: I was walking down the hall one day early and I heard some racket and I thought, “Well, one coach is getting after them.” And I walked on down to the middle of the hall and I looked up, and it was Kirby and four to five defensive backs in there going over the practice tape from the day before.
Luckie: He was like an extra coach, man.
Kines: And you got to understand he wasn’t playing coach. If that were the case, it probably wouldn’t have been worth a dime.
Ford: They called him Smart the Dart; a news reporter gave it to him or something. But he had the right last name because he was smart. He could pick up defenses fast. But again, he was a coach’s son. So his football IQ was really high. Studying film and stuff, he already knew how to do that way beyond us because he had already been doing it with his dad.
Tolbert: He was very good at saying, “Hey, it’s a run,” or, “Watch a bootleg,” or, “Hey, watch the screen pass.”
Sipe: Kirby, he always knew.
Scelfo: After the first week of two-a-days when you put in your base plays, it’s hard to get anything going on offense because Kirby already knew it. It used to piss me off.
Ford: By our last year, it kind of got boring because we knew everything. So [Smart] would always come into the meeting room with the biggest bag of sunflower seeds so we wouldn’t go to sleep.
Luckie: When Coach Kines or someone got stumped, Kirby would help out. He would stump the Schwab sometimes and ask questions other people just weren’t asking. And then he would bring up some things that maybe weren’t thought about by the coaches when they were breaking film down. You could understand why they treated Kirby differently. They treated him like a coach because they knew that he put the work in. He was probably watching as much or more film than them. That’s just how he was cut.
Stinchcomb: He was a guy that definitely had an edge. He wasn’t for everybody, so to speak. How would I put it? I guess blunt is the best way, but that implies intent. It was less intent than being transparently honest. I think it was, “I could filter this, but what good would that do?”
Greg Williams, secondary coach/receivers coach (1996-2000): There were a couple of times where some of the guys weren’t carrying their load and they were having to do drills over again. He got right in a couple guys’ faces on that.
Ford: He could get up under your skin because he would say stuff that would touch you emotionally.
Stinchcomb: What I don’t want to convey is he was a jerk and he was running around spewing off, “You’re not that good.” That wasn’t it at all. But there were definitely times where it was like, “You know what? There’s no reason to mince it, so here it comes.”
Ford: I’d tell all the young guys, “That’s Kirby. If you’re listening to all the words he’s saying, you’re going to get lost. But listen to what he’s trying to tell you because he’s trying to put you in the best position to be successful.”
Seymour: A lot of people have passion, but if you can’t communicate effectively and have it resonate, it can sometimes fall flat. And he’s just the opposite.
Williams: Kirby can yell at somebody and it doesn’t alienate them. Now I’m different. If I yell at somebody, 50 percent of the time I’m alienating the guy.
Ford: Once that play was over, he was moving to the next one. And then you could make a play and he’d be the first one jumping on your back and congratulating you.
Seymour: I always remember him being in the huddle and talking about what was about to happen. As a young player, it was always refreshing for me to be around because now I started to not only just have the ability to play the game but have the ability to think the game too. So that’s what he gave me as a player.
Stinchcomb: What stood out to me even then was a willingness to speak plainly. He was not interested in comforting you with a lie. So if it wasn’t good enough, then it wasn’t good enough. And if it needed to change and it needed to change, and that was true even as a player. That’s not an easy tightrope to walk. That’s a really tricky one to walk, especially when you aren’t the best player in the backfield. And as soon as Champ Bailey set foot on campus, no one would’ve been.
Bailey: I will say my first impression as a teammate was, “Oh, this guy thinks he knows everything.” [Laughs.] Because he wouldn’t shut up. He always had something to say. He always had an opinion. But over time you realize, “Oh, he does know everything.”
Sipe remembered Smart’s debut, which included three sacks against South Carolina in the season opener of the 1995 season. But the team struggled to a 6-6 record, and Goff was fired. Coach Jim Donnan arrived, but he wasn’t the only new face that offseason. A young cornerback showed up and proved to be a generational talent, with Smart as his wingman.
Sipe: I remember the first practice that Champ [Bailey] was at as a true freshman and he was just dominating. I’ve never seen anything like that.
Seymour: Champ’s probably the best athlete that I’ve played with — high school, college or pro. He could do it all: offense, defense, special teams.
Williams: He was Travis Hunter before Travis Hunter.
In 1998, Bailey played more than 1,000 total snaps on offense, defense and special teams, including seven games with more than 100 snaps. A consensus All-American who finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting, he had 744 yards and five touchdowns receiving, 52 tackles and three interceptions on defense, and 261 yards on kickoff returns.
Bailey: [Smart] was my safety. The dynamics between the corner and the safety is your safety gets you lined up.
Ford: Our job was to make Champ not look bad. But Kirby, he was the field general.
Bailey: The guy just knew what the hell was coming, so I would always turn my ear to him. He constantly was the leader I gravitated to.
Sipe: Champ and Kirby had a real special bond. So unique. They hit it off well. Greatness knows greatness.
Bailey: [Smart] would always make comments to me that gave me the confidence that I was going to the NFL. Because he could see it. I remember we were playing Tennessee, we got our ass kicked, but I had to pick that game and he just kept saying little stuff, man. “Man, that’s a big league play. Man, the s— you’re doing today, that’s NFL-type stuff.” To have him in my ear just saying little s— like that, I didn’t understand what he meant until I look back now.
Sipe: Kirby did mentor Champ and helped him feel more comfortable. And I think things like that help Kirby decide, “You know what? I think I can be a pretty good coach if I decide to go this route in this profession.”
Seymour: They both helped one another compete at a high level.
Bailey: The mental side of the game and the preparation, I started getting a jump on that listening to guys like Kirby.
Seymour: Champ’s one of the best athletes of all time, and then you also pair that with him and Kirby always being on the same page. They were just a difficult tandem to go against and compete against for 60 minutes. I knew if we got pressure up front that those guys were going to be one of the ones that intercepted or knocked the pass down.
Williams: When he and Champ were on the same side, I would’ve thrown someplace else.
During their second year together — 1997 — things really clicked. Smart, after posting an interception in each of his first two seasons, became a magnet for the football. He would pick off six passes as a junior and five as a senior.
Seymour: He was a rangy guy. He could flip his hips and run. A lot of times you see a lot of defensive backs, they knock a lot of balls down, but the exceptional ones know how to intercept them and create turnovers.
Bailey: His stat line reveals that he was very much a ball hawk.
Ford: [Laughs.] I tipped about three of ’em to him, so he owes me some assist money.
Bailey: I remember in the end zone he jumped in front of me, took a pick from me. … If he knocked it down, we’d have a problem. So the argument for me is always short-lived because he caught the damn ball.
Scelfo: He made a great interception against Florida when we beat them for the first time in 10 years or so.
Donnan: It’d been so long since Georgia beat Florida and we finally put ’em away there my second year and we were like a 20-point underdog and he and Champ both I think got a pick in that game. All of us were so happy.
Ford: When we beat Florida, he was on all cylinders. He was making those calls, making the checks. “Hey man, watch him, he’s coming this way! Hey man, watch the inside!”
Dennis: Was he Champ Bailey? No. There’s no, “Oh there’s Champ Bailey.” No. “There’s Kirby.” He wasn’t going to Ronnie Lott you and knock your bells out, but he’s going to be at the right place.
Kines: On the goal line against Florida and it’s fourth down and inches to go. We stuck ’em all in there: the two corners got the two tight ends. And he lined up right over center. So they snap the ball, and we were fortunate enough to stop ’em. Everybody comes running off the field and going ballistic. So Kirby ran by me, and I said, “Kirby, who had that tight end?” He said, “Aw, Coach, if I were that smart, they would’ve scored on us.” Some guys might have done that out near midfield and turned someone loose and it would’ve ended with a touchdown. But Kirby had enough ball sense to know.
Sipe: One time we were in man coverage and he had gotten off of his man, and Peyton [Manning] threw him the ball. It was the weirdest thing. How did that just happen? You weren’t even covering your man and you did that. Kirby just peeled off his man, and then Peyton just threw it to him. I was like, “How in the world did you do that?”
But success was hard to come by against Tennessee overall. Smart never beat the Vols during his time at Georgia. Teammates recalled one particular game in which Smart was beaten badly by a then-young running back named Jamal Lewis, who wound up rushing for 232 yards. The next day, coaches replayed a clip, which showed Smart getting stiff-armed and whiffing on two other tackle attempts. “Son!” Kines said in his gravelly Southern accent. “I never seen anybody get run over three times on the same play!”
Ford: Jamal Lewis? Yeah …
Bailey: We got our asses kicked.
Luckie: Jamal was a man amongst boys. He was 245 pounds, running a 4.4. And they had a game plan for us. They were running it down our throats the whole time.
Johnson: I went back after I graduated and it was in the summertime and they were running hills. And I’ll never forget, I was standing at the top of the hill, and when he got up to the top of the hill it was like it was instant. [Smart] said, “Man, did you see the Tennessee game?” I said, “Yeah.” And he said, “How do you tackle Jamal?”
Williams: Kirby and Peyton Manning were friends because they had gone on several recruiting trips together. So when Kirby visited this school, it was the same time Peyton Manning had visited the school. Well, Kirby didn’t have such a good day up there in Knoxville. It was one of those days where you have ’em covered but Peyton Manning was throwing ’em in there. So the only way you’re going to stop that is to put him on the ground, and we weren’t putting him on the ground. So Kirby had a rough day and I didn’t think much of it. I talked to him a little bit after the game and told him, “Look, you did everything you could. Sometimes s— happens.” Well, the next morning, I came to work about 8:15 and he was sitting on the ground waiting for me right outside the building. In 43 years coaching, that was the only time a player ever waited for me.
Luckie: You can kind of see it on his face. “What could I have done a bit better to stop us from losing this game?” He did hate to lose. I wouldn’t say he was a bad sport, but you could just tell that he was extremely disappointed when we didn’t play the way we were supposed to play or he didn’t play the way he was supposed to play. He wasn’t one of those guys that was cracking jokes on the bus after we took a loss.
Bailey: He’s just a competitive dude, man. He loves to win, and I think the best thing happened to him was learning enough before he became the head coach.
Ford: That dude did everything 1,000 percent. A person in life, he’s supposed to maximize your talent. He came to practice every day and maximized his talent. I don’t remember one practice where he just didn’t give it his all. He loved the game inside and outside.
Bailey: He’s still the same person. [Laughs.] He’s a lot older and probably a lot wiser than he was back then, but I just still see that same type of individual — smart, understands the game, he’s a football guru. Football is his life.
Smart never heard his name called in the 1999 NFL draft. The Indianapolis Colts invited him to camp, but his tryout was short-lived.
Donnan: He went in there knowing it was going to be hard for him to play pro football. I mean, just like anybody, he had some skills and he had good speed, but it’s a tough road to make it in the NFL.
Tolbert: It’s a time where you’re like, “Holy cow. Everything’s kind of gone my way. I went through high school and then college and everybody’s told me what classes to take and what to eat and when to be at practice and all that.” Then all of a sudden that’s gone. But I think Kirby had a deep understanding of what he would be good at. And I think Kirby could have been good at a lot of different things. But I don’t think he could have found that love of football.
Kirby Smart, in a speech to the Terry College of Business in 2018: Peyton Manning’s out there torching me, beating me. I’m getting Marvin Harrison. I’m like, “Man, what am I doing?” I hadn’t seen this kind of speed come flying by me in forever. Well, Vic Fangio was the defensive coordinator. He called me and said, “You’re not going to make it, you know?” I had a guy come talk to me who said, “Will you go over to NFL Europe and play over here?” Which, if you go over to NFL Europe, you have to come straight back after a 12-game season and go straight into camp with the NFL team. I’d seen these guys that had just come from overseas and they were beat up, tired. I said, “Noooo, that’s not for me. I’m going straight into coaching.”
Donnan: His best friend was Mike Bobo. They were roommates and he came back to town. Mike was a GA for me and [Smart] just came over and said, “Hey Coach, I got cut.” And then I went up and talked to Coach Dooley. I said, “Look, can we just get some money for him to kind of live around here and help us? It’d be a big help.” And Coach Dooley helped me out on it. We didn’t have anything [available], but we created a position for him where he was kind of one of the first analysts back in 1999.
After one season as an off-the-field staff member under Donnan, new Valdosta State coach Chris Hatcher offered Smart a chance to coach closer to home in South Georgia. Smart stayed two seasons there before making the short trek over to Florida State as a graduate assistant. The following offseason, he connected with the man who, other than his father, would influence his career more than anyone: then LSU coach Nick Saban.
Kines: It’s like a recipe for a cake. Biscuits got flour and dough — that’s it. Put a little water in there, but that’s it. But then a cake’s got all this kind of stuff. And that’s what Kirby was. He had it all. He had all those ingredients that made him a little special. … I think what he learned from Coach Saban probably could be poured into the mixture and not left out. Kirby was always studying, learning, doing what he was supposed to do.
Ford: I don’t think he missed one place he was at. He hit the mark everywhere.
Tolbert: Kirby was very fortunate in that he jumped around a little bit early, but he was going around with Nick at LSU and in Miami. But then when they got to Alabama, he was there for 10 to 12 years.
Stinchcomb: He was sitting on the launchpad in Tuscaloosa for so long.
Ford: When he got with Coach Saban — they’re almost the same guy. [Laughs.] It just took him to another place. He learned some stuff from Coach Saban that made him who he is today. I know Coach Saban, and Kirby might be a little more over the top than Coach Saban. The way he practices, it’s harder. He’s on another level. He took what Saban did to another power. And it was already enough, but then he took it further.
Sipe: I thought when he got into college football, I was like, “Well, he’ll be great. He’ll do a great job.” But did I think he was going to take us to the national championships? I mean, that’s just amazing what he’s doing there. But yeah, it doesn’t surprise me. I mean, he’s a perfect fit for the University of Georgia. We’re lucky to have him. I tell my friends all the time, “Y’all better enjoy this, because this is the golden era of Georgia football. This is incredible, what’s going on right now.”
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Panthers win Game 5, move on to Cup Final: Grades, takeaways for both teams
Published
2 hours agoon
May 29, 2025By
admin
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Ryan S. Clark
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Kristen Shilton
May 28, 2025, 11:30 PM ET
Just when it looked as if the Carolina Hurricanes were going to force a Game 6 after scoring a pair of first-period goals, the Florida Panthers scored the three in the second. And when it looked as if the Hurricanes were going to at least force overtime with a third-period goal from Seth Jarvis? That’s when the defending Stanley Cup champions put an end to the discussion, with captain Aleksander Barkov using his strength to fend off Dmitry Orlov to set up Carter Verhaeghe for the series-clinching goal in their 5-3 win Wednesday in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Returning to the Stanley Cup Final to defend their crown is only the start for the Panthers. This is now the 11th time in the past 12 years in which a Sun Belt team has played in the Stanley Cup Final, a distinction that began in 2014 with the Los Angeles Kings and was interrupted in 2019 when the Boston Bruins faced the St. Louis Blues.
Also, a team from Florida (the Tampa Bay Lightning is the other) has won the East in six straight seasons, which is also the same length of the current streak of Sun Belt teams to reach the Cup Final. Furthermore, the Panthers are also the third South Florida professional team to reach the title game or title series in their respective sport for three straight years, joining the Miami Dolphins from 1971 to 1973 and the Miami Heat from 2010 to 2014.
Although they avoided being swept, the Hurricanes were eliminated in the conference finals for the second time in the past three seasons. They’ll now enter an offseason in which they’ll face questions about their roster, and what must be done to get beyond the penultimate round of the playoffs.
Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton look back at what happened in Game 5, along with what lies ahead for each franchise.
Florida was well-positioned for a victory Wednesday. The Panthers had their injured skaters back — Sam Reinhart, Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer had all been impact players in some form — and they should have added a spark. But it didn’t look as if the Panthers were benefiting from their return early, as the team looked slow out of the gate. Gustav Forsling‘s turnover sent Sebastian Aho on a breakaway that he turned into a 1-0 lead for Carolina.
Florida also couldn’t capitalize on its power plays, which was not great — especially considering Aho’s second goal of the period gave the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes.
But then the Panthers did what they do best: pounce. Matthew Tkachuk‘s power-play goal cut the deficit in half and Evan Rodrigues had the score tied 30 seconds later. Then it was Anton Lundell giving Florida the lead. That’s just how the Panthers roll — deep. Rodrigues was the Panthers’ 19th different goal scorer in the postseason.
Even though Sergei Bobrovsky looked shakier than usual in the first period, he responded with a strong finish through the final 40 minutes. And Florida’s penalty kill stepped up to stifle the Hurricanes’ power play (which was 0-for-4). The Panthers tightened up and stayed that way through the third period to deny Carolina a chance to force a Game 6.
Florida was not flawless — giving up a goal to Jarvis midway through the third was a bad look — but Verhaeghe scored the winner (off a brilliant assist from Barkov) to make Florida’s just-enough effort sufficient to snuff out the Hurricanes’ flame. And Sam Bennett‘s empty-netter ensured it was three straight Eastern Conference titles for the Panthers. — Shilton
0:53
Verhaeghe puts Panthers back in front
Carter Verhaeghe fires home a big-time goal to give the Panthers a lead late in the third period.
Everything the Canes did in the first period of Game 5 was an extension of how they operated in Game 4. They had a plan, and it was a course of action that saw them take advantage of mistakes such as the ones that led to Aho scoring the goals that staked Carolina to its 2-0 lead. There was something else too, specifically in the way the Hurricanes defended themselves in the midst of a scrum with about five minutes left that showed a fight that wasn’t always seen in the series.
A two-goal lead after one period for a team that was 6-0 this postseason when they scored first was a good sign. The Hurricanes’ defensive identity carried over from their season-saving Game 4 performance. It was enough to suggest for at least an intermission that a Game 6 could be in play. Then came the quick back-to-back goals from Tkachuk and Rodrigues in the second period before Lundell scored a little more than four minutes later to put Carolina behind.
Those goals — coupled with the fact the Panthers limited the Hurricanes to only two shots on goal in the first 10 minutes of the final period — initially made it seem as if the series was over. That’s until Jarvis scored a tying goal and reignited some pushback from the Canes. Or rather, it did until Barkov showed what makes him one of the game’s premier players by holding off Orlov and creating the space to set up Verhaeghe for the winning goal. — Clark
Big questions
Can the Panthers use rest as a refresher?
Florida hasn’t had consecutive days off at this point since early in their second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. And the Panthers are ailing to some degree. All those injured skaters clearly aren’t fully healthy; Eetu Luostarinen left Wednesday’s game after a cross-check from William Carrier, and you know plenty of guys who have been in the lineup every night are craving some downtime.
The Panthers have an opportunity to breathe and reboot after a long string of games, and that could be invaluable in how they show up to the Cup Final. They could know their next opponent as soon as Thursday, but it might also be a few more days before the Western Conference finals is settled.
Florida will have a slight edge either way in the rest department, and capitalizing on it could be a game-changer. The Panthers remember the toll it takes on the body to travel long distances (like from Fort Lauderdale to Edmonton?) in a Final. It’s critical to take advantage of, well, every advantage. Even if it means being Dallas Stars fans for a spell — and hoping the two potential foes can tire each other out for another few games. — Shilton
How aggressive are the Canes going to get this summer, knowing next year might be their strongest chance to strike?
Possessing more than $28 million in cap space, per PuckPedia, presents the idea that the Hurricanes could be a major player in free agency. It’s a level of flexibility that championship contenders covet because it’s so hard to attain once they have several members of their core under long-term contracts.
That’s a problem the Hurricanes don’t have — at least not yet.
They have seven players signed to deals longer than three seasons. It’s a group that includes core members such as Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jaccob Slavin, Andrei Svechnikov, Aho and Jarvis. But there are considerations to make given that Jackson Blake, Scott Morrow, Alexander Nikishin and Logan Stankoven are all going to be pending restricted free agents after the 2025-26 season, who will then be in need of new deals.
Though there’s a need for the Hurricanes to try to win now, this is also a franchise that has made a point of building large portions of its roster through the draft. Now, the Canes must balance an approach that has allowed them to be a championship contender with one that sees them take the next step, and that will dictate how their front office handles this offseason. — Clark
Sports
The 5 most astounding stats behind the 100-game stretch when the Tigers have ruled MLB
Published
2 hours agoon
May 29, 2025By
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David SchoenfieldMay 28, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
Close- Covers MLB for ESPN.com
- Former deputy editor of Page 2
- Been with ESPN.com since 1995
The Detroit Tigers were going nowhere on Aug. 10, 2024, headed for another losing season, which would have been their eighth in a row, and their 10th consecutive non-playoff season. They were 55-63, 10 games out of the third wild-card spot and behind five other teams in the wild-card standings. They had dealt starting pitcher Jack Flaherty at the July trade deadline, and their lineup in a 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants that day featured Akil Baddoo batting leadoff (hitting .125), Gio Urshela at cleanup (.605 OPS) and Bligh Madris playing first base and batting fifth (career OPS in the majors of .560). The bottom four hitters all finished the game hitting under .200.
FanGraphs pegged Detroit’s playoff odds at 0.2%, which seemed generous.
The Tigers won the next day, beating the Giants 5-4. Maybe the biggest win of their season came on Aug. 15, though, when Javier Baez hit a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning off tough Seattle Mariners closer Andres Munoz to lift the Tigers to a 2-1 victory. The Tigers would go on to an improbable 31-13 run to finish the season at 86-76 and capture a wild card — one win more than Seattle — before eventually being eliminated in the American League Division Series.
The winning has carried over into 2025 as the Tigers are 36-20, the best record in the American League. Tuesday was their 100th game since the transformation began Aug. 11, and they have the best record in the majors since that date:
Detroit Tigers: 67-33, .670
Los Angeles Dodgers: 64-36, .640
New York Mets: 62-38, .620
Philadelphia Phillies: 61-38, .616
What has led to this dominance? Let’s break down some of the numbers behind Detroit’s astounding turnaround over the past 100 games.
1. Tarik Skubal is 10-2 with a 2.22 ERA, 149 strikeouts and just 14 walks
The 2024 AL Cy Young winner dominated down the stretch in 2024 and has apparently raised his game to an even higher level. This season, Skubal boasts a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 92-to-7, or 13.14 K’s for every walk — which would be the best ever for a qualified pitcher:
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Skubal, 2025: 13.14
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Phil Hughes, 2014: 11.63
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Bret Saberhagen, 1994: 11.00
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Cliff Lee, 2010: 10.28
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Curt Schilling, 2002: 9.58
Skubal shut out the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, allowing just two hits and striking out 13, registering a game score of 96, the highest game score since Domingo German also scored a 96 in his perfect game in 2023. Skubal’s final pitch: a blazing 102.6 mph fastball to strike out Gabriel Arias, the fastest strikeout pitch by a starting pitcher of the pitch-tracking era.
That pitch capped a historic performance for Skubal. Not only was it his first career complete game, but he did it throwing just 94 pitches. A shutout with fewer than 100 pitches is known as a Maddux, in honor of Hall of Famer and king of efficiency Greg Maddux (who had 13 Madduxes in his career). But Maddux never had a game quite like this one: Since pitch counts began in 1988, Skubal is the first pitcher to throw a shutout with fewer than 100 pitches and at least 13 strikeouts.
As he walked out to the mound for the ninth inning, he received a standing ovation from the home crowd chanting his name.
“Little teary-eyed out there, honestly, before the inning started,” Skubal said after the game. “It was pretty cool. I just thought to myself 12-year-old me wouldn’t believe that was an opportunity to have the fan base support you the way it does and be in that moment.”
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt called him the best pitcher in baseball. It’s hard to argue with that description.
2. A major-league-leading 2.78 bullpen ERA
Let’s break down the Tigers’ relief pitching over the past two seasons:
Start of 2024 season through Aug. 10: 4.16 ERA (20th in majors)
Aug. 11 to end of season: 2.35 ERA (second in majors)
2025: 3.31 ERA (seventh in majors)
The bullpen hasn’t been quite as dominant as it was those final seven weeks of 2024, but it has been effective enough. Manager A.J. Hinch and pitching coach Chris Fetter deserve a lot of credit for mixing and matching here. Changeup specialist Tommy Kahnle, signed as a free agent, has split closer duties with Will Vest, with Kahnle recording six saves and the hard-throwing Vest locking up four wins and seven saves.
This has been the result of necessity more than some master plan. Jason Foley led the team with 28 saves in 2024 but was sent down to Triple-A to begin this season after struggling in spring training. In mid-April, Foley talked to the Detroit News about his shock and frustration in getting sent down, but after allowing one hit over 6⅔ scoreless innings in five games for Toledo, Foley was placed on the injured list before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery earlier this month.
This could be an area in which the Tigers eventually look to add some depth. Kahnle has succeeded in throwing changeups 84% of the time but also hasn’t pitched 50 innings in a season since 2019. Beau Brieske had a 3.18 ERA a season ago as a reliever but is at 5.29 in 2025 with just 12 strikeouts in 17 innings. Overall, the pen ranks just 22nd in the majors in strikeout rate, so it is more of a pitch-to-contact pen.
3. A .726 OPS that ranks top 10 in the majors
Let’s break this down into the same three splits:
Start of 2024 season through Aug. 10: .674 OPS (27th in majors, 4.12 runs per game)
Aug. 11 to end of season: .714 OPS (13th in majors, 4.45 runs per game)
2025: .736 OPS (eighth in majors, 5.07 runs per game)
For the first four-plus months of 2024, the Detroit offense was bad — much like it had been for each season since 2017. In those years, the Tigers ranked 10th or worse in the AL in runs, consistently ranking near the bottom in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The offense perked up down the hot stretch to finish 2024 but has been even better this season — Detroit last averaged at least 5.0 runs per game for an entire season in 2008.
The Tigers have also improved their OBP from .300 last season to .325 so far in 2025. Two keys here: Free agent Gleyber Torres and 2020 No. 1 pick Spencer Torkelson. Torres, signed to a one-year, $15 million contract, has a .380 OBP, well above his career mark of .334 entering the season. There’s reason to believe he might keep this going as he ranks in the 99th percentile in chase rate, continuing a two-year improvement from a 25.9% chase rate in 2023 to 21.4% in 2024 to 16.0% in 2025. That has helped him to more walks than strikeouts and a solid .277 average.
Torkelson, meanwhile, is hitting .238/.351/.513 with 13 home runs and 40 RBIs — a big improvement from last year’s .219/.295/.374 line that led to a two-month demotion to Triple-A. He hit 31 home runs in 2023, so he has produced power numbers before, but this time he’s doing it with fewer strikeouts and more walks. His timing has been better, especially as he has pulled more balls in the air (and fewer on the ground). His defensive metrics are also much improved. So far, this is a much better player than we saw even in 2023, let alone 2024.
4. Javier Baez is hitting .280/.315/.459 in 2025
Hinch has done a terrific job of mixing up his lineups, especially since Matt Vierling, who was second to Riley Greene in WAR among position players in 2024, just returned for his first action of 2025. The Tigers have also been without outfielders Parker Meadows and Wenceel Perez all season. With Vierling and Meadows both injured, they were left without a center fielder. The initial plan featured light-hitting infielder Ryan Kreidler plus a little Greene, but Kreidler didn’t hit and Greene is best suited for a corner position.
So the Tigers got creative — with Baez, of all players. Despite that key home run against the Mariners, Baez was one of the worst players in the majors in 2024, hitting .184/.221/.294 with minus-1.1 WAR. They made their late run last year mostly without Baez, who played his last game on Aug. 22. With three years and $73 million left on his contract and the Tigers looking to give the shortstop job to rookie Trey Sweeney, they appeared stuck with one utility infielder on an expensive contract.
After working out in center field in spring training, Baez got his first start there April 22.
“One of the things that Javy has always been invested in is winning,” Hinch said at the time. “And he asked what he needed to do to help this team win. You can go to adjustments at the plate, play clean defense, the baserunning that he brings. But the reality is, the biggest message was: We’re going to need you at multiple positions. And he was all-in, and I think he’s taken it in stride because he saw that our team was winning.”
Baez’s offense had gone downhill in his three seasons with the Tigers, so he’s finally producing at the plate for the first time since 2021. His defense in center has been more than acceptable. Can he keep it going? Probably not. He’s the same ultra-aggressive hitter, with a chase rate that’s still over 40%. His hard-hit rates remain well below where they were during his best seasons with the Chicago Cubs. Meadows has just started a rehab assignment and will likely take over in center when he returns, but Baez has at least shown he can help out as a utility player.
Throw in Vierling — another player who can play all over the field — and suddenly Detroit’s lineup is not only versatile, but deep from one to nine with a good bench.
5. Casey Mize and Jackson Jobe are a combined 10-2 with a 3.23 ERA in 2025
The continued success of Mize and Jobe might be the key to whether the Tigers run away in the AL Central and keep this win pace going over 162 games. Mize is 6-1 with a 2.45 ERA but has a 3.90 FIP, as he has allowed a .215 average and .255 OBP despite averaging a below-average 7.7 K’s per nine innings. Jobe is 4-1 with a 4.03 ERA but a 5.02 FIP as he has a poor 35-to-24 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Despite the difference between their ERA and FIP, there is reason to believe in both pitchers. In Mize’s case, he throws strikes (with just 10 walks in nine starts), and his expected stats show a .208 average and .369 slugging percentage, almost a perfect match for his actual results — so he has done a good job of limiting hard contact and inducing an above-average groundball rate.
For Jobe, it’s all about projection improvement. We’ve seen that in his past three starts, as the highly rated rookie starter induced a few more swing-and-misses — 14, 11 and 11, respectively, after not reaching double figures in his first six starts. His changeup has been effective, giving him a nice weapon against left-handed batters. The issue is that his four-seam fastball, while averaging 96.6 mph, doesn’t miss a lot of bats. Since he doesn’t get much extension in his delivery, his “effective” velocity is just 93.0 mph, so it plays down a bit despite a fairly high spin rate (81st percentile). Bottom line: He’s nine starts into his career and has shown the potential that made him a top prospect.
And the bottom line for the Tigers overall? They’re clearly for real, with improved offensive depth, a dominant No. 1 starter and a top manager who knows how to use his roster. Detroit also has a strong farm system — No. 3 on ESPN’s preseason ranking — that will allow it to be one of the teams most likely to add significant help at the trade deadline.
The Tigers haven’t won 100 games since 1984, which happens to be the last time they won the World Series. This team has the roster to make you believe both of those things could happen again in 2025.
Sports
Panthers to Cup Final: ‘This year, it’s all business’
Published
2 hours agoon
May 29, 2025By
admin
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Greg WyshynskiMay 28, 2025, 11:10 PM ET
Close- Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.
RALEIGH, N.C. — For the Carolina Hurricanes, it was a Game 5 loss in the Eastern Conference final that ended their season. For the Florida Panthers, it was Wednesday.
The Panthers advanced to their third straight Stanley Cup Final with a 5-3 victory that saw them rally from a 2-0 first-period deficit, have Carter Verhaeghe score the game-winning goal with 7:39 left in regulation, and kill off a Hurricanes power play with three minutes left and Carolina’s goalie pulled.
It was a thrilling and intense playoff game, one that coach Paul Maurice said had “all the elements that make our sport great.” But the celebration was business as usual for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
They congratulated goalie Sergei Bobrovsky but bypassed any raucous on-ice jubilation. The most celebratory thing the Panthers did was wear their conference champion hats — although Verhaeghe joked that if they were to win a fourth straight conference title next season, they might just keep their helmets on.
“I remember a few years ago it felt like such an accomplishment,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “This year, it’s all business.”
The Panthers also refused to touch the Prince of Wales Trophy for the second straight season after lifting it in 2023. They lost in the Stanley Cup Final that year to the Vegas Golden Knights, before defeating the Edmonton Oilers for their first Cup in 2024.
“I mean, last year it worked. So this year, same thing,” captain Aleksander Barkov said. “This is the place you want to be as a hockey player. You want to play for the Stanley Cup, and once again, we’re here third year in a row. That’s a great achievement, but we all know we’re here to win the bigger things.”
The Panthers’ business-like mindset helped them overcome a disastrous start to the game that saw Carolina take a 2-0 lead on a pair of Sebastian Aho goals. Carolina was 6-0 in the postseason when scoring first, having done so in Game 4 to push the series back to Raleigh.
“They’re all over us and we’re serving up pizzas. We don’t look like we should have made the playoffs. And then the next thing you know, we look pretty good,” Maurice said.
Carolina couldn’t capitalize on an early second-period power play to extend the lead and then watched center Jesperi Kotkaniemi take an ill-advised offensive zone holding penalty behind the play. Tkachuk tipped home an Aaron Ekblad shot just 16 seconds into the ensuing power play to cut the lead in half. It was the Panthers’ first power-play goal in 11 opportunities over the past three games.
As usual with the Panthers, one goal led to multiple goals. Evan Rodrigues scored his first of the playoffs 30 seconds after Tkachuk’s tally. Tkachuk fed the puck to Sam Bennett while taking a hit along the boards near the benches. Rodrigues got inside Carolina rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin to poke the puck through Frederik Andersen to tie the game.
“The message in between periods was just that if we got one, we felt pretty good that we had a good chance of coming back,” said Rodrigues, who was moved back to a line with Tkachuk and Bennett during the game. “There was no stress. The room wasn’t quiet. It was, ‘Get one and see where this takes us.'”
It took Florida to its first lead of the game. Just 4:06 after Rodrigues’ goal, center Anton Lundell got inside position on Aho to give Brad Marchand a target with his pass from the wing. Lundell tipped it home, and the Panthers were up 3-2.
“We’re comfortable in these situations. When you’ve been through it before and you’ve gone all the way, you see the different way that momentum swings can happen throughout a game and how you can take advantage of that,” Marchand said. “Even when they got that goal in the third, it didn’t phase us at all. We just kept pushing.”
The Hurricanes got the break they needed at 8:30 of the third period. Both Gustav Forsling and Sam Reinhart failed to clear the puck, and a great forecheck by Andrei Svechnikov sent a bouncing disc to an on-rushing Seth Jarvis, who flipped the puck past Bobrovsky to tie the game 3-3 and reignite the crowd.
But the Florida captain made his best offensive play of the series. Barkov held the puck in the attacking zone with Carolina defenseman Dmitry Orlov all over him. He deked around forward Eric Robinson and slid the puck to Verhaeghe, who did what he does best in the playoffs: Score the game-winning goal.
It was Verhaeghe’s 12th career game-winning goal in the playoffs, twice as many as the next-closest player in Panthers history (Tkachuk with six). It was the third series-clinching goal of his career.
“He’s got that clutch gene. Big goals at big times. It’s who he is,” Rodrigues said.
“Great goal, huge goal. Eastern Conference winning goal, so pretty big deal there,” said Tkachuk.
But the Panthers still needed a little bit more heroism, this time from their penalty kill. Bennett took a slashing penalty with three minutes left and Florida leading 4-3. The Panthers PK, led by Bobrovsky, managed to keep the puck out of the net with Carolina having pulled Andersen, until Bennett emerged from the penalty box to score the clinching goal.
The Hurricanes’ power play went 0-for-6 in the game.
“That was the killer. When you look back on this game, that’ll be a couple of lost moments for sure,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
Bobrovsky, who made 20 saves, said it’s a “privilege” to be back in the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight season.
“We appreciate that and we value that. But again, the most important step is ahead of us. It’s going to be a challenge,” he said.
The Panthers will await the winner of the Western Conference, where the Edmonton Oilers have a 3-1 series lead on the Dallas Stars. Whoever they face, the series will begin on the road — which might be exactly where Florida wants to be.
The Panthers have won five straight games on the road, outscoring opponents 27-7 and scoring at least five goals in each game.
In series-clinching opportunities in this postseason, the Panthers are now 0-2 at home and 3-0 on the road. The Panthers join the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins as the only teams to go winless in multiple home clinching opportunities en route to a Stanley Cup Final appearance. Since the Stanley Cup playoffs expanded to four full rounds in 1980, there have been four teams to win the Stanley Cup without clinching any series on their home ice.
Wherever and whenever they start the next round, it’ll be business as usual for the Panthers.
“It was really different two years ago. It was so new to us,” Tkachuk said. “Whoever we play, we’ll be very prepared for them. It’s not our first rodeo with this.”
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