Connect with us

Published

on

Inspirational thought of the week:

There’s a house honey, way across town
People coming from miles around
Put on your pretty red dress
Let’s go see about this mess
That’s it, baby let’s git
And go way far upon the hill

We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun
We gonna greet the risin’ sun
All night long we gonna ball
Until we hear yo mama call
That’s it, baby let’s git
And go way far upon the hill

There’s a thrill upon the hill
Let’s go, let’s a-go, let’s go

— “Let’s Go” Hank Ballard and The Midnighters

Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, currently stowed away in a storage container on the freighter ship carrying Desmond Howard’s pocket squares to Ireland for “College GameDay,” we are ready to be resurrected from our winter/spring/summer football hibernation. Now let’s hope the teams on the list you are about to receive are ready to do the same.

Same. That’s a word that we won’t use much during the 2024-25 (like, way into ’25) college football season. Realignment has bankrupted Rand-McNally. The transfer portal has been like a merry-go-round hooked up to Max Verstappen’s RB20, the spring model. And when December arrives, it will bring with it a 12-team College Football Playoff that is designed to finally make everyone happy and will likely make no one happy.

That’s why the arrival of the Bottom 10 feels like a warm hug from your grandma. It’s still the same it’s always been. It’s familiar. It’s soft. It smells a little like eggs. But in a world that feels as unsettled as Tim Legler in an L.A. earthquake, it is also the anchor we need … even if the teams who brought it to us always forget to pull that anchor off the bottom of the ocean before attempting to sail. Y’all better get going. Dez needs his squares.

With apologies to Napoleon McCallum, John Paul Jones and Steve Harvey, here are the preseason Bottom 10 rankings for 2024.


Ty Pennington’s alma mater joins the ranks of FBS and thusly adds its name to the prestigious Annowls, er, Annals of Bottom 10 Owls, taking their head-turning perch on a dry-rotted tree branch alongside Temple, Rice and FA(not I)U.


The Warhawks bring in new head coach Bryant Vincent, who immediately felt a draft in his office. When he traced the air leak into the locker room, he discovered a transfer portal exit tunnel hidden behind a Louisiana-Monroe schedule poster, almost like he was the warden in “The Shawshank Redemption.”


The Golden Flashes, winners of one game in 2023, will spend three of their first four weekends traveling to Pitt, Tennessee and Penn State. The good news is the school will receive large checks for those trips. The bad news is it will end up spending most of that money on BenGay and Band-Aids.


Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but Akron travels to Kent State on Nov. 19 for what could be the Bottom 10 Pillow Fight of the Century of the Year. So, go on and circle it. In crayon.


Apparently, it wasn’t enough for the Wolverines to win the national title or even to dominate the box office alongside “Deadpool.” Instead, Go Blue has decided to go all-in on a public thumbing of their collective Big House noses at the NCAA, whether it be departed head coach Jim Harbaugh at the news conference podium in Los Angeles or the decision to defiantly invite him back for the season opener after he’d been handed a show-cause by the folks in Indianapolis. I’m no expert on thumbing one’s nose, but I am a bit of an expert on the Wolverine, and no one should ever thumb their nose using adamantium claws.


The Minutemen will play their last season as an independent before moving to #MACtion in 2025. But wait just a, well, minute here. If you’re a Minuteman, isn’t fighting for independence like your whole thing?


The second flock of Owls in our rankings will play former Bottom 10 stalwart-turned-bowl regular R.O.C.K. in the UTSA during Week 13. Why is that significant? Because UTSA hosts Kennesaw State in Week 1 … visits Rice in Week 7 … and welcomes FAU in Week 8 … which means in 2024 the Roadrunners will go beak-to-beak with all four FBS Owls. So, do they have to play all those games at night?


New Minors head coach Scotty Walden led a winning program in FCS at Austin Peay, where the for-real school cheer is “Let’s go Peay!” Now he’s going to be walking around the Sun Bowl shouting, “Let’s go U-T-E-Peay!” which sounds like a condition one might need to take to their urologist.


This spot came down between a pair of #MACtionites in Baller State and the Buffalo Bulls Not Bills. The Cards have been in the Bottom 10 deck ever since 2015, the last of Pete Lembo’s five seasons in Muncie. Now he’s head coach at Buffalo. The teams play Nov. 12. Until then, the Bottom 10 status of both will likely be in, yes, Lembo.


The prodigal Panthers return. Back in 2014, this team was the first champ of a Ryan McGee-chosen Bottom 10. However, they eventually turned the Atlanta street corner and became semi-annual bowl visitors under head coach Shawn Elliott, including last season’s 7-6 squad that won the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. But Elliott shockingly left the team two days into spring practice and his Georgia State roster jumped into the portal like it was a Six Flags Over Georgia waterslide. So, who did State Not Southern hire to take over? Dell McGee. Are we related? No. Are we family? Now we are, yes.

Waiting list: Charlotte 3-and-9ers, EC-Yew, Buffalo Bulls Not Bills, Sam Houston we have a problem, Fa-La-La-La-La Tech, State of New Mexico and New Mexico State, UCan’t, maps … all of them.

Continue Reading

Sports

Gurriel makes history with HR off 103.9 mph pitch

Published

on

By

Gurriel makes history with HR off 103.9 mph pitch

PHOENIX — San Diego Padres reliever Mason Miller was bringing the heat on Tuesday night.

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. returned the favor.

Gurriel crushed a 103.9 mph fastball from Miller into the left-field seats for a two-run homer in the eighth inning, tying the game at 5-all. It was the hardest hit pitch for a homer since MLB started pitch tracking in 2008.

It was part of a two-homer night for Gurriel. The veteran also hit a two-run shot in the first inning.

The hard-throwing Miller was acquired from the Athletics at last week’s trade deadline. He routinely throws over 100 mph and hit 104.2 mph with his hardest pitch on Tuesday night.

Luis Arráez hit a go-ahead single in the 11th inning and the Padres tacked on four more runs to beat the Diamondbacks 10-5.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Sasaki taking next step in rehab: No shoulder pain

Published

on

By

Sasaki taking next step in rehab: No shoulder pain

LOS ANGELES — Roki Sasaki, finally ramping up after spending the past three months on the injured list, said Tuesday he had “no pain” in his right shoulder and expressed confidence in his ability to regain fastball velocity, which began to tail off before he was shut down.

“I feel better about being able to throw harder, especially because I’m completely pain free,” Sasaki said through an interpreter. “With that being said, I do have to just face live hitters and see how my mechanics, you know, hold. Just being consistent; being able to do that consistently.”

Sasaki is scheduled to pitch three simulated innings at Dodger Stadium over the weekend before going on a rehab assignment. The Dodgers will stretch Sasaki back out as a starting pitcher. How he eventually fits in, though, remains to be seen.

The Dodgers’ rotation is currently full, with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow back healthy, Shohei Ohtani stretched out to at least four innings, and Clayton Kershaw, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Emmet Sheehan making up the other three spots of a six-man rotation.

Asked if he could eventually see Sasaki occupying a bullpen spot, specifically in October, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said: “I’m going to hold on that one. I do know we’re going to take the 13 best pitchers. I’ve been a part of many postseason rosters, so we’re going to take the 13 best pitchers. If Roki is a part of that in some capacity, then that would be great. And if he’s not, then he won’t be.”

Before that is even entertained, Sasaki simply has to perform better.

The 23-year-old right-hander arrived in the major leagues after being one of the most hyped pitchers to come out of Japan, armed with a triple-digit fastball and a mind-bending splitter. But evaluators throughout the industry also acknowledged he still needed more seasoning. That wound up being the case early, even more so than many anticipated.

Through his first eight starts, before landing on the IL with what the Dodgers described as a shoulder impingement, Sasaki posted a 4.72 ERA and failed to complete six innings on seven occasions. In a stretch of 34⅓ innings, he walked almost as many batters (22) as he struck out (24). The four-seam fastball, which often lacked command, fell into the mid-90s over his last handful of outings. Often, the splitter functioned as his only legitimate major league pitch.

Sasaki acknowledged that “American hitters have a different approach at the plate compared to Japanese hitters.”

“I can’t really attack the same way that I used to in Japan,” he added.

With that in mind, Sasaki has begun to experiment with a two-seam fastball, a pitch that runs in on opposing right-handed hitters and is designed to generate early contact, ideally ground balls. The hope is that it eventually functions as a second fastball to pair with his splitter and slider.

The focus at this point, though, is on nailing down the mechanics of his delivery so that his shoulder no longer becomes an issue. Sasaki said he now has “a better understanding a second time through on where the pain came from and how to make sure that the pain doesn’t come back.” His mechanics are “not 100 percent right now,” Sasaki added, “but I think it’s in the right direction.”

When he returns, Sasaki will have to prove he belongs.

“My every intention is to get back on the major league mound and pitch again,” he said. “With that being said, you know … I do need to fight for the opportunity, too. I don’t think that I’ll just be given the opportunity right away.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Brewers cap best 60-game stretch in team history

Published

on

By

Brewers cap best 60-game stretch in team history

ATLANTA — Before Tuesday night’s 7-2 win at Atlanta, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy suggested “most people couldn’t tell you five players on our team.”

A look at the standings would indicate more Brewers players soon will be recognized by more fans.

After all, it’s difficult to overlook a team that not only continues to extend its lead in the NL Central but also boasts the best record in the majors.

“What we’re doing in here right now is special,” said right-hander Freddy Peralta after allowing only four hits and one run in five innings while setting a career high with his 13th win.

“We’re just enjoying the game and coming to compete every day,” Peralta said. “We have to keep it that way.”

Peralta was surprised to learn he had established a career high for wins in a season.

“It always feels good to get the win as a team but also personally for me, it’s a big deal,” Peralta said.

Murphy said Peralta, who was named to this year NL All-Star team, is “just getting started. … This is the best Freddy has ever been. I thought he was really, really good.”

The Brewers lead second-place Chicago by four games in the NL Central following the Cubs’ 5-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.

The Brewers have a five-game winning streak. They have won six straight road games and are 44-16 in their last 60 games overall. It’s the best 60-game stretch in team history.

Murphy said it will be important for players to keep their focus in the final stretch of the regular season.

“We really have to be disciplined right now, more than ever before,” Murphy said after the Brewers (69-44) moved 25 games over .500, their best record of the season.

Milwaukee’s road success has been an important part of the surge to first place. The team’s 33-24 road record gives the Brewers the best winning percentage (.579) away from home in baseball. The record includes winning the first two games of the three-game series in Atlanta.

“You can’t assume everything is going to go our way going forward,” Murphy said, adding he recognized the Brewers were fortunate to avoid giving up more runs Tuesday night when the Braves left 14 runners on base, tied for their highest total in the last two seasons.

The Brewers also have made key moves this year, including their trade for first baseman Andrew Vaughn on June 13.

Vaughn has an 11-game hitting streak, matching his career high, following a two-run single on Tuesday night. He is hitting .429 with four homers and 14 RBI during is hitting streak. He is hitting .370 since joining the Brewers.

Murphy said his players “are hungry” and “don’t every try to play safe.”

As for the lack of national recognition, Murphy just smiled.

“That’s the fun of it,” he said.

Continue Reading

Trending