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  • David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterOct 17, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

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    • College football reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

On Jan. 1, 2019, two icons were set to meet at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Yes, Georgia and Texas would face off, but that wasn’t the real draw. It was the meeting between the teams’ mascots — Georgia’s bulldog Uga and Texas’ longhorn steer Bevo — that ultimately captured the nation’s attention.

What began as a made-for-TV moment to fill airtime before kickoff ended up a near catastrophe, a showcase of the strength and majesty of the world’s most famous cow, a preview of the game to come and a tangible example of the incredibly thin line between comedy and tragedy. Above all, it became one of the iconic viral videos in bowl history.

Now SEC rivals, Georgia and Texas are set to play again this week for the first time since the great Bevo-Uga showdown, so we looked back on that famed meeting of mascots for a better understanding of what happened and why live mascots remain an indelible part of the culture of college football.

Lowell Galindo, Longhorn Network play-by-play announcer: People get caught up in the moment, and honestly, who’s thinking that’s going to happen? Surely they’ve talked this through and have it all figured out, and there won’t be any issues, right? Wrong.

Jim Sigmon, Texas team photographer: I was kind of thinking, this is odd because usually other schools don’t bring their live animal mascots over to Bevo. That’s a big-ass animal. I just thought the whole thing was bizarre.

Holly Rowe, ESPN sideline reporter: I saw Uga coming our way and thought, “Aww, what a sweet meet-cute for the mascots,” so I started filming it on my phone. Then things got wild.

Tommy Tomlinson, Georgia fan and author of “Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show”: What’s the old Mel Brooks line? Tragedy is when I get a hangnail. Comedy is when you fall into a hole and die. Depending on which side you were on in this story, it could’ve been both.

Charles Seiler, Uga’s owner and handler: People who’ve been in the mascot business, we don’t like to have problems with the mascots. But I can’t say they lost control because my butt was headed in the other direction.

Part I: A history of live animal mascots

The story of Uga and Bevo’s meeting actually begins 140 years earlier. That’s when Yale’s bulldog Handsome Dan, widely regarded as college football’s first mascot, took to the field at Yale. The term “mascot” comes from the French word “mascotte,” which means “lucky charm,” and for dozens of schools around the country, Handsome Dan and other live animals were exactly that.

Tim Brown, football historian: It was mostly dogs originally. But as teams started coming up with mascots like badgers or buffalo, it was almost like a prank initially. Some students would decide to get one and bring it to the game.

Seiler: When my dad started this thing, he actually smuggled the dog into the Florida State game, and the [newspaper] took some pictures of it. That game was 3-0, and Coach [Wally] Butts, I think kind of tongue-in-cheek, said to my dad, “That game wasn’t very interesting, so it’s good you brought that dog.”

Nowadays, extreme care is taken in selecting just the right animal, and countless hours are spent training both the mascot and its handlers. But of course, incidents have happened along the way.

Taylor Stratton, handler for the Colorado Buffaloes’ buffalo, Ralphie: I talk to them as if they understand me, and the thing I was telling Ralphie VI is, “Oh no, all buffalo do this. It would be weird if you didn’t go to a stadium. This is normal.”

Ricky Brennes, executive director of the University of Texas Silver Spurs, handler for Bevo: A lot of it comes down to their natural temperament and disposition. Without that, it doesn’t matter too much. We took him to band practice, music playing in his pen, hung flags up in the barn to see how he’d react to different types of movement. The previous Bevo did not like flags at all.

Stratton: Because [Ralphie’s] so big and athletic, we do Division I-level strength and conditioning training. They’re doing sprint workouts, making sure their bodies are ready and functioning at peak athletic performance. … We go through different ways we run. Get your chest up and your knees up because you cannot run 25 mph, so you need to let the buffalo pull you while you’re in the air so when you hit the ground you can keep your feet and go as fast as you can.

Adam Harper, handler for SMU‘s stallion, Peruna: The only time he’s not used to loud environments are flyovers, and that’s something we have to plan for. Like, “Be aware guys, Peruna is going to hate that.”

Peter Cashman, handler for Army‘s mules: Mules are funny animals. Certain things bother them and certain things don’t. They can be standing next to the cannon when it goes off, and it’s no problem. But if the wave starts behind them, and it’s in their peripheral vision, that bothers them.

Harper: We form a kind of circle around [Peruna] where it negates anybody from possibly walking behind him. That’s our one big rule: Do not walk behind Peruna.

Cashman: We were at Army-Navy about five years ago, and for some reason, the whole Army team ran out right into the mules where we were standing. We had 50 football players amongst the mules, but nobody was hurt.

Seiler: Baylor used to bring out a bear cub. Uga walked up to sniff the bear’s butt, and he spun around and, damn if he didn’t spin Uga like a top. I don’t think they can possibly bring a cub anymore.

Cashman: The biggest part is keeping [the mules] hidden from Navy. On the road, I have to find a location that is secretive and nobody is going to tell Navy where the mules are. We go in with an unmarked trailer. And it’s the same with the [Navy] goats.

Harper: Before I took the job, one person pulled me aside and said, “This is what happened to me.” He was running with Peruna, and he tripped and fell. We’re tasked to hold on to the reins no matter what, because if Peruna gets loose, you’re not catching him. So if you fall, let him drag you. Just hold on. That’s all that matters. Anyway, he fell at the 40-yard line, and was dragged by Peruna all the way to the end zone. He scored a touchdown. He had a nasty bruise down the side of his body.

Brennes: We had a moment walking Bevo off the field against Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, and he defecated on the word “Nebraska” when we were walking him off.

Harper: The pooping on TCU‘s field gets talked about still. People still come up and say, “Don’t let [Peruna] poop on the field.” It adds to the celebrity status.

Michael Griffin, former Texas player and Longhorn Network analyst: If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Uga bite somebody before?

Tomlinson: That’s the one where if you go into a dive bar in Georgia, that photo or a painting of it will be on a wall somewhere. That’s one of the top moments, because it’s a literal manifestation of the rivalry. We want to eat the other team. Uga stood in for all of us that day.

Seiler: Auburn hates that [picture]. For five years after that, they put someone on me to make sure I didn’t get that close to the field again.

Brennes: One of the funniest Bevo moments … was Jordan Shipley jumping into Bevo’s pit on a punt return [at Darrell K. Royal Stadium].

Jordan Shipley, former Texas player and Longhorn Network analyst: It was a short punt, and I already had some speed built up. It ended up being a footrace to the pylon, and I hit the end zone running full speed. In the moment, you don’t think about it, but I had to hop over a couple things, and by the time I look up, I’m literally right in front of Bevo. I put my hands up and hit his horns and jumped back out of there. He was pretty lethargic that day, thank goodness. It was a quick, “OK, I’m going to get out of here.”

Harper: Peruna killed a mascot in the 1930s. I stepped on campus, and the first thing our administration told the new students is that our mascot is Peruna, and he killed the Fordham ram. That’s legendary.

Breckyn Hager, Texas defensive lineman: Well, it’s good Bevo kept it classy.

Part II: The photo op

In college football history, few mascots resonate among the masses like Uga and Bevo, who’ve been a part of their respective programs for generations. The history between bulldogs and bulls, however, goes back much further.

Tomlinson: Wild bulls are huge, ornery animals that are hard to control, especially in frontier days. These dogs were bred to be fearless, and bred physically to have flat faces so they could literally run up to the bull, grab its nose with its teeth and drag its head to the ground.

Brennes: Bevo doesn’t hate dogs. Bevo’s not familiar with what bulldogs are bred for, and let’s be honest, that was bred out of English bulldogs a long time ago.

Seiler: My breeder, she’d get day-old bread and give it to the bulldogs, and they’d go down the fence line and give it to the cows twice a week. Bulldogs don’t care about cows. They’re used to them. A cow is no big deal to a bulldog.

Tomlinson: In some ways, I’d like to think Bevo was striking a blow for his side after all that history. Clearly in that moment, neither bull nor dog had any experience in that sort of thing, but maybe somewhere deep in Bevo’s DNA, he remembered that those dogs used to get the best of his kin.

Before the Sugar Bowl, the Longhorn Network was less concerned with the history of bulls and dogs, and more about filling a little airtime before kickoff, so TV worked with Brennes and Seiler to arrange what was actually a second meeting of the mascots.

Seiler: We were staged right behind Bevo in the parade the day before. We went to go talk to Rick and his guys, and we could see Bevo in the trailer, but his butt’s facing out at me. In order to get a picture of Bevo without getting a butt shot, they had to pull him out backwards. It took him a while to do it, but Bevo was super chill. We took our dog over, and me, my wife and our son got a picture with Bevo and Rick and the owners, and it was no fuss, no muss.

Rowe: [Bevo] is one of the iconic mascots in all of sports — the literal logo for Texas, the Jerry West of college football. I have a fearful and respectful relationship with him, because let’s be honest — I’m 5-8, and the horn span is bigger than me.

Danny Davis, reporter for Austin American-Statesman: At Texas games, the pen he stays in is right in the corner where the media stands for the last five minutes of the game, and he’s usually chill. I don’t know what his problem was that one day. Maybe he wasn’t happy to see the cute, little puppy.

Seiler: We roll up. We’re not quite on time for TV yet. I’ve got the dog in his kennel on the golf cart. I look over at Bevo, and they have him in some makeshift corral, but he’s staring at a concrete wall.

Angela Wang, photographer for The Daily Texan: We all heard Uga was being brought over and thought it would be a great photo opportunity. I was squatting down behind the barricade, facing Uga, with no idea what was happening behind me.

Davis: I was standing around with other journalists and saw Uga come up, and I decided to do a video. Then, of course, all chaos broke loose.

Sigmon: It’s like being at a car wreck. Everything’s perfectly fine, then all of a sudden, s—‘s weird and you’re like, “What happened?” Some of the best TV moments are that way.

Nick Wagner, photographer for Austin American-Statesman: You have the overhead camera, three or four other angles, it was the most perfect setup to catch a viral moment.

Galindo: It was straight out of “Anchorman.” Like, that escalated quickly.

Tre Watson, Texas running back: All we hear is people yelling. I think somebody told us Bevo had just tried to attack the bulldog, and we were lit. We were yelling, “Let’s go Bevo!”

Temple Grandin, animal expert: A longhorn can learn to tolerate that environment, but this was a brand-new stadium, and that’s part of the problem. At home, he’d be used to it, but now you’ve got him in a strange place in a makeshift enclosure, and that probably led to the problem. I’ve seen show steers get upset at just trade show banners on tables. Sudden novelty scares him.

Sigmon: Bevo’s butt was facing where the dog was, and he spun around, and when he saw the dog, he flipped the New Orleans police barricade, just one-horned it, and flung it like it was a bug.

Galindo: I’m shocked there were photographers near the pen with their backs toward Bevo at that moment.

Seiler: There were cameras on tripods. There were people laying down. Some of those sideline guys are nuts. They get taken out by players all the time.

Sigmon: I’m behind the golf cart. The golf cart is between me, the dog and Bevo. The people with wide-angle lenses right up front, I wasn’t going to be one of those people.

Wang: Initially, I heard a woman start screaming. At that time, Uga had started squatting, so I thought it was because she thought he was going to use the restroom on the field.

Kirby Smart, Georgia head coach: I was worried for Uga, to be honest.

Seiler: Uga was sitting down waiting to have his picture made, and I don’t even think he knew Bevo was behind him. Then I heard a lady scream, and I turned around, and saw people dashing. I wasn’t going to wait around, so I just pulled away the dog. In some of those pictures, it looks like Bevo’s like 2 feet from us, but actually he was never within 10 feet of us.

Griffin: The biggest thing I really remember was his horn went over this — I think she was a photographer. I just remember her ducking, and the horn going right over her head.

Wang: I started standing up and thought, “Oh, it’s fine,” so squatted back down, and if you watch the video in slow-mo, you’ll see me kind of duck and the horn barely scrapes by me. I didn’t realize the horn hit me until someone pointed it out on Reddit.

Griffin: She was still doing her job. That’s funny. I thought she was ducking like, “Oh my god.”

Tomlinson: The thing that makes me laugh every time is there were like three announcers, and they’re clearly mocking and enjoying this moment as it leads up to it, talking about it being like the royal wedding. But when it happened, they reverted to football announcers, because one of the guys immediately said, “That’s targeting.”

On the TV feed, the incident is largely played for laughs. Galindo compared it to the meme of Joe Rogan reacting at a UFC fight — hugging, laughing, screaming, chaos.

Galindo: We’re actually on the sideline with a monitor in front of us. We saw Uga come behind us to go see Bevo, but then we’re just watching everything on the monitor.

Griffin: They take Uga out of his crate, and all of a sudden, Bevo is out to destroy.

Shipley: Bevo just kind of squared up and went after him, and he wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer.

Griffin: You’re like, “Oh s—, if Bevo gets loose, where the hell is he going?”

Shipley: One of the things they thought was funny about it was the game I ran into Bevo, and they were saying, “It’s a good thing Bevo didn’t treat you like he treated Uga.”

Galindo (on the ESPN broadcast): Can live television get better than that? No!

Hager: The only thing I’ve ever really showed my girlfriend from my football career is that video.

Galindo: I love it, man. That’s what college sports are about — the insanity, the fans, the mascots, the players. So if I’m associated with [the Bevo call] more than anything, I don’t care. I think it’s hilarious.

Ultimately, the entire incident lasts just a few seconds before Bevo’s handlers, the Silver Spurs, get control of the situation, and the TV clip ends with Galindo and Co. repeating the phrase that’s now tethered to the incident in college football lore: That. Was. Awesome.

Watson: I didn’t see it until after the game. We were all talking about it. Bevo really tried to go get him. I just thought it was a nice easy buck. No. That boy was about to lose his life on live television.

Wagner: People right there understood the gravity of it, of how it could’ve been. It was just chaos. That moment, the entire night, the following day. It was a story I’ll tell for the rest of my life.

Griffin: That whole conversation that’s always been said, “Is Bevo drugged up and that’s why he’s so tame during the games?” Now you see that and you’re like, “No, I don’t think he’s drugged.”

Hager: I was actually a Silver Spur. I’ve been very close to Bevo, and there was never, in the four years I was playing, a moment when I thought Bevo was going to do anything out of the ordinary, let alone attack the other team’s mascot. It’s really impressive how they’re able to handle an animal like that, especially in a time when that skill of the true cowboy is kind of lost.

Sigmon: They professionally took care of it. They got the dog safe, and they got Bevo back behind the barricade. But I’m guessing that won’t happen again.

Rowe: I think there was a moment we were all talking and saying, “Wow, that could have gone really badly.” Kudos to the handlers.

Galindo: I want to make sure people know how professional and well trained all the people around Bevo are. But at the end of the day, it is a massive animal. But Ricky Brennes and all those guys, it is shocking how detailed everything is. It’s like the Secret Service preparing for the president to arrive somewhere.

Seiler: At some point, I took the dog back over there, and we did get a picture.

There was, of course, still a game to play, and while no one can say for sure whether Bevo’s charge changed the outcome, the folks at Texas certainly believe it did. Texas, a 12.5-point underdog, pulled off the upset win, 28-21.

Griffin: It was a lot for Texas getting into the Sugar Bowl, but everybody was talking about Georgia being upset, because they weren’t in the College Football Playoff.

Hager: I just remember them being overhyped, and Georgia was going to kill us, and all my friends from Georgia were telling me we were going to get beat pretty bad. And before kickoff, to see our beloved Bevo setting the tone, I think it helped us go out there more relaxed and excited and aggressive.

Davis: College football fans will rally around anything. Bevo charging a little puppy became a rallying cry that night. It became a symbol before they beat a Georgia team no one thought they’d beat.

Watson: Our mascot was ready to go to war with their mascot on full live television. Bevo got us rolling. That was the start and set the tone that we were going to step on some Bulldogs’ necks that day.

Charlie Woerner, Georgia tight end: I remember them showing it on the Jumbotron. Bevo knocked over a fence. It was crazy. I was like, “Dang, I’m glad Uga is OK.”

Hager: Coming in from warming up, it went viral around the locker room. And the main point was, “How can we lose if Bevo’s bossing up like that?”

Griffin: Texas goes on to win the game, and everybody’s like, “It’s because Bevo showed attitude.”

Smart: The incident comes to light because of all the videos since, but I don’t recall it having any impact on us or seeing it prior to the game.

Bijan Robinson, top recruit and future Texas tailback: I wasn’t there when Bevo attacked, but I saw it live on TV. I was like, “That’s the scariest thing for that dog to get attacked by an absolute gigantic mammal.” From that moment, I was like, “I’m going to Texas.”

Rodrigo Blankenship, Georgia kicker: There was a whole lot of content that said, “This sums up the Texas-Georgia game.”

Part III: The aftermath

The game itself became something of an afterthought, while the clip of Bevo’s brashness was a sensation. It spread across social media like wildfire, led “SportsCenter,” and it was Scott Van Pelt’s “Best Thing I Saw” that night. Texas fans immediately adopted the image as the perfect symbol of the state and the school’s ethos of toughness.

Seiler: Rick called me and apologized. I said, “Did you get some good pictures?” He said he thinks that, because Bevo got to the arena like six hours before the game started and hadn’t moved from that spot, he just got worn out from staring at a wall. He just wanted to go for a stroll. I don’t think the cow ever even saw the dog, because there were too many people around.

Galindo: In the moment, we thought it was hilarious and cool and funny. But we really didn’t realize it was that big a deal until we got back to the hotel and at the bar, every TV was on “SportsCenter,” and they’re showing basically my play call.

Davis: This probably says a lot about the industry or how terrible a person I am, but this happens, and the first thing I think is, “Did I get it on camera?” And then, “This is content gold I have here.”

Seiler: I had a photographer come up and say, “Look what Bevo did to me.” He pulled up his shirt, and the guy had a big gash down his back.

Wagner: People were just coming up to me in the press room like, “Can I see your back?” My brother, Peter, had a good line that night in the family group text: “Nick I’ve seen your back more times today than I have in my entire life, and we used to share a room.”

Davis: Nick’s health and wellbeing, I didn’t even think about it at first. Then someone was like, “What happened with Nick?” and I was like, “Oh, s—, I should check on him.”

Wagner: On the workman’s comp form, it asks why you’re receiving treatment, and I just wrote, “Hit by cow.”

Wang: Nick and I always joked that we really wish our careers were something more than this meme, but at the same time, I’ll share it.

Griffin: [Wang] probably has a bright future ahead of her, but now she’s known as the lady who almost got killed by Bevo. When she has kids, they’ll be like, “Hey, you know my mom almost got killed by Bevo, right?”

Davis: It’s been a long-running joke that I peaked that night.

Wang: When it first happened, I’d get responses on dating apps like, “Was that you?” My résumé at the bottom on special interests says, “Dodging mascots.”

Galindo: Every year we’d do three or four Longhorn Network promos before the start of the football season. We wanted to play off it, so we did a piece where it was, “Bring your dog to work day.” It was Ricky [Williams], Ship, me and Griff, and we’re all walking our actual dogs on the field at DKR. Ricky and Ship have bulldogs. So we’re walking our dogs, then cut to a shot from behind us of Bevo coming in frame. We all turn and walk the other way like, “Nope, not a good idea.”

But ultimately, there’s no arguing the color, tradition and, occasionally, unpredictability, live mascots bring to the sport.

Stratton: I do think [Ralphie] enjoys it. She’s a 1,000-pound animal, and we use only positive reinforcement, so at the end of the day, we’re not making this buffalo do anything she doesn’t want to do. We can’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to do. … I’ve had so many people come up to me and say, no matter how many times they see Ralphie run, they still get goosebumps. These animals are so special. They’re domestic, but they’re still just a little bit wild. And I think that speaks to our campus. It just gets your adrenaline going to watch four or five crazy college kids hold on to a buffalo for dear life. Who thinks that’s a good idea? But it’s me. I did it, and I love it.

Smart: So many people respect the long history and tradition of each Uga. They’re buried in our stadium. They’re right there. He’s part of the fabric of our culture.

Steve Sarkisian, Texas head coach: Bevo brings a ton of pride to our program and is such a great symbol of the power, strength and determination of Texas football. One of our mantras is “Tough All Day,” and that’s what Bevo is and represents.

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Flyers honor late Parent with tribute before game

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November 23, 2025

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Flyers honor late Parent with tribute before game

  • Associated Press

Nov 22, 2025, 10:40 PM ET

PHILADELPHIA — The Flyers celebrate the star of each victory this season by presenting him with a replica Bernie Parent goalie mask. The white mask with the Flyers logo on each side of the temples looks much like the one Parent wore as a cover boy in the 1970s on Time magazine when the Flyers truly meant something — beyond the Philly sports scene, and even the NHL — and he served as the cloaked face of the Broad Street Bullies.

The Flyers pulled out the mask Saturday night before their game against New Jersey and let it rest on top of one of the goalie nets. One more final tribute for Parent, the Hall of Fame goalie who was honored by the franchise this weekend two months after he died at age 80.

“Forever our No. 1,” said Lou Nolan, the Flyers’ public address announcer since 1972.

With that, the spotlight shone on Parent’s retired No. 1 banner that hangs in the rafters, just a row ahead of the two oversized Stanley Cup championship banners — the only ones in franchise history — that catch the eye in Flyers orange and might not even exist at all if not for the affable goalie from Montreal.

Parent anchored the net for the Flyers when the Bullies reigned under owner Ed Snider as one of the marquee teams in sports. Parent won Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe and Vezina trophies in back-to-back seasons when the Flyers captured the Stanley Cup in ’74 and ’75, the first NHL expansion team to win the championship.

Ahead of the game Saturday against New Jersey, a photo of a smiling Parent flashing his two Stanley Cup rings on the outside arena videoboard loomed large over the 9-foot bronze statue for Snider, the Flyers’ founder who died in 2016.

“‘We’ve got two Stanley Cups because of Bernie,” Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke said at a celebration of life event in front of thousands of Flyers fans.

Flyers fans poured out this weekend to remember Parent over a two-day celebration that started with Friday’s service and extended into Saturday’s tribute game. Flyers fans in droves wore No. 1 Parent jerseys during the game — and what would the goalie think even as, yes, his beloved Flyers scored three goals in 26 seconds against beleaguered Jake Allen — and they roared for every highlight from Parent’s glory years.

The loudest cheers were saved for the Stanley Cup highlights.

The Flyers beat the Boston Bruins in six games to win the Stanley Cup in 1974 and beat Buffalo in 1975. Parent had shutouts in the clinchers each season.

On the flight home from Buffalo, the Flyers plopped the Stanley Cup in the middle of the aisle. For close to 90 minutes, they couldn’t take their eyes off hockey’s ultimate prize.

“We were able to just sit back, look at the Stanley Cup and just savor it,” Parent said in 2010. “It was just a special time.”

With Parent the unstoppable force in net, “Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent,” became a popular bumper sticker in Philadelphia that would stick on him as a lifelong slogan — and popular autograph inscription request — through retirement and his many years as a team ambassador.

Parent also served as an ambassador for the Ed Snider Youth Hockey and Education program; a youth hockey program created in 2005 for under-resourced youth in Philadelphia.

The program announced Saturday it would honor Parent’s legacy with the Bernie Parent Goalie Development Program, aimed to prepare young people for success both on and off the ice. Flyers Charities presented a $50,000 donation which was matched by Snider’s children.

Parent, team captain Bobby Clarke and Dave “The Hammer” Schultz all became stars for the Flyers under Snider in an era when the team was known for its rugged style of play that earned the Bullies nickname. They embraced their moniker as the roughest team in the NHL and pounded their way into the hearts of Flyers fans. More than 2 million fans packed Philadelphia streets for each of their championship parades.

Most of the living members from the Cup teams attended the game Saturday and Clarke choked back tears at the memorial as he listed other Flyers from the Stanley Cup teams who have since died. Barry Ashbee. Ed Van Impe. Bill Flett. Ross Lonsberry. Rick MacLeish

“And now, God bless Bernie, because he’s going to join them,” Clarke said. “And the rest of us, until we go join them, we will talk together forever.”

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Blackwood makes 35 saves as Avs win 8th straight

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6 hours ago

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November 23, 2025

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Blackwood makes 35 saves as Avs win 8th straight

  • ESPN News Services

Nov 22, 2025, 11:41 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.

Brent Burns scored early, and Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Drury added empty-net goals for the Avalanche. Colorado has won eight straight, their longest winning streak since taking nine in a row March 4-24, 2024.

The Avalanche hold the best record in the league and are five points up from the second-place Carolina Hurricanes.

Juuse Saros made 23 saves for the Predators, losers of seven of eight. Saturday was the first game back in North America for the Predators after playing a pair of Global Series games last week against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Stockholm, Sweden. The Predators have been shutout in consecutive games.

The shutout was the first of the season and 15th of Blackwood’s career.

Burns scored the game’s first goal just 15 seconds after the opening faceoff.

After a battle in the right corner, the puck came to Burns above the right circle, where he beat Saros with a wrist shot on the first shot of the game.

The game remained 1-0 until MacKinnon scored an empty-net goal was 1:35 remaining in the third with Saros pulled for an extra attacker. Drury added another empty-netter with 51 seconds left.

MacKinnon has three goals in his last two games.

Colorado defenseman Cale Makar failed to record a point in a road game for the first time this season.

The Predators outshot the Avalanche 16-6 in the first, but couldn’t get one past Blackwood.

Saturday was just the fifth time this season that an opponent has outshot the Avalanche. Colorado is 5-0-0 in those games.

Blackwood stopped Nashville’s Michael McCarron with 5:47 remaining in the third on a backhand from the low slot to keep the Predators off the board.

Predators captain Roman Josi returned to the lineup Saturday after missing 12 games with an upper-body injury.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Bring on Rivalry Week! Status quo Saturday means chaos looms

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November 23, 2025

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Bring on Rivalry Week! Status quo Saturday means chaos looms

  • David HaleNov 22, 2025, 11:55 PM ET

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    • College football reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

Amid a year in which chaos has been a near constant, preseason expectations have been turned on their heads and James Franklin has gone from No. 2 in the country at Penn State to splitting the dock fees on a pontoon boat with Bud Foster at Virginia Tech inside of six weeks, we had every right to expect Week 13 might deliver some twists and turns we didn’t see coming.

Instead, what we got Saturday was the status quo.

We might’ve hoped Missouri, with Beau Pribula back at quarterback, might’ve upended Oklahoma‘s playoff dreams.

We might’ve believed USC could deliver a dagger to an Oregon team that had largely gone unchallenged all season.

We might’ve dreamed that the Notre Dame–Miami debate could’ve been settled by an upset from Syracuse or the Hokies.

With less than 3 minutes to play in Salt Lake City, we might’ve at least expected to see one upset of Kansas State over Utah, one small fracture in the committee’s playoff rankings, one small shift in the big picture.

Heck, the least we could’ve asked for was a decision on Lane Kiffin’s future, and even that was punted for a week so that the Ole Miss coach can make his announcement at the Egg Bowl by feigning peeing like a dog on the hat of whichever team he plans to coach next year.

None of it happened.

Oklahoma’s defense smothered another SEC opponent, picking off Pribula twice and holding Ahmad Hardy to just 57 yards on the ground in a 17-6 win. The Sooners’ offense may be less than inspiring, but Brent Venables has put together a defense that rivals anything he mustered during his storied career at Clemson, a unit whose impact on the SEC is rivaled only by Jimmy Sexton.

Oregon’s strength entering Saturday appeared to be its dominant defense, too, but instead it was Kenyon Sadiq and Noah Whittington stealing the show on offense and Malik Benson breaking USC on special teams with an 85-yard punt return for a score. On the heels of Oklahoma’s win, seeing Lincoln Riley suffer such a dismal outcome, too, was almost too much beauty for Sooners fans to stand.

In any other year, Saturday’s road trip to Virginia Tech would’ve served as the perfect opportunity for Miami to slip on a banana peel and slide its way into the Sun Bowl, but not this time. Carson Beck threw for 320 yards and four touchdowns. Malachi Toney had 12 catches. The defense racked up five sacks. Miami won 34-17. The win was good enough that, for just a few moments, allowed the Canes to climb into the same tier as Notre Dame for the committee to compare the two teams directly — just in time for Notre Dame to win 70-7 and remind everyone that the Irish are actually way better. The committee immediately put Miami back into the “evaluate after we gorge ourselves on room service chicken fingers and need a nap” section of the playoff discussions.

BYU had no trouble dispatching Cincinnati, the SEC’s powers dominated lower-level opposition and Ohio State sent a sternly worded letter to the conference asking that the Buckeyes not have to get out of bed before 2 p.m. for the likes of Rutgers in the future. It was all easy.

If any of the top playoff contenders offered real drama, it was Utah. Kansas State’s run game was relentless, chalking up 472 yards and five scores. The two teams traded scores early with five lead changes and three ties through three quarters of action. But a Utah fumble midway through the fourth set up a K State score and a 47-37 Wildcats lead with 7 minutes to go. But the Utes refused to roll over, scoring twice in the final 2:47, and pulling away with a 51-47 win.

The come-from-behind victory could be more than just a necessary step in protecting Utah’s playoff hopes. Utah fans wondered if perhaps Saturday would be Kyle Whittingham’s final game at Rice-Eccles Stadium, knowing his exit as the Utes head coach was always destined to be a low-key affair, something akin to the end of “Good Will Hunting,” with Morgan Scalley knocking on Whittingham’s door one morning to find he’s no longer there and only a note explaining the departure: “I have to go see about a … used Ford F-350.”

And yet, for all the chaos avoided in Week 13, one final Saturday remains before any of our playoff calculus should be written in ink.

Oklahoma is well-positioned, but a date with LSU looms. The Tigers have fired a coach, stumbled from the rankings, taken out a second mortgage on Death Valley to try to lure Kiffin to Baton Rouge. Could LSU deliver one more dose of drama in 2025?

Oregon appeared to punch its playoff ticket with Saturday’s win over USC, and yet a trip to Washington still looms. This is not the 2023 Huskies, but a trip to Seattle is still hardly an easy win. It’s only fitting that the remnants of the Pac-12 can still offer some late-season drama, as if Larry Scott is still looking to cost the conference money, even from his new post as, we’re guessing, somewhere in the New York Jets front office.

Miami’s playoff hopes might come down to the whims of the committee or, just as likely, the fourth-quarter clock management of Mario Cristobal. The Canes have a date with Pitt in Week 14, and if you flip to page 306 of this year’s Farmer’s Almanac, you’ll see that a late-season loss to the Panthers after blowing a 14-point lead has been the likeliest outcome for the Hurricanes the whole time.

Utah and BYU, too, have playoff life even if they’re long shots.

No, Saturday didn’t upset the status quo, but the question as we head toward the finish line is whether Week 13’s action was a chance for the biggest winners to load the fireworks before the inevitable celebration or if they were simply getting all the deck chairs precisely situated before hitting the iceberg.

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Under the radar | Vibesman five

Week 13 vibe check

Each week, college football’s top teams battle to shape the course of the season. But beyond the headliners, dozens of smaller matchups prove to be just as consequential. We track those here.

Trending down: ACC certainty

Georgia Tech entered Saturday as the only ACC team with any real clarity: Win and the Yellow Jackets would clinch a spot in the conference title game.

Of course, nothing in the ACC is that simple.

Pitt jumped to a 28-0 lead, thwarted one Georgia Tech comeback with a 100-yard interception return for a score and then ended the Jackets’ hopes with a 56-yard Ja’Kyrian Turner touchdown run with 2:41 to go to seal a 42-28 win.

The ACC now has three teams tied atop the standings at 6-1 — Virginia, Pitt and SMU — followed by Georgia Tech at 6-2 and Miami and Duke at 5-2. It sets up the possibility of a six-way tie at 6-2 with the conference championship then being decided by a series of tie breakers that almost certainly will involve Pat Narduzzi losing a rock, paper, scissors match because he assumed rock was invincible and Cristobal edging out Tony Elliott in a staring contest by wearing a pair of fake glasses with a funny nose and mustache attached.

Trending down: Florida‘s optimism

Tennessee throttled the Gators 31-11 on Saturday, holding Florida to just 261 yards of offense and effectively setting the cruise control for the second half while Josh Heupel rewatched the first four seasons of “Stranger Things” to get prepped for new episodes.

Worse yet, as Florida floundered its way through another loss, AD Scott Stricklin looked up into the stands, where Lane Kiffin stood solemnly, his arm outstretched, offering a long pause to build the drama before offering a thumbs down. Florida will now turn to its next best option to coach the team in 2026: three toddlers wearing a trench coat and pretending to be a grown man.

Trending up: Style points

With just two games left against struggling ACC teams and a crowd of two-loss teams pushing for the final few playoff spots, Notre Dame knew Saturday’s contest against Syracuse would be about more than just winning. This one needed to look good.

So, by halftime, Jeremiyah Love was holding the charred corpse of Otto the Orange above his head and yelling, “Are you not entertained?”

The Irish led 49-0 at the half, picked off Syracuse QB Joseph Filardi three times and Love ran for 171 yards and three touchdowns in a 70-7 win.

Afterward, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said he was disappointed the defensive game plan of recording enough sacks that the Orange circumnavigated the globe in reverse, thus finishing with negative points, didn’t come to fruition, but was encouraged by news that Stanford had increased the life insurance on its tree mascot before next week’s season finale.

Trending up: Suffering for the Seminoles

It was Friedrich Nietzsche who posited that all life was suffering, and though he came up with that idea a full 81 years before Mike Norvell was born, it’s safe to say Florida State‘s past two years are pretty much what he had in mind.

To recap: FSU’s Heisman candidate QB got hurt in a meaningless game against an FCS foe in November 2023. As a result, the Noles were snubbed from the College Football Playoff despite a 13-0 record. Norvell was a top candidate for the vacant Alabama job but instead returned to FSU with a huge new contract. The Noles limped into the next season, astonishingly went 2-10, overhauled the coaching staff, beat Alabama to open this season, lost four in a row, including one to Stanford, rebounded and then, on Friday, offered perhaps the single greatest example of the incredibly thin line between comedy and tragedy as the world has ever seen in the final four minutes of a 21-11 loss to NC State.

The Noles D stuffed the Wolfpack on fourth down with 3:53 to play. NC State punted. The punt bounced off an FSU player’s helmet, rebounded backward and landed in the arms of the Pack’s punter near the original line of scrimmage.

The Noles D held again, forced another punt and this time FSU’s Squirrel White fumbled the catch, giving the ball to NC State again.

The Noles D held yet again, but NC State opted to go for it on fourth-and-6 and found the end zone from 12 yards out.

FSU still had a chance but shanked a short field goal — its second of the game — and, by the end, all that was missing was the PA system at Carter Finley Stadium playing “Yakety Sax” on repeat and Novell being knocked unconscious after trying to exit the field through a tunnel a roadrunner had painted on a brick wall.

Of course, Neitzche also argued, in his “four great errors” that all free will was an illusion, so it’s fair to say this isn’t Norvell’s fault but rather the inevitable result of a chaotic universe. On the other hand, another of his “four errors” was “Don’t sign DJ Uiagalelei and Tommy Castellanos in back-to-back seasons,” so perhaps there’s ample blame to go around.

Trending up: Heavy trophies

Justin Lamson threw for 175 yards, ran for 80 and accounted for two touchdowns as No. 3 Montana State knocked off archrival and second-ranked Montana 31-28 to capture the Big Sky championship and win the Great Divide Trophy.

Montana scored on a 52-yard run with 6:59 to play, pulling to within three, but the Grizzlies never saw the ball again. Montana State engineered a 14-play, 72-yard drive, converting a fourth-and-1 and a third-and-4 along the way, to bleed the last 7 minutes off the clock and secure the win.

The Bobcats have now won the Brawl of the Wild in seven of the past nine matchups, which means prime bragging rights for Montana State fans over that family of bears who live down the block.

Trending down: SEC strength of schedules

It’s Week 13, which means it’s time for half the SEC to welcome in its regular host of hapless cannon fodder: The Little Sisters of the Poor, the Washington Generals, an adult flag football rec league team and, of course, Florida.

It’s tradition in the SEC to prep for rivalry week with one game after another against vastly overmatched foes, so on Saturday we saw Georgia demolish Charlotte, Texas A&M stomp Samford and Alabama trounce Eastern Illinois. Even Auburn got in on the action, walloping Mercer 62-17 in a game that even Hugh Freeze probably could’ve won.

This is all necessary because, as everyone knows, life in the SEC is a grind, with every other game of the season a brutal, physical affair that slowly chops away at the league’s best squads like a thousand paper cuts.

And sure, Gunner Stockton and Ty Simpson combined to throw three picks and zero touchdowns in their wins. It’s only reasonable given that they played half the game holding a tall glass of iced tea and listening to a podcast about woodworking. The important thing is, when it was all over, they had fully recovered from the season’s long, arduous journey through the SEC and emerged with a spring in their step, a pat on the back and a note from the playoff selection committee that read: “We loved your game control. XOXO.”

Trending up: Sun Devils’ resurgence

Kenny Dillingham turned Jordan Travis into a Heisman contender, salvaged Bo Nix’s career and made Sam Leavitt a star. But that was nothing compared to his latest trick: Jeff Sims is a good QB right now.

Sims threw for 206 yards and two touchdowns as Arizona State demolished Colorado 42-17.

The Sun Devils are 3-1 with Sims as the starter, matching the most wins Georgia Tech managed in any of three seasons with Sims at the helm.

The real star of the show, however, was Arizona State tailback Raleek Brown, who carried 22 times for 255 yards and, after the game, Deion Sanders reluctantly decided Brown’s jersey should be retired at Colorado, too.

Trending up: Andrew Luck’s cavalry

Dearest mother —

I bring good tidings from the battlefield. We have vanquished the hated enemy from Berkeley. Though our front lines sustained many casualties, our defensive battalions proved strong. Our men charged from the rear, thrice apprehending the enemy’s payload and delivering it to safe harbor. In addition, a young soldier called Micah Ford proved his valor, marching 150 yards into enemy territory. His bravery shall be rewarded with an officer’s commission at war’s end. Now, I must bid you farewell. While we celebrate this victory with much revelry and ale, my heart remains heavy with the awareness that an even greater enemy — men from across the sea in that emerald isle of St. Patrick — await. We must be prepared for an even greater battle to come.

Please, give my love to father and the children.

Sincerely,

Andrew Luck, captain, Stanford infantry

Trending up: ‘Seinfeld’ references

Washington didn’t gain statehood until 53 years after James Madison died, but that didn’t stop Washington State from trying to end James Madison‘s quest for the playoff Saturday.

The Cougars led 20-17 midway through the fourth quarter before Dukes’ tailback Wayne Knight took a handoff and ran like he was smuggling stolen dinosaur DNA off an island, scampering 58 yards for a go-ahead score.

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Wayne Knight scores 58-yard rushing touchdown

Wayne Knight scores 58-yard rushing touchdown

Knight finished with 126 yards on 15 carries, all while besting Kramer in an hourslong game of Risk, delivering a critical 24-20 win for the Dukes, who move to 10-1 on the season and remain in prime position to swipe the automatic playoff bid from the Group of 5.

It is, of course, Knight’s greatest contribution to an important sporting event since he assisted Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny in defeating a group of aliens in a game of pickup basketball in 1996.

Trending down: Ivy League dominance

Josh Pitsenberger ran for 143 yards and three scores, Dante Reno tossed three touchdowns and Yale upended Harvard 45-28 on Saturday to claim a share of the Ivy League championship.

When it was over, Yale’s fans stormed the field. Well, they didn’t so much storm it as have their concierge make a reservation and preordered the soufflé, which, of course, takes two hours to make, then had Jeeves bring the Mercedes around to properly escort them onto the field. The point is, they were excited.

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Yale fans storm field after team clinches Ivy League FCS Playoff bid

Yale defeats Harvard 45-28 and fans celebrate the team getting the Ivy League’s first-ever automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.

It was a stunning defeat for Harvard, which had entered the game 9-0 and eager for some redemption after losing its past three to Yale. Afterward, the Crimson downplayed the loss by noting that a Harvard man would never be so crass as to run the ball 49 times. So much manual labor is fine for someone at Dartmouth or Brown.

Under-the-radar play of the week

The Victory Bell belongs with Duke, and Bill Belichick won’t be bowling in his first season in North Carolina after the Blue Devils escaped a trip to Chapel Hill with a 32-25 win.

While Duke controlled the first half, UNC stormed back with two long touchdown drives to take a 25-24 lead late in the fourth quarter. The Heels’ D then stuffed Duke on a third-down try, appearing to set up a field goal attempt for the lead. But Manny Diaz had a trick up his sleeve.

Duke’s fake field goal caught UNC sleeping like a man in the fourth hour of watching his girlfriend’s adult cheerleading competition, and kicker Todd Pelino bolted 26 yards to the 1, setting up an easy touchdown that proved to be the difference.

Under-the-radar game of the week

With 1:07 to play and the score tied at 34, Kennesaw State‘s Amari Odom completed back-to-back passes — the first a 40-yard dagger down the middle of the field and the latter a 14-yard touchdown to go up 41-34.

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Chase Belcher puts Kennesaw State ahead with 27 seconds left

Amari Odom finds Chase Belcher in the back of the end zone to put the Owls ahead late in the 4th.

That gave the ball back to Missouri State with just 27 seconds to play, but the Bears weren’t going down without a fight. Consecutive completions moved the ball to near midfield before Jacob Clark looked deep in search of the tying touchdown. Instead, Alexander Ford picked off the pass and sealed the win for the Owls.

Odom finished with 387 yards passing and five touchdowns, as the Owls moved to 8-3 on the season and 6-1 in Conference USA. With a win next week at Liberty, Kennesaw State will lock up a spot in the conference championship game after going 2-10 a year ago.

Vibesman five

This was not a fun week for the Heisman Trophy discussion. Georgia and Alabama played cupcakes. Indiana was off. Ohio State played Rutgers, which is somewhere between playing a cupcake and having off. So, rather than rehash last week’s list, let’s give flowers to the players who’ve been tons of fun this year without having much of a shot at the hardware.

1. Texas QB Arch Manning

Manning threw for 389 yards and accounted for five touchdowns, and as long as we ignore the first eight weeks of the season, he would have a real shot at the actual Heisman. Alas, the Heisman voters aren’t like the College Football Playoff committee. They can’t just choose to ignore certain outcomes they don’t like. And so, we’re forced to simply appreciate Manning’s greatness in the context of his slow start. In truth, it’s not his fault. He clearly got a sizable portion of his QB DNA from Uncle Eli, whose career was built upon playing mediocre ball until late in the season and then somehow winning two Super Bowls anyway.

2. Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia

Pavia has a real shot at an invite to the Heisman ceremony, and even if he doesn’t win the actual award, he’s well-positioned for a lifetime achievement trophy of some sort after a dazzling 26-year career. And, if nothing else, Saturday’s 45-17 blowout of Kentucky in which Pavia threw for 484 yards and five touchdowns allowed us to witness Pavia’s best argument for winning the Heisman.

3. North Texas QB Drew Mestemaker

Mestemaker wasn’t even the starting QB on his high school team, spending the entirety of his career at Vandegrift High (Texas) waiting for the starter to get hurt so he could come in, throw a Hail Mary to win the big game after the coach quits at halftime, then point to his dad and yell, “I don’t want … your life!” Instead, he walked on at UNT, started last year’s bowl game, and in 2025 blossomed into a star. On Saturday, he threw for 469 yards and accounted for four touchdowns in a 56-24 win over Rice, then calmly explained to his dad that, no, he’s not interested in following him into the insurance business, but he respects all his father’s life choices and appreciates all the sacrifices he has made for the family.

4. Louisiana governor Jeff Landry

Believe it or not, Brian Kelly wasn’t officially informed he was fired until this week, as the school deals with a lawsuit with the former coach over his contract buyout. How much of this is Landry’s fault? It’s hard to say, but his involvement has clearly complicated things, and it’s just so nice to finally see a coaching change result in utter chaos without somehow involving Phil Fulmer.

5. Hawai’i kicker Kansei Matsuzawa

Matsuzawa connected on a 45-yard field goal in Hawaii’s 38-10 loss to UNLV on Friday, making him a perfect 23-for-23 this season. It’s pretty impressive given that Matsuzawa taught himself to kick by watching videos on YouTube. All of this begs the question: Why can Matsuzawa learn to kick by using social media, but somehow every time Dabo Swinney types in “What is the transfer portal” on Bing, people laugh and say he’s out of touch?

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