Inside Iowa State’s chase for its first conference title in 112 years
-
Max Olson, ESPN Staff Writer
AMES, Iowa — Matt Campbell stood before his Iowa State football team on a Tuesday morning in October and asked the Cyclones if they were tough enough to stay the course.
They had surprised everyone during a 7-0 start and rise into the AP top 10. Three nights earlier, they had rallied for a last-minute victory over UCF. The Cyclones hadn’t been dominant but sure had a flair for the dramatic.
The head coach preached with passion for 30 minutes about what it would take to continue playing to their potential. He said he was looking for decisive excellence. No more leaving things up to chance. When you get to November, he says, great teams go for the kill.
“I ain’t flinching from this,” Campbell declared. “We’ve got more talent and we’ve got better players right here, right now, than we’ve ever had. You’re better than any of those teams the last seven or eight years that have tried this. So there’s no excuse. We’re not saying, ‘Nah, we’re not good enough.’ That’s a bulls— excuse.”
He reminded them of the history they were determined to overcome.
“One hundred and 33 years, men,” Campbell said. “Nobody before you has ever touched what you’re trying to do. You want to talk about legacy? You want to talk about creating change? Real hope for the future? Oh, buddy, it’s big-time.”
Nobody inside that room is shocked by where Iowa State stands today. For the first time in program history, the Cyclones have achieved a 10-win season. They’ll play for a Big 12 championship Saturday against Arizona State (12 p.m. ET, ABC) with a College Football Playoff bid on the line. Their senior leaders had big dreams at the beginning of the year: They wanted to be champions. Now they’re one win away.
The squad is chasing Iowa State’s greatest season of all time and its first conference title since 1912. The Cyclones aren’t led by big-name stars like Brock Purdy and Breece Hall. In fact, they have only one first-team All-Big 12 player. But it’s their most cohesive, selfless and resilient team yet. Iowa State got this far with tireless work and close wins. This is five-star culture at its finest.
The Cyclones got this far during the COVID-19 season in 2020 with NFL-caliber talent. They couldn’t live up to great expectations the following year. The program backslid hard in 2022. The fallout of a gambling probe left the team too young to contend last season. There were moments when Campbell feared he might not be able to get it fixed. But this season, he has built something special.
“Everything that’s happened has not been a surprise for everyone in this building,” defensive lineman J.R. Singleton said.
THE MESSAGE IS found all over Iowa State’s Bergstrom Football Complex, and it’s posted prominently above the gated entrance to the practice field.
WE BEFORE ME
That’s easy to say but hard to achieve in this transactional era of college football. Campbell has long believed that if you can recruit enough players who get it, who genuinely love football and put the team first, you’ve got a chance. And when those players develop into seniors who are your best leaders and playing their best football, you can achieve great things.
“If it’s not about the team, then you shouldn’t be here,” Campbell said. “When we maybe were off-kilter, it’s become more about you than about the team. That has paralyzed us here. That just doesn’t work.”
Before the season kicked off, Campbell told his players that if they hoped to do something special in 2024, it would take “leadership for the ages.” That’s what he’s seeing week after week from this team. He calls the 10-win season a byproduct of one of the greatest displays of senior leadership he has ever witnessed.
Wide receiver Jaylin Noel, safety Beau Freyler, cornerback Darien Porter and Singleton have led the way among the Cyclones’ 20-man leadership committee. The group meets with Campbell every Monday night to talk through players’ questions and concerns. Coaches point to Noel as one of the best leaders they’ve ever had.
“I just hate losing,” Noel said. “We’ve been through it so much in the past here. At some point, you’re gonna get tired of it. Guys don’t want to lose and aren’t willing to lose, so they’re willing us to victory.”
The roster Campbell and his staff have assembled in their ninth year in Ames is about as low-ego as it gets. One of the themes this team embraced throughout the year is the Buddhist concept of “mudita,” the joy one feels when another person succeeds.
“We’ve got the most boring, lame football team ever in history,” offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser joked. “They’re just the best, most behaved kids of all time.”
It’s a collection of players whose success was hard-earned. Leading receiver Jayden Higgins had only FCS offers coming out of high school in Miami and began his career at Eastern Kentucky. Jarrod Hufford, Iowa State’s sixth-year center from small-town Ohio, has played almost every spot on the offensive line. Porter, a converted receiver, has become an impact corner. Stevo Klotz, a former walk-on linebacker, is one of the Big 12’s best H-backs. Another walk-on, Carson Brown, emerged as the Cyclones’ No. 3 receiver this season.
Few are more beloved, though, than Freyler. The senior safety has dealt with a seriously damaged right shoulder throughout his career. Team doctors didn’t know how much longer he could keep playing. Freyler refuses to give up.
“Any day I get to suit up and play football is a great day,” Freyler said. “I’m gonna play ’til the wheels fall off.”
“He’s a warrior,” Campbell said. “He’s as great as we’ve ever had.”
Those mentally tough players define the Cyclones’ culture. And their young quarterback, Rocco Becht, is the one who brings everybody together. Coaches and teammates love his poise and ultracompetitive nature. Becht had to grow up quickly last season as a redshirt freshman starter but is comfortable leading now. Campbell says the 3,000-yard passer brings unbelievable humility, almost to a fault.
“He doesn’t think he’s a great player,” Campbell said. “He has truly outworked people to earn the right to be a really good football player.”
This Iowa State team doesn’t have a “Corn Jesus,” as former Iowa State tight end Charlie Kolar liked to call Purdy, now the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. It’s not all on the QB or any one star player to deliver week after week. This season, the team truly needed everyone.
Entering the Big 12 title game, 95 Cyclones players have earned playing time this season. That’s out of necessity, not luxury, as they’ve battled injuries and tested their depth. Longtime defensive coordinator Jon Heacock said he has never experienced anything like the issues they endured at linebacker. Six have missed significant time with injuries, including projected starters Carson Willich, Caleb Bacon and Will McLaughlin. For weeks, they were just trying to survive at those spots. By midseason they were starting Rylan Barnes, a redshirt freshman walk-on from Britt, Iowa, whose farmer parents had to miss his first career start due to the fall harvest.
What people didn’t see, though, is how hard Willich and Bacon worked behind the scenes to prepare those young backups daily, from position meetings and film sessions to the practice field.
“Nobody really realizes that stuff,” Becht said, “but it’s why this team is so great.”
They’re all here because of Campbell. Becht, Higgins and plenty more teammates have been offered more money to transfer elsewhere. They stay for the brotherhood and for a coach who focuses all his energy on creating the best possible environment for his players’ growth.
If the Cyclones do get into the College Football Playoff, they’ll run into foes like Oregon, Texas and Ohio State who’ve assembled the best teams money can buy. Campbell couldn’t care less. He knows what works at Iowa State.
“Team and culture matters,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if somebody’s paying $32 million for a team in college football and somebody’s paying $1 million for a team. Culture matters. If you can get aligned and you can get the most out of your team, you still have a chance to win on Saturday, no matter what your budget is.”
EVERY MONDAY AFTERNOON, Campbell sits at the head of a conference room table surrounded by his trusted cabinet.
The head coach added this directors meeting to the calendar two years ago. He reserves this time each week to gather the leaders of Iowa State’s support staff and discuss the progress of every player in the organization. Players are sorted into a full depth chart, written in Campbell’s neat, tiny handwriting, and everyone gets a chance to chime in.
Campbell is flanked by director of strength and conditioning Reid Kagy and director of football performance ops Aaron Hillmann. Throughout the hourlong session, he takes in feedback from Nicole Kiley (sports nutrition), Amber Giese (academic services), Mark Coberly (sports medicine), Catelyn Fix (mental health & well-being), Justus Jones (student-athlete development), Mikie Schiltz (equipment), Derek Hoodjer (player personnel) and Skip Brabenec (chief of staff) on everything his players are dealing with.
How the players performed on Saturday is often immaterial to these conversations. They discuss not just injuries and grades but also mental health and personal or family problems. They’re paying attention to the strengths and struggles of every player, scholarship and walk-on. Who needs more help? Who needs to be challenged? Who had a good week or is heading in a bad direction?
Campbell began convening these meetings in the aftermath of a gut-wrenching 2022 season that prompted him to reconsider how he was leading this program.
“I felt like I was so down the rabbit hole on X’s and O’s in the season that I wasn’t doing a good enough job of being the head football coach,” Campbell said. “It was a great reminder that the alignment of the whole football program is my responsibility.”
From that standpoint, the past four years have been deeply challenging for Campbell. The Cyclones broke through in 2020 with a 9-3 run that ended with a Fiesta Bowl win over Oregon and their first ever top-10 finish. They were expected to be even better in 2021, with 19 starters returning and more than enough NFL-caliber players — including Purdy, Kolar, Hall, Xavier Hutchinson and Will McDonald IV — to field a serious CFP contender.
How does a team with that much talent go 7-6? Campbell spoke constantly during the program’s rapid rise about embracing “the process” and developing his players into the best version of themselves. He can’t say they achieved that in 2021. He learned so much from what he did wrong that year. “Instead of really challenging that ’21 team, I kind of was just grateful they came back,” he said. By focusing on catering to those proven players and keeping them healthy, he started to drift away from the mission of developing a bigger, faster, stronger team.
Iowa State paid the price for that during a brutal 4-8 season in 2022. A two-month stretch of painfully close losses exposed the need for serious repairs to the program culture. “There was a lot of ego, entitlement and selfishness,” Becht said. Campbell needed to make significant changes to his coaching staff and the day-to-day approach.
At the conclusion of Iowa State’s first losing season since 2016, as he weighed the difficult next steps, Campbell asked Mouser: “Can we get this back on track?”
He fired offensive coordinator Tom Manning, his longtime assistant and best friend, and brought in three new coaches on offense. He fired strength coach Dave Andrews and hired Kagy away from Boise State. He kept his player leaders heavily involved in the process, even bringing them onto Zoom interviews to ask questions.
“We had to revamp everything,” Singleton said. “I think that’s a credit to the head ball coach and his humble approach. I think a lot of head coaches that have success at the Division I level struggle to look at themselves in the mirror.”
In August 2023, Campbell had to confront another unanticipated issue. Quarterback Hunter Dekkers and four more senior starters were charged in a state investigation into illegal sports wagering by Iowa and Iowa State athletes. Four of the five players exited the program. Freyler called it an “uncomfortable time,” one that forced several players to step into leadership roles for an inexperienced team during an up-and-down 7-6 season.
“Last year was a really tough thing that happened, but I think it really galvanized this building,” Heacock said. “It was very difficult on everybody.”
From Heacock’s vantage point, Iowa State winning 10 games this season didn’t start with its offseason training in January. This current run was sparked by how the locker room and coaching staff responded to that moment of truth last season. Campbell refers to their difficult three-year stretch as a period of “implosion and rebirth.” Leaders such as Freyler, Noel and Singleton were the reason they survived it.
“We knew good things were going to come from this season,” Freyler said, “because of all the work, sacrifice and scars this team has.”
The history of Iowa vs. Iowa State during the Campbell era has been mostly heartbreak. His teams lost five consecutive Cy-Hawk games after he took over. These rivalry games typically come down to which team made more mistakes. And that team is almost always Iowa State.
But this year was different.
The Cyclones made plenty of mistakes in the first half and trailed 13-0 as they walked into the visitors locker room inside Kinnick Stadium. Campbell read the room. The moment didn’t call for a fiery halftime speech. His guys were locked in.
“What I appreciate about every one of you is there’s not panic,” Campbell told the team, “nor should there be.”
They’d been in plenty of these games before. They knew what to do. Iowa State’s offense got hot; the defense got five fourth-quarter stops; and the Cyclones outscored the Hawkeyes 20-6 the rest of the way, rallying for a 20-19 win on a last-second, 54-yard field goal by Kyle Konrardy.
“Everybody believed we were able to win that game,” Becht said.
From that point forward, these Cyclones didn’t just believe they could compete with anybody; they proved they could play fearless. They’ve faced double-digit deficits several times since. Against UCF, they needed an 80-yard touchdown drive with no timeouts in the final two minutes and Becht delivered.
“When we’ve been down a touchdown or two, no one has freaked out on the sideline,” Freyler said. “No one is cursing each other out.”
Campbell became the winningest coach in program history this season by once again constructing a team that can win close games. Almost half of the games Iowa State has played during his tenure have been decided by one score. The Cyclones have won 22 — including 10 against ranked opponents — and have lost 31. For this program, the margin for error has always been razor-thin. This season, they’ve had what it takes to win four of their five close calls.
“Magical seasons have magical moments,” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said. “I liken it back to when TCU had their year [in 2022]. I remember distinctly watching a couple games where you’re like, ‘How did they do that?'”
Campbell embraced a more aggressive mentality on offense this year when he promoted Mouser from tight ends coach to offensive coordinator. The 33-year-old staffer has worked under Campbell for the past decade and got his start stuffing envelopes as a recruiting intern at Toledo. When OC Nate Scheelhaase joined the Los Angeles Rams‘ staff this offseason, Campbell wanted continuity and handed the keys to one of his most trusted assistants.
Mouser had a clear vision for the offensive identity from the start: feared and fearless. Iowa State’s offensive operation has been another testament to internal alignment, a collaborative effort between coaches and analysts all season to put together the best possible plan. But Mouser hasn’t been hesitant to fire away. The first thing he told Becht upon taking the job? It’s time to let it loose.
On the first play of the season against North Dakota, Becht connected on a 54-yard vertical shot to Noel. They went tempo, and, on his next throw, Becht tossed a 21-yard touchdown to Higgins. Message sent. The Cyclones have two 1,000-yard receivers with bright NFL futures. Their coach knows how to get them the ball.
“We have the people to be aggressive, and that’s gonna make us different,” Mouser said. “I think being creative, being ballsy, being bold and just being different has helped get us here.”
“He’s not scared to call anything,” quarterbacks coach Jake Waters said.
Mouser reached deep into his bag against Utah in one of the most high-pressure moments of the season. The Cyclones trailed 28-24 with two minutes left and faced a third-and-1 at the Utes’ 29-yard line. And Mouser called a halfback pass.
“Honestly, there was a lot of crickets when I brought that play up at the time,” he said with a laugh.
High risk, high reward. Becht ran a toss right to Carson Hansen, who stepped back and floated a 26-yard pass to tight end Gabe Burkle. Hansen punched in the go-ahead score on the next play to win it.
Can’t be tamed🌪️🌪️#Big12FB | @CycloneFB pic.twitter.com/95s9BDXFqP
— Big 12 Studios (@big12studios) November 24, 2024
After back-to-back losses to Texas Tech and Kansas, the Cyclones had no choice but to win out if they hoped to reach the Big 12 title game. They ripped off three consecutive wins and got some fortunate help in the form of BYU and Colorado losses. But the way this team responded after a 7-0 start fell apart was telling. In this gauntlet of tight Big 12 games, Noel believes the more desperate teams win. That’s how Iowa State has played. The way Mouser sees it, the contests the past three weeks have been playoff games.
The payoff is a return trip to Arlington, Texas, and a shot at a Big 12 title. The last time the Cyclones played inside AT&T Stadium, they came up one drive short in a 27-21 loss to Oklahoma. The head coach is the same. Much of the staff is, too. Iowa State still has a few seniors who were freshmen back then. But the story of this season isn’t that the Cyclones finally recaptured the magic of 2020.
To Campbell, Iowa State is a completely different program today than the one that just felt lucky to get this far last time. Coaches say the toughness of this group is unmatched. They have the scars to prove it.
“He’s rebuilt the program twice,” Mouser said, “which a lot of people can’t say. And he’s done it the right way.”
When he accepted the Iowa State job back in November 2015, he told Mouser he was aspiring to do something that had never been done before. Nine seasons later — and 133 years after the program started — they’re one win away.
“We’re probably the closest to being what we envisioned this program being,” Campbell said.
-
Ryan S. Clark
-
Kristen Shilton
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
-
David Schoenfield
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:
-
Skubal, 2025: 13.14
-
Phil Hughes, 2014: 11.63
-
Bret Saberhagen, 1994: 11.00
-
Cliff Lee, 2010: 10.28
-
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.
-
Greg Wyshynski
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.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway