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NEW YORK — Mired in a six-game losing streak to start another rebuilding season, the San Jose Sharks had two young franchise cornerstones deliver exactly the kind of performances the team is hoping to get from them for the next decade or more.

Macklin Celebrini had a hat trick and set up Will Smith‘s overtime goal to give the 2024 No. 1 pick his second five-point game early in his second NHL season, and the Sharks are no longer the only team in the league without a victory. Oh, and it came at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers, who were looking to win at home for the first time this fall.

“It’s good to see the young guys firing like that,” said enforcer Ryan Reaves, whose early fight against Matt Rempe on Thursday night fired up the Sharks. “We need those guys to step up in big games, and they both did.”

Reaves threw his helmet onto the ice to celebrate Celebrini’s third goal of the night late in the second period.

“I was just making sure there was something on the ice for him,” Reaves said. “I didn’t know how far up the Sharkie fans were, if they had good arms or not, so I was just making sure there was one on there for him.”

There were a few others to clean up, though many more when Taylor Raddysh of the Rangers got his third for dueling hat tricks at the Garden. But Celebrini stole the show by assisting on Smith’s goal in the third period and then again in OT.

“It speaks for itself, to be honest, to do that at MSG on a huge stage,” said Smith, who had four points in his own right. “In a game where we needed him, he showed up.”

Counting a point from 2025 No. 2 pick Michael Misa, the Sharks got 10 from players age 20 or younger for the second time since April. The last team to do that before them was Toronto on Jan. 8, 1986.

“When you draft them that high, you expect them to perform like that and they’ve proven time and time again why they were drafted that high and why all that was going to be put on their shoulders,” Reaves said. “It’s great to see.”

It came against the backdrop of San Jose starting 0-4-2 – the fourth consecutive season the team has lost at least four in a row at the beginning. After his team’s morning skate, second-year coach Ryan Warsofsky offered an optimistic message.

“We’re not going to quit,” Warsofsky said. “There’s still a lot of hockey to be played. We’re going to keep going. We’re going to keep pushing and challenging and we’re going to get out of this together.”

It was fitting that the most important building blocks led the way. The Sharks have not made the playoffs for the past six years and are not expected to again this season, but they do hope to take a step forward in the process of growing into a contender again.

In an effort to do that, they added veterans like Reaves and Stanley Cup champion defenseman Dmitry Orlov to the mix.

“We have a great group,” said Barclay Goodrow, who won the Cup with Tampa Bay in 2020 and ’21 and landed with the Sharks when they claimed him off waivers from the Rangers in the summer of ’24. “Lots of youth that keeps us old guys younger. It’s fun coming to the rink every day.”

Celebrini and Smith had some fun out on the town in New York City during this swing, which also included a team outing to see “Book of Mormon” on Broadway. A song from the show played in the victorious visiting locker room after the 6-5 win.

“Felt like it brought the boys together a little bit,” Reaves said. “It might be the new one.”

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Manning injured as Longhorns rally for OT win

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Manning injured as Longhorns rally for OT win

Texas quarterback Arch Manning left the game after his helmet appeared to bounce off the ground at the end of a 13-yard run on the first play of overtime in the No. 22 Longhorns’ 45-38 victory at Mississippi State on Saturday.

Manning dropped back to throw on the play but scrambled up the middle when he couldn’t find an open receiver. As Manning dove while being tackled by safety Isaac Smith, he was hit from behind by defensive lineman Kedrick Bingley-Jones.

Texas right tackle Brandon Baker tried to help Manning up, but the signal-caller struggled to get on his feet and sat on the field, sending trainers out to get him. Manning was in the medical tent at the end of the contest.

Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian didn’t have an update on Manning after the game, telling reporters, “We’ll find out more when we get back to Austin.” Sources confirmed to ESPN that Manning suffered a concussion.

Backup quarterback Matthew Caldwell came in and threw a 10-yard touchdown to Emmett Mosley V to finish the Longhorns’ stunning comeback, in which they rallied from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime.

According to ESPN Research, the Longhorns were the first SEC team to rally from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win since South Carolina came back from 17-0 down to beat Missouri 27-24 in two overtimes in 2013.

After a slow start, Manning had perhaps his best performance at Texas, completing 29 of 46 passes for a career-high 346 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. He also ran for a score. He went 12-for-20 for 166 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, becoming the first Texas quarterback with at least 150 passing yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter since Sam Ehlinger in 2019.

Trailing 38-21, Manning gave the Longhorns some life when he threw a 21-yard touchdown to Mosley to cut Mississippi State’s lead to 38-28 with 9:34 to go.

Texas’ defense came up with two sacks to force a three-and-out on the Bulldogs’ next possession, and the Longhorns reached the MSU 5-yard line. Texas had to settle for Mason Shipley‘s 26-yard field goal that made it 38-31.

After another three-and-out from the Bulldogs, Texas’ Ryan Niblett returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown to tie the score at 38 with 1:47 left in regulation.

The Longhorns will host No. 10 Vanderbilt next week.

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Fueled by loss to UGA, Ole Miss flips script vs. OU

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Fueled by loss to UGA, Ole Miss flips script vs. OU

NORMAN, Okla. — Six days after his team squandered a fourth-quarter lead on the road at Georgia, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said he spent Friday night speaking to his players at length about “overcoming adversity” ahead of the No. 8 Rebels’ Week 9 visit to Oklahoma.

Adversity struck again at Oklahoma-Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. This time, Ole Miss responded and flipped the script, riding a resurgent defense and a fourth-quarter scoring drive led by quarterback Trinidad Chambliss to a crucial 34-26 win over the 13th-ranked Sooners.

“We’re up two scores last week at Georgia — where they never lose except Alabama — and we didn’t finish it off,” Kiffin said afterward. “We got knocked down. And so that same situation happens today on the road; [ranked] team, No. 1 defense in the country. Can we be stronger in those situations, especially defensively? For that to happen, it’s really cool.”

Blanked in the fourth quarter at Georgia a week ago, the Rebels outscored Oklahoma 9-0 across the last 15 minutes, allowing just 84 yards of offense over that span and forcing Sooners quarterback John Mateer into incompletions on 10 of his final 15 throws, including a Hail Mary attempt that failed to reach the end zone in the closing seconds.

The victory marks Ole Miss’ first road win over a ranked SEC opponent under Kiffin. The Rebels are also 6-0 following a loss since the start of the 2023 seasons, according to ESPN Research.

Chambliss, in his sixth start for Ole Miss, completed 24 of his 44 pass attempts for 315 yards and accounted for 53 rushing yards on 12 carries. According to ESPN Research, the outing marked Chambliss’ fourth game of 300 passing yards and 50 rushing yards this fall, leaving him tied with former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel (2012) for the second most such performances by an SEC player over the past 30 years.

With the Rebels trailing 26-25 in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, Chambliss orchestrated an 11-play, 75-yard drive that drained 4:31 of game clock, capped by his eight-yard touchdown pass to tight end Trace Bruckler with 11:39 remaining. The Rebels never trailed again.

“We just didn’t want to feel how we felt last week,” Chambliss said of the win. “We made it that we don’t want to feel that again and that’ll never happen again. We just need to finish games.”

Chambliss and Ole Miss mounted their late comeback only after the Rebels dissected Oklahoma coach Brent Venables’ vaunted defense unlike any team before it this fall across the first half.

The Sooners had not allowed a first-quarter touchdown before Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy broke free for a 28-yard scoring run. Lacy, who ran for 78 yards on 27 attempts, found the end zone again to hand the Rebels a 22-10 lead with 46 seconds remaining in the first half. Behind the legs of Chambliss and Lacy, Ole Miss accounted for more first-half points and yards (258) than Oklahoma had allowed in a single half in the 2025 season.

The Rebels’ control of the game, however, slipped after halftime. A failed fourth-down attempt on Ole Miss’ opening drive of the second half gifted Oklahoma a field goal, and the Sooners burst to a 26-25 third-quarter advantage on a pair of touchdowns from running back Xavier Robinson, highlighted by the sophomore’s 65-yard rushing score. Overall, Oklahoma outgained the Rebels 99-9 on the ground and outscored the visitors 16-3 in the third quarter.

After fumbling its commanding lead, Ole Miss might have seen a familiar script entering the fourth quarter. Instead, less than 24 hours after his Friday night team talk, Kiffin saw the Rebels’ newfound resolve.

“When you’ve had something happen to you previously in a season, seven days ago, and that same feeling comes back today,” Kiffin said. “[It’s] here we go: We’re ahead … games kind of in our control. Oh wait, now they’re scoring a lot easier. We’re not moving like we were. Same Georgia feeling. Crowd started coming alive. And then obviously a much different response by us. And I didn’t feel like they ever kind of freaked out. They had each other’s backs.”

Following Chambliss’ go-ahead touchdown throw, an Ole Miss defense led by junior defensive end Princewill Umanmielen — who logged career highs with six tackles and 1.5 sacks — clamped down. The Sooners gained only nine rushing yards in the final quarter and converted on only two of their final seven attempted conversions on third and fourth down.

“We just took [the Georgia game] as a learning experience,” Umanmielen said. “Unfortunately, we had to take a loss to learn from it. We just took it as a learning experience and got the W today.”

Now, Kiffin & Co. are back on track, returning home at 7-1 (4-1 in conference) and well-positioned to secure the program’s first College Football Playoff appearance later this year.

After downing Oklahoma (6-2, 2-2), Ole Miss will embark on a homestand with matchups against three teams with losing records — South Carolina, The Citadel and Florida — before closing the regular season with a trip to Mississippi State. According to ESPN’s Playoff Predictor, the Rebels hold the seventh-best odds of reaching the 12-team field among FBS programs, vaulted by Ole Miss’ fourth-quarter 180 on the road Saturday afternoon.

“Very different fourth quarters as a team,” Kiffin said. “This was a big win. It was hard.”

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Indiana reasserts ‘will’ with 50-point rout of UCLA

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Indiana reasserts 'will' with 50-point rout of UCLA

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — No team in college football had won a conference game by 50 or more points this season — other than Indiana.

On Saturday, the second-ranked Hoosiers accomplished the feat for a second time.

One month after destroying Illinois by 53 points, Indiana hammered UCLA 56-6.

“We try to play every play like it’s nothing-nothing, game on the line, regardless of the competitive circumstances,” said coach Curt Cignetti. “That’s kind of our mentality.”

Indiana linebacker Aiden Fisher picked off Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava on the second snap of the game and returned it for a touchdown.

The Hoosiers led 35-3 at halftime, then opened the second half with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive before resting many of their starters.

Star quarterback Fernando Mendoza sat the rest of the half, as his younger brother, freshman Alberto Mendoza, replaced him at quarterback.

“UCLA is a very capable team,” said Fernando Mendoza, who threw for 168 yards and totaled four touchdowns to remain atop the Heisman conversation. “Teams are always looking for … ‘Hey, do we have that spark? Are we going to be able to come back from this game?’ And so right from the jump, we knew we needed to have an impressive drive … to (douse) their flame and impose our will.”

The Bruins arrived in Bloomington on a three-game winning streak, highlighted by an upset over then-seventh-ranked Penn State on Oct. 4.

But after Mendoza threw an interception off a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage on Indiana’s first offensive possession, the Hoosiers scored touchdowns on seven of their next eight drives.

Cignetti said the combination of Indiana’s running game, producing 262 rushing yards, and its defense, which allowed UCLA to muster only 201 yards total, ultimately broke the Bruins’ will.

“You start to see a team wave the white flag,” Cignetti said. “It usually happens sometime in the third quarter. It may have been what happened here.”

Indiana is the first Power 4 school with two 50-point conference wins in a single season since Clemson in 2018, according to ESPN Research.

The Tigers finished that year 15-0 and won the national championship.

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