The Heisman winner, the 12th man and the great Texas A&M-Notre Dame towel heist of 1988
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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
TIM BROWN IS part of an elite fraternity. He’s one of 10 men inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with a Heisman Trophy. Warren Barhorst is part of a select group as well. He’s one of 90 people inducted into the Nationwide Insurance Hall of Fame.
The two could’ve crossed paths anywhere. But the most unlikely place might have been where they actually did meet: in the 1988 Cotton Bowl during the first-ever meeting between Texas A&M and Notre Dame.
Brown was Notre Dame’s seventh Heisman Trophy winner, a golden-domed superstar playing for one of the greatest programs in college football history, averaging 14.2 yards per touch receiving, rushing and returning kicks en route to 1,847 all-purpose yards in 1987.
Barhorst, too, represented his school, but he wasn’t the subject of any recruiting battles. Instead, he started his college career at Stephen F. Austin before transferring to Texas A&M, eventually trying out as a walk-on in hopes of one day living his dream of playing on Kyle Field.
Brown was a nationally coveted recruit. Barhorst was another dreamer at the school where a walk-on named E. King Gill suited up to help his team in another bowl game in Dallas in 1922, inspiring the 12th Man tradition in College Station, where students stand the entire game to represent their willingness to help their team, like Gill did during an injury-riddled Dixie Classic.
Brown was riding high coming into the game. But by the time the Cotton Bowl rolled around on Jan. 1, Barhorst, a senior, had just barely made it through his final season as a student and tackling dummy in practice.
“I’m getting tired, I’m beat up,” Barhorst said. “[I thought] ‘I’m going to quit football.’ And a guy named Dennis Mudd tells me, ‘Hell Barhorst, don’t quit. Someday you’ll make a play that could change your life.'”
Mudd, like Barhorst, was a member of Jackie Sherrill’s famed “12th Man” kickoff team, made up of all walk-ons who did nothing but cover kickoffs. Notre Dame had Rudy. The Aggies had an entire platoon of Rudys. The group, started in 1983 in Sherrill’s second year in College Station, was known for its reckless abandon. And all the focus leading up to the Cotton Bowl was on how they would fare against Brown.
“Being that I was born and raised here in Dallas, the Cotton Bowl was such a big game at that time, A&M was a pretty hot football team, it was really the showdown of all showdowns,” Brown tells the SEC Network in 2022 in “No Experience Required,” a documentary about the squad. “The legend of the 12th Man at that time, being that they were all walk-on football players, was amazing. I can remember because we watched those guys a lot on film getting ready for that game, and it was hard to believe that none of those kids were scholarship football players.”
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SECN examines the 12th Man in ‘No Experience Required’
SEC Storied: No Experience Required, debuting Nov. 24 on SEC Network, tells the story of Texas A&M’s “12th Man” kick coverage team made up entirely of walk-ons.
It’s that contrast that made this game memorable. It was a place where a walk-on playing the last game of his football career could chase down a Heisman Trophy winner from one of the most decorated programs in history. It’s why Barhorst would become a cult legend at Texas A&M, and why he says that lesson of perseverance went on to propel him to a wildly successful career in business.
“That play was the most popular play in 12th Man history,” said Lyn McDonald, a former member of the walk-on kickoff team who is now a sports psychiatrist in San Antonio.
And what, exactly, did Barhorst do that became the most famous moment in the history of one of the most famous college football traditions?
He took Tim Brown’s towel.
WHEN THE AGGIES and Irish meet Aug. 31 for just the sixth time, Nana Boadi-Owusu, a walk-on from Arlington, Texas, will wear No. 12, a Texas A&M student running down the field on kickoffs. Just like in 1988, he’ll face perhaps the nation’s best kick returner, Jayden Harrison, a Marshall transfer who took two back for scores last season when he was the only FBS player to average more than 30 yards per return with at least 20 chances.
Boadi-Owusu will get the start in the 41st season of the tradition. There are several full-time students chosen as members of the 12th Man roster each year, each wearing No. 12, and it’s a big deal to the Aggies. Even in the NIL era, with every individual number available, 87% of jersey sales last week were for the No. 12, according to the school.
“Being able to represent that number is a big honor,” Boadi-Owusu said. “We’ve got 70,000 [students] backing us, and then Aggies all over the world.”
And none of this might have happened if it wasn’t for a cadet.
Starting in 1907, the Aggies built a giant bonfire on campus every season that was lit before the Texas game, signaling their “burning desire” to beat the Longhorns. In fall 1982, James Fuqua, a member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, was at the bonfire site, pondering the football team’s future along with several other student leaders of the project.
After Tom Wilson was fired with a 17-17 record over his three full seasons, Texas A&M hired Sherrill, the brash young coach who had coached Dan Marino and went 33-1 in his final three seasons at Pitt, signing him to the first coaching contract in college football history that totaled more than $1 million.
“They paid a lot of money for him,” Fuqua said. “We wanted to know if he’s just going to be another coach passing through or going to be somebody who actually took on the spirit of the school?”
Good question, Fuqua’s friends said. Why don’t you go ask him?
“All of a sudden, this kid burst through the door,” Sherrill said. “He just walked by the secretary and walked into my office and said, ‘Do you want to be the Aggie coach? Or do you want to be just another Aggie coach?'”
“I told him, ‘Sure, I want to be the Aggie coach,'” Sherrill said. “He said, ‘Well, follow me.'”
Fuqua escorted the coach around campus, teaching a crash course in Aggie traditions. At the bonfire site, Sherrill was floored by the dedication of thousands of students working through the night. He became a regular. One night, the crane hoisted him up ostensibly to see the top of the log stack, but it instead left him dangling in the night sky for students to laugh at while the crane operator went to get a cup of coffee. When Sherrill returned to ground level, he was playing cards in a shack built by the students when a propane stove exploded. “And nobody flinched,” he said.
“You going to bid, or you going to play?” Fuqua recalls a voice asking Sherrill through the smoke. “At that point, Jackie thought we were crazy.”
Back in the office, Sherrill kicked around a wild idea with his staff. What if he took a group of these Corps guys and taught them to cover kickoffs? Surely he could find 10 good ones out of tens of thousands of devoted Aggies. His defensive coordinator, R.C. Slocum, couldn’t believe his ears.
“Are you sure you didn’t fall off that stack?” Slocum asked Sherrill.
Undeterred, Sherrill moved ahead with the idea, opening it up to all students, and placed an ad in The Battalion, the student newspaper.
“Persons interested in trying out for the Twelfth Man Kickoff Team need to report to the Kyle Field Dressing Room on Monday, Feb. 21, at 5 p.m. No prior experience required.” Two hundred and fifty-two students showed up.
BY 1987, THE 12th Man kickoff team was famous. National news did features on it. It landed a six-page Sports Illustrated spread before its debut, which came against Cal in its first kick return since The Play, when it scored while the band was on the field against Stanford. Three members of that first squad stopped Dwight Garner at the Cal 16-yard line, and Kyle Field went nuts.
Sherrill’s hope of uniting the football team and the nation’s largest student section had become a reality. Members of the kickoff team became stars on campus and at the Dixie Chicken. The scholarship players, who were initially annoyed at the try-hard nature of their 20 new teammates, came to respect that they went so hard as glorified blocking dummies in practice and still spent an extra hour each day just covering kicks.
The walk-on kickoff team handled duties at home games, because most teams didn’t bring entire squads of walk-ons on the road, so scholarship players would resume their roles at away games.
Eventually, the walk-ons started to travel, including for the big rivalry game against Texas. But Sports Illustrated did the math after the first season: The walk-ons allowed 13.1 yards per return at home. The varsity players gave up 18.8 on the road. “It’s kind of like you’re training the special ops to do one thing,” Sherrill said. “That’s what they were trained to do. And they were good.”
They faced dynamic players such as Texas’ Eric Metcalf, an All-American who went on to set the NFL record for the most kick returns for a touchdown with 12. Metcalf never had a return longer than 20 yards against them.
“Those guys competed every play,” Metcalf says in “No Experience Required.” “They kept me bottled up for four years.” The kickoff team was also good at getting under the skin of opponents. The players celebrated wildly after every tackle and waved white towels before kickoffs, which were — and still are — waved by fans in the stands.
Against Notre Dame in that Cotton Bowl, Chet Brooks knew they were the guys he needed. Brooks, a senior safety on the 1987 team, broke his leg in the Aggies’ 20-13 win over Texas in their regular-season finale. He was already a fan favorite for his style of play (“Chet would bring the wood,” his defensive coordinator, R.C. Slocum, said) and had coined the nickname for Slocum’s attacking defense: the “Wrecking Crew.”
On Jan. 1, 1988, Brooks was on crutches on the sideline of his final college football game, at the Cotton Bowl in his hometown. To make matters worse, it was his birthday.
Brooks played at Dallas Carter, a powerhouse program, while Brown was all-everything for a struggling Woodrow Wilson team across town that went just 4-25-1 in Brown’s three years as a starter. They never played against each other, but Brooks knew Brown’s history.
“He was one of those guys, man,” Brooks said. “That’s all you heard about was Tim Brown. He was the man coming out that year. His talent was undeniable.”
Now, returning as the Heisman Trophy winner, Brown was greeted as a hero.
“Everything was about how great Notre Dame was and all the billboards in town were, ‘Welcome home, Tim!'” Barhorst said. “We’re at a team lunch with both teams and Lou Holtz speaks and tells us how great Notre Dame is and the traditions and blah, blah, blah. We pretty much decided at that lunch we were going to kick their ass. This is our state, our town, and we’re treated like we’re the visiting team.”
They were already seething. And the 12th Man kickoff team was known for its desire to make its presence felt.
“They were going to sell out,” Slocum said. “There’s never been a kickoff team that covered any harder than those guys. There may have been some that had a few faster players, but in terms of effort of running down the field wide open, I’ve never seen a kickoff team that came down any harder, any more reckless than they did.”
But in this game, Sherrill hoped they’d keep it between the lines. He went to speak to the kickoff squad before the game.
“Hey guys, y’all are the banty roosters of college football,” Barhorst said Sherrill told them, asking them to tone it down. “I need a clean game today. We’re on national TV, you’re representing Texas A&M. I want you to play hard, but no fighting, none of your games.”
JUST TWO YEARS before, Texas A&M had earned its first Cotton Bowl berth since 1967. It broke through on the national stage, beating Auburn 36-16, including stopping that year’s Heisman Trophy winner, Bo Jackson, four straight times on the goal line to finish 10-2 and No. 6 nationally, its loftiest postseason ranking since Bear Bryant finished No. 5 in 1956.
But the Aggies still had won only 10 games four times in the program’s 83-year history. Another game against another Heisman winner would test A&M’s standing among the country’s top programs.
Brown appeared as good as advertised, returning the opening kickoff 37 yards (one of the longest ever given up at that point by the kickoff squad), and then catching 6 passes for 105 yards in the first half, including a 17-yard touchdown. But Slocum changed his defensive approach in the second half, and Brown did not catch any of the three passes targeted his way the rest of the game. By the third quarter, A&M led 28-10 and Brooks, who liked to jaw at opponents, could sense Brown’s frustration. He pointed out Brown’s monogrammed towel, made for him by teammate Cedric Figaro’s girlfriend, with the letter T and No. 81 on it.
“You got to have a towel, the long towel that comes out to your knee, absolutely,” Brown says in the documentary. “It’s old-fashioned, has no other value to your game at all. It’s all about how good do you look when you pass that mirror in the locker room? You give yourself a thumbs up, a thumbs down, and if you didn’t have a towel, you definitely got a thumbs down.”
Brooks pointed it out to Barhorst, telling him if they could get Brown’s towel, they’d send him over the edge.
“Something about that sweet towel, that’s what we called them. That’s your sweet towel. That’s what make you look sweet,” Brooks said, saying it’s the 1980s slang equivalent to “drip” now. “I didn’t realize he had his sweet towel encrusted with all kinds of jewelry and stuff. He had it really bedazzled out. I just knew taking his towel from him was going to piss him off and get him off his game. I told my guys, listen, it’s my birthday. Go get that sweet towel for me for my birthday present. And they lost their mind.”
Early in the fourth quarter, the Aggies got a chance to kick off leading 28-10 with 8:32 left.
“Now it’s the 12th Man, and boy do they want a piece of the Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Brown,” Brent Musberger said on the broadcast before a cut to an interview with kickoff team member John Burnett.
“Playing for A&M is something I dreamed about my whole life. In my last game of the season, having an opportunity — and all the other guys I know — to get a lick on the Heisman Trophy winner would just cap off the season for all of us.”
The kick is short. Brown catches it, heads to his left, then turns upfield and looks like he has an alley to break off a run. But then Barhorst comes in from Brown’s right, dives and drags him down. While they’re on the ground, Barhorst pulls the sweet towel loose.
“It took the guy two or three tugs,” Brown said after the game. “I mean, one guy was laying on me, holding me down and the other guy was tugging on it. But when he got it, I heard him say, ‘I got it!'”
Barhorst stuffs the towel down his pants to hide it. He gets up and starts jogging to the sideline, looking for Brooks. But Brown turns on his speed, heads straight for Barhorst, jumps on his back and takes him down. While on the ground, he rips the towel away.
Musberger, who misidentifies Barhorst as freshman William Thomas, who also wore No. 11, is still trying to figure out what’s going on. So are Holtz and Sherrill. But Barhorst and Brooks both know. “I’m thinking, ‘Holy s—, I’ve cleared both benches,'” Barhorst said. “I crawl out of my hands and knees and act like I don’t know what’s going on because I don’t want Coach Sherrill, in my last college game, screaming at me. I’ve started this fight on national TV. Luckily he was mad at Brown, not mad at me.”
Brooks, too, played dumb, limping away from the action.
“Soon as I saw Tim chasing him, I just started easing down to the other end, whistling,” Brooks said, laughing. “I wouldn’t have nothing to do with it.”
Brown, who was already dealing with a muscle issue in his back, did not get thrown out, but he did get a 15-yard penalty. He did not return, eventually leaving the game early and heading back to the locker room. The Aggies won the game 35-10.
“The last we saw Tim, he was walking up the ramp in the Cotton Bowl,” Sherrill said.
BARHORST FIRED UP the Aggies with his antics, but Musberger never called his name. The play is immortalized in a painting, called “Led By The Spirit” (a nod to the school song, “The Spirit of Aggieland”), but, in it, his name on his jersey is spelled B-A-R-N-H-O-R-S-T.
Years later, at a reunion for the 12th Man kickoff team, Barhorst’s own son was serving as the photographer at the event and asked an attendee for his favorite moment in the team’s history.
“When Bartowski took Tim Brown’s towel,” he said.
“But what that all tells you is that the 12th Man guys all played for the name on the front,” Barhorst said. “We weren’t really playing for the guy on the back. That’s really what drove us in those games playing at a level you weren’t really supposed to play at.”
Still, Barhorst said there isn’t a day that goes by that he isn’t asked about it, saying sometimes it’s five times a day.
Slocum has his own memento of the incident. He was a fan of Brown’s dating back to Brown’s time in high school in Dallas, when Slocum was his area recruiter and tried in vain to convince Brown to come to College Station, even sitting in the stands and attending Brown’s high school basketball games.
First, he had to find a way to stop Brown, and did. Then, just 10 days after the fracas, he was one of Brown’s coaches. Sherrill and Slocum served as coaches in the Japan Bowl, a college all-star game in Tokyo, and Brown was on their team. Slocum arrived back in Texas with an ironic souvenir.
“I got a towel that he gave me over there,” Slocum said, describing a long white linen with Japanese writing on it above gold stitching that says “TIM BROWN, UNIV. OF NOTRE DAME, JAPAN BOWL.” A sweet towel.
It hangs in a frame on the wall of Slocum’s house in College Station all these years later, which even came as a surprise to Brown.
“Wow!” Brown wrote via email, his only response to questions for this story. “I have more questions than I do answers. Maybe Coach can fill in the blanks.”
It’s a bit of a mystery to Slocum, too.
“I don’t know how I got it, either,” Slocum said, laughing. “We joked about the Cotton Bowl towel over there. I spent a week with him. We had a great time.”
In the frame, Slocum also stuck a card he got later, from a 1991 set of cards that had a “Heisman Hero” series. Brown’s card is autographed, with the inscription, “To Texas A&M and the 12th Man.”
The programs went in different directions the next season. Sherrill resigned following a 7-5 record amid an NCAA investigation into improper benefits, opting to step aside as to not be a distraction, with Slocum replacing him. Brown was drafted with the sixth overall pick of the 1988 NFL draft, and Notre Dame figured out how to replace him with a freshman receiver named Rocket Ismail who led the country in kickoff returns, as Holtz led the Irish to a 12-0 season and a national championship. Holtz exacted his revenge on the Aggies in consecutive years, beating them in the 1993 and 1994 Cotton Bowls.
The all-walk-on kickoff team survived until 1990, when Texas Tech’s Rodney Blackshear scored on a return for the first time in seven seasons, and Slocum opted to keep just one representative, wearing No. 12, alongside a cast of scholarship players without having to practice with two separate kickoff coverage teams any longer.
“The concept is great to represent the student body,” Slocum said. “We’re going to give that guy No. 12, and he’s going to represent the student body and we’ll take him wherever we go: home, away, bowl game, whatever. We’ll have the 12th Man with us.”
The tradition continues, with Mike Elko taking over as the seventh coach since Sherrill to keep it alive.
Boadi-Owusu, an engineering major, fell in love with Kyle Field on a campus visit while his parents, immigrants from Ghana, were driving his family on a visit to NASA near Houston. Boadi-Owusu said he felt a connection with Kyle Field when he saw it and hoped one day to return. “It hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m the 12th Man,” Boadi-Owusu said. “When I put on that jersey and I see myself in the mirror, then I get to come out to over 100,0000 people in Kyle, I think that’s what was going to hit me like, ‘Oh yeah, this is real life.’ It’s just going to be so surreal.”
McDonald, the sports psychologist, said the 12th Man tradition lives on because of the contrast in their roles to those of highly recruited scholarship players. “Fans see a kickoff as a mundane process and a boring play, but it was kind of our life,” he said. “It was an event. It’s about being an underdog … and kicking ass when people think you can’t.”
Thanks to a series of events, including a confident cadet, a coach who became the Aggie coach, an injured player with a birthday wish and a scrappy walk-on who would become a cult hero, the 12th Man has endured as one of the best traditions in college football.
“I wish I’d been smart enough to have known how important it was to the student body and to the old Ags,” Sherrill said. “Today I do, but when I did it back then, I didn’t know how important it was.”
McDonald proudly displays the evidence of his shining moment as a 12th Man, a photo on his wall of his one appearance in a college football game, running down during an eventual touchback against SMU in which he swears he “leveled people left and right.” He got his one play, too.
Boadi-Owusu will get his chance against Notre Dame. And you never know. One play could change his life.
Every week, we gather a panel of our MLB experts to rank every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we knew going into the season. Those power rankings look at teams as a whole — both at the plate and in the field.
But, how different would those rankings be if we were to look only at major league offenses?
We’ve seen a number of offensive explosions so far in the 2025 season — from torpedo bats taking the league by storm on opening weekend thanks to the Yankees’ barrage of home runs to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani each putting together yet another all-time campaign at the plate.
The latest offensive shake-up came in the form of a blockbuster trade, with the Red Sox sending All-Star slugger Rafael Devers to the Giants in a deal that reverberated around the league. How did it impact the two teams’ offensive outlooks?
Our MLB power rankers came together to sort baseball’s lineups based on what they’ve seen so far and where teams currently stand. We also asked ESPN MLB experts Jeff Passan, David Schoenfield and Bradford Doolittle to break down the top 10 offenses in baseball, from each team’s catalyst to the lineup’s biggest weakness.
Top 10 lineups
Why it’s so fearsome: You start with the second-best hitter in the world in Shohei Ohtani, add in the National League’s leading hitter for average in Freddie Freeman and the NL’s OBP leader in Will Smith, mix in Mookie Betts, and finish with power up and down the lineup — and you might have the best lineup in Dodgers history. Indeed, their current wRC+ of 124 would be the highest in franchise history. There is just no room for opposing pitchers to breathe, and the Dodgers have a nice balance of left- and right-handed hitters who make it difficult for opposing managers to optimize their bullpen matchups.
One weakness: Michael Conforto has been a big disappointment as a free agent, hitting .170 with only four home runs while playing nearly every game so far. The bench was weak to start the season, but the Dodgers jettisoned longtime veterans Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes and called up Hyeseong Kim and top prospect Dalton Rushing. Kim has been outstanding, hitting .382 in his first 30 games, while Rushing has played sparingly as the backup catcher.
Player who makes it all click: As the leadoff hitter, Ohtani’s presence sets the tone from the first pitch of the game — and he already has hit seven first-inning home runs in 2025. With 73 runs in the Dodgers’ first 72 games (he sat out two of them), Ohtani is on pace for a remarkable 164 runs scored, which has been topped only twice since 1900 — once each by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. (They also each have the only other seasons with at least 160 runs scored.) With Ohtani making his 2025 pitching debut Monday, we’ll see if that affects his offense, but it didn’t during his final season with the Angels in 2023 when he posted a 1.066 OPS while pitching. — Schoenfield
Why it’s so fearsome: The Yankees homer more than any team in the American League. They walk more than any team in all of MLB. They don’t strike out excessively. They punish fastballs. Judge, the best hitter in baseball, anchors their lineup. Seven other regulars are slugging at least .428 in an environment where the leaguewide slug is under .400. There are 100 more reasons the Yankees’ lineup induces such anxiety in opposing pitchers, but it can be encapsulated this way: It’s a lineup without a real weak link, filled with professional hitters who take quality at-bats, at a time when so few make that a priority.
One weakness: Calling this a weakness is a stretch, because the most important point about the Yankees’ lineup is that it doesn’t have a weakness, but they have been worse with runners in scoring position than in situations without runners on second or third. The Marlins have more home runs with players in scoring position than the Yankees. New York’s slugging percentage in such situations dips from .451 to .407 — good for 13th in MLB. It’s also 140 points below the Dodgers’ mark. But fear not: Slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who epitomized clutch for the Yankees last postseason, is back after sitting out the season’s first 2½ months. As if the rich need to get any richer.
Player who makes it all click: What, were you expecting J.C. Escarra? The answer, of course, is Judge, the two-time AL MVP whose combination of power and plate discipline is gifting the Yankees another potential all-time season. It’s not simply the .378 batting average — which is 56 points higher than his career best — or the resplendent home runs he hits, to left and center and right, making the whole field his playground. Even after a miserable series against the Red Sox over the weekend, there is an expectation that Judge will rebound because he hits the ball so hard and so consistently makes contact. The Yankees without Judge are good; the Yankees with him are undeniable. — Passan
Why it’s so fearsome: The lineup depth has been ridiculous, and that trait has been even more stark since Matt Shaw returned from an early-season demotion and began contributing. The Cubs’ collective OPS from spots seven through nine in the batting order is more than 50 points better than the second-best team. Some of that stems from Pete Crow-Armstrong hitting seventh early on, but Chicago has maintained its top-to-bottom consistency all season. This keeps the plate full for run-producers Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki.
One weakness: The Cubs have been good at just about everything that goes with producing runs. They rank in the top 10 in all three slash categories, are fifth in homers and second in steals. You really have to squint to find a weakness. You can point to a big disparity in road production (.808 OPS) compared to what the Cubs have done at Wrigley Field (.702 OPS). But that too might even out as the weather factors in Chicago work more consistently in favor of hitters.
Player who makes it all click: Crow-Armstrong might be the Cubs’ best MVP candidate, but Tucker is the best hitter and the best exemplar of Chicago’s good-at-everything attack. Tucker leads the team in runs created and OPS+, and though he’s not Crow-Armstrong on the bases, he has swiped 18 of 19 bags. None of this is out of scale with Tucker’s track record. This is who he is — except maybe a little better, as he has walked more than he has struck out. If Tucker’s power bat heats up with the summer weather, look out. — Doolittle
Why it’s so fearsome: The Diamondbacks do a little bit of everything. They already have two 20-homer hitters in Corbin Carroll and Eugenio Suarez, plus Ketel Marte, who sat out a month because of injury but could still reach 30 home runs. They are fourth in the majors in walks and fifth in on-base percentage, so they get on base. Geraldo Perdomo has been a solid contributor the past two seasons but has added some power. He has more walks than strikeouts and has already established a career high in RBIs, adding depth. Josh Naylor is hitting around .300 while replacing Christian Walker’s production at first base.
One weakness: Center fielder Alek Thomas is the only regular with a below-average OPS+, and even then, he’s not awful. The bench is a little thin beyond Tim Tawa and Randal Grichuk, as backup catcher Jose Herrera has provided little offense. The Diamondbacks’ biggest potential weakness is their struggle against left-handed pitchers. (They have an OPS more than 100 points lower than against right-handers.) Carroll, Naylor and the switch-hitting Marte have each been significantly better against righties.
Player who makes it all click: As explosive as Carroll has been at the top of the order, Marte is the team’s best all-around hitter. Like Perdomo, he has more walks than strikeouts, making him a tough out with his ability to put the ball in play and also take free passes. He has the power (36 home runs in 2024) to clear the bases, but he also excels as a baserunner and can have Naylor and Suarez drive him in. When the Diamondbacks reached the World Series in 2023, Marte was the offensive leader, hitting .329/.380/.534 that postseason. — Schoenfield
Why it’s so fearsome: The Mets’ lineup runs sneaky deep, boasts a combination of average and power, and has the fourth-lowest strikeout rate in the major leagues. Low strikeouts often equate to decent batting averages, but the Venn diagram with contact orientation and power is sparsely populated. Beyond the overall numbers, the Mets’ lineup is packed with stars: Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and the team’s best hitter this season, Pete Alonso. A resurgent Jeff McNeil deepens a group that hasn’t received quite the expected output from Soto. He’s starting to find his rhythm, though, and once that happens, the Mets are bound to be even better.
One weakness: Considering the Mets have multiple options at third base, the quest for an internal solution isn’t banking on the fortunes of a single player. It could be Mark Vientos, the postseason star last year who’s set to begin a rehab assignment next week after a disappointing start to the season. It could be Brett Baty, who has shown plenty of power but still sports a .267 on-base percentage. It could be Ronny Mauricio, the rookie whose pop — and allergy to getting on base — is similar to Baty’s. Regardless of who it is, manager Carlos Mendoza has time to figure out how to maneuver his lineup so that other offensive holes at catcher and center field (when Jeff McNeil isn’t playing there) aren’t nearly as glaring.
Player who makes it all click: The Mets have been clicking without the best version of Soto, so it’s no surprise that in the past 16 games — in which Soto has hit .333/.507/.685 with five home runs — they have scored at least four runs 15 times. As good as New York is without Soto performing, he is their double-click — the catalyzer who brings about action. Even at his lowest points this season, he was managing to get on base, and that’s what makes Soto such a transformative player: His floor is extremely high. When he’s feeling his swing and unleashing shots to all fields, he’s capable of reaching a ceiling higher than all but a handful of hitters in the game. — Passan
Why it’s so fearsome: The Phillies have veterans with big names who have all been productive hitters at various points in their careers — although not necessarily in 2025. Kyle Schwarber has been the lynchpin so far, moved out of the leadoff spot and leading the team in home runs, runs scored and RBIs. Trea Turner is having his best season since joining the Phillies in 2023, with a .364 OBP that would be his highest since 2021. Alec Bohm has been on his usual roller coaster — homerless in April but hitting .331 with seven home runs since the beginning of May.
One weakness: Catcher J.T. Realmuto has carried a huge workload through the years but is now 34 years old and showing some signs of age with career lows in batting average, slugging and OPS. Bryson Stott was an above-average hitter in 2023 before dipping last season, and he has been even worse in 2025 with an OPS+ of just 75. Part-time center fielder Johan Rojas provides speed and defense, but not much offense, and as usual, the bench is pretty weak. Yes, that’s more than one weakness.
Player who makes it all click: As important as it is to have Turner getting on base, this lineup will always revolve around Bryce Harper and his ability to go on hot stretches. He hasn’t had one yet this season and is currently on the injured list because of a right wrist injury. His .446 slugging percentage and .814 OPS are his lowest since 2016. Harper has always been an outlier of sorts — he ranks in the second percentile in swing-and-miss rate in 2025 but in the 67th percentile in strikeout rate — so these aren’t necessarily signs of a decline. Philly just needs him to get hot once he returns. — Schoenfield
Why it’s so fearsome: It’s not. That’s the thing about the Tigers. One gander at their lineup cards — manager AJ Hinch has used 60 different variations over 71 games — and it doesn’t exactly strike fear. And yet that’s the beauty of the 2025 Tigers: They’re managing to score oodles of runs without a single hitter sporting a slugging percentage higher than .500. It’s not like the Tigers are particularly good at avoiding the strikeout (24th in MLB) or taking walks (18th). They don’t hit home runs in bunches (10th) or steal bases at all (30th). They’re simply solid, almost from top to bottom, replete with enough hitters who are league average or better to cobble together runs.
One weakness: The strikeouts are problematic — and a third of Detroit’s regulars struggle to counterbalance them with walks. Kerry Carpenter (52 strikeouts, seven walks), super-utility man Javier Baez (48 strikeouts, eight walks) and catcher Dillon Dingler (56 strikeouts, five walks) constitute one-third of players in all of MLB with at least 48 punchouts and fewer than 10 walks. Riley Greene’s 93 strikeouts lead MLB. And in the postseason, where the pitching gets better and every out is valuable, giving away at-bats by swinging and missing too much is a distinct no-no. Even with the strikeouts, the Tigers won’t be an easy out in October. But among the teams with legitimate playoff aspirations, only Boston punches out more, and it’s the sort of thing that could haunt Detroit.
Player who makes it all click: There isn’t one player, per se. One night it might be outfielder Greene, and another one first baseman Spencer Torkelson, and sometimes outfielder Carpenter, and maybe even infielder Zach McKinstry or outfielder Wenceel Perez. But if there’s one player whose skills differ from his teammates’ and set the table, it’s second baseman Gleyber Torres. Operating on a one-year deal, Torres has been the Tigers’ most consistent hitter this season, getting on base at a .377 clip and walking more than he strikes out. He exemplifies Detroit’s lineup — its team, really — in that nothing he does is particularly sexy but it’s unquestionably effective. — Passan
Why it’s so fearsome: “Fearsome” might be a stretch, but after a horrible April (.656 OPS), the Blue Jays did follow up with a strong May (.785 OPS). June has so far split the difference (.709 OPS), so maybe that’s the true level here, which makes this more of a league-average offense — and, indeed, that’s where the Jays currently stand in runs per game. But there is potential for more here, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Anthony Santander, Bo Bichette and Andres Gimenez all capable of more offense than they’ve offered so far.
One weakness: Power. George Springer leads the team with 10 home runs, and the Jays have been outhomered by their opponents 99-70. Left field has been a problem all season, as seven different players have started there, combining to hit .223 with only four home runs. Gimenez was acquired for his defense at second base, but he has been a flop at the plate, hitting .212/.291/.327 with four home runs (and that’s after homering three times in the first five games). Lately, he has even been benched against left-handers.
Player who makes it all click: The $500 million man is hitting more like a $50 million man right now (.275/.375/.414, eight home runs) — but when he’s hot, the offense runs through him. Guerrero had a monster season in 2021 — but that was the year the Jays played more than half of their games in minor league parks because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Guerrero had a 1.418 OPS in their spring training park and a 1.180 OPS in Buffalo (and a .935 at Rogers Centre). He was great again last season — thanks to a .342 BABIP. This season, it’s back down to .299, right around his career mark, but even that doesn’t explain the decline in power. The Jays need Guerrero to start mashing. — Schoenfield
9. Athletics
Why it’s so fearsome: They hit home runs and they hit for average, ranking in the top 10 in the majors in both categories. Jacob Wilson has been the breakout star with a .362 average in his rookie season, Brent Rooker is on his way to a third straight 30-homer season, Lawrence Butler is heating up and looking like the hitter he was in the second half of 2024, and rookie first baseman Nick Kurtz has also added another power bat to the lineup (after a slow start, he has hit .286 with six home runs in his past 11 games). What we don’t fully know yet, based on a small sample size, is how Sutter Health Park is helping. The A’s have hit for a higher average at home (.268 to .240) but have hit more home runs on the road (53 in 38 games compared to 39 in 36 games at home).
One weakness: JJ Bleday had a solid 2024 season, with 20 home runs and a 120 OPS+ in 159 games, but struggled out of the gate in 2025, earning a short demotion to Triple-A. Rookie Denzel Clarke replaced him, and though he has been a defensive wunderkind, he has been overmatched at the plate, hitting .209 with 34 strikeouts and one walk. Overall, the A’s rank 29th in the majors in OPS from their center fielders, ahead of only the Guardians.
Player who makes it all click: Wilson has been amazing, showcasing rare bat-to-ball skills with only 18 strikeouts in 289 plate appearances. The big surprise has been the 23 extra-base hits, including eight home runs, after going homerless in 92 at-bats during last season’s call-up. He has also been drawing a few more walks after beginning the season without one in his first 22 games, so his OBP is over .400. Now that he appears entrenched in the No. 2 spot, he’s going to give the middle of the order a lot of RBI opportunities. — Schoenfield
Why it’s so fearsome: In the Cardinals’ case, the fear factor is probably pointed in the wrong direction — as in their own fear of regression. I suspect their ranking is more a product of what they’ve done than what they are likely to do going forward. Ultimately, a team like the Braves, or even the reshuffled Giants or Red Sox, might be better placed here — but you never know. It’s a lineup with batting average and baserunning as the standout traits. The average part of it can be a house of cards — no pun intended — but the underlying expected stats backstop St. Louis’ offense so far.
One weakness: Only six clubs have a lower secondary average than the Cardinals — mostly a who’s who of the worst offenses in the majors. Secondary traits tend to be more stable than BABIP-related indicators, so St. Louis will need to continue to churn out its admirable strikeout and line-drive rates — a good formula for an average-based offense. But if the average falls, the Cardinals don’t draw enough walks or mash enough homers to make up the difference.
Player who makes it all click: Brendan Donovan‘s career year serves as an avatar for what the St. Louis offense is all about. He leads the Redbirds in runs created, and because he’s doing that while mostly playing in the middle of the infield (which boosts positional value), he’s far and away the team leader in offensive bWAR. The question is will it last? On one hand, even though Donovan has a career BABIP of .319, his 2025-to-date figure of .355 is going to be tough to maintain. On the other hand, Donovan’s 31% line drive rate is tied for second in the NL with teammate Willson Contreras. — Doolittle
Teams 11-30
11. Boston Red Sox
12. Seattle Mariners
13. San Francisco Giants
14. Atlanta Braves
15. Tampa Bay Rays
16. San Diego Padres
17. Cincinnati Reds
18. Minnesota Twins
19. Houston Astros
20. Baltimore Orioles
21. Milwaukee Brewers
22. Los Angeles Angels
23. Washington Nationals
24. Cleveland Guardians
25. Texas Rangers
26. Kansas City Royals
27. Miami Marlins
28. Chicago White Sox
29. Pittsburgh Pirates
30. Colorado Rockies
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Tom Luginbill
The Elite 11 Finals annually spotlight the nation’s top high school quarterbacks, offering a firsthand look at how the next wave of signal-callers stacks up against elite competition.
With most participants already committed, it’s a valuable window into how these prospects will fit into their future college systems and translate to the next level. Here are the top 10 committed quarterbacks attending the event later this month ranked by system fit.
ESPN 300 ranking: 8
Tennessee’s scheme is plug-and-play friendly and fits Brandon’s big arm and sneaky mobility. There’s a clear trend emerging in Knoxville when it comes to quarterback traits in terms of stature, athleticism and arm strength. Brandon checks all three boxes. He’s very similar to former Vols standout Hendon Hooker and is further along developmentally than Hooker was at Brandon’s age. Though not quite as polished as Nico Iamaleava coming out of high school, Brandon throws a great deep ball, which Tennessee coach Josh Heupel requires from all his quarterbacks. By the time he arrives on campus, it’s likely at least one quarterback currently on the Tennessee roster will have hit the transfer portal.
One week from today the @Elite11 Finals get underway ⏳
UCReport will have on-site coverage. Looking forward to seeing plenty of high-level quarterbacks and evaluating how they’ll fit in their college system.
Among those is 5-star Tennessee commit Faizon Brandon who was… pic.twitter.com/kXFh2QojIJ
– Billy Tucker (@TheUCReport) June 10, 2025
ESPN 300 ranking: N/A — three-star
Duke offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer is looking for a run-pass option quarterback with consistent accuracy and high-level production in the run game. Walker is that guy. He’s strikingly similar to Darian Mensah, the quarterback Duke brought in via the transfer portal, only Walker has a stronger arm. The Blue Devils want a dynamic runner at quarterback — something former QB Maalik Murphy wasn’t — and that’s what Walker is. A true playmaker, he also has a sky-high ceiling for development as a passer. Walker’s commitment is more evidence that the perception of Duke is shifting among top-tier recruits.
ESPN 300 ranking: 157
It’s easy to see why Arizona State’s coaching staff loves Fette considering he’s a mirror image of current quarterback Sam Leavitt. Fette is a sandlot-style riverboat gambler who thrives when the play breaks down. He looks like a pocket passer, but has the athleticism of a runner and can stress defenses with his legs. Coach Kenny Dillingham will use a lot of smoke and mirrors with shifts, motions, personnel groupings and backfield action to maximize Fette’s dynamic skill set and make him a threat both inside and outside the pocket.
ESPN 300 ranking: 6
Bell enters an ideal situation. The Longhorns don’t need to rush him, and instead can allow him to develop at his own pace. His fit is quite akin to Arch Manning‘s, and if Bell follows a similar blueprint he will get bigger, stronger and more mature over time. He already displays the tools of a high-level passer and adds value as a more capable runner than Quinn Ewers did in Steve Sarkisian’s system. Bell is a naturally gifted passer with a long track record of performance against elite competition, so he is ready to make the jump.
ESPN 300 ranking: N/A — three-star
Regardless of Carson Beck‘s production this fall, Coleman will be able to deliver the dynamism that Miami showcased with Cam Ward at the helm, which will make the Hurricanes much more difficult to defend. Coleman is the type of player Miami will prefer at quarterback in the long run. He has moxie, a gunslinger’s mentality and a live arm capable of making off-platform plays look routine. Remind you of anyone?
ESPN 300 ranking: 155
It’s easy to see shades of former Trojans quarterback Caleb Williams when watching Jonas Williams. He’s a naturally creative and improvisational quarterback. The play is never over, sometimes to a fault, but often to devastating effect. Williams can move the launch point and change arm angles, especially when asked to get the ball out quickly on screens and underneath throws. He thrives in chaos and can run the play-action offense Lincoln Riley loves to employ.
ESPN 300 ranking: 16
Henderson is another signal-caller with similarities to Darian Mensah, who played for current Houston coach Willie Fritz at Tulane. Landing Henderson was a huge win for Fritz. Henderson is a terrific athlete who can reach 20.6 mph max speed, an elite number for a quarterback. We’re intrigued to see whether he sticks at quarterback or moves to another position. For that reason, he’s more of a developmental player who needs to get more consistent in the passing game, but he has a high ceiling regardless of position.
ESPN 300 ranking: 198
At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, Huhn has the kind of stature coach James Franklin and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki love. Though not as mobile as Drew Allar, Huhn is very athletic in the pocket. He can extend plays and shows strong anticipation off play-action. Huhn loves to play under center, which is a valuable trait in a Penn State offense that blends shotgun and traditional looks. With a scheme that frequently shifts the launch point through varied play-action concepts, Huhn’s footwork and functional mobility make him a natural fit.
ESPN 300 ranking: N/A — three-star
It’s still unclear exactly what North Carolina’s offense will look like under Bill Belichick, but recent quarterback additions offer a clue. The Tar Heels brought in dual-threat options in South Alabama transfer Gio Lopez and 2025 commit Bryce Baker. Neither is a traditional pocket passer, nor is Burgess. He’s a great get for North Carolina with his athleticism, live arm, quick release and developmental upside. He also won’t be thrust into action immediately. Once the staff understands his strengths, he’s the kind of player it can build a system around. Though not as tall, he’s reminiscent of NC State’s CJ Bailey.
ESPN 300 ranking: N/A — three-star
Cherry is the prototypical athletic pocket passer for Jeff Brohm’s system. He’s decisive, releases the ball quickly and anticipates plays well. Combine that with Brohm’s tried-and-true scheme, and it’s easy to see why Louisville is a destination for quarterbacks such as Cherry who are looking to up their game. He is similar to Cardinals transfer quarterback Miller Moss in both skill and style. Cherry thrives in quick-game concepts, excels in the intermediate passing attack and is highly effective off deep play-action. Louisville is attractive for Cherry because it always layers good skill players around its quarterback.
Will Tuesday night’s matchup between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers be the final game of the 2024-25 season? Or will there be one more on Friday?
The Panthers lead 3-2 in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final ahead of Game 6 (8 p.m. ET, TNT/Max). If they win, they skate the Cup on home ice. If the Oilers win, Game 7 is back in Edmonton.
Here are notes on the matchup from ESPN Research, as well as betting intel from ESPN BET:
More from Game 5: Recap | Grades
Matchup notes
Florida Panthers at Edmonton Oilers
Game 6 | 8 p.m. ET | TNT/Max
With a 3-2 lead ahead of Game 6 on home ice, the Panthers are now -400 favorites to win the Cup and the Oilers are +300; those numbers are adjusted from prior to Game 5, when both clubs were -110. As for the Conn Smythe Trophy, Sam Bennett remains the leader, but his odds have shifted from +150 to -190. Brad Marchand (+300), Connor McDavid (+700) and Leon Draisaitl (+700) round out the top four.
The Panthers are seeking to become the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions by beating the same team since the Montreal Canadiens did so against the Boston Bruins in 1977 and 1978 — for the Habs, those were titles No. 2 and 3 of four straight earned between 1976 and 1979. A Panthers win would be the fourth Stanley Cup for a team based in the state of Florida this decade (the Tampa Bay Lightning won in 2020 and 2021).
The Oilers are facing elimination for the first time in the 2025 playoffs. Last year, they were 5-1 when facing elimination — including three wins in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final after falling behind 3-0. Road teams facing elimination in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final have gone 6-6 in the past 12 occurrences.
Marchand is having a superb Stanley Cup Final, scoring six goals thus far. That marks the most goals in a Cup Final since Esa Tikkanen (1988, also six). Marchand is the first player to score five or more goals with multiple teams in a Cup Final, and his five road goals in this series are the most in a single Cup Final since Jack Adams had six for the Vancouver Millionaires in 1922. With multiple multigoal games in the Cup Final, Marchand joins Jeff Friesen (New Jersey Devils, 2003) and Max Talbot (2009, Pittsburgh Penguins) as the only players to pull off that feat in the past 30 years.
Teammate Sam Bennett is also entering historic territory. With a goal in Edmonton in Game 5, he became the fifth player in NHL history with a streak of six straight road games with a goal. He is also the fourth active NHL player to score 15 goals in a single postseason, joining Zach Hyman (16, 2024), Alex Ovechkin (15, 2018) and Sidney Crosby (15, 2009).
Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky tied the NHL record for most road wins in a single postseason (10). The other five goalies tied atop the list are: Jordan Binnington (St. Louis Blues, 2019), Braden Holtby (Washington Capitals, 2018), Jonathan Quick (Los Angeles Kings, 2012), Miikka Kiprusoff (Calgary Flames, 2004), Martin Brodeur (Devils, 2000 and 1995).
With three goals in this series, Edmonton’s Corey Perry tied Mark Recchi (Bruins, 2011) and Igor Larionov (Detroit Red Wings, 2002) for the most goals by a player age 40 or older in a single Cup Final.
McDavid scored a point in every home game he played since the 4 Nations Face-Off break — a run of 17 straight games, with 36 points in that span. He reached 150 playoff points in 95 games, the third-fastest player in NHL history to reach that benchmark, behind Wayne Gretzky (68 games played) and Mario Lemieux (86).
With one more game-winning goal this series, Draisaitl would become just the third player in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) — and first since 1977 — to have three game winners in a single Stanley Cup Final. The previous players to do so are Jacques Lemaire (1977) and Jean Beliveau (1965 and 1960), both of whom accomplished the feat for the Canadiens.
0:47
Oilers coach: We’ve overcome difficult situations before
Kris Knoblauch keeps faith in his Oilers as he reflects on losing Game 5 in Edmonton.
Scoring leaders
GP: 22 | G: 15 | A: 7
GP: 21 | G: 11 | A: 22
Best bets for Game 6
Evander Kane over 4.5 total hits (+107): The Oilers need to be more physical if they hope to have a legitimate shot at pushing this series to a Game 7. Saturday’s team total of 25 hits, including only a pair from Kane, isn’t going to cut it. An aggressive difference-maker when he’s at his best at nearing, but not crossing, the line as he has too often this series, the winger will be one to watch from the get-go Tuesday. Notably, he registered 17 total hits through both overtime games to open this series in Edmonton. Win or lose, Kane is going to serve as a factor. Hopefully for the Oilers, not by earning himself time in the penalty box.
Stuart Skinner under 25.5 total saves (-120): If Skinner — presuming coach Kris Knoblauch goes with his No. 1 netminder to start Game 6 — struggles, or the rest of the Oilers fail to perform well enough out front, he won’t last long enough in the crease to make 26 saves before all is said and done. The leash will be short in this must-win contest. Or perhaps Edmonton’s team defense rises to the occasion and prevents more scoring chances in support of their starting goaltender, as it did in earlier rounds versus Dallas and Vegas.
Connor McDavid first period anytime goal-scorer (+600): After Leon Draisaitl scored the opener in Game 1, the Panthers are perfect in four straight games at catching the back of the net first, outscoring Edmonton 11-4 altogether in the initial period. The Oilers understand reversing that trend would go a long way in helping them survive, particularly by forcing Florida to sway from their stifling defensive play. Who better to look to than McDavid, who finally found the back of the net this series in Saturday’s losing effort? The sport’s best player needs to shoot more, and he knows it. He’ll be revved right up to make a statement, early. — Victoria Matiash
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