Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin and the year that changed Alabama football forever
-
Chris Low
Close
ESPN Senior Writer- College football reporter
- Joined ESPN.com in 2007
- Graduate of the University of Tennessee
-
Alex Scarborough
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Former Alabama quarterback Blake Sims can still remember the feeling of that November night back in 2014, when he and the offense were standing on the field in overtime at LSU. With his mind and heart racing, and the roar of the Tiger Stadium crowd ringing in his ears, he shot a glance toward the sideline and Coach Nick Saban.
Less than 24 hours earlier, first-year offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin had come up with the play Sims was about to run — a daring empty set formation in which the offensive tackle, Cam Robinson, would split out wide as a receiver and a 305-pound reserve tight end, Brandon Greene, would masquerade as an offensive lineman.
The play’s name doubled as a sort of warning: Oh S—.
“Oh s—,” Kiffin had warned Sims and the rest of the offense in their team meeting the night before, “if this doesn’t work guys, Coach Saban is going to kill me on national TV.”
No blood was shed. LSU didn’t pick up on the fact that Greene was actually an eligible receiver as he took off down the middle of the field after the snap and hauled in a 24-yard reception on the first play of overtime, leading to a 20-13 Alabama victory.
“We all would have gotten our asses ripped if that play would have gone bad, not just Coach Kiffin,” said Sims. “But that’s the way Coach Kiffin rolls. He wasn’t afraid to take chances, and Coach Saban wasn’t afraid to take a chance on him … and you see what that’s led to.”
Much like that play, the pairing of Saban and Kiffin was high-risk at the time and genius in hindsight. And it has now come full circle, as Kiffin returns to Bryant-Denny Stadium to lead his No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels against Saban’s No. 1 Crimson Tide on Saturday.
But for the full story of how Alabama transitioned from ground-and-pound, game-manager-QB Alabama to high-flying, first-round-QBs-and-Heisman-winning-receiver Alabama, you have to start at the beginning, when the sport’s most accomplished head coach took a chance on the game’s most controversial.
“I remember him saying, ‘I feel like our offense is a Lamborghini, but it’s headed off a cliff,’ meaning we’ve got these great players, but are behind the times in what we’re doing,” said Kiffin, recalling their first meeting after he was hired. “So we needed to change directions.”
When Auburn‘s Chris Davis caught a missed field goal and returned it more than 100 yards for a game-winning score against Alabama in the 2013 Iron Bowl, it did more than dash any hope the Crimson Tide had of winning a third straight national title. It was the final signal to Saban that his program, despite its massive success, was beginning to grow outdated offensively.
While Auburn, Ole Miss and Texas A&M were using tempo and spreading the field with multiple receivers, Alabama was still putting the quarterback under center and still utilizing a mostly pro-style playbook.
Saban, after years of complaining about how the rules were tilted in favor of spread and hurry-up offenses, was eager to play catch-up with what he called the “fastball guys.”
So two weeks after losing to Auburn, an unlikely visitor started popping up at the Alabama practice field.
Center Ryan Kelly barely noticed Kiffin hanging around those few days in mid-December. Former coaches were always coming and going, Kelly explained.
Speaking to reporters, Saban brushed off the importance of Kiffin’s visit. Never mind that Kiffin was one of the most eccentric and divisive figures in college football. The 38-year-old had recently been fired by USC and was only four years removed from bailing on Tennessee after just one season.
Saban said hosting Kiffin was an opportunity for “professional development.”
“Obviously,” Kelly said, “that was the precursor to what was coming.”
Sims, who was a backup at the time but knew Kiffin from his recruitment by Tennessee, was one of the few players who put two and two together.
“I said, ‘We’re about to be deadly, so cold, because I knew what he would do with our offense,” Sims said. “It was the perfect combination, Coach Saban’s structure and Coach Kiffin’s creative mind.”
In the ensuing days, everything came together. Offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier told Sims and the rest of the offense that the Sugar Bowl would be his last game at Alabama. He would eventually land the same job at Michigan.
During a recruiting visit, Saban pulled linebackers coach Lance Thompson into a bathroom for a private conversation. Thompson said Saban told him he had three candidates in mind to replace Nussmeier. One of them was Kiffin, whom Thompson had worked for at Tennessee.
Saban asked Thompson, now the inside linebackers coach at Florida Atlantic, what he thought.
“I’d hire Lane, Coach,” he said. “He’s a special playcaller.”
Thompson then paused for a moment. “But I’m going to tell you,” he said, “he’s different.”
Saban didn’t miss a beat.
“I ain’t never had a problem handling an assistant coach,” he said.
Saban would ultimately hire Kiffin and test his confidence about wrangling wayward assistants. Their personalities were so far apart, Thompson said, “It was like Earth and Neptune.”
Their collision caused fireworks at times, but more importantly, it led to the total re-imagining of Alabama’s offense and the resurrection of Kiffin’s career.
“People think you go there because it’s coaching rehab and you get a head job somewhere else,” Kiffin told ESPN earlier this week. “I guess that’s one way to approach it, and some people do. But for me, I look back at all of the things I learned under [Saban] that made me a better coach despite everything that’s been said about our time together and any differences we might have had.”
There were plenty of skeptics when Saban brought Kiffin on board.
“A lot of people might have been surprised when I brought Lane in as coordinator, probably even here in the building,” Saban told ESPN. “But I wanted to grow on offense. We needed to grow, and I felt like he was the best guy at that time to help us do that.”
But this wouldn’t be a simple course correction. Because while Saban wanted to implement the spread and use more tempo, Kiffin had very little history of doing either. At Tennessee and USC, he had run a similar pro-style attack as Alabama.
“He researched all that stuff and we’d go over it,” Saban said. “… So I was kinda learning it from him, and he was learning it from other people.”
For much of the next two years, Kiffin did his homework on those coaches and teams running up-tempo offenses with run-pass elements (RPOs). He paid careful attention to what his former USC brethren Steve Sarkisian was doing as head coach at Washington, racking up more than 600 total yards of offense in a game five times during the 2013 season.
There were also talks with Tom Herman when he was the offensive coordinator at Ohio State and Doug Meacham at TCU. Kiffin said he remained in touch with Chip Kelly, who was then in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles after coaching against Kiffin while at Oregon.
That April, during Kiffin’s first spring at Alabama, the Crimson Tide hosted their annual coaching clinic. There were a few usual suspects, such as former Alabama coaches Gene Stallings and Sylvester Croom, but among the headliners was someone with no ties to the school or Saban: Baylor coach and hurry-up offensive guru Art Briles, who was later fired in response to a review of the school’s handling of sexual assault allegations against students, including several football players.
Thompson said Briles’ attendance was no coincidence.
“There’s not a coach that comes to a clinic that Nick doesn’t sit down with individually and talk to and the coaches on the offensive and defensive side of the ball talk to those guys, too,” Thompson said. “Every coach from another program, every coach that’s brought in for an interview, is brought in for a purpose.”
That purpose: “To gain new information.”
Saban and Kiffin left no stone unturned. In their second year together, no-huddle guru Eric Kiesau was brought in on staff as an offensive analyst. Kiesau, now the receivers coach at Auburn, worked under Sarkisian at Washington and was previously the offensive coordinator at Colorado and passing game coordinator at Cal. He was a valuable sounding board for Kiffin on such things as using the sideline boards that help teams go faster on offense.
Alabama ran what was then a school-record 1,088 offensive plays in 2015 after running 1,018 the year before. The Tide had not run more than 898 plays in a season the previous four years.
“Everybody says that I go through so many guys on offense,” Saban said. “Look, I learn from all of them. We went through a transformation when Lane was here … intentionally. It was intentional. I wanted to, and he wanted to, too, and we’ve continued to build.”
The transition wasn’t seamless, though.
For instance: Kelly remembers how frustrated he was when he found out Kiffin wanted to scrap the traditional way quarterbacks signaled for the snap with a voice command like “hike” in favor of clapping. Kelly said he let it be known to his coaches, “How does this make sense? Like, anybody could be clapping, right?”
“There was give and take,” explained Kelly, who’s in his sixth season with the Indianapolis Colts.
That applied to the staff’s interaction with Kiffin, too.
One time, Kelly recalled, he thought offensive line coach Mario Cristobal was going to lose it on Kiffin.
“He was so close to walking into Lane’s office and strangling him,” Kelly said. “Because they were going out to practice and there were five new plays we hadn’t installed and no one could find Lane.”
Over time, Saban grew increasingly frustrated with what he said was a lack of organization on Kiffin’s part.
“I wanted things done a certain way,” Saban said. “I wanted the coaches to meet. I wanted everybody to have input, and that was not his style. Some of the other coaches complained to me about it, and I always said that Lane would be a much better head coach than an assistant because when you’re a head coach and you know what you want to do and you’ve got organized people around you, you really don’t need to be that organized.”
One assistant on that staff joked: “Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban were a match. It just wasn’t a match made in heaven.”
When Kiffin arrived in Tuscaloosa, Blake Sims was no one’s idea of a record-setting SEC quarterback.
AJ McCarron had just left for the NFL and former Florida State quarterback Jake Coker had transferred in, becoming the odds-on favorite to start.
The coaching staff loved Sims, but if they’re being honest, Thompson said, they were surprised he beat out Coker and started a single game. Even Sims admits he was recruited to Alabama by Kirby Smart to play free safety.
“He’d been Scout Team Player of the Week more than anybody in the history of Alabama football,” Thompson said. “He had played running back, safety, quarterback, wide receiver, fullback, tight end. The kid had played everything. He was such a wonderful kid. And then Lane comes and does a great job giving him stuff that he can do.”
Overnight, Sims transformed into a deft distributor of the football, making the kind of quick decisions that allowed All-America receiver Amari Cooper and others to shine.
That was no accident. Thompson said that during the lead up to the season, Kiffin shortened the terminology of plays, cutting 10-word calls in half in order to make things easier for everyone to understand, and Sims responded by passing for more yards (3,487) than anybody in the history of Alabama football had passed for to that point.
Whereas the year before the playbook was the size of a novel, Kelly said, it was suddenly condensed into a single chapter.
“To see a guy who really before that played kind of a utility role turn into that,” Kelly said of Sims, “that was obviously a lot of Lane’s doing. He figured out, ‘What’s this guy’s strengths and weaknesses? And let’s play those advantages.’ And that’s ultimately what he did the entire time I was there my last two years.”
Sims, who’s now playing for the Spokane Shock in the Indoor Football League, would watch tape with Cooper and running back Kenyan Drake of those Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush USC teams when Kiffin was the Trojans’ offensive coordinator.
“It was always amazing to me how he could see one play on film and know immediately how to attack the defense,” Sims said. “He could be standing on the field and see things nobody else could.”
In the Florida game that 2014 season, Kiffin pulled Sims and Drake aside before the game and devised a play for Drake to split out wide as a receiver and Sims to line up in the shotgun in an empty backfield. On the first play from scrimmage, Drake found himself matched against a linebacker and ran a slant-and-go route for an easy 75-yard touchdown reception.
Kiffin said they had never practiced that “sluggo” route with Drake, but that he had this “weird feeling” that Florida would be in man coverage.
“I thought about it at the last minute and we put it in in the locker room,” said Kiffin, adding that Bush ran that similar play for a long touchdown against Notre Dame in 2004.
Sims said: “You just didn’t see Alabama doing that kind of stuff before, but Coach Kiffin was great at getting those matchups and finding ways to get his best players the ball.”
As a playcaller, Saban said Kiffin is the best he’s ever been around.
“He sees how the defense is playing something and immediately knows,” Saban said, snapping his fingers for emphasis, “what he wants to run against it.”
Saban said it’s overblown how much he and Kiffin sparred that first season when it came to football, and even Kiffin said his former boss is a much better listener than people give him credit for, at least in certain areas.
“On scheme, yes. But not when it comes to the structure of his program,” Kiffin said. “It’s hard to argue that, though. Look at his success.”
Much like the “Oh S—” play against LSU, Kiffin was renowned for coming up with plays, even on the day of the game, which made it seem like sandlot football at times. And yes, he felt the wrath of Saban, but it usually was worth it.
“Some people when you get into a very structured environment like that, and you’re a little bit more of a color-outside-the-lines guy, just sort of conform because they can’t handle the pressure if it doesn’t work,” said one former assistant coach. “But Lane would color outside the lines, and if two things worked and two things didn’t work, it wouldn’t faze him mentally.”
One of the areas where Kiffin and Saban clashed most often that first season came on resting players, especially during practice, and cutting down on their reps later in the season.
“I didn’t win many of those battles,” Kiffin said. “Maybe the only one was with Amari Cooper. He was like a running back that year. He caught 124 passes [a school record]. I just wanted to make sure he still had his legs at the end of the season.”
Saban admits that he’s old-school, but not to the point of being stubborn.
“I’m old-school when it comes to doing things right and being disciplined, all that,” Saban said. “I’m not old-school in the technical aspects of playing the game. There are differences, and I don’t think people get that sometimes.
“So I do listen. I listen a lot, listened to Lane [on Cooper]. That’s how you learn. Now, there are some things I’m just not willing to compromise.”
While there might have been some concession on Cooper and his reps that season, a coach on that staff said Saban is unwavering when it comes to practice.
“That wasn’t going to change, and it hasn’t changed,” the coach said. “And anybody who tells you it has changed is lying. The process is the process, and the way [Saban] develops his football team with practice reps is not changing. It wasn’t Lane’s call. It wasn’t my call. It was Coach Saban’s call.
“Now, do you have the ability to get him to expand what his intent is? Yes. Lane got him to expand his thinking on certain things. But change? No.”
In retrospect, Kiffin admits he might have pressed too hard, too fast, on some things.
“Like a lot of people do with a previous marriage, I look back on my time now with Coach Saban differently,” Kiffin said. “I could have done much better with just, ‘Yes sir,’ no matter what he said. That’s the majority of that building. They say, ‘Yes sir,’ no matter what. I guess my issue was that I wasn’t trained that way. I’d been a head coach and an assistant coach to Pete Carroll for six years. Pete Carroll was not a ‘yes sir’ environment at all. It was more, ‘Bring up whatever ideas you want.'”
The two coaches stood at midfield inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium after one of the most exciting games last season, Kiffin wearing an Ole Miss powder blue face covering and shaking hands with his former boss, Saban, who was decked out in head-to-toe Alabama gear.
For three-and-a-half quarters, they’d gone back and forth in an old fashioned shootout. The final score: Alabama 63, Ole Miss 48.
“That damn Lane, he said it after they played us last year: ‘Everything I told him for three years, he wrote it down,'” Saban would later say. “He said after the game, ‘I did every one of those things in the game.’
“He had a whole notepad of s— that I said was a problem to defend when we were together, and he said, ‘I did every one of them.'”
The two teams combined for an SEC-record 1,370 yards, and the 647 yards the Rebels churned out were the most ever against the Tide.
It was a brand of football that would have been unrecognizable to Saban and Kiffin when they first joined up.
“We used to recruit against Alabama at USC and Tennessee and would say, ‘You’re a great quarterback. Don’t go there. You’ll be a game manager. You’ll never put up big numbers,'” Kiffin said. “If you were a receiver, we would tell them not to go there. Here’s Julio Jones, one of the greatest of all time, and he never had more than 78 catches, but yet, Amari Cooper had 124.”
In Kiffin’s three years in Tuscaloosa, the Tide went 40-4 with three College Football Playoff appearances and one national title.
Of course, Kiffin didn’t make it to Alabama’s national title game that third year, having been dismissed by Saban earlier in the week. Kiffin had taken the head job with Florida Atlantic, and Saban felt he wasn’t paying enough attention to his Alabama job after the Tide scored just two offensive touchdowns and freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts threw for just 57 yards in a 24-7 national semifinal win over Washington.
“You look back and see where you were at fault and what I could have done better,” Kiffin said. “Now I find myself, which is like a kid saying and doing the same things his parents did, sounding a lot like Coach Saban.”
When Kiffin left, Alabama’s offense only got scarier under future offensive coordinators Mike Locksley and Sarkisian. The program produced first-round quarterbacks like Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones, who put up record-setting numbers when throwing to game-breaking, first-round receivers like Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III, Jaylen Waddle and last year’s Heisman winner, DeVonta Smith.
As one longtime staffer said, “There’s a narrative out there that the Alabama offense exploded under Lane, and he was a big part of where it is now. But the explosion came under Locks and Sark. Just look at the numbers over the last few years.”
Alabama has finished in the top three in scoring offense each of the past three years and sixth or better in both total offense and passing offense the past three years. Of course, it has done it with three straight quarterbacks drafted in the first round and nine running backs, receivers or tight ends selected in the first three rounds of the past four drafts.
Most in and around the program at that time also agree that Kiffin’s offenses helped to attract more elite skill people.
“I do feel like the numbers we put up and what we started to do on offense made it more attractive for offensive skill players to come from all over the country because they always got great defensive players,” Kiffin said.
Just look at Alabama’s current quarterback: Bryce Young, a former five-star prospect from California. Young’s father said they didn’t take Alabama seriously as a destination until they saw the offense begin to open up with Tagovailoa at quarterback. Young’s top receivers are John Metchie III, who is from Canada, and Jameson Williams, a Missouri native who transferred from Ohio State.
Kiffin enters Saturday’s matchup with another another California quarterback, Matt Corral, who is lighting up the scoreboards with 14 touchdowns in three games and is the new Heisman front-runner.
Ole Miss leads the country in scoring offense (52.7 points per game) and total offense (638.3 yards per game), while Alabama isn’t far behind with 46.5 points per game.
And now Kiffin has a chance to make good on an old promise when he returns to Tuscaloosa for the first time as an opposing head coach since 2009, his lone year at Tennessee. After the Vols pushed the Tide to the brink before losing, 12-10, the cocky young Kiffin met Saban at midfield.
“Good game, but we’ll get you the next time.”
-
Ryan S. Clark
-
Greg Wyshynski
The NHL trade deadline for the 2024-25 season is not until March 7, but teams have not waited until the last minute to make major moves.
For every significant trade that occurs during the season, you’ll find a grade for it here, the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks swapping goaltenders, Cam Fowler to the St. Louis Blues, Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken, the blockbuster deal sending Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes and Martin Necas to the Avalanche, J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks to the New York Rangers, and the Canucks staying busy and getting Marcus Pettersson from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
March 1 featured three big trades, with Ryan Lindgren headed to the Colorado Avalanche, the Minnesota Wild adding Gustav Nyquist, and Seth Jones joining the Florida Panthers. The middle of deadline week included a reunion for Yanni Gourde, heading back to the Tampa Bay Lightning along with Oliver Bjorkstrand.
Read on for grades from Ryan S. Clark and Greg Wyshynski, and check back the next time a big deal breaks.
-
Chris Low
Close
Chris Low
ESPN Senior Writer
- College football reporter
- Joined ESPN.com in 2007
- Graduate of the University of Tennessee
-
Mark Schlabach
Close
Mark Schlabach
ESPN Senior Writer
- Senior college football writer
- Author of seven books on college football
- Graduate of the University of Georgia
Spring ball is nearly here, and we’re breaking everything down in the SEC. Even though there has been an influx of teams canceling their spring games, that doesn’t mean the storylines and players are any less interesting.
How will Kalen DeBoer fare in Year 2 in Tuscaloosa? DeBoer led the Tide to a 9-4 record last season, but it wasn’t enough to reach the College Football Playoff, which will certainly be the expectation come this fall. Can Florida’s DJ Lagway find some dependable receivers? And of course, how will Arch Manning do as he takes over the Longhorns’ offense at QB1?
Here’s a look at the top storyline, a position of intrigue and a player to watch for every SEC team as spring camps get underway.
2024 record: 9-4
Spring storyline: After going 9-4 in Alabama’s first season without Nick Saban since 2006, there’s going to be tremendous pressure on coach Kalen DeBoer to get the Crimson Tide back to the College Football Playoff in his second year. The Tide should have one of the better defenses in the SEC, so all eyes will be on the offense, especially the quarterback position, this spring. The good news for DeBoer: Ryan Grubb, who helped him guide Washington to the CFP National Championship game at the end of the 2023 season, is back on his staff after spending last season with the Seattle Seahawks. Grubb will return to calling plays, while Nick Sheridan will move to quarterbacks coach.
Position of intrigue: With Jalen Milroe bypassing his senior season to enter the NFL draft, Ty Simpson is probably the favorite heading into spring practice. But Simpson will be pushed by Austin Mack, who originally signed with Washington, and freshman Keelon Russell, who enrolled early in January. Simpson, a junior, had 50 attempts with a touchdown the past three seasons. Russell, from Duncanville, Texas, was the No. 1 dual-threat passer in the 2025 ESPN 300 and is one of the highest-rated prospects to ever sign with the Tide. As a senior at Duncanville (Texas) High in 2024, Russell passed for 4,177 yards with 55 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Player to watch: Alabama’s offensive line cut its sacks allowed from 49 in 2023 to 24 in 2024. The Tide have some nice pieces coming back in left tackle Kadyn Proctor, center Parker Brailsford and right guard Jaeden Roberts. Wilkin Formby, a homegrown product of Northridge High in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is going to be asked to take over at right tackle. Elijah Pritchett, transferred to Nebraska after struggling mightily at the spot last season. — Mark Schlabach
2024 record: 7-6
Spring storyline: After the Razorbacks lost six games or more for the third straight season in 2024, it seems like another big year for embattled coach Sam Pittman. It won’t be easy against one of the most difficult schedules in the FBS — road games at Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU and Texas and home contests against Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Auburn and Missouri. There was plenty of turnover on the roster, with 25 scholarship players leaving, including several key contributors. The Hogs’ focus this spring is finding their 22 best players and building depth behind them.
Position of intrigue: Pittman is an old-school offensive line coach at heart, and he knows Arkansas is going to have do a better job protecting quarterback Taylen Green, who was sacked 32 times in 2024. The Hogs gave up 36 overall, which ranked 114th in the FBS. The Razorbacks brought in five FBS transfers and another lineman from junior college. Tackles JacQawn McRoy (Oregon) and Corey Robinson II (Georgia Tech) might be the biggest additions. McRoy is nicknamed “Shaq” because of his towering 6-foot-8, 375-pound frame.
Player to watch: The Razorbacks need help at wide receiver after Andrew Armstrong departed for the NFL and Isaiah Sategna transferred to Oklahoma. Arkansas added four transfer receivers, and former UAB standout Kam Shanks led the FBS with 329 punt return yards and two punt return touchdowns in 2024. He also added a team-high 62 receptions for 656 yards and six scores. The Hogs will also get their first looks at receivers Courtney Crutchfield (Missouri), Raylen Sharpe (Fresno State) and O’Mega Blake (Charlotte) this spring. — Schlabach
2024 record: 5-7
Spring storyline: After the Tigers posted a losing record in consecutive seasons under coach Hugh Freeze, things are getting a bit restless (again) on the Plains. With 15 FBS transfers joining the team through the portal, some are projecting Auburn to be one of the most improved teams in the FBS in 2025. For that to happen, however, Auburn’s offense will have to be much better, especially at quarterback. The Tigers averaged only 13.3 points in their seven losses in 2024. The Tigers will play another challenging schedule, including early road games at Baylor, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
Position of intrigue: Quarterback transfer Jackson Arnold will be under the microscope this spring after he transferred to Auburn from Oklahoma. The No. 3 overall prospect in the 2023 ESPN 300, Arnold lost his starting job for three games at OU last season. He reclaimed it and started the final five regular-season contests. Arnold completed 62.6% of his passes for 1,421 yards with 15 total touchdowns in 2024. He ranked 15th among SEC quarterbacks in total QBR (47.8). The Tigers signed Deuce Knight, the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the ESPN 300, and Ashton Daniels, who will arrive from Stanford this summer.
Player to watch: Georgia Tech transfer Eric Singleton Jr. was one of the most coveted players in the transfer portal. He caught 104 passes for 1,468 yards and scored 10 touchdowns in his first two seasons with the Yellow Jackets and averaged 12.8 yards per touch as a receiver, rusher and returner in 2024. With Cam Coleman and Malcolm Simmons returning, and former Wake Forest receiver Horatio Fields transferring to Auburn, the Tigers should be loaded at receiver. — Schlabach
2024 record: 8-5
Spring storyline: Embattled Gators coach Billy Napier completely flipped the narrative on his future at Florida by guiding his team to four straight victories to finish with an 8-5 record in 2024. That winning streak included upsets of then-No. 22 LSU and then-No. 9 Ole Miss. Much of the optimism is because of quarterback DJ Lagway, who was 6-1 as the starter as a freshman, and a veteran offensive line. Lagway threw for 1,915 yards with 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Florida will play another brutal schedule in 2025 with road games at LSU, Miami, Texas A&M and Ole Miss and a neutral-site contest against Georgia.
Position of intrigue: Finding Lagway dependable targets on the perimeter will be a focus this spring. Top receivers Elijhah Badger and Chimere Dike departed for the NFL, and Eugene Wilson III is coming back from season-ending hip surgery. Receivers Vernell Brown III, Dallas Wilson and Naeshaun Montgomery were three of Florida’s highest-ranked signees, and J. Michael Sturdivant (UCLA) was one of the top pass catchers in the portal.
Player to watch: Florida’s strength coach called linebacker Aaron Chiles an “alien” before his freshman season, because of his exceptional work in the weight room. With Shemar James leaving for the NFL draft, Chiles and Myles Graham will have a chance to make an impact on defense this season. Graham had 30 tackles and one sack in 2024; Chiles had 23 tackles with one sack. — Schlabach
2024 record: 11-3
Spring storyline: Much of Georgia’s focus this spring will be focused on its offense, which struggled to catch the ball and run it when it mattered in 2024. The Bulldogs went 11-3, won an SEC championship and reached the CFP last season. But Georgia’s offensive production slipped mightily — it scored 31.5 points per game (after averaging 40.1 in 2023) and ranked next-to-last in the SEC with 124.4 rushing yards. Georgia will be breaking in four new starting offensive linemen and a new quarterback. Newcomers will also be counted on to improve an inconsistent receiver corps.
Position of intrigue: Georgia’s offensive line was expected to be one of the best units in the FBS in 2024, but it struggled to create holes in the running game and protect the quarterback. Four starters are gone, including center Jared Wilson and All-American guard Tate Ratledge. Earnest Greene III and Monroe Freeling have a lot of experience at tackle, and Micah Morris has been a mainstay at guard. Drew Bobo and Daniel Calhoun are the favorites to take over at center and right guard, respectively.
Player to watch: No position on the team was criticized more in 2024 than Georgia’s receivers. The Bulldogs led Power 4 conference teams in dropped passes, and top receivers Arian Smith and Dominic Lovett left for the NFL. Georgia brought in two high-profile transfers, Zachariah Branch (USC) and Noah Thomas (Texas A&M), and Talyn Taylor and C.J. Wiley are two highly regarded freshman receivers. Branch had 1,863 all-purpose yards during his two seasons with the Trojans, including two kicks returned for touchdowns in 2023. He caught 78 passes for 823 yards and three scores. — Schlabach
2024 record: 4-8
Spring storyline: After the Wildcats limped to a 4-8 record and won only one SEC game in 2024, which ended the program’s eight-year streak of competing in a bowl game, coach Mark Stoops is stressing a return to its blue-collar culture. Entering his 13th season at Kentucky, Stoops wants his team to play physically on both sides of the ball and cut down the mistakes that plagued it last season. The Wildcats brought in 20 players from the transfer portal, and many of them will be counted on to shore up the line of scrimmage on offense and defense. Rebuilding the receiver corps will also be a priority in the spring.
Position of intrigue: The Wildcats have been at their best under Stoops when they’ve controlled the line of scrimmage with a strong offensive line. The “Big Blue Wall” wasn’t as effective in 2024, as the Wildcats ranked 111th in the FBS in sacks allowed (35) and 81st in rushing (145.6 yards). Kentucky added five transfer offensive linemen, including projected starting left tackle Shiyazh Pete (New Mexico State), right tackle Alex Wollschlaeger (Bowling Green) and center Evan Wibberley (Western Kentucky).
Player to watch: Kentucky’s passing game wasn’t much of a threat in 2024, as it ranked 112th in the FBS in passing (184.8) and threw more interceptions (17) than touchdowns (15). The Wildcats are hoping they’ll get more from sixth-year senior Zach Calzada, who previously played at Texas A&M, Auburn and FCS program Incarnate Word. Last season, he passed for 3,744 yards with 40 total touchdowns. — Schlabach
2024 record: 9-4
Spring storyline: When quarterback Garrett Nussmeier opted to return to LSU after throwing for 4,052 yards with 29 touchdowns in 2024, the Tigers became an SEC title and CFP contender. Coach Brian Kelly’s mission this offseason became clear: surround Nussmeier with proven playmakers and improve a defense that held his team back in his first three seasons. The Tigers added receivers Nic Anderson (Oklahoma) and Barion Brown (Kentucky) and a couple of key offensive line transfers. On defense, pass rushers Patrick Payton (Florida State) and Jack Pyburn (Florida) and defensive backs Mansoor Delane (Virginia Tech) and Tamarcus Cooley (NC State) were key additions.
Position of intrigue: Nussmeier played behind one of the SEC’s best offensive lines in 2024, and now the Tigers will have to replace four starters, including star tackles Will Campbell and Emery Jones Jr. It won’t be easy. The Tigers added former Northwestern guard Josh Thompson and Virginia Tech center Braelin Moore to fill holes. Tyree Adams and Weston Davis will probably get the first opportunities at the tackle spots.
Player to watch: The Tigers lost top edge rushers Bradyn Swinson and Sai’vion Jones, who combined for 13 sacks in 2024. LSU invested heavily in bringing in Payton, Pyburn and Jimari Butler (Nebraska). Payton was the 2022 ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year and had 31½ tackles for loss and 16 sacks in three seasons with the Seminoles. His production dropped off dramatically on a bad FSU team in 2024. He had four sacks — three came in one game against California. — Schlabach
2024 record: 2-10
Spring storyline: The Bulldogs went 2-10 and didn’t win an SEC contest in coach Jeff Lebby’s first season, so there’s plenty of work to do in Starkville, Mississippi, this spring. The Bulldogs have to figure out a way to improve their porous defense, which ranked 118th in scoring (34.1 points), 130th against the run (216.9 yards), 105th in passing defense (239.5 yards) and 126th in total defense (456.4). The offense also took some heavy portal losses, including quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. (LSU) and receivers Kevin Coleman Jr. (Missouri) and Mario Craver (Texas A&M).
Position of intrigue: The Bulldogs’ problems on defense started up front, and that’s the reason Lebby and his staff added seven defensive linemen in the portal. State’s defense generated only 10 sacks in 2024, second fewest in the FBS. Red Hibbler had 6½ sacks at NC State in 2023, then redshirted after four games last season. Will Whitson had 8½ tackles for loss and five sacks in two seasons at Coastal Carolina, and Malick Sylla had four sacks in three seasons at Texas A&M.
Player to watch: Quarterback Blake Shapen returned to Mississippi State after missing the final eight games with a shoulder injury. In four starts in 2024, he threw for 974 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception. After Van Buren transferred to LSU, the Bulldogs signed former FSU backup Luke Kromenhoek, who started two games in 2024. — Schlabach
2024 record: 10-3
Spring storyline: As Eliah Drinkwitz heads into his sixth season as coach at Missouri, the question is now: Can the Tigers take that next step (a big one) and make the playoff after winning at least 10 games each of the past two seasons? Drinkwitz doesn’t get enough credit for the job he has done in steadying the program and will be breaking in a new quarterback in 2025. Beau Pribula, a transfer from Penn State, is the favorite to replace Brady Cook. Pribula is one of several key transfers the Tigers will be counting on to make big impacts.
Position of intrigue: The Tigers will have to retool their offensive line after losing three starters, including projected first-round NFL draft pick Armand Membou at right tackle. The interior of Mizzou’s offensive line could be elite with Connor Tollison returning at center after injuring his knee at the end of last season and Cayden Green at left guard. Drinkwitz thinks the Tollison-Green interior combo could be the best in the country. Johnny Williams IV (West Virginia) and Keagen Trost (Wake Forest) are portal additions the Tigers hope can step in at the tackle positions.
Player to watch: Running back Ahmad Hardy comes over from ULM after putting together a terrific freshman season in the Group of 5 ranks. He rushed for 1,351 yards and 13 touchdowns and was especially effective after contact. Hardy and returnee Jamal Roberts should complement each other well in Drinkwitz’s offense. — Chris Low
2024 record: 6-7
Spring storyline: The Sooners finished next to last in the SEC in scoring offense last season (24 points per game), and their offense produced 20 points or fewer in all nine of their games against power conference opponents. It’s obviously a critical season for coach Brent Venables as he enters Year 4, and he hired Ben Arbuckle from Washington State to run the offense. Arbuckle brought with him quarterback John Mateer, who passed for more than 3,100 yards and rushed for more than 800 yards last season. The big change on defense is that Venables will take over playcalling duties.
Position of intrigue: The receiver position was ravaged with injuries last season. The good news is that redshirt senior Deion Burks is back after playing in only five games a year ago. Oklahoma scoured the portal for receivers and brought in four, including JaVonnie Gibson from Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Gibson had 70 catches for 1,215 yards and nine touchdowns last season. The Sooners also hope Jayden Gibson can bounce back after missing all of last season with a knee injury.
Player to watch: Some of the best news of the offseason was defensive end R Mason Thomas announcing he would return for his senior season. He led OU with 12.5 tackles for loss, 9 quarterback sacks and 11 hurries last season. Thomas’ return gives Venables a core of talented defenders returning. The defense is what kept the Sooners in games a year ago. — Low
2024 record: 10-3
Spring storyline: There was a playoff-or-bust feel to the Rebels’ season a year ago, and while they certainly looked like a playoff team at times, they were unable to recover from a home loss to Kentucky and then a road loss to Florida after beating Georgia soundly two weeks earlier. Lane Kiffin has elevated the program to top-10 status with at least 10 wins in three of the past four seasons. He’s called the “Portal King” for a reason, and the Rebels will again have to successfully plug in several new faces at key positions if they’re going to break through this season and make the playoff.
Position of intrigue: The defensive line a year ago was one of the best in the country. The Rebels finished second nationally in scoring defense and rushing defense and third in sacks. The bulk of that production up front is gone, including potential NFL first-round pick Walter Nolen at tackle and veteran pass rusher Princely Umanmielen. But sack machine Suntarine Perkins returns after recording 10.5 sacks a year ago, while 6-foot-7, 320-pound Zxavian Harris is poised to be the next dominant tackle in the SEC.
Player to watch: As quarterback Jaxson Dart quickly rises up NFL teams’ draft boards, the anticipation in Oxford is to see how well his successor, Austin Simmons, plays in his first season as the Rebels’ starter. Simmons was terrific when he filled in for a series against Georgia and led Ole Miss to a touchdown. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound sophomore is a perfect fit for Kiffin’s system. — Low
2024 record: 9-4
Spring storyline: Shane Beamer became only the second coach at South Carolina in the past 40 years to win nine regular-season games last season. (Steve Spurrier was the other.) The Gamecocks played their best football down the stretch and were a couple of plays and questionable calls away from making the playoff. They return two of the best young players in the country in redshirt sophomore quarterback LaNorris Sellers and sophomore edge rusher Dylan Stewart, but the key to the season will be how well the other players around those two stars develop.
Position of intrigue: Even with All-America defensive end Kyle Kennard headed to the NFL, South Carolina’s defensive front seven should again be stout. The Gamecocks finished in the top 20 nationally in scoring defense, yards per play and rushing defense. Stewart’s ability to get to the passer will be a major part of the 2025 defense, but Bryan Thomas Jr. also had 4.5 sacks last season. Transfers Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy at tackle (Texas A&M), Jaylen Brown at end (Missouri) and Justin Okoronkwo (Alabama) and Shawn Murphy (Florida State) at linebacker are on their way.
Player to watch: Being able to run the ball last season made a huge difference for South Carolina, and Sellers was a big part of that running game. But with Rocket Sanders gone, the Gamecocks needed a go-to running back, which is where Utah State transfer Rahsul Faison fits in. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Faison rushed for 1,109 yards and averaged 5.6 yards per carry last season. — Low
2024 record: 11-3
Spring storyline: The Vols have knocked down several barriers under Josh Heupel. They’ve beaten Alabama twice and Florida twice in the past three seasons and made their first playoff appearance a year ago. The defense was the backbone of Tennessee’s run to the playoff, and several key pieces from that unit are gone and need to be replaced. Keeping defensive coordinator Tim Banks was a priority for Heupel. One of the big challenges for the Vols in Year 5 under Heupel will be playing better on the road, particularly in night games in hostile environments.
Position of intrigue: The young talent in Tennessee’s secondary is promising, and keeping safety Boo Carter from transferring was important. Carter may also play some offense in 2025. But at cornerback, it could be dicey. Jermod McCoy had an All-SEC season in 2024 after transferring from Oregon State. He tore his ACL in January, though, and is working toward getting back in time for the season open. And just recently, reports surfaced that the Vols’ other starting cornerback, Rickey Gibson III, plans to enter the spring transfer portal. If Gibson doesn’t change his mind, the Vols will be looking hard in the portal for cornerbacks.
Player to watch: Nico Iamaleava has been the most closely watched player at Tennessee since his first season in 2023 when he arrived with a reported $8 million NIL deal. Now in his third season on campus and second as starting quarterback, Iamaleava would seem poised to have a breakout year. He was solid a year ago in leading the Vols to the playoff. He needs to provide more firepower in the downfield passing game if they’re going to get back to the playoff in 2025. — Low
2024 record: 13-3
Spring storyline: It’s Arch Manning time on the Forty Acres, as the youngest of the First Family of Quarterbacks takes over for Quinn Ewers as QB1 for the Longhorns. Manning has as much upside as any quarterback in the country, but he has only started in two games. This spring gives the Longhorns the chance to fully incorporate him into the offense and build the offense around what he does best. Manning should be used to the glare of the spotlight, and it will only get brighter the rest of the way, but his exposure will be limited this spring because the Longhorns won’t be playing a spring game.
Position of intrigue: Texas’ offensive line will have a new look to it in 2025, but that doesn’t mean the Longhorns will be lacking in talent. They’ve recruited well up front, and even though senior guard DJ Campbell is the only returning starter, there’s still some experience. Senior guard Cole Hutson has played and is versatile enough to slide over to center. Former five-star recruit Brandon Baker is probably the favorite at left tackle, and the Longhorns were excited about what they saw from Trevor Goosby when he was forced into action at both left and right tackle last year in the postseason.
Player to watch: The Longhorns will be loaded with talent at the edge rusher positions, and sophomore Colin Simmons has a chance to be one of most dynamic defenders in the country after racking up nine sacks and forcing three fumbles last season as a true freshman. There are very few ready-made players when they step onto campus for the first time. Simmons was one of those players. — Low
2024 record: 8-5
Spring storyline: Last impressions always seem to count for more in college football, and Texas A&M in its first season under Mike Elko lost four of its last five games a year ago. It was a disappointing close to the season after the Aggies won seven straight heading into November and were seemingly in position to make a playoff run. Look for Elko to take on a heavier role on defense. He wasn’t pleased with the way the Aggies played down the stretch a year ago and brought in several newcomers on the defensive line, which is losing three of its top players to the NFL.
Position of intrigue: The Aggies are set to return all five starters in their offensive line, a unit that could use a boost from the running backs staying healthy this season. Despite knee injuries to both Rueben Owens and Le’Veon Moss last season, Texas A&M still finished second in the SEC in rushing with an average of 195.5 yards per game. Owens didn’t play until the last two games of the season after being injured in preseason camp, and Moss missed the last month of the season. Amari Daniels also returns at running back, meaning the Aggies’ running game could flourish in 2025.
Player to watch: This will be Marcel Reed‘s third year on campus, and the redshirt sophomore is Texas A&M’s future at quarterback. He had his ups and downs a year ago after shuffling between backup and starter, but played big on some big stages. Reed has said he wants to be more of a leader on this team, which makes this spring even more important for him. — Low
2024 record: 7-6
Spring storyline: There’s a reason the coaches voted Clark Lea SEC Coach of the Year last season. He led the Commodores to their best season (7-6) in more than a decade, took them to their first bowl game since 2018 and beat No. 1 Alabama for the first time since 1984, all this coming off a 2-10 season in 2023. The challenge now is building off such a solid season, creating more depth on the roster and continuing to develop players, which has been Lea’s strength. Some of the best news is that most of the key players are back, and there should be good carry-over with Lea calling defensive plays for the second straight year.
Position of intrigue: With Diego Pavia back at quarterback, he’ll also have his favorite receiving target back. Eli Stowers, an All-SEC selection at tight end a year ago and the Commodores’ top receiver, bypassed the NFL draft to return for another season in Nashville. Stowers will need some pass-catching help on the outside from receivers. It’s a big opportunity for Junior Sherrill to have a breakthrough season, while Trent Hudson reunites with Pavia after spending last season at Mississippi State. Hudson and Pavia played together at New Mexico State in 2023, and Hudson had 10 touchdowns.
Player to watch: Who else but Pavia, who sparked Vanderbilt’s revival last season and electrified the SEC with his fearless play at quarterback. He gets another shot at SEC defenses after passing for 2,293 yards and rushing for 801 yards last season. Pavia, who’s seemingly never out of a play, accounted for 28 touchdowns (20 passing and eight rushing). — Low
Sports
Passan: Two major league teams, two minor league ballparks — and what it says about the sport
THE SLOW, PROTRACTED death of the Oakland A’s played out over two decades, offering a fresh blueprint of how to torpedo a professional sports franchise. The slow, protracted march of the Tampa Bay Rays toward a similar outcome is playing out in real time. And both serve as warnings to the rest of the sport that when it comes to the pursuit of new stadiums, major league dreams can end up in minor league parks.
The A’s quest to secure a new stadium in the Bay Area repeatedly ended in failure. They eventually gave up and pivoted their attention to Las Vegas, where they plan to move for the 2028 season. In the meantime, they are asking to be called, simply, the A’s, even though they’ll spend the next three years squatting in West Sacramento, California.
While the destruction of Tropicana Field’s roof in October by Hurricane Milton forced the Rays to seek refuge for 2025 at a minor league stadium across the bay in Tampa, Florida, many of the same issues — chief among them a relationship with local politicians drowned by distrust — have left the Rays with a deal for a new stadium they could abandon any day and a future defined by its uncertainty.
For now, the teams find themselves in the same purgatory, caught between the stadiums they yearned to desert and the gleaming, billion-dollar palaces about which they fantasize. The A’s and Rays will spend the 2025 season playing in minor league ballparks about one-third the size of a standard Major League Baseball stadium.
Earlier this spring, commissioner Rob Manfred called the minor league parks “intimate” and “charming,” real estate euphemisms instantly recognizable to anyone who has looked at too-small houses and apartments. It’s not just the size of the ballparks, either. Temperatures in Sacramento regularly climb into the triple digits in the summer, and Sutter Health Park lacks the roof of big league parks in other scorching cities. In lieu of playing at the Trop, the Rays will spend 2025 at the open-air Steinbrenner Field and contend with summer rains that threaten to destabilize their schedule.
The A’s and Rays are cautionary tales of what happens when big, complicated challenges are met with half-measures and inaction — and reminders to teams with unsettled stadium issues in places like Chicago and Kansas City, Missouri, that the longer they take to reach resolution, the messier these situations get. With every city council meeting that ends with no deal, every local voting result that kicks the can down the road to the next election, every ballpark rendering torn up before a shovel ever enters the dirt, the likelihood of best-laid plans being replaced by worst-case scenarios multiplies.
For the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals — two teams angling for public money to help finance new stadiums — there are countless lessons to learn about the fragility of deals and their capacity to go sideways. Already there has been resistance to the White Sox’s request of $1 billion to help build a new stadium in the South Loop, and voters in Kansas City last year rejected a sales-tax extension that would have helped fund a downtown ballpark. Public cynicism over using tax dollars to fund billionaire owners’ real estate plays has made turning visions of a new stadium into reality that much more difficult and the ramifications of letting a potentially volatile situation decay that much greater.
The upshot of stadium volatility goes beyond the teams and extends to the league. While Manfred has said he wants the league to expand from 30 to 32 teams before his planned retirement in January 2029, the instability of the A’s and Rays has prompted MLB to pause laying out any expansion timeline.
For all the good in the game in Manfred’s time as commissioner — the generation of notable stars, the success of the pitch clock, the excellent early returns on the automated ball-strike challenge system — the sight of two big league teams existing in small stadiums is rich with subtext. And with a labor negotiation expected to threaten games in 2027, a widespread dissatisfaction among fans about MLB’s competitive balance and a local-television landscape in need of overhaul, the challenges in Manfred’s final four years as commissioner go well beyond the perception that comes with shrunken stadiums.
Teams have weathered minor league ballparks before. The Toronto Blue Jays called Buffalo, New York, home in the 2020 and 2021 seasons because of COVID restrictions. The Montreal Expos spent about a quarter of their games in 2003 and 2004 in Puerto Rico before moving to Washington, D.C. The A’s played six games in Las Vegas in 1996 because of unfinished renovations at the Coliseum. Never, though, have two teams simultaneously endeavored to make big league ball work without big league stadiums. When the Rays and A’s play their home openers in temporary residences later this month, it will mark uncharted territory for the sport.
FROM THE PERCH of I-175 just south of downtown St. Petersburg, Tropicana Field looks like a relic, a building whose inevitable fate is condemnation. Milton shredded 18 of the 24 fiberglass panels that comprised the structure’s roof, and the beams that once supported them jut into the city’s skyline. The Trop opened in 1990, and the hallmarks of its antiquity remain, highlighted by the lettering spelling out TROPICANA FIELD in Hobo typeface on the side of the stadium: a bygone font for a bygone edifice.
Three months before Milton and Hurricane Helene devastated the Tampa Bay area, the Rays finally believed that after 17 years of searching for a new stadium, they had found their future home: right where they’d been all along. On July 31, Rays officials and a group of local luminaries — including St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch — gathered to announce a deal for a new $1.3 billion stadium on the same site as the Trop.
The franchise would finally have a home befitting of a club that has won more games than any team except the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees since that search began in 2008. Between the gleaming 30,000-seat stadium and the mixed-use development around the ballpark, the team would mimic the approach of the Atlanta Braves: leveraging baseball into a financial windfall from ownership of the surrounding land and businesses.
Optimism gushed from a news conference in which the parties celebrated a deal that would complement the Rays’ $700 million investment with $600 million in public funds for a stadium to open by 2028. All of the failed efforts — the $450 million waterfront plan in St. Petersburg hatched in 2007, the $900 million stadium in Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood that held up for barely a month in 2018, the ill-fated efforts to spend half the season in Tampa and the other half in Montreal — were moot.
“We know the baseball team is going to be here,” Rays president Matt Silverman said that day, “and it’s going to be here forever.”
Forever didn’t even last a year. Today, the stadium is on the precipice of falling apart. The Rays have until March 31 to offer proof of their $700 million or abandon the deal. The latter would send the franchise into the sort of limbo not even the A’s have faced. Following a delay in approving bonds and a subsequent public fight with county politicians, the Rays said the stadium’s cost had increased significantly and requested additional public money to bridge the funding gap. Welch, the mayor who has been the foremost proponent of keeping the team in St. Petersburg, has said if the deal falls apart, the city will not revisit another. If that happens, there is no clear path to a stadium being built in Tampa. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg could sell the team. But Manfred has been vociferous in saying he does not want MLB to abandon the Tampa Bay area, even if the status quo is untenable.
Compounding the lack of clarity is the state of the Trop. The city’s agreement with the Rays calls for it to replace the stadium’s roof. Repairs are estimated to cost more than $50 million. The city said work could be done in time for the 2026 season, a notion the Rays contested before reversing course. Already the team’s deal with the city for the Trop has been altered because of a clause that extends the contract by a year for every season the team doesn’t play at the stadium. If it is not repaired by 2026, the agreement could run through 2029.
The specter of further ugliness — litigation if the team walks away from the deal and the potential slowdown of Tropicana Field repairs — leave the Rays a literal team without a home. Their executives are working out of rented office space in St. Petersburg. The Yankees retrofitting Steinbrenner Field for an AL East rival and moving their Single-A team, the Tampa Tarpons, to the complex’s backfields is a one-year-only favor. Rays players, already on alert due to the team’s propensity to trade those nearing free agency, wonder aloud what the lack of a home for 2026 and beyond means for their future.
With no obvious solution, multiple prominent Tampa-area businesspeople have started to put together ownership groups intent on attempting to buy the team, though no deal is close, sources told ESPN. The groups’ belief, according to sources, is that Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, would be more amenable to offering public funding for a new stadium to a local ownership group. (Sternberg lives on the outskirts of New York City.) The 2025 season could serve as a proof of concept, with the Rays expecting to pack the 11,026-seat stadium far more often than they did the Trop, which typically holds games with more of its 42,735 seats empty than filled.
“If not for Steinbrenner Field and the Yankees, I don’t know what we would have done,” Silverman told ESPN. “The quick yes from Hal Steinbrenner gave us peace of mind when we really needed it. I think there’s real excitement for outdoor baseball in Tampa. The whole region is talking about it.”
Tampa, long regarded as a better fit to draw fans in the Tampa Bay area, will see 42 of the team’s first 65 games at home (a schedule stacking intended to avoid July and August, when rain regularly pelts the city). But it’s tempered by the potential for the team’s exodus from the region. In addition to a possible local ownership transfer, multiple groups weighing expansion bids have entertained the possibility of trying to buy the Rays from Sternberg, sources said. Doing so would allow a group to purchase a major league franchise for less than the expansion fee that Manfred estimated in 2021 at $2.2 billion. At the same time, it would require approval from MLB owners, a scenario fraught with potential peril on account of Manfred’s dictate to keep baseball in the Tampa Bay area.
For all the hope that the coming weeks and months will offer a well-defined path for the Rays to follow, it’s never that easy. One need only look at the tortuous journey of the A’s to see why.
IN EARLY JANUARY, A’s manager Mark Kotsay and four of the team’s core players trekked to Sacramento for a look at their future home. They scarfed down a five-course meal at a local restaurant, visited a local coffee shop, meandered around a park, took in a double-overtime win by their NBA brethren Kings and toured Sutter Health Park to see firsthand how their next three years would look.
While at the Kings game, one of the players, designated hitter Brent Rooker, finalized a five-year, $60 million contract extension, the third-largest deal ever given out by the A’s. The confluence of the visit and Rooker’s signing was the latest sign that the not-Oakland A’s planned to operate differently than the team that had caused such consternation with its abandonment of Oakland.
In the near-quarter-century since the A’s first looked to move from a decaying Oakland stadium whose disrepair regularly made national news, the combination of miserly ownership and politicians unwilling to meet the team’s demands led to what was once unthinkable: the A’s following the Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas. The A’s final season in Oakland had a funereal air, with fans alternating between celebrating the rich history of the team’s half-century in the city and regaling owner John Fisher with expletives and boos over his handling of MLB’s first franchise relocation since the Montreal Expos absconded to D.C. in 2005.
Extending Rooker and handing the largest contract in franchise history to free agent right-hander Luis Severino — a three-year, $67 million deal that helped fulfill the team’s need to guarantee revenue-sharing money through increased spending — signaled a shift toward normalcy for an organization that had brought the plot of “Major League” to life, only without the happy ending. After the A’s agreed to a stadium deal in Las Vegas in 2023 amid simultaneous negotiations with Oakland — whose mayor, Sheng Thao, was later indicted on unrelated federal bribery and conspiracy charges — they focused on Sacramento, home of the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, as a temporary stopgap.
Rather than agree to a $97 million extension fee that would have allowed the A’s to stay at the Coliseum before moving to Las Vegas, they opted for Sacramento, which allowed the team to keep the majority of its $67 million-a-year local television contract. The A’s have sold 6,500 season tickets — including a three-year commitment for premium tickets — and expect to have plenty of sellouts in a stadium with 10,624 seats and a capacity of 14,014, including a standing-room option on the grass berms in left and right field.
Still, there are constant reminders that Sutter Health Park is a minor league ballpark cosplaying a major league stadium. MLB and the MLB Players Association mandated improvements throughout the park, including upgraded clubhouses, lighting, trainer’s rooms, weight rooms, a new batter’s eye and the installation of a grass field. Beyond the playing surface, the ballpark has features that wouldn’t normally fly in the majors, such as the clubhouses, batting cages and weight rooms — places where players often spend time during the game — being located past the outfield walls instead of attached to the dugout.
Even so, the A’s are focused on being adaptable to their new home. Kotsay, who spent four of his 17 big league seasons with the A’s and is entering his fourth season as manager, grew to love the Coliseum in spite of its flaws and hopes to do the same in Sacramento.
“Whether it was 3,000 or 7,000 in a midweek game, the energy was still great,” Kotsay said. “That’s the one thing that I can honestly say I’ll miss, because even though there may not have been a lot of fans in the stands, the passion that they brought for us through the years was incredible. But I’m excited about Sacramento. I don’t know really what to expect. I do know that we’ve sold the place out and that energy in itself will be awesome to witness.”
With the contract extension securing his future, Rooker bought a house in Sacramento. In his three years at Mississippi State, Rooker played at the Bulldogs’ Dudy Noble Stadium and LSU’s Alex Box Stadium and Arkansas’ Baum-Walker Stadium, all with capacities between 10,000 and 15,000, and lauded them for their atmosphere. It’s an environment he hopes the A’s — whose young core could keep them in contention in a wide-open American League West division — experience at their new home.
“It’s going to be obviously a unique environment, a different environment than we’re used to playing Major League Baseball games in,” Rooker said. “But we think it’s going to be people who are excited to be there and are there to support a new team … so, we’re looking forward to it.”
GROUND STILL HASN’T been broken on the A’s new stadium in Las Vegas, and if there’s a lesson to be taken from their trials and travails as well as the Rays’, it’s that nothing is done until shovels hit the dirt. Manfred said Fisher told him the stadium — whose cost has ballooned from $1.5 billion to $1.75 billion, with $380 million coming from the state of Nevada — is still scheduled to open in 2028.
Skepticism about the project persists. The nine-acre plot on the former site of the Tropicana hotel would be the smallest footprint for any major league stadium. Renderings of the stadium are missing a bullpen for the visiting team. The A’s intend to offer around 2,500 parking spaces — one-third of what Clark County code mandates, with one space for every four seats in the planned 30,000-seat stadium.
Flaws and all, the team is surging forward and expects to start construction over the summer on a futuristic-looking building that plans to feature seats closer to the field than any other MLB stadium. Not only would a groundbreaking constitute a triumph for Fisher’s maligned ownership, but it would also serve notice to other owners that the appeal of baseball remains strong enough to close a stadium deal, regardless of the ruin in its wake. At the same time, the cost to do so is profound. The A’s attempt to secure a stadium is a case study in dysfunction. The Rays face years of ugliness ahead. The White Sox and Royals have already encountered roadblocks in their efforts.
Manfred remains undaunted, arguing that “the reality of today’s economics is that either building or renovating a stadium almost by definition has to be a public-private partnership.” The Diamondbacks found success in doing so. Last week, the Arizona House of Representatives passed a bill to divert $200 million in tax money to help a $500 million-plus renovation of Chase Field, where the Diamondbacks have a lease that runs out in 2027.
Other teams simply opted to stay where they are. The Los Angeles Angels, who play in the fourth-oldest ballpark in baseball, renewed their lease of Angel Stadium through 2032, with a pair of options that can extend it to 2038. The Angels had sought to buy the land surrounding the stadium to potentially build a new one, but an FBI investigation revealed Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu had funneled confidential information to the team in hopes of receiving $1 million in campaign contributions. He later pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and is awaiting sentencing.
Manfred’s predecessor, Bud Selig, reinvigorated baseball throughout the 1990s and 2000s by encouraging what became a stadium boom. Those days are over, with the lessons of Oakland and Tampa Bay reminding teams of the manifold land mines around which they must tiptoe.
In almost everything it does, MLB moves at a languid pace. With the pitch clock and ABS, this behooved the league. With the collapse of the regional-sports-network model that provided billions of dollars annually for teams’ local television rights, it left the league compromised. With new stadiums, it’s clear: The longer the idea of one festers without closure, the likelier it is to see something major devolve into minor.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 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
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway