Spring football games: Who wins QB battles, who’s out, others to watch
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ESPN staff
It’s that time of year when everyone’s undefeated, every team got stronger and faster, and the coaches are smiling.
That’s right, it’s time for spring games, when optimism reigns and we’re all happy to get a taste of college football before the transfer portal opens up again and reshapes all the rosters before fall practice.
This week brings one of the biggest slates of spring games and some of the biggest names. Some schools have already played, and more games will come next weekend (we’ll be back for those).
But here are the highlights of what to watch Saturday, when we can get our first glimpse of many of tomorrow’s stars.
ACC
2022 record: 3-9, 2-6 ACC
QB outlook: After three years with Phil Jurkovec at the helm, BC turns its offense over to Emmett Morehead. The third-year sophomore from California played heavily down the stretch for the Eagles last season, throwing nine touchdowns and five picks in November. It was good enough to earn the full support of head coach Jeff Hafley, who also elevated QB coach Steve Shimko to offensive coordinator.
Non-QB to watch: The Eagles’ biggest loss from last season is undoubtedly wide receiver Zay Flowers, who might soon be a first-round NFL draft pick. There are options to replace him, but none quite so game ready as UCF transfer Ryan O’Keefe, who finished last season with 73 catches for 725 yards and five TDs.
Notable injuries: Boston College was utterly derailed in 2022 because of its offensive line, which was among the worst in the country after losing all five starters from the previous year, including Christian Mahogany, who went down with injury last summer. Mahogany’s return has been slow going thus far, and BC isn’t interested in rushing him. Mahogany went through his first full practice on April 5, and he’ll likely play a few series in the spring game, but getting the O-line back to full strength in time for the fall is job No. 1. — David Hale
2022 record: 11-3, 8-0 ACC
QB outlook: Clemson coach Dabo Swinney made one of the biggest hires of the offseason with Garrett Riley as offensive coordinator, hoping he would be able to bring the most out of quarterback Cade Klubnik. Swinney calls the Riley offense “very quarterback friendly” and said it lines up with what Klubnik did in high school. “I just felt like with Garrett, that he was the voice, the energy and the confidence that we needed in the room,” Swinney said. “The timing was good. It’s been an easy transition.”
Non-QB to watch: DL Peter Woods, the top-rated defender in the 2023 recruiting class. The early enrollee from Alabaster, Alabama, has not disappointed this spring and should have an immediate impact this season. Last week, Swinney said this of Woods: “Smart, tough, loves to play, high character. Doesn’t really have any deficiencies other than he needs to go and get some game experience.”
Notable injuries: If there is one position group that remains a question because of injuries, it’s the wide receivers. Beaux Collins (shoulder) and Adam Randall (knee) are projected to either start or be significant contributors and they were either limited or did not participate this spring. Among the others sidelined: DE Xavier Thomas (foot), DT Ruke Orhorhoro (shoulder), OLs Walker Parks (ankle) and Marcus Tate (knee). — Andrea Adelson
2022 record: 10-3, 5-3 ACC
QB outlook: Jordan Travis is entrenched as the starter, so the Seminoles have spent some time this spring giving more work to backups Tate Rodemaker and A.J. Duffy. Both have played the majority of the first two scrimmages the Seminoles had in the spring. Coach Mike Norvell is still looking for more consistency from them in particular headed into the spring game.
Non-QB to watch: DE Patrick Payton. Payton won ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year honors last year, but defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said earlier this spring that Payton is the most improved player on the team. “Patrick is going to be a good athlete. He’s going to be a really smart football player,” Fuller said. “That’s what he is, and that’s what he was last year. But he had to develop physically, too, with strength and size. Now you’re seeing the physicality, and that’s critical because there are no great finesse defensive linemen.”
Notable injuries: WR Mycah Pittman, OL Robert Scott and CB Kevin Knowles II are among the key players out for the game. — Adelson
2022 record: 5-7, 4-4 ACC
QB outlook: The QB position proved to be a revolving door down the stretch in 2022 for the Yellow Jackets, with Jeff Sims going down with an injury and Zach Pyron, Zach Gibson and Taisun Phommachanh all receiving playing time in November. Sims and Phommachanh are gone now, and the starting job is a three-man race between Gibson, Pyron and former Texas A&M starter Haynes King. King likely has the most upside, and Georgia Tech fans would love to see him showcase his skill set in the spring game to lock down the job now.
Non-QB to watch: Georgia Tech said goodbye to its top three receivers from last year’s squad, which means transfers Abdul Janneh and Christian Leary have been at the forefront this spring. Leary was once a top recruit for Alabama, and he brings an impressive skill set that has yet to be truly refined. Janneh (6-3, 180 pounds) arrives from Duquesne and could become a true threat on the outside for the Yellow Jackets.
Notable injuries: Georgia Tech is in good shape healthwise, but just five members of the Yellow Jackets’ high school signing class enrolled early, meaning a significant chunk of Brent Key’s latest recruits won’t be around until the summer. That might show up most on the offensive line, where three of Tech’s recruits — Benjamin Galloway, Patrick Screws and Ethan Mackenny — didn’t enroll early. None would likely compete for starting jobs, but developing depth at a position that’s been a black hole the past few years is critical. — Hale
2022 record:5-7, 3-5 ACC
QB outlook: Tyler Van Dyke looks to bounce back after a disappointing 2022, and he has a new coordinator to help. Shannon Dawson is bringing a version of the offense that allowed Van Dyke to have a breakout freshman season in 2021, and so far Van Dyke has been happy with what he has seen. “It’s been good,” Van Dyke said earlier this spring. “There are a lot of different ways that he gets the plays, in the run game, the pass game, which is good.”
Non-QB to watch: OL Francis Mauigoa. It’s no secret Miami needs a major improvement on the offensive line, and the consensus five-star prospect has turned heads as an early enrollee in the spring. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound Mauigoa is already getting first-team reps at right tackle. Offensive line coach Alex Mirabal told local media, “He’s got like a sixth sense. He sees things that you as a coach don’t have to tell him. You know, and that’s a gift.”
Notable injuries: OL Zion Nelson, TE Elijah Arroyo and essentially the top returning defensive linemen in Leonard Taylor, Jared Harrison-Hunte, Akheem Mesidor and Jahfari Harvey. — Adelson
2022 record: 9-5, 6-2 ACC
QB outlook: Breaking news: Drake Maye is really good. If there’s one sure thing at North Carolina following last year’s trip to the ACC championship game, it’s that the Heels are in good shape at QB. The bigger question here is how Maye looks without Phil Longo calling the plays. Chip Lindsey takes over as the new OC, and maximizing Maye’s immense talent while not putting all the onus for UNC’s success on his shoulders will be a top priority.
Non-QB to watch: The North Carolina defense has been a train wreck for the past two years, with serious problems both up front and in the secondary. The back end of the D will have a ton of eyes on it during the spring game, too, after three of last year’s starters hit the transfer portal. Alijah Huzzie and Armani Chatman — two transfers who arrived this spring — will be at the forefront of the rebuilding effort.
Notable injuries: The bulk of North Carolina’s stars will be on the field for the spring game, but a few expected contributors will be out or in noncontact jerseys, including a few potential members of the secondary. Gio Biggers and Chatman have both been back at practice, but the Heels are being cautious with them. On offense, receiver J.J. Jones and tailbacks Caleb Hood and British Brooks will both be out for the game and aren’t likely to see serious work until the summer. — Hale
2022 record: 3-7, 1-6 ACC
QB outlook: With Brennan Armstrong off to NC State, Virginia has an open quarterback competition between two players: Monmouth transfer Tony Muskett and Jay Woolfolk, who is limited this spring because he’s the closer on the Virginia baseball team. Depth here is an obvious concern, and so is the experience level in general. Though Muskett has played and started on the FCS level, making the jump to Power 5 quarterback will require some patience.
Non-QB to watch: RB Mike Hollins. In perhaps the most remarkable story in college football this spring, Hollins has returned to practice after surviving a shooting that took the lives of teammates Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry. Hollins has been running with the first team and said earlier in the spring he feels an extra sense of motivation in carrying on the legacy of his teammates.
Notable injuries: Among the key players limited or out are DL Chico Bennett Jr., DT Aaron Faumui and S Jonas Sanker. — Adelson
2022 record: 3-8, 1-6
QB outlook: Virginia Tech brought in Baylor transfer Kyron Drones to challenge Grant Wells for the starting job, and at least through the first few weeks of practice, Wells appeared to be ahead. Wells has started more games to be sure, but he also was not nearly as effective as he needed to be during last year’s 3-9 season. So the hope continues to be for Drones to keep pushing and improving as he acclimates to a new school and system.
Non-QB to watch: RB Bhayshul Tuten. The Hokies added several skill players from the transfer portal to help their productivity, and while receiver Ali Jennings has received a lot of the attention among that group so far, Tuten has had a nice spring and has been a welcome addition to the running back room. Since 2016, Virginia Tech has had only one 1,000-yard rusher. Coach Brent Pry has praised Tuten for his “level of competition and play.”
Notable injuries: S Nyke Johnson and DE Ishmael Findlayter won’t play in the spring game. — Adelson
2022 record: 8-5, 3-5 ACC
QB outlook: Oh how Dave Clawson wishes he could stop talking about the QB position. Yes, Sam Hartman is gone after rewriting the ACC record book during his career at Wake Forest, but that doesn’t mean the Deacons don’t feel good about the position in 2023. Mitch Griffis takes over, and Clawson has lauded the veteran as a ready-made replacement. Wake fans got a look at Griffis in the opener last year when Hartman was out following surgery to repair a blood clot, but the spring game will put Griffis on the big stage for the first time as the Deacons’ clear-cut starter.
Non-QB to watch: Wake’s defense made strides last season under new coordinator Brad Lambert, and the Deacons return a good bit of talent at linebacker and in the secondary. Up front, however, there are real questions, particularly on the interior of the D-line. Jasheen Davis returns at end after a strong 2022, but beyond that, there are a lot of unanswered questions, and if the Deacons are going to take another step forward on that side of the ball, Lambert & Co. need to identify some impact talent along the line. Keep an eye on Villanova transfer Bryce Ganious along with freshman early enrollees Kerrington Lee, Chris Marable and Ka’Shawn Thomas.
Notable injuries: A handful of Wake starters, including tailback Justice Ellison and receiver Jahmal Banks, missed time this spring, but as the spring game approaches, the biggest names all are at close to full strength. How much they actually play during contact situations, however, remains a question given Clawson’s penchant for maximizing depth. — Hale
BIG TEN
2022 record: 5-7, 3-6 Big Ten
QB outlook: A year removed from throwing a program-record 27 touchdown passes in 2021, Payton Thorne‘s hold on the job is in some question this spring. Thorne (2,679 yards, 19 TDs in 2022), a redshirt senior with 26 career starts, will be battling redshirt freshman Katin Houser, a four-star signal-caller from the 2022 class, and redshirt junior Noah Kim (14-of-19 passing for 174 yards and three TDs in four games in 2022). Thorne, Houser or Kim will be looking to improve a unit that ranked ninth in the Big Ten in total offense (353.0 YPG) and eighth in points (24.4 PPG) last year.
Non-QB to watch: Nate Carter comes to East Lansing from UConn and will be asked to help jump-start a running game that averaged just 113 yards a game last year — 12th in the Big Ten. Carter, a redshirt sophomore, rushed for a combined 983 yards and three touchdowns in his two seasons with the Huskies. Carter hopes to form a potent one-two punch with redshirt junior Jalen Berger (683 yards, six TDs in 2022) as they attempt to take some load off the shoulders of whoever wins the quarterback competition.
Notable injuries: Darius Snow was expected to be one of the linchpins of the defense after racking up 87 tackles (61 solo) and 5.5 tackles for loss in 2021 as a nickelback and safety. Shifted to linebacker heading into last season, he sustained a knee injury in the season opener against Western Michigan that ended his season. Snow, the son of former Spartan and NBA player Eric and nephew of former Spartan and NFL linebacker Percy, will be instrumental in helping a defense that sorely missed him last fall — finishing 13th in the Big Ten in total defense (416.5 YPG). — Blake Baumgartner
2022 record: 11-2, 8-1 Big Ten
QB outlook: Kyle McCord and Devin Brown have competed throughout the spring to replace two-time Heisman Trophy finalist C.J. Stroud, but Brown won’t participate in the spring game after undergoing a procedure on a finger on his throwing hand. McCord, who also teamed with top wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. in high school, is seen as a slight favorite, but neither he nor Brown, ESPN’s No. 81 overall recruit in 2022, pulled away in practice. “It’d be nice to see one of them kind of separate,” coach Ryan Day said earlier this spring. The Buckeyes’ quarterback will be throwing to the nation’s deepest wide receiver group, but also will be playing behind a reworked offensive line and facing a seemingly energized defensive front applying more pressure.
Non-QB to watch: Nickel safety Cameron Martinez. Ohio State’s secondary clearly must improve after the struggles late last season, and Martinez has emerged this spring as a potential playmaker. The safeties loom large in coordinator Jim Knowles’ scheme, and Martinez’s versatility in coverage and as a run-stopper should help a group returning Lathan Ransom and others but needing more depth and reliability. Martinez has made several interceptions in practices and should look to punctuate his spring.
Notable injuries: Aside from quarterback candidate Brown missing the spring game, Ohio State had several starters or key contributors miss all of spring practice, including linebacker Tommy Eichenberg, wide receivers Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming, and running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Evan Pryor. Henderson dealt with a foot injury for much of last season. Starting linebacker Steele Chambers sustained a right leg injury during spring practice that will require surgery, and wide receiver/returner Xavier Johnson injured his left leg. Both are expected back for preseason camp. Without both Eichenberg and Chambers, Ohio State is rotating several players into the first-team linebacker roles. — Adam Rittenberg
2022 record: 11-2, 7-2 Big Ten
QB outlook: Coach James Franklin said Penn State is holding a genuine competition at quarterback, even though decorated 2022 recruit Drew Allar has long been projected as Sean Clifford’s successor. Allar and fellow second-year player Beau Pribula both have logged significant work this spring. Pribula didn’t see the field last season, while Allar, ESPN’s No. 2 pocket passer and No. 51 overall recruit in the 2022 class, had 344 passing yards and four touchdowns in 10 appearances. A scenario where Allar doesn’t start seems unlikely, but Pribula’s athletic ability gives him opportunities to see the field in other ways.
Non-QB to watch: Penn State will lean on KeAndre Lambert-Smith as its top receiver, but other options must emerge for an inexperienced quarterback. One will arrive this summer in Kent State transfer in Dante Cephas, and others will get their opportunity on the spring game stage, including third-year Harrison Wallace III, Florida State transfer Malik McClain and sophomore Omari Evans. Wallace averaged 14.4 yards per catch in limited work last year, while McClain is a big target at 6-4 who started games in each of the past two seasons. The speedy Evans has generated good reviews this spring.
Notable injuries: Franklin doesn’t discuss injuries, but Penn State is mostly healthy. He said defensive tackle Coziah Izzard and tight ends Theo Johnson and Tyler Warren both entered the spring with “bumps and bruises,” so they could be limited or unavailable for the Blue-White Game. The tight end situation likely will increase opportunities for sophomore Khalil Dinkins and Penn State’s other reserves. — Rittenberg
BIG 12
2022 record: 9-5, 6-2 AAC
QB outlook: John Rhys Plumlee is the incumbent, but his spring has looked a little different from those of most quarterbacks. Plumlee has split his time with the baseball team, where he is the starting center fielder. Despite his added responsibilities, Plumlee had not missed any practice time with the football team in the spring.
Non-QB to watch: DT John Walker. The highest-rated recruit in UCF history, the four-star prospect enrolled early and participated in bowl practices. His growth in the spring has been noticeable, according to coaches and teammates, and he is expected to play — possibly start — right away.
Notable injuries: None. — Adelson
2022 record: 9-4, 6-2 AAC
QB outlook: Ben Bryant, who went 9-2 as the starter last season, throwing for 2,723 yards and 21 TDs before a season-ending injury, is back for a sixth season. But the Bearcats also added former Florida and Arizona State starter Emory Jones. Evan Prater, who completed 22 of 58 attempts for 312 yards in three games after Bryant’s injury last year, returns but is out with an injury and won’t play Saturday.
Non-QB to watch: Everything will be new with Scott Satterfield taking over for Luke Fickell, with Satterfield saying he just wants to let the players play and get everyone reps in this game without the coaches getting in the way. One big key for the season is Dontay Corleone, a 6-2, 230-pound defensive tackle who is a preseason All-America candidate after bursting onto the scene as a redshirt freshman, racking up 45 tackles, 5.5 TFLs, 3 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries and 2 forced fumbles in 2022.
Notable injuries: Aside from Prater, TE Joey Beljan, a Western Kentucky transfer, is out, along with OL Luke Kandra, a transfer from Louisville who appeared in 21 games the past two seasons. Satterfield said Tuesday he expects eight to 10 players to be out for the game. — Dave Wilson
2022 record: 10-4, 7-2 Big 12
QB outlook: Will Howard returns after helping lead the Wildcats to a Big 12 title last season, including starts in the conference championship game over TCU and the Sugar Bowl against Alabama. He’s listed at 6-5, 242 on the spring roster and could be the league’s preseason first-team QB when the media votes.
Non-QB to watch: There are a lot of holes to replace on defense, notably on the defensive line where the Wildcats lost Felix Anudike-Uzomah, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. They also lost starting nose tackle Eli Huggins. With an inexperienced secondary, finding the pieces up front to replace them will be key. K-State added junior DT Jevon Banks from Mississippi State this offseason to help.
Notable injuries: DJ Giddens, the favorite to replace all-everything RB Deuce Vaughn, is out for the spring, as is Treshaun Ward, the splashy transfer RB Kansas State landed from Florida State. Some of the younger backs will get time to shine, but the real competition will be in the fall. Tight end Ben Sinnott also is out. — Wilson
2022 record: 13-2, 9-0 Big 12
QB outlook: Chandler Morris, who signed with Oklahoma out of high school before transferring back to TCU, has had an interesting career with the Horned Frogs. He started one game in place of the injured Max Duggan in 2021 and looked like a superstar in an upset of eventual Big 12 champ Baylor when he had 531 yards of offense, second best in school history. Then he won the job over Duggan last year but was injured in the opener and watched as Duggan became a Heisman finalist. If Morris can stay healthy, he should put up big numbers in new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles’ offense.
Non-QB to watch: The receiver position got a major overhaul this offseason with JoJo Earle arriving from Alabama and John Paul Richardson coming in from Oklahoma State. Returners like junior Savion Williams, who’s in line to fill Quentin Johnston‘s position as he heads off to the NFL, will get lots of work, along with redshirt freshman Major Everhart, who has 10.38 speed in the 100.
Notable injuries: A couple of other anticipated wide receivers, Jack Bech (LSU transfer) and Jaylon Robinson (Ole Miss transfer) are both out this season recovering from injuries. — Wilson
2022 record: 8-5, 6-3 Big 12
QB outlook: Quinn Ewers is back for Year 2 and has skill-position talent all around him. It’s his job to lose, but the most famous freshman in the country, Arch Manning, will be the source of much spring game curiosity.
Non-QB to watch: With Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson preparing for the NFL draft, there is a good chance there won’t be much clarity on the future of the running back rotation from this game, with both Jonathon Brooks and Keilan Robinson, the top two returners from last year, nursing injuries and likely seeing limited action. Freshman CJ Baxter and sophomore Jaydon Blue have both gotten plenty of reps in the spring and will get an opportunity to make an impression.
Notable injuries: Safety Jalen Catalon, a transfer from Arkansas who’s in the mix for a starting job, won’t play and is still rebounding from a season-ending shoulder injury last year. Sophomore DJ Campbell, an offensive lineman who appeared in seven games last year, will also be out, coach Steve Sarkisian said Tuesday. — Wilson
PAC-12
2022 record: 5-7, 3-6 Pac-12
QB outlook: After throwing for 3,685 yards and 25 touchdowns — and helping the Wildcats to improve from 124th to 48th in scoring offense — in his first season after transferring from Washington State, Jayden de Laura enters Year 2 with far better familiarity in head coach Jedd Fisch’s system. He’ll have his go-to guy, deep-threat receiver Jacob Cowing, back as well.
Non-QB to watch: Take your pick on defense. The Wildcats have been dismal for a while on that side of the ball, and second-year coordinator Johnny Nansen is looking at massive turnover as well. Of the 12 defenders with at least 300 snaps, only three return. Transfers Justin Flowe (Oregon linebacker) and Bill Norton (Georgia tackle) have been asked to provide immediate leadership.
Notable injuries: The most notable injury happened in the fall and might benefit the Wildcats in 2023. Left tackle Jordan Morgan allowed only two sacks in 10 games but injured his knee in November, which prevented him from declaring for the NFL draft. If he’s good to go this fall, de Laura’s supporting cast becomes a lot more proven. — Bill Connelly
2022 record: 3-9, 2- Pac-12
QB outlook: With last year’s leading passer, Emory Jones, transferring to Cincinnati, Kenny Dillingham’s first spring as head coach features quite the QB battle between Notre Dame transfer Drew Pyne, blue-chip freshman Jaden Rashada and Trenton Bourguet, who took over late in 2022 and threw for at least 349 yards in three of ASU’s final five games.
Non-QB to watch: There are lots of jobs up for grabs on the ASU defense, and Dillingham hit the transfer portal about as hard as anyone when it comes to filling them. Edge rusher and former top-100 recruit Clayton Smith, a sophomore transfer from Oklahoma, has made an early impression in Tempe and could stand out Saturday.
Notable injuries: With LaDarius Henderson transferring to Michigan, Cal transfer Ben Coleman, honorable mention all-conference in 2021, was a leading candidate to take over at left guard in 2023. But a late-March injury will potentially keep him out until well into the fall. The O-line underwhelmed last season and appears awfully thin this spring. — Connelly
2022 record: 4-8, 2-7 Pac-12
QB outlook: In two years at TCU, Sam Jackson saw minimal playing time in a backup role before opting for the transfer portal, eventually landing in Berkeley. His arrival comes at a pivotal time as the Bears attempt to reinvent their offensive identity, shifting back to more of a spread approach under new OC Jake Spavital.
Non-QB to watch: One bright spot last season was the emergence of freshman running back Jaydn Ott, who ran for 897 yards and eight touchdowns. He was already one of the better running backs in the Pac-12 last season and has the potential to receive more national recognition this season if he can build off his promising start.
Notable injuries: Brett Johnson‘s long road back from injury appears to be coming to an end. After missing the past two seasons — for separate injuries — the standout defensive lineman is expected to be ready for the start of the season. — Kyle Bonagura
2022 record: 11-3, 8-1 Pac-12
QB outlook: You could say the QB situation is pretty decent. Junior Caleb Williams returns after throwing for 4,537 yards and 42 touchdowns and winning the Heisman in his first season out west. There’s certainly some spring intrigue with the backup QB role — how is blue-chip freshman Malachi Nelson progressing? will he top last year’s backup Miller Moss? — but the starter is quite obviously set.
Non-QB to watch: USC’s defense was abjectly awful in 2022, and the run front was a big reason for that. Adding 300-pound transfers Kyon Barrs (Arizona) and Anthony Lucas (Texas A&M) was a major step in rectifying that, and with sacks leader Tuli Tuipulotu gone, other transfers like Jack Sullivan (Purdue) and Jamil Muhammad (Georgia State) could be integral as well.
Notable injuries: The good news is no one has suffered any key, long-term injuries this spring. The bad news is a number of nagging injuries have resulted in head coach Lincoln Riley having to shuffle the practice schedule around a bit. “Too many nicks,” he told local media. — Connelly
SEC
2022 record: 7-6, 3-5 SEC
QB outlook: KJ Jefferson is the established fifth-year senior starter for the Razorbacks, and at this point, we know what we’re getting out of one of the better quarterbacks in the conference. If anything, seeing how new offensive coordinator Dan Enos changes anything will be the surprise.
Non-QB to watch: Missouri transfer Trajan Jeffcoat, who comes over after starting the past three seasons. Coach Sam Pittman has expressed praise for Jeffcoat, who should be a promising addition to an Arkansas team that led the SEC in sacks last season.
Notable injuries: Players who won’t be around until the summer include RB Dominique Johnson, DB Alfahiym Walcott and OL Luke Brown. — Harry Lyles Jr.
2022 record: 6-7, 3-5 SEC
QB outlook: Anthony Richardson and his out-of-this-world talent are gone. And, after going after some bigger names in the transfer portal, Florida landed on Graham Mertz — a veteran who could still have some upside left in him. The former No. 1 QB prospect in the class of 2019, Mertz started 32 games at Wisconsin, totaling 5,405 passing yards, 38 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
Non-QB to watch: Keep an eye on pretty much the entire offensive line, where four starters are gone, including standout O’Cyrus Torrence. Austin Barber, a frequent contributor off the bench last season, could slide in at left tackle. Former Alabama transfer Damieon George could play opposite him at right tackle. The good news is center Kingsley Eguakun and his 26 consecutive starts return.
Notable injuries: Tight end Keon Zipperer could be out for a while after suffering a knee injury last month. The 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior, who caught 13 passes last season, indicated in a Facebook post he could miss the entire season, writing, “2024 shake back year.” — Alex Scarborough
2022 record: 15-0, 8-0 SEC
QB outlook: There is a full evaluation going on between quarterbacks Brock Vandagriff and Carson Beck. Coach Kirby Smart told reporters last week, “I don’t put a lot of pressure on offensive identity in the spring. We got to figure out who the quarterback is, who the guys that get the ball are, who the guys that without the ball in their hand are valuable.”
Non-QB to watch: The receivers room. The Bulldogs will need a sturdy receiving corps with a new quarterback, and Smart acknowledged with two transfers and three midyear receivers, “That’s five people that are basically trying to learn a new language, and it is a new language.”
Notable injuries: Marvin Jones Jr., Joshua Miller, Dan Jackson, Andrew Paul and Jalon Walker are all out. — Lyles
2022 record: 9-4, 4-4 SEC
QB outlook: If Will Rogers isn’t the best quarterback in the conference — and we’re not saying he isn’t — then he’s certainly the most accomplished. He has started 33 games and is already the SEC career completions leader (1,159) and has school records for career passing yards (10,689) and passing touchdowns (82). The only question facing Rogers and the State passing game is how they adjust to a new system under OC Kevin Barbay, who spreads the field but doesn’t run the pure Air Raid that Mike Leach did.
Non-QB to watch: Let’s double-dip and spotlight a pair of transfers in Geor’Quarius Spivey and Ryland Goede. Why are they notable? Well, a few months ago they were competing for the national championship — Spivey with TCU and Goede with Georgia. But what’s most compelling is the position they play: tight end. Under Leach, the position was nonexistent. Without any pure tight ends on the roster, Barbay had to go out and find them on his own.
Notable injuries: The good news is State returns a fairly veteran offensive line. The bad news is Kameron Jones, who started 12 games last year, has been out all spring recovering from offseason surgery. — Scarborough
2022 record: 8-5, 4-4 SEC
QB outlook: The Rebs appeared to be in pretty good shape at quarterback with Jaxson Dart returning after the former USC transfer threw for 2,900 yards last season. But Lane Kiffin wasn’t satisfied with the depth at the position. When Luke Altmyer left, Kiffin went out and signed Spencer Sanders, a former All-Big 12 selection at Oklahoma State, and Walker Howard, a former four-star prospect from LSU.
Non-QB to watch: The tight end position didn’t offer much for Ole Miss last season. Michael Trigg, the highly touted former USC transfer, appeared in only seven games after suffering an injury. So, adding to the competition, Kiffin signed former Memphis starter and John Mackey Award semifinalist Caden Prieskorn. He has the size and blocking ability to be a difference-maker and play well off Trigg, should Kiffin choose to utilize more two-tight end sets.
Notable injuries: A shoulder injury late in the season hampered Sanders during offseason conditioning and limited him early on in spring practice. He eventually worked up to being a full participant during a recent scrimmage, but that delay might cause coaches to hold off on any bold proclamations about the quarterbacks until fall practice, when everyone is healthy. — Scarborough
2022 record: 8-5, 4-4 SEC
QB outlook: Spencer Rattler is the man in Columbia; the only question is, can his play and confidence carry over from the end of 2022? In the Gamecocks’ final three games, Rattler completed 69% of his passes for 1,044 yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions.
Non-QB to watch: The edge has been something Shane Beamer has emphasized since the end of last season, particularly the depth. Donovan Westmoreland, Desmond Umeozulu, Bryan Thomas, Terrell Dawkins and Tyreek Johnson are all players to watch here.
Notable injuries: DL Tonka Hemingway, OT Cason Henry, LB Mo Kaba and EDGE Jordan Strachan will likely miss the entirety of the spring, while CB Marcellas Dial, nickel Keenan Nelson Jr. and safety Peyton Williams have dealt with other injuries and have missed a portion of practice. — Lyles
2022 record: 11-2, 6-2 SEC
QB outlook: From the praise coming out of Knoxville this spring, it feels like Joe Milton is the favorite to be the starter going into next season. However, there’s understandable hype around freshman Nico Iamaleava, who comes in as the 23rd player in the ESPN 300 and the fourth-ranked quarterback.
Non-QB to watch: Offensive lineman Cooper Mays. He has spoken this spring about being the head of the room and has been actively working to get better at it. Look for him to show leadership qualities in the small sample we get.
Notable injuries: The Vols have a handful of injuries all over the place, but most notably among running backs. Running backs coach Jerry Mack mentioned that because Jaylen Wright hasn’t been able to practice as much, other players are getting reps. — Lyles
2022 record: 5-7, 2-6 SEC
QB outlook: Sophomore Conner Weigman was thrust into the starting job last year and looks to be the future for the Aggies, with all the tools to be a star in new coordinator Bobby Petrino’s offense. But Max Johnson, who started 14 games at LSU before transferring to A&M before last season, also is in the mix and went 2-1 as a starter last year with wins over Arkansas and Miami before suffering a season-ending injury.
Non-QB to watch: Jimbo Fisher hasn’t entertained much discussion of how playcalling and the offense will look with Petrino on board. After the Aggies ranked 101st nationally in scoring offense last season (22.8 PPG), 93rd in total offense (360.9), and 99th in third-down conversions (35%), any chance to see what the new-look offense has in store will be dissected. But the big plays will have to wait. The Aggies are playing with only half the field due to stadium construction.
Notable injuries: Star wide receiver Evan Stewart reportedly returned to practice this week after wearing a boot on his foot and missing some spring practices. Offensive linemen Bryce Foster, Trey Zuhn, Hunter Erb, along with TE Max Wright and DB Deuce Harmon, have all been out or limited this spring and center Matthew Wykoff just said this week he’ll be entering the transfer portal. — Wilson
THE WORLD IS loud and fast and demanding, and to combat this, Paul Skenes forages for silence. He relishes the moments where the chaos gives way to blissful nothingness, just him and dead air. Right now, they are fewer and farther between than they’ve ever been in the past decade — a decade spent working toward this moment, when he is arguably the best pitcher in the world and inarguably the most internet-famous, which is the sort of thing that tends to put a damper on his quest for quiet.
“You can’t master the noise until you master the silence,” Skenes says. A coach told him that this offseason, and it spoke to Skenes, whose mastery of his first season in Major League Baseball — and a two-month stretch in which he went from top prospect to All-Star Game starting pitcher — set him on a path that only upped his daily dose of cacophony. He had been enjoying partaking in sound-free workouts, a far cry from the weightlifting sessions in Pittsburgh’s weight room — a petri dish of decibels and testosterone, suffused with grunts and clanks, ringed with TVs whose visual clamor complements the music thumping out of speakers, a lizard-brained heavenscape.
As fast as Skenes throws a baseball — last summer, it was a half-mile per hour faster than any starter in the game’s century-and-a-half-long history — he thinks slowly, methodically. There are things he wants to do — real, substantive things. He seeks silence because in it he finds clarity. About how to extract the very best from his gilded right arm — but also about who he is and who he aspires to be.
“The times that I’ll figure stuff out is when I’m just sitting and not doing anything,” Skenes says. “I’ll figure some stuff out, on the mound or talking to people, but there will be times where I’m just sitting or lying in bed or something like that. Silence. And there’s nothing else to do but think. I wonder — and I’m not comparing myself to him by any stretch — but Newton discovered gravity because he was sitting under a tree and an apple fell. You figure stuff out because you’re sitting in silence. Compartmentalizing stuff, thinking about the game, doing a debrief of myself. That’s how I’ll get pitch grips. Just sitting around and imagining the feel of the baseball and like, oh, I’m going to try that. It works or it doesn’t work. If you do that enough, you’re going to figure stuff out.”
The irony of this exercise is that the more Skenes figures out on the mound, the shriller his world will get. As Skenes embarks on his first full season in MLB, he’s learning what comes with the commodification of an athlete. Alongside the demand for peak performance come requests for his time and his autograph, pictures taken by gawking fans and GQ photographers. He is pitcher and pitchman. His teammates sometimes wonder whether it’s too much too soon — when they’re not needling him for it.
“You guys doing an interview about our savior?” one said this spring as a reporter queried two others about Skenes. They were, in fact, though the 22-year-old Skenes is far more than just the player Pittsburgh is praying can liberate its woebegone baseball franchise from the dregs of the sport. He is a generational pitcher for a generation that doesn’t pitch like all the previous ones — but he is also still just a kid trying to navigate his way through a universe not built for him. He is happy to forgo the convenience of an apartment adjacent to the stadium for a soundless drive to the suburbs that feels almost meditative. He can ponder the questions he would like to answer — not the ones proffered by others. For instance: In this life so antithetical to the one he thought he would be living, who, exactly, is he?
“It’s funny,” Skenes says. “When you start thinking about stuff like this, you find that you don’t know a whole lot more than you thought while also learning about yourself. I know myself a lot better — and, in some ways, a lot less.”
IN JANUARY 2023 — six months after he’d left the only place he ever wanted to go, seven months before he started a career he never imagined he’d have — Skenes was chatting with LSU baseball coach Wes Johnson about the year ahead. The previous summer, he had transferred to the SEC power from the Air Force Academy, where he had played catcher and pitched. For all of Skenes’ power as a hitter, Johnson wasn’t interested in developing another Shohei Ohtani. This was big-time college baseball, and after a fall semester that for Skenes consisted of online courses and eight or nine hours a day of training for baseball, Johnson, the former pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins, understood before most the implications of Skenes’ move.
“For the next two to three years, you will have a new normal every single day,” Johnson said.
Growing up, there were no conversations about the pressures of major league stardom in Skenes’ household. His father, Craig, was a biochemistry major who works in the eye medication industry and topped out in JV baseball. His mother, Karen, teaches AP chemistry and was in the marching band. Skenes was not allowed to touch a baseball after school until he finished his homework.
“It was never the big leagues really,” Skenes says. “It was ‘Be a good person, do your homework, go to church’ and all that. There’s nothing in my family that says that, yeah, this guy was born to be a big leaguer.”
Skenes’ parents told him to find what he loved and work really hard at it, which had led him to the Air Force. Skenes found comfort in the academy’s structure and rigor; the academy embodied his values of discipline and routine and responsibility. Skenes wanted to fly fighter jets and took deep pride in being an airman. That’s why Skenes cried when he decided, at the behest of his coaches, to leave for LSU after his sophomore year: He’d found what he’d loved and worked really hard at it and gotten it, only for something else to find him and cajole him away.
A big SEC school didn’t feel like Skenes’ speed — not the random public approaches, not the fanfare, not the Geaux Tigers of it all — but he understood why he needed to be there. He is a nerd who happened to stand 6-foot-6, weigh 260 pounds and throw a baseball with more skill than anyone in the country, and to turtle from that would be wasteful. The Air Force years had prepared him for the transition, and he ingratiated himself in Baton Rouge with a Sahara-dry sense of humor. Skenes would regularly walk around the clubhouse, stop at each teammate’s locker and rib him: “I worked harder than you today.” It was in jest, but it was also the truth, and when teammate Cade Beloso recounted the practice to ESPN’s broadcast team during LSU’s run to a College World Series title in 2023, Skenes recalls, “I’m like, dude, everybody thinks I’m a douche now. So there is still some of that. I still am that way, just not with everybody.”
He grappled with his identity at LSU, a California kid dropped into the bayou and forced to find his way. Meeting Livvy Dunne only compounded his need to adapt. An LSU gymnast with an innate talent for making social media content that bewitched Gen Z, Dunne was introduced to Skenes by mutual friends and she was immediately smitten. If LSU raised a magnifying glass over Skenes’ life and career — he’d gone from a fringe first-round pick to the top of draft boards on the strength of a junior season in which he struck out 209 in 122⅔ innings — Dunne brought the Hubble telescope. He didn’t even have Instagram or TikTok on his phone.
“I’m not perfect by any means, but I think that you can get yourself in trouble really quickly now because if you do anything, someone’s filming it,” Skenes says. “It takes a whole lot more energy to go out anywhere and pretend to be someone else than it does to go out and just be yourself. If being yourself doesn’t get you in trouble, then great. So that’s kind of the life that I think I was geared to live just based on the whole path coming up.
“I don’t think anything’s really changed. When I look at famous people or celebrities, I see a lot of the time people that do whatever they can because they think they can do whatever they can. Why is that? We’re all people. What has gotten you there? What has gotten you to being famous, to being a movie star? Whatever it is, you’re very good at what you do. So why change? I respect the people that don’t change a whole lot more than the other people that are, ‘Hey, I’m a celebrity.'”
Going with the first overall pick tested his willingness to stand by that ethos. Every pitch he threw invited more eyeballs, his rapid ascent to Pittsburgh an inevitability. The Pirates are a proud franchise hamstrung by an owner, Bob Nutting, fundamentally opposed to using his wealth to bridge the game’s inherent inequity. Skenes was their golden ticket, the best pitching prospect in more than a decade, and the excitement for his arrival at LSU paled compared to what greeted him May 11, when the Pirates summoned him to the big leagues. He was Pittsburgh’s, yes, but everyone in the baseball ecosystem wanted a piece of Skenes.
Over the next two months and 11 starts, he so thoroughly dominated hitters that he earned the start for the National League in the All-Star Game. His only inning included showdowns with Juan Soto (a seven-pitch walk that ended on a 100 mph fastball painted on the inside corner but not called a strike) and Aaron Judge (a first-pitch groundout on a 99 mph challenge fastball). He rushed home to spend the rest of the break with Dunne and settle back into a life he was learning to enjoy.
Skenes’ first season could not have gone much better. He threw 133 innings, struck out more than five hitters for every one he walked and posted a 1.96 ERA. The last rookie to start at least 20 games with a sub-2.00 ERA was Scott Perry in 1918, the tail end of the dead ball era. When Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. announced Skenes as NL Rookie of the Year winner, Dunne broke into a wide smile and rejoiced as Skenes sat stone-faced before mustering a toothless grin. Memelords pounced instantaneously and Skenes was immortalized as the picture of utter disinterest.
Which is fine by him. He was proud, but pride can manifest itself in manifold ways, and if LSU and his first big league season taught Skenes anything, it’s that he is not beholden to external whims and expectations. He’s going to figure out who he is his way. And that starts with seeking out the people whose opinions do matter to him.
IN THE FIRST inning of a July game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Skenes left the Pirates’ dugout and beelined into the bowels of Chase Field. Randy Johnson had just been inducted as an inaugural member of the Diamondbacks Hall of Fame, and Skenes was not going to miss the opportunity to shake his hand and pick his brain.
For someone as polished and proficient as Skenes, he remains fundamentally curious. However exceptional his aptitude to pitch might be, he’s still enough of a neophyte that he’s got oodles to absorb, and he’s humble enough to know what he doesn’t know. Skenes is not shy about trying to learn, and over the past year he has sought advice from a wide array of players whose careers he would love to emulate.
Johnson’s would have ended 20 years earlier than his 2009 retirement had he not done the same. Like Skenes, he was an otherworldly talent. Unlike Skenes, he needed almost a decade to tame it. Johnson didn’t find success until Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton, as well as pitching guru Tom House, advised him. So he was glad to talk with Skenes and try to offer a sliver of the assistance he’d been afforded. First, though, he had a question.
“It all depends on what you’re looking for,” Johnson said. “Are you looking for a good game, a good season or a good career?”
Skenes’ answer was a no-brainer: a good career. The no-selling of his Rookie of the Year win is a perfect example. It’s an award. It’s nice. It’s also the reflection of a single great season among the many more he anticipates having. For Skenes, the goal is game-to-game excellence and longevity, the hallmarks of true greatness. Johnson fears that the modern usage of starting pitchers inhibits players’ ability to marry the two.
Over the past 25 years, the number of 100-plus-pitch games in MLB has dipped from 2,391 to 635 last season. There were 1,297 starts of 110 or more pitches in 2000 and 33 last year. Skenes — and Johnson — believe some of today’s starting pitchers are capable of more. For a pitcher like Skenes to be limited by strictures based more in fear of injury than data that supports their implementation gnaws at Johnson, who regularly ran up high pitch counts before retiring at 46.
The second a career begins, Johnson told Skenes, it is marching toward its end, and the truly special players use the time in between to defy expectations and limitations. If Skenes is as good as everyone believes — “He’s where I’m at six or seven years after I found my mechanics,” Johnson says — then he will either convince the Pirates to remove the restrictor plate or eventually find a team that will. Which is why Johnson’s ultimate advice to him was simple: “This is your career.”
“It will be a mental mission for him,” Johnson says. “I understood throughout the course of my career that if I can talk myself through a game, I will realize my mission. I trained myself to put me in those positions for success, get me through that. I know the pitchers can do these things I talk about, but they’re not allowed to. And that, to me, is mind-boggling. It makes no sense to me. You’re not going to see a pitcher grow mentally or physically if you take him out of situations.”
Longevity was on the mind of another subject from whom Skenes sought advice. When the Pirates went to New York last year, Skenes met with Gerrit Cole in the outfield at Yankee Stadium. Cole is perhaps the best modern analog for Skenes: born and raised in Southern California, big-bodied hard thrower. Both went to college and then were drafted No. 1 by the Pirates; both are thoughtful, diligent, dedicated. Amid the de-emphasis of starting pitching, Cole blossomed into the exception, a head-of-the-rotation stalwart on a Hall of Fame track who made at least 30 starts in seven seasons before undergoing season-ending elbow surgery this spring.
Unlike Johnson, who is now 61, Cole speaks the language of a modern pitcher. He is fluent in Trackman data, the benefit of good sleep habits and the influence diet can have on success.
“In the true pursuit of maximum human performance, these tools are providing an avenue for people to achieve that quicker,” Cole said earlier this month. “With the avenue out there to reach those maximum potentials quicker, the industry demands — the teams demand — almost a higher level of performance and, to a certain extent, an unsustainable level of performance. We’ve used the technology to maximize human performance. We haven’t used the technology quite well enough to maximize human sustainability.”
Cole is acutely aware of this. After more than 2,000 innings and 339 career starts, his right elbow blew out during spring training and will sideline him for the remainder of 2025. The correlation between fastball velocity and higher risk of arm injuries is established to the point that most in the industry regard it as causative. Johnson was the exception, not the rule, and Skenes knows enough math to know the fool’s errand of banking on outlier outcomes.
“My focus is on volume and durability,” Cole continued. “In order to give myself a chance to pitch for a long time to pitch for championship-contending teams, I have to be healthy. There’s a lot of incentives — as a competitor, financial — to make durability and sustainability the main goal.
“Skenes has the foundation to match that — and exceed it. He’s got more horsepower than me. He’s asking better questions early — questions about diet and sleep. He’s asking questions about mechanics. He’s tracking his throws. He has his own process with people that he surrounds himself with that are not only looking out for his performance right now but his performance long term. That’s important for guys to have advocates in their corner, not looking out just for this year. It’s really tough to find the right people.”
With Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer on the precipice of retirement, and Cole and Zack Wheeler in their mid-30s, a baton-passing is afoot. Because Skenes is best positioned to be the one grabbing it, Cole says, his advice runs the gamut. They spoke about pitching game theory, and Cole pointed out that the approach of Verlander, with whom he was teammates in Houston, runs counter to the max-effort philosophies espoused by starters who know that regardless of their ability to go deep into games, they’re not throwing much more than 100 pitches anyway.
Piece by piece, Skenes learns from those who have been what he intends to be. Pitchers, old and young, fill in some blanks, but he looks beyond the players who share his craft, too. He plans to spend more time talking with Corbin Carroll, the Diamondbacks’ star outfielder he met on a Zoom call for a rookie immersion program, and ask him: “What do you have that I need?” He reads books like “Relentless” and “Winning” by Michael Jordan’s longtime trainer, Tim Grover, and “Talent Is Overrated,” which has particular appeal for someone whose talent didn’t manage to attract draft interest from a single team out of high school despite playing in arguably the most talent-rich area in America.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get anything out of talking to anybody,” Skenes says, but at the same time he sees no harm in asking. Considering how much the game asks him to give, he’s owed a rebalancing.
THE FIRST TIME Toronto Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt met Skenes, he introduced himself with a proposition: “I’m gonna nominate you for the union board.”
The executive subcommittee of the Major League Baseball Players Association consists of eight players who help guide the union, particularly during collective bargaining. And with the current basic agreement set to expire following the 2026 season, labor discord has left people across the sport fearful of an extended work stoppage. The board is expected to wield even more power in the next round of negotiations, so the eight members are paramount in helping shape the game’s future.
Bassitt knew Skenes by reputation: that he was thoughtful, even-tempered, judicious — the kind of guy whose poker face on the mound would translate to a board room. He knows, too, the history of the union, that it’s at its strongest when the game’s most influential players serve as voices during the bargaining process. With the encouragement of veteran starter Nick Pivetta and former executive board head Andrew Miller, Skenes accepted his nomination and became the youngest player ever selected to the executive subcommittee.
“If we’re thinking about the future of the game,” Skenes says, “I think it’d be stupid to not have someone at least my age in there.”
Labor work is taxing. The game’s best players today often avoid the hassle. It did not have to be Skenes. But he harkened back to his years at the Air Force Academy in which cadets are taught the PITO model of leadership: personal, interpersonal, team and organization. In their first year, they focus on personal responsibility. Year 2 calls for them to take responsibility for another cadet. Skenes left before experiencing of team and organizational leadership at the academy, but the principles he learned apply enough that he felt a duty to serve as a voice for more than 1,200 other big leaguers, even if his service time pales compared to many of theirs.
The union and its rank and file are far from the only ones in the baseball world leaning on Skenes. MLB has struggled for years to create stars, and Skenes entered the big leagues with a Q score higher than 99% of players. Dunne’s presence alone invites a younger generation reared on the idea that baseball is boring to reconsider. Going forward, every marketing campaign MLB launches is almost guaranteed to include four players. One plays in Los Angeles (Ohtani). Two are in New York (Judge and Soto). The fourth resides in Pittsburgh.
More than anyone, the Pirates and their forlorn fan base regard Skenes as the fulcrum of their rebirth. They last won a division championship in 1992, when Barry Bonds still wore black and yellow. Their most recent playoff appearance was 2015, the last of three consecutive seasons with a wild-card spot (and losing the single game) when Cole was pitching for the franchise. Since then, they’ve finished fourth or fifth in the National League Central the past eight years and currently occupy the basement.
Nutting’s frugality hamstrings the Pirates perpetually. Never have they carried a nine-figure payroll. (This year’s on Opening Day: $91.3 million.) Since he bought the team in 2007, it has been in the bottom five 14 of 18 seasons. The Pirates’ revenue, according to Forbes, is almost identical to that of the Arizona Diamondbacks (2025 Opening Day payroll: $188.5 million), Minnesota Twins ($147.4 million), Kansas City Royals ($131.6 million), Washington Nationals ($115.6 million) and Cincinnati Reds ($114.5 million). Other owners privately peg Nutting as among the game’s worst.
Which only reinforces the fear among Pirates fans that Skenes is bound to follow Cole out the door via trade within a few years of his debut, lest the team lose him following the 2029 season to free agency. Rooting for the Pirates is among the cruelest fates in sports, with the combination of unserious owner and revenue disparities leaving general manager Ben Cherington to crank up a player-development machine in hopes of competing. Their free agent signings this winter were longtime Pirate Andrew McCutchen, left-hander Andrew Heaney, outfielder Tommy Pham, second baseman Adam Frazier and left-handed relievers Caleb Ferguson and Tim Mayza, all on one-year deals totaling $19.95 million. The last multiyear free agent contract Nutting handed out was to Ivan Nova in 2016.
“We’re going to create it from within the locker room, and it’s not going to be an ownership thing,” Skenes says. “Having a group of fans that are putting some pressure on the ownership and Ben and all that — it’s not a bad thing, but we have to go out there and do it. I kind of feel like we owe it to the city.”
Skenes had never been to Pittsburgh before he was drafted. “I do love it,” he said, and those who know him confirm Skenes’ sincerity. He wants nothing more at this point in his career than for his roommate and close friend Jared Jones, who’s on the injured list with elbow issues, to get healthy, and for Bubba Chandler, the Triple-A right-hander who’s topping out at 102 mph, to arrive, and for the Pirates’ farm system to churn out position players as regularly as it does pitchers. A couple more bats, a few relief arms, a free agent signing that’s more than a short-term plug, and you can squint and see a contender.
So much is out of Skenes’ control, though. All he can do is be the best version of himself. And bit by bit, he’s figuring out what that looks like.
SKENES IS ALWAYS looking for new ways to occupy himself when he’s away from the mound. In the back of his truck lays a compound bow. He shot it all of four times before abandoning it. In his bedroom sits a guitar gathering dust, $200 down the drain. He’s getting into golf these days, but he’s not sure it’s going to last.
“I get bored easily,” Skenes says. “I had a coach tell me that, and I was like, ‘I don’t think so. I think you’re wrong.’ And I’ve been thinking about that lately, and I think he’s right, because I’ve tried plenty of different hobbies and none of them have stuck.”
Similarly, Skenes wonders if the places his mind goes during his periods of silence are a function of boredom with baseball. “Not in a bad way,” he clarifies, but in the manner that behooves a player — that “there’s always something to be better at.”
In his most recent start Monday — a typical Skenes outing in which he allowed one earned run, struck out six and didn’t walk anyone over six innings — he threw six pitches: four-seam fastball, splinker, slider, sweeper, changeup, and curveball and splinker, the hybrid sinker-splitter he throws in the mid-90s to devastating effect. He toyed around with a cutter and two-seam fastball during spring training and could break them out at any moment. He waited until the fourth or fifth week of his season at LSU to unleash his curveball.
“I absolutely don’t believe that just because it’s the season, all right, this is what you got,” he says. “There’s no difference between spring training and the regular season in terms of getting better every day.”
This is his career, Skenes says, echoing Johnson, and he’s learning that he must wrangle control of it. He needs to chat with others who are what he wants to be, and he needs to find the silence to find himself, and he needs to set stratospheric expectations. Of all the aphorisms Skenes repeats, his favorite might be one he read in a book: “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
“There’s no option to not do the work that I need to do,” Skenes says. “… If I didn’t want to get in the cold tub a couple years ago or whatever it is, I wouldn’t. Now I do know whether I want to do it or not, it’s a nonnegotiable.”
If he keeps doing the work, Skenes believes, everything is there for the taking. The wins will come, and the success will follow, and the search for advice will give way to the dispensing of it. In the same way his training at the Air Force Academy readied him to handle the pressure cooker at LSU, it’s likewise destined to propel him into a role as leader and elder statesman in baseball.
For now, though, Skenes is trying to focus on today, tomorrow, this week. Even if the clock on his career is ticking, the hour hand has barely moved, and he doesn’t want this charmed life to fly by without taking the time to appreciate it. Earlier this spring, Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin asked Skenes: “What motivates you?”
Skenes considered the question and gave variations on the same answer: winning and getting better every day. Winning a baseball game is in his hands once every fifth day. But those are not the only wins within his control. Hard work is a win. Learning is a win. Leading is a win. Growing is a win. And in a life that’s only getting louder and faster and more demanding, silence is the sort of win that will help remind him who he is.
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