Tampa’s Cooper scoffs at ref ‘manipulation’ claim
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper issued a rebuttal to Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe’s claim that the Lightning were “manipulating the officials” in Game 3 of the teams’ first-round Eastern Conference playoff series Saturday.
Keefe told reporters after the Maple Leafs’ 4-3 win in overtime that a third-period fight between star players Steven Stamkos and Auston Matthews was “a classic example of a veteran championship team like Tampa Bay manipulating the officials and taking advantage of a situation.”
Stamkos got into it with Matthews following a hit by Leafs’ defenseman Morgan Rielly on Lightning forward Brayden Point that briefly knocked Point out of the game — and caused several other skirmishes. Nikita Kucherov and Ryan O’Reilly were also given five-minute penalties for fighting before the dust finally settled and play resumed.
Cooper spoke with the media via Zoom on Sunday and unpacked Keefe’s criticism.
“Manipulating the referees? All right, I’m not sure what that means,” Cooper said. “When that hit [on Point] happened, I think everyone in the building, including us, thought we were going on the power play. Our two best power-play players [Stamkos and Kucherov], I don’t think they would ever sit there and take themselves off a power play unless they thought something happened.”
Ultimately, Cooper added, the Lightning didn’t help themselves by getting physical, which he said made Keefe’s comments all the more confusing.
“Auston Matthews doesn’t kill penalties,” Cooper said. “That actually worked against us, to be honest. Now we ended up being shorthanded after that [fight], but I don’t think anybody thought that was going to happen at the time, so I don’t know. That [manipulating part] is a little different for me.”
The bigger concern for Tampa Bay now is any residual fallout from Rielly’s hit on Point. Rielly was initially assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding on the play, but after an official review it was determined there was no penalty. Point went to the locker room but was able to come back and finish the game.
Rielly — who scored the game-winning goal for Toronto in overtime — said after Game 3 he thought the hit on Point was “clean.” Cooper noted Sunday that Rielly is a “super, super human being” and not a “dirty player” but said the hit clearly had a negative impact on one of the Lightning’s top skaters.
“Was the incident reckless? For sure, and it looked awful,” Cooper said. “When you see that, you’re thinking the worst. The fact [Point] came back and played? I was amazed [of that] in itself. But he went through so many different tests, and he was struggling. It looked like he was in a car accident the way he went into the wall. … Hopefully, he’s going to be OK to play tomorrow.”
One player who won’t be in the Lightning lineup for Game 4 is Erik Cernak. The defenseman has been sidelined since taking an elbow to the head from Leafs forward Michael Bunting in the second period of Game 1. Cooper did not rule out Cernak’s eventual return at some point in the series, which Tampa Bay now trails 2-1.
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Pete Thamel, Senior College Sports Insider
UConn football coach Jim Mora has agreed to a new contract that includes two additional years that will take him through the 2028 season, the school announced Saturday.
The deal includes a raise to an average of $2.5 million annually over the course of the deal. He made $1.81 million in base salary in 2024, and the new deal will increase that base to $2.1 million in 2025.
Mora’s deal comes after he revived UConn football in his first three years at the school. He took over a program that went 1-11 in the year before his arrival and has led it to two bowl games in three years.
That includes an 8-4 regular season in 2024, which earned UConn a spot in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl against North Carolina on Saturday.
“Three years ago, I tasked Jim Mora with the challenge of leading our football team back to success and through his experience, energy and leadership he has done just that,” UConn athletic director David Benedict said in a statement. “He has taken our program to post season bowl games twice and just guided our team to one of the best seasons in UConn football history, building a momentum to keep this program moving forward. I look forward to his leadership of our football team in the years ahead.”
If Mora leads UConn to a win over North Carolina, it will mark the Huskies’ first nine-win season since 2007 and just the third nine-win season in school history. UConn went to the Myrtle Beach Bowl in Mora’s first year in 2022, the school’s first bowl game since Bob Diaco led the Huskies to the St. Petersburg Bowl in 2015.
Mora is a veteran coach who had two stints in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks. He is in his ninth season as a college head coach, as he took the UCLA job in 2012 and had a successful stint there that included a pair of 10-win seasons. UCLA hasn’t won 10 games in a season since Mora left.
He mentioned at the Fenway Bowl news conference Friday that UConn went undefeated against Group of 5 teams this season, with its losses against Maryland, Duke, Wake Forest and Syracuse.
The 8-0 record against teams outside the power leagues, Mora noted, made UConn one of three Group of 5 teams to go undefeated against Group of 5 competition. He said that was a sign of UConn’s growth as a program.
“For this program, we want to start not just competing with but beating Power 4 teams,” Mora said, “and making the statement that we are becoming very relevant again on the football field.”
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
Georgia quarterback Carson Beck, who underwent surgery earlier this week to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right, throwing elbow, declared for the 2025 NFL draft Saturday.
In a social media post, Beck thanked his Georgia teammates and coaches, calling his time with the program “an incredible journey” and writing that he will be around to support the Bulldogs during their College Football Playoff run, which begins Wednesday against No. 7 seed Notre Dame in a quarterfinal matchup at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
Beck injured his elbow on the final play of the first half against Texas in the SEC championship game Dec. 7. Renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed Beck’s surgery Monday in Los Angeles. Beck is expected to make a full recovery, according to the school, and he will resume throwing in the spring.
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound quarterback is in his fifth year at Georgia, but he had another year of eligibility because of the COVID year in 2020 and appeared in only three games in 2021.
Beck, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, went 24-3 as Georgia’s starter the past two seasons. He entered the fall as one of the top NFL prospects at quarterback. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. listed Beck and Colorado‘s Shedeur Sanders as the top quarterbacks for the 2025 draft entering the season. Kiper’s latest Big Board lists Beck as the No. 4 draft-eligible quarterback prospect, behind Sanders, Miami‘s Cam Ward and Alabama‘s Jalen Milroe.
Beck did not match his 2023 numbers this fall but still finished with 3,485 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, 11 of which he threw during a five-game midseason stretch. He had 7,426 passing yards and 52 touchdowns over the past two seasons for Georgia, and he was a two-time finalist for the Manning Award and was a second-team All-SEC selection in 2023.
Redshirt sophomore Gunner Stockton replaced Beck in the SEC title game, which Georgia won 22-19 in overtime, and will start against Notre Dame.
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