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  • David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterSep 3, 2023, 01:48 AM ET

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    • ACC reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

There were games before Saturday, but for all intents and purposes, this was the day college football finally returned to us — and not a moment too soon.

Think of all we’ve endured over the past nine months. Realignment, tampering, NIL proposals from the federal government, the 2023 Yankees. It’s been rough.

But then Week 1 kicked off, and all was right with the world once more.

Yes, Colorado stole the show with an Eras Tour-level performance, but Saturday had everything we’ve been missing since the last time TCU was embarrassed on a national stage.

We opened the day with a grown man in Charlotte, North Carolina, covering himself in mayonnaise, which would seem to fly in the face of the narrative that the ACC isn’t a great TV product.

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Fan gets pumped for CFB kickoff with mayo bath

Ahead of the Duke’s Mayo Classic, a fan decides to take to a mayonnaise bath at College Gameday.

TCU fans gave us our first epic reaction shot of the season, and a Liberty player gave us — honestly, we’re not sure what this is, but we’re pretty sure the Liberty student code of conduct doesn’t allow it.

Iowa threw a passing touchdown on its opening drive of the season for the first time since 1991. Think about that. There have been more President Bushes since then than season-opening Iowa passing TDs. And then, of course, offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s offense did so little in the second half against Utah State that the quest for 25 points per game is already behind schedule.

Oregon, meanwhile, had so much offense it nearly killed its mascot. Not since the KFC Double Down sandwich has a bird been so battered.

As has become tradition, Georgia toyed with an obviously overmatched opponent like a cat batting a mouse around before delivering the fatal blow. The Bulldogs led just 17-0 at the half but ultimately beat Tennessee-Martin 48-7.

We saw a man driving a motorized garbage can.

We’d note that, had Butch Jones only thought to attach a lawnmower engine to his famed turnover trash can, his time at Tennessee might’ve turned out entirely different. But we’re not here to pile on. Jones had a rough enough day already.

Sure, it was a little disappointing that Texas A&M won a game without Jimbo Fisher and Bobby Petrino coming to blows on the sideline, but there’s a genuine Chekhov’s gun scenario here. There will be a payoff before the show’s over.

The wheels came off the Texas Tech bandwagon, as Wyoming stunned the Red Raiders in walk-off style. Though we wouldn’t recommend walking far in Wyoming. There are coyotes out there.

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Fans rush the field after Wyoming secures thrilling 2OT victory

Wyoming takes home an exciting 35-33 win in double overtime against Texas Tech.

We saw upsets — Fresno State over Purdue, Northern Illinois over Boston College and, most shockingly, Texas State over Baylor.

We saw blowouts — Ole Miss, Washington and USC all cruised.

We saw vintage Alabama, another impressive performance from Tulane, and a Quinn Ewers performance just good enough to pronounce that Texas … is … back!

It wasn’t the best Saturday of football we’re likely to see this year, but that’s beside the point. It was college football — back at long last after a joyless offseason of arguments over all the things that threaten the sport’s future.

But Saturday — this one, every one — reminds us that, for all the supposed enemies at the gates, the game itself never wavers.

Welcome to Prime Time

We doubted.

Who wouldn’t have doubted this Colorado team. All the hoopla and hype in the world couldn’t erase the utter catastrophe of 2022, when the Buffaloes were 1-11 with seven losses by at least 30 points.

We lectured.

Of course we lectured. Deion Sanders essentially upended every lofty, moral (and, yes, utterly ridiculous) notion of genuine amateurism by effectively cutting two-thirds of his team upon arrival. If Coach Prime had a constant megaphone to tout his new approach to roster building, we could at least use our soapbox to argue against it.

We learned.

Oh, yes, we learned so much Saturday, and we came away looking like fools after Colorado beat TCU, last year’s national runner-up, 45-42 in Sanders’ first game as the Buffaloes’ head coach.

For months, the great college football punditry laughed off Prime’s rollicking hype machine, knowing that, once the games began, a hard truth would be revealed. Instead, Colorado pulled back the curtain on an offense that was nothing short of miraculous, a college football reveal that was something akin to Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, JR getting shot on “Dallas” and UConn making a bowl game all wrapped together.

If aliens had landed at midfield wearing cowboy hats, it wouldn’t have been any more shocking.

Sanders’ quarterback son, Shedeur, threw for 510 yards and four touchdowns.

Four different Colorado receivers hauled in 100 yards’ worth of catches.

Travis Hunter was a superstar playing both receiver and corner and probably drove the team bus, too.

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Shedeur Sanders throws for school-record 510 yards, 4 TDs in debut

Shedeur Sanders gets Colorado off to a winning start by throwing for 510 yards in his debut.

In a time when every new action movie, tech invention or Netflix college football documentary is hyped endlessly only to fizzle out into mediocrity, Deion Sanders and his Buffaloes delivered something truly remarkable on Saturday.

Sure, this wasn’t last year’s TCU. That team was like the guitar solo in “Free Bird” — chaotic, rollicking, lasting far longer than it had any right to, but never truly earning the respect of the cultured class of critics. But those Frogs had a host of NFL-caliber players. This year’s team — well, it’s a little like seeing Skynyrd today. There’s no one from the original band left.

So yes, TCU’s defense was a mess and couldn’t get off the field despite having Colorado backed up repeatedly in the second half. But can that really explain 565 yards of Buffaloes offense?

And it’s true, the Colorado defense had its own issues. TCU rushed for 262 yards in the game, including three touchdowns from the one Sanders — Trey Sanders — who wasn’t playing for Coach Prime, but when the Buffs absolutely needed a stop in the final two minutes of action, they stuffed the Frogs at the line on back-to-back plays, setting up a turnover on downs that effectively sealed the game.

Nitpick all you want. This was a genuinely epic performance by Colorado, one that assures the Buffs’ bandwagon will be replaced with a 1979 Trans Am with a big, gold Ralphie painted on the hood.

Oh, we could try to tamp down the now outsized expectations, because this was, after all, just one game. But to do that is to miss the point. In a sport that routinely churns out the same great teams year after year, this was a genuine surprise. In a week with relatively few marquee matchups, Colorado and TCU delivered the highest of drama, a game with seven lead changes and constant fireworks. And after an offseason marred by endlessly frustrating intrusions of business and economics into college football, Coach Prime gave us something we so desperately needed: fun.

So keep doubting if you must. We’re done with all that. We’re buying whatever Deion is selling.

After Saturday’s win, he suggested Colorado has “a couple of Heisman” contenders. Hey, why stop there? Maybe three or four.

There’s film on Colorado now, so its next game should only get tougher. Oh, but Colorado gets Nebraska? Buffs by a million.

The future of college football will be written by Sanders, his sons (Shilo Sanders is a safety for the Buffs), Hunter and a host of other sudden superstars who followed their coach out to Boulder?

Bring it on. If every week looks even close to this one, the future can’t come soon enough.

Heisman Five

The Pac-12 might be on life support, but after Colorado’s stellar start, it has command of the early Heisman race. Much will change over the next three months, but for now, the West Coast is the best coast.

1. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter

You know what college football needed? Its own Shohei Ohtani. Hunter played 129 snaps, caught 11 passes, had 3 tackles, picked off a pass and broke up another. The only difference between Hunter and Ohtani is Colorado actually won a game in which he did something historic.

2. Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders

He opened the week with 100-to-1 odds to win the Heisman and finished it by throwing for 510 yards and four touchdowns. The only downside to his game is autocorrect keeps trying to change his name to Shedder.

3. USC QB Caleb Williams

In the 2023 calendar year, Williams has thrown for 1,059 yards with 14 touchdown passes and one interception. For comparison, 22 FBS teams, including four of USC’s future conferencemates in the Big Ten, failed to throw for 14 total touchdowns in all of 2022.

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Caleb Williams shines with 5-TD performance vs. Nevada

Caleb Williams continues his red-hot start to the season with a five-touchdown performance vs. Nevada.

4. Washington QB Michael Penix Jr.

Boise State ranked fourth nationally in defensive success rate last season. Penix torched the Broncos to the tune of 450 yards and five touchdowns on Saturday.

5. All three Alabama QBs

Nick Saban isn’t into depth charts these days, which was just as well against MTSU. It didn’t matter which QB was in the game. The three contenders for the starting job — Jalen Milroe, who actually started, along with Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson — combined for 295 yards of offense and seven touchdowns.

Buckeyes start slow

Should we be worried about Ohio State?

The Buckeyes beat Indiana handily but scored just 23 points in the process. New starting QB Kyle McCord threw for 239 yards but no touchdowns and one pick. It was just the third time since 2018 the Buckeyes didn’t throw a touchdown pass — and both of the others came against Northwestern. Less than 10 months ago, Ohio State hung 56 on the Hoosiers.

Frankly, this was a performance Michigan was expecting Ohio State to save for late November.

Still, it’s probably far from time for anyone in Columbus, Ohio, to panic. Ohio State was a woeful 2-for-12 on third down, which stunted any sustained drives. Marvin Harrison Jr. missed some time after a minor arm injury. He and Emeka Egbuka combined for just 34 yards, which they’d typically rack up before the coin toss.

After all, it was just a year ago when Ohio State — complete with star QB CJ Stroud — struggled to score 10 points in the first half of its opener against Notre Dame before ambling to a 21-10 win. The rest of the 2022 season turned out OK.

So no, let’s not fill the message board with doomsday (or “Fire Day”) scenarios just yet.

Freeze and others nab win No. 1

A year ago, Hugh Freeze’s team managed to lose to both UConn and New Mexico State, so it was fair to have a few worries as he began his tenure at Auburn against perennial Bottom 10 stalwart UMass.

Turns out, Auburn’s win was as comfortable as a press-box hospital bed, with the Tigers rushing for six touchdowns and racking 491 yards of offense — their most against an FBS opponent since the 2021 opener against Akron.

It was a strong start for the bulk of the other 23 first-year head coaches, too.

G.J. Kinne scored the second-biggest shocker of the day, leading Texas State past Baylor 42-31. Former Auburn QB TJ Finley led the way, throwing for 298 yards and three touchdowns, rushing for a fourth. In 11 starts for LSU and Auburn over the past three years, Finley had never thrown for three touchdowns or racked up as many passing yards in a game.

Jeff Brohm’s homecoming to Louisville started brilliantly with a win over Georgia Tech. Former Louisville coach Scott Satterfield proved he knows how to get the most out of dual-threat QBs, as Emory Jones threw for five touchdowns and ran for two more in Cincinnati‘s win over Eastern Kentucky. And Charlotte‘s Biff Poggi led the 49ers to a 24-3 win over South Carolina State while, we assume, smoking a cigar, complaining about the concession lines and using the headset exclusively to tell “Yo Mama” jokes about the opposing offensive linemen.

In all, the 22 new coaches in action Saturday posted a solid 16-7 record, with Northwestern still on the docket.

Michigan played its first of three games without head coach Jim Harbaugh, who is serving a self-imposed suspension, and his players let it be known they didn’t agree with it.

On the first offensive possession of the game, the players lined up in his infamous train formation and held up four fingers — Harbaugh’s jersey number as a player. J.J. McCarthy even donned a “Free Harbaugh” shirt before and after the game (despite the far more emphatic message that would’ve been sent by simply playing the game wearing a pair of Dockers khakis), then told reporters after the win that he was eager to support his coach.

But while Harbaugh was secluded from the action and (we assume) either calling recruits or researching crop circles on YouTube, his team thumped East Carolina 30-3 behind three passing TDs from McCarthy.

With UNLV and Bowling Green on the docket before Harbaugh returns to the sideline, there’s a good chance Michigan would start 3-0 even with a magic eight ball calling plays, but the high-profile show of support certainly keeps the suspension — and the long saga with the NCAA that preceded it — front and center.

No Hendon Hooker, no problem for Tennessee.

Joe Milton III opened the 2023 season proving last year’s late-season highlights weren’t a fluke, as Tennessee dominated Virginia 49-13.

The box score says Milton threw for just 201 yards, but we’re going to assume that’s only because he actually threw the ball so far so often that the yardage counter hit its max and circled back to zero at some point early in the third quarter.

Tennessee’s ground game offered ample support, accounting for 287 yards and five touchdowns, too.

Since Hooker went down with a season-ending injury in the Vols’ shocking loss to South Carolina in November, Tennessee’s offense has put up 56, 31 and 49 points.

Thursday was supposed to represent the start of a new, better era at Nebraska. Instead, it was more like subsequent chapters in the John Wick series — bloody, brutal and essentially just a continuation of the previous films.

Daniel Jackson‘s gorgeous 13-yard touchdown grab erased a late Cornhuskers lead, and Jeff Sims‘ third interception of the game handed Minnesota a short field for a game-winning field goal and, for the 26th time since the start of the 2018 season, Nebraska lost a one-possession game 13-10.

For the record, that’s seven more one-possession losses than any other team in the country over the same span.

For the record, Nebraska’s .212 winning percentage in one-possession games since 2018 is also by far the worst in the nation.

For the record, Matt Rhule had one of the worst one-possession records in the NFL during his stint with the Carolina Panthers, so perhaps none of Week 1’s loss should come as a surprise.

But fear not, Nebraska fans. No matter how cursed the team appears to be, we fundamentally believe in the law of averages that eventually everyone regresses to the mean, and over a long enough timeline, even the Huskers’ close-game luck has to even out.

So, see your glass as, well, 21% full, and know that, buried deep below the 19-38 record Nebraska has posted over the past five-plus seasons, there’s an entirely mediocre program just destined for a date with the Quick Lane Bowl.

Changes in latitudes

For the first time since 1991, Florida left its own state for a nonconference game, and it did not go well.

Utah was without its star QB and a host of other key players, and yet the Utes had no trouble demolishing Florida 24-11 on Thursday.

It was a reminder that Kyle Whittingham is arguably the most underappreciated head coach in the country.

It was also a reminder that Billy Napier inherited a huge job at Florida.

Over the Gators’ past 30 games, they’re just 12-18. Worse, a quarter of those wins came by just a field goal, two more came vs. FCS teams, and two others came vs. a USF program that is 4-29 over the past three seasons. Indeed, Florida has lost 17 of its last 24 games vs. Power 5 opponents — in line with the production of Missouri, Cal and Syracuse over the same span.

Under-the-radar game of the week

There was a time in the mid-1990s when our country was flush with cultural doppelgängers, from the 1996 Canadian Football League season that featured both the Ottawa and Saskatchewan Roughriders to the 1997 hit songs by The Verve and The Verve Pipe to 1998’s release of “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” in the same summer.

But if those glory days of hilarious glitches in the matrix are long over, Friday gave us another confusing plot overlap for the ages when Miami (the Ohio one) faced off against Miami (the Florida one).

The matchup came with its share of smack talk, as Miami (Ohio)’s QB, Brett Gabbert, announced the “real Miami” was in Oxford, Ohio — an assertion that must’ve shaken Pitbull to his core.

But it turned out Miami (Florida)’s players weren’t worried about geography lessons and instead inflicted a physical pounding against that other Miami.

Final score: Miami 38, Miami 3.

Miami couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. Meanwhile, Miami will be left to lick its wounds on the sandy shores of Miami … or maybe amid the leafy trees of another cool, colorful fall in Miami.

Under-the-radar play of the week

There wasn’t much drama in Oklahoma‘s opener, with the Sooners stomping Arkansas State 73-0, but the blowout didn’t mean Jayden Gibson was taking any plays off. The Sooners receiver used the defender to keep the ball alive and hauled in a 21-yard touchdown pass before tumbling out of bounds.

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0:31

Jayden Gibson makes an unbelievable catch for an Oklahoma TD

Jayden Gibson somehow comes away with an unbelievable touchdown reception to pad the Sooners’ lead.

There are about a half-dozen amazing parts to the play, but our favorite is the reaction from defensive back Leon Jones, who made an exceptional play on the ball but offered up the most half-hearted wave off after the grab possible. Come on, Jones. You’ve got to sell it to the ref!

Best bets and bad beats

Colorado closed as a 20.5-point underdog but pulled out the 3-point win. That’s some prime cash for at least one bettor.

Kentucky bettors owe the gambling gods a serious offering this week. Not only did the Wildcats enjoy a nice 69-yard scoop-and-score, but tailback Ray Davis racked up one of the all-time great backdoor covers with an otherwise meaningless 30-yard touchdown run with just six seconds left on the clock.

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Kentucky covers the spread on TD with 6 seconds remaining

Re’mahn Davis rushes in for a 30-yard touchdown with six seconds left in the game for Kentucky.

The Wildcats were 24.5-point favorites over Ball State. Thanks to Davis’ late score, they won by 30.

Northern Illinois pulled the upset over Boston College in overtime, and the OT rules added another insult to any Eagles backers who had the over, too. NIU’s OT touchdown secured the 27-21 win, but since no PAT was required, the final tally of 48 points came up exactly one point shy of the total.

Good teams win, and Penn State has been good for a while. But great teams? Great teams cover, which is exactly what the Nittany Lions did when second-string QB Beau Pribula waltzed into the end zone from 5 yards out with six seconds to play to give Penn State — a 21-point favorite against West Virginia — a 38-15 win.

Pribula was the star for the betting community, but it was Drew Allar who led the way for Penn State. The Lions have had a long line of effective QBs, including Sean Clifford, who manned the position admirably for the past 23 years. But Clifford was a bit like Paul Giamatti — an effective leading man who churned out solid performances for years without ever once being considered a sex symbol.

Allar, on the other hand, offers Penn State hope for something more. His Saturday performance — 325 passing yards and three touchdowns without an interception and a win — is something Clifford did just once in his career.

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2025 college football recruiting rankings update: New No. 1 and top QB

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June 26, 2024

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2025 college football recruiting rankings update: New No. 1 and top QB

  • Craig Haubert

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    Craig Haubert

    ESPN Staff Writer

    • National recruiting analyst and analyst for ESPNU
    • More than a decade of college and pro coaching experience.
    • Graduated from Indiana and Nebraska-Omaha

  • Tom Luginbill

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    Tom Luginbill

    ESPN Analyst

    • Senior National Recruiting Analyst for ESPN.com
    • Coached in four professional football leagues
    • Graduated from Eastern Kentucky and Marshall

Jun 26, 2024, 07:17 AM ET

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the top quarterbacks in the 2025 class, it’s that they’ve all had their ups and downs on the camp circuit. It’s part of the process.

Game film takes top priority in an evaluation, but a lot of elements make up quarterback evaluation. Film study, camps, combines, Elite 11 performance and personal workouts are all pieces of the puzzle. It’s very important to not make a final assessment on a quarterback based on one average or poor camp performance over three hours on a single afternoon. That’s not fair or responsible.

The Elite 11 is an iconic event, but it’s not necessarily predictive of next-level success. The event does provide one final opportunity for us to evaluate and rank quarterbacks before their senior season. Those evaluations have led to a big change in the updated ESPN 300 rankings. Elsewhere, the spring and summer camp circuit has allowed several players to make moves in the rankings.

Here are the takeaways from the rankings:

Jump to a section:
At the top | QB breakdown
Moving up | New entrants

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Ranking college football’s 40 best 2025 recruiting classes: Ohio State on top

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June 26, 2024

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Ranking college football's 40 best 2025 recruiting classes: Ohio State on top

  • Craig Haubert, ESPN Staff WriterJun 26, 2024, 07:04 AM ET

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    • National recruiting analyst and analyst for ESPNU
    • More than a decade of college and pro coaching experience.
    • Graduated from Indiana and Nebraska-Omaha

June not only ushers in warmer temperatures but is also the time when the recruiting trail really heats up with a blitz of commitments as programs hold official visits and run camps.

Ohio State holds onto the No. 1 overall class with a commitment list that includes three five-star prospects including new five-star QB Tavien St. Clair. Georgia, which signed the No. 1 class for the 2024 cycle has surged up the rankings and now sit at No. 2. Recent ESPN 300 in-state defensive additions, like LB Zayden Walker and DE Isaiah Gibson, helped the Bulldogs rise and get back into the race for the top class.

New Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer is easing any concerns that the Crimson Tide might slip in recruiting with the departure of Nick Saban, as DeBoer has led them into the top three of the class rankings. One catalyst in the move up was flipping ESPN 300 QB Keelon Russell from SMU. He is a passer that can make plays with his legs but also can be accurate with a short, compact release and he threw for 3,000 yards and completed 75-percent of his passes as junior.

Built off the foundation of key in-state commitments, Rutgers has shot up the rankings as well sitting inside the top-fifteen. They managed to keep some key prospects close to home including two of New Jersey’s top three rated prospects in receiver Michael Thomas III and linebacker D.J. McClary.

The action in the month of June has reshaped the rankings but with over a hundred ESPN 300 prospects still leading the pack of the undeclared nothing is settled and many changes are still on the horizon.

NEW TEAMS IN: Rutgers, Mississippi State, Michigan, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Kentucky, Washington, South Carolina, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, Nebraska, Duke, West Virginia

TEAMS OUT: SMU, North Carolina

coverage:
Recruits to know in 2025 rankings
CFB’s future power rankings
Previewing every conference

ESPN 300 commits: 14
Top offensive prospect: QB Tavien St. Clair
Top defensive prospect: CB Na’eem Offord

Previous ranking: 1

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Want to face Gerrit Cole — between innings? Inside the controversial new tech that could change at-bats forever

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June 26, 2024

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Want to face Gerrit Cole -- between innings? Inside the controversial new tech that could change at-bats forever

  • Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff WriterJun 26, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

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      ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.

The Los Angeles Angels trailed by a run halfway through their May 28 game against the New York Yankees, and Willie Calhoun figured he’d plan ahead. Calhoun, a journeyman outfielder, thought he might be used as a late-game pinch hitter. So he made his way to Angel Stadium’s indoor batting cage and turned on Trajekt Arc, the cutting-edge machine that has quickly become a go-to throughout the industry for its ability to replicate major league pitchers.

Calhoun cued up all of the Yankees’ high-leverage relievers, most of whom he’d never faced, tracking as many pitches as he could over the course of a couple of innings. When he was summoned to face Luke Weaver in the bottom of the eighth, he felt ready. Calhoun took back-to-back changeups for balls, then saw a 91-mph cutter on the inner half and lofted a base hit to right field, a leadoff single that ignited a two-run inning and ultimately gave the Angels a come-from-behind victory.

“I was able to see how it was looking before I got into the box,” Calhoun said. “That machine is nice.”

Trajekt — essentially a pitching robot that can play the video of any pitcher’s windup, then spit out all of his pitches from the appropriate arm angle based on the reams of data available — is now used by 19 major league teams, plus three others in Japan, despite not existing in any form until 2021. This year, the league office has allowed Trajekt to be used in-game, a polarizing decision that has in some ways splintered the industry based on personal interest.

Some hitters, frustrated by an era in which pitchers throw harder and nastier than ever, have celebrated what they consider a rare advancement.

“This is the first piece of technology we’ve had that truly benefits us,” one position player said. “Before this we had nothing.”

Plenty of pitchers disagree, pointing to recent rule changes implemented to create a more hitter-friendly environment, and consider Trajekt an unfair advantage — particularly in-game.

“You wanna have it, fine,” a veteran pitcher said. “But three hours before game time, those machines need to be shut off.”

Trajekt previously required an Internet connection to operate, a violation of Major League Baseball’s sign-stealing policy. Modifying the device so that it could operate offline prompted the league to allow it for in-game use, according to an MLB official. Team executives were notified this past offseason.

“We already allow other pitching machines that replicate pitch characteristics,” Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations, wrote in a statement to ESPN, alluding to another, less-involved pitch-replication device called iPitch.

“Once [Trajekt] moved the system offline during games, there was no longer a reason to stand in the way.”

The effects appear to be minimal thus far. Leaguewide batting average sits at .242, the third-lowest mark since 1900, behind only 1968 (the year before the mound was lowered) and 1908 (at the heart of the dead-ball era). But the strikeout rate against relievers is below 23% — 22.9%, to be exact — for the first time in eight years, a subtle decline some have at least partly attributed to the in-game use of Trajekt.

It’s why one of those relievers, Yankees lefty Caleb Ferguson, is adamantly against it.

“It’s impossible for a pitcher to mimic the at-bat,” he said. “We don’t even really get the chance at all to try to have that upper hand where you can come in and face a guy and read the result, see what’s gonna happen if I face whoever. But they could be hitting my fastball for the next three hours? That’s not fair.”

Hitters say they find it helpful, but they’ll also argue it’s not that simple. The machine — four feet deep, six feet wide and, all told, roughly 1,500 pounds — is too bulky to travel with, making it only an option for teams when they’re at home. Hitters largely don’t swing off it in-game, worried that it might make their hands sore by frequently getting jammed against high velocities. Some have said it’s also hard to pick up the baseball’s spin. And because the image it projects is basically a hologram, it’s much more difficult for hitters to time themselves off a pitcher’s arm slot than it would be in real life.

The Trajekt Arc sits on a track, allowing it to move left to right to spit out pitches.

Then there’s the situation at Arizona’s Chase Field, where the indoor batting cage is not big enough for the Trajekts to be stationed any more than 54 feet away from home plate, rendering the machine useless as a timing mechanism and leaving the Arizona Diamondbacks‘ Trajekt Arc to mostly collect dust.

“Ninety-nine [mph] feels like 120 for us,” D-backs outfielder Pavin Smith said near the end of May. “I don’t love it, to be honest. I liked it more in spring training. It was further back, so it felt more realistic. Now every guy looks like he’s twice as good.”

Trajekt, costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $15,000 a month and requiring a three-year commitment, is typically set up 56 to 57 feet away to account for pitchers’ average extension. Standard game balls can be used, but players have taken to a softer version of Rawlings’ baseball, the L10 Pro. Unlike iPitch, a stationary two- to three-wheel machine, Trajekt sits on a gantry, allowing it to spit baseballs anywhere from four to seven feet off the ground, and can move left to right along a track.

Teams can input Hawkeye data, which MLB uses to collect in-game metrics, and they can implement information from Rapsodo and Trackman devices, which also catalog metrics, from players’ training sessions. Videos of pitchers’ windups come from the cameras that are stationed behind home plate at every major league ballpark, with teams capable of uploading the videos that correspond to each pitch to project the precise arm slot. Teams only have access to their own data. The more the machine is used, the more accurate it becomes at replicating pitches.

What it’s like to face New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole (well, at least a holographic version of him).

Often, though, hitters are seeing what they believe is the best version of each pitch.

“It really varies,” Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Jason Heyward said. “Some look similar, some don’t. You’re seeing them throw the ball, but I still think it’s completely different in the game because there’s room for error. Pitchers mean to throw a ball here, and they throw it here. They mean to throw it here, and they throw it here, all that kind of stuff. So I think that’s where it’s not very realistic. It’s like video game pinpoint every time. But still — just getting a visual, an idea, of what someone has and how that may come out is cool. It’s helpful, for sure.”

Ten years ago, a teenager named Joshua Pope came up with the concept behind Trajekt while debating his high school friends about how many pitches it would take to get a hit off Marcus Stroman, then the ace of his hometown Toronto Blue Jays. Pope, now 28, wondered why there wasn’t a physical manifestation of all the publicly available pitching data. He attended the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, in part to learn from the mechanical engineering professor, Dr. John McPhee, who developed a hockey slapshot robot. Pope then received a grant of $60,000 Canadian dollars, raised additional financing, built a mock-up and launched the company Trajekt Sports in 2019, becoming its CEO.

During a tutorial at the 2019 winter meetings, Chicago Cubs director of innovation Bobby Basham became intrigued by the ball-inserter technology that allows for gyro spin, a revolutionary advancement that separated Trajekt from any pitching machine that came before it. Basham ultimately became Pope’s first customer, bringing it to the Cubs in the spring of 2021. By 2022, seven teams had it. A year later, it had grown to 12. Now it has spread to nearly two-thirds of the industry.

Pope’s company — co-founded by one-time classmate and current chief technology officer Rowan Ferrabee — now has 15 full-time employees and produces 20 machines a year. Forty of them are in use within MLB, with some teams having as many as six — one on the major league side and one at every minor league affiliate. Some are considering renting additional ones to use out of their academies in the Dominican Republic.

Pope said approximately half the machines are used at regular-season ballparks and the other half are used in the minors. He has heard of Triple-A catchers who use it to get a feel for the stuff thrown by the major league pitchers they’ll catch after getting promoted; pitchers who look at the shape of their own pitches to get a better feel for how they’re seen from the batter’s box; and, notably, teams shuttling prospects through reps against major league pitchers at their spring training complexes to get a baseline for performance.

“Obviously the most exciting ones are when a big-name player is facing a starting pitcher that day and in the first inning they hit a home run because they predicted a slider coming and they leveraged that off Trajekt and got a result,” Pope said. “We have countless anecdotes like that. But I think the more nuanced one, of evaluation and preparing for the game even prior to making it to the big leagues, is also something that we find really exciting, because it gives more opportunity to more people to have a chance at extreme, high-level practice, which is hard to get.

“Players can only throw full speed so often, and their reps are limited in training. And therefore it’s very tough to develop to that next level.”

A spring training ACL tear prevented Rhys Hoskins from playing for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2023. But when the Phillies made a playoff run late into that season, Hoskins held on to faint hopes that he might contribute. His month of October was spent at the team’s spring training facility in Clearwater, Florida, hitting off the Trajekt machine in hopes of getting as acclimated to major league pitching as possible if summoned at a moment’s notice. He began by holding a clicker instead of a bat, pressing a button to indicate swing decisions to help him distinguish balls from strikes, then progressed to full-on hitting, seeing up to 200 pitches a day.

“I felt pretty ready in terms of being in the box from a hitting standpoint in order to join those guys if that’s what the organization decided, mostly because you’re just able to replicate some of the speed of the game,” said Hoskins, now a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. “It’s hard to do that with a BP arm or even a normal machine.”

Hoskins, who ultimately wasn’t activated for last year’s World Series run, now regularly uses Trajekt to track pitches between at-bats when he serves as the designated hitter for home games. He has implored the Brewers’ pitchers to use it themselves to “remind them how nasty they are.” Angels pitching coach Barry Enright recently did that with his starters, bringing them all in to watch their pitches from behind home plate as something of a confidence boost to encourage strike-throwing.

Within the next two years, Pope’s goal is for every major league team to deploy at least one Trajekt Arc. He thinks more pitchers will realize its benefits, but it’s still very much a hitters’ tool. High-speed cameras are used to dissect their mechanics, weighted bats have helped to increase their bat speed, Blast Motion (a sensor placed on the knob of bats) became popular for its instant swing metrics. But a hitter’s best chance of keeping up with contemporary velocity and break, coaches say, is training the eyes by seeing those pitches as often as possible.

Virtual-reality hitting machines developed out of that concept, helping to spawn physical pitch-replicators like iPitch. Trajekt has taken it to another level — adding the visual of an opposing pitcher and the freedom of movement that has made it feel more lifelike.

“Some really high-tech machines, tools, toys, don’t really exist on the hitting side,” Hoskins said. “For this to kind of be the first big thing obviously means there’s more coming. There’s always ideas coming; it’s just, ‘How do you execute them?’ But this is a great start.”

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