The good, the bad, the questionable in the SEC, another dramatic Notre Dame ending and more from Week 5
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
Here’s perhaps the single most baffling question of September: Is Georgia still great?
Oh, the Bulldogs are 5-0 because they’ve played some bad teams, and they have some very good players. And they’re still No. 1 in the polls because all of us watched the past two seasons of college football.
But that doesn’t address the core concern that, five games into this season, we’ve yet to see Georgia play anything close to a truly impressive game.
The Bulldogs started slow against UT-Martin in the opener, with a touchdown three seconds from the break the only reason a 17-0 halftime score didn’t look much uglier.
They started slow against Ball State, failing to score in the first quarter.
They trailed South Carolina 14-3 at halftime in Week 3.
They didn’t pull away from UAB in Week 4 until midway through the third quarter.
And Saturday, the Bulldogs went to the wire against an Auburn team with one of the most anemic offenses in the country.
In fairness to Georgia, Apple designed the alarm clock on its phones so the “snooze” button is far more prominent than the “off” button.
Carson Beck has been … fine. He threw for 313 yards and a TD in the win.
The ground game has been … fine. Daijun Edwards scored twice against Auburn.
The defense has been … fine. Payton Thorne and Robby Ashford picked up some yards with their legs, but Auburn’s passing game couldn’t hit water if it fell out of a boat.
It’s all fine. But we’ve come to expect so much more from the Bulldogs, the two-time defending champs, winners of 22 straight games. And in a year in which the SEC is one giant pile of meh, it’s entirely jarring to see Georgia follow suit.
Of course, the SEC might be simply playing possum — the same way Georgia has throughout the first halves of nearly every game it’s played so far.
Is LSU good? Ole Miss? The two teams put on defensive performances Saturday that might’ve ended with lesser coaches being fired on an airport tarmac. The Tigers opened the season No. 5 in the country but now have two losses after allowing 711 yards to the Rebels, who set a school record. Meanwhile, the Ole Miss defense was enough of a catastrophe, too, that Lane Kiffin spent the bulk of the game looking like a hedge fund manager who was forced to take care of his kids for a weekend after his nanny quit. So maybe neither team is elite, but at least they know how to put on a show.
Ole Miss rushes the field! Just an incredible amount of khaki shorts, polos, and backwards hats on the field in Oxford. pic.twitter.com/90JjIqOxKt
ā Ross Martin (@RossMartinNC) October 1, 2023
Maybe Alabama is for real. The Tide do seem to have some rhythm with Jalen Milroe at QB. Besides, what are the odds they play someone tougher than USF the rest of the year?
Joe Milton looked entirely pedestrian against South Carolina, throwing two picks, but the ground game, led by Jaylen Wright, made up for it. Still, it’s tough to trust a team that lost to Florida.
Part of the college football world was sleeping on Kentucky more like it had just finished a second hot brown and was going into hibernation for a while. But Big Blue looks to be for real.
The other part of the college football world has been patiently waiting to see Texas A&M enter its inevitable doom spiral, when Jimbo Fisher fires Bobby Petrino for having a play card that doesn’t include footnotes, six addendums and a foreword by Gay Talese. But the Aggies are plugging along, and they look like they might actually be a player in the West.
On Saturday, Kentucky and Texas A&M made statements: Ignore them at your own risk.
There were six SEC teams ranked behind Georgia this week, though the conference looks to be a week or two away from changing its name to “others receiving votes.” Five of those seven had a loss already, and four of them were ranked in the 20s, positioned precariously between Duke and Kansas.
Kentucky (5-0) and A&M (4-1), however, were unranked.
The last time an SEC team started 4-0 and wasn’t ranked entering Week 5 was Missouri in 2013. Thirty-seven SEC teams have started 4-0 after that, and all were ranked… except these Kentucky Wildcats.
Yes, seven teams were ranked heading into Week 5, but five of those seven have a loss, and four of them were ranked in the 20s, positioned precariously between Duke and Kansas.
And despite all of that, 4-0 Kentucky found itself outside the top 25, which had to have felt like a massive insult, like calling UK a basketball school. Indeed, the last time an SEC team started 4-0 and wasn’t ranked entering Week 5 was Missouri in 2013. Thirty-seven SEC teams have started 4-0 after that, and all were ranked … except the Wildcats.
Funny thing, though: That 2013 Missouri team finally earned a number next to its name in Week 6, then beat a top-10 Georgia team en route to an SEC championship game appearance and a No. 5 ranking in the final AP poll.
Kentucky? The Wildcats will certainly be ranked next week, when they get — wait for it — Georgia.
On Saturday, Ray Davis utterly demoralized a Florida team that, quite frankly, had no business being in the top 25. Davis came up just shy of the school record for rushing yards, but still finished with 280 on the ground. He became the first SEC player to run for 250 yards and score four times in a conference game since Nick Fitzgerald did it in the 2016 Egg Bowl. Kentucky won easily despite throwing for just 69 yards.
The Gators, by the way, had allowed just 328 yards rushing in their first four games of the season. They handed 329 to Kentucky on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Texas A&M went into Hog Country also unranked. The early-season loss to Miami felt like an emphatic statement that the Aggies were, once again, all hype and no substance. The season-ending injury to starting QB Conner Weigman only made matters worse. But Max Johnson, who we’re fairly certain is actually a middle-aged father of three with a Volvo, a mortgage and a comfortable job selling life insurance, threw for 210 yards and two touchdowns, and the Texas A&M defense made short work of what Dan Enos assures us is, in fact, Arkansas‘ offense and not an elaborate practical joke.
In other words, Saturday opened with seven ranked SEC teams that no one is actually sure are all that good, even the defending champion, and at least two more that used the early slate to shout from the rooftops that they, too, belong in the conversation.
Domers down Duke
A week ago, Notre Dame was on the wrong end of a last-minute drive by Ohio State, one final stone to the gut in a brutal rock fight of a game.
On Saturday, the Irish delivered the same pain to Duke, when Audric Estime found the end zone on a 30-yard run with 31 seconds to play for the go-ahead score in Notre Dame’s 21-14 win.
It was the type of physical, grueling, nasty game that, it appears, will be Notre Dame’s lot in life this season. The Irish led 10-0 at the half. The two QBs had struggled badly. The ground games couldn’t get going. Duke missed two chip-shot field goals, and Notre Dame missed a third. It was two teams taking turns getting locked in a closet.
But something changed at halftime. We’re going to assume Duke coach Mike Elko told his team he had audio of Lou Holtz claiming Stanford had a better law school, Ken Jeong was just OK in “The Hangover,” and Mike Krzyzewski went downhill after he started recruiting one-and-dones.
In other words, Duke got mad — like, Trent Dilfer-after-a-bad-penalty mad.
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Trent Dilfer incensed on the sideline after a costly penalty
Trent Dilfer erupts on multiple assistant coaches after UAB draws a costly illegal substitution penalty.
Seriously, Dilfer. It was just a flag. That type of behavior should be reserved for youth hockey games and wanting Chick-fil-A on a Sunday.
Regardless, the Blue Devils looked like a new team in the second half, pushing the line of scrimmage on offense routinely and tripping up Notre Dame’s explosive ground game as if they had 11 Grayson Allens on defense. Riley Leonard engineered an 11-play touchdown drive to end the third quarter and an 80-yard touchdown drive midway through the fourth to take a 14-13 lead.
The Irish were down to their final breath — a fourth-and-16 on which Sam Hartman found zero receivers downfield but instead scrambled for 17 yards and new life. Two plays later, Estime found the end zone.
The win was also the 30th straight for Notre Dame against the ACC in the regular season, marking the biggest insult to the conference since Florida State’s last board of trustees meeting.
It was one final bright spot for a Notre Dame offense that has the feel of an 18-wheeler driven by a golden retriever — lumbering, erratic and dangerous. If this is to be what’s in store for the remainder of the season for the Irish, it might be best to stock up on whiskey and antacids. It could be a bumpy ride.
After an incredibly frustrating start to the season in which Clemson dropped its first two ACC games, the Tigers finally figured things out Saturday with a 31-14 win against Syracuse.
Figured out their kicking issues? Well, no. That’s still a problem. Jonathan Weitz, the kicker Clemson pulled off the beach two weeks ago, was just 1 of 2 in field goal tries, and Clemson has now missed five kicks this year, trailing only future fellow ACC member Cal.
Figured out its red zone problems? Well, Cade Klubnik was sacked on a fourth-and-2 at the Syracuse 5-yard line. In all, Clemson was in Syracuse territory on 12 of 14 drives, but found the end zone on just four of them.
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Cade Klubnik airs it out for a 47-yard TD pass
Cade Klubnik airs it out and finds Beaux Collins wide-open down the field for a 47-yard Clemson TD.
Figured out their turnover issues? The Tigers entered the game having allowed the fifth-most points off turnovers in the country (36), more than they allowed in any of the past three full seasons. The good news is they only added seven more to that total Saturday.
Figured out issues on the O-line? Ah, Syracuse did have 13 tackles for loss in the game, the most Clemson has allowed in a game since 2013.
But figured out how to get the other team to make a whole bunch of mistakes so they can finally win an ACC game? You betcha!
Syracuse had nine penalties, turned the ball over three times and gave up a short-field TD after a strange decision to attempt a 57-yard field goal near the end of the first half — all more than enough to hand Clemson the game.
Where does this leave the Tigers? Klubnik continues to improve, throwing for 263 yards and two touchdowns. Freshman Tyler Brown looks like an emerging superstar after hauling in 151 yards, and the defense held Syracuse to less than 300 yards.
It may not have been the prettiest win, but for Clemson, any win is a good one.
Coach Neal Brown tried to tell all those lazy reporters they’d gotten it wrong by picking West Virginia last in the Big 12, but you know how the lame-stream media is — never admitting a mistake.
Well, we didn’t technically have a vote in the Big 12 preseason poll, but we’ll eat some crow anyway. Well, not literally.
The Mountaineers edged TCU 24-21 in Fort Worth, Texas, on Saturday, moving to 4-1 on the season, with the lone loss coming to undefeated Penn State in Week 1. You know who else beat TCU this year? Colorado. So, we’re saying Neal Brown is essentially the Deion Sanders of Appalachia.
Heisman Five
Honorary Heisman Five nod this week to Duke’s Riley Leonard, who played a heck of a game against Notre Dame, only to end it with a loss and a leg injury that looked bad. Here’s hoping he’s back on the field for the Blue Devils soon.
1. USC QB Caleb Williams
The more we see of USC’s defense, the more we understand just how valuable Williams is. He threw six touchdown passes in the Trojans’ 48-41 win. If he can just do that against Notre Dame, Utah, Washington, Oregon and UCLA later this year, too, USC might really have a special season. If not, that D needs to find some answers.
2. Washington QB Michael Penix Jr.
Last week, we noted that Penix had thrown 13 first-half touchdowns through four games. So what did he do for an encore in the first half against Arizona’s often-hapless defense Saturday? A goose egg! We apologize for the writer jinx.
3. Florida State QB Jordan Travis
He was off this week, which gives us time to debate an important question. Florida State’s online fan base has garnered a reputation for, shall we say, aggressive commentary. But do we still call them #FSUTwitter? Or are they #FSUX now? Because that just looks like F-Sux, which, if the “F” stands for Florida, #FSUTwitter probably agrees with, but otherwise, it’s just really confusing. We have to imagine Elon Musk didn’t realize the important implications of this name change when he made it.
4. Oklahoma QB Dillon Gabriel
Is Oklahoma good this year? Last year’s defense was a mess. This year’s looked to be improved. But then Saturday’s game against Iowa State seemed like obvious regression. Of course, if you have Gabriel throwing for 366 yards and accounting for five touchdowns, it probably doesn’t matter.
5. Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders
So what if the shine is off the Buffaloes. Sanders continues to look terrific, and his 421 total yards and five touchdowns against USC should keep him in the Heisman discussion at least a little longer.
Under-the-radar game of the week
Utah State is not good.
UConn is not good.
But basic math tells us that the product of two negatives is a positive, and the Aggies and Huskies delivered the goods Saturday.
UConn went up 17-0 early. Utah State stormed back to take a 24-17 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The teams traded scores twice more, and the Aggies clung to a 34-27 lead in the game’s final minute.
Jelani Stafford appeared to have UConn poised for overtime, however, when he plunged into the end zone from a yard out with 40 seconds to play. All the Huskies needed was the PAT.
Unfortunately, UConn forgot to block Ike Larsen.
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Ike Larsen blocks UConn’s PAT attempt to win game for Utah State
Ike Larsen finds a gap in UConn’s offensive line and blocks the point after touchdown attempt to seal a 34-33 win for Utah State.
You can almost hear Jim Mora yelling, “D’oh!”
UConn is now 0-5 on the season, which is entirely reassuring for those of us who’d retreated to our underground nuclear fallout shelters following last year’s bowl appearance.
Under-the-radar play of the week
In any other week, Timmy McClain‘s 16-yard completion to RJ Harvey to convert a fourth down would’ve been the talk of Orlando, Florida. The ball was at the UCF 30, McClain took the snap at the 25, dropped back to the 20, was pressured, then scrambled back and back and back three yards into his own end zone before breaking free and delivering a laser that might’ve set up a thrilling victory.
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UCF’s Timmy McClain makes unreal play to keep game going
UCF’s Timmy McClain evades the Baylor pass rush, tracks back to his own end zone and flings a 16-yard completion to convert on fourth down.
Unfortunately for UCF, they don’t throw parades for almost winning. (Oh, wait …)
UCF was actually up 35-10 entering the fourth quarter but allowed 26 unanswered points by Baylor in such comical fashion the stadium sound crew should’ve been playing “Yakety Sax.”
Still, McClain’s throw had the Knights in position late. He actually engineered an 11-play drive over the final 1:14 of the game that managed to gain only 33 yards, a feat that seems to defy physics. It all set up an ultimately fruitless 59-yard field goal try.
Instead, it was the largest fourth-quarter comeback in Baylor history and just the second fourth-quarter comeback of 25 points or more in the past 20 seasons.
So, yeah, that’s probably what will be remembered.
Buffs prove treacherous for USC
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Caleb Williams throws 6 TDs in win over Colorado
USC QB Caleb Williams goes off in a 48-41 win over Colorado with 6 touchdowns.
No college football team had more style than Colorado for the first three weeks of the year, but over the past two games, Oregon and USC have been more than happy to play the role of antihero, upending the Buffs’ wildest dreams.
Heisman folks may still say “Welcome to New York” to Shedeur Sanders, who accounted for 421 yards and five touchdowns, but it was Caleb Williams who showed he was ready for it Saturday, throwing for 403 yards and six touchdowns in USC’s 48-41 win. Still, is the Trojans’ D trouble for Lincoln Riley?
Regardless, the Buffs’ hot start has turned into a cruel summer — er, fall — with back-to-back losses, and Coach Prime may now long for the buzz he had in August. The media gaze can be delicate, but Prime’s not listening to anyone who says he needs to calm down. Because there’s a formula for regaining all that early hype, and it didn’t require a frenetic comeback win Saturday.
Coach Prime just needs a bit more Taylor Swift in his life.
Buffs games have been jam-packed with celebrities on the sideline, but they’ve all been there to bask in Prime’s state of grace. As we saw at last week’s Kansas City Chiefs game, however, Tay Tay raises everyone’s profile.
So, with that said, here’s our effort to inject Colorado with a little bit of the Swiftie bump to get this once-promising season to begin again.
He only wants guys who can play
Tells others not to stay
That’s what people say
That’s what people say
Used to be lightning on his feet
Now he only keeps receipts
At least that’s what people say
That’s what people say
On Twitter ranked his sons
Then lost to USC and Oregon
But he’s got all this media hype
saying Prime’s gonna be alright
He’s in every Geico ad
Wears sunglasses and a hat
And that’s why they get mad
That’s why they get mad
So the Trojans might be great, great, great, great, great
But next is Arizona State, State, State, State, State
Prime’s just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
Shake it off. Shake it off.
Did you know they’re 5-0?
The Terps thumped Indiana 44-17 on Saturday to remain undefeated behind five touchdown passes from Taulia Tagovailoa. Sadly, their finest work in the game proved unsuccessful.
Maryland football’s distraction attempt during Indiana’s extra point failed, but was a good one. pic.twitter.com/MIB7JKfI6W
ā Wesley Brown (@W_Brown21) September 30, 2023
The Tigers managed to get by Vanderbilt on Saturday and remain perfect on the season. But that’s not the really surprising part. The real treat of 2023 has been the emergence of Brady Cook, who now has 11 TD passes and no picks after throwing for 395 yards and four touchdowns against the Commodores. In fact, dating back to last season, Cook has now thrown 348 straight passes without an interception — a new SEC record, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Since that last pick, Cook is completing 68% of his throws, averaging 8.4 yards per pass, and has 19 TDs. Missouri is 9-3 in that stretch.
The Longhorns are undefeated heading into the Red River … um … what are they calling it now? Rivalry? Showdown? Tete-a-tete? Regardless, they easily handled No. 24 Kansas on Saturday, finally breaking the game open in the fourth quarter but generally dominating throughout — outgaining Kansas by a ridiculous 661-to-260 margin. And since Quinn Ewers got a haircut and quit his side job as the bass player in Austin’s top Charlie Daniels tribute band (The Hardly Daniels Band) this offseason, he has been terrific at QB, throwing for 325 yards, running for 40 more and accounting for three touchdowns against the Jayhawks.
The Cardinals tripped over their own shoelaces for much of Friday night’s game against NC State, but a 53-yard field goal by Brock Travelstead (whose last name, interestingly, is the same as a website to get great deals on hotels and rental cars) for the win. Louisville is the 15th ACC team to start 5-0 in the playoff era. Eleven of the previous 14 made it to the league’s title game.
JMU sure knows how to make things interesting. They’re 5-0, with four wins vs. FBS competition coming by 1, 2, 7 and 8 points — the last a 31-23 victory over South Alabama on Saturday. The Dukes are just the fifth FBS team in the playoff era to open 5-0 with four wins coming by one possession. In the past three calendar years, JMU has played four football seasons at two different levels and posted a 32-6 record.
OK, you probably did know the Nittany Lions are 5-0, but we needed an excuse to showcase their goal-line set early in the third quarter of Saturday’s win over Northwestern.
ā no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 30, 2023
This could easily be used in one of those bar trivia games where you have to find the differences in each picture. Or it could be some sort of “Inception” situation. Either way, on the fourth play, Drew Allar ran straight ahead and finally found the end zone.
Later, James Franklin had the bus drive the team to O’Hare at 2 mph and stopped at every Burger King along I-90.
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Alden Gonzalez
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Sometime around mid-August last year, Mookie Betts convened with the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ coaches. He had taken stock of what transpired while he rehabbed a broken wrist, surveyed his team’s roster and accepted what had become plainly obvious: He needed to return to right field.
For the better part of five months, Betts had immersed himself in the painstaking task of learning shortstop in the midst of a major league season. It was a process that humbled him but also invigorated him, one he had desperately wanted to see through. On the day he gave it up, Chris Woodward, at that point an adviser who had intermittently helped guide Betts through the transition, sought him out. He shook Betts’ hand, told him how much he respected his efforts and thanked him for the work.
“Oh, it ain’t over yet,” Betts responded. “For now it’s over, but we’re going to win the World Series, and then I’m coming back.”
Woodward, now the Dodgers’ full-time first-base coach and infield instructor, recalled that conversation from the team’s spring training complex at Camelback Ranch last week and smiled while thinking about how those words had come to fruition. The Dodgers captured a championship last fall, then promptly determined that Betts, the perennial Gold Glove outfielder heading into his age-32 season, would be the every-day shortstop on one of the most talented baseball teams ever assembled.
From November to February, Betts visited high school and collegiate infields throughout the L.A. area on an almost daily basis in an effort to solidify the details of a transition he did not have time to truly prepare for last season.
Pedro Montero, one of the Dodgers’ video coordinators, placed an iPad onto a tripod and aimed its camera in Betts’ direction while he repeatedly pelted baseballs into the ground with a fungo bat, then sent Woodward the clips to review from his home in Arizona. The three spoke almost daily.
By the time Betts arrived in spring training, Woodward noticed a “night and day” difference from one year to the next. But he still acknowledges the difficulty of what Betts is undertaking, and he noted that meaningful games will ultimately serve as the truest arbiter.
The Dodgers have praised Betts for an act they described as unselfish, one that paved the way for both Teoscar Hernandez and Michael Conforto to join their corner outfield and thus strengthen their lineup. Betts himself has said his move to shortstop is a function of doing “what I feel like is best for the team.” But it’s also clear that shouldering that burden — and all the second-guessing and scrutiny that will accompany it — is something he wants.
He wants to be challenged. He wants to prove everybody wrong. He wants to bolster his legacy.
“Mookie wants to be the best player in baseball, and I don’t see why he wouldn’t want that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think if you play shortstop, with his bat, that gives him a better chance.”
ONLY 21 PLAYERS since 1900 have registered 100 career games in right field and 100 career games at shortstop, according to ESPN Research. It’s a list compiled mostly of lifelong utility men. The only one among them who came close to following Betts’ path might have been Tony Womack, an every-day right fielder in his age-29 season and an every-day shortstop in the three years that followed. But Womack had logged plenty of professional shortstop experience before then.
Through his first 12 years in professional baseball, Betts accumulated just 13 starts at shortstop, all of them in rookie ball and Low-A from 2011 to 2012. His path — as a no-doubt Hall of Famer and nine-time Gold Glove right fielder who will switch to possibly the sport’s most demanding position in his 30s — is largely without precedent. And yet the overwhelming sense around the Dodgers is that if anyone can pull it off, it’s him.
“Mookie’s different,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “I think this kind of challenge is really fun for him. I think he just really enjoys it. He’s had to put in a lot of hard work — a lot of work that people haven’t seen — but I just think he’s such a different guy when it comes to the challenge of it that he’s really enjoying it. When you look at how he approaches it, he’s having so much fun trying to get as good as he can be. There’s not really any question in anyone’s mind here that he’s going to be a very good defensive shortstop.”
Betts entered the 2024 season as the primary second baseman, a position to which he had long sought a return, but transitioned to shortstop on March 8, 12 days before the Dodgers would open their season from South Korea, after throwing issues began to plague Gavin Lux. Almost every day for the next three months, Betts put himself through a rigorous pregame routine alongside teammate Miguel Rojas and third-base coach Dino Ebel in an effort to survive at the position.
The metrics were unfavorable, scouts were generally unimpressed and traditional statistics painted an unflattering picture — all of which was to be expected. Simply put, Betts did not have the reps. He hadn’t spent significant time at shortstop since he was a teenager at Overton High School in Nashville, Tennessee. He was attempting to cram years of experience through every level of professional baseball into the space allotted to him before each game, a task that proved impossible.
Betts committed nine errors during his time at shortstop, eight of them the result of errant throws. He often lacked the proper footwork to put himself in the best position to throw accurately across the diamond, but the Dodgers were impressed by how quickly he seemed to grasp other aspects of the position that seemed more difficult for others — pre-pitch timing, range, completion of difficult plays.
Shortly after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees to win their first full-season championship since 1988, Betts sat down with Dodgers coaches and executives and expressed his belief that, if given the proper time, he would figure it out. And so it was.
“If Mook really wants to do something, he’s going to do everything he can to be an elite, elite shortstop,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “I’m not going to bet against that guy.”
THE FIRST TASK was determining what type of shortstop Betts would be. Woodward consulted with Ryan Goins, the current Los Angeles Angels infield coach who is one of Betts’ best friends. The two agreed that he should play “downhill,” attacking the baseball, making more one-handed plays and throwing largely on the run, a style that fit better for a transitioning outfielder.
During a prior stint on the Dodgers’ coaching staff, Woodward — the former Texas Rangers manager who rejoined the Dodgers staff after Los Angeles’ previous first-base coach, Clayton McCullough, became the Miami Marlins‘ manager in the offseason — implemented the same style with Corey Seager, who was widely deemed too tall to remain a shortstop.
“He doesn’t love the old-school, right-left, two-hands, make-sure-you-get-in-front-of-the-ball type of thing,” Woodward said of Betts. “It doesn’t make sense to him. And I don’t coach that way. I want them to be athletic, like the best athlete they can possibly be, so that way they can use their lower half, get into their legs, get proper direction through the baseball to line to first. And that’s what Mookie’s really good at.”
Dodger Stadium underwent a major renovation of its clubhouse space over the offseason, making the field unusable and turning Montero and Betts into nomads. From the second week of November through the first week of February, the two trained at Crespi Carmelite High School near Betts’ home in Encino, California, then Sierra Canyon, Los Angeles Valley College and, finally, Loyola High.
For a handful of days around New Year’s, Betts flew to Austin, Texas, to get tutelage from Troy Tulowitzki, the five-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner whose mechanics Betts was drawn to. In early January, when wildfires spread through the L.A. area, Betts flew to Glendale, Arizona, to train with Woodward in person.
Mostly, though, it was Montero as the eyes and ears on the ground and Woodward as the adviser from afar. Their sessions normally lasted about two hours in the morning, evolving from three days a week to five and continually ramping up in intensity. The goal for the first two months was to hone the footwork skills required to make a variety of different throws, but also to give Betts plenty of reps on every ground ball imaginable.
When January came, Betts began to carve out a detailed, efficient routine that would keep him from overworking when the games began. It accounted for every situation, included backup scenarios for uncontrollable events — when it rained, when there wasn’t enough time, when pregame batting practice stretched too long — and was designed to help Betts hold up. What was once hundreds of ground balls was pared down to somewhere in the neighborhood of 35, but everything was accounted for.
LAST YEAR, BETTS’ throws were especially difficult for Freddie Freeman to catch at first base, often cutting or sailing or darting. But when Freeman joined Betts in spring training, he noticed crisp throws that consistently arrived with backspin and almost always hit the designated target. Betts was doing a better job of getting his legs under him on batted balls hit in a multitude of directions. Also, Rojas said, he “found his slot.”
“Technically, talking about playing shortstop, finding your slot is very important because you’re throwing the ball from a different position than when you throw it from right field,” Rojas explained. “You’re not throwing the ball from way over the top or on the bottom. So he’s finding a slot that is going to work for him. He’s understanding now that you need a slot to throw the ball to first base, you need a slot to throw the ball to second base, you need a slot to throw the ball home and from the side.”
Dodgers super-utility player Enrique Hernandez has noticed a “more loose” Betts at shortstop this spring. Roberts said Betts is “two grades better” than he was last year, before a sprained left wrist placed him on the injured list on June 17 and prematurely ended his first attempt. Before reporting to spring training, Betts described himself as “a completely new person over there.”
“But we’ll see,” he added.
The games will be the real test. At that point, Woodward said, it’ll largely come down to trusting the work he has put in over the past four months. Betts is famously hard on himself, and so Woodward has made it a point to remind him that, as long as his process is sound, imperfection is acceptable.
“This is dirt,” Woodward will often tell him. “This isn’t perfect.”
The Dodgers certainly don’t need Betts to be their shortstop. If it doesn’t work out, he can easily slide back to second base. Rojas, the superior defender whose offensive production prompted Betts’ return to right field last season, can fill in on at least a part-time basis. So can Tommy Edman, who at this point will probably split his time between center field and second base, and so might Hyeseong Kim, the 26-year-old middle infielder who was signed out of South Korea this offseason.
But it’s clear Betts wants to give it another shot.
As Roberts acknowledged, “He certainly felt he had unfinished business.”
LAKELAND, Fla. — Detroit Tigers outfielder Akil Baddoo had surgery to repair a broken bone in his right hand and will miss the start of the regular season.
Manager A.J. Hinch said Friday that Baddoo had more tests done after some continued wrist soreness since the start of spring training. Those tests revealed the hamate hook fracture in his right hand that was surgically repaired Thursday.
Baddoo, 26, who has been with the Tigers since 2021, is at spring training as a non-roster player. He was designated for assignment in December after Detroit signed veteran right-hander Alex Cobb to a $15 million, one-year contract. Baddoo cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Toledo.
Cobb is expected to miss the start of the season after an injection to treat hip inflammation that developed as the right-hander was throwing at the start of camp. He has had hip surgery twice.
Baddoo hit .137 with two homers and five RBIs in 31 games last season. The left-hander has a .226 career average with 28 homers and 103 RBI in 340 games.
After the Tigers acquired him from Minnesota in the Rule 5 draft at the winter meetings in December 2020, Baddoo hit .259 with 13 homers, 55 RBIs, 18 stolen bases and a .330 on-base percentage in 124 games as a rookie in 2021. Those are all career bests.
Baddoo went into camp in a crowded outfield. The six outfielders on Detroit’s 40-man roster include three other left-handed hitters (Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter and Parker Meadows) and switch-hitter Wenceel PeĢrez. The other outfielders are right-handers Matt Vierling and Justyn-Henry Malloy.
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