Another full Saturday of spring game action is upon us and there’s no shortage of intriguing storylines to monitor.

New coach Sherrone Moore leads defending champion Michigan, but who will be under center for the Wolverines this fall? The post-Caleb Williams era gets underway at USC, while Oklahoma and Texas get ready for life in the SEC.

What are the key position battles, potential breakout players and must-see newcomers from Saturdays 24 games? Let’s break it down.

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Most intriguing newcomer: Kadarius Calloway‘s circuitous path to Berkeley began as one of the nation’s top safety recruits in 2021, when he signed with Alabama only to unenroll before his freshman year and begin his career as a running back at East Mississippi Community College, instead. After two years, he moved on to Old Dominion, where he rushed 88 times for 623 yards last season. His 7.1 yards per carry were enough to warrant interest from bigger programs and now he’ll finish his career on the West Coast playing in the ACC. The Bears have a star running back in Jaydn Ott, but there is space on the depth chart for Calloway to earn a meaningful role. — Kyle Bonagura

Position battle to watch: Duke thinks it has three serviceable quarterbacks, and two — Texas transfer Maalik Murphy and last year’s late-season starter Grayson Loftis — will see plenty of work in the spring, um, game? Yeah, that’s the problem. Duke is so thin on the O-line as spring winds to a close that it won’t hold a traditional scrimmage, which certainly makes the job of evaluating the most important position on the field a little tougher. But as new head coach Manny Diaz said, quarterback might be the one area where the Blue Devils feel particularly comfortable.

Murphy has been a quick study since arriving from Austin, and Loftis battled through some tough times late last year and still produced some memorable performances. The third member of the cast, Henry Belin, is still recovering from an injury, but he could work his way into the mix this summer. Diaz noted that when Duke’s been good, it’s almost always been because it had exceptional quarterback play. He’s got the pieces for 2024, if only he can find enough big guys to stand in front of them. — David Hale

Most intriguing newcomer: You know where we’re going with this. It’s quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who transferred to the Seminoles from Oregon State, after starting his career at Clemson. Florida State lost the bulk of its offensive production from last season, with QB Jordan Travis, RB Trey Benson and WRs Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman all moving on. But it all starts with the signal-caller, where Uiagalelei must replace Travis and everything he did for the offense.

Uiagalelei said he feels comfortable in the scheme, and though he’s capable of running, don’t expect him to run as much as Travis did. He’s gotten better and better as the spring has progressed, and has some talent at receiver from transfer Malik Benson, veteran Kentron Poitier and speedsters Ja’Khi Douglas and Hykeem Williams that he’s building chemistry with. He may end up getting more reps than usual in the spring game, as coach Mike Norvell said this week that backups Brock Glenn and Luke Kromenhoek will not play due to minor injuries. That leaves Uiagalelei and early enrollee freshman Trever Jackson as the top two quarterbacks available. — Andrea Adelson

Position battle to watch: During last season’s run to the ACC title game, Louisville’s depth at wide receiver was consistently challenged. After Jamari Thrash (63 catches, 858 yards), another consistent threat never quite developed, and when Thrash battled injuries late, it took a toll on the Cards’ offense. Entering 2024, the problem may be even deeper, with Thrash representing just a chunk of the 69% of Louisville’s receiving yardage from last season now gone from the roster.

The top offseason acquisition — Alabama transfer Ja’Corey Brooks, is dealing with an injury, leaving Chris Bell, Caullin Lacy, Jadon Thompson, Jimmy Calloway and others to handle the bulk of the reps. Coach Jeff Brohm looks to dive into the transfer portal looking for some help at the position, but a strong finish from some of the holdovers from 2023 would at least make for a less pressure-packed summer as Brohm looks for more downfield targets. — Adelson

Most intriguing newcomer: How about two intriguing newcomers? Left tackle Howard Sampson (6-8, 325) transferred from North Texas, where he previously worked with new Heels O-line coach Randy Clements, and center Austin Blaske (6-5, 310) arrives from Georgia. They’ve helped remake UNC’s front. Indeed, Mack Brown joked that his wife made a point to tell him that the unit, “looks a lot better getting off the bus.” That’s translated to a far more consistent performance for a unit that is replacing four starters, but it’s OC Chip Lindsey who thinks it could be better than last year’s group.

Sampson and Blaske will be the headlining acts on the O-line in the spring game, but UNC also has two more potential starters — Jakiah Leftwich from Georgia Tech and Zach Greenberg from Muhlenberg — arriving this summer. If the line proves to be a serious strength, as Lindsey expects, the pressure on Max Johnson or Conner Harrell to replace star quarterback Drake Maye gets a lot easier to manage. — Hale

Position battle to watch: As Stanford’s primary quarterback last year, Ashton Daniels showed signs of promise. He finished the year with 2,247 yards passing and had a pair of 350+ yard passing performances, but his inconsistency was one of several issues that plagued the Cardinal in Troy Taylor’s first season as head coach. Daniels certainly is the favorite to win the job to begin the 2024 season, but this is by no means his job. Enter Elijah Brown, California’s Mr. Football in 2023. The Mater Dei High product arrived at Stanford in January as ESPN’s No. 11-ranked pocket passer in the country. Stanford hasn’t traditionally let its true freshman quarterbacks play right away, but perhaps there is a new mindset with Taylor calling the shots. — Bonagura

Most intriguing newcomer: Kyle McCord may have shocked some when he announced he was transferring from Ohio State to Syracuse, but considering all his connections to the coaching staff, the move made sense. Now he has a chance to try to elevate a Syracuse program that has been searching for consistency year in and year out. McCord is from New Jersey and knew coach Fran Brown going back to his prep days. He also played youth football with the son of offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon. McCord says he has complete comfort in the offense Nixon is bringing from the NFL, because it uses similar concepts that he ran under his former coach at Ohio State, Ryan Day. That has helped ease the learning curve somewhat.

McCord says he has spent a lot of time getting to know his new receiver group, pointing out how Jackson Meeks and Trebor Pena have been coming along. This is all without receiver/tight end Oronde Gadsden II, who remains limited with a foot injury, but is expected to be full go by the time fall camp rolls around. — Adelson

Position battle to watch: Quarterbacks Tony Muskett and Anthony Colandrea have split first-team reps this spring, though coaches have cautioned they did not want either player to feel like they were in the heat of competition. Instead, the focus was on getting better with each practice.

Both played a season ago. Muskett started the season but dealt with multiple injuries over the course of the year to his shoulder and ankle. With Muskett out, Colandrea got the opportunity to play as a true freshman and made some wow plays at times. At others, he made freshman mistakes, finishing the season with 13 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. Expect them to split the reps evenly again in the spring game, but do not expect any decisions on a starter until the fall. — Adelson

Position battle to watch: Quarterback. Wake Forest brought in transfer Hank Bachmeier (now at his third stop) to compete for the starting job with Michael Kern this spring. Unfortunately for Kern, he has missed most of spring camp with a hand injury. That has left Bachmeier and freshman Jeremy Hecklinski to get the bulk of the reps.

Bachmeier has shown his veteran presence and picked up the offense quickly, while Kern has been able to attend all the practices and help him pick up all the nuisances of the offense. Kern is expected back by midsummer, and the competition will continue into fall camp. Don’t expect a starter to be named any time soon. One more position to watch: running back. Demond Claiborne is getting all the first-team reps and will be a focal point of the offense behind a veteran offensive line. — Adelson

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Position battle to watch: The reigning national champions have an ongoing five-way quarterback competition to replace J.J. McCarthy, who could be a top-five pick in the upcoming NFL draft. Jack Tuttle, who in February was approved for a seventh college season, is the elder statesman of the group. Tuttle started five games at Indiana before transferring to Michigan last year. He is being pushed by senior Davis Warren, juniors Alex Orji and Jayden Denegal and true freshman Jadyn Davis, who was the No. 4-ranked dual-threat QB recruit in the country before enrolling early. A big performance in Michigan’s spring game could give any of these five quarterbacks an edge in the competition heading into the summer. — Jake Trotter

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Most intriguing newcomer: Running back Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks arrives at USC from Mississippi State after four steady (albeit not exactly standout) seasons in the SEC. Both he and USC are hoping this partnership can be mutually beneficial after Marks totaled 3,339 all-purpose yards and 27 touchdowns for the Bulldogs across four years.

Much like how the additions of Travis Dye and MarShawn Lloyd in previous years via the transfer portal gave the Trojans a deeper veteran backfield presence while boosting the profiles of Dye and Lloyd, Marks has shown the potential to fit well into that role this spring. With a new quarterback under center and a wide receivers room that’s full of talent but also inexperience, running back will be a crucial position in determining how effective Lincoln Riley’s offense is this upcoming season with Caleb Williams no longer there. — Paolo Uggetti

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Most intriguing newcomer: Offensive tackle J.C. Davis. Illinois needed to address its offensive line after the 2023 season and picked up several transfers in the winter portal, including Davis, a first-team All-Mountain West selection at New Mexico last season. A one-time junior-college transfer, Davis started two seasons at left tackle for the Lobos. He can be a dominant run-blocker for an Illinois offense trying to reestablish its ground game, which slipped to 96th nationally last fall.

The 6-foot-5, 320-pound Davis will help protect quarterback Luke Altmyer, as Illinois finished 116th nationally in sacks allowed per game in 2023. Coach Bret Bielema’s best teams — at Wisconsin, Arkansas and Illinois — have been built at the line of scrimmage, and Davis will have a significant role in a revamped offensive front trying to reestablish itself after some slippage. — Adam Rittenberg

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Position battle to watch: Iowa needs the wide receiver position to contribute much more under new offensive coordinator Tim Lester. Although the receivers haven’t been the only problem during the offense’s historically bad two-year stretch, it didn’t provide much to change the unit’s trajectory. Iowa returns only two receivers, Kaleb Brown and Seth Anderson, who caught passes last season, as they combined for 33 receptions and 365 yards. Who else has emerged this spring, especially with starting quarterback Cade McNamara still recovering from his knee injury? Although Iowa gets a big boost with tight end Luke Lachey’s return, Lester and the staff need to assess whether they have enough at receiver coming out of the spring, and how aggressive they should be in the spring transfer cycle. — Rittenberg

Breakout player: Quarterback Aidan Chiles. New MSU coach Jonathan Smith and his staff added several key transfers during their first few weeks on the job, but none more significant than Chiles. The sophomore from California immediately put himself on the radar for Smith at Oregon State after enrolling early in 2023.

Chiles was efficient in limited action last season, completing 24 of 35 passes for 309 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He added three rushing touchdowns for the Beavers and averaged 4.6 yards per carry. At 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, Chiles has the size and skill set to provide an immediate boost for a Spartans passing game that slipped to 96th nationally in yards per game and to 111th in efficiency last season. He understands the system Smith and offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren want to run, and the added stress placed on the quarterback spot. — Rittenberg

Breakout player: Running back Caleb Komolafe. Wildcats coach David Braun recognizes the team needs more offensive thrust to compete in the new Big Ten. The team is still looking to add offensive line depth and possibly a quarterback in the spring portal, but running back projects well with Cam Porter, Joseph Himon and Komolafe, who sources say might have the highest ceiling of the three.

Komolafe appeared in only three games in 2023, recording a receiving touchdown and two carries, but his role is set to increase under new offensive coordinator Zach Lujan, who wants to use the width of the field to get the team’s top playmakers in space. At 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, Komolafe has a size-speed combination Northwestern likes. — Rittenberg

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Position battle to watch: Dave Aranda made a switch at offensive coordinator, replacing Jeff Grimes and his NFL-style offense with Air Raid stalwart Jake Spavital, which brings a new competition at quarterback. Sawyer Robertson played his freshman year for Mike Leach in the same system at Mississippi State before transferring to Baylor, where he played in six games with four starts last year, throwing for 864 yards and four TDs with two interceptions. Robertson is challenged by Toledo transfer Dequann Finn, who has 32 career starts and led the Rockets to an 11-2 season and a spot in the MAC title game, being named conference MVP after throwing for 2,657 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for 563. — Dave Wilson

Breakout player: 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman wide receiver Beni Ngoyi is a Lincoln, Nebraska, native who picked Iowa State over offers from Nebraska and Washington. He’s got the potential to be a big-play target for QB Rocco Becht, last year’s Big 12 offensive freshman of the year, alongside returning WRs Jaylin Noel (66 catches, 820 yards and 7 TDs in 2023) and Jayden Higgins (52-983-6).

Ngoyi showed his speed with a 46-yard catch from Becht in last year’s Liberty Bowl, which he played in while preserving his redshirt, and coach Matt Campbell has praised his performance this spring. — Wilson

Most intriguing newcomer: The Red Raiders and coordinator Zach Kittley like to throw the ball around, and Washington State transfer Josh Kelly (who previously spent three years at Fresno State) figures to be on the receiving end of plenty of those passes. He caught 61 passes for 923 yards and eight touchdowns last year in Pullman and has played in 38 games with 148 career catches. In two of WSU’s biggest games, he had eight catches for 159 yards and three TDs against Oregon State, and eight grabs for 106 yards and a TD in the Apple Cup loss to Washington. In one final season, he could be one of the top receivers in the Big 12. — Wilson

Position battle to watch: Gevani McCoy, Ben Gulbranson and Gabarri Johnson make up a unique quarterback battle as Oregon State navigates a period of uncertainty following the collapse of the Pac-12. First, there’s Gulbranson, who went 7-1 in eight starts for the Beavers in 2022 before being replaced by D.J. Uiagalelei last season. Then there’s McCoy, who had a brilliant two-year run at FCS Idaho, where he was the Jerry Rice Award winner in 2022 (best freshman in FCS) and was a Walter Payton Award finalist last year and a first-team All-Big Sky selection. Finally, there’s Johnson, ESPN’s No. 7 ranked quarterback in the Class of 2023, who spent his freshman year at Missouri before opting to return to the Pacific Northwest. — Bonagura

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Most intriguing newcomer: With Will Rogers gone, it appears that Baylor transfer Blake Shapen is going to be the guy in Starkville, and he immediately becomes its most intriguing newcomer. In eight games last year, Shapen completed 61.7% of his passes for 2,188 yards and 13 touchdowns with three interceptions. He is going to be important as new head coach Jeff Lebby makes his mark in his first year as a head coach. Back in December, Lebby said, “When I watch him, I think, ‘That’s our kind of guy.'” If Lebby is that confident in Shapen, it certainly should hold weight given the coach’s track record of potent offenses at UCF, Ole Miss and Oklahoma. — Harry Lyles Jr.

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Most intriguing newcomer: The Sooners are losing their leading receiver from a year ago, Drake Stoops. But first-year starting quarterback Jackson Arnold has liked what he has seen this spring from his pass-catchers and thinks OU will be more explosive throwing the football. One of the reasons why is the addition of Purdue transfer Deion Burks, who’s shown versatility and the ability to get open and make big plays. Burks caught 47 passes for 629 yards and seven touchdowns last season at Purdue and has experience playing both outside and in the slot. Arnold has already formed a good rapport on the field with Burks, who has great speed and could also factor in the return game on special teams. The addition of Burks and continued development of returnee Jayden Gibson, who has also had a big spring, is good news for an OU passing game that will have a new offensive coordinator and new starting quarterback in 2024. — Chris Low

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Position battle to watch: LaNorris Sellers and the quarterbacks will be the thing to keep your eye on in Columbia this weekend. With Spencer Rattler gone to the NFL, the Gamecocks are looking to replace him, and Sellers is the favorite. He was the 293rd ranked player in the ESPN 300 for 2023 out of Florence, South Carolina. He appeared in three games last season, completed all four of his passes for 86 yards and two touchdowns, along with 51 yards on the ground and one touchdown.

Elsewhere at the position, Luke Doty has been focusing on working as a wide receiver, and the Gamecocks added Robby Ashford from Auburn, and Davis Beville from Oklahoma in the portal. South Carolina also has Dante Reno, a four-star out of Cheshire, Connecticut. But it appears this is Sellers’ job to lose. — Lyles

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Breakout player: As one of the top true freshmen in the country last season, linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. will hardly be a surprise to anyone in 2024. But he has everything it takes to go from one of the top freshmen to one of the top players, period, in college football in his second season with the Longhorns.

The 6-foot-3, 243-pound Hill started six games last season and didn’t waste any time showing off his talent. He had two sacks in the Week 2 victory at Alabama and finished with five. Hill has been referred to as a “chess piece” because he can be effective in so many different spots. He has spent most of his time in the middle this spring while taking over for two-time All-Big 12 selection Jaylan Ford, but Hill can chase the ball sideline-to-sideline with the best of them and also rush the passer. In short, he’s an impact player wherever he lines up and a player who will be a tone-setter for Texas’ defense this season. — Low

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Most intriguing newcomer: Several of Texas A&M’s top performers on defense from a year ago are gone, either to the transfer portal or NFL draft. So going out and getting a proven edge rusher in the portal the caliber of Nic Scourton was critical for first-year coach Mike Elko.

Scourton finished with 10 sacks last season at Purdue to lead the Big Ten and was recently rated as the No. 2 returning edge rusher for the 2024 season by Pro Football Focus. The 6-foot-4, 280-pound Scourton plays with power and is not just a pass-rusher either. He’s equally stout against the run. Scourton played his high school football in nearby Bryan, Texas, but the Aggies didn’t offer. Since then, he’s transformed his body and added more than 50 pounds. Elko, who was Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator at the time, is eager to see what this version of Scourton can do in the SEC. The Aggies lost more than half of the players who accounted for their 42 sacks from last season. Scourton, paired with returning senior defensive lineman Shemar Turner, should help fill that void. — Low

THE BASEBALL SWING is a puzzle, an ever-changing riddle. Even for the best hitters in the world, the fragility of the swing is palpable. Every minuscule detail matters. Batters are not machines, built to replicate the same action countless times before they are replaced. They are human beings aiming to be their most machine-like and grappling with the defect of the endeavor.

Perhaps the best representation of this duality belongs to Corey Seager, the shortstop for the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers. Seager obsesses over his swing. “I love the process,” he says. “You have to enjoy it to be able to do this, right?” Now in his 10^th major league season, Seager has grown into one of the game’s finest hitters as much because of the time he spends fine-tuning his swing as the inherent ability packed into his 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame.

Seager’s left-handed swing is gorgeous, rhythmic, elegant even. It is an aesthetic marvel, its art rooted in its science. Seager is a baseball engineer, building complex processes on the fly. Every movement has meaning and the end product — the swing — is a one-man symphony.

And yet Seager lives with perpetual anxiety, worrying that for all of the time and effort and energy he devotes to his swing, it could desert him at the most inopportune moment. For all of the offense his swing produces, it exists equally as a defense mechanism. Seager’s infatuation is also his torment.

“The fear of failure,” he says. “Failure definitely drives me more than anything else.”

So the man widely regarded as the most clutch hitter of his generation focuses on the most microscopic of details. Little invigorates Seager more than the daily rebuild of his swing. This is the process in action.

“It takes an aggressive humility to say, ‘I’ve been a multiple-time World Series MVP, Rookie of the Year and every day I’m going to start with a blank state,'” Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker says. “‘How do I put this thing together to be ready at 7 o’clock?’ What I appreciate about Corey is there’s no guessing. He’s not willing to do that.”

Seager understands that his cues are ever-evolving, that swings do not exist in vacuums. Aging can degrade them and injuries can contaminate them, and that’s all before trying to calibrate them for a pitcher marrying 98 on the corner with a bastard back-foot slider and a tumbling splitter just to make hitting even more the fool’s errand. The inherent defensiveness of the batter — every hitter, quite literally, is starting on the back foot — forces Seager to vise-grip everything he can control.

On the cusp of 30 years old, Seager is figuring out who he is and what he can be. And for all the help he receives, all the support offered, hitting is ultimately a solo endeavor. It’s just him and himself, raging against the fear and seeking the peace of the perfect swing and things beyond.

“There is no worse feeling than being in a bad spot in a major league batter’s box,” Seager says. “Knowing you’re in a bad spot and not being able to compete. You’re just by yourself. It’s an empty, bad place to be. You have no chance. These guys are way too good. And nobody’s coming to save you.”

BEFORE EVERY AT-BAT, Seager finds a mirror. At Globe Life Field, he heads for the one next to the batting cage or in the weight room. At the other 29 stadiums around Major League Baseball, Seager knows exactly where he can locate one, because it’s every bit as important to him as the bat he’s going to use at the plate.

When Seager stares into the looking glass, he sees angles. It’s less about mathematics than about comparing the mental snapshot of his most idealized batting stance to how closely he is reproducing it in that particular moment. This varies by the day, even the at-bat. For Seager to be who he aspires to be — the best version of himself, which consequently would be the best hitter on the planet — he must constantly tweak and contort his limbs into the proper angles to put himself in an ideal position to punish a baseball.

The mirror is Seager’s muse. He stares at himself with clarity, both literal — he’s got 20/12.5 vision — and figurative, the latter born of thousands of hours studying the angles and knowing himself better than any opponent hunting for a weakness ever could.

“Even with good vision, if you’re in a bad spot you’re not going to be able to dictate your at-bat how I would prefer to,” Seager says. “So I’ve learned that it always comes back to how I move.”

Seager’s main mirror sits in the hallway at Globe Life. A piece of white tape adorns its top frame. Written on the tape is a message: “I’m here to help you look good & move good. Please don’t break me.” Rangers hitters retreat from the dugout to partake of it, none with quite the reverence of Seager.

“The mirror,” he says, “does not lie.”

This kind of single-minded focus has helped him ascend to the highest rung of one of the game’s most successful families. His oldest brother, Kyle, was an All-Star and Gold Glove-winning third baseman with Seattle. The middle sibling, Justin, topped out at Double-A in the Mariners organization. Kyle was in the midst of his first major league season when the Dodgers chose Seager out of high school in North Carolina with the 18^th pick of the 2012 draft. Promoted to Double-A two years later after wrecking the lower minor leagues, Seager linked up with then-Dodgers minor league hitting coach Shawn Wooten, a fortuitous pairing that refined his abundant raw skills.

In Wooten, a six-year big leaguer, Seager found a kindred spirit. Seager’s obsessiveness is not limited to his swing. Everything in his orbit has a specific place and if something is not where it belongs it eats at him.

“It’s helped me in my profession to be OCD” — Seager uses the term colloquially, not clinically — “and have things lined up exactly how I need them to be,” he says. “The way he could break it down — put me in different segments of the swing, different points, different parts — is what really clicked with me. Give me how it’s going to go, what you need at that point and let me do it and figure it out. And that’s where it really clicked for us.”

Seager’s early work with Wooten consumed him, even at the oddest times. In the minor leagues, Seager lived with current Oakland A’s right-hander Ross Stripling and Stripling’s future wife, Shelby. Once, when Seager and Shelby were eating breakfast, he stood up from the table, handed her his phone and asked her to take video of him pantomiming a swing. The boundaries of swing enlightenment are anchored to neither place nor time. When Seager takes video of himself, Stripling says, “it looks like he’s doing nothing, but to him he’s doing something so important.”

Prior to games, Seager still meanders through the clubhouse with a bat in one hand and a phone connected to a tripod in the other — a digital complement to his analog mirror — scrutinizing clips of his swing and comparing them to others in a library that spans his minor league days to the present. Optimizing a swing is a constant fire drill and any tool that proves effective finds its place in Seager’s routine.

Seager and Wooten talk every day, speaking a language foreign to even other big leaguers. The nomenclature matters because Seager uses it to discuss with Wooten where his body parts belong at particular points in the swing. Achieving angles is an exercise in subtlety. When Seager arrives in the box and stares out to the endless world of outcomes on the field in front of him, he takes his mirror session and tries to duplicate it. He digs his legs into a wide base. He cantilevers his right arm. His first move starts before the pitcher releases the ball.

“Go watch a game and, if you can, watch before he gets his hands up,” Wooten says. “He just pushes his hips back and turns his front foot in. It’s by design to get on the plane of the pitch.”

Getting on plane — lowering the barrel of the bat to the same level as the incoming ball — is perhaps the most important element of the swing to Wooten. To achieve that, Seager’s back elbow drops into the slot, tucked toward his body. His back knee stays underneath his body to prevent him from lunging. His posture remains upright to allow him to hit high, inside fastballs.

Even though Seager cues himself to swing down — a long-taught tenet that has fallen out of favor in the era of hitters chasing higher launch angles — he’s not actually doing so; it’s simply terminology that Wooten found allows him to stay on plane. Seager’s head barely moves as his hips rotate and the potential energy built through his swing transfers into kinetic energy when bat meets ball.

“If there’s one thing off,” Wooten says, “it’s a big deal.”

All of it is in service of avoiding that bad spot in the box, when the walls of a 40,000-seat stadium seem as if they’re caving in, when the pitcher feels far closer than 60 feet, 6 inches away. Every session in the mirror, every moment spent crafting a routine, goes back to that.

“What makes him an outlier that puts him in the 1% of the 1% is there’s a true obsessive nature about his pursuit of mastery,” Ecker says. “Nothing about that is going to be relatable. When you’re talking about the Kobe Bryants and Tom Bradys and Corey Seagers, everything they do is on the far end of the spectrum.”

As much as Seager studies scouting reports and knows every pitcher’s arsenal, he sees that knowledge as secondary to his swing. The ultimate in control is the capacity to eliminate variables, and rather than do so by guessing what pitch is coming next Seager cuts out one side of the equation altogether, a rare approach because so few have the skill to pull it off.

“That whole question of would you rather know what’s coming or have the perfect swing,” he says, “I’m picking the perfect swing every single time.”

DIFFERENT INCARNATIONS OF Seager have manifested through the years. There was the skinny, pliable kid who arrived in the major leagues at 21 and in 2016 won Rookie of the Year. The maturing masher who when he was healthy did incredible things — his opposite-field World Series home run off Justin Verlander in 2017, punctuated by an unexpected scream of delight, remains a defining highlight of his career — but struggled to stay on the field. The in-his-prime star in 2020 who won his first World Series MVP after retooling his swing. The beneficiary of a 10-year, $325 million free agent deal from the Rangers, who were coming off a 66-96 season in 2021. And the latest build, Seager 5.0, owner of a body that doesn’t move like it once did and needed Wooten’s whispering following a disappointing first year in Texas.

By 2023, because Seager had added weight and strength over time, warping his body into angles he previously achieved was no longer an option. So going into the season, he kept what he did well — his back leg — and overhauled the rest. Ecker learned the language and served as boots on the ground to translate, forging a partnership with Wooten, now an independent hitting coach, that thrived on collaboration and brought out the best in Seager.

“He has the ability to test and retest,” Ecker says. “That second iteration is the most important part. He’s going to stress test it and be able to put it back together.”

For almost all of 2023, Seager operated as if he’d solved the puzzle. After missing six weeks in April and May with a hamstring injury, he finished the year with career highs in batting average (.327), slugging percentage (.623), home runs (33) and RBIs (96), despite playing just 119 games. If not for Shohei Ohtani, Seager would have won the AL MVP award.

And then Seager came the closest he ever has to a perfect swing, at the perfect time: Game 1 of the 2023 World Series, when he stepped to the plate in the ninth inning, one runner on, down two runs, against Arizona Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald.

Years ago, Sewald learned by accident that his low arm slot could deliver almost-impossible-to-hit high fastballs. The last home run he had issued on a fastball at the top of the strike zone came Sept. 23, 2021. Surely aware that Seager has led MLB in first-pitch-swing percentage for three straight years but not wanting to fall behind in the count, Sewald threw a first-pitch fastball. High in the zone, on the inner quarter of the plate, the well-executed offering was designed to induce a swing-and-miss. Over the previous two years, at-bats that ended on Sewald fastballs as high off the ground as this one — 3.32 feet — had produced six hits, all singles, and a .133 batting average.

Seager hammered the 93.2-mph fastball 418 feet into the right-field stands, stared into the Rangers’ dugout and emitted a primal scream.

“I was watching the World Series,” his former Dodgers teammate and close friend Justin Turner says, “and it was like, ‘Oh my god, he Verlander-ed him.'”

Seager says he does not remember anything about the home run, and as unbelievable as that sounds — an iconic moment for the world was fleeting for the person who made it — his friends and teammates believe him. They see what he turns into in October. The tunnel vision. The attention to detail on every play. If in-season Seager is focused, postseason Seager never lapses — not at the plate, not in the field, not on the bases.

“I don’t remember a lot of the playoffs,” he says. “You know it means more, so you are more focused. You’re trying to make it the same game, but truly the atmosphere, everything else — I don’t remember certain plays, I don’t remember certain sequences of the game. You have bits and pieces that you remember. And especially on homers, I have flashbacks of certain aspects of it, but there’s a lot of ’em I don’t even remember what happened. It’s kind of crazy. It sucks. I wish I remembered.”

Seager’s propensity to meet any moment, any situation, any pitcher is earning him hallowed company. Last October, he hit .318/.451/.682 with six home runs, including three against the Diamondbacks en route to his second World Series MVP. He joined Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson as the only two-time winners. Plenty of people in baseball see him as the modern-day version of Derek Jeter — and Seager is only one postseason home run away from tying the New York Yankees captain despite playing in half as many playoff games. Since 2020, among the 82 players with at least 15 postseason games, Seager has the most home runs (16) and RBIs (38, tied with Houston’s Yordan Alvarez) and the second-most runs and hits.

“This is where I want to be,” Seager says. “You change, you adapt, you learn. But I don’t know if you ever get enough, especially in the postseason.”

For Seager, the names, the comparisons, the accolades — they land with all the impact of a snowflake hitting the pavement. He considers the idea of being clutch and believes there’s something to it, but it’s nothing innate, he thinks, not something he was lucky enough to have inherited. It’s a positive consequence of his process, the routine of which allows him to take advantage at any time — including, yes, those most opportune.

“He doesn’t give a f— who’s on the mound,” Stripling says. “He doesn’t care if it’s Jacob deGrom or the last starter in the big leagues. It is see ball, hit ball. He’s just awful to face.”

When Seager was filming videos at Stripling’s breakfast table, Turner was remaking his own career with the Dodgers, and the two later bonded over their focus on routine. Now, in many ways, the student has exceeded the mentor. They’re peers, exceptional hitters both, and they share that knack for October that Turner believes goes beyond their ability to swing the bat with great conviction in moments that crumble lesser players.

“Clutch is misconceived as the three-run homer,” says Turner, 39, now the Toronto Blue Jays’ designated hitter. “It’s hard because only one guy maybe even gets that opportunity in a game to have that clutch moment. Where can you identify clutch in a game throughout plate appearances when that moment is not present. An aspect of clutch is being prepared and being confident in the work you’ve done to put you in a position of confidence when you’re in those moments. Guys probably get out of character in the big moments if they’re not as prepared or as confident and they’re trying to do too much in those areas.

“He’s prepared. There’s a lot of confident guys, right? But he believes in his work. He believes in everything he does going up to the game to give him that mental freedom where no situation is too big for him. A lot of this is being able to find freedom in your game — that you’re not thinking about a mechanic, a situation. There are no what-ifs. You can get ready on time and let it rip. When you have that freedom, you can do anything.”

ON THE NIGHT he hit the home run off Sewald, Seager returned home and watched a replay. He has not pressed play on the video again since. The yell does not embarrass him, exactly, but anything that generates attention goes against his entrenched approach. Seager is guarded: happy to sing the praises of teammates, loath to talk about himself. Little by little, as with his swing, he’s working on that, too.

“I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I don’t want to be the person who’s talked about. And … it’s where I work,” Seager says. “It took a long time to get used to. I used to be super uncomfortable, especially away from the field when people notice you. It was the most uncomfortable thing that could ever happen. I stopped leaving [the house]. I stopped going out. I stopped going to dinner. I just couldn’t handle it. And then finally my wife kind of was like, ‘We have to go out. We’re going to go out. It’s going to be fine. You’re going to figure it out.'”

He is slowly learning, still grappling with the demands of excellence and the trappings of fame. As obsessed as Seager is with his swing — about once a year he’ll fling his bat with anger into the net of a batting cage when he can’t properly set his angles in his mirror — he’s beginning to recognize what chasing impossibility all this time can unlock in him. It’s the foundation for everything else — particularly growth in what he sees beyond his reflection. There is peace independent of the perfect swing, contentment amid the fear, even if not in quite yet the same quantities.

“As much as I hate the mental grind, I love going in there and fixing the puzzle,” Seager says. “I think that’s what draws me back.”

There’s a growing appreciation in Seager for things beyond swings, something that took years to blossom. On the day of Seager’s debut, Chase Utley, the veteran second baseman, pulled Seager aside and told him to treasure the game and what it has to offer. For Utley, that meant five minutes before he stepped onto the field every day to stretch, he would walk into the dugout, sit on the bench and take in the majesty of it all. Seager, too green to understand the purpose of Utley’s routine, didn’t bother.

“I never really thought about it for four years on why he did it,” Seager says. “And then during COVID, actually weirdly enough, when nobody’s around, is kind of when I started. I went on out on the line, kind of took my time of just being there and not getting rid of the nerves, but being in the emotion, being in everything. And then it just kind of goes away.”

DENVER — Valeri Nichushkin scored twice, Nathan MacKinnon added two assists to break the franchise’s single-season points mark and the Colorado Avalanche cruised into the playoffs behind a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

MacKinnon wrapped up the regular season with 140 points (51 goals, 89 assists) to top Peter Stastny’s franchise record of 139 set in 1981-82 when the club was in Quebec.

The speedy MacKinnon couldn’t catch Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov in the race for the Art Ross Trophy, which goes to the leading points scorer. Kucherov wound up with 144 points.

Still, MacKinnon made a compelling case for the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP. Then again, so have Kucherov, Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.

“I don’t think one guy is more deserving [than] another guy,” MacKinnon said. “It’s out of my hands, and I can’t control people who vote for me or don’t like me or like me. It’s all good either way.”

Mikko Rantanen, Josh Manson and Zach Parise also scored to help the Avalanche snap a two-game slide. Colorado jumped out to a 4-0 lead midway through the first period and never looked back in a game in which the Oilers rested several of their starters, including McDavid.

“It’s a tough game to play against a depleted lineup. It’s always exciting to play the best players in the league, the best player in the world over there,” MacKinnon said in reference to McDavid. “But I get it. They have nothing to play for right now. They don’t want to get hurt.”

Justus Annunen made 25 saves for the Avalanche, who finished with a league-best 31 home wins. Colorado opens the playoffs at Winnipeg on Sunday.

“I like where we’re at,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I think guys mentally are in a good spot.”

Dylan Holloway had a power-play goal for Edmonton. The Oilers will host Los Angeles in the first round starting Monday after the Kings won in OT over Chicago and Vegas lost to Anaheim in games later Thursday.

Missing from the Edmonton lineup in addition to McDavid were Mattias Ekholm, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Evander Kane. That’s nearly 70% of the team’s points production this season.

“I thought the first half of that first period we’re just standing around watching them and they were skating around us, making plays,” Oilers forward Corey Perry said. “After that, it’s all about work and we battled hard. The way we started, it just wasn’t there.

“They’re a great team. They’re in playoff mode and they came out hard.”

The Avalanche went with a full cast, and Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner was under early pressure, surrendering four goals on 13 shots in the first period. Calvin Pickard took over after the first intermission and stopped 13 shots.

MacKinnon joined Kucherov in the 140-point club this season. It marks the seventh season in NHL history in which multiple players have reached that mark. The last time was Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux in 1995-96, according to NHL Stats.

Avalanche forward Jonathan Drouin appeared to be shaken up late in the second and wasn’t on the bench to start the third period. He’s turned in a career year with 56 points.

Bednar had no update after the game.

The players from the Denver Pioneers were in attendance and received a loud ovation from the crowd in the first period. The team captured its record 10th NCAA national hockey title last weekend.