1. We had football this weekend.
It wasn't necessarily pretty. It certainly looks different and it sounds different and I still long for the "old days," but it was football.
Clemson looked terrific. Georgia Tech won in dramatic fashion in Tallahassee. Cadets cheered in West Point as Army popped yet another Ivy League foe (just play along, OK?).
The Chiefs looked dominant on Thursday night to open the NFL season. Tom Brady made his Buccaneers debut. Hell, Mitch Trubisky threw three fourth-quarter touchdowns to lead the Bears back from the dead in Detroit.
Mostly, we had football.
Sure, there were some setbacks for Memphis, Virginia Tech and others. Some games got postponed because of COVID outbreaks, but the sport marched on in front of empty or partially full stadiums and fans watched a day full of college football, starting with Louisiana-Lafayette's win at Iowa State and ending with Coastal Carolina's win at Kansas.
Several media members who have desperately cheered for the season to be canceled played the role of "Karen" Saturday, pointing out fans not socially distancing (gasp!), not wearing masks (the horror!) or just saying they were so worried about the havoc being put on communities that they simply couldn't watch the football. Courageous journalism is my most favorite journalism!
So, now we move on, closer and closer to the start of the Southeastern Conference season. As I write this, there's less than 13 days until kickoff of two 11 a.m. SEC games -- Florida at Ole Miss and Kentucky at Auburn.
These next 13 days won't be perfect, but it appears we are hopefully, with all fingers crossed, going to get there.
2. It looks like the Big Ten -- or at least some part of it -- is going to revisit this college football thing.
Even Michigan is going to vote for it, and the UM president, Mark Schlissel, had been one of the strongest proponents for cancellation.
According to multiple reports, the Big Ten’s return to competition task force and medical committee made a presentation to the league’s presidential steering committee Saturday. The eight presidents and chancellors on that committee — including Ohio State President Kristina M. Johnson — were expected to meet with the other six Sunday to hear the same presentation.
Then, per a report in Cleveland.com, a vote on resuming football this fall would come either from that meeting or in the next day or two, depending on various unnamed sources in those reports. Oct. 17 and 24 were the two dates most often cited as likely restart dates for a fall season.
Ohio State head team physician Dr. James Borchers co-chairs the medical committee and will be heavily involved in making the presentation. He and his colleagues will need to demonstrate what medical advances or changes since Aug. 11 that they can now make it safe for teams to resume full-contact practice and begin playing games.
At this point, it'll be an upset if that doesn't happen. However, some Big Ten schools might not resume, regardless of the vote. If that happens, the long-term ramifications for the league are almost impossible to measure today. The Big Ten gambled last month that the rest of college football would follow its lead. That didn't happen, of course, and what is left is damage control and anger.
3. A year ago, Mac Brown was often frustrated.
His coaches asked him to do something that didn't come natural -- rugby-style punting -- while not doing what he had signed with Ole Miss to do -- boom the ball.
Brown talked about that and much more during a Zoom call with the media Friday.
4. Let's take a tour of the SEC West, courtesy of my colleagues at Rivals.com.
At Alabama, defensive lineman Christian Barmore dominated offseason headlines, especially this week when rumors suggested he might leave the team after a supposed altercation at practice last weekend.
That speculation proved to be just that. BamaInsider confirmed Barmore’s presence at practice multiple times this week, but the defensive lineman did miss Alabama's second offseason scrimmage on Saturday.
“He is going to be out for a few days with a knee injury,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Not significant, not serious, so he didn’t work today, but he has done really, really well.”
Barmore's name first came up following Saturday's press conference when Saban was asked to evaluate some of his young defensive linemen, such as Justin Eboigbe and Barmore.
“Justin is probably the guy that has been the most consistent guy," Saban said. "All those guys have made a lot of progress. Barmore has certainly been one of our best pass rushers. ... We gotta get these guys to be all-around players."
Saban's comments on Saturday made it clear that most of the defensive line is still struggling to excel against both the pass and the run with most guys shining in one area, but not the other.
That's not a problem unique to the guys up front. There is a lot more inexperience on that side of the ball overall, and Saban said those guys need to learn to avoid pressing and focus on playing together as a unit.
So while Barmore might not be the only player in need of improvement, but his struggles will stand out. That just comes with the territory when you are included in that first-round pick conversation.
It remains to be seen if he will live up to the hype surrounding him, but several other defensive linemen have praised Barmore's growth both as a player and as a leader.
“I think he’s ready. He’s very energetic," defensive tackle D.J. Dale said of Barmore last week. "He brings a different level of energy to the group, and we can depend on him.”
At Arkansas, one of Sam Pittman’s biggest concerns coming out of Arkansas’ first scrimmage of camp was linebacker play.
In the two weeks since, the first-year coach has been encouraged by how the position has looked in practice and it resulted in a much better second scrimmage last week.
A big reason for the improvement is the play of fifth-year senior Deon Edwards and redshirt sophomore Andrew Parker. The tandem has kept it going into this week and were among the standouts in Thursday night’s practice.
“Parker and Edwards have really made a ton of strides in the last 12, 13 practices,” Pittman said. “I’m really proud of them. They’re physical kids. So those guys kind of stood out a little bit tonight.”
Despite having already been with the Razorbacks for a combined six years, fans haven’t seen much of Edwards and Parker on the field during their careers.
After redshirting in 2016, Edwards - a three-star prospect from Florida who originally came to Fayetteville as a safety - has played just 41 total snaps over the last three seasons, according to Pro Football Focus.
Parker, a two-star recruit from New Orleans, didn’t get any action on defense during his redshirt year and then played just 73 total defensive snaps last season.
That lack of experience is likely why it’s taken some time for both players to develop and come along in practice, Pittman said.
“What they're doing now, they haven't played much ball, so they're seeing the pulling guard, they're seeing the tight end go backside,” Pittman said. “They're seeing that so much better now. They're not playing such a lateral game. I mean, they're coming downhill.”
Although Pittman acknowledged that senior Hayden Henry (317 career snaps) had a solid practice Thursday and that the “other fellas” like junior Bumper Pool (909 snaps) and fifth-year senior Grant Morgan (490 snaps) are doing well, the emergence of Edwards and Pool could be critical for depth at the position.
“Both of them have good size - of course, (Edwards) has got more speed than Parker, but Parker's got more size and is a little bit more of a big, physical guy,” Pittman said. “They're just seeing the game better. Coach (Rion) Rhoades is doing a nice job coaching them.”
Oklahoma graduate transfer Levi Draper, a former four-star recruit, also figures to factor into the discussion at linebacker, especially after receiving some praise from Pittman following Friday’s scrimmage. He was even spotted playing beside Parker on the first-team defense during a brief viewing period for the media Thursday night.
However, most of the first-year coach’s attention Thursday was on Parker and Edwards for what he felt was a really good practice and dramatic improvement from earlier in camp.
“They want to be really good and that's a big part of anybody becoming a good player,” Pittman said. “I really like their attitude, and they're seeing the game so much faster than they were even a week ago.”
At Auburn, after each Auburn practice session through four weeks of fall camp, new offensive coordinator Chad Morris scans the field for his sophomore quarterback.
Once he locates and tracks down Bo Nix, he asks him the same question: "What did you see today?"
Morris' hope is that Nix will respond the way Morris thinks the best quarterbacks should and say that Auburn's offense moved in slow motion — that every throw was purposeful, confident and calculated, and nothing seemed surprising or hectic to Nix.
"I've challenged him this offseason to see if we can't make the game slow down even more than what it did toward the end of last year," Morris said of his goals for Nix during a Zoom call with reporters last week. "All the great quarterbacks I've coached, that's one of the big characteristic traits that they had — the game slowed down. They anticipated the throws, they anticipated the windows coming open."
So far, as of 14 Auburn practices through four weeks, Morris said he'd seen tangible improvement in that regard from his starting quarterback — even while he absorbs a new playbook and offensive system from Morris on a daily basis.
"Now all we've got to do — we put so much install on him over the 12, 13 practices that we've had — we'll eventually start narrowing things down," Morris said of Nix. "But I've been very pleased with him."
When Auburn knew it was bringing on Morris, formerly Arkansas' head coach for the past two seasons, as its new offensive coordinator following Kenny Dillingham's departure to Florida State, Nix spoke often about how much he was anticipating getting to work with one of the more renowned quarterback developers in today's college football landscape.
During his high-school coaching days in Texas, Morris helped the late Jevan Snead become an Elite 11 prospect, and Garrett Gilbert become the first Texas native to be named Gatorade National Player of the Year.
In his lone season as Tulsa's OC, Morris helped Golden Hurricane quarterback G.J. Kinne, throw for more than 3,500 yards with 31 touchdowns.
At Clemson, two of the greatest offensive players in ACC history worked under Morris. Tajh Boyd threw for 11,904 yards and 107 touchdowns in his three seasons, and though Morris only worked with Deshaun Watson his freshman year, he laid the groundwork for Watson's unprecedented success with the Tigers — and his later success in the NFL, where he just signed an $156-million extension with the Houston Texans.
"I mean, one of his former quarterbacks just signed a huge deal — I think today or yesterday, Deshaun Watson," Gus Malzahn said. "He's just a great teacher. He's great with relationships. He's just super smart with preparing his quarterbacks. That's what always stood out to me about Chad. He's just a great teacher. But the preparation he does for games with his quarterbacks is just as good as it gets. I think that's really his strength."
Nix, who broke Auburn freshman passing records for yards, touchdowns and completions last year en route to SEC Freshman of the Year honors, told Morris months ago that he wants to be better than any big-name QB the coach has helped produce in the past, let alone any quarterback that's ever come through Auburn.
Morris knows those astronomical goals start at practice. He hopes Nix remembers that, too.
"I asked him when I first got here: 'Do you want to be good, or do you want to be great?' Obviously, he says he wants to be great," Morris said of Nix. "He says he wants to be the best that's ever played. I say OK, it's going to take a lot of work. I'm going to remind you this in many days when I'm chewing on you pretty good."
Nix appears to be humming along in Auburn's fall camp with a new swagger under Morris. Teammates and coaches have said all preseason that the sophomore quarterback appears more poised, more vocal, and most importantly, more confident in his own skills.
After Nix admittedly lost some of that swagger during a strenuous freshman year against an SEC gauntlet, Auburn knows his off-field development and leadership this preseason are just as vital as any on-field improvements he makes with Morris.
"When you’re a quarterback at a place like Auburn or a top SEC school, there’s unbelievable pressure that goes with that," Malzahn said of Nix. "The highs are high, the lows are low. At times, he lost his confidence to a certain point, but he’s a fighter. He kept fighting. He played his best ball in the Iron Bowl, made some great plays to help us win that game.
"He’s different now. It feels different. His approach is different. He’s no longer a true freshman. I expect him to be a leader on this team.”
At LSU, defensive lineman Neil Farrell, who was the first Tiger to opt out due to COVID-19 concerns, is possibly returning to the team, however, it's "doubtful" defensive tackle Tyler Shelvin, a potential first-round NFL Draft pick, will opt back in, sources told TigerDetails early Sunday morning.
LSU coaches have made it known to both players that they are open to them opting back in. There is no deadline to opt back in, just as long as the player is enrolled in school then he is still eligible.
Farrell tweeted out his initial decision on Aug. 8, citing his family had been hit very hard by the coronavirus and he planned to return to LSU next year.
Shelvin, a 6-foot-3, 346-pound standout, is considered by many analysts as a potentially an early round pick as one of the top 30-to-50 overall prospects.
At Texas A&M, one of the big topics of conversation the past few days has been the status of senior WR Jhamon Ausbon. He's missed several practices and there have been rumors that he might opt out of the 2020 season.
Jimbo Fisher downplayed things yesterday and said Ausbon is still part of the program, but did not say he was back practicing. On Sunday, Ausbon stopped the speculation in its tracks, announcing on Twitter his plans to opt out of this season.
5. Now, let's tour the SEC East, again courtesy of Rivals.com.
At Florida, Trey Dean III has a new number, position and attitude in 2020.
After spending his first two seasons at cornerback and nickel, the junior defensive back is now wearing No. 0 and playing safety in Florida’s secondary. He made the switch in fall camp and senior Donovan Stiner likes what he’s seen from Dean.
“What stands out the most is his maturity,” Stiner said.
UF safeties coach Ron English echoed that comment, saying that Dean is more mature because he’s been humbled. He even referenced a Rudyard Kipling poem when discussing Dean.
“Victory and defeat, it’s just a perception and an illusion because it's all short-lived. Treat those two imposters just the same,” English said. “What really has improved about Trey Dean is managing his ego. He finally has learned and matured in the sense that he is really not arrogant like he was before.
“I think we all know when you’re arrogant you miss stuff and you don’t grow as quickly as you should if you were more humble. That’s one of the biggest things he’s doing. He’s growing exponentially because he’s listening, which he didn’t always do. And he’s matured and he’s humble. So I’m really proud of him and I’m really pleased.”
English dismissed the suggestion Dean was hesitant to move to safety, but rather that he was overly cocky to compensate for a lack of confidence. Dean no longer acts like he has “all the answers” according to English, which is evident in the position meetings.
“He is really focused on learning everything and he asks questions to all of us,” Stiner said. “We all try to help him and do what we can just to make sure he is where he wants to be, and that is someone who can play different positions.
“Being able to take his mistakes from the film room and listen to what coach English has to say, and then go on the practice field, fix his mistakes. … Trey is a real competitor. He is doing a real good job of just being versatile and learning different things.”
Dean also bulked up in the offseason, with Stiner joking that he may be eating the weights instead of lifting them. In addition to his new attitude, his added strength will also help him play the position.
“He's cut up now. Trey, he’s jacked up, he looks pretty good,” English said. “He’s getting more comfortable. He had his best scrimmage in the last scrimmage. I was really pleased with it. His tackling has improved, his physicality has improved, his technique has improved, so I’m pleased.
“Trey’s gonna have a big year. I really think that, I really believe that in my heart and I really like the way he’s coming on.”
At Georgia, it takes a big man to own up to mistakes he has made in the past.
And that describes Georgia offensive lineman Ben Cleveland, in more ways than one.
Cleveland, you will recall, missed the Sugar Bowl due to academic reasons. But instead of sulking and blaming someone else, the former Stephens County standout made a change.
“One of the things I look back on is I wish I would have taken academics a little more seriously. It’s definitely not a situation I want to put myself in again,” Cleveland said. “So, I buckled down in the classroom, passed 18 hours in the spring, and passed 12 hours (in the summer). It was one of those hard-learned lessons that I had to learn, that I’ve got to get it together to make sure that don’t happen again.”
Cleveland admitted the entire situation was embarrassing.
“I think my dad kind of shot that one and let the whole wide world know about that,” he said. “I still haven’t heard the end of that from coaches and everybody.”
Otherwise, Cleveland enters his final season as a Bulldog with few regrets.
With 16 career starts, Cleveland is the favorite to hold down the job at right guard beginning with the season-opener Sept. 26 at Arkansas
“Again, parts of me sometimes wish I had taken school a little more serious and stuff like that. Obviously, it has taken me so long to get a degree. I should have had that a couple of years ago,” Cleveland said. “But the relationships and stuff that have been built—they will never be able to be replaced just with these guys from here. I appreciate all these coaches and everything that they have done for [me] the last five years."
As the only scholarship senior on the offensive line, Cleveland said he has been impressed with what he is seen so far.
Although not having spring ball hurt, he feels this year’s projected line is starting to gel.
“I’m definitely very pleasantly surprised where we’ve ended up so far. It was kind of difficult not having a spring ball, and stuff like that,” Cleveland said. “It put a lot of stress on all of us to learn this new offense and pick up on everything in a lot shorter amount of time than what we would normally have. I think our guys have handled it extremely well. We have been progressing every single day. I think we’re way ahead of where most people think we should be.”
Cleveland believes the Bulldogs will be fine at the one position where the competition seems the fiercest: right tackle. That is where Owen Condon, Warren McClendon and Tate Ratledge are competing for the starting job.
“It’s been good. Owen is an extremely smart player, a good, physical player. There’s some things he don’t know, there’s some things I don’t know, but we mesh well so we’re able to have that good relationship where it’s I’ll pick you up, you pick me up,” Cleveland said. “He’s definitely been holding his own. He’s been making good improvements, so I hope to be seeing some good things out of him.”
Cleveland has the same high hopes for the offense as well under first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
“You’ve got to be able to run the ball to throw the ball, and you have to be able to throw the ball to run the ball. That has kind of been our philosophy since I’ve been here—do what we can in the run game, throw when we need to and run it when we need to and all of that,” he said. “I feel like that has served us pretty well over the last few years, so I definitely think there is a happy medium and a good balance among that. I think we’re doing everything we can to balance that out and get us the best options.”
At Missouri, If there’s a catchphrase for 2020 it would have to be “in these uncertain times.” But that’s been exhausted. The college football season has started and the phrase you’ll hear pretty much every week is one Eli Drinkwitz uttered twice within about 15 seconds on Saturday night.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Missouri’s head coach said.
He was specifically referencing the daily roster shuffling (what’s that line about the deck chairs on the Titanic?) that is necessary when trying to prepare for a season in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic where your campus and the town are setting records for positive test results on a regular basis. Drinkwitz said Mizzou has seven active cases right now. But one of them came in the form of a positive test Friday which forced three players into quarantine for 14 days. Missouri plays Alabama in 14 days.
“Those guys will now be unavailable for the Alabama game,” Drinkwitz said. “Any person positive or quarantined from this point on is unavailable for the week one opponent. That’s real and that’s an interesting dynamic being two weeks out and knowing you can’t get anybody back.”
He did not name the individuals or even say what position they played. He did say, though, that Saturday marked his fifth consecutive day with a different starter at left guard. The virus has been at the forefront of college football conversations for months. But it’s different now. The games are starting. There have been some postponements. Georgia State played (and won, albeit by a point against Campbell) on Saturday despite being without 33 players. There will be weekly changes and depth charts will be worth even less than they usually are. Welcome to the 2020 college football season.
At South Carolina, RJ Roderick couldn’t help but smile when the question was asked?
Who’s the hardest hitter in the secondary?
He laughed, rocked back and forth and blurted out Jammie Robinson before including himself in the conversation as well.
“I’d have to be me or Jammie, man,” Robinson said, trying to conceal a smile. “The backfield has the hardest hitters. I can’t put him down. My dog is up there too. He’s out there and he’s for real.”
It’s easy to see the respect Roderick has for Robinson, who’s coming off a freshman All-American season last year, but the relationship goes deeper than that.
Robinson is expected to start opposite Roderick at safety when the Gamecocks start their season in two weeks with Roderick excited about the potential there.
“I know there’s someone else looking to hit somebody just like me. I know he’s going to fly around, I know he’s going to set the edge and I know he’s going to get off a block,” Roderick said. “I know he’s going to do what he needs to do and it’s going to make my job easier. It’s good to play with him back there because we make it easier on each other.”
Roderick has been penciled in all offseason at one of the safety positions and hasn’t done anything to lose his spot with Will Muschamp saying Roderick’s been incredibly consistent over the last four weeks of training camp.
He’s done so well the Gamecocks are asking him to do a little more in the defense this year.
Not only is he expected to be one of the hardest-hitters on the defense, the Gamecocks are having him play a little bit of nickel but trusting him as a DIME linebacker if he needs to be, which means playing in the box a little more.
“When I go down and play DIME, I just go down and play man coverage. They treat me just like another DB. If they’re running a hurry up and it’s first down offense then I’ll stay in the box and know my assignment,” Roderick said. “ For the most part it’s carrying vertical routes, reading the front shoulder of the quarterback.”
Part of that is just Roderick’s comfort level of the defense, and it took him two years to feel really good in what the Gamecock coaches were asking from him in the defense.
He’s had plenty of chances to get comfy, earning the starting spot late in his freshman year and started all of last season as well.
“I’m very comfortable. I love playing safety. I love being on defense. I love rotating around whether that’s me playing nickel, me playing DIME,” Roderick said. “I just really have grown into it. I’m learning more stuff now and enhancing things I know like the fronts or stunts or anything I can learn more to gain.”
The junior is expected to be a key piece in the defense returning almost all of their defensive back experience last season while returning two of their three starters at linebacker and having depth on the defensive line.
“Championship defense,” Roderick said. “I feel like when we’re playing at our best. When everyone is on one cord it’s a championship level defense.”
6. I could never be an Associated Press Top 25 voter (I mean, I was one a few times back when I worked in the mainstream media, but seeing how dependable those guys are with the news these days, but I digress), but if I were, my ballot would look like this today:
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. Georgia
6. Notre Dame
7. Texas A&M
8. Oklahoma State
9. Auburn
10. Texas
11. Cincinnati
12. North Carolina
13. LSU
14. UCF
15. Miami
16. Memphis
17. Tennessee
18. Kentucky
19. Appalachian State
20. Navy
21. Virginia
22. SMU
23. Baylor
24. Army
25. Georgia Tech
7. The NBA semifinals are almost set, though the Nuggets made sure the word "almost" had to be included in that sentence.
The Miami Heat will face the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals while the Los Angeles Lakers will meet the winner of Tuesday's Game 7 between the Los Angeles Clippers and Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
Here are my predictions, in case you need someone to fade:
East: Heat over Celtics in 7
West: Lakers over Clippers/Nuggets in 7
8. Television ratings are down for professional sports.
There are plenty of reasons to explain that away. For example, people aren't used to pro basketball in August and September. Major League Baseball is in the final two weeks of its season, but it doesn't feel like a pennant race without fans in the stands. The NFL didn't have its traditional preseason build-up. That's all legitimate.
However, college sports should take some degree of notice. Whether athletes like it or not and whether the media covering sports likes it or not, people turn to sports for an escape from every-day life. Players want to make a statement, but it's fast becoming apparent the viewing public just want them to -- dare I say it -- stick to sports.
On Sunday, as first reported by Forbes, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus gave his broadcasting team clear directives to not interject personal opinions on Black Lives Matter, kneeling, social justice of any kind during the broadcast.
“Our announcers on site at the games are not gonna condone, they’re not gonna condemn what’s going on,’ McManus said. “They’re going to report it and they’re going to move on.
“We need to thread the needle just the right way, because there are people who are tuning in just to hear about football. So we need to make sure that we don’t overdo the emphasis on what’s going on in our country, but we’re not gonna ignore it.”
As reported by Outkick, like many instances when sudden change happens, it is driven by the data.
The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans to open the season. They NFL lost in a big way in the ratings.
The game scored a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49 with 16.4 million viewers between 8-11 p.m. ET. While the number will adjust some upward later to 11:30 p.m., it represented a 16.1% drop.
It was the lowest opening night in 10 years.
CBS took notice. I'm willing to be college football's TV partners did, too.
9. It's time for a bite to eat. Here's our resident Parisian chef, Burton Webb, with Taste of the Place, Lesson 53 -- Plating Techniques.
When it comes to going to a restaurant, some times food is too beautiful to eat and of course you want to take a picture of it. Fast forward a few days and you are cooking for yourself or for your significant other. You want to replicate the same beautiful styles that you saw at that restaurant the other day. Now as you serve your masterpiece…it falls flat in your eyes. It still tastes great of course yet, you wish you it was better looking.
No fear, taste of the place is here! I have uploaded a video to Youtube for you all to help with those nights of wanting to express yourself in the stadium of kitchen battles. I want to give you a few ideas on how to help you take “gram-worthy” pictures from your home. A few tidbits for you of course.
Tidbit #1: Think about what how you want to exactly plate what you are cooking before you even start cooking. You can even draw it on a piece of paper! Plus, go ahead and pick what plate, bowl, or cutting board for instance that you want to use at this step as well.
Tidbit #2: Colours, colours, colours. You are not re-creating the rainbow and the primary colours. Do not put more than 4 colours on a plate. If you do, your eyes get confused and in the restaurant business, we call the plate “busy”.
Tidbit #3: Never stack things on top of each other unless your assembling a sandwich, burger, etc… This speaks to steak and mashed potatoes for all. If you go to a restaurant and they stack them on top of each other…maybe question some things. Just saying
Tidbit #4: Use smaller portion sizes. You can always go back for a second helping. When you use big portion sizes, you take up the entire plate almost.
Tidbit #5 (Last one): Use your imagination. Every plate is a blank canvas and you can do some pretty cool things on it. Be confident!
I hope you enjoy the video and we have some great content coming for you this fall. From the Mississippian in Paris, Bon Appétit!
10. Alec Mills walked on at UT-Martin. He was a journeyman pitcher this season when Jose Quintana's household injury opened a spot in the Chicago Cubs' rotation.
On Sunday, he threw a no-hitter in Milwaukee. Like I tell my kids all the time, never give up. Chase your dreams. No one but you gets to tell yourself when it's over.
We will have coverage of Ole Miss football, football recruiting and whatever else comes up this week on RebelGrove.com, beginning with Monday's media opportunity with Lane Kiffin and selected players. Until then, here are some links of interest to me -- and hopefully, to you -- for your reading pleasure:
CBS projects Georgia football quarterback JT Daniels first-round 2021 NFL Draft pick
Huskers acquire own rapid COVID testing through UNMC partnership
Feldman: Identifying the candidates to be the next Southern Miss head coach – The Athletic
The Pollock family's emotional journey to bring their baby daughter home (5:18)
While we’re chirping, what about Trevor Bauer and the Cubs’ free-agent plans? – The Athletic
Rosenthal: Proposed quarantines remain biggest obstacle for playoff bubbles – The Athletic
Coronavirus Policy & Economic Costs: A Scientific Approach to Evaluation | National Review
