logo
Ohio State tight end named to the Mackey Award 2025 preseason watch list

Ohio State tight end named to the Mackey Award 2025 preseason watch list

USA Today3 days ago
We've got another Ohio State football player who's made a preseason award watch list. Last week, the Mackey Award, which goes to college football's best tight end annually, released 28 names on its 2025 preseason watch list, and OSU's Max Klare is one of those names.
Out of Cincinnati St. Xavier, Klare played for Purdue his first three seasons before transferring to Ohio State via the transfer portal at the end of last season. He was an All-Big Ten performer in 2024 and is expected to grab the starting tight end spot for the Buckeyes as one of the best tight ends in the conference and country.
He finished 2024 with 51 receptions for 685 yards (13.4 ypc) and four touchdowns. Plugging him into an offense with Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, and the best wide receiving corps in the country should afford Klare plenty of opportunities to build on those numbers this fall.
The Mackey Award will be handed out on Friday, December 12, during the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on ESPN. Ohio State has never had a Mackey Award winner since it was first handed out in 2000.
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Pete Alonso Is the Mets' All-Time Home Run King, And He Should Be A Met For Life
Pete Alonso Is the Mets' All-Time Home Run King, And He Should Be A Met For Life

Fox Sports

time2 hours ago

  • Fox Sports

Pete Alonso Is the Mets' All-Time Home Run King, And He Should Be A Met For Life

Major League Baseball Pete Alonso Is the Mets' All-Time Home Run King, And He Should Be A Met For Life Published Aug. 13, 2025 12:54 a.m. ET share facebook x reddit link NEW YORK — Nearly six years ago, Pete Alonso stood alone in baseball history. On a warm and pleasant late September evening in New York, the Mets first baseman slammed his 53rd home run of the 2019 season and snapped a tie with Yankees slugger Aaron Judge to become the first major league rookie to reach that mark. The record-setting home run capped Alonso's captivating entrance into the big leagues. From being unsure if he would make the major-league roster out of spring training, Alonso won the Opening Day starting first-base job, earned his first All-Star appearance, won his first Home Run Derby, and held the MLB rookie record for home runs. That storied summer was just the start of a special quest, one that laid the early groundwork for Alonso to someday make franchise history. For a prolific slugger like the Polar Bear, crushing 200 more home runs was bound to happen. The moment arrived against Braves right-hander Spencer Strider in the third inning on Tuesday night at Citi Field. After flirting with the possibility for weeks, Alonso finally stood alone as the Mets' all-time home-run king when he slugged his 253rd career homer, surpassing Darryl Strawberry for the most in Mets history. ADVERTISEMENT The Citi Field crowd of 39,748 serenaded Alonso around the bases by chanting his name. The dugout emptied as Alonso's teammates spilled onto the field and hugged him after he crossed home plate. Alonso sported an enormous goofy grin for several minutes, including when he stepped on top of a dugout bench and tipped his helmet for the first of two curtain calls he would experience on Tuesday night. "As a kid, you don't really think that it's in the realm of possibility to be a franchise home-run leader," Alonso said after taking a break from sipping his postgame Coors Light. "You just don't. You just want to get to the big leagues and give it your best. The dream is really this opaque and unknown thing. You just want to get there and compete for a World Series and play winning baseball. But to have that opportunity, you really don't think about it. It's a wild dream, to be honest." In the sixth inning, Alonso extended his franchise home-run record by parking his 254th career homer in the left-field seats. The moonshots were contagious. Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Alvarez, and Brett Baty all homered as the Mets snapped their seven-game losing streak by pummeling the Braves in a 13-5 win. In the seventh inning, the team announced it had run out of fireworks "due to too many Mets home runs." The Polar Bear effect. "I've grown up in this organization," Alonso said. "They believed in me as a 21-year-old kid. They've consistently believed in me. Hopefully they continue to believe in me." (Photo by) Though Alonso seemed destined to pass No. 252 from the second he broke into the big leagues — after all, hitting the most homers in Mets franchise history is not a huge record to break, and it certainly isn't Hank Aaron passing Babe Ruth with No. 715 — he almost didn't get the opportunity to achieve it. In his contract year last season, the first baseman hit 34 home runs (a full-season career low) and recorded a .788 OPS (a career worst) in 162 games. On Sept. 22, 2024, the expectation was that Alonso's eighth-inning groundout to third base would be his final at-bat at Citi Field as a member of the Mets. Not even two weeks later, he promised many more. Alonso changed the trajectory of his Mets career with his three-run home run off Brewers closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning of the 2024 National League wild card game. He extended the Mets' season and gave them a shot at a deep playoff run that only ended by virtue of the eventual champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in Game 6 of the NLCS. The Mets' magical season was over, but Alonso's contract negotiations were just beginning. By February, Juan Soto was a Met and Alonso still hadn't signed a deal. Reports surfaced connecting Alonso to the Toronto Blue Jays and the San Francisco Giants. Mets owner Steve Cohen said the negotiations with Alonso and his agent, Scott Boras, were "exhausting," adding, "Soto was tough. This is worse." Once the situation reached rock bottom, the only place to go was up. Finally, on Feb. 6, Cohen and Alonso reached a two-year, $54 million pact (with a player opt-out after this season) that made Alonso the highest-paid first baseman in the major leagues this year. It wasn't the long-term deal Alonso was seeking, but it brought him back to the Mets. "Pete's easy to root for. He's the embodiment of the Mets and the fan base," Mets first base coach Antoun Richardson said. "You watch him play, he gives his all every single time." Ask anyone around the Mets what they admire and respect the most about Alonso, and it's the same sentiment. He works hard. He plays every day. He makes preparation a priority. He gives his all. Yet, in Alonso's case, giving the Mets his all might still not be enough to make him a lifelong Met. And as special as his franchise-record-setting home run was, it will always mean more if he stays in New York and keeps adding to that total. Alonso is expected to exercise his opt-out and once again test the Mets and the market this winter. The 30-year-old is earning $30 million this season, and he still wants to lock down that long-term contract. Whether it will come from the Mets front office, which is led by president of baseball operations David Stearns, is anyone's guess. "I have a goal to play baseball until I'm through my age-40 season," Alonso said. "And I'm going to work hard and do that. You know what, the business side, Steve and David, they gotta come through." Alonso was asked if he has an idea of what that final hone-run total could look like if he stayed a Met through his age-40 season. "There's only one way to find out," Alonso quipped. (Photo by) If Alonso doesn't stay in New York, he knows Soto could pass him as the all-time home-run leader. "Records are meant to be broken," Alonso said, but he still hopes his own can hold up for a while longer. Soto, who has 229 career home runs and is tied with Alonso for the team-lead this season with 28, could realistically break Alonso's record in the first half of his 15-year contract with the Mets. If Alonso stays and signs a long-term deal, it could be decades before anyone threatens to crack his home-run total, which could very well be in the 450-500 range by the time he hangs up his cleats for good. Outfielder Brandon Nimmo, one of the few players on the Mets roster who has played with Alonso since his rookie season, wants the slugger to receive what he deserves on a long-term contract. But he also wants that contract to come from the Mets. "I love Pete as a player and I think he's going to do very, very well in this next market," Nimmo said. "But if I was his counselor, I would sit there, and I would tell him: From where you're sitting right now, you're really good. You're the highest-paid first baseman in the league. And if you told Pete Alonso at 18 years old, going to [University of] Florida, that he would end up being the highest-paid first baseman in Major League Baseball — more than Freddie Freeman, more than Matt Olson, more than Paul Goldschmidt. Obviously, back then, it would have been like, more than Joey Votto. He would have been like, 'Yeah! This is going to be great. Sign me up.'" Alonso has talked about wanting to remain a Met for life, and he would retire in Queens if given the opportunity. Now, he has officially put the ball in Cohen's court. Alonso is doing his part by swatting home runs and helping the Mets win games. The slugger indicated on Tuesday that the pressure is on Mets ownership and the front office to re-sign a popular and homegrown player — a face of the franchise — to a long-term contract. The Polar Bear proved he belongs in New York. What will it take for Cohen and Stearns to come through? "It meant a lot, even though he won't say it," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Alonso breaking Strawberry's record. "You watch that face and how much joy he had, especially when he stood on the bench in the dugout and tipped his helmet to the crowd, he's like a kid with a new toy. He was humble. It was hard to describe the face of Pete there. He was enjoying the whole moment. It meant a lot to him." Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar. share

Lakers guard Austin Reaves names his greatest player of all time
Lakers guard Austin Reaves names his greatest player of all time

USA Today

time2 hours ago

  • USA Today

Lakers guard Austin Reaves names his greatest player of all time

During his Asian tour, Austin Reaves, who has played 4 seasons with Lebron, was asked who his GOAT BRYANT was his a drafted player who has survived The Lebron Process, Reaves is a rarity.🫡 to comrade, @AltcoinHuckster, for the footage Austin Reaves' future with the Los Angeles Lakers past this coming season may be in a little doubt since he can opt out of his contract and become a free agent next summer. But at least for now, he's a big part of the Lakers, and he may still have some upward potential. He's relatively slow and unathletic by NBA standards, and at 6-foot-5 and roughly 200 pounds, the undrafted guard has trouble defending bigger, taller wings when he switches onto them on defense. But he averaged 20.2 points and 5.8 assists this past season and started playing at arguably an All-Star level. During a recent Asian tour with Rigorer, the sneaker company he's involved with, Reaves was asked who his greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.) is, and he said it's late Lakers great Kobe Bryant. During his legendary 20-year NBA career, Bryant eventually became massively popular in China. He often gets left out of the top tier of basketball greats by pundits, but at the same time, a number of NBA players, past and present, have said they consider him one of the five greatest players ever. For instance, Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant's former teammate and supposed enemy, put the "Black Mamba" second on his list of the greatest players in NBA history. Reaves has been nicknamed "Hillbilly Kobe" due to his Middle America roots (he grew up in a very small town in Arkansas). He has talked about being a fan of Bryant in the past, and in fact, his grandmother was also a huge fan of the Hall of Famer. By adopting Bryant's "Mamba Mentality," perhaps Reaves can continue to elevate his game and become a huge part of a Luka Doncic-centric Lakers team for many years to come while helping it win at least one NBA championship.

20 Navy All-Americans Named to Chuck Bednarik Award Watch List
20 Navy All-Americans Named to Chuck Bednarik Award Watch List

NBC Sports

time3 hours ago

  • NBC Sports

20 Navy All-Americans Named to Chuck Bednarik Award Watch List

Earlier this week the Maxwell Football Club released the watchlist for the 2025 Chuck Bednarik award, presented annually to the outstanding defensive player in college football. Check out the 2025 #BednarikAward Watch List!!! 👀 🏈 #MaxwellFootball 🔗 20 Navy All-Americans were named to the watch list. Deontae Lawson (Alabama) Xavion Alford (Arizona State) Xavian Sorey (Arkansas) Keldric Faulk (Auburn) TJ Parker (Clemson) Tyreak Sapp (Florida) CJ Allen (Georgia) KJ Bolden (Georgia) Christen Miller (Georgia) Aaron Graves (Iowa) Whit Weeks (LSU) Koi Perich (Minnesota) Drayk Bowen (Notre Dame) Caleb Downs (Ohio State) Matayo Uiagalelei (Oregon) AJ Harris (Penn State) Dani Dennis-Sutton (Penn State) Arion Carter (Tennessee) Anthony Hill Jr. (Texas) David Bailey (Texas Tech) Only 100 football players receive the honor of wearing the Navy All-American Bowl jersey each year. The 2026 Navy All-American Bowl from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, will be presented live on NBC and Peacock. About the All-American Bowl As an NBC Sports-owned property, the All-American Bowl is part of a marquee lineup of elite events that includes the Olympics and Paralympics, the Premier League, and primetime's #1 show for an unprecedented 14 consecutive years: Sunday Night Football. The All-American Bowl is annually the most-watched, most-talked about, and most-prestigious high school all-star event with more than four million unique television viewers and more than 25,000 fans in attendance. The history and tradition of the All-American Bowl is unparalleled, as it features: 631 draft picks; 103 Super Bowl champions; 274 Pro Bowl selections; and 18 Heisman finalists. For more information, visit or follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram (@AABonNBC).

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store