Latest news with #MikeLeach
New York Times
01-08-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Hot-seat coaching season in the SEC, plus some MAC inspiration
Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic's college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox. Today in college football news, I prepared to write this newsletter the same way Ralph Ineson prepared to play Galactus in the new 'Fantastic Four': by 'ruminating' in high places. For years, the SEC was the coaching chaos conference, with seemingly every non-Nick Saban head coach on the hot seat at all times. But for the past couple years, things have mostly been quiet. Too quiet. This season, only Alabama, Mississippi State and Texas A&M will have second-year coaches (and those first two were due to Saban's retirement and the fallout of Mike Leach's passing), and only Auburn will have a third-year coach. Everyone else is quite established. Advertisement Compare that to the frenzies of Saban's 2007-2023 tenure, when most of the teams that were in the 12-team SEC — Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt — had five or six different head coaches each, sometimes because of failures to measure up to Saban (also see: Richt, Mark), and sometimes because of scandals done in the name of trying to measure up to Saban. Has the Bama emperor's post-2023 abdication slightly eased the pressure on everybody else? Or is the current calm just a coincidence? On Seth Emerson's SEC hot-seat list, nine of the league's 16 head coaches merit at least a temp check, with Arkansas' Sam Pittman and Kentucky's Mark Stoops looking bona fide toasty. A few additional complications for Southeastern polo shirts: Additionally, at least a couple of these coaches are getting up there in years (Stoops has been at UK since 2013, while Pittman and LSU's Brian Kelly will soon be 64), so it's possible we see a technically amicable parting or two in addition to potential firings. I asked Seth to set the number of expected HC changes in the SEC this season: 'Four is the number I keep landing on. There are five coaches on fairly warm seats (Pittman, Stoops, Mississippi State's Jeff Lebby, Oklahoma's Brent Venables, Auburn's Hugh Freeze) and two more on lukewarm seats (Florida's Billy Napier and Kelly). But the gap between the first five and the next two, and anybody else, is fairly wide, to the point where if one or two of the first few save their jobs, it may well come at the expense of someone else. The league will beat up on each other.' So maybe more of a Joker Snapping The Pool Cue situation than a total purge. Still, that's just based on what can reasonably be predicted right now, before scoreboards light up. A September slump could spice up just about anybody's arrangement. More SEC: 🌀 How often do top recruits transfer? The Class of 2021 was the first in history with free transfer rules, and now that these players are (mostly) almost done playing college ball, David Ubben examined the numbers. The thing that most struck me: There seems to be something to the old-school adage that it's often better to stay put and wait your turn, at least when it comes to QBs. 💰 Today is one of the most significant days in recruiting history: Schools can officially begin telling prospects exactly how much money's on the table. Because this is college football, there are lots of weird details. 📰 News: This week, one computer user found a tremendous comment on a YouTube video called '1 hour of MAC HIGHLIGHTS' (how can you not watch that?), and I'll let that comment speak for itself: 'Congrats on your 5-star recruits and $100M facilities, SEC fans. Meanwhile, the MAC is out here playing real football in front of 14 people and a raccoon on a Tuesday night during a blizzard. You ever seen a punter throw a touchdown to a long snapper while the scoreboard's on fire? Didn't think so. 'While y'all are busy arguing over which frat-funded dynasty is slightly less fraudulent, Toledo's cooking up a triple-reverse flea flicker in a game that ends 43–42 after six missed PATs and a goalpost gets stolen. That's not football. That's MACtion. You wouldn't survive one quarter in Ypsilanti. 'Long live the MAC.' Anyway, read Austin Meek on the state of the beloved MAC upset in the post-House era, then I'll see you next week. Email me at untilsaturday@ with whatever is on your mind. Thank you to reader Kenneth for suggesting LSU play a home game in France and to Carson for the cursed phrase 'Rio de Janeiro Egg Bowl.' A fun game: Who will be this season's first team to gain bowl eligibility? — Eric Hazard I strongly considered Jalon Daniels and the Kansas Jayhawks, who are going to bounce back in a big way this season and get a head start in Week 0, so they do play their sixth game on Oct. 4. Five of those games are Fresno State, Wagner, West Virginia, Cincinnati and at UCF. But the sixth is at Missouri. Can't pull the trigger. Advertisement That brings me to two candidates playing on Oct. 11: Navy should be very good, and it opens with VMI, UAB, at Tulsa, Rice, Air Force and at Temple. Then there's Pitt, which I consider one of the top surprise contenders. The Panthers' first six are Duquesne, Central Michigan, at West Virginia, Louisville, Boston College and at Florida State. If Pitt is really 5-0 heading to Florida State, which, let's say, is 3-2, that'll be the top ACC TV game that week. Last year, the No. 1 ACC game usually aired at noon on either ABC (though usually that was an SEC game) or ESPN. Whereas Navy's conference games were split either at noon on ESPN/ESPN2 or 3:30 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. No idea which one would get the Temple game. Given Pitt is more likely to be earlier, I give the nod to Pat Narduzzi's team, which would be its second straight 6-0 start. Hopefully, this one doesn't finish 7-6. More Mandel on the Big Ten's politicking, a top-10 uncertainty and more. 📫 Love Until Saturday? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters, too.
Scotsman
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Watch shanty crew's boozy seaside sing-along during stunning sunset
This video More videos Entertaining video captures the moment when a sea shanty crew lead a hilarious boozy sing-along outside an RNLI station, during a spectacular coastal sunset. Keep up with the latest new videos with the Shots! Newsletter. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Watch (click to play above) as a sea shanty crew entertains an outdoor crowd with old drinking songs, during a stunning sunset by the coast. The gang of ten sea-faring musicians can be seen, in the clip above, playing an 'open rehearsal' outside an RNLI station, where they entertain a crowd with shanty tunes from the 'age of sail'. Stick made from beer bottle tops Mike Leach in his pirate hat and leading a boozy shanty | Lucinda Herbert Approaching their ten-year anniversary, the Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew entertain locals and holiday-makers with humorous folk songs that were originally sung by sailors to co-ordinate physical labour and keep up morale on the sea. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The clip above is a short excerpt from episode 44 of Unconventional Brits. In a folk music special, video journalist Lucinda Herbert meets some of the crew members to learn more about the sea shanty revival. Monkey Stick made from bottle tops. Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew | Lucinda Herbert The full show, available on Shots! TV, includes musical snippets of some of the amusing beer-themed shanties, filmed during a recent performance. In the episode, 'Monkey Stick' player, Mike Brown, explains the history of this traditional and quirky instrument. Old drinking songs The long stick is made out of lager bottle tops, and has a toy monkey and an old boot on the end, which the shantyman would have banged on the deck to keep time, while leading the shanties. It is also called a Lagerphone. Mike, who joined the crew in 2016, explains: 'I am sad to say I wasn't the one who made it. Our Cajon player, Mike Leach made it. He also drank all of the lagers to make the Lagerphone, and he kept drinking after that.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Stunning sunset over St Annes Pier during the shanty crew performance | Lucinda Herbert Mexico Disaster remembered Memorial for the Mexico Disaster on St Annes Promenade | Lucinda Herbert And the crew raise funds for the RNLI at their weekly events. Clive Marquis-Carr explains: It's poignant here in Lytham St Annes because in 1886 there was the greatest disaster that befell the RNLI when 27 lifeboat crewmen from Southport and St. Anne's crews, they lost their lives saving 12 of the crew of the Mexico. The Lytham crew saved them and it really sparked the public appeal for the RNLI. ' Memorial for the Mexico Disaster on St Annes Promenade | Lucinda Herbert The group's third album, Kilgrimol Bells, is available online and also raises funds for the RNLI. Follow the Lytham St Annes Shanty Crew on Facebook for a full list of their free open rehearsals. Watch Unconventional Brits For the full video, including musical snippets watch
USA Today
04-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Mike Leach would have prioritized fixing college more than being in Hall of Fame
Mike Leach would have prioritized fixing college more than being in Hall of Fame Show Caption Hide Caption Texas Tech football assistant Darcel McBath on time with Mike Leach Texas Tech cornerbacks coach Darcel McBath played under Mike Leach for the Red Raiders and coached under him at Washington State and Mississippi State Funny thing is, Mike Leach wouldn't even care what some stuffed-shirt foundation thought of his coaching acumen. He'd be more concerned about, in his own unique parlance, where in the world this college football deal is headed. So the fact that the College Football Hall of Fame bent its rules Monday and allowed the late coach eligible to be voted into its prestigious club in 2027 without reaching a specific winning percentage, isn't the story here. It's the jumping off point. It's where a sport that has lost its compass is ultimately headed, and what can still be gleaned from the quirky, unapologetically honest former coach who thrived at outposts Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State. Leach lived and loved working in the shadows, finding ways to catch those at the front of the pack with more inherent advantages. He's the guy who years ago, in the early stages of the College Football Playoff, wondered aloud why they stopped at four teams? If you're going to do it, may as well do it like every other championship tournament in college sports. Have a 64-team field. He couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why conference commissioners, university presidents and even some of his coaching brethren, were stumped at how too pull it off. 'Go down to any local recreation center, any one of them in this great country,' Leach told me years ago, when it appeared his talented Washington State team would be left out of the four-team field. 'There's a director of that rec center, and I guarantee you he runs a softball tournament every year. Ask him, 'Hey, pal, how do you set up a 64-team field?' He'd have it knocked out in a couple of minutes.' MAN WITH PLAN: Lane Kiffin pushes promising 16-team playoff model BIG DECISION: SEC's Greg Sankey can be hero or villain in playoff debate But not in this life, not with these university presidents and conference commissioners and their unyielding desire to protect their collective, uh, livelihoods. These guys have the audacity to stand in corners, and fire off public barbs at each other about how to run the College Football Playoff and divvy up cash from said tournament — knowing full well the ultimate product will be rife with political posturing and pandering. Automatic qualifiers, or at large bids or a combination of both, it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day – every single season – someone isn't going to be happy. So please, SEC and Big Ten, stop acting like you've saved (or are saving) college football. And please, ACC and Big 12, stop acting like you want what's good for the game. If the Big Ten and SEC decided the ACC and Big 12 should receive three automatic bids (instead of two in the 4-4-2-2-1-3 format) to the new 16-team playoff beginning in 2026, watch how quickly ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark would hail the decision as a great moment in college sports. If ESPN decided to give college football 50 percent more cash for the College Football Playoff if the group used an all at-large field, the Big Ten and SEC would declare that's what they wanted all along. Equal access for everyone, baby. Nearly two decades ago, when Ohio State president Gordon Gee infamously said, 'They'll have to wrench a playoff system from my cold, dead hands,' former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany warned of what he called 'bracket creep.' Back then, when college football was capitulating to the pressure of those who despised the Bowl Championship Series formula of finding two teams to play for the national title, Delany warned that a playoff of four teams would quickly become eight. And then 16. And then who knows where it all ends? Because once you take that dip into the playoff lake, all you feel initially are the cool, crisp waters of change. You can't see the murky depths of discontent. Or in this case, what's good now may never be good enough. It took all of one season – think about that, one season – before the framers of the expanded playoff decided that a 12-team field wasn't going to cut it. If this thing was truly going to be a fair representative of the elite of college football, it had to move to 16 teams. And if Alabama misses out again in 2026, or another Big Ten team — in a conference of 18 where a rotating schedule will invariably find a fortunate soul of a team — reaches the holy land without winning a game of significance, then what? This should come as no surprise to anyone, but the new College Football Playoff contract in 2026 has the same language that the old(ish) contract for 12 teams had. Language that declares the CFP board of governors reserves the right to change the format — and to renegotiate the deal. How long will 16 teams last? Bracket creep in the Championship Subdivision playoff, which has been rolling strong for decades, has now reached 24 teams. If you don't think that can happen with big boy college football, you're the same person who thinks players shouldn't be paid. Which brings us all the way back to Leach, who wasn't too thrilled about playing players before they stepped on a college field. Throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars at high school players, who may or may not fold under the pressure of (in no certain order): The next level of competition. The pressure of living up to a contract. University life away from the field. Living and growing as a young adult, while away from home for the first time. 'Sure, let's just add a boatload of money into the equation and hope for the best,' Leach said. 'If you back end that deal, and have most of that money waiting for him at the end of every season based on performance, you've got a better chance of it not going off the rails.' It's too late for that. This thing already is long off the rails. Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
Miami Herald
03-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Texas Tech Football Preview 2025: The Red Raiders Might Be the Big 12's Best Team
X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFNTexas Tech Offense BreakdownTexas Tech Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to SeasonFor all the old "get off my lawn" types who need to take a nap after shaking their fists and wagging their fingers at how college football is finished because of how NIL is taking over …Texas Tech is showing EXACTLY how it's supposed to work. (Sorry, Texas Tech fans who read my stuff. I know I've hammered on this next point for, like, 20 years in a row, but now it really does matter, and in a good way.)Texas Tech has won next to nothing since before almost everyone reading this was last outright conference championship was in 1955, and even then, it was in a four-game Border Conference season. Outside of a few bowl games, the late Mike Leach never won anything. Neither did Kliff Kingsbury. Spike Dykes won half of a Southwest Conference title going 4-3 in 1994, and that's pretty much this is where the NIL side of things comes in. The Ohio States, Alabamas, and Michigans can afford anyone and anything, but lost in all of the unfettered free agency and professionalization of the sport is that this new era allows other programs, who aren't used to knowing a whole lot of success, to get very good, very fast. Cranking it up with a ton of good transfers doesn't guarantee anything but a little bit of improvement, as the all-frosting-no-cake Colorado Buffalo program has shown. However, if you're someone like Texas Tech, and being a factor in conference title chases is just a rumor, the portal might be enough to help get you over the McGuire put together three strong seasons since taking over in 2022, going 23-16 with two bowl wins and a third appearance. But the defense, especially last year, was powerfully what did Texas Tech do? It thunder-dunked the transfer portal, putting together what might be one of the best defensive lines in the Big 12. Offense hasn't been an issue, but it replaced a superstar college back like Tahj Brooks with Quinten Joyner out of O line was okay, but KABOOM … the Red Raiders got two outstanding tackles in Howard Sampson (North Carolina) and Will Jados (Miami University), who could start for anyone in America, to go along with the versatile Hunter Zambrano (Illinois State) with NFL potential at guard or as a swing tackle. The Red Raiders instantly upgraded the overall talent level and depth to go with a base that would've been good enough to finish 7-6ish back in the pre-NIL era. And now?If the new guys on defense can take that side of the ball from being the second-worst in the nation to merely meh, this could be the best team in the Big 12. Going to the College Football Playoff isn't just a realistic goal - if Arizona State, SMU, and Indiana could do it … - it's on the is the year Texas Tech is good enough to win Tech Offense Breakdown Texas Tech Defense Breakdown Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
New York Times
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Knicks extend the playoffs' best series, plus the best MLB games of the 2000s
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic's daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! I know it's surviving in a different form, but we still need to commemorate the coming end of 'Inside the NBA.' When you get this deep into the playoffs, LinkedIn phrases start appearing in your head. Perseverance. Mental fortitude. So on and so forth. It's hard to even describe the mental state of a team facing elimination, with months and months of hard work on the line, with one game to maintain dreams or have it all erased. We had the same scenario last night, in both the NHL and NBA — with wildly different results: That series continues tomorrow. We have to wait until next week for any other playoff fun. Let's keep going: Mahomes says no to flag football Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes brushed off the idea of playing on the 2028 Olympic flag football team, saying yesterday he'll 'probably leave that to the younger guys.' Mahomes will be just 32 then, a fact that is absurd considering how long he's been an elite quarterback. We're awaiting word from Pulse draftee Lamar Jackson. Read Pat's comments here. Advertisement Leach, Miles now eligible for Hall The College Football Hall of Fame announced yesterday it will lower a coach's entry barrier from a .600 winning percentage to .595, starting in 2027, which would make the late Mike Leach — as well as Les Miles — available for selection. Leach's impact on the game was outsized, but his winning percentage of .596 before his death prevented him from entry. Miles was eligible before the NCAA vacated 37 of his wins. Read more on the layers of this here. More news 📫 Love The Pulse? Check out our other newsletters. I appreciate balance in all things, which is why I love that, amid all these important playoff games where seasons are on the line in other sports, our baseball staff is Remembering Some Elite Games. All of our Quarter-Century content has been amazing, but Tim Britton ranked the best games of the 2000s — an impossible task, really. It evoked great memories … and takes. Four I want to highlight, for different reasons: 25. 2010 NLDS Game 1: Phillies 4, Reds 0 Our 'lowest' game on this list is a banger. The late Roy Halladay, in his first postseason start, threw a perfect game. As Tim points out, there are only eight perfect games this century, but none have been more impressive than this. It's a crime Halladay, a two-time Cy Young winner and Hall of Famer, never won a World Series. 17. 2005 NLDS Game 4: Astros 7, Braves 6 The first 18-inning playoff game this century gets a special place because of how incredible the details are. Adam LaRoche grand slam. Lance Berkman grand slam. Brad Ausmus home run. Roger Clemens threw three scoreless to end. What a lovely time capsule. 6. 2014 AL Wild Card Game: Royals 9, Athletics 8 I love the alternate-reality feel of this one, where Kansas City outlasted Oakland (yes, Oakland) in 12 innings in a postseason-altering game. The Royals went to the World Series that year. Advertisement 1. 2001 World Series Game 7: Diamondbacks 3, Yankees 2 While picking this list seemed incredibly hard, the choice was easy. Hard to get more iconic than Luis Gonzalez squibbing a game-winning single to defeat what, at that time, felt like the evil empire in New York. I was 11 years old and remember it so clearly. Read the full list here, which includes this game: 📺 French Open: Dzumhur vs. Alcaraz 2:15 p.m. ET on TNT/Max Wake up, it's time to watch tennis now. For schedule's sake, watching the defending champ and his beautiful drop shots in the third round are your best bet today. If you're a real tennis sicko, catch Elena Rybakina-Jelena Ostapenko around 8 a.m. ET. Clay courts are heating up across the ocean. 📺 WNBA: Liberty at Mystics 7:30 p.m. ET on ION Watch the defending champs take on a surprising Washington team. Nice change of pace after the NBA and NHL barrage. 📺 MLB: Yankees at Dodgers 10:10 p.m. ET on Apple TV+ A rematch of last year's World Series, with both teams still elite. This is as must-watch as we get today. Get tickets to games like these here. I am a regular listener to Pablo Torre's podcast, 'Pablo Torre Finds Out,' so I get to be a hipster fan about the show in light of his recent reporting on Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson. But as Zak Keefer writes today, Torre's story of leaving ESPN and ending up here is fascinating. What exactly is Pablo finding out? I really appreciated Harman Dayal's story on how, in the NHL, high stakes on the ice lead to an inescapable mental health challenge off of it. Read that here. What happened to Sandy Alcantara, the 2022 Cy Young winner who's completely lost his way on the mound? His slide has come at the worst time for just about everyone. Want to read a thriller? Spare some time for Austin Meek's story about Mickey Bruce, a former college football star who made an enemy of the man who inspired the movie 'Casino.' It's worth your time. Advertisement F1 drivers are again criticizing Monaco's two pit stop rule. Will things change this time? Chris Vannini played an early edition of EA's College Football 26. He has thoughts on the five biggest changes. Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our story about that Stefon Diggs video and the reaction to it. Most-read on the website yesterday: Keith Law's top 50 MLB prospects after two months of the season. Always a must-read. Ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
