Georgia may not be the juggernaut that captured back-to-back national championships.

There are flaws. There’s a running game that can disappear into the background. A passing game that has stayed afloat without star tight end Brock Bowers but may not be up for the challenge of carrying the entire load until Bowers’ return, which may not be until postseason play. There’s a defense that is still dominant at times but can give up yardage in chunks, including on the ground.

But the Bulldogs keep winning, and in doing so continue to resemble a group capable of running the table and making history as the first team in modern Bowl Subdivision history to threepeat. Saturday’s 30-21 victory against Missouri was the program’s 26th in a row and the first passed test of a November full of high-profile challenges.

It might be an extreme stretch to say that Georgia’s chances of pulling off the threepeat were left for dead after Bowers’ ankle injury, but the questions and concerns that stemmed from that loss were understandable: Bowers has been a huge piece of the puzzle behind back-to-back championships and had continued to bail out Georgia’s offense through the first two months of this season.

Through two games, though, the Bulldogs have managed to largely put those fears to rest. Behind another strong performance from quarterback Carson Beck, who had 254 yards and two touchdowns, and a balanced passing game that saw seven receivers make at least one catch, Georgia was able to find enough through the air to avoid a shattering upset. Beck and the Bowers-less passing game has picked up the slack to keep Georgia atop the SEC and FBS.

And that’s with the running game failing to gain traction against Missouri, putting up 131 yards on 33 carries. At the same time, the Tigers were able to chew up 151 yards on the ground, with most of the damage coming from running back Cody Schrader, who had 112 yards on 22 carries and a score.

Among other things, the past two Georgia teams were defined by individual excellence — at quarterback, tight end and every level of the defense, the Bulldogs were loaded with some of the top performers in program history.

This year’s team might be about more than the sum of its parts. That will be enough to get Georgia back to the College Football Playoff and potentially a place in college football history.

The Bulldogs and Tigers top this weekend’s biggest winners and losers:

Winners

Alabama

Nick Saban has won six national championships at Alabama and put together some of the best teams in program, SEC and college football history, most recently in the 2020 version that fought through the coronavirus pandemic to dominate the FBS. But after Alabama’s 42-28 win against LSU, it’s time to start talking about the 2023 season being the greatest coaching job of his obscenely successful tenure. Tossed aside and dismissed after losing to Texas and struggling with South Florida in September, the Crimson Tide have rallied into form at the exact right moment — painting the picture of a team that could make even more noticeable improvements before postseason play. While not surprising, given the state of LSU’s defense, the Tide put up 507 yards of offense and quarterback Jalen Milroe threw for 219 yards, ran for 155 yards and set an Alabama quarterback record with four rushing scores. If the offense finds confidence and momentum coming out of this win, look out: Alabama may find another gear this month.

Oklahoma State

The final scheduled meeting between rivals Oklahoma State and Oklahoma went to the Cowboys, who won 27-24 behind another strong game from running back Ollie Gordon and are suddenly in position to land a spot in the Big 12 championship game and play for a New Year’s Six berth. Given where things stood after losses to South Alabama and Iowa State, to even get Oklahoma State into this conversation in early November makes this one of the top coaching jobs of the Mike Gundy era. Easily one of the most productive skill players in the country, Gordon continued to surge up the Heisman Trophy pecking order with another 137 yards and two touchdowns. Combined with three Oklahoma turnovers, that was enough to score a memorable win that sends the Sooners out of this rivalry on a low note. And it gets worse: Oklahoma now has two losses and is out of playoff contention.

Texas

You won’t find any criticism of Kansas State’s fourth-down attempt near the end zone in overtime when a field goal would’ve sent the game to a second extra frame; along with some struggles from the Wildcats’ kicking game, as the underdog, it made more sense to try and lock down the game from three yards out than extend things into additional overtimes. That the attempt failed basically saves the Longhorns’ season: Texas would’ve been eliminated not only from the playoff with a second loss but would’ve struggled to get into the conference championship game without head-to-head tiebreakers against Oklahoma and Kansas State. Instead, the Longhorns remain perhaps the team to beat in the Big 12 after passing by far this month’s biggest test, even if by the skin of their teeth after the Wildcats’ comeback in the fourth quarter.

Clemson

Clemson entered the weekend as a program in utter disarray, with losses mounting, faith in the offense crumbling and even Dabo Swinney going on local-radio rants against members of the fan base curious how he planned to reverse a very troubling decline. Beyond being one of the most surprising results of the day, the Tigers’ 31-23 win against the Fighting Irish might spark a November turnaround that bleeds into the offseason and helps Clemson get back on its feet in 2024. With running back Will Shipley sidelined, the Tigers drew a career day from backup Phil Mafah, who ran for 186 yards and two touchdowns.

Kansas

Kansas had to play a different type of a game to pull down a seventh win, the Jayhawks’ most in a season since 2008. After weeks of up-and-down, up-tempo matchups against Texas, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, Kansas adapted with a more physical style to beat Iowa State 28-21, and in doing so really showed off how far the program has come under coach Lance Leipold. With the running game struggling to get going against one of the top defenses in the Big 12, Kansas looked to quarterback Jason Bean, who continued to play well in place of Jalon Daniels with 14 completions in 23 attempts for 287 yards and a touchdown. Nothing the Jayhawks do any more is surprising.

The newly bowl eligible

It’s that time of year. A handful of teams landed on bowl eligibility with wins on Saturday, several exceeding preseason or in-season expectations by nailing down a sixth win with weeks to spare until the end of the regular season. One is West Virginia, which has saved coach Neal Brown’s job after whipping Brigham Young 37-7. Back in August, Brown was picked as the likeliest Power Five coach to lose his job; a few months later, he’s on his way to an extension. Also locking down bowl eligibility: Arizona defeated No. 20 UCLA 27-10, Kentucky topped Mississippi State 24-3, North Carolina State outmuscled Miami to win 20-6, Coastal Carolina beat Old Dominion 28-24, Texas-San Antonio won 37-29 at North Texas and Texas State scored another impressive win in defeating Georgia Southern 45-24 to earn its first bowl bid in school history.

Losers

Notre Dame

Notre Dame met Clemson on a roll after beating up on Southern California and Pittsburgh, presenting the image of two national brands heading in opposite directions: the Irish up, the Tigers down. Eliminated weeks ago from the playoff chase, the third loss of this season basically ends Notre Dame’s hopes of reaching a New Year’s Six bowl and represents a major disappointment in coach Marcus Freeman’s second season. The Irish have improved under Freeman but his tenure continues to be defined by inexplicably bad losses.

Southern California

There is currently nothing sadder in college football than watching the USC defense. What makes it worse is the juxtaposition with Caleb Williams and this offense, which put up 42 points and 515 yards against Washington and often looked unstoppable, as Lincoln Riley’s offenses often do. But it was for naught: USC gave up 52 points and 573 yards to the Huskies, including a whopping 256 yards and four scores from running back Dillon Johnson, and suffered a loss that basically eliminates the Trojans from New Year’s Six contention and makes this an utterly lost season. Even after last year’s ugly bowl loss to Tulane, there was a sentiment around USC that this year would mark another step forward and the start of something great. Instead, what you’re seeing is a complete collapse on defense and a rudderless, lost program that has far more questions than answers more than midway through Riley’s second year.

Jimbo Fisher

The writing is on the wall, on the floor, the ceiling, the back of your hand and everywhere else when it comes to the Jimbo Fisher era, which could’ve been salvaged had Texas A&M managed to cobble together a Top 25 finish from one of the most talented rosters in the FBS. After losing 38-35 to Mississippi to fall to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the SEC, the Aggies will need to run the table against Mississippi State, Abilene Christian and LSU — possible, not probable — to earn eight wins during the regular season. Even then, there’s enough tape to come to a very solid conclusion: Fisher’s not going to get it done in College Station.

Florida

Arkansas’ 39-36 overtime win at Florida marked the program’s first win in the Swamp in six tries and successfully takes some pressure off coach Sam Pittman, who had come under increased scrutiny amid the Razorbacks’ winless start to SEC play. The loss is absolutely devastating for the Gators, who had taken care of business against the weak teams on this year’s schedule to reach the doorstep of bowl eligibility but could now fall short of six wins given what’s ahead: at LSU, at Missouri and home for Florida State. After going 6-7 in Billy Napier’s debut, to miss out on the postseason entirely in 2023 could be too much for his tenure to overcome.

Air Force

Air Force landed at No. 25 in the debut College Football Playoff rankings, one spot behind Tulane, despite being unbeaten. After losing 23-3 at home as heavy favorites against rival Army, the Falcons’ path to the New Year’s Six as the best team in the Group of Five demands a clean sweep through the regular season and some help. Shockingly, Army allowed just 155 yards on 40 carries, well below Air Force’s season average, while the Falcons had to make 24 pass attempts to make up a big deficit in the second half.

He was known as “The Capital Punisher,” a reference, in part, to his large presence. That man, who died last week, could be intimidating to those who watched him, and to those on his team who hadn’t gotten to know him.

I’m talking about Frank Howard, not Bob Knight. Playing for the hometown Senators from the mid-1960s and early 1970s, Howard powered baseballs into the upper reaches of the seats beyond the outfield wall of D.C.’s RFK Stadium. Also known as the “Washington Monument,” he stood 6-7 and weighed well over 250 pounds in an era when baseball players weren’t that big, with biceps that bulged out of the short sleeves of his jersey.

Then he spoke to you, and you were completely at ease.

“I’ve got camaraderie with all ballplayers – young, old,” Howard told me during spring training 2007, when he was an instructor for the New York Yankees. He was 87 when he died.

“If we don’t have the ability to interact with other human beings with a sense of courtesy, respect, then something’s rotten in Denmark,” he said then.

While Howard quoted Shakespeare – the only sports subject I have interviewed in 30 years I recall doing so – Knight was “almost Shakespearian,” as John Feinstein pointed out in The Washington Post when the famed but notorious basketball coach died at 83 last week. “Brilliant, thoughtful and tragically flawed,” the college basketball coach’s chronicler and sometimes nemesis wrote.

Knight and Howard achieved the pinnacle of success in their fields, Knight three times over in terms of national championships, yet went about doing so in opposing ways: Knight was a harsh, loud disciplinarian; Howard a kindly, gentle giant. They both leave legacies as leaders, and the ways they led teams give us starkly different examples of how we can instruct our kids on how to behave on the bench or sidelines.

The men’s lives teach us the pitfalls of being a jerk and the value of being nice. As Howard, and not Knight, taught us, it’s not about you, even when you’re the one everyone comes to watch. The same lessons apply when you are the biggest kid in the dugout, or just one of many trying to fit in with other boys or girls.

Team sports is about the big picture. At its highest levels, it’s about winning, but in those levels leading up to it, it’s about development. Your growth includes character development, too, a quality we learn from these two iconic sports figures is crucial to whether you are remembered as a true star.

It takes more than skill and work ethic to succeed. It takes decency.

USA TODAY Sports remembers Knight and Howard for what they were, and were not, as a method to help you understand your young athlete as he or she evolves.

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1. Anyone can be nice, and humble, even if you’re the biggest star like Frank Howard

“How long you been writing?” Howard asked me shortly into our interview.

He was a 70-year-old former All-Star and World Series champion who had pounded 382 home runs in the majors. I was 32-year-old journalist who was old enough to be confident in what I did and yet still a little unsure of myself.

Howard had shifted the focus away from himself and empowered me. Sometimes, a few words is all it takes to relax someone and give them confidence to play their sport better – or, in my case, do my job better.

“You gotta let your players know that you’re for ’em 100%,” Howard, also a former manager and longtime coach in the major leagues told me. “That you’re here to help ‘em in any way they deem possible. It doesn’t take much. It really doesn’t take much to be able to communicate.”

Niceness is an underrated character trait in sports. It feels different when someone on your team, and not just your parents, tells you that you are good. Parents are programmed to do this. Teammates, and coaches, often aren’t.

Knight’s former players at Indiana are remembering the coach’s authoritative style as “good for them” in the formation of their characters as men. But those same players also clung to the moments of praise Knight doled out.

Steve Alford, who became Indiana’s all-time leading scorer under Knight in 1987, would tell his coach to direct his yelling toward him, as opposed to teammates, because Alford could “handle it.” But the yelling cut deep into the star player’s soul, too.

“While it was the best (playing for Knight) because that’s what I had dreamed about, I mean, it’s hard,” Alford, an Indiana native, said in 2019, according to the Indianapolis Star. “It’s tough. But he got the best out of me.”

Knight’s players got a constant dose of profanity and abuse.

2. It’s not about you, even if you’re Bobby Knight. It’s about the people you influence.

“I had to sit around for a (expletive) year with an 8-10 record in this (expletive) league,” Knight tells his team at halftime in an audio clip that was recorded during the 1990-91 season and widely distributed that decade. “And I mean you will not put me in that (expletive) position again or you will (expletive) pay for it like you can’t (expletive) believe.”

Such tirades were a common thread of Knight’s coaching, as we have seen and heard over the years, perhaps most keenly from Feinstein’s epic, “A Season on Brink,” which followed Knight through the 1985-1986 season.

I remember laughing about the clip when it was shared during the pre-social media age. We generally brushed off such coaching styles as the norm in those days. Even today, if you look at the sidelines of youth and high school games, you can find a coach acting with this fire-and-brimstone style (in most cases, minus the expletives).

Have you ever been on the receiving end of such an outburst, from either a coach or a teammate? Did it make you play better? More likely, you tried to block it out of your mind because it haunted you. If you got it often, you became so used to it that you shut down.

We know today through the research and work of neuroscientists like Bruce Perry that trauma, neglect and abuse have a powerful effect on a developing brain. Brains develop throughout adolescence, which last until the mid-20s. (I wrote about the heavy impact of fear-based coaching on the adolescent brain last week.)

Perry also found, however, that a person’s history of relationships – family, community and culture – is more predictive of your mental health than a history of adversity.

“This is similar to the findings of other researchers looking at the power of positive relationships on health,” Perry says. “Connectedness has the power to counterbalance adversity.”

Positive relationships can deeply influence your well-being. Think about the reassuring coach, or a more senior teammate, you have had who was especially nice to you. Didn’t that make you play better?

You have a responsibility as a coach and a teammate. If you want your team to have success, you need to get the best out of everyone on it. Reassuring them is a better method toward that end than berating them.

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3. Being nice is not a sign of weakness. Nice guys don’t have to finish last.

Howard was known to those who knew him as “Hondo,” a nod to a John Wayne character.

J.P. Nerbun, a former Division I basketball player who has coached kids and professionals and is now a leadership coach, has studied two extremes of coaching. The first is Knight’s old-school way – “Yelling, screaming, making kids run and punishment,” he says. The other is permissive coaching, meaning not holding kids to a high standard.

Nerbun says the best coaching is a kind yet firm approach.

“It looks different for each person and you can still coach within your personality,” Nerbun tells USA TODAY Sports.

The next time your player or teammate makes a mistake, resist the urge to scold he or she in front of everyone. Instead, say, “You’re better than that.” Those four words acknowledge you believe that they have strong ability yet you expect more out of them. If he or she still seems flustered, say, “get the next one” or “make the next play,” another indication you believe in them.

Howard shaped his character as a teammate and coach in the “Hondo” style, as the character was known for ruggedness but also compassion. When he was a coach with the Yankees in the early 1990s, he urged the players to push themselves beyond their limits, even when they were down by large deficits. Those teams, under Buck Showalter, became known for their scrappiness and comeback ability.

Howard acknowledged to me that the difference between first-division and second-division major league baseball clubs was three high-quality players. But at the youth levels up through high school, tenacity and team unity go a long way toward winning games and, more importantly, everyone feeling they are a vital part of a team.

4. Make sure it’s you everyone is seeing

Before he played for Washington, Howard helped lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to the 1963 World Series title. He still wasn’t fully formed as a player.

Howard had some Knight in him. Perhaps we all do when we get really upset. During an exhibition game the following spring, he found himself retaliating against a fan along the third-base line who was verbally laying into him.

“Bad!” Howard told Sports Illustrated in May 1964. “The next day I got a letter from a man who said that he was at the game with his wife and son and that they had heard what I’d shouted. I was ashamed and wrote the man a letter of apology. Then Vin Scully asked me to go on a radio program with him, and when I did I told everyone that I was sorry that I had lost my temper and was ashamed of myself.’

No one remembered that irascible side of Howard. Everyone remembered the tempestuous Knight, despite his charitable work and deep friendships with former teammates and players. The fiery, brutal and hurtful side of him became ingrained as part of his legacy.

“Big-league is not only talent but it’s your ability to interact with other human beings,” Howard told me in our interview.

As a young athlete, you have the power to shape your own legacy. Coaches value how you interact with others. If they are deciding between you or another player for a travel team, and especially for a high school or college team, they are likely to choose player with more character: That’s the one who supports his or hear teammates and isn’t disagreeable.

Every time you’re in public, think about how someone may be watching you and ready to form their opinion of you. Always put forth your best representation of yourself.

5. Your star fades. Your kindness last forever.

Neil Reed had watched Knight’s practices in person, and he thought the public impression of the coach was overblown. The guard chose Knight over Kentucky’s Rick Pitino.

Reed became the central figure around Knight’s dismissal from Indiana, when horrifying video emerged of the coach choking the player. Knight was placed under a zero-tolerance policy and was officially fired when a he grabbed the arm of an Indiana student who said to him, “Hey, what’s up, Knight?”

Knight coached at Texas Tech for 6 ½ more seasons but never came close to the levels of success he reached at Indiana. He wasn’t getting the most talented players anymore. His reputation was sealed.

Howard’s career with Washington ended in 1971 in front of a crowd at RFK that showered him with applause for a sixth-inning homer that sparked a Senators comeback against the Yankees. He waved his batting helmet, a rare display of emotion on the field, as he neared the dugout after rounding the bases.

“Everything that happens after this is anticlimactic,” he said, according to The Washington Post’s William Gildea. ‘Everything is downhill after this. I’m not sentimental about this. This is the greatest thrill I’ve ever experienced.”

It was Washington’s last day as a major league city for almost 34 years. The team moved to Texas to become the Rangers the next season.

Everything, of course, was not downhill. Yes, Howard played only two more mostly forgettable seasons with the Rangers and Tigers. But wherever he went, as manager of the Padres and Mets, as a coach with the Brewers and Yankees, as a talent evaluator for the American and National Leagues, he brought along his reputation as a good guy.

The kid beside us as Howard and I talked in 2007, though, didn’t know about Howard as a person. Howard, wearing a Yankees uniform, saw him and said, “You want that signed, son?”

“Thank you,” the boy told Howard after he wrote his name on the ball.

“All right … enjoy Yankee baseball,” he said. “The New York Yankees thank you. We really appreciate your great support.”

With the Yankees, Howard was known as “Uncle Frank.” His Yankees boss, owner George Steinbrenner, always preferred to be linked to generals, as Knight was.

‘Some men are Pattons, and others are Eisenhowers,’ Steinbrenner would tell Rick Cerrone, his public relations man, ‘I’m a Patton.’

Sometimes, as Howard knew, it’s better to just be yourself.

Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for a high schooler and middle schooler. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.

PHOENIX − The confetti shot into the air at Chase Field has been swept up. The hundreds of champagne bottles sprayed throughout the visiting clubhouse has finally dried. The  powerful cigar aroma has cleared the air. 

The World Series is over, and just up the street from Chase Field where the Texas Rangers celebrated deep into the night, is where teams will gather to start building a contender for the next Fall Classic. 

Scottsdale, Arizona, is where the annual Major League Baseball General Manager Meetings are taking place beginning Tuesday at the Omni Hotel, where all 30 GMs, front office executives and agents will be gathering for the next three days. 

The most sought-after person at the meetings will be Nez Balelo, the agent for Shohei Ohtani, who will be seeking the largest contract in baseball history, with more than a dozen teams expected to show interest – willing to fork out in excess of $400 million, maybe $500 million. 

Scott Boras, who represents six of the top 10 free agents, including soon-to-be two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and former MVP Cody Bellinger, will be in high demand. 

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The most popular executive may be John Mozeliak of the St. Louis Cardinals, who has shouted to the world that he never wants to ever endure another season like they just experienced, vowing to add at least three front-line starters, whether it’s through free agency or the trade market. 

Rangers GM Chris Young will receive the most accolades after winning the first World Series title in franchise history, Mike Elias of the Baltimore Orioles should win the Executive of the Year award with their AL East title, and Mike Hazen of the Arizona Diamondbacks will be saluted for their dramatic turnaround from 110 losses two years ago to the NL pennant. 

While trades and free agent signings are extremely rare at these meetings, this is where the groundwork traditionally starts, only this year feels different, GMs and executives say. 

This is the first time, they can remember, where 29 of the 30 teams are actually trying to win. 

The Oakland A’s still are rebuilding and planning to keep payroll as low as possible, but every other team is trying to compete in 2024. 

Everyone just saw an 84-win team reach the World Series, a $60 million team win the AL East, and the three-highest spending teams sitting home for the playoffs, and figure, hey, why not us? 

“I’ve never seen anything like it,’ one GM said. “It’s the first time we’ve had 29 teams all talking about winning. Every team you talk to wants to be aggressive.’’ 

This means the free-agent market will be hot and heavy, with even teams like the Tampa Bay Rays telling agents they plan to spend this winter. 

Still, it’s a painfully thin free-agent class, executives caution, and the risk factor could be greater than ever. 

It’s simply not a market where you can drop $500 million on two players and win a World Series in two years like the Rangers did with All-Star infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. 

The Rangers’ title was no fluke. You need stars to win. The Houston Astros have proven just that for the past seven years. 

And this year, there’s no bigger star on the market than Ohtani, who comes along with his own risk. 

Here are the headlines that will command the attention this week while roaming the grounds at the Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa: 

Shohei Ohtani  

Good luck to Balelo trying to walk around the Omni without being followed by a trail of camera crews and a press corps trying to get the latest update on Ohtani. 

Ohtani will be the highest-paid player in history, eclipsing $400 million, but not necessarily $500 million. The trouble is that no one knows when, or if, he’ll keep pitching. He underwent elbow surgery that will sideline him at least through 2024, and although he believes he’ll be back on the mound in 2025, who knows? 

He underwent Tommy John elbow surgery on Oct. 1, 2018, and was out virtually two years, pitching only 1 ⅔ innings while he continued as a DH. Now, that he’s five years older, and underwent his second elbow surgery, who knows for sure when he can return. 

Still, despite the uncertainty, he’s the biggest star in the game, and teams are salivating at the chance to capitalize on the brand. Teams will generate about $20 million off Ohtani in merchandising, advertising and licensing sales, while becoming everyone’s favorite team in Japan. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the overwhelming favorites to sign Ohtani. 

The Chicago Cubs are the sleeper pick, several GMs say, particularly with $43 million coming off their books with the expiration of Jason Heyward’s contract and Marcus Stroman opting out. 

The Boston Red Sox, with new GM Craig Breslow, are expected to be heavily considered. 

The New York Yankees, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers will all make strong pushes. 

But it’s foolish to discount the Angels. 

If the Angels didn’t think they had a chance to sign Ohtani, they would have moved him at the trade deadline. Ohtani, who relishes his privacy, is quite comfortable in Anaheim. He has complete autonomy over his schedule. He loves the lifestyle Orange County has provided him. 

If the Dodgers don’t sign him, don’t be surprised if he’s back in an Angels uniform. 

Balelo is in no rush, so look for the Ohtani sweepstakes to be going full throttle in December. 

San Diego Padres 

The Padres took out a $50 million loan just to meet payroll in September, and plan to reduce their payroll by about $50 million this winter. 

So that means Juan Soto, who’s expected to earn about $33 million in salary arbitration, is gone, right? 

Not so fast. 

The conventional thinking among GMs is that Soto will actually have more value at the trade deadline than moving him now. 

Besides, GM A.J. Preller isn’t about to punt on this season. He believes they were as talented as any team in baseball. He wants to keep Soto at least for the first half to see if they recover and become the elite team he envisioned all along. 

If they have to make some tough decisions, GMs say, they wouldn’t be surprised to see the Padres dangle shortstop Xander Bogaerts and outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. in creative deals to avoid trading Soto. They would like to move Jake Cronenworth, who signed a seven-year, $80 million extension in April.  

Philadelphia Phillies

This was the year the Phillies were supposed to take that next step and be the World Series champions, instead of falling in seven games to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS. 

Phillies owner John Middleton, one of the most aggressive owners in the game, wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again and will hit the free agent market. 

He wouldn’t mind bringing back starter Aaron Nola, but they were four years and about $100 million apart in their negotiations last winter, and it’s highly unlikely the gap will completely close. 

GMs believe that the Phillies will let Nola walk, and will turn their attention to Blake Snell, who’s about to win his second Cy Young award. 

This would leave Nola going to either St. Louis, Atlanta, Texas or perhaps the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

New York Yankees

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner vowed there will be changes this winter, but nothing significant has happened yet. 

“Changes could mean a lot of different things,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge said. “From philosophies, players, coaches, everything. We haven’t made it to the big dance in quite a few years, so we got some work to do, even on the player side. So looking forward to hopefully getting us back to the promised land with some good moves.” 

Teams don’t expect the Yankees to spend like the Yankees of old, but of course, will engage with Shohei Ohtani just in case he changes his mind and shows the slightest bit of interest. 

The biggest change, rivals says, may be their willingness now to part with prospects for immediate help. 

They’re expected to have serious trade talks with the Padres about Soto to see if there’s a potential fit now, or in the future. 

Scott Boras

Boras has corralled the top of the free agent market once again. 

You want a bat? Boras represents Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, J.D. Martinez, Rhys Hoskins and Korean center fielder Jung Hoo Lee. 

You want an arm? Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Nick Martinez, Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea are all represented by Boras too.

He plans to address the media on Wednesday where he’ll let you know that Snell’s accolades and accomplishments at the age of 30 (strikeouts, walk ratio, and Cy Youngs) are further along than Hall of Famer Randy Johnson at the same age; that Montgomery is the modern-day version of Andy Pettitte, and that Bellinger is the greatest young free agent to hit the market since Bryce Harper. 

International market  

A year ago, it was starter Kodai Senga and Masataka Yoshida that made the biggest splash on the international market, but this winter, Japanese starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto will make more money than both of those players combined. He’s expected to receive at least $200 million where and Snell will be the two highest-paid pitchers. Yamamoto dominated an offensive-challenged league (1.21 ERA), and was phenomenal in his last outing. He struck out 14 batters without a walk, yielding just one run in his complete-game, 5-1 victory in the Japan Series, throwing 138 pitches. 

Rival executives believe he’ll wind up signing with the Mets. 

Also, Korean center fielder Jung Hoo Lee, 25, is among the top position players on the market. He was the 2022 KBO League MVP, and has a slash line of .340/.407/.491 in his seven years in Korea. He’s considered the second-best center fielder on the market behind Bellinger. 

Texas Rangers

Hey, free agency treated them very, very, very good in their World Series run. 

So why not hit the market again? 

They will make a run at Ohtani, who was on his original list of teams he was interested in signing with when he left Japan, and will be on the lookout for starting pitching. 

Bringing Jordan Montgomery back makes the most sense, but certainly Nola and his durability is quite attractive to the Rangers’ rotation, with several GMs predicting Nola will end up in Texas. 

The Rangers’ bullpen concerns could also suddenly disappear with the signing of free-agent closer Josh Hader. 

It’s hard to find a single executive who isn’t predicting that Hader will ultimately be a Ranger. 

Certainly, with the nucleus of their position players locked up in Texas for the next five years, they could have the makings of a dynasty. 

St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals have traditionally stayed away from big-money expenditures since losing out to the Boston Red Sox for David Price and the Chicago Cubs for Jason Heyward. 

This year is different. 

They were completely embarrassed by their 71-91 season, the first time they finished last since 1990, and president Mozeliak vows that it won’t happen again. 

“He is really, really motivated,’ one GM said, “more than at any time I’ve been around him.’’  

They will be in the Nola and Yamamoto free-agent sweepstakes, and have told teams they are willing to use their outfield depth to trade for a starter. 

San Francisco Giants

Please, the Giants ask, will someone take their money. 

The Giants have been flatly rejected by Giancarlo Stanton, Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge the past few years, and though they had Carlos Correa for $350 million until his physical scared the living daylights out of them. 

Now, loaded with cash, and badly in the need to generate fan support, they will be in on every marquee free agent. 

Ohtani, of course, tops their wish list. 

They’d love to have Bellinger roaming center field, maybe Lee, or even Kevin Kiermaier. 

Blake Snell would certainly look good as their co-ace with Logan Webb. 

The Giants will land someone, and rest assured, agents will have president Farhan Zaidi’s number on speed dial all winter. 

Around the basepaths 

≻ The Arizona Diamondbacks, who desperately want a third baseman, plan to pursue free agent Justin Turner, who exercised his opt out with the Boston Red Sox. He is atop their wish list. 

≻ The Chicago White Sox aren’t shopping Dylan Cease, but are telling teams they will listen to offers. He could be the best pitcher available on the trade market. 

≻ The Toronto Blue Jays, who badly need a left-handed bat, have strong interest in free-agent outfielder Cody Bellinger. The Blue Jays, however, still need to lock up Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, who are free agents after the 2025 season. A back-up plan would be to sign left-handed outfielder Joc Pederson. 

≻ The Los Angeles Angels are giving serious consideration to former players Torii Hunter, Tim Salmon and Darin Erstad to become their next manager, and plan to interview each of them. 

≻ Houston Astros GM Dana Brown is pushing for bench coach Joe Espada to be promoted as manager to replace Dusty Baker.

≻ Craig Counsell is the hottest free agent manager in years, but while the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians are in strong pursuit, friends close to Counsell still predict he returns to Milwaukee, but receives a raise from $3.5 million to more than $5 million, making him the highest-paid manger in the game. 

≻ The Chicago Cubs say they don’t have any intention to bring back starter Marcus Stroman after he declined his $21 million option in 2024. 

≻ Rangers special assistant Dayton Moore engaged in talks with three teams this winter, including one as a potential president of baseball operations, but says he is staying put for at least one more year in Texas. 

≻ The Diamondbacks are opening talks this week with manager Torey Lovullo on a three-year contract extension after winning the NL pennant. 

≻ The White Sox desperately tried to trade shortstop Tim Anderson, but couldn’t find any takers, before declining his $14 million option. Several teams believe he’s best suited to play second base. 

≻ The Minnesota Twins, who are losing free agent pitchers Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda, are planning to use their position player depth to acquire arms in trades. They also have interest in free agent center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. 

≻ The Cincinnati Reds told first baseman Joey Votto they simply could no longer guarantee him a starting job, and Votto didn’t want to return as a bench player, so declining the $20 million option was an easy call. 

≻ Free agent outfielder Tommy Pham, who struggled to get a one-year, $6 million free-agent contract a year ago with the Mets, already has several teams expressing strong interest in hopes of fortifying their clubhouse culture. 

“He’s one of the better offensive players on the market,’ one GM said. 

≻ Agent Scott Boras, after seeing the record-low TV ratings, continues to campaign for a neutral site World Series. 

“It’s nuts,’ he said, “we’re serving steak at a fast-food restaurant.’

≻ Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, who won his fourth World Series title, gave the Hall of Fame his cap. 

“I know they take a lot of items from a lot of different players,’ Bochy said, “ I don’t know why they always take my hat. 

“That seems to be the target with me I guess, cause of the size of my head. 

The cap size: 8 1/8. 

≻ It will be interesting to see if more teams try to copy White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s strategy of giving closer Liam Hendriks a $54 million contract with a fourth-year option for $15 million or a $15 million buyout paid in 10 installments. It provided the White Sox protection in case he was injured or grossly underperformed. Hendriks underwent Tommy John surgery, they declined his option, and now have to pay Hendricks just $1.5 million a year. 

So Hendriks still gets his money and the White Sox don’t have a strain on their 2024 budget. 

≻ The Detroit Tigers certainly should have plenty of money to spend this winter with Miguel Cabrera’s $32 million contract and Eduardo Rodriguez’s $18 million contract coming off the books, but they need to find a replacement for Rodriguez. 

≻ Great opening remarks by Craig Breslow at his introductory press conference as the Red Sox’s new chief baseball officer. 

“I understand that some of you will see me as another Ivy League nerd with a baseball front office job,” he said. “It’s true. I am that. 

“I’m also a 13-year big leaguer and a 2013 Boston Red Sox World Series champion. And I know what it takes to win here, and I’m willing to make the hard decisions necessary to deliver.” 

Breslow is the third Yale graduate to run their baseball operations since Theo Epstein was promoted in 2002. 

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale 

BOULDER, Colo. – Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders did what he thought was necessary this week even if it seemed a little desperate. After losing four of his previous five games, he reorganized his coaching staff and promoted a former NFL head coach to play-calling duties in a bid to bring out the best in his star quarterback son.

But it didn’t work. In fact, the Buffaloes got even worse Saturday against No. 19 Oregon State until the very end, when they scored their only two touchdowns of the game before falling short, 26-19.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders even needed another painkiller injection to finish the game as the Buffs dropped to 4-5 this season after capturing the nation’s attention with a 3-0 start.

“This is hard,” Deion Sanders said afterward. “The reason it’s so hard is because you know you’re capable of doing better − playing better, performing better, calling better games, coaching better on my behalf. And you are coming up short when you have enough to get the job done. And it’s painful. It hurts myself, the team and all the coaches and fans.”

As it turned out, a coaching blunder right before halftime ended up being the difference in the game. Deion Sanders blamed himself for it. But the Buffs still struggled to protect their quarterback in the first three quarters before he went to the locker room to get his painkiller shot. After that, he said he “got mad” and nearly brought his team back from a 23-5 fourth-quarter deficit in front of a sold-out homecoming crowd at Folsom Field (52,725).

What else did Deion Sanders say?

He explained why he promoted former New York Giants and Cleveland Browns head coach Pat Shurmur to call plays on offense instead of offensive coordinator Sean Lewis.

Shurmur had been making an annual salary of $50,000 as an analyst at Colorado behind the scenes, according to a copy of his appointment letter obtained by USA TODAY Sports. But after this big change, he’s now one of the team’s 10 full-time assistant coaches and has the title of co-offensive coordinator with Lewis, who gave up his job as head coach at Kent State last year to run the offense at Colorado for $850,000 this year.

“We’re not gonna demean Sean Lewis,” Deion Sanders said when asked about making Shurmur the play-caller instead of Lewis. “We’re not gonna do that. We’re not gonna take that tone. Sean is a good man.  I think he’s a good play-caller. We just needed change at the time. We just needed to try something else at the time,  and that’s what we did. I don’t look back on it. I don’t second-guess myself whatsoever, because it’s more to it than what you may know.”

Deion Sanders said the play-calling system is “still a group effort” and both Lewis and Shurmur are “really talented.”

“It’s not one guy doing good, or one guy doing bad,” he said.

Before Saturday, the Buffs ranked second in the nation with the most sacks allowed with 42, one year after they only had 23 during a season in which they finished 1-11. They also had the third-worst rushing offense in the nation with just 78.6 yards per game.

On Saturday, Shedeur Sanders was sacked four more times and his team gained minus-7 rushing yards on 19 carries.

What happened in the game?

Despite the shakeup on the coaching staff, the offensive linemen on the field were still the same and acted like it with more porous protection for Shedeur Sanders.

The Buffs gained only 52 yards of total offense on 30 plays before halftime, when they trailed 14-3. They also punted five times on their first seven possessions, fumbled the ball away on another and got a 32-yard field goal for their only score. The latter happened only after Colorado safety Shilo Sanders forced a fumble to give the Buffs’ offense possession at the Oregon State 19-yard line.

By the time the team went into the locker room at halftime, Shedeur Sanders appeared to be walking with a limp and Deion Sanders was blaming himself for a strategic gaffe that led to a touchdown by Oregon State with 16 seconds left in the second quarter.

“That’s on me,” Deion Sanders told ESPN at halftime.

What was the mistake?

Colorado got the ball at its own 4-yard line with 49 seconds left before halftime down by only 7-3. If the Buffs had run the ball and run out the clock, that would have been the score at halftime.

Instead, Shedeur Sanders set up as if he was going to try to drive the length of the field to score. He attempted two passes that fell incomplete on first and second down before handing the ball off for no gain on third down − finally forcing the Beavers to burn one of their two remaining timeouts with 36 seconds left.

Colorado then punted on fourth down, setting up a quick-strike score by the Beavers right before halftime.

Why didn’t the Buffs just run down the clock and avoid giving the Beavers the ball to score?

“We wanted to get out of there, because we knew were receiving the ball in the second half,” Deion Sanders said. “So the plan was to either get a first down and try to go, or if we don’t, if we’re not successful on first down, OK, let’s hit the clock.”

That’s not how it worked out. Oregon State got the ball on the Colorado 20-yard line with 21 seconds left after a 28-yard punt return.

One play later, Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei tossed the ball down the right sideline to running back Deshaun Fenwick for a 20-yard touchdown with 16 seconds left in the half.

The touchdown ended up being the difference in the game. Instead of being down by just 7-3 at halftime, the Buffs were down 14-3.

“You know that was huge in a lot of ways,” Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith said.

Deion Sanders knew it, too.

“They were able to punch it in, which is crazy,” he said. “That hurt tremendously.”

Oregon State’s momentum then carried into the second half, when the Beavers went 85 yards on 12 plays on their first drive to take a 20-3 lead on a 1-yard rush by Uiagalelei.

What happened at the end of the game?

Shedeur Sanders went into the locker room to get his painkiller injection with about three minutes left in the third quarter. He didn’t miss any action on the field and returned to lead his team on touchdown drives on the Buffs’ very last two possessions of the game. Their first touchdown was a 15-yard pass from Shedeur Sanders to two-way star Travis Hunter, which helped cut Oregon State’s lead to 23-12 with 10:41 remaining.

It didn’t come until Colorado’s 11th possession of the game after seven punts and a lost fumble before that.

“I just got mad,” Shedeur Sanders said. “That’s it.”

He said he never considered leaving the game because ‘the pain of not being there for them overrides the pain’ he felt in his body. On his next possession, he again led the Buffs down the field to score in nine plays, capped by a 12-yard touchdown pass to running back Anthony Hankerson with 1:42 left. But it was too little, too late.

Afterward, he downplayed the change in play-callers but said “overall, I liked it.”

The Beavers (7-2) outgained the Buffs in yardage 418-238. Of those 238 total yards, 160 for Colorado came in the fourth quarter. Shedeur Sanders finished with 24-of-39 passing for 245 yards and two touchdowns.

Uiagalelei was 12-of-24 for 223 yards and one touchdown.

What’s next for Deion Sanders and Colorado?

Deion Sanders said his team is missing the “passion” it had in the beginning of the season. But he found a silver lining as his team enters the final three games of the regular season, starting next week with the home finale against Arizona. They need to win two to be eligible for a postseason bowl game.

“Our kids fought hard,” he said. “They really did. And I love the fact that they didn’t have any quit in them, that they rallied at the end and gave a heck of a effort. We just wish that we could do that in the midst of the game.”

Regardless of who’s calling the plays, he’s still got the same offensive line. On the other hand, he’s still got Shedeur at quarterback. On Saturday, he again showed he can carry the team on his back, at least as long as he can last.

“The kid is tough,” his father said. “He’s tough. He’s fighting through it, and he don’t make any excuses. He wasn’t raised like that. We’re not making any excuses. We don’t do that.”

What else did Deion Sanders do to his staff?

To make room for Shurmur on a coaching staff that is limited to 10 by NCAA rules, Sanders was required to remove a current assistant coach and demote him to analyst. Colorado tight ends coach Tim Brewster is making that downward move, though Sanders said he doesn’t consider it a demotion “because everyone is making the same amount of money.” Brewster, a former head coach at Minnesota, is making $400,000 this year at Colorado.

Colorado was only using one tight end, making Brewster a logical candidate to move to analyst.

‘It’s a movement that we had to make,’ Deion Sanders said.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

NEW YORK — There was a definite enthusiasm and a different feel in the air for the 52nd running of the TCS New York City Marathon as more than 50,000 runners lined up in Staten Island to complete the grueling 26.2-mile five-borough trek through the city.

Unlike last year, where the humidity led to temperatures soaring to near record-breaking levels, it was a typical November New York City Sunday morning, a comfortable 50 degrees under cloudy skies for the 8 a.m. start. With millions of spectators cheering the runners on from the crowded sidewalks, history was made for the second consecutive year.

Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia pulled away from the pack and coasted to victory in the men’s professional race, setting a new open division course record, breaking the tape at Central Park in 2:04:58. Geoffrey Mutai set the previous mark of 2:05:06, set in 2011. That earned Tola a $50,000 bonus for breaking the record.

The 32-year-old Tola, the 2022 world champion and bronze medalist in the 10,000 meters at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and fellow countryman Jemal Yimer started to separate themselves from the rest of the field about the half-marathon mark, but Tola kicked into high gear increasing his lead to over 30 seconds in the stretch run and Yimer faded, coming in 9th.

NYC Marathon 2021 winner Albert Korir, from Kenya, was the runner-up (2:06:57) and Ethiopian Shura Kitata finished third. Futsum Zeinasellassie was the top American male finisher coming in 10th.

The women’s professionals, which only had a field of 16 runners, seemed to be taking their time through the most of course, sometimes slowing to a nearly 6-minute-a-mile pace, as there were as many as 11 women packed together even after 20 miles, which was whittled to five with nearly two miles to go.

During the final 400 meters, Hellen Obiri of Kenya gave a final frenetic push toward the finish line and outlasted Ethopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, finishing in 2:27:23, 6 seconds ahead of Gidey. Defending champion Sharon Lokedi came in third, 10 seconds behind. Six of the first seven finishers came from Kenya, which has won this event on the women’s side in each of the past five NYC Marathons. (The 2020 race was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic).

The top American finishers for the women were Kellyn Taylor, who finished eighth at 2:29:48, and Molly Huddle, (9th, 2:32.02).

Swiss duo dominates wheelchair events

The wheelchair events were swept by athletes from Switzerland as Marcel Hug, nicknamed the “Silver Bullet” won the men’s event for the third consecutive year and a record sixth overall, just 3 seconds off the event record he set just last year, crossing the finish line at 1:25.29.

He finished nearly five minutes ahead of former two-time winner Daniel Romanchuk of the United States. Hug, who collected $35,000 for finishing first, becomes the first person to win all six Abbott World Marathon Majors in one year (Berlin, New York City, London, Chicago, Boston, Tokyo).

In the women’s wheelchair event, Catherine Debrunner raced out to a 35-second lead after five miles and coasted to victory, winning in 1:39.32 over Manuela Schar (1:47:54) and shattering the event record, set last year by Susannah Scaroni, who finished third this year. The victory came with a $50,000 bonus for Debrunner for her record-breaking performance.

The New York City Marathon wheelchair races are the selection event for the United States Paralympic team competing in the 2024 Olympics, with the top two finishers in each event earning a spot on the squad. Romanchuk, Scaroni, Aaron Pike (4th in men’s wheelchair), and Tatyana McFadden (6th in women’s) will represent the U.S. in Paris.

Celebrity runners

The non-competitive portion of the race brought out a number of celebrities and sports notables. Among the runners included former NHL player Zdeno Chara, and a pair of New York Yankees wives: Samantha Judge, the wife of 2022 AL MVP Aaron Judge, and Emily Rizzo, the wife of three-time All-Star Anthony Rizzo. Also running was Steve Mesler, who won a gold medal in the four-man bobsled at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

By the numbers

$1: The first entry fee of the first New York City Marathon in 1970; 127 runners started and 55 finished that year.

4 hours, 50 minutes, 26 seconds: Average finish of runners in the 2022 NYC Marathon

205: Countries and territories represented

33,000: Bagels at the starting line

47,839: Finishers in the 2022 NYC Marathon

93,456: Liters of water on the course

$894,000: Total guaranteed prize purse, with time bonuses

2 million: Estimated spectators in New York City to watch the marathon on the streets.

The Kansas City Chiefs hung on to beat the Miami Dolphins to kick off the NFL’s Sunday schedule for Week 9.

With a minute left and the game on the line, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was unable to corral an errant snap and the Chiefs recovered the football on the fourth-down play.

This clash of potential AFC championship game contenders started with a lopsided first half. The Chiefs took a 21-0 lead into halftime, and saw the Dolphins score 14 unanswered points in the third quarter to set up an exciting finish.

But the Chiefs got the last laugh defensively, causing Tagovailoa and the Dolphins offense to retreat backward on three occasions in the fourth quarter to end their comeback attempt.

Mahomes finished the game 20 of 30 for 185 yards with touchdown passes to receiver Rashee Rice and running back Jerick McKinnon, while safety Bryan Cook scored a 59-yard fumble return just before halftime to lead the Chiefs.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Tagovailoa was 21 of 34 for 193 yards, throwing a touchdown pass to Cedrick Wilson Jr., while running back Raheem Mostert scored on 13-yard run with 22 seconds left in the third quarter.

Before the Dolphins’ final fumble, Tagovailoa was sacked on consecutive plays on Miami’s second-to-last drive as their offense was unable to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

The Chiefs improve to 7-2, while the Dolphins fall to 6-3. Both teams have a bye in Week 10. — Safid Deen

What NFL games are showing today? 

Here are the kickoff times and TV info for all of Sunday’s NFL action. 

Kansas City Chiefs 21, Miami Dolphins 14 Minnesota Vikings 31, Atlanta Falcons 28Baltimore Ravens 37, Seattle Seahawks 3Cleveland Browns 27, Arizona Cardinals 0 Green Bay Packers 20, Los Angeles Rams 3Houston Texans 39, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 37Washington Commanders 20, New England Patriots 17 New Orleans Saints 24, Chicago Bears 17 Indianapolis Colts at Carolina Panthers, 4:05 p.m. (CBS) New York Giants at Las Vegas Raiders, 4:25 p.m. (FOX) Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles, 4:25 p.m. (FOX) Buffalo Bills at Cincinnati Bengals, 8:20 p.m. (NBC)

Bye week: Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers

Winners and losers from Chiefs’ win over Dolphins

WINNERS

Kansas City Chiefs: The first AFC team to reach seven wins in the 2023 season, the reigning Super Bowl champions cemented their hold on the conference’s projected No. 1 playoff seed and home-field advantage – which is pretty important given the last five AFC championship games have been staged at Arrowhead Stadium. K.C. now rolls into its Week 10 bye week, which is followed by a massive Monday nighter at Arrowhead, a Super Bowl 57 rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles.

K.C. D: The Chiefs offense has not been as explosive in 2023, and Sunday’s 21 points fell short of the team’s 23.4-point average entering Week 9. Luckily, the defense has stepped up in a massive way – never more so than limited the Miami Dolphins’ top-ranked offense to a season-low 14 points and just 292 total yards (the Fins’ second-lowest total in 2023). Not only did Kansas City stonewall Miami as it drove for a potential game-tying score on its final possession, Chiefs S Bryan Cook’s 59-yard fumble return for a touchdown at the end of the first half proved to be the difference in the game.

Germany: The league’s second regular-season game in Deutschland appeared to be another massive success, more than 50,000 attending in Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park, a venue designed for Bundesliga soccer matches. Next week, the venue will host the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots in this season’s final international game … and we’d expect one more rendition of the late John Denver’s, ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads.’

LOSERS

Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill: To the degree either of Miami’s offensive stars should be under MVP consideration, Sunday was a blow to such candidacy. Tagovailoa passed for 193 yards and one TD in his least-productive game of the season. Worse, his inability to handle Miami’s final snap from scrimmage cost the Dolphins any shot at tying or winning the game deep in K.C. territory. Hill finished with a pedestrian eight catches for 62 yards but also committed the pivotal fumble in a game he’d had circled against his former team.

Travis Kelce: The Chiefs improved to 3-2 in games this season not attended by Taylor Swift. However Swift’s beau, TE Travis Kelce, was again quiet with her presumably halfway across the world. Kelce’s three catches and 14 yards were both season lows. However, it must be noted those 14 yards were sufficient to make Kelce the Chiefs’ all-time leader in receiving yards (10,941) as he supplanted Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez by 1 yard Sunday.

Dolphins: Though still 6-3 and in strong position to ultimately secure a playoff spot, Miami continues to feed the narrative it beats up on the NFL’s weak links but can’t hang with the big boys. The Dolphins are averaging 39 points in their victories – all against sub-.500 opponents – but just 17 in defeat, each of those occurring against teams also projected to be in the playoffs. Fortunately for Miami, the only team it will face – twice – with a winning record before Christmas Eve is the AFC East rival New York Jets, who are 4-3 and have plenty of problems of their own. — Nate Davis

Two-minute warning: Dolphins driving

We’re set up for a heck of a finish in Frankfurt.

The Dolphins have the ball back after holding the Chiefs to a three-and-out. On their first play after receiving the punt, Miami got a 25-yard run by Raheem Mostert to the Kansas City 31 yard line.

We’ve reached the two-minute warning.

Huge defensive stop by Chiefs

The Dolphins had a great chance to tie the game, but their offensive drive ended with two debilitating sacks and a punt. 

Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was sacked twice for 11-yard losses on consecutive plays, killing Miami’s drive after it passed midfield.

The Dolphins offense was somewhat rolling with a chance to capitalize on the Chiefs’ misfortune in the second half. But the Chiefs defense got the job down to keep Kansas City’s lead intact.

The Chiefs took over at their own 10-yard line, after Mecole Hardman returned the punt instead of letting it reach the end zone for a touchback.

There’s 4:10 left in this game. — Safid Deen

NFL referee speaks German to make penalty call

If you were wondering if referee Clay Martin spoke a different language after the game’s first penalty, you’d be correct.

After a false start from Dolphins wide receiver Chase Claypool, Martin said the first part of the penalty call in German.

‘Fehlstart,’ the sixth-year NFL referee said before continuing in English. ‘Offense, number 83. Five-yard penalty. Third down.’ — Jack McKessy

Frankfurt crowd sings ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’

If ‘traditions’ can take root after two games, then we have one in Germany.

As the third quarter of Sunday’s Chiefs-Dolphins game in Frankfurt expired, the crowd at Deutsche Bank Park erupted into a singalong rendition of the late John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads.’ Because, naturally.

The same thing happened at Allianz Arena in Munich last year, when the Buccaneers defeated the Seahawks in Germany’s first NFL regular-season game. — Nate Davis

Chiefs’ Chris Jones called for crucial penalty

An unnecessary roughness penalty by Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones on third down helped the Dolphins close to within one touchdown.

Jones pushed a Dolphins offensive lineman after the third-down play, and the Dolphins made the Chiefs pay one play later. — Safid Deen

Raheem Mostert touchdown: Chiefs 21, Dolphins 14

The stage is set for a meaningful final quarter.

Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert scored on a 13-yard run with 22 seconds left in the third quarter, and the Chiefs are hanging onto a 21-14 lead.

The Dolphins have scored 14 unanswered in the third quarter, and a crucial Chiefs penalty after a Chiefs turnover have gotten Miami back in this game.

Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones was called for unnecessary roughness on a pivotal third down, pushing a Dolphins offensive lineman after the play. And the Dolphins made the Chiefs pay one play later.

The Dolphins regained possession after Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes fumbled after he was sacked by edge rusher Bradley Chubb, and defensive tackle Zach Sieler recovered the ball.

If the first three quarters were any indication, we could be in for an exciting finish in Germany. — Safid Deen

Cedrick Wilson Jr. touchdown: Chiefs 21, Dolphins 7

The Dolphins have finally found some mojo offensively.

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa found receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr. for a 31-yard touchdown, and the Chiefs’ lead has been trimmed to 21-7 with 4:47 left in the third quarter.

The Dolphins notched their first conversion on third down in the game during the drive, which lasted eight plays, 80 yards and more than five minutes of game time.

Tagovailoa was 6 for 6 on the drive to lead Miami. — Safid Deen

The Taylor Swift effect?

It definitely seems real as it pertains to the Chiefs and TE Travis Kelce, who’s been – hanging out? – with the mega pop star in recent weeks, though he declined Friday to say whether or not he’s in love.

Regardless, no doubt that Kelce and the reigning Super Bowl champs have played at a higher level whenever Swift is on the premises – which she apparently isn’t today in Germany with her ‘Eras Tour’ resuming in South America in recent days. Kansas City is 4-0 this season when Swift is in attendance and 2-2 when she’s got other things to do.

Kelce, specifically, has averaged 6.7 catches for 50.3 yards and 0.7 TDs in three games with Swift absent (he missed Week 1 with a knee injury). But when she’s cheering him on from a suite? In those four contests, Kelce has averaged 8.5 receptions for 108 yards and 0.5 TDs.

Going into halftime, Kelce had two grabs for 7 yards. — Nate Davis

Dolphins punter hits scoreboard with kick

NFL punters lofting kicks into a scoreboard became an issue when Jerry Jones hung his massive replay system above the field at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. And it’s definitely not unusual to see punters try to drill the scoreboard at Arlington, Texas, in pregame warmups, yet it’s also happened during games – such plays requiring a stoppage in play and subsequent re-kick.

A similar occurrence took place Sunday at Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park, with Dolphins P Jake Bailey drilling the underside of the German scoreboard suspended above the field right before halftime. (He sailed a 48-yarder with his mulligan.)

Of more concern, Bailey has punted five times today – already a season high – while the Dolphins’ 41-game streak, including playoffs, of not being shut out before halftime came to an end. — Nate Davis

Halftime score: Chiefs 21, Dolphins 0

The first half could not have gone better for the Chiefs, while it could not have ended more horribly for the Dolphins.

The Dolphins were driving down the field in the final minutes of the first half until star receiver Tyreek Hill was stuffed and fumbled in the backfield, leading to a 59-yard fumble recovery touchdown by Chiefs safety Bryan Cook with 33 seconds remaining.

Patrick Mahomes added touchdown throws to receiver Rashee Rice and running back Jerick McKinnon, and the Chiefs own a 21-0 lead on the Dolphins at halftime.

Mahomes is 14 of 19 for 147 yards, connecting with eight different receivers in this game, while tight end Travis Kelce has just two catches for 7 yards. Running back Isiah Pacheco has 10 carries for 41 yards.

Tua Tagovailoa is 11 of 18 for 89 yards, while Hill has five catches for 39 yards and Jaylen Waddle has two catches for 29 yards and a 12-yard run. But the Dolphins have not had a drive last longer than six plays in this game, going 0 for 5 on third down in the first half.

The battle between the Chiefs and Dolphins, the top two seeds in the AFC, has been one-sided so far. — Safid Deen

Kansas City defensive touchdown: Chiefs 21, Dolphins 0

Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie stripped Dolphins star receiver Tyreek Hill after a catch, the ball was picked up by Mike Edwards, who lateralled it and safety Bryan Cook returned it 59 yards for a touchdown in the final minute of the first half to give Kansas City a 21-0 lead just before halftime.

The Dolphins went to their four-minute offense and were charging down the field until Hill was stopped in the backfield and fumbled to his former team. — Safid Deen

Jerick McKinnon touchdown: Chiefs 14, Dolphins 0

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are now up two scores on the Dolphins in Germany.

Mahomes found trusty running back Jerick McKinnon underneath for a 17-yard catch-and-run touchdown to help the Chiefs take a 14-0 lead with 2:31 left in the first half.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was a decoy on the play, freeing up space for McKinnon to roam freely into the end zone.

A penalty by Dolphins edge rusher Bradley Chubb early on extended the Chiefs’ drive to 13 plays and 95 yards. The Dolphins offense has yet to answer in this game. — Safid Deen

How legit are the Dolphins?

Miami and its top-ranked offense came into Sunday’s game with a 6-2 record, good for first place in the AFC East and second overall in the conference. But how good are the Fins? Really?

That’s been the major question this year, all six of the Dolphins’ wins coming against sub-.500 teams, their average margin of victory 18.2 points per game. However they’re 0-2 against bona fide playoff contenders like K.C., blown out by the Bills and Eagles by an average of 21 points. Consequently, Miami has only cracked the top five in USA TODAY Sports’ NFL power rankings once this season, following Week 3’s memorable 70-point outburst against Denver. But, currently, the Dolphins sit in the ninth spot, behind clubs like the Chiefs, Jaguars, Bills and Ravens.

Today is another important litmus test for Miami’s legitimacy going into January … though it’s worth noting, following a Week 10 bye, the only opponent with a winning record on the Dolphins lineup before Christmas Eve is the AFC East rival New York Jets (4-3), twice. — Nate Davis

End of first quarter: Chiefs 7, Dolphins 0

Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs down the field on the first drive of the game. And that was all the offense we’ve seen in the first quarter.

The Dolphins defense settled into the game on the Chiefs’ next two drives, resulting in punts. But the Dolphins offense has gotten off to a slow start. A penalty and missed block by left tackle Terron Armstead on third-and-15 ending Miami’s second drive. The Dolphins have punted twice.

Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice caught Mahomes’ first touchdown pass of the game, while star tight end Travis Kelce has two catches for 7 yards. Star Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill has two catches for 17 yards to start the game. — Safid Deen

Dolphins’ Jaylen Waddle returns

After leaving the first drive, Dolphins WR Jaylen Waddle was back on the field for Miami’s second possession. He took an end around 12 yards and later caught a 17-yard pass that was nullified by a penalty. — Nate Davis

Dolphins’ Jaylen Waddle injured

Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle was injured on the second play of Miami’s first drive.

Waddle appeared to be caught under a tackle when running back Raheem Mostert ran toward the right side for no gain on the play.

Waddle was announced to have a knee injury and is questionable to return. He started the drive with a 15-yard completion from Tua Tagovailoa. He has been dealing with a back injury in recent weeks. — Safid Deen

Rashee Rice touchdown: Chiefs 7, Dolphins 0

Well, the Chiefs don’t appear jetlagged.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense blazed down the field, and are on the board first in this one. 

Mahomes found receiver Rashee Rice for an 11-yard touchdown on a wide receiver screen one play after a touchdown was taken off the board. Mahomes nearly has an 11-yard touchdown to Justin Watson, but the ball hit the field as Watson finished his catch.

The Chiefs needed just seven plays and 75 yards to reach the end zone on the opening drive of the game. — Safid Deen

No European vacation

The Chiefs and Dolphins have taken drastically different travel approaches to this game, and that’s always a fascinating (and highly parsed) component of International Series games played across the Atlantic.

The Chiefs are 2-0 in international matchups, both occurring during HC Andy Reid’s tenure. They beat the Lions in London in 2015 and defeated the Chargers in Mexico in 2019. Coming off a Week 8 loss in Denver’s mile-high altitude, Reid opted to let his AFC West leaders recuperate in Kansas City before arriving in Germany on Friday.

Conversely, the Dolphins – they’re 2-4 internationally, losing the first-ever regular-season game in London to the New York Giants in 2007 – landed in Germany on Tuesday. Coach Mike McDaniel wanted his first international game with Miami to double as a bonding experience for his players while also giving them sufficient time to adapt their bodies to the local time zone. 

Who did it better? Verdict in about three hours. — Nate Davis

Chiefs get opening kickoff

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense will be on the field first.

NFL picks Week 9 

The NFL is back, its 104th season set to kick off, and USA TODAY Sports’ panel of resident NFL experts have made their Week 9 picks. Check them out here.

Chiefs-Dolphins inactives

These players will not be in uniform today, no huge surprises.

NFL’s international outreach expanding to Brazil and Spain?

Germany has joined England, Canada and Mexico among international countries where the NFL has staged regular-season games since 2007. Sunday morning, during an interview with NFL Network, Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league plans to expand to a new nation in 2024 – Brazil and Spain vying for the honor. — Nate Davis

Hello, Deutschland!

Today’s matchup between Kansas City and Miami – both divisional leaders with 6-2 records which currently own the AFC’s top two projected playoff seeds, respectively – marks the NFL’s second regular-season game in Germany. Last year, Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-16 in front of approximately 70,000 very spirited fans in Munich.

The Chiefs and Dolphins will meet in Frankfurt, not an hour from where I graduated from high school on a U.S. Army base. Back in the day, Germans very much backed the Frankfurt Galaxy in the old World League of American Football (aka NFL Europe). As I wrote two years ago when the NFL revealed its intention to expand to the German market, ‘I was witness to a passionate base of Frankfurt Galaxy fans … even if their enthusiasm for American football often outstripped their education – extra points and punts often drawing far more cheers than first downs or touchdowns. I still can’t unhear those ardent chants of ‘Goooo, Galaxy’ tinged with the local accent. And European fashion being what it was at the time, not unusual to see a local wearing green and purple knockoff Los Angeles Raiders gear, the NFL Properties police opting not to cross the Atlantic to crack down on such unofficial merchandise.’ — Nate Davis

NFL Week 9 odds 

Our guide to the NFL betting odds, picks and spreads has you covered with Thursday Night Football odds, Sunday Night Football odds and/or Monday Night Football odds. 

If you’re new to sports betting, don’t worry. We have tips for beginners on how to place bet online. And USA TODAY readers can claim exclusive promos and bonus codes with the online sportsbooks and sports betting sites. — Richard Morin 

All odds provided by BetMGM 

Chiefs vs. Dolphins in Germany: Predictions, picks and odds 

The Chiefs are favorites to defeat the Dolphins, according to BetMGM NFL odds. 

Spread: Chiefs (-1.5) Moneyline: Chiefs (-125); Dolphins (+105) Over/under: 50.5 Lorenzo Reyes: Chiefs 29, Dolphins 23 Tyler Dragon: Chiefs 28, Dolphins 27 Safid Deen: Dolphins 31, Chiefs 28 Victoria Hernandez: Dolphins 32, Chiefs 27 Jordan Mendoza: Dolphins 29, Chiefs 27 

Is Taylor Swift going to Chiefs-Dolphins game in Germany? 

Travis Kelce declined to discuss Taylor Swift’s status for Sunday’s game in Germany. 

The Chiefs tight end spoke Friday at a news conference but wouldn’t say whether the pop star plans to attend the game against the Dolphins at Deutsche Bank Park. 

“When I mention or everybody knows that she’s at the game, the Vegas, the over under on my catches kind of goes up and down, the spread goes up and down,” Kelce joked. “I don’t want to mess with any of that stuff, so I’m just going to keep it to myself.” — The Associated Press

Tyreek Hill stats: Dolphins WR in midst of historic season

Dolphins All-Pro WR Tyreek Hill enters his first game against the Chiefs, the club which drafted him in 2016, leading the NFL with 1,014 receiving yards (and 8 TDs). He is the first player in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to be on the receiving end of 1,000 yards in a season’s first eight games. And with nine more contests on the docket, he’s on pace to finish with 2,155 – that would shatter Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson’s single-season standard (1,964 yards in 2012) – and achieve Hill’s avowed goal of becoming the league’s first 2,000-yard receiver. Rams WR Cooper Kupp is the only other man to exceed 1,900 in the regular season, doing so two years ago. — Nate Davis

Chiefs’ Travis Kelce season stats: Taking aim at another 1,000-yard year

The Chiefs superstar tight end won’t be surpassing 2,000 yards this season … or probably ever (his career high being 1,416 yards in 2020, a record for a tight end). Kelce, who missed Week 1 with a knee injury, is currently tracking toward 1,333 yards for 2023 — and if he eclipses 1,000, it would be the eighth consecutive year he’s managed that. Greg Olsen is the only other tight end to turn the trick even three seasons in a row. — Nate Davis

Who are the highest paid NFL players at each position? 

We have a complete list at every position: 

Quarterbacks Running back Receivers Tight ends Offensive tackles Offensive guards Centers Edge rushers Interior defensive linemen Linebackers Cornerbacks Safeties Kickers Punters 

The Minnesota Vikings quarterback situation is getting dire.

Newly acquired quarterback Joshua Dobbs is the new quarterback for Minnesota in their Week 9 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons after rookie starter Jaren Hall was ruled out of the game after suffering a concussion.

Hall stepped in place of Kirk Cousins, who suffered a torn Achilles last week and is out for the remainder of the season. The fifth-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft took a hit on the team’s second possession of the day and the back of his helmet hit the turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He was 5-for-6 with 78 yards in his first career NFL start.

Who is the Vikings emergency quarterback?

With Dobbs now in, the emergency quarterback for Minnesota is running back Cam Akers. Akers has never attempted a pass in an NFL game.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Late in the matchup, Akers would be ruled out with an injury, leaving Dobbs as the only current active quarterback on the roster. It’s unclear who would enter the game should Dobbs suffer an injury.

The Vikings recently signed veteran backup Sean Mannion to their practice squad, and isn’t available to come in relief if Dobbs leaves the game, since Mannion wasn’t activated prior to the game.

Vikings QB depth chart

Without Cousins, the Vikings have Hall, Dobbs and Mannion on the roster, but Hall and Dobbs are the only active players against Atlanta. The team also has Nick Mullens, but he’s been on the injured reserve list with a back injury.

Starting quarterback Kirk Cousins is suffered an Achilles injury in Week 8 vs. the Packers, and will be out the remainder of the 2023 season.

Here’s how the Vikings QB room shapes up with the injury to Hall:

To make sense of why Billy Napier seems to be flailing in his second year at Florida, we must revisit an incident from his time at Louisiana-Lafayette. 

In 2019, Napier said scholarship players would be required to donate $50 to the athletic department’s fundraising arm, though later the school clarified that it was only encouraged. Napier defended it with a lot of platitudes, saying he wanted to build a culture of gratitude for all the work that went into making the players’ jobs easier. 

That’s a nice idea, but the mechanism was all wrong. At a time when we should have been talking about schools paying players, the idea of players paying the school was a failure to read the room. 

Why is that relevant to Florida? It’s a question of style over substance. Napier is a genial person, but he’s the king of coach speak. He loves quoting famous people. He loves a buzzword as much as a first down. He says what he thinks you want to hear. 

And that’s a great way to get a big-boy job like Florida. It’s not necessarily a great way to keep it, especially at a school that chewed through three coaches in 11 seasons before Napier showed up. 

Last year, Napier lost a lot of credibility with the Florida fan base when he ended his debut season with consecutive losses to Vanderbilt, Florida State and Oregon State to finish 6-7. But there was promise in the offseason of improvement, excitement about new facilities and a recruiting uptick — a real chance for Napier to get some momentum and have the fan base fully behind him. 

Instead, what happened? Florida looked awful in the season opener at Utah, but seemed to recover in September by notching a good win over Tennessee. Then the Gators got stomped 33-14 at Kentucky, weren’t even remotely competitive with Georgia and have now suffered a true humiliation with Saturday’s 39-36 overtime loss to Arkansas in the Swamp. 

HIGHS AND LOWS: Winners and losers from Week 10 in college football

MAKING MONEY: Florida win adds millions to Arkansas coach buyout

What’s Florida’s identity? What are the Gators actually good at? And why is Napier clinging to his offensive play-calling duties when the offense hasn’t been very effective? 

These are all questions that Florida fans are asking, and rightfully so. As Georgia has become the nation’s dominant program and Florida State has ascended to a College Football Playoff caliber outfit, Napier hasn’t shown that he’s the game-changer to get Florida back on that level. 

Just like at Louisiana-Lafayette, he’s very good at projecting his values and that he’s about the right things. But that only matters if it translates to the football field, and so far it isn’t at Florida. 

The stakes here are very high. Napier has a massive contract and a buyout that would edge toward $32 million after this season. Also, if Napier fails, that would make athletics director Scott Stricklin 0-for-2 in football hires — and these days you don’t normally get three bites at that apple. 

Can Florida stomach one more year of this just to see if there’s any possibility of this working, or is the anger going to be so intense that it’s time for yet another change in Gainesville? When you lose to Arkansas, it’s time to start asking those questions. That’s why Florida is No. 1 in the Misery Index, a weekly measurement of which fan bases are feeling the most angst. 

Four more in misery

Syracuse

Dino Babers spent the first 24 years of his career bouncing around 10 different schools as an assistant without getting much of a look to be a head coach. Then, almost out of nowhere, he got three head coaching jobs in the span of five years and ended up landing the big payday at Syracuse. That dramatic change in trajectory happened largely because Babers was at Baylor for the beginning of the Art Briles era, a time when every moribund program in college football wanted to replicate that offense.

There have been flashes of the high-octane, early 2010s Baylor offense at Syracuse under Babers, but it hasn’t been consistent. And now it’s nowhere to be found. Syracuse fell to 0-5 in the ACC (4-5 overall) after a 17-10 loss at home to Boston College. The Orange has scored 44 points in those conference losses — not an average, but a raw total over five games. 

Despite some good moments and one excellent season in 2018, Syracuse is on track for a sixth losing season in eight years under Babers. It’s probably time for a change. 

Wisconsin

When Paul Chryst was fired in the middle of last season, it seemed strange from the outside. Though there had been some minor slippage from 2020 onward, Chryst’s overall track record was very good. What Wisconsin’s administration saw, however, was a program rotting from the inside and in need of drastic change. They were correct. 

The problem is that Wisconsin’s poor performance this season goes on Luke Fickell’s record, and thus Fickell is the guy that many Badger fans are blaming for a 5-4 record that now includes a 20-14 loss at Indiana. Is that fair? We won’t know for a couple years whether Fickell can win in the Big Ten, but he’s not a miracle worker. When he got to Cincinnati, it took suffering through a 4-8 season to clean up Tommy Tuberville’s mess before the winning started in Year 2. At Wisconsin, it may not even happen that fast. 

If there is one reason to be legitimately concerned, it’s the lack of offensive production. In losses to Iowa, Ohio State and now Indiana, Wisconsin has averaged just 10 points. Fickell hired Phil Longo, a denizen of the Air Raid coaching tree, to handle that side of the ball. So far, there has hasn’t been much Airing or Raiding in Madison. 

Oklahoma

There’s a simple rule in football. When you’re trailing at the end of a game and must convert a fourth down to keep hope alive, throw the ball past the first-down marker. For some reason, Oklahoma did not do that in a 27-24 loss to Oklahoma State. In other words, the Sooners’ final play of a Bedlam rivalry they’ve mostly dominated since 1904 will forever be Dillon Gabriel throwing to Drake Stoops for three yards when they needed five. 

Oklahoma fans don’t have a ton to complain about in Bedlam — they lead the overall series 91-20-7 — but it definitely leaves a sour taste to end things with a 27-24 loss in their final trip to Stillwater before heading to the SEC. It’s also the loss that knocks the 7-2 Sooners out of College Football Playoff consideration, and at the end they had to hear Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” blaring over the loudspeakers. That’s a rough way to close out this rivalry and also a pretty humbling way to show the country that you’re not ready for prime time. The Sooners are a limited team that had a ton of roster turnover in Brent Venables’ second year but played above their heads to reach 7-0. Now after consecutive road losses to Kansas and Oklahoma State, it’s clear Venables has a lot more work to do. 

San Diego State

Spare some pity for any Aztec fan in your life. Just five months ago, this school was so certain a Pac-12 invitation was on the way that it notified the Mountain West it intended to leave the conference and wanted to start working on exit terms. But the invitation never came, the Pac-12 imploded and San Diego State had to come back hat-in-hand to make amends with the only viable conference where it fit. Then football season started, and somehow things got even worse. San Diego State has been blown out, shut out (by 2-7 Nevada of all teams) and now clipped in double overtime by Utah State, 32-24. All told, that’s six losses in the Aztecs’ last seven games to sink to the bottom of the league they were supposed to be leaving. And considering San Diego State hasn’t had a losing season since 2009, that’s a pretty unacceptable string of performances under Brady Hoke. Just two years ago, Hoke led San Diego State to a 12-2 season in his second go-round with the Aztecs (he also coached them in 2009 and 2010 before getting the Michigan job). But for a program with the aspirations and resources to win big in the Mountain West and to eventually upgrade leagues, you can’t let things slip this dramatically and this quickly. 

Miserable but not miserable enough

Miami (Fla.)

Here at the Misery Index, we have spent a lot of time chronicling Mario Cristobal’s struggles with game day decision-making and clock management. We haven’t talked enough about how badly they’re still underperforming in Cristobal’s second year. The Canes’ 20-6 loss at North Carolina State — and not one of the better NC State teams of recent vintage, by the way — is an eyebrow raiser. If you take out the fluke loss to Georgia Tech where Cristobal mangled the end-of-game clock situation, Miami fans could have squinted hard and figured out a way to call this season a success. But at 6-3, with Florida State and Louisville next up, how much progress has actually been made from last year when they went 5-7? Even if some reasonable Miami fans knew this would be a long process, there was at least hope in quarterback Tyler Van Dyke playing like the first-round NFL draft prospect some people consider him to be. Instead, he’s thrown 10 interceptions over his last four games. 

Cincinnati

As mentioned above, Wisconsin fans are not particularly happy right now with Fickell. But the school on the other end of that transaction has it even worse. After Fickell led Cincinnati to the College Football Playoff just a couple years ago out of the American Athletic Conference, the Bearcats’ transition to the Big 12 has been a disaster. Scott Satterfield, who left Louisville to take this job, officially coaches the worst team in the conference after a 28-26 loss to Central Florida. Cincinnati, a program that has been consistently good for 20 years, is now 2-7 overall and 0-6 in its new league. Did Fickell leave a broken program behind? Is Satterfield just doing a terrible job? Will things get better next year? A Cincinnati fan can’t be certain about any of those answers at this point. 

Mississippi State

It’s difficult to talk about what’s happening here without acknowledging the terrible blow Mississippi State absorbed last December when Mike Leach passed away. Programs are built around the specific qualities of their head coach, and Leach was such a unique figure in both his personality and approach to football that any change was going to be noticeable. The hope in Starkville was that 37-year old Zach Arnett, who was Leach’s excellent defensive coordinator, would be able to keep things going. But Year 1 has been frustrating for Bulldog fans, who have watched their team struggle to score (averaging 14 points in SEC play) and record just one conference win (a 7-3 barnburner over Arkansas). It doesn’t help that quarterback Will Rogers has been injured since early October and may not come back this year. Still, this season has gone poorly enough that the school’s administration will have to at least think about a coaching pivot given that they could buy Arnett out for a relatively cheap $4.5 million. 

Kent State

There’s a certain level of humiliation that surrounds a program when its head coach leaves voluntarily to be an assistant somewhere else. But that’s also a very real part of life in the MAC, where only two head coaches make more than $1 million annually and it’s difficult to distinguish yourself enough for career advancement. So after five hard but pretty successful years relative to the program’s history, Sean Lewis left to be Deion Sanders’ offensive coordinator at Colorado. This week, Lewis was essentially demoted and stripped of play calling duties even though offense wasn’t the Buffaloes’ biggest problem. Meanwhile, the program he left behind is now 1-8 after a 31-27 loss to fellow MAC bottom-feeder Akron. The positive spin is it was Kent State’s closest loss this season after getting blown out by at least two touchdowns in every other game. But it goes to show you just how difficult a job it is that things could spiral so quickly after Lewis, who went 18-10 in the MAC over his last four seasons.