The son of a history professor, Steve DiMeglio had encyclopedic knowledge of the game of golf. If you ever had the chance to follow him around a PGA Tour event like I did, you’d see he couldn’t walk two steps without running into a friend − players, their caddies and other reporters – and telling a joke with a fist bump and ‘Hey, big man” as his usual greeting.

He was teased by friends for his diminutive stature, and he’d give it right back with his quick wit and fun-loving nature.

He was opinionated but fair in his scrutiny. He was generous with friends but could also be frugal. I knew he’d catch rides at tournaments with fellow reporters to save money on a rental.

He was funny and always supportive of outsiders like me, who entered the inner sanctum of golf and got to see the game through his eyes when I was his editor at USA TODAY and later at Golfweek.

DiMeglio died this week at the age of 63 after battling cancer, a journey he documented regularly with posts on social media. His passing touched the biggest names in golf, with Tiger Woods writing, “Unfortunately the golf world lost part of our family today, beloved golf writer Steve DiMeglio. I was always very close to Steve and we texted and talked about how he needed to keep fighting to get better so we could see each other in the Bahamas last month. And we did. I am so grateful for that. This is a very sad day for all of golf. We truly lost a friend.”

‘He was quick to laugh about everything, including himself’

Most of us who worked closely with Steve knew one of his super powers was his ability to build relationships.

“He was incredibly well connected. I think without trying to curry favor, he had favor with the golfers,” said Reid Cherner, a former sports editor at USA TODAY. “He was pretty even-handed, he wasn’t light-handed. He criticized when it was needed, but I think he was always in bounds. I don’t think anybody ever thought he went out of bounds with that criticism. He was so tuned in and knew so much that when you were his editor, you just didn’t have a whole lot you needed to guide Steve on. He just did it.”

All his editors can tell stories about the push-and-pull we’d occasionally have with Steve. Rachel Shuster edited Cover stories at USA TODAY and remembers calling him for occasional assignments.

“First, he’d say, ‘Really? You really need this now?’ It was a game we played,” Shuster said. “I would ask for something, he would bitch and moan and say, ‘Well, I’ll see what I can do.’

“In no time at all, he’d come back with a full story and everything we wanted. I sort of looked forward to those because I knew what was coming, but I also knew he’d get what we needed.”

Joe Fleming was DiMeglio’s longtime golf editor at USA TODAY. They met more than three decades ago when both worked at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, California.

“He really knew golf, he knew about equipment, he knew about the history, he knew what the players did well and what they weren’t so good at, he knew all that stuff,” Fleming said. ‘He watched a lot of (golf), and he was a really good player, too. He couldn’t hit the fades and the draws as well as the pros, but he knew how to do it. He knew how hard it was.”

DiMeglio was a politics writer covering Capitol Hill before he started at USA TODAY, first on the baseball beat before he switched to golf full time. Lee Ivory, the former publisher and executive editor at Sports Weekly, hired him to cover baseball.

“I thought he was obviously a solid journalist and had a passion for the craft,” Ivory said, when asked about what he saw in DiMeglio. “All of the attributes that you look for in a solid reporter, honest, forthright, passionate and a truth teller. He also brought with it a great personality; he was quick to laugh about everything, including himself.”

Without a doubt, his ability to joke and tease endeared him to his colleagues. USA TODAY columnist Christine Brennan recalls the back-and-forth banter they’d share when covering tournaments together, even though they’d have friendly disagreements at times.

She remembers DiMeglio walking through the press room while covering the Masters, where they sat side-by-side for years. “It was made for Steve DiMeglio. He walked those rows, someone would tease him, someone would stop him to ask a question,” Brennan said. “He couldn’t make it to the aisle because he had so many friends and colleagues that wanted to talk to him.

“He was a golf writer, but he could really run for office on the PGA Tour. He knew everyone, and he just loved the banter, the fun, the teasing. And of course, they just loved him.”

The Masters food, a stash of Diet Pepsi

Augusta National was a place DiMeglio loved, and it’s not hard to see why. The history, the traditions, the beauty of the course leave every reporter in awe as they drive through the gates.

And the food. DiMeglio loved the food, USA TODAY columnist Nancy Armour recalls.

“Some people bring home golf shirts or flags from the Masters. DiMeglio brought home caramel corn,” she wrote.

“In addition to pimento cheese sandwiches and peach ice cream sandwiches, the Masters has a caramel-pecan popcorn that’s delicious. Think Cracker Jack times a million. DiMeglio loved the stuff.

“Any time he’d make a trip to the media dining area, he’d come back with a bag or two of it. By the end of the day, his backpack would be filled with bags of caramel corn and a sandwich or two. The sandwiches he’d eat at night, back at the house the USAT staff rented, chasing them with a Diet Pepsi and a cigarette. But the caramel corn he took home and stashed in his freezer. He once told me, very proudly, that he had enough to last him until mid-summer.”

Scott Zucker, who edited DiMeglio’s baseball stories at Sports Weekly, said DiMeglio was known for his generosity and wouldn’t hesitate to give you the shirt off his back. (He often gave his buddies golf shirts or other freebies he’d get in the mail.)  “He was a funny combination of super cheap and also very generous at the same time,” Zucker said with a laugh.

Cherner remembers a trip to Las Vegas the two had when DiMeglio opened up his suitcase.

“He had very little clothes. It was filled with cigarettes and Diet Pepsi,” Cherner said. “I would say to Steve, you know you can buy both here in Las Vegas.

“That was another thing about Steve, he was a funny guy, and he had a great sense of humor about himself.”

I was lucky to share quite a few laughs with Steve myself, but also some hard times as he lost both parents in recent years. I got to see a side of him that was patient, nurturing and kind. He was my guide inside the golf world in 2018 and he boosted me when I questioned myself or wondered if I belonged.

I texted him from a golf event in 2019, feeling like a fish out of water.

“You are NEVER out of place. Have fun,” he texted back.

We will all miss you, big man. But know that we’ll never forget your love of the game and all the stories you gave us.

The big question coming out of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals: Can anyone beat Ohio State?

After demolishing Tennessee in the opening round, Ohio State rolled out to a 34-0 lead and cruised to a 41-21 win against previously unbeaten Oregon in the Rose Bowl. In the month-plus since losing to rival Michigan for the fourth year in a row, the Buckeyes have turned back into a juggernaut.

OSU will next take on Texas, which rode Quinn Ewers’ late-game heroics and survived a major scare against Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. Ahead 24-8 in the fourth quarter, the Longhorns needed double overtime to escape with a 39-31 win. Beating the Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl will take more consistency than what Texas brought into the matchup against the Sun Devils.

Penn State slowed down Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and scored a 31-14 win against the Broncos in the Fiesta Bowl. The Nittany Lions have outscored two playoff opponents by a combined 69-24.

They’ll meet Notre Dame, which scored 17 points in a 54-second span across the second and third quarters to beat Georgia 23-10 in a Sugar Bowl delayed one day following the deadly attack in New Orleans early Wednesday morning.

The national semifinals will begin on Jan. 9 with Ohio State as the favorite for the national championship. Before looking ahead, here are the winners and losers from the quarterfinals:

Winners

Ohio State

Oregon never stood a chance. After topping OSU 32-31 in the regular season, the Ducks were swamped by one of the most electric offensive performances in Rose Bowl history. The Buckeyes put up an even 500 yards of offense on 8.8 yards per play, led by quarterback Will Howard’s 319 passing yards and three touchdowns without an interception. The backfield pairing of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins combined for 179 yards and two scores, both from Henderson, on 25 carries. But the star was freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, who looked more than NFL-ready with 187 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 26.7 yards per catch. Not to be outdone, the OSU defense had eight sacks, 13 tackles for loss and became the first team to hold Oregon under 300 yards since Utah in the 2021 Pac-12 championship game.

Ryan Day

Day has exorcised the bad vibes stemming from another loss to the Wolverines by orchestrating this dominant start to the playoff. Going into the 12-team tournament, the thought was Day had to win at least one and maybe two games to get himself into more secure territory with the OSU fan base; so far, consider this a job well-done. But you have to ask: Given how they’ve looked in these two games, would Day come under fire again if the Buckeyes don’t win the whole thing?

Notre Dame

Beating Georgia marks Notre Dame’s biggest win in years and solidifies the school’s decision to gamble on an unproven Marcus Freeman three years ago. Credit the Fighting Irish for taking advantage of the opportunities provided by Georgia’s missteps, including a crucial fumble and a strip-sack that resulted in a Riley Leonard touchdown late in the second quarter. The Irish also returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a score. On the other hand, Leonard averaged just 3.8 yards per attempt, though he did have 65 yards on the ground; the receiver corps really struggled to get separation against Georgia’s secondary, with a long reception of just 14 yards; and the typically potent backfield pairing of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price had only 51 yards on 13 carries. Notre Dame also went just 2 of 10 on third down and scored just two field goals outside of the 54-second barrage that decided the game.

Penn State

The Nittany Lions’ defense got the job done against Boise State despite losing star edge rusher Abdul Carter to an apparent arm injury in the first half. That sapped what is typically a very strong pass rush and made things a little easier for Boise quarterback Maddux Madsen. But the defense was up to the challenge of stopping Jeanty, who had his worst game in what had been a memorable 2024 season. If we’re nitpicking another double-digit playoff win, PSU made the curious choice to shy away from a very effective running game and had several questionable play-calling decisions on short-yardage plays, allowing the Broncos to hang around longer than expected before the Nittany Lions delivered the knockout blow on Nick Singleton’s 58-yard touchdown run.

Quinn Ewers

Texas survived and advanced despite Cam Skattebo’s best efforts. The senior put together perhaps the most impressive individual performance of the postseason, running for 143 yards and two scores, pulling down a team-high 99 receiving yards and even throwing a 42-yard touchdown that sparked the Sun Devils’ fourth-quarter comeback. But Ewers had one of the best games of his college career with a terrific final stretch. He was perfect on the final drive of regulation to set up a missed 38-yard field goal and then threw a pair of touchdowns in overtime, including a ridiculous 28-yard strike on fourth down to force the second extra frame.

Losers

Oregon

That Oregon lost might not be surprising, even given the regular-season win against the Buckeyes. What was startling, though, was the ease with which OSU marched through the only unbeaten team remaining in the Bowl Subdivision and the playoff’s unquestioned top seed. This might not force Oregon to return to the drawing board — this team was the best in the country during the regular season, with wins against the Buckeyes, Broncos and Nittany Lions. But this is a definite letdown that will lead to some offseason soul-searching in Eugene.

Georgia

A startling number of mistakes doomed any chance Georgia had of winning with backup Gunner Stockton starting in place of an injured Carson Beck. Stockton acquitted himself well, all things considered, completing 18 of 29 throws for 225 yards and a score, but his fumble after being sacked with under a minute to play in the first half led to Notre Dame’s first touchdown. Running back Trevor Etienne’s fumble late in the first quarter ended a 71-yard drive that lasted over eight minutes. Georgia also committed a crucial offsides penalty to extend Notre Dame’s backbreaking drive late in the fourth quarter. But you can toss out the self-inflicted errors and focus on something even more painful for Georgia: Notre Dame was the better team in the Sugar Bowl, and it wasn’t that close.

Arizona State

There might not be a huge sense of disappointment around ASU after an amazing push to the Big 12 championship and the program-establishing double-overtime loss to the Longhorns. (At a minimum, there’s no doubt there would have been much more heartbreak on the opposite sideline had Texas lost.) What the Sun Devils achieved this season will probably make them the preseason Big 12 favorite heading into next September and one of the top contenders to get back into the playoff. But there were missed chances here to take down the Longhorns, not to mention a dose of controversy: Officials didn’t call a targeting on Texas defensive back Michael Taafe on a third-down completion during the Sun Devils’ final drive of regulation, which would’ve set up ASU for the potential game-winning field goal.

Ashton Jeanty

That Jeanty still went for 104 yards against one of the top run defenses in the FBS should be commended, even if that total was 23 yards shy of his previous season low and even if the Nittany Lions became the first FBS opponent to keep the Heisman Trophy runner-up out of the end zone. Disappointingly, however, Jeanty came up just short of Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record. That shouldn’t detract from one of the best years by a running back in FBS history.

Miami Heat president Pat Riley recently made it known that the team had no intentions of trading Jimmy Butler.

Butler, however, made it known Thursday night that he very much wants to be traded.

The six-time All-Star said after Miami’s 128-115 loss to Indiana that he wants to ‘get my joy back from playing basketball. Wherever that may be. We’ll find out here pretty soon.’

Butler scored just nine points on six attempts during Thursday night’s loss. His comments came after he was asked about his role in the Heat’s offense.

Butler made it a point to say he was happy in Miami … ‘off the court.’

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‘I want to be back to (being) somewhat dominant. I want to hoop, and I want to help this team win. Right now I’m not doing that,’ Butler said

Asked if he could get his joy back on the court with Miami, Butler replied: ‘Probably not.’

Last week, Riley issued a simple statement commenting on Butler trade rumors. ‘We usually don’t comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches. Therefore, we will make it clear – We are not trading Jimmy Butler,’ Riley said in the statement.

Thursday’s events will only ramp up the speculation as the trade deadline draws near.

I haven’t formally outlined it, but in researching this year’s Hall of Fame ballot I find myself breaking the candidate pool into three distinct classes of electability.

The first group is the no-doubters, which Ichiro Suzuki now joins in his first year of eligibility. Ichiro was a unique talent whose impeccable bat control, blazing speed and outstanding throwing arm combined to make him one of the best players of his era. His lack of walks and .402 career slugging percentage led to a relatively modest 60 WAR … but the two batting titles, 10 Gold Gloves and an AL MVP award (not to mention his immense popularity) give him a good chance to be voted in unanimously.

The other holdovers from last year I believe should and will be elected to Cooperstown are Billy Wagner (in his final year on the ballot) and Carlos Beltrán. I’ve discussed their qualifications many times and have voted for them every year I’ve been able to.

The second category of players are borderline candidates I believe should be elected, even though I recognize other people feel they may fall short.

Returning candidates Andruw Jones, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley are joined this year by CC Sabathia.

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A six-time All-Star and 2007 AL Cy Young winner, Sabathia had both a high peak and exceptional longevity as evidenced by his 251 wins and 3,093 strikeouts during a 19-year career. I didn’t necessarily feel like he was a slam-dunk Hall of Famer while he was playing, but his overall numbers speak very loudly.

The third category is a new one for me – and it’s probably the one that will generate the most debate. This group is comprised of players who admittedly don’t quite meet the established Hall of Fame standard, but still deserve to be part of the conversation.

I could just as easily left these players off my ballot and felt good about voting for a magnificent class of seven.

But with three spots still open, it doesn’t hurt to add more names to the discussion. I know my one vote this year won’t put any of them in the Hall. I’m simply showing my support for their candidacy ahead of the other lower-percentage players on the ballot.

Even if their chances of getting in are slim at the moment, there’s always a possibility that perspectives can change over time. We’ve seen players like Bert Blyleven, Tim Raines and most recently Larry Walker and Todd Helton start slowly, but gradually build momentum and eventually make it to Cooperstown.

So here’s why I’m including Félix Hernández, Andy Pettitte and Mark Buehrle on my 2025 ballot.

Admittedly, King Félix was one of my favorite players to watch. His genuine love for the game and for competing made it almost impossible not to root for him. He was incredibly consistent, posting 10 consecutive seasons with 30+ starts. And he was the unquestioned ace of the Mariners, starting 11 times on opening day.

Hernández was also one of the first players to make me realize there was more to being a great pitcher than surface stats. His AL Cy Young award in 2010 – when he beat out Sabathia – was a watershed moment for sabermetrics because he had “only” 13 wins (but led the majors with a 2.27 ERA in almost 250 innings).

The biggest drawback to Hernández’s candidacy is his relatively low career totals: 169 wins, 2,524 strikeouts, and perhaps most glaringly, zero playoff appearances. And his production fell off dramatically after age 30.

But still, he was most certainly one of the best pitchers of his time. During his decade-long peak from 2007-16, he accumulated 47.2 WAR – third over that span behind Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander.

He led the AL in fewest hits per nine innings three times, he won two ERA titles and pitched a perfect game against the Rays in 2012.

Sabathia had a better overall career and has a much better Hall of Fame resume than Hernández, but at their best, I’d rather have King Félix if I needed to win one game.

Because of the way starting pitchers are being used, it’s pretty obvious the historic standards we’ve used for decades are becoming increasingly more unrealistic as each year passes. As a result, they will becomee an endangered species in Cooperstown.

That’s why – with two open spots remaining on my ballot – I’m including Pettitte and Buehrle for the first time.

Both won over 200 games during their lengthy careers and were key members of World Series-winning teams. Their overall numbers are so very close, with Pettitte’s lengthy postseason resume (a record 44 playoff starts) and five championship rings balanced out by Burhrle’s edge in All-Star appearances and his Gold Glove defense.

Until this year, they’ve both been just below the line for me, partly because I’ve had one open spot on my ballot twice in the past four years and I couldn’t pick one over the other. But while looking into Hernández’s case for the Hall, I came across one startling stat.

Adjusted ERA (ERA+) is a number that takes ballpark factors into account and scales it so 100 is average. Over their entire careers, Hernández, Pettitte and Buehrle each finished with the exact same 117 ERA+ (just ahead of Sabathia’s 116). If it was so difficult before to choose between Pettitte and Buehrle, adding King Félix to the mix made it almost impossible. Each pitcher was outstanding in his own way – and with workhorse starters (Buehrle had 14 consecutive 200-inning seasons!) a thing of the past, perhaps it’s past time to give them their due.

My 2025 Hall of Fame ballot

Ichiro Suzuki
CC Sabathia
Billy Wagner
Carlos Beltrán
Félix Hernández
Andy Pettitte
Mark Buehrle
Andruw Jones
Jimmy Rollins
Chase Utley

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In Sugar Bowl, Marcus Freeman uplifts Notre Dame to biggest postseason win since Lou Holtz.
Fighting Irish surge before halftime, before kickoff return lands big blow to Georgia.
Marcus Freeman outwits Kirby Smart, whose Georgia dynasty faded this season.

NEW ORLEANS – Marcus Freeman shimmied and high-fived and hugged and smiled, and why shouldn’t he do all that and more?

Notre Dame’s Jayden Harrison had just sprinted into the end zone on a kickoff return touchdown for the Irish’s third score in less than a minute of game time, as Notre Dame drove a dagger through the vestiges of Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s dynasty.

And the Notre Dame coach’s elation couldn’t have matched the euphoria of those wearing green and navy in the Superdome stands.

The Irish waited a long time for this one.

I mean, a long, long time.

How long? The Notre Dame players who starred in this 23-10 breaking of Georgia in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl weren’t alive for the last Irish victory of this magnitude.

Even Freeman, the Irish’s 38-year-old coach, would need a phone call to Lou Holtz to refresh any fuzzy memories of the golden domers enjoying a golden moment of this caliber on a postseason stage.

Does this result mean Notre Dame is bound for national championship glory? I retain doubts. The next two rounds will be brawls worthy of brass knuckles, starting with Penn State in the Orange Bowl in one week. Notre Dame isn’t the most complete team left in the field, but it proved it’s more polished than Georgia, armed with a defense as good as any.

‘I want to celebrate this,’ Freeman said. ‘I’m proud of these guys. I’m proud of this program. … We got to get on that plane and turn our focus to Penn State.’

Regardless of what comes next, that shouldn’t minimize what occurred here for a program that secured its biggest postseason win in more than 30 years.

‘To reach team glory like this, it’s an awesome deal,’ linebacker Jack Kiser said.

Marcus Freeman wins the game Brian Kelly couldn’t at Notre Dame

Irish fans won’t want to admit this, but Freeman’s predecessor, Brian Kelly, did a lot of good in restoring Notre Dame to prominence. His teams generally fared well in the regular season, and Kelly claimed signature victories against Oklahoma and Clemson en route to peak seasons, but his Irish enjoyed no luck in the postseason, where they persistently wilted.

Georgia, quite literally, became an opponent Kelly couldn’t beat.

These Irish could have withered too, after Georgia dominated Thursday for a quarter and a half, but Notre Dame’s defense never gave in.

A nasty unit, the Fighting Irish defenders form a better group even than one-time defensive wizard Smart built this season at Georgia. Notre Dame also made fewer grave mistakes than an opponent that lived up to the reputation it built for being an unrefined team prone to costly turnovers.

I don’t know how many NIL dollars Georgia spent on its offensive line, but, whatever the amount, I know it didn’t get its money’s worth.

Notre Dame roughhoused a foe that just a couple years ago stood as the toughest bully on the block. Irish safety Adon Shuler popped Georgia tailback Trevor Etienne in the backfield to force a red-zone fumble, ending an early Georgia drive that otherwise should have produced points.

When Smart had the option to go into halftime down by three points, he instead forced the issue with 39 seconds remaining, his team 75 yards from the end zone, a backup quarterback on the field and an offensive line that failed to protect him.

Notre Dame’s RJ Oben strip-sacked Gunner Stockton, setting up the Irish with a short field for a momentum-changing touchdown before halftime.

“We tried to be aggressive in two minute and probably regret it, right?” Smart told ESPN.

That loosely translates to: Smart blew that one. Bigtime.

When you get down to it, Georgia should be considered fortunate to even make it this far. Fortunate to escape middling Georgia Tech on Black Friday. Fortunate to rally past Texas in an SEC championship game in which it largely got outplayed. Fortunate the SEC was down so it could win the conference and reach the quarterfinals.

Once the sport’s giant, the Bulldogs’ rule wavered last season, then went caput this season.

Irish made Georgia look ordinary, and that’s only a surprise if you didn’t watch Georgia before the Sugar Bowl, because Mississippi smashed the Bulldogs in November, Alabama bum-rushed ‘em in September, and neither of those teams is as solid as Notre Dame.

The Irish, unremarkable on offense, play stifling defense. They don’t beat themselves on offense, and quarterback Riley Leonard’s steady hand and smooth wheels generally allows the offense to pack just enough of a punch.  

Georgia’s dynasty fades in mess of miscues that includes Kirby Smart

Sure, Georgia missed starting quarterback Carson Beck, but the Bulldogs were fickle and flawed even before his injury, with Beck contributing to the issues. This result felt less about Georgia being wounded and more about Notre Dame seizing an opportunity.

Georgia entered the season on the shortest of shortlists for national championship front-runners, and the Bulldogs lived up to the billing while smacking Clemson in the season opener.

A mirage, that was. Since that August day in Atlanta, the Bulldogs showed themselves to be an undisciplined, unpolished and, yes, poorly coached team.

Smart got in over his head and muddled through an uncharacteristic amateur hour. He lost his way, and his stranglehold on the sport, after he surrendered the immense talent advantage he’d built during back-to-back national championship seasons.

Freeman outwitted Smart, and his team beat Georgia at its own game. Or, its old game anyway, because Georgia rarely looked as steady or as fierce this season as Notre Dame looked in this Sugar Bowl.

Georgia became quite something once, not that long ago. Nothing special about these Bulldogs, but something very special about this Notre Dame triumph that makes us take the Irish seriously.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.