Alex Pereira is set for a light heavyweight title rematch against Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320.
Pereira claims he was only at 40 percent health during his first fight, which he lost to Ankalaev.
Despite losing the first match, Pereira remains a fan favorite over the current champion, Ankalaev.

Alex Pereira wore a purple suit without a shirt to the last news conference before UFC 320.

His biceps stretched the suit fabric as he sat near his upcoming opponent, Magomed Ankalaev, who beat Pereira and took his light heavyweight title in March in their first fight.

Periera’s expression was stone cold as the rematch drew near.

‘I think Alex right now is looking much better than last time,’ said Jiri Prochazkam, the former light heavyweight champion who is fighting on the undercard at UFC 320 on Saturday, Oct. 4 in Las Vegas.

Can Pereira display the dominance and striking power that has produced 10 knockouts in his 12 victories? Was his first fight against Ankalaev an anamoly? Or at 38 is he suddenly in decline?

At the news conference, two days before a shot at redemption, Pereira said, ‘all the questions will be answered.’

His looking better ahead of the rematch goes beyond the snazzy suit and bulging biceps, indicated Pereira, whose performance against Ankalaev was surprisingly lackluster.

‘I wasn’t feeling well that day and now I feel much better,’ Pereira said. ‘I feel much more prepared.’

Hobbled by an assortment of ailments, Periera said he was at 40 percent during the last fight. The judges scored it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 for Ankalaev.

‘I was on my worst day,’ Pereira said, ‘and that’s all he could do.’

Pereira, the 38-year-old Brazilian, clearly lost that fight but hasn’t lost the fans. That was evident at the news conference Thursday, when they cheered him and booed Ankalaev, the 33-year-old Russian.

Neither fighter speaks English and neither is a natural showman. But they’ve kept the fans more entertained during the buildup to the rematch, with an assist from Ankalaev’s coach, Sukhrab Magomedov.

‘He’s an old kickboxer,’ Magomedov said of Periera on UFC Countdown. ‘He has no speed. Powerful punch? Alex, he has a punch, but not the kind that can really knock you out.

‘And I tell everyone: If Magomed opens up, he’ll surprise everyone. …’

But on Thursday, there was no Magomedov on the dais during the jawing between the two men who will fight with the light heavyweight title on the line.

‘Them booing … the reason is I keep beating their favorite fighters and they’re just mad at me,’ Ankalaev said. ‘I can’t do nothing about it.’

‘These people who are booing me, they’re really lighting me up so I’m very hype,’ he added. ‘And on Saturday I’m going to finish this man.’

This man, Pereira, had a few things to say, too.

‘(Ankalaev) became a champion is because I wasn’t there and now I’m here,’ Pereira said, referring to his lackluster performance in March. ‘I’m going to put a stamp on this on Saturday, beat him again and then all the questions will be answered.’

The Los Angeles Lakers will open the preseason tonight against the Phoenix Suns at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California.

While it’s unlikely that LeBron James and Luka Doncic will play, the game will serve as an opportunity for the Lakers’ younger players to get some time in, including second-year players Bronny James and Dalton Knecht.

The Suns added some new players to the roster this offseason, including Jalen Green. Green was acquired in a trade that sent Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets. Green will not be available after suffering a low-grade hamstring strain during training camp.

Here’s what you need to know about the game:

What time is Suns vs. Lakers?

The Los Angeles Lakers will host the Phoenix Suns in a preseason game at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California. The game is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET.

How to watch Phoenix Suns vs. Los Angeles Lakers

Time: 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT
Location: Acrisure Arena (Palm Desert, California)
TV: NBA TV, Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles), Arizona’s Family 3TV (Phoenix)
Stream: Fubo, Spectrum SportsNet+

The Los Angeles Rams offense was firing on all cylinders in the second half and into overtime of their ‘Thursday Night Football’ game against the San Francisco 49ers.

But on the biggest play of the game, the team couldn’t find a yard on fourth-and-1. San Francisco left SoFi Stadium with a 26-23 overtime win in a key matchup in the NFC West race.

That fourth-and-1 call was a run to the right by running back Kyren Williams. The Rams’ top back had 65 yards on 13 carries before then but the team had nearly 400 yards passing.

Los Angeles coach Sean McVay answered questions about his play call at the key point in the loss.

‘Bad call by me,’ he said during the Rams’ post-game press conference. ‘Thought about maybe trying to draw them offsides, I took one [timeout], they took the other and it was a poor decision by me right there.

‘I’m pretty sick right now. I’m sick of this spot I put our group in to end the game but hey, these are the tough beats you have to learn from and move forward and that’s what we’re going to to do.’

McVay quickly said no when asked if he had given any thought to kicking a field goal on that overtime drive. That would’ve tied the game with roughly five minutes left in the overtime period.

‘In hindsight, I wish I would’ve,’ he said. ‘We came in here to try to win the football game. It didn’t go down for us, that wasn’t even a thought. But the play selection was very poor, I’m sick right now because I put our players in a s—-y spot and I got to live with that.’

McVay said they did more to lose that game than win it but is taking this as a way to improve ahead of a Week 6 matchup on the road against the Baltimore Ravens.

‘This will certainly not make for a great weekend but it will offer an opportunity for us to continue to show that we’re made of the right stuff, which I have zero doubt,’ he said.

Yankees rookie Cam Schlittler had the start of his life in winner-take-all game vs. Red Sox.
A Massachusetts native, Schlittler said Boston fans crossed the line.
Yankees start ALDS vs. Toronto Blue Jays on Oct. 4.

NEW YORK – Their chief rivals were vanquished, and a playoff-clinching victory was in hand, but the New York Yankees lined up in a regular handshake line, exchanging fives and smiles.

No dogs were piled by the mound, no victory laps taken. Inside their clubhouse, where they gathered for toasts and the de rigueur champagne showers after their 4-0 victory eliminated the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the American League Wild Card series, the revelry was cut short not long after they’d blasted through George Benson and The Game on their standard clubhouse playlist, and then calmly walked outside for a team photo.

By 11:30, the protective plastic wrap was off the lockers, the room silent. Yet the two bottles of Ace of Spades champagne resting in rookie pitcher Cam Schlittler’s chair at his locker spoke volumes.

Schlittler had already done his figurative talking, setting a franchise rookie record with 12 strikeouts over eight shutout innings. And the champagne had hardly started to flow when Schlittler, a Walpole, Mass. native, revealed his deep satisfaction beyond saving New York’s season: That unspecified Red Sox fans were talking, um, trash about him before the game, perhaps on social media.

The professional mixed with personal. Missions accomplished.

“I didn’t like some of the things they said today,” says Schlittler, who converted his family to Yankee fans once he donned pinstripes. “I’m not going to get into it, but there’s a line I think they crossed a little bit. Again, I’m a competitor and I’m going to go out there and make sure I shut them down.

“We’re aggressive back home and we’re going to try to get under people’s skins.

“They just picked the wrong guy to do it to. And the wrong team to do it to.”

ASK US ANYTHING: Get your burning MLB questions answered

Indeed, these Yankees stared down their seasonal mortality the past two nights, making history by becoming the first of 16 teams to drop Game 1 of these best-of-three shootouts, only to come back the next two nights to beat Boston.

And sure, the accomplishment itself was modest: The Yankees essentially played their way into the field of eight, and they were due to pack onto a plane for Toronto and a Division Series clash with the Blue Jays, who won the AL East and the playoff’s top seed and a week off while New York squabbled with Boston.

Yet what the Yankees gained by taking the field can’t be measured: The bravado that comes with playoff survival and advancing to face a foe far more flawed than the last time they met.

And the knowledge that the trash-talking, 100-mph throwing rookie they trusted with their playoff lives earned their postgame championship belt by absolutely suplexing the Red Sox, setting a franchise rookie record with 12 strikeouts over eight scoreless innings.

The Blue Jays? Without franchise shortstop Bo Bichette and hoping their own rookie, Trey Yesavage, can bail out their wobbling pitching staff.

The Mariners? Their own ace, Bryan Woo, may not be available for their ALDS.

The Tigers? Their de facto AL Central title claimed in their wild-card series against Cleveland was nice, but the potency of Tarik Skubal is watered down when it comes time for five- and seven-game tussles.

No, this is why the Yankees believe more than ever that the pennant they won in 2024 can be defended.

“It’s ours to lose,” veteran DH Giancarlo Stanton tells USA TODAY Sports. “We just gotta come out and play crisp baseball. That’s what it’s about.

“Anyone can go out in three games. But it’s about showing up when you need to. There’s a lot of good, positive things about these three days.”

None bigger than the 6-6 Schlittler, who debuted July 9, posted a 2.96 ERA in 14 starts and earned this Game 3 nod down the stretch.

He’s a massive, strong dude and it’s the year 2025 so of course, he throws gas. Yet he’d never hit 100 mph six times in the first inning, as he did in Game 3. Never threw more than 100 pitches in his career – until tossing 107.

Never did complete more than seven innings in the big leagues – until Game 3, when Aaron Boone kept fist-bumping him after his dominant innings, rather than shaking his hand, a silent and symbolic go-ahead to get back out there and continue mowing down the Red Sox.

No, Schlittler did not quit until he’d completed eight innings and handed the game right to closer David Bednar, taking the volatility of set-up relief out of the equation.

And the Red Sox out of the playoffs.

“Definitely a dream to play Boston in the playoffs,” says Schlittler, “and end their season.”

Oh?

“It’s personal for me playing Boston,” he says. “I was locked in. People from Boston had a lot to say before the game. For me, just being a silent killer and being able to go out there and shut them down.”

It would be hard to blame the Yankees if they created a phalanx of social media bots from Ontario and points beyond in the Great White North, the better to get Schlittler juiced for a Game 4 ALDS assignment against the Blue Jays.

Now, though, he can take a number and watch, probably, Luis Gil in Game 1, followed by the Yankees’ lefty aces in Max Fried and Carlos Rodón.

Oh, they’re far from flawless. Boston’s lefty starters Garrett Crochet and Connelly Early largely suppressed their left-handed hitters, with Cody Bellinger finding good fortune and a patch of grass on a leadoff fourth-inning double struck at 77 mph – yet potent enough to spark a four-run rally.

But Toronto – and, should they advance, Seattle – will come at New York with almost all right-handers, giving Ben Rice and Jazz Chisholm and Bellinger optimal chances to take their hacks. The great Skubal can only start so many games should Detroit get through.

No, the field is opening up for the defending pennant winners – especially when new heroes are emerging.

“That’s what you need. You need guys to step up,” says slugger and MVP co-favoriet Aaron Judge. “Especially with the Yankees – we’re gonna go out and trade for guys. We’re gonna go out and get the big free agents.

“But if you’re able to develop and get a guy like Cam through your minor-league system, it’s special.”

Judge is relishing the Blue Jays series, if only because “Toronto will be rocking. The Bronx is gonna be rocking. It’s gonna be fun.”

Another month of opportunity awaits. The chance for the franchise’s 28th title and first since 2009 is still very much in play. History is hard to make in pinstripes, with thousands of players who came before this current bunch.

Yet Schlittler, still just 24, did just that. And definitely proved he’s not a dude to be messed with.

“Cam went out and attacked with all his pitches,” says Judge, “and did something really special.”

Arch Manning better fasten his seat bealt, because his legacy will take shape in the SEC’s fast lane.
Arch Manning and DJ Lagway look overrated. Billy Napier looks underwater.
Playoff awaits Texas if Arch Manning ignites.

Seat belts on, everyone, because San Jose State is in the rearview mirror, and Texas and Arch Manning must shift into the fast lane, where you either drive 90 mph, or you get run off the road.

“Everybody better buckle up,” coach Steve Sarkisian said of the team’s stretch of eight consecutive SEC games. 

That’s right, no more Texas-El Paso and Sam Houston State. Texas’ journey to the College Football Playoff either begins this weekend in The Swamp — or it swerves into the ditch.

A month from now, nobody will be talking about how Arch Manning looked against UTEP, because, really, who cares? He played poorly, the bloom fell off the rose, but Texas won.

A week later, Manning taunted winless Sam Houston. Try that in the SEC, and he’ll need a stretcher.

Manning will begin writing his Texas legacy against Florida. You’re remembered by how you perform in high-stakes conference games, not what you do in glorified exhibitions against Conference USA opponents.

Texas enjoyed an open date before the curtain lifts on its SEC schedule. If Manning looks the same in Act II as he did in Act I, the Longhorns’ playoff hopes are going to go poof.

Sarkisian acknowledged Manning’s September “growing pains,” as he played in the fishbowl of unrelenting media spotlight. Manning looked jittery in a season-opening loss to the Buckeyes, and his mechanics were out of whack throughout the first few games.

Will he return from the open date looking more settled in, or is this simply the case of an overrated quarterback, whose recruiting profile was inflated because of his surname?

“He can get back to being the player that he wants to be,” Sarkisian said.

Texas needs that to happen. Its defense looks the part of a playoff team. Its offense, well, not really.

The Longhorns will play four games in a row this month away from Austin, including the annual rivalry clash with Oklahoma in Dallas.

Four ranked opponents remain on the schedule.

The Longhorns can afford one more loss and make the playoff with relative ease. Nobody’s going to penalize them too harshly for losing at Ohio State in the season opener. With two more losses, Texas would be left on the bubble, hoping to become the first three-loss team in playoff history. Three more losses, and forget about it.

If Texas endured some glitches in the season’s first month, then Florida encountered a total system meltdown, complete with a costly loogie, an offense that stubbornly won’t ignite and its own quarterback who’s struggling.

DJ Lagway can compare notes with Manning on what it’s like to be overhyped.

Last call for Florida coach Billy Napier

It’s nearly closing time on Gators coach Billy Napier, while he sits on a scalding stool at the last chance tavern. He’s Florida’s worst coach since World War II, but he vowed earlier this season that his Gators are “close to being pretty dangerous.” Days later, Florida lost again.

Napier has perfectly positioned himself to join a long list of fired coaches who came close to winning more games. He stubbornly retained play-calling duties throughout his tenure, and that’s been good for a grand total of 33 points throughout Florida’s three consecutive losses.

By retaining Napier and not firing him a year ago, Florida knew it could hold onto Lagway. The Gators would have been better off changing coaches and taking their chances with a transfer quarterback, brought in by a new coach.

This game offers a get-right opportunity for Lagway and Manning, a test of which quarterback will return from the open date playing better.

Arch Manning’s Texas legacy begins to take shape against Florida

For Manning, his modest performance in September might strangely help in the long run, because it dimmed the spotlight on him. Nobody’s talking about Manning being the Heisman Trophy front-runner anymore. Nobody’s comparing him to Tim Tebow.

The most anyone should expect from Manning at this point would be for him to improve as the season progresses, to the extent that he helps Texas earn a playoff bid. Perhaps, that would have been a more appropriate expectation of Manning all along.

Sarkisian, himself a former quarterback who played at Brigham Young, knows he can’t compare his college experience to what Manning has encountered.

“The two biggest things that happened to me (as BYU’s quarterback) were USA TODAY wrote an article about me, and I was on the cover of TV Guide,” Sarkisian said.

“Times have changed a little bit for what Arch is going through, comparatively.”

Here’s what hasn’t changed: Quarterbacks are remembered much more for how they play against teams like Florida and Oklahoma than for their stat lines against UTEP.

So, fasten that seat belt, Arch, and put on the blinker, because it’s time to shift into the fast lane, where legacies take shape.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

The Las Vegas Aces are on the verge of a dynasty.

The No. 2 seed Aces are set to make their fourth WNBA Finals appearance in six years and are four wins away from winning the franchise’s third WNBA championship in four years. Unlike their previous years of domination, however, the Aces had to dig themselves out of a big hole to get her after starting the season with a 9-11 record.

“This season was completely different. We lost a lot of games early on. It took a lot of grit and toughness to get here, just being resilient,’ said Aces guard Jackie Young, who dropped 32 points and 10 assists in Las Vegas’ Game 5 overtime win over the Indiana Fever on Tuesday to advance to the championship series. ‘In the past, we were probably (a) top three (team) all season. This year, it was different. We really had to fight to get where we wanted to be in the playoff standings.”

The No. 4 seed Phoenix Mercury stand in their way.

RANKING WNBA FINALS ROSTERS: Who’s at the top of the list?

PREDICTIONS: Who will win the WNBA Finals? Experts make their picks

The Mercury wrapped up their semifinal series over the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday behind a dominant Game 4 performance from Alyssa Thomas, who finished with 23 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. This marks Thomas’ first Finals appearance sine 2022, when she and the Connecticut Sun lost to Wilson and the Aces.

‘It’s disappointing to get to the Finals and lose. It’s even extremely harder to get back,’ Thomas said on Sept. 28. ‘We’re excited. We believe in each other and are Finals bound. One more to go.’

Here’s everything you need to know about Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.

What time is Game 1 of WNBA Finals?

Game 1 of the WNBA Finals between the No. 2 seed Las Vegas Aces and No. 4 seed Phoenix Mercury tips off at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) on Friday, Oct. 3 at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.

When does the WNBA Finals start?

The WNBA Finals gets underway on Friday, Oct. 3 with Game 1 in Las Vegas, followed by Game 2 on Sunday, Oct. 5. The championship series then shifts to Phoenix for Game 3 on Oct. 8 and Game 4 on Oct. 10. If necessary, Game 5 will be in Las Vegas on Oct. 12, Game 6 will be in Phoenix on Oct. 15 and Game 7 would be played in Las Vegas on Oct. 17.

How to watch Mercury vs. Aces in WNBA Finals: TV, streaming for Game 1

Date: Friday, Oct. 3
Time: 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT)
Location: Michelob Ultra Arena (Las Vegas)
TV: ESPN
Stream: Fubo, ESPN Unlimited

Stream Mercury-Aces series on Fubo (free trial)

2025 WNBA Finals schedule

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

According to NCAA statistics, Deion Sanders’ Colorado football team has faced the nation’s most difficult schedule through five games.
Despite a 2-3 record, Coach Sanders believes his team is competitive, having lost two games to ranked opponents by a total of only 10 points.
Sanders has dismissed the idea that a disparity in NIL resources is to blame for his team’s close losses.

Coach Deion Sanders and his Colorado football team have faced the toughest schedule in the nation after five games this season, as of Oct. 2, according to NCAA statistics.

They don’t have the same resources for players as some other teams.

And Sanders says he can’t make it through a game without needing to urinate after having his cancerous bladder removed in May.

Yet Sanders sees the light – and the heat − starting Saturday at TCU (Fox, 7:30 ET). Temperatures are forecast to be near 90 degrees in Fort Worth, prompting Sanders to say he might wear a short-sleeved shirt, which he never does.

“Never, ever,” Sanders said on the Colorado Football Coaches Show Thursday Oct. 2.

His team is 2-3 including two losses that came by a combined 10 points against teams in the US LBM Coaches Poll – No. 16 Georgia Tech (27-20) and No. 23 Brigham Young (24-21).

“We feel like we have a pretty darn good football team, even though the record don’t display that,” Sanders said this week at his weekly news conference in Boulder. “Two games to ranked opponents by 10 points in total makes us think, darn, a play here, a play there (and) we get it going.”

Deion Sanders’ team has played nation’s toughest schedule

NCAA statistics rank the nation’s toughest schedules by the combined win-loss totals of past opponents, regardless of the quality of their wins. Colorado’s five opponents so far have a combined record of 15-1, not including wins and losses against Colorado. That opponents’ winning percentage (93.8%) ranks first nationally after five weeks.

And now comes a return to TCU, where Sanders started his tenure at Colorado in 2023 with an astonishing 45-42 win in the season opener. The Horned Frogs are 3-1 this season.

“That (game) was a lot why I came here, so I was hyped about it,” Colorado sophomore running back Micah Welch said this week. “I’m ready to play them.”

Colorado’s gauntlet continues next week at home against No. 12 Iowa State, followed by an off weekend Oct. 18 and then a game at No. 25 Utah on Oct. 25.  

It might be easier for Sanders if there was more funding for Colorado players, but he rejected that notion this week.

Resources disparity at Colorado

Every school in major college sports this year is allowed pay athletes this year up to $20.5 million combined for their names, images and likenesses (NIL).  Some players get paid beyond that from external donor collectives, such as at Big 12 Conference rival Texas Tech, where The Matador Club raised $63 million since it was formed in 2022.

“We can’t blame it on the money,” Sanders said at his news conference.

Colorado is among some schools that cut ties with its NIL donor collective before this season to streamline fundraising in-house. But the true extent of the disparity between what players receive compared to those at other schools isn’t known because NIL contracts are private.

“I’m happy, I’m thankful – I’m not gonna cry broke just because we dropped (those two close losses),” Sanders said. “Money had nothing to do with those two games that we dropped.”

How Sanders plans to get Colorado over the hump

After shuffling through three quarterbacks in the first three games, Sanders is expected to stick with Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter as his starter for the third consecutive week. Salter started off hot in last week’s loss against BYU, leading his team to 14-0 advantage, but then sputtered in the second half and threw an interception on his last series to seal the loss.

Colorado still has gotten improved play from its offensive line, better than in Sanders’ previous two seasons at Colorado.  Two top running backs, Simeon Price and DeKalon Taylor, are expected to be out with injuries against TCU. But Sanders has repurposed sophomore receiver Dre’Lon Miller to be more of an all-purpose weapon now for the Buffaloes, as a receiver, running back or wildcat taking direct snaps from center. He scored two touchdowns against BYU last week.

“I want them to play like their life is on the line, like their careers are on the line, like the payment for a car is on the line,” Sanders said of his offense. “The payment for a home is on the line, like they have children depending on them as some do. I just want them to play with full intensity and passion. And when you look back on the field, you look back and say, ‘I gave ‘em my all.’ That’s all any coach wants.”

Sanders got that the last time his team played TCU. If he doesn’t get it this time, he might be in for a rough October.

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

The Vanderbilt football team is no longer the easy opponent it once was in the SEC.
Alabama players and coaches have stated they are not overlooking Vanderbilt after last season’s upset.
Quarterback Diego Pavia has emerged as a key player, elevating the team’s performance.

Here we go again. Football isn’t the story, excuses are. 

It started with Alabama players, in lockstep after last week’s thrilling win at Georgia, promising they’ve learned from last season.

“I think I can speak for everyone when I say we’re not overlooking Vanderbilt,” said Tide offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor.  

Then there was Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer, who was asked right out of the gate at his weekly press conference about “not taking Vanderbilt seriously” in last season’s historic upset.

“I’m not going to argue against that,” DeBoer said.

Just stop it.  

This isn’t the same Vanderbilt of years past, the SEC’s annual tomato can stumbling and staggering through college football’s best conference with 40-point losses. 

This isn’t the same Vanderbilt, the program that fit better in the Ivy League than the conference that annually sends more players to the NFL than any other in college football.

This is a legit SEC team that already passed its first major test of the season last month, beating South Carolina – the rising College Football Playoff darling of the offseason – by 24 points on the road.

It’s not just dismissive that Alabama (or any other team) says they’re “not overlooking” Vanderbilt, it’s insulting. 

Vandy hung 40 last year on an Alabama defense full of future NFL players. Vandy knocked out South Carolina star quarterback LaNorris Sellers in September, bludgeoning a hot SEC program and making it look wildly outmanned.  

Vanderbilt has won 12 of its last 18 games, and among those six losses, was a three-point gut-punch it gave away to Texas — which advanced to the CFP semifinals last season and played Ohio State better than any other team in the playoff.

So yeah, Alabama – or anyone else – isn’t overlooking anything. It’s no different than any other team on the SEC schedule.

The Commodores are unbeaten, and beating teams by an average of 32 points. They have one of the best players in college football (QB Diego Pavia), and they’re playing with a level of confidence never seen in more than a century of football on the West End.

You think this team is intimidated by Alabama, or the fact that Tide players and coaches say, this time, really, they’re not overlooking Vanderbilt? Please, enough of this nonsense.

While Alabama was assuring everyone this time would be different, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea was busy explaining this time would be like every other time.

Preparation, focus, execution.   

“They’re really excited to play” Lea said earlier this week. “We need to narrow our focus here in the next couple days just on the details within the plan.”

If teams truly are a reflection of their coach, Vanderbilt is a carbon copy of the measured but intense Lea. When the former Vanderbilt fullback first returned to his alma mater, he promised the goal wasn’t any different than any other school. 

He walked to the podium at his first SEC Media Days in 2021 – after a winless season in 2020 under Derek Mason – and said the goal is to win a national championship. And there was laughter in the big room. 

Because it’s never about what can be at Vandy, always about what has been. 

It’s not about the seven wins last season, the most at the school since 2013. It’s not about how Lea has transformed the roster with impact players from the transfer portal that just about nobody else wanted — and the detailed player development it takes to beat schools with significantly more advantages than you.

Like Alabama. Or Auburn. Or Florida.

It’s not about how Pavia has become a legitimate thrower this season, and how the offense is more dangerous because of it. His completion percentage is 75 percent, and he has 13 touchdown passes — while averaging nearly 10 yards per attempt.

But instead of embracing the new Heisman Trophy candidate no one expected, we’re focusing on the guy who already won it — who will parachute into the big moment in Tuscaloosa to reclaim some Q time. 

That’s Johnny Manziel on the Vanderbilt sideline. In a Pavia jersey. 

Stop it, already.

Football is the story at Vanderbilt. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. 

NEW YORK – After their Game 2 victory in the American League wild card series against the Boston Red Sox, Yankees manager Aaron Boone only needed a moment with Game 3 starter Cam Schlittler to realize he had nothing to worry about.

The moment would not be too big for the rookie.

Boone’s instincts were proven right, and the confidence he’s had in his young pitcher since spring training paid off in more ways than one.

Schlittler, a 24-year-old right-hander from Walpole, Massachusetts, just 30 minutes from Boston, took the mound at Yankee Stadium and mowed down the Red Sox lineup through eight innings, throwing a career-high 107 pitches (75 for strikes) and striking out 12 batters, outdueling fellow rookie Connelly Early. The 12 strikeouts are the most by a Yankees rookie pitcher in a postseason game.

“What a performance,” said Boone in the understatement of the night. ‘When you throw 100 and command the baseball and can land your secondary pitches, you can be a problem for the opposition. So that’s what he is capable of. And obviously efficient enough to get through eight innings there, and I mean, just … I am not surprised, honestly.’

While Schlittler kept Boston at bay in his postseason debut, his teammates gave him all the support he needed when New York sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs in the fourth inning, which decided the game.

The Yankees will face the Toronto Blue Jays in the Division Series.

Schlittler had it working all night, the command of a 100-mph heater mixed with high velocity secondary pitches befuddling the Red Sox hitters. Eleven of his pitches hit 100 mph or higher. He was also backed by a defense that didn’t throw the ball away; New York committed only two errors in the three-game series, after 94 in the regular season.

Even Schlittler was surprised that he gave the Yankees length, as it is something he hadn’t done in any of his 14 regular-season starts since making his major league debut July 9 against the Seattle Mariners. It was the first time at any professional level that he had more than 10 strikeouts in a start.

‘That’s something I did in college, but in my professional career, that’s not something I was able to get over that hump. I would get nine a lot. I didn’t always throw 100,’ said Schlittler, who showed up to the post-game press conference with a blinged-out, WWE-style championship belt around his shoulders and goggles ready for the champagne shower that was to commence.

‘So, once I got up here, it was something I was able to make an adjustment on. Even here I couldn’t get to 10 (strikeouts),’ Schlittler said. ‘Obviously that’s not the goal, is getting the most strikeouts, but it is a good feeling to be able to go out there and dominate a lineup.’

The Yankees are the first team since the three-team wild card format began to lose Game 1 and then come back to win the series. Their comeback begins with Boone, who sent Schlittler back to the mound for the eighth inning even though he had thrown 100 pitches through seven innings. 

The conversation between pitcher and manager as to whether Schlittler would continue was minimal.

‘I was going to go hitter to hitter with him. I trusted his ability to fill up the zone,’ Boone said. ‘Obviously, I had Devin (Williams) ready behind him in the eighth if anything got away, but he ends up having a really quick inning. He seemed good to me. It is a little bit of unchartered territory for him. I don’t think he has ever gone that deep. No, he seemed in control to me.’

The calm Schlittler sent Romy Gonzalez back to the Boston dugout after he struck out for the second time on the night to start the eighth. It was the next plate appearance by Jarren Duran that will be talked about for years to come. The Yankees are known for their late-inning theatrics – Thursday marked the 47th anniversary of Bucky Dent’s dramatic seventh-inning, three-run home run in 1978, which propelled the Yankees to the AL East title and eventually back-to-back World Series titles.

Duran swung at Schlittler’s first offering, a 96-mph cutter, and popped it up toward the Red Sox dugout on the third base side. Ryan McMahon raced to catch it … and his whole body ended up going over the dugout railing as he made a sensational catch. The very next pitch ended Schlittler’s night when he retired Trevor Story on a weak groundout to shortstop.

‘Yeah, that was amazing,’ Schlittler said of McMahon’s play. ‘I was just hoping he wasn’t hurt. Everybody running over there to check on him. Again, obviously the momentum was on our side, and he just kind of kept it going.’

The kid from Boston had plenty to say about the fans of his hometown team, admitting that people from that region can be aggressive and get under people’s skin. Yet he took the outside noise and used it in a brilliant performance, exuding the confidence it will take as the Yankees proceed deeper in the playoffs and face lineups more potent than the Red Sox.

‘It’s personal for me playing Boston,’ Schlittler said. ‘I was locked in. I trusted the guys to back me up there and they did. People from Boston had a lot to say before the game. For me, just being a silent killer and being able to go out there and shut them down. 

‘I didn’t like some of the things they said today. I’m not going to get into it, but there’s a line I think they crossed a little bit. Again, I’m a competitor and I’m going to go out there and make sure I shut them down. They just picked the wrong guy to do it to. And the wrong team to do it to.’