Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. Drum roll, please. With the high school football season set for zero week Aug. 20-21, The Times begins a nine-part series profiling some of the area’s top players with a top 10 position list.
Let the series begin
Quarterback Chris Fields III of Carson passed for two touchdowns and ran for three touchdowns in loss to Delano Kennedy.
(Craig Weston)
The Times’ nine-part series previewing top high school football players begins Tuesday with a profile of Carson quarterback Chris Fields III, the reigning City Section player of the year. Headed to Georgetown, he has risen from the bottom to earn his place as a top quarterback.
Here’s the other profiles:
Running back AJ McBean of Mira Costa ran a 10.61 100 meters in his first meet of the season.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Wednesday: Running back AJ McBean of Gardena Serra worked hard when no one was watching to gain a scholarship to Stanford and establish himself as a bruising ball carrier.
Austin Miller a 15-year-old sophomore receiver, is helping bring attention to Bellflower’s football program.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Thursday: Sophomore receiver Austin Miller of Bellflower decided to earn respect by attending his local public school and proved his point by earning a scholarship offer from Ohio State, then committing.
Luke Gazzaniga is a tight end for Santa Margarita who dares people to try to tackle him.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Friday: As the youngest of three brothers, tight end Luke Gazzaniga of Santa Margarita used to engage in the Oklhoma drill with his brothers growing up, showing his toughest that he retains.
Offensive tackle Vincent Shields of Murrieta Valley in the middle.
(Sandy Huffaker/for The Los Angeles Times)
Saturday: Offensive lineman Vincent Shields of Murrieta Valley is rising fast as a college prospect, and if you like dogs, you’ll love Shields, whose family owns a dog-training business.
Godschoice Eboigbodin of JSerra is a basketball player turned football player at JSerra.
(Craig Weston)
Sunday: Defensive lineman Godschoice Eboigbodin of JSerra is a native of Nigeria learning the sport and becoming more than good.
Crenshaw wide receiver Deance’ Lewis (11) celebrates his touchdown with tight end De’Andre Kirkpatrick (10).
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Monday, Aug. 17: Linebacker De’Andre Kirkpatrick of Crenshaw has overcome family tragedy to become one of the best in the City Section.
Orange Lutheran quarterback TJ Lateef goes airborne hurdling over Wesley Ace (18) of Gardena Serra.
(Craig Weston)
Tuesday, Aug. 18: Defensive back Wesley Ace of Gardena Serra is switching to cornerback and can’t wait to show off his speed.
Kicker Gabriel Goroyan of Westlake enters the 2026 football season as one of the best for his position.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Wednesday, Aug. 19: Kicker Gabriel Goroyan of Westlake has a 4.7 GPA, a scholarship to Stanford and can kick or punt with the best.
Top kickers/punters
Special teams is important for winning football games, so let’s take a look at kickers/punters to watch for this season.
Westlake’s Gabriel Goroyan has distinguished himself with his strong leg, making him an outstanding kicker and punter. He’s committed to Stanford.
Ethan Miller of San Clemente had nine field goals last season and was cool under pressure. Jerry Shifman of Mater Dei should be a candidate for a field goal beyond 50 yards. Carter Sobel of Sierra Canyon had nine field goals. Caleb Sylvia of Mission Viejo made a 49-yard field goal in 2025.
Colin Elia of Temecula Valley was 10 of 11 on field goals. Ayden Brannum of Fontana averaged 48 yards on punts. Noah Ahari of Chino Hills had nine field goals. Peter Batsaras of Cypress earned an invitation to an all-star game with his kicking skills. Jackson Hauducoeur of Upland is a returning All-CIF kicker. Kasra Maghami of Harvard-Westlake showed potential as a freshman. Dylan Moreno of San Pedro is back for his senior year trying to return to his All-City form as a sophomore.
Notably not mentioned in CIF participation survey media release for 2025-26 in California is a drop in high school football players to 87,718, the fewest since 2022. Should be a concern. pic.twitter.com/utOtGfSflg
If you look closely at the CIF participation survey for 2025-26, there’s a notable stat. While there’s record overall participation of 835,088 for boys and girls sports, the number for the most popular sport, football, dropped to its lowest level since 2022 at 87,718.
The CIF looks for trends, so next year’s numbers will be the most important.
There is a rise in eight-man football, but that also shows how schools might be struggling to field 11-man teams. Lots of City Section teams have failed to recover since the 2021 COVID season in no longer having junior varsity programs.
Another crazy story from LAUSD football teams. The school nurses are supposed to clear physicals to allow players to practice. There’s money to pay them to come in early. And yet, the struggle continues This happens every year. Lack of cleared players at certain schools. Not…
LAUSD teams began practices last week but some have struggled to get players cleared because school nurses have to clear physicals and some aren’t around. The LAUSD has money to pay the nurses to come in early before school starts but this issue continues to happen seemingly every season, disrupting teams’ practice schedules.
Oxnard Pacifica’s Alijah Royster and Darius Smith discuss team’s hopes and lessons from playing in state game last season. pic.twitter.com/2odk3Gglju
Crenshaw has received a new football locker room courtesy of Nike.
Reseda, Eagle Rock and Canoga Park are having their fields worked on and will be all road games this season.
Corona Centennial and De La Salle have finalized an agreement to play their football game at Cal’s Memorial Stadium on Sept. 26 at 2 p.m.
Bishop Diego has 370-pound tackle Donovan Tupa’i (left) and 270-pound tackle Terrence Tasila.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
The Marmonte League is filled with big linemen, which should make for some interesting clashes. Bishop Diego has perhaps the biggest in 6-foot-3, 370-pound Donovan Tupa’i. Teammate Terrence Tasila can hold his own in the buffet line at 6-1, 270 pounds. Speaking of buffets, Tupa’i said he once went for five visits to the buffet, filling each plate. Call him the Buffet Buster.
Teams traveling to Hawaii will be playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week to open their seasons. Here’s this week’s schedule.
JSerra High quarterback Kate Meier threw for 3,729 yards and 58 touchdowns as a freshman last fall when the Lions went 28-0.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Flag football action begin on Saturday, with Oxnard and Oaks Christian among the teams opening with wins.
One of the best tournaments of the year is set for Friday and Saturday in Costa Mesa, bringing out most of the top teams in the Southern Section and City Section. It’s first look at Sierra Canyon joining flag football with a new coach and lots of top transfer students from Orange County.
Alums return to Dorsey
Dorsey High alum and former major league Don Buford sits under a towering ficus tree on campus Saturday during the school’s all sports reunion.
(Caleb Otte / For The Times)
A reunion of those who attended Dorsey High and played sports took place Saturday. It was organized by Hall of Fame football coach Paul Knox and drew plenty of alumni.
Former Orange Lutheran baseball coach Eric Borba has been hired as the new head coach at Servite. He served 16 years as coach at Orange Lutheran before stepping down in 2024….
Former San Fernando football coach Bill Marsh died last Monday. He was 79. It was his wishbone offense that led the Tigers to back-to-back City titles in 1974 and 1975. Here’s the report.
Safety Sean Byrnes from Villa Park has committed to Idaho State….
Former UCLA softball player Anna Vines is the new softball coach at Village Christiain….
Aiden Echavarria of Whittier Christian has committed to Pepperdine baseball….
Outfielder Dru Wilson from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame has transferred to Sierra Canyon, joining Mateo Mier, who came from Harvard-Westlake….
Sophomore Brett Burnor has been named the starting quarterback at Mission Viejo….
Infielder Sebastian Navarro of Mater Dei has committed to UC Davis….
Pitcher Carson Caras from Harvard-Westlake has committed to Pepperdine….
Jackson Alba of Palos Verdes has committed to UC Irvine baseball…..
Pitcher Mac Kennedy from Sierra Canyon has committed to Santa Clara….
Catcher Logan Miller from Mater Dei has committed to San Diego State….
Vaughn Sharp from Yorba Linda has committed to Cal State Northridge baseball….
Standout left-handed pitcher Roy Kim from Great Oak has transferred to Norco, the likely No. 1 baseball team in preseason rankings in 2027. Kim is committed to Stanford and gives Norco three top pitchers with the return of Jordan Ayala and Jacob Melendez.…
Defensive back Jacob Whitehead from Crean Lutheran has committed to Arizona. He’s the fifth Crean Lutheran player to commit to Arizona, joining Braylen Ross, Caden Jones, Evan Mack and Ty Johnson.…
Noelle Quinn is returning to UCLA women’s basketball to be an assistant coach. She was a standout guard for the Bruins, played 12 years in the WNBA, became head coach at Bishop Montgomery, then left to be head coach of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm….
Eva Madarang is the new girls soccer coach at Agoura….
The 13U PONY baseball team from Placentia won the World Series championship, the fourth time in five years that the group of players have won a title. The MVP was eighth-grader Finn Knapp, who had 71 stolen bases on the season and had three triples and three doubles in the tournament. He has a brother who plays for El Dorado High….
Justin Siegel has resigned as softball coach at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame to become an assistant coach at Loyola Marymount. Assistant Brian Luderer is the leading candidate to take over. Luderer has two daughters in the program….
The girls volleyball season picks up steam this week with a number of local teams traveling to Hawaii for the Ann Kang tournament, including Division 1 powers Sierra Canyon and Mira Costa.
From the archives: Jordin Canada
Jordin Canada in 2022.
(Kamil Krzaczynski / Associated Press)
Back during her days playing basketball for Windward, Jordin Canada said one goal was to become a nurse. But she became so good at basketball, from UCLA to the WNBA, the nursing days were put on hold.
From the Star-Telegram, a story on a Texas high school football coach being suspended for the season for conducting illegal practices in May.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Gardena Serra defensive back Rodrick Pleasant.
Tweets you might have missed
They’ve got some pretty good youth baseball players in Placentia. They won the PONY 13U World Series. The same group of boys have won four World Series titles in five years. This year, the MVP was Finn Knapp. 71 stolen bases on year. Had three triples, three doubles in…
Harvard-Westlake is playing its first flag football season and has been able to recruit girls soccer star Amada Rodriguez to play. She was on a Mexican national soccer team. Maybe she can whisper into the ear of freshman soccer player Zoe Thompson to try flag football. She’s a…
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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“Everything’s so sad,” the actor explains. “Not taking yourself seriously is the only way, because otherwise I would just be upset, especially as a Black woman in the year 2026. I hate when people are on ‘The Bachelor’ and they’re like, ‘I love laughing,’ but it’s true. I really love it.”
Williams, 37, knows a thing or two about making others laugh. A three-time Emmy nominee for supporting actress in a comedy series for her work on “Shrinking,” she’s made an art of it. On a show about grief and mental health, Williams is often on hand to bring the funny.
Curled up in a chair on the top floor of The Times’ offices in El Segundo, looking down on the runways of LAX boiling in the late July sun, Williams gives runway fierceness against the beige office walls. She is just like the pop of bubblegum pink polish on her toenails as she strikes a pose in a chic all-black linen ensemble — a delightful burst of cheer in a subdued environment, something effervescent amid so much inoffensive sameness. She’s always been that way.
I would know; I’ve known her since we were 12 years old, awkward adolescents in Marcia Barryte’s Dodson Middle School drama class. As we catch up, I remind her of a PG-13 scene she caused in eighth grade science class during an earthquake drill. (To be fair, the drama students were asked to play standardized patients, and she was assigned “hysteria.”) While the class collected our backpacks, she broke into an award-worthy performance, wailing about not wanting to die a virgin.
“No!” she gasps, covering her mouth but unable to hide the mischievous grin that’s broken across her face at the memory. “That’s very inappropriate. I love that.”
Under slightly different circumstances, it’s a storyline that could belong to her “Shrinking” character, Gaby Evans, a therapist who brings her sunny demeanor, audacious sense of humor and enviable stores of energy into every room. That’s partly because so much of who Gaby is has been carefully honed by the writers and Williams to align with the actor’s voice.
“We can write almost anything and Jessica can make it sound like it has stemmed from Gaby,” says series co-creator Bill Lawrence. “She’s in charge of Gaby’s voice — and it’s a tremendous safety net for us as a writing staff.”
Jessica Williams in “Shrinking.”
(Apple TV)
Williams agrees this has been her experience, one she’s grateful for in an industry often dead set on ignoring perspectives like hers. “At the end of the day, white guys are in charge of this business,” she says. “Progress in film and TV requires them to go to bat for us. I feel really lucky to be on a show where Bill pulled me aside and was like, ‘If I’m doing my job right, the first couple episodes, we write these stories, and then, there’s a moment where it switches to being your character and you are the shepherd of her.’ It made it really collaborative and a safe space for me to play.”
Three seasons in, the set has become the world’s best playground. For instance, the writers gave Williams ample runway in a scene where Gaby turns the tables and proposes to her boyfriend, Derek (Damon Wayans Jr.), after discovering an engagement ring in a desk drawer (and getting it stuck on her finger). “Look, if you’re a television writer and you have a proposal scene and you don’t let Jessica Williams run with it, you’re cheating yourself,” quips Lawrence.
That mutual trust doesn’t mean that Gaby and Williams are the same person — just that Williams’ lived experience has shaped who Gaby is. “The point of a scene is we don’t know what it’s going to be,” she says. “We learned our lines. We’re going to show up. The director’s here. They have an idea. We’re going to make this thing together. We’re going to ‘Yes, and?’ until we get the scene up.”
Her ability to take the ball and run with it is what caught Lawrence’s eye in the first place, discovering Williams as a correspondent on “The Daily Show.” “She works very hard at making it seem like it’s off the cuff,” he emphasizes. “She is quick to call the writing staff with questions and is always looking to improve things. That’s not always the truth with everybody. She works her ass off.”
Jessica Williams.(Ryan Pfluger / For The Times)
That work ethic was essential for her Season 3 arc, which found Williams facing some of the toughest acting challenges of her career. Gaby bonds with a new, albeit reluctant, patient, Maya (Sherry Cola), only to be devastated when Maya takes her own life. It’s the heaviest storyline of the season — and a heartbreaking look at the realities of suicide, loss and trauma in the lives of mental health professionals.
One of the show’s consultants had experienced a similar loss, and their insights helped the writing staff find dramatic resonance. For Williams, it was a chance to showcase what she always believed she was capable of. “For women, people of color, queer people, any minorities, we just want the opportunity to show what we can do,” Williams says. “I was rubbing my hands together. Like, ‘F— yeah. Let’s go.’ But I was also really nervous. Sometimes when I get scenes that are a bit more difficult, I wake up and I wonder if I can do it. Every single time it’s proving to myself that I can. It felt like I didn’t get to rest last season in a way that was really nice. Most times I feel like I’m just goofing, but that felt like, ‘Oh, I’m an actor.’”
That’s an inevitable side effect of appearing on a Bill Lawrence show. His blend of humor and pathos demands a high-wire act from his ensembles. “With Bill, you have to have the acting chops to be able to do the drama, but then be able to turn a joke very quickly,” says Christa Miller, who’s been married to Lawrence since 1999 and played major roles on “Scrubs” and “Cougar Town” before “Shrinking,” in which she stars as Liz. “You really have to be able to do it on a dime.”
Lawrence clocked early on that Williams had the chops to hold her own against heavyweights like Harrison Ford. “We knew comedically she would crush it. The only question mark was about who she was as an actress,” says Lawrence. “But she was great from the second she set foot onstage. It would’ve been a massive mistake not to let her showcase that stuff.”
The storyline also pushed Williams to reopen an old wound. In 2019, she lost her longtime boyfriend to a heroin overdose. “He had a therapist who had come recommended from my therapist,” she says. “I don’t remember that time that much because it was so intense and traumatic. I do remember my therapist was helping me work through it, but she was also like, ‘I’d like to check in with his therapist and see how he’s doing.’ That was the first place I went when they told me about that storyline. It was a good opportunity to work through that a little bit.”
Even though her grief was readily accessible, it also churned up emotions that Williams often tries to quiet. “There’s always something when someone dies, whether it’s suicide or an accident, where you feel guilt,” she reflects. “‘What could I have done?’ It was something that I’ve processed and am still processing, and it was easy to transfer that into Season 3. Grief is so ongoing. It’s a wound that I have forever, and I would give anything to not have it. But now I have it, and I live with it. It’s like an old friend.”
Williams describes the days filming those scenes as different for her, harder to shake. Driving home from the set in Burbank, she’d often take side streets back to her house in Eagle Rock, getting lost in music and her environment. “It felt like trying to shed it,” she explains. “I really felt it. But so many people responded to it in a way that was what I wanted. It’s such an intimate thing, this job, and to be able to portray something [that resonates], that’s the whole point.”
One emotion the work generated that she wasn’t expecting? Embarrassment. “I’m usually not embarrassed doing comedy,” she says. “I’m like, ‘There’s no rules. We can try anything.’ It doesn’t feel as vulnerable, whereas acting, there’s something fundamentally so indulgent about it.”
It’s a surprising admission; though I haven’t spent substantial time with Williams in years, she always seemed fearless to me. Willing to do whatever it took to get a laugh. It’s why our drama teacher invented an entirely new role for her in our spring musical, to showcase her generational comedic talent.
Williams agrees she was a cutup in class, but she never got the chance to do any capital-A acting in middle school. “I would get a part, and then I wouldn’t be able to do it,” she recounts. “Mrs. Barryte would have to call my parents and be like, ‘She did not do her homework. She has bad grades. She can’t do the play.’ I let people down. I remember feeling really sad about it.
“That taught me I’m a part of a team,” she reflects. “I have to be professional. I have to be ready. But I’m glad I don’t have to do my math homework to be able to perform. Public school’s tough — you had to be an awkward Black girl and get good grades to do the musical.”
That all changed when Williams found improv, joining the ComedySportz team at Harbor City’s Narbonne High (she continued on the college team while she was a student at Cal State Long Beach). “I cared about improv so much that I wasn’t not going to do my homework,” she says. “It just affected my life profoundly. I’m getting misty thinking about these programs that are underfunded, that s— really matters.”
Williams has also found reassurance in the response to her character. “She makes me more confident,” she admits. “Just seeing the response to Gaby. A lot of that is amazing writing, directing and an amazing crew, but it’s also my instincts.”
“The first time I was like, ‘Whoa, what the f—?’” she says of her three Emmy nominations for the role. “Second time, it was like, ‘OK, it wasn’t a fluke.’ And then the third time you’re like, ‘Oh s—!’ All the actresses that I admire are in this category, so I’m honored. But these are my peers too. So it’s like, ‘Oh, they see me.’ Gaby means something to people, it feels like — and that’s really nice. It encourages me to keep going.”
As for what that future will hold, besides at least one more season of “Shrinking,” Williams is hungry to do a play on Broadway, having not done theater since high school. Somewhere in there she’d like to capitalize on her tendency to play erudite characters and embody a detective in a thriller (preferably a paranormal one like her childhood faves “So Weird” and “The X-Files”).
Mostly, though, she just wants to keep doing what she’s been striving for since we were kids — “I want, when you watch me, for you to feel like you’ve seen something magic happen.”
Joaquin Niemann led throughout to win the LIV Golf New York event on Sunday, while Jon Rahm secured his third straight season title.
Niemann fired a two-under 69 to finish on 16-under after 72 holes at Trump National Bedminster in New Jersey.
That meant the Chilean won by three strokes from American Harold Varner III and the 27-year-old met US President Donald Trump after extending his record for LIV wins to nine.
“I feel like the more they push me, the better golfer I’m going to become from every experience,” said Niemann.
England’s Lee Westwood and Scott Vincent of Zimbabwe were both seven off the pace in a share for third place.
Rahm finished tied for 41st after closing with a round of 76 but the Spaniard has clinched the season title.
The world number 13 has an unassailable 219-point lead over American Bryson DeChambeau heading into the final individual event of the season at Indianapolis in two weeks.
The 31-year-old won last year’s season title despite not winning a single event, but this year has two wins from 12 so far – in Hong Kong and Mexico – and has also had four runner-up finishes.
“It has been a great year,” he said. “A little sour taste in my mouth because of how badly I played this week but it has been something to be proud of.
“After last year, not getting a win and possibly having a question mark over the season-long race, to win twice and win it again definitely feels good.”
The LIV season concludes with the team championship in Michigan from 27-30 August.
Coming off their best win of the season in Minnesota on Thursday, the Sparks didn’t have much of that same energy to start their first home game since the trade deadline.
The fourth quarter, though, looked a lot like the best basketball they’ve played all season.
The Sparks came out flat and gave up 29 first-quarter points from the Golden State Valkyries in an 84-78 loss Sunday, their eighth in the last 10 games. They made it a game in the fourth with a 16-5 run but were too far back and it took just a couple of Valkyries shots to put the game out of reach.
An Ariel Atkins three-pointer with 2:18 left got the Sparks within one point, then after it was matched by Golden State, a three from Erica Wheeler made it a one-point contest again with 1:38 to go.
Nneka Ogwumike missed what would have been a tying shot with 52 seconds left before the Valkyries made it a two-possession score to close it out.
Wheeler missed two three-point attempts with less than 30 seconds left. She finished with 15 points while Ogwumike finished with a team-high 16 points.
There are 13 games left in the season and the Sparks are six games back of Dallas for the eighth and final WNBA playoff seed, giving them an uphill climb to get back in the postseason conversation.
On Sunday, the Sparks (12-19) committed five early turnovers and struggled to defend the perimeter against the shot-happy Valkyries, trailing 29-15 after one quarter.
After getting back within nine, the Sparks were down 45-32 at halftime following three consecutive buckets from Golden State guard Tiffany Hayes.
Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike, right, reacts after being fouled by Golden State center Kiah Stokes in the first half Sunday.
(Harry How / Getty Images)
Cameron Brink hit a three-pointer to get back within 12 with 7:27 left in the fourth. The Sparks outscored Golden State 31-20 overall in the fourth to get back within four with less than four minutes to play.
Brink, who had seven points, seven rebounds and two steals, got into foul trouble in the third quarter, going into the fourth with four. Rae Burrell, who had scored in double figures in every game since July 22, didn’t score until the fourth quarter and finished with nine points.
The Valkyries capitalized with 18 points off the Sparks’ 11 turnovers.
Kiana Williams scored 10 points, her most since she joined the team from Phoenix in June off of a developmental deal.
The Sparks have not beaten Golden State (23-9) since a 84-67 victory on May 16, 2025, the first game in Valkyries franchise history.
On Sunday, the Valkyries were led by 15 points from Cecilia Zandalasini, who shot five for five from three-point range.
After she scored seven points against Minnesota, newly acquired guard Monique Akoa Makani missed Sunday’s game with a right ankle injury she sustained in the final minute against the Lynx.
The Sparks will host Phoenix (12-22) in Kelsey Plum’s return to L.A. on Tuesday at USC’s Galen Center.
In this week’s episode of The Envelope podcast, “The Pitt’s” Noah Wyle reflects on 25 Emmy nominations for the series, responds to criticism of casting decisions, and previews Season 3 of the HBO Max medical drama, now in production.
Kelvin Washington: Hello, and welcome back to The Envelope. It’s been a little while. Kelvin Washington alongside Yvonne Villarreal. We also have Mark Olsen. Good to see you. This is one of my favorite things, because I learn so much from you two. And by the way, I got a big shout-out from somebody at the other job that I do —
Yvonne Villarreal: You have another job?
Washington: Which one do you want to talk about? I have 17 of them. But she was saying how she was listening to something and then she said, “I want to hear more about it.” So she Googled, we came up and she was blown away to see it, and we did such great jobs. So she’s a big fan of you two. Shout out to Larissa if she watches again. But let’s get into, of course, Emmy nominations. You have surprises, you have ones you kind of expected, snubs, the whole nine. Let’s start with you, Yvonne. Anything jump out?
Villarreal: Leading the pack was “The Pitt,” which I think everyone expected, and coming in close second was “Hacks.” But I think the third most-nominated show that was thrilling to see have a big showing was “Widow’s Bay.” It was this latecomer to the race, and it’s just this show that has taken people by storm. The word of mouth has really grown. And I know, Mark, you got Matthew [Rhys] in an upcoming episode here. It’s just nice to see how that show’s performed.
I was a little bummed that we didn’t get a [big] showing of “The Comeback,” the third season. That was maybe my snub mark.
Mark Olsen: Not that it’s a causal thing, but I was excited to see a guest from the [podcast], Riz Ahmed, was nominated for the show “Bait,” [which is] kind of like a meta-psycho-emotional biography of an actor caught in conflict between his community and his career. And then also, I have to say, Meg Stalter from “Hacks,” I thought was exciting. For no other reason than to have her on that red carpet, to maybe get a little time on the telecast and the chaos that that just promises.
Villarreal: I want to know who she’s going to come dressed as. She always stuns on the red carpet with who she is sort of making fun of.
Washington: You need a little bit of that, a little chaos. That’s what makes those things interesting. For me, I was just thinking about, again, how we’ve had so many folks who were known for films now all of a sudden becoming television stars. Seems a little weird to say it, but Jason Bateman being one of them, nominated for a couple of shows. So it’s just been incredible to see some people’s transition into that, where 15, 20 years ago, it‘d almost be the downfall of your career to do so much TV. Now it’s a cool addition to your career. Let’s get into it. You mentioned “The Pitt,” Yvonne. And Noah Wyle, you had a chance to have a chat with him. Tell me a little bit more about it.
Villarreal: They got the big news about their 25 nominations while on set. They’re in production on Season 3. And when we caught up with Noah, he had just wrapped filming the episode that he wrote and directed this season, Episode 3. And it was really fun to catch up with him, especially considering how much he’s shouldered in portraying Dr. Michael Rabinovitch, a.k.a. Dr. Robby. You know, this is a character that’s had a really deep mental health journey the past two seasons. Season 2 picked up with him on the eve of a three-month sabbatical, and we think he’s finally going to get this break that he needs to deal with some of the things he’s been going through. But as the season progresses, we see him really confronting just how much of a mental breakdown he’s at right now. And we talked about that. He shared a lot about what’s coming up in Season 3. And we also get into some of the advocacy efforts he’s been involved with.
Washington: You know what I find interesting about that is, when you look at the folks from “Law & Order: SVU” and some other shows, [they’re] just a character, but all of a sudden folks really look at you as this advocate and they’ve turned around and become very passionate about those things, and I can see how that would be the case [here] as well. All right, let’s get into it. Yvonne and Noah, here’s their conversation.
Wyle on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank in June.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Yvonne Villarreal: Noah, thanks so much for taking the time. We’re on the Warner Bros. lot inside an office space because you are deep in the throes of production on Season 3 while navigating the awards circuit. Tell me what that’s like. What is your headspace right now? Have you learned anything from last year?
Noah Wyle: It feels like we’ve just come back, even though today we started shooting Episode 4 already, which is amazing that we’re almost a third of the way through the season. It feels really good to be back. It’s odd that this is Season 3. It still feels like a new show. Everybody’s still energetic and excited to be there. The awards stuff hasn’t really kicked into overdrive yet, so it hasn’t been too much of a distraction. It’s just been really exciting, especially for our cast and crew who are so well represented in the nominations.
Villarreal: It was really staggering. Is there a moment from the last award season that stands out? An interaction or an experience going through that?
Wyle: The first one that comes to mind was an impromptu meeting I had with Stephen Graham after the Emmys where we bumped into each other on the street and he said some lovely things to me, and I said some lovely things to him. It was the first time I’d ever met him, then Keith David walked by, who was an old friend. It was a very collegiate moment. That was the time I actually took a breath that night and was like, “Hey, look at this — oh, my God, look at all of this.”
Villarreal: Where are the trophies?
Wyle: They’re on the mantle at the moment, at home.
Villarreal: Next to the Golden Globe made by your daughter?
Wyle: Yep, it’s right there in the center.
Villarreal: I want to review the show’s chart. “The Pitt” leads this year’s Emmy nominees with 25 nominations overall. You are nominated in the lead actor category, as well as directing. Do you feel like you’re better equipped or prepared to deal with the spotlight and attention that the show’s receiving now versus when you were doing “ER” at the height of its moment?
Wyle: Oh, I thought you were going to compare it to last year. Comparing it to 30 years ago, yes, I’m way better equipped.
Villarreal: Tell me.
Wyle: Just older, wiser. You’ve been to the dance before, know it for what it is. There’s nothing that’s going to be shocking about the process. Also, I have enough life perspective to just be extremely grateful and present for it and just be really excited about it.
Villarreal: How aware are you that the spotlight is on you? What does that feel like?
Wyle: I’m not that aware of it because I feel mostly cloistered once we start production on Soundstages 21 and 22. Occasionally the tours go by and I see [people] get all excited. But for the most part, I live a pretty hermetic life when we’re working. So except for when I Instagram scroll or one of my kids brings me news from out there, I don’t really get out much.
Villarreal: Your mom is a nurse. What does she think of this moment? Does it feel any different than during your “ER” days?
Wyle: Yes. I think back then it was just a novelty that she was working in a hospital and her son was on this extraordinarily popular medical drama at the same time. Now we’ve had an opportunity, especially the last couple years, through the [medical apparel] company Figs, to go to Washington and do some lobbying together, which allows her career, my career, to sort of work hand in hand. And for me to have a different perspective on who she was as a woman while she was a nurse working, because I only really saw her as Mom through those years. To answer your question, how was her perspective different? I think she’s, dare I say it, maybe a little more proud of me than she used to be. She’s said as much. I think in the old days she was proud of me being successful in having my dream of becoming an actor come true. Now she’s proud of me because she feels that I’ve used that platform to do some humanitarian good works outside of personal aggrandizement.
Villarreal: How many times is she visiting the set?
Wyle: Oh, I don’t let anybody visit this. By design, we keep a very closed set. In fact, if you come as a visitor, you have to put on scrubs so you fit in — and you feel really uncomfortable and you can’t wait to leave. That’s how we roll.
Villarreal: I want to dig into Season 2. When we pick up with Robby, it’s the eve of his three-month sabbatical, and we think maybe it’s this much-needed break. But as hour by hour goes by, it becomes clear that he’s maybe viewing this as a death sentence. What intrigued you, what worried you, about what he was facing in Season 2?
Wyle: Once we decided that we wanted to put, at the center of this medical drama that was an exposé and sharp look at the medical world, in 2026, a mental health journey of one particular person and have as part of that mental health journey be suicidal ideation, which speaks to a lot of the prevalence of that in this profession, once we committed to that idea, it was really exciting to walk it through. And to play the first half of the season as a guy going on vacation to get his head clear and play the second half of a season as a man buttoning up every aspect of his life in the event that this was a one-way trip. And leaving that almost to the Fates to decide as the day unfolded, looking for signs and signals to determine which way that should go. And increasingly as the day goes on, to be met with both the increasing desire to make it a one-way trip and the community that desperately don’t want him to, and ultimately keep him on this side of that edge.
Villarreal: You wrote two episodes in Season 2, and in “8 p.m.” we really see Robby’s mental health journey come to a head. What was that like, to put dialogue to what he was feeling internally, for you as the actor playing him?
Wyle: That particular dialogue was gifted to me by a doctor who shared with me that that was exactly what he said to his wife one morning when he was going through something very similar. And the way that it resonated with me when he said it, the way it went straight to my heart, I knew if I spoke it as simply, it would speak to other people. And rather profoundly, I got a letter by a young man who said that exact dialogue was so reminiscent of what was going inside his own head that it kept him from harming himself and was the catalyst for having him reach out to get help. Because it was so truthful, because it came from such a truthful place, it had a multiplier effect when we put it on TV. So to get to voice it to the world, that was extremely significant to me. It was the masks just really starting to fall to the point where you can no longer keep it in. And the Duke character [played by guest actor nominee Jeff Kober] is the only person who he felt he could share it with, because it’s enough objectivity, away from the hospital, without any kind of preconceived history. And it’s obviously somebody who’s been down a very bumpy road himself and won’t judge the decision one way or the other. He’ll just sit there, almost Buddha-like, and absorb it.
Villarreal: I know during the pandemic — this was sort of what was the impetus for the show — you were getting a lot of messages during that time, people messaging you about “ER” and what that did for them. How do you shoulder those types of interactions?
Wyle: That one made me cry. My hands started shaking. … You always want your work to have impact, you want it to have meaning, you want people to glean something from it that’s relevant to their own lives. And I’ve been very fortunate in my career. I remember back in the “ER” days, when Carter got sober, people would write me and say, “You helped me deal with my drug addiction.” When I was on “Falling Skies” and played the grievous loss of a spouse, people reached out to me. I’ve been a lightning rod for pain a couple of times in my career. And you asked me, how do I shoulder it? I think I sort of see it as a gift. When you have that connection to somebody, when they respond that way, it’s the ultimate compliment. And you’ve built a bridge where there didn’t exist one before. It’s even better if you build them between two strangers that don’t know each other, that now have commonality that has nothing to do with you.
Villarreal: Not to compare the two professions, but does it make you see the work you do as an actor a form of public service? We see how, when people are at their lowest moments in the hospital, they’re watching TV, they’re connecting with characters, with their family members, in these rooms. And then also what you just described, the interactions that you’ve had with these people [who were] inspired to become healthcare workers, shows you how they connect with the characters.
Wyle: As you’re saying that, that’s what birthed “The Pitt.” I was getting letters from people telling me that my work had meaning to them at the very moment when I didn’t feel like my work had meaning at all, because it had no relevance, because we were in the middle of a pandemic. Who wants to see a guy jump around in a costume while people are out there really being sick? And suddenly, I felt like I didn’t have a skill that actually could hurt or help anybody. It was only sort of a frivolous skill. Then those letters turned into the DNA that the show became.
Villarreal: Seeing what Robby is facing, how do you establish boundaries for yourself in terms of taking it in — dealing with the burnout, and overwhelming emotion of it?
Wyle: It’s a process. I am engaged in several modes of therapy to offload this and be able to surf it from both an artistic curiosity perspective and a need for balance. It’s interesting work, this work, and I do it with the full support of a loving wife and family who understand that this is different than what most people do for a living.
Villarreal: You seem to be giving yourself a lot of work these days in addition to acting in this hit show. As the No. 1, you’re writing and your directing. Do you like stress, Noah?
Wyle: I know it sounds odd, but my brain works really fast and it works nonstop. I don’t know what to do with myself most of the time. But when I’m engaged in [creative work], especially directing, it is a full-course meal for me. I feel totally alive and in my happy place. This last week, getting to direct a piece that I wrote, was even more fun because I’d pictured it already in my mind when I was writing it, which is a form of prep. But then you get to give it to everybody else to see what they want to do with it and what you’re creating communally suddenly becomes the third version of it, which I think is really great.
Villarreal: We like a tease here. Is there a note from this recent episode that you wrote and directed that was interesting to give that won’t make sense to us until we watch it?
Wyle: A directorial note? More glitter!
Villarreal: The episode you directed in Season 2, you had the interesting job of dealing with vomit.
Wyle: Yes. Vomit is hard. We’ve been making movies for a long time and we still haven’t come up with a decent vomit rig. I’m not selling Rob Nary, our special effects supervisor, down the drain here with this comment, but it is really hard to come up with a piece that doesn’t look like it’s on the side of a guy’s mouth when he’s throwing up. And you can put stuff in a guy’s mouth and have him spit it out, but to really get a good projectile vomit, you need to have some sort of cannon apparatus. And it has to come from a place that looks localized to the mouth, and it has to be the same diameter of the actor’s mouth. We went through, I don’t know, five designs on that thing and still ended up with something I thought was passable but not impressive — not “Pitt”- level impressive.
Villarreal: Interesting. Do you feel like you’ve upped the ante —
Wyle: I feel like I’ve put a challenge out there to somebody to come up with a decent vomit [effect]. It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Villarreal: It was also the episode where we get the passing of Louie [guest actor nominee Ernest Harden Jr.], and it was such a heartfelt moment and a reminder of the people that are there day-to-day or frequently, and the humanity that you still want to show them.
Wyle: Valerie Chu wrote a hell of a script. Valerie is a wonderful writer, and that episode just dramaturgically was a little different than the other ones because it did put more of an emphasis on the nursing staff than it did the doctors. Usually, we walk into a room and walk out of a room with a doctor. This time, we walked into rooms and out of rooms with the nurses, and we really tried to highlight the whole range of services that nurses give — pushing medications, double-checking doctor’s orders, holding hands, bringing blankets, wiping asses; all of the dirty work that goes into palliative care and treatment. That was the thesis. How do we exemplify those actions? Then, of course, at the center of it was Louie’s passing and the conferring of dignity to somebody after they’ve died was the theme I wanted to focus on. In the beginning, he’s a bloody mess, almost unrecognizable, and certainly not dignified. Then, through the cleaning and the preparation and then eventually the service — that’s on a clock because we’ve got other Louies to treat — we confer him his dignity. We fill in the backstory of his narrative. We give context to his life and honor the man. That was the lens progression we were going for and heart progression we were looking for.
Villarreal: What did it say to you that Robby committed those life details to memory from those interactions?
Wyle: To me, that is what you carry with you. It’s odd, the things you remember about somebody. It’s odd, the things that land with you. Usually, they resonate with something that you’re vulnerable to or have experienced. But with Robby, who never had a family and always seemingly wanted one but never allowed himself, the idea of somebody who had one and lost one is particularly profound. And as we get into subsequent episodes that we’re dealing with now, we see that Robby’s sense of loss predates Louie and his mentor, Adamson, and it goes back to almost an original sin.
Villarreal: A lot of people wanted you to take home Baby Jane Doe to heal and deal with some of your stuff.
Wyle: I don’t think you should throw a drowning man a baby. It doesn’t seem like a good, logical thing to do for either one of them. I think Robby went home and wished that he had the capacity to be someone who could have taken that baby home for a little while. And that was probably one of the things that nagged at him along that trip. If you wish you were better, then why wouldn’t you come back and try? And as we watch him begin to try to evolve and work through some of the things that have been stumbling blocks for him in becoming a fully evolved human, that’ll be one of them, hopefully.
Villarreal: I want to return to an earlier point, which is, you’ve done a lot of advocacy work. Even before “The Pitt,” you were arrested in 2012 in Washington, D.C., alongside 100 activists from the disability rights group ADAPT during a demonstration urging Congress not to cut Medicaid. Recently, you joined healthcare workers along with your mom at a rally on Capitol Hill. You also spoke at a congressional hearing focused on declining entertainment jobs in L.A. and the push for federal production tax incentives. How has using this spotlight and your voice for causes that are important to you deepened your experience with “The Pitt”?
Wyle: Well, that’s a very apropos question because I wrote into Episode 3 [of Season 3] a character based on a guy I was with when I was arrested with back then. A really wonderful guy, sort of a self-advocate and kind of a grump, total badass activist who has muscular dystrophy and has a tracheotomy. And so I thought, why don’t we put that character on the show and put him as a patient? And then I thought, “Well, who the hell is going to play that guy?” I called this guy and said, “Hey, I got a part for you, man. I need you to do it for me.” And we flew him out with his aide. And he came in, shot two days last week. He was phenomenal. The representation that we are going to give people in that community is going to be unprecedented, but it comes from a 30-year friendship I’ve had with this guy from some of the wars we fought together through the years, so it all dovetails together. I’m using one to feed the other at the moment and seeing where it’s applicable and where I think it could do the most good.
It’s just an amazing confluence of events. I’m an Angeleno who thinks there should be work here. I have an opportunity to bring a show here and employ 300 people nine months a year and be an advocate for other shows to follow a similar economic model to try and take full advantage of the generational talent that’s here. That’s just an alignment of my values and opportunities that seems almost blessed at the moment, but it’s not effortful. When you read it like that, it makes it sound like Mr. Smith.
Villarreal: Well, so many choose not to put their voice out there in those ways, but you’ve decided to do it
Wyle: I’ll speak up for my city.
Villarreal: What’s so great about a show like “The Pitt” is we get to watch regular, decent people doing competent work. Some call it competency porn. What do you think is our attraction to that?
Wyle: I think it’s twofold. I think on one hand, it’s wish fulfillment. You want to believe that there’s really competent, smart people in those jobs, so that, God forbid, if anything happens to you, that’s what you’re gonna encounter. And then I just read an article, I forget who wrote it, I wish I could cite it, that talked about this other aspect of watching people do work that has meaning, that actually makes a difference, touches a vacuum that we feel we don’t have in our lives and it’s a different kind of wish fulfillment. It’s almost like, “I want to be doing something more with my life that has absolute physical and tangible connection to another human being that makes a difference, that has a net positive.” And I think that’s interesting.
Villarreal: Sort of what you were feeling during the pandemic.
Wyle: It’s exactly what I was feeling during the pandemic: “How can I make more of this time on Earth and serve more than myself?”
Villarreal: I want to talk about “The Pitt” fandom because they are passionate and vocal. Has anything surprised you about their response to the show?
Wyle: Only everything. The embracement, the passion, the creativity, the advocacy, the identification, the continued support. It’s really been incredibly gratifying. It’s exactly what you hope, you know, that your work will do, spark a conversation and maybe a bit of change. But you certainly, you never anticipate reaching the levels that this one has where people are just gaga for it.
Villarreal: Recent cast departures have obviously drawn some criticism. As the No. 1 on the show and an executive producer, how do you navigate fan response when it’s negative? What are you learning about how to take that in?
Wyle: It’s nuanced. It’s new for me, new for all of us in a way. You try to put it in perspective, and it’s relatively small in relation to the overall [response], in terms of the more vocal critics. But at the same time, this is who’s watching. This is why you’re telling a story. If it’s touching a nerve that’s unintended, address it. Figure out a way to do it more sensitively, to come at it from a different point of view. We’re certainly doing the best that we can in there, but it’s impossible to anticipate what’s going to resonate and why. And I can’t tell you how many times I was surprised at what people thought was funny or what people thought was horrific or offensive. And it’s an interesting barometer of where we are as a country. It’s an interesting cross section of where the population’s at. But in terms of how it affects the creative work, it becomes a slippery slope if that’s the tail that wags the dog. So every year, we come in and we sort of have to gut-check ourselves and do a postmortem on the season. What worked well, what didn’t work well. And what is going to be part of this narrative as we go forward? Cast changes are gonna be part of that. That’s inevitable.
Villarreal: How about in relation to your character? Some of the discussion about what’s playing out onscreen, it’s been interesting to see how people look at Robby and maybe some of his flaws that come out. What do you see as his blind spot?
Wyle: Well, can we start with [we’re] watching a guy who’s going to kill himself? The guy is going to kill himself today, most likely. He’s going to leave and not come back. And as that reality gets increasingly clear to him, he acts continually beneath his grace. He doesn’t necessarily want people to miss him. He doesn’t necessarily want [them] to overidealize him because he doesn’t want them to mythologize him. So some people he was really tender with, and some people he was really harsh with, and some he will carry regret with, and some he probably wishes he had gone further. But all of that pathology was on display as a cry for help for anybody that was really looking to see it, more than I felt it was indicative of how he felt in a normal frame of mind in those relationships. I think he pushed Abbot [Shawn Hatosy] so far away. He pushed Dana [Katherine LaNasa] so far away. He was overly harsh with Mohan [Supriya Ganesh]. He was almost paternal with Javadi [Shabana Azeez]. He had a different vibe and energy with everybody. But ultimately, it was to sort of say goodbye in a way that he felt would be most appropriate. And I’m glad people felt that it wasn’t appropriate, because it was a man setting fire.
I did say in casting, I was like, “Can we cast some guys that are like my size that I could yell at that so people feel like it’s a good, fair fight?”
Villarreal: And you were vetoed?
Wyle: No, no, we’re going to sort of figure that out because it’s nice to show volatility in character, but if it’s a character that’s surrounded by women, it’s very difficult thing to depict without it seeming disproportionate in power. So it’s something I was conscious of when I came back this year. I was like, “It‘s difficult to show this character’s rage when it would be super inappropriate to express it with every single person in this room.” So, bring somebody in that can handle it and match it a little bit. And for my money, that’s what Al-Hashimi [Sepideh Moafi] was. She gave as good as she got, and those scenes between us were terrific.
Villarreal: Season 3 will be taking place on Nov.r 12, 2026, right? A lot of that had to do with the anticipation of and preparation for the ramifications of the Big Beautiful Bill on people’s lives. Tell me about that.
Wyle: It’s Thursday, November 12th, which means that tomorrow is Friday the 13th. And there was something fun about playing with the eve of a day that is usually fraught with peril. But this day is fraught with peril for all sorts of reasons. And it isn’t Friday the 13th. It also is coming into the holidays and it’s getting colder. A lot of the social issues that Pittsburgh and a lot [of places] with colder climates deal with are going to come up. People are turning on their heaters for the first time, if they can afford to turn on their heaters; people that don’t have access to housing are gonna be feeling the pinch even more than that. All of that goes into our narrative. And then, as I think you were alluding to, this is in preparation for what’s gonna take place in January [2027] with [provisions of] the Big Beautiful Bill [going into effect], which is gonna throw a lot of people off the rolls in a lot of states and cause a whole ripple effect through the healthcare industry. In anticipation of that happening, people are gonna have to make some very hard choices. They’re going to probably want to hoard medication if they can. They’re gonna try and load up on as many treatments as possible, put as many things into place as they can for that eventuality. And we wanted to highlight what some of those struggles are gonna be because I don’t know that they’re gonna be reported in January.
Villarreal: How fast, when that decision came through, were you getting outreach from healthcare professionals wanting to meet with you, with the writers room, about how can they can help you think about what’s going to happen?
Wyle: We have a great organization that’s an adjunct to the Norman Lear Foundation called Hollywood Health. And they broker all sorts of meetings for us in the writers room with experts from every aspect of the healthcare spectrum you can imagine. And so we really were curious to find out from those experts what the statistics were going to be. And they run models on best-case scenario to worst-case scenario and tell us pretty much with a high degree of certainty what the bandwidth is gonna be. And then we take that data and try to figure out the storyline that would be most effective to tell it. But it starts with trying to get it as accurate as possible in our crystal ball, looking forward to where we’re gonna be.
Villarreal: If you could give one word to Dr. Robby’s mental state in Season 3, what would that word be? Or what would the song he’d be listening to at that moment, walking back into work?
Wyle: I don’t want to tip the bit on a song that we might use and the ones that are in my head are so corny and cheesy that I don’t want anybody to suddenly start cutting memes to it. [Looks at camera.] Because you know you will.
Villarreal: Come on, Noah. Give us a ’90s throwback.
Wyle: “Scar Tissue” [by the Red Hot Chili Peppers].
Villarreal: Oh, that’s a good one. OK, before I let you go, is there any PSA you want to give folks right now about whether they should be consuming lettuce? Is Dr. Robby consuming lettuce?
Wyle: Oh, my God, don’t ask me. My wife and I have huge fights about produce every night. I don’t know what the hell’s going on.
Villarreal: I’m always like: What would Dr. Robby do?
Wyle: I don’t know that Dr. Robby eats a lot of vegetables. I think all of your canned vegetables are safe, says Dr. Robby.
After their Europa League qualifying loss in Poland, McInnes called on his side to “be far more stingy with our work, defend the goal with our lives, don’t give our opponent opportunities” and criticised the squad for showing the same worrying characteristics that were the club’s ruin last season.
His side showed little sign of turning this around in the short space of time since their European trip.
Against Hibs on Sunday afternoon, his third different back four of the season struggled to hold their shape and summer signing Vanja Dragojevic soon grappled Josh Kerr to the ground for a penalty as the errors continued.
These faults, coupled with a lack of consistency in playing partners, is compounding the misery.
Their draw with Dundee United started with a back-line comprising of Ben Godfrey, Dujon Sterling, Emmanuel Fernandez and Tuur Rommens.
Away in Poland, it was Ross McCrorie, Sterling, Emmanuel Fernandez and Rommens.
When David Gray’s team came to town it was Dragojevic, Olwethu Makhanya, Fernandez and Rommens.
These issues need to be ironed out quickly by the coaching staff as their Europa League qualification hangs in the balance prior to Thursday’s second leg against Jagiellonia Bialystok.
McInnes thought the defeat by Hibs was “really harsh on us” as “we were the better team” and “deserved far better than we got” in a game in which Hibs took the lead through a penalty he disputed.
“It’s damaging in the sense that we came here to win and we expect to win,” he said.
“What we’ve got to do now is just dust ourselves down because that was a blow for us.
“The response of the team in the latter part of the game was terrific.”
Their selection inconsistency is mirrored in their form on the park too.
Allan added: “Performing consistently is what [brings] results and winning silverware, and I know its very early on, but there is no consistency in how Rangers were playing today.”
His two older brothers were both Division I athletes with Dominic Davis playing football and running track at USC and Diab Davis running track at California.
For a dual-sport athlete with big dreams like Pleasant, having mentors in his two brothers to lean on and gain advice from was everything he ever needed.
But once the four-star Gardena Serra product made it to Oregon for his first year of college football, he struggled to adapt and get situated in Eugene, Ore., — he needed another older brother.
Defensive back Rodrick Pleasant signals downfield during a UCLA football preseason practice.
(Isabella Serafini/UCLA Athletics)
And it was former Oregon and Chargers cornerback Nikko Reed who stepped up to the plate and guided Pleasant through his first two years of Power Four football.
Reed’s impact on Pleasant was so profound that the UCLA cornerback promised himself that he would be the Reed to other younger players.
And now it is the senior’s time to pay it forward.
“That’s what I’ve taken pride in in the spring, being a leader, being a guy that can talk too, being the guy that I needed when I was a young kid,” Pleasant said on the second day of UCLA preseason camp. “I’ve had great leaders for me when I was at another place, and that’s what I’ve been trying to work on and be there for the guys because I know I’ve dealt with stuff that they’re going through, so that’s what’s been the biggest thing for me.”
Pleasant got his first taste of leadership throughout spring practices. He was recovering from a shoulder injury suffered at the tail end of the 2025 season and had to sit out of team and contact drills.
On the sideline, Pleasant had to learn to impact the game and the players around him without stepping onto the field.
The 2025 All-Big Ten honorable mention honoree quickly found out that by coaching others, he could also help himself.
“Being out there and being able to coach the guys and help the guys. If you can coach it, you can play it,” Pleasant said. “It wasn’t a frustration. I believe in the staff. I believe in what we’re doing here and they had me limited … for a certain reason. I trust the process.”
The Gardena native could have entered the transfer portal after head coach DeShaun Foster was fired three games into the 2025 season. And he had another chance after the season ended with his position coach Demetrice Martin left for Arizona State.
But the Bruins new coaching staff left a lasting impression on Pleasant.
“It’s a family-oriented place. You see, their families running around here, their kids. They’re people at the end of the day, and being around them is special,” Pleasant said. “So knowing that they treat their families like that, and have their families around us, I appreciate it.”
And no one left a stronger imprint then Chesney, who Pleasant said has been the same guy ever since their meeting.
Despite five new cornerbacks joining the team through the transfer portal and 2026 recruiting class, the comfort induced by the family-oriented coaching staff has allowed Pleasant’s leadership to flourish, supporting one of the deepest position groups on the team.
“We’ve been jelling. . We’ve been practicing for a very long time together and the chemistry is there,” Pleasant said. “It’s exciting. A lot of dudes are on the same page together, so that’s what I’m really excited about.”
Pleasant is determined to be a leader among the defensive back group and in the locker room, being the person Reed was to him.
And one of the first players he took under his wing was sophomore cornerback Osiris Gilbert, a UConn transfer.
“That’s my guy. He’s a young guy. He’s going to be special,” Pleasant said of Gilbert. “He has talent. He’s a competitor, and I’m excited about this season for him. He has a lot to give out to us, and he’s going to bring a lot out of us.”
Rodrick Pleasant, center, of Gardena Serra wins the 100 meters state championship in 10.20 seconds in 2023. Jaelon Barbarin, left, of Simi Valley finished sixth and Anthony Flowers of South Torrance was fourth.
(Nick Koza)
While Pleasant’s leadership is centered around UCLA football, it does not end there.
The defensive back and former 100-meter sprinter who broke the California state record in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.14 at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet in 2023 is also supporting the Los Angeles Jets Track Club.
“I went to the [USA Track and Field] Junior Olympics this past weekend and it’s just great seeing the young kids,” Pleasant said. “I’m a Jet at heart, and being out there and watching them run, it brings back memories. I’ve done it and the youth is a special place. Being somebody that they can see has done it before is like no other. So that’s why I wanted to get back. I like to be there because I know I needed somebody.”
Don Nelson, the second-winningest coach in NBA history who won five championships as a player with the Boston Celtics, died Sunday. He was 86.
Nelson’s death was announced by the Golden State Warriors, one of the teams he coached. They did not release details.
Nelson is one of two coaches in NBA history to have at least 250 wins with three different franchises — Milwaukee, Dallas and Golden State — also serving as general manager for all three franchises. He was a three-time coach of the year and made the playoffs 18 times in 31 seasons. He went to the conference finals three times with the Bucks and once with the Mavericks, never winning a title.
Nelson introduced what is now known as the point forward, and his up-tempo style of offense created a buzz. He said the idea of shifting from the dominant big men of the 1970s to an offense focused on speed and the fast break came from his playing days under Hall of Fame Celtics coach Red Auerbach.
The Celtics’ Don Nelson drives to the basket under pressure from Milwaukee’s Cornell Warner on May 12, 1974, in Milwaukee.
(Associated Press)
“The league really hadn’t seen an offense like the one we were running, and the results were undeniable,” Nelson wrote in 2016 in the Players’ Tribune.
Nelson said that “without Red Auerbach teaching me the mechanics of running the fast break, none of it would have been possible. He deserves all the credit for Nellie Ball, and for how fast the game of basketball is played today.”
Nelson played 11 of his 14 seasons in Boston and was on five Celtics championship teams under four different coaches. He became an assistant coach in Milwaukee after retiring as a player, then took over after coach Larry Costello resigned 18 games into the 1976-77 season. Nelson coached the Bucks for 11 seasons starting in 1976 and won seven straight division titles.
In Nelson’s second season, Milwaukee overcame a 29-point fourth quarter deficit to beat Atlanta 117-115 in regulation.
“I coached the team as though I was still playing for the Celtics, while implementing a few of my own strategies,” Nelson wrote. “I knew I wanted to play unconventional basketball and use speed to my advantage.”
His fast-paced offenses were probably best on display with Golden State in the “Run TMC” era featuring future Hall of Famers Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin. Nelson said he wanted them on the court at the same time.
Nelson spent 11 seasons over two stints with Golden State. The first one was punctuated by a rift with rookie star Chris Webber, who was traded away a month into his second season. Nelson, demoralized by the trade, missed nine games that season because of illness and resigned under pressure three months later in February 1995.
In between, Nelson was fired after less than one season in New York in 1995-96, then coached in Dallas for eight seasons, missing 21 games with the Mavericks starting in December 2000 to recuperate from prostate cancer surgery.
Nelson’s son, Donnie, joined his father as an assistant coach with the Mavericks in 1998, later became general manager and remained with the organization until 2021. Together they persuaded 20-year-old German star Dirk Nowitzki to pass up European basketball and join the Mavericks. Don Nelson also developed Steve Nash into one of the NBA’s top point guards before Nash went on to win back-to-back MVPs with the Phoenix Suns in 2005 and 2006.
Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson celebrates with his team after breaking the record for NBA career coaching victories with a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 7, 2010, in Minneapolis. It was Nelson’s 1,333rd win.
(Paul Battaglia / Associated Press)
“Don Nelson was a true innovator whose influence on the game of basketball is still felt today,” current Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He consistently challenged conventional thinking, experimented with different lineups and styles of play and saw possibilities in the game that others often did not. So much of what is now commonplace in the modern NBA can be traced back to the way Nellie approached the game.”
At Golden State, Nelson’s “We Believe” Warriors led by Baron Davis upset Nowitzki and the top-seeded Mavericks in the first round of the 2007 playoffs in one of the biggest shockers in NBA history. In his final season as a coach, Nelson mentored rookie Stephen Curry in 2009-10.
“One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors was because of Don Nelson. The story is he never liked rookies, but from Day 1 he challenged me and gave me an opportunity to be my best self on the court,” Curry said in a statement released by the Warriors. “He taught me a lot during our one season together and I’ll never forget the night he became the winningest coach in NBA history in Minnesota. We were so happy for him. He had an immeasurable impact on the sport and will go down as one of the greatest minds in the history of the game.”
Davis added: “When I think of Nellie, I’ll always think of the ‘We Believe’ team and our incredible run in 2007. He understood what made us go and made us believe we could beat anybody, ultimately helping us make history as the first No. 8 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in a seven-game series. That time in my life and career was truly special, and Nellie was a huge part of making it possible.”
Don Nelson laughs while receiving the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award during a news conference on June 8, 2025, in Oklahoma City.
(Kyle Phillips / Associated Press)
Nelson retired as the NBA’s career coaching wins leader with 1,335, just ahead of Lenny Wilkens’ 1,332. Nelson kept that top spot for nearly 12 years before close friend and now-retired San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich passed him in March 2022.
Nelson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2025 he received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the National Basketball Coaches Assn. Miffed that the Mavericks sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers in a blockbuster trade, Nelson wore a pair of Doncic’s signature Jordan Brand sneakers to the awards ceremony. He called the trade a “tremendous mistake.”
Born in Muskegon, Mich., Nelson attended high school in Rock Island, Ill., and averaged a double-double in college at Iowa. He spent his retirement years living on the Hawaiian island of Maui and owned several short-term rentals on the island.
When Tim Tanner Jr. talks, people listen. When he says he’s going to do something, believe him.
As a junior last season, the 6-foot-1 Sylmar High quarterback in his rookie passed for 2,343 yards and 31 touchdowns and ran for 661 yards and nine touchdowns. If you like quarterbacks who improvise, Tanner is your guy. Then, in basketball, after breaking his collarbone, he returned to play in 16 games (Sylmar went 15-1 with him in the lineup) to average 20 points and help the Spartans reach the Division V state championship game.
This season, he intends to be busier than ever with football, basketball and he hopes a return to baseball, the sport he played since he was 4 until high school. He’s a pitcher and plans to join the team but baseball coach Ray Rivera has never seen him pitch.
“He told me get through football, get through basketball, then we’ll talk,” Tanner said.
The maturity Tanner has achieved in recent years through dealing with adversity has enabled him to be selected a captain for the football team, so he knows he has to keep his composure and show others how to respond in a time of need. He’s growing up after once being academically ineligible.
He has so much sports equipment in his room at home that he could hold his own backyard games. “Footballs everywhere, cleats everywhere, basketballs, jerseys,” he said.
He’s going to need lots of skills in trying to balance his sports commitments with academics. But the coaches know they have someone passionate about succeeding.
In the summer of 2020, the year “Ted Lasso” debuted on Apple TV, the largest audience for a televised soccer match in the U.S. was 1.7 million. Shortly before the soccer-based sitcom returned for a fourth season last Wednesday, nearly 63 million viewers in the U.S. watched the World Cup final.
Brendan Hunt, the actor who plays Lasso’s loyal sidekick Coach Beard in the series, can’t prove the show is responsible for that growth. But since he can’t disprove it either, he’ll just go with the flow.
“I would love it if we’ve had a role at all,” he said. “If we are a pebble in that avalanche, then I’m happy.”
What the Emmy-winning series has undeniably done is bring soccer into millions of unsuspecting households that had previously avoided the sport like a plague. So while Jason Sudeikis, the star and co-creator, alongside Hunt, of “Ted Lasso,” insists the show is not about soccer, the sport sure gets a lot of screen time. And that has made the game more palatable and popular for a public that can now relate to it.
“We tricked them by putting soccer in a comedy show,” Hunt said. “The first thing you’ve got to do to get somebody to become a soccer fan is just make them care about one team, to find one team.
“In this instance we’ve made them care about this fictional team and that easily can transmute, if you’re not careful, into caring about other teams. And then hopefully the sport itself.”
After a three-year hiatus, “Lasso” returned for Season 4 last week with the series’ eponymous title character, played by Sudeikis, returning to Richmond to coach a fledgling second-division women’s team. Hunt’s understated character makes his first appearance of the season in Episode 2 Wednesday.
“He is clearly going through something,” Hunt said. “Is it just what happens to Beard when he’s away from Ted for too long or is there something important that has happened? We’ll find out before too long.”
Speaking of having gone through something, Hunt, who plays a fictional coach for a fictional team, spent the first part of his summer being a very real journalist at a very real tournament, attending 14 World Cup games in more than half a dozen stadiums — including the Spain-France semifinal in Arlington, Texas, which he watched from the press box, and the Spain-Argentina final, part of which he watched from field level.
“That was a really cool experience,” said Hunt, who did a World Cup podcast with Rebecca Lowe, the studio host of Fox’s tournament coverage.
But for Hunt, 54, the most passionate soccer fan among the writers and actors on “Ted Lasso,” the sport was an acquired taste. Half a lifetime ago, Hunt was a die-hard Chicago Bears fan working in residence with an improv group at a small, aging theater in Amsterdam when he got swept up in Dutch soccer culture.
Eventually, he said, he was contributing weekly columns to Sp!ts, a free commuter newspaper in Amsterdam, chronicling his growing infatuation with the sport. When Sudeikis, another Midwesterner, joined the comedy troupe, Hunt began proselytizing about the sport, using PlayStation games to draw in Sudeikis.
“I found a secret that I had to tell everybody,” Hunt said. “When Jason came to Amsterdam, by that point I was fully a zealot. It was like a new recipe. ‘This thing is great!’
“I’ve been doing it ever since. I just have a slightly larger platform from which to do it.”
That platform is “Ted Lasso,” based around a soft-drawling college football coach, and Beard, his quiet but intense assistant. The concept debuted in a 2013 promo for NBC’s coverage of the English Premier League, then launched as a full-blown sitcom during the angst and fear of the coronavirus pandemic seven years later.
The series, with its message of optimism, kindness and patience and its call to “be curious, not judgmental” — a sentiment Lasso mistakenly credits to Walt Whitman — proved to be the perfect tonic for those trying times. Before it paused after Season 3, it had become the most-watched original streaming series across all platforms and the first Apple TV show to cross the billion-minute mark in a single tracking week.
But in addition to all the messaging and positivity, the show also included soccer. The offside rule and promotion and relegation are the butts of repeated jokes and there are discussions of tactics, positions, formations and other game-related details that would have previously frustrated viewers.
“Lasso,” however, proved U.S. soccer IQ was higher than expected; the sport may not have become fully mainstream, but it was no longer a foreign concept.
“There’s just a wider sense of like, ‘yeah, we’re fine. Soccer’s fine,’” Hunt said of the U.S. public. “We don’t need to explain it to people or impress it upon people. The World Cup has sort of finally cemented that.
“It feels like less and less of a capital S struggle right now.”
Brendan Hunt, left, and Jason Sudeikis in “Ted Lasso.”
(Apple TV)
For Hunt, who has been a season-ticket holder for LAFC and Angel City, getting to be a credentialed World Cup journalist — and a participant in the halftime show at the final — were once such far-fetched dreams that they never even made his bucket list. Getting paid to write scripts for a project he’s passionate about, then act out those scripts as a make-believe coach, was once only slightly less unbelievable.
Yet Hunt has done it all — and after a three-year break he’s back doing it again.
“It’s definitely fun,” he said. “For one thing it makes me a little more useful in the writers’ room than I would be on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ And it also means that a world that I already really enjoy has now opened its arms to us.
“The world of football, to have responded so well to this show, has been truly a touching part of this experience.”
And no one can’t prove the show hasn’t played at least a small role in making the U.S. a soccer country at last.
Spanish midfielder Sergi Roberto has joined the Galaxy to a contract that runs through 2028.
The Galaxy announced the deal Saturday with the 34-year-old Roberto, who spent the past two seasons at Serie A’s Como following the conclusion of his 18-year career at Barcelona in 2024. His Galaxy contract contains an option for the 2028-29 season.
“Sergi brings a combination of leadership, technical quality, tactical intelligence and championship experience that few players have,” Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz said in a statement. “He has been a key member of some of the greatest teams of his generation and understands not only what it takes to win, but what it means to be a winning team. Sergi’s character, positional versatility, and leadership will be invaluable.”
Roberto was a resourceful central midfielder for Barcelona’s dominant teams built around Lionel Messi throughout the 2010s, earning 25 trophies in all competitions with the Blaugrana.
After making his first-team debut at 18 years old, he recorded 19 goals and 43 assists in 373 appearances, culminating in a year as Barca’s captain in 2023-24. The club won seven La Liga titles and two UEFA Champions League crowns during his tenure.
Roberto then moved to Como to play two seasons under former teammate Cesc Fabregas, playing a role in the club’s first qualification for the Champions League.
Roberto will join German star Marco Reus in the Galaxy midfield. He will also be reunited with former Barcelona teammate Riqui Puig, who is expected to return for the Galaxy in 2027 after missing two straight seasons because of injury.
The Galaxy are sitting 12th in the Western Conference standings during another disappointing season, but they are making moves in an attempt to finish strong and make the MLS playoffs before moving into 2027 with a revamped roster. Since winning their record sixth MLS Cup title in 2024, the Galaxy have won just 12 of their 53 subsequent MLS matches.
While Roberto was a key contributor at Barcelona for over a decade, he has made only 11 international appearances for Spain, which had many of soccer’s greatest midfielders during his prime, including Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Busquets.
The epic whining heard across MLB over the Tarik Skubal acquisition is evidence Andrew Friedman and Dodgers management are a masterclass in demonstrating creative leadership to cultivate a winning ballclub. If you doubt this, check Steve Cohen’s Mets: monster payroll, less than .500 record.
Any talk of changing the rules, salary cap or otherwise, to put reins on this kind of success would propagate underperformance and penalize this fascinating culture of constant improvement. No one’s breaking rules. Any team could be doing what the Dodgers are doing if they had the wherewithal.
Valerie Martinez-Bencomo Claremont
Unlike the Saturday evening shocker that occurred when the Lakers acquired Luka Doncic, it was no Saturday night surprise to learn the Dodgers traded for Tarik Skubal.
What was a surprise was the relatively minor amount the Dodgers had to give up to acquire the reigning two-time AL Cy Young Award winner. It is highly doubtful that Zyhir Hope will turn into the next Yordan Álvarez, or that River Ryan or Brady Smith will develop into the next Pedro Martinez.
Irrespective of whether Skubal signs a contract extension, as long as he does not complain of a ‘dead arm’ or sustain another injury, this appears to be an excellent deal for the Dodgers.
Ken Feldman Tarzana
The Dodgers’ acquisition of Tarik Skubal is just another example of the team’s willingness to cause a lockout and blow up the 2027 season.
I understand why. Destroying the 2027 baseball season will give the team’s starting rotation a full year to recover from its numerous injuries.
Ed Kaz Oak Park
The excitement over the Dodgers getting Tarik Skubal should be tempered by a couple of factors.
Skubal could care less about a Dodgers three-peat. Sure, he wants to show he hasn’t lost anything because of injury. He will have several starts during the rest of the season to do that.
His main priority will then be to avoid any injury that might compromise his value in the marketplace. (Remember Max Scherzer?)
Some of the other top-notch Dodgers starters might also be unhappy if denied a chance to start a postseason game.
The BBC drama’s season three finale delivered a gut-wrenching twist this evening (August 7)
Hayley Anderson Screen Time TV Reporter
22:50, 07 Aug 2026
Granite Harbour’s season three finale explains who killed Lisa Stirling(Image: BBC)
A mother’s love drove one of television’s most heartbreaking twists of the year as Granite Harbour season three drew to a close on Friday, August 7, with Shelley confessing to three murders to shield her family — only for the truth to tear everything apart.
The BBC Scottish drama had gripped viewers since its third season opener last month, which began with the shocking murders of teenagers Lisa Stirling (played by Jess Douglas-Welsh) and Matty Grough (Bailey Newsome). The discovery of Richard Loughty’s (Alastair Mackenzie) body at the Loughty Estate followed shortly after, with the victim having publicly campaigned to sell the land that would prevent the travelling community from returning.
With Mac (Dawn Steele) and her team closing in, it was traveller liaison officer Alex (Thoren Ferguson) who unwittingly set the finale in motion by handing over Matty’s bag to police after finding it in Shelley’s (Emma Hartley-Miller) caravan. Brought in for questioning, Shelley took the extraordinary step of confessing to all three killings.
What happened in the Granite Harbour finale?
Her account painted a picture of a chain of tragic accidents. On the night of Rose’s party, she claimed to have followed Lisa into the woods to confront her about bullying her son Noah (Aaron MacGregor), only for the argument to turn fatal when the teenager was pushed and struck her head.
When Matty witnessed the incident and captured it on his phone, Shelley said she had stabbed him with a dagger taken from Rose’s to silence him. She further claimed that Loughty had later stumbled upon the phone, threatened to go to the authorities, and died accidentally during a struggle.
But the confession quickly unravelled. Officers discovered Shelley had terminal cancer with only weeks left to live, and forensic evidence proved she could not physically have moved Matty’s body. The real story was far more devastating.
When police returned to the travellers’ site, Alex’s shirt was torn open during a confrontation, revealing a lion tattoo — the very image Lisa had sketched in her journal alongside the name of her secret boyfriend, Leo. Alex was Leo.
The truth then came flooding out. Shelley revealed that Alex was also Noah’s biological father, a secret both had kept hidden knowing he would not have been accepted by the community as a non-traveller by blood. On the night of the party, Alex had followed Lisa into the woods to end their relationship, unaware that Noah was secretly listening nearby. Lisa had persuaded Matty to film the exchange, intending to use it to destroy Alex’s life. Noah, unwilling to let his bully ruin his father, shoved her in a moment of rage — fatally.
It was Alex, not Shelley, who had found the dagger. When he realised Matty had filmed the whole incident, he chased him down and stabbed him to bury the evidence and protect his son. Loughty, meanwhile, had discovered Alex’s affair with Lisa and attempted to use it as blackmail, sparking yet another confrontation that ended in his accidental death.
Shelley had carried the weight of all three confessions to shield the two people she loved most. In the end, both Alex and Noah came forward, faced charges, and left Shelley — a terminally ill woman who had sacrificed everything — utterly devastated.
Granite Harbour is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
WHILE some people are concentrating on the summer holidays – now is actually the perfect time to book a break for shoulder season.
The months from September to November are a time for bargains, great weather (in some cases up to 28C) and fewer tourists.
Some breaks during shoulder season are as low as £235ppCredit: onthebeach.co.ukA break at Villa Livadaros in Santorini starts form £259ppCredit: Love Holidays
Of course these are more suited to families or couples, as you will have to be travelling outside of the school holidays.
But here are some of the best we’ve rounded up, from Greece to Spain.
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Santorini, Greece
The island of Santorini is known for bringing in hoards of tourists during the summer – there are even queues to take pictures but shoulder season sees much fewer tourists.
Stay at the Villa Livadaros which is a family-owned guesthouse in the quaint village of Karterados.
Each room comes with a balcony or terrace and there’s a shared pool for guests too.
A seven-night stay here from London Gatwick to Santorini from October 14-21 starts from £259pp.
Antalya, Turkey
Club Bayar Hotel in Turkey can be booked from £239pp – and it’s all-inclusiveCredit: Love Holidays
Antalya is full of families during the summer holidays, and massively quietens down in shoulder season.
Most of the major waterparks are open until the end of October too as temperatures can be as high as 26C.
Holidaymakers can have a seven-night break between October 5-12 at the Club Bayar Hotel from just £239pp – and it’s all-inclusive too.
It has a full-service spa, private beach access with modern rooms – it includes return flights to London Gatwick.
Amalfi Coast, Italy
You can dich the crowds on the Amalfi Coast if you visit in OctoberCredit: onthebeach.co.uk
Another destination known for scorching summer weather and lots of tourists in peak season is the Amalfi Coast.
But if you wait until October, there are some great deals to be had and temperatures are much milder.
A seven-night stay at the Grand Hotel Moon Valley with return flights Manchester Airport to Naples from October 13-20 starts from £375pp.
It includes bed and breakfast in an Annexe Room, the hotel also has a sun terrace and a swim up bar.
Mahdia, Tunisia
Tunisia has highs of 28C – even in October and breaks are as little as £279ppCredit: Love Holidays
If you want to escape for winter sun, a holiday to Tunisia is a great option as even in October it has highs of up to 28C.
Mahdia is a peaceful coastal city with beaches on the Mediterranean Sea.
The three-star hotel El Mouradi Cap Mahdia sits directly on its own sandy beach with outdoor swimming pools and on-site restaurants.
A seven-night stay here with return flights from London Southend to Enfidha-Hammet from October 12-19 starts from £279pp – and this is all-inclusive too.
Costa Brava, Spain
The htop Planamar hotel on the Costa Brava is close to Blue Flag beachesCredit: onthebeach.co.uk
Spain might not have the high summer temperatures, but it’s still sunny and certainly less busy.
You can stay on the coastal resort town of Malgrat de Mar in Catalonia which has over two miles of Blue Flag beaches.
htop Planamar is a pretty hotel close to the sandy shores with sea views and it has an outdoor swimming pool too.
A seven-night stay here with return flights from London Southend to Barcelona start from September 30 – October 5 starts from £235pp with half-board.
Dalmatian Coast, Croatia
The pretty Villas Arausana & Antonina is minutes from the beachCredit: onthebeach.co.uk
Croatia has beautiful beaches and Old Towns all of which can be explored in mild 20C temperatures during shoulder season.
The Villas Arausana & Antonina is a pretty spot right on the beach with terraces and sunloungers looking over the coast.
It also has an outdoor swimming pool, restaurant, bar and cafe.
A seven-night stay here with return flights from London Stansted to Zadar start from September 29 – October 6 starts from £325pp.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. It’s too hot. I’m convinced that the Earth has been torn from its orbit and is hurtling toward the sun.
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Trade deadline review
The Dodgers made some acquisitions at the deadline, the big one beingTarik Skubal. Let’s take a look:
Acquired Skubal from the Tigers for minor leaguers Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith
Andrew Friedman recently told reporters, “There just aren’t that many star-level players in the game. Any time one is available, we’re always going to participate in those conversations.”
Participate he did, as the Dodgers got the top player available. Skubal won the last two AL Cy Young Awards when he went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 2024 and 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA last season, leading the league in ERA both seasons. He also led in strikeouts in 2024 with 228. Last season he struck out 241. You can see all of his stats here.
Skubal was taken by Detroit out of Seattle University in the ninth round of the 2018 draft. He reached the majors in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, going 1-4 with a 5.63 ERA in eight starts. He has gotten better each season since until this season, where he is 7-6 with an ERA of “only” 2.81.
Skubal was born in Hayward, Calif., on Nov. 20, 1996. He was a freshman All-American for Seattle in 2015, then missed most of the 2016 and all of the 2017 season after having Tommy John surgery. He pitched again in 2018 and was drafted by Detroit.
After winning his second Cy Young last season, he set the arbitration record by getting $32 million for 2026 (the Tigers had countered with $19 million). On May 4 this season, he had surgery to remove loose bodies in his pitching elbow (the same surgery Edwin Díaz had). He came back on June 13 and since then he has gone 4-4 with a 2.88 ERA in 59.1 innings, giving up 43 hits and walking 10 while striking out 77. The Dodgers will be on the hook for about $10 million of his salary this season.
Was this a good trade? Well, for now, yes, as the Dodgers are a better team with Skubal than without him. Long term, it depends on a lot of things. Will he be a key factor if they win the title again? He’s a free agent after this season, will the Dodgers re-sign him? Will the three prospects the Dodgers gave up turn out to be good to great major leaguers?
In 1987, Detroit was battling for the AL East and pulled off a deadline deal, acquiring Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves. Alexander went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA for the Tigers, who won the division thanks in large part to that. So, a great trade, right?
Well, Alexander retired two years later, and the prospect the Tigers sent to the Braves turned out to be pretty good: John Smoltz.
Hope, 21, is an outfielder who has hit at every level of the minor leagues. He is hitting .291/.368/.525 at double-A this season. He is considered by all sources to be one of the top 100 prospects in baseball, ranked 63rd by Baseball America, 27th by MLB and 18th by Baseball Prospectus.
Ryan, who turns 28 this month, pitched for the Dodgers in 2024, with a 1.33 ERA in four starts. He has been hampered by injuries ever since. He had arm surgery in August 2024 that sidelined him for the 2025 season. He made eight starts for triple-A Oklahoma City this season, with a 4.46 ERA. He has great stuff, but his age and injury history indicates he might never get a real chance to show it.
Smith, 21, was drafted in the third round in 2023. He missed the 2024 season because of injuries. He made only nine starts with a 6.00 ERA last season and in 21 starts in Class A ball this season, he was 0-7 with a 4.36 ERA, striking out 113 in 74.1 innings.
Acquired Ben Rortvedt from the New York Mets for Chayce McDermott
Rortvedt is a familiar name to Dodgers fans, as he filled in admirably when needed for Will Smith last season and took the backup catcher job from Dalton Rushing. He hit only .224/.309/.327, but he seemed to always get key hits, or laid down a bunt when needed. And the pitching staff loved him. It was as if he had been a Dodgers catcher for years. Look at the team ERA by catcher last season:
Doesn’t it seem like Barnes has been off the team for a few seasons already?
McDermott has a career 12.00 ERA in 15 major league innings.
Acquired Hunter Feduccia and Jacob Kmatz from the Tampa Bay Rays for Jack Suwinski and $250,000 in international bonus pool money
The Dodgers acquired another old friend by getting Feduccia, who is also a catcher. He played in eight games for the Dodgers in 2024 and 2025 before he was traded to Tampa Bay for Rortvedt and pitcher Paul Gervase. Feduccia is one of those Dodger prospects who never panned out, as he is hitting .207/.297/.290 in 104 major league games. But, he knows the Dodger pitching staff and the Dodgers are better with Rortvedt/Feduccia than with Robinson/Eliezer Alfonzo.
The reason the Dodgers acquired two catchers is because of some bad news. Rushing has a torn UCL in his right elbow and more than likely won’t be able to play catcher again this season, though he may be able to serve as a right-handed pinch-hitter. With Rushing out, and Will Smith still sidelined by his neck injury, the Dodgers turned toward defense. Neither Rortvedt nor Feduccia have proven to be starting catchers, but they have been solid backups. The question is, who will get the most playing time the rest of the way? They both bat left-handed.
Acquired pitcher Kris Bubic from the Kansas City Royals for Carlos Duran
This reminds me of the trade for Danny Duffy at the 2021 deadline. Duffy was a good pitcher who was injured, but the Dodgers hoped he would return in time to help down the stretch during the 2021 season. He didn’t return. They signed him in the offseason hoping he would return from injury to help during the season. He didn’t return. He then retired.
Bubic was on the 60-day IL for the Royals, and is on that IL for the Dodgers. He was an All-Star last season for the Royals, finishing the season 8-7 with a 2.55 ERA in 20 starts (116 innings). He was 3-2 with a 4.11 ERA in nine starts this season before going on the IL because of shoulder soreness. The Dodgers hope he can return before the end of the month.
But let’s not hold our breath awaiting that, OK?
Duran, 25, had a 3.38 ERA in 42.2 innings at triple-A Oklahoma City.
Acquired reliever Seth Halvorsen from the Colorado Rockies for Nick Frasso and Landyn Vidourek
This trade happened on July 20, but we will include it. Halvorsen was, wait for it, on the 15-day IL for the Rockies because of shoulder inflammation. He is currently off the IL and has pitched 5.1 scoreless innings at Oklahoma City. He reaches 100 on the radar gun and has a 4.31 career ERA in 71 innings in the majors.
Frasso, 27, was selected in the fourth round by Toronto in the 2020 draft, was sent to the Dodgers for Mitch White in 2022 and never reached the majors with L.A. He had shoulder surgery before the 2024 season and sat out the season.
Vidourek, 22, an outfielder, was chosen by the Dodgers in the third round of the 2025 draft. He has power but strikes out a lot, fanning 141 times in 317 at-bats in the minors, where he is hitting .205/.357/.369.
So, there you have it. Your new Dodgers. The Dodgers are a better team today than they were before the deadline. It guarantees nothing though. They got Yu Darvish and Max Scherzer in previous years and did not win the title.
Next in line: Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki, Eric Lauer, Emmet Sheehan.
Here’s what the other NL contenders did. I won’t comment, because this newsletter is long enough already and there’s still another item after this one, but if you click on each player’s name, you will be taken to their stat page at baseball-reference.com.
For full reports on all the trades across the majors, I suggest visiting mlbtraderumors.com.
What, me worry?
So, the Dodgers have lost six in a row and were swept in two consecutive series. Time to worry or panic?
To find the last time the Dodgers lost six in a row and were swept in consecutive series, you have to go all the way back to … July 2025. The Dodgers woke up on July 4 leading the NL West by nine games. They then proceeded to get swept twice:
lost to Houston, 18-1 lost to Houston, 6-4 lost to Houston, 5-1 lost to Milwaukee, 9-1 lost to Milwaukee, 3-1 lost to Milwaukee, 3-2
The then lost their first game against the Giants, 8-7. After that, they were in first place by only four games.
Then they won two in a row and lost three more in a row. They went 5-13 over one stretch that month and went 10-14 in July. They lost five in a row to start September. They ended up winning the division by three games, but did not get a first-round bye.
My memory fails me, what happened in the postseason last season?
If the Dodgers get a couple of major injuries and lose like 15 in a row, then we can begin to panic. But they are going to make the postseason, and anything can happen in the postseason. They could be swept in the first round, they could win it all again. It’s all part of the ride.
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Rams defensive end Myles Garrett smiles during training camp at Loyola Marymount on July 26.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Myles Garrett effect is not confined to the defense.
“Everybody on the field can kind of feel this aura sitting on whatever side of the field he’s on,” offensive guard Kevin Dotson said. “You just feel this monster energy.”
Garrett, a 10th year pro and two-time NFL defensive player of the year, laughed when asked if he was conscious of his aura.
“I guess,” he said. “It’s great to hear that they have respect for me.”
Garrett, 30, is one of the biggest stars on a star-studded Rams team that is favored to win the Super Bowl, regardless of whether Donald comes out of retirement.
Garrett, the No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft out of Texas A&M, amassed 125½ sacks in nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns. He was defensive player of the year in 2023 and also last season, when he recorded a league-record 23 sacks.
In June, the Rams sent edge rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick and future second- and third-round picks to the Browns for Garrett. He was regarded as the final piece for a franchise intent on winning a second Super Bowl title under McVay.
Garrett is acclimating to Southern California and a team that advanced to the NFC championship game last season before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.
“It’s starting to feel like home rather quickly,” he said.
It did not take long for Garrett to ingratiate himself. His skill, work ethic and knowledge are imparted in the meeting room and on the field, edge rusher Byron Young said.
“It’s amazing,” Young said. “It’s art.”
Last season, Young recorded a career-best 12 sacks and was voted to the Pro Bowl.
With Garrett now lining up alongside him, the fourth-year pro is soaking in knowledge and learning from his example. Though Garrett, at 6 feet, 4 inches and 272 pounds, makes plays that can’t be replicated by others.
Myles Garrett (95) takes part in training camp along with wide receivers Puka Nacua (12) and Davante Adams (17) on July 26.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Garrett’s quickness off the ball is “insane,” Young said, noting that Garrett eats up “three or four yards,” with his first step.
“That right there alone is amazing,” Young said.
Garrett’s influence could be magnified if Donald, a three-time defensive player of the year, ends a two-year retirement to pursue another Super Bowl ring.
Garrett said he would not try to sway Donald’s decision. But he acknowledged that it would be exciting to be a “partner in crime” with the eight-time All-Pro.
“There’s a lot we can learn from each other,” Garrett said, “and I’d love to pick his brain on the things he does to attack his matchups and I think the same could be said vice versa.”
During training camp, Garrett and teammates are focused on blending their talents at all three levels of the defense.
Garrett is a “freak athlete for sure,” lineman Kobie Turner said.
Myles Garrett takes part in drills at Rams training camp on July 27.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
“We definitely understand the opportunities that should get opened up,” said Turner, who had seven sacks last season, “and if those opportunities don’t open up and they leave him soloed up, he’s going to take advantage.”
There is “no question” Garrett will dominate, Lake said.
“So now,” he said, “it’s just making sure, ‘Hey, can we do our job so this guy can go cut it loose over there too?’”
Garrett has embraced the Rams’ culture, built during McVay’s nine seasons during which the Rams made seven playoff appearances and played in two Super Bowls, winning one.
He is eager to share his knowledge and experience but also learn from younger teammates. The Rams’ defensive front features Young, Turner, and linemen Braden Fiske and Poona Ford, among others.
“This group was doing great without me,” Garrett said. “I want to just try to help elevate other guys and the playmakers that we have here.”
There is still “a lot of rust to knock off,” during camp and the lead-up to the season, he said.
SAN DIEGO — This is where it all started for Jim Harbaugh, this idyllic hilltop University of San Diego campus with its sweeping views of the city and ocean, Spanish Renaissance architecture and courtyards lined with palm trees.
Harbaugh had been an assistant coach elsewhere, learning the ropes as an offensive consultant at Western Kentucky and quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders, but this was his first chance to be a head coach. It launched a second career for the longtime NFL quarterback, taking him to Stanford, the San Francisco 49ers — where his team fell just short of a Lombardi Trophy — to a national championship at Michigan, and now to the Chargers, with whom he’s beginning his third season.
The Chargers have moved training camp to USD for Tuesday and Wednesday this week, reuniting Harbaugh with a place legendary Raiders owner Al Davis advised him not to come.
“Awww, Jimmy, Jimmy, I thought you wanted to be a pro coach,” Davis, voice dripping with disappointment, told him in 2004 when he learned Harbaugh was leaving his Raiders gig.
“But Mr. Davis, you coached college football,” Harbaugh countered.
“Yeah,” Davis said, “but that was at USC, not U-S-D.”
Harbaugh knows he made the right decision, and never doubted it, even when he and defensive coordinator Dave Adolph — another NFL fixture — had to roll up their sleeves and scrub down the cramped and filthy USD locker room themselves; even when he and his assistant coaches routinely made hundreds of PB&J sandwiches to provide late-night snacks for their players, who don’t receive scholarships at the NCAA Division I FCS level; and even when he pushed himself so hard at practice — he was the head coach, mind you — that he got sick all over himself.
“He was very demanding of us,” recalled former Toreros linebacker Matt Gabbard, “but it wasn’t something he didn’t demand of himself.”
They still call it Harbaugh Hill, a steep dirt road overlooking the practice fields on campus. Football players would plod up it as part of their training camp, and Harbaugh would run with them and urge them along. It bothered him that nobody could keep pace with receiver Nick Garton, who also excelled in soccer and track in high school, and could breeze up the grade like it was nothing.
“Isn’t anybody going to challenge this guy?” Harbaugh said. “Finally, I said, ‘I’ll do it.’”
Jim Harbaugh smiles during a practice with the University of San Diego in November 2005.
(Lenny Ignelzi / Associated Press)
So he did, matching Garton stride for stride before losing his breakfast all over himself. The coach didn’t stop running, though.
“I finished second,” he said, recalling the episode after Chargers practice this week and clearly still proud of his accomplishment.
Harbaugh coached at USD for three seasons, starting in 2004, and was three years removed from his playing career. He was 40 when he took the job and still had thoughts of putting the pads back on. He even looked into playing arena football and entertained the idea of playing for the Los Angeles Avengers, but that thought only lasted a day or so. He really wanted to be a coach, and brought along his dad, Jack Harbaugh, to oversee the running backs in that first season.
Jim and Jack would carpool to campus every day from their Coronado homes, father and son talking plays, personnel, family and life.
“What I saw was passion,” said Jack Harbaugh, who spent six decades coaching high school and college football. “If I could use one word, it’s Jim’s passion for the game. He would coach as if that was maybe the last job he’d ever had.”
That resonated with the players.
“When we saw coach Harbaugh come in and have that next-level intensity, you kind of get chills running down your spine,” defensive back Phil Bretsch said. “Like, ‘Oh boy, this is going to be different.’ But you’re ready for it, right? We’re not there for any other reason other than we love football.”
The turnaround was abrupt. Harbaugh inherited a historically mediocre program and coached his team to a 29-6 record in three seasons. The 2006 team went 11-1, won the Pioneer League, and Harbaugh was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, presented to the top coach in the FCS.
One of his biggest accomplishments was luring Adolph out of retirement. The defensive specialist was almost 70 and was a turnaround artist with all sorts of NFL franchises — Cleveland, Kansas City, Raiders and Chargers — but in his later years was the primary caregiver for his ailing wife. Harbaugh asked and asked and asked, and finally got a yes when he helped arrange for in-home care for the Adolphs for several hours a day.
Coaching at this level was about making sacrifices for the love of the game. There was no school money to feed the hungry players after their team meetings, so Harbaugh and the other coaches — essentially volunteers — shelled out for tubs of peanut butter, vats of jelly and dozens of loaves of bread every night.
“We were always on the hunt for calories,” Bretsch said. “I think I stayed alive off Carl’s Jr. 99-cent chicken sandwiches for about six months throughout my career. We always joked, ‘What if we would have had the training table the big programs had? What would we have been like?’”
But those teams had something different. They had Harbaugh.
“We had a competitive advantage from a coaching standpoint every game we went into,” said running back J.T. Rogan, who went on to work with Harbaugh at Stanford and Michigan. “I would refer to him as my father in football, but that would probably be diminishing the impact he’s had on my life.”
It wasn’t just about Harbaugh’s football mind or unwavering intensity and enthusiasm. He had connections. When he took his team up to play Menlo College, he had Jerry Rice deliver the pregame talk. Steve Mariucci spoke to the team as well. So did longtime college basketball coach Tom Crean, Harbaugh’s brother-in-law.
Jim Harbaugh huddles with his teammates during a game between the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos in October 2000.
(Stephen Dunn / Getty Images)
When the Toreros needed cold-weather clothing for a game at Dayton, Harbaugh cajoled the Chargers, with whom he spent part of his playing career, into donating some of their mothballed gear.
“We got turtlenecks with the Chargers insignia on them,” Rogan recalled. “We’d have these jackets with a big Chargers lightning bolt, the dark-blue stuff before the baby-blue stuff was en vogue.”
For Harbaugh, the job was part-coaching and part “Let’s Make a Deal.”
When Saint Mary’s dropped its football program, he called the East Bay school not only to recruit players but to round up equipment that would otherwise go unused. He wound up buying virtually everything the program had, writing a $10,000 check out of his personal account.
“I got all the practice pants, the helmets, the thigh boards, everything,” he said.
He rented a U-Haul and drove to Moraga to collect the stuff. When Harbaugh was about to head out, the Saint Mary’s coach asked one more question:
“You need goalposts?”
Harbaugh was all ears.
“He showed me these year-old goalposts,” he said. “They were beautiful. I put them in the U-Haul and took them too.”
Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh watches training camp at the University of San Diego on Tuesday.
(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)
With the truck loaded and as he was preparing to pull out, Harbaugh got a call on his cell. It was an unheralded USD quarterback recruit from Oakland named Josh Johnson. He was supposed to be at freshman orientation but didn’t have a way to get from the Bay Area down to San Diego.
Harbaugh was quick on his feet.
“He said, ‘My parents are working and can’t take me down there,’” Harbaugh said. “I said, ‘Tell you what, can you be ready in an hour?’ He said he could be, so I drove the U-Haul over to his place and picked him up an hour later.”
The two spent the next seven hours together, driving to USD. Even now, Harbaugh made clear he wasn’t bending the rules.
“It wasn’t an extra benefit for Josh Johnson,” he said. “I put him to work. He unloaded the whole truck.”
In his first practice, Johnson went from seventh on the quarterback depth chart to second. He would go on to become one of the greatest players in the history of the program, leading the Toreros to back-to-back Pioneer League championships. He set many school records, including his 2007 season in which he threw 42 touchdown passes with one interception.
Johnson, now playing for the Cincinnati Bengals, has played for 14 NFL franchises, some more than once. That’s the most in league history for a quarterback. It’s an astounding rise from a tiny, non-scholarship university in San Diego. An odyssey of an ascent.
CHICAGO — The boo birds were active at Wrigley Field this week, as the Dodgers were swept by the Cubs in a three-game series.
The vitriol for the World Series favorites, days after they traded for the best player available at the deadline (two-time CY Young winner Tarik Skubal) touched almost every player in the Dodgers lineup. But Cubs fans’ boos were by far the most enthusiastic for the right fielder who’d departed their team in free agency this past winter.
Kyle Tucker, for his part, dodged the first question that mentioned the hostile reception he received in his first series back at Wrigley Field since signing a four-year, $240 million contract with the Dodgers over the offseason.
“I liked playing here last year,” Tucker said after the game Monday. “There were some really great guys over there, and they have a good team. So it’s nice being back and playing here. I liked it.”
When pressed on whether he understood the boos, Tucker said: “I don’t know. I tried my hardest last year. I tried playing through a hand fracture and calf thing, just trying to get back to the playoffs for them and trying to do what I could to help out the team last year with them. Hit really well in the first half, and second half didn’t go as great, and kind of didn’t end up great at the end of the year. But I had a good run.”
Let’s unpack that.
This year, Dodgers fans have mostly seen a version of Tucker who’s on pace for one of the worst offensive seasons in the four-time All-Star’s career. But when the Cubs landed Tucker in a blockbuster trade with the Astros before the 2025 season, hoping he’d elevate their offense, he did just that for the first three months of the season.
His best month was June (.982), when, unbeknownst to the public, he was playing through a small fracture in his right hand.
Not being able to grip the bat properly eventually took a toll on his swing mechanics, sending him into an extended slump. When he finally seemed to be coming out of it in late August, a left calf injury sidelined him in early September.
When the injury lingered far longer than initially expected, hoping to return in time to contribute in the postseason, Tucker made the unorthodox decision to travel to Tampa to work with the physical therapy group that helped him recover from a fractured shin the year before.
Unable to completely eradicate the symptoms of his strained calf, Tucker returned to the Cubs lineup as the designated hitter the last weekend of the regular season and through the playoffs, where he went 7-for-27 with a home run in Game 4 of the NLDS.
Through the ups and downs of the season, Tucker still came out of it with a 2025 Silver Slugger award. He had the second-highest OPS on the team (.841) among players with at least 100 plate appearances, behind former Dodger Michael Busch (.866).
In response to Tucker’s comments Monday, Cubs fans on social media said they were upset with Tucker for playing through his hand injury, and for leaving the team to address his calf injury — which seemed to set up a no-win situation for his relationship with the fan base.
Tucker’s union with the Cubs was always expected to be short term. That was always the case from the moment they acquired him one season away from what was projected to be a lucrative free agency. Nothing had changed by the last out of the team’s 2025 season, as they fell one win shy of meeting the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.
With the Dodgers, Tucker has yet to put together a real hot streak at the plate. He’s hit far better in away games (.828 OPS) than at home (.601) this year.
On the road again, Tucker went 5-for-11 in three games against the Cubs this week — perhaps a sign of good things to come, in a season full of false starts.
“Just working every single day, just trying to be consistent with my work and what I do in the cage and everything and trying to translate it out onto the field,” he said Monday. “Felt pretty good today. Had good at-bats the past couple days and stuff. So just trying to continue that moving forward into tomorrow’s game and so forth.”
His biggest moment of the series came Tuesday. In his first at-bat of the game, he lifted a solo home run into the left-field bleachers and trotted around the bases to a chorus of boos.
“I’m just locking in and staying focused on being able to manage the variables of a season,” she said ahead of the team’s loss to Sky in Chicago on Wednesday. “I’ve been doing this a long time, so nothing that’s happened has really surprised me per se. Maybe in the context of this season, yeah, a few things have. But being professionals, coming out, understanding as we did last game, that no matter what, like a game has to be played, so you might as well win.”
The Sparks ownership group fired general manager Raegan Pebley in mid-July, seemingly changing direction near the deadline. Shortly after, Plum informed the team she wouldn’t return after her contract expires this season.
“It’s also different when someone feels like they maybe want to fit somewhere else,” Ogwumike said. “I’ve been in situations where it was unexpected for everyone. It wasn’t so unexpected for us. We want her to be happy. We want her to be healthy, so I think that there’s a bit of comfort for everyone knowing that, and also being able to get it done in a way where I feel like everybody’s OK with it. It breathes a little bit of life into the situation.”
Head coach Lynne Roberts noted that since the Sparks have been without Plum since June 24 with a lower left leg injury, they had already adjusted to what life would be like without her on the court for the rest of the season.
“It would have been more of an adjustment to add her back,” she said. “So we are just building on what we’ve been doing the last month.”
The Sparks got good value for Plum in guard Monique Akoa Makani and a first-round pick in this year’s draft that, like their own, is likely to be a lottery pick.
“She can play the one and the two,” Roberts said of Akoa Makani. “She’s comfortable with both of those. What I like is that it’ll take some pressure off of Ariel and (Wheeler). They’re playing too many minutes, but Makani’s a tremendous defender, and (she brings) her on-ball ball screen defenses, her analytics, it’s elite. So that would be a huge boon for us. She was a starting point guard for a team in the WNBA Finals last year as a rookie. She’s a talent, so she’s going to fit in quickly and easily.”
The Sparks Nneka Ogwumike claps hands with Rae Burrell against the New York Liberty on July 28.
(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
If the Sparks don’t make the playoffs, they will likely pick sixth overall, since the WNBA weighs results of two combined seasons to come up with the odds. They would have an outside shot at the first overall pick, where USC star Juju Watkins is expected to be the top pick should she choose not to return to school for another college season.
Ogwumike didn’t seem ready to declare the season lost, even while acknowledging that things have gone wrong.
“We’ve been playing better,” she said. “We want to be able to turn that into some kind of streak.”
During his eight seasons as a head college football coach, Lincoln Riley often faced a frustrating conundrum when it came to playing freshmen: Were a handful of plays at the end of a blowout really worth burning a whole year of eligibility?
“I can remember at times going to a player in the game,” Riley said Tuesday. “‘We can probably play you like five to 10 plays at the end of the game. But if you do that, we can’t play you anymore, or we’re going to have to take your redshirt.’ We’re having to talk about that in-game. … You had to be ready to adjust on the fly.”
But after years of meticulously monitoring that playing time, those adjustments will no longer be necessary, after the NCAA adopted new eligibility rules in June. The new model gives athletes a blanket five years to compete, effectively eliminating the need for redshirts or special waivers. It also could alter how rosters are constructed.
Riley has been calling for the rule change since shortly after he became USC’s head coach. And it is now being implemented at the best possible time for his Trojans.
With so many highly touted freshmen from USC’s No. 1 recruiting class sure to see the field this season, there’s no need now for Riley or his staff to look four years into their future while deciding when and how to give them game-day snaps.
“Now you can just make the best decision in the moment,” Riley said. “I think that’s great for the player. … Just play the guys who deserve to play.”
For USC, it means that a fleet of first-year players are sure to see the field, not just during the nonconference slate but beyond, as Riley and his staff feel out which members of the Trojans’ 2026 class could contribute when the schedule suddenly stiffens in late September.
“Any opportunity that we get a chance to play these guys, however it comes out,” Riley said, “you love the fact to be able to do it.”
Some schools could land veteran roster reinforcements as a result of the rule change after a judge granted an injunction allowing anyone in the class of 2022 who would’ve used the fifth year of eligibility to return to claim it. The decision is being appealed by the NCAA. Former USC wideout Jay Fair has indicated on social media that he intends to pursue that route, but as of Tuesday, Fair hadn’t rejoined the program.
The Trojans stand to benefit more than most from the new eligibility rules this season. But Riley does have one issue with the new rule. It currently stipulates that a player’s eligibility clock begins with either their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.
Trent Mosley smiles while leading Santa Margarita to a Division 1 title. Mosley is among the freshmen at USC who will benefit from new eligibility rules.
(Craig Weston)
So as it stands, any freshman with a birthday prior to Sept. 1, 2006, is left with one fewer year to play than their freshmen counterparts.
At USC, that affects two members of the 2026 recruiting class — wide receiver Trent Mosley and safety Madden Riordan.
For Mosley, a former Rancho Santa Margarita star, a fifth year may not ultimately matter. He’s already 20 years old and on track to potentially start in the slot as a freshman.
But USC’s coaches were quick this week to note that the Trojans’ freshmen, no matter how talented, still had some acclimating to do.
“Age is really just a number,” inside receivers coach Chad Savage said of Mosley. “When you’re a freshman and you come into college, there’s a big learning curve, right? Whether it’s playbook, whether it’s everyday life, whether it’s the weight room, whatever it may be, um, I think from a maturity standpoint, he is very mature, but it’s just one step in front of the other, every single day with Trent.”
Tanook Hines, USC’s top returning receiver, was a bit less restrained in his evaluation.
“Trent Mosley definitely stands out,” Hines said. “He seem like a vet, like he’s already been here.”
Riordan, meanwhile, is older than some of the vets on USC’s defense, including junior starting linebacker Desman Stephens, who already has 26 games under his belt at USC. It follows then that Riordan’s football IQ has made an impression with coaches early on.
He’s one of the several freshmen who might have been on the brink of a redshirt, given his weight. But Riordan added almost 15 pounds during the summer to hit 180 and could push for a place in USC’s defensive back rotation.
Riley said he believes Mosley and Riordan — and any other freshmen, for that matter — should get the chance to play all five seasons. No matter how old they are when their college careers start.
“We have a few guys that we are in the process of seeking some clarification and potentially getting some relief on that,” Riley said of the age restrictions. “Our belief is if they’re five for five coming out of high school, they should be five for five. We should keep it simple.
One day after a LIV Golf players-only meeting failed to produce a resolution, CEO Scott O’Neil announced Wednesday that a lead investor plans to fund the tour beyond this season and that the golfers will become the majority equity holders in the league.
The LIV Golf board of directors approved the term sheet, O’Neill said, giving the league new life after the Saudi Public Investment Fund decided in April to cease its financial backing at the end of the current season. The PIF had backed LIV Golf since its inception in 2022, spending an estimated $6 billion.
O’Neil, who made the announcement at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., the site of this week’s tournament, did not identify the investor or terms. He said the league hopes to finalize the transaction in September and that “our next chapter will make our players the majority equity holders in LIV Golf, a first for a major global sports league.”
“LIV Golf has an agreement in place with a lead investor, signed by the investor and approved by the board, to anchor the transaction and play a key role in supporting the path forward for the league’s next era, driven by and for the players,” O’Neil said in a statement. “We’re also seeing strong interest from more than a dozen additional parties to potentially serve as minority investors, creating a multi-partner model built for long-term stability and growth.”
The players-only meeting on Tuesday at Trump National came soon after O’Neil and other LIV Golf executives spoke to the players. The only player to speak at length with the media after the meeting was Richard Bland, who told the Athletic that Bryson DeChambeau had led the discussion to follow O’Neil’s lead, but that nothing definitive had been determined.
“We’re in this together. We’re fully backing Scott,” Bland said. “I think probably in the next two to three weeks we’ll have a bigger picture. We’re just in that kind of stage at the minute that we’re positive with what’s going on, but we just need everything to be fully signed off so you can go forward.”
O’Neil said in June that LIV Golf needed to secure roughly $300 million from outside private equity or institutional investors to sustain operations through 2027 and beyond. He has been pitching “LIV 2.0” with a streamlined business model.
“What we don’t have is a lot of time,” he said in June. “So we’re very urgently out there talking to those who are interested. We like the pool, but we have to get this done through the summer.”
It appears O’Neil might have met the deadline, although questions remain unanswered. LIV has been mulling whether to cancel its Team Championship on Aug. 27-30 at the Cardinal in Plymouth, Mich., the final tournament of the season. The purse is $40 million, cash that instead could be earmarked for 2027.
O’Neil said that making players the majority equity holders “gives the league the foundation to keep growing the game worldwide…. In the meantime, our focus is on delivering a great week for fans and players at Bedminster and finishing the 2026 season strong.’’
The Sparks couldn’t build off of Sunday’s win Wednesday and dropped to seven games under .500 with a 95-88 loss in Chicago. It aligned with the story of the 2026 Sparks, where being fully competitive has been just out of reach except for a few flashes.
A decent middle of the game was overwhelmed by a bad opening and closing. Chicago scored 33 points in the first quarter and 34 in the fourth to keep the Sparks from fully closing in. Dearica Hamby led the Sparks with 22 points and 13 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season.
The Sparks (11-18) fell into a 15-point hole in the first after Chicago rattled off five three-pointers. The Sky (12-19) led 48-38 at the half.
“In the first quarter, we came out a little flat,” coach Lynne Roberts said. “I don’t know why. We were just reacting to everything, and I felt like the fourth quarter was a little bit of that. We had a couple bad minutes stretch where they went on a run, and then defensively just kind of died in the fourth.”
Behind a 10-2 open to the third quarter, the Sparks took a brief lead for the first time and entered the fourth with a 62-61 lead after holding the Sky to just 13 points.
Cameron Brink scored 11 points with six rebounds despite earning her fifth foul early in the fourth quarter. Before the game, Roberts noted that she would like to get more minutes out of Brink, and avoiding foul trouble is part of that.
“I got to figure out the fouling,” Brink said. “I have to be more reliable. It’s disappointing. I’m disappointed in myself tonight, but we get to play tomorrow.”
Chicago went on a 13-5 run after Brink, who also blocked three shots in her 14 minutes, left the game to retake a nine-point lead that would hold for the rest of the game.
“We were getting stops and playing in transition, which is when we’re good,” Hamby said. “And then I think when Ariel [Atkins] kind of got hit, it kind of slowed us down and stopped momentum.”
Atkins (eight points, three assists) took a hit to the ribs in the fourth quarter and didn’t return. Roberts said after the game that she was being evaluated by the medical staff.
Monique Akoa Makani, making her Sparks debut after being acquired in the Kelsey Plum trade Sunday, entered the game in the first and made her first shot attempt. She finished with three points and two assists while shooting one-for-five in 16 minutes off the bench. She got some time with the closing lineup while Atkins was out of the rotation.
The second-year guard projects as a shooting guard, Roberts said before the game, and is one of the Sparks few long-term pieces on such a veteran-heavy roster.
“She played hard,” Roberts said. “She’s still learning the ropes. It’s tough to go out there and in a close game be asked to execute stuff. We’ll figure out how to use her where she’s more comfortable, but it’s just going to take time. But I think she gave us everything she could tonight.”
Roberts also noted she would like to limit Erica Wheeler’s minutes going forward, and that was an area Akoa Makani can help the rest of the season. Wheeler played 24 minutes Wednesday — Roberts said she’d like to keep her under 25 — and scored 14 points with five assists.
The Sky were without their leading scorer, rookie Sydney Taylor, but were powered by 15 points and nine assists from Natasha Cloud. The Sky’s 53% from the field was their second-best shooting percentage of the season.
With Washington’s win against Dallas on Wednesday, the Sparks could not gain any ground in the playoff race. Chicago now owns the tiebreaker with a 2-1 season series record and is as many games behind the Mystics, dropping the Sparks further down in the standings.
Phoenix lost on Wednesday to stay a game behind the Sparks.
The Sparks turn right around Thursday night and face league-leading Minnesota (25-6).
“We have some things to figure out,” Brink said. “But we’re not losing hope. We’re just figuring stuff out right now.”
