About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2018)
SPORTS The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, November 1,2018 3B COLLEGE FOOTBALL MLB Freshmen SEC players filling breakout roles for all the league’s teams Associated Press in big roles BUTCH DILL I Associated Press Alabama wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (17) catches a pass for a touchdown against Louisiana-Lafayette during the first half of the game Sept. 29 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Alabama receiver Jaylen Waddle is the Southeastern Conference’s top freshman, and it’s not really even close. Waddle has 21 catches for 457 yards and three touchdowns and has been equally valuable as a punt returner, averaging 16 yards and taking one back for a score. He’s turning in the kind of performances coaches, players and fans envision annually on national signing day. Nearly every SEC signee enrolls with high expecta tions, some more realistic than others. Reaching those is a some times-daunting task. The talent-rich league is filled with future first-round draft picks, often making it diffi cult for first-year guys to get on the field, let alone break into the starting lineup. But a deeper look reveals a number of youngsters carving out roles, making plays and setting them selves up to be the SEC’s next wave of stars. Waddle heads the list. He caught four passes for 117 yards and a touchdown in Alabama’s last game, a 58-21 victory at Tennessee. “If you’re going to play young guys, they’ve got to be mature,” Volunteers coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “They’ve got to know how to prepare. Lots of times the guys can start off really well early, but because of the grind of the season, the academic part, sometimes sustaining throughout the year (can be difficult). “You look at it all over the country. There are teams that play with lots of freshmen, but probably more times than not, the teams that have experi ence, it probably shows on Saturday. There’s nothing more valuable you can get than just going out there and playing and kind of get ting used to it.” Although injuries often thrust freshmen onto the field — like Florida corner- back Trey Dean and Missis sippi linebacker Kevontae’ Ruggs — a number of new comers earn playing time without any assistance: ■ Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain Jr. has started the last five games and has 16 tackles, four pass breakups, an intercep tion, a quarterback hurry and a forced fumble. ■ Auburn running back Shaun Shivers had 10 car ries for 45 yards two weeks ago at Mississippi, getting more snaps behind redshirt freshman tailback JaTarvi- ous Whitlow. ■ Auburn receivers Seth Williams and Anthony Schwartz rank third and fourth, respectively, in yards and catches while averaging 22 yards a reception. ■ Florida place-kicker Evan McPherson had made 12 of 13 field goals and all 27 extra points. ■ Georgia quarterback Justin Fields appeared to have a growing role before not playing last weekend against the Gators. ■ Missouri receiver Jalen Knox has 23 catches for 396 yards and three scores, including one against the Crimson Tide. ■ South Carolina cor nerback Jaycee Horn has started six of seven games and has 30 tackles, a team- high six pass breakups and one sack. ■ Tennessee corner- back Alontae Taylor has started five games, includ ing the season opener, and has 25 tackles, two forced fumbles and a touchdown. ■ Tennessee corner- back Bryce Thompson has six starts, 23 tackles, a team-high two interceptions and a forced fumble. ■ Vanderbilt receiver C. J. Bolar has 20 catches for 281 yards and a touchdown. “You start out, you’ve got your freshmen and you know they’re talented,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “There’s a period of time that they get their feet wet and you get to evaluate them and see what they can do. Then, there’s a point that you see the guys that are comfortable making plays and can execute and everything that goes with it.” Making plays in Year 1 in the SEC is usually a sign of bigger things to come. Alabama offensive line man Jonah Williams, LSU linebacker Devin White, LSU cornerback Greedy Williams, Mississippi offen sive tackle Greg Little and Mississippi State defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons are projected first-round picks in the 2019 NFL draft . Each of them made the SEC’s All-Freshman Team in the last two years. Getting on the field is relatively easy compared to standing out. “A lot of guys, you try to keep the package somewhat simple,” Florida coach Dan Mullen said. “Look at this freshman, what are his strengths? Tim Tebow as a freshman, maybe he’s the easiest explanation for you. When we put him in, we’re going to put in plays that highlight his strengths and his strengths only. .. That allows them to do things well on the field that builds up their confidence, even though they don’t have a big menu of things. ‘Hey, here the couple things I need you to know. Go do them really well.’” Then it’s typically only a matter of time before experience turns freshmen into, well, no longer fresh men. Just look at last year’s national championship game, which ended up fea turing a pair of freshmen quarterbacks — Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Geor gia’s Jake Fromm. “All of a sudden, they’re very confident in what they’re doing,” Mullen said. “That helps them to go and you can expand it more and more.” Hall of Famer McCovey dies Associated Press Willie McCovey, the sweet-swinging Hall of Famer nicknamed “Stretch” for his 6-foot-4 height and those long arms, died Wednesday. He was 80. The San Francisco Giants announced McCovey’s death, saying the fearsome hitter passed “peacefully” on Wednesday after noon “after losing his battle with ongo ing health issues.” A first baseman and left fielder, McCovey was a .270 career hitter with 521 home runs and 1,555 RBIs in 22 major league seasons, 19 of them with the Giants. He also played for the Athletics and Padres. McCovey made his major league debut at age 21 on July 30, 1959, and played alongside the other Wil lie — Hall of Famer Willie Mays — into the 1972 sea son before Mays was traded to the New York Mets that May. McCovey batted .354 with 13 homers and 38 RBIs on the way to winning the 1959 NL Rookie of the Year award. The six-time All-Star also won the 1969 NL MVP and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 after his first time on the ballot. “You knew right away he wasn’t an ordinary ball player,” Hall of Famer Hank Aaron said, courtesy of the Hall of Fame. “He was so strong, and he had the gift of knowing the strike zone. There’s no telling how many home runs he would have hit if those knees weren’t both ering him all the time and if he played in a park other than Candlestick.” McCovey had been get ting around in a wheelchair in recent years because he could no longer rely on his once-dependable legs, yet was still regularly seen at the ballpark in his private suite. McCovey had attended games at AT&T Park as recently as the season finale. “I love him so much. It’s a very sad day for me. We were very close,” Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda said in a telephone interview. “Willie McCovey was not only a great ballplayer but a great teammate. He didn’t have any fear. He never com plained. I remem ber one time in 1960 they sent him down to the minor leagues after being Rookie of the Year the year before. He didn’t complain. He was very polite, he was very quiet. He was a great man, a great friend. I’m going to miss him so much. He didn’t say a bad word about anybody.” While the Giants captured their third World Series title of the decade in 2014, McCovey returned to watch them play while still recov ering from an infection that hospitalized him that Sep tember for about a month. He attended one game at AT&T Park during both the NL Championship Series and World Series. He even waited for the team at the end of the parade route inside San Francisco’s Civic Center. “It was touch and go for a while,” McCovey said at the time. “They pulled me through, and I’ve come a long way.” McCovey had been thrilled the Giants accom plished something he didn’t during a decorated career in the major leagues. Even four-plus decades later, it still stung for the left-handed slugging “Big Mac” that he never won a World Series after coming so close. He lined out to end the Giants’ 1962 World Series loss to the Yankees. McCovey Maryland fires Durkin after his reinstatement DJ Durkin’s return as Maryland’s football coach lasted one day. Durkin was fired Wednes day evening, just over 24 hours after being reinstated by the school. Instead of resolving the issues facing the flawed program, the decision by the University System of Maryland board of regents on Tuesday to retain Dur kin and athletic director Damon Evans created a different set of problems in the wake of a player’s death and discontent engulfing the football team. Several state offi cials called for Dur kin to be fired, and one called the deci sion to retain him an “embarrassment.” Maryland Presi dent Wallace Loh fired Durkin after conferring with the leadership of the Stu dent Government Associa tion, the Senate Executive Committee, deans, depart ment chairs and campus leadership. “The overwhelming majority of stakeholders expressed serious concerns about Coach DJ Durkin returning to the campus,” Loh wrote in a statement. “The chair of the Board of Regents has pub licly acknowledged that I had previ ously raised seri ous concerns about Coach Durkin’s return. This is not at all a reflection of my opinion of Coach Durkin as a person. However, a departure is in the best interest of the Uni versity, and this afternoon Coach Durkin was informed that the University will part ways,” Loh wrote. Loh’s action was imme diately met with approval by Maryland Congressman Anthony G. Brown. Associated Press Durkin PREVOST ■ Continued from 1B But the balance then shifts, as it tends to, back to the other team, returning the rivalry to its competitive state. Such is not the modern case with LSU vs. Alabama. LSU’s last win over Ala bama seems like a distant, fleeting memory, because that’s what that long-ago day is — distant and fleeting. I know it happened, that last win, because I was there in Tuscaloosa in 2011 to witness it: the 9-6 epic grudge match between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama dubbed the “Game of the Century.” I know that last win hap pened, but time’s passage makes it almost an enigma because, since LSU’s win back in 2011, Alabama has beaten LSU seven straight times. The teams met in early 2012 for the national title game, a Bama beat down of 21-0, and though the Tigers have come oh-so-close a few times since then, the fact remains that Alabama has not lost to LSU since November 5,2011. Since that date, LSU vs. Alabama is the rivalry that isn’t. For many, as you might expect, Alabama beating LSU is a normal part of life. It is routine, darn-near automatic, like sinking 5-foot putts, Chick-fil-A after a kids’ soccer game, or church on Sunday. Consider this: the last time LSU beat Alabama, freshmen football play ers on Saturday’s rosters were in 6th grade, around 11 years old. The Tide has not lost to the Tigers since these players took a serious interest in playing college football. It is the rivalry that isn’t. It’s little wonder, then, that the Alabama receiver who caught the game-win ning touchdown pass in last year’s national champion ship was from Louisiana, and grew up just miles from Tiger Stadium, but shunned LSU for the Tide. Or that last year’s top-rated cor nerback recruit, a longtime LSU commit, flipped to Ala bama at the last second for this reason: “I want to win championships.” How about this: I have friends - not casual acquaintances, but good buddies - who are hard core Alabama fans (as if there’s any another kind). After I met them, many have gotten married, had babies, moved to different towns, started new jobs and careers, and experienced other major life events. LSU hasn’t beaten Bama once since I’ve known them. It is the rivalry that isn’t. Finally, consider this: the last time LSU beat Alabama, the top-rated TV show was “Dallas,” Hall & Oates’ hit “Private Eyes” was the No. 1 single, and the highest-grossing movie was “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Kidding, as that was for 1981, but you get the point. Also, Alabama beat LSU that year. Will Saturday return this series to some semblance of a rivalry? The stars, intan gible as they are, suggest a potential restoration. A true Saturday night in Death Valley and all the trappings that accompany it. The professional tailgat ing under moss-draped Oaks and the hundreds of thousands of Tiger faith ful and the voodoo and the magic and the live Bengal tiger mascot and the rau cous student section and the Golden Band from Tiger Land and the smell of bour bon wafting through the south Looziana air. All of this, along with a 7-1 record and No. 3 rank ing in the College Football Playoff, yet the Tigers enter the contest as 14.5-point underdogs to the mighty Crimson Tide, the largest point spread in Baton Rouge against LSU in nearly 20 years. Few give LSU a chance, and rightfully so, because they know Alabama has imposed its will to make this game what it is: the rivalry that isn’t. Ben Prevost writes SEC Banter for The Times during college football season. He can be reached at SECBanter@hotmail.com FOR YOUR FAVORITES 10.29.18 - 11.30.18
