Nick Saban's decision to bench QB Jalen Hurts in favor of freshman Tua Tagovailoa pays off as the Crimson Tide erase a 13-point, second-half deficit to beat Georgia.
Second title in three years »
The Lakers are a multi-billion-dollar entertainment product, free-agent destination and de facto showcase for LaVar Ball’s shoe company.
They’re also a basketball team.
To that end, they called a team meeting a couple weeks ago to vent about all the other aspects swirling around. Unsurprisingly, Julius Randle came up. Randle is a solid young player who’s unlikely to have a future in Los Angeles, as the Lakers chase star free agents. It’s obviously not an easy situation for Randle, and apparently not everyone likes how he has handled this crossroads season.
Frank Isola of the New York Daily News:
According to one league source, one topic discussed is that some Lakers have been frustrated by the play of Julius Randle, who has been the subject of trade reports for nearly a year now.
After coming off the bench prior, Randle has started the six games since the meeting. The Lakers have lost five of those, but they were struggling before. Purely in terms of basketball, Randle – a forceful big man – probably makes more sense off the bench. Still, it’s completely reasonable for Luke Walton to experiment with lineups on his relatively deep team.
But this doesn’t necessarily end between the lines, and it’s easy to connect dots.
Some Lakers vented about Randle during the meeting… Walton moved Randle into the starting lineup immediately afterward, anyway… Believing he was ignored, a Laker upset with Randle leaked word to Isola… LaVar Ball talks about Walton losing the team.
Maybe Ball is right. Maybe he’s not. But this might be one issue causing sparks in the locker room.
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After a miserable first half of the College Football Playoff National Championship, Alabama made a drastic change at quarterback and it paid off in a huge way.
Sophomore Jalen Hurts had completed just 3-of-8 passes for 21 yards as the Tide fell behind 13-0 to Georgia, so Alabama went with true freshman Tua Tagovailoa to open the second half.
After a three-and-out on his first possession of the game, Tagovailoa led the Crimson Tide on a seven-play, 56-yard touchdown drive that included one of the best scrambles of the season on a third-down play at midfield.
Tua Tagovailoa scrambles for a crucial first down during the national title game.
Tagovailoa would eventually find Henry Ruggs III on a six-yard touchdown pass to cut into Georgia’s lead.
He only got better from there, rallying the Crimson Tide back from another 13-point deficit and eventually tying the game 20-20 on a seven-yard TD pass to Calvin Ridley with just over three minutes to go. Tagovailoa even gave Alabama the chance to win the game late in regulation, driving the Crimson Tide down for a chip-shot field goal in the final seconds, but Alabama’s Andy Pappanastos missed the 36-yarder and the game went to overtime.
But Tagovailoa wasn’t to be denied. After a Georgia field goal in overtime, he wrote his name into Alabama lore with a 41-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith to win it all 26-23. He finished 12-of-24 passing for 166 yards and three touchdowns.
Tagovailoa, a five-star recruit out of Hawaii, had appeared in seven games this season, completing 35-of-53 passes for 470 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception. He also added 106 yards and two touchdowns rushing, but mainly saw playing time with the Tide well ahead of its opponent.
Hurts entered the game with a 25-2 record as a starter over his first two seasons with Alabama, but the coaching staff apparently thought Tagovailoa could give the stagnant offense a better chance to succeed.
Story Continues
“I thought we had to throw the ball to win the game and I thought [Tagovailoa] gave us the best chance to do that,” Nick Saban said after the game.
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• Governor Rick Scott declares UCF as national champs…in Florida
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
The Chicago Bears weren’t going to let one bad playoff game change their minds about Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy.
Less than 48 hours after Nagy directed the Chiefs’ offense during a miserable playoff loss to the Tennessee Titans, the Bears will hire him as their next head coach. Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times first reported the news. Nagy’s first priority will be developing quarterback Mitch Trubisky, the team’s 2017 first-round pick who showed some promise as a rookie.
Nagy did a fine job with the Chiefs’ offense, at least before Saturday night. Quarterback Alex Smith turned in what might have been his best season, as he led the NFL in passer rating. Rookie running back Kareem Hunt led the NFL in rushing. Andy Reid gave up play-calling duties to Nagy late this season, and the Chiefs had a nice surge. Losing to the Titans on Saturday after taking a 21-3 halftime lead was brutal, but the Bears’ belief in Nagy wasn’t shaken.
The Bears can only hope this hire turns out as well as the last time Reid’s offensive coordinator got hired elsewhere. The Philadelphia Eagles hired Doug Pederson from the Chiefs two years ago. Pederson led the Eagles to the No. 1 seed in the NFC this season.
Nagy had an unusual path to becoming an NFL head coach. As recently as 2009 he was an offensive coordinator at Palmyra Area High School in Pennsylvania. He became a coaches assistant with the Eagles in 2010, after spending time as an intern with the team in 2008 and 2009, and was with Philadelphia through 2012. Then he joined the Chiefs on Reid’s first staff there in 2013. He was Kansas City’s quarterbacks coach before becoming offensive coordinator.
Nagy played quarterback at the University of Delaware, then for six seasons in the Arena Football League. He was with the New York Dragons (2002), Carolina Cobras (2004), Georgia Force (2005-06) and Columbus Destroyers (2007-08).
Story Continues
The Bears fired John Fox after losing 10 or more games each of the last three seasons. When the team fired Fox and gave general manager Ryan Pace a contract extension, it talked about getting Trubisky more help. That included getting a head coach who could get the most out of a talented, young quarterback.
Pace’s future is tied to Trubisky, the second pick of last year’s draft. Now Nagy’s is too.
Matt Nagy will be hired as the Chicago Bears’ new head coach. (AP)
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
