#JT Fields III

[jtfieldsiii]

Sketch book pages mostly dedicated to figuring out Jack’s appearance and what I was doing with the other two art pieces I was working on. Featuring lots of creatures.

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

that exasperated feeling you get when the employee you’re trying to help out is being stubborn about keeping all of his fingers and toes

[incorrectoldgodsquotes]

Jack: The real secret to immortality? Not dying. You want to be immortal? Okay. Easy. Just don’t die. That’s it. Refuse to die. There you go.

Jack: “But how?” You may ask. Easy. Just don’t do it. Refuse to. Say no thanks.

[wraith-of-christmas-future]

repost and fill in the words you most associate with your character !!

Charles Talent Manx the III

ANIMAL : Wolf

COLOUR :  Black is the colour of laughter

MONTH :  December with a splash of July.

SONG : I hold a whole playlist of 30 + songs that remind me of Charlie. Or the tango between Charlie and The Brat. But I will go with one I've recently added. It holds a whimsical darkness to it and fits several threads within the Ruins of Christmasland verse, fitting of Victoria's artist background : The Details in the Devil - JT Music

NUMBER : 38

DAY OR NIGHT : Definitely more of a night person.

PLANT : Asphodel, though sweetly intoxicant in smell.. the symbolism is often associative with death, underworld , mourning. If not rooted within mythos ; an immortal flower said to grow in the Elysian fields.

SMELL : Pine and leather with an ounce of cinnamon.

SEASON : Winter

FOOD :  Lamb or Christmas ham. Though a metaphor toward what he and his children actually supply.

DRINK :  Hot Cocoa

ELEMENT : Water believe it or not , which transfigures to frost in the long run of his wintry attachments. Among an extrasensory perception to the mind's court of elements.

tagged by : No one, I stoles it. I am sneak thief.

tagging : @coristories [ You know who ;) ] , @aurora-stantler-our-historian , @manxd , @spider-self , @astridnorddottir -- anyone else who wishes to give it a whirl.

[f107group2]

Spiny Lobster: Spiny and Clawless but Colorful Nonetheless

Photo from: Florent’s Guide to the Tropical Reefs

Yes, you read it right! Apparently there exists a lobster (Family Palinuridae) without claws. It may not be the one you’ve exactly imagined when you see those crustaceans whose claws are clamped in an aquarium outside a seafood restaurant but we’re pretty sure these lobsters saved the chef from some pinches. To some punctures? That we don’t know. It is named spiny lobster afterall!

I. Classification

Kingdom: Animalia

 Phylum: Arthropoda

   Subphylum:   Crustacea

     Class: Malacostraca

       Subclass: Eumalacostraca

         Superorder: Eucarida          

           Order: Decapoda

             Suborder: Pleocyemata

               Infraorder: Achelata

                 Family: Panuliridae

                   Genus: Panulirus

                      Species: versicolor (Fofonoff et. al. 2018)

II. Distribution: Hi! So my address is just right here..

Photo from:  Lavery et. al. 2014

Known as the Painted Spiny Lobster, they are native to the Indo-Pacific waters and are distributed in the Red Sea, South Africa, Southern Japan, Northern Australia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. However, the first non-native occurrence is reported in the Brunswick River, Georgia (Fofonoff et. al. 2018).

III. Anatomy: Pinching for that Body Plan

Extenal Anatomy

The external anatomy of a true lobster (Family Nephropidae) is composed of two parts: The Cephalothorax and the Abdomen as depicted above. The same is true for spiny lobsters but the Paniluridae traversed a different way in the path called evolution.

Photo from: Charles Derby 2011 (up) and Nemesis Database Species Summary (down)

So what do true lobsters have that spiny lobsters don’t? Or better yet what makes spiny lobsters unique from other lobsters?

Spiny lobsters lack the prominent claws and rostrum associated with true lobsters and instead have two frontal horns and prominent dorsal spines (Fofonoff et. al. 2018). Its body is tubular in shape with all of its legs not possessing true pincers and the first pair is not enlarged (Tavares). The antennae are cylindrical, enlarged, and longer than its body. The total body length reaches up to 400mm, but the average maximum size is around 300mm. The male spiny lobster tends to be larger than females (Fofonoff et. al. 2018).

Panulirus versicolor’s carapace has a whitish background, with large areas of bluish-black. The abdomen, on the other hand, is predominantly green in color and the telson is a mix of bluish-black and green. The legs are lined with black and blue stripes. The antenna is pinkish-red in the thicker and lower segments and becomes white ringed with black rings in the upper segment (Sutton 2017).

Photo by: Sutton 2017

The following are brief functions of the spiny lobster’s general external anatomy:

Shell: This part is the lobster’s exoskeleton, made from chitin, which serves as a protection for the internal anatomy. However, for the lobster to grow, it sheds its shell in the process called molting.

Antennae and Antennules: The antennae and antennules of the lobster are used as chemoreceptors, which detect odors and chemical signals to help them in locating food, mate, and avoid danger. In spiny lobsters, the antenna is longer than the antennules.

Stalks: For their vision, lobsters have long and stalked compound eyes. Although stalked, their vision is not that excellent, and can only see images in dim light.

Legs: Since they are under Decapoda, they have 10 legs that are used by the animal to navigate its way on the seafloor.

Tail fan: This is the last segment of the lobster. It has a telson as the center tail fin and pairs of uropods at both sides and is used for backward propulsion.

 Internal Anatomy

These creatures as a member of the Decapod group have internal organs that are the same as the other species. Its circulatory system is open, unlike humans. They have a single-chambered heart that is composed of muscles and ostia, or openings. Usually, the heart of an adult lobster beats for 50-136 beats per minute.

IV. Reproduction and Life Cycle

Photo from: Shiran Weerathunga, 2014

A day in a lobster’s life, they reach sexual maturity at the age of 5 to 6 years. The male’s task is to mate with as many female lobsters there is. Usually, they mate to a depth of 50 to 100 feet of water. As they mate, the male will deposit its spermatophore or known as the plaster in the female’s belly. After a while, the female will move to waters less than 30 feet deep, and when she is ready to spawn, she will use the pincers on her fifth walking leg to cut the plaster and fertilize her 80,000 to 800,000 eggs.

These eggs will be deposited under her tail, where she will perform parental duties until they hatch 9 to 10 weeks later. Usually, the larvae are transparent, large, pigmented eyes with long legs, and have little resemblance to adult lobsters. After 7 to 9 months they drift with the currents and eat plankton, after which they go to shallow water and settle at the bottom. Their lifespan is estimated to be 15 years (Cardone 2008; NOAA Fisheries 2020).

Check out this video of spiny lobsters mating!

and these cute baby lobsters!

V. Ecology

Habitat

They are found living singly or in groups in shallow water ranging from the low-tide marks up to 15 m depth and often reside in rocky areas, coral reefs, and overhangs that provide them protection (Fofonoff et. al. 2018; Mortiz 2010).

Photo by: Aquapix

Feeding Habit and Predators

Spiny lobsters are nocturnal and carnivore feeders. They even exhibit cannibalism at some point in their lives.They remain hidden in their reef or rock shelters called dens during the day and hunt during night for a variety of mollusks, shrimp, crabs, worms, and sea urchins (Sutton 2017). They use their strong legs to pry open their prey. Meanwhile, spiny lobsters are a delicacy not only to humans but octopus, groupers, and trigger fishes as well.

Be fascintaed with this video on how spiny lobsters protect themselves from a trigger fish.

VI.  Relationship with Humans

Ornamental organisms

The juvenile painted spiny lobster displays a vibrant and attractive coloration of blue and purple body with white antennae which has attracted the market of tropical marine aquarium trade (Fofonoff et. al. 2018).

Photo by: Rokus Groeneveld & Sanne Rejis

For consumption

Spiny lobsters in general are eaten and are regarded as a delicacy. The meat located at the lobster’s abdomen proved to be very tasty and chewy.

While the lobster is a rich source of copper and selenium, it contains very high cholesterol, thus, it should be eaten in a regulated manner. Additionally, lobster contains zinc, phosphorus, vitamin B12, magnesium, vitamin E, and a small amount of omega-3 fatty acids (Ware 2018).

For livelihood

As of 2011, Panulirus spp. farming has not been reported in the last years to FAO but the species are cultured in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines (Clive and Shanks 2009). Philippine waters are a natural resource of seeds for lobster farming and so there is a regional trade in peuruli and juveniles to establish spiny lobster farming.

Photo from: Mercator Media Ltd 2020

However, an article published in 2018 says that BFAR will bring the lucrative lobster culture to poor communities in Eastern Visayas by providing the cages and feeds to the beneficiaries (Meniano 2018). According to BFAR, the lobster culture is very ideal not only because of the strong demand from China and Taiwan but also because it is very expensive (4,000 per kilogram) (Meniano 2018).

VII. Did you know?

1. Lobsters pee out of their heads. While their anus is located posteriorly, their bladder is found under its brain and the opening is located at the base of their antennae, or just under their eyes!

2. The female lobster takes "her clothes off" to mate. Female lobsters “take off” their shells during molting and it is in this process that they decide to mate as well. 

3. Lobsters have two stomachs. To make things even more weird, the first stomach located on its head has teeth! It functions to crush food and the second aids in digestion and is located at the abdomen.

4. Lobsters can detach one of their limbs in an emergency. Don’t worry, they are able to regrow it during the molting process.(Yes, the organism in the video is a crayfish but the mechanism is the same with their lobster cousins!)

5. In the 17th century, lobster was anything but a delicacy. In fact, a field guide by Motoh from Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center in 1980 said that the spiny lobster sells for about ₱55/kg in Manila and ₱40/kg in local areas! Now, as stated above, it costs ₱4,000/kg!

Photo from: Creative Tourist (Courtesy of Barnsley Museum)

6. The blood is known as the hemolymph and is color blue due to the presence of Copper.

Photo from:  @WhatTheFFacts on twitter

VIII. References

American Lobster. (2020). Overview of Homarus americanus: The American Lobster. Retrieved November 9, 2020, from, http://www.parl.ns.ca/lobster/overview.htm 

Cardone, B. (2008). The Lifecycle of Spiny Lobsters - California Diving News. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://cadivingnews.com/the-lifecycle-of-spiny-lobsters/

Clive, J., Shanks, S.  (2009). Requirements for the aquaculture of Panulirus ornatus in Australia. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, 98-109

Fofonoff PW, Ruiz GM, Steves B, Simkanin C, & Carlton JT. (2018). National Exotic Marine and Estuarine Species Information System. Retrieved November 9, 2020, from, http://invasions.si.edu/nemesis/

Lavery S.D., Farhadi A., Farhamand H., Chan T.Y., Azhdehakoshpour A., Thakur V., Jeffs, A. (2014). Evolutionary Divergence of Geographic Subspecies within the Scalloped Spiny Lobster 

Panulirus homarus (Linnaeus 1758). Retrieved November 9, 2020, from,DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097247 

Meniano, S. (2018). BFAR eyes lobster farms in 3 Eastern Visayas provinces. Retrieved from Philippine News Agency: https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1042610#:~:text=Lobster%20culture%20is%20very%20ideal,high%20preference%20for%20live%20lobsters.&text=A%20fishermen%20can%20raise%20up%20to%20100%20lobster%20juveniles%20in%20a%20cage.

Mortiz. (2010). Family Palinuridae - spiny lobsters. Retrieved from SealifeBase: https://www.sealifebase.ca/Summary/FamilySummary.php?ID=13

Motoh, H. (1980). FIELD GUIDE FOR THE EDIBLE CRUSTACEA OF THE PHILIPPINES. Iloilo, Philippines: SOUTHEAST ASIAN FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT CENTER (SEAFDEC) .

NOAA fisheries. (2020). Caribbean Spiny Lobster. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/caribbean-spiny-lobster#:~:text=Spiny%20lobsters%20may%20live%2015,3.6%20inches%20in%20the%20Caribbean. 

Sutton, A. (2017). Painted Spiny Lobster – Facts and Photographs. Retrieved from Seaunseaan: https://seaunseen.com/painted-spiny-lobster-facts-and-photographs-clone/

Tavares, M. (2002). The living marine resources of the western central Atlantic. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes Area 51 and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, 294-325.

Ware, M. (2018). Everything you need to know about lobster. Retrieved from Medical News Today: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/303332

[bearterritory]

GOLDEN BEARS ROAR BACK TO TOPPLE USC

Cal now bowl eligible with win

LOS ANGELES – The Cal football team scored 15 unanswered points in the third quarter and its stout defense made it hold up in a 15-14 upset victory over USC on Saturday night. With the victory, the Golden Bears became bowl eligible and broke a long losing streak to USC in Los Angeles - it was their first win on the Trojans’ home field since 2000. "One of our goals we set to start the season was to win a bowl game," Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. "It's great that we put ourselves in this position. That needs to be part of who we are. The guys are excited about it, and they should be." Linebacker Evan Weaver had a memorable performance in a season of memory-making, recording game-defining sacks on back-to-back drives in the fourth quarter to help thwart USC's repeated comeback attempts. He also had a game-high 12 tackles. Defensive back Traveon Beck had a pivotal interception that led to the game-winning touchdown, a 5-yard run by quarterback Chase Garbers with 6:13 to play in the third quarter. The Bears sealed the victory by converting a 4th-and-1 from the USC 33 with just under two minutes to play on a 14-yard run by Patrick Laird, who finished with 72 yards rushing.

"I want the guys to enjoy this," Wilcox said. "I appreciate what it means to be bowl-eligible. It's hard to win in this conference and it's hard to win at USC. It's a big deal for all the Cal Bears out there. We appreciate them as well." Cal (6-4, 3-4 Pac-12) fell behind 14-0 at halftime but the momentum began to turn on the first possession of the third quarter when a bad snap sailed over the head of USC quarterback JT Daniels and into the end zone for a safety. Just over a minute later, Garbers found wide receiver Vic Wharton III down the middle of the field for a perfect strike and a 29-yard touchdown pass. The Bears had trimmed the deficit to 14-9 and the L.A. Coliseum crowd was stunned. On USC's next possession, Cal defensive end Luc Bequette sacked Daniels to force a 2nd-and-18 and Beck jumped a route on the next play for his third interception of the season. That set up the game-winning drive, with Garbers notching the first rushing touchdown of his career. Cal failed on the two-point conversion and led 15-14. Weaver, who has emerged as one of the Pac-12's top linebackers this season, took it from there, anchoring a defensive effort that limited the Trojans to just 40 yards of offense in the second half after they gained 237 yards before halftime. "We haven't always been the prettiest bunch but we battle," Wilcox said. "It just goes to show if you stay with it and keep grinding, good things will happen. " Cal will return to California Memorial Stadium next Saturday to host Stanford in the 121st Big Game.

[thefederalistfreestyle]

Hamilton: how Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical rewrote the story of America (New Statesman):

[. . .] Because of the success of Hamilton – it has been sold out on Broadway since August 2015, won 11 Tony Awards and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and is on tour in Chicago and Los Angeles – there is now an industry devoted to uncovering and explaining its references. Yet the sheer ebullience of the soundscape is not enough to explain why it became a hit. To understand that, we need to understand the scope of its ambition, which is nothing less than giving America a new origin story. “Every generation rewrites the founders in their own image,” says Nancy Isenberg, a professor of history at Louisiana State University and the author of a biography of Aaron Burr. “He [Miranda] rewrote the founders in the image of Obama, for the age of Obama.”

In doing so, Miranda created a fan base that mirrors the “Obama coalition” of Democrat voters: college-educated coastal liberals and mid-to-low-income minorities. (When the musical first hit Broadway in 2015, some tickets went for thousands of dollars; others were sold cheaply in a daily street lottery or given away to local schoolchildren.) He also gave his audiences another gift. Just as Obama did in his 2008 campaign, Hamilton’s post-racial view of history offers Americans absolution from the original sin of their country’s birth – slavery. It rescues the idea of the US from its tainted origins.

[. . .]

There is, of course, a great theatrical tradition of “patriotic myth-making”, and it explains another adjective that is frequently applied to Hamilton: Shakespearean. England’s national playwright was instrumental in smearing Richard III as a hunchbacked child-killer, portraying the French as our natural enemies and turning the villainous Banquo of Holinshed’s Chronicles into the noble figure claimed as an ancestor by the Stuarts, and therefore Shakespeare’s patron James VI and I.

James Shapiro, a professor of English literature at Columbia University, New York, and the author of several books on Shakespeare, first saw the musical during its early off-Broadway run. “It was the closest I’ve ever felt to experiencing what I imagine it must have been like to have attended an early performance of, say, Richard III, on the Elizabethan stage,” he tells me. “But this time, it was my own nation’s troubled history that I was witnessing.”

Shapiro says that Shakespeare’s first set of history plays deals with the recent past, ending with Richard III; he then went back further to create an English origin story through Richard II and Henry V. “Lin-Manuel Miranda was trying to grasp the fundamental problems underlying contemporary American culture,” he adds. “He might, like Shakespeare, have gone back a century and explored the civil war. But I suspect that he saw that to get at the deeper roots of what united and divided Americans meant going back even further, to the revolution. No American playwright has ever managed to explain the present by reimagining so inventively that distant past.” And where Shakespeare had Holinshed’s Chronicles, Miranda had Ron Chernow.

There are Shakespearean references throughout his play. In “Take a Break”, Hamilton writes to his sister-in-law, Angelica:

They think me Macbeth and ambition is my folly. I’m a polymath, a pain in the ass, a massive pain. Madison is Banquo, Jefferson’s Macduff And Birnam Wood is Congress on its way to Dunsinane.

Shapiro says that these “casual echoes of famous lines” are less important than the lessons that Miranda has taken about how to write history. “Another way of putting it is that anyone can quote Shakespeare; very few can illuminate so brilliantly a nation’s past and, through that, its present.”

[. . .]

I love Hamilton – I think the level of my nerdery about it so far has probably made that clear – but I find it fascinating that its overtly political agenda has been so little discussed, beyond noting the radicalism of casting black actors as white founders. Surely this is the “Obama play”, in the way that David Hare’s Stuff Happens became the “Bush play” or The Crucible became the theatre’s response to McCarthyism. It’s just unusual, in that its response to the contemporary mood is a positive one, rather than sceptical or scathing. (And it has an extra resonance now that a white nationalist is in the White House. One of the first acts of dissent against the Trump regime was when his vice-president, Mike Pence, attended the musical in November 2016 and received a polite post-curtain speech from the cast about tolerance. “The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologise to Mike Pence for their terrible behaviour,” tweeted Trump, inevitably.)

Hamilton tries to make its audience feel OK about patriotism and the idealism of early America. It has, as the British theatre director Robert Icke put it to me this summer, “a kind of moral evangelism” that is hard for British audiences to swallow. In order to achieve this, we are allowed to see Hamilton’s personal moral shortcomings, but the uglier aspects of the early days of America still have to be tidied away.

There’s a brief mention, for instance, of Jefferson’s relationship with his slave Sally Hemings – whom he systematically raped over many years. But the casting of black and Hispanic actors makes it hard for the musical to deal directly with slavery, and so the issue only drips into the narrative rather than being confronted. There’s a moment after the battle of Yorktown when “black and white soldiers wonder alike if this really means freedom – not yet”. Another sour note is struck in one of the cabinet rap battles between Hamilton and Jefferson, in which the former notes acidly, “Your debts are paid cos you don’t pay for labour.”

In early workshops, there was a third cabinet battle over slavery – and the song is available on The Hamilton Mixtape, a series of reworkings and offcuts from the musical. When a proposal is brought before Washington to abolish slavery, Hamilton tells the cabinet:

This is the stain on our soul and democracy A land of the free? No, it’s not. It’s hypocrisy To subjugate, dehumanise a race, call ’em property And say that we are powerless to stop it. Can you not foresee?

Ultimately, though, the song was cut. “No one knew what to do about it, and [the founding fathers] all kicked it down the field,” Miranda explained to Billboard in July 2015. “And while, yeah, Hamilton was anti-slavery and never owned slaves, between choosing his financial plan and going all in on opposition to slavery, he chose his financial plan. So it was tough to justify keeping that rap battle in the show, because none of them did enough.”

***

In March 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda returned to the White House. This time, one of the numbers he performed was a duet from the musical called “One Last Time”, sung with the original cast member Christopher Jackson playing George Washington. After Alexander Hamilton tells the first US president that two of his cabinet have resigned to run against him, Washington announces that he will step down to leave the field open.

It is the political heart of the play’s myth-making, comparable to Nelson Mandela leaving Robben Island. The decorated Virginian veteran was the only man who could unite the fractious revolutionaries after they defeated the British. Washington could have become dictator for life; instead, he chose to create a true democracy. “If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on./It outlives me when I’m gone.”

For a nation just beginning to think that Trump could really, actually become its president, seeing the incumbent acknowledge that his time was nearly over was a powerful moment. For Obama watching it in the audience, it must have felt like his narrative had come full circle.

Towards the end of the song, Hamilton begins to read out the words of the farewell address he has written, and Washington joins in, singing over the top of them. It was a technique cribbed from Will.i.am’s 2008 Obama campaign video, in which musicians and actors sing and speak along to the candidate’s “Yes, we can” speech.

In his memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama had written, “I learnt to slip back and forth between my black and white worlds, understanding that each possessed its own language and customs and structures of meaning, convinced that with a bit of translation on my part the two worlds would eventually cohere.”

This was the promise of his presidency: that there was not a black America or a white America, a liberal America or a conservative America, but, as he said in his breakthrough speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, “a United States of America”. The man who followed him clearly thinks no such thing, but nonetheless the nation must learn to move on.

In his farewell address in January 2017, Obama returned to the “Yes, we can” speech, using its words as the final statement on his presidency:

I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written: yes, we can. Yes, we did.

For the playwright JT Rogers, this is the true triumph of Hamilton – giving today’s multiracial America a founding myth in which minorities have as much right to be there as Wasps. It is political “in the sense of reclaiming the polis” – the body of citizens who make up a country. “The little village we live in outside the city, everyone in the middle school knows the score verbatim,” Rogers adds. “They recite it endlessly and at length, like Homer.”

the full long-read here!

[tkmedia]

The key storyline to follow for every top 25 college football team

The 2021 college football season will have no shortage of storylines. All four of last year's College Football Playoff teams are replacing their starting quarterbacks, which gives hope to a new group of teams (like Iowa State, North Carolina, and Texas A&M) that they have a shot to find a way into the final four.Talks of expanding the Playoff will continue during this season. Speaking of "talks of expanding", Oklahoma's and Texas' defection from the Big 12 to the SEC has set college athletics ablaze with rumors of a massive realignment of some leagues and the folding of others. The NCAA is even signaling that their time as the complete umbrella of college sports is coming to an end. The name and image likeness rules get their first real test with the upcoming football season while transfer rules and the extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic season add extra intrigue to what should be an exciting ... and somewhat normal ... college football season.But that's the storylines of the sport as a whole. Each team enters the season with their own questions and concerns; dreams and goals. So here are the key storylines for every top 25 team.  

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports Can Nick Saban win his 8th national championship? A lot of teams have the question of "how do you replace this guy" or depth problems or inexperience or whatever. Alabama has those issues too but we've moved past that. They've won championships with different kinds of quarterbacks. They've stocked the NFL with first-round picks and are the epitome of next man up. Heisman Trophy winners have come and gone. Alabama has all of those issues to deal with in 2021 but they're back as the title favorites yet again. You don't question how Nick Saban will manage as much as you just believe he will. The man has won seven national championships -- six of them at Alabama in the last twelve years. His legacy is cemented, as we are at the point of him just piling on the superlatives. The question really isn't "can Nick Saban win his 8th national championship" as much as "who is gonna stop him".   Ken Ruinard / staff via Imagn Content Services, LLC Moving on from the Trevor Lawrence-Travis Etienne era.Clemson was 39-3 during the Trevor Lawrence era in Clemson, which included three ACC titles and a national championship. It also included two blowout losses in the College Football Playoff that have abruptly ended the Tigers' last two seasons. Lawrence is gone, as is the ACC's all-time leading rusher Travis Etienne. Clemson has two guys they feel are capable of keeping the ball rolling in D.J. Uiagalelei and Lyn-J Dixon, but it is a major reload to deal with as teams like Miami and North Carolina feel as if they have a shot at taking down the six-time conference champions.    Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports Will Spencer Rattler be the next Sooner Heisman winner? The biggest story around the Oklahoma program this year will likely be the school's move to the SEC in a few years, but on the field, it will be about quarterback Spencer Rattler. As a freshman in 2020, he threw for 3.031 yards, 28 TDs, and just 7 interceptions despite not having a normal offseason program. He followed Jalen Hurts (national champion), Kyler Murray (Heisman winner; No. 1 overall draft pick), and Baker Mayfield (Heisman winner; No. 1 overall draft pick). The four playoff teams from a year ago will be replacing their quarterbacks, giving Oklahoma a distinct advantage heading into the season.    Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports Who is the quarterback?Like the other three schools who were in last year's College Football Playoff, Ohio State will be replacing their quarterback. The big difference in Columbus is that they aren't exactly sure who the new guy will be. Signs point to freshman C.J. Stroud as the favorite to start when the season begins, but fellow freshmen Kyle McCord and Jack Miller III will be chomping at the bit to step in. Stroud and Miller played sparingly during garbage time last season as backups to Justin Fields, but McCord is the higher-rated recruit who may eventually secure the job. Add to the mix Quinn Ewers, who in early August decided to skip his senior season of high school and enroll at Ohio State early. It is doubtful he could win the starting job, but he may end up being the best of the bunch. In any event, someone needs to take the reins if the Buckeyes are to get back to the national championship game.    Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports Is it finally Georgia's time?Kirby Smart is 44-9 over his last four seasons in Athens, winning 28 of 33 SEC games, three bowl wins, and an SEC championship. They've finished either first or second in the East division every year and played for the 2017-2018 national championship with a freshman quarterback. The program is ready to enter that elite level that has eluded them for far too long. The offense is stacked with an experienced quarterback (JT Daniels), a talented running attack (led by Zamir White), and a group of skilled receivers ready to break out. The key will be a very young defensive secondary who will need to grow up quickly for the Dawgs title dreams to be realized.    Gary Cosby Jr/The Tuscaloosa News via USA TODAY Sports Who is replacing Kellen Mond? Kellen Mond, who it seems as if was at Texas A&M for a decade, is now in the NFL and head coach Jimbo Fisher must find someone to replace him. The candidates are both really good and really diverse. Zach Calzada has the big arm who can stretch defenses and opens up the playbook. Haynes King is more athletic and spent last season as Mond's backup on the depth chart. King's speed and ability to move around may be more valuable as the Aggies are rebuilding their offensive line. The good news is that A&M's first five games allow them to learn on the fly before their big showdown with Alabama at Kyle Field in mid-October.    Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports Can the Cyclones cash in on the perfect storm?Everyone should be rooting for Iowa State. They are the little guy trying to punch their way up to the big time. They've got a Heisman candidate quarterback in Brock Purdy, who may be the best QB in program history. They've got another Heisman candidate in running back Breece Hall, who was a first-team All-American last year. The entire starting offensive line is back as well as much of the defense, led by linebacker Mike Rose. Don't forget that Iowa State won the Big 12 regular season by two games in 2020, before losing to Oklahoma in a thrilling Big 12 title game. Head coach Matt Campbell is on nearly every NFL GM's list to call when they have an opening. Add in the current turmoil in the Big 12 which will lead to an anti-Oklahoma and Texas sentiment and it creates a perfect storm for Iowa State to strike for a conference title and more in 2021. Purdy, Hall, much of the defense, and Campbell could all be gone after the season. Make this season count.   Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports Is rebuilding an offense around two really good backs the right move?Notre Dame could be due for a bit of a drop-off in 2021. Most of the offense from last year turned over (nine starters gone), Wisconsin grad transfer Jack Coan takes over for Ian Book at quarterback, and are rebuilding their offensive line. So backs Kyren Williams and Chris Tyree will be the focal points of the offense as everyone else get comfortable in their roles. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees loves a solid running attack and will need to get that going in a hurry as the Irish have a difficult schedule to navigate. Notre Dame has four straight 10+ win seasons coming into the year, but with games on tap against Florida State, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, USC, and North Carolina, that streak could be in jeopardy if the offense struggles.    Brad McClenny-USA TODAY NETWORK Fixing a defense that collapsed last year.Of the top nine schools on this list, only Oklahoma, Iowa State, and Georgia aren't breaking in new starting quarterbacks (the Gators will be replacing Kyle Trask with Emory Jones), but that's not where the questions lie. What's up with the defense? Florida was on the cusp of gaining a College Football Playoff berth when their defense just fell apart. A stunning home loss to a bad LSU team in the regular-season finale (37-34) began the puzzling trend. Then came a loss to Alabama in the SEC championship, which was competitive but saw Florida give out 52 points to the Tide. Finally comes a 55-20 spanking at the hands of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl and fans are upset at high-priced defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. There is talent all over that defense but stunning breakdowns keep happening. Corner Kalir Elam, DL Zachary Carter, and rusher Brenton Cox Jr. are great pieces to build around with the hope that a second-year under Grantham's scheme will net better results.    Sam Greene via Imagn Content Services, LLC Can the Bearcats do it again?In 2020, Cincinnati went 8-0 in the regular season, beat Tulsa in the AAC title game and pushed Georgia to the brink before losing in the closing seconds of the Peach Bowl. One of the best seasons in Bearcats football but one that felt unfulfilled. Fans felt that they were not only robbed of a spot in the College Football Playoff but disrespected after ranking just 8th in the final poll. So can the Bearcats pull it off again? After all, quarterback and AAC Offensive Player of the Year Desmond Ridder returns and is a darkhorse Heisman candidate in 2021. Also back is that punishing defense, who held 7 of 10 opponents to 20 points or less and only one opponent, UCF, to score more than 24 points. Head coach Luke Fickell has also beefed up the schedule with road trips to Indiana and Notre Dame, so an undefeated record against an admittedly soft AAC schedule this year will look better if they can beat the Hoosiers and Irish.    Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports Will Oregon's defense carry them into the playoff?The Ducks' 2020 season was a bit rocky. Justin Herbert was tearing it up in the NFL and not in Eugene anymore, the season was initially canceled before being thrown back together at the last minute, and several high-profile players opted out of the season. Despite all of that, Oregon did win the Pac-12 championship (head nod to Washington) and looks to pull off a third straight title. This defense is stout. End Kayvon Thibodeaux may be the best defensive player in the country, linebacker Noah Sewell had a fantastic freshman season and the secondary is filled with playmakers. Sure, defensive coordinator, Andy Avalos is now the head coach at Boise State, but new DC Tim DeRuyter wants his troops to be aggressive creating turnovers. With yet another new quarterback this fall, the defense may need to carry the load -- especially in Week 2 when the Ducks waddle to Columbus to face Ohio State.    Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports Can Sam Howell offset losing a lot of offensive power? Sam Howell is a Heisman candidate in what likely will be his final season before becoming one of the top picks in the 2022 NFL Draft. He's clutch has swagger and has all the tools to be a star. What he doesn't have are all those skill guys that had big seasons in 2021. Michael Carter and Javnonte Williams were the best running back duo in the nation last year and he won't have Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome to throw to anymore. Mack Brown has done an exceptional job recruiting in his second stint in Chapel Hill, and those guys stepping in must produce if the Tar Heels are going to take the next step towards a conference title.    Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports Can Clay Helton save his job by getting USC back to where they belong? You know how you view Alabama right now? That's how we used to feel about USC in the 2000s. Now we view USC a bit like Alabama in the 2000s -- during the Dennis Franchione/Mike Shula era. Last year was a start in the right direction as the Trojans went 5-0 in league play before getting dumped by a 3-2 Oregon team in the Pac-12 title game. Needless to say, Clay Helton didn't cool off his hot seat very much as he enters 2021 as one of the top names on the pre-season chopping blocks. This Trojans team is good, as Kedon Slovis has a chance to be one of the best QBs in the country and this defense can be one of the best in the conference. If USC doesn't contend for a league title, another coaching change is likely.    Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports What was the fluke: 2019 or 2020?LSU followed up one of the most magical and dominating seasons in college football history with one of the most puzzling and uneven years a defending champion has gone through. Yes, LSU filled the 2020 NFL Draft with a lot of talent that was going to be next to impossible to replace. Sure, Ed Orgeron's assistants used the success of their national championship in 2019 to move up the coaching ladder, and the replacements didn't fill their shoes very well. So Orgeron has hired two new coordinators to right the ship. On offense, Jake Peetz's job will be to figure out who their starting quarterback is: Senior Myles Brennan (who missed most of the season with an abdominal tear), Max Johnson, or TJ Finley ... sophomores who took over when Brennan went down. On defense, Daronte Jones is tasked with fixing the worst passing defense in the nation last year (and that was with Derek Stingley Jr. in the secondary). The Tigers have a lot of talent coming back, but can this coaching staff capture just a little bit of that '19 magic to calm down a notoriously fickle fan base?     Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports Can Michael Penix Jr. Read the full article

[freenewstoday]

New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2021/01/27/how-the-2021-way-too-early-top-25-teams-can-make-a-cfp-or-ny6-run/

How the 2021 Way-Too-Early top 25 teams can make a CFP or NY6 run

7:00 AM ET

ESPN staff

The College Football Playoff or a New Year’s Six bowl game: Which is more likely for college football teams in 2021?

We break down the best-case scenario for each of the Way-Too-Early top 25 teams.

The road back to the playoff isn’t particularly complicated for the Tigers. They remain the class of the ACC, perhaps by a wide margin. Despite the loss of superstars Travis Etienne and Trevor Lawrence, plenty of talent remains, including presumptive starting QB D.J. Uiagalelei. But what was exposed in an Allstate Sugar Bowl loss to Ohio State — a lack of a dynamic outside receiver, problematic run blocking, a defense confused by tempo — will loom over the program for a while. There’s certainly enough talent on the roster to assume Dabo Swinney will find answers, and it would be foolish to doubt Tony Elliott, Brent Venables & Co. won’t make the needed adjustments. For Clemson, however, the standard is immeasurably high, and the Tigers have fallen short two straight years. In 2021, the playoff chase will just be the start of their quest for redemption. — David Hale

Nick Saban has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to offseason attrition, whether that’s replacing star players or coaches. But that doesn’t mean we’re not watching closely. Set aside the need for Bryce Young to become a star at quarterback or whether John Metchie III, Javon Baker & Co. can replace the production of DeVonta Smith at receiver. The bigger picture — and perhaps the key to competing to make the playoff — is who will be calling the plays. The hiring of Bill O’Brien to coach quarterbacks and lead the offense is interesting because while he has the college credentials, he obviously struggled some in the NFL with the Houston Texans. He could be great and still fall short of the expectation set by Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin before him. And if O’Brien struggles, you have to wonder whether that’s enough to knock the Tide out of the playoff picture this season. — Alex Scarborough

Oklahoma’s defense made great strides as 2020 went on, and the Sooners looked like one of the best teams in the country at the end of the season. With Spencer Rattler returning, receiver Marvin Mims looking like a star and Kennedy Brooks coming back to carry the load at running back, the offense will be in good shape if the offensive line can fit the right pieces together. With a likely top-5 preseason ranking, the Sooners’ biggest hurdle could be Iowa State, which has won two of the past five against Oklahoma under Matt Campbell. But that Texas game always looms large, especially with the Longhorns bringing in Steve Sarkisian as head coach along with a new quarterback. Win those two, and the Sooners are likely home free for the CFP. — Dave Wilson

The Bulldogs need to stay healthy, especially at the skill positions on offense. It goes without saying how that applies to quarterback JT Daniels, who took over the position late in the season and showed flashes of promise. But it’s who he’ll distribute the ball to that’s most important here because the offense has a chance to take a huge step forward this year. If James Cook and Zamir White are healthy, they could form the best one-two punch at running back in the SEC. And receiver, for the first time in a long time, could be a strength. If healthy — and that’s been an issue for this group — the trio of George Pickens, Jermaine Burton and Kearis Jackson could be very productive. Throw in a promising young tight end in Darnell Washington, and you have the ingredients for a playoff-caliber offense to match an already stout defense. — Scarborough

To nobody’s shock, it’s reasonable to believe that Ohio State will make the CFP despite losing some of college football’s best talents in guys like QB Justin Fields and CB Shaun Wade. The Buckeyes will find an answer at the quarterback position — between Jack Miller III, who set the Arizona high school record with 115 career passing touchdowns, C.J. Stroud (No. 2 pocket passer in 2020’s ESPN 300) and incoming freshman Kyle McCord (No. 4 pocket passer in 2021), it’s a crowded quarterback room. Defensively, the Buckeyes are returning just five starters, so if there’s any concern, it lies there. But outside of Indiana and Iowa, it doesn’t seem like Ohio State has much to worry about in the Big Ten. With nonconference games against Oregon and Tulsa, Ohio State feels like a solid bet to run the table again in 2021. — Harry Lyles Jr.

Jack Miller III set the Arizona high school record with 115 career passing touchdowns. Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

With a probable top-10 preseason ranking, the Aggies’ schedule couldn’t set up any better for an SEC West push. They’ll have to survive a trip to Tiger Stadium, but we still don’t know what shape LSU will take next season. If the Aggies can beat the Tigers, they’ll face winnable road games at Missouri and Ole Miss, the neutral-site game at Jerryworld with Arkansas, then get Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State and South Carolina at home. Kellen Mond is gone, but A&M returns Isaiah Spiller and the heart of its ball-control running game, while the Tide will be breaking in a new offensive coordinator and a new QB. If there’s a year for the Aggies to dream big, why not this one? — Wilson

In 2020, North Carolina proved it could play with pretty much anyone. Of course, the Tar Heels also proved they could lose to almost anyone. The path to a playoff berth in 2021 requires a lot more consistency from a team loaded with talent but, for the past two years, a bit light on experience. Star QB Sam Howell leads arguably the most explosive offense in the country, and the defense should be markedly improved, as Mack Brown continues to land big-time recruits. UNC won’t be intimidated by Clemson, either, after taking the Tigers to the wire in 2019. UNC will be a trendy playoff pick by some, but the question is whether the ups and downs of Brown’s first two years back at the helm have instilled enough lessons that this core group is now ready to take the next step. — Hale

The Cyclones return star power on offense with quarterback Brock Purdy, all-everything running back Breece Hall and tight end Charlie Kolar, along with all five offensive line starters. That’s unbelievable news for a team that beat Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl and had the first top-10 finish in school history. The Cyclones get Iowa, Texas, TCU and Oklahoma State in Ames — a huge boost. Navigate that, and give Oklahoma a run in Norman (where the Cyclones won by seven in 2017 and lost by 1 in 2019 before winning in Ames in 2020), and Iowa State fans can start dreaming of a playoff run. — Wilson

Despite offseason preparations being severely limited by restrictions implemented in the state of California, the Trojans still turned in the best season in the Pac-12 in 2020 and have now won 10 of 12 Pac-12 games dating back to 2019 with both losses against Oregon. The Trojans lose some top-level talent from the past season, but return quarterback Kedon Slovis, a Heisman Trophy candidate, who will enter his third year as USC’s starter. The Trojans’ nonconference schedule — San Jose State, Notre Dame, BYU — should be among the toughest in the country, which could be helpful should strength of schedule come into play during the selection process. Look for receivers Drake London and Bru McCoy to form one of the most dangerous receiving duos in the country. — Kyle Bonagura

2 Related

The Hoosiers probably should have made a New Year’s Six bowl in 2020, and after a 26-20 Outback Bowl loss to Mississippi, there’s a bad taste left in their mouths. But thanks to the eligibility freeze, Indiana’s got a chance to run it back. A New Year’s Six bowl is certainly on the table, but you have to imagine the Hoosiers are thinking College Football Playoff after seeing what they’re capable of last season. They’ve got a tough, early nonconference game against Cincinnati, but they play Ohio State at home this time around. They also have an early test on the road against Iowa, but the Hoosiers proved they could play with anybody last year, including one of college football’s powers in Ohio State. If they’re able to stay healthy, they are capable of winning every game on their schedule. — Lyles

The Bearcats need to find a way to embed people from their administration into the College Football Playoff committee if they want to make it in to the playoff. They were undefeated at 9-0 and still couldn’t get in, so their best hope is similar to what happened this season, playing against Georgia in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl. In all seriousness, the team has quarterback Desmond Ridder returning, which will be a big help to keep the offense consistent. Ridder was the conference player of the year this past season and threw for 2,296 yards. The staff is losing Marcus Freeman to Notre Dame, and the Irish are on the schedule in 2021. So if Cincinnati wants a shot at the playoff, it’s going to need to find a way to beat Notre Dame and Indiana, who it will also face. So use what the coaches know about Freeman against him and try to get through those two games for a shot at making a case at the end of the season. If not, go with the plan about embedding allies into the committee. — Tom VanHaaren

Iowa is going to have to come out swinging with Indiana as the first game on the schedule, followed by Iowa State. Northwestern, Penn State, Maryland and Wisconsin sprinkled throughout the rest of the season, making it a challenge. Quarterback Spencer Petras and leading rusher Tyler Goodson are both returning, but the offense loses receivers Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Brandon Smith. If the offense can build on some of the momentum it built later in the season, especially with Goodson, who averaged 9.6 yards per carry against Wisconsin, it will have a shot to start on the right foot with wins against Indiana and Iowa State. The staff is going to need playmakers to step up at receiver to help Petras and give the offense a better attack through the air to balance out the ground game. — VanHaaren

After reaching New Year’s Six bowls the past two seasons, it’s not hard to imagine the Ducks taking the next step and reaching the playoff. Granted, their Fiesta Bowl berth — and loss — this season didn’t mean much considering they advanced to the Pac-12 title game with a pedestrian 4-2 record, the Ducks’ recent recruiting success under Mario Cristobal should pay off under a (hopefully) more normal 2021 season. Whether Tyler Shough or someone else starts at quarterback, a true offseason under offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead should make a significant difference for his second season calling plays in Eugene. Losing defensive coordinator Andy Avalos, who became the head coach at Boise State, is a blow. However, there is plenty of talent on defense, led by potential All-American defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux. — Bonagura

QB Tyler Shough should benefit from a true offseason under offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

An early-season victory against Michigan would give the Huskies the type of high-profile triumph the committee will respect (even if Michigan implodes), then it becomes a matter of winning out in the Pac-12. Washington isn’t the type of team that can feel safe about getting in with one loss. The Huskies benefit by missing Utah and USC — arguably the two best teams in the Pac-12 South — and they get Oregon at home, so the path to the conference title game couldn’t be much better. — Bonagura

The Irish are losing quite a bit on offense and defense, so if they’re going to make it back to the playoff or a New Year’s Six bowl, the first thing that must happen is they need to find their quarterback early. Ian Book is off to the NFL, so if it’s Drew Pyne or incoming freshman Tyler Buchner, the coaches need to stabilize that position. Once they have that position set, the coaches are going to need leaders on defense to step up and help replace some of the big names who are leaving, including linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. With a new coordinator in Marcus Freeman, the team needs Kyle Hamilton, Kurt Hinish and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, among some of the other veterans on defense, to be its best players. With so much change on the roster and the staff, Notre Dame must have everything fall into place to make it back to where it was this season. — VanHaaren

As it does every year, it will come down to beating Georgia. But what it will look like will be much different than a year ago. Picture a sort of throwback version of the Gators, running the football and playing solid defense. Without Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney, that’s what it will take. Emory Jones appears ready to take over at quarterback, but he is a different player than Trask, who is most effective running the zone read. With Dameon Pierce, Malik Davis and Demarkcus Bowman to hand the ball off to, the ground game should be in good shape. What will need the most help is the defense, which struggled mightily last season, especially in coverage. Dan Mullen fired secondary coaches Ron English and Torrian Gray, and their replacements have their hands full. — Scarborough

All the best teams on the Badgers’ 2021 schedule either come to Camp Randall (Penn State, Michigan, Iowa, Northwestern) or play them on a neutral field (Notre Dame at Soldier Field), so this is the schedule for a run. But even though the Wisconsin linebacking corps — and the defense as a whole — could be absolute dynamite again, the Badgers will obviously have to score points. That will require big plays, something they were almost completely bereft of in the fall. If a veteran WR such as Kendric Pryor or Danny Davis III return and thrive, that would be huge. If a youngster such as RB Jalen Berger or WR Chimere Dike become all-conference contenders, even better. But Wisconsin desperately needs chunk plays. — Bill Connelly

With Matt Corral returning and John Rhys Plumlee potentially becoming another playmaking option, Lane Kiffin’s offense will keep piling up points. But any hope of a breakthrough hinges on improving a defense that ranked 126th in yards per game allowed and 117th in points per game allowed (38.3). The Rebels play road games against Alabama and Auburn and face a feisty Liberty team in November, and they have the Egg Bowl scheduled in Starkville. Texas A&M and LSU are both at home. With significant coaching turnover at Auburn, Alabama and LSU as well as new QBs at A&M and Bama, can Kiffin engineer enough shootouts to outlast those teams and deliver a storybook season? — Wilson

Lane Kiffin’s offense will surely continue to pile on points in 2021. Christopher Hanewinckel/USA TODAY Sports

The short answer, of course, is that Louisiana will not make the 2021 CFP. The playoff committee has shown no interest whatsoever in making a Group of 5 bid a reality. But with Texas, Liberty and Ohio on the nonconference slate and with the Sun Belt’s improving stature, the Ragin’ Cajuns case for a New Year’s Six bid will be strong if they can make it to 13-0 or possibly 12-1. For that to happen, they’ll need a bounce back on the defensive line. The Ragin’ Cajuns weren’t great at either defending the run or rushing the passer in 2020, but on the bright side, they didn’t have a ton of seniors up front, either. If players such as Zi’Yon Hill and Andre Jones go from good to great, the line might have enough pop to hold up. — Connelly

Ed Orgeron needs to recapture the magic of 2019. And no, we’re not saying he needs a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, star players at every position on offense and an opportunistic defense. That’s asking a lot. What Orgeron needs is for his team to get back on the same page and to revive the magic touch he had in 2019 when it came to assembling his coaching staff. Last season was clearly a dud as he tried to replace defensive coordinator Dave Aranda and passing game coordinator Joe Brady with Bo Pelini and Scott Linehan, respectively. Reversing course and hiring Brady disciples, Jake Peetz and DJ Mangas need to improve the offense. Likewise, bringing in former Aranda assistant Daronte Jones as defensive coordinator must result in solidifying a unit that looked lost for much of 2020. Do that and there’s more than enough talent to compete in Baton Rouge. — Scarborough

Tom Herman went 1-4 against Oklahoma, which is one of the reasons Steve Sarkisian is the new boss in Austin. So let’s start there: Any breakthrough at Texas will begin with getting over the hump against Lincoln Riley. Since Mack Brown’s exit in 2013, the past eight Red River Showdown games have been decided by a total of 52 points, an average of 6.5 points per game, but the Longhorns are just 2-6 in those. The road schedule is a little salty: at old rival Arkansas, at Baylor, at Iowa State, at West Virginia and a trip to TCU, which is 6-1 against Texas since 2014. Sarkisian will have to find out if Casey Thompson is for real after a near-perfect Alamo Bowl performance, but RB Bijan Robinson gives him an offensive centerpiece to build around. If the Longhorns can finally knock off the Sooners, they’ll start to believe. — Wilson

The Nittany Lions began 2020 with a new offensive coordinator and minus perhaps their two best players (linebacker Micah Parsons, running back Journey Brown), and they struggled to find themselves, starting 0-5 before finishing 4-0. Whatever their goals are for 2021, the opposite needs to happen: They have to be a fully formed team from the opening kickoff. They begin the season at Wisconsin, before welcoming MAC champion Ball State and the SEC’s Auburn to Happy Valley. A very good team could start that slate 2-1, but with trips to Iowa and Ohio State on deck later in the year, they’ll almost certainly need to be 3-0. Whatever changes Mike Yurcich implements for the offense, it needs to have totally clicked in August. — Connelly

Jamey Chadwell’s team surprised everybody in 2020: There might not have been a better surprise and storyline in college football. We know they aren’t going to make the College Football Playoff after seeing what happened to Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina being snubbed of a New Year’s Six bowl. Assuming the 2021 season is a normal one, the Chanticleers have some easy nonconference games against the Citadel, Kansas and UMass. They’re going to be missing key defensive pieces, including their top pass-rusher in DE Tarron Jackson. But it’s hard to predict what the Chanticleers are going to look like after, well, they were picked to finish last in the Sun Belt in 2020 preseason voting by the league’s coaches and media and ended up 11-0. If they’re able to run the table and have a chance to play the Sun Belt Championship this time around, they should feel great about their chances at a New Year’s Six bowl. — Lyles

The Flames return 16 starters from a 10-1 team whose only loss was by one point to NC State and that beat No. 12 Coastal Carolina in the Cure Bowl. Assuming coach Hugh Freeze returns, the Flames will be strong again this year behind dynamic quarterback Malik Willis, who threw for 2,260 yards and 20 TDs and ran for 944 yards and 14 more scores. There’s a legitimate chance Liberty will be 9-0 when Freeze returns to play Ole Miss on Nov. 6, followed by home games against Louisiana and Army. If they can win those, the Flames would assuredly land in a New Year’s Six bowl and stir up a new chorus of concern about outsiders ever being able to crash the CFP. — Wilson

The Hurricanes beat everyone they were supposed to beat in 2020, which represented a big step up for Manny Diaz’s team in his second year as head coach. But in big games against Clemson and UNC — the top competition in its conference — Miami was outscored by a combined 104-43 margin. Diaz has utilized the transfer portal to Miami’s benefit, and if D’Eriq King is healthy for the start of 2021, the Canes will certainly be in the mix. But much progress needs to be made at outside receiver and in the middle of the defense — along with replacing two star pass-rushers — if Miami is going to compete for a division or league title. — Hale

Source

[jtfieldsiii]

Listening to Old Gods of Appalachia and decided to try my hand at digital art for the first time in A Long while. Wanted to figure out my visualization of Jack and got a bit caught in the weeds.

Close up of the mantle under the cut:

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

good news for like maybe 10 of y’all

i’ve thought up a second jack/the railroad man fic

[incorrectoldgodsquotes]

Jack: My favorite game is to act like I can’t understand something very simple when a man is explaining it to me to see how dumb he thinks I am.

[rocketmailblr-blog]

JT Thomas Inducted Into Minor rocket League Football Information Hall of Fame

James "JT" Thomas, previous right Sanctuary Hotel & Casino Site in Mesquite, Nevada.The MLFN's Board of Directors evaluated Thomas' election, and also he got alert of his approval on July 30. browse this site this honor," said Thomas. “for supporting me through the years." Thomas has used solid management abilities, determined work principles, as well as interest for the video game to become a driving pressure in the development and also the promotion of minors and also semi-professional football across the Midwest.

The story of JT Thomas' football occupation can burglarize three distinctive phases: gamer, train, and also an executive. Rocket League Thomas' collegiate career began at Fort Scott Community University (Kansas) in 1992. Following his sophomore season, Thomas moved to West Virginia College (WVU).

In 2 periods at Fort Scott - both as group captain - Thomas earned two All-Kansas Jayhawk Meeting honors at outdoors linebacker and Protective Gamer of the Game in 1992's Valley of the Sun Dish. At within linebacker for WVU, Thomas received two Mountaineer Club Awards for on-field excellence, earned two All-Big East team honors, and won Defensive Player of the Videogame in the 1994 Carquest Bowl. He also led both groups in deals with each season. An effective college occupation led Thomas to the semi-pro football circuit in 1996 with the Charleston Firecrackers, where he was able to play with former WVU wonderful Significant Harris. Returning to outside linebacker, Thomas led the team intakes on and also became a league All-Star as the Rockets completed their 11-game routine period 10-1. Thomas attempted to lug his success from semi-pro ball to the Field Football League in 1997 with the Albany Firebirds, yet endured a career-ending leg injury on the 3rd day of the training school. As opposed to a safety helmet as well as pads, the following step of Thomas' football profession featured a headset as well as a clipboard. After a job as Defensive Coordinator for a championship team of 13-16-year-olds, Thomas went back to semi-pro football in 2000 as Head Train of the West Virginia WHAM! Located in Morgantown, WV, rocket League Thomas assembled a. 695 winning percentage (41 wins, 18 losses), won three Train of the Year awards, and also coached three league All-Star video games in 6 periods as WHAM! Head train.

In 2001, Thomas also led the WHAM! To the Mid-Ohio Football League (MOFL) Champion.

Throughout the 2003 period, Thomas took over complete ownership of the WHAM! When he tipped off the WHAM! A sideline in 2005, he determined to move his focus permanent in the direction of establishing the success of semi-professional football and then WHAM! Franchise. In the two years considering that he has stopped mentoring, Currently, Thomas looks after the day-to-day rocket League operations of the MOFL - an increasing, 10-team semi-pro league across Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky. His love for semi-professional football is matched just by his need to see the MOFL - and every minor football organization - create a football item that is competitive, arranged, created, and also amusing for the players in the game as well as the fans in the stands. Thomas additionally works as a Semi-Professional Sports Specialist with League Degree, LLC, a firm that supplies advertising and marketing and also advertising methods for companies with an emphasis on amateur and semi-professional sports rocket League. He currently stays in Morgantown, WV, with his partner Rochelle as well as two youngsters, Jared, 3, and also AJ, ten months. Thomas also has a son, JT Thomas III, from a previous partnership. Jonathan Bentz graduated from West Virginia University on the four-year plan. He was when a stringer and also cable contributor for the AP at WVU football as well as basketball video games; currently he markets Nemacolin Woodlands Resort online. Some state Jay-Z little bit his style, rocket League as well as Tom Cruise has just next Xmas. He hemorrhages BLUE and GOLD, pays homage to Mike Gansey with every 3-ball he wishes, as well as dreams of being the very first whiteboy to dunk a 720.

[picturestees]

QB Joe shirt

Joseph Webb III is an American football quarterback for the Houston Texans. QB Joe shirt when JT Barrett left the field. And went to the locker room after Buckeyes’ 24-7 victory over the USC. At the Cotton Bowl on Friday night, it officially ended an era in Ohio. While a door closed after winning, another door opened for the Buckeyes. Urban Meyer and Ohio are now heading for a future without Barrett behind the center. And they will have to replace the most prolific midfielder in Big Ten history. Although Dwayne Haskins may be the favorite to start work next season. And a select group wants to see newcomers Tate Martell get a shot as a quarterback starts next season. Another option for Buckeyes is Joe Burrow. However, Burrow said on Friday night that he had a decision to make for his future in the coming weeks.

How did QB Joe Burrow play in 2018?

Burrow is considering whether to stay in Ohio State. And compete for work starting next season or to switch to another program. “I have to talk to my parents about that, talk to my coaches. And only make decisions here in the near future,” QB Joe said. “I do not know. I’m learning about to stay.” When asked about the process of coming up with the terms of considering a transfer. Burrow said it was difficult for him. “Yes, it was pretty decadent. Break with me for a while, “says Burrow.” I’ve been with it for the past few weeks. I feel like I’ve been a lot better in the last few weeks of bowl practice, and that’s great.” QB Joe, who has been on Ohio’s depth chart for the past three seasons. Will prove to be one Strong candidate for the job if he chooses to stay.

QB Joe shirt, v-neck t-shirt, ladies tee

Guys tee

Ladies tee

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While the Haskins have most backup representatives this season, even when he led the Buckeyes to victory in The After Barrett suffered a right knee injury, Burrow provided the experience and familiarity with the Ohio State system. He provided the ability to play two threats and deep knowledge of the offense. There is no easy way to replace a quarterback like Barrett, who has not only been starting center-back for the Buckeyes for the better part of the last four seasons but also was just three times the captain in program history. That being said, Burrow has been working with Barrett for the past three seasons. If he stays, Burrow has the legal opportunity to become Barrett’s heir. Judging by his recent comments on his former midfielder. Urban Meyer thinks highly of Joe Burrow.

Official QB Joe Burrow sweater, hoodie, and long sleeve

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In his appearance at Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday. The Ohio State coach was asked about how difficult it was to see QB Joe shirt leave Columbus. This season through a post-graduate transfer rule. If you do not know, Burrow and Dwayne Haskins fight it out this spring to have the right to start in Columbus. After the spring, QB JOE announced he would leave the program. And Haskins was named the launch of the program in 2018 shortly thereafter. Of course, QB Joe is now playing in Baton Rouge. And seems to be the favorite odds to start the Tigers this fall. So much so, that an online sportsbook will not even accept bets again in the contest after sending them earlier in the week. This is what Meyer said at Big Ten Media Days. When asked about the conversations he had with Burrow and his family in the spring.

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[junker-town]

Let Tiger take you to the weekend at Riviera

Tiger Woods will help get the weekend started early on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles.

The weekend in Los Angeles will start a little early on Friday. Locals and tournament officials are expecting a party to break out at Riviera on Friday afternoon, with Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Justin Thomas hastening the sprint to happy hour and the weekend.

That trio is headlining an absolutely loaded field at the Genesis Open. It’s already a great event just by virtue of the venue. Riviera always delivers an above-average viewing experience and can be the star of a PGA Tour event on its own. But this year, the field is arguably the best its ever been. On Thursday, I walked the course with that trio but it was hard to ignore so many big names while doing so. Phil Mickelson was playing just a group behind but he was an afterthought. Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson had afternoon tee times, but they were simply a second act following Tiger, Rory, and JT. All of these players are worth watching in their own right, it’s just that we’ve never really had a group as good as those three together.

After a crack-of-dawn start on Thursday, that trio will go in the late wave on Friday. They will also move to the No. 1 tee after starting the first round on 10. All three birdied the 10th at Riv, one of the three or four most iconic par-4s in golf. But it was an uneven round following that dramatic start, with all three hovering around even-par.

Tiger will go just after Noon local in Los Angeles, and at 3:02 p.m. ET. The pace of play was steady through the first round, with Woods getting around Riv in a little over four hours. That’s not bad for a congested group on a relatively small tract of land. There was some waiting on the par-5s but that was about it in the opening round. So expect those three to finish up sometime after 7 p.m. ET. Golf Channel has adjusted their programming accordingly and moved their coverage window back from 3 to 7 p.m. ET.

Highlighting the morning half of the draw will be Spieth, DJ, Patrick Cantlay, and Bubba Watson. The defending champ, DJ, scuffled through an opening round 74. This course plays more like a par 70 or 69 for the big-hitting DJ, so a 74 is a brutal number and one that will force him to go low on Friday to make the cut.

Here’s the full tee sheet for Friday’s second round at the Genesis Open:

Off No. 1 tee:

9:40 a.m. — J.B. Holmes, Robert Streb, Sean O’Hair

9:50 a.m. — J.J. Henry, Lucas Glover, Ryan Blaum

10:01 a.m. — Cameron Tringale, Bud Cauley, Martin Piller

10:11 a.m. — Marc Leishman, Adam Hadwin, Peter Malnati

10:22 a.m. — Ryan Armour, Tony Finau, Ernie Els

10:32 a.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Vaughn Taylor, Martin Kaymer

10:43 a.m. — D.A. Points, Jim Furyk, Rafa Cabrera Bello

10:53 a.m. — Daniel Berger, Si Woo Kim, Fabian Gomez

11:04 a.m. — Jamie Lovemark, Sung Kang, Patrick Rodgers

11:14 a.m. — Troy Merritt, Danny Lee, Whee Kim

11:25 a.m. — Nicholas Lindheim, Talor Gooch, Stephan Jaeger

11:35 a.m. — Jonathan Randolph, Tyler Duncan, Vinnie Poncino

2:20 p.m. — Matt Every, John Merrick, Andrew Loupe

2:30 p.m. — Geoff Ogilvy, Derek Fathauer, Harold Varner III

2:41 p.m. — David Lingmerth, Tyrone Van Aswegen, C.T. Pan

2:51 p.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Billy Hurley III, K.J. Choi

3:02 p.m. — Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas

3:12 p.m. — Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, Tommy Fleetwood

3:23 p.m. — Brendan Steele, Greg Chalmers, Sangmoon Bae

3:33 p.m. — William McGirt, Brian Stuard, Charles Howell III

3:44 p.m. — Ryan Moore, Bill Haas, Chez Reavie

3:54 p.m. — Chad Campbell, Shawn Stefani, Dominic Bozzelli

4:05 p.m. — Kevin Na, Anirban Lahiri, Jon Curran

4:15 p.m. — Abraham Ancer, Xinjun Zhang, Richard H. Lee

Off No. 10 tee:

9:40 a.m. — Martin Laird, Jason Kokrak, Francesco Molinari

9:50 a.m. — Nick Taylor, Peter Uihlein, Brandon Harkins

10:01 a.m. — Retief Goosen, Ollie Schniederjans, Beau Hossler

10:11 a.m. — Ted Potter, Jr., Kyle Stanley, Jonas Blixt

10:22 a.m.— Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Chappell

10:32 a.m. — Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Bubba Watson

10:43 a.m. — Billy Horschel, Cameron Smith, Vijay Singh

10:53 a.m. — Xander Schauffele, Wesley Bryan, Alex Noren

11:04 a.m.— Martin Flores, Kevin Tway, Hao Tong Li

11:14 a.m. — Camilo Villegas, Scott Brown, Kelly Kraft

11:25 a.m.— Brice Garnett, Adam Schnek, Cameron Champ

11:35 a.m. — Ben Silverman, Zecheng Dou, Seunghyuk Kim

2:20 p.m. — Charlie Beljan, John Huh, J.J. Spaun

2:30 p.m. — Keegan Bradley, Tom Hoge, Andrew Landry

2:41 p.m. — Harris English, Parker McLachlin, Thomas Pieters

2:51 p.m. — Graeme McDowell, Smylie Kaufman, Luke Donald

3:02 p.m. — Chris Stroud, Aaron Baddeley, Jim Herman

3:12 p.m. — Jimmy Walker, Charley Hoffman, Shane Lowry

3:23 p.m. — Cody Gribble, Charl Schwartzel, Brian Gay

3:33 p.m. — Pat Perez, James Hahn, Padraig Harrington

3:44 p.m. — Austin Cook, Branden Grace, Paul Casey

3:54 p.m. — Kevin Streelman, Luke List, Aaron Wise

4:05 p.m. — Scott Stallings, Morgan Hoffmann, Michael Kim

4:15 p.m. — Sam Saunders, Rob Oppenheim, Scottie Scheffler

The oddest rule against ball substitution

[strategyr-blog]

The Global Market for Selective Soldering is Projected to Reach US$68.2 Million by 2024

Increasing Complexity of PCBs Drives the Global Selective Soldering Equipment Market, According to a New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

GIA launches comprehensive analysis of industry segments, trends, growth drivers, market share, size and demand forecasts on the global Selective Soldering market. The global market for Selective Soldering is projected to reach US$68.2 million by 2024, driven by the increasing complexity of PCBs, as well as shrinking footprint of electronic components.

Soldering, primarily of two types – Reflow soldering and Wave soldering, is the process of bonding the placed components to the printed circuit board, to facilitate electrical connections between them. Selection of soldering method depends on the mix of through-hole and surface mount components in the printed board assembly. Type I assemblies are reflow soldered using vapor phase or infrared rays, while type II and type III assemblies use both wave and reflow soldering for through-hole and surface mount components respectively. The technology of selective soldering is the result of a combination of factors including the drive towards miniaturization in electronic devices and the increase in temperature-sensitive and expensive components by the telecom equipment industry, among other factors. Selective soldering, which is a flexible and easily adaptable process, is being applied to an increasingly widening range of applications involving soldering tasks. In fact, selective soldering is rapidly entering into soldering production mainstream, moving beyond its original role of a solution for problem application.

Selective Soldering involves soldering of specific components to PCBs. Initial selective soldering processes were improvements over the process of hand soldering. In comparison with other processes of soldering, Selective Soldering has additional pre-requirements including preheating time and specified quantity of flux among others. Flux applicators and soldering nozzles are critical for selective soldering. Over the years, technologically advanced flux applicators and nozzles have paved the way for higher productivity. The application of selective soldering technology in aerospace, telecom, medical, and industrial segments holds enormous potential. In particular, the automotive segment is likely to fuel innovations in the field. Selective Soldering systems available in the market range from small bench-top versions with limited automated potential to expensive automated machines. Accordingly, the price range between low-end models and high-performance machines is also broad. Some users take the middle course, preferring semi-automatic models or machines featuring in-line capability or medium level of capability for product handling.

As stated by the new market research report on Selective Soldering, Asian countries dominate the market, owing to the agglomeration of electronics manufacturing in the region, with Japan, China, South Korea, and Taiwan accounting for more than three-fourths of the market. Taiwan, one of the leading destinations for contract electronics manufacturing represents the largest regional market worldwide, followed by South Korea. Taiwan and South Korea boast of a established value chains for electronics manufacturing right from semiconductor fabs to final assembly of electronics. China is forecast to witness the fastest growth among all regions, with a CAGR of 10.3% over the analysis period.

Major players in the market include ACE Production Technologies, DDM Novastar LLC, Ebso GmbH, epm Handels AG, ERSA GmbH, Hentec Industries, Inc., INERTEC Löttechnologien GmbH, ITW EAE, Japan Unix Co. Ltd., Juki Corporation, Juki Automation Systems, Inc. , Pillarhouse USA, Inc., SEHO Systems GmbH, Shenzhen JT Automation Equipment Co., Ltd., Tai'an Puhui Electric Technology Co., Ltd., and Tamura H.A. Machinery, Inc. among others.

The research report titled "Selective Soldering: A Global Strategic Business Report" announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, growth drivers, innovations and launches, and strategic industry activities of major companies worldwide. The single segment report provides market estimates and projections in US$ for all major geographic markets including the US, Japan, Europe China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Rest of World.

 For enquiries e-mail us at rsd@strategyr.com or info411@strategyr.com.          To connect with us, visit our LinkedIn page.

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