Sports
Gavin Meyer's portal patience has paid off for USC in its defensive makeover
The window was quickly closing last May, the pool of available transfers nearly set for next season, and Lincoln Riley had yet to land the interior lineman he and USC’s defense still desperately needed.
Damonic Williams, one of the top young defensive tackles in the Big 12, was headed to Oklahoma. Derick Harmon, a 320-pound behemoth previously at Michigan State, chose Oregon. Within two days in May, two of the most coveted tackles in the transfer portal were out of reach. Others were finding homes fast. Time was running out to find a fit.
For Gavin Meyer, though, there was no real hurry. The Wyoming grad transfer had waited until the last possible moment to enter the portal, just barely beating the May 1 deadline. In part because he was graduating that week in Laramie, Wyo., where he’d spent the last four years. But also Meyer understood his circumstances made finding the right situation especially important. He didn’t want to just be a depth piece added to some defense at the eleventh hour.
“I think that’s 100% in people’s thoughts in the transfer portal,” Meyer said. “You have to find your right fit. There’s so many things that go into that. With players on the team, how many guys they have on the team, but also the coaching staff. As long as you’re in the portal and you have the right intentions, a lot of people see through a lot of stuff.”
USC had already added a transfer tackle in January, Isaiah Raikes, just to see him jump ship after spring. No matter how perilously thin the Trojans were on the interior, Riley didn’t want to add for the sake of adding, either.
The previous cycle had been “a good reminder,” Riley said later, of how adding a poor fit from the portal could be “one of the most damaging things you can do.” This time, he and his USC staff were intent on “bringing in the right guys from the portal, not just the right body types or right experience level.”
In Meyer, Riley and his new defensive coordinator, D’Anton Lynn, felt right away they’d found a combination of all three. Even if he’d never had the chance to prove it at the power conference level.
“He was one of the very, very few,” Riley said, “who checked all the boxes for us.”
USC is looking like a potential playoff team while UCLA is still trying to get on its feet.
Meyer has so far delivered on that initial confidence, even unexpectedly unseating the Trojans incumbent, all-conference defensive tackle, Bear Alexander, to earn a starting spot through the first two weeks. During that time, Meyer and Alexander have rotated evenly at tackle, playing roughly the same number of snaps (Meyer’s 49 to Alexander’s 48). But where Meyer has earned universal early acclaim from coaches, the tone surrounding Alexander has been decidedly different since he sat out most of spring nursing an injury.
While Riley has praised his progress, the coach also made note before the season how Alexander “is still very young on the football field.”
“Bear has a long ways to go,” he said.
Meyer, meanwhile, made clear to Lynn upon first meeting him that he’d have no trouble picking up the Trojans new defensive scheme. For more than an hour on his visit, they talked about the finer points of defense, while Lynn rolled tape, peppering Meyer with questions.
“We’re talking Xs and O’s, concepts,” Meyer said. “He’s asking me, ‘What do you see here? What do you see here?’ And we’re going back and forth, back and forth on all that stuff.”
It was an eye-opening exchange for Meyer.
“That was the moment when I was like, ‘Yep, sounds about right,’” Meyer said. “Everything I’d heard about him and how he perceives the game of football was exactly how I see it.”
And in Meyer, Lynn saw something USC’s defense was desperately missing a season ago: a consistent presence on the interior.
It didn’t matter that he’d arrived on campus only this summer. Or that his experience at Wyoming was spent primarily in a part-time role.
“From the very first practice, he was just on it,” Lynn said. “From the fronts, the adjustments, the pressures, seeing how he picked it up that fast was super impressive.”
Meyer’s role on the interior should only prove more integral from here, with Michigan, the defending national champs, looming next Saturday and a slate of beefy Big Ten fronts fast approaching after that.
But so far, the fit at USC has been everything he — and his coaches — could have hoped for, considering how late they’d found each other.
“Just in the perfect place,” Meyer said with a smile. “The perfect place to get better.”
Sports
Auburn fans shower officials with debris after wild buzzer-beater gets overturned
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A chaotic scene unfolded at Auburn University on Tuesday night as a wild buzzer-beater was waved off well after the Tigers had celebrated on their own court.
With 0.6 seconds remaining and Auburn trailing 90-88, KeShawn Murphy, somehow left wide open, caught an inbounds pass and nailed a long 3-pointer for what was thought to be the game-winner.
However, officials went to the scorer’s table to review the play, which was awfully close.
Auburn Tigers players watch the replay of a possible game-winning shot that was called back as Auburn Tigers take on Texas A&M Aggies at Neville Arena in Auburn, Alabama on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Jake Crandall/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Ultimately, officials ruled that the shot had not gone off in time, ending the Tigers’ celebration and prompting one from Texas A&M.
The officials quickly made themselves public enemy number one and were showered with debris from fans on their way off the court. At least one referee needed his head to be covered.
One fan sitting courtside even turned his back and threw his drink over his shoulder aimed at an official.
“They didn’t say a word. They just said it was no good and ran off the floor. I probably wouldn’t want to talk to me in that moment, anyway,” Auburn head coach Steven Pearl, who took over for his dad, Bruce this season, said after the game. “So, I get why they’d run away from me. Just from the angles that I saw, it looked like it was off his fingers. But that was just, I don’t have all the same angles they have.”
Texas A&M Aggies players celebrate victory as Auburn Tigers take on Texas A&M Aggies at Neville Arena in Auburn, Alabama, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Jake Crandall/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
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It is now six losses in their last 10 games for the Tigers after starting 5-1. They lost in the Final Four last year to Florida, who won the national championship over Houston.
Auburn (9-6, 0-2) led 47-37 at halftime and extended the margin to 61-45 with 12:29 remaining.
KeShawn Murphy of the Auburn Tigers reacts after officials ruled that his last-second shot did not beat the shot clock to win the game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Neville Arena on Jan. 6, 2026 in Auburn, Alabama. (Stew Milne/Getty Images)
Texas A&M answered with a steady run fueled by outside shooting, taking its first lead at 8:42 when Pop Isaacs buried a 3-pointer. The Aggies followed with back-to-back triples from Isaacs to open a five-point cushion that they would not relinquish, by the skin of their teeth.
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Sports
Former NFL player Jordan Shipley is in critical condition after accident on his ranch
Two-time All-American wide receiver and prominent Outdoors Channel host Jordan Shipley is in critical condition after an accident on his ranch in Texas, his family said in a statement.
Shipley, 40, was described as stable after remaining hospitalized Tuesday night in Austin. The statement said a machine that he was operating near his hometown of Burnet caught fire. The former Texas great suffered “severe burns on his body.”
Shipley abruptly retired in 2012 after three NFL seasons primarily because of persistent concussion issues and chronic knee problems. He quickly transitioned to television shows that showcased his passion for deer hunting, co-hosting “The Bucks of Tecomate” and “Tecomate Whitetail Nation.”
“It was not hard at all,” Shipley said at the time of retiring at 27. “Only because I never saw myself as a football player first. Don’t get me wrong, I worked my tail off for football and I loved it but never saw that as my whole identity because I had such a big background in outdoors. Really, with this opportunity I had I was actually pretty excited about moving forward.”
Although he enjoyed a strong rookie season with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2010 with 52 receptions for 600 yards and three touchdowns, he is best remembered as a record-setting player at Texas.
Shipley starred as a receiver and a kick returner from 2006 to 2009, setting program single-season records in 2009 with 116 receptions and 1,489 yards. He also remains the career leader for receptions with 248 and ranks second in career receiving yards with 3,191, behind Roy Williams. Shipley also returned four punts or kickoffs for touchdowns.
After being drafted in the third round by the Bengals, he became one of the most popular players with Cincinnati fans, and his No. 11 jersey was worn by thousands. After a debilitating knee injury early in the 2011 season, he was never the same player, and he had short stints with Tampa Bay and Jacksonville before retiring.
According to his family, Jordan was operating a machine at his ranch when it caught fire. He managed to free himself from the machine, but “not before sustaining severe burns on his body in the process.” Jordan was airlifted to the hospital in Austin.
“He was able to get to one of his workers on the ranch, who drove him to a local hospital. He was then care-flighted to Austin, where he remains in critical but stable condition,” the statement said.
Shipley’s younger brother, former Texas wide receiver Jaxon Shipley, 33, asked for prayers in a statement on Instagram: “Please pray for full healing and no infections or other issues on his road to recovery. I don’t want to get into all the details, other than his life was spared today by the grace of God and the sheer will to live. I believe prayer is effective so I’m asking anyone and everyone to lift Jordan up in prayer.”
Sports
Tom Izzo explodes on former Michigan State player in wild scene: ‘What the f— are you doing?’
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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo has been known to get visibly angry with his players over his years in East Lansing, but what happened Monday night against USC was different.
Izzo let loose his frustration on a former player.
During the Spartans’ blowout over the Trojans, 80-51, Izzo was spotted unloading on former Michigan State center Paul Davis, who played for the team from 2002-06, after he caused a disturbance in the stands.
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Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans reacts to a call during a game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during the first half at Pinnacle Bank Arena Jan. 2, 2026, in Lincoln, Neb. (Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)
Referees pointed out Davis, who was a spectator, from his courtside seat after he was among many in the building who disagreed with a call in the second half. Davis stood up and shouted at referee Jeffrey Anderson.
Anderson responded with a loud whistle, stopping play and pointing at Davis. Then, Anderson went over to Izzo to explain what happened, and the 70-year-old coach went ballistic.
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First, he was motioning toward Davis, and it was clear he asked his former center, “What the f— are you doing?”
Davis was met by someone asking him to leave his seat, and that’s when Izzo went nuts. He shouted “Get out of here!” at Davis, who appeared to gesture toward Izzo, perhaps in apology for disturbing the game.
Izzo was asked about Davis’ ejection after the game.
“What he said, he should never say anywhere in the world,” Izzo responded when asked what happened. “That ticked me off. So, just because it’s 25, 20 years later, I’m going to have to call him tomorrow and tell him what I thought of it. And you know what he’ll say? ‘I screwed up, coach. I’m sorry.’”
Izzo quickly clarified that what Davis said “wasn’t something racial” and “it wasn’t something sexual.”
Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo protests a call that benefited the Iowa Hawkeyes during the first half at Jack Breslin Student Events Center Dec. 2, 2025. (Dale Young/Imagn Images)
“It was just the wrong thing to say, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Davis later met with reporters Tuesday, apologizing for his actions.
“I’m not up here to make any excuses. I’m up here to take accountability, to own it,” Davis said. It was a mistake that will never happen again. It was a mistake that’s not me, but, unfortunately, last night it was.”
Izzo said Davis was one of his “favorite guys” during his time playing for the Spartans. He had a breakout sophomore campaign with 15.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and two assists per game in 30 starts for Izzo during the 2003-04 season.
Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans reacts during a game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during the second half at Pinnacle Bank Arena Jan. 2, 2026, in Lincoln, Neb. (Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)
In his senior year, Davis averaged 17.5 points, a career-high, in 33 games.
He was taken in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. Davis played just four seasons in the league, his final one with the Washington Wizards.
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