Sports
Introducing the most dangerous pass in football
A sharp, anxious intake of breath, followed by a round of applause that carries a mixture of quiet admiration and, more than anything, relief. On other occasions, it ends with supporters shaking their heads and asking why.
We are talking about the crowd reaction to — and I’m borrowing this description from a colleague who is a regular at Stamford Bridge — “the most dangerous pass in football”.
It’s the short, vertical ball from the goalkeeper to — typically, but not always — the midfield pivot, who is receiving under pressure, back to goal and close to their own penalty area.
Exhibit A: Chelsea’s Robert Sanchez trying, and failing, to pass to Moises Caicedo against Brighton earlier this season, when Carlos Baleba scored.
What a season Carlos is having! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/D7qC37kvwb
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) September 29, 2024
It was a case of role reversal for Baleba against Fulham when Alex Iwobi profited from a stray pass from the Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.
Forcing the error. 👊 pic.twitter.com/g0Jmd2O2LN
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) December 6, 2024
As for Chelsea, they got their own back at Southampton, where Noni Madueke read Joe Lumley’s pass (35 seconds onwards in the clip below) to Kyle Walker-Peters and set up Christopher Nkunku for their second goal.
Tune into all of Wednesday night’s action. 📺#CFC | #SOUCHE pic.twitter.com/zY3em5RMBA
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 5, 2024
Fulham? It’s a minor miracle they didn’t concede against Newcastle when Bernd Leno signposted a pass to Emile Smith Rowe and Newcastle’s players were left shaking their heads in disbelief after Fabian Schar somehow failed to score.
Brentford had a reprieve against Ipswich, who were perilously close to serving a goal up on a plate to West Ham in October. A VAR offside call rescued Tottenham Hotspur’s Fraser Forster at Bournemouth, whose goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, was lucky that Gabriel Martinelli didn’t punish him for a loose straight ball against Arsenal, which is where Mads Hermansen passed Leicester and Harry Winks into trouble (see below) in September.
As for Manchester United, the awful goal they conceded against Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League last week was yet another example.
The list goes on and on and, in many ways, provides fuel for those who wonder why so many teams continue to take such chances playing out from the back and in particular by using this type of pass.
There are probably a few ways to answer that question. The first thing to say is that, on a broader level, the coaches that play this way believe it makes far more sense to attack in a controlled way, in possession, through a mix of established principles and rehearsed movement patterns, even if that leads to the odd mistake, rather than tossing a coin and hoping it lands heads up — which is how they view knocking longer balls forward.
The second point — and this shines through when you discuss some of the incidents highlighted above with coaches who are proponents of this style of play – is that the execution of that bounce pass close to goal, taking in the decision-making around it, the positioning, and the movement and the timing, is the problem when it goes wrong, not the pass itself.
Third, it’s inevitable that the moments when it breaks down will get far more attention than the good passages of play.
Before we look at some more examples, it’s worth pointing out that some Premier League clubs — or maybe that should be ‘some Premier League managers and goalkeepers’ — have little or no inclination to play this game of risk and reward. The goalkeepers at Bournemouth (Arrizabalaga went off-piste against Arsenal), Crystal Palace, Everton, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest in particular tend to play short sideways passes in build-up or go long.
In fact, even when the No 6 drops deep to receive a vertical ball in space with no sign of any pressure, the pass is often turned down by their goalkeepers. Below is Nottingham Forest’s Danilo, arms outstretched, asking for a ball he was never going to receive from the goalkeeper, Matz Sels.
Newcastle’s Nick Pope does the same (Bruno Guimaraes is pointing out that Sandro Tonali is free below)…
… as does Everton’s Jordan Pickford.
That said, Pickford bizarrely deviated from the script at Arsenal on Saturday. What followed was a car-crash moment between him and James Tarkowski, as the Everton goalkeeper bobbled a pass that the centre-back struggled to control, encouraging Martinelli to press. The expressions on the faces of the two Everton players afterwards said it all.
Time to look at some passages of play that show the reward and not just the risk, beginning with Arsenal’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea in November.
Declan Rice is the player to watch here. He takes up a starting position behind Nicolas Jackson, on the opposite side to the free man (William Saliba) he wants to find after Arsenal have provoked Chelsea’s press with a short goal kick.
Cole Palmer makes the standard run (curved) for any player leading the press in this situation, attempting to force the ball one way. Jackson, meanwhile, is ready to jump to Gabriel if David Raya returns the pass.
Timing and understanding are absolutely key to what happens next. Rice waits until Palmer gets closer to Raya and then runs on the blind side of Jackson to receive a soft pass in front of him that…
… he can play first time to Saliba, and Arsenal are out.
It is a pattern you will see again and again at Arsenal and elsewhere.
Below is an example of Ryan Gravenberch doing the same thing for Liverpool on the opening day at Ipswich.
Gravenberch is an interesting player to watch when receiving straight passes because of his exceptional ability to take the ball under pressure on the half-turn. In the image below, Chelsea’s Romeo Lavia is pressing him.
But Caoimhin Kelleher’s pass is ‘safe side’ (away from where Lavia is approaching), and Gravenberch is a master of getting his body between the opponent and the ball to protect and turn in one motion.
Not only are Arsenal and Liverpool retaining possession in these images, but they’re also taking opposition players out of the game while building an attack.
Take a look at this example of Manchester City playing out against Liverpool at Anfield at the start of December. The image that starts this phase of play is remarkable and, in many ways, captures the modern game: Ruben Dias is playing one-versus-one against Luis Diaz, 10 yards out, with nobody in goal (Stefan Ortega is on the corner of the six-yard box, out of picture).
As soon as Dias passes to Ortega, Manuel Akanji knows he has to connect with the City goalkeeper. Cody Gakpo, circled on the left, is already anticipating the pattern and preparing to press Dias.
The natural thing for Akanji to do — and what happens 99 times out of 100 — would be to pass to Dias.
Indeed, Mario Lemina did exactly that against Liverpool in September. Salah read him like a book but, uncharacteristically for him, shot wide of an open goal.
Akanji, however, scanned prior to receiving from Ortega and, aided by Dias also pointing where to play next, recognised both the need and the opportunity for a different (and much more progressive) pass to Kyle Walker.
As the City right-back travels forward, a line of four Liverpool players are out of the game.
But that’s Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City, I hear you say. What about clubs outside the traditional ‘Big Six’?
Brentford are a fascinating case study, in part because of their evolution under Thomas Frank. The percentage of long passes from their goalkeepers has dropped by a third in less than two years. Furthermore, the bounce pass to play out has been used frequently this season and with the exception of a mix-up against Ipswich that went unpunished and a slightly nervy moment in the first half against Chelsea on Sunday, it has worked extremely well.
The example below is from Brentford’s game against Villa and starts with Ethan Pinnock passing a goal kick to Mark Flekken. Vitaly Janelt’s clean technique and game intelligence really stand out in these scenarios.
In the image below, Janelt has his right hand outstretched, preaching calm and telling Flekken to wait as Ollie Watkins starts to make that familiar curved run. Clearly, this passage of play asks a lot of Flekken — or any goalkeeper. It’s not just about being good with their feet; they need to be calm, trust their team-mates, and make smart decisions in response to the opposition press.
When Watkins gets closer, Janelt makes his move, arriving at pace and running off the back of John McGinn, who has his eyes on Flekken and Pinnock.
Youri Tielemans leaves Yehor Yarmoliuk and jumps, along with McGinn, to press Janelt. But the Brentford midfielder and Flekken have worked it perfectly and Nathan Collins is ‘out’.
Three Villa players have been bypassed as Collins drives forward and…
… a few seconds later, Yoane Wissa has the ball inside the Villa half and Brentford have a four-versus-four attack.
The instinct is to say that the passages of play highlighted above look relatively straightforward. In reality, they require hours and hours of practice on the training ground as well as players who have both the technical ability and the mental fortitude to handle the ball in these situations and deal with the crowd anxiety. Indeed, that leads into a question that football fans will often ask about their team: are our players good enough to play this way?
Let’s analyse some clips of where it goes wrong.
The clip below is from Manchester United’s game against Tottenham in September. Diogo Dalot, playing the role of auxiliary No 6, receives a straight pass from Onana with his back to goal. Both United centre-backs — Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez — are higher than you would expect in this scenario.
Normally, the pass made from the player occupying Dalot’s position here would be first time and with the left foot given where Dejan Kulusevski is pressing. But Dalot takes a touch to control with his right foot…
… turns his whole body around and passes with his right foot, too, allowing Kulusevski to get close to blocking. That extra touch also means Brennan Johnson is able to press Martinez easier (admittedly, Martinez’s lack of depth doesn’t help).
Panicked, Martinez blindly helps the ball on…
… and Pedro Porro is now on the attack for Spurs.
Some coaches are a lot more detailed with their messages than others. They will talk, for example, about the importance of goalkeepers receiving the ball in a neutral position, so that the opponent leading the press doesn’t know which side to jump and also discourage goalkeepers from making sweeping actions with their passes (picture that awkward Pickford ball to Tarkowski at Arsenal) to prevent the ball arriving with a bounce or with spin on it.
In other words, completing a pass to a team-mate isn’t enough when playing out against a press; it’s about giving the player receiving the ball the best possible opportunity of making their next action perfect — after all, multiple passes will often be required. It’s interesting to hear Liverpool players talking about how their manager, Arne Slot, has stopped training sessions because passes have not been played to the back foot of the receiver.
The problem with one sloppy pass is that it often leads to another. In the next photo, the Ipswich goalkeeper, Arijanet Muric, plays a ball around Tottenham’s Dominic Solanke using the outside of his right foot. It’s high risk and comes off, but the pass isn’t easy for Sam Morsy to play first time and that contributes to the next pass being untidy…
… which ends up with Dara O’Shea jumping to try to get the ball under control and encouraging Spurs to press even more.
Ipswich are committed to playing out from the back under Kieran McKenna and their build-up involves a lot of straight passes that they generally execute well — the montage below is from Saturday’s game at Wolves.
McKenna — and this feels important for any coach who wants to play this way — took time to explain his philosophy to the Ipswich fans to try to manage the apprehension that often builds in stadiums during these phases of play.
Away from home can be more challenging, though, and rival supporters will revel in the sort of moment that Ipswich endured at West Ham earlier in the season.
The first thing that jumps out when you watch the passage below is the setup. As well as being very close to the penalty area, both of Ipswich’s defensive midfielders, Morsy and Kalvin Phillips, are marked from behind before the goal kick and that feels like a red flag.
Morsy is unable to arrive at speed or on the blind side of an opponent. As for Phillips, he makes the penalty area more crowded by dropping inside and bringing Lucas Paqueta with him.
In fact, Phillips almost gets in the way of Morsy’s pass…
… which ends up at the feet of Paqueta.
Amid a scene of chaos in the Ipswich penalty area, O’Shea clears off the line.
On the subject of overcrowding, there were 14 players (8 v 6) in a tight space when Southampton tried to play out against Villa this month (see the image below). Southampton survived this one, but they conceded against Liverpool in a not-dissimilar fashion and there was the Chelsea goal, too.
Watching Southampton this season, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that neither Lumley nor Alex McCarthy, both of whom deputised for the injured Aaron Ramsdale, were equipped to play Russell Martin’s brand of football at this level — and maybe they weren’t alone.
Clearly, there are times when the straight pass isn’t on and the goalkeeper needs to adopt a more pragmatic approach. Fulham’s Sander Berge is pictured below signalling to Leno that he should miss him out and go over the top of Brighton’s aggressive press.
Getting caught in two minds is probably the worst position for a goalkeeper to be in and that’s what happened to Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario against Brentford (below). It’s almost as if Vicario is so programmed to play that straight pass (it’s central to the way Spurs build up under their manager Ange Postecoglou) that he doesn’t recognise an alternative. Fabio Carvalho capitalised on Vicario’s indecision but, to the Spurs goalkeeper’s credit, he recovered and denied Bryan Mbeumo moments later.
Both Vicario and Forster, his deputy, have had their share of close shaves this season, most recently at Bournemouth a couple of weeks ago, where Kulusevski felt like a sitting duck for Tyler Adams when the straight pass arrived.
On Sunday, against Southampton, Spurs were at it again right from the kick-off.
Four passes later, James Maddison was running through on goal and putting his team 1-0 up.
The risk, Postecoglou and others will argue, is worth the reward.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Meech Robinson)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Thursday evening, Tennessee’s quarterbacks gathered for an annual tradition, with Nico Iamaleava among them.
On their off day ahead of Saturday’s spring game, Tennessee’s quarterbacks sat around the table at quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle’s home. His wife, Cara, made tacos. It was mostly business as usual, despite a report earlier in the day that returning starter Iamaleava was in negotiations for a new contract. He’d all but begun the era of school-affiliated collectives spending big money on recruits when he signed an $8 million deal with Tennessee as a high school senior for his name, image and likeness.
A few hours after the initial report emerged, Iamaleava’s father blasted both the report and reporter, denying negotiations were taking place a week before the 10-day spring transfer portal window opened.
“More games being played off the field than on the field,” his X post read in part.
It was part of a whirlwind 72 hours that ended with the Volunteers publicly parting ways with their returning starting quarterback after a contract dispute that could shift the power dynamics of college sports and impact programs far beyond Tennessee. Three years after signing a game-changing deal, Iamaleava became college football’s first high-profile, public holdout.
Tennessee had gone about its business with a low-key set of spring practices mostly focused on the usual position battles and rebuilding a defense and offensive backfield missing key stars headed to the NFL.
Iamaleava was part of that amid negotiations, and aside from a few minor details, there weren’t many red flags that a divorce was imminent. Tennessee hoped Iamaleava would leap a second-year starter set to make $2.2 million in the final year of a four-year contract that started paying him as a senior in high school.
After Tennessee’s 2024 season ended in Columbus, Ohio, with a lopsided loss to eventual national champion Ohio State in the first round of the 12-team College Football Playoff, Iamaleava’s camp had explored the possibility of a transfer, including engaging in conversations with representatives at Miami, who eventually signed Georgia transfer Carson Beck, paying him more than $3 million.
With Tennessee’s spring season about to wrap, Iamaleava’s camp, including family friend and former Florida personnel staffer Cordell Landers, was adamant nothing was happening.
“The family are happy (with Tennessee),” Landers told CBS Sports. “There are no (contract negotiations); they’re happy with the contract they have.”
It quickly became clear that wasn’t true, despite the public denials. Tennessee officials were frustrated with the ongoing negotiations, said a source briefed on those conversations, but were hopeful for an amicable resolution. Iamaleava does not have an agent; his father and Landers were handling the bulk of negotiations with programs and their collectives.
Friday morning after Iamaleava’s father hit send on that post, Tennessee took to the practice field for its final workout before Saturday’s Orange & White Game.
The Vols’ starting quarterback was a no-show.
Iamaleava hadn’t informed Tennessee he planned to be absent, according to a team source. No one on staff could get in contact with him throughout Friday.
And when Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel walked off the practice field, he learned there was still no word from Iamaleava.
In that moment, Heupel decided the program would be moving on from Iamaleava, who had mixed results in his first year as a starter as a redshirt freshman. He threw 19 touchdown passes, with six in six games against SEC bowl teams; four of those six came in the season finale against Vanderbilt. In three consecutive games at midseason against Arkansas, Florida and Alabama, the Vols failed to score in the first half. Tennessee rallied to beat rivals Alabama and Florida and reached the Playoff, but largely did so on the back of a defense ranked fifth nationally in yards per play and running back Dylan Sampson’s school record 22 touchdowns.
Iamaleava was good, but not good enough for Tennessee’s staff and collective to decide to satisfy a demand nearing the top of the quarterback market at $4 million, according to the source briefed on the conversations. They added that nothing materialized into any meaningful negotiations.
“I’m proud of the stand we took as a university,” former Tennessee coach and athletic director Phillip Fulmer told The Athletic.
Iamaleava’s sudden holdout and departure will have lasting ramifications in the sport. (Photo: Lance King / Getty Images)
Friday’s absence pushed the relationship between Tennessee and Iamaleava to the point of no return, even if Iamaleava managed to salvage his relationship with the coaching staff and Heupel suddenly felt the urge to welcome back his starting quarterback.
“On Friday, he lost the locker room,” one program source said.
Quarterbacks Jake Merklinger and early enrollee George MacIntyre, both made available after Saturday’s spring game, were present at that Thursday dinner but said they found out about Iamaleava’s absence at practice the same time as the rest of their teammates: when he didn’t show.
“I’ve been a part of some really talented teams that haven’t won a whole lot because there were individuals on those teams,” said Alabama transfer tight end Miles Kitselman, who caught four touchdowns from Iamaleava last year, more than any returning player. He added there was “no other group” he wanted to work with and compete alongside than the players Iamaleava left behind.
Iamaleava’s multiyear contract is a rarity; most players sign one-year deals. His original contract from March 2022, the infant days of NIL, was written when the NCAA’s pay-for-play ban still seemed enforceable. There is no stated requirement he play for the Vols to collect his money, but it includes a standard integrity clause that allows for termination if the player does not “conduct himself in a manner exhibiting utmost character and integrity.” The collective also negotiated the exclusive use of his NIL through the end of the term, December 31, 2025. That seemingly means Iamaleava himself would need to terminate the agreement for another school to pay for his NIL rights.
More recent NIL contracts give the collective an out if the player transfers and, in some cases, even include a buyout provision.
In the three years since Iamaleava signed his record-breaking multiyear deal in March 2022, he’s been passed by at least a dozen other quarterbacks and would have been well below the highest-paid at his position in 2025. In that same span, Tennessee mounted a legal defense to preserve his eligibility with the NCAA looking to restrict athletes from signing NIL deals while still in high school. The university enlisted the state’s attorney general, among others, to secure an injunction that allowed Iamaleava to stay on the field and further open the door for more money to flood into locker rooms across the country.
Those efforts have put Tennessee back on the market for a quarterback when the 10-day spring transfer portal window opens on Wednesday. Merklinger is the presumed starter for now.
“With only two scholarship players at the quarterback position, we’re going to have to find another guy,” Heupel said.
Among 247Sports’ top eight quarterbacks in the Class of 2023, Texas’ Arch Manning is now the only one who hasn’t transferred from the school he signed with out of high school.
Where Iamaleava goes next is uncertain. Signing with another SEC school is highly unlikely, as he wouldn’t be immediately eligible because of a conference rule banning immediate eligibility for intraconference transfers who enter the portal after Feb. 1.
A return home to Southern California could be in order. UCLA director of player personnel Stacey Ford coached at Warren High School in Downey, Calif., when Nico, a Long Beach, Calif., native, starred there. Appalachian State transfer Joey Aguilar is projected to be the starting quarterback in Westwood. There were rumors of interest from Texas Tech, one of the biggest spenders in the portal this offseason, but a source familiar with the Red Raiders’ decision-making said they have no interest and will move forward with quarterback Behren Morton, who threw for 27 touchdowns last season.
Some at Tennessee believe that Iamaleava’s decision is not his own, but that he’s following his father’s lead in pursuing the most financially lucrative landing spot with less regard for the fit on the football field or the timing of his exit. Iamaleava will have to learn a new offense and gain the trust of a coaching staff and roster with just a month of practice in preseason camp, a rarity within the sport.
Kevin Pearson, who coached Iamaleava in high school, described Landers as a close and trusted friend to Nic Iamaleava. Landers is well known in high school and college football circles, especially on the West Coast, and has helped numerous high school football players, including Nico, manage their college recruitment. Landers was not directly involved in any of the recent contract talks between Iamaleava and Tennessee’s collective, a person involved in those discussions said.
A source close to the family noted the similarities to Nic’s handling of younger son Madden’s senior season of high school last year. Madden Iamaleava, also a quarterback, transferred from Warren High School to Long Beach Poly three games into the season, along with receiver Jace Brown. His father told the Press Telegram it was to improve the tandem’s chemistry and receive different coaching. Madden never played a game there after being ruled ineligible.
Madden and Brown, then UCLA commits, flipped to Arkansas on signing day and enrolled in January, with his dad acknowledging to 247Sports, “We never even visited Arkansas.”
Iamaleava’s father and Landers have not responded to repeated interview requests from The Athletic.
“At the end of the day, just in a leadership position, you have standards of who you’ve got inside the building and outside of it,” Heupel said. “At the same time, every individual’s a little bit different, so in leadership, just have learned to try to keep a cool head and also understand the dynamics of all situations, family, everything.”
Subtle signs that all was not well had emerged since the end of the season. In December, Iamaleava’s father sent an eyebrow-raising series of tweets as rumors persisted that Iamaleava was testing the transfer market and eyeing an exit from Knoxville.
“Need all the help we can get!” he wrote alongside a parade of crying laughing emojis. Since the deadline for Iamaleava to enter the portal had passed, it was easy to laugh off the lighthearted posts. Then Nic Iamaleava, who had been a fixture at practices through his son’s first two seasons, was absent this spring from practice and the team facility.
“I know they (the Iamaleavas) are very loyal,” said Pearson. “Money is important to everybody, but I don’t think their only reason for doing this is to earn another million and a half dollars. I don’t think (the Iamaleavas) just threw this at (Tennessee).”
Iamaleava’s quiet, aloof nature caused some within the program to question if he could be the kind of vocal leader that marks many of the most successful quarterbacks. He was well-liked within the locker room and facility but didn’t immediately have the kind of command of the team that made his teammates sit up and listen when he spoke. Much of it didn’t come naturally to him as a first-year starter last season.
“People who know him in Knoxville will say he’s one of the nicest, most respectful young kids they ever met,” said Pearson.
Friday’s practice was a light walkthrough ahead of Saturday’s game.
“Man, I loved walking out to practice on Friday and gazing around and seeing if anybody was freaking out or gossiping in the corner. Nobody skipped a beat,” Kitselman said. “I love seeing that. It’s plug-and-play. I knew something needed to be said.”
Kitselman, the offense’s most vocal leader and a fifth-year senior, talked to some teammates and members of the program’s leadership council Friday after practice to gauge their feelings about Iamaleava’s absence and ensure they were on the same page.
Friday evening, after practice concluded, Iamaleava informed Halzle he was planning on filing his paperwork to enter the transfer portal. Saturday morning, Heupel met with the team and informed the players of his decision to move on from Iamaleava, who still had not contacted Heupel. Word quickly spread, leaking to the media before the meeting had concluded.
Less than two hours later, when Tennessee’s buses pulled up to a waiting tunnel of fans for the pre-spring game Vol Walk outside Neyland Stadium, there were no signs of the morning’s news. When Heupel was the first face to emerge from the buses, he was greeted with a raucous cheer as soon as his white sneakers touched the pavement.
“Let’s go!” he yelled as fans applauded the team’s entrance.
Word of Iamaleava’s exit didn’t reach every corner of Tennessee in time. Matthew and Chrissy Grant, 49 and 46, made the 90-minute drive to Knoxville from their hometown of Chattanooga, where Matthew works as a truck driver. They sat near the top of the lowest section of Z13, wearing matching gray Iamaleava jerseys. They didn’t hear the news until they were already on their way to campus. They don’t attend regular-season games and elected to pay the $10 entry fee to see the spring game. A few fans told them they should find some tape and cover up the name.
“I’m upset, but it is what it is,” Chrissy Grant said. “Honestly, I felt he was a little greedy, and I was not expecting that. Because he was awesome last season.”
Tennessee will continue on without Iamaleava, and likely will look to the upcoming transfer window for depth at quarterback. (Photo: Caitie McMekin / News Sentinel / USA Today via Imagn Images)
When Tennessee began the scrimmage portion of the spring game, the crowd came to life after MacIntyre — a Tennessee native — was introduced as quarterback. He capped the first drive with a long touchdown pass to fellow freshman Radarious Jackson.
Like many spring games, Tennessee’s sideline was full of VFLs, former stars in the football program. Naturally, Iamaleava was the topic of the day in nearly every conversation, but few wanted to wade into it publicly. Six players from the 2024 Playoff team declined to comment on Iamaleava’s exit. So did Al Wilson, a program legend whose image hangs on the back of the Neyland Stadium scoreboard overlooking the Tennessee River. He captained the Tennessee defense that won the program’s last national title in 1998.
Hendon Hooker, who took Tennessee to No. 1 in the CFP poll in 2022 and threw for 58 touchdowns and five interceptions as a two-year starter under Heupel, said he and Iamaleava talk often but he hadn’t heard from him since his exit.
“I was just as shocked as everyone else,” Hooker said.
The shockwaves of an SEC starting quarterback leaving the program amid a contract dispute rippled throughout the sport.
SMU coach Rhett Lashlee, who coached his team to the Playoff last fall, told reporters on Friday that if a player held out, he’d be off the roster: “We’re not doing that. You’re either on the team or you’re not.”
Said Miami coach Mario Cristobal: “They can be the best player in the world. If they wanna play hold out, they might as well play get out.”
LSU coach Brian Kelly said he suspects Iamaleava will be just the first holdout in college football, with “a lot” of disputes like it in the future. “This is the natural course when there weren’t many guidelines out there.”
Beyond the lack of No. 8 under center, Tennessee’s spring game played out like so many before it. Around 30,000 fans showed up on a picturesque day.
“The guys who want to be here are the guys who want to be here,” junior linebacker Arion Carter said. “Situations like this, this is a test and testimony of who we are as people and a team. As long as we rally around these young guys and get them better and continue to rise, we’ll be just fine. ”
Heupel stepped to the lectern after his team’s on-field exhibition with two pages of notes, some words marked through with a pink highlighter. A photo of Iamaleava on the wall of the room where Heupel holds postgame news conferences had been taken down. Using notes was a rarity for the usually demure national champion quarterback-turned-coach whose postgame news conferences rarely make headlines. He’d rehearsed his carefully-worded statement.
Heupel thanked Iamaleava by name for all he’d done while wearing the Power T and then said: “There’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T, and that includes me.”
— Stewart Mandel and Bruce Feldman contributed reporting.
(Top photo of the Volunteers’ spring game: Bryan Lynn / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NBA star Kevin Durant threw some shade at ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith on Tuesday’s “First Take” debate about how much blame the Phoenix Suns star should shoulder for the team’s poor season.
The banner on “First Take” read, “How much blame does Durant deserve for the Suns season?” Smith then dove into how Suns team owner Mat Ishbia is on the verge of becoming one of the worst owners in the history of the sport.
Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant, #35, brings the ball up as Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, #5, defends him in the fourth quarter at Target Center in Minneapolis on March 28, 2025. (Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images)
Durant took his own shot at Smith after a fan pointed out the talking points on X.
“Steve is trying to run for president, u think he actually paid attention to a struggling team?? It’s called propaganda,” Durant wrote.
Durant suggested his decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder to sign with the Golden State Warriors in 2016 started the hate campaign against him. Durant won two titles with the Warriors before he left the team to sign with the Brooklyn Nets.
He added that he believed he was “one of the greatest leaders of all time” and it was a “shame” one of the fans who reacted to him could not see it.
Stephen A. Smith on the ESPN “NBA Countdown” live set at Intuit Dome. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)
MAVERICKS GM NICO HARRISON DOUBLES DOWN ON LUKA DONCIC TRADE AS FANS CALL FOR FIRING: ‘NO REGRETS’
Smith fired back.
“Are we allowed to say anything?” Smith said. “There’s a residue of crumbs all over the place about things that have transpired in the career of Kevin Durant. We might question things here and there, but nobody disrespects this man. I love the guy. I don’t disrespect him. I’m simply saying, elements of leadership that other people may have had to galvanize a team is something that he doesn’t seem to have.”
Ishbia made a major gamble with the trade to acquire Durant during the 2022-23 season. The Suns dealt picks and key players like Cameron Johnson and Mikail Bridges to get him.
This season did not go as planned. Durant still averaged 26.6 points, 6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. The Suns finished 36-46 as Durant still led the team in points per game and value over replacement player.
Durant could become a key trade candidate ahead of the 2025-26 season. He will be a $54.7 million cap hit, according to Spotrac.
Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant, #35, looks on against the Boston Celtics during the second half at Footprint Center in Phoenix on March 26, 2025. (Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images)
The Suns will be bringing in a new coach after firing Mike Budenholzer to end the year.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Two sloppy tendencies — one involving gloves, the other bats — repeatedly cost the Dodgers during a slipshod 10-game stretch that followed their 8-0 start to the season: Uncharacteristic defensive miscues and an inability to lay off pitches out of the strike zone.
Both were solved early and emphatically in a 6-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers improved to 17-4 on Jackie Robinson Day, the April 15 tradition since 2004 that celebrates and honors the anniversary of the Dodgers’ Black Hall of Fame infielder breaking the color barrier in 1947.
“This is an emotional day for me,” said the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts, who along with the Angels’ Ron Washington are the only Black managers in major league baseball.
“People that have certainly never seen Jackie Robinson, just hear some stories, are trying to live in a way that he lived. And that’s something that is so powerful for me.”
Because the Dodgers didn’t chase errant pitches, they chased Rockies starter Ryan Feltner in only 2 2/3 innings after he walked six and threw 81 pitches, leading to one run in the second inning and four in the third.
Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman walked, then jogged home when Will Smith crushed a first-pitch sinker over the left-field wall in the third. Smith continued his hot start — his .482 on-base percentage entering the game was the best in baseball — with his second homer of the season, improving his on-base-plus-slugging percentage to 1.026.
“He’s just that steady presence in the middle of the lineup,” teammate Tommy Edman said of Smith. “He always has good at-bats and always seems to come through in those big moments.”
Edman had good at-bats of his own. He doubled with two out in the third — one of his four hits — and scored after Max Muncy walked on Chris Taylor’s single to extend the lead to 5-0. One more walk, this one to Andy Pages, and Rockies manager Bud Black had seen enough, lifting Feltner, who in September had pitched six scoreless innings against the Dodgers.
“That’s exactly the model for what this offense can do, build innings, create stress, then get the big hit,” Roberts said. “I thought we controlled the strike zone really well, got to the starter again and found a way to win a ballgame.”
The Dodgers also made outstanding defensive plays that helped strand runners in each of the first four innings and enabled spot starter Landon Knack to navigate 4 1/3 innings in 65 pitches, including 41 strikes.
With a runner on second and none out in the second inning, second baseman Edman knocked down a hot smash from Mickey Moniak, scooped up the ball and threw him out by a whisker. Then with two out, shortstop Mookie Betts made a slick backhand play deep in the hole and retired Jacob Stallings on a one-hop throw to first.
With a runner on second and none out in the third inning, center fielder Taylor made a diving catch on a line drive directly in front of him, and Knack again stranded the runner. The Rockies scored two runs in the fourth on a two-out double by Jacob Stallings and Knack exited after retiring the first batter in the fifth, having gone through the lineup twice and faced Ezequiel Tovar a third time.
Roberts said that for a young starter to face a lineup a third time, he needs to have command of his entire arsenal of pitches.
“Tonight his stuff was fine, it wasn’t great,” Roberts said. “He competed really well. He did his job. He found a way to make pitches when he needed to.”
Knack’s previous start was a disaster, lasting only 2 1/3 innings and giving up five runs to the Washington Nationals. He felt he had something to prove Tuesday.
“I was just really determined to come out and just kind of attack a little more,” he said. “Obviously, I still had a couple walks in there, but overall, just a lot better direction with everything, a better feel coming out of the hand, and just getting after it a little bit more. Definitely a lot better feeling.”
The win was the Dodgers’ second in a row over the Rockies, which could be expected. Colorado is 3-14, including 1-10 on the road. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are 13-6, including 9-2 at home, and have won 32 of their last 42 games against the Rockies.
Teoscar Hernández sat out a second game in a row because of illness, but Roberts said the slugging outfielder would return to the lineup Wednesday.
Miller time to arrive early
Bobby Miller will start for the Dodgers on Wednesday, his first big league appearance since September, when he was so ineffective he was deemed unusable during the postseason.
Miller gave up 17 earned runs in 11.1 innings over three September starts, capping a perplexing and injury-riddled sophomore season. In 56 innings he posted an 8.52 ERA, the worst in baseball among pitchers who logged more than 50 innings.
It was a precipitous fall from the lofty expectations the Dodgers developed after Miller’s rookie season in 2023 when he went 11-4 in 124.1 innings, posting a perfectly acceptable ERA of 3.76 in 22 starts and looking every bit a mainstay of the rotation for years to come.
The former first-round draft pick out of Louisville appears to have returned to form at triple-A Oklahoma City this season, posting a 2.25 ERA while giving up only six hits in 12 innings over three appearances.
When he was demoted in September, Miller vowed to return to the Dodgers with a vengeance. Roberts said Miller will replace Knack, who will be sent back to triple-A.
“There is no doubt in my mind, whenever that may be, I’m going to be back better than I ever have,” Miller said.
He’ll get his first chance at fulfilling that promise against the Rockies.
NEXT Weather Forecast 4-16-25
DOT Sec Sean Duffy finalizes $150M grant to build new port of entry on southern border
Two big classic rock acts combine forces for San Francisco show
Dallas school shooting suspect arrested on felony charge
Friends, family, community pay tribute to Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes
-
News1 week ago3 Are Killed in Shooting Near Fredericksburg, Va., Authorities Say
-
Movie Reviews1 week agoFilm Review: 'Warfare' is an Immersive and Intense Combat Experience – Awards Radar
-
Culture1 week agoMen’s NCAA Championship 2025: What to know about Florida, Houston
-
Health1 week agoAs RFK Jr. Champions Chronic Disease Prevention, Key Research Is Cut
-
News1 week agoAmericans Wrestle With How Trump’s Tariffs May Change Shopping Lists
-
Politics1 week agoH2Go: How experts, industry leaders say US hydrogen is fuel for the future of agriculture, energy, security
-
News1 week agoBoris Johnson Has Run-In With Feisty Ostrich During Texas Trip
-
World1 week agoEPP boss Weber fells 'privileged' to be targeted by billboard campaign