The Times-Picayune 12-01-2025 by The Advocate

SAINTS RALLY FALLS SHORT IN 21-17 LOSS TO DOLPHINS 1C

COACHESONTHE MOVE

BY WILSON ALEXANDER Staff writer

When the private plane carrying Lane Kiffin landedSundaynight, it pulled into ahangar outofsight from asmall crowd of fanswho had gathered in the misty cold. They peered througha chain-link fence, trying to see the new LSU head coach. Kiffin was greeted insideby school officials, then he got into a car along with his familyand the coaches he brought with him from Ole Miss.

Escorted by police,four black Chevrolet Suburbanspulled out of the hangar to bring him to theLSU footballoperationsbuilding. There was no sign of Kiffin himself as the fans chanted “LSU” untilherolled down his window.With his agent Jimmy Sexton on the phone, Kiffin pumped his fist and gave athumbs up,drawing aloud cheer

“We’re never losing again,” one man declared.

“He’sgoing to win ﬁve championships,” yelled another

That’sright —the Lane Kifﬁn era has begun at LSU. LSU finalized the hire Sunday,

ä See KIFFIN, page 4A

The Lane Kiffin experience is at LSU,and it will be like nothing before. Page 1C

ä Kiffinappears to be bringing at least five Ole Miss coaches and staff members with him. Page 6C

BY GUERRYSMITH Contributing writer

Hyme Tyme to shutterdoors after32years

BY LARA NICHOLSON Staff writer

The clock struck 10 a.m. in the Hyme Tyme jewelry store as Jaime Parrellada set about solving his first puzzle of the day Adainty,silverwomen’s wristwatch sat before him. Parrellada expertly took it apart, examined its innards, and likeadeadpan surgeon in ahospital drama,looked up and delivered the grim news. Irreparable.

“I put abattery in it. It’snot working,” Parrellada said to the customer as he removed his magnifying glass, known as aloupe. “I wouldn’t put any money into it.”

It’snot aprognosishe makes lightly after serving as one of Metairie’sbestknown watchmakersof thepast threedecades.He tries to repair what he can, and has ﬁxed innumerable watches, clocks and jewelry overhis 32 years running Hyme Tyme from the Oakridge Place Shopping Center on Metairie Road

But thatwristwatch was oneofhis last. On Nov.11, Parrellada, 67, told customers he would soon close his shop’sdoors and retire. He planstofocus histimeontaking care of his mother,who used to help run the shop

Parrelladaisamong a dwindling number of watchmakers —the general term fora watchtechnician who’ve tried to keep the craftalive. But as parts get

When hiring him two years ago, TulaneUniversity knewfootball coach Jon Sumrall might not stay long if he maintained the recent successofpredecessorWillie Fritz. That possibility became areality on Sunday morning when Sumrall accepted an offerfromFlorida to become its coach aday after theGreen Wave clinched its fourth consecutive appearance in the American Conference championship gameand the host role forthe third timeinfour seasons. Tulane athleticdirector David Harris confirmed Sumrallwould coach the Wave against North TexasatYulmanStadium on Fridayand in the College Football Playoff if the team qualified —as Sumrall made clearhewanted to do Saturday night. “Wejustbelievethatit’sthe right thing to do forour studentathletes,” Harris said. “Weare just really appreciative that he has the love and concern forhis players first and foremost in his mind, that he wants to help them finish theright way. WhenIthought

Environmental review underway

BY HALEYMILLER Staff writer

Trafficangst is commonplace in the Baton Rouge area. For decades, city officials and the state DepartmentofTransportation and Development have floated ideas forimproving the situation. Potential solutions have ranged from the more modest, like widening roadways, to the grandiose,

See BRIDGE, page 6A

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Jeweler Jaime Parrellada poses with Cosimo at Hyme Tyme jewelrystore in Metairie on Nov. 19.

Sumrall

MICHAEL JOHNSON

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

Indonesians hunt for food, water after floods

MEDAN, Indonesia Someresidents of the ﬂood-hit Indonesian island of Sumatra haveresorted to stealing food and watertosurvive, authorities said Sunday, while Sri Lankan officials said deaths from floods and mudslides in that island nation have risen to 193.

The floods, which hit Indonesia nearly aweek ago, have killed 442 people —with the number expected to rise as more bodies are recovered —and displaced 290,700 people as nearly3,000 houses damaged, including 827 that were flattened or swept out by floods.

The deluges triggered landslides, damaged roads, cut off parts of the island,and downed communication lines, prompting ofﬁcials and limited communities using Starlink satellite internet for relief operations. Another 402 people are missing in Indonesia’sthreeprovinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra andAceh, according to the National Disaster Management Agency The challengingweather conditionsand the lack of heavy equipmentalsohampered rescue efforts. Aid has been slow to reach the hardest-hitcityof Sibolga and CentralTapanuli district in North Sumatra Videos on social mediashowed people scrambling pastcrumblingbarricades, ﬂoodedroads and broken glass to get their hands on food, medicine and gas. Some waded through waist-deep floodwaters to reachdamaged convenience stores.

The spokesperson for thepolice, Ferry Walintukan, said they received reports of people breaking into shops on Saturday evening, and that regional police had been deployed to restoreorder

Death toll in Hong Kong apartment blaze at 146 HONG KONG The death toll in Hong Kong’sapartment complex blaze rose to 146 on Sunday as investigators discovered more bodies in theburned-out buildings.A steady stream of people placed bouquets of ﬂowers at an evergrowing makeshift memorial at the scene of the disaster,among the worst in the city’shistory.

The Hong Kong police Disaster Victim Identification Unit has been going through the buildings of the Wang Fuk Court complex meticulously and has found bodiesboth in apartment units and on the roofs, said the ofﬁcer in charge, Cheng Ka-chun

Thebuildingsremain structurally sound, but the search has been slow,hetold reporters, still wearing his white coveralls with his hard hat and respiratory mask at his side. “It is so dark inside,and becauseofthe lowlight, it is very difﬁcult to do the work, especially in places away from the windows.” So far the team has examined four of the seven blocks, Cheng said.

Lost Rubens painting sells for $2.7M VERSAILLES,France Along-lost painting by Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens,which was hidden for more than four centuries, sold at $2.7 millionatan auction Sunday in Versailles. The painting was recently found in aprivate townhouse in Paris. It depicts the cruciﬁxion of Jesus Christ. It was part of aFrench collection and was initially thought to be from one of the many Rubens workshops that existedatthe time.The artwork wasrarely valued at more than $11,500.

“I immediately had ahunch about this painting, and Idid everything Icouldtotry to have it authenticated,” auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat told The Associated Press. “Andfinally,wemanaged to have it authenticated by the Rubenianum, which is the Rubens committee in Antwerp.” Nils Büttner,anexpert known for his research on Rubens, explained before the auction that the master often painted crucifictions but rarely depicted“the crucifiedChrist as adead body on the cross.” The Osenat auction house said the painting’sauthenticity and provenance were confirmed after scientific analysis.

Rubio: U.S.-Ukraine talksproductive

Official says much work remainsondealtoend warwithRussia

BY JOSH BOAK and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

HALLANDALEBEACH, Fla.

U.S.and Ukrainianofficials completed roughlyfour hours of talks Sunday aimed at ﬁnding an endgametothe war between Russia and Ukraine, just days beforeaU.S. envoy is due in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

SecretaryofState MarcoRubio told reporters afterward that the sessionwith the Ukrainian teaminFlorida was productive but work remains in the search for apeace deal.

“It’snot just about the termsthat ends ﬁghting,” Rubio said. “It’sabout also the termsthatset up Ukraine forlong-term prosperity Ithink we built on that today, but there’smoreworktobedone.”

President Donald Trump’sspecial envoy, Steve Witkoff, is scheduled to meet with Putin in Moscow in the next few days.

Rubio, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’sson-in-law,represented the Americanside in the high-level talks, held at asensitivetime as Ukraine continues to push backagainst Russianforcesthat invaded in 2022 whiledealing with acorruptionscandal.

Trump told reportersaboard AirForce

Onethathewas briefedbythemand that “Ukraine’sgot some difﬁcult little problems,”referringtothe corruption scandal, which he said was “not helpful.”

The president added that “there’sagood chance we canmake adeal.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’sgovernment has been roiled by falloutfrom ascandal over $100 million embezzledfromthe energy sector through kickbacks paid by contractors, causingnewfound domestic pressures for Zelenskyy Diplomats have focused on revisions to aproposed U.S.-authored plan thatwas

developed in negotiations between Washingtonand Moscow.Thatplanhas been criticized as being too weighted toward Russian demands. As the meeting began Sunday,Rubio focused on reassuring Ukraine.

As the teams sat down at theShell Bay Club, agolf and racket club developed by Witkoff in Hallandale Beach, Rubio said the goal goes beyond peace to “securing an endtothe warthat leavesUkraine sovereignand independent andwithanopportunity at real prosperity.

Rustem Umerov,head of Ukraine’s security council, responded to Rubio by expressing his country’sappreciation for U.S.efforts, amessagegeared toward Trump, who has at times claimed that Ukraine has not been sufﬁciently grateful for U.S. assistance during thewar “U.S. is hearing us,” Umerov said before themeeting.“U.S. is supportingus. U.S.is working beside us.”

Umerov,who appeared withRubio to deliver abrief statementtoreportersafter the talks, underscored Ukraine’s gratitude for U.S.support during nearly fouryear war.But he offered no hints about what, if any, progress was madeduring the talks.

Rubiosaid the talks were comprehensive and went beyond finding agreement on ending the ﬁghting. Trumphas repeatedly saidthat if Ukraine builds deeper commercial tiestothe United States it can help deterRussian aggression in the future.

To that end, the U.S. and Ukraine this spring signedanagreement granting American access to Ukraine’svastmineral resources Among measures included in Trump’s draft peace proposalisthe creation of a Ukraine Development Fund to invest in fast-growing industries, including technology, data centers andartiﬁcial intelligence. Theproposal also calls for Washington to cooperatewith Kyiv to jointly rebuild, develop, modernize and operate Ukraine’s natural gas infrastructure, including pipelinesand storage facilities. Russia has repeatedly bombarded Ukraine’senergy infrastructure during the war

CALIFORNIA

Authorities say3 children, 1adultkilled

BY SOPHIEAUSTIN and CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press

STOCKTON, Calif. Authorities in California appealed to the public fortips,cellphone video, witness accounts and even rumorsas they searched Sundayfor asuspect in the killing of threechildrenand an adult during amass shooting at a child’sbirthday party

Someone opened fire at abanquet hall in Stockton where 100 people or more had gathered on Saturday San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow told reporters.Hesaid detectives believe the gunﬁre continued outside andthere may have been multipleshooters. Withrow said the deceased wereages 8, 9, 14 and 21. Eleven people were also wounded, with at least oneincritical condition, he said. No one wasincustody by Sunday evening, and the sheriff urged anyonewith informationtocontact his ofﬁce.

“This is atimefor our community to show that we will not put up with this type of behavior, when people will just walk in and kill children,” Withrow saidduring aSundaymediabrieﬁng. “Andsoifyou know anything about this, youhavetocome forward and tell us what you know

If not, you just become complacent and think this is acceptable behavior.”

Sheriff’s spokesperson Heather Brent said earlier that investigators believe it was a“targeted incident.” Ofﬁcials did notelaborate on why authoritiesbelieve it was intentional or who might have been targeted.

Roscoe Brownsaid the party was in honor of his brother’sgranddaughter, who turned 2years old and was uninjured. Brown, who works forthe city of Stockton’s Office of Violence Prevention, was in Arizona when he learnedabout the shooting and drove straight to the scene. He said aniece and nephew of his were shot, and he knows several other victims. He didn’t have information about their conditions.

“Who would comeand do that to some kids,you know?” Brown told The AssociatedPress following avigil organized by faith leaders to honorthe dead andprayfor thewounded. “You can’tshoot up aparty That’ssenseless. Akid’s party,atthat.”

The shooting occurred just before 6p.m.Saturday inside the hall,which shares aparking lot with other businessesinthe city of 320,000 residents about 80 mileseast of San Francisco. “Thiswas abirthdayparty for ayoung child, and the fact that this happened is absolutely heartbreaking,” Brent told reporters. She said investigators would welcomeany information, “even rumors.”

Hundreds of flights canceled anddelayed

BY ADAM SCHRECK and NAM Y. HUH Associated Press

CHICAGO Don Herrian was among the crowds of travelersatChicago’sO’Hare International Airport on Sundayhoping to make it back home after Thanksgiving as hundreds ofﬂights weredelayed and canceled following awinterstorm in the Great Lakes region

“It is whatitis,”Herriansaid. “It’s congestedbut that’sexpected due to thesnow the delays and the holidays.”

The 76-year-old retireefrom Ardmore, Oklahoma, hadvisited his daughterand herfamily in Indianapolis. He said his first flightwas threehours late,and his connecting flight to Oklahoma City from Chicago was already running another two hours behind.

“I just hope Iget home tonight,” he said.

On Saturday,8.4 inches of snow fellat O’Hare, settinga record for the highest single calendar day snowfall in November at the airport,according to theNational Weather Service. That broke the previous record of 8inchesonNov.6,1951.

Roads leading to the airport were packed Sunday with slow-moving vehicles even after theroads had been cleared of snow.Inside,delayed travelers crowded into gate seating areas, restaurants and sports bars to pass thetime. Others grabbed spotsonthe ﬂoorsofthe terminals, snacking, knitting or scrolling their phones

About 300 ﬂights into and out of O’Hare had been canceled by early evening, while about1,600 hadbeen delayed, according to the tracking siteFlightAware.

Planes were beingde-iced at several airports across the country on Sunday, including at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Minneapolis—Saint Paul International Airport, according to the FAA.

Over12inches of snowhad fallen since Saturday in areas close to LakeMichigan. Hundreds of churchesinwestern Michigan toldworshipperstostay home or watch services online.

In Wisconsin, utility crews worked to restore power to thousands of people. We Energies reported more than 6,000 power outages, with more thanhalfinMilwaukee and SouthMilwaukee. The airportin Des Moines, Iowa, reopened on thecritical travel day after aDelta Connection ﬂight landing from Detroit slid off an icy runway.Noinjuries were reported, and passengers were transported to the terminal by bus.

By early Sundayevening there were over 400 ﬂights into and out of Detroit Metro Airport that weredelayed andover 45 canceled, according to FlightAware. ElsewhereinIowa, gusty winds Sunday were blowing snow back onto roads, extending hazardous travel conditions, the National Weather Service said.

“Wedid have areas of Iowa and Illinois that saw over one foot of snow,” said meteorologist Andrew Orrison.

Over 16 inchesofsnowfellinFort Dodge, Iowa, according to the National Weather Service.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TERRy RENNA

Special EnvoySteve Witkoff, from left, SecretaryofState Marco Rubio and Jared Kushnerattenda meetingSunday withUkrainian officials in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

FRANCISCO CHRONICLEPHOTO

Lawmakers voice support for reviews of boat strikes

Bipartisan officials endorse congressional probe

BY KEVIN FREKING Associated Press

WASHINGTON Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday they support congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a Sept. 2 attack.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week’s Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical, but they said attacking survivors of an initial missile strike poses serious legal concerns.

“This rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Rep. Mike Turner R-Ohio, when asked about a followup strike aimed at people no longer able to ﬁght, said Congress does not have information that happened. He noted that leaders of the Armed

Services Committee in both the House and Senate have opened investigations.

“Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Turner said.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Sunday evening while flying back to Washington from Florida, where he celebrated Thanksgiving, conﬁrmed that he had recently spoken with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro

The U.S. administration says the strikes in the Caribbean are aimed at cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

Trump declined to comment on details of the call, which was ﬁrst reported by The New York Times.

“I wouldn’t say it went well or badly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, when asked about the call

The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the call with Trump.

Turner said there are concerns in Congress about the attacks on vessels that the Trump administration says are transporting drugs, but

the allegation regarding the Sept. 2 attack “is completely outside anything that has been discussed with Congress and there is an ongoing investigation.”

The comments from lawmakers during news show appearances come as the administration escalates a campaign to combat drug trafficking into the U.S. On Saturday, Trump said the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela should

be considered as “closed in its entirety,” an assertion that raised more questions about the U.S. pressure on Maduro. Maduro’s government accused Trump of making a ”colonial threat” and seeking to undermine the South American country’s sovereignty After the Post’s report, Hegseth said Friday on X that “fake news is delivering more fabricated, inﬂammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incred-

ible warriors ﬁghting to protect the homeland.”

“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conﬂict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” Hegseth wrote.

Trump said on Sunday the administration “will look into” the matter but added,

“I wouldn’t have wanted that — not a second strike.” The president also defended Hegseth.

“Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump said. He added, “And I believe him.”

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said in a joint statement late Friday that the committee “will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.” That was followed Saturday with the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, and the ranking Democratic member, Washington Rep. Adam Smith issuing a joint statement saying the panel was committed to “providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defense’s military operations in the Caribbean.”

“We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question,” Rogers and Smith said, referring to U.S. Southern Command.

Netanyahu requests pardon to end his corruption trial in Israel

BY SAM MEDNICK

Associated Press

TEL AVIV Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked the country’s president to grant him a pardon from corruption charges, seeking to end a long-running trial that has bitterly divided the nation. Netanyahu, who has been at war against Israel’s legal system over the charges said the request would help unify the country at a time of momentous change in the region. But it immediately trig-

gered denunciations from opponents, who said a pardon would weaken democratic institutions and send a dangerous message that he’s above the rule of law.

Netanyahu had submitted a request for a pardon to the legal department of the Office of the President, the prime minister’s office said in a statement The president’s ofﬁce called it an “extraordinary request,” carrying with it “signiﬁcant implications.”

Netanyahu is the only sitting prime minister in Israeli history to stand trial, after being charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases accusing him of exchanging favors with wealthy political supporters. He hasn’t been convicted of anything. Netanyahu rejects the allegations and has described the case as a witch hunt orchestrated by the media, police and judiciary

His request comes weeks after President Donald Trump publicly urged Israel to pardon Netanyahu, turning to President Isaac Herzog during his speech to Israel’s parliament last month. Earlier this month, Trump also sent a letter to Herzog calling the corruption case “political, unjustified prosecution.”

Herzog is a former political rival of Netanyahu, but the men have a good working relationship. Later Sunday, Israeli media reported

a small protest outside Herzog’s home, including a pile of bananas with a sign saying a pardon equals a banana republic.

In a video statement, Netanyahu said the trial has divided the country He also said the requirement that he appear in court three times a week is a distraction that makes it difﬁcult for him to lead.

“The continuation of the trial tears us apart from within, stirs up this division, and deepens rifts. I

am sure, like many others in the nation, that an immediate conclusion of the trial would greatly help to lower the ﬂames and promote the broad reconciliation that our country so desperately needs,” he said. Netanyahu has taken the stand multiple times over the past year But the case has been repeatedly delayed as he has dealt with wars and unrest stemming from the Hamas-led militant attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

BY SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press

President Donald Trump on Sunday said he’s invited the family of a National Guard member fatally shot last week to the White House, saying he spoke to her parents and they were “devastated.”

U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom died after the Wednesday shooting in Washington, D.C., while her seriously injured colleague, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, remained in critical condition.

The president said he’s discussed a White House visit for the parents of both members of the West Virginia National Guard.

“I said, ‘When you’re ready, because that’s a tough thing, come to the White House. We’re going to honor Sarah,”

Trump told reporters. “And likewise with Andrew, recover or not.”

In recent days, local vigils in West Virginia have honored the soldiers, including one Saturday evening at Webster County High School, where Beckstrom attended classes.

“Sarah was the kind of student that teachers hoped for, she carried herself with quiet strength, a contagious smile and a positive energy that lifted people around her,” said Gabriel Markle, the school’s principal “She was sweet, caring and always willing to help others.”

Beckstrom, 20, and Wolfe, 24 were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard as part of Trump’s aggressive crime-ﬁghting plan that federalized the D.C police force

A 29-year-old Afghan national faces one count of ﬁrst-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed in the shooting, which prompted the Trump administration to halt all asylum decisions and pause issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports.

Funeral arrangements had not been ﬁnalized for Beckstrom according to Cathy Pettry, the owner of Dodd & Reed Funeral Home in Webster Springs. Pettry said Saturday the home has been in contact with Beckstrom’s family about services.

The hometown crowd, seated in bleachers and folding chairs, lit candles as they heard from clergy and Gov Patrick Morrisey, who said he had visited Wolfe’s family earlier in the day

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By J SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks with reporters on Nov. 6 about President Donald Trump’s foreign policy intentions, with Venezuela in particular, at the Capitol in Washington.

ending a monthlong coaching search by landing its top target and the most sought after coach on the market. By taking the job, Kiffin decided to leave Ole Miss with the No 7 Rebels likely to reach the College Football Playoff. Kiffin said in a statement he wanted to coach the team through the postseason, a sticking point in the timing of his decision but Ole Miss Athletic Director Keith Carter “denied” his request.

Kiffin claimed players asked Carter “to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance.”

“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” Kiffin said in a statement posted to social media. “I was hoping to complete a historic six season run with this year’s team by leading Ole Miss through the playoffs, capitalizing on the team’s incredible success and their commitment to finish strong, and investing everything in a playoff run with guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern.” LSU officials were informed ahead of time of Kiffin’s intention to take the job, and they expected to finalize a deal by Sunday multiple sources told The Advocate | The Times-Picayune. The school sent two private planes to Oxford, Mississippi, to pick up Kiffin, his family and some coaches. Videos from the airport showed Ole Miss fans booing him as he boarded the plane. With an 11-1 record, Ole Miss will make the CFP for the first time and might host a first-round game. Kiffin said this week it was “very important” to him to finish the season with the team, but Ole Miss did not want him to stay if he intended to leave for an SEC rival. The disagreement came to a head this weekend, and Ole

SUMRALL

Continued from page 1A

Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding was promoted to head coach

“While I am looking forward to a new start with a unique opportunity at LSU, I will forever cherish the incredible six years I spent at Ole Miss and will be rooting hard for the team to complete their mission and bring a championship to Oxford,” Kifﬁn said in his statement. Kiffin, 50, emerged as LSU’s top target after the firing of Brian Kelly last month. He had a 55-19 record in six seasons at Ole Miss, one of the most successful stretches in program history The Rebels won at least 10 games in four of the

past five years and secured their first 11-win regular season Friday by beating rival Mississippi State. Florida also pursued Kiffin for its head coach opening after firing Billy Napier while Ole Miss attempted to keep him with a contract extension. Florida and Ole Miss offered Kiffin similar financial packages as LSU, according to multiple reports. Florida turned to other candidates ultimately hiring Tulane University coach Jon Sumrall. Ole Miss also began to look elsewhere as Kiffin’s decision became clear

LSU started looking for a new head coach after ﬁring Kelly, who had a 34-14 record in three-plus seasons

but never reached serious championship contention. With LSU once again falling out of the playoff race, LSU dismissed him Oct. 26 with six years left on his contract. LSU wanted to avoid another 10-year commitment with the new coach. Exact terms of the contract have not been released. LSU put together a sevenyear offer with an annual salary expected to top $13 million, sources said, which will make Kifﬁn one of the highest-paid coaches in college football. LSU has also prepared to commit $25 million to $30 million annually to the roster through revenue sharing and name, image and likeness funds,

which was an important factor to Kifﬁn.

Chaos surrounded the beginning of LSU’s coaching search. Within a week of ﬁring Kelly, LSU parted with athletic director Scott Woodward the day after Gov Jeff Landry publicly criticized him and said he would not hire the next coach. Longtime LSU athletic official Verge Ausberry was named interim athletic director and given authority to lead the search.

Less than a week later, LSU hired new school president Wade Rousse and promoted Ausberry to full-time athletic director the same day After Rousse caused some confusion by calling

Ausberry the “acting AD,” the drama settled until Kelly ﬁled a lawsuit against the LSU Board of Supervisors over his nearly $54 million buyout, an issue that has since been resolved.

Ultimately, none of that prevented LSU from landing its top target. Its pursuit heated up Nov. 17, when a private plane arranged by LSU officials brought several of Kiffin’s family members, including his exwife Layla Kifﬁn, to Baton Rouge. LSU ofﬁcials began to prepare a formal offer after the visit, creating internal confidence about their standing with Kiffin for more than a week.

Will LSU be the place that he wins a championship? Known for his offensive mind, Kiffin has a 116-53 record across 14 seasons at Tennessee, USC, FAU and Ole Miss. He has been successful at times, but this season at Ole Miss was the closest he had come as a head coach to winning it all. He will be expected to do that at LSU, something the program never did under Kelly

“We shared when we began this search that LSU

about trying to do the right thing and what’s in the best interest of the team and who’s going to help us win the game, it just became the obvious decision for Tulane athletics.”

Sources said Sumrall, who is 4211 in his career (19-7 at Tulane), weighed offers from Auburn, which hired South Florida coach Alex Golesh on Sunday, Florida and Ole Miss, which finally lost Lane Kifﬁn to LSU on Sunday but had a contingency offer if he left. Sumrall earned a base salary of $3 million per year in his six-year contract with the Wave and reportedly will more than double that ﬁgure in a new six-year deal with the Gators.

Tulane made a counteroffer that Harris labeled “competitive,” but it was not enough to convince Sumrall to stay “Often people wonder if we’re doing things behind the scenes to

Tulane

eld after Saturday’s

try to make sure we can hold on to our most prominent coaches,” Harris said. “People can rest assured we did have those conversations with both Jon and his agent and put together what we felt was a very competitive retention package in order to retain his services.”

Competing for rings is all Sumrall has known in his four years as a coach — he guided Troy to Sun Belt Conference championships in 2022 and 2023 before Tulane lost at Army in the 2024 American title tilt.

Florida ﬁnished 4-8 this season

after beating Florida State on Saturday. Former coach Billy Napier was ﬁred with a 3-4 mark seven games into the season, ending a rough three-and-a-half-year stint in which the Gators went 6-7 in 2022, 5-7 in 2023 and 7-5 in 2024, beating Sumrall and Tulane in the Gasparilla Bowl. Sumrall is already intimately familiar with the SEC. He grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, was a three-year letter-winner at Kentucky (2002-04), spent two years there as a graduate assistant (2005-06), one season as an assistant at Ole Miss (2018) and three more at Kentucky (2019-21), where he served as co-defensive coordinator in 2021. Friday’s American championship game will pit two teams that are losing their coach. Eric Morris of North Texas was hired by Oklahoma State earlier in the week. The school announced he would continue to coach the team as long as the season lasted, and the Mean Green clobbered Temple 52-25 on Friday while rolling up 605 yards, clinching a spot in the title match-

up. Sumrall confirmed the news of his departure to the team in a meeting at 1 p.m.

“I was there,” Harris said. “Because of the transparency he had with the team the whole time, it didn’t feel like he was coming in to drop an unexpected bomb He gave them the information they needed to know but he quickly pivoted back to what we were here to accomplish this week.”

The way Sumrall handled the whole situation contrasted dramatically with how Kiffin dealt with Ole Miss, another factor in Sumrall being allowed to continue coaching the team.

“I would start with my relationship with Jon,” Harris said. “He’s been very clear from the beginning that he wants the success at Tulane to continue and is not looking to do anything to hurt this program on the way out. The relationships that would put a student-athlete in a position that they would want to leave and go with a coach, those have already been established.”

STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Green Wave coach Jon Sumrall and his family join players on the fi

win over the Charlotte 49ers at yulman Stadium.

PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

harder to come by and more people buy cheaper watches or send them off to manufacturersfor repairs, thework has become more difﬁcult.

“It’sjust gotten too hectic to continue doing agood job, thecorrect job,” Parrellada said.

The ofﬁcial closure date depends on how quicklyhis remaining inventory can be sold. Pieces are discounted up to 70% off as partofhis liquidation sale.

Hyme Tyme’sclosure comes alongside the closureofAdler’s, another luxury jeweler in the New Orleans area whose owner announced his retirement earlier this month.

It’salso the latest storein the shopping centertosee achange recently, after the local grocer Langenstein’sclosed to become Robert’sFresh Market and PJ’sCoffee shuttered itsdoorslastmonth.

Hyme Tyme —pronounced “hi me” time —opened its doorsin 1997, four years after Parrellada had opened his original shop, then called Ingolia’sJewelry Store, on Focis Street.

fore launching his own shop.

over local businesses.

“It’slikepartofthe family that you’re losing,” said Barbara Claiborne, of Metairie,asshe surveyed children’snecklace pendants fora Holy Communion gift. “A real loss from Metairie Road.”

As Claiborneshopped,every customer that walkedinseemed to know someone else, prompting catch-ups and conversations on the showroom ﬂoor

According to Parrellada, customersregularly chat foruptoanhour as they stand in front of the display cases of discounted rings and red price tags.

BRIDGE

Continued from page1A

such as building aBaton Rouge loop. Somewhere between is the “bump,” which would attempttodivert truckers to the old Huey P. Long Bridge and awayfrom the Horace Wilkinson Bridge thatcarries Interstate 10 over the river

Since 2020, one project has carried perhaps the most excitement and momentum: a new Mississippi River crossingsouthofBatonRouge,connecting La. 1onthe west bank to La. 30 on the east bank. But funding, locationand even the extenttowhich a new bridge actually would alleviate trafﬁc in the Capital Region remain stubborn questions for consultants, DOTD officialsand parish leaders as the project navigates the environmental review phase “I really feellike it’sgoing to be achallenge to get that bridgebuilt,” said Fred Raiford, Baton Rouge director of transportation and drainage and the mayor’sdesignee on the Capital Area Road and Bridge District. “I think it will. When? Whoknows?”

Ofﬁcials and membersof the public agree on the need for some kind of outlet for I-10 trafﬁc, which has worsened in the region because of population growth following Hurricane Katrina, as well as preexisting problems like road design and city layout.

Of the three bridges in the Baton Rouge metropolitan area, the I-10 bridge experiences the highest trafﬁc volume, leading to severe congestionand deterioratedinfrastructure, according to a 2023 planning investigation

He learnedthe craft at atrade school in Mobile,Alabama, and came to Metairie to work undera local jeweler for several years be-

The inspiration for the current name came from acommon misspelling of his first name,along with an experience at aprevious job. Co-workers said he was on “Jaime time” whenever he dillydallied. Parrellada entered watchmaking after abrief career in civil engineering in Baton Rouge, which he pursued after getting adegree from LouisianaState University. He took an interest in jewelry repair froma watchmakerheknew, andliked that he could workwith machinery without being “too political,” unlike civil engineering, he said.

conducted for theDOTD by Atlas Technical Consultants. For many observers, reducingthe amount of semitrucks on thebridge —often nonlocaltraffic —isa solution within reach. The assumption goes that trucks would route south to adifferent crossing if it were available.

But Raifordand other ofﬁcials emphasizedthatpressure on theHorace WilkinsonBridgeisnot limited to truckers hauling goods acrossstate lines. Localsare also highlyreliant on I-10, they said.

“I know forafact when people want to go downtown, what do they do?” said J.H. Campbell Jr.,chair of the CapitalArea Road and Bridge District. “They jump on theinterstatetogodowntown because we don’thave alot of north-south arteries in Baton Rouge.”

Anew bridgewould not necessarily be the silverbullet for Baton Rouge’strafﬁc woes, Raiford said “I thinkitwill help reduce the volume,” Raiford said. “Isitgoingto be the salvation?No. ButIthink the level of service will bebetter.”

Thebridge proposal is in theenvironmental review processunder theNational Environmental Policy Act. Atlas Technical Consultants, the consulting ﬁrmworking with thegovernment on the project, andDOTD haveuntilmid-Septembertoshare theirfindings ofthe environmentalimpacts of three potential bridge sites, all located in Iberville Parish Thethree corridors were narrowed down from 32 possibleoptions.

“A lot of work’sgone into the three alternatives thatare beingfed into our (National Environmental

In his 30 years of business, Parrellada hasbuilt aloyal customer base in andout of theneighborhood.Some include adultswho’ve come to his store since they were wearing diapers. Afew return for repairsevenafter having moved out of state following Hurricane Katrina.

In aday,he’ll replace about 20 watch batteries, he said,while his

PolicyAct)environmental process,” DOTD Secretary Glenn Ledet said. “Webelievethatthiswill help alleviatetrafﬁc congestion and alsoprovide that connectivity across the river.”

Onecorridor under consideration, the northernmost of theplacements, has generatedsigniﬁcantopposition. The crossing would bisect and partially destroy an old-growth cypressforest known as Plaquemine Point, which theowners say contains athriving ecosystem of rare species and trees over 200 years old.

DOTD officials have not publicly indicated their preferred location, which will be announced next fall. In emails previouslyreported by The Advocate, consultants expresseda desire to minimize effects to property owned by the chemical company Shintech. While the other placements would affect utilityinfrastructureand pipelines,the option that bisects Plaquemine Point includes undeveloped Shintech land.

If sizable environmental impacts areidentified during the review of the preferred location, DOTD must undergoa more rigorous, time-consuming evaluation called an environmental impact statement “If they do find significant impacts, that could take the processthrough alonger duration,”project manager Christina Brignac said.

If all goes according to plan for the DOTD with the environmental review,ofﬁcials muststill determine how to pay for thebridge.

The most recentcostestimate for theproject is $2 billion, according to Ledet. Of that pricetag,$400million is currently accounted for

ﬁve employees handle customers shopping for jewelry and other needs.He’salso assisted by his dachshund, Cosmo, the third in a line of shop dogs (Mojo and Mojo 2 left for the watch shop in the sky).

Parrelladaattributes his success to adeep, almost familial level of trust he’s formed with customers over thedecades,atrait thathas become exceedingly rare under theboom of major online retailers

Ledet said project leaders are considering apublicprivate partnership model in theform of atoll bridge, wherein aprivatepartner could finance construction and be repaid over time, possibly through tollrevenue.

“Looking at the tolling feasibilityand then really completinga total funding plan is obviously something that is apriority as we start this environmental process,” Ledet said. “The work that we do on theselargeprojects can be complex, but I think working through this process, you’ll hopefully see alot of emphasisput into the project deliveryside.”

Butsome officials have

They’re on “Jaime time,” he joked.

Now, those conversationsall center around goodbyes to Parrellada, with customers wondering where theymight taketheir brokenjewelry next.

“I’ve had people cry because I’m leaving,” Parrelladasaid.“I’ve had every kind of emotion you can imagine,the whole gamut of emotions.”

castdoubt on theidea of a toll bridge andwhetherit would then have the desired outcomeofdiverting trafﬁc from the Horace Wilkinson Bridge

“Tolls canbeexpensive,” Campbellsaid. “Andthen, arepeople willing to paythe toll, or will they just continue to drive andend up back on WilkinsonorSunshine?”

Raiford wasdubious, too, abouta private partner shouldering the costs of construction.

“You can’thave tolls to coveritall,because nobody’sgoingtodothat,” Raiford said. “There’sno reason or justification for somebody to say, ‘I want to make that investment.’” Along with aprivate-sector deal, many of those involved in the project are holding out hope for federal dollars. Campbell emphasizedthat it wouldbeinthe federal government’s best interest to alleviate pressure on I-10, the country’ssouthernmost interstate highway I-10 makes theHorace Wilkinson Bridge “critical in interstate commerce,” he said. Butwithout afunding plan, theproposalfor anew bridge is no morea reality than the abandoned Baton Rouge loop project. “It’sunderthe tree for Santa Claus,” Campbell said.

STAFFPHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Hyme Tyme jewelrystore is closing after 32 years in business in Metairie.

Democrats gain ground on Mississippi coast

Local election dynamics reflect changing politics

BY POET WOLFE AND MARTHA SANCHEZ Staff writer and Sun Herald

After an hourslong Gulfport City Council meeting, newly elected council member Carrissa Corbett would change out of her black dress and leopard-print coat and into a T-shirt and jogging pants before heading to a community center to host her weekly line dancing class.

Once there, Corbett collects canned goods the dancers bring to stock a food pantry for residents who lost food stamp beneﬁts after the government shutdown And during dance breaks, she slips in questions: Are y’all getting out and voting? Are y’all talking to your nieces and nephews about voting?

Leaning into informal, unscripted settings like this one to connect with voters, she said, is helping Democrats along the Mississippi Gulf Coast gain traction in a traditionally red state.

“Just having casual conversation,” Corbett said, sitting in her ofﬁce on a recent Tuesday night. “No one wants someone to come in and talk over their heads.” Her effort reﬂects a broader push by Democrats across the Gulf Coast to make elections more competitive as newcomers from across the country move into coastal cities and the population ris-

es and diversiﬁes. That shift was evident this summer in Gulfport, when Sonya Williams Barnes, a Democrat and former state representative, lost to Republican attorney Hugh Keating by just 840 votes in a contentious mayoral race that drew an unusually high turnout And earlier this year, local politics showed signs of change when Corbett flipped a Republicanheld council seat, defeating incumbent R. Lee Flowers with about 63% of the vote.

On a statewide scale Democrats this month won two special elections for state Senate after court-ordered redistricting gave Black voters more electoral power, breaking the Republican supermajority and offering the party a rare boost in Mississippi. Corbett described the wins as a “blue wave,” saying that recent federal shifts such as funding cuts and furloughs of government workers had galvanized many voters.

Before this year, signs suggested Mississippi’s politics might be evolving. In the 2023 governor’s election, Republican Gov Tate Reeves won reelection by 50.9% of the vote to Democrat Brandon Presley’s 47.7%, the closest gubernatorial race since 1999 Along the Mississippi coast, though, Reeves led Presley by 17% in Harrison County, 26% in Jackson County and 44% in Hancock County

Some Democrats say these tighter races may suggest voters are more open to crossing political lines. Oth-

ers believe elections are driving stronger civic engagement, regardless of political leanings. And Searcy Taylor a Democrat and president of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., said increasing voter turnout is helping Democrats.

“If we’re uniﬁed and we actually get the people out,” she said, “we can do this.”

Republicans along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, however, argue that lower Republican voter turnout is partly behind the region’s subtle shifts. Pete Wilson, chair of the Harrison County Republican Party, said the coast’s long conservative history has produced a sense of voter apathy

“People don’t go to the

polls because they think, ‘Oh, what’s the use? We’re just going to win anyway,’” Wilson said.

That did not appear to be the case for Democrats in Gulfport’s mayoral race, he added, noting that key political ﬁgures, including Stacey Abrams, visited the coast to encourage turnout. U.S Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, also visited Gulfport during the race to campaign for Republicans.

The turnout surged to 13,007 voters — a signiﬁcant jump compared with the previous mayoral election.

Williams Barnes captured 46.81% of the votes to Keating’s 53.19%. In the 2021 Gulfport mayoral race, when 4,204 residents cast ballots, Republican Mayor Billy Hewes won with 63.27% of

the total vote.

Others believe that many voters in local elections no longer feel compelled to deﬁne their political leaning at all. Len Blackwell, a retired attorney and Democrat who lives in Gulfport, said voters in south Mississippi seem to be a mix of devoted Republicans and also some Democrats, who Blackwell suspects sometimes are quiet about their political preference. But he also said many who vote in local races may not place much emphasis on party

Protesters demand return of funds stolen from

BY JIM GOMEZ Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines Thousands of demonstrators including from the Roman Catholic Church clergy protested in the Philippines on Sunday, calling for the swift prosecution of top legislators and ofﬁcials implicated in a corruption scandal that has buffeted the Asian democracy Left-wing groups led a separate protest in Manila’s main park with a blunt demand for all implicated government ofﬁcials to immediately resign and face prosecution.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has been scrambling to quell public outrage over the massive corruption blamed for substandard, defective or nonexistent ﬂood control projects across an archipelago long prone to deadly ﬂooding and extreme weather in tropical Asia.

More than 17,000 police ofﬁcers were deployed in metropolitan Manila to secure

the separate protests. The Malacanang presidential palace complex in Manila was in a security lockdown with key access roads and bridges blocked by anti-riot police forces, trucks and barbed wire railings In a deeply divided democracy where two presidents have been separately overthrown in the last 39 years partly over allegations of plunder, there have been isolated calls for the military to withdraw support from the Marcos administration.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has steadfastly rejected such calls and welcomed on Sunday a statement signed by at least 88 mostly retired generals, including

three military chiefs of staff, who said they “strongly condemn and reject any call for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to engage in unconstitutional acts or military adventurism.”

“The unified voice of our retired and active leaders reaffirms that the Armed Forces of the Philippines remains a pillar of stability and a steadfast guardian of democracy,” the military said in a statement Roman Catholic churches across the country helped lead Sunday’s anti-corruption protests in their districts, with the main daylong rally being held at a pro-democracy “people power” monument along EDSA highway

in the capital region Police said about 5,000 demonstrators mostly wearing white joined before noon. They demanded that mem-

bers of Congress, officials and construction company owners behind thousands of anomalous flood control projects in recent years be

On the Mississippi coast, Tom Carpenter, vice chair of the Harrison County Republican Party, is “cautiously optimistic” about his party’s future. He said Republicans need to be more deliberate about hosting communityoriented events to reconnect with voters, especially those less inclined to turn out.

“If we get our people to realize that they need to get out, and they need to talk to neighbors, and they need to discuss things, and so on and so forth, I think we will continue in the right direction,” Carpenter said, adding that the focus should remain on jobs, education and security

In Bay St. Louis, City Council member Nancy Moynan, who flipped a Republicanheld seat earlier this year agrees that voters remain driven by key issues — insurance prices, city services and the challenges of rapid population growth. She described seeing “a better blending of political views” as more residents move in from out of state.

“If you align your thoughts and your feelings with a candidate who happens to be of a different political party people are much more apt to cross political parties,” Moynan said. “Because they found somebody that can speak their voice.”

“They just want someone who will be good,” he said. Signs of that shift are also emerging in other parts of the region. A Democrat running to ﬁll former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s congressional seat in the conservative Florida Panhandle last spring lost to a Republican but carried Escambia County, which includes Pensacola, for the ﬁrst time in decades.

Email Poet Wolfe at poet. wolfe@theadvocate.com.

imprisoned and ordered to return the government funds they stole. A

PHOTO PROVIDED By HANNAH RUHOFF/SUN HERALD

Carrissa Corbett campaigns outside Orange Grove Community Center in Gulfport, Miss., on June 3 for City Council representing Ward 6.

Pope callsonLebaneseleaders to be true peacemakers

BY NICOLE WINFIELD and ABBY SEWELL Associated Press

BEIRUT Pope Leo XIV

challenged Lebanon’spolitical leaders on Sunday to be true peacemakers and put their differences aside, as he sought to give Lebanon’s long-suffering people amessage of hope and bolster a crucialChristian community in the Middle East.

Leo arrived in Beirut from Istanbul on the second leg of his maiden voyage as pope. He came to encouragethe Lebanese people to persevere at aprecarious moment for the small Mediterranean country as it faces economic uncertainty,deep political divisions and fears of anew war with Israel.

Leo is fulﬁlling apromise of his predecessor,Pope Francis, who had wanted to visit Lebanonfor years but was unable to because of its many crises and as his health worsened.

Lebanon’spolitical sys-

anese people have endured.

“You have suffered greatly from the consequences of an economy thatkills, from global instability thathas devastatingrepercussions also in the Levant, and from the radicalization of identities andconﬂicts,” Leo said. “Butyou have always wanted, and known how,tostart again.”

He told Lebanese leaders to seek the truth and engage in aprocess of reconciliation with “those who have suffered wrongs and injustice” if they truly want to be considered peacemakers.

anddid billions of dollars in damage.

For manypeople, Leo’s mere presencewas amessage.

“Itshows that Lebanon is notforgotten,” saidBishop George, archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Beirut.

At theBeirutairport, where his plane landed with aLebanese military jet escort, Leo was greeted ﬁrst by President Joseph Aoun, then by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam

visit came just aweek after an Israelistrike in Beirut killedﬁve people,including atop Hezbollah ofﬁcial.

As the convoy reached the entranceofthe presidential palace, adance troupe performed dabke, atraditional Arab folk dance, under heavy rain.

tem,based on sectarian power-sharing, has been prone to deadlock with lengthy power vacuumsand regular stalemates over controversial issues, including theinvestigation into thedeadly 2020 Beirutport explosion. Most recently,the country hasbeendeeplysplit over callsfor Hezbollah,aLebanese militant group and political party,todisarm after fighting awar with Israel lastyear that left the countrydeeply damaged.

Aculture of reconciliation, he said, must comefrom the topwithleaders willing to put their personalinterests asideand “recognizethe common good as superior to theparticular.”

He moved through the streets of the Lebanese capital in aclosed popemobile, a return to the past after Pope Francis eschewed closed popemobiles. Lebanese troopsdeployed on both sides of the road anda helicopter ﬂew overhead.

In Turkey, Leo marked an important Christian anniversary. In Lebanon, Leo was seeking to encourage Lebanese whobelieve their leaders have failed them, andtocallonLebanese Christianstostay or,ifthey have already moved abroad, to come home.

Leo didn’t directly reference the recent war or the debate over weapons in his speech at the presidential palace. But he acknowledged the hardships theLeb-

The highlight of Leo’s Lebanese visit will comeon Tuesday,his last day,when he spends timeinsilent prayer at the siteofthe Aug. 4, 2020, port blast, which killed more than200 people

The Vatican spokesman, MatteoBruni, haddeclined to discuss the types of vehicles Leo would use in Lebanon, and whether they would be bulletproofed. The

AMuslim-majority country where about athird of the population is Christian, Lebanonhas always been apriority for the Vatican, abulwark for Christians throughoutthe region. After years of conﬂict, Christian communities that date from the time of the Apostles haveshrunk as families have moved abroad for safety and better lives.

Member questions size of Slidell council

9 represent city of 29,000

said they often act more as a vehicle for council members who are term-limited in their district seats to remain on the council.

BY BOB WARREN Staff writer

For years, the Slidell City Council has had nine elected members.

Is that too many for a city of just under 29,000 residents?

Council member Trey Brownﬁeld said he hopes the Facebook post will “start a conversation.”

“It’s kind of redundant to have nine members,” Brownﬁeld said in an interview As for the at-large seats, which are elected citywide Brownﬁeld

A sitting council member recently posed that question on Facebook, and he says he is mulling a pitch to reduce the number of members from nine to ﬁve and do away with the two citywide, atlarge seats.

Safe Haven faces possible ‘major shutdown’

St. Tammany Parish pursuing $620K cut to mental health campus

BY WILLIE SWETT Staff writer

St. Tammany Parish government is poised to make major cuts in next year’s funding for the Safe Haven mental health campus and it is far from clear what that means for the behavioral health services that students, families and St. Tammany residents rely on there.

Some council members argue they need to make the $620,000 cuts because the campus’ dedicated funding has dried up and the parish’s general fund has grown overburdened and unable to fully cover other agencies’ costs. In adding the cuts in a Nov 17 amendment to the 2026 budget, the council called for a “major shutdown” of Safe Haven’s campus near Mandeville.

“Psychiatric services and psychiatric care are desperately needed,” said council member Arthur Laughlin, but “the numbers don’t work.” He pointed to St. Tammany voters’ decision in 2023 not to renew the parish’s public health millage, a dedicated tax that brought in around $4 million per year, helping pay to maintain the campus.

Meanwhile, Safe Haven’s three tenants — the St. Tammany Parish Public Schools the Florida Parishes Human Services Authority and National Association of Mental Illness Southeast Louisiana — say they are unsure what the cuts will mean for their operations

The cuts will not affect Northlake Behavioral Health, the psychiatric hospital next to Safe Haven. Northlake Behavioral Health owns its property

“I’d like to be able to plan and ﬁnd out what the impact’s going to be,” said Nick Richard, director of NAMI Southeast Louisiana.

Richard said he is now unsure whether he will be able to stay on the campus through the end of next year

Among many other services, the organization currently provides housing for 15 people. If the organization had to leave the campus, he said, “these people would be out on the street.”

There appears to be disagreement between some council members and Parish President Mike Cooper on what the cuts might mean as well.

If the proposed $620,000 cuts are approved at the Parish Council’s Dec. 4 meeting, the budget says the three parish employees currently assigned to maintaining the campus will be placed elsewhere.

There would be reductions to grass cutting, utility bills and maintenance at the campus, according to Michael Vinsanau, a parish spokesperson

But it is not clear if the effects of the cuts would actually be felt starting Jan. 1. Council member Cheryl Tanner, who chairs the council’s ﬁnance committee, said she thinks the campus could continue to be maintained for at least the beginning of the year by drawing on about $800,000 in leftover funds from

To be sure, even if Brownﬁeld were to make a formal pitch in the coming months, that doesn’t mean there would be fewer council members immediately The matter would have to go a charter review by the council, then, depending on what the council decided, it would go to a ballot where the city’s residents could vote.

Council member Kenny Tambo-

rella said he hasn’t seen a groundswell of public opinion for cutting the size of the council. In fact, Tamborella said, the issue was posed during a council charter review a couple years ago and failed to garner any real support from either the council or anyone who attended the review meetings.

“This is called election-year politics,” Tamborella said, noting that the city will elect council members, a police chief and mayor in the spring.

Brownfield’s Facebook post

comes at a time when a St. Tammany Parish Council committee is in the midst of reviewing portions of the parish government charter. Cutting the size of the 14-person Parish Council has been a topic of that committee, but the group has recommended the council actually add two more seats, which would be elected at-large. Brownfield, a first-term council member who toyed with running for mayor when the post

Matassa’s plans for revival

‘A lot of changes’ coming for French Quarter grocery store

BY ANTHONY McAULEY Staff writer

When Zahran Bazzar ofﬁcially takes over Matassa’s on Thursday, the Lebanon-born businessman will become the latest steward of one of the French Quarter’s most enduring institutions. And he’s taking the reins at a moment when the neighborhood’s changing demographics, economic pressures and shifting retail landscape continue to challenge the survival of stalwarts like the century-old corner store.

Matassa’s has been a fixture at 1001

Dauphine St. since 1924, when Giovanni “John” Matassa opened the doors to serve the Italian immigrant families who dominated the lower Quarter — so many, in fact, that the area was once nicknamed

“Little Palermo.” Over the decades, the small grocery became a neighborhood mainstay, ﬁrst under the elder Matassa and later his descendants, evolving to meet the rhythms of French Quarter daily life even as the surrounding area transformed.

But doubt about the store’s future grew as Louis Matassa, grandson of the founder and the man who had run the market since the late 1960s, reached retirement age. In 2017, he sold the building to restaurateur Vincent Catalanotto Jr known for his Vincent’s Uptown and Metairie restaurants. A few years later, he also sold the grocery business itself to Monroe-based pharmacist and businessman Richard Djapni. Neither Catalanotto nor Djapni could be reached for comment on Sunday

Since then Matassa’s has been in a kind of holding pattern — still open, still beloved by locals, but facing headwinds from the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricane disruptions and the broader challenges of operating a neighborhood grocery

in a district where more properties are tied up in short-term rentals or owned by part-time residents.

Now, Bazzar said, he intends to breathe life back into the corner store while honoring what people have long valued about it.

“There is not a lot going on over there, so I plan to make a lot of changes,” he said. “I want to offer a full line of groceries and expand the food offering — fresh meats, produce and prepared food from our restaurants’ kitchens.”

Bazzar is purchasing both the historic building and the market business from their current owners. He said his vision is not to reinvent Matassa’s, but to restore it as a fully stocked grocery with an upgraded selection that meets the needs of actual residents as well as catering to visitors.

It is a familiar type of project for him. Over the course of two decades in New Orleans, Bazzar has owned and operated

Mid-City Mexican restaurant temporarily shutting down

Owners say immigration sweeps could threaten employees, patrons

BY IAN McNULTY Staff writer

closed at the end of business Sunday

BY JONI HESS Staff writer

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER

Matassa’s grocery store has been a fixture at 1001 Dauphine St. since 1924 when it served the Italian immigrant families who dominated the area once nicknamed ‘Little Palermo.

STAFF

PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK A man passes a line of patrons waiting to enter

Mid-City

Hammond police ID

18-year-old killed in shooting

BY ANTHONY McAULEY Staff writer

Ofﬁcials with the Hammond Police Department have identi-

ﬁed the victim of Saturday’s fatal shooting at the Town & Country Plaza on Thomas Street as 18 year-old Jermaine Stevenson Jr

The shooting was initially reported at approximately 5:15 p.m. Saturday at a hair salon on the west side of town.

Police said Kylan Green, 19, ﬂed to nearby Main’s Market, where he contacted police to report he had shot someone. He later surrendered to police without incident, police said.

An acquaintance drove Stevenson to North Oaks Medical Center before police arrived. Despite life-saving efforts, he died at the hospital.

Green was booked into the Hammond Police Department Jail on counts of second-degree murder and illegal discharge of a weapon. Police said the motive for the shooting remains under investigation.

“This is a senseless crime where two young kids had some type of issue with each other, and a life was taken,”

Hammond Police Chief Edwin Bergeron Jr said via the department’s social media. “It is a shame that the suspect chose violence to resolve the problem, rather than some other means.”

Email Anthony McAuley tmcauley@theadvocate.com.

SLIDELL

Continued from page 1B

came open earlier this year, said he will likely seek reelection next spring to his District F post.

In his Facebook post, Brownfield said cutting four council seats, in addition to trimming the size of the council’s staff and various associated costs like insurance retirement and travel, could bring a savings of $300,000 annually Council members make around $27,000 per year, he said.

Tamborella, who is termlimited in his District E post and plans to run for an at-large seat, said he has seen research that shows the promised savings often don’t materialize But, he added, it would ultimately be up to the voters to decide if they want a smaller council.

GUMBEL

Continued from page 1B

tion.

New Orleans ofﬁcials on Nov. 18

approved The Willow School’s proposal to redevelop the Loyola Avenue building into a centralized hub that offers education and resources for those with developmental, mental and physical disabilities and clinical training for professionals, according to proposal documents. In addition to educating students with dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism spectrum disorder, plans for the Willow Gumbel Campus, as it is called in proposal documents, include a range of specialized services for children and teens.

An on-site clinic would offer autism therapy services, psychoeducational assessments and counseling, among other mental health services. Other offerings include speech, occupational and physical therapy as well as health screenings provided through a partnership with Xavier University’s Ochsner College of Medicine.

“On behalf of The Willow School, we sincerely thank our parents, neighbors, and partners whose support has been essential to the school’s efforts. We look forward to continuing this collaboration in the next steps,” The Willow CEO Nicolette London said in an emailed statement.

Fading history

The Gumbel House and its stately architecture, now fallen into

A line forms in front of Taqueria Guerrero on Carrollton Avenue on Sunday as people come out to support the Mexican restaurant set to close indefinitely amid news that immigration enforcement officials are coming to New Orleans.

RESTAURANT

Continued from page 1B

for an undetermined time

A manager at the restaurant conﬁrmed the plans and asked not to be identiﬁed by name He said the restaurant’s owners plan to reopen when they feel it is safer for their staff and customers.

The arrival of federal immigration enforcement agents to the New Orleans area has spread deep anxiety across southeast Louisiana’s immigrant communities, as reported in recent TimesPicayune articles by writer James Finn Some schools, churches and businesses with high Hispanic representation have seen fewer people turning up.

Taqueria Guerrero posted about

MATASSA

Continued from page 1B

nine gas stations and convenience stores across the metro area, including the Big Easy gas station on Canal Street. He later opened Big Easy Fresh Market in MidCity and had plans for another store in Terrytown, both in former Rite Aid buildings owned by the Besthoff family Those West Bank ambitions evaporated with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Big Easy Canal Street site closed after Hurricane Ida.

In recent years, Bazzar has shifted his focus squarely to the French Quarter He opened Lebanon Grill in a Decatur Street building owned by Fouad El-Jaouhari, whose business ventures include Magnolia Discount stores and a partnership with Sidney Torres IV that revived the historic Circle Food Store in the 7th Ward.

Bazzar’s ﬁrst Lebanon Grill took over the space long known as Magnolia Grill, later Belle’s Diner Two weeks ago, he opened a second Lebanon Grill at 2483 Royal St., in the building previously occupied by Silk Road Restaurant and Wine Bar

disrepair, were built in 1917 using donated funds from the Gumbel family The prominent family, originally from Germany, grew much of their wealth from real estate after relocating to New Orleans.

It ﬁrst opened as a job training and education center for young women with mental disabilities, according to LSU research. A year later, Library of Congress records show the American Red Cross used it temporarily as an emergency hospital for patients during the Spanish Flu epidemic.

The city took over operations in 1943, turning it into a home for neglected and abandoned children.

After a brief closure 20 years later, it was reopened to provide services for mentally disabled youths.

Redevelopment plans culminate yearslong efforts to return the building to public use and reduce blight citywide. It also follows years of complaints from Freret neighborhood residents who say the dilapidated, century-old building is a public nuisance.

‘Social and economic costs’

Maintaining the city-owned site has been a drain on city resources.

Talks of offloading it to a viable partner and generating new revenue have circulated long before the $160 million budget shortfall the city is now dealing with came to light.

Giarrusso said while he doesn’t anticipate the redevelopment project being a huge revenue generator for the city, The Willow’s proposal will save the city money in the long run and allow it to redirect maintenance resources to

the decision to temporarily close on social media.

“The safety, dignity and peace of mind of our staff and our community mean more to us than anything,” the post reads, in part. “We refuse to operate in a way that puts anyone at risk or adds to the fear that so many are feeling.”

Taqueria Guerrero opened in 2007, at a time when much of New Orleans was still in ruins after flooding from the Katrina levee failures. At the time, new restaurant openings were early signs of hope for the city’s comeback. Many of these restaurants were Latin American, reﬂecting a demographic shift as Hispanic laborers who arrived to rebuild the city set down roots.

The taqueria took over a onetime pizzeria and joined a diverse

His goal, he said, is to build a connected cluster of food and market offerings anchored in the Quarter and nearby neighborhoods. Matassa’s, in his view, is the missing piece.

“I’m only concentrating on the Quarter now,” Bazzar said. “People who live there want somewhere they can buy real groceries, not just snacks and drinks. I want to bring that back.”

The store’s long history is intertwined not only with neighborhood life, but with New Orleans’ cultural legacy John Matassa’s son Cosimo Matassa turned a nearby family business on North Rampart Street into a recording studio in 1945. From those small rooms came some of the most inﬂuential sounds in American music early hits by Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Ernie KDoe, Irma Thomas, Ray Charles, the Meters and many others. Cosimo Matassa, who died in 2014 at 88, is widely credited with helping deﬁne the city’s distinct rhythm and blues aesthetic.

A new vision

The Dauphine Street grocery remained a more modest enterprise but no less important to the daily life of the lower Quarter. When

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE

The Sophie Gumbel House was built in 1917 and initially used as an education center for young women with mental disabilities. The Willow School, one of New Orleans’ most selective public schools, is expanding its Uptown campus with plans to redevelop the long-blighted building into a learning and training facility for special education.

other needs. “We can’t always look at everything as how do we squeeze as much revenue as possible? A lot of the time, it’s about saving,” Giarrusso said. To prime the site for redevelopment, the City Council took a number of steps last year that included removing racist language from original donation records The home was built with a stipulation that all future uses should provide “housing, care, and support of blind and feeble-minded persons

SAFE

Continued from page 1B

the expired public health tax and in rent from some of the tenants.

Vinsanau, meanwhile, said the administration is not sure whether the reductions in maintenance would begin Jan. 1 or not He also said the administration is not sure if the cuts would result in “a partial, moderate, major or complete shutdown,” saying it was still working with the facilities department to determine the effect

“I want to stress that mental and behavioral health services are much needed services for the people of St. Tammany President Cooper and his administration are determined to do as much as we can for as long as we can,” Vinsanau said.

He added that if the parish does not ﬁnd a way to keep Safe Haven open, it will have to return grant money it has received to pursue projects at the campus.

restaurant row that was then building back, joining the Italian dessert parlor Angelo Brocato’s Ice Cream, emblem of a much earlier wave of immigration to New Orleans, and another Latin American tavern, El Rinconcito, which permanently closed earlier this year

Taqueria Guerrero has gained a wide following through the years for its traditional Mexican cooking and warm hospitality As news of the temporary closure spread this weekend, people have filled the brightly colored dining room for plates of taco plates, pozole soup and enchiladas, and to bolster the restaurant’s business with uncertainty ahead.

The restaurant manager said staff were grateful for the support. He couldn’t say when it would reopen.

Catalanotto became involved in ownership eight years ago, he infused the store with some offerings linked to his restaurant background. Still, Matassa’s, like many local businesses, absorbed blow after blow as COVID cut tourism, supply chains faltered, and Hurricane Ida disrupted operations across the city Djapni and business partner Nasser Hasan leased the store from Matassa and Catalanotto about four years ago and attempted to modernize it to appeal to a Quarter that was seeing fewer permanent residents and more short-term renters. They updated coolers and shelving, expanded the produce section, and widened the beer, wine and liquor selection.

Bazzar said he views his own effort as the next chapter in the experiment: a return to the fundamentals of what a neighborhood market should be, bolstered by the kinds of prepared foods and fresh offerings he can supply from his restaurant kitchens.

“It’s been there a hundred years,” he said. “I want to make sure it keeps going.”

Email Anthony McAuley tmcauley@theadvocate.com.

of the White race.”

But the new proposal, drafted by The Willow’s charter school operator, Advocates for Arts-Based Education, aligns with the donor’s overarching intent to support young people with disabilities, Giarrusso said.

The proposal largely aims to address a shortage of teachers and specialists trained in supporting students with disabilities and behavioral health issues through partnerships with local universities.

“This deficit creates a significant ‘brain drain,’ where our most talented professionals are forced to leave the city to pursue advanced training and career opportunities. Simultaneously, this shortage leaves families wanting and waiting for essential services, a delay that comes with significant social and economic costs,” the proposal said.

The move marks a new lane for the long-standing A-rated school that has been criticized by disability advocates who say its selective admissions process fails to accommodate students with disabilities.

In May, the parents of a 9-yearold boy with disabilities brought a federal lawsuit against the school, arguing that the use of an admissions test is discriminatory and violates those students’ legal protections.

Although Louisiana law requires charter schools to open its doors to all students, it makes exceptions for public schools that had selective admissions before Hurricane Katrina.

The parish is pursuing three different multimillion-dollar projects at Safe Haven: veterans housing with $5.4 million in state and federal grants, a new cafeteria with $3.7 million in state and federal grants, and drainage improvements to protect Safe Haven from ﬂooding with $5.2 million in state and federal grants, Vinsanau said.

St Tammany voters dealt a major setback to the campus in 2023 when they decided not to renew the parish’s public health millage, said council administrator Mary Burckell, who previously oversaw Safe Haven as head of Health and Human Services for the parish. That came after the campus’ mental health crisis center, which promised to be an alternative to the emergency room or jail cell, closed in 2022 nine months after losing its operator

To pay to maintain Safe Haven’s campus and buildings, the parish now has to rely on an overburdened general fund, which Tanner has said could face a deﬁcit of roughly $20 million in 2027.

That places an even greater strain on a fund that already does not have enough recurring revenue to pay for the parish’s District Attorney’s Ofﬁce, its jail and judges — all costs mandated by the state that face 30% cuts in 2026.

In its budget amendment on Nov 17, the council also removed $114,000 budgeted to Safe Haven for a lawn mower, air handler unit and retention pond irrigation in the 2026 capital budget

Richard’s organization, NAMI Southeast Louisiana, has its main administrative ofﬁcers at the campus, where it operates a variety of programs.

NAMI has a training center where 500 St. Tammany Parish sheriff’s deputies will be trained in mental health ﬁrst aid for ﬁrst responders in 2026, he said.

He said cuts to mental health services tend to increase the strain on law enforcement and the criminal justice system. “I’m very understanding that the parish has a budget deficit. But this isn’t going to save the budget deficit,” Richard added, noting the parish’s budget deficit far outstrips any gains that would be made by cutting Safe Haven’s funding.

Under its agreement with the parish, NAMI does not pay rent. “We provide these services in lieu of us paying rent for these facilities,” said Richard, adding the organization does not receive any local tax dollars for its budget Tanner, meanwhile, said that although she believes in NAMI’s mission, she believes it needs to start paying rent like the campus’ other two tenants. “They can’t stay out there without paying rent,” she said. St. Tammany schools rents three buildings on the campus, where it runs early childhood programs and programs to help prepare students who have been expelled to return to school, according to spokesperson Meredith Menendez. It pays a monthly rent of $20,240, she said. The Florida Parishes Human Services Authority runs a residential program with 24 beds for people suffering from substance abuse, according to Executive Director Richard Kramer

But its lease is ending, along with the program, in March, and Kramer said a new program for opioid abuse disorder that he was considering starting at the campus is now up in the air

STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK

Deaths

Eumont,Susan Pecarrere, Clare Porter,Dolores Russell, James

Scott, Enid NewOrleans Boyd Family

Russell, James Charbonnet

Scott, Enid Greenwood

Pecarrere, Clare

Obituaries

Eumont,Susan Saunders

SusanSaundersEu‐mont, aresidentofSlidell LA, born in NewOrleans, passedawaypeacefullyon Tuesday,November25th, at the ageof79. Alovingwife, mother, andgrandmother She is survived by herhus‐bandof61years,Ernest Lucas Eumont Jr.; herthree children, Brett, Angele,and KenricEumont; herthree grandchildren,SarahBeth EumontCass, ZacharyJude Eumont, andAshleyBras‐hear; andtwo great-grand‐children, Lola Rita and LukeJudeCass. Watching bothher grandchildrenand great-grandchildren grow and accomplishmilestones brought hergreat joy. After graduatingfromEast Jef‐fersonHighSchoolin1963 she attended business schooland beganher ca‐reer in bookkeeping. Her life’sjourney also included modeling, coaching in per‐sonal development, inte‐rior design,and salesfor

Creten Homes, earningthe title of topsalesperson several times. Susan’s laughterand funspiritwill bemissed. Relativesand friends areinvited to visit Greenwood FuneralHome, 5200 CanalBlvd.,New Or‐leans,LA70124, on Satur‐day,December6,2025, startingat9:00AM. An Episcopal Servicewillfol‐low thevisitationat11:00 AM. Theburialwillbein Greenwood Cemetery.We alsoinviteyou to share yourthoughts, fond memo‐ries, andcondolences on‐lineatwww.greenwoodfh com.Yoursharedmemo‐rieswillhelp us celebrate Susan’s life andkeepher memoryalive

Pecarrere, ClareTaylor

ClareTaylorPecarrere a lifelong resident of New Orleans,passedaway peacefullyather home on November18, 2025. She was born on January18, 1924, to Gertrude Patterson Taylorand Robert Donnaud Taylor, thesecondoftheir three children.Clare wasa proud New Orleanianand a devoted Catholic through‐out herlife. Shegrewupin Saint Joseph Parish where manyofher relativesand lifelongfriends grew up She wasa longtime parish‐ioner of St.Joseph, St Stephen, andSt. Henry Churches,where herfaith remaineda guidingforce She graduatedfromSt. JosephHighSchool andre‐mainedclosely connected tothe community shegrew upin. Shewas prede‐ceasedbyher loving hus‐bandof52years,JohnLeon Pecarrere,infantson Paul Pecarrere,and by herpar‐entsand hersiblings, RobertDonnaud Taylor,Jr. andAudreyTaylorPoynor.

Clareissurvivedbyher

children: EleanorPecarrere Mouledoux (Andre), John L. Pecarrere,Jr.,RobertD Pecarrere (Suzanne), and SimonePecarrere Godshall (Bill). Sheleavesbehinda lovinglegacyofgrandchil‐drenand great-grandchil‐dren, allofwhomshe cher‐ished deeply.Her 8grand‐children: Alison Moule‐doux, AndreMouledoux Jr.,TaylorMouledoux, Jacques Mouledoux, RobertPecarrere,III, Billy Godshall, SpencerGodshall and ConorGodshall; and8 great-grandchildren: Andre, III, Taylor,Jr.,Colin Kate, Bryant andDaniel Mouledoux,and Eleanor and Evan Trapani. Clare workedfor many yearsas a Catering Supervisor and Wedding Coordinator, later continuingher career with the U.S. Army CorpsofEn‐gineers. Herdedication, or‐ganization, andwarmper‐sonalityenrichedevery workplace sheserved. She was an active member of her community and church,serving as Presi‐dentofthe St.Stephen Mother'sClub, amember ofthe Ladies of Charity, and an auxiliarymember ofthe De La Salle Knights ofColumbus. Shewas a volunteer at TouroHospital for many yearsand was awarded forher lengthy service.She also received the Catholic Charities, Se‐niorCitizen GroupAward A determined civicadvo‐cate, Clareplayedkey roles in effortstokeep the NapoleonLibrary open,to stopthe proposed NapoleonAvenue River Bridge, andtoprevent the closure of St.Henry Church.Her commitment topreservingthe neighbor‐hoodsand institutions she loved left alasting impact Clare also found joyinher kitchen,especiallyduring the holidays whenshe lov‐ingly bakedher famous fruitcakestoshare with friends andfamily. Herlife was marked by devotion to her faith,her family, and her city.She will be re‐memberedwithtremen‐dousloveand gratitudeby all who know her. Relatives and friendsare invitedto attendthe visitation at 10:00 am on Tuesday, De‐cember2,2025, at Basilica ofSt. StephenCatholic Church,1025 Napoleon Ave., NewOrleans,LA 70115, followed by aMass

at 11:00 am.Interment will beatGreenwood Ceme‐tery. We also invite youto share your thoughts,mem‐ories,and condolenceson‐lineatwww.greenwoodfh com

Porter,Dolores Marullo 'BooBoo' Dolores M. Porter, 76, passed away peacefullyon November 7, 2025, surrounded by theloveofher family.Boo Boo was adevotedwife of 58 yearsto LesterAllen Porter. Loving mother, grandmother, sister, and friend to many. A memorial servicewillbe held at 11:00am on Friday, December 5, 2025 at St. Nicholas of Myra Mission Church ,21420 Chef Menteur Hwy.

James“Billy”Russell, 78, ofPicayune,MS, passed peacefully, on Saturday, November15, 2025. Born on September 17, 1947, in Flora,MS, he wasthe el‐destchild of thelate CleophasRussell andLillie Russell. Jamesreceivedhis early educationinthe New Orleans Parish School Sys‐tem andgraduated from WalterL.Cohen High.Dur‐ing his firstyearatSouth‐ern University College, he was drafted into theUS Army. Followinghis honor‐abledischarge,James ded‐icatedover32years as a firefighterwithNOFD. James wasunitedinholy matrimony to hisbeloved wife, ShirleyRussell, on March 12, 2001. Blessed with24years of marriage A devotedfather, James cherished hisblended fam‐ily,his children,the late James RussellJr.,Caffrey Russell (Ann),Treva Rus‐sell, JamesRussell Respert,

EricicaMorganWheeler (Corey),Stepdaughter April Young (Jonell),and Stepson Terrance Kennard, twelvegrandchildren and one great-grandchild.Heis alsosurvivedbyhis sib‐lings:MaryRoberts,the lateCleopatra Russell, Claudette Russell, and CleophasRussell Jr anda hostofother familyand devoted friends. Family and friendsare invitedto attend theCelebration of LifeService on Wednesday, December3,2025, for10:00 a.m.atThe Boyd Family Fu‐neral Home,5001 Chef Menteur Hwy.,New Or‐leans,LA70126. Visitation willbegin at 9:00 a.m. Pas‐tor Bennie Scott, ofﬁciat‐ing.Interment will follow atSoutheast LouisianaVet‐erans Cemetery,34888 GranthamCollege Drive, Slidell, LA 70460. Guest‐book Online:www.anewtra ditionbegins.com(504)2820600. Linear Brooks Boyd and DonavinD.BoydOwn‐ers/FuneralDirectors

Afuneral servicehonor‐ing thelifeofthe late Enid Scott will be held at St Luke’sEpiscopal Church, 1222 N. DorgenoisStreet New Orleans, LA 70119 on Wednesday,December3 2025 at 10 am.A privatein‐terment will take placeat WestlawnCemetery, 1225 WhitneyAvenue, Gretna, LA70053. Visitation 9amin the church.Pleasesignon‐lineguestbook at www.cha rbonnetfuneralhome.com. Charbonnet LabatGlapion Directors (504) 581-4411.

Scott, Enid

Eumont,Susan

Russell,James 'Billy'

Columnist pegged why Johnson is letting Louisiana down

Ican remember atime when I felt gratiﬁed if we had aLouisianarepresentative raised to the upper echelons of power in D.C It meant that the vital needsof our poverty-stricken population and our dangerously subsiding homeland would be more likely to get seriously addressed. Sadly, those days have disappeared, and StephanieGrace eloquently called that fact to our attention in hercolumn, “Johnson won the shutdown but lost his way.”

Thank you, Stephanie, foryour reliable diligence in describing SpeakerMike Johnson’s“puppylike eagerness” to please the president.When Johnson speaks publicly,Ican almost hear him panting and see his tongue hangingout.

Yetsomany Louisiana voters seem unaware of his appalling failure to represent us.Are they deceiving themselves thathis professed political party and religious faith are directing his actions rather than face the disturbing reality that it’sactually an attempt to achieve the power that he craves? Have they even considered that sharing those labels with him does not necessarily mean they share the essential beliefs that exist behind thelabels?

Whyelse would Johnson sidestep the health care issue that so many in Louisiana desperately need? Why else would he unlawfully usethe shutdown to justify his refusal to swear in anewly elected Democrat, depriving American citizens of their legitimate representation?

In my opinion, anyone who demonstrates such alack of principles and integrity has provided visible proof that they are not to be trusted.AsGrace so succinctly concluded,“If the onlyway to stay in power is to basicallyabdicateit, then what, exactly,isthe point?”

Iwish to add my sincere congratulations to Stephanie Grace forwinning amuch-deserved prize at the newspaper conference in Colorado. The newspaper’sreaders are lucky to beable to beneﬁt from her pragmatic political insights.

SUE GISCLAIR Baton Rouge

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR

AREWELCOME.HEREARE

Rodeoevent awin for state, thanks to Landry

Amajor new event is coming to Louisiana this spring, and we have thevision and commitment of Gov.Jeff Landry and Shane Guidry to thank for making it areality

For its ﬁrst expansion outside Phoenix, the Hondo Rodeo Fest has announced that it will bring its rodeo, concert series andfan festival to Louisiana next spring. From the beginning, thegovernor and Guidry both saw the potential to showcase ourstate’s unmatched hospitalityand eventhosting capabilities to abrand-new national audience. His administration’scommitment to attracting large-scale entertainment has positioned Louisianaasapremier destination for fans, competitors and event producers alike. Events of this magnitude generate jobs,

ﬁll hotels and restaurants and inspire visitors to experience all that Louisiana hasto offer.This kind of impact happens when visionaryleadership understands how tourismand sports can drive opportunity and economic vitality

On behalf of the Greater NewOrleans Sports Foundation and the many partners who help make events like this possible across Louisiana, we appreciate the foresight and effortsofLandry and Guidry to make Louisiana apremier destination of choice for high-caliber events.

DAVID R. SHERMAN chairman emeritus, Greater NewOrleans Sports Foundation

PHILIP B. SHERMAN chairman, Greater NewOrleans Sports Foundation

Congress,not Corps, scuttled leveedesignbeforeKatrina

Iwatched arecent broadcast on the National Geographic channel about Katrina. The basis of the biased, liberal program was to blame theU.S.ArmyCorps of Engineers, using some clipsofDr. Ivor van Heerdan’s opinionsoffor the failings of the Corps’ design of thehurricane protection system, for New Orleans. Iknew Ivor,and his ﬂawed opinionswere based on an ignorant foundation. His knowledgeofthe history of the Congressionalfunding of the Corps was dismal. Iwas acontracted consultant to the Corps of Engineers at the New OrleansDistrict in thelate 1970s. Iremember the design work for thelevee system, and the brilliant design work that was developed along with my adviceonsubsidence rates and proper compensations for accommodations for the levees’ subsequentand inevitable subsidence. Iwas also responsible for the design of the surveyingand mapping of theentire area on both sides of the lake in the late 1970s for the sole

purpose of designing thesystem. Ialso remember that the design work and construction costs were denied by the U.S. Congress. Thanks to theCongressional delegations from Kansas and Oklahoma, thehurricane protection system forMetro New Orleanswas reduced by the “good” Congressmen of Kansas and Oklahoma. The Corps had to do as best as possible with what money was allocated to theNew Orleans District Corps of Engineers, and the less-thanoptimal design was then constructed. That was in spite of protestations of the Corps that thefunding was inadequatefor the proper construction! It seems that such historical facts have been conveniently overlooked. That was not thefault of the Corps! It was themidwestern Congressional delegations that chose to scrimp on ﬂood protection for NewOrleans.

CLIFFORD MUNGIER Baton Rouge

Politicians like Mamdani don’toffer

Viewed from almost any rational level, recent midterm elections in the populous states of NewYork, NewJersey and Virginia reinforce the view that American politics is akin to aGreek tragedy.Inthose states voters spoke loudly at the ballot box that “everything costs too much.” Ironically,in American politics, voters usually reward those politicians who recognize their frustrations rather than those whoadvance meaningful solutions. NewYork Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is just the latest headline-grabbing cheerleader of the leftward driftinpolitical expression, without regard to the nefarious consequences of its favored policies. If The Wall Street Journal can be trusted, the economics of Mamdani’s“reforms” do not add up. By his own campaign’sestimates, new taxes would bring in $9 billion; but the costs of funding his program of universal child care, rent stabilization, and free buses would cost $18.8 billion. Who pays forthe shortfall? Among much of the electorate, the stubborn desire to believe in a“free lunch” simply will not die. Most people would likely agree that afickle electorate will produce fickle election results. Our bitter experience with Bidenomics should have taught us that like fire, inflation is easy to start, but hard to extinguish. Inflation is caused by excessive growth in the money supply,the proximate cause of which is government spending in excess of its collected revenue (i.e., debt creation). NewYork has ahistory of one financial crisis after another The city continues to spend more than it collects, relying on shrinking surpluses to close gaps. Mamdani’s “compassionate socialism”will merely serve to widen the gaps, leaving NewYorkers with broken promises once again. Will other states follow his lead?

Rabalais’ slyreferences provoke chuckles

OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address and phone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@theadvocate.com. TO SEND US ALETTER, SCAN HERE

Recruiting athletes matters as much as coaching does

It is time we pay coaches less and recruiters more (assuming they are not one and the same). Iremember when Iwas on the University of Minnesotagymnastics team many years ago and everyone on the team was from Minnesota.

Later,Iwas proudofmystate when Minnesotaproduced two women Olympic gymnasts. Iwas less excited when one of these women went to Auburn (Suni Lee) and the other went toUtah (Grace McCallum)

Ienjoyed watchingthe LSU women’s gymnastics team become national champions, even though only two of their 19 gymnasts were from Louisiana. Ihave to give coach Jay Clark credit for presently recruiting one of Minnesota’stop gymnasts (TatumDrusch). At least she will be performing withateam that can win it all!

JAYWIERIMAN Metairie

Oh sure, Scott Rabalais is asuperb LSU sports columnist, as lately demonstrated by his online adieu to head football coach Brian Kelly But whoknew he was so clever as to slip in subtle references to Clint Eastwood and Monty Python movies (“Kelly’sHeroes” and “Lifeof Brian”)?

Imean, great Scott!

DREW BROACH Jefferson

Saints fans can jump on this trend

Ilike 6, 7.

Iambacking the Saints 6,7

Tyler Shough, Taysom Hill.

MARTIN AUDIFFRED Mandeville

STAFF FILE PHOTO BANTHONy MCAULEy

Hondo Rodeo Fest’sNew Orleans dates in April 2026 were announced at the Greater New Orleans SportsFoundation’sannual Hall of Fame awards luncheon on Nov6

ROBERT HEBERT Baton Rouge

Mamdani

GOPvotersshouldalsocareabout state’scoastal,pollution crises

In trying to assesswhat 2025 has taught us about the struggles to save Louisiana’scoastal zone from the Gulf of Mexico and remove thestate from the list of the nation’smost polluted, one word comes to mind: complicit. It means beingactively involved in awrongful act. That adjectivemust be worn by Gov.Jeff Landry,the Republican members of our congressional delegation and saddestofall —everyLouisianan who voted to put them in office. This verdict has nothingtodowith traditional conservative values: small government, fiscal responsibility anda strong nationaldefense. Nor even the cultural battle flags today’s GOP has raised: immigration, transgender,gay and minority rights, liberal leaning universities and being considerate of others —often termed “woke.”

It has to do with two of President Donald Trump’stop priorities.

Theﬁrst is his drive to stop allrenewable energy programs while ramping up the nation’sproduction anduse of fossil fuels.

This is adagger at the heart of the state’sMaster Plan for aSustainable Coast because emissions from fossil fuelsare driving the record acceleration of sea level rise. Research shows that if emissions are not dramatically reduced over the next two decades, 80% of our sinking, sediment-starved delta landscapes couldbe under water in the next 25 years.

So, at the same time the stateis searching for billions to keep some of what is left south of I-10 above sea level and prevent what could be the largest forced migration of communities in America, Trumphas decided to increase the chances that disaster will happen.

And the reaction from our governor and GOP membersofCongress representing those communities in dire

peril?

Either enthusiastic support or cowardly silence.

ThesecondofTrump’stop priorities threatens notjustour qualityoflife, but ourvery lives.

This is hisrollback or elimination of more than 100 environmental regulationsthat have helped clean the poisons from of our air,water and land since the 1970s. Not surprisingly,many of those rollbacks are aimed at making petrochemicalindustries moreproﬁtable throughlighter restrictions on the toxins they releasethat wind up in the air you and your children breathe, the water you drink and foods you eat.

Andthe response from Landry and your GOPcongressional delegation?

More enthusiastic support,orsheepish silence.

They have been complicit in Trump’s ruinous assaults on Louisiana.

Now,it’sthe fashion these days to say,“Well, they know if they cross Trump, he’llsupport an opponent against them.”

The response to that from Louisiana votersshouldhave been: “So what? They are there to represent our best interests, notTrump.”

And this is where thetag “complicit is earned by the state’sGOP voters, because they keep electing these people.

This isn’t aplea for Republicans to become Democrats. It’s acall for

The marshes of southeast Louisiana are washing away with saltwater intrusion in St.Bernard Parish.

STAFF FILEPHOTO

them to open their eyes to the damage being done to their lives now and to future generations. In thenearly 50 years I’ve covered our coastal crisis, people have frequently asked, “What is themost important thing Ican do to help?”

For thelast 20 years, one of my answers has been “Join theRepublican Party andchange it.” That often drew laughs, but it wasn’t meantasa joke. This has always been aconservative state, so thetraditional GOP tenets are where most Louisianians feel comfortable. Butthere is nothing conservative about supporting policies that make much of thestate below I-10 uninhabitable in 30 years or pumping more poisons intothe nation’smost polluted state. Time is running out for Louisiana conservatives to ﬁnd pro-science, proenvironment candidates who serve the stateﬁrst,not apresident Otherwise, when their grandchildren ask them what they did when the coast was drowning and people were moving to other states, they can only answer: “I was complicit.”

Bob Marshall, aPulitzer Prize-winning Louisianaenvironmental journalist, can be reached at bmarshallenviro@ gmail.com, and followed on X, @BMarshallEnviro.

Enforcingimmigration laws is not moralequivalentofthe Holocaust

Whence cometh the conviction, in America and even more in Britain and Europe, that open borders is the only moral immigration policy? Of course, not everyonebelieves that, and many who do stop shortofsaying so. But the contrast between the rhetoric and policies of the ﬁrst two decades of the century and those that have prevailed since President Donald Trump’selection is unmistakable.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, like the George Bushes, professed to want to enforce immigration laws. They decried the flood of illegals that crested in the prosperous decade before the financial crisis, and afterward saw with relief that the flow of illegals slowed.

Immigrantstothe United States

over the past half-century have come mostly from Latin America and Asia from countries that to varying degrees share religious orientations, market economic norms,and cultures of literacy and numeracy with most Americans

semblement National, whoseleader Marine Le Pen, was blocked from running by adubious courtdecision. But her 30-year-old deputy, Jordan Bartella, appearsmore popular than other parties’ leaders.

Theoriginal Gerryin gerrymandering liveson

MARBLEHEAD,Mass. He helped supply the Continental Armyduring the early days of the American Revolution. He signed the Declaration of Independence. He shaped the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He wasamember of the House of Representatives, agovernor of Massachusetts, and vice president. He lent his name—perhaps the mostmispronounced name in American history,even more so than Kamala —tothe creative shaping of acongressional district we now call “gerrymandering.”

Gerry (pronounce it with a hard “G”like “garden”) wasperhaps the most famous native of this historic seafaring town, and gerrymandering (I spent years as executive editor of the Post-Gazette failing to persuade asingle soul to pronounce that wordwith ahard “G”) is once again at the heart of American politics. Even so, the districts being crafted in Texas, where they are drawntofavor Republicans, and California, where the samescurrilous activity is being employed to the advantage of Democrats, lack the artistry of the original gerrymander,which won its namebecause the district here on the seacoast north of Boston looked remarkably like asalamander These maneuvers, and in Gerry’scase this virtuosity,come in service of an element of American politics that the old political warrior —who died in the role of vice president in 1814 —didn’t foresee when, having been amajor voice at the Constitutional Convention but concerned the documentwasn’tsufficiently protective of individual liberties, declined to support the final product. The founding document of the American government does not mention political parties. And yet today’spolitical strifegrows directly out of the changes in the country’stwo political parties, which are careering in opposite directions, the Republicans fiercely to the right, the Democrats equally aggressively to the left.

If William Butler Yeats wereapolitical scientist, he would say that the center cannot hold because there is no center anymore. So it is lefttotwo political scientists, David W. Brady and Brett Parker of Stanford, to explain to us why, as Yeats surely would have written had he been observing American politics in this fraught time, “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the political world.”

In From Dominance to Parity: America’sPolitical Parties and the NewEra of Electoral Instability,published this fall, the twoexperts argue that the nation has “moved from astate of party hegemony —the prevailing political environment in the United States in 1937 —tothe current era of party parity and its attendant problems.” Or how, to quote adifferent poet from the British isles, Matthew Arnold, “weare here as on adarkling plain/Swept with confused alarms of struggle and ﬂight,/Where ignorant armies clash by night.”

It’slikely truethat aﬂood of mostly illegal immigrants, like those welcomed by theBiden administration, will tendto have ahigher proportion of violent migrants than among legalimmigrants. And ahigher proportion of arrivals with adversarial attitudes toward American mores, traditions and government

As Iwrote recently,careful projections of the illegal population estimate that it peaked at about 12 million in 2007, fell to about 10.5 million in 2019, then increased by about 4millionduring the Biden administration, which essentially opened the borders tothe point of paying for illegals tolive in NewYork’sRoosevelt Hotel, two short blocks from where Jamie Dimon’s JPMorganChasewas constructing its $3 billion ofﬁce tower

The impetus forthis policy came from something other thanthe usual elite economic argument that,aspopulation growth is slowing, advanced countries need more workers tomaintain economic growth. That something else can be summarized in the phrase “Orange Man Bad.” If Trump wants to stop people at the border,then we shouldn’tstopanyone there.

There is another element here, seen moreprominently in Europe. And that is the conviction that barring people from your country who are different, in ancestry or customs, from the preexisting population is invidious discrimination.

Butthat is aproblem orders of magnitude greater in Britain and Europe, where very much larger shares of immigrants, from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, are Muslims. Many are quite ready to assimilate to European mores. But many are not Theywanttoimpose their religion and their cultureonthe hostsociety,and eliteleaders of such nations have been willing to let them do so.

An exampleisthe scandal of Britain’s“grooming gangs,” often longsettledimmigrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan, who sexually abuseand enslave adolescent working-class Englishgirls

This oppression of women and violation of human rightsisvirtually unknown to American liberals. Nor are they aware, despitemention of the practice, that Britain has been arresting thousands of citizensfor social media posts that are thought to hurt immigrants’ feelings.

Political parties that campaign for restrictions on immigration are treated as pariahs with which established parties must never allow in coalition governments. This includes Britain’s Reform party,which currently has huge poll leads, and France’sRas-

Germany’sAfD, which is currently tied in thepolls, is treated with particular scorn by thetwo main parties, which, between them, capture less than 50% in polls.Within AfD’sranks are some with nostalgia for Germany’s Nazi past, and the nation’sleading parties deserve respect for their longstanding commitment to renouncing Nazism and making reparations for the Holocaust. Butit’snot apparent that AfD’s policy of restricting the inﬂow of immigrants, or those of Eastern European democracies like Poland and Hungary, which are decried by unelected European Union leaders, is themoral equivalent of Nazism. Excluding people with different cultures and attitudes from your country is not themoral equivalent of murdering all your Jews

Thoseleaders whotreat thetwo as morally equivalent are captive to bad ideas.They have been taught to divide theworld into oppressors and the oppressed, to cast immigrants as virtuous victims and theirown citizens as culpable oppressors. They have been instructed to see colonialismnot as alimited chapter in history but as itsdominant theme, and to treat its harms as akind of secondHolocaust. From these delusions, most ordinary Americans, including recentlegal immigrantsand theiroffspring, and large numbersofordinaryBritons and Europeans, seem happily immune. Perhaps in time, theircommon sense will dissuade the elites of their “luxury belief” in open borders.

Michael Barone is on X, @MichaelBarone.

Brady and Parker take us from the growth of Democratic power in and after the New Deal to the partial realignment in the 1980s, and from the creeping movement to the Republican Party and to today’spolitical parity.“Unlike the extended midcentury period of Democratic dominance,” they write, “control of Congress and the presidency has seesawed between the two major parties since the early 1990s with neither achieving a consistent advantage over the other.”

The result: the emergence of two ideologically consistent parties in adeath struggle leading to an impasse where there is little practice in, or inclination toward, compromise.

When, more than two centuries ago,the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were themselves at an impasse —this case over whether the states would be represented equally in the newSenate Gerry pleaded for compromise, arguing, “Wemust make concessions on both sides” because “accommodation is absolutely necessary,and defects may be amended by afuture convention.”

The twopolitical scientists point out that no longer do morethan 20% of Republicans vote fora Democratic House candidate and aGOP presidential candidate, as they did between 1980 and 1992. In the 2012 and 2020 elections, that ﬁgure fell as low as 7%.

At the sametime, as divisions in American politics grew larger,the margins between the two parties grew smaller.Presidents routinely have becomeelected with lower numbers of Electoral College votes than their predecessors, presidential blowouts, the two write, have “gone the wayofthe liberal Republican.”

Back to Mr.Gerry.For 82 years from 1887 to 1969, his homecongressional district wasrepresented by aRepublican, morethan athird of that period by one family: George G. Bates and William H. Bates. When the younger Bates died, state Rep. Michael J. Harrington broke the trend and was elected as an insurgent Democrat. Today he owns the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem.Inthe lobby of the historic hostelry is agigantic framed picture. It is of the original gerrymander.And so it goes.

Email David Shribman at dshribman@post-gazette.com

Michael Barone

David Shribman

Bob Marshall

with meteorologist DamonSingleton

Researcherspay specialattention to calf nutrition

BYHALEY MILLER Staff writer

In theInformation Age, even cows aren’tsafe from data collection. Researchers at the Southern University Agricultural Research Station monitor calves using ahard plastic pill containingsensors, which sits in the animal’s stomach, tracking heart rate, temperature and the amount of time it takes for the bovine to regurgitate and reswallow its food.

The work is part of the Ag Center’s“smart ranching” approach to raising what it calls Southern University Natural Beef, or SUN Beef. Researchers track the cattle’shealth with key data points, paying special attention to nutrition in the ﬁrst60days of life, to produce beef forthe Southern campusthatthey sayisfree from hormones and growth implants.

“If you want to own cows, you’re not there every day,” Dr.Mallory Tate, aveterinarian with the Ag Center said about the goal of the project. “You can manage it from your laptop.”

The researchers are experimentingwith artiﬁcial intelligence and health monitoring technology to improvecalfnutritionand empower consumers to knowmore abouttheir food

So far, SUNBeefprovides steaks, roasts and ground beef for the university cafeteria, with plans to eventually sell beef products locally

Studentsget involved in the project by helping raise the cattle. Clyde Bagley,the Ag Center’svicechancellor of research,saidhe also would like to start processingthe beef at Southern’s meat plant when renovationsare complete.

“You eat our beef in the Southern University cafeteria, that’sthe farthest it’s ever been from itsmama,” Bagley said.

In additionto medical information gleaned from the sensor placed in the cows’

stomachs, the scientists track thecattle’slocations witha geotag and employ AI to analyze different camera angles and estimate theirweight.

About 80 animals are considered SUN Beef cows, Bagley said.

“The No. 1factor that’s related to beef tenderness is age,” Bagley said. “Be-

cause we do such agood job raising them, these calves are being harvested at 14 months of age.”

The data collected also gives researchers awindow intostress factors, Bagley said. Acalf thatruns fast out of the chute indicates distress, which translates to lower weight andless tender meat

Southern uses ‘smart ranching’for better beef

“Weknow when to look for those kind of things and try to reduce those stress factors,” Bagleysaid.

Critical to SUN Beef is the all-naturallabel,which means the cowsare locally raised and are hormoneand antibiotic-free, Bagley said. He envisions shoppers scanning aQRcode at the grocery store to learn about the source of their beef, down to the health data for

aspeciﬁc cow

“Everybody wants to knowmore aboutwhere their things are coming from,” Bagley said. “The nice thing about it is if you knowthatI was aproducer it makes me moresensitive,because Ionly want to produce good stuffifyou’re going to knowmynameand where my farm is. There’s alot of good parts to all of this.”

Tulane to move quickly on coach search

Interviews to replace football coachSumrall settobegin this week

BY GUERRY SMITH Contributing writer

Although he said it was impossible to give an exact timeline,athletic directorDavid Harris said Sunday Tulane would move as quickly as possible to find areplacement for football coach Jon Sumrall. The Green Wave will work with CSA Searchand Consulting firmtohelp identify thebest candidates —the same group it used when hiring Sumrall, Harris, women’s basketball coach Ashley Langford and the one that helped NorthernIowa hire Harris before he moved to Tulane. Athletic department chief operating officer Justin Schemmel andTulane chiefoperating officerPatrick Norton will assist in thesearch “I have alongstanding relationship with (CSA Search and Consulting president) Drew Turner, and theydoa phenomenal job in these situations,” Harris said.“The qualities we are looking for in our next head coach are leadership, aproven track record of success and ability to recruitbothhigh schools and the transfer portal.”

Although no potential candidateisa slam dunk like Sumrall was two years ago —having won the Sun Belt Conference championship twice in arow at Troy and having coached at Tulane as an assistant forthree years —the Wave is starting in abetterposition than it has in ages.

Sumrall

ajob

Followinga long-awaited decision,high-profile coach arrivesinBaton Rougewithentourage,greeted by cheering fans

LSUhas its new football coach.

Get ready for the full Lane Kifﬁn Experience.

We all got asample of it Sunday

There were jeers, ﬁnger-pointing (not thepolite kind) and curses at the Oxford, Mississippi, airport as the now former Ole Miss coach and his entourage took ﬂight for Baton Rouge.Then cheers, sirens and an impromptu motorcade from BatonRouge MetroAirport to LSU.

Kifﬁnhas gone straight to work, assembling his coaching staffand meeting in his new ofﬁce with University High defensive tackle Lamar Brown, the nation’s No.1prospect, Sunday night.

Kifﬁn drove by aknot of fans poised outside the MMR Group’sprivateaviation facility,giving athumbs up out the window of his SUV with his right hand while he cradled acell phone in his left.

The whole scene was ludicrous and exhilarating at the same time, people standing in the misting rain for just aﬂeeting glimpse of aman whose record at LSU is currently 0-0. But still, on agut level, you knew how completely cathartic it was for them.

“We’re never losing again!”one young fan yelled.

Brownflashed an “L” forLSU hand sign in aphoto with Kiffin, appearing in an instant to confirm his commitment to the Tigers with the start of the early national signing period on Wednesday.They also ventured out onto the coach’s office balcony,giving amoment of sheer euphoria to the fans below in the rain whocouldn’thave been happier if Kiffin and Brownstarted throwing $100 bills. All this is to makeapoint. No one is neutral on Lane Monte Kiffin. He either is the hero or the villain of the piece, andbyall indications, is comfortable in either role. He’sasocial media machine, delighting in getting arise out of people, good or bad. He is the man wholeft Ole Miss in its greatest hour of glory in decades to some, and

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staffwriter

MIAMI GARDENS,Fla. As aﬁnalscore, 21-17 is fairly common in the

That has happened 109 times in league history,according to the website NFL Scorigami. Andnormally,the result means one team scores three touchdowns and the other scores two touchdownsand aﬁeldgoal. Pretty standardstuff. But nothingwas normalabout Sunday’s 21-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins for the New Orleans Saints.

Forget all the ways that the Dolphins who scored one touchdown with an extra point, four field goals and one “pick-two” got to those 21 points. Or theabnormal route the Saints —who scored twotouchdowns, one two-point conversion and one field goal —took to get their 17. It was the craziness of the final minutes that will be remembered about theSaints’ latest loss. There was Devaughn Vele’s15-yard dramatic touchdown to put the Saints in apositiontotie. There was Tyler Shough’s back-breaking interception on the two-point attempt toensurethere wouldn’t be atie, returned 100 yards by the Dolphins for two points of their own. There was therecovered onside kick from thekicker whose family flew in from Ireland to watch his professional debut. And there was the stuffed Shough sneak on fourth-and-1 to seal theSaints’ 10th loss of the season, as well as eliminate them from playoff contention. (Hey,don’tlaugh. It had to happen officially sometime.) All within thespanof42seconds of game time.

page 4C

We’ve just gotto operate, and Ifeel

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByLyNNE SLADKy

Saints quarterback Tyler Shough lookstomakeapass against the MiamiDolphins on Sunday in Miami Gardens, Fla

STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER Tulane coach JonSumrall calls to his players on the sideline during the firsthalf against NorthwesternonAug.30atyulman Stadium

accepted

to become Florida’s next football coach on Sunday. ä See TULANE, page 6C

Tigers’ red-hot start continues

LSU women scoring 112 points per game

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

The LSU women’s basketball team is on a tear ahead of its ACC/ SEC challenge matchup with Duke, which will tip off at 8 p.m.

Thursday

The No. 5 Tigers (8-0) have scored at least 100 points in every game they’ve played this season. Until Friday when LSU rolled past Marist in the Paradise Jam tournament on the U.S. Virgin Islands, no NCAA team had ever hit the century mark in seven consecutive games.

The Tigers have now done it eight times in a row — and counting. They won their last two games by a combined score of 225-88.

Here are three things we learned about coach Kim Mulkey’s new-look roster in that group of contests. The Tigers are just past the halfway point of their nonconference schedule.

LSU can score

Halfway through the third quarter of its Paradise Jam title game on Saturday, LSU led Washington State 65-32.

The Tigers then spent the next 15 minutes of game time widening that advantage. If they looked up at the scoreboard after freshman forward Meghan Yarnevich drained a free throw at the 1:47 mark of the fourth, they would’ve seen that they had hit 109 points.

The Cougars, at that point of the night, were still stuck with 32. That 44-0 run was representative of LSU’s season to date. Easy offense. Suffocating defense Little let-up against an overmatched mid-major opponent that could only hang on for dear life while the Tigers kept making enough shots to extend their NCAA-record streak of 100-point games.

LSU produced some eye-popping numbers in its first eight games.

n The Tigers are scoring a staggering 112 points per game. To put that average in perspective, Michigan State is the country’s second-best offensive team, and it’s putting up 99.9 ppg.

n LSU is also shooting a hyperefficient 56% from the field and 44% from 3-point range. As of Sunday, it’s the only Division I team that’s shooting at least 55% from the field and 40% from 3-point range, per Basketball Reference data.

n According to Her Hoop Stats, the Tigers are scoring 137.6

points per 100 possessions — the top rate in the nation. In the nonconference games it played in 2022, LSU’s national title team scored 126.2 points per 100 possessions.

Some of those numbers could look different after LSU faces Duke The Blue Devils were one of the top defensive teams in the nation last season.

But the Tigers have never played offense as well as they are now No NCAA team, arguably ever has.

Clear roles for Fulwiley, Richard

Both MiLaysia Fulwiley and Jada Richard are settling into their respective roles nicely Fulwiley is LSU’s top scoring threat off the bench. Richard is the starting point guard.

Against Washington State, Fulwiley chipped in 12 points, ﬁve

assists and four steals. Both her scoring average (16.1) and ﬁeldgoal percentage (54%) are still career highs, as well as her steals average (4.5) the third-best mark in the country

Richard has almost twice as many assists (21) as she does turnovers (12) through eight games, and now her scoring is starting to pick up. On Friday and Saturday, she scored 25 total points after shooting 10 of 17 from the ﬁeld and 5 of 6 from beyond the arc.

“I thought Jada was solid,” Mulkey told The Advocate on Saturday, “and it has nothing whatsoever to do with her scoring. I’ve always known Jada could score the ball.”

What Mulkey’s starting to ﬁgure out, she said, is that Richard can run the offense and defend the point of attack like she needs

her point guards to do.

“Just be the general out there,” Mulkey said. “Be the quarterback. I just thought she had two outstanding games.”

Depth and balance

Seven LSU players are now averaging at least 10 points per game None are averaging more than 17.

Eleven Tigers are playing at least 12 minutes per game. None of them are playing more than 24 minutes per game

The distribution of minutes will likely shift once SEC play begins in January, but LSU appears to have a deeper, more balanced team than it did in either of the past two seasons. Its eight newcomers are a large reason why The Tigers’ bench is scoring 54 points per game — the most in the country

LSU men take ‘big step forward’ at tourney

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

A clear success is the best way to describe LSU’s trip to Florida for the Emerald Coast Classic.

Coach Matt McMahon’s group beat Drake 71-62 in the ﬁrst round on Friday and then beat DePaul 96-63 in the championship game on Saturday at Raider Arena in Niceville, Florida.

“This was a big step forward for us as a team,” McMahon said Saturday “Really proud of our players for their effort, their energy and their focus over the two days here.”

The remarkable showing for LSU (7-0) elevated its standing on the basketball analytic site KenPom. After entering Friday with the 37th-highest rating in the country, the Tigers are now 24th before Sunday’s games. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the past two games. Talent advantage

LSU took a jump in competition level and still looked like the superior team for both games.

The team was connected defensively, holding its opponents to a combined 38.9% from the ﬁeld. The offense was also crisp. Against DePaul (5-3), the Tigers had seven double-digit scorers and scored on 13 of their ﬁrst 14 possessions.

rst half on Nov 10 at

averaged 10.4 points at the Emerald Coast Classic in Orlando, Florida.

LSU’s commander was junior point guard Dedan Thomas. The UNLV transfer was able to get to the basket at will, using his tight ball handling. The threat of the 6-foot-1 lefty’s scoring made it easier for teammates like Max Mackinnon to score. The 6-6 Australian guard was among the ﬁve players to make the all-tournament team after averaging 12 points per game. Thomas was named the Emer-

ald Coast Classic MVP after averaging 15 points on 52.4% shooting, ﬁve assists and 1.5 turnovers.

New players step up Rashad King and Jalen Reece were two players who had their best performances during the tournament. King, a 6-6 senior, averaged three points in 12.8 minutes in the ﬁrst ﬁve games In the tour-

Auburn tabs USF’s Alex Golesh as its next coach

AUBURN,Ala. — Auburn hired South Florida’s Alex Golesh as its next coach on Sunday counting on him to revitalize an offense that has ranked in the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference each of the past six years. The 41-year-old Golesh, who was born in Russia and moved to the United States at age 7, is signing a six-year contract that averages more than $7 million annually to replace Hugh Freeze. Freeze was ﬁred in early November after failing to ﬁx Auburn’s offensive issues in three seasons. Freeze lost 12 of his last 15 SEC games.

Golesh went 23-15 in three seasons with the Bulls, a tenure that culminated with USF ranking second in the country in total offense (501.7 yards a game) and fourth in scoring (43 points a game).

Michigan State fires its coach after two years

Michigan State ﬁred coach Jonathan Smith on Sunday, two years after he was hired.

The Spartans lost eight of their last nine games to finish 4-8.

Smith’s overall record at MSU was 9-15 and just 4-14 in the Big Ten. Smith is due more than $30 million, according to terms of his seven-year contract, and the school will have to spend many millions to ﬁnd a replacement.

Expectations were low for this season, and the results were worse.

The Spartans followed up wins against Western Michigan, Boston College and Youngstown State with an 0-8 start in Big Ten play They lost to USC, Nebraska, UCLA, Indiana and Michigan by double digits before blowing a late lead and losing at Minnesota by three points.

NC State coach Doeren returning for 14th season

RALEIGH, N.C. — N.C State coach Dave Doeren is returning for a 14th season with the Wolfpack. Athletic director Boo Corrigan conﬁrmed Doeren’s return on Sunday The previous night, Doeren’s Wolfpack beat rival North Carolina for the ﬁfth straight year and the program is headed to a bowl game for the 11th time in Doeren’s 13 seasons.

“Dave has built a program that is centered on culture and player development — on and off the ﬁeld,” Corrigan said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “You can see his passion for this program and the student-athletes in how hard our team plays and competes. I look forward to continuing to ﬁnd new ways to support him and the football program.”

Jordan’s fight against NASCAR heads to court

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Michael Jordan’s bitter ﬁght against NASCAR heads to federal court Monday in a jury trial that could rip apart the top motorsports series in the U.S.

nament, the transfer from Northeastern stood out as a scorer and defender, averaging 10.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals.

Reece, a freshman point guard, had his first signature performance against DePaul. The Orlando, Florida, native not only scored 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting, but he also had six assists with no turnovers in 20 minutes.

McMahon said he was impressed with his play, which is essential as he runs the offense whenever Thomas is off the ﬂoor Jalen Reed injury

The only low moment of the tournament was Jalen Reed’s injury He suffered a lower left leg injury, according to a team spokesperson. This was not the same leg in which he tore his ACL in December 2024, which forced him to miss the rest of the season.

The injury occurred when the 6-10 redshirt junior jumped for an offensive rebound with about eight minutes remaining against Drake (5-3). After he landed on his feet, he limped to the team bench across from him.

Reed didn’t return to play and missed the following game Before the tournament, he was averaging 11 points on 60.6% shooting and six rebounds in 17.8 minutes.

In the eight games he played last season, he averaged 11.1 points and 6.5 rebounds.

The antitrust allegations leveled by Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports has exposed salacious personal communications, NASCAR’s ﬁnances and a deep contempt between some of the top executives in the sport and its participants.

Denny Hamlin, who owns 23XI alongside Jordan, warned this weekend the gloves will be off.

“Our fans have been brainwashed with (NASCAR’s) talking points for decades,” Hamlin wrote on social media. “Lies are over starting Monday morning. It’s time for the truth. It’s time for change.”

Shiffrin wins slalom, stays perfect in Olympic season

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. American standout Mikaela Shiffrin dominated a World Cup slalom on home Colorado snow Sunday to remain perfect in the discipline during the Olympic season.

Shiffrin extended her winning streak in slalom to four races after also claiming the opening two races this season and the ﬁnal event of last season. It was Shiffrin’s record-extending 104th World Cup victory and her 67th in slalom extending the discipline record, too.

Shiffrin added to her first-run advantage and won by a whopping 1.57 seconds ahead of Lena Duerr of Germany, who moved up from ninth after the opening leg. Lara Colturi of Albania moved up from fourth

STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU guard Rashad King drives the ball up the court against UNO in the fi

the PMAC. King, a transfer from Northeastern,

STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON

LSU guard Jada Richard brings the ball up the court against Southeastern on Nov. 6 at the PMAC. Coach

Kim Mulkey is looking to Richard to run the Tigers’ offense.

Seattle’s defense forces five takeaways in win

By The Associated Press

Ernest Jones IV returned an interception 84 yards for the first touchdown of his career, one of ﬁve takeaways by the Seahawks’ dominant defense, and Seattle blanked the Minnesota Vikings 26-0 on Sunday for its ﬁrst shutout victory in more than a decade.

The Vikings were shut out for the first time since Green Bay beat them 34-0 on Nov 11, 2007. Seattle’s most recent shutout win was 26-0 over Chicago on Sept. 27, 2015. This one was a mismatch, with the Seahawks (9-3) going against an undrafted rookie quarterback in Max Brosmer, who was making his first NFL start for the free-falling Vikings (4-8). Seattle moved into a first-place tie with the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West, while Minnesota lost its fourth straight.

The Vikings had the ﬁrst takeaway of the game, when Sam Darnold — the quarterback who led Minnesota to a 14-3 season a year ago — fumbled deep in Seattle territory early in the second quarter Brosmer couldn’t take advantage. Trailing 3-0, the Vikings went for it on fourth-and-1 at the Seattle 4, and DeMarcus Lawrence got a free run at Brosmer, who scrambled to his right and made a desperation sidearm heave. The pass landed in Jones’ arms, and the linebacker took it the distance to give the Seahawks a 10-0 lead. Jones has a career-high four interceptions this season.

Brosmer threw three more picks in the second half, and Aaron Jones lost a fumble when he caught a screen pass and Lawrence chased him down from behind and stripped the ball.

PANTHERS 31, RAMS 28: In Charlotte, North Carolina, Bryce Young completed 15 of 20 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns two of them coming on fourth down — and Carolina forced three turnovers by Matthew Stafford to beat Los Angeles and snap the Rams’ six-game winning streak

The Panthers intercepted Stafford twice with Mike Jackson returning one for a 48-yard touchdown and ended the 37-year-old’s NFL record of 28 straight TD pass-

es without an interception. Derrick Brown, who tipped a ball resulting in one of Stafford’s ﬁrst pick, came up with a key strip-sack with 2:25 left in the game to preserve the win.

49ERS 26, BROWNS 8: In Cleveland, Brock Purdy rushed for a touchdown and passed for another score in the second half, and San Francisco spoiled Shedeur Sanders’ ﬁrst home start by defeating Cleveland Cleveland took an 8-7 lead late in the second quarter when Sanders hooked up with Harold Fannin for a 34-yard touchdown and Quinshon Judkins’ run added the 2-point conversion But San Francisco (94) scored the next 19 points in its third consecutive win.

All three of San Francisco’s touchdowns came on short ﬁelds — two the result of recovering turnovers and another after a 66-yard punt return by Skyy Moore.

BUCCANEERS 20, CARDINALS 17: In Tampa, Florida, Baker Mayfield tossed a 2-yard touchdown pass to All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs, Tampa Bay’s defense held in the ﬁnal two minutes and the Buccaneers beat Arizona to snap a threegame losing streak Mayﬁeld, who started after sit-

ting out the second half of a 34-7 loss to the Rams because of a left shoulder injury, threw for 194 yards and ran for 27 to help the Buccaneers (7-5) remain first in the NFC South.

Jacoby Brissett, making his seventh start ﬁlling in for Kyler Murray, threw a wide pass incomplete on fourth-and-2 from the Cardinals 17 with under a minute remaining. Arizona (3-9) has lost four straight and nine of 10.

Down 17-3, the Cardinals ﬁnally got going in the third quarter Brissett connected with Bam Knight on a 22-yard TD to cut it to 17-10.

Tampa Bay’s defense made a big stop when Arizona when for it on fourth-and-1 from its 39. Knight was stuffed by Anthony Nelson after taking a pitch.

The Bucs couldn’t do much with the ﬁeld position and Chase McLaughlin hit a 57-yard ﬁeld goal to increase the lead to 20-10.

But Brissett drove the Cardinals 73 yards, throwing a 15-yard TD pass to Trey McBride to trim the deﬁcit to 20-17.

JAGUARS 25, TITANS 3: In Nashville Tennessee, Trevor Lawrence threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns and Jacksonville beat Ten-

Nick Folk’s 56-yard ﬁeld goal lifts Jets to win over Falcons

BY DENNIS WASZAK JR. AP pro football Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J Nick Folk

had already atoned for his first ﬁeld goal miss of the season. With the game on the line, he kicked the New York Jets to a comeback victory Folk lined a 56-yarder through a heavy mist as time expired to lead the Jets past the Atlanta Falcons 27-24 on Sunday

“Any time Nick kicks the ball,” coach Aaron Glenn said, “I feel like it’s good.” But in a game between two struggling teams that was anything but pretty, Folk’s kick was also far from it

The 41-year-old kicker in his second stint with the Jets said the 38-yard line — a 56-yard ﬁeld goal try — was his limit in pregame warmups on a cold and damp day

Tyrod Taylor got the offense to that very spot on the ﬁeld and then Folk got just enough on the football to bounce back from an earlier miss on a 55-yarder

“I was like, all right, I’m pretty sure with a little adrenaline I can let one ride,” Folk said before breaking into a wide grin. “So I just went up there and gave it a boot.”

He was mobbed at midﬁeld by his teammates as the Jets fans in a drenched and half-empty MetLife Stadium went wild.

“It felt amazing,” Taylor said of the win. “It wasn’t a perfect game, by any means. We speak about our brand of football and being complementary to one another in all three phases. I think this was the perfect game to show that.”

Taylor went 19 of 33 for 172 yards and a touchdown pass and also ran for 44 yards and a score in his second start in a row for the benched Justin Fields as the Jets (3-9) snapped a two-game skid. Adonai Mitchell had a career-high eight receptions for 102 yards and his ﬁrst NFL touchdown, and Breece Hall ran for 68 yards and a score. After the defense held Kirk

ASSOCIATED PRES PHOTO By ADAM HUNGER

New york Jets kicker Nick Folk celebrates with teammates after kicking the game-winning field goal against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J

Cousins and the Falcons to a threeand-out, the Jets got the ball back at their 43 with 35 seconds left and two timeouts remaining. Taylor had a 14-yard run and hit Mitchell for 10 and 5 yards on the drive to put Folk in position for his winner

“It’s more to me than just the win

I’m looking at,” Glenn said. “These guys never quit.”

Cousins went 21 of 33 for 234 yards and a touchdown in his second start for the injured Michael Penix Jr Bijan Robinson ran for 142 yards and a score and caught five passes for 51 yards for the Falcons (4-8), who lost for the sixth time in seven games.

“It’s always tough to lose in this league and it’s a lot tougher when you don’t have production,” Cousins said. “I’m proud of the way Bijan played and the guys around him who helped him have a day like he had. I just wish it had been in a win, and he does, too.”

Cousins threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to David Sills to put the Falcons up 24-17 with 8:46 remaining. It was the 291st career TD toss for Cousins, who broke a tie with Pro Football Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas for 17th on the NFL’s alltime list. But Taylor scored on a 10-yard

nessee for its third straight victory

With the win, the Jaguars (8-4) improved their AFC playoff hopes while chasing their ﬁrst division title since 2022 The Jaguars still have two games left against Indianapolis, and the Colts fell to 8-4 with a 20-16 loss to Houston.

The Jaguars also beat the Titans for the sixth time in seven games. Josh Hines-Allen had two of Jacksonville’s three sacks of rookie Cam Ward and the Jaguars recovered two fumbles.

The Titans (1-11) lost their seventh straight overall and 11th consecutive at home, matching the longest such skid since this franchise moved to Tennessee. They also lost 11 in a row at Nissan Stadium in a stretch over the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Fans booed the Titans early and often before heading to the exits well before the end.

TEXANS 20, COLTS 16: In Indianapolis, Nico Collins scored the tiebreaking touchdown on a 7-yard run with 12:38 to play, Nick Chubb also ran for a score, and Houston’s top-ranked defense came up with a late stop on to seal a victory over slumping Indianapolis.

Houston (7-5) won its fourth straight, moving within one game of AFC South-leading Indy (8-4), which has lost three of four C.J. Stroud improved to 3-0 at Lucas Oil Stadium by going 22 of 35 for 276 yards with one interception in his ﬁrst game in four weeks. He cleared the concussion protocol Friday

Collins caught ﬁve passes for 98 yards.

Houston sealed the win by forcing a turnover on downs with 1:45 to play after Daniel Jones had taken Indy to Houston’s 31-yard line.

The Colts have lost two straight for the ﬁrst time this season, and this was the ﬁrst time they were held under 20 points.

Playing through a lower leg injury, Jones finished 14 of 27 for 201 yards and two TDs. Jonathan Taylor the NFL’s leading rusher was held to 85 yards on 21 carries and failed to score for only the ﬁfth time this season.

CHARGERS 31, RAIDERS 14: In Inglewood, California, Justin Herbert

Diggs

threw two touchdown passes while playing through an injury to his non-throwing hand, and Kimani Vidal made a 59-yard scoring run during Los Angeles’ victory over spiraling Las Vegas.

Quentin Johnston and Ladd McConkey had TD catches and Vidal rushed for a career-high 126 yards for the Chargers (8-4), who snapped back from an embarrassing loss at Jacksonville for their fourth win in ﬁve games to keep pressure on the Denver Broncos atop the AFC West.

Jaret Patterson rushed for his ﬁrst NFL touchdown since 2021 to ice the victory with 1:55 to play Los Angeles comfortably beat its longtime West Coast rivals for the fourth straight time, sweeping the season series and emphasizing the current gulf between the Bolts and the Raiders (2-10), who had less support in the SoFi Stadium crowd than in past seasons.

BILLS 26, STEELERS 7: In Pittsburgh, Josh Allen threw for a touchdown and ran for another, Joey Bosa sacked Aaron Rodgers to spring Christian Benford for a gametilting, 17-yard scoop-and-score, and Buffalo pushed Pittsburgh around.

Buffalo (8-4) bounced back from a loss at Houston by whipping Pittsburgh (6-6) up front James Cook ran for 144 yards as the Bills piled up 249 yards on the ground and controlled the clock for nearly 42 minutes inside blustery Acrisure Stadium.

The swirling winds at one of the league’s trickiest venues made passing nearly impossible. Allen completed 15 of 23 for 123 yards with an interception and a 3-yard scoring toss to Keon Coleman, who returned to the active roster after being a healthy scratch the last two weeks due to disciplinary issues.

The reigning MVP essentially put the game away when he bulldozed across the goal line from 8 yards out early in the fourth quarter to give the Bills a 16-point lead. It was the 76th rushing touchdown of Allen’s career, breaking the NFL record for touchdown runs by a quarterback that he brieﬂy shared with Cam Newton.

has been focused for Patriots this season

BY KYLE HIGHTOWER

sportswriter

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The performance of Stefon Diggs was one of the biggest unknowns for the New England Patriots entering the season.

Diggs established himself as one of the NFL’s best wide receivers during a run with Minnesota and Buffalo from 2018 to 2023 when he had six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons.

But after a trade from the Bills to the Houston Texans following the 2023 season and subsequent season-ending knee injury after a mostly lackluster eight games with the Texans last season, where the 10-year veteran would land in free agency was a mystery

run that capped a 15-play drive during which the Jets converted three third-down plays and one on fourth down — a 2-yard keeper by Taylor on fourth-and-1 at the 11 — to tie it at 24 with 1:53 remaining. The Jets got just their second takeaway of the season when Jamal Agnew fumbled a fair catch of Austin McNamara’s punt and Qwan’tez Stiggers recovered at the Atlanta 2. Hall ran it up the middle on the next play to put New York up 7-0 1:02 into the second quarter Tyler Allgeier powered into the end zone from 1 yard to tie it at 7 for the Falcons with 9 seconds left in the opening half.

Atlanta marched 95 yards on its opening possession of the second half, capped by Robinson’s 5-yard touchdown run. But the Jets needed just two plays to tie it again. Taylor launched a deep pass downﬁeld to Mitchell who got wide open after Mike Hughes fell in coverage — for a 52-yard touchdown. It was Mitchell’s ﬁrst touchdown catch since being acquired from Indianapolis at the trade deadline in the deal that sent Sauce Gardner to the Colts. It was also the Jets’ longest pass play of the season.

That place ended up being one of the biggest offseason acquisitions for a New England team that was in need of a dependable wide receiver for second-year quarterback Drake Maye It may be a decision responsible for both revitalizing Diggs’ career and helping return the Patriots (10-2) to AFC relevancy as they prepare for a Monday night matchup against the New York Giants (2-10).

“I’m thankful to be where I’m at right now, around a good group of guys,” Diggs said recently after celebrating being a year removed from last year’s knee surgery “But more importantly I think is we’re still going. We’re right in the thick of it. I feel like I can’t get caught up in the moment, but I would be remiss if I didn’t thank God and thank my teammates and everybody for pushing me where I’m at right now But more importantly I’m still grinding.”

After a slow start where he had a career-high seven-game drought without a touchdown to open a season, Diggs said he was clinging to his philosophy of “eating the food that’s on your plate” in regards to how he was used in the offense.

Over the past five games, Diggs’ plate has been more than full.

He has three touchdowns over that stretch, and now leads the team with 61 catches and 679 receiving yards. It’s helped New England vault to a 10-2 record. Diggs credits the way ﬁrst-year Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and the training staff managed his post-surgery rehab, beginning with slowly bringing him along in the preseason and then methodically increasing his targets early in the season. He’s yet to miss a start.

That may have roots in his previous familiarity with Patriots wide receiver coach Todd Downing, whom Diggs credits with being part of the reason he came to New England in the ﬁrst place. Downing was also tight ends coach in Minnesota in 2018 when Diggs was there.

“I trusted him,” Diggs said. “I don’t trust many people. I believed him. He gave me face value words and I appreciated his honesty Same with Coach Vrabes. I appreciate straight shooters. You can tell me the truth no matter what it is and I’ll rock with you if it’s the truth. But if you try to pull the wool over my eyes than it gets a little dicey.”

That trust also is there with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who has brought out a more intense off the ﬁeld work ethic in Diggs.

“This is probably like my biggest year I’ve studied the most, as far as recognizing coverages and being able to try to see it before the play starts. Kind of like from a quarterback vision,” Diggs said “And then McDaniels, he’s going to challenge you. He challenges me each and every day to be studious, be tedious, keep learning, don’t get comfortable and have competitive stamina. So I feel like being a leader that helped me a lot. It’s my ﬁrst year really diving into the mental aspect of it that deep. I’m just used to just balling for real.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By LINDSEy WASSON

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tyler Hall runs against the Minnesota Vikings during the second half of a game on Sunday in Seattle.

DOLPHINS 21,SAINTS17

BY THENUMBERS

movesuponNFL’s

Tagovailoa 4-4. PASSING—New Orleans, Shough 26-38-1-239. Miami, Tagovailoa 12-23-1-157.

RECEIVING—New Orleans, Vele 8-93, Johnson 5-39, Olave 4-47, Neal3-22, Tipton 3-20, Moreau 2-13, Hill 1-5. Miami, M.Washington 4-30, Waddle 3-40, Waller 2-47, Dulcich 2-24, C.Wilson 1-16.

PUNT RETURNS—New Orleans, Pettis 2-12. Miami, M.Washington 1-5. KICKOFF RETURNS—New Orleans, Tipton

2-58, Pettis 2-47. Miami, M.Washington2-45.

TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS—New Orleans

D.Davis 5-4-0, Burgess 3-4-0, Jordan 2-2-2, Bresee 2-2-1, Godchaux 2-2-0, Werner 2-2-0, McKinstry2-1-0, Shepherd2-1-0, C.Young 2-0-1, Taylor 2-0-0, Sanker 1-4-0,Howden 1-30, Granderson 1-2-0, Riley 1-1-0, Stutsman 1-1-0, Stalbird0-2-0, Reid 0-1-0. Miami, Brooks 6-6-0, Davis5-1-0, Dodson4-4-0, Fitzpatrick 4-3-1, Melifonwu 4-3-0, Douglas

4-2-0, J.Jones 3-2-0,C.Robinson 2-3-1.5, Sieler

2-1-0, Chubb 1-2-1, Trader1-1-0, Judon1-0-0, Phillips 0-4-0, Biggers 0-1-.5, Grant 0-1-0, B.Jones 0-1-0. INTERCEPTIONS—New Orleans, McKinstry 1-0. Miami, Douglas1-38. MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

OFFICIALS—Referee AlanEck,Ump Tab Slaughter, HL David Oliver, LJ GregBradley FJ John Jenkins, SJ Dale Shaw,BJGrantis Bell, ReplayJoe Wollan.

SAINTS

Continued from page1C

“Shoot, the last couple minutes, it was like this,” Shough said,waiving his hand in the pattern of aroller-coaster track. “We’ve just got to operate, and Ifeel like we did areally good job of staying focused.” That focus wasn’tenoughtopull off an improbable comeback. Once again this season, the Saints delivered postgame remarks about how they were proud of their ﬁght to the end. But onceagain,they stressed theneed to start faster

As wild as Sunday’sending was, the Saints weren’t able to overcome many of the season-long problems that have plagued the franchise.

Kellen Moore may not be close to the hot seat in his ﬁrst year,but the coach’sinability to self-correct their issues over the course of theyear has to be one of the more discouraging developments of the season. Think backtoMoore’s reputation before he was hired to coach the Saints. He was seen as ayoung, innovative play-callerwho thrived in three stops, fresh off winning a Super Bowl with thePhiladelphia Eagles. But against the Dolphins, and as it has beenfor most of the year,itwas Moore’sown offense that held the Saints back. The Saints went three-and-out on theiropening drivefor the sixth time in 12 games. They had 63 yards at halftime. They forced Kai Kroegertopunt sixtimes on a day that was set up to be about the kicker, not the punter

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

MIAMI GARDENS,Fla.—Cam Jordan has passed another Hall of Famer in theNFL record books.

The New Orleans Saints defensive end dropped Miamiquarterback TuaTagovailoa for asack on the Dolphins’ opening drive, giving him127 in hiscareerand moving him past former Kansas City Chiefspass rusher DerrickThomas on theNFL’s all-time sacks list.

“I think BryanBresee had amiddle interior pushpressure, Ithought he was going to getit. …Really, it was aclean-up (sack),” Jordan said. “If one’sfor free, you’ve got to go earn one.”

Jordan added another sack later in the first quarter,giving him his first two-sack game since Decemberoflast year againstthe Washington Commanders. With that sack, Jordan tied Saints legend Rickey Jackson on theall-timelist at least officially Sacks became an official NFL statistic in 1982. Jackson, whorecorded eight sacks in his 1981 rookie season,officially has 128 sacks.

Not everything, to be fair,can be pinned on Moore. He calls the plays, but theplayers have to execute them. It wasn’t Moore’sfault, for instance, that before Shough threw an interception on his twopoint attempt, tackle TalieseFuaga committeda false-start penalty that put theSaints back an extra 5yards.

“Wehad changed thecadence when we broke the huddle,(and) Ijust didn’thear it,” Fuaga said.

“That’sonme.”

“Obviously,it’sa challenging two-pointplay when you’regoing from the 7,” Moore said.

Theroster also needs work. The Saints’lack of explosive playmakers stood in stark contrast to Miami, which has wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and star running back De’Von Achane. Achane, who ripped off a29-yard touchdown on Miami’sﬁrst drive, fueled aDolphins rungamethat gained 164 yards on 32 carries. New Orleans, by contrast,inched and clawed its way for every yard without Alvin Kamara (knee injury). The Saints gained81yards on 27 carries.

Butthe Saints still had achance. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel mysteriously went away from Achaneinkey situations, such as the fourth-and-1 runthat was stuffed to set up Shough’spotential game-tying drive with 3:03 left. Miami quarterback TuaTagovailoa (157 yards on11-of-23 passing) also struggled against aSaints defense thatpicked himoff once and sacked him four times. The Saints even found abit of a rhythm offensively in the second half.

Jordan is now tied for 17th on the official all-time list.Some statistical services have tracked sacksfrom before they became an official statistic, andonthat list, Jordan is now 26thall-time.

After his two ﬁrst-quartersacks, Jordan now has ateam-leading 61/2 on the season —easily his best campaign since thelast time he madethe ProBowl, in 2022.

“Hard work and effort, the ability to meshwell with our D-line as well as knowing who you’re rushing with,” Jordan said. “At the end of the day,…God has blessed me with immense talentand I’m overly grateful for what he’s given me.”

Long road back

When the 2025 season began, running back Evan Hull wasathome, training and waiting for an opportunity to prove he still belonged in theNFL.

Sunday againstthe Miami Dolphins,thatopportunityarrived: Playinginjusthis thirdNFL game,Hullserved as the Saints’ No. 2back with Alvin Kamara unavailable because of aknee injury.

His statistical line was modest, with his ﬁve carries going for15 yards, but it was ameaningful day for Hull twoyears after asevere injury that nearlyderailedhis playing career just as it began.

Hull suffered atorn MCL and ameniscus root tear in the ﬁrst game of his rookie season after the Indianapolis Colts drafted him in the ﬁfth round of the2023 draft The root tear led to an especially difficult andlengthy recovery becausethe meniscus had to be reattached

“WhenIwas talking to doctors andgetting secondopinions, it hadmealittle worried, because I’dnever dealtwiththatkind of injury before, something that kept me outfor theentireyear,” Hull said. “So obviously there was somedoubts.

“Will Ibethe sameplayer when Icome back? Andittook alot moretime than Ithought it would, even in that secondyear.Finding whoIwas as aplayer again, it took alittle bit of time into that season for me to ﬁgure it out.”

He played only onesnapfor theColts last year before being

Theshiftstarted with aseries of hard runs that put the offense in morefavorable situations. And from there, two other things mainly changed: The Saints started running moreplays from tempo, and Vele got involved.

Aftermonths of wonderingabout his role in the offense and whether acquiring him fromthe Denver Broncos was worthit, Vele hada signature day with the Saints. He ﬁnishedwitheight catches and93 yards. The27-year-old not only

waived midseason. Hull spent thesummerwiththe Pittsburgh Steelers but did not make the team out of training camp.

“So to be here now is avery surreal moment,” Hull said. “This was my first full regularseasongame. (I)cameintothe gamehealthy,played through the whole game. Ijustthank Godfor that, because God has brought me through all this to this point now.”

Reid injured Saints safety JustinReid suffered aknee injury on the first play of thegame againstthe Dolphins, and he wasofficially ruled out for theremainderofthe game at the beginning of the second half Reidbriefly looked likehe’d be able to return to the game, checking back in after missing three plays. But whenthe Saints defense returned to the field, Reid remained on the sideline. With Reid outofthe game, the Saints rotated safeties Jordan Howden and TerrellBurgess into the lineup. Coach Kellen Moore did nothavean update on the severity of Reid’s injury after the game.

caught the touchdown, but he also recovered the onside kick. Unfortunately for Vele, he was also part of the “picktwo” that proved to be costly.Asheran a shallow route, Dolphins safety Minkah Fitzpatrick jumped the pass intended forthe wide receiver andran it allthe waytothe opposite end zone.

If the Saints had converted that play,noonside kick would have been necessary,and one stop from the defense would likely haveled to overtime. And if it had simply been incomplete, and the Saints still managed to recover the onside kick, they could have been in ﬁeldgoal range to win.

“I would have liked to maybe put it outinfront alittlebit more, but (I) had to get it out of my hands,” said Shough, whowas blasted by a defender right after the throw The finaldrive didn’tgoNew Orleans’ way, either.Despite a10yard pass to Chris Olave andthen another 9-yard pass to Devin Neal, the offense stalledout in another short-yardage situation —just as it hadsooften theprevious week against the Atlanta Falcons.

“The fact that I’ve come up and say we’rea tenaciousteam, we’re ateam that keeps ﬁghting,” defensive end CamJordan said. “When you’re ﬁghting an uphill battle, you have to eventually reach the top of the hill.

“We’re taking shots, we’re swinging and you just wish they would fall in our favor,and they haven’t forwhatever reason this year.”

Email Matthew Parasatmatt. paras@theadvocate.com

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByLyNNE SLADKy Saints wide receiver Chris Olave catches apass foratouchdownduring the second half of agameagainst the Dolphins on Sunday in Miami Gardens, Fla.

defensiveend Cameron Jordan grabsDolphins quarterback TuaTagovailoa for asackduring agame on SundayinMiamiGardens,

DOLPHINS21, SAINTS

THREEAND OUT: JEFF DUNCAN’S TOPTHREE TAKEAWAySFROMSAINTS’ LOSS IN MIAMI

SAINTS SHOWED FIGHT

After aleaky first half, the Saints held theDolphins to just five points in the second half, allowing the team to fight into contentionand come within atwo-point conversion of tying the game in the final minutes.Alas,the Saints’ faulty execution derailed the comeback.Afalse startpenalty on Taliese Fuagaled to adisastrous pick-twobyMinkah Fitzpatrick on the ensuing conversion try, accountingfor the final score.The Saints had onelast tryafter Vele recovereda beautifully executed onside kick by Charlie Smyth, but they failedto convertafourth-and-1 at the Dolphins’ 36-yard line in the final minute, ending the comeback attempt.

SLOWSTARTS CONTINUED

The Saints once again found themselves playingcatch-up.Theyfailed to gain a first down and went scorelessintheir three firstquarter possessions. Meanwhile, Miamimarchedfor a touchdown on its opening series to takeaquick 7-0 lead and addeda field goal on the first playofthe second quarter.From there, it was anotheruphill climb. TheSaints have nowscored just one touchdownin27 first-quarter drives this season.Asaresult, theyhave been outscored92-19 in the openingperiod. It wasthe ninth timein12gamesthat the Saints failed to lead for asingleminute

SMYTH,VELE WERE BRIGHT SPOTS

If youwerelooking fora silver lining to theloss, looknofurtherthan second-yearplayers Charlie Smyth and Devaughn Vele.Smyth,the kicker fromNorthernIreland, wasmaking his NFL debut after the Saints releasedBlakeGrupe earlierinthe week.He opened eyes by booming a56-yard fieldgoal in the first attemptofhis career.Smyth alsoperformed aperfect onsidekick in the final 2minutes that Vele recovered.Vele meanwhile, had abreakout game with eight catches for 93 yards, including aspectacular 15-yard touchdowncatch. Vele made several acrobatic and contested catchesin traffic, manyonin-breaking routes overthe middle.

‘ABSOLUTELYBUZZING’

IrelandnativeSmyth’s parentstraveltoMiami to witnesshis dazzling NFLdebut

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

MIAMI GARDENS,Fla. It was approaching 9p.m. in Mayobridge,County Down, NorthernIreland, when the cheers roaredand the taps got busy

The native son was getting his first chance to play thisforeigngame across the Atlantic. Maybethose watching from the local pubweren’t exactly sure about the difficulty of what he was lining up for,but they knew the payoff: If New Orleans Saints kickerCharlieSmyth made his first NFL field goal attempt from 56 yards out, they got their free pint

The snap and hold weregood, the ball left Smyth’sfoot true, and the kicker didn’teven wait to watchitgo through the uprights beforehestarted celebrating. “I blacked out. Ican’tremember,” Smythsaid. “. Ilookedupand sawit was going down the middle. Iknew I had enough power on it anyway,the way it felt off the foot.”

Smythjoineda rare fraternity as a nativeIrishman to appear in an NFL game. He has been with theSaints developing behind the scenes for thelast 18 months, but Sunday’sgame against theMiami Dolphins washis first chance to show his talent in ameaningful professional game.

The chances were limited, but boy, did he make them count

In addition to his longfield goal, Smyth also pulled off the rare successful onside kick lateinthe fourth quarter,giving the Saintsa chance at a go-aheadscore in the ﬁnal minute.The onside kick was aresult of ﬁlmstudy, noting the way Miami’shands team did not block the player that would be in Devaughn Vele’sposition.

Learning an onside kick is new for Smyth, too. This speciﬁc kick wasonly put into the game plan this week.

“Wecaught our own handsteam offguard (in practice),” Smyth said. “Me and (special-teams coordinator Phil Galiano) had adiscussion about it, and we went for it. Vele did agreat job; everybody did agreat job.” And he got to do that in front of his parents and sisters, whopurchased last-minute ﬂights from Ireland toMi-

ASSOCIATEDPRESS PHOTOByLyNNE SLADKy

Saints kicker Charlie Smyth poses with his parents, Leoand Julie, and afriend before agame against the MiamiDolphins on SundayinMiami Gardens, Fla. Smythshined in his NFLdebut withthe Saints.

ami in ordertowatch him play

Smythlearned he would makehis NFL debut Friday afternoon,and his first callwenttohis mother.His father hadtocall himback, becausehewas helping someone at the counter at the shop where he works. His family booked last-minute flights lateFridaynight in Ireland, drove across thecountry to Dublin to make their flight along withhis kicking coach Tadhg Leader,enduredweather delays in Chicago because of snow,but they made it on timetosee Smyth play—and they’renot staying in the States for long.

“They’re going homeonMonday,because my mom’s aschool teacher and she got asub in on Monday and she’s back to work Tuesday,” Smyth said. “I don’tknowwhatmydad’sdoing; he’s trying to getsorted on his work holidays aswell.But they madeitwork.”

Leaderwas sitting next to Smyth’s family andpaying close attention to Smyth in the minutes before his 56-yard attempt. As Smythlined it up, Leader noticedhis mothercouldn’twatch.She had her eyes closed when it sailedthrough, and afew tears followed.

“I truly couldn’t have been morecon-

Saints’lossjustone

Thelast day of November will be one to remember for sportsfans in Louisiana.

Here’s what all happened on acrazy Sunday that made for abusy dayfor thefolks tasked with putting this newspaper together

n The New Orleans Saints found their offense in the secondhalf andalmost climbed out of a 16-point hole againstthe Miami Dolphins.

n Cam Jordan foundthe fountain of youth yet again.

n Kellen Moore found outthat receiver Devaughn Vele is indeed on the Saints’ roster.

n LSU found its head coach

start the second half of Super Bowl XLIV in 2010. Smyth’skick landed right in the arms of Vele, much thesame way that many of Tyler Shough’s passes did.

ﬁdent that he was going to hitapure ball, and he hit it really,really pure,” Leader said. “... That’sbased off chattingtohim every day the last week or so, when he’sbeen going through all of this to win the job, to validate to the coaching staff, ‘I’m the guy.’ He was put through thewringer this week to prove that to them.”

Smythsigned with theSaintsinMarch 2024 through the International Player Pathway(IPP),onlymonthsafter he’d kicked an American football for the ﬁrst time in hislife. Theformer Gaelic football player grew up appreciating the game from afar,but he’d nevertried it for himself until he heard about aworkshopbeing put on by Leader,the IPP’s lead punting and kicking coach.

He’sthe ﬁrst IPPpunting and kicking product to play in an NFLgame. Up until Sunday’sgame he’dmainly served as acuriosity —a talent who could dazzle with hisabilitytokick long fieldgoals butwhose rawness showed up in inconsistent training camppractices. NewOrleans kept himonthe practice squad,takingadvantage of the roster exemption they received for an international player,

and the patience paid off Sunday

“Charlie’s earned thisopportunity,” said coach Kellen Moore.

The opportunity came aboutbecause theSaintscould no longerbepatient with Blake Grupe. The team reached abreaking pointwith Grupeafter his seventh and eighth missesofthe season in Week 12 against Atlanta. New Orleansreleased Grupe on Tuesday,then put Smyth through aseries of competitions before elevating him forSunday’sgame.

“Tuesday was strange emotions, because you saw your opportunity potentially coming up, but seeing (Blake) like that, it wastough because we’re friends,” Smythsaid. “You getyour head right, andI was buzzing. Thursday wasabig day, andIkicked really well.

“I wasjustexcited to getthe opportunity,and to be honest, I’mhiding it a little bit. I’mabsolutely buzzing.”

Even though they had to wait for their free drink, there’sagood chance the people in the pub back homewere buzzing, too.

Email Luke Johnsonat ljohnson@theadvocate.com.

Rod Walker

n Tulane foundout that it is nowin the market for one.

n Oh, and aguy from Northern Ireland (Charlie Smyth) booted a56-yard field goal on his very first field goal attempt in an NFL game. Smyth followed that up with asuccessful onside kick that gavethe Saints achance late in what ended up being a21-17 loss to the Dolphins. History was on Smyth’sside on the onside kick. The last timethe Saints tried one at Hard Rock Stadium was Thomas Morstead’s“Ambush” to

Vele, acquired in atrade withthe Denver BroncosinAugust because theSaints needed abig-bodied receiver,had rarely been used. He had nine catches before Sunday.Healmost equaled that in one game, hauling in eightpassesfor 93 yards and a touchdown.The Saints, unfortunately, weren’table to move the ballmuch on their final drive that stalled on afailed fourth-and-1 attempt at the Dolphins’ 36-yard line. “Itwas an unfortunate ending,” Mooresaidafterward. He certainly wasn’tthe only one talking about unfortunateendings. Fans of Ole Miss football were no doubt saying the same thing(except with awholelot more curse words included) as Lane Kiffin made it official that he was leaving Oxford and headingtoBaton Rouge to be LSU’s next football coach. Kiffin was hoping to stick aroundand coach the Rebels in theCollegeFootball Playoff but

said Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter denied that request. Meanwhile, Tulane coach Jon Sumrallmadeitofﬁcial Sunday that he has accepted the Florida job. Sumrall could have been in aKifﬁn-like situation with Tulane headed to theplayoffs if they beat North Texas for the American Conference championship Saturday at Yulman Stadium. But the Green Wave administration has decided to let Sumrall stick around and coach Saturday’sgame and continue to theplayoffs if the Wave advances.

Fan bases at bothOle Miss and Tulane are split on whether their nowexes should be allowed tostick around after the divorces.

“Wejust believe that it’sthe right thingtodofor our student-athletes,” Tulane athletic director David Harris saidinastatement. “Weare just really appreciative that he has thelove andconcern for his players ﬁrst and foremostinhis mind, that he wantsto help them ﬁnish theright way.”

After that, Sumrall will head to Florida, about ﬁve hours north of where theSaints(2-10) were handed yet another loss Sunday The Saints’ offense struggled early gaining just 63 yards in theﬁrst half

that ended with them trailing 16-0. A bright spot was the 36-year-old Cam Jordan sacking Miami quarterback TuaTagovailoa twice. Jordan now has 61/2 sacks, the most he’shad since 2022.

He’d much rather have those sacks come with somewins.

“Weare ateam that keeps ﬁghting,” Jordan said. “When you are ﬁghting an uphill battle, eventually you have to reach the top of the hill. We are taking shots and we are swinging, and you just wish they would fall in our favor.”

The only thing falling in the Saints’ favor is their chances of landing the No. 1draftpick. With the New York Jets upsetting the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday,the Saints currently hold the No. 2draftpick.

The Saints return to Florida next week to play the TampaBay Buccaneers. The Bucs have wonthe last three games against the Saints and are looking to makeitfour straight forthe ﬁrst timeinseries history ASaints upset of the Bucs sounds crazy

Notquite as crazy as this last Sunday in November was, though.

Email RodWalkeratrwalker@ theadvocate.com.

Kiffin begins to assemble coaching staff

BY WILSON ALEXANDER and REED DARCEY Staff writers

New LSU head coach Lane Kifﬁn has already started assembling his staff, bringing several Ole Miss coaches and staff members with him to Baton Rouge the day he took the job, including the offensive coordinator

A video captured and posted to social media Sunday showed Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr boarded one of the planes that LSU sent to Oxford, Mississippi, to pick up Kiffin, members of his family and certain Ole Miss personnel.

LSU is expected to strongly consider retaining defensive coordinator Blake Baker and other defensive coaches amid the transition, sources said. The only defensive coach who came with Kifﬁn was his brother Chris Kifﬁn, an analyst who coached linebackers this season.

According to CBS Sports, Kiffin is also expected to bring general manager Billy Glasscock, senior associate athletic director for football operations

Thaddeus Rivers, wide receivers coach George McDonald, head strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage, co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Joe Cox, senior director of player personnel Mike Williams and graduate assistant Sawyer Jordan with him to LSU. All of their names, as well as Weis and Chris Kifﬁn, have been removed from Ole Miss’ online staff directory.

Kifﬁn hired Glasscock in 2024 to replace current LSU general manager Austin Thomas. It’s unclear what Kiffin’s hiring means for Thomas’ future at LSU. Thomas spent time on Kiffin’s staffs at

Tennessee, Southern Cal and Ole Miss before he left to take his current job at LSU. Most of Ole Miss’ defensive staff members did not follow Kiffin. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding was promoted to head coach after Kiffin’s departure, and the Rebels are expected to keep co-defensive coordinator Byran Brown, defensive line coach Randall Joyner and safeties coach Wes Neighbors.

Arkansas hires Memphis’ Silverﬁeld as new coach

“Coach

By The Associated Press

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas hired Ryan Silverﬁeld away from Memphis as the Razorbacks’ new coach Sunday after a miserable 2-10 season ﬁlled with near misses.

Silverfield is 50-25 in six seasons at Memphis, and he was at his best going 10-3 in 2023 and 11-2 in 2024. The Tigers were ranked as high as No. 22 this season before finishing 8-4. He also went 4-0 in bowl games, not counting the Cotton Bowl in December 2019 that Silverfield coached after Mike Norvell left for Florida State He will be the 35th head coach in Arkansas history

“Coach Silverfield’s proven ability to win games over a sustained period separated him from the pack and make him the right choice to be our next head football coach,” Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement. Silverfield’s worst season at Memphis was 6-6 in 2021. Silverﬁeld has won 29 games over the last three seasons, putting Memphis among the top 15 programs nationally and he led the Tigers to 12 straight bowl berths, the longest streak among non-Power Four programs. Yurachek said Silverﬁeld shares Arkansas’ vision of making the College Football Playoff and competing for national championships.

“With our new and significant financial investment in the football program, we are confident we now have the coach and resources to

make that happen,” Yurachek said. Memphis athletic director Ed Scott thanked Silverfield and wished him the best in his next chapter The Tigers named Reggie Howard as interim coach with a national search for Silverﬁeld’s replacement underway

The Tigers ranked 19th nationally averaging 34.6 points a game, the fourth straight season Memphis has ranked in the Top 25 nationally in that category at the end of the regular season. Silverﬁeld’s teams averaged at least 30 points in each of his seasons.

Memphis also gave up only 22.5 points a game this season, the Tigers’ best under Silverﬁeld.

Arkansas lost at home 31-17 to Missouri on Saturday to cap a season that included an 0-8 record against Southeastern Conference opponents for the third time since 2018 Bobby Petrino, a former Razorbacks head coach from 2008-11, went 0-7 as interim coach after Sam Pittman was ﬁred Sept. 28, though the Hogs lost four of those games by 3 points or less behind a defense that struggled all season.

Offensive line coach John Garrison, quarterbacks coach Joe Judge, running backs coach Kevin Smith and special teams coordinator Jake Schoonover have not followed Kifﬁn to LSU

Though that would leave Kifﬁn with several openings, it’s unlikely that LSU will keep many of its current offensive assistants. The new staff could include running backs coach Frank Wil-

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Tulane, which went from 1999 to 2017 with zero conference titles, an overall record of 77-152 and only one season with more than seven wins, ﬁnally got stabilized in 2018 — former coach Willie Fritz’s third year The real breakthrough came in 2022, when the Wave rebounded from a 2-10 ﬁnish in 2021 to go 12-2, win the American Conference championship and beat USC and Heisman Trophy quarterback Caleb Williams in the Cotton Bowl.

Tulane ﬁnished ninth in the Associated Press poll and has continued to play top-level football, making an appearance in the College Football Playoff rankings at some point in each of the past four years. Tulane lost to SMU at home in the 2023 American championship hours before Fritz left for Houston and to Army on the road last season. On Saturday, the Wave became the ﬁrst team to reach the league’s title game four years in a row

RABALAIS

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the savior who will lead LSU to its next national championship to others.

If he wins at LSU, the Tiger faithful will eat Kiffin up with a spoon. This is a school, a fan base, that also delights in wearing the black hat, being the school everyone in the SEC likes to dislike. Beating you, then telling you about it. That’s Kiffin to a T. Of course, he needs to win at LSU to be beloved. That’s just what he did at his last two gigs, Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss. Kiffin did an excellent job in both places, going 26-13 with two Conference USA titles at FAU and going 55-19 (11-1 this season) with the Rebels, who are now poised to make their first appearance in the College Football Playoff. There are few better offensive minds in the college game, to boot. Since Kiffin went to Oxford in 2020, no other FBS program has gained more total yards than Ole Miss with 37,437 (Alabama is second with 36,257). He took a Division II transfer quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, and turned that obscure pumpkin into Cinderella’s glittering carriage, averaging more than 300 yards per game passing. They loved him for it at Ole Miss, until they didn’t. Until he left, with the school refusing to let him coach the Rebels in the CFP or meet with the players before he left. Until he took a

Kiffin was the primary target of LSU’s coaching search, which began when the school ﬁred Kelly on Oct. 26.

Kifﬁn coached Ole Miss for the last six seasons. He’s now leaving the Rebels behind ahead of the College Football Playoff, which they’re essentially guaranteed to participate in for the first time in program history because they beat Mississippi State on Friday in the Egg Bowl to improve to 111.

Ole Miss had never won 11 regular-season games until this season. Golding will now lead the Rebels into the CFP, while Kiffin works to build his staff at LSU. High school recruits will begin signing with schools on Wednesday, and the transfer portal will open on Jan. 2.

LSU has the 12th-best recruiting class in the country per 247Sports composite rankings. The group’s top-ranked commit is ﬁve-star University High defensive lineman Lamar Brown. He told On3 on Sunday that he still plans to sign with the Tigers. Kiffin met Sunday night with Brown.

son, the New Orleans native who took over the program on an interim basis after Brian Kelly was ﬁred. He said after the Tigers lost to Oklahoma on Saturday in their regular-season ﬁnale that he’d like to return to LSU if the new coach wanted to retain him.

On Sunday evening, Wilson was spotted meeting with Kifﬁn inside the LSU’s head coach’s ofﬁce.

“We believe that we have an elite job,” Harris said. “We believe that we have the right job for the right person. When you have that type of success, your program rises to a level where it’s getting national attention.” Harris said head coaching experience was important and would give candidates a leg up but was not a necessity if the best man for the job was a coordinator Interviews will begin this week because Sumrall’s departure was not a surprise, giving the department time to prepare for a search

“If it’s a coordinator, you can look at the success of their offense or their defense and how they rank and the kind of success they’ve had.” Harris said. “It’s not the same metrics that you use for a head coach, but when you get into a position of leadership, there are things you can look at as to whether they are helping their team win games and whether they’ve done it at multiple schools so they have a track record of arriving and ﬁguring things out.”

A sticking point for Sumrall was the university requirement that all students live on campus for

The Ole Miss coaches and staff members who accompanied Kiffin on the flight could not be seen when the planes landed Sunday night. They parked inside private hangars, where the passengers deboarded and climbed into black SUVs. A small group of fans had gathered outside the airport’s gates, chanting “L-S-U,” and Kiffin rolled down the window of his car to acknowledge them with a fist pump.

The caravan then drove to LSU’s football operations building. There, Kiffin will begin the early stages of assembling his new coaching staff.

three years rather than one — a change that went into effect soon after he arrived. He considered it a recruiting detriment because players prefer living off campus, but his proposal that any student spending more than 20 hours on an activity would be exempt from the rule has not been accepted.

“Those decisions are above my head,” Harris said. “Jon and I did talk about that on several occasions. As we go forward, we will continue to have those conversations with appropriate people on campus to try to ﬁnd different solutions. I don’t think there’s ever just one way to solve an issue.” With National Signing Day approaching Wednesday Sumrall and his staff will be responsible for the high school class in an awkward situation that could lead to multiple de-commitments, but some issues are unavoidable in a transition.

“Ultimately, there’s no secret behind that,” Harris said. “Jon and I have had that conversation, and he’s assured me he will be working on behalf of Tulane football to help bring in the very best class that we can. We trust the work he’s going to do.”

fear as well, I’m sure, fear that Ole Miss won’t be able to reach these heights again anytime soon. The idea that Kiffin may take the Tigers, the Rebels’ biggest rival after Mississippi State, to those heights or beyond isn’t helping either If LSU fans worry that Kiffin may leave the Tigers for another job one day, there is validity to that. Kiffin left Tennessee for Southern California in 2009 after just one season in Knoxville, and his six seasons at Ole Miss are the longest time he has been anywhere as an assistant or head coach.

chunk of his staff with him to LSU. That chunk did not include Hammond native and defensive coordinator Pete Golding, who Sunday was hastily named Kiffin’s successor Because Kiffin is leaving in the Ole Miss program’s most ascendant moment since winning the 1963 SEC title (to date, its last), the feeling there for Kiffin has gone from appreciation to animosity It’s mixed with a little

That said, as Kiffin has changed elements about his personal life, the same may prove to be true for his professional life. There is certainly precedent. Nick Saban, who advised Kiffin and apparently encouraged him to make the move, left LSU after five seasons for the Miami Dolphins and had never stayed anywhere longer than that until he left Miami for Alabama in 2007. He, of course, coached there for 17 seasons before retiring in 2023. What the future holds for Kiffin at LSU is unknowable, if limitless. The only thing to be sure of is that he will bring brashness and energy that perhaps has never been seen in the program. And if he wins as big as LSU hopes? The Lane Kiffin Experience may be like nothing ever before.

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/lsunewsletter

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By SARAH WARNOCK

University of Mississippi head coach Lane Kiffin looks at a play review against Oklahoma on Oct. 26 in Oxford, Miss.

Silverfield’s proven ability to win games over a sustained period separated him from the pack and make him the right choice to be our next head football coach.”

HUNTER yURACHEK, Arkansas athletic director

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By MIKE STEWART Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield walks on the field during the first half of a game against UAB on Oct 18 in Birmingham, Ala Silverfield was named the new football for the Arkansas Razorbacks

Georgia rises to No.3; Texas Tech up to fifth

Texas A&M falls out of top five in AP poll

BY ERIC OLSON Associated Press

Texas A&M fell out of the top

five of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time in two months Sunday Texas Tech notched its highest ranking in 17 years and a season-high four teams from Group of Five conferences are ranked as the top five got a shuffle with a week to go before the postseason bracket is set. No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana, the only remaining unbeatens, are the top two teams for a seventh straight poll heading into their Big Ten title game clash on Saturday No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Oregon each moved up a spot, and Texas Tech’s No. 5 ranking is its best since it spent three weeks at No. 2 in November 2008. Mississippi remained No. 6 and was followed by Texas A&M which slipped four spots after its 10-point loss at Texas. Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Alabama again rounded out the top 10. The weekend results created two top-10 matchups in conference championship games this Saturday Besides the Big Ten showdown, Georgia and Alabama will play for the Southeastern Conference crown. The other Top 25 matchup pits Texas Tech against No. 11 BYU in the Big 12. The Atlantic Coast Conference game matches No. 16 Virginia against a Duke team that is 7-5.

No 12 Miami and No. 13 Vanderbilt traded places in the rankings. The Hurricanes, who ﬁnished the regular season with a 31-point road win over Pittsburgh, are the highest-ranked ACC team and hope to receive a College Football Playoff at-large bid. Vanderbilt slipped despite beating Tennessee by 21 points on the road.

James Madison, which will host Troy for the Sun Belt championship game Friday, moved up one spot to No. 19 and is the highestranked Group of Five team. Three teams from the American Conference are behind the Dukes: No. 20 North Texas, No. 21 Tulane and No. 24 Navy North Texas visits Tulane for the American championship game Friday Tulane was the only G5 team in last week’s CFP rankings.

In and out

n No. 22 Arizona is ranked for the first time since September 2024. The Wildcats won 23-7 at Arizona State in the battle for the Territorial Cup and are on a ﬁvegame winning streak.

n No. 23 Navy, which won 2817 at Memphis, is in the Top 25 for the ﬁrst time this season and will take its highest ranking since 2019 into the annual showcase game against Army on Dec. 13.

n No. 25 Missouri beat Arkansas by two touchdowns and returned to the poll after a oneweek absence.

n Tennessee (No. 18), Pittsburgh (No. 24) and SMU (No. 25) dropped out.

Poll points

n Seven straight weeks with the same Nos. 1 and 2 teams is the longest since Georgia and Michigan went 11 weeks in a row as the top two in 2023.

n The American Conference’s three Top 25 teams are its most since Nov 20, 2022, when the same number were ranked. The league record for ranked teams is four, in 2015 and 2019.

n The last time there were four Group of Five teams ranked was the ﬁnal poll of the 2024 season.

n Tennessee’s streak of 33 straight poll appearances ended after it dropped to 8-4 with its loss to Vanderbilt Ranked vs. ranked

No. 2 Indiana (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten) vs. No. 1 Ohio State (12-0, 9-0), Saturday, at Indianapolis: It’s a matchup of Heisman Trophy front-runners in QBs Fernando Mendoza of Indiana and Julian Sayin of Ohio State.

No 4 Georgia (11-1, 7-1 SEC) vs. No. 10 Alabama (10-2, 7-1), Saturday, at Atlanta: This will be their fourth meeting in a SEC championship game since 2018. No. 11 BYU (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) vs. No. 5 Texas Tech (11-1, 8-1), Saturday, at Arlington, Texas: Each team will be playing in the Big 12 championship game for the ﬁrst time.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KATHLEEN BATTEN Texas Tech cornerback Amier Boyd intercepts the ball against West Virginia on Saturday in Morgantown, W.Va.

Jaguars celebrate not just a win but a ‘character-building’ season

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

Ckelby Givens checked his phone when his celebratory mood had calmed some.

Southern’s star player had six tackles, a tackle for loss and the game-sealing fumble recovery with 32 seconds left in Southern’s 28-27 win over Grambling on Saturday in the 52nd Bayou Classic at the Caesars Superdome.

Givens collected himself brieﬂy after the win and saw a text message.

“One of my friends texted me and said this,” Givens shared with reporters. “‘You couldn’t write a better story.’”

His ﬁnal play in the Columbia blue and gold was a poetic conclusion to a standout career for the reigning Southwestern Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, who led all of FCS in tackles for loss a year ago.

“Way to steal the show,” defensive end Jerome Wallace said jokingly to Givens after the fumble recovery.

He and the rest of the seniors can leave Southern saying they never lost to Grambling (7-5, 4-4 SWAC) in four years.

The storybook nature of this season’s conclusion also rings true for the entire program.

In a year where Southern (2-10, 1-7) had more lows than highs and lost by at least 17 points in eight contests, the early parts of its Bayou Classic performance seemed to be heading in a familiar direction.

Although it trailed 14-0 with 10:52 remaining in the second quarter, the Jaguars fought back.

For the ﬁrst time since their win against Mississippi Valley State on Aug. 30, they were resilient. The players’ and coaches’ efforts were finally rewarded, interim coach Fred McNair said.

“It’s very deserving,” McNair

said of the win. “I can’t speak, (more) highly of this coaching staff that we have and the way these guys hung in there each and every week with ups and downs and the battles.

“The young men showed a lot of character.”

Givens said that despite the unexpectedly poor season, as the Jaguars were voted to win the SWAC West in the conference preseason poll, he’ll still fondly remember 2025 among other seasons, where he reached conference championship games as a freshman and junior

The Shreveport native harkened back to a quote from Inky Johnson, a former college football player and motivational speaker he listens to.

“Can we be committed to the process of what we’re doing without being emotionally attached to the results of what we’re doing?” Givens recalled Johnson saying.

The senior absorbed that message.

“Being able to push through when things don’t look like how you thought it was gonna look,” Givens said. “So I feel like for us, it was just a character-building season This season will forever be cherished in my heart.”

The play of Southern’s leader and the manner in which he conducts himself were appreciated by McNair

“You can’t ask for a better ending for Ckelby,” McNair said. “Ckelby been hurt. Still get up and practice every day, and you know, it’s just him being a senior, going out the right way The leader of that defense. Ckelby is a great athlete, and you know, he’s gonna have another future playing football somewhere.”

The Southern star’s blue-collar attitude trickled down to everyone. Players like redshirt senior defensive tackle Zak Yassine

were able to push through two shoulder injuries this season and still be impactful, Givens said. Running back Barry Remo remained motivated and patient even when he didn’t have consistent carries until the secondto-last game. The sophomore returner had his moment when he won the Bayou Classic MVP His biggest play was a 51-yard rushing touchdown. He broke four tackles, cutting Southern’s deﬁcit to 17-14 at the start of the third quarter

“This your time to score, it’s your time to show everybody you are an explosive running back,’” Remo said he was thinking. “You’re not just (breaking) tackles, get down to the 1-yard line. It’s time for you to take over.”

That moment vastly improved the spirit of Southern, which carried into the fourth period. A 51yard pass from Cam’Ron McCoy, who had his ﬁrst start since Oct. 11, to Cam Jefferson helped set up a 9-yard rushing touchdown for Trey Holly This was followed by a go-ahead 34-yard touchdown throw to Khalil Harris to take its ﬁrst lead with 7:16 left in the game.

Wallace, who had six tackles and two tackles for loss, said he thinks the group learned the value of perseverance and how to “keep chopping wood” when things don’t go their way Southern players of all years were overjoyed with the ending to a trying season They also feel it was a positive step toward the future.

“Just knowing what we went through all season, it’s just really special,” Givens said. “I’m glad we got the win for the seniors and just something to build on for the 2026 Southern Jaguars.”

Email Toyloy Brown III at toyloy.brown@theadvocate.com.

Indiana, Ohio St. battle for Big Ten title, top seed in CFP

BY JOE REEDY Associated Press

Conventional wisdom has topranked Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana both earning ﬁrst-round byes in the College Football Playoff regardless of what happens in Saturday night’s Big Ten Championship Game.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is not buying that for one second.

“The way you play should mean something. It will be the last thing you put on the field. I don’t expect any handouts,” Cignetti said during a Zoom call on Sunday. “We’ve earned everything up to this point and we’ve got to earn it on Saturday.” If this had been last year, the winner would get the first-round bye and the loser likely the No. 5 seed and a first-round game since the top four ranked conference champions got the top four seeds in the first year of the 12-team field. However the rules were adjusted this year where the top four

teams — even if they are from the same conference — receive the byes.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day is of the opposite opinion, pointing out that if a team is already seeded highly, it shouldn’t get dinged for playing this Saturday “You’re not supposed to be penalized for playing in the conference championship,” he said “So yeah, both teams deserve to get a ﬁrst-round bye.”

Day, though, also knows that a win on Saturday would lock up the top seed as Ohio State tries to become the ﬁrst team since Georgia to win two straight national titles.

“I think it’s important to win this game and be the one seed. It’s going to help your chances. Everything matters,” Day said. Both teams are 12-0 and unbeaten in nine Big Ten games.

Indiana started its preparations after a 56-3 romp of Purdue on Friday night. Ohio State snapped a four-game losing streak to Michigan with a 27-9 victory The Buckeyes coaching staff

started watching ﬁlm in Ann Arbor on Saturday night as the plane was delayed from taking off due to a snowstorm. This will be only the third time there has been a matchup between the top two ranked teams in a conference championship game. The previous times were in the Southeastern Conference when Alabama faced Florida. Both times the No. 2 team won the matchup. Florida beat Alabama 31-20 in 2008 and the Crimson Tide returned to get revenge the following year with a 32-13 victory Cignetti was an assistant at Alabama during those two matchups.

The Buckeyes are 3-2 as the topranked team when facing No. 2. The last time was in the 2007 BCS title game when they lost to LSU 38-24. Indiana comes into the game with the nation’s second-highest scoring offense, averaging 44.3 points per game. Ohio State leads the nation in scoring defense, allowing only 7.8 points per game.

STAFF

PHOTO

SOPHIA GERMER

Southern running back Trey Holly, center, is tackled by Grambling defenders during the first half of the Bayou Classic on Saturday at Caesars Superdome.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By RyAN SUN

State coach Ryan Day celebrates after the team’s win against Michigan on Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich.

LIVING

ALL FOOTBALL

HowGarth Brooks,The Killersand TomPetty became starsofcollege football Saturdays

BY NOAH TRISTER | Associated Press

When Garth Brooks recorded his version of “Callin’Baton Rouge” —anup-tempo country hit previously produced by New GrassRevival and others —he hadaspeciﬁc vibe in mind.

“New Grass recorded the song for bluegrass festivals,”Brooks said. “Werecorded thesong to be played in stadiums andarenas, with one lone purpose. Get people ﬁred up!”

Nowadays, Brooks’ vision comes to life at LSU’sTiger Stadium when that catchy intro begins and thousands of football fans yell aheartfelt “LOUISIANA!”when the state’snameis mentioned in the ﬁrst lineofthe song.

Museum displays holidaytreefeaturing origami

BY JOSEPH B. FREDERICK

What is meant by elder mediation?

Elder mediation aims to address conflicting issues in families and in institutions and provides aforum forfamily decision-making. Eldermediators assist with difficult conversations among family members, and they help make plans andreach acceptable outcomes to disagreements. When an elder parent or relative, forinstance, is hospitalized and needs continuing or rehabilitative care after that hospitalization, new responsibilities are thrust upon the offspring. There are often manyfamily dynamics, i.e., the maincaregiver sibling, the out-of-town sibling, the sibling that’snot trusted, etc. Old rivalries among siblings, long buried grudges, past hurts and misunderstandings can interfere with making good decisions about the aging parent. The situation regarding the parent’sfuture care becomes stressful and uncomfortable, and conflicts arise amid mixed opinions forthe parent’scare. Decisions regarding the responsibility and work of caring foranaging parent are involved, as wellaslooking at finances and long-term care issues. Many times, conflicts occur because one or moreofthe siblings is trying to gain total control of that care. Elder mediation can work to siftout an amiable solution as the elder mediator facilitates apurposefuland directed conversation with all parties, whoare all encouraged to express their opinions and concerns.

The forum the mediator facilitates seeks to resolve the problemsamongthe family members forthe best interest of the aging parent. This includes allowing everyone to air their disputes, to identify the strengths and weaknesses in each opinion, and to ﬁnally agree on asatisfactory solution, asolution that all family members can live with and trust. The mediator has no authority to impose adecision so nothing can be decided until everyone agrees. To get started, the family members having adispute agree to bring in aneutral person —anelder mediator —and once one is chosen, adate is set to meet in person, or by Zoom or other teleconference methods. The mediator will guide the dialogue, encouraging all sides to work cooperatively and gives everyone achance to express their differences. Sometimes, the mediator will meet with each family member privately to discuss personal and other issues of concern, and after these exchanges, presents them to the family at large.

There may be several negotiations until an agreement is reached; one that is to maintain the best possible quality of life forthe aging parent. Once an agreement is reached, the elder mediator will put it in writing foreveryone to sign and in that way, everyone has asolid

MICHAELJOHNSON

Morningsicknesslinkedtohormone called GDF-15

Dear Doctors: My daughtersuffered from hyperemesis while she was pregnant two years ago, and it was truly amiserable pregnancy.Isthere away to prevent this for future pregnancies? Iunderstand this condition is linked to the hormone GDF-15 and read that the key is to suppress it beforeitbegins.

Dear reader: Hyperemesis is the medical term for extreme and persistent vomiting. When it happens during pregnancy,it’scalled morning sickness. As manymothers can attest, even mild morning sickness is no picnic, and the queasyfeelings and nausea often extend well beyond the morning hours.Even without active vomiting, it makes getting throughthe day achallenge.

It’sestimated that up to 80% of women experience some morn-

FOOTBALL

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“CBR sang at LSUseems more like awar cry than a tradition,” Brooks said in an email to The Associated Press. “I get goosebumps every time Ihear them sing it.” Callin’ Baton Rouge at LSU is just one example of atrend sweeping college football. Pep bands and ﬁght songs still have their place, butnow fans at some of the most prominent programs haveembraced the stadium anthem as something of amodern tradition. Rock, country,hip-hop, electronic dance music different genres can work at different places. Perhaps the most famous of these is House of Pain’s“Jump Around” at Wisconsin, nowinits third decade of inspiring Badgers fans to do just that.

Others include “Mr Brightside” at Michigan, “I Won’tBack Down”at Florida, “Shout” at Oregon, “Sandstorm” at South Carolina and “Dixieland Delight at Alabama. Sometimes fans add their own colorful lines to the lyrics —agood way to get asong banned if you’re not careful.

Even Notre Dame which still puts generic diagonal lines in the end zones, and where the band plays an iconic rendition of Tchaikovsky’s1812 Overture —has introduced ﬂashing lights and more modern music in recent years

“In the world right now, where you have to play for today and ﬁgure out what’s motivating people and what’sgetting people genuinely excited about what’s going on at auniversity,at ateam, at abrand, you have to ride that to the full extent you possibly can,” said Columbia University lecturer Joe Favorito, asports and entertainment marketing consultant. “I mean, who knew that aKillers song was going to become an anthem at theUniversityof Michigan, and how that gets played out? ‘Mr.Brightside,’ now you ask kids who go to Michigan, and they’re going there because of ‘Mr.Brightside.’ Idon’tthink The Killers ever had that in mind.”

Some schools are notable fortheir pregameorpostgame tunes —think “Enter Sandman” at Virginia Tech or “Country Roads” at West Virginia —but the break before the fourth quarterhas proven an ideal spot for a crescendo. Plus, there’san extra beneﬁtinwaiting untilthenbeforeplaying the

ORIGAMI

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how an asteroid crash some 66 million years ago reshaped life on Earth.

Talo Kawasaki, the tree’s co-designer,said the tree’s theme is “New Beginnings,” in reference to the new world that followed the mass extinction. Locatedoff themuseum’s Central Park West entrance, theartiﬁcialtree is topped with agolden, flaming asteroid.

Dr.Elizabeth Ko

Dr.Eve Glazier

ASK THE DOCTORS

ing sickness during pregnancy In some cases, the condition can become severe, known as hyperemesis gravidarum. Hyperemesis gravidarum is frequent and intense vomitingthat can lead to dehydration,electrolyte imbalance and dangerousweight loss. The condition often requires medical care. In some cases, women are hospitalized to receive IV ﬂuids and nutritional support

As recently as 2018, thecause

of morning sickness was unclear Butemerging genomic technologies have helped scientists identify growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) as akey contributor

This is thehormone you mentioned. The placenta produces a lot of GDF-15 early in pregnancy It signals to thebody that pregnancy has begun and tomodulate immune responsetotolerate the growing fetus.

GDF-15 also appears to regulate appetite. It may be aprotective measure to steer the mother away from potentially harmful toxins and toward nutritional needs. Because concentrations of the hormone are so high and many women are sensitive to it, varying degrees of morning sickness often occur

Several large studies found a correlation between very high

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ALAN yOUNGBLOOD Florida fanssing TomPetty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’ in the fourth quarter ofafootball game against LIU Brooklynon Aug. 30 in Gainesville, Fla.

crowd favorite.

“How do you keep students at the game longer and longer? When you’reblowing opponents out, peopleare leaving,” said Jake Stocker, director of game presentation at Michigan. “If you do Brightside thatfirst break in the thirdquarter,it’sdone and peopleare leaving. .We moved ‘Mr.Brightside’ to the thirdand fourth quarter break just to set it as more of atradition there to at least keeppeopleintheir seats until that point.”

Michigan, of course,has its own famous fight song anda band that’sanimportant part of game day,but in this era of constant(and lengthy) television breaks, there’splenty of timefor everything “Wealways knowthat we have enough time in that third andfourth quarter break,” Stockersaid. “The band plays BluesBrothers andthen we do‘Mr.Brightside.’

Wisconsin’s tradition began in 1998 when tight end Ryan Sondrup, working an internship in the athletic department whileinjured, was asked to thinkofideas forgameday operations. He went to asportsbar while brainstorming with friends and teammates, andthey played songs onthe jukebox, including“Jump Around.”

Sondruptalked it over with his bosses.

“They weremoreinterested, Ithink becauseI was on the football team, in what would get the guys fired up,” Sondrup said.

“Wewere talking more like before-the-game-type stuff Isaid, ‘Well, actually,ifyou couldplaysome of this during the game, like in akey moment orsomething toget everyone riled up.’ And we’d circled ‘Jump Around.’”

Thereweresome complaints from older fans about themusic, but it was ahit among students (and

amongsome of thevisiting teams),and it’s certainly stood the test of time.

“It’sall-encompassing of allpeople in Wisconsin. Everyone knows ‘Jump Around,’ ”said defensive tackle Erik Waisanen,who wasbartending thatday of thebrainstorm.“It’s been so intertwined with Wisconsin football, Wisconsinathletics There’stimesnow where because people know (his involvement), they’llbeata wedding and I’ll get avideo, and the bride and groom are Wisconsin grads and on the video,people Idon’teven know will be doing‘Jump Around’ at their wedding as one of their dances.”

While “Jump Around” had no big connection to Wisconsin, Florida fanshavegood reason to sing along with “I Won’tBack Down” because TomPetty wasaGainesville native. “Callin’Baton Rouge” fits at LSUgames for even more obviousreasons.

Brooks, however,went to Oklahoma State. The Cowboyshaveplayedhis “Friends in Low Places” at games, andBrooksmay have anew tune at some point intended for specific use at Oklahoma State games.

“Forthe last 20 years, I have so wanted to sing asong that would represent my alma mater andthe people who make that college the best. Iaminthe middle of recording asong Iwould love to pitch to them to startplaying if the song turns out the way Ihopeitdoes,” Brooks said in the e-mail. “It’s called COWBOY BLOOD. The lyric ﬁts the cowboy life and the music was recorded to ﬁre people up.”

AP sports writers Steve Megargee and Aaron Beardand Associated Presswriter Mike Householder contributed to thisreport

levels of GDF-15 and the likelihood of developing hyperemesis gravidarum. This has led to the pursuit of targeted treatments. Oneapproach is to suppress production or activity of the hormone during pregnancy.This may be risky due to the role GDF-15 plays in regulating immune response so that the body does not treat the fetus as aforeign presence. Another is to desensitize themother to the hormone before pregnancy begins. Acclimating thebody to the hormone before theplacenta produces alot of GDF-15 has emerged as apossible safer approach. These arepromising directions for easing the misery and risks of hyperemesis gravidarum,but they remain experimental for now.Because pregnancy involves thewell-being of both the mother

and her baby,testing any new treatment’ssafety,effectiveness and side effects is complex.

Women whohave had hyperemesis gravidarum can prepare forafuture pregnancy by consulting their doctor before conception. Adoctor can review medical history and makeplans forearly interventions if the mother’shealth appears at risk. Having good nutrition, starting prenatal vitamins and arranging follow-up care early in pregnancy may help lessen the severity if hyperemesis recurs.

Send yourquestions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla edu, or write: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd.,Suite 1450, Los Angeles CA, 90024.

Gutted over secret groupchat

Dear Annie: Most nights, my phone lightsupwith our family group chat. My husband and Ihave three grown kids in their 20s, and Ilove seeing their jokes, photos and silly updates. It makes me feel like we are still all under one roof.

Lastweek, my son accidentally left his phone on our kitchen counter while Iwas cleaning up. Anotiﬁcation popped up from a group chat titled “Just The Kids. Idid not open it, but thepreview showed afew messages. Onewas my daughter saying, “Do not tell Mom, she will overreact like always,” followed by laughing emojis. Another was my youngest complaining that I“make everything abig emotional thing.”

of us and a“group chat version” of us. Youare not the ﬁrst mom to be labeled “dramatic” forcaring. Youdid not snoop, but you did see morethan you wanted. Instead of confessing about the notiﬁcation, address the content: “I worry Icome off as overreacting. Do I do that?” Then listen without defending every feeling. Give them alittle moreprivacy and a little less commentary.Grownkids need room to roll their eyes, and to roll back home.

Iput thephone back and pretended Ihad not seen anything, but Ihave felt sick to my stomach ever since. Ikeep replaying their words and wondering what else they say when I am not around. Do Iadmit what Isaw and risk invading their privacy even more, or keep quiet and try tochange my behavior without them knowing why? How do I stay close tomykids when it seems they are happier keeping me in the dark?

Hurtinthe Group Chat

Dear Hurt: Youjust discovered something all parents eventually learn: Ourkids have a“family version”

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday, Dec. 1, the 335th day of 2025. There are 30 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, aBlack seamstress, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to aWhiteman on asegregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The incident sparked ayearlong boycott of the city’sbuses and helped fuel theU.S. Civil RightsMovement.

Dear Annie: My husband and Ihave lived in our homefor 12 years. We adore our neighborhood, but our next-door situation has gone from mildly irritating to something Inow dread daily.Our neighbors recently adopted alarge dog whoseems to bark at absolutely everything: leaves, mailtrucks, passing clouds, and especially us. The barking starts around 6a.m. and continues in bursts all day long. We tried to approach the issue kindly.Myhusband mentioned it once over the fence, and they apologized and said the dog was “still adjusting.” That wasthree months ago. Nothing has changed except that now they seem to avoid us altogether.Ifthey see us outside, they hustle inside like we are the problem

To makematters worse, their teenage son has begun practicing drums

TODAYINHISTORY

the United States landed in Miami. Over the ensuing eight years, the twice-daily ﬂights allowed morethan 250,000 Cuban refugees to migrate to the United States through ajoint U.S.Cuban agreement.

In 1969, the U.S. governmentheld its ﬁrst draft lottery formilitary service since World WarII.

In 1991, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly forindependence from the Soviet Union.

in the garage. Loudly.At night. Imagine abarking dog layered over adrum solo that sounds like someone falling downthe stairs with cymbals. Idonot wanttobethe cranky neighbor.I truly do not. But Ialso do not want to live inside apercussion section with acanine conductor.How do Ihandle this without creating apermanent feud on our quiet little street? —Ready to Move Dear Ready to Move: Anyone would lose their grip living next door to abarking alarm clock and anighttimedrum solo. Youare not being fussy.You are being human. Your neighbors probably are not villains. They are simply doing what many people do: assuming their noise is charming and everyone else is fine. Spoiler alert: Youare not fine. Skip the polite hints. They clearly floated off into the barking and the bongos. Have one straightforward, friendly talk. Try, “Wewant to stay good neighbors, but the early barking and late drumming are getting tough. Can we figure out abetter routine?” Short, clear and impossible to misinterpret. If they still pretend not to hear you, your town’s noise rules might help them find their ears. Most folks wantapeacefulblock. Give them a chance to act like it.

Sendyour questions forAnnie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.

“Wewanted to focus more not so much the demise of the dinosaurs, but the new life this created, which were the expansion and theevolution of mammals ultimately leading to humanity,”Kawasaki explained on arecent visit.

The origami tree has been ahighlight of the museum’s holiday season for more than 40 years. Volunteers from allover the worldare enlisted to make hundredsofnew

Its branches and limbs are packed with origami works representing avariety of animals and insects, including foxes, cranes, turtles, bats, sharks, elephants, giraffes and monkeys. Dinosaur favorites such as thetriceratops and tyrannosaurus rex are also depicted in the folded paper works of art.

models.The intricatepaperartworks aregenerally made from asingle sheet of paper but can sometimes takedays or even weeks to perfect

The new origamipieces are bolstered by archived worksstored from priorseasons, including a40-year-old model of apterosaur,anextinct ﬂying reptile,thatwas folded for one of the museum’s ﬁrst origamitrees in theearly 1970s.

Rosalind Joyce, thetree’s co-designer,estimates that anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 origami works are embedded in thetree.

“This year there’salot of stuffstuffedinthere,” she said. “So Idon’tcount.”

Also on this date: In 1824, thepresidential election was turned over to theU.S. House of Representatives after none of the candidates (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay) won more than 50% of the electoral vote. DespiteJackson winning themost electoral votes, Adams would ultimately win thepresidency

In 1965, theﬁrst “Freedom Flight”from Cuba to

MEDIATOR

Continuedfrom page1D

In 2009, President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops into thewar in Afghanistan butpromised during aspeech to cadets at theU.S.Military Academy at West Point to beginwithdrawalsin18months.

In 2017, retired Lt. Gen. MichaelFlynn, who served in President Donald Trump’sﬁrst term as his initial national security adviser,pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about reaching out to the Russians on Trump’sbehalf. (Trump would later pardon Flynn.)

In2020, ahuge radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, that played a key role in astronomical discoveries formore than half acentury collapsed. The collapse stunned many scientists wholong had relied on what was once the largest radio telescope in the world. In 2023, Israel’swar with Hamas, which began in October,erupted anew minutes after aweeklong truce expired as Israeli airstrikes hit houses and buildings in the GazaStrip. Today’sbirthdays: World Golf Hall of Famer Lee Trevino is 86. Rock musician John Densmore (The Doors) is 81. Actor-singer Bette Midler is 80. Model-actor Carol Alt is 65. Actor Jeremy Northam is 64. Baseball Hall of Famer Larry Walker is 59. Actor Néstor Carbonell is 58. Actor-comedian Sarah Silverman is 55. Actor Riz Ahmed is 43. Singer-actor Janelle Monáe is 40. Actor Sarah Snook is 38. Actor Zoe Kravitz is 37.

plan about each sibling’s involvement in the parent’s care. Elder mediatorshelp families come together, taking over that emotional controlsothat an effective action plan can be provided for the aging parent. Mediation is successful about 70% to 80% of the time and is less expensive than disputes that escalate into lawsuits or other public displays. Compromise is a way to peace for families in conﬂict, and an elder mediator is there to facilitate and encourage apositive and working outcome.

Dana Territo is an Alzheimer’sadvocate and authorof“What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer’sDisease.” She hosts “TheMemory Whisperer.” Email her at thememorywhisperer@ gmail.com.

Annie Lane DEAR ANNIE

sAGIttARIus (nov.23-Dec. 21) Take a momenttobreathe,then pick up get going. Test your ideas and enforce change. The outcome will favor you if you are selective, honest and diligent.

CAPRICoRn(Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Consider your options and move forward alone or in secrecy until you have everything in place. Prioritizing your emotions can lead to errors.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Youwill face opposition if you are sloppy or uncertain in your approach. Offer proof, explanationsand facts to peoplewho are hesitating or trying to discredit your decisions.

PIsCEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Be agood listener, but don't follow someone who doesn't shareyourvalues or whois heading in adifferent direction. Opportunity comesfromdoing what's best for you.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Refuse to let emotions interfere. Organization and diplomacy will determine your success and your leadershipability. Knowing when to say no andhow best to apply your talents will help.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Stop stewing over things you havenocontrol over and start living life your way. Discipline, coupled withcreativity, will help you change what bothers you.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Achange of heart can lead to newbeginnings. Test what's available to see if it's agood fit

for you. Share your thoughts, makea difference and enjoy the outcome.

CAnCER (June 21-July 22) Focus more on finances and less on whatothersare doing, buying into or want fromyou Make choicesthatadddressyour needs You have more skills and attributes than you give yourselfcredit for.

LEo (July23-Aug.22) It's OK to show off if you havesomething worthwhile to offer. Don't be shy; use your attributes to help others, and you'll have apositive impact on those you encounter.

VIRGo (Aug.23-sept. 22) Think before you act or say something you may regret. Youmay wantchange, but timingisessential if you wanttomaintain your reputation and attract the right crowd.

LIBRA(sept. 23-oct. 23) Simplifyyour plans to meet financial demands and ease the minds of those fearful of failure. Talks, travel and testing your theorieswill encourage you to finishwhat you start.

sCoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Change can be good; however, it's how you bring it about that makes adifference. Disciplineand innovative ideas will result in widespread opportunities,knowledge and apositive platform.

For better or For WorSe

beetLe bAILeY

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers1 to 9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday.

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

THewiZard oF id

BLondie

BaBY BLueS

Hi and LoiS

CurTiS

By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

Bridge can be astrange game at times. Usually, you are happy to have lots of honors, but occasionallyyou would find acontractmucheasierifitweren’tforan unnecessary high card. Do not resist the idea that an honor maybeextraneous In this deal,South is in four spades West leads the club king. How should Southplan theplay?

Southstarts with four potential losers: oneheart,onediamondandtwoclubs.He has nine winners; six spades,one heart, one diamond and oneclub. So it seems as if the diamond finesse had better be winning. In theory, this is a50-50 shot, but surely you know that finesses never work on Mondays! And if the diamond finesse is failing, is there any other way to makethe contract?

Howabouttryingtoestablishdummy’s diamond suit? As long as the suit is splitting3-3 or 4-2 (or5-1 with asingleton king) andtrumps are not 4-0, an extra diamond winner can be established.

Southshouldtakethe first or second club, play atrumptohis king, cash the diamond ace, and continue with the diamondqueen.

Suppose West takes that trick, cashes two club winnersand shifts to aheart.

Declarer wins on the board, ruffs a diamond high in his hand, leads atrump to dummy’s jack, ruffs another diamond high, returns to dummy with aspade and cashes the diamond eight —bingo.

wuzzles

The probability for this line is approximately 78 percent —much better than afinesse. And without the superfluous diamond queen in his hand, South would have seen this line immediately. ©2025 by nEa, inc., dist.Byandrews mcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuCtIons: 1. Words must be of four or moreletters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” suchas“bats”or“dies,” are not allowed. 3. additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s”may notbeused. 4. proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

toDAy’sWoRD EPILEPsy: EP-ih-lep-see: Adisorder marked by abnormal electrical discharges in the brain.

Average mark 13 words

Timelimit 20 minutes

sAtuRDAy’s WoRD —CALCuLAtED

Can you find 17 or more words in EPILEPSY? cadet

in the temple, and in everyhouse, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Acts 5:42

marmaduKe

Bizarro

hagar the horriBle

Pearls Before swiNe

garfield

B.C.

PiCKles hidato

mallard

ScrabbleGramS

dIrectIons: make a2-to 7-letter word from the lettersineach row. add pointsof each word, using scoring directionsat right.Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter havenopoint value. all the words are in theOfficial sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

info@scrabbleplayers.org.

ken ken

InstructIons: 1 -Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1thorugh 4(easy) or 1through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.