Daily Republic
Monday, January 10, 2022 SECTION B Paul Farmer . Sports Editor . 427.6926
Epic finish yields win, playoff berth for the 49ers CamInman
The Mercury News
LOS ANGELES — The 49ers are in the playoffs, and with their not-dead-yet moxie and play-making ability, don’t rule them out from a SoFi Stadium return for next month’s Super Bowl. After spotting the Los Angeles Rams a 17-0 lead, the 49ers rallied Sunday for a 20-17, overtime win to capture the NFC’s No. 6 seed, the second of three wild-card berths. Up next is a renewal of an epic rivalry and a visit to the NFC East-champion Dallas Cowboys (12-5). It will be their first postseason meeting since the 1994, when the 49ers won in the NFC Championship Game en route to the franchise’s fifth (and last) Lombardi Trophy. The 49ers (10-7) did not lead Sunday against the Rams until 7:15 into the 10-minute overtime, when Robbie Gould’s 24-yard field goal capped a 12-play drive. Could the 49ers’
analysis ever-shaky pass defense protect that lead? Well, to no surprise this season, a third-and-10 pass to Cooper Kupp resulted in the 49ers’ seasonlong specialty: a pass interference penalty (on Moseley). Emmanuel Then came an unlikely hero: Ambry Thomas, who intercepted a Matthew Stafford bomb down the sideline, the type of deep pass that 49ers’ cornerbacks have yielded at inopportune moments since September. What a comeback it was. Not just from 17-0. The 49ers were down 24-17 with 1:27 remaining. Granted a reprieve, Garoppolo engineered an 88-yard, game-tying touchdown drive. It took five plays, the longest being a 55-yard catch-and-run by Deebo Samuel, and the clutchest being a 14-yard scoring strike to Jauan Jennings, who earlier caught a gameSee 49ers, Page B8
Big return for Thompson as Warriors roll Tribune Content Agency SAN FRANCISCO – Warriors guard Klay Thompson took a deep breath, leaned back in his seat and listened to the roar from a sellout Chase Center crowd. This was a moment worth savoring. For the first time in 941 days, Thompson was hearing the PA announcer call his name during pregame introductions. All he had endured the past 2 1/2 years — the surgeries on a torn ACL and torn Achilles tendon; the grueling rehabs; the latenight shots — were to reach this milestone. Thompson scored 17 points in 19 minutes as the Warriors rolled to a 96-82 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Steph Curry led the team with 28 points but he wasn’t the story on this night. In becoming one of the most important players in Warriors history,
Thompson hardly settled for simply being in the lineup. His goal is clear: become better than he was the night he suffered that ACL injury in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. And judging by how he opened his first game in nearly 31 months, Thompson is in a rush to get there. Forty seconds into regulation, he cut hard to the rim and hit a driving floater in the key. Over the next three-plus minutes, Thompson sent fans to the edge of their seats as he attempted three jumpers, including two 3-pointers, only for each shot to clang off iron. As he sauntered back to the bench with 7:37 left in the first quarter, he shook his head. There would be no major scoring outburst to kick of his first game back from two injuries known to derail careers.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images/TNS
Alabama head football coach Nick Saban, right, talks with Georgia head coach Kirby Smart before the SEC
Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Dec. 4, 2021.
Strength in recruiting always wins for Alabama and Georgia Matt Baker
Tampa Bay Times
TAMPA, Fla. — The lopsided College Football Playoff semifinal wins that brought No. 1 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia to Monday’s national championship were the product of dozens of smaller victories along the way. Not just on the field. On the recruiting trail, where the sport’s superpowers form. “This,” Florida coach Billy Napier said, “is a talent-acquisition business.” And few, if any, coaches have a better mastery of it than the Crimson Tide’s Nick Saban and the Bulldogs’ Kirby Smart. Every recruiting class they’ve
analysis signed since 2017 has been ranked in the top five nationally, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. In ‘19 and ‘20, they were 1-2 and 2-1. Of the 125 five-star prospects on Division I-A rosters this season, more than one-fourth were at either Georgia (19) or Alabama (14). In their semifinal romps, the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide each had 11 starters who were former top-100 recruits. In their regular-season finales, Florida, Florida State, Miami, USF and UCF started 11 of them combined. Until the rest of the sport’s major programs (including the former powers in this state) start consistently
beating Smart and Saban for top prospects, they’re not going to beat them consistently on the field. Recruiting at that elite level requires three key things, according to a handful of coaches and analysts interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times: effort, identification and infrastructure. Those factors funnel into one all-encompassing belief that explains both the success of those juggernauts and why so few programs have come close to matching them. “It takes,” Penn State coach James Franklin said, “a total commitment.”
Step 1: Effort The simplest explanation for the recruiting
success of Alabama and Georgia is that they prioritize recruiting success more than almost anyone else. “It all starts with effort, first and foremost,” said Jeremy Crabtree, senior recruiting editor for recruiting site On3. But it’s not as easy as it sounds because being committed to elite recruiting often means sacrificing something else. When hiring an assistant, does a coach value a great recruiter over someone who’s a better teacher or tactician? How do you balance recruiting with game-planning? Every minute a coach spends on the phone with a prospect is a minute he’s not breaking down See Recruiting, Page B8
Attorney: Brown cut before he could see team doctor Tribune Content Agency TAMPA, Fla. — The Bucs released receiver Antonio Brown before he had a chance to meet with the team-appointed doctor in New York on Thursday, his attorney said. Brown has said he had an MRI exam performed and read by two orthopedic surgeons last week, including Dr. Martin O’Malley at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Brown said it showed he had bone fragments and ligament damage to
his left ankle. But the Bucs scheduled an appointment “outside the normal business hours” with another doctor at HSS on Thursday morning, attorSean Burstyn said ney Saturday night in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. Brown’s representatives said they spoke to the orthopedic specialist appointed by the Bucs in New York who agreed to see the images of Brown’s ankle first. But the Bucs ‘’engineered a bogus scheme’' as a way to
release Brown, Burstyn said. The Bucs said in a statement announcing Brown’s release Thursday that “we have attempted, multiple times throughout this week, to schedule an evaluation by an outside orthopedic specialist, yet Antonio has not complied. Maintaining the health and wellness of our players is of the utmost importance to our organization.” But Burstyn insisted the early morning appointment was made as a “pretextual’' reason to release Brown. According to
Burstyn, Brown and his representatives learned of his release on Twitter. “We were in the midst of scheduling an appointment with the Bucs’ chosen doctor at HSS when we learned, over Twitter, that the Bucs terminated Antonio on Thursday,’' Burstyn said. “On Wednesday night, the Bucs concocted a bogus scheme to engineer a way to cut Antonio. They arbitrarily picked an appointment time outside of normal business hours early Thursday
morning. We immediately spoke to the doctor and asked if he had reviewed recent MRIs and whether we could reschedule to a normal, reasonable hour. When the doctor said he had not yet seen the images and was graciously willing to see us at a normal time, we proceeded to rescheduling. Again, the Bucs fired Antonio for not showing up to a doctor’s appointment that was being rescheduled to later that same day. (And, yes, we See Brown, Page B8
