Georgia football ranked No. 1 in USA Today preseason poll

The News Guy

5 months ago

COLLEGES

FOOTBALL: Georgia will open the season ranked No. 1 in the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll a year after having its two-year run as national champion end.

The Bulldogs received 46 of the 55 first-place votes from college football coaches in the team released on Monday. Preseason No. 2 Ohio State got seven votes at No. 1, followed by Oregon, Texas and Alabama.

Texas and defending national champion Michigan each got a first-place vote. The Wolverines will open ranked No. 8 after losing coach Jim Harbaugh and quarterback JJ McCarthy to the NFL. Mississippi’s No. 6 ranking represents the highest preseason ranking for the Rebels in the coaches poll since 1970. Notre Dame is No. 7, followed by Michigan, Penn State and Florida State.

The Associated Press preseason college football poll is scheduled to be released next Monday.

• Notre Dame offensive tackle Charles Jagusah will miss this season after he tore a muscle in his chest during preseason practice.

The school announced Monday that Jagusah is expected to have surgery after injuring his right pectoralis muscle. The second-year player and former four-star recruit was considered a possible starter at left tackle after the departure of Joe Alt, who was a first-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Chargers in April.

The Fighting Irish are replacing both starting offensive tackles this season, with Blake Fisher also getting drafted.

The 6-foot-7, 330-pound Jagusah started the Sun Bowl against Oregon State last year when Alt opted to not play in the postseason.

BASEBALL

NECBL: Caleb Shpur and Raymond Velazquez homered, Devan Bade had three hits and Jackson Walsh pitched three solid innings of relief as the Sanford Mainers defeated the Vermont Mountaineers, 7-4, in the first game a best-of-3 semifinals series of the New England Collegiate Baseball League playoffs on Monday in Montpelier, Vermont.

The game, originally scheduled for Sunday at Vermont, was suspended due to rain and was resumed in Sanford. Game two was scheduled for later Monday night.

HOCKEY

ECHL: The Maine Mariners signed forward Carter Johnson on Monday, bringing back a familiar face from two seasons ago.

Johnson, 28, first joined the Mariners in March 2023. In 14 regular-season games, he had four goals and nine assists. Then in Game 4 of the North Division semifinals, Johnson scored three third-period goals in a 7-3 Mariners win.

During the 2023-24 season, Johnson played in the United Kingdom in the Elite Ice Hockey League. In 54 games, he scored 13 goals and added 22 assists.

TENNIS

CITI OPEN: Sebastian Korda completed a father-son double late Sunday night in the Mubadala Citi DC Open for his second ATP Tour title.

Thirty-two years after father Petr won the then-Sovran Bank Classic, the fourth-seeded Korda beat 10th-seeded Flavio Cobolli of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in a match delayed at the start because of rain.

The 24-year-old Korda, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, is the younger brother of golf stars Nelly and Jessica Korda. His mother, Regina Rajchrtova, played on the WTA Tour.

Korda is the first American to win the Washington event since Andy Roddick in 2007. His previous victory came in in May 2021 in the Emilia-Romagna Open, an ATP 250 tournament.

In the women’s final, Paula Badosa of Spain won her first title following a back injury, beating Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in a rain-interrupted match.

SHAPOVALOV APPEALS: Canada’s Denis Shapovalov will retain his ranking points and prize money after appealing his disqualification from the quarterfinals of the Mubadala Citi DC Open, the ATP announced Monday.

Shapovalov lost his first set 7-6 (5) in a match against American Ben Shelton on Friday and trailed 6-3 in a tiebreaker in the second set when he threw his racket to the court and began shouting at a fan in the stands. As Shelton was about to serve for triple match point, the 25-year-old Shapovalov again argued with a fan. He was given an unsportsmanlike conduct code violation by the umpire, who then summoned a supervisor.

The ATP announced that the loss of ranking points and prize money, which is automatically applied when a player defaults, was a disproportionate penalty for Shapovalov’s actions. He will, however, have to pay a $36,400 fine for the violation.

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