Dan Hurley tore up the stat sheet and said his team ‘punked out.’ The UConn men’s basketball coach sat in a postgame interview Wednesday — after his No. 3 Huskies lost 71-67 at home to the No. 4 Arizona Wildcats — frustrated and disappointed with what he called a squandered opportunity to defeat one of the NCAA’s best teams.

‘We got punked,’ Hurley said. ‘It’s going to be a bad film session coming out of here. There’s a street fight going on in the paint and, you know, men can’t watch fights. You can’t stand on the outside when your buddies are in a fight. You get in the fight. You don’t stand on the periphery of the fight. We’ll see a lot of clips where guys were not in the fight with their teammates.’

Both teams entered the night undefeated, with a chance to mar a top-ranked teams’ record. Arizona remains 5-0, while UConn drops to 4-1. The Huskies’ performance was notably affected by the absence of senior center Tarris Reed Jr., who was sidelined due to a sprained ankle and is considered game-to-game. Prior to his injury, Reed Jr. was averaging 20 points and 9.3 rebounds per game before his injury.

At one point during the postgame press conference, a reporter asked Hurley about all the numbers from the game he’d been rattling off from a stat sheet on the table in front of him. Hurley promptly tore the stat sheet in half with a smirk and threw it off the table before answering.

‘Sometime around 2 a.m., 3, 4:30 am, I’m going to wake up and I’m gonna think it was just a nightmare… and then finally when I’m up and just starting to move around but I’m feeling half dead at around 7:30-8, I’m going to realize yea that we just (expletive) blew a chance to beat one of the best teams down two studs. In a game when we were down 13 and wobbling.

‘We got four more of these monsters in non-conference. We got a game on Sunday that we need to take to court with a very high level of rage and pissed off. Our people gotta get our guys healthy and on the court so we can be the team that we’re all really high on. OIt’s just, tonight sucked to lose like that.’

The Huskies next host Bryant at 6 p.m. ET Sunday. Arizona hosts the University of Denver at 10:30 p.m. ET Monday.

The wrongful death lawsuit the family of deceased pitcher Tyler Skaggs filed against the Los Angeles Angels reached a particularly nebulous point Nov. 19, as attorneys for the family and the ballclub aimed to project how much money Skaggs would have earned had he not died in 2019, two weeks before his 28th birthday and in the midst of the most productive season of his career.

Skaggs’ family is seeking $118 million in lost wages in addition to punitive damages. They enlisted the services of Jeff Fannell, a former labor lawyer for the MLB Players’ Association, who testified that Skaggs would have earned between $109 million and $120 million in his career, according to The Athletic.

Skaggs died July 1, 2019 after ingesting oxycodone laced with fentanyl at the team’s Texas hotel. Former Angels public relations staffer Eric Kay is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence after providing Skaggs the pill; Skaggs family attorneys allege the Angels knew or should have known Kay was providing drugs to Skaggs.

For a moment, the details of Skaggs’ death took a backseat to what he could have been as a pitcher.

At one point, Fannell and Angels attorney Jeff Keithly engaged in a torturous back-and-forth based on Fannell’s career comparison between Skaggs and one-time All-Star pitcher Taijuan Walker, who is entering the final year of a four-year, $72 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Keithly, in testimony recounted by The Athletic, cited a particularly irrelevant data point: Skaggs’ 5.12 ERA in seven starts with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2013, which paled to Walker’s 3.60 mark for the Seattle Mariners – in three starts.

Those absurdly small sample sizes seemed to go unchecked, however, as Keithly and Fannell briefly devolved into an age-old argument on traditional and modern statistics.

‘Quality is not just ERA,’ Fannell said, per The Athletic, citing Fielding Independent Pitching as another, ostensibly fairer metric.

The career arc of pitchers can be particularly difficult to project, given uncertainties with arm health, league environment and the scarcity of supply going forward. Skaggs, though, seemed on an upward arc at the time of his death.

He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2014, and gradually ramped up his innings in the years since. The final start of his career – June 29, 2019 – was his 15th of the season, putting him on track to make 30 starts, a marker of durability for pitchers.

His 4.29 ERA that season came in arguably the most unfriendly environment to pitchers in major league history, when a record 6,776 home runs were hit, more than 600 higher than the previous mark set in 2017.

Within that context, another modern statistic – adjusted ERA, which accounts for ballpark and league environment factors – is particularly germane. Skaggs’ adjusted ERA that season was 108, or 8% better than league average.

Skaggs was due to be a free agent after 2019, and Keithly accused Fannell in court of simply doubling Skaggs’ stats, calling it ‘a fake platform year.’ With that said, several pitchers in Skaggs’ 108 adjusted ERA neighborhood that year went on to significant earnings.

Trevor Bauer, also 28 years old that year, went on to win the 2020 NL Cy Young Award and signed a $105 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021. He had an adjusted ERA of 105. Zach Eflin, then a third-year right-hander with Philadelphia, posted a 108 adjusted ERA; he signed a three-year, $40 million contract with Tampa Bay after the 2022 season.

And on the high end of Skaggs’ range, Sandy Alcantara produced a 110 adjusted ERA in 2019, his first full major league season, won the 2022 NL Cy Young Award and signed a contract extension that could guarantee him $76 million.

While Skaggs may lack Alcantara’s pedigree, he’s also left-handed, which creates greater scarcity and often ensures greater longevity.

The Angels, The Athletic reported, have enlisted Baltimore and Boston general manager Dan Duquette as their expert witness on future earnings.

Toxicologist Stacey Hail also testified Nov. 19, reiterating much of her testimony from Kay’s criminal trial that Skaggs would have survived but for the fentanyl in his system. The Angels, the Athletic reported, will attempt to illustrate that the oxycodone and alcohol in Skaggs’ system also contributed to his death.

EVANSTON, IL – Pat Ryan Jr. wants to make a statement with Northwestern football’s new Ryan Field.

The $862 million stadium will replace the former Ryan Field and Ryan is willing to bet it will stand out in college and professional football — whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

‘Never seen a stadium like this before. And when they say that one of two things is true,’ Ryan told USA TODAY Sports. ‘Either we’ll be right in making these bold bets. And if we’re right, you’ll see echoes of it in lots of buildings going forward. And if we’re wrong, it’ll be one of a kind, the only one of its kind, you know?’

While Ryan is proud of the investment he, his family and their company Ryan Sports Development are making in Northwestern athletics, college fans elsewhere may wonder why they may invest so much into a program that has historically has struggled. The Wildcats have not been ranked since 2020 and with Indiana’s resurgence, Northwestern has assumed the mantle of FBS’s all-time losingest program.

Here’s what you need to know about why the Ryan family opted to invest nearly one billion dollars in a brand-new stadium for Northwestern:

Why is Ryan family investing $862 million into Northwestern football?

The former Ryan Field opened in 1926. It was expanded in 1949 and 1952, and underwent renovations in 1996. In 1997, the stadium was re-named from Dyche Stadium to Ryan Field, after Patrick Ryan Sr, Ryan’s father.

Since then, the school and the Ryan family determined further renovations to a nearly 100-year-old stadium would prove to be more costly than building a brand-new stadium.

The former stadium was demolished in 2024.

‘If you look at our academic facilities, our performing arts facilities, everything we try to do with the highest order of excellence,’ Ryan said. ‘So, you see that in every type of nanotechnology building, performing arts building, anything. We try to do things to the highest order of excellence.’

Who is the Ryan family?

The Ryan family ― the largest donors in Northwestern University’s history ― are all Northwestern graduates, starting with Patrick Ryan Sr. and his wife Shirley Ryan. Patrick graduated from Northwestern in 1959 with undergraduate degree in business. Shirley graduated in 1961 with a degree in English.

Patrick distinguished himself as one of the most successful entrepreneurs and prominent civic leaders, according to Northwestern’s school website. He served 41 years as CEO of Aon Corporation, the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, while Shirley was appointed to the National Council on Disability. Ryan Field was named after him in 1997.

The Ryan family is a minority owner of the Chicago Bears and owns a stake in the English Premier League club AFC Bournemouth.

Ryan family committed to Northwestern

While the $862 million commitment to the football stadium ― with the majority coming from the family ― is an obvious investment into the football program, it also goes beyond that in athletics.

‘We’re very proud of the fact of how competitive our other sports are,’ Ryan said. ‘In the last few years, we won women’s golf, and we won the national championship, two field hockey championships, lacrosse national championship, and runner-up last year. We’ve won eight national championships in lacrosse. We’re very proud of all of the sports at Northwestern.’

Belief in David Braun, future of Northwestern football

David Braun took over the Northwestern football head coach role on an interim basis following the firing of Pat Fitzgerald. Braun was in his first year as a defensive coordinator.

In his first year, Braun led the Wildcats to an 8-5 record, including four wins to close out the season, which culminated in a 14-7 win over Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.

In 2023, Northwestern went 5-8, missing a bowl game for the fourth time in six seasons. The Wildcats were far removed from a 7-2 finish during the 2020-COVID-impacted season, which saw them ranked as high as No. 8 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

However, Braun and the Wildcats have proven the belief in their future during the 2025 season. Following a 1-2 start, Northwestern enters Week 13 and its matchup against Minnesota with a 5-5 overall record and a 3-4 record in Big Ten play, just a single win away from bowl eligibility.

The Wildcats won four straight games over UCLA, Louisiana-Monroe, Penn State and Purdue between Sept. 27 and Oct. 18, which included a Week 7 upset of the Nittany Lions on the road on Oct. 11.

‘The good news there is I know we have the right football coach to get us there,’ athletic director Mark Jackson told USA TODAY Sports in August. ‘I can’t wait to see the progress that we hopefully make this season. So I think we have all the right ingredients, and now it’s time to mix them all and go compete to get in that College Football Playoff.’

New Ryan Field is for Evanston community

For most teams, football season runs from the end of August until late November. The season could extend into January for the teams in the College Football Playoff.

That means the stadium is in use for football for seven to eight Saturdays a year. For Ryan, that’s not nearly enough usage to justify the cost of its construction: He wants the new Ryan Field to be used throughout the year for the community of Evanston.

‘This is going to be an asset that’s used by the Evanston community, by the Chicago community, by youth athletes, by athletes with disabilities, adaptive athletes,’ Ryan said. ‘We’re very seriously committed to making this a year-round asset.

‘Now, it’s not going to be a full stadium year-round, but it’s broken up into all these plazas and spaces and festival grounds. The whole idea there is that you can activate any of these smaller spaces all around the year, as well as do smaller-scale events for non-revenue sports.’

New Ryan Field is Chicago’s Big Ten stadium

According to Ryan, the new Ryan Field is being constructed to become Chicago’s Big Ten stadium. The reasoning is simple: While Northwestern does not have the largest alumni group of the conference, the rest of the conference have plenty of alumni who live in the city.

‘You’ve got to remember Chicago is the home, historic home of the Big Ten,’ Ryan said. ‘It is the largest, for the traditional Big Ten, it is the home to more alumni from Michigan than Detroit, more people from Ohio State than Cleveland or Cincinnati, or even Columbus.

‘So the reality is that Chicago, and then if you look, where do people in the traditional Big Ten travel to for trips and dates? Chicago. So, Chicago is the home of the Big Ten, traditional Big Ten.’

Could Ryan Field be home of Illinois high school championships?

State championships for high school football are rotated between Hancock Stadium on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal and Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois in Champaign.

Hancock Stadium has the contract to host the state championships from 2023 to 2027. However, Jackson said with the new Ryan Field opening in 2026, Northwestern would also put in a bid to host them.

‘I’ve been in touch with the Evanston athletic director a little bit,’ Jackson said. ‘We haven’t gotten any details, but we’ve talked conceptually about the Illinois Football state championships. … We’d love to be a hub for all of that. We’re not trying to pull events away, but I think we have a great showcase.’

AI-assisted summary
• Several NFL players are under pressure to improve their performance as their teams push for the playoffs.
• Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence needs to elevate his passing game to help his team contend.

Nothing has been decided in the NFL’s postseason outlook, but it sure looks as though the time has arrived to start regularly discussing the playoff picture.

As the league enters Week 12, a few teams have made the leap from playoff hopefuls to legitimate contenders. But with the entirety of the field still left to be determined, there’s plenty of time for players to take a bit of agency in determining the course of the final month-and-a-half of the regular season. Yet whether it’s due to subpar performances earlier in the year or the need to fill in for injured teammates, several players will be under pressure to elevate their play down the stretch.

Here are 10 players who need to step up for their teams in the playoff push:

Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars

Good luck figuring out which version of Jacksonville is going to show up on any given week. The Jaguars followed up a fourth-quarter collapse against the Houston Texans in Week 10 with a dismantling of the Los Angeles Chargers, against whom they did not punt and allowed just 135 total yards. Yet for all the variety on display in Liam Coen’s first season as a head coach, there has yet to be an iteration of this year’s team in which Lawrence seizes control. The Jaguars are in the playoff hunt at 6-4 thanks in large part to a revitalized run game and opportunistic defense. The passing attack, however, has lagged behind significantly, with Lawrence tied for sixth in the NFL with six interceptions while posting a 59.8% completion rate that stands as his worst mark since his rookie campaign. A good bit of responsibility falls on the receiving corps that has been plagued by drops and injuries, with Travis Hunter Jr. now out for the season and Brian Thomas Jr. having missed the last two games. But Lawrence has also lowered the ceiling of this operation, particularly with his lackluster deep passing (8-of-34 on throws of 20 or more yards down the field, per Next Gen Stats). Coen has given Lawrence the green light to be more aggressive, and Jacksonville probably can’t cut it even as a wild-card contender without the quarterback rediscovering his 2022 Pro Bowl form.

Emeka Egubka, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Maybe this is unfair to the front-runner for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, whose contributions have come far earlier and at a much grander scale than anyone outside of Tampa could have reasonably expected. But Egbuka has been held under 60 yards receiving – and without a touchdown – in four of his last five games, a stretch in which the NFC South-leading Buccaneers are just 2-3. Much of that can be attributed to the imbalance created by the extended absences of lead back Bucky Irving and fellow receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr., leaving defenses free to clamp down on Egbuka. But the typically reliable pass catcher has also hauled in just 20 of his 47 targets in that span, illustrating a clear disconnect with Baker Mayfield. Getting Irving and Godwin back sometime in the near term might help open things up, but if Tampa Bay is to fend off the pesky Carolina Panthers for a fifth consecutive division crown, Egbuka probably needs to be an even bigger part of the picture.

Ricky Pearsall, WR, San Francisco 49ers

Brock Purdy enjoyed a smooth return to the 49ers’ lineup on Sunday, completing 19 of 26 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns. Pearsall, however, didn’t experience the same seamless transition after missing five games with a right knee injury, as he caught just one of his two targets for 0 yards in the contest. For now, the 2024 first-round receiver doesn’t have to rush things, as the likes of George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey have proven more than capable of supporting Purdy and the passing attack. But with an injury-ravaged defense, the 49ers have to be prepared to engage in shootouts the rest of the way, and they need all the ammo at their disposal. Pearsall got off to a blazing pace with a team-high 327 yards in the first four games before his injury, and he’s a vital weapon for a receiving corps that still can’t count on a return on Brandon Aiyuk seeing the field anytime soon.

Fred Johnson, OT, Philadelphia Eagles

No one should be under the illusion that the Eagles can replace Lane Johnson. The six-time Pro Bowl right tackle is a singular source of stability up front, and his absence – potentially for the rest of the regular season – due to a Lisfranc injury will take a significant toll on an already shaky Philadelphia offense. But the decision to bring back Fred Johnson in August via trade might be one of the keys to the push for the NFC’s No. 1 seed. The backup has been here before, having started six games and logged a total of 481 snaps in the Eagles’ Super Bowl run last season. But Philadelphia will need him to be more reliable after he gave up eight sacks in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus, or a risk-averse offense could recede even further into its shell.

Sean Rhyan, C, Green Bay Packers

The entire Packers’ offensive line looks to be on notice after injuries and inconsistent play have derailed the unit. But how Rhyan handles taking over for injured starter Elgton Jenkins for the rest of the season could help determine whether Green Bay can pull itself out of its current predicament. A left tackle at UCLA who has bounced around the interior in the pros, the fourth-year veteran now gets the chance to settle in as a pivot. He steps in for a front that has failed to create much of a push for Josh Jacobs, who is averaging just 3.8 yards per carry on the season. And though Jordan Love has proven himself more than capable of attacking vertically, the Packers’ line has seldom provided him with enough time to do so with any sense of comfort. Green Bay doesn’t have many viable options to continue reshuffling if Rhyan falters, so Matt LaFleur is counting on him to help the attack navigate a brutal finish stretch of the season.

Kwity Paye, DE, Indianapolis Colts

Lou Anarumo has unleashed a multifaceted pass rush that can create havoc from all angles, with 12 different players having recorded a sack for Indianapolis this season. But the Colts have also been propped up by sack leader Laiatu Latu, whose absence on certain plays this season has resulted in an 8.9% fall in pressure rate compared to when he’s on he field, according to Next Gen Stats. And with defensive tackle DeForest Buckner remaining on injured reserve until at least Week 15, generating heat won’t come easy for the AFC South front-runners. A first-round pick in 2021 who tallied 16 ½ sacks in the last two years, Paye trails only Latu on the team with 32 pressures, but more juice is required for a group that ranks just 30th in ESPN’s pass-rush win rate metric.

Patrick Queen, LB, Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers stirred up some consternation earlier this season when the league’s highest-paid defense lived up to neither its billing nor its bills. Though Pittsburgh proved capable of snagging turnovers and racking up sacks, the basics seemed to elude a group that was trampled for 142 rushing yards in a 33-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7. Since then, things have settled down, with the defense having reined in NFL leading rusher Jonathan Taylor while cutting down on mistakes. But the league’s two most prolific rushing offenses are ahead in the next two weeks, with three more dates against top-six ground games after that. Queen, who has had a few rough outings this year, will be counted on to be more consistent and clean for a defense that ranks second in missed tackles on the season, according to Pro Football Reference.

Terrel Bernard, LB, Buffalo Bills

Buffalo’s shortcomings in the receiving corps have earned plenty of attention. But the defense’s inability to stop the run – only the Bengals surrender more yards per game on the ground than the Bills’ 153 – has proven to be just as pervasive of a problem. With standout defensive tackle Ed Oliver expected to be out at least through the regular season with a torn biceps, it’s clear there’s no cavalry coming to save the unit. Fellow linebacker Matt Milano has also underwhelmed this season as he has continued to deal with injuries, but Bernard’s downswing has been particularly disappointing for a player who signed a four-year, $50 million contract extension in March. Having seemingly moved on from the ankle injury that earlier sidelined and inhibited him, the fourth-year man in the middle has to be cleaner with his pursuit and tackling efforts if Buffalo is to catch up with the New England Patriots for the AFC East lead or stop the likes of the Colts or Broncos – the league’s third- and fourth-ranked rushing offenses – in the playoffs.

Jaylon Johnson, CB, Chicago Bears

Chicago’s defensive success has depended almost entirely on engineering 22 takeaways, the most for any team through 10 games since 2022. When the Bears can’t find the ball or ensure the pass rush gets home, however, things can get dicey. The unit has repeatedly been burned deep, with its explosive play rate (8%) ranking last in the NFL, according to Sharp Football, while its 7.8 yards allowed per attempt is the third-worst mark of any team. But the secondary has been particularly shorthanded amid the absences of Johnson, who only played in Week 2 this season before a groin injury sent him to injured reserve, and nickel Kyler Gordon. A two-time Pro Bowler, Johnson can provide far stickier coverage than what this Chicago defense has demonstrated, though it might take him some time to find his footing.

Riley Moss, CB, Denver Broncos

With the Broncos’ pass rush on pace to set the single-season team sack record, Denver’s secondary has been afforded a good bit of leeway. For most of a talented group in its own right, there has been no trouble in clearing the bar of ‘do no harm’ … except for Moss. The third-year cornerback leads the NFL with nine penalties for pass interference, and he was flagged three times in the showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. The importance of playing more cleanly isn’t lost on Moss, who vowed this week to ‘put the boxing gloves on’ during practices to curb his handsy tendencies. He’ll have a couple of weeks of lightweight bouts for tune-ups, and the expected return of reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II will change the complexion of the defense’s back end. But if the issue continues to bubble up, there will be a fair amount of unease about this weakness getting exploited sometime down the stretch or in the postseason.