Sonny Dykes got the last laugh in his return to SMU, while Jason Robertson is nowhere to be found in Stars camp as his contract stalemate drags on. Meanwhile, Martin Perez turned in the sort of solid, unspectacular start—five innings pitched, three runs, with three walks and three hits apiece—that doesn’t shed much light on what his next contract might look like.
Here’s what I’m watching this week:
Monday, 9/26 and Sunday, 10/2—Does Cooper Rush fan the flames of Dallas’ nonexistent quarterback controversy?—7:15 p.m., ABC (Monday) & noon, FOX (Sunday)
Only the Cowboys would be in a situation this dumb purely of their own making. Last Thursday, owner and general manager Jerry Jones kinda-sorta-maybe-I’m kidding-but am I kidding? suggested that a long string of victories by Rush in relief of the injured Dak Prescott could spark the sort of quarterback tug-of-war reminiscent of Prescott snatching the reigns from the injured Tony Romo in 2016.
This is exceedingly stupid, which is why Mike McCarthy promptly shot the notion down the following day. Rush himself said he and Prescott “got a good laugh” at the thought. Yet Jones, even after attempting to clarify his comments Friday, has effectively given Cowboys diehards license to fan even the smallest flickers of this flame should Rush perform well Monday night and (presumably) Sunday afternoon.
Would a quarterback controversy help his football team? Only in the sense of generating more talking points, which is more or less the thrust of the operation these days anyhow. Needless to say, it’s raised the Q rating of a signal caller we were all googling 11 months ago. So in that sense, mission already accomplished. We’ll see if the standings yield similarly satisfying results.
Thursday, 9/29—Stars versus Wild, NHL Preseason—7 p.m., BSSW Extra
The first of three televised preseason games for the Stars is a chance to feast your eyes on the question of the exhibition games (non-Robertson edition): will one of the highly touted group that is Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, and Mavrik Bourque break camp? Allow David Castillo to zoom in on why that matters and what their chances are.
Saturday, 10/1—SMU at UCF—2:30 p.m., ESPNU
What a difference 14 days make. Two Saturdays ago, the Mustangs were 2-0 and flying high heading into a telling road test at Maryland. They came up just short in that one before getting downed again by Dykes and TCU. Suddenly, SMU is .500 entering conference play.
This won’t be an easy start, either: the Golden Knights are fresh off a comfortable 27-10 win over Georgia Tech that led the Yellow Jackets to fire head coach Geoff Collins. Will the Mustangs get back on track, or will they be chasing ground in AAC play?
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