KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson is heading to the NFL draft after leading the Southeastern Conference in rushing and setting a handful of school records. The SEC Offensive Player of the Year announced on social media his intention Friday to leave after his junior season. He helped the seventh-ranked Vols go 10-3 with a first-round loss in the College Football Playoff where Sampson was limited by an injured hamstring. Sampson thanked his family, Tennessee coaches and fans, saying he learned so much and had the chance to be part of something special. Tennessee went 3-7 in 2020, and he leaves with the Vols having won 30 games over his three seasons. “I poured my heart and soul into this program and this community,” Sampson wrote. “With that being said, I will be declaring for the 2025 NFL Draft.” Sampson set a school record running for 1,491 yards. He also set a program record with a league-best 22 rushing touchdowns, breaking a mark that had stood for 95 years. He was part of coach Josh Heupel's first full signing class in December 2021 out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He also set school records for total touchdowns scored (22), points scored (132) and consecutive games with a rushing touchdown (11). He led the SEC in nine different categories, including rushing attempts (258), rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, 100-yard rushing games with 10, averaging 114.7 yards rushing per game, points scored, points per game (10.2), all-purpose yards (1,638) and all-purpose yards per game (126.0). He finished this season tied for fifth all-time in the SEC ranks for rushing TDs in a single season with Leonard Fournette of LSU. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
'Friends' team up for new Darlington shop catching attention over familiar nameEven when Luigi Mangione was surrounded by people who cared about him, he was isolated by a spinal defect that gave the athletic young man crippling pain and contributed to a jaundiced view of the US healthcare system. Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Credit: nna\josh.hohne Authorities have charged Mangione, 26, with murder in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York and police said on Wednesday they believe the motive was animosity toward the health insurance industry and corporate America. New York police found a three-page, handwritten document on Mangione that expressed disdain for the health business, they’ve said. Mangione foreshadowed that scepticism about the healthcare industry on Reddit in April as he offered advice for getting a doctor to perform spinal surgery. “Tell them you are ‘unable to work’ / do your job,” he wrote. “We live in a capitalist society. I’ve found that the medical industry responds to these key words far more urgently than you describing unbearable pain and how it’s impacting your quality of life.” Mangione’s Reddit posts, under the name mister_cactus, had once linked to his personal programming site and offered numerous matching personal details. Reddit declined to confirm whether the account, which was deactivated this week, belonged to him. Reporters reviewed the posts in an internet archive. A poster depicting Luigi Mangione hangs outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in New York. Credit: AP Nothing in his Reddit posts reviewed by The Washington Post presaged violence. Authorities have not laid out their case for what they think drove Mangione to escalate his frustration with the health system, which is common in the United States, into an allegedly premeditated murder of a prominent executive. Thomas M. Dickey, an attorney for Mangione, didn’t respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Mangione’s arrest has stunned his friends and family, most of whom appeared to have lost touch with him in the last six months. “We all condemn violence of any kind,” said Josiah Ryan, a spokesman for Surfbreak HNL, a co-living community in Honolulu where Mangione lived for six months in 2022. He added: “There’s sadness because he was a person who was well-loved and no one saw this coming.” Ryan said Mangione’s back pain was well-known within the Surfbreak community. “It was a real problem for him, and he had to think about that in a way that most 24-year-old young men living in Hawaii would not have to worry about their health,” Ryan said. Mangione at the police station in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Credit: Pennsylvania State Police/AP Mangione’s struggles with his back pain offer a glimpse into the interior life of a man who outwardly lived a charmed existence – the scion of a wealthy family in Maryland who was valedictorian of his prestigious private school in Baltimore and earned degrees in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania. In archived Reddit comments, Mangione doesn’t express anger toward UnitedHealthcare or other health insurers. But the posts chronicle his struggle over the years to deal with back pain that became increasingly debilitating. “From childhood until age 23, my back would always ache if I stood too long, but it wasn’t too bad,” he wrote in February. But as he entered his mid-20s, the pain began to disrupt his life. He once described the sensation of an unstable spine as being able to “feel the bones moving/grinding.” Loading He also struggled with cognitive issues, according to his posts. In a Reddit group focused on brain fog, he wrote, “The people around you probably won’t understand your symptoms – they certainly don’t for me.” By January 2022, Mangione was living at Surfbreak in Hawaii, where a surfing accident exacerbated his spinal condition, according to his Reddit posts and interviews with friends. He had a spinal fusion surgery – a procedure that stabilises the spine with surgical screws – in July 2023, according to his Reddit posts, and he seemed pleased with the results for months afterward. “Haven’t had a bad day since,” he wrote in November 2023. Mangione’s discussion of surgery aligns with an image of an X-ray prominently displayed on his profile for the social media platform X. An orthopedic surgeon who reviewed the image for The Post described it as a “lumbar spine with posterior spinal instrumentation, possible fusion”. It’s a common procedure for people with spondylolisthesis, a condition where a vertebra shifts forward and can cause excruciating pain in the lower back. Loading He found a community on Reddit dedicated to spondylolisthesis, which he described as “my injury” in handwritten notes uploaded to his profile on the book-review site Goodreads in 2019. Mangione regularly offered advice to others, sometimes with an edge of bitterness about the reluctance of the medical profession to provide the care he considered necessary. To persuade doctors reluctant to perform surgery, he suggested an extreme option would be to “fake a foot drop” (difficulty lifting the front part of the foot) “or piss yourself. This is the absolute nuclear option, but there comes a point where it’s just ridiculous that people won’t operate on your broken spine.” His struggles drew empathy from people close to him. Surfbreak’s owner RJ Martin told the New York Times that Mangione “knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible”. In a text message to The Post , Martin said he was overwhelmed and exhausted and deferred comment to Ryan, his spokesman. Martin found Mangione “to be a really special person,” Ryan said. “He expected to have a lifelong friendship with him.” Mangione’s arrest “was pretty devastating for him”. Marc McCoy, 59, owner of Moped Garage, a store near Surfbreak, said that he sold Mangione a moped and that they had multiple conversations. The Maryland native was eager to talk to McCoy, who has lived in Hawaii for a half-century, about how to fit in and respect the local culture and not be an ugly American stereotype, McCoy said. “He was well-spoken, intelligent, conscientious,” he said. “I’m in complete shock.” Mangione spent some time in Japan this year. A picture posted to X in late February by Japanese professional poker player Jun Obara shows him appearing to enjoy a meal at a Tokyo restaurant with a smiling Mangione and others. “He came in by himself and we talked to him and treated him to a meal and drinks because we wanted him to enjoy Japan,” Obara wrote in a subsequent post this week. “He said he was on vacation from Hawaii.” Most friends and family appear to have lost touch with Mangione since May. That appears to be when he last posted to his accounts on Goodreads and Reddit, where he linked to a video shared by another user in a group for discussing Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Members of the New York police crime scene unit photograph bullets lying on the footpath. Credit: AP His apparently last post on X, formerly Twitter, was a retweet of a podcast episode on how smartphones and social media impact mental health on June 10. June 10 also was the last time Gurwinder Bhogal, a UK-based writer, said he received a message from Mangione, who was seeking advice about curating his social media feeds. The two had struck up a correspondence in April after Mangione subscribed to his Substack publication. They discussed politics, said Bhogal, who recalled him complaining “about how expensive health care in the U.S. was.” In comments circulated to reporters, Bhogal wrote, “Overall, the impression I got of him, besides his curiosity and kindness, was a deep concern for the future of humanity, and a determination to improve himself and the world.” United Healthcare chief executive Brian Thompson. Credit: AP He added, “He was so polite and thoughtful it was hard to conceive of him murdering someone.” Mangione’s movements in the summer and fall are still not clear. Mangione’s mother, Kathleen Mangione, called the San Francisco police on Nov. 18 and said her son had not been heard from since July, according to local media reports. A source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Post that a missing-person report was filed. The San Francisco Police Department declined to comment on the case and referred questions to New York police. An NYPD spokesperson declined to comment on the missing-person report. Washington Post Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here . Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Crime For subscribers USA Healthcare Most Viewed in World Loading
New AD Eric Roedl comes home, seeking to build ‘championship culture’ at VillanovaArgan, Inc. Declares Regular Quarterly Cash Dividend of $0.375 Per Common ShareBayelsa State Government has restated its commitment to partner investors to make the state a hub for agricultural development. Governor Senator Douye Diri stated this on Thursday when he received Dr. Sonia Darracq of the France Embassy, who is the Regional Agricultural Counsellor for Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana, and Nigeria, in Government House, Yenagoa. Represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, the governor noted that the government had already developed the A.S.S.U.R.E.D Agenda which is a comprehensive framework built on seven pillars. According to him, the first pillar of the agenda is hinged on Agricultural Revolution and Blue Economy which will focus on revolutionising the agricultural sector as part of the state’s development strategy. Senator Diri highlighted the four major crops where the state has a comparative advantage to include, rice, plantain, cassava, and aquaculture, stressing the need to collaborate with investors to enhance agricultural practices through advanced techniques and technologies. READ ALSO : Diri promises to leave infrastructure devt as legacy A statement signed by, Doubara Atasi, Media aide to the deputy governor, said the Governor expressed optimism that such effort will help to promote food security, and agro-business and boost the agricultural value chain in the state. He urged the Dr Darracq-led team to explore areas of collaboration with the state particularly where immediate success indicators could be achieved, noting that Bayelsa was ready to go into partnership to develop the agricultural sector with its competent team of government officials. Senator Diri, who described Bayelsa as a peaceful and hospitable state, said agriculture has the potential to facilitate industrialisation and called for investors that would help harness the state’s vast agricultural resources under its blue economy. In her remarks, Dr Sonia Darracq of the French Embassy said the team was in Bayelsa State to seek areas of partnership with the government in the development of the agricultural sector and technical education. Dr Darracq, who noted that they were also into developing agricultural business to make farming more attractive and lucrative, requested for the state government’s plans on agriculture, to enable the French Embassy to key into areas where necessary. “We are ready to learn from you. We will come to an agreement in principle on what we could do which we will report to the ambassador and let you know many financial technical tools that we have put up to date. “But before we do that, we need to know what your plans are and then we can build something together. We are happy to know that you already have a 5-year development plan for the agricultural sector,” she added. Shortly after the courtesy visit, Dr Darracq and her delegation inspected facilities at the Bayelsa Palm in Yenagoa, the state capital.Vikings waive former starting cornerback Akayleb Evans in another blow to 2022 draft class
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Trent Robinson's update on wife as Roosters coach breaks silence on Terrell May and Brandon SmithTetairoa McMillan, one of the best wide receivers in Arizona history, will skip his final year of eligibility and enter the 2025 NFL Draft, he announced on social media on Thursday. Projected as a top-10 draft pick, the 6-foot-5, 212-pound McMillan finished his illustrious career at Arizona with 3,423 receiving yards, breaking the mark set by Bobby Wade (3,351). In three seasons, the Hawaii native also posted the fourth-most catches (213) and third-most touchdowns (26) in school history. "Wildcat Nation, this journey has been everything I dreamed of and more," McMillan wrote on Instagram. "From the moment I committed to the University of Arizona, to every second spent wearing that Arizona jersey ... it's been an absolute honor. "The University of Arizona has provided me with the platform to grow and chase my dreams. ... Thank you from the bottom of my heart. To the best fans in the country, I appreciate you for all of the love and support you have given me these last 3 years. I will always be a Wildcat." In 2024, McMillan totaled 84 grabs (ninth in Division I) for 1,319 yards (third in Division I) and eight touchdowns for the 4-8 Wildcats. He also ranked third in Division I with 109.9 receiving yards per game. McMillan is a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, given to the most outstanding receiver in college football. --Field Level MediaWhat is the best mattress for cold sleepers?
Why do you think the Democrats lost the presidency this year? Was it inflation, immigration, sexism or foreign wars? We believe the answer is a lot simpler. In politics, President-elect Donald Trump has the strongest brand. Start with the baseball cap. It’s an aggressive red: the color of superhero capes, or the flag you wave in front of a bull. It has a four-word slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Or, simply, MAGA. More importantly, the cap stands for an idea: “America First.” It echoed through all of Trump’s messages, repeated over again. It is clear that, to many, America First means keeping immigrants out; shutting foreign products out; retreating from global commitments; and returning to the “American values” of gun rights, traditional masculinity and Trump-approved free speech. During the campaign, every time Trump said something crazy (“they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats”) or staged a photo (at a McDonald’s drive-thru, in a garbage truck, at his Madison Square Garden rally), the message reinforced one of those brand pillars. His provocations weren’t gaffes — they were brand-building exercises. They kept fortifying the America First message. They kept building the MAGA brand. The red caps got attention and provoked an immediate response, both negative and positive. The brand was so strong, it papered over all the things so many Americans dislike about Trump personally. The one thing the brand couldn’t seemingly overcome happened in 2020, when a once-in-a-century pandemic hit. In contrast, what did Vice President Kamala Harris offer? Sadly, not much. The Democratic campaign themes were forgettable: “for the people;” “moving forward;” “turning the page;” and “we’re not going back.” Where was the message? What was the brand? The campaign focused on proposals that pleased policy wonks but never added up to a grander theme. The irony is, Democrats actually have a product people want: better health care, stronger safety nets, serious climate action — but having the better policy isn’t enough if you can’t sell it. The Democrats are selling policy papers; Trump sells a story. In our more than 40 years in the advertising business, working to come up with catchy slogans, we had a basic criterion: Can the message fit on a cap or a T-shirt? Is it a message anyone would wear? It’s not as if politicians haven’t discovered the value of branding over the years, but most of the best examples are on the Republican side: “I like Ike;” “it’s morning again in America” (for former President Ronald Reagan, written by San Francisco’s Hal Riney, who was our boss and mentor at the time); and “compassionate conservatism.” Former President Barack Obama’s slogans were less memorable, but at least “yes, we can,” and “change we can believe in” had some emotional resonance. Brands are powerful. Nike doesn’t sell shoes; it sells victory. Coca-Cola doesn’t sell soda; it sells happiness. MAGA doesn’t sell policies; it sells a vision of American renewal. Does anyone think former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have received anything like the attention he got this year without the enduring strength of the Kennedy family brand? Look at history’s successful movements. The Nazis had their swastika and their salute. The peace movement has the dove and its symbol. The communists have a hammer and sickle. The civil rights movement has the raised fist. The LBGTQ+ rights movement has the pride flag. What symbols, what slogans, what baseball caps and T-shirts are instantly identifiable with the Democratic Party? There are, maybe, two — but they’re ancient. “The New Deal,” from 1932; and the donkey, from 1828 (and donkeys are thought of as stubborn and slow to change direction – draw your own conclusions). This election season, all the vibes, all the celebrity endorsements, all the “joy,” couldn’t compete with a great brand. Ten years from now we’ll look back and remember “Make America Great Again” — and not a single person will remember the slogans and promises of the Harris campaign. The Democratic Party needs to turn progressive values into a story worth telling, worth wearing, worth sharing. Until those candidates figure that out, they’ll keep bringing position papers to a brand fight. And they’ll keep losing. Kirk Citron, of Mill Valley, and Matt Haligman, of San Anselmo, are partners at Citron Haligman, an advertising agency based in Marin.
Big Ten could place four teams in playoff, thanks to IU's rise