Embed

Banner carousel full

Unbiased news on the field and on the Hill.

Where sports and politics meet.

Football field at dusk with a state capitol dome behind it

Recent blog posts

Recent News

<p>Death Valley sold out again. Tech gets the hangover test.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>No. 8 LSU hosts Louisiana Tech Saturday night after the SEC cooled off — Kiffin wants Clemson energy, not a Week 2 shrug.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>By Rhett Landry</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Thursday night the SEC presidents got on a Zoom, talked about “expectations and responsibilities,” and hung up without a sanction, without an expulsion vote, without anything that would keep Saturday from happening. Field Level Media / Reuters had it: the meeting ended, the statement was soft, and the football calendar stayed intact. Wade Rousse already told Greg Sankey the Wright–Harris roster fight was “moot.” Aidan Anding and Gabriel Reliford filled the last two spots. The 105 is locked. The lawsuit noise can wait for another filing. Tiger Stadium does not.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Saturday is Louisiana Tech at No. 8 LSU, 6:32 p.m. CT on SEC Network+, second straight sellout, purple night. LSUSports.net posted the home notes Friday. Last Saturday the Tigers dropped Clemson 51–10 with 644 yards of offense and 145 allowed. Sam Leavitt: 16-of-28 for 230, one passing touchdown, 113 rushing yards and two more scores. Dilin Jones matched him with 113 and two on the ground. Winston Watkins Jr. had seven for 110 and a score. Jordan Ross took one 30 yards the other way. The league stuck Offensive Player, Offensive Lineman, and Defensive Lineman of the Week stickers on three LSU debuts — Leavitt, Jordan Seaton, Ross. That’s the tape Tech has to live with.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Kiffin’s Monday message, per LSUSports and the AP wire: last week is over. Same prep. Same standard. Don’t let the opponent dictate how you practice. He even challenged the crowd — electric for Clemson, bring it again for the in-state game. He also tipped his hat at Ruston. Tech put up 80–6 on Northwestern State. Blake Baker threw for 232 and three scores. Jalen Mickens needed three catches for 133 and a touchdown. Kiffin called the Bulldogs’ 3-3-5 “really unusual,” said you rewrite a lot of rules to play it, and said scoring 80 means you’re doing something right on offense no matter who lined up across from you. Crescent City Sports notes its the first back-to-back LSU–Tech meetings since 1940–41. Last year’s 23–7 in Death Valley was the fewest points Tech has allowed LSU since 1913. That version of LSU is gone. This one just chewed up a Power program in purple.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>National board noise still matters for the reader who watches more than one TV. No. 1 Ohio State at No. 4 Texas is Saturday’s headline elsewhere. Missouri at Kansas is tonight’s Border War warm-up. Fine. Enjoy it. In Baton Rouge the only ranking that counts this week is No. 8 on the chest and a Ruston team that just hung 80 and thinks it earned a night under the lights. Ole Miss is Sep 19. Oxford already talked. Tech is the gate.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Wear purple. Show up loud. If LSU treats this like a hangover, Sonny Cumbie’s bunch will make the night longer than the scoreboard wants. If LSU treats it like Clemson, Death Valley gets what it paid for — another sellout that sounds like one.</p>

Death Valley sold out again. Tech gets the hangover test.

<p>Say the names. Keep the silence. Do not look away.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>By Everett Kane</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Twenty-five years ago this morning, nineteen men turned four airliners into weapons. The North Tower was struck at 8:46. The South Tower at 9:03. The Pentagon at 9:37. United Airlines Flight 93 went into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03, after passengers and crew fought back. Both towers fell. Nearly three thousand people were murdered that day — office workers, firefighters, passengers, soldiers, a child on a plane.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>At the National September 11 Memorial in lower Manhattan, families will read aloud 2,983 names: those killed on September 11, 2001, and in the February 26, 1993, bombing of the World Trade Center. Six moments of silence mark the strikes, the collapses, the Pentagon, and Flight 93. This year, for the first time on the anniversary plaza, a seventh silence follows the reading — for first responders, recovery workers, and neighbors who later died from 9/11-related illness. The Memorial made that tribute permanent.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>That is not politics. It is a ledger.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Remember what was done. Remember who did it. Remember the people who ran toward the fire and the people who never came home. A country that forgets invites a rematch. A country that softens the names into a mood piece has already started losing.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Stand still for the bells. Then live like the dead were owed more than a hashtag.</p>

Twenty-five years

<p>The expulsion vote cooled overnight. Tech did not.</p><p><br></p><p>Rousse called it moot. Sankey’s Thursday Zoom still happens. Saturday is still Death Valley.</p><p><br></p><p>By Rhett Landry</p><p><br></p><p>The Southeastern Conference is no longer expected to vote on kicking LSU out of the league on Thursday, an Associated Press source told Brett Martel on Wednesday night. The presidents and chancellors still meet by Zoom this afternoon. The nuclear item is not expected to be on the table the way Tuesday’s filing made it sound. Sports Business Journal had the same de-escalation: vote suspended, temperature down, meeting still on.</p><p><br></p><p>That is not peace. That is a pause with a paper trail.</p><p><br></p><p>LSU President Wade Rousse sent Sankey a one-page letter the AP obtained. The spine of it is blunt: “The roster is now locked for the season. LSU complied with SEC rules. This issue is moot.” He wrote that he called Sankey last Friday afternoon to say DaeQuan Wright and Zxavian Harris would not be on the roster, that the school filled the last two spots Tuesday night with eligible guys, and that LSU will not challenge, disrupt, or try to cancel Thursday’s meeting. AL.com carried the same letter language. Under the threat, Baton Rouge chose the lock. Wright and Harris stay out. Anding and Reliford got the chairs. The Reveille already framed that as survival over the lawsuit names.</p><p><br></p><p>Sankey’s conference has not kissed and made up. The AP piece still has him on the record from the amended complaint era: consensus among leaders that LSU’s continued membership would be “inconsistent with the publicly stated values and principles” of the league even if the former pros never dress, plus the institutional-control shot at Rousse, Verge Ausberry, and how much leash Kiffin has. SBJ noted the league could still hunt a penalty for the chase of those players. So Thursday’s Zoom is not a pep rally. It is a room that almost voted on ending a founding membership and is now deciding how loud the leftover anger gets to be.</p><p><br></p><p>None of that cancels Saturday. No. 8 LSU hosts Louisiana Tech at 6:30 p.m. CT in Tiger Stadium on SEC Network+. Kiffin already told the Monday desk everything’s got to be the same as the Clemson night. Tech scored 80. Oxford is still Sept. 19. Wear purple. Watch the Zoom if you must. Then fill the bowl like the program that just jumped to No. 8 still has to beat the Bulldogs before it gets to be mad at Mississippi.</p>

The expulsion vote cooled overnight. Tech did not.

<p>Midterms are weeks away. The justices are the ones still working.</p><p><br></p><p>By Everett Kane</p><p><br></p><p>Congress is mostly gone. Pro forma sessions. A stopgap signed through Dec. 11. The House cut its September calendar short and heads for the campaign trail when it comes back the week of the 14th. That is how a majority spends the weeks before a midterm: clear the shutdown risk, then leave town.</p><p><br></p><p>The real fight is at the Supreme Court.</p><p><br></p><p>The Trump administration asked the justices to pause a Boston federal judge’s order that blocks parts of a U.S. Postal Service rule on mail-in-ballots. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Court the order undercuts efforts to stop the mails from being used for voter fraud — fraud that dilutes lawful votes and hollows out public confidence. California, joined by more than twenty states and the District of Columbia, urged the Court to leave the injunction in place. They warn some states cannot comply before November and that millions of mail voters could be stranded.</p><p><br></p><p>That is the choice. Integrity rules that arrive late, or a system that shrugs and hopes the envelopes hold.</p><p><br></p><p>A second track landed this week. The administration asked the Court to clear use of a revamped Homeland Security SAVE database so states can check citizenship on voter rolls. A D.C. judge had blocked the current version. Sauer called that order a threat to election integrity with the midterms too close for a delayed fix.</p><p><br></p><p>States run elections. That is the Constitution. It is not a license for sloppy rolls, anonymous ballots, or a Postal Service that invents process mid-cycle without the country watching. If the rule is lawful, let it run. If it is not, kill it clean. Do not leave fifty secretaries of state guessing in October.</p><p><br></p><p>November 3 is not a seminar. It is a national decision. The Court should say what the law allows before the first wave of ballots is already in the mail. Delay is its own verdict.</p><p><br></p><p>Related articles</p><p>Missouri’s Map Mess: Two Courts, One Midterm, Zero Clarity — <a href="https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/missouris-map-mess-two-courts-one-midterm-zero-clarity" data-mce-href="https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/missouris-map-mess-two-courts-one-midterm-zero-clarity">https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/missouris-map-mess-two-courts-one-midterm-zero-clarity</a></p><p>Brent cleared $100. WTI settled $96. — h<a data-mce-href="https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/brent-cleared-100-wti-settled-96" href="https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/brent-cleared-100-wti-settled-96" data-mce-selected="inline-boundary">ttps://capitolandcleats.com/blog/brent-cleared-100-wti-settled-96</a></p><figure id="figure-s66qf51jkmtvjo5d6"><img id="s66qf51jkmtvjo5d6" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2cmM8Qrb1IFHvjwZV1SQrhmCK7eIZ2ub5ZR00yKYaTKqTuWcEO5wOdxycm7VC6Sy.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2cmM8Qrb1IFHvjwZV1SQrhmCK7eIZ2ub5ZR00yKYaTKqTuWcEO5wOdxycm7VC6Sy.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>

Mail ballots and the Court

<p>In 328 BCE, at a drinking party in what is now Samarkand, Alexander killed Cleitus the Black — then made the army call the dead man a traitor.</p><p><br></p><p>By Jonah Hale</p><p><br></p><p>The battles get the marble. Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela, Hydaspes. What happened at Maracanda, the old Sogdian city the Greeks called by that name and we call Samarkand, gets a quieter line in the histories — and it may tell you more about the king than any river crossing.</p><p><br></p><p>In 328 BCE Alexander was still mopping up the eastern Iranian lands. Cleitus, called the Black, was not a court ornament. After the destruction of Parmenio’s house, Alexander had split the Companion cavalry. One half went to Hephaestion. The other went to Cleitus, an older Macedonian of the old guard. Britannica records him among Alexander’s most-trusted commanders. Ancient writers also place him at the Granicus years earlier, in the melee that nearly killed the young king.</p><p><br></p><p>That summer, at Maracanda, the trust ended in a cup.</p><p><br></p><p>The sources — principally Arrian and Plutarch — agree on the shape if not every insult. There was a banquet, heavy with wine. Praise of Alexander slid into slight of Philip. Persian manners sat badly with men who still thought in Macedonian ranks. Cleitus spoke for the veterans. Tempers rose. Friends held Alexander back; Cleitus was pushed from the room. He came back. Alexander got free, took a spear, and killed him.</p><p><br></p><p>Then the remorse — so loud, the army’s remedy was stranger than the crime. Britannica notes Alexander’s “excessive display of remorse,” after which the army passed a decree convicting Cleitus posthumously of treason. The dead man was made the guilty party so the living king could go on being king.</p><p><br></p><p>It was not a battlefield decision. It was absolutism practiced with a spear and cleaned up with a vote. Shortly afterward Alexander pressed Persian royal dress and, at Bactra, the court ritual of prostration. The Macedonians laughed that experiment down. Callisthenes, who would not bow, did not long outlive the fashion.</p><p><br></p><p>The empire still had India ahead of it, and a mutiny at the Hyphasis, and a fever in Babylon. But Maracanda is where the breach between Alexander and many of his own shows in a single night: the man who shared the Companion command dead on the floor, the army rewriting the story so the king could sleep.</p>

The Spear at Maracanda

<p>Brent cleared $100. WTI settled $96.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>ICE Brent settled at $101.21 a barrel Wednesday, up 3.4%, after touching $101.58. NYMEX WTI settled at $96.05. First Brent settle above $100 since July.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>By Victor Lin</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>The move is ships, not speeches. The U.S. military said it destroyed five Iranian tankers after Iran tried ballistic missiles on a U.S. Navy warship. Iranian media said Tehran hit two U.S. warships and eight oil tankers in the Persian Gulf; that second claim had no immediate confirmation in the same Bloomberg write-up. Houthis hit Saudi energy facilities. Hormuz is the choke. The tape priced it.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Newsquawk had the same settles — WTI up $3.02 to $96.05, Brent up $3.29 to $101.21 — with session highs at $96.82 and $101.58. DTN’s Barani Krishnan matched those closes. Seventh straight up day for New York crude in other market recaps of the same session.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>The government map moved the same day. EIAs Short-Term Energy Outlook, reported by Reuters, raised 2026 Brent to about $91 a barrel average, nearly 5% above the prior forecast, and WTI to $84.65. Global inventories are down about 400 million barrels year to date and still falling, EIA said. Middle East shut-ins hit 6.7 million barrels a day in August, from 5 million in July, and average about 5.7 million barrels a day in the fourth quarter in that outlook. Pre-conflict output and exports do not fully return until the second quarter of 2027 in EIA’s path. The STEO was finalized Sept. 3 — before this week’s shipping strikes — so Wednesdays $101 Brent settle is already above the annual average the agency just printed.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>TD Securities’ Ryan McKay, in the World Oil piece, said dark flows eased the crude deficit some, but “the market remains tight overall.” Vortexa had oil on water down more than 150 million barrels since mid-July. EIA’s STEO also lifted fourth-quarter U.S. retail diesel to $5.55 a gallon, up 14% in that revision, with diesel stocks heading for a multi-decade low.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>My take: $96 WTI and $101 Brent are a Hormuz shipping print with an inventory underwrite. The annual STEO averages ($91 Brent, $84.65 WTI) are not the Wednesday screen. If tanker attacks keep stacking, the settle can hold a three-handle premium to the government year average. If dark crossings and workarounds scale without new hits, the crack between the STEO path and the cash close is the trade. Watch the ships and the next weekly stocks.</p>

Brent cleared $100. WTI settled $96.

<p>Thursday the SEC votes on LSU. The roster is already closed.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>By Rhett Landry</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Baton Rouge filled the last two chairs on Tuesday night, and it was not with the names the lawsuit was built around. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported LSU added cornerback Aidan Anding and defensive end Gabriel Reliford — both returning Tigers who’d been off the 105 — and that move locked the roster. Former Ole Miss / undrafted NFL rookies Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris are out of the picture for now. The Reveille put it flat on Wednesday: under the threat of expulsion, LSU filled without the former pros.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>That is the concession. It is not the end of the fight.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>The Southeastern Conference amended its federal lawsuit in Alabama on Tuesday and put a Thursday meeting on the calendar for presidents and chancellors to decide whether to terminate LSU’s membership. Reuters, ESPN, and Yahoo Sports all have the same spine: plenary power in the bylaws, a two-thirds threshold — 11 of 16 — and a temporary restraining order ask so LSU can’t block the room. The league’s own statement Tuesday morning said membership means a commitment to the rules the schools already agreed to. Sankey’s conference is suing a founding member that has worn purple since the SEC was a young idea. That sentence alone should make every Tiger fan sit up.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Kiffin already told GameDay the Clemson call — Wright and Harris not on the card for the 51-10 opener — was about the big picture of the program. He said postgame he believed they were fighting for what was right for those kids. Tuesday nights roster close is the school choosing survival over the fight in real time. Attorney Ryan Downton told ESPN his clients are weighing legal options. A Louisiana judge had already cleared a path with an injunction for the fifth-year group. None of that stopped the SEC from putting expulsion on the Thursday agenda anyway. Yahoo noted the vote could still land even after LSU renounced the pro-player path. Forced association, the filing argues. Institutional control, the filing argues. Plenary power does not need a soft landing.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Saturday is still Louisiana Tech in Tiger Stadium — 6:30 p.m. CT, SEC Network+ — and the No. 8 ranking that dropped earlier this week does not get a bye because Birmingham has a special meeting. Beat the Bulldogs. Stay 2-0. Oxford on Sept. 19 does not care how many lawyers are in the room on Thursday. If the presidents somehow go nuclear and the decision bites immediately, Yahoo floated the ugly hypothetical: Magnolia Bowl turns into a non-conference game. That is not a prediction. That is how loud this has gotten.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>Wear purple. Watch Thursday. Then show up Saturday like the conference still belongs to the people who fill Death Valley, because until somebody prints a termination letter, it does.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p><a href="https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/oxford-already-called-itself-ready-nashville-just-made-the-sep-19-noise-louder">https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/oxford-already-called-itself-ready-nashville-just-made-the-sep-19-noise-louder</a></p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p>https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/kiffin-wants-saturday-to-feel-like-saturday-again</p>

Thursday the SEC votes on LSU. The roster is already closed.

<p>Kavanaugh said no. A federal judge said yes. Hoskins is on a contempt clock.</p><p><br></p><p>By Camille Reid</p><p><br></p><p>Justice Brett Kavanaugh spent Tuesday declining Missouri’s emergency pitch to revive a Republican-drawn congressional map. Hours later, a federal district judge in St. Louis did roughly the opposite. Midterms do not run on vibes. They run on one map. Missouri woke up with two courts and no clean answer.</p><p><br></p><p>The state’s highest court ruled last week that House Bill 1 — the 2025 map — never became law because opponents filed a valid referendum petition with more than 300,000 signatures. Until voters decide in November, officials were told to run on the 2022 lines. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay that order. Kavanaugh, who handles Missouri emergency matters, said no and did not send it to the full Court.</p><p><br></p><p>Then U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark, a Trump appointee, granted a temporary restraining order that effectively requires the 2025 map for Novembers congressional races while the fight</p><figure id="figure-kwny4z5efhmtu49ddg"><img id="kwny4z5efhmtu49ddg" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/30T0cyzOo18uKCYzdi5VQ5s79YwHfrEGMfWqMemlAxzMoqiOgbbi3AmpiMHKwcYu.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/30T0cyzOo18uKCYzdi5VQ5s79YwHfrEGMfWqMemlAxzMoqiOgbbi3AmpiMHKwcYu.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure><p>continues. Opponents appealed. By Tuesday night the Missouri Supreme Court ordered Hoskins to show cause Wednesday why he should not face contempt for telling election officials to follow Clark’s order, with arguments set for Thursday.</p><p><br></p><p>That is not “democracy in action.” That is a competence failure with a calendar. Candidates need districts. County clerks need ballots. Voters need to know which neighborhood is in which race. When the state supreme court, a federal TRO, and the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene land on the same day, the adult move is to pick a lane and explain it in English&nbsp; not to leave the secretary of state juggling injunctions like a side hustle.</p><p><br></p><p>Culture loves a gerrymander morality play. The left will call any GOP map theft. The right will call any delay theft in reverse. Fine. Argue the politics. Just do not pretend the rule of law is optional weather when the midterms are weeks away. Missouri’s own court said voters earned a referendum on HB 1. That is a process claim with signatures attached. If federal court overrides it, say so clearly and own the timeline. If the 2022 map stays until November, say that too. Ambiguity is how you get contempt hearings instead of ballots.</p><p><br></p><p>Competence would look like one map for November, one path for appeals, and no show-cause theater the morning after Labor Day. Hoskins answers by noon Wednesday. The Missouri Supreme Court hears him Thursday. Until then, the Hill story is not which party won” a map. It is whether anyone in a black robe can give election officials a sentence they can actually print.</p><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><p><a href="https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/diesel-set-the-record-gasoline-second">https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/diesel-set-the-record-gasoline-second</a></p><p>https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/the-oath-he-would-not-take</p><figure id="figure-2bllwha3wfmtu46lj6"><img id="2bllwha3wfmtu46lj6" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>

Missouri’s Map Mess: Two Courts, One Midterm, Zero Clarity

<p>Tech scored 80. The poll drops this afternoon. Death Valley is still the assignment.</p><p><br></p><p>By Rhett Landry</p><p><br></p><p>Lane Kiffin did not spend Monday talking about Oxford. He spent it talking about Louisiana Tech, and he meant it the way a coach means it when the whole state is already peeking at Sept. 19. The Advocate’s Scott Rabalais had the line from the weekly presser: “Everything’s got to be the same as last Saturday.” Same intensity. Same prep. Don’t let the opponent dictate how you work. He even challenged the fans — mock GameDay stage if you need it, same walk, same noise — because Clemson night felt like the building remembered who it is.</p><p><br></p><p>That building is 1-0. LSU athletics still owns the receipt from Saturday: 51-10 over Clemson, Kiffin’s first one in purple. Tech is Saturday, Sept. 12, 6:30 p.m. CT, Tiger Stadium, SEC Network+. Different animal. Same trap if you sleep. Tech put 80 on Northwestern State this weekend, a program record, and Kiffin said out loud what that means: when you score 80, you’re doing a lot right on offense. He also flagged their 3-3-5 defense — “really different,” lots of challenges — after it held someone to 129 yards and seven first downs, per the Advocate write-up of Monday’s desk. That’s not a throwaway Week 2. That’s a coach telling Baton Rouge to keep the foot down.</p><p><br></p><p>Sports Illustrated’s college desk has the poll calendar straight: Coaches Poll late morning Eastern, AP Top 25 around 2 p.m. ET Tuesday because the holiday slate pushed the Week 1 ballot off Sunday. Preseason had LSU at No. 11 and Ole Miss at No. 9. Both won. LSU’s margin was a statement. Ole Miss survived Louisville 41-38 on a last-second kick. When AP posts this afternoon, we’ll see if the voters moved either one. Until then, the only ranking that matters in practice is the one that shows up on the depth chart for Tech.</p><p><br></p><p>Wednesday the NFL opens — Patriots at Seahawks on NBC. Sunday Jayden’s Commanders go to Philly. Baton Rouge will watch with one eye. The other eye stays on Saturday night and a Bulldog defense that doesn’t look like last week’s leftover. Kiffin asked for the same Saturday. Bring it. Beat Tech. Then the poll and Oxford can fight for the oxygen.</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/tech-week-starts-on-a-monday-nfl-two-nights-away" data-mce-href="https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/tech-week-starts-on-a-monday-nfl-two-nights-away">https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/tech-week-starts-on-a-monday-nfl-two-nights-away</a></p><p><br></p><p>https://capitolandcleats.com/blog/oxford-already-called-itself-ready-nashville-just-made-the-sep-19-noise-louder</p>

Kiffin wants Saturday to feel like Saturday again

<style>
.cac-lines{font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;background:#111418;color:#e8e4dc;padding:28px 20px 36px;max-width:920px;margin:0 auto;line-height:1.45}
.cac-lines *{box-sizing:border-box}
.cac-lines h2{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;letter-spacing:.12em;font-size:13px;font-weight:700;text-transform:uppercase;color:#d4af37;margin:0 0 6px;border:0}
.cac-lines h3{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;letter-spacing:.16em;font-size:11px;font-weight:700;text-transform:uppercase;color:#9aa3ad;margin:28px 0 12px;padding-bottom:8px;border-bottom:1px solid #2a3038}
.cac-card{background:#1a1f26;border:1px solid #2c333c;border-radius:6px;padding:16px 18px;margin:0 0 12px}
.cac-card header{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;justify-content:space-between;gap:8px 16px;align-items:baseline;margin-bottom:8px}
.cac-card .cac-match{font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#f3efe6;margin:0}
.cac-card .cac-line{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;font-weight:700;color:#d4af37;white-space:nowrap}
.cac-meta{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:#8b939c;margin:0 0 10px}
.cac-chat{font-size:15px;margin:0;color:#d5d0c6}
.cac-chat a{color:#c9b36a;text-decoration:underline}
.cac-cite{font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11px;color:#6e767f;margin:18px 0 0;line-height:1.5}
.cac-cite a{color:#8a8070}
</style>
<section class="cc-lines" id="this-weeks-lines">
  <h2>This Week’s Lines</h2>
  <p class="sub">Wed Sep 9, 2026  DraftKings via ESPN · Lines move  21+</p>
  <h3>College Football — Week 2</h3>
  <div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401867796" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana Tech at No. 8 LSU</a></div><div class="m">Sat Sep 12, 5:30 p.m. MT · SECN+</div></div><div class="l">LSU -35.5 / O/U 55.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401856682" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No. 1 Ohio State at No. 4 Texas</a></div><div class="m">Sat Sep 12, 5:30 p.m. MT · ABC</div></div><div class="l">TEX -1.5 / O/U 49.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401856679" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No. 11 Oklahoma at Michigan</a></div><div class="m">Sat Sep 12, 10:00 a.m. MT · FOX</div></div><div class="l">OU -5.5 / O/U 43.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401856678" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No. 23 Missouri at Kansas</a></div><div class="m">Fri Sep 11, 6:00 p.m. MT · FOX</div></div><div class="l">MIZ -5.5 / O/U 50.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401856674" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No. 12 Alabama at Kentucky</a></div><div class="m">Sat Sep 12, 1:30 p.m. MT · ABC</div></div><div class="l">ALA -10.5 / O/U 49.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401856681" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No. 18 Tennessee at Georgia Tech</a></div><div class="m">Sat Sep 12, 5:00 p.m. MT · ESPN</div></div><div class="l">TENN -12.5 / O/U 55.5</div></div>
  <h3>NFL — Week 1</h3>
  <div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401872660" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buffalo at Houston</a></div><div class="m">Sun Sep 13, 11:00 a.m. MT  CBS</div></div><div class="l">BUF -1.5 / O/U 44.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401872930" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dallas at N.Y. Giants</a></div><div class="m">Sun Sep 13, 6:20 p.m. MT · NBC</div></div><div class="l">DAL -3 / O/U 48.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401872924" target="_blank" rel="noopener">N.Y. Jets at Tennessee</a></div><div class="m">Sun Sep 13, 11:00 a.m. MT · CBS</div></div><div class="l">TEN -1.5 / O/U 38.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401872927" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Green Bay at Minnesota</a></div><div class="m">Sun Sep 13, 2:25 p.m. MT · CBS</div></div><div class="l">MIN -1.5 / O/U 46.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401872661" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chicago at Carolina</a></div><div class="m">Sun Sep 13, 11:00 a.m. MT · FOX</div></div><div class="l">CHI -3 / O/U 46.5</div></div>
<div class="row"><div><div class="g"><a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401872928" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Miami at Las Vegas</a></div><div class="m">Sun Sep 13, 2:25 p.m. MT · FOX</div></div><div class="l">LV -3 / O/U 40.5</div></div>
  <p class="note">LSU / Texans / Cowboys always on the board. Closest NFL: TEN, MIN, CHI, LV. Source: DraftKings via ESPN. Never invent.</p>
</section>

Call to action

Unbiased news on the field and on the Hill. Sports and Capitol coverage from Trinity, Texas.

News of USA, press and  journalism concept. Microphone and newspaper on the map in colors of the flag of USA.