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The Morning Stake | 2020.04.23

The Morning Stake
Seth C

The Morning Stake | 2020.04.23

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Want to go on a walk when this is all done? Me too and lucky for you, Britain plans to open the Coast Path, a nearly 2,800 mile long walking route that runs all the way around the English coast, via Smithsonian Magazine:

As Sasha Brady reported for the Lonely Planet last month, governmental organization Natural England spearheaded the campaign to join up England’s existing coastal trails into a continuous jaunt about 10 years ago, shortly after the passage of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. The first official stretch of the England Coast Path opened in 2012 at Weymouth Bay in Dorset. (That same year, Wales opened its own Coast Path, an 870-mile-long stretch of trail that, when linked up with Offa’s Dyke Path, offers a 1,030-mile continuous stroll around nearly the entirety of the country.)

The decade-long effort in England involved a series of negotiations between the government and various landowners and stakeholders who previously retained rights of access over dozens of stretches of the nation’s coast. As Alan Franks reported for the Guardian in 2016, these discussions can last years, not including any maintenance that may be needed to get the grounds in tip-top shape.

But as the project nears its final stretch, the payoff is expected to be immense. Over the course of six months in 2019, walking enthusiasts completed more than 29 million hikes on England’s coastal paths—and numbers will likely only increase in lockstep with the path’s expansion, according to Lonely Planet. With seaside routes that wind walkers past coastal ports, rocky cliffs and sandy beaches, the trail is a history lesson and a nature hike rolled up in one.

Watch Stadium’s Brett McMurphy asked Football Bowl Subdivision athletic directors believe that a college football season will be played in some form or fashion and 99% of them believe that college football will happen, the question is when:

When exactly the season begins is the biggest question. Even though the start of college football is still four months away, 75 percent of the athletic directors believe the season will be delayed.

“Given the medical and governmental leadership opinions, it is reasonable to believe some compromise to the start of the season lies ahead,” a Power Five AD said.

Sixty-one percent of the ADs predict the season won’t start until October or November, while 14 percent think the season won’t begin until the spring semester in January or February. One Power Five athletic director doesn’t expect the season to be played at all because of the impact of COVID-19.

I think the most difficult part is that this is a moving target for the most part and the best part about this is that there is news coming out all of the time that advances are being made in stopping or blocking the corona virus (Louisville scientists have developed an aptamer, which is not a vaccine, but something else that can maybe stop the virus).

Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams writes about how linebacker Jordyn Brooks is well-thought of by ESPN’s Mel Kiper:

“There’s a wide range of opinions on Brooks across the NFL, but I love his film,” Kiper wrote for ESPN.com. “He’s a tackling machine (367 in his career) and sideline-to-sideline linebacker who showed good speed at the combine, running a 4.54-second 40-yard dash at 240 pounds. He was far and away the best defender on the Red Raiders’ roster. He could be a 10-year starter at middle linebacker in the NFL, and he has the athleticism to stay on the field on third down.”

The Ringer has their draft coverage and they have Brooks as the 87th best player overall:

Brooks is a throwback linebacker with a compact, well-built, and muscular frame, and long arms with a wide, 79 3/8–inch wingspan. He was an honorable mention for the All-Big 12 team his first three years at Texas Tech and made the first team (and was named a second-team AP All-American) as a senior in 2019. The team captain racked up three sacks and 108 tackles―including 20 for a loss, one of just six players in the FBS to accomplish that feat. He has very good sideline-to-sideline range but made his living coming downhill, producing 44 pressures as a blitzer, per Pro Football Focus. Brooks plays with a wide base that allows him to react quickly with no wasted movement; he diagnoses the play quickly and shows good field vision to sift through the trash and avoid blocks before arriving at the ball. He hits like a wrecking ball and has elite closing speed. He was a special teams ace who should contribute there early in his career.

Brooks has experience in zone drops, but his man coverage instincts are a big question mark at the next level and could hold him off the field or limit him to early down duties only. He had multiple shoulder surgeries, one in 2016 and another after the 2019 season, which caused him to miss the Senior Bowl.

Head coach Matt Wells was on ESPN to discuss the NFL Draft.

Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams also spoke with offensive coordinator David Yost about Utah State Jordan Love and Oregon’s Justin Hebert, who Yost coached prior to his arrival at Texas Tech.

Texas Tech will host St. John in the 2020 Big East-Big 12 Battle, which would make Tariq Owens slightly divided as he spent 3 years at St. John’s and the best year at Texas Tech.

Texas Tech has re-done the floor at the United Supermarkets Arena and you have some people that simply do not like it because the state of Texas was removed. Personally, I like just about anything that’s red and black, while the black around the court almost looks like a wood stain.

Purdue center Matt Haarms (7’3″) had narrowed his list of potential transfer targets to Kentucky, Texas Tech, and BYU, and as of last night, it appears that Haarms is leaning towards BYU.

In light of this news, it should not surprise you that head coach Chris Beard and staff have also reached out to VCU big-man Marcus Santos-Silva.

Here are some tweets.

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