The Win Column: Anger or apathy?

Welcome to Friday, friends.

Let’s kick things off with another round of “help Tyler sort through his feelings about something.”

RAHEEM MORRIS RETURNS

We have a pretty good idea how Falcons fans feel about Kyle Shanahan.

The San Francisco head coach’s time as Atlanta’s offensive coordinator was both glorious and heartbreaking. He helped Matt Ryan win an MVP and shred the NFC playoff competition en route to Super Bowl XLI … where his subsequent refusal to chill out and run clock gave Tom Brady and the Patriots plenty of time to make Atlanta a perennial punchline.

I wouldn’t be the first person to accuse him of being smug or stubborn.

“I think, me personally, that he’s a great offensive mind, right?” Falcons great Roddy White said on TV this week. You may remember the duo has some history. “But in tough situations, in pressure situations, the overaggressive play calls always get him in trouble.”

Mmhmm.

But, uh … how do we feel about Raheem Morris?

After the Falcons relieved Morris of his head coaching duties in January, Shanahan quickly scooped him up and made him San Francisco’s defensive coordinator. Six games in, he’s got the Niners allowing the league’s fifth-fewest yards per game.

• Sugiura: Morris returns with a chance for revenge
• Can Falcons get back to offensive identity?

They’re undefeated ahead of Sunday’s homecoming clash at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (1 p.m., Fox).

“This is his old team,” Falcons running back Bijan Robinson said. “He’s going to bring juice to those guys.”

That and the two uniquely miserable Atlanta seasons under Morris’ guidance would normally be enough to gin up some bad feelings among the masses. Hatred, or at least spite.

Is that possible with Morris, though?

Pretty likable dude. Self-aware, too.

A reporter out in San Fran recently asked Morris if he’d like to be a head coach again someday. He said this:

“We’ve got this illusion in our head that everybody is a head coach. Guys, there are 32 head coaches in the National Football League. There are 32 defensive coordinators, and there are 32 offensive coordinators, and there’s 32 of everything we do. There’s 32 media members that do what you do. We are blessed, and you couldn’t have a better job than all of us.”

That’s … not a no. And predictably word salad-y. But it is kinda sweet! Could even be read as an acknowledgment he was flying blind with the Falcons.

Which leads us to the poll question: Which option best describes your feelings ahead of Morris’ return to Atlanta?

• A. All love, baby.
• B. It’s fine … but I wouldn’t NOT enjoy scoring many points against his defense.
• C. I am consumed by an incandescent rage, Tyler, and the fire may never be extinguished.
• D. Let’s just make it through without being embarrassed, ‘K?

✅ Hit the fancy form or shoot me an email to weigh in. And make sure to check out this week’s Dirty Birds Dispatch for a closer look at the Xs and Os.

MORE GOOD STUFF TO KNOW

🚨 Today’s Win Column Gift Link of the Day: Michael Cunningham’s Weekend Predictions. If nothing else, read to find out how Kennesaw State running back Boogie Woods III got his name.

⚾ Tonight at 8: Brewers-Rays, World Series Game 1. Our pal Gabe Burns has a closer look at what to watch for, what the Bravos could learn and more.

• Also: Matt Olson won a Fielding Bible Award.

🏀 The Hawks dispatched those goons from Orlando to start the season and have one more road game tonight in Charlotte before Saturday’s home opener. That tipoff is set for 8:30 p.m.

🏈 This week in high school football: Lots of top-10 matchups between teams in close geographical proximity to each other.

KEEP IT GOING, Y’ALL

First of all, I need that photo printed, framed and hung immediately.

Secondly: The Atlanta Dream are two wins away from a title.

As the photo above suggests, they absolutely sonned Golden State in their Finals home opener on Wednesday. The defense was relentless, the threes were three-ing — and the sold-out crowd at State Farm Arena made everyone proud.

Now it’s time for an encore.

Game 4 arrives Saturday at 1 p.m.

“Y’all ain’t got work on Sundays,” Dream star Angel Reese said. “Y’all got church maybe, but Saturday y’all better run it back, run it back. I’m looking forward to it.”

KAPPA ALPHA LOVES BRENT KEY

Have you ever wondered what a college football coach’s local radio show is like in 2026? When the team’s struggling a bit? And also it’s at a frat house?

I did. So I went to the Kappa Alpha residence at Georgia Tech last night for Brent Key’s weekly hour on 680 The Fan.

It was fun! And about what you’d expect.

• Key and host Andy Demetra (wearing a Bluto Blutarsky “COLLEGE” sweatshirt) sit at a table between a pair of front porch pillars, a bedsheet painted with “IN KEY WE TRUST” hung above them using rope and duct tape.
• A few dozen dudes in short shorts and boxy T-shirts stand on the lawn with Solo cups while Key jokes about them drinking every afternoon (and seems a bit jealous).
• A brother from Vidalia puts on the headsets and asks about dealing with injuries. Another from St. Simons Island brings up the importance of scout team work. Luke from Atlanta asks about Georgia.
• Key punts on that last one. He’s focused on stopping Boston College’s dual-threat quarterback on Saturday. But he does add this about the Bulldogs: “I don’t think I need to say what I think.”
• (He’s thinking “to hell with Georgia.”)

Key’s show is usually at a brewery. Kappa Alpha won the rights to this detour by having the best football game attendance of any student organization last season.

“Every football game we want to be front row, loud as possible, everybody there,” Seth Adams, a senior from Thomson, told me.

Their belief in Key goes beyond the bedsheet, even with the Jackets sitting a 2-4.

“He’s come in and he has done nothing but good things,” Adams said. “We have no reason not to trust him.”

🔗 Bonus linkage: Everything to know ahead of Tech vs. Boston College

COLLEGE FOOTBALL WATCH PARTY

Georgia’s enjoying a bye, and the schedule isn’t as loaded as last week … but if last week taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen.

Happy viewing!

📺 Noon: Pittsburgh at No. 1 Miami (ESPN); No. 6 Indiana at Michigan (Fox); No. 18 LSU at Auburn (ABC); No. 8 Texas Tech at Cincinnati (FS1)