Good morning. This is LEADOFF, today’s early buzz in Atlanta sports.
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff game announced last week that the Washington Huskies will travel across the country to play Auburn in Mercedes-Benz Stadium at the start of the 2018 season. But might the Huskies be in Atlanta a lot sooner than that to play, say, Alabama?
The College Football Playoff selection committee will release its second Top 25 rankings of the season tonight, and Washington — the committee’s No. 5 team last week — seems poised to climb into the crucial No. 4 spot after Texas A&M’s loss to Mississippi State.
If so, and if they can stay there, the Huskies could be on track for a playoff semifinal game against No. 1 Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on New Year’s Eve at the Georgia Dome.
Yes, there are plenty of hurdles before playoff pairings are set on Dec. 4. For example, Washington plays USC on Saturday and at Washington State on Nov. 25, and Alabama plays Auburn on Nov. 26. But an Alabama-Washington matchup in the Peach Bowl looks like as good a possibility as any at the moment.
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Eddie Perez, the Braves' popular first-base coach and former catcher, was linked to manager vacancies with the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks, as noted here earlier . But those jobs no longer are open, and Perez remains with the Braves.
ICYMI: Colorado hired Bud Black , the former San Diego Padres manager who was interviewed by the Braves before they removed the interim tag to name Brian Snitker manager. And Arizona hired Boston Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo, no surprise after the Diamondbacks lured Mike Hazen from the Boston front office as their new GM.
And with that, there are no manager jobs open in MLB.
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How good are the Hawks? The seventh or eighth best team in the NBA, according to three sets of "power rankings" posted Monday.
USA Today's rankings have the Hawks No. 7. NBA.com's have them No. 8. SI.com says No. 7.
The Hawks get a stern test in Cleveland tonight, playing LeBron James and the Cavaliers, the team that swept Atlanta in the playoffs the past two seasons. Click here for a report from the AJC's Chris Vivlamore.
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The AJC's D. Orlando Ledbetter reports in this piece from St. Louis on how that city is coping with the loss of the Rams to Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, in L.A., the Rams' return is off to a rocky start. This is from Bill Plaschke's column Monday in the Los Angeles Times:
“The Rams reached the halfway point of their homecoming season Sunday amid a stadium of boos and a city of yawns.
“After a dreadful 13-10 defeat by the Carolina Panthers, it is clear that Los Angeles’ once-darling Rams have lost far more than five of their first eight games.
“They have lost buzz. They have lost belief. They have blown a blue-and-golden opportunity to fall into the open arms of a town that had been waiting 22 years for the opportunity to simply embrace them.
“That town now scoffs at them. That town now jeers at them.”
Welcome home.
LEADOFF appears Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
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