Andoni Iraola has appointed Alisson as Liverpool FC’s new vice-captain – but immediately said why the goalkeeper is unlikely to wear the armband, even if Virgil van Dijk is missing.

The Liverpool manager believes that new rules mean it is very difficult for a goalkeeper to skipper a side because they risk being taken 100 yards out of position when summoned to talk to a referee.

And that could lead to Dominik Szoboszlai in effect acting as Van Dijk’s deputy following the departure of vice-captain Andy Robertson, who joined Tottenham.

Alisson, who was third in line for the armband last season, has moved up in the pecking order, while Liverpool’s longest-serving player Joe Gomez is also in the leadership group, but is currently injured and may not start often.

In contrast Szoboszlai, who captains Hungary, looks likely to play regularly under Iraola, who took Alisson aside to explain why he may not actually lead the team out.

“The captains will be Virgil, will be Alisson, will be Joe Gomez, and Dom Szoboszlai,” the Spaniard said.

“But I explained to Alisson especially that it’s not going to be possible that he wears the armband because with the new rule I think there is a big limitation if a keeper wears the armband.

“Because if something happens in the opposition box the referee has to explain to the captains what’s happening, all the decisions.

“I had one season with [goalkeeper] Neto [as captain] in Bournemouth and then you have to start every game to say a different player that can act as a captain, and this is not viable.

“But I wanted him to feel like we value him. I’ve had enough time and we will have more time to know each other, but I had to explain also the decision about the armband to Ali because he is a keeper and, unfortunately, they are putting the rules in a way that there is a lot of disadvantages to having a keeper as a captain.”

Van Dijk captained Liverpool in all 38 Premier League matches last season, when he did not miss a minute of top-flight action.

Iraola added that he was not concerned about a lack of leaders in the Liverpool dressing room after influential figures Robertson and Salah left the club over the summer.

"We lost a lot in terms of experience, high-level players who have performed so well for so many years here,” Iraola said. “But I think it is also a natural thing in clubs.

“I think we have a lot of young players wiling to take those minutes and ready to take those leadership roles. Overall, I am very happy with the attitude of the players in the pre-season.”

Iraola, who will take charge of Liverpool for the first time when the Reds travel to Newcastle on Sunday, said that he hopes that Tottenham target Cody Gakpo is still part of his squad.

After a three-loss season last year, Jon Scheyer and the Duke Blue Devils had an impressive offseason. While they did lose three key contributors in Cameron Boozer, Isaiah Evans and Maliq Brown to the NBA, they dominated the summer in three different facets.

For starters, they brought back current talent, including Caleb Foster, Dame Sarr, Patrick Ngongba II and Cayden Boozer. Next, they added one of the top transfers in the portal, former Wisconsin Badgers guard John Blackwell. Lastly, they added plenty of high-level recruits, including Cameron Williams, Deron Rippey Jr. and Joaquim Boumtje-Boumtje.

For these reasons, it's no surprise that the Blue Devils are considered early favorites prior to tip-off this fall. College basketball analysts Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman have high expectations for Duke, as the two handed out A+ and A- offseason grades for Scheyer and his program. Goodman praised their depth, saying, "They can withstand an injury. Their bench is going to be better than everyone else's. That's a major, major advantage to me."

While the Blue Devils certainly have a long way to go until spring, on paper, Duke seems to have all the tools necessary to be there at the end of March Madness.

This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: College basketball analysts give Duke high offseason grade

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, got another taste of NFL action on Thursday night in Las Vegas’ second preseason game. The game was also ESPN’s first NFL broadcast of the 2026-27 campaign, and the rookie gave the Worldwide Leader another memorable television interview.

Play-by-play announcer Joe Buck was surprised in the middle of the fourth quarter when the broadcast went live with an interview of the rookie from sideline reporter Laura Rutledge.

“Oh, no, we’re going to do it now,” Buck said. “Hi, Laura! Hi, Fernando!”

“Joe Buck says, ‘Hi,’” Rutledge told Mendoza.

Undeterred by an 80-yard pick-six he threw in the first quarter, the ever-polite Mendoza made sure to greet ESPN’s broadcast booth,

“Please tell Mr. Buck I say, ‘Hello,’” he told Rutledge.

“What about Mr. Aikman?” Rutledge asked, referring to color commentator Troy Aikman.

“Oh, of course,” Mendoza said, before throwing Buck some extra love. “I mean, he’s a legend. I think Mr. Buck needs some love, because Mr. Aikman is already, you know.”

The exchange drew chuckles from both Buck and Aikman, who made note of the young quarterback’s “unique” personality.

“You see, there it is. Back to Mr. Buck,” Buck said. “That’s the stuff. He is unique. And yeah, I’ll take that. We’ll take the love from Fernando Mendoza. And he says all the right things.”

“What a refreshing personality he is,” Aikman said. “And a guy that, I’m sure that I can speak for most of America, anyway, that’s easy to root for.”

After the game, Kyle Brandt broke down the different personalities that make “Nando” so unique.

“His personality and his interviews are better than the games,” Brandt told Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter. “And Scott, I’ve identified he’s got three personalities that he goes through, and counting. Okay, see if you can follow.

.@KyleBrandt breaks down the different versions of Fernando Mendoza pic.twitter.com/wMGqOk4ZCi

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 21, 2026

“So we’ve got— there’s C’EO Nando,’ who says things like, creating a dynamic ecosystem on the professional stage. That’s enough. You could just leave that alone. Yeah, but then there’s ‘TED Talk Nando,’ and that’s the one that Laura got tonight. And he said, ‘Learning isn’t always a straight line up,’ and he literally did the straight line up with his hand.

“Sure. And then you get to the grand finale, which is ‘9-year-old child Nando,’ which says things out of nowhere like, uh, ‘The Las Vegas Strip is the boogeyman,’ which is an incredibly endearing quote. A guy who dominated the Big Ten is afraid of the Bellagio, and that’s just like, I’m right there with him. But those are the 3 Nandos.”

‘Ted Talk Nando’ finished the game with 86 yards passing, going 8-for-15 through the air. Luckily for all three Nandos, the Raiders are taking a patient, mature approach to their development and seem content to let them learn behind veteran Kirk Cousins for as long as necessary to set them up for long-term success in the league.

The post Kyle Brandt breaks down Fernando Mendoza’s three different personalities appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Happy Friday, and welcome to another thrilling, heart-stopping, jaw-dropping edition of “You’re Nuts,” where our basketball writers each pick a side of a basketball-related topic and defend their stances to the death.

While it’s not “back to basketball” week quite yet, we are now in “back to school” mode, with schools across central Ohio going back to class, and even Ohio State resuming classes next week on August. 25.

The Ohio State men’s basketball team will be back on campus on Sunday in time to start classes on Tuesday, and official practices will begin later in September.

The big news bit from this week was the official release of Ohio State’s full non-conference schedule, which includes five games against high-major teams, but only one of those games is in Columbus. With schedules increasing to 32 games, the Buckeyes will play 12 non-conference games in addition to 20 Big Ten games.

Last week, Connor and Justin debated how many players on the Ohio State men’s basketball team will put up at least one 30-point game this season.

Connor said that a whopping four guys – John Mobley, Amare Bynum, Anthony Thompson, and Justin Pippen – will all do it at least once, with Mobley probably doing it multiple times. Justin said that it’ll just be Thompson and Mobley – and pointed to Mobley scoring 28 multiple
times last year as the reason the junior guard will definitely get there.

This week, we’re predicting how Ohio State will do in its dozen non-conference games. We don’t have tipoff times yet, but we know who Ohio State is playing, when, and where.

Last year, Ohio State played one ranked team (North Carolina) in the non-conference, losing 71-70, and split their four high-major non-con games, beating Notre Dame and West Virginia while losing to the Tar Heels and Pitt (again).

I think Ohio State is going to pick up a few marquee, resume-building wins in the non-conference, which is something they lacked last year.

The Buckeyes had to win big games in conference play in February and March to launch themselves into the NCAA Tournament. If they can win a few big ones before conference play starts, that’ll prop them up a bit and give them flexibility that they did not have last year.

Here’s how I see it going down:

BYU (WIN) – Ohio State has been pretty good in these early season games against high major teams, especially when they play them in the first week or two of the season.

Last year they beat Notre Dame on Nov. 16 in the fourth game of the season. Two seasons ago, they beat 19th-ranked Texas on Nov. 4 to open the season. In 2021, Ohio State beat Duke at home on Nov. 30.

BYU will probably be ranked to start the season, especially after adding former Michigan State big man Jaxon Kohler to the team on Thursday, but the Buckeyes have just been pretty good in these kinds of games the last decade or so.

Youngstown State (WIN) – You just have to beat Youngstown State at home.

Marshall (WIN) – Love a good Big Ten – Fun Belt battle.

UCONN (LOSS) – UCONN brings back their starting backcourt from a season ago, with Braylon Mullins and Silas Demary both returning. The Huskies have also lost a total of eight home games over the past five seasons — they just don’t lose at Gampel Pavilion often.

This will be one of the toughest regular season games Ohio State has dealt with in the past decade, and I don’t think they’ve got a great chance to pull this one off.

Prairie View A&M (WIN) – Just sign the check and win by 40.

UMBC (WIN) – The Retrievers were an NCAA Tournament team last year, but were still No. 187 in KenPom so let’s not let our imaginations run wild too much here.

Vanderbilt (LOSS) – Mark Byington is one of the great wizards of the transfer portal, turning over his roster at Vandy nearly every year but has really seemed to have hit a groove in Nashville.

Tyler Tanner coming back to school instead of being a late first round NBA Draft pick is massive — he might be the best player Ohio State faces all year long. This will be a tough one for Ohio State, although more winnable than UCONN on the road.

Lipscomb (WIN) – Back-to-back games against Nashville-based schools, but Ohio State wins this one.

Notre Dame (WIN) – Notre Dame is going to be a basement-scraping team in the ACC, but playing on the road will make it a bit tougher. I don’t think Notre Dame will be as talented as Pitt was last year, and everyone thinks that Pitt game was one that the Buckeyes should’ve had.

Stony Brook (WIN) – Head Coach Geno Ford is a former college teammate of former Ohio State assistant Jeff Boals. There’s your connection.

Kansas (WIN) – This is the biggest coin flip for me. Like last year, this Kansas roster may not be quite as elite the Kansas “standard” that I’ve gotten used to for the last decade or so.

This will be a true neutral site game, so it’ll be good on good, and the location will have nothing to do with it.

Mississippi Valley State (WIN) – The worst team in D-I.

Even though I think they will finish the non-conference schedule 9-3 and head into conference play with three losses, I am not saying this because I think Ohio State will underperform. I think that one of the teams that Ohio State is playing in the non- conference will be better than some people think.

And that is BYU.

Let me start with the other two losses. I think the Buckeyes will lose to UConn (probably not a hot take) and lose to Vanderbilt (maybe a hot take).

UConn is simply a better team than Ohio State, and Vanderbilt has one of the best players in the country (Tyler Tanner) and an extremely underrated transfer portal class.

As for BYU, they just added Jaxon Kohler from Michigan State, and with the questions Ohio State has at center, that could be a problem for the first game of the season. They also have Rob Wright and Kentucky transfer Collin Chandler, who I think will really benefit from a change of scenery.

Also, I think Richie Saunders could still technically come back to school, but who knows in this day and age.

9-3 with a win over Kansas and Notre Dame won’t be the end of the world for the Buckeyes.