His pure love for the game is infectious

With the college football season on the horizon, ESPN Chalks college football experts -- Phil Steele, Stanford Steve Coughlin and Chris Fallica -- combine to bring you betting previews for the top 25 teams, according to the ESPN College Football Rankings. They break down each teams strengths and weaknesses, along with season win total bets and national title odds.CFB PickCenter | Top 25 previews | Betting guide: Best title, Heisman bets1. Alabama Crimson TideHow far can the Crimson Tide go with a new QB under center? Nick Saban has won titles before in the same situation. Can he pull it off again??Read ?2. Clemson TigersClemson came so close to winning a national title last year. Can the Tigers get back to the College Football Playoff and finish the job with?Deshaun Watson?at the helm? Read ?3. Oklahoma SoonersWith a high-powered offense and big expectations, will Bob Stoops and company deliver? Read ?4. Florida State SeminolesDalvin Cook is a Heisman hopeful, but can he carry the Seminoles back into the playoff? Read ?5. LSU TigersThe Tigers return key offensive weapons in Leonard Fournette, Malachi Dupre and Travin Dural -- but the biggest question mark remains quarterback Brandon Harris. ?Read ?6. Ohio State BuckeyesThe Buckeyes are primed to challenge for a Big Ten title despite a mass exodus of veteran talent to the NFL in the offseason.?Read ?7. Stanford CardinalTwo losses kept the Cardinal out of the College Football Playoff last season. Even with Heisman Trophy hopeful Christian McCaffrey, Stanford again faces a tough road schedule with games at UCLA, Notre Dame, Washington and Oregon. ?Read ?8. Michigan WolverinesThe Wolverines have the second-easiest schedule among Power 5 teams, but the real test will come in their final three road games at Michigan State, Iowa and Ohio State. It could be enough to keep them from 10 wins. ?Read ?9. TennesseeThe Vols are the most experienced Power 5 team in the country, led by quarterback Joshua Dobbs and two superb running backs in Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara. Theyll be in the hunt for an SEC title all season. ?Read ?10. Notre DameWill Malik Zaire or DeShone Kizer take the top job? That could be the biggest deciding factor in the Irish competing for a national title. Notre Dame will look to replace six of its top seven receivers from a season ago. ?Read ?11. Ole MissLed by one of the nations most dangerous passers, Chad Kelly, and some of the SECs top receivers, the Rebels have change to compete for a league title in 2016. If anything keeps them from double-digit wins, it could be depth. ?Read ?12. Houston CougarsThe Cougars have a Heisman-level quarterback in Greg Ward Jr., a strong front seven and an up-and-coming coach in Tom Herman working in their favor this season. ?Read ?13. Michigan State SpartansThe Spartans are getting picked behind both Ohio State and Michigan in almost every Big Ten East preview, and the chip on their shoulders should serve them well. They should be very competitive despite losing quarterback Connor Cook and their two best receivers.?Read ?14. Washington HuskiesAfter struggling to make a bowl game a year ago, the Huskies have a chance to crack double-digit wins this year, thanks to a defense that should be one of the best in the country.?Read ?15. TCU Horned FrogsThe Horned Frogs have some question marks, including a new starting QB in Kenny Hill, but Gary Patterson has been known to get the most out of his teams. Read ?16. USC TrojansThe Trojans did not play their best football after Clay Helton was given the permanent job last year -- and that should give bettors pause -- but the talent is here to navigate a tough schedule and put up a high win total. Read ?17. UCLA BruinsThe Bruins have been difficult to figure out during the Jim Mora era, but QB Josh Rosen has helped make UCLA a prime contender in the Pac-12 race (and perhaps the College Football Playoff race). Read ?18. Georgia BulldogsIf its running backs can stay healthy, Georgia is a formidable team. However, uncertainty at QB could be an issue, along with Alabama. Read ?19. Louisville CardinalsWith QB Lamar Jackson running the show, Louisville should put up points. However, playing in the same division as Florida State and Clemson may prove too much to overcome. Read ?20. Oregon DucksWith another strong offense out in Eugene, will Mark Helfrichs team be able to return to the College Football Playoff? Read ?21. Oklahoma State CowboysThe Cowboys didnt finish last season on a strong note, getting blown out in their final three games. Can Mason Rudolph lead this team to the CFB Playoff? Read ?22. Baylor BearsIts been quite a tumultuous offseason in Waco. How will Baylor respond with a new coach but an offense still full of playmakers? Read ?23. Iowa HawkeyesAfter a 12-1 regular season in 2015, Iowa was thrashed by Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Can a potentially stronger team make a College Football Playoff run this year? Read ?24. North Carolina Tar HeelsWithout QB Marquise Williams, North Carolina comes into the season without as much hype. How will the Tar Heels fare in the ACC Coastal? Read ?25. San Diego State AztecsAt odds of 500-1, San Diego State is a long shot to make the College Football Playoff, let alone win it. Still, with a strong running game, defense and special teams, the Aztecs could be a good bet to go over their total. Read ? Alex Goligoski Jersey .com) - Richie Incognito has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric care unit in Arizona. Brad Richardson Jersey .Y. - General manager Billy King says the Brooklyn Nets are looking to add a big man and confirmed the team worked out centre Jason Collins, who would become the first openly gay active NBA player if signed. https://www.cheapcoyotes.com/378z-dylan-strome-jersey-coyotes.html . LOUIS -- Alexander Steen scored a power-play goal with 59. Conor Garland Jersey . -- Canadian Andrew Wiggins got the ball on the wing, made a nifty spin move and then let go with a soft floater from about 10 feet that swished through the net in Allen Fieldhouse. Peter Mueller Jersey . Colin Wilson had two goals and an assist, and Mike Fisher scored a goal and helped set up two others in the Predators 6-4 victory over the Red Wings on Monday night. Misbah-ul-Haq scored a hundred at Lords, led Pakistan to their first opening -Test victory in England since 1996, and celebrated his ton with a few on-field press-ups in front of a packed house. And all this aged 42.You have to go back to the mid-90s to find an older Test cricketer than Misbah. And even then, Englands John Emburey was making a comeback, while John Traicos was nearing the end of his career when Zimbabwe started playing Test cricket. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sachin Tendulkar were the last Test regulars over 40, and both were younger then than Misbah is now. England wicketkeeper Bob Taylor was a few days older when he played his last Test. If Misbah goes to Australia later this year, he will go past Taylor.Taylor retired in 1984. In the decades before that, a fair few international cricketers played into their forties. In the 1920s and earlier, a handful even played into their fifties. The modern game, however, increasingly values and requires fitness and youthful exuberance. Most cricketers are thinking of retirement when they reach their mid-thirties. If they are not and their performances dip, the selectors, the media and the public start thinking about retirement for them.Misbah, however, has shown that theres still a role for the old dog to play - as long as the old dog is good enough and fit enough. Take his runs out of the first two Tests against England and you have Pakistan scorecards that look a lot like recent West Indian efforts without Chanderpaul, or some of Sri Lankas underwhelming performances since Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene retired. West Indies havent won a Test since they dropped Chanderpaul last year. Its unlikely their results against Australia and India would have been different even with Chanderpaul in the side, but his solid presence in the middle order might at least have prevented some of those increasingly regular batting collapses.Senior bowlers are just as important, although fast bowlers tend to become seniors in their early- to mid-thirties, such are the stresses and strains of that particular profession. Spinners can last a little longer, but imagine a Sri Lanka attack without Rangana Herath holding it together. Or Pakistan without the wily Yasir Shah.Dale Steyn limped out of South Africas last two series, against England and India, and South Africa lost both. The England attack was a completely different proposition in the second Test against Pakistan with James Anderson leading it - though Anderson himself only took four wickets.Senior players, the real quality ones like Misbah, Herath and Anderson, do much more than just score runs and take wickets, though.Former Australia batsman Gary Cosier recently told me that one of the reasons the Packer-era Australian teams he played in struggled was because there were no senior players to maintain a flow when they batted, in rotating the strike and running between the wickets.During the 1977 Centenary Test, Cosier watched as one of those senior players, Greg Chappell, dug in for 40 from 139 balls on a bowler-friendly MCG. The pitch flattened out later in the game and both sides scored big. But Chappells first-innings effort gave Australia a crucial 43-run lead and they ended up winning the game by 45 runs. Chappell says its the best he ever batted in a Test.Today, Pakistan bat around Misbah, just as Sri Lanka batted around Sangakkara and Jayawardene and West Indies did around Chanderpaul. In 2014, with Sangakkara and Jayawardene in the team, Sri Lanka beat England at Headingley. This year Sri Lanka looked as clueless as Pakistan did in 1978, when they toured England without Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Mushtaq Mohammad and Imran Khan, their World Series Cricket senior players. Each of the last three times Pakistan beat England away, in 1987, 1992 and 1996, their team was full of high-quality experienced players.According to Barry Richards, who played first-class cricket and unofficial Tests until he was 38, a senior player is more likely to remain calm under pressure. If the going gets tough, the senior player knows if he just hangs in there, the bowlers will get tired, theyll bowl a bad ball, hell hit a four and things will change, Richards says. If you bottle a younger player up for half an hour, sometimes theyll play an extravagant shot and get out.Patience can indeed be a virtue when teams are full of young cricketers in a hurry. At Lords, Misbah and Younis Khan put on a careful 57-run partnership and consolidated the innings, after which Misbah and Azhar Ali pushed ahead and put Pakistan in a winning position. In the first Test against Sri Lanka last month, 36-year-old Adam Voges held Australias first innings together with a patient 47.The senior pro provides steadiness and maturity, says Ray Illingworth, who captained England when he was 37, and surrounded himself with senior pros like Geoff Boycott, John Edrich and Basil DOliviera. So too did his successors. Mike Denness took Fred Titmus, 42, and Colin Cowdrey, 41, to Australia in 1974-75. Tony Greig handed a debut to 33-year-old David Steele in the 1975 Ashes and recalled 45-year-old Brian Close to face West Indies a year later.Englands idea was that these hardened pros could blunt the oppositions fearsome pace attacks. Young players, it was believed, wouldnt manage against Lillee, Thomson, Roberts and Holding.Most of todays international debutants are youngsters, players who selectors believe might forge long and distinguished careers at the highest level. Sometimes, however, selectors still go for the stop-gap solution.Australia picked Voges and Chris Rogers for two challenging AAshes tours, believing that their younger players werent quite ready and that the two thirtysomethings county experience might prove invaluable in England.ddddddddddddThey were right. Rogers proved to be a solid addition for a couple of years. Voges didnt get many Ashes runs, but he has done so well since that hes currently averaging almost as much as Don Bradman.What Sri Lanka and West Indies have also lost recently, and what Pakistan will lose when Misbah and Younis retire, are cricketers who know their own game inside out, and their role in the team just as well. They are not always the most talented players in the team, although Sangakkara and Jayawardene undoubtedly were. But because they know their limits and play within them, often they are the most consistent and reliable.The senior player doesnt just enhance a team through his own performances. Its his influence on team-mates and the side as a whole that also makes his contribution invaluable. A cricket team needs thoughtful individuals. People who can step back from their own batting and bowling and think about the game as a whole, Illingworth says.Richards adds that a senior player tends to play for the entirety of a game, tries to predict what will happen next, and has a wider appreciation of who does what and what the pitch is going to play like. When youre young, its all about the moment, he says.He also believes that senior players feel under less pressure to maintain their place in the side than their younger team-mates, who need to look after their stats to stay in the reckoning and to get the big T20 contracts. In parts of the world, like Pakistan and India, where public and media scrutiny is particularly intense, an older player, with maturity, nerve and knowledge might better handle the pressure of captaining the side than a younger, more impulsive, less secure player.Many cricketers look back fondly at how an older head helped them during their formative years. Whether that was by advising during difficult times, taking the pressure off during a game by facing the brunt of the oppositions best bowler during a partnership, or by setting a general example about how to be a successful international cricketer.Today, some of this mentoring role is performed by a coach. But according to one of the most highly regarded modern coaches, Yorkshires Jason Gillespie, players still learn best from other players. A coach cant go on the field with the team, Gillespie says. Theres a reason were called support staff. As captain (though maybe not as coach), Illingworth preferred players to learn from senior players who had done it at the highest level than coaches who hadnt.Rogers, still playing first-class cricket at 38, thinks younger players need more than one example to look up to. A young guy in the Australian set-up, when I played, might have resonated more with Brad Haddin or myself than [with] Michael Clarke, or vice versa, he says. If you only have one leader then it can be a little one-dimensional.I look at my Somerset team-mate Marcus Trescothick and Im in awe. His pure love for the game is infectious and leaves others in wonder and makes them want to rise to his standards.Gillespie remembers, when he first played for Australia at 21, admiring the way Ian Healy went about his work. Healy had played 100 Test matches for Australia, yet he was first at practice, looking to improve his wicketkeeping. As a young player coming through, seeing that drive and desire is an inspiration.But Illingworth and Richards, even Gillespie, played during times when players, if they were good enough, could get away with being less than super-fit.Even great players like MS Dhoni and Curtly Ambrose were criticised for their lack of fitness and poor fielding towards the end of their Test careers and their place in the side was questioned. When he was captain, Dhoni himself once said that playing Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Tendulkar in the same one-day international would cost India 20 runs in the field. Misbah at least looks lean and fit enough to play the modern game even if his fielding isnt always the best.Of course, not all senior players retain the necessary qualities and attitudes to make a difference to their teams. Some become jaded and unreceptive to new ideas and more concerned with protecting their own position in the team. Others operate out of ego and insecurity, determined to prove that they can still be the teams gun player.For these players, when performance or fitness levels drop, its easy to fall back on past glories and status to justify their inclusion. There are plenty of very good and even great cricketers who believe they were shunted off into retirement too early but who had long stopped giving their team what they needed.Gillespie says senior players must continually strive to be the best they can be and look for ways to be better players and team-mates. Illingworth agrees. You cant offer advice, encouragement or ask for a bit of extra effort when things are not going well if youre not doing it yourself, he says.Misbah ticks all the boxes. Hes calm under pressure, fit enough, and has the drive to make his team better and to win games for his country. He might be a bit conservative as a captain, but then so is Alastair Cook. And while Misbah is still scoring runs and Pakistan are winning, the selectors, media and public will probably overlook a few misfields and the occasional second-ball dismissal slogging the spinner to deep midwicket. ' ' '