Chicago Sports

The applause for former Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith’s return to the United Center on Thursday — customarily celebrated with a welcome-back video at the first TV timeout — carried on for so long that Keith eventually left the Oilers’ bench to take a small lap on the ice.

Minutes earlier, Keith and Hawks captain Jonathan Toews playfully had fought over a ceremonial puck drop conducted by former Hawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson — an even bigger blast from the past.

And in a throwback night at the United Center, Toews and the Hawks outlasted Keith and the Oilers 4-3 in overtime.

Alex DeBrincat scored the game-winner on a cross-ice pass from Patrick Kane on a power play after a series of chances, enabling the Hawks to finish their six-game homestand on a high note, despite earning only two victories on it.

Dominik Kubalik snapped an 11-game goal drought, taking advantage of a turnover by Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen, to put the Hawks ahead 3-2 early in the third period. But the Oilers’ Evander Kane banked in a tying goal with 49 seconds left, marking the fourth time this season the Hawks have conceded a lead late in an extra-attacker situation.

Keith played 20 minutes, 45 seconds in his first game back in Chicago.

”It feels like yesterday, really, that I was in here, eating pregame meals and things like that,” he told reporters Wednesday. ”I spent a lot of time here. It’s nice to be back, but it’s definitely a unique feeling.”

Toews, meanwhile, played 16:21 in his long-awaited return from a concussion, leading an influx of players who rejoined the Hawks’ lineup.

Toews and Tyler Johnson, who had missed more than four months after undergoing disc-replacement surgery, fleshed out and added to the depth of the Hawks’ forward lines significantly. And Riley Stillman’s and Calvin de Haan’s returns made a similar impact on defense.

”It was another tough little setback,” Toews said. ”But I just tried to find the mentality that whatever I’m going through . . . to just keep sticking with the process and taking care of myself. I’m appreciating I can come to the rink and play this game.”

‘Hammer’ returns, too

Hjalmarsson, who quietly retired last summer after his fourth season with the Coyotes, was honored as part of the Hawks’ Legacy Night series.

The Swedish defenseman, who played an unheralded but crucial role during all three of the Hawks’ Stanley Cup runs last decade, finished his career with 1,605 blocked shots in 821 regular-season games and another 316 in 137 postseason games.

”[Niklas was] the ultimate teammate,” Kane said Wednesday. ”The way he threw his body in front of shots, you’d be like, ‘Oh, Hammer is done after this one.’ And then you’d see him out there again next shift.”

Humble and understated, Hjalmarsson delivered a funny quip after watching his own welcome-back video Thursday: ”Great highlights, [but Oilers star Connor] McDavid can probably do all that stuff in two games.”

Kane on board

Kane said Wednesday he’s on board with the Hawks’ rebuilding plan, suggesting he might want to stay with them through it.

”There’s probably a lot of time to determine what’s going to happen in that regard,” he said. ”But let’s be honest: I love Chicago, I love the city, I love the fans. The organization has been amazing to me and my family. There’s really not much to [not] like here.

”There’s always business decisions in the game of hockey. There are not many guys that play their whole career with one team, so it would be a privilege and an honor to do that. But we’ll see how it all plays out.”

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ATLANTA — All season, the Bulls have emphasized how they’ve bonded. Through good, bad, COVID and injuries, the players claimed to have a unique chemistry.

It’s about to be tested Friday at the United Center.

And if that bond is as strong as they say it is, if they are their brother’s keeper, then there has to be some sort of justice meted out.

Welcome to Chicago, Grayson Allen.

It has been six weeks since the Bucks guard — and former Duke bad boy — decided to foul and harm Alex Caruso as the spark plug of the Bulls’ defense was attacking the rim. The midair tackle in the third quarter earned Allen a flagrant-2 foul and a one-game suspension. Caruso fractured his right wrist and is still rehabbing.

Cameras caught Allen smirking near the bench as Caruso was being looked at by trainers.

Caruso did say afterward that Allen never checked on him and called the play “bulls—.” That was before an MRI exam showed the wrist was fractured. He hasn’t spoken about it since.

And while the NBA doesn’t have the hardcore “unwritten rules” that baseball has, there is on-the-court player justice. It’s not like it was in the 1980s and ’90s, but it exists.

It sure sounded like newcomer Tristan Thompson felt like it did, and he wasn’t even on the team when Allen injured Caruso.

“You take out one of my dogs like that, we’re going to have issues,” Thompson said after the Bulls’ 130-124 loss to the Hawks. “You gotta set the tone. I mean, that’s what Bulls basketball is about — setting a tone. What [Allen] did affected one of our guys, and I don’t think anyone should forget about that. So I’m pretty sure the United Center is going to be rockin’ Friday. I think guys have it in the back of their head, and if guys want to play chippy, let’s play chippy. I like it. I like a little blood and sweat. I enjoy it.

“It’s the regular season. It’s all right. I like to wrestle.”

First things first, and that meant getting by a pesky Hawks team Thursday at State Farm Arena. The Bulls (39-24) failed miserably in that department, especially in their late-game execution and on the defensive end, letting Trae Young do them in with 39 points.

Not that it should have even gotten as close as it did.

The Bulls couldn’t have asked for a better start offensively, making three-pointers as well as they have to start a game in months.

By the time the first quarter came to an end, the Bulls were 7-for-11 (63.6%) from long range, building a 35-29 lead.

But like the Hawks have done in the previous three meetings this season, they rallied when they seemed to be left for dead.

Bogdan Bogdanovic hit a three-pointer with 1:41 left to put Atlanta up by one, and after DeMar DeRozan was called for traveling, it was Young time. The All-Star made a 27-foot three-pointer with 1:13 left.

Out of the timeout, Coby White missed a three-pointer, and Young was at it again. This time, he dropped a step-back three on White, all but providing the dagger with 44.2 seconds left.

And the Bulls had no one but themselves to blame, allowing Atlanta to score 74 points in the second half.

“We see what the issue is,” DeRozan said of the latest loss. “It’s up to us to go out there and put that effort in for 48 minutes. Not spurts, not a quarter, but 48 minutes.”

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ATLANTA — The Bulls can’t hide Zach LaVine on defense, and they’re not going to try.

That’s just not realistic with the teams they have left on the schedule and whom they will face in the postseason.

So while coach Billy Donovan acknowledged that LaVine’s defense has been a bit hampered with his left knee at “80%, 70%, whatever it is,” according to LaVine, the All-Star guard will have to grind through it.

There are some small things the Bulls can do to help him, but in a five-man defense that needs to be tied together, that will be limited.

“I think moving him around in matchups and things like that can help,” Donovan said Thursday. “When you’re playing these really good teams, it’s really hard to escape a five-man defense. I think Zach does understand that when he puts the uniform on, laces the shoes up, makes the decision to step across the line, he’s got a responsibility to do his job. We’ve got to help him from the bench as much as we can in certain matchups and certain situations, but it’s still not going to take away that he’s got to sprint back in transition, he’s got to be in really good position.”

Donovan pointed out that the coaches will keep LaVine away from players who run through a lot of actions from set to set, but “he’s still got a job to do.”

“I wish he was 100%. I think he wishes he was 100%,” Donovan continued. “I think he’s managing it and dealing with it the best he can, and at the same point he understands that in that moment of competition you can’t escape it.”

What the Bulls have escaped with LaVine’s knee is holding him out of the second of back-to-back games. Before he went to Los Angeles to see a specialist last month, that was a possibility for the remainder of the season.

That’s not the case anymore, particularly with the Bucks visiting the United Center on Friday in one of the more anticipated games of the regular season.

“I talked to him about the back-to-backs, specifically on where his mindset is at, and he told me that he wants to go and see how he’s feeling day-to-day instead of pre-determining, ‘I’m sitting here, I’m sitting here,’ ” Donovan said. “I think if he feels like he wants to play, he can play, and I think the medical people are OK on that. He’s obviously got to be a big part as far as his communication with where he’s at physically after he plays games.”

Moving forward

While most of the team watched film leading up to the game against the Hawks, Alex Caruso (right wrist), Patrick Williams (left wrist) and Lonzo Ball (knee surgery) continued their rehab/strengthening programs with some of the bench players.

Caruso, who was very tentative shooting and passing with his right hand Tuesday, has been starting to put up more shots with it, which was a good sign.

“[Tuesday] he was definitely uncomfortable, not because of pain, just stiffness, lack of strength, didn’t feel like he could really pass the basketball,” Donovan said. “The next day he felt much, much better. The fact that a couple days ago he wasn’t able to shoot much with his right and now he’s starting to shoot with that right, he’s just going to have to regain that strength in his wrist and his forearm for him to feel comfortable and confident.”

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MESA, Ariz. – Comparing prospects to established big-leaguers is a risky business.

Yes, player comps provide a frame of reference. But they almost always evoke the names of superstars. Talk about outsized expectations.

Cubs prospect Cristian Hernandez doesn’t flinch when he’s compared to Manny Machado and Alex Rodriguez.

“That’s the goal one day — to be that,” Hernandez said this week, through team interpreter Will Nadal. “I’ve just got to keep doing my work, be focused, committed, just continue to do everything that I need to do to get to that point, hopefully, one day.”

Hernandez, 18, has plenty of time to get there. He’s already the Cubs’ No. 3 ranked prospect, according to mlb.com. When he signed with the Cubs last year out of the Dominican Republic,, he was considered a top-5 prospect in his international class.

“You see his potential, not only physically – he’s really gifted in the infield, and he hits the ball really hard, and all those things are true,” said Rachel Folden, a minor league hitting coach and lead lab tech. “But I think what separates him is just his maturity.

“He’s come to minicamp, and there’s a lot of eyeballs on him. And he’s handled that very, very well. And I’m very, very impressed with his maturity and his level of focus. That kid works.”

Hernandez played on the Cubs’ Dominican Summer League team last season, slashing .285/.398/.424 in 47 games.

His focus this spring, he said, is shortening his swing, making it more compact.

“As you keep going higher up in the levels of the minor league season, it keeps getting more difficult,” he said. “So, I’m just trying to keep that swing, keep that motion, work on that in the drills.”

Now, working up through the Cubs farm system is a family affair. The Cubs signed Cristian’s brother Alexis when the international signing period opened two months ago.

“It was something really exciting for my family,” Cristian said. “Him signing with us is something that really made me happy. I just gave him the advice of keeping (up) his development, being committed and just trying to do everything every day to get better.”

They already have plenty of experience playing together, starting when they were about five and six years old.

“A lot of happy times and good moments,” Cristian said.

They’re not guaranteed to remain with the organization they first signed with. But there’s no harm in dreaming about playing at Wrigley Field together one day. Alexis, 17, also plays shortstop, but Cristian has a solution to get the brothers on the same field.

“Alexis might be a little stronger,” Cristian said, laughing. “He could be at third base, and I’m at shortstop.”

If their youngest brother one day joins the Cubs too, they can make room again.

Cristian has taken it upon himself to push his brothers. But he also has his own tricks.

It would be understandable if the expectations that come with his high ranking on the Cubs prospect list intimidated Cristian. Instead, he looks at the lists for motivation. He doesn’t want to be No. 3. He wants to be No. 1.

“That’s the goal, just to keep climbing the rankings,” he said, “and see myself as a big leaguer one day.”

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One of the most glaring needs for the Chicago Bears this offseason is finding reliable, if not top-tier wide receivers for QB Justin Fields to throw the ball to in 2022. With the NFL Combine underway, NFL draft experts are starting to connect prospects to teams and Chicago has been connected to one wide receiver in particular: Georgia’s George Pickens.

ESPN’s Jordan Reid recently discussed the Bears’ need for a playmaker on the offensive side of the ball and with general manager Ryan Poles stating the team will be “selective” in free agency, Reid believes taking Pickens in the second round makes sense. Pickens, who declared for the draft early as a Junior out of Georgia, tore his ACL last March costing him nearly all the Bulldogs’ national championship winning season. He returned in November and posted 5 catches for 107 yards in 4 games for Georgia.

While his numbers don’t pop off the page, two of those receptions went for over 40 yards — showing his explosive playmaking ability. Pickens is known for being a well-rounded athlete who prides himself not only on his ball skills but also his blocking, like you can see here in the CFP National Semifinal against Michigan:

The 6-foot-3, 195-pound wideout has mentioned in several interviews that he believes his game will translate well to the NFL, citing Georgia’s style of practices and going up against NFL-caliber talent. As for someone he looks up to? It just happens to be another free agent wide receiver the Bears have been linked to: Davante Adams.

As for more on Pickens’ game, check out the analysis from NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein:

Lanky perimeter wideout with exciting ball skills but in desperate need of additional play strength and a clean bill of health. Resilient to make it back so quickly after an ACL tear but needs to show quick-cutting ability for route-running. Pickens possesses borderline elite ball skills with in-air adjustments, strong hands, and an enormous catch radius. However, he fails to put defenders on his hip and command the catch space to make his work less cluttered. The routes need more polish and physicality, but he has the athletic ability to become a viable target on all three levels as a likely Day 2 draft pick with a little wider gap between ceiling and floor than NFL teams might like.

If Pickens can show he is healthy, that elite talent may just be what the Bears are looking for when they jump on the clock at Pick 39 in the second round.

Make sure to check out our Bears forum for the latest on the team.

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Looming dread and jubilant hope exist side by side in “Hadestown,” the scorching, stunning eight-time Tony Award-winning musical inspired by an ancient Greek myth. That juxtaposition of opposites — dread and hope, joy and despair, abundance and scarcity –make the musical by Anais Mitchell (music, book, and lyrics) and developed with director Rachel Chavki, both unmistakably timely and irresistibly entertaining.

With a mesmerizing, blues-infused score and masterful storytelling, “Hadestown” follows the rough outline of the aforementioned myth: Eurydice (Morgan Siobhan Green) is perpetually hungry and struggling as she roams the world. She’s ground down by the Fates (Belen Moyano, Bex Odorisio and Shea Renne) until, starving and exhausted, she falls into the clutches of Hades (Kevyn Morrow), King of the Underworld.

As Eurydice’s lover Orpheus (Nicholas Barasch) embarks on a hero’s quest to save her, he’s forced to examine his belief that people and gods are fundamentally good. At the mercy of the tyrannical, angry King Hades (Kevyn Morrow), Orpheus watches in anguish as the underworld king transforms a world of light, warmth and plenty to one of bleak, lifeless winter. Hades’ Queen Persephone (Kimberly Marable), meanwhile, revels in rebirth, springtime and the verdant abundance — except for the six months of winter when she’s trapped underground.

The narrator for this imaginative, reconstituted tale of scarcity and abundance is Hermes (Levi Kreis), the fleet-footed messenger god. Flanked by an onstage band, Kreis helps the ensemble spin the story with vivid images and spectacular vocals. Mitchell’s score spans at least four octaves, from the sub-basement velvety growl of Hades’ “Hey Little Songbird,” (Morrow is as irresistible as a morphine drip) to the heights of Orpheus’ delicate, piercing falsetto (delivered with spun-glass clarity by Barasch).

As Eurydice, Green creates an eminently recognizable character struggling to simply hold her own in a harsh world. Lured by the promise of Hadestown — where jobs in King Hades’ vast foundries and furnaces are always and available and food is never short — Eurydice reluctantly takes her place in the underworld.

That sets Orpheus off on his hero’s quest, which is made richer and deeper by the story of King Hades and Queen Persephone, lovers eons beyond the dewy-eyed youth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

A chorus of “workers” (Lindsey Hailes, Chibueze Ihuoma, Will Mann, Sydney Parra, and Jamari Johnson Williams) surround and propel the action: In the lower depths of Hades’ vast Underworld, choreography and chorus create searing images of endless, repetitive, manual labor, the work of people shoveling coal into the maw of a furnace or hacking away in a sunless mine.

Yet for all its unmistakably intense themes, “Hadestown” is no dismal slog through an existential crisis about whether good or evil dominates the worlds of gods and mortals. It is a joyful, percussive, gorgeously sung and beautifully told pair of love stories. Like all love stories, they are ultimately tinged with loss.

Marable’s Persephone is radiant throughout. She’s a playful, charismatic goddess with verve and smarts to spare, coupled with an authority that’s as regal as it is stone-cold intimidating. Persephone is also not to be trifled with; in numbers such as “Our Lady of the Underground,” Marable makes that brilliantly clear. And when she warns of the rising seas and destruction caused by Hades’ endless industrialization, it’s with prophetic, Cassandra-like intensity.

Tony-winner Rachel Hauck’s set evokes the balconied architecture of French Quarter Louisiana and a bottomless abyss where souls are swallowed by clanking, hissing, massive machinery. Bradley King’s Tony-winning lighting design frequently beams spots straight out at the audience, creating a disorienting glare that intensifies the peril of Orpheus’ journey.

And in David Neumann’s inventive choreography, “Hadestown” veers from the soaring, joyous energy of a sundrenched, old-time revival meeting to the convulsive insistent rhythms of miners swinging their pickaxes with Sisyphean despair. Michael Krass’ costume design is gorgeous: Quicksilver messenger Hermes is resplendent in glimmering, silver brocade. Persephone blooms with greens and oranges above Hadestown, is wrapped in funereal black below.

Director Chavkin keeps the pace worthy of Hermes. And when the entire cast lets loose on the irresistibly rhythmic “Way Down to Hadestown,” you’ll want to follow them to the depths and back.

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One of the biggest story lines of the NFL offseason is the decision Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is set to make. Will he demand a trade? Retire? Or come back to Green Bay, which appears to be the likely option if we are being honest here.

And as Rodgers has been in the headlines for the past few weeks now, he’s back in them but not by his own choice.

With the NFL world in Indianapolis for the scouting combine, prospects talked to Greg Auman of The Athletic about various topics in the NFL.  One question that was asked was which QB he’d want in the final minute of a game needing a touchdown. The answer? A shot at Rodgers and the Packers lack of success in the postseason.

In the end, Mahomes emerged as the winner, riding a late flurry to finish with 20 votes (40 percent), while Rodgers finished with 16 (32 percent), well ahead of the rest of the field. Not all the votes were wholehearted endorsements, as one player hedged his vote by saying, “I guess in the regular season, I’d have to say Aaron Rodgers.”

Ouch!

I guess Bears fans aren’t the only ones that realize Rodgers just hasn’t been able to get it done in the playoffs recently. And other prospects are noticing as well. Let’s hope this prospect doesn’t get outed and then drafted by Green Bay because it’s not a good way to get Rodgers’ good side.

Check out our Chicago Bears forum for more on the team!

Make sure to check out our Bears forum for the latest on the team.

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The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline will be an interesting one to watch for the Chicago Blackhawks as they are in a critical time for the franchise. The team isn’t going anywhere this season with just 46 points, the third-fewest in the Western Conference.

It’s likely the Blackhawks will try to sell off some players to recoup picks and build for the future and this will be new GM Kyle Davidson’s first big trade deadline. But if Patrick Kane has his way, it sure as heck won’t be him moving on.

Kane talked about the rebuild the Blackhawks are currently going through following practice on Wednesday to reporters and it sure as heck sounds like he wants to stay in Chicago as long as possible:

“There’s probably a lot of time to determine what’s going to happen in that regard,” Kane said after practice this morning. “But let’s be honest, I love Chicago, I love the city, I love the fans, the organization’s been great been amazing to me and family. There’s really not much to [not] like here.”

“I think there’s always business decisions. In the game of hockey, there are not many guys that play their whole career with one team, so it would be a privilege and an honor to do that. But I guess we’ll see how it all plays out.”

And that’s why we will always love Kaner in Chicago.

Make sure to check out our Chicago Blackhawks forum for the latest on the team.

Make sure to check out our Blackhawks forum for the latest on the team.

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People packed themselves as close to the front as possible for Wednesday’s Music Box Theatre event starring Bob Odenkirk — Second City alumnus, “Saturday Night Live” veteran, and Naperville-raised rabblerouser.

The Chicago Humanities Festival had partnered with Seminary Co-Op Bookstores to celebrate the actor-writer who recently released a memoir titled “Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama,”

In conversation with fellow Second City and “Saturday Night Live” alum Tim Meadows, Odenkirk spent an hour reflecting on and reminiscing about his time in show business — from first learning that he could make a living doing comedy through his dramatic turns in “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” to his surprising but convincing turn as an action star in the recent film “Nobody.”

It began, as many comedy origin stories do in Chicago, with improv guru Del Close. Odenkirk had met the legendary performer/director and iO Theater visionary after he had been fired from Second City– “for the fifth time,” Odenkirk added jokingly- — and was struck by the way Close had spoken about upcoming projects.

“It was the first time I’d heard an old person excited about what they were doing next,” Odenkirk said, admitting that Close was 49 at the time but came off like a haggard 70-year-old man. Still, it was enough to convince Odenkirk that a career in the arts was feasible for a kid from Naperville, who, by his own admission, was generally clueless about show business.

Odenkirk’s time in Chicago, New York and Hollywood found him collaborating with other comedy luminaries including David Cross (on “Mr. Show”), Garry Shandling (“The Larry Sanders Show”), Conan O’Brien (a fellow “SNL” writer) and Chris Farley.

Reminiscing about their Second City days together led Meadows to ask about Odenkirk’s father — a figure who looms large in Odenkirk’s past. As the second oldest of seven children, Odenkirk shared that he felt somewhat responsible for his younger siblings and sensed his largely absentee father had issues but couldn’t quite identify them at the time.

Odenkirk recalled a time when his dad gathered to family to claim he was broke, but in a twisted and almost comical way, this happened shortly after they had moved into a new house and purchased a bunch of new furniture.

“I wanted to be the opposite of my dad,” Odenkirk said.

Wednesday night, he demonstrated he succeeded. . His warmth talking about comedy pals was palpable; his relationship with his father had brought him closer to Farley, who shared a similarly complicated past. His character in “Nobody” was a dad standing strong and avenging his family after a break-in.

Odenkirk also admitted he won’t be absentee from Chicago — a place he said he had to leave to truly appreciate.

“I didn’t feel like a Chicagoan when I left at 25 to do ‘Saturday Night Live,'” he said before declaring, proudly that, now, “I’m a Chicagoan.” And the audience, packed so close they were almost in his lap, wildly agreed.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Matt Eberflus has been Bears head coach for barely more than a month and he’s already off to a better start than Matt Nagy.

We’re a long way from seeing if this works out, but the foundation is sturdy and sensible thanks to Eberflus raiding his former team as he put together his coaching staff with the Bears.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard and coach Frank Reich didn’t give him any trouble about poaching defensive coordinator Alan Williams, linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi, defensive backs coach James Rowe and assistant defensive backs coach David Overstreet, which will be incredibly helpful as Eberflus implements his system.

“That was not a surprise,” Eberflus said. “Chris and Frank were upfront and honest the whole time and very good about us being able to do that. I really appreciate those guys for letting me be able to do that.”

It’s an invaluable head start.

Consider how sound this operation is compared to the way Nagy began his Bears tenure in 2018, when the Chiefs barred him from taking anyone with him. With coach Andy Reid overseeing the offense, he wasn’t about to let Nagy strip away his best assistants.

So Nagy hired Mark Helfrich as his right-hand man.

You might have already forgotten that name.

Helfrich was Nagy’s first offensive coordinator, and it was a curious hire from the jump. The two had never worked together. Helfrich hadn’t held an NFL job and most recently had been fired as head coach at Oregon. Nagy fired him after two seasons, doing so surreptitiously right after saying in a press conference he was still working through potential staff changes. Helfrich hasn’t coached since.

He and Nagy shared an agent. That’s pretty much it.

It’s a lot different for Eberflus, who was allowed to transfer much of his crew from Indianapolis presumably because Reich is an offensive minded coach who planned to delegate the defense to a veteran coordinator — they hired Gus Bradley — who would restock the staff with his own guys.

Whereas Nagy had to impart his scheme and approach to Heflrich and a staff that was made up entirely of position coaches he hadn’t worked with, Eberflus opens with pillars in place. There’s no philosophical merger necessary.

“It’s going to get the coaches coaching together faster, and you’ll see the players get together faster because there won’t be four or five days talking about terminology,” Eberflus said. “There’s synergy there already because they’re all from the same systems and you’ll see that (effect) on the field, too, with the players.”

Williams was Eberflus’ defensive backs coach all four seasons in Indianapolis, and their defense was third in the NFL with 64 interceptions over that span.

Similarly, Borgonzi and Overstreet were among Eberflus’ initial hires in 2018 and are fully entrenched in his system. They probably wake up thinking about his H.I.T.S. principles. Overstreet was coaching in junior college before joining Eberflus, and Borgonzi was a quality control coach, so Eberflus has had an indelible imprint on their careers.

Rowe, meanwhile, had stints with the Commanders and Appalachian State before Eberflus picked him up last season.

None of that continuity guarantees success for Eberflus, but it’s unquestionably prudent to have four other coaches on staff that will teach this defense exactly the way he does.

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