The fall coaching carousel has likely come to a close. The last major job left to be filled was at Leo and the South Side Catholic school made a hire on Thursday.

Jimalle Ridley, 33, is Leo’s new coach. It’s the first head coaching job for Ridley, who has been an assistant at Young, Phillips and Orr and was the director of basketball operations at UIC under Steve McClain.

“This is a school that specializes in developing young black men,” Ridley said. “That’s what they focus on. To be a part of that is an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”

Ridley, a De La Salle graduate, had originally planned to take this year off from coaching and figure out his next move, but some events this summer swayed his mind.

Norvell Meadows and Marquise Pryor, two players Ridley coached at Orr, were shot and killed this summer.

“After what happened to Norvell Meadows and Marquise Pryor my juices got going,” Ridley. “I didn’t think I could pass up and opportunity to help impact these young men.”

Jamal Thompson resigned as Leo coach last month. That led to several of the Lions’ top players transferring. Leo was expected to be a preseason Super 25 team, but that is no longer the case.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Ridley said. “But I don’t really care about that. We are going to have some good days and bad days like every team does.

“[Thompson] leaving was a shock to a lot of people. I’m stepping in a month before the season begins. But I’m prepared for this.”

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When Bears safety Eddie Jackson says he’s happy to see Giants running back Saquon Barkley at his best again, two years after Barkley suffered a torn ACL against the Bears at Soldier Field, he really means it.

“He’s back to being himself and I’m happy to see it,” Jackson said. “He got hurt on a play I was tackling him. It was one of those freak accidents. I felt bad. To see him doing what he’s doing now is a sight to see.”

Barkley tore the ACL in his right knee when Jackson drove him out of bounds on a six-yard gain on the first play of the second quarter in that Week 2 game in 2020. Barkley, the second overall pick of the 2018 draft who rushed for 1,307 yards as a rookie and 1,003 yards in 2019, was out for the season.

“I apologized to him,” Jackson said. “I hit him up on Instagram. I texted him. I told him my apologies. I don’t ever play this game to hurt anybody. It was one of those freak accidents.

“I went through it [a broken leg at Alabama], so I know how it is. It’s tough, especially the battle rehabbing to get back. Really it’s a two-year process. Seeing how fast he came back, it was kind of, ‘Oh, it’s freak.”

Barkley returned for the 2021 season opener, but was still in recovery mode. He rushed for 593 yards on 162 carries, just 3.7 yards per carry. His longest run was 41 yards — a big drop for a back with runs of 78, 68, 68, 68 and 67 yards in his first two years in the NFL.

It didn’t take long for Barkley to find his old groove already this season. On his first carry of the third quarter in the Giants’ opener against the Titans, Barkley broke free for a 68-yard run that set up his four-yard touchdown run. With the Giants trailing 20-13 with four minutes left, Barkley added a 33-yard run that led to a Daniel Jones touchdown pass — then caught a two-point conversion pass to give the Giants a 21-20 victory.

Barkley finished with 18 carries for 164 yards. Through three games, he is second in the NFL with 317 rushing yards on 53 carries –a 6.0 average that is reminiscent of Barkley’s rookie season.

“Full speed,” Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams said. “He’s a scary guy [with] his home run ability.”

“He’s [back to] doing what he’s been doing,” Jackson said. ‘He’s explosive. He’s elusive. His change of direction is crazy. H’s fast, big body. He gives you the best of both worlds –he can out run you and make you miss and he can run over you.”

Barkley will be a challenge for a Bears defense that ranks 30th in rushing yards allowed (157.0 yards) and 19th in yards per carry (4.8). With Roquan Smith coming off a big game against the Texans, the Bears’ defense feels it’s just getting started. Barkley will be a huge test.

“I think it will be a great matchup for the defense, a great matchup for me to be able to put some numbers up with a good back like Saquon — get some nice tackles on him. So I’m looking forward to it.”

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Jason Heyward remembers looking around at his teammates as the rain came down in Cleveland – everyone at a loss for words, dumbfounded, feeling the weight of the lead they’d just forfeited – and knowing he had to say something.

“I’ve got to remind these dudes of how I see them,” recounted Thursday, “Because they’re amazing. They’re gladiators. And through every up, every down in that season, it didn’t matter; we always had an answer.”

Cubs fans have heard the story of Jason Heyward’s Game 7 rain delay speech before. It’s part of World Series lore by now, heralded as a turning point in the Cubs’ quest for a curse-breaking championship. But it takes on a different tenor now, as Heyward says goodbye to the team he’s spent the past seven seasons with.

On Thursday, Heyward addressed the media for the first time since president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer announced last month that the team planned to release Heyward from the final year of his $184 million contract to pursue potential opportunities with another team. He plans to play next season.

“But as we’re sitting here today, plans don’t always go as you hope,” Heyward said. “So, we’ll see what happens, we’ll see what options I’m presented. Because it’s a different playing field now as far as who’s interested. I also had to be realistic about their roles that they think that I should be in. Is that a minor league invite? Is that possibility saying, ‘No, we want you on this team, we’re here to win and compete, we understand what you bring in a winning environment.’ So, those are things that I do have to check in on.”

He didn’t rule out accepting a minor-league deal with a spring training invite, pointing to the extra opportunities for playing time in spring training because of the timing of the World Baseball Classic.

Heyward has hit under .215 the past two seasons – with limited playing time this season – but his resume also includes five Gold Gloves, a Word Series and a long list of teammates ready to attest to the outsized positive influence he brings to a clubhouse.

As for the conversations with Hoyer that led up to the decision to part ways, Heyward said he appreciated “the real.”

“If people are blowing smoke and not keeping it real with you, it’s tougher to get up every day and go to work, or tougher to treat other people how you want to be treated,” he said. “So it was nice to have that, in a sense.”

That doesn’t make it an easy split. But both Hoyer and Heyward have left the door open for a possible reunion after Heyward retires from playing. He said he’d like to “bridge that gap” between the front office and the clubhouse, perhaps on the “partial ownership side.”

Heyward hasn’t played since late June, landing on the injured list since late August with what the Cubs identified as inflammation in his right knee. It’s given him time to reflect.

“What I’ve taken most from it is, how do we handle failure?” he said. “Because that’s a big part of life, obviously, but it’s a big part of this game. We’re always going to fail more times than we succeed. And I know that’s cliche, but how we handle those things, that comes back your way.”

Since Hoyer announced the team was moving on from Heyward, the outfielder said, he’s received an outpouring of love, respect and gratitude.

“I feel like that comes from how I’ve handled everything,” he said.

Case in point: The Cubs plan to honor Heyward during Saturday’s game against the Reds.

“It’s going to be heavy,” Heyward said. “It’s going to be emotional.”

The Cubs fan base may not have always been kind when Heyward was slumping at the plate, but it’s still a one he has played for over the past seven years. And Chicago is a city he’s come to call home, where he started a family.

It’s a community he’s poured resources into. Heyward was the Cubs’ Roberto Clemente Award Nominee this year, for the third straight season, for his contributions to COVID-19 pandemic relief, support of the Austin Harvest Fresh Market and upcoming launch of the Jason Heyward Baseball Academy in Chicago’s North Austin neighborhood, to name a few.

“I think it’s a direct reflection of who he is in the locker room,” manager David Ross said. “It’s unselfish. This guy’s been blessed with a lot of money, and you don’t hear about it. You see it invested in others – his time, his passion for the community. … Anybody that’s been able to meet him, you’re getting a smile, you’re getting engagement – whether it’s in the community, or a rookie here. He’s invested in people.”

Ross and Heyward’s relationship goes back over a decade, to Heyward’s rookie season, when the two had neighboring lockers in the Braves clubhouse.

When Ross looks back at their time together, two moments stand out. The first is Heyward’s debut – against the Cubs, no less – when Heyward homered off Carlos Zambrano in his first at-bat. He was the hometown kid with the weight of the future of the franchise on his shoulders, and he rose to the occasion.

The other is his rain delay speech.

Ross remembers the feeling that things were spinning really fast, seeing Aroldis Chapman in tears after having given up the RBI double and home run that tied the game.

“J-Hey stopped everything and got back to, we are the best team in Major League Baseball. We’ve proven that, and the way we did that was by supporting each other, playing for one another. And that’s who we are, and that’s how we’ve done it up to this point. To take it back to the core of who we were as a team was really important.”

Long after Cubs fans have forgotten Heyward’s statistics over his tenure in Chicago, they’ll remember that story.

Asked if he thought his speech had an effect on the outcome of the game, Heyward said: “I know it had an effect on it.”

Note: The Cubs beat the Phillies 2-0 Thursday to complete a six-game season sweep. It’s just the fifth time in franchise history that the Cubs have gone undefeated in a season series against a National League team, according to team historian Ed Hartig.

The Cubs also wrapped up play against the NL East, finishing 21-10 against the division, their highest winning percentage (.677) against NL East teams in franchise history.

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Patrick Finley, Jason Lieser and Mark Potash break down what they need to see from Justin Fields and pick who will win the Bears’ game against the Giants.

New episodes of “Halas Intrigue” will be published regularly with accompanying stories collected on the podcast’s hub page. You can also listen to “Halas Intrigue” wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Luminary, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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The Bears had lined up in I-formation for their first offensive play of the second half Sunday when they saw Texans linebacker Blake Cashman creep toward the line of scrimmage. That triggered the Bears’ offensive linemen to change their blocking assignments — a blitz was coming to the strong side.

Center Sam Mustipher snapped the ball and took three steps forward, toward his right. Texans defensive lineman Roy Lopez went the other way — around Mustipher, to his left. Mustipher put his right foot in the Soldier Field turf and pirouetted Lopez’s way, turning his shoulders as if he was letting someone pass him in a crowded hallway.

Lopez was five yards into the Bears’ backfield, but Mustipher had him sealed off from running back Khalil Herbert.

The crease was open.

“When you can win at center against the [defensive tackle], it does cut the defense in half,” Mustipher said Thursday.

Herbert took a toss right and followed fullback Khari Blasingame toward the hole between right guard Teven Jenkins and right tackle Larry Borom.

The defense overplayed the ball. Herbert cut back and into the crease, running behind left guard Cody Whitehair, who’d sprinted to the opposite hash to block to block linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, and Blasingame, who took on safety Jalen Pitre.

No one touched Herbert for 15 yards, and even then, it was a weak dive by a safety while wide receiver Darnell Mooney shoved cornerback Steven Nelson down the field.

By the time Herbert was tackled, he’d gained 52 yards.

“We could have drove a bus through there,” Herbert said. “It was a really big hole.”

It was what coaches call “teach tape.” When they install this play again next year, they’ll play a clip of the run, as if to say: this is how you do it.

“All 11 doing their part is exactly what it looks like on that tape,” Jenkins said.

At this time last month, it wasn’t clear the Bears’ offensive line would be able to do anything right. On paper, they were one of the worst in the league — “There’s always gonna be critics,” Jenkins said –but there was reason to think the Bears front office was getting nervous. General manager Ryan Poles had to sign two veterans on the eve of training camp. Both got beaten out for starting jobs.

Through three games, the Bears’ line is the engine behind one of the NFL’s best run offenses. The Bears’ 560 rushing yards are the second-most in the NFL, and their 5.4 yards per carry ranks fifth. Pro Football Focus grades the Bears’ run-blocking as the second-best in the NFL, behind only the Chiefs.

“From the very beginning, when we walked in in training camp, we made it the focus of who we wanted to be and the way we wanted to play the game,” offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. “And they have taken that by the reins for sure. Our play style reflects that, the way they are firing off the football, the way they are finishing, all that stuff.

“That was the No. 1 thing we said we were going to do. We wanted our tape to look a certain way, and those guys have definitely accepted that challenge and done a really nice job.”

The Bears’ offense as a whole, though, needs work. They have the worst passing game in the NFL, and their linemen know they need to block better for quarterback Justin Fields.

At least they’ve got the run game down.

“We can talk about how good we can run the ball all day,” Mustipher said. “But at the end of the day, to beat really good teams and to be a team that’s to be reckoned with, we’ve got to be able to throw the ball.”

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