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UMass football is breathing again. The Minutemen snapped a brutal sixteen-game losing streak Thursday night, knocking off Rutgers thirty-seven to twenty-one in the season opener for both teams. Pop Watson the Third was the engine, throwing for a hundred and ninety-seven yards and three touchdowns in what was a statement performance for a program that desperately needed one.
Meanwhile, the college football weekend is already delivering. Illinois opened the two thousand twenty-six season with a forty-two to twenty-three dismantling of UAB, and the numbers are a little wild — the Illini held the ball for under nineteen minutes and still put up forty-two points. Katin Houser accounted for four total touchdowns, and a late pick-six slammed the door shut on UAB's head coach Alex Mortensen in his debut.
And shifting gears to stock car racing, championship season is officially here. The NASCAR Cup Series Chase kicks off Sunday at Darlington Raceway with the Cook Out Southern Five Hundred. Sixteen drivers now enter a ten-race battle for the title at one of the most unforgiving tracks in the sport — the track too tough to tame living up to its reputation right from race one.
That's your play-by-play. Sports Desk, back to the booth.
