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UCLA coach Chip Kelly is shown during last year's game against Arizona in the Rose Bowl, when the Wildcats handed the Bruins their first loss of the season. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

After a stunning upset over UCLA last season at the Rose Bowl, the Jedd Fisch Revenge Tour rolls back into Tucson on Saturday.

Maybe it was just a coincidence that the Arizona coach wore a shirt reading Its Personal when he met with reporters Thursday. It certainly fed the narrative that there's going to be a little extra motivation when Fisch tries to win another meeting of the game's top offensive minds.

For those who dont recall the full extent of the awkwardness, Fisch was the Bruins interim coach when Chip Kelly was hired in late 2017 to replace Jim Mora. Fisch said shortly thereafter that he had discussions with Kelly about remaining on the coaching staff but suggested there was no role for him with Kelly calling his own plays.

Before UCLA played Arizona in 2021 during Fischs first season with the Wildcats, Kelly said he didnt speak with Fisch about staying with the Bruins. Kelly also disputed Fischs contention that the coaches had once spoken about Fisch joining Kellys Philadelphia Eagles staff.

Is anyone feeling a touch queasy? Wait, there's more.

Read more: No longer standing still, Ethan Garbers is running away with UCLA quarterback job

Kelly was so worried about Fisch and his fellow former Bruins assistants knowledge of his plays that UCLA deployed silver screens on the sideline to prevent sign stealing before the Bruins victory over the Wildcats in 2021.

A year later, Arizona toppled then-No. 12 UCLA at the Rose Bowl, essentially knocking the Bruins out of the Pac-12 title race. Going into their latest matchup, both teams are fringe contenders assuming a rabbits foot finds its way in their back pocket the rest of the season, given all the teams above them in the standings that need to suffer additional losses.

Here are four things to watch when No. 19 UCLA (6-2 overall, 3-2 Pac-12) faces Arizona (5-3, 3-2) at Arizona Stadium.

In just 2 seasons, Fisch has revived a lifeless program.

Arizona has already matched its win total from last season and needs just one more victory to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2017.

Having just beaten Washington State and Oregon State, the Wildcats are coming off consecutive victories over nationally ranked opponents for the first time since 2014. A victory over the Bruins would give them three straight wins in that department for the first time since 1992.

While Arizona is not nationally ranked, Kelly disputed the notion that the Wildcats had quietly become one of the better teams in the Pac-12.

Were very well aware of what Arizonas doing, Kelly said, but I think a lot of people in the country are too.

Read more: UCLA vs. Arizona: Desert doldrums plagued the Bruins in a rivalry filled with upsets

Both teams have juggled their quarterback rotations.

UCLA has gone from Ethan Garbers to Dante Moore back to Garbers. Arizona has pivoted from Jayden de Laura to Noah Fifita after De Laura hurt his ankle.

Its widely expected that Fifita will make a fifth consecutive start Saturday. That would make him the first Football Bowl Subdivision quarterback since at least 2012 the first year for which data is available to make his first five career starts against opponents nationally ranked by Associated Press.

Kelly said it didnt matter who started for the Wildcats because their offense would essentially be the same.

The play calls dont change, said Kelly, whose team struggled to stop De Laura last season during Arizonas 34-28 victory at the Rose Bowl. Its not like one guys a run-around guy and the other guys not a run-around guy. Both can beat you with their arms and they both can beat you with their legs. And their ability to make plays on the unscheduled plays big plays on the unscheduled plays is a difficult thing to defend and we have to prepare for that.

Garbers is 3-0 as UCLAs starter this season and 3-1 in his career, with the only loss coming against Utah during the 2021 season.

At 6 feet 3 and 205 pounds, J. Michael Sturdivant might be the most physically imposing of UCLAs receivers, but hes been overshadowed by one of the tinier Bruins.

Logan Loya, generously listed at 5-foot-11, has made a team-leading 34 catches for 421 yards and three touchdowns, continuing a years-long trend of Kelly favoring his slot receivers going back to Kyle Philips. Sturdivant ranks second on the team with 24 catches for 407 yards and three touchdowns.

Theres no disputing who will be Arizonas top target: Tetairoa McMillan, who has logged four games with at least 80 receiving yards this season on the way to making 48 catches for 672 yards and six touchdowns. Kelly called McMillan one of the top receivers in the country.

Read more: UCLA football faces a colder introduction to the Big Ten than USC

Sturdy defense has kept the Wildcats and Bruins in every game.

Arizona is giving up just 21 points per game, 15.5 fewer than last season. The Wildcats have held three opponents to 10 points or fewer, including Washington State during an impressive 44-6 road victory.

They tackle well on the defensive side of the ball and keep the ball in front of them, Kelly said, and they dont allow any big plays.

The same could be said for the Bruins, who are giving up only 15 points per game to lead the Pac-12. UCLA also features the nations top run defense after allowing only 63.1 yards per game on the ground, becoming the only team in the country to not give up one rushing play of 20 yards or more.

One statistic that could determine the outcome: Can Arizona, averaging 155.1 yards rushing per game, reach triple digits? The Bruins have won 16 consecutive games when holding opponents under 100 yards on the ground, including all six games in that scenario this season.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Coaching chess match is among four things to watch when No. 19 ... - Yahoo Sports

CHERRYVALE The Chanute High School chess team finished second at a tournament in Cherryvale on Saturday, with the Blue Comets securing 17 out of 24 possible points. Frontenac earned first place at the tournament.

We may have lost this battle, but the war is already decisive. We are a force to be reckoned with; we are unstoppable, said chess player Eric Erbe.

Erbe received fourth place while fifth place went to Zerek Haight. Jacob Hurtado earned seventh place while Brayden Baker finished in eighth. Twelfth place went to Nathan Studebaker, 13th to Josept Lazobarahona and Madisyn Lopez earned 18th.

To say I am proud of these kids is an understatement, said head coach Kyle Gregg. They fought hard all the way to the bitter end. We faced some really tough opponents and in the end we just couldnt pull off the first place victory. Frontenac seems to be our unofficial rival this season and we have been neck and neck all season.

Gregg said the team was missing a few players but the team as a whole played well.

I dont harp on the losses too much because I know that without them we cant grow as a team. We wont let this one bother us too much, but we will use it to fuel the hunger for our next one, he said.

The Blue Comet chess team will play at home Nov. 18.

And we will be spending our time until then making sure that we are at 100% of our ability, Gregg said.

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CHS chess team gets second at Cherryvale | News | chanute.com - Chanute Tribune

Maqonda Ndlovu

Namibias top female chess player Lischen Mentile has embarked on a journey that will see her distribute 1 000 chess boards to various entities in Namibia this year.

Speaking to New Era Sport yesterday, the 26-year-old Candidate Master said the project is part of the global efforts by Gift of Chess to distribute one million chess sets globally by 2030 by donating 1 000 or more chess sets to each country globally.

Namibia is one of the beneficiaries of this project. Gift of Chess reached out to me to be part of this initiative and as a chess coach, myself, I agreed because it is part of what I am already doing. They sent the sets with instructions on how I should distribute them, she said.

Mentile added that she will be doing a micro-distribution, meaning each beneficiary will receive five sets of these chess boards.

She said she would be targeting orphanages, prisons, schools, refugee camps, chess clubs, academies and communication centres in rural areas.

The Namibia Chess Federation will be receiving 100 boards as part of the conditions.

The aim is to make chess an accessible tool for those who do not have access to the game, especially people who cannot afford to buy chess boards. This will hopefully give a lot of people an experience and opportunities of the gift that chess has to offer beyond it being a game, she said.

She added that her first handover in Namibia will be tomorrow at the Peoples Primary School in Katutura, where she will make a small presentation during the handover.

The four-time chess Olympiad said those who wish to be coached can approach her or any other chess club or academy in the country, while those who want to establish clubs or academies can approach the NCF.

If there is any interest in continuing to play chess after the handover, I am willing to help; I can also refer and advise, she concluded.

The Namibia national team player started playing chess at the age of six. She is currently a social media manager for non-profit organisations and an online chess coordinator for girls in different countries.

Mentile added that chess is well-known worldwide but not much in Namibia, which is why the project will ensure that chess reaches all the corners of the country to grow a chess culture.

She said a lot of people, organisations, schools and entities have already approached her about requesting the equipment.

Meanwhile, the Gift of Chess Organisation says it wants to use chess as a simple tool to expand opportunities for all.

The Gift of Chess is a charitable organisation, transforming lives through our universal language of chess. jrnmarko@gmail.com

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Mentile to distribute 1 000 chess boards - Truth, for its own sake. - New Era

Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi and USC head coach Lincoln Riley have gone up against each other before. In the 2018 Orange Bowl, a College Football Playoff semifinal game, Lupoi coordinated Alabamas defense while Riley was the offensive play-caller for the Oklahoma Sooners. That same chess match will be on display this Saturday when Lupois Oregon defense takes on Rileys USC offense.

(h/t Zachary Neel of Ducks Wire)

Question: Tosh Lupoi faced Lincoln Riley back in the 2018 Sugar Bowl, do you pull anything from that meeting schematically in preparation for this game?

I mean, ultimately, obviously, theyre really good on offense, (Oregon coach Dan) Lanning replied. Lincolns a great play-caller. He does a phenomenal job of scheming up plays, you know, game to game. I think he does a good job of keeping it simple and getting into the right looks, you know, they, they see you in certain looks, they take advantage of it. So, you know, overall, this is a really good offense, as good as well see.

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Lots of chess-match dimensions emerge in USC-Oregon battle - Trojans Wire

This is a story about a rather unassuming 32-inch high concrete retaining wall in southeast Texas.

The wall is the creation of the Texas Department of Transportation. As part of updating I-10, an east-west federal highway between Houston and Beaumont, TxDOT had an idea. An awful idea.

A wonderful, AWFUL idea.

Those Texas grinchy geniuses wanted to ensure emergency vehicles could drive on I-10 should the countryside flood. And so they raised the height of I-10 by 18 inches and built a 32-inch high concrete barrier smack dab down the middle of the road so that eastbound lanes remained navigable should disaster strike.

Where I come from we call that a dam.

And of course Mother Nature put the dam to the test. Hello Hurricane Harvey. The Category 4 hurricane made landfall on Aug. 25, 2017, deluging a 20-mile stretch from Winnie to the Trinity River. On the eastbound side of the I-10 concrete barrier, vehicles went zippity-do-da hither and yon.

On the west side of the barrier a lake emerged running as far as three miles north of I-10. In short, the concrete barrier worked exactly as TxDOT intended and designed.

Except located in that Hurricane Harvey manmade floodplain were houses and farms. Doh! Which begs the question: What in blue blazes was Texas thinking?

Among those people whose houses were flooded is Richie Devillier. His home and 900-acre farm were destroyed by floods thanks to the I-10 dam. Devillier was digging his way out of that mess when, in a cant-believe-its-happening-again moment, Tropical Storm Imeldas September 2019 arrival flooded Devilliers farm a second time. Crops destroyed. Dead cattle. Twenty-three inches of water.

Reasonably, Devillier asked the state of Texas for financial relief. And how much did Devillier receive? Not. One. Red. Cent. Bupkis. Its your farm. You pay for it.

Tired of the run-around from Texas bureaucrats, Devillier sued in state court under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, claiming Texas barrier was designed to serve as a retaining wall to store storm water on his private property without consent or compensation.

Make no mistake about it. Devillier had a case that Texas was very likely to lose at least as long as the case remained in state court. But just days after Devillier filed his lawsuit, the state of Texas submitted their own petition asking the case be moved from state to federal courts.

Excuse me while we get a little deep into the weeds here regarding the Fifth Amendment. A number of appellate courts have ruled that the Fifth Amendment is self-executing. Thats to say a property owner can sue a state directly for taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. No controlling law is required.

By moving the case from state to federal court, Texas is attempting to change the rules. In federal court, takings lawsuits are controlled by 42 U.S.C. 1983:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officers judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.

Texas is attempting to game the system. Texas argued it is not a person. Thus Devillier cant bring a claim under Section 1983. Its a classic catch-22.

United States magistrate Judge Andrew M. Edison was tasked with making recommendations to the federal district court and saw through the Texas fairy dust:

This thinking eviscerates hundreds of years of Constitutional law in one fell swoop, and flies in the face of commonsense. It is pretzel logic. There is not, as the State suggests, some sort of state exception that excludes state governments from the reach of the Fifth Amendments Takings Clause. The complete opposite is true.

The federal district court by and large adopted Edisons thinking and denied Texass motion, ruling private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.

But then Texas appealed and the Fifth Circuit reversed the lower court, ruling Texas indeed wasnt a person and, thus, there was no federal cause of action to sue for takings. In other words, inverse condemnation claims cannot proceed directly under the Fifth Amendment in the absence of a Section 1983 course of action.

Now the whole mess has ended up in the lap of the U.S. Supreme Court, which has agreed to take up the case.

The case has huge implications. Hands up for those in favor of having their property taken without just compensation. Someone? Anyone? I think not.

The Fifth Circuit has it wrong, wrong, wrong. The Fifth Amendment does indeed create a direct cause of action. The right to just compensation is right there in the takings clause. The high court need not do more than summarily reverse the Fifth Circuit and uphold the district court.

Type of work:

Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producers interpretation of facts and data.

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High court must uphold constitutional taking clause to protect ... - The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting