‘Nightcaps’ is a daily column that catches you up on the biggest sports, news and culture stories you may have missed while pretending to do work at your desk. It runs Monday–Friday on OutKick.com.
I know all eyes are on the Commonwealth today (sickening, by the way), but let’s all just take a step back for a second and enjoy the simpler things in life.
We’re here. An actual college football Friday. Labor Day weekend. One of the most underrated weekends of the entire calendar year.
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Football last night. Football tonight. And tomorrow. And the next day. And the day AFTER that! But wait, there’s more!
After Monday, we take a full 48 hours off before the NFL season kicks off on Wednesday.
Lordy. She’s here, and she’s just as beautiful as I imagined. How lucky are we? What a blessing.
Let’s roll.
WNBA star and Missouri Tigers alum Sophie Cunningham is seen on the sidelines during an SEC football game between the Texas A&M Aggies and Missouri Tigers at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri, on Nov. 8, 2025. (Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Welcome to a Friday Nightcaps — the one where Sophie Cunningham supports the vets like a patriot, and then gets us fired up for football season … again, like a patriot.
What else? I’ve got a poor woman getting trucked on the sidelines in Piscataway last night, an absolute UNIT in the high school football ranks, and the Buffaloes were FEELING it after upsetting Georgia Tech.
What a scene!
OK, grab you whatever you’d like on this first Friday of September — dealer’s choice today! — and settle in for a Friday ‘Cap!
Sophie Cunningham is ready for some college football
There she is — your Week 1 viewing schedule. It’s perfect.
Honestly, though? Not the greatest Week 1 the sport has given us. LSU-Clemson is obviously the headliner tomorrow, but there’s not a ton of great games before it.
The early games are a slog (except for North Texas-Indiana on FOX, of course!). The 3:30 hour gives us Baylor-Auburn and Boise State-Oregon, for those pining for the old SEC on CBS theme song.
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Not a ton of competition for LSU-Clemson in the late hour. I don’t care, though. It’s back. We’re back. Thank God.
No more WNBA talk …
… Unless, of course, it involves Sophie Cunningham!
She leads us off today.
“Spicy Sophie tapping in.”
Colorado was FEELING it last night
She just refuses to miss. Let’s put Sophie in the juror pool up in the Commonwealth and see how things play out!
“It’s the start of a new football season. We are hyped. We’re excited. We’re about to kick some butt this year. Come out, be loud, and show your Mizzou pride.”
Sophie gets it. She’s just as tired as we are from all the WNBA nonsense. She’s ready to get this season started.
PS: Sophie welcomed veterans to Gainbridge Fieldhouse all season? Lordy. Absolute patriot. Between that and the return of college football, the left is in shambles today.
Former Missouri women’s basketball star Sophie Cunningham waves to the crowd during a college football game against South Carolina at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 21, 2023, in Columbia, Mo. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
OK, let’s keep this class moving right along. It’s a Football Friday, after all.
Anyone catch the end of the Colorado-Ga. Tech game last night? I’m not talking about the blocked field goal.
I’m talking about what happened after the blocked field goal:
Opening night chaos, a high school specimen & ’80s mail
Look at those maniacs! Big win, and they let the Georgia Tech student section HAVE it. Look at the one player who actually attempts to jump into the stands.
Risky little move. He got swatted away like a bug. Probably for the best. I’ve seen that movie end poorly far too many times.
Speaking of last night’s appetizer, let’s rapid-fire this Friday class into our first BIG weekend of the year.
First up? Let’s go ahead and check in with the fans up in New Jersey!
Incredible. What a game for the UMass Minutemen! First win over an FBS team since 2023! Do you know how much Rutgers paid for that shellacking?
$1.5 million. It was the second largest paycheck for a LOSS in college football history:
Goodness gracious. The accounts in Piscataway are pulling their hair out today. Just a stunning upset.
That wasn’t even my favorite part of the game. Anyone here stick around for the postgame fireworks?!
Amazing. The obvious question is, why not just cancel the show? I don’t know. Can you do that? Can you just cancel a fireworks show because the home team lost? I assume you can just roll them over to the next home game, right?
Yikes. Never mind. USC comes to town next. I don’t see that first home ‘dub coming until Howard the following week.
Put those fireworks on ice, fellas!
Next? Let’s get to some reader mail on the way out. I have a loaded mailbox and it needs a good Labor Day cleaning before we start the fall season.
Yesterday, we all mocked Ryan Reynolds for his absolutely baffling comments on how tough the 1980s were to live through … because of the Cuban Missile Crisis (which ended in the ’60s).
I asked y’all if there was any truth to it.
From Jeff D:
As a kid in the 80s , I can’t say that the Cuban Missile Crisis was anywhere at the top of our minds. I do remember a couple of events that were at the top of our minds — the Challenger explosion and baby Jessica being rescued from a well.
Baby Jessica was a crazy story of a little girl falling down a well and eventually being rescued, the event really brought the country together and her rescue was a joyous moment for the country.
All in all, most memories from that period were positive and I’m pretty sure the Cuban Missile Crisis never crossed our minds.
Thanks, Jeff! Would you look at that? A child was in peril in the 1980s and the entire country rallied around her. Weird. Surely that would happen in today’s world, right?
… Right?
Next? From Brian S:
Ryan Reynolds went a bit overboard with the hyperbole, but it wasn’t all fun and games in the 80’s. We 80’s kids lived under the cloud of potential nuclear war for much of the decade. There was a TV movie in 1983 called “The Day After” that terrified the nation. Truly.
I think that nuclear war “threat” fed into our, “F–k it, let’s just enjoy ourselves and have a great time” attitude. There was no Cuban Missile Crisis hangover. Vietnam though? Hell yes. Just look at all the movies about that war released during the 80’s.
Now, having said all that, I’d give anything to go back there. You often write, “What a time to be alive.” Well the 80’s truly embodied that.
Thanks, Brian! I may have to look up “The Day After” this weekend. Those things always fascinate me.
Finally … From Eric P:
The 80’s was one of the best decades in history. The best music; Cars still had a little style and nothing woke about sports. Oh, and I managed to hit a 3-pointer to win a game at the buzzer over Mark Langston in an alumni game at my college against a team of Mariners.
This Reynolds idiot was 8-9 years old and there was no strife. Won’t watch his piece of s–t movie on general principles.
Thanks, Eric! I do love the cars from the ’80s. One of these day, I want an old 1980s pickup truck. It’s a weird dream of mine. Just to drive around town.
One of these days.
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OK, that’s it for today — and this week! It’s a High School Football Friday, so let’s end class with an absolute UNIT out of Alabama.
See y’all Monday.
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Fine. Anymore ’80s nostalgia? Email me at Zach.Dean@OutKick.com.
