Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo took his international tally to 93 goals when he scored four times to give the European champions a 5-1 win away to Lithuania in their Euro 2020 qualifier on Tuesday.

Playing in his 161st international, the 34-year-old notched his eighth hat-trick for his country and the 54th of his remarkable career to help Portugal through what had threatened to turn into a frustrating evening.

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Unheralded midfielder William Carvalho completed the rout in stoppage time as Portugal stayed second in Group B with eight points, five behind leaders Ukraine with one game in hand. Serbia are a further point behind in third after a 3-1 win in Luxemburg.

Lithuania, bottom with one point, missed an early chance when Vykintas Slivka fired over from close range and they quickly paid the price when Markus Palionis handled a Joao Felix cross and Ronaldo converted the penalty in the fifth minute.

Lithuania goalkeeper Ernestas Setkus made an excellent save to prevent Edvinas Girdvainis turning the ball into his own net but Vytautas Andriuskevicius then grabbed a surprise equaliser, rising above his marker to head in from a corner in the 28th minute.

Ronaldo set up good chances for Felix and Bernardo Silva, which were wasted, after the break before taking matters into his own hands.

Just as Portugal were beginning to show signs of frustration, Ronaldo produced a low shot which bobbled twice in front of Setkus in the 62nd minute. The Lithuania goalkeeper got his hand to it, but it hit his head and bounced into the net.

Three minutes later, Ronaldo was left free in the area to sweep home Bernardo Silva's cross and Silva also provided the pass for Ronaldo to sidefoot his fourth 11 minutes later.

Carvalho's goal, his fourth in 60 games, was a fitting reward for a player who keeps the Portugal midfield ticking over without getting much attention.

Aleksandar Mitrovic scored twice to keep Serbia's hopes alive with a win in Luxemburg. He headed Serbia in front after 36 minutes and Nemanja Radonjic curled in the second 10 minutes after the restart.

Substitute David Turpel pulled one back and Serbia were on the ropes until Sergej Milinkovic-Savic produced a delightful reverse pass for Mitrovic to fire in the third.

It has been eight months and 13 matches since Gregg Berhalter took over as head coach of the United States men's national team. He arrived with a mandate to remake a floundering program in his image, a project that's very much still a work in progress. The manager spent his time handing starts to new players, evaluating the veterans and attempting to find a lineup that gets the most out of the available talent.

As World Cup qualifying approaches next year and the Nations Cup begins in October, it's time to take a look at where the players stand.

(Note: Each player appears once, even if he could fit into multiple spots.)

Goalkeeper

1. Zack Steffen, Fortuna Dusseldorf (loan)
2. Brad Guzan, Atlanta United FC
3. Sean Johnson, NYCFC

It's Steffen and then everyone else in the player pool. The Manchester City goalkeeper, on loan at Fortuna Düsseldorf, continues to improve his shot-stopping ability and positioning and is off to a strong start in the Bundesliga. He struggles with distribution, however, and needs to get better in this regard if Berhalter's build from the back system is going to work.

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Guzan, Johnson, Ethan Horvath, Jesse Gonzalez and others are capable, if not spectacular, backups.

Left-back

1. Daniel Lovitz, Montreal Impact
2. Tim Ream, Fulham
3. Sergino Dest, Ajax

This position is a perpetual weak spot for the Americans. Lovitz is fine, Ream is better but accident prone, and Dest is just 18. The latter, who was solid and also a teenager against Mexico in his first start, could rocket up this list with a good couple of months for the Dutch giants in the Eredivisie and the Champions League.

Other potential options include Antonee Robinson, oft-injured Greg Garza, U-20 star Chris Gloster and even Fabian Johnson. (Remember when FabJo was the U.S.'s best player at four or five positions?)

The good news: Berhalter has a lot of options. The bad: None of those fully solves his problem.

Left-side center-back

1. John Brooks, VfL Wolfsburg
2. Matt Miazga, Reading FC (loan)
3. Chris Richards, FC Bayern Munich II

Right-side center-back

1. Aaron Long, New York Red Bulls
2. Walker Zimmerman, LAFC
3. Miles Robinson, Atlanta United FC

Can John Brooks stay healthy? If he does, one of the two center-back jobs is his for the next half-decade at least. But the Wolfsburg center-back can't maintain fitness. For that matter, Miazga is on the shelf with a serious injury. In the immediate moment, Long and Zimmerman are the starters.

Richards, a standout in the U-20 World Cup, is raw but has line-breaking potential. Omar Gonzalez, Tim Parker, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Erik Palmer-Brown, Justen Glad, Miles Robinson, Austin Trusty and a handful of others could figure into the mix as well.

Right-back

1. DeAndre Yedlin, Newcastle United
2. Reggie Cannon, FC Dallas
3. Nick Lima, San Jose Earthquakes

Yedlin gets the nod due to his experience, though Cannon has had the strongest 12 months of pretty much any player in the U.S. national team picture. In another six months or a year, we might see Cannon lock down the right-back role with Yedlin pushing further up the field, but we're not there quite yet.

Lima presents a serviceable option in a panic, though it's not likely to come to that, and Shaq Moore's a wild card who could push for more chances.

Defensive midfielder

1. Tyler Adams, RB Leipzig
2. Michael Bradley, Toronto FC
3. Wil Trapp, Columbus Crew SC

Has any player in the history of U.S. Soccer moved up the ranks for club and country as quickly as Adams? In two years, he has gone from "who is this kid?" to a Champions League starter. Still just 20, the RB Leipzig midfielder could be the American engine for a decade.

Bradley is still Bradley, the smartest player on the field even if he has slowed down a half-step. Trapp's the best leader on the team, a guy who could make a roster for that ability alone. Alfredo Morales and Russell Canouse could play roles here too.

Attacking midfielder

1. Weston McKennie, Schalke 04
2. Duane Holmes, Derby County
3. Paxton Pomykal, FC Dallas

Attacking midfielder

1. Sebastian Lletget, LA Galaxy
2. Darlington Nagbe, Atlanta United FC
3. Cristian Roldan, Seattle Sounders FC

Berhalter could go a lot of ways with this group, including installing Pulisic back in midfield, but the McKennie/Lletget combination is the most potent if -- and this is a big if -- they can stay healthy and learn to play together. Holmes showed excellent promise in limited time, and Pomykal could start pressing sooner rather than later.

Nagbe remains an enigma, notably turning down a recent call-up, and Roldan is fine. Jackson Yueill and Djordje Mihailovic are two younger players who should continue to get shots if they continue to grow as players.

Left wing

1. Christian Pulisic, Chelsea
2. Paul Arriola, D.C. United
3. Tim Weah, Lille

While Pulisic can be considered the best American player at multiple positions, he's best served out on the wing, where he can get the ball in space and attack defenders. (At least that's the idea.) Arriola is a much more limited player who nonetheless finds ways to produce in the U.S. coach's system. (Odds are Berhalter starts him on the right wing.)

Weah, 19, has enough imagination for the entire group but needs to improve his decision-making and impactfulness across an entire match (and get healthy).

Right wing

1. Jordan Morris, Seattle Sounders FC
2. Tyler Boyd, Besiktas
3. Jonathan Lewis, Colorado Rapids

Boyd burst onto the scene at the Gold Cup, demonstrating flair and a cannon for a shot. Yet he hasn't quite grasped Berhalter's system, holding the ball for too long. Former wonderboy Morris transformed his game from pacey forward to robust winger, bringing a nuanced understanding to his physical gifts. Lewis might never be more than a spark plug for club or country, but he's a fun prospect.

Striker

1. Josh Sargent, Werder Bremen
2. Jozy Altidore, Toronto FC
3. Gyasi Zardes, Columbus Crew SC

If Berhalter faced a must-win game, he might choose to start Altidore, who's very much a known quantity at this point. But Sargent should be the call in upcoming games, as a player with a much higher ceiling whose continued improvement could help transform the U.S. squad. As for Zardes, sure for now, but his days are numbered.

One question for the near future: Can red-hot Minnesota United forward Mason Toye force his way into the conversation, or will he come crashing back down to earth?

Glamorgan 44 for 2 trail Worcestershire 205 (Hogan 4-53) by 161 runs

Michael Hogan and fit-again Timm van der Gugten established a position of strength with the ball for promotion-chasing Glamorgan on the opening day of the Specsavers County Championship match with Worcestershire at Blackfinch New Road.

Hogan remains a potent threat at the age of 38 and his return of 4 for 36 took his wicket tally for the campaign to 36 as Worcestershire were bowled out for 205 in 70 overs after an uncontested toss. It followed on from his 5 for 62 against the same opponents in the corresponding fixture at Cardiff in late June.

Van der Gugten had suffered a back injury in that game but marked his return with three wickets including the prized scalp of England allrounder Moeen Ali.

Only Daryl Mitchell, in his 200th first class game for Worcestershire, Riki Wessels, with a expansive 45, and Ed Barnard offered much resistance in another below-par batting performance from the home side.

The inability of the top five to score consistently has been a prime reason for a disappointing red-ball campaign in contrast to Worcestershire's success in the Vitality Blast in which they booked another spot at finals day on September 21. But Glamorgan's focus is on achieving promotion for the first time since 2004.

Although Nick Selman and Tom Cullen departed cheaply, by the close West Indies batsman Kraigg Brathwaite had moved on to a patient 15 out of 44 for 2 on his Glamorgan debut.

Hogan made the first breakthrough of the day when bowling Hamish Rutherford after beating his defensive push.

Moeen had scored a brilliant hundred against Sussex in Friday's Blast quarter-final win at Hove. Here he managed only 18 before falling victim to van der Gugten after driving hard at the paceman and edging to Selman who held on to a low chance at third slip.

Mitchell needed 24 balls to get off the mark but looked solid in defence in batting through the morning session for an unbeaten 31. But the visitors' attack turned the screw once Hogan had returned to dismiss Mitchell in the second over after the resumption.

He dabbed at a fine delivery and only succeeded in nicking through to keeper Chris Cooke to end his 103-ball knock of 36. Alex Milton provided Cooke with another catch off Lukas Carey and then Jack Haynes, who shouldered arms, and Ben Cox were both lbw to van der Gugten.

Wessels innings was a mixture of fine drives and fortuitous edges and always entertaining. He faced only 35 deliveries and struck eight fours before he drilled Rory Smith straight to mid-off.

Club captain Joe Leach went for an on drive against Smith and was leg before and Hogan accounted for tailenders Charlie Morris and Adam Finch to leave Barnard unbeaten on 29.

When Glamorgan replied, they also encountered some disciplined bowling with Selman falling at first slip off Morris and Cullen aiming a lavish drive at Barnard and being caught behind.

Trevor Bayliss has suggested that Joe Root is "under no pressure at all" in his position as England captain. Root comes into the final Test against Australia with his side 2-1 down and having already relinquished a chance of taking back the Ashes; anything other than victory at The Oval will see him become the first England captain to oversee a home Ashes defeat since 2001.

Root said in the wake of the 185-run loss at Old Trafford at the weekend that he wanted to carry on as captain, but there have been questions about whether he can manage the workload of batting at No. 3 and leading the side. His average as captain has dipped to 40.87, against 52.80 overall, and he has managed just three half-centuries in four Tests, while also becoming the first England captain to score three ducks in the same series.

However, ahead of his final Test as England coach, Bayliss said he felt that Root remained the best man to lead the side and suggested that his struggles with the bat had come down to Australia successfully making a target of him.

"He hasn't come under question from anyone making decisions," Bayliss said. "So he's under no pressure at all.

"Everyone goes through periods where they don't make quite as many runs as they would like. I think the Australia team have bowled pretty well to him. We'll see how things go further down the line but from my point of view, he's our premier batter and knowing the Australian way, they always try and target the opposition captain. He's batted well on occasions throughout the series, when he's got a start. I don't see too many problems, really."

Despite trailing with one Test to play - and facing the possibility of a first series defeat at home since 2014 - England opted not to make any changes for The Oval, with Bayliss reasoning that the attempts to fight their way to a draw on the final day at Old Trafford warranted giving the misfiring batting order one last chance.

"Over the last three or four years, one of the things we've spoken about was that we really want to give everyone an opportunity to prove themselves - I've said before, give them one too many games rather than one not enough. Maybe bringing someone new and young into the team against this opposition [would be detrimental]. We might see some changes through the winter but a few of the guys looked like they were trying to do the right thing and gutsed it out and did well on the at last day [at Old Trafford], so we've decided to give them another opportunity.

"Knowing the Australian way, they always try and target the opposition captain. He's batted well on occasions throughout the series, when he's got a start. I don't see too many problems, really"

"I'm quite happy with the selections. The first thing you've got to say is 'Who else will come in?' After the Tests in this series, either team could have been up 3-0, I thought. We had our chances at 8 for 120 in the first Test, second Test we finished on top at the end of the game, being a draw. Third Test, Australia could have won that, they could have won the first two as well. If you think about it that way, the selections we couldn't have got it too wrong."

That means another opportunity for Jason Roy, who made his debut at opener against Ireland in July but has subsequently moved down the order to No. 4 and averages 13.75 across eight Ashes innings.

"He's certainly still got to prove, not just to himself but everyone, that he is capable of playing at this level," Bayliss said. "He is a talent, that's for sure, but obviously there are some challenges for him in the Test game and some challenges against this bowling attack."

One contingency remains, depending on the fitness of Ben Stokes, who sent down a few deliveries to test his sore shoulder during England training, before taking off on several laps of the outfield. He is set to be assessed again in the run-up to Thursday, with the possibility he could play just as a batsman.

Having helped England to lift the World Cup for the first time, Bayliss can arguably be said to have fulfilled his remit after being hired in 2015 with a focus on improving the country's white-ball performances. He admitted that his successor will still have work to do on the Test side - ranked No. 5 in the world when Bayliss took over, England will slip back down to the same spot from fourth unless they can triumph at The Oval.

"I'd say it's still a work in progress. From a Test win percentage point of view, we're slightly in front on win-loss ratio. The big improvement in the one-day game overshadows the work we've tried to do with the Test team. When you compare the two the white-ball team had the biggest improvements."

The ECB process to find a successor is also ongoing, with Bayliss suggesting that the ideal situation might see England once again appoint a single head coach but with a greater remit to hand over temporary control to his assistants - the positions currently filled by Chris Silverwood, Graham Thorpe and Paul Collingwood. But he was content that it is time for a "new voice" calling the shots in the dressing room.

"On one hand I'm sad to be leaving the job. Personally it's been a fantastic environment to work in. Everyone's made me feel at home. From a cricket sense, we've had a lot of good performances - the cherry on top with the World Cup win. I am looking forward to getting home but I've never stayed anywhere more than four or five years and it's time for someone else to come in, and a new voice for the team."

South Africa have hinted at the possibility of Quinton de Kock being a captaincy candidate keeping in mind next year's T20 World Cup in Australia. De Kock will lead a fairly young side in the three T20Is against India in regular captain Faf du Plessis' absence, as their new team director Enoch Nkwe wants to "start building for the future".

"I strongly believe that we have a good enough squad. We have a good leader here," Nkwe said at South Africa's arrival press conference in Dharamsala, ahead of the series opener on Sunday. "It's also an opportunity to start building for the future. We know where Faf stands, as a captain and as a player. He's done great things for South African cricket. We also need to look at what the future looks like. We believe in Quinton, who's going to be leading the team in this series."

South Africa's post World Cup shake-up and du Plessis' age (35) could be among the reasons for them looking at new candidates. De Kock is just 26 and has featured in 191 internationals across formats since his debut in 2012. In India, he will lead a squad of 14 that features several newcomers. Nkwe, however, believes the players have got "good enough experience".

"If you look at the group of guys, we've got good enough experience," Nkwe said. "The captain himself has played a lot of cricket here in India. We've got fresh blood that is coming into the squad and that's very exciting. We'll be competitive. We want to walk away with a series win. The entire squad is very determined. We're here to win. We understand that the opposition is strong in their backyard, but that's something we're going to leave on the park. We're going to give 100%.

"At the end of the day, as a professional team, we're entertainers. We hope that the kind of cricket we'll be playing out there, people will be able to read and understand the brand of cricket we want to play. It's a new chapter, and there are some new characters in the group. We're still in the process of defining ourselves, but I know for sure that the guys want to get out there and play some exciting cricket."

De Kock said he was "looking forward" to the young team competing and fighting under him. "Coming into this series, we've got a lot of new players. Win or lose, I just want the guys to keep competing, keep fighting. As long as they keep doing that, I'm sure we'll be in good hands. We've got quite a young team, so there will be a lot of energy. Looking forward to that."

The tour of India will be South Africa's first assignment since their disastrous World Cup campaign but they are now looking ahead to the next global event as they have close to 20 games in hand before the T20 World Cup in October next year.

"The focus for now is this coming series against India," Nkwe said. "We're looking to invest in a good foundation going into the T20 World Cup next year in Australia. But we still have a lot of games. We have about 20 games. So we'll reassess the situation after these three games against India and see where we're at, and how we build into the England series and so on. But for now the focus is the Indian series."

South African can draw inspiration from their T20I (2-0) and ODI (3-2) series wins when they last toured India, in 2015. De Kock had not featured in the T20 series then but he troubled the hosts in the ODIs, finishing as the third-highest scorer, behind team-mates du Plessis and AB de Villiers, with a tally of 318 runs and an impressive average of 63.60, with two centuries.

"I haven't played here (Dharamsala) myself, I've been here before but I haven't played here," de Kock recalled the opening T20 of the 2015 series in which South Africa had chased down 200 with seven wickets in hand. "The last time we were here, the wicket did play very well. I think Rohit [Sharma] got a hundred here, but we ended up chasing it down. So in the one game I've experienced here, it could be a good wicket. But we're coming into the unknown, so we'll have to assess quickly, and then just adapt."

England's failure to reclaim the Ashes in a home series for the first time in almost two decades can in part be put down to unhelpful pitches, according to the team's senior fast bowler James Anderson. While a calf injury limited Anderson's involvement to bowling just four overs in the first Test at Edgbaston, he suggested that the playing surfaces have better suited Australia's attack and said local groundsmen might consider being "a little bit more biased" towards England in future.

Defeat on Anderson's home ground of Old Trafford last week left England 2-1 down in the Specsavers Test series and unable to prise back the urn from Australia. While Anderson gave a nod towards Steven Smith for his "phenomenal" batting - in three Test appearances Smith has scored 671 runs, almost twice as many as anyone else - he said England had been disappointed by the pitches served up and that more could be done to exploit home advantage.

"I think they've probably suited Australia more than us," he said. "I would have liked to have seen a bit more grass but that's the nature of the game here. When you're selling out - like Lancashire selling out five days of Test cricket - it's hard not to produce a flat deck but, you know, that's one of the frustrations from a player's point of view. We go to Australia and get pitches that suit them. They come over here and get pitches that suit them. It doesn't seem quite right.

"I thought they were good pitches here against India [last year]. I thought they weren't green seamers but I thought they suited us more than India. We as a country don't use home advantage enough. When you go to Australia, go to India, Sri Lanka, they prepare pitches that suit them. I feel like we could just be a little bit more biased towards our own team."

Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, in particular, have led the way for Australia, taking 24 wickets at 17.41 and 18 at 16.88 respectively - separated only by Stuart Broad (19 at 26.63) for England. It has been a bowlers series in general, with only two Australians (Smith and Marnus Labuschagne) and three Englishmen (Ben Stokes, Rory Burns and Joe Root) averaging above 30 with the bat.

In contrast to Anderson's lugubrious take, Australia coach Justin Langer was perhaps unsurprisingly full of praise for the "bowler-friendly wickets" on which his team had prevailed in their mission to retain the Ashes.

"It's most important for the health of Test cricket moving forward that you're playing on competitive wickets," he said ahead of the final Test at The Oval. "Great players make runs, games always moving forward, you're on the edge of your seat. I think the wickets this series have been fantastic for that."

Anderson's frustrations have been compounded by being forced to watch from the sidelines after suffering from a persistent calf problem that saw him hobble through the first Test at Edgbaston, having being declared fit, then suffer a recurrence while going about his rehabilitation with Lancashire.

There is little doubt that not being able to call upon the most-prolific Test fast bowler in history has hurt England's chances - despite the resurgence of Broad and a potent display from Jofra Archer in his debut series. However, Anderson has quietened any expectations he may be contemplating retirement, writing in his newspaper column that he intends to try and play on until he is 40.

He proclaimed himself "open-minded" to making changes to his diet and lifestyle in order to prolong his career; perhaps a chat about the benefits of veganism with old Ashes foe Peter Siddle is in order following the conclusion of the series?

"When I start this rehab, I'm going to try and investigate every possible avenue of what do I need to do at my age to keep myself in good shape," Anderson said. "I feel in really good condition. I feel as fit as I ever have. It's just the calf keeps twanging.

"I'm going to look at every possible thing I can to make sure I can play for as long as possible. I'll look at how other sportspeople have done it throughout their careers to keep going into their late 30s. Whether there's anything specific I can do, diet, gym programme, supplements, whatever it might be. Because I've still got a real hunger and desire to play cricket. I still love the game and still feel like I can offer something to this team and still have the skills and can bowl quick enough to have a positive effect.

"It'll be an ongoing process through the rest of my career. I still feel like I can be the best bowler in the world. So as long as I've got that mentality I'm going to keep pushing myself. Keep trying to improve my skills with the ball, work hard at my batting, and try to find every possible thing to help me stay fit."

"We as a country don't use home advantage enough. When you go to Australia, go to India, Sri Lanka, they prepare pitches that suit them. I feel like we could just be a little bit more biased towards our own team"

Anderson's first goal is to be available for the two Tests in New Zealand towards the back-end of November, after which comes a tour of South Africa. His desire to keep playing means he is set to feature under a fifth different England coach - depending on when the successor to Trevor Bayliss is appointed - and he suggested the new management needed to map out with Joe Root a pathway to rebalancing priorities between Test and limited-overs cricket.

"Going forward, it's important whoever takes over has got the same sort of vision as Joe as captain, on how the team moves forward. Obviously the last four years has been a real focus on one-day cricket, trying to win the World Cup. We've now done that.

"I think we need to find a good balance. We've kind of been one or the other. In my career, it's been Test priority in the first bit and then this last four-year cycle has been a push for the white-ball stuff. We need to find a balance, it's as simple as that. We've got to try to give equal attention to both."

Whether or not he develops a craving for bananas, Anderson's appetite for cricket remains strong - though he grimaces wearily at the idea of resuming battle with Smith once again in 2021-22. There is an acceptance that he won't go on forever, an understanding that one day, perhaps not too far in the future, he will be able to inspect a flat pitch with a shake of the head before heading towards the media facilities rather than the dressing rooms.

"I'm realistic. If I'm not good enough and feel I'm detracting from the team and I'm too slow, or whatever it might be, then I'm not going to embarrass myself or drag the team down. I'll only keep playing if I think I can be one of the best bowlers in the world and if I think I can help this team win games of Test cricket. I'm not just blinkered thinking I'm going to just drag out as many possible games as I can."

James Anderson was speaking on behalf of 'The Test Experts' Specsavers, Official Test Partner of the England cricket team ahead of the final Test of the Specsavers Ashes Series at The Oval

Durham, 2013. Ryan Harris, newish ball in hand, fizzes it down towards the top of Joe Root's off stump. It takes a little wobble through the air, hits one side of the seam, and darts perfectly away to beat a flummoxed Root and hit the outside of the off stump. It's a cracker, but almost completely accidental, as Harris admits later to Ian Ward.

Have you bowled a better delivery than this?

"Probably not, but I don't try to do it, I just try to put it in the right spots and let the ball and the wicket do the rest. I'm aiming for the top of off, it doesn't always go there but it's great to get one in the right area now and then."

The seam's just wobbling, deliberate?

"No, not really. When I went off after our spell I said to our analyst 'how's my seam' and he said it was a bit wobbly and I wasn't very happy with it. So I'm trying to get it nice and straight, but if it comes out like that it's natural variation."

Later that same year, Harris would bowl a far more famous delivery to Alastair Cook, albeit with the seam so straight that it swings after pitching to hit the top of off. England, victorious at home, are beaten out of sight Down Under. But they still possessed a weapon, particularly at home, that Australia's bowlers had not yet truly grasped: Harris's wobbly seam at Durham could be done deliberately, and cause mayhem.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad had, in fact, been bowling this type of delivery for years - Anderson's series-winning haul of 24 wickets on the 2010-11 featured the wobble-seam prominently. Ironically, he'd learned of it from watching Stuart Clark in the Ashes whitewash four years previously, but after watching Mohammad Asif's impact in England in 2010, he went off to the nets with David Saker, then England's bowling coach, and set about mastering a skill that wasn't actually all that complicated.

For Australia, there seemed an initial reluctance to divert from trying to land the seam as straight as possible. The chief advocate for the method has been Peter Siddle, helped by the advice of Saker, Broad and Alastair Cook, via their time together in Victoria, Nottinghamshire and Essex respectively. Siddle, though, was on the outer in 2015, not playing until the Ashes had already gone to England.

"David Saker who I've spent a lot of time with and he's mentored me for a long time, talking to him even when he was still England coach around how they went about it," Siddle told ESPNcricinfo. "You mix that in a little bit with having that time with Broady and chatting to him first-hand, rather than just watching him bowl it, how he holds it, how it feels, how to release it. From then it's just about finding your way, what feels good for you and it's just something that grew and adapted over time.

"Even in the last couple of years playing with Alastair Cook, and this is my fourth series over here, so in that time you do watch the opposition and see how they go about things and what they do with the ball. It is something that in the last couple of years I've got better at, and had a lot more success with it."

Repeatedly, Siddle was the most challenging opponent for Australia's batsmen in the nets in 2015, but there was an element missing: collective unity about which plans to follow, how and when. There was, to some extent, variation, until this January, when there was a very public disagreement between the pacemen and Tim Paine about how to bowl on day one at the SCG against India. A unified plan to strangle England, and a unified method of how to use the Dukes ball, was required.

The penny dropped in Southampton, with 25 Australian cricketers plus just as many support staff squeezed into the Hilton at the Rose Bowl. Among many meetings the use of a scrambled seam stock ball, with straight seam swingers for variation on a rigorous top-of-the-off stump length - plus the occasional bouncer - crystallised as the only way forward.

For Siddle, this meant being as much a coach and mentor to the other bowlers as a competitor for one of bowling spots in each Test team.

"It's a pretty simple game-plan, but it takes everyone to buy into it," he said. "It's good to see the boys having a crack at it and getting some success, because on wickets over here even when they flatten out, they have still got that little tinge of grass scattered around so they still tend to offer a little bit.

"I think it's showed for both teams that the team that have stuck in there and been patient enough, you've been able to get the rewards."

Cummins, Siddle and James Pattinson used the method to good effect at Edgbaston, before Hazlewood subbed in at Lord's and raised the level a notch further. At Headingley, Pattinson returned, and Australia razed the hosts for 67. And even when Ben Stokes conjured a second-innings miracle on a pitch that flattened out into the easiest batting surface of the series, there was plenty of reason to stay the course.

The last piece of the puzzle was Mitchell Starc, who was perhaps the hardest sell. For nine years, he had been a Test cricketer committed to seeking swing, and often benefiting enormously from doing so at his great pace. But through many net sessions, plus tour games at Worcester and Derby, he too learned to get the seam wobbling, and at Old Trafford the variation was critically important: Jonny Bairstow was bowled by the inswing variation in the first innings, then Stokes nicked off to a wobble seamer. Starc had adapted.

"It's been a series where there hasn't been as much swing, even though this ball they went back to the old Dukes ball because the new one doesn't quite seam as much," Siddle said.

"That brings the wobble back into it, but that is exciting to see for Starcy. I bowled loads with him early on in the series in the nets and he was just asking questions, having a go at it, and then trying to see what would work for him.

"At times it didn't feel right, and for a bloke that naturally keeps the seam up to swing it, it's going to feel very awkward because it's just not natural. But to see him bowl some of those balls and have the success that he did I think it showed that actually listening to what is needed in the conditions sometimes going away from what you normally do, having that success has given the guys a lot of confidence."

Compared to 2013 and 2015, Australia have swung the ball far less, and seamed it far more. They have moved the ball off the pitch even more than England.

Amid the adaptation, a revelation too. Australia's faster bowlers, Starc and Cummins in particular, are able to get additional variations from wobble seam that Anderson, Broad and Siddle cannot.

"This is my fourth series over here, so in that time you do watch the opposition and see how they go about things and what they do with the ball."

"I think like the scattered grass, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not," Siddle said. "If the quicker bowlers are getting it off the little bit of grass patches that are there, it does sometimes look to shoot on. Sometimes they do and it doesn't bounce as much.

"Jimmy and Broady and I, they'll seam and stand up even though I'm a lot shorter and Jimmy's a bit shorter, but that extra pace it skids on and probably keeps a bit lower. That's all a part of England, the natural variation. The big thing too is bowling the right length with it. You can see over here you get a lot of plays and misses, which is pretty natural, but the fuller you are, making them have to 100% commit to the ball, you get the breakthroughs. LBWs and bowleds, there's probably been a higher number of that than just caught behind the wicket."

So a method first glimpsed in use by an Australian, perfected by a Pakistani, then co-opted by England, found its way back where it started, in the nick of time for the 2019 Ashes. "The teams that have had the most success are the teams where everyone buys in, you bowl in the partnerships at both ends, you build pressure, and you get the rewards," Siddle said.

"I think that's what's been so strong about this group, not just the fact there's six strong, quality fast bowlers in the group, but i think when blokes have come in and out of the team, they've been able to fit straight in, stick to the plan and have the success."

Old Trafford, 2019. Pat Cummins, brand new ball in hand, fizzes it down towards the top of Root's off stump. It takes a little wobble through the air, hits one side of the seam, and darts perfectly away to beat a flummoxed Root and hit the outside of the off stump. It's a cracker of a ball, and it is almost completely deliberate.

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Browns star Odell Beckham Jr. said that he still plans to wear in games the luxury watch that he sported in the season opener against the Tennessee Titans.

"I'll still be wearing it," Beckham said Tuesday. "The same way I wear it every day I go to practice, when I go here, I go there, been wearing it. Take a shower with it on. It's just on me."

NFL spokesman Michael Signora said earlier in the week that while the league has no rules prohibiting jewelry, it does have a policy "prohibiting hard objects." He also said the league would address the matter with Beckham and the Browns, who play at the New York Jets next Monday night.

Beckham countered that the Richard Mille timepiece -- which retails for around $190,000 -- is plastic and thus "shouldn't be an issue," although Beckham indicated he hadn't spoken to the league about it yet.

"You got to look into the rule book. It says you can't wear any hard objects. The watch is plastic," he said. "People have knee braces on that are hard and made out of metal. You don't see them taking them off. Everyone has jewelry on. So, I'm good."

Beckham confirmed that his tweet Monday night was a reaction to the watch:

If ain't one thing.... it's another...

— Odell Beckham Jr (@obj) September 10, 2019

He added Tuesday that he felt the NFL was singling him out.

"If anybody else would've worn the watch, if it was a $20 watch, it wouldn't been no problem," he said. "That's just my life. If it ain't this, it's something else. If it wasn't the watch, it would've been the way I'd tied my shoes."

A spokesperson for the watch company said that 500 pieces were made and that Beckham is just a customer and not a brand ambassador.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- One day after coach Adam Gase's public criticism of the team, the New York Jets traded for wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and changed kickers for the third time since training camp -- a mini-shake-up that sends a message to the locker room.

The Jets acquired Thomas from the New England Patriots for a 2021 sixth-round pick, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter. That the bitter rivals made a trade was stunning. It was a first for Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who previously had executed a trade with every team except the Jets.

Thomas became expendable after New England signed wide receiver Antonio Brown.

Thomas, who tore his Achilles in December, was activated off the physically unable to perform list on Aug. 20. He had seven catches for 87 yards and two touchdowns in the Patriots' preseason finale, which was his first game since the injury.

With Thomas out, the Patriots' wide receiver depth chart now features Brown, Julian Edelman, Josh Gordon, Phillip Dorsett, Jakobi Meyers and Gunner Olszewski. Dorsett reeled in two touchdowns on Sunday night, while Gordon caught one of his own. Meanwhile, Edelman led the team in receptions with six.

Gase was critical of his wide receivers after Sunday's 17-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills, telling reporters Monday that he wasn't happy with their route running. He didn't name names, but he was clearly unhappy with Robby Anderson.

Not surprisingly, the Jets waived kicker Kaare Vedvik and signed free agent Sam Ficken, who was cut recently by the Green Bay Packers. He will be their fourth kicker since the start of training camp.

Vedvik lasted only a week on the roster. He struggled in his NFL debut, missing an extra point and a 45-yard field goal. He replaced the ineffective Taylor Bertolet, who replaced Chandler Catanzaro, who retired abruptly after the second preseason game.

On Monday, Gase was fuming and sprayed criticism at several position groups on his roster. He was particularly angry with the receivers, saying, "We made some mistakes and they were fatal to us ... They need to do a better job of executing what they're supposed to be doing."

The passing game ran through slot receiver Jamison Crowder, who caught 14 passes for 99 yards. Anderson and Quincy Enunwa were held to a combined four catches. Gase exonerated quarterback Sam Darnold, who passed for only 175 yards, choosing to blame the receivers and offensive line.

Thomas will be new to New York, but he is familiar with Gase. He served as the Denver Broncos' wide receivers coach from 2010 to 2013 and then as the team's offensive coordinator from 2013 to '14. Thomas spent the first nine years of his career in Denver.

The Jets will also welcome a veteran presence within their receiving corps. The 31-year-old Thomas is now the oldest wideout on the team ahead of Anderson (26), Joshua Bellamy (30), Braxton Berrios (23), Crowder (26) and Enunwa (27). Berrios was among the Patriots' final cuts this season.

The Jets opted for Ficken after a morning tryout at their facility that consisted of five free-agent kickers. His only regular-season experience came in 2017 and 2018 with the Los Angeles Rams, but it was only four games. He made three of six field goals (a long of 34 yards) and was 14-for-15 on extra points.

Ficken attempted only one field goal for the Packers in the preseason (he made it), and was 5-for-5 on extra points.

On Monday, Gase expressed his frustration with the kicking carousel, saying, "What do you want me to do? We haven't performed well. We're going to try to figure out a way to fix it."

The Jets' kicking saga started in March, when they let Jason Myers -- a Pro Bowl selection -- leave via free agency. He signed with the Seattle Seahawks, who gave him a $5.5 million guarantee.

Information from ESPN's Mike Reiss was used in this report.

It was a lovely morning in March 1978 on the University of Alabama campus. That perfect hour of post-spring sunrise pop, when the azaleas awaken with the students, petals of color unfurling as the youngsters rolled out of their dorms and marched to class. Amid it all, Reggie Jackson, the New York Yankee who just five months earlier had hit three home runs in one World Series game, was in Tuscaloosa to participate in an exhibition against the Crimson Tide's baseball team on his way from spring training back to the Bronx. "The straw that stirs the drink" was at the height of his fame. He could no longer go anywhere in public without being mobbed. He starred in TV commercials. He was on magazine covers. He was about to launch his own candy bar.

As Reg-gie(!) took a tour of the Alabama campus, a pack of students stopped dead in their tracks. They pointed. They giggled. Had it been present day, they would have filled the memories of their smartphones with a hundred photos, but in this simpler time, they merely broke out into a spontaneous round of applause. Reggie Jackson raised his hand and tipped his cap. As he did, he realized that -- wait... oh, damn... they weren't looking at him. They couldn't have cared less that the freshly minted Mr. October was there in March. A sympathetic hand rested onto Jackson's pinstriped shoulder. "They aren't cheering for you," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner told his star player. "That's for our tour guide."

As Bear Bryant smiled and waved back at the Alabama students, The Boss continued: "Just so you know, if we were in New York right now, this same thing would have happened."

Paul William Bryant died 36 years ago, or more accurately, 36 college football seasons ago. Yet somehow, here in 2019, during this 150th anniversary celebration of the sport, it feels as though the game's greatest larger-than-life figure is still alive, walking the streets of Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, New York, Las Vegas and Fordyce, Arkansas.

As we approach Sept. 11, which would have been Bryant's 106th birthday, eBay has 2,135 Bear Bryant items listed for sale, everything from a cast-iron doorstop of his face to a ceramic bust framed on a wooden outline of the state of Alabama to an autographed poem titled "The Legend of the Bear."

But when the Bear heard mama calling
A sad and lonesome cry
He said I must go home to Dixie
And teach football till I die!

Amazon features more than 400 results for shoppers, including a library's worth of out-of-print Bear Bryant books, a rare DVD of the 1984 decidedly non-cinematic-classic "The Bear," starring Gary Busey (don't bother, it's awful) and countless "Bear Bryant style" houndstooth fedoras. Ah, the houndstooth. That is an industry all of its own. Men, women and children throughout the Yellowhammer State and beyond, dressing in sport coats, miniskirts and onesies fashioned from the black-and-white, eye-bending pattern made famous by the sideline headwear the Bear fancied later in his career. The University of Alabama's online store features nearly 50 houndstooth items. And for those who like to take their Roll Tide fantasies to the next level, yes, there are houndstooth undergarments, though you'll need to go somewhere other than the official school vendor for those.

In many of the houses where that houndstooth hangs in the closet, Bryant's portrait hangs over the mantel, centerpiece of countless homes around Alabama. Many of those were purchased from street vendors who once sold the stately, oak-framed portraits from tents and pickup trucks in the streets of Birmingham, targeting game-day tailgaters around Legion Field. "I only sell portraits of three men!" one such art pusher shouted to passers-by before an Alabama-Tennessee game in 1991. "Jesus, Elvis and Bear Bryant!"

All due respect to the King of Kings, the King of Rock 'n Roll is the more accurate comparison here. Both Presley and Bryant were born in small, hill-and-dale-surrounded Southern towns -- Tupelo, Mississippi, and Moro Bottom, Arkansas, respectively. Both were raised dirt poor and doted on by their mothers. Both rubbed shoulders with Johnny Cash, Presley in the recording studio and Bryant as de facto neighbors in the rural solar system around Fordyce. Both experienced a life-altering moment in a Lyric Theatre -- Young Elvis falling in the love with the idea of becoming a movie star as he sat in Tupelo's Lyric, and teenage Bryant earning the nickname that became his only name when he wrestled a skinny, muzzled bear on the stage of Fordyce's Lyric to impress a girl and earn one dollar per minute (but collected zero dollars when the carnival barker and his bear slipped out of town).

But both Elvis and the Bear went on to be immortalized not in their birthplaces but in their second hometowns, the places where they had their greatest success, Memphis and Tuscaloosa. Both ascended to national stages, boosted there by the unprecedented and since-unsurpassed golden age of network television. But both died earlier than they should have, victims of hard blowing-off-of-steam when they were given the luxury of stepping off that stage.

"Imagine being so big that you can't go anywhere, but somehow, you still manage to be yourself. That's how Elvis was. And that's how Bear was. All the way up until we lost them both," said Rick Stanley, Elvis' stepbrother and a member of the Memphis Mafia who died in January 2019, a few weeks after this interview. He met Bryant in 1977, shortly after Presley's death and right around the time Stanley decided to ditch the rock-star-entourage life and become a Baptist preacher. Stanley saw Bryant again at the coach's final game, the 1982 Liberty Bowl. It was played only 8 miles from the front gate of Graceland, the mansion's stone walls still lined with hundreds of mourners five years after Elvis' passing. "Their dedication to the job took them both from us too early. They both denied themselves what they needed to do to live longer because they were already worried about the next gig or the next game. As big as they were, they were never bigger than the next time they were on stage."

Not too long after Stanley and Bryant's first meeting -- Monday night, Sept. 11, 1978, to be exact -- Bryant's friends and family had persuaded him to put a pause on his preparation for that weekend's game at 11th-ranked Missouri and go to dinner to celebrate his 65th birthday. He looked a hell of a lot older than that, the product of all that sleepless football prep, punctuated by late-night whiskeys, burned-down packs of unfiltered Chesterfields and on-the-go Krystal hamburgers. It was a surprise party, organized by the Birmingham Touchdown Club for months and jammed full of former players, including Joe Namath and even some almost-former players, including Oklahoma Military Academy football star turned Hollywood Western star Dale Robertson.

"I mean, this place was packed with big-deal people. I know because I was one of them!" Namath recalled, laughing. "Actors and coaches and former players and politicians and you name it, right? They rolled a TV out there just in time for the start of Monday Night Football, and as soon as they came on the air, Howard Cosell and Don Meredith spent like the first five minutes of the game, on the biggest show on television, wishing Coach Bryant a happy birthday and talking about how much they loved him. I mean, you know you're the man when all of these other people, who all think they are the man, take time to tell the United States of America that, no, actually, Coach, it's you who is the man."

Namath paused. "And he did what he always did: shrugged his shoulders and, 'Aw shucks' and, 'Y'all are making me into too big of a deal, I'm just a poor kid from Arkansas' and all of that. But then he would look at me and wink. He knew he was the man. He knew he was The Bear."

How could he not? This is the kid who immediately recognized football as a way out of Fordyce. The only way. So, he helped the Fordyce High School Red Bugs win the 1930 Arkansas state championship. That earned him a chance to play at Alabama via an established Arkansas-to-Tuscaloosa talent pipeline, and there he learned the game under head coach Frank Thomas, who had played for Knute Rockne at Notre Dame.

In 1934, Bryant played end on a team that won a national championship. In 1935, he played against General Neyland's Tennessee team with a broken leg. The next week, Georgia fans who had read about his efforts (via a doubting columnist ultimately won over by X-ray evidence) gave the youngster a standing ovation before the game. In 1938, the Crimson Tide played in the Rose Bowl, and while they were in Southern California, Paramount Pictures asked Bryant to do a screen test. His performance earned a contract offer, but he refused because his wife, Mary Harmon, wouldn't move that far west. One of his best friends at Alabama was a kid named Mel Allen, future voice of the Yankees. On Dec. 8, 1941, he enlisted in the Navy to avenge Pearl Harbor and refused to abandon ship when the USS Uruguay was rammed off the coast of North Africa. Then, he coached the North Carolina Navy Flight School football team, the Carolina Cloudbusters. His quarterback was Otto Graham, who went on to become perhaps the greatest signal-caller in NFL history.

Paul Bunyan already had nothing on Paul Bryant. And Paul Bryant was barely 31 years old.

"I would hear people ask Coach Bryant how was he not overwhelmed by the celebrity he experienced, especially in the last decade of his life?" recounted Bill Battle, who played for Bryant in the early 1960s, coached against him at Tennessee in the 1970s and then returned to Alabama, eventually becoming his coach's agent. All of that stuff for sale on eBay today with Bryant's face on it? Chances are that was a deal done by Bill Battle. "But when you knew what he had done in his life, where he had been, what he had seen and everyone he had met, you realized nothing was going to rattle him."

Bryant was once accused of fixing a game with Georgia by the Saturday Evening Post, and sued for $10 million. Bryant settled, but Bulldogs head coach Wally Butts fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the once-unstoppable magazine was mortally wounded. Bryant was on the cover of Time, labeled as "Supercoach," in 1980 when it was the national newsmagazine. He rode the same perfect media storm wave surfed by Elvis, but also everyone from Evel Knievel to Neil Armstrong. His greatest coaching success came in the mid-1960s and then again throughout the 1970s. It was the glory days of the three-letter television networks.

On Sept. 17, 1960, Bryant's Alabama team faced Georgia in the first game of ABC's new, multimillion-dollar college football package. It was one of only a handful of games that would air nationally that fall, and it was the first game in the producer's chair for a 22-year-old kid named Roone Arledge, who would go on to create "ABC's Wide World of Sports," Monday Night Football and modern Olympics coverage. Arledge loved stories and characters, and nothing was a better story or character than the leather-faced Alabama coach whose voice sounded like the recording of a cattle drive and who had earned his nickname wrestling a bear.

"Roone Arledge was in the star-making business, and no one had more star potential than Bear Bryant," Keith Jackson, ABC's longtime voice of college football, said in late 2017, a few months before his death. "Alabama won the national championship the next year, in 1961. And they kept winning 'em all the way through the next two decades. It didn't matter where you lived. You knew who he was and how he sounded. Everyone in the United States felt like they knew Bear Bryant."

At the legendarily, tumultuous, 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, with protestors raging outside, Hubert Humphrey won the party's presidential nomination. But Bear Bryant received 1.5 votes for president. Many still say the only reason lightning-rod Alabama Gov. George Wallace called Bryant nearly every day was to keep him from running for office.

So, it's no wonder that when talk first started about a movie based on Bryant's life, the coach lobbied for John Wayne to play his part. "Any lesser man suggests that and he gets laughed out of the building," said Ozzie Newsome, a 1977 All-American tight end for Bryant. "But when Coach Bryant said that, everyone just nodded and said, 'Yeah, OK, that sounds about right.'"

Newsome was part of the final phase of integration of the Crimson Tide roster. Bryant had wanted to recruit black athletes much earlier, in the 1960s, but chose not to. It was a decision that wounded him in the eyes of black Alabama students, all of whom had just been admitted to the school after it had been forced to do so. He later confessed deep regret over his reluctance. But after Newsome had helped integrate his public school back home in Muscle Shoals, he was part of the group of players who finally pushed Alabama into the future for good.

These days, Newsome is a Baltimore Ravens executive, only recently moved out of the general manager's job. His office in Baltimore is packed with mementos from his Pro Football Hall of Fame playing career and the Super Bowl XXXV and XLVII title teams he assembled. But when visitors stop by, they walk right past the rings and trophies, drawn immediately to Newsome's very own framed portrait of the Bear.

"People walk up to that portrait even if they don't know who it is. They just know that is somebody," Newsome said. "And the people who do know, and that's most everyone, all they want to know is what was Coach Bryant like and what did I learn from him. The answer is that he's the greatest influence in my life. And what I learned from him was everything. When I was in a tough spot, would I close my door and turn to him over there and ask him what to do? Of course. Still do. Always have. Always will."

Newsome is far from alone when it comes to looking at Bryant's likeness for some sort of portal back to the actual man.

At the Waysider Restaurant in Tuscaloosa, a mile and half west of Bryant-Denny Stadium, nearly two months before the start of the 2019 season, an older couple sat at a worn, wooden, corner table alongside the diner's boarded-up fireplace. They held hands, their arms bowed around bowls of grits, and wept. Not even the sight nor scent of the breakfast before them could draw their attention from the tabletop bust in the houndstooth hat, sitting behind the sweeteners and staring straight ahead at the patrons bustling around them. The Bear in Bronze, perpetually posing for the cameras and phones that are constantly pointed his way.

"I just can't believe this is where Bear Bryant used to eat his breakfast," said Marlene Watkins, taking one hand away from being intertwined with that of her husband, Edward, so she could wipe away a tear before it splashed onto her ham steak. "I asked them what the Bear would order whenever he was here and they said this was it. So, that's what we're having, too."

Marlene shoved a chunk of ham into her mouth, smiled and spoke through full cheeks. "I jusft can't buhliefe it."

Across the Black Warrior River in Northport, Bear Bryant fans still sidled up to the lunch counter at City Café, because they heard he used to eat there, too. Until he retired three years ago, Tuscaloosa barber Joe Christian would regularly have men plop down in his chair and say they wanted a shave from the man who used to do the same for Coach Bryant. At the stadium, fans pose for selfies with the larger-than-life statue out front. They do it so much that a security guard on duty for last fall's huge home game with Texas A&M (Bryant is considered by many to be the best coach the Aggies ever had, too, as well as Kentucky, those being his last two stops before returning to Tuscaloosa to take over at his alma mater) remarked, "They have all these statues of all these other coaches, too. Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Gene Stallings, Nick Saban. But I think they all look kind of jealous watching all these people pose with Bear instead of them."

And if they'd rather have a pic with a human Bear, they can always ask Alton or Dixon White to pose with them. At seemingly every Alabama football-related event, the brothers from Birmingham and Springvale, Alabama, can be seen pacing the grounds in their crimson sport coats and houndstooth fedoras, rolled-up programs in their hands. "I went to Branson about 10 years ago and had on my houndstooth hat and a guy said, 'You look just like Bear Bryant!'" said Alton, an 84-year old Alabama alum. "He was right. I did. And my little brother did, too. So now that's what we do."

That's right. The Bear is so much like Elvis, he even has impersonators.

"We don't look like Nick Saban," joked Dixon, who is 81. "So, we can't dress up like him."

In fact, no one dresses up to look like the current Alabama coach. No one weeps when they eat an oatmeal cream pie because that's what Saban has for breakfast. And they don't name their children after him, either. According to the Social Security database, since 1959 there have been 1,403 Bryants born in the state of Alabama, as in named for the coach. Today, there are at least 700 living people who carry his namesake. Bryants, Pauls, Paulas and even a few Bears. Those are only the ones that we know of, kept on the roster of the official Paul Bear Bryant Namesake Registry. Yes, that's a real thing. They even hold a reunion each year. It took place last weekend at the Paul W. "Bear" Bryant Museum on campus, the morning before the Tide's first home game of 2019.

But why Bear and only Bear? When Saban is finished, his résumé will be better than Bryant's. Why don't people dress up like Knute Rockne in South Bend? Why don't folks seek out the barber of Woody Hayes in Columbus, Ohio? Or the breakfast cook who served Bud Wilkinson in Norman, Oklahoma?

"I think, that for whatever reason, a reason bigger than I can explain, people feel a connection with my grandfather because he gave that connection back," Mary Harmon Hilburn said of the man she knew as "Papa." She was at the namesake reunion last weekend, named for her grandmother, aka the First Lady of Alabama.

Hilburn grew up in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa but rarely felt the crush of her last name because Papa worked hard to shield her from it. She was trampled once in a stampede of fans during a game weekend, and he made sure it never happened again. When he took little Mary Harmon to dinner, they went to the Shoney's Big Boy because it had a drive-in area where the wait staff would bring their food out to their car.

"I think they also equate Papa with a better time," she said of the fans. "We all think the time we grew up in was the best, the good old days, right? When people think of Papa, they think of the good old days. Even if today is pretty good."

Those who study such theories don't disagree. Dr. Mathieu Deflem is a professor in the department of sociology at the University of South Carolina. "The remembrance of famous people fulfills a function today. So, it is not just about history, it is not just in the past. But it is in the present that certain aspects of the past are remembered," says the author of 2017's "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame," a book that delves into rises of stardom, especially during this overcooked era of celebrity. He references the surge (and, since, the wane) in interest in Vince Lombardi that was ushered in (and since out) by Brett Favre's Green Bay Packers glory years. "In the case of Alabama, the success of today's team is amplified by remembering that the program was also successful in earlier times. It makes Bama even more of a powerhouse today to have such a glorious history."

As for Saban? "He is surely duly rewarded for his success today," Deflem said. "But a legend he cannot be until he retires or dies. It's easier to celebrate what is no more."

That's exactly what Hilburn finds when she visits her grandfather's gravesite in the center of Birmingham's Elmwood Cemetery. It's a surprisingly simple headstone. There's no "He could take your'n and beat his'n" quotes or mention of his 323 wins and six national titles. It's just his name, his birthday and the date he left this mortal coil.

But that marker is never without accompaniment.

On Jan. 28, 1983, Bear Bryant's funeral procession left the First United Methodist Church of Tuscaloosa, passed by the football stadium and turned onto Interstate 59. The hearse traveled 58 miles and did so in front of an estimated 250,000 people. One out of every 12 Alabama citizens came out to watch the Bear go by. In Memphis, still helping to sort out his late stepbrother's estate, the Rev. Rick Stanley couldn't believe what he was seeing on his television. "Not a day a goes by in my life when I don't wonder, 'What would Elvis have thought of this?'"

Stanley said of his stepbrother: "We thought his procession was a big deal. I'd never seen anything like this outside of President Kennedy."

Today, Bear Bryant's final resting place receives 40-50 visitors per week, a little more than that during football season. They leave flowers and coins and houndstooth hats. They leave lots of Coca-Cola bottles and bags of Golden Flake potato chips, a nod to the product placement on his insanely popular local weekly TV show, breaking down every game, win or loss.

And they leave letters. So many letters.

"My brother and I go up there and clean the place up about once a week," Hilburn said. "Sometimes I will stand off to the side where no one can see me and watch the people. They are white and black, young and old. I can't believe how young some of them are. I think to myself, 'I know you never knew my Papa, so how you can be this emotional about coming to see his gravesite?'"

She always waits until the visitors are long gone to collect what they've left behind. And she always reads the letters.

"They all say the same thing. That they miss him. I miss him, too. Every single day. I wish we'd had him around much longer than we did. But I'm so glad we had him as long as we did. I loved him so much. I am so thankful that so many people loved him, too. And I am really thankful that so many people still do."