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Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh has dropped a bold statement on new Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll.

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Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll will be coaching against each other twice a year again, as Carroll is now the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders and will be facing Harbaugh's Los Angeles Chargers and the rest of the AFC West.

Of course, Harbaugh is very familiar with Carroll from their NFC West days, when Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers engaged in some intense battles with Carroll's Seattle Seahawks.

So, what are Harbaugh's thoughts on Carroll joining his division for a second time?

Harbaugh is excited for the opportunity to contend with him again.

"It's a respect. A lot of respect for him, the competitor he is, the teams that he produces," Harbaugh said, via Eric Smith of the Chargers' website. "We just talked the other day. I like to feel like he's got the same kind of competitive respect as I have for him."

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Carroll certainly has his work cut out for him with the Raiders, but Harbaugh seems to believe that he can turn Las Vegas around.

"We've had some battles and we're about to have them again," Harbaugh added.

Los Angeles was obviously the far superior football team in 2024, as the Chargers won 11 games and made the playoffs while the Raiders finished 4-13.

However, Las Vegas has a ton of cap room heading into the offseason, so the Raiders may boast a much-improved roster in 2025.

Plus, Carroll has proven to be a fantastic coach, so he should, at the very least, make Las Vegas a tougher opponent for the Bolts.

— Enjoy free coverage of the Chargers from Los Angeles Chargers on SI —

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/chargers/ as Chargers' Jim Harbaugh delivers bold message on Pete Carroll.

The temptation is to believe that the signing of one player will solve a franchise’s problems. But Willy Adames isn’t going to solve every issue the San Francisco Giants had offensively last season.

There is no doubt he’ll help in the power department. That’s part of the reason the Giants signed the shortstop to the largest contract in team history.

But his ability to hit home runs won’t paper over every issue, especially as he moves from an offensive-minded park in Milwaukee to a pitcher-friendly park like Oracle in the Bay Area.

During an appearance on Foul Territory, former Giants fan favorite and current KNBR personality F.P. Santangelo was asked if the transition for Adames would be harder than some Giants fans expect.

He admitted that Adames’ numbers might be watered down a bit, but he also said that the Giants, traditionally, haven’t won World Series titles with power.

“I know it’s not 2010 and this is making me sound old, but this team never won a World Series by hitting home runs,” Santangelo said. “They won a World Series by having a great starting rotation, having a great bullpen, getting to the baseball on defense and timely hitting.”

Adames was one of the highest-ranked free agents on the market after he posted a career slash line of .248/.322/.444/.766 in seven MLB seasons with Tampa Bay and Milwaukee. Acquired by the Brewers in 2021, he hit 107 home runs with the Brewers, including 32 last season, along with 113 RBI. Both were career highs.

The Giants signed him to a seven-year, $182 million contract.

But, Oracle Park is a notorious pitcher’s park. Santangelo, who played games at both Candlestick Park as an opposing player and at Oracle Park as a Giant in 1999, knows the park has a reputation. That’s why he doesn’t believe the Giants can be totally reliant on Adames — especially if they hope to catch the Los Angeles Dodgers in the near future.

“So, I know there’s a big beast down south that signed everybody in baseball and is the defending World Series champions, and that’s a lofty task for anybody,” he said. “But when you talk about the success the Giants have had in the past, it’s about everything.”

Santangelo played seven MLB seasons, starting with the Montreal Expos in 1995 and wrapping up his career with the Athletics in 2001. He was a lifetime .245 hitter.

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The Saint Mary’s Gaels (20-3, 10-0 WCC) will attempt to extend a 10-game win streak when they visit the San Francisco Dons (18-6, 8-3 WCC) on Thursday, February 6, 2025 at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center as 4.5-point favorites. The game airs at 9:00 PM ET on ESPN2. The matchup has a point total of 132.

Saint Mary’s (CA) vs. San Francisco Promo Codes

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Who Will Win Saint Mary’s (CA) vs. San Francisco?

In games this season it was favored by 4.5 points or more, Saint Mary’s (CA) has an 8-9 record against the spread.

San Francisco has not yet covered the spread as an underdog of 4.5 points or more this season (0-1).

The two teams average a combined 19.6 more points per game (151.6) than this matchup’s over/under of 132 points.

Saint Mary’s (CA) and San Francisco have seen their opponents average a combined 4.2 fewer points per game than the point total of 132 set in this game.

The average point total for Saint Mary’s (CA)’s games this season is 4.4 more points than the over/under of 132 in this matchup.

The average point total for the Dons this year is 11.1 points higher than this game’s over/under.

So far this season, the Gaels have put together an 11-11-0 record against the spread.

The Dons have gone 10-11-1 ATS this season.

Saint Mary’s (CA) has a +340 scoring differential, topping opponents by 14.8 points per game. It is putting up 75.6 points per game to rank 144th in college basketball and is giving up 60.8 per contest to rank seventh in college basketball.

The 37.5 rebounds per game Saint Mary’s (CA) averages rank ninth in college basketball, and are 10.9 more than the 26.6 its opponents pull down per contest.

The Gaels knock down 7 three-pointers per game (258th in college basketball), 1.3 more than their opponents (5.7). They are shooting 34.1% from deep (163rd in college basketball) while allowing opponents to shoot 31.4%.

Saint Mary’s (CA) ranks 73rd in college basketball with 100.6 points scored per 100 possessions, and seventh in college basketball defensively with 80.9 points conceded per 100 possessions.

The Gaels are scoring 75.8 points per game when playing at home. Away from home, they are playing better on offense, averaging 79.5 points per contest.

San Francisco outscores opponents by nine points per game (posting 76 points per game, 131st in college basketball, and conceding 67 per contest, 55th in college basketball) and has a +216 scoring differential.

San Francisco averages 32.4 rebounds per game (176th in college basketball) while allowing 29.5 per contest to opponents. It outrebounds opponents by 2.9 boards per game.

San Francisco knocks down 9.1 three-pointers per game (62nd in college basketball), 3.3 more than its opponents. It shoots 34.6% from beyond the arc (135th in college basketball), and its opponents are shooting 29.4%.

San Francisco averages 99.1 points per 100 possessions on offense (103rd in college basketball), and allows 87.4 points per 100 possessions (55th in college basketball).

At home the Dons are putting up 80.4 points per game, 10.4 more than they are averaging on the road (70).

The leader in points and assists for the Gaels is Augustas Marciulionis, who scores 13.3 points and dishes out 5.8 assists per game.

Paulius Murauskas leads Saint Mary’s (CA) in rebounding, grabbing 8.9 rebounds per game while also scoring 13.1 points a contest.

Mikey Lewis makes more threes per game than any other member of the Gaels, knocking down shots from beyond the arc at a clip of 1.6 per contest.

Mitchell Saxen is a standout on the defensive end for Saint Mary’s (CA), leading the team in steals with 1.5 per game and blocks with 1.4 per contest.

Malik Thomas is the top scorer for the Dons with 19.7 points per game. Thomas also adds 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

Tyrone Riley IV puts up a stat line of 5.3 rebounds, 9.9 points and 1.1 assists per game for San Francisco to take the top rebound spot on the team. Marcus Williams has the top spot for assists with 4.4 per game, adding 14.1 points and 3.5 rebounds per outing.

Williams makes 2.2 three-pointers per game, the most on the Dons.

San Francisco’s leader in steals is Thomas with 1.9 per game, and its leader in blocks is Carlton Linguard with one per game.

Saint Mary’s (CA) vs. San Francisco Prediction

How to Bet on Saint Mary’s (CA) vs. San Francisco

And for more CBB game previews, NCAA basketball picks or even how to bet on college basketball check out the latest NCAAB lines on Betsperts.

After President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of the delta smelt — a fish he has tied to the lack of water for fighting the Los Angeles fires — his administration is planning to cut funding for a captive breeding program intended to ensure survival of the endangered fish.

UC Davis scientists who run the little-known Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory in Contra Costa County were told last month that their financing from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, to maintain a refuge population of smelt for research and reintroduction, will not be renewed, university officials told the Chronicle. The funding expires Feb. 28. The bureau did not provide a reason, the UC Davis officials said.

University officials say they have enough money from other funding sources to continue the smelt conservation program in some form, probably through the end of the year. But they would need additional dollars to carry on longer. They’ve already notified 11 of the lab’s 17 employees that they’ll probably be let go when the federal money lapses, indicating a significant cutback in operations.

Managers of the lab are still figuring out their future and that of the smelt.

“The UC Davis Fish Culture and Conservation Laboratory’s work is vital for the long-term health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the endangered aquatic life currently at the site, including the delta smelt,” university spokesperson Bill Kisliuk said in an email to the Chronicle. “We are disappointed that the current Bureau of Reclamation grant has not been renewed for this facility.”

The Bureau of Reclamation, which provides about three-quarters of the lab’s budget, did not immediately respond to inquiries from the Chronicle about the discontinuation of funding. The agency has been providing the hatchery program about $3 million annually through a five-year grant.

Delta smelt, which live in tiny numbers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay, have become a political football in the high-stakes debate over how much water to pump from California’s rivers to cities and farms.

Environmental and fishing groups have long fought for protection of the 3-inch smelt, seeing it as foundational to the natural landscape and a bellwether of the health of the ecologically and commercially important bay-delta estuary. Many urban and agricultural water users, meanwhile, have criticized the fish and its protections for limiting the pumping of delta water, which serves nearly 30 million Californians.

Under Endangered Species Act rules, delta pumping must be curtailed when conditions there don’t support the smelt.

Since 2016, when Trump first ran for president, he has taken aim at the smelt for constricting water supplies. He’s long been supportive of sending more water to farms in the agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley. Last month, however, he took his criticism of the fish to a new level.

In posts to social media and a memorandum and executive order, Trump implied that protections for the fish kept adequate water from flowing to Southern California, including where the deadly blazes broke out in Los Angeles County.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wanted “to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after the fires broke out. “Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA!”

A memorandum signed Jan. 20 by the president, titled “Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California,” calls for a review of fish protections in an effort to boost delta pumping, saying that the “deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply.”

Water and wildfire experts say water supply issues in Los Angeles during the fires are unrelated to the smelt. While some firefighters struggled to get water from fire hydrants during the recent blazes, the issue was largely water pressure problems caused by the huge instantaneous demand rather than a lack of water exports from the delta 300 miles away.

The Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory was established in 1996 to save the delta smelt. Once the most populous fish in the delta’s brackish waters, smelt numbers have plummeted to the point that scientists struggle to find them. Their decline is due to a number of factors, including loss of habitat, worsening water conditions and too much pumping.

The lab in the small delta community of Byron has since become home to the only viable captive population of smelt for rearing new fish, reintroducing them and safeguarding the species from extinction.

“There are so few delta smelt in the wild that you are basically keeping them going with this operation,” said Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center.

Should the delta smelt vanish, myriad questions would emerge about the future of the delta and how it’s managed. Ostensibly, protections for the fish would eventually be lifted and pumping in the delta would face less regulation. The federal government, through the Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project, as well as the state, through the State Water Project, run the pumps to export delta water.

“There may be a calculation here that is never spoken about publicly: Letting delta smelt go extinct would increase the flexibility of Central Valley Project operations,” Mount said.

The rollback of regulations protecting smelt would also mean less protection for other endangered fish, including salmon and sturgeon, which benefit from safeguards enjoyed by smelt, such as the curtailments of pumping.

More immediately, though, if the hatchery program can’t be sustained, the loss of the facility is likely to draw criticism and even legal action from the environmental community.

Permits that allow the federal and state projects to pump water from the delta are based on biological opinions that factor in the existence of the conservation program. If the program shuts down or significantly downsizes, the pumping could be seen as inconsistent with the terms of the permits, opening it to possible challenges.

“The operation of this hatchery is linked to water-supply reliability in the state of California,” said Ted Sommer, a retired lead scientist for the California Department of Water Resources, who has worked as a liaison between regulatory agencies and the water projects. “This program has been widely supported. I imagine the state and the feds will try to put their heads together with the university and figure out how to keep things going. … But I just don’t know.”

Reach Kurtis Alexander: [email protected]; Twitter: @kurtisalexander; Bluesky: @kurtisalexander.bsky.social

Feb 4, 2025|Updated Feb 6, 2025 12:29 p.m.

Reporter

Kurtis Alexander is an enterprise reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, with a focus on natural resources and the environment. He frequently writes about water, wildfire, climate and the American West. His recent work has examined the impacts of drought, threats to public lands and wildlife, and the nation’s widening rural-urban divide.

Before joining the Chronicle, Alexander worked as a freelance writer and as a staff reporter for several media organizations, including The Fresno Bee and Bay Area News Group, writing about government, politics and the environment.

With pitchers and catchers set to report soon for the San Francisco Giants, the anticipated 2025 campaign is nearly here.

Coming into the offseason, the number one goal for the Giants was to improve an offense that has been struggling for years. Partially due to the ballpark that they play 81 games in, scoring runs sometimes can be a challenge for San Francisco.

The franchise hasn’t had a 30-home run hitter since 2004 when Barry Bonds was able to reach that mark.

With a lack of power in the lineup, adding some help to improve that in free agency was the top priority for Buster Posey. The Giants have missed on a lot of big-name free agents in recent years, but they were able to finally land a big fish this winter.

Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report recently spoke about what the shortstop position would look like for San Francisco in the next five years. Luckily, with the signing of Willy Adames, things are looking great for the Giants.

“The Giants finally sealed the deal with a top-tier free agent after years of coming up short, signing Adames to a seven-year, $182 million contract to team with Matt Chapman to form one of the best-left sides of the infield in baseball. It remains to be seen how his power-centric offensive game will play at Oracle Park, but he is coming off four straight 3-WAR seasons.”

In 2024 with the Milwaukee Brewers, the talented shortstop had one of the best years of his career. He slashed .251/.331/.462 with 32 home runs and 112 RBIs.

The home run numbers from the shortstop position were one of the reasons why Adames was highly sought after this winter. From the Giants' perspective, he was able to total over that magical 30 number.

However, San Francisco should take that with a grain of salt. Adames will be playing his home games in a much harder stadium to hit home runs in now, which will likely result in that number being lower.

Even if there is a drop in home runs, Oracle Park could result in more doubles and a higher batting average overall for Adames. As long as the production doesn’t fall off a cliff for the talented shortstop at the plate, he should be able to provide value for years to come.

With Adames and Matt Chapman on the left side of the infield, the Giants have to be excited about what the future will hold. The franchise shouldn’t have to worry about either of them for quite some time and the duo should be pushing to be one of the best left sides of an infield in baseball.

Even though there are other areas that San Francisco could use help improving, shortstop should be set for years to come.