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Latest Hot Button Top 10 (updated): Fins fall in London, Canes lose heartbreaker, Heat Opening Week, hot Cats. See who's No. 1 and what else ranks where this week; plus column off Fins, UM losses, new Greg Cote Show podcast out now & more

GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG: MIAMI. SPORTS. AND BEYOND

1) It's MONDAY, OCTOBER 18. Was back in with Le Batard Show this past week. Check out Tuesday's show podcasts. 2) Join me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Follow the Greg Cote Show podcast separately on TwitterInstagram and now TikTok, too! 3) In The Previous Blogpost (ITPB): Florida Panthers win season opener, NFL Week 6 picks, Week 5 results for Picks/Lobos/QB rankings, Greg Cote Show podcast & more.

Coteshow GcsshowGREG COTE SHOW PODCAST: NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!: Our 40th episode of 2021 and 82nd overall is out Monday! New pod drops every Monday at 7 ET on Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, Stitcher, Megaphone, iHeart -- wherever you pod, and of course at MiamiHerald.com. You can find all 82 we've done HERE, free. In our newest episode: Front row at a Monkees concert, Panthers talk with Roy Bellamy, golf with Chris and Uncle Dick, Old Heidelberg, sad Dolphins and Canes, corn mazes and hayrides, Hard Knocks/Greg's Lobos (heads rolling), on a boat with Izzy Gutierrez and Jessica Smetana and more. Our most action-packed episode yet! Thanks as always for the support, pod family. Please listen, rate, review and follow. (Our pod simulcasts on Sirius XM every Monday 5-6 p.m. ET).

Heartbreaker, the sequel: Fins lose in London. My column: Are Dolphins the worst team in the NFL? YOu could  make the argument after Sunday's 23-20 loss to winless Jacksonville in London: Tua Looks Good In Return, But Dolphins Lose 5th Straight.

Heartbreaker: Canes lose at North Carolina. My column: Could UM pull off a road upset with a backup QB? Almost. Came down to final six seconds before Miami fell, 45-42, as the heat on Manny Diaz grows: Canes, Trying to Save A Season And Maybe A Coach's Job, Fall Short in Chapel Hill.

Florida Panthers win crazy season opener: 'Its' Time to Hunt': Florida Panthers' Hyped Season Off to Wild, Winning Start.

Other most recent columns: Loss In Tampa Has Dolphins Season In Free Fall As Embarrassments Pile Up / Why It's Too Soon, And Dumb, To Quit On Tua As Dolphins Answer / Year Of Reckoning, And Impatience, For Slow-Starting Dolphins & Canes / With Ghosts Of Glory Days Watching, Dolphins Showed Inept Effort in Third Straight Loss / Dolphins Fans, Ex-Players Gather For Emotional Farewell to Don Shula, Father of the Glory Days / Unlucky, But Heat on Manny Diaz Rises With Home Loss In ACC Opener / If Sports Had A Spine, Kyrie Irving & Other Anti-Vaxxers Wouldn't Be Playing / Kyle Lowry Must Channel 'Doctor Of Greatness' If Heat Is To Chase NBA Title / Fairy Tale With Wrong Ending: Remembering Jose Fernandez 5 Years Later / Tua's Rib Injury In Keeping With Weird, Rocky Start to Dolphins Career / Hope And Hype Are Sky-High. Time For Florida Panthers To Finally Deliver.

HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (OCTOBER 17-18): WHAT SOUTH FLORIDA SPORTS FANS ARE TALKING ABOUT: Our blog-exclusive Sunday-into-Monday feature is part week-in-review, part look-ahead. Hot Button means what's on our minds, locally and nationally, from a Miami perspective, as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. This week's HB10:

HButton1. HEAT: It's Opening Week for new-look, Lowry-infused team!: Miami's encouraging 5-1 preseason ended Friday with another big offensive show from Tyler Herro. Let the real games begin! Jimmy Butlerr, Bam Adebayo and noted addition Kyle Lowry get it started with the season and home openr Thursday night vs. defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks.

2. DOLPHINS: Tua plays well in return, but Fins fall to Jags in London: The free fall (1-5 after five straight losses) continued Sunday in a 23-20 loss to previously winless Jacksonville in north London. Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa returned after three games out injured and played well but for one awful interception, throwing for 329 yards and two TDs.

3. HURRICANES: King done, Diaz in trouble as UM falls at UNC: The job security under coach Manny Diaz trembles and quakes that much more after Saturday's 45-42 road loss to North Carolina dropped Canes to 2-4 and 0-2 in the ACC. Freshman Tyler Van Dyke made his first start at quarterback with D'Eriq King lost for the season after shoulder surgery, and threw three interceptions incluing a batted-ball pick in the closing seconds that cost Miami a shot at a short tying field goal.

4. PANTHERS: High-hope Cats jump out to 2-0 start: Cats won a wild season and home opener, 5-4 in OT over Pittsburgh Thursday, on two goals by Aaron Ekblad and a pair including the game winner from Carter Verhaeghe, then scored a 5-1 home win Saturday over the N.Y. Islanders on Sam Bennett's hat trick. Florida is back at it Tuesday at rival in Tampa.

5. MLB: Braves lead Dodgers, ALCS tied: Red Sox and Astros are tied 1-1 in the home run-fueled AL Championship Series, with Game 3 Monday in Boston. Braves are up 2-0 over favored Dodgers in the NLCS, with Game 3 Tuesday in L.A. 

6. NFL: Email scandal sacks Raiders coach Jon Gruden: Star coach Jon Gruden resigned abruptly and in shame from the Las Vegas Raiders when it was reveaed he had sent internal emails that were racist, misogynistic and homophobic. And the fallout may be just beginning.

7. STATE COLLEGES (NON-UM): Gators lose again: No. 20 Florida Gators faced a challenge Saturday as 11-point favorites at LSU and lost 49-42, while unranked UCF (a decent 3-2) was on the road trying and failing badly to derail upstart and unbeaten No. 3 Cincinnati, 56-21. Elsewhere on the FBS state schedule, non-UM division: South Florida fell to Tulsa, 32-31. FSU, FIU and FAU all were off.

8. INTER MIAMI: Miserable Herons drops sixth straight match: Fading Miami is 9-5-15 after a sixth straight loss, Saturday's 4-0 defeat at Columbus. David Beckham's disappointing team is now nine points off MLS playoff pace with five matches left starting Wednesday vs. Toronto.

9. MARLINS: Team's Fall Development Camp wraps up this week: The Marlins' three-week Fall Development Camp, for prospects mostly at the rookie league and Single A level, ends this coming Friday. The camp has included 27 players (non-pitchers), 11 of them teenagers. Notables include No. 1 prospect Khalil Watson, Victor Mesa and Griffin Conine (Jeff's kid).  

10. WNBA: Chicago Sky wins first title: Chicago Sky on Sunday completed a 3-1 series win over the Phoenix Mercury in the 25th WNBA Finals. Mercury had won three league championships, the last in 2014. Sky won their first.

Missing the HB10 cut: Seven Top 25 teams lost this week, including No. 2 Iowa. The new CFP top four figures to be Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma and Alabama ..... Dwyane Wade's eldest son, Zaire, 19, is signing a G League contract and expected to join Utah's developmental affiliate in Salt Lake City. Dad purchased an ownership stake in the Jazz earlier this year ..... The Washington Football Team will retire the No. 21 jersey of slain former Hurricane Sean Taylor on Sunday, only the third such honor the franchise has given, after Sammy Baugh and Bobby Mitchell ..... U.S. men's soccer earned a needed 2-1 win over Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying, which continues through March. Next: Big one vs. rival Mexico on November 12 ..... UEFA Champions League play resumes Tuesday with eight matches ..... Portland Thorns and OL Reign lead the push as scandal-beleaguered NWSL nears its playoffs ..... Four races left in NASCAR playoffs starting Sunday at Texas. Can anyone stop this season's seven-time race winner Kyle Larson? ..... Meantime NASCAR team owner Tony Stewart is getting into NHRA drag racing in 2022 with fulltime entries in both Top Fuel and Funny Car ..... The Greg Cote Show podcast is back with a new episode Monday at 7 a.m. ET ..... Update: Countdown now 1,716 days (give or take) until Miami hosts its first match in soccer's 2026 World Cup.

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ARCHIVES

Select other recent columns: Miami Herald's 2021 NFL Team Rankings: You Won't Believe Where Dolphins are / Why Dolphins, Canes Should Be Taking Lead In Requiring Fans To Be COVID-Vaccinated / An Appreciation of Udonis Haslem As He Re-Ups For 19th Heat Season / Unraveled: The Story Behind Who Aubrey Huff Became / College Football and FSU Lose a Treasure In Passing Of Bobby Bowden / Biggest Victory Of Hall Of Famer Jimmy Johnson's Life Was Getting His Son Back / Biles' Withdrawal For Mental-Health Reasons Merits Empathy, Not Scorn / Where Dolphins Rank Among Teams With Longest Championship Droughts / Dolphins Owner Ross Unveils New $135 Million Training Site As Another Reason Team Must Win Now / Hot Seat Scale: Ranking Miami's Biggest Coaches By Most to Least Job Security / May Sha'Carri Richardson Be Last Victim Of Olympics' Archaic Marijuana Rules / 'I'm D'Eriq King For College Hunks Hauling Junk!' It's Strange New World in College Sports / Nassib Coming Out As Gay NFL Player A Milestone In Sports History / Fate Snatched Basketball From Chris Bosh. His new Book Is Part of His Journey Of Healing / Where's Tua? Ranking Our Top 15 South Florida Pro Athletes 25 And Younger / Pythons, Peppers, Pirate Flag Raised. Inside Le Batard's 24-Hour Triumph / Le Batard Bet On Himself And His Audience -- And Won Big / Justice For George Floyd Helps Heal Our Shaken Faith, But Fight For Equality Goes On / What Would Jackie Robinson Think About Race In America Today? / In History And In Hearts, Howard Schnellenberger Will Matter For All Time / Women Keep Accusing Deshaun Watson of Sexual Misconduct. But Will It Matter to NFL Teams? / Reality, Loss, Comeback: How Sports Has Been Guiding Light In America's Awful Past Year / Beckham's Resolve Tested By Tumult As Inter Miami Nears 2nd MLS Season / Time-Travelling To 1960s And Childhood, When The Baseball Card Was King / Doesn't Matter If Tiger Woods Never Wins Again. We Are Lucky He's Alive / Final Herald NFL 2020 QB Rankings / Marlins Hit History-Making Home Run With Kim NG Hire As GM / In a Pandemic-Battered Season For FIU, Butch Davis' Love Of Coaching Survives / Don Shula, 1930-2020, R.I.P. / What Shula Meant to a Father & Son. The Boy Was Me.

Revisit this blog often because it updates regularly. The Associated Press Sports Editors writing awards ranked the blog's author a Top 10 national sports columnist in the major-outlet category. Greg is also a regular on the Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz.

Finding Greg: TwitterInstagramFacebookColumnsPodcastPodcast on TwitterPodcast on InstagramLeBatard Show. Book: Fins At 50. Songs: Letting Go (audio only) and The Ballad Of 1440 (with video).

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