Sports Takes with Nate Skates

A tense stare-down turns into a full-on MLB brawl, and the most unforgettable part is who shuts it down: Braves manager Walt Weiss, 62 years old, stepping in like a linebacker to stop Jorge Soler and keep the situation from getting uglier. I break down what led to Reynaldo Lopez vs Soler, why the aftermath matters, and what the suspensions actually mean going forward. Then I zoom out to the Atlant...

Missing a tackle. Dropping a pass. Standing at the line knowing every eye feels locked on you. For some athletes, that pressure is not motivation, it is panic and it can hijack performance, health, and the ability to enjoy the sport at all. We sit down with Michael Schiferl, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist and the owner of Trailhead Counseling Services, to talk about sports anxie...

Opening Day is supposed to feel simple: everybody plays, everybody watches, and hope resets to zero. But the sport has drifted into a three-day “Opening Day” stretch, and that’s before we even get to the real problem, figuring out how to watch your own team without juggling MLB.TV, blackouts, and a pile of exclusive streaming apps. I get into why that shift matters for fans, why it kills the share...

Georgia didn’t just lose to St. Louis, Georgia disappeared. I sat with that game for a few days because a raw reaction wasn't going to be pretty, and the more I looked back, the more it felt like one of the most disappointing “effort” performances I’ve ever seen from a Georgia team. We break down what went wrong in plain terms: bad threes, no adjustment, slow transition defense, and a paint a...

Georgia is in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, but the path is anything but comfortable. We break down how the Georgia Bulldogs end up as an eight seed after an ugly SEC Tournament performance, why the first half against Ole Miss can’t happen again, and what the numbers actually say about Thursday night. The opponent is the St. Louis Billikens, a team most SEC fans don’t watch muc...

Two words can flip a stadium from noise to silence: full count. That edge—where pride, pressure, and possibility meet—runs through this episode as we dive into the World Baseball Classic, Georgia’s statement win over Alabama, and the early fireworks from Georgia baseball. We start with the WBC and why it captures something spring training can’t. From Ohtani striking out Trout to clinch 2023 to ros...

A 67–67 tie, foul trouble mounting, and a season hanging in the balance—then Georgia found the playmakers it needed. We dig into how the Bulldogs flipped a month-long slump into back-to-back statement wins over Kentucky and Texas by embracing a 40-minute defensive identity, cleaning up shot selection, and finally winning on the glass. From Jeremiah Wilkinson’s instant-offense spark to Marcus “Smur...

Defense can flip a season in a single night. We break down how Georgia walked into Rupp Arena and beat Kentucky by choosing pressure over passivity, matching muscle on the glass, and turning live-ball turnovers into runway points. No fluff, just the mechanics of a win: contests that rattled rhythm, 10 steals that bent the pace, and 20 assists that proved this offense works best when stops come fir...

Want the truth about why college baseball lags behind MLB, college football, and college basketball? We pull back the curtain on the real blockers—slow pace, bloated reviews, and scarce TV windows—and lay out a practical blueprint that preserves the game’s joy while fixing what turns casual fans away. From pitch clock enforcement to tighter replay standards and smarter distribution, we highlight t...

We say goodbye to the 2025 college football season by owning my worst preseason calls, spotlighting how the transfer portal decided contenders, and drawing a hard line on eligibility chaos spilling into college hoops. Then we jump to SEC basketball swings and close with MLB’s Hall of Fame and spending gaps. • Admitting Oklahoma, Clemson, LSU prediction misses • Why early rankings mislead and how t...

A program once defined by losses just went 16-0. We open on Indiana’s improbable national title and pull apart the turning points that made it real: a stubborn run game that controlled the clock, a blocked punt that swung seven points, third- and fourth-down heroics, and Miami’s baffling choice to drift from Mark Fletcher. It’s a story loaded with emotion and edge too—Fernando Mendoza, the Miami k...

We size up a first-ever title game in a true home stadium and weigh Miami’s pass rush against Indiana’s precision, discipline, and road-warrior crowd. Then we pivot to MLB as the Dodgers build a cheat-code roster and argue for a real salary cap before checking the chaos in SEC hoops. • Indiana’s rise under Curt Cignetti • Miami's Home Field Advantage or Mendoza's? • Ohio State as the sha...

Two games. Two very different lessons about what wins when the margins are thin. Indiana didn’t just beat Oregon; they dictated terms with a veteran roster, a ruthless defensive front, and Fernando Mendoza dropping dimes to receivers who refused to lose at the catch point. When every contested ball turns into a completion and every bounce finds the right helmet, you’re seeing a team built for Janu...

We break down a coin-flip Fiesta Bowl between Miami’s ferocious pass rush and Trinidad Chambliss’s escape artistry, then unpack why Indiana’s defense can again squeeze Oregon in a tricky rematch. We close with SEC hoops swings: Georgia’s rebounding pain, Kentucky’s late-game stalls, and Vanderbilt proving it’s for real. • Miami pressure vs Chambliss’s scramble and deep ball • Ole Miss front seven...

A wild SEC opening weekend delivered everything we love about college hoops: statement wins, late-game heartbreak, and stars rising under pressure. We kick off with Georgia’s surge to No. 18 and a heart-in-throat overtime win over Auburn, powered by Jeremiah Wilkinson’s fearless shot-making and Somto Cyril's shot-blocking clinic. It wasn’t perfect—Auburn pummeled Georgia on the glass and forc...

Nate says "Go with your gut!" and discusses the top four seeds going 1-7 in the second round of playoffs. Then Nate breaks down the Georgia-Ole Miss game, what was good and bad for the Dawgs? Then Nate talks about the other second round games and at the end of the show talks some Georgia and Kentucky basketball.

In this episode Nate talks about whether the bye hurts or helps college football teams and discusses all the matchups in the second week of the College Football Playoff. Nate gives his picks, what are yours?

Put the College Football Playoff games on college campuses! That's how Nate opens the show before discussing why Miami and Alabama won their first round games. All that and and more on this Christmas episode of Sports Takes with Nate Skates!

Nate looks at the opening round matchups between Alabama vs. Oklahoma, Miami vs. Texas A&M, Tulane vs. Ole Miss, and James Madison vs. Oregon. Nate gives his picks and discusses who really has a chance to win the playoff.

Nate discusses the biggest moves in MLB free agency including the Braves' signing of Robert Suarez. Nate also answers the question does MLB need a salary floor or a salary cap going forward? Later in the show Nate answers is something wrong with the Kentucky Wildcats? And we discuss the hot start for the Georgia Dunkyard Dawgs. At the end of the show, Nate talks Heisman trophy and invites lis...

Nate's take is that while the College Football Playoff Committee got it right on Miami, it got it wrong on Ohio State over Georgia and Alabama over Notre Dame. Nate also compares Notre Dame's decision to opt out of their bowl game to Florida State's mass opt outs in 2023. Will it hurt the Irish the same way?

In part one of a two part episode, Nate talks about Georgia's big win against Alabama, Indiana's historic turnaround, and answers whether Texas Tech is a legit contender.

On the very first episode of Sports Takes with Nate Skates, Nate talks about the latest College Football Playoff Rankings and why Miami and BYU should be ranked ahead of Notre Dame. Nate discusses the case for and against each team on the bubble to make the playoff and whether brand bias towards Notre Dame and Alabama are hurting the playoff.