te one of its underappreciated greats. Ichiro has never been a spotlight hog, nor has he been a particularly flashy player. A wise man once wrote, “T

Here are a few things to watch in the Southeastern Conference during college footballs opening weekend.GAME OF THE WEEK: No. 11 Mississippi vs. No. 4 Florida State in Orlando, Florida. The Rebels are involved in one of the nations premier games this week, facing the Seminoles on Monday night at the Citrus Bowl. Ole Miss returns QB Chad Kelly, who threw for more than 4,000 yards last season. Florida State will counter with redshirt freshman Deondre Francois, who will be making his first career start under center. Francois will have help on offense: RB Dalvin Cook returns after running for 1,691 yards last season.MATCHUP OF THE WEEK: UCLA offensive tackle Conor McDermott vs. Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett: McDermott, a fifth-year senior, earned second-team all-Pac-12 honors last season as part of an offensive line that yielded only 14 sacks. McDermott will have his hands full Saturday lining up against Garrett, arguably the nations premier pass rusher. Garrett recorded 11 + sacks as a freshman in 2014 and followed that up by delivering 12 + sacks and 19 + tackles for loss last season.NUMBERS GAME: The SEC owns a 496-110 record and an .818 winning percentage since 2006. Thats the highest nonconference winning percentage of any league during that stretch. ... No. 5 LSU owns an FBS record 52 consecutive regular-season nonconference victories heading into Saturdays game with Wisconsin. LSU hasnt lost a regular-season nonconference game since falling 26-8 to Virginia Tech in its 2002 opener. ... No. 9 Tennessee is in the top 10 for the first time since it was ranked eighth on Oct. 29, 2006. ... Missouris visit to West Virginia marks the first time the Tigers have opened the season with a true road game since a 40-10 loss at Texas in 1996. .... No. 25 Florida has the lowest preseason ranking ever of a defending SEC East champion. Missouri was ranked 24th to start each of the last two seasons as a defending East Division champion.LONG SHOT: Wisconsin vs. No. 5 LSU: LSU should be really good this season, but its still surprising to see Wisconsin as a 10-point underdog, especially when its essentially a home game for the Badgers at Lambeau Field. LSU has one of the nations best running backs in Leonard Fournette, but needs improvement from junior quarterback Brandon Harris, who threw for 2,165 yards and 13 touchdowns last season.IMPACT PERFORMER: Georgia quarterback Jacob Eason: This true freshman from Lake Stevens, Washington, is competing with graduate student Greyson Lambert for the right to start No. 18 Georgias season opener Saturday against No. 22 North Carolina in Atlanta. Eason, who enrolled at Georgia in time to participate in spring practice, went 19 of 29 for 244 yards and a touchdown in the Bulldogs spring game.---AP Sports Writers Steve Megargee in Knoxville, Tennessee, and David Brandt in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this story.---AP College Football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org Jerry Tillery Chargers Jersey . - Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings was speaking to a group of local high school students earlier this week when the conversation turned to the importance of being prepared when opportunities in life arise. Lance Alworth Jersey . -- Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Alrdridge were again the go-to duo for the Trail Blazers against the Kings. http://www.chargersauthenticofficialonline.com/authentic-lance-alworth-jersey.html . -- Playing time has been limited for Maxim Tissot this season, so the Montreal Impact defender made the most of his first scoring opportunity on Saturday. Melvin Gordon III Chargers Jersey . Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored shootout goals, and backup goalie Cam Talbot earned his second win in two nights as the Rangers shook off a late tying tally and beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 Monday night. Philip Rivers Womens Jersey . Batiste, who briefly signed with the Eskimos in 2006, has spent time with several NFL teams including the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins.With a slap single off Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey, Ichiro Suzuki joined one of baseballs most exclusive groups: the 4,000 hit club. Ichiro joined only Pete Rose (4,256) and Ty Cobb (4,189) as the only men in the history of professional baseball to reach the plateau, reaching the milestone in his 2,981st professional game. TSN.ca Baseball Editor Shane McNeil presents five reasons why Ichiros achievement deserves the recognition it has received. 1. Its the numbers that matter, not the details. While some might argue an asterisk for those Ichiro accrued in the Japanese Professional League, those arguments must also be tempered by a couple facts. Ichiro has registered more hits in Major League Baseball than any player in the first 13 years of his MLB career (2,722), eclipsing Paul Waners 2,648. The fact that he did not start his MLB career cannot and should not be held against him, since he was born and trained in Japan and naturally started his career. Ichiro has more hits from the age of 27 onward than the two men ahead of him which makes this achievement all the more astounding. Most players best years are prior to their 30th birthday. Ichiro did the majority of his work as a pro after that milestone. Moreover, Ichiro was actually registering fewer at-bats per season in Japan than he would have in North America. His highest single-season AB total with Orix was his 546 in 1994. His lowest single-season total with Seattle was 647 in 2002. While Ichiros Japanese averages were substantially higher than most of his MLB single-season totals (a .353 career mark vs. .320 in MLB), the greater number of at-bats means that had Ichiro been even a .300 hitter in the MLB he would have registered 200 hits per season, as opposed to the 180 or so he averaged in Japan. Call the Nippon Professional Baseball League inferior all you like, it only masks the reality that had Ichiro started in North America in 1995 – three years after his Japanese career began – he would still be at 4,000 today, health permitting. 2. Baseball needs something to be proud of. Whenever the “Steroid Era” is mentioned in connection to baseball, a few faces spring to mind. Perhaps its Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Perhaps its Jose Canseco or a younger Alex Rodriguez with the Texas Rangers. Maybe its Ryan Braun. The steroid problem in the Majors did not end with the Mitchell Report, nor is it likely to end with Biogenesis. However, what the Steroid Era has achieved is calling into question virtually every major landmark and achievement over the past 25 or so years, give or take a Cal Ripken. With Ichiros 4,000th hit – many of which never even left the infield – baseball has something to be proud of and its primarily based around one of the most elementary skills: Legging one out to first. 3. It allows MLB to celebrate one of its underappreciated greats. Ichiro has never been a spotlight hog, nor has he been a particularly flashy player. A wise man once wrote, “This... iis a simple game.dddddddddddd You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball.” Ichiro did all three better than just about any player of his generation. While his 110 home runs wont win him any MVP votes, he managed a decade of achievement that is almost unparalleled in the most basic of baseball skills. Between 2001 and 2010, Ichiro never finished lower than seventh in the American League batting race, hitting .310 or better every single season. Over that same span he finished in the top 10 in stolen bases every season, winning 10 Gold Gloves over that span and was selected to 10 All-Star Games. Ichiro has played baseball in its purest sense better than the majority of his opposition as a Major Leaguer and – apart from his rookie season – drew surprisingly little attention to himself in the process. If he plays another two or three seasons in North America, there may well be a celebration for his passage of Rose and Cobb on the hit list. But he may not, so why not take the opportunity to celebrate the man and his achievement? 4. Its rare nowadays to see a true trailblazer at work. Ichiro was not the first Japanese player to hit North America, nor will he be the last. That said, he will undoubtedly be the first to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and will likely do so on the first ballot. Ichiro was not faced with the obstacles of being the first, like Jackie Robinson, but he is the first Japanese player and certainly the first Japanese hitter to have such a career. It is time to start thinking of Ichiro in the same vein as Roberto Clemente, his humanitarianism and martyrdom notwithstanding? Clemente was not the first Latin American ballplayer to hit MLB, but he was the first to become a true force in the game and has since carried the flag for the majority of the subsequent ballplayers to flood the Majors from the Caribbean. Will Ichiro open a similar floodgate for Japanese and Asian players to gain better prominence in MLB? Maybe not to the same extent as the close Caribbean cultures, but its not a stretch to think that Yu Darvish has Ichiro to thank at least in part for his current success and celebrity. 5. He may not be done yet. Ichiro may well be in his final act in the Majors, but there is no way to know for certain. A quiet man by nature, Ichiro has made no allusions toward retirement any time soon, nor has he hinted about a possible return to Japan. At 39, Ichiro is two years younger than Cobb was at the time of his retirement and a full six years younger than Rose in his final season as a player. Its not out of the realm of possibility to play two more seasons and should he do so he still has both men to pass, as well as the incredible milestone of possibly reaching 3,000 hits in the majors – an asterisk-less achievement if ever there was one. He is also still yet to play a World Series game, so a competitor of his stature could also be holding out to win a Championship before calling it a career. Either way, the man still has plenty to play for. ' ' '