Kansas (1-2) at West Virginia (1-2), Saturday, noon ET (ESPN2)
BetMGM College Football Odds: West Virginia by 2 1/2.
Series record: West Virginia leads 10-2.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
Kansas and West Virginia are hoping to get off to a good start in the Big 12 after subpar showings in nonconference play. The Jayhawks gave up a late TD to UNLV and lost 23-20 last week. The Mountaineers allowed a blocked punt for a touchdown and surrendered a 10-point lead in the final three minutes of a 38-34 loss at Pittsburgh.
KEY MATCHUP
Kansas QB Jalon Daniels against West Virginia's defense. The Jayhawks are last in the Big 12 at 164.3 passing yards per game. Daniels went 12-of-24 with two interceptions against UNLV, though he ran for two scores. West Virginia has allowed a league-worst eight touchdowns through the air and is giving up 280.7 passing yards per game.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Kansas: RB Devin Neal. The 215-pound senior is third in the Big 12 at 111 rushing yards per game. He ran for 120 yards and caught a 33-yard pass against UNLV.
West Virginia: Defensive lineman T.J. Jackson. The senior transfer from Troy was named the Big 12's newcomer of the week after making six tackles against Pittsburgh. That included 1.5 sacks and four tackles for loss, which was the most for a West Virginia player since 2018. His seven tackles for loss this season leads the Big 12.
FACTS & FIGURES
The game features two of the league's better rushing offenses. Kansas is averaging 238.7 yards on the ground and West Virginia 192.7. ... The Kansas defense saw UNLV run the ball 18 straight times on its game-winning drive. ... Kansas and West Virginia didn't meet last season. Two years ago, the Jayhawks beat West Virginia 55-42 in overtime in Morgantown.
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West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene (6) looks to throw during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Pittsburgh Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
NEW YORK (AP) — There's a great moment in the first episode of the new NBC medical drama “Brilliant Minds” when it becomes very clear that we're not dealing with a typical TV doctor.
Zachary Quinto is behind the wheel of a car barreling down a New York City parkway, packed with hospital interns, abruptly weaving in and out of lanes, when one of them asks, “Does anyone want to share a Klonopin?” — a drug sometimes used to treat panic disorders.
“Oh, glory to God, yes, please,” says Quinto, reaching an arm into the back seat. The internthen breaks the pill in half and gives a sliver to the driver, who swallows it, as the other interns share stunned looks.
Quinto, playing the character Dr. Oliver Wolf, is clearly not portraying any dour, by-the-rules doctor here — he’s playing a character inspired by Dr. Oliver Sacks, the path-breaking researcher and author who rose to fame in the 1970s and was once called the “poet laureate of medicine.”
“He was someone who was tirelessly committed to the dignity of the human experience. And so I feel really grateful to be able to tell his story and to continue his legacy in a way that I hope our show is able to do,” says Quinto.
“Brilliant Minds” takes Sack’s personality — a motorcycle-riding, fern-loving advocate for mental health who died in 2015 at 82 — and puts him in the present day, where the creators theorize he would have no idea who Taylor Swift is or own a cell phone. The series debuts Monday on NBC, right after “The Voice.”
“It’s almost as if we’re imagining what it would have been like if Oliver Sacks had been born at a different time,” says Quinto. “We use the real life person as our North Star through everything we’re doing and all the stories that we were telling, but we were able to find our own flavor and our own perspective in the telling of those stories as well.”
In upcoming episodes, Wolf and his team deal with a biker friend whose brain tumor is affecting his memories, a mother who after surgery feels disconnected from her children, and a 12-year-old girl who gets seizures whenever she laughs.
Aside from the weekly emergencies, there is also a longer, series-long narrative exploring Wolf's personal life and his fraught relationship with his doctor parents, especially his late father, who had mental illness.
“I think over the course of the season, we see Dr. Wolf start to let his guard down a little bit by helping his patients and by mentoring the interns. And he’s learning from them as much as they’re learning from him,” says creator and showrunner Michael Grassi.
The series hopes to satisfy viewers who come for the complex medical mysteries — with delicious jargon like “elevated intracranial pressure” and “abnormal neurocardiogenic reflex” — but also the very human connections between patient and doctor.
“I always say if people watch our show and they see themselves and the stories that we’re telling, then we’re doing our job,” says Quinto.
This isn't the first time Sacks has been portrayed. His 1973 book, “Awakenings,” about hospital patients who’d spent decades in a kind of frozen state until he tried a new treatment, led to a 1990 movie in which Sacks was played by Robin Williams.
The real Sacks lived in self-imposed celibacy for more than three decades, only coming out late in life. But Quinto and Grassi were not interested in having their hero closeted.
“If we were going to be having a gay male lead of our show in 2024, I really wanted them to be out and proud and that not to be something that he was hiding,” said Grassi.
Grassi said when he was creating the show he always had Quinto in mind, being a fan of the actor's depth but also his humor. Grassi knew it was the perfect fit while filming the driving scene for the pilot when the intern offers her pill.
“Zach on that day ad-libbed like a million different responses,” says Grassi. "And they were all funnier than the last. Editing was so hard to choose which one. But that’s when I knew. I’m like, ‘This is going to be great.’”
For Quinto, “Brilliant Minds” offers a chance to play a charismatic, empathic hero. While Quinto broke out as Mr. Spock in “Star Trek,” his resume also includes some less savory characters — a serial killer who tore out the brains of superheroes in “Heroes,” the deranged Dr. Oliver Thredson on "American Horror Story: Asylum" and a demonic drifter in AMC’s “NOS4A2.”
“After all the dark and villainous characters that I’ve played, it’s really nice to anchor a story playing a character who is really operating from a place of optimism, hope, compassion and love and joy.”
FILE - Actor Zachary Quinto poses for a portrait on Friday, March 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Actor Zachary Quinto poses for a portrait on Friday, March 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Actor Zachary Quinto poses for a portrait on Friday, March 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
This image released by NBC shows Zachary Quinto as Dr. Oliver Wolf in a scene from "Brilliant Minds." (Peter Kramer/NBC via AP)
This image released by NBC shows Zachary Quinto as Dr. Oliver Wolf in a scene from "Brilliant Minds." (NBC via AP)
FILE - Actor Zachary Quinto poses for a portrait on Friday, March 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
