Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: December 18, 2020

My time: 14:56, about twenty seconds faster than average.

This one kicked me around a bit, but I was able in the end to beat the average score, which is nice.  Some of these clues were really devious!  Well, BETTER GET MOVING.

Never heard of Nick SABAN, championship-winning football coach of Alabama and LSU. He is tied with Bear Bryant for most major college football national championships for a coach in the modern era.

I'm not sure if "the US Open is played on it" is a good clue for EDT.  Do people play "on" Eastern Daylight Time?  

TAU has come up a lot in the puzzle, but I don't believe it's been clued as the symbol for torque before.

For "rank" is put *CASTE but it's the other rank, meaning NASTY. 

I have seen almost all of the series "The Crown" but I don't know many of the actors.  Erin Doherty plays Princess ANNE.

Mezza VOCE means medium or half volume in music.

In a nice bit of synchronicity, I just the other day encountered the rare word ASHLAR, which means square-cut or otherwise worked masonry.  

In the crossword's quest to include every single California city ever, today we have the rather unremarkable COSTA Mesa. 

In 2006, Mike Piazza, New York Catcher, became an EX-MET, and joined the San Diego Padres for a one-year contract at the age of 37.

DOHA is the capital and an important port of Qatar. 

Source of the word "trousers?"  It's ERSE.  Dating from the 1610s, earlier trouzes (1580s), extended from trouse (1570s), with plural ending typical of things in pairs, from Gaelic or Middle Irish triubhas "close-fitting shorts," of uncertain origin.

I remembered that the SEGO lily is Utah's state flower, from October 2, 2018. 

Supermodel ALEK Wek appeared on August 4.

The Belgian river YSER has come up before, but today is clued as "World War I battle locale."

There was a profusion of clever clues today.  "Look out for, say" is ABET.  "Line outside the entrance?" is OPEN SESAME.  "Cleared one's cookies?" is ATE.  "Court suspensions?" is NETS.  "Hold for another year, say" is FAIL.

I loved the fill in this one.  Kudos to Damon Gulczynski (it is something about having unusual and letter-rich last names that makes people want to make crosswords?) for manages to include great phrases like CATCH AS CATCH CAN, SHIVER ME TIMBERS, SCENE OF THE CRIME, SCRUB NURSE, BECAUSE IT'S THERE, and BACKSEAT DRIVERS.  Really well done.