10 takeaways from a wet and wild day of college football
Ten takeaways from a wet and wild day of college football:
1) Texas A&M finally did what everyone else on Tennessee’s schedule failed to do – the Aggies drove a stake through the VoLuckteers.
Not that it was easy.
After weeks of flirting with disaster, Tennessee finally consummated the relationship by committing seven turnovers – the final one a Josh Dobbs interception in double-overtime that clinched the Aggies’ 45-38 victory. But damned if the Vols didn’t nearly pull another comeback victory out of nowhere, the same way they did against Georgia and Appalachian State and to a lesser degree Ohio.
Tennessee cornerback Malik Foreman may have made the defensive play of the year to give the Vols life, punching the ball out of the arm of A&M running back Trayveon Williams about a yard before Williams crossed the goal line with what would have been the back-breaking touchdown and a 14-point lead with less than two minutes left. (This is an occupational hazard when a running back carries the ball in his inside arm, instead of switching it to the arm closest to the boundary. Harder to get at the ball when it is on the outside.) Instead of a score, the ball went into the end zone and then out of bounds for a touchback, and Tennessee promptly drove for the tying score in the final minute.
Yet even then, A&M had the last chance and drove into field-goal range. That’s when Daniel LaCamera smother-hooked it from 39 yards out on the final play of regulation, and for all the world it looked like the Vols would escape once more in overtime.
But the Aggies had been down this road before as well. In the season opener they coughed up a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter against UCLA, then regrouped to win in overtime. They did it again Saturday, with LaCamera getting some redemption with a tying field goal in the first OT and quarterback Trevor Knight scoring the winning TD in the second extra period.
And now Texas A&M is 6-0 for the first time since 1994, with a bye week before visiting Alabama – which will be coming off a game Oct. 15 at Tennessee. That is shaping up (for now) as the Game of the Year in the SEC.
Along the way to 6-0, one storyline has disappeared: Kevin Sumlin on the hot seat. The fifth-year coach of the Aggies has solidified his position even more than a prohibitive buyout could have. His team is more physical, better defensively and better at avoiding mistakes than the past couple of years.
And transfer quarterback Trevor Knight is giving Sumlin his best dual-threat presence since Johnny Manziel. Remember that it was Manziel who led the Aggies to a huge upset over No. 1, undefeated Alabama in Tuscaloosa four years ago. Knight could get the same scenario Oct. 22.
2) One significant ripple effect from A&M beating Tennessee: it makes the Hurricane Matthew postponed-not-canceled LSU-Florida game all the more important.
Tennessee’s loss puts the Vols in a tie in the loss column in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division with Florida. Tennessee owns the head-to-head tiebreaker, but if the Volunteers lose another league game (and Alabama certainly presents that possibility next week), it could give the Gators the inside track for the East.
If Florida ends up 6-1 in league play and Tennessee is 6-2, the LSU-Florida game will have to be played. Commissioner Greg Sankey said Saturday that the game needs to happen, and there is pretty much one way to make it happen: buy both teams out of their annual November cupcake games on Nov. 19, the Gators against Presbyterian and the Tigers against South Alabama, and then play the postponed game then.
That will cost millions of dollars, but the SEC has millions to spare. LSU fans have been whining at top volume for three days about the possibility of closing the season at Arkansas, at Florida, at Texas A&M – but sometimes hurricanes happen and the solutions are not always convenient. Deal with it.
It’s true that the league and schools probably could have dealt with the impending hurricane rescheduling sooner than they did, and possibly could have played the game Sunday or Monday in Gainesville. But with so much uncertainty about how the state of Florida would be affected by the hurricane, moving the game completely off that weekend still seems like the most prudent course of action.
And of all people, LSU fans – who dealt with the ultimate hurricane situation with Katrina in 2005 – should understand those occasions when public safety factors are far more important than football.
3) There was football played within the extended path of Hurricane Matthew on Saturday, and it was not pretty. Tobacco Road was witness to some miserable playing conditions.
In Raleigh, Notre Dame and North Carolina State sloshed through standing water and sideways rain in a debacle of a game, the Wolfpack winning 10-3. Total offense: just 311 yards. Turnovers: five.
In Chapel Hill, where the field drained miraculously well, Virginia Tech took host North Carolina to a watery woodshed, 34-3. Total offense: 395 yards. Turnovers: five. Tar Heels quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s nascent Heisman Trophy hopes all but drowned in a 58-yard, two-interception disaster. (More on that game below.)
And in Durham, Duke trudged past Army, 13-6. Total offense: 403 yards. Turnovers: four.
I spoke with Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams in his box before the Virginia Tech-UNC game. As he said looking out at the deluge, “I’m sure glad we play indoors.” Say this much for Roy: he was one of the few Tar Heels fans who showed up for the game.
4) Perhaps the happiest person in Kenan Stadium on Saturday was Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock.
“A good Saturday in the athletic director business,” Babcock said outside the visiting locker room.
He watched the Hokies move to 4-1 with a road beatdown of the preseason ACC Coastal favorite, and had to feel all the better about his skillful administrative moves of 2015. Babcock engineered a graceful end to the illustrious but outdated Frank Beamer Era, outmaneuvered other suitors to hire Memphis’ Justin Fuente and helped Fuente retain superstar defensive coordinator Bud Foster. It’s all paying off now, in real time.
With a significant assist from Mother Nature, Foster’s defense held high-octane North Carolina to the fewest points and yards of the Larry Fedora Era. And Tech was clearly the more comfortable team playing in adverse conditions, a testament to toughness and an unflappable mentality. No wonder Fuente spent a few extra minutes in the rain afterward congratulating his players and listening to the hardy Virginia Tech fans who stayed to the end roaring their approval.
“The Hokie Nation didn’t care if it was raining,” Fuente said. “That was pretty powerful. It makes you proud to work here.”
After previously being at Memphis and spending much of his tenure as an assistant coach at TCU, Fuente is genuinely appreciative of a truly big and passionate fan base. He also is genuinely appreciative of the work put in by Foster – and that appreciation is reciprocal.
Foster worked under Beamer forever, and he undoubtedly wanted to be his successor. Being passed over for that position had to be difficult, which made his staying at the school and working for a new boss all the more impressive.
“It’s been an easy transition,” Foster said. “Very smooth. [Fuente] respects what we had done, but he’s putting his own twist on it.
“We’ve got a little juice on the offensive side of the ball. That’s helped us as a defense. You see a renewed excitement and enthusiasm.”
After years of having the defense carry the program, Virginia Tech is on the road to becoming a well-rounded team again. Fuente looks like every bit the home-run hire it appeared to be last year.
And by the margin of a blocked extra point that allowed Florida State to beat Miami on Saturday night, the Hokies have taken over first place all by themselves in the Coastal Division.
5) Les Miles’ tough fall continues.
He was fired last month at LSU. That was bad. But one of the few positive side effects of that was the chance to see his son, Manny, play as a walk-on at North Carolina.
Alas, it’s unclear whether Miles ever made it to the stadium Saturday. Last I heard from The Hat, he was stuck in the Atlanta airport due to flight cancellations into Raleigh-Durham.
6) There has been a lot of speculation about who will join Miles on the unemployed list, and two coaches in high-profile jobs did not help themselves Saturday.
Charlie Strong’s Texas team at least kept it close against rival Oklahoma in Dallas. But keeping it close is not the way to Longhorns’ fans hearts – winning is. Strong took over the defense himself last week after demoting coordinator Vance Bedford, and there was no difference in the bottom line. Texas lost its third straight game, giving up 45 or more points in all of them.
Yet Strong might have more security than Mark Helfrich, who is watching his Oregon program collapse around him with terrifying speed. The Ducks were atomized by Washington on Saturday, 70-21, their fourth straight loss. Oregon is immeasurably bad defensively and lacks the usual offensive firepower to compensate for it.
The Ducks head into a bye week now, and staff changes would not be a shock – particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
7) Three other unbeatens went down Saturday, with Houston, Air Force and Miami joining Tennessee. The No. 6-ranked Cougars’ upset loss at Navy is a significant alteration to the College Football Playoff picture.
A year after doing a brilliant job against the Midshipmen option attack, Houston was powerless to stop it. Navy gouged the Cougars for 306 rushing yards on 63 carries, as coordinator Todd Orlando’s defensive unit was incapable of getting enough stops to complete a fourth-quarter comeback.
So Houston is almost certainly out of the playoff, and may have taken Louisville down with it. The nation’s best one-loss team to date was hoping for an opportunity for a resume-boosting victory over an undefeated, top-five opponent when the Cardinals visit Houston on Nov. 17 – but now that game loses much of its impact.
Remaining unbeatens: Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Michigan, Washington, Texas A&M, Nebraska, Boise State, West Virginia, Baylor, Western Michigan.
8) What Michigan did to Rutgers was unsuitable for younger viewers.
The final score was 78-0. The Scarlet Knights finished with two first downs and 39 yards total offense – almost impossible numbers. In their back-to-back nightmare games against the Wolverines and Ohio State, they were outscored 136-0. The only person who had a worse weekend than first-year coach Chris Ash was Donald Trump.
These past two games pretty much mean that Rutgers has wrested the title of Worst Power 5 Program In America from Kansas. That’s hard to do, when you consider that the Jayhawks are riding a 15-game losing streak against Power 5 competition, but the state university of New Jersey has done it.
So go ahead, Jim Delany, tell us more about why Rutgers was such a great addition to the Big Ten.
9) September results that have been rendered utterly meaningless: Texas over Notre Dame and Michigan State over Notre Dame.
The Longhorns have a losing record. So do the Spartans, after being shockingly manhandled at home by BYU on Saturday. And of course so do the Fighting Irish, now 2-4 and looking very much like the worst team in Brian Kelly’s seven seasons on the job.
Like North Carolina, Kelly’s team spun its wheels haplessly offensively in the lousy conditions Saturday. Like North Carolina, Kelly’s team is finesse-oriented. Finesse teams are in trouble when the weather discourages pitch-and-catch football.
Unless Notre Dame gets its act together, a 3-9 record is not impossible to envision. Army on Nov. 12 might be the last game in which the Irish are favored.
10) Don’t look now, but USC is emerging from its early season death spiral.
After starting 1-3, most everyone was ready to give up on coach Clay Helton and his team. That sentiment may yet prove accurate on Helton, but give him credit for regrouping.
Last week the Trojans crushed Arizona State, delivering the Sun Devils their first loss of the season. This week they brought Colorado back to reality, beating the No. 21 Buffaloes 21-17. Given the wide-open nature of the Pac-12 South, don’t be shocked if USC wins it and salvages a season that got off to a terrible start.
