Welp, that was something. If you weren’t able to watch the LSU-Texas A&M marathon then that’s too bad. It was something to witness. It had a bit of everything it seemed. Let’s recap what happened from about the last couple minutes of regulation through to the last of the seven (yes SEVEN!) overtimes:
- That Gatorade bath you see above for Ed Orgeron was after it looked like LSU had the game-winning interception late in the fourth quarter. Replays showed Kellen Mond’s knee was down when he struggled to pick up the ball after a bad snap. So it was still Texas A&M’s ball.
- The next play was 4th & 18 and it looked like the Aggies were short of the line to gain. No review. Bad call by the SEC officials there.
- Kellen Mond then spiked the ball and it looked like time had expired. Instead, there was actually one second left. That set up Mond’s game-tying TD throw to Quartney Davis with no time left to send the game to overtime.
- Both teams scored in the first two overtimes. In the third overtime, LSU scored a touchdown and got the two-point conversion. That set up Kendrick Rogers’ TD catch which was one of the most ridiculous catches of the year to tie things up again.
- The teams traded scores in the next three overtimes to get to the seventh overtime period. This tied the NCAA record for the longest game ever.
- LSU scored first but failed on the two-point conversion. Texas A&M scored a TD then failed on their two-point conversion so it looked like we would be witnessing history with the first ever eight-overtime game. Instead a somewhat questionable pass interference call allowed the Aggies another shot. They converted and ended the highest scoring game in FBS history, 74-72.
It capped a week of college football that, up until that game was looking like a pretty good but not great week, continuing a string of weeks that have peaked at being good but not great. For the rest of the recap I will do exactly what I did last year, just keeping the broadcast information and going through it in chronological order. So let’s go!
Thursday
| Air Force 27 Colorado State 19 | 3:30 PM |  |
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A pretty good game to start the week (if you don’t include the MACtion from Tuesday). Air Force pulled away as Cole Fagan ran for 260 yards. Typical Air Force running game.
| Mississippi State 35 Ole Miss 3 | 7:30 PM |  |
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This game was marred a bit by a brawl in the second half. The Bulldogs dominated this game from start to finish. It was nice to see Nick Fitzgerald play this game after the brutal injury he suffered at last year’s Egg Bowl.
Friday
| Memphis 52 Houston 31 | Noon |  |
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Memphis had a slow start but pulled away in the second half to earn their spot in the AAC Championship. For everyone that thinks it will be a blowout, remember Memphis took UCF to overtime last year before losing.
| Iowa 31 Nebraska 28 | Noon |  |
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Iowa wins this one on a walk-off field goal. Nebraska will somehow be within sniffing distance of the preseason Top 25 before the 2019 season.
| Ohio 49 Akron 28 | Noon | |
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Meaningless game won big by Ohio.
| Buffalo 44 Bowling Green 14 | Noon |  |
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Buffalo, with the easy win, clinches the MAC East and will face Northern Illinois Friday night in Detroit for the MAC Championship.
| Missouri 38 Arkansas 0 | 2:30 PM |  |
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Arkansas is terrible. This proved it. Missouri is good but this was such a poor performance by Chad Morris’ Hogs. I am sure CBS may look to try and snag LSU-TAMU for Black Friday next season rather than this game that almost always disappoints.
| Virginia Tech 34 Virginia 31 | 3:30 PM | |
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Ugh. The Hokies win a close one over UVA. This means next week’s game against Marshall is on and if VaTech wins, they go bowling. This also means a Group of Five team will be home rather than go bowling. Or perhaps BYU which would not make that fanbase happy at all.
| Cincinnati 56 East Carolina 6 | 3:30 PM | |
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Cincinnati had a great season other than that loss to UCF and a crushing loss to Temple. If it wasn’t for those two games, we may have been talking about Luke Fickell’s Bearcats for the New Year’s Six spot.
| UCF 38 USF 10 | 4:00 PM | |
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Not nearly as exciting as last year’s epic War on I-4. UCF had already clinched the AAC East. This keeps them undefeated and in the driver’s seat for the Group of Five spot in the NY6. Their chances of a College Football Playoff spot, however, are zero.
| Oklahoma 59 West Virginia 56 | 8:00 PM | |
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This was about the most Big XII game you could ask for. A lot of offense and a close game with high stakes. Oklahoma will now face Texas, who beat Kansas, at JerryWorld for the Big XII Championship and perhaps a spot in the CFP.
| Washington 28 Washington State 15 | 8:30 PM | |
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This game was played in a huge snowstorm. Visually it was fun to watch. I can’t imagine it was as fun for the players. Washington outlasted Wazzu as the Cougs troubles in the Apple Cup continue since Mike Leach took over. This also means the Pac-12 is shut out of the College Football Playoff for sure.
Saturday Early
| Florida 41 Florida State 14 | Noon | |
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Florida State could not pull off the upset so for the first time since 1982, will not appear in a bowl game. Florida, on the other hand, may have played their way into the New Year’s Six with this impressive win.
| Ohio State 62 Michigan 39 | Noon | |
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tOSU seems to be Michigan’s kryptonite. Especially Jim Harbaugh’s. It’s like a mental block. 62 points? Most scored on Michigan in regulation ever. Ohio State just dominated, thanks to a breakout performance from freshman Chris Olave who caught two touchdown passes and blocked a punt leading to a touchdown. Ohio State now has a potential shot at the College Football Playoff if they beat Northwestern next week in the Big Ten Championship. Michigan is probably in a New Year’s Six bowl and will go to the Rose Bowl if the Buckeyes end up in the Top 4.
| Purdue 28 Indiana 21 | Noon |  |
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Purdue is, fittingly, going bowling. An up-and-down year highlighted by a massive win over Ohio State (the Buckeyes’ only loss) was capped by this close victory over Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket in the winner-goes-bowling matchup.
| Syracuse 42 Boston College 21 | Noon | |
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This really wasn’t close. Steve Addazio, after BC’s hot start, may be on the hot seat after the Eagles’ disappointing finish. Syracuse will be left out of the New Year’s Six although it has to be considered a massive success as Dino Babers has finally brought the team to the heights he said he would bring them to when he was hired.
| Western Kentucky 30 Louisiana Tech 15 | Noon | |
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WKU was awful this year but ended the season with two straight victories and played their best game of the year trying to save Mike Sanford’s job. Alas, it didn’t work.
| Tulane 29 Navy 28 | Noon | |
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Willie Fritz showed some balls, going for two after a late Tulane TD got the Green Wave to within one. They converted and beat Navy to become bowl-eligible for the first time in five years. I am honestly surprised this game wasn’t over by 2:30.
| Georgia 45 Georgia Tech 21 | Noon |  |
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Speaking of games that weren’t close, this one was it. Georgia rolled the Yellow Jackets and should be in the Top 4 going into the SEC Championship.
| NC State 34 North Carolina 28 (OT) | 12:30 PM |  |
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What a way to end Raycom’s ACC telecasts. NC State defeats North Carolina in overtime and right afterwards there is a huge brawl. I will be interested to see if there are any hiccups bringing ACC Network telecasts to us Canadians next year. I am not holding my breath.
| Wake Forest 59 Duke 7 | 12:30 PM |  |
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Yeah I think the Deacs really wanted to go bowling. A 52-point shellacking of an already bowl-bound Duke proved that the Demon Deacons could be a tough out in a bowl game.
Saturday Afternoon
| Penn State 38 Maryland 3 | 3:30 PM | |
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It would have been nice to see Maryland come back from all the adversity they have had from the D.J. Durkin/Jordan McNair issues from before the season but they couldn’t beat a really good Penn State team (who may end up in the New Year’s Six). Matt Canada may have done enough to secure the job next season and remove the interim tag.
| Alabama 52 Auburn 21 | 3:30 PM | |
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Bama wins. Ho hum. They should get a good match with Georgia next week though.
| Minnesota 37 Wisconsin 15 | 3:30 PM | |
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Row the damn Boat! P.J. Fleck’s Golden Gophers beat up on Wisconsin to earn bowl-eligibility. Huge for Fleck as it keeps him off the hot seat. Wisconsin was seriously disappointing this season and never felt like a contender in the Big Ten West.
| Miami 24 Pittsburgh 3 | 3:30 PM | |
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Does anyone have any faith in Pitt to keep things close in the ACC Championship? Because I don’t.
| Tulsa 27 SMU 24 | 3:30 PM | |
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SMU had their chance to go to a bowl game but their loss to Tulsa shuts them out of bowl season.
| Northwestern 24 Illinois 16 | 3:30 PM |  |
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Northwestern shouldn’t have had any problems with the Illini but did. They pulled out the victory, though, and look forward to their Big Ten Championship match against Ohio State. Somehow, Lovie Smith will stay on as Illinois’ head coach. I don’t get it either.
| Temple 57 UConn 7 | 3:30 PM | |
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UConn has now allowed the most points and yards of any FBS team in history. They have to be considered among the worst Div. 1-A/FBS teams ever. So of course we have to assume that Randy Edsall will be back next season.
| Michigan State 14 Rutgers 10 | 4:00 PM | |
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It almost looked like Rutgers was going to win a game on national TV. It would have been one of the craziest things to happen all season. In the end, they came up just short. The Scarlet Knights are a ways away from competing in the Big Ten and it’s almost sad they are in that conference rather than the American, where they belong.
| Vanderbilt 38 Tennessee 13 | 4:00 PM | |
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Wow. Not even close. Vandy really wanted this. Derek Mason has done a pretty good job taking over for James Franklin after a very rocky start. I don’t know what to say about Tennessee. This program has been mired in mediocrity for years and it seems like there is no way out of it.
Saturday Primetime & Late Night
| Clemson 56 South Carolina 35 | 7:00 PM | |
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At times it looked like the Gamecocks were in this game but you had that feeling they weren’t going to be close enough. In the end, those feelings were correct. Clemson marches on to Charlotte to face Pitt in what should be an ACC Championship victory.
| Kentucky 56 Louisville 10 | 7:00 PM | |
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It’s amazing not too long ago that Mark Stoops was on a perpetual hot seat. Now he has to be considered a candidate for coach of the year and has the Wildcats very close to a 10-win season. On the other side, Louisville is a disaster. I don’t know what head coach wants to pick this up but they have to expect next season to be a rough one as well.
| Fresno State 31 San Jose State 13 | 7:00 PM | |
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San Jose State was actually close for a while in this one. But the possibility of an upset left early in the third quarter.
| Texas A&M 74 LSU 72 (7OT) | 7:30 PM | |
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This was talked about above but it was still amazing to watch this game. The game didn’t end until Nevada and UNLV were halfway through the fourth quarter.
| Notre Dame 24 USC 17 | 8:00 PM | |
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OK this is really starting to look like the Notre Dame of 2012. A bunch of close wins over teams where the wins shouldn’t have been that close. I get that USC played one of their better games of the season but still: the Irish will get into the CFP and might be a double-digit underdog which never bodes well. As for the Trojans, athletic director Lynn Swann has stated that Clay Helton will return for the 2019 season. I, along with many others, still have my doubts about that.
| TCU 31 Oklahoma State 24 | 8:00 PM | |
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This feels like a defensive battle considered it was a Big XII game. Nevertheless, Gary Patterson’s defense was good enough to get the Horned Frogs to bowl eligibility. Seven out of the ten Big XII teams are bowl eligible with two just on the outside at 5 wins. That’s a pretty deep conference.
| UNLV 34 Nevada 29 | 9:30 PM | |
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For a game that had no bearing on anything, it ended up being a really good one. I mean I was stuck on LSU-TAMU until this one got well into the fourth quarter but it was a great last nine minutes. UNLV may have saved Tony Sanchez’s job by winning the Fremont Cannon which is a hilariously huge rivalry trophy (about 500 lbs.).
| Boise State 33 Utah State 24 | 10:15 PM | |
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Huge game here but we all have to remember that Boise is nearly unstoppable on the blue turf at Albertson’s Stadium. They again pull off the huge victory and will now play Fresno State in the Mountain West Championship and pray that UCF loses their game earlier on in the day.
| Hawaii 31 San Diego State 30 (OT) | 10:30 PM | |
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A phenomenal game to end the night. Rocky Long decided to go for two in the first overtime after his kicker missed what would have been the game-winning field goal at the end of regulation. Bad playcall (50-50 jump ball) and Hawaii held on to win.
Bowl eligibility
The following teams clinched bowl eligibility this past week:
Vanderbilt
Purdue
Minnesota
TCU
Baylor
Wake Forest
Tulane
Wyoming
Miami-OH
Southern Miss
Also, with Virginia Tech’s win, they will play Marshall with a chance to go to 6-6. Good lord, that’s a lot of teams to clinch in the final weekend but it was pretty much the same thing last season. This eliminates any 5-7 team from going bowling. As far as I can tell, at least three teams will sit at home even though they are bowl-eligible. I figured out Liberty’s bowl-eligibility picture as well. They will probably end up 6-6 after next week’s game against Norfolk State; however, they will have two wins over FCS teams and only one is eligible to count towards your overall win total. So technically they would be a 5-win team and would be ineligible for a bowl game.
Coaching Carousel
I always remember the music when Homer Simpson was going to go to clown college. It fits here as well.
It started with Les Miles being hired (after David Beaty was fired but coached the last few games). What else happened on the coaching carousel?
- Louisville pulled the trigger on firing Bobby Petrino. Problem is, other than this season, Petrino had been a good college coach. He clearly was at the end of the line at Louisville but he will end up coaching somewhere else in the next couple seasons. Question now is who wants to inherit this mess? And would it be someone who would be considered a big hire? Probably not.
- Kute Kliff Kingsbury was shitcanned at Texas Tech. Their loss to Baylor was probably a good thing because who knows if gaining bowl eligibility would have changed the minds of the brass in Lubbock.
- Larry Fedora was dismissed at North Carolina. No surprise there. The surprise comes from the rumour about who would replace him. The rumour is that Mack Brown would come back to coach and would bring Kingsbury as his offensive coordinator and Gene Chizik out of the SEC Network as his defensive coordinator. Wow.
- Lovie Smith got a contract extension….wait, what? You read it. A contract extension. Everything is so messed up in Champaign.
- Mike Sanford was let go after a horrible season at Western Kentucky. They won their last two games but my guess is this was decided at least a week ago and didn’t fire him then so he could coach out the string.
- Mark Whipple is out at UMass. I have this feeling they need to drop back to FCS but that’s just me.
- John Bonamego was fired at Central Michigan after an absolutely brutal season. No one thought the Chippewas would drop to 1-10 and a change was obviously needed.
- After starting 5-0, Colorado went 0-7 to end the season and it was the end of the Mike MacIntyre era in Boulder. Not surprising since other than one good season, his tenure had not been that great.
So who’s going where now? Hey remember what I said about Mack Brown above?
- North Carolina has hired Mack Brown to be their new head coach. Full disclosure, I put this in just before this blog went up.
Potential coaches on the move and where they could go:
- Mike Leach – Texas Tech might be interested in him. Texas. Tech. That would just be surreal.
- Matt Wells – He has done huge things at Utah State and this year was probably the peak. If he wants to move on, he should consider doing it now when his value is at its highest. Colorado seems like a fairly obvious destination for him but I wouldn’t rule out another Pac-12 school, USC.
- Mike Locksley – Alabama’s offensive coordinator is getting some looks but I would be wary. He was awful coaching at New Mexico and it would be a risk to hire him at a huge school. Some guys are just not made out to be the top guy. Paging Charlie Weis. Charlie Weis.
- Jeff Brohm – Louisville wants this guy in the worst way. But it seems Brohm wants to stay at Purdue. That might change if Louisville parks a Brinks truck in his driveway.
- Neal Brown – If Louisville doesn’t get their number one choice, they would probably push for Brown. I am surprised Brown’s name hasn’t come up for more coaching vacancies.
- Brent Venables – It would take a lot to pry him away from Clemson but it’s almost time for him to give it a shot on his own. A lot of schools would be definitely interested in him with Louisville and Texas Tech at the top of the list (although the Cards have their sights elsewhere).
- James Franklin – Don’t laugh. He has not outright said he is not interested in other opportunities. USC might just come knocking at his door once Lynn Swann wakes up and realizes he may not want another season of Clay Helton.
- Ryan Day – He is almost certainly gone from Ohio State, regardless of what happens with Urban Meyer. He did well coaching the team in Meyer’s absence and will get a shot almost anywhere.
- Luke Fickell – This guy has done amazing work at Cincinnati and will be sought after. He would have been a no brainer for Illinois except they extended Lovie Smith. He won’t leave, though, for another Group of Five job. At this point it’s stand pat unless another Power Five school let’s their coach go.
I am sure there are more possibilities but I don’t feel like listing them at this time. Tomorrow I will have my bowl projections up then it’s back to the normal college schedule on Thursday, NFL schedule on Friday bit. Enjoy your week everyone!
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