Week 2 NCAA Football Roundup

And you thought Brian Kelly was angry last week:  I still can't exactly explain what I watched Michigan pull out of their ass on Saturday night to somehow come away with a victory, but I do know that I loved every second of it.  Especially the last 30 seconds, which included a 64-yard miracle catch and run, where the receiver Jeremy Gallon was open by 30 yards and avoided 4 Notre Dame tacklers.  Denard threw up jumpball after jumpball, and Michigan's receivers simply seemed to actually pay attention to the ball, while Notre Dame's corners kept running backwards and didn't turn their heads in time to make any plays in many jumpball situations.  Denard averaged over 30 yards per completion, which is insane, and means he was A.) being utilized wrong and B.) Lucky as all hell because his deep ball is wobbly.  Notre Dame managed to turn the ball over 5 times in consecutive games, almost as impressive as finding ways to choke late and lose in consecutive nationally televised games.  Tommy Rees was good overall, but his final turnover was inexcusable and cost the Irish.  The Irish face Michigan State this week, and could be staring an 0-3 start in the face, while Michigan has Eastern Michigan, San Diego State, Minnesota, and a game at Northwestern up next, and could be seeing a 6-0 start in their future.  This loss has to hurt more than Notre Dame's loss last week, as at least they trailed that whole game.  Notre Dame dominated this game through three quarters, took their hands off Michigan's throats, and proceeded to gag themselves for 15 long, excruciating minutes.


SEC Speed means SEC Shootouts: Both in-conference SEC games were exhilarating shootouts this weekend, with #12 South Carolina defeating Georgia 45-42 and Auburn defeating #16 Mississippi State 41-34.  Georgia QB Aaron Murray played great throwing for 248 yards and 4 TDs, Georgia RB Isaiah Crowell topped 100 yards and scored two touchdowns, and South Carolina RB Marcus Lattimore rushed for 174 yards and a TD.  The star of the game though was defensive tackle Melvin Ingram, who outran the entire Georgia defense on a 68 yard fake punt TD, recovered a fumble and returned it 5 yards for a TD, and clinched the game by catching the onside kick.  Mark Richt may want to start checking out the real estate markets elsewhere because Georgia won't be his home past this January.

Auburn somehow found a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and stopped Mississippi State literally inches short of the game-tying touchdown as time expired.  Mississippi State rushed for 333 yards, with Vick Ballard leading the team with 134 yards.  Auburn countered with 233 rushing yards of their own, the majority of which coming from star RB Michael Dyer (143 yards, 2 TD).  Auburn QB Barrett Trotter was efficient (16/23, 146 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT) and didn't make any major mistakes aside from one interception.  Mississippi State was heavily favored in this game, so this is a big win for Auburn.  Almost as big as when they outpaid Mississippi State for Cameron Newton last year.

Justin Blackmon is Always Open: Arizona Wildcats Edition:  In this week's episode of Justin Blackmon is Always Open, he made an absolute joke of the Wildcats secondary (specifically poor CB Shaquille Richardson who was tasked with the unenviable job of covering him).  Arizona seemingly dared Oklahoma State to continue throwing to the best receiver in the country, by consistently leaving Richardson on an island against him in man coverage.  Blackmon abused him on a couple beautiful fade routes, slant routes, curls, and every other conceivable route on his way to 12 catches, 128 yards and 2 TDs.  Additionally, Weeden threw for 397 total yards, and the two-headed running game of RBs Joseph Randle and Jeremy Smith thoroughly impressed in totaling 182 yards and 3 TDs.  Arizona's passing game looked phenomenal between the 20s, and Nick Foles is on track to have an insanely effective season (71/93, 810 yards, 6 TD), but the Wildcats running game was abysmal (39 total rushing yards).  


Those teams in Iowa sure cared about that crappy Cy-Hawk trophy a lot:  Iowa and Iowa State played a classic on Saturday, with Iowa State prevailing 44-41 in 3OT.  Former JuCo QB (and most bad-ass named QB ever) Steele Jantz recovered from a horrendous week 1 performance against Northern Iowa to go 25/37 for 279 yards and 4 TDs. On the other hand, the Iowa Hawkeyes look weak this season, so they'll still manage to win 9 games somehow, because Iowa is the LSU of the Big Ten, and just finds ugly ways to win.  Also, you will literally never again hear Iowa, Iowa State, and the word "classic" used in a sentence again.  Iowa State also may not hear Cyclones and "win" in a sentence many more times this year, so to all four of you Cyclones fans, enjoy it while it lasts.


The Real, Worse, Younger, Mediocre McCoy:  Those of you who had Game 2 in the "When will Garrett Gilbert get benched" pool, collect your prizes.  He imploded in spectacular fashion, going 2/8 for 8 yards and throwing 2 INTs before getting benched, and almost dug Texas into too big of a hole against BYU to dig out of.  Texas barely managed a 17-16 victory after benching Gilbert for sophomore Case McCoy (Yes, he's related, and yes he is friends with the younger Shipley brother, Jaxon) and freshman David Ash in a playing time-share.  Gilbert has fallen far from his 5-star QB status and impressive performance in the national championship against Alabama (he only threw 4 interceptions in that game!) to a punchline and likely transfer to a I-AA school after this season.  Colt McCoy's younger brother, Case, will take over QB duties this week in all likelihood, but may share time with David Ash.

Good Effort!

• East Carolina once again almost pulls a major upset, but falls short late, losing 17-10 to Virginia Tech, whom they upset in 2008.  
• Toledo had the ball in the red zone with a minute left in the game against the Ohio State Buckeyes, but threw four straight incompletions to fall short against OSU.  Toledo was in it the whole game, in large part thanks to WR Eric Page who had 12 receptions, 145 yards and 2 TD.
• Maine came within 6 of Pittsburgh, losing 35-29.  While two of their touchdowns came in the last four minutes, the margin of victory was still too close for comfort against an FCS team.
• Norfolk State made Dana Holgorsen angry by leading his Mountaineers at halftime.  West Virginia responded with 45 unanswered points in the second half to win 55-12.
• Purdue almost upset Rice, but ultimately lost 24-22.  Purdue's so horrible, I consider them underdogs in basically every game, yes, even against Rice.
• Rhode Island almost took down Syracuse, but lost 21-14.  Syracuse's next opponent, you ask?  USC.  Luckily for the Orange, Lane Kiffin will keep it close by going for every 4th down and 2 point conversion possible.
• The top effort of the week goes to Fresno State QB Derek Carr, who went all Superman and scored this insane touchdown against Nebraska.  Fresno State ended up losing 42-29, but was right in the game until Taylor Martinez's 46 yard TD scamper basically locked up the Cornhusker win.

Participation Awards!
- Charleston Southern took their beating like a good little FCS school, 62-10 at the hands of Florida State.
- Akron lost to Temple 41-3 and is on track to score less than 20 points this year, total.  The bad news for Akron is that this was a conference game too, and not a mercy killing at the hands of the Buckeyes.  I'll give Akron even odds when they bring in the Virginia Military academy on September 24th, and hope for their sake that they can manage a win.
- UNLV thought they had a shot against Washington State, who lost their QB Jeff Tuel last week for most of this season.  They realized quickly that they were horribly mistaken, as they lost 59-7 to the worst team in the Pac-12.
- South Dakota State was systematically dominated by the Fighting Illini, who rushed for 364 yards, and finished 16/18 throwing the ball in their 56-3 win.  Ron Zook's Illinois team looks impressive enough this year to save his job (again), just in time for the team to regress back to a 5-7 or 6-6 level for 3 years.