If you paid close attention to the national media, Saturday was going to be a dud. There was only 1 game among ranked teams (barely, as West Virginia visited TCU). The oft-jaded media is focused on the playoff to the detriment of many fabulous stories. The Odyssey cannot be alone in suffering from Clemson and Alabama fatigue. Donald Trump should tweet, “sad!”
Saturday turned out to be memorable for many downtrodden and discouraged. Some winless teams got off the mat with surprising upsets. Nobody is mentioning Bowling Green’s amazing 37-29 upset at Miami (Ohio). Down 30-29, Miami had marched down to the BG 1-yard line with 1:25 left in the game. Miami’s drive came despite the loss of star QB Gus Ragland earlier in the 2nd half. Inexplicably, the team formerly known as the Redskins, lined up in the shotgun formation with a backup QB. It was not as if Bowling Green had stopped Miami all day, as attested by the Red Hawks’ 615 yards of total offense. The shotgun snap goes awry and an alert Brandon Harris returns the fumble 93 yards for a clinching TD and the first victory for the Falcons.
Nevada was also 0-5 heading into its home tilt against Hawaii. The Wolfpack was energized by 216 rushing yards from Kelton Moore and 278 passing yards from an accurate Ty Gangi. This offensive output was more than enough to offset an explosion of 241 rushing yards from Diocemy Saint Juste. A week after an embarrassment at Fresno, the Wolfpack won their first game, 35-21, for Jay Norvell.
The worst team in the country heading into Saturday was UTEP. SO bad that they had shown Sean Kugler the door after an 0-5 start. SO, SO bad that the Miners incredibly made hapless Rice look good in losing to the Owls 31-14. The UTEP administration brought back Mike Price last week with Western Kentucky coming to town. UTEP scored a major win of sorts, sporting a 14-8 halftime lead.
With WKU nursing a 15-14 in the late in the game, Brady Viles missed a 41 yarder, his 3rd miss of the game. The 17-point underdog held Western Kentucky to 282 yards of offense and, arguably, deserved a better fate.
Two other teams that had been in the doldrums lit up the world on Saturday. Iowa State’s 38-31 upset of Oklahoma was remarkable in several aspects. Not only were the Sooners 30-point favorites going into the game at Norman, the game’s outcome had an air of inevitability. When the Sooners went into the tilt with an astounding 74-5-2 series advantage, a degree of complacency was understandable, particularly when Iowa State’s offense was limited to 7 points in their previous game versus Texas. Worse, for the Cyclones, their starting QB, Jacob Park, became a 12th hour no show with a mysterious “medical” issue. When Oklahoma jumped out to a 14-0 lead, business at usual seemed at hand. Except emergency QB, Kyle Kempt, did not get the memo. 343 passing yards later, he engineered a 38-31 upset of the Sooners. Joel Lanning’s performance was no less heroic. Last year’s starting QB, turned linebacker, was again stellar defensively, recovering a key Sooner fumble at the Cyclone 5 in the 3rd quarter. He also spelled Kempt at quarterback in an ironman performance. All in all a karmic victory that brought down Oklahoma’s haughty quarterback, Baker Mayfield, a peg or two. At this point, Oklahoma should not even be thinking about the playoff until the Sooners shore up a pass defense that has been torched in two consecutive games in the pass happy Big 12 (Baylor threw for 453 yards against Oklahoma).
Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez only two victories going into Saturday’s game at Boulder were against Northern Arizona and UTEP. So while the Wildcats were not winless technically,……. In the first half, Rodriguez inserted backup QB, Kahlil Tate, into the game. 327 rushing yards later, Tate set an NCAA record for rushing by a QB, Doubly amazing, Tate amassed this staggering total on only 14 carries!! The Odyssey feels bad for Colorado running back Phillip Lindsay. Tate’s epic effort in UA’s 45-42 upset of Colorado amazingly overshadowed 281 rushing yards by Lindsay. An FBS record was set as this was the first game in which 2 players ran for 250 yards. If Tate was this good, why had the Sophomore been riding the pine for the season’s first month?
All in all, a wonderful Saturday for many teams, fighting hard times, who relished their triumph so much more than Alabama did in the Tide’s 28-19 win at Texas A&M.