Thrillers In Jonesboro And Memphis

My guess is that 90+% of college football fans do not know where Jonesboro is.  Never fear, College Football Odyssey showed up in Northeast Arkansas on Wednesday night to report on Arkansas State’s Sun Belt conference opener against Georgia Southern.  The Odyssey proudly travels to places that Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler would go only in their wildest, most insane dreams.

The backdrop for the game was bizarre.  Arkansas State had won 4 Sun Belt titles in the previous 5 years.  The success of the Indians (OOPs, they are now the Red Wolves in this century of political correctness) has been reflected in 3 consecutive coaching one-and-dones.  Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss), Gus Malzahn (Auburn) and Bryan Harsin (Boise) had all used the StAte head coaching gig as a springboard to a big time job.

Yet for all this success, and a significant number of returning starters,  A State came into the game with a stunning 0-4 mark.  Their last game was a 28-23 clunker to Central Arkansas (Trivia question:  If you know where Central Arkansas is located and are not from the Natural State, you are a certified geographic genius!).  Four turnovers by the Red Wolves were major contributors toward their loss to their intrastate rival on Agriculture Night.  Many StAte fans said they clearly smelled strong barnyard odors.   Earlier debacles were low lighted by defensive no shows against Toledo and Auburn (707 yards of offense for the previously moribund Tiger attack).

I was looking forward to getting a first-hand look at Georgia Southern’s traditionally vaunted running attack.  Going back to the Paul Johnson days (he now coaches Georgia Tech), Georgia Southern historically  used the triple option to great effect.  Was I ever in for a big disappointment.  GSU had ZERO long touchdown drives.   Their QB, Kevin Ellison, looked like a mismatch for the option.  He looked both slow and indecisive as evidenced by a paltry 25 rushing yards on 17 carries.   Their five  forays beyond the StAte 40 resulted in only 4 field goals.  The two Eagle TDs came via Ark St defensive breakdowns.

Would the resulting 26 points keep StAte winless on the year?  Apparently, most of the fans thought so.  When yet another Ark State possession resulted in failure with 11 minutes to go, a huge exodus occurred.  I was bewildered.  Sure, the Red Wolves were behind, 26-17, but StAte had outplayed GSU for significant stretches of the game.  The Red Wolves were even more charitable than in their Central Arkansas fiasco with 5 turnovers, including fumbles on the game’s first 3 possessions.  WHY were they leaving?  It was only 10PM and not everybody was going to be waking up to roosters at the crack of dawn.  Was there a Wednesday night scene in Jonesboro that proved an alluring entertainment alternative?  Color me bewildered and confused.  Upon reflection, maybe it was just going to be too painful for many of the Red Wolve faithful to actually see 0-4 morph into 0-5.

After stopping GSU, StAte drove and kicked a field goal.  They stopped GSU again but exhausted their time outs in the process.  When the Red Wolves faced 4th and 16, from their own 26, Southern was one stop away from claiming victory.  QB Justice Hansen could not find an open receiver and starting running in desperation.  Perhaps zigzagging is a better verb choice.  Hansen’s running ability (or lack thereof) will remind nobody of Lamar Jackson or Denard Robinson.  Somehow, he doggedly made it to the first down sticks (barely) before being tackled.  In retrospect, this proved to be one of the plays of the year.

Hansen led the team down to the GSU 9 in the waning seconds.  He arched a pass to the corner of the end zone.  Omar Bayless caught the ball with 10 seconds to go.  The refs signalled touchdown and the remnants of the crowd went wild.  One problem for the remaining StAte faithful.  Bayless may well have not been in bounds.  I confess, upon watching the replay later, I am far from sure that he was in bounds.  After review, the call stood.

The jubilant Arkansas State players celebrated as if they had just won the national championship.  This was a season-saving comeback.  Because guess who is 1-0 and atop the Sun Belt?  The same team that was 31-5 in their previous 36 Sun Belt tilts.

I bet  at least 25% of the Arkansas State fans who left early will lie and tell their friends that they stayed to the thrilling finale.

The taut drama in this game underscores of the problems I see in national media coverage (are you listening, ESPN??).  They are preoccupied with the top handful of teams and are contemplating, at great length, who would be in the playoff if the season ended today.  Well, the season is not ending today.  The vast majority of the 128 Division 1-A team have no realistic shot of making the playoff and your playoff obsession is causing the media to lose focus on many great stories.  Such as this spine tingling and potentially season-saving Red Wolf victory.

In a remote outpost, abandoned by most of the home fans, in a second tier conference, one could still not ignore one reality:  college football shone at its absolute finest.

After this spectacular game, I expected Temple’s visit to the Liberty Bowl to play Memphis the following night to be an anti-climax.  For one half, I was right.  Temple held a 13-3 halftime lead as Memphis looked like a shell of the team that was competitive with Ole Miss the previous Saturday.   The Owls domination of the line of scrimmage was so total that a total mockery was made of the betting line which established Memphis as a 10-point favorite.  One problem for Temple:  they easily could have been ahead by more 10 points at halftime.

Memphis parlayed a pick six and a 95-yard kickoff return by Tony Pollard (the first kick off return for a TD by Memphis in 20 long years!) in a stirring comeback to take a 34-20 lead.  However, Phillip Walker, terrific all night in throwing for 445 yards, lead the Owls for a TD.  The Owl D got the ball back to Walker as another late drive put Tiger fans on edge.  However, a final minute interception sealed the comeback win for Memphis.

The Memphis-Temple  game was an anomaly in one sense.  90% of the time, the team, strongest in the trenches, wins.  This was one of the 10 per centers!  Give Memphis credit for a defensive and special team score, as well as having the will to hang around even when their butts were getting badly whipped.

To say I am not sold on the Memphis defense would be a vast understatement.  In their last 2 games, they allowed a non-running team (Ole Miss) to rush for 263 yards and a historically non-passing team (Temple) to throw for 445 yards.  I do not think Houston has a lot to worry about.

I consider myself blessed to see these two games on perfect Southern, Indian Summer nights.  Hope your team wins tomorrow, Rick Rock