Another weekend of college football is in the books, so let’s go through who was great on the gridiron with my Week Five Heroes:
Gary Nova: The Rutgers quarterback officially became the most prolific in Scarlet Knights history – and, being the oldest football program in America, it’s some sort of record. His four touchdown effort in Rutgers’ 31-6 victory over Tulane was enough to see him pass current graduate assistant coach and former star QB Mike Teel. Nova has 61 touchdown passes in 38 games, which has him two ahead of Teel at the moment, with about three quarters of his senior season left to run.
Kenny Chesney: The Tennessean native, whose new album exploded onto the charts (this week made his third appearance – apparently a record – as the celebrity picker on ESPN College GameDay.. He was that solid in Columbia, SC on Saturday morning. Made smart picks, backed them up and looked less like a special guest and more like someone who could easily match wits and football minds with Corso, Desmond and Herbie. If the country superstardom thing falls through, Kenny’s got a career as a football analyst waiting. Unlikely that he’ll need it, though, because The Big Revival is a killer album.
Blake Frohnapfel: Chances are you’ve never heard of the UMass quarterback, and although his Minutemen didn’t win today, Frohnapfel deserves a tip of the cap for his efforts today, going 36-for-61 for 589 yards and five touchdowns. It wasn’t enough, as the Bowling Green Eagles outlasted the Massachusetts men 47-42 in a game that, as the above numbers would suggest, didn’t feature much great secondary play.
Todd Gurley: The star Georgia running back’s first two hundred yard game. He had eight more than the double century on the ground as the Dawgs beat Tennessee in Athens 38-35, largely thanks to what the definite Heisman Trophy candidate did. He carried the ball 28 times for his 208 yards (that’s an impressive 7.4 yards per carry) and scored two touchdowns, including a 51-yard scamper late in the fourth to basically win the game for Georgia. He also caught four balls for thirty yards out of the backfield. Another banner day for the best player on the Bulldogs roster.
Kenny Hill: Speaking of Heisman candidates, the Texas A&M quarterback was dynamite on Saturday against Arkansas, throwing fourth quarter touchdown passes of 86 and 59 yards to tie the game, before hitting receiver Malcome Kennedy on a 25-yard route for the game-winning score in overtime. That sort of late-game heroics will only raise his stock. The Aggies won 38-25.
Brett Hundley: Out west, there’s another guy edging his way into the Heisman talk, and that’s the UCLA quarterback, Brett Hundley, who led the Bruins in a 62-27 demolition of Arizona State on Thursday night, completing 18 of 23 passes for 355 yards and four scores in the rout. It was an impressive game for both Hundley and his team.
Northwestern: Underdogs going into Happy Valley against undefeated Penn State and their star QB Christian Hackenberg, and Pat Fitzgerald’s Wildcat squad came out with an impressive victory that I – and, probably, many others – didn’t see coming. QB Trevor Siemian ran for three touchdowns and passed for 258 yards whilst an improved Northwestern defense held Hackenberg to just 216 yards, no touchdowns, one interception and a completion rate of less than 50%. Something Fitzgerald’s squad can build on after a bad start to their season.
Minnesota: Another underdog, going into the Big House to play Michigan and the Golden Gophers owned them, earning The Little Brown Jug thanks to an emphatic 30-14 victory over the besieged Wolverines. It was a scoreboard that flattered Michigan because Jerry Kill’s team won every statistical category and were deserved winners in a very important trophy game. Jerry Kill’s resurrection of the floundering Minnesota program should not go unnoticed.
Deshaun Watson: The highly-touted freshman quarterback – a five-star recruit coming out of high school – finally took the reins of the Clemson offense and, you know, only opened his Tigers career by setting a school record for touchdowns. He had six of them in a 50-35 win over North Carolina, and passed, almost as an afterthought, for 435 yards whilst completing 75% of his passes (27 of 36) for a debut that none who wear the orange of Clemson will likely soon forget. An eye-popping display.
North Carolina State: Didn’t win, but they weren’t blown out by Florida State as most people, including the ESPN College GameDay crew, expected would happen. They hung as tough as they could on defense, and showed that their offense wasn’t too bad, either, in scoring 41 points in what was supposed to be a pretty solid Florida State defensive unit. The Wolf Pack had a lead of 17 but couldn’t hold on to cause yet another upset of FSU in Raleigh. It would’ve been the third on the trot at NC State’s home stadium.
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