Another weekend of college football is in the books, so let’s go through who was great on the gridiron with my Week Two Heroes:
USC’s Defense: Their best player, lineman Leonard Williams, was playing on an injured ankle, their captain and the heart of their defense, linebacker Hayes Pullard, was controversially ejected at the end of the third quarter, and still the Trojan defense, coached pretty much to perfection by Justin Wilcox, managed to hold a pretty good Stanford Cardinal offense in check.
It wasn’t pretty at times – actually, it wasn’t pretty most of the time – but the Men of Troy made key stop after key stop. Stanford entered their red zone nine times for just ten points, including two missed field goals. There was a spectacular goal-line stand, courtesy of a flying tackle from safety Su’a Cravens on fourth-and-one inside the USC five, and, of course, the game-winning sack and fumble from linebacker J.R. Tavai to preserve a memorable 13-10 win on the road in Paolo Alto.
Virginia Tech: The Hokies, who haven’t beaten a ranked team since 2004, went into Columbus Stadium, one of the more hostile environments in all of football, and stunned an Ohio State Buckeyes team who…well, didn’t look much like the Buckeyes of recent times.
Tech’s QB Michael Brewer threw two touchdowns and passed for nearly two hundred yards, but it was the defensive effort that will be most pleasing to a school who prides itself on playing hard, fundamental D. Bud Foster’s squad forced three interceptions from Buckeye QB J.T. Barrett, the last of which, snagged by Donovan Riley, went back the other way for sixty-three yards and a game-winning defensive touchdown for a 35-21 win.
On a night where the Buckeyes celebrated a record crowd of 107,517 inside the enlarged Horseshoe, this was a major moment for the Hokies, who signalled that they might yet be players in the ACC.
Marcus Mariota: The Ducks were down 24-18 at half time to Michigan Stadium, and it looked like they were in some trouble. Enter, the big-game performer, Mariota. The record-setting Oregon quarterback lived up to his name, throwing three touchdowns in amongst 318 yards against a stingy, stout Spartans defense who barely give up that many passing yards in two games, let alone one.
Even when they were in a hole, Mariota didn’t panic. In probably the biggest regular-season match he’ll see in his career at Eugene, he stayed calm, made smart decisions with the football, torching an at-times-hapless Spartans defensive, spurring the to a 47-27 win, starting an evening of rot for the Big Ten.
Taysom Hill: I wrote about the Brigham Young quarterback last week. If he was good against Connecticut, he was unbelievable against Texas in Austin, rushing for 99 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries (as well as passing for181 yards) against what we were led to believe was an improved Texas defense.
Apparently not improved enough to avoid being gashed by Hill and the Cougars, who rolled up 550 yards of total offense, en route to beating Charlie Strong’s team 41-7 in what can only be described as an embarrassing performance, despite key injuries. Not so for the surprisingly impressive Cougars, who could seemingly run the table from here on out.
If Hill, who spectacularly hurdled a Texas defender on a thirty-yard touchdown scamper, can keep posting the sorts of numbers he did tonight and last week, might start popping up as a Heisman Trophy dark horse.
KD Cannon: The guy you’ve probably never heard of before had one of the biggest games you could imagine. The electric freshman receiver for Baylor snagged six footballs for 223 yards. No, you didn’t read that wrong. Backup QB Seth Russell had Cannon on a string by the end, and the second-game player had touchdown catches of 50, 81 and 42 yards in the first quarter alone! Baylor beat Northwestern State 70-6.
James Conner: The Pittsburgh running back ran rings around, over and through Boston College defenders on Friday night, exploding for 213 yards and a touchdown on 35 carries a week after a comparatively-poor effort of 153 yards and four scores against Delaware State. The Panthers won 30-20, and might be another serious ACC contender.
Notre Dame: As a USC fan, I hate them, but even so, it was hard to ignore what they did on Saturday night in South Bend, ending their rivalry with Michigan in the most emphatic manner possible, blasting the mistake-prone and offensively-challenged Wolverines 31-0, the first shutout of a Michigan team since 1984.
Returning quarterback Everett Golson threw four touchdown passes in amongst 226 passing yards, and the Irish defense forced Michigan QB Devin Gardner into four second-half turnovers, and kept dangerous receiver Devin Funchess quiet. It was a comprehensive dismantling of what looked like a good Wolverines team.
Whilst Michigan might lead the all-time series 24-17-1 but the smarmy – see, told ya I didn’t like them – Notre Dame will definitely enjoy emphatic bragging rights for as long as this classic series is on hiatus. For the record, I hope it comes back soon. Michigan vs. Notre Dame is one of the contests that makes college football great.
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