Another weekend of college football is in the books, so let’s go through who let themselves down on the gridiron with my Week Ten Villains:
Georgia: Gashed for 418 yards by a Florida team who were on the ropes, and whose coach was apparently to be fired if they’d lost the game. QB Huston Mason wasn’t bad, and running back Nick Chubb, in for Todd Gurley again, played pretty well. It was their defense who let the team down.
Worse, the Bulldogs lose their chokehold on the SEC East, and are almost certainly eliminated from the National Championship race now. A bad day in Jacksonville for a team who looked so good early. The 38-20 loss was one of those that I never saw coming. Pretty sure I’m not alone in that regard, either.
East Carolina: The Pirates lost 20-10 to a Temple team who had no business winning that game and ECU have almost-certainly lost their chance at a major New Year’s Day Bowl appearance. The Pirates offense, which has been a highlight of the season, managed three points and five turnovers in the first 55 minutes of the game. A late touchdown added a little respectability, but the damage was done earlier.
Virginia Tech: Hey, remember the days when the Hokies were big-time in the ACC and Lane Stadium was a hellish sort of place to go into. It was a graveyard for visiting teams. Not anymore. The Hokies are shells of their former selves, and you wonder how long head coach Frank Beamer – a legend in Blacksburg – has left. Will he get the chop or walk?
The Hokies lost to Boston College on Saturday, their fourth loss in six home games, and fell to 2-6 on the season. Remember the time the Hokies went into Columbus Stadium and came away with a historic victory against Ohio State? It feels like a lifetime ago. Alarm bells are ringing at Tech.
Penn State: They lost to a bad Maryland team and drop to 1-4 in the Big Ten. The Terps were 1-35-1 historically against the Nittany Lions and 0-22 at Beaver Stadium. That’s historically bad, yet today they were the marginally better team in a dour struggle, winning 20-19 on a last-minute field goal that’s really put a dampener on the season for the Nittany Lions. It seems like whatever momentum Bill O’Brien had generated for the beleaguered PSU program departed when he did.
Kenny Hill: I remember when the Texas A&M quarterback tore through South Carolina and we all lauded Aggie head coach Kevin Sumlin’s recruitment of another wizard to run his high-powered offense. That was August.
Now, in November, August feels like a long time ago. Coming off an absolute towelling at the hands of a rampant Alabama, Hill has been suspended two games for violating team rules. He watched from the sidelines as A&M clawed their way to a far-from-convincing 21-16 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. The Aggies are 2-3 in the SEC West and get Auburn next. As for Hill, chances are the guy we saw on that opening Thursday night of the season is gone and isn’t coming back.
Connor Halliday: We all know these are tough times at Washington State, and the gun slinging quarterback was a bright light on an otherwise cloudy day. Sure, the Cougars aren’t getting wins, but Halliday’s aerial attack – including 734 against Cal, an NCAA record earlier this year – was always worth tuning into.
Sadly, that show is over. Halliday was injured by two USC defensive linemen as the Trojans won 44-17 in Pullman, and, it was announced later, has sustained a broken fibula. That’s his season and his career done, and a shocking way for it to go down. Halliday, who owns many WSU records, deserved more than a late-night dash for emergency surgery after being carted off the field in obvious pain. We’ve seen so often this week the agony that so often overshadows the ecstasy.
Notre Dame’s Defense: You know, if the College Football Playoff Committee didn’t think they’d done enough to warrant a slot in the final four last week, giving up 39 points to a Navy squad that, despite their tricky-to-stop option offensive scheme, is 4-5 on the season, isn’t going to help the Irish cause.
The Midshipmen rolled up 454 yards of total offense on Notre Dame, who needed six total touchdowns from QB Everett Golson to triumph after blowing a 21-point lead. Against Navy. On national television. I know the Irish won, but still, it’s brutal stuff. For mine, the Irish are the least-impressive undefeated team in America.
Ole Miss: Surely – and tragically – the Rebels’ playoff chances bit the dust hard inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday night, falling to Auburn 35-31.
They had the win. Laquon Treadwell appeared to score, but video review determined that he fumbled across the line whilst gruesomely breaking his leg, and the football was recovered by an Auburn defender for a touchback, and that was that. In one cruel moment, everything the Rebels were hoping for disappeared.
Football can be a cruel and dispiriting game at times. Just ask Hugh Freeze’s men about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment