Week 13 Reflections
The Euphoria and Despair of Rivalry Week
Rivalry week is the most bittersweet week of the season. It is chock full of renewed matchups of in-state and border rivals. The records rarely matter and the majority of the matchups are going to be closer than they have any right to be even if the game is lopsided on paper. Rivalry week is also the end of the regular season. College football has the shortest regular season in sports and that never feels more real than when the Iron Bowl is wrapping up and the prime time games are teeing up for kickoff. Conference championship weekend is always fun, especially this year when there are so many contenders still alive, but the magic of having 65 games on across the day is over.
Anyway, enough with the bitter, let’s talk about the sweet. Mich….oh yeah, the other part of rivalry week that stinks. Losing the most important game of the year. Ohio State lost to Michigan. Again. It sucks, but Ryan Day should not be fired. That’s all I’m going to say on here about this game.
On to the rest of the day that was actually pretty great if the Buckeyes’ loss didn’t ruin your appetite for football.
Rivalry Week Quick Hitters
Ole Miss 17 - Mississippi State 7. A slog of a game that was 3-0 in favor of the Rebels at the half. The Bulldogs looked like they were on the verge of keeping Ole Miss from another 10 win season when they put the first touchdown on the board midway through the third quarter. However, Ole Miss finally woke up on offense and scored touchdowns on consecutive possessions to end the third quarter and start the fourth quarter. Lane Kiffin has won 10 games in two of his three seasons at Ole Miss. Prior to Lane, Ole Miss had never won 10 games in a season.
Iowa 13 - Nebraska 10. With the game tied at 10, Nebraska intercepted Iowa near midfield with 31 seconds left - and still lost in regulation. The most Iowa/Nebraska game imagineable. Nebraska threw it right back to Iowa two plays later and the Hawkeyes, threw their one deep pass of the game (it worked!). Iowa’s backup kicker, kicking his first field goal for the Hawkeyes just cleared the crossbar to give Iowa another 10 win season. Iowa finished at just over 18 points per game, a full touchodwn short of the contracted goal. Nebraska finishes 5-7, losing their last four games by a single score to miss out on bowl eligibility.
Oregon 31 - Oregon State 7. While the Saturday rivalry games delivered, Friday was mostly a dud. Oregon dominated Oregon State in the final (for now anyway) edition of the civil war. Rumors started swirling early on Friday that Jonathan Smith was the leading candidate to take the Michigan State job (he has now taken the job). It appeared as if the combination of Oregon being really good and Smith’s imminent departure took the air out of Oregon State’s sails for this one.
Texas 57 - Texas Tech 7. Arch Manning finally saw the field as the Longhorns crushed the Red Raiders in their final Big 12 contest. Texas took exception to Big 12 Commisioner, Brett Yormark, openly throwing his support behind Texas Tech for this matchup earlier in the year. They took out their frustrations by demolishing the Red Raiders, the preseason dark horse to win the conference.
Kentucky 38 - Louisville 31. Kentucky ruining a Louisville season is a Mark Stoops’ special at this point. As with many rivalry games, this is an odd box score to read. Louisville held Kentucky to just 289 yards, despite allowing 38 points. A kickoff return and 3 turnovers by Louisville helped level the yardage disparity. For Louisville, they are still looking at a potential NY6 bowl game and the chance to play spoiler against Florida State in the ACC Championship game next week.
Alabama 27 - Auburn 24. Let’s just start with the play.
4th and goal from the 31. Easily the most bonkers finish of the day and one of the unlikliest wins of the year. It says a lot about how wild the Iron Bowl has been that this isn’t even the most stunning finish of the past 10 years. Alabama’s final sequence was a comedy of errors until they pulled off this miracle. 2nd down - bad snap that went past Milroe. 3rd down - Milroe casually moving several steps past the line of scrimmage and throwing a pass. 4th down - ‘Gravedigger’ (great name for a play). I don’t think Alabama is a real threat to Georgia next week, but this was a great Iron Bowl.
Washington 24 - Washington State 21. On 4th and 1 from their own 29 with two minutes to go, game tied at 21, Washington went for it. This was nearly the same decision Oregon made against Washington back in the middle of October. Fortunately for Washington, they converted. The Huskie ran a fake dive, and pitched a reverse to Biletnikoff finalist Rome Odunze, who took the pitch for a huge gain. Washington hit the game winning field goal as time expired, although not without some drama as Penix nearly threw two interceptions on the final sequence after the dramatic 4th down conversion.
Florida State 24 - Florida 15. Florida State shrugged off a dreadful start (and a couple of really questionable personal fouls) to remain unbeaten and keep their playoff hopes alive. The Seminoles looked totally inept for most of the first half as the Gators built up a 12-0 lead. Florida State played a gutty second half and wore down the Gators with strong running by Troy Benson and simply letting the Gators implode in the fourth quarter - 4 sacks allowed, 50 penalty yards, 0 plays that gained positive yards for Florida in the fourth quarter. Not a great look for Napier.
Georgia 31 - Georgia Tech 23. Georgia slept walk through a game they were never in danger of losing. Clearly the Bulldogs already had Alabama on the brain.
Iowa State 42 - Kansas State 35. Farmageddon was played in a giant snowstorm. The offenses were apparently not affected. Iowa State’s running back had himself a day. 16 carries for 276 yards and 3 touchdowns. Iowa State also had a receiver catch 3 passes for 160 yards and 2 touchdowns. That is Randy Moss against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving levels of efficiency.
LSU 42 - Texas A&M 30. Penix or Nix will probably end up winning the Heisman depending on who wins the Pac-12 on Friday, but it should be Jayden Daniels. He finishes the year with 3,812 passing yards, 1,134 rushing yards, and 50 touchdowns. He now holds the single season record for highest passing rating, second best QBR, leads the FBS in passing and rushing EPA. Essentially he just combined the best of Joe Burrow and Kyler Murray.
Plays Of The Weekend
Most of these are from Friday. I was too invested in The Game™ to follow along to the early games and too depressed to actively track everything closely the rest of the day.
Let’s start with fake punts of contrasting success.
The good ….
… and the bad …
Ole Miss sending a Bulldog defender into the ground …
Check out the Ohio player (bottom of the formation) doing his best to pay homage to Arkansas State playing dead on a fake punt.
Nebraska refusing opportunities to make a big play…
Michigan State players confused about the mechanics of catching a kickoff.
Penn State finally deciding to break out the “chuck it deep” play. It turns out, Drew Allar can throw. They should look into adding this into the playbook next year.
A great catch in the Toledo game.
And finally, just a great effort by New Mexico’s running back on this play.
College Football Moment Of The Weekend
As you all know, I save this section for when something so absurd or unique happens, it deserves its own mini section. We have a very special edition this week as the teams involved do not compete at the college level. Surely, this must mean something crazy happened in the high school ranks as the state playoffs are in full swing? Nope.
The Jets on Black Friday pulled off the rarest of achievements. The ‘Hail Six’.
Only the 2023 New York Jets could pull off something this incompetent. A defensive score on a hailmary at the end of a half. What the heck. How does this happen? Also, what is wrong with Al Michaels? He’s calling this play as if if was a checkdown on 3rd and 8. Al is unqestionaly great, but it might be time for him to hang it up. His energy calling these games on Amazon has not been good.
There is a good chance this is my last post of the season. With the baby coming on Monday I probably will not have the time (or alertness) to write about conference championship weekend or bowl season. I will try to get a final season recap post out after Georg…I mean somebody wins the championship in January. This has been another great season and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I have.