2019 Week 5
October 2, 2019
We had some truly exciting finishes last weekend in college football. The most drama occurred in Chapel Hill, where North Carolina took #1 Clemson to the wire. The Tarred Heels failed on a two point conversion with just over a minute to go and lost 21-20. Carolina's play was a bit odd, running a triple option to the short side of the field against a fast defense - I'm still not sure what new UNC coach and Illinois legend John Mackovic Brown was thinking.
Elsewhere in the ACC, the University of Virginia hit the road and gave Notre Dame a very solid half of football, then the Irish noticed that the UVA quarterback had about as good of a grip on the ball as I do during a cancer self-exam and rolled to a win.
Temple had little trouble with Georgia Tech, winning 24-2. Things have gone downhill quickly for Tech since Coach Johnson left and once again the Engineers are having trouble scoring.
One great showdown was played at a neutral site in Dallas and I'm not talking about Texas vs Oklahoma (which is a non-conference game anyway). Instead we watched Texas A&M hold off a game R Kansas underdog squad. On the second to last play R Kansas QB Ben Hicks scrambled like a Hogg that had had its head chopped off and I swear their alum Jerry Jones' head split open too, though that may have just been another failed facelift. The win gives A&M a leg up in the Southwest Conference race.
There were other conference games of note. In the Big Ten the Michigan State Fighting Chippewas held off archrival Indiana 40-31 to keep a firm grip on the Little Brown Oaken Spittoon and all its tobacco juice contents. The University of Washington had a solid win over visiting Southern California in the Pac-8. And Miami pulled away from Buffalo 34-20 for their first win in the AFC East.
For some reason my good friend Herb Street and his sidekicks at ABC decided to put the Ohio State at Nebraska game in prime time. Coach Frost hasn't seen such a shellacking in Lincoln since the last time Lawrence Phillips visited his apartment.
The final game of the night was a pretty exciting one too. Cal-Los Angeles once again went to the wire, this time at Arizona. The visitors lined up to try to tie the game with a field goal, but Coach Sumlin called time out just as the kicker booted it through, then, after the time out, the next kick was no good and Arizona won the game.
The concept of calling time outs before late game field goals actually goes back to the 1930's when Minnesota hosted Wisconsin in a battle for Paul Bunyan's Ass. In that game Wisconsin, trailing by a point, lined up for a last second drop kick field goal. Minnesota coach Bennie Bierman called time out just as a sleet storm reached its peak. After the time out Badger kicker Joseph Hassenpfeffer dropped the ball to kick it, slipped on the icy turf, and missed the ball and that led to the concept of "freezing" the kicker.
My Pitt squad had a tough game this weekend. Once again we saw one of these split squad games as Michigan sent a number of its players to Pittsburgh in their traditional winged helmet and white road uniforms while keep the rest of the team played at home. The joke was on the Wolverines though as they didn't send enough guys to take on Pitt and fell short 17-14 while the rest of the team rolled to an easy 52-0 win over Rutgers.
I forgot to mention the trick play the Panthers ran last week to beat Central Florida. Coach Nardoggio called it the "Pitt Special". The only "Pitt special" I know involves a glass table and my good friend Danny Thomas.
We're heading into the meaty part of the conference season and I'm looking forward to all the action. See you soon!