2021 Week 6
October 12, 2021
Whoo boy, what an incredible day of college football! Close finish after close finish, upsets galore, and another Maryland blowout loss. Almost a perfect day.
While watching the festivities we had a spirited debate as to where the day ranked among great days of college football. My good friend Bob Zuppke made a strong case for November 18, 1922 being up there as well. On that day you had close wins among top teams, like the Iowa Huckeyes over their Columbus-based namesakes, Princeton over Yale, and Brown over Harvard - with the latter two games featuring 3-0 finals. Princeton won on a field goal while Brown got their 3 points thanks to a safety and an extra point. That day also featured some high scoring affairs among top programs, like Auburn defeating Centre College 6-0 and Drake clinching a national title with a 21-0 win over powerhouse Grinnell. I can still remember being an SID in training at Pitt that day, closely following the teletype machine at the Pitt athletic office.
Bob was pretty persuasive in discussing 1922 but some of his coaching contemporaries disagreed. In particular Fielding H Yost and Newt Rockne. That led to a debate between those two coaching legends about their respective programs, which culminated with Coach Yost calling Coach Rockne's 1922 team "Satanic papists" and Coach Newt saying he was a Lutheran back then. Coach Yost then said "Lutheran? Martin Luther? Someone ought to nail your feces to the door" and threw a chair. Fortunately our good friend Bronko Nagurski once again served as a bouncer and settled things down by pinning Coach Yost until he calmed down.
Speaking of Bronko, his grandson Bronko Mendenhall and Virginia had an exciting win over the St Louisville Cardinals, scoring three touchdowns in the final quarter to win 34-33. I'm guessing the final quarter collapse was partially due to the losers not being in full football condition, having had a baseball playoff game a couple days earlier.
In another close ACC finish, Wake Forest kept its undefeated season going with a 40-37 overtime win against Syracuse. Now I'm still a bit confused about these overtime rules, but I think this time each team got a chance to score. Wake Forest went first and scored a touchdown, then Syracuse, facing fourth down, made a field goal. Since Wake Forest was ahead that was the ballgame. I'm not sure what the Syracuse coaches were thinking and I'm sure the result was very disappointing to fans of the Orange Testicle.
Notre Dame ventured into the Thomas Jefferson State and had quite the tussle with Virginia Tech. The Irish scored late to tie it at 29 then got the ball back and moved into position to kick a game-winner as the clock ran out, upending the Cavaliers.
Michigan had a similar road finish, also kicking a field goal at the end to win by the same 32-29 score in Lincoln. In this case, after Michigan tied it at 29, Nebraska was hoping to drive the field, but their quarterback Taylor Martinez Jr twirled like the school's Cornholio mascot and coughed up the ball, setting up Michigan for the win.
The top game in the Big Ten and arguably the country was played in Iowa City, as #3 Iowa came back from a large deficit to defeat #4 Penn State 23-20. The fans rushed the field after the game and celebrated long into the night. I haven't seen a bunch of farmers so excited since Jane Russell posed in a haystack while drinking from a couple of Howard Hughes' mason jars.
In the SEC Georgia continued an outstanding campaign with a very easy win over Bo Nix and the Auburn Tigers, 34-10.
One of the wildest finishes occurred in Oxford (the real educational mecca Oxford Mississippi, not the faux Oxford in England). Ole Southern Miss and R Kansas were in a true back and forth slugfest. R Kansas tied the game at 45 with just over a minute left, then Ole Southern Miss hit on a 68 yard pass to retake the lead. R Kansas drove steadily and scored on the last play of regulation, then went for two points and the win but failed. I haven't seen so much back and forth scoring since Joe Namath's date with the Barbi twins.
Of course the biggest stunner occurred in State College Station, as the Texas Aggies kicked a late field goal to defeat the #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, 41-38. I'm a bit surprised at the scheduling as Bama usually doesn't play non-conference games out of state.
Texas A&M fans had to be thrilled that their second favorite team knocked off the Tide, but I'm sure they were even more excited that their favorite team, "whoever is playing Texas", won as well. In a classic version of the Red River Shootout, Texas blew a huge lead and the Oklahoma Sooners came roaring back as backup QB Caleb Williams replaced the snakebit Spencer Rattler and OU put up 32 points in the final 16 minutes to win 55-48 at the Cotton Bowel. Even more exciting, with 11 seconds left Sooner back Kennedy Brooks ran 33 yards almost untouched to score with 3 seconds left, breaking a 48-48 tie. I haven't seen anyone score in 8 seconds since my prom night.
We are about at one of the great weekends of the college football season, the third Saturday in October. I know I'll be tuning in the traditional game of that weekend, the Alabama Tennessee game, which for some reason is being played in Starkville Mississippi. Talk to you next week!