College Football Sunday Summary: We Refuse to Overreact Now

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We are now through the first full week of college football, and we are working hard to not overreact the way we were prone to doing in Week 0. Yes, we know there are still more games to be played this weekend. But when we say SUNDAY Summary, we mean it.

College Football Sunday Summary: We Refuse to Overreact Now

It Doesn’t Matter That You Didn’t Like It

The end of the Michigan-Western Michigan game was tough to watch. The emotions of what happened caused all of social media to overreact. Who knew that could happen, right?

But it turns out that while the explanation took too long and raised some other issues, it was the correct call.

Western Michigan had a 12-7 lead in the closing seconds in Ann Arbor. The only time Western Michigan beat a ranked team was on Nov. 27, 2015, when it beat No. 24 Toledo 35-30. P.J. Fleck was Western Michigan’s coach. Toledo’s coach was Matt Campbell.

Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood heaved a 50-yard Hail Mary pass that was sailing toward the back of the end zone. It was knocked down by a Broncos’ defender, and the clock ran out…according to the clock we all saw on TV.

But after a review, the officials put one second back on the clock. Underwood had a second shot, and freshman J.J. Buchanan made the game-winning catch at the real end of the game.

Rhyme, Reason, and Rationale

Social media went into meltdown after what people saw on TV at the end of the Michigan game. People were demanding everything from the courts overturning the result (aren’t we already in court too much?) to large-scale protests.

The Big 10 took about an hour and released the actual replay booth conversation with the play review. It turns out that the defender who batted down the first pass had been out of bounds, so when he touched the ball, the clock was to stop… not when the ball hit the ground. There was one second left.

The other issue was that it turns out the TV clock and the actual game clock were not synced. So it turns out the game clock we see on TV could be of little to no actual value.

This brings us to our near-weekly imploring of all conferences to do what the ACC does. Show us the replay booth in real time, with the audio, as the review is going on.

And We Wonder Why They Are Financially Upside Down

In case you missed it, or forgot about it already, UMass beat Rutgers Thursday night in New Jersey. This was what we call a “buy-in” game for the FCS school. Rutgers shelled out $1.55 million to lose to UMass. Rutgers is already claiming an athletic department budget deficit of more than $500 million, with little to show for it.

It will take a lot for Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano to survive the season, his second stint at the school. But the program is not good. The finances are worse. But at least they shot off the fireworks at the end of the game, in a virtually empty stadium. Hey, they had already spent the money, so why not?

Tennessee Gives an Orange-Colored Middle Finger to the NCAA

Instead of the usual four or five team captains that teams send out for the coin toss, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel sent out one. Arion Carter went out to midfield, without his uniform on, as he is serving a one-game suspension from the NCAA. The suspension stemmed from a $427 flight that was paid for by his agent during the NFL pre-draft process. Carter repaid the flight, but the NCAA still handed down the two-game suspension, later reducing it to one game.

Thank You For Your Years Of Dedication to the Program

Saturday was Senior Day at Ohio State. No need to rub the sleep out of your eyes. It was still week one. But Senior Day this year for the Buckeyes would fall on the Michigan game. Head coach Ryan Day said he did not want those distractions on that day. So they moved the ceremony with players and parents to week one.

It’s a little odd, but whatever. But what we at Last Word could not come to grips with were the senior transfers for the Buckeyes. These guys have never played a game for Ohio State. Never even played in the full uniform yet, but there they were for Senior Day, giving flowers on the field to Mom. Hopefully the public address announcer had learned how to pronounce their names.

Good Enough?

Much will be made that Oregon got “only” a seven-point win at home over Boise State. Maybe it even drops the Ducks from the #2 spot in the rankings.

But the Ducks piled up 497 yards of total offense. Quarterback Dante Moore was 28 of 37 passing for 378 yards and three touchdowns. The Oregon defense held Boise State to under 300 yards of total offense. Oregon did its job against a yearly boutique favorite.

This isn’t your father’s Boise State program that would go to a bowl game and beat Oklahoma, or the like. They are 0-6 against P4 schools under head coach Spencer Danielson. But they are still good enough to compete for the conference championship in the new G6-level Pac-12 conference.

In Case You Missed It

A couple of under-the-radar games caught our attention over the weekend. Late Saturday night (in our time zone), we had the classic Big 10/ACC showdown of Cal hosting UCLA. It was the debut of Cal coach Tosh Lupoi and UCLA’s new head man Bob Chesney.

It turns out UCLA’s defense is really good, even through moments of undisciplined penalties. They held Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, considered one of the top 10 in the country, to just 24 of 41 passing with two interceptions and two touchdowns.

Another thing you may have missed: Miami is really good. Yeah, we know people thought they were good already, but they are really good. Sure, it was easy to beat a bad Stanford team that seemed to be playing with eight defenders because the secondary was nowhere to be found. But Miami quarterback Darian Mensah made sure his name is in this week’s Heisman chatter.

A Lot of Hyper for Not Much Football

The LSU-Clemson game was…well, it was played. This may be the worst Clemson offensive line we have seen in a generation. LSU looked very good, but we are going to wait for a bigger sampling, because Clemson looked that bad.

Breaking with Tradition

We historically have put a photo here in the last spot of the column. Maybe it was of a cool helmet or something else that caught our attention. But this time, it’s a link to a video.

Actor Vince Vaughn is the main focus in the EA Sports College Football 27 video game commercial. He waxes poetic about what could have been if there had been NIL opportunities when he went to school. The video also features Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, fresh off the court appearances that got him a sixth year of college football eligibility. It is edited to look like a back-and-forth between Vaughn and Chambliss. We don’t want to give away the plot line. But it was awesome.

Don’t sweat that the link is for an Instagram version of the video. You do not have to have an Instagram account to see it. Vince Vaughn/Trinidad Chambliss

Main Image: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

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