El Cid adds-to the total of FCS victories over FBS teams this season, racking-up the third such win in 2019. Other college football notes.
The Citadel 27 at Georgia Tech 24 OT
The Citadel had Georgia Tech under siege for virtually the entire game. The Bulldogs never trailed and Georgia Tech finally managed to tie the game at the end of regulation. A field goal in OT won it for El Cid after Tech missed their field goal attempt in OT. This was the first win for The Citadel against an ACC opponent after previously going 0-22 against the same.
The Yellow Jackets were more wreck than ramblin’ as they are in the first stages of a major schematic overhaul on offense, going from Paul Johnson’s triple-option, which was very successful over the years, to Geoff Collins’ spread. Johnson retired after last season and Collins was brought in from Temple.
The Citadel has done this kind of thing before, beating Power Five, South Carolina 23-22 in 2015.
The Citadel Caps 2015 Season’s FCS Victories over FBS
The Citadel gave Georgia Tech a dose of their own former medicine by rushing for 320 triple-option yards on 71 carries. This very impressive Power Five win is the best of the FCS victories over FBS teams this season which have been relatively few and far between, so far. Interestingly enough, The Citadel was picked near the bottom of the Southern Conference by the preseason magazines.
Georgia Tech did not score to open the overtime leaving them vulnerable to a Bulldog field goal. That is exactly what happened. I wanted The Citadel to kick the field goal immediately and try to safely get it over with, but the Citadel staff chose to try to work the ball into easier field goal position. This garnered about five yards, setting up the 37-yard winner.
As they did in the Civil War, the young men of The Citadel fought valiantly.
Other College Football Notes
Among many happy people in Lawrence, Kansas, Jeff Long surely took the cake. Les Miles gets his first big win at Kansas in Chestnut Hill versus the ACC’s very respectable Boston College. There is no reason Kansas cannot return to their best form, eventually. It is not a big leap from bad to average and average to good in college football. West Virginia at Kansas this weekend could be a very good game. The Mountaineers knocked-off NC State of the ACC.
The ACC and the Pac-12 have both said their officials made mistakes on the last plays of North Carolina at Wake Forest and Arizona State at Michigan State, respectively. North Carolina could have had one second more for a potential Hail Mary and Michigan State another potential kick to tie the game.
Kansas State at Mississippi State was really a matter of who could overcome their own multiple mistakes and Kansas State made the plays down the stretch to do so.
Half of one grandstand at Tulsa was solid orange against nearby Oklahoma State. Tulsa led at the half.
Tulane obliterated Missouri State. The Missouri State radio announcers spent the entire game talking about the Power Six, Tulane and AAC. Breaking Newsflash: The Power Six is the fever-dream of UCF and the AAC. It presently exists merely in the minds of mythical national champions (self-awarded, no less), unicorns, and Missouri State announcers.
This has been a brutal start for starting quarterbacks lost to injury. The SEC East has lost three starters for the season. Backups are critical. I have been discounting teams that have lost starting quarterbacks, but these back-ups have been doing well. Backups for USC, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Florida, have looked good. Mississippi State’s back-up, Shrader, came-in and looked pretty good filing-in for Stevens who has been knocked-out of each of the last two games. Check you depth charts, kids. Bachmeier and Cord look legitimately two-deep at Boise State. Starkel has taken over at Arkansas, but they are two-deep with Hicks.
It is really a shame anyone had to lose in the Iowa v. Iowa State game.
BYU showed home field power and quarterback, Zach Wilson, is a gamer. There were Manziel comparisons being made (intended as a compliment), but closer to home, BYU had another really resourceful gamer in Ty Detmer.
Off-the-field news last week for Florida State may be the best as they bring-on Jim Leavitt as a Senior Defensive Analyst. It is rarely talked about, but starting a football program from scratch at South Florida with Leavitt as coach and rising all the way to number two in the nation in about ten years is amazing. The talent base helped, too. Gotta have the Jimmies and Joes. Anyway, excellent move by Taggart.
Virginia Tech did much the same, today announcing Jerry Kill is coming-in to help. It has always struck me that, even after he had three national championships under his belt, Bobby Knight usually had an older, senior-type assistant on his staff.
This was close the whole way, and a great game, but Eastern Michigan always looked slightly more in command and better than Illinois in this win. Head Coach Chris Creighton is way too far under-the-radar as is the turnaround in Ypsilanti. The glass (Mike Glass III – see what I did there) is not half-empty at quarterback for Eastern Michigan. This guy is an operator who can throw.
Minnesota was living on the edge against Georgia Southern just like they were last week against Fresno State.
Arky seems to have found the answer with Nick Starkel regarding point production. They scored way more against Colorado State (55) than they did in the previous two games against Portland State (20) and Mississippi (17) combined.
California is now ranked, but they barely got by North Texas. Great win at Washington last week, though. If this was the 1920s or 30s, the pulp novel hero would have had nothing on Evan Weaver, Senior Linebacker.
Liberty with a very nice win over Buffalo.
Weber State gave Nevada all they wanted.
If you start stringing together comparative, week to week, scores, things get very bizarre really fast. Week to week must drive coaches crazy.
Arizona finally found some defense and shut-down Texas Tech 28-14. Not what the Red Raiders expected when they brought in the high-scoring Utah State bunch. Arizona previously let up 45 at Hawaii and 41 against Northern Arizona. Let me help you out Tech: I always used to yell “Yost!?!” at the press box. It helps when they throw 40 yards to the end zone on third and eight.
This QB, Anthony Gordon, at Washington State is the real deal. The last, critical TD pass against Houston was a flick-of-the-wrist affair with a ton of velocity. You don’t see that too often. The senior only threw five passes last year.
Houston Baptist gets a very nice win at South Dakota.