College football spotlight: Michigan doesn’t kick this one away
Michigan did something more than play a football game at Michigan State on Saturday. The No. 2 Wolverines confronted a lingering and painful memory.
In case you forgot, they had all but won last season’s in-state rivalry when their punter mishandled a snap, allowing Michigan State to steal the victory with a 38-yard scoop-and-score.
“I was hoping to go my whole career without having that happen,” Coach Jim Harbaugh said of the last-second defeat.
This time around, his team not only recorded a 32-23 win, ending a three-game losing streak against Michigan State, it also found away to exorcise the demons of last fall.
The Wolverines accomplished that by playing offense so efficiently that they did not need to punt until midway through the fourth quarter. Then, with one second remaining, they created a new game-ending memory.
The Spartans helped by — quizzically — going for two after a touchdown with one second to play. Michigan linebacker Jabrill Peppers grabbed an errant pitch and sprinted the length of the field for a defensive two-point score.
“Our guys made the plays throughout the ballgame,” Harbaugh said. “From start to finish.”
Hot seat
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before — a team coached by Mark Richt starts hot, climbs the national polls, then stumbles.
Last fall, a mid-schedule losing streak cost Richt his job after 15 years at Georgia.
This season, it’s happening again with his new team, Miami, which started 4-0, rising to No. 10 in the AP Poll, but has now dropped four straight after a 30-27 loss to struggling Notre Dame.
To be fair, the Hurricanes have been hurt by a string of injuries. And Richt’s position is considered safe in his first season at the helm at Miami.
But Saturday’s game might have an effect on someone else’s job security — with the Irish at 3-5, Coach Brian Kelly desperately needed a win.
Prohibition Era
This storied rivalry used to be known as “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”
What do they call it now?
“Call it Georgia-Florida game,” Georgia Coach Kirby Smart said.
Not very catchy for a century-old Southeastern Conference matchup, but Saturday’s 24-10 victory for No. 14 Florida marked the 10th anniversary of an effort by both schools to sanitize the game’s image.
Georgia versus Florida has always been special because the teams play at a semi-neutral site in Jacksonville, Fla. The “cocktail” nickname reportedly dated back to the 1950s when a newspaper columnist noticed that students treated the weekender as a drunken road trip.
In 2006, Georgia administrators sought to clean things up, at least in name. A university spokesman announced “We don’t like the phrase” and Florida quickly agreed.
But words go only so far and, this week, Jacksonville authorities announced a crack-down.
“We have police officers both in uniform and in plain clothes enforcing underage drinking,” Chief Leonard Propper of the sheriff’s office said. “We will be approaching everybody that is consuming alcohol.”
Data Overload
Statisticians might still be tallying the numbers from Friday night’s shootout between South Florida and Navy.
The 52-45 final score was just the start of it as the teams combined for 1,245 yards on offense, with 729 of those coming on the ground.
South Florida, which scored on its first six possessions, had three players rush for more than 100 yards. Navy quarterback Will Worth accounted for 428 yards and five touchdowns running and passing.
Asked if the outburst was a result of good offense or bad defense, South Florida Coach Willie Taggart said: “I think it was a little bit of both.”
When the smoke from all the fireworks finally clears, No. 22 Navy probably will be knocked out of the top 25.
And though the game fell well short of a NCAA record — Texas Tech and Oklahoma set an NCAA record by combining for 1,708 yards of offense last week — Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo might have delivered the understatement of the weekend when he said: “We just had a problem stopping them.”
Extra Points
Though No. 6 Ohio State rebounded from last week’s upset loss, a 24-20 victory over Northwestern did not answer every question about the inconsistent Buckeyes offense … A big part of Texas’ win over No. 8 Baylor was running back D’Onta Foreman, who rushed for 250 yards and has 1,105 for the season … No. 10 West Virginia traveled to Oklahoma State with the No. 16 scoring defense in the nation and fell apart in 37-20 upset loss.
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