Sunday Superlatives: The best, worst and everything in-between in coaching from an entertainingly exhausting Week 12
Deep inhale. Pause. Breathe.
Whoa.
Survival Saturday, or Shakeup Saturday or the Saturday Scaries certainly delivered.
After a wildly entertaining — and exhausting — Week 12 in college football, let’s catch our collective breath with a loaded recap from the best, worst and everything in-between in coaching this today’s Sunday Superlatives.
SMARTEST CALL OF THE WEEK
We have a two-for-one special this week, and it’s coaches betting on former Oklahoma quarterbacks.
Let’s start out West.
The recent Los Angeles mayoral race was a money-sucking mess, but perhaps the city could’ve avoided so much wasteful spending by simply nominating Lincoln Riley instead.
Does anyone in LA have a greater approval rating right now?
USC’s first-year head coach inherited a 4-8 team that lost to Stanford and Cal in 2021, and in less than 12 months, has the Trojans positioned to win the Pac-12 title and go to the College Football Playoff after a thrilling 45-42 win over crosstown rival UCLA on Saturday.
“College football on the west coast and in LA is alive and well,” Riley said Saturday night.
Apparently sometimes, you can have your cake and eat it, too.
Riley, who made the $100 move from Oklahoma to USC this offseason, smartly didn’t come alone, bringing star quarterback Caleb Williams with him to Hollywood.
He then supplemented USC’s roster with a slew of other standout transfers — from OU and elsewhere — and simply crossed-out “Sooners” for “Trojans” on his gold play sheet.
In Year 1, USC is West Coast Oklahoma — frenetic, fun and flawed.
Outside of relying on ridiculous turnover luck (now +20 on the season), the Trojans have a defense-is-mostly-optional philosophy because Williams is so majestic — able to bail them out time and again.
USC’s offensive fireworks plus some timely takeaways have been enough to completely turn around a program that’s been desperate to embody LA’s flash and frill.
Williams was a maestro against the Bruins, delivering a signature Heisman Trophy performance with more than 500 total yards and three touchdowns. Riley, the wunderkind offensive play-caller, kept dialing up shot plays for his next top draft pick at quarterback, and Williams kept delivering seed after seed.
The sophomore completed 11 passes to defending Biletnikoff winner Jordan Addison and finished with six completions over 20 yards. He now has 40 touchdowns and just three interceptions all season.
He’s been one of the best players in the country this year,” Riley said of Williams.
It was a breathtaking performance, and USC needed every single one of Williams’ plays to survive, as UCLA quarterback Dorian-Thompson Robinson nearly matched Williams blow-for-blow in the Rose Bowl.
DTR had close to 400 total yards and six total touchdowns, but he also had four critical turnovers, including the game-sealing interception by former 5-star recruit Korey Foreman, who jumped a crossing route.
The Trojans are now two wins away — against Notre Dame in the Coliseum and the Pac-12 title — from clinching a spot in the CFB.
Lincoln Riley was the prince who was promised for the Trojans, but it’s all been made possible so quickly because the new king of LA has empowered his star quarterback to carry the sword into every battle.
Fight On, indeed.
As for the other SC — and the other Oklahoma quarterback, Shane Beamer was finally proven correct in his offseason summations that his transfer QB Spencer Rattler was as good as any in the country.
At least for a single night.
After struggling all year in his first season at South Carolina, the former Sooners quarterback turned into John Elway against No. 5 Tennessee, as No. 7 threw for 438 yards and six touchdowns in a runaway romp over the Vols.
Rattler entered the night with five touchdowns in SEC play all season. He led nine scoring drives Saturday in the 63-38 drubbing.
It was a historic performance. Literally. The 63 points were the most by an unranked team over a Top 5 team in 86 years.
“That was probably the best I’ve ever felt in a game. I felt unstoppable,” Rattler said.
He certainly looked like it.
With Rattler dealing, South Carolina was creative and dynamic, dialing up all sorts of explosive plays — including a throwback to Rattler for a 15-yard reception. They had more than 600 yards, with six different players scoring touchdowns.
It was an out-of-body experience for the Gamecocks, who averaged around 20 points per game in SEC play.
For at least one night, their quarterback, who couldn’t lead a single touchdown drive at Florida a week earlier, reminded so many why they were excited for his transfer in the first place nine months ago.
“Oh my God. He was on,” Beamer said postgame.
“You talk about players being in the zone. That guy was in the zone tonight. … We wanted to dictate to them how this game was going to go. Spencer did. He was aggressive throwing the ball down the field. … What a night.”
COACHING CALAMITY OF THE WEEK
How To Surrender a CFP Playoff spot in two easy steps:
Don’t cover.
Don’t tackle.
Rinse. Repeat.
Tennessee suffered a complete collapse in Columbia, the rockiest of any imaginable flops.
The Vols’ defense has been ok-to-bad at times this season. But not debacle levels of awfulness. There’s almost no explanation for whatever Tim Banks’ gameplan was Saturday.
South Carolina had scored 18 offensive touchdowns in conference play all year, but Tennessee yielded nine touchdowns alone Saturday night. They allowed nine plays over 20 yards, plus two more scores that went for exactly 19 yards.
Again, this same Gamecocks offense didn’t reach the end zone once at Florida a week ago.
But Tennessee’s special season — a potential CFB berth and a Heisman Trophy for quarterback Hendon Hooker — went up in flames on a frigid night in Columbia.
It’s a sad ending for Josh Heupel’s team, especially Hooker, who injured his knee on a non-contact run in the fourth quarter, but they have no one to blame but themselves.
They were 25-point favorites and lost by three touchdowns.
They simply had to handle their business against the bottom of the SEC East, and instead self-immolated in such historic fashion — again we repeat that no Top 5 team has ever allowed as many as 63 points to an unranked foe — that they’re suddenly left asking questions about missing a window with a veteran team that won’t be around in 2023.
In a similar fashion, albeit not quite as egregious, North Carolina saw its playoff dreams and Heisman Trophy hopes both go up in flames on the same day, too.
For the second year in a row, Mack Brown’s team lost to Georgia Tech as a big favorite, closing the door on redshirt freshman Drake Maye’s run to New York City.
Maye was just 16 of 30 for 20 yards and a pick, with his go-to receiver Josh Downs dropping the potential game-winning touchdown with around 4-minutes remaining in a 21-17 loss.
The Tar Heels blew a 17-0 lead at home to a pair of third and fourth-string quarterbacks. Georgia Tech seemingly ran the same quick pass to the tailback in the flat over and over again, yet UNC couldn’t stop it.
The Yellow Jackets were perfect at scoring touchdowns in the red zone (3 for 3) and 8 of 15 on third downs — including 3 for 3 on the final drive of the game to secure the upset.
Brown lamented his team’s lack of maturity to play a “trap game,” but whose fault is that really?
Conversely, Georgia Tech interim head coach Brent Key keeps making case after case as to why he should get a strong look at the full-time job at his alma mater.
“These kids have been through more than anyone can imagine. No one knows what these kids have been through the last two months,” Key said.
“They don’t stop believing. God, I love these guys.”
Honorable Mention: Coming off back-to-back blowout wins, Florida went to the Music City this weekend and played the saddest song ever. Billy Napier’s squad got bullied by the Vanderbilt Commodores, losing in Nashville for the first time in 34 years.
That’s not the sort of history you want to make in Year 1, hoss.
“It’s a setback, there’s no question about it,” Napier said.
“A little bit of a reality check to some degree.”
No kidding.
Gators fans were giddy over their recent winning streak and real recruiting momentum, but even during the holiday seasons, joy only lasts so long. With the loss, Florida finished with a losing record in SEC play for the second-straight season — something that hasn’t happened in 63 years.
On the flip side, good on Clark Lea and his continued rebuild in Nashville. The Dores won back-to-back SEC games for the first time since 2018 and are another upset away from making a bowl game.
THE TAKIN’ CARE OF BUSINESS CUP
While the Top 5 teams in the College Football Playoff field either played with its food (Georgia and Ohio State), survived real scares (Michigan and TCU) or got trucked (Tennessee), the seas are slowly starting to part for a couple of former CFP regulars.
No doubt, Dabo Swinney was extra giddy delivering his Sunday school lesson this morning.
Once left for dead, Clemson is now in position to sneak into the bracket with a little more chaos over the next two weekends. The Tigers splattered Miami 40-10, holding the Hurricanes to under 100 total yards.
Their resume isn’t great. And they still need help — likely losses by TCU and USC — but it’s hardly an impossibility that they could find themselves at No. 4 in the rankings in two weeks.
Alabama, which cruised past Austin-Peay 34-0 in its dress rehearsal for the Iron Bowl, suddenly has a 1% CFB battery life, too.
(Math projections are just a guesstimate).
The Crimson Tide needs utter mayhem to rocket from 8th into the field, but never tell Nick Saban there’s a chance.
Say, Michigan or Ohio State gets blown out, and TCU, USC and Clemson all lose a game sometime over the next two weekends, well that just might leave lil’ ole Alabama as the next-best option.
If that happens, 2022 really will be a redux of the madness of 2007.
THE THANK YOU FOR YOUR HONESTY HONOR
Bret Bielema was pissed. And with good reason.
Michigan survived a real scare against Illinois on Saturday, and while the Wolverines made some clutch plays late, namely kicker Jake Moody’s game-winning 35-yarder, they absolutely got away with some 4th-down thievery on a crucial non-called pick-play with under 55 seconds remaining in the game.
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“Very frustrated,” said Bielema, who walked off the field Saturday giving the officiating crew an earful and then took to Twitter afterward to continue to express his frustrations.
“I always look forward to film on Sundays as a coach, but I keep getting answers I don’t love and it doesn’t help us during the course of the week. … Very, very frustrated with the ending of that football game.”
Illinois was flagged for just four penalties for 40 yards Saturday, but Bielema was angry with the crew all day, even lamenting to the ABC crew at halftime, “We didn’t come here to play 110,000, plus a few others.”
No lies told there.
THE ANTI-AUBURN AUDITION AWARD
In the last few weeks, Lane Kiffin and Hugh Freeze have been constantly mentioned at the top of every outlet’s hot board for the next head coach at Auburn.
I’m on record why I think Kiffin makes a lot of sense for the Tigers, and also why Freeze seems like a longshot candidate with the new administration on the Plains.
Still, regardless of whatever is real, rumor or otherwise, neither did their candidacies any favors on Saturday.
Ole Miss was a short favorite at Arkansas but was utterly dominated before a meaningless 4th-quarter scoring barrage, trailing 42-6 before multiple late garbage time touchdowns. In a seemingly stat-sheet impossibility, the Rebels had a pair of 200+ yard rushers and still lost by multiple scores.
Distracted? Maybe. Bad? Certainly.
Worse?
Losing to a terrible Virginia Tech team at home.
A week after getting upset by UConn, the Flames coughed up a 4th-quarter lead to a reeling Hokies team.
It’s a good thing that Freeze, who had Liberty ranked two just weeks ago, recently signed that flimsy contract extension as an insurance policy in case Auburn (or otherwise) doesn’t come calling once again.
Kiffin did address the elephant in the room after the game at least, saying he’s “excited about the future” in Oxford — particularly with a young roster that “has a lot of people coming back and a lot of new guys offensively.”
“I don’t know that stuff out there: The No. 1 candidate) stuff. Maybe if they watched the first half (vs. Arkansas) I wouldn’t be No. 1 anymore then.”
I don’t know Lane. It’s Auburn.
As for the Tigers’ current interim head coach, all Carnell “Cadillac” Williams did was deliver another enthusiastic performance as the program’s leader. Behind a dominant defensive performance after halftime and a little HB-pass trickier from Williams’ playing days, Auburn blitzed Western Kentucky 41-17 in a game that was tied to start the third quarter.
For the last two seasons, Auburn was a dismal second-half team under former head coach Bryan Harsin. But for the third-straight week, they’ve dominated coming out of halftime — outscoring opponents 57-25 under Williams.
The Tigers are now 5-6 and enter the Iron Bowl next weekend with a chance to stun Alabama and get bowl eligible — a 1-2 punch that might be the knockout blow for any other looming candidates.
How could Auburn not promote Williams if he pulls that off?
“This team had every reason to fold, every excuse and we were all saying ‘Well, they’ve been through a tough time.’ Man, they want more,” Williams said.
“They have given me so much confidence to do this job where I go from the first week of being a scared puppy to watching my guys, each of these guys come out of the office and say ‘Coach, we believe in you. Coach, we’re so happy.’…”
“I don’t know, I’m sure you guys are going to get the next coach, I don’t know, I really don’t care. My seat doesn’t dictate my service. Auburn is special, those kids are special, there are a lot of people that took a chance on me and poured into my life. That gave me hope when I was hopeless. So again, my seat doesn’t dictate my service. Now it could impact it, but, it doesn’t dictate how much I serve regardless. I’m going to make it about these players.”
He sure sounds like a head coach.
THE BANGING YOUR HEAD AGAINST THE WALL AWARD
Saturday was a weird game for top-ranked Georgia.
UGA was never in true danger in its 16-6 win over Kentucky, rushing for 247 yards on a frigid, windy day in Lexington.
Kenny McIntosh had his first-career 100+ yard game (145 rushing yards), but whenever the Bulldogs needed a yard — like just 12 inches — they couldn’t get it.
Kentucky stopped Georgia four times on 3rd or 4th-and-short, and while Kirby Smart’s aggressiveness was understandable, the play-calling — trying to pound inside-zone straight up the middle — was inexplicable.
“To get 1 yard, you should be able to get 1 yard. You’ve gotta go get those,” Smart said postgame.
“We got 8, 9 yards a lot of times. We rushed for 247 yards, so getting 1 shouldn’t be the end of the world, right?”
Sure, but not if you constantly dial up plays destined to fail. Todd Monken has been a wizard for much of Georgia’s 2022 season, but the Dawgs’ offensive coordinator — and Smart, too — stubborn refusal to call a QB-boot-leg or play-action pass on such plays turned a potential blowout win into an unnecessary four-quarter slobber knocker.
Up 16-0 facing 4th-and-goal from the 1 at the start of the 4th quarter, Smart smartly decided to send a message and end the game there. Only the Bulldogs dialed up the same ill-fated run-up-the-middle call.
Of course, it didn’t work.
“That was a decision that was made by me, and I wanted to show confidence in our players,” Smart said. “If I had a chance to go out there and do it again, I’d say let’s go out there and do it again because that’s what I believe in. That decision was made 15 years ago, my philosophy.”
Fair enough. But how about some different decision-making within the play call?
Georgia is the best team in America. The deepest team in the country. But sometimes its sloppiness — via either play-calling or with turnovers — continues to allow lesser-talented teams to hang around.
THE WE REALLY NEEDED THAT ONE CUP
Quick: Did you know Bedlam was this weekend?
A year ago, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were a pair if Top 10 teams battling for a spot in the Big 12 Championship and a potential CFP berth. Rumors swirled about Lincoln Riley leaving for LSU.
Well, Saturday’s rivalry game, potentially the last one scheduled depending on next year’s new Big 12 slate, was more like a Sad Dust Bowl as the Cowboys limped into Norman to face a Sooners squad coming off a loss at West Virginia.
Thanks to a pair of Spencer Sanders interceptions, OU jumped out to a 28-zip lead in the first quarter. The Sooners had nearly 300 yards in the period, only to put the game on “simulate” the next 45 minutes (they were thoroughly out-gained by the Cowboys the next three quarters and were 1 of 15 on third down) to hang on 28-13 and secure bowl eligibility.
It’s hardly been a banner fall for first-year head coach Brent Venables, but being on the right ending of Belham — OU wins big, OU wins small but OU usually just wins — for perhaps the last time certainly seemed to mean something.
“Who knows how many more times, if at all, we’ll play,” Venables said.
“I haven’t seen the schedules for next year yet and, you know, new teams coming in (joining the Big 12). So having that trophy right now means a lot to these players.”