Big 12 debuts no party for Herman, Rhule
This wasn’t exactly how the Big 12 wanted to start its season.
The league, which has added a title game and already started politicking for a place in the College Football playoff, didn’t need an opening loss by Texas under new savior Tom Herman and its million-dollar locker room.
Texas’ 51-41 loss to Maryland to start the day Saturday looked all too familiar to anyone who watched Charlie Strong’s teams struggle the past three seasons. A defense that is prone to allowing the big play; special teams miscues; an offense that is searching for an identity — they’ve seen it before in Austin.
Nor did the Big 12 want to see what happened in its nightcap, Baylor and new coach Matt Rhule losing to Liberty, which won’t be a full-time FBS school until 2019.
Liberty, where ousted Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw is in charge, rolled up 585 yards to hang on for a 48-45 win in Waco.
The Bears got another dose of bad news when running back JaMycal Hasty injured a knee and could be out at least a month.
“It’s the first game of the season, we can’t let it define us,” quarterback Anu Solomon told the Waco Tribune-Herald. “We’re better than that. This is not the team that I think that has put their heart and sweat and blood and tears in through the summer and spring. We’re definitely a better team, but how can we bounce back? That’s the question.”
That’s the question for the Big 12 as well. The league will find out soon as No. 7 Oklahoma travels to No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday.
Alabama good, but will be better
The national championship game will be played in January at Atlanta’s new $1.5 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
It’s a good chance topranked Alabama, which opened the stadium with a 24-7 win over No. 3 Florida State, will be back.
“It’s good to get a win, but we have a lot of work to do,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “It’s one game. We have a long season. The focus that we have right now is what’s ahead, not what’s behind.”
The season could get a lot longer for the Seminoles after quarterback Deondre Francois suffered a seasonending knee injury. The Tallahassee Democrat, citing sources, said Francois suffered a patella tendon injury in his left knee and is scheduled to have surgery as early as Tuesday.
Francois started all 13 games last season and threw for the fifth-most yards in school history (3,350). Of the four quarterbacks behind Francois on the depth chart, none of them have started a college game and have a combined 19 pass attempts.
James Blackman was in for the final series against Alabama and coach Jimbo Fisher said that the 6-foot5, 195-pound freshman would likely take over. Blackman would be FSU’s first true freshman to start at quarterback since Dan Kendra in 1996.
As for Alabama, quarterback Jalen Hurts of Channelview did just enough (96 yards passing, 55 yards rushing) under new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll (formerly of the Patriots) although Saban rumbled that his team “didn’t make a lot of explosive plays.”
The defense (two interceptions) and special teams (blocked punt, blocked field goal, forced fumble on kickoff return) made up for it.
“This game tells us where we are and where we need to go … We’ll get better,” Saban said of something college football knows by now.
A little bit of Texas from LSU
LSU’s opener against BYU was supposed to be at NRG but was moved to the Superdome in New Orleans because of the fallout from Hurricane Harvey.
The “Texas Kickoff ” logo was on the turf, and the LSU band played the state song, “Texas, Our Texas.”
As for the game, Derrius Guice 120 yards rushing) looked comfortable for coach Ed Orgeron, and the defense looked pretty sharp, not allowing BYU past midfield in a 27-0 win.
The defense started four true freshmen — and without injured top pass rusher Arden Key — held BYU to fewer than 100 yards.
Howard beats the longest odds
If Liberty’s win over Baylor wasn’t enough, the Howard Bison of FCS went one better.
A 45-point underdog to UNLV, the Bison won 43-40 in what is the biggest upset in college football history, at least according to point spreads.
A $100 bet on Howard to win the game would have paid $55,000, according to the service that supplies odds to the Associated Press.
The previous biggest point spread win was Stanford beating USC as a 39-point underdog in Jim Harbaugh’s first season as coach.
Howard, which was picked ninth of 11 schools in the MEAC, has had one winning season in the last 11 years and was 3-19 the past two seasons.
“We’re all ruled by the psychology of results,” said Mike London, the former Virginia coach who took over at Howard this season. “In terms of culture, perception and being competitive this is huge.
“To go on the road, cross country and play these guys toe-to-toe with their allotment of 80-plus scholarship guys and with my 57 plus is big.”
Howard is quarterbacked by Caylin Newton, Cam’s little brother. He rushed for 190 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 140 and another touchdowns plus a twopoint conversion.
Blind snapper sees big picture
But perhaps the best play of the weekend had nothing to with wins and losses.
It came after USC’s final touchdown in a 49-31 win over Western Michigan.
Jake Olson, who lost his eyesight to a rare form of cancer when he as 12 and was adopted by the USC football program under coach Pete Carroll, snapped the final extra point.
Olson, who has been a walk-on with the USC program for three years, nailed it.
After Marvell Tell III returned an interception for the game’s final touchdown, Olson jogged onto the field with one hand on the shoulder pads of holder Wyatt Schmidt. Olson crouched into position, then quickly hiked the ball to Schmidt, who put it in place for the kick by Chase McGrath.
When the ball sailed through the uprights, the USC sideline erupted in dancing and cheering, fans hugged and high-fived, and Trojans coach Clay Helton marveled.
“What a pressure player,” said Helton, who had arranged with Western Michigan coach Tim Lester not to rush Western’s first PAT if the Broncos wouldn’t rush the Trojans’ last. “Is that not a perfect snap at that moment? It’s beyond words.”
Leave it to Olson to find the words.
“There’s a beauty in it,” he said. “If you can’t see how God works things out, then I think you’re the blind one.”