Big 12’s hopes for College Football Playoff now rest on TCU
TCU, the Big 12 turns its College Football Playoff eyes to you.
The Horned Frogs, ranked sixth, are the conference’s only remaining undefeated team after Iowa State upset Oklahoma in Norman on Saturday.
TCU has established itself as the contender du jour for the football final four with consecutive victories over ranked foes in Oklahoma State (44-31) and West Virginia (31-24).
“We found a way to win, and that’s what you have to do … if you are going to a win a championship, three or four are going to be ugly,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said.
“It’s hard to be 5-0. Now we have to go to Manhattan, Kansas, at 11 in the morning, which is a tough place to play. … We are going to try to beat Kansas State by one point.”
The Wildcats, a preseason top-25 pick, are coming off a 40-34 doubleovertime loss to Texas in Austin.
The Longhorns are tied with the Horned Frogs atop the conference at 2-0 and get Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.
The Sooners aren’t done yet. They still face TCU on Nov. 11. But even with the addition of a Big 12 title game, the conference hasn’t fared well in the College Football Playoff era, so an unbeaten Horned Frogs team is the best hope for now.
LSU earns back some pride
The University of Florida paid tribute to Gainesville native Tom Petty, who died Monday, with a playing of Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” between the third and fourth quarters of Saturday’s game.
The stadium — most of it, anyway — sang along and clapped in unison.
The LSU band, however, was playing during the tribute, which didn’t make Gators fans too happy.
The Tigers’ band apologized Sunday.
Embattled LSU coach Ed Orgeron won’t apologize for getting out of The Swamp with a 17-16 victory. Florida kicker Eddy Pineiro missed the first extrapoint attempt of his career in the third quarter to give the Tigers the win.
“Last week, we lost some pride,” Tigers quarterback Danny Etling said of the 24-21 loss at home to Troy. “Playing with heart, playing with grit and having some pride about yourself … we wanted to have each other’s back and get a win.”
Florida plays host to Texas A&M on Saturday. LSU, which can’t afford another conference loss, hosts Auburn in another key game for the Tigers.
ESPN not pleased with Petersen
Washington coach Chris Petersen complained last week about all the late starting times for his fifthranked Huskies. He told Huskies fans that he was sorry about the late kickoffs, saying no one on the East Coast stays up late to watch, but he didn’t blame ESPN.
The network sure seemed to be taken aback, however. Analyst Kirk Herbstreit said on “College Game Day” that Washington should be thanking ESPN for airing its games.
Whether it was planned or not, ESPN took a shot at the Huskies’ schedule during the telecast of the Washington-California game. Sideline reporter Quint Kessenich lined up three cupcakes to represent the Huskies’ non-conference schedule — at Rutgers, Montana and Fresno State.
In the fourth quarter, ESPN play-by-play man Mark Jones piled on more.
“So 38-7 (is the score) for Washington, an impressive performance,” Jones said. “And maybe this will assuage the irascible and somewhat cantankerous head coach, Chris Petersen. … He didn’t have much time for us this week.”
Petersen did not have a face-to-face meeting with ESPN’s broadcasting crew, as most coaches — in college and the NFL — do the day before a game.
That, however, is nothing new for Petersen, who does not do in-person interviews with any of the broadcasting crews the day before games — whether they are from ESPN, Fox or the Pac-12 Network. Instead, what he does do is a phone interview with the broadcasters; in this case, ESPN declined the phone interview with Petersen.
Washington plays Arizona State this week … at 9:45 p.m. on ESPN.
O’Korn stumbles as new starter
John O’Korn, the former UH quarterback, didn’t have his best game in his first start at Michigan.
He threw three interceptions in the second half of a 14-10 loss to Michigan State and took plenty of internet grief for flopping twice on the same play.
O’Korn apparently was trying to draw a flag when he exaggerated his fall out of bounds after a push by a Spartans defensive back, then acted as if he was hit on the sideline by a Michigan State grad assistant.
Michigan may have to go with O’Korn for the rest of the season. ESPN reported that Wilton Speight, the primary starter, has three broken vertebrae and will be out for the season.
Broncos, Bulls battle to 7 OTs
Western Michigan and Buffalo scored a record 139 points in seven overtimes Saturday, with the Broncos finally getting the 71-68 victory on a 12-yard run by Jarvion Franklin.
Buffalo had been held to a field goal to start the seventh extra period to give Western Michigan the chance to win.
It was the fourth game in Football Bowl Subdivision history to go into seven overtimes. The Syracuse-Pittsburgh game (Nov. 26, 2016) had a total of 137 points.