Season like no other College football’s wild ride,
It’s hard to top the 2015 college football season for weirdness and wackiness, shock and even shame. With the bowl season and its potential for the bizarre upon us, USA TODAY Sports’ Daniel Uthman recounts the most memorable and miserable moments of the s
Aug. 1: Mississippi offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and his stepfather agree to drop domestic violence charges filed against each other after a June incident. Comments by Tunsil’s stepfather, Lindsey Miller, about the incident attract the attention of the NCAA, which sends officials to speak to Miller. Aug. 9: With its star running back, Dalvin Cook, facing misdemeanor battery charges, Florida State takes two team photos: one with Cook and one without him. Aug. 13: With a simple “Thank God,” quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. announces he has passed his final math requirement to earn his Eastern Washington degree and will be able to enroll and play for Oregon. Aug. 20: Idaho coach Paul Petrino verbally attacks a reporter from the “Moscow (Idaho)-Pullman Daily News” over an article about the Vandals’ offensive balance but denies he threatened the reporter. The reporter stands by his story. Aug. 21: Baylor football player Sam Ukwuachu is sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years’ probation for a 2013 sexual assault of a freshman women’s soccer player. Aug. 22: Southern California coach Steve Sarkisian uses vulgar language and slurred words and then is pulled off the stage during the Trojans’ annual “Salute to Troy” event in which the school introduces the players to key donors. Aug. 23: Sarkisian apologizes for his behavior and language. Aug. 25: Sarkisian says he will seek treatment for his drinking. Aug. 28: Illinois fires coach Tim Beckman one week before the team’s season opener over issues of player mistreatment. It begins an unprecedented wave of in-season coaching turnover. Sept. 3: Five Rutgers football players are charged with home invasion and assault. Sept. 5: Mississippi announces it is holding out Tunsil, considered the No. 1 offensive line prospect for the 2016 NFL draft, as a precaution pending an NCAA investigation. Sept. 5: Brigham Young freshman quarterback Tanner Mangum completes a lastsecond Hail Mary pass to beat Nebraska 33-28. Sept. 7: Cardale Jones starts at quarterback for Ohio State after a fierce preseason competition with J.T. Barrett. Sept. 9: Arkansas coach Bret Bielema mocks Ohio State’s schedule. Sept. 12: Mangum completes a Hail Mary pass in the final minute to beat Boise State. Sept. 12: Bielema’s Arkansas team is upset at home by Toledo, a Mid-American Conference team from Ohio. Sept. 12: Tennessee blows a 24-10 fourth-quarter lead and falls 31-24 to Oklahoma in double overtime in Knoxville. Sept. 12: Sorry “Surrender Cobra,” but “Sad Virginia Fan” drooping over the Scott Stadium sideline wall after Notre Dame’s 39-yard touchdown with 12 seconds left to beat the Cavaliers is the undisputed meme of the season. Sept. 15: Steve Patterson is pushed out after two rocky years as athletics director at Texas. Sept. 16: Rutgers suspends coach Kyle Flood for three games and fines him $50,000 for impermissible contact with a professor over a player’s grade. Sept. 26: With injured Adams on the bench, Oregon loses to Utah 62-20, the most points it has allowed in a game in almost exactly 20 years. Sept. 26: Tennessee blows a 27-14 fourth-quarter lead and falls 28-27 at Florida. Oct. 3: Tennessee blows a 14-0 lead and falls 24-20 to Arkansas in Knoxville. Oct. 10: Tennessee rallies from a 24-3 deficit to beat Georgia 38-31.
Oct. 10: Days after it is reported his firing is imminent, Maryland coach Randy Edsall storms out of a news conference when a reporter asks a question implying it appeared Edsall was saying farewells to his players on the field before the Terrapins’ game vs. Ohio State. Oct. 10: North Texas fires coach Dan McCarney an hour after the Mean Green lose 66-7 to Football Championship Subdivision member Portland State on homecoming. Oct. 11: Maryland fires Edsall. Oct. 11: Southern California announces Sarkisian, who was unable to coach practice, will take an indefinite leave of absence. Oct. 12: “After careful consideration of what is in the best interest of the university and our student-athletes, I have made the decision to terminate Steve Sarkisian, effective immediately,” USC athletics director Pat Haden announces. Clay Helton is named interim head coach. Oct. 12: After leading his team to a surprising 6-0 start, Florida quarterback Will Grier is hit with a one-year suspension by the NCAA for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Oct. 12: The NCAA finds Tunsil accepted extra benefits and suspends him for seven games retroactive to the season’s start. He is ruled eligible to return for Mississippi’s Oct. 24 game vs. Texas A&M. Oct. 12: Coach Steve Spurrier tells his South Carolina players in a meeting that he is retiring, effective immediately. Oct. 13: Sarkisian enters a treatment facility. Oct. 17: Michigan State’s Jalen Watts-Jackson snags a botched punt attempt by Michigan’s Blake O’Neill on the game’s final play and returns it 38 yards for a touchdown and a 27-23 Spartans win. Watts-Jackson breaks his hip on the play but months later continues to be credited for saving the Spartans’ College Football Playoff hopes. Oct. 19: Utah coach Kyle Whittingham says his staff suspected Arizona State was stealing its signals during a 34-18 Utes victory Oct. 17. Oct. 20: Former Alabama running back Altee Tenpenny, a member of the Crimson Tide’s 2013 recruiting class who had transferred in January, dies in a one-car crash near Glen Allan, Miss.
Oct. 20: Ohio State coach Urban Meyer names Barrett the team’s starting quarterback for its game Oct. 24 against Rutgers.
Oct. 24: In an otherwise forgettable season for Georgia Tech, Lance Austin returns a blocked field goal attempt 78 yards on the game’s final play to give the Yellow Jackets a 22-16 win against Florida State. It was the Seminoles’ first loss to an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent in 28 games and ended Florida State’s regular-season winning streak at 34 games. Oct. 25: With his team winless after eight games, George O’Leary announces his immediate retirement as Central Florida’s head coach. Oct. 26: Baylor announces quarterback Seth Russell, a Heisman Trophy contender and the nation’s pass efficiency leader, will miss the rest of the season after having surgery for a broken bone in his neck. Oct. 28: Popular Minnesota coach Jerry Kill announces his immediate retirement from coaching because of heightened neurological health risks related to his epilepsy. Oct. 29: Oregon uses 8-foot-tall white sheets on the sideline of Sun Devil Stadium to prevent Arizona State from stealing its offensive signals, a move UCLA coach Jim Mora later calls “awesome” and “ingenious.” Oct. 31: Ohio State quarterback Barrett is cited for operating a vehicle while impaired and is suspended for the Buckeyes’ Nov. 7 game vs. Minnesota. Oct. 31: Miami (Fla.) beats Duke 30-27 on an eight-lateral kickoff return on the game’s final play. The play covers 91 yards and lasts roughly 40 seconds, and the replay review to determine whether the Hurricanes’ touchdown will stand takes nearly 10 minutes. Nov. 1: With his team at 4-5, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer announces his plans to retire after 29 seasons as the Hokies coach. Nov. 2: The Atlantic Coast Conference identifies four officiating errors on the final play of the Miami-Duke game and issues a two-game suspension to the officiating crew. Nov. 5: The Pac-12 Conference says it has received no inquiries about Arizona State stealing signals nor has Arizona State violated any NCAA or Pac-12 rules. Nov. 7: On a Saturday night of their idle week, more than 30 Missouri football players say they will not practice or play until university system President Tim Wolfe resigns or is fired after what is seen as a heightening racist atmosphere on the Columbia campus. Nov. 9: Wolfe resigns, and the Missouri football team ends its boycott, or what it called its “solidarity strike.” Nov. 13: Days after sitting in solidarity with his team, Missouri coach Gary Pinkel announces he is battling lymphoma and will resign at the end of the season. Nov. 21: Ohio State falls to Michigan State 17-14 for its first loss in 23 games, and running back Ezekiel Elliott and quarterback Jones immediately express their intent to leave for the NFL after the season. Nov. 25: Baylor quarterback Jarrett Stidham, the Bears’ replacement for injured Russell, is declared out for the season with a broken right ankle. Nov. 28: After weeks of suspicion that coach Les Miles was about to be ousted as LSU’s coach, athletics director Joe Alleva decides during the Tigers’ win vs. Texas A&M that Miles will remain in place. Nov. 29: Georgia and coach Mark Richt agree to a mutual parting after 15 seasons and 145 wins. Dec. 5: Baylor quarterback Chris Johnson, who was the Bears’ replacement for injured Stidham, suffers a concussion late in the first quarter against Texas and is replaced at the position by junior wide receiver Lynx Hawthorne. Dec. 6: After a wild season of shocking story lines, the fourteam College Football Playoff field is set with a complete lack of intrigue or controversy.