Montana State at Oregon
In spite of Montana State’s undefeated season last year in the FCS and the fact that all the coaches in The Big Sky seem to think they’re favored to win the conference title this year, Dan Lanning’s Oregon team came out—put their foot on the gas—and never let up in a 59-13 beat down of the Bobcats at home in Eugene. The offense for the Ducks started the game with back-to-back TD’s while on the other side of the ball Oregon followed those up with the defensive equivalent, back-to-back three-and-outs, and with just six minutes gone in the 1st Qtr Oregon was up 14-0 and would add another three points on an Atticus Sappington 23 yard field goal.
The second quarter was almost a mirror image at the start with back-to-back TD’s for the Ducks on either side of a defensive three-and-out. With just over five minutes left before the break it was Oregon 31 Montana State zip. The Bobcats finally got some points up on the board on their second possession of the quarter at the end of a 13 play 50 yard drive that bogged down at the Oregon 35 which lead to a successful 42 yard field goal by their Sophomore Place Kicker Myles Sansted with just a couple of clicks over a minute left in the half. But that was plenty of time for the Ducks who would drive 67 yards in just under a minute and cash in again—this time an 11 yard TD pass from Oregon Sophomore QB Dante Moore (his second of the day) to Senior WR Malik Benson. 38-3 Oregon at the half.
The Bobcats got the ball to start the third and were able to put three more points up on the board at the end of a 9 play 51 yard drive and another 42 yard Miles Stansted field goal. But after that it was rinse-and-repeat for the Ducks with another set of back-to-back touchdowns on either side of a six play Montana State possession that yielded all of three yards before they had to punt. At the end of the 3rd Qtr it was 52-6 Oregon. Montana’s first possession of the 4th Qtr led to another punt after six plays. The Ducks would follow that up with an 8 play, 80 yard, five minute drive that ended up in the end zone in the hands of their Freshman RB Jordan Davison. With a little less than five minutes to go and trailing 59-6, Montana State had their most successful drive of the game, a 9 play 75 yard march down the field that ended up in the end zone on an Adam Jones TD run with 2:22 left to go and trailing 59-13 where it would stay after Oregon ran out the time on their next possession.
For Montana State, Junior QB Justin Lamson connected on 23-of-31 for 198 yards without connecting in the end zone or throwing an interception. Other than the TD by Sophomore RB Adam Jones, the Bobcat running game was virtually non-existent rushing 27 times for just 46 yards. For Oregon, QB Dante Moore connected on 78% of his passes for 213 yards and 3 TD’s without a pick—all three to different receivers. On the ground the Ducks rushed 38 times for 254 yards and five TD’s, three by Freshman RB Jordan Davison alone who scored three of the six times he carried the ball. Up next for Oregon, another game at home—this time against Oklahoma State on Saturday September 6th.
Missouri State at USC
After their 73-13 win the Los Angeles Times basically lambasted Lincoln Riley for scheduling Missouri State in the first place. I mean I get it, this is their first year in the FBS after spending their time since 1986 in D-1AA of the FCS. But College Football news in their preview seemed to think the team was ready to play well in Conference USA noting that they were; “third in the nation last season in passing efficiency, third down conversions weren’t a problem, and overall, [the Bears] averaged 425 yards and 35 points per game.” Most importantly their QB, Jacob Clark, threw for over 3,600 yards last season with 26 TD’s and just six interceptions while leading his former team to a Junior College National Championship. And even if you don’t think those stats are impressive because of the competition they faced, is USC playing Missouri State any different than the teams like Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, and Middle Tennessee State that Nick Saban used to dial up for Alabama? I don’t think so and I don’t necessarily agree in total with LA Times Columnist Dylan Hernandez when he wrote that; “There were no conclusions to draw from the 73-13 victory over Missouri State. There were no definitive statements that could be made about the direction of the program.” However, against the returning 6’ 5” Senior Missouri State QB who averaged 300 yards and 2 TD’s a game last year the Trojan secondary (safeties and cornerbacks) held him to half of that—147 yards and just 1 TD—in addition to picking him off twice. On the ground D’Anton Lynn’s defense held them to just 65 yards rushing on 29 attempts. With Lynn being one of the most talented defensive coordinators in college football I think in this, his second year, you are going to find that the defense is continuing to rise and will not be the reason if the Trojans don’t excel this year.
After a Missouri State field goal on their first possession of the game, USC wasted no time in dialing it up starting with back-to-back 75 yard drives ending in TD runs to go up 14-3 at the end of the 1st Qtr. After holding the Bears to a three-and-out USC’s Junior QB Jayden Maiava connected on a 64 yard TD pass to Senior TE Lake McRee to go up 21-3 and then 28-3 after a pick six on the Bear’s next possession. Missouri State would finally settle down and close the gap a bit on a 33 yard Jacob Clark TD pass to Freshman WR Tristian Gardner to make it 28-10 with just four minutes left in the half. But the Trojans weren’t about to slow down and cranked up another 14 points before the half on back-to-back TD’s—one on a run by Maiava and one a 73 yard pass from Maiava to Senior RB Eli Sanders to go up 42-10 at the break.
USC got the ball to start the 2nd half and continued the pounding starting with an 8 play 74 yard drive and a trip into the end zone by the Trojan’s Freshman backup QB Husan Longstreet. After holding the Bears to a punt on their next possession USC would get another chance just a couple of minutes later but would fumble on their own 22 yard line. Four plays later Missouri State would cash in with another field goal to make it 49-13 with almost six minutes left in the quarter. It would take USC just 12 seconds of that to put the ball into the end zone again, this time on a 75 yard run by Freshman RB King Miller to make it 56-13 with 5:30 left in the 3rd Qtr. After another ineffective drive the Trojans would take the ball over to start the 4th Qtr and just like every other quarter this game—other than the 2nd in which they scored four TD’s—would find the end zone two more times as well as adding another field goal for good measure all the while holding the Bears to a fumble and two punts. When it mercifully ended for Missouri State the scoreboard read 73-13. Ten TD’s were scored by nine different players and it had been 95 years since they had put that many points on the board.
The two USC QB’s were lethally accurate combining for 24-of-27 (an 88% clip) for 364 yards, 3 TD’s and no interceptions. The Trojan ground game was even more brutal point wise as they rushed 30 times for 233 yards and six TD’s with the QB’s accounting for half of those. The defense held up their side equally as well sacking Clark 5 times and recording 13 tackles for loss. On the other side the return Senior QB Jacob Clark was 16-of-24 for 147 yards, 1 TD, and 2 picks. The ground game, as I mentioned up top, was pretty non-existent. The Trojan’s next opponent will bring a familiar face back to the coliseum and maybe put more fans in the stands as Head Coach Clay Helton and his Georgia Southern Eagles arrive for a game that starts at 4:30pm this coming Saturday, September 6th. Helton in his fourth year with the Eagles was 46-24 as former head coach of USC and was the first Trojan coach to have 10-wins in each of his first two full seasons. This should be a stiffer test for USC with the Eagles having gone 8-5 last year and 6-2 in their Sunbelt Conference. We’ll see how it turns out and what LA Times’ Dylan Hernandez has to say about it afterwards.
Utah at UCLA
Probably not surprising to anyone that Head Coach Kyle Whittingham was going to retool and come back with a Utah team looking like what we’ve seen in the past. Featuring an accurate passer, scrambler and game manager in Junior QB Devon Dampier and a typical stout defense, the Utes had no problem dispensing with the Bruins on the road in the Rose Bowl. Shutting UCLA out in both the 1st and 4th Quarters Utah led 13-0 at the end of the 1st, 23-7 at the break, 30-10 after three and added two more TD’s in the 4th to give us the 43-10 final.
Both teams were premiering new starting QB’s and Offensive Coordinators. Tino Sunseri, took over for Eric Bieniemy who was fired at the end of last season by UCLA’s current head coach DeShaun Foster. Last year Sunseri’s Indiana offense averaged better than 40 points a game—second best in the nation. Utah’s Junior QB Devon Dampier followed his Offensive Coordinator Jason Beck from New Mexico where their offense averaged better than 480 yards per game—4th in the FBS. If you want to put your finger on one obvious problem area you need look no further than the UCLA defense which improved after the hiring of D’Anton Lynn and immediately got worse after Lincoln Riley picked him off to be the Defensive Coordinator for the Trojans. In Lynn’s first year the Bruins went from allowing their opponents right at 30 points per game to just 18.4 points per game—14th in the nation. First year after Lynn’s departure that 18.4 ppg went to 25.2—from 14th to 68th in the nation. In this one they gave up 43 to an unranked Utah (although that could change) and have No. 2 Penn State, No. 20 Indiana, and No. 3 Ohio State upcoming on their dance card—just to name a few. After a 5-7 season to start his tenure the UCLA AD may not wait until year three to cut DeShaun Foster loose. As the great Los Angeles Times Sports Columnist Bill Plaschke wrote following the game; “Year 2 of the DeShaun Foster era began at UCLA late Saturday night with taped seats, yawning fans and a frightening question. What if this guy really can’t coach? . . . Still waiting. Getting uglier. Seriously worried.”
For Utah, their starting Junior QB Devon Dampier was surgically accurate and efficient connecting on 21-of-25 (80+%) pass attempts for 206 yards, no picks, and 2 TD’s—one to Senior TE Dallen Bentley and the other to Senior LB and two-way player Lander Barton. On the ground Dampier, Sophomore RB Wayshawn Parker and Senior RB NaQuari Rogers combined for 210 of the teams 286 yards rushing as well as a TD each to go with a fourth by Junior Cornerback Smith Snowden. They had zero turnovers, 4 sacks, and 5 tackles for loss. The Bruins starting QB, Sophomore Nico Iamaleava, completed just 50% of his pass attempts for 136 yards, 1 TD to Junior RB Anthony Woods, and 1 interception in addition to rushing 13 times for 47 yards—slightly over half of UCLA’s anemic rushing yard total of 84 without ever finding the end zone. Helping Utah’s Dampier achieve that 84% completion rate was the Bruin defense that recorded no sacks and just two tackles for loss. Utah recorded 30 first downs compared with 14 for UCLA and were absolutely unstoppable on third down with a completion percentage of 87.5% compared with just 18% for the Bruins. With 15 more minutes of possession the Utes 492 total yards of offense against UCLA’s 220 isn’t surprising. Like Plaschke wrote; “What if this guy really can’t coach? . . . Still waiting, Getting uglier. Seriously worried.”
Colorado State at Washington
Winning the toss and deferring to the 2nd half, then holding Colorado State to a three-and-out on their first possession followed up by Husky RB Jonah Coleman’s 25 yard TD run to go up 7-0 with just four minutes gone in the 1st Qtr had those of us in Husky Stadium for the home opener pretty pumped up and ready for a real butt kicking. But that certainly didn’t happen, at least not in the first half, and actually not in the second half either. The Rams would come right back to tie the score 9 plays and 75 yards later on a 2 yard run by their Senior wildcat QB Tahj Bullock with the score staying at 7-7 through the 1st Qtr. The second quarter started just like the first, a three-and-out by the Washington defense followed up by a Husky TD, this time at the end of a 7 play 88 yard drive and 1 yard run into the end zone by Sophomore RB Adam Mohammed to make it 14-7 early in the 2nd Qtr. Once again the Rams were held to a three-and-out but Washington couldn’t capitalize and had to punt it back just eight plays later. But yet another three-and-out and chance to increase the lead was squandered by a fumble which led to a Colorado State TD 9 plays later on a 15 yard TD run by their Freshman RB Jalen Dupree to tie the score at 14 a piece at the break. Definitely a situation that had the Husky faithful squirming.
Washington would get the ball to start the 2nd half and would break that tie in less than four minutes at the end of a 7 play 59 yard drive and TD run by Sophomore TE Kade Eldridge to make it 21-14. But just like the first half Colorado State would tie it right back up 21-21 on a 7 play drive of their own and 27 yard TD pass from the Rams Junior QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi to Sophomore TE Jaxxon Warren. In the stands we’re thinking didn’t expect game 1 to be such a grind. But credit to the Husky toughness as they not only came back on their next possession to take a 28-21 lead on a 12 yard TD pass from Sophomore QB Demond Williams Jr to Junior WR Denzel Boston but would follow that up with an interception and a field goal early in the 4th Qtr to go up 31-21. After forcing the Rams to turn the ball back over on downs at the end of their next possession Washington would finally put it out of reach on another Jonah Coleman TD run to make it 38-21 where it would stay the rest of the way.
Washington’s Sophomore QB Demond Williams Jr. connected on 75% of his passes for 226 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions while also rushing 13 times for 68 yards. On the ground the Huskies rushed 51 times for 283 yards with Jonah Coleman leading the way with those two of their four rushing TD’s and 177 of the yards. They out-paced the Rams in first downs, 26-17; total yards of offense, 509-265; third down efficiency, 57% to 23%, and time of possession by thirteen more minutes. The Ram QB, Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, connected on just over 50% of his passes for 180 yards with 1 TD and 1 interception. On the ground the Rams rushed 27 times for 85 yards and 2 trips to the end zone. Each team had a turnover and both defenses got to the QB back a few times with about 5 or 6 tackles for loss. The Huskies stay home again next week and should have an easier time of it against California-Davis a non-major opponent.