Utah at BYU
It’s unusual to have a rivalry game this early in the season, let alone on Week 1, but that’s what happened this past Thursday in Provo when Utah took on BYU in the “Holy War,” for the 100th time. Between the years 1922 to 2010, when both teams were in the same conference, the match-up often times decided their conference title. In 2015, a year in which they didn’t meet in the regular season, they ended up going head-to-head in the Las Vegas Bowl, a game which was dubbed “The Holy War in Sin City.”
As was mentioned in the Utah preview it was expected that their offense would rely a lot on Senior RB Zach Moss who came into the game with a career 2,600+ yards and 23 rushing TD’s under his belt. That’s exactly what they did and he didn’t disappoint, carrying the ball 29 times for 187 yards and 1 TD while averaging 6+ yards per carry. QB Tyler Huntley was certainly efficient and mistake free for the Utes going 13 of 16 for 106 yards with no interceptions. But he drew a goose egg on the scoreboard and the team collectively produced less than 300 yards of Total Offense. With another score on the ground by Sophomore Jaylen Dixon and two pick sixes by their defense, the Utes didn’t really need much from Huntley, but it does make one wonder how effective Utah can be on offense if they run into a team that defends well against the run. Are they going to be able to put enough points on the board to beat everyone they face? For now at least, Utah’s Defense looked every bit as good as advertised holding BYU to less than 100 yards on the ground, no TD’s in the air, and as ESPN noted; “Over the final 30 minutes, the Cougars gained just 104 yards on 18 total plays.”
In addition to addressing what was an anemic pass offense Utah will probably also have Andrew Strauch working on his kicking game as he missed a PAT in the second quarter as well as an easy field goal from 25 yards out on the opening play of the fourth quarter—a miss that got him benched. The PAT miss snapped a 4+ year consecutive made streak of 182 PAT’s dating all the way to 2014. It was a performance that did not go unnoticed; “Special teams were a disappointment tonight,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “We’ve got to be much better on special teams.” Utah comes back home to Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City to take on the NIU Huskies and Idaho State Bengals before hitting the road to face USC at the LA Coliseum.
Fresno State at USC
One thing you never want to see when you’re watching college football is for one of players to get hurt and taken off the field. It had to be especially gut wrenching for USC Head Coach Clay Helton when his star QB J. T. Daniels got injured as his leg twisted while being tackled on a blitz with less than 30 seconds left to play in the half—an injury that put him into a brace, on crutches, and out of the game. The Trojans hung on for a 31-23 win but by Sunday the news was out, Daniels will miss the rest of the season after tearing a ligament and the meniscus in his right knee. He’ll redshirt this season and is looking at up to 12 months of recovery after surgery. Before the injury Daniels was looking pretty good in Graham Harrell’s version of the Air Raid Offense, a new look for the Trojans under a new Offensive Coordinator, completing 25 of 34 for 215 yards and a TD, although he did throw a goal-line interception.
Enter freshman Kedon Slovis, a former three-star recruit who was expected to redshirt this year, to save not only the season for USC but more than likely Clay Helton’s job as head coach. With only one scholarship QB behind Daniels on the depth chart, a redshirt junior, Helton may appeal to Jack Sears who recently entered the transfer portal after unsuccessfully competing for the QB spot in two consecutive seasons. Considering the Trojan’s schedule over the next four consecutive weekends against Stanford and Utah at home and BYU and Washington on the road, that would seem to be the smartest option for the team and an opportunity for Sears to finally have the job he’s been trying to get for two years with a chance to show what he can do.
USC was up by 18 starting the 4th Qtr but it was down to 8 when Isaiah Pola-Mao saved the win on an interception in the end zone with 1:45 to play which would have taken the Bulldogs to within a 2 point conversion of tying the score. For Fresno State QB Jorge Reyna was 19 of 39 for 256 yards, 2 TD’s and 1 pick while Daniels and Slovis combined for 31 completions on 42 attempts for 272 yards, 1 TD, and 2 picks for the Trojans with 150 of those yards going to Tyler Vaughns on 11 receptions. Fresno State rushed 40 times for 206 yards but failed to get the ball into the end zone while USC rushed for less yardage, 175, but scored twice. USC picked up 3 sacks on defense compared to 1 for the Bulldogs while both kicking teams were perfect regarding field goals and extra points.
The Trojans have very little time to figure out what to do prior to meeting Stanford in the Coliseum next Saturday, who coincidentally also lost their starting QB, K. J. Costello, in the last few seconds of the first half in their opener against Northwestern. Looking at the hit, he most likely will be put into a concussion protocol which would result in him not being available to start the game against USC-a result which could level the playing field and make what probably would have been a fairly easy win for Stanford a real competition if USC can get it together in time.
Arizona at Hawaii
Considering Arizona’s schedule with three on the road at Stanford, USC, and Oregon (with their 1-4 road record last year) as well as games at home against Washington and Utah it was really critical for them to get out of the gate with a win against Hawaii-some even said it was a “must win” game for the Wildcats who ended last season with a 5-7 record. Arizona and Hawaii, finishing at 91st and 117th respectively out of 130 teams last year in Total Defense, both came into the game with a need to improve upon their 430+ yards and 30+ points allowed per game. Even having lost their two best tacklers Arizona, with what was expected to be a strong secondary and good linebacking crew, came into the game feeling the experience from last year would pay off with improvement this year in both run and pass defense. The results were anything but.
Hawaii scorched Arizona in the air connecting on 34 of 48 attempts for 436 yards and 5 TD’s. Add on to that another 159 yards on the ground and a rushing TD and you’ve got the Rainbow Warriors winning their opener at home 45 to 38. They should have won by more as they were able to pull off the victory even after fumbling and loosing the ball twice in addition to being intercepted four times by the Wildcats, with each turnover leading to points on the board for Arizona-the only thing keeping them in the game. If the Wildcats continue at this pace (555 total yards allowed and 45 points) they’ll unseat Oregon State who was 129th out of 130 FBS Division 1-A schools in Total Defense last year—just above last place UConn. Not the direction Arizona was looking to go. Considering that their Total Offense has also dropped under Coach Sumlin, from 14th in 2017 prior to his arrival to 48th last year, the Arizona fans and brain trust were already not happy to start with and this loss will continue to stir the pot out in Tucson.
If there’s anything positive to take out of the game for Arizona moving forward it’s that Kahlil Tate looked very much more like himself, vintage 2017, throwing for 361 yards and 3 TD’s as well as rushing for a team high 108 yards. As it turned out that was one yard less than they needed as Tate was stopped on the Hawaii 1 yard line in a scramble to tie the game as time ran out. The secondary for Arizona which was touted to be solid did pick off 4 interceptions and the Wildcats were able to score points off of those as well as the two fumble recoveries. But the defense up front left much to be desired only picking up 1 sack the entire game and just 3 tackles for loss. Hawaii’s Senior Wide Receiver, Cedric Byrd, was just about unstoppable with 14 receptions for 224 yards and 4 TD’s with two of those coming early giving the Golden Warriors a 14-0 lead at the end of the 1st Qtr and setting the stage for Arizona to play catch-up all game long-and almost pulling it off. Besides Tate, on the ground the Wildcats couldn’t get much going as their stellar RB from last year, J. J. Taylor who ran for 1,400+ yards in 2018, was held to just 16 yards in the 1st half.
Last year Arizona did lead the conference in one category-penalties-averaging almost 9 per game and 82+ yards. In a great start towards leading in that category again this year, against Hawaii they were penalized 10 times for 88 yards. This is Kevin Sumlin’s second year as head coach and with a start like this—second year in a row Arizona has lost their opening game—as well as all the other conference games he just has no chance of winning, Sumlin puts himself on my Deadpool List of Coaches who won’t be back next year. Arizona has a couple of weeks to straighten themselves out as they don’t play again until Saturday, September 7th when they host the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks in a game that should be a blowout win for the Wildcats.
UCLA at Cincinnati
In their recap of the UCLA game on the road against Cincinnati at Nippert Stadium CBS Sports had a section called, “Halftime Adjustments; UCLA’s first four offensive plays of the second half went penalty, two-yard run, incompletion, interception.” The statistics were definitely ugly and maybe to be expected from an offense almost 80% of which is composed of 1st and 2nd year players—31 of the 55 are freshmen. But when you watched the game, there were definitely moments where it looked as though UCLA was going to be able to hang with these guys and, if not able to pull off an unexpected win, at least be a tough out. But, they kept frittering away their opportunities doing stupid stuff.
Right out of the gate the Bruin Defense held the Bearcats to a three and out on their first drive then proceeded to put themselves in position to score seven plays later down at the Cincinnati 5 yard line. But then UCLA QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson (DTR) looses 12 yards on a run, the ball just comes out of his hands, and Cincy takes over on their own 17 yard line. Three minutes later Desmond Ridder connects with Joseah Deguara from the 16 yard line and the Bruins are down by seven. Two anemic UCLA drives later, that yielded nothing more than a combined 20 yards and 2 punts, Cincy takes over and eats up about 4 and 1/2 minutes of clock putting three more points up on the board for a 10-0 lead with a little over 9 minutes left in the 2nd Qtr. But then lightening strikes for the Bruins as DTR connects with Demetric Felton on a 75 yard score which brings UCLA back to within 3 points, 10-7. Nothing positive happens for either team on the next four sets of downs, but with 20 seconds left and sitting on the UCLA 2 yard line Cincinnati, instead of taking a more conservative approach to getting into the end zone, decide to have Ridder roll out to his left to throw the ball in for a score, but instead gets picked off by UCLA’s Jay Shaw in the end zone who runs it all the way back down to the Bearcat 34 with 11 seconds left, enough time to at least tie the score at the half. But wait, grasping defeat out of the jaws of victory is Jay Shaw who picks up an Unsportsmanlike Conduct Penalty moving the ball back out to the 49. One play and one sack later the half ends.
We all know what happened at the beginning of the second half from the CBS quote at the top. That interception was followed by a five play score by the Bearcats to go up 17-7. But with 5:40 left in the 3rd the Bruins pull to within three again on a 7 yard DTR pass to Chase Cota to make it 17-14. Ten plays, 75 yards, and almost 6 minutes later the Bearcats go up for good, 24-14, on a 21 yard pass from Desmond Ridder to Michael Warren. UCLA had a couple of more opportunities but they ended in a fumble and interception.
Not the start UCLA was hoping for but in their defense they were short their two top offensive weapons to injury. Besides Senior RB Joshua Kelley who ran for 1,243 yards last season-almost 300 yards against USC-the Bruins were also missing their top Senior Wide Receiver Theo Howard. Kelley’s sophomore back-up Kazmeir Allen was also unavailable-sitting out because of academic issues. Also out because of injury was their top secondary defender Darnay Holmes which left the Bruins giving up extra yardage to open receivers-more than 3 yards extra per pass compared to what the Bearcats were allowing. Between those issues and the DTR fumbles and interceptions, whatever chance the Bruins had to win they gave away in mistakes and ill-timed penalties. UCLA has their home opener against San Diego State next Saturday, September 7th, in the Rose Bowl. They’ll have to be a lot better and I expect they will.
Kent State at Arizona State
First the good, Arizona State beat Kent State 30-7 with a true freshman QB, Jayden Daniels, under center who played well enough to be named the PAC-12 Freshman of the Week. Daniels completed 15 of 24 for 284 yards with 140 of those going to their Senior WR Brandon Aiyuk, connected on 2 TD’s, threw no interceptions, and also accounted for the Sun Devils only rushing TD. In addition, their star Junior RB Eno Benjamin who rushed for over 1,500 yards last year, tops in the PAC-12, gained 102 of the 171 yards on the ground for Arizona State. Their Defense held Kent State to just 200 yards of total offense and scoreless through three quarters while the offense for the Sun Devils more than doubled that amount at 455 yards. They also forced six fumbles and recovered two. Another nice piece of the puzzle was their walk-on kicker by the name of Christian Zendejas (yep, another kicking savant from the Zendejas family) who accounted for 12 of those 30 points going 3 for 3 on extra points as well as field goals of 31, 35 and 40 yards.
Now the not-so-good. With all those turnovers they should have scored more. The OLine for Arizona State did not look all that stout allowing 5 sacks to their freshman QB and 7 tackles for loss, although some of that blame has to go onto the young QB who needs to get rid of the ball more quickly. Yes, Benjamin picked up 102 yards on the ground but it took him 22 carries to do it which still averages out to a little more than 4.5 yards per carry, but that’s a yard less per carry than he averaged all of last year and Kent State is not exactly considered a defensive powerhouse.
Moving forward, Arizona State has a little bit of time left before things get really tough as they’ll be staying at home for this week’s game on Friday against Sacramento State at 7:00pm on the PAC12 Network. After that they’ll be hitting the road for what should be a tough rematch against a Michigan State team who travelled to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe for their 2nd game of their season last year, ranked at No. 15 in the nation, only to get beat with a last second field goal. The Spartans go into Week 2 currently ranked at No. 19 and No. 20 on the AP and Amway Coaches Poll respectively. Needless to say Michigan State won’t be caught napping this year and Arizona State will have to play a lot better to beat them on the road.
Colorado vs Colorado State
Some of the following was mentioned in the preview but it bears repeating as we get to witness first hand whether or not really good SEC coaches can come into the PAC-12 and turn one of our very worst teams around. In the middle of November last year Colorado fired their head coach, Mike MacIntyre, after a six year run. In that time MacIntyre had one magical season, 2016, in which the Buffaloes had 10 wins, won the PAC-12 South and took Colorado to a bowl after a nine year drought. In a write-up on the firing the Denver Post mentioned a number of contributing factors including McIntyre’s 2-20 record versus ranked opponents and other than the 2016 season his entire record at Colorado is equally as ugly: 30-44 overall and what really did him in, a mere 14-39 in conference with 10 of the 14 coming in 2016 which means in every other year other than that one he averaged just slightly over 1 win a season in conference.
Enter Georgia’s Defensive Coordinator, Mel Tucker, hired early in December of last year as Head Coach of the Buffaloes. Tucker worked in the NFL about 10 years for the Browns, the Jaguars, and the Chicago Bears before moving into the college ranks, first with Nick Saban at Alabama and then over to Georgia. During his 2015 season with Alabama, where Tucker functioned as Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Backs coach, they won the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship. After moving over to Georgia in 2016 to become Defensive Coordinator he elevated their defense to 12th overall nationally in Total Defense and further up to 6th in 2017, right behind the Washington Huskies. Tucker also brings in Jay Johnson from Georgia who will be the Buffaloes new Offensive Coordinator as well as Quarterbacks Coach. Prior to working at Georgia under Tucker he was Offensive Coordinator at Minnesota as well as the University of Louisiana for five seasons where they were consistently ranked as one of the best offenses in the nation and in 2012 was No. 1 in Red Zone Efficiency having scored 55 times in 58 tries with 44 TD’s and no turnovers, a 94.8 efficiency—as good as it gets. Also from Georgia is Tyson Summers as the new Defensive Coordinator and Safeties Coach. While in Athens, the Bulldogs won two Southeastern Conference East Division Titles, the 2017 SEC Championship and a College Football Playoff Semifinal to play for the national championship.
The first game out of the gate Week 1 for the new coaching staff was another early season rivalry game as the Colorado Buffaloes took on the Colorado State Rams in what is known as the Rocky Mountain Showdown which began all the way back in 1893. Through 2018 Colorado was ahead in the series 66–22–2 and after last Saturday those 66 wins changed to 67 with the Buffaloes beating their in-state rival 52-31 as the teams combined to set a record for most points ever scored in the rivalry’s 91 game history-a fitting last Rocky Mountain Showdown to be played at Sport’s Authority Field in Denver’s Mile High Stadium.
As a former Defensive Coordinator Head Coach Tucker had to be at least partially pleased in that his team created four turnovers including two interceptions by Senior Safety Mikial Onu and forcing two fumbles by Colorado State both of which were lost to Colorado. On the down side, Colorado’s run defense left much to be desired as the Rams basically ran at will rushing 31 times for 374 yards and 3 TD’s, an average of 12 yards per carry! Fortunately for the Buffaloes they had their own offensive weapons in the air with Senior QB Steven Montez who was a solid 13 of 20 for 232 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions, and on the ground in Sophomore Running Back Alex Fontenot who picked up 125 yards on 19 carries and 3 of the 4 rushing TD’s for Colorado.
Although winning the game it was evident that giving up 505 yards of Total Offense wasn’t going to get it done for Head Coach Tucker who made several comments after the game including: “We’ve got a ways to go before I can say that’s the type of football team that we want to have; I’m looking forward to getting this film watched and getting these corrections; The yardage and some of the plays we gave up, I’m not happy about that.” This year begins a total overhaul of the Colorado program and with Washington State, Oregon, Stanford, Washington and Utah all on the schedule as well as Arizona State, USC and an emerging UCLA, Coach Tucker is going to be watching a lot of film and making a lot of corrections. It will be interesting to see if all those SEC connections helps the Rams with their recruiting over the next few years. Moving forward, Colorado hosts former rival Nebraska at 12:30pm on FOX this coming Saturday, September 7th.