Editor’s note: College football is nothing without its fans, and its fans are nothing without their passion. In an attempt to capture that unique intensity and propensity for overreaction, we’ve asked sports editor and The South enthusiast Bremen Keasey to give us a weekly breakdown of college football happenings around the country like only a true fan could. This is Overreactability.
With a weekend of close, heart-pounding night games and some huge blowouts in the afternoon, you might have missed the full, beautiful tapestry of college football. Don’t worry, I’m here to fill you in on all the stuff that “mattered” from week four.
Don’t forget your kicker
You know that feeling when you feel like you’re forgetting something very minor, but realize you’re just psyching yourself out? Maybe you’re driving to your soccer game and think “Oh shoot, did I forget my shin guards at home?” Then you go through and think about every single item you placed in your soccer bag and remember you packed those shin guards. Then you get to the game and realize you wore the wrong color shorts, and have to run to a Dick’s Sporting Goods to get an extra pair because the game was two hours from your house? (This is a real story.)
The good news is that I’m not alone in feeling that dumb, as Wake Forest forgot something very important for a field goal kick this weekend: the kicker.
Yes, as Wake lined up to kick a 38-yard field goal for the first score of the game, they had checked almost all the boxes. Long snapper? Check! Holder? Check! Eight more players on the line to protect the ball? Check! Kicker?
Um ... kicker?
Deacons kicker Nick Sciba was still warming up on the sidelines when his holder started looking around, trying to find him. Sciba was about to take another practice kick on the sidelines when suddenly he turned his head and noticed, “Oh crap,” and sprinted out onto the field.
I gotta credit the guy’s work effort and hustle. He was just trying to get some extra reps to help his team, and then when it was his time to shine, despite his lateness, he sprinted out and quickly kicked so his team didn’t have to call a timeout.
Unfortunately, his rush to the spot might’ve thrown off his routine as he smashed the ball against the upright to keep the game at 0-0.
But who would’ve thought they would learn Wake’s kicker’s name after Saturday? Nick Sciba will forever be a legend, but the real unsung hero was the holder, whose reaction was Oscar-worthy panic acting.
All hail our new lord: Oklahoma Stream Guy
If you ignored Oklahoma vs. Army as a possible game of the week, no one would’ve thought you were crazy. This was a Sooner team ranked fifth in the country with an electric offense hosting a disciplined but talent-bare Army team.
It also made sense to ignore since it was, for some inexplicable reason, a pay-per-view event.
The game — which went to overtime at 21-21 — was a fascinating clash of styles. Oklahoma’s spread offense marched the field quickly on all its scoring drives. Meanwhile, Army and its triple-option attack held onto the ball meticulously with scoring drives of eight, nine and 10 minutes. Army’s strategy was to not let Oklahoma have the ball — and it worked.
With the game coming down to the wire and an upset brewing, thousands of degenerate college football fans (like myself) began to frantically search for a way to watch the game when it went to overtime after Oklahoma missed a chip-shot, would-be-game-winning field goal.
Then I was blessed by a man from Oklahoma who became my savior.
Replete with homer commentary and nonsensical comments — my personal favorite was when he just showed his shoes during a break in the action — this man was Twitch streaming the game. The more than 30,000 people who ended up watching on this single stream were treated to an Oklahoma accent and commentary that were nearly as enjoyable as the game. Even though I was rooting for Army to pull the upset, the joy I got from the man who allowed me to watch the game (and, I guess, see his khaki brown Converses) was enough to make up for the fact that Oklahoma won 28-21.
It also helps that OU quarterback Kyler Murray is really, really good.
Kentucky is maybe not just a basketball school
Since ending their three-decade-long losing streak to the Florida Gators earlier in the season, Kentucky has drawn more blood than Boyd Crowder did in Justified.
After their 28-7 upset win against the then-No. 14 Mississippi State Bulldogs, Kentucky jumped to the No. 17 ranking in this week’s AP Poll, and at 4-0 with two SEC wins, they’re pushing to become the second-ranked team in the SEC East.
Running back Benny Snell Jr. isn’t just an exciting player to watch — Snell ran for 165 yards and scored all four of the Wildcats’ touchdowns — he’s also a potential Twitter all-American. After the win, he sent out a wonderful picture of himself holding a bulldog in place of where he would normally carry the football.
(He also did the same when they beat the Gators, and even though it wasn't brought to my attention at the time, the picture is arguably more glorious. So I’m also linking that.)
Kentucky will probably have a good shot at staying unbeaten a little while longer because they also have a nasty defense, which held Mississippi State to only 201 yards of total offense and a measly 56 rushing yards. Given that the the east — aside from Georgia — is best described as a dumpster fire, Kentucky could make some noise.
Either that, or they totally blow my thesis by losing to South Carolina next week and remind me never to guess about anything in this terrible division in college football.
“Stop it! They’re already dead!” of the week
Poor Scott Frost.
Three straight “Scott Frost Days” in Lincoln and three straight losses, and this one was the worst of the bunch.
While I’m sure most Nebraska fans expected their Cornhuskers to lose to the then-No. 19 Michigan Wolverines, they might’ve not expected an Old Testament God-style beatdown. But that’s what they received as the Wolverines lashed them 56-10 in a game that wasn’t even that close.
At halftime, the game was 39-0 Wolverines. Nebraska rushed the ball 30 times for only 39 yards. THIRTY-NINE YARDS! That’s an average yards per carry of 1.3. Throwing the ball wasn’t much better as their two quarterbacks combined for 93 yards through the air. They nearly didn’t get a whole football field of total offensive yards.
Sure, Michigan might’ve slightly ran up the score and all of that stuff that head coach/human bullhorn Jim Harbaugh is known for, but it was still a really sad day for Nebraska. They ended up kicking a field goal in the third quarter to cut the lead to 46-3.
Any time a team has to kick a sad field goal is almost heartbreaking.
Now Nebraska is winless to start the season for the first time since 1945, and there is not a whole lot of optimism in the Sea of Red.
Stop it Michigan, they’re already dead.
