Southern Football Report: Week 8 Superlatives

Last Saturday began with a Top 5 team going down on the road followed by burning coaches, ended with a reigning conference champion all but being run out of the stadium and out of the current conference championship race and had a few pretty good games in between. October has been one of the wildest months in college football that I can remember

MVP – Clint Trickett – QB – West Virginia – Going into Saturday’s game, all the talk was about how many passing yards Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty was going to throw for but no one expected West Virginia quarterback Clint Trickett to throw for 100 more yards than Petty (322), toss one more touchdown and earn an 18 point win over the 4th ranked Bears. Trickett has turned out to be the prototype gunslinger in college football as he is in the top ten in passing attempts and only trails Washington State’s Connor Halliday and Texas A&M’s Kenny Hill in passing yards. Trickett had a great game Saturday and was playing inspired as his father; Florida State Offensive Line Coach Rick Trickett was forced to miss his game due to health complications. Florida State gave their game ball to Coach Trickett but we at the Southern Football Report are giving our game ball to Clint.

Coach of the Week – Todd Graham – Arizona State – The Sun Devils had the distinct honor of losing to the same team twice in the same season back in 2013 as they lost to Stanford 28-42 on September 21st and then again on December 7th in the Pac-12 Championship Game by a score of 38-14. Saturday Arizona State and Head Coach Todd Graham exercised some Cardinal demons with a convincing 26-10 victory over Stanford in the desert. Coach Graham had his team ready to play and also had former starting quarterback Taylor Kelly ready to go after recovering from a foot injury but decided to keep him on the shelf and allow backup Mike Bercovivi to carry his team to the big win.

Game of the Week – Texas Longhorns over the Iowa State Cyclones 48-45 – It became very obvious early in the ball game that neither team could stop the other which meant that we were going to have an old-fashioned Big 12 shootout and that is exactly what we got. Texas scored two quick touchdowns to go up 14-0 but they Cyclones responded with three straight scores to take a 21-14 lead early in the second quarter. The Longhorns tied the game at 21-21 with a 9 yard touchdown run and returned an interception for a touchdown on the ensuing Iowa State possession giving them the 7 point edge, 28-21. Iowa State responded with a 13 play, 75 yard touchdown drive and scored with :03 seconds remaining to go into halftime tied 28-28. The two teams traded field goals in the 3rd quarter so we were all knotted up at 31-31 heading into the 4th quarter where Texas struck first but Iowa State matched their touchdown 5 minutes later. Texas went down and scored with a little over a minute remaining to go up 45-38 but the Cyclones just would not go away. Iowa State engineers a quick 51 second drive to tie the ball game at 45 a piece but left 28 seconds on the clock, giving Texas enough time to get down and set up the game winning 21 yard Nick Rose field goal which he nailed with three seconds left for the win.

Coach Who Needs To Turn In His Company Car – Dave Doeren – NC State – As Bane said in the film The Dark Knight Rises ‘So much hope, so much potential’, the same can be said about the NC State Wolfpack. Dave Doeren’s bunch started the season 4-0 and played extremely well at home against Florida State and since has been held to 240 yards per game, 10 points per game and the Wolfpack are averaging two turnovers per game. Saturday, NC State traveled to Louisville where they were quickly disposed of 30-18 giving them their 4th straight conference loss. This is the second time this season Coach Doeren has been listed as the Southern Football Report Coach Who Needs To Turn In His Company Car.

Uniform of the Week – Oregon Ducks – Everybody loves to joke that the Ducks have a billion different uniform combinations and it’s true, they do, but whenever they bust out the throwbacks from back before they were the ‘Son of Nike’ program, I always enjoy it. Believe it or not, at one time the Ducks only had two sets of uniforms and both sets had the same gold pants but what really set this uniform off was the Donald Duck coming through the block O logo on the sleeve. Kudos.

Dud Uniform of the Week – Central Michigan Chippewas – If I had to choose one team in the MAC as my favorite, I would probably choose Central Michigan because I like their colors and love their team nickname: The Chippewas. Saturday my beloved Chippewas unveiled some of the worst looking uniforms of all time with their stale bread colored gold jerseys with the giant maroon C on the chest instead of the numbers. For the record, as a broadcaster I hate it when Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, etc. elect to put a big letter on the front of a jersey instead of the number. These uniforms were just gross.

Honorable Mention – North Carolina Tar Heels – I hate, hate, hate it when a team goes all BFBS (Black For Black’s Sake) on us like North Carolina did on Saturday when Georgia Tech paid a visit to Keenan Memorial Stadium, one of the most picturesque stadiums in the country. This game had the chance to be the easiest game on the eyes all year with a fantastic stadium and two teams with beautiful soft colors. Nope. North Carolina screwed it up with their god-awful black uniforms. If black isn’t one of your school colors, I am going to hate you when you wear black uniforms.

NOTE: There will be no Southern Football Report this Saturday but beginning on November 1st tune in to the Southern Football Report every Saturday morning from 10 am to Noon on Live 101.9, Rockin 106.3 & Q 92.3 to hear high school scores from Friday night as well as college football discussion, debate and previews of the games to come!