I have spent much of the fall hyping up Coastal Carolina, and I just want to welcome everyone else to the bandwagon. The mullet is the official hairstyle of 2020. Beating up on someone who showed up at your house with very little notice is exactly what you should do this year. And anyone who goes to the beach should know they’re making a bad decision.
All of that is to say: BYU never had a chance. This game was on short notice, sure, but it was foretold.
I know everyone is saying put Coastal in the playoff, and as it stands right now I’m with you. But allow me to throw some cold roux on this hype train for just a moment: The Chants have to play Louisiana again. You might be able to win a brawl with some Cajuns once. But doing it twice? That’s a play-in game.
You know who’s out? Marshall. You’d never see Cajuns have trouble with Rice.
Games That Happened
Thursday
Louisiana Tech 42, North Texas 31
Here’s an old school stat line: Israel Tucker carried it 37 times for 161 yards and two touchdowns for the Bulldogs. The Mean Green got 135 receiving yards and three touchdowns from Jaelon Darden, but that wasn’t enough when you give up 42.
Air Force 35, Utah State 7
The Falcons had 55 carries for 334 yards and four touchdowns. That’ll do.
Friday
Louisiana 24, Appalachian State 21
There were some decisions made in this game. Louisiana decided to take a safety from its own 35 in the fourth quarter, up five. Billy Napier said that decision stemmed in part from the three bad snapps from the Cajuns’ long snapper. So I guess that makes sense, I guess. You can’t say it was a bad decision, considering his special teams managed to tip App State’s attempt to tie it with a field goal. The Cajuns have spent the whole season winning the little battles, and often winning in weird ways, so this makes sense.
Trey Ragas scored two touchdowns on the ground and one through the air to get Louisiana in a chance to make those decisions. Neither quarterback completed half of his passes. You knew this game would come down to a tipped field goal.
Also, I saw some upset App State fans on the internets, saying this cast doubts on whether Shawn Clark has what it takes to win. I’ll just point out that Nick Saban was 7-6 in his first year at Alabama, and that wasn’t during a weird plague year.
Saturday
Coastal Carolina 22, BYU 17
Two 9-0 teams in desperate search of respect from the College Football Playoff committee? A game scheduled just a few days in advance after Liberty bailed. That’s fine. We got the game of the year.
It was a contrast of styles from the beginning. Well, from the first appearance of a “Mormons vs. Mullets” sign. Coastal was rowdy. The Chants ran the ball well, moved it four, five, six yards at a time. Controlled the clock. Inched their way forward. A handoff to CJ Marable here. An option run to Grayson McCall there, with the quarterback finding a gash in the Cougs defense. They got a touchdown in the first quarter after a 17-play, 94-yard drive that lasted nine minutes. Coastal missed the extra point. That’s important.
BYU came back and scored a 42-yard touchdown from Tyler Allgeier right afterward, made the PAT. That took a minute and 15 seconds. Coastal put together an 11-play drive that took six minutes off the clock and ended with a touchdown run after McCall, diving for the endzone, got hurt. BYU came back with a 94-yard drive of their own, ending with a 41-yard touchdown pass from Zach Wilson to Dax Milne. 14-13 BYU at the half. They trade field goals in the third. It was a Marable touchdown run after a 13-play, 85-yard, six-minute drive ending in the fourth that gave Coastal the lead, but the two-point conversion failed, so it’s a five-point game. BYU wins with a touchdown. How close would they get? Inches. But that’s not good enough.
Coastal controlled the ball for almost 38 minutes, running the ball 54 times for 281 yards and only passing for 85. BYU, holding the ball for like half the time, had more total yards. Sometimes you don’t have to have the flashy offense. All you have to do is end the game with more points. The Teal is Real.
Rice 20, Marshall 0
I told Rice to enjoy the trip to West Virginia. They did. BYU wasn’t the only non-P5 team to fall from the ranks of the unbeaten. Rice beat previously unbeaten Marshall 20-0 despite gaining just 213 total yards. How? Well, the Herd’s tremendous freshman quarterback Grant Wells throwing five picks didn’t help. That’s fine. He’s got a great future. A bit of advice though: Spread your mistakes around. It makes it less obvious. If you make them all at once, they stand out. You make five mistakes in a week? You might get fired, even if you made none the rest of the year. You make one every two months? These things happen.
Tulsa 19, Navy 6
I asked for a defensive game. I got it. One touchdown, a 66-yard pass from Zach Smith, was the only thing breaking up the parade of field goals. This game was tied before that touchdown in the third quarter gave Tulsa an insurmountable 7-point lead, which they then padded with two field goals to make it a blowout.
Toledo 41, Northern Illinois 24
The Huskies fall to 0-5. Toledo got 432 passing yards and three touchdowns, along with two picks, from Carter Bradley. Denzel McKinley-Lewis and Isaiah Winstead were both over 100 yards receiving. The wild part? This game was tied at 24 entering the fourth quarter before the Rockets blasted off.
Tulane 35, Memphis 21
Michael Pratt had four total touchdowns for Tulane as the Green Wave scored in every quarter. Brady White threw two touchdowns to go with two picks for Memphis. The Tigers offense was largely smothered, with the running game gaining just 45 yards and White held to 248 passing.
Troy 29, South Alabama 0
Gunnar Watson threw three touchdown passes. The Trojans are .500. The Jags are 4-7. That’s the status of football south of Montgomery.
Akron 31, Bowling Green 3
This was a big game. Bowling Green, by losing this bad to a previously winless team, is in the running alongside UMass for perhaps the worst team of the plague year. Congratulations on Akron. Things could be worse!
Eastern Michigan 53, Western Michigan 42
Also falling from the ranks of wineless MAC teams was Eastern Michigan, who got four total touchdowns from Preston Hutchinson and 148 rushing yards from Darius Boone Jr. to beat previously unbeaten Western Michigan. Football is a game of mysteries sometimes. Western lost despite Kaleb Eleby throwing four touchdown passes and La’Darius Jefferson running for two. There are more phases to the game than just offense.
New Mexico 17, Wyoming 16
The Lobos also earned their first win, with Bobby Cole’s 44-yard touchdown catch from Isaiah Chavez delivering the victory. It didn’t hurt that Wyoming’s quarterbacks had two passes caught by Lobos to just five caught by their own guys. Trey Smith tried for the Cowboys, rushing for 154 and a score, and a couple of guys had big runs. But field goals aren’t enough sometimes.
Arkansas State 48, Louisiana-Monroe 15
Still winless: ULM. Corey Rucker caught nine passes for Arkansas State. He went for 310 yards and four touchdowns. His colleague Jeff Foreman caught just four passes for a mere 144 yards and a pathetic two touchdowns. Arkansas State’s two-headed quarterback machine combined for 511 yards and six touchdown passes, with five of them and the bulk of the yards coming off the arm of Layne Hatcher. ULM is 0-10. Imagine if UMass or Bowling Green played 10 games.
San Jose State 35, Hawaii 24
The Spartans stay unbeaten thanks to the rushing tandem of Tyler Nevens (he of 153 yards and two touchdowns) and Kairee Robinson (111 and one). The two runs from Nevens and a touchdown catch by Isaiah Holiness gave SJSU a 21-point lead after the first quarter, and while Hawaii came back to close the gap to four in the third quarter, they never took the lead.
Georgia Southern 20, Florida Atlantic 3
I hyped up FAU before this one. It doesn’t always work out the way we thought. The Eagles scored touchdowns on a punt return and a Logan Wright run and held the Owls out of the endzone. Justin Tomlin managed to lead Georgia Southern in rushing as he filled in for an injured Shai Werts at quarterback. He completed a quarter of his passes, but in a game like this, that’s enough.
San Diego State 29, Colorado State 17
SDSU scored on a kickoff return, followed a minute or so later by a punt return touchdown. A Jordan Brookshire touchdown pass and a slew of field goals were enough to deliver the win. Not a lot of offense in this one.
Nevada 37, Fresno State 26
Carson Strong threw five touchdown passes for the Wolf Pack. Tory Horton caught three of those. This was a four-point game before Nevada blew it open in the fourth quarter.
Ball State 45, Central Michigan 20
Drew Plitt threw for four touchdowns and ran for another for the Cardinals, who took the lead early and never let off the gas. Don’t look now, but Ball State is 4-1.
North Carolina 49, Western Carolina 9
Imagine how many chicken biscuits you can buy with a few hundred grand.
Sunday
Western Kentucky 37, Charlotte 19
All these guys can say they played on Sunday. The Hilltoppers ran for 218 yards and scored on a fumble return. They went up early and held on, with Charlotte scoring all of theirs in the second half.
News and Notes
Polls: Here are our teams in the Coaches Poll:
No. 7, Cincinnati;
No. 13, Coastal Carolina;
No. 16, BYU;
No. 17, Louisiana;
No. 19, Tulsa;
No. 21, Liberty.
And the AP Poll:
No. 7, Cincinnati;
No. 11, Coastal Carolina;
No. 14, BYU;
No. 17, Louisiana;
No. 18, Tulsa;
No. 22, Liberty
No. 24 Buffalo.