College Football Week 8: McMurphy’s Law on Jay Norvell, Nick Saban & More
Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images. Pictured: Colorado State’s Dallin Holker (left) Tory Horton (center) and Justus Ross-Simmons (right) celebrate after Holker caught a game-winning Hail Mary to beat Boise State.
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Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell started coaching in 1986. In the past 38 years, he’s been an assistant at the FBS and FCS level and in the NFL. He’s been a head coach for the past seven years.
He’s experienced every conceivable situation on the field, but he had never been a part of what happened Saturday night in Fort Collins. Colorado State trailed, 30-10, with 4:02 remaining — only 242 seconds — and somehow, someway won by a score of 31-30 on a final-play Hail Mary.
“I’ve never been part of a game like that,” Norvell told me. “Things started going our way at the end and kept going our way. There were 15-20 plays (in the final four minutes), and if one of those plays doesn’t happen exactly like it did, we wouldn’t have won.
“I’ve never seen a game flip like that.”
In the past few weeks, college football fans have witnessed several instances of “I’ve never seen” that happen before.
On Sept. 30, Baylor trailed UCF, 35-7, with 3:21 remaining in the third quarter but won, 36-35.
On Friday, Stanford trailed Colorado, 29-0 with 9:02 remaining in the third quarter but won in double overtime, 46-43.
On Saturday, Colorado State trailed Boise State, 30-10, with 4:02 remaining in the fourth quarter but won, 31-30, on Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi’s Hail Mary to Dallin Holker.
And don’t forget on Thursday, Houston’s final play Hail Mary to give the Cougars a 41-39 victory against West Virginia.
Hail Mary’s aren’t that uncommon, but three games in two weeks where teams with Walking Dead-like offenses suddenly come alive and finish the game with runs of 29-0, 46-14 and 21-0 to pull off historic comebacks?
Why?
Colorado’s Deion Sanders: “What we just did today was pathetic.”
UCF’s Gus Malzahn: “Let me make it really simple — we did the things to lose the game. They did the things to win the game.”
During Colorado State’s comeback, Norvell said his players were literally “drawing stuff up in the dirt. Our kids were telling us, ‘We can beat them on this, we can beat them on that.’
“We had a tremendous amount of will. They believed they could win. As a coach, you understand the odds, down three TDs with four minutes left. You know the path to win: score, now it’s down to two scores, get an onside kick, it’s a one-score game. That’s what happened to us, but they (Boise State) had to help us.”
After Saturday’s incredible comeback, Norvell was deluged with text messages. One stood out. It was from Jerry Glanville, the 82-year-old former NFL coach.
Before the season, Norvell had never talked to Glanville. After Colorado State’s loss to Colorado, Glanville, who coached Sanders for three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, sought out Norvell.
“My wife told me Jerry Glanville is trying to get a hold of you.”
Glanville told Norvell, “Your kids played their hearts out. I saw how your kids were running and hitting. I was impressed by that.”
Since that first call after the Colorado loss, Norvell talks or texts with Glanville after every game. He gave Norvell advice on how to respond to a blowout loss to Utah State. Then after beating Boise State, Norvell glanced at his phone and chuckled at Glanville’s text.
“Take your wife out to eat somewhere nice and get a nice bottle of wine and send me the bill.”
Blast From the Past 💥
It’s the Third Saturday in October, which means Alabama and Tennessee.
After last year’s wild 52-49 Tennessee victory, the Vols are bidding for consecutive wins over the Crimson Tide for the first time since 2003-04.
Last year’s UT victory was the Vols’ first against Nick Saban in his 17 seasons at Alabama.
One of the most memorable games in the series — at least for Bama fans — came in 2009. Trailing 12-10, Tennessee attempted a game-winning 44-yard field goal, but it was blocked by Bama defensive tackle Terrence Cody to help the top-ranked Tide survive.
Besides being part of Bama lore for his last play heroics against the Vols — Rocky Block — the then-6-foot-4, 370-pound Cody also holds a rare distinction. He’s the only player Saban couldn’t conquer on the lake.
Every year before fall camp, Saban brings his first-year players to his lake house, where he takes them inner tubing or skiing. Saban drives his boat, with the players riding on an inner tube and trying to hang on.
Every single player gets bounced off the inner tube. Well, except for one: Mount Cody.
“I would drive back and forth, but he just wouldn’t move back there,” Saban told me at the SEC spring meetings.
Saban also shared the story with Eli Manning.
“The challenge for me as the driver is to dump ‘em,” Saban said. “The one guy I’ve never been able to throw off is Terrence Cody, who was a big noseguard here. You know, 400 pounds. He was athletic, and when he hunkered down on that tube, you couldn’t get it airborne at all.”
It's not often Saban admits defeat. The Vols are hoping to repeat that feeling on Saturday.
Stat of the Week 📈
Money can’t buy you happiness — or National Championships.
Based on USA Today’s list of the public university athletic programs that generated the most revenue in the 2022 fiscal year, only five of the top 17 money schools have won a College Football Playoff title since 2014.
These are for public schools only, so private universities such as USC and Notre Dame that would be ranked in the top 10 in revenue aren't included (but they haven’t won a title since 2014 either).
The top 17 public schools with the most athletic revenue in 2022:
- Ohio State, $251 million (won 2014 title)
- Texas, $239 million
- Alabama, $214 million (won 2015, 2017, 2020 titles)
- Michigan, $210 million
- Georgia $203 million (won 2021, 2022 titles)
- LSU, $199 million (won 2019 title)
- Texas A&M, $193 million
- Florida, $190 million
- Penn State, $181 million
- Oklahoma, $177 million
- Auburn, $174 million
- Michigan State, $172 million
- Indiana, $166 million
- Virginia, $161.9 million
- Florida State, $161.1 million
- Kentucky, $159 million
- Clemson, $158 million (won 2016, 2018 titles)
Dream Bowl Projection of the Week 😋
Usually when I list my dream bowl projection, I list — you know — an actual bowl game projection.
This week, though, I would love for a bowl to pair UCF and Colorado so Gus Malzahn and Deion Sanders can commiserate about how their teams blew 28- and 29-point leads, respectively.
Alas, that’s not in my bowl projections because, at least this week, I don’t project either team reaching bowl eligibility.
So, for my official Dream Bowl Projection of the Week I’m pining for former Big 8 foes Nebraska and Kansas to meet in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.
The Cornhuskers and Jayhawks haven’t played since 2010 when Nebraska bolted to the Big Ten, ending what was then the longest uninterrupted series at 105 consecutive years. They first played in 1892 and have played 117 times. Here’s hoping for game No. 118 in Phoenix in December.
TV Eyeball Watch 📺👀
For the fourth time in seven weeks, the most-watched game involved the Pac-12. The league might be on its deathbed, but it’s going out in a blaze of (television-viewing) glory.
Last week’s top game was the Pac-12 showdown between Washington and Oregon, edging out another Pac-12 team in USC when it took on Notre Dame.
Pac-12 teams have been involved in either the most-watched or second-most watched game in six of the first seven weeks. Here were last week’s top-rated games, according to SportsMediaWatch.
Last week’s top five (all times ET):
- Oregon at Washington, 7.04 million (ABC, 3:30 p.m.)
- USC at Notre Dame, 6.43 million (NBC, 7:30 p.m.)
- Texas A&M at Tennessee, 4.38 million (CBS, 3:30 p.m.)
- Indiana at Michigan, 3.55 million (FOX, noon)
- Arkansas at Alabama, 3.43 million (ESPN, noon)
Good Teams Win, Great Teams Cover 🏈
The good: Of the 133 FBS programs, Oklahoma, Penn State and UNLV are the only teams remaining that are a perfect 6-0 against the spread.
Oregon is close to perfection but pushed last week at Washington in a devastating three-point loss to the Huskies.
And then there were none: Vanderbilt finally got off the schneid by covering as a 32.5-point underdog in a 37-20 loss to Georgia. The Commodores were the last team that had not covered a game this season.
Besides Vanderbilt, several other teams have only covered one game this season: Georgia (1-5-1), Illinois (1-6), Minnesota (1-5), Mississippi State (1-5), NC State (1-5-1), Southern Miss (1-5) and Temple (1-6).
Maybe Significant (Or Not) ⬇️
The over/under for Saturday’s Minnesota at Iowa game is 32.5 points — only the 11th game with a total of 35 points or less since 2005. It’s only one point from tying the lowest over/under total in the past 20 years.
Of those 11 games, Iowa was unsurprisingly involved in seven. Of the previous 10 games with a 35-point total or lower, six went under, three went over and one pushed.
100% Guaranteed Pick* 💸
*Will Likely Lose 50% of the Time
Here’s one guarantee: I’ll never take Indiana again.
After (unsuccessfully) taking a Big Ten big underdog, I’ll set my sights on a couple of totals. That’s right: this week, you not only get one potential losing pick but two!
I'll take USF at UConn over 54 and Colorado State at UNLV over 64.5.
Season Record: 3-4
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