Each week of the season,The Athleticwill highlight a handful of key decisions that reverberated through Saturday’s action in some significant way. They could range from a pivotal fourth-down play call to a questionable flag to a coaching staff decision to a simple strategic leaning, but they all mattered somehow, some way.
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Here are the seven decisions that defined Week 9:
Notre Dame’s boneheaded blocked punt pursuit
Normally, this column doesn’t focus on plays from the first five minutes of a game, but the moment that launched a blowout at the Big House was impossible to ignore. Michigan went three-and-out on its first offensive drive against Notre Dame and then attempted a punt from its own end zone. The snap was high, which forced punter Will Hart to take an extra half-second to set up, and Notre Dame blocked the punt. The ball sputtered and bounced toward the 30-yard line, where it would have been ruled dead and handed over to Notre Dame if no one had touched it. But Irish senior linebacker Jonathan Jones decided to try to fall on the ball for some reason, which made it live the second he touched it. The ball slipped out of his grasp — not the first or last time that happened on a cold, relentlessly rainy night — and Michigan recovered.
— Videos by: FTB (@FTBVids1) October 27, 2019
And so Notre Dame missed out on an opportunity to start a possession from just outside the red zone. With a new set of downs, Michigan went down the field and kicked a field goal to secure a potential 10-point swing at the outset of a rivalry game featuring two top-20 teams. It all set the tone for a first half that saw the Wolverines jump out to a dominant 17-0 lead, while Notre Dame continued to look ill-prepared for the moment at every turn. Michigan cruised to a 45-14 win.
Wait, actually, Texas Tech may have topped that!
Clearly, Les Miles drew it up just like this. The Jayhawks’ game-winning 40-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Texas Tech defensive tackle Nick McCann and recovered by Red Raiders defensive back Douglas Coleman III, who did not simply fall down and let the game go to overtime but tried to run the ball back for a touchdown. When Kansas players blocked his progress, Coleman reversed field before deciding to lateral to a teammate, with no regard for the risk of doing so with time left on the clock and the ball still within field goal range for the Jayhawks.
This was blocked, recovered, and #RockChalk has another attempt coming pic.twitter.com/qx1Wte4cyJ
— Collin Wilson (@_Collin1) October 27, 2019
Thanks to a hustle play by Kansas long snapper Logan Klusman, that ill-advised pitch resulted in a fumble, which set up another Jayhawks field goal attempt, this one just a 32-yarder. Kicker Liam Jones nailed his second chance, and Kansas had its first win over Texas Tech since 2001.
We still have no idea why or how that all unfolded. We may never. But somehow, Kansas is now 3-5, and the Les Miles experiment is … working?
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Oklahoma getting too cute at the end of the first half
Let’s set the scene here. The unbeaten No. 5 Sooners led Kansas State by three points with the ball on their own 21-yard line with less than a minute left in the first half. The Wildcats had provided the toughest test yet for Oklahoma and quarterback Jalen Hurts, a team with College Football Playoff aspirations and a player with Heisman Trophy hopes.
So, instead of just putting the ball in Hurts’ hands and letting him do his thing, running clock before the break in the process, Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley called a trick play that required wide receiver Nick Basquine to throw the ball. It appeared Basquine’s first option wasn’t available, and he tried to force the ball over the middle to Charleston Rambo. The ball bounced off Rambo’s hands and into the arms of Kansas State defensive back AJ Parker, who returned the interception 26 yards to the Oklahoma 14-yard line. Three plays later, Kansas State found the end zone on a 14-yard Skylar Thompson run.
Trick play gone wrong for OU 😬pic.twitter.com/hepeYqsZWK
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) October 26, 2019
That gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game, one they wouldn’t relinquish. It also set the tone for a second half that saw Kansas State score on its first four offensive possessions (a field goal followed by three consecutive touchdowns) and build a big enough lead to withstand the Sooners’ late comeback attempt.
Certainly, there were other moments that contributed to the Sooners’ upset loss — the field goal attempts on 4th and short and the controversial penalty that negated Oklahoma’s last-ditch onside kick recovery — but nothing was so explicitly problematic as the trick play call in a tight game just before halftime, with Kansas State set to get the ball after the break. If there’s such a thing as momentum, this changed it.
Manny Diaz going back to Jarren Williams
One of our favorite subplots of each college football season is whatever is happening in the ACC’s Coastal Division. This year, much like the handful of years before it, is impossible to predict and even weirder to follow week-to-week. So of course Pitt, after winning four consecutive games and emerging as a Coastal favorite alongside Virginia, would fail to score a touchdown on Saturday and allow Miami to pull out a road win after turning to its backup (?) quarterback.
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As Miami head coach Manny Diaz perfectly summarized afterward, “It’s another week in the ACC Coastal.”
Diaz said he and offensive coordinator Dan Enos made the joint decision to pull starter N’Kosi Perry, who had taken the reins from Week 0 starter Jarren Williams, midway through the fourth quarter after Perry had gone 10 of 24 for 104 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception.
“It was no reason other than the fact that we felt like we needed a spark,” Diaz said. “Obviously, we knew at that point that we were going to have to throw the football to have a chance to win this game. I don’t think that it was necessarily anything specific that N’Kosi wasn’t doing, but we were just stuck in the mud throughout the entire third quarter. It was just time to give Jarren a shot and see if he could get something to spark and get something going.”
That he did (eventually, after a three-and-out on the first possession). Williams led the Hurricanes to a nine-play, 62-yard drive that used his legs and his arm, capped by a 32-yard touchdown pass to K.J. Osborn that put Miami up for good with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Hurricanes’ triumph, coupled with Virginia’s loss to Louisville later in the day, allowed for the Coastal to remain chaotic, and Manny Diaz’s rookie season now has four wins on the ledger and, if he continues to push the right buttons often enough at quarterback, bowl eligibility in sight.
Speaking of the Coastal … let’s talk about Duke
We’ve watched the jump pass thrown by a running back with the game on the line about 12 times, and we still don’t understand the play call.
Duke was only down three and had 1st and goal on the UNC 2-yard line with 14 seconds left, and head coach David Cutcliffe called for running back Deon Jackson to throw a jump pass, intended for Noah Gray.
Duke trying going in for the win with the jump pass … what a play pic.twitter.com/aHywyT6d8O
— Nick Juskewycz (@NickJuskewycz) October 26, 2019
“You hate to see a game end like that for players that fought their heart out,” Cutcliffe said after the game. “We called a little jump pass there at the end that we’ve used sparingly before. It’s been really good. We’ve had it, really, oiled up and ready for about the last three weeks. It didn’t work. No mystery, just didn’t work. Nobody’s more disappointed than all of us are. Tough way to end a game.”
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The loss is Duke’s second in a row, bringing the Blue Devils to 4-4 on the season.
Jeremy Pruitt (eventually) returns to quarterback Jarrett Guarantano
Because, well, he kind of had to. Jarrett Guarantano was the butt of jokes after his 4th-and-goal fumble last week against No. 1 Alabama that was returned 100 yards for a Tide touchdown. This came after Guarantano had already been benched in favor of freshman Brian Maurer, who spent time in the concussion protocol this week and did not play Saturday.
“I’ve been really happy,” Guarantano deadpanned after Saturday’s 41-21 win over South Carolina. “Everything’s been going pretty smooth.” He cracked that he’s been getting some “great advice” via social media.
What a difference a week makes. No wonder he’s got the jokes now.
Guarantano entered Saturday’s game against South Carolina on Tennessee’s third offensive series, with the Gameco*cks up 7-3. And he threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns (both to Jauan Jennings, who actually spent the game’s first series behind center) on 11-of-19 passing, carrying Tennessee to a much-needed runaway victory. After playing Jennings and JT Shrout at quarterback before sending out the player who had been the goat of the Third Saturday in October, Pruitt smartly stuck with him as the Vols flashed the potential of a building team with bowl eligibility in its sights.
Trying to block Ohio State DE Chase Young with just one player
It’s not always effective. Particularly when that blocker is a tight end.
Chase Young's getting a season's worth of sacks (for most players) today.@youngchase907 | @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/IMVOFl1x3P
— Ohio State on BTN (@OhioStateOnBTN) October 26, 2019
(Top photo: Steven King / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Nicole Auerbach covers college football and college basketball for The Athletic. A leading voice in college sports, she also serves as a studio analyst for the Big Ten Network and a radio host for SiriusXM. Nicole was named the 2020 National Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sports Media Association, becoming the youngest national winner of the prestigious award. Before joining The Athletic, she covered college football and college basketball for USA Today. Follow Nicole on Twitter @NicoleAuerbach
