In the wee early hours Sunday morning, in a game that kicked at Midnight eastern, Hawaii finished off Northern Iowa 36-7, turning the final page of Chapter 4 in this college football story. Since I attended the K State/ BYU game, I’ll discuss that game in a moment, but before I do here are a few headlines that highlighted the Week 4 weekend.
Week 4 College Football headlines:
- Mullings and Michigan Bowl over USC
- BYU and Provo at night demoralizes Kstate, improving to 4-0
- Colorado saves their season on a Hail Mary pass as time expires against Baylor
- Tennessee survives the Tough Sooner defense in Norman.
- James Madison Taxes the Tobacco Farmers of UNC scoring 70 in Chapel Hill
-Kalel Mullings was amazing in the fourth quarter, but I posted that on Saturday. Truly inspiring performance.
-Colorado, trailing 31-24 and on the verge of falling to 2-2 in this young season, completed a Hail Mary pass as time expired, kicked the PAT, and went on to win in overtime. Heroic, implausible home win for Coach Sanders and the Buffaloes in the pouring rain.
-The Volunteers did everything necessary to win. That’s all they needed to do to continue their playoff pursuit. I called UT by at least 10, and that’s exactly what they did. 25-15 to the team from Knoxville.
-You either saw the first half of the James Madison game or you didn’t. Madness. Insanity. Improbability. 70-50 final score over UNC. Move on.
-The Provo night…
Was I absolutely backwards on my KSU/ BYU prediction? Yes. Am I ok with that? Absolutely. Some of the most unbelievable things I’ve ever witnessed in a game in person took place late Saturday night in Provo. After dominating the BYU offense for 28 minutes and 30 seconds of the first half, the visiting Wildcats led 6-3 and had possession around there own 25.
The Provo crowd was feeling restless at this point. I was surrounded by long time seasoned BYU football fans that were muttering under their breath about this being “the same BYU…another QB that can’t hit an open man…what was that play call? What are we doing here!?” Now, most of this came from the elder Elmer Fudd looking gentleman to my left who never smiled until BYU had a comfortable four score lead in the 4th quarter. He retreated to the latrine with two minutes to go in the half to beat the crowd, and two plays after ‘Elmer’ vacated his seat, chaos in the Provo Canyon ensued. The next 6 ½ minutes of gametime were a blur. Let me see if I can get these details correct.
As I said, 90 seconds to go in the first half, Kstate with the ball around their own 25, and the crowd had lost its voice. Kstate ran a toss play to the right and fumbled. Then BYU scooped it and ran for a TD making it 10-6 with 1:10 left in the half. Kstate received the kick and had possession with one minute to go.
At this point, I said out loud “Klieman just needs to run this half out here…throwing would be foolish. Avery hasn’t hit a receiver this half, and this crowd suddenly has belief again…Get to the locker room and overcome the four-point deficit in the second half.” The Wildcats had played disciplined defense against the lack luster Cougar offense to that point, and I was confident that my prediction would end up being correct even with this unsuspected snafu. But HC Chris Klieman had other plans…
1-2 plays after I said these things, QB Avery Johnson lined up in shotgun with 4 wide and attempted a throw to a receiver 8 yards over the middle but overthrew him and was Intercepted. Only my wife can attest to this, but upon seeing this formation I literally said to her “This is foolish. Klieman can lose the game right here.” BYU then threw a 23-yard TD pass with 29 seconds to go in the half to make it 17-6. This time Klieman ran one play and then ran to the locker room.
I spent halftime smashing half a Cougar Tail and trying to make sense of what had just happened while the Cougar Band played the intermission.
BYU scored less than two minutes into the second half to make it 24-6, and then put the game completely out of reach with a 90 yard punt return for a TD less than three minutes after that. In less than 7 minutes of actual game time, the score flipped from Kansas st leading 6-3 to BYU dominating 31-6. They added a 4th quarter TD to seal it 38-9.
The 61,000+ Provo faithful never lost their voice again after they had the 10-6 lead. The question that I’ve asked myself for two days is “What the hell was Klieman thinking?” I like this coach. In fact, my number one reason picking Kstate to win against BYU was because of the coaching advantage that I believe this team has. This guy has coached in big games as both favorite and underdog and I didn’t believe the electric atmosphere would hinder his game plan, which, coming into the game, I believed to be run the ball, play defense, kick field goals, and prove to be the deeper team late in the game. This is what he did in the first half. He did air it out a few times, but Avery Johnson missed no fewer than 4 open receivers on deep balls—that were in 1 on 1 coverage and had a step on the chasing defensive back. This is one of the reasons it befuddled me when he decided to throw the ball down 10-6 deep in his own territory. The other is that BYU wasn’t just being stellar against the run, and there was an opportunity for a big play out of the backfield.
Yes, Avery Johnson was beyond poor in this game, but this loss is on Klieman. It was strange to witness. I’m glad I was there for this one because its one of those things that needed to be seen in person to realize how pitiful he coached that final 90 seconds of the first half. I’ll expect far better from him as soon as this weekend. Of course, he doesn’t need my dumbass to tell him these things. I imagine that he endured some harsh self-reflection in the bathroom mirror before bed Sunday morning, but I can guarantee that he is a professional and he will be ready for next week. Maybe he will ‘Find the Humor and keep on Movin.’
Credit the BYU defense especially linebacker #11 Harrison Taggert. They made the plays necessary. Credit BYU Punt Returner Parker Kingston as he fielded the bouncing punt at his own 10 and ran into his own endzone before accelerating 100 yards the other way for the once in a lifetime TD. Credit the Provo Crowd. The stadium was still packed to the gills and loud as ever when I left halfway through the 4th quarter. And Credit the Cougar Tail. That sugar Buzz kept my old ass awake.
Will this game have any bearing on the 12-team playoff at the end? Perhaps, and only time will tell.
Facts remain, Lavell Edwards at night is still a dangerous place to be a visiting team. That’s a fact. Now the question is Are the Mormons vampires? Was Klieman under some Spell to be so hairbrained momentarily? Laugh a little.
Oh Yeah, Super Bowl Winning Coach Brian Billick and Sports Columnist Adrain Wojnarowski “Woj” were both in attendance. Coach Billick was honored at midfield having starred at BYU in the 70’s. Legends
Week 5 is just a few short days away. Preview incoming soon along with an update from Edinboro.
Find the Humor and keep on Movin’
Whit W