For Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo, the challenge heading into Saturday’s game against sixth-ranked Houston was to keep his players motivated after last week’s tough 28-14 loss to Air Force.
After all, simply hanging with a team like Houston was supposed to be a major challenge, The Midshipmen entered the game as 17-point underdogs.
Turns out that Niumatalolo’s crew was able to do much more than simply hang with the Cougars. The Midshipmen went out and beat them.
Navy earned its first win over a Top 10 opponent in 32 years on Saturday. Niumatalolo’s team racked up 306 rushing yards on the nation’s top run defense during its 46-40 victory over Houston in Annapolis, Md.
"Sometimes you get your butt whipped and you move on," Niumatalolo told reporters after the huge win. "I'm just so proud of the way our guys responded after such a difficult, heart-wrenching, gut-blowing loss last week."
Although Navy’s triple option couldn’t be stopped, the team's defense was also opportunistic on Saturday afternoon. The Midshipmen were able to score 17 points off of three Cougar turnovers, while Navy didn’t turn the ball over once the whole game. The team was also very disciplined and committed one penalty for five yards.
“It shows the resiliency of our kids,” Niumataololo said. “I always say that it lets you know our country is in good shape because these are the leaders of our country in the future.”
Navy quarterback Will Worth completed just 3-of-6 total passes on the day, two of those completions were for touchdowns. Worth also led the way on the ground with 32 carries for 115 yards and a rushing score, followed by Toneo Gulley (six rushes, 63 yards) and Dishpan Romine (six rushes, 40 yards). Chris High had the other rushing touchdown for the Midshipmen.
Josiah Powell had two interceptions for the Navy defense.
Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr. racked up more than 450 yards of total offense, throwing for 359 yards on 32-of-50 passing, which included three touchdowns and two interceptions. The quarterback also ran for 94 yards on 17 carries with another rushing touchdown.
That gut-check feeling, the same one Navy was dealing with at this time last week, is what Houston head coach Tom Herman will now have to navigate with his Cougars squad. The team may have watched its National Championship aspirations fade away on Saturday.
But for Houston, there are still plenty of goals to accomplish this season.
"This one hurts but we still have everything in front of us," Herman said. "Our goal, as it is each and every year, is to win our conference championship and go to a New Year's Six bowl game. We have an opportunity to continue that journey."
When you get your first win over an AP top-10 team in 32 years, you celebrate. pic.twitter.com/dcfGG13KAa
— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) October 8, 2016
College Station craziness
Tennessee has already been a part of some absolutely crazy games this season and found itself in the middle of another one on Saturday night.
The ninth-ranked Volunteers were down 21 points in the third quarter against host Texas A&M. Tennessee did its best to mount a comeback that looked as though it would fall short. However, with only 41 seconds left in the game, Tennessee completed another unlikely comeback as Alvin Kamara hauled in an 18-yard touchdown to tie the game at 35 and force overtime.
To add to the craziness, No. 8 Texas A&M had two prime opportunities to put the game away late in the fourth quarter. Their first chance ended in pure madness. Freshman Trayveon Williams seemed to be on his way to a sure 70-plus-yard rushing touchdown run when the Vols’ Malik Foreman chased Williams down and knocked the ball out of his hands, which rolled through the end zone for a touchback.
YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!
TENNESSEE TAKES OVER ON THE TOUCHBACK. https://t.co/WvQX4T347x
— SEConCBS (@SEConCBS) October 8, 2016
The play set up the Volunteers’ game-tying score.
The Aggies also had a chance to win at the end of the game. Texas A&M attempted a 38-yard field goal to win it at the end of regulation, which sailed wide left.
The teams exchanged field goals in the first overtime. In the second overtime, Texas A&M scored on a one-yard touchdown run by Trevor Knight on its first possession. The Aggies were able to earn the victory when Armani Watts picked off Joshua Dobbs on Tennessee’s first play of their second overtime possession.
Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin's squad remains undefeated at 6-0 and now know, even when they don’t play their best football, they can find ways to win.
"The big takeaway from this was we were able to withstand some things, not play great but make enough plays to win the game without some of our better players being 100 percent," Sumlin told reporters after the game.
Tennessee moves to 5-1 on the season and has a huge matchup with No. 1 Alabama waiting for them on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
One thing’s for sure, the Volunteers know they can’t turn the ball over eight times like they did Saturday against Texas A&M. If they want to remain in next week’s game, the Volunteers will need to protect the ball better against the Crimson Tide.
“I’m very, very proud of our kids. Just the fight in them, the will to win,” Tennessee head coach Butch Jones said. “But again, you can't have (eight) turnovers, you can't turn the football over, you can't have the penalties we had. You have almost 700 yards of offense and you can't turn the football over. It's the details. Especially when you go on the road, the small details add up to the big details.”
Season-saving block?
The kicking game has been critical in the Miami-Florida State rivalry over the years and that storyline added yet another chapter on Saturday night in Miami Gardens, Fla.
Florida State clung to a one-point lead with 1:38 remaining in the game and the Hurricanes lining up for a game-tying extra point. The Seminoles’ DeMarcus Walker was able to block Miami kicker Michael Badgley’s attempt and Florida State pulled out a 20-19 victory.
The win represents Florida State’s seventh straight win over their rival Miami, which came into the game ranked 10th.
"That's a Florida State-Miami game," Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher said. "It's great competition. Heck of a game."
Ironically, prior to the contest, Miami was celebrating the anniversary of a missed field goal that propelled the Hurricanes to the national title in 1991. On the very night that marked the 25th anniversary of ‘Wide Right I’, the infamously missed Florida State kick, the kicking game lost the contest for Miami on Saturday night.
“Not being able to protect well enough to kick an extra point is tough," Miami head coach Mark Richt said after the game. "Tough for everybody. But, to their credit, somebody cared enough to blast through and get it. It was a great effort on their part."
The No. 23 Seminoles knew they needed a win on Saturday to keep their playoff aspirations alive, especially after last week’s bitter last-second loss to North Carolina.
“I don’t comprehend it,” Fisher said. “It’s something special because I know how many times Florida State was on the other end of those games for so many years. They’re a great team and it’s just a great rivalry.”
Next week Florida State (4-2, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) plays host to Wake Forest and Miami (4-1, 1-1 ACC) plays host to North Carolina.
#TheBlockAtTheRock pic.twitter.com/iyj0QWPm9k
— FSU Football (@FSU_Football) October 9, 2016
Like a video game
Many of us, this author included, grew up with a big brother who had little interest in letting their little brother get any glimmer of hope when playing video games.
On Saturday, Michigan was the big brother and Rutgers was the little brother.
The Wolverines were absolutely dominant from start-to-finish in Piscataway, N.J. Michigan won by the videogame like score of 78-0 and yielded only 22 total yards and two first downs to the Scarlet Knights the entire game.
For Michigan, Saturday’s game was its largest margin of victory in 77 years. The Wolverines defeated Chicago University in 1939 by the score of 85-0. Saturday’s 78-point victory also represents Michigan’s largest margin of victory in a Big Ten Conference game ever, which exceeded the previous 69-point victory over Northwestern in 1975.
Offensively, Michigan dominated on the ground by racking up 481 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. Chris Evans finished with a career-best 153 yards and fullback Khalid Hill scored three touchdowns.
Scoring seemed to come from anyone who touched the field, even the team’s placeholder. Garrett Moores ran a PAT snap into the end zone for a two-point conversion after the Wolverines scored their fourth touchdown.
Defensively, Michigan absolutely stuffed Rutgers, which went 0-for-17 on third downs. Two Scarlet Knights quarterbacks combined for 2-of-18 for five yards. The player with the biggest stat line for Rutgers was Michael Cintron, who punted 16 times for 603 yards and averaged 37.7 yards per kick, with a long of 61 yards.
Perhaps the best moment of the night for Rutgers came with about nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The offense earned its initial first down of the night. A Rutgers fan and a Michigan fan embraced to celebrate the moment:
Michigan and Rutgers fans share a heartwarming hug after the Knights finally have a good play: https://t.co/2JLDiqPtZ5 pic.twitter.com/vZYqWlSFHD
— SB Nation (@SBNation) October 9, 2016
If that doesn’t make you feel good, I don’t know what will.
No. 4 Michigan (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) continues to roll and has a bye week to look forward to before playing host to Illinois on Oct. 22.
Rams roll
The Rams dug into their bag of tricks with only 11:04 left in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Division-II matchup between No. 3 Shepherd University and Glenville State.
Utilizing the old-fashioned flea flicker, senior wide receiver Billy Brown scored on a 53-yard play to extend Shepherd’s lead to 31-7.
The Rams would score once more and earn a 38-7 home victory over the Pioneers.
Senior quarterback Jeff Ziemba was able to cement his name in the Shepherd record books on Saturday. He was 27-of-34 and 334 yards with three touchdowns. The quarterback now has 69 career touchdown passes, which makes him the school’s all-time leader.
Brown, meanwhile, had seven catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns on the day. Running back Deonte Glover led the way for the Rams with eight rushes for 65 yards and a touchdown.
Shepherd was led defensively by Octavius Thomas, the linebacker had nine total tackles and a sack. Chris Jones had an interception for the Rams defense, which held the Pioneers to just 235 yards of total offense.
Shepherd returns to action this week, when it travels to take on West Virginia State.
Billy Brown hauled in two second half touchdowns to help No. 3 @ShepherdRamsFB secure a 38-7 win over @GSCFootball! #NCAAD2 #MakeItYours pic.twitter.com/kDG3Myt35m
— NCAA Division II (@NCAADII) October 8, 2016
No overlooking here
Next week, Division-III No. 6 North Central has a huge matchup with rival No. 19 Wheaton College at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.
Next week’s game would have even more on the line if North Central was looking ahead to next week's rivalry and didn’t take care of business against North Park.
Led by their quarterback Broc Rutter, the North Central Cardinals showed the ability to focus on one task at a hand and downed the Vikings 35-14.
Rutter went 30-of-36 for 358 yards and five touchdowns against one interception. The afternoon represents the fourth-highest completion total in school history. Dylan Warden, a former quarterback-turned-wide receiver, also had a big day with six catches for 80 yards and three touchdowns.
The game wasn’t easy for the Cardinals as things didn’t start as expected for North Central. The Cardinals elected to receive the opening kickoff, which went untouched by their kick returners. North Park’s kickoff team astutely scooped up the ball and ran it into the end zone for the game’s first score.
However, the Cardinals answered on their opening possession. Rutter found Ryan Kuhl for a nine-yard touchdown pass to tie the game. After trading two more scores with North Park, the Cardinals didn’t look back.
Justin Stuursma had a big day for the North Central defense. The junior linebacker collected five total tackles, which included three tackles for a loss.
North Central (6-0, 3-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) can officially turn its attention to their big matchup against Wheaton (5-0), which defeated Millikin on Saturday by the score of 35-19.
VICTORY! A red-hot Cardinal offense downs the Vikings 35-14.
NCC moves to 5-0, 3-0 in CCIW.#CardinalReign #WeAreNC #d3fb pic.twitter.com/AyASXXJENC
— NCC Cardinals (@NCC_Athletics) October 8, 2016
U.S. National Team alumni spotlight
Each week at Hash Marks and Hashtags, we’ll put the spotlight on alumni of the U.S. National Team.
This week’s spotlight is on Navy linebacker Micah Thomas who was a member of the U.S. National Team in 2013.
Thomas has flourished since his time with the U.S. National team and has become one of the Midshipmen’s top defensive leaders. Last season, his first as a starter, he earned Second-Team All-East honors after starting 13 games and finished second on the team with 73 tackles. Thomas also adding 4.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and two pass breakups.
So far this season, Thomas is leading the Navy defense with 39 total tackles. He also has one tackle for loss and two pass breakups.
He was a key piece for the Midshipmen in their huge upset victory over Houston on Saturday. The junior linebacker collected seven total tackles in Navy’s 46-40 victory over No. 6 Cougars in Annapolis, Md.
We wish the best of luck to Thomas and all of the U.S. National Team alumni this season and in the future.
Notable quotables:
“It was a taxing week, but our guys didn't complain. They just went through the grind. I love that mentality of that team." — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, whose Tigers defeated Boston College, 56-10, to stay undefeated at 6-0 on Saturday, on short rest after a big win over Louisville.
“You just look at the plays we gave up. You can’t give up home runs thrown over your head.” — Texas head coach Charlie Strong, whose Longhorns allowed touchdown passes of 71, 47 and 42 yards in their 45-40 loss to No. 20 Oklahoma.
"What I do like is I do think they're good listeners. I do think they're listening to our process." — Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente, on the No. 25 Hokies’ 34-3 victory over North Carolina in a driving rain from Hurricane Matthew.
“I’m just glad I don't have to talk about the streak, or have to answer that. That's probably the No. 1 thing I've been asked since the day I got to Seattle. That's why I'm really happy, so I don't have to answer that question.” — Washington head coach Chris Petersen, whose Huskies snapped a 12-game losing streak to Oregon in a big way, winning 70-21 in Eugene, Ore.
"I never thought about celebrations because I've never been put in this position before so I'll have to watch it again — I don't remember it honestly.” — Purdue freshman kicker J.D. Dellinger, asked about his recollections of his 28-yard field goal on the game’s final play to earn the Boilermakers a much-needed 34-31 victory over Illinois in Champaign, Ill.
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Sunday, October 9, 2016 - 13:14