Saturday college football, Week 2: Michigan State-Oregon and all the other stuff

Last weekend, what was shaping up to be one of the best time slots of the first month of college football in 2014 turned into yet another instance of “let’s all laugh at the Big Ten.”

The league’s prime time participants all came up short. Michigan State, a team known for its defense, allowed 46 points and 7.2 yards per play in losing by 19 to Oregon. Ohio State, a team known for its offense, scored only 21 points and gained only 4.2 yards per play in a 14-point loss at home to Virginia Tech. Michigan is known for, well, not much these days, but it confirmed that Brady Hoke’s teams struggle away from Ann Arbor, as Hoke remains stuck on a grand total of one road win at Michigan against a team that finished with a winning record (a 2011 victory over collapsing Illinois).

Brady Hoke’s career in Ann Arbor started off swimmingly. Hoke is the quintessential “Michigan Man,” and he brought with him mantras about doing things the right way, playing to Michigan’s standards, and playing with toughness and power. He was the anti-Rich Rodriguez in many ways, and in 2011 he rode Rodriguez’ players to an 11-2 record and a Sugar Bowl victory. Fans were all in.

Recruits bought in, too, with 55 percent of Hoke’s signees over his four recruiting classes being rated four- or five-stars by the 247Sports Composite.

You know what’s a pretty underrated move in the college football taunting game? The full-page newspaper ad. Gets the word out better than any well-crafted tweet, helps save the print industry, and immortalizes the taunt in sweet, frame-able paper.

And if most taunting ads are misdemeanors, what an NIU alumni group just put in the Chicago Tribune is somewhere between a felony and a war crime.

The Big College Football Trophy is a trophy SB Nation made up to celebrate the internet-friendliest things that happen on college football fields each weekend. We plan on making an actual trophy at some point and giving it away somehow. Here are this week’s top performers.

Leonard Fournette, considered the top running back in the class of 2014 and by many to be the best player at any position, scored his first college TD. It wasn’t exciting -- it was but a four-yard run against Sam Houston State -- and he did this:

With a little bit more evidence after two weeks, it’s time to slide around the pecking order in each major conference and among the non-power cluster.

As I am quickly learning, TWIS is a lot of work to compile. You have to dig and hunt for the craziest comments, buried within message boards and social media by people with only minimal connections to their beloved football programs.

Except when the beloved football program comes to you:

In two games this season, Florida Atlantic has gained 345 yards and allowed 1,404. 1,404 yards. In two games. The resulting yardage margin of minus-1,059 yards would be pretty bad after 12 games.

Yes, the Owls were playing Nebraska and Alabama and not FIU and Wagner, but still. The biggest surprise is that they’ve only been outscored, 96-7. That’s some remarkable restraint from the Huskers and Crimson Tide.

It is 5:55 a.m. Pacific time. He sits on the back of a motorcycle in the dark, pointed down the middle of a long tunnel made of Oregon band members. TV people push sleep-zonked students and randos away to clear room for the camera crew. An empty Rolling Rock can is on the ground.

The Duck should be awake. He has no eyelids and no need to sleep. His energy is inhuman, literally and figuratively. He showed up at a band meeting at 5:15 with the same expression he wears forever: pupils flared almost to the limits of his eyes, a thin margin of white outlining them, and the broad permagrin of his bill leading the way at eye level. The Duck could be about six feet tall, but I would be lying if I said he didn’t feel a whole foot taller because of the mouth staring you right in the face.

Mike Rinaldi from Rhode Island helped make a goal-line tackle on Saturday. The only problem was his helmet came off, and he and ended up as a bloody mess. The moment of impact is really, really horrifying.

Please try not to let your helmets come off, everyone. Especially if you play football.

The Big Ten’s awful Saturday grew even worse with Virginia Tech’s upset of Ohio State. The Buckeyes offense crumbled behind a discouraging showing from freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett, who struggled through one of the worst fourth-quarter performances in recent memory.

The now 1-1 Buckeyes will try to recover against Kent State next Saturday, while Virginia Tech returns home to take on East Carolina.

Oregon frequently lines up in the swinging gate after TD’s, with backup QB/holder Taylor Alie ready to receive a snap. Generally they move back into an extra point formation. After their first TD against Oregon, they did not, running a pass play for two free points:

Via FOX

The statistical star of the game has to be Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. Adams went 31-46 for 476 yards and seven (seven!) touchdowns, setting a new school record. He also attempted an onside kick with three minutes left, but couldn’t get the ball back. Connor Kupp and Kendrick Bourne both went for over 100 yards receiving, and Kupp hauled in three touchdown passes.

The Eagles took a 45-44 lead with less than three minutes left in the third quarter, but two Husky touchdowns in the first half of the fourth quarter gave them enough cushion to hold on for the win.

USC athletic director Pat Haden, who is not a football coach, hit the sidelines to vigorously interact with referees during the second half of the Trojans’ game against Stanford. He is also one of 13 members of the College Football Playoff selection committee.

Haden later went on ABC to explain, saying he went to meet with head coach Steve Sarkisian about the game’s penalties and wants to “move on.” He mentioned being summoned to the sideline via text message, which is its own issue.

Remember how new Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin and his boss looked during last week’s game against West Virginia, which saw the Tide running wild on offense despite some misfires in the passing game? And how those looks suggested a certain dynamic narrative in line with how we think of each of these gentlemen, whether it was actually happening or not?

Via ABC

Nelson Agholor might have broken this one loose, were it not for a beautiful stop by two of his own teammates:

Great defensive effort not to let Agholor break loose after the first missed tackle.

UPDATE: Scherff is back in the game for Iowa.

Gif via ESPN.

Oklahoma State starting quarterback J.W. Walsh has left the team’s second game of the season with an apparent ankle injury. Walsh hobbled to the sideline after Rennie Child’s two-yard touchdown run gave the Cowboys a 10-0 first quarter lead over Missouri State. He later emerged from the locker room with crutches.

Walsh played a big factor in Oklahoma State’s close loss against No. 1 Florida State, leading the team in passing and rushing as well as totaling three of the Cowboys’ four touchdowns in the game. A junior out of Denton, Walsh totaled 20 touchdowns as a freshman in 2012 but lost the job to Clint Chelf midway through the 2013 season.

Barry Sanders’ son is named Barry Sanders. I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to keep calling him “Barry Sanders’ son” for a while. He’s very talented, a former blue-chip running back who’s now part of Stanford’s running back group and stunts like his daddy at times.

He, like all football players, is also capable of getting BLOWED UP REAL GOOD by Hayes Pullard.

The Stanford tree is one of college football’s most unique mascots: It’s crazy and ugly and the person in charge of mascotting redesigns it each time. It’s wonderful.

Except the current edition of the Stanford tree. The current edition of the Stanford tree -- a palm tree, as opposed to the more traditional evergreen -- gives us nightmares.

Paul Rhoads’s Iowa State Cyclones gave it their all against No. 20 Kansas State but were unable to hold off the resurgent Wildcats. After taking an early 13-0 lead, Bill Snyder’s Wildcats surrendered 28 straight points to the Cyclones. 19 straight second half points for Kansas State gave the visitors the 32-28 victory in both teams’ Big 12 opener.

The Cyclones’ defense were able to hold on for most of the second half, coming up with a number of stops on third-and-short or fourth-and-short and controlling the line of scrimmage. The Wildcats responded with around nine minutes left, stripping the ball out of West’s hands on a short slant route and coming up with the interception.

It was sketchy doings early for the Vols, as they fell behind only four minutes into the game on a touchdown run by Fredi Knighten. Knighten was a thorn in Tennessee’s side all day, extending plays with his legs and getting creative. Unfortunately for him, he just didn’t have enough help. The Vols reeled off 17 straight points to take a 17-6 lead in the second quarter, and that was the closest the Red Wolves would get for the rest of the afternoon.

Tennessee is still probably a year away from really clicking, but this was very easily a game the Vols could have let slip away in the past few seasons. Baby steps may not be the most exciting type of progress, but it’s still progress.

When you give 500 Toledo fans vuvuzelas ...

... they’re going to want to play them:

Hosting College GameDay in Eugene, Oregon on week two is a tricky proposition, at least if you’re hoping for a monstrous fan turnout and a steady stream of especially clever signs waving behind Chris Fowler’s head. Asking college students to turn up for a show that starts at 5 a.m. local time is tough, even at a football-crazy campus such as Oregon. Matters weren’t helped by the fact that Oregon’s classes don’t actually start for another two weeks.

The show at least ended with the kind of chaotic frenzy that fans have come to expect.

Is there a more Big Ten play than a safety on a kicking play? How about a safety on the opening kickoff?

Via BTN