Touchdown, Two Ways. Owen Marecic is unique, as a two-way player who lines up at linebacker and fullback, intriguing, as the subject of a Sports Illustrated profile titled "The Perfect Player," and, of course, beloved by Stanford fans. But his feat on Saturday trumps all of that.
Burrowing Into Box Scores, Week 4: Owen Marecic’s TD Two Ways, Oregon’s Opportunism, And The Big Least
Burrowing into the box scores from Week 4 in college football finds a sensational two-way player at Stanford, Oregon lighting up stat sheets as always, and the Big East redefining futility.
Marecic scored twice the fourth quarter of Stanford’s 37-13 win over Notre Dame, first on a one-yard run, then on an interception return. He scored these touchdowns on two consecutive snaps from scrimmage, over just 13 seconds of game clock. It’s the first time he’s scored two touchdowns in one game, and may well be the only time in college football history that a player has scored on two consecutive plays from scrimmage from different sides of the ball. Certainly, it’s the only time in recent memory that that has happened.
There's a lot of versatility in college football this year — Randall Cobb and Terrelle Pryor have each scored in three different ways in a game this year, and we'll get to Florida's Trey Burton in a bit — but Marecic is far and away the oddest of the bunch. Hopefully, we get more eye-popping rarities from him before his career at Stanford is done.
Oregon Goes Ducky Redux. From last week’s edition of this feature:
I can look at (Oregon) from any of many angles and still come up with a mind-blowing stat. I can only hope that continues at Arizona State next week.My wish totally came true, thanks mostly to Oregon’s defense.
The Ducks entered Saturday's game against Arizona State leading the nation in total defense, and scoring defense. That first distinction is all but gone, cast to the wind like so many Steven Threet passes. Arizona State gained 597 yards on the night, more than the Ducks had given up in their first three games combined, and the most that Oregon has given up in any game since an October 2008 beatdown at the hands of USC. The second distinction's a little harder to shake: despite giving up 31 points to the Sun Devils, Oregon's still tied for third in the nation in scoring defense, thanks to two shutouts in the first three weeks.
Oregon’s scoring is still a statistical marvel, too, though there are a few non-offensive touchdowns in their 231 points in 240 minutes. But the Ducks lead the nation in a different category, one that tends to help BCS Championship contenders: turnover margin. After forcing seven turnovers against Arizona State, Oregon’s at +11 for the season, just better than Ohio State’s +10. And each of the last three national champions was ranked in the top five in turnover margin at season’s end.
Big Least Wrests Mantle Of Conference Futility From ACC. The ACC didn’t get better this week, certainly — Duke lost at home to Army, and Maryland was outgained by Florida International, also allowing the Golden Panthers to convert 12 of 21 third downs ‐ but it earned some bragging rights over the Big East by going 2-0 in interconference clashes this week. It also looked about five million times better than its competitor in the race for the title of the nation’s most wretched conference.
While North Carolina struggled to beat Rutgers, partly thanks to the ceaselessly brilliant play-calling of John Shoop, Miami’s destruction of Pittsburgh made the Hurricanes look average and the Panthers look like one of the worst teams to ever play football. Pitt’s first half drives, in order: three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out, 11-play, 38-yard drive culminating in missed field goal. Remember: some folks picked Pittsburgh to win the Big East. And the Panthers might still be the best team in the Big East.
West Virginia went to LSU and lost. Syracuse added a win over Colgate to its triumphs against Akron and Maine. Connecticut looked good for once, but did so against Buffalo, a team whose only win came against Rhode Island. Cincinnati gagged against Oklahoma, and that gets its own note later. The Big East, collectively, is 1-10 against other BCS conferences, and has accomplished the dubious feat of losing to teams from each of them.
Oh, and Western Kentucky, a team on a 24-game losing streak, outgained South Florida, 314-283, just the fourth time Hilltoppers have outgained a team in their three years as an FBS team, the second time they have outgained another FBS team, and the first time they have ever outgained a team from a BCS conference. Way to go, Big Least.
Texas Stampeded. One of Texas’ hallmarks in the latter half of the last decade has been rush defense. The Longhorns led the nation in rush defense in 2009, were third in 2008, were sixth in 2007, and third in 2006. They entered Saturday’s game against UCLA leading the nation in rush defense once again — and proceeded to give up 264 yards to the Bruins, their worst day defending the run in almost five years (Texas A&M had 277 yards in a November 2005 game). All of Texas’ recent offensive problems still exist, but if the team’s most reliable strength is now a massive weakness, it could be an excruciatingly frustrating season in offense.
Tide Defense Ebbs, Flows. Alabama's defense was gutted as it has rarely been gutted under Nick Saban in the first half against Arkansas. The Razorbacks rolled up 301 yards of offense, which was one yard shy of what 'Bama gave up to Duke in an entire game last week. But the Tide stiffened in the second half, conceding just 120 yards, and getting especially stingy after falling behind 20-7. After that point, 'Bama gave up just two plays of over 10 yards, and intercepted Ryan Mallett twice in the fourth quarter to preserve the 24-20 win.
Rams Tough, Lobos Lousy. I thought Colorado State was one of the five worst teams in FBS after the Rams lost their first three games to Colorado, Nevada, and Miami of Ohio by a combined 106-19 score. But they surprised me on Saturday, recovering from 13-0 and 27-17 deficits to beat Idaho 36-34 on a field goal as time expired. Of course, the Rams only needed to score at game’s end because of a missed game-tying PAT earlier in the fourth quarter, but, hey, baby steps.
Meanwhile, one of Colorado State’s compatriots in Mountain West misery, New Mexico, took its first lead of the season on a first quarter touchdown against UNLV. The Lobos held that lead for 2:53, then allowed 45 straight UNLV points, and then kicked a field goal down 45-7 with 20 seconds left, but at least they led, right?
D.J. Wooden Hands. Cincinnati’s D.J. Woods could be the sickest man in college football today. He led all receivers in Cincinnati’s 31-29 loss to Oklahoma with seven catches for 171 yards, and added 112 yards on returns, but he fumbled one sure touchdown into the end zone and muffed a punt that Oklahoma recovered at the Cincy 7 and took in for a touchdown. Woods’ fumbles swung 14 points, and, likely, the game. For a Cincinnati team that was obliterated by NC State to hang tough against Oklahoma was impressive, but if Woods had held on to the ball a little tighter, the Bearcats could have staged an enormous upset.
Josh Nesbitt: Bad Passer, Getting Worse. Josh Nesbitt's role in the Georgia Tech offense is more facilitator and runner than light-it-up passer, but his regression in that role is part of the reason the Yellow Jackets have struggled. Nesbitt's completed just 32.6% of his passes, a mark that is lower than his freshman completion percentage (38.5%) and breaks a trend of year-by-year improvement.
The Still Sponsor-Free Conference USA Shootout Of The Week Category. No C-USA games this week were quite the pinball matches we've come to expect, but three games involving C-USA teams came down to the final play. UAB's 32-29 loss to Tennessee in overtime happened on a game-winning pass from Matt Simms to Denarius Moore, and came despite the Blazers outgaining the Vols 544-287 on the day. Ohio, likewise, lost on the last play, failing on a two-point conversion and falling 24-23 to Marshall after Boo Jackson's 36-yard touchdown pass to Terrence McCrae as time expired. UTEP won on its last play, an 18-yard field goal by Dakota Warren (who also hit from 57 and 50 yards earlier in the game) as time expired to beat Memphis 16-13.
Sir Burton. I wrote about Trey Burton’s record-breaking performance last night, but there’s still more. The Orlando Sentinel put Trey Burton’s six scores in perspective, and dredges up a great bit of trivia: the SEC single-game leader for touchdowns is an Ole Miss player named Showboat Boykin. If you believe this account of his day in 1951, Boykin ran 14 times for 189 yards and seven touchdowns, and this link suggests he was a 21st round draft pick of the Detroit Lions that year. Burton has Boykin beat on touchdowns per touch: he ran five times, all for touchdowns, and caught another five passes, one for a score, meaning six of his 10 touches went for six points.
He's also got Boykin on versatility: Burton was recruited as a quarterback, has played tight end and split wide, and is now Florida's go-to Wildcat runner. Through four games Burton's gotten 19 touches as a runner or a receiver, gained 99 yards on those plays, and scored eight touchdowns. He's also attempted and completed one pass this season, a 42-yarder on Saturday. And he has two tackles, one solo. Trey Burton may not be the next Tim Tebow at Florida. But being the first Trey Burton might well be enough.
Recapping The Day Of MACkoning. In total, Big Ten teams beat MAC teams 313-164 on Saturday. But remove the phenomenal days from Michigan and Ohio State, schools that posted 44-point and 53-point victories, respectively, and the Big Ten spread is just 175-123. Furthermore, Big Ten cellar dwellers Purdue and Minnesota both lost their MAC matchups, to Toledo and Northern Illinois, respectively, and Northwestern and Indiana, both undefeated, didn’t set the world on fire against Central Michigan and Akron.
Te'o Tees Off. Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o may be the finest at his position in the land. He had an astounding 21 tackles against Stanford on Saturday, has 54 for the season, and is on pace for 175 over 13 games, should the Irish go bowling. That's just a bit off the pace to break the NCAA FBS record (193, by Lawrence Flugence of Texas Tech in 2002), but it's more or less a guarantee that Te'o will have chances to run down ball carriers in the open field all year.
USC Two-Point Conversion Watch. Mitch Mustain (!?) ran in a two-point conversion to put the Trojans up 36-13 against Washington State. USC eventually won 50-16. The Trojans are 3-for-8 on two-point conversions this year, and 12-of-12 on PATs. You may, as always, form your own opinions of Lane Kiffin.
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