NCAA REWIND
Saturday NCAA football recap: Big wins for Texas, Tech, Baylor, LSU in Week 6
Oct 6, 2019, 1:06 pm
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Texas gets revenge on the road, Tech bounces back after humiliation, and Joe Burrow sets LSU passing record. Here's a look at what happened in the Lone Star State and with LSU:
Texas 42, West Virginia 31
Last year West Virginia players left several Texas players upset after flashing the "horns down" sign during West Virginia's 42-41 win at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin. Although Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger insists he had put aside the defiant celebration of Mountaineers on his home field last year, he got his payback, leading the No. 11 Longhorns to a 42-31 victory over West Virginia on Saturday. Ehlinger finished 18-of-33 for 211 yards passing and two touchdowns. Freshman running back Roschon Johnson finished with career highs on 121 yards on 21 carries for the Longhorns. The Texas defense came up clutch for a team whose offense got off to a rough start. West Virginia quarterback Austin Kendall was intercepted four times, twice by cornerback D'Shawn Jamison. It's possible that Texas will reappear in the top 10 with the road win but I expect they will at least hold their 11th position on the poll. The Longhorns face off with the Sooners next Saturday in Dallas.
LSU 42, Utah State 6
Joe. Burrow. This kid is undeniably talented but what really strikes me is the LSU quarterback's relentless quest for greatness. After completing 27 of 38 passes for 344 yards, becoming the first LSU quarterback to stack 300 yards passing in four consecutive games, Burrow seemed unimpressed with his latest performance. "Last year, we would have been very happy," Burrow said. "But this is a new team and a new offense. Things have changed around here when you are not happy with this performance." Burrow was intercepted once on a deflected pass against Utah State before being replaced by Myles Brennan early in the fourth quarter due to a lopsided score. Burrow also rushed for 42 yards and another score. Despite only finishing one fourth quarter this season, Burrow has a 78.3 percent pass completion rate for 1,864 yards and 22 touchdowns. LSU receiver Ja'Marr Chase caught his sixth touchdown pass of the season helping the fourth-ranked Tigers rout Utah State 42-6 on Saturday to remain undefeated. LSU's injury-riddled defense also showed no signs of slowing down, intercepting Aggie quarterback Jordan Love three times, including a mystifying pick by freshman cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. which set the Tigers up for a 99-yard scoring drive. LSU's point total was a season low which coach Ed Orgeron says was intentional to allow its defense to rest before getting into the meat of their season next week. "It wasn't as fun, but it worked," Orgeron said. "This game was methodical. We were chewing up clock." Three of the Tiger's next four games are against teams that spent the past week ranked in the top 10: No. 10 Florida, No. 7 Auburn and No. 1 Alabama. Expect the Tigers to hold their position in the AP Top 25 poll after easily handling Utah State. LSU is home against Florida next Saturday.
Texas Tech 45, Oklahoma State 35
In his first start of the season, quarterback Jett Duffey completed 26 of 44 passes for 424 yards and four touchdowns, ran for a score and avoided turnovers (which plagued him in the past), leading the Red Raiders to a much needed 45-35 upset over No. 21 Oklahoma State on Saturday. Coming off a humiliating 55-16 loss at Oklahoma two weeks ago, the Red Raiders built a 20-0 lead early in the second quarter and never stopped fighting. "This was a tough week. It was an emotional week," Texas Tech coach Matt Wells said. "Nobody was very happy about the way we played last week. I thought they responded. Tremendous amount of guts." The Red Raider defense forced three interceptions and two fumbles by redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Sanders. Safety Douglas Coleman III snatched two interceptions for the Red Raiders, bringing him to five in five games this season. "We had to show the world, like, we can play defense at Texas Tech," Coleman said. "I think it was a big statement we had to prove." Texas Tech heads to Baylor next week for its first trip to Waco in 12 years.
Iowa State 49, TCU 24
Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy threw for 247 yards and two touchdowns and ran 102 yards for two more scores, overwhelming the Horned Frogs defense and leading the Cyclones to a 49-24 victory for their first Big 12 win of the season. "I think Brock is really special. I don't know if I have any different feeling for the words I can use for to describe Brock," Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. "He's a guy who gives us an ability (as) a dual threat football player." Freshman quarterback Max Duggan finished 17 for 25 passing for 219 yards and two touchdowns for the Horned Frogs. TCU is off next week and plays at Kansas State on Oct. 19.
Baylor 31, Kansas State 12
Bad Baylor surprised me again, beating Kansas State 31-12 on Saturday. The victory extends the Bears undefeated record to 5-0 and marks Baylor's first conference road win since beating Kansas in 2017. "I'm really proud of our guys because this is a tough place to play with a great crowd," Baylor coach Matt Rhule said. "I thought our guys battled early, found a way to get a halftime lead and then grounded it out in the second half." Baylor quarterback Charlie Brewer led his team with 230 yards passing and one touchdown, but left the game early in the fourth quarter with an injury and did not return. Running back John Lovett rushed for two touchdowns for the Bears, one of which came on a 46-yard run late in the fourth quarter to seal the Wildcat's fate. Baylor returns home to face Texas Tech next Saturday.
UAB 35, Rice 20
Quarterback Tyler Johnston III threw for 282 yards and three touchdowns and running back Lucious Stanley ran for two scores, leading UAB to a 35-20 win over Rice on Saturday. The Owls have lost 17 of their last 18 games dating back to last season. Rice is off next week and plays at UTSA on Oct. 19.
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It would be kind of funny if Christian Walker simply decided he wanted to check out what the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is all about. “Ow, my left oblique feels kind of sore. How about sending me to Houston for the weekend to get an MRI?” That would be quite a bodacious move, and total bull (props to you if you see what I did there). Of course, faking pain is not the case, and the Astros now cross their fingers that their 60-million dollar free agent signee doesn’t start his Houston tenure on the injured list. It certainly isn’t encouraging to know that Walker missed about 20 percent of last season with a left oblique injury. In 2021 he spent two stints on the IL because of right oblique problems. Obviously the Astros want return on their investment as quickly and as substantially as possible, but they would be fools not to treat this conservatively. Walker turns 34 years old the second day of the regular season. No one should be having night sweats just yet over the possibility that Walker is about to become Jose Abreu 2.0. Abreu was 36 when he debuted with the Astros. However, it is accurate to note that Abreu had a significantly higher WAR in his last season before joining the Astros than did Walker.
If Walker turns out to be sidelined for a month, that would mean the Astros need a first baseman for the first week and a half or so of the regular season. Let the drumbeat for Cam Smith begin! The sample size remains laughably small, but Smith continues to speak softly and swing a very, very big stick. If you’ll accept a .636 batting average as pretty good. It’s only 11 at bats. But yowza! If Walker is to be down into the regular season, and Smith keeps rocketing line drives in the Grapefruit League, the plot thickens. Smith only has 19 at bats above single-A. That’s 19 more than Albert Pujols had when the St. Louis Cardinals decided to have him in their lineup to begin the 2001 season. Albert did fairly well. He’s merely the greatest first baseman in National League history.
The much more conservative approach would be a platoon with Jon Singleton in the lineup against most right-handed pitchers and whoever is not catching between Yainer Diaz and Victor Caratini playing against lefties. Zach Dezenzo would be another option. Cam Smith is not an option to play first base, at least not early in 2025. Just in the last few days, he’s started doing some outfield drills because of the possible pathway to the big club in right field that I wrote about last week. Cam Smith is not going to make a huge jump to the big leagues and basically try to learn a new position on the fly there. However, Isaac Paredes owns a first baseman’s glove. Paredes started 13 games at first for the Rays last season. He made 40 starts total at first over the last three seasons, his only big league starts at first, after a grand total of two at first in the minors. Paredes temporarily moving to first would open up third base for Smith. Just sayin’...
What's in a name?
File this more under trivial than trivia, but here goes. When Isaac Paredes takes the field in the season opener, he officially becomes the third Paredes in Astros’ history. Utility man Jimmy Paredes got some run during the franchise deep in the abyss stage from 2010-13. Relief pitcher Enoli Paredes got 32 1/3 innings in over three seasons 2020-22. There have been only six guys named Paredes in MLB history. Come March 27 the Astros will have had half of them.
On the farm
MLB Pipeline this week released its in order ranking of the Astros’ top 30 prospects. Cam Smith is the obvious number one. Brice Matthews is number two. Drafted as a shortstop, Matthews has a better route to the bigs as a second baseman, given the Astros’ weak depth chart there with Jose Altuve becoming primarily a left fielder. Outfielder Jacob Melton is third. Considering the present state of the Astros’ outfield and that Melton turns 25 this September, if worth a darn, he should play his way on to the 26-man roster at some point this year. Catcher Walker Yanek ranks fourth. He was the Astros’ first round pick last July. Dezenzo rounds out the top five.
We’re under three weeks until Opening Day. Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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