A LOOK BACK AT SATURDAY"S NCAA GAMES
Saturday NCAA Football Recap: Texas schools barely clinch victories in Week 5
Kalah Winters
Sep 30, 2018, 1:56 pm
Kyler Murray did not start, but played terrific in a win over Baylor. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
The word of the week is ‘sloppy’ but a win is a win, I guess. Here’s what happened:
LSU 45, Mississippi 16
After narrowly escaping defeat at the hands of an undermatched opponent last week, LSU coach Ed Orgeron compared his team to an overconfident fighter who drops their hands and subsequently gets “hit in the face”. This week, however, the Tigers came ready to play and they were out for redemption. LSU quarterback Joe Burrow wreaked havoc on Mississippi as he led his team to a 45-16 victory over the Rebels on Saturday night. The junior quarterback threw for 292 yards, three touchdowns, and rushed for 96 yards and another score, beating Ole’ Miss on the ground and in the air. "LSU used to be a running offense," said receiver Justin Jefferson, who had five catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns. "Spreading the ball around like we do now is a very good feeling for this offense, especially the receivers." Freshman receiver Ja’Marr Chase leaped and caught a 21-yard sideline pass from Burrow for the Tiger’s first score of the game. "I'm excited about the play of Joe Burrow," said LSU coach Ed Orgeron. "Joe can make the throws. I know he can make the decisions and I know he can scramble.” Despite LSU dominating most of the game, two LSU turnovers kept the Rebels in the game until late in the third quarter.
Oklahoma 66, Baylor 33
Despite not starting for the Sooners, per team policy for being late to practice Friday, junior quarterback Kyler Murray ran for a score and threw for career-highs of 432 yards and six touchdowns. Murray is now tied with Baker Mayfield’s school record by accounting for seven touchdowns in a game, and his 348 efficiency rating was a school record. "He handled the situation before the game well," Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said. "Didn't freak out like I'm sure the rest of America did. It was what it was." Well you can say that again, coach. Junior receiver Marquise Brown caught five passes for 132 yards and two scores, sophomore receiver CeeDee Lamb grabbed three receptions for 101 yards and one touchdown, and freshman running back Kennedy Brooks ran for 107 yards and two scores. Turns out Murray’s own teammates are just as stunned as we are by his playmaking abilities. "I haven't seen anybody else do it better," Lamb said. "He surprises me every week, just like he surprises y'all. I promise.” Sophomore quarterback Charlie Brewer was 38 for 60 with 400 yards and two touchdowns for the Bears, but was sacked six times. The Sooners will face off with the Longhorns in Dallas on Saturday. This will be the first time since 2015 that the Sooners enter the rivalry game undefeated.
West Virginia 42, Texas Tech 34
Red Raider true freshman quarterback Alan Bowman did not return after getting pinned on hits from Ezekiel Rose and Keith Washington as he threw a pass. Senior West Virginia quarterback, Will Grier was 27-of-41 for 370 yards and three touchdowns. Washington stopped a potential rally by Tech with a 51-yard interception return for a score and No. 12 West Virginia remains undefeated with a 42-34 victory over No. 25 Texas Tech.
Texas 19, Kansas State 14
The No. 18 Longhorns were off to a great start on Saturday night. Sophomore quarterback Sam Ehlinger was 29-of-36 with 207 yards and one touchdown, and defensive back D’Shawn Jamison returned a punt 90 yards for another score, putting the Longhorns up 19-0 by halftime. And that was all she wrote (for the offense anyway). The Longhorns were forced to rely heavily on their defense for the remainder of the game. Unfortunately for Texas, the Wildcats came out a different team in the second half. Sophomore quarterback Skylar Thompson threw for 96 yards in relief of ineffective Alex Delton and he led the Wildcats to two touchdowns in the second half. However, after two incompletions with 7:12 to go in the game, the Wildcats’ offense never got another opportunity with the ball. Texas managed to hold down Kansas State for a 19-14 victory. "We won ugly, but the key is we won," Longhorn coach Tom Herman said. "They all look pretty on Sunday morning."
Texas A&M 24, Arkansas 17
What started as a great game, ended as a sloppy mess, according to Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher. "We played in spurts," said Fisher. "We came out and started well, had some great things off the beginning, lost control of the game." A&M had a 17-0 lead in the second quarter when sophomore quarterback Kellen Mond threw his second interception of the game. Freshman running back Jashaun Corbin had the first 100-yard kickoff return to start a game for the Aggies since 1994. Junior running back Trayveon Williams ran for 152 yards and two touchdowns but it took a late interception by senior defensive back Donovan Wilson to seal the 24-17 win for the Aggies on Saturday. "Probably played our worst football game of the year by far and need to get things fixed," Fisher said. "Had decent intensity. But our intelligence level, how to play and how to expect to win and play from ahead and do things that champions do and good football teams do, we've got to grow in it."
Wake Forest 56, Rice 24
After giving up 41 points in a loss to Boston College, and another 56 in defeat to Notre Dame, the Demon Deacons desperately needed this win and it showed as they sailed to a (mostly) error-free victory over Rice on Saturday. "To me, it looked like they were having fun," Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said. "They were playing with emotion. They were flying around. The blitzes looked faster. There was just an energy level out there, and I think they got some confidence from the first few drives." Wake forest was up to a 42-3 lead over the Owls by halftime. Sophomore receiver Greg Dortch finished with 11 receptions for 163 yards and four touchdowns, leading Wake Forest to a 56-24 victory over Rice.
UTSA 30, UTEP 21
Junior quarterback Cordale Grundy was 20-for-35 with 187 yards, two touchdown passes, and one rushing score for the Roadrunners as they held off UTEP for a 30-21 victory in a Conference USA opener on Saturday. UTEP’s school losing streak now stands at 17 straight.
TCU 17, Iowa State 14
"Coach P says whether you win by 50 or win by 1, a win is a win," TCU senior defensive end Ben Banogu said. "I'm glad we got a `W' on the board." This seems to be the trend for Texas schools this week. Banogu returned a fumble 47 yards for a score before missing a critical sack on Iowa State’s game-tying drive. Jonathan Song sealed the 17-14 victory over Iowa State for the Horned Frogs with a 28-yard field goal with 37 seconds remaining.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
There was a conversation Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell had during training camp, the topic being all the teams that were generating the most preseason buzz in the Eastern Conference. Boston was coming off an NBA championship. New York got Karl-Anthony Towns. Philadelphia added Paul George.
The Cavs? Not a big topic in early October. And Mitchell fully understood why.
“What have we done?” Mitchell asked. “They don't talk about us. That's fine. We'll just hold ourselves to our standard.”
That approach seems to be working.
For the first time in 36 seasons — yes, even before the LeBron James eras in Cleveland — the Cavaliers are atop the NBA at the 25-game mark. They're 21-4, having come back to earth a bit following a 15-0 start but still better than anyone in the league at this point.
“We've kept our standards pretty high,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “And we keep it going.”
The Cavs are just one of the surprise stories that have emerged as the season nears the one-third-done mark. Orlando — the only team still unbeaten at home — is off to its best start in 16 years at 17-9 and having done most of that without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero. And Houston is 16-8, behind only the Cavs, Boston, Oklahoma City and Memphis so far in the race for the league's best record.
Cleveland was a playoff team a year ago, as was Orlando. And the Rockets planted seeds for improvement last year as well; an 11-game winning streak late in the season fueled a push where they finished 41-41 in a major step forward after a few years of rebuilding.
“We kind of set that foundation last year to compete with everybody,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Obviously, we had some ups and downs with winning and losing streaks at times, but to finish the season the way we did, getting to .500, 11-game winning streak and some close losses against high-level playoff teams, I think we kind of proved that to ourselves last year that that's who we're going to be.”
A sign of the respect the Rockets are getting: Oddsmakers at BetMGM Scorebook have made them a favorite in 17 of 24 games so far this season, after favoring them only 30 times in 82 games last season.
“Based on coaches, players, GMs, people that we all know what they're saying, it seems like everybody else is taking notice as well,” Udoka said.
They're taking notice of Orlando as well. The Magic lost their best player and haven't skipped a beat.
Banchero's injury after five games figured to doom Orlando for a while, and the Magic went 0-4 immediately after he tore his oblique. Entering Tuesday, they're 14-3 since — and now have to regroup yet again. Franz Wagner stepped into the best-player-on-team role when Banchero got hurt, and now Wagner is going to miss several weeks with the exact same injury.
Ask Magic coach Jamahl Mosley how the team has persevered, and he'll quickly credit everyone but himself. Around the league, it's Mosley getting a ton of the credit — and rightly so — for what Orlando is doing.
“I think that has to do a lot with Mose. ... I have known him a long time,” Phoenix guard Bradley Beal said. “A huge fan of his and what he is doing. It is a testament to him and the way they’ve built this team.”
The Magic know better than most how good Cleveland is, and vice versa. The teams went seven games in an Eastern Conference first-round series last spring, the Cavs winning the finale at home to advance to Round 2.
Atkinson was brought in by Cleveland to try and turn good into great. The job isn't anywhere near finished — nobody is raising any banners for “best record after 25 games” — but Atkinson realized fairly early that this Cavs team has serious potential.
“We’re so caught up in like the process of improve, improve, improve each game, improve each practice," Atkinson said. “That’s kind of my philosophy. But then you hit 10-0, and obviously the media starts talking and all that, and you’re like, ‘Man, this could be something special brewing here.’”