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.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.