Sep 13, 2017

Big Ten & SEC Week 2 Recap: Irma Impact, Georgia Rolls in a Championship Rematch and Dinosaurs in Ann Arbor

Standings and Results

Big Ten

SEC

AP Top 10

1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Clemson
4. USC
5. Penn State
6. Washington
7. Michigan
8. Ohio State
9. Oklahoma State
10. Wisconsin

Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida over the weekend and caused significant damage throughout the state. At this point, the death toll from the storm, which which hit the Florida Keys as a Category 4, stands at 11. Additionally, millions are still without power, and many are also without running water.

For anyone looking to help those impacted by Hurricane Irma, there are many charity organizations that are currently responding to areas affected by the storm. A list of several relief organizations, along with a description of each, can be found here.

As a result of Irma, public schools and state universities in Florida were also forced to cancel both classes and athletic events over the past several days. Below is a list of the FBS-level football games that have been affected by Irma thus far:

Week 2*

Memphis at UCF**
Louisiana Monroe at Florida State
Miami at Arkansas State
South Florida at Connecticut
Northern Colorado at Florida

Week 3
Miami at Florida State (moved to Saturday, Oct. 7)
FIU at Indiana
Georgia Tech at UCF

* FAU played its road game against Wisconsin on Saturday, falling 31-14 to the Badgers at Camp Randall. The team, which has practiced in Madison all week, is scheduled to fly back to Boca Raton on Wednesday and expects to play its Saturday game against Bethune-Cookman as scheduled. FIU, meanwhile, moved Saturday’s scheduled home game against Alcorn State to Birmingham, where the Panthers beat the Braves 17-10 at Legion Field. FIU also expects to return to South Florida on Wednesday, but Saturday’s game at Indiana has been canceled.

** Originally, UCF’s game against Memphis was moved from Saturday to Friday, however, the game was canceled early Friday morning out of an abundance of caution. Due to the last minute nature of the announcement, Memphis had already flown in and landed before turning around and flying directly back home. A slower trek saw the Memphis equipment truck drive 821 miles to Orlando and unload everything only to have to reload and drive 821 miles back up to Memphis without the game being played. UCF’s Week 3 home game against Georgia Tech has also been canceled, in part because the Knights’ stadium is being used as a staging area for the National Guard.

Ohio State-Oklahoma Part II

In a highly-anticipated rematch of last year’s Ohio State win over Oklahoma in Norman, the Sooners responded with a road stunner of their own, storming into Columbus and leaving 31-16 victors.

Entering the game, Ohio State had lost only two games at the Horseshoe since Urban Meyer took over as head coach in 2012, tying them with Alabama for the fewest home losses in the nation over that span. Baker Mayfield didn’t get that memo, as he passed for 386 yards and three touchdowns in the win. The victory gave the Sooners their 12th straight victory and their 12th straight road victory, the longest such active streaks in the nation.

One minor note that might help Buckeyes fans cope with the defeat: Of those two previous home losses under Meyer, only one came in non-conference play, against Virginia Tech in 2014. After stubbing their toe against the Hokies, the Buckeyes went on to win their next 13 games, capped off by a National Championship victory over Oregon.

1981 National Championship Rematch

On Saturday evening, Georgia and Notre Dame met for the first time since the 1981 Sugar Bowl — where the Bulldogs were crowned national champs — and only the second time ever. The Bulldogs won a 20-19 nail-biter in a game that lived up to all the talk it garnered the week leading up to the game.

The game had no shortage of hype around it with fans of both schools paying top dollar for tickets to see their teams square off:

If the price of tickets weren’t enough to convince you about how big this game was, an overbooked flight had Delta offering thousands of dollars to passengers who would switch to a later flight — $2,200… $2,800… $3,000 and still no one took the offer because they didn’t want to get in late and miss part of the game. Eventually they found a taker for a cool $4,000:

̶S̶o̶m̶e̶  Many Georgia fans got into town early and decided to warm up for the game by taking a quick trek north to Chicago for a Cubs game on Friday. Dawg Nation took over Wrigley Field with chants that could be heard throughout Wrigleyville. Have a listen:

As for the game itself, there was no shortage of action. The back-and-forth game saw neither team lead by more than one score. Bulldogs wide receiver Terry Godwin made an incredible one-handed grab in the end zone (scroll down to see it in the Play of the Week) to tie the game in the second quarter and kicker Rodrigo Blankenship kicked the game-winning field goal with 3:34 remaining in the game, giving Georgia its 20-19 victory.

Rodrigo also had one more surprise for his teammates that night:

Battle for the Cy-Hawk Trophy

For the 41st consecutive year and the 65th time in matchup history, Iowa and Iowa State met on the gridiron — and they did not disappoint.

At one point in the third quarter, the Hawkeyes held a 21-10 lead, but the Cyclones rallied for three straight touchdowns to take a 10-point lead of their own. After a long touchdown drive and and interception on the ensuing Iowa State drive deep in Cyclones territory set Iowa up with a short field goal to tie the game, Iowa State regained the lead with a 74-yard touchdown pass.

With the Hawkeyes down a score and just over a minute to play and the ball at midfield Nathan Stanley threw a quick slant to Akrum Wadley who did this to send the game to overtime:

The Hawkeyes held the ‘Clones to a field goal and earned the comeback victory by way of a Ihmir Smith-Marsette diving touchdown catch in the end zone.

A Nice Day for a White-out Wedding

After knocking off the Nittany Lions last season at home, Pittsburgh traveled to Happy Valley for the first time since 1999. The Nittany Lions called for a White Out game and they got that and more as 109,898 filled Beaver Stadium, the seventh-largest crowd in stadium history and the largest ever for a Pitt-Penn State game. (Last year, the teams set a Pitt football record, with 69,983 fans in attendance at Heinz Field.)

As for the game, itself, the Nittany Lions went up early, scoring on their first offensive play from scrimmage following an interception deep in Panthers territory. From there they didn’t look back, knocking off the Panthers 33-14.

Most college football fans can agree that fall weddings are tough. Well, over the weekend two Penn State fans showed that it doesn’t have to be that way when they held their wedding ceremony outside the stadium at a tailgate prior to the game. Next time your stuck watching the big game on your phone at the reception, remember how you could have had the best of both worlds!

You Probably Haven’t Seen This on a Football Field Before

What began as a typical ‘2nd & goal from the six-yard line’ situation turned into one of the strangest sights you may have ever seen in a football game. After a high snap sailed over the quarterback’s head, the rush was on to see who could jump on the ball first. A few kicked balls and missed dives took the ball all the way back to the 7-yard line…on the other side of the field…for an 87-yard loss on the play. Video of the see-it-to-believe-it play is below:

While this next event didn’t happen during the run of the game, it was still a sight to see at halftime. The Michigan marching band came out during the break and played the theme from Jurassic Park. So far so good, right? Well, we left out the part where they were joined by some short-armed extras who were stomping to the beat:

Play of the Week

As mentioned above, Terry Godwin made OBJ proud with his one-handed touchdown grab against Notre Dame Saturday night.

 

Tweet of the Week

Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight accidentally comes up with a new type of offense to try out in Ann Arbor. Sometimes you’re just not in the mood, we guess.

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