Oct 02, 2017

Big Ten & SEC Week 5 Recap: Georgia Impresses as Hawkeyes and Harbaugh Make Waves

Standings and Results

Big Ten

SEC

AP Top 10

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

Remembering Joe Tiller

Shortly before the early slate of games kicked off on Saturday, it was reported that longtime Purdue Boilermakers head coach and all-around good guy Joe Tiller had passed away at his home in Wyoming.

Tiller had taken over a struggling Purdue program that had just one winning season in its past 12 seasons when he was hired in 1997. During his 12-year tenure at the helm in West Lafayette, he took the Boilermakers to 10 bowl games, including their second-ever Rose Bowl appearance in 2000. Purdue put out a touching tribute to their former head coach over the weekend, which you can check out below.

We here at the Citrus Bowl were lucky enough to have one of Joe Tiller’s Purdue teams play in our bowl game. After falling behind 24-0 in the 2004 Citrus Bowl, Tiller helped engineer a Boilermaker comeback that saw Purdue score 17 points in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime. Georgia pulled off the victory in OT, but the fight from Tiller’s Purdue team was something to be admired.

The Growing Wave

As we spotlighted in our Week 1 Recap, one of the newest and best college football traditions comes after the first quarter of Iowa home football games, when the entire stadium turns and waves to the children watching on from high above Kinnick Stadium, at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

This weekend, ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi did what he does best and gave us all the feels with his feature on Iowa City’s heartwarming version of the wave. And with Iowa on the road against Michigan State this week, the crowds at College GameDay in Blacksburg, Virginia and Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan did their best to salute the children who were tuning in back in Iowa.

Leaving Tim Tebow Speechless

If you were tuning into College Gameday on ESPN, you probably missed a fan at SEC Nation on the SEC Network render the former Heisman winner speechless with her creative sign.

‘Bama’s Big Day (in Tuscaloosa and beyond)

With Troy visiting Death Valley to face LSU while Alabama and Auburn were both in conference action, three of the state of Alabama’s five FBS teams were playing SEC opponents, setting up another chance for some history.

Allow us the chance to break down these three games so you can have a little more background on this interesting note from Brett McMurphy.

1) LSU hosted Troy for its fourth non-conference game of the season, presumably expecting one final tune-up before diving into the challenging SEC schedule. Troy had other ideas however, jumping out to a 24-7 lead and holding on for a 24-21 win. To add insult to injury, LSU paid Troy $985,000 to travel to Death Valley for the game, the largest amount paid to a winning team this season.

After the game Troy (and others) had jokes.

2) Let’s move over to Tuscaloosa now. The Crimson Tide picked up where they left off last week, when they shut out Vanderbilt 59-0 This time ‘Bama pulverized Ole Miss, 66-3. Was head coach Nick Saban happy about his recent success against conference opponents? After seeing this, we’re going to guess NO!

Saban wasn’t the only coach who didn’t seem too pleased during their game on Saturday, though. We’re gonna take a shot in the dark and say that if this young man was scrolling through our Twitter feed, the assistant coach wouldn’t have taken his phone…

3) Auburn wasn’t going to let Alabama and Troy have all the fun this weekend. The Tigers put a unleashed a walloping of their own against a conference opponent when Mississippi State came to town. The Tigers won 49-10 and outscored the Bulldogs 28-0 in the second half. Auburn has put up 100 points in its two SEC games thus far, while the Tigers defense continues to stifle opposing offenses.

The Tigers have just one currently-ranked team (Georgia) remaining on their schedule ahead of their regular season finale against Alabama. Both teams appear to be trying to one-up each other until then, based off of this video from the weekend.

More Heisman Hype for Barkley

Penn State took care of Indiana at home, 45-14, after jumping out to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter. However, the talk of the game was again centered around Heisman hopeful Saquon Barkley, who continued to find new ways to show up opposing teams.

He started by taking the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, then caught an overthrown screen pass with one hand and proceeded to make several defenders miss for a huge gain, and later showed off his arm by throwing — yes, throwing — a touchdown pass in the second half to increase the Nittany Lions’ lead.

But while Saquon looked his usual self, Penn State looked a little different. The team went retro as part of their “Generations of Greatness” game, honoring past teams by wearing  pieces from throwback uniforms, including striped socks, white shoes and numbers on helmets.

The Nittany Lions were one of a few teams around college football that broke out some alternate unis over the weekend.

While the throwback style in State College seemed to go over well, we’re still on the fence with this…

A Bulldog Beating In Knoxville

Hot off of its conference-opening victory over Mississippi State at home last weekend, Georgia hit the road to face a Tennessee team that has struggled as of late following a last-second loss to Florida and narrow win at home against UMass. On hand for the game was former Volunteers quarterback and future NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, who was being honored by the school for his recent induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

The Bulldogs again wasted no time getting things started, intercepting a Volunteers pass on the first play of the game — a pick that led to a field goal. The ‘Dawgs then put together a 54-yard touchdown drive two possessions later to take a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. The Bulldogs defense has suffocated opposing teams so far this season, allowing an average of 9.2 points per game through five weeks. But the offense looks to have taken shape, as well, thanks to freshman quarterback Jake Fromm, who has led the unit to 114 points over the past three games.

Following back-to-back touchdown drives before the half, Georgia increased its lead to 24-0, then continued to cruise in the second half of the 41-0 victory. In the win, Nick Chubb joined Herschel Walker with an impressive feat on the ground, while the defense made a statement of its own.

Meanwhile in Ann Arbor…

If you thought that just because Michigan was on a bye this past weekend you wouldn’t hear from them, you thought wrong. Head coach Jim Harbaugh made sure to make an impact that rippled through college football Saturday thanks in part to the swimming and diving team, which allowed him to take a leap of faith into the pool below. Check it out:

Team Selection Committee Recap

The Florida Citrus Sports Team Selection Committee was off this week but will reconvene next Monday and will then meet every Monday throughout the remainder of the season. Last week, members of the committee met for its second meeting of the 2017-18 season to discuss where we stand after four weeks of memorable college football action and nearly two dozen campus visits. READ MORE >>>

Play of the Week

Another week of college football in the books, and with it, another week of incredible plays. We’ve got two bigtime catches this week from teams in the Big Ten and SEC and we want you to tell us who was more impressive.

1) Maryland wide reciever DJ Turner flattened out for an incredible diving catch on fourth down to keep their drive alive in the first quarter against an unbeaten Minnesota Golden Gophers team.

2) Florida wide receiver Freddie Swain made a heads-up play to snag a pass that was deflected by the defender a few yards in front of him with one hand. The play helped Florida, who tied an NCAA record for scoring in their 365th straight game, knock off Vanderbilt to remain unbeaten in SEC play.

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