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  • ESPN staff

What a Week 7. In the words of Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, “This is college football at its absolute best.”

Unless you’re on the losing side of things, how could anyone disagree?

From all the monumental upsets that dramatically shifted the College Football Playoff picture to the best plays that we will watch over and over, we catch you up on the best moments from the week.

Best troll (pregame)

Lane Kiffin is no stranger to being one of college football’s best trolls. After all, who could forget his “Get your popcorn ready” comment before last season’s Ole Miss–Alabama game? Of course, it backfired last October, when the Crimson Tide jumped to a 28-0 halftime lead en route to a 42-21 win.

He didn’t do any public trolling last season before he returned to Tennessee for the first time as a head coach since he infamously left for USC. After Ole Miss’ 31-26 win, a crowd of over 102,000 raucous fans pelted bottles and golf balls onto the field, to which Kiffin said, “It wasn’t about me, but I just want to say, ‘Take that, you 100,000 fans.'”

As focused as Kiffin was for his Rebels’ matchup against Auburn, even he couldn’t ignore the fact that two of his bigger rivals were facing each other in a battle of undefeated top-10 teams. Naturally, he took a side.

“Let’s both beat the state of Alabama today,” he said on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning. “Go Vols.”

His Ole Miss squad took care of business in the early afternoon, jumping to a 21-0 lead and putting up 448 yards on the ground en route to a 48-34 win.

He was watching when Alabama-Tennessee came down to the wire, tied at 49 with two seconds left, with Tennessee kicker Chase McGrath lining up for a 40-yard field goal.

So … how did that game end?

Best celebration (and postgame troll)

McGrath’s made kick led to a massive field storm at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. In Vols coach Josh Heupel’s words, “This is college football at its absolute best.”

The field storm:

The fireworks:

Playing “Dixieland Delight” after beating your rival for the first time since 2006.

Nothing short of epic.

See more of Week 7’s best trolls.

Best color

Sure, the Tulane Green Wave improved to 6-1 and are now ranked in the AP Top 25, but unfortunately the Dartmouth Big Green lost, so this honor couldn’t go to the color green (or the Crimson Tide, for that matter).

Between Tennessee and Syracuse, it was a big weekend for the color orange. (Texas won on Saturday, too.)

Syracuse, which two years ago went 1-10, is bowl-eligible for the first time since 2018 and is off to its first 6-0 start since 1987 after beating No. 15 NC State 24-9.

One thing that bodes well for the color orange: It is guaranteed a victory when Syracuse plays Clemson next week.

Best touchdown

Tennessee wideout Jalin Hyatt scored as many touchdowns on Saturday (five) as he had all season prior. But no touchdown was more spectacular than Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson ripping off an 81-yard touchdown run against LSU.

Richardson scrambled out of the pocket, picked up a block from Trevor Etienne inside the 25-yard line and gained steam as he crossed midfield. From there, he slipped out of Micah Baskerville‘s hands and dodged tackle attempts by safeties Jay Ward and Joe Foucha, maintaining his balance down the left sideline and Superman-leaping across the goal line.

Richardson’s run, which brought Florida within 42-28, was the longest play — passing or running — of his career. He scored an 80-yard touchdown run against South Florida last fall and has thrown two 75-yard touchdown passes in the past.

Best small-school moments

The biggest rivalry games of the regular season at both the FCS and Division II levels unfolded in similar fashions on Saturday afternoon. In both Fargo, North Dakota, and Big Rapids, Michigan, defending national champions enjoyed double-digit leads at home over their most hated rivals. And in both cases, the visitors struck back.

In the battle for the Dakota Marker, South Dakota State held North Dakota State scoreless over the Bison’s final six possessions and scored the game’s final 16 points, nine of which came from the foot of Hunter Dustman. His 18-yarder with 3 minutes, 49 seconds left gave the Jackrabbits their first lead of the game, and NDSU’s last-ditch drive stalled out near midfield. It was SDSU’s third straight victory in this bitter series.

At the Division II level, in the Anchor-Bone Classic, it was Ferris State taking the early lead. The 2021 national champ was up by 11 with eight minutes left, but the visiting Grand Valley State Lakers scored, forced a three-and-out and scored again to take a 22-21 lead.

The teams traded fumbles — always good for ramping up anxiety levels even higher than they already were — but like NDSU, Ferris State stalled out near midfield on its final opportunity. GVSU won its first game in the series since 2016, taking both bragging rights and, likely, the No. 1 ranking in the country in the process.

— Bill Connelly

More Week 7 takeaways

Michigan runs all over Penn State

Penn State-Michigan marked one of the rare marquee games in which the running backs came in with more shine than the quarterbacks. Michigan’s Blake Corum had emerged as a Heisman Trophy contender, while Donovan Edwards provided a jolt after returning from injury. Penn State’s freshman tandem of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen had sparked a struggling run game, combining for 788 yards and eight touchdowns.

By late Saturday afternoon, Corum and Edwards had left everyone in the dust. They combined for 339 rushing yards and four scores against Penn State, becoming the first teammates to eclipse 150 rush yards in the same game since Alabama’s Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon against Georgia in 2012. Touchdown runs of 67 yards (Edwards) and 61 yards (Corum) on consecutive third-quarter possessions put Michigan in the driver’s seat.

“We got the fourth-down stop, I’m walking off the field, taking my helmet up, ask for water and I look up at the scoreboard and see Blake breaking one loose,” defensive lineman Mike Morris said. “I’m happy for them, but I’m looking at 2 (Corum) and 7 (Edwards) and I’m like, ‘Bruh, y’all got to let us get a break a little bit.’ I’m like, ‘I love y’all, good job but …’

“Our backs are crazy.”

Thanks to Morris and his linemates, Penn State’s talented young backs never got going in a 41-17 loss, combining for only 35 yards on 12 carries with a long run of 9 yards.

“Obviously, we weren’t able to run the ball or convert on short-yardage situations and stay on the field,” coach James Franklin said. “They controlled the line of scrimmage and they controlled the game.”

— Adam Rittenberg

How does the Pac-12 being stronger impact its CFP chances?

When Utah punched in its 2-point conversation late Saturday night to beat USC 43-42, it was an incredible moment at Rice-Eccles Stadium. For the Utes, it preserved a clear path to the Pac-12 championship game and their chance to defend their title. Laughable officiating aside, it was a high-stakes college football game played at a very high level.

The result, however, with USC losing for the first time, was a big hit toward the conference’s College Football Playoff chances. It’s not a death blow, but the collective margin for error is thin.

Undefeated UCLA is obviously the best hope, and it has a chance to make a statement Saturday at Oregon. What shouldn’t be lost in all of this is that the Pac-12 might be the second-best conference in college football this season.

Only two conferences have four teams in the top 15 of the AP Poll: the SEC and the Pac-12 (No. 9 UCLA, No. 10 Oregon, No. 12 USC, No. 15 Utah). If it comes to comparing one-loss conference champions come selection time, that should matter. It also illustrates the problem with the four-team structure. With a 12-team field, there will be several more meaningful games over the second half of the season. More fan bases will be engaged with the sport in more areas of the country.

— Kyle Bonagura

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U.S. beats Canada, wins group at world juniors

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January 2, 2025

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U.S. beats Canada, wins group at world juniors

  • ESPN News Services

Dec 31, 2024, 11:26 PM ET

OTTAWA, Ontario — Danny Nelson scored the eventual game-winner in the third period and Trey Augustine made 38 saves, leading the United States to a 4-1 win over Canada on Tuesday night and into the top spot in Group A at the world junior hockey championship.

Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman each had a goal and an assist for the Americans. Ryan Leonard scored into an empty-net.

Bradly Nadeau scored for Canada, which allowed three goals on seven American power plays. Carter George stopped 24 shots.

Canada finished third in the pool and will face Czechia in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Americans face Switzerland.

“We’re not here to beat Canada tonight,” Augustine said. “We’re here to win a gold medal.”

The other matchups will have Group B winner Sweden take on Latvia, and Finland square off with Slovakia.

Canada and the U.S. played in the same building exactly 16 years to the day at the 2009 event, when John Tavares scored a memorable hat trick in Canada’s 7-4 comeback victory on New Year’s Eve. The Canadians went on to win a fifth straight gold.

“That’s something that’s storybook-like,” Eiserman said of beating Canada on home soil in the tournament’s marquee round-robin matchup. “Something that you’ve dreamt of.”

The teams met on New Year’s Eve for the first time since Dec. 31, 2016, when Canada picked up a 3-1 victory in Toronto. The U.S. got revenge less than a week later with a 5-4 shootout win in the title game in Montreal.

The Americans opened this under-20 tournament with a 10-4 win over Germany followed by a 5-1 victory over Latvia before losing to Finland 4-3 in overtime. Canada started with a 4-0 defeat of Finland before falling to Latvia 3-2 in a shootout and then rebounding to beat Germany 3-0.

The Canadians had a power play to start the third period while trailing 1-0 after Leonard took a roughing call at the end of the second. Nadeau blasted a one-timer for his first goal of the tournament off a feed from Brayden Yager at 1:58.

Nelson restored the U.S. lead at 4:22, taking a pass from Huston and beating George with his third goal.

The U.S. scored its third power-play goal of the game at 13:21 when Eiserman scored his second and put the game out of reach at 3-1 after a boarding penalty by Canada’s Easton Cowan.

Leonard scored into the empty net with 1:52 left in regulation to spark chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

George, who entered with consecutive shutouts that bookended the Latvia loss, saw his streak end at 133:02 on Tuesday’s first power play to silence the beer-chugging crowd at Canadian Tire Centre.

In the first period, Hutson took advantage of a failed Canadian clearing attempt on a U.S. power play and scored his second goal of the tournament.

Tempers flared later in the period when Canada’s Luca Pinelli and Zeev Buium of the U.S. went off for roughing and then jawed at each other in the penalty box.

Leonard hit another post for the Americans and Carson Rehkopf fired an effort that Augustine, who entered with an .879 save percentage in two starts, got enough of with his glove at the other end before tempers again boiled over at the buzzer.

In another Group A game, Finland beat Latvia 3-0 and finished second in the group. In Group B, Switzerland beat Kazakhstan 3-1 to secure a spot in the quarterfinal round. Also, Sweden completed a sweep of its four preliminary round games, beating Czechia 4-2 in another Group B game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: Rangers place goalie Shesterkin on IR

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January 2, 2025

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Source: Rangers place goalie Shesterkin on IR

  • Greg Wyshynski, ESPNDec 31, 2024, 05:54 PM ET

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      Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.

New York Rangers star goaltender Igor Shesterkin has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, an NHL source told ESPN on Tuesday.

The Rangers recalled NHL veteran Louis Domingue from the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack. Shesterkin’s backup, Jonathan Quick, is 5-4-0 in 12 games this season with a .907 save percentage and a 2.69 goals-against average.

Shesterkin stopped 21 of 25 shots in the Rangers’ 5-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Monday night. During that game, Panthers forward Sam Bennett was checked into Shesterkin’s upper body by Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren. Shesterkin was down on the ice briefly but didn’t leave the game.

Shesterkin, 29, is 11-15-1 in 27 games this season with a .906 save percentage and a 3.10 goals-against average. While the Rangers are 20th in goals against per game this season, Shesterkin is second among all goalies with 13 goals saved above replacement, according to Stathletes.

It has been an eventful month for Shesterkin. He signed a contract extension with the Rangers on Dec. 6 that makes him the highest-paid goalie in NHL history: an eight-year, $92 million deal that starts in the 2025-26 season. The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner is in the final year of a four-year deal with an average annual value of $5.66 million.

The injury to Shesterkin is the latest bit of adversity for the Rangers this season. They are 16-19-1 after 36 games, having lost four in a row and going 2-8-0 in their past 10. The Rangers were seven points out of a playoff spot entering Tuesday night.

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Avs’ Drouin returns with pair of assists vs. Jets

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3 hours ago

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January 2, 2025

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Avs' Drouin returns with pair of assists vs. Jets

  • ESPN News Services

Dec 30, 2024, 06:48 PM ET

Avalanche forward Jonathan Drouin, who had missed the past 16 games due to an upper body injury, returned to the ice and had two assists in Colorado’s 5-2 win over visiting Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.

Entering Tuesday, Drouin, 29, had played in only five games this season, one on Oct. 9 and four games from Nov. 15 to Nov. 23. He has six points (2 goals, 4 assists) after playing 18:15 against Winnipeg.

“It’s been a long year. Kind of play a couple games and get reinjured,” Drouin said Monday. “The same kind of thing happened, and kind of redo the whole process of all the rehab and treatment. … It’s very similar, very close to the same one I had to start the year in the first game.”

Drouin scored a career-high 56 points (19 goals, 37 assists) in his first season with the Avalanche in 2023-24.

Tampa Bay selected Drouin with the third pick in the 2013 NHL draft. He has 343 career points (98 goals, 245 assists) in 570 games for the Lightning (2014-17), Montreal Canadiens (2017-23) and Avalanche, who have signed him as a free agent each of the past two years.

Field Level Media contributed to this report.

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