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“You saved his life.”

Those were not the words Mike Pereira expected to hear as he strode out onto the playing field of the Rochester (New York) Redwings minor league ballpark during the summer of 2019. The man who once officiated an NFL postseason game and has spent the last decade-plus on national television as a rules analyst, he was unexpectedly nervous, worried about doinking the ceremonial first pitch he was about to throw in front of 10,000 fans.

But en route to the mound, a woman had tugged on his shirttail and pointed to the man walking up ahead of them, speaking as tears pooled in her eyes.

Pereira was stunned. “I saved his life?”

“You saved his life,” she repeated. Her name was about to become Lisa Pilgreen, engaged to be married to the man she was referring to, Jamaison Pilgreen. He was recently retired after 18 years of service in the United States Army, during which he did six tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, added to the action he saw in Bosnia before the ink was barely dry on his enlistment paperwork.

Pilgreen retired from the Army in May 2015. The next two years were hell. Civilian life felt so alien. He struggled with post-traumatic stress. He went through a series of jobs and an even longer list of failed job interviews. His efforts to self-medicate led to an overdose from a mix of pain meds, muscle relaxers and alcohol. Even after he met Lisa through a support group and fell in love, he still felt unmoored.

But on this day in Rochester, Jamaison Pilgreen looked like a man with purpose. He walked with his shoulders up and eyes bright. He was smiling. So was Lisa, as she gripped Mike Pereira’s hands.

“I used to not want to go to work because I was afraid of what I was going to come home to,” she explained. “And one day I came home, and he had a smile on his face. He said, ‘I think I found it.’ I asked, ‘You found what?’ And he said to me, ‘Battlefields to Ballfields. Officiating. I’m going to try this.'”

Battlefields to Ballfields, commonly referred to as B2B, is a foundation started by Pereira in 2016. At the end of every NFL season, he leaves California and drives up to Oregon. In 2015, that trip was preceded by a visit with some veterans in Los Angeles. Several of them were homeless and confessed to Pereira how difficult life had been since they’d hung up their uniforms. That conversation echoed in his mind all the way up the coast. By the time he’d reached Oregon, he had formulated an idea that would become B2B, with the ambitious goal of trying to solve two problems at once.

The first is to give back to men and women like Pilgreen and those men he’d met in LA, helping veterans reintegrate into their community and do it through a most unlikely home base: sports officiating.

“To be wanted again, to be accepted again, to be a part of something. That’s what a lot of these guys are looking for,” explains Michael Kennedy. He spends his weekdays as an Operations and Readiness Officer with the Naval Information Warfare Training Group in Virginia. His weekends are spent as an FCS back judge and as one of B2B’s regional directors. “When I leave the military in two years, I’m going to miss the comradery that I have with my unit, my division, my department. Being a grown adult, it’s hard to find that type of stuff.

“What Battlefields to Ballfields does is takes those that are hurting that really need to be able to be a part of something, to have that fellowship and find that fellowship and they give them an avenue to do that. That’s officiating, right?”

It is. To be a sports official is to be part of a team. It requires study, attention to detail and the ability to digest a lot of visual and sensory information in a fraction of a second. There is also a chain of command, a tradition of mentorship and a connection with others via a sense of understanding of the job that only those who don the uniform truly understand.

Sounds a lot like the military, doesn’t it?

“It’s just like the army. We’re a tight group,” says Hector Tarango, a B2B participant in Southern California who is moving up the ladder from youth football to high school games. “When you get your squad and your team, you’ve got brotherhood. I’ve got brothers right now. There are a lot of ways to save a man’s life. A man named David Knowles, he saved my life in Iraq. I named my son after him. Well, here, Battlefields to Ballfields saved my life. Mike Pereira saved my life. These are honorable men. Honorable men.”

TARANGO SERVED NEARLY a decade and a half, as a recruiter and in tours of Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. He suffered multiple injuries, a divorce and he lost touch with his oldest son, Joey. When he received a medical discharge in 2014, he couldn’t make himself leave the house. The furthest he would wander from the couch was into the backyard, where he would obsessively water his lawn because it gave some sense of having at least one aspect of his life that he could control. When he left the house, he rode nervously as a passenger when friends or family would drive, his PTS triggered by the sight of any trash on the side of the road, his brain alarmed at the possibility of improvised explosive devices that lined the roads of his overseas patrols.

A mutual friend — a former Marine and local football coach who had enrolled in Battlefields to Ballfields — gave Tarango’s number to Pereira. When the Fox Sports analyst called, Hector had no idea who he was.

“Mike P. goes, ‘I’ve got this program I’m doing for vets, to help them get back out in the street. I heard you needed help,'” recalls Tarango. “I said, ‘I don’t need no help. If you want to help me, help me see my son.'”

Pereira responded, “I can’t guarantee that, but I heard your son plays football. Maybe this can help you.”

Within days, Tarango was sitting in a B2B meeting filled with other veterans as well as local sports officials who were there to teach and to help. It was the first room in years that made Tarango feel even a tiny bit of belonging. Soon, he was chasing youth football players as a downfield officiating trainee, with Pereira in hot pursuit, coaching him up.

“Here’s the thing about these veterans, you only have to tell them something once,” Pereira says of Tarango, using him as a representative of nearly every former serviceman and woman he works with. “Officiating is about mechanics, positioning, where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there and focusing on a specific area of the field. That’s what they’ve been doing their entire adult lives in the military. If I say, ‘Hector, you have to stay back and keep the play in front of you’ I only have to explain that one time. Then they just do it.”

After that first afternoon with B2B, Tarango signed on. After a couple of seasons, he was working games on a weekly basis. That included sharing the field with his son, Joey, after five years apart.

“That was a good time. He would just nudge me on the field, and I was like, ‘All right, yes, my dad!’ It meant the world to me. I feel like I finally had that thing that I needed,” says Joey, now a college grad and in the Army himself. He says his father became visibly healed by officiating, as the PTS that dominated his life became slowly replaced by a sense of what his father calls “the mission” of officiating a game. “He’d be like, ‘Yeah man, you were holding him.’ I was like, ‘No, I wasn’t!’ We would argue back and forth, but it was funny.”

What B2B does for those who sign on is provide scholarships, covering the cost of equipment and training for anyone who dips the toe of their cleats into the officiating waters. It can be surprisingly steep, especially starting out in youth and high school sports, all of whom pay next to nothing, if anything at all.

THAT BRINGS US to the second problem Pereira is trying to help solve, an issue that is becoming increasingly evident to anyone who watches or attends sporting events, no matter where or at what level.

When Veterans Day arrives every fall, it does so right in the middle of that amazingly sweet spot on the sports calendar when football season is at full steam and is being joined by the start of basketball and hockey. Throw in soccer, volleyball, field hockey, even cross country and water polo, and from professional leagues all the way down through your local youth sports organizations, there is no busier time for athletics than this time.

However, the most alarming issue facing all of those leagues and teams is that there is an increasing lack of people to officiate them. Referees, judges, umpires, no matter what the sport or officiating position, the numbers of those willing to hang a whistle around their neck and enforce the rules of the game are dwindling.

The list of reasons for that growing drought of officiating talent is long, beginning with those unforeseen costs and the length of time it takes for anyone with eyes on reaching the big leagues. Take Pereira, who became a college official because his father was. But it took the junior Pereira nearly 15 years in college football before receiving a call from the NFL. Most college football officials spend years at the high school and JV level before getting a sniff of their first small college game.

But time and low pay are easy issues to overcome when compared to the rapidly deteriorating issue of sportsmanship. More and more would-be officials, regardless of the sport, are walking away after brief stints at entry levels because of the increasingly dangerous conditions being created by angry parents, coaches and even athletes.

The National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) conducts an annual survey among its members. In the latest of those studies, 57% of the 17,500 respondents said that sportsmanship has gotten worse, and 40% pointed to parents as the primary issue. A stunning 43% said they believe in the adage that most new officials quit within the first 1 to 3 years, and the No. 1 reason given by those who did walk away was the constant venom thrown at them, most frequently by parents.

The numbers around the nation do nothing to dispute that.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association conducted its own survey this fall, revealing that more than half of the 7,400 NCHSAA officials surveyed had considered quitting over the last two years. In San Diego, where B2B has recently established a partnership, the number of youth football officials has dropped by nearly half over the last two seasons. As a result, those who are officiating are beginning to show their age. Of those 7,400 North Carolina officials, 51% are over 55.

The lack of personnel in the pipeline is currently causing Friday night issues, with high school games across the nation being moved to Thursday and Saturday to accommodate the shortage. But the effects are also being felt on Saturdays and Sundays, where inexperienced men and women in stripes are being thrust onto stages they aren’t yet prepared for.

Death threats have forced NFL officials to change hotel rooms in the middle of the night. An SEC official from last month’s Alabama-Tennessee game had his personal information posted on a message board to aid attackers. In the age of Twitter, it’s not difficult to find video of fans assaulting officials on a weekly basis.

But those who do officiate truly love it. And those who truly love it are working to find ways to recruit new officials.

“Where are these thousands and thousands and thousands of young men and women who play high school sports and maybe even start peewee, where did they go after their senior year?” Pereira asks. “Can we keep them from just getting out of sports and falling off the abyss somewhere? Get them involved even at a younger age than we’ve ever gotten people involved in officiating before. I mean, I challenge people to think of ways to create situations that may help to address this shortage.”

The NASO has launched a “Say Yes to Officiating” campaign to help organizations and leagues at all levels, but even that help needs help. Battlefields to Ballfields, slowly but surely, is doing what it can. While officiating numbers fall around the nation, B2B’s membership has grown from around 200 in 2019 to more than 700 this season. Pereira believes they can get to 1,000 within the next two years.

“Hey man, we’re used to being yelled at or being put into tough situations,” explains Pilgreen. “Those that have deployed, being in combat, a parent or a coach raising their voice saying things is like, ‘Whatever.’ You go through basic training, you’ve got Drill Sergeants yelling at you all the time, so it’s like, ‘Okay.’ We don’t take it personally and we don’t let it get to us because we’re so used to it.”

“There’s a lot of similarities,” Tarango says. “First of all, nobody likes you. Half the people there are going to leave mad at you. But yet everybody comes to you. There can’t be a game without a ref, right?” Tarango says, laughing. “I’m like a soldier. I have my assignment. My mission I have trained for. My white hat, the referee, if something does get out a hand, that white hat’s going to have your back. No different than a platoon sergeant. No different than a squad leader. Just no one’s shooting bullets at you here. You know what I mean?”

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Best of Week 12: Georgia returns to form, Oregon escapes and Travis Hunter takes control of the Heisman race

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November 17, 2024

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Best of Week 12: Georgia returns to form, Oregon escapes and Travis Hunter takes control of the Heisman race

  • David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterNov 17, 2024, 01:49 AM ET

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    • College football reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

Georgia entered Week 12 in an unusual place. Coming off an emphatic loss to Ole Miss, the Bulldogs were scuffling, looking for answers, and if the season had ended on Tuesday with the College Football Playoff committee’s most recent rankings, they’d have been on the outside looking in.

We had become accustomed to Georgia’s dominance at all turns. The close games were more a product of boredom than any actual defect, and the losses, rare as they were, were offered as little more than tribute to Nick Saban, the man who had sent Kirby Smart to lead Georgia to the promised land.

But in 2024, even amid the wins, things have just felt … off.

There has been the familiar parade of players landing in legal hot water away from the field. There has been the rising frustration with offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. There’s the gut-wrenching losses to bitter rivals that seem destined to doom the Bulldogs to second-class status. If this were pro wrestling, the first notes of “Jesus, Take the Wheel” would begin playing and Mark Richt would emerge from the tunnel, revealing he had been in charge all along.

On Saturday, however, we got our reminder that this isn’t the Georgia of old, even if it’s not quite the Georgia of 2021 and 2022 either. In a game that felt almost algorithmically engineered to prove the Dawgs had addressed each of their most blatant faults, Carson Beck and crew devoured Tennessee 31-17 and reasserted dominion over college football — if not officially in the standings, then certainly in the hearts and minds of every team that might have the misfortune of drawing the Dawgs in the playoff.

Beck, who had thrown 12 interceptions in his past six games, was nearly flawless Saturday. He threw for 346 yards and totaled three touchdowns, but more importantly, he looked supremely confident with each fastball he delivered downfield.

The offensive line, which handed out party favors to Ole Miss pass rushers en route to he backfield last week, held its own against one of the most ferocious defensive fronts in the country. Beck wasn’t sacked, and Tennessee managed just two tackles for loss in the game.

The ground game, scrambling for answers and without injured starter Trevor Etienne, turned to Nate Frazier and, in so many critical moments, Beck to provide the spark. They delivered a pair of rushing touchdowns as proof of life for a backfield that had so often looked dormant.

So it is, too, that Georgia has life in the crowded SEC.

Certainly SEC fans are too modest to say it, but the fact its, the league is pretty good this year. We entered Week 12 with a logjam of teams with a loss or two or three, but a résumé warranting real playoff consideration. The depth of talent threatened to overwhelm the conference, however, with the committee inserting four Big Ten teams in the top five and leaving Saban to lament to Pat McAfee that the committee can’t “just look at the record,” echoing Greg Sankey’s long-held belief that wins are an overrated metric compared to things such as revenue, attendance or prevalence of cowbells.

But Saturday proved to be something of a palette cleanser for the SEC — like the white bread that comes with Dreamland ribs. While a handful of teams took a mental health day — Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M and Kentucky all played lower-tier competition and won by a combined 154 points — the rest of the slate helped clarify something akin to a pecking order.

In Gainesville, the Billy Napier redemption tour continued, with DJ Lagway and Elijhah Badger leading the Florida charge on a 27-16 win over LSU. After the game, Napier celebrated the Gators’ fifth win of the season by calling human resources at Zaxby’s and letting them know he won’t be able to start on Dec. 1 as previously promised, now needing just a win over either Ole Miss or (more likely) Florida State to secure a bowl.

LSU, meanwhile, is effectively cooked in the chase for the playoff after the loss, and it’s possible Brian Kelly’s anger management classes are no longer covered by his insurance.

After the game, Kelly lambasted the team asking of his players, “Do you want to fight or not?” It was not immediately clear if he meant in LSU’s remaining games or in the parking lot out back as soon as his press conference was over. Either way, things are bleak in Baton Rouge. It’s sad to see a situation where everyone felt like faaaamily devolve into something completely inauthentic.

If LSU is tumbling in the SEC standings, however, Saturday was South Carolina‘s time to shine against Missouri.

LaNorris Sellers threw for 353 yards and five touchdowns and continued to treat pass rushers like softballs bouncing off a fungo.

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Highlight: South Carolina wins fourth-quarter thriller behind Sellers’ heroics

No. 23 Missouri comes roaring back in the final frame only to be stomped out by LaNorris Sellers as the No. 21 Gamecocks escape with a 34-30 victory.

What started as a defensive tussle ended with four touchdowns — two by each offense — in the game’s final 9:12. The Gamecocks took a 27-22 lead with 5:04 to play on Sellers’ fourth TD pass of the game, only to see Brady Cook and Luther Burden III hook up on a gorgeous 37-yard bomb to regain the lead with just over a minute to go.

But South Carolina had an answer, marching 70 yards on six plays in just 47 seconds, culminating with a 15-yard touchdown run by Raheim “Rocket” Sanders to secure the win. That Shane Beamer didn’t celebrate by head-butting a player still wearing his helmet really shows how far he has come as a coach this season.

So here’s where things stand amid the rubble of another Saturday in the SEC: Texas and Texas A&M are atop the standings at 5-1, but they’ll play each other in Week 14. Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Alabama all have two losses, but each have secured a win versus at least one of the other tied teams, leaving their fate to the SEC’s arcane tie-breaker policies which involve opponent records, scoring differentials and a pie-eating contest between Lane Kiffin and Josh Heupel. And, of course, there’s still South Carolina, looming on the fringes of the playoff debate at 7-3.

The case for the SEC’s supremacy is clear. With seven teams playing such high-level football, all losses come with an asterisk and all wins feel epic. In that case, Georgia’s two losses and occasionally confounding struggles will pale in comparison to the immense talent on the roster, and this win over Tennessee will be Exhibit A for why the road to the national championship still runs through Athens.

But the path toward the SEC’s demise is also clear: Either the committee fails to reward depth or, more likely, in a fit of rage, Kelly uses a flamethrower he bought on the dark web to burn the entire conference to the ground.

Jump to:
Ducks hold off Badgers | Hunter’s Heisman case
Big 12 drama | Klubnik delivers late
USC finds a spark | Irish roll
Tulane capsizes Navy | Lobos rally | Week 12 trends
Heisman five | Under the radar

Ducks D plays big

The College Football Playoff committee is going to have to take a hard look at Wisconsin this week. With a three-point loss to No. 1 Oregon, the Badgers now have a top-five résumé.

More importantly, the committee won’t have to select a new No. 1, as Oregon’s defense came up big in a grueling 16-13 win.

Dillon Gabriel finished with 218 passing yards and an interception, just the second time in 60 career starts that he threw a pick without also throwing a touchdown. Instead, the Ducks relied on tailback Jordan James to lead a second-half comeback after falling behind 13-6. James finished with 25 carries for 121 yards and a game-tying TD with 13:14 to go in the fourth quarter.

It was Matayo Uiagalelei who sealed the win, however. Wisconsin got the ball at its own 17 with 1:26 to play, but Jamaree Caldwell tipped a Braedyn Locke pass, and Uiagalelei caught the carom for the game-sealing INT. (Note to Florida State fans: It is possible for the words “Uiagalelei” and “interception” to appear in a sentence not involving a brutal loss.)

The win keeps Oregon undefeated and headed toward a Big Ten title game berth, but it’s not without some red flags. Wisconsin held the Ducks to just 354 total yards — a week after Oregon mustered just 363 against Maryland. That’s the first time Oregon has had back-to-back games with fewer than 400 yards of offense since 2020.

On the other hand, winning games while accumulating a frustratingly limited number of yards and relying on a power run game and a stout defense suggests Oregon has acclimated nicely into the Big Ten’s way of life.

Hunter states Heisman case

Colorado is still coming, according to Deion Sanders, but according to the Big 12 standings, the Buffaloes are already there.

Coach Prime lamented a less-than-exceptional performance by his Buffs in a 49-24 win over Utah, and yet there’s little other than platitudes in the aftermath. Colorado is tied for No. 1 in the Big 12, and if it wins out against Kansas and Oklahoma State, a date in the conference title game is assured.

Shedeur Sanders struggled early against the Utes’ defense, but he ultimately finished with 340 yards passing and three touchdowns in Colorado’s usual demoralizing fashion.

Meanwhile, after a season-ending injury to Brandon Rose, Utah turned to Isaac Wilson, who is actually just an AI-generated representation of what a Utah QB might be after feeding Rose, Nate Johnson, Bryson Barnes, Charlie Brewer and Jake Bentley into the algorithm. The important takeaway here, however, is he’s not Cam Rising, so of course, Utah struggled. Wilson lost a fumble and threw three interceptions in the game, including one to Travis Hunter, who struck a Heisman pose afterward.

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1:12

Travis Hunter stakes Heisman claim after great plays on both sides of ball

Colorado’s Travis Hunter makes a nice interception off a deflection in the first quarter, followed by an incredible first-down catch in the second quarter vs. Utah.

Hunter caught five passes for 55 yards, and after Coach Prime checked the rule book and learned his team was also allowed to run the ball, Hunter got a carry that also went for a 5-yard touchdown. On the downside, Hunter did allow his first TD of the season in coverage, a 40-yard dart to Dorian Singer in the third quarter.

With the win, Colorado moves to 8-2 — just the second eight-win season for the program in the past 20 years, making it likely other teams will attempt to copy Sanders’ program-building blueprint of bringing in a whole bunch of transfers, at least one of whom is the best player in the country.

BYU falls, Sun Devils rise

BYU’s perfect season came to an end with a tackle at the 6-yard line on fourth down against Kansas, and thanks to Utah AD Mark Harlan, no one at Big 12 headquarters buzzed down to the officials to have them throw a random flag for excessive playing of “Carry On My Wayward Son.”

Kansas walked off with a 17-13 win after recovering a muffed punt deep in BYU territory that the Jayhawks turned into the game-winning touchdown. BYU still had a chance to win, driving into the red zone but coming up empty on four tries inside the Kansas 15.

Devin Neal became the first player in Kansas history with 4,000 career rushing yards, racking up 52 yards and two TDs in the win Saturday.

Meanwhile, Arizona State remains alive to be the Big 12’s Cinderella team, shocking Kansas State 24-14 behind a three-touchdown performance from QB Sam Leavitt.

Sun Devils’ head coach Kenny Dillingham’s reputation as a QB whisperer is going strong with Leavitt. After Dillingham helped shape Jordan Travis and resurrect Bo Nix, Leavitt has blossomed after transferring from Michigan State and has Arizona State riding high at 7-2.

The Sun Devils take on BYU next week, with the winner gaining the inside track on a trip to the Big 12 title game. BYU would clinch with a win and a loss by either Colorado or Iowa State, who toppled Cincinnati 34-17 behind a pair of Rocco Becht touchdowns.

The Cyclones (5-2) remain alive, too, along with Colorado (6-1) as the Big 12 works to adopt a full ACC coastal approach to this season.

Klubnik delivers late win

Pitt hosted Clemson on Saturday in a game that figured to settle any debate over who was the third-best team in the ACC, which is like RC Cola and Shasta getting into a slap fight over cola rankings.

The results often looked like two teams who didn’t exactly warrant their space on the playoff periphery, too.

Indeed, Pitt followed up that defensive series with one of the most mind-numbing offensive stretches possible. The officials missed a clear false start on second-and-goal, but Pitt was stuffed. Pitt called a timeout to avoid a delay of game, then was flagged for an illegal formation, then was flagged for a delay of game, then topped the whole thing off with a penalty for a false start before ultimately kicking a field goal.

Could those four points Pitt left on the field have helped?

The Panthers actually erased a 17-7 deficit in the fourth quarter to take a 20-17 lead, but on a second-and-3, Clemson QB Cade Klubnik took a QB sneak up the middle and scrambled virtually untouched for 50 yards and a score. Pitt’s last-gasp drive stalled at the Tigers’ 26, and Clemson held on for a 24-20 win that was marked by abysmal O-line play, missed opportunities and some astonishingly questionable officiating.

Afterward, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi summed up the game by utilizing all seven of George Carlin’s words you can’t say on TV and also making up several new ones.

USC finds a spark

After climbing to No. 11 in the AP poll in September, USC entered Week 12 losers of five of its past seven, with all five losses coming by a touchdown or less.

After opening the season 5-1, Nebraska entered Week 12 losers of three straight, two by a touchdown or less.

USC made a QB change, giving UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava the start. Nebraska made a change at offensive playcaller, with Dana Holgorsen emerging from his basement to see daylight for the first time in 11 months and recoiling in horror.

Both teams were in desperate straits, and they met at the Coliseum on Saturday to chase something approaching credibility like two pigeons fighting for half a discarded baloney sandwich.

The game didn’t disappoint.

USC led 14-7, Nebraska charged back to take a 17-14 lead, USC scored to jump ahead by a point, then found the end zone again on a 2-yard Maiava TD run with 2:45 to play.

The game was in Holgorsen’s hands from there.

After being fired despite what he had called “an impossible buyout” at Houston last year, Holgorsen had largely disappeared from the public eye, focusing instead on the finer things in life. But Saturday was like the montage scene in any ’80s movie where the down-and-out character resolves to get his life together, showers, shaves and puts on a new suit, emerging like a conquering hero. Only Holgorsen didn’t shower or shave and may have been wearing a Nebraska hoodie that Mike Riley left in a desk drawer 10 years ago after splilling some spaghetti on it.

But there was still a little Holgo magic left, and Dylan Raiola and the Huskers marched to the USC 14 with 5 seconds to play and a chance to tie the game.

But we know how this story ends. It always ends this way for the Huskers.

USC prevailed 28-20. Nebraska has now lost 38 one-possession games since the start of the 2017 season — 10 more than any other Power 4 school. After getting to win No. 5 in each of the past two seasons, it has subsequently lost a combined eight straight, seven of them by one-possession.

Dante’s ninth circle of hell is called “treachery.” Then there are like 14 more he didn’t write about, one of which involves being really into downloading bootleg Nickelback live shows, and then you finally reach something approaching where Nebraska fans are at right now.

Leonard, Irish roll

In 2014, Notre Dame and the ACC entered into a scheduling agreement in which the Irish promised five matchups per year against the conference in exchange for a home for their non-football programs. Since then, Notre Dame has effectively been Biff from “Back to the Future” to the ACC’s McFly family. They roll into the house unannounced, raid the fridge and eat Wake Forest’s leftover chicken and then take Georgia Tech’s car without asking.

And so it was that the Irish throttled Virginia 35-14 on Saturday behind Riley Leonard‘s three touchdown throws. Jeremiyah Love ran for 137 and the defense picked off Anthony Colandrea three times. Notre Dame finishes 5-0 against the ACC, the sixth time in 11 years the Irish have gone undefeated against the conference in the regular season. Overall, Notre Dame is 50-9 in the regular season against the ACC since 2014, including a 9-0 record as a full member in 2020, and somewhere Jack Swarbrick is inviting his buddies to crash at John Swofford’s beach house for the entire summer again.

The rigging was set, the masts were raised, ye old Navy set sail for a win. But before it had reached shore, the Green Wave climbed all aboard, and plundered its gold and its gin.

Yo ho, yo ho, to the league championship game they go.

If Tulane ain’t the best on all seven seas, certainly it’s tops on at least five. And before it was done, it had won 35 to none, keeping their playoff hopes still alive.

Yo ho, yo ho, to the league championship game they go.

He threw for two scores and ran for one more, Darian Mensah did everything right. The corners and pass blockers, put Navy in Davy Jones locker, now the Wave turn attention to the Army Black Knights.

Yo ho, yo ho, to the league championship game they go.

The steely men of fair Tulane, a right fine crew be they. They fight and they tussle, they’re all brawn and muscle, and they’ll earn their way back to the SEC one day.

Yo ho, yo ho, to the league championship game they go.

Lobos rally for win

A month into the season, Bronco Mendenhall’s New Mexico team was 0-4 and appeared destined for a lost season amid a massive rebuild that included turning over more than half the scholarship roster this past offseason.

After Week 12, the Lobos are 5-6, and just secured their first win over a ranked foe in 21 years, toppling No. 18 Washington State 38-35.

New Mexico’s Devon Dampier and Wazzu’s John Mateer put on an absolute clinic at QB throughout the game.

Mateer accounted for 443 yards and five touchdowns, including a 37-yard bullet to Kyle Williams that gave Washington State a four-point lead with 3:12 to play. Dampier answered with 366 yards and three touchdowns of his own, including a 1-yard scamper with 21 seconds to play that secured the biggest win for New Mexico since toppling a ranked Utah team in 2003.

New Mexico now needs only a Week 14 win over Hawai’i to secure bowl eligibility.

Mateer, meanwhile, will remain college football’s most interesting man. This was his fourth game with four passing TDs and one rushing score of the season — the most by any QB since 2018, all while also doing battle with the Joker to keep the citizens of Gotham safe.

Week 12 vibe shifts

Each week, the Top 25 endures major shake-ups that transform the college football landscape. But there are more subtle changes every Saturday, too, and we capture those here.

Trending down: Noon kickoffs

Ohio State fans are frustrated with so many noon kickoffs this year, noting that only farmers and nerds wake up before 11 a.m. As it turned out Saturday, it was Northwestern who was still asleep at kickoff.

Northwestern somehow held the ball for 32 minutes but managed just 251 yards, spending most of its time on offense working out the details of this year’s team Secret Santa program. Thankfully, the game was played at Wrigley Field, and the Cubs’ bullpen coughed up 31 points in the middle quarters, with Carnell Tate starring. He hauled in four catches for 52 yards and two touchdowns.

Northwestern is the sixth opponent this season Ohio State has held to single digits. Only Oregon has topped 20 against the Buckeyes.

Trending up: Narrow Texas wins

Quinn Ewers tossed two touchdown passes — including a 1-yarder with 9:05 to play that effectively sealed a 20-10 win over Arkansas — but he averaged just 5.5 yards per pass, and the Horns had just 315 yards of total offense, their second-lowest production in a game, trailing only the loss to Georgia.

Texas has now played three bowl-eligible teams this season, and the results have been pretty meh. The Horns were stampeded by Georgia, escaped Vanderbilt by 3 and now struggled offensively against Arkansas in a 10-point win.

The answer here is clear: more Arch Manning. Play him at receiver. Have him provide pre-drive inspiration by reenacting famous motivational scenes from movies such as “Braveheart” or “Weekend at Bernie’s,” have him challenge Bevo to a foot race at halftime. Whatever it takes to get more Arch on the field, Texas needs to make it happen.

Trending up: ACC irony

SMU held off Boston College 38-28 to move to 6-0 in ACC play, all but assuring the Mustangs of a trip to the ACC championship game in their first season in the league. Kevin Jennings threw for 298 yards and three touchdowns, and Brashard Smith ran for 120 yards and a score.

It’s worth noting as SMU moves toward a conference title game appearance, that the only reason it’s in the ACC is because NC State changed its vote to approve expansion last year. NC State, in its 72nd season in the ACC, has never played in the ACC championship game, though it has heard it’s not that great anyway. Plus, it had plans, like catching up on the new season of “Only Murders in the Building.” And maybe a Home Depot trip. And it’s just nice to have a staycation after a busy football season. Really, don’t worry about NC State. It’s doing just fine, and it definitely didn’t just DoorDash six pints of Jeni’s ice cream.

Trending up: The smell at the Brown residence

LeQuint Allen ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns, Kyle McCord threw for 323 yards and a score, and both will be getting a nice gift basket from Fran Brown’s wife this week after they lifted Syracuse to a 33-25 win over Cal.

Brown will presumably wait to shower until the team returns to Syracuse, so everyone on the plane can still enjoy the smell of victory.

On the flip side, Cal lost its fifth one-possession game of the season — one that would’ve had the Bears bowl eligible — and Cal coach Justin Wilcox decided he’s boycotting cutting his toe nails, he’ll be blasting Smash Mouth’s “I’m a Believer” cover on repeat at practice and he won’t be throwing away that old tuna sandwich that has been in the office refrigerator until the Bears get win No. 6. Honestly, he had forgotten about the sandwich weeks ago, so this was really just a convenient excuse.

Trending down: Hot seats

Florida already announced Billy Napier would be back next year, and after Saturday’s 49-35 win over West Virginia, Baylor decided Dave Aranda will also be back for 2024.

If Sam Pittman survives at Arkansas, too, it’ll be a remarkable turn for coaches who entered the season on the hottest of seats, and will allow boosters to use all that money typically reserved for buyouts on something more useful, such as building a water slide on the moon.

Aranda now has Baylor set for a bowl game, too, after winning four straight. Baylor’s offense, in particular, has been a revelation, topping 38 in each of the past four.

Meanwhile at Auburn, boosters have scheduled a meeting at their secret hideout behind the Jimmy John’s, and are just going type in Bobby Petrino’s cell number but won’t press send until at least halftime of the Iron Bowl.

Trending up: Big man TDs

Southern demolished Arkansas-Pine Bluff 31-9 on Saturday, and senior defensive tackle Willie Miles delivered a play for the ages in the process.

Miles, who according to Southern’s media guide checks in at 5-foot-9 and a gentlemanly 350 pounds, picked up a loose ball after a DJ Stevenson fumble, and set his sights on the end zone. A Golden Lions lineman appeared to have him corralled at the 5, but Miles had ice water in his veins. He pulled loose from the tackle attempt, spun, gathered his balance, and sprinted for the end zone — running through the back and around to the sideline where his teammate wisely opted against lifting him into the air “Dirty Dancing” style.

This was a fitting highlight in what was Miles’ final home game at Southern.

Trending up: Air mail

At the Utah High School state championships Saturday, a fight for the football happened after a football was dropped from a helicopter hovering over the field.

Though in the long run it did not actually replace the coin toss, it should be implemented as such immediately at all levels of football. However, some schools may not have easy access to a helicopter, so we would also accept wrestling a bear for possession of the football, a wing-eating contest, a breakdancing competition, a series of “Yo Mama” jokes or, if absolutely necessary and only for Ivy League games, a race to see which team can solve the equation from “Good Will Hunting” first.

Trending up: Classy coaches

A week ago, Kennesaw State fired its only coach in program history, Brian Bohannon. First, the school said he resigned. He denied it, and the school relented.

If he’s angry at his former employer though, he’s sure not taking it out on his players.

Kennesaw State played one of its better games in Bohannon’s absence on the sideline, falling to Sam Houston 23-17 in overtime. But what’ll be remembered by most Owls fans is their former coach making a classy gesture in the aftermath of a brutal week. Either that or his moving van has been stuck in traffic on I-75 since Monday.

Heisman five

It’s really a three-man race for the Heisman now, unless you want to count offensive Travis Hunter and defensive Travis Hunter as separate players, in which case he’s going to need to buy another suit for the ceremony.

1. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter

Hunter Week 12 touchdown count: 1 scored, 1 allowed.

He should be ashamed of himself, giving up a touchdown like that. It’s the type of performance that would get one of Deion Sanders’ kids docked three spots on his child ranking list.

2. Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty

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Ashton Jeanty seals Boise State’s win with 3rd TD of the night

Ashton Jeanty is the first player to record 26 rushing touchdowns in his first 10 games of a season since Ricky Williams in 1998.

Boise State fell behind San José State 14-0 before somebody remembered to wake Jeanty up and tell him to go smash things. He finished the Broncos’ 42-21 win with 32 carries for 159 yards and three touchdowns, putting Jeanty now just 107 rushing yards shy of 2,000 on the season. Jeanty has also eclipsed 30 carries in five straight games, just the third player of the playoff era to do so.

3. Miami QB Cam Ward

The Hurricanes were off Saturday, giving Ward more time to stew over the loss to Georgia Tech. He has called Brent Key’s house 23 times already this week to ask if his refrigerator is running.

4. Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel

Any chance of Gabriel making a real run at the Heisman probably evaporated Saturday in Madison, as he failed to throw a touchdown pass and the Ducks’ offense struggled. Only a home game against Washington and the Big Ten title game remain before voting commences. The good news is, after 23 seasons of college football, Gabriel will still be a favorite to take home a lifetime achievement award.

5. Penn State TE Tyler Warren

In Saturday’s 49-10 win over Purdue, Warren had eight catches for 127 yards and a touchdown and three carries for 63 yards and a score. All season, he has been Penn State’s do-it-all guy, so long as “all” doesn’t also include beating Ohio State. He’s the first Big Ten non-QB to account for at least 10 touchdowns in a season — at least one each passing, rushing and receiving — since 2017, when another Nittany Lion, Saquon Barkley, did it.

Under-the-radar play of the week

Liberty‘s kicker was pretty, pretty … pretty good in overtime of Saturday’s 35-34 win over UMass.

Normally, UMass is an easy win, but this one seemed destined to go down like a dry scone. UMass jumped out to a 20-7 halftime lead, with the majority of Liberty’s offense coming from pity points. Losing to UMass, of course, is one of the most humiliating things a man can experience along with trying on pants.

But the Flames pulled the old chat-and-cut in the second half, tying the game at 28 with 3:49 to play and forcing overtime. UMass scored first in OT, but kicker Jacob Lurie, who we assume doesn’t respect wood, missed his PAT try. Liberty then matched the touchdown and sent Colin Karhu in to win the game with the extra point — and to stare down the legend, Larry David.

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Liberty hits winning extra point despite Larry David scoreboard distraction

Quinton Cooley rushes in for a 5-yard Liberty touchdown and hit the winning extra point despite a Larry David distraction on the videoboard.

From there, the scoreboard flickered to the actual final score — 35-34 Liberty — which feels offensive. They could’ve at least lied to UMass. A lie is a gesture, it’s a courtesy, it’s a little respect. This was very disrespectful.

Under-the-radar game of the week

Louisville technically joined the ACC in 2014, but it wasn’t until Saturday that the Cardinals truly hit the type of rock bottom misery the ACC foists upon all who approach it.

Louisville, which figured to win easily since it has many Cardinals, whereas Stanford is just one Cardinal, cruised early and led by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. But Stanford scored on a 25-yard touchdown pass with 45 seconds left to tie the game at 35, forced a Louisville turnover on downs after the Cards ran seven plays in just 35 seconds and Stanford got the ball back with 10 seconds to play at its own 45. That should’ve meant overtime, but Louisville committed an unsportsmanlike penalty, setting up Stanford for a 57-yard field goal try. Quincy Riley then was flagged for being offsides, shaving another 5 yards off the kick, and Emmet Kenney delivered from 52 yards out for the win.

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Emmet Kenney’s 52-yard FG gives Stanford the upset over Louisville

Emmet Kenney’s kick is true as his 52-yard field goal seals an upset victory for Stanford over Louisville.

With one minute to play in the game, ESPN gave Louisville a 90% win probability. With 15 seconds left it was still a coin flip. And with no time left on the clock, it was a full-on #goacc for the ages.

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Jeanty bolsters Heisman case, sets school record

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November 17, 2024

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Jeanty bolsters Heisman case, sets school record

  • Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff WriterNov 17, 2024, 12:31 AM ET

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    • Covers college football.
    • Joined ESPN in 2014.
    • Attended Washington State University.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty bolstered his Heisman Trophy résumé Saturday night by breaking the single-season school rushing record in a 42-21 win against San José State.

Jeanty rushed for 159 yards on 32 carries with three touchdowns to up his season total to 1,893 yards through 10 games. He broke the school record set by Jay Ajayi, who ran for 1,823 yards in 14 games in 2014.

“He’s the best football player in the country,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “He is also a big-time leader and an elite human being.”

The win guaranteed the Broncos, ranked No. 13 in the College Football Playoff rankings, a spot in the Mountain West championship game, which means Jeanty is on pace to rush for over 2,400 yards by the time the Heisman Trophy ballots must be submitted. With a bowl game or an appearance in the playoff, Jeanty could challenge Barry Sanders’ single-season FBS rushing record of 2,628 yards set in 1988.

“It means a lot,” Jeanty said of the school record. “All the past running backs are great and amazing, but to keep the legacy going, the tradition of great running backs at Boise State, I think is a big deal to me.”

Things did not start well for the Broncos and Jeanty against San José State. He was limited to 19 yards on his first nine carries as Boise State fell behind 14-0. But after the Spartans failed to convert on fourth-and-goal to go up 21-0, the Broncos started to find their way.

Jeanty keyed a strong drive to finish the half, which he capped with a 2-yard score to tie the game with 38 seconds before halftime.

“[The challenge] every week is wearing the defense down,” Jeanty said. “We got 8-men boxes, 9-man boxes, so not as many big runs, but over the course of the game, if we’re able to grind them down, get ’em tired, those big runs will come.”

That’s what happened against SJSU. In the second half, Jeanty had runs of 36, 12, 13 and 11 yards, and the Spartans couldn’t keep pace, despite 446 yards passing from quarterback Walker Eget.

Boise State (9-1, 6-0 MW) travels to Wyoming next week before ending the regular season at home against Oregon State on Nov. 29.

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No. 1 Ducks finish strong, outlast pesky Badgers

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November 17, 2024

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No. 1 Ducks finish strong, outlast pesky Badgers

  • Jake Trotter, ESPN Senior WriterNov 17, 2024, 12:44 AM ET

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      Jake Trotter covers college football for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2011. Before that, he worked at The Oklahoman, Austin American-Statesman and Middletown (Ohio) Journal newspapers. You can follow him @Jake_Trotter.

MADISON, Wis. — Oregon had yet to score a touchdown when “Jump Around” blared throughout Camp Randall Stadium, signaling the start of the fourth quarter in Wisconsin.

The top-ranked Ducks trailed and faced fourth-and-nine. Oregon coach Dan Lanning considered taking a delay of game and punting. Instead, he put his trust in quarterback Dillon Gabriel. And once again, the Heisman Trophy contender delivered.

Unable to find an open receiver, Gabriel scrambled left before threading a pass through a trio of Wisconsin defenders into the chest of tight end Terrance Ferguson for the first down. Three plays later, the Ducks scored their only touchdown of the night.

That was all need they needed. Oregon survived Saturday night with a 16-13 victory over Wisconsin to remain unbeaten.

According to ESPN Research, the Ducks are the only team in the country to win three times this season after trailing by at least six points in the fourth quarter. They’re also just the seventh team in the AP Poll era (since 1936) to start 11-0 with three wins by three or fewer points. Oregon also rallied for wins against Boise State and Ohio State by a combined margin of four points.

“It’s hard to win,” said Gabriel, who passed for 219 yards. “Big plays need to happen in big moments. … winning games are hard, and we have a team that knows how to win. That just speaks volumes about the guys we have.”

The Ducks didn’t make it easy.

Oregon twice settled for field goals in the first half after promising drives. Gabriel also had a pass tipped and intercepted on first-and-goal.

With Oregon’s offense scuffling, the Badgers gradually took control with a methodical rushing attack led by Tawee Walker, who finished with 97 yards.

The Badgers led 13-6 to begin the fourth quarter and seemed headed for their first win over a No. 1 team since toppling Ohio State in 2010.

But momentum swung back in Oregon’s favor after “Jump Around,” Wisconsin’s famed tradition. The Ducks played the song all week during practice to prepare them for the road trip.

To begin the fourth quarter, Lanning told Gabriel to take the delay of game if the Badgers showed zone coverage against Oregon’s triple slant play.

“(They) were in the look that we liked and then they actually checked out of that look,” Lanning said. “But our guys did a good job of executing the scramble drill. … we probably had a little good luck there — and an impressive play by Dillon to keep it alive and find somebody down the field.”

Two possessions later, the Ducks later added the game-winning field goal. Gabriel’s eight-yard scramble on third down helped set up the chip-shot, 24-yard attempt for Atticus Sappington, who nailed the kick with just over 2 minutes to play.

Oregon’s defense did the rest, forcing a turnover on downs, then a tipped interception on Wisconsin’s final drive.

The Ducks will have a bye before facing Washington in the regular-season finale. If they win, they’ll have a chance to secure the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs with another victory in the Big Ten championship game.

“We can handle critical moments,” Lanning said. “We can handle when it’s tough and at some point, that experience is going to pay off for us. It certainly paid off for us tonight.”

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