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BERKELEY, Calif. — Joe Starkey thought he had blown the call.

Hours after “the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football,” Starkey attended a neighborhood party near his home in Walnut Creek, California, about 15 miles East of Cal’s Memorial Stadium. The date was Nov. 20, 1982, and Starkey had spent the day calling the Big Game, featuring archrivals Cal and Stanford.

Starkey, the eighth-year radio play-by-play voice for Cal, scrambled to find a highlight of what had happened in the final four seconds, a scene that would become known in sports lore simply as: The Play.

Trailing 20-19, Cal fielded a kickoff with four seconds left. The Bears made five laterals, the last going to Kevin Moen. As Starkey shouted, “The band is out on the field!” Moen weaved through Stanford band members, crossed the goal line and plowed into trombonist Gary Tyrrell.

Final score: Cal 25, Stanford 20.

“I thought I’d screwed it up completely,” Starkey said. “I was too excited, not enough detail.”

Even in the KGO radio booth, amid the mayhem and excitement after Cal’s victory, Starkey felt fear run through him.

“I realized pretty quickly the magnitude of what had happened,” he said. “Now, my fear is, did I do it right? Did I make the call right? Did I screw it up and say something I shouldn’t have, or did I miss something I should have had? That haunted me.”

Eventually, Starkey warmed up to the call that would change his life, the one that will forever be associated with him. He’s called Super Bowls as the San Francisco 49ers radio play-by-play voice. While working for ABC at the 1980 Winter Olympics, he did an impromptu call of the third period of the U.S.-Russia “Miracle On Ice” game, which aired on ABC’s West Coast radio affiliates.

But no single moment will compare to the one 40 years ago in Strawberry Canyon. The one that got him recognized on the streets of Tokyo and in a hotel pool in Rome with the drummer for the Rolling Stones. Now 81, Starkey will call his final Big Game this week as he prepares for retirement after 48 seasons as the voice of the Bears.

“They’re going to bury me with it,” Starkey said of his famous call. “It will be the first words when I die in the obituary. It lives on forever, apparently. This is 40 years later, and it’s starting all over again.”

NOVEMBER 20 BEGAN like any other football Saturday for Starkey, then 41. He drove to the game with his wife and sons, and arrived at the stadium two hours before kickoff. Pregame always began an hour before, but Starkey used the extra time to finalize his notes and chat with the broadcasters from Cal’s opponents to gain a nugget or two. He knew plenty about Stanford, especially star quarterback John Elway, the son of college coach Jack Elway, and a high school standout in California.

The booth configuration was standard: Starkey and color commentator Jan Hutchins, a longtime Bay Area sportscaster; producer/engineer Neil Hogue; spotter Jim Starkey, Joe’s 15-year-old son; and a statistician. The broadcast didn’t include a sideline reporter.

“It was one of my first games,” Jim Starkey said. “I had just started spotting for him that year.”

Cal came in at 6-4, Stanford at 5-5. Joe Starkey expected “just a very normal Big Game day with a big crowd.” He’s not one for premonitions about events or potential historic moments, but sensed early on that the 85th Big Game would be special.

“The level of play, the amount of big plays, was so dramatic,” he said. “I’ve always said that even if there was no band on the field and game-winning laterals, it would have been one of the best two or three Big Games I ever saw.”

Cal wide receivers Mariet Ford and Wes Howell made highlight-reel touchdown catches. Elway, whose Pro Football Hall of Fame career featured many clutch drives, converted a fourth-and-17 from Stanford’s 13-yard line with less than a minute left.

“If that’s an incomplete pass, there is no ‘Band on the field,'” Starkey said. “They lose.”

Stanford set up for a field-goal attempt that everyone, including Starkey, expected to be the game winner. But rather than ensure the field-goal attempt would be the final play, Stanford took a timeout with eight seconds left. Mark Harmon converted the 35-yard field goal. Four seconds remained.

“The Stanford assistant coaches, many of whom I’ve known for years, have told me that there was actually a very aggressive shouting match going on between the coaches upstairs as to when they should stop the clock,” Starkey said. “The guys who wanted eight seconds, unfortunately for Stanford, won out over the guys who wanted four seconds.”

Stanford was flagged for excessive celebration after the field goal, a penalty Starkey hated then and hates now. Harmon kicked off from the 25-yard line rather than the 40, creating a shorter distance for Cal to ultimately cover.

“If they don’t get those 15 yards, does that play work?” Starkey said. “Do they actually bring it all the way back?”

STARKEY HAS NEVER rehearsed his calls, even when a significant play is approaching. He came close in 1992 when Jerry Rice was about to set the NFL’s touchdown receptions record, but ended up reacting to the moment in real-time.

As Stanford prepared for the kickoff, Starkey essentially began wrapping up the game, crediting the Cardinal for their drive despite “defeat staring them straight in the face.” He could see Stanford preparing to hoist the Axe, the Big Game’s rivalry trophy, which the Cardinal had won in 1981. He paid no attention to the Stanford band.

Jim Starkey stood up and stretched a bit, ready to pack up his binoculars. He briefly left the booth before returning, sitting to his father’s left as Stanford kicked off. Joe’s wife, Diane, sitting not far from the KGO booth, remembers seeing groups of fans leaving early.

“It wasn’t like, you think 40 years later, this was going to be such a momentous event,” Diane said. “But people said to me later, who were out on the street, people were at intersections and nobody was moving, because they were listening to it on the radio.”

Joe expected a squib kick, which would limit the chances of a long return. That’s what Harmon did.

“The Bears need to get out of bounds,” Starkey began his call, thinking Cal could attempt a Hail Mary if it immediately reached the sideline.

He thought Cal might pull off a successful lateral or two before the play would end. Moen took the kickoff and passed the ball backward to Richard Rodgers, who then found Dwight Garner. The young running back’s knee nearly hit the ground — or did, according to anyone affiliated with Stanford, including a group of players who ran onto the field to celebrate — before he pitched the ball back to Rodgers.

Things were getting interesting, but a Cal touchdown? “I still didn’t believe it,” Starkey said. He continued to watch the ball, which Rodgers had pitched to Ford as the action shifted closer to Stanford’s sideline. By this point, Starkey’s color man and spotter had become irrelevant.

“Strictly me,” Starkey said. “I’m making every bit of the call.”

A split second before three Stanford defenders converged, Ford pitched the ball over his shoulder to Moen at around the Stanford 25-yard line.

“It’s again, serendipity, a fluke, whatever you want to call it,” Starkey said. “When he throws that ball over his shoulder, he is hoping and praying that maybe there’s a Cal guy behind him that can catch this, but he can’t possibly know that.”

The excitement in Starkey’s voice built as the play continued, but after the Ford lateral to Moen, his voice amplified. Stanford band members had entered the field.

“It changes everything. How do I describe this? It’s so bizarre,” Starkey said. “I’ve broadcast nearly 1,000 college and pro football games. I’ve never seen anything that matches what happened at the end of that game. To this day, you’ll see a game where they’ll have laterals at the end of the game, trying to save a play, save a touchdown.

“But the wild card is always the band.”

While Starkey tried to describe the scene before him, Hutchins started screaming, completely immersed in what was unfolding. It was similar in 1972 when, as a young sports reporter in Pittsburgh, Hutchins stood on the sideline at Three Rivers Stadium as Steelers fullback Franco Harris made the “Immaculate Reception” and ran right by him.

He’s grateful his audio track has been edited out of clips that show The Play.

“I was not thinking, I was totally being, which is why I started screaming,” Hutchins said. “They’ve taken my whole soundtrack out because I was gibberish and ruining your chance to hear what Joe had to say. I try to live like this most of the time anyhow, but I was flat-out in the moment. I was not thinking anything.

“I was experiencing what I knew was one of the most fantastic sporting results ever.”

Even while shouting about Moen entering the end zone, Starkey had seen flags fly during the play and posed the essential question: “Will it count?” Would Cal’s win — and Starkey’s incredible call — be wiped away by a penalty on the Bears?

At worst, Starkey had become really excited for nothing. But it was better than the alternative.

“My theory had been, even then as a young broadcaster, is you can always apologize, but do it all the way through the first time,” he said. “If you stop and then it counts, then there’s no record of it, you screwed it up, and now it’s lost for posterity. In any sport, whatever I was doing, it was call the play and feel free to say, ‘Gee folks, I guess I messed that up.'”

Starkey’s rule is why only one call of The Play truly resonates. There had been a local TV broadcast and a Stanford radio broadcast, but both cut off the call midstream, thinking there was no way the touchdown would count.

“The worst thing would be doing what the other broadcasts did,” Starkey said. “They wrote it off too soon.”

Starkey’s eyes locked on the officials. He theorized to the audience that Cal might have made a forward lateral during the return.

“It is louder than you can ever imagine,” Jim Starkey said. “Half the stadium, the red is not believing it, and the blue is saying, ‘It happened.’ You had the band on the field, all these bodies, and since I had binoculars, I saw [Moen] running into the end zone. But you still don’t know if it’s truly going to happen because it’s just chaos.”

The crew congregated around referee Charles Moffett, who confirmed Moen had crossed the goal line, that every lateral was legal and that the penalty was against Stanford for players and band members entering the field. Moffett raised his arms: Touchdown.

“I get kind of wacky and scream and yell,” Joe Starkey said.

He then delivered the famous summation of The Play: “The most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football. California has won the Big Game over Stanford!”

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November 20th is the 40th anniversary of when Cal improbably took down Stanford and its band with an infamous kick return.

WHEN DIANE STARKEY saw her husband after he finished his postgame duties, she joked, “I bet you’re excited about this one.” But she could tell Joe, always the self critic, thought he’d left out too many details in the call. He had hit the emotional notes, but worried he missed something big. Then, Diane heard the replay.

“Amazing, unbelievable, I didn’t realize he knew that many adjectives,” said Diane, a longtime school teacher. “It was a true moment, full of real emotion, and people react to that. This man is so excited about the team he loves.

“He’s always been on the more emotional side of broadcasting.”

Starkey immediately recognized The Play and his call would resonate, but he thought it would be confined to the Bay Area or the West Coast. For a while, he was right.

Sports broadcasts were different in 1982. Media mechanics didn’t allow clips to go viral, even ones that would belong among the most famous playcalls in sports history.

But the elements and emotion attached to one of the most incredible unscripted sporting moments eventually broke through the media barriers of the time and reached a larger audience. The call also made Starkey into a celebrity.

Once, Starkey and Diane were vacationing in Tokyo when a Cal fan spotted him and said, “Oh, Joe Starkey, the band is on the field.” The same thing happened when they went to Athens.

“He’s been recognized in all sorts of places,” Diane said.

In 1987, Starkey and Diane took their youngest son Rob, then 11, on a summer trip to Italy and Greece. The vacation ended in Rome at the Cavalieri Hilton hotel. On a blisteringly hot day, Starkey’s wife and son decided to take a nap, so he grabbed a book and went down to the hotel pool.

While Starkey read poolside, the Rolling Stones, who were performing in Rome, and their families sat down next to him. Starkey and Charlie Watts, the Stones’ legendary drummer, struck up a conversation about the band’s tour through Europe.

“Then he says, ‘Ya know, mate, it really is hot, you want to go in the pool?'” Starkey said. “I said, ‘Hell yes.'”

They went to the shallow end of the pool and continued to talk more about music and the Stones, a passion for Starkey. As they chatted, Lou Ferrigno, the actor and bodybuilder, and star on the TV show “The Incredible Hulk,” joined them.

At this moment another man jumped into the pool and started swimming toward them. As he approached from the other side, Watts lamented that fans just wouldn’t leave them alone.

“The guy comes up to the three of us and says, ‘Aren’t you the Cal football announcer?'” Starkey said, laughing. “Charlie said, ‘What’s that all about?’ I said, ‘I broadcast college football. He’s obviously a Berkeley guy.’ I didn’t go into all the stuff about the laterals.

“He wouldn’t have cared. He’s from England.”

Soon after the 1982 Big Game, people began calling KGO radio, asking for tapes of The Play. As sports director, Starkey realized he couldn’t keep asking for copies to be sent out. Plus, since ABC owned the rights, there were legal hurdles to jump over before distributing.

Starkey approached KGO’s station manager with a plan: Transfer him the rights to The Play. He would arrange for the tapes to be produced and would sell them solely at the manufacturing cost.

“I said, ‘I guarantee you I will not do it for money, strictly for cost,'” Starkey said. “So he says, ‘Gimme a buck.’ So I’ve had the rights to The Play for 40 years for a dollar. It hasn’t made me a lot of money, but there have been commercials over the years where people wanted to use it and they had to pay me whatever rates.

“But it’s basically been my play.”

Jim Starkey understood his dad’s initial angst about the call.

“As a professional broadcaster, you’re always supposed to paint the picture, especially in radio, and he’s very studious about that,” Jim said. “He knows the numbers, he’s always very good about knowing both teams, and college teams have a lot of players. I think there are no names actually said in the [call].

“It was right for the moment, but if you look at it in a classroom, you’d probably say, ‘Not the way it’s supposed to go.'”

As the years went by, Starkey warmed up to his call. He now considers it his co-favorite, along with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Owens that lifted the 49ers past the Green Bay Packers in the 1999 NFL playoffs, a play known as “The Catch II,” after Dwight Clark’s original 17 years earlier.

The USA-Russia Olympic hockey call also sticks with Starkey, who “used a lot of the same adjectives” as he did for The Play.

“It was so unique,” Hutchins said. “It would have been easy for him to get carried away or to get lost, but he stayed in his broadcaster brain the whole way through that thing. It was kind of funny to me, my reaction versus his, but it was evidence and a testimony to just how professional he always was.”

The way Starkey described The Play jibed with his general broadcast style. He wasn’t a football lifer, like others in the booth. The Chicago native played second-string in junior college but had no football broadcasting experience before landing the Cal job in 1975. Starkey had worked in banking in Los Angeles and the Bay Area before breaking into sports broadcasting, his dream job.

“I tend to be a fan in moments like that, where I really kind of let it loose,” he said. “You hope you don’t lose the detail by just screaming and yelling, but I have no problem with being excited about a particular moment. There’s such exuberance and astonishment in the call.

“People get caught up in that and appreciate the pure drama of what was going on.”

Despite his initial angst about the call, Starkey embraces its significance, both personally and historically. The call is an identifier and an icebreaker — “Apparently nuns in convents know The Play,” he jokes — and so distinct that it will never be replicated.

Four decades later, Starkey’s call has a place in sports history, and has far exceeded his initial assessment.

“The things I said and didn’t say, I thought made sense after a while,” he said. “As the years went on, I realized, ‘No, that’s exactly the way you should have done it,’ to capture the excitement of the moment and the mystique that built up around it as this absolutely unique football play.”

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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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12 hours ago

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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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