Ryan Day’s trust in Chip Kelly began decades ago in small-town New Hampshire
-
Jake Trotter, ESPN Senior Writer
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS ago, Delaware was rolling over New Hampshire, leading 31-3 late in the third quarter. The second-ranked Blue Hens were a perennial Football Championship Subdivision power. But UNH had something Delaware didn’t: Ryan Day and Chip Kelly. Two of the game’s most innovative offensive minds, who, even then, had an inherent trust in each other, molded from their Manchester roots.
Long before he became Ohio State’s head coach, Day quarterbacked one of the biggest comebacks in college football history. Kelly, then UNH’s offensive coordinator, kept dialing up creative passing plays, and Day kept completing throws. Then, on a fourth-and-19, Kelly called “Charlotte Angle.” Day hit Brian Mallette on a slant, and Mallette flipped the ball to a receiver sprinting the opposite direction for a touchdown, tying the game. In overtime, Day found Mallette again on his school-record 65th passing attempt on a wheel route, giving the Wildcats a stunning 45-44 victory.
On the victory bus, Day called his buddies back home. They didn’t even realize UNH had won. They had turned the TV off by the third quarter.
Today, Day and Kelly are together again.
They reunited this offseason when Day relinquished playcalling and convinced Kelly to leave his post as UCLA’s head coach and become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.
On Saturday, in a Big Ten showdown, their second-ranked Buckeyes travel to No. 3 Oregon, where more than a decade ago, as Day put it, Kelly made his name “revolutionizing” offense.
Now on the same side again, they’re hoping to capture their elusive first national championship.
“We’ve been around each other for so long that we share a lot of the same views of how the game is supposed to look,” Kelly said. “That makes it so much easier. … It’s been great.”
Though he’s now the boss, Day is 15 years younger than Kelly. Still, the two have a unique bond forged by a shared history and shared experience growing up in Manchester, where they played sports for the same youth coaches, attended the same high school, played quarterback for the same college and later coached on the same staff there.
“Probably the biggest influence in my life in football,” Day said of Kelly. “From my hometown. … He was the first one to really get into college coaching and then he recruited me. I shared with him then that I wanted to be a coach and then he kind of took me under his wing. … Kind of gave me my start.”
That came in Manchester — New Hampshire’s biggest city, with a population just a bit larger than the capacity at the Horseshoe. It’s where Kelly and Day discovered a common calling coaching football.
AS A TEENAGER, Chip Kelly seemed to thrive in just about anything he tried. The Manchester High School Central Class of 1981 yearbook named Kelly its “most athletic” and “best looking” student.
The son of a local attorney, Kelly was quarterback captain of the football team, a star ice hockey player and a state champion in track, running the second leg of the 4×100-meter relay team. Frank Kelley, one of Kelly’s football teammates and who ran the first leg on that relay team, remembered taking Kelly water skiing for the first time on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire’s largest lake.
“Usually people who’ve never water-skied before, they’re not up there for very long,” Kelley said. “He’s water skiing and the guys are getting pissed off because he’s not falling. So we start throwing stuff at him, life preservers. … He was just a natural at a lot of the stuff he did.”
Kelly attended Central in its heyday, when enrollment was among the largest in New England. The public school blended students from all parts of Manchester, including the affluent north end, the middle class on the east side and the inner city.
“You had friends from all walks of life. … it was wonderful,” said Selma Naccach-Hoff, who has taught at Central for 40 years and had Kelly in a mythology class. “It’s a nurturing place.”
Kelly was a senior when Central’s most famous future alum — actor and comedian Adam Sandler — was a freshman. One of Frank Kelley’s sisters was Sandler’s bar mitzvah date when he turned 13. Sandler, Kelly and Day have all been inducted into the Central Hall of Fame. Sandler has given the Central commencement address several times over the years, especially when he has had a niece or nephew graduate.
Central, however, hadn’t had a winning football team in years until Kelly came through the program. Bob Leonard took over as Central’s head football coach, just before Kelly’s freshman year. As a sophomore, Kelly took over as starting quarterback.
“He was a coach when he was a kid,” said Leonard, who also coached Kelly in track. “He understood what we were doing, and he always wanted to know more about what we were doing.”
Kelly didn’t live far from Leonard, who was then in his 20s and lived with the other coaches. On Sunday afternoons, Kelly and some of his teammates would walk or bike to Leonard’s house to watch film in the living room. Leonard would hang a sheet over the fireplace, serving as the screen for the 16-millimeter projector.
If Leonard’s players were out on the town, he didn’t worry — as long as Kelly was with them.
“He was a good leader,” Leonard said, “and the group of kids he played with, they were good kids, they hung together and stuck together.”
Kelly led them on the field, too. Leonard gradually gave Kelly freedom to call the plays he wanted out of their I-formation, bootleg offense.
“If he looked at me and his eyes said, ‘I know what I want to do,'” Leonard recalled, “I’d tell him, ‘Go with it.'”
Kelly also played deep safety defensively, and, as Leonard noted, “was there to clean up the mess” if any of his teammates got beat.
“He didn’t scream and yell,” Leonard said. “He always had a big smile — ‘Let’s go and do this.'”
The Little Green won as many games as they lost, a big step forward from where they had been. Leonard noted that Kelly and his class “left a legacy” and a foundation for players who would come later, including Day and his younger brother, Timmy, who would go to play quarterback for UMass.
Leonard resigned from Central after Kelly’s final game to get married (Kelly attended the wedding) but later returned to coach defense under Jim Schubert, who remained Central’s head coach for 16 years through Day’s career.
After graduating from UNH, Kelly also came back to Central on Schubert’s staff, running the offense for a season. Kelly began experimenting with a fast-paced tempo that would later change football. That came with growing pains and, at times, exasperated his former coach.
“There’s a picture somewhere with my arms around his neck on the sideline,” Leonard said, laughing, “I say, ‘You go three-and-out again, I’m going to kill you right here because the defense can’t stand this anymore.’ But it was fun watching the offense. He had free reign. That’s where it all started. And we had a lot of fun that year.”
SELMA NACCACH-HOFF never had Ryan Day in class. But she had Day’s future wife, Nina Spirou, and her twin sister in world literature, an advanced placement course.
“So I did see a lot of Ryan,” Naccach-Hoff said. “They were a cute couple, really. His rosy cheeks distinguished him back then, and they still do now. It’s really quite fun to see.”
Naccach-Hoff remembered Day being sweet, “almost embarrassingly so,” to Spirou and his teachers and other classmates.
“You got a sense of Ryan’s character,” Naccach-Hoff said. “Supportive, kind, doing the right thing.”
Day has spoken out about his father, who died by suicide when Day was just 8 years old. He would say that loss gave him an “edge” on the field. But the family tragedy also put the onus on Day to help his mother raise his two younger brothers, Chris and Tim.
“He kind of became the father in a way to them,” said Mike Murphy, who coached Day in Pop Warner football. “He became a little more mature. And he played that way, too.”
Murphy’s son, Matt, one of Day’s friends growing up, remembered how Day always seemed older than other kids their age.
“A lot of things in some ways were beneath him,” said Matt, now a middle school teacher in Manchester. “Like, ‘You guys are going to go egging houses? That’s not really my thing.’ He was not interested. Like, ‘I’m not going to let people down. I’m going to do the right thing.'”
Following in Kelly’s footsteps, Day developed into a star athlete. He played point guard in basketball, was a standout catcher in baseball and became a three-year starting quarterback.
“Leadership was not in question when you talked about Ryan Day — he always stood out that way,” said Schubert, who had also played quarterback at Central. “I don’t think he ever criticized another player the entire time he played for me. His teammates followed him in every sport. Great character, great individual.”
The team had a motto going into Day’s junior year: “Believe and achieve.” The players wore that phrase on the back of their team T-shirts during offseason lifting and conditioning. Before the season, Day and Murphy found a piece of plywood and painted it green and white, the school’s colors. On it, they wrote, “If you believe, you will achieve today.” Mimicking the sign from Oklahoma and Notre Dame, “Play Like a Champion Today,” Day and Murphy hung up theirs on the wall right outside the Little Green locker room. The players would slap the sign before their home games while taking the field.
“Maybe it was kind of dorky,” Murphy said, “but we thought it was cool.”
That season, Central advanced all the way to the 1995 state championship game against Merrimack. The Little Green fell behind early.
“We were struggling,” Schubert said. “He brought the team together during a timeout. Ryan said, ‘Look, let’s get this together, men.'”
Led by Day’s arm, Central roared back to win by 17 points for its first state title in 25 years. Down the road as an assistant for UNH, Kelly was paying attention, salivating at the opportunity to recruit Day to the Wildcats.
SEAN McDONNELL WAS coaching receivers for Boston University in the 1980s when he received a call from a player he’d once coached against in Manchester.
Chip Kelly was still an assistant at Central but was hoping to move to college. He knew McDonnell was from Manchester and wondered whether he could come up to Boston and talk offense. McDonnell figured they’d chat for a few minutes. Instead, the two exchanged ideas on the chalkboard for several hours.
McDonnell was so impressed that when he ended up at Columbia, he told then-Lions head coach Ray Tellier that he should interview Kelly. After the interview, Tellier told McDonnell, “We’ve got to turn this interview into a recruiting session. He’s good, I really like him.”
Kelly joined the staff at Columbia, then followed McDonnell to UNH. In 1999, when McDonnell was promoted to head coach, Kelly became his offensive coordinator. One of their first moves was naming Ryan Day the starting quarterback.
“We were at the incubator stages of us starting to do some creative things on offense,” McDonnell said. “Then we had Ryan, just an unbelievable sponge with Chip. … And besides being a great player, his leadership abilities were tremendous. Those guys would run through a wall for Ryan. It was a pretty cool thing to see.”
McDonnell recalled even then Day and Kelly working well together executing game plans. And game-to-game those plans could change. One week, Kelly would implement the speed option and run the ball every down. The following week, the Wildcats would spread the field and pass it almost exclusively. McDonnell said the endless series of wrinkles kept practice fun while keeping opposing defenses guessing. But whatever the Wildcats did then, they went fast.
Day’s ability to lead and adapt made it all work.
“There was so much innovation happening then,” Mallette said. “And Ryan was the kind of leader, you just looked at him in the huddle and his eyes and just saw how determined he was going to be in whatever situation that was coming. … He was such a fierce competitor.”
That was on display in one of the biggest victories of Day’s career. In 2001, UNH trailed in-state rival Dartmouth 38-35 with under 2 minutes left. The Wildcats had blown a 21-point lead in the second half and seemed destined for a gut-wrenching loss. Mallette recalled the Ivy League students chanting “safety school” thinking the win was all but in the bag.
But then Day drove UNH down the field. With only a few seconds remaining, he rolled right. As he was about to get pummeled, Day lofted a pass toward Mallette at the back of the end zone for the winning 24-yard score.
“Ryan was the same [then] as he is now,” Kelly said. “Very well prepared, knew what he was facing. … You knew [then] that guy has it.”
As others had seen a future coaching star in Kelly coming up, Kelly saw the same potential in Day. Kelly brought Day on the offensive staff at UNH in 2002. Then in 2005, Kelly called another Manchester native in Dan Mullen, who was offensive coordinator at Florida under Urban Meyer. Mullen hired Day as a graduate assistant.
In 2017, after stints under Kelly with the Eagles and 49ers, Day joined Meyer’s staff at Ohio State.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be around great coaches and great mentors,” Day said. “And [Kelly] was obviously a big part of that.”
SEAN McDONNELL TRAVELED to Columbus last month to watch Ohio State defeat Marshall 49-14. He spent time with Ryan Day on Friday night, watching Day’s son play high school football. After the Buckeyes won Saturday, McDonnell hung out at Chip Kelly’s house with Day. While talking football like old times, they all watched Michigan knock off USC that evening together.
“It’s good to see both of those guys in a position where they feel very comfortable,” McDonnell said. “Chip’s having a ball coaching the offense. I think Ryan’s able to do some head-coaching things. … By not having to call the plays and be so involved in the offense, he’s in a very good place, from my observation.”
McDonnell came away from his visit believing this could be a special season for the Buckeyes. He noted the trust the two had at Manchester seems as strong as ever. Day used that same word this week when reflecting on his relationship with Kelly all these years later.
“When you have trust, you can get through a lot,” Day said. “Because you can be direct with somebody and know that you care about him, and no matter what is said, you can put your arm around each other afterwards.”
PHILADELPHIA — The Flyers celebrate the star of each victory this season by presenting him with a replica Bernie Parent goalie mask. The white mask with the Flyers logo on each side of the temples looks much like the one Parent wore as a cover boy in the 1970s on Time magazine when the Flyers truly meant something — beyond the Philly sports scene, and even the NHL — and he served as the cloaked face of the Broad Street Bullies.
The Flyers pulled out the mask Saturday night before their game against New Jersey and let it rest on top of one of the goalie nets. One more final tribute for Parent, the Hall of Fame goalie who was honored by the franchise this weekend two months after he died at age 80.
“Forever our No. 1,” said Lou Nolan, the Flyers’ public address announcer since 1972.
With that, the spotlight shone on Parent’s retired No. 1 banner that hangs in the rafters, just a row ahead of the two oversized Stanley Cup championship banners — the only ones in franchise history — that catch the eye in Flyers orange and might not even exist at all if not for the affable goalie from Montreal.
Parent anchored the net for the Flyers when the Bullies reigned under owner Ed Snider as one of the marquee teams in sports. Parent won Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe and Vezina trophies in back-to-back seasons when the Flyers captured the Stanley Cup in ’74 and ’75, the first NHL expansion team to win the championship.
Ahead of the game Saturday against New Jersey, a photo of a smiling Parent flashing his two Stanley Cup rings on the outside arena videoboard loomed large over the 9-foot bronze statue for Snider, the Flyers’ founder who died in 2016.
“‘We’ve got two Stanley Cups because of Bernie,” Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke said at a celebration of life event in front of thousands of Flyers fans.
Flyers fans poured out this weekend to remember Parent over a two-day celebration that started with Friday’s service and extended into Saturday’s tribute game. Flyers fans in droves wore No. 1 Parent jerseys during the game — and what would the goalie think even as, yes, his beloved Flyers scored three goals in 26 seconds against beleaguered Jake Allen — and they roared for every highlight from Parent’s glory years.
The loudest cheers were saved for the Stanley Cup highlights.
The Flyers beat the Boston Bruins in six games to win the Stanley Cup in 1974 and beat Buffalo in 1975. Parent had shutouts in the clinchers each season.
On the flight home from Buffalo, the Flyers plopped the Stanley Cup in the middle of the aisle. For close to 90 minutes, they couldn’t take their eyes off hockey’s ultimate prize.
“We were able to just sit back, look at the Stanley Cup and just savor it,” Parent said in 2010. “It was just a special time.”
With Parent the unstoppable force in net, “Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent,” became a popular bumper sticker in Philadelphia that would stick on him as a lifelong slogan — and popular autograph inscription request — through retirement and his many years as a team ambassador.
Parent also served as an ambassador for the Ed Snider Youth Hockey and Education program; a youth hockey program created in 2005 for under-resourced youth in Philadelphia.
The program announced Saturday it would honor Parent’s legacy with the Bernie Parent Goalie Development Program, aimed to prepare young people for success both on and off the ice. Flyers Charities presented a $50,000 donation which was matched by Snider’s children.
Parent, team captain Bobby Clarke and Dave “The Hammer” Schultz all became stars for the Flyers under Snider in an era when the team was known for its rugged style of play that earned the Bullies nickname. They embraced their moniker as the roughest team in the NHL and pounded their way into the hearts of Flyers fans. More than 2 million fans packed Philadelphia streets for each of their championship parades.
Most of the living members from the Cup teams attended the game Saturday and Clarke choked back tears at the memorial as he listed other Flyers from the Stanley Cup teams who have since died. Barry Ashbee. Ed Van Impe. Bill Flett. Ross Lonsberry. Rick MacLeish
“And now, God bless Bernie, because he’s going to join them,” Clarke said. “And the rest of us, until we go join them, we will talk together forever.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.
Brent Burns scored early, and Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Drury added empty-net goals for the Avalanche. Colorado has won eight straight, their longest winning streak since taking nine in a row March 4-24, 2024.
The Avalanche hold the best record in the league and are five points up from the second-place Carolina Hurricanes.
Juuse Saros made 23 saves for the Predators, losers of seven of eight. Saturday was the first game back in North America for the Predators after playing a pair of Global Series games last week against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Stockholm, Sweden. The Predators have been shutout in consecutive games.
The shutout was the first of the season and 15th of Blackwood’s career.
Burns scored the game’s first goal just 15 seconds after the opening faceoff.
After a battle in the right corner, the puck came to Burns above the right circle, where he beat Saros with a wrist shot on the first shot of the game.
The game remained 1-0 until MacKinnon scored an empty-net goal was 1:35 remaining in the third with Saros pulled for an extra attacker. Drury added another empty-netter with 51 seconds left.
MacKinnon has three goals in his last two games.
Colorado defenseman Cale Makar failed to record a point in a road game for the first time this season.
The Predators outshot the Avalanche 16-6 in the first, but couldn’t get one past Blackwood.
Saturday was just the fifth time this season that an opponent has outshot the Avalanche. Colorado is 5-0-0 in those games.
Blackwood stopped Nashville’s Michael McCarron with 5:47 remaining in the third on a backhand from the low slot to keep the Predators off the board.
Predators captain Roman Josi returned to the lineup Saturday after missing 12 games with an upper-body injury.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-
David Hale
Amid a year in which chaos has been a near constant, preseason expectations have been turned on their heads and James Franklin has gone from No. 2 in the country at Penn State to splitting the dock fees on a pontoon boat with Bud Foster at Virginia Tech inside of six weeks, we had every right to expect Week 13 might deliver some twists and turns we didn’t see coming.
Instead, what we got Saturday was the status quo.
We might’ve hoped Missouri, with Beau Pribula back at quarterback, might’ve upended Oklahoma‘s playoff dreams.
We might’ve believed USC could deliver a dagger to an Oregon team that had largely gone unchallenged all season.
We might’ve dreamed that the Notre Dame–Miami debate could’ve been settled by an upset from Syracuse or the Hokies.
With less than 3 minutes to play in Salt Lake City, we might’ve at least expected to see one upset of Kansas State over Utah, one small fracture in the committee’s playoff rankings, one small shift in the big picture.
Heck, the least we could’ve asked for was a decision on Lane Kiffin’s future, and even that was punted for a week so that the Ole Miss coach can make his announcement at the Egg Bowl by feigning peeing like a dog on the hat of whichever team he plans to coach next year.
None of it happened.
Oklahoma’s defense smothered another SEC opponent, picking off Pribula twice and holding Ahmad Hardy to just 57 yards on the ground in a 17-6 win. The Sooners’ offense may be less than inspiring, but Brent Venables has put together a defense that rivals anything he mustered during his storied career at Clemson, a unit whose impact on the SEC is rivaled only by Jimmy Sexton.
Oregon’s strength entering Saturday appeared to be its dominant defense, too, but instead it was Kenyon Sadiq and Noah Whittington stealing the show on offense and Malik Benson breaking USC on special teams with an 85-yard punt return for a score. On the heels of Oklahoma’s win, seeing Lincoln Riley suffer such a dismal outcome, too, was almost too much beauty for Sooners fans to stand.
In any other year, Saturday’s road trip to Virginia Tech would’ve served as the perfect opportunity for Miami to slip on a banana peel and slide its way into the Sun Bowl, but not this time. Carson Beck threw for 320 yards and four touchdowns. Malachi Toney had 12 catches. The defense racked up five sacks. Miami won 34-17. The win was good enough that, for just a few moments, allowed the Canes to climb into the same tier as Notre Dame for the committee to compare the two teams directly — just in time for Notre Dame to win 70-7 and remind everyone that the Irish are actually way better. The committee immediately put Miami back into the “evaluate after we gorge ourselves on room service chicken fingers and need a nap” section of the playoff discussions.
BYU had no trouble dispatching Cincinnati, the SEC’s powers dominated lower-level opposition and Ohio State sent a sternly worded letter to the conference asking that the Buckeyes not have to get out of bed before 2 p.m. for the likes of Rutgers in the future. It was all easy.
If any of the top playoff contenders offered real drama, it was Utah. Kansas State’s run game was relentless, chalking up 472 yards and five scores. The two teams traded scores early with five lead changes and three ties through three quarters of action. But a Utah fumble midway through the fourth set up a K State score and a 47-37 Wildcats lead with 7 minutes to go. But the Utes refused to roll over, scoring twice in the final 2:47, and pulling away with a 51-47 win.
The come-from-behind victory could be more than just a necessary step in protecting Utah’s playoff hopes. Utah fans wondered if perhaps Saturday would be Kyle Whittingham’s final game at Rice-Eccles Stadium, knowing his exit as the Utes head coach was always destined to be a low-key affair, something akin to the end of “Good Will Hunting,” with Morgan Scalley knocking on Whittingham’s door one morning to find he’s no longer there and only a note explaining the departure: “I have to go see about a … used Ford F-350.”
And yet, for all the chaos avoided in Week 13, one final Saturday remains before any of our playoff calculus should be written in ink.
Oklahoma is well-positioned, but a date with LSU looms. The Tigers have fired a coach, stumbled from the rankings, taken out a second mortgage on Death Valley to try to lure Kiffin to Baton Rouge. Could LSU deliver one more dose of drama in 2025?
Oregon appeared to punch its playoff ticket with Saturday’s win over USC, and yet a trip to Washington still looms. This is not the 2023 Huskies, but a trip to Seattle is still hardly an easy win. It’s only fitting that the remnants of the Pac-12 can still offer some late-season drama, as if Larry Scott is still looking to cost the conference money, even from his new post as, we’re guessing, somewhere in the New York Jets front office.
Miami’s playoff hopes might come down to the whims of the committee or, just as likely, the fourth-quarter clock management of Mario Cristobal. The Canes have a date with Pitt in Week 14, and if you flip to page 306 of this year’s Farmer’s Almanac, you’ll see that a late-season loss to the Panthers after blowing a 14-point lead has been the likeliest outcome for the Hurricanes the whole time.
Utah and BYU, too, have playoff life even if they’re long shots.
No, Saturday didn’t upset the status quo, but the question as we head toward the finish line is whether Week 13’s action was a chance for the biggest winners to load the fireworks before the inevitable celebration or if they were simply getting all the deck chairs precisely situated before hitting the iceberg.
More:
Trends
Under the radar | Vibesman five
Week 13 vibe check
Each week, college football’s top teams battle to shape the course of the season. But beyond the headliners, dozens of smaller matchups prove to be just as consequential. We track those here.
Trending down: ACC certainty
Georgia Tech entered Saturday as the only ACC team with any real clarity: Win and the Yellow Jackets would clinch a spot in the conference title game.
Of course, nothing in the ACC is that simple.
Pitt jumped to a 28-0 lead, thwarted one Georgia Tech comeback with a 100-yard interception return for a score and then ended the Jackets’ hopes with a 56-yard Ja’Kyrian Turner touchdown run with 2:41 to go to seal a 42-28 win.
The ACC now has three teams tied atop the standings at 6-1 — Virginia, Pitt and SMU — followed by Georgia Tech at 6-2 and Miami and Duke at 5-2. It sets up the possibility of a six-way tie at 6-2 with the conference championship then being decided by a series of tie breakers that almost certainly will involve Pat Narduzzi losing a rock, paper, scissors match because he assumed rock was invincible and Cristobal edging out Tony Elliott in a staring contest by wearing a pair of fake glasses with a funny nose and mustache attached.
Trending down: Florida‘s optimism
Tennessee throttled the Gators 31-11 on Saturday, holding Florida to just 261 yards of offense and effectively setting the cruise control for the second half while Josh Heupel rewatched the first four seasons of “Stranger Things” to get prepped for new episodes.
Worse yet, as Florida floundered its way through another loss, AD Scott Stricklin looked up into the stands, where Lane Kiffin stood solemnly, his arm outstretched, offering a long pause to build the drama before offering a thumbs down. Florida will now turn to its next best option to coach the team in 2026: three toddlers wearing a trench coat and pretending to be a grown man.
Trending up: Style points
With just two games left against struggling ACC teams and a crowd of two-loss teams pushing for the final few playoff spots, Notre Dame knew Saturday’s contest against Syracuse would be about more than just winning. This one needed to look good.
So, by halftime, Jeremiyah Love was holding the charred corpse of Otto the Orange above his head and yelling, “Are you not entertained?”
The Irish led 49-0 at the half, picked off Syracuse QB Joseph Filardi three times and Love ran for 171 yards and three touchdowns in a 70-7 win.
Afterward, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said he was disappointed the defensive game plan of recording enough sacks that the Orange circumnavigated the globe in reverse, thus finishing with negative points, didn’t come to fruition, but was encouraged by news that Stanford had increased the life insurance on its tree mascot before next week’s season finale.
Trending up: Suffering for the Seminoles
It was Friedrich Nietzsche who posited that all life was suffering, and though he came up with that idea a full 81 years before Mike Norvell was born, it’s safe to say Florida State‘s past two years are pretty much what he had in mind.
To recap: FSU’s Heisman candidate QB got hurt in a meaningless game against an FCS foe in November 2023. As a result, the Noles were snubbed from the College Football Playoff despite a 13-0 record. Norvell was a top candidate for the vacant Alabama job but instead returned to FSU with a huge new contract. The Noles limped into the next season, astonishingly went 2-10, overhauled the coaching staff, beat Alabama to open this season, lost four in a row, including one to Stanford, rebounded and then, on Friday, offered perhaps the single greatest example of the incredibly thin line between comedy and tragedy as the world has ever seen in the final four minutes of a 21-11 loss to NC State.
Only teams to have out-gained their opponents by 40 yards or more in all or all but one game this year:
No. 2 Indiana
No. 5 Texas Tech
No. 6 Ole Miss
No. 7 Oregon
Florida State (5-6)— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) November 22, 2025
The Noles D stuffed the Wolfpack on fourth down with 3:53 to play. NC State punted. The punt bounced off an FSU player’s helmet, rebounded backward and landed in the arms of the Pack’s punter near the original line of scrimmage.
The Noles D held again, forced another punt and this time FSU’s Squirrel White fumbled the catch, giving the ball to NC State again.
The Noles D held yet again, but NC State opted to go for it on fourth-and-6 and found the end zone from 12 yards out.
FSU still had a chance but shanked a short field goal — its second of the game — and, by the end, all that was missing was the PA system at Carter Finley Stadium playing “Yakety Sax” on repeat and Novell being knocked unconscious after trying to exit the field through a tunnel a roadrunner had painted on a brick wall.
Of course, Neitzche also argued, in his “four great errors” that all free will was an illusion, so it’s fair to say this isn’t Norvell’s fault but rather the inevitable result of a chaotic universe. On the other hand, another of his “four errors” was “Don’t sign DJ Uiagalelei and Tommy Castellanos in back-to-back seasons,” so perhaps there’s ample blame to go around.
Trending up: Heavy trophies
Justin Lamson threw for 175 yards, ran for 80 and accounted for two touchdowns as No. 3 Montana State knocked off archrival and second-ranked Montana 31-28 to capture the Big Sky championship and win the Great Divide Trophy.
Montana scored on a 52-yard run with 6:59 to play, pulling to within three, but the Grizzlies never saw the ball again. Montana State engineered a 14-play, 72-yard drive, converting a fourth-and-1 and a third-and-4 along the way, to bleed the last 7 minutes off the clock and secure the win.
The Bobcats have now won the Brawl of the Wild in seven of the past nine matchups, which means prime bragging rights for Montana State fans over that family of bears who live down the block.
Trending down: SEC strength of schedules
It’s Week 13, which means it’s time for half the SEC to welcome in its regular host of hapless cannon fodder: The Little Sisters of the Poor, the Washington Generals, an adult flag football rec league team and, of course, Florida.
It’s tradition in the SEC to prep for rivalry week with one game after another against vastly overmatched foes, so on Saturday we saw Georgia demolish Charlotte, Texas A&M stomp Samford and Alabama trounce Eastern Illinois. Even Auburn got in on the action, walloping Mercer 62-17 in a game that even Hugh Freeze probably could’ve won.
This is all necessary because, as everyone knows, life in the SEC is a grind, with every other game of the season a brutal, physical affair that slowly chops away at the league’s best squads like a thousand paper cuts.
And sure, Gunner Stockton and Ty Simpson combined to throw three picks and zero touchdowns in their wins. It’s only reasonable given that they played half the game holding a tall glass of iced tea and listening to a podcast about woodworking. The important thing is, when it was all over, they had fully recovered from the season’s long, arduous journey through the SEC and emerged with a spring in their step, a pat on the back and a note from the playoff selection committee that read: “We loved your game control. XOXO.”
Trending up: Sun Devils’ resurgence
Kenny Dillingham turned Jordan Travis into a Heisman contender, salvaged Bo Nix’s career and made Sam Leavitt a star. But that was nothing compared to his latest trick: Jeff Sims is a good QB right now.
Sims threw for 206 yards and two touchdowns as Arizona State demolished Colorado 42-17.
The Sun Devils are 3-1 with Sims as the starter, matching the most wins Georgia Tech managed in any of three seasons with Sims at the helm.
The real star of the show, however, was Arizona State tailback Raleek Brown, who carried 22 times for 255 yards and, after the game, Deion Sanders reluctantly decided Brown’s jersey should be retired at Colorado, too.
Trending up: Andrew Luck’s cavalry
Dearest mother —
I bring good tidings from the battlefield. We have vanquished the hated enemy from Berkeley. Though our front lines sustained many casualties, our defensive battalions proved strong. Our men charged from the rear, thrice apprehending the enemy’s payload and delivering it to safe harbor. In addition, a young soldier called Micah Ford proved his valor, marching 150 yards into enemy territory. His bravery shall be rewarded with an officer’s commission at war’s end. Now, I must bid you farewell. While we celebrate this victory with much revelry and ale, my heart remains heavy with the awareness that an even greater enemy — men from across the sea in that emerald isle of St. Patrick — await. We must be prepared for an even greater battle to come.
Please, give my love to father and the children.
Sincerely,
Andrew Luck, captain, Stanford infantry
Trending up: ‘Seinfeld’ references
Washington didn’t gain statehood until 53 years after James Madison died, but that didn’t stop Washington State from trying to end James Madison‘s quest for the playoff Saturday.
The Cougars led 20-17 midway through the fourth quarter before Dukes’ tailback Wayne Knight took a handoff and ran like he was smuggling stolen dinosaur DNA off an island, scampering 58 yards for a go-ahead score.
0:40
Wayne Knight scores 58-yard rushing touchdown
Wayne Knight scores 58-yard rushing touchdown
Knight finished with 126 yards on 15 carries, all while besting Kramer in an hourslong game of Risk, delivering a critical 24-20 win for the Dukes, who move to 10-1 on the season and remain in prime position to swipe the automatic playoff bid from the Group of 5.
It is, of course, Knight’s greatest contribution to an important sporting event since he assisted Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny in defeating a group of aliens in a game of pickup basketball in 1996.
Trending down: Ivy League dominance
Josh Pitsenberger ran for 143 yards and three scores, Dante Reno tossed three touchdowns and Yale upended Harvard 45-28 on Saturday to claim a share of the Ivy League championship.
When it was over, Yale’s fans stormed the field. Well, they didn’t so much storm it as have their concierge make a reservation and preordered the soufflé, which, of course, takes two hours to make, then had Jeeves bring the Mercedes around to properly escort them onto the field. The point is, they were excited.
0:35
Yale fans storm field after team clinches Ivy League FCS Playoff bid
Yale defeats Harvard 45-28 and fans celebrate the team getting the Ivy League’s first-ever automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.
It was a stunning defeat for Harvard, which had entered the game 9-0 and eager for some redemption after losing its past three to Yale. Afterward, the Crimson downplayed the loss by noting that a Harvard man would never be so crass as to run the ball 49 times. So much manual labor is fine for someone at Dartmouth or Brown.
Under-the-radar play of the week
The Victory Bell belongs with Duke, and Bill Belichick won’t be bowling in his first season in North Carolina after the Blue Devils escaped a trip to Chapel Hill with a 32-25 win.
While Duke controlled the first half, UNC stormed back with two long touchdown drives to take a 25-24 lead late in the fourth quarter. The Heels’ D then stuffed Duke on a third-down try, appearing to set up a field goal attempt for the lead. But Manny Diaz had a trick up his sleeve.
DUKE PULLS OFF THE FAKE FIELD GOAL 🤯 @DukeFOOTBALL pic.twitter.com/syr9FoOdue
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) November 22, 2025
Duke’s fake field goal caught UNC sleeping like a man in the fourth hour of watching his girlfriend’s adult cheerleading competition, and kicker Todd Pelino bolted 26 yards to the 1, setting up an easy touchdown that proved to be the difference.
Under-the-radar game of the week
With 1:07 to play and the score tied at 34, Kennesaw State‘s Amari Odom completed back-to-back passes — the first a 40-yard dagger down the middle of the field and the latter a 14-yard touchdown to go up 41-34.
0:27
Chase Belcher puts Kennesaw State ahead with 27 seconds left
Amari Odom finds Chase Belcher in the back of the end zone to put the Owls ahead late in the 4th.
That gave the ball back to Missouri State with just 27 seconds to play, but the Bears weren’t going down without a fight. Consecutive completions moved the ball to near midfield before Jacob Clark looked deep in search of the tying touchdown. Instead, Alexander Ford picked off the pass and sealed the win for the Owls.
Odom finished with 387 yards passing and five touchdowns, as the Owls moved to 8-3 on the season and 6-1 in Conference USA. With a win next week at Liberty, Kennesaw State will lock up a spot in the conference championship game after going 2-10 a year ago.
Vibesman five
This was not a fun week for the Heisman Trophy discussion. Georgia and Alabama played cupcakes. Indiana was off. Ohio State played Rutgers, which is somewhere between playing a cupcake and having off. So, rather than rehash last week’s list, let’s give flowers to the players who’ve been tons of fun this year without having much of a shot at the hardware.
1. Texas QB Arch Manning
Manning threw for 389 yards and accounted for five touchdowns, and as long as we ignore the first eight weeks of the season, he would have a real shot at the actual Heisman. Alas, the Heisman voters aren’t like the College Football Playoff committee. They can’t just choose to ignore certain outcomes they don’t like. And so, we’re forced to simply appreciate Manning’s greatness in the context of his slow start. In truth, it’s not his fault. He clearly got a sizable portion of his QB DNA from Uncle Eli, whose career was built upon playing mediocre ball until late in the season and then somehow winning two Super Bowls anyway.
2. Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia
Pavia has a real shot at an invite to the Heisman ceremony, and even if he doesn’t win the actual award, he’s well-positioned for a lifetime achievement trophy of some sort after a dazzling 26-year career. And, if nothing else, Saturday’s 45-17 blowout of Kentucky in which Pavia threw for 484 yards and five touchdowns allowed us to witness Pavia’s best argument for winning the Heisman.
Wait for Pavia’s Heisman pose 🔥🏆 pic.twitter.com/F3RMrd81D9
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 22, 2025
3. North Texas QB Drew Mestemaker
Mestemaker wasn’t even the starting QB on his high school team, spending the entirety of his career at Vandegrift High (Texas) waiting for the starter to get hurt so he could come in, throw a Hail Mary to win the big game after the coach quits at halftime, then point to his dad and yell, “I don’t want … your life!” Instead, he walked on at UNT, started last year’s bowl game, and in 2025 blossomed into a star. On Saturday, he threw for 469 yards and accounted for four touchdowns in a 56-24 win over Rice, then calmly explained to his dad that, no, he’s not interested in following him into the insurance business, but he respects all his father’s life choices and appreciates all the sacrifices he has made for the family.
4. Louisiana governor Jeff Landry
Believe it or not, Brian Kelly wasn’t officially informed he was fired until this week, as the school deals with a lawsuit with the former coach over his contract buyout. How much of this is Landry’s fault? It’s hard to say, but his involvement has clearly complicated things, and it’s just so nice to finally see a coaching change result in utter chaos without somehow involving Phil Fulmer.
5. Hawai’i kicker Kansei Matsuzawa
Matsuzawa connected on a 45-yard field goal in Hawaii’s 38-10 loss to UNLV on Friday, making him a perfect 23-for-23 this season. It’s pretty impressive given that Matsuzawa taught himself to kick by watching videos on YouTube. All of this begs the question: Why can Matsuzawa learn to kick by using social media, but somehow every time Dabo Swinney types in “What is the transfer portal” on Bing, people laugh and say he’s out of touch?
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024