Michigan's angry footprints decorate Happy Valley

Wolverines have a cause, Jayden Daniels has a party, and other confetti from a college football weekend.

Blake Corum

The message from Michigan was clear. Your code isn’t the only thing we can crack.

The Wolverines could have used semaphore signals on Saturday and it probably wouldn’t have mattered. They snapped the ball 33 times in the second half at Penn State, ran it 30 times, drew one pass interference penalty and knelt down twice, cherishing a 24-15 victory that followed a 3-game suspension for coach Jim Harbaugh. 

At the end, acting head coach Sherrone Moore was crying and the rest of the Wolverines were flexing, high-fiving, and sneering at the forces they perceive are opposing them. Michigan is 10-0 with a trip to Maryland separating them from a game with Ohio State in Ann Arbor, the latest Harbageddon chapter in college football’s best rivalry.

The Wolverines hadn’t played anybody more resistant than a StairMaster. Penn State would be different, with the best rushing defense in the nation. The Nittany Lions ran for 164 yards and got an 11-yard touchdown run by QB Drew Allar to cut Michigan’s halftime lead to 14-9.

But Moore and the Wolverines decided to reduce this game to the primeval. It’s a familiar place, even if you have a future pro quarterback in J.J. McCarthy. He threw eight passes overall, none in the second half, and Michigan held the ball for 8:16 in the third quarter and 9:57 in the fourth. A 30-yard touchdown run by Blake Corum gave Michigan the 24-9 lead that sent a crowd of 110,856 grumbling onto the twisted highways of central Pennsylvania. There have been happier Valleys.

Corum is the typical Harbaugh Wolverine. He is 5-foot-8, a senior who didn’t transfer in or out, wasn’t in danger of joining the NFL early. He has only 794 rushing yards, primarily because he missed a couple of games. That doesn’t trigger any award campaigns, but he has 18 touchdowns this season, including two on Saturday. He also had 18 touchdowns on the ground in 2022. His next one will be his 50th.

In a world where red zone field goals are disdained like mud on your shoes, Corum moves the scoreboard in multiples of six. He also shows that a running back’s skills aren’t all measurable, that patience and instinct and a quick-processing mind are necessary, too. It helps that Michigan doesn’t need many points to win. The defense has given up only seven touchdowns in 10 games.

Penn State’s fans booed some of James Franklin’s play calls in the second half Saturday. They’re getting tired of going 3-17 against Top 10 teams and 1-14 against Top 10-ranked Michigan and Ohio State teams. In the Two-Factor Authentication that defines Penn State’s mood these days, the Nittany Lions were 5-for-30 on third down and gained a total of 578 yards in those two losses, which didn’t match the output of LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels Saturday. Penn State scored three touchdowns in those 120 minutes, although it was far more productive against the Blue than against the Scarlet and Gray. The Nittany Lions won the Rose Bowl last year and figure to go 10-2 this year, a fate their fans would have tearfully embraced in the not-so-long-ago days of dishonor, but if fans had memories they wouldn’t need a panic button to find their cars.

The Big 10 suspended Harbaugh on Friday. It doesn’t affect game-week preparation, but he won’t be on the sideline for the rest of the regular season, including the Ohio State game. A request for a temporary restraining order was not honored in time, although there’s always a chance the suspension will be lifted. If anything, the move just gave Michigan more of a cause. It was already irked by the accusations of sign-stealing on the part of a Michigan fan-turned-staff-member and signal sleuth who has since been fired. Other coaches claim they knew about Michigan’s chicanery and had inoculated themselves, particularly TCU’s coaches, which ran up 51 points in last year’s Fiesta Bowl.

The players know that they can shut out every remaining opponent and score on every play they run, and it won’t change the identity of the Cheater Season in the minds of most. They don’t even need to call the Houston Astros to confirm that. But the administration, so far, has tightened its embrace of Harbaugh, whose team has now won 23 consecutive regular season games and, more importantly, is aiming for a third consecutive win over the Buckeyes. The Wolverines also know that the selection committee will determine who they play in the College Football Playoff if they go 12-0, or whether they play, if they don’t. They decided to do their own voting on Saturday, with their feet.

Other confetti from a college football Saturday:

Jayden Daniels

LSU 52, Florida 35

— There are several ways to deal with the type of concussion that Jayden Daniels suffered at Alabama last week. If you’re Daniels, you outrun it. On Saturday night Daniels put the whole college football record book into the blue tent with a performance that might have won him the 2023 Heisman Trophy. He became the first major college QB to pass for 350 yards and run for 200 in the same game, and lifted LSU to a 7-3 record (Florida is 5-5).

– Daniels had 65 plays of 20 or more yards coming in. Here he had nine, including runs of 38, 85, 27 and 61 yards and passes of 38, 41, 45, 52 and 37. He got 234 yards in 12 runs, two of them for TDs, and hit 17 of 26 throws for 372 yards and three scores. He had 606 yards, LSU 701, and he became the first QB ever to amass 12,000 passing yards and 3,000 running yards for a career that lasted three years at Arizona State before he transferred to Baton Rouge in 2022.

— Daniels has thrown 30 touchdown passes with four interceptions in 2023. That’s not quite like Joe Burrow’s 60 TD passes and six picks that won him the 2019 Heisman at LSU, and there will be strong advocates for Caleb Williams, Michael Penix Jr., Bo Nix, Marvin Harrison II and J.J. McCarthy at Heisman time. But all the winners need a moment, and Daniels had more than three hours of moments on Saturday.

Washington 35, Utah 28

— The Huskies (10-0) have won 17 consecutive games and have ridden Michael Penix’s arm to do so, but occasionally the defense holds up its end. In the fourth quarter Saturday, Utah (7-3) didn’t have a first down and ran only nine plays, and Dominique Hampton intercepted Bryson Barnes’ final throw.

— Utah scored three go-ahead touchdowns in the second quarter alone, but went scoreless in the second half, and Penix’s 33-yard touchdown to Rome Odunze was the decisive play. Penix wasn’t particularly sharp otherwise, going 24 for 42, but again Dillon Johnson helped the cause with another 100-yard rushing game.

– Kalen DeBoer notched his 100th head coaching win. He’s only lost 11. That’s 67-3 at Sioux Falls, his alma mater, then 22-6 at Fresno State and 21-2 at Washington, where he hasn’t yet lost a home game.

Georgia 52, Mississippi 17

— The Bulldogs (10-0) grimly showed that a soft schedule isn’t their problem. Ole Miss was 8-1 before it disappeared into the jaws of the Georgia offense, which rolled up 611 yards and punted once.

— Tight end Brock Bowers returned for three catches and a touchdown, but Georgia didn’t miss a beat in the month that he missed with a sprained ankle. Carson Beck lit up the Rebels with an 18 for 25 performance, good for 306 yards and two scores, and Kendall Milton ran for 127 yards and two TDs in only nine carries. Then there’s Ladd McConkey, who snagged four passes for 81 yards and a score. McConkey is a 3-star recruit and a redshirt from Chatsworth, Ga. He had seven TD catches last year and has two this year on 26 catches. Ask two-time national championship quarterback Stetson Bennett, from last season: Reputations don’t mean much on Kirby Smart’s practice field. Bennett was on hand Saturday, as was Open Championship winner Brian Harman, a UGA grad who brought the claret jug to Sanford Stadium.

— Ole Miss, which has only lost to Alabama and Georgia, gave up touchdowns on Georgia’s first four possessions, and Jaxson Dart was held to ten completions for 112 yards. 

South Dakota State 34, Youngstown State 0

— The bully of small college football still rules the playground. The Jackrabbits won their 24th consecutive game  Saturday, the fourth-longest streak in the history of FCS or Division I-AA football. They’re the defending FCS champs and have finished in the final Top 10 in four of the past five seasons.

— John Stiegelmeier was the architect of all this and retired after 36 years at the helm, but the Jackrabbits have lost no steam playing for the new coach, former SDSU linebacker Jimmy Rogers. “He was short, slow and one of the best players you’ll ever see,” Stiegelmeier said. “Aren’t those synonymous?”

— SDSU has scored 49 touchdowns and allowed 12. Twin brothers Jaxon and Jadon Janke have combined to catch 10 touchdowns for a total of 1,027 yards. They’re from Madison, S.D. and helped their high school team to three consecutive 11-A championships, playing both ways. They’re also the sixth and seventh kids that came along for parents Linda and Fred.

Iowa 22, Rutgers 0

— When the Hawkeyes come to town, you’ll see a lot of black-and-gold everywhere, except maybe the end zone. But the other end zone is empty, too. The Hawkeyes, who spend more time in low gear than any other winning team, improved to 8-2 with this shutout win, and took control in the Big Ten West, which they lead by two games and have the only plus-.500 record.

— The over-under for this game was 27, lowest since such things were first recorded in 1995. But the Hawkeyes actually scored two offensive touchdowns, on a run by Jaziun Patterson and a pass from Deacon Hill to Kaleb Brown. Iowa gave Rutgers seven first downs and 127 total yards and made the Scarlet Knights (6-4) punt nine times. Iowa still has only allowed one rushing touchdown this season.

— No one has scored more than 16 on Iowa this season. But the Hawkeyes were so punchless that offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz had his contract shortened, his pay cut, and was told that the offense had to average 25 points in at least a 7-win season for him to remain. Ferentz, whose dad Kirk is the longtime head coach, was relieved of his duties last month. Iowa averages 18.8 points, and does not have a 700-yard runner, an 800-yard passer or a receiver with more than 21 catches or 299 yards. Yet here they are, and they average nearly 70,000 fans per game at Kinnick Stadium, most of whom think it’s not how, but how many.

UCF 45, Oklahoma State 3

— The 15th-ranked Cowboys were riding a cloud after they knocked off Oklahoma, but they fell hard, and without a parachute. The stunning loss, in rainy Orlando, complicated Oklahoma State’s chances of getting to the Big 12 title game, which will feature the best two teams in the league.

— OSU is tied with Iowa State and Oklahoma for second, a game behind Texas. Iowa State plays Texas this week. A two-way tie between Oklahoma State and Oklahoma would favor the Cowboys, since they won the head-to-head game, but a 3-way tie sends the teams into a tiebreaker labyrinth that is difficult to assess until the season ends.

— UCF had lost five consecutive games but accepted four turnovers from the Cowboys and outgained them 592-277. RJ Harvey churned for 206 rush yards and scored three times for the Knights (5-5), who only gave Ollie Gordon 25 yards in 12 carries. Oklahoma State is the mystery team of the season, with wins over Oklahoma, Kansas State and Kansas, and with losses to South Alabama and UCF by a total of 78-10.