Seminoles put the brakes on a runaway game

Confetti from a college football weekend.

Jared Verse

Once, there were quarterbacks who just wanted to be part of the session. Let the running backs and the defensive guys do the vocals. They contentedly handed off and laid down the bass tracks and basically hit the notes they were given.

Steve Sogge, Buck Belue and John Shaffer come to mind. They were the low-risk quarterbacks for national championship teams at USC, Georgia and Penn State. After they left college, the only game they played on Sundays was golf.

You might have noticed that quarterbacking has changed a bit. No more hiding in the back of the room. Quarterbacks are more like James Brown, being led off stage by a host of courtiers who make sure his sport coat is accessible. There may come a day when offensive linemen and running backs are forced to pay a fee to be in the same huddle with such princes. Judging from Saturday, that day might come in 2023.

Look at the Pac-12 alone. Shedeur Sanders (Colorado), Caleb Williams (USC), Bo Nix (Oregon), Michael Penix (Washington), Cameron Ward (Washington State) and D.J. Uiagalelei (Oregon State) completed 165 of 212 passes over the weekend for 2,256 yards and 23 touchdowns. Not one of them threw an interception. That’s a cumulative completion percentage of 77.8.

The quarterbacks are so well-indoctrinated and their offenses are so resourceful that you can witness 80-yard touchdown drives in which the football only touches the ground when the center is preparing to snap it. The fears that football is becoming a glorified 7-on-7 drill are like the fears about global warming. The change is not coming. It’s here.

Two Oklahoma quarterbacks combined to go 30 for 33 for 422 yards, three scores and no picks, and Jackson Arnold hit all 11 of his passes. MIchigan’s JJ McCarthy was 26-for-30 for 280 and three scores. Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart was 18-for-23 for 334 and four. South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, in a losing effort, went 30-for-39 for 353. Penn State’s Drew Allar was 21-for-29 for 325 and three.

Some of those performances came against teams that only showed up for a big check and a beating. That is why Florida State should be ranked No. 1 in the wire-service polls this week. The Seminoles had a supporting cast that made QB Jordan Travis proud. They also wiped out LSU in Orlando, 45-24, the day after Georgia beat Tennessee-Martin, Michigan beat East Carolina, Alabama beat Middle Tennessee and Texas beat Rice. 

And they did it with a defense that implanted fear, and pain, in quarterback Jaylen Daniels. It’s the only kind that has a chance anymore.

Florida State sacked Daniels four times. They let him get away on one 40-yard run. Otherwise he ran for 50 yards in 14 carries. Take away 26 yards in losses, and that’s a win for any defense against Daniels.

The former Arizona State quarterback got his numbers, throwing for 347 yards, but you don’t judge defenses by real estate anymore. You judge FSU’s defense by the way it denied LSU first downs on seven of 10 tries, and how it gave LSU only two touchdowns until 1:15 remained and the game was refrigerating.

On its first drive, LSU had first and goal on the Seminoles’ doorstep. Four plays later Daniels was being sacked by DJ Lundy on the 14-yard-line. When the second quarter started, LSU coach Brian Kelly ordered a fourth-down conversion on the Seminoles’ 13, and this time Shyhiem Brown and Kalen DeLoach sacked Daniels.

And when Travis threw a pick to LSU’s Duce Chestnut a few minutes later, the Seminoles dealt LSU a three-and-out. The name of the defensive game these days is red zone resistance, third down performance and the refusal to give up bombs. None of the three is easy in today’s college football, so this was close to a masterpiece.

The Seminoles, with coach Mike Norvell, are ACC favorites again, although they still need to prove they can beat Clemson. They have re-established themselves with recruits, and they are playing the transfer portal like a violin. Jared Nurse is a pass rusher who might become the top defensive player in the NFL draft. He was a high school tight end who went to small-college Albany, which didn’t play football in the Covid world of 2020. He was redshirted in 2021. He emerged in 2022 as a guided missile and picked Florida State from a smorgasbord of football powers. He dominated last season but was not among the sackers on Saturday night. The Seminoles had also developed Patrick Patton, who was the ACC’s top rookie defensively.

Florida State beat up LSU on both sides of the line and scored 31 second-half points, and a dumbfounded Kelly said his team “thought we were somebody else. We thought we were the two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs or something. I don’t know what we thought, but we were mistaken.”

More likely the Tigers just blundered their way into one of the few natural defensive habitats in college football. Unfortunately, nobody put up a sign.

Other confetti from Week 1:

Texas State 42, Baylor 31: The Bears have now lost five consecutive games and have a great chance to open up this season 1-4, with games against Utah, Texas and Central Florida in September. They kicked field goals early while Texas State scored touchdowns, and eventually lost quarterback Blake Shapen. Texas State went 4-for-4 on fourth down and got a 16-yard TD run from former Auburn and LSU quarterback TJ Finley when Baylor got to within 28-21.

Coach G.J. Kinne came to Texas State from Incarnate Word, where his team averaged 515 yards. It was a natural hire for a school whose athletic director is named Don Coryell, except this one isn’t related to the Hall of Fame NFL coach and passing innovator. Texas State is in San Marcos, just south of Austin, and is where the TV series “Friday Night Lights” was filmed.

Kinne, who was quarterbacking for Gus Malzahn at Tulsa in 2011, faced down horror when he was in high school in Canton, Tex. His father Gary Joe was his coach, and one day he was shot in the chest, at point-blank range, by Jeff Robertson, the father of a player who was unhappy. Gary Joe survived, Robertson was apprehended and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, and G.J. got into coaching after several years of living on the NFL waiver wire.

Wyoming 35, Texas Tech 33 (2 OT): Craig Bohl’s team prides itself on feisty overachievement, and quarterback Andrew Peasley personified it with an 11-yard, fourth down touchdown pass to John Michael Gyllenborg in the second OT. Sam Scott’s conversion finished off the upset. Peasley had been shaken up by a hit at the end of regulation play. Wyoming fell behind 17-0 but rallied at home to get the win. “For this game, it was a matter of taking them to the deep end of the pool, and they’re going to fold,” Peasley said. “That’s exactly what we did.”

Southern Mississippi 40, Alcorn State 14: After the Eagles had won only six games in 2020-21, they went 7-6 with a win over Tulane and a bowl game win over Rice last year. This win keeps those vibes going. But other forces were at work, too. In honor of USM grad Jimmy Buffett, who died on Friday night, university president Joe Paul and other fans wore Hawaiian shirts to Saturday’s game. During a time out in the second quarter, the crowd of 30,000 stood to sing “Margaritaville.”