MONDAY, OCTOBER 21 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D5
ASSOCIATED PRESSBaylor Romney threw for 221
yards and two touchdowns in his
first career start to help BYU upset
No. 14 Boise State, 28-25, late
Saturday night in Provo, Utah.
The Cougars turned to Romney,
their third-string quarterback,
with Zach Wilson and Jaren Hall
sidelined with injuries. He threw
two scoring passes to Matt Bush-
man and helped deliver a second
home win for BYU (3-4) against a
ranked opponent this season.
Chase Cord, Boise State’s No. 2
quarterback, got the call with
Hank Bachmeier out because of an
injury. He struggled in his first
career start, throwing for 185
yards, two touchdowns and a pair
of interceptions.
The Broncos (6-1) trimmed an
18-point deficit to three late in the
fourth quarter. Cord hit Octavius
Evans with a 13-yard touchdown
pass and then Akilian Butler with
a five-yard scoring pass to make it
28-25 with 3:17 remaining.
The Cougars ran out the clock
after Austin Kafentzis picked upone yard on fourth and inches
from the BYU 34 with 2:17 left.
BYU took its first lead at 14-10
early in the third quarter when
Sione Finau took an option pitch
and raced 46 yards untouched for
a touchdown. Romney connected
with Bushman for two scoring
passes in the third quarter.
ALABAMA 35, TENNES-
SEE 13: After quarterback Tua
Tagovailoa left in the second quar-
ter with an ankle injury, the top-
ranked Crimson Tide relied on its
defense and Najee Harris to beat
the Volunteers in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Harris ran for 105 yards and two
touchdowns for Alabama (7-0, 4-0SEC). Freshman quarterback Bri-
an Maurer left with a concussion
for the second straight week as
Tennessee (2-5, 1-3) lost to Ala-
bama for the 13th consecutive
time.
AIR FORCE 56, HAWAII 21:
Mike Schmidt came off the bench
to account for four touchdowns
and lead the Falcons (5-2, 3-1
Mountain West) in Honolulu.
Schmidt, a senior quarterback
who entered with just three car-
ries in five career games, relieved
starter Donald Hammond III, who
left in the first quarter with a
shoulder injury.
Schmidt rushed for 120 yardsand three touchdowns on 14 car-
ries and completed 5 of 6 passes
for 147 yards, including a 75-yard
touchdown toss to Geraud Sand-
ers. The Rainbow Warriors fell to
4-3 and 1-2.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
41, ARIZONA 14: Kedon Slovis
threw touchdown passes to
Michael Pittman Jr. and Tyler
Vaughns, and Kenan Christon
rushed for 88 of his 103 yards in
the fourth quarter and scored a
touchdown to spark the Trojans in
Los Angeles.
USC (4-3, 3-1 Pac-12) beat the
Wildcats (4-3, 2-2) for the seventh
straight time.UTAH STATE 36, NEVADA
10: Gerold Bright had 126 yards
and two scores on 15 carries, and
Savon Scarver had a 100-yard
kickoff return for a touchdown as
the Aggies (4-2, 3-0 Mountain
West) beat the Wolf Pack (4-3, 1-2)
in Logan, Utah.South Carolina dismisses DB
South Carolina dismissed
junior defensive back Jamel Cook
from the team after his arrest Fri-
day on a second-degree domestic
violence charge.
Cook had one tackle this sea-
son; he sat out last year after trans-
ferring from Southern California.What
senselessness
might loom up
ahead? Might we
get a college
football season
lavished with
senselessness after recent years
of so much Alabama, Clemson,
Clemson, Alabama? Could we get
Oregon as a College Football
Playoff candidate or LSU
opening as the committee’s No. 1
just before it rolls into
Tuscaloosa against a dinged-up
Tua Tagovailoa? What might
happen with Penn State? Might
somebody with such authority
up and put a prudent hold on all
wagering on games involving
Brigham Young?
Hopes abound. Senselessness,
that prized quality of a lunatic
sport, hadn’t gotten much of a go
early on this season. Some of us
missed our senselessness. But
senselessness has gushed back
the past two Saturdays, in a
South Carolina upset at Georgia
that made no sense, then an
Illinois upset of Wisconsin that
made less than no sense.
A question to Wisconsin
Coach Paul Chryst, his face
drained of even the limited joy it
sometimes evinces: “Was there
any indication [in preparation]
something was off ?”
Chryst, eloquently: “No.”
Wisconsin, nothing if not
ironclad and earnest, appeared
in Champaign as leaky and
cocky. It lost to an Illinois team
many believed had disbanded
operations and disappeared,
with a 4-26 Big Ten record during
Coach Lovie Smith’s tenure, and
with two of those wins coming at
Rutgers and at Rutgers. It
ensured that after Wisconsin
destroyed Michigan and after
Michigan had gone to Illinois
and won, 42-25, Wisconsin had
gone to Illinois, lost, 24-23, and
approached its trip Saturday to
Ohio State looking like prey.
Maybe such slights will help
Wisconsin in a way being a 30^1 / 2 -
point favorite could not.
Where it had allowed four
touchdowns all season, none
relevant to outcomes, it allowed
three to Illinois on plays of 29
yards or more, all relevant to the
outcome. It missed a 37-yard
field goal late in the third
quarter. It couldn’t score a
touchdown from first down at
the 3-yard line with 10 minutes
left. Its great running back,
Jonathan Taylor, lunged for
further yardage with 7:12 left,
while linebacker Jake Hansen’s
hand looped over Taylor’s
shoulder and down near the ball,
shoving it loose. Its first-year
starting quarterback, Jack Coan,
with one interception all season,
managed to match that total on
one leaping play by cornerback
Tony Adams with 2:32 left.
Losing on the road is common,
losing on the road before 37,363
in a 60,670-seater less common.
And as senselessness always
confers its magic, consider that
Illinois kicker James McCourt
apparently blacked out in the
aftermath of his game-winning,
39-yard field goal as time
expired. Realize you could travel
far and wide and farther and not
hear an athlete describe an
athletic experience so vividly.
Here’s McCourt, as recorded
by Matthew Stevens of
IlliniMaven: “So I made the kick
and saw [tight end] Griffin
Palmer and gave him a big hug,
and our helmets got stuck
together, and I fell. There must
have been 10 or so bodies to stack
vertically on top of me, and all I
can remember seeing is
darkness.”
Here’s McCourt, as recorded
by Shannon Ryan of the Chicago
Tribune, describing his ensuing
trip upward and onto his
teammates’ shoulders: “I thought
I woke up from a dream.”
Damn, that college football.
You look up, and here’s Oregon
again. It’s an Oregon that plays
stout defense, No. 7 in the land in
yards allowed per play, and
everyone knows that’s just
senseless. It’s an Oregon at 6-1
and just one late, 26-yard
Auburn heroic from 7-0. It’s an
Oregon that gives the vanished
Pac-12 Conference a plausible
chance, so we must monitor
these upcoming Oregon games:
Washington State at home next
weekend, at Southern California,
Arizona at home, at Arizona
State, Oregon State at home.
It’s an Oregon that lost to
Washington by a combined
108-24 in 2016 and 2017 yet
surmounted deficits of 28-14
early in the third quarter and
31-21 late in the third quarter as
future NFL employee Justin
Herbert directed drives covering
75 and 70 yards — in Seattle — to
lead the Ducks to a 35-31 win.
Here, after years of a muddled
LSU offense that might have
inspired further fan drinking,
comes a pyrotechnic LSU offense
that might inspire further fan
drinking. The 36-13 win atMississippi State proved wildly
impressive after the loud home
win over Florida. Now comes
Auburn. Then comes the annual
pre-Alabama off week. Then
comes Alabama.
It will be an Alabama perhaps
still monitoring quarterback
Tagovailoa’s high ankle sprain,
suffered Saturday night in the
35-13 win over Tennessee. That
will be some spotlighted
monitoring, because the last
quarterback to rescue Alabama
from a Tagovailoa ankle injury,
Jalen Hurts, cannot help
Alabama because he plays
nowadays at Oklahoma, where
he ranks No. 1 nationally in
passer rating.
LSU quarterback Joe Burrow,
who transferred from Ohio State,
ranks No. 2. Tagovailoa ranks
No. 3. Justin Fields, who
transferred from Georgia to Ohio
State, ranks No. 4.
Even the passer ratings are apsychodrama.
Tennessee at Alabama
somehow became one as well,
when Tennessee quarterback
Jarrett Guarantano tried a sneak
on fourth and one at the goal line
in the fourth quarter with the
score 28-13, and Guarantano
fumbled, and Alabama’s Trevon
Diggs returned it 100 yards for a
touchdown, and Tennessee
Coach Jeremy Pruitt excoriated
Guarantano with a quick yank at
Guarantano’s face mask. Such
behavior could be wrong, or it
could be just football — there’s an
argument underway — but
what’s not arguable is that good
coaches don’t require such acts
of insecurity.
We move forward with the
hope of further senselessness
with Penn State something of a
factor. It stands 7-0 after its 28-21
win over Michigan,
reestablishing itself after a dip
from 11-3 (2016) to 11-2 (2017) to9-4 (2018), a dip both mild to all
and unforgivable to some. Asked
to describe these Lions, first-year
starting quarterback Sean
Clifford said, “Fast, physical and
just a team that really will do
anything for a win.” Surely any
guy who can withstand
St. Ignatius in an Ohio high
school state title game (2015) has
got some mustard to him.
Surely any guy or woman who
would wager on Brigham Young
has got some derring-do to him
or her. The Cougars (3-4) have
epitomized senselessness, and
bravo to that. They have traveled
thrice to the Eastern time zone.
They have won at Tennessee and
at home against Southern
California. They have lost at
Toledo, which is surely no sin
among football intellectuals, but
they have lost at South Florida,
which might just be.
Then on Saturday night, in
cold, rainy, windy weather one
might label biblical if one were
into that sort of thing, Brigham
Young brought out a fresh
starting quarterback who just
got the nod Wednesday night,
Baylor Romney, gambled (uh-oh)
successfully on a late fourth and
one with a Romney sneak and
gave then-No. 14 Boise State a
28-25 plucking from the list of
the unbeaten.
“We were more aggressive this
game even though we had some
weird weather,” wide receiver
Matt Bushman told reporters in
Provo, Utah, even adding: “We
were just as confident as we
could be. We believed.”
Such belief might have made
limited sense, but these guys play
a sport in which a kicker might
drill a field goal to provide a
victory of senseless beauty, black
out in the celebration and wake
as if from a dream.
[email protected]The top 25 teams in the coaches’ college football poll,
with first-place votes in parentheses, records through
Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a first-place
vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and
previous ranking:
RECORD PTS PVS
1.Alabama (44) 7-0 1602 1
2.Clemson (10) 7-0 1511 2
3.LSU (3) 7-0 1486 3
4.Ohio State (8) 7-0 1461 4
5.Oklahoma 7-0 1408 5
6.Penn State 7-0 1283 7
7.Notre Dame 5-1 1160 8
8.Florida 7-1 1151 9
9.Georgia 6-1 1099 10
10.Auburn 6-1 1071 11
11.Oregon 6-1 1011 12
12.Utah 6-1 858 14
13.Wisconsin 6-1 824 6
14.Baylor 7-0 730 18
15.Texas 5-2 722 15
16.Minnesota 7-0 631 20
17.SMU 7-0 609 19
18.Cincinnati 6-1 461 21
19.Iowa 5-2 373 22
20.Michigan 5-2 369 16
21.Boise State 6-1 308 13
22.Appalachian State 6-0 300 24
23.Wake Forest 6-1 181 —
24.Arizona State 5-2 131 17
25.Memphis 6-1 101 —
Others receiving votes: Iowa State 83, Virginia 61, San
Diego State 45, Navy 24, Pitt 18, Washington 16, Tulane
8, Texas A&M 8, Louisiana Tech 7, Central Florida 6,
Temple 3, Virginia Tech 2, Utah State 1, UAB 1, Indiana 1.Champaign celebration was a toast to the return of senselessness
On
Football
CHUCK
CULPEPPER
ROUNDUP
In his first start, Romney throws pair of TD passes as Cougars upset Broncos
JOE ROBBINS/GETTY IMAGES
Illinois kicker James McCourt got a lift from teammates after he made the game-winning, 39-yard field goal Saturday against Wisconsin.COACHES’ POLLThe top 25 teams in the Associated Press college
football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses,
records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points
for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place
vote, and previous ranking:
RECORD PTSPVS
1.Alabama (24) 7-0 1486 1
2.LSU (16) 7-0 1462 2
3.Ohio State (13) 7-0 1429 4
4.Clemson (9) 7-0 1408 3
5.Oklahoma 7-0 1343 5
6.Penn State 7-0 1224 7
7.Florida 7-1 1138 9
8.Notre Dame 5-1 1058 8
9.Auburn 6-1 1054 11
10.Georgia 6-1 1031 10
11.Oregon 6-1 979 12
12.Utah 6-1 852 13
13.Wisconsin 6-1 767 6
14.Baylor 7-0 732 18
15.Texas 5-2 627 15
16.SMU 7-0 587 19
17.Minnesota 7-0 577 20
18.Cincinnati 6-1 468 21
19.Michigan 5-2 440 16
20.Iowa 5-2 347 23
21.Appalachian State 6-0 286 24
22.Boise State 6-1 225 14
23.Iowa State 5-2 185 NR
24.Arizona State 5-2 134 17
25.Wake Forest 6-1 118 NR
Others receiving votes: Memphis 87, Virginia 29, San
Diego State 17, Pitt 17, Washington 15, Navy 9, Texas
A&M 6, Missouri 4, Central Florida 3, Southern Cal 3,
Louisiana Tech 2, Tulane 1.AP TOP 25BYU 28,
BOISE STATE 25college football
BY CINDY BORENAlabama quarterback Tua
Tagovailoa had surgery Sunday
to repair a high ankle sprain he
suffered during Saturday’s win
over Tennessee. The procedure
was similar to what he had last
season to address a high sprain
to his other ankle.
“Our physicians performed a
successful tightrope procedure
on his right ankle this morning,”
Alabama Coach Nick Saban said
in a statement Sunday. “This is
the same injury, but the opposite
ankle that Tua injured last sea-
son. Tua will miss next week’s
game against Arkansas, but we
expect a full and speedy recov-
ery.”
“Speedy” may be the most
important word as Alabama en-
ters the toughest part of its
schedule. Last year, Tagovailoa
had the procedure after the
Dec. 1 SEC title game and re-
turned to play 28 days later in
the Orange Bowl, although he
was not at full strength.
“What we do is we drill a hole
from the fibula into the tibia and
cast these tightropes through the
bone and sync it down and
tighten it,” Norman Waldrop,
part of the surgical team that
performed Tagovailoa’s surgery
in 2018, told ESPN last year.
“What these tightropes do are
stabilize the ankle. It holds that
little bone in its home. It holds it
still and stable enough that the
bones don’t want to spread
apart.”
The nation’s No. 1 team, Ala-
bama hosts Arkansas on Satur-
day, then has a week off before it
hosts No. 2 LSU. Alabama’s ini-
tial plan called for Tagovailoa to
be ready for that Nov. 9 game,
although that may be unlikely.
“I’ll be back for LSU,” he told his
teammates, linebacker Terrell
Lewis said, according to AL.com.
“A two-week recovery time is
about as fast as I’ve heard of
anybody trying to get back on
the field with a true high ankle
injury,” orthopedic surgeon Wil-
liam McGarvey told AL.com in
December.
Tagovailoa walked off the field
with a slight limp after rolling
his right ankle when he was
sacked in the second quarter of
Alabama’s 35-13 victory over the
Volunteers on Saturday night.
He remained in the game and
completed a five-yard pass to
Brian Robinson Jr. before exit-
ing.
Against the Volunteers, Mac
Jones stepped in for Tagovailoa,
who completed 11 of 12 passes for
155 yards with an interception.
Jones completed 6 of 11 attempts
for 72 yards.
“Mac did some good things,
and we think Mac is capable,”
Saban said. “So we have a lot of
confidence in Mac.”
[email protected]Alabama’s
Tagovailoa
has surgery
on ankle
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