Woody's Weekly Things: Huskers, Vols, Travis Etienne, Turnover Gains

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

COMMITMENT ISSUES PODCAST: Recapping Stanford-Oregon, other big Week 4 games

Even before I started working at Rivals.com, I would spend my Saturdays watching as many college football games as possible. Now that I have interacted with most current college football players, it gives Saturday’s a different perspective. Each week, I will watch as many games as possible and share my thoughts in this space, examining weird moments and sharing some throwback recruiting stories as well.

TENNESSEE'S TROUBLES

I made it pretty clear when Jeremy Pruitt got hired at Tennessee that I thought he had a major mess to clean up and that it would take at least a few years until you could truly judge Pruitt. After the Vols were trounced by rebuilding rival Florida at home yesterday, the mess is starting to come further into focus. Things got weird on Saturday night when linebacker Quart’e Sapp left the field in the third quarter, with initial reports wondering if Sapp had pulled a Vontae Davis and actually quit the team. Following the game, Pruitt said Sapp was asked to enter the game and when he declined was sent off the field. Sapp took to Twitter on Sunday morning to refute those claims, saying he left as the result of a “sideline confrontation” in which the other party had to be restrained. This story will continue to develop throughout the days to come but it’s a microcosm of all the bumps in the road that a true program rebuild will go through. Vols fans aren’t happy, and rightfully so, but the process was never going to be easy and with upcoming games against Georgia, Auburn and Alabama on the schedule it might be worse before it gets better.

KENTUCKY'S RISE

A perfect example of what patience can do for a program is on full display in Lexington, Ky. where the Wildcats are 4-0 and coming off a huge victory over Mississippi State. In his first three seasons at Kentucky, Mark Stoops was a pedestrian 12-24 and there were plenty of fans who would have like to see him jettisoned. But the Kentucky administration stayed the course and since then Stoops is 18-12 overall, including back-to-back bowl appearances. The Wildcats now find themselves in control of their own destiny in the SEC East and while it’s unlikely they knock off Georgia, it’s easy to make a case that they’re the second-best team in the division. After going 0-8 in his first year in the SEC it would have been easy to write Stoops off, but Kentucky fans and administrators are now thankful they stayed the course.

THE ARMY-OKLAHOMA TV SITUATION

The year is 2005. You have the best cable/satellite plan available, but your favorite team is playing a lower opponent and it’s not on TV. But wait, you can buy the game for $29.95 and get a random announcing team that probably include a former player. Fast forward to 2018, you don’t even need cable or satellite to watch every team play every game, there are even games live on Facebook! But as I and many other fans found out on Saturday night when Army and Oklahoma were headed into overtime, the only way to watch the game was via … pay-per-view? This wasn’t exactly a heavyweight fight, even though it turned into a competitive game. Some resourceful fans took to Twitch, the live streaming video platform often used to watch people play video games live, to watch an Oklahoma fan filming his TV. The fan’s broadcast was one of the most popular of the day on Twitch and proof that fans will literally watch any game. In a day where networks are dying for live content (and even airing things like corn hole tournaments), there’s no reason that the game shouldn’t be available through traditional means.

DROPPING THE BALL

I almost farmed this section out to Rivals.com Head of Football Recruiting Video Strategy Greg Ladky, who has been complaining about this since Desean Jackson was in high school, but I’ll give a quick “get off my lawn” type rundown. For the second time in three weeks, Georgia nearly lost a touchdown when wide receiver Jeremiah Holloman dropped the ball as he was crossing the goal line against Missouri. It was ultimately too close to call and Georgia got the points, but why does it keep happening? It’s not that hard to run across the goal line with the ball in your hands. Dang you kids and your music and complicated shoes!

TROLLING THE HUSKERS

Nebraska’s start to the season hasn’t gone as expected and after a drubbing at the hands of Michigan yesterday, everyone started to pile on Scott Frost and the Huskers. But the weirdest moment of the day came when the corporate account for Wendy’s – known for being a little aggressive on Twitter – took the opportunity to needle the school as well. An angry Huskers fan quickly came to the defense of her school, but later deleted her account after losing a war of words with hamburger queen. It doesn’t seem like smart business to fire shots at one of the biggest fan bases on college football, but then again. It is what makes college football fun. Later Fox Sports also got in on the action, using a popular meme to insinuate Frost might be longing for the situation he had at UCF. I still think Frost and the Huskers fans will get the last laugh, but it’s going to be a long year while the haters continue to get in their shots.

Wake Forest was a trendy upset pick this week but it became clear pretty early on Saturday that the Demon Deacons weren't going to be knocking off Notre Dame.

Arizona State now knocks out bicep curls on the sideline following a turnover. This thing does need to be spruced up a little. How about yellow weights and a red bar?

Much was made this week of Auburn losing a pair of former four-stars as wide receiver Nate Craig-Myers and his brother Jayvaughn Myers both announced their plans to transfer. The timing seemed odd to most but the pair wanted to leave before appearing in more than four games in order to preserve a year of eligibility. Auburn has had six players transfer so far this year but by the end of the week, that could be the average at some programs. After not playing in his team’s loss to Stanford, former Rivals100 running back Taj Griffin announced he was leaving Oregon and former four-star Adarrius Lemons has already left Florida. The transfers are a sign of unintended consequences of the new redshirt rule, but in my mind it’s a positive for players. If guys aren’t playing and want to leave for a chance to salvage their careers elsewhere, that’s their right, even if some fans may view it as quitting.

It seems like Travis Etienne has been making me look stupid on a weekly basis since arriving at Clemson last year. The former three-star recruit had 11 carries for 122 yards and a touchdown in his team’s win over Georgia Tech and is now over 1,000 yards rushing for his career. Even the Clemson coaches admitted their surprise at just how good Etienne was when he arrived on campus and I’m still kicking myself for not giving him a closer look and the bump to four-star status.

The No. 1 player in the state of Tennessee in the 2016 class, Dillon Mitchell finally had a major breakout game. Even though Oregon had a stunning collapse in its loss to Stanford, Mitchell was a star, catching 14 passes for 239 yards. It helps that Mitchell has one of the nation’s best quarterbacks, Justin Herbert, throwing him passes but it’s even more noteworthy that Mitchell is finally healthy and displaying the ability that made me love him as a high school player. Mitchell is well on his way to setting career highs in catches and yards in a season.

Rutgers might be the worst Power Five team in all of college football and the Scarlet Knights got smacked by Buffalo at home 42-13 on Saturday. Chris Ash didn’t inherit the greatest situation, but it appears the program is set to take a major step back from last year’s 4-8 record. Would Greg Schiano consider heading back to New Jersey to revive the program once again?

The best game nobody really watched was the Oklahoma-Army game mentioned above, but it’s worth mentioning 0-3 Old Dominion’s upset victory over Virginia Tech. The game was at Old Dominion and something that is becoming a trend again, Power Five programs traveling to Group of Five of schools to play games. It’s the first of several games the Hokies will be playing against the Monarchs as part of a long-term agreement and shows the dangers of a major program going on the road into a hostile environment against a less-notable school. Personally, I would like to see FCS games scrapped from the schedule and more of this on a yearly basis. ODU gets major props for win, as does their quarterback, Blake LaRussa, a former unranked recruit who threw for nearly 500 yards and four touchdowns in the game.