UNLV
Sunday, September 10, 2023
I bid adieu to summer, for fall hath arrived since my last entry. This weekend, the sky has been overcast, a shade darker than before. The brilliant ferns outside my apartment’s back entrance died overnight, and the crows materialized out of thin air yesterday morning. Where have the crows been, Edgar Allan Poe? I’m reading Jeffrey Meyer’s biography of Poe right now at Mueller Park; no one else is here, the temp. is only 67, and the Vikings start in five minutes. The church bells from Lake of the Isles rang here at about 11:30 and I am expecting them again any minute to mark the noonday, at which point I’ll walk back to my apartment to watch Kirk Cousins, whose alma mater is in the news again this morning for all the wrong reasons. This time the alleged wrongdoer is head football coach Mel Tucker, who is accused of sexual misconduct by a female motivational and sexual assault prevention speaker. According to my iPhone, the church bells are two minutes late.
Yesterday was a day devoted to college football, as all autumn Saturdays should be. Like an old man, I woke up at six. That gave me three hours to kill before Big Noon Kickoff even started. I don’t have ESPN so I made the switch to Fox's knockoff version of College Gameday, Big Noon Kickoff, last year, perhaps the year prior. Matt Leinart, Urban Meyer (whom I don't dislike as a host), Brady Quinn, and new host Mark Ingram visited the mountain town of Boulder, Colorado, the epicenter of the college football world at present, to see if Coach Prime’s Buffs passed the smell test. I’d hyped the spread for this game all week, mostly to the BOX group chat that I’d recently rejoined on WhatsApp. Having watched Shedeur Sanders last weekend, I felt certain Colorado, favored by only three, would steamroll Nebraska, who lost to PJ Fleck's Gophers in week one.
Steamroll Colorado did, though not immediately. Nebraska held the Buffaloes scoreless most of the first half; Colorado didn't get on the board until there was 4:20 left in the second quarter, when Jace Feely, son of Michigan all-time kicker Jay Feely, knocked in a three-pointer from 31 yards away. Huskers quarterback Jeff Sims promptly threw an interception, and Colorado immediately capitalized, with Shedeur Sanders connecting with Tar'Varish Dawson for a 30-yard touchdown on the very next play. A last-second field goal from Feely made it 13-0 Buffs at half, and the playmakers on Coach Prime’s squad proved too much for the Huskers in the second half. Nebraska looked like a team with promise but it was clear they were still trying to get the kinks out under new coach Matt Ruhle, whose squad fell to 0-2; Ruhle may have to re-evaluate his starting quarterback.
Michigan hosted UNLV in the 2:30 C.T. slot. CBS broadcast the game. Jay Harbaugh, filling in for his suspended father, wore the head coach headset to start the game. Tommy Doman booted the ball into the endzone on a sun-kissed Saturday in Ann Arbor, the temperature sitting comfortably in the upper sixties, the sky the color of stonewashed denim. A swell day to be drunk in the student section, I reflected to myself. I wonder what it’s like to be sober in the student section, I wondered subsequently; probably just as swell.
Unanticipated concern mounted briefly as Runnin’ Rebel QB Doug Brumfield threw for back-to-back first downs. At this point in the season, of course – and indeed through the first eight games or so – any concern was not so much borne out of a fear of imminent defeat but rather out of fear that these displays of weakness would come back to haunt us against real challengers like Penn State and Ohio State. Simply put, a defense that gave up back-to-back first downs to lowly UNLV seemed unworthy of national championship hype. These concerns proved premature, however. Jesse Minter’s unit forced a punt before the Rebels crossed the block M at midfield.
Endzone yogi JJ McCarthy led the offense onto the field, his calm demeanor infectious. His play seemed to say, in the fashion of Aaron Rodgers to Green Bay fans, “R-E-L-A-X.” He went 5-5 passing on the opening drive. Those numbers included a 20-yard pass to Corum on the first offensive snap, a 16-yard pass to Tyler Morris, and a 25-yarder to Roman Wilson. The run game, which looked ineffective earlier in the drive, heated up in the red zone. On a 3rd and 7 from the UNLV 14, Corum broke off for an 11-yard gain to the 3. Mr. Automatic at the goal line, he punched it in on the very next play. In total the drive went 80 yards in 9 plays, lasting 4:37.
If the defense had been asleep to start the game, they had woken up by the second UNLV possession. A run to Jai’Den Thomas on first down went for a 3-yard loss. An incomplete pass followed on second down. Then, on 3rd and 13, Derrick Moore, a sophomore defensive end from Baltimore, sacked Brumfield for a loss of 6. UNLV punted for the second time.
Michigan flexed its muscle on its second drive, with JJ orchestrating a methodical drive that saw most of its weapons involved. Sherrone Moore continued trying to get the run game going by giving the ball to Blake to start the drive. Corum ran for 6 yards on 1st down, then for another 8 on 2nd down. Twice Donovan Edwards got the ball only to be stopped twice for no gain. JJ connected with Tyler Morris for a 15-yard gain on a 3rd and 6 to cross midfield, and later he found tight end AJ Barner, a transfer from Indiana, for 12 yards on a 3rd and 7. That took the Wolverines to the UNLV 27. From there, the run game finished the drive. On 1st and 10, Corum ran for 8, then on 2nd and 2, JJ showed off his speed with a 17-yard scamper to the 2-yard line. Guess what Sherrone Moore called for from there. Corum’s second of the day made it 14-0 with 14:56 left in the second quarter.
UNLV’s next possession felt like a last grasp at making the game competitive, if there even was one to begin with (the Runnin’ Rebels were 37-point dogs according to Vegas). Their first play went according to plan: Brumfield completed a pass to Jacob De Jesus that went for 15 yards to the 40-yard line. The following three plays saw UNLV squander away almost all of those 15 yards they had gained. On 1st down, Brumfield dropped back to pass only to be thrown down by Jaylen Harrell, a senior defensive end from Tampa. Harrell’s first sack of the season made it 2nd down and 16 for the Rebs; he wouldn’t have to wait long for his second. Following a three-yard run by Vincent Davis Jr. on 2nd down, Harrell joined forces with Mason Graham, the monster sophomore nose tackle from Anaheim, sacking Brumfield again on 3rd and 13, this time for a 7-yard loss. Graham and Harrell’s joint sack forced UNLV’s third punt, which might as well have had a white flag attached to it.
McCarthy started the day 11 for 11 passing; his first incompletion didn’t come until less than four minutes were remaining in the first half. Even then, the incompletion didn’t inhibit the offensive drive. Getting the ball with four minutes left in the half, the offense sapped the clock with a 10-play, 83-yard drive in boa constrictor fashion. The drive culminated on 1st and 10 from the UNLV 13 when, with twenty-four seconds left in the half, JJ hit Roman Wilson on a crossing route up the middle for the touchdown, Wilson’s fourth of the young season. Michigan took a 21-0 lead into the locker rooms.
The second half figured to serve as garbage time for the second and third stringers, perhaps after another insurance score, yet Michigan’s second possession in the third quarter yielded the season’s first special moment, an auspicious one at that. The drive went only three plays. On the first, McCarthy completed a pass to Cornelius Johnson for a 12-yard gain. On the second, Corum fought for a 5-yard gain on the ground. Then, on the third play, a 2nd and 5 from the UNLV 47-yard line, JJ threw again to Wilson, who caught the ball around the 33 and ran it in untouched for his fifth receiving touchdown of the year. The touchdown went for 47 yards. That number – 47 – happened to be written in black sharpie on JJ McCarthy’s non-throwing hand during the game, a salute to his childhood friend and UNLV defensive lineman Ryan Keeler, who wore the number 47 before passing away due to heart arrhythmia in February. What made it even more auspicious was the fact that CBS hadn’t mentioned JJ’s tribute to Keeler until seconds before the 47-yard touchdown pass to Wilson. Was this one of those moments – one that marks the truly special season?
Late in the third, Blake Corum’s third rushing TD (5 yards) of the day put the Wolverines up 35-zip. Acting head coach Mike Hart ushered in the backups in the fourth quarter with the game comfortably out of reach. Backup QB Davis Warren threw an interception early in the fourth quarter before third-stringer Jayden Denegal got reps. UNLV put in their own backup quarterback, Jayden Maiavia, in the fourth quarter; against Michigan’s second-team defense, he led the Rebs on a 9-play, 81-yard drive that finally got his team on the board with only two and a half minutes left in the game. The game ended without further scoring: 35-7. Michigan went to 2-0 while UNLV fell to 1-1.
Saturday’s prime-time game featured #11 Texas at #3 Alabama in a clash of traditional powerhouses, but I couldn’t watch as it was on ESPN. The second game of a home-and-home series, Texas went into Tuscaloosa seeking revenge for last year’s home loss to the Tide, a 20-19 heartbreaker that ended on a last-second field goal booted by Tide kicker Will Reichard. This time, the Longhorns didn’t have to contend with Heisman Trophy-winner Bryce Young; in his place was redshirt sophomore Jalen Milroe, a four-star recruit from Katy, Texas. Because I couldn’t watch this game, I watched Miami (who is even coaching there these days?) take down Texas A&M while eating Chipotle I ordered for dinner. That oughtta heat up some seats in College Station. When the Wisconsin at Washington State game started on ABC, I switched to that game intermittently. Luke Fickell's Badgers started lethargic but rallied. . . only to fall short 31-22. Milroe indeed proved the difference in the Texas - Bama game, and not in a good way. He threw two picks on the night and got outshined by Horns signal-caller Quinn Ewers, who impressed with 349 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 34-24 upset. Nick Saban demoted Milroe following the loss, publicly announcing he'd turn to another starter for Bama's next game against lowly UCF (this proved a temporary demotion). In other finals, North Carolina survived yet another upset-bid by Appalachian State; the Mountaineers took the Heels to double overtime before falling short. In the nightcap on FOX, reigning Heisman-winner Caleb Williams and USC obliterated Stanford.
It’s 6:40 on a Sunday evening at Mueller Park. The sun’s going down behind the Victorian homes on the west side of Colfax. A souped-up car engine roars onto a nearby freeway. A kid riding his scooter through the park sneezes several times. A solitary cricket chirps in the grass, pining for the lost summer. Earlier today, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs upset the Vikings, starting the season on a sour note, and, drinking coffee (I have Mondays off) and smoking Marlboros, I feel the Sunday evening gloom of a city whose football team lost earlier in the day. The smell of Sunday dinner wafts.
No comments:
Post a Comment