Sunday Superlatives: The best, worst and everything in-between in coaching from Championship weekend
Let’s get right to it.
Recapping the best, worst and everything in-between in coaching after a chaotic Championship weekend in today’s Sunday Superlatives.
THE SMARTEST CALL OF THE WEEK AWARD
While so much of championship weekend was naturally focused on the College Football Playoff implications, I’m going to start the final Sunday Superlatives of the 2022 season a little differently today.
How about Willie freakin’ Fritz and the Tulane Green Wave?
After a brutal 2-10 season in 2021 — where the program was displaced for weeks after Hurricane Ida and had five losses by a touchdown or less — Willie Fritz and the Tulane players engineered a historic turnaround just a season later, winning the AAC Championship on Saturday with a 45-28 revenge victory over UCF.
The Green Wave’s 11-2 season, avenging their lone conference loss in the title game and beating Big 12 champion Kansas State in Manhattan earlier this year, is tied for the biggest single-season turnaround in FBS history. Fritz & Co., can claim the record outright with a win in the New Year’s Six Cotton Bowl — the program’s best postseason berth in 82 years.
“We had some big plays today,” Fritz said. “It’s a great moment for Tulane University. … I’m going to go drink some beer.”
Cheers up, coach.
It’s been a remarkable week for Tulane, as Fritz turned down Georgia Tech for its head coach opening after contract negotiations hit a snag, and then went on to win its first conference title since 1998. According to The Athletic’s Chris Vannini, Tulane is just the sixth FBS team ever to lose double-digit games and then win double digit games the next season.
For most of the 2022 season, the Green Wave relied on a steady and opportunistic defense (No. 2 in the AAC in yards per play allowed, No. 1 in takeaways), but their offense led the way against Gus Malzahn and the Knights on Saturday (season-high 649 yards), as quarterback Michael Pratt and tailback Tyjaee Spears delivered a Batman and Robin performance.
The junior QB had a career-day with nearly 450 yards of total offense by himself, throwing for 394 yards and four touchdowns and rushing for 48 yards and a score. Meanwhile, Spears chipped in 200 yards rushing on 22 carries.
It was a tennis match affair (mainly due to a couple of ill-timed Tulane fumbles negating scoring opportunities) until Pratt delivered the final ace with a 60-yard touchdown pass with around eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter to ice the game.
Willie Fritz is 62 and may never get a chance at a Power 5 job after not taking the Georgia Tech job earlier this week, but the Bees’ loss just might be the Green Wave’s gain to make even biggest splashes in the future.
“I sure am glad I stayed. I’m glad I made a commitment to these kids,” Fritz said.
“I’m proud to be here.”
Why can’t Tulane be the new power in a new-look AAC in 2023? Could Fritz still accomplish similar P5 goals with a now-expanded playoff in 2024 that includes an at-large bit for the highest ranked conference championships?
Honorable Mention: Sonny Dykes’ Hypnotoad magic ran out this weekend as Chris Klieman’s Wildcats had just enough toughness elixir to overcome another second-half comeback by the Horned Frogs to win the Big 12 Championship in overtime on Saturday.
Kansas State bucked up big-time on the goal line, stopping TCU three-straight times — including a 4th-and-inches HOLD THE LINE play — that led to the revenge win, and a statement from Klieman & Co., about the future of an ever-changing Big 12.
The former FCS North Dakota State powerhouse head coach has turned the Wildcats back into a formidable threat in an uncertain wild, wild, Big 12.
“I’m fortunate to be here,” Klieman said postgame.
“(AD) Gene Taylor took a chance on an FCS coach when not a lot of people would. But he believed in me and us. And coming here I look at these guys that believed in us as a coaching staff when there was a coaching change and stuck with us. And the last couple of years starting in January of 2021, these guys will tell you, our locker room became so close and so tight.
“And I’m telling you that this is about the power of belief and the power of player ownership. When you have those two things, I don’t think anything will stop you.”
Also, shouts to UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor, who continues to build up his resume for a big-time Power 5 job in the years to come after the Roadrunners’ program smarty gave him his first shot at a collegiate job. The former longtime Texas high school coach is now 30-9 in three seasons at UTSA.
With a 48-27 beatdown over North Texas in the C-USA title game on Friday night, the Roadrunners have won two straight league championships and are 17-1 the last two years in conference play. They join the AAC next season.
Quarteravck Frank Harris has been other-worldly for UTSA all season (38 total touchdowns), accounting for five scores and over 400 yards against the Mean Green. Thanks to the COVID-rule, he somehow still has a year of eligibility remaining, too, even though he’s the school-record holder in nearly half a dozen categories.
COACHING CALAMITY OF THE WEEK
It’s not that Lincoln Riley and USC squandered their chance to make the College Football Playoff.
They did, and it’s disappointing for sure, but by halftime of the Pac-12 Championship Game against Utah, it was obvious to any neutral observer that the Trojans’ season was going to end the same way regardless — either Friday night or in the semifinals of the CFP.
In the end, USC’s defense was going to hemorrhage too many big plays for even all of Caleb Williams’ heroics to overcome.
Whether he’s in Norman or Los Angeles, Lincoln Riley’s teams have become college football’s version of the Fast and the Furious franchise.
Fun. Frenzied. But ultimately, foreseen.
It’s the same movie with the same predictable ending, only with a rotating cast of stars and different locations.
That’s a Lincoln Riley team to a T right now.
With the dynamism of Caleb Williams, the Trojans play elite, electric offense. But their defense was borderline bad to terrible all year, and it was going to doom them. The dam was always going to break at some point. It did Friday night, as Williams got hurt, the offense stalled at bit and Alex Grinch’s unit didn’t look like it could even tackle a crash test dummy.
In a 47-24 win for their second-straight Pac-12 title, the Utah Utes gashed USC for 533 yards — including eight plays over 19 yards.
Utah had three touchdowns over 50 yards, including two scores that had more than 30 yards of YAC apiece due to some truly abominable tackling attempts by USC.
The Trojans relied on ridiculous turnover luck all season (+21), and they must coach takeaways > tackling because on both long touchdowns their DBs tried to strip the ball instead of getting the guy to the ground.
On Monday Parks’ 57-yard touchdown on 3rd-and-19, if USC’s safeties simply make the tackle — instead of going for the strip — it’s not even a first down.
But that doesn’t seem to be how they’re coached, and that’s the issue.
“I felt like we were in position (to make plays) a lot tonight. At the end of the game, we panicked a little bit. We got way too focused on trying to strip the ball as opposed to just getting them on the ground,” Riley said.
That’s been a theme all season for USC, not just late in games.
It’s a persistent problem for Lincoln Riley teams. He led Oklahoma to the CFP three times, and all three years, his Sooners’ teams had Heisman Trophy capable quarterbacks (two winners and a finalist), 1st Round receivers and the worst defense in the four-team field.
Sound familiar?
What Riley did this year at USC was phenomenal. He took a 4-8 team to the brink of the CFP in one year. The USC Trojans are cool again.
But they won’t be a championship program again unless Riley makes some dramatic philosophical changes. Perhaps that includes a change at coordinator (Alex Grinch has been with him the last four years — three at OU, one season at USC), but I mean more macro changes.
All those studs he brought in via the transfer portal — almost all of them were on offense. How about prioritizing defensive recruiting, particularly along the defensive line, just as much? How about an added emphasis on fundamentals, physicality and tackling in practice?
That it keeps happening each and every year, at Oklahoma and now at West Coast Oklahoma in 2022, means that it’s not a coincidence.
Whatever Lincoln Riley & Co., are doing needs to change.
“We’re not going to walk around like this is some funeral. We made a lot of progress to get to this point,” Riley.
He’s right, but so is fact that USC is set to enter the Big Ten in 2024, and there’s a whole bunch of Utahs in that conference ready to give his Trojans the business if they can’t figure out how to lose their Fast & Finesse attitude.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HONESTY AWARD
Deion Sanders finished his Jackson State tenure in style, delivering the Tigers a 12-0 season and a SWAC Championship with a 43-24 win over Southern before accepting the head coach opening at Colorado.
Sanders wrapped up his JSU career winning 27 of 32 games, and before departing for Boulder, Primetime told his players — some of whom are likely to join him at Colorado — of the news.
“In coaching, you get elevated or you get terminated. Ain’t no other way,” Sanders said.
“There ain’t no grave for coaches when they die at the place. It don’t work like that. They’re either going run you off or you going to walk off. I’ve chosen to accept the job elsewhere next year.”
THE TAKIN’ CARE OF BUSINESS CUP
Top-ranked Georgia dismantled LSU on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 50-burger on the Tigers in Atlanta.
While the top-ranked Bulldogs’ normally-stiff secondary allowed a bunch of explosive plays in a seesaw second-half, the bigger takeaway was Todd Monken’s offense straight gashing a solid Tigers’ defense.
When Kirby Smart & Co., decide to flip the switch offensively (i.e., not the gameplans against Missouri, Kentucky and Georgia Tech), the Bulldogs are as efficiently effective as any unit in the country.
Their offense is like basketball on grass — with a geometry that challenges defenses vertically, horizontally and straight in the trenches.
Georgia has big guys, quick guys, fast guys, strong guys and a couple white guys. All of them are playmakers. They also have a 6-7, 275-pound MonStar in No. 2 tight end Darnell Washington, who mauls dudes as a blocker and is a punishing receiver, too.
Against LSU on Saturday, Georgia used all its weapons. A lucky 13 different players had at least one touch. UGA rushed for more 250 yards, while Stetson Bennett sliced up the Tigers’ secondary for four touchdowns on 23 of 29 passing.
Kirby Smart is going to spend the next month torching a secondary and DL that played lackadaisical for the last 30 minutes on Saturday, but however the CFP field shakes out, whoever plays Georgia next should be just as concerned with stopping UGA’s explosive offense (No. 7 nationally in yards per play) — which as is as overlooked a unit as any in the country this season.
Think about this for a second: LSU threw for 500 yards, outscored Georgia in the second half and still lost by nearly three touchdowns — never once threatening UGA after a 7-7 tie.
When the Bulldogs decide to put their paws on teams, they maul you. On Saturday, they simply did it a different way than most are accustom.
As for the No. 2 team in the country, Michigan bullied Purdue in the second half en route to a 43-22 win in the Big Ten Championship.
Outside of Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm’s odd obsession with Surrender Cobra field goals in the red zone, the game played out as expected.
Purdue pulled all sorts of trickeration (reverses, a fake punt and crazy fake flea-flicker), but it was never going to be enough, as Wolverines controlled much of the action in Indianapolis and are conference champs for the second-straight season.
There was no Ohio State hangover, with Donovan Edwards rushing for 185 yards, JJ McCarthy tossing three touchdowns and Michigan’s defense hounding Boilermakers quarterback Aidan O’Connell for most of the night (5 sacks, two interceptions, two forced fumbles).
Jim Harbaugh’s team, despite losing No. 2 pick Aidan Hutchinson from last season, is better than the 2021 squad. A year after pressuring Harbaugh into a taking a school-friendly deal, Michigan is 25-2, with a pair of conference championships and two marquee wins over Ohio State.
Harbaugh insists he “hasn’t changed one bit,” but something definitely has in Ann Arbor.
It’s a different program now. With different expectations. And it’s because whatever Harbaugh insists he didn’t do — did happen.
“I’m the same as I was before, am now. I think when you get to this age, you’re not going to change,” he said in his final press conference statement Saturday.
“I point to these two guys (Edwards and McCarthy). I mean, when they came in, they said, Coach, we’re winning the Big Ten Championship. We’re beating Ohio State, and we got it.
I think that combination of not changing, I think the guys appreciated that deep down. You know, having these guys that like football, you know? They like football. They like training. They enjoy each other’s company. I mean, there’s not a day that goes by that either of these two guys have had a bad day.
“I mean, they like to, I’ll speak for them, but I think they like the direction of the program. They like the program. They like the opportunity in the program, and I like them back a lot. I’m proud of them, so proud of them.
“And talking about J.J. and Donovan, but talking about the entire squad. I mean, every guy to a man. So, I’ll probably step out and let you talk to these guys. Otherwise, I’ll get a little emotional (laughing). That okay?”
THE RIBBON FOR WHAT TOOK SO LONG, COACH?
It took 13 games — and two more ugly 3-and-outs to start the ACC Championship — but Dabo Swinney finally made the switch at quarterback and stuck with it.
Clemson benched much-maligned starter DJ Uiagalelei for 5-star freshman Cade Klubnik, and then the Tigers let the kid cook in a 39-10 blowout win.
Swinney maintained that Klubnik was always going to play the third series against North Carolina, but there was no way he was going back to DJ after the freshman connected on his first 10 passes.
By halftime, Klubnick had 150 yards and two total touchdowns, with Swinney telling ABC’s broadcast, “He came in and never went out.”
North Carolina’s defense, especially its secondary, is awful, but it was still a promising performance at a position that’s haunted the Tigers all year. Klubnick played in rhythm, displaying accuracy and mobility as a threat as a passer and runner.
Swinney, who said Klubnick will start the Orange Bowl, refused to second-guess whether he should’ve gone to the freshman on a permanent basis earlier in the season, but he should’ve.
Considering the chaos that happened this weekend, Clemson, a flawed 11-2 — but 11-2 nonetheless, might be in the playoff if Klubnick gets more game action in September or October.
Or even plays at all against South Carolina.
“I got a lot of regrets from the South Carolina game,” Swinney said before immediately contradicting himself and adding, “but not really.
“Things have to happen the way they’re supposed to happen, and tonight, that’s the way it went, and Cade was ready. You got a chance to see what he can do. He played in rhythm, guys made plays for him. He’s really, really fast. He can really make plays with his legs. It was a great night and a glimpse of our future and what it looks like at Clemson.”