“We’ve had a few turnovers in other games, but it’s sweet to finally get in the end zone.”

–Ohio State linebacker Dante Booker, via Tim Bielik, Cleveland.com

By comparison, it took a long time for the Ohio State Buckeyes defense to get their first defensive touchdown of the season. Perhaps it’s because, in 2016, the secondary collectively had three Pick-6’s in the first two games of the season. Or perhaps it seems a long time coming, since defensive tackle Robert Landers appeared to have a fumble return for a touchdown in the team’s opener against Indiana, which was ultimately called back.

While the unit has done a good job of forcing turnovers this season, taking away 12 through six games, including two against Maryland, they hadn’t managed to find the end zone until the first quarter Saturday. Sophomore defensive end Nick Bosa got to Maryland’s Max Bortenschlager for the sack, forcing a fumble by the quarterback. Junior linebacker Jerome Baker did the rest, scooping the ball up and returning it 20 yards for the touchdown.

The defensive touchdown was indicative of the way the unit played as a whole against Maryland. Though formidable against previous opponents, including Rutgers, against whom they pitched a shutout, the defense utterly shut Maryland down in every category Saturday. The secondary emerged in earnest, holding the Terps to just 16 yards passing on three completed passes. Overall, the defense held Maryland to 66 total yards of offense to the Buckeyes’ 584–the fewest yards allowed against a Big Ten opponent since 1960. Five sacks on the day further eroded Maryland’s rushing numbers as the defensive front seven showed their aptitude up front. Moreover, J.T. Barrett, Mike Weber and J.K. Dobbins individually had more rushing yards than the whole of Maryland’s offense. And when it counted, Maryland was not able to convert first downs, going just 1-for-15 on third downs. The Terps had just six first downs on the day to Ohio State’s 33.

“If I’m evaluating this play, I’m telling my on-field officials that this is not targeting, and certainly if it goes to replay, we want to overturn this and keep the player in the game.”

–Dean Blandino, FOX Sports

The 107,000-plus folks at the Horseshoe collectively (vehemently) disagreed with the targeting call made against junior quarterback Denzel Ward in the first quarter against Maryland Saturday. Ward made contact after Maryland receiver Taivon Jacobs turned to run after catching a pass from quarterback Max Bortenschlager. It was certainly a juggernaut of a hit, flipping Jacobs on his back and knocking the ball loose. Ward picked up the ball and began to return the ball for what would have been the Buckeyes’ second defensive touchdown of the game and season, but officials ruled the pass as incomplete, and called targeting on Ward.

The NCAA has an expansive definition and description of targeting, and yet the penalty manages to remain ambiguous. While defined as a player taking “aim at an opponent for the purpose of attacking with forcible contact that goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball,” notes also reference launching, thrusting and leading with the helmet, shoulder forearm, fist, hand or elbow. This definition, naturally, expands beyond helmet-to-helmet contact specifically when there is a dangerous hit to a player’s head.

All targeting fouls go to the booth for review. If enforced, the offending player is ejected and that player’s team charged a 15-yard penalty. If overturned, there are no such consequences. Ward’s call managed to be called on the field and upheld in review, which indicated that some part of the hit met some component of the NCAA’s definition of targeting. Even so, rules analyst Dean Blandino did not think that Ward’s tackle met the mark for the penalty, given that he led with his shoulder into the receiver’s upper chest.

Fans can appreciate the need to make the game safer for players, but in order for the targeting rule to effectively contribute to that effort, it needs to be enforced consistently.

“I don’t fumble that much so it kind of got to me a little bit. I knew I had to make up for it for my teammates.”

–Ohio State running back J.K. Dobbins, via Ryan McGlade, Buckeye Sports

It is expected that freshmen will make mistakes, which is why it is a rare thing to see a true freshman earning serious playing time as a starter. For any other freshman, perhaps, it would not be shocking to commit a turnover. For true freshman running back J.K. Dobbins, however, that sort of mistake is utterly out of character.

After fumbling in the second quarter Saturday, Dobbins estimated that he had only ever lost the ball a handful of times his entire playing career, dating back to peewee football.

In many ways, it’s lucky that Dobbins saw the field at all again after his turnover versus Maryland. Urban Meyer is not one to forgive and forget such on-field atrocities so quickly, often sitting players for the remainder of the game after coughing the ball up. While sophomore running back Mike Weber took the next series, Dobbins was back in before the end of the half, and eventually ran in a three-yard touchdown in the third quarter. At the end of the day, Dobbins finished with a team-high 96 yards rushing.

Weber himself ended the day with 59 rushing yards and a touchdown of his own. Sophomore Antonio Williams also got in on the action, racking up 22 yards and yet another touchdown. With such wealth at running back (and that’s not including Demario McCall, who has been steadily recovering from a groin injury) and a massive lead, Meyer could have kept Dobbins on the bench for the rest of the day without any adverse effects for the rest of the team.

Instead, Dobbins showed that he would make up for his mistakes as quickly as he could. “I know Coach Meyer has a lot of trust in me so I kind of let him down with that fumble,” said the freshman. “But I made sure I would make up for it.”

STICK TO SPORTS

Tennessee released their two deep depth chart for this week’s game against South Carolina. Quinten Dormady is still listed as the starter at quarterback, although Butch Jones didn’t name a starter at his press conference today. He said that Dormady and Jarrett Guarantano will continue to compete throughout the week, which does seem like some sort of development.

Here’s a look at the full chart.

Brett Kendrick stays at left guard for now. Kyle Phillips is listed as the starter with Darrell Taylor suspended indefinitely. DeAndre Johnson and Matthew Butler are listed as the reserves at defensive end.

Cheyenne Labruzza has moved from cornerback to free safety with Eric Berry and Todd Kelly Jr. dealing with injuries. Shaq Wiggins is still listed as a second teamer despite his recent uptick in playing time.

Everything else looks about the same. Butch Jones mentioned that all starting positions were open following the 41-0 loss to Georgia, but it doesn’t appear much has changed — yet. We’ll see what happens on Saturday against South Carolina.

Gary Anderson is out as head coach of the Oregon State Beavers (1-5, 0-3 Pac-12), effective Monday per an announcement by the university. A decision that may have been brewing for quite some time arrived after the Beavers were dropped 38-10 by No. 14 USC, the fourteenth road loss in-a-row during Andersen’s tenure.

Assistant Cory Hall was named the interim coach replacing Andersen, who led OSU to a 7-23 overall record since taking over at the start of the 2015 season. Hall has been with the Beavers program since 2016 as a defensive back coach with stints at Weber State, Wisconsin, Clovis North HS (Fresno, CA) and Washington State going back to 2006.

The Colorado Buffaloes hit the road to face Oregon State this weekend (2 p.m. MT/ TV: Pac-12 Network). CU is looking to make it three straight wins over the Beavers after dominating last year’s game at Folsom Field, 47-6. The 41-point win is the largest margin of victory for the Buffs over a conference opponent in the past decade.

Well… here we go.

I’m still in a very bad mood after Saturday, and I’m not alone. I fully expected the Oklahoma Sooners to just take care of business against the Iowa State Cyclones. I expected to continue to feel good about Oklahoma’s chances at a title despite the defense’s flaws. I expected to be excited about my trip to Dallas. Above all, I expected to be excited for a trip to Dallas for OU-Texas weekend. But sometimes life throws you a curveball. Sometimes college football makes you feel like crap.

Anyway, enough with the moping. I’m going to try to be positive about things in the lead-up to one of the greatest rivalry games in all of sports. I’m going to try to not let Mike Stoops ruin my week for seemingly the 50th time.

Here are my Big 12 Power Rankings through Week 6:

1. TCU (5-0, 2-0) – Not much to debate here. The Horned Frogs didn’t look perfect against WVU, but I’m still of the opinion that the Mountaineers are pretty damn good. TCU’s pass defense isn’t exceptional, but there isn’t a pass defense in the league that is, and the Frogs excel at pretty much everything else.
2. Oklahoma State (4-1, 1-1) – Is Oklahoma State actually better than Oklahoma? They both have significant defensive issues, but the nature of said issues seems to differ. Oklahoma State’s defense probably isn’t as talented as OU’s, but I’d take Glenn Spencer over Mike Stoops at this point. I’ll flip OU and OSU if the Sooners beat Texas, but OU needs to show me something first. Is OU’s offense better than Oklahoma State’s as a whole? Baker Mayfield and the OU offensive line are still great, but the losses of CeeDee Lamb and Abdul Adams made the Sooners waaaaay less effective on Saturday. If they’re out against Texas, the Sooners are in trouble. I’ll flip these two teams in next week’s rankings if OU beats Texas, but they have to show me something first.
3. Oklahoma (4-1, 1-1) – I don’t like the chances of OU’s defense righting the ship in 2017, which is unfortunate considering the fact that there’s more talent on that side of the ball than there was in 2016. This team could end the regular season with an 11-1 record, win the Big 12 and make the CFP, or they could finish 8-4 and end up in San Antonio or Orlando.
4. West Virginia (3-2, 1-1) – The Mountaineers were very close to beating TCU in Ft. Worth last weekend, and out-gained the Frogs by over 100 yards in the process. OU hasn’t lost to WVU since they joined the Big 12, but it could definitely happen this season if they can’t right the ship. They host Texas Tech this week for what will probably be a pretty damn good football game.
5. Texas (3-2, 2-0) – Sam Ehlinger looks looks like he’ll be a problem for Big 12 defenses for years to come. The defense looks alright, too. Is Texas back? Not yet, but we’ll see what happens this weekend.
6. Texas Tech (4-1, 1-1) – Texas Tech’s defense looks better than Oklahoma’s. That’s just sad.
7. Iowa State (3-2, 1-1) – Iowa State’s backup quarterbacks took home Big 12 Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors this week. That’s also just sad.
8. Kansas State (3-2, 1-1) – The Wildcats probably shouldn’t fall this far just for losing at Texas in overtime, but here they are anyway. If they beat TCU in Manhattan this week (which could definitely happen), they’ll be back in the top half and the Big 12 will be a bigger mess than it already is.
9. Baylor (0-5, 0-2) – I usually root for any team that plays OSU, but not this week. I hope Baylor finishes 0-12.
10. Kansas (1-4, 0-2) – This team will prevent Baylor from going 0-12.

Week 7 Big 12 Schedule

Kansas at Iowa State – 11 a.m. CT (Fox Sports Net)

Texas Tech at West Virginia – 11 a.m. CT (ESPNU)

TCU at Kansas State – 11 a.m. CT (FS1)

Baylor at Oklahoma State – 2:30 p.m. CT (FS1)

Oklahoma vs. Texas (Dallas) – 2:30 p.m. CT (ESPN)

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The start of the 2017 season for the Texas Longhorns has featured the tale of two Josh Rowlands.

The junior college transfer who quickly won the starting place-kicking job this spring has been Bad Josh Rowland in games, hitting on only 4-of-9 attempts and missing a 27-yard field goal against Kansas State and a 45-yarder that would have won the game at the end of regulation.

Known only as “The Kicker” to head coach Tom Herman, Rowland has also been Good Josh Rowland in practice.

“The hard part with the kicker is if you or if my grandma was at practice, she could tell you who the starting kicker should be because the kid had that good of a fall camp,” Herman said in September. “So we’ve got to figure out a way for him to translate how well he did in fall camp to game day.”

Herman still hasn’t figured it out, but Sunday was more of the same — according to the head coach, Rowland hit all 15 of his attempts, including six from more than 50 yards.

And so Herman is still saying the same thing now that he’s been saying for weeks.

“We’ve got to figure out why we’re inconsistent in games but so dead-on in practice,” he said.

The team will try to simulate a game-like environment this week by having Rowland kick while surrounded by screaming teammates, but as Herman noted, there’s no replacement for kicking in front of 100,000 fans.

Even with all the misses, Herman isn’t ready to give up on the kicker that he personally recruited out of Mississippi Gulf Coast CC shortly after arriving in Austin. However, the Texas head coach knows that continued struggles could well cost the ‘Horns a critical game this season.

Nationally, Texas ranks No. 118 in the country in hitting only 44.4 percent on field goals.

The back-up kicker is senior Mitchell Becker, who was largely a kickoff specialist last season, but did hit both of his attempts against TCU. The longest of those was only 31 yards, but Rowland is shaky even at that distance right now.

Based on Rowland’s body language, his confidence in games is at a low ebb right now and unless that changes quickly, the ‘Horns will have to give the fifth-year senior a chance.

“We’ve got to change something on game day,” Herman said. “But for now we’ve got to exhaust all available avenues to prepare him for that moment. If we’re out of ideas and out of avenues, then we’ll have to make a change at some point. But right now we have to trust that we can get him better and more prepared for those moments.”

Florida State is 1-3 on the season for the first time since 1976. FSU’s tangible goals are no longer obtainable but there’s seven confirmed weeks left in the season and plenty of pride to play for. The last time these two teams met was in the 2013 ACC Championship game which Florida State won 45-7.

Normally this would be a look-ahead game with Louisville on deck but this FSU team can’t afford to overlook anyone left on its schedule as it will be a fight to get to bowl eligibility.

The status of injured wide receiver Keith Gavin remains in question but for the most part FSU is just as healthy for the Duke game as it was for the Miami game. Jimbo Fisher’s teams have not fared well outside of Florida and following an emotional loss to Miami one has to wonder about the psychological morale of this team.

Looking at Duke, they have some issues of their own as they’re 116th in the country averaging 4.4 yards per play on offense but the defense has been adequate allowing 4.9 yards per play good for 32nd in the country.

Another week and the “Curse of Number 3” befell the Oklahoma Sooners. Hosting the supposedly lifeless Iowa State Cyclones, who were down their starting quarterback Jacob Park, due to undisclosed personal health issue, the Cyclones upset the Sooners in Norman 38-31. The Sooners, who were the darlings of the Big 12 after their upset win over the Ohio State Buckeyes, jumped out early but failed to put away the pesky ‘clones. As a result, the Sooners fell the now “standard” 9 spots from #3 to #12.

The other top ten team to lose this week was the Jim Harbaugh-led Michigan Wolverines who lost their eighth game to “little brother” Michigan State Spartans. Mark Dantonio continues to be underrated as a head coach and gets less credit despite being 94-43 as a head coach at MSU. The Spartans enter the rankings this week at 21, four spots behind Michigan even though the Spartans now own a road victory over the Wolverines. Voters, I tell you what.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, whose victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels jumped 5 spots into the top 20. The Tar Heels, who fell to 1-5, managed just 265 yards against the Irish. Notre Dame had two rushers, Deon McIntosh and Josh Adams, both break 100 yards on 12 and 13 carries respectively.

Over in the Coaches Poll, the Stanford Cardinals, who have two losses to ranked teams, re-enter the polls this week after taking down #18 Utah Utes in Salt Lake City. Utah dropped five spots to #23 this week after the home loss to unranked Stanford.

The Louisville Cardinals dropped out of the polls after their Thursday night loss to NC State Wolfpack. The Cardinals, behind reigning Heisman winner Lamar Jackson continue to be dangerous on offense but fail to give Jackson any real defense to go along with his exploits. As a result, Jackson remains one of the most electrifying players in college football but his teams record is likely pushing him out of contention for the 2017 Heisman.

The Florida Gators once again resemble a high school offense, managing barely 300 yards against the LSU Tigers. The Gators, who seemed to find themselves against Vanderbilt last week, didn’t show up against LSU and lost 17-16 in The Swamp. Florida joins West Virginia and Louisville outside the polls.

On Sunday evening, huge news broke as the University of Miami announced RB Mark Walton would have ankle surgery. Head Coach Mark Richt told journalists on his weekly conference call that Walton’s injury is season-ending.

This is huge news for Miami. Depth was already thin at RB, and Walton was the most indispensable player on the roster. Now that he’s gone, Miami will have to reshuffle things at the RB position.

A lightly used sophomore from West Palm Beach, FL, Homer is now the man at RB for the Canes. A 4-star recruit from Oxbridge Academy in the 2016 recruiting class, Homer has good size at 5’11” 195bs, and runs like a man bigger than that size.

As a recruit, Homer showed good all-around skills, along with toughness and speed. He broke Oxbridge academy records in his time there, and scored several touchdowns longer than 80 yards in his senior season.

In his time at Miami, Homer has been lower on the depth chart. He was 4th string as a freshman, but the backup this year, although Walton still received the majority of snaps and carries. To this point of his collegiate career, Homer has 32 carries for 256 yards and 3 TDs. The vast majority of those numbers have come this season, as Homer only had 7 carries for 44 yards as a freshman in 2016.

It will be interesting to see how Mark Richt tweaks the offense with Homer as the starting RB as opposed to Walton. But, rest assured that Homer has the athleticism, talent, and skill to be a good RB for Miami as the Canes move through the rest of their schedule.

If you simply move everybody else up the depth chart, that means redshirt junior Trayone Gray and true freshman Robert Burns are you new back up and 3rd string RBs, respectively. Gray has talent, but has been inconsistent in his Miami career. Burns was a breakout star as a sophomore in HS both on the field and camp circuit, but spent much of the last 2 years of his HS career, and the beginning of his college career, injured.

Even though he’s a bigger back at 6’2” 235lbs, Gray’s main asset is his speed. If he gets a crease, he’s gone. Coaches from the previous staff and current have been working with Gray to get him to be consistent in his technique, particularly relative to lowering his pads on runs and pass protection. The time has come to see if those adjustments have been made.

For Burns, he’s unproven but very talented, and all potential. He had the highest SPARQ athleticism score EVER (has been since broken) at a Nike Training Camp after his sophomore year. That would have to be the highlight of his career to this point. He was injured for most of his last 2 years in HS, ending with only 9 carries for 53 yards and 1 kickoff return for a 95 yard TD as a senior. He’s been very injury prone, which is obviously not a good thing considering Miami’s lack of depth at RB, and hasn’t played yet this season. It seems, however, that it’s time to remove Burns’ redshirt and see if the kid can translate that potential into production.

The wildcard here is true freshman DeeJay Dallas. A multifaceted athlete, Dallas played option QB (but threw some), RB, WR, DB, KR and PR in high school at Glynn Academy in Brunswick, GA. The 4-star recruit was heavily pursued by many schools, including Alabama, but chose Miami early in the process and stuck with the Canes. There was much debate about which position Dallas might play when he enrolled at Miami in January, but the coaching staff quickly decided to put him at Wide Receiver and leave him there, even in the face of limited depth at DB and RB, the other positions Dallas could have most likely played.

With Walton gone and depth very thin, Dallas could join the RB position, at least on a part-time basis, to add depth and talent. Obviously, he’s never played there in college, but he’s only a freshman so it’s not like he’s very far removed from playing there, which he did in HS.

This is on Mark Richt and not the players, but I’m interested to see what changes, if any, are made to the offense? Mark Walton is a great running back, but speed is not his best asset. With Homer, Gray, and Dallas all having more speed at the RB position now, what will CMR do to get those guys in the open field?

Additionally, how will Richt update the passing game? I have faith in Homer and the rest of the players named to be a solid running game, but with a wide variety of top talent at WR/TE, maybe Miami looks to the passing game just a bit more to open up the run.

Lastly, someone tweeted me saying that Jeff Thomas or Mike Harley, Miami’s fastest offensive skill players, could get involved in jet sweeps, reverses, or other offensive plays (one guy even asked if Thomas could be Miami’s version of Tavon Austin). I think those are possible, but it’s up to Richt to update the playbook to add that level of creativity. I don’t think that’s going to happen — we’ve seen what a Mark Richt offense looks like — but if it did, I think that would offer more assistance to the run game, which could need it now that Walton is gone.

Those are my quick thoughts on where Miami now stands at RB. I know you have thoughts too, and I can’t wait to hear them in the comments below.

Florida State is hoping to put together perhaps the best secondary class in the country and it just got even better as Houston Griffith, A 6’1 195 lb elite corner-back/safety out of IMG Academy in Brandenton, Florida has committed to the Seminoles.

Griffith is the 61st ranked recruit in the country, tenth at his position, and 12th within the state of Florida in the 247 Composite Rankings. Griffith is good friends with center commit, Verdis Brown, as both transferred from Mount Carmel High School in Chicago to IMG Academy and they’ll continue their careers together in Garnet and Gold.

Griffith committed to FSU over offers from Ohio State, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Penn State, Alabama, and many others.

Houston Griffith is ranked nationally as a corner-back but will likely play safety at FSU. On tape he is very physical; he could become an athletic safety with superior range in the mold of former FSU All-American Terrence Brooks.

He is at his best up in a wide receiver’s face when lined up at corner and when playing in the box he handles congestion well sticking his nose in there to play the run.

He shows the ability to track the ball well in the air and has good route awareness breaking on short passes in front of him from a distance. He could play corner-back in a pinch but he’ll make his money as a free safety; check out his junior highlights here.

Griffith is the second highest-rated recruit in FSU’s seventh-ranked class which now has nine four-star recruits and ten three-star recruits (two of which are on the cusp of four-star status) FSU’s class ranks second in the ACC just behind Miami and seventh in the nation just ahead of Florida.

On Sunday evening, the University of Miami announced that star RB Mark Walton would have surgery. Here is the press release from Miami Athletics

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami football program announced Sunday that junior running back Mark Walton sustained a right ankle injury in the Hurricanes’ 24-20 win at Florida State Saturday, and will undergo surgery.

The surgery will be performed at the UHealth Sports Medicine Institute at The Lennar Foundation Medical Center.

A timetable for Walton’s return has not been determined.

Walton has rushed for 428 yards and three touchdowns in four games this season, ranking third in the Atlantic Coast Conference with 107 rushing yards per game.

UPDATE: on his weekly conference call, Mark Richt said Walton’s injury will be “season-ending”

This is a HUGE loss for Miami. Not only is the depth at RB limited, but Mark Walton is the best player at that position for Miami. His ability to run and catch the ball has been featured on the Canes’ offense this season.

Having had a major ankle injury before, I sympathize with Walton. While a timetable has not been announced for his potential return, I hope he is able to come back this season.

Walton is the 2nd Miami RB to be injured and need surgery after playing Florida State in recent years. Former Canes RB Duke Johnson broke his leg and needed surgery following the Canes’ game at Florida State in 2013.

We wish Mark Walton the best in his upcoming surgery and the associated recovery.

More on this in the coming days.