On Homecoming night, a native son of Louisiana lived the dream.

At the end of Saturday’s beatdown of Missouri, I saw the most perfect moment I have ever witnessed in Death Valley.

I don’t have any photos or videos of it. There was video of it from a different angle shot from field level, but it was missing what made it so special in the first place.

As a personal tradition, my friends and I always stay to sing the alma mater with the band. Not the abridged alma mater they play for the players, but the actual from the heart version that is sung without the aid of instruments. In between playing the watered down version and singing the final version, the band plays Let Us Break Bread Together, an old gospel hymnal. It’s a somber, beautiful song that slowly builds to a crescendo that is pierced by a lone trumpet.

On the field, Ed Orgeron was just fishing with his interview requests and saying hello to recruits, things a coach generally does after a home game. As he jogged off the field at the exact moment the song reached his apex, Orgeron thrust his arms in the air and jogged out of sight into the tunnel. It was an ending lifted from The Breakfast Club, only somehow made better by timing and raw emotion. We’re kind of force fed those kind of moments by movies to the point that most of us roll our eyes when it happens on screen, but when something like that happens in real life, we usually don’t know how to react to it.

When Les Miles was fired, college football mourned one of their single most favorite people inside the sport. Les was wild, unpredictable, and uncanny while being reserved and soft, if not out, spoken. Many feared that college football was made significantly less fun and interesting in the loss of somebody wholly unique.

It’s almost as if they didn’t see who the interim head coach was.

Ed Orgeron is a caricature of what people outside of Louisiana think cajun people are like but more than anything else, it’s a correct depiction. He has a deep, raspy voice and calls his own son “T-Boy.” I’ve heard stories of him not knowing how to program the GPS in his truck and calling staffers whose name he forgets “young man”. Coming out of South Lafourche High School, Orgeron had committed to play football at LSU, but had left after a year to head to Northwestern. He has since expressed regret over the decision.

Orgeron’s coaching career began immediately after his playing career and he quickly rose through the ranks. Miami was his first sustained stop, his first job coaching defensive line. Orgeron was also troubled at the time: he had a restraining order filed against him, and he was involved in a bar fight in Baton Rouge. He took a year off of coaching to focus on his personal life, something that was possibly for the best.

Coach O quickly moved up the ranks once again, landing an assistant head coach job at USC by 2003 after being there since 1998. In 2005, Coach O caught his big break: Ole Miss.

It was a disaster. Coaching at his original school’s rival, Orgeron went 10-25 from 2005-2007, including Ole Miss’ only season without a conference win. He was fired on the spot after blowing a late lead against arch rivals Mississippi State. Coach O’s prowess as a recruiter simply did not translate into success on the field. Once again, Orgeron had fallen from grace.

He took a job in New Orleans working for the Saints before joining former USC colleague Lane Kiffin at Tennessee. When Lane left for USC, so did Orgeron. When Lane was left on the tarmac, Orgeron was handed the reigns for the rest of the season.

In his second stint as head coach, he did the impossible: make the nation of college football root for USC. During his time as interim, Orgeron did nothing the same as he did at Ole Miss. He was less fiery and demanding, instead treating the players like they were his sons, and the players responded. Instead of having a hand in everything, O trusted his position coaches to do their job and move forward as a unit. USC went 6-2 the rest of the way and save for one game against rivals UCLA, were noticeably better.

But it wasn’t good enough. USC passed over Ed Orgeron in favor of Steve Sarkisian. O had turned USC’s season around and was able to rally the team into a unit, and had received nothing for it.

Orgeron resigned from USC and took a year off before coming back home to LSU. We all know the story from there. He was announced on January 15th, 2015 and was named interim head coach on September 26th, 2016. His first game as head coach for LSU, if only interim, was a systematic beatdown of Missouri, and the fact that it was on homecoming made it even sweeter.

But it wasn’t the end. There was no freeze frame ending, no fade to black, no title card shown on screen. The story rages on. Orgeron in all likelihood has already put this game behind him and is looking ahead to Florida. It was just the wayward son coming home once to the family that understands and loves him for who he is. Moving forward, he will be LSU’s head coach for the next two months and anything outside of that is pure speculation. But he will always have that moment of him running into the tunnel victorious, drenched in Gatorade, with his arms held high in the air as the Golden Band From Tigerland played a gospel hymnal. We’ll all have that moment.

What do the Wildcats face when trying to take down the Utes again?

After another frustrating loss to the UCLA Bruins, the Arizona Wildcats will head to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Utes. The Utes are coming off a tough loss of their own against Cal in Berkeley. This is a pivotal game for both teams as the Pac-12 South race heats up.

Utah will enter this contest ranked 24th in both polls, and opened as nine-point favorites in Vegas. Here’s a quick look at the Utes so far this year:

2016 Record – 4-1 (1-1)

Key Games – Week two win versus BYU 20-19, Week four win versus USC 31-27, Week five loss at Cal 23-28

Key Offensive Players – Troy Williams (QB), Zack Moss (RB), Tim Patrick (WR), J.J. Dielman (Center), Andy Phillips (PK)

Key Defensive Players – Lowell Lotulelei (DT), Dominique Hatfield (CB), Reginald Porter (CB), Pita Taumoepenu (DE)

Last year, Utah was a bit of a surprise with their 10-win season. They won their first six games and climbed as high as third in the rankings. The second half of their season was a much different story, though. After that 6-0 mark, they finished the season 4-3 including their win over BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl.

This season, they are again one of the more surprising stories in the conference. They lost an incredible amount of offensive production in Travis Wilson (QB), Devontae Booker (RB), Kenneth Scott (WR) and Bubba Poole (WR). Also, standout freshman Britain Covey (WR) has temporarily left the team while he completes his LDS Mission.

Coach Kyle Whittingham likes to dominate the line of scrimmage and establish the running game. Booker and Wilson combined for 1,751 yards on the ground last season, which was good for more than 73 percent of their rushing yards.

The passing game relied heavily on Covey, Scott, Booker and Poole. These four combined for 143 receptions and 1,439 yards, which accounted for nearly 64 and 62 percent of the team’s respective totals!

So you’re probably asking yourself, “How in the world are they 4-1?” There are theories such as a soft non-conference schedule and a down year for the Pac-12. These may be valid, but I think the biggest reason is quarterback Troy Williams.

Williams is a former Washington Husky and transferred to Utah from Santa Monica College. He is a legitimate dual-threat, which fits right in with the conference. Through the first five games of the season, the Utes have a combined total of 2,153 passing and rushing yards, and he has accounted for more than two-thirds of it.

It appears there is a more balanced approach to the offensive scheme as Utah has opted to pass 169 times versus 217 rushes. The 2015 Utes were more run-heavy, running the ball approximately 62 percent of the time as opposed to 56 percent this season.

Another advantage for Utah is Whittingham will almost always put stout defensive linemen on the field. As I mentioned earlier, he loves to dominate the line of scrimmage, which applies to both sides of the ball. He is doing it again this year with players like Lowell Lotulelei, Pita Taumoepenu and Filipo Mokofisi. Their scoring defense is ranked 20^th in the country with 18.2 points allowed per game.

Lotulelei is nursing a shoulder injury that was suffered during the USC game. His availability against UA is undetermined but it’s safe to say Whittingham has solid backups ready in the wings.

The Utes haven’t had much luck against Rich Rodriguez-coached UA teams as they’re 0-4. Arizona will be playing as Utah’s homecoming opponent, so the stadium energy should be extra high. However, this is a winnable game for the Wildcats. We’ll see how the backfield situation shakes out during the week but definitely winnable as Whittingham usually has a tough time defending Rodriguez’s scheme.

Saturday’s game is set to kick off at 7 PM PT on Fox Sports 1.

Winning out over the SEC programs was always going to be a difficult task for the Longhorns.

A weekend official visit to Tuscaloosa resulted in the Sunday commitment of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy product Dylan Moses to the Alabama Crimson Tide over the Texas Longhorns, LSU Tigers, and numerous others, the nation’s No. 1 outside linebacker announced via Twitter:

As with most commitment to head coach Nick Saban, this one would likely be final even if Moses did plan on taking other visits, like his planned official to Austin on October 15 for the Iowa State game.

Once the leader for the 6’3, 235-pounder, Texas reached such an advantageous position due to strong relationships between Moses and sophomore linebacker Malik Jefferson and head coach Charlie Strong.

But even though the termination of LSU head coach Les Miles was favorable for Texas, competing against Saban and reigning national champion Alabama was always going to be difficult for the Longhorns.

After all, even though the Crimson Tide recruiting class is quickly reaching its capacity, the nation’s consensus No. 4 prospect had a spot held regardless of overall numbers.

Now the focus for Strong and linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary will turn more firmly to in-state prospects, especially consensus five-star Kennedale linebacker Baron Browning, as well as Plano East linebacker Anthony Hines and perhaps even Dallas Kimball linebacker Devodrick Johnson.

The Longhorns head coach will have to achieve success in those recruitments by achieving success on the field — the win over the Fighting Irish to start the season helped with Browning and Hines, but with Strong’s job now on the line following two losses, Texas will miss out on those top linebackers and perhaps fire its head coach without getting some more victories in the near future.

Good losses matter, as evidenced by the relatively light drops for both Louisville and Wisconsin this week.

Here’s your full AP top 25 heading into week six:

1 Alabama(53) 5-0 1514 —
2 Ohio State(6) 4-0 1451 —
3 Clemson(1) 5-0 1403 2
4 Michigan(1) 5-0 1334 —
5 Washington 5-0 1234 5
6 Houston 5-0 1233 —
7 Louisville 4-1 1160 4
8 Texas A&M 5-0 1113 1
9 Tennessee 5-0 1045 2
10 Miami 4-0 909 4
11 Wisconsin 4-1 882 3
12 Nebraska 5-0 821 3
13 Baylor 5-0 805 —
14 Ole Miss 3-2 712 2
15 Stanford 3-1 711 8
16 Arkansas 4-1 528 4
17 North Carolina 4-1 497 NR
18 Florida 4-1 391 5
19 Boise State 4-0 385 5
20 Oklahoma 2-2 324 NR
21 Colorado 4-1 276 NR
22 West Virginia 4-0 240 NR
23 Florida State 3-2 230 11
24 Utah 4-1 86 6
25 Virginia Tech 3-1 85 NR

Dropped from rankings: Michigan State 17, San Diego State 19, TCU 21, Texas 22, Georgia 25

Others receiving votes: Western Michigan 76, UCLA 56, LSU 49, North Dakota State 46, Auburn 46, Georgia 42, Oklahoma State 41, TCU 26, Maryland 23, Air Force 17, San Diego State 10, Michigan State 7, South Florida 6, Arizona State 4, California 3, Indiana 3, Texas 1

The Cards slipped an extra spot to No. 8 in the coaches’ poll.

Advanced scouting helped the Pokes discover a weaknesss in the place-kicking unit of the ‘Horns.

In the first half of the 49-31 loss by the Texas Longhorns to the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Saturday in Stillwater, the Cowboys were able to tie a school record by blocking three point-after attempts by the Longhorns.

In fact, all of those blocks came in the first half, on three consecutive tries.

‘‘It was happening with the guards over loading it,’’ said head coach Charlie Strong during his post-game press conference.

‘‘They were pressing one side of it and coming through. What we needed to do was get all the way to the second guy…the first guy was pinning the guard and the second guy was running through. He was stepping right over the center.’’

NCAA rules prevent three players standing shoulder to shoulder targeting a blocker on point-after attempts and also prevent contact on the deep snapper for one second after the snap.

As Strong described, Oklahoma State defensive tackle Vincent Taylor was sliding past Holbrook and into the backfield (highlighted with the long arrow below).

This rule is rather difficult to interpret and enforce — if the officials rule that the player coming through the A gap makes contact with the deep snapper before one second expires, it’s a penalty. However, if the deep snapper makes contact with the defensive player first, then the one-second window doesn’t apply.

So by creating space with one defender getting push against the guard, Taylor then shot through the gap and forced Holbrook to attempt to block him. That’s one interpretation at least.

One might also argue that Taylor wasn’t able to fully avoid Holbrook when he was still in his stance from the snap, but it’s difficult to tell who initiated the contact because deep snapper Jak Holbrook does appear to attempt to block Taylor going past him.

Oklahoma State essentially put the officials in the position of deciding whether or not Taylor made contact first and the ruling did not go in favor of Texas.

‘‘How we’re schemed up, the center is just a small guy, he’s not a big enough guy where he can snap and then raise up,’’ Strong said.

The first-year deep snapper this season is Holbrook, a third-year sophomore from McCaullum who is at 5’10 and 204 pounds. Now listed as 30 pounds heavier than he was in high school, Holbrook is still small for a college deep snapper.

By comparison, the 2015 deep snapper, Kyle Ashby, was listed at 234 pounds last season, in addition to having two inches in height on Holbrook.

Ashby was consistent enough to earn a scholarship from Texas prior to the 2015 season, but he opted not to return for his senior season for unknown reasons. Perhaps he was a scholarship casualty since the ‘Horns added the four former Baylor signees during the summer, similar to what happened with place-kicker Trent Domingue at LSU.

In any case, Holbrook is now the starter, but the staff does have another option at the position — freshman Michael David Poujoul, who is listed at 6’3, 215.

An Offense-Defense All-American in the 2015 class, Poujoul was also rated as the No. 6 long snapper in the country, but he recently joined the team and doesn’t have the experience of Holbrook.

And his extra reach and 10 pounds of mass on Holbrook might not have been enough to stop Oklahoma State defensive tackle Vincent Taylor.

‘‘That can be corrected,” Strong said. “When we missed the field go it was more penetration but it was just a miss. We can get that corrected.’’

On the block by Taylor, the Texas place-kicking unit had an opportunity to tackle Taylor, but he returned to favor to his point guard growing up playing basketball, safety Tre Flowers, and was able to connect on an option-style pitch after making eye contact with his longtime friend.

The fact that the two have played sports together for so long and could effectively communicate and execute that play was some bad luck for the Longhorns.

The second block appeared to feature a confusion in blocking assignments — the Oklahoma State defensive tackles lined up over the right guard on this play and sophomore Patrick Vahe appeared to try to help the left guard with the opponent lined up over Holbrook. When that happened, the Cowboys player lined up over Vahe was able to slip past to record the second blocked point-after attempt.

On the third failed point-after attempt for Texas, Vahe wasn’t able to get a quick block on Taylor, who may have committed a penalty on this particular play by making contact with Holbrook immediately after the snap, even though the Longhorns deep snapper appeared to remain in his stance and did not appear to initiate contact.

Whatever other adjustments the ‘Horns make to the place-kicking unit this week, sending the first and third blocks to the Big 12 office for review and comment would at least alert officials to pay more close attention next week in the Cotton Bowl if the Sooners attempt similar tactics.

Otherwise, Strong and his staff will have to decide whether making personnel changes to insert the larger Poujoul gives Texas the best chance of avoiding more blocked point-after attempts or whether an emphasis on the backside guard giving better help to the deep snapper will solve the problem.

However the Texas coaches decide to fix the issue, the in-game solutions weren’t adequate and cost the ‘Horns five points, with Caleb Bluiett’s saving shove out of bounds on the return of the third block keeping that count from hitting seven points.

Given the continued issues on special teams, allowing three blocked point-after attempts in one half to a better-prepared opponent and failing to properly adjust and execute speaks poorly of this Texas team — both the coaches and the players.

After allowing another blocked point-after attempt and two-point return against Notre Dame, this has now happened too many times this season.

If the coaches and players can’t get this right moving forward, there’s no question about who will receive the blame for it and be held accountable as a result.

And deservedly so.

A win against South Carolina has the Cats trending upward in a big way.

No, you didn’t stumble over an article that was written in early August. It’s late September, the Kentucky Wildcats are 2-2, and ESPN has them going bowling.

ESPN’s Brett McMurphy updated his bowl projections after Week 4, and believe it or not, the Cats made the list.

McMurphy has Kentucky taking on Wake Forest in the Camping World Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana, which would take place December 26.

I’m thrilled that Kentucky has worked back to 2-2 and has gained a little respect among national media, but I’m not ready to throw them back into bowl projections yet. The loss to Southern Miss is still embarrassing and the defense has to show that Week 4 wasn’t a fluke.

The coming weeks will tell a lot, and we’ll see Kentucky in a must-win game in two weeks against Vanderbilt that will go a long way in determining whether McMurphy is right or not.

Nonetheless, I am at least a little bit excited that Kentucky football is trending upward for now.

The 4-0 No. 18 ranked Utes are taking on the 2-2 Cal Bears on Saturday at 4 pm at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, so the boys in Vegas have their line out for the game, and the Utes are a one point underdog. This will be the first time the Utes have been an underdog all season, after being a 3 point favorite last week over USC in Rice-Eccles Stadium.

It’s generally thought that the home team should get about 3 points, just for being at home, so Vegas thinks this game is really a pick ‘em, and may even favor the Utes just a bit. I’m yet to see any over/under yet, which will be interesting since Cal comes into the game with one of the best offenses in the Pac-12, and Utah is coming in with one of the best defenses.

Cal hasn’t shown much ability to play defense this season (or in general under Sonny Dykes), as their 2 wins are against Hawaii and Texas (in a shootout), and they’ve lost to SDSU and ASU (another shootout).

What are your thoughts on the line?

Utah’s “Blackout” uniform with the new designer hand painted black helmets against USC were named the Uniform of the Week by Uniform Authority.

The new helmets, which you can read about the in depth here including the press release from the university, were all individually hand painted and given individual serial numbers, a project that took months to complete from design to painting to the team finally receiving them. The helmets were made possible due to a donation from Dave and Julie Layton of Layton Construction.

I have always been a fan of annual Blackout game. The transition from red helmets to black helmets was a welcome addition in 2012. Utah then introduced the oversized chrome drum and feather logo I 2014. I honestly did not think they could improved on that design, but I was wrong. The helmets really are fantastic and worthy of receiving accolades. Here is to hoping we see them again this season (my hope is the new black helmet with the throwback jersey and black pants).

LSU defensive linemen accused in violent incident involving girlfriend.

According to The Advocate, Davon Godchaux was arrested by Monday morning and charged with misdemeanor battery/child endangerment and false imprisonment.

LSU SID Michael Bonnette told the Advocate that Godchaux has been suspended indefinitely.

The Advocate reports that the victim, the mother of Godchaux’s 10-month old son, had gotten into an argument with Godchaux over reported infidelity in the relationship with Godchaux suggesting the two should separate. The victim told police she became “increasingly upset.”

When the victim tried to leave the apartment where the two were located, Godchaux grabbed her by the hair and at a later point grabbed her by her shoulder and ““tossed (her) backwards near the couch.”

Police noticed what appeared to be a swollen lip and red marks on her throat.

The victim was charged with a misdemeanor summons for domestic abuse battery/child endangerment, according to the police report.

An AP report says that Godchaux told investigators that he never tried to prevent the victim from leaving and had asked several times if he could leave.

The police report also states that Godchaux, who has braces, had cuts on the inside of his mouth.

Any updates will be posted as they come in.

One year later, the big semi is still rolling strong.

On September 26, 2015, recently-instated Texas Longhorns play caller Jay Norvell reached back to his days with the Oklahoma Sooners to revive the Belldozer package in a new form — as the showcase for benched 6’4, 244-pound quarterback Tyrone Swoopes.

On the one-year anniversary of that game, and with another contest looming against the Oklahoma State Cowboys this weekend, new offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert is still using the package to great effect.

In the home game against the Pokes last year, Swoopes carried the ball three times for 35 yards, including a seven-yard touchdown run. At that time, the package, as yet unnamed, merely featured a heavy personnel grouping and quarterback counter as the only play.

Eventually, Norvell expanded the package to provide more threats to the defense — the insertion of wide receiver Lorenzo Joe for the rivalry tilt against Oklahoma provided a passing threat, which ultimately led to a key, late touchdown pass from Swoopes to tight end Caleb Bluiett out of the 18-Wheeler package.

Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Caleb Bluiett catches a pass out of the 18-Wheeler package vs. Oklahoma

Called a variety of names throughout the first several weeks of its inception, including the Swoopesdozer, starting quarterback Jerrod Heard finally revealed the name that stuck in late October — the 18 Wheeler, a reference to the No. 18 that Swoopes wears and his physical running ability.

“When you see him out there you know he’s going to break it,” Heard said.

By the end of the season, Swoopes had energized the team, found a comfort zone, and completely reinvented himself as a more confident player who finally understood how to maximize his athletic strengths and minimize his athletic weaknesses.

“I’ve always been comfortable in (this role),” Swoopes said on Monday. “It’s just more experience gives you more comfort in it. At this point, it’s just second nature to go out and execute the play that’s called.”

All told, Swoopes scored 14 rushing touchdowns in 2015 and gained 451 yards at more than six yards per carry.

During the offseason, he once again competed for the starting job, eventually giving way to freshman Shane Buechele. However, instead of pouting about the decision by the coaching staff, Swoopes once again took the news of his back-up role in stride and once again strived to make an impact for the team as the 18 Wheeler.

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

In the thrilling double-overtime win against Notre Dame to start the season, Swoopes was the hero, bouncing off defenders in overtime on the way to two touchdowns in the extra frames, including the stretching, game-winning run that will remain one of the iconic moments in recent Texas history.

With 13 carries for 53 yards and three touchdowns, the senior played an incredibly key role in the victory and will likely continue to do so for the rest of his final season in burnt orange.

On the goal line, that means being a part of 3,162 pounds of Longhorn coming at opponents. That’s 1.6 tons of mass bearing down on overmatched foes.

So, just a word of caution to the rest of the Big 12 — step in front of the 18 Wheeler at your own peril. Swoopes has some fine leather goods to deliver to the end zone.

Breaking T

Celebrate the one-year anniversary of the 18-Wheeler package with this soft, comfortable t-shirt from Breaking T.