Yes, I know, I KNOW THIS IS LATE! You can stop yelling at me about it now.
Regardless, though, your favorite college football sportswriter has had an absolutely wild past week and a half. I was battling a cold all of last week, and then I found myself behind in my classes because of that and had to scramble to get all my homework and all my assignments done, resulting in a busy and very mentally exhausting weekend.
But college football stops for no one, not even me and my ailments and bouts of adversity I had to fight through these past 10 days. And speaking of adversity, there were some teams who overcame that over the course of the season and now find themselves in the big dance.
But before the bracket for the big dance was decided, we have conference championships to be analyzed. And let’s jump into that right now, shall we?
Oregon was one step ahead of Penn State all game long
In the Big Ten Championship, we had the undefeated and top-ranked Oregon Ducks, who were attempting to take home the conference crown in their first season in the Big Ten. They were facing the Penn State Nittany Lions, who finished their regular season 11-1 and were ranked third in the nation.
This was a wild one from start to finish. We barely had time to catch our breaths throughout this game, as it seemed like every time we looked up, someone was bringing the ball across the plane and into the end zone.
The game started with five consecutive drives that ended in points for both sides. The first drive that did not end in points came with just under 12 minutes to go in the second quarter when Oregon held a 21-10 lead. Yeah, there’s gonna be a lot in this section.
The funny part about this game, however, is after that it seemed as if this might be a blowout in favor of the Ducks. Penn State quarterback Drew Allar threw an interception deep in Nittany Lion territory, and Oregon took a 28-10 lead with ten minutes left in the first half.
But Penn State took the ball back and drove 75 yards in eight plays, and capped it off with a touchdown pass from Allar to Omari Evans from 22 yards out to cut the lead down to 11. And at halftime, Penn State only found themselves down seven. The game was there for the taking, a surprising development, as it seemed that earlier it was all but lost for James Franklin’s group.
But then after halftime, it was a back-and-forth, seesaw battle, and Penn State found that they simply didn’t have enough firepower to keep up with the best team in the country. A failed two-point conversion that kept the Ducks’ lead at 38-30 early in the fourth quarter felt like the beginning of the end for the hopes of winning for Penn State, and Oregon did in fact hang on to secure the Big Ten title, mostly due to this outstanding interception with under two minutes remaining in the final quarter.
The fact of the matter is that the Ducks were simply one step ahead of the Nittany Lions throughout the game, and even when Penn State threatened to pull close, Oregon always had a counterattack ready and executed it to perfection throughout the night. And because of that, they are Big Ten champions and the top seed in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
Clemson won the ACC Championship, but it wasn’t a loss for SMU
The Clemson Tigers were the victors as they clashed with conference newcomer SMU in the battle for the ACC crown, but in a way, both teams came out with a win after this game, regardless of the outcome.
But speaking of the outcome, it was a wildly entertaining game and it had one of the best endings I’ve ever seen in a conference championship game. Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik’s completion percentage was rather mediocre, but he was practically flawless in terms of turnovers and he launched four touchdown passes, with wideout Bryant Wesco Jr. being on the receiving end of two of them.
On the Mustangs’ side, quarterback Kevin Jennings, who has taken the college football world by storm after coming in for Preston Stone earlier in the season, had another outstanding performance. He threw for 304 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, and he added 35 yards and a score on the ground.
Both teams’ offenses were on point and did not stop for anyone throughout the night. It was coming down to the wire in Charlotte, and then Clemson kicker Nolan Hauser came in and stole the show, nailing a ridiculous 56-yard field goal to give Clemson the win and officially clinch their spot in the College Football Playoff.
However, as brutally disappointing as the result for that game was, all was not lost for SMU. They still ended up nabbing the final CFP spot during the selection show, as the College Football Playoff committee let them in and spurned three-loss Alabama, which drew a myriad of reactions from the rest of the sports world.
But in the meantime, Clemson and SMU are both in the College Football Playoff, with the Tigers set to play the Texas Longhorns and the Mustangs set to face the Penn State Nittany Lions (hey, I was just talking about them!). And that’s an arrangement both teams are happy with.
Cam Skattebo made a name for himself in the Big 12 Championship
Okay. I’m going to admit something here. I was not a believer in Arizona State. I thought that they had caught fire at the perfect time in order to get into the Big 12 Championship, but I thought a more veteran Iowa State team would thoroughly beat them on the conference’s biggest stage.
Yep. I was way off on that.
Arizona State was the one doing the beating, as they destroyed the Cyclones en route to a dominant 45-19 win to clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff. And there may not have been a more impressive player on the field, on both sides, than Sun Devils running back Cam Skattebo.
Skattebo made sure the entire country knew his name by the end of this contest, as he ran all over Iowa State’s helpless defense to the tune of 170 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. And freshman (!!) quarterback Sam Leavitt wasn’t too bad either, as even though he only threw the ball 17 times, he completed 12 of those passes for a solid 219 passing yards and three touchdown passes.
And the Arizona State defense was also feisty and opportunistic, hustling at every turn and making life particularly difficult for the Iowa State offense. Quarterback Rocco Becht threw a couple of touchdowns but also threw a costly interception, and the Sun Devils forced running back Abu Sama III into just 27 rushing yards and two lost fumbles.
And because of Arizona State’s all-around dominant effort, they are in the College Football Playoff and have a first-round bye, while Iowa State is getting ready to go play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl against fellow CFP outcast Miami. There’s levels to this stuff, people.
And last but not least…
Georgia-Texas was a classic SEC Championship bout
This game felt like a heavyweight fight. A straight-up fist fight. A rock fight. A brawl. Whatever you want to call it, this game fit the description.
This was like one of those games where neither team could really do much of anything offensively, and neither team could pull out ahead of the other. Just a regular SEC football game, right?
The first six drives of the game went as follows: Texas interception, Georgia punt, Texas field goal, Georgia punt, Texas field goal, Georgia field goal. Quinn Ewers threw an interception on his fifth pass attempt of the game (one that put an end to a nice string of completions, too).
The first half ended with the game tied at six after a Georgia fumble at Texas’ 42-yard-line, and to top it all off, Carson Beck was injured in the first half and did not return until the very last drive of the game. So the fact of the matter is that if you like high-flying, explosive offensive showcases, this game was not the game for you.
In the second half, the offenses got a tad more going. Georgia opened up the half with a 10-yard touchdown run from Trevor Etienne on their first possession of the third quarter. And then at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Texas’ offense finally got out of the mud as Ewers hit DeAndre Moore Jr. from 41 yards out to knot the game at 13. And after Georgia kicked a field goal, the two teams traded interceptions before Texas knocked through a field goal of their own to send the game into overtime.
And overtime was where a legend was officially cemented, as Georgia backup quarterback Gunner Stockton led the Bulldogs down the field, but an injured Carson Beck then returned to the game and handed the ball off to Trevor Etienne, who plunged it into the end zone from four yards out to win Georgia the SEC Championship.
However, this is similar to the Clemson-SMU situation, where despite the fact that Texas lost, both teams came out with a win in a way, because they both qualified for the College Football Playoff. Georgia has the second seed and a first-round bye, while Texas welcomes that very same Clemson team to Austin, Texas as the fifth seed in the dance. Intriguing matchups, indeed…
