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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nebraska Legend Immortalized by Cotton Bowl
Nebraska Legend Immortalized by Cotton Bowl originally appeared on Athlon Sports. One of the most revered running backs in Nebraska football history took his place among some of college football greats. Advertisement Cornhuskers legend Tony Davis was one of eight inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame during enshrinement ceremonies at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. A tough, hard-nosed running back from Tecumseh, Neb., Davis closed his career as Nebraska's all-time leading rusher with 2,445 career rushing yards during his three seasons from 1973-75. (Davis has since dropped out of the top 20, with Mike Rozier the current record holder with 4,780 career yards.) Davis' first season coincided with the arrival of coaching icon Tom Osborne, and he starred with a career-high 1,114 rushing yards. Davis capped the 9-2-1 campaign with a legendary performance in Nebraska's 19-3 victory over Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Advertisement Davis pounded the Longhorns all day long, rushing for 106 yards on 28 carries and scored on a three-yard run. Davis and his Husker teammates seized momentum in the third quarter and broke open a 3-3 stalemate with back-to-back touchdowns. Nebraska finished No. 7 in the final AP rankings. Davis continued to take a leading role for the Huskers in 1974 and 1975, helping the Huskers to appearances in the Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl in his final two seasons. He was the MVP of Nebraska's 1974 Sugar Bowl win over Florida and was inducted into the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame in 2021, giving him the rare distinction of being in the Halls of Fame for two of the nation's oldest and most prestigious bowl games. He is also the only Husker in both the Cotton Bowl and Sugar Bowl Halls of Fame. Davis was joined in the 14th Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame class by Notre Dame fullback Jerome Bettis, Texas linebacker Randy Braband, Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe, Cotton Bowl Athletic Association Chief Ambassador, Past Chair and former Team Selection & Playoff Committee Chair Finley (Fin) Ewing III, CBAA Historian Charlie Fiss, Auburn running back Bo Jackson and Alabama linebacker DeMeco Ryans. The eight honorees add their names to a group that has grown to 93 men and women who have left an indelible mark on the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, one of America's original bowl games. Advertisement Davis went on to play six seasons in the National Football League after being drafted in the fourth round, appearing in 89 career games with the Cincinnati Bengals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
College coaches describe the favorite play call of their careers: ‘I'm pretty sure it's gonna work'
College football coaches spend countless hours scouting and scheming, looking for any weakness in their opponent. Some offensive coordinators have as many as 100 plays at their disposal. The best of the best know what to call at the right time. But even the perfect play call doesn't always work — these coaches are, after all, counting on 18-to-22-year-olds to execute under pressure. Advertisement When the play does work, in the biggest moments, it can be extremely rewarding. We asked 16 of the most respected offensive minds in college football — some active, some retired — about the favorite play calls of their careers. Petersen's favorite play call isn't the one you're thinking about. But it was from that same game, the Fiesta Bowl following the 2006 season, when Petersen's undefeated Boise State Broncos played 11-2 Big 12 champion Oklahoma. The Broncos had led 28-10 in the third quarter but were trailing 35-28 with time running out in the fourth. Facing a fourth-and-18 at midfield with 18 seconds remaining, Petersen called a play his team had practiced every Friday for the previous five years but had never run in a game. The name: 'Circus.' 'We had to take a big chance,' Petersen said. 'That was the play on the sheet that gave us the best chance. The odds of us converting a first down but also scoring on it were so slim.' Jared Zabransky, who had thrown a pick six a minute earlier to hand the lead to OU, dropped back to pass and hit Drisan James on a dig route at the 35-yard line. With four Sooners around him closing in, James pitched the ball to Jerard Rabb, another wideout, who was sprinting behind him and had come from the other side of the field. Rabb grabbed the ball and raced up the left sideline, roaring past four defenders who had been caught flat-footed while focusing on James. Rabb dove into the end zone to trim the deficit to one. Initially, Petersen shouted, 'Let's go for 2! Let's go for 2!' But he reconsidered and the Broncos kicked the extra point to send the game into overtime. On the first play of OT, Adrian Peterson scored on a 25-yard run to put Oklahoma on top. Trailing 42-35, the Broncos turned to another trick play on fourth-and-2, and wideout Vinny Perretta threw a TD pass to tight end Derek Schouman. This time, Petersen went with his gut and opted for the two-point conversion, thinking, 'We really gotta end this thing now.' He called 'Statue' — the Broncos' version of the Statue of Liberty play — to give them a 43-42 program-altering win. That was the play that most people will always remember, but it was 'Circus' that saved the Broncos that night. Kelly made a name for himself by producing the most explosive and fast-paced offense in football during his time at Oregon from 2007-12. But his favorite call occurred in 2000, long before anyone outside of the Atlantic 10 Conference had heard of him. Kelly was the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, New Hampshire, and the Wildcats were visiting No. 2 Delaware, whose star quarterback was Matt Nagy. Kelly's quarterback was another guy who also would go on to become a big name in coaching, Ryan Day. Advertisement Nagy's Blue Hens took a 31-3 lead with just over 16 minutes remaining in the game when UNH began a frenetic comeback. The Wildcats trailed 31-24 late in the fourth quarter and faced a fourth-and-19 from the Delaware 23-yard line. 'We ran a hook-and-ladder,' Kelly said. 'The play was 'Trio Left 52 Charlotte.' The back ran an angle route, caught it and pitched it to the No. 3 receiver coming back into the boundary. But our running back, Stephan Lewis, who was a good player and is in the UNH Hall of Fame, was the one we'd practiced it with, but he had gotten hurt in the game. So we took a receiver, Brian Mallette, and put him in the backfield for the play. He ran the angle route. We'd repped it before but always with Lewis. We'd never repped it before with Mallette. 'But he had done something earlier. He had a halfback throwback against South Florida that we'd never repped before with him. I said, 'Hey Mallette, if we put you in motion, hand the ball to you, you'll be able to throw it back to the quarterback?' He said, 'Yeah, I can do that!' He was Day's roommate and was just like Ryan — a sharp, heady kid who the moment was never too big for. 'Our head coach was like, 'Why's Mallette in the backfield?' I said, 'It's fourth-and-19, let's take a shot.' Kamau Peterson was our receiver who got the pitch and went in untouched. We tied it up, and then the Wildcats won 45-44 in overtime.' Norvell's favorite play call was the first one of his career. Late in the 2011 season, Pitt head coach Todd Graham asked Norvell, a 30-year-old wide receivers coach, to call plays for the rest of the season after co-offensive coordinator Calvin Magee departed to rejoin his former boss Rich Rodriguez at Arizona. The Panthers (5-6) hosted Syracuse in the regular-season finale. 'I had a script prepared of everything that we were gonna do,' Norvell said, 'but if a sudden change happened, I had a play prepared.' Advertisement Sure enough, after Pitt pooched the opening kickoff and the Panthers recovered it inside the Syracuse 20, Norvell knew what he wanted. 'I said, 'Screw it,' and I went off the script. It was 'Trips Right Army Throwback.' They were a fast-pursuit defense and tried to attack you on nakeds. The linebackers were overly aggressive and would occasionally lose the backs. If we had a good opportunity, we were gonna take our chance to sneak the back out of the backfield. It ended up working out as good as we could hope.' The play went for a touchdown. The Panthers won 33-20 and picked up their sixth win of the season to become bowl-eligible. Donnan was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989 for his work as the head coach at Marshall and Georgia, but the favorite play call of his career occurred in 1985, his first season as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma. The Sooners were ranked No. 5 and hosting No. 2 Nebraska in the latest edition of one of the sport's great rivalries. OU had become more of a throwing team that season, playing to the strengths of talented sophomore quarterback Troy Aikman. But Aikman was out with a broken leg he suffered in a Week 4 loss against Miami. The Sooners turned to freshman Jamelle Holieway and went back to the wishbone. The problem for Donnan was that star tight end Keith Jackson wasn't getting the ball as much because Oklahoma had become so heavy in the run game. Donnan was trying to find ways to get Jackson the ball. His solution: '15 Y Reverse Right'; 14 and 15 were the Sooners' calls for their fullback inside veer; 15 went to the left, 14 to the right. Jackson, a 240-pound sophomore who was fast enough that he also was OU's backup punt returner, was the wrinkle off that play. Diabolical Wishbone TE Reverse from 1985 Oklahoma! — Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) April 9, 2024 Donnan: 'We put this in for Colorado (the previous week's opponent), but we saved it and held it for Nebraska. And it worked perfectly. You could see (Jackson) waited and waited (looking like he was blocking on the play) right till the last second. He came around. We got that first block. 'He was a great actor. We fiddled with the timing part of how long he would block because we wanted to get as much misdirection as we could. Early on, he was coming around a little bit too quickly. We worked it hard, and it worked against our defense, so we knew it would be pretty good. We had (Brian) Bosworth, (Tony) Casillas and all those guys. Advertisement 'This was my one invention for college football. In the Colorado game, he kept asking me, 'When you gonna run it, coach?' I said, 'We will. We will!' I almost ran it in that game, but (coach Barry) Switzer said, 'Save it for Nebraska.' I'm glad we did.' OU's No. 88 went for 88 yards on a second-and-7 from the Sooners 12-yard line on their second series to kickstart a 27-7 Sooners romp. Riley has called plays for three Heisman Trophy winners, but his favorite play was run by a QB who never made it to the NFL, and it occurred in his first game as a play caller. In January 2010, Riley, 26 at the time, was elevated to Texas Tech's offensive coordinator for the Alamo Bowl against Michigan State after Mike Leach had been fired. The Red Raiders led 34-31 with 4:05 remaining in the fourth quarter. 'We had a key third down at the end,' Riley said. 'We were up, but it was tight. We threw a slant and the receiver dropped it. Ruffin (McNeill), the head coach, said. 'Let's go for it.' That was a gutsy call. It wasn't like an obvious go-for-it situation. 'We were on the sidelines talking to Steven Sheffield, our quarterback. He said, 'What do you want to call?' I said, 'We're gonna call the exact same play.' He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'One, they're not gonna think we're gonna do the exact same play two times in a row. Two, the guy (Alex Torres) that dropped it, there's no way he's gonna drop two balls in a row.' He was our most sure-handed guy. (The play call) was '617.' We came back out there and completed it. We ended up scoring and put the game away.' Moorhead, set to enter his fourth season as the head coach at Akron, became a national name for his work as Penn State's offensive coordinator in the mid-2010s. Moorhead's favorite all-time play call occurred on a big stage, at the 2016 Big Ten Championship Game — and it wasn't even in the game plan that week. Advertisement The Nittany Lions were trailing No. 6 Wisconsin 31-28 early in the fourth quarter and were facing a second-and-10 at the Badgers' 18-yard line. 'We'd seen several looks throughout the game where they'd been blitzing interior linebackers, and their defensive end was matched up against our running back man-to-man,' Moorhead said. The tricky part was that the defensive end wasn't your average edge rusher. It was T.J. Watt, now one of the top defensive players in the NFL. But Watt would be matched up against Penn State's best player, running back Saquon Barkley. The play Moorhead called was 'Trips Lets Dover Wheel.' 'Dover is a deep-over concept,' Moorhead said. 'Usually, we'd run that without the wheel tag, but that told the back to run a free-release wheel route. I wasn't sure it was gonna work, but as great of a player as Watt is, I knew that we were gonna win that individual matchup because that is a lot of speed for a defensive end to cover. 'My biggest concern was it's a five-man protection, and were we gonna be able to get that thing picked up? They blitzed the backer to the side of the wheel, which was the short side of the protection. Our right tackle, Chasz Wright, did a good job. He saw the defensive end drop off, so Chasz bumped off and blocked the blitzer. And that was a perfect pass (Trace McSorley) threw. 'We had a lot of discussion on the sideline. 'This isn't on the game plan. We haven't practiced it this week.' I said, 'I'm pretty sure it's gonna work.' That's the point of our system. You run a play or a concept enough times in practice, you can call it in a game. The beauty of the thing was that no one even blinked. No one looked over and threw their hands in the air. It wasn't even coming off a timeout or anything.' The play worked. Penn State took the lead and went on to win 38-31 and advanced ot the Rose Bowl for the first time in eight seasons. Advertisement Before Cignetti was shocking the Big Ten with upstart Indiana, he was shaking up the Colonial Athletic Association. In 2017, he took over an Elon program that had gone 9-37 in the four years before his arrival. In his debut season, Cignetti led the Phoenix to an 8-4 record and a berth in the FCS playoffs, where their season ended with a 31-3 loss to No. 1 James Madison. The next season, the Phoenix were 4-1 when they visited JMU, No. 2 in the country at the time. 'We were like 38-point underdogs (actually, 39.5 points),' Cignetti said. 'They'd won like 19 in a row at home. But I could see on film that they weren't the same, and if we played well, it could happen.' Elon led 20-12 early in the fourth quarter before JMU scored twice to take a 24-20 lead. Elon QB Davis Cheek led the Phoenix on a long drive that started at their 26. They had a first down at the JMU 15-yard line with a little over a minute remaining. 'We called what we termed 'a fastball,' ' Cignetti said. 'It was two-by-two into the bench. We'd run it a million times. The outside receiver, a freshman, Avery Jones, has a go-route versus press. He was talented. He got on top of this guy, and Cheek made a great throw for a touchdown. It was a tremendous upset.' The win snapped JMU's 22-game win streak in the CAA and gave Elon its first win over an FCS top-five team. Ten weeks later, Cignetti was hired to become JMU's new coach after Mike Houston left the Dukes to take over at ECU. Cignetti went 52-9 at JMU, guiding the program through the transition from the FCS to FBS ranks. He was hired at Indiana after the 2023 season. Mumme, along with the late Mike Leach, invented the Air Raid offense. Mumme's favorite call, though, wasn't his idea — or Leach's. It came from one of his players in 1997, his first season as the head coach at Kentucky, on a third-and-11 play in an overtime game against No. 20 Alabama. Advertisement 'We played the first OT game in the SEC,' Mumme said. 'They had the ball first. We got 'em to turn it over. We ran a couple of plays and didn't have much success. (Quarterback Tim) Couch and I are talking about what we should call. Leach is standing right next to me. I was asking Tim's opinion. Then, (UK wide receiver) Craig Yeast comes over and says, 'Just throw me the f—in' curl route and I'll score!' I looked at Tim and said, 'Sounds good to me.' He goes, 'Me too!' Oct. 4, 1997 – Tim Couch connects with Craig Yeast on a 26-yard TD in overtime as Kentucky defeats Alabama 40-34 at Commonwealth Stadium, the Wildcats' first win over the Crimson Tide in 75 years. #BBN — TheCatsPause247 (@TheCatsPause247) November 10, 2023 'He caught it. He scored, and they tore the goalposts down. It was the first time in 75 years that Kentucky beat Alabama. Craig, who is a high school coach now, knew if he could catch it, he'd make the corner miss and there wouldn't be anybody left to tackle him. We ran it a lot. 'Blue 93.' It was a basic play for us. I can't take any credit for being a play-calling genius, but I can take credit for being smart enough to listen to my player. He knew.' Rodriguez, who returned to West Virginia in the offseason, is one of the most innovative offensive coaches in college football history. He's the godfather of the zone read and was the brains behind Tulane's spread offense that propelled the Green Wave to a 12-0 record in 1998. During his first stint at West Virginia, his alma mater, Rodriguez won four Big East titles and led the Mountaineers to a top-five ranking in 2005. That season ended with a showdown against No. 7 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl (played in Atlanta, not New Orleans, due to damage sustained to the Superdome by Hurricane Katrina). West Virginia, a touchdown underdog, jumped out to a 14-0 lead and was set up in great field position after forcing a turnover deep in Georgia territory. Facing a second-and-12 at the 13-yard line, Rodriguez broke out a play he hadn't run all season. It was called 'Roscoe Sucker' and it broke open so wide that receiver Darius Reynaud ran into the end zone untouched, giving the Mountaineers a three-touchdown lead just 10 minutes into the game. (The play occurs at 29:50) 'We ran this zone-read, triple-option deal to Darius Reynaud, our slot,' Rodriguez said. 'Everybody thought it would be either (quarterback) Pat White or (running back) Stevie Slaton having it, so it was like this zone-read option-reverse pitch to Darius. We hadn't run it that year. I think we ran it the year before. We had it as a red-zone call because we knew that's when they'd be aggressive and fast-flow. They're gonna be flying to the ball. It was the perfect time to do it.' Advertisement Georgia made things interesting, but West Virginia held on for a 38-35 win. Bielema played on the defensive line at Iowa from 1989-92 and coached at his alma mater from 1994-2001. A decade later, the Hawkeyes were the victims of the favorite play call of his coaching career. In 2010, Bielema's fifth season as the head coach at Wisconsin, the Badgers were ranked 10th in the nation in mid-October after knocking off No. 1 Ohio State in Madison. The following week, they traveled to Iowa City to face the 13th-ranked Hawkeyes. Bielema was coaching the punt shield phase of the Badgers special teams unit and was ready to make a bold call. With less than seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Wisconsin trailed 30-24 and was faced with a fourth and 4 from their 26. 'They had this scheme where they only rushed two guys,' Bielema said. 'We had practiced it all week. They had to give us the right look. Our punter, Brad Nortman, went on to play eight years in the NFL, but he's most famous for this play because it helped us win a Big Ten championship. 'I think we'd called it 'Chains' because it was going to move the chains. It was a big moment. There was anxiety, but they had done that all year on their punt team. You always worry about them changing it up, but it was their same two guys in the same two spots. When I saw them line up in it, my punter looked at me. I had a signal where I rubbed my hands. It was on, and it opened up big time. Our guys who had blocked out on their guys said one of the kids goes, 'Ohhhh, f—!' as soon as he saw Brad take off. 'I had told Nortman, 'I don't want you to get tackled, so as soon as anybody gets in your direction, drop.' He just dove down after about 20 yards. He looked like he got shot by a sniper. I think we scored four plays later.' Wisconsin won the game 31-30 and went on to play in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1999. Ferentz has coached for five decades and won over 200 games. When asked about his favorite play, he joked that his mind first went to the bad calls he's made or been involved with before circling back to a favorite play. It happened in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1, 2005, against LSU and Nick Saban, Ferentz's former colleague on Bill Belichick's Cleveland Browns staff. Advertisement LSU led 25-24 with under 10 seconds and the clock ticking down. Iowa had a second and 6 from its 44. The thinking was that Iowa hoped to get the ball near the LSU 30, then call a timeout and attempt a field goal. 'It was four receivers all-up,' Ferentz said. 'It was a pretty obvious play call. It was '99 All Up.' The game came down to the last play. We were in a hurry-up mode. Drew Tate was our quarterback and let it rip. They blew the coverage. Ironically, in that game, we scored two touchdowns off two blitzes. One, we had hit a sight-adjusted off a blitz earlier in the game. On the last one, they were corner blitzing and had a miscommunication in coverage. Our guy got behind them. 'Drew was a gunslinger. He had no fear. The best part of the story was the kid who caught it, Warren Holloway, that was his first career touchdown catch. He was a great kid, but he couldn't get lined up for four years, and then, he finally figured it out. Every Iowa fan knows that play. We had no business beating those guys.' It was Saban's final game as the coach at LSU. 'I think the last 14 or 20 seconds of this game somewhat tarnishes the things that this football team accomplished over the last four years,' said Saban, who would begin his job as head coach of the Miami Dolphins three days later. In five decades as a coach, Chow produced some of the most explosive offenses in football history. He coached three Heisman-winning quarterbacks — Ty Detmer, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart — and also helped develop Steve Young, Jim McMahon and Philip Rivers into stars. However, Chow's favorite play call did not involve one of his quarterbacks making a perfect throw. Or one of the many star tailbacks he coached darting through a wide-open hole. It occurred in 2000, Chow's only season as the offensive coordinator at NC State. The Wolfpack were facing rival North Carolina, which had won seven straight in the series. Advertisement NC State had a third and 1 at the UNC 19 on the Wolfpack's first series of the game. Chow called 'Train Left Throwback.' On the play, Rivers, a freshman, handed the ball off to star wideout Koren Robinson on a jet sweep. Robinson then pitched it to fellow receiver Brian Peterson, a former high school quarterback, who threw it to a wide-open Rivers up the right sideline for the game's first touchdown. (The play occurs at 2:20) 'We had no business beating them,' Chow said. 'They had Julius Peppers and all kinds of good players. We had a receiver who was an ex-quarterback. He threw it back to Rivers and completed it. The place went crazy, and we ended up beating them. Everybody thinks, 'Oh, what a great call,' but it was an easy call because they were in man-to-man coverage, and when you're in Cover 1, no one has the quarterback. So, he just leaks out and makes it look easy. 'A few years later, we used that quarterback throwback to Leinart in the Rose Bowl, and it made the cover of Sports Illustrated. The big difference was it went to the other side because (USC receiver) Mike Williams was a lefty and we had a running back pitch it back to him.' For years, when he was coaching at Division II Colorado School of Mines, Stitt was regarded as one of the top offensive minds at any level of college football. In 2015, he was named head coach at Montana, one of the top FCS programs in the country. His first game was against FCS powerhouse North Dakota State and — as the only Division I game of the day — was televised nationally on ESPN. 'Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer were up in the booth calling it. Maria Taylor was on the sideline,' Stitt said. 'Carson Wentz was North Dakota State's QB. They had won four straight national championships.' The Griz were a 14.5-point underdog and were breaking in a new starting QB. But with six seconds remaining, they trailed 35-31 and had fourth-and-goal from the Bison 1-yard line. Advertisement 'We were in a two-tight end, three-back set, and two of our backs were a defensive end and a linebacker,' Stitt said. 'When we got there, we didn't have any fullbacks and tight ends. We brought our best athletes over from defense and repped them every Thursday on those goal-line plays. 'On third down, we called 'Jumbo Iso Left.' We'd run it and got to about the one-inch line. We had called a timeout. I was gonna run it to the other side, but we hadn't repped it to the right, only to the left. I said, 'All right, we're gonna flip this and run it to the right now.' My D-end looked me right in the eye, and goes, 'You want us to run it to the right now?' 'I said, 'All right, just run it to the left again!' He said, 'Call it and we'll get it in!' We did and scored and won. You shouldn't call something that you haven't repped.' Rhule was in his fourth and final season at Temple in 2016. The Owls had big expectations coming off their first 10-win season in almost 40 years but got off to a 3-3 start with a trip to UCF — and first-year coach Scott Frost — looming. Temple trailed 25-7 in the second quarter before starting to chip away. The Owls trimmed the lead to 25-20 and got the ball back at their 30 with 32 seconds remaining in the game. They had no timeouts left. 'We completed a pass for 20 yards, then completed another pass and then another pass,' Rhule said. 'We get down to their 8-yard line. The clock stops to move the chains at 10 seconds and then starts running again. The coordinator is yelling, 'Spike the ball! Spike the ball!' I'm screaming, 'Alpha! Alpha! Alpha!' I signal Alpha in. It's just one throw into the end zone. 'Half the offense thinks we're gonna spike it. The other half of the offense sees me. The quarterback sees me running onto the field screaming, 'Alpha! 'Alpha!' The offensive line doesn't even realize it. The receiver runs a seam route. PJ (Walker) throws the ball. It's caught. Toe-tap. One second left. We beat UCF (and went on a seven-game winning streak). Advertisement 'It's actually (called) '90 All Go,' but the code name for the end game was 'Alpha Alpha Alpha.' We practiced it all the time, and we'd show it every year to remind people how to do it. We'd rep it in preseason and then do it on Thursdays or Fridays for one rep. 'My second year at Baylor, we're playing Oklahoma State. Had the ball at the 10-yard line. The offensive coordinator called a quarterback draw. We said if it gets tackled, we're gonna go Alpha. The draw got to the 2. Called Alpha. Fade to Denzel Mims. We beat Oklahoma State. I'll never forget the Baylor offensive linemen all came over to me and said, 'Never show us that stupid, blankety-blank Temple play again! That's our play now!' I called it twice in my career and both went for touchdowns to win games.' (The play occurs at 4:00) (The play occurs at 2:05) Locksley was Alabama's co-offensive coordinator — but not the play caller — when the Crimson Tide pulled off the stunning second-and-26 conversion to beat Georgia in overtime to win the national title in 2017. Locksley's favorite all-time call occurred the next season after he became Alabama's play caller. It was also on a big stage — in a rematch against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game in the same stadium where former starter Jalen Hurts had been benched in favor of Tua Tagovailoa the year before. With 11:15 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Tide trailing by seven, Hurts got another chance. On his first series, he led Alabama on a 16-play drive that ended with him connecting with Jerry Jeudy for a 10-yard touchdown that tied the game at 28 with just over five minutes remaining. On his second series, Hurts got Bama down to the Georgia 15-yard line with 1:04 left in the game. 'Jalen and I would ride the bus together all the time to games the three years I was there,' Locksley said. 'He would listen to old-school music and he's this old soul. His dad's a coach. Before that game, he said to me that he had a dream that what happened to him was gonna happen today, that he would end up replacing Tua, who had already been banged up. Jalen had been preparing in his mind that I'm gonna have to come win this m———er. Advertisement 'When Tua got hurt again, I'd gotten Jalen on the phone. 'What are you thinking? What do you want?' He said, 'Give me some of that Brees s—.' Tua's play, if he was in trouble, he liked that play we called on second-and-26 to win the natty, 'Charlie Right Jill Seattle.' Jalen, in a critical situation, liked 'Dual Right West Brees' because it gave him options. He had the option of throwing the swing screen to the back if they didn't react the right way. If it was man-coverage, he had the option of throwing the out-cut into the boundary. Or he had the option of a quarterback run. That play won the SEC championship (after Hurts sprinted up the middle of the Bulldogs defense).' A former NFL offensive coordinator, Calhoun is entering his 19th season as the head coach at the Air Force Academy. He's led the Falcons to a 135-89 record over that span and has three 10-win seasons since 2019. His favorite play call has more to do with how one of his players improvised on the field rather than the design of the play. 'In '07, when I first got there after I'd come from the Houston Texans, I had this guy walk into my office, and he's 5-7, and he goes, 'Coach, my name's Chad Hall and I'm your best player,'' Calhoun said. 'I'm thinking, 'No way!' Does this guy carry the water bottles or the ball bag? I thought this guy's full of bulldookie, man. But he was such a good football player. He was so good. We moved him all over the field. He was incredibly shifty. He was strong, quick and low to the ground. 'We're playing TCU in 2007. We got no business hanging with them. They're up 17-10 with seven minutes left. In the entire second half, we ran one play from scrimmage on their side of the field. That's it, but we ended up winning the game. We had a fourth-and-1 from our 29. I said, 'Hell with it. We gotta go for it.' I think we'd only had eight first downs till that point. 'The guys were like, 'Coach! We gotta stay in it.' Advertisement 'I said our only shot is we have to pop one. We end up motioning Chad Hall, who was a receiver we hadn't moved to tailback yet. We were gonna run a crack option. He'd always motioned across to way outside about 2 yards outside the hash to the field, but he recognized it was man coverage and he sees the safety that he's gotta crack in there at about 5 yards. (TCU coach) Gary's (Patterson) got 'em up all in there for zero (coverage). 'Instead, Chad only motions about 3 yards outside of the tight end and he cracks that safety. I have no idea how he saw him. It was our first year there. We never covered it. It was a Thursday night on a short week. I don't know how he knew to do it. He picks off the frontside safety and then he picks off the backside safety too. We pitched this to Jim Ollis and he goes 71 yards and we scored. We beat 'em that night. Gary never forgave us because he pummeled us the next four years. 'The play was 'Right Slot Zo Cookie 58.' Cookie meaning the crack, and 58 was the speed option part of it. The only time we ran it was that night. We thought we had to get the ball outside and we thought they might be pinching so far inside. It was pure luck because we caught them in zero coverage. 'We hadn't been to a bowl game in four years, and after that game, I think the kids believed we could beat anybody.' (Photo of Chris Petersen: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
College Football Playoff makes quick change to 12-team format
After one year of the College Football Playoff fielding a 12-team bracket, a significant change is coming to the postseason for the 2025 season. On Thursday, the College Football Playoff announced it will give the four highest-ranked teams according to the selection committee's final rankings a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff with no requirement to be a conference champion. The five highest-ranked conference champions will still be guaranteed one spot in the 12-team playoff field, but a bye week is no longer guaranteed for the four highest-ranked champions. The first round of the playoff will still be played matching teams based on seeding for teams No. 5-12 (No. 5 hosting No. 12, No. 6 hosting No. 11, No. 7 hosting No. 10, and No. 8 hosting No. 9). Conference champions could have to go on the road in the first round, as Clemson did last season. Advertisement If this seeding system were in place for the 2024 college football season, Penn State would have been given a first-round bye as one of the top four teams in the final College Football Playoff rankings of the season following the Big Ten championship game. Despite losing to Oregon, Penn State ended the season ranked No. 4 by the selection committee following the conference championship games, but the Nittany Lions were forced to play in the first round as the top four seeds were reserved exclusively for the four highest-ranked conference champions. This new seeding format would also have given a first-round bye to the Texas Longhorns, who finished the regular season ranked No. 3 after losing in the SEC championship game to Georgia. Arizona State, the champions of the Big 12 last season, was ranked No. 12 by the committee but received the fourth first-round bye available as the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion. ACC champion Clemson was ranked No. 16 and secured a spot as the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion. Penn State took advantage of its home-field advantage in the first round with a victory over SMU that led to a Fiesta Bowl matchup and victory against Mountain West Conference champion Boise State in the quarterfinal round. Boise State was the fourth seed as the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion in the playoff, although the selection committee ranked the Broncos at No. 9 in the final rankings on selection day for the playoff field. Of course, if this new seeding system was in place last season, Penn State may have been without a home playoff game and at risk of suffering an early exit as each team with a bye in the College Football Playoff did last season. Penn State defeated Boise State, Oregon lost to Ohio State, Georgia lost to Notre Dame, and Arizona State came up short against Texas. Advertisement The sample size is just one year's worth of evidence but the committee clearly took to heart the conversations brewing about the structure with the seeding system with last year's first 12-team playoff in operation. The seeding and reading of the first-round bye was criticized by many going in and only saw the arguments against it strengthened with the four teams with a bye going down in their first respective games. We will see if this new change ultimately plays out the way many expect, but this new system does seemingly reward teams for their regular season success a bit more while diminishing the value of a conference championship slightly. Follow Kevin McGuire on Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Follow Nittany Lions Wire on X, Facebook, and Threads. This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: After one season of an expanded playoff, a big change is already coming
USA Today
23-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Where is Liberty University? What to know of Lady Flames amid NCAA softball tournament
Where is Liberty University? What to know of Lady Flames amid NCAA softball tournament Show Caption Hide Caption Watch Oregon softball players react as Ducks advance in NCAA tourney Watch as Oregon softball reacts after defeating Stanford in the Eugene NCAA Softball Regional at Jane Sanders Stadium. For the past several years, Liberty University has asserted its presence in the broader world of college athletics. The Flames' football team, which has played just seven seasons at the FBS level, had an undefeated regular season and made the Fiesta Bowl in 2023. The school's men's basketball team has made the NCAA Tournament in three of the past six seasons in which the event was held, a run highlighted by an upset of Mississippi State in 2019. Now, Liberty's softball program is making its mark. REQUIRED READING: Liberty vs. Texas A&M softball highlights: Flames eliminate No. 1 seed in NCAA regionals The Lady Flames stunned much of the college softball world with a pair of victories last weekend over Texas A&M in the 2025 NCAA softball tournament, sending Liberty to the super regional stage of the tournament for the first time in program history — and sending the tournament's No. 1 overall seed home at a surprisingly early juncture. At a stage of the tournament in which few national seeds lose, let alone the best team in the nation, Liberty managed to pull off the improbable. The Lady Flames may not be done, either. With a victory in a best-of-three super regional series against Oregon — the same school that stomped Liberty's football team by 39 in the Fiesta Bowl — they would advance to their first-ever Women's College World Series. As it prepares to try to make more program history, here's a closer look at Liberty: Where is Liberty University? Liberty University is located in Lynchburg, Virginia, about 115 miles west of Richmond. The school, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, was founded in 1971 by televangelist Jerry Falwell and academic Elmer L. Towns. At that time, the university was known as Lynchburg Baptist College before adopting its current name in 1984. With 16,000 students living on campus combined with an online enrollment of 124,000 for the 2024-25 academic year, Liberty is one of the largest universities in the country. In recent years, the school has become known for its prominent role in Republican politics, with the Washington Post describing it in 2015 as 'a bastion of the Christian right.' Given its religious affiliation, Liberty has strict code of conduct, with students forbidden from premarital sex, cohabitation, alcohol and drug use, and same-sex relationships, the last of which has made the university a frequent target of criticism from the LGBTQ community and elsewhere. REQUIRED READING: NCAA softball winners and losers: Texas A&M stunned; Oklahoma, Texas roll Liberty softball record Following its 3-1 record in the regional round, which included two victories against Texas A&M, Liberty improved to 50-13 this season. The 50 wins are the most in program history, breaking a tie with the Lady Flames' 2018 team, which went 49-13. This season marks the sixth time since 2018 that Liberty has made the NCAA softball tournament. Liberty softball schedule 2025 Here's a look at Liberty's past five games. To see the Lady Flames' full 2025 schedule, click here.
USA Today
23-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
College Football Playoff makes quick change to 12-team format
College Football Playoff makes quick change to 12-team format How would the College Football Playoff's updated seeding have impacted Penn State in 2024-25? After one year of the College Football Playoff fielding a 12-team bracket, a significant change is coming to the postseason for the 2025 season. On Thursday, the College Football Playoff announced it will give the four highest-ranked teams according to the selection committee's final rankings a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff with no requirement to be a conference champion. The five highest-ranked conference champions will still be guaranteed one spot in the 12-team playoff field, but a bye week is no longer guaranteed for the four highest-ranked champions. The first round of the playoff will still be played matching teams based on seeding for teams No. 5-12 (No. 5 hosting No. 12, No. 6 hosting No. 11, No. 7 hosting No. 10, and No. 8 hosting No. 9). Conference champions could have to go on the road in the first round, as Clemson did last season. If this seeding system were in place for the 2024 college football season, Penn State would have been given a first-round bye as one of the top four teams in the final College Football Playoff rankings of the season following the Big Ten championship game. Despite losing to Oregon, Penn State ended the season ranked No. 4 by the selection committee following the conference championship games, but the Nittany Lions were forced to play in the first round as the top four seeds were reserved exclusively for the four highest-ranked conference champions. This new seeding format would also have given a first-round bye to the Texas Longhorns, who finished the regular season ranked No. 3 after losing in the SEC championship game to Georgia. Arizona State, the champions of the Big 12 last season, was ranked No. 12 by the committee but received the fourth first-round bye available as the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion. ACC champion Clemson was ranked No. 16 and secured a spot as the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion. Penn State took advantage of its home-field advantage in the first round with a victory over SMU that led to a Fiesta Bowl matchup and victory against Mountain West Conference champion Boise State in the quarterfinal round. Boise State was the fourth seed as the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion in the playoff, although the selection committee ranked the Broncos at No. 9 in the final rankings on selection day for the playoff field. Of course, if this new seeding system was in place last season, Penn State may have been without a home playoff game and at risk of suffering an early exit as each team with a bye in the College Football Playoff did last season. Penn State defeated Boise State, Oregon lost to Ohio State, Georgia lost to Notre Dame, and Arizona State came up short against Texas. The sample size is just one year's worth of evidence but the committee clearly took to heart the conversations brewing about the structure with the seeding system with last year's first 12-team playoff in operation. The seeding and reading of the first-round bye was criticized by many going in and only saw the arguments against it strengthened with the four teams with a bye going down in their first respective games. We will see if this new change ultimately plays out the way many expect, but this new system does seemingly reward teams for their regular season success a bit more while diminishing the value of a conference championship slightly. Follow Kevin McGuire on Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Follow Nittany Lions Wire on X, Facebook, and Threads.
