Saturday Roundup Part One: Penn State, UCLA Escape

The first set of Saturday games for Week One of the college football season turned out a few surprising thrillers.

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Penn State and UCF did not disappoint in Ireland early Saturday morning as what appeared to initially be a dud turned into an exciting finish. The Nittany Lions built up a 13-3 lead into the third quarter before the Knights fought back and made a game out of this. UCF appeared to take the lead 24-23 with slightly more than a minute left before Christian Hackenberg led a game winning drive that was capped off by Sam Ficken’s fourth field goal of the day with no time left on the clock, giving Penn State a 26-24 lead. On that drive, Hackenberg showed he was able to improvise and convert on a fourth-down play.

The James Franklin-era kicked off in exciting fashion, but more importantly, some of his young skill players showed what they can do. Hackenberg is definitely not a finished product, but after 454 yards and engineering the game-winning drive, the sophomore showed his clutch gene and his ability to improvise and make plays.

Ficken, meanwhile, has come a long way as a senior. After missing 5 field goals to lose a game two years ago, going4 for 4 and nailing the game winning field goal this game, his mental toughness is in much better position. Forget about the fact that all of the field goals were easy kicks; it still takes some mental toughness to be reliable when it matters most.

The Nittany Lions may have also found two stars in Geno Lewis and DaeSean Hamilton at receiver. Both had more than 150 yards receiving.

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As for UCF, Blake Bortles is still a loss, but Justin Holman definitely showed he can lead George O’Leary’s squad. Throwing for 204 yards and a touchdown and completing 9 of 14 passes is a very nice stat line, but what sticks out is the go-ahead drive he engineered. After fighting to get UCF back in the game in the second half, Holman completed 3 passes for 65 yards and then ran for a 6-yard touchdown to take the lead for UCF with a little over a minute left. Were it not for the last drive, he would have been a hero.

Finally, Ed Cunningham gave possibly the worst analysis on that last drive any commentator could have given. He kept criticizing Penn State for its clock management. There was a minute left and the Nittany Lions only needed to get into field goal range with three timeouts. Why shouldn’t they run the clock right there, especially when they were moving the ball? That was perfect clock management by Franklin, allowing an easy game winning field goal to be set up. All in all, it was a great start to the first Saturday of the college football season.

Ohio State Will be Fine

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The world is now going to freak out because the first game with J.T. Barrett and without Braxton Miller, the Ohio State Buckeyes struggled with Navy for three quarters of football. What did you expect?

Navy’s triple option is all about ball control and limiting the possessions for another team, which keeps the quick-attack spread offense of Ohio State off the field. The Midshipmen did exactly what they wanted to do with more than 32 minutes in time of possession and rushing for 370 yards.

None of this should have been a shocker when you take into account how weak Ohio State’s defense was last year. The unit could get exposed at times, and with that happening, Barrett was unable to get into a rhythm, which is crucial for a brand new starter. But unfortunately for Navy, Ohio State’s biggest weakness on defense is in the secondary, and they can’t throw. So this wasn’t going to last, and it didn’t. Ohio State pulling away 34-17 in the fourth quarter is exactly what should have been expected.

UCLA Escapes Virginia

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The UCLA Bruins pulled out what shouldn’t have been a close win against Virginia, 28-20, but this shouldn’t have been that shocking. Okay, so maybe they should have won by a couple more scores, but UCLA was on the road and is still very young. Before we freak out about this game, remember that Virginia returned starters all over the field as they enter Mike London’s fifth year and is a Power Five team that is good enough to go bowling. This shouldn’t have been as easy of a win as people thought it would be, and it wasn’t.

Brett Hundley definitely dropped out of the Heisman Watch, at least for this week, but on paper 20 of 33 for more than 240 yards is nice, even if he didn’t have a touchdown. The Bruins once again defied the group talk of Pac 12 defenses, as this defense score three touchdowns today.

What’s encouraging for Virginia, however, is that they may have found a quarterback in backup Matt Johns, who had 2 touchdowns as he replaced Greyson Lambert late in the second quarter. This is a team that has lots of experience, and London has a great chance to get this team back to a bowl game this year.

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