Nevada RB Luke Lippincott, the WAC's leading rusher last year, tore his ACL against Texas Tech and will be out for the year. Time to take that pesky "quarterback" tag off Colin Kaepernick.
Everyone knows that Kaepernick is a much better scrambler than he is a passer, so why doesn't Nevada stop kidding themselves by making Kaepernick overthrow out routes on a consistent basis? Even better, Kaepernick could line up alongside former starting QB Nick Graziano in some sort of bizarro two-quarterback system. We're sure Chris Ault could think up an artillery related name for that formation. The B.B. gun? The sawed-off shotgun? The M80?
For Nevada, the news is tragic, considering how key Lippincott was to their success. The Wolf Pack hung tough with Texas Tech through three quarters before things fell apart and the final score ballooned to 35-19. It appears Lippincott's injury might already be affecting his teammates' clarity of thought and reason.
"Of course we should've won that game. There's no doubt in my mind we should've won that game," said Pack safety Uche Anyanwu, who had one of the Pack's two interceptions.
Nevada travels to Missouri next week.
Hawaii
In what will certainly go down in island lore if only because island lore has loose admission requirements, Hawaii QB Tyler Graunke led the Warriors to a come-from-behind 36-17 win over Weber State on Saturday. Yes, THE Weber State.
The Warriors were down 17-7 at the intermission when Graunke was summoned to open the second half in place of Inoke Funaki, who had suffered a concussion.
We can only imagine that "concussion" is a euphemism for "sucking it up against Weber State."
Graunke, as you'll remember once we've told you, was suspended for much of the spring and fall for academic reasons, and it took him, oh, about a week or so to go from fourth on the Hawaii depth chart to No. 1. Let's hear it for depth!
"I'm so proud of him," said Greg McMackin, who earned his first victory as UH's head coach.
McMackin then took everyone out for giant classes of Coca-Cola.
Louisiana Tech
Turns out, Mississippi State is not nearly as good as Kansas.
One week after earning an upset over an SEC school, LaTech failed to score in a 29-0 loss to the Jayhawks. But don't try telling the Bulldogs' beat writers that it was lopsided!
Louisiana Tech was unable to capitalize on its scoring chances Saturday and 13th ranked Kansas pulled away for a 29-0 win before 48,621 fans at Memorial Stadium.
Sure, that's one way of putting it.
Apparently, the Bulldogs had multiple chances in the red zone against Kansas, including one that culminated a 22-play, nine minute drive. Yet each time they came away with nothing. Still, they allowed Kansas QB Todd Reesing to throw for a career-high 412 yards and allowed big plays courtesy of some "tackling problems" (head coach Derek Dooley's words, not ours). Try spinning that, beat writers!
Idaho
Oh yeah, the Vandals won for the first time in almost a year. Not against a Division I-A team, of course.
Utah State
We could use the Aggies' latest blowout loss as another opportunity to pile them with ridicule and non sequitur jokes, but we're not going to do that. We're taking the high road, for although USU allowed a school record 688 yards to Oregon, gave up 66 points to the Ducks, and featured Sean Setzer for long portions of the game, the Aggies actually scored 24 points. And that, my friends, is as good as a victory.
Besides, the Oregon players already beat us to the put-downs.
"It felt like high school all over again," said Oregon QB Chris Harper, a freshman. "That's not downgrading Utah State, but we were pushing the gas."
Actually, we're pretty sure that's downgrading Utah State.
As an aside to Utah State head coach Brent Guy: you need to start QB Diondre Borel. He was 16-for-24 with 157 yards and two touchdowns. He might help you win games if you're interested in doing that sort of thing.
San Jose State
Go figure. The Spartans almost lose to Division 1-AA UC Davis last week then almost upset Nebraska this week. Come again?
San Jose outgained the Huskers 353-315 overall and though they trailed 14-9 after three quarters, they easily could have led if their kicking game hadn't cost them seven points the first half. Will Johnson missed an extra point and a 41-yard field goal and Jared Strubeck bounced a 32-yarder off the right upright.
Laces out, right Dick Tomey?
The Spartans get San Diego State next week, which should mean they will revert to playing down to their competition.