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Bus carrying JUCO football players crashes, killing four, injuring 42

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By John TaylorSep 17, 2016, 8:49 PM EDT

We don’t normally cover much when it comes to junior college football, but, unfortunately, an absolute and utter tragedy has brought us to that level of the sport.

According to multiple media outlets, including the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, a bus carrying the members of a South Carolina junior college football crashed, killing four passengers and injuring 42 others.  Eight of those injured were listed in serious condition at one local hospital, while two others were airlifted to another.  The injured were taken to multiple hospitals; the conditions of those at the other hospitals are unknown.

Whether the dead were players, coaches, football staffers or some combination of the three has not been confirmed.

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol confirmed to WCNC-TV that several of the passengers were ejected from the bus.

USA Today writes that “the bus was carrying members of the Ramah Juco Academy football team, as well as some players from Clinton College, a christian school from Rock Hill, S.C.”  The team was on its way to Fayetteville, NC, for a game Saturday when the accident occurred.  From WNCN-TV:

University of God’s Chosen was set to play the Ramah team on Saturday afternoon at Lake Rim Park in Fayetteville, Terry told CBS North Carolina. Both teams are made up of junior or community college students who wish to play football, but don’t attend a school that has a team.

…

Ramah Juco Academy’s website says their program is new and that “we require that Ramah student athletes attend one of the local community colleges in the area.”

ABC11.com reports that the bus crashed into a highway overpass after blowing a tire.  The television station did report that the team’s head coach was one of the 42 injured.

Some parents of the players were following the bus and stopped to provide aid until medical personnel arrived.

Cal drops Texas in a wild game to put Big 12 playoff hopes in peril

BERKELEY, CA - SEPTEMBER 17: Wide receiver Jordan Veasy #15 of the California Golden Bears can't get his feet in bounds for a touchdown against safety P.J. Locke III #11 of the Texas Longhorns in the first quarter on September 17, 2016 at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
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By Bryan FischerSep 18, 2016, 3:00 AM EDT

Just three weeks into the season and the Big 12’s chances of putting a team into the College Football Playoff are suddenly in peril. After Saturday night, one probably wouldn’t be all that wrong in saying they’re hanging on by a thread.

That’s the case after the conference’s top-ranked team Texas fell to California 50-43 in just about the wildest way possible.

After a back-and-forth shootout of a first half gave way to a scoreless third quarter, the two teams traded scores once again in the final 15 minutes before Cal quarterback (and Texas Tech transfer) Davis Webb marched the Bears down the field on a seven play, 65 yard touchdown drive. That gave the Bears the lead for what turned out to be for good with 3:41 left in the game but it wasn’t quite that easy for either squad.

Texas ended up getting the ball back needing a score to tie but promptly went three and out. Head coach Charlie Strong bizarrely punted the ball away with the Longhorns on their own 21 yard line and just under two minutes left on the clock. That was the only opening the Bears needed to salt away the game but not before some strange Pac-12 after dark magic popped up in Berkeley.

Needing just a yard to ice the game away for good on third down, Cal tailback Vic Enwere busted through the UT defense for what appeared to be a 55 yard touchdown run. But in a move that was appropriate for the alma mater of DeSean Jackson, Enwere actually dropped the ball before crossing the goal line.

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Despite a Texas player picking up the ball as it rolled on the ground in the end zone, officials ruled that there was “no immediate recovery” and Cal was allowed to keep the ball. Two kneel-downs later and the Bears had bizarrely concluded a two-year sweep of the Lone Star State school.

Freshman quarterback Shane Buechele played solidly in his first road start (196 yards, one TD, one INT) for the Longhorns but missed time early after suffering an injury. The night was his counterpart’s in blue and gold though, with Webb throwing for 396 yards and four scores. Receiver Chad Hansen went off against a shaky Texas secondary to the tune of 196 yards and two touchdowns as the primary target in the passing game.

As big of a win as it was for Sonny Dykes’ Golden Bears though, it was a crusher for Strong’s young Longhorns and in particular the Big 12. The loss gives the league just two undefeated teams after three weeks and likely none in the top 15 of the polls after Oklahoma was crushed by Ohio State on Saturday night.

The Big 12 isn’t completely out of the running to place a team in the final four but the result in Berkeley coupled with the one in Norman certainly makes it an uphill battle in 2016 for a conference that has already been left out of the playoff once before.

Josh Rosen and a stifling defense help power UCLA past BYU

PROVO, UT - SEPTEMBER 17: Quarterback Josh Rosen #3 of the UCLA Bruins looks to pass the ball in the first quarter against the Brigham Young Cougars at LaVell Edwards Stadium on September 17, 2016 in Provo, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images)
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By Bryan FischerSep 18, 2016, 1:56 AM EDT

UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen has received almost all of the attention for UCLA this year but took a bit of a back seat to his teammates on the other side of the ball on Saturday night.

The Bruins defense put together their best effort in a long, long time against BYU to leave Provo with a 17-14 win that was a much more dominant outing than the score line indicated.

The Cougars managed just 0.9 yards per rush, failed to get much of anything going in the passing game and saw quarterback Taysom Hill throw one interception and record four sacks. While there was plenty of issues on the BYU offense, the fact of the matter was that the team from Los Angeles simply had defenders that looked faster, stronger and quicker on just about every snap.

It was a good thing that the defense rose to the occasion for Jim Mora too because the Bruins offense still hasn’t found much of a rhythm this season outside of their quarterback making some NFL-caliber throws. Rosen finished the night 26-of-40 for 307 yards, two scores and a pick but was only able to pick up six third down conversions all game in a bit of a one-man effort.

Nate Starks made his season debut at tailback and rushed for 39 yards on 15 carries as part of a mediocre ground game against a tough BYU front seven. The team’s leading rusher, Soso Jamabo, did not even suit up for UCLA while backup Bolu Olorunfunmi chipped in with 15 yards in limited action.

The win rounds out the non-conference slate for the Bruins and sets up a big showdown next Saturday at the Rose Bowl with defending conference champion Stanford. The Cardinal have been the one team that Mora has not been able to solve since arriving in Westwood but if the defense plays like it did against BYU, it could be an interesting Pac-12 contest between the two division favorites.

No. 3 Ohio State dismantles No. 14 Oklahoma

Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett (16) passes during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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By Zach BarnettSep 18, 2016, 12:49 AM EDT

It was a heavyweight bout the college football public waited three-and-a-half decades, plus an extra 90 minutes, to see. But in the end, the third ever meeting between the top two programs in the history of the AP poll wasn’t much of a fight as No. 3 Ohio State rolled No. 14 Oklahoma 45-24 in Norman.

After a three-and-out on their first possession, the Buckeyes scored six of the next seven times they touched the ball. The deluge started with a 36-yard Curtis Samuel run and continued with a 68-yard Jerome Baker interception on a tipped 4th-and-3 pass to give Ohio State a 14-0 lead at the 4:34 mark of the first quarter.

Oklahoma answered with a 97-yard Joe Mixon kickoff return for a touchdown. But replay showed Mixon actually dropped the ball at yard 96. The play was not reviewed, however, and the score stood.

Ohio State (3-0) responded, though, with an 89-yard drive capped by the first of four Noah Brown touchdown catches from the arm of J.T. Barrett. Barrett found Brown from 37 yards out one play after another interception of Baker Mayfield and, with just six seconds to go before the half, a 21-yarder that Brown pinned against defender Micah Brown‘s back to give the Buckeyes a 35-17 halftime lead.

Barrett found Brown again, from eight yards out this time, to cap Ohio State’s drive to open the second half and push the edge to 42-17.

Oklahoma (1-2) notched its only score of the second half when Mayfield found tight end Mark Andrews for a 5-yard score at the 4:06 mark of the third quarter, but never seriously threatened beyond that.

Barrett played like the true Heisman contender in a showdown of stiffarm hopefuls, hitting 14-of-20 passes for 152 yards and four touchdowns and no interceptions while rushing 17 times for 74 yards. Mike Weber added 18 carries for 123 yards, and Samuel carried 11 times for 98 yards and a score.

For Oklahoma, Mayfield hit 17-of-32 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns, but his two interceptions proved extremely costly. The combination of Mixon and Samaje Perine combined to rush 26 times for 138 yards.

Ohio State enters Big Ten play now squarely in the Playoff hunt and an undeniable heavyweight in the 2016 title chase. Oklahoma, though, faces a season where a Big 12 title is still on the table, but chances of winning the program’s first national title since 2000 are all but gone.

Bonkers in Berkeley: Cal leads Texas 35-33 in wild first half shootout

Texas quarterback Tyrone Swoopes attempts to break the tackle of California's Luke Rubenzer during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
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By Bryan FischerSep 18, 2016, 12:45 AM EDT

You just knew that a late night college football game involving two schools from Berkeley and Austin was bound to get weird. California and Texas certainly delivered on that front in the first half on Saturday.

The Bears took a narrow 35-33 lead into the locker room thanks to a simply bonkers sequence to end the half that pretty much summed the night up for both teams.

Texas freshman Brandon Jones had just blocked a punt that rolled through the back of the end zone for a safety and a 33-28 lead with 1:38 left before halftime. Freshman phenom Shane Buechele, who suffered a hard hit to the chest and temporarily left the game, returned at quarterback the following series and promptly threw an interception that Cal safety Luke Rubenzer returned to the Texas 24 yard line.

Two plays later, Bears quarterback Davis Webb dropped an absolute perfect pass into the arms of Chad Hansen to improbably give Cal the lead after the offense spent most of the game playing catch up. It was the third touchdown throw of the night for Webb, a former Texas Tech signal-caller who has seen his fair share of the Longhorns.

Aside from the interception, his counterpart Buechele was impressive in his first road start in college, finding the end zone in impressive fashion when he a fired a 41-yard strike to a waiting Jacorey Warrick in the end zone. The UT offense didn’t seem to miss much of a beat with Buechele out and backup Tyrone Swoopes in, with the latter leading the team on two touchdown drives to help keep pace with the Bears.

Still, neither head coach can be all that happy with their defense after seeing plenty of big plays, missed tackles and numerous mental mistakes. Of course for those of us at home, it makes for must-see late night college football action that is bound to have a crazy second half encore.