#Nuggets: A thriller in the Swamp, Ohio State wins ugly, and Georgia wins spectacularly

NUGGETS

Ohio State grinds its way to a win over Notre Dame. Ryan Day's offense didn't look like we last saw it as Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison, Jr., and company ran relay races up and down the Rose Bowl turf.... but his defense didn't either.

No. 2 Ohio State limited No. 2 Notre Dame to 253 yards in a 21-10 win. It was clear Notre Dame was not going to allow first-time starter Tyler Buchner to lose the game with his arm, throwing just 18 passes against 30 runs. Buchner did hit 54-yard strike to Lorenzo Styles, a 32-yard gain to Brenden Lenzy, and a 31-yard connection to Matt Salerno, which also meant his other 15 throws totaled just 60 yards. 

Notre Dame carried a 10-7 lead late into the third quarter, until Notre Dame dialed up a double safety blitz on 3rd-and-11, and CJ Stroud found Xavier Johnson in single coverage on a post for a 24-yard touchdown. The Irish reached the Ohio State 41 on the ensuing possession, but Salerno committed offensive pass interference to put Notre Dame in a 1st-and-25, and Notre Dame's offense essentially exited Ohio Stadium after that point. Over the game's final 14:13, Notre Dame ran six plays for minus-2 yards. 

Leading 14-10, Ohio State mounted a 14-play, 95-yard, 7-minute drive where running back Miyan Williams carried seven times for 49 yards, covering the final 34 yards by himself on five consecutive rushes. 

"We just beat the No. 5 team in the country by 11 points. I couldn't be any prouder of the way we played," Ryan Day said. "A lot of people questioned our toughness after last year. Well, you look at the film and be the judge."

The Utah-Florida game was fantastic college football theater. Look, it's early. All we can do at this point is guess where these teams -- all of the teams -- will be come December. But if you told me Utah-Florida, which on Saturday pitted the No. 7 team against an unranked challenger, pitted two top-15 or top-10 teams, I wouldn't be surprised.

Utah descended from the mountains into the Swamp and battled for 60 minutes. The Utes churned out 230 yards on 5.9 yards a carry, and quarterback Cameron Rising totaled 307 total yards. 

Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson was equally good, if not better. On 35 total touches, Richardson traveled 274 yards and scored three touchdowns, plus one spectacular 2-point conversion.

In the second half, Utah mounted drives of 71, 89, 73 and 69 yards, not punting once. But in criss-crossing the field four times, the Utes mustered just 13 points. Their opening possession produced a 2nd-and-goal from the 1-yard line but ended in a turnover on downs, and their final chance, which began with 85 seconds left and the score 29-26 against them, ended when Rising's attempt to force a ball into coverage resulted in an interception by Gator linebacker Amari Burney with 17 seconds left. 

Utah's Playoff chances may have died with that play -- no Pac-12 team has ever gone 10-0 in conference play, and no 2-loss team has ever reached the CFP -- but if so, they died a beautiful death. 

Houston-UTSA was the game of the day. The only game on Saturday to feature two 12-win teams from 2021 and two conference favorites in 2022 lived up to the billing.

For three quarters, No. 24 Houston couldn't match up with UTSA physically. The Roadrunners led 21-7, and only one of the Cougars' first eight possessions trekked more than 26 yards.

But Houston opened the fourth quarter with a touchdown, intercepted UTSA quarterback Frank Harris, then scored a play later to tie the game at 21 with 12:19 to play. After forcing a Roadrunner punt, Houston seemingly locked the game up when they mounted an 18-play, 10-minute, 30-second drive that ended with a 35-yard Bubba Baxa field goal with 23 seconds to play. Turns out, the game was just getting started.

Harris threw a pair of darts to move from his own 25 to the Houston 20, and Jared Sackett sent the game to overtime with a 37-yard boot. The teams traded field goals in overtime, then traded touchdowns and 2-point conversions until Houston pulled out a 37-35 win in the third extra frame. 

Sources indicate Georgia is still terrifying. We all knew No. 3 Georgia would beat No. 11 Oregon. Flying cross country to play the defending national champions in a de facto home game was too tall a task for anyone, especially a program under a brand new, first-time head coach. But we didn't know the Dawgs would claw the feathers off the Ducks like that. 

Georgia's first seven possessions ended in the end zone en route to a 49-3 win over, allegedly, the 11th best team in the country. The formerly-maligned Stetson Bennett went 25-of-31 for 368 yards, becoming the first Georgia quarterback in 25 years to complete 80 percent of his passes in a game, per ESPN. In all, Georgia played like one of the most talented team in the country. Which, of course, they are.

Kirby Smart, being Kirby Smart, made it sound like the Georgia coaches decided to score 49 points and gain 571 yards on 62 plays as a recruiting ploy, which explains how Georgia got those 15 5-stars. “I think when you watch what they did today, if you’re watching from home, you’re saying, ‘Man, I’d love to come play in that offense.'"

No one's declaring Georgia as a repeat champion in Week 1, but it's going to take an extraordinary effort, from anyone, to beat this team again in 2022. 

They were day drinking all over North Carolina. Let's start in Greenville, where things were tame by comparison.

No. 13 NC State took a 21-7 lead over East Carolina to the locker room, then didn't score again. East Carolina pulled within 21-14 with a six and a half minute drive, then tied the game.... cut the deficit to one with 2:58 to play. Kicker Owen Daffer missed the extra point. NC State couldn't salt the game away -- they went 3-and-out, punting on 4th-and-10 -- and ECU had a 42-yard field goal with four seconds left to win the game. Daffer missed again, and NC State survived a brush with local embarrassment.

At the same time in Boone, North Carolina led Appalachian State 41-21 with 15 minutes and 11 seconds to play, and things were just getting started. 

All of the below happened in the fourth quarter alone.

Consider how stupid this game got: App missed a 2-point conversion to take the lead with 31 seconds left and missed a 2-point try to tie the game with nine seconds left! That's the first time I've used an exclamation point in eight years of writing this column! 

When Chase Brice overshot a backpedaling Dashaun Davis to take a 57-56 lead, all UNC had to do was fall on the ball. Instead, Bryson Nesbit scored the most reckless touchdown in college football history when he returned the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown, which put the App offense back on the field.

A 43-yard kick return, a 22-yard completion and a 26-yard completion later, App scored and needed two points to force a truly incomprehensible overtime. Brice's keeper ended inches short of the goal line.

App ran 31 plays, gained 363 yards of offense, scored 40 points... in the fourth quarter alone... and lost. 

Mack Brown's comment:

FRIES

Seen and Heard 

Seen 

Friday just wasn't Virginia Tech's night.

Most everything went right for Arizona against San Diego State. Most.

Why do players do offseason conditioning? So, in overtime, Houston quarterback Clayton Tune can have enough gas in the tank to leap from the 4-yard line and flip into the end zone.

Heard 

Despite not scoring a touchdown, Kirk Ferentz is riding with Spencer Petras at quarterback. In a 7-3 win, Iowa scored on a field goal and two safeties.

“I would too with our offense." -- Lane Kiffin on if fans got bored watching No. 21 Ole Miss go scoreless in the second half of their 28-10 win over Troy. 

"It destroyed us." -- Jerry Kill on leaving Minnesota in 2015. Kill returned to Minneapolis on Friday with his New Mexico State team. The Gophers won, 38-0.

The Super 16. Our ballots are not due until Tuesday this week, but here's how I'd vote on all action through Saturday.

1. Alabama
2. Georgia
3. Ohio State
4. Clemson
5. Notre Dame
6. Baylor
7. Florida
8. Michigan
9. Utah
10. Oklahoma State
11. Arkansas
12. Miami
13. BYU
14. Michigan State
15. Oklahoma
16. Texas A&M

Odds and Ends

a. Mike MacIntyre and Joe Moorehead earned the first wins of their respective regimes on Thursday night, but each had to wrestle away victory from their FCS opponents. Akron trailed St. Francis 13-10 at the half and came back to win 30-23 in overtime. FIU trailed Bryant 16-0 in the second quarter before fighting back to win 38-37, also in overtime.

b. These guys got pats on the head in film study this weekend.

c. Pat Narduzzi poked Neal Brown in the chest with the lit end of his victory cigar on Thursday night. 

d. Virginia Tech was not as fortunate as its southern neighbors. In the Former James Franklin Coordinator Bowl, former Penn State OC Ricky Rahne led Old Dominion to a 20-17 upset of former Penn State DC Brent Pry.

e. An update on Jim Harbaugh's attempt to split the baby. Cade McNamara started and went 9-of-18 for 136 yards and a touchdown -- the definition of modest -- in a 51-7 demolition of Colorado State. JJ McCarthy (4-of-4 for 30 yards in relief) starts next week against Hawai'i.

f. James Madison did enough damage with 63 scholarships, and the Dukes will likely be downright dangerous with 85. JMU's first game as an FBS team ended in a 44-7 destruction of Middle Tennessee.

g. We have our first FCS over FBS upsets of the year: William & Mary 41, Charlotte 24; Delaware 14, Navy 7.

h. Speaking of firsts, coaches that earned the first win of their collegiate head coaching careers this weekend: Michael Desormeaux (Louisiana 24, Southeastern Louisiana 7); Mike Elko (Duke 30, Temple 0); Tony Elliott (Virginia 34, Richmond 17); Rhett Lashlee (SMU 48, North Texas 10); Joey McGuire (Texas Tech 63, Murray State 10); and Brent Venables (No. 9 Oklahoma 45; UTEP 13).

i. Houston-UTSA's triple OT affair was not the longest game of the day. That honor goes to Liberty's 29-27 defeat of Southern Miss, which needed four extra frames to declare a victor.

j. 2022 Vanderbilt through two games: 105 points. 2021 Vanderbilt through eight games: 106 points.

k. Rutgers mounted a 96-yard drive to post a come-from-behind, 22-21 win at Boston College.

l. Two things were apparent for No. 23 Cincinnati in its 31-24 loss at No. 19 Arkansas: 1) Cincinnati was clearly playing with a lot of new players in key positions, primarily quarterback Ben Bryant, and 2) Cincy's winning tradition did not graduate with Desmond Ridder, Sauce Gardner and co. To play a top-20 team within a touchdown on the road shows Luke Fickell's team could very easily 3-peat atop the American.

m. Arizona looked like a completely different team in its 38-20 win over San Diego State, largely because it pretty much is a completely different team. Washington State transfer Jayden de Laura threw for 299 yards and four touchdowns, and UTEP transfer Jacob Cowing caught eight passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns. 

n. Safe to say UCLA has not caught Big Ten Fever.

o. Speaking of the Big Ten, USC handled Rice 66-14 in Lincoln Riley's debut. Riley's offense only accounted for 45 of those 66, as the Trojans' defense tallied three pick-sixes. 

p. In regards to Iowa's 7-3 barn-burner:

r. Syracuse thumped Louisville, 31-7, in an absolutely terrible result for Louisville. Scott Satterfield is now 7-12 in ACC play since 2020. 

DESSERT

We leave college football for this week's closer, and for a good reason.