SEATTLE — As 1000’s of Washington followers raced onto the sphere Saturday night time, the Michigan gamers walked off, certain for the showers, the bus, the airport and a flight house that may return them to campus at dawn.
The Huskies’ 27-17 victory resonated deep into the previous — in model and substance, it may have been a mid-Nineteen Eighties Rose Bowl victory by Don James over Bo Schembechler — but in addition signaled a surreal current framed by convention realignment.
The place the Wolverines have been headed, to SeaTac Airport after which throughout the Rockies, the Huskies will quickly observe.
Subsequent week, they play at Iowa — at 9 a.m. Pacific.
Welcome to the brand new Large Ten, Huskies. And Wolverines. And Bruins, Spartans, Badgers and everybody else.
After weeks of non-conference matchups performed on house fields, the league season has ramped up. So, too, have the cross-country journeys. You’ll by no means guess how these outcomes are enjoying out.
Groups touring a minimum of two time zones for convention matchups are 1-8 to date, and the lone win — Indiana over UCLA within the Rose Bowl — carries a major caveat: The Hoosiers have been coming off a Friday recreation, at house, in opposition to Western Illinois. (They’d an additional day to arrange and a cupcake to eat.)
The eight dropping groups which have traveled a number of time zones are USC (at Michigan and Minnesota), Michigan State (at Oregon), Washington (at Rutgers), Northwestern (at Washington), UCLA (at Penn State), Wisconsin (at USC), and Michigan (at Washington).
The listing of losses contains a number of next-level logistical hurdles: Washington and Michigan State had lengthy journeys on quick weeks (for Friday video games), whereas UCLA kicked at 9 a.m. Pacific in its blowout loss Saturday at Penn State — the identical begin time the Huskies will face subsequent weekend at Iowa.
To be clear: There’s extra to the losses famous above than taxing journey. Nevertheless it stands to motive that the affect of air miles logged and time zones crossed provides to the timeless challenges posed by matchups, accidents and errors.
We must also word that of the eight highway groups that crossed the Rockies and misplaced, solely USC was favored to win its matchup (at each Michigan and Minnesota).
Nevertheless, the pattern of woe holds up with the betting line accounted for:
Six of the eight dropping groups didn’t cowl the unfold — a failure price (75 %) that’s greater than anticipated (roughly 50 %) given the chance intrinsic to sports activities wagering.
And the 2 dropping groups that lined the unfold, Michigan State and UCLA, each misplaced in blowouts.
Whereas the pattern dimension (9 video games) can’t be thought of tiny, it actually isn’t sturdy at this level within the season.
Happily, extra proof will come subsequent weekend. Along with Washington’s date in Iowa Metropolis, Penn State visits USC, Ohio State heads to Oregon and Minnesota travels to UCLA.
We are going to proceed to observe Large Ten outcomes when lengthy journeys are concerned.
4 extra ideas on Week 6 developments …
1. The celebration at Husky Stadium on Saturday night time was comprehensible contemplating the opponent and the current historical past between the groups — specifically, Michigan’s victory within the nationwide championship recreation earlier this yr.
However of us, the Wolverines (4-2) aren’t superb.
They wanted a late comeback to beat USC (at house), survived a scare in opposition to Minnesota (at house) — due to a botched name by the officers — and have been blown out by Texas (at house).
This was Michigan’s first highway recreation.
Maybe the shift to quarterback Jack Tuttle, a seventh-year senior whose profession started at Utah in 2018, will spark an offensive resurgence.
However by the point December arrives, we may very nicely look again on this end result as nothing greater than a hard-earned victory over a 7-5 group. Michigan has steep challenges forward in opposition to Oregon (house), Indiana (highway) and Ohio State (highway).
That mentioned, the Huskies dedicated simply two penalties, a marked enchancment over prior video games. If the disciplined play continues, they need to win a minimum of two of their ultimate six and climb into the postseason.
2. Oregon State wanted a game-tying subject objective within the ultimate seconds and two additional time durations to repel Colorado State, however the 39-31 victory was well worth the effort in each current and future tense.
It was completely important for the Beavers’ bowl math.
At 4-1, they want two wins of their ultimate seven video games to qualify for the postseason. However the rugged again half of the schedule options dates with Cal, Boise State and Washington State.
For the huge highway forward, they’ll thank quarterback Gevani McCoy and tailback Anthony Hankerson, who mixed for 204 yards on the bottom and 5 speeding touchdowns in opposition to Colorado State.
The protection wasn’t almost as productive, nevertheless. The Rams, who had been averaging 18.5 factors and 328.5 yards per recreation, churned out 31 and 439 in opposition to the Beavers.
With a few of the high playmakers in school soccer ready throughout their stretch run — the listing contains Boise State tailback Ashton Jeanty and Washington State quarterback John Mateer — the Beavers had higher fortify their protection.
3. It was an 18-hour day for Cal soccer. The primary 17 have been supreme; the final one was a nightmare.
The ESPN ‘School GameDay’ manufacturing couldn’t have gone any higher; Marshawn Lynch’s look was every little thing we hoped; and the Cal crowd at 6 a.m. simply cleared the ‘GameDay’ bar.
The Bears’ rollicking day continued as Stanford, UCLA and USC — the three groups Cal followers despise — all misplaced in both blowout or excruciating trend.
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And for 50 minutes Saturday night time, the Bears dominated eighth-ranked Miami and took on the looks of an ACC title contender.
Then got here a whole and utter Callapse.
The Bears misplaced their focus and their urgency and let the Hurricanes climb again from a 20-point deficit early within the fourth quarter to flee Berkeley with a 39-38 victory.
The Canes received the sport as a lot as Cal misplaced it, notably with a large defensive breakdown that allowed Miami to finish a 77-yard catch-and-run from quarterback Cam Ward to receiver Xavier Restrepo with 90 seconds remaining.
For Cal, the problem is evident: Don’t let one crushing defeat flip into two losses with a foul efficiency subsequent weekend at Pittsburgh.
4. The very best particular person story of the season rolled on by way of one other dominant Saturday.
Boise State tailback Ashton Jeanty added to his preposterous season with 186 yards and three touchdowns in a blowout victory over Utah State.
Jeanty is averaging 206.2 yards by way of 5 video games and is inside vary of breaking what has lengthy been thought of unbreakable: Barry Sanders’ legendary single-season file of two,628 yards.
As a result of he performs for Boise State and within the Mountain West, Jeanty has a slim path to the Heisman Trophy.
But when he tops Sanders’ hallowed mark, the calculation modifications.
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