Awards for First Half of 2015 College Football Season
Cinderella once sang, "Don't know what you got till it's gone."
College football fans halfway know what that means, seeing as we've officially hit the middle portion of the 2015 season. And what a season's it's been already.
Michigan State's scoop-and-score on Michigan's mishandled punt might be the craziest thing a college football game has produced in years. Utah might be the best team in the nation. Georgia Tech, Auburn, Texas, Oregon, USC and Tennessee have taken some turns being among the worst.
Iowa is 7-0. What is happening?
With the first seven weeks behind us, let's take a look back at some of the 2015 season's best and worst moments so far. Put on your Tuesday best, roll out the red carpet and get ready for Bleacher Report's official midseason awards show.
Best Team: Utah
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Let's go ahead and get this thing rolling by ticking off everyone. First, we present college football's best team through the first half of the season: Utah.
The funny thing is, the Utes might not actually be playing the best football in the Pac-12 currently. There's a legitimate argument to be made for Stanford even though the Cardinal have a Week 1 loss to Northwestern, a perplexing result now more than ever.
However, it's hard to argue against what Utah has accomplished. Among the teams the Utes have conquered are Michigan, Oregon (62-20 in Eugene, too) and Cal. The defense is, as you would expect, stingy. The combination of quarterback Travis Wilson and running back Devontae Booker is one of the best one-two punches in college football.
Utah doesn't face a team currently ranked in either major top-25 poll for the rest of the season, but that doesn't mean the challenges aren't there. It starts in Week 8 with a road trip to USC, which, talent-wise, can still compete with anyone. Road games in Washington and Arizona in back-to-back weeks in November could be tricky, too.
Overall, though, the regular-season path is fairly straightforward if Utah really wants to surprise the college football world and make a run to the playoff.
Best Player (Offense): LSU Running Back Leonard Fournette
2 of 18If Tony Barnhart, who has covered the SEC for a long time, thinks you look like Herschel Walker, then you probably look like Herschel Walker.
LSU sophomore running back Leonard Fournette is in the midst of a special season. Not only does he lead the country with 200 rushing yards per game and 14 touchdowns, but LSU is undefeated and in the thick of the playoff hunt.
What's more is Fournette and LSU didn't play their season opener against McNeese State due to weather, meaning his numbers could be even bigger.
But Fournette has been a joy to watch. His blend of speed, agility and power are rare. He's a determined runner, too—violent, even. Should he be allowed to go pro after this year (a moot, hypothetical argument, mind you)? How about we just sit back and bask in one of the great college football players in a while?
Best Player (Defense): Penn State Defensive End Carl Nassib
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Some of college football's best stories involve walk-ons. Such is the case for Penn State defensive end Carl Nassib. As ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg chronicled, Nassib came to Penn State in 2011 undersized and under-recruited.
"Nassib was a lanky, svelte lineman in high school, barely more than 200 pounds and completely below the recruiting radar," Rittenberg wrote.
Through the midway point of the season, Nassib leads college football with 11.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss. He's also earning plenty of midseason All-American hype and doing wonders for his draft stock.
In a conference that features premier pass-rushers such as Ohio State's Joey Bosa and Michigan State's Shilique Calhoun, Nassib is having himself a banner year.
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Breakout Star: Stanford Running Back Christian McCaffrey
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One thing Stanford lacked in 2014 was a feature, every-down running back. Remound Wright led the offense with just 135 carries and 601 yards.
Through six games, Cardinal running back Christian McCaffrey has nearly as many carries (130) and 844 yards. His 21.67 carries per game is up there with past Stanford running backs like Tyler Gaffney and Stepfan Taylor.
In 2014, McCaffrey had just 42 carries for 300 yards and no touchdowns. This year, he leads the country with 253 all-purpose yards per game and has rushed for at least 100 yards in each of the last four games.
He's been a huge part of igniting a Stanford offense that was lifeless in a Week 1 loss to Northwestern, and he's now getting Heisman chatter from pundits such as Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated. If McCaffrey and Stanford stay on this path, it's going to be hard to leave them out of the playoff discussion for much longer.
Best Freshman: Texas A&M Wide Receiver Christian Kirk
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Texas A&M has produced some outstanding wide receivers in recent years under head coach Kevin Sumlin. The next great one appears to be freshman Christian Kirk.
The early enrollee leads A&M with 39 catches—nearly twice as many as the next leading receiver on the team, Josh Reynolds—for 609 yards and four touchdowns. His 101.5 yards per game is the most among all freshmen in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He's also a game-changer on special teams with two punt returns for a touchdown. His 1,170 all-purpose yards ranks him sixth in college football.
If that's not the best definition of an impact freshman, then what is? Kirk has been nothing short of jaw-dropping as a first-year player.
Best Coach: Justin Fuente, Memphis
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Looking for a Cinderella in this year's playoff race? Look no further than Memphis. After beating—and we mean delivering a smackdown—of Ole Miss in Week 7, the Tigers are the hot "Group of Five" team that could very well crash the final four.
And head coach Justin Fuente is the architect behind it all. This is a guy who took over a program that won two games in 2011. Immediately, Fuente began making improvements. Memphis doubled its win total in 2012, and after a setback in '13, it won 10 games in '14. This year, the Tigers are 6-0.
Some tough tests remain, however. Games against Navy, at Houston and at Temple in November will test the Memphis-playoff hypothesis. In fact, that Nov. 14 game at Houston could be one of the games of the year in major college football.
Not surprisingly, Fuente's name will come up in just about every major coaching search over the next couple of months. It's a nod to him and the job he's done. Whether he's coaching at Memphis or elsewhere in 2016, Fuente deserves all the recognition he's getting.
Most Disappointing Team: Georgia Tech
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Let's get the honorable mentions out of the way first.
You could go with Auburn, a team many (ahem) thought would be playoff-bound. Instead, the Tigers almost coughed up a game against Jacksonville State, started SEC play 0-2 and made a quarterback change when it became apparent Jeremy Johnson was not the answer. However, Auburn has only lost two games and quietly rebounded with a win over Kentucky in Week 7.
Staying in the SEC, no other team in college football has blown leads as if it were trendy like Tennessee. In all three losses—to Oklahoma, Florida and Arkansas—the Vols at one point held at least a 13-point lead.
USC—the one in California, not South Carolina—is another worthy candidate. The Trojans, a sexy preseason playoff selection, have a losing record in Pac-12 play, have lost three of their last four games and fired head coach Steve Sarkisian for, presumably, off-field matters. Oregon has completely fallen off the map.
All of those are good selections, but here's our official retort: What happened, Georgia Tech?
The Yellow Jackets are 2-5, having lost five straight. This was the media's preseason ACC Coastal favorite and one of the hottest teams in college football at the end of last season. Yet the wheels have completely fallen off of the Ramblin' Wreck. As ESPN's Joe Schad noted, Georgia Tech's 9.4 yards per carry vs. Pitt was a school record for an ACC game. And Tech still lost, 31-28.
"I don't think there's any question that there's a confidence factor that comes into it and when it’s going poorly, there’s guys going, ‘What’s going to happen next?’” head coach Paul Johnson said, per Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Best Catch: Stanford Wide Receiver Francis Owusu
8 of 18This category is always one of the hardest to chose simply because there are so many worthy candidates. TCU wide receiver Josh Doctson has, like, 10 amazing catches by himself.
Maybe it's because it's so fresh in our collective minds, but it's hard to pass up this amazing catch from Stanford wide receiver Francis Owusu in a 56-35 win over UCLA on Oct. 15.
Part of the attraction is not just the catch, which is very Tyrone Protho-esque, but the whole play itself. Stanford isn't a team known for too many tricks, especially when up big, but the reverse pass from quarterback Kevin Hogan to Owusu was pleasantly unexpected.
Hardest Game to Watch: Wake Forest at Boston College
9 of 18When the final result of a football game is 3-0, there's a morbid curiosity to find out what happened. But, in the spirit of Halloween and horror movies this time of year, don't you dare open that door and venture down that dark hallway.
Welp, now you've done it.
With 18 seconds left in their Week 6 contest against Wake Forest, Boston College had a chance to win the game—or, at the very least, go for a tie. Instead, the Eagles ran the ball with no timeouts and couldn't get back to the line in time to run a final play.
For God's sake, there were probably children watching.
Most Surprising Result: Texas 24, Oklahoma 17
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With all due respect to Stanford-Northwestern, which may very well be the Virginia Tech-Ohio State game of 2015, the Red River Shootout gets the nod here.
To set the stage: Oklahoma, with wins over Tennessee and West Virginia, was emerging as a legitimate Big 12 and playoff player. Texas, at 1-4, was coming off a 50-7 loss to TCU. Rumblings about whether head coach Charlie Strong really was the right guy for the job were growing louder.
And then in Dallas, the Longhorns ran all over Oklahoma and blitzed the daylights out of Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield. What resulted was a 24-17 stunner and Oklahoma's second loss to an unranked Texas team in three years.
The following week, Oklahoma beat Kansas State on the road, 55-0, as though the Red River Shootout never happened. And, maybe, in the minds of Sooners fans everywhere, it never did. Maybe it's already been suppressed so it can't be a topic of conversation later.
"Hey, remember when Oklahoma laid that egg against a one-win Texas in 2015?"
"What's that?"
"You know, when Texas beat the Sooners 24-17 even though the Longhorns were really bad."
"I'm sorry, I don't know to what you're referring."
"Really? Because it was one of the biggest ups—"
"Nope, no sir. Doesn't ring a bell."
"...You can't possibly be serious. You're a diehard fan, how do you not re—"
"Nope. Didn't happen. Boomer Sooner."
Wildest Ending: Michigan State-Michigan
11 of 18As if this could be anything else.
Not since Auburn's "kick-six" against Alabama has the end of a college football game been so miraculous for one side, so heartbreaking for the other and so simply unbelievable for the rest of us.
With just 10 seconds remaining and leading by two points, Michigan punter Blake O'Neill fumbled the snap. Michigan State scooped up the ball and ran it all the way back for the game-winning touchdown.
"I can hardly explain it," Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio said, per Joanne C. Gerstner of the New York Times.
O'Neill sadly received threats on Twitter, but games are never won and lost on just one play, no matter how much it feels that way. Still, you're not going to find a more incredible ending than this one.
Most Cringe-Worthy Result: Portland State 66, North Texas 7
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In the interest of full disclosure, this is being written by a North Texas alum, which means this is especially painful. And no, that's definitely not a Taylor Swift song playing in the background. Why would you even ask that?
Once again, it's important to remember that the gap between the top of the Football Championship Subdivision and bottom of the Football Bowl Subdivision isn't that large, if it even exists at all. That's why FCS teams pull out wins over FBS teams all the time.
But Portland State's 66-7 win over North Texas—on homecoming weekend, no less? Yikes. The loss, which was the widest margin by a FCS team over a FBS team in history, was bad enough to cost head coach Dan McCarney his job.
McCarney's an excellent coach. He won at Iowa State, for goodness sakes. But there's no denying 2015 was a disaster. This was the lowest point possible.
Team Most Likely to Cause Heart Complications: TCU
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TCU is undefeated, in the thick of the playoff race, has a Heisman-contending quarterback in Trevone Boykin and a Biletnikoff Award candidate in receiver Josh Doctson.
But boy, oh boy, have the Frogs cut it close on more than a couple occasions.
TCU needed to hang on against a upset-minded Minnesota in Week 1, a fourth-quarter rally to pull away from SMU, go-ahead touchdowns against Texas Tech and Kansas State—the Red Raiders nearly pulled off their own spectacular finish, too—and a strong second half against Iowa State.
The Frogs are almost an entirely different team at home than on the road. In Fort Worth, the Frogs are outscoring opponents by nearly 42 points per game. On the road, that margin shrinks to 10 points per game.
And to think TCU's toughest games are still ahead. In November, the Frogs go to Oklahoma State and Oklahoma before getting Baylor at home to close the season.
The Triple-Take Undefeated Team: Iowa
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How bonkers has the 2015 season been? There's a website for this, and it's called talkingtoyourkidsaboutiowa.tumblr.com.
The Hawkeyes are 7-0, and after beating Northwestern 40-10, it's time to seriously consider the possibility of this team going 12-0 during the regular season. Remaining on the schedule are games against a Randy Edsall-less Maryland, at Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue and at Nebraska.
As Ralph Russo of the Associated Press tweeted, old Iowa would have already lost to Pitt and would stumble inexplicably against against, say, Minnesota. But this feels...different. Kirk Ferentz isn't coming across nearly as the same old conservative head coach. The Hawkeyes have one of the better passing offenses in the Big Ten in terms of yards per attempt (7.6) and rank sixth in the conference in explosive plays beyond 20 yards.
Punting is down, too, to 4.4 attempts per game, its lowest number since 2011. If you know any of the jokes about Ferentz, punting, especially in opponent territory on 4th-and-short downs, is winning. Every time Ferentz opted to punt in such a situation, an angel protecting his massive buyout got its wings.
Best Large-Man Scoring Effort (Offense): Baylor Tight End LaQuan McGowan
15 of 18I know what you're thinking: Isn't giving this award to 410-pound Baylor offensive tackle-turned-tight end LaQuan McGowan a little cliche? The college football world couldn't stop talking about McGowan's touchdown catch in the Cotton Bowl against Michigan State, and McGowan's touchdown catch against Kansas this year was just his second career reception.
(Although, a 100 percent touchdown-catch ratio is pretty impressive.)
What about Ole Miss defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche, who showed off some impressive wheels during his touchdown reception against Tennessee-Martin? That's a fine nomination, as is Texas Tech lineman Le'Raven Clark's two-point conversion against Kansas.
But we're going to stick with McGowan for one primary reason: the half-hurdle.
Look at McGowan as he "evades" one final Jayhawk defender in the video above. Is that a hurdle? A juke? A semi-stiffarm? It's sort of all of those things wrapped into one glorious movement that only a rumbling mass of football inertia could pull off.
Best Large-Man Scoring Effort (Defense): Ohio State DT Adolphus Washington
16 of 18To be clear: Adolphus Washington's pick-six against Western Michigan wasn't a "fat-guy touchdown" in the traditional sense. Washington may be 290 pounds, but he is one solid human being.
The score is great, but Washington dominated the entire play from the start. Though double-teamed, Washington read the screen play beautifully and, like any smart lineman, he got his hands up when he realized he wouldn't be getting to the quarterback.
Speaking of those hands, how soft are they? He pulled in that catch and immediately hauled butt downfield for the score.
Well done, sir.
Best Rant: Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney
17 of 18Finally, and thankfully, Mike Gundy's "I'm a man! I'm 40!" spectacle can be retired as the most recent great postgame rant. Enter Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who took the "Clemsoning" label to task.
Though the Tigers haven't lost to an unranked opponent since 2011, a reporter asked Swinney about "Clemsoning" following the Tigers' win over Georgia Tech. That's when Swinney went off. Here's portion of Swinney's rant:
"I think it's ridiculous that you're even asking me that question. That you even say the word. I mean I'm serious. I'm sick of it. I don't even know why we bring up the daggum word. How about some of these other teams that lose to unranked opponents all the time. That's our thirty-third win versus an unranked opponent. We haven't lost to an unranked opponent since 2011, but I have to come to a press conference in 2015 and get asked that?
"
Good on Swinney to put a tired phrase to bed once and for all. Clemson is a program that has competed with, and defeated, some of college football's best programs over the past few years.
In Memoriam (Sort Of): South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier
18 of 18College football just lost an icon in South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier, who "resigned," in his own words, last week.
The subject of whether Spurrier "quit" on his team, while a legitimate discussion, is best served for another medium. What Spurrier did for South Carolina, and for all of college football, cannot be ignored. How his career ended is merely a single event in a long career.
He won at Duke, Florida and South Carolina. To understand the state of each program before Spurrier arrived provides the best context for what he's been able to achieve over the years. He's one of the all-time great coaches. That specific statement is not up for debate.
To me, Spurrier had two specific qualities. The first was that he never seemed to take college football too seriously. That's not to say he wasn't passionate about what he did, but he'd sooner play a round of golf in the offseason than spend another hour in the film room.
"Almost all coaches feel like they've got to be the hardest-working coaches in the country," Spurrier said in a 2014 story by ESPN.com's David M. Hale. "I've never worried about that."
For all his innovative and memorable moments on the field, he will be equally remembered for what he said away from it. In the hours following reports of his resignation, lists like in the above video began emerging with his best quotes.
That leads to the second thing about Spurrier: When he's done, he's done, and he won't waste another second trying to hide the fact. Regardless of what others think about it, that's who he is.
It's with those two things in mind that we end with the most telling thing Spurrier ever uttered—in his final press conference as a head coach.
"Alright, let's get this over with," he said (h/t Chris Dearing).
Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes cited unless obtained firsthand. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
