The Texas State Trident Affair, Drake Maye switches things up, and the other top-10 moments from CFB Week 4

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This CFB week was so nutty that Ryan Day demanding Lou Holtz square up didn’t crack the real top 10

Week 4 of the college football season had a little bit of everything. Drake Maye throwing a touchdown pass left-handed, Ryan Day demanding Lou Holtz meet him in Temecula, a right tackle vomiting presnap like something out of The Exorcist, Joe Exotic demanding that President Joe Biden do something about Jordan Travis (we’re still not sure exactly what or why), and perhaps the best NIL ad we have ever seen:

It was a lot. But here is the only top ten that matters in all the land from the week that was.

10. Wyoming special teams

They say special teams make special teams, and Wyoming football just might have the special teams on lock. In their 22-19 victory over Appalachian State, the game was decided with a late blocked field goal that the Cowboys returned for a TD.

You don’t go to Laramie and leave the same person, brother.

9. Drake Maye’s left-handed TD

Do you hear that sound?

You probably do.

That sound you hear is the looming “Caleb Williams versus Drake Maye QB1 battle.”

Here at SB Nation, we are going to put that battle off as long as we can. Which may honestly be just a few days because we are hearing similar rumblings about a new mock draft coming from JP.

But that battle is coming.

Maye added a bit of creativity to his resume for QB1 this past weekend, with this last-second, left-handed touchdown pass:

Yeah, that is somewhat absurd.

8. The Texas State Trident Affair

Perhaps the most bizarre moment of the week — and this is saying a lot given Ryan Day demanded Lou Holtz meet him at the flagpole after the final bell — came during Nevada’s game against Texas State:

While visions of Brick Tamland flashed through everyone’s heads, the story soon unfolded. Nevada introduced a Turnover Trident for the 2022 season, and added a Touchdown Trident for this year. Well, a member of the Texas State band somehow got their hands on the Turnover Trident, and passed it along to the Texas State student section:

How can you not be romantic about college football?

7. Oklahoma players sample Skyline Chili

The Cincinnati Bearcats began their Big 12 journey by hosting Oklahoma.

It did not go well, as the visiting Sooners beat the Bearcats 20-6.

After the game Oklahoma’s Jonah Laulu and Dasan McCullough toasted with some Skyline Chili.

It apparently did not go well:

McCullough — who was born in Ohio and whose father played for the Bengals — elaborated after the game:

“OK, so me and Jonah got handed the chili,“ McCullough said. “And at first we were just supposed to cheers it and kind of look and smile. But we were like let’s drink it. So we took it, drank it, and then the video cut off right before we had to spit all that out. But it was good though. It was good.

“Yeah, I love Skyline Chili personally. Just not the chili in the can. Just not the chili in the can itself, I’m not a fan. But I love Skyline. And being from here, my mom had it last night. She asked me if I wanted some. So no, it’s been huge though. I’m glad I got to have my opener back in Cincinnati.”

6. Death Valley is now Keon County

Florida State knocked off Clemson in a 31-24 victory in overtime, one of the best games of the season so far. The deciding play came in that overtime period, where QB Jordan Travis threw it up to one of his favorite targets, WR Keon Coleman. Coleman then proceeded to dunk on this poor Clemson corner before finding his way into the end zone, one of the best individual plays of the entire season:

Coleman, a transfer from Michigan State, also played basketball for the Spartans and showed his ability to go up above the rim and get that ball. Getting head topped in the deciding moments of a nationally televised game is ROUGH, and Coleman put the poor corner on a poster.

5. Air Force’s John Lee Eldridge goes Super Saiyan

Air Force had the funniest statline of the year in their dominating 45-20 victory over San Jose State.

In the entire game, Air Force threw … two passes.

They ran the ball 73 TIMES FOR 400 YARDS! That’s blessed football if I’ve ever seen it, and RB John Lee Eldridge had the best run of the night. On a play that looked like Eldridge was going to be stopped short, he just kept bouncing and slipping past defenders, until next thing you know, he’s in the end zone.

This is what we like to call a Beastmode style of run. The balance to stay in bounds, the run after contact, all of it was awesome.

4. The Penn State defense

Here are some fun Penn State defense facts from their 31-0 victory over Iowa:

Iowa had four first downs the entire game.
Penn State RB Kaytron Allen led the Nittany Lions in rushing with 72 yards. The Iowa offense finished with 76 TOTAL yards.
Penn State had the ball for 14 minutes.
Penn State QB Drew Allar ran for 22 yards. He finished with more yards rushing than Iowa.
Iowa lost four fumbles in the game.

This was complete and utter domination by the Nittany Lions defense (yes I know it’s Iowa but even Iowa can’t Iowa this hard…right?)

3. Washington State versus Oregon State

Two of the most enjoyable offenses to watch this early season come from the State of Washington. There is what Michael Penix Jr. and company are doing at Washington, and then the offense we are seeing from Cameron Ward and company at Washington State.

Saturday, the Cougars hosted Oregon State in a battle between not just team ranked in the Top 25 — the first ever such meeting between these two teams — but between the remaining members of the Pac-12, termed affectionately the “Pac-2.” With both OSU and WSU looking for a new conference next season, this rivalry game had a friendlier feel than games in the past.

Even the mascots shared a dance midfield before kickoff.

Once the game got underway, Washington State emerged victorious 38-35. Along the way, we saw some creativity from their offense, like on this play where both Ward and backup quarterback John Mateer were in the game. Mateer took the snap, handed to Ward, who then rolled in Mateer’s direction and hit his backup QB with a pass in the flat. (The play is at the 12:06 mark):

Not to be outdone by Ward’s four-touchdown performance is what we saw from WSU wide receiver Josh Kelly. Were it not for Pearsall’s catch Saturday night, we might be talking more about Kelly giving us not one, but two, Catch of the Year candidates.

First was this catch early in the game:

Then this touchdown for one of his three touchdowns on the afternoon:

This was a fun, fun game to watch.

2. Oregon dominating Colorado, then dancing on the grave a bit

A proverb, if I may: “If one proceeds to talk cash shit, one must proceed to back it up. Otherwise one ends up on the wrong end of a highlight reel.”

Oregon dominated Colorado 42-6 on Saturday, and while many people are making this game a whole lot larger than we have to (Colorado will be fine, Oregon is just bigger and stronger right now), Oregon took the chance after the game to make sure they rubbed in all the shit Colorado talked pregame.

To the winner goes the spoils, and one of those spoils is the ability to talk endless amounts of shit. Well done, Oregon video team.

1. Ricky Pearsall’s catch

Know what else was absurd this weekend?

This catch from Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall:

If you are thinking that looks somewhat familiar, the Florida Gators know exactly why:

Pearsall finished the night with six catches for 104 yards as Florida beat Charlotte 22-7 to move to 3-1 on the season.