Week 11’s best: UConn’s going bowling, Vandy gets an SEC win and CFP contenders show out

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong took one giant leap for mankind and became the first man to step foot on the moon, and in doing so, he personified the will of the human spirit, offering proof that, indeed, anything is possible.

For the next 53 years, nothing much happened. The Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall and the Big East all collapsed, but hope was often in short supply. There was much suffering.

Then, in 2022, a hero emerged. His name was Jim Mora Jr. Like all mythical figures, he had endured the hero’s journey — the slings and arrows and three years with the Atlanta Falcons. But like a phoenix from the ashes, he emerged on a field in New England and offered the world hope.

On Saturday, we saw the fruits of his labor. UConn beat Liberty 36-33. It was the Huskies’ sixth win of the season, making America’s worst college football team bowl eligible.

Today, the flags at Bottom 10 headquarters fly at half staff. Pour one out for U-Can’t.

It would be nearly impossible to truly express the futility of the UConn Huskies. After earning the distinction of the worst team to ever play in a BCS bowl game at the end of an 8-5 season in 2010, misery ensued.

There was the Bob Diaco era, which has been edited out of all Connecticut public high school text books due to graphic content.

There was Randy Edsall Part II, which was only slightly worse than “Weekend at Bernie’s Part II.” And by mentioning Randy Edsall in a college football story, UConn now owes him a check for $4.85. That was one heck of a contract.

There was the time UConn tried to make a rivalry trophy happen with UCF, but the Knights just left it to rust in Scott Frost’s shed. There was the 2020 season that the school just scrapped all together. There was the decision to leave the American Athletic Conference because administration wanted to focus on more important things than football — like basketball and its stamp collection.

From 2016 through 2021, UConn went 10-50, and half of those wins came against FCS competition.

But on Saturday, Mora exorcised those demons in perfect UConn style. The Huskies weren’t actually good. Liberty out-gained UConn by 156 yards and had nearly twice as many first downs. The Huskies threw for just 110 yards in the game, but Zion Turner’s 30-yard pass to Kevens Clercius for a touchdown with 5:43 left to play gave the Huskies a lead, and the defense made two huge fourth-down stops in the fourth quarter to secure the win.

And now UConn is going bowling.

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UConn clinches its first bowl appearance since 2015 and the fans storm the field in celebration.

It is, perhaps, fitting that UConn’s redemption arc reached its climax on the same day Vanderbilt toppled Kentucky for its first SEC win since 2019 — and first road SEC win since October 2018. The Commodores ran for 264 yards — the most in an SEC road game, according to ESPN Stats and Information, since at least 2004 — and held Will Levis to just 109 yards passing.

All of this comes in the same season that Kansas rewrote its own miserable narrative, when Syracuse, Duke and Illinois have all secured bowl bids, too. The 2022 season has been the most inspiring installment of “Revenge of the Nerds” since “Revenge of the Nerds III” and, depending on the bowl destination for UConn, could certainly be a fitting recreation of “Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise.”

So, congratulations, UConn. America has stopped laughing and started cheering. It’s been a long ride, but now you can cancel your plans to spend December hanging out in the parking lot of the Mohegan Sun and telling strangers that you know Geno Auriemma, and pack your bags for a bowl game.

Now, go make some crank calls to people at UMass. You’ve earned it.

Rough week for the Dabo dynasty

Dabo Swinney has spent the past decade as one of the sport’s best coaches. His network of former assistants, however, haven’t exactly forged a particularly impressive resume, however, and in Week 11 was essentially the Harvey Updike of Swinney’s coaching tree.

The week began with USF parting ways with Jeff Scott. Scott was just 4-26 in parts of three seasons with the Bulls, who were just 1-8 at the time of the coaching change.

Things got much worse Saturday.

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At Virginia, Tony Elliott’s Cavaliers have struggled through a frustrating season with three losses by three points or less, as the offense has failed to find any success under a new scheme. But Saturday’s showdown with Pitt was a new low.

QB Brennan Armstrong threw two pick-sixes on his first two throws (perhaps a nice tribute to Nate Peterman for all those Pittsburgh fans), leaving UVA trailing 14-0 just 16 seconds into the game. The Panthers added ample salt to the wounds, with Israel Abanikanda rushing for 121 yards in Pitt’s 37-7 win.

Meanwhile in Norman, Brent Venables’ first season at Oklahoma continues to go south as West Virginia booted a walk-off 25-yard field goal for a 23-20 win. The Sooners are now 5-5 on the season and 2-5 in Big 12 play. It’s the first time Oklahoma has lost five games since 2014 and the first time it’s dropped five in conference play since 1998.

Somewhere, Chad Morris watched all this unfold and whimpered the saddest “Woo Pig Sooie” that’s ever been wooed.

Style-point Saturday

Week 11 set up what figured to be some easy wins for a few playoff contenders, which made the games less about who would win and more about how good the favorites would look in the process.

Tennessee 66, Missouri 24

One week after the Vols’ offense was suffocated by Georgia, Hendon Hooker and Co. lit all the fireworks at once just to see what would happen vs. Missouri. Hooker finished with three TD passes, Jalin Hyatt had 146 yards receiving, and in all, the Vols racked up 724 yards of offense. And how’s this for a little college football transitive property intrigue: Georgia nearly lost to Missouri. Georgia dominated Tennessee. Tennessee pulled down Missouri’s pants and stole its lunch money.

Committee reaction: “S-E-C! S-E-C!”

Ohio State 56, Indiana 14

A week after C.J. Stroud failed to throw a touchdown against Northwestern, he returned with five of them against Indiana. Marvin Harrison Jr. had seven catches for 135 yards and a TD, and both Miyan Williams and Dallan Hayden ran for more than 100 yards. Remember when Indiana was good in 2020? That was a weird year. Like how there was that two-month span when everyone pretended to like sea shanties. That’s Indiana. The sea shanty of college football.

Committee reaction: “Do we really have to keep watching Ohio State play Big Ten football? Can’t we just fast forward to the Michigan game?”

LSU 13, Arkansas 10

KJ Jefferson was sidelined and as a result, Arkansas abandoned the forward pass in favor of a strategy of just waiting to see if LSU would screw up really bad. It nearly worked, but LSU had a secret weapon in freshman linebacker Harold Perkins Jr., who finished with eight tackles (six solo), four sacks (costing Arkansas 33 yards), a PBU and two forced fumbles, including what amounted to the game-sealing takeaway in the final moments of the game.

Committee reaction: “There’s always room for more SEC teams. Someone send Michigan to a farm upstate.”

The most college football thing to happen Saturday

Most Saturdays we use this space to highlight the ridiculous of this sport. Today, we’re celebrating the genuine beauty of it.

Ohio State was wrapping up a blowout win over Indiana midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday. Stroud threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to fifth-year senior Kamryn Babb. That brought Babb’s college box score to this: four ACL surgeries, one touchdown.

An emotional Babb collapsed to his knees at the back of the end zone and the entire Ohio State team poured onto the field to celebrate with him.

It’s the type of moment they make movies about, and while Rudy may have been offsides, this one was absolutely perfect.

Big bets and bad beats

LSU narrowly squeaked by Arkansas on Saturday, which isn’t new for the Tigers in the week after playing Alabama. LSU closed as a 3.5-point favorite, despite Arkansas missing its starting QB, and won 13-10. The Bayou Bengals are now 0-4-1 against the spread in their past five games the week after playing the Tide.

After Saturday’s outright win over Liberty, UConn is now 9-2 against the spread on the season. It’s the most covers in a Huskies season since 2010, and no other team in the country has more covers this season.