After Midnight

Usually our “After Midnight” posts focus on late night happenings on the West Coast, but last night bad weather in the Florida Panhandle forced the Florida State-Georgia Tech game into a long delay and an after midnight finish.

It was a long night, almost as long as coach Bobby Bowden’s week. Saturday didn’t help him one bit as afterward he admitted to ESPN cameras: “We just couldn’t stop them.” That’s for sure. Georgia Tech gained 401 yards rushing and 532 yards in total offense on the way to a 49-44 victory over the fading Seminoles, now 2-4 and 0-3 in the ACC.

It is hard to see how Bowden is going to survive past this season. If he is to be bounced by Florida State by season’s end, he would seem to have no chance of catching Joe Paterno as the all-time winningest Division I coach. Penn State’s Paterno, a winner earlier in the day over feeble Eastern Illinois of the FCS, leads Bowden 388 wins to 383. Both coaches have six regular season games left this year.

This brings up a point that has irritated us for awhile. Nothing against Bowden; he has been a great ambassador for college football. But, how in the world has the NCAA counted his 31 victories in 1959-62 at Howard College (now known as Samford University)? When Bowden coached his alma mater Howard, the school played in what was called the College Division. The higher University Division not only included the major powers of what we now call the FBS (I-A) but also many of the schools that make up the current FCS (I-AA), such teams as Furman, Montana, Villanova, and the Ivy League schools. When Barry Bonds approached Henry Aaron’s career home run record, did baseball count in Bonds’ minor league round-trippers? Of course not. So why count Bowden’s wins over Millsaps and Sewanee? In reality Bowden trails Paterno 352 to 388.

No “After Midnight” post can go without strange circumstances occurring on the “Left Coast” and last night’s Washington-Arizona tilt from Seattle was no exception.
Young, blond Texan quarterback Nick Foles played a brilliant third quarter and two-thirds of the fourth quarter to put his Arizona Wildcats in control of the game at 33-21 as the fourth quarter wound down.

Foles’ Huskies counterpart, Jake Locker, managed a TD pass with less than three minutes left to pull Washington to within 33-28. Hoping to force a punt and get one last chance, UW booted long on its kickoff.

On first down, Foles tried a delayed short slant-in pass to his wide receiver Delashaun Dean. Foles’ throw was low and behind his target. In attempting to make the catch, Dean lurched backwards and dug out a pop-up of the low pass that arrived just off the ground. The soft carom went off the edge of Dean’s foot and looped in a perfectly-timed arch to Washington linebacker Mason Foster (on right in above photo). Having mistakenly run past Dean (into the Arizona backfield) on his coverage, Foster curled back to catch the interception, then reversed his field for a stunning 37-yard touchdown return. When Locker lobbed a two-point pass, Washington had a 36-33 lead it would hold for the last two minutes.

Foster’s interception had to be one of the most bizarre, late game-deciding plays that ever occurred. But that’s what often happens out West while the East happily sleeps.

--Bob Boyles