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Tamar Rochon
NIU football (1-3) begins conference play on Saturday against the University of Toledo Rockets (3-1). NIU comes into MAC play struggling, dropping its last three games. Toledo is hitting its stride, winning its last three games after losing Week 1. The Huskies will look to grab their second road win of the 2023 season.
This is the beauty of college football's regular season -- the way the seeds are laid in moments big and small, and sometimes hardly noticed at all, and then in this final, dizzying chapter, it all becomes clear.
And on some distant Saturday in March or April or June, when all that awaits is a lawn to be mowed or engine oil to be changed, when our day is measured by beach traffic or dinner reservations, we'll think back on all that transpired on this Saturday, this final, beautiful, delirious Saturday of college football's 2023 regular season, and our hearts will be full.
The loss further solidifies Day's place in the rivalry's land of broken toys. Day's career is astonishing in its successes -- a 56-7 record, with every loss coming against a ranked foe -- but defined by three straight failures in the only game that really matters. He is college football's Salieri, brilliant in his own right, but destined to forever be remembered as the foil to his more remarkable rival.
The forecasters in Las Vegas have turned Iowa's point totals into college football's best limbo contest, including a record-low 24.5-point total against Nebraska, and Iowa has delivered the under again and again and again. In all, six of the lowest totals on record have come from Iowa games in the past two years.
While the rest of the Big Ten West -- a collection of drifters, cast-offs and Nebraska -- wasted weeks plotting a game plan that would result in points, Iowa set its entire focus a formula to actually win games by executing the college football equivalent of the iTunes user agreement, just waiting for an opponent to get bored with the minutia and click "Accept." Not since Muhammad Ali has anyone executed the rope-a-dope so perfectly.
After all, what Iowa has given college football fans -- or, perhaps, the world -- in 2023 is something special: A lesson that there is more than one way to win, that joy is best found in its simplest forms and that every punt is simply another chance to believe, against all evidence and common sense, that the next drive will be better.
Ollie Gordon II ran for 166 yards and five touchdowns in Oklahoma State's 40-34 double-OT win over BYU, which still didn't guarantee him the best highlight of the game. That belongs to Tyler Batty, who we hope was wearing proper protection when he made this hurdle attempt.
The Heisman may be a two-man race now between Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix, and only one of them has a game left to play before the trophy is awarded. But this week, we're not interested in the best players on the field. We're handing out our award for the best contributor to college football's 2023 season away from the action.
Not all Heisman candidates rack up dozens of highlights or dominate the opposition or, you know, play. Indeed, one of college football's true heroes of the 2023 season is a little known backup O-lineman from a non-scholarship FCS school who gave the world an absolutely epic NFL draft announcement.
In a perfect world, this joke will escalate in a game of college football one-upsmanship just like turnover props or walk-on scholarship announcements until it reaches its obvious zenith when Arch Manning turns pro while relaxing in a hot tub with a unicorn in the back of a limo as it jumps the Grand Canyon.
New Orleans Saints defensive back and special teams ace J.T. Gray finds his way to the football on the big block punt on Thursday Night Football against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 16 of the 2023 NFL season.
It's been quite the roller coaster ride the past two weeks in Division II football's Top 25. While Week 3 saw little movement in the American Football Coaches Association poll, Weeks 4 and 5 have seen a lot of shaking.
If UIndy is a surprise Top 10 team, then so is Delta State. The Statesmen were projected to finish sixth in the Gulf South Conference. After jumping four spots this week, Delta State is now the No. 9 team in DII football.
What about Fort Hays State? Playing in arguably the toughest conference in DII football, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, it was powers like NWMSU, UCM and Emporia State who were expected to contend for the title. Instead, it's the Tigers tied atop the MIAA at a perfect 5-0. FHSU has a tough stretch coming up, facing Pittsburg State, Washburn, Missouri Western, Emporia State and Northwest Missouri State over the next five games.
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