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Teams at a loss for explanation
Sometimes what happens in football defies explanation, provoking more questions than answers, so our six R's this week involve Ruminations of the Absurd.
-- Rumination of the Absurd I: Utah 44, UCLA 6. The Utes were 0-2 and had lost at home the previous week to Air Force, which was picked to finish seventh in the Mountain West Conference.
The Utes had lost their starting quarterback (Brian Johnson) and top running back (Matt Asiata) to injuries in the opener and neither played against UCLA.
Utah freshman quarterback Corbin Louks was told Wednesday he would not be redshirting the season as planned, and Saturday he shared playing time with Tommy Grady and threw a back-breaking touchdown pass in the third quarter.
UCLA was ranked No. 11, had rolled up more than 600 yards in the season opener against Stanford and returned 20 starters from a team that had beaten Utah 31-10 last year, when Ben Olson was 25-for-33 with three touchdown and no interceptions. Olson threw three picks Saturday, and UCLA did not score a touchdown.
Utah running back Darrell Mack was scheduled to redshirt the season, but the redshirt was removed in the second game after Asiata got hurt. Mack rushed for 107 yards, including a touchdown, and also caught two touchdown passes against UCLA.
"That's an overrated team," Mack told the Los Angeles Times regarding UCLA.
-- RA II: Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0. A loss to 3-0 Michigan State on Saturday would give Notre Dame its first 0-4 start ever and its first six-game losing streak since 1960.
The Irish rank last in the nation in scoring and total offense and are the only team with negative rushing yards for the season. Notre Dame is the only team that has not scored an offensive touchdown.
Nearly all the key offensive players during Charlie Weis' success his first two seasons -- quarterback Brady Quinn, running back Darius Walker, receivers Jeff Samardzija and Rhema McKnight -- were recruited to Notre Dame by Tyrone Willingham. Notre Dame's top passer, rusher and receiver this year were recruited by Weis.
Demetrius Jones, the Irish starting quarterback in the opener, reportedly enrolled at Northern Illinois on Wednesday but practiced with the Irish Wednesday and Thursday. Weis did not know until 15 minutes before the bus left Friday that Jones would not be coming, at which point Weis called fourth-stringer Darrin Bragg and walk-on Justin Gillett to join the team for the trip. Bragg missed the bus and had to find his own transportation to Ann Arbor.
-- RA III: Mississippi State 19, Auburn 14. The Tigers, ranked No. 17 two weeks ago, were playing at home, and Mississippi State, picked to finish last in the SEC West, lost its starting quarterback (Michael Henig) in the first quarter. The Bulldogs completed 5 of 18 passes for 41 yards for the game _ and won.
-- RA IV: New Mexico 29, Arizona 27. The Lobos had never beaten a Pac-10 team on the road, and Arizona, which plays at Cal on Saturday, rolled up 484 yards, which is 173 yards more than the Wildcats' best effort against a Division I-A foe last season.
-- RA V: Kentucky 40, Louisville 34.The Wildcats (3-0) are ranked for the first time in 23 years, but behind the team they beat Saturday.
-- RA VI: Stanford 37, San Jose State 0. Coming off a 9-4 bowl season, San Jose State (0-3) has scored 17 points this year, their lowest total through the first three games since 1936.
See more at www.scrippsnews.com
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