ICYMI: General Booty and SEC Officiating Blunders

Even though the Horned Frogs were on a bye this past Saturday, there was still plenty of college football action to go around.

Fresno State is beginning to emerge as a potential NY6 Bowl candidate out of the group of 5, Ohio State might not be a shoe-in for the Big 10 as we all anticipated preseason, and the most shocking week 3 revelation of them all: Clemson’s offense is struggling.

If you’re anything like me, you used those extra hours of free time last Saturday soaking in as much college football as possible. In case you were out running errands or participating in whatever non-football related activities your weekend might hold, I’m here to catch you up on all the biggest plays, highlights, and moments from week 3.

This first one might be the best story of the season thus far:

General Booty goes for 500+ yards and 8 TDs

As crazy as it sounds, yes, General Booty is a real person. The 6’3 quarterback plays for Tyler Junior College and if his name wasn’t enough to stand out, he recorded a madden-like stat line last Saturday against Navarro College.

He finished with 528 passing yards and 8 touchdowns. I don’t care what level of football you are playing, those numbers are absurd.

The Allen High School product wasn’t highly touted as a recruit, though he was offered by Yale, Louisiana-Monroe and Liberty before deciding to go the ju-co route. If he keeps putting up ridiculous numbers like this, General Booty will find his way to a power 5 program in no time.

Penn State punts on 3rd down

Despite the Nittany Lions coming away with a 28-20 win in a primetime matchup against Auburn, there were numerous officiating blunders in Happy Valley over the weekend.

Here’s the situation: Penn State was down 10-7 in the 2nd quarter and was flagged for intentional grounding on 1st down. The next play, Sean Clifford completed a short pass for a few yards, but the officials ruled the next play as 4th and 11. As a result, Penn State believed they were forced to punt and sent out the special teams unit.

Little did they know, it was only 3rd and 11 and the officials made a massive mistake. Moments before the punt, you could see James Franklin frantically yelling and pointing from the sideline towards the officiating crew, so chances are he realized what had happened when it was too late.

I can’t quite decide if this makes the situation better or worse, but the SEC came out and admitted that their officials made the wrong call. Here is the conference’s official statement:

“At 11:45 in the 2nd quarter, Penn State throws an incomplete pass that was judged to be Intentional Grounding. The crew’s enforcement of the penalty erroneously set the down to 3rd; the correct down should have been 2nd. The replay booth was consulted to confirm the down prior to the punt. The replay booth had the down as 4th down as well.

The error was discovered during the media timeout that followed the punt and by rule it could not be corrected at that time.”

If Penn State had ended up losing this game, I’m sure the aftermath of this mistake would have been catastrophic.

SMU pulls off an absurd game-winning hail mary

All around, this probably takes the cake for craziest play of the week. SMU looked doomed for an upset. They were on the road at Louisiana Tech, down 37-33 with less than 40 seconds remaining when they got the ball back, but somehow they pulled it off.

I’m not quite sure who to credit on this play. Tanner Mordecai threw a phenomenal ball, but the receiver that swatted it away from the pile also made a fantastic play, but at the same time the other receiver who actually caught the pass technically won them the game. So much happened in a matter of seconds on this play I don’t even know what to think.

After the game, QB Tanner Mordecai revealed that this is something they actually practice every Friday. In late game scenarios, they call this hail mary play “Big Ben” where Mordecai heaves it towards a cluster of WRs and DBs and one of the Mustang receivers jumps up and slaps the ball over to a fellow receiver standing on the other side of the pile. In other words, they practice EXACTLY what they pulled off in week 3.

Too bad the Ponies won’t have any late game scenarios this weekend to try their fancy antics, Frogs by 90.

D.J. Graham II’s one-handed interception

This was one of the most freakishly athletic plays from a defensive back I’ve seen in a long time. Oklahoma’s DJ Graham II made a leaping one-handed snag to seal the deal and put away Nebraska’s upset hopes in the 4th quarter.

Of course this was a Sportscenter Top 10 worthy play, but I find it somewhat ironic that if Graham II had just swatted the ball down, the Sooners would have had much better field position to start their drive.

The interception took place on 4th down with Nebraska hiking it from the Sooner’s 24-yard-line, but Graham II caught the ball on the 3-yard-line. I hate to be the fuddy duddy, but the smarter play would have been to just bat the ball down.

Although if Graham II didn’t catch the interception, he would have never been able to release these custom shirts:

It’s possible we’ll begin to see more custom shirts come out of highlight-worthy plays from college athletes in the near future. You’ve got to love the NIL era.