Empty the Call Sheet (Oct. 6)
Yogi's weekly Sunday newsletter written each week on the plane home from his game
Hello from 30,000 feet!
12 years ago, on an October Sunday, I watched a man named Felix Baumgartner jump out of the stratosphere… literally. I was at a Seattle Seahawks game and snuck into the locker room during pregame warm-ups to watch him achieve a feat that was deemed impossible by most.
After a Week 6 full of Top 11 upsets in Nashville, Fayetteville, College Station, Seattle and Minneapolis, I’m reminded of a line Felix said before he stepped into space. “Sometimes, you have to be up really high to understand how small you are.”
As I write today’s newsletter, I’m reminded how grateful I am to be a small part of college football and I hope you do as well. This game can really impact us all in powerful ways. Some are seen by millions and some are in the shadows, only to be known by few.
The man who coached Felix Baumgartner, in advance of his historic leap, is a good friend named Dr. Michael Gervais. He once shared a quote with me and Elite 11 quarterbacks that may resonate with you if your team lost over the weekend, or were the ones dancing on their home field. “At the core of optimism is resilience.” When I heard that life instantly made sense. The ones who are truly optimistic are also the ones who are truly resilient.
So while 50% of fans might be upset and tempted to vent on social media, tag a player, coach or even an analyst (wink, wink) to let out their frustration - do yourself and repeat that quote before you hit post. Then ask yourself if you want to be optimistic or pessimistic in early October around the sport that we all love. Standing at the 50-yard line in the broadcast booth as Minnesota players, coaches and fans danced on the field while USC players walked off defeated, I am choosing to trust that both locker rooms are leaning optimistic today.
With that, here’s my key takeaways on the week from an optimistic lens from the sky.
While the epic celebrations will remain ingrained as memories over the weekend, the one that stood out the most to me was Friday night in Eugene. The Ducks, per usual, wore amazing threads at kickoff, but it was the story behind those uniforms that packed the strongest punch. In 2017, Dan Lanning’s wife Sauphia was in the fight of her life against cancer. Specifically, osteosarcoma. She would beat it and this past off-season, along with the Lanning’s three sons, helped design the uniforms the Ducks would wear to show support for those who have battled cancer and raise awareness as we all fight for a cure. It was a beautiful story that was told throughout the week and if you know Dan Lanning, you know how much he values family and how much his wife’s battle with cancer impacted him. As I sat in my hotel room watching the Ducks beat Michigan State on Friday night, I expected it to be a physical game and predicted the Ducks would be too much for the Spartans but I never anticipated tearing up while watching. With about 10 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter three cancer survivors rang the bell, signifying they were cancer free. "I couldn’t help but notice the people ringing the bell out there on the field. I remember that moment, what it felt like. Certainly special for our family, certainly special for a lot of people." said Coach Lanning postgame. For so many of us who know people who are also competing to Stomp Out Cancer or have lost loved ones to this horrific disease please note what the Oregon community and the Lanning family did on Friday night. It was impactful, meaningful and powerful.
Standing at the 50-yard line in Minneapolis was a sight I’ll never forget. My partner, Guy Haberman, and I called an instant classic as Minnesota upset USC 24-17. As the crowd converged onto the field our sideline analyst, Rhett Lewis, was in the middle of it all. His interview with P.J. Fleck was not only incredible and viral content, but a blueprint on how to conduct a postgame interview amid a wild crowd. Rhett met the moment, made it about the program, educated the viewer and made it entertaining. It may look easy but navigating fans, a producer in your ear and asking concise and thoughtful questions is not. Glad he’s on our team.
View from the booth following Minnesota’s upset of USC Speaking of the actual game, it felt like a classic ‘Big Ten’ game. While I'm not really a fan of categorizing games with that phrase, this one proved to be true. It was a limited possession game, as each team only had 9 possessions all night, both teams averaged over 4.8 yards per rush and neither team had more than 200 yards passing. Running backs Darius Taylor (Minn) and Woody Marks (USC) each rushed for over 130 yards on the ground and also made plays in the passing game. We began the broadcast highlighting the USC playmakers but the nation's top passing defense, which faced run-heavy Iowa and Michigan in previous weeks, proved to be formidable as they were able to pressure Miller Moss with their defensive front in passing situations and beat the USC wideouts to the ball in critical moments. Looking back on the game, that was the most surprising element, as I felt the USC receiving core would have made more plays down the field but the Golden Gophers secondary was the unit that shined. While the Trojan offensive line struggled in pass pro, they did move the line of scrimmage in the run game as well as they had all season. They will have to do that again this weekend as #4 Penn State comes to Los Angeles as the Trojans drop out of the AP Top 25.
UW and Jedd Fisch: Y-Option was in the minority this week and picked UW to knock off #10 Michigan in a re-match of the national title game from a year ago and that pick proved to be accurate. I couldn’t help but think about 2009 and Steve Sarkisian’s first year at UW and how they beat #3 USC at the time. It felt like that UW team was due and the same was felt all week in advance of this game. Jedd Fisch took over a Washington team that had lost 90% of its starters from that title-game run and the margin of defeat to WSU and Rutgers this season was razor thin. I just felt this team would clean up the self-inflicted negative plays and force Michigan to come from behind. They jumped out to a 14-0 lead with explosive and creative plays only to be down 17-14 entering the final quarter. But the Huskies found the resolve to finish what they started. And how fitting was it that Kamren Fabiculanan had a huge interception and Grady Gross put it away, 2 players who had a big role on the 2023 Pac-12 Championship team. Most impressively, what Jedd Fisch said on the field postgame was thoughtful, humble and powerful as he has endeared himself to the history of UW in a meaningful way. And I’ve got to imagine that Michael Penix Jr enjoyed being back on Montlake for this one after his Falcons won a thriller on Thursday night. Mann did Husky Stadium seem to rock Saturday night in the Greatest Setting. Finally UW fans, your Dawgs only had 2 penalties all night. Growth is happening and this program is in great hands.
Speaking of rocking, how about Berkeley?! From late Friday night into late Saturday night Cal, seemed to be the epicenter of college football. If you missed it, be sure to check out @Y-OptionCFB on Instagram as Jim Thornby was there and behind the scenes all morning long. The College GameDay setting was stunning, the show was entertaining with Justin Wilcox appearing on set and of course, Daniel kicking a field goal and earning himself a nice 100k and photo op with Wilcox. When it comes to the game it felt like Cal was going to put an explanation point on the day and Marshawn Lynch would be driving the golf cart postgame, but football is the greatest sport on earth for a reason. Part of that reason is how unpredictable the game can be. Mario Cristobal’s squad never flinched when down 25 in the second half and Heisman candidate Cam Ward led the Canes to a huge win on the road, the largest comeback in FBS this season. Also, there were two huge calls, or no calls in this game and am sure the ACC will be hearing from both staffs today. More on that this week on our Monday podcast.
Drama in Corvallis: Oregon State didn’t flinch in a double OT win over Colorado State and had a 14-play drive to send the game to overtime at home. Listening to Ted Robinson is always a joy and the Hall of Fame broadcaster, along with Ryan Leaf and Nigel Burton had incredible seats for this one. It’s important to remember that this Beaver team’s only loss is to Oregon, which looks the part of a CFP team. If they can run the table, along with Washington State, it’s safe to say that Reser Stadium will be rocking on November 23rd when the Cougs come to Corvallis. The toughness and grit of both teams has been on display all season and both could win out in advance of that game.
As a Heisman voter, I’m hesitant to project who is a candidate with so much football left but there shouldn’t be a voter who doesn’t have Ashton Jeanty on their short list thus far this season. He surpassed 1,000 rush yards on the season on his 90th carry of the SEASON. For context, the next best is Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, who has 97 carries for 771 yards. Also, Jeanty didn't play in the second half on Saturday. That must be noted as Boise State understands the big picture of their season, and the big-time talent of their star player vs. padding his already ridiculous stats. Through 5 games, Jeanty is on pace to challenge Barry Sanders’ historic 1988 season where he had 2,628 rushing yards and 37 TD (in the regular season, the NCAA did not include bowl game stats in records back then). If he does, let's try to make sure what happened to the last running back to break Sanders’s records doesn't happen again. And yes, Boise State is set to host Oregon State in the regular season finale.
Some fun facts from the weekend:
Bob Ligashesky is the Special Teams Coordinator for the Golden Gophers and was our STC at Pitt back in the day. I hadn’t seen him in 20 years and we were able to reconnect while on campus and in pregame. Another reminder that relationships are the best part of the game.
Speaking of Pitt, the father of my former roommate Larry Fitzgerald, Larry Sr., was in the press box as he is an acclaimed member of the Twin Cities media. Larry Jr.’s oldest son, Devin, was also there, as he is being recruited across the country as a wideout. Seeing Larry Sr. was a throwback memory as I hadn’t seen him in over 20 years.
With Larry Fitzgerald Sr. in the Minnesota press box Arizona State & Kenny Dillingham had some late-game magic to knock off Kansas to improve to 4-1, already surpassing their win total from last season. Sam Leavitt had 4 passing TD including the game-winner with 16 seconds left to Jordyn Tyson. The last Sun Devil to throw to 4 TD in a game was Joey Yellen in October 2019, filling in for the injured Jayden Daniels. Those were the only 4 TD passes of Yellen’s ASU career, who would go on to transfer to Pitt following the season.
And a big Happy Birthday to my broadcast partner Guy Haberman and Austin Thornby, the son of Y-Option’s co-founder Jim. Hope you all enjoyed!
Yogi & Guy in the booth following Minnesota’s upset win
Quote of the week:
“Football’s a humbling game,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox. Truer words were never spoken.
And with that, I’m off to our oldest son’s Flag football game. I’m back as the head coach again this season and with two practices under our belt I have zero clue what to expect… but hope our team feels optimistic, as the most enjoyable ones always do.
Much love and many thanks for the support of Y-Option, as without your subscription none of this is possible.
Yogi
Who was the assistant coach massaging Coach Riley's back as he called plays? The Big Network cut to that weird scene a few times without comment. I've never seen anything like it before. Is it thought that being caressed on the sidelines will save Riley from another case of "pneumonia" like the one he got after losing last year?