'NCAA Football 14': OU, Stillwater, and Georgia Tech to the SEC Dynasty Mode Build Season 1, Part 7—Week 4 #4 Oklahoma @ #11 Mississippi State

Syracuse 21 @ #6 Miami (FL) 26

#1 Clemson 28 @ NC State 10

Iowa State 34 @ Tulsa 21

FCS East 0 @ #15 Auburn 41

FCS Midwest 7 @ Kansas 27

Troy 24 @ Duke 23

Marshall 7 @ #13 Virginia Tech 38

FCS Southeast 0 @ #8 Ohio State 21

FCS Midwest 7 @ Nebraska 31

Louisiana-Lafayette 28 @ Akron 35

Purdue 14 @ #3 Wisconsin 27

Pittsburgh 45 @ Navy 35

North Carolina 10 @ Georgia Tech 24

FCS East 10 @ Bowling Green 38

Stillwater 23 @ LSU 25 (At only 2-1 from close wins over Tennessee and Stillwater, and a loss to #9 TCU. I guess I can't really expect LSU to be ranked for us next week. But then again, if this were the real life poll, we'd be griping that it's possible, haha). (Spoiler Alert from later, yup no votes, let alone rank, for LSU in either the Coaches or Media Polls for Week 5).

#17 Stanford 13 @ Arizona 55

Central Michigan 21 @ Toledo 34

Army 24 @ Western Michigan 27 F/OT

Iowa 14 @ #5 Notre Dame 26

#2 Georgia 21 @ Ole Miss 13

Colorado State 14 @ UNLV 17

Western Kentucky 28 @ Florida International 14

FCS East 14 @ Virginia 24

FCS East 6 @ Ohio 48

FCS East 6 @ Northwestern 31

Eastern Michigan 41 @ Ball State 38

FCS Southeast 23 @ #9 TCU 35

FCS Southeast 35 @ UAB 14

Texas State 6 @ Texas Tech 29

Vanderbilt 28 @ UMass 23

FCS West 17 @ #19 Washington 29

Old Dominion 24 @ Utah State 28

#16 Michigan 37 @ UConn 0

SMU 23 @ Texas A&M 42

Kent State 0 @ Penn State 34

FCS Midwest 27 @ Northern Illinois 24 F/OT

San Jose State 14 @ Minnesota 38

Kentucky 34 @ Indiana 9

North Texas 42 @ Tulane 35

Memphis 42 @ Arkansas State 13

Houston 24 @ Rice 13

#23 Florida 14 @ Tennessee 17

Cal 35 @ Arizona State 21

Wyoming 31 @ Air Force 35

#12 Florida State 12 @ #14 UCF 21

FCS Midwest 18 @ Georgia State 24

Louisiana-Monroe 16 @ Baylor 19 F/OT

Cincinnati 21 @ Miami (OH) 7

Hawai'i 32 @ Nevada 28

Kansas State 13 @ #22 Texas 20

Oregon State 24 @ San Diego State 34

Arkansas 14 @ Missouri 38

South Carolina 28 @ #7 Alabama 20 (Well, South Carolina is certainly in the mood. Upsetting Georgia in real life two weeks ago, nearly Florida last week, and now Alabama here. Both successes on the road as well. Guess there goes any chance of a rematch with Tua. Although, given, I'll be using the in-game BCS Rankings for the CFP Top four at the end of the year it was always less likely we'd get two SEC Teams in)

Oregon 34 @ USC 17

Louisiana Tech 41 @ USF 24

Texas-El Paso 24 @ Texas-San Antonio 0

Wake Forest 19 @ Louisville 24 (Leave it to real life to have the cartoon score, and NCAA to have an old school one. But yeah an undefeated ranked Wake Forest lost to Louisville in real life 59-62 a couple weeks ago. Here another undefeated Wake Forest also loses.)

Maryland 17 @ #10 West Virginia 38

Idaho 7 @ #18 Washington State 27 (NCAA lists this one as a Rivalry Game, no joke. Reminds me of the older NCAA(s) that had Stillwater and Tulsa listed as rivals, haha.)

#25 Utah 21 @ BYU 24

#4 Oklahoma 49 @ #11 Mississippi State 0

The timing for this one has been interesting. Kansas State made this trip in real life to Starkville this year and also got the win in a thrilling 31-24 game that produced that insane GIF Highlight with Mississippi State QB Garrett Shrader being both John Elway Helicoptered (thanks a lot for making a Cheesehead like me think of Super Bowl XXXII, haha), and all-for-not, landing one yard short like Kevin Dyson two Super Bowls later. Sadly for them, if he had had superhuman sense of direction or the boldness to have tried it, he might have been able to stretch the ball for the first down, but I digress. Anyways, it's interesting that this is a bit of a reference point for our series, as we also play at Kansas State next in real life.

As for the game itself, some interesting plays that wouldn't show up in my typical box score would be that Kennedy Brooks had a 50 yard punt return for us, adding to a productive day for him. I haven't been willing to risk CeeDee Lamb on kickoffs or punts for now with Sermon healthy and Jalen Hurts producing most of the rushing yards for us anyways. Brooks is just more replaceable than Lamb. Of course in real life, and with the benefits of the new Redshirt Rule for our three-five stars, True Freshman WRs, the depth issue is arguably tilted for the WRs over RBs, although CeeDee Lamb is still a pretty special and irreplaceable talent. I'm not questioning our great coaches there, I'm just saying it makes sense to protect Lamb in-game.

The other interesting sequence was a strip-sack-fumble recovery: T. Norwood with the Sack & Fumble Forced & K. Mann with the recovery. It was right before halftime, and led to a one play drive for us where I attempted a 57 Yd FG with 0:06 remaining. I nearly made it, but misjudged the 12 mph right wind ever-so-slightly and missed barely wide right with plenty of power to spare. After our 7th TD, I subbed out Hurts, Lamb, and Calcaterra again. We still haven't been hit by the injury bug outside of one quarter knocks, and I don't fancy starting with key players.

The closest Mississippi State got to scoring was a defensive TD that I challenged and replay overturned. CeeDee Lamb's knee was down before a fumble that they returned for a TD. I nearly caught them with both Hurts and Sermon, too, but they had decent blocking for a defensive unit.

OU Qtrs. 21, 14, 7, 7

Scoring Plays:

1st Quarter:

5:13 TD OU: J. Hurts, 7 Yd run (G. Brkic kick)

3:16 TD OU: J. Hurts, 2 Yd run (G. Brkic kick)

0:52 TD OU: J. Hurts, 5 Yd run (G. Brkic kick)

2nd Quarter:

5:51 TD OU: J. Hurts, 2 Yd run (G. Brkic kick)

2:42 TD OU: J. Hurts, 14 Yd run (G. Brkic kick)

3rd Quarter:

0:26 TD OU: J. Hurts, 3 Yd run (G. Brkic kick)

4th Quarter:

5:49 TD OU: J. Hurts, 59 Yd run (G. Brkic kick)

Team Stats:

First Downs: OU 20, Miss St 3

Total Offense: OU 521, Miss St 31

Rushes-Yards-TD: OU 28-224-7, Miss St 19-(-12)-0

Comp-Att-TD: OU 21-25-0, Miss St 9-14-0

Passing Yards: OU 297, Miss St 43

3rd Down Conv: OU 7-8 (87%), Miss St 0-9

4th Down Conv: OU 0-0, Miss St 1-1

Red Zone: OU 6-6-0 (100%), Miss St 0-0-0

Turnovers: OU 0, Miss St 1

Fumbles Lost: OU 0, Miss St 1

PR Yards: OU 89, Miss St 7

KR Yards: OU 22, Miss St 137

Total Yards: OU 632, Miss St 175

Punts-Average: OU 1-20.0, Miss St 8-50.6

Penalties - Yards: OU 1-5, Miss St 1-5

T.O.P. OU 24:42, Miss St 9:38

Miss St Passing:

K. Thompson RAT 90.0 9-14 for 43 Yds, 64%

Miss St Rushing:

K. Thompson 14 for -11 Yds, Long of 10, 10 YAC

K. Hill 5 for -1 Yd, Long of 7, 12 YAC

Miss St Receiving:

K. Hill 4 for 8 Yds, Long of 4, 23 YAC

D. Thomas 2 for 9 Yds, Long of 6, 2 YAC

K. Walker 1 for 1 Yd, 3 YAC

A. Williams 1 for 10 Yds, 3 YAC

S. Guidry 1 for 15 Yds

Miss St Defensive Players of the Game:

Game lists C. Morgan 6 Tack, 6 Solo, 1 TFL, 1 Sack, 1 Pass Def

Honorable Mention to B. Cole II with 9 Solo Tack

OU Passing:

J. Hurts RAT 182.7, 20-24 for 284 Yds, 83%

T. Mordecai RAT 209.2, 1-1 for 13 Yds

OU Rushing:

J. Hurts 16 for 130 yards (should've probably been 150+, but unfortunately the three sacks I conceded count against his rushing yards in college. Another one of those annoying inconsistent rules between the NCAA & NFL.), seven TDs, Long of 59, 11 YAC, three 20+ yards.

Some of you might have correctly guessed that the seven TDs are a new school record in-game, as the real life school record is Quentin Griffin's six TDs in the first OU-Texas Win of the Bob Stoops Era in 2000. Which was a very memorable 63-14 Slaughtering. Funny anecdotes from that time include one of the announcers saying for Quentin Griffin's Grandkids after TD #6: "and if Quentin's Grandkids are watching this tape in the VCR or if they still use VCRs in the year(s) 2050, he was all that and more today." Time index: 2:08:20 for that sixth TD run, by the way. I always found that quote a little odd, seeing as for said grandkids to hear it they'd have likely watched all six TDs and likely the whole game anyways, but it's still a very fun quote. Also defeated Longhorn QB Major Applewhite found his name on a clever fan sign a couple weeks later listing the defeated QBs in our three week stretch against #11 Texas, #2 Kansas State, and #1 Nebraska for ABC broadcasting that Nebraska showdown. Applewhite, Beasley, Crouch.

K. Brooks 6 for 31 Yds, Long of 13, 5 YAC

T. Sermon 4 for 57 Yds, Long of 43, 7 YAC

M. Jones 1 for 8 Yds

T. Mordecai 1 for -2 Yds, #VictoryFormation

OU Receiving:

C. Lamb 6 for 105 Yds, Long of 40, 20 YAC

G. Calcaterra 6 for 112 Yds, Long of 28, 21 YAC

C. Rambo 4 for 20 Yds, Long of 8, 13 YAC

K. Brooks 3 for 39 Yds, Long of 33, 32 YAC

N. Basquine 2 for 21 Yds, Long of 22, 1 YAC

OU Defensive Players of the Game:

NCAA's Award: K. Mann 6 Solo Tack, 4 TFL, 3 Sack, FR

Honorable Mention: T. Norwood 7 Solo Tack, 2 TFL, 2 Sack, FF

Overall & SEC Players of the Week:

Tennessee LOLB Darrell Taylor 6 Tack, 5 TFL, 8 ATK, 2 Sacks, 2 INTs in 17-14 Win vs #23 Florida.

Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts 20-24, 284 Yds, 16 Car, 130 Yds, 7 Rush TD in 49-0 Win @ #11 Mississippi State.

Heisman Watch:

1st: Jalen Hurts OU QB

2nd & 5th: still 2013 Ghosts, it's getting frustrating. I'm beginning to wonder if 2013 Ghosts are going to get actual votes at the end.

3rd: Tru Wilson Michigan HB

33 Rush for 158 Yds, TD, 4 Rec for 42 Yds @ UConn W (37-0)

4th: D'Andre Swift Georgia HB

3 Rec for 68 Yds, TD, 14 Rush for 55 Yds @ Ole Miss W (21-13)

Coaches Poll for Week 5:

1. Clemson (33)
2. Georgia (25)
3. Wisconsin (1)
4. Oklahoma (1)
5. Notre Dame (1)
6. Miami (FL)
7. Ohio State, 1 Loss
8. TCU
9. West Virginia
10. UCF
11. Virginia Tech
12. Auburn, 1 Loss
13. Michigan, 1 Loss
14. Alabama, 3? Losses
15. Washington State
16. Mississippi State, 1 Loss
17. Florida State, 1 Loss
18. Washington, 1 Loss
19. Boston College
20. Michigan State, 1 Loss
21. Texas
22. South Carolina, 1 Loss
23. Arizona
24. Boise State, 1 Loss
25. Stanford, 2 Losses