NFL
By: Bill Carroll
Nuts And Bolts Sports New Nutties College Football Awards For Week 0 are now entering their second year of life. We would like to proudly present the most deserving performers of the week.
Offense
UNLV quarterback Doug Brumfield was 21-of-25 passes for 356 yards, for those scoring at home that is a QB rating of 256.4. He had as many scoring passes as incomplete passes. UNLV finished the game with 552 total yards, 405 via the pass.
His top target was Michigan State transfer, Ricky White, who was terrorizing the Idaho State Bengals, while he was in the game, to the tune of eight receptions for 182 yards and a pair of scores in the first half. White’s 182 yard total was the 11th highest single-game total in UNLV history.
While Idaho State is a FCS program, the way that the UNLV Running Rebels’ air attack was clicking, there are not many teams that could have stopped them. This represented the second-most efficient game by a quarterback in UNLV history, trailing only Caleb Herring’s effort in which he hit on 24 out of 28 pass attempts for 266 yards and three touchdowns, in a win over Central Michigan in 2013. UNLV scored 45 points in the first half, which was the second-most in the program’s history, since the 52 points scored versus Idaho State in 2015. UNLV won that game 80-8.
At The FCS level the “Nutty” goes to Florida A&M University quarterback, Jeremy Moussa,
a graduate transfer from Vanderbilt, who passed for 279 yards and completed 28 of 38 passes, posting a 73.7% completion percentage on that day, with two touchdowns and an interception. His team was missing three starters, including projected top 100 draft prospect, All-HBCU and FCS Preseason All-American pass-rusher, Isaiah Land, also more than 20 others were ineligible or unable to play. With all the adversity that they faced the, Rattlers acquitted themselves very well. I will be watching Moussa and this team.
Defense
The defenses in week 0 had to get prepared to face a variety of offenses and a great deal of talent. Western Kentucky had one of my personal favorite pass-rushers in last year’s draft class in DeAngelo Malone. Much of the buzz in the off-season surrounded who would take up the mantle of the team’s top pass-rusher.
Perhaps we have an answer? JaQues Evans is powerful and sudden, while he does not yet have Malone’s extensive array of moves, he’s just a red-shirt sophomore. He had two and a half sacks, nine solo tackles and assisted on four more. I did not see a more impressive performance on defense for the week. At the FCS level a truly strong performance came from Alabama State’s sophomore defensive end, Stefon Young-Rolle,
who gave Howard’s blockers fits. He had two solo stops and two sacks. He was active and showed he could both hold the point and bend the edge. Honorable mention to Duquesne corner-back, Ryan Webb who had intercepted a pass by Tate Rodemaker, which Duquesne to put their first, and only, points of the game on the scoreboard. Webb is a transfer from the Maris Red Foxes. Though The Dukes of Duquesne put up only token resistance for most of the game, Webb flashed at times with two solo tackles and an assist. That was in addition to the picking off the Seminole’s backup QB, which he returned for 50 yards.
