College Football’s Top 10 Week 4 Fails

One Louisiana-Monroe fan was frothing at the mouth on Saturday at the Warhawks’ ability to put scares into power teams (and in the case of Arkansas, upset them).

When the ESPN cameras panned in on the ULM fan after the Warhaws took a 35–34, fourth quarter lead, the fan temporarily lost his ability to swallow properly. As a result, a stream of saliva poured out of his mouth.

Hopefully this fan was in the front row and only coated the turf with his Pavlovian response.

It doesn’t matter how pristine your new “White Ops” uniforms are if you can’t keep the one on your quarterback’s back clean. In the first quarter of the Maryland–West Virginia game, Terps QB Perry Hills was leveled before he even had the chance to complete a handoff — clearly a missed blocking assignment. The Mountaineers’ Doug Rigg scooped up the loose ball and returned it 51 yards for the game’s first TD. Doh.

Virginia has lost two straight on the road by a combined 56 points. Its struggles away from home are best summed up by Darius Jennings’ non-TD at TCU on Saturday.

Streaking by his Horned Frogs defender, who had tripped over himself on the play, Jennings appeared to have a game-changing TD reception — until the ball came down from above and hit him square in the face mask.

It was one of the few scoring opportunities the Cavaliers had all day as TCU held them to seven points.

Sean Mannion was masterful in leading Oregon State to a 27–20 upset of previously unbeaten UCLA. For the most part.

Before he could torch the Bruins’ defense for 379 yards through the air, Mannion left an attempted wide receiver screen pass well short and wide of his intended target — sending the receiver and defensive back chasing after what they thought was a lateral. (It was incorrectly ruled an incomplete pass.)

Fortunately for Mannion, it’s not how you start but how you finish.

Oklahoma’s 24–19 upset loss to Kansas State could have been worse had a trick play gone awry been ruled a fumble (as it appeared) and not an incomplete forward pass.

A Sooner streaked in front of QB Landry Jones as he took a third quarter shotgun snap. Jones tried touch passing the pigskin to the streaking player, only to miss him completely. If, in fact, the running back expected the ball in the first place.

Oddly enough, Oklahoma would score a touchdown later on the drive. They were lucky the Wildcats didn’t have 1st-and-goal on the Oklahoma 10-yard line.

Kent State has become a regular on this site with previous fails like Andre Parker running the wrong way on a muffed punt and RB Dri Archer tripping over his own QB for a safety.

On Thursday, the Golden Flashes found a way to give up a touchdown at the end of the first half against Buffalo by not only allowing a Hail Mary, but also watching WR Alex Neutz run the final five yards into the end zone for a rare double fail on one play.

Fortunately, the Golden Flashes were able to escape with a 23-7 win.

Central Michigan shocked Iowa in Iowa City on Saturday, 32-31, by scoring nine points in the final 45 seconds.

And the reason they were able to do that was a massive failure by Iowa's special teams unit. After some trickeration by CMU on the onside kick that led the ball to be kicked at just two Iowa players, TE Henry Krieger Coble just watched the ball go by without blocking anyone as the Chippewas recovered the ball. We're sure Krieger Coble thought someone was behind him with better hands, but the result was to give Central Michigan the ball and, eventually, a stunning victory.

The Hawkeyes might want to put in some extra work on special teams this week.

Florida State put itself in prime position to play for a national title by beating Clemson on Saturday night, 49-37. But there was one play that looked like it belonged in a Pee Wee football game.

With the game almost finished, center Bryan Stork appeared to mess up the snap count and didn't hike the ball when he was supposed to. The result? A false start by practically the entire offense. The hilarity continued when Stork turned around with the ball in hand and conversed with QB E.J. Manuel about what had gone wrong.

Penn State RB Michael Zordich rushed for a career-high 75 yards on Saturday vs. Temple. Apparently that success had Zordich feeling like Superman because he attempted to hurdle Temple DB Vaughn Carraway with his 236-pound frame. The result was Zordich hilariously getting body slammed out of bounds. Let's hope Zordich doesn't try to defy gravity again.

You've probably never seen a safety on a kickoff return. Until now, that is.

While trailing Miami (FL) at home 10-0, Georgia Tech RB Smith received Miami’s kickoff in the Tech end zone and started to come out before changing his mind. Smith stuck his hand out across the goal line to brace himself before taking a knee in the end zone.

The problem? The ball had crossed the plane of the goal line, resulting in a safety. Making it even worse, Georgia Tech stormed back but eventually blew a 17-point lead to lose to "The U" in overtime, 42-36, with the help of those two extra points.