Y-Option's Go Go Go Awards - Week 6
Our distinct take on college football weekly awards and as always, seen through the lens of the West Coast
Week 6 in college football was completely crazy. 5 of the Top 11 in the AP Top 25 went down, with 4 of the 5 losing to unranked teams. So far the travel in conference play has seemed to be somewhat a factor in the Big Ten. In the 9 games where a former Pac-12 school has faced a legacy Big Ten team, the road team is 1-8 with the lone win coming from Indiana at UCLA. And there was nothing crazier on the West Coast this weekend than ESPN’s College GameDay’s 1st ever appearance in Berkeley, which culminated with Cal nearly adding another upset. But #8 Miami overcame a 35-10 deficit for a 39-38 victory.
With that, it’s time to give out our weekly awards here at Y-Option, with a very distinct West Coast flavor to them… Y-Option’s Go Go Go Awards fueled by 76.
A reminder on what these awards are: they will honor the top players and coaches of the week through the eyes of the West Coast. The 4 honors we will give out every week to coaches and players that pump passion into every play and just keep GO GO GO-ing:
“My 5-Star QB” - whether or not you were a 5-star recruit out of high school, you played like one this weekend.
“Go Go Gone” - the most explosive player of the week. Think big chunk plays as explosives and turnovers are the biggest predictor of wins and losses.
“That Dude!” - player who made an impact on either side of the ball. Not always about your numbers on the stat sheet.
“Headset Hero” - either a head coach or assistant coach who had their team ready and/or made the right in-game adjustments
Here are our Week 6 winners as we keep you in the know and on the GO GO GO!
“My 5-Star QB” - Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt
A 4-star recruit in the Class of 2023 out of West Linn HS in Oregon, a school well known for former Pac-12 athletes like Cade McNown (UCLA), Elijah Molden (Washington), Jaydon Grant (Oregon State) and Peyton Pritchard (Oregon), Sam Leavitt played 4 games as a true freshman at Michigan State last season before the decision was made to redshirt him to preserve his eligibility. Once the coaching change came in East Lansing in December, Leavitt hit the portal and decided his future was in Tempe with Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State. Their relationship dates back several years, as Leavitt’s first offer out of high school was from Florida State in the summer of 2021 when Dillingham was the Seminoles’ offensive coordinator.
After winning the battle for the starting QB spot in camp, Leavitt has steadily led the Sun Devil offense all season. While Saturday night did not show a ton of passing yards for the redshirt freshman (157 yards), he threw a career-high 4 touchdown passes including the game-winner with 16 seconds left to knock off Kansas 35-31. Leavitt, who had 3 pass TD on the season entering Saturday, becomes the first Sun Devil to throw 4 scores in a game since 2019. Joey Yellen, in his ASU debut and filling in for the injured Jayden Daniels, threw 4 TD against USC that season which wound up being the only 4 he threw in a Sun Devil uniform as he transferred to Pitt after the season.
Arizona State is coming off a 3-9 record in 2023 and were picked last in this summer’s Big 12 preseason media poll. But they’re now 4-1 in Kenny Dillingham’s 2nd season and are 3-0 in games decided by 7 points or less.
“Go Go Gone” - Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty
Unafraid of sounding like a broken record, for the 3rd time in 6 weeks, our “Go Go Gone” award goes to Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty. In fact, broken records will likely be a theme for Jeanty all season long.
In Saturday’s matchup with Utah State, the junior racked up 186 rushing yards (tied for the most of the week with ASU’s Cam Skattebo) and 3 rushing TD (tied for the 2nd most in FBS last week) and even more impressively did it all in the 1st half of a 62-30 victory. It’s the 4th time in 5 games this season that Jeanty has found the end zone at least 3 times and the 186 yards are actually his 2nd LOWEST total of the season.
Jeanty had a 63-yard TD run on Boise’s 1st play from scrimmage on Saturday and then added a 75-yard score early in the 2nd quarter. That gives the Boise State back 8 runs of 50+ yards so far this season, the only player in FBS with more than 3. The last player to have more than 7 for an entire season was Memphis’ Darrell Henderson with 10 in 2018.
The 2023 Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year has become the first player in FBS this season to top 1,000 yards and leads FBS in All-Purpose yards per game (210.0), rush YPG (206.2), rushing yards (1,031), rush yards per carry (10.9), and rush TD (16). Those 16 scores are more than he finished with last season (14) in 12 games.
“That Dude!” - Oregon DE Jordan Burch
On Friday night, Oregon wore uniforms - with some creative help from Dan Lanning, his wife Sauphia, and their 3 boys - designed to show support for those who have battled cancer. The Ducks, in turn, showed an inspired performance for a 31-10 win over Michigan State in Jonathan Smith’s return to the state of Oregon.
In his 2nd season for the Ducks after transferring from South Carolina, Jordan Burch had probably his best game in an Oregon uniform as the defense completely dominated the Spartans. Burch registered a career-high 2.5 sacks, including 1.5 of them coming on back-to-back plays late in the 2nd quarter. The senior also recovered a fumble in the end zone on MSU’s opening drive after Spartans QB Aidan Chiles fumbled at the goal line, his 3rd career fumble recovery.
As a whole, the Oregon defense did not allow a point until nearly halfway through the 4th quarter. The Ducks had a season-high 5 sacks in that game and held Michigan State to 2-11 on 3rd downs. The defense will be counted on again this week as #2 Ohio State and their high-powered offense comes to Eugene in one of the most anticipated games of the season.
“Headset Hero” - Washington Head Coach Jedd Fisch
Saturday in Seattle it was Michigan and Washington, the 2 teams that faced off in Houston in January for the CFP title, in a rematch of these schools but this time as conference foes. Both schools had new head coaches and plenty of roster turnover on each side but it was still a huge matchup with Michigan ranked in the Top 10.
In his first season at Washington, Jedd Fisch had seen his team lose twice in the first 5 games thanks to penalties, poor 3rd down execution, and struggles on special teams. But in both losses, Washington had outgained their opponent and in fact against Rutgers dramatically so (521-299). Signs of a team on the verge of breaking through.
And break through they did. Washington committed at least 6 penalties in each of the first 5 games, but the Huskies had just 2 penalties for 20 yards against the Wolverines. After missing 3 field goals in the loss to Rutgers, Grady Gross missed both attempts in the 1st half on Saturday. But Fisch stood by his kicker and Gross made 2 field goals in the 4th quarter as the Huskies transformed a Michigan 17-14 lead entering the final frame into a 27-17 “upset” win. The defense, who’s been a real strength this season, held the Wolverines to just 287 total yards which is the 5th time in 6 games the Husky D has held their opponent under 300 yards.
This is the first Top 10 win for Fisch (a one-time Michigan assistant) as the Washington head coach and second of his career (2022 with Arizona at #9 UCLA). The Huskies are now 5-1 against Top 10 teams since the start of last season with the lone loss to Michigan in January. Its also Washington’s first win as an unranked team against a Top 10 opponent since 2009 against then #3 USC.