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1. This year is the 75th anniversary of the fifth down between Cornell and Dartmouth. Cornell won 7-3, only to send a telegram three days later offering to forfeit after game film confirmed that Cornell had used five downs to score the winning touchdown in the final minute. Dartmouth accepted. This year is also the 25th anniversary of the fifth-down game between Colorado and Missouri. The Buffs scored on fifth down as time expired to win 33-31. Big Eight commissioner Carl James said it was not a correctable error, scoring a victory for rules over common sense. In the wake of Miami’s “victory” over Duke, I wonder if there’s still a Western Union office in Coral Gables. 2. You can trace No. 8 Stanford’s comeback from 12 points down to win at Washington State to the experience of the quarterbacks. Cardinal fifth-year senior Kevin Hogan started out jumpy, going through his progressions too fast, he said. But he calmed down and made the right decisions, especially on zone read running plays where he kept the ball. Hogan creased the Cougar defense for 138 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. Washington State sophomore quarterback Luke Falk lost his rhythm late and hurried two two interceptions that Stanford converted into 10 fourth-quarter points, including the winning field goal with 1:54 to play. 3. In his firing Sunday by Hawaii, as with most of his coaching career, Norm Chow avoided the spotlight. But let’s pause in our praise of Frank Beamer and acknowledge Chow, one of the best position coaches of the last 40 years. Chow became known as an offensive guru at BYU under LaVell Edwards, and then at USC with Pete Carroll. He coached Ty Detmer, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart in their Heisman seasons. When Chow finally became a rookie head coach at age 65, Hawaii offered him meager resources and not a lot of talent. He won 10 games, and I’m not sure that Carroll would have won more.
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