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          Celebrating college football's 2020 success stories

          • Bill ConnellyDec 7, 2020, 07:00 AM ET
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              Bill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.
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          It's OK to admit it: The 2020 college football season has been frustrating and exhausting. We began the campaign with the sport's leaders proving they aren't capable of working in unison even during the nation's worst health crisis in a century. We watched as a bunch of stars either opted out or battled through injury-plagued seasons. Of late, we've also gotten to watch as well-paid adults who should absolutely know better lost their discipline and turned COVID-19 issues into rivalry smack and, in essence, questions of effort.

          We're all tired -- coaches and players most of all. The extra layers of effort they've had to go through to create as much normalcy as possible have been exhausting in themselves, with constant COVID testing, cancellations and postponements all taking an emotional toll.

          As the regular season approaches its conclusion, we should take the time to applaud some of the season's happier stories. We saw quite a few of them this past weekend.

          BYU-Coastal was everything we could have hoped for

          So many of us still enjoy waxing poetic about the 2007 season, one of the zaniest thrill rides in the sport's history.

          Upsets were a huge part of that thrill -- Appalachian State over Michigan, Stanford over USC, Illinois over Ohio State, etc. But so was the unexpectedly joyous anticipation for games that wouldn't normally cause much of a ripple. Missouri-Kansas stands out, of course, but ESPN College GameDay also visited Lexington for a top-10 Kentucky, and USF, Boston College, Arizona State, Missouri, Kansas and West Virginia all spent time in the BCS top five.

          Those unique moments in the spotlight are what I remember as much as anything about that season, and we got to enjoy a hint of that over the weekend when Conway, South Carolina, briefly turned into the center of the college football universe.

          Coastal Carolina hosted College GameDay for the first time on Saturday, and for an even bigger game than expected. When Liberty had to cancel on the Chanticleers because of COVID issues, Coastal and BYU agreed to an unbeaten-versus-unbeaten game on about 60 hours' notice. And it turned into one of the best games of the year.

          BYU outgained the Chants by 39 yards and 1.7 yards per play, but the Cougars lost the turnover battle and couldn't get the ball away from Coastal on long Chanticleers touchdown drives of 5:54, 6:06 and 9:05. BYU forgot to feed Tyler Allgeier at times -- he gained 106 yards on only 13 carries -- and Mateo Sudipo made what is for now the most important tackle in Coastal history, stopping Dax Milne at the 1-yard line as time expired. Coastal 22, BYU 17.

          This being 2020, we couldn't have only nice things -- the crowd shots of largely maskless fans in the student section provided a familiar waft of anxiety to the proceedings. But this was still an utterly delightful event and a perfect showcase for two teams more than deserving of the spotlight this fall. (That Coastal head coach Jamey Chadwell talked about people saying the Chants were going to get their butts kicked "all week" -- for a game arranged on Thursday -- only added to the mystique.)

          I said it last week, and I'll say it again: 2020 has proved that we can arrange superfun matchups on the fly. We have no excuse not to continue using this newfound superpower when the coronavirus pandemic is a thing of the past.

          DeVonta Smith remains unfair

          A scroll through your 2020 preseason All-Americans list of choice is a terribly depressing exercise. While most of the top quarterbacks stuck around and thrived, so many elite players either opted out (Ja'Marr Chase, Micah Parsons and many others) or struggled through an injury-plagued campaign (Chuba Hubbard, Marvin Wilson et al).

          Seeing some veterans thriving, then, warms the heart a bit. And no one's doing more of that than Alabama's DeVonta Smith.

          You could easily make the case that Smith was the best Alabama receiver last year, better than a pair of top-15 draft picks in Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs III. He returned for his senior season, however, and after catching 68 balls for 1,256 yards and 14 TDs in 13 games last year, he has topped those numbers in just nine games: 80 receptions, 1,305 yards, 15 scores. He has gained at least 144 yards in six of the past seven games following fellow star Jaylen Waddle's injury, and he had 231 and three scores against his home-state rival, LSU, on Saturday. We've rarely seen a college wide receiver playing better than Smith has played in the past couple of months.

          I mean, come on.

          Between Smith, teammate Najee Harris (1,285 combined rushing and receiving yards and 20 TDs), Clemson's Travis Etienne (1,270 combined rushing and receiving yards and 14 TDs) and a few others, we've seen some star veterans doing incredible things this year. Even if it's not as many as normal.

          Iowa State and Indiana are 14-3

          It's not easy being an Iowa State football fan. The Cyclones haven't won a conference title since 1912 -- "YEAH, WE KNOW, YOU GUYS MENTION THAT EVERY THREE SECONDS," every ISU fan reading this just reflexively yelled (hopefully not in public) -- and have finished ranked in the AP poll just twice, never higher than 19th. Back in the two-division days of the Big 12, they twice came within a win of the North title; in 2004, they lost at home to 5-6 Missouri to fall short, and in 2005 they lost three one-score games when two would have gotten them to the championship game in Houston.

          The joyous moments are indeed moments, not seasons or decades, and complimenting head coach Matt Campbell for his incredible work in Ames has always felt a bit backhanded -- he has yet to finish better than 8-5 at ISU.

          He's 8-2 at the moment, though, and his Cyclones are 10th in the AP poll and ninth in the CFP rankings. After coming so close in years past, they not only clinched a spot in the Big 12 title game on Saturday, they did so resoundingly, with a 42-6 win over a decent West Virginia. After the worst possible start to the season (a 31-14 loss to Louisiana), they've won eight of nine, losing only by three at Oklahoma State on Oct. 24. And now they'll get a chance to end Oklahoma's five-year conference title streak and take home their first league title since ... I forget the year.

          Then there's Indiana. The Hoosiers have two conference titles to their name (1945 and 1967), and had been to one bowl in 22 years when Kevin Wilson brought them back-to-back six-win seasons in 2015-16. After Wilson's resignation following a player treatment dispute, defensive coordinator Tom Allen took over, and the program kept flashing potential. The Hoosiers won eight games for the first time since 1993 last year, and they've started this season 6-1 with their first win over Penn State since 2013, their first win over Wisconsin since 2002 and their first win over Michigan since 1986.

          The Big Ten is evidently weighing whether to loosen its minimum game requirement to let Ohio State, which beat Indiana on Nov. 21, into the conference title game if the Buckeyes suffer another game cancellation. Aside from the awkwardness of changing rules on the fly, the thought of letting in a 5-0 team with a head-to-head win over a 6-1 or 7-1 team doesn't really strike me as particularly unfair. And either way, Indiana is flying through an abbreviated dream season.

          What there's been of the Pac-12 season has been thrilling

          We've seen only 24 games involving Pac-12 teams. The light load relegated them to non-starter status as far as the College Football Playoff is concerned, but what the conference has lacked in quantity, it's made up for in fun storylines.

          You like close games, right?

          Of those 24 games involving Pac-12 teams; 14 of them have been decided by a touchdown or less, and five of six games this past weekend were up for grabs deep into the fourth quarter. From USC's early-morning win over Arizona State on Nov. 7 to the dueling dramatic finishes of UCLA-Arizona State and Oregon State-Utah late this past Saturday, the drama has unfolded at all hours of the day.

          Karl Dorrell's triumphant (so far) comeback

          There are five remaining unbeaten teams in the power conference ranks: Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC ... and Colorado. The Buffaloes have been far from dominant, nearly blowing huge leads in their first two wins (over UCLA and Stanford) and giving their past two opponents (SDSU and Arizona) the ball with a chance to tie in the fourth quarter before putting the games away. But winning without style points is still far better than losing!

          Dorrell took over in February; including interim coaches, he was the Buffaloes' fourth coach in about 16 months. The Buffs have enjoyed one above-.500 finish in the past 14 seasons, and Dorrell hadn't served as a head coach since his 2007 departure from alma mater UCLA.

          Dorrell was run out of Westwood after producing, per SP+, only top-40 status on average. The Bruins have achieved that level only four times in the 12 seasons since, which reflects well on him. So does what he's doing with CU thus far.

          UCLA is ... fun and promising?

          With wins over Arizona and Arizona State in the past two weeks, the Bruins have spent their first two weeks back in the SP+ top 40 since the midway point of 2017. They lost 18 of Chip Kelly's first 25 games in charge, including the season opener against Colorado. But despite COVID issues causing shuffling at QB, they've won three of four.

          UCLA beat Cal and Arizona by a combined 61-20, nearly taking down Oregon in between, and the Bruins survived a Saturday night collapse in Tempe, Arizona. After bolting to a 17-0 lead over Arizona State, they proceeded to give up an 18-0 run. But with the game on the line, Dorian Thompson-Robinson guided the Bruins on a six-minute, 82-yard drive before Demetric Felton strangely got himself shoved into the end zone by ASU defenders trying to let him score with 1:09 left.

          (The ASU defenders raising their hands to signal touchdown is my favorite part.)

          Quentin Lake broke up a near touchdown in the end zone as time expired, and the Bruins moved to 3-2. What's next? Not sure, but for the first time under Kelly, it appears there might be traction. I really wish we had a chance to watch more of the Bruins this year.

          San Jose State and Buffalo: Still unbeaten, too

          It was a big deal when Penn State started 0-5 for the first time ever; that start was, of course, due in part to the Nittany Lions' conference-only schedule. The originally intended nonconference slate (Kent State, at Virginia Tech, San Jose State) would have likely produced at least one win, after all, before conference play began.

          Consider SJSU the Penn State inverse, then. Instead of beginning the season with September road trips to CMU, Penn State and Boise State, Brent Brennan's Spartans instead dove right into conference play and thrived. They won four straight games, and after a couple of unexpected weeks off, they went out to the islands and beat Hawaii 35-24. They're now 5-0 for the first time in 81 years.

          Buffalo, meanwhile, had early-season road games scheduled against Kansas State and Ohio State. Granted, Lance Leipold's Bulls very well could have beaten KSU, but UB has taken advantage of what it's been given, winning the first four games on the new schedule by an average of 26 points. That gives the Bulls their second 4-0 start in three years and the inside track to their second MAC championship game appearance in that span as well. The only thing left for Leipold to accomplish at this point is to win it.

          Eliah Drinkwitz's Missouri Tigers are flexible, resilient and overachieving

          When the SEC announced it would be expanding its existing conference schedule to 10 games and ditching nonconference games, Mizzou and Arkansas became two of the victims of the league's obvious plan to make sure its most likely national title contenders weren't given any more potential losses than possible. Missouri added Alabama and defending national champ LSU to the schedule, while Arkansas was given Georgia and Florida. Preseason projections gave them a likely combined record of about 4-16.

          They were instead a combined 7-8 before an epic 50-48 Mizzou win early Saturday. The Tigers jumped to a 10-0 lead, but a 27-6 run gave the visiting Hogs a two-touchdown advantage with 13 minutes left. Mizzou responded with three touchdowns in eight minutes to take the lead back, but Arkansas went up 48-47 with 43 seconds left following a touchdown and an interception-turned-successful 2-point conversion. Mizzou's Connor Bazelak finished a 380-yard day by driving the Tigers right back into field goal range, and freshman Harrison Mevis' fifth field goal of the day gave Mizzou the win.

          We have no idea how Drinkwitz will build and maintain a program because he has never done it, but we know this: The Tigers have been incredibly resourceful this year. When LSU and Arkansas started lighting up the scoreboard, Drinkwitz took the regulator off Bazelak, and the freshman responded with huge games and wins by a combined 95-89. When Kentucky and South Carolina tried to turn their respective games into old-school rock fights, Mizzou found bigger rocks and won by a combined 37-20. At worst, the Tigers will finish the regular season .500, two wins above projections, and their odds of a New Year's bowl appear quite solid. I'm guessing Mizzou fans would have been more than happy with that at the beginning of the season.

          Rice pitched the second shutout of a three-TD favorite in the past 40 years

          Per ESPN's Stats & Information Group's betting odds database, here's a complete list of teams since 1978 that had gotten shut out as a favorite of 21+ points:

          • Nebraska, against Arizona State (19-0) in 1996

          Per the database, here's a list of the teams that, as favorite of 21-plus points, lost by at least 20 instead:

          • Louisville, against Cincinnati (30-7) in 1991

          • Arizona State, against NMSU (35-7) in 1999

          • Bowling Green, against WMU (45-14) in 2005

          • Texas Tech, against Texas A&M (52-30) in 2009

          • Georgia Tech, against MTSU (49-28) in 2012

          • Houston, against SMU (38-16) in 2016

          We added a name to both of those lists Saturday.

          Due to a mandated late start and endless postponements and cancellations, Rice had managed to play only three games before Saturday's trip to Marshall. The Owls took out their many reasons for frustration on the previously unbeaten Thundering Herd, shutting down a banged-up Marshall offense and winning 20-0. Whatever else happens, or doesn't, this season, that's a building moment right there.

          Akron and New Mexico won football games!

          We've seen a run of bowl cancellations in recent weeks, and justifiably so -- we're still in a pandemic, after all. Still, it's been disappointing, if only from the standpoint that, after everything teams have gone through this fall, anyone who wants to play in a bowl game should be able to.

          Barring that, everyone at least deserves a win. That's probably not possible, but at least two of the teams most in need of a victory got on the board Saturday.

          New Mexico snapped a 14-game losing streak and won its first game since last Sept. 21, beating Wyoming in a "home" game (in Las Vegas, since the Lobos can't play in their home state) with a late Isaiah Chavez-to-Bobby Cole touchdown pass. And as a slight favorite against hapless Bowling Green, Akron took out more than two years' worth of frustration, winning 31-3 to snap a 21-game, and more than 25-month, skid. Everybody deserves at least a short bout of joy in this trying year. Congrats to the Lobos and Zips for securing theirs.

          Texas State played 12 games

          Navigating through COVID-19 has required a healthy amount of pure luck -- something I wish Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity would have done a better job of acknowledging in his statements after the Dawgs' game with Vanderbilt was canceled.

          Still, it's pretty amazing to step back and acknowledge that, despite all potential obstacles, Texas State managed to play 12 games -- from Boston to Provo, Utah, and everywhere in between -- in 13 weeks. Granted, the Bobcats won only two of them, but simply getting onto the field 12 times, battling positive tests but never too many positive tests (and with their opponents never having to cancel either), took a ferocious combination of good luck and logistical fortitude.

          On top of that, they were pretty fun! They enjoyed their best scoring average since 2014 and played in five one-score games, including a 51-48 loss to UTSA that was probably the best game of September. If a 2-10 season could ever be considered encouraging or fulfilling, Texas State just experienced one.