Football fake punt play had deadly theatrical twist

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ASU! Hahahaha!

Years ago, when I was there, they had a president whose only platform and purpose in life was to make the little backwater ag-college a One-A football school. Basically they just had to add 50 thousand seats, or something, to the arena they couldn’t fill at the time (one local wag suggested they put them in the nearby cow pasture, since they wouldn’t be used anyway). I think they lost their games that season by an average of 80 points. They became a very popular team with schools looking to inflate their point count ahead of bowl contention, but the result was they played almost all of their games away, meaning no-one was using even the old seats.

Also, at one point, I believe they had the highest paid head coach in college football.

One thing I will say in their defense, though, is that when lived in the area, they were the ASU Indians (or Injuns), and their mascot was basically ripped off directly from the Cleveland Indians Chief Wahoo. Some time in the late '90s they dropped the cartoon, I think, in favor of some more neutral profile of a native american chief, but then remarkably they went ahead and changed their name to the Red Wolves, so fake punts aside, I think I can grant them being a classier team than a number of professional franchises.

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Now I understand what Oregon State tried to do with their new stadium and the NFL coach and the weirdly angry super-jock team of 2000. They weren’t brave enough to change the mascot, though.

What business do foreigners have understanding American football? We don’t try to understand things like soccer, do we?

The Villanova play was brilliant. I had to watch it about five times just to figure out where the ball went - and so did Boston. But that Arkansas play is really bizarre even without the fainting goat.

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I can’t say this with any authority, but somebody told me the dude who fainted was lined up looking like an eligible receiver, but due to the man in motion, was actually not an eligible receiver, and had he crossed the line of scrimmage (i.e. moved forward whatsoever) it would have been a penalty.

So, at least there’s the hint of reasoning behind it.

“Now I understand what Oregon State tried to do…They weren’t brave enough to change the mascot, though.”

Somebody took offense to Benny the Beaver? Seriously?

The “good” fake punt would have been a shitty fake punt if the defender could make a tackle. The guy who actually had the ball was hit in the backfield (by #94? hard to read), but the defender didn’t wrap him up and he got free.

Here’s an even better fake punt, by the Oregon Ducks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl9uLBO52ao

What the hell was that?!

Disclaimer, I am a foreigner and football is played with your feet.

“I am just gonna drop here and hopefully no one will notice”

Just for you, then. :slight_smile:

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Fake punts are rare enough that I can see trying some wacky play to really confuse the other team. The key failure in the whole play was throwing an interception - there was nobody on the passer’s team in that area.

Sure, it didn’t work, but why not try something wacky once in awhile. Now the other teams will have doubt every time that time lines up.

Y’know, that’s what I thought this post was about in the first place. I watched it about 5 times before I saw the guy falling backward.

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