With the end of Week 3 of college football, preparations for Week 4 immediately began.
While Andrew focused on training for his upcoming matchup in Texas, the noise and impact generated by Week 3 remained tremendous everywhere.
The defeat of the USC Trojans, the No. 2 team in the nation, caught everyone by surprise. Although they were facing a respectable opponent in Stanford, no one truly believed the Cardinals would come away with the victory.
Stanford had suffered a massive loss of key players in the most recent NFL Draft, including the man many considered the greatest player in program history: Andrew Luck.
Without their great leader, the Cardinals entered the season with very little hype and low expectations.
That was why everyone believed this was the perfect opportunity for USC and Matt Barkley to finally defeat Stanford, a team that had consistently come out on top in recent years whenever they faced the Trojans.
But Stanford refused to be treated like a defeated team before even taking the field. They surprised everyone tactically and ultimately defeated USC 21–14.
There were two major heroes for Stanford: their defensive game plan and their running back, Stepfan Taylor.
The Cardinals' defense completely neutralized the man who had been the overwhelming favorite to win the Heisman Trophy up to that point: Matt Barkley.
Barkley completed only 20 of 41 passes, good for a 48.7% completion rate.
That was unusually low for him, considering he had averaged over 60% completions throughout the entire previous season. To make matters worse, he failed to throw a single touchdown pass, as Stanford's defense completely shut him down.
The only points USC managed to score came entirely from the running game. Trojans running back Silas Redd rushed for both touchdowns.
On those plays, Barkley simply turned and handed the ball directly into Redd's hands or stomach, which is officially considered a rushing play.
That type of touchdown counts entirely toward the running back's statistics as a rushing touchdown, while the quarterback receives nothing in his passing stats (no passing yards, attempts, or touchdowns), remaining only the initial distributor of the ball.
For it to count as a quarterback touchdown, the ball would have needed to travel forward through the air.
To make things even worse, Barkley threw two interceptions that proved extremely costly for the Trojans.
For Trojans fans and USC students, it was a cold shower they never saw coming. As often happens in these kinds of sports rivalries, they immediately became the target of online mockery from fans of every other team.
It was a true dose of humility.
USC fans had taken victory for granted. They were already imagining a national championship showdown against Alabama and assumed the Pac-12 was theirs for the taking.
Now, social media was flooded with criticism claiming their "Heisman favorite" had been overrated, mocking Barkley for returning for one more year of college under the slogan fans had begged for, only to finish his career without ever defeating Stanford in four years.
The AP Poll voters showed no mercy: USC fell from No. 2 all the way down to No. 13, dropping a total of eleven spots.
It had not been an embarrassing blowout, however, and Stanford was still a respectable team, meaning USC still had a path to qualify for the BCS.
But Matt Barkley's Heisman Trophy campaign suffered a devastating blow.
Yet the worst part for Trojans fans was not simply watching their team fall. It was seeing their biggest crosstown rival generating the same amount of media attention, or even more, but in an entirely positive way: the UCLA Bruins.
UCLA also dominated newspaper headlines. Their game had been played in Prime Time before a packed Rose Bowl, but unlike USC, the Bruins had escaped with a dramatic victory over a Top 25 opponent.
On top of that, Andrew's performance was historic, especially considering he was a true freshman, completely overshadowing the mediocre outing Barkley had produced.
The Bruins were coming off a tough loss the previous week. Although the media, analysts, and journalists had remained respectful because UCLA was an extremely young team undergoing a rebuild, which was why they barely dropped in the various rankings, fans of other programs had mocked them heavily online.
Now, everything had changed.
UCLA improved to 2–1, and when the new AP Poll was released on Monday, the Bruins appeared at No. 12 in the country, officially moving ahead of USC.
Meanwhile, the Alabama Crimson Tide remained firmly in control after earning a dominant victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Razorbacks had been ranked No. 8 in the country the previous week before playing their second game. They faced Louisiana-Monroe, a team that was supposedly far inferior, and suffered a shocking upset loss, causing them to fall completely out of the Top 25.
To make matters worse, their starting quarterback, the player who had been performing well, was injured during that game.
And now, in this matchup against Alabama, they were completely overwhelmed. Nick Saban's team traveled to Arkansas and its legendary Donald W. Reynolds Stadium, where they crushed the home side in front of more than seventy thousand devastated fans.
Alabama won by 52 points and did not allow Arkansas to score a single point the entire game. It was a brutal 52–0 beatdown that kept the Crimson Tide firmly entrenched as the No. 1 team in the nation.
With USC's loss, Alabama now stood even more clearly as the overwhelming favorite to win the national championship and the team everyone else had to beat.
As for the LSU Tigers, they secured another victory to maintain their perfect 3–0 record, climbing to No. 2 in the rankings thanks to USC's stumble.
The Oregon Ducks were not far behind either: they won their matchup, maintained their perfect record, and held on to the No. 3 spot in the rankings.
Stanford, thanks to its huge victory over the nation's second-ranked team, made a massive leap in the polls and climbed all the way to No. 8, jumping more than ten spots in a single week.
The weekly individual awards were announced as well.
The prestigious Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week award went to Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor.
Taylor rushed 27 times for 153 yards and a touchdown on the ground. He also added 3 receptions for 60 yards and another receiving touchdown, finishing the game with approximately 213 total yards.
On the defensive side, the Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week award went to Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, whose team remained undefeated at 3–0.
Te'o recorded 12 tackles, one fumble recovery, and two passes defended in Notre Dame's dominant 20–3 victory over Michigan State, which had entered the game ranked No. 18 in the nation.
As for the Pac-12 committee, they decided to award Andrew the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week honor for his outstanding performance against Oregon State.
But that was not his only award. He also won Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, in addition to the coveted Davey O'Brien National Quarterback of the Week award.
It was no small feat that Andrew had earned three more weekly awards. While the freshman honor was almost a formality, and he won it by a wide margin, as there was no other freshman in the country performing at such a dominant level, the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback of the Week award was something truly extraordinary.
For a true freshman to be selected above every other quarterback in the country by the voting committee was already incredible, and Andrew had now collected two of these national honors. He had won the first one in Week 1 against the Rice Owls.
The Davey O'Brien Award has a major annual prize exclusively for Division I (FBS) quarterbacks, presented in December at the conclusion of the regular season.
It is considered the oldest and most prestigious award in the nation dedicated solely to that position, having been presented in this format since 1981.
Throughout the season, the committee selects a weekly group known as the Great 8, composed of the eight best quarterbacks of the week from across all conferences in the country. From that elite group, they officially announce the national winner of the week.
After evaluating more than 120 starting quarterbacks across the nation, the committee selects the very best performer of that particular week.
And in just three weeks of competition, Andrew had already claimed the top spot twice.
This generated a tremendous amount of media attention. Normally, a top-tier quarterback, the kind projected as a first-round NFL Draft pick, considered a Top 10 Heisman candidate, and viewed as a future professional star, would win this award once or twice over the course of an entire regular season.
For an eighteen-year-old to accomplish it twice in his first three weeks was completely out of the ordinary.
Andrew had practically already matched the historical record for the award. Since the creation of the weekly honor in 2007, no college star, not even names such as Tebow, Luck, or Newton, had managed to win it more than twice in a single season.
Some of the greatest quarterbacks of the modern era needed fourteen weeks to reach that mark; Andrew had done it in three.
...
LOS ANGELES TIMES | SPORTS
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
A NEW KING IN THE CITY?
Arrogance sank USC in Palo Alto, but the real threat to Matt Barkley is not Stanford, it's the 18-year-old kid who just stole the city from him.
By: Ben Bolch / Los Angeles Times
Complacency is the quietest poison in sports, and on Saturday night, the USC Trojans drank a full glass of it.
While national analysts spent months selling Matt Barkley's "One More Year" campaign as a triumphant march toward the National Championship, reality punched them squarely in the mouth in Palo Alto.
But let's be honest: USC's fall to No. 13 in the rankings is not the worst news for fans on the other side of town. The truly terrifying part for the Trojans is that while their senior quarterback dragged his feet to a mediocre 48.7% completion rate and gifted away two interceptions, the Rose Bowl was witnessing the birth of a new era.
Los Angeles no longer belongs to Barkley. The city has a new owner, and he wears blue and gold.
The USC Illusion
All summer long, we heard the same argument: USC's offense is deadly because it is a replica of an NFL-style professional system, and Barkley is the perfect conductor for it. Yet when the pressure rises and your star passing attack produces zero touchdowns across four quarters, the narrative falls apart.
Watching USC beg for points through one-yard rushing scores by Silas Redd, plays in which Barkley's million-dollar arm did nothing more than turn around and place the football into his running back's stomach, was a sad sight to behold.
This dose of humility arrived in the form of a massive exile from the AP Top 10.
The Andrew Pritchett-Tucker Anomaly
At the same time, just a few miles away, football experienced a short circuit.
What Andrew Pritchett-Tucker did against Oregon State in front of a packed Rose Bowl should not be possible for a freshman.
In a strict Pro-Style system designed by Norm Chow, this kid dismantled a Top 25 defense with the composure of an NFL veteran.
Despite suffering the first loss of his football life the previous week, the young quarterback led his team to victory with numbers that look as though they were pulled straight out of a video game: 28 completions on 40 attempts for an impressive 70% completion rate, 326 passing yards, and 3 touchdown passes.
But what drives every defensive coordinator crazy is his intelligent mobility. When the pocket collapsed, Andrew punished Oregon State on the ground, adding 112 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown.
A total of 438 combined yards that carried the Bruins to No. 12 in the nation, officially surpassing their eternal crosstown rivals for the first time in years.
If Andrew's performance was a visual spectacle, the reaction from national committees this week has been an institutional earthquake. What is happening in Westwood with this kid's award collection is breaking NCAA record books and statistical expectations.
In just three weeks of football, this true freshman's personal trophy case already reads like the résumé of a Heisman winner at the peak of his college career: two Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week awards, two Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors, and a national Walter Camp award.
Yet the real anomaly lies in the announcement from the committee in Texas: Pritchett was named the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback of the Week for the second time in fifteen days.
Legendary quarterbacks such as Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, and Tim Tebow, during the very best seasons of their careers, won this weekly award only once or twice.
The map of Southern California changed completely this weekend. Matt Barkley returned to college to secure his legacy, but he ran out of answers in Northern California.
Meanwhile, in Westwood, a kid barely old enough to vote is forcing the NCAA to rewrite its history books.
The debate is over: Los Angeles has a new king, and Week 4 is only the beginning of his reign.
...
Because of all this, traffic on Twitter surrounding college football was enormous, an absolute flood of mentions, memes, and debates spreading across the entire platform.
The clip featuring Andrew's touchdown sequence had become, without any debate whatsoever, the most replayed highlight of the week across the entire NCAA football landscape.
The video racked up millions of views within hours, spreading across YouTube, specialized forum threads, and television sports broadcasts.
The very nature of the play bordered on cinematic: seeing the initial mistake where the ball slipped out of his hands, Andrew's dramatic retreat all the way back into his own end zone to recover it at the last second, and then that spectacular run.
@ESPNCFB – Sept. 16
🚨 PLAY OF THE SEASON! 😱 UCLA true freshman Andrew Pritchett-Tucker fumbles the snap, retreats all the way into his own end zone, breaks three consecutive tackles, and races 95 yards for the score. Are we witnessing the first Heisman Moment of the season? 🎥👇
[Video: Andrew Pritchett-Tucker 95-yard TD run vs Oregon State]
💬 Tweet Comments
@BruinNation94:
OH MY GOD, ANDREW! I was at the stadium and the Rose Bowl nearly came down after that touchdown. This kid isn't human, he's an 18-year-old alien! 🐻💙💛 #GoBruins #FirstFreshmanHeisman
@Arthur_sc189:
I'm a diehard Alabama fan and I hate the Pac-12, but I have to admit it,that play is complete athletic insanity. The kid has the instincts to find a lane in the middle of pure chaos. Unreal.
@willusc1:
What a nightmare weekend to be a Trojan in LA... 🤦♂️
@RedfnPain:
Those of us who followed him from his YouTube channel knew he was going to break college football!
@ryanschundler:
The best part of the clip is seeing Andrus Peat, Steve Rice, Vadal Alexander, and Amari Cooper running right alongside him to cut off Oregon State defenders. The timing and chemistry of those freshmen is scary. UCLA's future is set for a long time.
@Nlson.s:
A true freshman running a strict Pro-Style system and then doing this when the pocket collapses. The talent is real.
...
@CFBReport – Sept. 16, 2012
🚨 ARE WE WATCHING THE GREATEST FRESHMAN SEASON IN HISTORY?
It's unusual to ask that question only three weeks into a season, but Andrew Pritchett-Tucker has already forced it into the conversation.
After dismantling Oregon State, UCLA's quarterback once again collected several Monday honors:
🏅 Davey O'Brien National Quarterback of the Week
🏅 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week
🏅 Pac-12 Freshman of the Week
In just THREE WEEKS of college football, this 18-year-old's trophy case already includes: 2x O'Brien, 2x Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, 2x Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, and 1x Walter Camp Offensive Player of the Week. An absolute anomaly!
Pritchett-Tucker has already surpassed Andrew Luck (who won it only once) and matched Cam Newton, who won it twice during his historic 2010 season. 📈
🔥 #NCAAF #Bruins
💬 Tweet Comments
@QanMZ:
Two Davey O'Brien awards in three weeks and a national Walter Camp award? What the hell am I reading? This kid is completely breaking football logic. It's absurd.
@Buyers726:
Freshman of the Week is basically a joke at this point, he wins it in his sleep. But taking the Davey O'Brien away from all the seniors and juniors in the country for a second time is what's truly terrifying. The Texas committee doesn't hand those awards to freshmen unless you're a freaking mutant.
@Briansxz9:
Please, wake up. The committees are babying this kid because he generates millions of clicks with all the hype around him. It's pure marketing. Two O'Brien awards in three weeks? There's clearly a media agenda to inflate this kid and force a narrative from the start.
@GideonBruins19 (replying to @Briansxz9):
Media agenda? Hype? Did you even watch the Oregon State game? The guy posted a 70% completion rate, threw for 326 yards and 3 touchdowns in a Pro-Style system, and on top of that ran for another 112 yards and a rushing score. The numbers don't lie, buddy. Stop crying. 🤫
@elliesaint:
Calling the greatest high school prospect in history "overrated" shows you don't understand football at all. Andrew came into college with 12 championships and more than 50 victories between Palisades and Mater Dei.
@marclamb6712:
Comparing him to Cam Newton or Andrew Luck in Week 3 is disrespectful. We're only three games into the season. Let's see if he can maintain this pace once defenses adjust and the schedule gets tougher.
@westcod2 (replying to @marclamb6712):
Yeah, the guy is good, but the media in Los Angeles loves to exaggerate everything. Just look at Barkley...
...
As for the coveted Heisman Watch list, it was updated, and ESPN, Fox Sports, and several other sports programs placed Andrew at No. 2 in the entire country, trailing only West Virginia star quarterback Geno Smith.
Although Andrew had accumulated more individual accolades in just three weeks, he carried the burden of a team loss against Nebraska and two interceptions on his record.
Geno, on the other hand, maintained a completely spotless résumé: no losses, no interceptions, and a completion percentage above 80%. That, too, was a genuine anomaly that seemed straight out of a video game.
Barkley suffered a spectacular collapse, falling from No. 1 all the way to No. 8 on the list.
However, analysts refused to completely remove him from the Heisman Watch.
The Trojans were still inside the national Top 15 with a 2–1 record, and Barkley's overall statistics, despite the Stanford game, remained quite solid.
All of this was also being discussed on Twitter. Conversation threads were on fire, debating whether Andrew truly had what it took to become the first freshman in college football history to win the Heisman Trophy, and whether his statistics and weekly awards already justified placing him at No. 1 ahead of Geno.
But amid that flood of tweets, one detail in particular stole the spotlight: a photograph taken just before UCLA's game-winning 65-yard drive against Oregon State.
A photographer on the UCLA sideline captured the exact moment offensive coordinator Norm Chow was intensely yelling instructions at Andrew, adrenaline running high, only inches from his face. What drove people crazy was Andrew's reaction.
He maintained a completely blank expression, staring directly into Chow's eyes without a single complaint, without taking a step back or lowering his head even a millimeter, simply listening.
@SportsCenter:
🚨 THE IMAGE OF WEEK 3? 🥶👀
Minutes before leading the game-winning drive, cameras caught UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow giving Andrew Pritchett-Tucker some extremely intense instructions. The freshman's ice-cold stare under pressure from his coach says it all.
Pressure? What's that?
[Photo: Norm Chow gesturing furiously, adrenaline pumping, just inches away from Andrew's face]
💬 Tweet Comments:
@e.823:
I've followed Chow for years. The guy is an old-school, methodical coach who rarely shows emotion. Seeing him with a vein popping out of his neck and gesturing with that much intensity tells you everything about what that final drive meant. He was pushing the kid to his limit.
@ashtondownson102:
Andrew's face 💀. Any other freshman would be shaking or looking down if a guy with Chow's résumé was yelling at him like that.
@StewartMandel (Sports Illustrated columnist):
The kid is ice cold. Well-deserved wins and awards. #UCLA
@KirkHerbstreit:
This is football in its purest form. Maximum demands from the mentor and absolute focus from the field general. What a picture.
@WestCoastBruin:
Andrew's face in that photo confirms to me that the kid doesn't feel pressure. At Mater Dei, he played in front of 70,000 people and beat a team that looked unbeatable. Chow's yelling is music to his ears. Top 12 in the rankings, baby!
@denshen1992:
New profile picture. Stay with someone who looks at you with the same intensity Norm Chow looks at Andrew 😂 #GoBruins
@Tyrons11:
A nice photo for TV drama, but stop exaggerating. Coaches yell at players in every game, every week. Apparently staring at your coach now makes you a generational genius. The Los Angeles hype machine is incredible.
...
Amid all that media frenzy, the week flew by and Saturday finally arrived.
At first glance, a game against a supposedly weak FBS opponent like the Houston Cougars would have been assigned a minor network and an unremarkable broadcast slot.
However, with Andrew becoming the center of attention across the entire country and UCLA climbing to No. 12 in the national rankings, ESPN decided to exercise its television rights.
The network reshuffled its schedule to air the matchup and moved the game directly into the coveted afternoon showcase window.
The kickoff time was set for 2:30 PM (Pacific Time in California) / 4:30 PM (Texas Time).
It was the prized afternoon slot, ideal for capturing both the Los Angeles audience and Texas's passionate football fanbase during a high-rating pre-prime-time window.
Leonard and Howard, who had not traveled to Texas, planned to watch the game at Monica and Rachel's apartment, just as they had done during the Nebraska game.
But both Monica and Howard were extremely superstitious.
Convinced that being stuck in the living room would bring the same bad luck that had caused that defeat, they decided to do something much more special and experience what every UCLA student dreams of on game day.
Ironically, the only actual UCLA student in the group was Howard. They decided to head to the sports bars of Westwood Village.
The area surrounding UCLA's campus is filled with iconic bars equipped with giant screens, and they chose Barney's Beanery, one of the most famous spots in the entire district.
Because of the absolute frenzy surrounding the Bruins, they had to stand in line for two hours just to secure a table.
That was where they ran into Sam and her group of friends again, including Paige.
Although things had been a little awkward because of Sam's complete ignorance regarding pop culture, the guys didn't dislike her. Besides, Steve had asked them to make an effort to get their friend groups to get along.
At 1:30 PM, with a full hour still remaining before kickoff, both groups were already comfortably seated around a long table inside the bar.
They were surrounded by dozens of other students wearing Bruins jerseys, waving flags, sporting blue-and-gold face paint, and radiating excitement.
"I'm going to order another round of wings," Monica announced, placing her hands on the table as she started to stand up.
Rachel immediately grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks.
"Mon, you've already had too many wings. There's still a whole hour before the game starts..." she said in a tone of subtle warning.
"A few more won't hurt me," Monica insisted with a nervous smile.
The anticipation for the game was fueling her anxiety.
And whenever Monica became anxious, her old coping mechanism came rushing back, pushing her to overeat, just as she had done throughout her childhood when she had struggled with severe weight issues.
Rachel sighed, staring directly into her eyes with complete seriousness, and resorted to the method she knew worked best.
"You're breaking your diet. You're already over your limit. Think about this: how would Andrew look at you if he saw you giving in to anxiety like this?"
To Monica, Andrew was both an idol and now a close friend. Watching videos of Andrew's workouts, his discipline, and his fitness advice had been the catalyst that inspired her to become athletic and successfully lose weight.
The moment she heard her mentor's name, it was as if Rachel had spoken a hypnotic trigger word directly into Monica's mind. Her eyes widened instantly.
Even though she knew perfectly well that Andrew was thousands of miles away in a Texas locker room focused entirely on the game, and that he would never scold her like a father would, the mere thought of betraying that philosophy was enough to snap her back to reality.
"You're right. Thanks..." Monica said with a nod before sitting back down at the table. She crossed her arms and fixed her gaze on the giant screen, which was already showing ESPN's pregame coverage.
Paige, who was seated directly across from Monica, had watched the entire exchange in complete silence. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the bizarre scene.
'What the hell...?' Paige thought, intrigued.
Had Andrew somehow become a spiritual guru or a motivational fitness mentor now?
She tried to analyze the situation and gather information, amused by the effect Andrew seemed to have on people.
'It must be because of his YouTube channel...' Paige concluded. That was the only explanation.
She had never watched a single one of Andrew's videos.
Should I watch one? she wondered.
Setting aside the mystery that was Monica, Paige let out a small sigh and settled comfortably into her chair, ready to enjoy the afternoon.
At that exact moment, the general chatter inside Barney's Beanery noticeably died down as the bar's speakers increased the volume of the broadcast.
On the giant screen, the iconic College GameDay theme music signaled the beginning of the afternoon showcase.