Spotlight reel performs are nice. However the “SportsCenter” High 10 nominations aren’t the one moments that make faculty soccer superb. A number of the sport’s best charms come off the overwhelmed path.
Week 13, like most weeks earlier than it, proved that axiom to be appropriate as soon as once more. From a weird punter fumble restoration in Raleigh to a hero’s welcome for an orthopedic surgeon in Norman, the wacky and wild sides of faculty soccer have been as prevalent as ever.
Like each week, we’re handing out various nontraditional superlatives to honor a few of the sport’s much less possible protagonists. Listed here are the most effective, the strangest and the funniest from Week 13 in faculty soccer.
Most type factors in a single play: USC
We established that spotlight reel performs aren’t every part within the introduction, nevertheless it’s tough to not highlight the extent of spectacular issues that occurred in No. 15 USC’s game-tying landing on the primary play of the second quarter in its showdown with No. 7 Oregon.
First, there was the playcall: a double-pass trick play that put the ball within the arms of huge receiver Makai Lemon for a throw. Then there was the ambition: Regardless of not being a quarterback by commerce, Lemon had no points winging the ball almost 30 yards down the sphere into the tip zone. After which there was the finale: Lemon’s fellow huge receiver Tanook Hines had no issues climbing the ladder for a powerful high-point seize. Should you have been searching for swagger on Saturday, USC’s rating delivered it in thought and execution.
Makai THROWS a TD to @tanxxk16 😱@CBSSportsCFB | #GoodFor6 pic.twitter.com/smpzIX15TD
— USC Soccer ✌️ (@uscfb) November 22, 2025
Friday evening video games usually result in some odd occurrences, with NC State-Florida State offering a quite excessive instance.
With 4 minutes remaining within the fourth quarter, holding onto a three-point lead, the Wolfpack have been compelled to punt the ball away to the Seminoles and play protection. Or so it appeared. North Carolina State punter Caden Noonkester booted the ball down the sphere, however the kick did not discover the arms of a Florida State returner. As an alternative, it ricocheted off the helmet of a would-be Seminole blocker … and bounced all the best way again into the diving arms of Noonkester to offer the Wolfpack a contemporary set of downs.
Remarkably, Florida State’s protection would maintain agency to pressure one other punt, which the Seminoles would muff once more. The third time proved to be the allure for the North Carolina State offense, which discovered the tip zone because the Wolfpack received 21-11.
Caden Noonkester punt. Caden Noonkester fumble restoration!#1Pack1Goal pic.twitter.com/HYrTLyb7MT
— NC State Soccer (@PackFootball) November 22, 2025
Final week, a weird incident occurred in South Carolina’s sport in opposition to Texas A&M, wherein Gamecocks receiver Nyck Harbor and a Kyle Discipline state trooper brushed collectively as Harbor was returning to the sphere after a landing catch.
All however actually conscious of its viral nature, Louisiana quarterback Lunch Winfield put his personal spin on the interplay throughout a Thursday evening sport in opposition to Arkansas State. After discovering the tip zone on a landing run, Winfield headed proper to a field-side state trooper … and a agency handshake between the 2 events ensued.
The place else however faculty soccer wouldn’t it make sense to listen to college students roaring in delight on the look of an orthopedic surgeon?
Such was the scene Saturday afternoon in Oklahoma, the place Sooners followers have been overjoyed to welcome Dr. Steven Shin to Gaylord Household-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. In September, Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer suffered a hand damage in opposition to Auburn. It was revealed that Shin can be performing the surgical procedure, resulting in a torrent of web posts lionizing the physician.
Mateer has since returned and has helped the Sooners transfer into pole place for a playoff berth, and Shin obtained loads of cheers — even seemingly throwing up a “horns down” movement — in his look in Norman.
Within the first break up resolution within the admittedly restricted historical past of the ESPN weekly nontraditional faculty soccer superlatives, Buffalo and Rice share this week’s honor.
The route Rice took was so simple as you may get: free stuff for college kids. Free shirts? Regular sufficient. Free meals? Now we’re speaking, however that is not completely unusual. Free beer although? That is what makes a winner.
Buffalo went a bit of extra unconventional. Ever heard of a meat raffle? Should you attended Buffalo’s midweek sport in opposition to Miami (OH), you nearly actually have. Followers who purchased raffle tickets have been entered right into a 12-round giveaway of quite a lot of meats occurring all through the sport, together with New York strip steaks in the course of the second TV timeout of the second quarter and entire boneless pork loins on the finish of the third quarter.
Profitable MACtion Meat Raffle! 🤘🥩🍗
Solely in Buffalo, simply the best way we like It. #UBHornsUP @SickosCommittee @MACSports pic.twitter.com/jJC6utrzAh
— UB Athletics (@UBAthletics) November 20, 2025
