Less than three weeks into the 2023 college football season, we’ve already seen our fair share of ridiculous highlights. This week we had a Georgia player catching an interception off a Ball State player’s foot, and last week we saw Purdue’s Deion Burks bounce off four defenders on an 84-yard score.
While a lot of folks regularly tune in to watch programs like Purdue and Georgia, there was little reason for the casual college football fan to pay attention to a game between Division II Colorado Mesa and FCS San Diego on Saturday.
But this matchup featured what might be the coolest and weirdest highlight of the 2023 season so far.
Here’s what happened: On a third-and-8 situation inside the red zone, Colorado Mesa tried a trick play that seemed to be going horribly wrong. The Mavericks’ quarterback handed off to the running back, who was then supposed to flip the ball to a wide receiver running a reverse. But a San Diego defender busted into the backfield and hit the running back during the toss, causing the ball to fumble to the turf.
That’s when freshman left tackle Cooper Mumford stepped in to save the day.
Mumford – who is listed at 6’4 and 275 pounds – scooped the ball up behind the line of scrimmage, scrambled a bit to his left and threw a nine-yard strike to Keenan Brown for the first touchdown of the day. It was totally legal and totally awesome.
Behold this big boy touchdown:
THE O-LINEMAN SCOOPED UP THE FUMBLE AND THREW A TD 😯 pic.twitter.com/GJuIhcEMz6
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 9, 2023
This marked the second consecutive week that we had a truly beautiful wacky sequence of events emerge from a college football game in the lower ranks. Last week, we were treated to that incredibly strange finish between Virginia State and Norfolk State.
It’s another reminder that we should enjoy the whole hog of this sport, from the JUCO ranks all the way up to the Power Five.
