Far from the madding crowd of FBS, the College Football Playoff and the bowl system, the game of college football remains consistently strange.
Take the example of redshirt senior Colorado School of Mines outside linebacker Mack Minnehan, a viral sensation Saturday—mere hours before the Orediggers’ national championship showdown with Ferris State in McKinney, Texas—due to his unusual facial hair.
Minnehan’s look is unconventional, to say the least. How many half-beards can you count on Georgia, Michigan, TCU, and Ohio State?
However, the recipe seems to work for him. The Woodville, Wash. native has 59 tackles and 5.5 sacks this season, and the Orediggers are 13–2 after losing its first two games. They boast 84–10 and 80–0 wins over nearby Adams State and Fort Lewis on the season.
Colorado School of Mines’s players—shaven, unshaven, and half-shaven—will look to bring a national title back to Golden at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday against the Bulldogs of Big Rapids, Mich.
