NC State's bizarre punt recovery and a salute to a surgeon headline college football Week 13 superlatives

NC State's bizarre punt recovery and a salute to a surgeon headline college football Week 13 superlatives

Highlight reel plays are great. But the “SportsCenter” Top 10 nominations aren’t the only moments that make college football amazing. Some of the sport’s greatest charms come off the beaten path. Editor’s Picks Week 13, like most weeks before it, proved that axiom to be correct once again. From a bizarre punter fumble recovery in…

Highlight reel plays are great. But the “SportsCenter” Top 10 nominations aren’t the only moments that make college football amazing. Some of the sport’s greatest charms come off the beaten path.

Week 13, like most weeks before it, proved that axiom to be correct once again. From a bizarre punter fumble recovery in Raleigh to a hero’s welcome for an orthopedic surgeon in Norman, the wacky and wild sides of college football were as prevalent as ever.

Like every week, we’re handing out a number of nontraditional superlatives to honor some of the sport’s less likely protagonists. Here are the best, the strangest and the funniest from Week 13 in college football.

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Most style points in one play: USC

We established that highlight reel plays aren’t everything in the introduction, but it’s difficult not to spotlight the extent of impressive things that occurred in No. 15 USC’s game-tying touchdown on the first 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 in the hands of wide receiver Makai Lemon for a throw. Then there was the ambition: Despite not being a quarterback by trade, Lemon had no issues winging the ball nearly 30 yards down the field into the end zone. And then there was the finale: Lemon’s fellow wide receiver Tanook Hines had no problems climbing the ladder for an impressive high-point grab. If you were looking for swagger on Saturday, USC’s score delivered it in idea and execution.