Roundup: The fake spike that completed UCLA's comeback

SB Nation dives into Josh Rosen’s fake spike on the game-winning touchdown pass to complete UCLA’s erasure of a 34-point deficit in its 45-44 win over Texas A&M. I sure hope you stayed with this game until the end…

USC’s 49-31 season-opening win over Western Michigan took a backseat to Trojans blind long-snapper Jake Olson snapping an extra point late in the fourth quarter. Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said he “couldn’t stop crying” watching Olson’s snap. Olson first visited the USC football team back in 2009 when Carroll was coach before undergoing surgery to remove his right eye. What a great story.

Rusty Simmons writes that Cal football is participating in the Pac-12’s efforts to shortening the length of games, as the team’s home opener against Weber State on Pac-12 Networks will have a 15-minute halftime (it’s usually 20), reduced break times between quarters and adjusted commercial formats.

For your Oregon link, we turn to the opinionated John Canzano, who believes that Oregon football “walked with purpose again” in Willie Taggart’s debut, a 77-21 thumping of Southern Utah. A 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown ain’t a bad way to ring in a new era.

Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune writes about the talent gap between Utah and BYU as the teams get ready to battle Saturday night. The Utes have won six straight and 11 of the last 14 against the Cougars.

Washington football coach Chris Petersen says quarterback Jake Browning is “fine” after enduring a big hit in the Rutgers game. Browning stayed in the game after getting rocked in the first quarter by Rutgers’ Darnell Davis and finished with 284 passing yards and two touchdowns.

The link you’ve been waiting for – Mike Leach discusses Bigfoot and aliens during Monday’s press conference, answering SWX’s “Student Question of the Week.”

After handling Northern Arizona, Arizona football is preparing for Houston, a program that has had to deal with the effects of Hurricane Harvey (the Cougars postponed their season opener as a result of it). Michael Lev has the story.

Listen to The Arizona Republic’s Arizona State football Pick Six podcast, hosted by Doug Haller and Jeff Metcalfe. The two go over the Sun Devils’ somewhat disappointing 37-31 win over New Mexico State.

Brian Howell writes that Colorado football has a lot of room to improve after beating Colorado State 17-3. Offensive line coach Klayton Adams wasn’t pleased at all with the way his big uglies performed, for starters.

Oregon State’s MaryKate Marshall was named Pac-12 Women’s Volleyball Player of the Week after helping the Beavs to a 3-0 weekend by averaging 4.7 kills and 2.3 digs per set. The Beavs are 6-0 for the first time since 2014.

Here’s the Pac-12 Networks recap of Stanford field hockey outlasting Harvard 2-1 in a shootout Monday on The Farm.