The good, the bad, and the weird: College football's Week 14 roundup

College football is sport at its zaniest.

The coaches, the small towns, and the fact that games are played (mostly) by those between 18 and 21 years old contribute to Saturdays never being dull. And with 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, you can't predict where the most memorable moments of the weekend will occur.

Each week this season, theScore is breaking it all down - from the good to the bad to the weird. Here's what happened in Week 14 and why it matters.

The good

Gus Malzahn's bag of tricks

The 2019 Iron Bowl will be remembered as the time Gus Malzahn outfoxed Nick Saban.

It happened after Auburn returned an interception that bounced off an Alabama player's backside 100 yards for a touchdown. And it happened after the Crimson Tide missed a field goal that would have tied the game at 48 with two minutes to go. The game was full of preposterous moments, but this one tops the list.

The situation: Leading 48-45, Auburn faced a fourth-and-4 from its own 26-yard line with less than 90 seconds to play. Malzahn sent Auburn punter Arryn Siposs onto the field, but lined him up at receiver. Quarterback Bo Nix remained in the backfield.

The formation confused the Crimson Tide to the point that they didn't know whether to put their punt-return team or their defense on the field. And they were out of timeouts.

The result was a mess of substitutions and a flag.

Alabama had too many men on the field. Auburn picked up the game-sealing first down and avoided punting to Jaylen Waddle, who scored four touchdowns for the Crimson Tide on Saturday.

Saban called the move "unfair" after the game, but it was simply clever.

Lynn Bowden

Last season was historic for Kentucky football. The program posted 10 wins for the first time since 1977 and won a bowl game over Penn State.

In some ways, this season might be more special. This was the year the Wildcats won seven games without a quarterback.

Lynn Bowden, the leading receiver last year, moved to quarterback after a combination of injury and ineffectiveness decimated the quarterback room. He threw for 100 yards once - but he led Kentucky to four wins in its final five games with his legs.

The regular-season finale may have been his masterpiece. Bowden and the Kentucky offense completed one pass for 4 yards in a 45-13 win over Louisville where he rushed 22 times for 284 yards and four touchdowns.

On Oct. 19, after a 21-0 loss to Georgia, Kentucky was 3-4 and appeared headed for a losing season. But the Wildcats defeated Missouri, Vanderbilt, Tennessee-Martin, and Louisville in the final month-and-a-half - and did it mostly as a one-man show on offense.

Oklahoma's defense

If it wasn't obvious already, Saturday confirmed it: This is a completely different Oklahoma team.

In Lincoln Riley's first two seasons, the Sooners had to outscore opponents. With Heisman Trophy winners Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray at quarterback, they were pretty good at it. But it wasn't a formula for winning in the College Football Playoff.

These Sooners play defense. After allowing an opening-drive touchdown to Oklahoma State, OU held the Cowboys out of the end zone for the rest of the game in a 34-16 win Saturday. The victory validated defensive coordinator Alex Grinch's placement as a semifinalist for the Broyles Award, given to the nation's top assistant coach.

Oklahoma allowed 5.3 yards per play in nine conference games this season, which ranked second in the league to Baylor. It's OU's best mark as a defense since 2015. The defense went five consecutive games without forcing a turnover earlier in the season, a stretch that included a loss to Kansas State and a shootout win over Iowa State. But Oklahoma ends the regular season with five takeaways in its final three games, including two against Oklahoma State.

Linebacker Kenneth Murray (13 tackles for loss) evolved into one of the best players in the Big 12 this year. Cornerback Parnell Motley, who has had an up-and-down career, forced three fumbles in the final three games.

Whether this defense can hold up against the likes of Ohio State or LSU remains to be seen - but the OU team that played Saturday in Stillwater could be better equipped to compete in the playoff format than the elite-offense, no-defense teams of the past.

The bad

Washington State in the Apple Cup

In each of the last seven seasons, Washington State has averaged at least 30 points per game. The Cougars are always prolific on offense under Mike Leach.

Except in the final week of the season.

A remarkable streak continued Friday when Washington topped Washington State 31-13 in the 112th Apple Cup. It's not just the fact the Huskies have now topped Leach's Cougars seven consecutive times; it's that in all seven of those meetings, Washington State's offense has been held below 20 points.

No matter the quarterback, no matter the personnel, Washington State's offense fails to perform in the Apple Cup. The totals the last seven years, from most recent to earliest: 13, 15, 14, 17, 10, 13, 17.

On Friday, quarterback Anthony Gordon attempted 62 passes. He did not throw a touchdown for the first time all season.

In the last seven seasons, Washington State quarterbacks have seven touchdowns and 16 interceptions against Washington. Against everyone else: 278 touchdowns, 96 interceptions.

Michigan in The Game

Like the Wazzu offense in the Apple Cup, Michigan's defense tends to disappear in The Game.

It happened again Saturday when the Wolverines couldn't sustain their early momentum and lost to Ohio State for the eighth consecutive season, 56-27.

Much is made of Jim Harbaugh's record against the Buckeyes (0-5), and unfortunately for Harbaugh, the gap appears to be widening. Ohio State outscored Michigan 118-66 in 2018 and 2019 combined.

But it's more than a Harbaugh problem. Ohio State has now won 17 of the last 19 meetings against the Wolverines, and 10 of those 17 wins came by double digits.

Too many bowl-eligible teams

There are 39 bowls this season, meaning there are spots for 78 bowl-eligible teams.

Unfortunately, that means one team will miss out on the postseason despite being bowl-eligible.

As Boston College, Michigan State, Liberty, and North Carolina each improved to 6-6 and earned eligibility Saturday, a Group of 5 team lost its bowl spot. There are 79 bowl-eligible teams. (There are 80 teams .500 or better, but the NCAA banned Missouri from participating in a bowl this season.)

ESPN's bowl projections omit Eastern Michigan, which finished 6-6 this season but tied for last in the MAC West division. The Eagles, who lost in the Camellia Bowl in 2018, have made only two bowls in the last 30 years, though both were in the last three seasons.

CBS Sports' projections include Eastern Michigan and leave out Toledo, which also went 6-6 and tied with EMU at the bottom of the MAC West. The Rockets have been to a bowl game in eight of the last nine seasons.

The weird

Egg Bowl. Always the Egg Bowl.

The two weird moments that will stick out from this season are both connected to Ole Miss.

You may remember that in Week 1, former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze coached Liberty from a hospital bed in the coaches' booth. In Week 14, the Egg Bowl provided its traditional share of weird - and then some.

Trailing by a touchdown in the final seconds, Ole Miss' Elijah Moore scored what looked like the game-tying touchdown. But he celebrated by crawling through the end zone and mimicking a dog peeing.

A 15-yard penalty led to a missed point after - and a 21-20 final that clinched bowl eligibility for rival Mississippi State.

Stuck in the hedges

It's a weekly college football tradition: Somewhere, a fan - or group of fans - will do something that goes viral.

In this week's entry, a couple of Auburn fans at the Iron Bowl found it difficult to navigate the hedges between them and the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium after the Tigers' 48-45 victory.

The TCF Bank Stadium crowd

Minnesota's dreams of going from unranked to crashing the CFP vanished Saturday with a 38-17 loss to Wisconsin. The Golden Gophers still had a great season, finishing 10-2, but the combination of the Badgers' defense and the wet, wintry conditions proved too much.

The weather contributed to a few remarkable crowd shots, however. TCF Bank Stadium's crowd of 53,756 was full of characters.