It's not often just two quarters of action are enough to be named the CBS Sports College Football Player of the Week, but it was enough Saturday for Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch.
The Tigers' redshirt junior torched SMU for 222 yards on 9-of-14 passing, all before halftime. But if those numbers seem more "fairly outstanding" than truly spectacular, consider that seven of those nine completions went for touchdowns -- tying an FBS record for touchdowns in a single half -- and that all seven of those touchdowns went to a different Memphis receiver.
Lynch's touchdown strikes covered 43, 16, 21, 15, 44, 6, and 22 yards, respectively -- and staked Memphis to a 56-0 halftime lead. Not surprisingly, Justin Fuente didn't bother sending Lynch out for a single snap in the third and fourth quarters.
The 63-0 win could be the end of an extremely bright era for the Tigers, with Lynch widely expected to become an early-entrant to the NFL Draft -- the latest CBS Sports mock drafts have Lynch going as high as No. 3 overall to the quarterback-starved Browns -- and Virginia Tech announcing Sunday it has hired Fuente as its next coach. Lynch had this to say:
Thank you coach Fu for everything you've done for me and this program I love you and good luck at VT! pic.twitter.com/IUVf0BIHus
— Paxton Lynch (@PaxtonLynch) November 29, 2015
Lynch was only on the field for 30 minutes against the Mustangs. But it turned out that was all he needed to give Fuente the most appropriate send-off possible.
