What a week of college football, huh? We expected it to be the greatest so far this season and it sure did not disappoint. It seems like there were dozens of close games and upsets. In fact, 11 Top 25 teams went down this past week (eight of those were to lower-ranked or unranked opponents). The only thing missing was overtime games, but hey, that's a petty reason to complain. And I couldn't care less that my predictions were pretty lousy for the most part. There's a lot to cover here so let's get to it.
The insanity began on Thursday night, when
UCF upset Houston on the road. Down five points with 34 seconds left and 20 yards away from the endzone, Cougar QB
Greg Ward Jr. took off, sprinted past the Knights defense, and dove towards the pylon... only to lose his grip of the ball two feet short of the goal-line as he was hit by a UCF player. The ball fumbled out of the endzone for a touchback and the Knights held on the win.
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Once-maligned head coach Rich Rodriquez has lead his
Arizona Wildcats to a surprising 5-0 start. The Wildcats are
the only Pac-12 team left undefeated. Jonathan Ferrey |
But the real shocker was yet to come. The
Arizona Wildcats came into Eugene as 24-point underdogs to the
pretty-in-pink Ducks of Oregon. But the Cats were undeterred and confident, having crushed the Mighty Ducks last year in Tucson. Those who have watched the Ducks this season would qualify them as a good team but with one fatal flaw: their offensive line. The Wildcats were ready to exploit this weakness, pressuring UO seemingly on every down. Oregon successfully converted only four of their 14 attempts on third down. Going into halftime, the game was led by Oregon 7-3 in a defensive battle. However, the balanced Arizona attack started to wear down the Oregon defense in the third, as the Wildcats scored 21 points in the 15 minutes after halftime. Starting the final quarter of play, the Cats held a 24-14 advantage, but the Ducks weren't allowing this game to slip away.
Marcus Mariota lead the Ducks down the field to bring it to 24-17 and, soon afterwards, threw for another touchdown and a tie game. The Cats got the ball back and used the running game of
Jones-Grigsby and
Wilson to melt the clock and march down the field. With the aid of a questionable unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on
Tony Washington, Arizona was eventually able to punch it in the endzone and take the 31-24 lead. Oregon got the ball back once more with 2:54 left and a chance to tie, but the ball was ripped out of Mariota's hands by Arizona defender Scooby Wright, who recovered the fumble. Arizona bled out the clock and held on for the stunning win. What wasn't known then was that Oregon would be the first of five Top 10 teams to fall that week.
We wouldn't have to wait until Saturday for another Top 25 upset. The next shocking result came in Provo, Utah, where the
#18 BYU Cougars faced their in-state rivals, the Utah State Aggies, last Friday. With 2:38 left in the second quarter, BYU was down by a touchdown to the inspired Aggies. Then, Cougar QB
Taysom Hill fractured his leg being tackled. After that unfortunate turn of events, the game turned into a rout and Utah State ran away with the victory.
Saturday began with the
Gators playing the Volunteers in a checkerboarded Neyland Stadium. Tennessee fans were hungry to break their nine-game losing streak to Florida, packing the house with over 100,000 desperate fans. For three quarters, it looked like Vol fans would be granted their wish. The Gators had an extra week to prepare for Tennessee, but one couldn't tell that from the way the Gator offense performed. Quarterback
Jeff Driskel's career hit a new low, attempting 23 passes for only 11 completions and 59 yards. Three of his passes went into the hands of the opposing team. However, to blame Florida's offensive woes solely on Driskel would be entirely unfair. His receivers dropped passes (in fact, two of his interceptions were primarily the fault of receivers) and ran busted routes. Even the Gators' best receiver,
Demarcus Robinson, proved barely competent. Driskel and halfback
Matt Jones had occasional success running the ball, but that wasn't enough.
However, Florida's defense,
Kyle Christy's punting, and Tennessee's own offensive ineptitude kept the Volunteers from getting away with a big lead. The Gator front-seven kept the pressure against gunslinger
Justin Worley, giving him little time to find the open man (if there was one at all). They also prevented the Volunteers from developing any type of a run game. Corner
Vernon Hargreaves III effectively shut down his side of the field while
Jalen Tabor and
Keanu Neal also made a tremendous impact in the secondary.
Driskel threw his first pick late in the first quarter, bouncing the ball off an oblivious Demarcus Robinson and into the hands of a Tennessee defender
Cameron Sutton on their 47-yard-line. The Gator defense bent but didn't break, and only allowed a field goal. The Gators went into halftime scoreless for the first time since 1955. Starting out the second half, Driskel threw another pick, this time a terrible pass into the hands of
Jalen Reeves-Maybin. Starting on Florida's 13, Worley decided to throw his first (and only) pass in the direction of Vernon Hargreaves. This error would not go unpunished, as
Hargreaves snatched the ball away in the endzone. Driskel was bailed out by his defense, but still couldn't get much going. Two drives later he threw his third interception; this time
Tevin Westbrook was at fault. Tennessee then got the ball on Florida's 17, but again, the Gator defense held. The Vols only got a field goal and went up 6-0. The Gators got the ball back but were forced to punt.
Next proceeded Tennessee's only long scoring drive of the day. Getting the ball on their own 32, the Volunteers drove 47 yards before being forced to attempt yet another field goal. This pushed their lead to two scores, 9-0. Still, the Gator offense proved wholly incompetent and were forced to punt again after a sack. Tennessee had their chance to put away the game. On their own 43, second down and five-to-go, with 19 seconds left in the third, Worley stepped back to pass. However, the Gator defense called a corner blitz, and Jalen Tabor came in on the right side totally unblocked (Worley was staring off to the left, totally blind to the blitz).
Tabor slammed Worley on his back, knocking the ball to the ground and immediately pouncing on the live ball. Now, with the ball on Tennessee's 30, the Gators had their own chance to get back on the game. But Driskel wasn't coming back in...
Instead, the freshman backup
Treon Harris came in to lead the Gators. First play, Harris hand the ball off the Matt Jones for a gain. Then, a
swing route from Harris to Jones got the first down. Next,
Harris called his own number for another first. The Volunteers couldn't stop Matt Jones, and two running plays latter
he was in the endzone. With 13:40 left in the game, the score was 9-7 and, against the odds, the Gators were back in it. On the next drive, the Gator defense allowed one first down, but then forced a punt. Florida got the ball back, but beginning on their own 19 they had a long field ahead of them.
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The entrance of quarterback Treon Harris provided the spark
that ignited Florida's fourth quarter comeback over the
Volunteers in Knoxville. Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports |
After two plays it was third and five, with the Gators needing a conversion. Harris stepped back and tossed the ball to Westbrook by the sidelines, who just got past the sticks. The next play saw
Matt Jones take the handoff, burst through an open seam on the left side, and break a tackle before finally going down after a 32-yard gain. However, the Volunteer defense keyed-in on the run, and three more plays only netted seven yards for the Gators. Fourth and three on the Volunteer 32, Gator kicker
Austin Hardin lined up for a long field goal. Having a previous career-long of 33 yards, Hardin needed to make the kick of his life. The ball snapped just before the play-clock ran out, the hold was good, and
Hardin nailed the 49-yarder right down the middle. Before a shocked crowd, Florida took the lead, 10-9, with 6:20 left in the game.
Almost immediately after Tennessee got the ball back,
they were forced to punt. The ball returned to Florida, but they too were forced to punt. However, the Gators succeeded in running 2:40 off the clock, leaving only 2:39 for Tennessee's final drive.
Worley converted a clutch third and 10, passing it 15 yards to
Pig Howard. Three unsuccessful plays later, it was fourth and 10, with Tennessee on their own 37 and only 1:04 to go. But again,
Worley evaded the sack and found Howard for another 15 yards and a first down. Time was running out for Tennessee. First down and 10, with only 51 seconds on the clock, Worley took a shot downfield.
The ball flew over Worley's receiver and into the fingertips of Keanu Neal, who made the spectacular interception. The Gators escaped with their closest victory over the Volunteers since 2006, extending the streak to 10 games.
While Florida and Tennessee were battling in Knoxville,
Mississippi State was taking Texas A&M to the woodshed in Starkville. The Bulldogs piled up 48 points on the Aggies, who could not match MSU offensively or defensively.
Dak Prescott proved more effective and more efficient than his counterpart,
Kenny Hill. Nine drops by A&M's receivers did nothing to assist Hill (who still managed 365 passing yards). Most impressive was the balanced offensive attack of Mississippi State, who compiled 279 yards passing and 280 yards rushing. Although the Aggies may not have the best defense in the conference, if the SEC has anything comparable to an unstoppable force, it may be this Bulldog offense. With the Ole Miss defense looking something like an immovable object, we may be set for an
Egg Bowl of epic proportions late this November.
Notre Dame survived the efforts of Stanford, winning by the exact score I predicted (17-14). The game came down to the Irish's final drive. It was fourth and 11 for the Irish on Stanford's 23-yard-line, trailing 14-10 with only 69 seconds left.
Everett Golson took the snap from shotgun, scrambled left, and found a wide-open
Ben Koyack in the corner of the endzone. Another classic in Notre Dame Stadium ended with a victory for the home team.
The next of the Top 10 teams to lose was Oklahoma in Fort Worth.
TCU just managed to overcome the Sooners in this pass-heavy duel. OU had no answer for the Horned Frogs'
Trevone Boykin, who racked up 318 passing yards and 77 rushing yards. A peculiar note for this game was Oklahoma's final score: a two-point conversion made by the Sooner
defense after a blocked PAT.
By defeating Old Dominion, Marshall remained one of the nation's exceedingly few undefeated teams. Meanwhile,
Ohio State crushed an overwhelmed Maryland squad, improving to 4-1.
Miami of Ohio ended the nation's longest losing streak (21 games), beating a similarly hapless Massachusetts team 42-41 at home.
Catastrophic mismanagement of the clock in the game's final seconds doomed the Minutemen to their sixth loss of the season. Baylor and Florida State started slow but defeated their
overmatched opponents to stay unbeaten.
In a day filled to the brim with upsets, the
23-17 victory of Ole Miss over Alabama may be one of the more shocking. Even with an extra week of preparation, the Crimson Tide could not find a consistent way to move the ball against this Rebel defense. Both offenses were plagued by missed opportunities and occasional clumsiness. Although Mississippi struggled to run the ball, their defense played spectacularly and quarterback
Bo Wallace managed to avoid costly mistakes. This allowed the Rebels to stay in the game until their offense finally broke through in the fourth quarter. Ole Miss may ride their tremendous defense all the way to Atlanta.
The Tiger Bowl was one game that did not (or could not) live up to it's expectations.
Nick Marshall and
Auburn proved leagues above LSU and their
struggling quarterbacks. LSU's 34-point defeat was their most lopsided since Les Miles began coaching the Tigers in 2005. At this point, LSU appears to be the weakest team in the SEC West (which is
not to say they are a bad team).
Rutgers picked up their first-ever B1G Ten victory by defeating Michigan 26-24 in Piscataway. With their win over Miami in Atlanta,
Georgia Tech remained among the undefeated. Topping an exhilarating comeback,
Arizona State downed USC with a
46-yard Hail Mary in Los Angeles. Simultaneously,
Kentucky was pulling off their own incredible comeback against South Carolina, scoring the final 21 points of the game to beat the Gamecocks 45-38 in Lexington.
Alvin Dupree's improbable interception return put the Wildcats on top for good.
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The Huskers were flat through the first three quarters, but
came back to give Sparty a scare. SB Nation via ABC |
For the first three quarters, Michigan State utterly dominated Nebraska. On a cold and rainy night, the Spartans thoroughly outplayed the Cornhuskers, outscoring them 27-3 by the start of the fourth quarter. The Green team had totally shut-down
Nebraska's star running back. Many (though not most) fans left the stadium for the warm indoors, confident in their team's victory. Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler had long given up on their commentary of the game, choosing instead to discuss the day's events. Then,
chaos broke loose in East Lansing. First Nebraska scored a touchdown with 12:49 left, bringing the deficit to 27-9. MSU melted the clock significantly on their next two drives, but were eventually forced to punt. The Huskers proceeded to march down the field, score, and cut the Spartan lead to 27-16. Nebraska forced a quick three-and-out, and, on the ensuing punt,
De'Mornay Pierson-El returned it all 62 yards for a touchdown. Now, the Spartan lead was only 27-22 and Nebraska still had 3:22 left to get the final five. But the Cornhusker's failed to recover their own onside kick; MSU had the ball back with a short field. After burning away 2:15 and gaining 24 yards, the Spartans lined up for a field goal that would extend the lead to eight. The 37-yarder curved in a bonked off the left upright. Nebraska inherited the ball with 67 seconds and a chance to win. With no timeouts left, the Huskers were desperate but dauntless. A 43-yard pass from
Tommy Armstrong Jr. to
Alonzo Moore got Nebraska to the Spartans' own 37. The subsequent pass fell incomplete. With only 30 seconds left,
Armstrong took the next snap, but threw it over the head of his own man and into the arms of
Trae Waynes, cementing the Spartan win.
The final, and one of the most shocking, upsets of the week was
Utah's 30-28 win over UCLA. Despite being totally shut down in the passing game, Utah was able to run the ball effectively and stop UCLA's offense on third downs. In the end, UCLA had a chance to win the game on a long field goal.
Ka'imi Fairbairn didn't have the accuracy, missing it hard to the right. However, a running-into-the-kicker penalty gave the man another chance. On the second try,
Fairbairn missed it by inches and Utah hung on to win a well-earned victory.
As a final note, I'd like to draw attention to
Connor Halliday of Washington State. Halliday completed 49 passes of his 70 attempts, with six of those completions going for touchdowns. Most impressively, Halliday set a new FBS record for passing yards in a game, with 734. Yet,
such a commendable performance could not lift his Cougars past the California Golden Bears. On his final drive, Halliday led the Cougars 68 yards down the field, all the way down to Cal's 2-yard-line, leaving only 15 seconds on the clock. However, WSU's kicker somehow missed the go-ahead 19-yarder and WSU fell, 60-59.
State of Florida:
- UCF (2-2) over Houston (2-3),
27-20 17-12
- Florida Atlantic (2-4) over FIU (3-3),
38-34 38-10
- Florida (3-1) over Tennessee (2-3),
24-20 10-9
- #1 Florida State (5-0) over Wake Forrest (2-4),
63-17 43-3
- Georgia Tech (5-0) over Miami (3-3),
34-24 28-17
- South Florida (2-3), BYE
Southeastern Conference:
- #12 Mississippi State (5-0) over #6 Texas A&M (5-1),
31-28 48-31
- #3 Alabama (4-1) over #11 Mississippi (5-0),
34-21 23-17
- #13 Georgia (4-1) over Vanderbilt (1-5),
45-7 44-17
- #5 Auburn (5-0) over #15 LSU (4-2),
23-17 41-7
- Kentucky (4-1) over South Carolina (3-3),
24-17 45-38
- Arkansas (3-2), BYE
- #24 Missouri (4-1), BYE
Top 25:
- #2 Oregon (4-1) over Arizona (5-0),
45-28 31-24
- #4 Oklahoma (4-1) over #25 TCU (4-0),
31-24 37-33
- #7 Baylor (5-0) over Texas (2-3),
42-27 28-7
- #8 UCLA (4-1) over Utah (4-1),
38-24 30-28
- #9 Notre Dame (5-0) over #14 Stanford (3-2), 17-14 ✓
- #10 Michigan State (4-1) over #19 Nebraska (5-1),
38-28 27-22
- #16 USC (3-2) over Arizona State (4-1),
31-21 38-34
- #17 Wisconsin (3-2) over Northwestern (3-2),
30-21 20-14
- #18 BYU (4-1) over Utah State (3-2),
34-17 35-20
- Maryland (4-2) over #20 Ohio State (4-1),
31-28 52-24
- #21 Oklahoma State (4-1) over Iowa State (1-4),
45-31 37-20
- #22 East Carolina (4-1) over SMU (0-5),
52-3 45-24
- #23 Kansas State (4-1) over Texas Tech (2-3),
38-28 45-13
Week 6 Record: 14-9 (61%)
Season Record: 65-25 (72%)
