We've covered Buffalo vs Mizzou six ways from Saturday night so let's look at the rest of the weekend.
1) The game of the week wasn't even a game. Texas humiliated Michigan. The Longhorns won 31-12 and it wasn't that close. I've got news you guys aren't going to like:
Quinn Ewers is legit. Like leading Heisman candidate, No. 1 overall legit. He moves well in the pocket, he has a cannon right arm and he's a stud. And the Michigan offense isn't anything to write home about, but the Longhorn defense was all over the place. Texas did enough yesterday to convince me to put them in the conversation with Georgia and Ohio State as "take this group against the field to win the title and you should feel good about it." On the other side, Michigan is a shell of what it was last year. No surprise when 20 players get drafted and the coach heads to the NFL, but they're why preseason rankings are dumb. We were ranking off last season and a program name. This team? It's maybe a top 25 team. Maybe.
2) We saw the beginning of the end in South Bend. I was listening to the Cover 3 podcast today and Tom Fornelli said "
Marcus Freeman got fired today." He's not getting fired this week. He might not get fired this year. But whenever he does, you're going to look back and say today was the day you knew. You can't lose at home to Northern Illinois as a four touchdown favorite. Especially when you've done this before. I've shown numbers that show Notre Dame is not overrated every year. But it's overrated this year. The Irish should be out of the playoff conversation. I don't care if you go 11-1. I don't care if you win every other game by 30 points. You can't lose at home to NIU and make the playoff. You blew it. You stay at home and watch teams that didn't blow it. The MAC is now 1-51 all time against top five teams. This game also made me wonder if Texas A&M just isn't any good.
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3) Arkansas is much, much improved over last year. It just still doesn't know how to finish a game. To be honest, Oklahoma State didn't deserve to win that game either. It was a hot potato contest with both teams just throwing it back and forth saying "No, please take it. We don't want it." The Razorbacks jumped out 14-0 and 21-7. And gave it all back. The Pokes left the offense on the field to try to waste time before a field goal and drew a penalty, which allowed the Razorbacks an extra 10-15 seconds they used to get in position to tie it in regulation. Then in OT,
Mike Gundy settled for a 42-yard field goal instead of trying to actually attack and make it a shorter kick and they missed it and went to double OT. Eventually, Arkansas wanted it a little less than Oklahoma State. The Razorbacks might win enough games to save
Sam Pittman's job...or they might finish a second straight season talking about how close they were to winning a lot more games and send Pittman packing because of it.
4) Illinois won the Mizzou fan's game of "Can't they just both lose?" Jaylon Daniels threw three interceptions and the Fighting Illini beat Kansas 23-17, their first win over a ranked non-conference opponent since 2011. I don't know if Illinois is any good. This game doesn't materially change anything for the Jayhawks. They weren't getting in the playoff as an at large team anyway. They'll either win the Big 12 or go play in some meaningless exhibition game. But losing in Champaign sure makes the second seem a lot more likely than the first.
5) Connor Bazelak spent a half absolutely torching the vaunted Penn State defense. And then he gave it back. At one point, Bazelak was 13/15 for 186 yards and two touchdowns. He finished 25/39 for 254 and two touchdowns. Not a bad line, but he threw two back breaking interceptions in the final eight minutes and the Nittany Lions escaped 34-27. It's a result that definitely gives you some pause jumping on the PSU bandwagon, but it's also one that keeps the train on the tracks. At a time when a lot of teams are losing, Penn State didn't. That's going to count for more than some will think it should. Penn State is still a likely playoff team...but it's also not a team you see breaking through and beating any of the big boys. Another
James Franklin 10-2 special seems pretty likely.
6) Speaking of, well, yeah, you won, but....Oklahoma beat Houston 16-14. The Sooners scored two whole points in the second half. One of their two touchdowns came on a short field after Houston dropped a punt.
Jackson Arnold called it "a bad night in general."
Brent Venables said in his on-field postgame interview that OU "deserved to lose." It didn't, but it now hosts a Tulane team that was a terrible OPI call away from taking Kansas State to overtime and then a Tennessee team that looks flat out scary before hosting Auburn. The Sooners could well be 2-2 and more or less out of the playoff conversation by the time the Tigers get to town. Because I have nowhere else to put this, but just mentioned Tulane, my favorite play of the day came from that game.
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That's a hell of a hurdle with a huge price to pay at the end.
7) SEC stock up: Tennessee, South Carolina. The Vols hung 51 on North Carolina State and handed the pack one of its worst losses in program history. Maybe NC State is overrated, but it's not terrible. Tennessee gets headlines for its offense, but the defense is really, really good. The quarterback is a freshman, but he's really talented and has all the pieces around him. The Vols will probably be favored in every game except one at Georgia (yes, that includes a home game against Alabama) and it's time to start taking them seriously as a playoff threat. I thought they were a year away when the season started. I do not think that anymore. With the Gamecocks, I'm not sure how good they are, but they embarrassed Kentucky yesterday. It's the kind of game that determines the season you have. It was a true swing game and it swung South Carolina's way in a big way. Again, maybe this is more about the opponent being bad than South Carolina being good, but it's a big win for
Shane Beamer.
8) SEC stock down: Auburn, Kentucky. The Tigers lost to Cal 21-14. I briefly flipped that game on before heading to Faurot yesterday. My first thought was "Cal has pretty cool uniforms." Which led to my second thought of "I don't know the last time I watched one single snap of Cal football." Honestly, I don't know if I ever have. Either way, this isn't the year for
Hugh Freeze. I picked Mizzou to lose to Auburn in my "nobody's gonna see this coming" upset. I would not pick that game that way now. Kentucky is what Kentucky always is. They're a team that's going to beat most of the bad teams, lose to almost all of the good teams and end up somewhere in the fat middle of the SEC. They're going to do that because they have no offense whatsoever, especially when asked to pass the ball. Here's a mindblowing stat I heard yesterday: Kentucky started a transfer quarterback for the 8th straight season opener. If you want to be good, eventually you've got to find a guy out of high school and be right about him.
Mark Stoops never has. And he really hasn't been right about most of the transfers either.
Will Levis wasn't as good as the hype (or the draft position),
Devin Leary did little last year and
Brock Vandegriff went 3/10 for 30 yards and a pick and got benched for
Gavin Wimsett who went 3/7 for 14 yards and a pick yesterday.
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9) The coolest thing in Colorado college football yesterday had nothing to do with Deion Sanders and the Buffs being completely non-competitive in a 28-10 loss to Nebraska after which Matt Rhule said "it wasn't really a contest in the second half." Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are a lot of people that took a lot of joy in that one. But I try to find at least one thing none of you guys will have seen for this column every Sunday morning. This week's submission is from the Colorado School of Mines.
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More of this please.
10) Five games I'll watch next week besides Mizzou/Boston College:
UNLV at Kansas, 6 pm Friday, ESPN: The Rebels have a chance to be the G5 rep in the playoff. They're also good enough to win this game in whatever stadium it's being played.
Arizona at Kansas State, 7 pm Friday, FOX: Arizona is actually my pick to win the Big 12. Here's a stat that's going to blow your mind.
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Nine games is the longest active winning streak in the country
LSU at South Carolina, 11 am, ABC: Not super interested, but want to see if the Gamecocks are actually decent or if Kentucky is that bad.
Tulane at Oklahoma, 2:30, ESPN: With a schedule that is just absolutely awful, this is one the Sooners have to win. If they don't, you might be talking about making a bowl game as the only reachable goal.
Texas A&M at Florida, 2:30, ABC: It's not a great week of games. This one could be telling. Are both of these teams bad? Did one of them just have a bad week one? Big swing game for the middle of the league.
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