We've covered Mizzou/South Carolina from every angle. My thoughts on what else happened this weekend:
1) Let's start with the biggest game of the day. Man, it's got to be kind of a weird place to be as a Penn State fan. The Nittany Lions have won 11 games four times in the last seven years and very well might do it again this year. They're 70-25 since the start of the 2016 season. They've absolutely been one of the top 10-12 programs in college football over that time. But they can't get over the hump. They haven't played in a Big Ten title game since 2016 because they're 4-11 against Michigan (3-4) and Ohio State (1-7) in that time period. It happened again yesterday. The Buckeyes complete shut down Drew Allar and the Penn State offense (240 total yards, 191 passing) in a 20-6 win. The conference title hopes aren't dead for Penn State. They'll have to beat Michigan and then hope to a win a weird tiebreaker based on the record of their cross-division opponents. But Penn State doesn't look like it can beat Michigan. So it will be a top 12 team that is third in its own division. For the fifth time in eight years.
2) Whoever comes out of the Big Ten East is going to get some nice cardio in on conference championship game weekend. The Big Ten west is a flaming trash heap. Wisconsin currently leads it at 3-1. Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska each have two losses. Had Illinois not blown a 21-7 fourth quarter lead against the Badgers yesterday there would be exactly one team over .500 in the division. Wisconsin is averaging 23.25 points per game in conference play. It is far and away the best offense in the division. Here are the other teams ranked by points per game in Big Ten play:
Purdue 20.5
Illinois 17.4
Minnesota 17.25
Northwestern 16.5
Iowa 14.2
Nebraska 13.5
Yuck
3) Florida State is the only unbeaten team left in the ACC. The Seminoles outscored Duke 21-0 in the fourth quarter to win 38-20 yesterday. It was Duke's second loss, but the first in league play. That was expected. What wasn't was Virginia rising up to beat previously undefeated North Carolina. That sunk the Tar Heels to 6-1, 3-1 in ACC play. It's by far the worst loss of any team that started the week with playoff hopes. FSU is almost assured a spot in the ACC title game. They'll probably play either Louisville or the winner of Duke/UNC. They don't face a ranked team the rest of the regular season, but do host Miami and travel to Florida.
4) Back in the SEC, Alabama just keeps winning. The Tide outscored Tennessee 27-0 in the second half in Tuscaloosa to win 34-20 yesterday. They're now 5-0 in league play and have a week off before hosting LSU on November 4 in a game that should decide the SEC West. After that, Alabama has road games at Kentucky and Auburn. Either is losable, but nobody seems to be able to beat Nick Saban's worst team in a while. Right now, I'd vote for Eli Drinkwitz as the SEC coach of the year. But if Missouri loses one or two and Alabama doesn't, I can make a pretty good argument for Nick Saban. This might be the best coaching job he's done at Bama.
5) Before yesterday, I thought Sam Pittman's job should be safe. His team was 2-5, but they'd been on the road for a month and four of the five losses were one score games. The worst loss of the year was to BYU and BYU isn't bad. Then the Razorbacks did absolutely nothing offensively in a 7-3 loss to Mississippi State. Arkansas had 200 total yards and averaged less than three yards per play. KJ Jefferson threw for 97 yards on 31 attempts. But that's not the worst part.
Late in the first half, the Razorbacks were looking at a 50 yard field goal. They brought the kicking team on the field late and didn't get the snap off. They took a delay of game and punted. They didn't come as close to scoring again. Here's what Sam Pittman said after the game:
"I didn't know what to do to be perfectly honest with you," Pittman said. "So, I was probably eight seconds in on the 40-second clock. I decided to kick a field goal, and we didn't get it off in time. That's the truth. I did not want to call a timeout at that point because I wasn't even sure I wanted to kick a field goal to be perfectly honest with you.
"We kicked it down to the two and the fans got really involved in it. To be honest with you, I didn't know what to do. I didn't make the decision fast enough. Once I got it in there, I thought we had plenty of time to kick it, but at that point I wasn't going to burn a timeout because my feeling was I wasn't for sure I was making the right decision anyway."
I appreciate the honesty, Sam. Really, I do. But you can't say that out loud. I don't care if it's true. You just can't say it. If your head coach is saying he doesn't know what to do in the game, what's his job? Just terrible. Make something up. Own the mistake, but don't say it was made because you didn't know what to do. Arkansas is at Florida, then hosts Auburn and Missouri. Before the season, most would have had the Razorbacks as favorites in all three games or toss ups at worst. They'll now be underdogs in at least two of them. There is a late season non-conference game against FIU. But 3-9 is on the table and 4-8 looks like about the best case scenario. I'm not sure that's good enough to give Pittman another year.
6) If Pittman had the worst quote of the weekend, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham had the best.
Bryson Barnes (starter Cam Rising hasn't played this year with an injury) threw for 235 yards, ran for 57 and scored four touchdowns in the Utes 34-32 win over USC in LA. Utah was down 32-31 when Barnes took over. He trucked a USC defender at the end of one run. Then he ran for 26 yards to move Utah from the 43 to the 17 with just five seconds left to set up a game-winning field goal on the final play. The win kept PAC-12 title and CFP hopes alive for Utah (with a backup quarterback all year) and sunk the latter for Lincoln Riley, Caleb Williams and USC.
7) Things almost got really wild elsewhere in the PAC-12. In a late night kickoff, lowly Arizona State led Washington 7-6 with eight and a half minutes to play and was in the red zone. But Mishael Powell intercepted a pass and raced 90 yards the other way to give the Huskies a 12-7 lead. They tacked on a field goal and survived what would have been a disastrous loss. Nobody cares how you win, they only care if you win. Washington did. Everything it wants is still available. The Huskies are 4-0 in PAC-12 play. Four teams (USC, Utah, Oregon and Oregon State) have just one loss. Washington still plays Utah, USC and Oregon State. USC has Washington, Oregon and UCLA. Oregon State plays Washington and Oregon. Oregon has Utah, USC and Oregon State. Utah plays Oregon and Washington. I believe the PAC-12 is the best conference in the country. I also believe it is possible that by the end of the conference title game every team has at least two losses and the league has cannibalized itself out of the College Football Playoff.
8) One of the best stories in college football is happening at James Madison. The Dukes are 7-0. They've beaten Virginia and South Alabama. They lead the Sun Belt East. They'd have a great shot to get the Group of Five spot in the New Year's Six bowls this year. Except they can't. This is JMU's second year in FBS football after making the move from FCS. A ridiculous bylaw enacted in 2017 states that a team making that move has to wait two years to play in a bowl game. I have no idea why, but it's there. So JMU has a legit shot at 13-0 (their toughest remaining game is Georgia State, which is second in the East) and sitting at home. The Air Force Falcons, also 7-0 and moving up from 22nd after a win over Navy, are currently in the driver's seat for a likely spot in the Fiesta Bowl. Tulane, at 6-1, could also get that spot.
9) If the playoff started today:
1 Georgia vs 4 Florida State
2 Michigan vs 3 Washington
Here are the other teams that still have a realistic shot at the playoff (Basically every Power Five team with no losses or one loss except for the ACC, where I think you'll have to go undefeated): Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, Alabama, Missouri, Ole Miss.
That's 15 teams for four spots. All of them except Florida State play at least one other team on the list. Michigan plays two. The PAC 12 teams all play at least two plus a conference title game. Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama don't play any in the regular season, but would have to probably beat another team in this group of 15 in the SEC Championship Game.
10) Five games I'll watch next week while I'm not covering a Missouri game:
Oklahoma at Kansas, 11:00, FOX: The Sooners nearly got derailed by a bad UCF team in Norman. The Jayhawks can score. I don't think an upset is likely, but I also don't think it's impossible.
Georgia at Florida, 2:30, CBS: Georgia probably wins this. But weird things happen in this game. Honestly, Mizzou fans should probably hope Georgia does win it. It would knock Florida out of SEC East title contention and would avoid a furious, backs against the wall Georgia team the next week.
Oregon at Utah, 2:30, FOX: PAC-12 cannibalization commences
Tennessee at Kentucky, 6:00, ESPN: Wildcats are coming off a bye. Neither team is very good offensively but both are pretty good defensively. If Kentucky and Florida can pull off wins at home, the Missouri/Georgia winner is in excellent position to win the division.
Oregon State at Arizona, 9:30, ESPN: Arizona isn't getting the pub of some of the other PAC-12 teams, but they're pretty good. Look out, Beavers.
1) Let's start with the biggest game of the day. Man, it's got to be kind of a weird place to be as a Penn State fan. The Nittany Lions have won 11 games four times in the last seven years and very well might do it again this year. They're 70-25 since the start of the 2016 season. They've absolutely been one of the top 10-12 programs in college football over that time. But they can't get over the hump. They haven't played in a Big Ten title game since 2016 because they're 4-11 against Michigan (3-4) and Ohio State (1-7) in that time period. It happened again yesterday. The Buckeyes complete shut down Drew Allar and the Penn State offense (240 total yards, 191 passing) in a 20-6 win. The conference title hopes aren't dead for Penn State. They'll have to beat Michigan and then hope to a win a weird tiebreaker based on the record of their cross-division opponents. But Penn State doesn't look like it can beat Michigan. So it will be a top 12 team that is third in its own division. For the fifth time in eight years.
2) Whoever comes out of the Big Ten East is going to get some nice cardio in on conference championship game weekend. The Big Ten west is a flaming trash heap. Wisconsin currently leads it at 3-1. Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska each have two losses. Had Illinois not blown a 21-7 fourth quarter lead against the Badgers yesterday there would be exactly one team over .500 in the division. Wisconsin is averaging 23.25 points per game in conference play. It is far and away the best offense in the division. Here are the other teams ranked by points per game in Big Ten play:
Purdue 20.5
Illinois 17.4
Minnesota 17.25
Northwestern 16.5
Iowa 14.2
Nebraska 13.5
Yuck
3) Florida State is the only unbeaten team left in the ACC. The Seminoles outscored Duke 21-0 in the fourth quarter to win 38-20 yesterday. It was Duke's second loss, but the first in league play. That was expected. What wasn't was Virginia rising up to beat previously undefeated North Carolina. That sunk the Tar Heels to 6-1, 3-1 in ACC play. It's by far the worst loss of any team that started the week with playoff hopes. FSU is almost assured a spot in the ACC title game. They'll probably play either Louisville or the winner of Duke/UNC. They don't face a ranked team the rest of the regular season, but do host Miami and travel to Florida.
4) Back in the SEC, Alabama just keeps winning. The Tide outscored Tennessee 27-0 in the second half in Tuscaloosa to win 34-20 yesterday. They're now 5-0 in league play and have a week off before hosting LSU on November 4 in a game that should decide the SEC West. After that, Alabama has road games at Kentucky and Auburn. Either is losable, but nobody seems to be able to beat Nick Saban's worst team in a while. Right now, I'd vote for Eli Drinkwitz as the SEC coach of the year. But if Missouri loses one or two and Alabama doesn't, I can make a pretty good argument for Nick Saban. This might be the best coaching job he's done at Bama.
5) Before yesterday, I thought Sam Pittman's job should be safe. His team was 2-5, but they'd been on the road for a month and four of the five losses were one score games. The worst loss of the year was to BYU and BYU isn't bad. Then the Razorbacks did absolutely nothing offensively in a 7-3 loss to Mississippi State. Arkansas had 200 total yards and averaged less than three yards per play. KJ Jefferson threw for 97 yards on 31 attempts. But that's not the worst part.
Late in the first half, the Razorbacks were looking at a 50 yard field goal. They brought the kicking team on the field late and didn't get the snap off. They took a delay of game and punted. They didn't come as close to scoring again. Here's what Sam Pittman said after the game:
"I didn't know what to do to be perfectly honest with you," Pittman said. "So, I was probably eight seconds in on the 40-second clock. I decided to kick a field goal, and we didn't get it off in time. That's the truth. I did not want to call a timeout at that point because I wasn't even sure I wanted to kick a field goal to be perfectly honest with you.
"We kicked it down to the two and the fans got really involved in it. To be honest with you, I didn't know what to do. I didn't make the decision fast enough. Once I got it in there, I thought we had plenty of time to kick it, but at that point I wasn't going to burn a timeout because my feeling was I wasn't for sure I was making the right decision anyway."
I appreciate the honesty, Sam. Really, I do. But you can't say that out loud. I don't care if it's true. You just can't say it. If your head coach is saying he doesn't know what to do in the game, what's his job? Just terrible. Make something up. Own the mistake, but don't say it was made because you didn't know what to do. Arkansas is at Florida, then hosts Auburn and Missouri. Before the season, most would have had the Razorbacks as favorites in all three games or toss ups at worst. They'll now be underdogs in at least two of them. There is a late season non-conference game against FIU. But 3-9 is on the table and 4-8 looks like about the best case scenario. I'm not sure that's good enough to give Pittman another year.
6) If Pittman had the worst quote of the weekend, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham had the best.
Bryson Barnes (starter Cam Rising hasn't played this year with an injury) threw for 235 yards, ran for 57 and scored four touchdowns in the Utes 34-32 win over USC in LA. Utah was down 32-31 when Barnes took over. He trucked a USC defender at the end of one run. Then he ran for 26 yards to move Utah from the 43 to the 17 with just five seconds left to set up a game-winning field goal on the final play. The win kept PAC-12 title and CFP hopes alive for Utah (with a backup quarterback all year) and sunk the latter for Lincoln Riley, Caleb Williams and USC.
7) Things almost got really wild elsewhere in the PAC-12. In a late night kickoff, lowly Arizona State led Washington 7-6 with eight and a half minutes to play and was in the red zone. But Mishael Powell intercepted a pass and raced 90 yards the other way to give the Huskies a 12-7 lead. They tacked on a field goal and survived what would have been a disastrous loss. Nobody cares how you win, they only care if you win. Washington did. Everything it wants is still available. The Huskies are 4-0 in PAC-12 play. Four teams (USC, Utah, Oregon and Oregon State) have just one loss. Washington still plays Utah, USC and Oregon State. USC has Washington, Oregon and UCLA. Oregon State plays Washington and Oregon. Oregon has Utah, USC and Oregon State. Utah plays Oregon and Washington. I believe the PAC-12 is the best conference in the country. I also believe it is possible that by the end of the conference title game every team has at least two losses and the league has cannibalized itself out of the College Football Playoff.
8) One of the best stories in college football is happening at James Madison. The Dukes are 7-0. They've beaten Virginia and South Alabama. They lead the Sun Belt East. They'd have a great shot to get the Group of Five spot in the New Year's Six bowls this year. Except they can't. This is JMU's second year in FBS football after making the move from FCS. A ridiculous bylaw enacted in 2017 states that a team making that move has to wait two years to play in a bowl game. I have no idea why, but it's there. So JMU has a legit shot at 13-0 (their toughest remaining game is Georgia State, which is second in the East) and sitting at home. The Air Force Falcons, also 7-0 and moving up from 22nd after a win over Navy, are currently in the driver's seat for a likely spot in the Fiesta Bowl. Tulane, at 6-1, could also get that spot.
9) If the playoff started today:
1 Georgia vs 4 Florida State
2 Michigan vs 3 Washington
Here are the other teams that still have a realistic shot at the playoff (Basically every Power Five team with no losses or one loss except for the ACC, where I think you'll have to go undefeated): Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, Alabama, Missouri, Ole Miss.
That's 15 teams for four spots. All of them except Florida State play at least one other team on the list. Michigan plays two. The PAC 12 teams all play at least two plus a conference title game. Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama don't play any in the regular season, but would have to probably beat another team in this group of 15 in the SEC Championship Game.
10) Five games I'll watch next week while I'm not covering a Missouri game:
Oklahoma at Kansas, 11:00, FOX: The Sooners nearly got derailed by a bad UCF team in Norman. The Jayhawks can score. I don't think an upset is likely, but I also don't think it's impossible.
Georgia at Florida, 2:30, CBS: Georgia probably wins this. But weird things happen in this game. Honestly, Mizzou fans should probably hope Georgia does win it. It would knock Florida out of SEC East title contention and would avoid a furious, backs against the wall Georgia team the next week.
Oregon at Utah, 2:30, FOX: PAC-12 cannibalization commences
Tennessee at Kentucky, 6:00, ESPN: Wildcats are coming off a bye. Neither team is very good offensively but both are pretty good defensively. If Kentucky and Florida can pull off wins at home, the Missouri/Georgia winner is in excellent position to win the division.
Oregon State at Arizona, 9:30, ESPN: Arizona isn't getting the pub of some of the other PAC-12 teams, but they're pretty good. Look out, Beavers.
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