We've covered Mizzou's win over Vandy from every angle. Here's my take on the rest of what happened this week:
1) If there's a better way to start a weekend than a dose of Husker Humble Pie I don't know what it is. Maybe Illinois is just really good. I do think Bret Bielema is a good coach. But also, maybe Nebraska is, again, not back. The Huskers dropped an overtime home game to Illinois in which they backed up all the way to their own side of midfield in the OT period. Dylan Raiola was pretty good...until he had to be. Then he turned into a freshman making his fourth career start. Nebraska has a pretty certain win over Purdue left and pretty certain losses to Ohio State and USC. Those games leave them 4-3. To get to their first bowl game in a decade, they'll need to win two of these games: Rutgers, Indiana, UCLA, Wisconsin, Iowa. They'll probably do it. But the ceiling on this season looks to be eight wins in Lincoln. The Illini is off to a nice start, but has three games against top 20 teams remaining and probably caps out around 8-4 as well.
2) If there's a better way to follow that up than Kansas coughing up a lead in the final 30 seconds, I don't know what it is. The Jayhawks lost to West Virginia 32-28 on a touchdown pass with 26 seconds to go. A season that started with talk of the playoff now sees Kansas sitting 1-3 without many certain wins left on the schedule. Missing a bowl game is a real possibility. You hate to see it. You really do.
3) If there's a better way to finish your college football weekend than watching Kansas State no show and melt down at BYU, I don't know what it is. A comedy in three acts:
4) For good measure, Oklahoma is who we thought they were. The Sooners did virtually nothing on offense and sent Jackson Arnold to the bench in the first half of a 25-15 loss to Tennessee that wasn't that close. The Sooners appeared fine with letting Dillon Gabriel walk to Oregon because they had so much confidence in his replacement. That replacement has led OU to go a grand total of 65 points in the last three weeks with more than half of them coming against Tulane and now he might not even start next week. Just I don't go all nanny-nanny-boo-boo in this edition of the thoughts, love him or hate him, this one was pretty cool for Josh Heupel and it was fun to see him show some actual emotion.
5) Don't look now but the Buffalo Bulls are 3-1 on the season. Two of the wins are over nobodies, but yesterday the Bulls beat Northern Illinois--the same NIU that beat Notre Dame two weeks ago--23-20 in overtime on the road. It's not going to be the determining factor for whether Mizzou makes the playoff or anything, but every win their opponents can get is a little feather in Mizzou's cap. Good win for Buffalo, bad, bad result for the Fighting Irish, who I remain convinced should not be any part of the playoff conversation, but probably will be until they lose again.
6) It's weird to say the defending national champions pulled an upset at home, but it happened. Michigan was about a touchdown underdog to USC, let most of the way, blew it and then came back to win 27-24 with a 10-play, 89-yard drive that was capped by a one-yard TD run with 37 seconds to play. New starting quarterback Alex Orji had the following stat line: 7/12 for 32 yards. There are a lot of ways to win a football game and Michigan found one. Welcome to life in the Big Ten, Lincoln Riiley.
7) This might be the most hilarious play in college football history:
I am speechless. I am without speech.
8) Mack Brown hired former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins as his defensive coordinator before the season. Geoff Collins is a pretty good defensive coordinator. Saturday was...not a good day.
James Madison led this game 53-21...at halftime. The Dukes had 611 yards of offense. Tar Heel QB Jacolby Criswell threw for 475 yards and three touchdowns and wasn't the best quarterback in the game. That was JMU's Alonza Barnett, who had 388 and five touchdowns (and no interceptions vs two for Criswell).
Oof.
9) It's early to hand out the Heisman Trophy, but I don't know how anyone is going to take it away from Travis Hunter. Colorado isn't particularly good and I'm not all that impressed that the Buffs beat Baylor. I am WILDLY impressed with Hunter.
Hunter is averaging 9.3 receptions for 118 yards a game and has five touchdowns on offense. He has 14 tackles, two PBU's two TFLs, a forced fumble and an interception on defense. He has played 258 snaps on offense and 265 snaps on defense. You cannot make any sort of a coherent argument there is a better player in college football.
10) Five games I'll watch next week with Mizzou on a bye:
Oklahoma State at Kansas State, TBD Saturday: Both are 0-1 in the Big 12. The loser is probably out of the conference title race (and thus the playoff picture).
Oklahoma at Auburn, 2:30 Saturday, ABC: The Sooners should win this game. Auburn isn't good. But life on the road in the SEC is almost never easy especially when you struggle to score.
Arkansas vs Texas A&M, 2:30 Saturday, ESPN: I don't think either team is great, but I think both can be dangerous. The winner is 4-1. Mizzou plays both, including the Aggies the week after this one.
Louisville at Notre Dame, 2:30 Saturday, Peacock: I think the Cardinals are the most logical challenger to Miami in the ACC. And I'd like to end this Notre Dame playoff junk.
Georgia at Alabama, 6:30 Saturday, ABC: Game of the year in the SEC so far. Probably in the country.
1) If there's a better way to start a weekend than a dose of Husker Humble Pie I don't know what it is. Maybe Illinois is just really good. I do think Bret Bielema is a good coach. But also, maybe Nebraska is, again, not back. The Huskers dropped an overtime home game to Illinois in which they backed up all the way to their own side of midfield in the OT period. Dylan Raiola was pretty good...until he had to be. Then he turned into a freshman making his fourth career start. Nebraska has a pretty certain win over Purdue left and pretty certain losses to Ohio State and USC. Those games leave them 4-3. To get to their first bowl game in a decade, they'll need to win two of these games: Rutgers, Indiana, UCLA, Wisconsin, Iowa. They'll probably do it. But the ceiling on this season looks to be eight wins in Lincoln. The Illini is off to a nice start, but has three games against top 20 teams remaining and probably caps out around 8-4 as well.
2) If there's a better way to follow that up than Kansas coughing up a lead in the final 30 seconds, I don't know what it is. The Jayhawks lost to West Virginia 32-28 on a touchdown pass with 26 seconds to go. A season that started with talk of the playoff now sees Kansas sitting 1-3 without many certain wins left on the schedule. Missing a bowl game is a real possibility. You hate to see it. You really do.
3) If there's a better way to finish your college football weekend than watching Kansas State no show and melt down at BYU, I don't know what it is. A comedy in three acts:
4) For good measure, Oklahoma is who we thought they were. The Sooners did virtually nothing on offense and sent Jackson Arnold to the bench in the first half of a 25-15 loss to Tennessee that wasn't that close. The Sooners appeared fine with letting Dillon Gabriel walk to Oregon because they had so much confidence in his replacement. That replacement has led OU to go a grand total of 65 points in the last three weeks with more than half of them coming against Tulane and now he might not even start next week. Just I don't go all nanny-nanny-boo-boo in this edition of the thoughts, love him or hate him, this one was pretty cool for Josh Heupel and it was fun to see him show some actual emotion.
5) Don't look now but the Buffalo Bulls are 3-1 on the season. Two of the wins are over nobodies, but yesterday the Bulls beat Northern Illinois--the same NIU that beat Notre Dame two weeks ago--23-20 in overtime on the road. It's not going to be the determining factor for whether Mizzou makes the playoff or anything, but every win their opponents can get is a little feather in Mizzou's cap. Good win for Buffalo, bad, bad result for the Fighting Irish, who I remain convinced should not be any part of the playoff conversation, but probably will be until they lose again.
6) It's weird to say the defending national champions pulled an upset at home, but it happened. Michigan was about a touchdown underdog to USC, let most of the way, blew it and then came back to win 27-24 with a 10-play, 89-yard drive that was capped by a one-yard TD run with 37 seconds to play. New starting quarterback Alex Orji had the following stat line: 7/12 for 32 yards. There are a lot of ways to win a football game and Michigan found one. Welcome to life in the Big Ten, Lincoln Riiley.
7) This might be the most hilarious play in college football history:
I am speechless. I am without speech.
8) Mack Brown hired former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins as his defensive coordinator before the season. Geoff Collins is a pretty good defensive coordinator. Saturday was...not a good day.
James Madison led this game 53-21...at halftime. The Dukes had 611 yards of offense. Tar Heel QB Jacolby Criswell threw for 475 yards and three touchdowns and wasn't the best quarterback in the game. That was JMU's Alonza Barnett, who had 388 and five touchdowns (and no interceptions vs two for Criswell).
Oof.
9) It's early to hand out the Heisman Trophy, but I don't know how anyone is going to take it away from Travis Hunter. Colorado isn't particularly good and I'm not all that impressed that the Buffs beat Baylor. I am WILDLY impressed with Hunter.
Hunter is averaging 9.3 receptions for 118 yards a game and has five touchdowns on offense. He has 14 tackles, two PBU's two TFLs, a forced fumble and an interception on defense. He has played 258 snaps on offense and 265 snaps on defense. You cannot make any sort of a coherent argument there is a better player in college football.
10) Five games I'll watch next week with Mizzou on a bye:
Oklahoma State at Kansas State, TBD Saturday: Both are 0-1 in the Big 12. The loser is probably out of the conference title race (and thus the playoff picture).
Oklahoma at Auburn, 2:30 Saturday, ABC: The Sooners should win this game. Auburn isn't good. But life on the road in the SEC is almost never easy especially when you struggle to score.
Arkansas vs Texas A&M, 2:30 Saturday, ESPN: I don't think either team is great, but I think both can be dangerous. The winner is 4-1. Mizzou plays both, including the Aggies the week after this one.
Louisville at Notre Dame, 2:30 Saturday, Peacock: I think the Cardinals are the most logical challenger to Miami in the ACC. And I'd like to end this Notre Dame playoff junk.
Georgia at Alabama, 6:30 Saturday, ABC: Game of the year in the SEC so far. Probably in the country.
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