Now that’s more like it, this Saturday was the most chaotic day of College Football we’ve seen in a long time. Not only did we see lots of massive upsets, there were also a lot of close games. I can run 8 screens at once and still didn’t have enough at times.
American
Army and Navy continue to roll, but the favorite to win the conference might be Tulane. The Green Wave have unlocked a new scary mode, after blasting South Florida last week they went ahead and put up an even more eye popping score in beating UAB 71-20. Jon Sumrall has won a conference title in every season as a head coach.
The flip side to that is UAB, the Blazers program is down bad. They opted for Trent Dilfer instead of continuity with Bryant Vincent and their fans are not happy with the results that is bringing so far. UAB’s program had been so strong since it’s return to the field, so hopefully they can turn it around soon.
In the middle of the conference, it seems Biff Poggi is getting things going for Charlotte. They’ve come to life in conference play, but winning 55-24 over East Carolina was not a foreseeable result entering the week. They ran all over the Pirates with lots of big plays in a game that was never close. If Charlotte keeps playing like that, bowl eligibility is on the table. Meanwhile for ECU I’m not sure where this takes them, they had such an encouraging win over UTSA but followed it up with this effort. The offense has been all over the place all season, but the Pirates really can’t afford to see their defense collapse.
ACC
The headliner in the conference was Cal hosting Miami FL in ACC After Dark. It was so great seeing Cal’s stadium full and rocking all game in a way we haven’t seen since Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch or Desean Jackson were playing for them. Rece Davis wasn’t supposed to call the game, but stepped in last moment and his voice was going but it still gave the game a big time feel, something again we haven’t seen for Cal in some time. Davis’ “Ott-to-go” call after a long Jaydyn Ott TD felt reminiscent of Desean Jackson’s punt return against Tennessee when Cal beat them in primetime. As much as it felt like the prime days of Cal football, we aren’t in those days, and the Cal football of today just can’t stick the landing on anything big. Cal was up 35-10 late in the 3rd quarter, but instead of playing their game they became conservative just wishing for the game to end without actually doing anything on offense to end it. The end result was Miami FL running 40 plays in just over a quarter, far too many to go up against that offense. When Cal had to punt at the end it was clear their defense was too worn out to have a shot at stopping them. A huge survival for Miami FL, but a devastating loss for Cal.
Who is going to challenge Miami FL and Clemson atop the ACC? I think we got a pretty clear answer on Saturday. SMU picked up an impressive win at Louisville, Jennings has become a star for this offense. By the way, SMU doesn’t play Clemson or Miami FL. The other challenger is the Pitt Panthers. The Air-raid offense felt like a silly experiment entering the offseason but its actually working really well. This time they were able to get past North Carolina in Chapel Hill, a place that’s been a house of horrors for Pitt in the past. This team can seriously make some noise.
Virginia is 4-1, it’s been a few years since the Cavaliers have put together a strong season but they managed to take down a good Boston College team with a dominant 2nd half. It feels like they might have the pieces to reach a bowl game which would be a big accomplishment, however they’ll need to buckle up because the upcoming schedule is brutal.
Big Ten
Maybe adding all the programs that don’t make geographical sense was a mistake? A noticable trend has shown up in the conference where most teams that have gone on long road trips so far have come out with a loss, and it came to a head this weekend with Michigan losing to Washington and USC losing to Minnesota. It’s also possible that both Michigan and USC were overrated because USC beat LSU, we’ll see as the season goes on.
Each week it feels like we are getting too excited about Indiana and they’ll end up losing randomly. They were in a battle with Northwestern, but the final score was Indiana 41, Northwestern 24. So far no one has been able to hang with the Hoosiers for all 4 quarters, this team is for real.
I had my concerns about the Rutgers offense and those definitely came to a head in a Big Ten rock fight against Nebraska. Rutgers couldn’t muster any points for most of the game until a late TD. The path is still open for a strong season by the Scarlet Knights but expectations might be lowered a bit.
Big 12
Iowa State found themselves in a battle with Baylor early, even falling behind 14-3 before closing the game out on a 40-7 run. The Cyclones haven’t started fast all season but they’ve made the 4th quarter theirs. Outside of a trip to Utah they get most of their tough remaining games at home. Not a bad setup for Matt Campbell’s squad.
I mentioned last week how Texas Tech was left for dead and rebounded, but they took it even a step further by beating Arizona on the road. The Red Raiders dominated the first half, but nearly let it slip away in a disaster of the 2nd half before making some massive plays late to win it. They can enter true Big 12 title contention if they can avoid a slip up against Baylor and TCU the next 2 games.
I must say, I did not have Oklahoma State as one of the worst teams in the Big 12 on my bingo card entering the year, but here we are. It feels like things get worse each week for this team, now they were blown out 38-14 at home by West Virginia. I really don’t know where they go from here. Meanwhile West Virginia was left for dead at one point but now finds themselves 3-2.
CUSA
This was almost a bye week all the way across the board for CUSA as the prep to go into weeknight play. Both games that happened were mismatches with Sam Houston winning big over UTEP and Jacksonville State blowing out Kennesaw State. The fact that a win was expected shows what an awesome turnaround it’s been for KC Keeler’s crew, they’re a win away from the program’s first bowl game, but as mentioned in previous weeks I think they might be looking for more. Jacksonville State meanwhile seems to be activating their scarier side on offense, Tyler Huff gets better with each passing week and they’ve had points lately where they reeled off points in bunches.
MAC
The headliner game was the MAC championship rematch between Toledo and Miami. The game lacked the drama that both of last year’s matchups had. Toledo established control early, eventually taking a 23-6 lead before coasting to a 10 point win. The Rockets established themselves as favorites to win the conference, meanwhile Miami seems a step behind contention right now. Even more worrisome for the RedHawks is they’re 1-4 with an overtime win over UMass and still have Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Ohio, NIU and BG on their schedule, they need to win 3 of those to even have bowl hopes.
Bowling Green’s first MAC game was very similar to their non-conference slate. They maintained a lot of control but execution was sloppy and it nearly allowed Akron to come back to steal it. Fortunately the offense stepped up when it needed to and the Falcons finally got a win on the board, how they will fare on MAC title contention will depend on if they can clean those errors up.
Ball State lost yet another offensive shootout. This time 42-45 to Western Michigan. It’s unfortunate for Ball State because they seem to have a really fun offense that’s being overshadowed by a struggling defense. Taking out the JMU and Miami FL games, Ball State is averaging nearly 40pts/game against their own punching class, but likewise has yet to give up less than 34 points this year.
Mountain West
UNLV/Syracuse was such a fun game on Friday night, putting that game in that window was such a great move. UNLV faced a tough opponent and the Rebels really couldn’t afford to have a bad 3rd down night like they did, they haven’t been bad at getting stops but on Friday they gave up a painful amount of 3rd and longs. Eventually they finally gave up enough for the dam to break. There’s no shame in a loss to a tough foe so UNLV still had all their goals in front of them, but the margin for error is thinner.
On a normal night, San Jose State and Nevada’s back and forth battle would have gotten more attention, but this was no normal night unfortunately. Nevada took a late lead, but San Jose State used some trickeration, a pass from star receiver Nick Nash to win the game. The Spartans remain firmly in the Mountain West championship hunt. This was yet another tough loss for Nevada, the Wolfpack are 2-4 but let games they could have won against SMU (wow isn’t that wild in hindsight), Georgia Southern and now San Jose State slip away. The Wolfpack are greatly improved, but they’re so close to so much more.
Colorado State let a massive upset opportunity against Oregon State slip away on The CW. It was a heartbreaker for the Rams who led by 3 late but eventually lost in OT. Still there were some positive developments that show the Rams could still salvage a bowl out of this season, the offense got a boost their last time out when Avery Morrow emerged as their clear best back, and now Tory Horton’s return gave the pass game some much needed juice. The Rams just need to finish the job down the stretch.
Pac-12/Independents
That was more dramatic than they wanted, but Oregon State is 4-1. The Beavers are clearly finding something in the ground game, QB Gevani McCoy led the way with a dominant game on the ground (153 yards, 3 TDs.) He actually ran for more yards than he passed for! This is a Beavs team that’s figuring it out, the schedule will get tougher down the road.
UConn didn’t play like a wagon on Saturday, the Huskies found themselves in a tight battle with a struggling Temple team. Last time UConn was in a tight game like this, they let it slip away against Duke. This time the Huskies had Temple at their 1 yard line, ready to run the Brotherly Shove, in Philly to take the game from the Huskies, instead UConn’s defense stood tough, forced a fumble and returned it 99 yards
SEC
The SEC will be interesting to monitor this year it seems. Over the last decade plus something that has really benefitted the SEC was the cooperative nature of the underdogs in the conference. Teams like Vanderbilt and Arkansas were normally perfectly willing to take their 30 point loss and move on, but if they did occasionally give a top foe a tough time they would at least do them the favor of blowing the game late not upset the balance. This season, this may not be the case. This weekend featured SEC upsets we haven’t seen in same time, Vanderbilt beating Alabama is the biggest upset in any recent memory, and Arkansas taking down Tennessee on the same day was just adding more fuel. If more of these happen, buckle up because it’s about to be the wildest ride we’ve seen from this conference in some time.
Vanderbilt’s story is a lot of fun to monitor. Clark Lea is a good coach who took on an impossible job and was struggling with it after last season. I can’t help but to be impressed with how he attacked this offseason, he was willing to change it up completely and do what is needed for Vanderbilt to succeed which is find a unique offense and run it. It’s an attack with a lot of triple option principles, but they also throw it out of play action. He even went a step further to basically grab everyone else from New Mexico State as well. Jerry Kill who was done will full time coaching, Diego Pavia the QB who ran the offense so well and became the hero of another program, also TE Eli Stowers who was a converted QB (even took some snaps at the position early last year at NMSU) was available any time Pavia needed someone to throw to.
Texas A&M over Missouri wasn’t mentioned in the upset section above because it probably wasn’t an upset. Texas A&M is clearly the better team. Missouri appears to have a lot of issues, the pass game isn’t clicking like it should and their defense got bowled over. At least the Tigers managed to beat Vanderbilt?
Sun Belt
The bigger stunner to some in the conference was UL-Monroe over James Madison. The Warhawks defense has been absolutely incredible. Not only did they limit a dangerous JMU offense to just 19 points, they also scored a TD of their own to keep the game from getting out of hand early. Bryant Vincent has now led UL-Monroe to a 4-1 record, their best ever at the FBS level and this team was projected to be dead last in FBS this year. They have also done this without clear answers at QB General Booty, as fun as the name is, wasn’t as effective and they have found a better flow with Aidan Armenta but there’s still work to do. One thing is for sure, the Warhawks made a statement that they must be considered a true Sun Belt contender. It’s impossible to not be impressed with what Bryant Vincent is doing, want to see for yourself? You would be hard pressed to take over this team in College Football 25 and go 4-1 like Vincent has. That’s how impressive this year.
Louisiana went to Hattiesburg, MS to face Southern Miss. A place that has been a house of horrors for the Ragin’ Cajuns regardless of the record for the 2 programs. The Cajuns finally overcame their issues playing there with a 23-13 win. Just getting the win was all they needed to continue the momentum after beating Wake Forest and remain a contender in the Sun Belt.
Arkansas State beat South Alabama 18-16 after making a last moment FG. The conclusion I’ll reach from this. Arkansas State can only win if it’s in dramatic fashion at the last moment and South Alabama can still only win on Thursdays.
The most emotional game for the conference was Appalachian State returning to play after the awful events that happened in Boone, NC. It was just a win alone for the Mountaineers to return to the field and provide a distraction. The results on the field showed more challenges with the Mountaineers defense, Marshall won 52-37. Marshall made a surprise change in this game going with Braylon Braxton at QB despite coming off a win. I don’t know if their goal was to try something different or if they saw Braxton’s mobility as a matchup advantage against App State’s defense but it worked extremely well.
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