FBS Roundup Week 8

This was a crazy weekend of football yet again, there was a lot of action everywhere. There’s a lot to unpack this week so let’s get after it.

American

The headliner game was Memphis vs North Texas. North Texas was able to keep pace with Memphis all game in a shootout but the Mean Green just couldn’t get a TD on the last play of the game from inside the Memphis 20. Outside of a bad half against Texas Tech, Chandler Morris has been lights out for the Mean Green. This was a tough loss, but they could still be a factor in the AAC race. North Texas hosts Tulane and Army the next 2 games. Memphis meanwhile did a great job to close this one out, the Tigers now see the schedule open up for them, they likely won’t face another challenge until the regular season finale against Tulane.

Mentioning Tulane, the Green Wave had their first questionable effort since the Oklahoma loss. They were uncharacteristically sloppy on offense and needed their defense to bail them out with turnovers in a 24-10 win. One of those turnovers occurred when Rice was driving to try to take the lead early in the 4th quarter. It was strange that they were so sloppy off a bye week but Tulane will have to sort it out quick with North Texas next.

Navy and Army are going scorched earth on their opponents at this point. They both wasted zero time dismantling their opponents this week. Things will get interesting from here, both teams are going to hit the meat of their schedule down the stretch.

South Florida once had their eyes on the playoff but the Bulls were on the verge of a shocking collapse. The last time we saw their QB Byrum Brown healthy, they were trying to go toe to toe with the Miami Hurricanes. Brown exits and suddenly at one point this week the Bulls were down 19-6 to UAB, a loss would mean they needed a miracle to even reach a bowl. Fortunately the Bulls rallied to win, but it almost got really ugly. They need Brown back healthy soon or they’re not even going to go bowling this year.

ACC

The Miami Hurricanes remain unbeaten but continue to rely on outscoring their opponents and getting late advantageous calls from the ACC review center. The Hurricanes offense is frustrating to defend, but at some point their defense might be an issue. They’ve yet to give up less than 34 points in an ACC game. The good news is that Florida State and Duke are next so that streak will almost certainly end.

Mentioning Duke and Florida State, they played on Friday night with Duke looking for their first ever win over the Noles. The game was as error filled and sloppy as expected. Every time it seemed like Florida State could threaten to be a capable team they managed to turn the ball over. Duke pulled it off in the end, but did so with less than 200 yards of offense. It’s been far from pretty but Duke is somehow 6-1.

The opposite of Duke is Cal. The Golden Bears are simply incapable of closing out any conference game. They’re now 0-4 in ACC play, but the 4 losses are by a TOTAL of 9 points. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a top team like Miami FL or Pitt, or a bad team like FSU or NC State the Golden Bears lose in the same way.

Big Ten

The Big Noon game was Indiana vs Nebraska, it felt like the biggest test for the Hoosiers this season and perhaps the moment where they might get tripped up. Not the case. Indiana blasted Nebraska from start to finish in a resounding 56-7 win. Perhaps Indiana is the only elite team in College Football? There’s one concern, Kurtis Rourke got hurt and missed the 2nd half, but Tayven Jackson led the offense to 28 points in the 2nd half so perhaps they’re fine under his watch as well. Still something to keep an eye on.

Illinois faced Michigan in a top 25 elimination game, but the Fighting Illini had no problem with the Wolverines. They took an early lead and never looked back in a 21-7 win. It was their first win over Michigan since 2009! This could be a really special season for Illinois, they have a tough road trip to Oregon next week but the schedule is wide open afterward. They could win 10 games.

Iowa honestly seemed fine most of this year. They had 2 losses, their offense looked ugly at times but the Hawkeyes 2 losses were to top 10 teams. A 10-win season still seemed to be on the table with a pretty easy conference schedule remaining. Then Saturday night happened. All systems failed in a 32-20 loss to Michigan State, the game wasn’t as close as the score because this included 7, yes 7 FG attempts by the Spartans (they did make 6 of them.) Kaleb Johnson was held in check and Iowa’s offense doesn’t have a Plan B, but perhaps most surprising was that their defense allowed Michigan State to roll up 468 yards and couldn’t stop them from running.

Big 12

Survival is the name of the conference in a conference with as much depth as this one, each team brings a different threat each week. This week BYU faced Mike Gundy off a bye week, he was head-butted by a cow during the bye, and seemed to bring Ollie Gordon/the offense to life. Meanwhile Iowa State was challenged by UCF’s speed. Both teams were on the brink with less than a minute left in their games but both Jake Retzlaff and Rocco Becht delivered in the clutch to bring their teams to victory in wild games. Those clutch performances down the stretch were huge for the playoff and conference championship hopes for both BYU and Iowa State. The target is officially on the backs of both so they’ll need to bring it every week.

Kansas State rolled to a blowout win over West Virginia, but who could emerge as a 4th contender for the conference? Next week’s edition of Big 12 After Dark between Cincinnati and Colorado might answer that question. Both teams have surprised this season compared to preseason expectations. They both took down Arizona schools in resounding fashion. Cincinnati took down Arizona State at home, while Colorado rolled into Tucson and came out with a 34-7 blowout win over Arizona.

This is the Big 12 so there’s always going to be results that make no sense. This week’s ridiculous result…Baylor beating Texas Tech 59-35 in Lubbock. The Bears had been struggling prior to their bye week while Texas Tech was on a roll, so of course Baylor blew them out because this is the Big 12 and things like this happen here. TCU also beat Utah in a 13-7 rock fight. This happened just 15 days after the Horned Frogs hit rock bottom in a loss to Houston. I don’t know if it’s because Utah’s offense can’t produce big plays, but TCU’s defense looked a lot better this week.

CUSA

Sam Houston vs Western Kentucky was the first truly big conference play to determine who could compete with Liberty for the conference crown. Sam Houston unfortunately lost QB Hunter Watson to an injury and it all went wrong for the Bearkats after that in a blowout loss. Western Kentucky has looked great ever since Caden Veltcamp has taken the reigns. The Tops might seriously be the best team in the conference.

It had been a rough season for the two southwestern rivals New Mexico State and UTEP, but finally this week saw a breakthrough for both. New Mexico State was finally able to find some productivity in their run game and that helped the Aggies grab a wild double OT victory over Louisiana Tech. Meanwhile UTEP controlled the game against FIU to finally get their first victory under Scotty Walden. His first year has been filled with challenges but it’s clear the future is bright.

MAC

The biggest game in the MAC title race didn’t feel like it. Toledo faced NIU in a critical game where the winner would feel like the favorite to win it, yet both teams were banged up, notably at the QB position. Both teams entered their battle with their backup QBs and it went about as you’d expect. Toledo won it 13-6.

MACtion did deliver as a whole this week. The wildest game of the day was Eastern Michigan vs Central Michigan. Eastern Michigan opened scoring the first 13 points, Central Michigan scored the next 14, and Eastern kicked a FG to take a 16-14 halftime lead. Then the game got even crazier in the 2nd half. Central Michigan scored the first 20 points of the 2nd half, then Eastern Michigan scored the last 22 points of the game to win it 38-34. That game winning TD occurred with 1:42 left. Eastern Michigan is now 5-2.

Buffalo vs Western Michigan was almost as crazy. Western Michigan jumped all over the Bulls early in the game, the Broncos led 28-10 at one point and Buffalo spent the entire game trying to come back from that deficit. The Bulls got close, tying it up at one point in the 4th quarter before Western Michigan closed out a big win.

The Miami RedHawks faced Ohio in the 100th edition of the Battle of the Bricks. Ohio had their eyes on maybe entering MAC title contention but the Redhawks had other ideas, they dominated the game throughout and never were seriously threatened by the Bobcats. It took some time but Miami has finally started to round into form.

Mountain West

UNLV might have their sights higher than bowl eligibility but it shouldn’t be overlooked that reaching it is still a big accomplishment for the program. UNLV is now 6-1 and bowl eligible in back to back seasons for the first time in program history. The Rebels were in a tough battle with Oregon State but they took command of the game in the 2nd half then held on for a 33-25 win. This sets up a huge showdown between UNLV and Boise State next week.

I never understood why everyone was quick to say New Mexico would finish dead last in the Mountain West this year. Bronco Mendenhall was going to figure out ways to make that team better and in particular their offense has proven to be a ton of fun. New Mexico started slow against Utah State but they found ways to make plays down the stretch to pull off a wild 50-45 win. This is now the 3rd straight game scoring 50 or more points for this dangerous Lobos offense. It won’t be easy, but bowl eligibility is definitely on the table for this team.

Nevada hosted Fresno State in a game that had some great old school WAC vibes. It was a fun back and forth battle throughout but the offenses went back and forth in the first half. Nevada took a 21-17 lead into halftime. In the 2nd half Brendon Lewis got rocked by an unnecessary late hit and Nevada’s offense couldn’t get anything going after that. Credit to Nevada’s defense for keeping the game close but unfortunately for the Wolf Pack this ended up being yet another close loss their 4th of the season. It’s going to be really difficult for them to reach bowl eligibility. On Fresno State’s side they have to be proud of their defense for absolutely shutting down Nevada in the 2nd half. It wasn’t pretty but Fresno State keeps themselves in the Mountain West title race.

Pac-12/Independents

When is Washington State going to be ranked again? The Cougars moved to 6-1 after blowing out Hawaii. They’ve been very impressive all season and aren’t getting enough credit now.

Oregon State is now 4-3 and suddenly it feels like their season is on the brink. The Beavers play at Cal next weekend in a game that feels like a must win.

UConn hosted Wake Forest after a bye week in what felt like a nice opportunity to grab a statement victory. Unfortunately the Huskies couldn’t pull it off but they were close. Outside of a game at Syracuse this was the Huskies toughest game remaining so a great season is very much still on the table, even if it may not involve reaching 10 wins.

SEC

It’s official, there’s no elite team. There was a thought that maybe Texas was the one true dominant team, and it was strange everyone (including us) assumed that Texas would crush Georgia. I began to worry about this notion when Texas’ most notable win, Michigan was crushed by Illinois. Maybe Texas was simply a paper tiger? Then Georgia rolled off to a 23-0 halftime lead and it was apparent that Texas may have built up this reputation against lessor teams. I’m still not sold on the Georgia offense, but it’s apparent their defense still has that mean streak after all.

Tennessee has been struggling miserably in recent weeks. Their offense has been shutout in the first half 3 straight games, it struggles to block and Nico Iamaleava is struggling to connect with his receivers. So when Alabama took a 7-0 lead and even started the 2nd half daring Tennessee to do anything on offense it felt like the Tide could coast to a victory, but that wasn’t the case. Tennessee established the run in the 2nd half and Alabama struggled to stop it. I’m still shocked, Alabama lost to THIS Tennessee team? Yes, they did. Alabama has 2 losses already? Yes, they do. It’s a concerning development for Alabama. Tennessee still has worries of their own, but that’s for another day. For now, Tennessee beat their hated foes and that might be all Vols fans need. With how the polls operate, there’s a good chance that’s all they needed overall to reach the playoff. Tennessee might have to take their lumps against Georgia, but their next biggest challenge outside of that game is… Vanderbilt? Tennessee has a lot of time to sort out fixable issues, look out.

Sun Belt

Late in the game last week Georgia Southern was trailing by 20 to Marshall. The Eagles got a safety and came back to win. Now they’re the last unbeaten in the East division with an authoritative win over James Madison. What a massive turnaround for Georgia Southern. They’re now 5-2 with the toughest part of their schedule behind them. Helton’s teams have been guilty of starting fast and fading late in the past, but this one feels like it has staying power.

Louisiana meanwhile, has gained further control in the Sun Belt West. The Ragin’ Cajuns faced a tough test at Coastal Carolina, but they started strong, withstood a Chanticleer challenge and finished strong to close out a key victory. Louisiana might seriously be the best team in the Sun Belt this year.

Meanwhile a Sun Belt team that carried a lot of offseason hype was Texas State, the Bobcats were expected to win the West division this year and maybe challenge for the playoff. Their playoff hopes were dashed with lost leads in close non-conference losses, but this week they suffered a disappointing conference loss. Old Dominion was always that chaos team that could get anyone at any time, and the Bobcats fell victim to them. It was actually a pretty routine effort Old Dominion grabbed the lead early and never looked back in a 24-14 win. This was a tough setback for Texas State, but it’s not the end yet. For Old Dominion this win was critical for them to try to salvage bowl eligibility after a tough start.