I spent this Saturday at the Battle of I-75, it was a lot of fun going to one of the best MACtion rivalries. It was a great game especially with a wild first half. A game in the Glass Bowl is always a great environment. Toledo has one of the bigger fanbases in the MAC. They’re situated great in a decently big city, but not too big to swallow them up amid other things to do. As for the rest of the sport, it was weekend that was short on upsets but still not lacking for intrigue.
American
Ship capsized…loose footballs sunk the Midshipmen in their biggest game of the year against Notre Dame. Losing turnovers are detrimental to Navy’s formula, especially losing 6 of them. Navy needed to bring their best for this game because Notre Dame is a clear playoff contender, but they never gave themselves that chance. It was an unfortunate way to lose because most casuals (including the playoff committee) will only remember the score of this game and assume Navy doesn’t belong.
One of the wildest endings of the day happened in Memphis. They had 3 lead changes after the 2 minute (don’t call it a) warning. Memphis ultimately prevailed 33-28. Huge survival for Memphis to remain in the race, and a tough loss for Biff Poggi’s crew. Unfortunately for Charlotte this doesn’t get any easier, they face Tulane next. If they can keep some momentum after that the schedule does ease up a bit and could allow the 49ers to make a run at a bowl.
The biggest conference game was Tulane at North Texas. Tulane did a good job of jumping all over North Texas in this one. The Green Wave got up 21-3 in the 1st quarter and never let North Texas get back within one score until the very end of the game. We learned the last 2 weeks that North Texas definitely has a good team, but they’re a defense away from being a contender.
That’s not the craziest game of the day. That honor belongs to UTSA/Tulsa. It seemed to be a routine Roadrunner blowout in the first half when they took a 35-7 lead, but the Golden Hurricane stormed all the way back in the 2nd half, scoring a TD with 1:01 left to win it. The win probability chart from this one was glorious.
ACC
One of the more exciting games entering the weekend was Pitt hosting Syracuse but this game was all Pitt from the jump. Their defense smothered the Orange with constant interceptions of Kyle McCord, 5 in total. At one point between the 3rd and 4th quarter Pat Narduzzi bemoaned the fact that his offense couldn’t get in a rhythm because the defense kept scoring. Pitt’s offense did find some rhythm early in the 4th quarter before they took out the starters. Pitt won 41-13. The Panthers are seriously a team that needs to be considered in the playoff race, it’s impressive what they keep doing. They will be tested again because…
SMU is next up. The Mustangs tried their hardest to not remain undefeated in conference play, giving up 6 turnovers to Duke including one on each of their last 3 possessions of regulation. SMU’s defense held strong despite being put in bad positions and gave up 0 points on those 6 turnovers. The game went to overtime and SMU won after stopping the 2 point conversion. We’ve seen SMU’s offense roll this year but this time they showed their defense can win the game for them too.
Mack Brown and North Carolina might be able to salvage bowl eligibility out of this season after all. The Tar Heels finally put it all together in a 41-14 blowout of Virginia in The South’s oldest rivalry. North Carolina doesn’t have a tough stretch coming up so a bowl is very possible. Wake Forest will have their eyes on them however. Wake is now 4-4 and also looking to reach a bowl. The Deacs face Cal then UNC followed by Miami FL and Duke. So their path definitely requires wins over Cal and UNC.
Big Ten
Joining the Big Ten has been a challenging road for most of the West Coast schools that killed the Pac-12 to join (especially looking at you USC and UCLA) but Oregon is a team that is thriving. The Ducks outlasted a challenge from Ohio State but are otherwise steamrolling everyone else in their path. Dan Lanning’s squad seems to be on a path to be unbeaten until the Big Ten championship, although a few road games to new environments on the East Coast still await.
The other side of the Big Ten championship will come down to how Penn State and Indiana handle upcoming games against Ohio State, but meanwhile both managed to withstand the test of their starting QBs being out. Indiana was without Kurtis Rourke but still beat Washington led by their defense and a big play on special teams. Penn State’s offensive operation has been better in the 2nd half than 1st half lately but Drew Allar getting hurt before halftime threatened that. Turns out it didn’t impact the Nittany Lions at all because they rolled to a 15 point win. It was Ohio State without any key skill position injuries that looked the most questionable. The Buckeyes offense completely stumbled in the 2nd half as they had to survive Nebraska. Injuries to the Oline could prove to be a major concern for Ohio State.
Every year early in the year it feels like it’s going to be the year where the bottom comes out for Minnesota the offense ends up simply being too bad and they fail to reach a bowl. Yet every year we reach bowl season and Minnesota is winning a bowl to seemingly reach a 9-4 record out of nowhere. Minnesota thrashed Maryland this past Saturday to move to 5-3, could they do it again? The Golden Gophers are on a 3 game win streak but some tough tests remain. Fleck has yet to beat Bret Bielema and his Illinois squad is next, plus Minnesota has to play Penn State and at Wisconsin.
Big 12
I keep thinking that UCF is going to eventually upset a contender at home and after a close win last week, plus long road trip it felt like BYU was primed to be upset. Not this BYU team, they bullied UCF from start to finish to roll to another victory. BYU continues to be one of the best stories in the sport.
Colorado hosted Cincinnati in a critical game in the Big 12 race. There were fireworks early but a relative strength met a relative weakness with Colorado generally doing a good job before halftime and Cincinnati generally struggling before halftime. Colorado got up by double digits at that point and Cincinnati couldn’t get it back within a score until late in the 4th quarter when Colorado eventually salted the game away. This game helped Colorado reach bowl eligibility. There’s a lot of new fans on the bandwagon but for the long time Buffs fans this was a huge moment worth celebrating. Not counting the weird Covid season this is the first time Colorado reached bowl eligibility since 2016. It may not match all the noise that was out there this offseason, but this improvement relative to where the program was in 2022 is very impressive.
Outside of maybe the top 4 this conference is extremely unpredictable. It feels like each week the results between the teams in this group are extremely unpredictable. We are now seeing teams such as TCU, Houston, West Virginia and Baylor who were once left for dead picking up big wins. Meanwhile Texas with lofty preseason goals Oklahoma State, Utah, Kansas and Arizona are now a combined 3-17 in conference play.
CUSA
The biggest upset of this week happened on Tuesday. Winless Kennesaw State hosted a Liberty team that was undefeated, and the Owls pulled off the upset. Kennesaw State had struggled to figure out their offense but QB Davis Bryson who had struggled previously played an excellent game and the offense ran it’s cleanest operation of the season. It’s hard to say enough to state what a great effort this was from Kennesaw State they made all the plays down the stretch. Meanwhile for Liberty they had some rust after entering the game only playing 1 game in 30+ days. The Flames need to regroup, there are many keys games ahead for the CUSA race.
Sam Houston did what they needed to remain in conference title contention. The Bearkats were up against a lot, their star QB Hunter Watson was out and of course they were against Vice Night at Pitbull stadium. The Bearkats managed to escape with a 10-7 win.
Jacksonville State continues to round into form. It wasn’t a great start for the Gamecocks but Rich Rod’s squad is getting hot at the right time. They are going to be a challenge for defenses from here on out because once they find an edge on you, they’ll absolutely exploit it to explode for points.
MAC
The Battle of I-75 is one of the most fun rivalries in College Football, Toledo of course has a rocket aimed at BG, their PA announcer called them “the other guys” all game and their student section as you could imagine had some chants as well. BG meanwhile did their talking on the field. They set the tone early with the defense forcing Toledo to a quick 3 and out, the Falcons offense then marched down the field for an opening drive score. Toledo threatened to take the lead before halftime but a Bowling Green defender jumped the route and took it back for a pick 6 to put the Falcons up 11 at that point. Toledo mounted another challenge in the 3rd quarter but Bowling Green responded yet again, this time for good to take the game over with 13 unanswered points. It was a massive win for the Falcons who remain in the thick of MAC championship race, but Toledo now finds themselves with 2 conferences losses. The Rockets now must win out and get some help to win the MAC.
MACtion didn’t just exist in the Battle of I-75, it popped off elsewhere as well. There were some separating blowouts with Ohio, Miami and Western Michigan winning big but there were some wild games. The Battle of the Bronze Stalk saw 2 lead changes in the last 15 SECONDS! Northern Illinois kicked a FG to try to escape with a win, but Ball State managed to get into FG range themselves and their kicker nailed a 51-yarder to give the Cardinals a massive win. Akron meanwhile took a surprising 18-0 lead into halftime on Eastern Michigan, but it seemed the Zips were going to once again fail to bring it home after Eastern Michigan responded by scoring 21 unanswered in the 2nd half. Yet it was Akron that made the plays that mattered most, the Zips scored a TD to take a 25-21 lead then stopped the Eagles in their territory twice in the waning minutes of the game.
Mountain West
One of the biggest games of the weekend was Boise State playing at UNLV on Friday night. It was a game that would set the tone for the Mountain West and UNLV was ready for the challenge. The Rebels started fast and it was clear they were going to sell out to stop Jeanty. Jeanty somehow still had a decent game, but UNLV’s strategy really helped other parts of Boise State’s team to shine. The Broncos defense is extremely aggressive and it did leave them vulnerable to some big plays but their defensive line was absolutely relentless and it wore down the UNLV Oline as the game went on, they ended with 6 sacks. Maddux Madsen isn’t ever going to be Kellen Moore but he doesn’t have to be, he made some good decisions throughout the game including taking off for some good runs when the middle of the field opened up for him. He made some good throws to his TEs in particular to keep the Broncos offense moving and most importantly he didn’t turn the ball over. It was a tough close loss for UNLV. They were extremely fun to watch, Hajj-Malik Williams made some big plays, but made one critical mistake in throwing a pick before halftime. Games like this are the smallest of margins but he will learn, I fully expect UNLV to get another shot at Boise State in the Mountain West championship and they have a solid shot at making the playoff if they win the rematch.
Fresno State had struggled in recent weeks entering a big game against San Jose State but this time the Bulldogs responded. They absolutely crushed the Spartans from start to finish in a 33-10 victory. Fresno State keeps an outside shot at a MWC title with this impressive win. San Jose State will need to rebound from this one, they suffered a couple tough losses but this is truly the first time they got run off the field this year.
Colorado State showed their momentum isn’t just coming from the offense, their defense is playing great as well. The Rams shut down New Mexico’s offense in a way that no one has this year on their way to a 17-6.
San Diego State is another team that has improved as the year went on. This team they hosted a great Washington State team in an extremely sandy Snapdragon Stadium. The Aztecs were so very close to a massive victory but this is still a young team led by a young QB in Danny O’Neill. He generally has taken care of the ball well but he saved only his 2nd interception of the year for a very unfortunate moment. The Aztecs were on the verge of getting back up by multiple scores late in the 4th quarter but the pick and long return set up the go ahead TD for Washington State.
Pac-12/Independents
As mentioned above, Washington State was in a tough battle on a very sandy field but John Mateer is a gamer and he managed to make the plays when needed to help the Cougs win. Washington State is now 7-1 with their only loss to Boise State. This is a very impressive team.
Oregon State meanwhile is having a rough go of it. They’re now on a 3 game losing streak and things truly hit a breaking point in a 44-7 blowout loss to Cal. Oregon State will get a much needed bye week to try to right the ship, they have a lot of challenges remaining so missing a bowl is a concern for them.
UConn had a tough battle with Rice but the Huskies prevailed 17-10. It was a critical win for them as we are now a game away from Bowl eligible UConn!! UMass meanwhile finally had a routine victory in a 35-7 win over Wagner. The Minutemen needed something to feel good because their last 4 games are very rough.
SEC
It felt like LSU was a paper tiger team all season, they were fortunate in some wins and lost to a USC team that isn’t good. In the 2nd half the Tigers finally got exposed against Texas A&M, the Aggies made a QB change going back to Marcel Reed and LSU had no answer for his running ability. Likewise it was a huge 2nd half for Texas A&M. The Aggies remain unbeaten in SEC play and now their remaining games are At South Carolina, New Mexico State, at Auburn and…the Big one at home against Texas.
It was never expected but Texas at Vanderbilt was actually a competitive game. The Longhorns grabbed an early lead and never looked back, but Vanderbilt hung in and made the Longhorns work for it. This isn’t your usual Vandy team.
Sun Belt
The biggest Sun Belt game of the week got a big stage when it was on Thursday night. Georgia Southern traveled to Old Dominion with their eyes on taking over the East division completely, but the Monarchs had other ideas. Old Dominion absolutely destroyed the Eagles 47-19, it was their first truly complete effort at a fantastic time. Now they have control of the East division. Freshman QB Colton Joseph brought the offense to life, his mobility is a dangerous threat but he’s a dangerous passer too.
It was a huge question of whether it could happen after Hurricane Helene left Boone, NC flooded, but Appalachian State was able to host their first home game since that disaster. The Mountaineers were in a back and forth battle with Georgia State but managed to close the game out strong to win it. It was a great effort that helped provide a distraction for the community.
South Alabama faced UL Monroe with a shot to put themselves in the thick of the race for the West division. The Jaguars dominated the game on the ground to win big. For UL-Monroe this was a tough setback. The Warhawks have a tougher Sun Belt schedule coming up so they’ll need to put this rough game behind them to get to bowl eligibility.
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