College football Week 7 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, and what it all means.
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College Football Week 7 Roundup
Rankings AP | Coaches | CFN 1-127 Rankings
College Football Playoff Chase, Who’s Alive?
Bowl Projections | Week 7 Scoreboard, Predictions
5. Winners & Losers From Week 7
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 7
Winner: SEC streak-enders
Kentucky beat Tennessee 17-12 back in 1984. That was the last time the Wildcats won in Knoxville and are now 3-33 overall in the series since then with a 34-7 win over the Vols.
While that was happening, South Carolina got by Auburn 30-22. The last time those two played was back in 2014, and the last time the Gamecocks beat the Tigers was … 1933, 16-14. USC had never beaten Auburn in Columbia.
Loser: The first half of SEC Mississippi games
Ole Miss ripped through Alabama two weeks ago. This last weekend? It was down 20-0 at halftime to Arkansas in the 33-21 loss. Mississippi State was down 14-0 to Texas A&M at halftime, and didn’t get its first offensive score – it came up with a pick six in the third – until the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs have now managed just seven points in the first halves of their last three games.
Winner: North Texas offense
In the 52-35 win over Middle Tennessee, QB Jason Bean threw for 181 yards and two scores and ran for a game-high 169 yards and three touchdowns. The team ripped through the Blue Raiders for 768 yards of total offense with 306 though the air and 462 on the ground.
Loser: Duke ball security
The mistakes just aren’t stopping. The Duke defense hasn’t been bad at taking the ball away, but the offense has turned it over 22 times in just six games. NC State came up with three interceptions in the 31-20 win, making this the fourth time in five games the Blue Devils turned it over three times or more.
Winner: Virginia Tech rushing offense
No. 2 in the nation behind Air Force – who only played one game – in rushing yards per game, the Virginia Tech ground attack is averaging 312 yards with 15 scores. In the 40-14 win over Boston College, the Hokies came up with their third 300-yard rushing day of the season with 250 yards and four scores.
Loser: Mississippi State rushing offense
Mike Leach offenses are at least supposed to be productive on the ground when they try to run. It didn’t help that star RB Kylin Hill was out against Texas A&M, but now the Bulldogs are dead last in the nation in rushing, averaging 1.54 yards per carry with just 114 yards. They averaging 28.5 yards per game on the ground – ULM is the second-worst team averaging 56.2 yards.
Winner: QB Dillon Gabriel, UCF and QB Brady White, Memphis
All Gabriel did against Memphis was throw for 601 yards and six touchdowns, and run for 49 yards and a score … and lose.
All White did was throw for 486 yards and six touchdowns, and run for 39 yards and a score … and win.
In all, UCF and Memphis combined for 1,501 yards of total offense in the 50-49 Tiger win.
Loser: UMass Minutemen
UMass wasn’t going to play this year, and then the independent decided to give it a go with a flexible schedule. It all started against Georgia Southern, and … 41-0. The Minutemen came up with 191 total yards – most of them late – couldn’t get a first down early on, and got hammered by the Eagles for 309 rushing yards.
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 7
NEXT: The really big thing was …
4. The Really Big Thing Was …
It’s Clemson, it’s Alabama, and now let’s see what Ohio State brings to the fun.
Lather, rinse, repeat on the college football world for the last few years, but all this weekend did was show that the top two teams in college football are just that much better than everyone else.
They’re more talented, they’ve got the better infrastructure, and they are who they are for a reason. Again, Ohio State is about to enter that discussion once it gets going, but considering how bad LSU and Oklahoma were to kick things off this year, let’s not automatically give the Buckeyes the benefit of the doubt just yet.
Alabama’s defense was shaky for the first few games of the season and couldn’t do much of anything right against Ole Miss.
It sure as shoot clamped down when it had to in the second half in the 41-24 win.
Clemson hasn’t played a who’s who of killers so far, but it ripped apart Miami two weeks ago, and just to show that it’s not playing around, it put that 73 burger on a not-that-awful Georgia Tech.
Both of these teams lost a ton of talent to the 2020 NFL Draft. Both of these teams have had to deal with various issues on, off the field, and with the coronavirus. Both of these programs just keep on marching.
How good are these two? Did you see Notre Dame’s 12-7 win over a bad Louisville team? If that’s the No. 3 team in college football right now, and if Oklahoma State – who hasn’t done much of anything other than beat Tulsa, West Virginia and Kansas – is the sixth-best team in college football, then Clemson and Alabama belong on the moon when ranked compared to the rest of the pack – again, with the Ohio State caveat thrown in there.
That’s not to say this is a done deal.
Of course Clemson could slip along the way vs. Notre Dame or against a very, very dangerous Virginia Tech squad – both games are on the road.
Of course the Alabama team that still has to tighten up defensively could get caught flat-footed by LSU on the road if that whole thing steps it up, or against Tennessee this week if something goes weird in Knoxville, but it’s going to take something insane to tag either of these two twice.
No one has been able to get to Clemson twice in the regular season since 2014, and with all due respect to how good Mac Jones has been, the injury to Tua Tagovailoa was the only real reason why the Tide were beaten twice in the regular season last year for the first time since 2010.
It doesn’t look like either of these teams can be beaten twice before the College Football Playoff this year, either. And in 2020, don’t take that for granted – it’s a potentially special accomplishment by these two special teams.
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
3. The Most Overrated Thing Was …
Georgia starting quarterback Stetson Bennett.
It’s totally not fair to pin Georgia’s 41-24 to Alabama on him, and this doesn’t mean the College Football Playoff dream is over for the program, but the offense needed an elite quarterback performance on Saturday night, and it didn’t get it.
He’s an absolutely wonderful story.
Bennett dreamed all his life of playing quarterback for Georgia, walked on, had no chance of playing, went the JUCO route, returned, and he worked his way into the starting job after Jake Fromm left early for the NFL, Jamie Newman opted out, JT Daniels wasn’t ready yet with an injured knee, and D’Wan Mathis struggled against Arkansas.
Bennett came through in the second half against the Hogs – which looks a whole lot better now than it did at the time – was terrific in a win over Auburn, and was strong against Tennessee.
Stetson Bennett starting to look like the fourth-stringer he was supposed to be.
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) October 18, 2020
The good 2.5 games he played to start the season – along with his wonderful story – made him the a big media thing leading up to the game with Alabama, and then ….
18-of-40 for 269 yards and two touchdowns with three interceptions – and no Bulldog points in the second half.
Again, it’s really not all his fault considering the Dawg defense got lit up for 417 passing yards and the game plan didn’t rely enough on the running game, but Clemson has Trevor Lawrence. Alabama has Mac Jones – who has been beyond brilliant so far.
Ohio State has Justin Fields, Florida’s Kyle Trask is on a 2019 Joe Burrow-like pace, and even Notre Dame has a longtime veteran in Ian Book at quarterback.
Bennett will get his chances to shine at Kentucky in two weeks and with the showdown against Florida to follow. He’s still learning, he’s still getting his at-bats, and the team around him will have to be better.
But if Georgia is going to win the national championship – and it absolutely has the talent to do it – it’s going to need its guy under center to keep up the pace.
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
2. The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Virginia Tech 40, Boston College 14.
Just … be careful.
Clemson is Clemson.
Everyone loves North Carolina because Mack Brown is a neat guy, and then it all came to a dead stop against Florida State.
Everyone loved Miami, and then it had to go deal with Clemson.
Notre Dame is supposedly the third-best team in college football right now according to the latest polls, but no one who actually watched whatever the hell that was against Louisville believes for a second that the ranking is right.
Virginia Tech might be that second-best team in the ACC when the season is over, if it’s not Notre Dame.
The Hokies were never quite right over the first few weeks of the season, with a whole slew of reserves out with virus-related issues, including star QB Hendon Hooker. That included two weeks ago in the 56-45 loss to North Carolina, but all that game did was show the potential of what Virginia Tech could be once it’s fully healthy.
Game Rewind 🔄
All the best from our win vs. Boston College! #HardHatMentality 👷🏽♂️ pic.twitter.com/301YJHps7D
— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) October 19, 2020
It’s not there yet, but it sure showed more of what November might look like with five takeaways, 350 rushing yards, and a monster day from Hooker in the blowout win over BC.
All he did was hit 11-of-15 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, and run 18 times for 164 yards and three scores.
Wake Forest is better than you might think, and that’s up next on the road. Louisville is a must-win for any team that’s even thinking about playing in the ACC Championship, and then four of the last five games are in Blacksburg including dates with Miami and Clemson.
The loss to North Carolina might come back to bite the Hokies if Notre Dame only loses once along the way to Clemson, but if Hooker continues to do this, and if the team becomes what it was supposed to be when all the analysis was first done this offseason …
Just … be careful.
NEXT: What It All Means: Week 7
1. What It All Means: Week 7
Through all of the discussions and concerns before the season over the coronavirus and what was going to happen once college campuses opened up, there was one scenario that didn’t seem to get a whole lot of thought.
What if colleges really couldn’t make it all work and college football just kept going?
There have been problems with some programs here and there, but this was the first week when it was hammered home hard that college football is going to play through a global pandemic and not slow anything down.
Rankings AP | Coaches | CFN 1-127 Rankings
College Football Playoff Chase, Who’s Alive?
Bowl Projections | Week 7 Scoreboard, Predictions
Nick Saban tested positive. And then he didn’t. And then he didn’t again, And then he didn’t again. And then it became a breaking news flash every 15 seconds when it was announced that he was returning to the sidelines for the Georgia game.
Baylor was hammered by positive cases, causing the Oklahoma State game to be delayed. Baylor is practicing again.
Les Miles tested positive and wasn’t able to travel with the team, and Kansas went on to get roasted by West Virginia.
LSU vs. Tulsa wasn’t able to go, so TV adjusted and Texas A&M vs. Mississippi State got a bigger spotlight.
Cincinnati and Tulsa didn’t happen, and the AAC showdown between Memphis and UCF became more important.
In all, six games weren’t able to be played on Saturday because of outbreaks, and the college football season just steamrolled on.
The Big Ten was the big, splashy holdout this offseason, and now it’s about to start its season on Friday. And Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm tested positive this weekend.
The Mountain West is also about to get going this week, and the Pac-12 and MAC will soon follow.
There will be less wiggle room going forward with the scheduling, no margin for error, and there will be a whole lot more cancellations and outbreaks over the second half of the season.
And as this week proved, college football will still be played.
– Winners & Losers From Week 7
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
