College football Week 8 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 8 Roundup
Rankings AP | Coaches | CFN 1-127 Rankings
College Football Playoff Chase | Week 9 Early Lines
Bowl Projections | Week 8 Scoreboard, Predictions
20 Most Important College Football Thoughts Ever
Week 9 College Football Schedule
5. Winners & Losers From Week 8
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 8
Winner: Big Ten new guy, Rutgers version
Well, welcome back, Greg Schiano. Rutgers hadn’t bothered to win a Big Ten football game since the middle of 2017 – the victory over Maryland was the last win over any Power Five program – going 3-24 since then. Schiano returned to the program he helped build up from 2001 to 2011 and beat Michigan State 38-27 with just 276 yards of total offense.
Loser: Big Ten new guy, Michigan State version
Mel Tucker took over a Michigan State program that needed a new energy and a few new ideas. His defense did the job against Rutgers, but seven turnovers later, this wasn’t exactly how he wanted to kick things off with road games at Michigan and Iowa up next.
Winner: Big Ten championship-level quarterbacks
Ohio State and Wisconsin played in last year’s Big Ten Championship, and they’re the odds-on favorites to meet again this season. Assuming all goes okay health-wise – more on that in a moment – the two likely starting quarterbacks combined to hit 40-of-42 passes for 524 yards and seven touchdowns and no interceptions in their respective wins. Ohio State’s Justin Fields went off on Nebraska – he ran for a score, too – and the night before, Wisconsin’s Graham Mertz was even better in the win over Illinois.
Loser: Maryland
Northwestern 43, Maryland 3. The Terps took a 3-0 lead early, and allowed 43 unanswered points and 517 yards of total Wildcat offense. The Maryland attack generated a mere 207 yards, turned it over four times, and couldn’t get much of anything to work quite right. Alabama transfer Taulia Tagovailoa – Tua’s brother – threw for 94 yards and three picks.
Winner: QB TJ Finley, LSU
The rough start to the season had absolutely nothing to do with QB Myles Brennan. He was hurt, though, and couldn’t go against South Carolina, so in stepped freshman TJ Finley. He hit 17-of-21 passes for 265 yards and ate touchdowns with a pick and a rushing score in the 52-24 win.
Loser: Pitt backup quarterbacks
Pitt quarterbacks don’t play defense, but they didn’t help out the other side by failing to keep the offense moving. In the brutal 45-3 loss to Notre Dame, the Panther passing game – without injured starter Kenny Pickett – got a combined 12-of-33 day for 118 yards and three interceptions out of three quarterbacks.
Winner: Cincinnati
And now it’s Cincinnati’s New Year’s Six bowl slot for the taking. Despite rising up into the top ten in the polls – they don’t matter, the College Football Playoff ones do when they come out in late November – it’s not really in the playoff chase. However, the 42-13 win at SMU put on a national show on both sides of the ball, highlighted by the 179-yard, three-touchdown rushing day from QB Desmond Ridder.
Loser: Kansas
With the 55-14 loss to Kansas State, Kansas has now started the season 0-5, getting outscored 225-75. The 15-point loss to Coastal Carolina to kick things off was as close as the team has been able to get. Going back to last year, under Les Miles, KU has lost nine in a row and 14 of the last 15, with 12 of those losses by double digit blowouts.
Winner: QB Dillon Gabriel, UCF
All the UCF sophomore has done so far is lead the nation with over 430 yards per game with 19 touchdown passes and two interceptions. He followed up his 601-yard, five-touchdown day against Memphis with 422 yard and five more scores in the win over Tulane. Next up? Houston.
Loser: Florida International
0-26. That’s what FCS teams were against FBS teams this season, and then Jacksonville State came into Riccardo Silva Stadium, got up 16-3 on the Golden Panthers, and held on for a 19-10 win and the first bit of fun to be had by any FCS team so far this year. The 0-3 Panthers managed just 156 yards of total offense with six first downs.
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 8
NEXT: The really big thing was …
4. The Really Big Thing Was …
The Big Ten is playing football again.
Maybe you’re old enough to remember a time when parents were protesting outside of Big Ten headquarters.
Kevin Warren was the worst commissioner in the history of leaders, the multi-billion dollar Big Ten’s feelings were hurt after the scorn and ridicule on social media, there was a phone call from a president, recruits were going to stop coming to the conference, there were hashtags with sayings about playing, and …
The Big Ten kicked off a college football season, and despite everything going on in the real world, it actually was fun. And that’s supposed to be the point.
Put aside everything else for a second – how much of a blast was it to get worked up over something stupid like an inexcusably bad missed call in the Indiana – Penn State game?
How amazing was it to watch Justin Fields hit 20-of-21 passes as Ohio State beat Nebraska?
Michigan and Minnesota played in the cold of all-things-cliche Big Ten football weather, Purdue’s win over Iowa was exciting, Rutgers won a game thanks to 193 Michigan State turnovers, Northwestern found an offense in the blowout win over Maryland, and Wisconsin was totally dominant in the Friday night 45-7 win over Illinois.
It all started as the college football world was introduced to Graham Mertz, the Badger quarterback who torched the NFL-defensive coached Fighting Illini for a 20-of-21 day with the one misfire a dropped pass, and …
2020 decided to have its say on Sunday night as word came out that Mertz tested positive for COVID-19. He needs to be tested again to see if he’s okay – of course, the only thing that matters – or to see if it was a true positive meaning he’ll have to sit out for 21 days.
Oh, this will be one interesting next eight weeks of Big Ten football.
– Winners & Losers From Week 8
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 8
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
3. The Most Overrated Thing Was …
Alabama beat Tennessee 48-17.
Not everything is a new normal in 2020.
It’s been a painfully one-sided rivalry since Bama last lost in 2006, and no one was expecting all that much considering the Vols had lost two straight in blowouts to Georgia and Kentucky, but …
It’s Alabama vs. Tennessee. It was the biggest game of the day outside of the Big Ten, and it was just so … predictable.
Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt wanted to make a slew of defensive changes after his team gave up 78 points over the previous two games, and his D did keep Bama from throwing a touchdown pass.
It allowed 417 yards through the air and five rushing touchdowns, though.
The Tide got down close to the goal line enough for three touchdown runs in the first 23 minutes, and two more touchdown runs and a defensive score make it 42-10 in the third.
The game was bad, and the season-ending injury to Alabama star WR Jaylen Waddle on the opening kickoff was even worse. He’s expected to be fine, and he’ll go on to have a great NFL career, but the injury cast a pall over the first half.
Alabama came in, cranked up 587 yards of total offense, beat Tennessee again, and now it’s on to Mississippi State, just like this was a normal day at the Saturday office.
It’s Alabama vs. Tennessee. At some point, it needs to be a big, giant deal again.
– Winners & Losers From Week 8
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 8
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
2. The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Hey, everyone. The Mountain West started up its season, too.
The Big Ten got all of the love and attention. It stunk that there weren’t any Mountain West weeknight games, and the opening Saturday all happened late at night for a bulk of the nation – all while an epic World Series game was unfolding – but the Mountain West is still a big deal.
Coastal Carolina might have a shot at the Group of Five’s New Year’s Six slot from the Sun Belt, but one loss ruins that. Forget about the MAC – not enough games – and Conference USA won’t get a team in if and when Marshall ever loses. But it might come down to the Thundering Herd, Cincinnati from the American Athletic Conference, and the Mountain West champ to get that high-profile bowl game.
Welcome to Boise State and San Diego State.
Boise State looked and played the part in a dominant win over Utah State. San Diego State was wonderful – hey, an Aztec offense! – in Brady Howe’s first game back as the head man with a win over UNLV.
San Jose State shocked an Air Force team that trucked Navy a few weeks ago. Hawaii got a win under new head coach Todd Graham over Fresno State, and Nevada and Wyoming played an overtime thriller with the Wolf Pack coming through.
However, the league received almost no respect in the polls, and there wasn’t enough attention nationally in an opening Saturday that should’ve been celebrated. Change that this week.
There’s a Thursday night game – Colorado State at Fresno State – and Hawaii and Wyoming play on Friday. For the investment crowd that’s chasing on Saturday night, the other four games start a 6:00 ET, with Boise State at Air Force sure to be a thing.
– Winners & Losers From Week 8
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 8
NEXT: What It All Means: Week 8
1. What It All Means: Week 8
Are you ready for the truly weird?
The 2020 college football season is half over.
The Big Ten and Mountain West just started, and the Pac-12 and MAC are on their way, so it feels like we’re getting this rolling, but yeah, timing-wise, we’re past the halfway mark.
Colleges are on fire with coronavirus cases, things nationally are getting worse, and even though teams are still fighting through issues big and small, the season has pushed through with no sign of stopping.
Take a moment and be amazed that we got here – for good and bad – considering that in mid-August it seemed like there was no shot of any of this happening, especially in the Big Ten and Pac-12.
Consider the cocktail of the miraculous, reckless, responsible, and totally insane that had to be shaken up to have something even remotely resembling a football season.
Rankings AP | Coaches | CFN 1-127 Rankings
College Football Playoff Chase | Week 9 Early Lines
Bowl Projections | Week 8 Scoreboard, Predictions
20 Most Important College Football Thoughts Ever
Week 9 College Football Schedule
There’s no bubble. There’s no isolation. There are players who are living, learning and breathing around and among their fellow classmates, and the games are going on with – as far as we can tell – as well-tested and as safe a gathering of people found anywhere. At least, that goes for on the field. The stands in some places are a whole other thing.
With that said, don’t think this all can’t flip on a dime.
If you want a second half of the college football season, we have to hope that everyone involved is even more careful than they were in the first half, especially right now.
We’re at the halfway point and conferences and teams are ramping up, not shutting down. Programs aren’t ditching college football even as many colleges are all but closing school as any college student would normally know it. And the truly strange part? It’s all seemingly … normal?
Oh, okay, (insert two random schools here) won’t be playing this week because one team had a flare-up of cases? What time does Alabama play on Saturday?
It’s possible that Wisconsin’s new superstar quarterback might be positive after a weekend test? That’s awful – who’s the backup for the Nebraska game?
Think about where this all was back in the middle of the summer. If you were told that Florida vs. LSU would have to be postponed, and over 30 games had to be all but cancelled, and NICK FREAKING SABAN would get this, you’d have assumed we’d be taking a year off while preparing for 2021.
Nope. They’re still playing college football.
As long as the players are tested and medically supervised, is college football a desperately needed distraction and rallying point? Just how safe are the players? How icky is it to be cheering for a team playing a sport when there’s so much pain and destruction happening as we speak?
There will be more big games, there will be a Heisman winner, there will be bowl games, there will be a College Football Playoff …
Maybe.
We got through half of the season. Don’t take for granted just how massive an effort it’ll require during the next few months to get through the other half safely and responsibly.
– Winners & Losers From Week 8
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
