College football Week 9 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 9 Roundup
Rankings AP | Coaches | CFN 1-127 Rankings
College Football Playoff Chase | Week 10 Early Lines
Bowl Projections | Week 9 Scoreboard, Predictions
20 Most Important College Football Thoughts Ever
Week 10 College Football Schedule
5. Winners & Losers From Week 9
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 9
Winner: QB Taulia Tagovailoa, Maryland
While big brother Tua was busy preparing for his first NFL start – a win over the Rams – Taulia pulled off an epic comeback 45-44 overtime win over Minnesota. He got past the miserable three-interception, 94-yard day in the blowout loss to Northwestern to completed 74% of his passes for 394 yards and three touchdowns, and he ran for two scores.
Loser: Minnesota
The Gophers were up 38-21 going into the fourth quarter and gave up 24 straight points before scoring a TD in overtime and losing on a missed extra point. After two games, 0-2 Minnesota – who finished third in the Big Ten last year in total defense allowing 307 yards per game – is dead last in the conference in total D by a mile.
Winner: QB Justin Fields, Ohio State
48-of-55 (87%) for 594 yards and six touchdowns with no picks and a rushing touchdown in blowout wins over Nebraska and Penn State. That’s how you start a season for a team with national championship aspirations.
Loser: Georgia’s offense
The five interceptions and 50% passing in the last two games from Stetson Bennett doesn’t help, but the offense as a whole hasn’t been good enough. This is a national championship-caliber team dealing with Florida this week, and it’s seventh in the SEC in total O.
Winner: Virginia Tech running game
The Hokies are the only Power Five team in the top nine in rushing yards per game averaging 291 every time out. They might have problems in shootout after shootout, but after taking off for five touchdowns in the win over Louisville, they’re 4-0 when running for 283 yards or more, and 0-2 when coming up with fewer.
Loser: North Carolina’s run defense
Virginia Tech ran for 260 yards and four touchdowns. Florida State ripped off 241 yards and two scores, and last Saturday, Virginia cranked out 210 yards and three touchdowns. The Tar Heels were able to get by the Hokies, but they lost on the road to the Seminoles and Cavaliers.
Winner: WR Romeo Doubs, Nevada
The 6-2, 200-pound junior caught 44 passes for 649 yards and four touchdowns last year. In just two games he has 18 catches for 328 yards and two touchdowns after tearing up Wyoming on the mid-range plays and UNLV on the deep ones. He currently leads the nation with 164 receiving yards per game. Next up his Wolf Pack play …
Loser: Utah State offense
There are several good parts to the Aggie offensive mix, and to be fair, they all had to work against Boise State and San Diego State over the first two games. However, the offense is the worst in college football by anyone with more than one game played – UMass is technically at the bottom – with just 418 yard and 20 points in the first two games.
Winner: QB Grayson McCall, Coastal Carolina
He wasn’t expected to play against Georgia State, but he got the all-clear, and then he went off hitting 18-of-24 passes for 254 yards and four touchdowns with a rushing score in the 51-0 win.
Loser: Memphis pass defense
And it’s not even close. Among teams that played more than one game, Memphis is dead last in the nation in pass defense allowing 406 yards per game. The second-worst? That Georgia State defense McCall just carved up, but it’s allowing 56 fewer passing yards per outing.
The 271 yards given up by the Tigers in the 49-10 loss to Cincinnati were the fewest allowed by the team all year, but Desmond Ridder averaged well over ten yards per throw with three touchdowns. Fortunately, the passing-challenged USF Bulls are up next.
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 9
NEXT: The really big thing was …
4. The Really Big Thing Was …
The Big Ten race is going to be super-funky – at least outside of the big dog up top.
Michigan looked and played like a real, live top contender against Minnesota to start the season, and Michigan State got trucked by fricking Rutgers.
You’re almost certainly full of hoo-ha if you saw Michigan State going from being a 20ish point underdog to actually winning in Ann Arbor on Saturday.
After the first weekend it looked like Maryland would give Kansas a big push for Worst Power Five Team In The World honors, and then the offense was unstoppable late with an epic comeback to beat Minnesota.
So now what?
No, 2-0 Indiana isn’t going to win the East, and 2-0 Purdue isn’t going to win the West, and 2-0 Northwestern is … maybe.
Northwestern might just have the team and the path to get back to the Big Ten Championship for the second time in three years after its win over Iowa.
No, Michigan isn’t totally out of it. It can still run the table, but that loss to MSU and the problems with the running game and secondary weren’t a plus.
No, Penn State isn’t going to rebound from its bad start to win the Big Ten, but it’s better than it gets credit for considering it’s a millimeter against Indiana from being 1-1 and still alive for a whole slew of big things.
Iowa and Minnesota went from being sneaky-interesting contenders for the Big Ten West to all but done, and then there’s the Wisconsin problem. It’s almost certainly the best team in the division by a mile, but can it even field a healthy team going forward?
If the Badgers don’t get fine fast, then in the span of just nine days the Big Ten race is over.
The Big Ten championship matchup is set. It’s between Ohio State vs. not suffering an outbreak of the coronavirus.
– Winners & Loses From Week 9
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 9
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
3. The Most Overrated Thing Was …
North Carolina in the discussion for who’s No. 2 in the ACC.
At this point, take 11 ACC teams – leaving out Clemson and Notre Dame on top, and Syracuse and Duke down low – throw them all in a bag, pick one out, and you probably have a winning team for that week.
I know it took a fantastic comeback by Clemson to get by Boston College, and DJ Uiagalelei was outstanding, but that’s on you if you didn’t see the avalanche coming in the second half.
Clemson does that once in a while. It has a bad game in 2019 against North Carolina here, and issues with Syracuse in 2018 and 2017 there, and a loss to 2016 Pitt, and a miraculous fight with NC State in 2015, and then it ends up winning the ACC Championship.
While all that was happening, Notre Dame had a polite scrimmage against Georgia Tech.
The two stars did what they needed to do – more on that in a later section –
Miami is okay, but it already got rocked by Clemson and it hasn’t exactly been scintillating.
This week, Virginia Tech once again struggled, but it got by Louisville.
North Carolina lost to a vastly inferior team for the second time in three weeks, showing the defeat to Florida State was no fluke with the puzzling performance on Saturday against Virginia.
There’s still time for the Tar Heels, and Hokies, and Hurricanes, and NC State Wolfpack, and Wake Forest to catch fire, catch a few breaks, and end up in Charlotte with a shot at the title, but we’ve got our top two teams in a vastly improved – and a very enjoyable – ACC.
Time is quickly running out on the ACC season, but that’s okay. If we get a Trevor Lawrence-led Clemson vs. Notre Dame in a rematch of whatever happens this weekend in South Bend, that’s fine.
– Winners & Loses From Week 9
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 9
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
2. The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Texas A&M and Auburn won in easy blowouts.
Alabama is winning the West unless there’s a total meltdown, but as I’ve been saying for the past few weeks, watch out for Texas A&M to possibly sneak into the playoff discussion.
If the Aggies get to 9-1 with the only loss coming to an Alabama team that rips through the SEC on the way to a championship and a 1 or 2 seed in the College Football Playoff, and with their win over Florida, good luck with any argument against them being the 4.
The team isn’t that great, but don’t be fooled by the 42-31 final score against Arkansas – it was a good win after being in control early.
If the Aggies are good enough to even think about the CFP, they need to take down South Carolina and Tennessee on the road and rip through Ole Miss and LSU at home.
And then they get the showdown at Auburn.
Dog Auburn all you want for the loss to South Carolina along with the monster breaks to get by both Ole Miss and Arkansas, but it’s 4-2 after destroying LSU 48-11. That Tiger team was coming off an impressive performance against the Gamecocks, and AU ruined it by picking a great time to come up with its best game of the season.
It might be too late to win the SEC West, but after Mississippi State and Tennessee, it gets Alabama on the road and A&M at home.
The road to the College Football Playoff – at least in some way – really might go through the Tigers.
– Winners & Loses From Week 9
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 9
NEXT: What It All Means: Week 9
1. What It All Means: Week 9
We got here, and now it’s on …
Hopefully.
Let’s just presume, hope, and seriously pray that everything is still standing and we all at least sort of like one another after whatever happens over the next several days.
Again, assuming everything real world and college football-wise goes off without a hitch, we’re getting the games we all so desperately need to take the edge off, if at least for a little while.
This last Saturday worked out just fine to give us what we all wanted for this coming weekend.
Boise State was able to get past Air Force with no problem, and BYU handled WKU as expected. That means the weekend starts – after the MAC has its say on Wednesday night and the Mountain West has a few games on Thursday – with a potential play-in game for a New Year’s Six bowl between the Broncos and Cougars.
The Trevor Lawrence news was awful, and it stinks that he’s not playing against Notre Dame, but DJ Uiagalelei got his first start and was more than just okay.
In the making lemonade way to look at the Boston College game, Uiagalelei proved he could handle the pressure – better at home for that first start than in South Bend – and Clemson got the win.
Notre Dame did its part with an almost perfect performance over Georgia Tech. Now the showdown is on.
Rankings AP | Coaches | CFN 1-127 Rankings
College Football Playoff Chase | Week 10 Early Lines
Bowl Projections | Week 9 Scoreboard, Predictions
20 Most Important College Football Thoughts Ever
Week 10 College Football Schedule
Florida literally had a fight with Missouri, but in the game itself there wasn’t any problem. Georgia beat Kentucky 14-3 in an instant memory dump game, but now the two are ready to roll for – what should be – the battle for the SEC East title in Jacksonville.
We get those three monster games. We get the start of the Pac-12. We get that MAC Wednesday night. We get Michigan playing against a 2-0 Indiana team that hasn’t won in the series since 1987. We might get 2-0 Purdue at Wisconsin if everything checks out.
Houston and Cincinnati should put on an offensive show. Oklahoma State and Kansas State are playing to see who wants to stay alive in the Big 12 title chase. We get Liberty as an unbeaten and ranked team going to Virginia Tech in a game worth paying attention to.
This is it. This is the weekend. This is when all the conferences are going. Back in August, this is the slate of games we never thought would happen.
Take a deep breath, get through the next few days, and no matter what happens, your escape should be on its way this weekend.
– Winners & Loses From Week 9
– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
