The Week 13 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.
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College Football Week 13 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 14 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– Playoff Rankings Projection
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
– Big Ten Quick Thoughts
– Arizona State 31, Oregon 28: What It Means
Week 13 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
5. Winners & Losers From Week 12
Winner: FIU
Raise your hand if you saw this coming.
Former Miami head coach Butch Davis was having a disappointing season.
His Florida International team was destroyed 50-17 by a Middle Tennessee squad that lost to previously winless Rice. FIU followed it up with a tough 24-17 fight over an awful Old Dominion team, and got rolled by Florida Atlantic 37-7. At 5-5, and with Miami and at Marshall to close, the season appeared to be over, and then …
FIU 30, Miami 24.
The Golden Panthers were flagged 14 times, but they were +3 in turnover margin, survived 21 fourth quarter points by the Canes, and now … they’re going bowling.
Loser: San Jose State
The chance was there for this to be a wonderful breakthrough season for the Spartans. They started out 3-2 and stunned Army a few weeks later, but they lost five of their last six games. The regular season finale at home against Fresno State appeared to be set up as a big chance to get to six wins and bowl eligibility, but on Saturday … UNLV 38, San Jose State 35.
4-7 San Jose State suffered another losing season.
Winner: QB Kedon Slovis, USC
Is this good? In the last five games, four 400-yard passing games with four touchdown throws in each, a 515-yard day to beat arch-rival UCLA, and helping USC to win five of its last six games in a true freshman season? However, this might be a problem for …
Loser: Those who want Clay Helton gone
There will be certain departures to the next level and elsewhere, but there’s only one senior – Michael Pittman – among the 13 players who caught a pass for USC this season. The top five running backs are all juniors are younger, there’s just one senior on the O line, 12 of the top 13 tacklers are underclassmen, and Slovis is returning at quarterback.
If Clay Helton isn’t the USC head coach next season, the next guy is getting a loaded cupboard.
Winner: Ohio State’s defense
Just how good is the Buckeye D? In 2011, a national champion Alabama team allowed 184 yards per game. No one since then has gone through a season allowing fewer than 220 yards per game.
Ohio State is giving up just 217 yards per game, it’s No. 1 in scoring D, No. 1 in third down stops, and No. 1 in pass defense. Good luck, Michigan.
Loser: Defense in the Oregon State-Washington State game
Wazzu’s Anthony Gordon threw 70 times for 606 yard and six touchdowns … because he had to for an offense that turned it over five times. Oregon State scored 29 fourth quarter points, but biffed a 53-42 lead by giving up two long touchdown drives 2:10 in the 54-53 loss. In all, the two teams combined for 1,242 yards of offense.
Winner: RB Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin vs. Purdue
Is this good? 91 carries for 762 yards and five touchdowns, averaging 8.4 yards per carry? That what Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor has done in three years against Purdue – all wins.
After doing the most minimal amount of research and giving up, let’s just assume that it’s either the greatest three-game rushing total by anyone against one team, or else it’s really, really close.
Loser: FCS teams vs. the SEC
Look, the SEC plays its layup games against the FCS late in the year instead of the beginning like most teams do – yes, it’s a late-season break, but it’s also not the needed early tune-up the other programs enjoy. With that said …
Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State played, respectively, Western Carolina, Mercer, UT Martin, East Tennessee State, and Abilene Christian. The final combined score?
251-14 with an average score of 50.2 to 2.8.
The most competitive game was Mississippi State’s 45-7 win over ACU – it was 21-7 at halftime.
Winner: Hawaii
And with one missed field goal, Hawaii is now off to its first Mountain West title game to faee Boise State.
The Rainbow Warriors beat San Diego State 14-11, and now they get a chance to potentially go to Las Vegas. If they beat the Broncos, they go to the Las Vegas Bowl as the Mountain West champ, If they lose, Boise State might end up in the Cotton Bowl as the Group of Five’s New Year’s Six representative. Either way, it’s been a fabulous year for Nick Rolovich and the program that rose up and rocked as one of the best surprises of 2019.
Loser: Maryland
The Terps have been outscored by a total of 217-38 over the last four weeks of their six-game losing streak. It’s one thing to get blasted by Ohio State, Michigan, and Minnesota, but Nebraska? Four different Maryland players attempted a pass, completing 7-of-21 throws for 57 yards in the 54-7 loss.
Week 13 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: The really big thing was …
4. The Really Big Thing Was …
Arizona State 31, Oregon 28
It was a big piece of the overall College Football Playoff puzzle, and it was exactly what the Pac-12 didn’t need.
Things could still play out just as they would’ve if Oregon didn’t lose in the desert – Utah could still go to the College Football Playoff and Oregon can still go to the Rose Bowl – but what was being set up as this massive potential CFP play-in game two weeks from now lost its mojo.
If the committee likes 12-1, Pac-12 champ Utah, then it likes 12-1 Pac-12 champ Utah no matter what Oregon just did. However, now there’s one less shot at the big tournament since the Ducks are still good enough to beat the Utes.
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 14 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– Playoff Rankings Projection
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
– Big Ten Quick Thoughts
– Arizona State 31, Oregon 28: What It Means
I already went in depth on what this all really means to the playoff and the college football world as this Oregon loss falls into the “things end up working out” cliché.
The Ducks didn’t wake up until it was too late, Arizona State played better than it had for well over a month, and now, for Utah, or Alabama, or Baylor, or Oklahoma …
Things might have ended up working out because of this.
This loss helped the Big 12 champion – if it’s 12-1 – it helps Alabama, it helps the possibility of Ohio State getting in if it gets stunned in the Big Ten championship, it helps just about everyone that needed something big to happen on a Saturday full of SEC vs. Marshmallow States and without any other big shockers.
Week 13 Roundup
Winners & Losers | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
3. The Most Overrated Thing Was …
Michigan in the latest round of polls.
Penn State 28, Michigan 21.
It’s not like it happened all that terribly long ago.
On October 19th, Penn State was able to get by a Michigan that got hammered in the first half, came out roaring in the second half, and lost.
The Wolverines have been fabulous since then, ripping apart a Notre Dame team that seems to have found its groove, destroying a miserable Maryland team, rolling by a meh Michigan State, and blowing out a WAY overloved Indiana team that hadn’t beaten anyone who’s all that great at college football.
But this isn’t about that – Michigan, right now, probably is better than Penn State – i’s about the rankings process and why the system needs to find a way to teams can play their way in.
It’s time to be done with the human voting aspect of this, at least in the court of public opinion.
Let’s wait until we see what happens on Tuesday night, and maybe the College Football Playoff committee will get this right after the AP and Coaches polls fumbled.
Last week, Penn State was No. 8 in the AP and No. 9 in the Coaches. Michigan was 12th in both. All Penn State did was go into Columbus, battle hard – yes, the Buckeyes dominated, but they were stress-tested for the first time all year – in what turned out to be a tough fight.
That means the two losses this season were on the road to Ohio State and Minnesota teams that are each still in the College Football Playoff hunt – and Penn State beat the Iowa team in Iowa City that beat the Gophers – and …
PENN STATE BEAT MICHIGAN.
So how does Penn State get punished for a 28-17 loss on the road to what’s been the most complete team in the nation so far – instead of this being the week it gets, say, a layup against Purdue or Rutgers? It’s 12th in both polls, with Michigan now 10th in the AP and 11th in the Coaches.
Week 13 Roundup
Winners & Losers | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
2. The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Georgia 19, Texas A&M 13
SEC haters despite this, but …
Texas A&M isn’t that bad. If it had the schedule that some this season are getting to enjoy – like at the level of Clemson’s slate, without A&M having to play itself, of course, or Minnesota’s schedule so far – this would probably be a ten-win team right now.
On the flip side, boo hoo. The schedule is hard, and it had to play Clemson, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, and now LSU this week. Welcome to life in the SEC, son.
All that aside, considering the weather conditions were awful for the first part of the game, and with A&M a slow-and-go team to begin with, everything seemed to be in place to pull of an upset over Georgia.
Instead, the Bulldogs showed off just how dangerous they really are.
They might not be flashy, Jake Fromm only hit 11-of-23 passes in the rain, and it got a little hairy in the end, but the defense …
Yeah, the Georgia defense. The college football world might be napping on what this group might be able to do against LSU in two weeks.
The Bulldogs held Texas A&M to -1 rushing yard. Isaiah Spiller ran for seven years, Kellen Mond ripped off a nine-yard dash – but was sacked a few times – and that was it. So far this season, Georgia has allowed one touchdown run – it came in last week’s win over Auburn.
This is how the team plays. The defense wins games, Fromm doesn’t throw picks – he still hasn’t given one up outside of the South Carolina loss – Rodrigo Blankenship hits kicks, and D’Andre Swift runs well. Now, the team that was dismissed after the home loss to the Gamecocks a few weeks ago has wins over Notre Dame, Florida, Auburn, and Texas A&M on the resumé.
LSU will probably start out as a 6.5ish point favorite against the Bulldogs, but …
Texas A&M gets its cut at the Tigers this week.
Week 13 Roundup
Winners & Losers | The Really Big Thing
Most Overrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: What Is All Means: Week 13
1. What It All Means: Week 13
We got to this point with a very, very, very fun mix of possibilities.
It’s the bittersweet time when the all-too-short season – at least compared to other sports – is about to come to a close before the exhibition season starts, and then the playoff kicks in. This is what we’ve all been waiting for, and it’s all set up to be a blast.
We get the battle for the Paul Bunyan Axe to be for the Big Ten West. Minnesota and Wisconsin each did their part in what now becomes the biggest game for the Gopher program in decades – at least until, potentially, next week.
We got a Texas A&M battle with LSU that might be sneaky-weird.
We get the Michigan-Ohio State game that actually doesn’t matter in the overall national landscape, but has a whole boatload of intrigue. The Wolverines are playing great, the Buckeyes have another shot to prove just how amazing they are, and one way or another, a new narrative will form after this.
We get Utah now as the team to watch and see how it’s going to perform.
We get to see how Alabama comes out against Auburn, knowing that it needs to win by a bajillion.
We get 10-1 Baylor and 10-1 Oklahoma in two interesting regular season finales – Baylor going to Kansas, OU to Oklahoma State – with each needing to make statements before they meet in Arlington.
We get Cincinnati vs. Memphis at 10-1 not just once, but possibly twice if they meet in a rematch for the American Athletic Conference title.
We get a Virginia vs. Virginia Tech game that might just be for the Orange Bowl, and if it isn’t, then something else will have gone way crazy for Clemson.
And most of all, we get a last week of the regular season that’s going to lead to a whole slew of debates and arguments going into Championship Week.
And we also get a ton of football on this holiday weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 14 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– Playoff Rankings Projection
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
– Big Ten Quick Thoughts
– Arizona State 31, Oregon 28: What It Means
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