The Week 8 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 8 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Playoff Chase | Early Week 9 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
Quick Thoughts On … Big Ten | SEC
Week 8 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
5. Winners & Losers From Week 8
Winner: Virginia Tech 63, North Carolina 41 6 OT
Welcome to the new college football overtime. If a game goes past the fourth overtime, it becomes a battle of two-point tries. In the sixth OT, North Carolina’s Sam Howell missed his attempt, and Virginia Tech’s Quincy Patterson ran it in to get the win.
Now at 5-2, the Hokies – who need to win seven games thanks to two dates with FCS teams – are back in the Coastal Division mix and in the hunt for a bowl game. The 3-4 Tar Heels have to win three of their last five games to go bowling.
Loser: Miami in overtime
Just when it seemed like the Hurricanes were about to rise up, they followed up their stunning 17-9 win over Virginia with a 28-21 loss to a miserable Georgia Tech squad. It took several strange things to go wrong, but bottom line, the Canes couldn’t close. Now at 3-4. Miami has to win three more games with at Pitt, at Florida State, Louisville, FIU, and at Duke to finish.
Winner: Navy and Air Force
Navy is back to rocking and rolling with the running game. It’s averaging a nation-leading 345 yards per game on the ground – over 40 yards than the next-best ground attack.
Air Force is the only other team in college football averaging over 300 rushing yards per game at close to 305. Navy – who beat Air Force a few weeks ago – ran for 434 yards and four scores in the 35-3 win over USF, and Air Force ran for 353 yards and six touchdowns in its win over Hawaii.
Loser: Army
Didn’t you used to be the Army running game? It’s okay, but after failing to hit 200 rushing yards in its previous two games, it ran for 278 yards and three touchdowns against Georgia State – and lost. The Knights have now lost three straight, and at 3-4, has to battle just to get into the bowl equation.
Winner: The state of Oregon
Oregon got the win it had to have. The Pac-12 title would’ve still been in play had it lost at Washington, but the 35-31 thriller kept the College Football Playoff chase alive, and unless there’s a total meltdown, all but sealed up the Pac-12 North.
Meanwhile, Oregon State won its second game in three weeks with a tough 21-17 victory over Cal. Getting to six wins and a bowl game is still going to be a fight at 3-4, but the long-suffering Beavers are playing better, and at least they’re no longer the Pac-12’s free-space game. About that Cal team …
Loser: Bay Area California teams
The Cal offense wasn’t tearing anything up to begin with, and then it lost QB Chase Garbers to a shoulder injury. UCLA transfer Devon Modster isn’t getting any help, and now the Bear team that shocked Washington and started 4-0 is on a three-game losing streak after losing to Oregon State.
Stanford has its own injury issues, down to third-string quarterback Jack West in a 34-16 loss to UCLA. The Cardinal team that stunned Washington last week is now at 3-4 and in big, big trouble. It has to win three of its last five to go bowling, with one of those dates against … Cal.
Winner: Los Angeles
It just shouldn’t be a big deal, but that UCLA win over Stanford on the road ends a run of three away games in four – starting out with that thrilling 67-63 thing against Washington State – to once again provide a glimmer of hope that something might be able to change soon. The Bruins leave Los Angeles just once the rest of the way, including the date down the road at USC in late November. The Trojans are 4-3 having come up with a 41-14 annihilation of …
Loser: The state of Arizona
Arizona couldn’t do anything offensively for three quarters against the Trojans. Khalil Tate was bottled up, there were too many missed opportunities, and the O didn’t get on the board until backup Grant Gunnell came up with two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, Arizona State all but bowed out of the Pac-12 title chase with a rough day against the Utah defense in a 21-3 loss. Both the 4-3 Wildcats and 5-2 Sun Devils will likely go bowling, but this was the weekend for both of them to make a move, and they didn’t.
Winner: RB AJ Dillon, Boston College
One of college football’s most underappreciated superstars over the last few seasons, Dillon needed to carry the load against NC State to try saving the team’s season. QB Anthony Brown is out for the year, there’s no passing game, and Dillon took over with a season-high 34 carries for 223 yards and three scores in the win. He’s currently second in the nation behind Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard in rushing yards per game.
Loser: New Mexico pass defense
Only six teams are giving up more than 300 yards per game through the air, and only one is allowing more than 316. That’s New Mexico, who’s giving up 348 yards per game with 19 touchdown passes and just one interception. How amazingly awful is the Lobo pass D? It’s dead last in the nation by a miles, and it just lost to Wyoming 23-10 after allowing just 86 yards through the air.
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 …
Illinois 24, Wisconsin 23
On the one hand, this just stinks.
For weeks, the excitement was building for the stop-the-world showdown between a historically flawless Wisconsin team vs. a national championship-looking Ohio State squad in the first of potentially two meetings – it could still happen if they play in the Big Ten Championship – and now it’s just a really fun game.
Thanks, Illinois.
On the other hand, great for Lovie Smith and a program that’s had next to no fun for a long, long time.
The Illini made the plays they had to make, the Badger D didn’t make the stop it had to come up with, and now this one win might have made – and at least extended – the Smith era.
Illinois went from being on a four-game losing streak with a home loss to Eastern Michigan – and just two wins over miserable Akron and UConn teams – to now being able to think about going bowling.
It went from thinking about who might be the right fit as the next head man, to getting Chicago buzzing about the program and with the thought that a corner really might be about to be turned.
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Playoff Chase | Early Week 9 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
Quick Thoughts On … Big Ten | SEC
It was even bigger for Wisconsin as the most unflappable of teams was … flapped.
Play this game again ten times and the Badgers probably win 11, but that’s not the point. They lost to a mediocre Illini squad, and now there can’t be an acceptable loss at Ohio State. There can’t be a loss, period, with Iowa given a new life in the Big Ten West, and with Minnesota walking through its light and breezy schedule.
To go cliché, it’s why they play the games, and it’s why those games go a full 60 minutes.
Even if the losing side held the ball for 41 of them.
Winners & Losers | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
3. The Most Overrated Thing Was …
Penn State 28, Michigan 21
There was a White Out.
There was an appearance by College Gameday, there were fireworks, there was the primetime national TV slot, and …
It was a nice win by Penn State.
This is a terrific young Nittany Lion team with a rising killer of a defense. The world got to see Micah Parsons do his thing on D, KJ Hamler had a breakthrough performance for the O, and Penn State went to 7-0 in a 28-21 thriller.
But beating Michigan was what Penn State was supposed to do.
It was a nine-point favorite at home against a super-flaky Wolverine team that took a mental break for a good chunk of the Illinois game the week before, struggled against Iowa and Army, got its doors blown off by Wisconsin, and brought an offense that looks and plays like it’s about to meltdown at any moment.
It’s not like James Franklin needed this win to change any sort of a narrative – he’s been outstanding as he builds up the program into a consistent power. It wasn’t some defining moment for him or the program, and it wasn’t like the team took down this year’s Ohio State or Wisconsin.
It was a very good, restaurant-quality Big Ten home win, but it’ll be quickly forgotten if the Nittany Lions don’t get up for the trip to Michigan State next week or to Minnesota in the game after.
And/or at Ohio State on November 23rd.
With all that said, what it did do – especially on the day when the Badgers wet themselves against the Illini – was put Penn State in the conversation for the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten championship, and the College Football Playoff.
Just like beating Michigan did for Wisconsin a few weeks ago.
Winners & Losers | The Really Big Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
2. The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Utah 21, Arizona State 3
It’s as if the college football world only has so much mental hard drive space to love one Pac-12 team.
Oregon is worth the attention. Justin Herbert has been every bit as fantastic as expected, the defense has turned into a dominant force, and it has the talent and athleticism to not just win the Pac-12 title, but get to the College Football Playoff and win at least a game.
The game against Washington was fantastic. The Huskies brought their A game, the Ducks had several gut-check moments, and the showdown more than lived up to the hype.
Meanwhile, Utah quietly went out there and squished Arizona State like a grape.
It was hardly a perfect performance by the Utes with four turnovers in the sloppy conditions, and QB Tyler Huntley got knocked out with a leg injury, but when Utah went Utah.
The D spend most of the game living behind the Sun Devil line, forcing ASU QB Jayden Daniels to complete just 4-of-18 passes for 25 yards and a pick, and allowing a mere 136 yards of total offense and eight first downs.
The Utes are still very much alive in the College Football Playoff chase, but now they have to deal with the nasty Cal defense with – at best – a wounded Huntley, and most likely without him.
They have to go to Washington, and then face UCLA, at Arizona and Colorado to close things out. But they got to the Pac-12 Championship last year with Huntley getting injured late, and this time around, RB Zack Moss is healthy, and the defense is playing even better.
Considering the Pac-12 Championship games have – for the most part – been dank, dreary exercises with 23 people in the Santa Clara stands and little overall national excitement, the league deserves a battle between 11-1 Oregon and 11-1 Utah for a spot in the College Football Playoff.
These Utes deserve a bigger spotlight.
Winners & Losers | The Really Big Thing
Most Overrated Thing | What It All Means
NEXT: What Is All Means: Week 8
1. What It All Means: Week 8
Just survive and advance … if you can.
It looks so easy on paper.
Of course Clemson was supposed to blowout North Carolina a few weeks ago by 75.
Of course Georgia was going to slip by South Carolina last week.
Of course Missouri didn’t need to bring any effort to get by a Vanderbilt team that got rolled by UNLV the week before.
Of course Wisconsin could just hope off the bus and beat Illinois.
College football has a shorter season than the unnecessarily long and pointless regular seasons in the NBA, MLB and NHL, but it’s still a grind. Because every regular season game matters more than it does in any other sport, there’s a constant intensity and a constant edge that’s impossible to maintain over three months.
Of course Wisconsin is better than Illinois and shouldn’t be all but out of the College Football Playoff chase with the loss, but that’s how this works. There are only four slots, and it takes close to perfection to get there.
That’s why it matters when Tua Tagovailoa injures his ankle in a layup game for Alabama against Tennessee. His absence wasn’t a huge deal for the Tide to get by the Vols, and it’s probably not going to be a matter much against Arkansas, but the high ankle sprain had better be 99.9% okay before dealing with LSU in a few weeks.
Florida had to handle a wet ball, rainy conditions, and a jacked up South Carolina team with the confidence of that win over Georgia. The Gators survived.
Utah lost quarterback Tyler Huntley against Arizona State to a leg injury, but the D stepped it up. The Utes survived.
Michigan mounted a whale of a comeback in Happy Valley and came close to tying it up in the final minutes, but Penn State survived.
Kansas was the perfect week-after-Oklahoma opponent for Texas … right up until it took a 50-48 jaw-dropper for the Longhorns to survive.
It’s just a guess, but Wisconsin will likely be far sharper overall against Ohio State. Michigan gets yet another shot at trying to prove it’s okay at college football when Notre Dame comes to Ann Arbor. If Tagovailoa was going to get hurt, it couldn’t have come at a better time – and it might focus the rest team after what’s been a nice and easy stroll so far.
And you want motivation? Texas is an early underdog against TCU.
We’re about to turn into November when the biggest games start to kick in. For everyone, it’s about getting there with another win, and in one piece.
Winners & Losers | The Really Big Thing
Most Overrated Thing | Most Underrated Thing
