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It seems like every week we lead this post with pretenders and contenders and perhaps that’s because the cream continues to rise to the top.
But while the old standby’s, traditional powers and those who have been there before strengthened their footing atop of the college football heap, newcomers such as Washington, Houston and even Louisville, have the old guard scooting over and making room just a bit.
Houston exercised a demon on Thursday night by defeating Connecticut, the only team that beat the Cougars last season and the only loss in coach Tom Herman’s tenure. While that might not seems like a big feat because UConn isn’t one of the nation’s elite teams, it’s a big mental hurdle for a team that’s trying to assert itself as one of the haves in a have-not part of the FBS.
Washington’s 44-6 win against Stanford was the Huskies largest-ever win over a Top 10 team, and proved that the young Huskies were ready to step into the spotlight. Coach Chris Petersen has made his reputation by turning underdogs into major contenders and his work with the Huskies in a short amount of time is nothing short of amazing. Washington is 5-0 for the first time since 1992.
SEATTLE, WA – SEPTEMBER 30: Linebacker Psalm Wooching #28 of Washington celebrates with linebacker Joe Mathis #5 after sacking quarterback Ryan Burns of Stanford (Getty Images) And then there’s Louisville. The Cardinals suffered their first defeat of the season, this on the road against a top 5 Clemson team, but the way Louisville played in the game shows that the Cardinals are not out of the College Football Playoff hunt yet. Louisville rallied from a 28-10 deficit and scored 26 consecutive points while forcing four turnovers on five second-half Clemson drives. But Clemson’s been there before and that experience was something the Cardinals couldn’t defeat. Still, Louisville is a tough team and like Washington and Houston, could create a shakeup near the top of the rankings are the season goes on.
Right now, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Michigan, all teams with rich and/or recent history as an elite program, are locking up those spots at the top of the rankings. But those teams should feel a little pressure from the newcomers looking to start a new guard in college football.
Here are this week’s and winners and losers:
WINNERS
Nik Shimonek and Jonathan Giles, Texas Tech:*Texas Tech fans may have a had a mini-panic attack during the teams’ Big 12 opener vs. Kansas when starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes II got injured in the third quarter, but backup Nik Shimonek stepped up to the plate and swung for the fences. Shimonek finished the game with four touchdown passes and 271 yards passing as the Red Raiders thoroughly dominated the Jayhawks 55-19. Jonathan Giles led Tech with 12 catches for 219 yards and two TDs.
Jamaal Williams, BYU: In a game where ESPN commentator and former Texas head coach Mack Brown left*the broadcast booth early to catch a flight back to Bristol, BYU*running back Jamaal Williams put up huge numbers on the ground vs. Toledo. Had Brown stayed until the end, he would’ve seen Williams carve up the Toledo defense for a*career-high 286 yards, which broke a Cougars record for rushing yards in a single game that was set back in 1962 by Eldon Fortie. The record-breaking performance by Williams also included five rushing touchdowns.
J.T. Barrett, Ohio State: J.T. Barrett added another school record to his credit after his third touchdown pass in OSU’s blowout win over Rutgers. The Ohio State QB needed just 27 games to rack up 58 touchdowns through the air, passing Bobby Hoying to take over the top spot for the storied program. Barrett finished with 238 yards passing and four touchdowns while adding 46 yards rushing in the win.
Ifeadi Odenigbo, Northwestern: The defensive end played a huge part in*Northwestern’s*38-31 road win*over Iowa with four of the Wildcats’ six sacks.
Colorado: Last week, Colorado beat Oregon for the first time since 1998 thanks to a miraculous touchdown catch. Today, the Buffs are 2-0*in Pac-12 play for the first time after a 46-7 rout of Oregon State. The Buffs, which hadn’t won two conference games since 2011, can make it three in a row next weekend at USC.
Western Michigan: Though five weeks, Western Michigan looks like the best Group of 5 team in the country. With a 49-10 blowout over in-state foe Central Michigan (the same team that “beat” Oklahoma State earlier this year) on Saturday, the Broncos rowed their boats to a 5-0 start. Behind three TDs from quarterback Zach Terrell, 132 yards and two scores on the ground from Jarvion Franklin and a swarming defense, WMU was dominant on Saturday. WMU already has wins over two Big Ten teams, Northwestern and Illinois, and are the clear favorites in the MAC.
Row the boat, indeed.
Ed Orgeron and LSU: Ed Orgeron’s debut as interim head coach for LSU was a good one. The Tigers demolished Missouri 42-7 at home and rushed for a whopping 418 yards in the process. With Leonard Fournette out, Derrius Guice and Darrel Williams rushed for 163 and 130 yards apiece. Guice and Williams also had three touchdowns each. On defense, LSU limited Mizzou to just 265 yards and 4-of-14 on third down. The Tigers are now 3-2 headed into Gainesville next weekend.
BONUS WINNER: Virginia safety Jordan Mack deserves praise for this bone-crunching sack of Duke’s Daniel Jones which resulted in a fumble recovery TD. Virginia picked up its second win of the year over Duke, a team that upset Notre Dame on the road last weekend.
LOSERS
San Diego State: San Diego State’s 13-game winning streak was snapped by a mid-tier Sun Belt team with losses to UL-Lafayette and Georgia Southern already this season. That mid-tier Sun Belt team is South Alabama, which knocked off the 19th-ranked Aztecs for a second straight season. This is the first win over a ranked team for South Alabama, which knocked off Mississippi State earlier this season. San Diego State, with running back Donnel Pumphrey playing at such a high level, looked like a team that could represent the Group of 5 in a College Football Playoff bowl game. After Saturday night’s loss, that dream likely gets tossed out the window.
Derek Mason, Vanderbilt:*Vanderbilt’s offense continues to be dreadful. Nonetheless, the Commodores were in striking distance late in the game vs. No. 23 Florida.*Down 13-6 with 1:40 left in the game, Mason opted to punt*from his own 43. Decisions like this are why he may*be out of a job by the time the season ends. Vandy dropped to 2-3 with the loss.
Rutgers:*If Chris Ash thought his former boss was going to take it easy on him, he was wrong. The former Ohio State defensive coordinator took his Scarlet Knights into Columbus on Saturday afternoon and walked away with a 58-0 loss. The second-ranked Buckeyes outgained Rutgers 669 yards to 116. Of those 116 yards, 33 came through the air on a combined 3-of-16 passing from Chris Laviano and Tylin Oden. Rutgers, which dropped to 2-3 with the loss, welcomes No. 4 Michigan to town next weekend. Good luck, fellas.
Kansas State: The Wildcats had a golden opportunity to open their Big 12 slate with a road win over unbeaten West Virginia, but let things slip away in the*fourth quarter. KSU led 16-3 when the final frame began, but allowed the Mountaineers to come back and win 17-16. Despite putting up just 108 yards of offense in the second half, the Wildcats had a chance to regain the lead with just over two minutes to go, but Matthew McCrane’s 43-yard field goal try sailed left. K-State’s Jesse Ertz completed just 10-of-30 passes in the loss, which dropped the Wildcats to 2-2.
WVU improved to 4-0. Dana Holgorsen was thrilled.
The Thundering Herd stormed back in the second half, and cut Pitt’s lead to 30-27 with 4:01 to go. From there, Pitt scored a game-sealing touchdown with just over a minute to go. The score was 37-27 and Marshall bettors were safe… until they weren’t. Marshall regained possession quickly went backwards. On a 4th & 24 play with the clock ticking down, Marshall Chase Litton threw the ball right to Pitt’s Avonte Maddox, who returned it*33 yards for a score as time expired.
Pitt*won 43-27, covering the spread by half a point. That is a brutal beat.
Oregon: It sounds strange to say it, but let’s all do it together: Oregon is not very good. The Ducks have been one of the best teams in the Pac-12 over the last decade, but that is not the case in 2016. The Ducks were thoroughly outplayed by Washington State Saturday night in Pullman.
Brady Hoke and the Oregon defense had no answer for Mike Leach’s Cougars. Leach is known for his passing attack. In this one, WSU torched Oregon on the ground. Wazzu racked up 280 yards and six touchdowns on the ground in a 51-33 win. The rushing game was coupled with 371 yards through the air, totaling 651 yards in all allowed by Hoke’s defense.
The loss, Oregon’s third straight (it’s the first time that’s happened since 2006), drops the Ducks to 2-3 with Washington coming into Eugene next weekend.
Rice: Rice dropped to 0-5 for the first time since 2009 with a loss at Southern Miss. The Owls’ defense allowed 702 yards of total offense, a Southern Miss record. Nick Mullens had 591 yards and four touchdowns throwing for the Golden Eagles. Rice has given up more than 600 yards of offense in three of its five losses.
But while the old standby’s, traditional powers and those who have been there before strengthened their footing atop of the college football heap, newcomers such as Washington, Houston and even Louisville, have the old guard scooting over and making room just a bit.
Houston exercised a demon on Thursday night by defeating Connecticut, the only team that beat the Cougars last season and the only loss in coach Tom Herman’s tenure. While that might not seems like a big feat because UConn isn’t one of the nation’s elite teams, it’s a big mental hurdle for a team that’s trying to assert itself as one of the haves in a have-not part of the FBS.
Washington’s 44-6 win against Stanford was the Huskies largest-ever win over a Top 10 team, and proved that the young Huskies were ready to step into the spotlight. Coach Chris Petersen has made his reputation by turning underdogs into major contenders and his work with the Huskies in a short amount of time is nothing short of amazing. Washington is 5-0 for the first time since 1992.
Right now, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Michigan, all teams with rich and/or recent history as an elite program, are locking up those spots at the top of the rankings. But those teams should feel a little pressure from the newcomers looking to start a new guard in college football.
Here are this week’s and winners and losers:
WINNERS
Nik Shimonek and Jonathan Giles, Texas Tech:*Texas Tech fans may have a had a mini-panic attack during the teams’ Big 12 opener vs. Kansas when starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes II got injured in the third quarter, but backup Nik Shimonek stepped up to the plate and swung for the fences. Shimonek finished the game with four touchdown passes and 271 yards passing as the Red Raiders thoroughly dominated the Jayhawks 55-19. Jonathan Giles led Tech with 12 catches for 219 yards and two TDs.
Jamaal Williams, BYU: In a game where ESPN commentator and former Texas head coach Mack Brown left*the broadcast booth early to catch a flight back to Bristol, BYU*running back Jamaal Williams put up huge numbers on the ground vs. Toledo. Had Brown stayed until the end, he would’ve seen Williams carve up the Toledo defense for a*career-high 286 yards, which broke a Cougars record for rushing yards in a single game that was set back in 1962 by Eldon Fortie. The record-breaking performance by Williams also included five rushing touchdowns.
J.T. Barrett, Ohio State: J.T. Barrett added another school record to his credit after his third touchdown pass in OSU’s blowout win over Rutgers. The Ohio State QB needed just 27 games to rack up 58 touchdowns through the air, passing Bobby Hoying to take over the top spot for the storied program. Barrett finished with 238 yards passing and four touchdowns while adding 46 yards rushing in the win.
Ifeadi Odenigbo, Northwestern: The defensive end played a huge part in*Northwestern’s*38-31 road win*over Iowa with four of the Wildcats’ six sacks.
Colorado: Last week, Colorado beat Oregon for the first time since 1998 thanks to a miraculous touchdown catch. Today, the Buffs are 2-0*in Pac-12 play for the first time after a 46-7 rout of Oregon State. The Buffs, which hadn’t won two conference games since 2011, can make it three in a row next weekend at USC.
Western Michigan: Though five weeks, Western Michigan looks like the best Group of 5 team in the country. With a 49-10 blowout over in-state foe Central Michigan (the same team that “beat” Oklahoma State earlier this year) on Saturday, the Broncos rowed their boats to a 5-0 start. Behind three TDs from quarterback Zach Terrell, 132 yards and two scores on the ground from Jarvion Franklin and a swarming defense, WMU was dominant on Saturday. WMU already has wins over two Big Ten teams, Northwestern and Illinois, and are the clear favorites in the MAC.
Row the boat, indeed.
Ed Orgeron and LSU: Ed Orgeron’s debut as interim head coach for LSU was a good one. The Tigers demolished Missouri 42-7 at home and rushed for a whopping 418 yards in the process. With Leonard Fournette out, Derrius Guice and Darrel Williams rushed for 163 and 130 yards apiece. Guice and Williams also had three touchdowns each. On defense, LSU limited Mizzou to just 265 yards and 4-of-14 on third down. The Tigers are now 3-2 headed into Gainesville next weekend.
BONUS WINNER: Virginia safety Jordan Mack deserves praise for this bone-crunching sack of Duke’s Daniel Jones which resulted in a fumble recovery TD. Virginia picked up its second win of the year over Duke, a team that upset Notre Dame on the road last weekend.
LOSERS
San Diego State: San Diego State’s 13-game winning streak was snapped by a mid-tier Sun Belt team with losses to UL-Lafayette and Georgia Southern already this season. That mid-tier Sun Belt team is South Alabama, which knocked off the 19th-ranked Aztecs for a second straight season. This is the first win over a ranked team for South Alabama, which knocked off Mississippi State earlier this season. San Diego State, with running back Donnel Pumphrey playing at such a high level, looked like a team that could represent the Group of 5 in a College Football Playoff bowl game. After Saturday night’s loss, that dream likely gets tossed out the window.
Derek Mason, Vanderbilt:*Vanderbilt’s offense continues to be dreadful. Nonetheless, the Commodores were in striking distance late in the game vs. No. 23 Florida.*Down 13-6 with 1:40 left in the game, Mason opted to punt*from his own 43. Decisions like this are why he may*be out of a job by the time the season ends. Vandy dropped to 2-3 with the loss.
Rutgers:*If Chris Ash thought his former boss was going to take it easy on him, he was wrong. The former Ohio State defensive coordinator took his Scarlet Knights into Columbus on Saturday afternoon and walked away with a 58-0 loss. The second-ranked Buckeyes outgained Rutgers 669 yards to 116. Of those 116 yards, 33 came through the air on a combined 3-of-16 passing from Chris Laviano and Tylin Oden. Rutgers, which dropped to 2-3 with the loss, welcomes No. 4 Michigan to town next weekend. Good luck, fellas.
Kansas State: The Wildcats had a golden opportunity to open their Big 12 slate with a road win over unbeaten West Virginia, but let things slip away in the*fourth quarter. KSU led 16-3 when the final frame began, but allowed the Mountaineers to come back and win 17-16. Despite putting up just 108 yards of offense in the second half, the Wildcats had a chance to regain the lead with just over two minutes to go, but Matthew McCrane’s 43-yard field goal try sailed left. K-State’s Jesse Ertz completed just 10-of-30 passes in the loss, which dropped the Wildcats to 2-2.
WVU improved to 4-0. Dana Holgorsen was thrilled.
Dana Holgorsen in the locker room after #WVU'S big win over Kansas State pic.twitter.com/BgImnXGIbw
— William Hirsch (@WilliamAHirsch) October 2, 2016
People who bet on Marshall: We thought last weekend had rough backdoor covers (hello Cal and Stanford), but Pittsburgh may have topped that. Pitt, a 15.5-point favorite, led Marshall 27-0 at halftime.— William Hirsch (@WilliamAHirsch) October 2, 2016
The Thundering Herd stormed back in the second half, and cut Pitt’s lead to 30-27 with 4:01 to go. From there, Pitt scored a game-sealing touchdown with just over a minute to go. The score was 37-27 and Marshall bettors were safe… until they weren’t. Marshall regained possession quickly went backwards. On a 4th & 24 play with the clock ticking down, Marshall Chase Litton threw the ball right to Pitt’s Avonte Maddox, who returned it*33 yards for a score as time expired.
Pitt*won 43-27, covering the spread by half a point. That is a brutal beat.
Oregon: It sounds strange to say it, but let’s all do it together: Oregon is not very good. The Ducks have been one of the best teams in the Pac-12 over the last decade, but that is not the case in 2016. The Ducks were thoroughly outplayed by Washington State Saturday night in Pullman.
Brady Hoke and the Oregon defense had no answer for Mike Leach’s Cougars. Leach is known for his passing attack. In this one, WSU torched Oregon on the ground. Wazzu racked up 280 yards and six touchdowns on the ground in a 51-33 win. The rushing game was coupled with 371 yards through the air, totaling 651 yards in all allowed by Hoke’s defense.
The loss, Oregon’s third straight (it’s the first time that’s happened since 2006), drops the Ducks to 2-3 with Washington coming into Eugene next weekend.
Rice: Rice dropped to 0-5 for the first time since 2009 with a loss at Southern Miss. The Owls’ defense allowed 702 yards of total offense, a Southern Miss record. Nick Mullens had 591 yards and four touchdowns throwing for the Golden Eagles. Rice has given up more than 600 yards of offense in three of its five losses.