College football thoughts and musings from Saturday’s late games

Just in case you missed my rundowns of the earlier games:

South Carolina had all they wanted with a very good East Carolina team. However, the Gamecocks were able to get a score on their last seven drives of the game to win by ten. Think about how many teams have done that. Not many. For seven drives, they did not punt, turn the ball over, or run out of time in a half or the game. That is an impressive feat. Another impressive feat: this was Steve Spurrier’s 200th SEC win. That makes him one of only three coaches to do that. The other two? Hall of Famers Bear Bryant and Vince Dooley.

Florida State won a school record 18th straight game against The Citadel on Saturday. And before you go thinking that they did that against a bunch of nobodies, they beat five ranked teams, including Auburn, Clemson, and Miami. Speaking of Clemson, they travel to Tallahassee this weekend, which would be the sixth ranked team in the streak if Florida State wins.

Okay, so I expected Texas to struggle with a new QB and beat up offensive line. That is not where they struggled. Tyrone Swoopes looked good in his first start, but you could tell that the coaching staff was afraid to let him throw the ball farther than ten yards. Well, you know what? You have to do that if you want to win. To me, Texas did not play to win on offense, and there is simply no excuse for that. While Taysom Hill didn’t have quite the gaudy day that he did against the Horns last year, he still ran for nearly 99 yards and three touchdowns. BYU ran for only 248 yards this year, and threw for 181. So the Texas defense did marginally better. BYU’s defense looked very good in this one. They held Texas to just 82 yards rushing on 35 carries.

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You know, I really expected Michigan to show up. Especially with as much as coach Brady Hoke was running his mouth about Notre Dame putting an end to the rivalry. Well, when the dust cleared, Michigan had lost it’s NCAA best streak of 374 games without being shut out. Notre Dame became the first team since Iowa in 1984 to blank the Wolverines. It was also the first time the Irish had shut out Michigan in 42 games of the series. Notre Dame’s Elijah Shumate’s interception return for a touchdown was negated, sparing Michigan from further embarrassment. Still, this was Michigan’s worst loss in the series, and Brady Hoke has still not beaten a ranked team on the road while at Michigan. His seat is getting warmer….

Michigan’s arch rival Ohio State didn’t fare any better on Saturday. They lost control of the game in the fourth quarter against Virginia Tech. Despite the fact that there were no field goals kicked in this game, it really was a story of the defenses. Virginia Tech’s in particular. They intercepted J.T. Barrett three times, incuding one that Donovan Riley ran in for a touchdown with 46 seconds left to put the game away. It was a dismal day for Barrett who finished just 9-29 passing. This was Ohio State’s first loss in a hope opener since 1978.

The final tally on the Big 10(14)? Three of the top four (Ohio State, Michigan State, and Michigan) all lost. Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Maryland, Illinois, and Rutgers all struggled with inferior opponents. Purdue and Northwestern both lost to MAC schools. Penn State and Wisconsin are the only two that looked good this week, and they played really bad teams. With only four playoff spots for five power conferences, this is not the kind of showing that the conference as a whole needed to put a team in there with the elite.

Another week, another struggle for North Carolina. At least they struggled with a decent San Diego State team this week…..

Craig Bohl bucked a good trend for Wyoming. The road team had won the previous four meetings in the rivalry between Air Force and Wyoming. This year the Cowboys won at home, and they seemed to do better, much better, at closing out games than they did last year.

The “U” in UCLA must stand for ugly. Their offense was ugly in the opener against Virginia. On Saturday, it was their defense. They were gouged by Paxton Lynch and a Memphis team that won only three games last year. The Bruins were a trendy pick for a playoff team. Right now, they look like team that would be very lucky to win their division.

Once again, Hawaii gave a solid Pac 12 team a fight at home. Their defense stepped up, and their offense scored 23 points in the fourth quarter after scoring just seven points in the previous three. They still came up short against Oregon State, but there were positives here. Sean Mannion is a good and experienced quarterback, and the Warriors still managed to pick him off in the fourth, and bait him into some ill-advised throws.

Texas Tech struggled again, but I have a feeling that UTEP might be better than most people think. They have a legit running back in Aaron Jones, and ran for nearly 300 yards as a team against the Red Raiders. I know what you’re thinking, but Tech has a pretty good defense. They are not nearly as bad as they were five years ago.

We have another big week ahead on FantasyCPR! Our NFL experts will give you all the fantasy advice you need, and I will give you my odds & predictions for week three of the college football season, and the results from last week. Also, I will have the picks for the ESPN Pick Em game and the College Football challenge. And my brand new top 25. Stay tuned!

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