College football thoughts and musings from midday September 20

In case you missed the early games, you can find them here.

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Florida’s defense got manhandled by Alabama. The Gators gave up a school record 645 total yards. Alabama QB Blake Sims threw for 445 yards, but just 110 of those were in the second half. This was the second best passing performance yardage-wise in school history. Speaking of history, Amari Cooper is now the school’s all time leader in touchdown receptions with 20. He hauled in three in this game, and ten total passes for 201 yards. For all the good things that the offense did, the Tide still turned the ball over four times, and that led to all of Florida’s 21 points. Jeff Driskel had another miserable game. He was just 9-28 for 93 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Some of those passes were dropped, but not enough to make that line look a whole lot better. Florida still has a tough schedule going forward. They need an accurate quarterback that can take care of the ball. They don’t seem to have that right now.

Surprisingly enough, Texas A&M is off to their first 4-0 start since 2006.

North Carolina gave up a school record 70 points and allowed a school record 789 total yards against rival East Carolina. Those 789 yards are also a school record for the Pirates. The 70 points was the second highest total in school history. When North Carolina promised that this year would be different after the Pirates pasted them in Chapel Hill last year, I don’t think this is what they had in mind….

Could Virginia have hung on for the win had starting quarterback Grayson Lambert not left the game with an injury? Perhaps, but the bigger story in the second half was Taysom Hill finally getting a little bit of room against that vaunted Virginia defense. Not that he had a lot, but he had enough.

Rutgers may have survived to win the game against Navy, but it doesn’t really feel like a win. Reports indicate that running back Paul James tore his ACL and will miss the rest of the season. James’s backups did pretty well against Navy, but they can’t change a game like James could. This loss will hurt even more once conference play begins in earnest.

Iowa’s win over Pitt was good for the Big Ten(14). The conference gained a little more swagger back when Indiana went in to Missouri and beat the defending SEC East Champions. You talk about a big win for the beleaguered Big Ten(14), this was exactly what the conference needed. The Indiana defense was shredded by Bowling Green last week in the stunning loss. After a rough first half, they clamped down in the big plays in the second half. The inability of Missouri to stop the Indiana rushing attack hurt them down the stretch. Still, how many times do you see a team go 1-14 on third down an still win the game? Especially against a ranked team on the road!

For all the good that the Indiana win did, a lot of that was taken away with Michigan getting stomped into the turf in the Big House by Utah. The Wolverines turned it over four times, and did not score an offensive touchdown. I will be very surprised if Brady Hoke makes it through the season. It will likely take an upset of Ohio State or Michigan State to get him another chance…..

Washington scored 45 second half points to overcome a 14 point deficit at home against Georgia State. The Panthers finally met a team that could cover them! Although the Huskies weren’t anywhere near that in the first half.

Mississippi State’s 14 game losing streak to LSU came to an end mostly because of Dak Prescott. Prescott threw for 268 yards and ran for 105 more while accounting for three touchdowns as the Bulldogs survived a scare. They were in control much of the game, but LSU came on strong in the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 12 when the Bulldogs decided to use their backup center to give the regular a break. He immediately snapped the ball over Prescott’s head to give LSU the ball back. They cut the lead to five, but could not recover the onside kick.

Arkansas is proving that they are no longer a one-dimensional team. They still ran the ball against Northern Illinois, but it was Drew Allen who stole the show, throwing for three touchdowns. This was the first road loss for Northern Illinois since 2011, and the first regular season loss for the Huskies since 2012. Is it safe to say Arkansas is back? They looked solid for a half against Auburn, and have since won three straight.

The Keeton-less Aggies faltered again, losing an overtime game at home to Arkansas State.

Louisiana Tech blew a game in the worst way possible on Saturday. Northwestern State was trailing by a field goal with just under two minutes left when they made star Bulldog running back Kenneth Dixon fumble. The Demons turned that into a game-tying field goal with a minute left. Then they picked off Cody Sokol for the third time, and turned that into a game winning field goal as time expired. Northwestern State scored 13 points in just over four minutes to steal this one.