College football thoughts and musings from late games October 4

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As if all of the upsets earlier in the day weren’t enough, we had four more ranked teams lose, Kentucky beat South Carolina, and the NCAA single game passing yardage record was broken. And his team still lost!

Tell me that Auburn is not the number one team right now. They beat Kansas State in Manhattan. Then for an encore they demolished a solid LSU team. This knocked LSU out of the polls for the first time since 2008. What has Florida State done this year that is better than Auburn. Nothing! The polls are supposed to be a yearly thing, not a popularity contest with the teams from last year just carrying over without any merit. Maybe that happens at the beginning, but not by October….

The slide continues for Michigan, but at least they played with a purpose this week. Devin Gardner may not be the quarterback that the team needs, but he is the leader that the team desperately needs. He may not be the passer that Shane Morris is, but he is good enough for the position. They just need his leadership on the field right now. It may be enough to keep Brady Hoke employed through the rest of the year. And if he manages to beat either Michigan State or Ohio State, he will likely get another chance.

I made a mistake by not putting Memphis among my most improved teams. Beating UCLA was not a fluke. They destroyed a solid Cincinnati team. Of course, it didn’t help that they knocked Gunner Keil out of the game on the final play of the first half. But the game was probably out of hand by then anyway. The Bearcats were already down 20. In fact, they were never really in this.

Miami‘s improved run defense still had problems with the Georgia Tech option. The Yellow Jackets ran for over 300 yards and picked off Brad Kaaya twice.

Virginia’s defense was able to hang on to the early lead that the offense game them, but just barely. Kevin Parks ran for a career high 169 yards, and Virginia was able to hold James Conner to just 83 yards rushing on 21 carries.

USC had the game in hand, but they just could not put Arizona State away. How good is your program if you have a guy like Mike Bercovici is your backup. He torched USC for 510 yards and 5 touchdowns. Almost 200 of those yards were in the fourth quarter alone! In a day full of crazy plays and upsets, this may have been the craziest:

Hail Mary #ArizonaState https://t.co/78IR4kaGSv
— Courtside Films (@CourtsideFilms) October 5, 2014

Rule number one: KNOCK IT DOWN! All of the USC defenders were just standing around waiting for the ball to fall. The players who make plays win games. They don’t wait for the game to fall into their laps. Jaelen Strong made the play. He wasn’t waiting for anything.

South Carolina gave up 21 fourth quarter points to lose to Kentucky. Yes, that Kentucky. The Wildcats did it with defense. They picked off Dylan Thompson three times, including a six yard interception return for a touchdown with two minutes left to put the Wildcats ahead for good. The Gamecocks have statistically the worst defense in the SEC.

You know, if Nebraska had actually decided to open up the playbook before halfway through the fourth quarter, they would have had a good chance at winning the game. Michigan State turned the ball over three times in the first half, but their dominant defense came up big. They held Heisman hopeful Ameer Abdullah to just 45 yards rushing on 24 carries! Tommy Armstrong’s inconsistency on short and middle passes hurt Nebraska. A lot of that was because he was running for his life most of the game. Nebraska’s offensive line was dominated by the Spartans, corralling Abdullah and giving Armstrong little or no time to throw. Nebraska finally adjusted in the fourth quarter, but it proved to be just a little too late.

Utah’s defensive line was all over Brett Hundley. The UCLA line was powerless agianst the faster and more powerful Utes. Hundley was sacked a whopping ten times on the night. Oklahoma transfer Kendal Thompson threw for 95 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 83 more yards. He was 10-13 passing. You can argue that if Oklahoma had stuck with him over Knight, they would have beaten TCU, but that is another story. I’ve like what Travis Wilson has to offer, but I actually think Thompson suits Utah’s offense better. Thompson led the offense on solid drives that helped keep the lead, and played nearly 3/4 of the game. I will be surprised if he isn’t the starter going forward.

Washington State’s Connor Halliday threw for an NCAA record 734 yards against California, and the Cougars still lost! Kicker Quentin Breshears missed a 19 yard field goal with 19 seconds left to drop a 60-59 game to Cal. Jared Goff threw for 527 and five touchdowns, but he was overshadowed by Halliday. He completed 49 of 70 passes and threw six touchdowns. The previous FBS record was held by Houston’s David Klingler when he threw for 716 yards in 1990. Old Dominion’s Taylor Heinicke held the all time Divison 1 record when he threw for 730 against New Hampshire in 2012. Now Halliday stands alone, but his team is still 2-4. You can’t go to bed early with the Pac 12 still going on Saturday nights! Two straight weeks with a Hail Mary completion to win the game, and now a NCAA passing record!

In all, 11 of the 25 ranked teams lost, and four of the top six were dethroned. What a weekend!

Stay tuned for my top 25, pick em picks, picks against the spread, and college football challenge picks!

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