College Football Thoughts And Musings From Late October 18

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I am very impressed with the Mississippi defense. This had all the makings of a trap game, but the swarming defense never let Tennessee get anything going. The Ole Miss offense finally wore down the Vols. They are still an improving team, but they didn’t look like it against a relentless Mississippi defense.

The Florida defense continues to be one of the most underrated in the SEC because the offense is so bad. Missouri only managed 119 total yards in the game. That’s it. But the Tiger defense forced six turnovers, all by Gator quarterbacks. Jeff Driskel threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles, giving him 12 turnovers in the last four games. And he only played one full game during that span! Missouri used a kickoff return TD, a punt return TD, an interception return for a TD, and a fumble return for a TD to embarrass the Gators at home. The team may not be that embarrassed, but the fans sure were. The Swamp was practically deserted after Missouri went up 42-0 with five minutes left in the third quarter. Their exit music was a “fire Muschamp” chant that erupted from the crowd. With a bye week coming up and the Gators having their worst showing since the mid-70’s, it is not out of the realm of possibility.

North Carolina finally found a team that their defense could stop, if you consider allowing 43 points stopping anyone. Georgia Tech had more issues stopping the potent Tarheel offense. Marquise Williams set a school record with 38 completions, and threw for a career high 390 yards.

Nebraska turned in a dominant second half against Northwestern. The Cornhuskers scored the last 24 points of the game and shutout the Wildcat offense in the second half. Freshman Justin Jackson had another good game for Northwestern, running for 128 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but most of that was in the first half. Northwestern’s offense wasn’t able to get much of anything going in the second half. Nebraska RB, Ameer Abdullah had three rushing touchdowns in the second half to put the game on ice.

This performance by the Kentucky Wildcats showed that they are not there yet. It also highlights just how much stronger the SEC West is than the East. LSU dominated the Wildcats in just about every way possible in the blowout win. LSU only allowed 71 yards rushing after getting gouged by Auburn last week. This was LSU’s sixth win, making them bowl eligible for a school record 15 straight seasons.

The Washington Huskies got blown out by rival Oregon yet again. Oregon won their 11th straight over the Huskies, outscoring them 481-202 during that span. The Ducks are averaging nearly 44 points per game on the Huskies during this recent stretch of dominance. In fact, they have only been held under 40 points in three of the 11 games. Washington has only kept the game within twenty points once over this span, and they still lost that one by 17 points! Oh, and I never thought I would be so happy to see a throwback uniform from any team, but it was nice to see Oregon with a normal uniform and not something that makes you want to watch a game in standard definition to avoid blindness.

Texas gave up a season-high 45 points to Iowa State last week. What makes this stat the most shocking is the fact that they have already played Oklahoma and Baylor, and they gave up 31 and 28 to them respectively. That said, the defense still won this game. They picked off Sam Richardson twice, returning on of them for a touchdown, and the other set up a key fourth quarter touchdown. Texas’s 2-4 start to the season was the worst since 1956, which was the year before Darrell Royal took over. It won’t get any easier for the Longhorns. They still have three ranked teams left on the docket, and that doesn’t include a trip to Stillwater.

BYU looked poised to to win its first game post-Taysom, but the defense gave up 22 points in the fourth quarter to Nevada to see it slip away. This was Nevada’s second straight furious fourth quarter finish. Last week they came up just short. This week they got it done. The BYU defense wasted a great performance by Taysom Hill’s replacement Christian Stewart. Stewart threw for 408 yards and four touchdowns without an interception.

Florida State and Notre Dame lived up to the hype. In fact, you could argue that the Irish outplayed Florida State in the game. A penalty that negated a touchdown on fourth and goal with 13 seconds left that was called back because of offensive pass interference. What are your thoughts?

This fits the bill for an illegal screen by the rules, but it is something that is usually let go. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said “We execute that play every day. And we do it legally, and that’s the way we coach it.” Still, it shouldn’t have come to this. The Notre Dame defense did a great job of neutralizing Jameis Winston in the half, but in the second half, he completed 15 of 16 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown. That was more of a reason for the Irish losing than the pass interference call.

Stanford’s offense baffles me. Their lack of a go-to back has been a problem all season. That led to the Cardinal being shut out in the first half for the first time in 87 games. Arizona State dominated this game, especially on the defensive side. Their offense finally broke through for two second quarter scores against the Cardinal D, and that was more than enough for the Sun Devil defense. Arizona State was a team that was not really mentioned in the offseason, but they have a shot at winning the Pac 12 South. That said, the schedule gets noticeably tougher for Arizona State. They go to Seattle, then host ranked Utah and Notre Dame teams at home.

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