College football scores, Week 8: Top 25 takeaways, highlights, what we learned

College football scores, highlights and takeaways from Week 8 games, including Top 25 matchups between Michigan at Penn State, Arizona State at Utah and Oregon at Washington.

Prepare to devote your Saturday to check all the latest college football scores from the biggest games of the day. Grab a seat, plenty of snacks and beverages and stay glued to our live score tracker that will have takeaways and highlights from every Top 25 game.

Friday night’s Big Ten game in Evanston between Ohio State and Northwestern saw the Buckeyes and Justin Fields go on a 24-0 run in the second quarter to run away with their seventh win on the year. Fields was nearly perfect on the ultra-rare Friday night game for the Buckeyes with four touchdowns to keep pace with the top Heisman Trophy candidates.

J.K. Dobbins topped 100 rushing yards and scored on a night Northwestern had no answer. Ohio State will relax and recover on Saturday before watching the primetime game between Michigan and Penn State. The Buckeyes coaches, will at least, be watching to get some early scouting down. Before Ohio State meets either of their two biggest threats in the Big Ten East, they’ll host Wisconsin next Saturday for FOX’s Big Noon Saturday. It could also be a preview of the Big Ten Championship Game.

The noon start is lamented by coaches and fans alike, but as a spectator watching the games from my couch, I like when there is one or more really juicy game on to serve as an appetizer for what’s to come later in the afternoon and night. The noon slate has a few nice storylines to watch, including Florida trying to avoid being South Carolina’s second straight giant, slain, Jonathan Taylor and Jalen Hurts continuing their Heisman push and Clemson looking to avoid an upset at the hands of Louisville.

Florida got back on the winning side of things after losing to LSU last week. The Gamecocks couldn’t make it back-to-back weeks with upsets over the top two teams in the East after knocking off Georgia last week. Kyle Trask and the Gators look good and if the defense can get healthy in time for the showdown with the Dawgs, the Gators could be SEC East champs.

Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor topped 5,000 career yards in the first half, becoming the fastest player in history to reach that milestone. He joins Herschel Walker and LaMichael James as the only players do hit this milestone in their first three seasons. But that was as good as it got for Wisconsin as they committed an interception that allowed Illinois to get in position for a game-winning field goal as time expired. The Badgers suffered their first loss of the year and will be sent tumbling down the next AP Top 25 on Sunday.

Trevor Lawrence entered the year as the Heisman favorite for the nation’s top team. In the first game to start the second half of the season, Lawrence has been taken off the board for Heisman odds and Clemson has dropped to No. 3 behind Alabama and LSU. Lawrence just hasn’t looked like the player we saw last year as a freshman. Lawrence threw a pair of ugly interceptions in the first quarter, giving him eight on the year, twice as many as he had all of last year. He leads the ACC in interceptions. Ouch.

Lawrence did throw three touchdowns, including one Justyn Ross made a ridiculous catch on to the two interceptions but Travis Etienne was the star with 192 rushing yards and a score. He could see an increase in carries if Lawrence continues to struggle with interceptions.

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Arkansas is just really bad and Auburn didn’t let them stick around and think they had any hope of an upset. The Tigers jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and cruised to an easy victory to pick up another SEC win.

Jalen Hurts was locked in early with three first-half touchdowns, including a strike to Charleston Rambo who has had a great year behind CeeDee Lamb. Hurts had three passing touchdowns on 16-of-17 passing and added two more rushing scores on 75 yards. He’s probably third in the Heisman standings right now.

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Iowa had to battle with Purdue for much of the game before pulling away slightly in the fourth quarter. Iowa has a great defense but the offense has been a bit of a slog for much of the year.

The afternoon slate is when things really picked up with the Pac-12 showdown in Seattle between Washington and Oregon delivering one of the better games of the year. Washington outplayed Oregon for most of the game and Jacob Eason outplayed Justin Herbert, but it was the Ducks escaping with a four-point comeback road win. Oregon basically clinched the Pac-12 North with this win.

Joe Burrow and LSU started out a little slow vs. Mississippi State but quickly turned things on. Burrow set the LSU single-season touchdown record in less than seven full games. That’s a huge testament to the season he’s having this year to put himself at the top of the Heisman conversation. And also a huge testament to the level of quarterback play at LSU before Burrow.

SMU remains undefeated and gets a big win against a really good Temple team. Credit Sonny Dykes for the turnaround he’s led with this program. One of the biggest surprises this season is the 7-0 SMU Mustangs.

Minnesota had little trouble with Rutgers, which is a weekly theme for whoever plays Rutgers. The highlight for Minnesota was holder Casey O’Brien making his debut. What’s special about this is he’s a four-time cancer survivor who has endured more than a dozen surgeries. The moment was the highlight of the week. It’s bigger than football.

It wasn’t the prettiest game of the day, but a win is a win for Cincinnati who improves to 6-1 with their win over Tulsa. The American Athletic Conference race could be one of the more intriguing battles in the next few weeks.

Another big win for Appalachian State who will remain in the AP Top 25 for a second week in a row. This team hasn’t missed a step despite losing their head coach Scott Satterfield to Louisville.

Baylor used a 35-14 advantage in the second half in Stillwater to remain undefeated and hold off the upset-minded Oklahoma State Cowboys. Baylor has done it with defense all season and a scoop-and-score was one of the pivotal plays the Bears used to pull away from the Pokes.

Vanderbilt beat Missouri in one of the bigger upsets outside of Illinois beating Wisconsin in Week 8. The Dores just lost to UNLV last week and have been dreadful all year and Missouri had been on a five-game win streak to crack the Top 25 this week. Well, they’re out now after this loss that may have been enough to keep Derek Mason around for one more year. But that may also be premature thinking.

The game of the week is Penn State hosting Michigan. Will Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines finally win a game as an underdog? The Nittany Lions have one of the best defenses in the country so this one could be a classic low-scoring Big Ten slugfest. It could also be a blowout with Penn State getting a few explosive plays from K.J. Hamler and Sean Clifford.

We can’t forget about the Third Saturday in October game between Alabama and Tennessee. The Vols haven’t made this much of a rivalry over the last decade-plus, but it’s a rivalry nonetheless, and it’s a chance to see Tua Tagovailoa and the Crimson Tide offense put up 50 points.

This one was ugly. If you had to watch that whole rain-soaked game, the football gods will make it up to you with what should be a great game with Florida in two weeks. Jake Fromm didn’t have a good game with only 35 yards on 9-of-12 passing. The weather was brutal. But D’Andre Swift had an outstanding one with 179 yards and two touchdowns.

Utah put this one away in the second quarter with and their defense never gave Arizona State a chance to compete. The Utes have been on a roll outside of their loss to USC otherwise would have legit aspirations of a potential playoff appearance. Nevertheless, a Pac-12 Championship Game appearance became likely after knocking off their toughest remaining test in the division, and that includes Arizona.

This was one of the best games of the year but hardly anyone got to see it because it was on The Longhorn Network, which is in the homes of like 237 people. Kansas looked like they would be buried, then they looked like they had a chance, then it looked like Texas was going to seal the deal, then Kansas took the lead, then Texas drilled the game-winning field goal. Les Miles almost had the upset. Tom Herman almost had an inexcusable loss. Instead, Texas fans can take a deep breath knowing they got a little lucky.

This was a game of two halves. Penn State dominated the first half and it looked like it would be a runaway for the Nittany Lions. Michigan battled back in the second half when it looked like the Penn State vaunted defense had no answer for Shea Patterson and the Wolverines attack. Patterson had an open receiver on fourth down in the final two minutes but his him in the hands and Penn State took over. It was that close for Michigan, who remains winless as an underdog in the Jim Harbaugh era.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a twisted ankle late in the first half and was taken to the locker room. Mac Jones replaced the Heisman front-runner in the lineup. It remains to be seen how long Tagovailoa will be sidelined, but Alabama has to be cautious. After suffering through nagging injuries at the end of last year, Alabama should take extra time to make sure he’s 100 percent. With Arkansas on the schedule next Saturday, Tagovailoa could sit and then he’ll have the bye week after that before playing LSU on Nov. 9. That’ll give him three weeks to recover from his ankle injury. Nick Saban said it’s a high-ankle sprain and he’ll miss a week or two, but high-ankle sprains are known to be longer recoveries so even if he’s back for LSU, he may be at less than 100 percent.

BYU had to sweat it out after nearly blowing a 28-10 fourth-quarter lead but held off Boise State to hand the Broncos their first loss. Kelani Sitake was aggressive with some big fourth-down conversions to clinch the game in the final minutes as Baylor Romney picks up his first career win as the starter. This was a much-needed win for BYU who has some quality wins and some tough losses but credit BYU for rallying and persevering for a win that can propel them in the second half of their schedule. BYU can still make a bowl game. Meanwhile, Boise State isn’t out of a New Year’s Six bowl now but their stranglehold on the bid has weakened significantly with this upset loss.

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