College football Top 25 takeaways – Kansas State upsets Oklahoma, Michigan embarrasses Notre Dame

College football scores for every Top 25 game, including Oklahoma’s stunning upset loss to Kansas State, LSU beating Auburn and Michigan’s triumph vs. Notre Dame.

SMU might have the inside track on a New Year’s Six berth which would take them to the Cotton Bowl. It would be awfully fitting for the Dallas program to play their biggest game in decades in their backyard.

For the third week in a row, a Top-10 team lost to an unranked team. Last week it was Wisconsin falling to Illinois. The week before that, it was Georgia losing to South Carolina. Kansas State used a 34-6 run from the second-third quarter to build a lead that was just too much for Jalen Hurts and the Sooners to overcome. The loss cripples their playoff hopes but they’re not dead just yet.

Ohio State dominated Wisconsin after their patented feeling-out-first-quarter but turned it on to score 38 points after the second quarter began. Wisconsin had no chance against Chase Young who had four sacks and J.K. Dobbins who ran for 160-plus yards to put himself in the Heisman conversation as Jonathan Taylor played his way out.

Kudos to anyone who watched this game from beginning to end. Northwestern’s offense is painful to watch and the Iowa defense barely needed to break a sweat to escape Evanston with a 20-0 shutout win.

Appalachian State continues to impress as the Mountaineers improved to 7-0 with a win over lowly South Alabama. The Mountaineers likely will be kept out of a New Year’s Six berth but gotta give them credit for a remarkable season.

Auburn’s defense held Joe Burrow in check despite him throwing for 321 yards. But the Heisman front-runner only had one passing touchdown in a defensive battle. Burrow did run for a touchdown as well but it was running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire who was the MVP vs. Auburn. He ran for 136 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. He also added 51 yards through the air on seven receptions. He’ll be sore the next few days but LSU remained undefeated in large part because of him.

Penn State is the only threat to Ohio State winning the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions have one of the best defenses in the nation and completely dominated the Michigan State offense. The Nittany Lions have the look of a playoff team.

Texas just isn’t that good. In fact, they’re overrated and should fall out of the Top 25 with this loss to TCU. Sam Ehlinger had four interceptions in what was easily his worst game in the last three years.

Gotta give it up for Minnesota who just keeps on winning. They may have gotten a little lucky to eke out some of those wins in early September but they’ve shown they’re a legit contender for the Big Ten West in October.

Iowa State might be the best three-loss team in the country. That distinction won’t be good enough to have them in the Top 25 any longer, however. The Big 12 is a little weird this year and the Cyclones falling to Oklahoma State is the latest example of how much parity exists in that league.

No Tua, no trouble for Alabama against Arkansas. Mac Jones filled in admirably for Tua with three touchdown passes in the blowout. The Tide defense played their best game of the year and appear to be rounding into that form we are used to from this team just in time for LSU.

Much like with Alabama, you have to consider the competition in this blowout. The third-string for Clemson could have presented a tougher test for Clemson than what they got from Boston College. That said, it was the cleanest and best Trevor Lawrence has played all year, throwing three touchdowns and zero interceptions.

This was the best the Michigan offense has looked all year as the run game dictated the game vs. Notre Dame. The line of scrimmage was the story for this one as Michigan controlled the line on both sides. Michigan had a 303-47 rushing yards advantage over Notre Dame in a clear sign that the Michigan linemen made the Fighting Irish quit.

Chip Kelly really needed this one. UCLA looked dead on arrival after September but have wins over Washington State and Arizona State as the Bruins slowly start to put things together. Maybe Kelly just needed a little bit of time for things to go his way.

Justin Herbert didn’t throw a touchdown for the first time in 35 games, snapping the longest such streak in FBS. But he led the game-winning drive in the final minute as the Ducks got a short field goal to get the comeback win. Running back CJ Vardell ran for 257 yards and three touchdowns to pick up Herbert who finished with 222 passing yards. He only had 170 before the game-winning drive but the Ducks kept their playoff hopes alive with the win.

College Football Playoff picture

Oklahoma’s loss opens the door for either the SEC to get two teams in or for the Big Ten to get a pair in. The loser of LSU-Alabama could have a much better case to get in over a one-loss Big 12 champion Oklahoma or a one-loss Pac-12 champ Oregon or Utah.

Penn State could upset Ohio State and represent the Big Ten in the playoff but a non-champ Buckeyes team would likely be ranked behind the LSU-Alabama loser depending on the final scores of each game.

If the season ended today, I’d have Alabama vs. Clemson and LSU vs. Ohio State in the semifinals. Then, I’d have Alabama and Ohio State in the National Championship Game.

Heisman chase

Burrow didn’t deliver a knockout blow with Tua on the shelf and Hurts losing to Kansas State. He remains the front-runner though and will remain so until Tua and Burrow meet on Nov. 9. The quarterback who wins that game will most likely win the Heisman.

Hurts losing takes him out of the running but should be a finalist.

Taylor is out of the running but a different back may have run his way in as J.K. Dobbins ran for 163 and two touchdowns vs. Wisconsin. He topped 1,000 yards for the third year in a row, becoming the first Buckeye back to do that as a freshman, sophomore and junior. Dobbins joins quarterback Justin Fields in the Heisman conversation, but the best candidate on Ohio State is defensive end, Chase Young. He’s the best player in college football with 13.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss after his four-sack, five tackle for loss performance wrecking Wisconsin’s offense.

If I had to vote today, I’d go Burrow, Tua, Hurts, Young, Fields

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