College football Week 10 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, and what it all means.
College Football Week 10 Roundup
Week 10 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Week 10 scoreboard
Bowl Projections, College Football Playoff Predictions
Week 11 opening lines | AP | Coaches
College Football Playoff Top 25 Prediction
Big Game Reaction: Purdue, UNC, Bama, more
Ranking the 13 teams still alive for the playoff
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– Tough Week For Top Teams: One Really Big Thing
– UC & CFP expansion: Most Overrated Thing
– Clemson coming back: Most Underrated Thing
– Georgia’ coronation: What It All Means, Week 10
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
Winners & Losers From Week 10
Winner: Tennessee 45, Kentucky 42
America was so busy watching whatever that Alabama-LSU thing was that it missed 87 combined points, close to 1,100 yards of total offense, a wonderful day by Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker, and it all happening with the Vols having the ball for fewer than 14 minutes. If it wasn’t the SEC Game of the Year, it was sure close. Meanwhile …
Loser: South Carolina 40, Florida 17
Florida was 3-1 with only a missed two-points conversion against Alabama away from a potentially special start. I went so far as to make the case for the Gators being second or third in the country. Since then, Florida is 1-4 with the lone win coming against Vanderbilt.
The running game out of South Carolina we’ve all been waiting for kicked in. Kevin Harris and ZaQuandre White combined for 239 yards as the team ripped through the Gators 40-17. Now, at 4-5, Florida needs to win two of its last three against Samford, at Missouri, and Florida State just to go bowling. 5-4 South Carolina is a lock for an extra game.
Winner: Arizona and UNLV
No team should go through a season without a win.
Yes, Cal got hammered with COVID problems and was missing a bulk of its players, but few teams have bigger and deeper injury issues than Arizona. The Wildcats got their first win of the season – and first since the middle of 2019 – with a 10-3 victory over the Bears.
UNLV won a game over Nevada to end the 2019 season, and hadn’t won since. It finally got over that hump with a 31-17 victory on the road over New Mexico.
Loser: Bad scoring defenses & FBS wins
It shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that the teams that give up the most points are usually among the worst teams in college football. That doesn’t always work out, though, depending on how high-powered the offense is.
UMass was able to beat UConn a few weeks ago, but the team with the nation’s worst scoring defense – allowing 45 points per game – just lost to Rhode Island. Akron has the fifth-worst scoring D in college football, and it beat Bowling Green a few weeks ago.
That means the seven teams with the worst scoring defenses in the country – FIU, Tulane, Akron, New Mexico State, Kansas, Arkansas State, and UMass – have combined to go 2-55 against FBS teams this season, and 6-1 against the FCS squads.
Winner: Big Ten defenses
The Big Ten boasts four of the top ten defenses in college football. After stuffing Rutgers, Wisconsin is No. 1 allowing 214 yards per game – a whopping 16 fewer than Georgia. Michigan (6), Minnesota (7), and Iowa (10) are all playing some D, but …
Loser: Big Ten passing offenses
It sometimes helps the defenses when the offenses don’t do much.
There are the service academies, a few Mountain West schools, Colorado, a Georgia Southern team that runs some form of the option, and a slew of Big Ten teams that don’t throw. Illinois (124th), Minnesota (122nd), Wisconsin (121st) can at least run, but the passing yards aren’t there.
The same can’t be said for Northwestern, Indiana, and Iowa who all are outside the top 100 in passing.
– Tough Week For Top Teams: One Really Big Thing
– UC & CFP expansion: Most Overrated Thing
– Clemson coming back: Most Underrated Thing
– Georgia’ coronation: What It All Means, Week 10