College football roundup after Week 8 with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means
College Football Week 8 Roundup
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College Football Week 8 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 8 Scoreboard
Week 9 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction
Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Oregon is a player now One Really Big Thing
– Whining about Clemson Most Overrated Thing
– Home field advantage Most Underrated Thing
– The season is taking a break What It All Means
College Football Week 8 Winners & Losers
Winner: LSU QB Jayden Daniels
It’s hard to stand out in a conference with Hendon, and Bryce, and Stetson, and KJ, and Levis, and Richardson, and Rattler, and Jaxson, and Rogers, and all the talented quarterback across the SEC board. Daniels is doing it by somewhat quietly carrying LSU to a terrific season.
The Arizona State transfer is hitting 70% of his passes for 1,812 yards and 12 touchdowns with just one pick among with 524 rushing yards and nine scores.
On Saturday he took down Ole Miss, connecting on 75% of his passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns with 121 rushing yards and – for the second week in a row after doing it to Florida – three scores.
Loser: Akron pass protection
Akron might be 1-7 without a win over an FBS program, but it really is playing better under head coach Joe Moorhead. However, pass protection has been a bit of an issue – Kent State came up with seven sacks in last week’s 33-27 win.
After last week the Zips have allowed 44 sacks on the year. Tulsa – 30 – is the only other team to give up more than 29. To be fair to the new coaching staff, last year’s Akron team was dead last in the country, too, allowing 63 sacks on the season. Miami University – 19 sacks on the year – is up next.
Winner: Wisconsin vs Purdue
Purdue has been great, Wisconsin is reeling, and … 16 in a row. That’s what the Badgers have done to the Boilermakers since a 26-23 loss in West Lafayette back in 2003. Even worse, 14 of the wins have been by double-digits including a somewhat shocking 35-24 Wisconsin win on Saturday.
Loser: Mississippi State vs Alabama
Alabama 30, Mississippi State 6. With that victory, the Tide have beaten the Bulldogs 15 times in a row, and the last several outings have been a disaster. The 2017 game was a tight 31-24 battle. Over the last five games, though, Nick Saban’s side has won by a total of 182 to 22, or an average of 36.4 to 4.4
Winner: Oregon QB Bo Nix
Dog the man all you want from his Auburn days, but Nix is lighting it up for the Ducks. He just came through with a 22-of-28 day for 283 yards and five touchdowns with no picks in the win over UCLA
That came off a 20-of-25 day for 265 yards against Oregon. He has thrown one pick since the opening day debacle against Georgia.
Loser: Tennessee pass defense
Yeah, teams have to throw to keep up the pace, and no one’s worrying about how the sausage is made when the team is still basking in the win over Alabama in an undefeated season. However, it would be nice if the Tennessee pass D wasn’t that bad.
The Vols just got hit by UT Martin for 316 yards and two touchdowns. Granted, the game was over when most of the production happened, but the nation’s second-worst pass defense – yay Ohio! – has allowed teams to hit 63% of their throws for 330 yards per game.
Winner: UAB RB DeWayne McBride
To be fair to Chase Brown of Illinois and Khalan Laborn of Marshall, the stats don’t take into account that McBride didn’t play in the season opener against Alabama A&M. With that said, the UAB junior leads the nation with 162.5 yards per game – a relatively whopping 11 more than Brown, and by himself more than 70 teams average per outing.
Last week he ripped through WKU for 197 yards in the loss, making it the sixth time in six games he ran for 120 yards or more. Next up is Florida Atlantic.
Loser: Boston College running game
Helped by AJ Dillon, the 2019 Boston College ground game finished the season eighth in the nation averaging 253 yards per game. That all flipped the next year with the coaching change to Jeff Hafley and his high-volume passing attack. Fast forward to now, and BC is dead last in the nation in rushing with 473 yards on the season averaging just 67.6 per game.
Oddly enough, the 2-5 Eagles are 2-0 when running for 100 yards and 0-5 when they don’t.
– Oregon is a player now One Really Big Thing
– Whining about Clemson Most Overrated Thing
– Home field advantage Most Underrated Thing
– The season is taking a break What It All Means