Tag: BYU

They passed, anyway: Arkansas football report card against BYU

Does a road win against BYU mean anything for Arkansas? And does it matter?

Does a road win against BYU mean anything?

Yes.

Arkansas’s 52-35 victory on Saturday doesn’t put them in the national championship category. It doesn’t put them in any category except “team slightly above .500.”

What it does do is still provide some team morale for the rest of the season. The Razorbacks were entering this game with three straight losses and needed something to get the team back on track.

This performance against BYU seemed to have done the trick.

Arkansas offense was clicking on all cylinders, which many expected to happen. BYU defense didn’t handle the speed or power of the Razorbacks, which is why they put up 50 points for the first time this season.

Arkansas vs BYU Prediction, Game Preview

Arkansas vs BYU game preview, prediction, and breakdown for the Week 7 game on Saturday, October 15

Arkansas vs BYU prediction, game preview, how to watch. Week 7, Saturday, October 15

Arkansas vs BYU How To Watch

Date: Saturday, October 15
Game Time: 3:30 ET
Venue: LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, UT
How To Watch: ESPN
Record: Arkansas (3-3), BYU (4-2)
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Arkansas vs BYU Game Preview

Why Arkansas Will Win

Is KJ Jefferson back?

The star Hog quarterback was out for the Mississippi State game after suffering a head injury against Alabama, but he’s expected to give it a go.

Let’s just say the Hog offense wasn’t the same without him in the 40-17 loss to Mississippi State.

It was fine – it cranked up 483 yards – but the two turnovers and struggles to score turned what should’ve been a good fight into a blowout the other way.

Jefferson is dangerous on the move, Raheim Sanders is one of the SEC’s best backs, and it should all work against a BYU run defense that got ripped up by  Notre Dame last week after allowing over 200 yards to Utah State the week before.

The Cougar line isn’t getting into the backfield enough, it’s having problems against the run, and …

– NFL Expert Picks, Week 6

Why BYU Will Win

Welcome to Provo, Hogs. There’s no way to describe it other than it’s a very, very unique place for big name teams to visit.

Between the setting, the energy, the altitude of 4,500 feet, and the team that comes out of the tunnel, BYU has one of the toughest home field advantages in college football.

Baylor this year, Arizona, Utah, Arizona State last year, USC in 2019 – BYU has a way of saving its biggest performances for the houseguests.

This is a tough Cougar team that likes to get the ground game going and control the tempo if it can, but this will be all about QB Jaren Hall and the passing game that fizzled hard in Vegas against the Irish.

Before that Hall was on fire hitting close to 70% of his passes with 260 yards or more in every game. Now he gets to hit up an Arkansas secondary that’s allowing over 300 yards per outing.

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What’s Going To Happen

It’s been a rough run for Arkansas.

It went to Arlington, Texas and lost a heartbreaker to Texas A&M in the final moments, came back home and dealt with Alabama, went to Starkville and got dropped by 23 to Mississippi State, and now it has has to make the trip to Utah.

College teams are resilient and the Hogs have the lines to do more than just hold up, but BYU isn’t the place to go when you could use a little bit of a breather.

Arkansas is the better team with the better talent, but BYU’s lines, run defense, and Hall will be far sharper and more effective than they all were last week.

It’ll be close throughout, but BYU will take over the fourth quarter with third down conversion after third down conversion to grind out the final drive for the win.

– College Football Expert Picks, Week 7

Arkansas vs BYU Prediction, Line

BYU 26, Arkansas 24
Line: Arkansas -1.5, o/u: 66
ATS Confidence out of 5: 1.5
Arkansas vs BYU Must See Rating (out of 5): 4
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Tale of the Tape: Team Stats – Notre Dame vs. Stanford

Gotta feel optimistic here.

Notre Dame has to come into its game against Stanford as a very confident team. Not only are the Irish on a three-game winning streak, but they hold some pretty significant advantages over the Cardinal. They are much better on defense overall, and the offense has the edge in third-down conversions, first downs and rushing. That’s even before talking about the Irish being one of the best in the country at time of possession.

The Cardinal are one of the absolute best at avoiding penalties, and they enter this game against the Irish with the superior offense. However, the defense leaves a lot to be desired. That combination of decent offense and horrid defense sounds an awful lot like North Carolina and BYU, against both of whom the Irish fared well. If that alone doesn’t give you confidence that the Irish will come away with their fourth straight win, we don’t think we can help you.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

ESPN updates predictions for remaining Notre Dame regular season games

Will Notre Dame beat either Clemson or USC?

Notre Dame has been a prime example of a team improving as the season has gone as the Irish have won three straight games following their 0-2 start to the year.  As the Irish have played better the computer models that are based solely on numbers and statistics instead of the old “eye-test” or anything of the sort are taking notice.

ESPN’s power ratings model, known as Football Power Index, was updated this week and now has Notre Dame listed as a top-15 team nationally, a far cry from where they were just a month ago.

Here is the updated chances FPI gives Notre Dame in each of their seven remaining regular season games following the 28-20 victory over BYU in the Shamrock Series contest.FPI Odds of Notre Dame win: 92.7% (Down 0.4 from last week)

Notre Dame football: Injury updates ahead of Stanford game

Play him or be overly safe?

Notre Dame fifth-year cornerback [autotag]TaRiq Bracy[/autotag] has been a regular in the Fighting Irish secondary for literally years now but his status for Saturday’s home tilt with Stanford appears to be in major jeopardy.  At least if I was in charge it would be.

Marcus Freeman was asked Monday about Bracy, who exited the game against BYU with a leg injury.  Freeman didn’t make it sound bad but hardly made it seem likely that Bracy would be ready to play this weekend.

“He’ll be questionable. He pulled his hamstring. I just found out he had a virus illness and so he was probably a little bit dehydrated. He was playing a lot of plays and running around there. They said it’s a grade 1 and it is not really bad. He’s kind of freaky athletically. Hopefully he’ll bounce back. But we’ll see how he feels today. I saw him yesterday and he was confident. He was a little bit sore. We’ll see how he feels today. But right now he’s questionable.” – Marcus Freeman

I know the debacle against Marshall should serve as a reminder that nothing is given and with this Notre Dame makeup, although it’s plenty talented, there isn’t much that’s going to be really easy for them and Stanford would apply to that.

However, the thing with pulled muscles is they just like to kind of linger.  A day turns into a week, a week into a month, a month into a season.  Unless everything checks absolutely 100-percent fine with Bracy early in the week, I’d be giving him a week off to make sure he’s fully over what could leave behind a lingering issue.

Freeman also pointed out Monday that defensive lineman [autotag]Howard Cross[/autotag] is expected to play Saturday night.

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First watch: Thoughts on Notre Dame’s first half against BYU in Shamrock Series

They Irish played well but it could have been better

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to watch the Irish defeat BYU in Las Vegas this weekend, my brother in-law got married. Thankfully modern technology helped me out, as I DVR’d the game. I finally got a chance to watch the game and here are my thoughts on the first half of the game. Second half will come tomorrow.

Help Notre Dame safety Brandon Joseph win the Lott Trophy player of the week

Brandon Joseph, Lott Trophy player of the week sounds good

When [autotag]Brandon Joseph[/autotag] transferred from Northwestern, it was viewed as a massive win for the Notre Dame secondary. So far he’s had an up-and-down season, but it seems like the bye week helped Joseph a lot.

After not registering a tackle against North Carolina, the former All-American was all over the place against BYU. Joseph tallied six tackles and was instrumental in holding Cougar quarterback [autotag]Jaren Hall[/autotag] to just 120 yards on the night and a very pedestrian quarterback rating of just 54.7. That effort caught the eyes of the Lott Trophy, who annual awards the best safety in the country, and Joseph is up for week six honors.

Help him out and click on the link, to vote for Joseph to win the week 6 honors from the Lott Trophy.

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Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

Who thought Notre Dame was among the top team performances in week 6

A winning streak will do that

The Irish finally are playing football at the level many of us believed they would play all season. After playing BYU and defeating them soundly, [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] must be extremely happy how his team has bounced back from losing the first two games of the season.

We aren’t the only one’s who have noticed the massive turnaround, some people in the media are starting to come back around to the Irish as well. Even though [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag] wasn’t considered as one of his top 6 teams after this past week, ESPN analyst [autotag]Kirk Herbstreit[/autotag] still thought very highly of the effort against BYU and named the team effort by Notre Dame as one of the best performances from this past weekend.

A three-game winning streak, with their recent victory against a ranked team will catch the eyes of many. The Irish will try to keep their streak alive this coming weekend as they host Stanford in South Bend.

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Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

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Top 10 remains steady in latest USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

The top ten in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll remained unchanged with lots of movement below it after last week’s action

One team that played in the Red River Showdown joined the top 25 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, and it wasn’t the Oklahoma Sooners. After dominating their rivals, the Texas Longhorns are back among the ranked at No. 24.

The Big 12 has six teams in the top 25, with Oklahoma State still leading the pack at No. 7. TCU is working its way up the rankings; the Frogs are up another three spots from last week at No. 15.

The top ten remained exactly the same as it was a week ago, with the Alabama Crimson Tide keeping the top spot with Georgia not too far behind. Alabama did have trouble with unranked Texas A&M, but held on for the win without star quarterback Bryce Young.

Out west, USC remains at No. 6, while UCLA rose a whopping seven spots to claim the No. 12 ranking. With Oregon just ahead of the Bruins at No. 11 and Utah at No. 19, the Pac-12 is looking very interesting all of a sudden.

No one fell further this week than Mark Stoops’ Kentucky Wildcats. After losing to South Carolina at home, Kentucky fell nine spots to No. 22.

BYU, Washington, and Arkansas all fell out of the rankings entirely after last week’s action.

Many of the top ten teams have tough matchups next week. Alabama is going on the road to play Tennessee, Michigan is playing Penn State in Ann Arbor, and Oklahoma State is going to Fort Worth to play TCU. The top ten in this poll could look a lot different after week seven.

A look at the full USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll powered by USA TODAY Sports:

Rank Team Record Points Change
1 Alabama 6-0 1,540 (35) –
2 Georgia 6-0 1,516 (18) –
3 Ohio State 6-0 1,477 (10) –
4 Michigan 6-0 1,354 –
5 Clemson 6-0 1,328 –
6 Southern California 6-0 1,219 –
7 Oklahoma State 5-0 1,197 –
8 Tennessee 5-0 1,168 –
9 Ole Miss 6-0 1,075 –
10 Penn State 5-0 992 –
11 Oregon 4-1 885 +1
12 UCLA 6-0 815 +7
13 NC State 5-1 808 +1
14 Wake Forest 5-1 776 +1
15 TCU 5-0 765 +3
16 Kansas State 5-1 539 +4
17 Mississippi State 5-1 533 +6
18 Syracuse 5-0 424 +3
19 Utah 4-2 364 -8
20 Kansas 5-1 290 -3
21 Cincinnati 5-1 248 +5
22 Kentucky 4-2 219 -9
23 Baylor 3-2 210 -1
24 Texas 4-2 155 +10
25 North Carolina 5-1 99 +15

Schools dropped out:

No. 16 Brigham Young; No. 24 Washington; No. 25 Arkansas.

Others receiving votes:

Brigham Young 82; Illinois 77; James Madison 70; Coastal Carolina 55; Florida 52; Tulane 32; South Carolina 21; Minnesota 14; Notre Dame 13; Central Florida 10; Maryland 8; Washington State 7; Washington 7; Texas A&M 7; Purdue 7; Louisiana State 5; Liberty 5; Florida State 4; Pittsburgh 2; San Jose State 1.

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College football scores: USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll Top 25 results

What changes next week after all these results Saturday?

It wasn’t the craziest weekend of college football as there wasn’t that one major upset that left the world shaking their collective head but there was plenty of action in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll as six of the nation’s top 25 teams went down.

That very well could have been seven had Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M actually called a real play on the final down at Alabama instead of whatever in the wide world of sports they drew up.

This week was good but next week has the makings of the biggest college football Saturday of the year.  Check out this week’s results below first though!