Tag: college football losers

College Football Week 3 Roundup: 5 Things That Matter, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 3 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

College football Week 3 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, and what it all means.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

College Football Week 3 Roundup

Recaps, Ranking the Games
ACC | Group of Five
CFN 1-90 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Rankings AP | Coaches
Week 4 Early Line Predictions
Hot Seat Coach Rankings
How’d We Do? Week 3 Predictions

5. Winners & Losers From Week 1

– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 2

Winner: D’Eriq King

Well this is working out just fine.

Miami needed a top-shelf talent at quarterback again, and in came King from Houston. After two games, the Hurricanes are 2-0, he has hit 63% of his passes for 469 yards and four scores, ran for 92 yards and a touchdown, and after rolling past Louisville 47-34, the offense is working.

If he’s great against Florida State in a win this week, the October 10th game at Clemson becomes massive.

Loser: Houston football 

Houston just can’t get its football season going. It was supposed to start out its season against Rice, but that didn’t happen. It was supposed to play Memphis, and that didn’t happen. It was supposed to play Baylor, and then that had to be cancelled because the Bears weren’t able to go.

The Cougars will give it a try against North Texas this week.

Winner: Running quarterbacks

The nation’s leading rusher in yards per game is …

Liberty quarterback – and former Auburn transfer – Malik Willis, after he took off for 168 yards in the 30-24 win over WKU.

The nation’s second leading rusher in yards per game is …

Georgia Southern quarterback Shai Werts, who ran for 155 yards in the win over Campbell two weeks ago.

Granted, those two only played one game each, but those two will be yardage machines all season long.

Loser: Syracuse passing protection

Two games. 14 sacks allowed.

North Carolina came up with seven sacks in its season-opening win over Syracuse, so bad things were expected to happen when Pitt – who led the nation last season in sacks – got a turn.

The Panthers came up with seven sacks and 13 tackles for loss in the 21-10 win.

Georgia Tech is up next for Syracuse. It only has five sacks in two games.

Winner: RB Sincere McCormick, UTSA

The nation’s real leading rusher is McCormick, a 5-9, 200-pound sophomore who started the season off with 197 yards in the win over Texas State, and ran for 98 yards last week in the 24-10 victory over Stephen F. Austin.

Next up? Middle Tennessee, who currently has the nation’s third-worst run defense.

Loser: FCS teams

0-14. Including Stephen F. Austin and its loss to UTSA, FCS programs who were able to give it a go so far this season are 0-14 against the FBS teams.

UTEP won two games over the previous two seasons. It’s now 2-1 after beating SFA and Abilene Christian so far.

The Citadel got whacked around by USF and Clemson, Austin Peay has made the rounds, and Houston Baptist made things fun against North Texas and Texas Tech in losses.

All losses.

Winner: Navy (in the second half against Tulane)

Navy outscored Tulane 27-0 in the second half of its thrilling win on Saturday, closing out with a walk-off field goal. The team looked different coming out of halftime, and it needed to because …

Loser: Navy (for the first six quarters of the season)

Navy looked like it had never played football before in the brutal 55-3 loss to BYU in front of a national audience in a prime Labor Day Night spot. Head coach Ken Niumatalolo vowed the team would be different and better against Tulane after more physical practices, but it was outscored 79-3 before finally turning things around.

– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 3

NEXT: The really big thing was …

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5

College Football Week 1 Roundup: 5 Things That Matter, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 1 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

College football Week 1 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, and what it all means.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

College Football Week 1 Roundup

CFN 1-76 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Ranking Projections AP | Coaches
Recaps, Ranking All Week 1 Games
Week 2 Schedule

5. Winners & Losers From Week 1

– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 1

Winner: BYU

And now the Cougars are in the spotlight. With a 55-3 win over Navy, the program gets to become a major national talking point with at Army, Troy, UTSA, at Houston, Texas State, WKU and North Alabama left on the slate. The program might still try to find games to play, but who wants to deal with it after this whacking?

Loser: Navy lines

The lines were overmatched and overwhelmed all game long. BYU ran for 301 yards with big gash after big gash, and the Cougar defensive front destroyed everything Navy wanted to do with its option attack.

Winner: Kalani Sitake 

On a bit of a hot seat coming into the season after a 7-6 campaign finished up with two straight losses, his BYU team came out roaring against Navy. In a battle of coaches from Hawaii, Navy’s Ken Niumatalolo was the veteran star, but it was Sitake’s team that showed up ready to ball out.

Loser: Jay Hopson

The former Southern Miss head coach had four winning seasons out of four and went to three bowl games, winning one. One ugly home loss to South Alabama later, and he resigned as the head man.

Winner: Sun Belt

Yeah, the conference went 1-2, but South Alabama went from being the projected doormat of the league this season to a possible threat after looking great in the upset win over Southern Miss.

Arkansas State fought the good fight against a Memphis team loaded with enough talent to push for a New Year’s Six game in a 37-24 loss, and Texas State gave SMU all it could handle in a 31-24 fight.

Loser: Conference USA

The Southern Miss 32-21 loss to South Alabama was a kick in the teeth, but the Middle Tennessee 42-0 blasting to Army was every bit as brutal. Yeah, Marshall was flawless in a blowout win over Eastern Kentucky, and North Texas hung up 57 on Houston Baptist, but those were wins over FCS teams. UAB was hardly sharp against Central Arkansas, and UTEP needed a late score to finally put away Stephen F. Austin.

Winner: Underclassmen Running Backs 

At the immediate moment, the nation’s leading rusher is BYU sophomore Tyler Allgeier after his 132-yard day against Navy. In all, ten running backs ran for 90 yards or more, and UAB’s Spencer Brown was the only upperclassman.

Loser: Middle Tennessee and Southern Miss Running Games

To pile on to the misery the two Conference USA programs had, neither one managed to get to 100 rushing yards. Southern Miss at least bombed away to try staying alive against South Alabama. Middle Tennessee never had the ball and came up with 184 total yards against Army.

– The One Really Big Thing
– Most Overrated Thing
– Most Underrated Thing
– What It All Means, Week 1

NEXT: The really big thing was …

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5

Week 13 Roundup: 5 Things That Matter, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

The Week 13 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

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The Week 13 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

College Football Week 13 Roundup

CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 14 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– Playoff Rankings Projection
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
– Big Ten Quick Thoughts
– Arizona State 31, Oregon 28: What It Means

Week 13 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means

5. Winners & Losers From Week 12

Winner: FIU

Raise your hand if you saw this coming.

Former Miami head coach Butch Davis was having a disappointing season.

His Florida International team was destroyed 50-17 by a Middle Tennessee squad that lost to previously winless Rice. FIU followed it up with a tough 24-17 fight over an awful Old Dominion team, and got rolled by Florida Atlantic 37-7. At 5-5, and with Miami and at Marshall to close, the season appeared to be over, and then …

FIU 30, Miami 24.

The Golden Panthers were flagged 14 times, but they were +3 in turnover margin, survived 21 fourth quarter points by the Canes, and now … they’re going bowling.

Loser: San Jose State

The chance was there for this to be a wonderful breakthrough season for the Spartans. They started out 3-2 and stunned Army a few weeks later, but they lost five of their last six games. The regular season finale at home against Fresno State appeared to be set up as a big chance to get to six wins and bowl eligibility, but on Saturday … UNLV 38, San Jose State 35.

4-7 San Jose State suffered another losing season.

Winner: QB Kedon Slovis, USC

Is this good? In the last five games, four 400-yard passing games with four touchdown throws in each, a 515-yard day to beat arch-rival UCLA, and helping USC to win five of its last six games in a true freshman season? However, this might be a problem for …

Loser: Those who want Clay Helton gone

There will be certain departures to the next level and elsewhere, but there’s only one senior – Michael Pittman – among the 13 players who caught a pass for USC this season. The top five running backs are all juniors are younger, there’s just one senior on the O line, 12 of the top 13 tacklers are underclassmen, and Slovis is returning at quarterback.

If Clay Helton isn’t the USC head coach next season, the next guy is getting a loaded cupboard.

Winner: Ohio State’s defense

Just how good is the Buckeye D? In 2011, a national champion Alabama team allowed 184 yards per game. No one since then has gone through a season allowing fewer than 220 yards per game.

Ohio State is giving up just 217 yards per game, it’s No. 1 in scoring D, No. 1 in third down stops, and No. 1 in pass defense. Good luck, Michigan.

Loser: Defense in the Oregon State-Washington State game

Wazzu’s Anthony Gordon threw 70 times for 606 yard and six touchdowns … because he had to for an offense that turned it over five times. Oregon State scored 29 fourth quarter points, but biffed a 53-42 lead by giving up two long touchdown drives 2:10 in the 54-53 loss. In all, the two teams combined for 1,242 yards of offense.

Winner: RB Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin vs. Purdue

Is this good? 91 carries for 762 yards and five touchdowns, averaging 8.4 yards per carry? That what Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor has done in three years against Purdue – all wins.

After doing the most minimal amount of research and giving up, let’s just assume that it’s either the greatest three-game rushing total by anyone against one team, or else it’s really, really close.

Loser: FCS teams vs. the SEC

Look, the SEC plays its layup games against the FCS late in the year instead of the beginning like most teams do – yes, it’s a late-season break, but it’s also not the needed early tune-up the other programs enjoy. With that said …

Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State played, respectively, Western Carolina, Mercer, UT Martin, East Tennessee State, and Abilene Christian. The final combined score?

251-14 with an average score of 50.2 to 2.8.

The most competitive game was Mississippi State’s 45-7 win over ACU – it was 21-7 at halftime.

Winner: Hawaii

And with one missed field goal, Hawaii is now off to its first Mountain West title game to faee Boise State.

The Rainbow Warriors beat San Diego State 14-11, and now they get a chance to potentially go to Las Vegas. If they beat the Broncos, they go to the Las Vegas Bowl as the Mountain West champ, If they lose, Boise State might end up in the Cotton Bowl as the Group of Five’s New Year’s Six representative. Either way, it’s been a fabulous year for Nick Rolovich and the program that rose up and rocked as one of the best surprises of 2019.

Loser: Maryland

The Terps have been outscored by a total of 217-38 over the last four weeks of their six-game losing streak. It’s one thing to get blasted by Ohio State, Michigan, and Minnesota, but Nebraska? Four different Maryland players attempted a pass, completing 7-of-21 throws for 57 yards in the 54-7 loss.

Week 13 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means

NEXT: The really big thing was …

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5

Week 12 Roundup: 5 Things That Matter, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

The Week 12 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

[jwplayer PkCtjTd4-boEY74VG]

The Week 12 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

College Football Week 12 Roundup

CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 13 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– CFP Rankings Projection
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
Quick Thoughts: Big Ten |  SEC

Week 12 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means

5. Winners & Losers From Week 12

Winner: QB Trevor Lawrence, Clemson

Remember way, way back to the old days of mid-October when Trevor Lawrence was supposedly freelancing, making too many big mistakes, and throwing eight interceptions in his first seven games?

Remember when he was overrated, not worthy of being considered a slam-dunk No. 1 overall NFL prospect, and was regressing in his sophomore year?

Good times.

Yeah … in his last four games he hit close to 80% of his passes and averaged over 12 yards per throw with 13 touchdowns and no interceptions. If that wasn’t enough, he also ran for 130 yards with two touchdowns as Clemson hung up 52 points or more on the board in each of those four games.

Loser: Arizona’s passing game

In recent years, a mediocre day from the Arizona passing attack usually happened because the ground game was going off. The Wildcats only threw for 68 yards against Oregon State back in 2017, but that’s because they ran for 534.

Against Oregon on Saturday, Arizona’s Khalil Tate and Grant Gunnell combined to throw for a season-low 132 yards with no touchdown passes. Worse yet, the 4.4 yards per pass were the fewest by any Arizona team since a 51-13 loss to the Ducks back in 2014.

Winner: RB Najee Harris, Alabama

Alabama’s passing game carried the team, but now with Tua Tagovailoa done for the year, it’ll be up to Harris and the ground game to start doing a whole lot more. Harris has rushed for eight touchdowns in the last four games and caught touchdown passes in each of the last two. He wasn’t needed much in blowouts over Arkansas and Mississippi State – running for 86 and 88 yards, respectively – but he took off for over 100 yards in the other three of the previous five games.

Loser: Georgia Tech’s running game  

Going back to early in the 2009 season in a loss to Miami, Georgia Tech failed to run for 100 yards just three times in a span of 134 games.

It has failed to run for 100 yards twice in the last three weeks.

The program went on a run of 40 straight games going back to 2016 with 100 yards rushing or more. That streak snapped a few weeks ago when Pitt allowed just 86 yards in a 20-10 win. On Saturday, Virginia Tech beat the Yellow Jackets 45-0, allowing just 53 yards on 31 carries.

It was the first time Georgia Tech was held to under 75 yards since Clemson gave up just 71 in the middle of the 2015 season.

Winner: The quarterbacks in the LSU 58-37 win over Ole Miss

Defense, schmefense. In LSU’s wild and crazy win over Ole Miss, Joe Burrow further cemented his Heisman credentials by completing 32-of-42 passes for 489 yards and five scores, and he ran for 26 yards.

Ole Miss freshman QB John Rhys Plumlee came up with 212 yards and four touchdowns … rushing. He also threw for 123 yards with a pick, and Matt Corral threw for 89 yards and a touchdown.

In all, the quarterbacks in the game accounted for 945 yards of total offense.

Loser: Northwestern’s quarterback play

The good news: Northwestern finally won a game again. It rocked a miserable UMass team – with the nation’s worst defense, by far – 45-6.

The bad news: the passing game completed 7-of-13 passes for 76 yards and two picks. Two weeks earlier, the Minutemen gave up 488 passing yards and five touchdowns to Liberty.

Winner: Kent State’s fourth quarter vs. Buffalo

0-60. That’s what Kent State was in its previous 60 games when down by 21 points or more. It was down 27-6 to a Buffalo team looking for its sixth win, bow eligibility, and a big step forward in the MAC East race.

Instead, in the final eight minutes of the game, Kent State scored a touchdown, recovered the onside kick, scored on a 41-yard pass play for a score, blocked a punt, tied the game on a fourth down touchdown pass, and won on the last play of regulation with a 44-yard Matthew Trickett field goal.

Loser: Baylor in the second half vs. Oklahoma

Everything was going so well. Baylor was up 31-10 at halftime, the party was just getting started, and then … Oklahoma score 24 in the second half – 31 unanswered overall – and Baylor suffered a brutal collapse. It couldn’t move the chains at all after halftime – Oklahoma ended up controlling the clock for over 41 minutes.

Winner: Rice

Rice had one win over an FBS program in its previous 31 games going back to September 9th of 2017. It won last year’s season finale against Ole Dominion, and it was competitive through most of the first part of the season despite the 0-9 start, and then … Rice 31, Middle Tennessee 28. The Owls failed to score in the second half, and it got WAY too tight, but it was the program’s first win of the season.

Loser: Duke

Didn’t you used to be Duke? The Blue Devils started the season 4-2 with acceptable losses to Alabama and Pitt, and since then they’ve not only lost four straight, but the offense has gone bye-bye.

They scored 30 or more in five straight games, and 44 total in the last four losses in blowout after blowout. A once sure-thing bowl season is now destined to be a loser, bottoming out in a 49-6 home loss to a Syracuse team that hadn’t won an ACC game.

Week 12 Roundup
The Really Big Thing | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means

NEXT: The really big thing was …

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5