College football roundup – Page 2

College Football Roundup Week 9: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College Football Roundup Week 9: Gary Patterson parting ways with TCU, Georgia’s win over Florida, and Michigan State’s massive moment over Michigan, they’re the winners, losers, overrated aspects and underrated things from this past weekend.

College football Week 9 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 9 Roundup

Week 9 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 9 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 10 opening lines | AP | Coaches
College Football Playoff Top 25 Prediction
Big Game Reaction: MSU, Georgia, OSU, more
Ranking the 15 Teams Still Alive For Playoff

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– MSU’s statement: One Really Big Thing
– UGA-Florida: Most Overrated Thing
– Gary Patterson: Most Underrated Thing
– Welcome to November What It All Means, Week 9

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 9

Winner: Michigan State RB Kenneth Walker

How do you go from being a relative no-name to the Heisman front-runner? You set the foundation with a strong start to the season, you have a few big games here and there to generate a buzz, and then when everyone is watching and you’re on the big stage, you beat your biggest rival by rushing for 197 yards and five touchdowns in a 37-33 win.

Loser: Everyone else in the Heisman race

With Walker’s monster performance against Michigan – and with Ole Miss QB Matt Corral losing to Auburn, Texas RB Bijan Robinson and Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler long out of the picture, and with Clemson QB DJ Uiagalelei not even a thought – the 2021 Heisman race has come down to Walker, Alabama’s Bryce Young once he has a signature moment, and the entire Georgia defense. And …

Winner: Oklahoma QB Caleb Williams

As debuts go, this one is a whopper. Already in the midst of an amazing few weeks ever since he took over the 2021 season with his fourth down run for a score against Texas, he took it up a few notches with a 402-yard, six-touchdown pass day against Texas Tech.

In just over five games he has hit 72% of his passes averaging 11 yards per throw with 14 touchdowns and one pick. That, and 281 rushing yards and four touchdowns, and more signature Heisman moments than the rest of the field combined.

Loser: Texas

To go way-painfully dated with the reference, if Williams is the best debut since Pearl Jam’s Ten, then Texas is every hair metal band after the release of that and Nirvana’s Nevermind.

The Longhorns were rolling right along on the way to a blowout win over Oklahoma and an almost certain run to the Big 12 championship, and then came that run by Williams. Texas melted down and still hasn’t recovered. After losing at Baylor, it’s now on a three-game losing streak with work to do at 4-4 just to go bowling.

Winner: The Paul Bunyan Axe game

From out of absolutely nowhere, things are starting to set up for the Wisconsin trip to Minnesota on November 27th to be a giant deal in the Big Ten race. There’s a great chance the winner goes to the Big Ten Championship.

After blowing out Northwestern, the Gophers are rolling on a four-game winning streak after the weird loss to Bowling Green. They have to deal with Illinois, at Iowa, and Indiana before getting the Badgers.

Wisconsin rumbled over Purdue and the D stuffed Iowa. The offense has stopped screwing up, and the defense continues to be a brick wall. It gets at Rutgers, Northwestern, Nebraska, and then the trip to Minneapolis.

Loser: Conference USA’s possible showcase moment

It could’ve been so amazing, and it should still be a good game. UTEP made it a fight in a 28-25 loss to Florida Atlantic. Had it won, it would’ve been 7-1 going into its showdown against unbeaten UTSA. It would’ve been a shot for Conference USA to have enjoyed some positive national attention for a bit – and it could still happen in a light week of big games overall.

Winner: Washington State Cougars

How was Wazzu going to recover from an ugly 1-3 start? How could it go on after the school’s uglier breakup with head coach Nick Rolovich? It moved forward by winning, going 4-1 in the last five games.

After shocking Arizona State 34-21, and thanks to an earlier win over Oregon State, Washington State is in a position to take the Pac-12 North if it can win out against at Oregon, Arizona, and at Washington.

Loser: All those who had Florida State +9.5 and/or the under on the 48 point total vs Clemson

You are not alone … you are not alone … you are not alone …

– MSU’s statement: One Really Big Thing
– UGA-Florida: Most Overrated Thing
– Gary Patterson: Most Underrated Thing
– Welcome to November What It All Means, Week 9

NEXT: The really big college football thing was …

Pages: 12345

College Football Roundup Week 8: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College Football Roundup Week 8: From the ACC still being alive in the College Football Playoff chase, to expansion, to a few key struggles, they’re the winners, losers, overrated aspects and underrated things form this past weekend.

College football Week 8 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 8 Roundup

Week 8 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 8 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 8 opening lines | AP | Coaches
Big Game Reaction: Illinois, Oregon, Pitt, more

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– AAC expansion: One Really Big Thing
– OU-Kansas: Most Overrated Thing
– ACC & CFP: Most Underrated Thing
– Curveballs coming What It All Means, Week 8

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 8

Winner: Cincinnati, San Diego State, Wake Forest

It might not have been a walk in the park, but there are just nine unbeaten teams left, and Cincinnati, San Diego State, and Wake Forest have managed to be among them. They each had quirky tests last week that turned out to be somewhat historic – unbeaten ranked teams all going against service academies – and they all passed.

Loser: Air Force, Army, Navy

The amazing San Diego State run defense held Air Force to just 192 rushing yards in a 20-14 win. Army put up 56 points and 416 rushing yards on Wake Forest, but gave up 70 points. 1-6 Navy scored ten fourth quarter points to push Cincinnati – who was held to just 271 yards of total offense – in a 27-20 Bearcat win.

Winner: Pitt QB Kenny Pickett

Ole Miss’ Matt Corral and Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall have each thrown 15 touchdown passes with just one interception. There’s only one quarterback who’s better at the whole TD-to-INT thing.

Kenny Pickett has thrown 23 touchdown passes with just the one pick, he has two or more scoring throws in every game, and he’s coming off a 302-yard, two touchdown, no interception day in the 27-17 win over Clemson, which was massive because …

Loser: Clemson losing by double-digits

November 15th, 2014. That was the last time Clemson lost a regular season game by ten points or more, dropping the date to Georgia Tech 28-6. It took a total of seven regular seasons before Pitt finally broke the streak with its win on Saturday.

Winner: Sun Belt

The natural expansion progression appeared to be the Power Five would take American Athletic Conference schools, the AAC would take Conference USA schools, and Conference USA would take Sun Belt schools.

But things have flipped – the Sun Belt is grabbing Southern Miss from Conference USA, and it might get Marshall and Old Dominion, too. Throw in James Madison from the FCS, and the Sun Belt is about to get a whole lot stronger.

Loser: Conference USA

The doom-and-gloom is warranted with Conference USA likely losing nine of its 14 members, but there’s a flicker of hope. It can go add a slew of FCS programs, a few independents might be added to the mix, and there’s always the option of trying woo a few schools from the MAC, but there’s also a shot that the league can’t go on. It’s going to all depend on what kind of TV and streaming deals the league can rework.

Winner: USF

The Bulls beat Temple 34-14 on Saturday for their first win over an FBS program this season – they beat Florida A&M in September. That broke a streak of 17 straight losses against FBSers since getting by East Carolina in late October of 2019.

Loser: Arizona, Kansas, UNLV

With the heartbreaking 21-16 loss to Washington, Arizona is now 0-7 and on a 19-game losing streak since beating Colorado in early October of 2019.

With its tough loss to Oklahoma, Kansas has lost 19 straight to FBS teams 23 of its last 24.

UNLV had San Jose State there for the taking, but couldn’t catch a break on a ton of Spartan fumbles and collapsed late in a 27-20 loss. It’s now 0-7 and lost 13 straight – and 21 of its last 24 – with the last victory coming over Nevada to close out 2019.

– AAC expansion: One Really Big Thing
– OU-Kansas: Most Overrated Thing
– ACC & CFP: Most Underrated Thing
– Curveballs coming What It All Means, Week 8

NEXT: The really big Week 8 thing was …

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College Football Roundup Week 7: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 7 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

College football Week 7 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 7 Roundup

Week 7 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 7 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 8 opening lines | AP | Coaches
Big Game Reaction: Purdue, LSU, OU, more
Ranking the playoff contenders

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– Tennessee debacle: One Really Big Thing
– Iowa’s loss: Most Overrated Thing
– ASU’s loss: Most Underrated Thing
– A deep breath What It All Means, Week 7

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 7

Winner: UConn

Every college football player deserves to have some fun. UConn was having a rough run. It didn’t play in 2020, covid issues contributed to the loss two weeks ago in what was finally a winnable game against UMass, and the program hadn’t won a game since October of 2019. It hung on to beat Yale on Saturday, and now 128 FCS teams have a win. Of the two that don’t, one of them is …

Loser: Arizona

From all indications, first year head coach Jedd Fisch has the Wildcats on the right track. The program needed a total overhaul, and it’s happening with a better defense and young offensive players being thrown to the wolves. However, the Colorado game should’ve been winnable. Instead it was a 34-0 loss making it 19 straight defeats going back to the middle of 2019.

Winner: UTEP

2014 was the last time UTEP went bowling, and it was the lone winning season from 2006 until now. One of college football’s perennial doormats beat Louisiana Tech 19-3 to get to 6-1 for its best start since 2005.

Loser: UNLV

It’s the other team along with Arizona that doesn’t have a win. It’s playing better – the last three loses were by eight points or fewer – but the team can’t seem to catch or create any sort of a break. With the loss Utah State, the Rebels have lost 12 straight after closing out the 2019 season with a win over Nevada.

Winner: UTSA

That’s top 25-ranked UTSA to you. The 7-0 Roadrunners rolled through Rice 45-0 with a showdown – as weird as this might seems – with UTEP on the road coming up and UAB in a few weeks. Win those two games, and they’re almost certainly going to be unbeaten going into the Conference USA title game.

Loser: The U … Miami

There’s no Clemson on the schedule, and there’s no Notre Dame. The schedule was right, several nice pieces were in place, and this seemed like the year to rise up and take over the ACC – especially with Clemson struggling.

Instead, after yet a second straight brutally close loss – 45-42 to North Carolina – the Canes are 2-4 and have to win four of their last six against NC State, at Pitt, Georgia Tech, at Florida State, Virginia Tech, and at Duke just to get to a bowl.

Winner: Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck

Oh did Nebraska Nation have an all-in-good-natured-fun time with Fleck on social media last week, PJ Fleck was trending, but in the end, he got the win to go 4-1 against the Huskers. At 4-2, Minnesota bounced back from the horrendous loss to Bowling Green and with a win over Purdue earlier, control it its own destiny in the Big Ten West race.

Loser: Nebraska

Just when it seemed like the Huskers were turning a corner under Scott Frost, they suffered yet another close loss thanks to just enough mistakes to add up. With the 30-23 defeat to Minnesota, Nebraska has lost four of its last five games and now have to win two of its last four against Purdue, Ohio State, at Wisconsin and Iowa just to get bowl eligible.

– Tennessee debacle: One Really Big Thing
– Iowa’s loss: Most Overrated Thing
– ASU’s loss: Most Underrated Thing
– A deep breath What It All Means, Week 7

NEXT: The really big Week 7 thing was …

Pages: 12345

College Football Roundup Week 6: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 6 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.

College football Week 6 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 6 Roundup

Week 6 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 6 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 7 opening lines | AP | Coaches
Big Game Reaction: Texas A&M, Iowa, OU, more

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– A&M’s Win: One Really Big Thing
– Heisman Race: Most Overrated Thing
– Hello, Ohio State: Most Underrated Thing
– A new champion? What It All Means, Week 6

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 6

Loser: The Bret Bielema Bowl. The former Wisconsin head coach got a shot at his old program when the Badgers came to Champaign to face Illinois, but …

Winner: The Wisconsin defense didn’t let the home side have any fun. Already the best in the nation in several categories, the Badger D gave up just 93 yards of total offense, one third down conversion, and allowed the O to have the ball for almost 43 minutes in the 24-0 win.

Loser: BYU finally lost on its home field. The Cougars hadn’t dropped a game in Provo since a 45-19 blowout to Washington in 2019. It hadn’t lost at home to a team outside of the Power Five since a strange 7-6 clunker to Northern Illinois in 2018, and then …

Winner: Boise State took one for the Mountain West. BYU might have had its fun beating the Pac-12 South – with wins over Arizona State, Arizona, and Utah – but it couldn’t get by the Broncos at home in a 26-17 loss. At 2-3 coming into the game, it might have been a season-saver for Boise State and new head man Andy Avalos.

Loser: West Virginia. It started the season with a loss in a good battle at Maryland. That was fine – it could’ve gone either way – followed up by two wins including a 27-21 victory over Virginia Tech. The Mountaineers have dropped three straight with a 45-20 loss to Baylor on Saturday.

Winner: Baylor is now 5-1. More on this later, but don’t scoff – there are a surprising few Power Five teams undefeated or with one loss. The Bears lost to Oklahoma State a few weeks ago, but that’s been it. It’s a very, very rough road ahead, but second-year head man Dave Aranda has turned things around fast.

Loser: USC lost to Utah 42-26 to drop to 3-3. Losing to the Utes isn’t all that new – it happened in 2018, too – but including the 1993 Freedom Bowl, it was the first time the Trojans lost to them in the greater LA area.

Winner: Akron against Bowling Green. The Zips started the season 1-4, but it didn’t beat an FBS program until it took down the Falcons 35-20. Their only win last year was against Bowling Green, too. Those two were the only victories over an FBS team since beating Central Michigan in the middle of 2018, right after the last road win of any kind, beating Kent State.

Loser: The Rutgers defense that was starting to get a reputation for being good enough to keep the team in games – especially with a ton of takeaways – got ripped up by Michigan State in a 31-13 loss.

Kenneth Walker ran for 232 yards including a 93-yard touchdown dash – the longest play in Spartan history. WR Jalen Nailor caught five passes for 221 yards and three scores, but he didn’t get a walk-off like …

Winner: Wake Forest WR AT Perry caught three passes in the 40-37 overtime win over Syracuse. All three went for touchdowns, with a 46-yarder in the second quarter, a 69-yard play late in the third, and the game-winner in OT from 22 yards out.

– A&M’s Win: One Really Big Thing
– Heisman Race: Most Overrated Thing
– Hello, Ohio State: Most Underrated Thing
– A new champion? What It All Means, Week 6

NEXT: The really big Week 6 thing was …

Pages: 12345

College Football Roundup Week 5: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

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

College football Week 5 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 5 Roundup

Week 5 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 5 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 6 opening lines | AP | Coaches
Big Game Reaction: Cincinnati, Oregon, more

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– Cincinnati & BYU: One Really Big Thing
– SEC teams: Most Overrated Thing
– Hello, Kentucky: Most Underrated Thing
– Who’s No. 3? What It All Means, Week 5

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 5

Winner: Georgia pass defense

78.2. That’s the passer rating of the first five teams on the Georgia slate. The season isn’t halfway done, but by comparison, Northwestern was the only team last year to have a pass rating D under 100.

2011 Alabama was the last team to finish a season holding offenses to under 90, and no one has come close to that 83.7 mark over the last decade.

Clemson, UAB, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas have combined to hit 48% of their passes for 55 yards with one touchdown and seven picks against the Dawgs. Auburn is up next.

That’s one part of the state …

Loser: Georgia Southern pass defense

2016 Arizona State was the last team to finish a season allowing over 350 passing yards per game. Georgia Southern has a long way to go, but over the first five games it allowed an average of 351 per game with 18 touchdowns and four picks – all four interceptions were last week in the 59-33 win over Arkansas State.

Winner: Coastal Carolina

It’s not like there’s been a good team on the slate yet, but Coastal Carolina has kept the 2020 good vibes going by averaging 48 points per game in blowout after blowout.

Buffalo provided the one push – a 28-25 Chanticleer win – but everyone else has been hit by 49 points or more as the program is on a run of 17 straight regular season wins.

Loser: Wisconsin

The 1990 Badgers beat Ball State 24-7 in mid-September for their only win of the season. That was the last time the program started 1-3 until this season.

The blowout losses to Notre Dame and Michigan also mark the last back-to-back double-digit defeats since the 2009 team – that turned out to be terrific – dropped October dates to Ohio State and Iowa.

Winner: Accurate passers

14. That’s how many quarterbacks with at least 75 attempts are connecting on 70% or more of their throws. Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall leads the way at over 80%. Last year, seven QBs finished hitting the 70% mark, and as recently as 2017, just one passer even got past 68% for a season – Baker Mayfield finished completing 70% of his throws.

Loser: Missouri run defense

Mississippi State ran for 151 yards in the 2020 season finale win over Missouri, but that’s Mississippi State – it doesn’t run the ball. Before that, Georgia and Arkansas combined to run for well over 600 yards against the Tigers.

Tennessee ran for 458 yards in a 62-24 blowout in Columbia, marking the sixth time in the last eight games that Missouri allowed 275 rushing yards or more.

– Cincinnati & BYU: One Really Big Thing
– SEC teams: Most Overrated Thing
– Hello, Kentucky: Most Underrated Thing
– Who’s No. 3? What It All Means, Week 5

NEXT: The really big Week 5 thing was …

Pages: 12345

College Football Roundup Week 4: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 4 roundup with winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weird, wild, wacky final weekend of September

College football Week 4 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 4 Roundup

Week 4 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 4 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 5 opening lines | AP | Coaches

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– ACC out of CFP?: One Really Big Thing
– 128 teams: Most Overrated Thing
– Hello, Texas: Most Underrated Thing
– Wild, wacky, weird Week 4 What It All Means, Week 4

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 4

Winner: Notre Dame defense

The Fighting Irish defense had a rough second half against Florida State. Other than that, it’s been terrific as it saved the offense’s bacon time and again over the first three games. And then came the date in Chicago with Wisconsin. Notre Dame allowed 240 passing yards, but it picked off Graham Mertz four times and blew the game wide open taking two for scores.

Loser: Notre Dame offense

There’s talent there, and going against the Badger defense isn’t a proper indiction of anything, but the line gave up six sacks, 12 tackles for loss, got QB Jack Coan knocked out of the game, and paved the way for a net total of nine rushing yards.

4-0 is 4-0, and 41-13 is what the score says it is, but a rested Cincinnati is up next. It’s 13th in the nation in scoring defense and second in college football in red zone D.

Winner: WKU QB Bailey Zappe

WKU threw for 1,972 yards and 12 touchdowns in 12 games last season. The team might be 1-2 after losing to Army and Indiana over the last two weeks, but the Houston Baptist transfer has thrown for 1,224 yards and 13 touchdowns in just three games. He pushed IU for three scores and 365 yards in the 33-31 loss.

Loser: Navy’s passing game

It’s the last team in college football to fail to throw a touchdown pass. It’s more than that, though. Army has thrown two touchdown passes, but it leads the nation in passing efficiency. Navy is dead last in the category even with a 4-of-8 day for 98 yards in the 28-20 loss to Houston.

Winner: SMU QB Tanner Mordecai

Mordecai was always that guy that was supposedly in the hunt for the starting Oklahoma quarterback job, but Kyler Murray was Kyler Murray, and some Jalen Hurts guy came in, and then the program brought in Spencer Rattler. Stuck in a backup role, he moved on to SMU.

Through four games, Mordecai leads the nation with 20 touchdown passes, hitting 71% of his throws for 1,268 yards for the 4-0 Mustangs. He threw for four scores in the 42-34 win over TCU on Saturday.

Loser: Oklahoma’s scoring offense

The Sooners might be 4-0, but they only scored 23 points in the win over Nebraska two weeks ago, and beat West Virginia 16-13 on Saturday. Before that, they had never scored fewer than 24 under Lincoln Riley.

The 33-23 loss to Houston to start the 2016 season was the last time OU didn’t get to 24. The middle of 2013 was the last time OU failed to hit 24 in back-to-back regular season games. Kansas State is up next.

– ACC out of CFP?: One Really Big Thing
– 128 teams: Most Overrated Thing
– Hello, Texas: Most Underrated Thing
– Wild, wacky, weird Week 4 What It All Means, Week 4

NEXT: The really big Week 4 thing was …

Pages: 12345

College Football Roundup Week 2: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 2 roundup with the winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, and what it all means.

College football Week 2 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 2 Roundup

Week 2 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 2 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 3 opening lines projection
Week 2 Think, Know, Believe
10 Thoughts on Oregon’s win over Ohio State

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– Army passing, Arkansas Winners & Losers
– Oregon’s big win: One Really Big Thing
– Ohio State’s big loss: Most Overrated Thing
– Big Ten rises: Most Underrated Thing
– You wanted change? What It All Means, Week 2

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 2

Winner: FCS teams …

For the most part. Not everyone FCS team gets to have fun, but the spring season seemed to make s a difference – some teams are more experienced and far sharper.

FCS over FBS wins are usually rare, but after getting seven upsets in Week 1 – along with a slew of other close calls – Louisiana got all it could handle in a 27-24 win over Nicholls, and SE Louisiana pushed Louisiana Tech in a 45-42 loss. Duquesne beat Ohio and Jacksonville State beat …

Loser: Florida State

It was a short week coming off the emotional loss to Notre Dame, but that’s no excuse for losing 20-17 on a last second bomb to a Jacksonville State team that lost to UAB 31-0 in Week 1. FSU has started 0-2 in three of the last five seasons.

Winner: Mountain West vs. the Pac-12

It hasn’t been all perfect for the Mountain West with Hawaii going 0-2 against the Pac-12, San Jose State getting walloped by USC, and UNLV getting rocked by Arizona State, but San Diego State ripped through Arizona 38-14 on Saturday night.

Nevada took out Cal two weeks ago, and Utah State shocked Washington State. Throw in Fresno State’s tough 31-24 fight with the Oregon team that just beat Ohio State, and it’s been a decent season against the big league. However …

Loser: Colorado State

After starting the season with a 42-23 loss to South Dakota State from the FCS, it lost at home against a Vanderbilt team that scored three points in a loss to the FCS’s East Tennessee State in Week 1. The program is now 1-8 in its last nine games going back to 2019 and 11-26 since the middle of 2017.

Winner: Arkansas

It took a battle to get by Rice 38-17 to start the season, but the Hogs rocked Texas 40-21 for their first 2-0 start since 2016 and just the second time since 2013.

Loser: Kansas vs. Coastal Carolina

This isn’t exactly how the Power Five program envisioned this going. Usually the dates against the Group of Five schools are meant to be easy, fun wins to sharpen everything up, but Kansas lost to Coastal Carolina 49-22 on Friday night. That came after losing last season 38-23 at home to the Chanticleers and 12-7 early in the 2018 season.

Winner: Army passing game

It’s all relative, but who has the nation’s most efficient passing attack? It’s not like Patrick Mahomes is suddenly suiting up, but Army has a passer rating of 326. No. 2? Coastal Carolina with a rating of 222.25.

The 2-0 Knights have only thrown ten passes and completed eight for 175 yards – a whopping 17.5 yards per try – with three touchdowns and no picks. On the opposite side …

Loser: Navy passing game

Navy has the nation’s worst passing efficiency rating of just 45.44, completing just 8-of-26 throws for 93 yards and no touchdowns with two interceptions in an 0-2 start.

– Oregon’s big win: One Really Big Thing
– Ohio State’s big loss: Most Overrated Thing
– Big Ten rises: Most Underrated Thing
– You wanted change? What It All Means, Week 2

NEXT: The really big Week 2 thing was …

Pages: 12345

College Football Roundup Week 1: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 1 roundup with the winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, 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.

College Football Week 1 Roundup

Week 1 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 1 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 2 opening lines projection

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– Irish, ACC, Smart Schools Winners & Losers
– ACC & Pac-12: One Really Big Thing
– Bama’s win: Most Overrated Thing
– Texas won a big game: Most Underrated Thing
– You’re up, Georgia: What It All Means, Week 1

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 1

Winner: Notre Dame QB Jack Coan

Wisconsin sure could’ve used the poise of the former Badger against Penn State. Instead, the new Irish QB put on a show in the win over Florida State, throwing for 366 yards – the most from a Notre Dame passer since DeShone Kizer hit Syracuse for 471 in early 2016 – and four touchdowns with a pick.

Loser: Notre Dame run defense

The Irish allowed 264 rushing yards to the Noles. That makes it three games in the last four as a program allowing 200 or more on the ground. The one time it didn’t give up two bills was in the blowout CFP loss to Bama. Before last year’s Syracuse game, the Irish hadn’t allowed more than 100 yards in any of their previous six games.

Winner: Big 12

Reports of its demise weren’t greatly exaggerated, but they turned out to be a tad wrong. Not only is about to expand – most likely – with BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF, but it was solid on the field with West Virginia’s loss to Maryland the only blemish. Kansas State beat a decent Stanford team, Texas Tech got by Houston, and even Kansas picked up a victory.

Loser: American Athletic Conference

The league is about to lose three of its most important schools to the Big 12 unless it pulls out a whopper of an idea. Things weren’t much better on the field with the conference looking painfully thin. Tulsa lost to UC Davis from the FCS world, USF got shut out by NC State, Temple was annihilated by Rutgers, and Navy was ripped by Marshall as part of a 4-7 start for the league.

Winner: Mountain West

The conference appears to have survived the latest round of expansion – although it’s still ripe to get picked clean by the Pac-12 – with the Big 12 looking more towards the AAC. Yes, Colorado State and UNLV lost to FCS teams, and Boise State lost to UCF, but Nevada got by Cal and Utah State stunned Washington State. Overall, a 9-6 start isn’t bad.

Loser: ACC

Clemson’s loss mattered, but it’ll be okay. Miami getting destroyed by Alabama and North Carolina losing to Virginia Tech hurt mainly because of the rankings. Duke fumbling away a loss to Charlotte and Georgia Tech dropping the date with Northern Illinois made things even worse.

Winner: The smart schools

The US News & World Report college rankings might be a bit overblown, but they get the most pub. Among the best major national universities and their academic rankings, Notre Dame (19) survived FSU, UCLA (20) came up with a signature win over LSU, Michigan (24) looked great against Western Michigan, and USC (24), Florida (30), and Boston College (35) all won, but …

Loser: The really, really, really smart schools

Stanford (6) should’ve been better in a rough performance against Kansas State. Northwestern (9) got run over by Michigan State, Duke (10) suffered an embarrassing loss to Charlotte, Vanderbilt (14) came up with a whopping three points against East Tennessee State, and Rice (16) couldn’t hang with Arkansas.

– ACC & Pac-12: One Really Big Thing
– Bama’s win: Most Overrated Thing
– Texas won a big game: Most Underrated Thing
– You’re up, Georgia: What It All Means, Week 1

NEXT: The really big Week 1 thing was …

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College Football Roundup Week 0: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 0 roundup with the winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, and what it all means.

College football Week 0 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 0 Roundup

Week 0 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 0 Scoreboard | Week 1 Expert Picks

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– The Super Seniors: One Really Big Thing
– Nebraska’s loss: Most Overrated Thing
– UCLA’s win: Most Underrated Thing
– Learn from this already: What It All Means, Week 0

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Winners & Losers From Week 0

Winner: Bret Bielema

When we last saw Bielema as a head coach, he was in Year Five at Arkansas and it wasn’t going well. He went 4-8 overall, 1-7 in conference play, and that was it – he couldn’t replicate the Wisconsin magic. He also went winless in the SEC in his first year.

There’s no issue with getting skunked in conference play in his first season as the head man at Illinois after a 30-22 win over Nebraska.

Loser: Scott Frost

While he’s not going to get fired yet – Nebraska loves him too much and everyone is desperate for this to work – with this loss to the Fighting Illini he’s now 12-21 as the Nebraska head coach and 9-18 in the Big Ten. He really, really, really needed this win, and now there’s zero margin for error the rest of the way.

To take the Illinois win even further …

Winner: Bret Bielema vs. Illinois

Bielema’s 2012 Wisconsin team lost a 30-27 heartbreaker to Nebraska early in the season, but the two would meet again in the Big Ten Championship.

Wisconsin 70, Nebraska 31.

After the win in Champaign on Saturday, Bielema is now 3-1 against Nebraska by a combined score of 175-100, or an average of 44-25.

Loser: Nebraska vs. Illinois (lately)

Nebraska had won four in a row against Illinois and was 9-1-1 in the series since a 9-6 loss to kickoff the 1924 season, and up until last year was 12-2-1 overall with the series starting in 1903. The 2020 Fighting Illini won 41-23 in Lincoln and followed it up with the win on Saturday.

Winner: UTEP

How rare was UTEP’s 30-3 win over New Mexico State? It was the program’s largest margin of victory since beating North Texas 52-24 at the end of the 2016 season, and it was the largest road win since beating UTSA 34-0 in 2014. It’s also just the third win over an FBS team since that victory over the Mean Green in ‘16.

Loser: UConn

2020 was supposed to be UConn’s first season as an independent, but it chose not to play during a global pandemic. In its first game back, it came up with just 107 yards of total offense in a 45-0 loss to Fresno State.

– The Super Seniors: One Really Big Thing
– Nebraska’s loss: Most Overrated Thing
– UCLA’s win: Most Underrated Thing
– Learn from this already: What It All Means, Week 0

NEXT: The really big Week 0 thing was …

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College Football Roundup Week 15: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College football Week 15 roundup. 5 things that matter, winners, losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend and what it all means

College football Week 15 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 15 Roundup

Week 15 Roundup
Rankings AP | Coaches
CFN 1-127 Rankings | Week 16 Early Lines
Bowl Projections | Week 15 Scoreboard

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5. Winners & Losers From Week 15

– USC saved the Pac-12: One Really Big Thing
– Florida losing to LSU: Most Overrated Thing
– Coast Carolina survival: Most Underrated Thing
– The surprise ending: What It All Means, Week 15

Winner: Every decent college football head coach’s agent

Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal is the 11th-highest paid head coaching a 12-team Pac-12. Don’t think for a second his agent wouldn’t like to see his name on a few 5 Top Head Coaching Options For The (insert job opening here).

Hugh Freeze, Lane Kiffin, Billy Napier, Matt Campbell, and on and on and on. With the openings at Auburn, Illinois, and Arizona – and more to come – it’s a good time to be a decent college football head coach.

Loser (but not really): Gus Malzahn, (former) Auburn head coach

68-35. Three wins over Alabama in eight years and two in the last four. A drive away from a national championship, an SEC title, an appearance in another, what will be eight bowl appearances in eight years, five top 25 finishes and. four in the top 15, no losing seasons, and five top three finishes in the always-loaded SEC West.

Ol’ Gus … he did alright.

Winner: North Carolina rushing offense

North Carolina RB Javonte Williams ran for 236 yards and three touchdowns in the 62-26 win over Miami. That was a good day – Michael Carter’s was better.

Carter ran 24 times for 308 yards and two touchdowns – averaging close to 13 yards per carry – as a part of the unstoppable 1-2 rushing punch that blew past the Hurricanes for 554 rushing yards and six touchdowns.

Loser: Miami Hurricanes in December

All Miami had to do was win at home and it was off almost certainly off to the Orange Bowl. Instead, the blowout loss to North Carolina knocked it out of the New Year’s Six and off to one of the ACC’s other bowls that will probably be in December.

One issue – with the loss, Miami is now 0-5 in December since beating West Virginia in the 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl. To make this worse the Canes are 1-11 in December since winning the 2006 MPC Computers Bowl over Miami.

Winner: Cade York, PK LSU

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Marco Wilson shoe-throwing incident will be the signature moment of the LSU 37-34 win over Florida, but give the kickers some credit, especially York.

Florida’s Evan McPherson hit a 31-yarder to tie it up with under three minutes to play, and he barely missed a 51-yard bomb to would have sent it into overtime.

York hit field goals from 39 and 30 yards out, but he nailed an all-timer 57-yard shot through the fog with 23 seconds to play.

Loser: LSU defense

To make this even more painful for Florida … 609 yards.

The Gator O started the season with what would be a season-high 642 yards in the win over Ole Miss, and the 609 yards against LSU were the second-most.

Winner: JT Daniels, QB Georgia

How good is Georgia now with Daniels kicking it all in? He might have only thrown for 139 yards and two touchdowns against South Carolina two weeks ago, but he wasn’t needed. Against Missouri he threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns, giving him 839 yards, nine touchdowns, and a pick in three games.

He’s averaging 10.4 yards per throw. The last time a Georgia QB averaged over 10 yards per pass against an SEC team was late October of 2018 against Florida, and Daniels has done it twice in three games.

Loser: Passing in Army/Navy

Passing, schmassing. 2-for 7, 37 yards. That’s what Army and Navy combined to do throwing the ball in the 15-0 Black Knight win. Army QB Tyhier Tyler attempted one pass, and he connected for 28 yards.

– USC saved the Pac-12: One Really Big Thing
– Florida losing to LSU: Most Overrated Thing
– Coast Carolina survival: Most Underrated Thing
– The surprise ending: What It All Means, Week 15

NEXT: The really big thing was …

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