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College Football Roundup Week 8: Overrated, Underrated, What It All Means. Is Clemson THAT Good?

College football Week 8 roundup with the winners, losers, overrated, and underrated parts of the week

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

NEXT: The really big Week 8 thing was …

Pages: 12345

College Football Midseason Roundup: Overrated, Underrated, What It All Means

College football midseason roundup with the 5 things that matter and what it all means

College football midseason roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the season so far, and what it all means

College Football Midseason Roundup

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Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Everything is fine One Really Big Thing
– That BIG win Most Overrated Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
– Superpowers are back What It All Means, Midseason

Winners & Losers From College Football First Half

Winner: Pac-12

UCLA is all of a sudden great. It’s 6-0 for the first time since 2005, and USC got to 6-0 for the first time since 2006 before losing to Utah. The Utes are great, Oregon is great, Oregon State has become wildly interesting, and Washington is as fun as any team going.

Washington State went to Madison and beat Wisconsin, Stanford went to South Bend and beat Notre Dame, Arizona took out one of the best teams in the FCS when North Dakota State came to Tucson.

Forgetting the expansion aspect – other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? – the conference had a great few weeks.

Loser: Mountain West

What happened? All of a sudden the league that was so great over the last few years forgot how to play.

Boise State had to change offenses midway through, Fresno State struggled when QB Jake Haener went down, and it can’t be confirmed, but an angel reportedly loses its wings every time San Diego State’s brutal offense attempts a forward pass.

Utah State – awful. Nevada – awful. Colorado State, Hawaii, awful and awful.

To be fair, the rise of UNLV has been a blast, Wyoming has balled out, and Air Force and San Jose State have been great. The league could use a big second half, though.

Winner: Big 12

Who doesn’t want to be a part of the Big 12 shopping spree?

BYU has been okay, UCF is great, Cincinnati will probably be the top Group of Five program going to a New Year’s Six game, and Houston has been wildly fun. That’s all on the way in 2023 to go along with a base – at least in full form a season – with the strongest top-to-bottom conference in the country.

Where’s the easy out? Really? Iowa State is the worst team in the conference? Or maybe it’s Oklahoma? Or Texas Tech? They all might be bowling, including Kansas – one of the best stories in college football in the first half.

Loser: Big Ten

How much longer do we have to wait before Ohio State is just handed the Big Ten title trophy so we can go do other stuff?

Michigan has been great, and Illinois is having a wonderful breakthrough season, but there’s a whole lot of bad just about everywhere else.

Nebraska’s season fizzled immediately against a Northwestern team that flat-out died ever since the trip to Ireland. Wisconsin has been a massive disappointment, Michigan State a bigger one, and Iowa’s offense makes people sad.

Ohio State vs Michigan will be fun, but probably not.

Winner: Sun Belt

The whole Sun Belt, Fun Belt thing is kicking in full force.

It yoinked a bunch of programs from Conference USA, and then it went on a rampage to start the season.

How good was James Madison over the first several weeks? That’s how you make an entrance.

Appalachian State? All it did was beat Texas A&M. Marshall? It might not even go bowling, but it beat Notre Dame. Old Dominion? Welcome to the new era with your new coach, Virginia Tech, here’s a loss.

Nebraska has been miserable for years, but a loss to Georgia Southern broke the program’s back.

South Alabama might be the league’s best team, Southern Miss has been a good new edition, and Troy is in the mix. From top to bottom, the conference is strong, but …

Loser: Group of Five programs

Remember last year when we were all wondering if Cincinnati should be in the College Football Playoff, and then Alabama and reality smacked us all in the face? Good times.

Yeah, that whole narrative ended never happened for 2022 as the Group of Five programs tapped out almost instantly. Houston bailed out fast. Cincinnati lost right away. UCF lost to Louisville – that’s not good – and after the hot start, the Sun Belt CFP dream fizzled after they started beating each other up. Conference USA? No. The MAC? Double no.

It’s been a rough run for the second-tier. At least their respective conference races are fascinating.

– Everything is fine One Really Big Thing
– That BIG win Most Overrated Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
– Superpowers are back What It All Means, Midseason

NEXT: The really big Week 6 thing was …

Pages: 12345

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

College football Week 6 roundup with the winners, losers, overrated, and underrated parts of the week

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

College Football Week 6 Roundup

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College Football Week 6 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 6 Scoreboard
Week 6 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Top 10 Hot Seat Coach Rankings

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Alabama struggled again One Really Big Thing
– Texas blew out Oklahoma Most Overrated Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
– CFP might be wide open What It All Means, Week 6

Winners & Losers From Week 6

Winner: Interim head coaches

Mike Sanford’s Colorado team didn’t play, but the other interim guys went 4-0.

All of a sudden, some of the teams whose seasons were lost are starting to have some fun. Georgia Tech’s Brent Key and his staff pitched a gem in the win over Duke. Interim – and likely new – Wisconsin head coach Jim Leonhard got the win over Northwestern.

Under Mickey Joseph, Nebraska finally won a close game as it slipped by Rutgers. Arizona State’s Shaun Aguano go the job done in the win over Washington.

Loser: Tenured head coaches

The five coaches who have been with their schools the longest are Kirk Feretnz (1999), Mike Gundy (2005), Kyle Whittingham (2005), Pat Fitzgerald (2006), and Rick Stockstil (2005). Gundy was the only one of the four get a win this weekend.

Winner: Troy QB Jarret Doege

The sixth-year senior started out at Bowling Green, left for West Virginia, went to Western Kentucky for a cup of coffee, and he stepped in at Troy last week.

After throwing for 237 yards in the win over Southern Miss, he’s now 78th on the all-time NCAA passing list with 10,926. Why is that a big deal? In that one game he passed Matt Leinart, Marcus Mariota, Ben Roethlisberger, and Danny Wuerffel.

Loser: Virginia passing game

The Virginia Cavaliers lost to Louisville 34-17 to go to 2-4, but Brennan Armstrong had one of his best passing games of the season with 313 yards and five scores.

In six games Virginia has thrown five touchdown passes and seven picks. In 2021 Virginia finished second in the nation in passing – Armstrong threw five touchdown passes in a game over Illinois.

Winner: Colorado State

The Rams were 0-4 going into Nevada. They went 1-of-11 on third down conversions, turned it over three times, committed 14 penalties, and only finished with 255 yards of total offense.

They technically didn’t score an offensive point in 60 minutes of play, getting gifted an untimed down on a questionable running into the kicker call to get a field goal for a 17-14 win – the defense scored the two touchdowns.

Loser: Memphis

Everything was going fine against Houston with a 29-13 lead with eight minutes to play. And then it all fell apart.

Jayce Rogers returned the ensuing kickoff for a score, but Memphis went back up 32-19 late on a field goal. Houston – helped by an onside kick – got two Clayton Tune touchdown passes to KeSean Carter in the final 1:17 to pull off the improbable 33-32 win.

Winner: San Diego State QB/S Jalen Mayden

The woeful Aztec offense came into the game against Hawaii with the nation’s worst passing attack. In the 16-14 win – thanks to a walk-off field goal – defensive back Jalen Mayden got the starting quarterback nod – it was his former position at Mississippi State – and went 24-of-36 for 322 yards and a touchdown.

Loser: Ohio pass defense

The Bobcats beat Akron 55-34, but it allowed 418 passing yards. That made it the sixth straight game this season allowing over 300 yards through the air, and now the nation’s worst pass defense is allowing 387 yards per game – 63 more than the second worst, Vanderbilt. Western Michigan is up next this week.

– Alabama struggled again One Really Big Thing
– Texas blew out Oklahoma Most Overrated Thing
– Quarterback injuries Most Underrated Thing
– CFP might be wide open What It All Means, Week 6

NEXT: The really big Week 6 thing was …

Pages: 12345

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

College football Week 5 roundup with the winners, losers, overrated, and underrated parts of the week

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

College Football Week 5 Roundup

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College Football Week 5 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 5 Scoreboard
Week 6 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
Chryst, Dorrell Fired: Hot Seat Coach Rankings
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Bryce’s shoulder One Really Big Thing
– Michigan-Iowa final score Most Overrated Thing
– Utah is going to matter Most Underrated Thing
– Optics don’t matter What It All Means, Week 5

Winners & Losers From Week 5

Winner: Illinois head coach Bret Bielema

The former Badger head coach rolled into Camp Randall Stadium, saw Chase Brown – the nation’s second leading rusher – rip into the Badgers for 129 yards and a score, wouldn’t let his team do the Jump Around, and out-Wisconsined Wisconsin before leaving with a 34-10 win.

Bielema is now 4-1 this year at Illinois. Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst was fired.

Loser: Wisconsin’s running game

The Badgers finished the game with a grand total of two rushing yards. The team has now failed to hit the 200-yard rushing mark in three of the last four games, losing all three to Washington State, Ohio State, and Illinois.

It’s 1-17 since 2009 – the lone win was 24-7 over Purdue – when failing to hit the 100-yard mark. By the way, this wasn’t even close to the biggest clunker in the last decade. 2015 Northwestern held Wisconsin to -26 net rushing yards.

Winner: UConn

UConn was 1-40 since the middle of 2017 against FBS teams – the lone exception was a 56-35 win over UMass in 2019 – and 2-56 since 2016 against them.

The last home win over an FBS team? 20-14 over Tulsa in 2017.

With a slew of banged up parts, the Huskies still managed to get by Fresno State 19-14 by allowing just 50 rushing yards on the day and pulling ahead on a 17-yard Devontae Houston run in the final few minutes.

Loser: Wagner

Wagner lost to Syracuse 59-0 on Saturday because Syracuse didn’t want it to be 100-0.

The Orange got up 49-0 at halftime and cruised from there, but not defensively. Wagner finished with 50 yards of total offense, four first downs, and completed two of six passes for 19 yards.

Winner: Boise State running game

Down 13-0 against a San Diego State that was third in the nation in rushing last season, Boise State under new offensive coordinator and former head coach Dirk Koetter ripped off big run after big run on the way to 316 yards and five scores in the 35-13 win. QB Taylor Green and RB George Holani each ran for over 100 yards.

And on the other side …

Loser: San Diego State passing attack

Against the Broncos, QB Braxton Burmeister ran well but only completed 2-of-8 passes for 33 yards and an interception before getting knocked out for the game. Backups Liu Aumavae and Kyle Crum combined to hit a grand total of none of their eight passes as Boise State rolled through the second half.

San Diego State now has the nation’s worst passing attack. averaging just under 63 yards per game.

Winner: QB Bo Nix, Oregon

It wasn’t a perfect performance, but Nix was solid in the 45-27 win over Stanford. He threw for 161 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and led the team with 141 rushing yards and two touchdowns highlighted by an 80-yard scoring dash.

In the last five games since the blowout loss to Georgia, Nix has thrown for close to 1,100 yards with 12 touchdowns and just one pick. And then there’s his former team …

Loser: Auburn scoring offense

The Tigers are trying. They have a good-looking QB prospect in freshman Robby Ashford who threw for 337 yards and two touchdowns in the 21-17 loss to LSU. Even so, the O can’t get the points up on the board.

Over the last three games against Penn State, Missouri, and LSU, Auburn has scored a total of 46 points without more than 17 in any of the three.

The team is 1-14 in its last 15 games – the overtime survival against Missouri two weeks ago being the lone exception – when scoring fewer than 24 points.

– Bryce’s shoulder One Really Big Thing
– Michigan-Iowa final score Most Overrated Thing
– Utah is going to matter Most Underrated Thing
– Optics don’t matter What It All Means, Week 5

NEXT: The really big Week 5 thing was …

Pages: 12345

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

College football Week 4 roundup with the winners, losers, overrated, and underrated parts of the week

College football Week 4 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the weekend, and what it all means

College Football Week 4 Roundup

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College Football Week 4 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 4 Scoreboard | Week 5 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Hot Seat Coach Rankings
AP Rankings | Coaches Poll

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Beating Sparty One Really Big Thing
– Georgia-Kent State Most Overrated Thing
– Cincinnati is good? Most Underrated Thing
– Who’s the 4th CFP team? What It All Means, Week 4

Winners & Losers From Week 4

Winner: James Madison

Who leads the nation in run defense? By a mile it’s the newbie to the FBS world.

James Madison is allowing just 28 yards per game. Appalachian State ran over Texas A&M for 181 yards in its 17-14 win a few weeks ago. It ran for just 63 in its 32-28 home loss to the Dukes.

By the way, JMU – who also destroyed the Middle Tennessee team that just beat Miami – is still unbeaten. Texas A&M isn’t.

Loser: Tulane

We were right there with you, Tulane.

The Green Wave started the season 3-0 with a great win at Kansas State. We would’ve loved to have ranked them over K-State, and then Oklahoma – who lost to the Wildcats this weekend – and make them a national thing, but …

Southern Miss 27, Tulane 24.

Winner: Clemson QB DJ Uiagalelei & Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman

Everyone wants to bench DJ Uiagalelei for super-recruit Cade Klubnik, and everyone want to blame him – at least partially – for Clemson’s offensive woes.

All he did against Wake Forest was potentially save the season, throwing for 371 yards and five touchdowns with no picks. He also ran for 52 yards in the 51-45 double overtime win.

Sam Hartman came back a few weeks ago from his blood clotting issue, and he almost pulled it off against the Tigers. He threw for 337 yards and six touchdowns without an interception.

Loser: UMass passing game

Without getting too deep into it, you have to be awful at throwing the football to have a passer rating lower than 90. UConn threw 17 picks and didn’t go down the field last year, and it was the nation’s least efficient attack with a 92.32 rating. 2020 Bowling Green and 2019 Northwestern finished in the 80s.

After four games, UMass has completed 47% of its passes for 240 yards with one touchdown and six interceptions for a rating of 62.5.

Winner: Air Force running game

Air Force led the nation with 328 rushing yards per game last season. That’s what it does. It led the nation in 2020, was second behind Navy in 2019, was third in 2018, fourth in 2017, and it keeps going from there.

Minnesota is second in the nation averaging 295 rushing yards per game. Air Force? After hitting Nevada for 461 yards and the third five-touchdown game of the four so far, it’s averaging 412 rushing yards per game.

Loser: Colorado run defense

It’s no fun to keep hammering on Colorado. It’s one of the nation’s most beautiful schools, everyone around the football program is great, and this team is really, really struggling against the run.

Hawaii is having problems. It’s giving up 261 rushing yards per game – the second-most in the nation.

Colorado has allowed 1,293 rushing yards in four games. It’s giving up 323 yards an outing, allowing seven yards per carry, and gave up 16 touchdowns. That’s more yards than eight teams allowed in 13 or more games in all of 2021.

Winner: Michigan RB Blake Corum

He’s not the best back in college football right now – shhhhhh, it’s not popular to go here in a Bijan world, but Chase Brown of Illinois has been wonderful. However, Corum is on the hottest run with a nation-leading nine touchdowns.

He got one in each of the first two games and came up with five in the win over UConn – but that’s UConn. Against Maryland, with the team needing a steady force, he carried it 30 times for 243 yards and two scores in the win.

Loser: Houston penalties

Penalties aren’t the whole reason why Houston has been one of the stranger disappointments of the young 2022 season, but they’re not a plus.

It managed to slip past Rice, but it gave away 110 yards on ten penalties in the process. That way hardly an outsider with ten or more sins committed in each of the first four games.

Next up: Tulane. It’s been flagged just 15 times in four game for 120 yards. Houston gave up 121 yards in penalties a few weeks ago in the loss to Texas Tech.

– Beating Sparty One Really Big Thing
– Georgia-Kent State Most Overrated Thing
– Cincinnati is good? Most Underrated Thing
– Who’s the 4th CFP team? What It All Means, Week 4

NEXT: The really big Week 4 thing was …

Pages: 12345

College Football Roundup Week 3: What It All Means. Welcome Back, Pac-12

College football Week 3 roundup with the winners, losers, overrated, and underrated aspects to the season

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

College Football Week 3 Roundup

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College Football Week 3 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 3 Scoreboard | Week 4 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Hot Seat Coach Rankings
AP Rankings | Coaches Poll

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Pac-12 is back One Really Big Thing
– New Year’s Six & Gof5 Most Overrated Thing
– Georgia’s blowout Most Underrated Thing
– Preseason is over What It All Means, Week 3

Winners & Losers From Week 3

Winner: Kansas

It’s not like Kansas beat a bunch of Cream Puff State teams on the way to the 3-0 start. Yeah, there was Tennessee Tech, but the O got rolling in road wins against West Virginia and Houston, too. Now Kansas has its first 3-0 start since 2009.

How crazy is this? Kansas was 2-23 in its previous 26 games before this run, and it hadn’t won more than three games in a season since that same 2009 season. Making this even sweeter …

Loser: Kansas State

Just when we all started to fall for Kansas State after a dominant 40-12 win over Missouri, it fell flat in a 17-10 home loss to … Tulane? Maybe it was a lookahead game before going to Oklahoma to start Big 12 play, or maybe the Green Wave are that good. It was a rough loss no matter what.

Winner: Arizona

You’re not crazy to suggest that Arizona was the worst Power Five team in college football over the last few years. It won one game last year, and it only won the 10-3 uggo because Cal was decimated by COVID.

Arizona was 1-23 in its previous 24 games going into the season, but it was able to ruin San Diego State’s grand opening of its new stadium, battled hard in a loss to Mississippi State, and then on Saturday, as an underdog it beat a North Dakota State team that might win the FCS Championship.

Part of the losing streak that led up to the first three games was a 70-7 loss to close out the 2020 season against …

Loser: Arizona State

There hasn’t been a losing season since 2016, and blowing off the strange short-scheduled COVID year of 2020, the last 1-2 start to a season was 1999.

Athletic departments will put up with a lot – Herm Edwards would still be the head coach right now through the NCAA investigations if the team was 3-0. Instead, ASU lost at Oklahoma State two weeks ago – no shame there – and then as a 20-point favorite it wasn’t even close in a 30-21 loss to Eastern Michigan.

Winner: UNLV

The last time UNLV was good at college football was … almost never.

There was a bowl appearance in 2013 – the Rebels lost – and that was the only winning season since 2000. There have been just four winning seasons since 1986, and almost no luck turning this thing around in recent years.

On Saturday, UNLV got revenge for that 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl loss to North Texas with a 58-27 win. Now the team is 2-1 – the only loss a good 20-14 battle with Cal – and a bowl appearance is a real possibility.

Getting to a bowl might come down to the regular season finale against …

Loser: Nevada

Nevada had four straight winning seasons under Jay Norvell. He left for Colorado State, the offense was starting over, and the results have been mixed in a 2-2 start.

The wins over New Mexico State and Texas State were expected, but the Wolf Pack lost to Incarnate Word from the FCS 55-41, and it didn’t do anything in the rain and delays against Iowa in a 27-0 loss.

Winner: Rutgers

Rutgers has done this before. It went 3-0 last year, and then lost four straight. 2012 it started 3-0 and went on to a nine-win season. Even with the success of early last year, winning a lot isn’t the norm for the program.

Boston College, Wagner, and Temple haven’t exactly set the world on fire, but 3-0 is 3-0, the Scarlet Knight defense is playing great, and it’s scoring, unlike …

Loser: Iowa’s offense

The Hawkeyes last through several big delays and the rain to get by Nevada 27-0. To put this into perspective, the point total was 39, and the two teams didn’t even get close.

A point total of 54 is normal – and slightly low – for an average college game. that’s how many total points were scored in the first three Iowa games.

Iowa is currently dead last in the nation in total offense, 124th in scoring offense, 124th in passing, and 2-1 is 2-1. Get by Rutgers, and all will be okay before hosting Michigan.

– Pac-12 is back One Really Big Thing
– New Year’s Six & Gof5 Most Overrated Thing
– Georgia’s blowout Most Underrated Thing
– Preseason is over What It All Means, Week 3

NEXT: The really big Week 3 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, losers, overrated, and underrated aspects to the season

College football Week 2 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the weekend, and what it all means

College Football Week 2 Roundup

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College Football Week 2 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 2 Scoreboard | Week 3 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Hot Seat Coach Rankings
AP Rankings | Coaches Poll

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Sun Belt, Fun Belt One Really Big Thing
– Bama’s close call: Most Overrated Thing
– Michigan’s roll: Most Underrated Thing
– This is going to be weird: What It All Means, Week 2

Winners & Losers From Week 2

Winner: College Football Playoff expansion

Originally the powers-that-be were pumping the brakes on when the 12-team expansion was going to happen. Contracts, bowl deals, various plans all require years to put together, and they aren’t as easily broken as many fans think, and … of course there’s a way to do it. It’s now being hinted that the expanded playoff might come as soon as the 2024 season. But for now …

Loser: Bowl ties and affiliations

Here’s the good and the bad of this last weekend. To look ahead a few months from now, the rise of the Sun Belt means some of the earlier bowls will be more interesting. The problem is that the Sun Belt bowl ties are awful.

No offense – every bowl is beautiful – but unless ESPN can rig it so a slew of Power Five teams can take over spots reserved for Group of Five programs, the best bowl tie-in for the Sun Belt is the … R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl? The Frisco? The LendingTree, or the Boca Raton?

Winner: Georgia Southern QB Kyle Vantrease

To keep with the Sun Belt theme this week, 1) remember, Georgia Southern was an option-running, little-throwing program not all that long ago, 2) Kyle Vantrease spent five years at Buffalo and hit the 300-yard mark just twice in 35 career games with 25 total touchdown passes, and 3) last year Clay Helton was fired by USC after a tough Week 2 loss, and this year his team’s win over Scott Frost sparked a regime change at Nebraska. But I digress on that last part.

In two games at Georgia Southern, Vantrease is 2-0 throwing for 367 yards and four scores against Morgan State, and 409 yards and a touchdown against Nebraska. He’s currently No. 2 in the nation in passing yards per game, just three yards an outing behind Tulsa’s Davis Brin.

Vantrease has thrown for 767 yards in the two games. 2019 Georgia Southern threw for 968 yards and nine touchdowns in 13 games.

Loser: Florida passing game

The Gators are hardly a loser with an offense that features a top 10 overall draft pick talent in Anthony Richardson, but the O has yet to throw a touchdown pass in two games. As great as 15 is, his two picks – especially a tough pick six – were costly against Kentucky. The team has just 311 passing yards in two games.

Winner: Washington State QB Cameron Ward

The transfer from Incarnate Word was supposed to raise the level of the Washington State passing game and the offense as a whole. The numbers might not be astronomical – 428 yards and four scores with two picks in two wins – but he was strong in the opener against Idaho, and he came up with a slew of clutch, strong throws with 200 yards and a score to get out with a win, which leads to …

Loser: Wisconsin vs Power 5 teams in September

Wisconsin had three home games and one neutral site date in Chicago against Power Five programs over the last two Septembers. It went 0-4. The last win over a Power Five program was against Northwestern in late 2019 – the 2020 season started in October.

It lost to Penn State and Michigan in Camp Randall in 2021, and got rocked by Notre Dame in Soldier Field. This last Saturday it lost to Washington State, and now it’s not looking good to avoid 0-5.

The next – and last – September game against a Power Five team this season is at Ohio State.

– Sun Belt, Fun Belt One Really Big Thing
– Bama’s close call: Most Overrated Thing
– Michigan’s roll: Most Underrated Thing
– This is going to be weird: What It All Means, Week 2

NEXT: The really big Week 2 thing was …

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

College football Week 1 roundup with the winners, losers, overrated, and underrated aspects to the season

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

College Football Week 1 Roundup

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College Football Week 1 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 1 Scoreboard | Week 2 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Stetson Bennett is for real? One Really Big Thing
– Week 1: Most Overrated Thing
– Power 5 teams: Most Underrated Thing
– Well that was fun: What It All Means, Week 1

Winners & Losers From Week 1

Winner: Arizona

Arizona had gone 1-23 in its previous 24 games before starting the 2022 season at San Diego State, and the only reason it got that one victory was because Cal was hammered by COVID in last season’s meeting.

It was supposed to be a joyous day for SDSU as it opened its awesome new Snapdragon Stadium, but Arizona – complete with a total overhaul of talent and transfers – got up fast and won 38-20.

It helped that Arizona was one of the few teams that could handle the …

Loser: Hot weather

It was over 100 degrees in San Diego, which meant the fan base cleared out of Snapdragon early on with Arizona taking charge right away. Aztec fans were there and left – UCLA fans didn’t even show up to a cavernous Rose Bowl for the win over Bowling Green. The matchup had something to do with it, but the heat was a problem, too.

Winner: Syracuse

Syracuse closed out last season with three straight ugly losses when all it needed was one win to go bowling. It was a home underdog against a dangerous Louisville team in the ACC and season opener, was up 10-7 in the first quarter, and rolled from there on the way to a 31-7 shocker of a blowout.

Loser: Army and Navy

Air Force held up the honor of the military academies with a 48-17 win over Northern Iowa. Army has a team – and a schedule – in place to do big things this season, but it needed to start hot. Instead, Coastal Carolina turned the tables by holding the ball for over 36 minutes in a 38-28 win.

Winner: Big 12

West Virginia lost a fun 38-31 game against Pitt, but other than that the conference got off to a great start. There might have been a slew of games against FCS teams, but TCU won at Colorado, too. In all, the conference went 9-1 – and that doesn’t count wins by BYU, UCF, and Houston – by a combined score of 488 to 158. Or, an average score of around 49 to 16.

Loser: Group of Five team in the New Year’s Six Race

Cincinnati played well against Arkansas, but lost. Houston needed a few overtimes in a shaky win over UTSA, Boise State had problems in a loss to Oregon State, and San Diego State struggled in a rough home loss to Arizona. So where’s the star among the Group of Five programs this year?

UCF and Fresno State had few problems against FCS teams, and Coastal Carolina beat Army, but that’s about it among the realistic options outside of the Power Five the hunt for a spot in a New Year’s Six game.

– Stetson Bennett is for real? One Really Big Thing
– Week 1: Most Overrated Thing
– Power 5 teams: Most Underrated Thing
– Well that was fun: 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, losers, overrated, and underrated aspects to the season

College football Week 0 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the weekend, and what it all means

College Football Week 0 Roundup

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College Football Week 0 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 0 Scoreboard | Week 1 Expert Picks

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Nebraska can’t buy a break: One Really Big Thing
– THAT kick: Most Overrated Thing
– Florida Atlantic rolls: Most Underrated Thing
– Week 0 should be more: What It All Means, Week 0

Winners & Losers From Week 0

Winner: Pat Fitzgerald

The guy’s team went 3-9 last season – and got destroyed in the only Big Ten win of the season for Nebraska – and yet he was able to kickoff 2022 with a 31-28 upset over the Huskers thanks to a good running game, steady play by the defense in the second half, and a brilliant performance by the offensive line. It was just one game, but that wasn’t the 2021 Northwestern team in Dublin.

Loser: Scott Frost

Frost was in this exact spot in last year’s Week 0 piece after losing to Illinois. After that loss he was 12-21 as the Nebraska head coach and 9-18 in the Big Ten. Fast forward a year later, and after a slew of changes and adjustments, he’s now 15-30 overall and just 10-26 in conference play.

Winner: Drake Maye

North Carolina’s new quarterback got his light scrimmage in. Maye had a few off throws, but he was 29-of-37 for 294 yards and five touchdowns – and ran for 55 yards – in the 56-24 win over Florida A&M. It should’ve been an easier game overall for the Tar Heels – at least an easier first half – but Maye looked fantastic.

Loser: FCS teams

There will be moments when the FCS rises up and shines. Austin Peay gave WKU a battle in a 38-27 loss, but Idaho State (52-21 to UNLV), Duquesne (47-7 to Florida State), and Florida A&M (it was missing a slew of players against North Carolina) all lost by double-digits.

Winner: UConn

The Huskies lost at Utah State 31-20, but it scored 14 points in the first quarter. Last year’s team only averaged 15.6 points per game, but under new head coach Jim Mora Jr. there was a rushing attack – Nathan Carter ran for 190 yards. The defense wasn’t bad outside of a rough second quarter, and at least there was a little bit of hope for the near future as they pushed the defending champion of the …

Loser: Mountain West

Nevada needed to work way too hard to get by a bad New Mexico State team 23-12, Utah State struggled in a win over a bad UConn squad, and Wyoming couldn’t do anything in the 38-6 loss at Illinois. However, UNLV rolled Idaho State for a fun moment, but the conference ended the day with …

Winner: Vanderbilt

The 1969 Vanderbilt team beat Davidson 63-8. The program hadn’t hit the 60 mark since – the 1996 team managed just 122 points in 11 games – until it rolled to a 63-10 win over …

Loser: Hawaii

It’s going to take a bit. The Rainbow Warriors gave the effort and intensity, but they were totally gutted this offseason, they don’t have the parts, and Timmy Chang’s team is going to need a while to put it all together.

– Nebraska can’t buy a break: One Really Big Thing
– THAT kick: Most Overrated Thing
– Florida Atlantic rolls: Most Underrated Thing
– Week 0 should be more: What It All Means, Week 0

NEXT: The really big Week 0 thing was …

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College Football Roundup Week 10: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated

College Football Roundup Week 10: Cincinnati’s tough game, Clemson’s big win, and the wild games in the SEC. They’re the winners, losers, overrated aspects and underrated things from this past weekend.

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

NEXT: The really big college football thing was …

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