Tag: reaction

Kirk Herbstreit releases top-six after crazy Week 12

Kirk Herbstreit’s top-six following a crazy weekend

Survive and advance was the theme of Week 12. At least it was for college football’s top-four, plus USC.

The top-four won by a combined 26 points. None played a ranked opponent and if it weren’t for Ohio State’s defensive score in the final seconds, it would have been 19 points.

And then Tennessee vs. South Carolina happened. The Vols saw their playoff dreams die in Williams-Brice Stadium.  Oh, then USC vs. UCLA – the most entertaining game of the day – happened. The Trojans kept their CFP hopes alive with a 48-45 win.

Following Week 12, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit has updated his top-six rankings, with very little surprises.

Herbstreit’s rankings, plus national title odds (courtesy of BetMGM):

Predicting what the fourth release of the College Football Playoff rankings will be

An early look at what we predict the College Football Playoff rankings to look like before the fourth release on Tuesday.

Well, just when we think we have this thing figured out, the game of college football spits out a whole bucket of curveballs to keep us flailing at the plate. After another wild weekend, there is sure to be another shakeup in the fourth release of the college football rankings.

The CFP selection committee likes to unveil the new set of CFP rankings on Tuesdays during the season, and we do our best to go from what’s been laid out as the groundwork the week prior, take into account what happened on the field, then throw caution to the wind and predict what you will see before it all happens later in the week.

The top four teams all won, but not without some major drama. Georgia won at Kentucky with a ho-hum appearance, but Michigan and TCU needed last-second field goals to keep their records unblemished. Ohio State outlasted Maryland on the road.

Outside of that, Tennessee went down in shocking manner and is likely out of the picture for the CFP. However, USC had a big win over cross-town rival UCLA to boost its profile and chances.

It’s a lot to take in and the committee — as always — has its work cut out for it. Here’s how we see the next release of the College Football rankings looking like when ESPN lifts the curtain on Tuesday night.

Predicting College Football Playoff rankings after wild Week 12

Predicting this week’s CFP rankings after a WILD Week 12

Survive and advance was the theme of Week 12. At least it was for college football’s top-four, plus USC.

The top-four won by a combined 26 points. None played a ranked opponent and if it weren’t for Ohio State’s defensive score in the final seconds, it would have been 19 points. Georgia looked ugly in a 16-6 win over Kentucky, Ohio State vs. Maryland came down to the last drive, Michigan used a last-second field goal to beat Illinois and TCU did the same to beat Baylor.

And then Tennessee vs. South Carolina happened. The No. 5 ranked Vols saw their playoff dreams die in Williams-Brice Stadium. Spencer Rattler and South Carolina absolutely torched Tennessee en route to a 63-38 victory.

Oh, then USC vs. UCLA – the most entertaining game of the day – happened. Quarterback Caleb Williams was fantastic, and the Trojans kept their CFP hopes alive with a 48-45 win.

Did you think we were done there? Nope. The night ended with a great game between Oregon and Utah, which the Ducks won 20-17.

Other fun ones included: No. 13 UNC losing to Georgia Tech, No. 14 Ole Miss losing to Arkansas, No. 20 UCF losing to Navy, No. 22 Oklahoma State losing to Oklahoma, and No. 24 NC State losing to Louisville.

Predicting the CFP rankings after Week 12:

ESPN updates college football power rankings after crazy Week 12

This week was absolutely insane!

Saturday marked perhaps the craziest week of college football yet. Though it didn’t result in an insane number of upsets, teams that were expected to win by significant margins managed to simply eke out wins, some in dramatic fashion.

Michigan football was one of those, scraping by Illinois. Ohio State was in a shockingly close game at Maryland. Georgia won by just 10 over Kentucky, TCU won at the last moment over Baylor, and USC and UCLA found themselves in a shootout.

Then there were the upsets.

Oklahoma pulverized Oklahoma State. Tennessee succumbed to an oddly potent South Carolina. North Carolina suffered a dramatic loss to a Georgia Tech team it was controlling early, Louisville beat NC State, and Navy beat UCF.

PREVIOUSLY: ESPN college football power rankings after Week 11

While the tip top of the college football landscape is likely to look the same, despite some uncharacteristic struggles, with the upheaval that took place beneath the top four, there are likely to be some massive changes in the latest ESPN power rankings. Here are the latest.

Report Card: Grading Penn State’s win vs. Rutgers

Penn State’s one-sided game at Rutgers led to plenty of high grades on the report card.

The sportsbooks had the lines on this game all over and in the end, they didn’t give Rutgers nearly enough points. Penn State dominated this game on the defensive side which covered up a lackluster offense to start the game.

Once the second quarter started though everything was smooth sailing for the Nittany Lions against Rutgers. The best part? If you take out the losses to Michigan and Ohio State, Penn State is outscoring opponents in the last six weeks 192-48.

Let’s jump into another easy scorecard.

Quarterback

Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Grade: B-

I am always tough when grading quarterbacks but that mainly has to do with the fact that [autotag]Sean Clifford[/autotag] continues to get meaningful reps. The offense looked horrendous early in the game outside of the rushing attack, shocker. Clifford stayed in the game until mid-way through the third where [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] came in and once again we saw a spark in the eyes of the offense.

NEXT: Running backs

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

Best photos of Ohio State football’s win over Maryland

Ohio State was able to outlast Maryland on Saturday. Here are some of the best photos of all of the action. #GoBucks

The Ohio State football team found itself in a tight one on Saturday and had to find a way to elbow its way to a victory against Maryland. It was much closer than the experts thought but still goes in the win column as the Buckeyes now prepare to host Michigan for one of the biggest instances of “The Game” in history.

But back to the Maryland game. It was a low-scoring affair in the first half that turned into an offensive explosion of sorts in the second half. Ohio State was able to outlast the Terrapins and survive to fight another day thanks to many plays and moments that turned a game in danger into one that kept a lot of the lofty goals within reach.

After every game, we like to bring you some of the best photos from all the action and we have another batch for you from College Park, Maryland.

Five things we think we learned from Ohio State’s close shave against Maryland

What did you take away from the Maryland game? Here are five things we think we learned after seeing all the action in College Park Saturday. #GoBucks

Are you still alive and kicking?

While we love to watch entertaining college football games, it’s not nearly as exhilarating when Ohio State is embattled in a closer-than-expected contest against a Big Ten team it probably should have handled in less dramatic fashion.

At the end of the day though, almost every top team in the country struggled in the penultimate week of the college football regular season in games that seemed to be bridges to bigger and better things. After all, Ohio State will host Michigan in the next installment of The Game this Saturday and there’s some trophy and confetti on the line. From there it could be a College Football Playoff appearance.

But back to the game against Maryland. The Buckeyes made the adjustments at halftime and started shoveling the ball to running back Dallan Hayden on the way to a come-from-behind gut-check type of victory needed to put some more scarlet and gray hair on the chest.

After every game, we try to pull out five things that we observed to take away, and luckily this one is on the smiling side of the scoreboard for us to reflect on. It’s not all rosy though because there are some things that have to be much better next week.

Here are five things we learned from Ohio State’s hand-wringing win over Maryland Saturday.

Big Ten power rankings after Week 12: Utter chaos hits every game but one

What a weird, weird week.

Why can’t you just be normal-dot-meme. Such was the case for the Big Ten in Week 12.

Only one game went as expected: Penn State annihilated Rutgers. But Michigan required practically a walk-off field goal against Illinois to remain undefeated. Ohio State was up only six with literal seconds on the clock. Purdue barely took down Northwestern. Iowa gained the inside track in the West after edging Minnesota. Indiana upset Michigan State, and Wisconsin narrowly took down Nebraska.

PREVIOUSLY: Big Ten power rankings after Week 11

Will there be a new No. 1 or will it remain status quo? As far as the middle and bottom-of-the-pack, there are some wild changes to our latest Big Ten power rankings given the crazy week that was. Here they are:

Arkansas football: Twitter pre-game reactions for Hogs vs. Ole Miss

Arkansas has just two chances left to become bowl eligible, here’s what people are saying ahead of tonight’s game against Ole Miss.

Arkansas football has two more chances to become bowl eligible this season.

On paper, tonight’s game may look extremely one-sided, in favor of the No. 14 Ole Miss Rebels, but Arkansas proved last week that they still have fight left in them.

The weather is once again going to be a factor, with temperatures currently hovering around freezing before kickoff. We saw last week against LSU that a cold DW Reynolds Razorback Stadium can play right into the hands of the Hogs.

Another factor in tonight’s contest is the probable return of Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson. He missed last week’s game with a shoulder injury, and the Arkansas offense struggled mightily.

Having Jefferson back should spark the Arkansas offense despite the freezing conditions on the field. As we’ve seen this season, having Jefferson under center makes a night and day difference for the Hogs.

Arkansas is 1-1 against the Rebels since the two programs hired Sam Pittman and Lane Kiffin, respectively. Last year’s matchup saw Ole Miss survive the Hogs in a shootout, 52-51.

Here’s what people are saying ahead of tonight’s matchup.

Twitter reacts: Georgia beats Kentucky, moves to 11-0

A win is a win. Twitter reacts.

Following Georgia’s 16-6 win over Kentucky on Saturday, UGA became just the third team ever to have back-to-back seasons with an 8-0 record in SEC play.

It was not a pretty game in Lexington, but it worked. Georgia advanced to 11-0 overall and 8-0 in the SEC with one game remaining in the regular season.

Georgia’s passing game did not really do much. Stetson Bennett finished 13 of 19 for 116 yards, 0 touchdowns and an interception. However, the Dawgs were effective on the ground. Kenny McIntosh had 143 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries. In short yardage situations, UGA could not buy an inch. The Dawgs settled for three field goals and turned it over on downs on the 1 yard line.

But they also got a win. And with Georgia Tech the lone remaining game, I’m going to start celebrating back-to-back 12-0 regular seasons.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to Georgia’s win: