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.
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College Football Week 15 Roundup
Week 15 Roundup
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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 …