[Justin K. Aller – Getty]

Over the last couple weeks, I packed up all my stuff and moved across the country; now that I’m settled in, this column’s back. Apologies for the hiatus.

We’ve passed the halfway point of the college football season and the playoff picture looks clear, for now. Of course, that’s liable to change quickly; the biggest result of the past week was a shocking Penn State upset over Ohio State keyed by a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown. Right now, it looks like Alabama, the Big Ten winner, Clemson, and Washington have the inside track for a bid to the playoff but there’s still plenty of football left to be played.

On to the weekend that was:

Big Ten

--- Perhaps OHIO STATE’s closer-than-expected win over Wisconsin should have been reason for concern, but they controlled the game against PENN STATE until the fourth quarter: the Nittany Lion offense woke up at the beginning of the period for a quick, 90-yard touchdown drive to pull the Buckeye lead down to 21-14, an OSU fumble set up a Penn State field goal to further cut the deficit, and then the blocked field goal – which came after OSU tried to rush its FG unit out for their kicker’s career-long attempt – provided the winning score with less than five minutes left. The game’s statistical profile suggested a comfortable Buckeye win (for example, OSU outgained PSU 413 to 273), but the Ohio State offense had a difficult time finishing drives and Penn State was somehow able to scrape together enough points to get the victory. By the end of the game, the PSU defensive front was dominating the Ohio State line, preventing JT Barrett from engineering a tying or go-ahead drive in the final moments. OSU still controls their destiny in the Big Ten (and probably in the playoff race), but this loss strongly suggests that this Buckeye team is a ways off of Urban Meyer’s usual standard. Of course, everything comes down to The Game on November 26th.

[More results from around the country after the JUMP]

---WISCONSIN entered the weekend two games behind Nebraska in the Big Ten West standings; they couldn’t afford another loss and took care of business in an extremely stereotypical Big Ten slugfest victory, 17-9, on the road against IOWA. The Badgers missed some scoring opportunities in the first half – two missed field goals and a fumble inside the Hawkeye five-yard line – but the Wisconsin offense, the running game in particular, controlled the game. Of course, Wisconsin’s defense was the biggest reason for the victory: they held Iowa to just 4.6 yards per pass attempt and 3.5 yards per carry on the afternoon. Paul Chryst rotated between Alex Hornibrook and Bart Houston; Hornibrook received more snaps and threw a couple iffy balls, but narrowly avoided what would have been a critical turnover. NEBRASKA (which beat PURDUE at home after somehow trailing at halftime) travels to Madison next weekend for what could be a de facto division title game.

--- Elsewhere in the Big Ten West, MINNESOTA was able to eke out a home win over RUTGERS to improve to 5-2 on the season. A game-winning Emmitt Carpenter field goal notched the 34-32 win for the Gophers, who blew a 21-3 first quarter lead over the course of the game. Rutgers turned to new QB Giovanni Rescigno, who had an up-and-down afternoon and almost led the Scarlet Knights to their first conference win. NORTHWESTERN also defeated a Big Ten East foe; they leapt out to a 24-3 first half lead over INDIANA and held on to win comfortably despite not scoring in the second half. The Wildcats are quietly still in the division race after a terrible non-conference showing.

--- The other two game featured teams from the Mitten State who are on divergent paths. MICHIGAN clobbered ILLINOIS to get to 7-0; MICHIGAN STATE went on the road to MARYLAND and came away with a 28-17 loss after getting outscored by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Brian Lewerke, a freshman, got the start at quarterback for the Spartans after Tyler O’Connor was sidelined with injury; the once-vaunted MSU defense surrendered 247 rushing yards to a diverse Maryland ground game. The two hated in-state rivals face off in East Lansing on Saturday.

[Kevin C. Cox – Getty]

SEC

--- Entering the weekend, there were six SEC West teams ranked in the AP Poll, and the division gave us three ranked-vs-ranked matchups in Week 8. The headliner was a matchup of undefeated teams and the game went according to script: ALABAMA handled TEXAS A&M, 33-14. The Aggies actually took a brief lead in the third after a Trevor Knight touchdown pass to Christian Kirk, but the Tide responded with a touchdown drive of their own, added a defensive touchdown on a Jonathan Allen scoop-and-score, and eventually played most of the fourth quarter in garbage time. Alabama’s red zone offense was off its usual standard early as long first quarter drives ended in two field goals, but Jalen Hurts and company wound up turning in a solid day offensively against a great Aggie defense, though the freshman did throw two picks. This was the toughest game on paper left on Alabama’s schedule and even though they have to travel to a resurgent LSU squad in two weeks, the Tide are still overwhelming favorites to run the table and capture the one-seed in the playoff.

--- Speaking of LSU, the Tigers have responded well after the firings of Les Miles and Cam Cameron; they notched their best win of the brief Ed Orgeron era against DACOACHO’s former team, OLE MISS, at home, defeating them by a comfortable 38-21 margin. The game was tied at 21 at halftime, but the LSU defense stepped up in the second half and suffocated Ole Miss. The biggest storyline from the post-Miles era has been how well the Tiger offense has rebounded; a healthy Leonard Fournette made his return and LSU had a balanced attack, accounting for over 500 total yards against a decent defense. Fournette was the game’s star – putting up an obscene 284 yards on just 16 carries (and rushing for three touchdowns) – but Danny Etling has played well at quarterback for the Tigers, who look much more like the Top 5 team they were supposed to be, rather than the listless Miles squad that faltered through September. On the other side, Ole Miss now sits at 3-4 overall (1-3 in the SEC) and, even though they played Bama as well as anyone, will likely finish towards the bottom of the West.

--- The other ranked matchup was AUBURN vs ARKANSAS and it was a massacre: the Tigers rushed for 543 yards and seven touchdowns en route to a 56-3 victory over the Hogs. Perhaps no statistic better encapsulates how this game went – Auburn ran for 9.5 yards per carry, while Arkansas managed just 0.8. Gus Malzahn entered the season on the hot seat and – after losing two of the first three games (against quality opponents, to be fair) – has made an emphatic case for keeping his job. The remaining schedule for Auburn is pretty manageable outside of the season finale against Alabama; if the Tigers keep up their current development trajectory, that could be a competitive game. As for Arkansas, the Bret Bielema era hasn’t looked more untenable than it did this week and even though Bert has a significant buyout, the powers that be might be getting restless. They’re now 1-3 in the SEC and each loss came by at least three scores.

--- The SEC East was home to some bad football this week, mostly coming in non-conference action. MISSOURI surrendered 51 points to Middle Tennessee State at home and lost; SOUTH CAROLINA started a new quarterback, freshman Jake Bentley, and eked out a win on the road against UMass, 34-28; VANDERBILT started slow but eventually pulled away to take care of FCS Tennessee State. The biggest win of the weekend in the division came as KENTUCKY beat MISSISSIPPI STATE on a 51-yard game-winning field goal as time expired. After a scoreless first quarter, the teams combined for 78 total points and the Wildcats notched the East’s first win over the West in 2016.

[Ezra Shaw – Getty]

Pac-12

--- In what was easily the ugliest game of the weekend, COLORADO emerged victorious over STANFORD by the ridiculous score of 10-5. The Buffaloes missed three field goals, the Cardinal turned it over four times, and ultimately a late (intentional) safety by Colorado provided the final score. In his first game back from injury, Christian McCaffery was held in check by the impressive Colorado defense, but it was another horrendous performance overall from the Stanford offense – three picks from Ryan Burns and a general inability to move the ball doomed the Cardinal. Colorado ran for a healthy 4.6 yards per carry, but Sefo Liufau was held in check and the missed field goals left a ton of points on the board. In the end, it was an important win for the Buffs, who are tied for first place in the Pac-12 South; Stanford’s nightmare season has gotten even worse – they’ve lost their last three conference games by a combined score of 96-27.

--- Colorado is tied for the division lead with UTAH, who beat UCLA on the road in a 52-45 shootout. Despite being forced to play with backup QB Mike Fafaul, UCLA threw the ball 70 times – it was an insane line for Fafaul, who threw for 464 yards and five touchdowns… in addition to four interceptions. Utah was content to pound the ball on the ground with Joe Williams, who ran for 332 yards and four touchdowns on his 29 carries. Williams actually quit football due to injuries and returned a couple weeks ago – setting a school record for rushing yards on Saturday. The Utes will be hosting WASHINGTON this week; the undefeated Huskies defeated OREGON STATE with ease and will be upping the degree of difficulty substantially with a trip to Salt Lake City in what may be their toughest regular season fixture.

--- The other two games from Pac-12 action were very on-brand shootouts. WASHINGTON STATE went on the road to ARIZONA STATE and won 37-32; the Cougars threw the ball 58 times – for 398 yards and three touchdowns – but because of sacks, they actually finished with –52 yards rushing. ASU was forced to play its fourth-string quarterback because of injuries and had a late comeback effort thwarted when Wazzu was able to run out the clock. Mike Leach, who’d accused ASU’s Todd Graham of stealing signals, had a heated conversation with Graham during the post-game handshake. On Friday night, OREGON lost to CAL in a double overtime thriller, 52-49. After an atrocious first half, the Duck defense stiffened in the second but was unable to hold up in overtime; a new starting quarterback, Justin Herbert, threw for six touchdowns in a losing effort. Oregon’s now on a five-game losing streak.

[Ian Maule – Tulsa World]

Big 12

--- Not to be outdone, by the Pac-12, the Big 12 provided us with one of the most ridiculous shootouts in college football history – OKLAHOMA beat TEXAS TECH in the Baker Mayfield revenge game, 66-59 (in regulation). Each team accounted for 854 yards of offense – combining for an NCAA record for total yardage in a game. Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes had a mind-boggling stat line in a losing effort: 52-for-88, 734 yards passing with five touchdowns and a pick, additionally, he also ran 12 times for 85 yards and two scores. Oklahoma – on the other hand – had a relatively balanced attack with Mayfield throwing for 545 yards and seven touchdowns and Joe Mixon running the ball 31 times for 263 yards and two scores. Both teams have excellent offenses, but needless to say, the defenses were atrocious. The Sooners have rebounded from a lackluster non-conference showing and are now 4-0 in conference play.

--- In other Big 12 action, OKLAHOMA STATE handled KANSAS and WEST VIRGINIA– which is still undefeated – took care of TCU in a game in which Mountaineer QB Skyler Howard threw for four touchdowns. The Charlie Strong era at TEXAS might be in its death throes, as the Horns lost to a not-very-good KANSAS STATE team to fall to 3-4 on the season.

ACC

--- The most consequential game of the week in the ACC happened on Thursday night; MIAMI went into Blacksburg and was handed a three-touchdown loss by VIRGINIA TECH in a game that effectively took them out of the ACC Coastal race – and because of an earlier win against North Carolina, the Hokies are now in the driver’s seat for a division title in Justin Fuente’s first season. Jerod Evans was excellent for Tech in the win over Miami, throwing for 259 yards and two touchdowns while adding almost a hundred more yards (and another touchdown) on the ground. The highlight of the game, however, came when fullback / tight end Sam Rogers threw a touchdown to fellow blocky-catchy guy Chris Cunningham on a trick play. Miami was twice able to cut the deficit to a single score but was answered quickly by a Tech touchdown drive each time.

--- Much of the conference was on a bye this week, but there still were a few other games. LOUISVILLE took on NC STATE after the Wolfpack’s near upset of Clemson and handled them easily, winning 54-13 (the game was 44-0 at halftime). The other two games featured road wins over some of the conference’s worst teams: NORTH CAROLINA beat VIRGINIA and SYRACUSE beat BOSTON COLLEGE.