Posted: October 7, 2014
A look back at Week 6 of the college football season.
Well, Week 6 certainly was a crazy one with a bunch of upsets, great games, awful calls, etc. The powers that be need to find a way to spread these games out so we do not have a bunch of dud weeks followed by this, but it certainly was a great day to be plopped onto the couch for 14 hours.
1. The weekend got off to a fast start Thursday night with the Arizona Wildcats moving to 5-0 with an upset of the Oregon Ducks. I had a feeling the Ducks may be in trouble due to their defensive lapses and vegas setting an over under of 77, so I said…. Oregon’s defense has been vulnerable and Arizona is scoring points averaging 42 a game. They are going to need to at least match that if they hope to pull off the upset as they did last year winning 42-16. Over under on this game is 77 so points should come early and often. So look for a 10-3 halftime score. Halftime score, 7-3. This game certainly foreshadowed the crazy Saturday and Sunday morning that was to come.
2. Friday gave us the second ranked team to lose as Utah State beat BYU. BYU lost any hopes of crashing into the playoff as an independent with this loss since their schedules is weak, at best. In additional, the Cougars lose their starting QB, Taysom Hill, for the rest of the year. Very costly loss.
3. Saturday got going with a bang as the most impressive performance to me of the weekend was the Mississippi State Bulldogs beating up on the Texas &AM Aggies. This was not the close game I expected. The Bulldogs got out to a 28-7 lead and never let the Aggies get within two scores after that. The Aggies entered scoring 51 points per game and got only 31. Dak Prescott has arrived and maybe headed to New York in December.
4. TCU kept the upsets rolling along, by beating Oklahoma 37-33. I must admit, that I did not see this one coming. TCU had the defense, but I just did not think they could out score the Sooners. This was a step up in class for the Horned Frogs who did not prepare for this game with a challenging schedule, but proved they may be in the conversation in the Big 12 this year, although it is very early. The winning score came on an interception returned for a touchdown. Defense!
5. Northwestern beat Wisconsin 20-14. Yes, the Wildcats who started the year losing to Cal and N. Illinois, have now won three straight and upset the Badgers this weekend. This is not good for the Big10 as they just seem to be a bunch of mid level teams and Michigan State.
6. Notre Dame moves to 5-0 with a close 17-14 win over Stanford. This one I had pegged stating….This could be a sloppy low scoring game. I think Everett Golson gets it done at home. Nailed it. Notre Dame scores the winning TD with one minute left. Stanford had 205 yards of offense. Stanford’s defense played a game worthy of winning, but the offense just could not get it done.
7. Very impressive win by the Ole Miss Rebels over Alabama. To my mind, Ole Miss only gave up one TD to a Tide offense that was rolling coming into this game. Alabama scored a defensive TD at the end of 1H on an absolutely dreadful non face mask call on the Tide. The face mask led to the fumble and to not call that could have been catastrohpic to the Rebels. But to their credit, they overcame the bad call and played a great second half to get the win. The Rebel athletic department will be glad to write the $50,000 check to the SEC for storming the field and they certainly got their money’s worth. Normally a field storming has a bunch of fans congregating at mid field. The Rebel’s fields was just a mass of people. Kudos on an excellent field storming. Additionally, AD Ross Bjork will need to replace some goal posts as well.
8. Auburn took LSU too the wood shed beating LSU 41-7. The LSU Tigers started a freshman QB on the road in the SEC. That is generally not a formula for success and it was not Saturday night. Auburn outgained LSU 566-280. Auburn’s schedule is a gauntlet, but playing like this will have them primed to make a lot of noise in the SEC West.
9. The Arizona State Sun Devils beat the USC Trojans on a hail mary in a horribly defended play, capping a 4Q that saw 5 touchdowns. The teams combined for over 100 yards and ASU had 510 yards passing and 31 rushing yards. Nice balance.
10. The Kentucky Wildcats fresh off its first conference win in 17 attempts, make it two in a row by beating South Carolina. This was a foreseeable result as I stated…The Gamecocks better be careful in this game. The Wildcats are playing well and the Gamecocks are coming off blowing a 2 TD lead against the Missouri Tigers. South Carolina is already halfway through their conference schedule and are sitting at 2-2. A third loss would be catastrophic and the season could spiral from there. Kentucky is chomping at the bit after winning their first conference game in a half century last week. Not quite but it certainly seemed that way. If this game comes into the 4Q, uh oh Gamecocks. It did not seem like this was headed for an upset after South Carolina took a 38-24 4Q lead, but the Wildcats stormed back scoring 21 unanswered points, the last coming on an INT returned for a TD, to win 45-38. The Gamecocks now have 3 conference loses while Kentucky is at 2-1 in the conference.
11. Late in the night the final upset came as Utah beat UCLA on a field goal with 34 seconds left, leaving UCLA as the fourth Top 10 team to lose this weekend. Wow!
12. Other random items….
- It pains me to admit this but Neyland Stadium in Tennessee looked awesome with the checkerboard crowd. Credit where credit is due, that was awesome.
- Wow, is Michigan in deep deep trouble. It is rarely a good idea to fire a coach mid season, but the Wolverines may have no choice.
- Everyone wrote off the Michigan State Spartans after their loss at Oregon. Do not sleep on Sparty, they are in prime position to get back into the playoff hunt.
- Some stats from the Washington State vs. California game…1,401 total yards, WSU 812 yards, WSU 734 passing yards, 56 points scored in the 3Q