NCAA Football 2013: Week 10 Australian TV Guide

Hard to believe this is the tenth week of the season. We're into the stretch run now that the calendar has turned to November, leading towards the huge weekend of rivlary games beginning Thanksgiving night, and conference championships the weekend after. 

This weekend features another giant ACC game, between undefeated Miami-FL and undefeated Florida State, a rivalry that's all the way back. GameDay is there. ESPN is also showing the Michigan grudge match between the Wolverines and Spartans, USC makes an appearance and there's a rare Friday double, as well as a sighting of Johnny Football.

All times AEDT

Friday 1 November

South Florida vs. Houston (10.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Arizona State vs. Washington State (1.30pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)

Saturday 2 November

College Football Live (11.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
USC vs. Oregon State (12.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)

Sunday 3 November

College GameDay - Tallahassee, Florida (12.01am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Illinois vs. Penn State (3.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 21 Michigan vs. No. 22 Michigan State (6.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 7 Miami-FL vs. No. 3 Florida State (11.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
UTEP vs. No. 12 Texas A&M (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)

NCAA Football 2013: Week 9 Recaps

Everything you need to know about some of the big games from Week 9 of the 2013 NCAA Football season is right here. 

Once again without their head coach, Jerry Kill, Minnesota played their best game of the season, en route to recording a surprise win against Nebraska, who had star QB Taylor Martinez back after a leg injury had kept him out of the last few games. It wasn’t enough for the Huskers to get the win up in the Twin Cities. Their defense, suspect all year, hasn’t improved over two consecutive bye weeks. They gave up 430 total yards to the Gophers, including 138 to RB David Cobb. Minnesota QB Phillip Nelson threw one touchdown and rushed for two more, as his team beat Nebraska for the first time since 1960. 

Injury? What injury? A week after looking noticeably affected by an injury that had kept him off the field for a portion of the second half, Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel roared back with a vengeance, leading the Aggies to a commanding 56-24 victory over Vanderbilt. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner had three of his four touchdown passes in the first quarter, and, surprisingly, ran only four times for a paltry eleven yards. 

A week after being shocked on a Friday night by Central Florida, it was back to regular transmission for Teddy Bridgewater and Louisville, who rolled into Raymond James Stadium and recorded a 34-3 win against the hapless South Florida Bulls. Bridgewater, a Heisman candidate before last week’s loss, went 35-29 for 344 yards and three touchdowns. The Cardinals defense forced three turnovers, one of them a 70-yard Pick-6 by Charles Gaines.
 

Upset of the Weekend saw the fifth-ranked Missouri Tigers fall to Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks 27-24 in a 2OT game which ended when Mizzou’s kicker Andrew Baggett missed on an attempt from 24 yards out, finding the upright rather than sailing the football through the middle. Earlier in the second overtime frame, Elliott Fry had converted from 40 yards for the Gamecocks. Huge win for South Carolina, who move to within a game of Missouri in the SEC East race.

Ugliest win of the weekend: Duke beating Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. It was a W for the Blue Devils despite their defense giving up 387 total yards. The offense wasn’t much better, a hapless 0-11 on third down conversions whilst managing only a meagre 198 total yards of offense. Yet, four Logan Thomas turnovers allowed Duke to do just enough to eek out a 13-10 win in what was, hands down, the worst-looking game of the weekend. This was a bad loss for Frank Beamer’s squad, particularly after a resurgent season that’s brought them back towards the top of the ACC pecking order.

Ranked for only the second time in their history, the Central Florida Knights made sure they would remain in amongst the best 25 teams in America, thanks to a 63-17 throttling of Connecticut in Orlando. Like last week, it was the Blake Bortles show, the UCF signal-caller connecting on all but four pass attempts, en route to a 278 yard/4 touchdown day. As if that wasn’t enough, he ran in a third score. The Knights maintain their stranglehold on the automatic BCS bid for the American Athletic Conference.

The most exciting offense in college football continues unabated, with Baylor rolling up 500 total yards of offense in the first half alone, on their way to a 59-14 win against Big XII punching bag Kansas in Lawrence, a game in which the Bears starters saw very little game action in the second half. QB Bryce Petty threw for 430 yards and three scores, as well as one rushing touchdown, and RB Lache Seastrunk went over the century mark on the ground once more. The less said about the Jayhawks the better: they were thoroughly outplayed and have lost an abysmal twenty-five straight Big XII conference games. If Charlie Weis is still coaching there next year, the world’s gone crazy.

A 14-14 game at the half, Oregon flexed it’s considerable football muscle in the second, scoring 28 unanswered to beat UCLA 42-14 in Eugene. If there was any doubt that the Ducks are the best team in the Pac-12 – and, I think, the second best team in America, behind Alabama – this one should put said doubts to bed. Oregon have a way of wearing down opposition defenses, with multiple offensive weapons, and lightning-fast speed. They recovered from two turnovers behind usual suspects QB Marcus Mariota (230 yards and a touchdown) and RB Byron Marshall (133 yards and three scores) to hand the Bruins their second straight loss. UCLA’s defense was superb for a half. It’s hard, against Oregon, to be superb for two halves.

Earlier this week, I looked at the Ohio State vs. Penn State matchup and wondered if perhaps the Nittany Lions, on the road in hostile territory, wouldn’t perhaps be the right team to trouble Urban Meyer’s mostly-unimpressive – but still undefeated – squad. Boy, was I wrong. The Buckeyes dominated Penn State in the 63-14 shellacking. QB Braxton Miller accounted for five touchdowns (three passing, two running) and Ohio State’s oft-maligned defense forced three Penn State turnovers. This was a demoralising loss for the Nittany Lions.

Behind three touchdowns from RB Tyler Gaffney, the Stanford Cardinal handed Oregon State their first conference loss of the season, 20-12 in Corvallis, though it came right down to the minute of play, in the shadows of the Stanford end zone, when Beavers QB Sean Mannion couldn’t connect with a receiver, ending his team’s six-game winning streak. Stanford’s victory came despite an off night for QB Kevin Hogan (just 8-18 for 87 yards), and sets up a what is still very much a mouth-watering showdown with Oregon in two weeks.

One of my favourite players in the nation is Oklahoma QB Blake Bell, and it was vintage Belldozer stuff on Saturday, as the Sooners rallied to hand Texas Tech their first loss of the season, 38-30. Bell, known mostly as a running threat from quarterback before he started slinging the football about this year, accounted for 293 yards of total offense and two scores. 249 of those yards came through the air, including a giant 76-yard touchdown throw to WR Jalen Saunders. Sooner fans will doubtless be relieved to see that their high-scoring offense is back after hiccups in recent weeks. 

Tulane beat Tulsa 14-7 on Saturday, forcing four turnovers on the way. Not the most noteworthy of games on the slate, except when you dig deeper and realise that the win puts the Green Wave at 6-2 (4-0, C-USA), and makes them eligible for a Bowl game for the first time since 2002. Backup QB Devin Powell threw two touchdowns in a widely-celebrated victory that will put an end to an agonising decade of losing seasons. This is the feel-good story of the weekend.

The feel-bad story of the weekend/season: Southern Mississippi hasn’t won a football game since 2011, when they defeated Case Keenum’s record-setting Houston Cougars in the Conference USA Championship Game. The misery continued on Saturday, with North Texas pounding the Golden Eagles 55-14. There’s a very real possibility that Southern Miss will end up going two full seasons without a win. 

Northern Illinois QB Jordan Lynch can do it all. He’s a very entertaining dual-threat quarterback putting up flat-out ridiculous numbers in the high-scoring Mid-American Conference, and on Saturday, he added to his quickly-growing legend status in De Kalb, Illinois, by throwing four touchdown passes, running for a fifth and, best of all, catching a 17-yard pass in the end zone to cap off a rare trifecta. Behind that offensive explosion, the Huskies beat Eastern Michigan 59-20.

NCAA Football 2013: Week 9 Foxtel Game Previews

UCLA at Oregon is the Foxtel Game of the Week, but there are other good match-ups on the ESPN networks this Sunday:

No. 24 Nebraska at Minnesota (3.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD) 

A scheduling oddity has seen the Cornhuskers (5-1, 2-0 Big Ten) have two consecutive off-weeks – almost unheard of in the middle of the season – but it’s been a blessing in disguise for Bo Pelini’s squad, who figure to welcome back star QB Taylor Martinez from a left foot injury. Whether the enigmatic signal-caller starts is uncertain, but he will certainly see game action. Redshirt freshman Tommy Armstrong Jr. will start if Martinez can’t, and has been preparing with the first team offense this week. 

The prospect of Martinez taking the field is a dose of timely good news for the Huskers, who prepare for a stretch run through November well placed in the race for Big Ten Legends Division honours (they sit half a game behind Michigan State), and a place in the Big Ten Championship Game.

Minnesota (5-2, 1-2 Big Ten), without head coach Jerry Kill, who is receiving treatment for epilepsy, had a strong win against Northwestern last week, and seem to be carrying some momentum and are were clearly emotional after beating the Wildcats last week, with Kill making a surprise attendance to rev his team up at half-time. It clearly lifted the team, and they will need to lift again to draw themselves to .500 in Big Ten play.

Offense has been a problem for the Gophers this year, and it was painfully evident in back-to-back losses against Iowa and Michigan before the team bounced back against Northwestern last week. They’ve been somewhat bailed out by their defense, but making big plays against a suspect Nebraska defense is crucial.

History says the Gophers are in trouble in this one: Nebraska has the edge here, having won sixteen straight, including a dominant victory in Lincoln last November. I think they win fairly comfortably on Saturday, particularly if Martinez starts. 

North Carolina State at No. 2 Florida State (6.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD) 

This should be an easy day at the office second-ranked Seminoles (6-0, 4-0 ACC), but the Wolfpack (3-3, 0-3 ACC) have been known to spring the upset every now and again. FSU coach Jimbo Fisher knows that better than most; the Seminoles lost 17-16 in Raleigh last year, a stinging, unexpected defeat that knocked them out of BCS Championship Game contention.

A year later, and the Seminoles welcome North Carolina State into Tallahassee a week after an impressive 51-14 demolition job of Clemson on the road. In every facet of the game, the ‘Noles were superb in Memorial Stadium, no easy place to win, let alone thoroughly dominate proceedings. QB Jameis Winston is a legitimate superstar/Heisman Trophy candidate, and should be far too much for Dave Doeren’s NC State defense to handle. I don’t see FSU sleeping on this one, not after last year’s loss.

Interestingly, the Wolfpack are the only team who can boast a winning record against Florida State during Jimbo Fisher’s reign in Tallahassee. Unfortunately, it won’t help them this week. The Wolfpack are going into a hostile environment, and simply don’t have enough firepower to match it with the Seminoles. 

No. 9 Clemson at Maryland (6.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD) 

A week after being thoroughly embarrassed by a rampaging Florida State squad, Dabo Swinney’s Tigers (6-1, 4-1 ACC) will be out for revenge against a Maryland (5-2, 1-2 ACC) squad who had their own troubles with Florida State a few weeks back – they were expected to challenge the ‘Noles, but instead sustained a 63-0 loss – and need a bounce-back win to keep pace in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Offensive coordinator Chad Morris wants the Clemson offense to get back to basics, a week after finding it nigh on impossible to execute even the most basic of plays against Florida State’s defense. Thankfully, the Tigers should find it easier going against the Terps defenders, allowing WR Sammy Watkins, who was noticeably a ghost on the field against Florida State, to find his game-breaking touch again. Same goes for QB Tajh Boyd, who played his worst game of his Clemson career at the worst possible time last week.

Two years ago, Maryland put together a furious second-half rally, coming from eighteen points down to win 56-45 in a game that featured little defense and many big plays. It won’t be easy for the Terps, who are without two key receivers, Stefon Diggs and Deon Long, who both suffered broken legs during Maryland’s 34-10 loss to Wake Forest last week. Coach Randy Edsall is running out of offensive weapons.

Stinging from the loss – one televised nationally, no less – against Florida State should be about all the impetus Clemson need to get back on track. I expect big games from Boyd and Watkins, and from the excellent Tiger defensive front, sack machines to a man, and the combination will be too much for the Terps. Clemson wins big. 

Penn State at No. 4 Ohio State (11.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD) 

Undefeated, but far from impressive in their wins this season. That’s my read on Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes squad. In a year where the overall strength of the Big Ten is down, Ohio State (7-0, 3-0 Big Ten) haven’t scored enough ‘style points’ and will find it hard to push their way into the BCS National Championship picture, even if they run the table and finish undefeated.

That said, a Big Ten Championship and a chance to play in the Rose Bowl Game remain well in arm’s reach for the Buckeyes. They would be wise not to overlook an underrated Penn State (4-2, 1-1, Big Ten) squad, who’ve had an up-and-down-year – big win against Michigan, bad loss against Central Florida – and the Nittany Lions head to Columbus with thoughts of continuing the run of recent big-time upsets in college football.

Whilst Penn State had a bye week, the Buckeyes scratched their way to a less than impressive 34-24 win against Iowa, during which their suspect defense did some good things, but were also gashed by Hawkeyes QB Jake Ruddock, who threw an 85-yard touchdown pass. Meyer can’t be happy with the OSU defenders, particularly not the secondary, which has given up big pass plays routinely. 

Underestimate Penn State at your peril – most likely buzzwords for Urban Meyer’s coaching staff this week in Columbus. Their fighting spirit is immense. We saw that against Michigan when they came back to tie the game, and ultimately win a wild, multiple-OT game. Bill O’Brien has instilled a real belief in this team, down on scholarships and without a chance to go to a post-season Bowl game due to major NCAA sanctions.

The way the Nittany Lions played against Michigan, they are a sneaky chance for a major upset, but it’ll take their absolute best performance. At home, with a vocal crowd at their backs, I think the Buckeyes win narrowly, but it won’t be pretty, and if I had to pick an Upset Watch for the week, this game would be it. 

No. 6 Stanford at No. 25 Oregon State (1.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD) 

This one could very well have been the Game of the Week, were it not for the Ducks and the Bruins. Nonetheless, it’s an intriguing contest between Stanford (6-1, 4-1, Pac-12), whose fortunes have been well discussed around the college football world, against Mike Riley’s Oregon State (6-1, 4-0 Pac-12), who have managed to fly under the radar since losing their opener to FCS power Eastern Washington.

Quietly, the Beavers have become one of the nation’s most flamboyant, high-scoring offenses. After losing to EWU in the opener, they’ve rattled off six straight wins. A seventh win would match a mark that they haven’t achieved since 2000.

Beavers QB Sean Mannion deserves to be a serious Heisman candidate He leads the nation with 2,992 passing yards and is second with 29 touchdowns to just three picks. WR Brandin Cooks has 76 catches, 1,176 yards and twelve scores. The combination is potent in a Baylor sort of way. They’re lighting up scoreboards in a similar fashion, too, just with far less attention than the Bears down in Texas.

Obviously, Stanford’s defense will have their hands full, but they are proven performers, holding UCLA to a paltry 266 yards of total offense in their 24-10 triumph against previously-undefeated Bruins last week. The Cardinal offense would benefit from having WR Devon Cajuste on the field, but he’ll be watching from the sidelines after injuring a leg last week. Taking away QB Kevin Hogan’s favourite target is going to make things more difficult.

I’m taking Oregon State in this one. The program is in need of a real signature to elevate itself to the upper echelon of the Pac-12 conference – a lofty place to be at the present moment – and I think it comes on Saturday night.

Review: Captain Phillips

Starring: Tom Hanks & Barkhad Abdi

Director: Paul Greengrass

In a few words...: The based on a true story events of the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates in April 2009.
 
Rating: 8.5/10 

Beware: SPOILERS AHEAD

 

If there is a better director at ratcheting up the tension to almost unbearable levels than Paul Greengrass, please, someone point him out to me. In a similar vein to the depressingly brilliant United 93, Greengrass makes use of in-close camera shots and a close confines environment to give viewers an experience about as close to paranoid claustrophobia as you can get at a cinema. Captain Phillips is first-rate film-making, as we've come to expect from Greengrass - and the second-best film, behind Zero Dark Thirty, that I've seen all year.

The tale of the hijacking of the MV Maersk Alabama cargo ship in April 2009 is tense, gripping and exciting and harrowing, even though you know - well, at least, I did - how it's going to end. Tom Hanks, a brilliant actor no matter what sort of film he's in, really excels in this one, portraying the brave and resolute Rich Phillips, a Vermont resident with a thick Bostonian accent, whose world is turned upside down when his vessel is boarded, after an attempt to dissuade them with high-powered water cannons, by four Somali men, armed with AK-47 rifles, and seeking a major payday. Actually, some clever seamanship had fended off one attempt by pirates. This was their second bite at the cherry.

Once the pirates are aboard, Phillips and some of his crew are stuck on the bridge, but the majority are below decks, engaged in a cat-and-mouse fight to stay ahead of the hijackers. Bravely, they capture the leader of the Somali group, and try to force a trade for Phillps, by which the hijackers will depart in the lifeboat with $30,000 from the safe and with no further questions asked. Things do not go to plan, and Phillips ends up inside the lifeboat when it leaves the ship.

This is where the film becomes really tense. There are four gunmen and one hostage stuck in a very small space, confined with little water and not much fresh air. Worse, the US Navy is en route, and it becomes a race between warships and the small lifeboat, headed for a rendezvous on the Somali coast. As the futility of their situation sinks in, the pirates (their leader, Abduwali Muse is played brilliantly by Barkhad Abdi) become agitated, and in-fighting breaks out. Greengrass' cameras are there, close in, documenting everything. The pressure never lets up, and, even as the Navy response is shown, the fi;m keeps coming back to that small space, a melting pot of anger, confusion, threatened violence and futility.

The Maersk, being an American ship (out of Norfolk, Virginia) and Phillips, an American citizen, the White House has authorised appropriate use of force. They do not want to let Phillips get to Somalia. A hostage there, he would likely never be moved around so much he would likely found again (the same fears were held for Mike Durant, the Black Hawk pilot who was captured out of his downed chopper in Mogadishu, which was committed to film by Ridley Scott in the epic Black Hawk Down). So a Navy SEAL team flies out to take matters into their own hands, with a predictable outcome.

Where this film is particuarly triumphant is in humanising the bad guys. They're not one-dimensional stereotypes like in so many other films. Rather, they are real people with real problems. Poverty is rife in Somalia. Hijacking freighters keeps food on the table. Greengrass and his writers give them a beating heart, and you begin to feel sorry for them as you see the only way out is either a long prison sentence in America or death. It was, at times, easy to forget that they were the bad guys in all of this: an interesting angle to the story. Phillips' discourse with them is very interesting. You can see the mental strain they are under, though his pleas to give themselves up go unheeded.

The last ten minutes are particularly gripping, as a SEAL negotiator buys time for his colleagues to plan a rescue mission. Phillips complicates this by trying to escape himself. It's here where Hanks is at his finest, and Abdi shines, too. The scenes where Phillips, beleiving himself about to be executed, writes a letter home, and is at gunpoint for agonising seconds before the rescue are brilliant but agonising. It's edge-of-your-seat stuff, superbly put together by a master film-maker. At the end, you feel the same relief as Phillips, who is taken aboard a US Navy vessel to be checked out, en route to home. His exhaustion, stress, shock and relief, all mixed together, is palpable.

Intense and smart, this is a film you must see, for it is a two-hour showcase or a director and an actor working at the absolute peak of their powers. In time, it will be acknowledged as one of Hanks' best performances, no mean feat when you consider some of his past works.

NCAA Football 2013: Week 9 Game of the Week

No. 12 UCLA @ No. 3 Oregon

Perhaps the biggest Pac 12 game of the season features the hometown Ducks, who are a miniscule percentage behind Florida State in the BCS rankings, and, poised to overtake Jimbo Fisher's Seminoles squad with a win against UCLA this weekend. Game Day is in town, further advertising that this is the Game of the Week, between two teams who have alternately been the class of the conference for years (Oregon) and are a resurgent unit under a new coach (UCLA).

Some of the luster has left this contest because Stanford managed to slow down the terrific UCLA QB Brett Hundley - one of the truly great revelations of this season and last - last week, thus stamping out most of what the Bruins tried to do offensively en route to a 24-10 win. It was the first time we've seen Jim Mora Jnr's squad unable to execute much of what they wanted, and you can bet that the Oregon coaching staff would have broken down that film extensively over the week. Worryingly for the Bruins, Hundley may have a cobbled-together offensive line in front of him this week,

Of course, stopping Oregon's incredible offense is a problem. QB Marcus Mariota is right up there in the Heisman Trophy race, and despite turning over the ball twice on fumbles last week, is yet to throw an interception on the season. He has nineteen touchdown passes and a further nine running scores. When he's on, watch out. And with weapons like De'Anthony Thomas (returning from a 3-game absence), Oregon have many ways to exploit a defense. You plan for stopping one guy and another pops up. This is as multiple an offense as there is anywhere in the nation. Truly, they are a giant threat to score on every single snap, even from one inside of their own 5-yard line.

Ultimately, it's about speed at Oregon. Speed kills. The Ducks have speed to burn. It's everywhere. They smack you in the mouth lightning-quick, then come back and do it again. Mariota's as electric a runner as he is a passer: a dual-threat quarterback in the best sense of the world, and he's been lighting up college football for eight weeks, providing highlight reel plays and rolling up video game-like numbers. It remains to be seen whether any defense can slow him down, let alone stop him. Alabama's would like a chance, and what a titanic struggle that would be. Can UCLA slow Mariota down? I don't know. It'll be difficult. It's been difficult all year. Ask Washington.

In recent weeks, Oregon's oft-maligned defense has really stood up to be counted, playing as well - and, arguably, better - than their offensive cousins in parts of the last games, and were particularly impressive in the big game against Washington two weeks ago. This is a unit on the rise, and with Hundley missing some of his big eaters up front, they may get a sniff of blood in the water, and exploit it. 

Last week, Hundley was sacked four times, and held to a season-low 190 yards. Adding insult to injury, RB Jordon James was absent for a second consecutive week. Stanford's defense held them to a paltry 74 total rushing yards, a season-low total. Both running and passing, the Bruins just didn't look like their usual selves against the Cardinal. If Oregon's defense can achieve similar goals against UCLA this week, I don't see how the Bruins can go up there and win.

With all respect to Stanford, they aren't as offensively capable as Oregon - at least, not in terms of quick scores - and if the Ducks offense gets a handful of possessions in the first half, they might put the game out of reach. Hundley has to find passing lanes. The offensive line, banged-up though it is, must allow the running game to function and to flourish. A repeat of last week cannot happen, or UCLA will be embarrassed. It's tough enough to win against Oregon, especially in Autzen Stadium, when everything's going to plan, and nigh on impossible when it's not. The Bruins need to score basically every time they have the football, and hope - pray, even - for some defensive miracles.

My tip: Ducks by fourteen, pulling away late.

NCAA Football 2013: Week 9 Australian TV Guide

Week Two of the BCS-ranked portion of the season comes on the back of a super Saturday of upsets last weekend...well, really, a super weekend of upsets, with Louisville falling to unheralded Central Florida on Friday night. The landscape has changed, particularly in the SEC. Week 8 results have set up a pretty awesome run to Championship Weekend, with Florida State and Oregon nipping at Alabama's heels, and probably battling each other to face the Tide in the BCS Championship Game, should there be no further upsets. 

Ahead of the big Pac 12 tilt between Oregon and UCLA, GameDay travels to Eugene for a very early West Coast start, featuring the A-team of Brent and Herbie, not on ABC for a change. Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge go primetime on the network in Columbus for the undefeated Buckeyes against Penn State. The closer is a fairly interesting game between Stanford and the under-the-radar Oregon State Beavers.

All times AEDT

Friday 25 October

College Football Live (10.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Kentucky vs. Mississippi State (10.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD) 

Saturday 26 October

College Football Live (10.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Boise State vs. Brigham Young (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)

Sunday 27 October

College GameDay - Eugene, Oregon (2.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 24 Nebraska vs. Minnesota (3.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
North Carolina State vs. No. 2 Florida State (6.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 9 Clemson vs. Maryland (6.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 12 UCLA vs. No. 3 Oregon (10.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Penn State vs. No. 4 Ohio State (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 6 Stanford vs. No. 25 Oregon State (1.30pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)

NCAA Football 2013: Week 8 Recaps

Everything you need to know about some of the big games from Week 8 of the 2013 NCAA Football season, right here.

The weekend trend of big names falling thick and fast started on Friday night when Louisville went down at home to the Central Florida Knights, who enjoyed the biggest win in their program’s history, and now, should they win out, have inside running for the American Athletic Conference’s automatic BCS bid. An unbelievable last-gasp drive masterminded by QB Blake Bortles capped off a furious UCF comeback. They were down 28-7 about halfway through the third quarter, and rallied for an improbable but impressive 38-35 win, that ends Louisville’s (unlikely) shot at a BCS National Championship Game, as well as QB Teddy Bridgewater’s Heisman campaign.

Despite losing star QB James Franklin in last week’s impressive road win against Georgia, Missouri keep rolling along, and have beaten their second consecutive SEC heavyweight. The Tiger defense caused three Florida turnovers and held the Gator offense to a paltry 151 yards en route to a 36-17 win. Apparently, for Missouri, it’s no Franklin, no problem. Gary Pinkel’s men are having a tremendous season. They’re a dangerous team in the now-jumbled SEC.

Supposedly the biggest game in ACC history, the Florida State-Clemson contest soon became a total knockout for the Seminoles, who capitalised on a sluggish Tiger offense, forcing four turnovers, on which FSU’s record-setting freshman QB Jameis Winston capitalised, spearheading the ‘Noles to an emphatic 51-14 victory in Clemson’s Death Valley. All around, it was a disastrous day for Clemson. QB Tajh Boyd was bad, but his defense was worse. In contrast, Florida State was perfect in every facet of the game. If Winston isn’t the leading Heisman Trophy candidate now, there’s something wrong.

Forty-one yards. That was the distance of the last-second field goal kicked by Mississippi K Andrew Ritter, which handed the Rebels a stunning victory over Louisiana State to further up-end the normally ordered SEC conference. The 27-24 Ole Miss victory probably should have been a more emphatic one, except the Rebels gave up a 17-point lead. In the face of that, the Rebel offense, under QB Bo Wallace, beat the Tiger defense play after play in a wonderfully composed fourteen-play drive that ending with Ritter’s long three-pointer to win the game. Cue madness in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

First to fall on Upset Saturday was the injury-riddled Georgia Bulldogs, who lost a 31-27 stunner to Vanderbilt. The Commodores scored seventeen unanswered points in the fourth quarter to get past the Bulldogs. Seems a long time ago now that Aaron Murray was a Heisman Trophy candidate. The Georgia defense gave up 337 yards to Vanderbilt’s offense, who scored their first upset of a ranked opponent under coach James Franklin.

In Knoxville, the highly-favoured South Carolina Gamecocks fell in exciting and improbable fashion to Butch Jones’ Tennessee Volunteers. In the shadows of full time, and facing another heartbreaking loss, the Vols, who have been close in big games this year without being able to close, gave Jones the biggest win of his young coaching career, by way of K Michael Palardy, who kicked a 19-yard field goal with 0:03 seconds to stun the Gamecocks.

An injury to QB Johnny Manziel slowed Texas A&M for some time, but Manziel was back in for the final drive, in which the Auburn defense sacked him twice in the last three plays, preserving a 45-41 win at Kyle Field. The Tigers are 6-1 and ranked one year removed from a woeful campaign in which they didn’t win one SEC game. This season has been quite a renaissance. The real story, though, was how the porous Aggie defense melted like snow on a summer’s day. That unit’s been the only thing looking likely to shut Manziel down. Today, they did. Kevin Sumlin and his defensive staff have a lot of work to do.

In a game reminiscent of the disastrous Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan, the Wolverines scored a lot of points, but they gave up plenty, too. Cast in the role of Denard Robinson, QB Devin Gardner had a career day in the 63-47 win against Indiana. Gardner had 584 total yards, 503 of those on the ground, setting school records in both categories. He accounted for five touchdowns, and WR Jeremy Gallon, a huge weapon for Gardner all season, caught fourteen balls for Big Ten-record 369 yards and two scores. Michigan’s defense was almost bad enough to destroy the record-setting day for it’s offense.

On the topic of big offensive numbers, Baylor stacked up 71 on Iowa State and held the Cyclones scoreless until the very last minute of the game. The Bears rolled up 714 yards to go with their seven touchdowns, two of which came on special times. RB Lache Seastrunk went over the century mark on the ground and QB Bryce Petty threw two scores and ran for a third. Business as usual for the most entertaining team in America.

Miami (FL) survived a last-minute Hail Mary bomb that fell on to the fingertips of a North Carolina Tar Heels receiver in the end zone, but ended up falling harmlessly incomplete, giving the Hurricanes a less than convincing 27-23 victory. The U scored their go-ahead touchdown with sixteen seconds left to play, and the uninspiring Thursday night win in Chapel Hill keeps them undefeated on the season, though far from the class of the ACC.

Homecoming in Morgantown, and West Virginia jumped out to a 27-16 lead with less than five minutes to play in the third, before the Mountaineers lost momentum. No. 16 Texas Tech scored three touchdowns unanswered to close out the game, 37-27. It was QB Davis Webb’s first road win in his first road game, and, in the process, he became the first Red Raider freshman to throw for 400 yards or more in his first two starts. Quietly, Kliff Kingsbury’s men remain undefeated, despite now playing two games without unearthed star QB Baker Mayfield.

Teams have always respected QB Jordan Lynch as a running threat, but the signal caller for Northern Illinois had a career day on Saturday, carrying the ball 32 times for 316 yards and three touchdowns as the Huskies beat Central Michigan 38-17. The Huskies remain unbeaten, and Lynch now holds the FBS record for the most quarterback rush yards in one game.

Bouncing back after a shock loss to Utah, Stanford managed to keep UCLA QB Brett Hundley quiet, and that was the key to a 24-10 victory at home. The Bruins signal caller threw two interceptions and was sacked four times by a Stanford defense who clearly had a message to send: they’re not out of the Pac-12 race just yet.

The wheels are falling off in Washington. Coming off two losses against high-quality opponents, the Huskies defense gave up 53 points and 585 yards to Arizona State, and suddenly Steve Sarkisian’s men have lost three games in a row. This one was particularly bad. The Huskies had -5 rushing yards and QB Keith Price was only 16-39 for 217 yards and two scores. Arizona State’s dual-threat QB Taylor Kelly accounted for four scores, gaining 84 yards on the ground and 271 through the air in a thoroughly dominating performance.

Oregon spent another Saturday night rolling up points and total offense. This time, the unfortunate opposition was Washington State, whose QB Connor Halliday threw the ball eighty-nine times – an FBS record, if you were wondering – for four touchdowns and four interceptions as the Ducks outlasted Mike Leach’s Cougars 62-38. Ducks QB Marcus Mariota had two fumbles during the game, both of which led to Cougar touchdowns, though he has yet to throw an interception on the year. Another Heisman candidate right here.