Opinion: College Football's Week Six Heroes

Another weekend of college football is in the books, so let’s go through who was great on the gridiron with my Week Six Heroes:

Arizona: The unranked Wildcats accomplished one of the toughest jobs in college football by going into Autzen Stadium to beat No. 2 Oregon on Thursday night. The 31-24 victory will likely be remembered as one of the most unlikely – not to mention epic – wins in the 2014 season, and it was one thoroughly deserved by a Wildcat squad who dominated on both sides of the football.

Crucially, Arizona brought huge pressure on Ducks QB Marcus Mariota – who fumbled twice and was sacked five times – and limited a powerful Oregon ground game to a paltry 144 yards. In contrast, the Wildcats ripped Oregon’s defense on the ground, amassing 208 yards, as part of 495 total on the night. Their up-tempo offense looked like something from the Oregon playbook, and kept the Ducks off balance the whole night, like Oregon’s own up-tempo speed has done to other teams for years.

Quite the role reversal, a famous win for the still-undefeated Wildcats and a little vindication for coach Rich Rodriguez, who just couldn’t get things rolling at Michigan. In a different – and probably tougher – environment, he’s posting results. Big ones.

Texas Christian University: Once more on Saturday, an unheralded challenger beat a highly-fancied team. The Horned Frogs got some nice offense from Trevone Boykin and a timely Pick-6 of Oklahoma QB Trevor Knight to beat the Sooners 37-33. Big plays and giant momentum swings characterised this game, and it was brilliant.

Dak Prescott: You might not really have known his name before Saturday, but you should now. As far as quarterbacking performances go, Prescott was almost unblemished as Mississippi State pounded Texas A&M 48-31. He was 19-25 for 259 yards and two touchdowns passing, and added 77 yards and three scores on the ground. Pretty much everything Prescott touched turned to gold, whereas his counterpart, the more-hyped Kenny Hill, had a bad game.

Prescott vaults right into Heisman Trophy contention now. His game against the Aggies is exactly the sort of performance that makes the voters sit up and take notice. He was instrumental in probably the biggest moment in Mississippi State history. Hail State, indeed.

Nick Marshall: The Auburn quarterback is absolutely flying right now, and single-handedly sought out and destroyed a Louisiana State team that’s reeling. In the battle of two teams with the same mascot, Marshall had 207 passing yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 119 and two more scores, as Auburn pounded LSU 41-7. The Auburn Tigers seem set to benefit from the chaos around them this weekend.

Utah: Led early, were challenged late and managed to hold on to beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Sure, they were aided by a missed field-goal late, but the Utes kept a Bruins offense that had exploded for 60+ points last week against Arizona State in check, allowing them only 28 points and just 138 rushing yards. Despite a 55-yard field goal attempt sailing wide, a shocking flop from the UCLA kicker, Ka'imi Fairbairn, got a second shot, but, justly given the obvious dive, the second attempt fared no better, and Utah took a bug win.

Melvin Gordon: The Wisconsin running back – himself a Heisman Trophy candidate – had a career day on Saturday, gashing the Northwestern defense for 259 yards and a touchdown on just 27 carries. That’s a monster 9.6 yards per carry, but it wasn’t enough for Wisconsin, who were doomed by four costly turnovers to a 20-14 loss.

Ole Miss: They were challenged at home, and all the knockers who said the Rebels offense, led by Bo Wallace, couldn’t stand up and win the game when it was there to be won will be eating humble pie now. Huge day for the Rebels, who handed Alabama it’s first loss on the season and I must admit that, although I thought it would be a close game, I didn’t see Ole Miss beating Nick Saban’s squad. 

Wallace was 18-31 for 251 yards and three touchdowns, playing a breakout game against one of the best squads in the nation. He threw the go-ahead score ten yards to Jaylen Walton with 2:59 left in the fourth, and it took an end zone interception to preserve probably the biggest win in the program’s history. There’s a lot of that going around Mississippi at the moment.

Utah State: Big Friday night win on the road in Provo against the previously-undefeated No. 18 Brigham Young. The Aggies outlasted a Taysom Hill-less BYU outfit 35-20, thanks to a twenty-one point blast in the second quarter on the army of their own backup quarterback, Darell Garretson. The Aggie defense forced BYU quarterback Christian Stewart into three interceptions as they improved their season record to 2-2.