It’s been another big weekend in college football, with many of the most fancied teams in the nation falling by the wayside, setting up a pretty big shift in the national rankings. Ahead of that, here are some players and teams who excelled:
Alabama: Rumours of the demise of the Crimson Tide program as we know it – dominating and resilient – proved to be extremely premature. After a conference loss two weeks ago to Ole Miss at home, the pressure was on Nick Saban’s team as they went into Sanford Stadium to take on the Bulldogs, who were warm favourites to win.
Yet, like so many times before during the Saban era, the talk during the week from the Bulldogs was stronger than their on-field performance. That old saying about bark being worse than bite (please, pardon the pun) definitely applied here. The Bulldogs weren’t allowed any offensive leeway by a committed Alabama defense. Nor could the Georgia Bulldogs stop the Tide attack, and even special teams was a disaster. Alabama might’ve come in with a cloud over their title aspirations, but they left town with nothing but optimism, sending a serious message to the rest of the nation, via a 38-10 shellacking of their hosts.
Aaron Golub: the long snapper from Tulane became the first legally blind person to play FBS football. An amazing achievement.
Florida: yes, the Gators came in undefeated, but few pundits gave them much chance against an Ole Miss squad who’d, after all, beaten Alabama in Tuscaloosa two weeks before. This was supposed to be the game where the Gators came back to earth with a thud. Except that it was the Rebels who did that, copping a 38-10 hiding at the hands of a Gators squad who have emerged from the wilderness this year to announce themselves as a serious SEC contender. QB Will Grier was sensational, going 24-29 for 271 yards and four touchdowns, whilst the defense forced four Ole Miss turnovers. This one was pretty much over at half time, when Florida led 25-0.
We need to give huge credit to Jim McElwain, who did good work as a defensive coordinator at Alabama and showed his head coaching chops at Colorado State before taking the Florida gig. He’s turned the entire program around, and surely is in the conversation for national Coach of the Year?
Ezekiel Elliott: the Ohio State running back ground up the Indiana defense, amassing 274 yards and three touchdowns as the Buckeyes – most unconvincingly, it has to be said – beat the Hoosiers in Bloomington. Basically, Elliott was the reason the defending champions won.
Arizona State: the Sun Devils were beaten to a pulp by USC in Tempe seven days ago, and completely righted their ship to give head coach Todd Graham, under a fair amount of pressure this time last weekend, perhaps his biggest win as head man of the Sun Devils program, defeating previously-undefeated UCLA 38-23 in a game that was not as close as the final score suggests.
Baylor: took on a Texas Tech squad who gave Texas Christian a huge run for their money last week. Maybe it was just a good day last Saturday for the Red Raiders, or maybe Baylor are a much better squad than TCU. Either way, they blew Tech out of the water, winning 63-35, and doing so thanks to a very balanced offensive effort. This isn’t the pass-always Baylor of a few years back. Their ground game accounted for 368 of 680 total yards, thanks largely to Shock Linwood, who ran for 221 yards and two scores on just twenty carries. Ominous performance by the Bears.
Iowa: the Hawkeyes went on the road to Madison and recorded one of the best wins in recent memory, defeating Wisconsin 10-6, thanks largely to four turnovers. It’s Iowa’s first win against a ranked team in ten tries.
California: the Golden Bears might be serious Pac-12 contenders. If nothing else, they’re 5-0, having recorded their first win as a ranked team in six years. The defense was on fire, forcing four turnovers and recording seven sacks in the 34-28 victory over Washington, and QB Jared Goff threw for four touchdowns on a big day for the Bears. Do not sleep on this team.
Brett Rypien: starting his second game for Boise State, Rypien shredded Hawaii in a dominant first half, taking a seat halfway through the third quarter with a stunning stat line: 19-25 for 271 yards and three touchdowns. The Broncos took care of Hawaii 55-0 after leading 49-0 at half time to record consecutive home shutouts for the first time since 1986.
Clemson: a big home win over Notre Dame for the Tigers from the ACC, though it didn’t happen without a few heart palpitations in a frantic last quarter. It took a defensive stand on a two-point play that would have tied the game to defuse a volatile situation after the Irish came roaring back in the fourth to really put some heat on a Clemson squad that had led 21-3 in the third. By no means was this a pretty game, but the Tigers did enough and will certainly see a bump in the rankings after handing Notre Dame their first loss of the year.
Trevone Boykin: threw five touchdown passes in a 50-7 Texas Christian rout of Texas. He was just about unstoppable.
Leonard Fournette: in the Heisman race, Fournette leads by a nose over Boykin. The Louisiana State running back went off nuts for the third week in a row, recording twenty-six carries for 233 yards and three touchdowns. The man is just about impossible to tackle.
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