College Football Roundup Week 8: Overrated, Underrated, What It All Means. Is Clemson THAT Good?
College football roundup after Week 8 with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means
College Football Week 8 Roundup
College Football Week 8 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 8 Scoreboard
Week 9 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction
Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Oregon is a player now One Really Big Thing
– Whining about Clemson Most Overrated Thing
– Home field advantage Most Underrated Thing
– The season is taking a break What It All Means
College Football Week 8 Winners & Losers
Winner: LSU QB Jayden Daniels
It’s hard to stand out in a conference with Hendon, and Bryce, and Stetson, and KJ, and Levis, and Richardson, and Rattler, and Jaxson, and Rogers, and all the talented quarterback across the SEC board. Daniels is doing it by somewhat quietly carrying LSU to a terrific season.
The Arizona State transfer is hitting 70% of his passes for 1,812 yards and 12 touchdowns with just one pick among with 524 rushing yards and nine scores.
On Saturday he took down Ole Miss, connecting on 75% of his passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns with 121 rushing yards and – for the second week in a row after doing it to Florida – three scores.
Loser: Akron pass protection
Akron might be 1-7 without a win over an FBS program, but it really is playing better under head coach Joe Moorhead. However, pass protection has been a bit of an issue – Kent State came up with seven sacks in last week’s 33-27 win.
After last week the Zips have allowed 44 sacks on the year. Tulsa – 30 – is the only other team to give up more than 29. To be fair to the new coaching staff, last year’s Akron team was dead last in the country, too, allowing 63 sacks on the season. Miami University – 19 sacks on the year – is up next.
Winner: Wisconsin vs Purdue
Purdue has been great, Wisconsin is reeling, and … 16 in a row. That’s what the Badgers have done to the Boilermakers since a 26-23 loss in West Lafayette back in 2003. Even worse, 14 of the wins have been by double-digits including a somewhat shocking 35-24 Wisconsin win on Saturday.
Loser: Mississippi State vs Alabama
Alabama 30, Mississippi State 6. With that victory, the Tide have beaten the Bulldogs 15 times in a row, and the last several outings have been a disaster. The 2017 game was a tight 31-24 battle. Over the last five games, though, Nick Saban’s side has won by a total of 182 to 22, or an average of 36.4 to 4.4
Winner: Oregon QB Bo Nix
Dog the man all you want from his Auburn days, but Nix is lighting it up for the Ducks. He just came through with a 22-of-28 day for 283 yards and five touchdowns with no picks in the win over UCLA
That came off a 20-of-25 day for 265 yards against Oregon. He has thrown one pick since the opening day debacle against Georgia.
Loser: Tennessee pass defense
Yeah, teams have to throw to keep up the pace, and no one’s worrying about how the sausage is made when the team is still basking in the win over Alabama in an undefeated season. However, it would be nice if the Tennessee pass D wasn’t that bad.
The Vols just got hit by UT Martin for 316 yards and two touchdowns. Granted, the game was over when most of the production happened, but the nation’s second-worst pass defense – yay Ohio! – has allowed teams to hit 63% of their throws for 330 yards per game.
Winner: UAB RB DeWayne McBride
To be fair to Chase Brown of Illinois and Khalan Laborn of Marshall, the stats don’t take into account that McBride didn’t play in the season opener against Alabama A&M. With that said, the UAB junior leads the nation with 162.5 yards per game – a relatively whopping 11 more than Brown, and by himself more than 70 teams average per outing.
Last week he ripped through WKU for 197 yards in the loss, making it the sixth time in six games he ran for 120 yards or more. Next up is Florida Atlantic.
Loser: Boston College running game
Helped by AJ Dillon, the 2019 Boston College ground game finished the season eighth in the nation averaging 253 yards per game. That all flipped the next year with the coaching change to Jeff Hafley and his high-volume passing attack. Fast forward to now, and BC is dead last in the nation in rushing with 473 yards on the season averaging just 67.6 per game.
Oddly enough, the 2-5 Eagles are 2-0 when running for 100 yards and 0-5 when they don’t.
– Oregon is a player now One Really Big Thing
– Whining about Clemson Most Overrated Thing
– Home field advantage Most Underrated Thing
– The season is taking a break What It All Means
NEXT: The really big Week 8 thing was …
The Really Big Thing Was …
Oregon really is a player in this whole thing.
Let me expand this to whatever team is going to win the Pac-12 Championship, but after the impressive win over UCLA on Saturday, Oregon is looking more and more like it’s good enough to close out strong.
Of course the College Football Playoff committee can and will do whatever it wants, but as I have to keep mentioning because no one wants to buy it, 2018 Ohio State is the only 12-1 Power Five conference champion to not get into the CFP, and that’s only because Notre Dame was 12-0.
So far since this thing got going in 2014, if you win at least 12 games and your Power Five championship, you’re in unless something crazy happens.
Now, could the committee take its Because It’s Alabama clause and apply it to one of the losers of Tennessee-Georgia or Michigan-Ohio State if either one finishes 11-1, but would it do that if there are four – maybe even five – 12-win Power Five champions?
Maybe. Again, it can pick Central Michigan if it wants to, but I’m not sold it would do that.
However, it’s already starting that the 49-3 loss to Georgia to start the season might be a deathblow if it’s between a 12-1 Pac-12 champion Oregon team and Tennessee, or an SEC Championship loser if it’s 12-1.
But the committee also likes teams on a roll.
Oregon has its win over previously unbeaten UCLA, it has a slew of okay victories – Washington State beat Wisconsin on the road, BYU beat Baylor, Stanford beat Notre Dame – and it still has good games ahead.
At Cal, at Colorado, Washington and Utah at home, at Oregon State. Those last three are problems, but that’s a positive – that could build up the resumé that much more.
And there’s no USC on the slate.
If the Trojans can get through the rest of their schedule unscathed – at Arizona, Cal, Colorado, at UCLA, Notre Dame – to be 11-1 vs 11-1 Oregon for the Pac-12 Championship …
To hammer this home, the CFP can change its own precedents on the fly, but just beware – you really might have to deal with a Pac-12 team in your tournament.
– UT pass D, Jayden Daniels Winners & Losers
– Whining about Clemson Most Overrated Thing
– Home field advantage Most Underrated Thing
– The season is taking a break What It All Means
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
The Most Overrated Thing Was …
Whining about Clemson.
It’s starting.
The social media snipping about Clemson playing in the ACC is kicking in full force.
Would the Tigers be in the College Football Playoff hunt if they played in the Big Ten East? Yeah, maybe – at least as much as Michigan is.
Are we counting Penn State as a monster win, because that’s the only thing the Wolverines have done so far.
I think Ohio State is the best team in the country at the moment, and it has a really good win over … um … uhhh … (Crickets)
Wisconsin? Not really. Michigan State? Not really. Iowa? Please. Notre Dame? Yeah, not really, and Clemson plays the Irish in two weeks.
Would the Tigers be a factor in the SEC West? Y’all really sure the division is that good?
Alabama? Obviously, but it sure as shoot looked gettable against Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas – for three quarters – and, of course, Tennessee.
What’s the best win by any of the other six teams in the division – other than against other teams in the SEC West? Arkansas over Cincinnati. Current AP rankings-wise, there’s that, and Ole Miss beat Kentucky. The Hogs also beat South Carolina.
Clemson plays the Gamecocks in the final game of the regular season
Clemson just beat Syracuse. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win over an unbeaten team. It also beat NC State and Wake Forest, meaning it has three wins over teams currently ranked in the AP poll.
You have as many of those as Alabama and Ohio State.
Clemson doesn’t have the superstar receivers of past seasons, the secondary is questionable, the quarterback situation is suddenly iffy, and yeah, it’s been a bit of a rocky run, but in this weird and wacky season just being unbeaten at this point matters.
And it’s Clemson. It shook Bill Hancock’s hand. Alabama is the only program so far to do more in this CFP thing.
There might be a loss along the way for the Tigers – maybe at Notre Dame, maybe South Carolina – but there won’t be two, and there will almost certainly be an ACC Championship at the end of all this.
There’s no way to luck your way into the College Football Playoff national championship. Be prepared to see this team get its shot for the seventh time in eight seasons.
– UT pass D, Jayden Daniels Winners & Losers
– Oregon is a player now One Really Big Thing
– Home field advantage Most Underrated Thing
– The season is taking a break What It All Means
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Home field advantage.
Duh, teams play better at home.
Two weeks ago Oklahoma State played TCU on the road. Loss. Last week it played Texas at home. Win.
No big deal, right?
All four Big 12 games this weekend were won by the home team.
I know, I know, whoop-dee-doo. By the way, all four Big 12 home teams won the week before. That sort of matters because outside of things happening with Iowa State all of these games are high scoring, and most of them are close enough to make the familiar surroundings the possible difference.
West Virginia got blasted by Texas Tech in Lubbock. The week before the Mountaineers beat Baylor in Morgantown.
In conference play, all four Pac-12 home teams won two weeks ago, all were good fights, and there was even the freakish anomaly of Colorado beating Cal to go along with Utah’s win over USC.
Last weekend? Washington got by Cal in Berkeley – the Huskies are a better team at home and lost a few weeks ago at Arizona State – and the other three games were won by the home side including Oregon over UCLA.
You’re still not there. I got it.
Oh, all four SEC home teams won vs other SEC teams last weekend including LSU over Ole Miss, South Carolina over Texas A&M, and Bama over Mississippi State. The week before that? 4-1 with LSU over Florida the only blip.
The Big Ten? Last weekend the home side went 5-0. The week before? 4-1 with Maryland slipping by Indiana.
The ACC hasn’t followed the fun, but on Saturday four home teams won with Duke’s win over Miami the outlier, but the Canes lost QB Tyler Van Dyke in that.
Now, if Ohio State loses at Penn State and TCU is taken down at West Virginia this weekend …
– UT pass D, Jayden Daniels Winners & Losers
– Oregon is a player now One Really Big Thing
– Whining about Clemson Most Overrated Thing
– The season is taking a break What It All Means
NEXT: What It All Means: Midseason
What It All Means: Week 8
It’s like college football is taking a little bit of a break.
Seriously, how do you get cranked back up after Alabama-Tennessee?
UCLA-Oregon wasn’t without its charm, but it certainly didn’t have the same world-shattering feeling of importance in the midst of a relatively light week of games.
Absolutely no dogging GameDay going to Jackson State this weekend for its showdown against Southern – that’s going to be must-see pregame programming in every way – but it’s not like there were a lot of options.
Ohio State-Penn State lost its luster. The idea of going to UCF for the Cincinnati showdown went bye-bye after the Knights lost to East Carolina, and Tennessee-Georgia is coming up so the Cocktail Party – I adore finely mixed drinks and refuse to ditch the name – this weekend between the Dawgs and Florida was out.
In other words, it’s the second straight light week of massive national games.
College Football Week 8 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 8 Scoreboard
Week 9 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction
Of course, that doesn’t mean the college football landscape can’t change if Michigan loses to Michigan State (again), or if Kentucky shocks Tennessee, or if TCU drops the date at West Virginia.
Notre Dame at Syracuse is interesting, Oklahoma State at Kansas State will be a big deal, and …
Yeah, it’s a light week.
You don’t play 15 straight bangers. You start strong to get the crowd into it – and this season certainly did that – you trance it out a little bit, and then BOOM.
Those giant games are on the way in a few weeks, so take a deep breath, have fun – again, there will be big things happening somehow – and enjoy.
– UT pass D, Jayden Daniels Winners & Losers
– Oregon is a player now One Really Big Thing
– Whining about Clemson Most Overrated Thing
– Home field advantage Most Underrated Thing
– The season is taking a break What It All Means
