With only two weeks left in college football, things are starting to take shape for the playoff picture. The top programs like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Clemson, and Alabama all remain in the top four with big blowouts over the weekend but, teams like Oregon and Washington both lost in their Pac-12 matchups. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from the weekend in college football.
#13 BYU 17 – #18 Coastal Carolina 22
A game that was set up on four-day notice turned into one of the best games of the year. In what wasn’t a statistically amazing day for CCU and QB Grayson McCall (10-15 with 85 yards), the team was able to produce 22 points behind running back CJ Marbles 132 yards and 2 touchdowns. On the other hand, Zach Wilson for BYU threw for 240 yards on 19-30 passing but BYU could not stop Coastal Carolina’s ground game.
#12 Indiana Hoosiers 14 – #16 Wisconsin Badgers 6
In what was a classic defensive battle, Indiana was able to throw it into the endzone twice from Jack Tuttle to Whop Philyor and Petyon Hendershot. Jack Tuttle only threw for 130 yards in comparison to Graham Mertz for Wisconsin who had 202 yards. This was a huge loss for the Badgers as they were looking to try to battle their way into a possible playoff spot (it was a longshot) meanwhile the Hoosiers are making a strong statement for their team led by coach Tom Allen.
#15 Oklahoma State 22 – TCU 29
In what many may consider the upset of the week, TCU was able to mount a comeback against Oklahoma State coming out of halftime. This game had a lot of high flying passes as Oklahoma States QB Spencer Sanders had 270 yards in the air while TCU QB Max Duggan had 265 yards. Both QB’s had one touchdown and one interception on the day. The game started off in what was looking like a great day as the Cowboys were able to rattle off 13 unanswered points but that changed once the Horned Frogs came out at halftime. TCU was able to put up 14 points in the third quarter while Oklahoma State only answered with 6. In the last quarter of the game, TCU’s defense showed up by completely shutting down the Oklahoma offense and not allowing a single point. This win is going to shake up Oklahoma’s rank by losing to an unranked opponent and you may see them dip down out of the top 25 completely.
Stanford 31 – #22 Washington 26
In what was one of the bigger surprises for the Pac-12, Stanford came out hot and completely shut down the Huskies from the jump. As a team that as shut down earlier in the previous week against Utah, there really was not a thought that the same thing would happen again especially against Stanford. Granted the Huskies were able to make a comeback last week and win against the Utes, that was not the same story this week. Washington was able to fight back and make the game a one-possession game but the stat sheet does not tell the story of how the game looked on the field. Stanford and their defense were completely having their way with Washington. The Huskies were not capable of finding the endzone through the air despite the 79 yards of Ty Jones and 69 yards of Rome Odunze. However, Sean McGrew rushed for two TD’s and Dylan Morris took one in himself. But for the Cardinal, running back Austin Jones really led the way to victory with 31 carries having 138 rushing yards, and finding the endzone twice. QB Davis Mills threw for 252 yards on 20 for 30 while also having one touchdown.
This week really had a mixup with some of the lower-ranked teams and will cause a mix up in the rankings. Not only will it mix up the rankings but even cause some interesting games now for the conference games, like the Pac-12. However, the top four teams completely dominating their games all by twenty or more points is going to leave those positions unchanged.
Next week features some huge games with Michigan going against rival #4 Ohio State, #11 Oklahoma against the West Virginia Mountaineers, and #16 Wisconsin against #19 Iowa. This will be a huge week as it is the last week really before a lot of the games the next week are rescheduled games (but do feature Alabama against Florida along with the Clemson and Notre Dame game) but, the next two weeks will be crucial to really set the top-ranked teams.
