On a Saturday where five of the top 11 teams in AP poll lost, including the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide, here are the key takeaways from the wildest weekend of the college football season to date.
1. In general, Saturday was a bad day to be a ranked team playing an unranked matchup
Outside of the headliner in Nashville, there were several other ranked teams that were upset in conference matchups against unranked foes.
The Arkansas Razorbacks pulled off a home upset for the ages as they took down the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers, 19–14, in Sam Pittman’s first victory over an AP top-five opponent as Arkansas coach. Pittman has been on the hot seat all season, but his defense pulled through against one of the most dangerous offenses in the country, and his program is now 4–2 and 2–1 in SEC play.
The No. 10 Michigan Wolverines continued their quarterback shuffle in a 27–17 road defeat at the Washington Huskies. Alex Orji started for the Wolverines, but was replaced by seventh-year senior Jack Tuttle, who was available for the first time this season after recovering from an elbow injury.
Tuttle had the offense moving a bit more crisply in the passing game at points, but a fourth-quarter fumble followed by a costly interception helped Washington pull away. Perhaps Tuttle is the starter moving forward, but the Wolverines don’t appear to be playoff caliber with their inability to consistently complete a forward pass.
The No. 11 USC Trojans also fell 24–17 on the road against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Quarterback Max Brosmer scored on a sneak with less than a minute to play and the Minnesota defense forced three USC turnovers to capture the win.
The No. 22 Louisville Cardinals struggled to keep up with the unranked SMU Mustangs in the first half, and by the time the Cardinals caught up, they couldn’t get over the hump in a 34–27 loss. Louisville went just 4-of-12 on third down and couldn’t get off the field on defense as SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings accounted for 394 all-purpose yards.
There’s always at least one week on the college football calendar every season that doesn’t look too exciting on paper but delivers. Saturday was certainly that day.
2. No. 25 Texas A&M exposes No. 9 Missouri as a College Football Playoff pretender
The Missouri Tigers entered Saturday’s contest on the road against the No. 25 Texas A&M Aggies with a 4–0 record and a No. 9 ranking.
But anybody who has watched Missouri’s last two games knew the Tigers were likely a bit overrated. Missouri escaped with a home win against then-No. 24 Boston College, 27–21, in mid-September, followed by a 30–27 double-overtime survival of the unranked Vanderbilt Commodores.
Sure, the loss to Vanderbilt looks a bit better in hindsight, but the Tigers haven’t looked the same as a year ago when they went 11–2 and won the Cotton Bowl.
The Tigers fell behind, 24–0, at halftime and went 5-for-15 on third down in the 41–10 defeat. To make matters worse, the defense was a sieve, giving up 512 yards.
Missouri appeared to be a pretender in the 12-team CFP race through the first month of the season, and the Aggies validated it Saturday.
3. Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty continues dominant play, eclipses 1,000-yard rushing mark in blowout victory
Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty continued his Heisman Trophy-worthy campaign by becoming the first ball carrier in FBS this season to eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark in the Broncos’ 62–30 victory over the Utah State Aggies.
Jeanty took his first carry 63 yards for a touchdown and rolled from there. By halftime, he had 13 carries for 186 yards and three scores, averaging 14.3 yards. The Broncos took a 49–17 lead into the locker room, and Jeanty’s day was done.
Jeanty has carried the ball 95 times for 1,031 yards and 16 touchdowns this season. He’s on pace for 2,474 yards and 38 touchdowns, which would be one of the top rushing seasons in FBS history. That kind of output, coupled with a CFP berth, could be enough for Jeanty to capture the Heisman in a season where the race is wide open.
4. UNLV falls in a home heartbreaker, but its CFP hopes remain alive
The UNLV Rebels are one of several teams in contention for the Group of 5’s CFP spot, so conventional wisdom would say a 44–41 overtime defeat to the Syracuse Orange at home would put the Rebels’ CFP goals in serious jeopardy.
But consider this, UNLV already has two Power 4 wins over the Houston Cougars and Kansas Jayhawks. The Rebels also host a ranked Boise State at the end of October and could potentially play the Broncos again in the Mountain West Conference title game.
Run the table, win a conference title and let the chips fall where they may.
Extra Points
- The Indiana Hoosiers became the first team to reach bowl eligibility, knocking off the Northwestern Wildcats, 41–24, in Chicago. First-year Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti has the program well ahead of schedule, nationally ranked and squarely in the dark-horse conversation for the CFP.
- Army and Navy continued their undefeated seasons with a pair of blowout wins. Navy dismantled Air Force, 34–7, in Colorado Springs, while Army rolled over Tulsa on the road, 49–7. Army and Navy appear to be two of the best teams in the AAC and have a great chance of meeting in the conference title game in December. Due to Army and Navy’s scheduling agreement with the AAC, the two schools could face off in the conference championship game one week prior to their annual standalone regular-season finale in December. The scheduling quirk is quintessentially college football and still has a great chance of coming true.
- There aren’t many FBS teams that are in worse shape than the Temple Owls. They fell to 1–5 after a 29–20 loss to the Connecticut Huskies. But it’s how the Owls lost that makes things worse. Trailing 23–20 and facing fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line with three seconds left, Temple attempted the “Brotherly Shove” made famous by the city’s professional franchise, the Philadelphia Eagles. The result was, well, less than ideal. The ball was fumbled and picked up by UConn’s Jordan Wright, who took the return back 96 yards for a touchdown as time expired. The Owls have reached a state of absolute futility.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as College Football Week 6 Takeaways: Upsets Abound for AP Top 25 Teams.
