We’ve had some wild weeks so far in college football 2022 and this past Saturday didn’t quite match some of the highlights of other weekends to date. We saw A&M nearly toppling Alabama playing their backup quarterback, Brian Kelly taken to the woodshed, UCLA showing their back on the national scene (for now, at least), and a new Group of 5 team entering our rankings.

Let’s recap week 6 of this wonderful sport.

18 Stripes Top 20 Poll

National Storylines

Quinn Ewers looked super sharp (289 yards, 4 touchdowns) in his return to action following a shoulder injury while Texas embarrassed Oklahoma 49-0 in Dallas. The Brent Venables era is in total panic mode right now.

The score flattered Tennessee a little bit, but it’s still funny to see LSU get destroyed in front of their home crowd. As noted by the media, this was Brian Kelly’s worst home loss as a FBS head coach.

Miami is spiraling a bit as they lose their 3rd straight game. Bring back the Turnover Chain?

Alabama’s offense sputtered often in a tough night game against Texas A&M. It seemed like Bryce Young could’ve played if it was absolutely necessary but the Tide never gave him a chance. The Aggies came back and were so close to winning on this final play. You’d be hard pressed to find a more infuriating pass play than what A&M cooked up here.

I’ve got Mike Leach’s team correct this week and Mississippi State hammered KJ Jefferson-less Arkansas this weekend to move in our 18S rankings.

Michigan was tied with Indiana at halftime then pulled away late. I caught 2 plays of this game, both touchdowns for Michigan, and immediately turned the channel. I am deeply sorry.

Cincinnati was trailing USF at halftime and in the 4th quarter. That could’ve been a super bad loss for the Bearcats.

Pitt running back Israel Abanikanda ran for a school-record 320 yards and 6(!) touchdowns in a 45-29 win over Virginia Tech.

The Jim Leonhard era is off to a swell start with Wisconsin pasting Northwestern 42-7 in Evanston. That’s 5 straight losses for Northwestern since they came back from Ireland.

Florida State led 17-3 at halftime against NC State but coughed up the lead into the 4th quarter. To put a cherry on top the Seminoles threw an absolute floater interception trailing by 2 well within field goal range with 45 seconds remaining.

Clark Lea was totally Doing Good Things™ as Vanderbilt led Ole Miss at halftime. Unfortunately, the ‘Dores were punished badly in the 2nd half being out-scored 35-8.

Virginia led Louisville 10-0 after the 1st quarter then were out-scored 34-7 to finish the contest. That was without Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham playing, too.

It was a great week for interim head coach’s as Arizona State took out Washington. The Sun Devils’ uniforms are going to be featured in this week’s Rambler, prepare thy selves.

Another interim tag win for Georgia Tech who upended Duke in overtime 23-20.

A couple of Midwest barnburners graced the weekend with Kansas State edging Iowa State 10-9 and Illinois defeating Iowa 9-6.

Houston came back furiously late against Memphis and stunned the Tigers 33-32 on Friday night.

OUT:

No. 9 Utah

The Utes played well in a hard fought and high-scoring loss at UCLA. The loss drops Utah down to 4th in the Pac-12 for now.

No. 14 Kentucky

A sneaky bad loss that wasn’t on the radar too much this weekend as Kentucky’s offense sputtered during a 24-14 defeat at home to South Carolina.

No. 19 Kansas

I feel bad for dropping the Jayhawks out. They lost their starting quarterback early and still piled up 540 yards in a close loss.

Opponent Watch

Ohio State (6-0): Six more touchdown passes for C.J. Stroud as the Buckeyes roll past Michigan State. Stroud leads the nation with 24 touchdown passes.

Marshall (3-2): The Thundering Herd were off this week and face Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday.

California (3-2): The Golden Bears were also off this week ahead of their trip to lowly Colorado.

North Carolina (5-1): Miami had 30 first downs but only 24 points as North Carolina goes into Hard Rock Stadium to pick up a 3-point win.

BYU (4-2): The Shamrock Series proved too much for BYU who now have to turn around and play the SEC’s Arkansas on Saturday.

Stanford (1-4): Blowing a 24-10 lead to Oregon State can’t be super fun. Tanner McKee threw the game-sealing interception.

UNLV (4-2): Starting quarterback Doug Brumfield was injured as UNLV’s quest for a Mountain West title took a huge hit in a 40-7 blowout loss at San Jose State.

Syracuse (5-0): The Orange were off this week and now host NC State in a big ACC matchup.

Clemson (6-0): Clemson’s streak of scoring at least 30 points in every game remains in tact with an easy win over Boston College.

Navy (2-3): The Middies trounce Tulsa 53-21 and score their most points in a game since a November 30, 2019 win at Houston.

Boston College (2-4): First round NFL Draft hopeful Phil Jurkovec drops to 10th in the ACC passer rating rankings as BC scores a season-low 3 points in front of their home crowd.

USC (6-0): A bit of a tightly fought battle saw USC pull away from Washington State 30-14.

Week 7 Games to Watch

Now featuring dates, channels, and times eastern!

Penn State (+7) at Michigan
Saturday, Fox, Noon

You didn’t need to look this up, but I did just for accuracy sake. Yup, Fox is doing another Michigan game for Big Noon Saturday. We really need Penn State to step up and do this entire country a favor this weekend. An upset by the Nittany Lions in Ann Arbor would be so tasty.

Kansas (+7.5) at Oklahoma
Saturday, ESPN2, Noon

I have to assume this line is factoring in Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels potentially missing the action with his shoulder injury. If not, I’m not sure how anyone could trust Oklahoma’s defense to cover over a touchdown right now.

Minnesota (-6.5) at Illinois
Saturday, Big Ten Network, Noon

Ah yes, the 2 best teams in the Big Ten West so far just like we all predicted. This line has moved heavily in favor of Minnesota early in the week. What does Vegas know? That Bert is gonna fall flat on his Punchable Face™?

Alabama (-7.5) at Tennessee
Saturday, CBS, 3:30 PM

I hope Bryce Young is healthy and ready to go for this game. It’s the ESPN GameDay location and the atmosphere should be through the roof and completely electric. The tilted nature of this rivalry is well known, Nick Saban has not lost to the Vols since becoming Alabama head coach.

Oklahoma State (+3.5) at TCU
Saturday, ABC, 3:30 PM

These 2 teams plus Kansas State are the only remaining undefeated programs in Big 12 play. By the way, K-State lost to Tulane and that Oklahoma win looks worse and worse by the minute–why are they ranked by the AP? Anyway, huge game here for Sonny Dykes and putting TCU on the national scene. Last week at Kansas was a good start. It feels weird to type that.

NC State (+4) at Syracuse
Saturday, ACC Network, 3:30 PM

Two out of our last 4 games featured this week are relegated to conference networks. This is the reality we live in now. It is a good time to start paying attention to Syracuse as they’ll be Notre Dame’s next big game with Stanford and UNLV coming up next to South Bend.

Miss State (-7) at Kentucky
Saturday, SEC Network, 7:30 PM

I almost removed this game from my list after Kentucky’s poor showing against South Carolina. Technically speaking, this is a matchup between a pair of ranked AP teams although it really doesn’t feel like it. SEC bias?

Clemson (-3.5) at Florida State
Saturday, ABC, 7:30 PM

This is the beginning of a season-defining stretch for Clemson that sees them travel to Tallahassee, host Syracuse, then come to Notre Dame. I’d personally like Clemson nice and undefeated when they arrive in Notre Dame Stadium.

USC (+3.5) at Utah
Saturday, Fox, 8:00 PM

USC enters a really soft stretch (Arizona, California, Colorado) after this game and a loss might eliminate Utah from competing for a conference title. It’s interesting that the Utes are favored coming off a loss to UCLA.