We are downloading more data from week 8 after Ohio State choked out Penn State, Washington fell asleep, Florida State had a little scare, Alabama held off Tennessee, and Texas used some interesting officiating to slip by Houston. Not to be outdone, Iowa had one of the worst ways to lose that you’ll see all year, too.
Here’s the latest 18S Top 20 Poll.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia (+1) | 7-0 | vs. Florida |
| 2 | Ohio State (+2) | 7-0 | at Wisconsin |
| 3 | Florida State (+2) | 7-0 | at Wake Forest |
| 4 | Oklahoma (-1) | 7-0 | at Kansas |
| 5 | Washington (-4) | 7-0 | at Stanford |
| 6 | Michigan | 8-0 | BYE |
| 7 | Texas (+1) | 6-1 | vs. BYU |
| 8 | Alabama (+3) | 7-1 | BYE |
| 9 | Oregon (+1) | 6-1 | at Utah |
| 10 | Utah (+2) | 6-1 | vs. Oregon |
| 11 | Ole Miss (+2) | 6-1 | vs. Vanderbilt |
| 12 | Oregon State (+2) | 6-1 | at Arizona |
| 13 | Notre Dame (+3) | 6-2 | vs. Pittsburgh |
| 14 | Penn State (-7) | 6-1 | vs. Indiana |
| 15 | Missouri (+3) | 7-1 | BYE |
| 16 | Air Force (+3) | 7-0 | at Colorado State |
| 17 | LSU (NR) | 6-2 | BYE |
| 18 | James Madison (NR) | 7-0 | vs. Old Dominion |
| 19 | North Carolina (-10) | 6-1 | at Georgia Tech |
| 20 | Louisville (NR) | 6-1 | vs. Duke |
Out:
#15 TennesseeÂ
#17 Duke
#20 USC
National Storylines
America’s least talked about undefeated team Liberty moved to 7-0 on Tuesday after a 42-35 win versus Mid Tennessee State.
James Madison is also 7-0 after a Thursday night win 20-9 at Marshall.
Michigan shutout rival Michigan State 49-0 in East Lansing.
It looked like Houston easily moved the chains late against Texas on 3rd down but the officials said ‘nah’ and the Cougars ended up losing 31-24. Welcome to the Big 12, Houston. Wait, Texas is leaving the conference why are they doing the Horns favors!?
A score no one expected as Mississippi State beat Arkansas 7-3 in Fayetteville. The Hogs have fired their OC since the final whistle.
Washington’s offense went completely MIA and they used a pick six to beat Arizona State 15-7.
LSU absolutely blasted Army 62-0.
The officials ruled that Iowa punt returner Cooper DeJean signaled fair catch and called back his game-winning touchdown as Minnesota won their rivalry game 12-10.
A late defensive touchdown helped Alabama take care of business 34-20 in a win over visiting Tennessee.
Cam Ward threw for 438 yards but it didn’t matter as Washington State lost 38-24 at Oregon.
A failed late 2-point play allowed Oklahoma to hold off UCF’s upset bid 31-29.
As heavy favorites, we finally saw North Carolina lose a game they had no business losing. Virginia, of all teams, upset the Tar Heels 31-27.
Baylor held off a late comeback attempt against Cincinnati to win 32-29. The Bearcats are now 0-4 in the Big 12.
Ole Miss isn’t going away yet as they remain in the SEC mix with a 28-21 win at Auburn.
Don’t look now, but Rutgers is 6-2 after crushing Indiana 31-14.
A late Michael Pratt touchdown run got Tulane past North Texas 35-28.
Toledo is 4-0 in the MAC after a big win 21-17 at Miami, Ohio.
Opponent Watch
Navy (3-4): Air Force shut down Navy’s offense and would win this rivalry easily 17-6.
Tennessee State (5-2): The Tigers beat a school called Lincoln 52-0 this past weekend.
NC State (4-3): The Wolfpack were off this week.
Central Michigan (4-4): The Chippewas lost 24-17 at Ball State.
Ohio State (7-0): A low-scoring affair saw Ohio State pull away from Penn State 20-12 to take a lead in the Big Ten.
Duke (5-2): Quarterback Riley Leonard returned for Duke, gained a lead over Florida State, but Leonard hurt his ankle again and the Seminoles ended up winning easily 38-20 at home.
Louisville (6-1): The Cards were on a bye and will face Duke this weekend.
USC (6-2): The Trojans suffered their first Pac-12 loss and are on a losing streak now following a 34-32 defeat to Utah.
Pitt (2-5): Yeesh, the Panthers lost to Wake Forest’s 3rd string quarterback 21-17.
Clemson (4-3): End of an era now? The Tigers lost a brutal overtime game to Miami 28-20.
Wake Forest (4-3): Things were looking rough in recent weeks but Wake overcomes things to beat Pitt.
Stanford (2-5): Dante Moore was benched but got to see some playing time because UCLA blew out Stanford 42-7 in Palo Alto.
Week 9 Games to Watch
All time are eastern.Â
Oklahoma [-10.5] at Kansas
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 12:00 PM, Fox
I told you that game last weekend for Oklahoma was going to be close! Now, the Sooners travel to Lawrence for what could be their most difficult regular season game remaining on their schedule. I can’t shake the feeling that Oklahoma won’t go 12-0 and if there’s going to be a loss this might be it.
Duke [+3.5] at Louisville
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 3:30 PM, ESPN
According to the AP Poll, this is a battle between a pair of top 20 teams. Notre Dame’s strength of schedule took a big hit this past weekend and of course one of these 2 Irish opponents has to lose this weekend, as well. I’m still mad about the Louisville loss so I’m cheering on the Blue Devils and I’m not ashamed to say it.
Georgia [-16] at Florida (Jacksonville, FL)
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 3:30 PM, CBS
During this championship run for Georgia they’ve won this rivalry game pretty handily (76-27 combined score for 2021-22) and Florida hasn’t been particularly impressive this year except for their win over Tennessee. You’d think another comfortable win for the Dawgs is coming but I’m curious to see how Georgia’s offense looks without star tight end Brock Bowers.
Oregon [-4.5] at Utah
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 3:30 PM, Fox
I know it’s said a lot that Kyle Whittingham isn’t getting enough credit for what he’s achieving at Utah. If they can win this game at home and sweep USC and Oregon in back-to-back weeks, given their offensive issues this year, it would be so damn impressive. Oregon has struggled to score in this game over the last 3 meetings (averaging just 12.3 points) and they probably don’t want a rock fight with this physical Utah team. They’ll probably get one.
Tulane [-12.5] at Rice
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 4:00 PM, ESPN2
It’s year 14 for JT Daniels in college and he has the Owls 35th nationally in yards per play. Rice! This might be worth keeping an eye on for a potential upset.
Tennessee [-3.5] at Kentucky
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 7:00 PM, ESPN
This is one of those games where it’s effectively season over for the loser if they want to stay relevant nationally. The Vols still have Georgia and Missouri among their remaining ranked opponents. Kentucky has Alabama still to go, plus the finale against Louisville.
Ohio State [-13.5] at Wisconsin
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 7:30 PM, NBC
Well, NBC has this primetime night game for everyone coming up after the Notre Dame game. We haven’t heard much from Wisconsin this year whose best win to date might be…Rutgers? Their offense isn’t doing very well now with a backup quarterback, plus Ohio State owns this series with 9 straight victories. I like the Buckeyes to win big.
Colorado [+16.5] at UCLA
Saturday, Oct. 28th, 7:30 PM, ABC
It looks like Vegas has zero faith in Colorado these days and perhaps rightly so. This is 1 of 3 more ranked teams that the Buffaloes still face in 2023. After a 3-0 start and plenty of hype they probably aren’t going to make a bowl game. Also, UCLA has a nice comfortable finish to the season and might go 10-2 with a shot at a really good bowl game.
I thought the call was that the returner gave an invalid fair catch signal but it’s sufficient for a fair catch. The signal was the “get away” signal. Apparently you can’t hand signal to get away (like crossing your arms across your body, so below your neck area), then pick it up and run it. It happened again in a game later that day I think (or maybe I’m thinking of the NFL the next day – which if so, apparently has the same rule).
My feelings are if nobody even knows what you’re reviewing, then it can’t be overturned. The entire NBC crew including production is highlighting whether he stayed in-bounds.
This is the problem with instant replay, it gives way too much control to the refs/conferences. It won’t ever happen because you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube, but instant replay on every play is ridiculous unless you’re going to make every single aspect of the play reviewable including holding, PI. I think it would be ridiculous but we’re already at a ridiculous point.
The officials absolutely blew a substitution on 4th and 3 in the Duke game which allowed FSU to call a timeout. We’re just in this no-mans land of replay being allowed on 85% of calls. Of course I understand that this is by design and not necessarily to do right by the athletes.
Entirely possible that this weekend will be SC’s last win of the year. They’re at Cal, then have Washington, at Oregon, vs. UCLA.
If this Trogans team ends up coachless, QB-less, and in the Sun Bowl, I will be so happy.
Yup, 7-5 seems most likely for them now. Will USC fans be calling for Riley’s job? I would think so. But can they really fire him? Who would be better (that would appease everyone)?
They want Venables, for what it’s worth. Even with the B1G money I don’t think there’ll be appetite to pay an $88 million buyout to Riley. They’ll fire the DC and try again.
Would be hilarious if OU lost back to back coaches to USC. But even then, could Venables actually recruit the lines at USC? That is the one area they have been SERIOUSLY lacking, for almost a decade.
USC hasn’t had more than 2 top 300 lineman (OL+DL) commits since the 2017 class, that includes their #4 ranked 2018 class. I imagine the DL would be fine w Venables, but doesn’t look like he has done much to help the OL ‘crootin’ at OU.
OL is probably the hardest position group to rely completely on transfers for. It requires so much development and cohesion that playing together for years really makes a difference.
In conclusion, whatever they do, keep ignoring those lineman!
And is it just me or is the number of comments circle in the bottom left corner of the screen gone now? The one that turned from green to orange when there were new comments as well.
I think so, we had some issues recently with the commenting system and a new plug-in that threw a bunch of things off.
It is a little annoying that all the most interesting games (including ND) are at 3:30 this weekend.
When did one of the worst offense (only two teams are worse) in college football have a 6-2 record? Iowa would not have been in the Minnesota or the Wisconsin games except for Tory Taylor, their punter from Melbourne, Australia. In those two games, he punted 19 times, totaling 950 yards, averaging 50 yards per punt. (Iowa’s offense averages 116 yards per game over eight games.) Overall, Taylor has punted 54 times, totaling 2619 yards, averaging 48.5 yards per punt (2nd nationally among punters).
He flips the field for Iowa when needed with his long in 57 yards in the Minnesota game and longs of sixty plus yards punts in each of four previous games.
His punts rarely get returned either. Out of those 2619 yards, the opponent cumulative return yardage totals 111 net yards for a net punting average of 45.55 yards per punt. He can pin the opponent deep. Forty percent of his punts (22) are inside the opponents 20 yard line with only two touchbacks out of those 54 punts (3.64%).
For comparison, Bryce McPherson, averages 44.9 yards per punt, with a 37.1 net yards, 2 TBs (7.41%) with 3 (11%) of those within the opponents 20 yard line, .
Taylor had one punt in Minnesota games that was downed at their one yard lines and one against Wisconsin from the Minnesota 43 yard line that flew exactly 42 yds in the air, lands at the 1-yd line with back spin, and was downed at the 4-yd line.
Taylor may be the favorite for the Ray Guy award.
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Hey, hey, thanks! Huge amount of special teams info. But, this leads to a concern. Does this mean we have to spend a ton of $$$ sending our coaches Down Under to recruit punters?
BTW, didn’t we used to have a guy who did special teams analyses ? Maybe you should try out with the Staff!
Having that kind of a weapon would pay bonuses. Brian Mason was familiar with the Australian punters trained at ProKick from his time at Ohio State and Cincinnati, as well as the other ND coaches from their time at Cincinnati. Marty Biagi had an Australian punter while at Ole Miss. The Aussies grow up kicking the ball, have longer hang times and put a spin on the football. Six of the current top ten teams and thirteen of the top twenty-five have Aussie punters.