NUGGETS
Are you ready for Semifinal Saturday in the Big Ten? We're heading into the Thanksgiving season and we're talking credibly about Northwestern and Indiana as Big Ten title contenders.
Indiana has not played a game closer than 16 points since surging past Penn State on Oct. 24, most recently blanking Michigan State 24-0. Saturday was not the IU offense's best effort, which underscores how good this team is that it can play a B-minus game and win by 24.
Indiana, 4-0 in Big Ten play for the first time since 1987 and ranked No. 10 in the country, will head to Columbus to face No. 3 Ohio State with the Big Ten East title on the line. No matter what happens from here, that statement alone is a significant accomplishment for Tom Allen and his staff.
In the West, 4-0 Northwestern will host 2-0 Purdue for control of the division. Northwestern went on the road and handled previously unbeaten Purdue 27-20, moving the Wildcats to 4-0 in Big Ten play for the first time since 1996.
Wisconsin, meanwhile...
What do you even say about Michigan at this point? Playing against a team that hardly practiced over the past two weeks, Michigan looked like the the team that hadn't practiced. Their first two passes were intercepted. They gained one yard in the first quarter. They went five full halves without recording a sack or a turnover. They were just... there, going through the motions in falling into a 28-0 halftime deficit against Wisconsin for the second straight year en route to a 49-11 thumping.
Michigan gets Rutgers next week. Who are you taking? Two games in, we know who USC is. It's a team that will play footsy with its opponent for far too long, commit way too many penalties, and turn it on only when it has to. And that might still be enough to win the Pac-12. After turning a 27-14 loss into a 28-27 comeback against Arizona State, USC needed a late drive to beat an Arizona team that went 4-8 a year ago. Case in point: In USC's first nine possessions Kedon Slovis went for 17-of-28 for 182 yards the Trojans scored 20 points. In USC's final two, Slovis was 13-of-15 for 143 yards and the Trojans scored 14 points. They also did not commit a penalty, having drawn 11 flags for 110 yards earlier in the game. The Trojans are slated to visit Utah next week, which means they'll get a team playing their season opener for the third straight game. Who will look like the crisper outfit? Tulsa storms past SMU. This season has not been, in a word, easy for Tulsa. Part of that is circumstance; games with Arkansas State, Cincinnati and Navy were all canceled or postponed. Part of that is performance. The Golden Hurricane fell behind UCF 23-5 (not a typo) before winning 34-26, trailed East Carolina 17-3 in a 34-30 win and, on Saturday, let SMU build a 21-0 lead before fighting back. Philip Montgomery's team began the game horribly. A pick-six, a fumble and a missed field goal aided SMU in building its three-touchdown lead, but the defense put the clamps on Shane Buechele and company from that point on. That included forcing two fourth-down stops well within Tulsa territory, only to see the Hurricane offense immediately go three-and-out with the score 24-21. The offense finally pieced together a 7-play, 65-yard touchdown drive to take its first lead with 2:11 remaining, then picked Buechele to seal the win with 1:29 to play. At 4-0 in league play, Tulsa now just needs to win two of its last three games to reach its first American Championship. (In an odd scheduling quirk, Cincinnati and Memphis played in the 2019 regular season finale, then again one week later for the conference title. Thanks to the rescheduling of the Cincinnati-Tulsa game, that could happen again in 2020.) Notre Dame played like a champion today. Let's be honest a bit, shall we? In an admittedly dull day of college football, most of the country was rooting for Boston College to beat Notre Dame. Or at least convince us they could beat Notre Dame. And for a moment, it seemed like BC was game. The Eagles held leads of 10-3 and 13-10, even recovering an onside kick (that was called off by penalty, but still). Jeff Hafley's team was feisty. Brian Kelly's team didn't care. The Irish ran off a 35-10 run to put the game out of reach, a championship performance by a team that's a legitimate contender to win this season's national championship. Ian Book was fantastic in Notre Dame's 45-31 win, throwing for 283 yards and three touchdowns on 27 attempts while leading all rushers with 85 yards and a score on 10 carries.
Going on the road to win in against a dangerous opponent is what elite programs do. It's what Notre Dame did.
FRIES
The Super 16. Here’s this week’s ballot for the FWAA-NFF Super 16 poll. And since that poll does not exist this year, this essentially is the Super 16 poll.
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Notre Dame
- Clemson
- Texas A&M
- Florida
- Cincinnati
- Indiana
- BYU
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Wisconsin
- Miami
- Coastal Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
Seen and Heard
Seen
The pandemic can't stop branding.
Here's how Kentucky opened its win over Vanderbilt. The 'Cats ran for 308 yards on 8.8 a pop. John Schlarman would've been proud.
Nevada is 4-0 for the first time in a decade after a 27-20 win over New Mexico.
Heard "We figured we would take Floyd and leave the timeouts here." -- Kirk Ferentz on unloading all of his timeouts at the end of Iowa's 35-7 win over Minnesota. "It’s hard to call (plays) when you don’t have the confidence you’re not going to turn the ball over.” -- James Franklin on the root of Penn State's issues amid the second 0-4 start in program history. The Lions have nine turnovers this season, including two on Saturday. "He was in isolation essentially from Saturday afternoon until Thursday night, was able to come in and get one practice, and it showed. It's unfortunate. I'm not happy about it, by any stretch of the imagination." -- David Shaw on losing starting quarterback Davis Mills to a false positive for last week's loss to Oregon and most of the week leading up to Saturday's loss to Colorado. Odds and Ends a. Louisiana-Lafayette clinched a berth in the Sun Belt championship with a 38-10 triumph over South Alabama. The Sun Belt has had East and West divisions for three seasons, ULL has won the West all three times.
b. Amazing stat here from ESPN's David Hale.
c. Remember a few weeks ago when we were all yelling at running backs about when not to score? Turns out, some of 'em were listening. Texas Tech's SaRodorick Thompson fell down at the Baylor 7 with his Red Raiders trailing 23-21, and backup kicker Jonathan Garibay converted a 25-yard field goal as time expired for a 24-23 Tech win. d. The biggest play in the game was this one, linebacker Colin Schooler fighting through a block to prevent a touchdown with Texas Tech down eight, in an eventual 1-point win.
e. Wake Forest led North Carolina 45-24 with 6:56 to play in the third quarter and lost. The Heels ran off a 35-0 run in just over 17 minutes to land a 59-53 win. Sam Howell threw for 550 yards and six touchdowns on 45 attempts and ran for a seventh touchdown. In my opinion, that is a lot of touchowns.
f. Not to be outdone, Ole Miss scored 59 points and rolled up 708 yards of offense in a 59-42 win over South Carolina. Lane Kiffin also handed out souvenirs.
g. I know we're all coming to grips with a top-10 Indiana, but the most surprising development of this season has to be 2-0 Colorado. Karl Dorrell wasn't even hired until February, never got a spring practice, and now owns wins over UCLA and Stanford. h. "Horrible if it happens to you, hilarious for the rest of us" Part I.
i. They haven't gotten the pub of the other Group of 5 unbeatens, but Marshall is 7-0 and hasn't played a 1-score game yet. The Herd continued their tear through Conference USA with a 42-14 blowout of Middle Tennessee on the day the school remembered the 50-year anniversary of the 1970 plane crash.
j. Liberty is 8-0 for the first time in school history after trucking Western Carolina 58-14.
k. Miami nearly had to cancel due to a quarantine-induced lack of depth, trailed by 11 points at two separate points, and rallied to beat Virginia Tech 25-24. That's two straight weeks the 'Canes have trailed by 10+ points, on the road, in the second half and won anyway.
l. Kyle Trask needed 29 passes to throw for 365 yards and six touchdowns in a 63-35 win over Arkansas. The Gators were a snap shy of 600 yards, and Trask has now thrown at least four touchdowns in all six games.
m. Dan Mullen's record through 32 games at Florida -- 26-6 -- is now equal to Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer.
n. "Horrible if it happens to you, hilarious for the rest of us" Part II.
o. Utah and Cal are still waiting to play their first game of 2020, while Texas State has already played 10. The Bobcats fell to 1-9 with a 40-38 loss to Georgia Southern. p. The Sun Belt West has already been decided, and the Sun Belt East will crown, if not a champion, then a clear favorite on Saturday when 5-0 Coastal Carolina hosts 4-0 App State. Coastal's game with Troy was postponed, while App beat Georgia State 17-13. q. Twenty-three years ago this month, Nebraska and Penn State were Nos. 1 and 2 in the AP poll. On Saturday those blue-blood brand names played a game between winless teams relegated to the noon slot on FS1. Nebraska jumped out to a 24-3 lead and held on to win 30-23. r. FAU and FIU staged the 19th Shula Bowl on Friday night, a 38-19 FAU victory. The Owls have won four straight, all by 19 points or more, and own the series edge 14-5. s. Another officiating error helped decide another Pac-12 game. Trailing 24-21 on the first play of the fourth quarter, Oregon State went for a 4th-and-1 at the Washington 5. The ball appeared to get to the 3 in the eyes of everyone but the refs spotting the ball. Oregon State lost, 27-21.
DESSERT
Week 12 is not over. Cal and UCLA will play at noon ET -- today.
Actual football dessert, served to you by the spoonful on FS1.