1. Baylor gets themselves a bear skin.I asked after their loss to Texas if Oklahoma was done competing for national championships under Bob Stoops. The answer, clearly is no.
The Sooners snapped an FBS-leading home winning streak that lasted three calendar years and became the first visitor to win in McLane Stadium by beating Baylor 44-34. The offense displayed the balance every offensive coordinator strives for (270 passing yards, 241 rushing), and Baker Mayfield - who clearly douses himself in seal blubber before every game - danced his way to four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing).
Baylor got its points and yards, but Oklahoma's defense imposed its will on the Bears. As the night went on, Jarrett Stidham, Corey Coleman, et. al., started feeling for crimson-painted hits before they arrived.
Oklahoma now returns home to face TCU - with Trevone Boykin and Josh Doctson sporting questionable at best health - then heads to Stillwater for what could be the Bedlam to end all Bedlams.
2. Ohio State beat Virginia Tech 42-24 on Labor Day, then essentially went into a 10-week walking slumber: Hawaii, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, Indiana, Maryland, Penn State, Rutgers, Minnesota and, finally, Illinois. The Buckeyes have looked alternately brilliant and bored. The offense needed 29:06 to dent the scoreboard against Minnesota last week and led Illinois 7-3 29 minutes in on Saturday. The Buckeyes pulled away for a 28-3 win, leaning on Ezekiel Elliott and J.T. Barrett for a combined 255 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Ohio State's extended preseason is over now. The Buckeyes host No. 13 Michigan State next week, then visit No. 15 Michigan. Win those and it's No. 5 Iowa in Indianapolis. Win that and (as of today) it's a rematch with No. 2 Alabama, then (again, as of today) either No. 1 Clemson or No. 4 Notre Dame. Three words: It's. About. Time.
3. The loss dropped Illinois to 5-5 on the season with a trip to Minnesota and a home date with No. 18 Northwestern to go. Following the game, Bill Cubit campaigned - hard - for the full-time job.
Worth noting: Cubit's face will be decided by an interim athletics director and an interim president.
4. Jim Harbaugh - unquestionably - has Michigan well ahead of schedule. Still, you can't lose to Indiana. Not when you're Michigan. Michigan was one play away from losing to Indiana. The Wolverines needed a Jake Rudock touchdown pass as time expired in regulation to force overtime, then forced an incomplete pass on 4th-and-goal from the two to hold on for a 48-41 double overtime victory. Whatever. A road win in conference play is a road win on conference play. We have no official rooting interest in next week's games.... but Ohio State at Michigan with the Big Ten East on the line sounds like too much fun to pass up.
5. Fifty-two weeks ago, Texas beat West Virginia 33-16 in Austin. At the time it seemed like a turning point in Charlie Strong's first year on the job. At least, that's what he probably thought when he went crowdsurfing in the Longhorns' locker room.
Immediately after thumping Texas 38-20 in Morgantown, Dana Holgorsen - king of the subtweet - had Strong's crowdsurfing moment on his mind.
West Virginia is now 2-0 in an important November with Kansas, Iowa State and Kansas State (combined Big 12 wins: two) to go.
6. I wrote Friday that a trip to Starkville the week after LSU is exactly the type of game Alabama would lose. And the game pretty much started out that way. Through the first 20 minutes of action, Mississippi State had out-gained the Tide 162-55 and mounted the game's only true scoring threats (though they'd resulted in a goal line stuffing and a missed field goal.) Then Cyrus Jones took a punt 69 yards for a touchdown, and the game was all but over. Mississippi State played well on a down-to-down basis, allowing only 3.46 yards per play on 52 of Alabama's 55 snaps. Problem is, the other three went for an average of 66 yards, as Derrick Henry bolted to touchdowns of 74 and 65 yards and Calvin Ridley housed a 60-yard snatch-and-dash score.
Calvin Ridley out here breaking ankles... pic.twitter.com/DBW1SlNFWR — Justin King (@JustinKing) November 14, 2015
In what is shaping up to be its best defense since the best-of-its-era 2011 unit, Alabama's front completely enveloped Mississippi State's offense. The Tide eliminated every threat other than Dak Prescott, then zeroed in on Prescott, sacking him nine times and limiting him to 300 yards and a pick on 43 pass attempts.
So while I wrote this was the type of game Alabama could lose, I also allowed for the likelihood of Alabama winning 31-7.
Final score: Alabama 31, Mississippi State 6.
7. There was a meme floating around the college football universe after their blowout loss to Utah that Oregon had become "just another program." Well, "just another program" did to Stanford what nobody does to the Trees - they torched 'em. The Ducks racked up 9.08 yards per play and five touchdown drives that traveled 68 yards or further in six or fewer plays, needing only 17:57 to put up 38 points during a 38-36 win. Oregon isn't what they were of the past couple years, but they're not "just another program," either.
8. The American continues to demand your attention. Coming into tonight, Houston had failed to score in exactly two quarters this season - the final frames of a 42-7 blowout of Tulane and a 34-0 thumping of Vanderbilt.
Through the first 29 minutes of their most important game of the season, the Cougars had yet to score.
Tom Herman replaced gimpy, ineffective quarterback Greg Ward, Jr., with Kyle Postma and he delivered. Postma hit a touchdown pass just before the half to get the Cougars on the board, then clawed the Cougars back from a 34-14 fourth quarter deficit to win 35-34.
Navy chugged along to a 55-14 win over SMU, setting up a winner-take-all game between the Cougars and Midshipmen on Black Friday in Houston.
In the East, Temple traveled to Tampa with a chance to clinch the division... and the Owls got their beaks caved in. South Florida led 31-10 at the half and won 44-23, out-rushing Temple by a whopping 326-121. South Florida closes with Cincinnati and Central Florida, while Memphis hosts Memphis and Connecticut. One Temple loss and two USF wins would hand the Bulls the division.
So what I'm saying is that after a season of talking up Herman, Matt Rhule and Justin Fuente, the AAC title game could easily wind up pitting Willie Taggart and Ken Niumatalolo.
9. North Carolina is the best team you're not watching. After dropping 66 on Duke a week ago, North Carolina hung 59 on Miami, scoring the game's first 45 points on their way to a 59-21 triumph.
The Heels held a 298-99 rushing advantage, forced three turnovers and took a punt back 78 yards for a touchdown.
One more UNC win will set up a fantastic ACC Championship between Clemson and the Fighting Fedoras from Chapel Hill.
10. Mizzou wins one for Gary. After beating South Carolina in October, the Tigers had scored a total of 25 points over a string of four consecutive losses. But Mizzou rallied, fighting back from a 10-6 deficit with two fourth quarter touchdowns to secure a 20-16 win. One more win (either home against Tennessee next week or at Arkansas the week after; both will be difficult) extends Gary Pinkel's final season by one game.
EXCLUSIVE: Watch @GaryPinkel's emotional post-game speech in the locker room after @MizzouFootball's win over BYU https://t.co/COf3u1vu3S
— Mizzou Network (@MizzouNetwork) November 15, 2015
11. How do you know it's not your year? When your assistant coach injures your cornerback while celebrating.
Mark Richt after Georgia's 20-13 win over Auburn: "I wish I didn't know that."
12. Odds and Ends a. It goes without saying, but Baylor having to play Oklahoma without Seth Russell, TCU traveling to Oklahoma with a banged-up Trevone Boykin and Michigan State visiting Ohio State with a banged-up Connor Cook stinks for all of us. Nothing anyone can do about it, but it just stinks. b. Arizona knocked off No. 10 Utah in double overtime, giving Rich Rod and company a Top 10 victory for the third consecutive year. USC now controls the Pac-12 South - and, oh by the way, will try to win its way to the Pac-12 championship without its best linebacker. c. Mike Gundy must have been getting flashbacks like a Vietnam vet as Oklahoma State traveled to Jack Trice Stadium and immediately fell behind 24-7. For the second time in three weeks, though, the Cowboys rallied from a 17-point deficit to secure a 35-31 win. Oklahoma State, 10-0 on the year, now gets to fight its way to a Big 12 title and won't have to leave Stillwater to do it. d. Turns out we were looking for the wrong LSU-Alabama hangover. Arkansas smacked LSU for the second year in a row, pounding the Tigers on the ground to the tune of a 299-59 rushing advantage. Bret Bielema's bunch has outscored the Bayou Bengals 48-14 over their two-game streak. e. Todd Monken has gotten it flipped at Southern Miss. A 65-10 whipping of Rice (682-214 yardage differential) put the Golden Eagles at 7-3 on the year and 5-1 in Conference USA. Most impressively, those five wins have come by a cumulative 224-57. f. Iowa is 10-0 after a 40-35 win over Minnesota. All that stands between the Hawkeyes and an undefeated regular season with a shot at the College Football Playoff are wins over Purdue and Nebraska. If you need to go grab a coffee after reading the previous sentence, please, be my guest. We'll wait. g. You back? Good. h. Nick Arbuckle threw for 471 yards (31 yards more than second-place Rudock, and he had two overtimes to get there) and Georgia State won at Texas State, 41-19. That's three FBS wins for the Panthers this year, three more than they had in their entire (and brief) history entering this year. i. It appears Derek Mason is figuring it out at Vanderbilt. A week after narrowly whiffing at Florida, the Commodores beat Kentucky 21-17. The 'Dores are very much in play to beat Texas A&M next week in Nashville. j. After losing to Miami in a game it shouldn't have lost, Duke has been outscored 97-44 by North Carolina and Pittsburgh. k. Notre Dame beat Wake Forest 28-7, but losses by Stanford and Temple meant this was a very bad week for the Irish's Playoff hopes. l. Remember back when Paul Rhoades admitted Iowa State should never beat Texas? Well, Washington State beat UCLA on the road. After Josh Rosen put the Bruins on top 27-24 on a 37-yard touchdown run with 1:09 remaining, Luke Falk answered with a 21-yard scoring strike with three seconds remaining. That's his fifth come-from-behind victory - as a sophomore. The Cougars are 7-3 for the first time since 2003 with wins over Oregon, UCLA and both Arizona schools. m. Teams that became bowl eligible this week: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Florida, Tennessee and Texas Tech. n. It's basketball, but still. If this week didn't go the way you wanted, be glad you don't have to review this defensive tape tomorrow. o. And finally, New Mexico beat Boise State last night. Ok, allow that to sink in. Now, take a look at how close Boise State came to tying it on the final play.
ICYMI: 30pt underdog New Mexico upset Boise, but the Broncos nearly pulled off a crazy final play: pic.twitter.com/i0fmbb6DB6 — RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) November 15, 2015