NUGGETS
The happiest place in college football was the visitor's locker room at Alumni Stadium on late Friday night. For the first time in nearly 11 full years, Kansas went on the road and brought home a win over a Power 5 opponent.
The Jayhawks didn't just snap their 46-game losing streak in such situations, they broke the streak into shards and threw those shards in the trash. After falling behind Boston College 10-0 early, Kansas transformed into a team entirely unrecognizable from its past self. KU ripped off a 7-drive stretch that saw the Jayhawks turn a 10-0 deficit into a 41-24 lead, scoring every time they stepped on the field from the 7:10 mark of the first quarter to the 35-second mark of the third. Over that 7-drive stretch, Kansas ran 55 plays for 503 yards (9.15 per snap), including four drives of at least 78 yards and three of more than 80.
This is the same team that gained 280 yards and scored seven points in a loss to Coastal Carolina just six days prior.
In all, KU ran for a stunning 331 yards on 44 carries and threw for 238 more, racking up 567 yards of total offense on 7.9 yards per play.
Iowa punts to win. Losing to your rival hurts. Losing to your rival in a 6-hour game marred by two weather delays hurts even more. Losing to your rival with GameDay on campus hurts even worse than that. But losing like this has to hurt the absolute worst.
Iowa State held leads of 7-3, 14-6 and 17-15 when Iowa pulled ahead 18-17 with 4:51 to play. The 'Clones moved into Iowa territory and appeared to convert a 3rd-and-13 through a pass interference penalty that would have given ISU a 1st-and-10 at Iowa's 24 with 2:13 to go, but a holding penalty offset it and Brock Purdy's 4th-and-13 pass was incomplete.
No matter, Iowa State was set to get the ball back with a minute and a half to go and a timeout still in Matt Campbell's hip pocket, but then disaster struck.
Kirk Ferentz moved to 12-9 in the CyHawk game and 9-3 since 2008 with the most Kirk Ferentz win ever: an 18-17 victory with four field goals and a game-winning punt.
Herm can coach, y'all. Arizona State went to East Lansing and won a Big Ten game. Sun Devils 10, No. 18 Michigan State 7. At the end of the fourth quarter. The game was 3-0 deep into the fourth quarter, when the Spartans got on the board with a 9-yard Elijah Collins run with 8:37 to play. After an exchange of punts (this was a theme in this game), Arizona State took over at its own 25 with 3:34 left and put together the one drive it needed: 11 plays, 75 yards and a touchdown, but not before true freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels picked up a 4th-and-13 by scrambling for 15 yards. Arizona State took the lead with 50 seconds to go and Michigan State zipped back down to make a tying field goal... but the kick came with 12 men on the field. The re-do sailed wide right.
The win was Arizona State's first road triumph over a ranked team in non-conference play since 1997.
If this is it for the Pitt-Penn State rivalry, it was a fitting ending. Saturday was the 100th meeting between No. 13 Penn State and Pitt with no further games scheduled. The lead up was full of typical rivalry pettiness: Penn State accused Pitt of stealing signals, and Pitt didn't make its players and assistant coaches available to the media.
Penn State led 17-10 when Pitt took over at its own 34 and 8:17 left. The Panthers appeared headed for an immediate three-and-out when Pat Narduzzi elected to go for it -- with a go route to his tight end.
The Panthers later had a 1st-and-goal from the 1 but threw incomplete on first and third downs and ran for no gain on second. Rather than go for it and gamble his defense could force a punt if he didn't make it, Narduzzi elected to kick a field goal and gamble his offense could put together two straight scoring drives. The field goal doinked off the left upright.
Maryland learns football isn't that easy after all. Maryland entered Saturday's trip to Temple averaging SEVENTY-ONE points a game. Mike Locksley's offense had stepped on the field for 28 non-end-of-half drives and scored touchdowns on 19 of them.
And then the Terps went to Philly to play Temple and football became hard again.
Maryland touched the ball 17 times and scored twice, mounting touchdown drives of 86 and 73 yards but gaining just 181 yards outside of that. After taking a 15-13 lead with 2:17 left in the third quarter, Maryland had four possessions totaling 17 plays for 13 yards.
Maryland benefitted from two Temple safeties (one intentional) but still lost, 20-17.
FRIES
The Super 16. The Nuggets is once again honored to vote in this week's NFF-FWAA Super 16 poll. Here's this week's ballot.
- Clemson
- Georgia
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- Oklahoma
- Notre Dame
- Wisconsin
- Texas
- Auburn
- Utah
- UCF
- Michigan
- Texas A&M
- Penn State
- Iowa
Odds and Ends
a. Your weekly reminder to play through the whistle.
b. UCF is really, really good. I have them higher than they are in either major poll, but I may still be underrating them at No. 12. Their 45-27 win over Stanford wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicated; the Knights had 413 yards and a 38-7 lead at halftime. UCF's streak of 29 consecutive games with at least 30 points is an AP poll-era record. c. Best game you didn't see: Southern Miss 47, Troy 42. Thanks to a 51-yard touchdown pass and kick return housings on consecutive kicks, the game went from 26-21 to 40-28 within a span of 25 seconds. The teams combined for five touchdowns of at least 50 yards and 1,154 yards of total offense, including 1,018 through the air. d. BYU earned a really nice win over No. 24 USC, 30-27 in overtime. The game was tight throughout, but the Cougars' defensive staff managed to bottle up the Trojans' running game with just its front, allowing the back eight to sit on USC's passing game. The result: 171 rushing yards on 3.8 per carry and (just) 281 passing yards with three interceptions of USC quarterback Kedon Slovis. e. Speaking of BYU, Tennessee snapped its 4-game losing streak, 45-0 over Chattanooga. f. Two weeks after beating Tennessee in Neyland Stadium, Georgia State lost to Western Michigan, 57-10. g. Chip Kelly is now 3-12 at UCLA after the Bruins' 48-14 loss to No. 5 Oklahoma. Jalen Hurts ran for 289 yards and rushed for 150. h. No. 25 Virginia beat Florida State in a truly bonkers game, 31-24. Virginia scored 21 points in the fourth quarter and Florida State ran out of time at Virginia's goal line, frantically snapping the ball with the clock running at four seconds remaining. FSU running back Cam Akers was tackled at the 2 to seal the win for Virginia. i. Florida did the opposite of Florida State by pulling out a victory in a game it had no business winning. The Gators were down 21-10 and down starting quarterback Feleipe Franks, but backup Kyle Trask ignited a two-touchdown fourth quarter rally. Kentucky lined up for a game-winning field goal but it sliced wide right, the second straight time UK lost to Florida in Lexington on a missed field goal. Florida then added insult to injury with a 76-yard touchdown in the final minute, emerging with a 29-21 win. j. This is a crazy stat.
k. Yup, this dude was a 5-star.
l. Vintage Will Muschamp when, just before halftime, officials did not review a run where South Carolina running back Rico Dowdle was ruled down shy of the goal line but miiiight have been in before his knee hit the ground. South Carolina came up empty on the possession.
Alabama won the game 47-23.
m. It was a really good week for the Big 12. Kansas began with its blowout win over Boston College, and after that Kansas State won at Mississippi State, West Virginia beat NC State by 17 as a heavy underdog, and TCU blew out Purdue in West Lafayette.
n. It was a bad week for the ACC. Georgia Tech lost to The Citadel, and Virginia Tech trailed Furman 14-3 in the third quarter before rallying to win 24-17. o. Also, Clemson handled Syracuse 41-6, which, well, Syracuse was picked as the league's top challenger to Tiger dominance in preseason. The second best team in the ACC is... Wake Forest? Virginia? p. Eastern Michigan 34, Illinois 31.
This is the third straight year EMU has won a Big Ten game, and the Eagles have been paid a combined $2.41 million to do so.
q. Troops = supported
r. Nevada out-gained Weber State 453-137 but somehow only won the game 19-13. s. Air Force went to Boulder and beat Colorado 30-23 in overtime, giving the Mountain West seven wins over the Power 5. That's more than any other conference. t. It's not the prettiest 3-0 in college football history, but Minnesota is 3-0 after beating South Dakota State 28-21, Fresno State 38-35 and, on Saturday, Georgia Southern 35-32.
DESSERT No. 3 Georgia beat Arkansas State 55-0, but it was still a great day for the Red Wolves football family.