Winners and Losers from Week 8 of College Football
Just when you think you have it all figured out, college football comes in and shakes up all preconceived notions.
That's what happens when a sport is played by 18-to-23-year-olds. You're never really sure what you're going to get each week.
Week 8 started off with a bang with both Baylor and Oklahoma falling to West Virginia and Kansas State, respectively.
From Alabama's shutout of Texas A&M to Florida State's thrilling victory, we get you caught up on Saturday's busy slate of games.
Which teams and players came out as winners? Which ones didn't? The answers are in the following slides.
Winner: Kansas State's Big 12, Playoff Hopes
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Well, hello, dark-horse playoff contender Kansas State. How nice of you to come to fruition.
The theme morphing in the Big 12 over the past couple of weeks was that three teams were separating themselves from the rest of the conference: Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma.
It's time to go ahead and sub out the Sooners in favor of the Wildcats. Or just blow up that list altogether. Either one.
A 31-30 win for the Wildcats over Oklahoma in Norman shows that you can count out K-State head coach Bill Snyder at your own risk. As the season progresses, his teams almost always get significantly better.
Kansas State is 5-1, and one early-season six-point loss to Auburn isn't the worst thing in the world. After Saturday, K-State has to at least be in the Big 12 title and playoff conversation.
How long the 'Cats stay there remains to be seen, but they'll have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves. Games against Oklahoma State, TCU and Baylor remain on the schedule, with the Bears being the last game of the season.
That could set up nicely for a conference that doesn't have a conference championship game.
Winner: Oklahoma Wide Receiver Sterling Shepard
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Oklahoma's 31-30 loss to Kansas State can be blamed on many things. It can be blamed on offensive play-calling. It can blamed on the defense's inability to stop the run. It probably will, fair or not, be blamed on kicker Michael Hunnicutt. Normally the model of consistency, Hunnicutt was 1-of-3 on field-goal attempts and had an extra point blocked.
But one person you can't blame is Sooners wide receiver Sterling Shepard, who had 15 catches for 197 yards. In a receiving battle with Kansas State's Tyler Lockett, arguably the Big 12's best pass-catcher, Shepard won in a big way on Saturday. (Lockett still had a tremendous day with six catches for 86 yards and a touchdown.)
The question for Oklahoma heading into the season was whether there was a legitimate No. 1 option in the receiving group if Missouri transfer Dorial Green-Beckham wasn't ruled eligible. Shepard has answered that in a big way.
Regardless of how Oklahoma does the rest of the season, Shepard has shown week after week that he's a legitimate candidate for first-team All-Big 12.
Loser: Baylor
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There's going to be some focus, deservedly so, on the officiating in Baylor's 41-27 loss to West Virginia. Some pass interference calls were questionable. Another penalty against West Virginia for an ineligible man downfield was reviewed when it shouldn't have been, though the officials may have been looking at whether the pass in that instance was behind the line of scrimmage.
In any case, there were a lot of flags—32 in all between the Bears and Mountaineers. It wasn't a pretty game. Baylor specifically was flagged an astounding 18 times for 205 yards. That's not all on the refs.
Still, Baylor was held to its lowest scoring total of the season. Though the Bears are known to spread it around, their offense stems from the ability to run the ball. Against the Mountaineers, Baylor averaged just 2.3 yards per rush.
Quarterback Bryce Petty was pressured over and over again by the Mountaineers' defense. He missed some wide-open throws, and his receivers dropped some passes. All in all, Baylor was off. To make matters worse, offensive lineman Troy Baker has been lost for the year because of a knee injury, according to David Smoak of ESPN Central Texas.
It's too early to eliminate Baylor from the playoff race just yet given all that's happened elsewhere in the college football landscape. Still, this is a tough loss coming off of a great win against TCU.
Winner: West Virginia's Defense
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To hold Baylor's offense to 27 points is a feat in and of itself. To do it without two starting cornerbacks (Daryl Worley and Terrell Chestnut) for at least half of the game is nothing short of remarkable.
To do that while losing the turnover battle 3-0 is, well, something else entirely.
You have to tip your cap to the Mountaineers defense in a 41-27 win over Baylor, which was immediately put in a bad situation when an early fumble gave Baylor the ball on the 7-yard line. One play later, the Bears scored to go up 7-0.
But even without Chestnut and Worley, West Virginia played tight against Baylor's receivers while getting pressure on Bears quarterback Bryce Petty.
Go back two years when West Virginia beat Baylor 70-63 and when there were more than 1,500 combined yards between the schools. The defensive transformation in Morgantown has been spectacular given injuries and turnover at the assistant coach level.
The Mountaineers are now one win away from bowl eligibility and their only two losses are to Alabama and Oklahoma.
Not too shabby.
Winner: Louisville Wide Receiver DeVante Parker
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A broken foot sidelined Louisville's top wide receiver, DeVante Parker, for the first seven games of the season. If you needed any more proof that the Cardinals missed him, look no further than their 30-18 win over North Carolina State.
Parker, who entered the season as one of the top wide receivers in the country, according to CBSSports.com, had nine catches for 132 yards. Not a bad comeback.
It's a great success story for a guy who has been one of the cornerstones of the Cardinals' offense in the past. Because of the time he missed, Parker won't lead the nation in any receiving categories, but his presence is an undeniable boost for an offense that is still trying to find itself.
Loser: Texas A&M
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As it turns out, Texas A&M may—may—not be as good as its Week 1 win over South Carolina indicated.
A&M's chances against the Alabama Crimson Tide went out the window sometime in the second quarter, when Alabama hung up a whopping 35 points. At the half, Alabama led 45-0 and extended the lead to 52-0 within the first five minutes of the third quarter.
In the end, Alabama rolled 59-0.
The defensive struggles for the Aggies are nothing new. That side of the ball was a liability a year ago and has continued to be problematic over the past few weeks.
But A&M's offense being shut down—and in this case shut out—for the third week in a row? That has been the surprising part.
According to ESPN's Ivan Maisel, this is the first time head coach Kevin Sumlin has lost three straight games at Texas A&M and only the third time in his coaching career.
After starting the season 5-0, the Aggies are now 5-3 and still have to play Auburn, Missouri and LSU.
Winner: Alabama Offensive Coordinator Lane Kiffin
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Lane Kiffin gets a lot of grief, namely from his uncanny ability to fall upward in the coaching ranks. So when Alabama hired the ex-USC head coach as the team's offensive coordinator, it was met with its fair share of jeers.
With Alabama's offense struggling in the past two games against Ole Miss and Arkansas, it would be easy to point the finger at Kiffin.
But when Alabama's offense has been good, it has been good.
The 59-0 win over Texas A&M showed a couple of things, the first being that the Aggies still have a hard time stopping anyone. However, the Tide showed they're still explosive—more so than the past few years. Quarterback Blake Sims had another solid day with 322 total yards of offense and four touchdowns.
Wide receiver Amari Cooper, healthy again, was his usual self with eight catches for 140 yards and a pair of scores.
Alabama's offense is full of big-play potential. Kiffin has done a nice job exploiting matchup problems and getting creative. It's actually been a lot of fun to watch.
Praising Kiffin isn't the popular sentiment, but he deserves it here.
Loser: Florida Head Coach Will Muschamp
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Patience is wearing painfully thin in Gainesville. Some might say it’s officially worn out. Florida coach Will Muschamp just hasn’t gotten it done over the past two seasons. Quarterback Jeff Driskel hasn’t developed, the offense hasn’t progressed and the wins aren’t there.
A 42-13 loss to Missouri on Saturday, a team that was just shut out by Georgia, was the latest blow for Muschamp’s group, which is now 3-3. Making matters worse, the Tigers had just 119 yards of total offense—20 passing. Florida had six turnovers, however.
"That's what some of our guys need to do is look in the mirror," Muschamp said afterward (via Gators beat writer David Jones). "They need to play better."
Muschamp needs to coach better, too. He knows he's not absolved from this, either. As Pat Dooley of GatorSports.com writes, well....
"The smell of this performance is something the Gator fans in attendance won't be able to get out of their clothes for awhile. It was a rotten milk and burnt hair poured into a used diaper and left in the sun for a month.
"
Say this for Dooley: He has a way with words.
With Georgia, South Carolina and Florida State still on the schedule, getting to six wins could be tough. Does Muschamp survive the season? The answer seems like a far more decisive “no” if the Gators don’t make the postseason for the second year in a row.
Winner: USC Quarterback Cody Kessler
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Yeah, it might "just" be Colorado, but USC Quarterback Cody Kessler still put up numbers worth mentioning in Saturday's 56-28 win over the Buffaloes.
Kessler didn't throw the ball that much, just 26 attempts, but completed 19 passes for 319 yards and seven touchdowns. That's what most experts might call "efficiency."
Nelson Agholor and Juju Smith caught 10 of those passes combined for 232 yards and four touchdowns.
It was easy sailing for Kessler and Co., but that's important considering Pac-12 teams have been abysmal at home this season. In a wide-open Pac-12 South race, every game is important. To take care of business, and to do it in style, is a big deal for the Trojans, especially given their depth problems.
Loser: Cal
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Oh, Cal. Not like that.
The Golden Bears played a pretty brilliant game against UCLA all things considered. The Bruins outgained Cal 567-366 in total yards, but Cal also had three takeaways. Golden Bears quarterback Jared Goff had another 300-yard game and tossed a pair of touchdowns.
So it's unfortunate for Sonny Dykes' team that an ill-advised play call and throw in the final minutes of the game helped decide the outcome.
Facing 2nd-and-7 at the UCLA 36-yard line, Goff went deep on his first read, but he overthrew his target and was picked off by Marcus Rios. Adding insult to injury was that replay showed Rios may not have had possession of the ball as he ran out of bounds.
Still, the call stood (but not without the referee's mic refusing to work at the most inopportune time).
It was a bad moment all around, and Cal definitely wishes it had that play back.
The Bears are a much-improved team from last year's 1-11 disaster and could head back to a bowl game. This is merely a speed bump along the way. But what a tough way to lose a hard-fought game.
Winner: Georgia
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When you go 2-0 without your star running back, folks begin to take notice.
Georgia has now won back-to-back games without Todd Gurley as an investigation into whether he received money for his signature continues.
It’s almost like you’d never even know Gurley wasn’t playing. Freshman running back Nick Chubb continues to be the rock of the offense that Gurley was before his suspension. In a 45-32 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday, Chubb carried the ball 30 times for 202 yards and a pair of scores.
That’s 68 carries for 345 yards and three touchdowns in two games for Chubb. And, according to ESPN's Brett McMurphy, Chubb joins Herschel Walker and Rodney Hampton as the only two freshman running backs to run for 200 yards in a game for Georgia.
Another big game against Florida awaits Georgia in a couple of weeks followed by a potentially sneaky road trip to Kentucky and home game against Auburn. If Georgia is to keep winning and fight its way to the SEC Championship Game, it needs Chubb to continue to play well.
Winner: TCU Quarterback Trevone Boykin
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One of the most amazing turnarounds at any position on any team this year continues to be TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin. In short, he looks like a completely different player than a year ago when he filled in for Casey Pachall.
Boykin is far more accurate throwing the football. In a 42-9 win over Oklahoma State, Boykin tossed for 410 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 10.5 yards per attempt.
When combined with his already well-known running ability, Boykin becomes the most dangerous offensive weapon in the Big 12. It feels like all the potential that Oklahoma quarterback Trevor Knight showed in the Sugar Bowl against Alabama last January is what Boykin is displaying each week.
You have to hand it to the guys around him, both on the field and on the sideline calling plays. This is a complete transformation that only complements what has been a mostly excellent defense.
Loser: Virginia
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In the wide-open ACC Coastal race, any team can take control of the division at any time. Virginia could have been that team on Saturday. At 2-0 in the ACC, the Cavaliers were in prime position to take a relatively firm lead in the division against Duke.
Instead, the Blue Devils came away with the 20-13 win.
The loss puts Virginia at 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the ACC Coastal, along with Duke, which holds the tiebreaker, and Pittsburgh. Georgia Tech fell to 2-2 in conference play after losing a 48-43 shootout to North Carolina.
The Coastal is an absolute mess right now. As Andy Bitter of The Roanoke Times tweets, the Coastal is, well, one big endless circle. That makes things exciting as the season moves on, but a win would have been a huge boost for Mike London’s Cavaliers.
Winner: Florida State Quarterback Jameis Winston
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The best game of the day—perhaps of the season—went down to the wire like it should have. In the end, though, Florida State hung on once again to beat Notre Dame 31-27 in a classic.
The star of the second half? Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston, who was a surgical 15-of-16 passing. Winston finished the game with 273 yards passing and a pair of touchdowns. His one interception came on an ill-advised decision deep in Florida State territory trying to force a throw.
Winston fell out of the Heisman discussion quickly to start the season. Coupled with off-the-field instances, the reigning Heisman winner has almost become an afterthought in this year's race. But after Saturday's win over the Irish? He's starting to creep his way back into that race, as Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports opines.
Whether Winston wins another Heisman, whether he's even invited to New York as a finalist, remains to be seen. What is known is that the Seminoles are 7-0 with three quality wins under their belt. With undefeated teams losing around them, Florida State's resume is looking more and more impressive.
Keep winning and Florida State is a shoo-in for the playoff.
Loser: Notre Dame and Offensive Pass Interference
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Let's get one thing out of the way before diving into this: Notre Dame has nothing, absolutely nothing, to be ashamed of. Losing to Florida State by four points on what was, basically, the final play of the game showed what a hard-fought game it was. There's no reason at all for the Irish to drop down in the polls.
All that said, the offensive pass interference call against Notre Dame that called back the would-be game-winning touchdown was brutal.
It wasn't brutal in the sense that it was the wrong call; quite to the contrary, the general consensus is that it was the right call. But to have a touchdown to wide receiver Corey Robinson, who was brilliant all night, called back is going to sting the Irish for a good long while.
"We execute that play every day. And we do it legally and that's the way we coach it. We don't coach illegal plays," said head coach Brian Kelly (via Ralph Russo, the Associated Press).
A handful of plays before, Notre Dame converted a 4th-and-18 to stay alive on an Everett Golson scramble pass. It almost seemed like the Irish were made to win.
This won't and shouldn't eliminate Notre Dame from the playoff conversation. This was well-played by both sides. But Notre Dame is going to wonder "what if" a lot.
Winner: Oregon Running Back Royce Freeman
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Overshadowed a bit—okay, a lot—by Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota is running back Royce Freeman. Only a freshman, Freeman has become the go-to guy for the Ducks in the backfield.
In a 45-20 over Washington, Freeman had 29 carries for 169 yards and four touchdowns. It’s the second straight game Freeman has gone over 100 yards in a game and marked a season high for carries and touchdowns.
Byron Marshall is the versatile weapon Oregon loves in its creative, spread offense, but Freeman is proving to be the every-down back that gets the tough yards and makes the ground game go.
In terms of impact freshman, Freeman is right up there with the best in college football.
Loser: Stanford
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Though Notre Dame showed it could play with any team in the country in a loss to Florida State, there's a troubling fact for the Irish: Its best win is now a three-loss Stanford.
The Cardinal have certainly been one of the bigger disappointments in the Pac-12, if not all of college football. Following a 26-10 loss to Arizona State, Stanford is 4-3.
The Cardinal's defense has been great—the best in the country in points allowed entering Saturday, per CFBstats.com—which is a pleasant surprise given all the player and coaching turnover on that side of the ball from a year ago. But Stanford's offense? It's bad, but the more concerning part is that it's not getting any better. In three losses, the Cardinal have averaged just 11.3 points per game.
This is supposed to be head coach David Shaw's strength, and Stanford just isn't delivering on offense. Wide receiver Ty Montgomery is legit, but this group is otherwise starving for playmakers.
Winner: Marshall Quarterback Rakeem Cato
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It’s going to be marked down as the 100th-most-interesting thing that happened on Saturday, but Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato had a big moment against Florida International.
Early in a 45-13 win over the Golden Panthers, Cato tossed a one-yard touchdown to Ryan Yurachek. But it wasn’t just any throw; it marked Cato’s 39th straight game with a touchdown pass, a record for Football Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks.
Cato finished with 214 yards passing and four touchdowns.
Marshall's soft schedule means the Thundering Herd will need a lot of help to represent the so-called "Group of Five" in one of the six major bowls, even if it goes undefeated. Similarly, Cato's simply not registering on a lot of Heisman meters.
That's not to take away from any accomplishments, but it's the nature of things when a football team rarely plays on national television.
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