College Football: Winners and Losers from Week 8
A week after a load of terrific games highlighted college football's schedule, Week 8 had a lesser group of marquee matchups.
But there were still plenty of momentous moments, and pretenders reared their ugly heads.
Syracuse may have proved it belongs with the big boys, but the Orange were dropped from the ranks of the unbeaten in a comeback win by Clemson. Truthfully, the Tigers didn't play like title contenders, either.
UCLA and Ole Miss also lost for the first time all season, and both finals scores were by embarrassing margins in road games to Oregon and LSU, respectively.
TCU came back again to beat its fourth straight ranked opponent, Ohio State and Tennessee kept rolling, and Cincinnati is showing its follow-up season after a trip to the College Football Playoff is worth paying attention to.
Let's take a look at the winners and losers from the week's worth of action.
Winner: Clemson's Comeback Behind A Spark from Cade Klubnik
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Whether there's a quarterback controversy in Clemson remains to be seen, but with his team needing a spark down by 11 points, coach Dabo Swinney inserted true freshman Cade Klubnik in the third quarter, and the Tigers stormed from behind to beat Syracuse.
The No. 14 Orange entered the clash of unbeatens perhaps a bit disrespected and under-ranked, and they looked like they were on their way to snapping the Tigers' 13-game winning streak and 37-game stretch at home.
DJ Uiagalelei had thrown an interception and fumbled, and Clemson couldn't gain any traction. Needing to stir things up, Swinney went with Klubnik, scaling back the game plan and relying heavily on his rushing attack and offensive line.
The youngster didn't make any mistakes and allowed his team to claw back for the 27-21 win. Klubnik finished 2-of-4 for 19 yards and helped convert a big two-point attempt after the go-ahead touchdown. He also had six carries for 15 yards.
Are those scintillating statistics? No, but it was the right call by Swinney at the right time with his team needing something to get it going. Still, this is Uiagalelei's team for now.
The real star on offense was running back Will Shipley, who fumbled inside the Syracuse red zone down 21-10 in the third quarter in what was a pivotal mistake at the time. After that, Shipley ran 11 times for 88 yards and scored the go-ahead 50-yard touchdown on his way to 27 carries for 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Syracuse fell apart with 10 penalties for 88 yards, including a huge unnecessary roughness penalty on a borderline late hit out of bounds that extended a touchdown drive on 3rd-and-25 during Klubnik's first series.
From there, Clemson's offense clicked enough to win, and Syracuse quarterback Garrett Shrader threw an awful interception into triple coverage on his team's last series of the game, needing a touchdown and extra point to win.
Loser: Chip Kelly in Eugene (Again)
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The town of Eugene, Oregon, was very good to Chip Kelly, who built his legendary college football legacy as the Ducks' head coach from 2009-12 with a 46-7 record.
It's been a nightmare for him to visit as an opposing coach.
Kelly took his ninth-ranked and unbeaten UCLA Bruins to town to play a Ducks team that started the season with an embarrassing loss to Georgia but has really looked strong since.
He didn't leave with the same spotless record. Oregon signal-caller Bo Nix surpassed his single-season touchdown total during his time at Auburn in only his team's seventh game, brilliantly bludgeoning the Bruins for 283 passing yards and five touchdowns in a 45-30 victory.
He also was decisive with his feet, running for 51 yards, but, more importantly, also picked up several vital first downs on short-yardage situations by running. He has always been known as a fierce competitor, and running Kenny Dillingham's offense for first-year coach Dan Lanning has been a revelation for him.
UCLA didn't get nearly the same heroics from its veteran quarterback. Dorian Thompson-Robinson finished with 297 total yards but couldn't keep up offensively.
It was just another forgettable return for Kelly. During his first season with the Bruins in 2018, they traveled to Eugene and limped home with a 42-21 setback. Over the last two seasons, they were much more competitive but still lost 38-35 and 34-31, respectively.
Now, this loss makes Kelly 0-4 against the Ducks during his time at UCLA.
Winner: The Buckeyes with Their B Game
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Two things we already knew were hammered home during Ohio State's 54-10 dismantling of Iowa in Columbus on Saturday.
First, the Buckeyes are pretty darn good on both sides of the ball, even when they don't play their best game. Second, Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz needs to be fired, and it's puzzling why it hasn't already happened.
While the Buckeyes have been tremendously improved on defense under first-year coordinator Jim Knowles, Iowa was pathetic on offense, no matter who played quarterback. Despite a scoop-and-score touchdown by the Hawkeyes, they didn't do anything else on the scoreboard aside from a field goal.
While Ohio State wasn't as explosive as we're used to seeing against Iowa's normally stingy secondary, the Buckeyes were plenty good enough to continue looking like the Big Ten's best team and one of the top teams in the nation.
The Buckeyes defense proved Ferentz's continued employment looks like the product of nepotism under his father and head coach Kirk Ferentz. The Hawkeyes were 1-of-13 on third-down conversions, mustered just 158 total yards and turned the ball over six times.
Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud wound up getting his, too, finishing with 286 passing yards and four touchdowns. It was a largely uneven performance for the junior star signal-caller, who threw an interception, misfired on a few balls early and had a fumble returned for a touchdown.
But he proved he's one of the nation's top playmakers, dissecting Iowa throughout the second half on his way to putting up quality numbers in a runaway win. The Buckeyes just keep marching onward ahead of next week's big battle with Penn State in Happy Valley.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Loser: Ole Miss Playing Pretender on the Bayou
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Ole Miss started the season 7-0, but there have been some recent signs of instability. On Saturday in Baton Rouge, it picked a bad time to all come unraveled.
Playing against hated rival LSU, the Rebels couldn't stop Tigers quarterback Jayden Daniels in a 45-20 loss that had a big-time collapse element. After jumping out to a 17-3 lead, the Rebels folded, allowing a 42-3 run to close the game.
Daniels was the catalyst, throwing for 248 yards and a pair of touchdowns and running for 121 yards and three more scores. He's quietly emerging as one of the top players in the SEC.
On the other side, Rebels quarterback Jaxson Dart threw a costly interception in the end zone with the chance to take the lead when it was 24-20 LSU. Instead, Joe Foucha picked it off with one hand, and the Tigers marched 80 yards in 10 plays to push the lead to 11.
We should have seen this coming. The only real competition Ole Miss has faced this season was Kentucky, which was ranked seventh. The Rebels needed a major Will Levis blunder at the end to win 22-19.
Since then, the Rebels allowed 28 points in a win over Vanderbilt and then 34 to Auburn a week ago. That's two offenses that have been mostly horrible this season, and both teams moved the ball easily.
Those defensive woes manifested themselves yet again against an LSU team that appears to be hitting its offensive stride the past couple of weeks. Daniels followed up a terrific, six-touchdown game against Florida with another great one this week, and the Bayou Bengals are 6-2 entering a bye.
The Rebels now have to travel to Texas A&M before finally getting their own week off. They looked out of gas against LSU.
Winner: TCU, Max Duggan and the Comeback Kids
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It's beginning to feel like this TCU Horned Frogs season may wind up as something special.
The past two weekends, it looked like Cinderella's glass slipper was cracking on national television as coach Sonny Dykes' team stared a pair of large deficits in the face.
In both cases, though, the Frogs turned into princes before our very eyes.
Saturday night, they surged from behind against Kansas State to keep from joining the ranks of pretenders. Instead, they look like the real deal.
After a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns forced overtime against Oklahoma State a week ago, where they won 43-40, they came home to play TCU and trailed by 18 points late in the first half once again.
Chris Klieman's Wildcats dealt with quarterback injuries throughout, having to replace Adrian Martinez with Will Howard after just two passes. Freshman Jake Rubley also made an appearance, throwing an interception, and the ineffective play at the position stalled the offense that was strong throughout the first half.
TCU's opportunistic defense picked off a couple of passes, and the high-scoring offense finally got going, scoring 28 unanswered points to close the game and turn a 28-10 deficit into a 38-28 win.
Quarterback Max Duggan continued his career resurgence under Dykes, completing 17-of-26 passes for 280 yards and a trio of touchdowns. Even with all the great quarterbacks he's coached, Dykes told the FS1 crew Duggan is playing as well as any signal-caller he's ever coached.
The supporting cast of running back Kendre Miller (29 carries, 153 yards and two touchdowns) and receiver Quentin Johnston (four catches, 74 yards and a touchdown) played key roles, and TCU won its fourth consecutive game over a ranked opponent.
If you haven't been a believer in the Horned Frogs, now's the time.
Loser: Kansas' Storybook Start
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Kansas broke out the warhawk helmets and the powder blue uniforms in Waco, Texas, on Saturday for the game against Baylor.
Maybe the Jayhawks need to burn those and never wear them again after a 35-23 loss.
All those positive, early-season headlines about Kansas being college football's feel-good story seem far in the past as reality has caught up to Lance Leipold's program the past three weeks. Kansas is still a terrific team that has improved drastically, but the Jayhawks aren't a real Big 12 contender without injured quarterback Jalon Daniels.
They showed that again Saturday against a mediocre Baylor team, and it wasn't just the lack of Daniels that hurt, either.
Leipold hasn't built a depth of talent in Lawrence yet, and it's showing on defense. Baylor built a 25-point halftime lead, and while Kansas scored three second-half touchdowns to make it close late, the Bears rode freshman running back Richard Reese (career-high 186 yards and two touchdowns) to the win with a late, game-clinching scoring drive.
Jason Bean has proved to be a quality backup quarterback, but the bottom line is Kansas hasn't beaten anybody since Daniels went down with a shoulder injury in a battle of unbeatens with TCU a few weeks ago. Daniels may be close to returning, and Kansas needs him.
After the Jayhawks lost to the Horned Frogs 38-31, they lost again, 52-42 to an Oklahoma Sooners team that was searching for answers. Baylor was looking for hope Saturday, and the Bears found it against Kansas, which fell to 5-3 and 2-3 in the Big 12.
Winner: Cincinnati Continuing to Silence Doubters
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Are the Cincinnati Bearcats a threat to repeat as a College Football Playoff participant this year? No.
But anybody expecting a massive drop-off from last year's elite team that ran out of bullets once it got to the final four has largely undersold the program coach Luke Fickell has built in the Queen City.
Following Saturday's crucial 29-27 AAC road victory over SMU, the Bearcats are 6-1 and have won six in a row, and the only setback of the year came in the season-opening 31-24 loss to Arkansas.
Nothing was easy for Cincinnati on Saturday against the Mustangs, which have been up and down in Rhett Lashlee's first year. Despite carrying a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter, the Bearcats had a hard time closing out SMU.
The Mustangs dialed up an 11-play, 62-yard touchdown drive and followed it with a nine-play, 82-yard touchdown drive with 1:41 left to pull within two points. But on the ensuing two-point conversion pass, Preston Stone looked for Roderick Daniels Jr., but Ja'Von Hicks broke it up in the end zone.
Cincinnati got a first down, ran out the clock and moved its conference record to 3-0. While the Bearcats still have huge conference games remaining against top contenders UCF (next week) and Tulane (Nov. 25), Fickell's team looks like it could repeat as conference champions.
There's still a good chance of the No. 21 Bearcats making it into a New Year's Day bowl game if they continue to take care of business.
They don't have the star power of Desmond Ridder at quarterback, and the defensive playmakers don't have the high NFL ceilings of last year's group, but Cincinnati keeps on winning. That's all that matters.
Loser: Purdue, in the Cluster of the Big Ten West
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The Big Ten West is just begging for somebody to win it. Unfortunately, none of the members appear to want it.
As one of the leaders in Illinois sat idle and watched the action on Saturday, the other team tied atop the division (Purdue) with the surprise Fighting Illini traveled to Camp Randall to take on Wisconsin.
It looked like old times in the division, as a middling Badgers team that already fired coach Paul Chryst this year and is giving interim Jim Leonhard an on-the-job audition for the permanent gig flashed some of its old defensive dominance.
The Boilermakers had no answer on either side of the ball for the Badgers, who trounced Purdue 35-24 to hand them their second loss in the conference and drop them to 5-3. Wisconsin, meanwhile, evened its record to 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the conference.
With Nebraska, Michigan State, Purdue and Michigan still on Illinois' schedule yet to be played, the Illini have plenty of potential pitfalls. But this was the opportunity for the Boilermakers to nudge a half-game ahead of them in the standings.
Instead, an offense that had been explosive throughout the year hit the ditch. Quarterback Aidan O'Connell finished with 320 passing yards but tossed a trio of interceptions as the Boilermakers failed to find any traction.
Embattled Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz actually had the better day between the two, which was surprising. It just wasn't Purdue's day, trying to stake its claim in a division needing somebody to prove it's worth its spot at the top.
Winner: Oklahoma State's Shutdown Second Half
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Oklahoma State has won a bunch of football games over the past two years with a smothering defense.
Over the final two quarters and two overtime sessions of last week's loss to TCU and the first two quarters of this week's home showdown against Texas, the Cowboys looked soft.
But all that changed at halftime against the Longhorns. Defensive coordinator Derek Mason's unit tightened up and bottled up Texas, allowing Oklahoma State to erase a seven-point halftime deficit to win 41-34 in Stillwater.
They had no answers for Texas signal-caller Quinn Ewers or running back Bijan Robinson as the 'Horns piled up 31 first-half points. After the break, the Horns mustered just 172 total yards and, more importantly, just three points. Robinson had just six of his 140 rushing yards in the second half.
Ewers finally looked like he'd recaptured some of his first-half magic on the final drive, but Ja'Tavion Sanders missed a perfect pass that could have gone for a big gain in the closing seconds, and it careened off his hands directly to Kendal Daniels for a game-clinching interception.
It wasn't just Robinson's struggles, though, after the break. Ewers couldn't seem to consistently get on the same page as his receivers, the Longhorns piled up penalties (for the game, Texas had 14 penalties to Oklahoma State's zero) and couldn't move the ball.
Despite last week's setback to the Horned Frogs, Oklahoma State re-established itself Saturday as TCU's biggest threat right now in the Big 12. Like much of the past two seasons, they did it with defense.
Loser: Anybody Expecting Thursday Night Theatrics
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Thursday night's sneak peek at the college football weekend gave us a couple of one-score showdowns, but both games were otherwise forgettable.
If you love offense, I'm sorry.
Virginia and Georgia Tech met in Atlanta in what wound up being a 16-9 win by the Cavaliers to move both teams to 3-4 and give coach Tony Elliott his first ACC victory. The two teams went 8-of-35 on third-down conversions and combined for 17 penalties, six turnovers, two missed field goals and two missed extra points.
Georgia Tech's defense and special teams did a commendable job keeping it in the game, but the loss of starting quarterback Jeff Sims (who entered the contest questionable with a leg setback) to injury negated any offensive threat.
Tech's last attempt to tie the game essentially ended when Nick Jackson sacked Zach Gibson with 1:52 left, and the Yellow Jackets failed to convert the ensuing 4th-and-11 from around midfield when Malachi Carter dropped a would-be first down.
The Yellow Jackets got the ball back with less than a minute to play, but with one play left, Gibson simply ran out of bounds rather than heave it downfield. It was a fitting end to a bad offensive game.
In a sneaky-good matchup between rivals South Alabama and Troy in Mobile, the Trojans won 10-6 to drop the Jaguars to 5-2 and move their own record to 6-2. This was a defensive struggle that had little pizzazz.
There was plenty of nail-biting throughout both games, but little excitement. If you missed it because the American League Championship Series between the Yankees and Astros was on, don't worry. You didn't miss much.
This was not pretty football.
Winner: Jalin Hyatt's Ascension Continues in Vols Runaway
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The best wide receiver in college football may be a guy who wasn't on anybody's radar before it started.
Tennessee's Jalin Hyatt burst onto the national scene last weekend with a stunning five-touchdown performance to help the Vols beat Alabama.
The Vols didn't have any hangovers Saturday against FCS opponent Tennessee-Martin, beating the Skyhawks 65-24 in a tuneup game before huge tilts vs. Kentucky and at Georgia the next couple of weeks.
Hyatt had a great follow-up game too. UT-Martin didn't have answers for any of the Vols' offensive weapons, and Hyatt was the biggest, catching seven passes for 174 yards and a pair of touchdowns, all in the first half. Quarterback Hendon Hooker was sitting before halftime in the rout.
In the past six quarters, Hyatt has nearly 400 receiving yards, and he leads the nation with 12 touchdown catches after grabbing one from Hooker and another from tight end/H-back Princeton Fant on Saturday. He's one away from the UT record, which isn't bad for a place known as "Wide Receiver U."
Perhaps the most impressive thing is the work Hyatt has done to put himself in this position. He essentially was an afterthought last year, a speed guy who hadn't put in the weight-room work to be physical enough to play. Entering this season, Cedric Tillman was getting all the hype in Knoxville.
With Tillman out for most of the year with a high ankle sprain, though, Hyatt has surged into the spotlight. When Tillman returns (maybe next week against Kentucky), the Vols will have even more weaponry.
Loser: Texas A&M and Jimbo Fisher's Guaranteed Contract
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It hasn't been a good season for Jimbo Fisher. Because of that, it's an even more embarrassing year for a Texas A&M program that ponied up a fully guaranteed $95 million contract to their struggling coach.
With every inexplicable failure of a game the talented Aggies play and lose, that number becomes even more baffling. To put things into a perspective, unless some big-money booster helps out, A&M is on the hook for around $86 million if it fires Fisher without cause this season.
On Saturday, a team that has stacked elite recruiting classes and is coming off a signing of the top-rated class in the country and perhaps the best ever on paper traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, to take on Shane Beamer's Gamecocks.
The talent discrepancy alone should have been enough for an A&M win, but Beamer's Gamecocks were better and better coached.
With a raucous crowd behind them, the home team scored on a 100-yard kickoff return to open the game, got another 59-yard interception return to set the tone.
The Gamecocks ultimately won 30-24 to move to 5-2 on the season, with sneaky-solid wins over Kentucky and A&M the past two times out. They came up with enough plays against an A&M team that has fallen to 3-4 and 1-3 in the SEC.
On offense, they are looking for anybody to help out running back Devon Achane. Right now, the cupboard looks stunningly bare, considering all the talent they have. That may be more of a product of Fisher's system not putting them in a position to make plays.
There are too many zeroes on Fisher's paycheck to be this bad.
Winner: Bama's Bounce-Back
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Nick Saban has never had much trouble motivating.
This week, he probably didn't have to. A week after Alabama missed a late field goal, gave up two big plays and a game-winning kick from Tennessee to erase a 15-year streak and endured Vols fans rushing Shields-Watkins Field, the Crimson Tide had to refocus.
They didn't seem to have any leftover ill effects from the loss. Even with the offense sputtering at times and struggling to finish drives with touchdowns, Alabama was its same old dominant self against a good SEC opponent.
Bryce Young made play after play yet again. The Bulldogs blew two early scoring opportunities, and the Tide played much better defense, pressuring Will Rogers and inserting Eli Ricks for embattled cornerback Terrion Arnold, who was terrorized a week ago.
The result was a steam-rolling of MSU, 30-6 in Tuscaloosa.
With Ole Miss losing to LSU, the Tide are back in the driver's seat in the SEC West and get a week to rest Young's hurt shoulder before traveling to Baton Rouge to take on the blazing Bayou Bengals.
Despite the 52-49 loss to the Vols a week ago, Alabama still is in a destiny-controlling position in the SEC and also the College Football Playoff picture. It's not uncommon to win the title with a loss. If you think one setback will change the Tide's trajectory, think again.
Mike Leach's team never had a chance.
Loser: Penn State Fans Wanting to Turn the Page on the Sean Clifford Era
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As Penn State fans clamor for freshman Drew Allar all around him, you have to hand it to redshirt senior Sean Clifford: He found a way to block out the noise Saturday night and have his best game of the year in the face of adversity.
A week after he left an embarrassing blowout loss to Michigan in yet another sub-par performance in a big game, Clifford again trotted out there for James Franklin's team.
The coach continues to have faith in the veteran who has played a ton of football for the Lions, and against a good Minnesota defense, Clifford showed up and showed out.
Whether he can repeat the feat next week against Ohio State is another story, but the statement was clear in Penn State's 45-17 domination of the Golden Gophers: This is Clifford's team, for better or worse.
P.J. Fleck's Gophers didn't have any answers for him. While Minnesota has been the picture of mediocrity this season, they were fifth nationally in pass defense and sixth in total defense entering the game against the 16th-ranked Nittany Lions.
Clifford proved those stats were overrated. He even surpassed his strong Week 1 performance against Purdue on Saturday, torching the Gophers for 295 passing yards and four touchdowns, both season-highs.
Perhaps more impressively, Clifford spread the ball around all over the field, throwing scoring tosses to Theo Johnson, Parker Washington, Mitchell Tinsley and Tyler Warren.
It was the perfect, confidence-building tune-up for Clifford before next weekend's big battle with the Buckeyes.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
