Winners and Losers from Week 9 of College Football
Just days before the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season will be published, Week 9 was utter chaos.
With ranked and undefeated teams falling left and right, Alabama turned out to be one of the biggest winners of the week just by sitting at home on a bye. Michigan, Clemson, Washington, Louisville and Ohio State didn't win in particularly convincing fashion, but it was a "survive-and-advance" type of Saturday like no other.
On the individual front, Buffalo's Jordan Johnson, Georgia Tech's Justin Thomas and Texas twins D'Onta and Armanti Foreman had stellar performances.
Nebraska's Tommy Armstrong Jr.? Not so much.
Read on for the rest of this week's biggest winners and losers.
Odds provided by Odds Shark.
Winner: Jordan Johnson, Buffalo
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Buffalo is hanging onto its bowl game hopes by a thread. The 2-6 Bulls need to win out to get six victories, and their remaining schedule includes road games against Ohio and Western Michigan.
Thanks to Jordan Johnson's ground work against Akron, though, that dream will live on for another week.
Prior to Thursday night, the senior running back had never gone for more than 147 yards in a single game and hadn't topped 114 yet this season. He nearly doubled his career high with 282 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns.
It took a little while for him to get going. Buffalo went three-and-out on its first three possessions, during which Johnson had just one carry for three yards. But he was its offense for the rest of the night, scoring on runs of 61 and 39 yards. Of his 24 carries, 10 went for at least 10 yards while only seven amounted to fewer than five positive yards.
Just five days removed from a 44-7 loss to 2-6 Northern Illinois, the Bulls had their best offensive output of the season (518 yards). They hadn't scored more than 23 points in any of their first seven games, but thanks to Johnson, they exploded for a 41-20 win over the Zips.
Loser: Navy's 3rd-Down Defense
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With about eight minutes remaining in the third quarter, South Florida's Quinton Flowers fired an incompletion intended for Marquez Valdes-Scantling, setting up a field-goal attempt for the Bulls.
That may seem like an inconsequential note in the play-by-play log, but it was the first time in the entire game that Navy forced South Florida to boot anything other than an extra point or a kickoff.
It was the first of four consecutive failed third-down attempts for the Bulls, but they started 12-of-12 on third down in the process of opening up an insurmountable 45-14 lead over No. 22 Navy—despite fumbling on the Navy 1-yard line at the end of the first half.
This wasn't a steady flow of 3rd-and-inches situations, either. Two of the 12 conversions came on 3rd-and-1, but the rest were three yards or more. Half required at least six yards.
The distance didn't matter, though. Flowers had a Lamar Jackson kind of day, throwing for two touchdowns and running for two more, accounting for 395 total yards. As a team, South Florida ran for five scores and averaged 9.4 yards per carry against a Midshipmen team that usually puts up those numbers.
Navy made things respectable by closing out the game on a 31-7 run, but an inability to get its defense off the field for the first 37 minutes resulted in a 52-45 loss.
Every team in the AAC now has at least two losses, so that conference can rule out any hope of competing in a New Year's Six game.
Winner: Penn State's Offense
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Though the team pulled off the biggest upset of the season to date, Penn State's offense didn't impress anyone in last week's 24-21 win over Ohio State.
Trace McSorley completed just eight passes, while the team averaged a mere 3.3 yards per carry. The Nittany Lions had two solid touchdown drives, but nearly 60 percent of their total yards were confined to those two possessions. It's only because of the blocked punt that turned into a field goal and the blocked field goal returned for a touchdown that they were able to shake up the College Football Playoff picture.
A completely different team showed up in West Lafayette, Indiana, to beat the tar out of Purdue.
Saquon Barkley ran for 207 yards and two scores, with another 70 receiving yards for good measure. McSorley threw for 228 yards with three touchdowns. Add in a few other rushing touchdowns and a pair of field goals, and the Nittany Lions had 10 scoring drives without committing a turnover.
Save for the three knees taken on the final drive of the game, there was only one Penn State possession in the second half that didn't result in points. Purdue forced a punt early in the third quarter, only to fumble the catch to set up the Nittany Lions for a touchdown two plays later.
At the time of that miscue, it was a 24-17 game. Penn State went on to win 62-24.
This was also a win for the Big Ten's chances of sending two teams to the College Football Playoff. With road games against Rutgers and Indiana and home games against Iowa and Michigan State remaining, Penn State has a good chance at reaching 10-2.
Their losses still won't compare to those suffered by Texas A&M (at Alabama) or Louisville (at Clemson) in terms of quality, but the more the Nittany Lions can do to look like a legitimate Top 10 or 15 team, the less awful that loss looks for the Buckeyes.
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Loser: Bronco Mendenhall's Upset Bid
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Following more than a decade of success at BYU, Bronco Mendenhall surprised a lot of people by signing on as Virginia's head coach last December. He led the Cougars to 11 consecutive bowl games and a trio of 11-win seasons, so his move to a program that has played in one bowl game in the past eight years was a bit curious.
Despite a frustrating 2-5 start, Mendenhall and the Cavaliers were in position to deliver a statement to the doubters and the country at large. They led No. 5 Louisville 10-7 at the half and pushed that lead to 17-7 early in the third quarter. Even after the Cardinals stormed back to take the lead, a late touchdown and two-point conversation gave a 25-24 lead back to Virginia in the final two minutes.
It wasn't quite enough.
Lamar Jackson and the nation's highest-scoring offense were held in check for the first 40 minutes, but they scored almost at will late in the game. Even the one time Virginia forced Louisville to punt, Kurt Benkert threw an interception on the first play of the subsequent drive, immediately setting up the Cardinals in the red zone for another score.
With 13 seconds remaining, Jackson connected with 6'4" receiver Jaylen Smith on a beautiful 29-yard score, sucking the life out of the fans at Scott Stadium who had been buzzing all afternoon. After the successful two-point attempt, the Cardinals won, 32-25.
Though unable to grab the upset, the Wahoos may have delivered a blow to Louisville's College Football Playoff hopes. The Cardinals were crushing opponents early in the season, but they've looked mortal in recent weeks against Duke and Virginia. A similar scare against Wake Forest, Houston or Kentucky in November could be what pushes Louisville behind some of the other one-loss teams.
Winner: Justin Thomas, Georgia Tech
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Justin Thomas entered the afternoon with mediocre numbers as the quarterback of a triple-option offense. Georgia Tech's senior had neither thrown for more than 172 yards nor rushed for more than 84 in any of his first seven games, accounting for a total of just seven touchdowns.
By halftime of the 38-35 win over Duke, though, he had already exceeded both of those season highs. He had eight carries for 118 yards and two touchdowns and was 5-of-8 for 187 yards and a score through the air. Each of his five completions went for at least 18 yards; three of them were good for more than 40.
Thomas would add one more passing touchdown in the fourth quarter, finishing the game with 459 all-purpose yards and four TDs.
To put those numbers in context, Louisville's Lamar Jackson had 451 all-purpose yards and four TDs in Saturday's win over Virginia—and the Heisman Trophy front-runner had just 325 yards with two scores two weeks ago against Duke.
Moreover, the career day for Thomas came in a must-win game for the Yellow Jackets. They are now 5-3, but three of their four remaining games come on the road against North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Georgia. A loss to the Blue Devils would have left them with quite the uphill battle to become bowl-eligible. Now, they just need to win a home game against 2-6 Virginia to get there.
Loser: West Virginia's Perfect Season
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It was never likely that West Virginia would go undefeated. Of the nine teams that entered Week 9 with a bagel in the loss column, Nebraska and maybe Baylor were the only squads with a worse chance to do so than the Mountaineers.
Oklahoma State saw to it that West Virginia didn't make it to Week 10 without a loss.
WVU quarterback Skyler Howard had a great game last week against TCU, throwing for four touchdowns without committing a turnover. But the Cowboys defense proved much tougher to navigate. Howard threw for one touchdown and ran for another, but he also threw a pair of picks and lost a fumble.
All three turnovers were back-breakers, too. Each one gave Oklahoma State the ball within the West Virginia 10-yard line, resulting in 17 points for the Cowboys—precisely the margin in the 37-20 final.
The Mountaineers got to 6-0 because of their great defense, holding five of their six opponents to 21 points or fewer. But there's only so much a defense can do when its offense is gifting the opponent with red-zone appearances time and again. Mason Rudolph wasn't doing WVU any favors, either, throwing for three touchdowns and running for a fourth with one sack and no turnovers.
(In related news, imagine where Oklahoma State might be without that Hail Mary loss to Central Michigan back in Week 2. A close road loss to Baylor is the only other blemish on the calendar.)
Winner: Michigan Wolverines
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They say to throw out the records when rivals take the field, but it was tough not to notice that No. 2 Michigan is undefeated and jostling for position in the College Football Playoff, while Michigan State is trying to avoid missing out on bowl season for the first time under head coach Mark Dantonio.
Early on, both teams were meeting those descriptions. The Spartans scored on their opening drive, but the Wolverines responded with points on each of their five first-half possessions. By intermission, it was 27-10, and most of us had already changed the channel to figure out what the heck was going on between Louisville and Virginia.
But Michigan State made things a little more interesting with a pair of fourth-quarter TDs, becoming just the second team this season to score more than 14 points against Michigan.
This one was never in doubt, though. And regardless of the final 32-23 margin, it was a huge road win for the Wolverines.
Amara Darboh had a career-high 165 receiving yards. Jabrill Peppers had a few of his customary highlight-reel plays. The defense abused Michigan State, including one drive in the third quarter in which the Spartans ran seven plays inside the Michigan 10 without scoring a point.
The Wolverines are 8-0 with three hurdles remaining before the colossal road game against Ohio State. Meanwhile, the Spartans are 2-6 and will need to win each of their remaining games (at Illinois, vs. Rutgers, vs. Ohio State, at Penn State) to avoid a December without football.
Loser: North Carolina State Wolfpack
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So, uh, what in the world happened to the Wolfpack?
Two weeks ago, they missed three field goals and still pushed Clemson to overtime before falling just short of a massive upset. If any of those kicks connected, North Carolina State would've been sitting at 5-1 in a three-way tie for first place in the ACC's Atlantic Division.
Flash forward 14 days, and the Wolfpack are 4-4 overall after gift-wrapping Boston College its first ACC win since 2014.
B.C. has done a great job of defending the run against the likes of Buffalo, Wagner and Massachusetts, but the Eagles were gashed on the ground by good teams like Clemson and Virginia Tech. N.C. State took up residence in the former bucket, rushing for just 31 yards on 23 attempts.
Coupled with last week's 25 carries for 14 yards in the blowout loss to Louisville, the Wolfpack have averaged 0.94 yards per carry over the last eight quarters. You don't need a math degree or a Ph.D. in football to know that's not good.
North Carolina State quarterback Ryan Finley had a more respectable day, throwing for 307 yards and two scores. However, he also coughed up the ball on a sack-fumble on the first drive of the second half and threw a pair of interceptions. The second of those came on the Wolfpack's final drive of the game, blowing a 1st-and-goal opportunity from the 2-yard line with a third-down pass to the wrong team.
Just like that, Boston College won 21-14 and improved to the same .500 record N.C. State has. And with games remaining against Florida State, Syracuse, Miami and North Carolina, the Wolfpack have quite the uphill battle to get to six wins.
Winner: Florida's Defense
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Offense was at a premium between Florida and Georgia. Neither quarterback threw for 150 yards. No running back reached 100 yards, and only one topped 33. Both in terms of number of receptions and yardage, Georgia's Terry Godwin was the receiving MVP with five catches for 57 yards.
But Florida was particularly impressive on defense, holding the Bulldogs to 164 total yards and only eight first downs.
In what has become a disturbing trend both for Georgia and for Nick Chubb's draft stock, he looked helpless, accounting for just 20 yards on nine carries. Jacob Eason had more incompletions (18) than completions (15) and had only one pass go for more than 15 yards.
And most of Georgia's progress occurred in the first 18 minutes of the game. The Dawgs had just three first downs in their final 10 drives—and two of those came on the final possession of the first half, when the Gators were more or less playing prevent defense.
Plain and simple, Florida smothered Georgia in the process of staking its claim in the College Football Playoff conversation. The Gators have now held six of their seven opponents to 14 points or fewer and have the luxury of avoiding Alabama, Texas A&M and Ole Miss during the regular season.
Loser: Miami Hurricanes
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Given how Miami and Notre Dame had been playing over the past month, you knew one of these teams would find a way to lose in agonizing fashion.
Nearly 20 minutes into the game, Miami was already down 20-0. Through their first five drives, the Hurricanes had 13 yards of total offense, as well as an interception that set up Notre Dame in the red zone.
Everything was going wrong for Miami, right up until Notre Dame's Troy Pride Jr. fumbled a punt return with 8:51 left in the second quarter. That jump-started a 27-0 Miami run that was bookended by another miscue on a punt return. A fumble by Notre Dame's C.J. Sanders was returned for a Miami touchdown, giving the 'Canes their first lead of the game midway through the fourth quarter.
Oddly enough, though, the momentum swung back in Notre Dame's favor after that disaster. The Fighting Irish scored a TD in just four plays on the following drive. They then forced a Miami punt, which Chris Finke returned to the Miami 40. They even recovered a Durham Smythe fumble at the goal line, keeping their final drive alive for the game-winning field goal.
Once 4-0 and ranked No. 10 in the country, Miami has now lost four in a row—a streak that began when automatic kicker Michael Badgley had an extra point blocked that would have forced overtime against Florida State. The 'Canes aren't in imminent danger of failing to qualify for a bowl game yet, but this season went off the rails in a hurry.
Winner: D'Onta and Armanti Foreman, Texas
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Texas' struggles have been well-documented, but a pair of Foremans (Foremen?) carried the Longhorns to a colossal upset of No. 8 Baylor.
Per usual, the Texas defense was...lackluster. At least the Longhorns avoided giving up 45 points for a fifth time, but they didn't do much to slow Baylor. The Bears had 624 yards of total offense, falling just two yards shy of 400 on the ground. Aside from an interception early in the first quarter, just about the only thing Texas did right on defense was force a safety after fumbling the ball on the Baylor 2.
Though the defense surrendered 34 points, the Longhorns finished with 35 points of their own thanks to 392 combined yards from D'Onta and Armanti Foreman.
D'Onta abused Baylor on the ground, rushing for 250 yards and a pair of scores. He had a couple of big runs, including a 40-yard scamper and a 37-yard touchdown. But it was mostly a steady diet of four- and five-yard runs that kept Baylor's offense off the field.
Through the air, Armanti had four receptions for 142 yards, including an acrobatic grab along the sideline late in the fourth quarter to help set up the game-winning field goal. He nearly doubled his previous season best of 72 yards and made up for a brutal drop in last week's loss to Kansas State.
Loser: Maryland's Rush Defense
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Despite giving up nearly 200 rushing yards per game, Maryland had done a fine job of keeping rushers out of the end zone, allowing just nine TDs on the ground.
Emphasis on "had," though, as Indiana ripped those would-be tacklers to shreds en route to 414 yards and six scores.
It was a teamwide assault, with three Hoosiers rushing for at least 100 yards and five different players finding paydirt. Devine Redding led the way with 130 yards, while backup QB Zander Diamont threw the ball just once in the process of running for 104 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
The bizarre thing is that Indiana was not a good rushing team prior to Saturday. The Hoosiers had a couple of nice early games against Florida International and Ball State, but they had averaged just 90.3 yards per game and 2.8 yards per carry over their last three contests. They hadn't hit the century mark as a team since Oct. 1, so of course they had three individual players get there against the Terrapins.
Maryland tried to keep pace (517 total yards), but it couldn't overcome Indiana's 650 yards of offense. The Hoosiers won 42-36, improving to 4-4 while dropping the Terps to 5-3.
Winner: Western Michigan Broncos
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It's not often that we declare a team a winner on its bye week, but Western Michigan became the exception to that rule when Wyoming upset No. 13 Boise State. As a result, WMU is now in the driver's seat for the "Group of Five" spot in a New Year's Six bowl game.
Boise State played a decent game against a good Wyoming team. The Broncos led 14-0 and even scored on a bit of trickery when wide receiver Thomas Sperbeck hit quarterback Brett Rypien for a 33-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. They did not trail at any point in the first 58 minutes of the game.
But they let the Cowboys hang around for too long.
Down 28-20 late in the contest, Josh Allen led the Cowboys on a drive with not one, not two, but three third-down conversions, including a 27-yard touchdown strike on 3rd-and-13, tying the game with the subsequent two-point conversion. And with the contest still knotted at 28, Rypien fumbled the ball out of the back of the end zone for a safety.
The Broncos couldn't recover the onside kick and failed to keep the Cowboys from converting the game-clinching first down. The 30-28 loss was Boise State's first of the season, leaving Western Michigan as one of just five undefeated teams in the nation.
Those Broncos still have a tough game remaining against Toledo, as well as a likely MAC title game against Ohio, but there's a chance they could row the boat all the way to the Cotton Bowl.
Loser: Nebraska Cornhuskers
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Wisconsin did just about everything it could to keep Nebraska undefeated. Alex Hornibrook and Bart Houston combined for 114 passing yards overall with two interceptions—on back-to-back drives in the fourth quarter, no less. Andrew Endicott missed what would have been the game-winning field goal and shanked an extra point in overtime.
But Tommy Armstrong Jr. and Co. could not take advantage in the 23-17 overtime loss.
Nebraska's senior quarterback completed just 12 of his 31 pass attempts for 153 yards with a pair of picks. He did have a rushing touchdown, but it was easily his worst overall game of the season.
It was business as usual for this Badgers defense, though, right? Through eight games, Wisconsin has allowed just four passing touchdowns against 10 interceptions. It shut down LSU, Iowa and Michigan State and has been the only team to hold Michigan's offense in check this season, limiting the Wolverines to just 14 points, albeit in a loss.
The Cornhuskers are still the leaders in the Big Ten West, but a road game against Ohio State next week is likely to bump them back to the pack of two-loss teams.
Most expected this two-game stretch to expose them after a favorable schedule to open the season. In that regard, one might consider them a moral winner for at least showing something in taking Wisconsin to overtime. In the end, though, their hopes of reaching the College Football Playoff went from slim to almost nonexistent.
Winner: Kamryn Pettway, Auburn
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Kamryn Pettway refused to let No. 15 Auburn join the long list of ranked teams that suffered road losses in Week 9.
The Tigers got a good scare from Ole Miss before scoring 20 points on four consecutive possessions late in the 40-29 victory, but Pettway was more than the Rebels could hope to handle.
The sophomore fullback-turned-running back set a career high in rushing for a third consecutive week, exploding for 236 yards and a score.
Pettway carried the ball 30 times and was not tackled for a loss once. The one time Ole Miss got him behind the line of scrimmage, it was called back because Fadol Brown was offside to get the job done. There weren't many big runs—Pettway did have a 41-yard score and a 56-yard scamper—but he just kept moving the ball and breaking down Ole Miss with three- and four-yard runs.
Auburn has now won five straight and may well jump into the Top 10 in next week's polls with another victory, given the litany of losses that have happened around the country.
Loser: Utah's Punt Coverage Team
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With nearly 700 punt-return yards and four touchdowns in his first two-and-a-half seasons, Washington's Dante Pettis is probably a guy to whom you don't want to punt the ball.
But Utah didn't get that memo, giving Pettis four opportunities to return punts.
He didn't do much with the first three, which amounted to two positive yards. On the fourth and most crucial one, though, Pettis made the Utes pay, returning it 58 yards for the deciding score in No. 4 Washington's 31-24 win over No. 17 Utah.
Four guys got a finger on him, but that's about it. The line-drive boot from the end zone gave him plenty of time to pick his spots, evading would-be tacklers with relative ease.
It wasn't a banner night for Heisman hopeful Jake Browning. Under pressure on seemingly every dropback, he threw for only 186 yards and had a brutal interception that set up the Utes for one of their touchdowns. But he did what he had to do to keep the Huskies in the game long enough for Pettis to seal the deal.
When the College Football Playoff standings are released Tuesday, you can count on Washington's being in position for the national semifinals.
Winner: Clemson and Florida State Players Wearing No. 4
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In the greatest game of the week, it was one heck of a night to be wearing No. 4 in Tallahassee, Florida.
Both of Florida State's players in that jersey number had a phenomenal game. Sophomore defensive back Tarvarus McFadden intercepted his sixth pass of the season early in the second half, setting up the Seminoles to take a 21-20 lead when their other No. 4, Dalvin Cook, ran for a 43-yard score on the next play.
For Cook, it was one of four rushing touchdowns on the night. He also had scores from four, eight and 70 yards out and accounted for 169 rushing yards. It's hard to believe he got only 19 carries, considering how much trouble Clemson had bringing him down.
But it was No. 4 for the Tigers who got the last laugh, as he kept Clemson in the running for the College Football Playoff and kept himself in the running for the Heisman Trophy.
Deshaun Watson threw for 378 yards and two touchdowns while also running for 52 yards. He did throw a pair of interceptions, but he made up for them by connecting with Jordan Leggett for a 34-yard score on the game-winning drive with just over two minutes remaining.
The 37-34 win was Clemson's fifth victory of the season by a one-possession margin, but given the remaining schedule (vs. Syracuse, vs. Pittsburgh, at Wake Forest, vs. South Carolina), those close calls won't matter when the Tigers are playing in a national semifinal.
Loser: Reports of Christian McCaffrey's Demise
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Thus far in Pac-12 play, facing Arizona has been just what the doctor ordered. UCLA and Southern California both had season-best scoring outputs against the Wildcats, who have yet to hold a conference opponent to fewer than 34 points.
And no team needed an offensive jolt quite like Stanford, which had averaged just 11.0 points per game in its last four.
Much of those troubles could be attributed to star running back Christian McCaffrey's vanishing act.
An undisclosed injury suffered against Washington State knocked him out of that loss and kept him out of the following week's game against Notre Dame, but he wasn't quite right even before that. After averaging 185.0 yards from scrimmage in his first three games, he was accounting for just 79.0 yards per game in his last three appearances and hadn't scored a touchdown since Sept. 17.
McCaffrey snapped out of that funk in emphatic fashion in Tucson, Arizona, rushing for 169 yards and two scores while catching four passes for 27 yards and another TD. He also had a 24-yard punt return that almost turned into much more.
It didn't quite stack up with some of the silly stat lines he posted last season, but it was his most productive game of 2016. It's too late to get back into the Heisman conversation, but it sure was nice to see some signs of life from him again. And like UCLA and USC before them, the Cardinal scored a season high against Arizona in the 34-10 win.
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