Winners and Losers of Week 9 in College Football
After a rather quiet Week 8 of the college football season, chaos came back with a vengeance for Week 9. Headlined by Ohio State's come-from-behind win over Penn State, AP Nos. 2, 4, 14, 16 and 17 all suffered losses in the span of about 35 minutes.
It was anticipated to be one of the most incredible time slots of the past decade, and it delivered.
But that was just a fraction of the great action taking place in Week 9. There were also some big winners and losers from Thursday and Friday, as well as the noon ET slate of games.
Read on for the full list of the week's biggest winners and losers.
Winner: Steve Addazio, Boston College
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Florida State fell to 2-5 Friday night against Boston College, all but ensuring the Seminoles will be left out of bowl season for the first time since 1981. It's not like the tank was running on empty after 35 years. The 'Noles have consistently had top-five recruiting classes and were preseason candidates to reach the College Football Playoff. Deondre Francois knee injury or not, this has been a collapse of epic proportions, and that fall from grace is primarily what people were tweeting about during the game.
But here's the real story from Friday night: Boston College is good, y'all.
After looking hapless for the first month of the season, Steve Addazio's Eagles have emerged as an offensive juggernaut over the past several weeks. In particular, the ground game has been their specialty, where freshman AJ Dillon (843 yards on the year) is pacing a unit that has rushed for at least 224 yards in four of the past five games. Dillon was the star on offense against FSU, rushing for 149 yards and a touchdown.
BC became the first team to score at least 35 points against Florida State since Clemson put up 37 at the end of last October. This was also Boston College's third straight game scoring at least that much. The Eagles had 41 points last week against Virginia and 45 the week prior against Louisville.
However, the defense is what impressed against the Seminoles. FSU barely managed 200 yards of total offense—its worst yardage output since November 2011 at Florida—and only had one point scored per turnover committed, with three of each.
The Eagles are 5-4, and contained within those losses were back-to-back weeks in which they pushed both Notre Dame and Clemson to the limit. Both final scores against those CFP contenders eventually got a bit out of hand, but they gained 400 yards against the Fighting Irish in what was a one-point game late into the third quarter. They were tied 7-7 with Clemson early in the fourth quarter of that road game.
This is the best Boston College team we've seen in some time.
Loser: Eastern Michigan Eagles
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After suffering its fifth consecutive loss by a one-possession margin—usually in some sort of heart-wrenching fashion—Eastern Michigan was one of our biggest losers last week. It'd be one thing if the Eagles were doing so against the dregs of the Group of Five, thus proving they belong at the bottom of the MAC standings. But all five of their opponents in those games entered Week 9 with at least five wins, so they have been coming up just short against bowl-bound teams.
And, wouldn't you know it, Eastern Michigan was at it again this week against 5-2 Northern Illinois.
In fact, this Thursday night affair was the most agonizing of them all.
Despite missing one field goal near the end of the first half and another in the first few minutes of the second half, EMU was up 24-10 with the ball with about 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. As far as ESPN's win probability chart was concerned, the Eagles had a 99.3 percent chance of winning the game at that point. After all, they could have iced it with a couple of first downs or another score.
Instead, they went three-and-out on three consecutive possessions, allowing a 74-yard touchdown drive after the first one and having a punt blocked after the third. It took roughly five minutes for Northern Illinois to tie the game.
But the Eagles still had life and finally remembered how to move the ball. With time winding down, they put together a 54-yard drive to get into range for a game-winning field goal...only for Paul Fricano—who missed a 24-yarder in overtime last week—to miss his third kick of the game.
Northern Illinois won 30-27 in overtime, meaning Eastern Michigan has now lost six consecutive games by a combined margin of 23 points. The schedule softens considerably from here, so there's still a chance this 2-6 team will become bowl-eligible. If the Eagles get there, be sure to tune in to the end of that game. Given their luck, they'll probably lose on a 15-lateral play as time expires.
Winner: Bryce Love's Heisman Campaign
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Sometimes, the best evidence of a player's greatness is how poorly the team plays without him.
In accordance with that line of thinking, we might as well induct Bryce Love into the college football Hall of Fame, given how awful Stanford's offense looked against Oregon State while he sat out with an ankle injury.
Through the first seven weeks, Love averaged 198.1 rushing yards per game and had at least 147 in each contest. Along with his rate of 10.3 yards per carry, he was on pace to set some all-time single-season rushing records.
And yet, most people still had Love behind Penn State's Saquon Barkley in the early Heisman conversation.
Perhaps that's because Stanford has two more losses than the Nittany Lions. More likely, it's because there aren't enough people watching #Pac12AfterDark. But people may have also been subconsciously dismissing Love's accomplishments because of what Christian McCaffrey did over the previous two seasons at Stanford—as though the Cardinal could just throw any tailback out there and he could rush for at least 150 yards per game in that system.
Now we know that's not the case.
Against an Oregon State defense that had allowed at least 184 rushing yards in six of seven games—with the exception coming against a Washington State team that almost ranks dead last in the nation in rushing (No. 128)—Stanford averaged 3.0 yards per carry and did not have a single rush go for more than 12 yards. Cameron Scarlett had three rushing TDs against both Rice and UCLA earlier this year, but he was bottled up by the Beavers all night (72 yards, zero TDs).
The Cardinal eked out a 15-14 win on a last-minute touchdown, but the real winner was Love. It's almost unheard of for a running back to miss a game and improve his stock in the Heisman race, but that should be the case after Stanford's lackluster Thursday night showing.
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Loser: Ball Security in Morgantown
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Big 12 football games are usually of the "defense optional" variety, but on a cold, rainy afternoon in Morgantown, Oklahoma State and West Virginia were serving up turnovers like an Arby's franchise.
Oklahoma State's star running back, Justice Hill, fumbled on the second play of the game. He also suffered an injury on the play and did not return until the second half. Thus, on the next Cowboys possession, J.D. King was the primary ball-carrier and fumbled on the fourth play of that drive.
No need to fear, though, because West Virginia's Will Grier threw an interception on the next play.
Five minutes. Three turnovers. And they were just warming up.
In all, the Cowboys and Mountaineers combined for nine turnovers. Grier threw four interceptions, and WVU running back Justin Crawford fumbled once. But Oklahoma State kept West Virginia in the game by throwing one pick-six, coughing up three fumbles and having a punt blocked in the end zone for a touchdown that doesn't count as a turnover for some nonsensical reason.
When its running backs weren't fumbling, though, Oklahoma State moved the ball much better than West Virginia, outgaining the Mountaineers 246-62 in the ground game en route to a 50-39 victory.
Winner: Diontae Johnson, Toledo
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Through the first eight weeks of the 2017 college football season, there were two players (Notre Dame's Josh Adams and Stanford's Bryce Love) with six all-purpose plays that went for at least 60 yards. They were tied for the national lead in that category.
Toledo's Diontae Johnson had three such plays in the span of six minutes and eight seconds Thursday against Ball State.
The first was a 67-yard touchdown reception late in the second quarter. Johnson got behind his defender, who got spun around and fell to the turf.
Early in the third quarter, Toledo quarterback Logan Woodside launched the ball 40-plus yards downfield to Johnson in one-on-one coverage. He reached up with one hand and bobbled the catch, but he ended up going 88 yards untouched for his second touchdown of the game.
After a three-and-out on Ball State's next possession, Johnson muffed a punt, but the ball bounced right back to him for an 87-yard TD.
Johnson had two other catches for 15 yards (170 total receving yards) and a 16-yard kickoff return, but he averaged 45.5 yards per touch, finishing the night with 273 all-purpose yards. Thanks in large part to his big plays, Toledo improved to 7-1 with a 58-17 rout of Ball State.
Loser: Louisville Cardinals
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Statistically speaking, Lamar Jackson had one of the better days of his incredible career. The Louisville Cardinals quarterback threw for 330 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 161 yards and three scores. He did throw a regrettable interception in the red zone on a play where the Cardinals got unnecessarily cute, but that was his only major mistake.
And yet, Louisville never had a chance at beating Wake Forest. A good chunk of Jackson's impressive stats came in the final two minutes as the Cardinals scored a pair of meaningless touchdowns to make the final score 42-32.
As has been the case often, Louisville's horrendous defense wasted Jackson's effort.
Wake Forest QB John Wolford entered the day with a career completion percentage of 58.6 and a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 40-to-37. He had never thrown for more than three touchdowns nor 373 yards in a game. But against Louisville, Wolford looked like Tom Brady, circa 2008. He completed 28 of 34 passes (82.4 percent) for 461 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran for a sixth touchdown and played a part in each of Wake Forest's scores.
Wide receiver Greg Dortch was the primary beneficiary of Wolford's big day. The freshman had 10 receptions for 167 yards and four touchdowns, and he fell inches from a fifth, fumbling once at the goal line for a touchback.
In seven games against Power Five opponents, Louisville's defense has allowed an average of 494.4 yards and 37.7 points.
Winner: Brandon Peters, Michigan
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In case you hadn't heard, Michigan's quarterback situation has been one heck of an adventure all season.
Wilton Speight had to retake the starting job during fall camp, and he ended up throwing two pick-sixes in the season opener against Florida. He avoided turnovers from there, but he still struggled, completing just 54.3 percent of his passes on the season before suffering a spine injury against Purdue.
John O'Korn had been playing since, but he wasn't any better. O'Korn has completed 55.2 percent of his passes with only one passing TD against five interceptions, including starting 3-of-6 for 13 yards and an interception against Rutgers.
At long last, head coach Jim Harbaugh had no choice but to turn to sophomore Brandon Peters.
And the Wolverines may have found their answer.
Sure, it was against Rutgers, which has been average on defense for most of the season (No. 62 overall). If you want to take the numbers with a grain of salt, go for it. But Peters was 10 of 14 for 124 yards with a touchdown, and Michigan's offense looked competent with him running the show.
Here's the drive summary with Peters at QB:
- Eight plays, 77 yards, TD
- Seven plays, 49 yards, TD
- Four plays, 54 yards, TD
- 11 plays, 47 yards, missed FG
- Two plays, 61 yards, TD
- 11 plays, 52 yards, turnover on downs
Good luck finding another sequence this season in which Michigan had three straight drives go for at least 47 yards, let alone six of them. Assuming the torch has officially been passed, Peters has two more games to warm up for the season-ending battles with Wisconsin and Ohio State.
Loser: Florida Gators
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Georgia has beaten the living daylights out of a lot of teams this season. Each of its first four SEC games was decided by at least a 25-point margin. But this rivalry contest at Florida was supposed to be a little more competitive.
Instead, it quickly escalated into one of Georgia's easiest wins of the year.
The Bulldogs went 156 yards in eight plays on their first three possessions to jump out out to a 21-0 lead. Meanwhile, on Florida's first three possessions, it ran nine plays, lost three yards, punted twice and threw an interception.
Things didn't get much better.
The Gators did eventually stop giving up touchdowns on every Georgia possession, but the Dawgs still moved the ball almost at will. Sony Michel only had six carries, but he ran for 137 yards and two scores. Nick Chubb had 77 yards and a score. Reserve running back Elijah Holyfield averaged 12.3 yards per carry and had a touchdown. They repeatedly gashed Florida's front seven no matter who was in the backfield.
Meanwhile, Florida never got much of anything going until it was already down 42-0 when it managed a touchdown drive to maintain its decadeslong streak of not getting shut out (1988). Still, the 42-7 final was Georgia's largest margin of victory in this series since a 44-0 win in 1982.
While that mess was happening on the field, ESPN.com's Edward Aschoff and Mark Schlabach reported Florida is seeking to terminate head coach Jim McElwain's contract with cause because of his unsubstantiated claims earlier this week that he had been receiving death threats. Quite the messy situation in Gainesville.
Winner: Josh Adams, Notre Dame
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While everyone argues over Saquon Barkley and Bryce Love as the front-runners among Heisman-candidate running backs, is it possible Notre Dame's Josh Adams just sprinted past both of those guys to become the favorite?
We'll have to wait until all of the Week 9 dust settles to have that conversation, but Adams destroyed what had been one of the best rushing defenses. North Carolina State ranked sixth in the nation in rushing yards allowed per game at 91.3. No team had run for more than 133 yards against it, and the top individual rusher through seven weeks was Marshall's Keion Davis with 74 yards.
Adams had 77 yards on one play. He finished with 202 yards—his fifth time rushing for at least 159 yards this year. He's now averaging 146.1 yards per game and 8.9 yards per carry for one of the top rushing attacks in the country.
As a result, Notre Dame moved one step closer to crashing the College Football Playoff party.
You might recall the Fighting Irish smoked USC last week 49-14. This week, they beat up North Carolina State 35-14. They've won six consecutive games by a margin of at least 20 points.
Can they keep it going for one more month? The Irish still host Wake Forest and Navy and play at Miami and Stanford, so the remaining slate is nothing close to a cakewalk. But their combination of rushing offense and overall defense—they have yet to allow more than 20 points in a game this season—might be too much for anyone to beat.
With their earlier road wins over Boston College and Michigan State in addition to the aforementioned victories over USC and North Carolina State, don't be too surprised if Notre Dame debuts as high as No. 3 when the initial CFP rankings come out Tuesday night.
Loser: Big 12's Playoff Chances
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Earlier this month, Iowa State shocked the world with a 38-31 upset of No. 3 Oklahoma. The Sooners are still trying to recover from that and have been an afterthought in the College Football Playoff conversation since.
The Cyclones did it again this week, as they upset No. 4 TCU 14-7 in a fitting battle between the two best defensive teams in the Big 12.
Iowa State quarterback Kyle Kempt orchestrated a pair of sensational first-half touchdown drives. He led the Cyclones 85 yards on the first and 82 yards on the second, punctuating each one with a passing TD from inside the red zone. Aside from those two possessions, though, Iowa State's offense accomplished next to nothing, gaining just 54 yards in the second half.
Fortunately, the defense was impenetrable. TCU's only score came on the opening kickoff of the second half. The only Horned Frogs drive that went 40 or more yards ended with a back-breaking fumble in the red zone.
Iowa State's journey to six wins has been one of the best stories in college football, provided you're not rooting for the Big 12 to earn a spot in the CFP. Every team in the league has at least one loss, and one-loss Oklahoma still has to face one-loss Oklahoma State and one-loss TCU in the first half of November—plus a possible rematch with one of them in the Big 12 championship game.
There's still plenty of time for chaos to shake up the other conferences and open a path for someone in this league to streak to a spot in the playoff, but it's not looking great.
Winner: J.T. Barrett, Ohio State
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When Penn State jumped out to a 14-0 lead barely three minutes into the game, things weren't looking good for Ohio State. Early on, everyone on Twitter was sounding the alarm about this being the game that cements one of the top Heisman candidates as the favorite to win the award.
Those people were right, but they were talking about the wrong guy.
Penn State's Saquon Barkley had a nice kickoff return for a touchdown to open the contest and added a 36-yard rushing touchdown later in the first half. Aside from those two plays, though, Barkley had 39 all-purpose yards on 25 touches.
J.T. Barrett, on the other hand, was damn-near perfect in rallying his troops for a 39-38 come-from-behind, season-saving victory.
Barrett completed 33 of 39 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 95 yards, leading all players in that category, too.
Ohio State trailed 35-20 with less than 12 minutes remaining when a blocked punt turned the momentum. (Ironic, considering it was a blocked field goal that gave Penn State the miraculous fourth-quarter win last season.) After that special teams play, Barrett led the Buckeyes on three consecutive touchdown drives. He was a perfect 11 of 11 for 153 yards and three TDs on those possessions.
On the season, Barrett has completed 69.5 percent of his passes and averaged 270.8 yards per game (plus 56.8 rushing yards) with an absurd 25-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
It's been fun arguing about the various Heisman candidate running backs, but it's hard to believe it would go to anyone other than Barrett if the season ended today.
Loser: South Florida Bulls
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After a nondescript start to the season that featured lackluster wins over San Jose State and Stony Brook, South Florida looked like it was putting it all together to fulfill its preseason potential as an undefeated team. The Bulls blew out Illinois, Temple, East Carolina and Cincinnati, each by at least a 24-point margin. Last week, they jumped out to a 34-7 lead over Tulane and appeared to have everything running on cruise control.
But the thing about cruise control is you take your foot off the gas pedal and slip into a false sense of security. The Bulls darn near blew that 27-point lead over Tulane, and they did ruin their quest for an undefeated season with a 28-24 Week 9 home loss to Houston.
Statistically speaking, South Florida should have won the game. It outgained Houston by 65 yards, won the time of possession battle (33:28-26:32), had five more first downs, didn't commit a turnover and held Houston scoreless in the first half. In the entire game, Houston only had five drives go for 20 or more yards compared to nine such possessions for South Florida.
The difference was the Cougars scored touchdowns on 80 percent of those drives while South Florida either punted, turned it over on downs or simply ran out of time on five of those occasions.
Not only did South Florida (7-1) blow its shot at an undefeated season, but its 24-game streak of scoring at least 30 points also bit the dust.
All isn't lost for the Bulls, though. The Group of Five's spot in the New Year's Six is almost certainly going to go to the AAC champion. They could still get there by beating UCF in the regular-season finale and Memphis in the conference championship game. But at this point, they're the third-best team in the conference, and Sunday's AP poll will reflect that.
Winner: Devin Singletary, Florida Atlantic
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It was an awful week for most schools with "Florida" in their name. Florida, Florida State and South Florida all suffered losses of varying degrees of embarrassment.
But at least Florida Atlantic maintained its rushing dominance in a 42-28 win over Western Kentucky.
The Owls entered the week on a five-game streak with at least 250 rushing yards and four touchdowns. They extended it to six weeks, thanks almost entirely to Devin Singletary.
The star sophomore reached 1,000 rushing yards for the second straight season, gutting Western Kentucky's front seven for 244 yards and four touchdowns. Per Sports Reference, there have only been three other players this season who rushed for at least 240 yards and four touchdowns in one game, and Boston College's AJ Dillon is the only running back on that list.
FAU trailed 28-20 in the fourth quarter when head coach Lane Kiffin decided he was either going to win or go down swinging with his best weapon. Of the final 18 plays the Owls ran, 13 were handoffs to Singletary for 141 yards and two touchdowns. They ended the game on a 22-0 run, improving to 5-3 overall and 4-0 in Conference USA.
Loser: Michigan State Spartans
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Thanks in part to three overtimes, Michigan State QB Brian Lewerke had the game of his life against Northwestern. He obliterated his previous career high of 340 passing yards and torched the Wildcats secondary for 445 yards and four TDs. Heck, in the previous three games combined, he only threw for 399 yards and two TDs, even though he's the only Spartan to complete a pass in October. Lewerke also led MSU with 30 rushing yards.
It wasn't enough, as Northwestern upset No. 16 Michigan State 39-31.
Wildcats quarterback Clayton Thorson had one heck of a game in his own right, throwing for 356 yards and two touchdowns. Justin Jackson rushed for 41 yards and a touchdown and threw a TD on a trick play.
For the first eight weeks, Michigan State had one of the best defenses in the country. No opponent had gained more than 355 total yards against the Spartans, and only two teams had managed to score more than 14 points against them. But that all went out the window in the three overtime frames, as Northwestern scored three touchdowns and only faced one third-down play in the extra sessions.
Michigan State's path to the Big Ten title was always going to be a difficult one with games against Penn State and Ohio State still to come in the next two weeks. (Maybe they were already looking ahead to those battles?) But if they had won this game and split with the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions, there was at least hope they could win the division on a tiebreaker. That's gone now. They'll need to win out, which is unlikely at best.
Winner: Benny Snell Jr., Kentucky
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As you may have heard a couple hundred times during the broadcast of the game, Kentucky had only beaten Tennessee once since 1984—a 10-7 win in 2011. But the Wildcats weren't about to let that bit of history stop them from becoming bowl-eligible in a home game against a team that has been in a free fall for more than a month.
Sophomore running back Benny Snell Jr.—fresh off a painful 18-yard performance in a blowout loss to Mississippi State—got off to a terrible start. On the first play from scrimmage, he lost three yards and fumbled, setting up Tennessee for a chip-shot field goal.
But Snell redeemed himself multiple times before the intermission. On the next Kentucky possession, he had a 27-yard scamper followed by a six-yard touchdown two plays later. A few drives after that, he had a 48-yard run to set up his two-yard touchdown. And midway through the second quarter, he scored a third time, punching it in from one yard out.
Snell also played a key role in Kentucky's game-winning drive, carrying the ball six times for 33 yards to set up quarterback Stephen Johnson for a touchdown. And for good measure, Snell was on the receiving end of the two-point conversion, giving Kentucky a 29-26 lead. He finished with 180 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Tennessee got within three yards of winning on a Hail Mary, but the Wildcats held on to improve to 6-2.
Loser: Georgia Tech's Offense
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One game removed from Clemson's failure to slow down Syracuse's dual-threat QB Eric Dungey (339 total yards, three TD), one of the biggest unknowns of the week—in addition to how healthy Kelly Bryant (ankle injury, concussion protocol) would be—was how the Tigers defense would fare against Georgia Tech's TaQuon Marshall and the triple-option.
With rain pelting just about the entire state of South Carolina for the duration of the game, you might have thought the Yellow Jackets' misdirection offense would have a leg up on the Tigers.
To put it lightly, that wasn't the case.
Georgia Tech eventually scored a fourth-quarter TD with serious back-door implications in Vegas, but prior to that drive, Marshall had completed just one of eight pass attempts for negative-six yards and had negative-three rushing yards on 12 carries.
It got so bad that the Yellow Jackets resorted to bringing in former starting QB Matthew Jordan late in the third quarter for a change of pace. He sparked a bit of offense, rushing for 25 yards on four plays, but he suffered a leg injury that forced Marshall back into action.
Thanks to two solid late drives and a couple of earlier chunk plays from KirVonte Benson, Georgia Tech ended up with 230 total yards, which is much better than the first 50 minutes indicated the final tally would be. It was just the third time in the past three seasons Tech failed to reach 235 total yards. All three of those games came against Clemson, so defensive coordinator Brent Venables has clearly figured out something about slowing down this offense.
Winner: Offenses in Tucson
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If you were bold enough to bet the under in the Washington State vs. Arizona game, you lost that bet.
And you lost it with about three minutes remaining in the third quarter.
In what was supposed to be a 63-point game, per OddsShark, the Cougars and Wildcats exploded for 95 combined points. There were at least three scoring drives in each quarter, most of them by Arizona, which improved to 6-2 with the 58-37 victory.
It should come as no surprise that Arizona's dual-threat QB Khalil Tate was the biggest, most efficient source of yards. The former backup QB threw for 275 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 146 yards and a third score. Tate has at least 148 passing yards and 137 rushing yards in each of the past four weeks, averaging a total of 395.8 yards and 3.5 touchdowns per contest during this four-game winning streak.
Tate wasn't even Arizona's leading rusher, though. That honor went to J.J. Taylor, who ran for 152 yards on 13 carries. He helped Arizona average 9.1 yards per carry, while Tate averaged 16.2 yards per pass attempt.
Washington State had more total yards than Arizona, as Cougars QBs Tyler Hilinski (509 yards, 2 TD, 4 INT) and Tyler Falk (93 yards, 1 TD) combined for 602 passing yards. Hilinski also rushed for two touchdowns, but those interceptions were a killer. He threw one in the red zone and had another returned for a pick-six. The Cougars briefly took a 27-23 lead in the third quarter, only for Hilinski to get intercepted on three of the next four possessions.
All told, these Pac-12 teams combined for 1,231 yards of offense.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
