College Football Recap: Week 6
This week in college football should be known as upset week. Three of the top five teams go down including Oregon, Alabama, and Oklahoma. A slew of other upsets include Northwestern over 17th ranked Wisconsin, Arizona State upsetting #16 USC, and Mississippi State beating #6 Texas A&M at home.
The first matchup in college football this week was #2 Oregon against undefeated but unranked Arizona. Marcus Mariota looked to add to his Heisman campaign against a tough Arizona defense. Oregon, in their breast cancer awareness jerseys, had a slow first half. They fell behind early 3-0, but in the second quarter, Mariota engineered an 8-play 75- yard drive that ended with a surprise 26- yard TD pass from Royce Freeman to the quarterback, Mariota. At the half, Oregon led 7-3. In the second half Arizona didn’t back down, and by the end of the third quarter the Wildcats had a 10-point lead (24-14). In the fourth quarter, however, the Ducks stormed back with two long drives to tie the game with 8:21 to play. Arizona’s next possession provided controversy. After a third and goal stop by the Oregon D, Tony Washington was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. This gave Arizona an automatic first down, and led to a touchdown giving Arizona a 31-24 lead. Oregon had one more chance to tie the game, but Mariota fumbled late sealing their unwanted fate.
BYU and Taysom Hill were on display Friday night against 2-2 Utah State. Taysom Hill has been exceptional this year both through the air and on the ground. In the second quarter, BYU’s Heisman candidate injured his leg that kept him out of the game. Without Hill, the Cougars couldn’t get anything going, falling at home to Utah State 35-20.
On Saturday the upsets continued. Number three Alabama was on the road against #11 Ole Miss. Alabama came out strong in the first half against Bo Wallace and the Rebels. Alabama’s offense scored in the second quarter on a QB sneak by Blake Sims, and then Bama’s defense came through with a fumble recovery for a touchdown. At the half, it was quiet in Oxford, Mississippi with the Tide leading 14-3. The second half was a different story. Bo Wallace led his team back into the game with a superb second half. Losing by a touchdown in the fourth quarter, Wallace rifled a ball to Vince sanders for a 34-yard touchdown. Ole Miss’s D helped out it’s offense, holding Alabama to just 3 points in the second half. With 2:54 left in the game, Wallace came through again with a third TD pass to Jaylen Walton. Alabama still had a chance but a late INT by Ole Miss crushed Bama’s playoff hopes.
It wasn’t only a good day for Ole Miss, Mississippi State had a ball against TX A&M. The 6th ranked Aggies and Kenny Hill looked to continue their domination; however, the only domination on Saturday in Starkville, MS was by Dak Prescott. Prescott had five total touchdowns, including three rushing TD’s in a 48-31 rout of the Aggies.
Oklahoma came into Saturday’s game against #25 TCU, undefeated and looking like a playoff contender. The horned frogs jumped out of the waters to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, but the Sooners said not so fast, putting up two straight TD’s including a 75 yard TD pass from Knight, to close the first quarter 14-14. The second quarter was just as exciting with both teams scoring 10 points to close out the first half, tied at 24. In the fourth quarter, the game was tied at 31 apiece, and on a third and two Trevor Knight threw his second interception of the day leading to a touchdown. OU blocked the extra point and returned it for 2 points, making the score 37-33 in favor of TCU. On 4th and 1 with three minutes to go, TCU stuffed Oklahoma giving them the upset victory.
There were unranked teams that upset ranked teams as well, including Utah and Northwestern. Northwestern dropped number 17 Wisconsin at home with a 20-14 victory, while Utah beat UCLA in the final seconds. With just 4 seconds to go in the game UCLA’s kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn came onto the field to attempt a 50 + yard field goal. UCLA missed but after the kick the kicker was roughed setting up another opportunity. Unfortunately, UCLA still missed and went home on the losing end 30-28.
One of the most exciting games of the weekend was No. 16 USC against recently unranked Arizona State. Late in the fourth ASU was down 34-25, but after a 73 TD pass the Sun Devils were within 2 points. With just seven seconds left, ASU’s quarterback threw up a pray and it was answered by Jaelen Strong who came up with the catch to lead Arizona State to an upset victory over USC, 38-34.
Several games this weekend had ranked teams up against one another. Of those games, Notre Dame, Stanford was one of the best. With just a minute left in the game, Everett Golson threw a game winning TD pass on a 4th and 11. Number 9 Notre Dame is sure to move up in the polls this week after five top 8 teams fell this week.
Finally, your Pitt Panthers went on the road to take on the Virginia Cavaliers. It was a tough first half for Pitt, only scoring 3 and allowing Virginia to score 24. Poor execution and penalties plagued the Panthers on offense and defense. The second half was a different story, however. Pitt came out strong on D with a blocked punt and an interception. Pitt’s offense drove down and score a TD after the blocked punt, but only could muster a field goal after the INT. On that drive Pitt almost scored twice, but a bad call and a penalty forced them to kick a field goal. With time winding down, Pitt scored a TD to cut the deficit down to 5. Only 1:27 left and Pitt attempted an onside kick but was unable to recover. The Panthers clawed their way back but were punched too hard in the first half, allowing Virginia to hold on for a 24-19 victory.
Other Scores: #1 Florida State 43, Wake Forest 3; #5 Auburn 41, #15 LSU 7; #7 Baylor, Texas 7; #10 Michigan State 27, Nebraska 22; #13 Georgia 44, Vanderbilt 17; #20 Ohio State 52, Maryland 24; #21 Ok State 37, Iowa State 20; #22 East Carolina 45, SMU 24; #23 Kansas State 45, Texas Tech 13.
Written by: Tyler Turner
