In the whimsical world of college football, we had: Coaches named Mike being terrible, more of the same in the Big Ten, upsets galore in the Big 12, Cocks rising up in November, and crashing out of the highest order!
That’s where I come in! I, Troy the Panda, shall take you through the whimsical world of college football, as we recap and explore what happened in Week 10’s action of college football!
ACC
#5 Miami (FL) 53 Duke 31
Louisville 33 #11 Clemson 21
#20 SMU 48 #18 Pitt 25
N.C. State 59 Stanford 28
Syracuse 38 Virginia Tech 31 (F/OT)
North Carolina 35 Florida State 11
What happened in the ACC this week, Panda?
After jumping out to 14-0 lead, Miami gave up four straight touchdown drives to Duke, and trailed 28-17 in the 3rd quarter. Then Cam Ward went into Cardiac Cam mode, Xavier Restrepo became statistically the best Miami receiver ever, and the defense turned it up a notch holding Duke to only 3 points the rest of the way, allowing the Canes to cover the spread. This Hurricanes team, if anything, is always a fun and entertaining watch!
Clemson and Virginia Tech had a chance to setup an under the radar big game in Blacksburg Virginia next week, which would have given our younger demographic of fans the opportunity to see Lane Stadium in all of its glory. Instead, Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry falls to 1-11 in one possession games, and Clemson comes out lifeless at home and gets steamrolled by a powerful Louisville running game (giving up 210 yards and 7.8 yards per carry). Now Clemson at Virginia Tech will be just another ACC conference game.
SMU who had to pay their way into the ACC, and won’t take any TV deal money, blows out Pitt at home, and is now on a collision course with Miami to meet in the ACC Championship game in their first year in the conference. Amazing.
(Prayers and positive energy to A.J. Davis of SMU who was taken off the field in an ambulance after what appeared to be a serious neck injury.)
N.C. State sends the Christmas trees of Stanford home for the holidays.
Mack Brown now has a win over Florida State, even if it is a 1-8 Florida State team that finished with their worst ACC record ever at 1-7 in conference play.
Big Ten
#4 Ohio State 20 #3 Penn State 13
#1 Oregon 38 Michigan 17
#13 Indiana 47 Michigan State 10
Minnesota 25 #24 Illinois 17
Northwestern 26 Purdue 20 (F/OT)
UCLA 27 Nebraska 20
Iowa 42 Wisconsin 10
Washington 26 USC 21
What happened in the Big Ten, Panda?
Ryan Day, once again, won’t get credit for “winning a big game”, yet, you will hear again and again about James Franklin’s inability to “win a big game”.
The #1 team in the country wins again, beating the reigning national champions on the road in a game that was slightly closer than the scoreboard indicated.
Indiana continues to navigate unchartered waters, while proving over and over again that they are the most underrated team in the country by a country mile. Michigan State can take pride in the fact they were the first team this year to have a lead on Indiana, and had a 10 point one at that! They however can’t take pride in having -36 yards rushing on the game.
Minnesota is quietly playing good football, and wishes they could have the North Carolina game and the first half of the Michigan game back. The Gophers should be 7-1 and ranked.
After looking so good against Ohio State in Columbus, Nebraska comes back home, plays flatter than soda at a Phoenix Suns game, and loses to an awful UCLA team. This season isn’t going to end on a 6 game losing streak again, is it? Husker fans deserve better.
Iowa scores over 40… AGAIN!
And USC loses a close game… AGAIN!
Big 12
Texas Tech 23 #11 Iowa State 22
Houston 24 #19 Kansas State 19
Arizona State 42 Oklahoma State 21
UCF 56 Arizona 12
Baylor 37 TCU 34
With Texas Tech going into Ames, and knocking off previously unbeaten Iowa State, and Kansas State losing a sloppy, rainy game in Houston. Guess who that opens the door for?
Colorado
In a conference full of potential coach of the year candidates, no one is being slept on more than Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham. After inheriting an absolute mess from Herm Edwards, in year two, Dillingham has the Devils going bowling!
Meanwhile Mike Gundy is thanking his lucky stars that Mike Norvell and Florida State exists, to take the spotlight off of how much of a colossal disappointment Oklahoma State has been this year.
UCF blasts off on Arizona in the Space U game.
And Baylor beats TCU on a game winning field goal in a pretty evenly matched game of teams that sit at 5-4 (3-3 in the Big 12).
SEC
#2 Georgia 34 Florida 20
#7 Tennessee 28 Kentucky 18
South Carolina 44 #10 Texas A&M 20
#19 Ole Miss 63 Arkansas 31
Oklahoma 59 Maine 14
Vanderbilt 17 Auburn 7
Mississippi State 45 UMass 20
What happened in the SEC, Panda?
Georgia survived the World’s Largest Outdoor Drinking Party, in a game that was much closer than the score indicated. Florida played with their 3rd string QB Aiden Warner out of necessity because their first two quarterbacks Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway got hurt. After Carson Beck has now thrown 11 INTs in the last four games, you wonder does Georgia even have a 2nd string QB, let alone a 3rd stringer. And if they do, why haven’t we seen them?
Nico Iamaleava played pretty well, Dylan Sampson played pretty well, Tennessee converted half of their downs, and won the turnover battle 3 to 1. So why did they only beat a mediocre Kentucky team at home by 10?
Answer: College Kickers (though to be fair, I’ve seen a lot of quality college kicker play this year)
In an upset many people saw coming from a long ways away, the South Carolina Gamecocks beat Texas A&M, handing them their first SEC loss of the season. But, what many didn’t see coming was such a dominating performance during which the Cocks ran for 286 yards on 6.7 yards per rush, while also getting solid production from the passing game with 244 yards and 2 TDs. With, no bad losses (LSU, Ole Miss, and @ Bama) a quality win over a Top 10 Texas A&M team (at the time), and with road trips to Vandy, and Clemson, and a home date with Missouri (and Wofford). Could a 9-3 South Carolina team be a potential dark horse candidate for the College Football Playoff?!
Ole Miss’ offense FINALLY looked like what we expected it to look like in Fayettenam.
Oklahoma and Mississippi State beat up on weak non-conference foes in November, which for some reason makes fans and Joel Klatt really upset. (Seriously, why is playing a bad non-conference opponent in November such a big deal? Everyone generally plays at least one cupcake, and why do we care when it happens?)
And Vandy owns the state of Alabama, Diego Pavia owns Hugh Freeze, and the Commodores ARE GOING BOWLING! Excellent job by Clark Lea and his staff. Vanderbilt should honestly be better than they are record-wise had they not dropped games against Georgia State and Missouri.
What happened elsewhere in College Football, Panda?
Sam Houston 9 Louisiana Tech 3
Sam Houston moves to 7-2 (4-1in the Conference USA) needing only a touchdown and a safety to beat Louisiana Tech. In their last two wins, Sam Houston has outscored their opponents 19 to 10, and have been outgained by their opponents 511-475. Bearkats doing the “bear” minimum to get the job done and stay in the C-USA race!
Jacksonville State 31 Liberty 21
After one the biggest upsets of the year, the Conference USA favorites Liberty dropped another game, this time losing to Jacksonville State. Jacksonville State is now in the driver seat for the Conference USA Championship Game, and who is their coach?
Western Kentucky 31 Kennesaw State 14
After pulling off the biggest upset of the year, Kennesaw State goes back to being Kennesaw State with a loss to Western Kentucky.
#15 Boise State 56 San Diego State 24
Ashton Jeanty had 31 carries for 148 yards 2 touchdowns, along with 2 catches for 31 yards. And that was considered a disappointing performance for Jeanty. That’s how you know you’re GOOD!
Toledo 29 Eastern Michigan 28
Eastern Michigan blew a 12 point 4th quarter lead only to make up for it with a hail mary as time expired! Until they went for a 2-point conversion and didn’t get it. Still, an amazing play and an amazing finish!
UAB 59 Tulsa 28
In a battle of detestable head coaches, the Fighting Trent Dilfer’s come out roaring after a myriad of criticism with a blow out victory over no NIL Kevin Wilson and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. UAB lead 45-7 at halftime!
Marshall 28 UL Monroe 23
Marshall handling the Warhawks at home was secondary to the “Crash Out of the Year ” crash out moment by UL Monroe offensive line coach Cameron Blankenship. This is TEXTBOOK crashing out!
Rice 24 Navy 10
Navy went from hanging out in the AP Top 25 to losing to “Food” in a matter of weeks. Life comes at you fast!
And there you have it, another wonderful week in the whimsical world of college football! What do you think they’ll come up with next? Guess we’ll have to watch and found out next week!
Panda Just Talkin 