Damage Report: Big 12 Refs and Mississippi

Saturday is finished and we learned quite a few things this week in college football. Such as to never go for it on 4th and 3 in a tied game after burning two time-outs to think about it. That was for you Gary Patterson. Here are winners and losers from the past 24 hours.

How UCLA fans felt today.

Winner: Mississippi State and Ole Miss

Honestly, I thought both Mississippi teams would get carried away with their top rankings and have a bad game. That didn’t happen as Mississippi State jumped on No. 2 Auburn with a 21-0 first quarter lead and never looked back. Ole Miss was in control of No. 14 Texas A&M the whole way and led 21-0 at the half. The Egg Bowl has never been so enticing in October.

Loser: Big 12 Referees

The zebras called pass interference on TCU corner Corry O’Meally placing Baylor in field-goal range in the final minute with game tied at 58. Baylor would kick the game-winning three points to end the bout 61-58. Problem is the flag was bogus. Replay showed O’Meally made contact as the ball reached the Baylor receiver and even turned his head to find the ball. It was a shame that a great game ended on the result of a bad call from the refs. Then again, if TCU had simply punted instead failing on 4th and 3 maybe this would not have happened at all.

Winner: Duke

The Blue Devils knocked of the ACC Coastal leading Yellow Jackets on the road 31-25. Duke is now in great shape to repeat as division champions. With Florida State in the news for all the wrong reasons there is a legitimate possibility Duke could win the ACC in football. Yeah, I said in football.

Loser: UCLA

The Bruins went from being a playoff favorite to dropping two-straight at home. Unlike last week’s close game with Utah, UCLA was lifeless against Oregon. Don’t let the 42-30 score fool you. It was 35-10 after the third quarter. UCLA has plenty to fix.

Winner: West Virginia

Trailing Texas Tech on the road 34-20 with less than eight minutes to go it looked bleak for WVU. The Mountaineers would score two touchdowns in drives lasting only 1:37 and 2:37. They even had time to set up a 55-yard field goal for kicker Josh Lambert. The sophomore kicker drilled the field-goal to crush the hearts of Texas Tech fans everywhere. At 4-2, West Virginia has plenty to play for while Texas Tech is going to need a miracle to reach bowl eligibility at 2-4.

Loser: Fresno State

The Bulldogs were a contender to repeat as Mountain West champions but that took a hit Friday night in Vegas. Fresno lost UNLV in overtime 30-27 who was previously 1-4. The Rebels had been torched this season with a minus 131 point-differential. It was Fresno State’s first Mountain West loss who fell to 3-4, and 2-1 in conference. Instead of making a run at the conference crown, the Bulldogs will have to fight to just finish 6-6 after the bad loss.

Damage Report from Upset Saturday

Last week was boring. This Saturday was everything a college football fan could want and more. There were so many upsets today that the college football playoff is getting harder to predict. After today you’re looking at Florida State, Auburn, Baylor, and Notre Dame as your four. Yep, we have hit chaos in early October. In the BCS this occurred in November. That’s the bad part of picking four teams instead of two.

Loser: Prestigious Programs

I’m talking Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and USC level of prestige. All lost to schools who are still trying to prove themselves nationally. Mississippi State, Ole Miss, TCU and Arizona are very much alive for a playoff spot. Arizona State’s loss to UCLA may be too much to overcome.

Winner: Hail Mary Passes from Arizona Teams

Both Arizona and Arizona State have now defeated a PAC-12 team this year on a desperate pass from midfield. California saw its undefeated season disappear two weeks ago to Zona. Now, USC may fall out of the Top 25 after failing to bat down the ball against Arizona State. The Sun Devils scored on a 46-yard pass as time expired. It appeared that the Trojans simply waited for the pass to come down. That’s how a Hail Mary can work.

Loser: Wisconsin

The Badgers are a lock to drop out of the Top 25 after a bad loss to the Wildcats of Northwestern. Northwestern has lost to Northern Illinois of the MAC but has now defeated Penn State and Wisconsin on consecutive weeks. For Wisconsin, the Big Ten West favorite, its odds of making it to the Big 10 championship game became extremely difficult.

Winner: Marshall

The Thundering Herd destroyed Old Dominion 56-14 and should move into the Top 25 for the first time since 2002. Marshall has scored at least 40 points in every game this season and is currently 5-0.

Loser: South Carolina

The Gamecocks are looking at a Music City Bowl appearance as a best case scenario. My Kentucky Wildcats scored 21-straight in the fourth quarter to beat South Carolina in Lexington 45-38. South Carolina is 3-3 and still has to play Auburn, Florida and Clemson. A 6-6 season would be an achievement.

Winner: College Football Fans

All of the upsets we’ve been expecting the past month occurred in the first three days of October. We wanted to see how the college playoff system would work and now we have an ideal scenario to test it out. Plus, the upsets have been fun to watch.

Texas A&M Saves us from Boredom

When I was looking into journalism in college I read that newspapers were 10 percent actual news and 90 percent filler. This Saturday in college football was filler.

College GameDay was at Missouri vs. South Carolina. Two teams with a loss each and Missouri’s came to lowly Indiana. Yet, Missouri won the game. Go figure.

Heck, Michigan State’s rout of Wyoming somehow made it to ESPN 2. The ABC primetime game involved Syracuse, a school who nearly lost to FCS Villanova and was humbled by Maryland. ESPNU showcased a SWAC duel between Alcorn State and Southern. In other words, quality games were not there.

Next week will be different but today we were left with Texas A&M rallying to beat Arkansas and Florida State surviving NC State on the road. The only bout between ranked teams was No. 11 UCLA lighting up No. 15 Arizona State 62-27 and that game was on… Thursday.

Here are the winners and losers from the week.

Winner: Texas A&M

The Aggies had to deal with “trap game” talk all week and needed two fourth quarter touchdowns to bail them out against the Razorbacks. Arkansas had 484 total yards but only 73 came in the fourth quarter and overtime. The Hogs will also have to question this slow developing run on fourth down in overtime that was quickly stuffed at the line of scrimmage.

What Arkansas fans see in Hades.

Bottom line: Texas A&M players don’t have to worry about trap games anymore. Mainly because they know No. 14 Mississippi State can beat them without anyone in the media telling them so.

Loser: Penn State

Penn State was excited to be eligible for the Big 10 title game this season but not anymore. Losing to 1-2 Northwestern at home takes care of that. The Wildcats had lost to a MAC school and their only win was against a FCS team. Yet, Northwestern never trailed as it scored two touchdowns in the first quarter to win 29-6. PSU quarterback Christian Hackenberg averaged over 300 passing yards per game coming into the contest but had just 216 today to go along with an interception. The only school that stands in Michigan State’s way in the Big 10 East now is … Maryland? Maybe Ohio State? Maybe?

Winner: Air Force

The Falcons went 2-10 in 2013 and a depressing 0-8 in Mountain West action. Not this year, as Air Force took it to perennial Mountain West favorite Boise State and won 28-14. It has to be the school’s biggest win since topping Georgia Tech in the 2010 Independence Bowl. One thing is for sure, the Mountain West is going to be interesting this season.

Loser: Pittsburgh

When you lose to Akron at home 21-10 it’s going to be tough. It was the first win for Akron against a power conference school since defeating NC State six years ago. The Zips kept star Panther running back James Conner in check, holding him to just 92 yards. Coach Paul Chryst has damage control duties to do in Western Pennsylvania.

Saturday Reaction: Clemson, Big 10 and Mother Nature

It was a huge night of college football as the defending national champion was tested. While the story is and will continue to be Jameis Winston the real story should be how Clemson blew this game. Missed field goals and a bad fumble kept the Seminoles in it and now we have to listen to Winston talk for the next few months.

Coach Jimbo Fisher’s quote “We know how to win” at the end of the game on ABC is a stretch. Clemson helped FSU with a slow developing play call on fourth and one. The Tigers had a 407-318 lead in yards and still lost.

Florida State is still in the driver seat for the ACC title and a playoff spot. For college football as a whole though, Winston will continue to be a bad distraction. People don’t change this quickly and I’m bracing myself for the next bad report out of Tallahassee.

Winner: Sean Maguire, Florida State quarterback

Congratulations to Maguire for keeping the Seminoles alive for another national title. He did throw more picks (2) than touchdowns (1) but his 305 passing yards were unexpected for a guy who threw just 116 yards last season. That was probably in garbage time too. Florida State fans will always have respect for Maguire for years to come.

Loser: ACC

The conference looks weak outside of Florida State right now. North Carolina was rolled over by East Carolina in embarrassing fashion. Syracuse, Miami and Pittsburgh lost to Big Ten schools. The best win the conference had today was Duke over Tulane. Not going to move the needle with that one.

Winner: Samantha Ponder

Ponder gave a great take on Winston during College Gameday as she explained why his suspension was warranted. It was probably the best I’ve heard and that’s with everyone in the media giving their two cents. Please give her more time than David Pollack ESPN.

Loser: Florida State University

The school originally suspended Winston for just the first half of the Clemson game but changed course to a full game late Friday night. Nothing good is announced on a Friday night. The school came across as suspicious and incompetent. Better to stick to your original decision to than to try and sweep a new choice in past newspaper deadlines. It was bad public relations coming from a school that appears to not have any.

Winner: Mother Nature

Several games have been delayed due to lightning this year and more were impacted this week. Michigan vs. Utah, Illinois vs. Texas State and Toledo vs. Ball State were games that were severely delayed.

We are playing football in Toledo!! Rain may be able to contain the #MACtion but will never be able to stop it! pic.twitter.com/3RsfX2tCzW

— #MACtion (@MACSports) September 21, 2014

Loser: Michigan Athletics

Well this tweet from the Michigan Golf Club sums it up.

The sad thing is that Utah got paid $1M to come to Ann Arbor to beat us but our school won't even give us $100 for gas money to our tourneys

— Michigan Club Golf (@UofMClubGolf) September 21, 2014

Should note that the golf club is not a varsity sport for Michigan but yeah, that’s disrespectful of the athletics department if that’s true.

Winner: Indiana

The Hoosiers got there first win against a Top 25 team under Kevin Wilson today after six unsuccessful tries. IU went into Columbia, Missouri and knocked off the No. 18 Tigers 31-27. This was huge for the Big Ten as the Hoosiers are the only school in the league with a win over an SEC school this year. SEC fans will go back to disowning Missouri on a convenient basis. Today, the Tigers are back in the Big 12.