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On what was, so far, the biggest weekend of 2023 for college football matchups, 19th-ranked Colorado had its bubble burst at 11th-ranked Oregon, Ohio State scored with 1 second left for the win at Notre Dame, and Florida State snapped a 7-game losing streak to Clemson with a road victory in overtime.
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning was on his own hype machine prior to the game, telling his team in the locker room, “The Cinderella story’s over, men. They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins.” Oregon then went out and scored touchdowns on six of its first seven possessions, led 35-0 at halftime, and coasted to a 42-6 win over a Colorado team that has been the most-followed development of the year.
After the game, Lanning said, "I think that coach (Sanders) is doing a phenomenal job. I get a little passionate at times. I need to humble myself a little bit. This is one game.”
Have no doubt. The score could have been much worse as Bo Nix exited at QB for the Ducks after the only touchdown following halftime made it 42-0 with 9 minutes to play n the 3rd quarter. In 36 minutes of action, Nix was 28-of-33 for 276 yards, 3 TD's and a pick.
Shedeur Sanders finished 23-of-33 for 159 yards and a TD that came with under 3 minutes to play, after which the PAT was blocked. That drive accounted for 93 of Colorado's total of 199 yards. The Ducks had well over 300 in the first half. Colorado now ranks 128th out of 133 teams in total defense, allowing 475.8 yards per game.
Colorado hosts USC next week and follows that with a trip to Arizona State. The Sun Devils comported themselves well in an eventual 42-28 home loss to the Trojans on Saturday.
The Ducks were 3-TD favorites while the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com said they would cover comfortably with a 41.22-point advantage.
With just 10 men on the field for 9th-ranked Notre Dame, the 4th-ranked Buckeyes scored a one-yard TD run by Chip Trayanum for what essentially was a walk-off touchdown. After review, one second was actually put back on the clock. The Irish were actually down a man the last two plays.
Ohio State has won all 5 meetings since any interaction resumed between the two teams in 1995. Notre Dame won the only two games played in a much different era in 1935 and 1936, but the score of this ballgame was more indicative of those earlier encounters that the Irish took by scores of 7-2 and 18-13.
The Buckeyes took a 10-0 lead, only to see Wake Forest transfer QB Sam Hartman rally the Irish to a 14-10 advantage with 8:22 to go in the game when a 2-yard TD pass capped a 96-yard, 11-play drive. Ohio State turned the ball over on downs on its next possession after being stuffed on a 4th-and-1 at the Notre Dame 11-yard line. But the Irish went 3-and-out and had to punt to give Ohio State 1:26 on the clock for its 1:25 drive.
Clemson tried to quiet the naysayers who have been proclaiming the end of the Tigers' ACC supremacy. Florida State wanted to end a 7-game losing streak to Clemson and prove the takeover of the conference was, perhaps, upon us. It took overtime to decide the outcome when the 3rd-ranked 'Noles needed just 2 plays to take the lead and then stopped 23rd-ranked Clemson on downs on a 4th-and-1 incomplete pass at the FSU 16.
Prior to this victory, FSU's last win over Clemson also came in overtime in a 23-17 thriller in Tallahassee in 2014. This was the 'Noles first win at Clemson since 2013.
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(7) Penn State 31, (22) Iowa 0 - These schools had met 9 times before becoming conference rivals in 1993 with Penn State winning 6 of those. Each program had won 11 of the 22 Big Ten matchups. A close game was certainly a possibility going into this season's clash at Happy Valley.
Close? Not even, as the Nittany Lions methodically blanked the Hawkeyes 31-0 Chalk this one up to the defense that allowed just 4 first downs and 76 total yards, helped by 4 recoveries of 6 Iowa fumbles.
(10) Utah 14, (25) UCLA 7 - Utah took a 7-0 lead in Salt Lake City on the first play of the game when Karene Reid intercepted Dante Moore's pass and scampered 21 yards to paydirt. Utah then proceeded to puts its own crowd to sleep with drives that ended in a missed 47-yard field goal attempt, a fumble at UCLA's 36, a turnover on downs at UCLA's 45, and two more drives that ended with punts.
Finally, Nate Johnson and Landon King hooked-up for an 11-yard scoring play with 1:01 left before halftime. UCLA finally got on the board at the 3:39 mark of the final period, and had one last possession to try to force overtime. The Utes' defense emphatically put down any notion of that occurring by blitzing Dante Moore into submission with 3 sacks for a combined 22 yards in losses
UCLA had snapped a 5-game losing streak to Utah last year. Cameron Rising has still not seen action at QB for the Utes since tearing his ACL in last season's 35-21 Rose Bowl loss to Penn State.
(12) Alabama 24, (16) Ole Miss 10 - Alabama scored 18 points in a 14-minute span of the 3rnd and 4th quarters to put down Ole Miss 24-10 in Tuscaloosa. Jalen Milroe returned to the starting QB role for the Tide and was and was 17-of-21 for 225 yards, a TD and an INT. The Rebels only trailed 9-7 at the half, but Jaxson Dart was intercepted on their first second-half possession and 'Bama scored six plays later on Milroe's 33-yard pass to Jalen Hale. It was 17-7 after the 2-point conversion run.
Ole Miss answered with a drive into the redzone, but had to settle for a 35-yard field goal and a late drive ended at the Alabama at 10.
(24) Washington State 38, (15) Oregon State 35 - Washington State fans rushed the field for the second straight time after securing the PAC-2 championship with a 38-35 win on the Palouse over Oregon State. The Beavers rallied from a 35-14 deficit and threatened to steal the victory until Wazzu recovered an onside kick with 1:10 to play.
The two left behind members of the PAC-12 collided with the visiting Beavers favored by 2.50 at the sportsbooks and 12.48 by the computer, but Cameron Ward threw for 404 yards and 4 TD's for the Cougars.
This season has 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army playing two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that do NOT play a FCS program, 7 are in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three are Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
FBS schools were 4-0 this past weekend, outscoring the FCS opposition by a combined score of 152-36 for an average margin of 29 points. Three were complete blowouts, but Texas A&M-Commerce took ODU to the mat in a 10-9 loss. The Lions had an opportunity to pull off the late comeback upset, but had their 2-point conversion pass intercepted in the endzone with just 28 seconds left to play in the game to allow the Monarchs to preserve the win.
The FBS programs are 101-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,787-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
There are 3 such games next week.
Here are the FCS wins in 2023, so far:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
GEORGIA - Won 22 straight home games, 21 straight over-all, and 11 straight true road games.
Last: 49-21 home win over UAB on Saturday, September 23.
Next: Visits Auburn on Saturday, September 30.
MICHIGAN - Won 16 straight conference games.
Last: 31-7 home win over Rutgers on Saturday, September 23.
Next: Visits Nebraska on Saturday, September 30.
NEVADA - Lost 14 straight over-all, 14 straight to FBS teams, and 7 straight home games.
Last: 35-24 loss at Texas State on Saturday, September 23.
Next: Visits Fresno State on Saturday, September 30.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS - Lost 7 straight home games.
Last: 22-14 home loss to Tulsa on Saturday, September 23.
Next: Visits Toledo on Saturday, September 30.
USF - Had lost 13 straight conference games and 18 straight FBS games, but defeated Rice on Saturday.
- Still owns19-game road losing streak.
Last: 42-29 home win over Rice on Saturday, September 23.
Next: Visits Navy on Saturday, September 30.
New Mexico - Lost 12 straight conference games.
Last: 34-31 overtime win at UMass on Satruday, September 23.
Next: Visits Wyoming on Saturday, September 30.