News/Commentary

Rankings and Recap: Upset Loss To Purdue Drops Ohio State to 6th

October 21, 2018 by Dave Congrove

Ohio State was rocked while 'Bama and Clemson rolled on Saturday. The results re-shuffled the top 6 teams, and kept 7th and 8th in place.

Clemson, Notre Dame, Michigan and Oklahoma each move up one spot while the Buckeyes drop from 2nd to 6th. Georgia and LSU remain 7th and 8th. Iowa pops into the top 10 at No. 9 as Penn State stays parked at No. 10.

By far, the biggest upset of the weekend was Purdue's shocking 49-20 blowout of Ohio State. The Boilermakers shut down the Buckeyes' running attack and forced Dwayne Haskins to throw 73 passes in Ohio State's second-largest loss since dropping a 41-14 decision to Florida in the 2006 season BCS title game. Urban Meyer was the head coach of the Gators at the time. The Buckeyes were blown out 55-24 at Iowa last season.

 

 

Alabama blasted Tennessee 58-21 as Tua Tagovailoa threw 4 TD passes and 0 picks. His absurd season stat line has him completing him 71% of his throws for 25 TD's, 0 INT's while adding 2 TD's rushing.

Clemson manhandled previously undefeated North Carolina State 41-7, dropping the Wolfpack from 9th to 24th.

Notre Dame was idle.

Kentucky and Texas take 11th and 12th in this week's computer rankings, and UCF got a boost from 17th to 13th as the Golden Knights continue to lead all other teams in the Group of 5 conferences for the guaranteed New Year's 6 bowl bid. Last year, UCF beat Auburn 34-27 in the Peach Bowl.

The SEC has 6 members in the top 25, five of which are in the top 20. The Big Ten has 5 representatives, followed by the PAC-12 and Big 12 with 4-apiece. The ACC has 3, while the Independents, the American and the Mountain West are each representative by a single team with UCF at No. 13 and Fresno State at 22.

The highest-ranked team from Conference USA is now Alabama-Birmingham. UAB's program was resurrected last year after a two-year hiatus that stemmed  from funding issues. The Blazers are 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference, and are ranked 48th by the computer this week.

The top team from the MAC is Buffalo at No. 50. The Bulls upset Toledo on Saturday to improve to 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference.

Appalachian State leads all Sun Belts teams with a No. 37 ranking. The Mountaineers are 5-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play.

View the full Top 130.

And Then There Were 5

3/8th's of the teams that entered the week undefeated were not able to exit the week in that same condition. Cincinnati blew a late lead over Temple and fell 24-17 in overtime, while NC State was pummeled by Clemson and Ohio State was belted by Purdue.

That leaves 3 Power 5 conference schools, joined by a pair Group of Five schools from the American Athletic Conference and the state of Florida.

The list of unscathed teams is Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, UCF and USF. The Golden Knights and the Bulls will meet on December 23rd in Tampa for their annual "War on I-4" rivalry.

Can't Get Over the Hump

UTEP and San Jose State each came close on Saturday to ending their winless droughts.

The Miners (0-7, 0-3) lost 31-24 at Louisiana Tech (5-2, 3-1) and were tied halfway through the 4th quarter.

SJSU (0-7, 0-3) lost 16-13 to San Diego State (6-0, 3-0) in game that wasn't decided until the Aztecs converted a 51-yard field goal attempt with 4:36 left in the game.

Break-through

Nebraska and Scott Frost got the monkey off their back with a 53-28 home win over Minnesota.

A couple of other struggling teams broke though, as well. Old Dominion finally beat someone other than Virginia Tech when the Monarchs eked-out a 37-34 win at Western Kentucky. Arkansas (2-6, 0-4) finally got its second win of the season by blanking visiting Tulsa 23-0.

Michigan-Michigan State Rivalry Turns Ugly

Michigan downed Michigan State 21-7 in game that wasn't lacking in bad sportsmanship, disrespect and trash-talking. First, a few Michigan players interrupted Michigan State's traditional field walk that occurs well before every game. Michigan's Devin Bush followed that up with an unseemly temper tantrum at mid-field as he tried to rub out the Spartans' logo with his cleats. And after the game, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh somehow managed to observe all of this and claim Michigan State's actions were 'bush league'?

Another Michigan player took to trash-talking the opponent after the game, even though it's only Michigan's second win over 'little brother' during Harbaugh's tenure.

 

The sophomoric behavior under Harbaugh's absent leadership didn't end there as the team celebrated on the logo after the game.


Michigan is 3-8 vs. its state rival since 2008.

FBS vs. FCS

There was just one game in this category this week as Liberty outlasted Idaho State 48-41. FBS teams are 94-7 (.931) vs. the FCS this season, and 1,313-124 (.914) since 2003.

Here are all of the FCS victories over FBS teams, so far, in 2018:

August 30: UC Davis 44, San Jose State 31
September 1: Villanova 19, Temple 17
September 1: Northern Arizona 30, UTEP 10
September 1: Nicholls State 26, Kansas 23 (OT)
September 2: North Carolina A&T 28, East Carolina 23
September 8: Maine 31, Western Kentucky 28
September 22: Illinois State 35, Colorado State 19

Streaks

UCF - Won 20 straight overall (FBS longest), Won 13 straight conference games including AAC title last year (FBS longest). Won 37-10 at East Carolina on Saturday.

Alabama - Won 23 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 58-21 at Tennessee on Saturday.

Oklahoma - Won 18 straight true road games (FBS longest). Won 52-27 at TCU on Saturday.

UTEP - Lost 19 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 31-24 at Louisiana Tech on Saturday.

Kansas - Lost 14 straight conference games (FBS longest). Lost 48-16 at Texas Tech on Saturday.

Oregon State - Lost 22 straight road games (FBS longest). Lost 49-7 at home to California on Saturday.