Week 10 Recap

October 27, 2018 by Dave Congrove

In advance of the first playoff committee rankings of 2018, set to be released Tuesday night, Alabama had nothing to worry about and Clemson cruised.

The Crimson Tide were idle while the Tigers mauled Florida State 59-10 in Tallahassee to tie the worst defeat ever by the 'Noles (49-0 at Florida in 1973). That makes this the worst home loss ever.

Notre Dame, the only other undefeated team in the FBS, beat Navy 44-22 in San Diego.

One team dropped from the unbeaten ranks on Saturday as USF fell 57-36 at Houston, marking the second straight year that the Cougars prevented the Bulls from achieving an 8-0 start.

Texas' 6-game winning streak came to crashing to a halt in a 38-35 loss at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys had lost 3-of-4 heading into the game, falling to Texas Tech, Iowa State and Kansas State. Texas was a perfect 4-0 in the Big 12 before the defeat, and in sole possession of first place. Now, West Virginia and Oklahoma share the lead with the Longhorns, but Texas already owns the head-to-head advantage over the Sooners. Oklahoma was an easy 51-14 winner over Kansas State, while the Mountaineers breezed to a 58-14 victory over Baylor on Thursday.

Kansas and Oregon State each ended their streak of futility in conference play. The Jayhawks halted a 14-game Big 12 skid by shocking TCU 27-26, and the Beavers ended a 13-game PAC-12 losing streak with a 41-34 upset of Colorado. The Oregon State win also ended the school's 22-game road losing streak.

UTEP is now tied with Rice for the longest conference losing streak 12 after the Miners were shutout 19-0 at home by UAB while the Owls fell 41-17 at North Texas. UTEP is also now tied with Kent State for the longest road losing streak at 13. The Golden Flashes were idle. The Miners have lost 20 in-a-row overall, which gives them the outright lead in that category.

In addition to Oregon State's upset win, Arizona toppled Oregon 44-15 and Cal upended Washington 12-10. For the Huskies, their third loss of the season drops them out of first place in the PAC-12 north. A 36-yard interception return in the 3rd quarter wound up being the game winning points for the Golden Bears who beat Washington for just the second time in the last 10 meetings.

Washington State has sole possession of first in the north division after beating Stanford 41-38. Utah, which leads the south, clobbered UCLA 41-10 on Friday.

An upset in the Mountain West late Saturday night saw Nevada top San Diego State 28-24 to halt a 3-game losing streak in the series. The Wolf Pack was just 1-7 in the previous 8 meetings dating back to 1995.

Meanwhile, there wasn't even a whiff of an upset in Fresno where the San Joaquin Valley boys pummeled the Rainbow Warriors 50-20 in the last game to finish on Saturday.

Friday night in Boston, Miami lost a second straight ACC game as the Hurricanes fell to Boston College 27-14.  Virginia Tech lost on an ACC game for the first time this season when Georgia Tech ran all over the Hokies in Blacksburg, 49-28. Don't look now, but Virginia is tied with Virginia Tech for the Coastal division lead. The Cavaliers won 31-21 over North Carolina in Charlottesville, and Pitt outscored Duke 54-45 at Heinz Field.

Kentucky scored a walk-off 15-14 win at Missouri with a 2-yard pass on an untimed down after an interference penalty negated an incomplete pass that would've ended the game with the Tigers on top 14-9. Mizzou, which entered the game with the 12th-most prolific offense in the nation, was held to 8 three-and-outs in the second half. The Wildcats, who control their own destiny in the SEC East, host Georgia next Saturday.

Georgia was a 36-17 winner over Florida in the annual border war rivalry that takes place in Jacksonville.

FBS vs. FCS

Nebraska was the lone FBS team facing a FCS opponent this week. The Cornhuskers beat Bethune-Cookman 45-9. Nebraska scheduled that game after the season-opener versus Akron was canceled due to a prolonged weather interruption. FBS teams are 95-7 (.931) vs. the FCS this season, and 1,314-124 (.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). Idle this week.

Alabama - Won 23 straight home games (FBS longest). Idle this week.

Oklahoma - Won 18 straight true road games (FBS longest). Won 51-14 at home over Kansas State on Saturday.

UTEP - Lost 20 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 19-0 at home to UAB on Saturday.

UTEP - Lost 12 straight conference games (tied for FBS longest). Lost 19-0 at home to UAB on Saturday..

Rice - Lost 12 straight conference games (tied for FBS longest). Lost 41-17 at North Texas on Saturday..

UTEP - Lost 13 straight road games (tied for FBS longest). Lost 19-0 at home to UAB on Saturday..

Kent State - Lost 13 straight road games (tied for FBS longest). Kent State was idle on Saturday..

Kansas - Ended 14-game conference losing streak (was FBS longest) with 27-26 win at home over TCU on Saturday.

Oregon State - Ended 22-game road losing streak  (was FBS longest), and 13-game conference losing streak (FBS 2nd-longest) with 41-34 win at Colorado on Saturday.