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While it seemed like most of the top teams didn't want to break out and feel special over the weekend, Baylor did something really special at UCF. The Bears rallied from 29 down for a 36-35 win in Orlando, spoiling what looked like a celebratory Big 12 opener for the Knights.
Elsewhere, Kentucky's 33-14 home win over Florida on Saturday was its largest over the Gators since a 31-3 win in 1979. Kentucky has now won 3 straight over Florida for their longest winning streak in the series since Bear Bryant was the head coach and the 'Cats took 4 straight from 1948 to 1951.
USF continued to snap futility streaks under first-year head coach Alex Golesh. Two weeks ago, the Bulls snapped losing streaks of 13 straight conference games and 18 straight FBS games with a 42-29 home win over Rice. On Saturday, they put a 19-game road losing streak to bed with a 44-30 upset win at Navy.
No. 6 USC refused to put away Colorado for good and nearly paid the ultimate price of a massive upset loss. Caleb Williams sixth TD pass put the Trojans up 48-21 with 2:14 to go in the 3rd. But Colorado rallied back with 20 unanswered points and an opportunity to force overtime until the onside kick was covered by USC.
The six idle teams were (3) Ohio State, (4) Florida State, (15) North Carolina, (17) Washington State, (18) Miami, and (25) Kansas State.
No. 1 Georgia needed some late heroics to repel the upset bid by Auburn. The Bulldogs finally sealed a 27-20 road win on Carson Beck's 40-yard TD pass to Brock Bowers with 2:52 to go. The Tigers' effort to rally back ended on downs at its own 40.
No. 2 Michigan methodically put away home-standing Nebraska 45-7
No. 7 Penn State broke away from a 10-10 halftime tie with a 31-3 second half and a 41-13 win in Evanston.
Late Saturday night, No. 8 Washington managed an unimpressive 31-24 win at Arizona as Michael Penix was prevented from throwing a TD pass for the second time in 18 games, both by the Wildcats.
There were four matches involving Top 25 teams in the Coaches' Poll, while six members of those rankings had a bye week.
- Injury-plagued 10th-ranked Utah fell 21-7 at No. 21 Oregon State.
- No. 12 LSU fell 55-49 at No. 20 Ole Miss after a last-gasp pass fell incomplete on 2nd-and-20 from the Rebels' 26, following two consecutive false starts the Bayou Bengal offense.
- No. 13 Notre Dame needed a few last-minute prayers to be answered in a 21-14 escape at No. 16 Duke. First, Sam Hartman ran for 17 on 4th-and-16 before Audric Estime ran for 31 on the game-winning TD with 31 secs left. Unfortunately, Duke QB Riley Leonard was on crutches after a sack and fumble while trying to rally his team after the late Irish score.
- QB Jaylon Daniels was a late scratch in pre-game warm-ups and the Kansas offense struggled as No. 5 Texas took advantage for a 40-14 win in Austin.
The Sun Belt continues to be entertaining to watch and two teams remain unbeaten - James Madison (5-0, 2-0) and Marshall (4-0, 1-0). The Dukes are 5-0 for the second-straight season after a 31-23 home win over South Alabama, and the Herd outlasted Old Dominion 41-35 in Huntington.
Troy’s defense forced three takeaways to propel the Trojans to a 28-7 victory over Georgia State, handing the Panthers their first loss of the 2023 season.
Georgia Southern did something no other defense had been able to accomplish in five years against three-time Sun Belt Player of the Year redshirt senior Grayson McCall - record four interceptions. McCall had never thrown more than two interceptions in a game or three interceptions in a season prior to Saturday’s contest - and had just 10 interceptions in 921 career passing attempts. One of the four went for a pick-six in the Eagles' 38-28 win in Statesboro.
A four-touchdown outing from sophomore running back Ismail Mahdi propelled Texas State to a 50-36 win over Southern Miss and its best start since 2005. Mahdi ran the opening kickoff back 100 yards for a touchdown and added three touchdowns in the running game, while tallying 317 all-purpose yards. Redshirt sophomore quarterback TJ Finley completed 19-of-24 passes for 339 yards and two scores for first-year head coach G.J. Kinne who moved over to San Marcos after a successful one-year stint and deep run in the FCS playoffs at Incarnate Word.
A 54-yard field goal off the foot of junior Michael Hughes lifted App State to a walk-off 41-40 win at ULM.
Don't look now but Arkansas State has won three straight games for the first time since 2019 after a 52-28 win at UMass. Freshman quarterback Jaylen Raynor completed 20-of-25 passes for 383 yards and a program-record six touchdowns. Since 2013, three other true freshman QB's in the FBS have managed to accomplish that feat - Caleb Williams (Oklahoma vs. Texas Tech, 2021), Justin Herbert (Oregon at California, 2016) and Patrick Mahomes (Texas Tech vs. Baylor, 2014) as the fourth FBS true freshman since 2013 with six touchdown passes in a game.
Louisiana held a 17-14 lead at the half, threatening to make it five-straight weeks with a win over an autonomy five foe for the Sun Belt, but conceded 21-straight points out of the break in a 35-24 loss to Minnesota.
Fresno State continues to chase Georgia as those other Bulldogs own the nation's second-longest winning streak at 14. Mikey Keene and Jaelen Gill connected for 2 passes in a 27-9 win in the San Joaquin Valley.
Boise State, a long-time Fresno State rival in the Mountain West, had its bubble burst in a 35-32 non-conference loss at Memphis, but Air Force put the entire MWC on notice with a 49-10 home romp over San Diego State.
Virginia Tech ended a 9-game losing streak to Power 5 schools with a 38-21 ACC win over Pitt in which Kyron Drones threw 3 TD passes and ran for 2 more. Despite starting 1-3, Lane Stadium was packed for the 'White-out" and the "Enter Sandman" entrance was electric. Drones has started the last 3 games after original starting QB Grant Wells was injured in the 4th quarter of the Purdue loss.
The Hokies will have their work cut out for them next week, though, when they head to Florida State which had the week off.
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 3-0 this past weekend as Colorado State beat Utah Tech 41-20, North Texas got past Abilene Christian 45-31 and Rutgers rolled 52-3 over Wagner.
The FBS programs are 104-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,790-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
There are 2 such games next week. Virginia hosts FCS No. 4 William & Mary as the Tribe will try to regroup after a 14-6 upset loss at Elon. In the other game, Howard visits Northwestern.
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, 22 straight over-all, and 12 straight true road games.
Last: 27-20 win at Auburn on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Home vs. Kentucky on Saturday, October 7.
MICHIGAN - Won 17 straight conference games.
Last: 45-7 win at Nebraska on Saturday, September 30.
NextL Visits Minnesota on Saturday, October 7.
NEVADA - Lost 15 straight over-all, 15 straight to FBS teams, and 7 straight home games.
Last: 27-9 loss at Fresno State on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Home vs. UNLV on Saturday, October 14.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS - Lost 7 straight home games.
Last: 35-33 loss at Toledo on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Visits Akron on Saturday, October 7.
USF - Had lost 13 straight conference games and 18 straight FBS games, but defeated Rice two weeks ago.
- Had lost 19 straight road games, but won at Navy on Saturday.
Last: 44-30 win at Navy on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Visits UAB on Saturday, October 7.
NORTHWESTERN - Lost 13 straight road games.
Last: 41-10 loss at home to Penn State on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Hosts FCS member Howard on Saturday, October 7.
NEW MEXICO - Lost 13 straight conference games.
Last: Lost 35-26 at Wyoming on Saturday, September 30.
Next: Hosts San Jose State on Saturday, October 14.