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Week of the college football season is in the books after a few head-turning upsets, a couple of fantastic finishes, and some genuine smack-downs.
33 games were originally scheduled to be played and only one (Troy at South Alabama) was forced to be canceled due to Covid after multiple weeks in which many games had to be stricken from the slate.
Iowa State was playing catch-up all day and, in the end, the Cyclones hung around long enough to finally pull ahead of Oklahoma, 37-30, on Breece Hall's 8-yard run with 4:08 to play. Those would prove to be the game-winning points when Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler was intercepted on the ensuing possession. The Sooners were picked by virtually everyone in the preseason to be one of the four playoff teams left standing at the end do the year, but the team is now 0-2 in Big 12 play and just 1-2 over-all. Oklahoma lost to Kansas State last week and its only win came against FCS member Missouri State in the opener. By the way, this is the same Iowa State team that lost 31-14 at home to Louisiana-Lafayette in its season opener.
There was further bad news for the Big 12 as Texas lost at home to TCU. Horned Frogs' quarterback Max Duggan scored the go-ahead TD with 4 minutes left and the Longhorns fumbled at the 1-yard line with 2:42 to play in the game as TCU held on for the 33-31 win in Austin. TCU head coach Gary Patterson is 7-2 vs. Texas since his team joined the Big 12 in 2012.
Add Baylor to the list of Big 12 teams that fell victim to the upset bug on Saturday. An interception in the end zone in the top half of the second overtime set up West Virginia's 27-21 win in Morgantown. With Baylor kept off the board by the pick, the Mountaineers responded with a 4-play drive that culminated in Leddie Brown's 4-yard touchdown run. The game was forced to go extra periods when Baylor QB Charlie Brewer hit Josh Fleeks for a 34-yard score to tie the game at 14-apiece with just 1:19 to play in regulation.
Texas, along with Oklahoma State and Baylor, were perceived as serious challengers for the Big 12 title. Now, only Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Iowa State are undefeated in conference play.
In just his second game as the head coach of Arkansas, Sam Pittman got a much-needed win. Greg Brooks 69-yard interception return for a TD put Arkansas on the board first and the Razorbacks would go on to upset Mississippi State 21-14. Feleipe Franks tossed a pair of TD passes as the Hogs opened a 21-7 lead just after halftime. Arkansas had lost 10 straight games overall, and 20 straight versus its own conference members. Mississippi State was just a week removed from notching its own upset win, 44-34, over LSU.
UCF was upset at home, 34-26, by Tulsa, ending the Knights' 21-game home winning streak. It's the second straight win over UCF by the Golden Hurricane.
Boston College had just cut the deficit at North Carolina to 24-22 with 45 seconds left in regulation, and needed a two-point conversion to force overtime. Instead, after being flushed from the pocket and rolling to his right, Notre Dame transfer QB Phil Jurkovec threw a pass that was intercepted at the 1 and taken the other way for a score by Trey Morrison to make the final score 26-22.
UL-Monroe QB Colby Suits needed about 10 yards to upset Georgia Southern on the final play of the game. He came up about a foot short and the Eagles escaped with the 35-30 victory.
Lane Kiffin collected his first win as head coach at Ole Miss with a 42-41 overtime squeaker at Kentucky. The 'Cats scored first in the extra stanza, but missed the PAT.
SMU won the battle of American Conference heavyweights in Dallas, taking a 30-27 decision over Memphis on Chris Naggar's 43-yard FG with 9 seconds left in the game.
N.C. State fell behind Pitt by 5 points with 1:44 to play, but Devin Leary led the Pack on an 8-play, 79-yard drive that ended with a 13-yard TD pass to Emeka Emezie with 23 ticks on the clock for the 30-29 win.
Alabama took down Texas A&M 52-24, and maybe erased the lofty praise that had been bestowed upon the Aggies. Jimbo Fisher's group make it interesting for a bit and had the game tied at 14 early in the second quarter. Then, it was all Tide. After going ahead 21-14, 'Bama added to the lead with Daniel Wright's 47-yard interception return for a score, and Mac Jones' 2-yard TD pass to DeVonta Smith with 22 seconds left in the half made it 35-14 at the break.
The second week of SEC action also saw Georgia pound Auburn 27-6. Stetson Bennett, who was 4th on the QB depth chart in August, helped the Bulldogs build a 24-0 lead in the second quarter and the defense took over there.
Until the Mountain West opted back in last week, Air Force was given the blessing to play just two games - Army and Navy - to keep the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy competition alive for 2020. Thus, the Falcons have been practicing almost exclusively with those two games in mind. It looked like it on Saturday as the Falcons used a relentless ground assault to clobber Navy 40-7. The home team in this series has now won the last 8 meetings, and Air Force is 19-7 at home all-time vs. the Midshipmen.
For the second straight game, Virginia Tech was missing over 20 players and at least 2 coaches, and yet the Hokies are now 2-0 after downing Duke 38-31.
FAU scored all 21 of its points in the 3rd quarter and won its season-opener 21-17 in Boca Raton. Covid problems meant FAU had to back out of a September 19 game at Georgia Southern, and this last week's USF game at FAU was canceled by what the schools called a "joint agreement" on Covid issues. Charlotte had to cancel its scheduled game at North Carolina last Saturday.
Rice isn't presently scheduled to begin its season until October 24 while Temple opens October 10 at Navy. Houston's next scheduled game is October 8 at home versus Tulane.
UPDATE: A 35th FBS-FCS game was added o the schedule last week when North Carolina announced a December 11th home game versus Western Carolina.
With that addition, 31 FBS teams will play a total of 35 games against FCS schools this season. Army has 3 such games on its schedule.
4 such games took place this weekend and FBS teams won all four. Campbell was tossed aside at Wake Forest on Friday, 66-14. On Saturday, Florida State had to rally from a 21-7 second quarter deficit to get past Jacksonville State, 41-24. Also on Saturday, Liberty defeated North Alabama 28-7, and Army flattened Abilene Christian 55-23.
So far this season, the FBS schools are 22-0 in such matchups. That makes the FBS teams 1,457-127 (.920) since we began tracking this in 2003.
Last year, FBS teams were 111-3 (.974) in such games.
These were the FCS wins vs. the FBS in the previous 2 seasons:
August 29: Central Arkansas 35, Western Kentucky 28
September 7: Southern Illinois 45, Massachusetts 20
September 14: The Citadel 27, Georgia Tech 24 (OT)
August 29: 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
CLEMSON - Won 32 straight regular season games (FBS longest) games. Won 24 straight conference games (FBS longest). Won 25 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 13 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 41-23 at home over Virgnia on Saturday, October 3.
Next: Hosts Miami on Saturday, October 10.
AIR FORCE - 9-game over-all winning streak leads nation.
Last: Won 40-7 at home versus Navy.
Next: visits San Jose State on Saturday, October 24.
NOTRE DAME - 8-game over-all wining streak is second in the nation.
Last: Won 52-0 vs. USF at home on Saturday, September 19.
Next: Hosts Florida State on Saturday, October 10.
ARKANSAS - Snapped a 10-game over-all losing streak, and a 20-game losing streak to conference teams, with a 21-14 upset win at Mississippi State.
Last: Won 21-14 at Mississippi State on Saturday, October 3.
Next: Visits Auburn on Saturday, October 10.
RUTGERS - Lost 21 straight conference games (FBS longest). Lost 13 straight road games (FBS longest)
Last: Lost 27-6 at Penn State on November 30, 2019.
Next: Season opener at Michigan State on Saturday, October 24.
AKRON - Lost 17 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 8 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 52-3 at home to Ohio on November 26, 2019.
Next: To be announced