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Another spectacular college football weekend is in the books and, except in those situations where ranked teams played each other, nearly all of the Top 25 teams in the Congrove Computer Rankings were victorious.
A lot of eyes were on No. 7 Oregon at No. 3 Washington, and No. 9 USC at No. 26 Notre Dame, as those two games featured the three undefeated PAC-12 teams headed into the weekend. They were 3 of the 14 undefeated teams across the entire FBS landscape when the weekend began. Obviously, we were going to get a loser among the Ducks and Huskies and that wound up being the Ducks, 36-33, in a fantastic game and exciting finish. Both teams, and both quarterbacks - Bo Nix and Michael Penix, Jr. - lived up to expectations.
We can not say the same thing for USC which followed up its underperformance at home in a win over Arizona by heading to Notre Dame and falling flat in a 48-20 loss. In that game, Caleb Williams was 23-of-37 passing but for only 199 yards with 3 picks and 1 TD for a QBR of 55.7 It was a very rocky showing for the reigning Heisman Trophy winner who is looking to become only the second back-to-back Heisman winner in history, matching Ohio State RB Archie Griffin in 1974 and 1975.
Nix and Penix are among his challengers for the 2023 Heisman. Nix was 33-of-44 for 337 yards with 2 TD's and no picks with an 82.0 QBR, while Penix was 22-of-37 for 302 with 4 TD's and 1 INT for a total QBR of 89.2.
The performance by Penix has seen him move to the top of the Heisman odds at FanDuel. Williams has dropped to 7th behind.
Dillon Gabriel has moved into a distant 2nd-place while Oklahoma was idle over the weekend. Just over a week ago, he was the talk of the town after the leading the last-second drive that toppled Texas and put a punctuation mark on a 398-yard day of total offense with 285 passing and 113 rushing.
Those were just two of the fun games we were treated to on Saturday, which was the end of a 5-day week of college football. It begins anew this Tuesday with another 5-day week of action.
Elsewhere, No. 1 Michigan cruised to a 52-7 home win over Indiana, No. 2 Florida State routed Syracuse 41-3 in Tallahassee, No. 4 Georgia unimpressively downed Vanderbilt 37-20 in Nashville, and 5th-ranked Penn State had an expectedly easy 63-0 home romp over UMass that saw Daequan Hardy return two punts for touchdowns of 56 and 68 yards.
No. 6 Ohio State flicked away Purdue 41-7 in West Lafayette, and No. 8 North Carolina blew away the Hurricanes 41-31 in Chapel Hill as two late Miami scores made the final look closer than the game.
No. 10 Tennessee returned to action after a bye week and dropped Texas A&M 20-13 in Knoxville, while No. 11 Alabama struggled past Arkansas 24-21 in Tuscaloosa where the Tide now await the Vols this coming Saturday at 3:30 eastern.
No. 12 Texas joined No. 13 Oklahoma on the list of idle teams in the Top 25, as did No. 14 Ole Miss and No. 24 Clemson.
No. 15 Utah was a 34-14 winner at California as the Utes saw their first action since bowing 21-7 at Oregon State two weeks prior. The No. 17 Beavers are off this week after continuing their winning ways with a 36-24 win over No. 19 UCLA in Corvallis.
No. 16 Louisville was one of the few losers among the highly-ranked schools as the Cards fell 38-21 at Pitt, and thus failing to back up the "Team of the Week" honor they received for knocking off Notre Dame 7 days earlier. It also severely handicaps Louisville in the ACC race where FSU, UNC and Duke are all undefeated in conference play. Speaking of which, a huge game takes place on that front on Saturday when the No. 18 Blue Devils visit Florida State after shutting down NC State 24-3 in Durham. Duke gets to follow-up the FSU trip with a trek to Louisville, and also plays at Chapel Hill on November 11. Florida State doesn't play the Cards or the Heels, and UNC also doesn't play Louisville.
No. 20 Air Force outscored Wyoming 17-6 in the second half to rally for a 34-27 win and remain undefeated, along with two other schools from Group of Five conferences, Liberty (CUSA) and James Madison (Sun Belt). The Falcons and, believe it or not, the UNLV Rebels, are the only Mountain West teams that haven't lost a conference game.
No. 21 LSU was a 48-18 winner over Auburn in Baton Rouge, while No. 22 Wisconsin fell to No. 28 Iowa 15-6 in Madison and lost QB Tanner Mordecai indefinitely from a broken hand injury he incurred in the 2nd quarter.
No. 23 Kentucky was a somewhat surprisingly big 38-21 loser at home to No. 29 Missouri, even though the Wildcats' Ray Davis ran for 128 yards and Mizzou QB Brady Cook was limited to 207 total yards. The 'Cats lost the TO battle 3-1 with a fumble on the first play of the 3rd quarter and 2 interceptions in the fourth. It all helped lead to the Tigers scoring the last 18 points of the game after trailing 21-20 through three. quarters.
No. 25 Kansas was a 39-32 loser at Oklahoma State which has now knocked off both Sunflower State teams after falling to South Alabama and Iowa State.
Earlier week games included Coastal's 27-24 win at App State, Liberty's continuation of an undefeated start with a 31-13 win at Jax State, and Houston's 49-yard walk-off Hail Mary to down West Virginia 41-39.
We also got Stanford's comeback from a 29-0 deficit at Colorado to sting Coach Prime and the Buffs 46-43 in double-OT.
(SEE: Weekly Picks/Scores)
Fourteen teams enter the week undefeated. Eleven remain as Washington downed Oregon in a battle of unbeatens, USC lost at Notre Dame, and Louisville fell at Pitt.
ACC
Florida State, 6-0
North Carolina 6-0
B1G
Michigan, 7-0
Ohio State, 6-0
Penn State, 6-0
Big 12
Oklahoma, 6-0
CUSA
Liberty, 6-0
MWC
Air Force, 6-0
PAC-12
Washington, 6-0
SEC
Georgia 7-0
SUN BELT
James Madison 6-0
CUSA
Sam Houston 0-6
MWC
Nevada 0-6
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).
No FBS-FCS games took place this weekend.
The FBS programs are 106-4 this year against the FCS schools. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,792-152 (.922) since we began tracking this in 2003.
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 23 straight home games, 24 straight over-all, and 13 straight true road games.
Last: 37-20 win at Vanderbilt on Saturday, October 14.
Next: After a bye week, plays Florida in Jacksonville on Saturday, October 28.
MICHIGAN - Won 19 straight conference games.
Last: 52-7 home win over Indiana on Saturday, October 14.
Next: Visits Michigan State on Saturday, October 21.
NEVADA - Lost 16 straight over-all, 16 straight to FBS teams, and 8 straight home games.
Last: 45-27 home loss to UNLV on Saturday, October 14.
Next: Visits San Diego State on Saturday, October 21.
UMASS - Lost 8 straight home games.
Last: Lost 63-0 at Penn State on Saturday, October 14.
Next: After bye week, visits Army on Saturday, October 21.
NORTHWESTERN - Lost 13 straight road games.
Last: 23-20 home win over FCS member Howard on Saturday, October 7.
Next: Visits Nebraska on Saturday, October 21.
NEW MEXICO - Lost 14 straight conference games.
Last: 52-24 home loss to San Jose State on Saturday, October 14.
Next: Hosts Hawaii on Saturday, October 21.