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Ohio State and Clemson avoided the upset bug on Saturday - barely - as the Buckeyes rallied to a 27-26 win at Happy Valley, and Clemson scored late to edge Syracuse 27-23.
The Buckeyes trailed 26-14 at Penn State in the fourth quarter before finishing on a 13-0 run with two late touchdowns 4 minutes and 39 seconds apart. at the 6:42 and 2:03 marks. The winning score came at the end of an 8-play, 96-yard drive. Penn State drove to the Buckeye 43, but the threat ended on a failed 4th-and-5 rushing attempt. The Nittany Lions trailed 14-13 when the 4th quarter began, but scored a pair of touchdowns to go up 26-14. After the second Penn State score, a failed 2-point conversion rushing attempt wound up leaving the door open for the Ohio State victory.
For Clemson, the QB that began the week as the 3rd-stringer behind Kelly Bryant and Trevor Lawrence wound up rallying the Tigers past Syracuse. Head coach Dabo Swinney announced on Monday that the freshman Lawrence would get the start over Bryant - a move that led Bryant to announce he will transfer to another school. Fast forward to Saturday when Clemson's worst nightmare appeared to come true as Lawrence had to leave the game just before halftime with an injury, leaving another freshman, Chase Brice, as the next QB in line. Brice wound up guiding the Tigers on a 94-yard drive that culminated in Travis Etienne's 2-yard run with 41 seconds left that gave Clemson its first lead of the game, and the victory. Both teams entered the game with 4-0 records, but the Tigers were 22-point favorites, even though Syracuse had upset Clemson 27-24 last year at the Carrier Dome.
Michigan scored the final 20 points at Evanston to avoid becoming Northwestern's upset victim. The Wildcats led 17-0 early in the second quarter and 17-7 at halftime. A pair of field goals in the third made it 17-13, and the Wolverines went ahead for good on a 5-yard touchdown run with 4:06 to play as they escaped town with a 20-17 win.
Florida State needed a little last-minute luck to avoid another loss at Louisville. The Cardinal led 24-21 and had the ball at the FSU 21-yard line when the Seminoles picked off an inexplicable pass with under two minutes to play. Five plays later Nyqwan Murray caught a short pass over the middle and raced over 50 yards to the endzone for the win 28-24 win. Louisville snatched defeat from the jaws of a victory that could have been its 4th in the last 6 meetings with Florida State. The Cardinals led 21-7 at the break, and 24-14 after 3 quarters.
Washington State was on its own 11-yard line with 4:30 to play against Utah and facing the prospect of losing at home for the first time in 10 games. That's when Gardner Minshew found Easop Winston, Jr. on the right sideline at the 35-yard line and Winston broke one tackle, head-faked another and went the distance for the score and a 28-24 Wazzu win.
Notre Dame needed no such last-minute heroics to secure its most impressive win of the season. The home-standing Irish staked out a 21-14 lead at intermission, then shut down the Cardinal in the second half for the 38-17 victory.
The Irish head to Blacksburg next Saturday to face a Virginia Tech team that rebounded from a shocking loss at Old Dominion by whipping previously-undefeated Duke 31-14 in Durham. In his first start at QB for the Hokies, Ryan Willis threw for over 300 yards and 3 TD's with no picks. The Kansas transfer had to replace Josh Jackson in the 3rd quarter of last week's loss after Jackson left the game with a broken leg.
And how did Old Dominion respond after its big win last week? The Monarchs lost 37-35 at East Carolina as the Pirates scored a TD and a field goal in the last 5 minutes to pull out the win.
While basketball school Duke didn't make it to 5-0, another basketball school did as Kentucky pushed aside South Carolina 24-10. The Wildcats led 24-3 at the half and rode the defense - which forced 4 turnovers by the Gamecocks - to victory.
Auburn and Southern Miss were interrupted by weather for nearly 3 hours when lightning impeded play with just over 4 minutes to go before halftime. The Tigers led 14-3 at that time and eventually went on to win 24-13, well under the 4-TD spread.
BYU's attempt to score another road upset didn't go as planned on Saturday. The last time we saw the Cougars play, they knocked of Wisconsin 24-21 in Madison. The trip to Washington wasn't so rewarding as the Huskies buried BYU 35-7.
West Virginia went to Lubbock and opened up a can on Texas Tech early and left with a 42-34 win. The Mountaineers raced to a 35-10 halftime lead and were never really threatened. A Red Raider touchdown with 38 seconds late made the final score more respectable, but it was far too late as Texas Tech helped doomed itself with 3 interceptions - one by starting QB Alan Bowman and 2 by backup Jett Duffey who was pressed into service when Bowman was injured on a 2nd quarter sack.
The college football week kicked off Thursday with Miami blasting North Carolina 47-10. On Friday, Tulane upset Memphis 40-24, and Colorado dropped UCLA to 0-4 with a 38-16 beat-down in Boulder.
21 schools entered the week undefeated. One-third of those lost on Saturday.
Power 5 conference schools Cal, Duke, Penn State, Stanford and Syracuse all fell from the unbeaten ranks, and they were joined by Group of 5 conference schools Buffalo and North Texas.
The 14 teams that remain undefeated are Alabama, Clemson, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and West Virginia from the Power 5 American Conference - UCF, USF and Cincinnati from the Group of Five.
Alabama dismissed Louisiana-Lafayette 56-14 after rolling to a 49-0 halftime lead, Georgia ditched Tennessee 38-12, LSU dumped Ole Miss 45-16, N.C. State downed Virginia 35-21, Oklahoma doubled-up Baylor 66-33, UCF romped to a 45-14 win at Pit , and CIncinnati pounded UConn 49-7. USF was idle.
Four schools entered the week winless, and all managed to keep their seasons perfectly rotten. Nebraska dropped to 0-4 with a 42-28 home loss to Purdue, UCLA lost 38-16 at Colorado, San Jose State pushed Hawaii to 5 overtimes before bowing 44-41, and UTEP lost 30-21 at UTSA..
The FBS team won all 3 matches vs. the FCS this week, though Vanderbilt was taken to the brink by Tennessee State. The campuses are less than 3 miles apart and the game was just as close as a Commodore touchdown with 6:20 remaining provided the winning points in the 31-27 outcome. A Tennessee State player was listed in critical condition Saturday night and will require surgery after suffering a head injury in the second quarter.
FBS teams are now 92-7 (.929) vs. the FCS this season, and 1,311-124 (.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
UCF - Won 17 straight overall (FBS longest), Won 10 straight conference games including AAC title last year (FBS longest). Won 45-14 at home over Pittsburgh on Saturday.
FAU - Had won 9 straight conference games (FBS second-longest), but lost 25-24 at Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
Alabama - Won 22 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 56-14 at home over Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.
Oklahoma - Won 17 straight road games (FBS longest). Won 66-33 at home over Baylor on Saturday.
UTEP - Lost 17 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 30-21 at UTSA on Saturday.
Ball State - Had lost 13 straight conference games (FBS longest), but won 52-24 at home over Kent State on Saturday.
Kansas - Lost 12 straight conference games (new FBS longest). Lost 48-28 at home to Oklahoma State on Saturday.
Oregon State - Lost 22 straight road games (FBS longest). Lost 52-24 at Arizona State on Saturday.