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All eyes were on LSU and Florida on Saturday night, but the fireworks began early in the morning in Dallas between Oklahoma and Texas.
The annual Red River Rivalry game began with each member of both teams penalized prior to the 11 a.m. (local time) kick-off after pre-game warm-ups nearly turned into a melee. The game had fewer issues. In the end, Jalen Hurts over came an early fumble and interception to lead Oklahoma to a 34-27 victory. DeeDee Lamb was the recipient of all 3 of Hurts' TD passes.
On Saturday night, the Gators and Bayou Bengals staged a slugfest in the early rounds, but LSU scored the TKO by rallying with 21 unanswered points for a 42-28 victory after falling behind 28-21 in the 3rd. Joe Burrow threw 3 TD passes to run his total to 25 on the season as he completed 21-of-24 passes for 293 yards. The vaunted Florida defense was torched for 511 yards and the Tigers kept the SEC's sack-leading defense sack-less on this night.
With ease, the biggest shock of the day came in Athens where the 24-1/2-point favored Georgia Bulldogs lost 20-17 in double-overtime to South Carolina. Georgia still owns the Gamecocks 51-19-2 all-time, but the visitors were more than game on Saturday. South Carolina picked off Jake Fromm 3 times and forced him to fumble once. Georgia's fate was sealed when the usually reliable Rodrigo Blankenship missed a 42-yard field goal wide left in the second overtime. It was Blankenship's second miss of the game.
Georgia wasn't the only upset loser in the SEC on Saturday as 14-1/2-point favorite Vanderbilt fell 34-10 at home to Nevada-Las Vegas. Vanderbilt dropped to 1-5 while UNLV (2-4) snapped a four-game losing streak.
On the other end of the stick, Tennessee scored a 20-10 upset win at home over Mississippi State.
Other notable games this week saw Alabama pull away for a 47-28 win at Texas A&M, while Clemson crushed visiting Florida State 45-14. Also, Notre Dame got past USC 30-27 in South Bend, Penn State won 17-12 at Iowa, and Wisconsin skunked Michigan State 38-0 in Madison
Auburn and Ohio State were among the 25 idle teams.
The college football week began on Wednesday night with a rematch of the Sun Belt Championship game. This time, Louisiana was actually favored to hand Appalachian State a rare Sun Belt loss, but the Mountaineers continued their domination of the Ragin' Cajuns with a 17-7 victory at Lafayette. Appalachian State is 7-0 all-time versus Louisiana and that should come as no surprise as the school is 36-6 versus its Sun Belt counterparts since joining the league when it moved up to the FBS from the FCS in 2014.
Virginia had nearly two full weeks off to recover from the 35-20 loss at Notre Dame, but the result was another loss anyway as Miami pulled off the mild 17-9 upset on Friday night at Hard Rock Stadium in south Florida. It was Miami's first ACC win of the season as the Hurricanes improve to 3-3 overall and 1-2 i conference play. Virginia fell to 4-2 overall, 2-1 in the ACC.
Colorado State ended a 7-game losing streak versus Mountain West schools with a 35-21 win at New Mexico. The last conference win for the Rams also came against the Lobos. Colorado State had lost 10 straight to FBS schools, and 7 of its last 8 road games. New Mexico's streak of futility in Mountain West games continued with its 8th straight league loss.
Florida, Georgia, Wake Forest and Memphis all fell from the unbeaten ranks.
Georgia was a 20-17 upset loser at home to South Carolina in double-OT, and LSU toppled Florida 42-28 while Memphis was a 30-28 loser at Temple in a battle between American Conference division leaders.
Wake Forest lost a 62-59 barn-burner at home to Louisville. The Cardinals have now won two straight ACC games after losing the previous 9 in-a-row.
Baylor remained undefeated with a 33-30 double-overtime win in Waco over Texas Tech. The Red Raiders took a 20-17 lead on regulation with just 1:37 to play, but Charlie Brewer led a 97-yard, 7-play drive that led to the game-tying 19-yard field goal as time expired. The teams matched touchdowns in overtime, but the Bears held Texas Tech to a field goal in the top of the second extra period. Baylor took the walk-off win on JaMycal Hasty's 5-yard run.
Clemson's obliteration of Florida State happened fast and easy as the Tigers led 28-0 at the break and 42-0 by the midway point of the 3rd quarter. Clemson ended with 31st downs to FSU's 10, and outgained their ACC Atlantic rival 552-253.
Playing in a wintry mix of rain and snow, Minnesota took care of Nebraska with ease, 34-7 in Minneapolis. The Golden Gophers ran for 322 yards on over 6-1/2 yards per carry, paced by Rodney Smith with 139 yards and a TD, and aided by Mohammed Ibrahim's 3 rushing scores.
Penn State out-defensed Iowa at Kinnick Stadium and escaped with the 17-12 win. The Nittany Lion defense has allowed just 49 points through 6 games while the Hawkeyes have only allowed 61.
Four of the top five scoring defenses in the nation are in the Big Ten, led by Wisconsin. The Badgers recorded their fourth shutout of the year with the 38-0 demoralization of Michigan State. Wisconsin has allowed just 29 points through 6b games. Ohio State, which was idle, has allowed 53 points through the first half of its schedule.
Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa threw 4 more TD passes in the 47-28 win at Texas A&M to run his season total to 27. He also threw his first interception of the season. For his career, Tagovailoa has 77 TD passes against just 8 INT's.
Boise State was a late-night winner at home over Hawaii, 59-37, as the Broncos dropped the Warriors to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the Mountain West.
Appalachian State was a 17-7 winner at Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday,
Here is the list of the 12 remaining unbeaten teams by conference. Of these schools, only SMU and Ohio State were idle this week.
American: SMU
Mountain West: Boise State
Sun Belt: Appalachian State
ACC: Clemson
Big 12: Baylor, Oklahoma
Big 10: Minnesota Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
SEC: Alabama, LSU.
Akron, New Mexico State and Rice all remain winless. Akron lost 26-3 at home to Kent State, and New Mexico State 42-28 at Central Michigan. Rice was idle.
114 games this year pit FBS teams against FCS schools. That's two more than a season ago when FBS teams won 105 of 112 games.
There was just one FBS-FCS game this week as Virginia Tech downed Rhode Island 34-17.
FBS teams are 99-3 (.971) for the season. Since we began tracking this in 2003, the FBS schools are 1,423-127 (.918).
FCS victories over FBS teams in 2019:
August 29: Central Arkansas 35, Western Kentucky 28
September 7: Southern Illinois 45, Massachusetts 20
September 14: The Citadel 27, Georgia Tech 24 (OT)
FCS victories over FBS teams in 2018
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 21 straight over-all (FBS longest). Won 23 straight regular season (FBS longest) games. Won 17 straight conference games (new FBS longest). Won 19 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: 45-14 home win over Florida State on October 12.
Next: Visits Louisville on October 19.
ALABAMA - Won 29 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: 47-28 win at Texas A&M on October 12.
Next: Hosts Tennessee on October 19.
OKLAHOMA - Won 22 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last:: Won 34-27 versus Oklahoma at Dallas on 12.
Next: Hosts West Virginia on October 19.
RUTGERS - Lost 16 straight conference games (FBS longest).
Last: 35-0 loss at Indiana on October 12.
Next: Hosts Minnesota on October 19.
AKRON - Lost 11 straight overall (FBS longest).
Last: 26-3 home loss to Kent State on October 12.
Next: Hosts Buffalo on October 19.
CONNECTICUT - Lost 21 straight vs. FBS teams (FBS longest).
Last: 49-7 loss at Tulane on October 12.
Next: Hosts Houston October 19.
RICE - Lost 14 straight road games (FBS longest).
Last: 35-20 loss at UAB on October 5.
Next: Visits UTSA on October 19.