Week 8 College Football Recap

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

The college football docket did not look impressive on paper with only two ranked teams meeting on the gridiron going in but Week 8 turned out to be a thriller filled with overtime games, blowout upsets, and last second victories reshaping the college football playoff landscape.

AAC

The three ranked American Athletic Conference teams, No. 22 Temple, No. 18 Memphis, and No. 21 Houston, held the torch for the rising conference remaining one of seven undefeated teams in FBS. Temple came from behind Thursday night to beat East Carolina 24-14, Memphis rolled Tulsa 66-42 a week after their toughest game of the season against Ole Miss, and Houston downed lowly Central Florida 59-10.

Temple’s spot among the Top 25 will be put to the test in Week 9 with a home game against Notre Dame. Houston has an opportunity to earn a big win over a beatable Power Five Conference team with Vanderbilt coming to town and Memphis plays host to Tulane.

ACC

The Atlantic Coast Conference had an interesting weekend with most of the favorites winning but one national title contender may have fallen from grace.

No. 6 Clemson completely stuffed Miami winning 58-0 putting Al Golden’s tenure with the Hurricanes teetering on coming to a quick end. N.C. State took care of Wake Forest 35-17 and Louisville outlasted Boston College 17-14. The Coastal Division race got tighter with North Carolina winning 26-13 over Virginia, Duke beating Virginia Tech 45-43 in four overtimes, and Pitt outlasting Syracuse 23-20. Pitt, Duke, and North Carolina are all now 6-1 in conference play.

The biggest shocker of the season at this point in the season, but maybe not from preseason thinking, was Georgia Tech knocking off No. 9 Florida State 22-16. The Yellowjackets blocked a 56-yard FSU field goal attempt returning it on a 78-yard touchdown run giving another “kick-six” thrilling finish.

Big 12

Everything in the Big 12 ended the way it was supposed to with Oklahoma State taking down Kansas 58-10, Oklahoma topping Texas Tech 63-27, and Texas winning 23-9. Baylor ran away from Iowa State to a score of 45-27 but could have lost quarterback Seth Russell for an extended period of time. Russell accounted for three touchdowns, two passing and one rushing, before suffering a fracture in his neck. Freshman Jarrett Stidham came in off the bench to manage the victory.

Big Ten

No surprises in the Big Ten this week but two nail bitters made the weekend interesting. Nebraska lost another close one, this time 30-28 at home to Northwestern. Penn State’s defense held tough in the end on the road against Maryland winning 31-30. Michigan State finally put together a blowout win beating Indiana 52-26 and Wisconsin cruised against Illinois 24-13. Ohio State had their most complete game of the season defeating Rutgers 49-7, also on the road.

Pac-12

The biggest twist and turns a conference suffered through was in the Pac-12. No. 20 Cal lost on the road to UCLA 40-24 and No. 3 Utah hit a buzz saw in Los Angeles falling to USC 42-24. Colorado got a big win for the program stopping Oregon State 17-13 on the road. Stanford held home court stopping Washington 31-14.

In the “you heard it here first” section, a surging Washington State program won again, this time topping Arizona 45-42 on the road. Washington State is putting together a nice season.

SEC

All the home teams won in the SEC with three teams suffering really tough losses; Missouri, Auburn, and Texas A&M. Auburn went four overtimes with Arkansas before losing 54-46 and Missouri could not muster any offense in a 10-3 loss to Vanderbilt on the road. The greatest fall from grace is the backward slide the Aggies are going through. Ole Miss handed A&M their second consecutive loss winning 23-3.

Mississippi State beat a visiting Kentucky team 42-16 and Alabama held on in the fourth to beat Tennessee 19-14. LSU put away a pesky Western Kentucky in the lone non-conference game of the weekend.

Photo credit: Mark J. Terrill; USC linebacker Jabari Ruffin celebrates with teammates after beating Utah.