As always, I am bringing you the top takeaways from the weekend in college football. We’ll take a look at who had the best week, some highlights, the big game, and top players from the past weekend.
Time to dive in.
Gophers recap
The Minnesota Golden Gophers fell in a close game to the Maryland Terrapins 31-24. To add insult to injury, the Gophers fell to third string quarterback, Max Bortenschlager, who finished with 154 yards and two scores. The most egregious problem for the Gophers was poor tackling, which helped Maryland running back Ty Johnson run loose for 130 yards and a score. On the offensive side, the Gophers struggled running the ball and only posted 80 rushing yards. The game was lost in the trenches.
Weekend Storylines
While teams like the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers looked dominant, the LSU Tigers continued to slide. These are the top storylines from the weekend:
The Tigers and Tide actually have the same storyline, really. Both teams know how to continually reload with deadly precision, even while sending waves of talent to the NFL year after year.
After beating Vanderbilt 59-0 last week, the Tide destroyed Ole’ Miss 66-3. This team has top level running backs falling over each other to try and get time on the field. With Bo Scarbrough, Najee Harris and Damien Harris, head coach Nick Saban has a problem every coach dreams of having. They’re set behind center, too. Quarterback Jalen Hurts has racked up 747 passing yards and 461 rushing yards thus far, piling up 10 total touchdowns along the way.
On defense, the team is third in the nation with eight interceptions along with 10 sacks, all while giving up just 8.6 points per game.
Clemson has also been on point thus far, already amassing convincing wins against Louisville and Virginia Tech. Their defense has been a strong point, allowing just 10.8 points per game, pulling 19 sacks and forcing six turnovers on the year.
After Deshaun Watson left to go pro last year, he left some massive shoes to fill. So far, Kelly Bryant has looked the part, passing for 1,059 yards and running for 362 yards with 10 total touchdowns.
While these teams has shown consistency to dominate, others have been embarrassed. LSU is one of those teams.
On the hot seat after going from 13th to out of the top 25 in two short weeks, they’re now forced to play catch-up the rest of the season. This past week is no exception, as they took a bad loss to the Troy Trojans 24-21 at home. The Sun Belt conference team forced four turnovers and stuffed the Tigers running attack, keeping them to 162 yards. On the other side of the ball, running back Jordan Chunn rushed for 191 yards and a score in the upset.
Players To Watch
Washington State Cougars junior safety Hunter Dale had his first sack of the season against USC over the weekend. Despite that, he has still been a big presence in the Cougars front, with three tackles for loss and 17 tackles on the year. He is an old school, hard-nosed safety that likes to lay hits in the running game and get into the backfield.
South Florida Bulls junior cornerback Mazzi Wilkins is shining in a defense that leads the nation in picks with 14. He has three interceptions, seven passes batted away, and 15 tackles. The wily defensive back knows how to play the ball in the air and makes it incredibly hard for quarterbacks to slip a pass past him.
Game Of The Week
The Cougars’ upset victory at home against the USC Trojans was the game to watch. The edge-out victory for the Cougars came after a going into the half tied 17-17. While USC’s Ronald Jones II had 128 yards and a score on the ground, quarterback Sam Darnold struggled again, as he failed to throw a touchdown and was responsible for a pick. Cougars quarterback Luke Falk was stunning in contrast, throwing for 340 yards and two touchdowns despite getting sacked five times, leading his team down the field late to take a 30-27 lead and win the game.
Play Of The Week
Not only was this the run to get to 301 rushing yards against Arizona State, it was also the run to set the Stanford single-game rushing record. Running back Bryce Love also reached 1,088 rushing yards in the game for the season. He is the third player in NCAA history to get over 1,000 yards in five games. This was one of his three touchdowns, this one for 59-yards and to set all those historic records.
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