Upset weekend
Three Top 10 college football teams lose, shaking up the Playoff picture
At 2:10 a.m. ET Sunday, Manny Wilkins took a knee. The final seconds ticked away. Arizona State completed a 13-7 victory against Washington. And college football’s most chaotic weekend was finally, shockingly complete.
“I don’t think many people thought we could do that,” Arizona State coach Todd Graham told reporters.
Well, no — but then, that’s the point. On a weekend with just one matchup between ranked opponents, the sport reminded us: Expect the unexpected. Five undefeated teams lost. Three teams ranked in the top 10 fell — all to unranked opponents.
“It just shows you the parity in college football,” Graham told USA TODAY Sports on Sunday, “that you better bring it every week. If you don’t, it’s gonna be tough. … It’s crazy.”
It started Friday, when Clemson went down at Syracuse. All season, the Tigers had occupied an exclusive upper tier reserved for them, along with Alabama. But when a gimpy quarterback got knocked out of the game, down went last season’s national champions.
By contrast, California’s 37-3 wipeout of Washington State later Friday, knocking the Cougars from the unbeaten ranks, was only mildly surprising because of the thoroughness of the victory.
On Saturday, No. 11 Auburn blew a 20-0 lead at LSU, losing
27-23. And Arizona State, which had lost to Texas Tech and San Diego State — with a defense that had allowed at least 30 points in
11 consecutive games and given up big plays like candy to a kid on Halloween — held Washington to seven points and 230 yards.
There might be more crazy ahead. It’s worth considering whether Week 7 was only a blip or a harbinger of what the second half of the season might bring.
Syracuse coach Dino Babers, whose team might have engineered the weekend’s most surprising result, leans toward the former. “There’s always gonna be a weekend like that,” he told USA TODAY Sports on Sunday. “Then the good teams all see it can happen to them, and they make sure it doesn’t happen. It’s kind of like, you’d better get those cookies while they’re hot. Then they get solid and hard and you won’t be able to pull them apart like that.”
What if there’s more coming? We’re 10 years removed from the 2007 season when chaos reigned supreme. It all culminated on the final weekend, when basically everybody with a shot at reaching the Bowl Championship Series national title game lost. Two-loss LSU found itself in the game — and blew out Ohio State to become the only two-loss champion of the modern era.
Could we be due for another season like that, headed for sheer chaos and maybe even a two-loss team in the College Football Playoff ?
“You’ve got to improve every week,” said Graham, essentially speaking for everyone in college football. “That’s where we’re at. We’re playing our best football right now, but we’ve got to be playing our best football next week and the next week and the next.
“That’s how it rolls. … This year is showing it could be (chaos).”
TEXAS HAS NEW GUNSLINGER
Given the chance to say what everyone knows, Texas coach Tom Herman played coy. After watching freshman quarterback Sam Ehlinger drag the Longhorns this close to an upset of archrival Oklahoma, is he your guy going forward?
“I mean, I would think so at this point,” Herman said. “But I don’t know. Sam’s got to practice really good, and we’ve got to see when that occurs that Shane (Buechele) is 100%.”
Yeah, it was more definitive than what Herman had been saying in recent weeks — even as it has been clearEhlinger has grown into the role. But it was still goofy. Even in a loss, it was apparent: Texas has found its guy.
How did he like his first taste of the rivalry game in the Cotton Bowl?
“The atmosphere was incredible,” Ehlinger said. “Losing the game was not incredible.
“I’m looking forward to the next three years.”
PAC-12 CONFERENCE ALREADY IN PLAYOFF TROUBLE?
Assuming the season does not degenerate into complete chaos, the biggest blow taken this weekend was out west, where the Pac-12’s Playoff hopes were severely damaged by Washington’s and Washington State’s losses. And it was almost worse.
Southern California escaped Utah 28-27, or the Trojans would have taken a second loss.
If USC can win out, beginning this week at Notre Dame, its schedule provides the kind of strength to get into the Playoff despite that loss at Washington State. That’s not the case for either Apple Cup rival. Both played pillowy soft non-conference slates, which could be debilitating if there’s an eventual comparison to be made with another one-loss conference champion.
Graham understood how the Sun Devils’ victory over Washington might have been taken around the league.
“Very unhappy,” he said, chuckling, then added, “They (the Pac-12) lost money.”
THE FOOTBALL FOUR
Alabama — The Crimson Tide have won 71 consecutive against unranked opponents, and hey look, it’s going to play a lot more unranked opponents over the next few weeks (not that it would matter if the opponents were ranked).
TCU — The Horned Frogs waited out weather delays and won easily at Kansas State, continuing the march toward a Nov. 11 showdown at Oklahoma.
Penn State — Still not sure how good the Nittany Lions are. A test comes this week against Michigan, and then especially Oct. 28 at Ohio State.
Georgia — The Bulldogs appear to be the only Southeastern Conference challenger to Alabama — and continue to look, at least for now, like a legitimate Playoff contender.