Winners and Losers: College Football Week 6
WINNER: The Service Academies
Navy offensive tackle Connor McMahon, left, celebrates with wide receiver Nathan Kent after he ran for a touchdown in the first half Saturday against Air Force in Colorado Springs. (David Zalubowski/AP)
Party like it’s 1945 because the Army Black Knights and Navy Midshipmen are still unbeaten in October.
Army and Navy last started 4-0 (now 5-0) back right after World War II; that season saw Army finish a perfect No. 1, while Navy finished No. 2 (only losing to Army the last week of the season).
Both teams showed out this weekend, winning in road blowouts. Army beat down Tulsa to win their ninth straight, the best Black Knight start since 1996.
Army’s quarterback Bryson Daily was a perfect 5-5 passing for 140 yards, plus over 100 on the ground for four total touchdowns.
Navy played the final service academy in their yearly battle with Air Force, winning 34-7 to start 5-0 for the first time since 2017.
The Midshipmen held their opponent to under three touchdowns for the fourth time in their five games, plus two 100+ yard rushers and a 100+ yard receiver for the first time since 2003.
This weekend, Army hosts UAB and Navy has their bye.
LOSER: Undrafted Ranked SEC Teams on the Road
https://www.secsports.com/news/2024/10/vanderbilt-stuns-top-ranked-alabama-in-historic-sec-thriller
It was a rough weekend for the unbeaten ranked SEC teams on the road: three teams all falling in wild fashion.
The least shocking of the three was No. 9 Missouri’s loss at No. 25 Texas A&M, as the Aggies delivered their largest AP Top-10 win in program history.
The 41-10 rout started 34-0 through the late third quarter, Texas A&M with 512 total yards, 20 first downs and not one turnover.
The Aggies also used an incredible run game (236 yards, 6.6 per carry) and shut down the Tigers (68 yards, 2.3 per carry). This is A&M’s first win at home against Missouri since 2012.
The next upset out of nowhere was the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers collapse versus the Arkansas Razorbacks.
However, Razorback faithful might disagree with the “out of nowhere” claim as this is the fourth-straight Arkansas win over UT, dating back to 2011. The Volunteers last won in Fayetteville in 2001.
Tennessee blew a 14-3 lead to allow the 16-0 Arkansas comeback, “Woo Pig Sooie” screaming in the crimson crowd all night on the way for the Razorback’s first top-five win since beating these same Volunteers in 1999.
The field storms weren’t over - No. 1 Alabama earned the top spot after a wild home win over at-the-time No. 2 Georgia in Tuscaloosa, but now got caught asleep at the wheel with a shocking 40-35 loss at... Vanderbilt???
Yes, that’s correct, the Vanderbilt Commodores advance to 3-2, 1-1 in the SEC, with the upset of the season.
Some fast facts about how monumental this upset was:
Vandy’s first halftime lead over a top-five team since 1977
AP No. 1 teams when scoring 35+ points was 364-2
Only the fourth-ever loss for a No. 1 ranked Alabama
Alabama is the fourth No. 1 team to lose to an unranked team right after being a top-two team
Vandy snapped a 23-game losing streak to Alabama (last win: 1984)
Alabama never led, its first game without leading since 2019
Vandy scored 13 total points vs. Alabama in the Nick Saban era, they scored 13 points in the first quarter this weekend
This was the first time since 2012 that multiple top-five teams within the same conference fell on the same day, and the first weekend since 2004 where those losses were to unranked teams.
WINNER: The Indiana Hoosiers
Creator: Steven Branscombe | Credit: Getty Images (Copyright: 2019 Getty Images)
It’s been an awfully long 57 years for Indiana Hoosier faithful to see their football team showcase perfection this deep into the season.
Fifty-seven years, all in the rear-view mirror.
The 2024 Hoosiers are 6-0 for the first time since 1967, demolishing the Northwestern Wildcats on the banks of Lake Michigan 41-24.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke finished with 380 passing yards and three touchdowns, improving his season numbers to 1,752 passing yards and 14 touchdowns, just a pair of picks added on.
Oh, and don’t forget the second-best QBR in the country leading the country’s No. 3 scoring offense.
The Hoosiers’ schedule quickly gets tough, as their second half of the year consists of Nebraska, Washington, at Michigan State, Michigan, at Ohio State, Purdue - only a handful of those games Indiana would be favored if played today.
LOSER: TCU and Baylor’s Rock Bottom
Houston wide receiver Devan Williams (8) catches a touchdown pass against TCU cornerback LaMareon James (6) in the first half of an NCAA football game at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. Chris Torres
The Power 4 Texas private schools consist of a very happy SMU and very, very (very) unhappy TCU and Baylor.
The Horned Frogs and Bears are bitter rivals but find camaraderie in misery as both drop rough losses for yet another week, but this could be the breaking point for each team’s hapless coach.
TCU up first, and boy, did they sink to a new low.
The Frogs fell 30-19 to a Houston Cougar team that failed to score a single point in their last eleven quarters leading up to this game.
Yes, eleven quarters.
The game instead started 17-0 Cougars, 24-6 at halftime.
The Frogs allowed 361 yards of offense and did not force a turnover, while gaining just under 300 yards and coughing up four, including two bad picks and a fumble by quarterback Josh Hoover.
While TCU laid the biggest egg Saturday, the pain train is still stuck at the station for Baylor, as the Bears drop to 2-4, 0-2 in the Big 12 after a 43-21 drubbing at Iowa State, despite leading 14-3 in the second quarter.
Baylor allowed a staggering 542 yards of offense, a blocked punt touchdown (ISU’s first since 2004) and only gained 63 yards on their last four possessions, including plenty of punts and a pick.
The Bears have lost three in a row, including a late collapse against Colorado, a failed comeback versus BYU, and now this meltdown at Iowa State.
WINNER: PJ Fleck and the Cardiac Gophers
https://athlonsports.com/college/all-gophers/four-takeaways-from-minnesota-golden-gophers-upset-over-usc
It took some awfully big stones on an awfully feisty Gopher to attempt the fourth-and-goal sneak for a late touchdown lead.
PJ Fleck didn’t care. He knew the choice to go for it was more than easy.
Automatic.
The Minnesota Golden Gopher pulled off a monumental upset over the No. 11 USC Trojans, knocking their new Big Ten brothers right out of the polls after a 24-17 home win.
The Gophers won on an oddly warm night, the 71-degree Minneapolis air the warmest in the past 16 seasons for an October game, that included their first win against Southern Cal since 1955, and their second win all-time.
Max Brosmer crossed the goal line for the win, the senior quarterback was originally ruled short but the replay officials overturned the call to give him the score. Brosmer finished with 169 yards passing and 14 rushing yards, plus three rushing touchdowns.
LOSER: West Coast Atlantic Coast Conference Football
Yes, this photo was taken midgame.
No one quite understood what was happening in the college football world when Bay Area programs California and Stanford left the Pac-12 for the... ACC.
ACC, which stands for Atlantic Coast Conference, happily welcomed their geographically challenged new partners, team teams who are a combined 1-4 in ACC play this season, but not without some controversy.
Stanford is first up, their sole conference win at Syracuse, fell completely flat in their 31-7 beatdown at the talons of the Virginia Tech Hokies and in front of tens of fans packed into the deserted Cardinal Stadium in Palo Alto.
The Hokies slowly whittled away at the Cardinal, amassing 337 yards but allowing just over 250, shutting down stud Stanford wide receiver Elic Ayomanor for just 33 yards.
The poor Cardinal’s tough stretch doesn’t end yet, as they go to No. 11 Notre Dame this weekend before hosting the red-hot No. 25 SMU Mustangs, their final ranked team on the schedule.
Cal, on the other hand, got the ESPN College Gameday treatment this Saturday, welcoming festivities and hopes of an upset over the No. 8 Miami Hurricanes, who just came off a controversial last-second win against Virginia Tech.
This week, the Golden Bears built a seemingly insurmountable 35-10 lead, but touchdown after touchdown by the U made it a one-score game inside four minutes to play.
Now to the two-minute timeout, Cal on third and long, and quarterback Fernando Mendoza runs for a moderate gain... but let’s take a look at the tackle and ensuing hit.
No flag, fourth down Cal.
This huge no-call set up Miami for another long drive, on which they went the whole length of the field and scored on this play (watch the offensive linemen downfield).
Claiming this and the VT finish were rigged is a stretch, but it’s not crazy to know the ACC sure is feeling mighty swell seeing their clear best team continue to remain undefeated.