Week Seven in College Football
Every year there’s a week with multiple big upsets and crazy finishes. Week seven in college football appears to have been Bizarro Week for the 2017 season.
Michigan 27, Indiana 20 (OT)
The Hoosiers gave Michigan, coming off of the upset by Sparty, everything they could handle. Quarterback John O’Korn completed just 10 of 20 pass attempts for the Wolverines. Total passing yards for Michigan? 58. Very rarely do you see a team win with those kinds of numbers. Throw in 16 penalties for 141 yards (a school record) and frankly I can’t believe the Wolverines pulled off a win. They were lucky that running back Karan Higdon had a career day. The junior carried 25 times for an even 200 yards and three scores.
Indiana has room for improvement, but with a new quarterback that’s not surprising. They’ve got some nice pieces on defense. I was impressed with senior linebacker Chase Dutra, who had 13 total tackles. Tegray Scales is another senior linebacker who made some nice plays.
LSU 27, Auburn 23
Normally this would be my Surprise of the Week, but given what else went down this weekend it doesn’t quite make the cut. LSU looked… well, I’ll be polite and say “bad”, through the first quarter, which ended with a 17-0 score in favor of Auburn. In the second quarter, they improved to “decent”. After halftime (during which the 2007 National Championship team was honored), a different set of Tigers came out to play. Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham completed just nine of 26 passes in the game, with nearly all of the completions coming in the first half. Wide receiver D.J. Chark was the offensive star for LSU, with 150 yards on just five catches and a punt return for a touchdown.
As usual, LSU’s defense has some absolute studs. I think by now most people are familiar with defensive end Arden Key. Sophomore linebacker Devin White had another excellent game, and junior Donte Jackson had a couple of critical pass breakups. The second-quarter deficit of 20-0 made this LSU’s biggest comeback ever against an SEC opponent.
Arizona State 13, Washington 7
This is another game that, most weeks, would be my Surprise of the Week. I’m with Paul Finebaum in saying that this was probably the most damaging loss of the weekend, and that’s saying something. How do you hold Arizona State to 40 rushing yards and not win the game? (Maybe by allowing them 285 yards through the air). I wish I had been able to stay awake for this one.
Boston College 45, Louisville 42
Another runner-up for Surprise of the Week. Did the ACC merge with the defense-optional Big 12?
Georgia 53, Missouri 28
Missouri scored four touchdowns against Georgia?
Oklahoma 29, Texas 24
We have a candidate for Best Name In College Football: Texas running back Lil’Jordan Humphrey. Another interesting fact about Humphrey- according to ESPN.com’s box score, he rushed for 16 yards on zero carries.
Uniform of the Week
Seriously, Florida? These are just… ugh.
Surprise(s) of the Week
Syracuse 27, Clemson 24 It remains to be seen which loss will affect Clemson more: the loss in the box score or the loss of quarterback Kelly Bryant. Bryant suffered a concussion after being absolutely hammered by the Orange’s Chris Slayton shortly before halftime. Already playing through an ankle injury, it remains to be seen how long Bryant will be out of action. One thing working in Clemson’s favor is that they have fifteen days until their next game. It may only be halfway through the season, but this is up there with LSU-Troy in terms of Upset of the Year candidates. Also on the ballot…
Cal 37, Washington State 3 Through six weeks, the Cougs looked like a CFP team. Last night, they did not, to say the least. Cal harassed quarterback Luke Falk into five interceptions and a lost fumble. This is the same Luke Falk with 19 touchdowns and two picks through his first six games. Washington State had two touchdowns called back due to penalties, and more than half of their drives (seven of 13) ended with a turnover. I don’t think it’s exaggerating to call this game an utter disaster for the Cougars. A close loss might not have ended their CFP hopes; this one most likely did.
So that was week seven in college football. Thanks for reading, and remember to check LWOS later today for our Top 25 rankings!
