Concluding a Wild Weekend of College Football

Tyler Stearns |

This weekend was filled with upsets. Five top eleven teams went down on Saturday, most notably Alabama who lost to Vanderbilt. Other notable upsets were Tennessee losing to Arkansas, Michigan losing to Arkansas, and USC losing to Minnesota. The only team that seemed to have thrown the game away was USC, as they had multiple chances to win, but the other three teams were outplayed by their inferior opponent. Missouri was dismanteled by Texas A&M, though that was somewhat expected.

Diego Pavia and LT Overton, Via Roll' Bama Roll

The Alabama game was the most surprising, for a number of reasons. The first is that Vanderbilt is the worst SEC team, and Alabama is the best. The Tide just defeated Georgia in the game of the season, which made them the number one team in the country and National Title favorites. But walking into Vanderbilt, it felt as if their defense fell asleep. They couldn't stop the Commodores option attack, or create any pressure on the QB at any point in the game. Their offense was fine, but crucial turnovers hurt them. They have to step up in the coming weeks if they want to make the SEC Championship.

Tennessee losing was a very strange one. Arkansas actually dominated the Volunteers in the first half. They had over 200 yards of offense, but poor execution led to only three points. However, the defense still played well in the second half, limiting Josh Heupel's offense to only fourteen points, while they put up sixteen. Tennessee had a chance to score on the last drive, but a misunderstanding of the lock led Nico Iamaleava to run out of bounds as time ran out.

Michigan was actually expected to lose this game, so Washington coming out on top 27-17 in the National Championship game rematch doesn't surprise many. But what it does for the Wolverines is exposes the issues they have offensively, and now defensively. The Orji project hasn't worked out. He was able to beat USC due to the Trojans poor run defense, but when playing away from home, a pre-modern era offense just won't work. Washington was able to subdue their offense and pass block well, which was the main reason for the offensive success. The Huskies came out on top against their foe from last season.

USC versus Minnesota was another strange game. USC started out slow, like they have in the last few weeks. 10-10 was the halftime score. USC came out fast, stopping the Gophers and scoring shortly after. The run game was clicking. But after getting another stop, they decided to pass on third and four, which resulted in an interception because the offensive line couldn't stop the pass rush - the biggest issue for the Trojans the entire night. USC ended up poorly managing the clock throughout the rest of the game and after a controversial goal line sneak from Minnesota that had no evidence for why it was a touchdown, the Gophers won. USC beat themselves in this game. If they can turn it around this week, they have a shot to upset the Nittany Lions at home on Saturday.

What seemed like a bad slate of games turned into one of the best weekends in college football history. If it weren't for some sketchy refereeing decisions, we may have seen Miami fall with the rest of the four who lost.But nonetheless, upsets galore was the headline for the weekend.