Category: College Football

No. 2 Oregon took down No. 4 Ohio State for one of the biggest wins in program history last weekend, but the Ducks’ true Big Ten baptism by fire comes just six days later. That’s when the Ducks must head to West Lafayette, Indiana to take on Purdue at night. 

They’re called the Spoilermakers for a reason, ladies and gentlemen. Plenty of betting favorites have taken Purdue for granted before, only to have their smiles quickly wiped from their faces.

Did you know that Purdue has nine wins against squads ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the AP Top 25 as an unranked team? It does. That’s more than any other program in the poll era. The last win came during the 2021 season when the Boilermakers knocked off No. 2 Iowa 24-7 in Iowa City. And who could forget what happened in 2018? That’s when big, bad Ohio State, at 7-0, came to Purdue and lost 49-20 to a 3-3 Purdue squad. It was Ohio State’s only loss of the season, and kept the Buckeyes out of the College Football Playoff despite winning the Big Ten.

So don’t go counting your ducklings before they’ve hatched, Oregon. Overlook Purdue at your own peril.

Oregon vs. Purdue: Need to know

These two don’t play often, but they play close games: Adding further fuel to the possible upset fire is the history between these two. They’ve only played three times, and…

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The Oregon Ducks broke out their ‘FEBU’ cleats earlier this week, emphasizing the need to block out the outside noise that is surely coming after their massive win over the Ohio State Buckeyes last week.

They will be blocking out that noise this Friday with a clean look on the road against the Purdue Boilermakers.

Oregon unveiled their newest look this week, announcing they will be wearing an all-white uniform on the road with the new yellow helmets from the Generation O collection. The Ducks will also be wearing their newest green cleats titled the ‘Oregon FEBU Dunks.’ 

Oregon Ducks Uniforms vs. Purdue

Photo Courtesy of Oregon Athletic Department

Photo Courtesy of Oregon Athletic Department

Photo Courtesy of Oregon Athletic Department

Oregon ‘FEBU’ Dunks

Photo Courtesy of Oregon Athletic Department

Photo Courtesy of Oregon Athletic Department

Earlier this week, Purdue announced that they will be wearing brand new alternate uniforms that are all-black for this matchup against Oregon.

It will be a tough turnaround for the Ducks after their win over the Buckeyes on Saturday. The game will take place on Friday night, a short week, in West Lafayette, Indiana. Oregon has a quick turnaround and will need to focus in as the Boilermakers implement a new starting quarterback into the system.

Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire

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The Big One remains a big problem for Ryan Day. Following No. 4 Ohio State’s 32-31 road loss to No. 2 Oregon on Saturday in a top-five clash, the same familiar narrative that’s hovered over him stemming from his struggles against Michigan reemerged.

Ryan Day can’t win The Big One.

The trends immediately flooded social media. As Oregon fans swarmed the turf at Autzen Stadium and Dan Lanning smiled into the television cameras letting potential recruits know that this was why you come to Oregon, tweets and graphics showing Day’s record against top-five opponents were everywhere. He’s lost four straight and is 2-6 at Ohio State against such foes.

They’re facts that cannot be argued, and they’re ammunition for any Ohio State fan who believes it’s impetus to fire a coach who has lost only nine of the 70 games he’s coached at Ohio State.

He can’t win The Big One.

But as is often the case, facts often need context, so how about I provide some? You know what’s not uncommon? Coaches, even great ones, having a losing record against top-five teams. Do you know why that is? It’s simple: Top-five teams don’t lose often. If they did, they wouldn’t be ranked in the top five. In the College Football Playoff era, teams ranked anywhere between Nos. 1 through 5 in a given week have a record of 603-130. That’s a winning percentage of 82.3%.

Ryan Day’s win percentage against teams that have lost 17.7% of their games over the last decade is 25%.  Still, perhaps this isn’t enough context, so let’s provide more. First, we’ll compare Ryan Day’s record against top-five teams to the other nine coaches who made up the top 10 of our preseason Power Four Coach Rankings. Here’s how they stack up compared by most wins against top-five teams since the 2019 season when…

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It was another college football weekend with surprises and impactful results on the playoff picture. Matt Hayes weighs in with his First-and-10 column looking at the key topic across the country ahead of Week 8

1. Georgia: Now or never

There’s no avoiding this reality. When Georgia travels to Texas Saturday, it will be the program’s biggest game under coach Kirby Smart.

Bigger than the first national title in more than 40 years, bigger than another national championship a year later.

Because this is about the here and now. More specifically, it’s about staying power — and potential change at the top of the best conference in college football.

Is Georgia, already with an operationally odd and un-Georgia type of loss to Alabama this season, still what it once was?

Or has the inevitable decline that reaches all dynastic programs already begun?

“I want to see them play their best game against Texas,” Smart said during his Monday press conference. “I mean, simply stated, we have not played our best game.”

The question is, why?

Why has one of the two or three most talented teams in the nation, the team that once squeezed the life out of big games like few could, not reached expectations?

From injuries on the offensive line and at wide receiver, to a diminished pass rush, to a secondary that doesn’t consistently win in man coverage like it used to, this isn’t the same Georgia team that over the last three years ruled college football with an iron fist.

It has all added up to a Georgia team that — in the easiest and simplistic explanation of all — doesn’t look and play like Georgia. Translation: I don’t know what it is, but I know what it should look like.

And this isn’t it.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart talks with the referees during the fourth quarter against Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

2. The decline of…

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DALLAS — Texas safety Jahdae Barron found a tank top covered in images of quarterback Quinn Ewers on Instagram and knew immediately he had to have it. Having ordered it before the Longhorns’ Week 2 win over Michigan, Barron kept it in his back pocket for the best moment to break it out. Ewers’ return for the Red River Rivalry felt right. 

“It was perfect to wear the day he gets back,” Barron said following a 34-3 dismantling. “He was 20 for 29, 200 yards. We love him. We love him.”

Ask anyone around the program and you’ll get the same answer: Quinn is Texas’ quarterback. The team believes in him. For fans, however, the answer has been a little less emphatic. 

While Texas was ultimately able to pull away from Oklahoma, Ewers’ play was initially lackluster. For only the third time since 2023, Ewers failed to reach 200 yards passing (Barron rounded up, Ewers finished with 199 yards). He previously failed to eclipse that total against Texas Tech and Wyoming because he was pulled early in decisive wins. 

The first quarter against the Sooners was especially rough. The fourth-year player connected on only 3 of 5 passes for 13 yards and an interception. The Longhorns failed to get a first down in the period and Oklahoma set up two scoring opportunities off the slow start. 

“Overall, I think I need to play better … I should have definitely made those throws,” Ewers said. “I’m not going to say it’s rust because I’ve practiced the last two weeks. That’s just solely on me.” 

Ewers may not admit it, but the rust was obvious from the press box of the Cotton Bowl. From the start, Oklahoma confused him with pressure looks, and he was tentative getting the ball out. Perhaps the most egregious was a short-armed throw to WR Isaiah Bond with…

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Oct. 13—EFFINGHAM — Lucas Dyer had a day against the Effingham Flaming Hearts on Friday at Klosterman Field at Washington Savings Bank Stadium.

The Mahomet-Seymour quarterback threw for 341 yards on 15-of-25 passing and four touchdowns in the Bulldogs’ 49-0 win.

“I knew he was good; he was good last year,” said Effingham head coach Brett Hefner of Dyer. “Think about how good they’d be if No. 1 was still playing.”

The player that Hefner was referring to was Trey Peters. Committed to Illinois for football, Peters didn’t play due to injury.

Others stepped up in Peters’ absence.

All of Dyers’ numbers came in the first half, too.

Dyer connected with Bryson Tiefenthaler for a 57-yard score with 10:36 left in the first quarter. He then hit Ray Long for a 16-yard touchdown, Gavin Hammerschmidt for a 54-yard score and Tiefenthaler, again, from seven yards away.

Mahomet-Seymour scored on all six of its drives in the first half.

“There’s a reason they have the success that they’ve had,” Hefner said. “The quality of people that they’ve played in the non-conference, and a lot of those guys played a lot of football last year; they didn’t play many seniors. They’re a very good team.”

The Bulldogs opened the game with a five-play drive. The Hearts committed a false start penalty that pushed M-S to the 27-yard line. Dyer threw an incomplete pass before an 11-yard completion to Tiefenthaler. He then had another incomplete pass and Cade Ashby followed with a five-yard run before the first touchdown throw.

The Bulldogs defense forced a punt on the first EHS series. The lone positive play for the Hearts came when Jaxon Bridges hit Maxx Kistler for a 14-yard completion, pushing EHS to midfield.

M-S followed with an eight-play drive. Hammerschmidt ran for four yards on the first play. Dyer then hit Hammerschmidt for six before completing a…

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Week 7 of the college football season delivered as promised with a series of dramatic games between high-profile teams. However, there was one national spotlight game that proved to be something of a snoozer as Texas crushed Oklahoma 34-3 in the Red River Rivalry. 

The Longhorns’ relatively easy win against their arch nemesis sends them into a Week 8 showdown with Georgia in great position as the lone unbeaten team in the SEC. Georgia, on the other hand, is still searching for the version of itself that demolished Clemson in the second half of a Week 1 meeting. Since then, the Bulldogs have been up and down, plagued by issues on both sides of the football at times.

Things were no different for UGA on Saturday in a lackadaisical 41-31 victory over lowly Mississippi State. While you never apologize for winning games in the SEC, it’s clear that Mississippi State is the league’s worst team in Year 1 under coach Jeff Lebby. Yet, mighty Georgia still found itself in a battle during the second half. Given its championship aspirations, we aren’t grading Georgia with kid gloves. With Texas on deck, the Bulldogs have plenty to fix.

As we reflect on a fantastic Week 7 of college football, here are the grades for all teams with national title odds of +4000 or better.

Bye weeks: Miami (+2000)

Texas

Grade: A-
Title odds: +400
Texas started slow but ultimately had no trouble in a 34-3 Red River Rivalry victory over Oklahoma highlighted by a strong defensive effort. The Longhorns held OU to just 237 total yards and never gave up a…

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Penn State quarterback Drew Allar throws a pass during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Southern California, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Ryan Barker’s 36-yard field goal lifted No. 4 Penn State to a 33–30 win in overtime over USC at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday.

Michael Lantz missed a 45-yard field goal try on the Trojans’ first possession of overtime. USC was knocked back to a long kick attempt after Miller Moss was sacked for a three-yard loss on 2nd-and-10. On third down, it appeared that Cam Miller commited a pass interference penalty on Ja’Kobi Lane, but no call was made and USC had to kick.

The Trojans were driving toward a game-winning field goal late in the fourth quarter, moving 30 yards on seven plays in just under three minutes. But Moss overthrew Duce Robinson and was picked off by safety Jaylen Reed with five seconds remaining.

The Nittany Lions tied the score at 30–30 with 2:53 left on a 14-yard pass from Drew Allar to Nicholas Singleton, finishing off a 12-play, 75-yard drive in three minutes. But that gave the Trojans plenty of time (along with three timeouts) to drive for the winning field goal.

After the Nittany Lions tied the score at 23–23 on a 20-yard field goal by Barker, the Trojans went on a nine-play, 75-yard drive highlighted by a 25-yard toss from Moss to Robinson on 3rd-and-6 from the Penn State 34-yard line.

Penn State trailed 20–6 going into halftime, but got back into the game on their first drive of the second half. The offense moved down the field fast, finishing off a five-play, 75-yard drive with a trick play involving tight end Tyler Warren snapping the ball then running a route to the end zone for a touchdown.

The Nittany Lions then tied the game at 20–20 on their next possession, going 90 yards…

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