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And while No. 2 Ohio State (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) got its strongest challenge since its opener, the No. 13 Nittany Lions could not account for a wrecking ball who proved disruptive throughout the afternoon — and especially in the fourth quarter.
Tuimoloau had an early interception of Penn State’s Sean Clifford that led to the Buckeyes’ first touchdown, and his more lasting contributions were saved for the final nine minutes. Ohio State finally uncorked a big play when TreVeyon Henderson rushed 41 yards for a touchdown to secure a 23-21 lead, and two plays into the next drive Tuimoloau sacked Clifford and pounced on a fumble.
On the next snap, Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud connected on a 24-yard score with Cade Stover to create a cushion the Buckeyes hadn’t enjoyed all day. And if that wasn’t enough, Tuimoloau punctuated the afternoon with a pick-six of Clifford with 2:42 remaining, leaping at the line of scrimmage to snag a pass into the flat and then ambling 14 yards for a touchdown.
The final tally for the sophomore: Six tackles (three for loss), two sacks, two interceptions, one other pass broken up, a forced fumble he recovered and a touchdown. According to College Football Reference, Tuimoloau is the first player from the Football Bowl Subdivision to have two sacks, two interceptions, a forced fumble and an interception returned for a touchdown since at least 2000.
Loosening up the requirements doesn’t expand the company much. The only other FBS player since 2000 with two sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble in one game is Kent State’s Andre Kirkland, who did it in 2006 against Bowling Green.
Ohio State has won at sub-.500 Michigan State, and still has trips to Northwestern and Maryland. The combined capacity of the latter two is less than the announced crowd of 108,433 in Happy Valley who largely accommodated the school’s Stripe Out pattern of alternating blue and white by section.
The Nittany Lions (6-2, 3-2) showed far more gumption than they had two weeks earlier in a loss at Michigan, and there’s a path to a 10-win regular season with Indiana, Maryland, Rutgers and Michigan State awaiting in November. Of that group, only Maryland (6-2, 3-2) owns a winning conference record, and the Terps must venture to Beaver Stadium.
Yet Penn State’s extra verve mattered little Saturday. What did was that Ohio State had J.T. Tuimoloau, and Penn State did not, which is why the Buckeyes went home on the same playoff path they were at the start of the day.
Just when it seemed the Bulldogs’ rivalry with Florida would create some unexpected fireworks, Kirby Smart’s team summoned a shove-it-down-their-throats drive to turn back the Gators in what turned out to be a 42-20 victory.
No. 1 Georgia led 28-3 at halftime, and that coupled with the final margin suggests a paint-by-numbers victory at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. But Florida scored the first 17 points of the second half, closing within 28-20 on Xzavier Henderson’s 78-touchdown reception late in the third quarter.
The Bulldogs’ six-play response? Runs of 11 and a loss of 2, a 19-yard pass, rushes of 20 and 8 yards and then Daijun Edwards’s 22-yard scoring saunter. That was effectively that, and Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC) remained perfect entering next week’s visit from Tennessee.
The No. 22 Wildcats pummeled No. 9 Oklahoma State, 48-0, a no-doubt-about-it walloping to secure second place in the Big 12.
Backup quarterback Will Howard shredded the Cowboys for 296 yards and four touchdowns while filling in for the injured Adrian Martinez, and Deuce Vaughn rumbled for 158 yards and a score for Kansas State (6-2, 4-1). The Wildcats blanked Oklahoma State — who entered the day averaging 44.7 points — for the first time since 1992.
It continues a recent trend of K-State saving its best performances for teams perceived to be among the nation’s elite. The Wildcats are 5-3 against top-10 teams since late in the 2017 season, a run that includes a victory over Oklahoma last month.
The Cowboys had no margin for error in chasing a playoff berth the rest of the way. They already had a loss to TCU, and they needed to get to 12-1 and win the Big 12 to have any chance of earning a semifinal invitation.
Even a one-point loss would finish off that dream. Needless to say, a 48-0 no-show at Kansas State did the trick as well. It was Oklahoma State’s first shutout loss since a 27-0 setback at Oklahoma in 2009.
Nothing went right for the Cowboys (6-2, 3-2 Big 12). They couldn’t run it (1.8 yards a carry), couldn’t contain Kansas State (which had four scoring plays of at least 30 yards) and certainly proved incapable of a response once the Wildcats scored touchdowns on five of their first seven possessions.
And as a result, Oklahoma State is going to need a bunch of help to get back to the Big 12 title game — assuming it can regroup after Saturday’s drubbing.
It was just another day in ground-and-pound paradise for the Illini rusher, who added 149 yards to his FBS-leading total in a 26-9 triumph at Nebraska. Brown now has 1,208 yards in eight games, and his touchdown against the Cornhuskers was his fifth of the season.
No. 17 Illinois (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) has clinched its first winning season since 2011, and with Michigan State and Purdue up next at home, it’s not unreasonable to think Bret Bielema’s bunch will be 9-1 heading into a Nov. 19 trip to Michigan.
If the Illini do win the next two weeks, they’ll have locked up their first Big Ten title game trip; they head into November a game clear of Purdue (5-3, 3-2) and two games up on four teams (Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin) they’ve already defeated this season.
The No. 10 Demon Deacons are not a bad team. Yet they might have authored the worst quarter anyone has played this season in their 48-21 loss at Louisville.
Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman committed six turnovers in the third quarter. Two of his three interceptions were brought back for touchdowns, and the Cardinals managed to score 35 points off turnovers in the third quarter alone. The Demon Deacons even found time to squeeze in a three-and-out in a period when they apparently forgot how to play football.
Even wilder? In Wake’s first 7 ½ games this season, it totaled just five turnovers.
The Demon Deacons (6-2, 2-2 ACC) wound up with two more giveaways after Hartman was mercifully relieved, becoming the second ACC team in as many weeks with an eight-turnover day (Miami had eight against Duke last week). Before that, the last time an ACC program had eight giveaways in a game was North Carolina against Miami (Ohio) in 2002.
The Bearcats’ 19-game conference winning streak is over after Central Florida’s RJ Harvey delivered a 17-yard touchdown in the final minute to lift the Knights to a 25-21 triumph.
In addition to tumbling out of first place in the American, No. 20 Cincinnati (6-2, 3-1) rushed for just 35 yards on 18 attempts — its most meager output on the ground since a 2-yard showing against Connecticut in 2016.
After three losses in a row, the Golden Gophers needed to get well. And get well they did against Rutgers, and in the process reclaimed their identity in a 31-0 smothering of the Scarlet Knights.
Minnesota (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten) gave running back Mohamed Ibrahim (36 carries, 159 yards, three touchdowns) a hefty workload, but it went beyond that. The Gophers had two possessions in the game’s first 26 minutes. One was a 19-play, 99-yard touchdown drive that siphoned more than 10 minutes off the clock. The second was 13-play, 86-yard TD march that took a little more than seven minutes.
Rutgers (4-4, 1-4) didn’t do much, in part because it couldn’t (134 total yards) and in part because it didn’t receive many chances (45 total plays). A dominant rushing game coupled with a stingy defense is Minnesota’s winning formula. The Gophers had issues for much of October, but being healthy enough to rediscover its path to success bodes well for a decent finish to the season.
It’s easy to pick on underachieving Miami (which did beat Virginia, 14-12, Saturday in a touchdown-free game that went four overtimes and should never be spoken of again). And both Virginia and Virginia Tech are clearly struggling under first-year coaches.
Yet the worst team in the ACC might just be Boston College, which has spent nearly a decade seemingly required to remain tethered to .500. The Eagles’ final records from 2013 to 2021: 7-6, 7-6, 3-9, 7-6, 7-6, 7-5, 6-7, 6-5 and 6-6.
Considering Boston College fell to 2-6 Saturday with a 13-3 loss to Connecticut — Connecticut! — a nearly break-even season is going to be a tough ask.
Since scratching out an Oct. 1 victory over Louisville, the Eagles have been clobbered by Clemson and Wake Forest. Both of those, while unsightly, were at least understandable.
But for Boston College to produce more turnovers (five) than points against the Huskies (4-5), even if first-year coach Jim Mora has made Connecticut more respectable than it’s been in a while? Not good.
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The Panthers outlasted Louisiana Tech, 42-34, in double overtime Friday night to seal their first back-to-back victories since 2019. Grayson James threw for 321 yards and three touchdowns and Lexington Joseph rushed for a pair of scores in extra time for FIU (4-4, 2-2 Conference USA).
Mike MacIntyre, who previously coaxed 10-win seasons out of San José State (2012) and Colorado (2016), has quietly made some progress in his first year with the Panthers. FIU had gone a combined 1-16 the last two seasons. Now, it needs a split of its last four games to become bowl eligible.
On some nights, a team is getting judged a bit on style points. On others, especially when everyone paying attention knows a team is nowhere near its best, survival is all that counts.
Such was the case Thursday for No. 14 Utah, which fended off host Washington State, 21-17, despite playing without starting quarterback Cameron Rising.
It turned out to be the sort of victory the Utes (6-2, 4-1 Pac-12) have rung up often over the years under Kyle Whittingham. Bryson Barnes, Rising’s replacement for the night, was perfectly competent while throwing for 175 yards and a touchdown. But it was the Utah defense that shined, limiting Washington State (4-4, 1-4) to 264 total yards.
The Utes still have a chance to live up to their preseason top-10 potential, even if their playoff hopes are effectively kaput. They’ll have a say in the Pac-12 race; their Nov. 19 trip to Oregon looks plenty meaningful heading into the final month of the regular season.
The Cougars (4-5) wrapped up a winless October with a 27-24 loss to East Carolina on Friday night, a game sealed when Pirates kicker Andrew Conrad connected on a 33-yard field goal on the last play of the game. That follows losses to Notre Dame, Arkansas and Liberty.
It’s the longest losing streak for BYU since 2017, and it certainly prompts questions of how much immediate success the program will enjoy when it moves into the Big 12 next season.
For now, the Cougars simply need to salvage a bowl berth out of their last season of independence. They should beat Football Championship Subdivision school Utah Tech on Nov. 19, meaning they need to get a split out of trips to Boise State (Nov. 5) and Stanford (Nov. 26) to extend their season into December.
The do-everything quarterback struck again in Oregon’s 42-24 victory at California, throwing for three scores and rushing for three more as the Ducks (7-1, 5-1 Pac-12) won their seventh consecutive game.
Nix, who threw for 412 yards, has accounted for at least five touchdowns in half of Oregon’s games, including back-to-back weeks. The Auburn transfer did have his first multi-interception game since a season-opening loss to Georgia, but he has still been responsible for 30 touchdowns (20 passing, 10 rushing) during the Ducks’ winning streak.
The Wolverines’ 29-7 manhandling of Michigan State requires little analysis. They outrushed the Spartans 276-37. They scored on seven consecutive possessions against a largely bend-but-don’t-break Michigan State defense. They took back the Paul Bunyan Trophy from their in-state rival after losing one-possession games to Michigan State the past two years. And they improved to 8-0.
There were no commas in that last paragraph. Pretty much no subtlety, either — just blunt force, much like what Michigan delivered to the Spartans (3-5, 1-4 Big Ten) in Ann Arbor.
Somehow, Michigan wasn’t responsible for the most physically overwhelming display of the evening, but it sure wasn’t for lack of trying. Still, that honor belongs to the Volunteers, who had no interest in getting caught up in a remotely worrisome game against Kentucky.
Hendon Hooker (245 yards passing, three touchdowns) was smooth yet again. Jalin Hyatt snagged a couple more touchdown passes, because that’s what he does. But the biggest takeaway from No. 3 Tennessee’s 44-6 rout of Kentucky was how little room the Vols (8-0, 4-0 SEC) gave Kentucky (5-3, 2-3) to operate at any stage on offense.
The Vols have already taken down Florida (a lesser team this year) and Alabama (in a shootout), but their path to an SEC title and possibly a playoff berth will require them to be as imposing defensively as undefeated and top-ranked Georgia — the team they visit next week.
Meeting the standard Tennessee established this week would not guarantee a victory between the hedges, but it’s near-certain it would make the Vols’ showdown with the also-unblemished Bulldogs feel like a throwback, grind-it-out showdown.
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