#Nuggets: Recapping the biggest games from the college football weekend

Yeah, Tennessee is ready for Georgia. We try not to look ahead too much in this space... but how can you not in this case?

Kentucky somehow lost Jalin Hyatt, of all people, on the fifth play of the game for a 55-yard touchdown, the game was pretty much over from that point forward. When Kentucky pulled within 7-6, Tennessee scored on the ensuing possession -- 15 plays, 75 yards -- then scored again for good measure.

This play right here really did it.

The Vols cruised to a 44-6 win over No. 18 Kentucky. Hendon Hooker threw for a modest 245 yards on 9.8 an attempt with three touchdowns against no picks, while Will Levis went 16-of-27 for 98 yards with three interceptions. A UK offense that wanted to ground-and-pound averaged three yards on 36 carries.

In Jacksonville, Georgia lived up to its reputation as a team that plays with its meal. The defending national champions led Florida 28-3 at the half, allowed the Gators back in the game with a 17-0 run, then ripped off two straight touchdown drives to put away a 42-20 win.

No. 3 Tennessee at No. 1 Georgia will be the biggest of the season so far, and that won't be rivaled until Ohio State-Michigan to close the regular season and the SEC Championship as the biggest games of the entire 2022 season. 

Bring it on. 

Two Top 10 teams lose in absolutely bizarre ways. The Big 12 is the nation's most competitive conference, until you get teams tied for second place together.

Without QB1 Adrian Martinez and middle linebacker Daniel Green, No. 22 Kansas State hammered No. 9 Oklahoma State, 48-0. 

The Wildcats scored on their first two drives to open the game, then their final three to close the first half at 35-0, while Oklahoma State didn't put together a single 40-yard drive on the entire day. 

It was the biggest loss of the 226-game, 17-season Mike Gundy era. According to ESPN it's the largest shutout win over an AP Top 10 team by a lower-ranked opponent, and according to Fox it's the first 40+ point shutout loss of any kind by an AP Top 10 team since No. 10 Syracuse lost to No. 11 Cal 43-0 way back on Oct. 26, 1968. 

And that was downright normal compared to what happened in Louisville.

No. 10 Wake Forest's trip to the City of Bourbon and Horse Racing started well enough, the Demon Deacons led 14-13 at the half. But then Sam Hartman threw a pick-6 to open the third quarter. Then he lost the ball on a sack. Then he lost it again on a strip-sack. Then he threw a second pick, setting Louisville up for a 9-yard touchdown. Then he lost the ball on a strip-sack again. Wake's sixth possession was its most successful: three straight incompletions. But then he wasn't so lucky: another pick-6, this one for 90 yards. 

And that was all in the third quarter.

Hartman's sixth turnover of the frame ended his day, but Wake wasn't done. The Deacons turned the ball over two more times in the fourth on their way to a 48-21 loss. Wake's eight second half turnovers are the most in an half by an FBS team in the past 15 years, according to ESPN.

The win is the biggest of Scott Satterfield's four seasons at Louisville, and the loss is by far the weirdest of Dave Clawson's 276 games as a head coach. 

Ohio State outlasts Penn State yet again. My bar for No. 16 Penn State was not to win the game, but to have the ball with a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter. On that front, the Nittany Lions succeeded. Penn State led 21-16 with 9:26 to play.

But when the No. 2 Buckeyes turned it on, the game was over. In a span of five snaps, Ohio State mounted a 75-yard touchdown drive, forced a fumble, and hit a 24-yard touchdown pass to take a 30-21 lead, barely a minute after falling behind.

Penn State mustered a field goal to pull back within a score, but then Ohio State went 75 yards in seven plays, then notched a pick-six. Within a 7-minute span, a 21-16 Penn State lead turned into a 44-24 deficit. (Penn State later scored to beat the spread.)

Ohio State simply has too much talent to hold down over 60 minutes and 140 snaps. Even when Ryan Day runs the ball more than his fans would like, CJ Stroud still puts up 354 yards on 10.4 attempt. Marvin Harrison, Jr., caught 10 balls for 18 yards. J.T. Tuimoloau forced four turnovers, nearly winning the game single-handedly.

“Those guys punch. They punch and they swung and they hit us in the fourth quarter,” safety Ji’Ayir Brown said. “A team like that you got to finish them off and we didn’t do a good job of that.”

Now 1-8 against Ohio State, 7-19 against the B1G East Big Three, and in the midst of an 11-game losing streak against AP Top 10 opponents, it's an another example of the Penn State Purgatory. 

It was not a good night for Michigan State, either. First of all, the Spartans lost to Michigan, 29-7. The Wolverines out-rushed the Spartans 276-37, and the only thing keeping the final margin within 40 points was Michigan's inability to finish drives, settling for five field goals on the night. But, whatever. Michigan entered the night No. 4 in the country, Michigan State at 3-4.

Worse than the loss was Mel Tucker telling ABC at halftime that he liked Michigan State's matchups with Michigan's secondary...

... and then throwing the ball like this in the third quarter.

After halftime, Michigan State's Payton Thorne went 7-of-18 for 81 yards with an interception. 

After the game, players got into a brawl, where it looked like a bunch of Spartans brawled with some Wolverines.

FRIES

Seen and Heard 

Seen 

I didn't literally see this because it happened on Pac-12 Network but USC, driving in Arizona territory, ran out of time at the end of the first half in part because Pac-12 refs somehow wound the clock before the ball was set after the Trojans hit a 34-yard pass to the Wildcat 10-yard line. Here's USC AD Mike Bohn.

A beautifully executed fake field goal by Oklahoma. The Sooners beat Iowa Sate 27-13, their second straight win since losing three straight.

I thought sideline props were a late 2010s thing, but Ole Miss said differently.

Heard 

"Nope." -- Lincoln Riley on if he got an explanation for the above sequence.

“I didn’t do a good job this week. I was concerned about a variety of things this week. We didn’t practice like we normally practice and that’s my fault. And that’s what you get. I apologized to the team." -- Mike Gundy after the Oklahoma State loss.

"We have a good football team, but I did not have us ready to go today. We're always a team that has taken care of the football. We started getting loose with it against Army. We were loose with it against BC. When you turnover the ball that much, you don't have any chance of winning the football game." -- Dave Clawson after the Louisville loss. 

The Super 16. Here's this week's FWAA-NFF Super 16 ballot.

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Tennessee
4. Michigan
5. TCU
6. Clemson
7. Oregon
8. Alabama
9. USC
10. UCLA
11. Ole Miss
12. Kansas State
13. LSU
14. Utah
15. Illinois
16. North Carolina

Odds and Ends

a. In what has to be the lowest-scoring 4 OT game in history, Miami outlasted Virginia 14-12. Technically, the game did not see a single touchdown -- 19 regulation possessions saw two field goals aside, and the teams traded field goals in OT until Jake Garcia kept it for the game-winning 2-point conversion. 

b. Y'all, I don't think Lane Kiffin likes Texas A&M very much. Kiffin's Rebels rallied from a 14-7 deficit to win 31-28, in the process rushing for 390 yards (three yards shy of an Aggie opponent record) against DJ Durkin's defense. Afterward, Lane had this to say.

c. The algorithms listed Baylor-Texas Tech as the biggest toss up of the weekend. The Bears said otherwise. Dave Aranda's team went to Lubbock and built a 24-3 lead, saw Tech pull within 24-17, and then close on a 21-0 run to win 45-17. Joey McGuire's bunch entered the game 4-0 in Lubbock.

d. Toledo continues to be one of the most consistent winners in college football.

e. A major win for North Texas, moving past last week's last second loss at UTSA to blow out Western Kentucky on the road, 40-13. The Mean Green rushed for 198 yards on 5.4 a carry and Austin Aune went 19-of-28 for 317 yards with two touchdowns and no picks. UNT is currently on track to return to San Antonio for a rematch.

f. A big step forward for Gus Malzahn in Year 1 at UCF. The Knights rebounded from last week's ECU loss, knocking off No. 20 Cincinnati, 25-21. UCF out-gained the Bearcats 505-333, led nearly throughout, and went 75 yards in seven plays, scoring with 48 seconds left after falling behind 21-18.

g. What a good win for Notre Dame, going to a packed Carrier Dome and leading No. 16 Syracuse for the entire game -- the first play from scrimmage was a pick-6 -- in a 41-24 win. And what a letdown for the Orange, being so close to 7-0 at Clemson last week and now losing the two biggest games on the schedule.

h. What happens when a resistible force (Iowa's offense) meets a movable object (Northwestern's defense)? The force wins. The Hawkeyes racked up 398 yards and three whole touchdowns in a 33-13 win.

i. In Year 1 at UConn, Jim Mora has already done something no other Husky coach has in more than a century: beat BC. Huskies 13, Eagles 3, for the first UConn win since 1910. At 4-5, we can safely say this is the best UConn team since the 2010 Fiesta Bowl squad. 

j. How you know you have an All-American quarterback: On 4th-and-1 at West Virginia's 29-yard line with 29 seconds left, No. 7 TCU didn't run the ball or kick a field goal, they let Max Duggan throw a fade, which Savion Williams caught for a touchdown. Ballgame. TCU 41, West Virginia 31. TCU is 8-0 for the fifth time this century.

k. Another team off to an historically good start: the Illini.

l. Shoutout to Missouri in going on the road and winning a game no one gave them a chance to win, knocking off No. 25 South Carolina, 23-10. Mizzou has held its last three opponents to less than 300 yards.

m. Chalk another one up to the "Team wins its first game under interim head coach" phenomenon. Charlotte pulled a stunner over Rice, 56-23. The six schools to make in-season moves thus far are 4-2 in their first games afterward.

n. No. 21 North Carolina moved to 7-1 with a 42-24 win over Pitt. It will take a major upset to prevent a Clemson-UNC ACC Championship.

o. Middle Tennessee earned its first win since the Miami drubbing, beating UTEP 24-13 in El Paso.

DESSERT

The day started in the FCS with GameDay at Jackson State, and we'll end it in the FCS as well. One of two fellow FCS unbeatens along with Deion's Jackson State Tigers (Sacramento State is the other), Holy Cross fended off Fordham in the game of the day, scoring a 2-point conversion to win 53-52 in overtime.