NUGGETS
Notre Dame takes down No. 1. Five times in the last 50 years has the No. 1 team in the country come to South Bend. All five were classics. No. 4 Notre Dame took down No. 1 Miami 31-30 in the infamous Catholics vs. Convicts game of 1988. No. 2 Notre Dame beat No. 1 Florida State 31-24 in 1993, the game that took College GameDay on the road for the very first time. The Irish, heavy underdogs this time, took No. 1 Nebraska to overtime in 2000. The Bush Push Game of 2005.
Add another to the list.
No. 4 Notre Dame outlasted No. 1 Clemson 47-40 in double overtime, ending Clemson's 36-game regular season winning streak. It was Clemson's first loss to an ACC team since Oct. 13, 2017. Their first loss on a Saturday in 51 such games.
After years and years of coming up short in games like these, Notre Dame won because they played smarter at winning time. After a questionable no-call and a drop gave Clemson the ball near midfield with a 33-26 lead and 2:09 to kill, Clemson burned only 22 seconds and just one Irish timeout thanks to a penalty and Travis Etienne running out of bounds on third down.
Needing 91 yards or his team would lose, Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees got the better of Brent Venables, dialing up a 53-yard connection from Ian Book to Avery Davis, which took the ball from the Irish 43 to the Clemson 4. That allowed Notre Dame time and options to puncture Clemson's goal line, which they did on third down when Book again found Davis open in the end zone.
Though he gagged away a touchdown on a fumble at Clemson's 1, Book played the game of his career, gamely throwing for 310 yards on 39 attempts while rushing for 68 important yards. Notre Dame was stronger at the line of scrimmage, springing Kyren Williams free for 140 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries while limiting Travis Etienne to 28 yards on 18 carries. (It helped Notre Dame's clause that Etienne botched an exchange with DJ Uiagalelei for a defensive touchdown in the second straight game.)
With all of Football Twitter screaming at him to go for two at the end of regulation and the bottom of the second overtime, Brian Kelly showed faith in his defense by kicking each time. They rewarded that faith by sacking Uiagalelei on first and second down in the bottom of the second OT, dooming Clemson to its largest loss in a regular season game since 2014. In a seven-point, double overtime game.
We as college football fans get games like these once a decade, but they're always worth the wait.
History helped Notre Dame on Saturday, but it could also help Clemson. The last time Notre Dame beat the No. 1 team, Florida State in 1993, the Irish lost to Boston College the following week and Florida State went on to win the national title later that year. Notre Dame's opponent next week: Boston College. Florida races past Georgia. Florida spotted Georgia a huge lead, closed the gap quicker than expected and never looked back. I'm talking about the game, and I'm also talking about the last three years of the Florida-Georgia rivalry. First, the game. Georgia scored on the first play, forced a three-and-out, then scored again. In years past, that would have been game over. Saturday, that lead didn't survive to the end of the first quarter. Florida went on a 41-7 run in less than two quarters' time -- and even then Florida's offense was responsible for all of Georgia's points. Basically everything you need to know about this game, about the state of play of these two programs, can be explained here. So what does Florida 44, Georgia 28 say about the state of both programs? Kirby Smart's teams have become more and more talented with each passing year, yet their outcomes become slightly worse by the year. The Bulldogs have gone from winning the SEC and coming achingly close to winning the whole thing; to winning the SEC East and blowing a late lead in the SEC title game; to winning the SEC East again but getting outclassed in the SEC Championship; to a probable runner-up finish in the East. 2017: 13-2, SEC champions, One play away from winning national championship 2018: 11-3, SEC East champions, Couldn't hold lead in SEC Championship 2019: 12-2, SEC East champions, Outclassed in SEC Championship 2020: 4-2, Likely SEC East runner-up Dan Mullen's Florida, meanwhile, has gone in the opposite direction. 2018: 10-3, No. 7 AP finish 2019: 11-2, No. 6 AP finish 2020: 4-1, ??? And, yeah, when you're as talented everywhere else as Georgia is, you're only a quarterback away. It's clear Stetson Bennett is not that quarterback, and neither is D'Wan Mathis (at least not yet). But neither of those guys were supposed to be the answer. Perhaps Jamie Newman returns and Georgia closes the gap in 2021. But that's the entire point. Georgia spent two and a half seasons looking westward, scheming how to close its gap with Alabama. All the while, Alabama pulled further away and Florida pulled ahead as well. It's a gap that won't be closed with off-tackle runs and three-and-outs forced. It's time to talk about BYU and Cincinnati making the College Football Playoff. Through six years of this system, the highest any Group of 5 team has climbed is No. 8, and that was a UCF team in the midst of two straight undefeated regular seasons. The committee has shown us, through 37 different weekly rankings, that it doesn't believe Group of 5 teams play schedules worthy of true Playoff consideration. But, dadgumit, these teams deserve Playoff consideration. Or, at least they deserve someone standing on a soapbox making the "This team deserves Playoff consideration!!" argument. On Friday, BYU went to the blue turf -- a place they'd lost their last five games -- and simply dismantled No. 21 Boise State. Zach Wilson threw for 359 yards and two touchdowns on 13.3 yards an attempt, and the Cougars also out-rushed the Broncos 214-61. Through the second, third and early fourth quarters they ran off a 38-0 run, turning a 7-3 lead into 45-3 en route to a 51-17 blowout. The nation's only 8-0 team has out-scored its foes 362-111, putting them in the top five for scoring offense and scoring defense for all teams that have played at least five games. Wilson's 11.4 yards per attempt are on par with 2019 Joe Burrow (10.8), 2018 Kyler Murray (11.6) and 2017 Baker Mayfield (11.5). The schedule is what it is -- BYU has two more games: vs. North Alabama and San Diego State -- but what more can you ask of a football team?
That same question applies to Cincinnati.
In six games, Luke Fickell's Bearcats have faced four quality opponents. They've beaten them by a cumulative score of 153-43.
Cincinnati vs. Quality Opponents
vs. No. 22 Army: Win, 24-10
at No. 16 SMU: Win, 42-13
vs. Memphis: Win, 49-10
vs. Houston: Win, 38-10
Desmond Ridder has emerged as one of the sport's deadliest dual threat quarterbacks. In the past three weeks he's thrown for 559 yards and five touchdowns while rushing for 323 yards plus an eye-popping eight scores. The defense entered Saturday ranked among the top 10 nationally in yards per attempts, yards per rush and scoring defense before limiting Houston to 5.6 yards on 34 pass attempts, 3.3 yards on 28 rushes and 10 points. If it takes a multi-season pedigree to command the committee's attention, Cincinnati is 28-5 since the start of 2018.
Again: What more can you ask of a football team?
At the risk of getting everyone's hopes up, you can squint and see a path for Cincinnati. The Bearcats don't have a quality out of conference win, but then again nobody does. The American is especially deep this year, and Cincinnati still has quality opponents waiting in 4-2 UCF and 3-1 Tulsa, plus the AAC title game. The Big 12 has played itself out of contention, and history tells us no one will make it through the Pac-12 unscathed either. The Bearcats are already No. 6 in the AP poll, and it's hard to find a team worthy of bypassing them. Cincinnati's biggest threats might be a 1-loss team from the SEC (Texas A&M) or the ACC (Clemson). Cincinnati's best hope may be for Notre Dame to beat Clemson again.
If there was ever a year for a Group of 5 team to crash the party, shouldn't it be 2020?
FRIES
The Super 16. This week's edition of the FWAA-NFF Super 16 poll.
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Notre Dame
- Clemson
- Cincinnati
- Texas A&M
- Florida
- BYU
- Indiana
- Georgia
- Miami
- Wisconsin
- Oregon
- Coastal Carolina
- SMU
- Oklahoma State
Seen and Heard
Who thought Notre Dame was winning after this?
No person is more singularly responsible for changing Mississippi's flag than Mississippi State running back Kylin Hill. It's a shame he couldn't be the one to carry the new flag, approved by Mississippi voters on Tuesday, into Davis Wade Stadium for the first time.
Maryland had absolutely no chill after beating Penn State for the first time since 2014.
Heard
"I hollered 'timeout,' I guess I waited too long, so I told the team it's on me."
-- Justin Fuente on calling the timeout that wiped away Virginia Tech's game-winning field goal block.
"I don’t think he broke it, but it doesn’t feel very good right now. But bottom line is, I don’t really care. I just love this team."
-- Indiana head coach Tom Allen on cutting his cheekbone after inadvertently head-butting safety Devon Matthews upon snaring an interception.
"We wanted to have the opportunity to play the game we love, we got that opportunity and we found a way to make the most of it.”
-- Clay Helton on playing Arizona State at 9 a.m. local time.
Odds and Ends
a. How do you evaluate Texas? After a 17-13 defeat of West Virginia, they're 5-2, a couple plays from 7-0, and in control of their own destiny. Close as they are to 7-0, they're equally close to 2-5, the latest example being Neal Brown going for a 4th-and-1 inside the Texas red zone twice in the fourth quarter and coming up short both times. The defense has held three of their last four opponents below five yards per play, but Sam Ehlinger has been under 6.6 yards per attempt (near the bottom quarter nationally) in five of six Big 12 games. If you're, ahem, evaluating the trajectory of the program, do you see a team that should be 7-0 or the team that could be 2-5? Or do you see both versions of those teams oscillating from play to play?
b. They're not having this conversation in College Station.
c. Or Norman, where after narrowly avoiding an 0-3 start the Sooners have out-scored their last three opponents by a combined 157-51.
d. This week's edition of Horrible If It Happens To You But Hilarious For the Rest of Us.
e. I thought about writing a whole section about Indiana's win over Michigan -- their first since 1987! -- but is it really surprising when the No. 13 team beats the No. 23 team? Reverse the uniforms and there's nothing surprising about it at all. f. Michigan State's season thus far: lose to Rutgers, beat Michigan, lose by 42 to Iowa. No surprise, the Spartans were even in turnovers in their win and minus-10 in their losses. g. Miami put up 620 yards of offense (D'Eriq King had 535 by himself) and erased a 41-31 fourth quarter deficit to beat NC State 44-41. h. USC scored twice in the final 2:52 to beat Arizona State, 28-27. The Trojans have won their last four Pac-12 games. i. Twenty-three years ago this week, Nebraska, Penn State, Florida State and Michigan were the top four teams in the country. Today, they're a combined 3-13. j. When coaches talk about teams learning how to win, they talk about what's happening at Arkansas right now. The Hogs have won as many SEC games this season (three) as they did in 2017, 2018 and 2019 combined. k. Buffalo returned two fumbles for touchdowns in a 45-second span against Northern Illinois on Wednesday night. The Bulls won the game, 49-30. l. Trailing by nine, Matt Wells kicked a field goal on 2nd-and-4 with 2:48 to play and three timeouts. The kick missed and TCU scored three plays later.
m. Northwestern has gone from 8-1 in Big Ten play, to 1-8, and now to 3-0 this season after a 21-13 defeat of Nebraska. If the Wildcats beat Purdue and Wisconsin in the next two weeks they'll all but clinch a first-to-worst-back-to-first-again trifecta in the Big Ten West.
n. Utah State fired Gary Andersen on Saturday after losing to Nevada on Friday. The 0-3 Aggies have been outscored 114-29.
o. Oklahoma State gained 256 yards of total offense but won thanks to this 85-yard fumble return that turned a 19-13 deficit into a 20-12 lead. The Pokes held on for a 20-18 victory.
p. Both new Pac-12 coaching staffs won their debuts on Saturday. Karl Dorrell and Colorado beat UCLA, Dorrell's former team, 48-42 in Boulder, while Nick Rolovich and Washington State went to Corvallis and beat Oregon State, 38-28.
DESSERT
Instant replay is totally out of control in college football. Two examples:
1. On Friday, officials wiped away a 4th-and-goal touchdown for Miami to review a 3rd-and-goal play, interrupting in the game to confirm that the Hurricanes did not score. Miami committed a penalty on 4th-and-goal 2.0 and settled for three when they should have had seven.
2. The Clemson-Notre Dame game saw an absurd double review, where the replay official overturned his own judgment to pull a Clemson score back a foot to just outside the goal line. DJ Uiagalelei scored one play later, which was also reviewed.
I see two solutions here:
-- The replay official loses half his game check every time they stop the game to confirm a call on the field. See how happy they are with the trigger finger then.
-- Since that will never happen, a realistic proposal: go to the NFL system. If a coach doesn't think a call is consequential enough to risk a timeout, it's not worth stopping the game over.
Okay, I swear that's the last time I'll rant about this particular topic. For this season.