#Nuggets: On Jimbo's play call, Oklahoma's free fall, and everything else from the college football weekend

Texas A&M, Alabama nearly combined to beat No. 1 Alabama. Any 24-point underdog is going to need help to pull off an upset, and boy did the Tide provide help. 

Texas A&M scored 20 points on Saturday night, and all 20 came off Alabama miscues. Two fumbles in Alabama territory by Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe created all 14 Aggie first-half points. In the third quarter, running back Jase McClellan fumbled -- again in Alabama territory -- leading to an A&M field goal. 

By that point in the game Alabama led 24-17, and a 10-point advantage likely put the game away. That's when Alabama kicker Will Reichard joined the proceedings, missing from 47 yards with 42 seconds left in the third quarter and from 35 with 9:15 to go.

Texas A&M then drove 53 yards to pull within 24-20, and one three and out later, A&M had the ball with a chance to upset the No. 1 team in the country. 

A&M took over at its own 29 with 1:50 to play and no timeouts. The Aggies needed three completions to gain a single first down. But then Haynes King threw up a jump ball to double coverage, but super-stud freshman receiver Evan Stewart came down with the ball, a 23-yard gain that put the ball at the Bama 37. And then a defensive holding moved the ball to the 27. And then a 12-yard completion put the ball inside the red zone. And then a pass interference put the ball at the 2-yard line.

Slowly but suddenly at the same time, Texas A&M was a complete pass away from becoming the first team since 2014-15 to beat Alabama in consecutive seasons, from salvaging their season, from creating absolute chaos in the rankings and the national narrative. But King's pass was an unthreatening completion, and No. 1 Alabama escaped with an unsatisfying and all around weird 24-20 victory.

Let's talk about that final play for a bit. So here was the situation: A&M had the ball at the Alabama 2-yard line with three seconds to play. Essentially, a 2-point play to win or lose the game. 

Texas A&M scored on a beautiful play in a similar situation earlier in the game.

That was a third-and-goal, but this was fourth-and-the-game. A sack would be instant death and, really, pressure of any kind increased the degree of difficulty to an intolerable degree. Stewart was the best receiver on the field, carrying the Aggie offense to the tune of eight catches for 106 yards. So Fisher called a stick route to Stewart, a 1-on-1 to his best player with the game on the line.

This isn't a great view of the play, but it's good enough.

I'm not saying this was the best play call possible given those realities, but I am saying most people criticizing the call should have to account for them when they rip Jimbo's call. One viewer in particular ripped it anyway, though. 

Jimbo Fisher's status as Texas A&M's play-caller has been one of the biggest storylines of this season, and so instead of talking about Bill O'Brien's play-calling and O'Brien/Saban's inability to develop a backup quarterback at Alabama, we're going to talk about Jimbo's play-calling for another week.

Just gotta execute. 

TCU outlasts Kansas, but now the real work begins. Calming fears that last week's 55-point, 668-yard performance against Oklahoma was a mirage, the 17th-ranked Horned Frogs put those fears to rest by dropping 38 points and 452 yards on No. 19 Kansas.

Kansas actually out-gained the Frogs, but quarterback Jalon Daniels left the game early and did not return. Jason Bean threw for 262 yards and four touchdowns in relief, but the connection between TCU quarterback Max Duggan and receiver Quentin Johnston is simply unstoppable right now. Duggan went 23-of-33 for 308 yards and three touchdowns (one pick), and Johnston caught 14 passes for 206 yards and the game-winning 24-yard touchdown with 1:36 to play.

Duggan didn't win the TCU QB1 job out of camp, and right now he'd have my non-existent Heisman vote.

TCU is 5-0 for the first time since 2017, which happens to be the last time the Frogs reached the Big 12 Championship. But a Sonny Dykes team starting 5-0 is now an annual occurrence; it's happened four straight years now.

The state of Bryce Young's shoulder might be the only thing standing between Tennessee and a No. 1 ranking. If Bryce Young doesn't play next week, Tennessee is going to beat Alabama for the first time of the Nick Saban era.

The 8th-ranked Volunteers went to Death Valley and left with an easy 40-13 victory over No. 25 LSU. The Vols rolled up 502 yards (239 passing/263 rushing) and 27 first downs to secure their first win in Baton Rouge since 2005. 

However, if Young is back and fully himself, he might throw for 500 yards. The Vols gave up 453 yards to Florida's Anthony Richardson (he averages 145.8 elsewhere on the season) and 300 to LSU's Jayden Daniels, a week after he threw for 80 against Auburn. 

The Year (Or at least The Week) of the Interim. In a year where a Sunday firing has become a weekly staple, much has been said and written -- including by us -- about the effect these September and early October moves could have on college football. Not often included in the discussion: what if it makes the team better?

Six FBS teams are playing under interim head coaches at the moment. This weekend, one was off, and the other five won.

-- Nebraska improved to 2-1 under Mickey Joseph; its 14-13 win at Rutgers on Friday night secured back-to-back Big Ten wins for the first time since 2018.
-- Georgia Tech moved to 2-0 under Brent Key, a Tech alum, with a 23-20 overtime win over Duke.
-- In his head coaching debut, Jim Leonhard and Wisconsin blasted Northwestern, 42-7.
-- Shaun Aguano scored his first win as a head coach in leading Arizona State to a 45-38 upset of No. 21 Washington.
-- Interim head coach Bryant Vincent moved to 3-2 with a 41-14 blowout of Middle Tennessee.
-- Colorado was off, which makes today the best Saturday of their season so far, too.

What's the Bible verse again? Something like "It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for an Iowa team to score a touchdown"? 

9-6 and 10-9. Those were the scores of the football games involving Iowa and Iowa State, both losses. 

The Hawkeyes ran 66 plays for 222 yards, and never got closer than the Illinois 46 yard line in the second half. 

Over in Ames, the Cyclones snapped the ball 62 times and moved 276 yards. Twice in the game's final six minutes, Iowa State took over at midfield. They went three-and-out and four-and-out. 

This clip illustrates Matt Campbell's face after quarterback Hunter Dekkers found Xavier Hutchinson, ISU's best receiver, wide open near the sideline on 4th-and-7 with 2:29 to play. Hutchinson dropped the ball and the Cyclones never touched it again.

Red River Rock Bottom. The Cotton Bowl is typically one of the ultimate proving grounds in college football. Wins on that field have to be earned. Last year's game came down to the final minute; the 2020 game went to four overtimes; 2018 wasn't decided until the final nine seconds; entering Saturday, the last eight games in Dallas were decided by one score. 

That's what made Saturday's fourth quarter so jarring, as both teams essentially agreed to end the game as soon as possible. 

That's because Oklahoma flat out was not competitive in a 49-0 loss to Texas. 

Five Sooner passers combined to complete nine passes for 39 yards (with two interceptions) as OU suffered its worst loss in 118 Red River games, and the worst shutout loss in program history.

In the midst of its first 3-game losing streak since 1998, Oklahoma has been out-scored 145-58 through three Big 12 games. If first-year head coach Brent Venables doesn't find a way to pull his team out of a tailspin quickly, we could be watching the worst OU team in the program's modern history. 

Oh, to be a fly on that wall. 

FRIES

Seen and Heard 

At SEC media days, Mark Stoops took a not-so-veiled shot at South Carolina. For context, the Gamecocks had just released a video, based off a TikTok trend, where Shane Beamer put on some "stupid" sunglasses and danced around. “It’s easy to change a climate,” Stoops said. “You can change a uniform, talk a little game, dance around, put on some stupid sunglasses. But to change a culture is at the core and I’m quite certain that we’ve changed our culture.”

Fast forward to Saturday. South Carolina 24, No. 13 Kentucky 14. In Lexington. 

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

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Michigan
4. Oklahoma State
5. Clemson
6. TCU
7. Tennessee
8. USC
9. Alabama
10. Penn State
11. Ole Miss
12. Oregon
13. UCLA
14. Wake Forest
15. NC State
16. Mississippi State

Odds and Ends

a. No. 18 UCLA handled No. 11 Utah 42-32, moving to 6-0 on the year and 14-4 since the beginning of last season. Dorian Thompson-Robinson totaled as many touchdowns (five) as incompletions. The Bruins are off next week before a trip to No. 12 Oregon that might attract a little bit of attention.

b. Go all the way off, young man.

c. The Big Ten shot interviews with each head coach over the summer and has released them piecemeal over the season. The latest asked each coach the most overrated stat. Mel Tucker's answer: passing yards allowed. His teams have proved he doesn't care about that stat; last season, no team allowed more than Sparty's 4,222 yards, and entering Saturday the green and white were No. 111 at 1,375 yards through five games.

Tucker's experience defending CJ Stroud might want to make him rethink that stance. After going 32-of-35 for 432 yards and six touchdowns in a 56-7 win a year ago, Stroud was 21-of-26 for 361 yards with six touchdowns and a pick-six (first of his career) in a 49-20 Buckeyes win. That's 793 yards and 12 touchdowns on 61 passes.

d. Jake Spavital earned the biggest win of his 4-year Texas State tenure, leading the Bobcats to a 36-24 win over Appalachian State. Texas State is 3-3 on the season.

e. James Madison has literally never lost a game as an FBS team. The Dukes moved to 5-0 with a 42-20 drubbing of Arkansas State.

f. No. 23 Mississippi State is ascending, and Arkansas is crumbling. The Hogs have now dropped three straight, falling 40-17 in Starkville.

g. South Florida nearly pulled off a much-needed upset of No. 24 Cincinnati. Trailing 28-24 with 5:12 to play, the Bulls moved to the Cincinnati 25 yard line when their 4th-and-1 rush failed. USF never got the ball back, and Luke Fickell moved to 49-8 since 2018.

h. Utah State 34, Air Force 27.

i. Jay Norvell took a winless Colorado State team to Reno to face his old Nevada team... and won. Colorado State 17, Nevada 14.

j. Let's take a moment to consider the chaos that is Houston's season thus far. Three games have gone to overtime, another required a goal-to-go stand to fend off overtime, and Friday night's may have been the most dramatic yet. Playing on the road at Memphis, Houston trailed 26-7 early in the fourth quarter and 32-19 with 4:04 to play, and won. The Cougars converted a 4th-and-11, a 4th-and-7, and recovered an onside kick, all in the final three minutes.

k. After starting 0-2, Notre Dame has quietly -- if Notre Dame can ever do anything quietly -- won three straight, two of them away from home. The 45-32 win over North Carolina looks better by the week, and then on Saturday the Irish went to Vegas and handled No. 19 BYU, 28-20. 

l. Georgia State won Modern Day Hate for the third straight year, 41-33. State leads that series 6-3. 

m. Two teams whose seasons could go any way at any moment met in Raleigh, and it was as chaotic as one could expect. Florida State led NC State 17-3 at halftime... and No. 14 NC State won, 19-17. FSU's second half offensive output: three-and-out, four-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out, interception, interception. Even as unproductive as those first five possessions were, the sixth drive saw FSU move 70 yards to the NC State 22 with 38 seconds left. On a 2nd-and-8, Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis threw to the end zone and was intercepted.

n. In a rematch of the Conference USA Championship, UTSA and Western Kentucky played a game that was downright tame. After averaging around 1,200 yards and 90 points in two meetings last season, the Hilltoppers and Roadrunners combined for just 967 yards and 59 points. One commonality: UTSA has won all three. This one went 31-28 to the 'Runners.

o. Adding on to the Year of the Interim trend, Boise State may have saved its season by changing offensive coordinators. The Broncos are 2-0 since installing Dirk Koetter, defeating Fresno State 40-20 on Saturday. Boise State ran for 300+ yards in both games. 

p. Having entered Saturday with a season high of 23 points, Navy dropped 53 on Tulsa in a 32-point victory. It's the first time the Midshipmen have crossed the half-century mark since Nov. 30, 2019.

DESSERT

Special shoutout to Pitt running back Izzy Abanikanda, who carried 36 times for a school-record 320 yards and six touchdowns in a 45-29 win over Virginia Tech.