Nuggets: Recapping the biggest games from the college football schedule

What a day of football in the state of Kansas. The day began, as so many had before, with a raucous atmosphere in Lawrence. The first 3-0 Kansas team in 12 seasons took on a 3-0 Duke team, and KU's play showed it didn't get to 3-0 by accident.

Kansas never trailed over the course of its 35-27 win, sparked by excellent play from quarterback Jalon Daniels. Daniels fired as many incompletions as touchdowns, hitting 19-of-23 balls for 324 yards and four scores, while also leading all rushers with 11 carries for 83 yards and a score. 

I mean, this just doesn't look, sound or read like anything we've been conditioned to associate with Kansas football. It looks like an entirely different program borrowing KU's uniforms. 

At night, Kansas State went to Norman and handed out the first loss of the Brent Venables era.

A week after No. 6 OU demolished Nebraska in Lincoln, former Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez showed got his own last laugh on both OU and Nebraska.

Martinez played on Owen Field last September as a Husker. He threw for 289 yards, rushed for 34, and accounted for both touchdowns in a 23-16 Oklahoma win. 

Martinez returned Saturday night with better teammates, and this time he was the best player on the field, throwing for 234 yards and a score while rushing 21 times for 148 yards and four touchdowns. 

Kansas State scored on the game's opening drive -- a 6-yard Martinez rush -- and led throughout. Martinez rushed in from 15 yards out to put the Wildcats up 34-20 early in the fourth quarter, then put the game away with a 55-yard scamper on a QB draw on 3rd-and-16 from his own 41 with 2:39 to play. Martinez's fourth rushing score came to plays later, pushing the score to 41-27 in a 41-34 K-State win.

The win marks the third time in four years an unranked Kansas State has defeated Oklahoma. 

As a result, we now live in a world where the Kansas schools are tied for first in the Big 12 and the Red River rivals are tied for last.

Tennessee makes good on its time in the spotlight. It wasn't always pretty and it was never comfortable, but the end result was a moment that was a long, long time coming on Rocky Top. College GameDay and CBS came to Knoxville to witness a higher-ranked and favored Tennessee host Florida, and the Vols made good with a win.

Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson responded after two bad games by accounting for more than 500 yards, but Hendon Hooker was just as good, or better. The Virginia Tech transfer threw 28 times for 349 yards with two scores and no picks, and also led all rushers with 13 carries for 112 yards and a touchdown. 

The 11th-ranked Vols led No. 20 Florida 38-21 midway through the fourth quarter and still saw a potential game-winning pass fly near the end zone, but Richardson's prayer ended in the hands of Vol DB Kamal Hadden, and now Tennessee will open October in the AP Top 10 for just the second time since 2005. 

Arkansas and Texas A&M's seasons may have turned on a dime. Or two of them. With 3:11 to play in the first half, No. 10 Arkansas was a couple yards away from more than likely taking a 21-7 lead on No. 23 Texas A&M. The Hogs' first-and-goal run from the 3 was stuffed, but that wasn't the worst thing in the world. Arkansas' run game was rolling, and the clock would keep ticking as they tried again on second, third or even fourth down.

Except those second, third and fourth down tries happened, because an extremely college football thing happened. A kid tried to make a play when a play wasn't there to be made. 

Quarterback KJ Jefferson stretched the ball toward the goal line -- mind you, he wasn't even close to the goal line, relatively speaking -- and the next thing you know the Aggies had a convoy going back the other way. Next thing you know, Arkansas and A&M's whole seasons may have changed.

Aided by that 13-point swing (A&M's PAT after the 98-yard fumble return never got off the ground), A&M took a 23-14 lead to the fourth quarter. Arkansas got off the mat with a 13-play, 74-yard touchdown drive, almost all of it on the ground, then forced a missed field goal. With 6:30 to play, Arkansas took over with a chance to win the game.

Arkansas maneuvered their way to a 2nd-and-5 at the A&M 16 with just over three minutes to play, but an errant snap essentially killed the drive. Sam Pittman settled for a 42-yard go-ahead field goal, when something happened that no living person has ever seen before.

Texas A&M has now won two straight hard fought games against ranked (at the time) opponents, and two straight Max Johnson starts. Alabama looms, but the Aggies will be more talented than everyone else on their schedule. 

Arkansas, meanwhile, gets Alabama next, and then three straight road games. Where will this team be in November? And will they ever be able to truly put Jefferson's stretch-and-swipe and the Oink Doink behind them? 

Clemson just keeps on winning. The fifth-ranked Tigers entered Saturday's game at No. 21 Wake Forest 62nd in the nation at 6.04 yards a play and 74th in passing efficiency. Both numbers are better than 2021 (when Clemson was in the 100s in both), but not by all that much.

And yet Clemson wakes Sunday morning with the nation's longest winning streak. 

DJ Uiagaleilei completed 26-of-41 passes for 371 yards and five touchdown, the last of which secured the Tigers' 10th consecutive victory, 51-45 in two overtimes. In fact, three of Uiagaleilei's touchdowns came after Clemson trailed 28-20 deep into the third quarter. 

Dabo Swinney's team hosts No. 12 NC State on Saturday, in what looks to be the game of the year in the ACC. Win that and the Tigers will face one, maybe two, ranked opponents between now and Selection Sunday.

The numbers may not ever look as pretty as they did in the Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence days, but the end result may have Clemson in the College Football Playoff all the same. 

Appalachian State completes the most eventful September in college football. When the home team opened a 28-3 lead over visiting James Madison, App State fans should've been terrified. That was the point where the game was bound to get interesting. Because they always do in Boone.

James Madison scored 29 unanswered to come back and win, 32-28. 

The key sequence came early in the fourth quarter. JMU went 92 yards in five plays to pull within 28-25, intercepted Chase Brice on the next snap from scrimmage, and then took the lead four plays later. App went three-and-out on their next possession, JMU then salted the game away with a 13-play, 7-minute drive that resulted in no points but sucked the life out of the home side anyway. After four straight emotional games that went down to the wire, the Mountaineers simply ran out of gas, while the Dukes announced their arrival as a force to be reckoned with in the Sun Belt. 

Sonny Dykes wins his return to Dallas. In On the Line on Thursday I quoted a plugged-in SMU alum who said the atmosphere Dykes' return who said, "For the faithful we have, it'll be an 11" on a 1-to-10 scale. Key phrase: "For the faithful we have."

The sold-out crowd didn't actually fill Ford Stadium until the second quarter. By that point, the home team was already down 14-0.

The Frogs led by as much as 28-7 in the second quarter; SMU eventually pulled within a score and had the ball, but TCU intercepted SMU QB Tanner Mordecai and turned it into a touchdown in a 42-34 Frogs win. The better team and the better program won the game.

And on the way out, one of the most mild-mannered coaches in college football finally got in on the fun.

FRIES 

Seen and Heard

Dana Holgorsen after a 34-27 win over Rice.

Joey McGuire to his team after defeating No. 22 Texas: "I told you they were going to break and they did." Tech ran 100 plays, keyed by converting six fourth downs on eight tries, to UT's 60 in rallying from a 31-17 third quarter deficit to win 37-34 in overtime.

Rick Stockstill on Middle Tennessee's 45-31 win at No. 25 Miami: "It was a butt kicking. It was no fluke."

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

1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Ohio State
4. Michigan
5. Clemson
6. USC
7. Penn State
8. Oregon
9. Kentucky
10. Tennessee
11. Utah
12. BYU
13. Baylor
14. Ole Miss
15. Minnesota
16. Washington

Odds and Ends

a. Washington State was 6:42 away from beating Oregon 34-22, and lost 44-41. Bo Nix threw for 124 yards and two touchdowns in the final half of the fourth quarter, and Oregon continues to be a very good team post-Georgia.

b. Speaking of Georgia, Kent State was within 12-10 of the No. 1 team in the country for a brief moment in the second quarter. The Flashes' suicide run of three Power 5 paycheck games (at No. 18 Washington, at No. 6 Oklahoma, at No. 1 Georgia) is now complete, and Kent State should fight very well within its weight class after college football's toughest September.

c. Western Kentucky absolutely demolished FIU, 73-0. It's the first time an FBS team has beaten a conference opponent by 70 or more since Michigan did it to Rutgers on Oct. 8, 2016.

d. The state schools in Colorado are going to struggle to win a game this year.

e. Notre Dame moved to 21-1 all-time against North Carolina with a 45-32 win.

f. Mel Tucker called himself a "horseshit coach" after Michigan State's loss at Washington last week. He and his Spartans returned home and... were drilled by Minnesota, 34-7. The Gophers out-gained the Spartans 508-240 and have out-scored their first four opponents 183-24.

g. Former Tulane offensive coordinator Will Hall won his return to New Orleans, leading Southern Miss to a 27-24 win over the Green Wave.

h. Florida State might just be the best team in the state of Florida. The Seminoles moved to 4-0 with a 44-14 demolition of Boston College. Their next three games: vs. No. 21 Wake Forest, at No. 12 NC State, vs. No. 5 Clemson.

i. Indiana teams might want to stop scheduling Cincinnati.

j. The lowest over/under of the century hit the... over. Iowa and Rutgers combined for 37 points, beating the number of 33.5. Of those 37, Iowa's defense scored 14 in a 27-10 Hawkeyes win. 

k. This right here is literally the most animated I've ever seen Dave Aranda. His 17th-ranked Bears went to Ames and beat Iowa State, 31-24. 

l. James Madison won its Sun Belt debut, and so did Old Dominion, pulling out a 29-26 win over Arkansas State.

m. Marshall was not so fortunate, losing 16-7 at Troy.

n. It took two overtimes, but the American Navy finally defeated a band of Pirates. Navy 23, East Carolina 20.

o. Northwestern has won the Big Ten West in each of the past two even-numbered years. I don't think that's happening a third time. The Wildcats fell to 1-3 with a 17-14 home loss to Miami (Ohio), dropping them to 1-3 on the year. Although that one win did come against B1G West rival Nebraska.

p. I've waited this long to mention it on purpose, but No. 7 USC pulled out a 17-14 win at previously undefeated Oregon State. The typical efficiency of Lincoln Riley's offense did not make the trip to Corvallis (Caleb Williams was 16-of-36 for 180 yards) but the defense did.

DESSERT

Stephen F. Austin had the opportunity to score 100 and declined.