JiveBlog

Saturday was a night of reckoning for the three programs that came into the weekend undefeated in the ACC, and the one that has run roughshod over the conference for much of the past decade.

Thanks to Florida State’s strong finish, it wasn’t the last gasp of relevance for the league in 2023.

There was enough intrigue in the conference’s three evening games, and something significant to take away from each of them.

Most important was Florida State’s 38-20 victory over Duke. The Seminoles (7-0, 5-0 ACC) scored the final 21 points — all in the fourth quarter — while overcoming an injury to wide receiver Johnny Wilson and a quiet night from tailback Trey Benson to remain undefeated all-time against the Blue Devils and unblemished through seven games this fall.

Florida State Coach Mike Norvell’s team was challenged but not bullied, responding to an early 10-0 deficit with a touchdown drive and an interception return for a touchdown by defensive back Chandler Rivers, followed by Deuce Spann’s 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown moments later. Eventually, Florida State’s depth and experience (namely quarterback Jordan Travis) helped create some separation.

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Which is not to dump on Duke (5-2, 2-1), which once again played admirably in a loss, much as it did last month against Notre Dame. Quarterback Riley Leonard suffered an ankle injury late in that game; he returned against the Seminoles and was unable to provide much of a passing threat while trying to get by on pure gumption. And he did, right up until he was injured in the middle of the third quarter with the Blue Devils in the red zone.

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Duke would turn it over on downs, passing on a field goal with a 20-17 lead. Florida State would score touchdowns on its final three drives. Duke would total 47 yards on its final 17 snaps. Eventually, being one-dimensional on offense caught up with the Blue Devils. But it took a while.

While Duke lost in a familiar way — just not quite enough offense against a brand-name opponent — North Carolina succumbed in a way that has become familiar during Coach Mack Brown’s second go-round in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels simply could not get enough stops in a 31-27 loss at home to Virginia that halted any national title talk before November could arrive.

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This was a Virginia team that came in 1-5, had never beaten a top-10 team on the road and last took down a top-10 team anywhere back in 2005 in the heart of the Al Groh years. The Cavaliers didn’t look the part of an also-ran; they just ran. And ran. And ran — for 228 yards, including three touchdowns from Mike Hollins.

James Jackson’s interception of North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye in the final minute sealed it, but the Tar Heels found a way to lose to a scuffling team despite piling up 490 yards. It’s not easy to do.

Nor is it easy to comprehend what exactly has happened to Clemson, a 28-20 double-overtime loser at Miami. The Tigers’ playoff hopes evaporated a while ago; their chances of reaching the ACC title game are basically kaput after averaging less than a yard per rush against the Hurricanes (5-2, 1-2 ACC), who avoided a three-game slide by scoring the final 10 points of regulation.

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As for Clemson (4-3, 2-3), it has as many conference losses as it did the previous five seasons combined. It’s the first time the Tigers have dropped three ACC games in any year since 2010.

That’s a lot for Dabo Swinney’s team to ponder after a meaningful Saturday night. The same is true of the ACC’s top contenders. But of the bunch, only Florida State is still undefeated, and its league’s final realistic remaining hope of making a playoff appearance come New Year’s Day.

Here are the rest of the weekend’s winners and losers:

Oklahoma (winner)

An emotional comeback victory. An extra week between games. A sizzling quarterback facing his old school, which just so happens to have earned a conference promotion and is getting its only shot at one of the two brand-name schools on their way out.

In retrospect, it sort of makes sense the Sooners would struggle with Central Florida, surviving, 31-29, after stopping a two-point conversion with 1:16 to go and then collecting an onside kick.

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Oklahoma (7-0, 4-0 Big 12) looked flat at times Saturday against the Knights (3-4, 0-4), who won’t face Texas in their only year sharing a conference. That’s the same Texas team the Sooners rallied to defeat two weeks ago to claim an inside track on the Big 12 regular season title.

Former UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel had a solid enough day, completing 25 of 38 for 253 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. But the Sooners scored on back-to-back drives in the fourth quarter thanks to their rushing attack, muscling for five runs of at least seven yards in a nine-play touchdown push, then created a needed cushion on Gavin Sawchuk’s 30-yard jaunt with 3:13 left.

Oklahoma’s defense didn’t perform to its early-season level, yielding 5.6 yards a play. But the Sooners were good enough to stay undefeated. It’s just about at the point of the season where that counts as much as anything.

Texas (winner)

Just like Oklahoma earlier in the day, the Longhorns didn’t play great against a Big 12 newcomer but made one stop at the end to survive.

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Okay, that’s a little too pithy a summary of Texas’s 31-24 victory at Houston. The Longhorns didn’t look rusty, at least not at first. They jumped to a 21-0 lead, only for the Cougars to tie it early in the third quarter. After an exchange of field goals, Texas went up on CJ Baxter’s 16-yard touchdown run with 5:37 to go.

Which set up Houston for an extended possession. And the Cougars appeared to have received a questionable spot when Stacy Sneed was ruled shy of the line to gain on a third and 1 at the Texas 10. An incompletion later, and the Longhorns (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) escaped their old Southwest Conference rivals.

Just as in the case of Oklahoma, it’s not a reason for Texas to panic. But it was a fortuitous call late in the game that helped the Longhorns stay in the national title race. It’s possible to acknowledge that both are simultaneously true and move on to potentially tricky home games against Brigham Young and Kansas State the next two weeks.

Arkansas (loser)

The Razorbacks are an odd team to try to evaluate. They’ve been competitive in every game this season.

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They’re also 2-6 overall and 0-5 in the SEC after Saturday’s 7-3 loss to Mississippi State. And in a results-based business, moving from 9-4 in 2021 to 7-6 last year to something that isn’t going to be any better than that — and probably will be worse — can’t be encouraging.

The latest loss didn’t have the sort of competitive upshot that leading by 10 at Mississippi with 10 minutes to go before a Rebels rally or showing some spunk before losing by a field goal at Alabama did over the past two weeks. Arkansas totaled just 200 yards and didn’t score after an early field goal that came after being gifted great field position thanks to an interception.

The Razorbacks are far from SEC contention, but it will be curious to see how they fare after their open date. Florida, Auburn, Florida International and Missouri still await a team that has played well enough to win an extra game or two to this point — but definitely faces a crossroads after a deflating loss to a Mississippi State team that was 0-3 in the SEC before Saturday.

Rutgers (winner)

There’s being bowl eligible, and then there’s actually being bowl eligible. So while the Scarlet Knights technically played in the postseason two years ago because they were willing to be a fill-in for a team with covid problems, they still went 5-7 that season before dropping the Gator Bowl on short notice to Wake Forest.

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But this year? Rutgers is well and truly eligible for the postseason, without the help of an outbreak of microbes, after dispatching Indiana, 31-14. The Scarlet Knights (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten) bookended the second quarter with a blocked punt return for a touchdown and a half-ending field goal to take the lead for good.

No one will anoint Rutgers’s schedule to be the toughest in the land. It defeated Northwestern, Temple, Virginia Tech, Wagner and Michigan State at home before popping the Hoosiers in Bloomington. But the Scarlet Knights are clearly a better team than the one that went 1-8 in the Big Ten last season.

The Scarlet Knights have won six games for the first time since 2014, and best of all collected the sixth victory in their first try. Things will get tougher after an open date, with Ohio State, Iowa and Penn State up next, but Rutgers checked off a major box before November.

Minnesota (winner)

The less said about exactly how the Golden Gophers scratched out a 12-10 victory at Iowa — their first at Kinnick Stadium since 1999 — the better.

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The upshot is a bronze pig is going back to Minneapolis, and that’s a better highlight than anything else from a game that featured a combined 366 yards and barely more first downs (21) than punts (18).

It also throws another wrench into the final Big Ten West race, with the Golden Gophers (4-3, 2-2) staying within a game of the lead while Iowa (6-2, 3-2) took a step back. Wisconsin (5-2, 3-1) holds the advantage, however tenuous, with five weeks to go.

Rice (winner)

It’s understandable if it feels like it’s been a while since the Owls thumped a conference opponent the way they did Tulsa on Thursday night. That’s because it has been.

The 42-10 rout was Rice’s most lopsided league victory since a 52-14 pummeling of Louisiana Tech in 2013. And it was the Owls’ largest margin of victory in a conference road game since a 49-14 pounding of Louisiana Tech in 2003.

JT Daniels threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns for Rice (4-3, 2-1 American), which is seeking its first winning season since 2014.

Florida State is back, and an older brother watches with shredded nerves

Sam Houston (loser)

The Bearkats are still seeking their first Football Bowl Subdivision victory after Wednesday’s 33-27 double-overtime defeat against Florida International.

Sam Houston (0-7, 0-4 Conference USA), which won the spring 2021 Football Championship Subdivision season and moved up from that level this season, is the last winless FBS team. The Bearkats have squandered an advantage in the final minute twice in a month.

An eight-point lead slipped away Sept. 28 when Jacksonville State capped a drive of less than a minute with a touchdown and two-point conversion with 13 seconds to go, then won it in overtime. Florida International’s Chase Gabriel tied Wednesday’s game with a 36-yard field goal with five seconds remaining, then swapped scores before winning it in the second extra period.

A transition up a level doesn’t always go smoothly, so the Bearkats could have expected a few lumps. But with three one-possession losses, they’re not getting overwhelmed. As frustrating as Wednesday was, Sam Houston’s wait probably won’t last a full season.

Ollie Gordon II (winner)

The Oklahoma State sophomore rushed for 282 yards and four touchdowns in the Cowboys’ 48-34 at West Virginia. Gordon ran about halfway to Wheeling in the fourth quarter alone, scoring on runs of 16, 46 and 53 yards to help the Cowboys (5-2, 3-1 Big 12) pull away.

He also put himself with some pretty nifty company in compiling the ninth-most prolific rushing day in Oklahoma State history. Barry Sanders, the Heisman Trophy winner in 1988, has five of the top eight. Thurman Thomas (seventh in the Heisman voting in 1987 and, like Sanders, a future pro Hall of Famer) and Chuba Hubbard (eighth in the Heisman balloting in 2019) each had one.

And if there’s a running back who’s going to emerge as a possibility for the stiff-arming statue this year, Gordon is making a decent case for himself. After being used in modest fashion in nonconference play, he’s averaging 7.3 yards per carry against Big 12 foes, piling up 707 yards over the last four games.

Tennessee (loser)

There will be plenty of scrutiny on Josh Heupel’s fourth-down decisions, each of which came up empty for the Volunteers’ coach. The quibbling can be broken into two categories: whether it made sense to go for it, and whether it was the right play call.

The first one — from the Tennessee 34 in the second quarter — wasn’t the brightest move but didn’t actually prove costly. The third one came with 2:07 to go and a 14-point deficit; that had to be done, and regardless of what the play was, the Vols were already in plenty of trouble.

The vital call was the one in the middle of the third quarter, when Tennessee led 20-17 but hadn’t done much to bottle up the Crimson Tide offense in its previous two possessions. So going for it on fourth and 1 from their 47 made sense for the Vols.

Going for fourth and 1 with a handoff out of the shotgun against a team that — even in a relative down year — still has more ability in its defensive front than most programs? That’s not prudent.

After stuffing that play, the Crimson Tide needed five plays before Jase McClellan rushed five yards for a go-ahead touchdown. That was the game right there.

But more than some choices blowing up on Tennessee (5-2, 2-2 SEC) to effectively knock it out of playoff contention and (barring multiple Georgia meltdowns) the conference title picture, it represented a massive missed opportunity. The Vols led 13-0 early and 20-7 at the break. They had a chance to follow up ending a 15-game skid in their series with the Crimson Tide with another victory, their first in Tuscaloosa since 2003.

And they let it get away. Granted, things were already dicey by the time of the fourth-down handoff. But it definitely accelerated Tennessee’s demise.

Michigan (winner)

So much for the dreaded distraction that might have stemmed from the NCAA’s investigation into the Wolverines’ sign-stealing saga. (As a matter of accuracy, it would probably be better to describe it as a live scouting infraction).

In any case, Michigan had no need for Michigan State’s signs in rolling up a 49-0 rout and improving to 8-0. It was the most lopsided game in the annual series since the Wolverines’ 55-0 victory in 1947. It was also the last time Michigan dropped half a hundred on the Spartans (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten), whose miserable 2023 season was made even worse as it amassed just 190 yards at home.

Nevada (winner)

The Wolf Pack, which had dropped 16 in a row (including a pair to FCS programs) coming into Saturday’s tilt with San Diego State, collected a 6-0 victory that will leave no one in Reno complaining about style points. Brandon Talton made a pair of first-half field goals, and Jonathan Maldonado recovered a fumble with 1:12 to go as Nevada (1-6, 1-2 Mountain West) snapped its year-plus skid.

Southern California (loser)

A week after being humbled at Notre Dame, the Trojans ran into their true kryptonite — Utah — and took a 34-32 loss at home.

Good thing Southern Cal won’t have to deal with Utah, which has taken four in a row from the Trojans, in the Big Ten.

To USC’s credit, it did erase a 14-point deficit, starting with a field goal on the final play of the third quarter to pull within 28-17. Calen Bullock’s pick-six and Zachariah Branch’s long punt return set up a go-ahead touchdown with 1:46 to go.

But that meant the Trojans (6-2, 4-1 Pac-12), leading 32-31, had to rely on their defense, and the past two months have shown that’s a dicey proposition. And sure enough, a targeting penalty helped extend Utah’s push for a game-winning score, as did breakdowns that allowed Utah quarterback Bryson Barnes to scramble 26 yards on second-and-15 to get the Utes into field goal range with five seconds left.

(For his part, Barnes outplayed the Trojans’ Caleb Williams. Barnes, a former walk-on, was 14 of 23 for 235 yards, three touchdowns and an interception while tacking on 57 yards and a score on the ground. Williams was 24 of 34 for 256 yards passing plus 27 yards and a touchdown rushing, but was unable to generate many chunk plays against the Utah defense).

The Utes (6-1, 3-1) locked up the victory when Cole Becker drilled a 38-yard field goal as time expired. And in the process, they ended Southern Cal’s national title hopes, probably derailed Williams’s chances of repeating as a Heisman Trophy winner and significantly dented the Trojans’ prospects of leaving the Pac-12 with one last league title.

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