Week 9 Reactions and Takeaways | Brian Kelly Out at LSU, Aggies Roll, BYU Won't Die
Plus, Lane Kiffin’s Rebels make a statement, Iowa should probably be ranked, and Miami commits a uniform crime.
Remember when I told you all that this weekly newsletter would publish on Monday? That was very funny of me, wasn’t it?
As I’m sure everybody is aware, Brian Kelly was canned by LSU over the weekend. That piece of news completely dismantled any sort of schedule here at SethStack, and now, for the third consecutive week, the reactions and takeaways column is coming out on a Tuesday. My apologies for the inconvenience.
It was a fun week of college football—it always is—with several key teams emerging as near locks to make the College Football Playoff. We also saw the Big 12 continue to be a modicum of entertainment, the ACC is more chaotic than everybody probably realizes, and the Group of 5’s CFP race, once a foregone conclusion, is now a mess. It’s safe to say that the final five weeks of the regular season are going to be a doozy.
Brian Kelly and LSU Are Done
If you didn’t get the chance to read my full thoughts regarding Kelly’s dismissal from Baton Rouge, you can do so at the link below.
It’s filled with the usual talk about a team that just fired its head coach, but it also features some of my brutally honest thoughts about how Kelly mismanaged his entire tenure at LSU. Frankly, he just wasn’t built for the position, and his firing less than four seasons into his time there makes that loud and clear.
Battered Aggie Syndrome Has Been Cured
Last Thursday, I wrote about how fans of Texas A&M have long been suffering from Battered Aggie Syndrome, a disease that causes their team to give them hope, only for that optimism and expectation to be ripped right out from under them at the worst possible moment. The cure for this ailment was simple: beat LSU. Luckily for the Aggies, that’s exactly what happened.
Texas A&M laid down the hammer on the Tigers, winning 49-25 in a game it was somehow trailing at halftime. The Aggies outscored Kelly’s LSU 21-0 in the third quarter thanks to a five-yard touchdown run by quarterback Marcel Reed, a long punt return for a score by KC Concepcion (he’s awesome), and a wonderful touchdown reception by Jamarion Morrow. Two more touchdowns followed in the fourth quarter, and that was that. Texas A&M went into Tiger Stadium and did what few have done: whip the home team into submission.
The win moves the Aggies to 8-0, marking the first time since 1992 that the program has been undefeated this late into a season. That team went 12-1 and won the Southwest Conference, with the lone loss coming in the Cotton Bowl to Notre Dame.
Obviously, A&M’s aspirations are higher than a mere appearance in the Cotton Bowl. If everything goes to plan, Mike Elko and company will not only make the College Football Playoff, but also win the SEC and potentially even claim victory in the national championship. While that might sound lofty, it’s definitely possible, and Saturday night’s victory exhibited that to the fullest extent. This is not the Aggies of yesteryear; this is a team that can win in every way and doesn’t shoot itself in the foot. Trust me—this is going to be different.
Ole Miss Shuts Down Oklahoma
With all the rumors surrounding the future of Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, it could’ve been easy for the Rebels to put up a stinker on the road in Norman against the Sooners. Instead, the opposite occurred, and for 60 minutes it was clear who the better team on the football field was, as Ole Miss won 34-26 to keep its aspirations of making it to the CFP for the first time in program history alive.
Oklahoma’s defense had been the staple of the team throughout the first half of the season, but Kiffin schemed his offense to perfection. The Rebels put up 431 total yards of offense on Brent Venables’ unit and controlled the ball for over 35 minutes of game action. Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss was especially impressive as he threw for 315 yards and ran for 53 more in his second big-time road start as a starter in the SEC.
And while the rushing attack wasn’t all that potent for Ole Miss—on 41 carries, it only had 116 yards, good enough for 2.8 yards per attempt—it was still able to find ways to move the chains and land in the end zone. It never felt in doubt, even when Oklahoma briefly took the lead late in the third quarter. Ole Miss didn’t blink, scored on its next drive, and dominated the rest of the way.
The Rebels are 7-1 and are essentially a lock to make the College Football Playoff barring any disaster. Games against South Carolina, The Citadel, Florida, and Mississippi State remain, and if everything goes to plan, the Rebels could very well be sitting at 11-1 when the regular season concludes.
For Oklahoma, it might be time to panic. The days of racking up “easier” wins in the early part of the schedule are over, and with a foursome of games to end the season that are nowhere near easy—the team plays Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and LSU—there might be a universe where the Sooners finish the season in the doldrums yet again.
BYU Just Keeps Winning
The human brain is curious. It’s constantly searching for the answers to life’s deepest questions. What happens after death? What is the meaning of the universe? Is Elvis still alive? Stuff like that.
Perhaps the most perplexing nut to crack, however, is the BYU Cougars. Somehow, someway, this team just keeps on chugging along. A team that’s not a top 15 power rated—not power ranked, those are two entirely different things—continues to defy the odds and win close games over and over again. And wouldn’t you know it, they did it again against Iowa State over the weekend!
Down by multiple scores on two separate occasions, BYU took advantage of several Iowa State mistakes to come back and win 41-27 in Ames. Bear Bachmeier threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns, Parker Kingston and Chase Roberts both had over 100 yards receiving, and Faletau Satuala—one of the most underrated defenders in the Big 12—returned an interception back for six. It was an all-around effort that happened despite star running back LJ Martin departing the game in the first quarter due to an injury.
The Cougars, for the second consecutive season, are 8-0 this deep into the season. Last year, it didn’t go to plan as they lost some crucial games down the stretch. With some challenging contests remaining, there are definitely opportunities for BYU to slip up. Conversely, there’s also the chance that the team learns from its mistakes from a season ago, runs the table, and makes the CFP for the first time in program history. If that were to occur, I’d be dumbfounded—not because I don’t believe, but because I’m in awe of what Kalani Sitake has built in Provo.
Rapid Fire Takeaways
Indiana completely dismantled UCLA. The Bruins were a success story in the making. Interim head coach Tim Skipper had revitalized that entire operation, and the team had won three consecutive games after falling in its first four. Indiana promptly put a stop to all that on Saturday. The Hoosiers never left anything in doubt in their 56-6 win as they put up 475 yards compared to just 201 for UCLA. If you want a clear picture at just how one-sided it was, here’s the end result of UCLA’s drives: interception, punt, turnover on downs, punt, fumble, punt, field goal, end of half, punt, field goal, interception, turnover on downs. Utter dominance. That’s just the Curt Cignetti way.
Vanderbilt survives Missouri despite lackluster day. For anybody that watched this game from start to finish like I did, I’m so sorry. It was a slog of the highest degree, but it was also slightly entertaining and enthralling. Neither team had any sort of rhythm offensively, yet Vanderbilt made the big plays when it needed to, the largest of which being Diego Pavia’s one-yard touchdown run with 1:52 left in the fourth quarter that gave the Commodores the lead for good. With that score, Vanderbilt moved to 7-1 and kept its dreams intact, while Missouri’s went plummeting into the depths. What’s worse is that starting quarterback Beau Pribula went down with a nasty ankle injury and is probably out for the rest of the regular season.
North Carolina almost won a game for the second straight week. There’s a lot that can be said about the Bill Belichick experience at North Carolina, but it’s impossible to not admit that this team is improving. To be frank, that doesn’t mean that it’s a good squad, but it was able to take Virginia down to the wire and was literally one inch away from picking up its first ACC win of the season. Of course, that didn’t happen, and the Tar Heels are still bad. Well, they always were.
The Group of 5 has a new frontrunner. Last week, Memphis lost to UAB, a team that had just fired its head coach the previous week. This past Saturday, Memphis upset South Florida and asserted itself as the top dog in the Group of 5. Down 31-17 in the fourth quarter, Memphis reeled off 17 unanswered and ultimately won after South Florida kicker Nico Gramatica missed a 52-yard field goal. As a result, South Florida’s playoff chances are now slim while Memphis’ once thought to be dead, are back in action. There’s obviously a long way to go in determining which team’s going to represent the G5—and it does seem to change each week—but for now, it’s safe to say that it’s Memphis’ title to lose.
Texas can’t keep getting away with this. First things first, Arch Manning actually had a pretty good day. If it weren’t for his unfortunate concussion in overtime, he would’ve been able to finish off the miraculous comeback—the Longhorns were losing 38-21 with 12:29 to go in the final quarter and won 45-38. Still, Texas has been playing with fire, and it’s bound to catch up to it at some point down the line. And with Vanderbilt, Georgia, and Texas A&M left on the schedule, it could be coming sooner rather than later. But hey, at least Arch finally had his moment. In all seriousness, that’s awesome, and I hope that there’s a whole lot more of that in the future.
The Hurricanes wore the worst uniforms in the world. Miami beat Stanford 42-7, which isn’t surprising. What’s abhorrent and shocking, is what it decided to wear onto the football field. I’ll just let the picture below speak for itself.
Houston goes into Tempe and ruins Kenny Dillingham’s day. Arizona State won the Big 12 last season, but it won’t be doing so this year after Houston came away with an impressive 24-16 victory on Saturday. The Cougars went up 24-0 before having to fight off a furious comeback that was led by Sun Devils’ backup quarterback Jeff Sims after Sam Leavitt went down with an injury. Despite the late-game struggles, Houston might be for real, and at 7-1 it’s a major factor in the race to win the congested Big 12.
Washington beat Illinois and nobody seemed to notice. Inexplicably, Illinois was ranked this past week, and Washington went ahead and stole its lunch anyway. The Huskies dismantled the Fighting Illini in every which way, and should’ve been ranked themselves following the victory (more on that in the D Poll tomorrow). But the AP decided to disregard them completely, and that’s a shame.
Iowa’s also not ranked for some reason. Did y’all see what Iowa did to Minnesota? If you didn’t, Iowa scored in every facet of the game—offense, defense, and special teams—and limited Minnesota to just 133 total yards in a 41-3 triumph that delivered the Floyd of Rosedale for tenth time out of the last 11 seasons. Iowa should be ranked, and honestly, it should be in consideration for the playoff. That’s right. The Iowa Hawkeyes, a team that people love to laugh at because they just refuse to play competent offense, could be a playoff team.
Alabama escapes Columbia. It appeared that the Crimson Tide were going to lose for the majority of the fourth quarter. South Carolina had gone up 22-14 with 10 minutes to go, and all the momentum was on the side of the Gamecocks as a result. But Alabama’s going to Alabama, and it came through in the clutch when it mattered most. The offense unfurled a beautiful seven-plus minute drive to tie the game at 22, and then forced a fumble on the ensuing South Carolina possession that ended up setting up the game-winning touchdown run by Germie Bernard with 34 seconds to go. The Tide are good, and as of right now, are the favorite to win the SEC. I say it every week, but that’s not changing until something or somebody gives me a reason to alter my opinion.