College football Week 9 highlights: Top plays, games, takeaways،
There have already been a few surprises this season, games that went against the script and upended the playoff hopes of teams who, if we’re being honest, probably didn’t have much hope going into it. departure. (Sorry, North Carolina, but it’s true.) But Saturday brought something more — an upset that truly shook up the 2023 season plan.
Oklahoma’s road to the playoffs was as wide open as I-40 west of Elk City after its win at Red River against Texas. The only real stumbling block remaining appeared to be a potential rematch with the Longhorns in the Big 12 championship game. Week 9 surely wouldn’t be the time for the Sooners to collapse. Not against Kansas, a team that hadn’t beaten Oklahoma in so long. John Steinbeck wrote about it darkly in “The Grapes of Wrath.” (Probably. We never actually read that. “The Pearl” was only 118 pages, which made a high school report much easier.)
And yet, here we are: Kansas 38, Oklahoma 33.
After Dillon Gabriel destroyed so many defenses this season, Kansas gave him almost nothing. He completed 14 of 19 passes, but big plays were rare, he never found the end zone and his pick six in the first quarter set the tone for what was to come.
Jason Bean, in his sixth year as the second-best quarterback on a roster, turned in a career-defining performance, even if it wasn’t always pretty. He completed less than half of his throws, passed for just 218 yards and threw two picks. And yet his 37-yard completion to Lawrence Arnold on fourth-and-6 with less than a minute left proved to be the game-winner.
Oklahoma led 21-14, 27-26 and 33-32 – each small lead felt like an inevitable nail in Kansas’ coffin. After all, they were the Jayhawks. They cause upsets against Texas that Oklahoma fans then use as ammunition for jokes for years. They don’t beat the Sooners.
And yet here we are: Oklahoma is 7-1, and just three days before the first playoff rankings are released, its national title hopes appear to be on life support.
Gabriel ran for three touchdowns. Tawee Walker ran for 146 yards. Kendel Dolby’s deflected ball led to a late INT that was supposed to seal the game. And none of that was enough.
Kansas is therefore eligible for the bowl for the second consecutive year. It’s its own story. What Lance Leipold did in a place completely devoid of hope is borderline astonishing. Fans celebrated accordingly by removing the goal post — not because of the victory, but because no structures taller than 12 feet are allowed within state borders.
0:37
Kansas fans destroy goal posts after upset by Oklahoma
Kansas fans rush the field after the final play and knock down the goal posts after their upset of Oklahoma.
But more importantly for the overall situation this season, the threat of real playoff chaos in the final year of the four-team format has taken a major hit. The Big 12 is now without an undefeated team. Oklahoma will play an inside straight for the rest of the game. And as October draws to a close, it feels like the season has only just begun.
It took a while, but 2023 finally saw a real dose of chaos.
Allar leads the Lions
James Franklin can finally rejoice in the fact that his quarterback can actually throw a deep ball.
For Penn State, a sad disappointment against Ohio State last week threatened to carry over into Week 9, as Indiana jumped out to an early lead, then erased a late deficit, tying the game at 24 with less than three minutes to play. The same misery from last week’s loss was visible for the Nittany Lions: too many big plays allowed, too few created. The ground game didn’t account for a single run longer than 12 yards, and Drew Allar entered the Lions’ final drive having thrown (we estimate) 30 consecutive downs.
Allar’s final pass, however, was a dime, finding KeAndre Lambert-Smith down the sideline for a 57-yard touchdown. On Indiana’s next play, the Hoosiers remembered that they were in fact the Hoosiers and took a 25-yard sack for a safety, securing Penn State’s 33–24 victory.
0:33
Penn State takes late lead with Drew Allar’s 57-yard TD pass
KeAndre Lambert-Smith hauls in a 57-yard touchdown pass from Drew Allar to give Penn State a late lead.
Entering Saturday, Allar had attempted just 12 passes of 20 or more air yards, fewer than 142 other quarterbacks nationally. He had only made three. In last week’s loss to Ohio State, he was 0 for 4 on the deep ball. And before Lambert-Smith’s uprising, Allar was averaging just 5.1 yards per pass.
But when it mattered, Allar showed he had it in him, throwing a dagger that keeps Penn State’s hopes of a Big Ten title — and perhaps a playoff berth — still flickering.
Next up for the Lions: a trip to Maryland, where Franklin will have the team bus stop at every third rest stop to cover the 220 miles in just under 11 hours.
Smith earns victory for Aggies
There hasn’t been much to cheer about for Texas A&M this season, but Week 9 was something of a high point for the Aggies, by which we mean no one fell asleep while Bobby Petrino signaled his third adjustment on the line. melee.
Texas A&M toppled South Carolina 30-17, limiting the Gamecocks to just 209 yards of offense, while Ainias Smith paced the Aggies with 118 yards on six catches, including a nifty 42-yard TD reception.
1:04
Max Johnson throws 42-yard touchdown pass to Ainias Smith
Max Johnson throws 42-yard touchdown pass to Ainias Smith
Texas A&M is just one win away from bowl eligibility, and given starting quarterback Conner Weigman’s injury earlier in the year, there’s a case to keep Jimbo Fisher beyond the hefty buyout that ‘A&M should pay to fire him. On the other hand, since finishing No. 5 in the country during the COVID-affected 2020 season, the Aggies are just 9-12 in SEC play and just four wins were won against other winning Power 5 teams.
Of course, things could be worse. At South Carolina, the Gamecocks lost their fourth straight game, and head coach Shane Beamer responded to the loss by chopping up piles of wood, driving his car into the side of a Hardee, and twisting his knee after trying to win a kickboxing match against a shark. .
SMU wins big
The over/under for Saturday’s game between Tulsa and SMU was 55 at kickoff.
At halftime, SMU led 52-3.
It would have been hilarious to see a shutout on both sides in the second half, of course, but nothing slowed down the Mustangs’ offense. SMU finished the win 69-10 with 638 total yards, including 446 through the air, and starting quarterback Preston Stone averaged a ridiculous 18.6 yards per throw. To put that into perspective, Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is legally required to report any throw over 15 yards on his taxes.
Over the past three seasons, according to ESPN Sports & Information, only one team has scored at least 52 points in a half. SMU has done it twice (including against Houston last year).
This embarrassment for Tulsa comes just a week after the school’s attempt to set the world record for largest beer tasting failed by 163 people. On the plus side, after what happened against SMU, most of the city of Tulsa will now eagerly consume leftover beer.
Coaching overview of the week
Charlotte’s Biff Poggi, sporting the latest addition to Pat McAfee’s athleisure line, summed up his team’s problems well before the fourth quarter of the 49ers’ 38-16 loss to FAU.
– no-context college football (@nocontextcfb) October 28, 2023
So to summarize: when playing football, block and tackle. Don’t make sausages. Wear pads. Don’t wear sleeves. “Do your damn job.” Don’t talk to anyone or even send funny GIFs on the text channel you’re on with your high school friends.
Afterward, Poggi returned to his full-time job as a lifeguard at the local senior center’s YMCA and, honestly, if Mable doesn’t stay away from the diving board, he’s absolutely going to lose it.
The under-the-radar game of the week
There’s only one FBS team still looking for its first win of the season, and Sam Houston State has endured some misery along the way, capped Wednesday by a UTEP field goal with just three seconds left. to play, giving the Miners a 37-34 victory and sending the Bearkats to their seventh loss in seven tries since leaving the FCS.
A brief overview of Sam Houston’s losses:
On Wednesday, he led 27-20 early in the fourth quarter, blew that lead, scored with 6:02 left to tie it at 34, took a punt, immediately coughed up a total of 37 yards, then lost on a one-goal kick. a man named Buzz Flabiano, which is definitely not the alias Tom Cruise uses when checking into hotels.
A week earlier, FIU made a field goal with five seconds left to send the game to overtime, where Sam Houston lost in 2OT.
Two weeks earlier, Sam Houston had undefeated Liberty on the ropes. The Bearkats trailed 21-16 with 3:36 to play and engineered a 15-play, 96-yard drive that stopped at the Flames’ 3-yard line with an incomplete pass on fourth-and-goal.
A week before that, Sam Houston took an eight-point lead with 1:11 left, but allowed a 28-yard TD pass and 2-point conversion with 13 seconds left against another first-year FBS program. Jacksonville State, sending the game to overtime, where once again, the Bearkats lost.
