Hey, what's cooking in the world of college football? The 20th-ranked UCLA Bruins are taking a bye week, which is when a team takes the week off of playing. So this week, I'm going to talk about all of the football games that featured the top 25. On Thursday night, UCLA's crosstown rival, the then-17th-ranked USC Trojans played against the Washington Huskies. After the first half, USC kicked a field goal to lead 6-3. Huskies running back Myles Gaskin ran a bunch of big plays as he and quarterback Jake Browning led Washington to a 17-12 victory against USC. On Saturday, some of the games in the top 25 were quite wild. Top-ranked Ohio State escaped a struggling Maryland in a 49-28 Buckeyes victory. Maryland kept the games as close as a 21-21 tie midway through the third quarter, but could not hang on to top the #1 team in the country. Third-ranked Baylor exploded on offense in a 66-7 blowout win against Kansas, one of very few winless teams as of now. Number 14 Ole Miss was coming off of a blowout loss to the Florida Gators. They defeated New Mexico State 52-3 in a cakewalk game. New Mexico State is also a winless team.
The first of the shockers this past Saturday was the Red River Rivalry game, featuring 10th-ranked Oklahoma and a struggling Texas football team. Texas bounced back from a series of disappointing losses, coming off of a 50-7 loss against then-4th-ranked TCU, taking a 24-17 win against 10th-ranked Oklahoma. Twenty-second ranked Iowa, who upset then-20th-ranked Wisconsin 10-6 the past week, held on to a 29-20 win against Illionois. Number 24 Toledo crushed Kent State 38-7. Both Iowa and Toledo are currently two of a few undefeated teams. The sixth and seventh-ranked teams, Clemson and LSU, cruised in their games. Clemson beat Georgia Tech 43-24 and LSU beat South Carolina 45-24. The Big Ten Conference's big game of the week featured #13 Northwestern and #18 Michigan. This game turned into Michigan's second shutout game against a ranked team, as they defeated Northwestern 38-0. Their other shutout win was a 31-0 game against then-22nd-ranked BYU, who barely lost 24-23 to UCLA the past week. Number 15 Notre Dame cruised past Navy 41-24 and #25 Boise State crushed Colorado State 41-10. As of now, Boise State's only loss this year was a 35-24 game against BYU, who, again, almost upset UCLA. Number 11 Florida had a stifling defense after crushing Ole Miss the past week. The Gators won 21-3 against Missouri.
This is where the wildness comes in. Number 21 Oklahoma State traveled near the East Coast to take on West Virginia. Going into overtime, quarterback J.W. Walsh ran into the end zone on 4th down and goal to make the score 33-26. But on West Virginia's chance to tie up the game, quarterback Skyler Howard threw an incomplete pass on 4th down and goal, as Oklahoma State went on to continue staying undefeated. Number 19 Georgia was looking to rebound after a humiliating 38-10 loss to Alabama as they traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee to take on Tennessee. Unfortunately, Georgia lost for the second straight time, falling 38-31. Speaking of Alabama, the eighth-ranked Crimson Tide trailed a struggling Arkansas 7-3 at the half. They ran off in the fourth quarter, clinching a 27-14 victory. Second-ranked TCU was given a really bad time as they trailed 35-17 at halftime against Kansas State. The Horned Frogs rallied right back, using a go-ahead touchdown pass from Trevone Boykin to Josh Doctson to get a 52-45 win. Fourth-ranked Michigan State faced off against a flailing Rutgers. The Spartans trailed 14-10 at halftime. But they came right back and beat Rutgers on a go-ahead touchdown run by running back LJ Scott. Michigan State won 31-24. In the Sunshine state, #12 Florida State challenged Miami. The Hurricanes had a 24-23 lead that was blown as FSU running back Dalvin Cook saved the game as he did last year, leading Florida State to a 29-24 victory. Fifth-ranked Utah, coming off of a bye week after crushing then-#13 Oregon 62-20, took on 23rd-ranked California in Salt Lake City. In the third quarter, Cal cut Utah's lead to 27-24 after recovering a fumble from Utah running back Devontae Booker. On the final play of Cal's last offensive drive, Bears quarterback Jared Goff threw a pass intended straight for wide receiver Kenny Lawler, only to have it batted down by Utah defender Boobie Hobbs (Seriously, that's what everyone calls the guy. Do not take any offense to this, girls). Utah won the game 30-24 to remain undefeated as Cal suffered their first loss of the season.
The new top 25 rankings were quite interesting the following Sunday morning, as USC and Georgia dropped out of the polls. Duke and Houston replaced them as Duke became #25 and undefeated Houston became 24th. Duke's only loss is against Northwestern, who is now ranked 20th after a blowout loss to Michigan. Michigan moved up to 12th. Their only loss this year was a 24-17 defeat against Utah at the start of the season. Speaking of Utah, the Utes rose to 4th after their victory against California, who stayed at 23rd in the polls despite losing their first game of the season. LSU and Clemson each moved up one spot as Clemson barged into the top 5, replacing Michigan State, who fell to 7th after a close call against Rutgers. LSU is now ranked 6th. Top-ranked Ohio State remains at #1 while Baylor and TCU swapped positions: Baylor being second and TCU being third. Florida hopped up to #8 after shutting down the Missouri offense in a 21-3 victory. Texas A&M stayed at ninth as they took a bye week. Alabama fell to tenth after barely escaping Arkansas at home. Florida State moved up one spot in the top 25 to #11. Ole Miss moved to 13th and Notre Dame moved to 14th. Oklahoma State and Iowa both leaped 5 spots. OK State is 16th and Iowa is 17th. Oklahoma tumbled to 19th after losing to a struggling Texas team. Boise State jumped to 21st and Toledo moved to 22nd after both teams had blowout wins.
So where are Stanford and UCLA? Stanford, who had a bye week like UCLA and Texas A&M, moved up one spot to 15th, while UCLA moved to 18th. Both Stanford and UCLA will play each other this coming Thursday. Before this week, Stanford blew out Arizona 55-17 at home, a week after UCLA crushed U of A 56-30 in Arizona. In case you want to know who USC is playing next, well, they have to take on 14th-ranked Notre Dame in Indiana. But back to UCLA, let's hope that the Bruins will bounce back after getting crushed by Arizona State 38-23 at the Rose Bowl. Stanford has been the one team that UCLA always struggles to beat. Bruins head coach Jim Mora currently does not have any wins against Stanford. In the Jim Mora era (2012 football season-present), UCLA has lost to Stanford 35-17 in the Rose Bowl in 2012 and then lost again 27-24 at Stanford at the 2012 Pac-12 Championship off of a missed 52-yard field goal by Ka'imi Fairbairn. In 2013, UCLA's offense was smothered up at Stanford as the Bruins lost 24-10. Finally, in 2014, the Bruins, who were ranked eighth at the time coming off of a 38-20 blowout win against then-#19 USC, blew a conference championship opportunity by losing to a struggling Stanford at the Rose Bowl 31-10. This upcoming game may change things up for both teams, although Stanford is predicted to win by 5. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BRUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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