Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Michigan soared, Notre Dame hit a low point — and more winners and losers from Week 7
So, uhh, anything interesting happen this week in college football?
The season finally felt like it flipped on its head, with Neyland Stadium being the nucleus of the college football world for now. The Volunteers knocked off Alabama in thrilling fashion, which makes them the really big winner of the college football week. Who else won and lost though? Well, that’s up to interpretation, and we’re here to interpret.
Winner: The Bible
When Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh was asked about his QB competition in the offseason, he compared his decision to not name a starter through the first few weeks of the season to the Bible. Starting two different QBs was a “biblical” decision according to Harbaugh.
Well, the Wolverines delivered a biblical ass whoopin’ to Penn State on Saturday.
The Wolverines stomped Penn State 41-17 in an Old Testament beatdown that was never really as close as it seems. Michigan QB JJ McCarthy threw the weirdest pick six I’ve ever seen, and it really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of the game, because Michigan realized that they could just hit Penn State with the blunt object they call their running game.
The Wolverines ran for (/clears throat) 418 yards on Saturday, at a tidy 7.6 yards per carry. To put that into perspective, Penn State had 268 TOTAL yards. Again, this wasn’t like three yards and a cloud of dust type running either. This was a big run after big run type of game.
It’s a shame that Blake Corum will only have 1 season as Michigan’s starting RB
He does this every game – and he might be the best running back Michigan has ever had pic.twitter.com/bF6QSUebCu
— James T. Yoder (@JamesYoder) October 16, 2022
Michigan RB Blake Corum vaulted himself into the Heisman trophy race after that game, and for good reason. Michigan needed a statement win, and went back to the Bible to get it done.
Loser: Alabama’s Discipline
Y’all, this feels weird writing. Like, REALLY weird, but here goes:
Alabama is not a disciplined football team.
For the entire year, Alabama was playing with fire when it came to penalties, and against Tennessee it finally came back to burn them. Tennessee went out and won that game, but Alabama helped them out by continuously shooting themselves in the foot.
The Tide committed 17 penalties for 130 yards on Saturday, their third time this season going over ten penalties. Whether it be false starts, roughing the passer, holding, they all seemed to come at the worst time on Saturday for Bama.
Even when you look past the penalties, this doesn’t look like your normal Alabama team. A crucial turning point in this game was when an Alabama player that wasn’t the punt returner tried to pick up the ball on a punt, immediately muffed it and gave Tennessee the ball. It also made Nick Saban probably pop a blood vessel.
The good news here is that Alabama still controls its’ destiny. They win out and they’ll get another shot at Tennessee or Georgia in the SEC title game. In order to make it there, however, they need to be a more disciplined football team.
Winner: Tulane
It’s time to fear the Green Wave. After dispatching USF 45-31, Tulane is ranked for the first time since 1998. Maybe it really does feel like ‘98 after all. The Green Wave have shown that they can win in multiple ways. Their defense carried them to wins over Kansas State and East Carolina, while the offense took up the mantle against Houston. They’ve rebounded well from a loss to Southern Miss, and are in contention to win the AAC.
The back of their schedule is tough, with Memphis, SMU, UCF and Cincinnati still on the schedule. Tulane seems to be the real deal, however, and that should be scary for the AAC.
If it feels like you’ve seen Notre Dame as the loser before, you probably have. I’m not sure if this is the lowest point for the Fighting Irish this year, but man it sure feels like it.
Notre Dame lost to Stanford on Saturday.
Stanford.
A Stanford team that averaged 26 points per game heading into the game on Saturday, 74th in the nation.
Stanford scored 16 points.
And Notre Dame lost.
At home.
This is getting ugly for the Irish, especially offensively. There are no answers built in the offense, and the lack of a true outside receiving threat and a good QB makes the offense even more congested than it should be.
Add in Brian Kelly finding his mojo at LSU, and the boosters at Notre Dame could want to see heads roll in the offseason if they don’t turn it around.
Winner: Utah’s ability to rebound
At one point during Utah’s game against USC, the Utes were down 21-7 and the Trojans had all the momentum.
Ditto that momentum part for when USC went up 28-14.
However, Utah came back and won 43-42 in what might have been the most emotional and one of the more impressive wins of the season. Utah has struggled to get explosive plays and stop explosive plays, and even did in their battle with USC. However, they just kept fighting. Flipping field position, getting pressure on Caleb Williams.
They constantly fought back. Utah TE Dalton Kinkaid had one of the best TE performances in a single game EVER, with 16 catches for 234 yards and a touchdown. Cam Rising played one of his best games as a Ute.
Utah wasn’t going to lose this game, despite how bleak it looked. The helmets they wore made it a lock.
Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe were teammates and best friends at Utah, who were killed due to gun violence within a year apart from each other. After the game, game balls were presented to Jordan and Lowe’s family, and it absolutely broke me.
Above anything else, the way that the Utah football program has treated Jordan and Lowe’s family has been one of the best things about the sport. It gets said a lot that football is a family. Once you’re in that room, you have dozens of brothers willing to go to bat for you. Utah really embodies it, and I hope Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Lowe can find peace and comfort in the way Utah has honored their children.
