College Football: Postponement Central

Another week of College Football, another batch of postponements for the 5 Yard College team to contend with. 11 games were either postponed or cancelled as Covid once again did its best to disrupt the schedule. A number of teams managed to rearrange fixtures or else this could have been a bleak weekend of college football.

We still had a blockbuster bunch of games going ahead including the exciting matchup of undefeated duo of Coastal Carolina & BYU & all 4 of the top 4 ranked teams were in action. Number 1 ranked Bama put LSU to the sword with its incredible offence in particular Devonta Smith who continues to put up highlight reel after highlight reel ending the day with 231 yards and 3 touchdowns and continues to push up his draft stock.

Postponed Fixtures

Alabama (1) – Arkansas

Vanderbilt – Georgia (8)

North Carolina (17) – Miami (10)

Miami (10) – Wake Forest

Wake Forest – Louisville

Florida State – Duke

Ole Miss – LSU

Houston – Memphis

Mizzou – Mississippi State

LA Monroe – Troy

Cincinnati (7) – Tulsa (24)

MidWeek Madness

Thursday

LA Tech 42-31 North Texas

Air Force 35-7 Utah State

Friday

Louisiana(25) 24-21 Appalachian State

The first casualty of the week came as the ranked matchup of number 7 Cincinnati & the number 24 Tulsa was postponed after positive tests in Tulsa. The programs are looking to rearrange the fixture.

Saturday Spectacular 

ACC

Syracuse 21-45 Notre Dame (2)

Clemson (3) 45-10 Virginia Tech

Miami (10) 48-0 Duke

Western Carolina 9-49 North Carolina (17)

Boston College 32-43 Virginia

Georgia Tech 13-23 NC State

Syracuse 21-45 Notre Dame (2)

Notre Dame played in front of their fans at Notre Dame Stadium for the last time this season and Syracuse were the last team to overcome before the tasty matchup with Clemson in the ACC Championship.

This one ended up a walkover for Notre Dame who were 24-7 up by half time and did not look back. Quarterback Ian Book secured his 30th victory as a starter setting a school record and finished with 285 yards and 3 touchdowns as well as 2 rushing touchdowns on 53 yards to boot.

Javon Mckinley was the main benefactor of Ian Books passing grabbing all three of the touchdowns on 7 receptions and 111 yards. It wasn’t all done through the air however as both Notre Dame running backs went for almost matching yardage. Kyren Williams went for 110 yards on 20 attempts and Chris Tyree had 109 yards and 1 touchdown from 6 attempts.

Notre Dame defence have been solid all year but did allow 229 rushing yards from a 1-10 Syracuse offence and will need to be back to their best when they come up against Clemson next week.

They have all but secured a spot in the Top 4 even if they lose out to Clemson in the ACC Championship.

Clemson (3) 45-10 Virginia Tech

The second best team in the ACC made life difficult for themselves at times against Virginia Tech at least in the first half only holding a 7 point lead.

The second half was a different story which ended as a blowout with Clemson scoring 28 unanswered points and taking some confidence into the crucial ACC Championship match up against Notre Dame next week. 

Clemson has been underwhelming at times in the rushing aspect of their offence who ranked in the bottom half of the ACC and averaged under 150 yards per game. They look to have got it right at the right time with a multiple rusher approach against Virginia tech going for 238 yards and 4 scores across 5 players.

Lawrence had a quieter day through the air with the game focused on the ground, He threw 22 times with 12 completions which resulted in 195 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He did it on the ground however with 41 yards and 2 rushing touchdowns from 7 attempts. 

Will Clemson be able to take revenge over Notre Dame in the ACC Championship, it won’t be long before we find out.

SEC

Alabama (1) 55-17 LSU

Texas A&M (5) 31-20 Auburn

Florida (6) 31-19 Tennessee

Arkansas 48-50 Mizzou

South Carolina 18-41 Kentucky

Texas A&M (5) 31-20 Auburn

Texas A&M as still in the hunt for a playoff spot after overcoming Auburn once again showing a capable rushing offence and a dominant defence. 

Texas A&M had to come from behind in the fourth after finding themselves 14-20 down but came up good in the final quarter scoring 17 points with a passing touchdown from Wydermyer, a rushing score from Ainias Smith & a 42 yard field goal from Seth Small to see out the game.

Auburn QB Bo Nix was smothered all day by the Texas A&M defence and was only able to put up 144 yards through the air. He did manage 49 yards and 2 scores on the ground from 11 attempts.

Auburn will be glad to see the back of this season with a current record of 5-4, Whilst Texas A&M will be watching both the college football ACC Championship game & Ohio State’s remaining fixtures in the hopes of stealing a college football playoff spot come January.

Big Ten

Ohio State (4) 52-12 Michigan State

Indiana (12) 14-6 Wisconsin (16)

Iowa (19) 35-21 Illinois

Nebraska 37-27 Purdue

Penn State 23-7 Rutgers

Big 12

West Virginia 6-42 Iowa State (9)

Baylor 14-27 Oklahoma (11)

Oklahoma St (15) 22-29 TCU

Texas 69-31 Kansas State

Kansas 13-16 Texas Tech

Texas 69-31 Kansas State

Texas may not be a ranked team and head coach Tom Herman could well be out the door by year’s end but that didn’t stop them blowing out Kansas State and putting up over 600 offensive yards and nearly 70 points in this blowout performance.

Sam Ehlinger was not the star man on offence for Texas despite going for 274 yards and 2 passing touchdowns. Today was the day of the rushing game with 334 yards and 7 rushing touchdowns. Bijan Robinson put up 172 yards and 3 scores on 9 attempts & Roschon Johnson who went 139 yards and 3 scores on 14 attempts. The two rushers have a combined 2 scores all year before today. As a matter of fact this was Robinson’s first touchdowns of his career.

It was not all doom and gloom for Kansas State, Freshman running back Deuce Vaughan continued his impressive season with 125 yards and two touchdowns from 10 rushing attempts.

It seems clear to most that Tom Herman will be out the door sooner than later but this blowout will at least give him one more week & it also makes 4 wins in 5. Will a season end victory over Kansas next weekend be enough to give Herman another year on the throne at Texas.

PAC-12

Stanford 31-26 Washington (22)

Oregon (23) 17-21 California

Colorado 24-13 Arizona

UCLA 25-18 Arizona State

Oregon State 24-30 Utah

Best of the Rest

BYU (13) 17-22 Coastal Carolina (18)

Tulsa (24) 19-6 Navy

Memphis 21-35 Tulane

Rice 20-0 Marshall (21)

Florida Atlantic 3-20 Georgia Southern

Toledo 41-24 North Illinois

Bowling Green 3-31 Akron

Ball State 45-20 Central Michigan

Eastern Michigan 53-42 Western Michigan

San Jose State 25-24 Hawaii

Colorado State 17-29 San Diego State

Fresno 26-37 Nevada

Wyoming 16-17 New Mexico

Troy 29-0 South Alabama

LA Monroe 15-48 Arkansas State

 BYU (13) 17-22 Coastal Carolina (18)

Despite only being put in place two days ago this one became a contender for the game of the week. The two undefeated teams arranged this game at short notice and both put up reputations in the game. When all was said and done it came down to a single yard that secured the victory for Coastal Carolina who went to 10-0. Whilst it appears BYU’s fairy tale dream of the playoffs are now over.

Coastal had to get it done on the ground in this close scoring affair as quarterback Grayson McCall was held to 85 total passing yards on 15 attempts. On the rushing side of the ball the standout man was CJ Marable who put up 132 yards and 2 rushing touchdowns on 23 attempts whilst quarterback Grayson McCall was able to move the sticks to the tune of 68 yards. Back up RB Reese White got in on the touchdown action with 1and 58 yards for 12 attempts.

Coastal Carolina managed to keep Zach Wilson and the high powered BYU offence at bay for most of the game, right until the final minute when BYU were handed one final chance to win the game. With 55 seconds on the clock and their first play pushing them back Wilson was asked to go 91 yards. 90 yards were in the bag before the Coastal defence got the stop at the 1 yard line, Zach Wilson connected with Dax Milne but was brought down to as time expired securing the game for Coastal Carolina.

@5yardcollege – Saturdays are for rushing, too. And the road to the college football playoffs is almost at an end.