The Border 8 continued to be one of the most electric sections of college football this past weekend. Despite a less eventful week in the sport, the teams around Missouri made for some of the most fun matchups in the country.
After starting the season 5-1, Nebraska dropped its next two games to Indiana and Ohio State. While losing back-to-back is never a great thing, both teams are some of the best nationally, so it wasn’t the worst position to be in. Things looked much better for the Cornhuskers as they prepared to host a struggling UCLA squad. A win would’ve sent Nebraska bowling for the first time since 2016. Apparently, the Huskers are completely allergic to winning six games;despite what the score might say, Nebraska got rocked at home against the Bruins. UCLA took a 10-0 lead over the Huskers and never looked back. Going into the locker room, the Huskers looked stagnant, but only trailing by six, the game was still very much within reach. However, their fortunes didn’t change: Dylan Raiola threw a pick-six to open the second half,putting the Huskers down by two scores. Nebraska was turned over on downs on its next drive, and UCLA scored again to put Nebraska down 20. The Huskers were able to draw the game within seven points, but Raiola threw another interception on the final drive of the game, giving UCLA a 27-20 win. Nebraska has three more chances to get a win if it wants to see the postseason.
In recent years, the Iowa-Wisconsin matchup has been incredibly low-scoring. Neither team has gotten to 30 points since 2017, and with both teams’ strengths lying on the defensive side of the ball , it looked like it would be more of the same. This did not happen as Iowa would absolutely beat the brakes off of Wisconsin. Kaleb Johnson by himself rushed for 135 yards and three touchdowns on the day, finishing with more points than the entire Wisconsin team. Wisconsin was barely able to do anything offensively — going for just 261 total yards and two interceptions. One touchdown didn’t come until the fourth quarter rolled around. The Badgers haven’t missed bowl season since 2001, but with matchups against Oregon, at Nebraska and then Minnesota, it could be tough sledding for the boys up North.
Three weeks after losing to a much better team from Illinois in overtime, Purdue lost to a much better team from Illinois in overtime. This seems like a consistent theme that the Boilermakers keep falling on the wrong side of. While Purdue did all it could to keep up with Northwestern in hopes of getting its first conference win of the season, the Wildcats never trailed and were able to keep Purdue at bay. The big problem for Purdue was its sheer inability to convert big opportunities. Despite 271 yards for Hudson Card, he only got one touchdown on the day. On top of that, the one time the Wildcats turned the ball over, Purdue turned the ball over on downs, leading to a Northwestern touchdown. The Wildcats defense also came up the strongest in clutch time. In overtime, Purdue elected to go for it on 4th-and-5 inside the red zone. The Wildcat defense allowed nothing, setting up the offense to score and win 26-20 two plays later.
A week after getting housed by Oregon in every sense of the word, Illinois was still ranked in the top 25, causing a lot of controversy. Minnesota quickly put that debate to rest, taking down Illinois on the road 25-17. Similar to the Purdue Northwestern matchup, it was always close, but Minnesota controlled most of the game. It only trailed once and it was by a single point for less than four minutes in the fourth quarter. While the two teams had almost the exact same amount of yards, Illinois with 352 and Minnesota at 361, Minnesota played substantially cleaner football with no turnovers while Luke Altmyer fumbled the ball twice, one of them coming on what could have been a game tying drive in the fourth quarter. Minnesota pushed itself into bowl contention and snapped a three-game losing streak to the Illini.
Despite being very deep into the season, the jury was still out on how good of a team Louisville was. Sitting at 5-3, all three of its losses are to teams currently 7-1 or better. However, its best win was against Georgia Tech. Going on the road to take on a scorching-hot Clemson team that it was 0-8 against all-time, nobody really gave it much of a chance. Louisville was absolutely ready for the challenge, though, and dominated Clemson. Louisville spread its offense around all night, with three different players scoring touchdowns on top of four Brock Travelstead field goals. The defense also locked in for Louisville, blocking two field goals and forcing two turnovers on downs. While Louisville only won by 12, Clemson didn’t score its third touchdown until just over two minutes left in the game, and Louisville never trailed in their 33-21 victory.
Tennessee also struggled heavily at home as a strong favorite against a team from Kentucky. Luckily for it, it came out positive on the other end. Kentucky came out the gate strong and never trailed Tennessee in the first half. Tennessee missed two field goals and fumbled the ball in the first half, making its offense look completely dead in the water. It was able to make some serious changes in the second half, outscoring the Wildcats 21-8 in the second half. The Vols never led by more than 10, but that ended up being more than enough to take down Kentucky, 28-18.
Despite the substantially better record, Vanderbilt found itself as an eight-point underdog against a struggling Auburn team. The Commodores proved that the line was unfair to them and dominated Auburn in a very low-scoring affair. Vanderbilt drew first blood late in the first quarter and never trailed again. Auburn was able to move the ball much better than VU, outgaining them 327-227, but the problem for the Tigers was a lack of capitalization. Auburn missed two field goals and fumbled at the end of the game. Vanderbilt, on the other hand, scored three times, and while they didn’t play the prettiest game, it was incredibly clean with no turnovers. This marks the first time that Vanderbilt is bowl eligible since 2018 and the first time the Commodores have taken down both Alabama and Auburn in the same season since 1955.
After one of the best offensive performances in years for the Arkansas againt Mississippi State , the Razorbacks were looking to replicate that success against Ole Miss. That did not happen. Arkansas put up solid offensive numbers with 497 total yards and four total touchdowns, but three of those scores didn’t come until they were already down by 32 points. Ole Miss put on an offensive clinic against the Hogs with an absurd 694 yards of total offense and eight touchdowns. Despite what the stats may say, the defense was also instrumental in the win, forcing two turnovers,one of which resulted in a touchdown en route to a 63-31 victory.
Oklahoma took on a mediocre at best FCS Maine team, and there isn’ta lot to talk about. Maine shockingly scored first, but Oklahoma went on a 59-14 run to close things out. The Sooners finished with 665 yards of total offense and scored eight touchdowns.
As Arizona State prepared to take on Oklahoma State, the oddsmakers expected a close game. That very much did not happen, as the Sun Devils beat the brakes off of the Cowboys to keep their hopes of a Big 12 championship very much alive. The Cowboys kept it close in the first half, as they scored nearly every possession. Arizona State was up just 21-14 at half time. Coming out of halftime, ASU went on a 21-0 scoring run and didn’t let Oklahoma State score again until late in the game. Arizona State out gained the Cowboys 529 to 270. Oklahoma State falls to 3-6 on the year and is still winless in conference play. One more loss would clinch a losing season for the Cowboys for the first time since 2005, which was Mike Gundy’s first season as Oklahoma State’s head coach.
Last week, Kansas State looked very sloppy against rival Kansas. Wildcat fans were hopeful that it was just a fluke and that Houston would be a simple tune-up game. This did not happen, as Houston completely locked Kansas State down and stunned one of the top teams in the conference with a 24-19 win. The strangest thing about this upset was that Houston’s offense was horrendous. 232 total yards and only 40 on the ground did not look pretty. However, as low as the numbers were and as poor as the rushing game was, the passing game was clean. Zeon Chriss went 11/11 through the air with 103 yards and a touchdown. Luckily for Cougars fans, the Kansas State’s offense was worse. While it did have nearly 100 more yards, Avery Johnson had two interceptions and didn’t find the end zone in the second half at all, giving Kansas State one of their worst losses in years.
With one of the top competitors in the conference falling, Iowa State had a chance to really pull away from the rest of the conference, (not including BYU) with a home win against Texas Tech. However, the Red Raiders had a different plan. Texas Tech came out firing, as Behren Morton took his team 72 yards in less than three minutes on the first drive to go up 7-0 and wouldn’t trail until four seconds left in the half, when the Cyclones scored to go up 13-10. In the second half, Iowa State started clicking, going 51 yards in six minutes, but a fumble in the end zone completely stalled the drive. Texas Tech took the lead late in the third quarter and Iowa State scored a few minutes latert with a field goal to cut the lead to one. After a failed field goal in the fourth and a sputtering offense, Iowa State managed to find the end zone with just over two minutes left. A two-point attempt failed for Iowa State,and its lead stayed at five. Morton locked in for the Red Raiders, however, and took his team down the field in under two minutes to go up 23-22. With a failed two-point conversion, Iowa State could win with a field goal. The Cyclones only had 20 seconds left to score, and it just was not enough.Texas Tech would get its first win over a 7-0 or better team since it took down Texas in 2008.
Kansas had a bye week; They Jayhawks will host the Cyclones this week. Northern Illinois had the week off to prepare for America’s greatest tradition: MACtion.
After Kennesaw State pulled off a stunner of an upset against Liberty, the Owls had the chance to upset another one of the top teams in Conference USA. Western Kentucky has had one of the strongest offenses all year that had led the Hilltoppers to a first place spot in the conference. The Owls were just simply unable to keep up with the Hilltoppers, as Western Kentucky came out roaring with 21 points in the first quarter. The Hilltoppers slowed down as the game went on, but they still managed to finish the day with 462 total yards. The defense wasn’t exactly lackluster either, absolutely shutting down Kennesaw State quarterback Davis Bryson. Bryson only completed 50% of his passes for 96 yards, was picked off once, sacked three times and never found the end zone. The Hilltoppers move to 4-0 in the conference and are in the driver’s seat for a conference title game appearance .
Sitting at 2-6, the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders had its backs against the wall. One more loss meant that they were out of bowl contention. While it may not have been the prettiest performance, MTSU was able to squeak out a victory against a struggling UTEP squad . Strangely enough, the usually strong Blue Raiders offense was very stagnant . With just 333 yards and three turnovers, it was not pretty. On top of that, they were only 3/13 on third downs; nothing seemed to be going. Lucky for them, the defense stepped up . While UTEP was very close in yardage with 305 yards, the story was completely different. The Miners found the end zone once and never seemed to be able to capitalize after that. With two minutes left in the game, the two were deadlocked at 13, but Nicholas Vattiato rushed for a game-winning touchdown with 1:54 left, and MTSU stayed alive to go bowling.
The week after an ugly performance against Charlotte, Memphis was looking to right the ship against UTSA, who’d been sputtering as of late . UTSA had the biggest blown lead of the season last week, choking away a 28-point cushion to Tulsa, so the Roadrunners didn’t exactly look like world-beaters. They were more than up to the challenge, however, and forced the Tigers into a shootout. The first half was completely back-and-forth;with Six touchdowns between the two teams and no one leading by more than 10, it looked like a shootout for the ages was in store. The two teams went into the locker room tied at 24. In the second half, UTSA completely flipped the script and ripped off a 20 point run. Memphis scored 12 consecutive after that, but it just felt like stat-padding, as UTSA was up 44-24 with two minutes left to go. Despite 516 total yards, it was the mistakes that piled up and caused a loss for the Tigers. They turned the ball over twice, had 86 yards of penalties and went a combined 4/16 on third and fourth down. UTSA was able to capitalize far more en route to a stunning 44-36 win.
The week after a huge comeback win, things looked promising for Tulsa. Taking on a subpar UAB team, things looked good for Tulsa. But UAB was absolutely ready to play and went on a 45-point run to open the game, putting Tulsa into the ground in the blink of an eye. Tulsa ended the day with a 21-14 run, but that wasn’t even close to enoug,h and the 59-21 victory was UAB’s first FBS win of the year. Jalen Kitna tied the school record with six passing touchdowns and kept UAB alive for bowl contention.
Arkansas State had a bye week.
Iowa State (7-1) (2-0)
Tennessee (7-1) (2-1)
Kansas State (7-2) (2-0)
Memphis (7-2) (1-0)
Western Kentucky (6-2) (1-0)
Illinois (6-3) (2-0)
Vanderbilt (6-3) (1-0)
Louisville (6-3) (0-0)
Iowa (6-3) (1-1)
Arkansas State (5-3) (1-1)
Arkansas (5-4) (1-1)
Oklahoma (5-4) (1-1)
Nebraska (5-4) (0-1)
Northern Illinois (4-4) (0-0)
Northwestern (4-5) (0-1)
Oklahoma State (3-6) (2-1)
Kentucky (3-6) (0-2)
Tulsa (3-6) (0-2)
MTSU (3-6) (0-2)
Kansas (2-6) (0-1)