This past week of college football was incredibly intriguing as a whole, but things were especially interesting in the Border 8.

Starting off as always in Nebraska, the Huskers managed to get themselves up to .500 with a win over Louisiana Tech. Heinrich Haarberg has done an incredible job since coming off the bench at the quarterback position, notching over 100 yards and a touchdown both in the air and on the ground against the Bulldogs. Defensively it was a sloppier game for the Huskers, who allowed two touchdowns and nearly 300 yards in the air. Despite all of that, as well as the long rain delay in Lincoln, Nebraska pulled out the win 28-14.

Iowa had their first big test of the season against No. 7 Penn State. It did not go well. On the offensive side of the ball, the Hawkeyes only put up 76 total yards and  had six completed passes on 16 attempts. Defensively, Penn State ravaged them putting up 407 total yards and four touchdowns. Tacking a storm on to that causing a smaller crowd in the end, it was just an overall unimpressive performance in Iowa’s 31-0 loss. College football analyst and Iowa fan Lucy Rohden put it best when she tweeted, “The funny part of this game is literally no one is happy here. Iowa fans are mad. Penn State fans are mad. Vibes are overall bad.”

The Illinois Fighting Illini had their second one score group of five win, beating FAU 23-17. Despite putting up 510 yards, they struggled to score, only finding the endzone three times while FAU had over 150 less yards but still scored twice. Illinois is 2-2 going into their first Big 10 West matchup against reigning Western champion Purdue on Saturday.

Northwestern had one of their best wins in years after taking down Minnesota at home 37-34. Despite being down 21 points going into the fourth quarter and  having as low as a 3% chance to win at points, Ben Bryant threw two late touchdowns to tie things up. Bryant then scored his fourth touchdown of the day in overtime to walk off with the win. This is the Wildcats first home divisional win since 2020.

In the ACC, Louisville continued their dominance over Boston College 56-28. Jack Plummer had a near perfect day for the Cardinals going 18/21 with five touchdowns and 388 yards, as well as a second touchdown on the ground. Every point scored by Louisville was in the first three quarters. This is their best start since 2016 when they had Lamar Jackson leading the offense.

In SEC country, Kentucky looked to remain undefeated and get revenge against Vanderbilt after last year’s 24-21 home loss. They came out of the gate swinging with three touchdowns in the first quarter. Despite putting up only 365 yards and turning the ball over twice, the Wildcats defense came up strong for them. AJ Swann was picked off three times, two of which being by Maxwell Hariston both returned for touchdowns. The Wildcats went on  to win 45-28.

On the other side of the state, Tennessee was able to bounce back strong after last week’s loss to Florida. The Volunteers beat up on UTSA 45-14 with Joe Milton putting up a total of three touchdowns including an 81 yard run. The defense also stepped up strong pitching a first half shutout and picking off Owen McCown once and sacking the three UTSA quarterbacks that saw the field a total of four times. 

Despite being almost an 18 point underdog, Arkansas put up a major fight against LSU. Arkansas held LSU to just 10 first half points and did not allow LSU to take the lead until the third quarter. Arkansas put up over 400 yards, but two interceptions by K.J. Jefferson let LSU sneak away with the win after a 20 yard field goal by Damien Ramos with five seconds left to win 34-31.

In Big 12 country, Iowa State matched their conference win total from last year in game one of conference play beating Oklahoma State 34-27. Rocco Becht of Iowa State had a career high in touchdowns, passing yards and completions throwing for three touchdowns, 348 yards, and went 27/38. The Cyclone defense also had a great day picking off Alan Bowman twice and recording a 17 yard sack. This is the first time Iowa State has won their conference opener since 2020.

The Oklahoma Sooners played a much more defensive football game, but still dominated, beating Cincinnati 20-6 in Cincinnati’s first Big 12 game. Both teams allowed a lot of yards with 801 yards between both teams, but only two touchdowns were scored the entire game, both by Oklahoma. There were 10 punts in the game from both teams as well as two turnovers on downs by the Bearcats and three turnovers between the two. 

Kansas State also took on a former AAC member and Big 12 newcomer in UCF. UCF was hoping to remain undefeated, while K-State looked to bounce back after their loss to Mizzou. The Wildcats had an incredible day rushing scoring six total touchdowns, four of them being punched in by DJ Giddens. UCF was unable to keep pace only getting in the endzone four times and lost 44-31.

Kansas had another strong defensive showing, beating BYU 38-27. The Jayhawks forced three turnovers, two of them resulting in defensive touchdowns for Kansas. On the other side of the ball, Jalon Daniels threw three touchdowns in the air to lead the Jayhawks to 4-0. This is the first time that KU has started 4-0 in back to back seasons since 1914-1915.

In the Group of 5, Northern Illinois continued their losing skid, dropping their third straight game to Tulsa at home 22-14. Rocky Lombardi did not play much due to an injury, so Ethan Hampton had to play the majority of the game, but was unable to break 100 yards and was picked off twice. For Tulsa, Cardell Williams also had a rather unimpressive day only putting up 102 yards and was picked off twice, but a stronger rushing performance led them to the win after putting up 179 yards and two touchdowns.

In the CUSA, Western Kentucky lost to Troy 27-24. They were held to a measly 20 yards on the ground, and allowed 521 total yards to the Trojans with three touchdowns. This is the first time that Western Kentucky has lost to a Group of Five team since they lost 40-13 to North Texas last season on October 29th. 

MTSU allowed winless Colorado State to get the better of them despite being at home losing 31-23. It was a very back and forth game being tied 17-17 going into the fourth quarter, but Colorado State outscored the Blue Raiders 14-6 in the fourth quarter leading them to the Rams first road victory in their last five games.

In the Sun Belt, Arkansas State had an incredibly entertaining game against Southern Miss. It quickly turned into a shootout with 37 first half points between the two teams Arkansas State was up 34-17 early in the third quarter before choking away the lead as USM tied the game 34-34. Arkansas State was able to score twice late in the fourth quarter in the span of 80 seconds to go up 44-34. USM scored once more late but Arkansas State held on to win 44-37.

Finally, Memphis had a matchup of undefeated tigers against Mizzou in Saint Louis. Memphis had a 10-7 lead over Mizzou at the end of the first quarter, but Mizzou never looked back after that. Mizzou went up 14-10 and never let up the lead again. Mizzou picked off Memphis’s Seth Henigan twice leading them to the win 34-27 stripping Memphis of their title of the last undefeated team in the AAC. 

Border Eight Rankings

Rank. Team (record vs. other Border Eight teams)

1. Oklahoma (4-0) (1-0)
2. Kansas (4-0) (1-0)
3. Louisville (4-0) (0-0)
4. Kentucky (4-0) (0-0)
5. Iowa (3-1) (1-0)
6. Memphis (3-1) (1-0) 
7. Kansas State (3-1) (0-0)
8. Tennessee (3-1) (0-0)
9. Nebraska (2-2) (1-0)
10. Iowa State (2-2) (1-1)
11. Tulsa (2-2) (1-1)
12. Arkansas (2-2) (0-0)
13. Northwestern (2-2) (0-0)
14. Western Kentucky (2-2) (0-0)
15. Illinois (2-2) (0-1)
16. Oklahoma State (2-2) (0-1) 
17. Arkansas State (2-2) (0-2)
18. Vanderbilt (2-3) (0-1)
19. Middle Tennessee State (1-3) (0-0)
20. Northern Illinois (1-3) (0-2)