This was one of the most impressive weeks for the Border Eight teams, despite a few teams beating up on each other. With just a few weeks left, there are a lot of contenders, a lot of pretenders, and just about everything in between.
The Cornhuskers were hoping to avenge last year’s embarrassing loss to Northwestern, and while it may not have been the most impressive showing, they managed to knock off the Wildcats, 17-9. After trading punches for a while, as well as a couple of interceptions, it was 10-6 going into the fourth quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, true freshman Malachi Coleman hauled in his sole reception of the day for a 44-yard touchdown. Sitting at 4-3 on the season, this is the first time the Huskers have had a winning record through eight weeks of play since 2019.
In the show Modern Family, there is a closet company that rivals main character Jay Pritchett’s called Closets, Closets, Closets, Closets. It is boring, it is redundant, and yet it still manages to dominate. That is a very similar representation to Minnesota’s performance on Saturday against Iowa. Field goal, field goal, field goal, field goal, but it worked as the Golden Gophers took down no. 24 Iowa, 12-10. Despite the defensive slug fest and lack of offense by both teams, it was not without its controversies. With just over a minute left in the game, Minnesota punted the ball away with Cooper DeJean to return. He caught the ball, spun out of a tackle, broke another five or so, and ran all the way to the endzone, and put the Hawkeyes up 16-12, except he did not. Right before the ball was caught, he raised his left arm just slightly over his shoulder. This constituted a fair catch and because of that, the touchdown was called back leading to the loss of the game, their ranking, their first place spot in the west, and their eight game win streak against Minnesota.
After last week’s upset against Maryland, Illinois looked to continue their winning ways at home against Wisconsin. Early on in the game, it looked like they would manage to do just that. They scored on their second drive of the game and kept that ball rolling. On offense they scored 21 points to just Wisconsin’s seven and the defense recovered a fumble and turned the Badgers over on downs. Going into the fourth quarter, the tide completely changed. The Badgers scored 18 unanswered points, scoring every time they had the ball in the fourth quarter. The defense also shut out Illinois, making them punt every time they had the ball, except the final drive where they were turned over on downs. The Badgers won the game, 25-21.
In the ACC, Louisville had a bye week after their embarrassing loss to Pitt last week.
Tennessee looked to go on the road and win against Alabama in back to back years for the first time since 2003-2004, and early on, it looked like they would handedly. In the first half, Tennessee had seven drives that resulted in four scores and just two punts with a turnover on downs, while Alabama on the other hand also had seven drives, but finished with just one touchdown, three punts, a fumble, and an interception before a knee to go into halftime. After the intermission though, the Tide turned it on and absolutely let loose on the Volunteers. Alabama would go on to outscore Tennessee 27-0 and win, 34-10. Alabama remains undefeated in conference play and extends their win streak over Tennessee in Tuscaloosa to 10 games.
Down in Fayetteville, Arkansas sort of made an attempt to play a football game but came up short to Mississippi State, 7-3. Both teams had a combined 405 yards of total offense, two interceptions, and as many players with a recorded rush as there were points. To put into perspective how slow this game was, the last time Mississippi State and Arkansas played each other in baseball, it was higher scoring with the Bulldogs losing, 11-6. This was the Razorbacks sixth loss of the year, the fifth by seven points or less. This loss would result in the firing of offensive coordinator Dan Enos. Enos was in his first season.
Both Vanderbilt and Kentucky had the week off from playing.
Oklahoma State is putting together a case as one of the best turnarounds of the season. The Cowboys started the season 2-2 including a 33-7 loss to South Alabama. After their bye week, they won back to back games as underdogs against Kansas State and Kansas and were looking to win their third straight game as an underdog against West Virginia. The Cowboys came out of the gate very fast, scoring 10 points and shutting out West Virginia in the first quarter. The Mountaineers responded fast, scoring 24 of the next 34 to make it 24-20. The two teams looked very evenly matched as the game was tied 27 all with under 10 minutes to go. Oklahoma State closed out the game quickly though, outshooting West Virginia 21-7 in the span of seven minutes to win, 48-34. Oklahoma State is 5-2 and tied for second in the Big 12.
Back in the state of Oklahoma, the Sooners had a matchup against heavy underdog UCF as Dillon Gabriel took on his old school. The two traded punches for sixty minutes and both quarterbacks had incredible days. Gabriel had 253 yards with three touchdown passes while John Rhys Plumlee had 248 yards with two passing touchdowns and another on the ground. UCF led 23-17 going into the fourth quarter, but the Sooners scored two touchdowns to go up 31-23. With 76 seconds left, Plumlee connected with Javon Baker to cut the lead to two with a chance to tie it. Xavier Townsend tried to run in for the touchdown, but was stuffed as Oklahoma escaped with the win, 31-29.
In Manhattan, Kansas, the Wildcats were hoping to not get upset in a rematch of last year’s Big 12 title game against TCU, and winning this game was an understatement. Will Howard got the start again as he threw for 154 yards and two touchdown passes. Backup quarterback Avery Johnson tacked on another 90 as well. While the passing performance was great, it was the ground game that was even better putting up 343 yards. Even after 587 yards of offense, they may have not even had as impressive of a performance as the defense did. TCU was held to just 300 total yards, did not find the endzone once and threw an interception. Kansas State won this game, 41-3.
Iowa State and Kansas both had bye weeks as they get ready to play Baylor and Oklahoma respectively.
In the group of five, Northern Illinois was looking to get their first three game win streak since 2021 against Eastern Michigan. The two teams went back and forth with no one having more than a seven point lead. Northern Illinois scored first, but after an Eastern Michigan equalizer, NIU would not get the lead back for 50 minutes, but a one yard touchdown late by Rocky Lombardi got the Huskies the win, 20-13. NIU now sits at 3-1 in conference play and is in second place just behind Toledo.
In the C-USA, Liberty had a home game against a struggling MTSU team and were heavily favored, but what was supposed to be a blowout, turned into one of the most entertaining matchups of the week. The game turned into an absolute shootout with 10 touchdowns in the first three quarters, five ties, and no lead being larger than seven. However, a touchdown thrown by Kaidon Salter early in the fourth followed by two Nick Vattiato interceptions, Liberty won the game, 42-35 to remain undefeated. The teams combined for 969 total yards of offense and eleven touchdowns.
Down south, Western Kentucky went on the road to play FBS newcomer Jacksonville State. The Hilltoppers were expected to roll easily, but the Gamecocks made sure that did not happen. The Hilltoppers electric offense was held to just 339 yards with Austin Reed being picked off once. The Gamecocks offense on the other hand, had an amazing day putting up 487 yards. Most of the yards can be attributed to quarterback Zion Webb. In the air he had a relatively unspectacular day going for 218 yards and an interception, but he rushed for 149 yards with a touchdown. Jacksonville State managed to win, 20-17.
Memphis went on the road to play a struggling UAB team on their homecoming weekend looking to avenge their loss to Tulane last week, and they very much did. Despite having 381 yards of offense, they only put up 21 points, but when a team throws three turnovers and loses a fumble, that tends to happen. Memphis on the other hand had less yards, only putting up 352, but over twice the points scoring 45. The team had three touchdowns on the ground, two in the air and a pick six to win, 45-21.
Tulsa had a Thursday night home matchup against Rice as a three point favorite and were expected to have a close game, but Rice had other plans. Rice came out the gate swinging, scoring 14 straight. Tulsa responded fast with 10 straight, but that was the end of the fight for the Golden Hurricanes. The Owls outscored Tulsa from that point on 28-0. Rice put up 512 yards of total offense while Tulsa could not even break 300 en route to a 42-10 win for the Owls.
After the bye week, Arkansas State was looking to snap their two game losing streak to Coastal Carolina. Even though they put up 422 yards of offense and two touchdown passes, Jaylen Raynor was picked off twice while Coastal Carolina put up 437 and found the endzone three times. The Chanticleers never trailed and led by as many as 17 in their 27-17 win over the Red Wolves.
- Oklahoma (7-0) (2-0)
- Louisville (6-1) (0-0)
- Iowa (6-2) (1-0)
- Memphis (5-2) (1-0)
- Kansas (5-2) (1-1)
- Tennessee (5-2) (0-0)
- Kentucky (5-2) (0-0)
- Oklahoma State (5-2) (2-1)
- Kansas State (5-2) (0-1)
- Nebraska (4-3) (3-0)
- Western Kentucky (4-3) (1-0)
- Iowa State (4-3) (1-2)
- Northern Illinois (4-4) (0-2)
- Tulsa (3-4) (1-1)
- Northwestern (3-4) (0-1)
- Arkansas State (3-4) (0-2)
- Illinois (3-5) (0-2)
- Arkansas (2-6) (0-0)
- Middle Tennessee State (2-6) (0-1)
- Vanderbilt (2-6) (0-1)