College football as a whole had a bit of a slower Week 9, without a ton of ranked matchups or upsets. However, the Border 8 once again had a strong showing with a number of stellar games and fun performances. 

The week, after getting absolutely housed by Indiana, Nebraska had to travel to take on No.4 Ohio State. As a 25-point underdog, it looked like this was going to be a blowout in the truest fashion. Nebraska refused to go down without a fight and gave Ohio State way more than they had bargained for. The defense of the Huskers was absolutely smothering, especially on the ground. Despite having one of the best running back duos in the nation, Ohio State only put up 64 yards on the ground and didn’t have a single rusher break 30 yards. Nebraska had three players hit that mark. Despite the strong defense not allowing over 300 total yards, the Husker offense wasn’t that strong. Only finding the endzone once, getting 273 yards and Dylan Raiola throwing an interception on what could have been the game winning drive, the Huskers came up short losing 21-17. 

Iowa’s offense this year has truly been one of the most head scratching stories of the season. In their losses, they’ve looked stagnant or dead in the water and scored 20 points or less. In three of their five wins this season though, they’ve won by at least 24 and scored exactly 40 points. Lucky for the Hawkeyes, this past week marked one of those positive performances in their 40-14 blowout win over Northwestern. It was a close matchup going into the half with Iowa up just 40-14, but a 28-0 scoring run in the second half made it an easy victory for the Hawkeyes. While the offense put up solid numbers, the defense is really what sealed the deal for Iowa. Forcing three turnovers, a safety, and 163 total yards, they smothered Northwestern all day on the way to their fifth loss of the season. 

Sitting at 6-1, Illinois had a chance to get their first huge win of the season and make themselves a true contender in the Big Ten this season. Sadly for them, the Oregon Ducks had very different plans for the day. Oregon blew out the 20th ranked Illini 38-9 and scored enough points to win in the first nine minutes of the game. The Ducks’ 527 yards were virtually impossible to keep up with, especially considering how well the defense complimented them. Luke Altmyer was under duress all day long, barely completing half of his passes. In the end, he never found the endzone, was picked off twice and sacked three times. While Illinois does technically have three ranked wins, none of those teams are still in the top 25. The Illini are now 0-2 against top 10 teams and are still looking for a signature win on the year. 

On a Thursday night, Louisville was looking to turn things around after losing three of their last four games. Against Boston College early on, it did not look like that was going to happen. The Eagles seemed to be shot out of a cannon early, scoring 20 unanswered points and not allowing the Cardinals to score until just barely over a minute left in the half. Louisville drew first blood in the second half with a field goal, but another Thomas Castellanos touchdown brought the lead back to three scores. With 20 minutes left and the Eagles up 27-10, it looked like the game was all but locked up. Louisville didn’t give up as they found the endzone on three of their next four drives and took a four point lead with about seven minutes to go. With ample time to take the lead back, Boston College did absolutely nothing. They only had 41 offensive yards the rest of the game, and despite an interception for the Eagles defense, Boston College turned over on downs on both of their final two drives and lost 31-27. 

Against an Auburn team that was winless in conference play, Kentucky was looking to have an easy victory at home. The Tigers didn’t seem to get the memo and roared past Kentucky 24-10. Jarquez Hunter led the way for the team with a punishing 278 rushing yards as well as four touchdowns on the day. The Tigers finished with 499 total yards on the day. Kentucky on the other hand was stagnant all day. With just 224 yards and one touchdown, Kentucky sputtered over and over again. Now, their fans sit lying in wait, praying for the day that basketball starts and they can be happy again, that is until they lose to a mid-major in March, but whatever. 

Hosting Texas, Vanderbilt was hoping to notch their second top five win of the season. Despite being a double digit underdog, they were more than up to the task. Diego Pavia scored in the first five minutes, but Texas went on a 21-0 scoring run to take a commanding lead. After that third touchdown in the second quarter though, Vanderbilt’s defense clamped down hard, never letting Texas find the endzone and let the offense go on a 17-6 scoring run. Sadly for the Commodores, who were marred by two turnovers during that span and three total on the day, it wasn’t enough and Vanderbilt barely lost to the Longhorns 27-24 after a hard fought battle. 

Going on the road to take on Mississippi State, the 7.5 point spread seemed low for Arkansas as they sat at 4-3 with a top 10 win and Mississippi State had yet to beat an FBS opponent. Arkansas proved this to be true with an all time beatdown against the Bulldogs. Arkansas put up video game numbers with 672 total yards. Taylen Green led the way with 393 yards alone and six total touchdowns. Mississippi State did have 472 yards, but most of their offense came in garbage time as they didn’t break 10 points until they were already down by 31 points. Arkansas ended up winning 58-25 to mark their biggest margin of victory against the Bulldogs ever in Starkville.

Oklahoma went on the road to take on Ole Miss in a battle between two teams that as of recently have been offensive powerhouses. Sadly for high scoring fans, this was not the game for you. While the two teams had well over 300 yards each, scoring was not the strong suit as  they only combined for 40 points. The two went back and forth in the first half and Oklahoma went up 14-10 going into halftime. Ole Miss locked down in the second half though shutting out Oklahoma in the second half and going on a 16-point run. While it wasn’t the prettiest win, Ole Miss advanced to 6-2 before a huge matchup on the road against Arkansas. 

Tennessee had a bye week. 

Things just seem to be collapsing further and further for Oklahoma State as they took on Big 12 bottom-feeding Baylor and were controlled in every sense of the word. The Cowboys scored first with a field goal in the first five minutes, but after going up 10-3, Baylor never looked back. The Oklahoma State offense was able to stop about as much as a strainer stops the flow of water, allowing 343 yards on the ground. While the air game wasn’t as effective on the day, the Bears still went for 222 yards off of 11 completions, over 20 yards per completed pass. The Cowboys did have 433 yards, but with two turnovers and Alan Bowman getting sacked three times for 35 yards, one of the preseason favorites to win the conference fell to 0-5 in league play this year. 

With the top four teams in the Big 12 coming up in succession on their schedule, Kansas was staring down the barrel at potentially being 2-9. First on the docket for them was rival Kansas State who they haven’t beaten since 2008. While Kansas State looked to win in a blowout being one of the top teams in the conference, Kansas showed up in full force and refused to give their rivals an easy victory. Sevion Morrison would be the first to score on the day and give the Jayhawks the early lead before Avery Johnson would find Will Anciaux in the endzone to knot things up. The next play, Devin Neal would get tackled in the endzone, letting the Wildcats go up 9-7, a play that would come back to haunt the Jayhawks. The Wildcats would hold on to the lead for quite some time, but Kansas never trailed by more than nine. Late in the third quarter, Jalon Daniels would score a rushing touchdown and take the lead 27-23 for Kansas. While Kansas would keep the Wildcats out of the endzone for the remainder of the game, K-State’s Chris Tennant would knock in two straight field goals and escape with a 29-27 victory. 

Iowa State was on a bye week. 

Since beating Notre Dame, Northern Illinois has lost all sorts of momentum. As a nearly two touchdown favorite against a bad Ball State team, the Huskies were controlled basically the entire game. The Cardinals led or tied for the first 59 minutes of the game, but the Huskies didn’t trail by any more than 12 the entire game and always kept the contest close. With 15 seconds left to go, Kanon Woodill nailed a 47 yard field goal to take the lead. Despite the ugly game, all NIU had to do was play halfway decent defense for 15 seconds. That did not happen. Kadin Semonza led the Cardinals down to the NIU 35 yard line in 10 seconds and with just two seconds left on the clock, Jackson Courville hit a 53 yarder to win 25-23 to knock NIU down to 4-4 on the season and second to last in the conference. 

After a low scoring victory against Kennesaw State, MTSU had a tall task facing a scorching hot Jacksonville State team. The Blue Raiders started out strong, keeping the game within four the entire first quarter, but after that, the Gamecocks absolutely went off on the Blue Raiders ripping off a 28-10 run to close out the game with a 42-20 victory. Nicholas Vattiato would have another very strong day marred by poor defense. The quarterback would finish with over 300 total yards, two touchdowns, and no turnovers. The defensive line would have more holes than the plot of the Star Wars sequels, allowing a horrifying 438 yards and five touchdowns on the day. Tyler Huff would tack on another 137 yards and a touchdown to make things even worse, knocking MTSU down 2-6 on the year. 

Western Kentucky had the week off. 

Memphis had to face off against a Charlotte team that has struggled all season long. The 49ers made the day incredibly difficult for the Tigers and refused to give them an easy win. Most of the game, the Tigers played strong, starting the game on a 21-7 tear and made it look like Memphis would notch another big win. Charlotte roared back, going on a 21-3 run to take a four point lead with just over a minute left to go in the game. Seth Hennigan led the team down the field in 49 seconds though to take the lead back 31-28 with about 30 seconds left. Deshawn Purdie would try to recover the lead, but it was too little too late, and he was sacked in the endzone leading Memphis to a 33-28 win to advance to 7-1 on the year. 

The entire season, Tulsa has been on the wrong end of some bad losses. Against UTSA, the Golden Hurricanes got beaten down in the first half. UTSA ripped through Tulsa and scored 35 points in the first half while forcing Tulsa to punt on every drive except for three; one resulted in a touchdown, and the other two resulted in fumbles. Going into halftime down 35-7, Tulsa looked like it was going to be another embarrassing week. In the second half though, the Golden Hurricanes let the world know that it wasn’t over until it was over. The Tulsa defense forced a scoop and score on the Roadrunners’ second drive to jumpstart the scoring. Tulsa lit up UTSA the rest of the day and went on an insane 39-10 scoring run to force the biggest comeback of the season and win 46-45 on the day. UTSA finished with nearly 550 yards, but Tulsa was able to capitalize at the right times to beat UTSA for the first time ever. 

Arkansas State hosted a horribly struggling Troy team as the Red Wolves hoped to stay above .500 on the year. In the first half, Arkansas State smothered the Troy offense with a 23-3 scoring run in the first half and forcing three turnovers. Troy made some serious adjustments in the second half though, forcing a fumble and going on a 21-0 scoring run to go up by a point in the third quarter. Arkansas State would kick a field goal, but with under two minutes to go, Gerald Green scored to take the biggest lead of the day for the Trojans. Jaylen Raynor would lead his team down the field in barely over two minutes for another incredible game winning drive within the Border 8 and win the game 34-31. 

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