Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Nebraska lost at home on the same day for the first time in the AP poll era — and all lost to Sun Belt teams. With BYU outscoring Baylor late in the night, three top-10 teams lost to non-Power 5 opponents. This is, without exaggeration, one of the most enjoyable days of football in my life. — parker (@statsowar) September 11, 2022
Will we have an era of chaos?
Two top-10 programs lost to 5-team teams, and Alabama nearly lost to Texas. We’re years away from a 12-team playoff, but even a four-team playoff could be more open than expected. It’s not going to be a repeat of 2007, because nothing can be, but it seems like anyone can beat just about anyone right now. We have to start with Alabama, who escaped Texas 20-19. The Crimson Tide had 15 penalties for 100 yards. If not for a handful of Texas mistakes — like a 20-yard field goal attempt, a fumble, a safety — not including the lost sack on Alabama’s final drive — the Tide could and maybe should have. miss this one And that’s not even mentioning the injury to Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, who was tearing up Alabama’s defense before leaving the game. It’s not often that a team like Texas, with six five-star recruits and 52 four-star recruits, per 247Sports, can come away with a moral victory as a Cinderella team, but that’s the state of Alabama (and Texas, frankly). Nick Saban called last season a rebuilding year, implying that this team would be much better in 2022. But Alabama’s receivers were nowhere to be seen, and the defensive backs were constantly beaten by Texas receivers on deep passes. Running back Jameer Gibbs had nine catches, while no other Alabama player had more than four. Even star Will Anderson Jr. had a relatively rough day, taking three offsides penalties, though he did make some plays. It’s easy to say things went great for Alabama when the Tide weren’t shot in the foot, but Texas had a lot to do with Alabama’s struggles. Maybe this Alabama team is more vulnerable than we thought, and the Tide has looked like a shaky team on the road quite a few times over the last two years. Think Florida and Auburn last year. Now this. Alabama needed a last-minute field goal to escape Texas. (Scott Wachter/USA Today) On the road in College Station, Appalachian State beat No. 6 Texas A&M 17-14 in a game that wasn’t even that close. App State ran 80 plays and held Texas A&M to just 38 plays, 186 total yards and seven offensive points. The Aggies dropped just two games in the App State region until their final drive. At some point, Jimbo Fisher has to do better than that. He can recruit all the stars he can get, and he beat Alabama last year, but there are so many unexplained losses on his five-year Texas A&M resume. This is at the top of this list. My colleague Matt Fortuna and I ranked Fisher second in our Preseason Coaching Tiers, but as one agent pointed out, “The A&M guy has been there for four years and has a national championship, but he also has more 8-4s than anyone in the country.” The 247Sports team talent rankings rate Texas A&M as the fourth-most talented team in the country, with 10 five-star recruits and 46 four-star recruits. App State is 96th with a four-star recruit on the roster. The Mountaineers absolutely deserved to win the game. They are now 2-3 in their last five games against top-10 teams dating back to the 2007 upset of Michigan, and two of those losses came in overtime (at Tennessee and Penn State). App State has been the best program in the Sun Belt for years and one of the best Group 5 teams in the country. How do climbers keep punching above their weight? There is a culture of winning and the program knows what kind of players it needs. Despite being a Sun Belt team, App State is consistently tough on the inside and fast on the outside. “It’s different here on the mountain,” head coach Shawn Clark told me this offseason. “You can’t recruit stars. You can’t hire someone just because they have other offers. You have to recruit kids who want to come to Appalachian State, get a degree and play for championships. We say, if you’re looking for nightlife and all, Boone probably isn’t the place for you. It’s been that way since 1989 when coach (Jerry) Moore was here. It’s about values and people.” Still, it’s going to be a party in Boone next week as “College GameDay” comes to town for App State’s game against Troy. 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗘𝗦#GoApp @CollegeGameDay pic.twitter.com/AMQRBI6Xys — App State Football (@AppState_FB) September 11, 2022 That wasn’t the only top-10 win by a Sun Belt team. Marshall went to No. 8 Notre Dame and won 26-21. The Thundering Herd controlled that game as well, leading 9-7 at halftime and taking the lead for good with 5:16 left. Although the Fighting Irish fought admirably in a closer-than-expected loss to Ohio State last week, all of the concerns that came out of that game have grown exponentially. They have no power weapons outside of tight end Michael Mayer (eight catches, 103 yards, one touchdown). Quarterback Tyler Bachner led the Irish with 44 yards, and left late in the game with an apparent shoulder injury. 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗘𝗘𝗧 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 Thanks to the best fans in college football for welcoming us back to Huntington. We are all in this together. GO LOVE! 🦬#WeAreMarshall pic.twitter.com/yGrupZkDXT — Marshall Football (@HerdFB) September 11, 2022 How about the sun belt? It became the first non-power conference to beat two top-10 opponents in the same weekend since the MAC did it in 2003. Along with those two wins, Georgia Southern went to Nebraska and won, posting 642 yards of total offense. The Clay Helton hire certainly looks good right now. And last week, Old Dominion beat Virginia Tech. I wrote in July that the Sun Belt may actually have been the realignment’s biggest winner after the addition of four regional schools with rivalries and a history of success. Fans bought tickets in response, and now the league has two top-10 wins. Elsewhere in the country, No. 7 Oklahoma trailed Kent State deep in the second half and scored just 33 points, Washington State beat No. 19 Wisconsin, Texas Tech beat No. 25 Houston, the Iowa State eventually beat Iowa, Louisville beat UCF, and a bunch of FCS teams beat FBS teams. Who will win the Big 12? The ACC? The Pac-12? Who will win the Team of 5 New Year’s Six spot? So much of it feels wide open. The start of this season is everything we love about the sport, with absolute madness in the first two weeks. It’s also a reminder of why the Group of 5 deserves a place at the table and will eventually get it in a 12-team playoff. Scott Frost dropped to 16-31 at Nebraska after Saturday’s loss. (Dylan Widger/USA Today)
Training concerns?
The honeymoon period and good vibes are over for many coaches right now and the hot seat is getting hotter for others. Marcus Freeman is the first Notre Dame coach to start 0-3. Don’t forget the Fighting Irish went 28-7 in last year’s Fiesta Bowl. They just don’t look good right now. They lack playmakers and lack a cohesive run. For all of Brian Kelly’s mistakes, he didn’t lose many games like this one to Marshall, and when things went wrong, he made them right. The Irish entered Saturday having won 42 straight games against unranked opponents. Now we’ll see what Freeman really has. Jimbo Fisher just signed the highest-ranked recruit in the internet recruiting rankings era. He’s in no danger of getting fired, especially with his huge buyout, but when will the Aggies compete for the SEC title? It sure doesn’t look like it’s that team. Neil Brown seemed like a great hire for West Virginia at the time, but a 55-42 home loss to Kansas drops the Mountaineers to 0-2 and puts him in the danger zone. He’s 17-20 in three-plus years and hasn’t won more than six games in a season. By the way, Kansas has just two Big 12 road wins since 2009, and they’ve come the last two years at Texas and West Virginia. Lance Leipold may indeed be building something, faster than anyone expected. KU is 2-0 for the first time since 2011. Bryan Harsin did himself no favors as Auburn beat San Jose State 24-16, a game in which the Tigers trailed at halftime. With athletic director Allen Green out, the pressure on Harsin has only increased. The Tigers host Penn State next week. It’s fair to question what the cap is on Missouri, but it’s higher than a 40-12 loss to Kansas State. Eli Drinkwitz is 12-13 in two-plus seasons. He signed a top-20 recruiting class in 2022, but the 2023 class is currently ranked 58th in the 247Sports Composite. Drinkwitz wasn’t bad, but things didn’t go as expected after a 12-1 season at App State. Bowling Green lost to Eastern Kentucky in seven overtimes. Scot Loeffler is now 7-24 at the school and his athletic director was just let go. (Maybe Bowling Green should check to see if Urban Meyer is interested in going back to his roots…) Karl Dorrell is 8-12 in Colorado after a 41-10 loss to Air Force, their second meeting since 1974 (the other was 2019). There is no greater indictment of the state of Colorado’s program than getting a body from the state’s service academy. And Scott Frost… I don’t think there’s anything else to say. His buyout is reduced to…
