Most of the week consisted of big-time programs whipping up on jobbers. THE Ohio State University narrowly escaped with a 70-0 victory over Grambling, for example, and that was only the 3rd biggest margin of the week. Alabama beat UL Monroe by 73, and Florida State won by 74 over East Texas A&M, whoever they are. Florida State would have had a chance to score triple figures if they had tried. They were up 49-0 at the half.
Speaking of scoring 100, Minnesota was up 59-0 against Northwestern State (an FCS team) at halftime. They literally didn’t bother to finish that game after a weather delay.
Some take-aways from the week:
Clemson was obviously WAY overrated when it was ranked #4 in the pre-season polls. They lost last week, and were supposed to win one of those 60-0 games this week against Troy. Instead they went to the locker room at halftime facing a 16-3 deficit. They did come back, but … Troy?
Whatever happened to Oklahoma State? Just two years ago they were a major powerhouse, were nationally ranked, finished second in the conference, beat Oklahoma, and won their bowl game. Then things unraveled completely, despite playing under the same coach who has been there for 20 years. They lost every single one of their conference games last year. This year is not going any better. They lost to Oregon 69-3.
Texas Tech doubled up on jobbers. Last week they ran over Arkansas Pine-Bluff. This week they actually scheduled ever-hapless Kent State. They were ahead 48-0 at the half before easing up, thus crushing Kent State’s dream of a national championship.
There were no losses among the top eleven teams, but some of the lower-ranked Top 25 teams lost: #12 Arizona State, #13 Florida , #15 Michigan, #17 SMU. Most lost to good teams, but Florida had to be concerned after a loss to South Florida. Florida was favored by 18.
The new polls after week two. Clemson’s poor showing in victory dropped them out of the top ten.
The Big 12 is looking bad and the SEC and B10 are becoming a college sports oligarchy at this point. Oklahoma State once upon a time had a big money oil donor who’s name I forget at this point, but that’s not doing much anymore.
Troy has a history of playing tough with big programs. They have beaten LSU and Mizzou as ranked teams and have scared the bejeesus out of many other powerhouse teams like they just did with Clemson.
Granted, but Clemson was favored by 32.
When Troy beat LSU in 2017 the Tigers were favored by 3+ touchdowns. In 2008 (the season after they won the national championship and were heavily favored) the Trojans were ahead of LSU 31-3 late in the third quarter before LSU came back to win. Troy is one of those cool small college teams that often punches above its weight and surprises the complacent.
Well, they certainly surprised Clemson, which was not expecting a tough game against a team that finished ahead of only two other teams in a weak 14-team conference!
But I do remember them slaughtering Army a couple of years ago.