No. 8 Notre Dame passes biggest test yet, top No. 7 Stanford as Irish remain undefeated

By Bryan FischerSep 29, 2018, 11:01 PM EDT
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Wake up the echoes, Notre Dame is for real.

The No. 8 Irish passed their biggest test of the young season to remain undefeated on Saturday night, using several big offensive plays to scoot past No. 7 Stanford 38-17 in yet another fantastic rivalry game under the lights in South Bend.

Quarterback Ian Book picked up where he left off last week against Wake Forest, making his first home start and quickly winning over the crowd with pinpoint passes all game long. He finished an efficient 24-of-33 for 278 yards and four touchdowns in an offense that really felt like they were hitting on all cylinders at times. Just as important as the signal-caller’s arm were his legs too, with Book scrambling for several nice pickups and extending many more. Miles Boykin had a breakout game with 144 receiving yards and a score but Chase Claypool, Alize Mack and Nic Weishar all found the end zone as well.

Those kinds of plays were helped in part by another impressive effort by the offensive line up front. They allowed only one sack and opened up several big holes for Irish backs to run through. Senior Dexter Williams made the most of his first touches of the year in the absence of Jafar Armstrong, rushing for 161 yards and breaking off a 45-yard touchdown run on the second series of the game. Tony Jones added a further 40 yards as the Irish recorded 272 yards on the ground all told.

The fast pace that Notre Dame got off to was nearly matched by the Cardinal before falling off as the second half wore on. QB K.J. Costello made several big-time throws in keeping his team in the game but began to falter once the clock ticked over to the final quarter. He finished the game with only 174 yards and a touchdown, while his late interception seemed to seal the result as his team failed to pull off a magical comeback for the second week in a row.

Maybe more concerning to head coach David Shaw was the status of his star running back Bryce Love, who limped off injured early in the fourth quarter. Last year’s Heisman runner-up rushed for 73 yards and showed his trademark burst on a touchdown run, but injured his ankle down the stretch and was taken to the locker room for further evaluation.

The victory now will see even more national attention focused on Notre Dame as they can put two of their toughest tests of the year behind them in wins against Michigan and, now, Stanford. The Irish do have a tricky trip to Blacksburg next week at Virginia Tech but the only ranked teams left on the docket could be late November tests against Syracuse and USC.

Some will say it’s still too early in the closing hours of September, but it’s very much time to start talking about Notre Dame making a run at the College Football Playoff in 2018.

Nick Saban does not like the new redshirt rule

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By Kevin McGuireSep 30, 2018, 1:45 PM EDT
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Alabama head coach Nick Saban has been one of the more progressive minds in the sport over the years, but he is not exactly on board with the new redshirt rule in college football this season.

“I do think that this is not a good rule,” Saban said of the redshirt rule, according to Yahoo! Sports. “The timing of guys being able to say ‘I want to get redshirted’ is not good — the fourth or fifth or sixth game of the season after they’ve played three or four games.”

Saban went on to suggest a player choosing to transfer after four games is unfair to the teammates that player is then leaving behind.

“We gave them a scholarship. I don’t really think it’s fair to their teammates to have the option to not continue to play,” Saban explained. “I think that’s not a good thing. I think the intent of the rule was so you can play a young player, a freshman player, and enhance his development. This has turned into something that I think is less than what we all desired it to be.”

The new redshirt rule allows a player to appear in up to four games without sacrificing a year of eligibility, as long as that player has a redshirt year to use. The transfer rule was implemented with the idea of providing some more roster flexibility throughout the season to get younger players some playing time and provide a possible buffer to fill in depth concerns that arise due to injuries as the season goes along. But one of the other impacts the rule is having is becoming more visible in that players can now appear in four games and then decide whether or not they want to transfer to another program for a shot at a better position on the field.

Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant made his decision to transfer out of the program last week, shortly after Dabo Swinney had decided to give the starting job to freshman Trevor Lawrence. Bryant’s decision to leave Clemson in the middle of the season may become the new norm under the redshirt rule, which is what is what is concerning Saban and perhaps other coaches around the country.

The reason this is relevant at Alabama is that Jalen Hurts just played in his fifth game for Alabama, thus burning his year of eligibility this season despite Tua Tagovailoa being the team’s starter. Saban said he was not going to be concerned about the redshirt rule as he went through this season, and perhaps that was evidenced by the decision to play Hurts as often as he has in games that were lopsided matchups favoring Alabama.

LOOK: Florida football equipment truck catches fire on way home from game

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By Kevin McGuireSep 30, 2018, 1:16 PM EDT
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The Florida Gators are anything but a tire fire this season under new head coach Dan Mullen. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the team’s equipment truck.

On the way home to Gainesville after Florida’s road win at Mullen’s old program, Mississippi State, the equipment truck apparently blew a tire, which then ignited on the road. According to the Florida football equipment Twitter account, there were no injuries and everything should be in good shape for this weekend’s next game.

Photos of the damaged truck made their way to Twitter, of course. To pour some salt on the wounds of the auto incident, this all went down not far away from the home of the Alabama Crimson Tide, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Florida improved to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in SEC play with a 13-6 victory at Mississippi State on Saturday.

Coaches Poll sees Ohio State, Notre Dame, West Virginia moving on up in top 10 shuffle

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By Kevin McGuireSep 30, 2018, 12:56 PM EDT
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Alabama remains No. 1 in the latest coaches poll, with 61 first-place votes going to them after another easy week of college football for the defending national champions. But after Alabama, there were some changes within the top 10 after a couple of top 10 matchups offered a chance to mix things up a bit.

Despite a win at home against an undefeated conference opponent, Clemson fell two spots in the latest coaches poll from No. 2 down to No. 4. Taking advantage of their drop was No. 2 Georgia and No. 3 Ohio State, with the Bulldogs and Buckeyes each moving up one spot this week. Ohio State even picked up a first-place vote in the coaches poll. Clemson received two first-place votes.

No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 6 LSU remained in their positions from last week, while No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 8 West Virginia, No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Washington all moved up at least one spot (WVU moved up four spots) to round out the top 10 in the coaches poll this week.

No. 11 Penn State dropped two spots after missing on a chance to slam the door on Ohio State Saturday night, but they stayed ahead of No. 12 Wisconsin and No. 13 UCF, each moving up one spot this week. Joining Penn State in falling out of the top 10 was No. 14 Stanford, who fell seven spots after a blowout loss at Notre Dame.

Mississippi State and Duke each fell out of the top 25 with losses this week, making room for No. 22 Colorado and No. 25 NC State to join the ranking this week.

Here is this week’s coaches poll:

  1. Alabama (61 first-place votes)
  2. Georgia
  3. Ohio State (1)
  4. Clemson (2)
  5. Oklahoma
  6. LSU
  7. Notre Dame
  8. West Virginia
  9. Auburn
  10. Washington
  11. Penn State
  12. Wisconsin
  13. UCFR
  14. Stanford
  15. Kentucky
  16. Michigan
  17. Miami
  18. Oregon
  19. Michigan State
  20. Texas
  21. Oklahoma State
  22. Colorado
  23. Virginia Tech
  24. Boise State
  25. NC State

14 undefeated FBS teams remain after seven go down in Week 5

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By Kevin McGuireSep 30, 2018, 11:35 AM EDT
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One-third of the undefeated FBS teams entering Week 5 took their first loss of the year this weekend. A total of 21 teams was chopped down to 14, including a handful of College Football Playoff contenders.

Buffalo, Cal, Duke, North Texas, Penn State, Stanford, and Syracuse all experienced their first loss of the season this week. Penn State, Stanford, and Syracuse all lost to teams that were also undefeated entering the week (Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Clemson, respectively).

The remaining undefeated teams reaching Week 6 are Alabama, Cincinnati, Clemson, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, NC State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, South Florida, UCF, and West Virginia. Given this list and the remaining schedules for all, we know a number of these teams will have to suffer a loss at some point in time.

Georgia will play at LSU on October 13, meaning one of these teams is guaranteed to lose a game within the next two weeks. November 3 is also of note because Georgia will play Kentucky and Alabama will play LSU that day in SEC play. At least two of these teams will be taking a loss (Georgia beats LSU, Kentucky beats Georgia, LSU beats Alabama), and it is a possibility all four suffer a loss (though that may be unlikely). The possibility of an Alabama-Georgia SEC championship game also floats in the air, meaning either Alabama or Georgia is guaranteed a loss before the College Football Playoff selections are made (will it matter?).

Things could get interesting in the Big 12 with Oklahoma and West Virginia not playing each other until the regular season finale in Morgantown. If both teams avoid taking a loss before then, they could face each other in back-to-back weeks with a regular season matchup serving as a preview to the following week’s Big 12 championship game. One of these two will suffer a loss, but could they each hand the other a loss? And how might that impact the Big 12’s playoff picture?

The ACC has two undefeated teams left standing with Clemson and NC State, but one of those teams is going down on October 20 in a head-to-head matchup at Clemson.

The Big Ten (Ohio State) and Pac-12 (Colorado) each have one undefeated team in play, although the odds the Buffs finish the season without a loss do not appear great with games coming up at USC and Washington in back-to-back weeks. Ohio State stands a realistic chance after a big win at Penn State but they still must avoid slipping up at Michigan State and home against Michigan.

The AAC is where things are really of note. The conference has become the biggest contender to get a spot in the NY6 once again with three unbeaten teams in UCF, South Florida and Cincinnati. The bad news is all three reside in the same division and will have to face each other before the end of the year, so at least two of these teams will be taking a loss, and the round-robin victory triangle between them is plausible as well. Cincinnati hosts South Florida on November 10 and then travels to UCF the following week. South Florida hosts UCF in the regular season finale. And, just to make sure we are not forgetting about them, Houston is 3-1 and has a shot to knock off either team it could potentially face in the AAC Championship Game. Bottom line, the AAC is in a great spot to get a team back in the NY6 lineup for a second straight season.

And then there is Notre Dame. Fresh off a blowout of Stanford, the Irish now look forward to a schedule that is not too intimidating looking, so long as they get out of Blacksburg next week with a win at Virginia Tech.

At the end of the season, as many as seven teams could end the regular season without a loss. Odds are it will be fewer than that, but that would certainly create plenty of chaos.