What We Learned About College Football in Week 8

The Big 12 Playoff Picture Gets Cloudy

Things were looking up for the Big 12. College GameDay headed to Utah for the second consecutive week to shine a spotlight on the Utah-Houston game a week after BYU’s massive victory over Notre Dame. However, two stunning upsets put a damper on the day, and could limit the amount of Big 12 teams that make the playoffs. Texas Tech – the strong favorite to win the conference heading into the season – suffered its first loss, 37-24 to Cincinnati. BYU could not build on the momentum of its electric victory over the Domers and #2 ranking, getting knocked off by UCF in double-overtime on a rainy Saturday. While Houston gave Utah a hard time, they lost their second game of the season, and the loss to Texas Tech may not hold as much weight now. The Big 12 still has six ranked teams, so it wasn’t a catastrophic weekend, but it did hinder their chances of getting multiple playoff bids.

Texas Survives

The ‘Horns were on the verge of an epic meltdown after falling from the #1 spot after consecutive losses. It looked like things were about to get much worse with Trinidad Chambliss and Ole Miss rolling into town. Texas played more like the team that was expected to contend for a national title, racing out to a 24-3 halftime lead. While they allowed the Rebels to come all the way back to tie things up in the fourth quarter, the defense ultimately came up with an interception in the final seconds to seal a 34-27 victory. Things are suddenly looking up for the ‘Horns. They have three impressive victories with wins over Ohio State, Ole Miss and Tennessee, and the schedule is more manageable the rest of the way. While road trips to Missouri and LSU will be challenging, Texas should be in the playoffs if they can finish 4-1 the rest of the way.

Michigan is Wasting a Championship-Level Defense

Here’s something that Penn State fans can relate to – Michigan has one of the best defenses in the nation that would typically be helping them challenge for a title. The problem? The offense is contributing almost nothing. The Wolverines kept Indiana out of the end zone in regulation, but the offense missed opportunity after opportunity to pull off the victory. Indiana would go on to win 13-6 in overtime, narrowly avoiding their second loss in a row after coming up short against Ohio State last week. Despite the change of quarterback, the Wolverines just could not reliably move the ball yet again. Michigan may just have the best defense in the nation, but have fallen to 1-3 in Big Ten play with no help or hope coming from the offensive side of the ball.

Tennessee Suffers the Latest SEC Hangover

It’s been difficult to make any sense of the SEC race this season. Every time a team seems to have a season-defining win, they immediately drop an unexpected game the next week. This week was Tennessee’s turn to tumble. The Vols were riding high after a rare victory over Alabama last week. Of course, they then followed it up with a 27-24 loss to South Carolina. It was one of those “someone knows something” outcomes as the #11 Vols were somehow an underdog to the Gamecocks. Perhaps it was because Tennessee has suffered several brutal losses in Columbia – or you can just expect the SEC contenders to have a clear dropoff after each big-time victory.