Should third-ranked Mississippi State supplant Florida State as the No. 1 team in the nation after Saturday's home victory over No. 2 Auburn?
With the 38-23 win, the Bulldogs became the fifth team since 1983 to knock off Top 10 teams in three consecutive weeks. Before beating the Tigers on Saturday afternoon, Dan Mullen’s team also took care of No. 8 LSU 34-29 on the road and No. 6 Texas A&M at home. LSU, A&M and Auburn were all undefeated going into those contests.
On top of that, before the LSU game, MSU wasn’t even ranked. Now it is among the favorites in both the SEC and nationally.
The Bulldogs’ schedule compares favorably to the schedule of Florida State. It’s not even that close, really.
Both teams are 6-0, but Florida State has played just one ranked team – Clemson. The Tigers were ranked No. 22 back in Week 3, and the Seminoles managed to pull out an overtime win despite playing without suspended Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jameis Winston. Since that game, the Seminoles had to come from behind to beat NC State, blew out Wake Forest last weekend and handled Syracuse 38-20 Saturday. Florida State’s win over Oklahoma State in Week 1 also should be taken into account.
We know Florida State is the defending national champion – but that was last season. Should the rankings be judged by past resumes, or should a current body of work be all that is taken into account?
It’s a subjective issue, and we found ourselves in a similar situation last season. It was argued that Auburn played a much tougher schedule than FSU in 2013, but the undefeated Seminoles remained atop the polls.
With the College Football Playoff, this year is different. While the polls are major talking points now, they are thrown out the window when the CFP committee releases its first set of rankings on October 28 with strength of schedule being of substantial importance.
If the Bulldogs do end up at No. 1 when the polls come out Sunday, it could be just a one-week thing, too. If Florida State manages to hold off a No. 6 Notre Dame team that is also unbeaten, it could leapfrog Mississippi State while the Bulldogs are on a bye.
We do know one thing for sure, though: the season is far from over. And if the second half of the regular season ends up being as good as the first half, we are in for a treat.
WINNERS
Rakeem Cato and Devon Johnson: If you don’t know how good the Marshall QB and RB combo is, it’s probably time to inform you. The Thundering Herd is 6-0 and 2-0 in conference, and it’s largely thanks to the weekly performances of Cato and Johnson. This time, it was 337 yards and three touchdowns through the air and another on the ground by Cato in a 49-24 win over Middle Tennessee. Cato only completed 17 of 33 passes – well short of his mark of 60-percent mark this season – but the 337 yards were the second-most he’s thrown for this year. Johnson, meanwhile, ran for 134 yards and 3 touchdowns, the fifth time this season he’s run for over 100 yards. Cato’s thrown for 1,698 yards and 15 scores this season, while Johnson has tallied up 814 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground.
UCF defense: Two straight weeks with the game on the line and the defense on the field, and the Knights emerge with victories. Last week, it was a fumble recovered by the Knights with 24 seconds left in the game to preserve a 17-12 victory on the road against Houston. This week, it was a defensive stand in overtime against BYU to secure a 31-24 victory at home. Neither defensive performance was particularly strong overall, as Houston out-gained UCF 331 to 228 and BYU put up 342 yards to UCF’s 389, but the Knights found a way to shut the door in make-or-break moment.
Nick Chubb: The Bulldogs were supposed to reel without RB Todd Gurley after his suspension surrounding a paid autograph controversy, but Chubb carried the ground load with relative ease. It helped that Mizzou was absolutely atrocious, but Chubb, without his Heisman-chasing sidekick, carried the ball 38 times for 143 yards and a score. Georgia just kept handing it to him and he kept putting his head down. A noble effort.
Brad Kaaya: Sure, no one was there to see it, but the Miami QB was quite good against Cincinnati, completing 17 passes on 24 attempts for 286 yards and three touchdowns, and threw in another on the ground for good measure. Aside from some struggles with interceptions earlier in the season, Kaaya’s been solid for the Hurricanes, with Saturday’s performance boosting his completion percentage to 63 while racking up 1,806 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Duke: The Blue Devils made sure no team in the ACC Coastal would remain unbeaten. In its 31-25 road win over No. 22 Georgia Tech, Duke handed the Yellow Jackets their first loss of the season and beat GT in Atlanta for the first time since 1994. Overall, Duke hadn't topped Georgia Tech since Nov. 8, 2003 and the win improved the Blue Devils' record to 5-1. Led by 102 yards from senior Josh Snead, Duke racked up 242 rushing yards to wear out the Tech defense while capitalizing on three second half GT turnovers. A win over Virginia next weekend would catapult Duke to the top of the Coastal Division standings.
LOSERS
Mizzou: What an epic flop. Maty Mauk had easily his worst game as a Tiger, completing just nine passes on 21 attempts for an abysmal 97 yards and was picked off four times. Two weren’t his fault, but that doesn’t make the disaster any easier to swallow, especially when Mauk also lost a fumble. The difference between the teams was staggering. Georgia racked up 397 total yards to Missouri’s 147, shut out the Tigers on seven third down attempts, and chewed up the clock with over 42 minutes of possession to Missouri’s 17:37. It was an absolute beatdown and separated Georgia from everyone else in the SEC East.
Cincinnati: The Bearcats are struggling. They were smoked each of the last three weeks, the latest pummeling coming at the hands of a Miami team that can’t even draw a home crowd. Since opening with wins over Toledo and Miami (OH), they’ve lost 50-28 to Ohio State, 41-14 to Memphis and 55-34 to the Hurricanes. Gunner Kiel couldn’t even save Cincinnati on Saturday, despite completing 31 of 57 attempts for 355 yards and three touchdowns. Then again, he cancelled a fair amount of that production out with three interceptions, two of which were turned into touchdowns by Miami. Tommy Tuberville steered the Bearcats to a 9-4 record in his first year, but dating back to last December, they’re 2-5 in their last seven games. Not good.
Cal: It was just a week ago that Cal was sitting atop the Pac-12 North standings after its big win against Washington State. However, the stay was short-lived. The Bears, who had been averaging 50 points per game, managed just seven against a Washington defense that had previously allowed 52 points to Eastern Washington. Even Stanford, a team that has been miserable on offense this season, managed to score 13 points against the Huskies. All is not lost for Cal, though. No one actually thought it was going to come out of nowhere and knock teams such as Oregon from its perch. But the dream of a bowl game is getting a little dicey with contests against UCLA and Oregon in back-to-back weeks and a potentially tough November schedule.
Kent State: If Kent State can't beat UMass, who can it beat? The Minutemen snapped a 12-game losing streak Saturday on the road at Kent State, winning 40-17. Kent State gave up 482 yards of offense to UMass, which won its first game since beating Miami (OH) last season (Miami went winless in the MAC last year). If Kent State is to get a win this season, Miami may be in the crosshairs again. The RedHawks are 1-6 overall and lost to Akron on Saturday. The clash of the Titans is October 25. If Kent State loses, a winless season looks like a strong possibility.
Max Thompson, Nick Bromberg and Graham Watson contributed to this report.
- - - - - - -
Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
.jpeg)
