2014 College Football Pool – Week 8 Results

At one point in the second quarter, Indiana led Michigan State 17-14. I turned to my brother-in-law, with whom I was watching the Alabama-Texas A&M game, and said, “If Indiana ends up winning this, I’m giving up trying to pick college football games this year.” Consider that this had already occurred:

• Kansas State had gone into Norman and upended Oklahoma for the second straight time on the road, 31-30. Just three weeks ago, the Sooners were considered by some to be the nation’s most complete football team. The Oklahoma kicker missed a 19-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter.
• West Virginia had knocked off #4 Baylor 41-27 in a game in which the Bears had almost as many penalty yards (215 on 18 penalties) as they did passing yards (223).

And in addition to the completely unexpected outcome of the aforementioned Alabama-A&M game, the following would transpire:

• Florida would give up 119 yards of total offense to Missouri and still lose 42-13. In the last ten seasons, teams that have given up 120 yards or less are 147-2.  The other time besides this one? Florida again, in 2011, when they gave up 95 total yards to Florida State and still lost 21-7.
• Arizona State would look more like Stanford than Stanford, holding the Cardinal to 76 rushing yards and holding the ball for almost 35 minutes in a 26-10 win.

I could go on and on.  But you get the point. College football is a strange world this year.

Another unusual circumstance from this year is that at the end of week 8, there are only four undefeated teams left (Mississippi State, Florida State, Ole Miss, and Marshall). Last year at this time, there were ten! There can be at most three at the end of the year, as Ole Miss and Mississippi State play each other. However, there are currently eighteen 1-loss teams, many of which have impressive resumes of their own.  The playoff committee is going to have a lot to think about.

Since all of the teams are at least halfway through the season, looking at some individual statistics is actually meaningful, and reveals some interesting notes:

• The top four players nationally in rushing yards all hail from Big Ten schools (Tevin Coleman, Indiana; Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin; Ameer Abdullah, Nebraska; and David Cobb, Minnesota).
• The national leader in passing yards is Connor Halliday of Washington State, and it’s not even close. He’s just under 700 yards ahead of second-place Kenny Hill of Texas A&M, and he’s played in one less game.
• Quarterback Tyler Murphy of Boston College has 766 yards rushing, most by any quarterback in the nation. It’s just over 100 yards less than his 869 yards passing.
• Kevin White of West Virginia is first nationally in receiving yards and receiving yards per game, and second in receptions per game.
• Two players have averaged one interception per game: Ole Miss’ Senquez Golson, and Louisville’s Gerod Holliman.
• Austin Rehkow of Idaho is averaging almost half the field per punt this year (48.0 yards).

In small-school news, congratulations go out to Ken Sparks, the coach of Carson-Newman.  In his 35^th year, Sparks earned the 323^rd win of his career Saturday, as Carson-Newman beat Tusculum 55-35.  It ties him with Bear Bryant for sixth place on the all-time all-division NCAA coaching victories list.  Perhaps the best thing about it was his quote afterward: “I told (my players) if anybody wanted to talk about the number of victories that I had, you tell them that I didn’t play a play.”

Congratulations go out to JHutto, who with 124 points, wins week eight by a single point over four other players!  Finishing with 123 points were JagRag, Bamagirl25, War Ralphie, and bevo.

Overall standings after eight weeks:

This week features nineteen games, including three classic mid-season rivalry games: Michigan at Michigan State, Ole Miss at LSU, and Alabama at Tennessee.  Big points are available, so a good week can send your rank skyward!  The first game this week is Connecticut at East Carolina, Thursday, October 23 @ 7 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!