College football week 7 is in the books. After every week fans can take away things from what happened on the field. Here are 5 things learned from college football week 7.
Related: 5 Things to watch in college football week 7
In one of the biggest games of the week, BYU held on late to defeat Notre Dame. The Cougars had a lead early, but gave up some ground late, then had a goal-line stand to defeat the Fighting Irish. It was all done without star running back LJ Martin being active. Quarterback Bear Bachmeier carried the load for the team, as he had two rushing touchdowns, a passing touchdown and a receiving touchdown for the Cougars.
With the win, BYU has bolstered their resume for the CFP for themselves and the entire Big 12. The Cougars will have a head to head win over Notre Dame, a team that will still likely be in the mix for the CFP. They can afford a loss and still be an at-large team, but they still could win the Big 12, giving them plenty of opportunity heading forward.
Ohio State was in an absolute battle on the road against Indiana, but were able to come up with the win. Josh Hoover nearly found Nick Marsh for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the Hoosiers up late, but the ball was near the sideline and Marsh couldn’t keep a foot down. The Buckeyes got the lead, but had to hang on with backup quarterback Luke Fahey, as Julian Sayin was hurt with a shoulder injury.
It was a great win for the Buckeyes to help give them some relief, as a loss would’ve made the path to the CFP much harder. Getting the win is even more important now, as Sayin is expected to miss time with the shoulder injury. The Buckeyes have a notable win, just one loss and are heading into a bye. That gives them a chance to prepare for some tough games down the stretch. So far, when Sayin is healthy, Ohio State is the class of the Big Ten and proved it by beating Indiana on the road.
College football had some wild upsets this week that have left some notable programs one loss away from being on the wrong side of the CFP. While this season may change things, no 9-3 team has made the College Football Playoff. Having two losses at this point of the season puts a lot of teams way too close to being knocked out of the CFP for their liking.
Alabama lost to Georgia last week and then dropped their game to Tennessee this week for their second loss. LSU had two losses coming into the week, so they’ve been living on the edge for a week already. Oregon also had two losses and survived against Nebraska late Saturday to stay at two losses and they may get Dante Moore back soon. Texas dropped a game to Florida and that follows up a loss to Oklahoma. One more loss for any of these teams could be catastrophic for their CFP chances.
Ole Miss has had an emotional roller coaster of a season already and week 7 just wrapped up. It started with a narrow win over Louisville to start things off. Two weeks later, they defeated LSU and former head coach Lane Kiffin in a close game. They then got blown out by Florida for their first loss of the season. Since that point, they have defeated Vanderbilt and this week got a win over Missouri. The Rebels won big over Missouri, finishing the game 31-3.
While the offense has played well all season long, the big concern for Ole Miss was the defense. Missouri was scoring plenty of points before the game and even after the low-scoring output, they are still scoring 31.1 points per game. With Trinidad Chambliss leading the way, Ole Miss looks like another run in the CFP could be in the cards.
During the week, it was reported that the CFP is likely moving to 24 teams. Despite the pressure from fans, the suits in charge of college football are pushing it for more money. Coaches are pushing it for more perceived job security (that’s only if they make the CFP). Fans are mostly against it and are pointing out the regular season will be de-emphasized. The fans are right and the suits in charge are so wrong about this.
Just using this week as an example, Texas suffered their second loss of the season. In a 24-team CFP, they could afford possibly two more losses. Same with Alabama. That means the results of today (Florida beating Texas and Tennessee beating Alabama), wouldn’t matter for those two teams. The joy of watching college football has been knowing that everone has to lock in every week or their championship hopes can be dashed. In the new proposed system, fans can check out in a weekend as awesome as this one and they can still check back in during the CFP. This decision definitely wasn’t made for fans, but for people who don’t love football who want more money in their pockets, because it is taking some of the sport’s soul away.
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