2017 College Football Week 8: What We Learned

Here are five takeaways from this weekend’s slate of college football games:

  1. Penn State hasn’t been talked about much for how high they’re ranked, but that quickly changed. It’s tough to be PSU. They’re constantly being overlooked in the shadow of Alabama, and they haven’t had any major upsets to throw them into the news cycle, but Penn State took back the spotlight with a huge win over Michigan after hosting College Gameday earlier in the day. Oh, and Saquon Barkley’s pretty decent.
  2. Texas football is kind of maybe sort of a little bit back? This team is fun to follow (unless you’re a Longhorns fan) because every game always gives the viewer hope, followed quickly by extreme disappointment. Texas took #10 Oklahoma State to overtime, only to literally throw the game away on what might be the worst interception I’ve seen all year. Once again, Tom Herman’s team is always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
  3. The Pac-12 is continuing to take tough losses. Last week, it was Washington and Washington State. This week, it was #11 USC getting absolutely demolished by #13 Notre Dame. As each week passes, it looks more and more like the Pac-12 won’t be represented in the College Football Playoff. In fact, the conference’s only hope for any kind of award this year rests on the shoulders of USC QB Sam Darnold to win the Heisman, before inevitably taking off for the NFL.
  4. Iowa State’s not going to go down without a fight in the Big 12. After upsetting Oklahoma two weeks ago, the Cyclones have come out with two more strong performances, shutting out Kansas last week, and soundly defeating Texas Tech this week. They’ve got a tough matchup this week at home against TCU. If they win this one, they might just become a “sleeper” pick to win the conference.
  5. USF and UCF continue to be the clear G5 favorites. Ranked at #17 and #18 respectively, the next closest G5 team to these two is Memphis at #24. The best part? They’ll play each other in the last week of the year, a game in which they both could very likely come into undefeated, setting up a potential championship-like scenario where the winner gets the AAC East Title as well as the coveted G5 New Year’s Bowl bid.
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Sam Smith

Sam has been with MSB since 2015. He covers stories ranging from all things Maryland to breaking national stories, specializing in the NFL, and college football and basketball. He currently resides in Dallas, Texas, where he attends Southern Methodist University (SMU).

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