2017 College Football Week 9: What We Learned

It was another crazy week in college football. Here are a few takeaways:

1. Team Chaos reigned supreme. This week saw the fall of the AP #2, #4, #14, #15, #16, #17, and #22 teams. We saw playoff frontrunners Penn State and TCU fall from the top just days before the first CFP poll is released. We saw an extreme shakeup in the G5 NY6 race with the fall of undefeated South Florida. We saw teams rise to the occasion and make a case for themselves to be in the top four on this Tuesday’s poll announcement show. Team Chaos always seems to win in college football, but we saw it this week more than any week this season.
2. Iowa State is this week’s biggest winner. Taking down the previously undefeated TCU Horned Frogs was a huge victory for the Cyclones, who jumped from #25 to #14 in this week’s AP poll. They have tough losses to Iowa (OT) and Texas as blemishes on their record from earlier in the season, but they’ve bounced back stronger than any two loss team in the nation.
3. Notre Dame might be a playoff team come Tuesday. The Fighting Irish had a dominant 35-14 win over NC State this past week, which catapulted them up to #5 in the AP Poll, with Wisconsin holding the #4 spot. While undefeated, the issue for the Wisconsin Badgers is their strength of schedule, which has been notably weak, potentially opening the door for the CFP selection committee to put Notre Dame in the 4th spot on Tuesday over Wisconsin.
4. UCF got a huge break this week. While UCF was soundly defeating Austin Peay, USF was losing to Houston, resulting in their drop from #17 to unranked in the latest AP Poll. The undefeated UCF is now is the clear frontrunner to be the highest ranked G5 team at the end of the season, with Memphis seven spots behind them in the latest AP poll. The Knights have several tough challenges ahead, including a game at SMU and a game at home against USF, but they’ve got their fate in their own hands.
5. The coaching carousel has officially begun. Jim McElwain’s departure from Florida this week was just the beginning of what is likely to be a crazy three months of coaching changes. There are plenty of coaches in the Power 5 conferences who are on the hot seat right now with extremely disappointing seasons. The only question is, who’s next? (Hint: It’s probably Butch Jones.)

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