College Football Week 6
Arian Berry
Staff Writer
This last weekend has been one of the most memorable for college football in recent memory. Comparisons were made to the legendary, upset-filled 2007 season, which was notable for its wide array of upsets. This streak was at its peak in Week 5 of that year, in which eight top 25 teams were upset – with last weekend barely trailing with seven ranked defeats.
The first of these David vs Goliath stories happened in a Friday game between Syracuse and UNLV, with Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord completing 40 of his 63 pass attempts en route to an orange victory. This would hand UNLV their first loss of the season, perhaps halting their hopes at the newly guaranteed Group of Five spot in the revamped CFP. The first top ten giant to fall would be number nine ranked Missouri, led by Biletnikoff Watchlist and projected 2025 top 15 pick Luther Burden III. The Missouri offense would be an overall disappointment, with quarterback Brady Cook going a lousy 13/31 over the air, while a rising Texas A&M team would score 41 points to Missouri’s 10.
At roughly the same time, number 22 ranked Louisville would lose to an under-the-radar SMU team, who would subsequently join the AP rankings – impressive for their first year in a power four conference, having been alongside a large influx of ACC joinees before the year began. However, Louisville wasn’t the highest-ranked team to fall to a conference newbie, with a Kalen DeBoer-less Washington team shocking another team with a new head coach in number 10 Michigan. Michigan has been struggling with consistent quarterback play all season long, with this game introducing their third starter in Jack Tuttle, after benching Alex Orji… again. Not all conference newbies shared the same fate as U-Dub, however, as the Lincoln Riley-led USC Trojans lost after PJ Fleck and his Minnesota squad pulled off a last-minute QB sneak.
USC quarterback Miller Moss had struggled to get a consistent pass attack against the Golden Gophers, averaging only 5.3 yards per attempt and throwing 2 interceptions. Already suffering their second loss of the season, the Trojans are faced with brutal beginnings in the Big Ten. Number 4 ranked Tennessee would also struggle, as redshirt freshman and former five-star recruit Nico Iamaleava would only gain 5.4 yards per attempt while only generating 14 points for a should-be elite Volunteers offense, losing to unranked Arkansas in the process.
Arkansas fans stormed the field after their upset, costing the school $250,000. A memorable upset, however, would soon be made less so after another, bigger SEC upset number one ranked Alabama losing to a Vanderbilt team that hasn’t finished a season above .500 since 2013. Alabama, being 23-point favorites, put up a good 35-point performance. However, that was still somehow not enough to beat transfer QB Diego Pavia in his magnum opus game, leading Vanderbilt to an opposing 40 points, sealing off one of the greatest Saturdays that college football has ever seen.
Contact Arian at arian.berry@student.shu.edu