The Morning After...

Deshaun Watson accounted for over 400 yards of offense
to lead Clemson to a 23-13 win over Florida State.
(Photo courtesy Getty Images)

1) Wow. What a time to be a Tiger. I couldn't help but think that yesterday's game between Clemson and Florida State was exactly why college football was created. Two championship-caliber teams going toe-to-toe and putting everything on the line for four quarters in an insane environment. In the end, the better team won. But man that was some fun football to watch. Extremely pumped for my brother, Jordan, a Clemson student, who got to be there to witness it in person.

2) Remarkably impressed with Brent Venables and Clemson's defense it's not even funny. After giving up 111 yards and at touchdown on two carries in three plays to FSU running back Dalvin Cook, the Tigers went into shutdown mode. The rest of the game, Cook had 19 carries for 83 yards, and the Noles were limited to two field goals. When it matted most, Clemson was relentlessness. Defensive leaders Shaq Lawson, BJ Goodson and Ben Boulware led the charge. They stopped Dalvin Cook twice on 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 late in the game to preserve a lead. Then, Boulware never quit on a long pass play, raced down field, stripped the ball and Goodson recovered. I. Love. This. Defense.

3) Deshaun Watson had trouble, once again, getting started in the first half. He missed three wide open third down throws and made a mental error at the end of the half spiking the ball on third down. But once again, he found rhythm with offense in the second half. A corral of leaders from head coach to offensive coordinator to offensive linemen went to him at halftime and told him he had to get dialed in. Watson finished magnificently with nearly 300 yards passing and over 100 yards rushing He led an offense that finished with two 100-yard rushers, a 100-yard receiver, and over 500 yards for fifth straight game.

4) Amazing crowd. If you haven't been to a game at Death Valley to experience all that is Clemson football, you need to do it. At halftime, I knew we were going to win that game. We were leading in every statistical category except the scoreboard. We finished that way, too. It was a credit to the team for bringing their guts, as Dabo says, and the crowd for bringing the energy and the noise.

5) Don't look now but the Oklahoma Sooners might be the team to beat in the Big 12 - well, more on that later. OU is destroying the opposition. With a 52-16 win over Iowa State Saturday, the Sooners have now won four straight since that mind-boggling loss to Texas. In those four games, the offense has produced 55, 63, 62, and 52 points for a combined 232-50 margin of victory. The big three-game finale versus the Big 12's best remains with two of the three on road. It starts Saturday at Baylor with College GameDay in town. The Bears have won two straight by an average of 45-13. Think Bob Stoops wants this one bad?

6) Entering the week, there were 11 unbeaten teams. Just like that, only six remain. Toledo, TCU, Memphis, Michigan State and LSU fell from the ranks. It just goes to show no matter what the talk-show hosts and analysts say, the games are played on Saturday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thurs ... OK, it's great to have college football nearly every day of the week!). Six teams have survived this far. How many more can survive until Dec. 6?

7) Another week, another spectacular finish, this one not immediately ending a game, but close enough. On 4th and 25 in overtime, Arkansas had one last gasp at Ole Miss. A long pass across the field resulted in the receiving player being hit almost immediately after making the catch. Instead of going down, he launched the ball backwards over his head toward the middle of the field where it was tipped, bounced, and picked up by Hog running back Alex Collins. Collins then raced to his left and down the sidelines, picking up the first down. Two plays later, Arkansas found the end zone to make it a 52-51 ballgame. The magic didn't stop there. The Hogs went for two and the win, but quarterback Brandon Allen was sacked ... Hold on, a face mask penalty gave them another chance. This time, Allen took the snap and leapt into the end zone for the two points and the 53-52 win on the road. Don't stop, college football. Please don't stop. Arkansas is at LSU next week...

8) ...And speaking of the Tigers, they ran into a hornet's nest in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Few games receive the build-up as Alabama-LSU, but this one was a one-sided affair. The Tide rolled the Tigers in a 14-point win that didn't seem that close. Leonard Fournette, LSU's foregone Heisman winner, was held to 31 yards on 19 carries. Derrick Henry, Alabama's big bruiser, topped 200 yards on the ground with three TDs. The Bama win combined with Ole Miss' loss gives the Tide complete control of the SEC West. Win out and they're back in Atlanta. Alabama has a road trip to Mississippi State next week, who is quietly 7-2 and on a four-game winning streak. Watch out for those cow bells.

9) In the only battle Saturday between unbeaten teams, Oklahoma State used deep ball to blow away TCU, 49-29, in Stillwater. The national narrative starting November was that the Cowboys were set up with the other three Big 12 contenders - TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma - having to travel to Boone Pickens Stadium. But, there was caution that OSU wasn't on the same level as those teams. Theory proven wrong. The Big 12 will go through Oklahoma, whether it's the Sooners or Cowboys. Bedlam on Nov. 28 could be, well, bedlam (seriously, these things write themselves!).

10) The team you should respect, but probably don't? That'd be North Carolina. We wrote off the Tar Heels when they fell to South Carolina in Week 1. We continue to write off that loss, as we completed Week 10 and South Carolina has just three wins. However, North Carolina is 8-1 and coming off a 66-31 win over rival Duke. UNC leads the ACC Coastal and looks to be on the road to Charlotte to face Clemson in the ACC title game. Quarterback Marquise Williams is setting all kinds of records for the Heels. That loss to the Gamecocks is now an outlier for the Tar Heels season, but unlike Alabama, the Playoff Committee will continue to use it to anchor down UNC. Unrightfully so, in this man's opinion. North Carolina is playing like a top-15 team.

11) We're going a little longer with the blog, but that's just because college football is the gift that keeps on giving. Time for some quick hitters: Notre Dame keeps on winning, which is a great thing if you're a Clemson fan. The Irish overmatched Pitt and have two lay-ups before a clash in Palo Alto with Stanford to end the season ... Florida survived Vanderbilt by the skin of their Gator teeth, 9-7, and clinched the SEC East. The Gators earned their first trip to Atlanta since 2009 ... Stanford avoided a sleepy misstep and took down Colorado 42-10. The bounce-back effort following the narrow escape against Washington State last week helps solidify the Cardinal as the team to beat in the Pac-12 ... Ohio State still looks out of sync with Cardale Jones at the helm. The Buckeyes remained undefeated, but are clearly a better team with JT Barrett behind center. We'll see what Urban Meyer does this week with Barrett coming off an alcohol-related suspension. Ezekiel Elliott is a tremendous running back and he's sure to get more of the work load if playmaker Braxton Miller is out longterm with an injury ... Good for Nebraska fans, finally getting to celebrate a last-second victory instead of suffering from last-second agony. Mike Riley needed that win more than anybody. I still don't see the Huskers getting to a bowl game - need to win their remaining two games at Rutgers and against undefeated Iowa.

12) Changing three losses from 2014 into wins in 2015 (Georgia '14/Notre Dame '15,  Georgia Tech, Florida State)? Check. Atlantic Division Champions? Check. What a time to be a Tiger, indeed. No letdowns. Beat Syracuse.

-BtW