The Morning After... The Bye Week

1) I know I am often times overly critical of Clemson (see: Best is the Standard), but the bye week couldn't have gone better for the Tigers. Wayne Gallman, who took a vicious hit and had a concussion last week, seems to be on track to play at Florida State. No other injuries occurred during the practice week and the overall health of the team is in very good shape. Clemson won by Ohio State losing AND Auburn, Troy and Louisville continuing to win, boosting Clemson's strength of schedule or strength of record or whatever metric the four-letter network likes to tell you.

2) THE Ohio State now has THE worst loss of the season. Penn State isn't a bad team - the Nittany Lions are 5-2 - but entered the game as a 17.5-point home underdog. ESPN and others will tell you Ohio State is still on track to make the Playoff. Sure they are. As long as they win out and some other quirky things happen.

Penn State's stunning upset of Ohio State is only the start of
what is sure to be a wild finish to the college football season.
(Photo courtesy AP)

3) That loss is just the beginning. Buckle up, college football fans. Upsets are about to happen. We never get through an entire season and look back to Week 8 and say, "Yep, those same four teams won all the rest of their games." Things happen.

4) Team A rushed for 543 yards, scored 56 points and won by 53. Team B threw for 734 yards, scored 59 points and lost by seven. Team A, of course, is Auburn which beat Arkansas like a drum, 56-3. The Tigers held the Hogs to 25 yards rushing while continuing to showcase a newfound high-octane offense. Team B is Texas Tech which lost in a shootout to Oklahoma 66-59. The Sooners and Red Raiders traded TDs all night, but OU was slightly better.

4B) Some crazy stats from that OU-TT game:
-Both teams finished with 854 yards of offense - combining from an NCAA-record 1,708 yards. They combined for 76 first downs.
-Texas Tech was 20-for-25 (80%) on third down conversions.
-Tech QB Patrick Mahomes was 52-88 for 734 yards passing, setting a school record.
-OU QB Baker Mayfield threw for 545 yards and seven TDS, also a school record. He averaged 15.1 yards per completion.
-Sooner RB Joe Mixon was the first OU player in school history to have 200+ yards rushing and 100+ receiving. Mixon finished with 263 yards on the ground and 114 through the air, along with five total TDs.
-Sooner WR Dede Westbrook continued his insane October with 202 receiving yards and two more touchdowns. He now has over 700 yards receiving and 10 TDs in his last four games.

5) Most everything else went according to script over the weekend. Alabama scored another defensive touchdown in its defeat of Texas A&M. West Virginia asserted itself as the most complete team in the Big 12 with a 34-10 win over TCU. Utah and Washington won, setting up a monster Pac-12 showdown next week in Salt Lake City. Perhaps the only other unforeseen outcome was SMU blowing out Houston, 38-16. But how can Houston and Tom Herman operate when teams like Texas, LSU and others are courting him to be their next head coach?

6) We're down to nine undefeated teams. They are: Alabama, Baylor, Boise State, Clemson, Michigan, Nebraska, Washington, West Virginia and Western Michigan.

6B) Road Trippin': Next week's slate is full of some tough road matchups for a slew of teams. It kicks off Thursday with Virginia Tech (5-2) heading to Pittsburgh (also 5-2) for a big ACC Coastal Chaos game. On Saturday, get ready.
No. 2 Michigan at Michigan State
No. 5 Louisville at Virginia
No. 24 Penn State at Purdue
No. 10 West Virginia at Oklahoma State
No. 14 Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville)
No. 8 Baylor at Texas
No. 4 Washington at No. 17 Utah
No. 7 Nebraska at No. 11 Wisconsin
No. 13 Boise State at Wyoming
No. 15 Auburn at Ole Miss
No. 3 Clemson at No. 12 Florida State

7) The last one is the big one. October 29 is finally here. This date was circled back when the schedules first came out. Aside from a couple FSU losses, not much has changed. Clemson still has to find a way to stop Dalvin Cook, still has to find ways to score, and still has to find a way to win at Doak Campbell Stadium, something it hasn't done since 2006. Halloween weekend can be scary. Hide yo kids, hide yo wives, and hide yo husbands. The Tigers are coming to Tallahassee. Beat Florida State.