Whew, has anybody caught their breath yet?
College football has long been a blast, but this was intoxicating, captivating and downright exhausting.
One of the arguments against a playoff in college football was that it would somehow ruin the week-to-week drama and suspense?
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AP Photo/Rogelio V. SolisAfter an upset win over Alabama, Ole Miss is off to its first 5-0 start since 1962.
Let's revisit that theory after surveying the carnage in what was a
head-spinning Week 6 in a sport that seems to get more entertaining by
the minute.
Not only did five of the top eight teams in the Associated Press poll
go down in the same week for the first time in history (the AP poll
dates back to 1936), but right there, front and center in the College
Football Playoff conversation, are some not-so-usual suspects.
Case in point: The state of Mississippi has all of a sudden become
football nirvana, so much so that they're dreaming about the Egg Bowl
deciding the champion in the SEC West, which might as well be the
ninth-toughest division in the NFL.
Ole Miss sent No. 3 Alabama packing, a riveting 23-17 win before a raucous crowd in Oxford that was sealed by
Senquez Golson's spectacular interception in the back of the end zone. And earlier in the day, not quite two hours south in the Magnolia State,
Dak Prescott and Mississippi State blew past No. 6 Texas A&M for a 48-31 win, the Bulldogs' second straight triumph over a top-10 foe.
There have been some great players, games and moments when it comes
to football in the state of Mississippi, but nothing quite like this.
"I came here and the 2013 class came here to change the culture around here," said Ole Miss sophomore defensive tackle
Robert Nkemdiche,
who was the No. 1 player in the country when he signed with the Rebels
last year. "We came here to do something different. I could have gone to
Bama or LSU but wanted to come here and make a difference, and that's
what we did."
The unbeaten Rebels also played a prominent role in shaking up the
college football hierarchy on what was a deliciously unpredictable week
of football that started late Thursday night on the West Coast with No. 2
Oregon's stunning 31-24 upset loss at home to Arizona.
And while we're talking about some of the new faces in this whole
playoff debate, what about Rich Rodriguez's Wildcats, who at 5-0 are the
only unbeaten team in the Pac-12. Nobody was talking about Arizona back
in August when breaking down a Pac-12 race that was supposed to go
through Eugene, Oregon, Palo Alto, California, or Los Angeles.
It still might, too, but all four of the nationally ranked teams in
those cities -- Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and USC -- lost this week. The
grand total of ranked teams losing this week was 11, and there are only
10 unbeaten teams remaining in the FBS ranks -- and we're barely one
week into the month of October.
Little did we know that the chaos was just beginning Thursday night
with Arizona's ambush of Oregon and Marcus Mariota's Duck Parade. That
was just an appetizer.
Not too long after the goal posts were ripped down at Ole Miss'
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and paraded to the Square in downtown Oxford,
Mississippi, TCU was finishing off a 37-33 upset of No. 4 Oklahoma. The
Sooners were unable to survive even after coming up with turnovers on
back-to-back possessions late in the fourth quarter. It was the biggest
splash yet for Gary Patterson's Horned Frogs in the Big 12, and don't
look now, but they're unbeaten and sure to move up in the polls.
And how could we forget Notre Dame?
Two years removed from playing in the BCS national championship game,
the Irish rallied in the final minutes to edge No. 14 Stanford 17-14 to
keep their record unblemished. Quarterback
Everett Golson wasn't at his best for much of the game, but he was clutch when it counted. His 23-yard touchdown pass to
Ben Koyack came on fourth-and-11 and won it for the Irish with 1:01 to play.
Golson's game winner was hardly the play of the day. That distinction belonged to Arizona State's
Mike Bercovici,
who uncorked a 46-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass to Jaelean Strong on
the final play of the game to stun USC 38-34 in the Los Angeles
Coliseum.
Yep, it was that kind of day, and more are sure to follow as we look
ahead to the College Football Playoff committee's first official ranking
on Oct. 28.
At this rate, there might not be any unbeaten teams left when we get to that point.
Buckle up, because it's anybody's guess who will still be standing
when the four playoff teams are unveiled in December. None of the big
boys are really out of it, and that's whether you're partial to Alabama,
Michigan State, Oklahoma, Oregon or UCLA.
And, oh yeah, if you really want to know what kind of day it was, it
ended with Washington State rolling up 812 yards of total offense and
quarterback
Connor Halliday setting a new FBS passing record with 734 yards -- and the Cougars somehow losing 60-59 to Cal.
Get some rest. We're all going to need it.