After Further Review: Texas A&M's sorry season rolls on, Ole Miss stumbles, TCU survives
There are so many games over the course of a college football weekend that some slip through the cracks and others require further examination the next day. Before we turn the page to Week 9, here’s a closer look at some of the most interesting outcomes of Week 8.
South Carolina 30, Texas A&M 24
Is Texas A&M going to make a bowl game in 2022?
It’s an open question after the Aggies’ loss to the Gamecocks on Saturday night. A&M is now 3-4 and freshman QB Conner Weigman was forced into duty in the fourth quarter after Haynes King suffered a shoulder injury.
A&M was trailing at the time of King’s injury and Weigman needed to throw the ball frequently to get the Aggies back in it. He finished 8-of-15 for 91 yards, but A&M mustered only a field goal with 10 seconds left after he came in the game.
The Aggies trailed 17-0 early after giving up a 100-yard return on the opening kickoff and turning the ball over after an errant snap bounced off King’s knee and into the arms of a South Carolina player. The Aggies got the game to 17-14 at halftime but that’s as close as it got.
And look, we’re far beyond the point of congratulating Texas A&M for not giving up. This is a team coached by a man with a guaranteed $95 million contract and has lots of stellar recruits. The expenditures and infrastructure at Texas A&M are not set up for a 6-6 team.
But that’s what Texas A&M looks like right now, especially if it's down to Weigman for the foreseeable future. If King is out this week, Weigman’s first career start will come against Ole Miss. The season then finishes with Florida, Auburn, UMass and LSU.
It’s possible that A&M will go 5-7 given that schedule. And even if the Aggies go 6-6, it’ll be the worst season of Jimbo Fisher’s tenure. The Aggies have never lost more than five games in a season under Fisher, though they’ve already lost at least four games in a season for the fourth time in Fisher’s five seasons.
At the moment, the 9-1 2020 season looks like a massive outlier and the offense is holding this team back.
A&M’s offense has been uneven at best all season and it’s scary to wonder how bad it would be without sensational running back Devon Achane. He has 627 rushing yards. No one else has more than 95. And his 781 yards from scrimmage are twice as many as anyone else on the roster.
If A&M is going to realize its SEC potential, an offensive overhaul is needed in 2023. And it’s up to Fisher to make that happen because he’s not going anywhere.
- Nick Bromberg
LSU 45, Ole Miss 20
Based on the way Ole Miss was playing, Saturday’s outcome felt inevitable. The Rebels were 7-0 and ranked No. 7 in the country headed into LSU but some cracks in the foundation of this team had been showing in recent weeks.
There was the second-half sleepwalk vs. Tulsa, the last-minute escape vs. Kentucky, a sleepy start vs. Vanderbilt and then a shaky defensive showing vs. Auburn. The Auburn performance was especially troubling as the one-dimensional Tigers put up more than 300 rushing yards, albeit in a 48-34 loss in Oxford.
Early in the year, it seemed like an improved Ole Miss defense would pick up some of the slack for an offense that was not quite as dynamic as it had been in Lane Kiffin’s first two seasons leading the program. Kiffin had been leaning heavily on Quinshon Judkins and Zach Evans in the run game with new starting quarterback Jaxson Dart featuring in the rushing attack as well.
It was an effective formula until the Rebels ran into LSU. Dart actually came out firing, completing nine of his first 10 passes as the Rebels built an early 17-3. But LSU stormed back and trailed just 20-17 at halftime.
The Ole Miss defense could not stop Jayden Daniels and the Tigers. LSU scored touchdowns on four of its five second-half drives, leaving Ole Miss without answers. Daniels threw for 248 yards, rushed for 121 yards and had a combined five touchdowns. Dart, his QB counterpart, struggled after his hot start. He finished 19-of-34 for 283 yards and an interception. And with Evans sidelined by a leg injury, Judkins carried a heavy load — 25 carries, 111 yards and two touchdowns.
LSU was the far more physical team, a reality that will need remedying if Ole Miss wants to stay alive in the SEC West race. The Rebels are back on the road this coming weekend when they face a reeling Texas A&M team. After that is a bye week before Alabama makes the trip to Oxford.
- Sam Cooper
TCU 38, Kansas State 28
TCU is on an unbelievable run to begin this season.
The latter years of the Gary Patterson era were not pretty. TCU reached the seven-win mark just once in the past four seasons, culminating in losing records in two of the last three years. The administration decided it was time for a change.
And with the Horned Frogs now 7-0, ranked No. 7 in the country and alone atop the Big 12 standings, head coach Sonny Dykes has quickly proven to be the right man for the job. This is an excellent offensive football team. Max Duggan is playing the best ball of his career, Kendre Miller has emerged as a star at running back and Quentin Johnston is looking like a future NFL first-round draft pick at receiver.
There has also been some good fortune for TCU to get to this point. In the Horned Frogs’ past four games, they have either faced a backup quarterback or a starter who was hampered by injury. Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, Kansas’ Jalon Daniels and Kansas State’s Adrian Martinez all exited their games vs. TCU in the first half while Oklahoma State’s Spencer Sanders was affected by a shoulder injury.
Those injuries weren’t the main reason TCU emerged victorious in those four contests, but it certainly helped matters. That’s particularly true in the past two games when the Horned Frogs stormed back from double-digit deficits to knock off Oklahoma State and Kansas State to remain undefeated.
Against Kansas State, Martinez lasted just one series before backup Will Howard came in. Howard played most of the game, but he was banged up enough to be lifted for third-stringer Jake Rubley for multiple series. K-State’s quarterback issues opened the door for TCU to come back from a 28-10 deficit and win 38-28.
TCU deserves all the credit for reaching this point, but that doesn't mean we can't admit there has been some good fortune along the way. Or that it feels like the injury luck is going to swing back in the other direction at some point.
- Sam Cooper
Liberty 41, BYU 14
The Cougars lost their third game in a row Saturday, this one in blowout fashion to Liberty. And their postseason hopes are suddenly in jeopardy at 4-4.
BYU allowed 547 yards of offense to a Flames team that entered the game missing a lot of players due to injury. Backup QB Johnathan Bennett was 24-of-29 passing for 247 yards and two TDs while RB Dae Dae Hunter rushed 23 times for 213 yards, including an 80-yard TD run.
The Cougars have had their fair share of injuries this season too — starting linebacker Payton Wilgar missed the game — but the defense has now allowed 32 points per game through the first two-thirds of the season. BYU gave up 25 points per game in 2021 and 15 per game in its 11-1 season two years ago.
The offense is also scoring fewer points. QB Jaren Hall’s overall stat line looks good, but Hall completed just 53% of his passes for 120 yards in a loss to Notre Dame and was 16-of-34 for 187 yards in the loss to Liberty. He also hasn’t rushed for a score all season long after scoring six TDs on the ground across 15 games in 2019 and 2021.
As an independent ahead of its move to the Big 12 next year, BYU is entirely responsible for building its own schedule. And the 2022 slate is wacky. While most teams are having their bye week in October, BYU doesn’t have its bye until Nov. 12 after its 10th game of the season. The Cougars are also facing a short week with East Carolina visiting Friday. They face a resurgent Boise State before the bye. ECU beat UCF by 21 on Saturday while Boise State took down Air Force.
It’s possible that BYU will enter that late bye week at 4-6 and need a win at Stanford on the final week of the season to make a bowl game.
- Nick Bromberg
Extra points
Oklahoma State 41, Texas 34: Well that "Texas could make the playoff" talking point that surfaced after the Oklahoma game sure was silly. The two-loss Longhorns decimated an Oklahoma team that didn't have a quarterback that day. Since then, Texas was lucky to beat an offensively challenged Iowa State team at home and then fell on the road to Oklahoma State on Saturday. Quinn Ewers, UT's heralded freshman quarterback, had a tough day. He completed just 19 of his 49 passes for 319 yards, two touchdowns and three costly interceptions. UT has enough talent to beat anybody in the Big 12, but there's not a game on the remaining schedule it can't lose.
Louisville 24, Pittsburgh 10: Pitt's offense continues to sputter. The defending ACC champions fell to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in conference play with an ugly loss to the Cardinals. The Panthers outgained the Cardinals but were doomed by four costly turnovers. Israel Abanikanda rushed for 129 yards and a touchdown, serving as the main source of offense as Kedon Slovis and the passing game continued to struggle. Slovis finished the day with just 158 yards and accounted for three of those turnovers — two interceptions and a fumble that was returned for a touchdown in the final minutes when Pitt was attempting to tie the score.
Houston 38, Navy 20: The Cougars, coming off a bye week, moved to 4-3 with their first comfortable win of the season. Clayton Tune threw for 261 yards and five TDs as Houston scored 17 straight to establish a 24-point lead in the second half. Houston’s scoring margin is just +4 on the season after the victory because it hadn’t won a game by more than seven through the first seven weeks. The Cougars beat UTSA by two, Rice by seven and Memphis by one ahead of the Navy game. With a manageable schedule the rest of the way, Houston can still make noise in the AAC.
Boise State 19, Air Force 14: Broncos head coach Andy Avalos wasn't afraid to make midseason changes and it has paid off tremendously. Boise State had an ugly loss at UTEP on Sept. 23 to drop to 2-2. After the game, longtime starting QB Hank Bachmeier departed the program and offensive coordinator Tim Plough was fired. Since then, the Broncos have won three straight and are 4-0 in Mountain West play, including Saturday's road win over Air Force. The Broncos have a clear path to the conference title game and are proving that in-season changes can be worthwhile. Take notes, Iowa.
