College Football Takedown: Week 8 WAS GREAT

Dude...

Week 8 of the College Football season was awesome!! We had a series of terrific schools get upsetted. We had the top dawgs prove they're the top dawgs. Finally, we had a ton of action all weekend long!! The beers were flowing, the recliner put your feet up must perfectly, and a pizza is on the way. Oh, you were stuck at the pumpkin patch?? Thankfully, you don't miss a beat on all of the exciting action in week 8 thanks to the Dudes and Sports crew!!!

How6rd’s Takeaways

The ACC Champion might already be crowned: The ACC has a new face looking to stand tall this year in the conference after Clemson has been a huge letdown after Dabo Swinney still hasn’t created an account for the transfer portal. With this happening it seemed to be a wide-open race at the start of the year with North Carolina, Duke, Miami, and the preseason projected champs Florida State all looking strong and competitive for the title. Meanwhile, it has been a rough few weeks for that statement as Miami and even a dark horse team like Louisville at one point had bad losses, and this past weekend North Carolina had probably the worst loss out of all of the teams mentioned losing to arguably the worst Power 5 team in Virginia AT HOME. Duke hasn’t looked unimpressive but without their talented QB Riley Leonard they weren’t able to do much against Florida State in the later part of the game and the Seminoles came out on top in a gritty win. With that being said FSU by all means hasn’t looked like a team that is “night and day” different from the other so-called top ACC teams, but they definitely are a team that seems to have little to no threat of having their first conference championship in nearly a decade be spoiled by another foe the rest of the season.

The halftime interval was Alabama’s “moment of the game”: At the start of this game, it seemed as if Alabama’s run of being in college football’s elite category was over as the offense had nothing but one drive to show for consistency as they looked very lost and even gave their defense trouble themselves with starting field position. At a deficit of 20-7 going into the locker room it seemed as if Tennessee was going to put the Crimson Tide’s playoff chances in big trouble once again…but then the second half started. From the start of the third quarter to the end of the game Alabama was doing a wide range of plays that made the Tennessee defense look lost instead and once the run game got going the Vols’ chances were completely flipped. The powerhouse residing in Tuscaloosa completely woke up the home crowd and went on a dominant 27-0 run to finish the game and linebacker Jihaad Campbell sealed the game where he was shining bright with a scoop n’ score touchdown. As I said when this team lost to Texas they aren’t the all-mighty force they once were, but Alabama is still a very tough and resilient team backed by the legendary coach that still controls their own destiny if they win out.

Penn State has a special future, but James Franklin shouldn’t be there: I gave the long-time head coach a lot of leeway in the past as he’s a special player’s coach who gets the team to believe in him and make Penn State the strongest they’ve arguably ever been. Unfortunately, he doesn’t believe in himself it seems as the team as a whole looked all out of sorts aside from a strong defensive performance in the first three quarters and a team with young talent needs a coach to be THE leader. Ohio State’s defense was known to give Penn State fits and definitely did in the first half, but the difference between the Nittany Lions first and second half was nothing as no adjustments seemed to be made at all and gave Ohio State no fear in the clutch moments of the game as they closed it out with ease at home. Although it’s now only going to come down to two teams in the Big 10 for the playoffs Penn State had a lot of good flashes to take out of the primetime game, but it’s also very clear that there might just be a cap on how good the team’s potential is with the man running the show in James Franklin.

PC’S Takeaways

UNC= YOU NEVER COULD- Drake Maye and North Carolina have been huge factors in the ACC. They are the only ones who could reasonably beat Florida State at the top of the standings. Welp, after their loss to Virginia, those hopes are almost non-existent now. The Tar Heels found themselves down 14-7 early. Drake may hit a bomb to wide receiver Bryson Nesbit to tie the game. After hitting a field goal at the end of the half, the Tar Heels scored first with 9:35 left in the 3rd. With a 10 point lead, all seemed good for the Tar Heels. However, the Cavaliers came roaring back to tie the game in the 4th. The Tar Heels has to settle for a field goal to go up by 3. Then, Tony Muskett put a possession of a lifetime to give Virginia the lead with 8 minutes left in the game. This is a situation we have seen Maye complete over and over again. However, he didn’t get the job done and threw a pick to pretty much seal the game for Virgina. Now, the Tar Heels find themselves with their first loss of the season. With Duke coming to town and at Clemson still on the schedule, it’ll be very hard for them to catch up to Florida State to win the ACC.

Should Caleb Williams Sit Out the Rest of the Season- Caleb Williams is going to be the #1 overall pick in this upcoming NFL Draft. It’s pretty much set and stone at this point. The USC Trojans were trying to make the National Championship playoffs this year as well. However, the Trojans lost to a tough Utah team that beat them with a field goal in the closing seconds of the game. Now, the Trojans have no chance to make the playoffs. So, what does Williams have to gain by playing? He’s already going to be the #1 overall pick. He’s going to make a crap load of money in the process. So by finishing the season out what does he gain? He may also find himself getting injured and destroying his future opportunity to be the #1 pick in the draft. This may cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, with the Trojans still set up to make a good bowl game, does Caleb sit out? Only time will tell.

Washington… you can’t play with your food like that-So Washington… I get you were playing Arizona State. I get they’re 1-5. However, this game shouldn’t have been close. Michael Penix Jr. threw two HORRIFIC picks to keep the Sun Devils in the game. Penix and company found themselves down in the 4th quarter 7-6. It was Washington’s defense’s turn to step up. The Sun Devils were in the red zone, looking for their biggest upset of the season. Mishael Powell picked off the ASU QB, Trenton Bourguet, for an 89 yard pick-six to give the Huskies the lead late. A big stop and a field goal sealed the game to keep the Huskies undefeated. Now, a win is a win. However, what happens in the Pac-12 Championship if you play like that?? I’ll tell you, YOU’RE GOING TO GET CRUSHED!! The Huskies are serious National Championship contenders when they’re playing well. If they’re not, we may get another blowout playoff game.