Week 6 College Football Lessons: What We Learned About Oklahoma, USC

There were several premier matchups on the first Saturday of October. Here’s what the final score says about each contender.

Week 6 in college football featured one crown jewel game that lived up to every ounce of the billing and the two-time defending champs reasserting themselves as the big Dawgs. But digging into Week 6’s notable results, we here at SI are determined to find the answer to the question: Which team does the final score say more about?

Georgia 51, Kentucky 13 says more about: Kentucky

There’s a weight class the Cats are certainly in: good enough to beat up on most of the SEC East, but not enough to get one team in particular. The Cats are essentially the SEC’s Iowa at this point (although they are scoring more than 25 points per game). They play a specific brand of football and they try like hell to drag the game down to their level. If they can, then you’re in for a bar fight. If they can’t (largely because you’ve got way better talent) then things can get late early. The latter happened Saturday night in Athens.

Oklahoma 34, Texas 30 says more about: OU

In an absolutely box office back-and-forth game, the Sooners overcame early special teams errors and the lack of a run game thanks to heroics from Dillon Gabriel. The former UCF transfer was everything for the Sooners, and he can add his name to the list of standout signal-callers that have made their name in this Red River game. Oklahoma properly seems to have returned to the perch they’re expected to be at, and it shouldn’t surprise you if this if the first of two meetings between the two teams this season. 

Oklahoma moved up to No. 5 in the latest AP poll after a dramatic 34–30 win over Texas.  :: Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman/USA Today Network

Ohio State 37, Maryland 17 says more about: Maryland

There are times when coaches stand at the podium and say things like if we had executed we’d have won and you roll your eyes, but you look at how Maryland played on both sides of the ball and one really wonders. The Maryland defense really stepped up in this game, limiting Ohio State’s run game and trying its best to be the complimentary piece in the game to an offense that, if it had been firing on all cylinders, could have pushed Ohio State to the very brink. In the end the Terps got boat raced, giving up 30 offensive points to the Buckeyes. But after their offense had a pick-six and failed red zone trips you scratch your head and wonder what if. Ohio State did not have its best day on offense and seems like Kyle McCord still has plenty of room to grow. Despite the final score, Ohio State was gettable in this game, but the Terps weren’t clinical enough to do it.

USC 43, Arizona 41 (3 OT) says more about: USC

It seemed like the same old song and dance for USC in a continuation of poor performances all year when Arizona came out to start the game and immediately put up 17 points on the board in the first quarter with a backup quarterback. But then, a funny thing happened: USC’s defense tightened up and only allowed 11 more points for the rest of regulation, allowing its offense to battle back and tie the game. If not for a botched field coach at the end of regulation, USC would have won 31–28. Instead it went to overtime where a defense can’t be all the way blamed when a score racks up given all the drives they face start at the 25 or are two-point conversions. USC’s defense isn’t going to be the ’85 Chicago Bears, but whether it can start trending away from liability and toward capable is the thing to watch with the Trojans moving forward.

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Louisville 33, Notre Dame 20 says more about: Notre Dame

We’re not overlooking Louisville here, its 6–0 record under Jeff Brohm deserves plaudits, but the Irish turned the ball over five times and had another turnover on downs. They put this game on a silver platter for the Cardinals, who willingly took it and said thank you very much. Notre Dame is clearly not explosive enough to do that. Few teams are. Quarterback Sam Hartman unfortunately has had horror show performances like this in the past at Wake Forest. You thought perhaps he had put them behind him but his three picks in this game tell a different and unfortunate story.

Alabama 26, Texas A&M 20 says more about: Alabama

The Aggies up front are about as good as you can find in college football. The secondary? Not so much. As maligned as Bama’s passing game is, obviously they still have talented wide receivers if not at the level of previously elite Tide teams. But in this game, they came in with a plan. Don’t throw too much in the intermediate parts of the field, but rather, go deep. While many DBs were at fault, corner Josh DeBerry was on the wrong end of multiple Jermaine Burton deep receptions who turned in a career day with nine catches and 197 yards. Say what you want about offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, but sometimes the game comes down to the matchups, and Bama found one it liked on this day and went to the well over and over again.

UCLA 25, Washington State 17 says more about: UCLA

How about the UCLA defense? At one point in this game the Cougars went: punt, punt, interception, punt, punt, punt. They had an average third down distance of 8.8 yards, and only scored 10 offensive points. The Cougars aren’t bad on offense, the Bruins are just better.

Georgia Tech 23, Miami 20 says more about: Miami

This game is about what will apparently always hold Mario Cristobal teams back: in-game management. You can be more talented than your opponents, but if you play down to their level (three Tyler Van Dyke turnovers) and give a team daylight, you expose yourself to being upset. Even though the Canes did that, they obviously should have won this game. What lost it for them is their coach. Cristobal is in charge and he should have called for his team to take a knee on third down with less than 40 seconds. Yes, his running back fumbled, and yes his defense let Tech then drive the ball 74 yards for the win, but the point is they should never have been in that situation in the first place.