Tom Luicci: College Football Plus: Aftermath Of Tua's Injury, Clemson And More

Absence Of Star QB Deals A Blow To Tide's Playoff Hopes

Five questions

Q.What happens now to Alabama’s playoff prospects with the season-ending injury to QB Tua Tagovailoa?

The first thoughts here are for a full and speedy recovery to one of college football’s all-time greats – and a class act. The reality of football is that the season trudges on. What Tagovailoa’s injury does is give the Playoff Selection Committee an easy out for omitting the Crimson Tide from a Top 4 finish, since there was already enough serious debate about whether Alabama deserved a playoff spot. Based on its schedule, it does not – with the lone “quality” win against Texas A&M, a home loss in the biggest game of the season and another meaningless game up next when Western Carolina visits. A season-ending victory at Auburn won’t move the needle much any more for Nick Saban’s crew, since the Tigers are a 7-3 team now. Without Tagovailoa, it’s easy to make a case for more deserving teams at No. 4 over Alabama now. Really easy.

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Q.Has there ever been greater disparity in a conference between one team and the rest of the league – as we are seeing now with Clemson in the ACC?

Go back as far as you want. The old Big Ten? The league always had Ohio State AND Michigan. The old Big Eight? Nebraska, Oklahoma AND Texas would serve as serious obstacles for each other. Same with the Pac-12 when it was the Pac-10. USC always had UCLA to contend with, and sometimes Washington or Stanford would jump up. The SEC is always filled with tests for its elite teams. But the current ACC? Take out the one-point escape on a failed two-point conversion against North Carolina and Clemson is winning ACC games by an average of 40.1 points this year. The Tigers have wrapped up their second straight perfect season in league play and just beat the only team in their division without four losses (7-3 Wake Forest) by 49 points. Of the other 13 ACC teams, nine have four or more losses already. The other four have three losses. The competitive imbalance is as pronounced as any major conference has ever had in recent memory. That’s good for Clemson. But it’s bad for the ACC, which may send a four-loss team to the Orange Bowl.

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Q. Were Utah and Oregon putting on a little bit of a show for the Playoff Selection Committee on Saturday night?

Whether it was an intentional effort to remind bleary-eyed viewers how good they are or just the byproduct of two Top 10 teams that have hit their stride it was hard not to be impressed by what Utah and Oregon did Saturday night as they remained on course for a showdown of potential 11-1 teams in the Pac-12 championship game. The 9-1 Utes manhandled an improving UCLA team in a 49-3 rout for their largest margin of victory ever in a Pac-12 game. Oregon moved to 9-1 as Justin Herbert threw for 333 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-6 win over Arizona. Both teams know they have to continue to state their respective cases for a playoff spot – more so now with Alabama wobbly and vulnerable because of Tua Tagovailoa’s season-ending hip injury.

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Q.What story line was largely overlooked on Saturday?

Forget about the odds of New Mexico State and Rice simply winning a game. What were the odds of both previously winless team doing so on the same day? It happened Saturday, with New Mexico State breaking into the win column in the 10th game of the season with a 41-28 victory over Incarnate Word. Rice followed suit with a 31-28 win at Middle Tennessee to get its first win in game 10 as well.

That leaves one winless team in the FBS ranks. You’re up, 0-10 Akron.

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Q.Based on pre-season rankings, which team has turned out to be the biggest bust this season – Texas, Michigan State or Syracuse?

Texas was as high as No. 9 in the polls after a 10-win season in which QB Sam Ehlinger declared the Longhorns to be back. Following Saturday’s loss to Iowa State, Texas is 6-4, still has to play Baylor, can’t run the ball and can’t stop teams on defense. Good thing the school has the Longhorn Network. Few people outside the state want to see the caliber of football Tom Herman has this team playing. Michigan State was ranked No. 18 in its third game but is an underachieving 4-6 after expectations were for the Spartans to be a contender in the Big Ten East. They are not. But they can get to a mediocre bowl game by closing out with wins over Rutgers and Maryland. Syracuse, which had momentum after a 10-win season in 2018, reach No. 21 in the rankings. Then the Orange hit the skids with a four-game losing streak before finally beating Duke on Saturday to earn the school’s first ACC win of the year. Syracuse is 4-6 with wins over Liberty, Western Michigan and Holy Cross. Louisville and Wake are left.

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On the rise

Air Force (8-2)

Falcons earned their fifth straight win in a 38-21 victory over Colorado State, with a 10-win regular season well within reach. New Mexico (2-8) and a home game against Wyoming are the last obstacles to that.

Marshall (7-3)

Under-the-radar Thundering Herd earned their fifth straight win by handing Louisiana Tech – a team that had only lost to Texas prior to Saturday – a 31-10 defeat. Marshall is now on course to win the East Division in Conference USA.

Virginia Tech (7-3)

Hokies earned their fifth win in the past six games by dealing Georgia Tech its first shutout since 1997 in a 45-0 road romp. They can win the ACC Coastal by beating Pittsburgh and Virginia to close out the regular season.

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On the decline

Nebraska (4-6)

For anyone out there with grandchildren tell them there actually was a time when the Cornhuskers were an elite team. It’s hard to remember that after Nebraska lost its fourth straight and fifth in six games by giving up 200-plus rushing yards to Jonathan Taylor for the third straight year in a 37-21 home loss to Wisconsin.

Missouri (5-5)

Midway through the season the Tigers were 5-1 and rolling. Four straight losses later they need to beat Tennessee or Arkansas to become bowl eligible. The offense has scored a combined 13 points the past three games.

South Carolina (4-7)

Head coach Will Muschamp received a vote of confidence prior to Saturday’s 30-6 loss to Texas A&M – a sure sign things have gone south quickly. Gamecocks have lost four of five (including a home loss to Appalachian State) and close out on Nov. 30 against Clemson. Ouch.

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Who’s hot

Jalen Hurts, QB, Oklahoma

Forget the three turnovers. Hurts was a one-man show in rallying the Sooners from a 28-3 deficit to a 34-31 victory at Baylor, throwing for 297 yards and four touchdowns, rushing for 114 yards and making every clutch play needed when it counted.

Jonathan Taylor, RB, Wisconsin

Yawn. Another 200-yard rushing game. By going for 204 yards and two TDs in a 37-21 victory at Nebraska, Taylor topped 200 rushing yards for the third straight year against Nebraska and for 11th time in his career.

Sam Crosa, PK, Cincinnati

The grad transfer from Western Illinois connected on a 37-yard field goal as time expired to give 9-1 Cincy a 20-17 win over pesky USF. It marks his second winning kick with no time remaining in three weeks.

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Who’s not

Brian Lewerke, QB, Michigan State

Few players have regressed as dramatically as the once-promising Lewerke has. In the 44-10 loss to Michigan he threw for just 166 yards with two interceptions. Because of sacks he finished with 12 rushing yards on 13 carries.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson, QB, UCLA

So much for building momentum. Bruins’ signal caller suffered two interceptions, fumbled twice and, because of sacks, wound up with minus-26 rushing yards in a 49-3 loss to Utah.

Spencer Shrader, PK, USF

Tough day for the freshman, who could have been the difference in a potential upset of Cincinnati. He missed four field goals, including a 33-yarder with 2:02 to play, in a 20-17 loss.

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Playing it forward

The top games of the coming week (all times Eastern)

Penn State at Ohio State, noon, FOX

An elimination game for both the college football playoffs and the Big Ten East. It will be interesting to see what Buckeyes’ QB Justin Fields can do if he plays a full game (and against a porous Nittany Lions’ pass defense).

SMU at Navy, 3:30, CBS Sports Network

American commissioner Mike Aresco had plenty to say about 9-1 SMU being left out of last week’s College Football Playoff Rankings. Midshipmen come off a tough loss at Notre Dame but are back home and always dangerous.

Texas A&M at Georgia. 3:30, CBS

Bulldogs have clinched the SEC East but need to keep winning to stay in the playoff chase. Aggies, at 7-3, represent Alabama’s best win, but close out at Georgia and at LSU. So Georgia can help its playoff cause and undermine Alabama’s with a win here.

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Story Lines

1. Cal and Stanford play the Big Game on Saturday and it’s relevant for just one reason: It starts at 1 p.m. on the West Coast, 4 in the East, and means anyone who happens to have the Pac-12 Network can watch the game at a reasonable hour. As someone who spent more than 12 hours watching college football on Saturday, the ongoing complaint with the Pac-12 was never greater than it was that day, struggling to stay awake to see both Oregon and Utah play – and win impressively. Way back way, it was fairly common in the East to get, say, USC playing a big game at 4. But this Pac-12 After Dark nonsense is undermining the league’s best efforts to promote teams that the rest of the country should be paying more attention to. There are noon and 3:30 time slots in the East. Then 7 or 7:30 for the big night games. Why do Pac-12 games have to start at 10 p.m. on the East Coast? What’s wrong with a 4 p.m. time slot in the East like the one Cal and Stanford will be playing in? It’s hard to muster support or sympathy for the league’s playoff case when a good portion of the country rarely gets to see your teams play and it’s by design.

2, You can tell LSU has strengthened its case as the best team in the country by all of the sudden “concern” the national media has about the Tigers’ defense. Yes, they allowed 614 yards and 37 points to Mississippi. But the offense produced 58 points and 704 yards and no one has slowed the unit down all year. QB Joe Burrow is playing at such a high level that the Heisman race is effectively over. Is there any team out there that LSU can’t keep pace with offensively? No. Will the defense be this team’s undoing? No. It’s just something to nitpick about after two road games in which opponents tried to play up to the level of LSU’s offense but failed to do so. This is a special team doing special things on offense. How about just sitting back and appreciating that?

Tom Luicci was the national college football and basketball writer for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., from 1979-2014.