Greetings to a late version of G’s Evaluation. This weekend was insanely busy even without 115ish college football games and I’m a little behind schedule. Sorry about that. There is a lot to take in. Starting in the FCS, we started this week with 3 undefeated teams in the Ivy League and dropped to just 1 as Dartmouth (129) dropped a 19-0 game to a 1-loss Columbia (125) and Princeton (80) beat Harvard (126) in a perfect matchup that went 5 OTs before the Tigers prevailed 18-16. And Stetson (220) got credit for a 2-0 win against Drake (245) when the Bulldogs had to forfeit due to Covid. The NCAA made a ruling prior to the season that games could not be rescheduled in that event – this is the first game of the season in which that rule has been enforced. In the FBS, there were a number of close calls for elite teams (Cincinnati (10), Oklahoma (4), Wake Forest (2), Oregon (16), San Diego St (13) all had pressure until the final minutes). Alabama (5) and Michigan (3) had games that look like blowouts until you look at half time scores and see they had late pushes to get those margins. And then there was the game/upset of the year. Illinois (66) who had managed wins only against Nebraska (28) in week 0, and Charlotte (128) came into Penn St (29) as heavy underdogs (PSU -25.0), got behind in the 2nd 10-0 and fought back to a tying field goal with 11:54 to go in the game. We go into OT and neither team can remember how to catch a ball. The Illinois QB (Sitkowski) left with an apparent wrist injury, but they kept fighting and stopping the Nittany Lions. No college football game had ever had more than 6 OT, but this game kept going. After trading field goals in the first two, the game went to 2-point conversions. 5 consecutive stops for both teams took us to the 8th when the Illini crossed the plane and couldn’t hold Penn St. Going to the ninth, Penn St was stopped and the Illini caught a toss in the back of the end zone to complete the upset: final score of 20-18.
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But there were others. Along with Dartmouth and Harvard, Coastal Carolina (37), Oklahoma St (9), and E Washington (102) each suffered their first defeat. On the flip side, W Carolina (219) and Long Island (234) tasted victory for the first time. And while UNLV (71), Arizona (95), and Ohio (170) took their 7th and bowl elimination losses, 11 teams punched their potential ticket to post season play: Louisiana (35), Oregon (16), Mississippi (8), Pittsburgh (20), BYU (32), Liberty (57), Fresno St (44), Ohio St (15), Virginia (23), Texas A&M (22), and Notre Dame (14).
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Another crazy, mixed-up, wacky weekend shuffled the GCR a bit as well. Idle Georgia (1) holds the top spot followed by Wake Forest (2), Michigan (3) and Oklahoma (4). Alabama (5), Michigan St (6), Kentucky (7), Mississippi (8), Oklahoma St (9) and Cincinnati (10) round out the top 10. Lehigh (257) despite scoring only 37 points through 7 games moved out of the cellar to be replaced by Morgan St (258). Here they are from start to finish. Thanks for reading, G
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