CFB Week 8 Recap: #1 falls again, Bama is mortal & Hoosier-mania spreads

Week 8 of the 2024 college football season continued the good vibes for many of the feel-good teams this year, and continued the suffering for this season's disappointments. Let's get into it all!

●For the second time in three weeks, the top ranked team in the country fell. #5 Georgia thoroughly outplayed #1 Texas on the road, holding the Longhorns’ vaunted offense scoreless in the first half and to a season low 15 points on the evening. The Dawgs D made life hell for Horns QB Quinn Ewers all night long, leading to him briefly being benched for Arch Manning late in the second quarter. Both teams coughed up the ball multiple times, but Georgia was able to score off the turnovers they forced, and that was the difference in this top 5 matchup. Now every SEC team has at least one loss, but the main thing people will remember from this one is the bizarre sequence involving an overturned DPI on Georgia in the third quarter. The call initially negated a UT interception that put the Horns in scoring position, leading to Longhorns fans to litter the field at DKR with empty bottles and other pieces of trash. After the delay to clean up their mess, the refs overturned the DPI, giving UT possession on a drive where they eventually scored. It ultimately didn’t lead Texas to victory, but Dawgs HC Kirby Smart and Georgia AD Josh Brooks were understandably heated.

●Crimson Tide fans, welcome to the life of every other college football team. #7 Alabama is mortal now, falling to #11 Tennessee on the road for the second time in three seasons. For the last three weeks Bama has looked like a shell of the Saban-led teams, frequently making critical mistakes and not reacting well to them. Tennessee has had their own struggles over the same time, notably going scoreless in three straight first halfs for the first time since the 1960’s, but figured out enough on offense to grab an important victory for CFP implications down the line. Could the first ever 12-team CFP not include the Crimson Tide? It’s looking more likely than ever, though I’m still bullish on the long term prospects of Kalen DeBoer in Tuscaloosa.

●Your barnburner of the week saw #6 Miami drop 52 points on Louisville and still have to hang on for dear life to win. The Canes set a school record with their 4th 50-point game of the season, and QB Cam Ward threw for 300 yards for a 7th straight game, also a school record. Their balanced attack also featured over 200 rushing yards, including this grown man touchdown run by Damien Martinez. Miami needed every yard they got, though, as Cards QB Tyler Shough balled out on his own with 342 passing yards and 4 touchdowns. Did Miami get the benefit of a couple missed calls? Was this Cam Ward incomplete pass really a fumble? You be the judge, but Miami made good on what was given to them.

●#2 Oregon got handed a classic trap game with a Friday night trip to Purdue. They responded to the task with their first road shutout in over 30 years, blanking the Boilermakers 35-0.

●#4 Ohio State had a week off to figure out what went wrong in Eugene last Saturday. #3 Penn State was also idle ahead of a trip to Wisconsin, who has been playing better football since losing to USC a few weeks ago.

●What a world that we live in where #9 Iowa State is still undefeated but no SEC team is. The Cyclones tried their hardest to join the ranks of the defeated, falling behind by double digits to UCF at home. Knights RBs RJ Harvey and Jacurri Brown pushed Iowa State to the brink with 350 total rushing yards, but the Cyclones and QB Rocco Becht clawed back, scoring the winning TD with 30 seconds to go. Iowa State’s upcoming schedule doesn’t feature the best of the Big 12 until their final game with Kansas State, but as evidenced by this game, anything can happen in Big 12 play.

●Two Top 10 Tiger routs: #8 LSU and #10 Clemson rolled over unranked competition, with the Bayou Bengals beating Arkansas on the road, while the Tigers of orange and purple handled Virginia at home. Both Tiger teams have a lot to like after losing their opening out-of-conference matchup.

●We have to start with #16 Indiana. They throttled Nebraska 56-7 in Bloomington, taking one of the better defenses in the Big Ten to the woodshed. The Hoosiers had over 200 rushing yards and 5 rushing touchdowns, and QB Kurtis Rourke was effective again before leaving the game with injury. The Indiana defense also jumped all over Huskers QB Dylan Raiola, picking him off three times and scoring off every turnover. Rourke will miss next week’s game against Washington, but it’s hard to not buy into what Curt Cignetti has done at Indiana in his first season. At 7-0, the Hoosiers are a real CFP threat and could win 10 games for the first time in school history. They’ll also host College GameDay for the first time ever next weekend!

●#13 BYU is giving life to Big 12 After Dark. They were given everything they could handle from Oklahoma State, with Pokes RB Ollie Gordon finally breaking out of his season-long funk with 107 rushing yards and 3 total touchdowns. A QB combo of Garret Rangel (who started) and Alan Bowman (who relieved an injured Rangel) wasn’t particularly effective but still put the Pokes in position to win, scoring with 1:11 to go to put Oklahoma State ahead. BYU didn’t let that scare them, and a 50-yard TD with 10 seconds to go ensured the Cougs stayed undefeated. We really could see a 12-0 BYU vs a 12-0 Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship Game in December.

●Could we see another matchup of #12 Notre Dame and #14 Texas A&M this season? They both continue to march towards the CFP, taking care of Georgia Tech and Mississippi State on the road, respectively. A&M has looked phenomenal since that opening loss to Notre Dame, while the Fighting Irish have looked good since shockingly losing to Northern Illinois.

●#23 Army and #25 Navy continue to win and win big. Army is already 6-0 in conference with only 2 AAC games left, and have almost already assured themselves a spot in the conference title game.

●Other highlights: Virginia Tech RB Bhayshul Tuten had 266(!) rushing yards in a win over Boston College. #17 Kansas State is quietly 6-1 after rolling over West Virginia. #21 SMU stayed undefeated in the ACC with a 40-10 dismantling of Stanford. UCLA beat Rutgers to win their first ever Big Ten conference game. Kansas ended a 5-game losing streak by beating Houston at an empty Arrowhead Stadium.

●Brent Venables had three years to prepare Oklahoma for the SEC, and a 10-win regular season in 2023 made it look like they were on a decent track. Oh, what a mirage that was. The OU offense we’ve seen for the past 20 years has turned into a shell of itself, turning the ball over on their first three possessions against South Carolina to put them into a hole they couldn’t dig themselves out of. The listless 35-9 home loss was their biggest in Norman since 2014, and a QB switch did nothing to jumpstart an offense with an atrocious offensive line and a litany of injuries at wide receiver. There’s no excuse for the team to look like this three years into a tenure, and the calls for Venables and his coordinators will probably keep getting louder with a very tough schedule ahead.

●Florida State had played Duke 20 times before, and had beaten the Blue Devils every single time. The 21st matchup, though, finally proved to be the breaking point. Duke knocked off the Seminoles 23-16 on Friday night, a night where FSU became the first FBS team this season to turn the ball over on three straight possessions. At 1-6, the Noles need to win out to have a guaranteed shot at a bowl game, and judging by the way they’ve played the first seven games, I don’t see that happening. Shout out to Duke though, who became bowl eligible themselves with this win!

●#24 Michigan is on their third starting QB of the season but their turnover problems keep coming up. Jack Tuttle had a fumble and an interception in their loss to #22 Illinois, who beat them for the first time since 2010. The Wolverines offense is Oklahoma-levels bad, scoring only 7 points and never feeling like it gave them a chance to beat the Illini.

●USC has invested plenty of money into their coaching staff and their players, yet week after week they fall short in winnable games. This week saw them collapse in College Park, allowing Maryland to edge them by a point and drop them to 1-3 in Big Ten play. The Trojans are 11-11 since starting out 11-1 under Lincoln Riley, and it’s hard to watch them make the same mistakes time and time again.

●Auburn fell late on the road to #19 Missouri, losing another 4th quarter lead that dropped them to 0-4 in the SEC. Even Auburn’s cupcake out-of-conference game in November is 5-1 ULM, so bowl eligibility is nowhere close to a given.

●Mizzou had an interesting shortening for Ball State when showing out-of-town scores.

●Cincinnati is quietly doing nice things, beating Arizona State to move to 3-1 in the Big 12. They had a little help from the God of Thunder.

●Despite the loss, USC’s Ja’Kobi Lane had one of the best catches of the year.

●At one point in their loss to Miami (OH), the third leading receiver for Ohio was center Parker Titsworth. Yes, you read that right.

●Weird stat of the weekend: Mark Stoops and Kentucky are 6-7 when the team they’re playing completes less than 10 passes.

1. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State RB: Jeanty and BSU had a week off before their mega-showdown with UNLV next Friday, but nobody had a big enough game in my eyes to overtake him as the Heisman frontrunner.

2. Cam Ward, Miami QB: Just look at this highlight reel put together of the throws and plays Ward made in Louisville on Saturday. He’s easily been the best QB in the country to this point in my mind.

3. Dillon Gabriel, Oregon QB: Unlike last year, Gabriel had no letdown performance after the biggest win of the season. He efficiently diced up hapless Purdue and is building his Heisman case slowly but surely.

4. Travis Hunter, Colorado DB/WR: Hunter had a quiet first half in a CU win over Arizona, then sat out the second half for precautionary reasons. He also spent time downplaying what Jeanty is doing to boost his own profile. Let your play on the field speak for you man!

5. Kurtis Rourke, Indiana QB: The Ohio transfer is a huge reason the Hoosiers are CFB’s biggest turnaround story this season. Hopefully the injury he suffered while whooping Nebraska won’t keep him out more than the upcoming week.