Weekend Recap - Top Teams Romp, But Surprises and Dramatic Finishes Were Plenty

September 18, 2022 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

The college football weekend had its share of surprises and dramatic endings, and saw three of the top ten teams in the Congrove Computer Rankings go down to defeat.

No. 5 Michigan State was the highest-ranked team to falter, losing 39-28 at Washington. Meanwhile, 9th-ranked Mississippi State fell 31-16 at LSU, and 10th-ranked BYU was clubbed 41-20 at Oregon.

See the new Top 131.

The top four teams - Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia and Michigan - all romped to wins against clearly inferior competition. Ohio State was a 77-21 winner over Toledo at "The Shoe", 'Bama strolled to a 63-7 win over UL-Monroe at home, and Michigan was a 59-0 winner over UConn on "The Big House", while Georgia hot the road for an SEC clash at South Carolina and annihilated their border rival 48-7.

Appalachian State began the day basking in the glow of all the attention it was still getting from last week's win at Texas A&M, and then pulled out the most dramatic walk-off win of the day with a 53-yard Hail Mary to escape the upset bid by Troy, 32-28.

Speaking of Texas A&M, the Aggies changed QB's and were still sluggish on offense while managing to beat an equally sluggish Miami team, 17-9.

UTSA and Houston each saw their two-game streak of overtime games end, but both came up on the short end of Saturday's results. The Roadrunners lost 41-20 at Texas, while a surging Kansas team was a 48-30 upset winner at Houston.

Bowling Green went to overtime for a second straight week, albeit with a much better result. After losing 59-57 in 7 overtimes last week to FCS member Eastern Kentucky, the Falcons brought Marshall back down to Earth with a 33-30 upset of their own in a single overtime. Marshall, of course, was the shocking 26-21 winner at Notre Dame last week.

Speaking of Notre Dame, the Irish survived a Hail Mary attempt from Cal and gave head coach Marcus Freeman his first win, 24-17. The final pass attempt from the Bears was tipped and bobbled numerous times by defenders and potential receivers alike before winding up on the turf.

Liberty could have kicked the PAT and sent its game at Wake Forest into overtime. Instead, the Flames tried for two and failed as the Demon Deacons hung on for the 37-36 home win and remain undefeated.

Just over a minute after Old Dominion had gone ahead 14-13 at UVa, the Cavs kicked a short walk-off field goal for the 16-14 win. ODU, of course, had opened the season with a 20-17 last-minute win at home over Virginia Tech.

Charlotte scored the game-winning touchdown and PAT with :17 left to play as the 49ers upset 19-point favorite Georgia State 42-21.

Indiana staved off the upset bid by Western Kentucky with a 33-30 win in overtime.

Eastern Michigan jumped ahead with a fast start and ran past Arizona State, 30-21, in Tempe, Ariz., with running back Samson Evans gaining 257 yards to hand the Sun Devils their first home non-conference loss since 2017. In the process, EMU became the first MAC team to beat a Pac-12 Conference team in the regular season.

Syracuse got a 25-yard TD pass with 7 seconds left to edge Purdue 32-29 in the dome. The two teams combined to score 42 points in a crazy 4th quarter after the Orange led 10-9 after three.

USF missed a 49-yard field goal in the waning seconds and Florida avoided the upset at home with a 31-28 win as a 24-1/2-point favorite.

Iowa and Nevada waited through three lightning delays as the Hawkeyes' 27-0 home win took 7 hours to complete.

The college football weekend began on Friday night with Florida State winning 35-31 at Louisville, and Air Force falling prey to the upset bug at Wyoming, 17-14.

See all the Picks & Scores from the weekend's action.

FCS vs. FBS

There will be 118 FBS vs. FCS matchups this season with App State, Army and Marshall each playing two such games, and 115 other FBS schools playing one apiece.

There were 22 FBS-FCS games on Saturday with the FBS going 21-1 to improve to 91-7 (.929) vs the FCS this season and 1,665-147 (.920) since we began tracking this in 2003.

The lone FCS win was Southern Illinois 31-24 triumph at Northwestern, leaving the Wildcats with a 1-2 record against FCS teams since 2016.

North Dakota State lost a sea-saw battle at Arizona, 31-28.  And for a long time, it looked like Missouri State was going to give head coach Bobby Petrino a win at his old stomping ground, Arkansas, but the Hogs scored the last 21 points to erase a 27-17 deficit.

Here are the FCS wins in 2022:
September 2: William & Mary 41, Charlotte 24
September 3: Delaware14, Navy 7
September 10: Weber State 35, Utah State 7
September 10: Incarnate Word 55, Nevada 41
September 10: Holy Cross 37, Buffalo 31
September 10: Eastern Kentucky 59, Bowling Green 57 (7 OT's)
September 17: Southern Illinois 31, Northwestern 24

Streaks

LOUISIANA - 15-game winning streak came to an end (was FBS longest).
Last: Lost 33-21 at Rice on Saturday, September 17.

CLEMSON - Won 9 straight over-all (FBS longest); Won 35 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 48-20 at home over Louisiana Tech on Saturday, September 17.
Next: Visits Wake Forest on Saturday, September 24.

CINCINNATI: Won 16 straight conference games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 38-17 over Miami (O) at Paul Brown Stadium on Saturday, September 17.
Next: Hosts Indiana on Saturday, September 24.

GEORGIA - Won 8 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 48-7 at South Carolina on Saturday, September 17.
Next: Hosts Kent State on Saturday, September 24.

COLORADO STATE - Lost 9 straight over-all (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 38-7 at Washington State on Saturday, September 17.
Next: Hosts Sacramento State on Saturday, September 24.

FIU - Lost 17 straight games to FBS schools (FBS longest)
Last: Lost 41-12 at home to Texas State on Saturday, September 10.
Next: Visits Western Kentucky on Saturday, September 24.

VANDERBILT - Lost 21 straight conference games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 38-28 at Northern Illinois on Saturday, September 17.
Next: Visits Alabama on Saturday, February 24.

NEW MEXICO STATE - Lost 21 straight road games (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 66-7 at Wisconsin on Saturday, September 17.
Next: Hosts Hawaii on Saturday, February 24.