Southern Football Report: Top Ten Recap

Here’s how the Top 10 from last week fared:

Ohio State Buckeyes – Defeated Western Michigan 38-12 – Finally the number one team in the land and the reigning national champs played like the number one team in the land and the reigning national champs. The Buckeyes jumped on the Broncos early and took a 24-6 lead into halftime on their way to a 26-point victory. Quarterback Cardale Jones, who has been the subject of a lot of dissension from the Ohio State fan base, finally played like the title game MVP with a 288-yard, 2 touchdown performance. Buckeyes running back and Heisman hopeful Ezekiel Elliott, who has been a model of consistency, had a good day as well with 124 yards and a touchdown on only 16 carries. Next Up: at 4-0 Indiana Hoosiers
Michigan State Spartans – Defeated Central Michigan 30-10 – The Spartans have climbed to number 2 in the country after their win over Oregon in Week 2 and their business-like wins since including their no-nonsense victory over the scrappy Chippewas of Central Michigan. At first glance it appears that quarterback Conner Cook had a bad day but when you look at the game as a whole, he didn’t have a bad game but the rushing attack had a great game getting 181 yards on the ground. The three headed monster of Madre London, LJ Scott & Gerald Holmes accounted for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns. Next Up: v. 1-3 Purdue Boilermakers
Ole Miss Rebels – Defeated Vanderbilt 27-16 – We all figured there would be some hangover effects after last week’s big road win over Alabama and the Commodores’ defense is highly underrated so what we got was a Rebels team that didn’t impress too much. The game was tied 13-13 late in the 3rd quarter and was just a four point lead for Ole Miss for a while in the 4th quarter. Rebels quarterback Chad Kelly threw for over 300 yards but threw 2 interceptions and was sacked a few times in the win but Vanderbilt had no answer for running back Jalen Walton had 133 yards and a touchdown and was key in closing out the game against a better-than-their-record Vanderbilt. Next Up: at 4-0 Florida Gators
TCU Horned Frogs – Defeated Texas Tech 55-52 – There are going to be a lot of people who say that a team that gave up 52 points in a game can’t be considered one of the best teams in the country but when you consider all the defensive players that TCU doesn’t have playing, it’s kind of hard to ignore their first conference win on the road in the most underrated environment that is Jones AT&T Stadium. In what was the wildest games of the season so far, the Horned Frogs were able to stand in the ring and deliver haymakers while also receiving a few to the chin as well. Frogs quarterback Trevone Boykin threw the ball 54 times in the game for 485 yards and 4 touchdowns and he had his eyes on number 9 all day. Senior TCU receiver caught 18 passes for 267 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s still open. Next Up: v. 1-3 Texas Longhorns
Baylor Bears – Defeated Rice 70-17 – We still don’t know if Baylor is any good but Saturday they opened up a can on the poor ole Owls of Rice. Bears quarterback Seth Russell hasn’t been bad this year but he hasn’t made anyone forget about Bryce Petty yet but 6 touchdown passes in one game is step in that direction. The Bears could do whatever they wanted all day long against Rice and 793 total yards of offense is evidence of that but the surprise is that Baylor had more rushing yards (427) than passing yards (366). Both Shock Linwood & Terrence Williams both cleared the 100-yard mark and each had a rushing touchdown. Next Up: v. 3-1 Texas Tech Red Raiders
Notre Dame Fighting Irish – Defeated Massachusetts 60-27 – Irish quarterback Deshone Kizer is still learning but still good also so the freshman lives to play another day after his 2 touchdown, 1 interception performance against the Minutemen. The real story from this game is the emergence of the Notre Dame rushing attack with C.J. Procise who had 149 rushing yards and Josh Adams who had 133 rushing yards in the game. The duo combined for 3 touchdowns. When the dust cleared, Notre Dame had racked up 681 yards of total offense and literally ran away with a 37-point victory. Next Up: at 3-0 (12) Clemson Tigers
Georgia Bulldogs – Defeated Southern 48-6 – The schedule makers in Athens deserve a round on the house after scheduling an organized public practice with the Southern Jaguars the week between emotional home games against South Carolina & Alabama. Offensively, the Dawgs were working on some things as they only had 35 rushing yards at halftime but gave the ball to Heisman hopeful running back Nick Chubb enough for him to tie Herschel Walker for the school record for consecutive games with at least 100 yards rushing at 12. Chubb finished the day with 131 yards and 2 touchdowns but the story was the defense who held Southern to only 184 yards and only 10 first downs. Next Up: v. 3-1 (12) Alabama Crimson Tide
LSU Tigers – Defeated Syracuse 34-14 – The 20 point Tigers victory has good news and bad news. The good news is that LSU running back Leonard Fournette rushed for a career-high 244 yards and 2 touchdowns on only 26 carries and looking absolutely unstoppable. The bad news is that the rest of the offense still has a lot of work to do. It’s not that the rest of the offense is THAT bad but when the Tigers have so much success running the ball with Fournette and then look so poor attempting to pass that they end up looking worse than they actually are. In the end, the Tigers defense did keep Syracuse’ offense under 300 yards on the day on their way to the win. Up Next: v. 1-3 Eastern Michigan
UCLA Bruins – Defeated (16) Arizona 56-30 – Sometimes teams make statements with wins and the UCLA Bruins walked into the desert and made a statement against the reigning Pac-12 South champion Wildcats. It was 42-14 at the half and even though the Bruins only rushed for 281 yards as a team, they punched it into the end zone on the ground six times. Freshman quarterback Josh Rosen looked solid as well in a hostile environment throwing 2 touchdowns in the win. The UCLA defense held Arizona to under 150 yards passing and forced three turnover despite losing their best player Myles Jack to injury during the week at practice. Next Up: v. 2-2 Arizona State
Florida State Seminoles – BYE WEEK – Next Up: at 2-2 Wake Forest