The third weekend in October appeared to be a weekend where we could all exhale after a wild couple of weeks. Nope. Two undefeated teams lost on the road and two top 20 teams got ran out of the building. This weekend had shutouts, blowouts and a few teams eliminated from the College Football Playoff which won’t go over well with fans. Here are some winners and losers from Week 7:
WINNERS
1. West Virginia Mountaineers – In case you’ve missed it, the Mountaineers are now 5-
2 overall and 3-1 in Big 12 play after their 41-27 beat down of previously 5th ranked Baylor and now have a better record than preseason favorites UCLA, LSU, Nebraska & Oklahoma. The Mountaineers didn’t completely shut down the Bears but they slowed down Bryce Petty enough while holding runningback Shock Linwood to only 69 yards rushing. Mountaineer quarterback Clint Trickett has turned out to be one of the top gunslingers in college football after throwing for 322 yards in the game Saturday, his 8th straight 300 yard passing game, giving him 2,525 yards and 15 touchdowns on the season so far. Saturday was a huge win for West Virginia and now trail only Kansas State in the Big 12 standings. So far this season, it doesn’t matter what team you trot out against Trickett and the Mountaineers because West Virginia will keep up with them.
2. Pac 12 Home Teams – For the last couple weeks, we have all been trashing the home teams in the Pac-12 as they have struggled against the visitors in conference play. Before Saturday the road teams in conference play were 14-3 but order was restored this past weekend as three of the four home teams won on Saturday by an average margin of 23 points. Oregon jumped out to a 35-6 lead over Washington and won their 11th straight game over the Huskies. Southern Cal quarterback Cody Kessler tossed 7 touchdown passes in their 56-28 win over Colorado and Arizona State won their 2013 Pac-12 Championship Game rematch with Stanford 26-10 after holding the Cardinal to only 76 yards rushing. The home team that didn’t help break the trend on Saturday was the California Golden Bears who couldn’t overcome a late field goal to fall 36-34 to UCLA.
3. Ohio State Buckeyes – Since the Buckeyes lost to Virginia Tech back on September 
6th, Ohio State has reeled off 4 straight wins by an average score of 56-17 which just so happened to be the score of Saturday’s home win over Rutgers. The Buckeyes only trail Michigan State in the Big Ten Eastern Division and young quarterback J.T. Barrett is getting better every week. Since the loss to the Hokies, Barrett has completed 72 percent of his passes for 1170 yards and 17 touchdowns with no interceptions and he has rushed for three scores. The Buckeyes have two games before their big showdown in East Lansing with the Spartans but I expect the Buckeyes to roll in having won six in a row behind their freshman quarterback.
LOSERS
1. Oklahoma Sooners – Some people, including me, thought that this year would be different. I thought that ole Bob Stoops had a Sooner team that was ready to take that next step and be a legitimate national championship contender after their Sugar Bowl win over Alabama. Boy was I wrong. Saturday the Sooners lost at home to Kansas State after missing an extra point in the 4th quarter followed by a missed field goal even later in the 4th quarter giving Oklahoma their second conference loss, thus eliminating them from any consideration in the new College Football Playoff. Yet again Oklahoma’s moniker around the country rings true: Choklahoma. In the last four games Choklahoma’s defense has allowed over 460 yards per game and averaged giving up over 31 points to opponents and were outgained offensively in three of them.
2. Kentucky Wildcats – Just when we thought the Kentucky Wildcat football team could
be trusted, Midnight Madness for the basketball Wildcats took place on Friday night and completely jinxed the football Wildcats at their game in Baton Rouge on Saturday. Kentucky went into their match up with LSU controlling their own destiny in the SEC East and riding high after their good win over South Carolina on October 4th. (Get over it people, any SEC win for Kentucky is a good win) Well all that went out the window Saturday night down on the bayou when the Tigers completely dismantled the Wildcats 41-3 after getting an offensive touchdown, field goal and punt return for a touchdown in the first quarter before the Kentucky fans had hardly gotten to their seats. There is no rest for the weary as the Wildcats limp home to find the number one ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs waiting on them.
3. Arkansas Razorbacks – Allegedly the Razorbacks have a good defense. This has been the common mantra of SEC fans and non-SEC fans alike but I think it’s time to tell the truth folks, the Arkansas Razorback defense isn’t that great. The first week of the season they 
played the reigning SEC champs on the road and gave up over 300 yards rushing and almost 600 yards of total offense. Their next conference game was in Jerry World where they allowed the Texas A&M Aggies (who’ve been beat down by everyone else in the league) to come back and beat them in overtime and rush for well over their season average in that game. They did put up a really good effort against an Alabama team who, let’s be honest, play a very similar style of offense and then last week rolled around where they gave up over 200 yards rushing to Georgia and super freshman Nick Chubb. The Arkansas conference losing streak sits at 16 with Mississippi State as their next conference opponent.
NOTE: There will be no Southern Football Report this Saturday but beginning on November 1st tune in to the Southern Football Report every Saturday morning from 10 am to Noon on Live 101.9, Rockin 106.3 & Q 92.3 to hear high school scores from Friday night as well as college football discussion, debate and previews of the games to come!
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