Let’s take a stroll across college football and see how Notre Dame’s opponents did last week.
NAVY -- If Notre Dame fans are feeling disappointed in their opponents, don’t look at Navy. After a rough start, the Midshipmen have rallied nicely, continuing that trend with a big victory over East Carolina. Navy put up a season-high 563 yards of offense, powered by Gee Gee Green and freshman quarterback Keenan Reynolds, who had a pretty active passing stat-line, finishing 3 of 5 for 51 yards, managing to throw two touchdowns and one interception in that. The Navy defense held ECU to just 338 yards of total offense, controlling the clock for over 35 minutes.
Trending: Upwards. Navy is 5-3 and looking like a cinch for a bowl game, a proposition that looked shaky when the Midshipmen were sitting at 1-3.
PURDUE -- Oh Purdue. The wheels are falling off the Boilermakers season with their fourth straight Big Ten loss. That dark-horse status can officially be taken outside and shot, with Purdue following up their heart-breaking loss to Ohio State by completing getting run out of Minneapolis on Saturday, trailing 34-7 at halftime. Caleb TerBush was absolutely awful, and by the time Robert Marve replaced him it was too late. Purdue’s supposedly stout defense let freshman quarterback Philip Nelson throw for three touchdowns and 246 yards in the 44-28 throttling.
Trending: A huge disappointment for Purdue, who needs to hand the reins of the offense over to Marve, a QB playing with a torn ACL.
MICHIGAN STATE -- It may have set football back a half-century, but the Spartans “outlasted” No. 25 Wisconsin on Saturday 16-13 in overtime, thanks to some late game heroics from Andrew Maxwell and tight end Bennie Fowler. The Spartans’ defense was terrific against the Badgers, holding them to 190 total yards and holding Heisman finalist Montee Ball to just 46 yards on 22 carries. But the Spartans offense wasn’t much better, with Maxwell needing 39 throws to pass for 216 yards and Le’Veon Bell only ran for 3.7 yards a carry. The overtime victory threw the Big Ten’s title chase into chaos, and made the conference only look worse.
Trending: Ugly or not, a big victory of Mark Dantonio’s team, who already has four losses and needs to salvage the season.
MICHIGAN -- Michigan fans got a glimpse of what life will be like without Denard Robinson. Needless to say, they weren’t pleased. The Wolverines lost to Nebraska 23-9, with their offense grinding to a halt after Robinson left with an injury late in the first half. Nebraska held the Wolverines offense at bay even with Robinson in the game, but feasted on Russell Bellomy, who went 3 of 16 passing for just 38 yards with three interceptions. It was a rude awakening and appropriately raised huge questions for the future of the Michigan offense in life after Denard.
Trending: Another step backwards for Michigan, though they are still in the thick of it in the Big Ten standings, and have a chance to end Ohio State’s ineligible dream season as well.
MIAMI -- The Hurricanes were off on Saturday, taking a bye week after their showdown loss to Florida State before taking on Virginia Tech.
Trending: The week off hopefully settled a Hurricanes team that began its free fall after losing 41-3 to the Irish, dropping three in a row to get to 4-4.
No. 14 STANFORD -- It wasn’t pretty for Stanford, but they escaped downtrodden Washington State with a 24-17 victory. The Cardinal defense did just about everything for Stanford, racking up 10 sacks and taking an interception back for a touchdown. Stephan Taylor couldn’t get going on the ground and Josh Nunes put up meager statistics, but it was a survive and advance game for the Cardinal, who get another cupcake match-up with Colorado before facing Oregon State, Oregon, and UCLA to end the regular season.
Trending: Notre Dame’s win against Stanford looks better and better with the Cardinal keeping their lofty ranking. They’ll need to earn it in the season’s final month.
BYU -- A week after losing a tight one to the Irish, the Cougars roared past George Tech with an impressive 41-17 victory. Young running back Jamaal Williams scored four touchdowns and Riley Nelson ran and passed for two more as BYU dominated on offense while its stingy defense completely shut down the Yellow Jackets. Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense had only 12 first downs and 157 yards, managing just 40 through the air.
Trending: A nice rebound victory for Bronco Mendenhall’s team, who have Saturday off before facing Idaho, San Jose State, and New Mexico State, giving them a strong chance to salvage an eight-win regular season.
PITTSBURGH -- The Panthers won their first Big East game of the season in style, dominating a surprising Temple team 47-17 thanks to Ray Graham’s three touchdowns. First-year head coach Paul Chryst is starting to see some consistency out of his team, who started the year with a loss to Youngstown State, but has rebounded to win four of their last six. Tino Sunseri completed 20 of 28 passes for three touchdowns and freshman running back Rushel Shell ran for 79 yards and a touchdown as well. It wasn’t all good news for the Panthers, who lost three players to season-ending injuries.
Trending: While the injuries could gut this team, the Panthers have two very good running backs. Quarterback Tino Sunseri is also playing the best football of his career with 13 touchdown passes and only two interceptions after an up-and-down career.
BOSTON COLLEGE -- Chase Rettig’s 14-yard touchdown pass with less than a minute left beat Maryland and gave the Eagles just their second victory of the season. The Terps were down to their fourth-string quarterback on Saturday (who was also injured and lost for the season), but the Eagles were able to win with just 295 yards of offense, and only eight yards of rushing.
Trending: There was nowhere to go but up for Boston College, and the Eagles got a much needed victory against the injury-depleted Terps.
WAKE FOREST -- The Demon Deacons got beaten badly by Clemson on Saturday 42-13, with Tajh Boyd throwing for five touchdowns and Sammy Watkins catching eight balls for 202 yards, as the Tigers racked up over 500 yards of offense. Tanner Price completed 27 of 44 passes for two touchdowns and Josh Harris ran for 76 yards on just ten carries but Wake Forest just couldn’t survive the Clemson onslaught, when the Tigers scored four touchdowns in the second quarter.
Trending: This doesn’t appear to be a very good Wake Forest defense, limiting just about any chance the Deacs have to be a good team. (Their offense isn’t too good either, ranking 92nd in passing and 112th in rushing yards.)
No. 17 USC -- The Trojans were upset on Saturday by Rich Rodriguez’s Arizona squad, spoiling wide receiver Marqise Lee’s record-setting afternoon. USC had five turnovers and gave up 588 yards of offense, losing a 28-13 third quarter lead as the Wildcats scored 26 straight points before holding on for the victory. Matt Barkley threw for 493 yards in the losing effort as Lee has a ridiculous 16 catches for 345 yards. Lee had 12 catches for 255 yards in the first half alone.
Trending: We’re learning that the principles of football apply to the Trojans as well, with 13 penalties and five turnovers dooming USC and ending their dreams of a national title. They are set to face Oregon this Saturday in another huge test.
