AP Top 25 Takeaways: Miami living right; 3 top-10 teams fall
The college football weekend started with a freaky Friday that included two top-10 teams being upset, including the defending national champions - a reminder that once you think you have things figured out, you will be proven wrong.
Several weeks of talking about the seemingly inevitable Clemson-Alabama III in the College Football Playoff national championship game led up to the second-ranked Tigers losing at Syracuse on Friday night. The same Syracuse team that lost at home in September to Middle Tennessee State.
No. 8 Washington State followed that up Friday night with a total meltdown in losing 37-3 at California.
A third top-10 team went down Saturday afternoon and another undefeated team is undefeated no more.
Thoughts, takedowns and takeaways from week seven of the college football season, when we learned that we really don't know much.
1. Who is living better than No. 11 Miami and coach Mark Richt? A second straight week of pulling one out in the final seconds has the Hurricanes the only unbeaten team left in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
2. The Hurricanes are piecing things together with several key players injured and a first-year starting quarterback in Malik Rosier who has been up and down. Miami might not be one of the 10 best teams in the country, but the Hurricanes will be ranked among them come Sunday when the new AP Top 25 comes out.
3. LSU coach Ed Orgeron took a whole lot of grief after the Tigers face-planted against Troy a couple of weeks back. Deservedly so. And he deserves some praise now for keeping his players from bailing on a season that was going downhill fast and winning two straight.
4. Speaking of things you think you know: Just when it looked as if No. 10 Auburn was rounding into a legitimate challenger to No. 1 Alabama in the SEC West, the Tigers lost in Death Valley for the ninth straight time .
5. This week's SEC coach catching heat: C'mon down, Gus Malzahn, whose offense dried up in the second half against LSU. He also had some questionable clock management late in the game.
6. Don't want to overstate the result in the Red River Showdown because Texas and Oklahoma have played some competitive and entertaining games recently - even as the Longhorns program was floundering. But Baker Mayfield and the Sooners' beating back a rally by freshman quarterback Sam Ehlinger and the Longhorns certainly portends to go things ahead for the rivalry under Lincoln Riley and Tom Herman.
7. A few thoughts on Friday's developments: Fair to question why Clemson stuck with quarterback Kelly Bryant when he was limping around the Carrier Dome. Unable to run as usual, Bryant got slammed to the turf and sustained a scary concussion. The Tigers have a week off before playing Georgia Tech.
8. Clemson lost at home to Pitt in November last year before going on to win a national championship. The Tigers have plenty of time to recover and opportunities to build on a solid resume.
9. One thing was clear against Syracuse: Clemson needs Bryant healthy enough to be a running threat for its offense to function at a high level.
10. The ACC Atlantic wasn't done providing odd results. Louisville is being exposed as Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson and not much else.
11. Boston College upset the Cardinals 45-42 with running back AJ Dillon rushing for 272 yard and four touchdowns. The freshman came into the game with 333 yards and two touchdowns on the season.
12. Last year Clemson and Louisville beat Syracuse and Boston College by a combined 106-7. Strange game, this college football.
13. Prediction: By December, Clemson's victory against Louisville won't look so impressive. But the Tigers' loss to Syracuse won't look so bad.
14. It was another slog for Florida State's offense, but the Seminoles did improve to 20-0 all-time against Duke.
15. Sitting atop the Atlantic standings: No. 20 North Carolina State. And it's no fluke.
16. The 500th Big Ten victory in Michigan history - more than any other school - was another struggle for the offensively inept Wolverines. Michigan beat Indiana in overtime for the second time in three seasons.
17. Jim Harbaugh needs to give defensive coordinator Don Brown a raise because his defense is the only thing keeping Michigan ranked. The Wolverines go to No. 3 Penn State next Saturday.
18. Not much more to say about Butch Jones and Tennessee. Another excruciating loss for the Vols, who have not scored a touchdown since the first half of the UMass game on Sept. 23 .
19. It will be another Sunday monitoring Knoxville, Tennessee, to see if Jones still has a job.
20. The Vols are at No. 1 Alabama next week. So it's not getting any better.
21. Kudos to South Carolina quarterback Jake Bentley, who was one of the first people to console Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano after his final play pass went incomplete.
22. Watching Michigan, Florida State and Tennessee play offense at the same time was enough to make a sports fan flip to hockey,
23. The key to TCU's resurgence: Less knuckleheads , according to coach Gary Patterson.
24. No. 25 Navy's loss at Memphis dropped the number of unbeaten teams in FBS to 10.
25. Illinois grabbed firm hold of the title of worst team in the Big Ten, losing 35-24 at home to Rutgers . It was the Scarlet Knights' first conference victory under second-year coach Chris Ash. Things are really bad for Lovie Smith at Illinois. Still, not as bad as at Kansas.
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Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP
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