Something in the Orange: Week 8 Recap

Good morning and welcome to 4th & Forever, Rand & Tate’s College Football Newsletter. Football is the quintessential American sport. It’s brutal, violent, tribal, and when things go wrong, society can’t help but to continue looking. Even though it was a relatively upset-free weekend, we saw an ACC holder almost become an amputee, Puddles got decapitated, and heads started rolling figuratively with the return of the coaching carousel. College football has the unique ability to bring America together during these tense and trying times and get us to ponder the questions that really matter to the public. Can you get hypothermia from jumping in Lake Michigan in October? Is launching water bottles on the field of play now an encouraged behavior? Does anyone in Knoxville know how to properly light a cigar? Week 8 was a beautiful disaster so let’s get right to it.

Week 8 Recap

SEC Blockbusters

It was the third Saturday in October, so much of the national attention was naturally focused on #7 Alabama and #11 Tennessee up in Knoxville. For as much hype as this game had, it was uhh, not the best football game we’ve ever seen. Both offenses stunk it up for the entire first half, especially Tennessee who has now had 0 points at halftime in their past three games. Vols QB Nico Iamaleava was missing, missing, and missing again down the field while Jalen Milroe could not hit water from a boat as Tennessee did everything they could to force him to be a pocket passer. Milroe got beat up a good bit in last week’s game against South Carolina and right now doesn’t appear to be 100% healthy, either. The game seemed to turn in the 2nd half when Nico did finally connect on a 55-yard deep shot to Dont’e Thornton in the 3rd quarter as Tennessee drove to take a 14-10 lead - from there, it was largely only Tennessee that could move the ball with any effectiveness as Alabama’s final four drives went punt, punt, turnover on downs, interception to end the game.

While it’s back to the drawing board for an Alabama team that clearly needs Milroe to be effective on the ground to score points, it was a statement win for a Tennessee program that has now beaten Alabama at Neyland Stadium twice in a row after breaking Bama’s streak of beating them fifteen times in a row in 2022. The Vols’ SEC title and playoff hopes are still alive, and their successful second half might be what their offense needed to catapult themselves back into being a terrifying team to play. They have a bye week and then two home tune-up games before their massive trip to Athens in early November. We’re in for some phenomenal matchups down the stretch.

The main event of the day, though, was of course #5 Georgia’s trip to take on the #1 Texas Longhorns in Austin. Much of my game preview last Thursday was about how people seem to have forgotten exactly who Kirby Smart’s Dawgs are, and about the fact that Texas had not yet seen a team anywhere close to Georgia so far this season. That all came home to roost on Saturday night, as even with a couple of UGA turnovers early, the Dawgs absolutely smoked the Horns from the jump. The defensive line was absolutely dominant early, holding Texas to less than 30 total yards well into the second quarter. In my Thursday preview, I said “It’s time to let Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams tee off on a quarterback” and it appears that Kirby himself is a 4th & Forever reader because Jalon Walker proceeded to have the greatest half of football I’ve seen from a UGA defender since Roquan Smith’s second half against Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl. Walker had three sacks and a fumble recovery in the first half and was completely abusing UT left tackle Kelvin Banks who is a surefire first round pick in next year’s draft. The defense was absolutely flying around, it truly was vintage Georgia.

Things got weird in the 3rd quarter when UGA seemingly screwed up some sort of surprise onside kick (Kirby says it was a regular kick that was just mis-hit, but I simply do not believe him) to start the half which gave Texas the ball near the 50-yard line. They took advantage to finally get on the board, and then the weirdness started. We’ve all seen it by now, but after a Carson Beck interception where an admittedly bad pass interference was called, and then the Texas students started chucking a bunch of sh*t on the field. The refs had already met, decided to keep the call, and even placed the ball 15 yards forward to account for the penalty. But as the fans threw bottles onto the field, the replay played in a continuous loop in the stadium as the refs just sat there and watched it multiple times. After they got everything cleaned up, the head umpire announces they’ve actually taken the penalty away, and it’ll be Texas ball at the Georgia 9 yard line. What the hell? It’s true that the initial PI call was BS, and it would’ve sucked for Texas to make a game-changing play like that and have it wiped away by a bad call. But I have no idea what to takeaway from this situation other than if a call goes against my team, me and my friends should just start chucking sh*t on the field because the refs then might have 5 minutes to watch the replay on the video board and change their minds. Texas punched it in to cut the lead to 23-15 and had every ounce of momentum you could possibly have. For the first time in the night, the DKR crowd impressed me.

But then my favorite stretch of the night happened as Carson Beck and the Georgia offense looked entirely unaffected by the craziness that was ensuing and immediately marched down the field on an 11-play, 89 yard drive to go up 30-15 early in the 4th quarter - a score that we would not let change from there. You can say what you will about this team’s lack of consistency and focus at times, but man are these guys resilient and completely unphased when things aren’t going their way. It took a couple of Texas breaks for them to even cut that score down to 8 points in the first place, and the Dawgs came back out and decided that they’d been dominating for the vast majority of this game, so they were just going to start dominating again. And that’s exactly what they did.

It was the first time Georgia had been an underdog in 50 games. Everybody on College Gameday picked Texas, while others in the CFB media-sphere spent the week talking about how it would take damn near a miracle for Georgia to beat the greatest football team who ever played. How quickly people forget who Kirby’s Dawgs are. We reminded them.

Quarterbacking Disasters

Oklahoma hosted South Carolina as 2.5-point favorites and the game was over quicker than Joe Exotic’s bid for president. Here’s a quick play-by-play of Oklahoma on offense to start the game. Interception, completion, completion, strip sack, run, run, run, pick-6. South Carolina led 21-0 and less than 6 minutes of game clock had been used. Thankfully, QB Michael Hawkins was benched for Jackson Arnold. Arnold finished with a respectable stat line but the rumors of him taking the rest of the season off to preserve his redshirt were thrown away once he entered this game. We’re interested to see if the former five-star and Sooner Savior Arnold is able to salvage his season given he was benched in favor of Hawkins in the Tennessee game for poor play. On Sunday, Oklahoma fired OC Seth Littrell in what might be more of a ceremonious move because there is little that can fix their entire WR room being injured and the OL that’s given up 29 sacks on the year. Boomer! Brent Venables won’t get fired this year but next year he will enter the season on the hottest of hot seats.

It’s not all doom and gloom in Norman because, up the road in Stillwater, the pain is just as palpable. On Friday night in Provo, Oklahoma State lost 38-35 to still-unbeaten BYU on a last-minute touchdown pass that included the worst tackling effort you’ll ever see. Oklahoma State started sophomore QB Garret Rangel but was forced to turn back towards the 42-year-old Alan Bowman when Rangel left with an injury. The only promising news in Stillwater is RB Ollie Gordon finally looked like he remembered how to run the football, or the OL figured out that you’re supposed to block the defender on the opposing team. Oklahoma fans are also taking an irrational amount of solace in the fact that Lincoln Riley is managing an unmitigated disaster in Hollywood right now. USC slipped to 3-4 after losing 29-28 to Maryland who was coming off a 37-10 beatdown at the hands of Northwestern. USC has now lost three in a row while the opening weekend win over LSU continues to look perplexing.

Just across the state border, Missouri had their own QB crisis in their 21-17 victory over Auburn. Brady Cook left the game on the opening drive due to an ankle injury, went to the hospital for an MRI, and then returned to the game to lead two touchdown drives to secure the comeback dub. Unclear what the doctors shot him up with but someone needs to be fired for malpractice for not giving WRs Theo Wease and Luther Burden the ball more. Burden specifically has only broken the century mark once this year. Last year he did it in six games including five straight contests. The moniker Midzou is still applicable as this fraudulent team does not deserve any playoff attention. They’re a Paper Tiger in every sense and head to Tuscaloosa next week. 

Time for our weekly check-in on Florida State! On Friday night, the Noles lost to Duke 23-16 for the first time ever. Playing without QB DJU who has a cast on his hand, they threw Brock Glenn to the wolves and he rewarded them with the following three-play sequence in the first half: pick-six, fumble, pick. Yep, three straight plays of turnovers. He was benched for true freshman Luke Kromenhoek who threw a beautiful pass right to the FSU receiver who dropped the bomb in the endzone. Glenn was mercifully thrown back into the game thanks to an injury to Kromenhoek. Not to add insult to injury but look at this field goal attempt by FSU where the kicker nearly kicked the holder’s hand off. FSU remains must watch TV for all the right reasons. 

Michigan lost 21-7 to Illinois who continues to be a sneaky Big 10 contender with their only loss coming to undefeated Penn State. The Wolverines stuck with Jack Tuttle under center and his top three pass catchers in the game were the starting tight end, the backup tight end, and the running back. We’d be doing a disservice to you all if we didn’t show you the hideous uniforms Illinois trotted out in for this game. Imagine being the defending national champion and you’re getting waxed by a team wearing airbrushed leather helmets and pants that make them look naked. 

Elsewhere, Georgia Tech was forced to start backup QB Zach Pyron but he threw two picks which enabled Notre Dame to rout the Jackets 31-13. Notre Dame is going to sleepwalk their way into a playoff spot, aren’t they? Rounding out the ACC, Miami continues to exclusively play in cracked-out games after beating Louisville 52-45. QB Cam Ward is a magician and if Ashton Jeanty and Travis Hunter continue to sit out in their blowouts, Ward is going to continue putting up some gaudy offensive numbers. Louisville freshman RB Isaac Brown is a 5’9 rocket out of the backfield and a name to remember as the season trucks along. He only finished with 56 yards which was 210 less than Virginia Tech RB Bhayshul Tuten in their 42-21 win over Boston College. Both the Cards and the Hokies are 4-3 but have Clemson left on their schedules.

Kicking Themselves: Non-FSU Edition

No one is saying being a college QB is easy but let’s not let kickers off the hook, they can be the difference between a cathartic field storming and a coach getting fired, all based on how well they kick an oblong piece of leather. After Arizona State’s 24-14 loss to Cincinnati, head coach Kenny Dillingham said the following at his postgame press conference, “Our kicking game is atrocious. If you can kick and you're at Arizona State, email me. We're going to have kicking tryouts on Monday ... I'm dead serious.” He’s already had to issue an apology for his comments but we don’t fault him for openly calling for walk-on tryouts. There are 74,878 undergrads walking around Tempe right now, surely one of those tan drunkards knows how to kick. 

We have less confidence in Cal’s undergraduate body being able to supply a kicker but they might need to try after their kicker missed a 28-yarder in the final minute in what ended up being a 24-23 loss to NC State. Cal is on a four-game losing streak and the combined margin of defeat is 9 points. Incoincidentally, the Cal kickers have missed four field goals in those games.

In Piscataway, Rutgers extended their losing streak to 3 games after letting the previous 1-5 UCLA Bruins come in and show them an offensive masterclass after previously being the only FBS team not to cross the 20-point threshold. After a late Rutgers touchdown to cut it to 35-32, Rutgers kicked an onside kick which UCLA seemingly returned for a TD but was called back after a different UCLA player called for a fair catch. Unclear what rule was broken but Rutgers is a fraud: confirmed. In happier Big 10 news, Wisconsin beat Northwestern 23-3 and the only highlight was after the handshake when the entire Wisconsin team sprinted to the shore of Lake Michigan to watch their strength coach jump in. The current water temperature in Lake Michigan is 58 degrees. We expect all opposing strength coaches to follow suit, especially as we get further into the fall. Wisconsin is quietly 5-2 and hosts Penn State next weekend. 

Coaching Carousel Season

Last year’s coaching carousel got moving earlier than normal thanks to the scandals at Michigan State and Northwestern but aside from Purdue firing OC Graham Harrell a few weeks ago, it had been pretty quiet until yesterday. East Carolina and Southern Miss finally pulled the plug on head coaches Mike Houston and Will Hall. Both of these G5 jobs have promise and high expectations but both Universities have distinct financial issues. They both can’t afford to fire them but couldn’t afford not to. We’ll be interested to see what level of coach they can attract as replacements. In the P4, Utah’s OC Andy Ludwig stepped down after the Utes lost 13-7 to TCU at home. If you remember from a few years ago, Notre Dame tried to pry Ludwig away but he opted to remain in Salt Lake City. Regardless if Kyle Whittingham calls it quits or not after this season, finding a competent OC is integral because DC Morgan Scalley has already been named head coach in waiting.

Quick Hitters

It’s time to have a playoff convo about Indiana because they’re a damn good team. They beat Nebraska 56-7 over the weekend but star QB Kurtis Rourke will be out for a while after injuring his thumb. Indiana hosts Washington next week and College GameDay announced they’re going to Bloomington for the first time ever. Indiana’s season will come down to a November 23rd trip to Columbus and they should have Rourke back by then. If they end the season 11-1 with their only loss coming to the Buckeyes they deserve an at-large bid to the playoff with how well they’re playing.

There weren’t any other Top 25 upsets on Saturday but keep your eyes on LSU, Texas A&M, and SMU who are all 6-1 but undefeated in conference play. Kansas State and Iowa State are seemingly on a crash course for the Big 12 title game but don’t discount Colorado who destroyed Arizona to move to 3-1 in the conference. Cincinnati is also 3-1 and can play spoiler as all three of those teams have to travel to Cincy over the next month.

Holding Ourselves Accountable

Tate’s Great Picks: Last week: 7-4 - Season Record: 36-30

W - Wake +1.5: beat UConn 23-20

W - Illinois +3.5: beat Michigan 21-7

W - South Carolina +2.5: beat Oklahoma 35-9

W - Georgia +5: beat Texas 30-15

W - Virginia Tech -7: beat Boston College 42-21

W/L - Tennessee +2.5, O 55.5: beat Alabama 24-17

L/W - Mizzou -4.5, U 51.5: beat Auburn 21-17

L - Texas Tech -6.5: lost to Baylor 59-35

L - BYU -9: beat Oklahoma State 38-35

Pretty good week on the books here even with a couple of rough misses. Illinois, South Carolina, and Georgia all dominated despite being underdogs which felt wonderful, and getting the week off to a nice start with the easy Virginia Tech cover was awesome as well. I didn’t realize that Tennessee and Alabama were going to look like Iowa for the entire first half so the over was not in play there, but I was at least correct in thinking that Tennessee would get it done down the stretch at home. Mizzou winning by 4 and therefore not covering the -4.5 was frustrating, especially because I feel like they definitely would’ve covered if their QB didn’t have to literally go to the hospital and back in the middle of the game. Hands up on the Texas Tech pick - what the hell Red Raiders? Oklahoma State finally showed up to play for the first time this season which I did not expect at night at BYU so we’ll take the L there too. But a strong, profitable week here for Tate’s Great Picks and we’re up some serious cash on the season now. Onward.

OnlyRans: Last week: 2-5 - Season Record: 27-39

Push - Nevada +3: Lost to Fresno State 24-21

W - Illinois +3.5: beat Michigan 21-7

W - Army -15.5: beat ECU 45-28

L - Rutgers -4.5: lost to UCLA 35-32

L - USF -13.5: beat UAB 35-25

L - BYU -9: beat Oklahoma State 38-35

L - New Mexico @ Utah State under 78.5: New Mexico won 50-45

L - Texas Tech -6.5: lost to Baylor 59-35

Wow, it’s almost like when I said, “Way too many favorites for my liking…” I was foreshadowing a horrendous performance. Rutgers let UCLA QB Ethan Garbers look like Vince Young while Texas Tech broke the cardinal sin that if you’re not capable of fielding a competent defense you need to couple it with some semblance of an offense. Two of their touchdowns came with less than 7 minutes in the 4th quarter so 35 points is misleading. My W/L record of betting game totals is now at a nice, tidy 2-9 but New Mexico and Utah State made the over 1-5-1 when the total is at least 78 points. Of course, they cleared that with ease. I’m going to continue riding Army for eternity and I encourage you to do the same. Betting against UAB was a wagon but USF’s QB Byrum Brown didn’t play due to injury and Bulls players were fighting each other on the sidelines so I deserve that. What’s going on with your team Tate?

Wake Forest

(3-4) Wake Forest 23 - (4-3) UConn 20: A win is a win is a win. I don’t know if I’m happier the Deacs won an important game to stay alive in their hunt for bowl eligibility or now I don’t have to do 500 pushups on Facebook Live thanks to Tate’s Great Picks. That would’ve taken me hours. Per ESPN’s stats nerd Bill Connelly, Wake’s postgame win expectancy was 88.6%, meaning we should’ve won by more. Wake out everythinged UConn but the two most telling stats were Wake setting for three field goals and throwing one pick in the red zone. 2-6 isn’t going to cut it no matter the opponent and Wake damn near lost this game. The other was UConn’s average starting field position was their 19-yard line while Wake’s was their own 42. Player of the game goes to WR Taylor Morin who finished with 104 receiving yards and tacked on another 45 yards from punt returns. RB Claiborne slow-meshed the Huskies to death and finished with 2 TDs on the ground. Special shoutout to CBSSN commentator Ross Tucker who was appalled that Wake kicker Matthew Dennis committed treason by shushing the UConn crowd after making a late field goal. “You don’t even get to enjoy the win to the same extent.” If fans are now allowed to boo players because they’re making NIL money, players are afforded the same liberties to fire back. I have no issues letting players - especially kickers - showboat if it’s warranted. The Deacs enjoyed the win, I enjoyed the win, and I’m sure Matthew Dennis did too Mr. Tucker. On to Palo Alto in the nerd bowl against Stanford.

Texts of the Week

“That might have been better than when Stetson threw the ball into the 17th row and the refs said it was actually a fumble and Bama ball in the Natty.” - Alex S. referencing this play after the ref show on Saturday night.

“That was a crime against humanity” - Sam W. referencing the same call.

“WTFFFF”, “I have never seen that in my life”, “This is legitimately rigged”, “That was the most blatant thing I have ever seen in my life”. - A collection of UGA fans. If you haven’t noticed, we really didn’t like that overturned call!

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Rand Fisher & Tate Smillie met a few years ago through their good buddy Dave Peljovich who went to college with Rand and high school with Tate. Tate went to Georgia and has spent the last two years collecting championship rings while traveling to watch the Dawgs. Rand went to known CFB powerhouse Wake Forest and currently pays rent in Atlanta but is rarely found there with all the work & CFB travel he does.