SAN ANTONIO — We’re 10 weeks through the college football season, and I’m exhausted! And if I’m tired, you know the teams are.
The ones with bad records, anyway.
The College Football Playoff picture is taking shape and bowl committees are narrowing down their fields. But enough about that. Let’s roll through the Great State of Texas and review what happened on the gridiron last weekend!
UTSA
UT-SA! They finally played the game they’d been wanting to play for weeks on end when they handed Memphis just their second loss of the season Saturday.
I’ll fast forward right to their second-half defense, the third quarter specifically. Memphis ran nine plays (their first three drives) for negative 10 yards. After that, Memphis was intercepted, they fumbled and then turned it over twice on downs before two very late fourth-quarter TDs that were for the stat sheet only.
Now that’s impressive by the Roadrunner defense! And offensively, QB Owen McCown connected on 20 completions for 280 yards and four touchdown passes, all four to tight ends, and just days after Head coach Jeff Traylor announced longtime tight end staple Oscar Cardenas was out for the season with injury. Talk about the room stepping up!
UTSA (4-5) now has some measure of confidence heading into this week’s bye before resuming play the week after with the second of three straight at home with North Texas visiting. #BirdsUp
Texas
The Longhorns were on the bye week as they prep for the Florida Gators, who played Georgia tough just days ago.
Texas is favored by three touchdowns and the ESPN Gamecast (always enjoy looking at that) says the ‘Horns have a 91% chance of taking care of business.
But I’ll say it again: Even the SEC's middle-of-the-road types are very talented football teams. And Texas was far from overly impressive on the road at Vanderbilt their last time out, and yes, Vandy is much improved, we get it.
But I’ll also say this again. If Texas is who they tell us they are, UT should handle the Gators without loads of stress at DKR on Saturday morning. #HookEm
Texas A&M
Maybe Aggies Head coach Mike Elko shouldn’t have dropped that "real program' quote from the week prior.
The "real" program looked like South Carolina on Saturday night as A&M was left behind in the Gamecocks' dominant dominant victory. The Aggies didn’t score one point in the second half after battling back from an early hole to even the game at 20-20 by halftime. And then they played the third and fourth quarters.
Their second half drive chart was the following: punt, downs, punt, interception, punt, punt, fumble and end of game.
Translation: Ugh.
As good as new starting QB Marcel Reed and the offense were in the first half, they were equally as bad in the second. Texas A&M will surely take out some frustration on poor ol' New Mexico State in two weeks (they’re on the bye this week) before finishing SEC play with lowly Auburn followed by that game... the Texas Longhorns. #GigEm
Texas Tech
See the end of that game? Actually, hope you got to see the majority of the game!
The 23-22 victory over then-No. 17 Iowa State was a hard-fought and well-earned win by the Red Raiders. And give credit to the TTU offense and starting QB Behren Morton in the final minutes, marching downfield in unpleasant weather to score the game-winning touchdown. Three points did them no good in the final seconds. They needed six, and they got it for the one point win over previously undefeated Iowa State.
Joey McGuire’s bunch was staring down their third straight loss before the thrilling last-second win. And now they welcome Coach Prime and the CU Buffs this weekend in Lubbock. Can’t wait to watch that one! #RaiderPower
Baylor
Give it up for the Bears! They’re above the line at 5-4 after three straight wins that include Saturday night’s walk-off, game-winning field goal over TCU.
The Bears opened Big 12 play with Colorado, BYU and Iowa State, and have since beaten Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and the Horned Frogs. And this could be promising: Their remaining schedule are road games at West Virginia and Houston, followed by senior day at home with Kansas.
Why shouldn’t they finish with six straight wins at this point? I’m guessing it won’t happen, but I’m feeling like it should. Head coach Dave Aranda isn’t giving BU admin any reason to run him down as of the writing of this, and imagine if Baylor somehow finishes the regular season 8-4 after starting 2-4. Anything is possible. #SicEm
SMU
Why isn’t anyone talking MORE about the 20th-ranked Ponies? They are 8-1 overall and 5-0 in ACC play. That’s amazing! And so much for their hyped Top-20 showdown with 18th-ranked Pittsburgh. The Mustangs posted a 24-point second quarter, and the game was all but over as they led 31-3 at the half.
(They didn’t pull what UTSA allowed two weeks ago at Tulsa.)
If they can somehow run the table the rest of the way with wins over Boston College, UVA and the California Golden Bears, they’ll have an argument for the CFP. They’re not gonna get in, but they’ll have argument. And that’s what makes college football so much fun, the red-hot postseason debate. #SMUNation
Incarnate Word
They blew out another Southland Conference opponent in Houston Christian. I was there for the first half. The light rain was annoying. And when the sun came out of the clouds, it was muggy and humid?
Am I complaining? I am, but I’m allowed that occasionally.
The Cards were somewhat slow starting, but once the machine got rolling, it rolled. UIW scored five touchdowns in the middle of the game, three in the second quarter and two in the third quarter.
45-20 was the final as they improved to 7-2 overall and 4-0 in conference play. And we’re wondering if UIW wide receiver Jalen Walthall is the one who started the now-trending celebration summersault move that we saw Lions WR Amon-Ra Saint Brown execute on Sunday in Detroit's road win over the Green Bay Packers? If that was you, Jalen, let’s go! Trendsetter!
I don’t have any proof either way, but we were chatting in the office Saturday and nobody had ever seen it before Jalen did it. So, maybe? The Cards welcome Lamar on Saturday afternoon. #TheWord
Other observations...
What was once so promising for the Texas State Bobcats has essentially drifted off into deep football outer space. They won their first two, lost their next two, won the two following and have lost the two following that, since. That make sense? They have two at home and two on the road to finish out their regular season and try to get bowl-eligible at the very least.
I gave the Houston Cougars props last week, and I’m gonna do it again. Hold off UH hoops as long as you can! The ‘Cougs bumped off conference mainstay Kansas State in the driving rain, 24-19, Saturday night in the Bayou City. And finishing it off, two of their last three are on the road with trips to Tucson and Provo with Baylor sandwiched in the middle coming to H-Town. It’ll be interesting to see what they can do with it.
We’re looking forward to Week 11!
