College football Saturday, Week 8: Florida State torches Clemson, the SEC eats itself

You lose 51-14. That wasn’t Clemsoning, Clemson, but it wasn’t good. It resulted in this:

That’s not good. When your opponent is doing that. Bad.

After falling behind, 28-7, early in the second half, UCF scored on each of its final five possessions -- four touchdowns and a field goal, with four of five drives going at least 52 yards -- to stun the previously undefeated Cardinals and become the new favorites in the AAC race. Louisville was bending a little but not breaking at all through the first six games of the season. But the D broke in a major way in Game 7. UCF averaged 6.9 yards per play, ran and passed when it needed to, and pulled off the biggest win in program history.

Fumble return touchdowns for Memphis linebacker Ryan Coleman against SMU on Saturday. Granted, they were too little, too late as Memphis failed to erase a 34-3 deficit (they came within 34-29). But odd accomplishments are still odd accomplishments.

• The Grove is closed: Spencer Hall on fear and victory at Ole Miss

• Why we shouldn’t have been surprised by Florida State

Ole Miss may have had a few drinks. One, two, or seven, it really does not matter, because LSU has had more than a few drinks. There are not enough policemen in the state of Mississippi to arrest everyone driving with an open container.

Traffic creeps into campus at a speed well below the posted 18-mile-per-hour speed limit signs. LSU fans trudge in toting huge, blue rolling coolers and suitcases of beer, or they squat in parking lots next to their cars while wearing purple and yellow tracksuits and tiger print coats. A plush tiger languishes on a truck hood.

A week after dropping out of the national title race, Georgia’s SEC championship hopes were essentially vanquished. The Bulldogs fell on the road at Vanderbilt, 31-27, suffering their third loss of the season.

Georgia took a 24-14 lead into halftime, but the Dawgs’ defense faltered down the stretch. Vanderbilt scored 17 fourth-quarter points, turning a 13-point deficit into a four-point win. The Commodores held Georgia’s offense to a paltry 221 yards and 16 first downs, and the Bulldogs committed three turnovers, including a late fumble that sealed their fate.

The SEC was full of upsets in Week 8 — five favored teams lost — and South Carolina couldn’t avoid the bug. Tennessee jumped out to an early lead before rallying late for a game-winning field goal on the final play and a 23-21 win.

Neither side had huge offensive outputs, as South Carolina outgained Tennessee, 384-325, and the Volunteers won the battle for first downs, 18-17. In fact, that probably counts as a defensive struggle in today’s world of offensive football. The big differences in the game were turnovers and penalties. Carolina gave the ball away twice, and Tennessee had zero turnovers. The Gamecocks were penalized nine times for 84 yards, and the Vols were hit five times for 40 yards.

To describe how dominant Florida State has been in 2013, let’s begin by talking about when the Seminoles weren’t as dominant.

For the first 10 minutes against Pittsburgh, FSU was outgained by 68 yards (109-41) and outscored, 7-0. For the first 20 minutes against Nevada, FSU was outgained by 38 yards (106-68) and outscored, 7-3. For the first 19 minutes against Boston College, FSU was outgained by 108 yards (160-52) and outscored, 17-3. For the first 20 minutes against Maryland, FSU was outgained by 15 yards (92-77) and nursed a 7-0 lead.

While the offense gashed the Gators’ heralded defense, it was Missouri’s defense that most impressed Bill Connelly at Rock M Nation. The Tigers held the Gators to 151 total yards and 11 first downs.

Connelly admits that Florida’s offense is less than stellar, and that’s one of the postgame focuses for Andy Hutchins at Alligator Army.

After knocking off UCLA over the weekend, Stanford is sixth. Miami and Baylor, who are both yet to lose this season, are No. 7 and No. 8, respectively. Clemson and Texas Tech round out the top 10.

Our writers over at Roll Bama Roll weren’t surprised with the No. 1 ranking. Why should they be?

Alabama ranks No. 1 in the 2013 season’s first BCS rankings, followed by Florida State. If each team remains undefeated through its conference championship, that could be our national title matchup, but Oregon still looks to have the best chance of meeting the Tide in the BCS National Championship, if all three remain undefeated.

The year’s first BCS standings -- note how Oregon’s only .0028 points behind Florida State at the moment:

Also, Halliday’s day wasn’t exactly good; he threw 31 incompletions, including four interceptions, and as Jeff Nusser at Coug Center notes, the game went out of reach when Halliday’s mistakes mounted up:

Mariota’s QB efficiency rating on the day was 55 points better than Halliday’s, so there’s just about all you need to know about the importance of throwing for 557 yards on 89 passes and losing by 24.

The same could not be said for former No. 3 Clemson, which was annihilated by Florida State Saturday night and fell to No. 10. The Seminoles took Clemson’s former position, picking up two first-place votes in the process. Ohio State and Baylor round out the top five.

Via release:

Auburn scored three touchdowns on sustained drives in the final quarter to provide the difference as the Tigers rallied, and that defensive failure wasn’t lost on Dr. Norris Comancho at Good Bull Hunting as he broke down the game’s numbers:

Auburn’s comeback came late as Manziel recovered from an apparent shoulder injury, one that kept him out for a series as he went to the locker room to receive treatment. Manziel returned to the game and was admirable even in defeat, but this is the second straight week the Aggies’ Heisman QB has missed time during a game to a potentially serious injury, and that’s a bad omen with roughly half the season left to play.

The No. 6 LSU Tigers suffered one of the biggest upsets of the college football season, bowing out at Ole Miss, 27-24. The Tigers came back from a 17-0 deficit in the second half, but after finally tying the game with 3:19 left, LSU couldn’t get Ole Miss off the field, and the Rebels booted a 41-yard field goal in the dying seconds to take home the victory.

Ole Miss’s offense was the star of the show, racking up 525 yards on LSU’s vaunted front, and QB Bo Wallace connected on 30 of his 39 passes for 346 yards. The biggest damage came on third down, as Ole Miss was able to convert 11 of its 18 chances, including a pair of conversions deep in Rebel territory on the final drive.

Florida State, which destroyed No. 3 Clemson Saturday night, moved into the Tigers’ vacated position, only one first-place vote behind Oregon. The Seminoles are followed by No. 4 Ohio State, which maintained its position with a 34-24 win over Iowa. Missouri rounds out the top five.

With so many top teams losing, the poll has been completely scrambled from the previous week. LSU, Texas A&M, Louisville, and UCLA, which were all in last week’s Top 10, have fallen into the middle of the Top 25.

Update: The Harris poll also lists Oregon ahead of FSU, meaning the Ducks are the best bet for No. 2 when BCS rankings come out Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Six teams from last week’s Top 10 lost over the weekend, including every team ranked sixth through tenth. That opened the door for Miami, Missouri, and Stanford to move into the upper tier of the poll. Texas Tech and Clemson round out the Top 10.

Florida State’s 51-14 demolition of Clemson Saturday night left two fanbases on the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. For the Seminoles, it was pure jubilation at the conquest of a highly-rated conference opponent and the possibility of a national championship run. Over at Tomahawk Nation, they were reveling in the aftermath:

The win gave Florida State, now 4-0 in ACC play, a significant advantage in the ACC Atlantic race to come. The Seminoles would have to lose two of their remaining four conference games in order to lose the division. With the conference’s best team so easily dispatched, that appears unlikely.

It’s not Clemsoning if you lose 51-14 to a Florida State team in a state of full, orchestrated rage, so stop yourself before you trot out that tired phrase. Clemsoning implies the possibility of winning a game, and then the forfeiture of said possibility via an incompetence passed generationally from one Clemson team to another. This was not Clemsoning, because Clemson never stood a chance of winning this game.

Not with the Florida State defensive line demolishing the Clemson offensive line on every play, not with Jameis Winston continuing a long, unconscious, and impossibly composed run of brilliance through the 2013 schedule, and not when Clemson averaged 4.5 yards a pass while Florida State averaged 12.7 per pass play. It’s Clemsoning if you see the top of the mountain, then sneeze and fall 10,000 feet into an ice cave and die. It’s not Clemsoning when the whole damn mountain falls on you.

Shaw suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game, twisting the knee awkwardly while being tackled by two Tennessee defenders:

He left the game with help from trainers and did not return.

After No. 5 Florida State stormed Death Valley and humbled No. 3 Clemson, 51-14, the Ducks and Noles should be neck-and-neck behind Alabama in the BCS standings for most of the rest of the year. That’s assuming neither loses. But Oregon’s schedule, its advantage the rest of the way as far as the BCS is concerned, also provides an opportunity for Florida State.

You can imagine Oregon tripping up against Stanford, UCLA, or Oregon State or in the Pac-12 championship against, say, Arizona State. It doesn’t seem likely, but you can see it. But Florida State’s toughest remaining games are Miami at home, Florida, and the ACC title game, maybe against Virginia Tech. If either of these teams is losing, it’s more likely to be Oregon, simply based on opponents. Now that I’ve said that, everyone in the top five will lose two games.

Winston has now completed more than 71 percent of his pass attempts this season, racking up 1,885 passing yards and 20 touchdowns through six games. The redshirt freshman has also run for 137 yards and three scores, and his 210.4 quarterback rating would be an all-time Florida State record.

ESPN’s locker room access showed that Winston has become a leader for the Seminoles, now 6-0 overall and 4-0 in ACC play.

The college football world was turned upside down this weekend, as seven ranked teams lost to lower-rated opposition. To recap: No. 3 Clemson got blown out by No. 5 Florida State, Ole Miss took down No. 6 LSU, No. 24 Auburn beat No. 7 Texas A&M at home, No. 9 UCLA lost to No. 13 Stanford, No. 11 South Carolina was shocked by Tennessee, No. 15 Georgia fell to Vanderbilt, and No. 20 Washington got blown out by Arizona State.

The Seminoles emerged as national title contenders with their blowout win over Clemson, but lost running back James Wilder, Jr. in the game with a concussion.

October has been a rough month for Georgia. The Bulldogs have now lost two straight SEC East match-ups against teams they were expected to beat, and the last time they did win, they lost several of their best players to severe knee injuries. A lot of folks had written Vanderbilt off, but James Franklin’s had their signature scrappiness on display, fighting back from a 24-14 second half deficit to pull out the win. The Commodores took the lead for good on Jerron Seymour’s 13-yard touchdown with less than three minutes left in the game.

Toledo 45, Navy 44

Amid the mayhem that was Week 8 of the 2013 college football season, No. 5 Florida State traveled to No. 3 Clemson for possibly the biggest ACC game ever, and the Seminoles walked away with a never-in-doubt 51-14 victory. If they weren’t before, they are now in the thick of the national title chase. In fact, the biggest challenger for the ‘Noles might not even be on their remaining schedule.

If Alabama runs the table, the Crimson Tide will finish the year ranked No. 1. The big question for Florida State is, “If Oregon goes undefeated, could a 13-0 Seminoles team jump the Ducks in the BCS standings?”

Washington State was no match for No. 2 Oregon and the Ducks exploded for a 62-38 victory against the Cougars.

Outside of three forced fumbles, WSU’s defense was no match for the Ducks. Oregon scored early and often, ripping off huge chunks of yardage against Cougars. The Ducks jumped out to a 13-0 lead, racking up 147 yards in just 12 plays. Oregon scored each of its first eight touchdowns on drives taking 2:13 or less. The only thing that kept Oregon from putting the game away in the first half were three forced fumbles by WSU, including one the Cougars scooped and took back for a defensive touchdown.