College Football

College football news: Jeff Driskel out for the year, LSU and Alabama stay undefeated

Florida lost its quarterback for the rest of the season and a pair of SEC West juggernauts survived Saturday unscathed.

by Connor Tapp

Sep 22, 2013, 2:00 PM UTC

Al Messerschmidt

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College football, Week 4: At least it was a Saturday

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Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel fractured his fibula while taking a hit on a play that resulted in a pick-six during Saturday's 31-17 win against the Tennessee Volunteers. The situation seemed pretty dire for the Gators, who, within the span of 10 seconds, both lost their starting quarterback for the season and found themselves down seven points against an SEC rival. Backup Tyler Murphy performed adequately in Driskel's absence, throwing for 134 yards on 14 attempts and rushing for 86 yards and a touchdown while rallying Florida to a 31-3 run.

All in all, the production that Will Muschamp got out of Murphy isn't all that different from what one might have expected from Jeff Driskel. Fortunately for Florida, its next two contests require them to go on the road to Kentucky and defend The Swamp against the Arkansas Razorbacks, so they have a week or two to acclimate to their new quarterback situation before walking into Baton Rouge on Oct.12.

David Ash suffers apparent head injury, leaves game against Kansas State

Texas starting quarterback David Ash left during the second quarter of the Longhorns’ 31-21 victory over Kansas State on Saturday after sustaining an apparent head injury. Ash made an early departure from the Longhorns’ loss to BYU two weeks ago due to a concussion and did not play in last week’s loss to Ole Miss because of post-concussive symptoms, leading SB Nation Texas Longhorn blog Barking Carnival to question the decision to let Ash play agains the Wildcats in the first place.

Senior quarterback Case McCoy stepped in for Ash on Saturday and maintained the 10-point lead that he inherited while completing five passes on nine attempts for 60 yards. Almost 50 percent of Texas's offensive production came from sophomore running back Johnathan Gray, who rattled off 142 yards rushing on 28 carries. The Longhorns have an open date next Saturday and go on the road to play Iowa State before meeting Oklahoma in Dallas for the Red River Rivalry.

Players don ‘APU’ markings to protest treatment by NCAA

It's been a while since the NCAA got any positive publicity, and Saturday only continued the run of bad press for the embattled institution. Kolton Houston, Vlad Lee and Jeremiah Attachou were among a group of players who organized a protest of the NCAA's treatment of student-athletes by wearing the acronym "APU" during Saturday's games. APU -- short for "All Players United" -- is a campaign organized by the National College Players Association to raise awareness of its organization, which advocates for better treatment of collegiate athletes.

In the NFL, any deviations from standard dress would have resulted in fines or suspensions, but the college game at least allows its employees to express themselves, even if it refuses to pay them.

Alabama and LSU stay undefeated; Michigan survives UConn

Though this weekend’s slate of college football games was billed as being the weakest of the young college football season, there were a few match-ups that had the potential to get interesting.

Alabama only led Colorado State by 11 early in the fourth quarter, and UConn led Michigan by a touchdown entering the final frame of the Wolverines’ 24-21 win at Rentschler Field.

Auburn’s trip to Death Valley was expected to yield the most tightly contested match-up of the weekend, but LSU seized control early by jumping out to a 21-0 lead and held off a late surge from the visiting Tigers to win 35-21.

Running clocks

The lopsided nature of many of the games was a recurring theme on Saturday, and nowhere was that more prominently displayed than in Louisville’s demolition of FIU, in which the Panthers may or may not have requested a running clock to assuage the merciless pounding they were receiving from the Cardinals.

The last time a running clock showed up in a game between a pair of FBS teams was in 2003, when Texas A&M requested one during a 77-0 loss to Oklahoma.