College football is a crazy sport, one where - once you think you know what's about to go down, and how it's going to happen, the sport jumps up and smacks ya across the face.
That certainly happened Saturday, where we thought we knew what the story was coming into the day: Alabama hosted Ole Miss and Georgia hosted Arkansas in two, Top 20 showdowns. They were sure to set the tone for the entire day in the sport.
Instead, they were beatdowns of epic proportions.
Georgia opened the day by laying waste to Arkansas 37-0, while Alabama beat Ole Miss 42-21, in a day where both Brian Robinson and Lane Kiffin (who made three, awful fourth down calls in the first half) were the team's MVP's.
Yet just because the first two games were absolute blowouts, doesn't mean that it wasn't in fact a crazy day. If anything, it's the exact opposite: As it was the single craziest day of the college football season, and the one that may have reshaped the entire narrative of the season as we know it. In total,
First off, let's start with the positive, as Cincinnati went into Notre Dame and took down the Irish 24-13. Considering that the Bearcats were a slight favorite according to the oddsmakers, this one wasn't a traditional upset. But still, it's Cincinnati, winning at Notre Dame.
Desmond Ridder was the star of the game, throwing for 297 yards and rushing for another.
The final one essentially sealed the game, and quieted the Notre Dame crowd for good.
By the way, how cool is this video?
Why the Cincinnati win was extra important was because of the fact that just a few hours later, No. 3 Oregon took a loss to Stanford. In Oregon's defense, they were without star play-caller Joe Moorhead. And there was also a controversial pass interference call late in the game that gave the Cardinal an untimed down that allowed them to force overtime.
At the same time, it's also worth noting that Stanford had to drive the length of the field to set up that last play, so don't feel too much sympathy for the Ducks.
What makes it more interesting though is this: With the loss by Oregon at Stanford, in conjunction with Cincinnati pulling off the win at Notre Dame, it really does put the Bearcats in pretty solid position to make the playoff if they're undefeated. The loss by Oregon negates the big win at Ohio State, and right now, every team in the Pac-12 has at least one loss. The ACC is basically out of the conversation as well, with only Wake Forest undefeated at the moment.
Cincinnati needs to win out, and will still need some help. But their path just got much clearer on Saturday.
Across the rest of college football, well, there was plenty of other carnage.
No. 10 Florida went to Kentucky, and for the first time came out with a loss. We already covered the postgame celebration here, so you can catch up on everything there.
Still, the party in Lexington poured into the streets. And it appears as though the Wildcats... well, they want Bama.
The crazy thing though, that Florida was one of four different Top 20 SEC teams to lose.
Two - Arkansas and Ole Miss - were heavy underdogs, so it's hard to be too critical of them. The same with the Gators who may have faced a legitimately good Kentucky team.
Then there is Texas A&M, which returned home following their loss to Arkansas last Saturday, and promptly... lost to Mississippi State. Not ideal, as the Aggies offense is now limping along, and has not tallied 10, 10 and 22 points in three games against Power 5 opponents.
In a season where they came in with real playoff aspirations, the Aggies might be the worst team in the SEC West right now.
Some other news and notes:
Michigan destroyed Wisconsin, in the process embarrassed them even further, to take part in "Jump Around" in the middle of their beat down.
Ohio State is finally starting to look like the Ohio State we all expected, beating Rutgers 52-13. Oklahoma finally looked like Oklahoma too, beating Kansas State 37-31.
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