New coaches thrive, Texas’ youth shows, Texas A&M’s questions mount: Saturday Takeaways

Oct 22, 2022; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher directs his team against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the second quarter at Williams-Brice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
By Max Olson
Oct 23, 2022

Five takeaways and much more fun from Week 8 in college football:

Big weeks for first-years

The philosopher Barnabus Stinson had a lot of theories and sayings that have not aged particularly well over time, but this one generally holds up: New is always better.

College football tends to embrace that rule. It’s why programs are constantly redoing their facilities and rethinking their uniforms and fixating on their next recruiting class. Building something up is fun. Maintaining it gets boring. And nothing generates optimism in this sport quite like hiring a new head coach.

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Some of the biggest stories of Week 8 involved first-year coaches inspiring hope by notching big-time victories. As we cross into the second half of this season, we’re sure to see some of these programs that went through coaching transitions play better in November than they did in September. There’s so much to learn and work through in these Year 1 situations, as different as they can be from place to place, and the progress is starting to show up.

How could Oregon fans not be all-in on Dan Lanning after what they witnessed on Saturday? He had the Ducks more than ready for No. 9 UCLA. They never once trailed in a convincing 45-30 victory that featured a thoroughly dominant first half (after which the score was 31-13) and one of the program’s best offensive performances in a long time — and he did it against Chip Kelly. Let’s all say it together with conviction: This is the year. Bo Nix has improved so much under this new offense. He’s focused. He’s having fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a dark horse for the Heisman.

The Ducks are suddenly right back in this College Football Playoff race, their 49-3 season-opening loss to Georgia a distant (and somewhat defensible) memory. The last three games in November won’t be easy — Washington, Utah, at Oregon State — but they’ve got the goods to play for a Pac-12 title and a ton of momentum.

The Sonny Dykes era at TCU is off to an incredible start and just keeps getting better. The No. 8 Horned Frogs fell behind big early for the second week in a row, this time a 28-10 deficit to No. 17 Kansas State. No big deal. Max Duggan led the offense on a 28-point rally. The defense pitched a second-half shutout against backup quarterbacks Will Howard and Jake Rubley, allowing a mere 87 yards on 23 plays. They’ll keep climbing up the AP top 10 with that 38-28 victory, their fourth over a ranked opponent in four weeks.

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Brian Kelly achieved his first major victory at LSU on Saturday, handing No. 7 Ole Miss its first loss of the year with a dominant second-half rout to win 45-20. The Tigers fell behind 17-3 early in the second quarter and went on a 42-3 run the rest of the way. Here’s another staff that took a risk with a transfer quarterback and is loving the results. Jayden Daniels went 18 of 22 for 231 yards passing and rushed for 109 yards (excluding sacks) with five total touchdowns over the game’s final three quarters. Next up is Alabama, but there’s a real possibility this LSU team — the same one that lost to Florida State on Sept. 4 — could end up winning nine or 10 games in Kelly’s debut season.

How about Mike Elko and Duke? After close losses in three of their last four games, the Blue Devils went down to Coral Gables and handed Miami a stunning 45-21 upset. They capitalized on a whopping eight turnovers by the Hurricanes and didn’t flinch when they fell behind early in the third quarter, responding with 28 unanswered points. Vegas had this team at three wins for 2022. They might double that. The Blue Devils are one win away from bowl eligibility with four ACC games to go.

But the good Year 1 vibes don’t stop there. Washington is now 6-2 under Kalen DeBoer thanks to a 28-21 win over Cal. Texas Tech looks like it’ll be a tough out the rest of the year under Joey McGuire after a 48-10 blowout win against West Virginia to move to 4-3. Wisconsin interim coach Jim Leonhard pulling off a 35-24 win over Purdue should seriously help his chances of earning the head job there.

For each new hire, though, these Year 1 honeymoon periods do come with an unmarked expiration date. It could be the first loss, the first blowout loss, the first rough season. It looks like Miami’s Mario Cristobal got there on Saturday. He’s clearly at that point where it’s time to stop being polite and start getting real.

“If someone stops playing hard, they gotta go play somewhere else,” Cristobal told reporters after the Duke loss. “What we’ve gotta do requires tough people. To turn a program and rebuild it requires tough-minded people that are willing to do the work.”

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‘Bad day’ doesn’t derail Clemson

It was probably only a matter of time. Clemson faced three top-25 ACC teams in a five-week stretch. One of them was bound to have a defense that created some problems. At some point, the moment that arrived on Saturday was going to happen, and Dabo Swinney and his Tigers would have to decide how to answer for it.

So here it was: DJ Uiagalelei was performing poorly, had just turned it over a third time on a bad overthrow and had Clemson in a 21-10 hole against No. 14 Syracuse midway through the third quarter. The first seven games of his junior season generally suggested he’d outgrown this, but Saturday was a different story. And now Swinney had to send in touted freshman Cade Klubnik to pull off a comeback.

The Tigers rallied and stayed undefeated with a 27-21 victory. Klubnik steadied things but didn’t have to do too much, completing two passes. They ran the ball 58 times, getting a combined 266 yards from Will Shipley and Phil Mafah. Uiagalelei did and said all the right things when it came to supporting his backup. And Swinney, predictably, said something that made critics laugh.

“Well sometimes, you know, Steph Curry goes, you know, 2-for-25,” Swinney said on ESPN. “Your best player sometimes can have a bad day.”

On one hand, Swinney is wrong. Curry has never made less than seven shots when he has attempted at least 25 in an NBA game. But on the other hand, it’s a totally defensible interpretation. Uiagalelei’s confidence isn’t suddenly shot. Klubnik wasn’t so spectacular that there’s a real debate to be had after Saturday. Sticking with Uiagalelei is still the right move for this team at this point. Uiagalelei responded to his bad day with laudable maturity, saying he would’ve done the same thing as Swinney in that situation and praising all his teammates who helped win this game. Nothing that happened against Syracuse has shaken this staff’s faith in who offers their best bet to play up to their potential. They’re 8-0 not despite Uiagalelei but because of him.

Perhaps the discourse around this topic is totally different if the Orange find a way to win in Death Valley. Maybe it would be all about how Uiagalelei has regressed and how the Tigers can’t trust that days like these won’t happen again. But what actually played out seemed to only reinforce the notion that, inside Clemson’s program, the conversation is extremely different from the one you see on Twitter.

For this team, it’s not a close call at all between Uiagalelei and Klubnik. There’s no question who their leader is and will continue to be. As they get deeper into this run to the CFP, the consequences for one bad day become much greater. But for now, Swinney and Clemson are trusting it won’t happen again.

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Texas runs out of gas

When Roschon Johnson burst through a hole and sprinted off for a 52-yard touchdown on Saturday, grabbing a 31-17 lead late in the first half, it sure looked like Texas was ready to slam the pedal down and run away from No. 11 Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

The Longhorns had just added to their lead seven plays after picking off Spencer Sanders in the end zone. They had put up 345 yards on 38 plays. Bijan Robinson looked unstoppable. This had all the makings of a win that made a serious statement, undeniable proof that things were changing.

But instead, Texas ran out of gas.

Oklahoma State’s 41-34 triumph was hard-earned and a testament to the winning culture that Mike Gundy has found a way to sustain for 17 years. They were trained for that four-plus hour fight. They were missing a bunch of players, and it didn’t matter. Their senior quarterback knew how to hang on and finish the job. Good luck finding many quarterbacks in this sport who are tougher than Sanders. When this game got serious late, one team was plagued by miscues, missed tackles and penalties. It wasn’t going to be Oklahoma State.

Texas enduring Quinn Ewers’ most freshman performance yet (19 of 49, 319 yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions) and a penalty margin of 14-0 (nobody has done that since 2001) and only losing by one score probably does say lot about how talented this team is getting under Steve Sarkisian. A five-game road losing streak says a lot more about what it lacks.

Growing pains were inevitable for Ewers when the schedule got tougher. If he’s going to become the quarterback he has convinced everyone he can be, the freshman needs these reps of fighting through struggles and trust from his coaches that he can handle it. Sarkisian clearly believes that, because he didn’t send in Hudson Card. Oklahoma State slowed the run game in the second half and forced Ewers to make the plays. He wasn’t accurate enough to pull off the win. Since 2000, only two other FBS QBs have thrown 49-plus passes in a game and completed less than 20, according to Sports Reference. Spoiler alert: They didn’t win either.

But that’s where Texas is in Sarkisian’s second year, talented enough to compete for a Big 12 title but not quite prepared to do what recent Big 12 champs have done: win a lot of close games. Oklahoma State’s experience at doing just that showed up in the second half on Saturday, putting the Pokes one critical win closer to a return trip to Arlington.

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Texas A&M’s slide continues

Despite a lofty preseason No. 6 ranking, the actual expectations for Texas A&M in 2022 were clear and seemingly reasonable. The fans weren’t expecting to see a College Football Playoff trip this year. What they wanted to see was their program taking the necessary steps forward to make a CFP bid a real possibility in 2023. One can measure that in ways that are tangible or intangible. But this season was all about that climb.

Texas A&M’s third consecutive loss, a 30-24 defeat at South Carolina in a game the Aggies never once led, leaves this season feeling more like a descent than a climb. Jimbo Fisher’s program is now staring at 3-4 and 1-3 in the SEC. For his team and his fan base, that must be infuriating. Where do they go from here?

The short answer is they’ll need to beat Florida, Auburn and UMass to get to six wins. And if they drop one of those, they’ll need a win over Ole Miss or LSU. The most optimistic supporters will believe all those games are winnable for a squad that went toe-to-toe with Alabama, and maybe they’d be right with how much talent is on the Texas A&M roster.

But seven games in, it’s hard to trust that the Aggie offense is eventually going to get much better. They’re scoring 18.2 points per game against FBS defenses this season, reaching the end zone on 12 of 73 drives. The last time Fisher’s offense scored 30 points against an FBS foe was exactly one year ago in a 44-14 rout of these Gamecocks.

Do they need to invest in Conner Weigman and figure out what they really have in the five-star freshman quarterback? Texas A&M might not have any choice if Haynes King’s shoulder injury is serious, and hopefully that’s not the case. Weigman had to step in early in the fourth quarter and went a solid 8 of 15 for 91 yards. Whether he’s ready or not, it’s time to see what he can do. If this program wishes to take that big leap in 2023, there needs to be some clarity at the end of 2022 about the quarterback plan going forward.

Where it goes beyond that is going to be fascinating. Texas A&M can go out and hire one of the most expensive offensive coordinators in the country this offseason. Will the head coach be willing to do so? If this turns into a 6-6 kind of a year, how can Fisher effectively sell people — including his own young players — on simply staying the course? Comments like these become less reassuring every time you have to say them.

Iowa bottoms out on offense … again

Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz had two weeks to script the first drive of the game against Ohio State. Two weeks with an open date to come up with something — anything — to show improvement in one of the nation’s least productive and most ridiculed units.

And then on the first play of the game, quarterback Spencer Petras rolled to his left and threw a perfectly placed pass into the chest of Buckeyes safety Tanner McCallister. Ohio State rolled to a 54-10 win, the Hawkeyes only found the end zone on a first-quarter fumble return by defensive lineman Joe Evans and the question that has been on the minds of many in Big Ten country this season resurfaced:

Is this the worst offense in modern college football history?

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The Hawkeyes committed five turnovers in their first 33 plays and finished with six. They didn’t record a first down until their fifth possession of the game, in the second quarter, and they managed only 158 yards the entire game.

When Iowa brought in backup quarterback Alex Padilla in the second half? He fumbled away his first snap to Ohio State. Hopeless.

The most painful part: Iowa’s defense is really good. It did a phenomenal job keeping the Hawkeyes in the game despite facing the most potent offense in the country and continually being put in terrible situations. Thanks in large part to Iowa’s offensive ineptitude, the Buckeyes started four drives deep in Iowa territory in the first half (at the 29, 23, 34 and 32). Iowa held Ohio State to four field goals on top of the C.J. Stroud fumble that Evans forced, scooped and scored for a touchdown.

Ohio State’s second touchdown was a pick-six off of Petras.

You could honestly make the case that the game would have been closer at halftime had Iowa just taken three knees and punted on every offensive snap in the first half.

Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker — who has coached a defense that has scored three touchdowns this year — doesn’t deserve this. Iowa’s fans don’t deserve this. Casual fans of the sport who tune in expecting to watch a football game don’t deserve this.

Poking fun at Iowa’s offense has been a weekly ritual this season. Kirk Ferentz’s loyalty to his son, offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz has been a near-constant point of discussion. But there comes a point in time where it just isn’t funny anymore. That point is now. – Ari Wasserman

Best special teams disaster: Long snappers are actually extremely important. Did you know that? Coaches say it, but you rarely see why. If you happen to be a Weber State or Montana State fan, you will never forget that truism.

In a showdown between two top-five FCS teams, Weber State ran into a big problem on special teams when its long snapper sent three snaps over the head of the punter in the first half. All three bad snaps resulted in safeties.

And then, on the first deep snap of the second half, it happened again. Another safety. Four safeties in one game had never happened before in Division I history, not at the FBS or FCS level.

But wait, there’s more. Weber State also had a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown and a 91-yard punt return touchdown in the first quarter. In the second quarter, they blocked a field-goal attempt. So if we’re talking pros and cons, the Wildcats’ special teams scored 14 points and prevented 3 points but gave away 8 points. Final score? Montana State 43, Weber State 38.

Best punt: Cincinnati’s Mason Fletcher flipped the field against SMU with an 84-yard punt for a touchback. The No. 21 Bearcats would hang on for a 29-27 win in Dallas to move to 5-1.

This was the longest punt of this college football season … for about three hours. Because Toledo’s Jonathon Batzke booted one out of his own end zone that got the right bounce for a 91-yard punt and touchback in a 34-27 loss to Buffalo. It’s believed to be the second-longest punt in the FBS since 1972. Marshall’s Kaare Vedvik booted a 92-yarder in 2017.

Best failed kick: See if you can keep up with everything that’s going on in this missed extra-point attempt from UTEPs’ 24-21 win over FAU.

Best strip: Vanderbilt’s CJ Taylor pulled off one of the craziest defensive touchdowns you’ll see all season, leaping over a block and scooping up this forced fumble for a score in the Commodores’ 17-14 loss to Missouri. Anfernee Orji gets the credit for crushing Brady Cook and knocking the ball out.

Honorable mention in this category goes to Iowa’s Evans, who got a dream strip and score against C.J. Stroud. This was Iowa’s third defensive touchdown of the season, though it seems like the Hawkeyes have had a lot more.

Best catch: Too many great ones to choose from this week. Let’s start with UTSA receiver De’Corian Clark and his game-winning touchdown catch with less than 20 seconds left to defeat North Texas 31-27.

Penn State got a free play on an offside during its 45-17 rout of Minnesota, and Sean Clifford took this shot downfield to Mitchell Tinsley, who came through with a ridiculous one-handed snag.

Purdue’s midseason All-America receiver Charlie Jones now has 72 catches on the year. He had to work a lot harder for this one against Wisconsin.

Best pick: Watch closely here as Bowling Green defensive lineman Walter Haire somehow makes one of the most incredible interceptions of the season in a 34-18 win over Central Michigan. Quarterback Jase Bauer is under pressure and tries to get rid of the ball. Haire attempts to swat it down but actually pins the ball against the back of Tyden Ferris, the lineman trying to block him. Haire grips the ball, pulls it away and runs away for a 26-yard return.

Best fake punt: Speaking of defensive linemen who can move, Stephen F. Austin’s Ky Thomas deserves our praise. The 6-foot-4, 291-pound defensive tackle picked up a 40-yard gain on this fake punt for the Lumberjacks, who beat Southern Utah 41-38. We had a fake punt just like this from Kennesaw State in last week’s Saturday Takeaways. Glad to see the brilliance is spreading.

Best/worst fumble: Can’t fault Lee Corso too much for this one. This live duck did not want to be on national television, plain and simple.

Best dancer: Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy giving his guys everything he’s got.

Best interview: If you’re going to have Marshawn Lynch do a live appearance on your Pac-12 After Dark game broadcast, you had to know this was a possibility.

(Photo: Jeff Blake / USA Today)

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Max Olson

Max Olson covers national college football for The Athletic. He previously covered the Big 12 and recruiting for ESPN.com. Follow Max on Twitter @max_olson