Whwn Does Clemson Play Miami Football Again
Does Saturday night'southward loss to Georgia already put Clemson on the outside of the College Football Playoff?
Look, we realize that talking about a 4-team playoff is pretty cool after the first week of the college football season. But it's difficult not to wonder just how much Clemson's chances of a 7th straight playoff booth decreased with a x-three loss to Georgia to open the season.
The Tigers are going to be favored in each of their xi remaining regular season games. The odds of Clemson finishing the regular flavor with an 11-1 record and then winning the ACC championship game are still exceptionally high. In that location doesn't seem to be a existent challenger to the Tigers in the briefing and at that place are no teams in the AP preseason Top 25 remaining on Clemson's schedule.
But that lack of schedule strength may be more of a expletive than a blessing. While Clemson has a straightforward path to an 11-win season, those 11 wins may not exist enough to make the playoff.
Consider this: No. 1 Alabama looked similar the reloaded team we idea they were in a win over No. 14 Miami on Saturday afternoon. The Crimson Tide are still looking pretty to go 12-0 or 11-ane. While No. 2 Oklahoma didn't put Tulane abroad on Saturday in a 40-35 win, the Sooners are still the Large 12 favorites. And with both Iowa State and Texas in the briefing, at that place are multiple opportunities for quality wins by the Sooners.
Georgia has its quality win already with the victory over the Tigers. And there's besides Ohio State, a squad that sprinted away from Minnesota to open the flavour Th night and has the chance for a big non-briefing win in Week 2 when No. xi Oregon comes to Columbus.
Just the biggest Clemson homers would put the Tigers ahead of any of those four aforementioned teams in the race for the playoff. And even if one or all of those teams stumbles at some point during the regular season, where does Clemson excel enough to make upward basis? Meridian ACC Coastal contenders North Carolina and Miami are at present both 0-1. Will they be high enough in the College Football game Playoff standings to provide Clemson the boost it would need on championship Sat?
This is as well a Clemson team that didn't look anything like the powerhouses we've seen over the past few years. While D.J. Uiagalelei filled in admirably for Trevor Lawrence in 2020 while Lawrence was out with COVID-xix, it's clear he's still growing into his office as the Tigers' full-time starter. And Clemson showed Sat night that its offensive line is a work in progress while there'south also no clear replacement for Travis Etienne.
The workhorse back was a relatively unsung hero for the Tigers' offense over the past four seasons every bit Lawrence and Deshaun Watson got a lot of credit. Yes, Etienne was considered one of the top running backs in the land in his time at Clemson, but information technology'southward still possible that his importance to the Clemson offense was undervalued. On Saturday night, no Clemson non-QB got more 14 carries and the squad's leading rusher (Lyn-J Dixon) had one carry for ten yards.
Clemson's veteran defense showed once once again on Saturday night that it was a great unit. The Tigers held Georgia to just three offensive points and 256 total yards. That'southward typically enough to win games with ease. But it wasn't enough on Saturday night. Clemson looked the almost vulnerable information technology'south ever been in the College Football Playoff era against Georgia. And that's more than enough to brand usa wonder if the playoff streak is in serious jeopardy.
Hither are the rest of the winners and losers from the showtime week of the 2021 college football flavor.
- Nick Bromberg
WINNERS
Alabama QB Bryce Young: Bryce Young's debut every bit Alabama's starting quarterback was a affair of beauty. The Crimson Tide spanked No. fourteen Miami in Atlanta, 44-xiii, and Young lived upwards to the five-star hype. Young completed 27-of-38 throws for 344 yards and four touchdowns, including a fantastic 94-yarder to Jameson Williams out of his own end zone. He couldn't take thrown it any better.
Texas: The first game of the Steve Sarkisian era was very positive for Texas. The Longhorns, ranked No. 21 in the country, hosted No. 23 Louisiana and came away with an impressive 38-18 victory. Louisiana was one of the best Group of Five teams in the country in 2020 simply Texas' talent won out on Saturday. RB Bijan Robinson and WR Hashemite kingdom of jordan Whittington were especially impressive. Robinson rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown. He likewise caught four passes for 73 yards and a score. Whittington went for 113 yards and a score on 7 receptions.
Penn Land: How nigh that Penn State defence force? The PSU defence was on the field for a whopping 95 plays on the route at Wisconsin and only surrendered 10 points. Forth the way, the Nittany Lions forced 3 turnovers, including two pivotal interceptions in the final minutes. PSU took a 16-10 atomic number 82 with 9:17 to play and then intercepted Wisconsin QB Graham Mertz twice to seal a dramatic victory. Jaquan Brisker'south interception on fourth-and-goal was the play of the game. Gus Johnson'due south call was electric.
Michigan State RB Kenneth Walker: Walker was the best player on the field in his beginning game in a Michigan State uniform. The Wake Woods transfer reeled off a 75-thousand touchdown run on his first touch as a Spartan. It was a sign of things to come in a 38-21 route win for MSU. Walker finished the night with 263 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries. Walker rushed for 579 yards and xiii touchdowns last twelvemonth at Wake. If his Week 1 performance is any indication, he is set to blow past those stats this year.
UCLA: Information technology wasn't just that the Bruins beat No. sixteen LSU on Saturday, information technology was the way they did it. In a 38-27 win, UCLA completely dominated the lines of scrimmage by rushing for 208 yards and limiting the LSU to just 48 yards on 25 carries. The running dorsum duo of Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Dark-brown was excellent and QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson connected on several explosive gains in the passing game. On peak of that, the defense force was able to get consequent force per unit area on LSU QB Max Johnson. It'southward hard not to be impressed by Chip Kelly's team.
Michigan: The 2020 flavour was a brutal one for Michigan, but Jim Harbaugh's group started the 2021 season with an excellent outing. The Wolverines blew out Western Michigan by a score of 47-fourteen and used a dominant rushing attack to do so. Michigan put up 335 rushing yards with Blake Corum (xiv carries for 111 yards) and Hassan Haskins (13 carries for 70 yards) leading the style. Saturday's performance had to take given the Wolverines a nice confidence heave with shortly-to-be-sometime-No. 20 Washington visiting Ann Arbor next weekend.
S Carolina QB Zeb Noland: You probably know the story by now. A few weeks ago, Noland was serving as a graduate assistant. But with starting QB Luke Doty injured and the Gamecocks' QB depth lacking, Noland was added to the agile roster. The former QB at Iowa State and Northward Dakota State so became South Carolina's starter. South Carolina beat Eastern Illinois 46-0 on Saturday, and Noland threw four TD passes. He merely had 121 yards, only hey, four TDs is impressive no affair the circumstances.
Big Sky Conference: Three members of the Big Sky beat FBS opponents in Week 1. Montana's monster upset over No. xx Washington will deservedly get the headlines, but don't forget near UC Davis beating Tulsa and Eastern Washington beating UNLV. Mayhap once the Big 12 is through raiding the AAC, the AAC can pluck a few of these Big Sky schools to fill up out its roster of members?
Maryland: 1 of the best games of the early on window was West Virginia vs. Maryland. Information technology was close the whole way through, but the Terps emerged with a 30-24 victory. Maryland trailed 21-20 at halftime earlier pulling alee in the 4th quarter. The Terrapins put the game away with a 60-chiliad TD laissez passer from Taulia Tagovailoa to Rakim Jarrett with 6:25 to play. Tagovailoa was excellent in the win. He completed 26-of-36 throws for 332 yards and iii touchdowns. Jarrett and Dontay Demus were his top targets. The duo combined for 12 catches for 255 yards and 2 scores while Maryland also forced 4 turnovers.
Kansas: Kansas scored a late touchdown to beat South Dakota, 17-14, on Fri dark to give Lance Leipold a win in his KU debut as the Jayhawks avoided losing to an FCS team once more. The win was also Kansas' first since Oct. 26, 2019. Naturally, the fans stormed the field. There won't be many more wins for the Jayhawks in 2021, and so enjoy the moment while you can.
LOSERS
Oklahoma: Yes, we're putting Oklahoma in this category despite touting their playoff chances higher up. The Sooners had a rough go of it on Sabbatum and roughshod behind Tulane early earlier having to stave off a tardily Green Moving ridge comeback.
That comeback should never have happened. OU was up 37-14 at halftime before hanging on to win 40-35. Aye, Oklahoma scored just three points in the second half. Heisman favorite Spencer Rattler was 30-of-39 passing for 304 yards and a TD and two interceptions while besides running for a TD. One of those picks came on Rattler's second throw of the game.
And while Rattler didn't have an A game, neither did the Oklahoma defense. The Sooners' defensive improvement is central to their chances of making the playoff. And while Tulane is a solid AAC team, giving upward 35 to the Green Wave is not a good omen for the rest of the flavor.
Iowa State: If we're picking on Oklahoma, Iowa Land deserves a fleck of criticism too. The Cyclones have been decumbent to slow starts under Matt Campbell, and Sat was no different. ISU opened the season ranked No. 7, its all-time preseason ranking ever. The Cyclones did not live up to that billing against FCS Northern Iowa. Iowa State managed to win the game, but it was but by the score of 16-10. ISU went into halftime with xiii-x lead and managed to score only three points in the second half. That'due south not going to cut information technology against Iowa next week.
Indiana: That 2020 Indiana magic did not deport over into 2021. For much of the 2020 flavour, information technology felt like everything was going correct for the Hoosiers as they got out to a 6-one start. In the 2021 opener against Iowa, things did non get well. At all. The Hoosiers were trounced 34-6 and put up only 233 yards of offense in the process. IU quarterback Michael Penix — dorsum from a torn ACL that ended his 2020 season — had two interceptions returned for a touchdown in the start half. Those turnovers allowed Iowa to open up a commanding 31-3 halftime lead.
Boise Land: Boise State was sitting pretty early in its road game against UCF on Thursday nighttime. The Broncos stormed out to a 21-0 lead and held a 24-7 reward tardily in the 2nd quarter. But then the wheels barbarous off. UCF came all the style back and took a 28-24 lead late in the third. Boise would get back in front 31-30 with 8:02 to play, but would end up losing, 36-31. The Broncos combined for minus-25 yards on their first four 2nd-half drives. Nonetheless, they had a chance to have the atomic number 82 in the final minutes. Instead, QB Hank Bachmeier threw an sick-advised interception in UCF territory and BSU went dwelling house with a loss.
Stanford: Stanford had a roughshod offensive performance against Kansas State. The Primal had 39 rushing yards on 22 attempts and 194 passing yards on 30 attempts in a 24-7 loss. The only time the Fundamental scored was with iii:16 left in regulation. And that 75-1000 scoring bulldoze accounted for 32% of Stanford's offensive production. That'southward not a recipe for success.
With Davis Mills now in the NFL, Stanford played 2 QBs: Tanner McKee and Jack West. Neither were very impressive. With 12 Power Five opponents on the schedule, this might be a long year for Stanford. Particularly if math is a weakness for the coaching staff. It's inexplicable that Stanford didn't become for two to attempt to cut KSU's lead to two possessions after scoring that TD.
Illinois: That Calendar week 0 shine did non final long for Illinois. A week after upsetting Nebraska, the Illini followed it up by losing 37-30 to UTSA. UTSA is one of the improve teams in Conference United states, but it was still a tough dose of reality for Illinois in its showtime year nether Bret Bielema. UTSA jumped out to a 14-0 lead and never let Illinois get closer than three points. The Roadrunners gashed the Illini for 497 yards of offense in the win.
Georgia Tech: Twelvemonth 3 of the Geoff Collins era got off to a horrid start in Atlanta as Northern Illinois crush the Yellow Jackets, 22-21. The win was NIU's first since 2019 later going 0-6 in 2020 and came when Rocky Lombardi threw a pass to Tyrice Richie for a two-point conversion with 38 seconds left. The conversion came after Lombardi hitting Clint Ratkovich for a three-yard TD pass. Props to NIU omnibus Thomas Hammock for going for the win. The Yellow Jackets also appeared to lose QB Jeff Sims to a shoulder injury. With such a tough schedule ahead, this was a brutal way to open the flavor for GT.
Houston: The beginning game of Dana Holgorsen's 3rd year at Houston looked a lot like what his teams did throughout the first two. The Cougars opened the season past losing 38-21 to Texas Tech — potentially a future Large 12 briefing mate. This was a game that Houston led 21-7 at halftime before getting outscored 31-0 in the second one-half. Houston QB Clayton Tune threw four interceptions including a pick-six that tied the score at 21-21 in the third.
Louisiana Tech: Louisiana Tech blew its take chances to trounce an SEC opponent on the route. The Bulldogs led Mississippi Land 34-14 with 13:eleven to go. They lost, 35-34. MSU proceeded to reel off 3 sequent touchdown drives while the La. Tech offense went into a shell. MSU went ahead 35-34 with 3:37 to play, leaving Tech plenty of time to win it. La. Tech advanced to the MSU 30 with merely over a infinitesimal to become, and then Skip Holtz proceeded to run the ball iii straight times, setting up a 46-yard field goal instead of trying to make life easier for his kicker. The result? A miss and a Mississippi Country victory. Gross.
USF, Temple and Navy: These 3 did non correspond the AAC very well in Week i. USF was trounced 45-0 by NC State. Temple, meanwhile, lost 61-14 to Rutgers. Rutgers! Last simply not least, Navy was blown out 49-7 at dwelling past Marshall.
Washington, Tulsa, Colorado State, UNLV, UConn and Vanderbilt: Yous all lost to FCS teams. Not expert.
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Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/week-1-winners-and-losers-its-not-too-early-to-talk-about-clemsons-playoff-hopes-after-georgia-loss-040408968.html