College football winners and losers: Clemson and Michigan stay in playoff picture

Clemson and Michigan saved themselves from the season opener on Saturday, though it’s better to have questions about both teams.

The No. 21 Tigers were the more convincing team with a 59-35 win over NC State as the No. 18 Michigan needed a late fourth down to avoid a second half collapse with a 27-24 home win at No. 11 U.S.C. .

Let’s start at Clemson, where the Tigers’ offense looks different than it did in the 34-3 Week 1 loss to Georgia. Clemson (2-1) has scored 101 points in the first half in its past two games since the shootout, and opened the scoring less than two minutes into Saturday’s contest when QB Cade Klubnik 55-yard TD run.

The Tigers were up 28-0 after the first quarter and cruised against an NC State team that started a new QB in CJ Bailey. He was making his first career start after former Coastal Carolina QB Grayson McCall was injured in Week 3 against Louisiana Tech. When NC State scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, Clemson wanted to run out the clock.

You can’t argue against how good Clemson looked in the wins over Appalachian State and the Wolfpack, but you can question how realistic they are either. Appalachian State fell to 1-3 with a tough home loss to South Alabama on Thursday and NC State got blown out by Tennessee with a healthy McCall in Week 2.

Michigan, meanwhile, moved to 3-1 thanks to a strong effort from Kalel Mullings in the fourth quarter. After USC took its first lead of the game in the fourth quarter, Mullings broke off a 63-yard run before scoring the game-winning TD with 37 seconds left. He rushed 17 times for 159 yards and two TDs despite a passing threat from Michigan QB Alex Orji.

Orji was 7-of-12 passing for 32 yards on Saturday as Michigan ran 46 rushing plays. The offensive scheme to move the ball was exactly what coach Sherrone Moore was looking for.

Michigan has long been a team that values ​​running the ball more than passing it. But this is a new change. Michigan’s QBs have thrown for 491 yards on 90 attempts through the first four games of the season.

Is it sustainable to continue to win with such overwhelming numbers? The Wolverines certainly hope so, but there are many reasons to wonder if it will work. Of course, there were plenty of Michigan fans who were pessimistic about the team’s chances of a comeback before Mullings left the big league. This is a group that is not designed according to the current state of the game.

But it’s also a philosophy that can work until the month of October. Michigan’s next four games are against Minnesota, Washington, Illinois and Michigan State before No. 9 Oregon visits Ann Arbor to start November. With the way Michigan’s defense played Saturday, it’s not unreasonable to think Michigan’s offense is doing enough without significant improvement to put the Wolverines at 7-1 through the first two months of the season. .

Clemson should also keep winning. With Florida State struggling, the Tigers look to be an ACC team along with Miami and don’t face a ranked team until they host Louisville on Nov. 2. ACC title, though you want to see a little from Clemson’s offense to erase the memory of that Georgia game.

Here are the winners and losers for the rest of the week.

Winners

James Madison: The Dukes scored 53 points in the first half in a stunning 70-50 victory over North Carolina. QB Alonza Barnett III had a breakout weekend. He was 22-of-34 passing for 388 yards and five touchdowns while rushing 13 times for 99 yards and two scores.

JMU amassed 611 yards of offense on the Tar Heels while UNC turned the ball over five times with three fumbles and two interceptions, including a pick-6. It’s an embarrassing loss for North Carolina after the Heels started the season 3-0, but it’s also a good win for James Madison after coach Curt Cignetti went to Indiana in the offseason with QB Jordan McCloud transferred to Texas State.

West Virginia: The Mountaineers posted a big comeback after a long thunderstorm in their 32-28 win over Kansas. The Storms put the game away in the fourth quarter and Kansas led 28-17 with 5:39 to go. West Virginia cut the lead to three with 3:27 left, and scored its first TD with 26 seconds left when Rodney Gallagher III caught a 15-yard pass from Garrett Greene.

The win drops West Virginia to 2-2 and drops Kansas to 1-3 as QB Jalon Daniels continues to struggle. He fumbled on the Jayhawks’ final possession and threw another touchdown pass. Greene threw twice but was 15-of-30 passing for 295 yards and rushed 17 times for 87 yards.

Buffalo: The Bulls got their first win over a ranked team since defeating No. 12 Ball State in the 2008 MAC title game with a 23-20 overtime victory over No. 23 Northern Illinois. Buffalo trailed 14-3 at halftime before rallying in the fourth quarter to take a 20-17 lead with 3:28 left. NIU got a field goal to force overtime, but Kanon Woodill’s 42-yard field goal attempt in OT was blocked. That set up Upton Bellenfant to kick a 37-yard field goal for the win and upset the Huskies in their first game since beating Notre Dame in South Bend.

Indiana: The Hoosiers are 4-0 after an easy 52-14 win over Charlotte at home. Former Ohio QB Kurtis Rourke was 16-of-20 passing for 258 yards and two touchdowns as eight players combined to rush 41 times for 222 yards and a score. six. Indiana’s opening schedule has never been incredibly difficult; its best win is at UCLA in Week 3. But with Maryland and Northwestern on tap in the next two weeks, Indiana has a very good chance to be bowl eligible by the end of Week 6 and could be sneak into the AP Top 25 on Sunday. .

Losers

Auburn: The Tigers still have a quarterback problem. QB Hank Brown made his second start of the season but threw three interceptions in the Tigers’ 24-14 home loss to Arkansas. Brown was replaced in the second half by Payton Thorne, a starter in Auburn’s first two games. Thorne found KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a 67-yard TD in the fourth quarter that pulled the Tigers within three, but Arkansas went on a 12-play drive that lasted 6:12 to put the game away. TD run by Ja’. Quinden Jackson. We’ll see who coach Hugh Freeze starts next week’s game against Oklahoma. The matchup is the first of three straight against top-ranked opponents for the Tigers.

Memphis: Much like Northern Illinois, the positive vibes from Memphis’ big win over a powerhouse conference opponent didn’t last long. The Tigers lost 56-44 to Navy in what could be a major blow to Memphis’ late season hopes. After holding off Florida State in Week 3, Memphis was held to 361 yards and five TDs on just 39 attempts by the Navy offense. The Midshipmen were also effective through the air as Blake Horvath was 9-of-12 for 192 yards and two scores in addition to his 90-yard TD run and three more scores. urgent.

Virginia Tech: The Hokies have now lost 12 straight non-conference games against powerhouse conference opponents after Rutgers earned a 26-23 road victory. The Scarlet Knights went up 14-0 in the first quarter and never trailed, though Virginia Tech battled back in the fourth quarter with back-to-back touchdowns to tie the game at 23-23.

Jai Patel hit a 24-yard field goal with 1:56 to go, however, and Kyron Drones threw a third-down with 1:24 left to seal the game. After losing to Vanderbilt in Week 1 and Rutgers on Saturday, Virginia Tech’s last win against a powerhouse opponent continues with a win over West Virginia in the 2017 opener.

Houston: It will be the first long season for coach Willie Fritz. The Cougars were blown out 34-0 at Cincinnati to drop to 1-3. QBs Donovan Smith and Zeon Chriss combined to throw for 92 yards and 21 interceptions and Houston also fumbled twice as it became the first power conference team to be shut out in 2024. The Cougars played Oklahoma is tough in Week 2, but tough. seeing more than a pair of Big 12 wins on the schedule the rest of the season with three of their four home games against ranked opponents.