College football scores, highlights, Heisman race, playoff picture after Alabama routs Georgia

All the college football Week 7 scores, highlights, lowlights, update on the Heisman race after Trevor Lawrence and Mac Jones had monster performances and what Alabama beating Georgia means for the College Football Playoff picture.

The college football Week 7 schedule was pretty light with Top 25 matchups after LSU-Florida, Oklahoma State-Baylor and Cincinnati-Tulsa were all postponed due to COVID. However, there was still plenty of good college football action across the country to marvel at. The good stuff began before Saturday with the Sun Belt giving us more “Fun Belt” with Coastal Carolina improving to 4-0 with a 30-27 win over No. 21 Louisiana on Wednesday.

On Friday night, the American gave us a pair of offensive outbursts with No. 17 SMU improving to 5-0 with a 37-34 win in overtime against Tulane which preceded the Zach Wilson Show. No. 14 BYU scored 22 unanswered points behind 400 yards and four touchdowns from Wilson to defeat Houston. 43-26. BYU is the real deal and could challenge for a playoff berth if things get weird among the champions of the Power 5 leagues.

Alabama makes a case to be No. 1 after stomping Georgia

There was more drama leading up to the game with Nick Saban testing positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday than there was during the actual game. After delivering three negative PCR tests over the next three days, Saban was cleared to return to the sidelines and coached Alabama to a win and make a case for the Tide being the new No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.

Georgia delivered the first punch with an interception on Alabama’s first play from scrimmage and took a 24-20 lead into halftime, but Alabama delivered a series of haymakers to deliver the knockout punch in the fourth quarter.

The Crimson Tide scored 21 unanswered points to win 41-21 as the much-maligned Alabama defense pitched a shutout in the second half while the offense feasted on the nation’s No. 1 defense.

Quarterback Mac Jones made a big Heisman statement with another 400-yard outing, finishing with 417 yards and four touchdowns.

Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith topped 160 yards which gave Alabama the first pair of receivers to top 150 in a game for the first time in program history.

Alabama is quickly becoming WRU with Julio Jones, Amari Cooper, Calvin Ridley, Henry Ruggs III and Jerry Jeudy among the notable products producing at a high level in the NFL. Smith and Waddle will be next and John Metchie III looks like he’s well on his way to taking the baton.

It was Smith who delivered the knockout punch with an insane highlight-reel touchdown to put Georgia on their backs.

FSU coach Mike Norvell gets signature win vs. UNC

It was a turn back the clock game for Florida State against No. 5 North Carolina on Saturday.  Yes, it’s still 2020 no matter how much all of us would like to forget and how much we’d like to fast forward to 2021. However, it looked like 90s night at the Doak with the Seminoles holding on vs. Mack Brown and the Tar Heels.

The Noles almost let it slip away but held on after a pair of bad drops by North Carolina who was driving in the final seconds. Maybe this was a sign after Bobby Bowden was released from the hospital earlier in the week after battling the coronavirus? The football gods were on their side. Brown has yet to beat the Seminoles in his career and it looks like Mike Norvell’s club has finally turned the corner after a rough few years and a rough start to this year for him, his team and their great fans.

Good things are coming for Florida State who found their identity tonight, which is something that hasn’t been able to be said without eliciting laughs for the last couple of years.

Clemson puts up a basketball score

Trevor Lawrence threw for a career-high 404 yards and five touchdowns and most of that was in the first half alone vs. Georgia Tech.

Lawrence had 391 and four in the first half that put him in elite company with Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes for quarterbacks to do that in the first half against Power 5 teams in recent years. Pretty good company, huh?

The reigning Heisman winner and reigning Super Bowl MVP. I hope Clemson fans and all college football fans for that matter are cherishing what Lawrence is doing at Clemson.

His kind only comes around once every decade or so and he’s going to be missed when he’s gone. Clemson will still keep on rolling, but what Lawrence is doing is special in every sense of the word.

Is Notre Dame overrated?

Notre Dame looked like one of the better teams so far this season, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually good. Part of that is playing this season when the Big Ten and Pac-12 have yet to begin their season and the perceived top teams in the Big 12 (Oklahoma, Texas) have looked bad to quite bad. So without many teams in action, Notre Dame, by default was a top-four team in number, but not by merit.

Their wins came against Duke, USF, Florida State and Louisville who had a combined 5-14 record and two of those wins came against FCS foes, and one came against Syracuse, which may be the worst Power 5 team in the nation thus far. That said, Notre Dame has a great offensive line and a veteran quarterback in Ian Book and the schedule doesn’t get much tougher until they host Clemson on Nov. 7, so expect them to remain undefeated. But that doesn’t mean they’re any good, so for now, Notre Dame is overrated.

Fire Gus Malzahn?

Forget about The Masters, a tradition unlike any other is Auburn football fans wanting to fire Gus Malzahn. Well, strike up the message board rumors and start a GoFundMe for his $21 million buyout after the Tigers lost to South Carolina. Malzahn’s offense looks terrible with Chad Morris calling plays and Bo Nix under center.

Consider how much better Arkansas looks without Morris as the head coach. The Hogs may be the most improved team in the nation with Florida transfer quarterback Feleipe Franks being the only real addition to the roster Morris had in his forgettable tenure in Fayetteville.

Nix was the SEC Freshman of the Year, somehow beating LSU cornerback Derek Stingley, Jr. for the honor but looked shell-shocked vs. South Carolina, throwing three interceptions and showing a general lack of awareness throughout the loss. It was the first time South Carolina beat Auburn since joining the SEC in 1992 and just the second win since 1933 for the Gamecocks. Fire Gus? Well, maybe.

Kentucky snaps streak vs. Tennessee

It was a good weekend for long streaks to end in the SEC.

With South Carolina getting their first win vs. Auburn since 1993, Kentucky also got their first win at Tennessee since 1984, a span of 36 games. The last time the Wildcats won at Neyland Stadium, Ronald Reagan was president.

My how the times have changed. Tennessee had an eight-game winning streak snapped last weekend against Georgia and now own a two-game losing streak with Alabama coming to town next weekend.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better for Vols fans. But for Kentucky fans, do what head coach Mark Stoops is doing and enjoy a cigar and some bourbon and celebrate this big win all weekend.

Heisman

I’m only going to rank players who have played so far, so I’m not including Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields yet, although he will be a leading candidate when his season begins next Saturday. Though, his late start and the hot starts of Lawrence and Jones could prove to be too much to overcome. If Lawrence or Jones doesn’t win the Heisman at this point, it’ll be a sizable upset, but it is certainly not a knock on the prodigious talent that Fields possesses. It’s a two-man race at this point though.

1. Trevor Lawrence, Clemson QB
2. Mac Jones, Alabama QB
3. Zach Wilson, BYU QB
4. Travis Etienne, Clemson RB
5. Jaylen Waddle, Alabama WR

College Football Playoff picture

Just like the Heisman, I won’t include teams that haven’t played so Ohio State won’t be included in this College Football Playoff projection, but they will be next week with a win over Nebraska. Even without playing a game, I feel confident that Ohio State is much, much better than Notre Dame and Oklahoma State, and think Clemson, Alabama and Ohio State are pretty much locks to make the postseason. The only drama will come from the fourth spot, as usual, with BYU, Cincinnati and a potential undefeated Pac-12 champion making it interesting for a one-loss ACC runner-up or Texas A&M who won’t have to play in the SEC Championship Game.

1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. Notre Dame
4. Oklahoma State

Big Ten back

The college football season felt incomplete the first seven weeks without the Big Ten (and even the Pac-12) but the league will be back this week with seven games. The action starts Friday night with No. 16 Wisconsin hosting an upset-minded Illinois. We’ll have a six-pack of games on Saturday, beginning with Nebraska at No. 6 Ohio State, which is the Big Ten Game of the Week by a mile. Then, we’ll have Rutgers at Michigan State, No. 9 Penn State at Indiana which could get interesting, Iowa at Purdue, No. 19 Michigan at No. 24 Minnesota with College GameDay on hand and finally, Maryland at Northwestern.

Next week also brings back the Mountain West. One week later, we’ll have the Pac-12 and a week after that, we’ll have the MAC back.

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