College football Week 8 takeaways: Alabama rebounds, USC’s defense doesn’t

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Ohio State’s defense and Marvin Harrison Jr. dominated against Penn State, Oklahoma survived against UCF, the Big Ten West got a shakeup and USC and Utah turned in a thriller in the Coliseum. What else did Week 8 have to offer? Read on for analysis of the day’s biggest storylines from writers around the country.

No. 2 Michigan 49, Michigan State 0
No. 3 Ohio State 20, No. 7 Penn State 12
No. 4 Florida State 38, No. 16 Duke 20
No. 5 Washington vs. Arizona State, 10:30 p.m. FS1
No. 6 Oklahoma 31, UCF 29
No. 8 Texas 31, Houston 24
No. 9 Oregon 38, Washington State 24
Virginia 31, No. 10 North Carolina 27
No. 11 Alabama 34, No. 17 Tennessee 20
No. 13 Ole Miss 28, Auburn 21
No. 14 Utah 34, No. 18 USC 32
No. 19 LSU 62, Army 0
No. 20 Missouri 34, South Carolina 12
No. 22 Air Force 17, Navy 6
No. 23 Tulane 35, North Texas 28
Minnesota 12, No. 24 Iowa 10
No. 25 UCLA at Stanford, 10:30 p.m., ESPN

USC’s defense disappears again

Almost exactly a year after USC lost to Utah 43-42 in a back-and-forth classic, freshman sensation Zachariah Branch and superstar quarterback Caleb Williams gave the Trojans a 32-31 lead with 1:46 to play — and tasked defensive coordinator Alex Grinch with guiding his unit to the kind of key stop that has often eluded him in his tenure. On the Utes’ ensuing drive, a big third down stop was negated by an unfortunate roughing the passer call, and the yards needed to get into field goal range were picked up by the improvisational scramble of Utah quarterback Bryson Barnes after Grinch’s pass rushers lost contain, a frequent problem on Saturday. The walk-off field goal was never in doubt once it left Cole Becker’s foot, and another major moment from Williams was washed away by Grinch and his defense’s struggles to finish the game.

As unlucky as the Utes final drive may have been, the common theme is that something, if not several things, always seems to go wrong for Grinch and this defense. Playing man coverage without spies or a disciplined rush got USC punished with scrambles and some explosive passes early in the game. Barnes, once the third-string option at QB, averaged 10 yards per attempt for an offense missing several key skill position players. (Coach Kyle Whittingham said after the game that starting quarterback Cam Rising and tight end Brant Kuithe were being shut down for the year for medical reasons.) USC still can’t control the line of scrimmage well enough to stop the run, and personal fouls in key situations kept Utah’s offense alive.

Lincoln Riley’s decision to keep Grinch on staff as defensive coordinator keeps twisting the knife as the Trojans fall farther from the Pac-12 and College Football Playoff pole positions, and there doesn’t look to be relief coming next year when USC joins a loaded Big Ten. — Diante Lee

Michigan routs MSU to cap wild week

Let’s take stock of the various and sundry narratives at work in Michigan’s 49-0 win over Michigan State. It was the teams’ first meeting since the postgame tunnel incident at the Big House that resulted in criminal charges for some of the involved players. On Thursday, the Big Ten announced the NCAA is investigating Michigan in response to allegations of sign stealing. The Wolverines suspended a staffer on Friday, while head coach Jim Harbaugh said he had no knowledge of any illegal sign-stealing. All this followed Michigan’s self-imposed three-game suspension of Harbaugh earlier this season amid another NCAA investigation of alleged recruiting violations.

Meanwhile in East Lansing, we’re still just weeks removed from Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker being fired for cause amid a sexual harassment investigation, and the Spartans continue to look rudderless on the field. It didn’t take long after Saturday’s game kicked off to realize the sign-stealing controversy would not skew the final outcome, as Michigan cruised to the rivalry’s largest margin of victory since 1947.

And as if that weren’t bad enough, a third-party trivia video shown on the Spartan Stadium scoreboard featured a question about Adolf Hitler’s country of birth, forcing the university to issue an apology in the middle of the blowout loss.

All that merely underscored the widening gap between these two in-state rivals. Michigan might be in the NCAA’s crosshairs once again as it awaits the fallout of this latest investigation, but it’s also the No. 2  team in the country and looks destined for yet another Big Ten championship and CFP berth. Michigan State, on the other hand, has devolved into something far more concerning. — Justin Williams

Alabama wakes up after halftime

This Alabama team might not always look quite as dominant as we’ve come to expect under Nick Saban, and it was mighty dicey early on Saturday against Tennessee, but the Crimson Tide can still catch fire. Just ask the cigars. They were smoking again in Tuscaloosa after Alabama outscored the Volunteers 27-0 in the second half to win its 10th in a row at home against UT, 34-20.

Stop the presses on those obituaries for Nick Saban’s era of excellence in the SEC. Now 7-1, the Tide get a week off before hosting what could effectively be an SEC semifinal on Nov. 4 against LSU. Same as it ever was.

Alabama’s offense still isn’t consistently productive, and its line continues to be the biggest threat to quarterback Jalen Milroe, who was sacked four times Saturday, including a strip sack that led to Tennessee points, but the offense’s big-play ability means momentum can always swing back in the Tide’s favor in the blink of an eye.

Down 20-7 at halftime, Alabama opened the third quarter with a 29-yard Jase McClellan run and a 46-yard Milroe-to-Isaiah Bond touchdown. Two plays, and the snowball was rolling. Soon, it was an avalanche. Milroe’s 30th and 31st passing play of 20-plus yards this season set up a field goal and a touchdown, with a failed Tennessee fourth-down conversion from its own territory in between, and two Milroe runs for 25 yards set up another field goal.

The Alabama defense provided the dagger with a strip sack, scoop and score. The Crimson Tide pitched a second-half shutout to remind us that, while everyone focuses on their hot-and-cold offense, they still have a championship-level defense. And after this win, still a championship-contending team. — Kyle Tucker

Ohio State’s defense steps up

Both sides likely will credit the other’s defensive effort for the reason why this game was so low-scoring, but at least for Penn State, that would be a fraudulent claim in Ohio State’s 20-12 win.

Ohio State, playing without receiver Emeka Egbuka and running back TreVeyon Henderson, had its hands full with a talented Penn State defense with NFL prospects at every level — but in the end, Marvin Harrison Jr. proved to be too talented for everyone else. Which, of course, has happened before. Ohio State’s offensive identity issues showed up earlier this season against Notre Dame and reappeared once again, as Ryan Day’s offense blundered a number of opportunities away throughout the game. When the chips were down, however, Harrison and Ohio State’s defense were more than enough. Penn State had an answer for everything Ohio State had, save for Harrison, who finished with 11 catches (on 16 targets) for 162 and a touchdown against a very talented defense. A Heisman-level performance.

Ohio State’s offense would’ve been able to do more in this one with a healthier group, but Day’s decision-making series to series remains far too erratic. Defensively, it was a great day for the Buckeyes.

Penn State, meantime, drops to 1-12 in its past 13 games against top-10 teams. James Franklin has just three of those wins (none in the regular season since 2016) in a decade at Penn State. Penn State’s offense was lifeless throughout this game, and the coaching staff coached timidly. Penn State was not at a massive talent disadvantage in Columbus, as has been the case in other years during this series. This, for Franklin, was a very bad day. Penn State’s program is always talented, but it has been spinning its wheels for a while now. — Nick Baumgardner

Iowa bows out of serious Big Ten contention

Despite the fact that Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz expressed absolutely zero intention of investing in his offense and creating a unit that could score this year, Iowa came into this weekend with a 6-1 record and an inside shot to the Big Ten championship game.

It looked like Iowa was going to survive and advance again when Cooper DeJean returned a punt for a touchdown with less than two minutes left in a defensive struggle with Minnesota. It looked like it was going to be the most quintessential Iowa victory imaginable.

But DeJean’s return, which would have put Iowa up by five late, was called back because a weird arm motion DeJean made before fielding the ball on a hop was deemed a fair catch signal. Iowa, predictably, didn’t score when it took over around midfield and lost, 12-10.

Fans will debate for days whether the referees got it right with DeJean’s hand signal. But the real story of the game? Iowa managed only 12 total yards in the second half. The Hawkeyes entered the weekend ranked dead last in college football in total offense and backed those numbers up.

Now Iowa, with two conference losses and in need of help to get back into the division race, can be left out of Big Ten title talk and any hilarious notion of making the College Football Playoff.

The path seemed clear for Iowa to at least make it to Indianapolis, but when you play offense this poorly, you’re susceptible to losing to anyone on any Saturday. — Ari Wasserman

Gabriel leads Sooners’ comeback

It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the last-minute, game-winning drive in the Red River Rivalry victory over Texas, but Dillon Gabriel and the Sooners pulled off another fourth-quarter comeback in a 31-29 win over UCF. Oklahoma’s Heisman-candidate quarterback orchestrated back-to-back nine-play touchdown drives in the final period to flip a six-point deficit into a two-point win when UCF’s late two-point conversion came up short.

Facing his former team, Gabriel started fast, completing 18 of his first 24 attempts with a pair of touchdowns. He also bounced back from a costly interception to open the second half, including a couple of clutch scrambles when the Knights dropped eight and started to stifle the Sooners’ offense. Gabriel connected on his final four throws of the game, including a go-ahead touchdown to Stoops to keep Oklahoma (7-0, 4-0 Big 12) atop the Big 12 standings and squarely in the College Football Playoff hunt. — Justin Williams

(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)