College Football Week 9: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Updated all Saturday!)

[caption id="attachment_26809" align="alignright" width="350"]Photo by Gary Sanderson Photo by Gary Sanderson[/caption] Loads of intrigue this weekend with in-state clashes between Baylor and Texas, TCU and Texas Tech, and North Texas and UTSA. Buckle up for Texas Football's Wild Ride. Texas 35, Baylor 34The Good: Well that was something, huh? There were legitimate concerns about whether or not Texas was going to quit on Charlie Strong. But perhaps spurred on by the band, Texas fought — the Longhorns scratched and clawed and left it all out on the field against a Baylor team looking for revenge from last year. The “Fire Charlie” crowd will certainly quiet down, at least for a week. From an individual standpoint, Texas RB D’Onta Foreman was a man on fire. The Texas City product continued his remarkable run of late, adding his best game yet — 250 yards on 32 carries and two scores. He was the kind of bellcow that even Bevo would be proud of. Baylor QB Seth Russell was excellent throughout the game despite not putting up the video-game numbers we’ve become accustomed to. He started the game in style with a 50-yard touchdown run, and he continued to torch the Longhorns defense on the ground throughout. His passing wasn’t consistent, but he threw a couple of perfect strikes, including a dime to K.D. Cannon right before the halftime gun. The Bad: Where does this leave Baylor? The defense simply couldn’t come up with a critical stop when they needed it, letting Texas — fresh off a 344-yard performance against Kansas State — hang nearly 550 yards on them. We were wondering if Baylor was truly an elite team or if they were propped up by a soft schedule — this game seems to imply the latter is truer than the former. The Ugly: A scary moment came in the first quarter on a kickoff return when Baylor freshman corner Grayland Arnold went down in a heap after a hit to the head. He had to be immobilized and carted off, but early indications are that an MRI was negative and he should be fine. That’s the best news to come out of today, as ugly as the game was. – DCTF Managing Editor Greg TepperTexas A&M 52, New Mexico State 10The Good: Texas A&M put in a solid shift Saturday in a blowout victory over New Mexico State. Christian Kirk reminded the world of his immense talent, returning two punts for touchdowns to set the school record for punt return touchdowns in a career with four. Kirk added a touchdown catch, while Josh Stewart continued his emergence as a No. 1 threat with three catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. The Texas A&M defense allowed just 5-of-20 third-down conversions and came up with three stops on fourth down. New Mexico State managed just 18 first downs in the entire game. The Bad: It wasn’t an inspired effort. That happens with New Mexico State on the schedule a week after visiting Alabama. An emotional letdown was expected and there were signs of mental lapses throughout the game. It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t need to be. Kirk’s exploits will camouflage some of the inconsistency on offense because it didn’t seem like the offense played well enough to score 52 points. The reputation of the SEC is such that A&M’s performances against New Mexico State, and later against UTSA, are largely inconsequential. Aggie fans would have liked more style points in an emphatic performance, but the job was accomplished with seemingly minimal injury concern and that will be enough for Kevin Sumlin’s crew. – DCTF Senior Writer Mike CravenUTSA 31, North Texas 17 [caption id="attachment_26814" align="alignleft" width="350"]Photo by Mary Scott McNabb Photo by Mary Scott McNabb[/caption] The Good: The Alamodome remains a fortress of sorts for the Roadrunners, a place where they seem to outperform their stat lines. By most offensive categories, North Texas outperformed UTSA. The Mean Green had 409 total yards to UTSA’s 318, 257 passing yards to UTSA’s 142, with 152 rushing yards to UTSA’s 176. The Bad: The difference was North Texas’ four turnovers to UTSA’s zero. The Roadrunners took care of the ball, and the Mean Green didn’t. In a game with a spread that Vegas pinned at around 3.5, you can see why the forecasted margin widened considerably. Credit to UTSA for grinding out the points and taking advantage of North Texas’ mistakes. The Ugly: The Roadrunners have to be wincing over that five overtime loss to UTEP last week. Sitting at 4-4 overall, and with Middle Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Texas A&M and Charlotte still remaining, it’s hard to point to more than one game UTSA would be favored to win. It’s not much better for North Texas, which has Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky, Southern Miss and UTEP remaining. Both teams will have to pull off a shock or two to reach bowl eligibility. – DCTF Director of Digital Max ThompsonLouisiana Tech 61, Rice 16The Bad: The Owls were blown out of the water from outset, trailing 41-0 at halftime. Hardly the follow-up David Bailiff was hoping for after last week’s breakthrough win against Prairie View A&M. The Ugly: The Bulldogs are the favorite in the West Division, and certainly contenders to win the conference. Rice is dwelling in the basement with Florida Atlantic, both at 1-7 and winless in conference play. It showed in this game. The numbers are painful. Louisiana Tech racked up 735 total yards while possessing the ball nearly three minutes less than Rice. Former Hutto QB Ryan Higgins torched the Owls with 292 yards through the air and another 106 on the ground. If you’re searching for good news, Rice will get to play their listless counterpart in Conference USA, Florida Atlantic, next week at home. Of course, if that goes as poorly as everything else has this season, maybe it’s not good news after all. – DCTF Director of Digital Max ThompsonSMU 35, Tulane 31The Good: In an uneven game for the #StangGang, SMU played well when it mattered most after some ugly moments in the middle of the game and rallied in the fourth quarter to pull out another AAC conference win. Ben Hicks had some warts on the night, but he finished the game with over 300 yards through the air to go with a couple of touchdown tosses and two interceptions. His favorite target was one of SMU’s most dynamic stars in James Proche, who caught six balls for 164 yards and both of Hicks’ touchdowns. Oh, and how about Braeden West, who carried the ball 22 times for 119 yards and a couple of scores. SMU’s defense was big on key downs, most notably third down as it held Tulane to just 25 percent on third down (we’ll ignore the part where Tulane goes 3-for-4 on fourth down). The Bad: SMU had its foot on Tulane’s collective throat, ready to go for the kill shot and failed in a big way. To put it simply, the Mustangs had a 21-10 halftime lead before letting Tulane outscore them 14-0 in the third quarter and head into the fourth quarter with a lead. The Mustangs are fortunate they were able to close strong or this would’ve been one that really stung after such a huge win last week against Houston. – DCTF Contributor Adam BoedekerTexas Tech 27, TCU 24 (2 OT) [caption id="attachment_26810" align="alignright" width="350"]Photo by John Hamilton Photo by John Hamilton[/caption] The Good: Both defenses deserve credit for their performances in this game — Tech’s because it’s generally bad and TCU’s because it contained an offense that averages well over 50 points per game. In the end, the Red Raiders’ defense was phenomenal. Forget the fact TCU’s offense is a mess, the defense just won Tech a Big 12 game and kept the Red Raiders’ bowl hopes alive. They held the Frogs to 5-for-15 on third down and forced a huge turnover when TCU was driving to score on a Douglas Coleman interception at the goal line late in the third quarter. Another big plus for Tech? How about ONE penalty for FIVE yards? That has to be a record. Also, Tech had 137 rushing yards to just 204 passing yards, as TCU dared it to run and Da’Leon Ward obliged with 98 yards on 23 carries. Unlike his same-named counterpart, Tech kicker Clayton Hatfield was clutch. He hit a 41-yard field goal and then the game-winner in overtime. The Bad: Tech nearly lost the game with its special teams when its punter straight-up dropped a snap at Tech’s 15-yard line and allowed TCU an easy go-ahead touchdown to make the score 17-10 TCU early in the fourth quarter. TCU looks like it might have seen the end of the Kenny Hill era — a familiar scenario for Hill. The Frogs’ offense racked up over 400 yards but looked helpless most of the time, and Hill was a big reason. He was 15-for-28 for just 155 yards with a pick. Foster Sawyer entered the game in the fourth quarter and threw for 86 yards and a touchdown but looked like a deer in headlights down the stretch when TCU needed a spark. The Ugly: You have to feel for TCU kicker Brandon Hatfield, who hit a 23-yard field goal but missed three field goals from inside 40 yards, including one in overtime that gave the Red Raiders peace of mind of only needing a field goal to win an overtime game. – DCTF Contributor Adam BoedekerHouston 31, UCF 24 [caption id="attachment_26807" align="alignleft" width="350"]Photo by Diana Porter Photo by Diana Porter[/caption] The Good: What a tale of two halves this game was for the Cougars. Things didn’t look promising for Tom Herman’s squad to say the least, as the Cougars trailed 21-3 at halftime. But, things changed in the second half. Greg Ward Jr. was being forced to do too much by himself early, but as Houston finally established the running game, the pressure on the senior quarterback was eased. The Cougars drove 75 yards in 8 plays – all on the ground – early in the second half for their first touchdown of the game, and that was the turning point. The defense forced turnovers on the next two UCF possessions, and there was finally some mojo and energy back on the Houston sideline through the rest of the second half. Houston scored 28 unanswered points to storm back for a much-needed win at home. After the slow start, the Cougars defense bounced back to hold UCF to just 195 total yards and 2-15 on third down conversions. Houston also forced 4 turnovers to claw back into the game in the second half. Now, the Cougars can cruise into a much-needed bye week before taking on Tulane in a warm-up game for the big showdown against Lousiville on Nov. 17. The Bad: While the win was an important one and it was good to see the Cougars fight back from a big deficit, it was certainly concerning to see the team fall flat on its face in the first half for the fourth straight week. Things haven’t been the same since a 46-40 loss to Navy, and the first half had the look of yet another disastrous loss for Houston. The Cougars turned the ball over four times in the game, and failed to score a touchdown in the first half for the first time this season. The offensive line allowed the UCF defense to get all kinds of pressure on Ward in the first half, and it disrupted the rhythm of the offense and forced some bad throws that turned into turnovers. Once the running game got going after the half though, the offense returned to form. The Ugly: Pretty much the entire first half was ugly for Houston. UCF came out and dominated the game for the first 30 minutes, and a third loss as a group of five team would have really condemned the Cougars as far as getting back into the conversation for a good bowl game. The Cougars began the game with two interceptions and a punt on their first three possessions of the game. The team had just -12 yards rushing at the break, and looked completely out of sorts. Herman has talked a lot about each week being a one-game season now for the Cougars, but they need to find a way to come out of the gate faster. – DCTF Intern Brady Keane