With the countdown to this year’s College Football Playoff officially underway, Week 13 of the season provided even more intrigue – including an unexpected undefeated team from the Big Ten and the final stand from a legendary head coach in the ACC. Here is a look at the biggest winners and losers from Rivalry Week.
Winner: Iowa Hawkeyes
The Hawkeyes held on for a 28-20 win over Nebraska to improve to 12-0 and complete the first perfect season at Iowa in 93 years. Senior running back Jordan Canzeri put on a show again with 140 rushing yards and two touchdowns and the defense forced four interceptions to earn another victory. Now it’s down to a one-week season for the Hawkeyes with a playoff spot likely on the line in this week’s Big Ten Championship game against Michigan State.
Iowa has certainly made its case as one of the top teams in the country to this point but everyone still questions whether they’re that good or whether they’ve simply took advantage of a soft schedule. They didn’t have to play Michigan, Ohio State or Michigan State (until now), and their toughest games came against No. 19 Wisconsin and No. 20 Northwestern. Now we’ll get our answer. All eyes will be on Lucas Oil Stadium for Big Ten Championship Game to see if they can complete their case for the playoff.
Loser: Missouri Tigers
Missouri’s season came to an end with a 28-3 loss to Arkansas that dropped them to 5-7. That they more than likely won’t get a bowl waiver to compete in another game under head coach Gary Pinkel. Although it would be a good story for their coach, the truth is that this team doesn’t deserve a bowl invite. They started the season 3-0 but finished it with losses in seven of their last nine games.
Pinkel is set to step down after he was diagnosed with lymphoma in the offseason and it certainly would have been nice if the Tigers could have put up a better effort in his final game but they were pulseless for weeks.
Winner: Derrick Henry, Alabama Crimson Tide
The betting favorite to win this year’s Heisman trophy put an exclamation mark on his incredible season with a career-high 46 carries for a career-high 271 yards in Alabama’s 29-13 win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Henry set the Tide’s single-season rushing record by hitting 1,679 yards. With that, he surpassed Trent Richardson’s program record of 21 touchdowns with his 22nd score of the year. Next up for Alabama is the SEC Championship game against a Florida team that just got smoked by Florida State. While the Tide could clinch a spot in this year’s playoff with a win next week, it looks like Henry has already solidified himself as this year’s Heisman trophy winner.
Winner: Frank Beamer
The legendary head coach capped off his final regular season at Virginia Tech with a 23-20 win over Virginia. That means the Hokies are now non-bowl eligible. There have been multiple reports that Memphis head coach Justin Fuente is set to succeed Beamer at Virginia Tech and while that is probably the best move the program could have made under the circumstances, the Hokies will always be linked to Beamer and his incredible run at the college football level. It’s nice that his team played hard for him in his final regular season game to send him off a winner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2kvfKXmmjw
Loser: Rutgers Scarlet Knights
An absolutely terrible season for Rutgers came to a merciful end this week but it’s hard to imagine a worse ending than blowing a 31-13 halftime lead en route to losing 46-41 to Maryland. The Scarlet Knights were outscored 33-10 in the second half of another embarrassing defeat. Oh by the way, Maryland had lost eight straight heading into that game. The word out of Rutgers is that athletic director Julie Hermann could be out of a job with head coach Kyle Flood set to follow her out the door.
