The Saturday before Halloween turned out to be scary for a bunch of teams.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers lost an opportunity at a resume-building victory, West Virginia suffered a loss at the hands of the Oklahoma State Cowboys that will dent their chances of convincing most that they belong in the College Football Playoff, while a loss to South Carolina has opened the floodgates for a Tennessee program that is seeing losses on and off the field. In terms of individual performers, week nine of the college football season wasn’t ghoulish at all. Let’s highlight the best performers from this past week.
Texas RB D’Onta Foreman – 32 carries, 250 yards, two TDs: In order for the Longhorns to produce an upset against the then-8th ranked Baylor Bears last week, the team needed a huge performance from their 250-lb power back and that is exactly what they got. Foreman has rushed for over a 100 yards in every game this season but he eclipsed the 200-yard mark for the first time this season with 250, while also crossing the 1,000-yard season plateau with his performance.
Oregon QB Justin Herbert – 31/42, 489 yards, four TDs: A very disappointing season for the Ducks received a little spark this past Saturday from Herbert. The true freshman tossed for not a only a career-high in yards but tied for the most in a single game in school history. Herbert’s incredible performance aided the Ducks tremendously to snap a five-game losing streak.
Michigan DB/LB/PR Jabrill Peppers – Seven tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, one rushing TD, one fumble recovery for two-point conversion: Do you see that stat line? It’s fitting that Peppers dons the maize & blue of the Michigan Wolverines since he is consistently mirroring the type of impact that Charles Woodson had at Michigan in the late 90s. Peppers opened the scoring for Michigan with his rushing touchdown and closed the scoring as well with his 86-yard fumble recovery for two points.
Florida State RB Dalvin Cook – 19 carries, 169 yards, four TDs: The speedy Cook couldn’t get going in the first half of a 37-34 loss to Clemson but his two third quarter touchdown runs gave and extended the lead for Florida State. Both coming on one play drives. The yardage total was the most since week four against South Florida.
Tulsa RB James Flanders – 33 carries, 249 yards, five touchdowns: While the posting of 59 points on the road against Memphis was quite impressive, it couldn’t have been accomplished without the performance from the senior running back. Flanders ran for a season and career-high in yards with touchdown runs of 14, 52, 1, 48, and 7.
Tennessee DE Derek Barnett – Four tackles, three sacks: Although his Volunteers team suffered a crucial road loss to South Carolina, Barnett was still able to prove why he’s considered a high-draft pick in next year’s draft. His total of three sacks in a game is the third different occasion during his collegiate career. Barnett totaled half of the team’s total sacks against the Gamecocks.
Auburn RB Kamryn Pettway – 36 carries, 236 yards, one TD: The Tigers were able to enter a tough road environment against Ole Miss and hang 40 points thanks in large part to Pettway and his 7.9 yards per carry. The rushing total was a career-high for Pettway and a huge chunk of Auburn’s 307 total rushing yards on the day.
