College Football Week Nine Recap

Heading into week nine of the college football season, chaos was king, as more ranked teams had lost than ever before. There was no reason to believe Saturday would provide any return to normalcy. 

Before we get to the games of the day, you have to see how the SMU vs. Houston game ended. 

Houston’s Marcus Jones had eight career kick returns for touchdowns going into Saturday’s game against No. 19 SMU. But why not give him a chance to end your undefeated season? 

What. A. Finish. 🤯

Houston runs a kickoff for a TD in the final minute to ruin No. 19 SMU’s undefeated season.

📽️ @UHCougarFB pic.twitter.com/0ScnuqID9k

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) October 31, 2021

Three more teams in the top-10 went down, and nine ranked teams lost ahead of the first College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday. Let’s take a look at the best from week nine of the college football season.

Michigan State 37 Michigan 33

Up 23-14 at the half, and 30-14 with 6:47 in the third quarter, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh looked like he was about to shed the narrative around his big-game struggles. 

Nope. 

Harbaugh fell to 2-13 against top-10 opponents since taking over at Michigan in 2015 in a 37-33 loss to in-state rival Michigan State. 

A fourth quarter fumble by freshman quarterback J.J. McCarthy led to the fifth touchdown of the day for Spartans running back Kenneth Walker III, giving Michigan State a four-point lead with 5:07 left in the game. 

Michigan got two more possessions, but were turned over on downs and quarterback Cade McNamara threw an interception with a minute left in the game to seal the win for Sparty. 

Walker made his case for the Heisman, rushing for 197 yards on 23 carries, including a few big runs where he was able to make something out of nothing. 

“I will say, three of his touchdowns today, I wasn’t expecting a huge play. On the first one, we were in the huddle, and I said let’s just forget the red zone, let’s just score right here and he did, so that was good,” Spartans quarterback Payton Thorne said. “The other one was not a home run play, but as you see with him, any play could be a home run. The o-line was doing a good job, I’m sure he’ll give them credit.”

Michigan’s fifth-ranked rushing offense was held in check by the Spartans defense, with running backs Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum combining for

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases