Brian’s College Football Top 5: Week 8

Photo from KFOX 14

I spent the weekend in Morgantown, West Virginia with my family, watching real football.

The number 1 West Virginia Mountaineers beat South Carolina 1-0 in the 89th minute to win a crucial Sun Belt matchup.

Oh, and other football happened too.

Here is the top 5 from week 8.

5. UTEP Miners

It has been almost an entire calendar year since UTEP won a football game, and the Miners were a putrid 0-6 to start the Scotty Waldren era.

But last Wednesday, UTEP defeated FIU to finally get that first victory for their new head coach.

4. Duke Blue Devils

Let this be a lesson.

Nobody beats Duke 21 times in a row.

Florida State was 20-0 against the Blue Devils until Friday night, when Duke used great defense to move to 6-1 on the season, and beat Florida State 23-16.

It’s likely the worst Florida State team they’ve played in those 21 matchups, but hey!

A win is a win!

3. Illinois Fighting Illini

Illinois was 5-1 heading into this weekend, and that’s great, but they didn’t exactly have a difficult schedule.

This would be a big test, facing a Michigan team who likes to do what they do.

Run the ball, and play great defense.

Illinois answered the test with flying colors.

The Illini ran for almost 200 yards and forced 3 turnovers, as Illinois upset Michigan at home.

The Bret Bielema blueprint works.

2. Army Black Knights & Navy Midshipmen

Army is 7-0. Navy is 6-0.

And these aren’t fluky wins, mind you.

They are CRUSHING teams.

I can’t wait for December 14th.

The Army-Navy game is going to be excellent.

1. Indiana Hoosiers

We all know what Indiana is doing in year 1 under Curt Cignetti has been amazing.

A big part of that is how they’ve played under quarterback Kurtis Rourke.

Rourke, unfortunately, got hurt on Saturday against Nebraska.

It felt like the typical bad luck Indiana would have in such a magical season, as Rourke would miss the 2nd half of the game.

Didn’t matter.

Indiana outscored Nebraska 28-0 in the second half of the game, as backup QB Tayven Jackson went 7/8 with 2 touchdowns.

The Hoosiers are just really, really good.

Period.