College football Week 10 grades: Iowa and Northwestern send sport back to the stone age

Welcome to the college football Week 10 grades, where the pretenders can watch the College Football Playoff at home with the rest of us (hi, Oklahoma and Notre Dame).

The same thing goes as far as grading from last season: High marks will be only for the spectacular, and failing grades have no chance of being reversed. Last week’s low marks went to North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren and the much-ridiculed Pac-12 officials.

Who stood out and who completely fell on their face this week? Here is the Week 10 analysis of how fans, teams, players and coaches fared: 

Iowa and Northwestern send football back to the stone age

OK, not every team will get the concept of moving up and down the field at will, like some of the nation’s highest-scoring teams. But what was witnessed Saturday at Chicago's Wrigley Field, especially in the first half, is beyond ridiculous.

Iowa and Northwestern decided to play a college football game at a baseball stadium, because … well, we're not exactly sure. Perhaps the novelty of the game brought some more fans out than would otherwise have attended this game, but the unplayable turf didn't help matters in this game between offensive offenses.

The final score: Iowa 10, Northwestern 7. And congrats to the bettors who wagered well below the total score over/under of 29.

The result shouldn’t really be a surprise, but then again, the Chicago Cubs – Wrigley's Field regular tenants – did score 10 or more runs in a game 24 times in 2023.

The Hawkeyes, who finally decided to dump offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz after years of blatant nepotism that earned him millions despite his less-than-stellar job performance, got on the board first after a blocked punt – and it still took them seven plays to travel 25 yards for the score.  

Out of the 137 plays run by both teams, only one went for over 20 yards. Offensive indeed.

Three yards and punt: F

Big H has no chance: Oklahoma State fans celebrate Bedlam win

For the past two weeks, goalposts at Kansas and Oklahoma State have had a limited shelf life, thanks to the Oklahoma Sooners losing to both teams. After Kansas' 38-33 victory in Lawrence, the fans stormed the field and promptly took apart the goalpost and dumped it in Potter Lake. (No word if any sea life was affected.)

Oklahoma State fans took out the frustration from a century's worth of tail-kickings by storming the field and letting the goalposts have it after the Cowboys' 27-24 victory in the final Bedlam game for the foreseeable future. The trolling didn't stop as the Sooners depart for the greener pastures of the SEC next season, the loudspeaker playing Taylor Swift’s "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," just to rub it in a little deeper.

Oklahoma's last road game of the season is at BYU on Nov. 18, so officials in Provo, Utah, better prepare accordingly, just in case.

Sooner rather than later: A+

Trollin' on Michigan (New Mexico Style)

It had to come sooner than later.

Someone was going to make fun of the sign-stealing (allegedly) shenanigans at Michigan. Since nothing else was going on at New Mexico besides a football game, they decided it was time to get in on the fun.

During the game, the jumbotron at University Stadium posted a message, that read "Welcome Connor Stallions (probably)."

Of course, they didn't bother to use spell check to make sure that his name was spelled correctly.

Stalions was either fired or resigned, depending on who you believe, for his hand in the scandal, while everyone with a stake in the College Football Playoff is waiting to see if any discipline will come down on the Wolverines.

At the time the message was posted, the Lobos were losing 56-7 to UNLV in the fourth quarter with New Mexico providing the final touchdown to lose by 42.

Good job, bad spell check and football: A-

The worst and best of the rest

Wait, what?:

Theft at The Swamp:

Best call in college football:

Trickeration at its finest:

Family jewels affected:

This week's OBJ tribute:

Go STREP!

Stats for you

5: Times current Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman has lost to Clemson in his career. Hartman lost four times to the Tigers when he was QB1 at Wake Forest before losing 31-23 on Saturday.

6: Turnovers by Air Force in a 23-3 loss to Army. The Falcons lost four fumbles and threw two interceptions.

20: Victories by Oklahoma State over Oklahoma in 118 all-time meetings.

45: Times Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders has been sacked this season.

The Dog of the Week

Arizona State at Utah: Salt Lake City was the destination this week for the Pac-12 tilt between Utah and Arizona State.

Unfortunately, only one team decided to show up. Arizona State ran only eight plays in Utah territory (thanks in part to a 78-yard kickoff return), had six first downs, went 1-for-16 on third down, and had 83 yards of total offense. The Sun Devils' biggest gain of the day was a 14-yard run.

This is one of those times where the 55-3 final score is misleading. It should have been much worse than that, but the hounds had their fill of futility from the Sun Devils and decided to call it a day early.