by Jules Gonsoulin
sports editor

This weekend Nebraska was nearly upset by an FCS team when Texas A&M scored 73 points, and Notre Dame and Michigan played their final game of a historic rivalry. All this and much more contributed to an incredibly exciting weekend of college football.

Typically, this early in the season, powerhouse teams play puffball schools from the Football Championship Subdivision group of teams (FCS). Nebraska played McNeese State University hoping to breeze through an easy matchup and fine tune the team’s skills for the rest of the season.

This was not the case. McNeese fought wire to wire to come back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter. In overtime, the Cornhuskers’ star running back, Ameer Abdullah, turned a short pass into a jaw -ropping 58-yard touchdown run, breaking five tackles on his way to the end zone. While the play itself was stunning, the game shouldn’t have been so close. Nebraska was lucky to escape with a win.

Texas A&M’s freshman quarterback, Kenny Hill, continued to produce yardage this week in a game that had comparatively low media coverage. The Aggies absolutely dominated the Lamar Cardinals, 73-3. Hill threw for 283 yards and four touchdowns. With performances like this under his belt, Hill has quickly become involved in Heisman Trophy conversations across the country.

The historical Notre Dame and Michigan rivalry came to an end Saturday in dramatic fashion, with the Fighting Irish shutting out the Wolverines 31-0 in South Bend. With Touchdown Jesus overlooking the iconic matchup, Notre Dame’s offense shined. After returning from academic suspension, quarterback Everett Golson passed for 226 yards and three touchdowns in a solid showing for the Irish. Ranked 16th in the country before the game, Notre Dame can go nowhere but up this week, and it will be interesting to see how the Irish fair against their many out of conference opponents this year, such as Florida State, USC and Navy.

All in all, the ultimate losers of this weekend were the members of the Big Ten conference. Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska all lost or performed poorly, and do not look to be playoff material. The conference as a whole will have to pick itself up and play better in the coming weeks to convince voters that they are still elite teams. The SEC, as usual dominated. LSU, Ole Miss and Alabama blew out their puffball opponents.