College Football Studs and Duds

 Each Sunday, College Football Focus will take a look at the good and bad of the college football weekend, listing our studs and duds.

 With a full menu of options (finally!), there were a lot of candidates, on both sides. Before you ask, the goal is to find not necessarily the most yards or the most this or least that, but something that was a bit out of the ordinary or affected the outcome of the game, something like that. There will be outstanding performances, but it won't just be who gained the most yards.

USC's Ronald Jones II was a difference-maker in the Trojans 49-31 win over Western Michigan (Getty Images)

Studs
USC RB Ronald Jones III -- The senior ran for 159 yards and three scores, including what proved to be the difference in a 49-31 win over a pesky Western Michigan squad. The Trojans struggled all day against the plucky Broncos, but Jones seemed unaffected. He had scoring runs of 16 and 11 yards in the first half, then broke a 28-all tie with a 37 yard scoring scamper. Jones averaged 8.8 yards per carry and the Trojans as a team averaged 6.8

Maryland -- The Terrapins had lost 17 straight games to ranked opponents, and appeared to be up against heading into Austin to take on an energized Longhorns team under first year boss Tom Herman. The Longhorns led 7-0 less than two minutes into the game after an interception return, but Maryland scored the next 27 points to stun the hosts, who never recovered. Running back Ty Johnson averaged 11 yards per carry and finished with 132 yards on just 12 totes. Texas had trouble last year stopping the run, and allowed Maryland to run for 263 yards.

Oregon's offense -- The first game for new coach Willie Taggart went about as well as could be expected, the Ducks setting a modern era school record with a 77-21 victory over Southern Utah. Oregon had an Autzen Stadium-record nine rushing touchdowns, including four from Royce Freeman, who tied Oregon State great Jacquizz Rodgers for seventh on the Pac-12 career touchdowns list (46). The Ducks scored their most points in a game since beating Willamette 97-0 in 1916, and finished the day with 703 yards of offense.

Lamar Jackson -- Remember college football's top player from 2016? Yeah, that guy. His fade down the stretch last year made for surprisingly little buzz for a returning Heisman winner, but he made sure that Purdue wouldn't forget him, racking up 485 total yards and a pair of touchdown passes. He ran for 107 yards but was improved as a passer, completing 30 of 46 passes for 378 yards, and leading two late drives to help secure a closer than expected 35-28 win for Louisville over a vastly improved Purdue squad.


Duds
Colorado State -- A week after putting up 58 points and dazzling in its new stadium, the Rams laid a big time egg in its in-state rivalry with Colorado. CSU got down 17-0 but was still playing well enough to be in the game, and got the ball less than three minutes into the third quarter. The Rams drove to the Buffaloes 27, and CSU QB Nick Stevens hooked up with Detrich Clark for an apparent touchdown -- but it was waved off by offensive pass interference. No worries. On second and 23, Stevens found Olasabi Johnson for a 40 yard touchdown -- which was called back due to a personal foul on offensive lineman Jeffrey Taylor. Stevens next pass was picked off, and the Rams didn't threaten again, going punt, downs, fumble and interception. In all, CSU was penalized 10 times for a whopping 120 yards.

Georgia State, East Carolina, Baylor and UNLV -- All four programs lost to FCS schools on the same weekend, and while we won't quibble too much with Georgia State, from the Group of Five Sun Belt Conference -- the other three should know better. Georgia State fell 17-10 to Tennessee State, which was led by former Florida quarterback Treon Harris. ECU's loss was especially embarrassing as it happened at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and wasn't close -- 34-14 to James Madison, the reigning FCS champion. The Pirates simply could not stop the run, allowing Cardon Johnson to ramble for 265 yards and two touchdowns (85 and 80 yards). Baylor lost to Liberty 48-45, spoiling the debut of Bears coach Matt Rhule. Liberty threw for 447 yards and three touchdowns, showing that Rhule's rebuilding job in Waco might be just a bit larger than expected. The worst of the losses, however, was endured by Tony Sanchez's UNLV Rebels -- a 43-40 defeat by Howard, which was quarterbacked by Caylin Newton, younger brother of Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton. The Bison entered the game as 45-point underdogs, making this the biggest statistical upset in NCAA football history.

Florida's offense -- A lot of people blame Will Muschamp for the malaise of the Gators offense, but in year two of Jim McElwain things look a lot like they did last year -- inept. McElwain is known as an offensive coach, but thus far in his time at Florida the Gators offense has simply been offensive. This year was going to be different, was going to signal an uptick -- um, no. Freshman Feleipe Franks started the game but went just 5-of-9 for 75 yards before giving way to Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire, who was 9-of-17 for 106 yards. Neither threw a touchdown, and Florida managed just 192 yards on offense -- only 11 rushing.

Brigham Young offense -- The Cougars made Florida's offense look like a video game after amassing just 97 yards and not crossing midfield in a 27-0 loss to LSU. BYU wasn't exactly lights out offensively in an opening 20-6 win over Portland State, so there was a little bit of nervousness. The Cougars ran for -5 yards, with a long gain of six yards by QB Tanner Mangum.