I think most of us went into this weekend thinking that there were a handful of marquee games with the rest being mildly interesting filler, at best. 

Boy were we wrong, huh?

Just a few quick numbers that I want to run by you- 

49-42, 27-24, 42-38*, 19-16, 38-35, 35-34, 31-23, 17-10, 48-41, 31-27, 38-31, 17-13*, 45-35, 21-20, 48-41, 36-35*, 16-13*, 38-31*, 40-33*, 26-22, 37-34, 31-27, 38-31. 

I honestly can’t remember the last college football weekend when there were that many close games. The ones with asterisks are games that were upsets. It was one hell of a weekend for competitive football. Take that, NFL, with your claims of more competitive games than college football. 

All those great games are nice and all, but what did we learn from it? Well…

• Baylor is not quite ready for prime time. RG3 is still the real deal. He still has 18 TDs to 20 incompletions. A few years back, I thought he was a great college QB, but I’m starting to think he could be a good NFL QB, too. He throws a pretty, pretty deep ball.
• Conversely, Kansas State might be back on the rise. That cranky old man sure can coach ‘em up.
• Utah State isn’t snakebit, they’re just not deep and experienced enough to close out games. They’re building something interesting out there, this won’t be the last you hear of the Utah State Aggies in the next few years.
• Texas A&M is extremely lucky to get an invitation to the SEC. Because the way they finish games has me thinking Conference USA might have been a better fit. 
• Illinois! Zook!!!
• Nick Foles is going to get a hefty paycheck after this year. And after all the frustrations of this season, he’ll deserve every penny. 
• This ain’t your daddy’s Clemson. Although there is still a chance for an October collapse, it’s not looking too likely. This feels weird…
• Nebraska is learning the hard way that the Big 10 isn’t the cakewalk the Big 12 North was. They might rebound by beating Ohio State next week, but do you want to put money on that possibility? I don’t.
• Notre Dame, when they don’t turn the ball over 5 times, is a Top 15 team. That’s not a statement of opinion, it’s a statement of fact. Their defense is ranked 26th in scoring, 20th in rushing and 32nd in total defense. Take away that one disasterous 4th quarter against Michigan and no team has scored more than 20 points against them. Not to mention, they have a Top 5 receiver, a Top 10 rusher and have gone over 500 yards three times in five games. They have a good chance to reach the Stanford game riding a nine-game win streak.