'NCAA Football 14': OU, Stillwater, and Georgia Tech to the SEC Dynasty Mode Build Season 1, Part 8—Week 5: LSU @ #4 Oklahoma

Yes as hard as it is to believe, in our created world within NCAA Football 14 this is Unranked LSU @ #4 Oklahoma. A lot of this seems to be down to just how College Football Polls are popularity contests and arbitrary and quirky at times. Losing in Week 1 to TCU, albeit at a neutral site, and also only having played three games in the first four weeks are likely culprits. Still very similarly to the Oklahoma @ Kansas State game in real life this year, we pretty much know that this unranked state is a mere technicality and this is one of the better if not best teams in the country.

Of course unlike CFP #1 LSU in real life these Tigers not only aren't undefeated and don't have four Top 10 Wins, but the two wins they do have are against putrid Tennessee and making-us-look-very-bad Stillwater. Stillwater losing is usually satisfying for Sooner Fandom, but here we're talking about the #22 team in real life letting down the the reputation of the Big XII in our simulation going 0-4 so far (oops spoilers, haha.) with losses to Mississippi State, Arkansas (the particularly embarrassing one.), LSU, and West Virginia. Although Mississippi State and West Virginia are ranked in our simulation, so knowing the SEC strength in the polls if they turned it around and got Bowl Eligible they'd have a chance at squeaking into the Final Polls at the end of the year if they manage only five losses or something. Anyways, after having gotten into the weeds a bit here's the Week 5 Scores:

Mid Tenn State 34 @ BYU 17

FCS Southeast 0 @ Florida 45

Army 28 @ #19 Boston College 37

South Alabama 21 @ Tennessee 26

#22 South Carolina 30 @ #10 UCF 31

Tulane 13 @ Syracuse 38

Minnesota 20 @ Iowa 16

Vanderbilt 31 @ #12 Auburn 24

Arkansas 14 @ Texas A&M 28

Marshall 38 @ Western Kentucky 3

Duke 0 @ #17 Florida State 34

Texas-El Paso 32 @ UCLA 28 (just as real life UCLA is improving, virtual UCLA keeps finding new lows.)

Cincinnati 14 @ Nebraska 31

Purdue 10 @ #13 Michigan 45

Colorado State 38 @ San Diego State 10

Tulsa 14 @ Florida Atlantic 7

NC State 24 @ #6 Miami (FL) 34

Houston 37 @ Texas-San Antonio 30

Rice 32 @ UAB 26

UNLV 24 @ New Mexico 21 F/OT

Nevada 36 @ Air Force 33

Old Dominion 7 @ Miami (OH) 49

Akron 17 @ Bowling Green 27

Wake Forest 9 @ #1 Clemson 42

FCS East 9 @ Ohio 20

New Mexico State 9 @ #20 Michigan State 34

Stillwater 21 @ #9 West Virginia 33

East Carolina 21 @ North Carolina 38

Kentucky 24 @ #5 Notre Dame 38

Northwestern 36 @ Rutgers 14

FCS Southeast 14 @ #16 Mississippi State 51

Temple 21 @ Idaho 3

Southern Miss 20 @ #24 Boise State 14

Louisiana Tech 23 @ Kansas 41

Toledo 21 @ Ball State 6

#11 Virginia Tech 28 (N) #14 Alabama 21 (technically listed as the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta. Still seems broken to have a 'Kickoff Game' in Week 5, but whatever. Spreading out high profile neutral site games throughout the season wouldn't be a bad thing. Although how neutral is Alabama in Atlanta really, haha. Neutral enough for us to experience a 3 Loss Alabama. It's a testament to both their frustrating success and the randomness of the NCAA Football video games that this is the first three losses for the Alabama team since 2010.)

Texas State 18 @ Louisiana-Lafayette 38

UConn 35 @ Buffalo 14

Colorado 26 @ Oregon State 38

Virginia 21 @ Pittsburgh 14 F/OT

FCS Southeast 3 @ Louisiana-Monroe 30

Troy 13 @ Ole Miss 28

Florida International 14 @ Louisville 41

FCS Midwest 20 @ Wyoming 7

Southern Methodist 35 @ #8 Texas Christian 40

Arizona State 26 @ USC 31

Georgia Tech 24 @ Missouri 45

Georgia State 24 @ USF 31

#23 Arizona 35 @ #18 Washington 28

#25 Stanford 28 @ #15 Washington State 35 F/OT

Oregon 29 @ Cal 28

San Jose State 17 @ Utah State 38

Fresno State 24 @ Hawai'i 14

LSU 7 @ #4 Oklahoma 31

Yeah, the CPU didn't seem to understand how to use LSU's strengths properly. And you know given that the roster the community made is naturally from the preseason a lot of their players don't have truly reflective ratings. The CPU seemed hell bent on establishing the run when they need to get Joe Burrow going instead of waiting to bother passing until 3rd Down. In any case it was a satisfying albeit unrealistic outing.

LSU Qtrs. 0, 7, 0, 0

OU Qtrs. 7, 14, 3, 7

Scoring Plays:

1st Quarter:

0:22 TD OU: J. Hall, 6 Yd pass from J. Hurts (G. Brkic kick)

2nd Quarter:

5:44 TD LSU: C. Edwards-Helaire, 5 Yd run (C. Culp kick)

Appropriate somehow that Joe Burrow's favorite weapon from the Alabama Game gets their score here.

2:08 TD OU: J. Hurts, 1 Yd run (G. Brkic kick)

0:27 TD OU: T. Sermon, 15 Yd pass from J. Hurts (G. Brkic kick)

3rd Quarter:

1:37 FG OU: G. Brkic, 51 Yd FG

4th Quarter:

1:46 TD OU: G. Calcaterra, 11 Yd pass from J. Hurts (G. Brkic kick)

Team Stats:

1st Downs: LSU 7, OU 31

Total Offense: LSU 159, OU 406

Rushes-Yards-TD: LSU 17-59-1, OU 31-153-1

Comp-Att-TD: LSU 7-15-0, OU 15-19-3

Passing Yards: LSU 100, OU 253

3rd Down Conv: LSU 2-8 (25%), OU 4-6 (66%)

4th Down Conv: LSU 1-1, OU 0-1.

I went for it on our first drive. We had 4th and Goal from the 3. Part of how the 1st Quarter was nearly scoreless.

Red Zone-TD-FG: LSU 1-1-0, OU 5-4-0 (80%)

Turnovers: LSU 0, OU 0

PR Yards: LSU 0, OU 18

KR Yards: LSU 0, OU 0

Total Yards: LSU 159, OU 424

Punts-Average: LSU 5-52.6, OU 0

T.O.P: LSU 8:00, OU 20:00

OU Passing:

J. Hurts RAT 242.9 15-19 for 253 Yds, 3 TDs, 78%

OU Rushing:

J. Hurts 13 for 56 Yds, 1 TD, Long of 22, 4 YAC

T. Sermon 12 for 66 Yds, Long of 11, 20 YAC

K. Brooks 5 for 31 Yds, Long of 10, 3 YAC

J. Hall 1 for 0 Yds

OU Recieving:

C. Lamb 6 for 125 Yds, Long of 38, 35 YAC

T. Sermon 2 for 24 Yds, 1 TD, Long of 15, 5 YAC

G. Calcaterra 2 for 27 Yds, 1 TD, Long of 16, 5 YAC

J. Hall 2 for 29 Yds, 1 TD, Long of 23, 13 YAC

N. Basquine 1 for 23 Yds, 6 YAC

C. Rambo 1 for 9 Yds, 7 YAC

M. Jones 1 for 16 Yds, 0 YAC

OU Defensive Player of the Game:

N. Gallimore 3 Tack, 3 Solo, 1 TFL, 1 Sack

I know it's not a huge stat-line, but I'm proud of it as I usually control the nose-tackle on defense. So this was largely me helping Gallimore execute great bull rushes in game.

LSU Passing:

J. Burrow RAT 102.6 7-15 for 100 Yds, 46%

LSU Rushing:

C. Edwards-Helaire 11 for 41 Yds, 1 TD, Long of 8, 18 YAC

J. Burrow 5 for 12 Yds, Long of 15, 12 YAC

T. Carter 1 for 6 Yds, 3 YAC

LSU Receiving:

C. Edwards-Helaire 4 for 35 Yds, Long of 26, 32 YAC

S. Sullivan 1 for 8 Yds, 3 YAC

D. Dillon 1 for 53 Yds, 11 YAC

T. Carter 1 for 4 Yds, 6 YAC

LSU Defensive Player of the Game:

D. Starks 7 Tack, 7 Solo, 1 TFL, 1 Sack

Overall & SEC Players of the Week:

Ole Miss ROLB Qaadir Sheppard 4 Tack, 3 TFL, 4 ATK, Sack, FF, INT in 28-13 Win versus Troy.

Missouri HB Larry Rountree III 30 Rush for 189 Yds, 4 TDs in 45-24 Win versus Georgia Tech.

Heisman Watch:

1st: Jalen Hurts QB OU

2nd: Tru Wilson HB Michigan

42 Rush for 192 Yds, 3 TDs in 45-10 Win versus Purdue

3rd: Larry Rountree III HB Missouri

4th: Thankfully Johnny Manziel's 2013 Ghost is the last one hanging around, maybe in another week we'll have a proper Heisman Watch

5th: Cam Akers HB Florida State

26 Rush for 158 Yds, TD; 5 Rec for 127 Yds, TD in 34-0 Win versus Duke

Coaches Poll for Week 6:

1. Clemson (33)
2. Georgia (24)
3. Wisconsin (2)
4. Oklahoma (1)
5. Notre Dame (1)
6. Miami (FL)
7. Ohio State, 1 Loss
8. TCU
9. West Virginia
10. Virginia Tech
11. UCF
12. Michigan, 1 Loss
13. Washington State
14. Mississippi State, 1 Loss
15. Florida State, 1 Loss
16. Boston College
17. Michigan State, 1 Loss
18. Arizona
19. Texas
20. Alabama, 3 Losses
21. Washington, 2 Losses
22. Iowa State
23. South Carolina, 2 Losses
24. Auburn, 2 Losses
25. Florida, 1 Loss

The Media Poll is more prone to overreaction and adjustment as we're now #1 in the Media Poll with 41 First Place Votes over Media #2 Clemson's 21. Also Missouri's our only future opponent with Votes that didn't get ranked. They got 52 votes in the Media Poll. While Media #25 Oregon, one loss, has 171. So maybe Missouri will get ranked for us before we play them. For the sake of simplicity I'll keep using the Coaches Poll until we have BCS/CFP Rankings.

Which sometimes I wish we had the computers still instead of the committee. In either case a computer has to simulate the results for us in-game, although the BCS may be more fair in reality. We went from every poll in the country having a meaningful say in who's #1 and #2 for the BCS to only 13 Opinions mattering for the College Football Playoff. It's quite odd. I'd prefer the eight team Playoff Model with the BCS Rankings and First Round of the Playoffs being true home games for the higher seeds. Although you know that if they did actually do it they'd probably want to cash in on yet another round of neutral site Playoff Games. Anyways that's a bigger picture discussion. #BoomerSooner and thank you for your interest.