What happened in college football on Saturday, Sept. 5: Every FBS score and 5 things to know

1. Hey, remember when we were done hearing about the SEC West?

by Jason Kirk

Texas A&M pulled off what was, according to the rankings, the week's biggest upset by beating No. 15 Arizona State, 38-17. The Aggies were actually favored in Houston, but by only a field goal, and the surprise is that the score wasn't 38-35. ASU's 291 yards were fewer than the Aggies allowed to even ULM last season and six yards shy of the Sun Devils' worst of 2014. Considering ASU was a Pac-12 contender coming in, I think we can say new Aggie defensive coordinator John Chavis has made a day one impact.

No. 3 Alabama smothered No. 20 Wisconsin, and if you didn't see any of it, just close your eyes and picture how that game usually goes. Exactly.

No. 6 Auburn got a challenge from Louisville, with new quarterback Jeremy Johnson picked off thrice, but there's little shame in a 31-24 mark against an ACC contender.

No. 18 Arkansas beat C-USA West dark horse UTEP by 35. Mississippi State won by 18 at Southern Miss. No. 17 Ole Miss beat Tennessee-Martin by 73, which matters least here, other than being a big number.

I say all this to say the SEC West is very good again. Which means we already know how the next three months are going to go, and not just because TCU's beaten Minnesota again. The SEC West is going to stroll through the rest of its non-conference schedule, with just about all the hard games out of the way. It'll have a winning record against the SEC East. It'll have multiple teams in the Playoff top five in November. And odds are solid that none of its teams will be better than Ohio State anyway.

Every way you felt about all of that in 2014, you will get to feel all over again. Let's have more fun with it this time.

2. BYU saw the peak and the valley

by Rodger Sherman

BYU fans were treated to one of the highest highs a fan could experience. Trailing by one with one second left and about 10 yards out of field goal range against Nebraska, the Cougars needed a Hail Mary to win. Backup QB Tanner Mangum dropped back, threw up a prayer, and ... Mitch Mathews caught it.

In a moment, the Cougars went from imminent defeat to shocking victory, and then came the euphoria. The hugs. The crowdsurfing. Bronco Mendenhall even smiled!

BYU fans also got one of the lowest lows a fan could experience. Taysom Hill, the team's star senior quarterback, will miss the rest of the season with a fractured foot. It's never easy to see a star or a QB or a senior go down, much less all three.

But Hill is even more than that. A dynamic playmaker, Hill has tried to lead the Cougars year after year after year -- only to have his legs buckle. He won games as a true freshman, then tore his LCL. He got BYU off to a 4-0 start as a junior, then broke his leg.

Hill is now 25. He's married. He has real world job offers and little-to-no NFL prospects. Maybe he'll ask for a waiver to play next year. But it's probable that Hill will listen to what his body has now told him three separate times, and that Taysom Hill's football career ended Saturday in Lincoln.

BYU will be fine. Mangum was considered one of the top quarterbacks recruits in the country and looked confident Saturday. But it's sad to see a player who fought so hard go out like this.

This is college football. Its joys can last forever. Its joys can end in instants.

3. Pac-12's reputation not off to a great start

by Kevin Trahan

Going into the season, the Pac-12 looked like it would rival the SEC as the best conference in college football. And while the conference does still have Playoff contenders, it was a miserable weekend, particularly for the Pac-12 North.

• No. 21 Stanford looked listless on offense in a 16-6 loss to Northwestern. The Cardinal were a sleeper pick for the Playoff, while NU was picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten West.

• Washington State lost to FCS Portland State, and Coug fans are looking up Mike Leach's contract.

• No. 15 Arizona State lost by 21 to unranked Texas A&M.

• Colorado lost to Hawaii and can't blame that entirely on a botched ending.

And those were just the losses. There were other performances that left a lot to be desired.

• Arizona struggled with an amazingly young UTSA.

• Oregon gave up 42 points to FCS Eastern Washington, which was without the best player in school history (QB Vernon Adams, who transferred to ... Oregon).

• Oregon State only scored six points in the first half against FCS Weber State.

The Pac-12 has some really good teams. USC, UCLA and Oregon are Playoff contenders. Bruins true freshman quarterback Josh Rosen looks like he could be a Heisman candidate (if that's a fair expectation after one week). Utah held its own, beating Michigan at home. Cal put an Ole Miss-like 73 points on Grambling. And Washington played No. 23 Boise State tough in Idaho.

But this was a brutal weekend for a league that looked like it could be the deepest in the country. Now, the Pac-12 must prove that it's deep with good teams, not deep with mediocrity.

4. Two huge programs show it's somewhat important to have offenses

by Pete Volk

Last time we saw Texas, it was in a 31-7 beatdown to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl. Saturday was somehow worse.

The Longhorns lost 38-3 to Notre Dame in their opener, as 2014's miserable offense re-emerged. The only punch was a literal one. Throw that in with a defense that simply could not stop the Irish, and it was just a bad time for Charlie Strong and the Longhorns.

Oh, and the Horns got owned by their own golfer.

Texas' offense looking about as useful as my last 4 rounds....

— Jordan Spieth (@JordanSpieth) September 6, 2015

It was even more embarrassing for fellow blueblood Penn State. The Nittany Lions lost to in-state rival Temple for the first time since 1941, ending the longest active series winning streak in college football. At one point, Christian Hackenberg was sacked by a two-man rush (one of 10 sacks allowed on the day), and a bunch of former Penn State players tweeted their frustrations with the program.

Add in James Franklin asking the refs to check on ball inflation, and the whole thing was a fiasco. Penn State's 180 yards of offense were the lowest for the program in more than a decade, and it sure looks like those offensive line problems from last year haven't been magically fixed.

5. Mother Nature, still undefeated

by Jason Kirk

She canceled McNeese State-LSU and Stony Brook-Toledo.

She delayed Bowling Green-Tennessee, Kent State-Illinois, and others.

She drove a Georgia man into a doghouse.

She entered the season ranked No. 1 in every preseason poll and is guaranteed to go wire-to-wire, again.

FBS final scores and recaps

No. 2 TCU 23, Minnesota 17 [Recap]

No. 3 Alabama 35, No. 20 Wisconsin 17: If you need a visual, just watch Cam Robinson plowing a Badger all the way off the field. [Recap]

No. 4 Baylor 56, SMU 21 [Recap]

No. 5 Michigan State 37, Western Michigan 24 [Recap]

No. 6 Auburn 31, Louisville 24: [Recap]

No. 7 Oregon 61, Eastern Washington 42: [Recap]

No. 8 USC 55, Arkansas State 6 [Recap]

No. 9 Georgia 51, ULM 14 [Recap]

No. 10 Florida State 59, Texas State 16 [Recap]

No. 11 Notre Dame 38, Texas 3 [Recap]

No. 12 Clemson 49, Wofford 10 [Recap]

No. 13 UCLA 34, Virginia 16: 310-pound Kenny Clark makes the Piesman Trophy candidates list, and Virginia's new helmets look like Golf Hat Tanline. [Recap]

No. 14 LSU vs. McNeese State was canceled due to lightning.

Texas A&M 38, No. 15 Arizona State 17: [Recap]

No. 16 Georgia Tech 69 (nice), Alcorn State 6 [Recap]

No. 17 Ole Miss 76, Tennessee-Martin 3: The Rebels scored a bit too much to make some really nice history, but they did land defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche on the Piesman list for this 32-yard touchdown. [Recap]

No. 18 Arkansas 48, UTEP 13 [Recap]

No. 19 Oklahoma 41, Akron 3 despite these kangaroo helmets. [Recap]

Northwestern 16, No. 21 Stanford 6: Now let's just watch this Wildcats coach dance. [Recap]

No. 22 Arizona 42, UTSA 32 [Recap]

No. 23 Boise State 16, Washington 13 [Recap]

No. 24 Missouri 34, Southeast Missouri State 3, with a SEMO player getting ejected for a BS cheap shot. [Recap]

No. 25 Tennessee 59, Bowling Green 30, giving us the video of the day: a BGSU lineman faking an injury in order to deal with a missing shoe. Also, a MORON ON THE FIELD got clotheslined. [Recap]

Air Force 63, Morgan State 7 [Recap]

Appalachian State 49, Howard 0

Ball State 48, VMI 36 [Recap]

Boston College 24, Maine 3 [Recap]

BYU 33, Nebraska 28: [Recap]

Buffalo 51, Albany 14 [Recap]

Cal 73, Grambling State 14 [Recap]

Charlotte 23, Georgia State 20, the season's most GIFable game so far.

Cincinnati 52, Alabama A&M 10 [Recap]

Colorado State 65, Savannah State 13

Duke 37, Tulane 7 [Recap]

East Carolina 28, Towson 20

FIU 15, UCF 14, and then the Panthers hit us with the first Gatorade shower of the year.

Florida 61, New Mexico State 13 [Recap]

Fordham 37, Army 35 [Recap]

Fresno State 34, Abilene Christian 13 [Recap]

Hawaii 28, Colorado 20 on one of the dumbest endings you'll ever see. [Recap]

Houston 52, Tennessee Tech 24

Illinois 52, Kent State 3 [Recap]

Indiana 48, Southern Illinois 47 [Recap]

Iowa 31, Illinois State 14 [Recap]

Iowa State 31, Northern Iowa 7 [Recap]

Kansas State 34, South Dakota 0, most notable for the K-State band doing a halftime show that totally looked like a Jayhawk performing fellatio. [Recap]

Kentucky 40, Louisiana-Lafayette 33 [Recap]

Louisiana Tech 62, Southern 15 [Recap]

Maryland 50, Richmond 21 [Recap]

Miami 45, Bethune-Cookman 0, featuring the weekend's weirdest jersey names. [Recap]

Miami (Ohio) 26, Presbyterian 7 [Recap]

Memphis 63, Missouri State 7 [Recap]

Middle Tennessee State 70, Jackson State 14

Mississippi State 34, Southern Miss 16 [Recap]

Navy 48, Colgate 10 [Recap]

NC State 49, Troy 21 [Recap]

Nevada 31, UC Davis 17 [Recap]

New Mexico 66, Mississippi Valley State 0 [Recap]

North Dakota 24, Wyoming 13

Northern Illinois 38, UNLV 30 [Recap]

Ohio 45, Idaho 28 [Recap]

Old Dominion 38, Eastern Michigan 34, and EMU wore ... clocks? [Recap]

Oklahoma State 24, Central Michigan 13 [Recap]

Oregon State 26, Weber State 7 [Recap]

Pitt 45, Youngstown State 37 [Recap]

Portland State 24, Washington State 17 ... and Coug Center says, "fire everyone." But at least we got to see PSU's QB rush into the stands to hug his wife! [Sadness]

Rice 56, Wagner 16

Rutgers 63, Norfolk State 13 [Recap]

San Diego State 37, San Diego 3

San Jose State 43, New Hampshire 13

South Alabama 33, Gardner-Webb 23

South Carolina 17, North Carolina 13 [Recap]

South Dakota State 41, Kansas 38, which makes total sense ... except for the part when KU fumbled the stop-the-clock snap at the very end. [Recap]

South Florida 51, Florida A&M 3

Syracuse 47, Rhode Island 0 [Recap]

Temple 27, Penn State 10: At least Penn State has a very stout kicker nicknamed "Big Toe." [Recap]

Texas Tech 59, Sam Houston State 45 [Recap]

Toledo was beating Stony Brook, 16-7, but due to weather, the game will probably not be finished.

Tulsa 47, Florida Atlantic 44

UConn 20, Villanova 15 [Recap]

Utah 24, Michigan 17 [Recap]

Utah State 12, Southern Utah 9 [Recap]

Wake Forest 41, Elon 3 [Recap]

West Virginia 44, Georgia Southern 0 [Recap]

Western Kentucky 14, Vanderbilt 12, and you don't really need to watch any more of the Dores this year.