Confetti from a college football weekend

The playoff contenders hold their ground, but there's an earthquake in Manhattan.

Kansas State 48, Oklahoma State 0

— Probably the most impressive performance by anyone this season. OSU was averaging 44.8 points a game. The Cowboys (6-2) never got past the Kansas State 32-yard-line. They snapped the ball once inside K-State territory in the first half and lost a fumble on that snap.

— Kansas State (6-2) did it with a backup quarterback. Will Howard (pictured), filling in for Adrian Martinez, threw four touchdown passes, and Deuce Vaughn again showed he’s a threat from any yard line as he dashed for a 62-yard score and had his fifth 100-yard game.

— Cade Warner, the K-State tight end, caught two touchdown passes. His dad Kurt used to throw them with regularity.

Ohio State 44, Penn State 31

— Few players have dominated a marquee college football game from the defensive end the way J.T. Tuimoloau did on Saturday. He had two interceptions, two sacks, a forced fumble and a recovery. When he coaxed a sack-fumble from Sean Clifford, the Buckeyes (8-0) were able to break open a game they trailed in the first half.

— Tuiumoloau also tipped a pass that led to an interception, and returned an interception 14 yards for a score. He’s a 6-4, 270-pound sophomore from Seattle’s Eastside Catholic, where he was ranked the nation’s top recruiting target, but he didn’t sign with Ohio State until July 4 of 2021.

— Four turnovers by Clifford doomed Penn State (6-2) to another face-plant against a Top Five team.

Louisville 48, Wake Forest 21

— Wake Forest (6-2) poked its head into the Top Ten last week but turned out to be a Whack-a-Mole victim. This loss was self-inflicted, with eight turnovers, including six in a nightmarish second half. The Deacons only suffered five turnovers in their first seven games.

— Deacon quarterbacks were sacked eight times, by eight different Louisville players. Sam Hartman, one of the ACC’s best, was 20 for 34 with three interceptions.

— Wake Forest thus loses a chance to play for the ACC title. Louisville is 5-3 with three straigght wins and plays James Madison next, but closes with Clemson, N.C. State and Kentucky, as coach Scott Satterfield tries to prove he should stay.

Tennessee 44, Kentucky 6

— It was a day to celebrate the Vols’ defense for a change. Byron Young had a sack and a half as Tennessee (8-0) held the Wildcats (5-3) to one touchdown and 205 yards. Until Saturday, the Vols had held only one SEC team (LSU, 13) under 33 points.

— It was also a day for Hendon Hooker to buff up his Heisman portfolio by refusing to throw an interception for the seventh time in eight games, all wins.

— The deal comes down on Saturday when Tennessee goes to Georgia, in probably the most charged-up SEC game not involving Alabama since Steve Spurrier was at Florida and somehow finding ways to beat Tennessee.

Mississippi 31, Texas A&M 28

— An 8-1 team isn’t supposed to work this hard to subdue a 3-5 team, but Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin kept reminding everyone that the Aggies have penthouse-level talent. He expressed amazement that freshman Quinshon Judkins, on his 19th birthday , could gain 205 yards “against some of the best high school players ever.”

— Over the summer, Alabama coach Nick Saban said Texas A&M “bought every player” in its recruiting class, using collectives and NIL programs. Aggies’ coach Jimbo Fisher responded by saying Alabama and Ole Miss were “clown acts,” but Kiffin responded by saying he didn’t know if A&M had “incurred a luxury tax” in its recruiting last year.

— Ole Miss has rushed for 250 yards five different times this year. Its next opponent is Alabama in two weeks.

Oregon 42, Cal 24

— Bo Nix ran for three more touchdowns and passed for three as the Ducks won their seventh consecutive game. He is averaging eight yards per run.

— They have scored at least 41 points in all those wins, which followed a season-opening 49-3 loss at Georgia that they need to make the College Football Playoff selectors forget.

— Nix’s final TD pass of the day was a 40-yarder to tight end Patrick Herbert, whose brother Justin led Oregon to a Rose Bowl win and now leads the L.A. Chargers.

USC 42, Arizona 34

— For the second straight game Caleb Williams threw for five touchdowns, two to Tahj Washington. The Traveling Wilburys are 7-1 and have gained 1,127 yards the past two weeks.

— But they’ve also given up 77 points in thosse games. The saving grace continues to be turnover control. USC is plus-16 and has coughed it up only once, an interception that was not returned.

— Eleven different Trojans have caught scoring passes.

Coastal Carolina 24, Marshall 13

— Grayson McCall, the best-hidden quarterback in the country, was responsible for two touchdowns as the Chanticleers improved to 7-1.

— The 6-foot-3 junior from Indian Trail, N.C. has thrown 72 touchdown passes in his career and seven interceptions. His average of 10 yards per pass in 2022 is topped only by Hooker and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud.

— No Power Five conference school recruited McCall, so he redshirted at Coastal and led the Chanticleers to an 11-1 record in 2020, the Covid-19 season. Rivals gave him a 2-star rating. Amazing, how many players like McCall manage to overcome those opinions.