There have been a lot of entertaining weeks in college football, but Week 7 provided fans with as much chaos and drama as possible this Saturday.
A slate of games with numerous upsets, including four top-10 teams going down, also provided some jaw-dropping performances. While this week didn’t provide a 500-yard passing performance or a 200-yard game on the ground, it still offered some standout stat lines.
Week 7 didn’t provide many marquee performances by Heisman Trophy contenders. However, one specific player stood out this week and now might climb up the ballots after a masterful performance.
Here are the 15 most jaw-dropping performances in CFB Week 7.
Nate Stanley, quarterback, Iowa Hawkeyes
After a slow start to the year, Stanley started to get on track and build his confidence in recent weeks. It culminated in a career-best performance as he led the way in a win over Indiana on Saturday.
Stanley moved the ball down the field with ease, finishing with 320 passing yards and a 199.0 quarterback rating. He proved to be especially effective inside the red zone with six touchdown passes. The junior is spreading the ball around as of late. With 10 passing touchdowns in his past two games, Iowa is poised to do even better as it rolls into Week 8 with a 5-1 record.
Devine Ozigbo, running back, Nebraska Cornhuskers
While plenty of blame will go around after Nebraska choked away its potential first win of the season, Ozigbo deserves credit for his outstanding performance.
The senior running back, who saw limited touches in his first three games, once again demonstrated why he must be a focal point in this offense. Ozigbo carried the football 22 times on Saturday and racked up 159 yards in the process.
He ripped off chunks of yards on nearly every carry and also found the end zone twice. Ozigbo also played a key role in the passing game with four receptions for 33 receiving yards. He finished the day with 192 yards, it just wasn’t enough as Nebraska lost another heartbreaker.
Alex Barnes, running back, Kansas State Wildcats
Coming off a jaw-dropping performance in Week 6, Barnes delivered another incredible start line in Saturday’s win against Oklahoma State.
Kansas State made him a focal point like never before, feeding him the football more than ever. Barnes carried a heavy workload with 37 touches in this contest but he certainly earned it with four rushing touchdowns and 232 total yards. He led Kansas State in touchdowns, rushing yards and receiving yards, just a perfect all-around performance by the junior.
K.J. Hill, wide receiver, Ohio State Buckeyes
It became quite clear in Week 7 who quarterback Dwayne Haskins’ favorite target was against Minnesota.
Hill’s day really started with an incredible one-handed grab that he turned into a 36-yard score. It was his best catch of the day, but his dominance went far beyond a single moment. The junior racked up yards with ease in this contest and finished with eight receptions for 187 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
He hasn’t always been a consistent producer in this offense, largely because Haskins loved to get every receiver involved. After a game like this, Hill’s role should start to increase as a go-to playmaker in any situation.
Xavier Ubosi, wide receiver, UAB Blazers
Playing for a small program, it’s often difficult for a wide receiver to get national attention. It’s nearly impossible when that player often has such a small role in the offense.
Ubosi made sure he made the national radar this week with a shocking performance against Rice. The senior receiver only caught four passes, but he turned them into 196 yards and two scores. Ubosi is clearly capable of explosive plays, so perhaps the Blazers will feed him the ball more going forward.
Flynn Nagel, wide receiver, Northwestern Wildcats
For much of Nagel’s time with Northwestern, he often had only a minor role in this offense. The senior didn’t crack 500 receiving yards as a sophomore or junior, but that has now changed.
Nagel is quickly emerging as Clayton Thorson’s favorite target. The duo has hooked up for a pair of 10-plus reception, 100-plus yard games this season and have shown great chemistry. They took it to an even greater level in Saturday’s comeback win over Nebraska.
The 5-foot-11 receiver hauled in 12 passes for 220 receiving yards and two touchdowns on Saturday. Nagel’s final season is already his best and it’s clear even more great days are coming for him this year.
Wyatt Ray, defensive end, Boston College Eagles
There are jaw-dropping performances, and there there is what Ray did to Louisville’s offensive line. The senior’s dominant season continued on Saturday with his second instance of three-plus sacks.
Ray simply couldn’t be stopped at any point of the game. Even when he didn’t record the sack, he either forced the quarterback out of the pocket, hurried his throw or took him down right after his release.
Following his three-sack performance, Ray now has 8.5 sacks this season and is on pace for 11-plus sacks this season. The senior who came into the season with eight sacks in 26 games passed his career mark in just seven games as a senior.
Lamical Perine, running back, Florida Gators
A sinking feeling started to settle in for Florida’s fans as Vanderbilt broke out to an early lead. Such a great start to the season could suddenly be sidetracked by an ugly loss to the Commodores. Fortunately, Perine saved the day for the Gators.
The junior tailback couldn’t be stopped in this contest as a force on the ground and in the passing game. He led the team in carries (23), rushing yards (121), receptions (four) and receiving yards (93) in a dominant performance.
Perine’s 214-yard day proved to be the difference in Florida’s comeback win over Vanderbilt. Now the Gators are rolling with a 6-1 record and the backfield duo of Perine and Jordan Scarlett is set for more domination.
Scott Miller, wide receiver, Bowling Green Falcons
In a shootout between two explosive offenses, Miller made more than his fair share of big plays and finished his outing with some jaw-dropping statistics.
Miller exploded for big plays against Western Michigan with a stunning 25.8 yards per catch behind eight receptions (206 yards). The senior hauled in a 76-yard touchdown pass and also showed his ability to score in the red zone with another score. Not much has gone right for the Falcons in their 1-6 season, but maybe another performance like this from Miller could bring them a win.
Darrell Henderson, running back, Memphis Tigers
Every week fans get to witness Henderson do something explosive as the heart of Memphis’ offense. While the Tigers fell short of snapping UCF’s amazing win streak, Henderson carried this team as far as possible.
Henderson entered Week 7 only 66 yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark and he quickly blew past it against Central Florida. The nation’s leading rusher dominated on the ground once again with 199 rushing yards, which put him over 1,100 on the season.
After rushing for 1,154 yards on 130 carries last season, Henderson is now set to pass that mark in his next matchup, and he’ll have accomplished it in far fewer carries. He is checking milestones off his lest and the next target will be 1,500 rushing yards, a mark he’ll easily reach.
Miles Sanders, running back, Penn State Nittany Lions
Sometimes a jaw-dropping performance is about more than the numbers. It represents a player who steps up in the unlikeliest of circumstances and delivers with a big performance.
Sanders’ matchup against Michigan State presented by far his toughest battle of the season. The Spartans entered Saturday with the nation’s highest-ranked run defense and it showed in their 33.8 yards per game and 1.32 yards per rush allowed.
The junior running back made Michigan State’s defense look like Central Michigan. He rushed for 162 yards on Saturday on only 17 carries for an outstanding 9.5 yards per carry. Sanders fell just seven yards shy of matching the total rushing yards by five of Michigan State’s opponents. That is a jaw-dropping performance.
Andre Nunez, quarterback, Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns
One of the best passing performances in college football this week came from one of the unlikeliest players. Nunez had been awful this season, then everything changed against New Mexico State.
Nunez stood firmly in the pocket on Saturday and tore this secondary apart. He didn’t even need a ton of work to do it as the senior racked up 315 passing yards on 25 attempts. He made sure to spread the love in this game and it led to five touchdown passes, four of which went to different targets.
After coming into this game with 765 passing yards and six touchdown passes in five games, Nunez sent his numbers skyrocketing with this performance.
Joshua Kelley, running back, UCLA Bruins
Finally, the monkey can be ripped off Chip Kelly’s back and UCLA fans can relax for a moment. The Bruins have won a football game and it came in dominating fashion in Week 7.
Much of the credit for Saturday’s big win must go to Kelley. The junior carried the weight of UCLA’s offense, and with an inexperienced freshman behind him, tore Cal to shreds. Kelley kicked things off with a five-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter, then did even more damage in the second half.
He finished the day with 157 rushing yards and three touchdowns — an utterly dominant performance. Kelley has rushed for 120-plus yards in three consecutive games and if UCLA’s passing game starts to find some momentum, plenty of credit should go to its emerging running back.
David Montgomery, running back, Iowa State Cyclones
Pulling off an upset against a top-10 ranked opponent is never easy, nor is rushing for over 150 yards against one of the better run defenses in the country. Montgomery achieved both in Saturday’s win against West Virginia.
The Mountaineers entered Saturday ranked 26th in run defense in the FBS. They were effective at stopping the run as opposing backs averaged just 3.39 yards per attempt against them. Montgomery nearly doubled that in Week 7 with 189 rushing yards at 6.5 yards per carry against West Virginia’s defense.
His dominance on the ground allowed Iowa State to eat up the clock and keep Will Grier off the field. As fans rushed the field to celebrate the big win, they should have made sure to thank their junior running back for making the memorable night happen.
Dwayne Haskins, quarterback, Ohio State Buckeyes
The campaign for a trip to New York City as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy rolls on for Haskins. Ohio State’s 21-year-old quarterback delivered another phenomenal performance on Saturday — business as usual for him.
Haskins threw for 400-plus yards and completed 75 percent of his passes for the second consecutive week. Even more impressive, he completed 33-of-44 passes, the exact number of completions and attempts he posted in Week 6 against Indiana.
He now sits at 2,331 passing yards with 28 touchdown passes and a 72.3 completion percentage on the season. Haskins will have a chance to bolster his Heisman-caliber numbers even more in the coming weeks with matchups against Purdue and Nebraska.