AP Top 25 Takeaways: Clemson falls during frenetic afternoon

Updated Sep. 26, 2021 9:32 a.m. ET

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For about 45 minutes late Saturday afternoon, college football was on overload.

North Carolina State went from agony to ecstasy against No. 9 Clemson. Baylor stopped a 2-point conversion to

No. 19 Michigan

It was a time for multiple screens and social media reactions, and a fun reminder that any random Saturday in the college football season can feel like the first couple of days of the NCAA basketball tournament.

There was just so much going on.

The most significant development was in Raleigh, North Carolina, where N.C. State missed a potential game-winning field goal in the closing seconds but still managed to

The six-time defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion Tigers have lost two games in September for the first time since 2014, the last time they failed to win the league and go to the College Football Playoff.

Clemson's offense is a mess. The Tigers have scored five offensive touchdown in three games against FBS opponents and needed overtime against the Wolfpack to get No. 5.

D.J. Uiagalelei has still not thrown for more than 200 yards in a game this season. The running game has been no better. Coach Dabo Swinney was asked the last time Clemson was so disjointed offensively and he said maybe 2010.

That was back before Clemson had become the program that challenged Alabama for supremacy of college football. That was before two generational talents at quarterback — Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence — led Swinney's teams to a couple of national titles and two more championship game appearances.

Uiagalelei was supposed to be next in line, but after he passed for more than 800 yards in two starts last season, filling in for Lawrence, the former five-star recruit from Southern California seems lost behind an offensive line that isn't giving him enough protection.

Clemson fans are turning on offensive coordinator Tony Elliott. What the heck is happening here?

“You know what? That comes with the territory because the expectation and the standard at Clemson and who we are, we’re not meeting it. It’s just that simple,” Swinney said.

More than a month before Halloween, Clemson's CFP streak is in grave danger.

“The curse is broken, N.C. State fans, finally,” N.C. State coach Dave Doeren chuckled after the Wolfpack snapped an eight-game losing streak against Clemson.

The ACC is a mess.

North Carolina State's signature victory, its first against a top-10 opponent in nine years under Doeren, came two weeks after the Wolfpack took a beating at Mississippi State.

North Carolina got a lot of offseason hype but is now 2-2 after getting walloped by Georgia Tech.

The only unbeaten teams left in the conference are Wake Forest and Boston College, two other members of an Atlantic Division that Clemson has run roughshod over in recent years.

There is a chance no ACC team will be ranked in the next AP Top 25.

Clemson has been ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll for 97 consecutive weeks. That is tied with Alabama for the longest current top-10 streak and the second-longest such streak in the history of the poll behind Miami's 137 from 1985-1993.

Not only will that streak end on Sunday when the new rankings are revealed, but the Tigers' streak of 106 straight weeks being ranked should probably come to an end, too.

How about this next week? Unranked Clemson at ranked BC.

CALLING THE HOGS

When Arkansas hired Sam Pittman, the former offensive line coach who had never led a program of his own, it seemed as if the Razorbacks had settled.

Coming after the awful two-year tenure of Chad Morris, Arkansas was stuck in a huge hole at the bottom of the toughest division in college football.

Even Arkansas native Eli Drinkwitz passed on the Razorbacks' head coaching job to go to Missouri. That opened the door for Pittman.

Pittman's team showed promise last season but still won only three games. At least Arkansas looked competent again.

The Hogs are way more than that now. Arkansas

"Our toughness showed tonight,” Pittman said.

The Razorbacks are 4-0 for the first time since 2003 and have beaten Texas and Texas A&M in the same season for the first time since 1989.

As for the Aggies, this was supposed to be the season that Jimbo Fisher's team closed the gap on Alabama. Instead, they have been passed by Arkansas and Pittman.

Don't worry, Aggies fans. After the latest contract extension, Fisher has nine more seasons to figure it out.

AROUND THE COUNTRY: Oklahoma fans were chanting for backup quarterback Caleb Williams as Spencer Rattler and the offense slogged to a

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.appodcasts.com

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