CFB Week 11 Recap: A messy, messy SEC and holy Holy War!

We’re finally starting to see how tiebreakers could come into play with these megaconferences, as the SEC is becoming a muddled mess of 1 and 2-loss teams. Also, more undefeated teams fell and Holy War was a late night thriller. Let’s talk about it all!

●The magic finally ran out for Cam Ward and #4 Miami in Week 11, with a feisty Georgia Tech team ending the Canes’ undefeated start to 2024. Ward was erratic and undisciplined, and his final stat line of 348 passing yards and 3 TDs is a bit of a mirage. GT controlled the clock and ran the ball down Miami’s throat, rushing for almost 300 yards and stripping Ward on Miami’s final possession to seal the win. Miami still got a path to the ACC title game and the CFP, but their margin for error has disappeared.

●Don’t bother trying to make sense of the SEC this season. The latest example of the nuttiness of the conference happened in Oxford, where #3 Georgia fell to #16 Ole Miss in what was a pretty non-competitive affair all afternoon. The Rebs pass rush made Dawgs QB Carson Beck uncomfortable from the get go, and the rainy conditions did Beck no favors as he turned the ball over three times. These are the same Rebels who lost at home to Kentucky, and they big boyed a Georgia team that dominated Texas on the road. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but it’s sure fun to watch.

●Top Big Ten teams who rolled: #1 Oregon, #2 Ohio State and #6 Penn State won by a combined 119-25. All were home blowouts, and the Nittany Lions should move up based on who lost in front of them in the polls.

●#5 Texas absolutely blitzed poor Florida. The Longhorns led 35-0 at halftime and only a couple late Gators scores made this one less embarrassing. Quinn Ewers had 5 TD passes and made things look easy against a battered and bruised Gators team, and on a day where other SEC contenders picked up a 2nd conference loss, UT stayed at just one, which looks like it’ll be very important going into the stretch run of the regular season.

●#7 Tennessee won handily over Mississippi State, and Vols RB Dylan Sampson had a career day with 149 rushing yards, but the real story is the injury to QB Nico Iamaleava. The Vols redshirt freshman signal caller left in the 2nd quarter with an upper body injury after a hard hit to the ribs, and didn’t return in the 2nd half. Tennessee HC Josh Heupel said it was a “precautionary measure”, but with a matchup with Georgia looming, the Vols can’t afford to have him miss time.

●#8 Indiana reached 10 wins for the first time in school history after a hard fought victory over Michigan. The Wolverines refused to go away, chipping away at an early deficit and nearly tying the game in the 4th quarter, but the Hoosiers stopped a 2-point try and salted the rest of the game away. It set up a likely battle for a spot in the Big Ten title game next week with Ohio State in Columbus.

●#9 BYU was, in my mind, ranked too low in the first CFP rankings, but the committee looked validated for most of their game against Utah. The Cougs were extremely inconsistent on offense all evening, and when QB Jake Retzlaff took a sack on 4th down with a minute left in the game, it looked like the Utes would end BYU’s Cinderella season. But a defensive penalty on Utah gave BYU life, and the Cougs marched right down the field and kicked a game-winning field goal with 3 seconds left. It gave me shades of TCU in 2022 with their fire drill FG to beat Baylor, and the Cougs might just have that sort of magic on their side in their quest for a Big 12 title.

●#10 Notre Dame took Florida State to the woodshed in a 52-3 beatdown. The Fighting Irish reeled off 45-straight points from the 2nd quarter onward, outgaining the Noles 453 to 208 and forcing 2 FSU interceptions. It was another ugly effort from Florida State, dropping them to 1-9 in a matchup that lost a lot of luster from its preseason hype.

●In another example of how unpredictable the SEC has been this season, a raucous Tiger Stadium was no match for Jalen Milroe and #11 Alabama. Milroe dominated #15 LSU with his arms and his legs, totaling almost 300 scrimmage yards and 4 rushing TDs as the Crimson Tide blew out LSU 42-16. Every time LSU had a chance to make a play to get into the game, they made critical mistakes, like a Garrett Nussmeier end zone interception in the 3rd quarter. Now the Tigers have 2 SEC losses, as does Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, and Ole Miss. The SEC tiebreakers for the championship game could be a real headache if these teams keep beating up on each other.

●One team who has a much clearer path to their conference title game is #20 Colorado, who weathered an early Texas Tech flurry to win by double digits in Lubbock. The Buffs’ stars were at their best, with Shedeur Sanders tossing 3 touchdown passes and Travis Hunter catching one of them. With Iowa State losing again, all the Buffs need to do is win out and they’ll play for the Big 12 championship.

●#20 Boise State was the highest ranked G5 team in the initial CFP ranking, and they’ll stay that way after a 28-21 win over Nevada. It wasn’t pretty for the Broncos, but RB Ashton Jeanty continued to power their offense with 207 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns. The other ranked G5 team, #25 Army, grinded out a gritty 14-3 win over North Texas to stay undefeated. The Black Knights trailed for the first time all season after an early UNT field goal, but responded by holding the ball for almost 42 minutes of game time, including a near 14(!) minute drive in the 3rd quarter that put them up by two scores. The only sad thing to me is Army could finish undefeated, and they’d likely get left out of the CFP and end up in a lesser bowl game since the New Year’s Six is now part of the CFP.

●The biggest winner of this weekend might’ve been idle #13 SMU, who moved into sole possession of first place in the ACC after Miami’s loss. The Ponies end their season with Boston College at home, Virginia on the road and Cal at home, plus they’d win 3-way tiebreakers over both Miami and #23 Clemson, who knocked off Virginia Tech to stay in contention for a spot in Charlotte come December.

●Tulane is quietly undefeated in AAC play at 6-0, and their only losses are to Kansas State and Oklahoma. They’re on a collision course with Army to play for the AAC title.

●Both #17 Iowa State & #18 Pitt began their seasons with 7 straight wins and CFP aspirations, and now both are on 2-game losing streaks. The Cyclones put themselves in a big hole against Kansas, and though they crawled back into the game, it was too little too late in a 45-36 loss. Pitt meanwhile let a mediocre Virginia team beat them at home to really hurt their ACC title chances.

●From Sooner Magic to Sooner Tragic: Oklahoma’s offense was again stagnant for most of the night at #24 Mizzou, but found a way to drive down the field and tie the game late. Then the defense forced a turnover that they returned to actually put OU ahead 23-16 with 2 minutes left. And those 2 minutes were all the Tigers needed to drive down the field to tie the game, then force a Jackson Arnold fumble they scooped and scored to win the game with 30 seconds left. It was a heartbreaking result for OU, but not unexpected in a game (and season) filled with offensive inconsistencies, poor preparation, numerous procedural penalties and more that have left them 1-5 in the SEC and in danger of missing a bowl game for the first time since 1998.

●Oklahoma State’s season of misery continued in Fort Worth, getting absolutely plastered by TCU to fall to 0-7 in the Big 12. This comes after Pokes HC Mike Gundy insulted his fanbase earlier in the week, saying they shouldn’t complain about the team if they can’t pay their own bills. Just a bizarre season in Stillwater for one that started with so much hype.

●Tortilla madness at Tech: Travis Hunter took a tortilla on the field and shoved into his pants for some reason. Then, Shedeur Sanders autographed a tortilla after the Buffs knocked off the Red Raiders.

●One of the best catches you’ll see all season came in Louisiana Tech’s OT loss to Jacksonville State, when WR Tru Edwards caught a ball behind his back and took it all the way to paydirt.

●Speaking of that game, the Gamecocks tied the game on a Hail Mary pass, only to miss the extra point to send the game to overtime, where they’d eventually prevail.

●Safe to say LSU won’t be having a live tiger in their stadium again after getting smoked by Alabama. The details surrounding the acquisition of the tiger are… concerning, not to mention how the result on the field went.

●Still marveling at this Army touchdown drive. I got to see it live and it’s something I’ll never forget.

1. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State RB: Jeanty is still the powerhouse behind his team, and while he likely won’t reach Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record, he’s still done more than enough to stay at the top of these rankings.

2. Travis Hunter, Colorado DB/WR: Hunter again played an insane amount of snaps on offense and defense, and continues to excel at both. With his team’s success and his unprecedented play, he’s gonna keep rocketing up these rankings.

3. Dillon Gabriel, Oregon QB: Gabriel became the FBS’ all time total TD leader with a touchdown toss to a defensive lineman in the Ducks’ dominant win over Maryland. I put him ahead of Ward after Miami’s loss, but I think the gap between the two QBs and the two non-QBs has widened.

4. Cam Ward, Miami QB: For the first time all season, Ward couldn’t Houdini his team out of a bad situation. He sailed a lot of passes and looked erratic most of the Cane’s loss to Georgia Tech, so don’t be fooled by the good numbers on paper.