It was a wet and wild Week 10 of college football. Plenty of ranked teams fell to lesser opponents across the country, so let’s get into it all below.
Top 10 Headlines
●#1 Oregon handled Michigan on the road with relative ease. The Ducks blitzed the home team in the 2nd quarter, racing to a 28-10 halftime lead and never letting up after that. The Wolverines did have a shot to make it a 1-score game late in the 4th quarter, but ran the worst trick play of the weekend to turn the ball over on downs. Oregon should be sitting pretty at the top of the committee’s CFP rankings that come out on Tuesday night.
●#2 Georgia beat rival Florida for the 4th straight season, but it was far from pretty. Carson Beck threw three interceptions for the 2nd game in a row, and the UGA defense allowed a third string Gators QB to guide UF to a halftime lead. The Dawgs put on their big boy pants late to pull away 34-20, but through 8 games I’m still not sure what this team is. They’ve whooped the then #1 Longhorns on the road and also struggled against mediocre SEC teams like Kentucky and these Gators. We’ll find out much more when they play #19 Ole Miss on the road next weekend.
●#3 Ohio State, for the 8th straight time, took down #4 Penn State. For the 8th straight matchup between the two, the Buckeyes were more physical and more clutch, holding the Nittany Lions without points on either of their red zone drives. The second of those drives was particularly painful for Penn State, who could only muster 2 yards on 4 plays from the Ohio State 3-yard line. The Buckeyes then salted the game away with 12 straight runs, the final one by QB Will Howard to seal the win. Howard talked all week about wanting to beat the team he grew up wanting to play for, and he and his team made it happen. PSU still has a great shot at the 12-team CFP, but with James Franklin falling to 1-10 against Ohio State and 1-9 against Top 5 teams, it has to feel like more of the painful same in State College.
●#5 Miami loves to make things interesting for themselves. They trailed Duke, who’s coached by former Canes coach Manny Diaz, by double digits at home early into the 3rd quarter. But as usual, Cam Ward put Miami on his back, and the Canes ended up blowing the Blue Devils out. Ward tied a Miami record with his 29th touchdown pass, while Canes WR Xavier Restrepo broke the school record for career receiving yards. I’m very interested to see where the committee ranks Miami in Tuesday’s initial CFP rankings. They’re an immensely talented team that constantly finds ways to fall behind only to find ways to win.
●#7 Tennessee played with their food for most of the night against Kentucky, trailing early and still not finding any explosive plays on offense. Nevertheless, they grinded out a 28-18 win, and in the process scored their first 1st half points since September 21st! Little things, little things.
●South Carolina has been knocking on the door of a monumental upset all season long. They finally broke through Saturday night, and their victim was #10 Texas A&M. The Gamecocks jumped out to a 14-0 lead, withstood an Aggie surge in the 2nd quarter, and blew the game wide open in the second half. Their run game was unstoppable, forcing so many missed tackles that the statistician probably had a hard time keeping up. A&M QB Marcel Reed looked human after dominating LSU last weekend, and with the loss, the Aggies are tied atop the SEC with 4 other teams. The final month of the season is going to be wild.
●Three Top 10 teams watched this weekend’s action from home: #6 Texas, #8 Notre Dame and #9 BYU. All three face teams that are .500 or worst next weekend.
Best of the Weekend
●#13 Indiana is 9-0 for the first time in school history after whooping Michigan State. The Hoosiers did trail for the first time all season, and they responded by scoring 47 straight points to turn this one into a laugher. Indiana might not have the most incredible resume, but they have won every game by double digits and look like the real deal. We’ll find out more over the next two weeks with games against Michigan and at Ohio State.
●Two early SEC slip ups made us forget #19 Ole Miss still has a pretty darn good offense. The Rebels beat the life out of Arkansas, with QB Jaxson Dart going off for 515(!) yards and 6 TD passes. 5 of those touchdowns went to Jordan Watkins, who ended his day with 8 catches, 254 yards and those 5 scores. That’s 32 yards a catch for those keeping score at home. Ole Miss will get a chance to prove themselves next week with a home matchup against #2 Georgia.
●In a battle of ACC undefeateds, #20 SMU proved themselves to be a real contender. They blasted #18 Pitt in the 2nd quarter, building a 31-3 halftime lead that ended in a 48-25 win. The Ponies remained undefeated in ACC play in their first season in the conference, and with Clemson’s loss to Louisville, they have the inside track to play for an ACC title.
●Top contenders for the Group of 5’s CFP spot who won this weekend: #15 Boise State, who took poor San Diego State to the woodshed on Friday night, and #21 Army, who overcame a slow start to beat rival service academy Air Force. The Black Knights are now the only team in the country who hasn’t trailed in a game this season. Just for fun, think about this potential headache for the committee that could reasonably happen.
●Baylor has had a nice in-season turnaround. They knocked off rival TCU on a walk-off field goal to extend their winning streak to 3 games. Dave Aranda’s seat is still hot if you ask me, but the Bears have a shot at bowl eligibility when I had left them for dead weeks ago.
Worst of the Weekend
●Multiple Big 12 contenders got the rug pulled out from under them in Week 10. First, #11 Iowa State looked like they were going to get yet another dramatic win when they took the lead against Texas Tech right before the two minute timeout. But the Red Raiders didn’t flinch, calmly moving down the field on a drive that culminated with a touchdown for the lead with 20 seconds left. That lead held, and that means the Cyclones lost for the first time all season. Then, their Farmageddon rival #17 Kansas State found themselves on the wrong end of a disheartening loss to Houston. K-State now has two conference losses, which means they have to win out and hope for some help from other teams to get to the Big 12 title game.
●In Week 1, #11 Clemson looked non-competitive against the #1 team in the country. In Weeks 2-9, Clemson looked unstoppable, winning every game by double digits. In Week 10, Clemson looked non-competitive against… a 5-3 Louisville team who recently gave up 52 to Miami? At home??? The Tigers made the Cardinals look like the CFP contender they’re not, letting Louisville score time and time again despite outgaining them by almost 100 yards. Their fans decided to continue a terrible trend by throwing trash on the field after a call didn’t go their way. Just an ugly cherry on top of a loss that takes Clemson out of the driver’s seat to the ACC Championship Game.
●Dating back to last season, Nebraska has lost 7 straight games with a chance to clinch bowl eligibility. The latest disappointment came against UCLA at home, with the Bruins speeding to a 27-7 lead and holding on late to win their second in a row. Huskers QB Dylan Raiola got injured late in the 4th quarter, and backup Heinrich Haarburg couldn’t make magic happen, ending things with an interception off a receiver’s knee because why not. Nebraska plays at USC, home against Wisconsin and at Iowa to end the season. Not the easiest path to a bowl.
●Oklahoma State was trailing Arizona State by 7 when their game underwent a rain delay. There was talk of calling the game due to the weather, which would’ve handed the Sun Devils the win, so the Pokes must’ve been happy when the game resumed after a 2+ hour delay. They probably weren’t happy when they ended up getting trounced by Cam Skattebo and company, eventually losing 42-21. The Cowboys are 0-6 in the Big 12 and could very well go winless in conference play for the first time since 1994.
●USC has led in the 4th quarter of all of their Big Ten road games. USC is 0-4 on the road in Big Ten play. They’ve lost those four games by a combined 16 points, the latest setback a 26-21 defeat against old Pac-12 friend Washington. At 4-5, next week’s game against Nebraska could likely decide which of those two teams goes to a bowl game.
●Louisiana-Monroe OL coach Cameron Blankenship lost it on the sideline, coming this close to throwing hands with one of his players. ULM said they’ll take disciplinary action against him following the meltdown.
●Crazy ending alert: Eastern Michigan successfully converted a Hail Mary attempt with no time left that would’ve tied their game with Toledo with an extra point attempt. But the Eagles decided to go for two, and that fell short, leaving the Rockets with a close shave of a victory.
●Vanderbilt is bowl eligible for the first time since 2018, so what better way to celebrate than by shotgunning Sprite in the locker room? Vandy QB Diego Pavia is now 3-0 against Auburn HC Hugh Freeze, beating him in 2022 while Freeze was at Liberty, 2023 when Pavia was at New Mexico State, and 2024 when Pavia was at Vanderbilt. Different teams, same result.
●Columbia did their best to distract Yale's kicker by putting the awful Dwayne Wade statue on their jumbotron behind the field goal posts. It didn't work.
●Incarnate Word wide receiver Jalen Walthall gave us the touchdown celebration of the year after this 50-yard bomb. And yes, he did get flagged for excessive celebration.
●NC State set a program record for points against an ACC opponent with 59 against… Stanford. Seems kind of like cheating but that’s the weird realigned CFB world we live in.
●Iowa LB Nick Jackson tipped a pass, kicked the ball into his teammate’s face, then finally picked said pass. It’s one of the wildest interceptions you’ll see all year.
1. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State RB: Another week, another monster game for Jeanty. 149 yards and 2 touchdowns helped his team smoke the Aztecs. His yards per carry is down to a paltry 8.0 on the season. That’s sarcasm by the way.
2. Cam Ward, Miami QB & 3. Dillon Gabriel, Oregon QB: Both of these signal callers are the heartbeat of their unbeaten teams. In any other season they’d be the runaway favorite for college football’s top honor, but not in this weird year. Still, if either QB leads their squad to an undefeated regular season and a top CFP seed, they could walk away with the trophy.
4. Travis Hunter, Colorado DB/WR: Hunter’s Buffs had a week off, but saw multiple teams ahead of them in the Big 12 lose. The way Hunter wins this year’s Heisman Trophy is by leading his team to a Big 12 championship while continuing to dominate both ways like he has been.
5. Cam Skattebo, Arizona State RB: I love highlighting players in this 5th spot who are doing things most of the national media won't cover intensely. Let's shout out the Sun Devil's bowling ball of an offensive weapon, who went off for 153 rushing yards, 121 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns against Oklahoma State. There aren't more chaotic and fun players to watch in college football than Skattebo.