And now, 20 Final Thoughts on a day of football so wonderfully hectic we were all in need of an extra hour’s sleep.
1. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s only the first week of November, and Alabama and Clemson are likely out of the College Football Playoff race. I’m old enough to remember when they were still playing well into January every year, usually against each other. I’m not putting Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney out to pasture just yet, but one thing is clear: They’re now looking up at Kirby Smart.
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2. I did not think Georgia’s defense possibly could remain dominant after losing eight starters from last year’s top-ranked unit to the NFL. That quickly proved wrong. And then I didn’t think the Bulldogs possibly could shut down Tennessee after losing top pass rusher Nolan Smith to a season-ending injury last week. Wrong again. I’ve learned my lesson and will now accept that Georgia truly is the new Alabama. This is just what the Bulldogs do now — they bludgeon people.
3. Tennessee’s previously unstoppable offense got a humbling dose of reality Saturday from Smart’s “Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide” defense. Inside deafening, downpouring Sanford Stadium, Hendon Hooker’s previously uncoverable receivers found themselves thoroughly covered. Hooker himself fell victim to six sacks. Throw in seven false start penalties, and the Vols did not reach the end zone Saturday until there were barely four minutes left in an already-decided game that No. 3 Georgia (9-0, 6-0 SEC) won by a deceiving final score of 27-13.
“Physical toughness won out,” said Smart.
4. Meanwhile, Hooker got upstaged by UGA counterpart Stetson Bennett (17-of-25 for 257 yards, two TDs, no INTs), who had completions of 52, 37 and 49 yards in the first quarter alone and probably would have just kept going if the skies didn’t erupt and Smart opted to spend the second half keeping Tennessee’s offense on the bench. It was over when Georgia put together a 15-play drive that took up 8:44 of the third quarter just to kick a field goal.
5. Georgia clearly will be the Playoff committee’s No. 1 team now. Tennessee (8-1, 4-1) will fall behind at least Georgia and Ohio State and possibly Michigan, but knowing how the committee operates, it likely will drop the Vols no further than No. 4. They do still boast two top 10 wins, and they lost on the road to the No. 1 team.
Now, Tennessee’s 40-13 win at Baton Rouge becomes their “best” win, because…
6. Brian Kelly sure knows how to win over a fan base. Maybe that infamous basketball speech fell flat, but no one in Baton Rouge is going to remember that now. Not after the former Notre Dame coach won his first Alabama-LSU game by going for two and the win in the first overtime when a PAT would have sufficed, got it and in doing so simultaneously gave the Tigers (7-2, 5-1 SEC) sole possession of first in the SEC West while definitively ruining the Tide’s season.
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7. Alabama (7-2, 4-2) entered 2022 with as high of expectations as any Saban-led team. It is now the first one since 2010 to suffer its second loss before the Iron Bowl. Bryce Young was his usual magical self with the game on the line, most notably on his escape-turned-41-yard TD pass to Ja’Corey Brooks with 4:44 left. But the Tide’s defense allowed LSU star Jayden Daniels to drive his team 75 yards in seven plays and then in overtime to score in one play. Kelly went for two because he knew Alabama couldn’t stop Daniels.
Kelly did a great job figuring out this team’s identity in the weeks after its weird opening loss to Florida State. Alabama, which nearly lost to Texas in Week 2 and did lose at Tennessee in Week 7, never did find one. And the Tide very well could lose again next week at Ole Miss.
8. After a year of living dangerously, the walls finally caved in on No. 4 Clemson (8-1, 6-0) on Saturday night in South Bend. On the same home field where Notre Dame (6-3) suffered losses this season to Marshall and Stanford, the Irish pounded the Tigers 35-14 — Swinney’s worst regular-season loss in eight years. For the second consecutive game, Swinney pulled a struggling DJ Uiagalelei for freshman Cade Klubnik, only for the freshman to immediately throw a bad interception from his own end zone that helped the Irish to go up 21-0. Back came Uiagalelei, who himself threw a pick-six to make it 28-0.
Were Clemson to turn back around and finish as a 12-1 ACC champion it still would be on the CFP short list, but this feels a lot like Oklahoma’s 2021 team that started 9-0 but eventually crumbled. I bet the Tigers lose another one.
9. Speaking of flawed teams, No. 2 Ohio State (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) went to Evanston, Ill., and somehow needed nearly four quarters to put away Northwestern (1-8, 1-5), finally winning 21-7. Yes, the game was played in a Biblical windstorm, but the Buckeyes struggled to run the ball for the third consecutive week. With TreVeyon Henderson out, Miyan Williams averaged 4.3 yards per carry against the nation’s 105th-ranked rushing defense. As our Cameron Teague noted, the Buckeyes’ running backs were averaging 6.0 yards per carry prior to their Oct. 15 idle week but just 4.1 yards since.
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Meanwhile, C.J. Stroud has the worst game of his career: 10-of-26 for 76 yards. The wind and rain were largely to blame, but Northwestern brought pressure, and Ohio State’s star does not handle pressure well. Entering Saturday, he was completing just 47 percent of his passes and averaging 6.6 yards per attempt when pressured versus 71.3 percent and 10.7 on the season. The good news: Few teams manage to get near him (Ohio State allows the sixth-fewest QB pressures). The bad news: That Team Up North certainly will.
10. Ohio State is by no means in crisis mode like Clemson, but the No. 2 team in the country is arguably the No. 2 team in its conference right now. Fellow undefeated Michigan, which won 52-17 at Rutgers on Saturday, has been the more complete team.
11. Last week, the committee docked undefeated TCU for having to keep coming from behind to win. Wouldn’t you know it: The Frogs did it again. No. 7 TCU (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) trailed Texas Tech 17-13 heading into the fourth quarter before going on three consecutive touchdown drives to run away with it 34-24. This despite being without top WR Quentin Johnston.
Meanwhile, No. 24 Texas (6-3, 4-2 Big 12) has a thing for blowing big leads, but this time the Horns went up 31-10 at halftime at Kansas State (6-3, 4-2) and held on to win 34-27. TCU visits Austin next week with a chance to all but clinch a berth in the Big 12 Championship Game, with the Horns, Wildcats (6-3, 4-2) and Baylor (6-3, 4-2) all very much alive as well.
12. An inadvertent big winner Saturday: Oregon. The eighth-ranked Ducks (8-1, 6-0 Pac-12) took care of Colorado on the field, 49-10, then got a lot of help off it. For one, Clemson’s loss likely moves the Pac-12 ahead of the ACC in the hierarchy. Just as important, Georgia shutting down Tennessee’s 49-points-per-game offense helps normalize what the Dawgs did to Oregon, which is averaging 48.1 points in its eight games since that debacle.
If budding Heisman contender Bo Nix and the Ducks go on to become 12-1 Pac-12 champions, they’ll have a decent shot. But they need TCU to lose a game, and it would help them if Michigan loses to Ohio State. As gruesome as that 49-3 Georgia loss was, the committee may be more forgiving of that than the Wolverines playing three nobodies.
13. Oregon looks more and more like the class of the Pac-12, first because it clobbered a UCLA team that is now 8-1 but also because No. 9 USC’s defense is just plain putrid. The Trojans (8-1, 6-1) nearly let mediocre Cal (3-6, 1-5) come back from a 34-14 deficit Saturday night as Bears QB Jack Plummer threw for the most yards in a game (406) since his freshman year at Purdue in 2019. USC was able to mask its deficiencies early in the season by creating turnovers, but it entered Saturday ranked 108th nationally in yards per play allowed (6.0).
USC is still a CFP contender in theory, but that defense is going to have to face two top-10 offenses (UCLA and Oregon) to win the Pac-12. If the Trojans pull it off, Caleb Williams really is Superman.
14. Lost amid all the other drama Saturday: Kansas is going to a bowl! It’s really happening! The Jayhawks (6-3, 3-3 Big 12), who prior to this season had gone 3-9 or worse each of the previous 12 seasons, got big win No. 6 by hammering a reeling Oklahoma State team 37-16. Running back Devin Neal went for 224 yards on 32 carries, and the Kansas defense picked off Oklahoma State backup QB Garret Rangel three times. Go ahead and hand every coach of the year award to Lance Leipold, who inherited a roster that went a non-competitive 0-9 the year before under Les Miles and in Year 2 has either won or been competitive in all but one game.
OK and this is the first time since Oct. 24, 1998, that:
1. Alabama lost
2. Clemson lost
3. Kansas beat a ranked team— Matt Brown (@MattBrownCFB) November 6, 2022
15. You know who likely won’t be bowling? Texas A&M. The Aggies (3-6, 1-5) dropped their fifth straight Saturday, 41-24 at home to Florida (5-4, 2-4 SEC). They have allowed a staggering 681 rushing yards in their last two games. With one more loss (they have Auburn, UMass and LSU left), A&M would become the first preseason top 6 team to finish below .500 since Texas in 2010.
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Come season’s end, three of the past five preseason top 6 teams to finish unranked will have been coached by Jimbo Fisher (2017 Florida State, 2021 Texas A&M and 2022 Texas A&M), per our research guru Matt Brown.
16. Fisher’s former team went into such a tailspin after his departure that it managed to lose four straight years to rival Miami. In fact, just two years ago the Canes beat Florida State 52-10 — but now that rivalry has flipped completely.
The Noles (6-3, 4-3 ACC) humiliated Miami 45-3 on Saturday, the latest in a season full of indignities for Mario Cristobal’s crew. This is easily the worst Miami team since at least Randy Shannon’s 2007 squad that infamously lost the last game at the Orange Bowl 48-0 to Virginia. But Cristobal, who signed a reported 10-year, $80 million contract last year, is just getting started, so all Canes fans can do is sit back and wait on more five-star recruits to commit.
17. The Big Ten West is headed toward a very ACC Coastal-esque finish.
After No. 16 Illinois (7-2, 4-2 Big Ten) came back to Earth with a puzzling 23-15 home loss to reeling Michigan State, and the Iowa Hawkeyes (5-4, 3-3), whose offense suddenly has sprung to life the past two weeks, beat Purdue (5-4, 3-3) 24-3, we have Illinois still alone in first but with Purdue, Iowa, Minnesota (6-3, 3-3) and Wisconsin (5-4, 3-3) all just a game behind. And keep in mind, the Illini still have a game left at No. 5 Michigan. First, they have Purdue, however, with the Boilers still very much in the thick of it despite just allowing Hawkeyes RB Kaleb Johnson to gash them for 200 yards.
You just know this is going to end with Iowa back in Indianapolis and Brian Ferentz getting a contract extension.
18. Much of the speculation following Bryan Harsin’s long-anticipated dismissal at Auburn last week centered around Lane Kiffin and Deion Sanders as potential replacements. But let’s not forget old SEC West friend Hugh Freeze. Liberty (8-1) went to Fayetteville on Saturday and knocked off Arkansas 21-19, intercepting KJ Jefferson twice and holding the Razorbacks to an average 3.4 yards on the ground. The man certainly has baggage, and I’m sure Greg Sankey would not give him a warm welcome back, but the man can coach.
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19. No. 19 Tulane took care of business at Tulsa, 27-13, No. 25 UCF won 35-28 at Memphis, and now we’ve got ourselves an AAC brouhaha next week in New Orleans. The Green Wave (8-1, 5-0) will host the Knights (7-2, 4-1) in their first home game between ranked teams since … 1949! Tulane was an SEC member back then. It eventually found its way to Conference USA, where it won its last league title in 1998. It still has work to do to get another one, but a win next week would be huge for the program.
20. But there was a different kind of history made in the AAC on Saturday night. SMU (5-4, 3-2) beat Houston (5-4, 3-2) by the score of 77-63, making it the highest-scoring regulation game in FBS history. It was 56-35 SMU at halftime! Kudos to Mustangs QB Tanner Mordecai, who managed to throw nine touchdowns with no interceptions, while his team also ran for 263 yards.
As Houston’s Dana Holgorsen (who once won a game 70-63 at West Virginia) sat down for his postgame news conference, he stared at the stat sheet like a man finding out his bank balance had fallen to $0. “They were going to score every time they had the ball. Period,” he said. “I’ve never seen that.”
At times like this, we must remind ourselves that SMU and Georgia play the same sport.
(Top photo of Stetson Bennett: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)