We spend basically all of the interminable college football offseason arguing about spreadsheets, procedures and hypotheticals. Who should be No. 1? Who should be the favorite in Conference X? How many at-large bids should the Big Ten get (even though we have no idea who will have what record)? Is inequality wrecking the sport? How much private equity money should School A (OK, Florida State) take? Are we going to have a Super League soon? Is School B (OK, Colorado) taking too many transfers? Is School C (OK, Clemson) not taking enough? Has an expanded College Football Playoff ruined big games? Has it ruined big upsets?
Arguing fills the offseason calendar like nothing else, but then the games start, and we get to bask in the absurd drama of a random college football Saturday, and the stakes and spreadsheets and everything else just fade away. We get to watch dueling field stormings, as LSU wins a huge game against Ole Miss, and Georgia Southern wins what was, on paper, an afterthought game against Marshall. We watch the game of the week, Oregon vs. Ohio State, live up to all the hype while what seemed like a completely uncompelling contest, Illinois vs. Purdue, surpasses it. We watch Penn State, Purdue, Georgia Southern and Dartmouth pull off huge comebacks. We watch a Boise State running back continuing to move himself up the Heisman list.
Week 7 was another impactful and immensely entertaining week in an impactful and entertaining college football season. With the midpoint of the season here, let's both look back at the action and look ahead to the most interesting battles and races we'll be talking about as we approach the second half of the season.
Jump to a section:
Big Ten battle | Group of 5 autobid
SEC race | Big 12 chaos
No. 4 CFP seed | Playoff home games
Heisman hunt | Fabulous freshmen
Receiver of year | Coach of year
Week's biggest surprises
Heisman of week
10 favorite games
1. Big Ten title
With a battle of top-three teams (Ohio State-Oregon) and a grade-A helmet game (Penn State-USC) leading the way, the Big Ten appeared to be the main character of the week. But we had absolutely no idea what was in store. Northwestern, Wisconsin and Iowa all pulled off surprisingly easy blowout wins to get the weirdness started, then Purdue came back from 24 down to force overtime against Illinois on the road. And the main events either matched or exceeded all hype.
First, Penn State came back from 20-6 down to force overtime and win, thanks primarily to one of the best tight end performances you'll ever see. Tyler Warren caught 17 passes for 224 yards, quarterback Drew Allar outdueled Miller Moss down the stretch, and with a 33-30 win, the Nittany Lions got to remain major players in the Big Ten race.
Then, in the main event, Oregon and Ohio State played one of the best games of the season. We've gotten two battles of top-five teams -- this and Alabama-Georgia -- and both were nearly perfect. The Ducks and Buckeyes each held the lead four times. They combined for 12 plays that altered the game's win probability, per ESPN Analytics, by at least 10%, including five on the last drive alone. Ohio State was driving for a potential winning field goal until an offensive pass interference penalty pushed them out of field goal range and, on the final play, quarterback Will Howard lost it, scrambled for 12 yards and slid as the clock expired. (Kansas State fans probably could have told Ohio State fans that Howard occasionally does wild things with the game on the line.)
Heading into the game, Ohio State basically had a 1-in-2 chance of winning the Big Ten, per SP+. Following the 32-31 Oregon win, the Buckeyes are at 1-in-4, and we've got ourselves a delightful three-team logjam.
Big Ten title odds after seven weeks, per SP+:
1. Oregon 32.5% (up 10.5% from last week)
2. Penn State 28.9% (up 5.9%)
3. Ohio State 26.2% (down 17.7%)
4. Indiana 7.5% (up 1.3%)
5. Iowa 1.5% (up 0.9%)
6. Michigan 1.2% (up 0.3%)
Everyone else: 0.8% or lower
Granted, this could be a four-team race if Indiana is able to maintain its current, destructive pace. The Hoosiers do play only one of the top three teams, after all -- Ohio State in Columbus in Week 13 -- and are projected favorites in every other regular-season game. But one of the sport's two most powerful conferences, a conference whose champion is more likely than not to earn a top-two seed in the CFP, doesn't have a clear-cut favorite at the moment. That's awfully intriguing.
The next big game in this race? Ohio State at Penn State in Week 10. Expect uncertainty into November.
2. The Group of 5's automatic CFP bid
A trio of resounding Week 7 performances gave us a trio of leaders in the race for the Group of 5's automatic bid. James Madison walloped Coastal Carolina 39-7 Thursday, Army blew out UAB 44-10 early Saturday, and Boise State rode Ashton Jeanty and a swarming defense to a 28-7 win over Hawai'i in the Saturday nightcap. Per SP+, all three teams now have at least a 47% chance of winning their respective conferences -- BSU is at 59% in the Mountain West, Army is 52% in the AAC and JMU is at 47% in the Sun Belt -- and while we don't know how seriously the CFP committee will take Liberty and its worst-in-FBS schedule (and the fact that the Flames aren't really dominating that schedule), they do still have a 51% chance of winning CUSA. All four have at least a 21% chance of reaching 11 wins by the end of the regular season.
It is probably fair to suggest that Army, James Madison and Boise State are the leaders in this fascinating race, but what makes it even more interesting is the volume of teams, beyond Liberty, sitting just off the pace.
• Like Army, Navy remains unbeaten and is getting otherworldly quarterback play from Blake Horvath.
• UNLV has lost to only Syracuse and will get at least one swing at Boise State.
• Memphis technically has a power conference win (it was over Florida State) and only a road loss to a fellow G5 contender (Navy).
• Tulane has two losses, which is a hindrance, but they were to Oklahoma and Kansas State, and the Green Wave have won their past two games by a combined score of 116-30.
• Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe are both 5-1 with respectable losses (UL to Tulane, ULM to Texas). Either could theoretically get a shot at JMU in the Sun Belt championship game and might be pretty attractive at 12-1.
Even if the top three are clear, there are probably eight to 11 mid-majors who can talk themselves into having a shot at a playoff spot at the midpoint of the season. And one of them is ULM! This is impossibly cool.
3. SEC title
While SEC newcomer Texas was pummeling Oklahoma to take a commanding lead in the SEC title odds department, the conference's two Big Bads were laboring. Alabama found itself trailing South Carolina in the fourth quarter before rallying and doing just enough to close out a 27-25 win; meanwhile, at home against Mississippi State -- by far the weakest team in the conference -- Georgia found itself leading by only 3 points midway through the second quarter and by only 10 at the end of the third. The Dawgs eventually cruised, 41-31, but that is just not good enough against a team that lost to Toledo and Florida by a combined 41.
Paul Finebaum discusses Texas' biggest title threat and whether Alabama-Tennessee is a playoff eliminator.
A couple of weeks ago, it felt like any of five or six teams could emerge as the SEC favorite at some point. Now Texas has a JMU-esque 48.0% chance of winning the crown, per SP+. But whom the Longhorns might face in the SEC championship game is as wide open as ever.
Alabama is the No. 2 conference favorite at just 15.3%, followed by, gasp, Texas A&M at 10.4% and LSU at 9.6%. Georgia, having barely actually played like a top-five team this season, is down to 7.2%, with Tennessee (4.1%), Missouri (2.5%), Ole Miss (2.5%) and Arkansas at 1.0%. With Texas and Georgia locking horns (get it?) in Austin this coming weekend, we're either going to see a UGA surge ... or UGA's relative elimination. That's pretty wild to think about.
4. Big 12 title
It was pretty easy to guess in the preseason that the Big 12 would have the most wide-open title race of any power conference this season. At the midway point, that remains delightfully true: A whopping 10 teams still have a greater than 1% chance of winning the crown.
Big 12 title odds after seven weeks, per SP+:
1. Iowa State 31.6%
2. BYU 22.5%
3. Kansas State 18.4%
4. Texas Tech 8.4%
5. Arizona State 3.9%
6. West Virginia 3.7%
7. Cincinnati 3.6%
8. Colorado 3.1%
9. Utah 1.9%
10. TCU 1.2%
Both Iowa State and BYU were sound and confident in Week 7; the Cyclones took on a physical West Virginia team and eased to a 28-16 win, while the Cougars blew past Arizona at home, 41-19. Between the two of them, they now have a greater than 50% chance of winning the league. But there's another way we can list the above teams.
Big 12 title odds after seven weeks, per SP+:
Iowa State: 31.6%
Teams No. 4-16: 27.5%
BYU: 22.5%
Kansas State: 18.4%
The field of also-rans still has a pretty good chance of making noise, especially a Texas Tech team that is 3-0 in conference play and has overachieved against SP+ projections for four straight games.
5. The CFP's No. 4 seed
Granted, this isn't a race until the Big 12 hits fifth gear in the messiness department; each week Iowa State and BYU keep winning means there's less of a chance for us to end up with a 10-3 Big 12 champion. But if chaos does fully strike, we could easily end up with a scenario in which the committee is seriously considering ranking a 12-0 Army (with a win over Notre Dame) or a 12-1 Boise State (with only a tight loss to Oregon) over a 10-3 or possibly even 11-2 Big 12 champion. And do you know how funky the bracket would start to look if, say, Army ended up with the No. 4 seed -- remember: the top four conference champs get the top four seeds -- and an 11-2 Iowa State finished No. 10 or 11? And, say, a 9-3 Georgia got the No. 12 seed?
Again, we're not there yet. But the idea of a nice, orderly "power conference champs get the top four seeds and the G5 rep gets fed to the No. 5 seed (probably the SEC's No. 2 team) in the first round" scenario isn't set in stone yet either.
6. Playoff home games
A 12-team playoff, like ogres and onions, has layers. (Sorry, I've seen "Shrek" a lot in the last 13 years of having a child.) On Saturday night, 13 ESPN staff writers, including myself, listed their CFP picks, as we do at the end of each week. All 13 had Georgia and Penn State in the Nos. 5-8 range, which would mean they would be hosting a first-round CFP game in mid-December, and 12 had Ohio State in that batch as well. Six had Clemson, five had Alabama, two had Indiana and one had Iowa State.
That is relative unanimity for three of the four home slots, but think of what a single loss might do for any of these teams. Ohio State and Penn State probably aren't going to both be in the Nos. 5-8 range once they've played each other. What if Georgia loses to Texas next week? What if Indiana loses only to Ohio State? What happens to the loser of the Big Ten or SEC championship? A home game is a huge reward, and a lot of teams are in the running to end up with one.
7. Heisman Trophy
Midway through the season, the Total QBR rankings are ... unique. The top five currently includes two service academy starters (Navy's Blake Horvath and Army's Bryson Daily), two transfers who started their careers at Ohio (Indiana's Kurtis Rourke) and Incarnate Word (Miami's Cam Ward) and Clemson's Cade Klubnik, whom most of us wrote off as a bust after a mediocre 2023 and terrible first game of 2024. Only one of those players starts for a team currently in the AP top eight, and the AP's current No. 1 team, Texas, has split time almost equally between two QBs (Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning) because of a Ewers injury. Ewers returned against Oklahoma on Saturday and was decent at best (20-of-29 for 199 yards, a TD, an INT and a 1-yard TD run) even as his team won handily.
This is a long way of saying that we do not have either a normal QB situation or a normal Heisman race at the moment. Dillon Gabriel's awesome performance against Ohio State on Saturday bumped him to No. 2 in the ESPN BET Heisman odds (and tied for third in the Heisman Horse Race below), and Ward is No. 3. No. 1? A Group of 5 running back. This makes sense, of course: Boise State's Jeanty has been the best player in the country thus far, and because of the CFP race, he could be playing in high-visibility games deep into the season.
A Heisman race led by Jeanty, Gabriel, Ward and Colorado's Travis Hunter (whose odds slipped after he was hurt and missed quite a bit of CU's loss to Kansas State) is weird. I like weird.
8. Freshman of the year
I'm creating a national freshman award -- I should probably call this the Hugh Green Award, after the greatest true freshman ever -- because my goodness, what a class we've got this year. At least two freshman receivers are among the nation's best, and some freshman pass rushers have been making a sustained impact as well. If the Hugh Green Award were a thing, this would be my top 10 contenders list at the moment:
1. WR Ryan Williams, Alabama
2. WR Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State
3. DE Colin Simmons, Texas
4. QB Dylan Raiola, Nebraska
5. RB Isaac Brown, Louisville
6. DE Jawaun Campbell, Jacksonville State
7. DE Dylan Stewart, South Carolina
8. S Koi Perich, Minnesota
9. LT Anthonie Knapp, Notre Dame
10. WR Nick Marsh, Michigan State
This is a fun mix of top-15 prospects (Williams, Smith, Raiola, Simmons, Stewart), other four-stars (Perich, Marsh) and lower-rated prospects (Brown, Campbell, Knapp). And a top 20 would have included more in the heralded (Auburn WR Cam Coleman and Texas WR Ryan Wingo) and unheralded departments (ULM RB Ahmad Hardy and UNLV K Caden Chittenden). There are star turns everywhere you look.
9. Biletnikoff Award
I have absolutely no idea how to create a list of the country's best receivers at the moment. There are too damn many from whom to choose. Are you a pure yardage person? Ole Miss' Tre Harris, San Jose State's Nick Nash and Arizona's Tetairoa McMillan are all averaging more than 120 receiving yards per game, a 1,500-yard pace for the season.
Do you lean toward the most memorable moments? If so, Alabama's Ryan Williams is on pace for at least 1,200 yards and had just about the greatest catch-and-run you'll ever see against Georgia. Plus, Miami's Xavier Restrepo saved the Hurricanes' bacon with huge late catches in two tight wins, and Jeremiah Smith seems to make at least one fabulous one-handed catch per game. And only one wideout, CU's Travis Hunter, is also high on the Heisman favorites list.
I've gotten this far and haven't yet mentioned Maryland's Tai Felton, or Ohio State's absurdly steady Emeka Egbuka, or Missouri's preseason All-American Luther Burden (who scored on a 61-yard run against UMass on Saturday) or any other vital receivers who would belong on a watch list if one came out tomorrow. The amount of elite pass catching in college football right now is something else.
10. National coach of the year
Having the transfer portal at your disposal doesn't automatically mean rebuilding a team is easier than it used to be. The portal gives and takes with equal ferocity, after all. But we have definitely seen a solid volume of out-of-nowhere successes in recent years, and many of those stories heavily involve new coaches and/or lots of transfers.
This year has been no different. Except, among the out-of-nowhere successes are also two teams that took no transfers whatsoever. And among the successes are also lots of veteran coaches engineering spectacular rebounds. I have absolutely no idea how to rank their performances -- they're all too impressive.
Army's Jeff Monken, BYU's Kalani Sitake, Iowa State's Matt Campbell, Miami's Mario Cristobal, Navy's Brian Newberry and Pitt's Pat Narduzzi went a combined 33-41 last season. They're currently 35-0. The portal isn't an option for Monken or Newberry, whose respective option offenses each bottomed out last season but are magical in 2024. And Narduzzi seemed to lose more to the portal than he took in. But they're all currently coaching unbeaten teams.
Indiana's Curt Cignetti and Louisiana-Monroe's Bryant Vincent, meanwhile, took over programs that went a combined 5-19; they're currently 11-1. They should absolutely lead any coach-of-the-year conversations, but so should everyone in the previous paragraph. And what about Texas' Steve Sarkisian, who got the Horns to No. 1 for the first time since 2008? Or Penn State's James Franklin, who has the Nittany Lions up to No. 3 for the first time since 2017? There have been plenty of poor coaching jobs, too, obviously, but the number of magnificent first-half performances has been awfully fun to follow.
The five most surprising results
Here are the five results that were furthest away from their respective SP+ projections. Call them either surprises or bad projections, I guess, but either way, the Big Ten decided to have itself an awfully strange week.
Northwestern 37, Maryland 10 (projection: Maryland by 12.1). Look, if I could program "Maryland's going to fall apart the moment the calendar flips to October" into SP+, I would. Instead it always comes as a surprise. Since 2021, the Terrapins are 15-3 in September and 11-16 thereafter, and they were genuinely poor Friday night, falling behind 17-0 in the first 20 minutes, rallying to 17-10 early in the fourth quarter, then allowing 20 straight points. That's a nice result for Northwestern, but you only get so much credit for beating October Maryland.
Wisconsin 42, Rutgers 7 (projection: Rutgers by 1.8). After losing by a combined 80-31 to Alabama and USC, Wisconsin fell all the way to 66th in SP+. Now, after beating Purdue and Rutgers by a combined 94-13, the Badgers are right back up to 32nd. Make up your damn mind, Badgers.
Jacksonville State 54, New Mexico State 13 (projection: JSU by 12.3). JSU is evidently the Wisconsin of Conference USA. The Gamecocks started 0-3 and fell to 122nd in SP+ but have now won three straight conference games by a combined 161-44 to jump to 94th.
Miami (Ohio) 38, Eastern Michigan 14 (projection: EMU by 0.5). I thought Miami might be an unlikely CFP contender with the experience and defensive talent it returned, but the Redhawks began the season 1-4. We'll see if this surprisingly easy win, by far their best performance of the season, means anything moving forward. It's certainly not too late to make a MAC title run if they can maintain this level.
Iowa 40, Washington 16 (projection: Washington by 0.4). SP+ still thought Washington was pretty solid after some nice wins and two losses by only eight combined points. That faith was not rewarded in Iowa City.
Who won the Heisman this week?
I am once again awarding the Heisman every single week of the season and doling out weekly points, F1-style (in this case, 10 points for first place, 9 for second and so on). How will this Heisman race play out, and how different will the result be from the actual Heisman voting?
Here is this week's Heisman top 10:
1. Tyler Warren, Penn State (17 catches for 224 yards and a touchdown, plus one carry for 4 yards and 1-for-1 passing for 9 yards).
2. Dillon Gabriel, Oregon (23-for-34 for 341 yards and two touchdowns, plus 32 rushing yards and a touchdown against Ohio State).
3. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State (31 carries for 217 yards and a touchdown, plus 20 receiving yards and a touchdown against Hawai'i).
4. Anthony Hill Jr., Texas (11 tackles, 3.5 TFLs, 2 sacks and a forced fumble against Oklahoma).
5. Cam Skattebo, Arizona State (22 carries for 158 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 41 receiving yards against Utah).
6. DJ Giddens, Kansas State (25 carries for 182 yards, plus 38 receiving yards against Colorado).
7. Kaleb Johnson, Iowa (21 carries for 166 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 22 receiving yards and a touchdown against Washington).
8. Luke Altmyer, Illinois (20-for-34 passing for 379 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 90 non-sack rushing yards and a touchdown against Purdue).
9. Ryan Browne, Purdue (18-for-26 passing for 297 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 129 non-sack rushing yards against Illinois).
10. Jackson Woodard, UNLV (12 tackles, 2 interceptions, 3 pass breakups, 0.5 TFLs and a fumble recovery against Utah State).
OK, James Franklin and Andy Kotelnicki, I get it. You want Tyler Warren to win the Mackey Award. Kudos for the commitment, however: No one else in college football scored a touchdown as a center this week.
Penn State TE Tyler Warren vs. USC
— Jordan Reid (@Jordan_Reid) October 13, 2024
17 catches, 224 yards and a TD.
Checkout the insane play design on his TD catch. He actually started the play at center. pic.twitter.com/jU1E1hFktq
Needless to say, when you run, catch and throw for 237 yards as your team unleashes a road comeback win that could have major Big Ten title implications, you're probably going to end up No. 1 on this list. Dillon Gabriel, meanwhile, was an easy No. 2, hitting the No. 1 defense in the country (per SP+) for 341 passing yards, a huge rushing touchdown and an even more huge conference win.
Honorable mention:
• Bryson Daily, Army (3-for-7 passing for 102 yards and a touchdown, plus 136 rushing yards and four touchdowns against UAB).
• Aaron Graves, Iowa (5 tackles, 2 TFLs, 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and a pass breakup against Washington).
• Jamal Haynes, Georgia Tech (19 carries for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 9 receiving yards against North Carolina).
• Riley Leonard, Notre Dame (16-for-22 passing for 229 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 36 non-sack rushing yards and a touchdown against Stanford).
• Jordan McCloud, Texas State (24-for-29 passing for 320 yards and 4 touchdowns, plus 29 rushing yards and a touchdown against Arkansas State).
• Chrishon McCray, Kent State (8 catches for 213 yards and 3 touchdowns against Ball State).
• Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (34-for-40 passing for 388 yards, 3 TDs and an INT, plus 24 non-sack rushing yards against Kansas State).
• Tawee Walker, Wisconsin (24 carries for 198 yards and 3 touchdowns against Rutgers).
Through seven weeks, here are your points leaders:
1. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State (41)
2. Cam Ward, Miami (33)
3T. Dillon Gabriel, Oregon (18)
3T. Jalen Milroe, Alabama (18)
5. Travis Hunter, Colorado (17)
6T. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (14)
6T. Kurtis Rourke, Indiana (14)
8. Cam Skattebo, Arizona State (12)
9T. Alonza Barnett III, JMU (10)
9T. Blake Horvath, Navy (10)
9T. Cade Klubnik, Clemson (10)
9T. Arch Manning, Texas (10)
9T. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt (10)
9T. Tyler Warren, Penn State (10)
I'm fascinated by whether Jeanty can hold the nation's attention over the back half of the schedule, but he absolutely deserves his No. 1 spot on this list right now.
My 10 favorite games of the weekend
1. No. 23 Illinois 50, Purdue 49 (OT). In Purdue's first 18 quarters against power conference opponents this season, the Boilermakers scored a total of 47 points. They were awful enough that offensive coordinator Graham Harrell didn't even keep his job into October, and at halftime Saturday, on the road, they trailed a ranked Illinois team 24-3. And then they scored 40 points in a single half -- five touchdowns, two 2-point conversions and a field goal -- to take a 43-40 lead with 46 seconds left in regulation. Quarterback Ryan Browne was 4-for-7 for 9 yards in the first half and 14-for-19 for 289 yards and three scores in the second. He also rushed for 118 yards.
It was a sudden and shocking rebirth for the Boilermakers. But they left too much time on the clock. Illinois drove 53 yards and tied the game with a last-second field goal, and after Illinois scored to start OT, Purdue got a touchdown from Arhmad Branch but couldn't nail a third 2-point conversion. After all that work, the Boilers fell to 1-5 all the same.
2. No. 3 Oregon 32, No. 2 Ohio State 31. There really are few things in this sport more thrilling than a big game that lives up to its billing.
THE DUCK IS CROWDSURFING THE FIELD STORM 🔥🦆@oregonfootball pic.twitter.com/Y42g4946b1
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 13, 2024
3. No. 4 Penn State 33, USC 30. At halftime, Penn State's in-game win probability was 12.7%. A couple of hours (and a few more Tyler Warren catches) later, the Nittany Lions were alive and well in the Big Ten race.
4. No. 7 Alabama 27, South Carolina 25. When this game ended, I would have bet $100 that it would end up No. 1 on this list. The Big Ten conspired against that, but this was still a hell of a game. A 19-0 run gave South Carolina a shocking 5-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, and while Bama seized control again, the Gamecocks got an incredible TD catch from Nyck Harbor and came within a 2-point conversion of forcing OT. Bama wobbled for the second straight week but didn't fall.
5. No. 13 LSU 29, No. 9 Ole Miss 26. Oh yeah, this one! That battle of top-15 teams that went to OT and somehow only ended up fifth! LSU didn't lead for even one second in regulation, and it felt for most of the second half like Ole Miss had the dagger in its hand. But the Rebels could never land the knockout blow, and in two plays -- a 23-yard Garrett Nussmeier-to-Aaron Anderson score with 27 seconds left in regulation and a 25-yard Nussmeier-to-Kyren Lacy score on their first play in OT -- the Tigers stole the win. What a night in Death Valley.
6. Georgia Southern 24, Marshall 23. As LSU was coming back on Ole Miss, Georgia Southern was coming back from the dead against Marshall in front of a delirious Paulson Stadium crowd. The Eagles trailed 23-3 with eight minutes left but forced a safety, scored in nine plays, recovered a fumble, scored again, recovered another fumble, scored the go-ahead TD with 1:00 left, then picked off a pass to seal the ultimate smash-and-grab win.
(I'm focusing on the positives here and commending the Eagles, but ... damn, Marshall. You blew this one badly.)
7. FCS: Dartmouth 44, Yale 43. Dartmouth basically pulled a Georgia Southern. With eight minutes left, the Big Green trailed 37-16 on the road, but they scored, recovered an onside kick and scored again to make it 37-30 with 6:34 left. After Yale's Nick Conforti missed a 47-yard field goal that would have put the game away, Grayson Saunier raced 32 yards for the game-tying TD. Conforti missed a 46-yarder at the buzzer, and after the teams traded TDs in overtime, Yale failed on what would have been the game-winning 2-pointer.
8. Rice 29, UTSA 27. With nine seconds left, UTSA's win probability was 78.4%. Five seconds later, Rice's win probability was 99.9%.
RICE FOR THE WIN!!!!!#AmericanWay x @RiceFootball pic.twitter.com/g27s6b4t18
— The American (@American_Conf) October 13, 2024
9. Division III: Wisconsin-Stout 29, No. 8 Wisconsin-Whitewater 27. At this point, what would a column of mine be without a trip to the WIAC? The conference is loaded with D3 playoff contenders, and one of them suffered an enormous upset. UW-Stout had lost 21 in a row to mighty UWW, but the Blue Devils used a second-quarter burst to jump to a 20-17 lead, then held on for dear life.
UWW threw two picks and missed a field goal, and after the Warhawks cut the lead to 2 and got the ball back with 1:10 left, Braxton Munnikhuysen came up with a huge sack, UWW turned the ball over on downs, and the decades-long losing streak was over.
10. Georgia Tech 41, North Carolina 34. Before this game, I joked to a friend that UNC was giving Baylor a run for its money in the "Try so hard that you get your heart broken every week" department. And then the Heels took that to a completely different level, erasing a 10-point lead with four minutes left, only to watch Jamal Haynes race straight up the middle for the winning 68-yard TD with 28 seconds left. Oof.
I have to provide another honorable mention section since there were too many games that deserved mention:
• FCS: Central Arkansas 34, West Georgia 33
• No. 18 Kansas State 31, Colorado 28
• Nevada 42, Oregon State 37
• North Texas 41, Florida Atlantic 37
• No. 22 Pitt 17, California 15
• No. 8 Tennessee 23, Florida 17
And while the game itself wasn't exactly amazing, kudos to everyone involved in the Western Michigan-Akron game, who withstood a dang hail storm, then waited out a five-hour storm delay to finally complete a 34-24 WMU win.
The midweek playlist
We're to the point of the year where there's football on every single day of the week. And while some of the midweek college football action doesn't exactly look amazing on paper, here are a couple of games that won't make my Friday preview column but deserve mention.
Western Kentucky at Sam Houston (Wednesday, 7 p.m., ESPN2). Liberty is the obvious CUSA favorite, but the race for No. 2, between WKU, SHSU and Jacksonville State could be awfully tight. This one will provide a potentially key tiebreaker advantage.
Boston College at Virginia Tech (Thursday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN). BC started hot then ran aground with injuries. Virginia Tech started terribly but played by far its two best games of the season in the past two weeks before a Week 7 bye. Do those sudden trends continue?