It is a common trope of prestige television shows to have the penultimate episode of the season serve as the biggest or most jaw dropping episode. College football subscribes to the opposite belief. This week is notorious for a certain southeastern based conference scheduling tune-up games prior to Rivalry Week. Other conferences have taken note and many of the marquee programs are now being matched up against the lower class of the conference (or scheduling their own late season cupcakes). Needless to say, this was not the greatest slate of games on paper, and the on field results mostly matched expectations. There were only four games between ranked opponents. Two of them were good (Washington at Oregon State, Kansas State at Kansas). Two of them were blowouts (Georgia at Tennessee, Arizona at Utah).
Even though this was not the sport’s finest output, there were plenty of notable results. James Madison’s perfect season came to an end in dramatic fashion. Florida State’s championship hopes likely came to an end as Jordan Travis suffered a gruesome leg injury in a throwaway game against FCS North Alabama. Louisville clinched its spot against Florida State in the ACC championship game despite Miami completing a hailmary. Michigan finally played down to an opponent after the administration tucked its tail and ran away from the legal battle with the Big 10. Iowa, despite being woefully short of the 25 points per game goal, clinched the Big 10 West. Nebraska failed to clinch bowl eligibility (again) in overtime against Wisconsin and will need to upset Iowa on Black Friday.
We start though with the autopsy of USC’s season as USC and UCLA squared off for the final time as Pac-12 foes.
USC’s Season Ends. Not With A Bang But With A Whimper.
USC started the season ranked #6. Reigning Heisman Trophy Winner Caleb Williams was back. The Trojans were a bad second half against Utah away from reaching the playoff last year. The Trojans beefed up the defensive line. Everything was seemingly in front of Lincoln Riley’s second year at the helm.
With a 38-20 loss at the hands of crosstown rival UCLA, USC has now dropped 5 of their last 6. They are two failed two-point conversions away from having lost seven in a row if the Arizona and Cal games go another way. By all accounts, Caleb Williams has played his final game as a Trojan. USC’s season is over and they will get invited to a middling bowl game. I can’t imagine Caleb elects to risk injury in a meaningless bowl game.
Despite the rumors swirling that UCLA is prepared to move on from Chip Kelly after an occasionally succesful, but mostly underwhelming six seasons, it seems like USC is the program with the most questions. Is Lincoln Riley the right coach to turn this around? USC’s near Pac-12 title was certainly a surprise in 2022, but it felt more like a situation of getting the right coach in place to maximize the program’s potential. Rather than building on the early success, USC took significant steps backward this season. Riley retained Alex Grinch, whose defense regressed even further. The offensive line and rushing attack faltered. The offense in general looked poorly coached and seemed to rely entirely on Caleb Williams being Superman.
USC and UCLA both make the move to the Big 10 next year and UCLA, with their relatively stout defense this year, looks more the part. What is USC’s plan moving forward?
I don’t think there are any rumors that Riley is on the hot seat. However, a significant regression with Caleb Williams back raises all kinds of red flags. Riley needs to restore USC’s trenches along both lines, figure out how to get a complementary defense to go with his usually potent offenses, and get his offense back to a state where it does not require superhuman efforts by the quarterback.
For the Bruins, if this was Chip’s last game, it was certainly an interesting ride. I thought the season opening win against LSU in 2021 signaled that Chip had finally arrived. Not so much. The Bruins were good in 2021 and 2022, but have never come close to achieving the heights of his Oregon teams. It seems the rest of the sport caught up to the former offensive innovator and guru. It’s no secret that Chip does not love the recruiting aspect of the college game and UCLA, despite close proximity to several top recruits, does not recruit itself without top down buy-in.
I suppose it is fitting that the two LA schools responsible for the death of the Pac-12 are not even close to sniffing a spot in the title game in their final season as conference members. Even moreso, both programs, on the verge of a new frontier, are left searching for direction.
Quick Hitters
Washington State 56 - Colorado 14. Another Friday night matchup for the Buffs, likely led to another widely watched blowout. Washington State was up 42-7 at the half. If not for a couple of acrobatic catches by Travis Hunter, Colorado could have easily been shut out completely. Colorado, the team of September, is going to finish with a record that most of the experts thought they would. They just took an unusually entertaining route to get there.
#17 Arionza 42 - #22 Utah 18. Few schools have collected skulls quite like Arizona over the second half of the season. They played USC and Washington close in the first third of the season and have since won five in a row. The Wildcats were up 28-0 seven seconds into the 2nd quarter of this one and cruised the rest of the way to victory. Quite the turn around by Jedd Fisch.
#1 Georgia 38 - #18 Tennessee 10. Tennessee scored on its first play of the game. Pretty much nothing else went right for the Vols. Georgia again gave up an early score and then dominated. This game was not in doubt. After week five, I wrote that Georgia would miss the playoff. That could still be true if they lose to Alabama in the SEC title game, but the spirit of what I wrote has been fully debunked. Georgia is as serious a threat to be the first three-peat champion as I’ve ever seen.
#16 Iowa 15 - Illinois 13. Brian Ferentz finding out he would not return as the offensive coordinate has apparently left his coaching strategy unchanged. Iowa’s offense still stinks. They don’t have a prayer of hitting the mythical 325 point marker. “Hilariously” enough, most of the rest of the Big 10 West is also on pace to fail the drive for 325. A grisly showing by the offenses in this division in 2023.
Appalachian State 26 - James Madison 23 (OT). James Madison’s perfect season was ruined by another former FCS powerhouse. With College Gameday in town, James Madison was unable to complete its perfect season. It seemed like James Madison was a team of destiny after completing a 4th and 18, and two toe-tapping catches to score the game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter. App State held James Madison to a field goal and ended the game with a touchdown at the end of the first overtime period. Perhaps the Viginia AG should wait until James Madison’s season is over before threatening to take the NCAA to court regarding its policy on bowl elgibility for FCS promotions.
#2 Michigan 31 - Maryland 24. Maryland gave Michigan everything it could handle on Saturday as Michigan looked mortal against lesser competition for the first time all year. I don’t know if the Wolverines were looking ahead to the Ohio State game next week or the weight of the ever evolving sign scandal is finally taking its toll. All I know is Maryland’s backup quarterback had 4 carries for 3 yards and 3 TDs in one of the great fantasy vultering performances of all-time. JJ McCarthy’s Heisman campaign is seemingly over as he struggled to do much of anything through the air for the second week in a row.
#10 Louisville 38 - Miami 31. Probably the game of the day. The Cardinals beat the Hurricanes in front of an empty house for Miami. It was a back and forth affair that Miami led for a good chunk of time. The game ultimately came down to a hailmary attempt for the Hurricanes that very nearly sent this game to overtime.
#5 Washington 22 - #11 Oregon State 20. I did not get to see much of this game. I did see it was a drizzly game and that it seemed to have a big impact on Washington’s ability to hold onto the ball. There were drops and fumbles throughout by both teams. Ultimately Washington made just enough plays to remain undefeated and clinched a spot in the Pac-12 title game (likely against Oregon).
#4 Florida State 58 - North Alabama 13. Jordan Travis’ leg should not bend like it did after being taken down on a first quarter scramble. The Seminoles managed to overwhelm an undermanned FSC program, but a rivarly week matchup against Florida and an ACC title game against crafty Louisville look much tougher than they did this morning. Florida State went from near playoff lock in my mind, to a fringe candidate unless backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker shows some serious chutzpah in the final two games.
New Mexico State 31 - Auburn 10. What?!?! How does Auburn lose by 21 points to New Mexico State under any circumstances? New Mexico State now owns the last two instances of winning a game by 21+ points after coming into the game as a 21+ point underdog. The last time this happened? When New Mexico State beat Liberty 49-14 in 2022. Who was Liberty coached by in 2022, you ask? Hugh Freeze. Hugh needs to avoid scheduling New Mexico State it seems. They have his number. The cherry on the top? Auburn paid New Mexico State $1.85 million for the privilege of getting waxed by them. War Eagle.
Arkansas State 77 - Texas State 31. This one makes the list because of two reasons. First, Arkansas State was outgained in the game, 539 to 487, despite winning by 46. Three defensive touchdowns and a kickoff return for a touchdown really messed with the stats on this one. Second, Arkansas State may have created a new 70-70 club. The Red Wolves gave up 73 to Oklahoma to start the year and put up 77 in this game. I can’t imagine many teams have managed to give up and score 70+ points in the same season.
That’s all I have this week. I was not able to track plays like I usually can to come up with a variety of amazing, terrible, and funny plays of the week.
We are now on to Rivarly Week. It is always crazy how fast the season flies by. It is especially insane how quickly we have raced through November. With the baby coming soon I’m not sure if I will get to post again this season. If not, it’s been fun. I hope you all have enjoyed the year as much as I have.
P.S. Go Bucks. Time to take back control of the rivalry and beat TTUN.