The Week 9 college football board might look thin at first glance, but that usually means the sport is about to do something ridiculous.
With only five SEC games on the schedule and a light overall slate, there’s still plenty to chew on heading into the weekend. Missouri is staring at a road trip that could tell us a lot about its season, Lincoln Riley has somehow become part of a wild Texas coaching hypothetical, UCLA keeps rolling under Bob Chesney, Wake Forest deserves more attention than it’s getting, and the SEC’s five-game menu has some clear hierarchy.
Missouri enters Saturday at 5-2 overall and 3-2 in SEC play, but the road split is what makes this feel like a pressure point. Eli Drinkwitz’s team is 0-2 away from home in the league, with losses at Mississippi State, where Kamario Taylor and Fluff Bothwell were healthy, and at Ole Miss, where the Tigers were blown out. That makes the trip to Fayetteville feel bigger than it should on paper.
Arkansas sits second-worst in the SEC in my latest power rankings, so this is the kind of game Missouri ought to handle. But the Tigers’ closing stretch is no joke: vs.
Texas, at Georgia, vs. Kentucky and vs.
Oklahoma. Missouri has been perfect at home, and it still has three games left in Columbia, but those matchups are tough ones.
Texas may not look like the preseason juggernaut, Kentucky has turned out better than expected, Georgia on the road is a grind, and Oklahoma’s defense is no easy assignment. If Missouri slips in Fayetteville, getting to six wins starts to look a lot harder.
There’s also a scenario, however far-fetched, that puts Lincoln Riley in the middle of a Texas conversation. If Texas drops a couple more games and grows tired of Steve Sarkisian, or if Sarkisian gets serious about NFL interest, the Longhorns would suddenly have the biggest job opening in the country.
Riley, meanwhile, is dealing with his own messier-than-it-looks situation at USC. The Trojans are 6-2, but last week’s 7-point showing in a loss at Wisconsin was a rough one.
USC’s remaining slate - vs. Ohio State, at Indiana, vs.
Maryland and at UCLA - doesn’t leave much room for error. Drop one and the College Football Playoff path gets shaky.
Drop two and it’s over. Riley was born in Texas, has already had major success in the region, and at Oklahoma he reached the Playoff three times and coached two Heisman Trophy winners.
If this coaching market doesn’t offer a pile of elite candidates, he might be the best name standing. And if he ended up in Austin, that would pour even more gasoline on the fire in Norman.
UCLA has quietly turned into one of the best stories in the country. Bob Chesney’s team is 7-0, and the Bruins host Nevada this week with a shot to keep the streak going.
The bigger point is that this isn’t smoke and mirrors. UCLA lost Nico Iamaleava for the year and still beat Oregon, Wisconsin and Michigan State in the weeks since.
The rest of the schedule - at Minnesota, vs. Illinois, at Michigan and vs.
USC - is no cakewalk, but it’s manageable enough to make you think the Bruins have a real shot at the Playoff.
That’s why Chesney belongs in the national Coach of the Year conversation, right there with Will Stein of Kentucky. Big-time turnarounds keep showing up from wherever the current James Madison head coach happens to be, and now it’s UCLA reaping the benefits.
Wake Forest also deserves more of the spotlight. The ACC has mostly trailed behind No.
1 Miami, but Jake Dickert has the Demon Deacons on a path that shouldn’t be ignored. There’s a legitimate argument that College GameDay should have gone to Winston-Salem this weekend for Wake Forest’s game against Virginia instead of Indiana-Minnesota.
ESPN has only been to Wake Forest once, back in 2020, and that was the COVID year, so fans couldn’t even be there. Talk about a tease.
The Deacons visit SMU in a couple of weeks, and that one could end up determining the second ACC Championship Game spot behind Miami. For Wake Forest, that would be a major step forward.
And then there’s the SEC slate, which is compact but still offers a clear pecking order. Florida vs.
Georgia in Atlanta tops the list even without Jacksonville as the backdrop. South Carolina at Oklahoma is next, because the Gamecocks seem to keep finding another gear when the season looks lost, and Oklahoma just survived Mississippi State by eight even with the Bulldogs down to a backup quarterback for most of the game.
Auburn at Ole Miss comes next, with the Tigers forced to answer a simple question: is it the group that beat Georgia at Sanford Stadium, or the one that got blown out at home by LSU?
Mizzou at Arkansas lands fourth. Even with a Battle Line rivalry angle, Missouri’s road struggles keep it from climbing higher, while Arkansas picked up its first SEC win under Ryan Silverfield a couple of weeks ago and both teams are coming off byes.
Mississippi State at Texas rounds out the list. That matchup would have looked a lot more appealing in September, but Texas now has two losses and Mississippi State is without Kamario Taylor, which takes some of the shine off.
We’ll see how those rankings line up with Joe Cox’s take in his Friday column.
In Other News...
Missouri Special Teams Have One Focus Before The Arkansas Rivalry Game
Brunno Reus has had a solid first half as Missouris punter, but the bye week gave him time to zero in on the parts of his game that still need work. The Tigers special teams unit has spent the break on mechanics and details, with Reus focusing on cleaning up his punt drop and getting more consistent with shorter kicks, which can be just as important as the big field-flipping ones.
He also has kept working with kicker Blake Craig, another sign that Missouri is treating special teams as a group project rather than a collection of separate jobs. With Arkansas up next, the Tigers will want that operation as sharp as possible, and Reus attention to the finer points could matter in a rivalry game where hidden yards often end up meaning plenty. [Read more 🡒]
Eli Drinkwitz Sounds Alarm On What Missouri Could Be Facing Soon
During an SEC teleconference, Eli Drinkwitz offered a blunt warning about what college football may be about to face, and it has less to do with Missouris schedule than with the sports shifting ground underneath it. The Tigers coach said the upcoming transfer portal window could be the most volatile in the games history, pointing to the growing influence of agents and the way that extra layer is changing how players approach movement and leverage.
For Missouri, the larger concern is the same one every program is dealing with now: the portal is no longer just a roster-management issue, but a constant test of stability. Drinkwitzs comments, reported by 247Sports insider Brett Greenberg, underscored how quickly the market can tilt once the window opens, and why teams are already bracing for more player movement than they have ever had to absorb. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzou Opens With A CJ Gunn Concern Fans Can't Ignore
Missouris season has already produced one early roster wrinkle, and it involves a player who would have been expected to matter right away. CJ Gunns eligibility for the 2026-27 Mizzou basketball season is still unresolved after his preliminary injunction hearing was canceled, leaving his temporary restraining order extended to Nov. 2. For a team trying to sort out its rotation and build continuity under a staff still shaping the roster, it is the kind of off-court issue that can linger longer than anyone wants.
There is some better news on the injury front, with Ahmad Hardy back at practice and taking part in back-to-back sessions. His full return date is still up in the air, but getting him back on the floor at least gives Missouri something tangible to work with as camp moves along. Between the uncertainty around Gunn and the wait on Hardy, the Tigers are still trying to get a clear read on what this group will look like before the season pressure really starts to build. [Read more 🡒]