Chaos owns college football right now, and Week 7 made sure nobody could miss it. Five top-10 teams fell in the same Saturday slate, and that kind of wreckage says a lot about where this season stands: crowded, unstable and full of teams that look dangerous one week and ordinary the next.
That was the bigger story than any one upset. Miami nearly joined the list of victims too, needing double overtime to get past rival Florida State.
There are no unbeaten SEC teams left. UCLA is the last undefeated team in the Big Ten.
The sport feels flatter than it used to, and the way talent is spread around in the NIL and transfer portal era has turned Saturdays into a constant stress test. When Alabama and Georgia can’t hoard talent the way they once did, a lot more teams show up with players capable of flipping the script.
It’s great theater, but it’s also a mess.
Georgia found that out the hard way against Auburn, and Gunner Stockton was right in the middle of it. Stockton had three turnovers, capped by a late fumble that left the Bulldogs in bad shape.
Georgia came in off an emotional win over Alabama, so the trap-game setup was obvious. Still, this is supposed to be a team that does not unravel.
The defense is supposed to steady things. The offense is supposed to avoid self-inflicted damage.
Stockton did the opposite, and it was a stunning way to give the game away.
Notre Dame’s path is simpler, even if it is not exactly comfortable. The Irish look like a team that should probably just win out and remove all doubt.
Their season, in many ways, comes down to two games, and the cleaner way to handle the College Football Playoff race would be to beat Miami on Nov. 7.
Do that, and the stress disappears. Don’t, and Notre Dame is staring at a 10-2 finish with losses to the two best teams on its schedule, hoping the committee keeps it inside the top 12.
That’s a lot of anxiety when 11-1 would make everything much easier.
BYU’s win also carried extra weight beyond the Cougars themselves. It may have been even bigger for the Big 12, and the league knows exactly why.
Ohio State and Indiana brought another kind of drama: elite defense, shaky quarterback play and one injury that could reshape the conversation. Ryan Day said Julian Sayin will probably be out for “several weeks,” and the broadcast later showed him on the sideline with his right arm in a sling.
Josh Hoover also played through a shoulder injury sustained midway through the game. Before either quarterback got hurt, neither one was exactly lighting it up.
Sayin and Hoover both missed open receivers, and Sayin’s touchdown to Jeremiah Smith was the kind of play that happened because Smith made it happen, adjusting and winning the ball anyway. Hoover’s near game-winner to Nick Marsh should have been simpler too, if the throw came out quicker.
That final Indiana snap is the sort of thing Curt Cignetti may replay over and over; afterward, he called it “a hard one to swallow.” And for a quarterback with an 18-0 TD-to-INT ratio, the question marks are suddenly louder than anyone expected.
Ohio State and Indiana both look like they can defend with anybody. The issue now is what they can trust from the quarterback spot when the pressure gets biggest.
Texas, meanwhile, is sinking into a bad stretch that’s impossible to ignore. Two weeks ago, the Longhorns were No. 1 in the country after that dramatic comeback over Ohio State.
Even then, they didn’t look like the best team in the nation. Now they’ve stacked two ugly losses in a row.
The offense still looks clunky, and Steve Sarkisian may have to consider giving up playcalling because something has to change. The loss to Florida was especially painful: Texas blew its biggest home lead against an unranked opponent since 1965.
Against one of the worst pass defenses in the country, Arch Manning and the Longhorns managed only one passing touchdown and 173 total passing yards, and Manning also fumbled with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter. With Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU still ahead, the season suddenly feels like it’s slipping.
One more note from around the country: earlier this week, the former James Madison football coaches were a focus because of what they’re doing at Indiana and UCLA. But the current Dukes head coach deserves attention too.
Billy Napier has James Madison at 7-0 and looking like the clear Sun Belt favorite. The question now is whether JMU can get to the College Football Playoff for a second straight year.
The eventual Pac-12 champion will have something to say about that, but it’s already a storyline worth watching.
In Other News...
Notre Dames BYU Loss Just Got Even More Infuriating
The ending of Notre Dames loss to BYU already felt odd in real time, and now the conference has made it official: an officiating error affected the final sequence. The Big 12 said one second remained on the clock but was not properly accounted for, which meant the game ended before Notre Dame got the extra snap it should have had on 2nd and goal.
Even more frustrating for the Irish is that the replay officiating crew cleared the play anyway, closing the door on a chance to score in the most critical moment of the night. The conference says it will review its end-of-game officiating process after the incident, but for Notre Dame that only sharpens the sting of a loss that now comes with a documented missed opportunity attached to it. [Read more 🡒]
Marcus Freeman Addresses What Went Wrong In Notre Dame's Costly Loss
Marcus Freeman had a clear read on what hurt Notre Dame in its loss to BYU, and it started with the kind of details that usually decide close games. The defense struggled with discipline against a misdirection-heavy offense, while the offense left points on the field by not being efficient enough in the red zone. For a team that had stacked up a 16-game winning streak, those lapses stood out even more because they came in the moments when control of the game was there to be taken.
Freeman also pointed to the adjustments Notre Dame made after halftime, which helped steady things but did not erase the damage from the early mistakes and missed chances. The bigger concern now is execution in the critical spots that turn solid performances into wins, especially when the margin is thin and the opponent is forcing defenders and play-callers to think on the fly. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Suddenly Has An Offensive Question It Can't Ignore
The loss to BYU was more than just Notre Dames first defeat in 17 games. It also exposed an offense that left too many points on the field, whether through missed scoring chances or a rhythm that looked too easy for the Cougars to diagnose. For a team that had spent weeks building momentum, the 28-24 setback served as a reminder that the margin gets thin quickly when the attack stalls at the wrong time.
Mike Denbrock and CJ Carr now get a bye week to sort through the issues before Miami comes to South Bend. Jaden Greathouse gave the Irish a bright spot with 8 catches for 125 yards, but Notre Dame will need more than one productive outing from its receivers if it wants the offense to look less predictable and more dangerous when play resumes. [Read more 🡒]