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...
Ohio State Suddenly Has A Quarterback Problem It Cant Ignore
Ohio State got the win it wanted against Indiana, but it came with a major concern as starting quarterback Julian Sayin went down with a right shoulder injury in the fourth quarter. Head coach Ryan Day said Sayin is expected to miss several weeks, leaving the Buckeyes to navigate a stretch without the player who had been steering the offense.
Luke Fahey, a true freshman, finished the game after Sayin exited, and Ohio State still managed to hold on for a 19-15 victory that snapped Indianas 22-game winning streak. The result will sit well in the standings, but the next question is far more pressing for the Buckeyes: how they adjust at quarterback while waiting for Sayin to heal. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana May Have Changed Ohio State's Entire Season
Ohio State's win over Indiana did more than hand the Buckeyes a hard-fought 19-15 victory and snap the Hoosiers' 22-game winning streak. It also came with a potential season-altering hit when starting quarterback Julian Sayin went down with a right arm injury in the fourth quarter, forcing Ohio State to keep the rest of the afternoon moving without the player who had been steering the offense.
Coach Ryan Day said Sayin is expected to be out for several weeks, leaving the Buckeyes to lean on backup Luke Fahey in a situation that immediately tested the depth chart. Fahey took over, but the offense had trouble advancing while he was on the field, which turned a statement win into a much bigger concern about how Ohio State will handle the next stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State's Huge Win May Have Come With A Serious Cost
Ohio States 19-15 win at Indiana was the kind of victory that can reshape a season, snapping the Hoosiers 22-game winning streak and ending a 19-game run at home. Julian Sayin provided the biggest offensive play of the day with a 38-yard touchdown pass that helped the Buckeyes get enough separation in a tight, tense game where every possession seemed to matter.
The concern afterward was less about the result and more about what it may have cost. Sayin appeared to injure his right arm during the game, leaving Ohio State to wonder how serious it is after a performance that had already become central to the outcome, while Indiana also had a chance to flip the script when Nick Marshs potential go-ahead touchdown was wiped out because he stepped out of bounds. [Read more 🡒]