Week 9 didn’t bring the kind of chaos that usually shakes up the sport, but it still carved out a few clear winners and losers. A lot of teams flirted with disaster without fully tipping over - Boise State, Notre Dame, Miami and Indiana all made things harder than they needed to - while the SEC mostly went about its business, with Oklahoma the lone favorite to fall. And then there was South Carolina, which keeps looking more and more like the team nobody wants to deal with in November.
LaNorris Sellers is the biggest reason why. South Carolina’s quarterback has flipped the script in October, and the Gamecocks suddenly look like a team playing with real force.
Over four games, Sellers has averaged 342 yards of total offense and 3.75 touchdowns per game while helping South Carolina go 3-1. The only loss in that stretch came in overtime against Kentucky.
The schedule hasn’t been padded, either. Oklahoma and Tennessee both rank among the SEC’s top five passing defenses, and Sellers turned in two of his best performances in wins over those teams.
This week was his most eye-catching outing yet: just under 400 yards of total offense and five touchdowns in a 42-25 win that was never as close as the final score suggests.
The Gamecocks still have a lot left to prove before anyone can seriously start penciling them into the Playoff field, but the route is there. Texas A&M and Arkansas are next, followed by a huge home game against Georgia in the penultimate week of the regular season. If South Carolina can somehow run that stretch 3-0, then a win at rival Clemson would finish the job.
Ohio State, on the other hand, looks like a team in trouble. The Buckeyes came out of the bye week looking flat and vulnerable on defense, and USC took advantage despite having the ball for only 20 minutes.
The Trojans still piled up 338 yards of offense and punted only four times. Jayden Maiava went 15-of-22 for 222 yards and a touchdown to Trent Mosley, and Ohio State never looked physically imposing or properly prepared.
The timing only makes it worse: USC scored 7 points in a loss to Wisconsin, and that Wisconsin team was just blanked by Iowa. With Sayin out for the season, it’s hard to see the Buckeyes reaching the College Football Playoff unless they win out against Oregon, Northwestern, Nebraska and Michigan.
Wake Forest keeps forcing its way into the ACC conversation. With SMU losing to Syracuse, the Demon Deacons are now the only one-loss team in the league behind undefeated Miami, which beat them in September, 33-20.
Wake Forest rolled through October, outscoring opponents 187-31, and capped the month with a 51-7 blowout of Virginia. The ground game was the story again, with the Demon Deacons rushing for 309 yards and five touchdowns against the Cavaliers.
The question now is the one everyone is asking: are the Deacons a College Football Playoff team?
Nebraska found another painful way to lose. The Huskers led Washington for 58 minutes and 29 seconds before the game flipped in the final minute and a half.
Nebraska was ahead 7-3 with 1:31 left, then gave up the lead and immediately threw an interception on the next possession that was returned for a touchdown. In the span of about 20 seconds, a 7-3 advantage turned into a 17-7 deficit.
That kind of ending has become a theme, too. Nebraska has led entering the fourth quarter in every game it has played this season, and now sits at 5-3 after three straight losses to Indiana, Oregon and Washington.
If you were awake for Boise State-Texas State, you got the game of the week. Maybe the game of the year.
The fourth quarter went completely off the rails, with six touchdowns and three scores in the final 4:15 alone. Texas State stormed back from 28-3 down in the second half and took the lead with under five minutes left, but Boise State answered to win 46-45 in western Idaho.
The teams combined for just under 1,000 yards of offense, and the Broncos did it without their starting quarterback for much of the second half. Max Cutforth stepped in for Maddux Madsen and threw three fourth-quarter touchdown passes, including the winner.
Boise State needed every bit of it, too. A loss would have dropped the Broncos to 6-2 and made life much tougher in the G6 race.
Instead, they’re 7-1 heading into Week 10 at Colorado State.
Arizona’s margin for error may be gone. The Wildcats lost 34-26 to Texas Tech after leading midway through the third quarter, and that defeat came on the heels of a loss to BYU in a tight Big 12 title race.
A win would have put Arizona third in the conference ahead of Texas Tech and Houston. Instead, the Wildcats are fifth with four games left, including a matchup against Utah, the league’s top team.
To get to the Big 12 title game, Arizona now needs to win out and have at least three of four other things break its way. Good luck, Wildcats!
In Other News...
Dabo Swinney Blasts Fan Stunt He Says Crossed The Line
Clemsons win over Florida State ended with an ugly aftertaste, as Dabo Swinney took aim at a banner that flew over the stadium calling for the firing of coach Mike Norvell and trustee Peter Collins. The message, which was reportedly crowdfunded by a fan and cost $3,550, even misspelled Norvells name, and Swinney made clear he was disappointed by what he saw as a step too far.
For a program that already lives under a microscope in the ACC, the episode was another reminder of how quickly frustration can spill past the normal bounds of fan criticism. Swinneys point was simple enough: support the players, not public calls for people to lose their jobs after a loss, and he drew a firm line between passion and something he believed crossed it. [Read more 🡒]
Nitro Tuggles South Carolina Absence Says Plenty About His Standing
Nitro Tuggles absence from South Carolinas trip to Oklahoma stood out because it was his first missed game of the season, and it came at a time when the Gamecocks were making clear choices about who could help them most on the road. Shane Beamer said the receivers who traveled were the ones who gave the team the best chance to win, with away-game roster limits also shaping the decision.
For Tuggle, the message was hard to miss. He has seen limited playing time this season and has not been a major factor on special teams, so being left behind suggests his place on the depth chart is still very much in flux as South Carolina continues sorting out its receiver rotation. [Read more 🡒]
South Carolina Is Suddenly Right On The Edge Of Something Bigger
A third straight SEC win has South Carolina suddenly in a much better place than it was a few weeks ago, with the Gamecocks climbing to No. 26 in the US LBM Coaches Poll and No. 23 in the AP Poll after knocking off Oklahoma. LaNorris Sellers was the engine again, accounting for five total touchdowns while piling up 301 passing yards and 96 rushing yards in a performance that helped keep the momentum rolling.
Now the challenge gets a little more interesting. South Carolina is set to host Texas A&M on November 7, and the Gamecocks are carrying both a rising ranking and a growing sense that this stretch could mean more than just a nice run in the standings. The question is how far this surge can carry them once the next SEC test arrives. [Read more 🡒]