Alabama didn’t just beat Georgia on Saturday. It sent a message.
In a 56-23 rout, the Crimson Tide got the kind of performance that changes the conversation around a quarterback and a program at the same time. Keelon Russell, who had been on Alabama’s radar since spring and turned heads with four passing touchdowns in the spring game, is no longer flying under it.
He spread 10 passing touchdowns and 970 yards across his last three games, and this one felt like the loudest statement yet. Wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams once said playing with him was like “a video game,” and that line suddenly sounds a lot less playful.
The win gives Alabama a 5-0 start and some breathing room before a brutal stretch that includes Georgia, Tennessee on the road and LSU on the road over the next five weeks. It also adds another big-game notch for coach Kalen DeBoer, who keeps stacking evidence in his multiyear push to win over the Alabama faithful.
Saturday’s slate had no shortage of head-turning results, though. Michigan’s strange season found another uneasy chapter in a 20-14 win over Minnesota, a game the Wolverines nearly let slip away after the Golden Gophers outgained them 262-180.
Minnesota went ahead 20-14 with 13:44 left, but Michigan managed to survive the final quarter. Bryce Underwood continued to struggle, finishing 10 of 21 with two interceptions.
With a bye week now on deck, Michigan gets a chance to reset before a matchup with a mediocre Penn State team on Oct. 17.
Wake Forest kept making its own case as one of the season’s most surprising teams, and this one was emphatic. The Demon Deacons blasted Stanford 57-3, setting a program conference margin of victory record in the ACC and moving to 4-1.
Jake Dickert has Wake Forest rolling, but quarterback Gio Lopez may be the most striking part of the rise. He threw two touchdown passes against Stanford, giving him 10 on the season - the same number he had all of last year for North Carolina.
That kind of jump makes Wake Forest look like a real ACC title contender.
Northwestern also delivered one of the day’s most jarring results, opening its nine-figure new stadium Friday by flattening Penn State 34-13. The Wildcats did it with a staggering ground game, piling up 413 rushing yards to Penn State’s 48.
That was the most rushing yards the Nittany Lions have allowed since 2022, and it was enough to push Northwestern into the category of teams that may be cracking the Top 25 soon. The question now is how long that stays true, with Oregon, Iowa, Ohio State and Minnesota waiting in a rough stretch that begins Halloween.
There was also a game that carried far more weight than the box score alone. Yale coach Tony Reno, who won five Ivy League titles from 2012 to ’25, resigned in February after Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease forced him out, and he died Friday at 52 from the rare brain disorder.
On Saturday, his son, Yale quarterback Dante Reno, took the field and threw four touchdowns in a 41-24 win. All there really is to say about this performance is that it could not have been easy.
In Other News...
Wake Forest's First Exhibition Exposed Problems Fans Can't Ignore
Wake Forests first exhibition game of the season gave the staff an early look at where things stand, and the picture was a little rough. The Demon Deacons fell to Georgetown 94-77, with Kevair Kennedy pacing Wake Forest with 19 points, but the bigger story was the way the offense bogged down when the shots from deep stopped falling. Against a Georgetown team that handled the perimeter battle better, Wake Forest never really found the kind of rhythm that can make an exhibition feel like a tune-up instead of a warning sign.
Forbes framed the night as useful in the long run, even if the result was hard to ignore in the moment. Early exhibitions are supposed to reveal problems before the games count, and Wake Forest got a clear dose of that here, especially on the outside shooting front. The next stretch will show whether the loss was simply a messy October checkpoint or a preview of issues the Demon Deacons will have to clean up quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Bearcats' First Loss Just Put Their Season Outlook In Question
ESPNs latest FPI update brought a little movement for Wake Forest after a convincing win, with the Demon Deacons among the teams to climb in the projections as the model recalibrated around the weekends results. The broader picture around college footballs metric still reflects how quickly one game can alter the outlook, with Kansas and Missouri also getting boosted while Virginia and Stanford slid after losses.
Wake Forests rise matters because these ratings are doing more than just sorting teams from top to bottom. They feed into playoff and bowl probability estimates, which means every jump or drop changes the conversation around what the rest of the season can still become. For a program trying to build momentum, the latest FPI movement is another reminder that the margin for error in the coming weeks is already shrinking. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forests First Preseason Look Raised Some Familiar Concerns
Wake Forests first preseason test came with the usual small-sample caveat, but the October 4 scrimmage against Georgetown still offered an early glimpse at where the Demon Deacons have work to do. They were outrebounded and had trouble getting stops, especially when the Hoyas found rhythm from three-point range, which is the kind of familiar concern that tends to travel with a team into the regular season if it is not cleaned up quickly.
There were encouraging signs mixed in, though, including promising showings from the Placide twins and Jamari McDowell. It is far too early to treat one scrimmage as a forecast for what Wake Forest will become, but the outing did reinforce that the Deacons have some real upside and some obvious areas to tighten before the games start counting for real. [Read more 🡒]