Only two weeks remain in the college football regular season, and Week 11 mostly served to reinforce my inkling suspicion that a season that began with chaos could be ending in chalk.
We saw the true contenders begin to separate themselves in marquee matchups on Saturday. Namely, Michigan asserted itself against Penn State on the road despite currently suspended coach Jim Harbaugh’s legal hail mary to coach in the game being rejected at the 11th hour.
Two-time defending national champion Georgia seems to be back to its usual self as Brock Bowers returned just in time to trounce Ole Miss 52-17 in Athens. The Bulldogs will face Alabama in the SEC title game with a College Football Playoff berth likely on the line.
Where have I heard that one before?
We’re inching closer to the finish line of the 2023 season, and though the playoff picture is getting clearer, we have many questions that are still yet to be answered. As we await those answers, here are Week 11’s winners and losers.
Winner: Wheat begins to separate from chaff
Earlier in the season, it looked like we could be heading for a truly chaotic year. But that’s not exactly how things have panned out, and with two weeks to play before championship weekend, there’s a clear group of contenders, and then there’s everyone else.
That group made itself pretty clear on Saturday. Michigan passed its first real test of the season with flying colors while being led by interim coach Sherrone Moore. Now, we’ll await the Wolverines’ matchup against an Ohio State team that rolled again at home against Michigan State on Saturday to determine which will win the Big Ten East.
Georgia, which hosted Ole Miss in a top-10 matchup, was dominant and will face Alabama — which crushed Kentucky and looks like a contender itself — in what should be an electric SEC title game.
Out west, Washington survived a scare against Utah while Oregon beat USC comfortably in a game that was a bit sloppier than the Ducks probably would have liked. Both have their flaws, but they seem to be on a collision course for a rematch in the Pac-12 Championship with a playoff spot on the line.
Even Florida State, which plays in the comparably weak ACC, took down Miami in a tight one on Saturday. Now, matchups on the road against a floundering Florida team and a (likely) ACC title game vs. Louisville are all that stand between FSU and a 13-0 season — and return trip to the playoff.
Loser: A potential chaos scenario in the Big 12
Everything I just said about clear-cut races in the other power conference? You can throw that out the window when you look at the messy, messy Big 12, which seems to be hoarding all the chaos for itself.
This conference looked like it had two clear frontrunners entering the week, but Oklahoma State’s head-scratching 45-3 loss on the road against UCF threw everything for a loop.
Now, there’s a traffic jam of four 5-2 teams in the conference standings that includes the Cowboys as well as Oklahoma, Kansas State and Iowa State. And depending on how the next two weeks play out, things could get wacky.
Despite the loss, the Cowboys still likely sit in the best position of those four thanks to head-to-head wins over the Sooners and Wildcats. They also have the easiest remaining schedule with matchups against BYU and Houston to close out the regular season.
However, a loss to the Cyclones earlier in the season could make things tricky, especially if Iowa State beats Texas this weekend to add another two-loss team into the mix.
There are a lot of ways this thing could break, and it’s tough to predict how it will at the moment. For now, just strap in and enjoy the ride.
Winner: Jayden Daniels is my Heisman pick, and he should be yours, too
There are a lot of strong candidates to win the Heisman this year. Michael Penix Jr. has led the best passing offense in college football the last two years, Bo Nix is in the midst of one of the most impressive career turnarounds in recent memory and Marvin Harrison Jr. is perhaps a generational college receiver.
None of those guys are the best college football player in the country, though, because he plays in Baton Rouge. And his name is Jayden Daniels.
It’s understandable why Daniels hasn’t gotten the Heisman rub that some of these other guys have. He leads a three-loss team that’s largely irrelevant in the national picture as things stand in early November. That shouldn’t matter, because he’s far and away the most outstanding player in college football.
Despite spending most of the week questionable and in concussion protocol, Daniels delivered maybe the most impressive college quarterbacking performance we’ve ever seen as he became the first player in FBS history to throw for 350 yards and rush for 200 in a game.
And he didn’t do it against Grambling or Army. It came against an SEC opponent with a winning record — albeit, one with a struggling defense — in a rivalry game.
On the year, Daniels has 38 total touchdowns to just four interceptions. He leads the nation in QB rating by a pretty wide margin, and he’s the first player in FBS history to accumulate 12,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards in a career — though he has started five seasons, in fairness.
The records and accolades continue to pile up for Daniels. If he continues at this pace and a Heisman Trophy is not among them, it will be an utter travesty.
Loser: Soul-searching time for Penn State
Aside from a special 2016 Big Ten title run that saw the team ultimately get snubbed by the playoff, Penn State has spent the entirety of James Franklin’s 10-year tenure in State College playing second fiddle in its division behind Ohio State and, in recent years, Michigan.
This season felt like an opportunity to upset that balance of power as the Nittany Lions came in with what looked like their most complete roster in years, headlined by a stellar defense, second-year star running back Nick Singleton and quarterback Drew Allar, one of the most heralded quarterback prospects in program history.
Instead, Penn State has now lost the only two games that felt like they mattered. And to make things worse, both losses came in practically identical fashion with the defense largely holding up its end of the bargain only for the offense to fail to move the ball at all.
Allar is not progressing as expected this season, and in a change that wasn’t particularly surprising, Franklin fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich following the game.
More changes may be coming at the end of the season, but it feels like we’ve seen this movie before. Franklin has had plenty of time to build, and yet this program feels so far away from the teams it holds itself up against.
And with the best-case scenario this season looking like another trip to the New Year’s Six, it’s hard to imagine anyone in Happy Valley will view this season as a success.
Quick Hitters - Winners
Southern Miss: The Golden Eagles have now won back-to-back games, and though they close with likely losses against Mississippi State and Troy, that’s probably enough for Will Hall to weather the storm.
UNLV: Barry Odom has a strong case as the national coach of the year, and that case got even better with an impressive blowout win over Wyoming as his UNLV team is 8-2 and likely heading for the Mountain West Championship Game in Year 1.
Sam Houston: The Bearkats have won two games in a row, and they notched their first win against an FBS contemporary since moving up against Louisiana Tech.
Missouri: The Tigers laid a beating down on Tennessee to move to 8-2 on the year, and with two very winnable games against Florida and Arkansas remaining, a 10-win season looks very likely in what was a pivotal year for Eli Drinkwitz.
UCF: It’s been a rough Year 1 in the Big 12 for the Knights, but they took out that frustration with a merciless beatdown against a conference frontrunner. This definitely feels like the newbie that’s best poised to make splash in 2024.
Northwestern: David Braun is probably going to end up getting this job full-time, and he deserves it after he’s guided a Wildcats team that some thought may not win a game to 5-5 with a handful of conference wins.
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher: The Aggies earned a blowout win over a division opponent in Mississippi State to reach bowl eligibility. I’m sure that’s the only notable thing that happened at Texas A&M this weekend.
Quick Hitters - Losers
Kansas: This was just an all-around disastrous game for the Jayhawks as Jason Beane, who himself was playing in place of Jalon Daniels, suffered a gruesome knee injury, and the Jayhawks lost at home to Texas Tech without him.
Georgia State: Shawn Elliott entered the season on the hot seat, but it felt like he coached his way off of it with a 4-0 start. Now, the Panthers have dropped four of six against the Sun Belt’s better teams. At least they can probably bounce back next weekend against — oh, never mind, they play LSU. Yikes.
Wisconsin: The marriage of Wisconsin football and the air raid seemed like a strange one from the start, and the results have not been pretty in 2023, which felt like it reached a new low with the home loss to Northwestern.
Arkansas: Any hopes that last weekend’s win at Florida in the first game with interim offensive coordinator Kenny Guiton would spark a turnaround were quickly dashed with an ugly 48-10 home loss to Auburn.
Former Mississippi State coach Zach Arnett: Arnett was fired Monday with a 4-6 record on the year just 11 games into his Mississippi State tenure. Arnett took over this job in an impossible situation following the death of Mike Leach, but he tried to make too many changes too quickly to make this program his own. He’s just 37 years old and a bright defensive mind, so I don’t expect we’ve seen the last of him.
Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin’s team was embarrassed in a marquee game yet again as Ole Miss was absolutely no match for Georgia and fell to 8-2 on the year.
Houston: Dana Holgorsen’s job has felt tenuous all season long, and a 10-point home loss to a bad Cincinnati team may have been the final nail in the coffin.
UCLA: The Bruins have had a solid season despite quarterback issues, thanks to their defense, but losing 17-7 at home to an Arizona State team that’s still very early in a rebuild is pretty disheartening.
Air Force: Remember when the Falcons were a New Year’s Six contender? Anyway, they lost to Hawaii.
Fresno State: Not to be outdone by their conference foe, the previously 8-1 Bulldogs may have also set their NY6 hopes ablaze with a stunning 42-18 loss against San Jose State.
Former Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher: They paid this man how much money to go away???
