We knew going into Week 10 that we would leave it with a lot more clarity regarding both the conference and College Football Playoff races.
An action-packed slate of games, headlined by a pair of top-10 SEC showdowns, didn’t disappoint. Tennessee’s perfect start to the season and SEC title hopes came to an unceremonious end in Athens, Georgia, on Saturday night with a loss to the Bulldogs, but another conference upstart managed to pull a major upset.
LSU stunned Alabama in Baton Rouge with a 32-31 win in overtime thanks to a gutsy two-point conversion call from first-year coach Brian Kelly, all but eliminating the Crimson Tide from SEC West and CFP contention in the process. Now, Kelly’s team has the inside track in the division and ostensibly remains a factor in the playoff discussion.
Elsewhere, Clemson was dominated in South Bend by Notre Dame, snapping the Tigers’ FBS-best 14-game winning streak.
There was certainly a lot to make sense of this weekend, but we’re going to give it a go. Here are the winners and losers from Week 10.
Winner: Vindication for Brian Kelly, LSU
Between his awkward departure from Notre Dame and several early PR fumbles, there was nothing graceful about LSU’s hiring of Kelly. After an offseason full of jokes, a Week 1 loss to a Florida State team coming off a losing season with a head coach under pressure was the perfect punchline.
But Kelly’s the one laughing now.
Does Kelly’s win over the Crimson Tide mean that he’s guaranteed to become the fourth-straight Tigers head coach to win a national title? Of course not. But does it vindicate both his decision to bolt from Notre Dame — despite his unquestionably successful tenure at a blue-blood program — to the SEC, and LSU’s decision to back up the brinks truck to sway him? Absolutely.
This was supposed to be a rebuilding year on the bayou, but it’s turned into nothing of the sort. It would take a truly impressive collapse for this team to not win the West (which it could clinch as soon as next weekend if Alabama does its part against Ole Miss).
And though it seems unlikely, given the fact that this team would have to also take down Georgia in the SEC Championship, you can’t ignore LSU in the CFP discussions. Though no two-loss team has ever made the final four, the SEC champion has also never been excluded.
It didn’t seem possible heading into the season that the Tigers could be relevant in the playoff race by the second week of November, but hey, neither did beating Nick Saban in Year 1.
Kelly already has a top-five recruiting class in 2023 that could get even better over the next few weeks. Regardless of how the rest of this campaign plays out, this is going to be a scary team in the SEC in the coming years.
Loser: The end of the dynasty?
I’m well aware of the potential pitfalls in declaring Alabama’s reign over college football done. But given the relatively disappointing results in a season that, for the first time in a while, feels all but over after the first weekend in November, it’s hard to come to any other conclusion.
Alabama is underachieving with the most talented quarterback in program history, a dynamic playmaker in Jahmyr Gibbs and a defense littered with more five-stars than most programs have ever signed.
I’m out of excuses.
Of course, it’s all relative. The Tide will likely still finish with 10 wins (possibly 11 if the bowl game goes its way) and the floor doesn’t seem much lower than that as long as Saban is leading the team out of the tunnel.
Perhaps a better way to phrase it is that we could be witnessing the transition into a post-dynasty Alabama under Saban — a program that remains elite but isn’t dominant, at least in the way it used to be.
Kirby Smart won a national championship at Georgia last year and appears poised to repeat, as things currently stand. Given what Alabama is about to lose, does this program feel like it’s in a better position than the Bulldogs? I don’t think so. If Kelly is building a machine of his own within the division, ‘Bama’s route to Atlanta won’t be easy in the coming years.
Saban has adjusted before as he did in 2015 when he hired Lane Kiffin to innovate the offense. But can he do it again at 71?
Winner: Georgia is very much still Georgia
It sure was fun to pretend Georgia wouldn’t run away with the SEC East again this year, wasn’t it?
Alas, the Bulldogs hit Tennessee with a major reality check after the Vols reached the No. 1 spot in the initial College Football Playoff Rankings, winning a 27-13 game in the rain in Athens that, in all honesty, shouldn’t have even been as close as it was.
Despite all the offseason turnover, UGA proved its defense remains the class of college football, absolutely smothering a Tennessee offense that looked entirely unstoppable against each of the Volunteers’ previous opponents.
I can’t sing the defense’s praises loud enough, but the aspect of this game that will likely keep opposing head coaches up at night is Georiga’s offensive performance against a Tennessee front that is stronger than people give it credit for.
The Vols kept the run game relatively in check, but they couldn’t stop Stetson Bennett IV, who dissected the secondary with explosive plays in the passing game and scored three total touchdowns (two passing, one rushing). If this team can now throw the ball downfield with relative consistency, we may not even need to play the rest of the games.
Loser: A down (but not entirely out) Tennessee
The phrase “Mickey Mouse offense” has been used at times to describe the Vols’ air-raid-derived philosophy under coach Josh Heupel. It’s a pejorative way of describing how few of its tenets translate to the NFL. I think that’s mostly sour grapes from teams that aren’t athletic enough (or simply can’t figure out how) to stop it.
But there’s certainly something to it. Tennessee ran into one of the few teams with the athletes in the defensive backfield to get this offense out of sync, and Georgia came in with a perfect game plan to neutralize the Vols.
UT runs the ball down your throat until you can stop it, and if you can, it spreads you out and stretches the field with its elite receivers. But Georgia stopped the run, and when the Vols looked to Hendon Hooker to save the day through the air, there was no rescue to be found.
Hooker didn’t throw a passing touchdown, and the weather may have played a factor, but that excuse only goes so far. Tennessee got boat-raced in this game, flat-out. The Vols’ CFP hopes aren’t done yet thanks to losses from Alabama and Clemson, but this team doesn’t look ready to beat the best.
Winner: Bowl-bound Kansas
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write positively about the Jayhawks, but they deserve it this week after snapping a three-game losing streak with a decisive 37-16 win over a ranked Oklahoma State team. With the victory, Kansas is bowl-eligible for the first time since 2008.
KU was the talk of college football after a second-year turnaround under Lance Leipold began with a 5-0 start. Since then, the Jayhawks lost electric quarterback Jalon Daniels and have struggled in recent outings.
Saturday’s win was a big moment for everyone involved — backup quarterback Jason Bean, Leipold and, of course, the fans who stormed the field in Lawrence to celebrate.
The next few months will be pivotal for this program. Leipold will almost certainly have several suitors in the coaching carousel this coming offseason after turning around the most moribund program in the Power Five. His name has been associated with openings at Wisconsin and Nebraska, and Big Ten money certainly talks after the conference inked a ludicrous new TV rights deal.
Only time will tell if KU can convince Leipold to stay, but for now, enjoy this one, Kansas fans. God knows you deserve it.
Loser: Clemson's expiring luck
With the way this team has played this season, a letdown like Saturday night’s seemed inevitable for Clemson. I didn’t necessarily expect it to happen against this Notre Dame team, but the Irish have played better in recent weeks. Why not, I guess?
Nothing went right for the Tigers in this game. They had a punt blocked deep in their own territory to give Notre Dame its first touchdown, and the Fighting Irish were able to run the ball with a great deal of success. A 35-14 final score obscures the fact that this was a 28-0 game in the fourth quarter.
Once again, embattled quarterback DJ Uiagalelei was benched after a rough start to the game, but instead of sparking the offense as he did in the comeback win over Syracuse, true freshman backup Cade Klubnik immediately threw an ugly interception and was pulled in favor of Uiagalelei after just one play.
Clemson’s game plan didn’t work, nor did its adjustments, and despite having only one loss and remaining the ACC favorite, it would take quite a bit of chaos for this team to return to the CFP conversation.
It will be another “down” year for Clemson in which the team still wins double-digit games, but it’s fair to wonder if Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence may have taken some of the magic with them when they left.
Quick Hitters - Winners
- Michigan: Would you believe me if I told you Michigan was losing to Rutgers 17-14 at one point? This game ended up at 52-17 after another big day from Blake Corum, a dark-horse Heisman contender, according to both Jim Harbaugh and myself.
- Notre Dame: Things looked rough earlier in the year for the Fighting Irish, but they’re now 6-3. Coach Marcus Freeman already has more top-five wins than Kelly had during his entire tenure in South Bend.
- Iowa: A lot has been said about Iowa and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz this season — some of it by me, and most of it justified — but the Hawkeyes put up 24 points in a three-touchdown win over Purdue. The Big Ten West is totally wide open after a loss from Illinois, so we’ll see what happens.
- Baylor: The Bears have won three straight and look to be in a much more comfortable position at 6-3 than they did a month ago. The follow-up to last year’s conference title season hasn’t been great, but a 38-35 win over Oklahoma feels good for this team.
- Texas: The Longhorns feel very close despite some tough losses this season, and Saturday demonstrated that. Though Kansas State scared Texas with a comeback effort, Steve Sarkisian’s team got the win and moved into top-two positioning in the Big 12. It hosts TCU this weekend in a matchup that could decide whether the Longhorns make the title game.
- TCU: The Horned Frogs can’t keep getting away with this. Once again, TCU found itself trailing against a Big 12 team in the second half, and once again, it emerged victorious. It feels like this team is going to run out of luck at some point, à la Clemson, but this will be a fun story for however long it lasts.
- Auburn: The Tigers couldn’t quite pull off an improbable comeback at Mississippi State, but you have to feel good if you’re a Tigers fan. This team showed more fight in one game under interim coach and former star player Cadillac Williams than it did at any point in Bryan Harsin’s 21-game tenure. Now, Auburn hosts a floundering Texas A&M team with a chance to really ramp up the anxiety in College Station.
- Louisville: An early November matchup against a very good Group of Five team in James Madison looked like a recipe for disaster, but the Cardinals won convincingly in 34-10 fashion. For those counting at home, that’s four-straight wins for 6-3 Louisville, which will probably be retaining coach Scott Satterfield after all.
- SMU QB Tanner Mordecai: In an absurd 77-63 win over Houston, Mordecai tossed nine touchdown passes, eight of which came in the first half. He outshined losing quarterback Clayton Tune, who threw for a paltry seven touchdowns.
- UConn: The Huskies beat UMass 27-10 on Friday night, hardly an impressive win. Still, it’s nice to see them convincingly beat teams with whom they used to sit in the basement of the FBS. If UConn can win one of its last two against Liberty and Army, it will be bowl eligible in Year 1 under Jim Mora Jr.
Quick Hitters - Losers
- Oregon State: The Beavers’ stay in the top 25 lasted just one week after they couldn’t quite pull out the win in a tight 24-21 game on the road against Washington.
- Texas A&M: The Aggies were kneecapped by a massive flu outbreak ahead of their 41-24 home loss to Florida, but despite all the players unavailable, that’s still five-straight losses for a TAMU team that needs to beat both Auburn and LSU to avoid missing a bowl.
- Maryland: It was a nice start to the season for the Terrapins, who were quietly 6-2 entering this weekend. Any hope of making some noise in the Big Ten likely ended with a frustrating loss to a Wisconsin team helmed by an interim head coach.
- Illinois: Illinois disappointed with a loss to a middling Michigan State team on Saturday, though this team still controls its destiny in the logjam that is the Big Ten West.
- Virginia Tech: A rough Year 1 for Brent Pry got even worse as the Hokies allowed Georgia Tech to overcome a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 28-27 as VT falls to 2-7.
- South Florida: The Bulls lost to Temple in ugly fashion on Saturday, leading to the dismissal of third-year coach Jeff Scott, a former offensive coordinator at Clemson. Scott was 1-8 this season and just 4-26 overall. Only one of those wins was against an FBS team.
- Oklahoma State: Quarterback Spencer Sanders missed this game, but that isn’t much of an excuse after the Cowboys dropped back-to-back ugly games to Kansas State and Kansas. Things would probably have to spiral worse to approach a hot seat situation, but it’s been a rough year in Stillwater, to say the least, despite the 6-3 record.
- West Virginia: The Mountaineers lost yet another game on Saturday, this time by 17 to Iowa State. There hasn’t been much to be excited about this season other than the win over Baylor, and though Neal Brown’s buyout could be prohibitive, this is a pretty bleak situation.
- Arkansas: You don’t lose to Hugh Freeze and Liberty as an SEC program. You just don’t.
- Syracuse: The Orange couldn’t get star running back Sean Tucker going in a 19-9 loss to Pittsburgh. What looked like it could be a high-ceiling Syracuse year is quickly crashing back down to Earth.
- Miami: Mario Cristobal’s first season has had some low moments, but a 45-3 loss to rival Florida State at home ranks pretty high among them. Recruiting rankings don’t win games, and I’d be more than slightly concerned if I were a Miami fan, despite the progress Cristobal has made in acquiring talent.
- Northern Illinois: Last year’s MAC Champions have not had a good follow-up at all. The Huskies will miss a bowl game in 2022 after a two-score home loss to a bad Central Michigan team led by former Florida coach Jim McElwain.
