Once or twice a season (if we’re lucky), this sport rewards us with an absolute gem of a Saturday: Wall-to-wall chaos, major upsets, the whole nine yards.
Week 7 was one of those special ones.
It included what was hands down the game of the season so far — and isn’t likely to be topped — as Tennessee stunned Alabama for its first win in the series since Nick Saban took over in 2007. The fans stormed the field at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville as the Vols announced their return to the top tier of the sport.
That was just one of several instant classics from the best weekend of football we’ve been treated to so far this season. Now that the dust has settled, here are the winners and losers from Week 7.
Winner: Tennessee, back
It’s hard to even fathom how futile this rivalry has been for Tennessee since its last win in 2006. Even calling it a rivalry stretched the very definition of the term.
Alabama’s average margin of victory over its 15-year winning streak was 26 points. The last time UT won in this series, the iPhone hadn’t hit the market and Twitter was in its infancy — as were some of the students who rushed the field after Saturday’s upset. It looked like the Vols may never get over the hump.
Less than two years ago, this program fired head coach Jeremy Pruitt amid NCAA investigations and floundering on-field results. Now, coach Josh Heupel has this team in the top three in just his second season on the job. If you’re not thinking of the Volunteers as a legitimate national title contender, it’s time to change that.
Even for perhaps the best Vols team in more than two decades, it wasn’t easy. They allowed the Tide to erase an 18-point deficit and had to weather several potential game-changing turnovers (including one that was called back). The game-winning kick was maybe the ugliest I’ve ever seen go through the uprights.
But none of that matters, because the Volunteers beat Alabama in a football game. The fans paraded the goalposts around town while lighting up cigars during a night that surely won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
Congratulations, Tennessee. This is what it’s all about.
But for the love of God, stop trying to crowdfund new goalposts from the fans.
Y'all remember how we tore the goalposts down, hauled em out of Neyland and dumped em in the Tennessee River?
Yeah that was awesome.
Anywho, turns out that in order to play next week's game, we need goalposts on our field. Could y'all help us out? 🙏 https://t.co/NSMoL3SzPX
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) October 16, 2022
Loser: 'Down' Alabama
Unfortunately, everything comes at a cost. And the cost of Tennessee’s victory may be a hellish week of practice for the Crimson Tide players. Alabama was penalized 17 (!) times on Saturday for 130 yards, and Saban was absolutely enraged on the sidelines by a sloppy performance the likes of which you rarely see from one of his teams.
It’s become less rare this season, though. Alabama’s 66 penalties are the most for any team in the entire FBS. ‘Bama was frankly lucky to escape matchups against Texas and Texas A&M unscathed, and both those teams relied on backup quarterbacks for either all or most of the game.
This defense isn’t very good, which is unacceptable given the talent on the field. It was exposed against Tennessee, and even one of Bryce Young’s most prolific games wasn’t enough to win on the road — where the penalty issue has been amplified.
It’s clear this is a “down” Alabama team. At least, by Alabama standards. It remains the SEC West favorite and will likely enter what could potentially be a rematch in Atlanta with a playoff spot on the line. But with what this team returned, there’s no way to describe it other than disappointing.
Winner: Michigan in its first big test
Michigan entered Saturday undefeated, but with the weakest non-conference slate for a Power Five team in recent memory and three wins over middling conference opponents, it was hard to say just how good this team could be.
After Saturday’s 41-17 win over Penn State, the answer appears to be “very.” It’s hard to believe this game was even competitive into the third quarter, just looking at the final numbers. The Wolverines more than doubled PSU up in total yardage, thanks in large part to monster games on the ground from Donovan Edwards (173 yards, two touchdowns) and Blake Corum (166 yards, two touchdowns).
Quarterback JJ McCarthy is still learning the ropes, but this team is a legit threat to make a return trip to the CFP in 2022.
Loser: Fraudulent Penn State
Penn State also entered this one undefeated, but with its signature win coming against an awful Auburn team on the road, a let-down in the Big House didn’t exactly come as a surprise. Still, you would have liked to see the Nittany Lions put up a bit more fight than they did.
Quarterback Sean Clifford was 2-1 in his career against the Wolverines coming into this game, but he was completely ineffective passing the ball. Clifford — a noted dual-threat quarterback — was the only reason PSU finished with even semi-respectable offensive numbers, as he had 74 yards rushing.
Coach James Franklin agreed to a massive extension to stay in Happy Valley amid the coaching shuffle last offseason, but this seems like a program trending in the wrong direction. Franklin has shoehorned three 11-win seasons into a nine-year tenure that has been mostly average otherwise, and the Nittany Lions haven’t made a return trip to Indianapolis since winning the Big Ten East in 2016.
This won’t turn into a hot seat situation given the contract, but with a losable game to Minnesota up next and Ohio State in two weeks, this season could fly off the rails pretty quickly.
Winner: An emotional win for Utah
Sometimes, you just have to sit back and admire this sport’s poetry.
Utah honored players Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe, who passed away within a year of each other, on Saturday night before stunning the previously undefeated USC Trojans, resulting in one of several field stormings of the day.
Utah overcame a 28-14 deficit and, after a wild second half, won the game with a gutsy go-ahead two-point conversion decision with less than a minute to play.
This team has taken its lumps. It lost to a dangerous yet highly flawed Florida team on the road in Week 1 and was humbled against UCLA in the Rose Bowl in Week 6. But this team has battled through it all and remains dangerous on any given Saturday.
Just gotta tighten up that defense.
Loser: The Pac-12, at large
As incredible a moment as Saturday night was in Salt Lake City, it also represented the worst-case scenario for the Pac-12. USC seemed like the league’s best hope to remain in the playoff race late into the season, and now those hopes likely rest entirely with UCLA, the lone remaining unbeaten team in the conference.
It will likely need to win out, which will entail beating Oregon on Saturday (and likely again in the conference championship) as well as USC later on in the season. The Bruins are good, but that’s a lot to ask.
This is the strongest the Pac-12 has been in quite a while, but unfortunately, the downside of that seems to be the league cannibalizing itself. Such is life.
Winner: Oklahoma avoiding The Bad Place
At 4-3, Oklahoma still has a lot of work to do if it wants to salvage any semblance of a successful Year 1 for coach Brent Venables. But Saturday was a start.
The Sooners got Kansas at home and without star quarterback Jalon Daniels. Even with those factors going in their favor, this one was still too close for comfort. OU’s defense has all kinds of problems, but the return of quarterback Dillon Gabriel showed that when at full strength, the offense is good enough to make this team competitive.
Losing four straight would have been rough for Venables, but now Oklahoma has some momentum heading into a bye, which is followed by a winnable stretch of games. The Sooners could be favored in every remaining contest, potentially excepting Bedlam on Nov. 19.
Loser: Florida's defense
Maybe Todd Grantham wasn’t the only problem.
Florida’s defense gradually regressed during the Dan Mullen era, but Saturday’s 45-35 home loss to LSU felt like something of a nadir, especially in terms of secondary play. The Gators allowed 528 yards of offense and couldn’t get their defense off the field. The Tigers were 10 of 14 on third and fourth downs, and the only punt Florida forced was the result of a dropped pass.
UF ranks dead last in the FBS in terms of opponent third-down conversion rate, and this group made Jayden Daniels look like an All-American. He took advantage of soft safety coverage and dissected the Gators over the middle of the field. LSU has good receivers, but there’s no excuse for Florida’s defensive backs losing every one-on-one battle.
Quarterback Anthony Richardson is unpolished, but he makes plays that keep his team in games, as he did with an 81-yard rushing touchdown on Saturday. But all the improvement in the world from the quarterback won’t matter if the Gators are getting gashed week after week.
Winner: Big 12 frontrunner TCU
This season has featured no shortage of surprises, but few programs have been more impressive than first-year coach Sonny Dykes and TCU. The Horned Frogs are undefeated, and after Saturday — in which they took down conference favorite Oklahoma State in double overtime — they’re the only Big 12 team that can say that.
TCU has already navigated its way through the toughest part of its schedule, and if it can get past a solid Kansas State team at home on Saturday, the only really concerning game left on the schedule is a road trip against Texas in November.
The Horned Frogs should find themselves playing for a conference title in December, and they have a good chance of doing so as the No. 1 seed.
Quick Hitters
- Winner: Illinois. Coach Bret Bielema’s team took down a good Minnesota team and sits at 6-1. The Week 1 loss to Indiana is head-scratching, but Illinois is perfect in Big Ten West play and looks like the favorite in the division.
- Loser: Baylor. The Bears dropped an absolute must-win in a shootout on Thursday night against West Virginia, and they’re still looking for their first-ever win in Morgantown. This doesn’t look like the team that won the conference last year.
- Winner: Colorado. There are no longer any winless teams in the FBS after the Buffs beat California on Saturday. Mike Sanford continues the streak of recent interim head coach success this season.
- Loser: Temple. The Owls are bad and undertaking a major rebuild, but you should never give up 70 points in a conference game. Ever.
- Winner: Arkansas. The Razorbacks dropped three-straight games, and it easily could have been four, but they performed admirably in an explosive road win against a good BYU team.
- Loser: James Madison. All good things have to come to an end, and the Dukes’ stay in the top 25 lasted just one week as they fell to Georgia Southern on Saturday, another program that quickly navigated the transition to FBS and became a Group of Five power. Oh, the irony.
- Winner: Tulane. The 45-31 win over South Florida was nothing to write home about, but it resulted in the Green Wave taking JMU’s spot in the top 25. At 6-1 with a win over Kansas State, keep an eye on coach Willie Fritz’s team in the G5 New Year’s Six race.
- Loser: Wisconsin. Jim Leonhard may be getting serious consideration for the head coaching job, but losing to a struggling Michigan State team is not the best way to go about it.
- Winner: LSU. The Tigers sit at 5-2 overall and 3-1 in SEC play, not bad for a rebuilding year under Brian Kelly. They get another shot at a top-10 team when Ole Miss comes to town Saturday.
- Loser: Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish dropped another bad game on Saturday, this time to Stanford. The Cardinal and Marshall, who also beat Notre Dame, are a combined 0-7 against all other FBS opponents. Sheesh.
- Winner: Fresno State. This has been a rough season for the Bulldogs, who returned quarterback Jake Haener but lost head coach Kalen DeBoer. But they got their first FBS win on Saturday against San Jose State, one of the Mountain West’s best teams.
- Loser: Memphis. There are worse losses to take than a weird, 47-45 four-overtime shootout at East Carolina, but this team has fallen off quite a bit under coach Ryan Silverfield and has a tough close to the season. This could be a coaching situation to watch as the year winds down.
- Winner: Hawaii. There are tough jobs. There are clear rebuilds. Then, there’s Hawaii. The Rainbow Warriors don’t have a permanent stadium right now on top of all the other recent issues the program has had, not to mention its geographical challenges. Beating an FBS team — albeit, a bad one in Nevada — is a major sign of progress for coach Timmy Chang.
- Winner: South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits scored a crucial win on Saturday, beating FCS powerhouse North Dakota State and handing the Bison their first loss of the year from a team in the lower level of Division I. FCS has been NDSU’s domain, but SDSU has now won the Dakota Marker in three-straight seasons.
