Are you not entertained?
On this crazy Week 11 tilt, we watched two of the top four teams in the nation go down.
Third-ranked Georgia went to Ole Miss, failed to muster any offense against a Rebels defense that looked like the best in the nation and left with a 28-10 loss. Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Miami had no answer for Georgia Tech's ground attack in a 28-23 loss to the Yellow Jackets.
Now, the Dawgs fall back into a glut of two-loss teams in the SEC, while Miami was dealt its first loss of the season.
While they faltered, other undefeated teams survived, with Indiana slogging through a sluggish second half to sweat out a win over Michigan for its first-ever 10-0 start to the season, and Army heads into a bye week and then Notre Dame with a win over North Texas to stay unbeaten.
BYU maybe played the game of the day, somehow taking advantage of a resurrection in the Holy War to stun rival Utah 22-21.
Elsewhere, Colorado and Texas kept surging. Alabama dominated LSU in Baton Rouge, and Clemson rebounded with a big win, too. Here are this week's winners and losers.
Winner: Hoosier History
It's never easy to make history.
The Indiana Hoosiers found that out Saturday, but they made it anyway.
You'd have never thought the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines would head to Bloomington in early November as two-touchdown underdogs, but that was the case Saturday.
First-year coach Curt Cignetti's team had plenty of trouble dispatching the Wolverines in a 20-15, beautifully ugly survival to win its 10th consecutive game to start a spotless, memorable season. It's the first time ever that Indiana has begun a campaign 10-0.
The Wolverines had the ball with the chance to go ahead late, but quarterback Davis Warren found Peyton O'Leary on 4th-and-10. As he stretched out his arms, he was a yard shy of the first-down marker, and IU celebrated.
For the Wolverines and first-year coach Sherrone Moore, a bowl berth is in doubt as they are now 5-5. They've long been out of the national and even the Big Ten picture, but the huge story is Cignetti's Hoosiers, who may be on a collision course with the playoffs.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke was brilliant throughout the first half as Indiana built its lead, but Michigan's second-half defense was a stone wall to help the Wolverines fight back. Even then, it wasn't enough against an aggressive IU front.
Bloomington, celebrate! Your Hoosiers are historic.
Loser: Georgia's Non-Alabama Unbeaten Streak
In a driving Mississippi rain that turned to a misty fog late in the game, Ole Miss dominated both sides of the ball against the third-ranked Bulldogs to win a 28-10 slobberknocker. It was coach Kirby Smart's team's first non-Alabama loss since November 7, 2020, against the Florida Gators.
Since then, Georgia had won back-to-back national championships, lost just a single game (to the Crimson Tide) last year to fall short of a chance for a third straight title, and had gone 53-0 against everybody besides the Tide.
But all that went "poof" in a swarming cloud of powder blue—the color of the Rebels' home uniforms.
Georgia quarterback Carson Beck will be seeing that shade in his nightmares. He was harassed all day by Suntarine Perkins, Princely Umanmielen and Co., forcing the embattled quarterback into several mistakes and an ineffective, inconsistent offense.
On the other side of the ball, you'd never know Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart went to the locker room in the first half after throwing an interception and getting hurt on the first drive. He was masterful during an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to give the Rebels some wiggle room after UGA cut the second-half lead to 16-10.
Freshman Nate Frazier's fumble as UGA was driving on the ensuing possession was the first of three consecutive drive-ending turnovers the Rebels defense caused to secure the win.
Loser: Florida's Game Plan vs. Quinn Ewers
The trajectory of Florida's program and the Gators' play of the past few weeks likely contributed to the news this week that they were going to stick with coach Billy Napier.
A casual observer tuning in to Saturday's game at Texas may wonder if that was the right decision, especially how few answers they had for Quinn Ewers.
The Gators were lifeless on both sides of the ball in a 49-17 loss to the Longhorns. But they appeared out-manned and undermanned, especially with the injury to freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, who couldn't return after getting hurt last week against Georgia.
The biggest reason, though, was Ewers, who torched a Gators defense that had been playing much better in the past few weeks and even in closer-than-expected losses to Tennessee and Georgia. The junior quarterback had his best game of the season, completing 19 of 27 passes for 333 yards and five touchdowns.
Five of those scores came before the 'Horns put it on cruise control. Simply put: He looked like the Heisman Trophy candidate many thought he would be before he started battling injuries.
Ewers made Florida look like a middling program that needs to build depth and add talent for the decision to stick with Napier to be more than just a Band-Aid. Texas was just a horror-show mismatch for the Gators.
The Longhorns, on the other hand, looked like a team still poised for a College Football Playoff run, especially if their field general plays like this.
Loser: Miami's Cardiac 'Canes
To start this season, Georgia Tech stunned Florida State in Ireland for a win that doesn't look so shocking at this point.
Its dispatching of a Sunshine State program on Saturday was different.
The Yellow Jackets hosted unbeaten, fourth-ranked Miami with a hobbled-but-battling quarterback Haynes King returning from injuries, and they ran all over the 'Canes on their way to a 28-23 win.
For a couple of minutes, college football fans tuning in held their breath as Miami and Heisman Trophy hopeful Cam Ward got the ball back with a chance for their fourth second-half comeback win of the season.
But two-time transfer Romello Height got to Ward with just a three-man rush and strip-sacked him. The Yellow Jackets recovered and ran out the clock.
Tech fans stormed the field, and an ESPN crew caught a backward-hatted coach Brent Key for a few words after the game. When asked about King gutting through, completing all six of his passes for 32 yards and a touchdown and running 20 times for 93 yards and another score, Key said simply: "He played," then repeated. "He played."
The Ramblin' Wreck outplayed Miami all day, piling up a road-grading 271 rushing yards against a defense that had allowed an average of fewer than 100 per game.
Ward was his usual brilliant self, completing 25 of 39 passes for 348 yards and a trio of scoring tosses, but he didn't have any magic remaining at the end of the game, unlike the rest of the season.
Winner: Clemson's ACC Hopes
After getting drilled by Louisville a week ago, the Clemson Tigers needed a few things to happen in order to keep their hopes alive for the ACC, which would likely be the only way they could get into the College Football Playoff.
With Miami's loss Saturday, the door is open. The Tigers did their part on the road at Virginia Tech to keep it cracked.
Cade Klubnik's pirouetting touchdown pass midway through the third quarter that was a thing of beauty and should be on every highlight reel broke a 7-all tie and propelled the Tigers to a 24-14 win.
No. 23 Clemson kept Virginia Tech's season on a seesaw. After three consecutive wins before last week's loss to Syracuse, the Hokies have dropped a pair and are 5-5 and 3-3 in the league.
Klubnik's Jekyll-and-Hyde season continues as well, and even though completing less than 50 percent of his passes doesn't exactly make for a "Good Cade" performance, he piled up 211 yards and three touchdown passes despite going 16-of-34.
Running back Phil Mafah added 128 rushing yards, and the Clemson defense did the rest, building a 17-point lead before a garbage touchdown late by Tech made things look more respectable.
Loser: Iowa State's Big 12 Hopes
A couple of weeks ago, the Iowa State Cyclones looked like they were going to be one of the top contenders for the shaken-and-stirred Big 12.
After Saturday's annihilation at the hands of the disappointing Kansas Jayhawks, though, coach Matt Campbell's team is just trying to keep from unraveling after back-to-back losses dropped them from the ranks of the unbeaten and down in the conference standings.
Last week, it was a one-point loss to Texas Tech that handed the Cyclones their first loss. On the road at Lawrence on Saturday, though, the beatdown was thorough in a 45-36 worse-than-it-looked loss.
Iowa State had zero answers for dual-threat quarterback Jalon Daniels, who spearheaded an effort that looked more like the Jayhawks team we expected entering the season as Lance Leipold has his program firmly built.
With the win, KU is just 3-6 on the season, and this was just its second Big 12 win of the year. But it was a big one. Daniels finished with 368 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns, and running back Devin Neal added 111 rushing yards and a pair of scores.
They were the catalyst for an offense that piled up 532 total yards. In building a 31-13 lead, Kansas had faced just four third downs throughout the entire first half-plus of the game. There was big play after big play, and Campbell's Cyclones had no answers.
Iowa State came into the game ranked 17th nationally, but the holes are much bigger than the record showed, as the Jayhawks exposed.
Winner: Army's Two-Way Heroics
When you're playing Army, you can't help but look up at the clock as it trickles down, wondering if you're ever going to get the football back.
For North Texas and its high-powered offense, Saturday's 14-3 loss had to be ulcer-inducing.
Though they trailed by just four points at halftime, the Mean Green had the football just 38 seconds of the first 18:16 of the second half as the Black Knights went on a thing-of-beauty drive if you like grind-it-out, chin-in-the-mud football.
It was quite possibly the perfect scenario for Jeff Monken's team, which kept the ball away from offensive-minded North Texas and put it in the end zone, parlaying a 21-play, 94-yard drive into seven points after chewing up 13:34 of the clock.
Suddenly, what had been anybody's game was firmly in control of the Knights, who went on to win and remain unbeaten on the season. Even though they're ranked just 25th nationally, next week is a potential statement game against Notre Dame.
They have the opportunity to make noise thanks to that drive, which was spearheaded by 13 runs from quarterback Bryson Daily for 51 yards, and he ultimately plowed into the end zone.
On the other side of the ball, Army had to hold off North Texas' frantic finish. After a goal-line stand in the first half to stop a potential Mean Green touchdown, the Knights kept it up with their backs against the wall.
They intercepted Chandler Morris twice in the end zone in the fourth quarter to keep North Texas out of the end zone.
Loser: Anybody Who Went to Bed Instead of Watching the Holy War
BYU was beaten.
Facing 4th-and-10 with no timeouts late in the game from his own 9-yard line, Cougars quarterback Jake Retzlaff dropped back, was pressured by Utah and sacked. Game over, right?
Instead, a defensive holding penalty was called on Utes cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn, giving the Cougars a final breath after being left for dead in the Holy War. In just the latest chapter in BYU's special season, Retzlaff calmly marched the Cougars down, positioning Will Ferrin for a 44-yard field goal.
He nailed the kick, and BYU somehow won a 22-21 thriller to move to 9-0 and 5-0 in the Big 12, remaining in the conference's driver's seat to go to the College Football Playoff.
This is just one of those rivalries where anything can happen any year, and anything did happen late Saturday night.
From euphoria to stunned silence, the Utah crowd and players having a forgettable year fell to 1-5 in the Big 12 but had a monumental upset in their grasp. Instead, the holding call gave BYU a second life, and the Cougars somehow won.
Winner: Tennessee's Survival of Nico Injury Scare
One minute, Nico Iamaleava was cruising in a first half against Mississippi State where he'd thrown for 174 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
After halftime, though, backup quarterback Gaston Moore trotted out there with the first team, and ESPN's crew relayed the Vols' talented redshirt freshman signal-caller would miss the rest of the game with a cryptic "upper-body injury."
Vols Twitter—known for its passion, overreaction and general unhinged state of mind—began throwing everything out there from concussion to broken collarbone to shoulder injury. Everything from "He's done for the year" to "It's precautionary, and he'll be back next week" dominated the second half of a 33-14 win over afterthought Mississippi State.
Thankfully for the Vols and their fans (who were once referred to by former coach Johnny Majors as the "legions of the miserable"), coach Josh Heupel said after the game he expected Iamaleava back for next week's colossal game at Georgia.
While the Vols haven't exactly torched opponents this year, they have an elite defense and a lot of talent offensively, but they need Iamaleava to beat the Dawgs next week.
Tennessee controls its College Football Playoff destiny, and dodging an injury bullet with an array of rampant speculation and uncertainty Saturday night certainly felt like a sigh of relief that came down from Rocky Top.
Loser: Iowa's Road Mettle
It's been extremely difficult for Big Ten teams making cross-country trips in the new-look conference this year, but Iowa was nearly a touchdown favorite heading to UCLA on Friday night.
That's before the Bruins flipped the script on the Hawkeyes, big-boying them at their own game in a rugged 20-17 win.
While this wasn't quite a shocker, the Bruins have begun to blossom a bit under first-year coach DeShaun Foster, and Iowa has a few questions now after showing offensive flashes. This game showed the inconsistency of the Hawkeyes.
The Bruins got untracked for their best rushing attack of the season, rushing for 211 yards on a 5.4 average against what normally is a sturdy rush defense. Iowa dropped to 32nd nationally in that category with the loss. T.J. Harden led the way with 125 rushing yards and helped UCLA control the game.
While quarterback Ethan Garbers had some mistakes, he rode Harden, and it was enough to win.
On the flip side, with Iowa struggling under center, UCLA focused on star running back Kaleb Johnson and shut him down. Johnson was averaging 142.1 rushing yards per game coming in, had a season-low 49 yards on 18 carries.
"We went into this week knowing it was a challenge and we were ready for it," said Bruins linebacker Carson Schwesinger, who had a pair of interceptions.
Winner: Colorado's Steady Improvement
As the dominoes fall in the Big 12, No. 20 Colorado just continues to be one of the biggest stories in the country with a second-year surge under coach Deion Sanders.
Believe it or not, the Buffaloes are doing so kind of quietly, too.
There's undoubtedly a lot of glitz and glamour around the program since Coach Prime came over, but they may not be getting the recognition they deserve for being a team that simply gets better week in and week out.
The latest sign of the turnaround came Saturday in a 41-27 comeback win on the road against Texas Tech—a victory that wasn't secure until Arden Walker knocked the ball out of the TTU quarterback's hand with 51 seconds left and Shiloh Sanders recovered in the end zone for a touchdown.
A 21-point outburst in the third quarter erased a halftime deficit and propelled the Buffaloes to a win. Are they perfect? Definitely not. There are major issues running the football consistently, and those were evident again in a 60-yard team performance against the Red Raiders.
But quarterback Shedeur Sanders continues to prove he's one of the top signal-callers in the nation with 291 yards and three touchdowns, and two-way superstar and Heisman Trophy candidate Travis Hunter led a tremendous wide receiver corps Saturday with nine catches for 99 yards and a touchdown.
LaJohntay Wester (six catches, 82 yards and a touchdown) and Will Sheppard (eight catches, 79 yards and a touchdown) rounded out a great trio of targets for Sanders.
The Buffs defense did just enough to beat Tech in Lubbock, and even though they gave up a touchdown with 2:12 left to cut the lead to a single score, they got the job done and still have a chance to win the league.
Loser: Those Vandy Vibes
Teams like Alabama (loss) and Texas (narrow win) have gone into Vanderbilt's FirstBank Stadium this year and dealt with their own house of horrors.
South Carolina had no such worries.
The Gamecocks continued to be one of the sneaky-best teams in the SEC recently with a convincing 28-7 win over the Commodores. Perhaps the bigger long-term worry for coach Clark Lea's team is quarterback Diego Pavia was limping badly late in the fourth quarter.
The Commodores fell to 6-4, and 3-3 in the SEC on the season, and things get dicey if their leader and one of the biggest gamers in all of college football, Pavia, is hurt for any period of time.
They just couldn't do much against the Gamecocks, who are on a major high recently. Following back-to-back losses to Ole Miss and Alabama in early October—the last of which could have easily been a win over the Crimson Tide—South Carolina has won three consecutive games.
They hammered Oklahoma, used a dominant second half last week to give Texas A&M its first league loss of the season and just smothered Vanderbilt defensively with a unit that looks like one of the nation's best.
LaNorris Sellers is a 6'3", 242-pound freshman quarterback who just continues to get better and better, and veteran running back Raheim "Rocket" Sanders is a Carolina catalyst, too.
The 'Dores didn't have an answer for either. One of the biggest spoilers in the country didn't have another rock for its sling, and now they wait on Pavia news.
Winner: Alabama's Bayou Beatdown
Alabama's defensive players told reporters this week that they were heading to Death Valley with violent intentions, according to the ABC network telecast.
LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier undoubtedly believes that after Saturday night's performance in a 42-13 beatdown by Alabama.
The Tide consistently held the Bayou Bengals' potent offense to field goals, and they forced Nussmeier into a trio of horrific turnovers, including two that came at pivotal moments.
The first one came in the first half when LSU appeared to get some momentum from turning the Tide away from the end zone. But Jihaad Campbell corralled Nussmeier, forcing a fumble, and Alabama turned it into a touchdown just a few plays later.
Then, trailing 21-6 in the third quarter and driving, Nussmeier threw an awful interception in the end zone to give it right back to the Tide. Much like was the case in a big prime-time game against Texas A&M, Nussmeier was far too turnover-prone.
Even though Alabama has a pair of losses, the Tide still have playoff hopes. Also, while it was an uneven performance from the offense, quarterback Jalen Milroe still made some big plays and Alabama won in a tough environment.
The Tide defense brought the violence, and Milroe packed some punch, too, getting his legs going for 185 rushing yards and four touchdowns in what turned out to be a blowout win.
Loser: Oklahoma's First Year in the SEC
The rough welcome to the SEC continued Saturday night for the Oklahoma Sooners, who found a painful, disastrous way to lose on the road at Missouri.
The No. 24 Tigers may have won as expected, 30-23, but how they got to that final score may sting the Sooners for a long time and turn up the heat even more on coach Brent Venables.
With the game tied 16-all late in the game, Mizzou running back Nate Noel drove into a pile of Sooners, and the ball squirted free and into the hands of Billy Bowman for a scoop-and-score that looked like it would be a breakthrough win for OU.
The game was far from over, though.
Missouri drove the field quickly, with backup quarterback Drew Pyne finding Theo Wease Jr. for an acrobatic catch in the back of the end zone with 1:03 remaining to tie it. There was still enough time for Oklahoma to drive and win the game.
Unfortunately for the Sooners, that backfired. Triston Newson sacked Jackson Arnold, who looked like he was bracing for a sack rather than trying to make a play. The ball was stripped, picked up by Zion Young, who rumbled for the game-winning touchdown.
The teams combined for 28 points in the final 2:48 of the game, and OU's disastrous end was complete. The Sooners had five fumbles in the game, losing four of them, and fell to 1-5 in their first year in the SEC.
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