From a 20,000-foot view, it almost seems like college football never changes. Georgia ranks first in both the AP poll and College Football Playoff rankings, just as it finished last season. Ohio State is the current betting favorite to win its fifth Big Ten title in six years and has excellent odds of making its fifth playoff appearance in nine years with its ninth straight top-10 finish. Clemson is the betting favorite to win the ACC for the seventh time in eight years, and its hopes for a seventh CFP appearance remain alive. Alabama loses only to top-10 teams on the road; we still freak out if the Crimson Tide lose even twice in the same season.
Most of the teams that were good last year are good this year. Same with the teams that were bad. With a wide lens, the landscape always looks approximately the same.
And yet, when you zoom in, you start to get disoriented. Hey, wait, am I missing Oklahoma's name in the AP Top 25? (The Sooners fell to 5-5 Saturday.) And wasn't Texas A&M supposed to be really good this year? (The Aggies loss against Auburn was their sixth in a row.) Wasn't TCU bad enough to fire its legendary coach last season? How is it in the top five? And ... wait ... is that a 6 in the win column next to Kansas' name? And UConn's??
While the big stuff might have changed only so much, each year provides us with some absolute shocks. As we gear up for the final two weeks of the college football regular season, and the chaos they entail, let's take a moment to step back and observe what has changed. Who has improved the most this fall? Who has fallen off course in the most dramatic fashion?
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Teams hitting their stride | Most improved quarterbacks
Heisman of the week | Favorite games
Most improved power conference teams
Using SP+ as our guide, here are the teams that have improved the most over last season's ratings. Four of them have first-year coaches, which feels rather noteworthy.
Kansas (+26.6 adjusted points per game in SP+)
Last year: 2-10 (122nd in SP+)
This year: 6-4 (43rd)
From 2019 to 2021, the Jayhawks won five of 33 games. This fall they've won six of 10. They rolled to a 5-0 start with a standout performance from quarterback Jalon Daniels, lost him to injury and still nearly upset TCU and eventually scored a sixth win.
The defense has come along only so far -- something made pretty evident in Saturday's 43-28 loss at Texas Tech -- but the offense has remained dangerous with backup quarterback Jason Bean. Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki deserves a raise, and even in a year with a ton of standout turnaround stories, second-year coach Lance Leipold deserves every single national coach of the year vote in existence.
TCU (+23.4)
Last year: 5-7 (79th in SP+)
This year: 10-0 (sixth)
OK, fine, someone should give Sonny Dykes a vote, too. And maybe give defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie a Broyles Award vote for the nation's best assistant coach? While the Horned Frogs have certainly improved offensively this season, their defense has leaped from 116th to 34th in defensive SP+ and carried serious weight in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night.
With the offense slowed by a dominant Texas defensive front, TCU's defense faced a Longhorns offense that was averaging 6.6 yards per play and 36.1 points per game -- against a top-10 strength of schedule, no less -- and allowed 3.3 and 3, respectively. Texas made things weird with a late fumble-return score, but TCU prevailed 17-10 all the same. The Frogs' CFP odds improve by the day.
USC (+21.3)
Last year: 4-8 (85th in SP+)
This year: 9-1 (11th)
I wrote about this a lot in the offseason: It was obvious that Lincoln Riley's first Trojans team was going to overachieve its No. 46 preseason projection -- I was open about how I didn't feel I had a grasp on how to project teams with not only heavy transfer totals but heavy blue-chip transfer totals -- but it was fair to wonder by how much.
The Trojans have by no means met the top-five preseason hype put out by some, but they're obviously very good. And now they're the Pac-12's final CFP hope. Caleb Williams has thrown for 3,010 yards with a 31-to-2 TD-to-INT ratio, and the USC offense has been humming both with and without injured star receiver Jordan Addison. The defense hasn't been national title-worthy by any means, but the Trojans have improved from 119th to 47th in defensive SP+. They probably need help to reach the CFP, but if they can beat UCLA, Notre Dame and probably either Utah or Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game, they'll have given themselves a shot.
Duke (+20.0)
Last year: 3-9 (113th in SP+)
This year: 7-3 (61st)
We had gotten used to Duke being pretty good under David Cutcliffe, but after a three-year collapse -- from 36th to 59th in SP+ in 2019, then 91st in 2020 and 113th last fall -- it didn't appear new coach Mike Elko was inheriting much to work with. But he's making the most of what he has.
Following Saturday's easy 24-7 win over Virginia Tech, the Blue Devils are 7-3 and into the nation's upper half in FBS. Granted, they've played only two top-50 teams and lost to both (albeit by a combined 11 points), and they've benefited pretty significantly from turnovers: Of the 27 fumbles that have occurred in their games, they've recovered 21, an unsustainable 78%. But still! Quarterback Riley Leonard has improved under veteran offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, and the defense has gone from allowing a ghastly 7.1 yards per play to 5.6.
Washington (+16.1)
Last year: 4-8 (84th in SP+)
This year: 8-2 (23rd)
My line has been the same every time someone has hired Kalen DeBoer in recent years: It's generally a pretty good idea to hire a coach who has been awesome at every job he has had. From NAIA national title winner to Indiana offensive coordinator to Fresno State head coach, DeBoer has basically been that. It was fair to assume he would make Washington respectable sooner than later, but this has been Mach speed.
Washington's rebound story is a modern one: After collapsing to 120th in offensive SP+, the Huskies have surged all the way to 16th thanks to a transfer quarterback (Michael Penix Jr.) handing to a transfer running back (Wayne Taulapapa) and throwing to a transfer receiver (Ja'Lynn Polk, who arrived at Washington last year) and a couple of high-upside sophomores (Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan). The Huskies topped 30 points twice last season; they've done it in eight of 10 games this year. On Saturday at Oregon, Penix outdueled Heisman sleeper Bo Nix, throwing for 408 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 37-34 win.
Most regression among power conference teams
Because the universe craves balance, let's also look at the teams that have been shadows of their former selves this fall. Among these three, one is led by a first-year coach, but the other two are well into the tenures of their respective head coaches.
Texas A&M (-14.1 adjusted points per game in SP+)
Last year: 8-4 (ninth in SP+)
This year: 3-7 (52nd)
Historically, if a team seems too highly ranked for its record in SP+, that tends to signify good things ahead. Texas A&M ranked 14th when it was 7-6 in 2011, then surged to 11-2 in 2012 with a new head coach and new quarterback (some guy named Manziel) in a new conference. Oklahoma ranked fifth while going 8-5 in 2009; the Sooners jumped to 12-2 in 2010. Auburn went from 8-5 and 11th in 2016 to nearly making the CFP in 2017. Auburn ranked fifth with four losses in 2007, then won the title in 2008. So even if it looked odd for Texas A&M to finish ninth with four losses last season, it was easy to assume a breakthrough was ahead, and a lot of people did. (The Aggies were sixth in the preseason AP poll.) All Jimbo Fisher's team needed was the right quarterback in place, correct?
Whoops. A&M appears less certain than ever at the quarterback position, where three players have combined for just a 56% completion rate and a Total QBR (47.7) that ranks 90th in FBS, below those of destitute offenses at Northwestern (85th), Nebraska (86th) and Miami (87th).
Meanwhile, the defense has grown glitchier -- it allowed at least 30 points in four of five games before Saturday's 13-10 rock fight loss at Auburn -- and everything A&M was once good at under Fisher has fallen apart. To be sure, injuries have been a major issue, and Fisher has been overseeing quite a youth movement of late, with freshmen logging increasing minutes at quarterback (Conner Weigman), receiver (Evan Stewart) and throughout the defense.
But good gracious, are the Aggies bad right now. In the past eight weeks, they've fallen from 11th to 52nd in SP+, and their strange and unlikely win over Arkansas on Sept. 24 was, to date, their last of the season. They are likely to finish 4-8, their worst record since 2008, and even if everyone of importance wants Fisher gone, his buyout is absurdly high, even by college football standards.
This deserves a full offseason autopsy. It should be impossible to recruit as well as Fisher has but play as poorly as A&M has this fall.
Pitt (-12.5)
Last year: 11-3 (12th in SP+)
This year: 6-4 (49th)
It's nice to be able to still bowl after a collapse. Thanks to six wins against teams ranked 67th or worse in SP+ (and four against teams worse than 90th), Pat Narduzzi's Panthers have found a softer landing than Fisher and A&M this fall. They lost to Georgia Tech in October, and the two top-40 teams they've faced in conference play beat them by a combined 66-34, but it could be worse.
The primary issue this season: The offense has fallen off even worse than expected. It was fair to assume regression after the departures of star quarterback Kenny Pickett (NFL), Biletnikoff winner Jordan Addison (USC) and offensive coordinator Mark Whipple (Nebraska). Running back Israel Abanikanda and receiver Jared Wayne have done their best to pick up the slack, and USC quarterback transfer Kedon Slovis started the season relatively well, at least. But Pitt's scoring has fallen off by 38%, and until recently the defense hadn't done nearly enough to make up for it.
Perhaps that's changed? The Panthers allowed a combined 16 points against Syracuse (76th in offensive SP+ and falling) and Virginia (114th) in the past two weeks; they still give up a few too many big plays, but perhaps defensive aggression could bring them a couple more wins before this setback season is out.
Virginia Tech (-12.3)
Last year: 6-7 (67th in SP+)
This year: 2-8 (98th)
For every first-year success story, there's a first-year flop. A head coach's debut season tells us only so much about his long-term prognosis, but Brent Pry inherited a flagging program from Justin Fuente and has found out the hard way that there might not be any worthwhile shortcuts for turning things around.
The Tech defense has been decent, falling only from 32nd to 48th in defensive SP+; after a midseason funk, the Hokies have allowed 23.5 points per game and 5.5 yards per play over the last month -- not great but definitely not terrible. The offense, however ... has been terrible. Neither the running back corps nor the offensive line has given offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen what he was looking for in the physicality department, and really, the only thing Tech has been decent at has been quarterback Grant Wells going deep to Kaleb Smith. But Wells has rarely had time to look deep. It's hard to know if Bowen will be able to deliver long-term, or if Pry needs to aim higher with his coordinator hire; the only certainty at this point is that the Hokies need to hit the transfer portal hard to upgrade the offensive talent level this offseason.
Most improving power conference teams
There are lots of fun year-to-year improvement stories in a given season, but what about the teams that take an in-season leap? One of the numbers I track is a weighted performance average that measures which teams have been overachieving SP+ projections the most in recent weeks (with the most recent week carrying the most weight). At the moment, three teams stand out.
In early October, Mike Norvell's Seminoles hit a rough patch that could have completely derailed their season. They lost to Wake Forest, NC State and Clemson in consecutive weeks, and while each game was competitive, they had gone from 4-0 to 4-3.
Crisis? Nope! After a bye week in Week 8, FSU overachieved projections by an average 25.3 points per game against Georgia Tech (a 41-16 win), Miami (45-3) and Syracuse (38-3). The Noles have leaped from 38th to 19th in SP+, which gives them a 48% chance of beating both Louisiana and Florida to finish the regular season 9-3. For a program that incredibly hasn't won more than seven games since 2016, this is a massive step forward.
Maybe the biggest obstacle to FSU's current smoking hot status: The rival Gators are also gaining steam, albeit in a small sample. After underachieving against projections in losses to both LSU and Georgia and falling to 4-4, Florida overachieved by 23.3 points in a 41-24 win over A&M, then by 29.0 points in Saturday's 38-6 destruction of South Carolina.
Two games does not a turnaround make, but the Gators hit these heights in what appears to be a pretty sustainable way. They doubled down on an impressive run game, rushing a combined 104 times against the Aggies and Gamecocks and gaining 665 yards in the process. Defensively, the Gators controlled the Aggies by shutting down their admittedly awful passing game, then dominated the line of scrimmage against a fading South Carolina front. Florida-FSU has not generated a ton of rivalry week buzz in recent years, but both of these teams are playing their best ball of the season with the game just two weeks away.
Make up your mind, Wildcats. In the past four games, K-State has looked like a top-five team for basically 2½ of them. The Wildcats bolted to a huge first-half lead against TCU before fading and losing 38-28. A week ago, they lent merit to Texas' lofty-for-its-record computer ratings by losing 34-27 to the Longhorns at home. But in the other two games, all they've done is beat last year's Big 12 championship game participants, Oklahoma State and Baylor, by a combined 79-3. The Cowboys were wounded but still 6-1 when they went to Manhattan and got pounded. Baylor had won three in a row and looked on the verge of barging into the conference title race again, then lost by four touchdowns.
Even while underperforming against Texas, Kansas State has still overachieved projections by an average of 24 points per game over the past three weeks. If the Wildcats can keep this up without another bout of regression, they could find themselves favored against TCU in the Big 12 championship game in a couple of weeks.
Most improved power conference quarterbacks
Let's step away from teams and focus on players for a bit. A number of veteran starting quarterbacks have raised their respective games by a few notches this season, improving their teams' fortunes tenfold in the process. Using Total QBR as our guide, here are five who have taken particularly huge leaps.
(While we're focusing on power conferences here, let's give a quick shout-out to North Texas' Austin Aune, whose Total QBR has risen 28.6 points, from 44.5, 95th in FBS, to 73.1, 27th.)
DJ Uiagalelei, Clemson
Last year: 43.2 Total QBR (97th)
This year: 68.1 (42nd)
It's all about where you set the bar. Among the eight remaining primary CFP contenders, Clemson almost certainly has the worst quarterback. Uiagalelei is the only starter in that group who ranks lower than 21st in Total QBR.
But that doesn't mean he hasn't improved significantly since last season. He has raised his completion rate from 56% to 65%, more than doubled his touchdown total (from nine to 19) in three fewer games and cut his interception rate nearly in half, from 2.7% to 1.7%. After a dreadful pair of games against Syracuse and Notre Dame, he rebounded with an excellent 19-for-27 performance, with three completions of 20-plus yards (more than the past two weeks combined), this week against Louisville.
Jordan Travis, Florida State
Last year: 63.0 Total QBR (60th)
This year: 84.2 (ninth)
Travis has always had wheels. In 2021, the onetime Louisville transfer enjoyed three games with more than 100 rushing yards, and he seemed to take a decent step forward by throwing for more than 200 yards in each of his final three games. He offered hope of well-roundedness but had quite a ways to go.
What a revelation he has been of late. He has gone from averaging 6.4 yards per dropback to 8.3 and has cut his interception rate from 3.1% to 1.5%. During Florida State's recent surge, he has been almost perfect. In his last three games, he has completed 75% of his passes with 9 touchdowns, 10 completions of 20-plus yards and a single interception.
Bo Nix, Oregon
Last year: 70.7 Total QBR (32nd)
This year: 89.0 (third)
Did I jinx Nix and the Ducks with last week's "I was wrong about how awesome he is" mea culpa? Who's to say? But even in Saturday's upset loss to Washington, Nix performed admirably, completing 70% of his passes for 280 yards and two scores and rushing for his 14th touchdown of the season. And after suffering a late-game ankle injury, he hobbled back onto the field for a last-minute drive and almost got Oregon into field goal range.
It was the eighth time in nine games that he produced a Total QBR of 85 or higher. (And yes, to the "ain't played nobody" chorus, Total QBR is opponent-adjusted.) He remains magnificent, even if Oregon is now 8-2.
Hendon Hooker, Tennessee
Last year: 77.9 Total QBR (16th)
This year: 90.2 (second)
After last week's 27-13 pummeling at Georgia's hands, everything snapped back into place for Hooker and Tennessee on Saturday. They finished Saturday's 66-24 win over Missouri on a 38-0 run and are still beautifully positioned for a CFP bid if they win out. Hooker resumed his pre-Georgia form, completing 25 of 35 passes at 14.2 yards per completion with three scores.
His full-season numbers -- 71% completion rate, 24-to-2 TD-to-INT ratio, 38 completions of 20-plus yards, 8.9 yards per dropback -- are superior to those of anyone besides Ohio State's C.J. Stroud. He began 2021 as a backup, raised Tennessee's ceiling when he finally cracked the lineup, then raised it three stories higher this year.
Max Duggan, TCU
Last year: 64.9 Total QBR (51st)
This year: 76.3 (18th)
Over the course of three seasons, Duggan was definitively decent, completing 59% of his passes and somewhat mitigating 20 interceptions with 41 touchdowns. His career Total QBR was almost perfectly average, and he began this season on the TCU bench behind onetime Oklahoma transfer Chandler Morris. Morris got hurt almost right after the season began, and Duggan Wally Pipp'd him. He's completing 66% of his passes with a 25-to-2 TD-to-INT ratio, and he's averaging a career-high 8.0 yards per dropback.
Even Saturday, against a disruptive Texas defense that was constantly invading the pocket and forcing mistakes, Duggan weathered the storm and completed a pair of huge first-down passes -- the first went 31 yards to Quentin Johnston for what turned out to be the game-clinching points, and the second went to Johnston for six yards on third-and-4 to seal the win.
Who won the Heisman this week?
We're attempting an experiment this season: What happens if I award the Heisman Trophy every single week of the season and dole out weekly points, F1 style (in this case, 10 points for first place, nine for second, and so on)? How will this Heisman race play out, and how different will the result be from the actual Heisman voting?
1. Harold Perkins Jr., LSU (8 tackles, 4 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and a pass breakup vs. Arkansas)
2. Drake Maye, North Carolina (31-for-49 for 448 yards and three touchdowns, plus 71 rushing yards and a touchdown vs. Wake Forest)
3. Hendon Hooker, Tennessee (25-for-35 for 355 yards and three touchdowns, plus 50 rushing yards and one touchdown vs. Missouri)
4. Michael Penix Jr., Washington (26-for-35 for 408 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT vs. Oregon)
5. Byron Young, Alabama (11 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble and a pass breakup vs. Ole Miss)
6. Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State (seven catches for 135 yards and one touchdown, plus 18 receiving yards vs. Indiana)
7. C.J. Stroud, Ohio State (17-for-28 for 297 yards and five touchdowns vs. Indiana)
8. Bo Nix, Oregon (19-for-27 for 280 yards and two touchdowns, plus 59 rushing yards and one touchdown vs. Washington)
9. Stetson Bennett, Georgia (25-for-37 for 289 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, plus a rushing touchdown vs. Mississippi State)
10. Blake Corum, Michigan (28 carries for 162 yards and one touchdown vs. Nebraska)
Honorable mentions: Jahdae Barron, Texas (11 tackles, 3.5 TFLs and a fumble return touchdown vs. TCU); Josh Downs, North Carolina (11 catches for 154 yards and three touchdowns vs. Wake Forest); Bert Emanuel Jr., Central Michigan (1-for-3 for 22 yards, plus 293 rushing yards and three touchdowns vs. Buffalo); Zay Flowers, Boston College (seven catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns vs. NC State); Kamren Kinchens, Miami (8 tackles, 0.5 TFLs, 3 interceptions returned 99 yards and a pass breakup vs. Georgia Tech); Mike Wright, Vanderbilt (12-for-23 for 184 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT, plus 126 rushing yards and 1 touchdown vs. Kentucky)
Most of this year's current Heisman favorites (Stroud, Hooker, Maye, Corum, Nix, maybe Bennett) played like standouts this week, which was interesting; this is the period in which a favorite or two could zoom into the clear, but no one let anyone else pull away from the pack. That probably helps Stroud and Hooker more than anyone -- they're the current betting favorites, and there's now one fewer week remaining for someone to either catch up or pass them.
That said, this week's winner was a no-brainer.
Two weeks ago, Harold Perkins Jr. was in the middle of a fine freshman season. He had three tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks among his 37 tackles, and he was playing an increasingly important role for an LSU team that appeared to be rebounding nicely from a couple of losses.
Two weeks later, he's basically Chase Young.
LSU's Harold Perkins Jr. tied a school record with 4 sacks and added 2 forced fumbles in the LSU's 13-10 win at Arkansas.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 12, 2022
He's the first Power 5 player since Ohio State's Chase Young in 2019 with 4 sacks & 2 forced fumbles in a game. pic.twitter.com/XO1frPbmcc
In last week's upset of Alabama, Perkins spent a good portion of the evening in the backfield and was credited with pressuring Bryce Young three times, sacking him once and taking part in seven other tackles.
Against Arkansas, he raised his game even further. With the Tigers offense laboring against an inspired Razorbacks D, Perkins made sure that LSU's 13 points would hold up. He recorded four sacks, nearly forced a huge fumble early in the fourth quarter and then did force the game-clinching fumble late. Within a couple of hours, LSU had clinched the SEC West.
Just imagine what he might have been capable of in Fayetteville if he hadn't had the flu, huh?
A top-five recruit in the 2022 class, Perkins chose the Tigers over Texas A&M, Texas and Florida in February. And while Brian Kelly loaded up on key transfers heading into the season, a freshman has made the biggest difference on his defense.
Barely minutes after ESPN's Joe Tessitore had raved about the speed of Arkansas quarterback Malik Hornsby, calling him maybe the fastest player on the Razorbacks, Perkins tracked him down from behind.
Like a cheat code @HP113k
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) November 12, 2022
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/by5NTsPs5Z
This was the most impressive defensive performance of the season, and it saved LSU's playoff hopes.
Through 11 weeks, here are the overall Heisman point totals:
C.J. Stroud, Ohio State (39 points)
Bo Nix, Oregon (38 points)
Hendon Hooker, Tennessee (33 points)
Drake Maye, North Carolina (26 points)
Caleb Williams, USC (26 points)
Stetson Bennett, Georgia (25 points)
Jalon Daniels, Kansas (24 points)
Michael Penix Jr., Washington (18 points)
Dorian Thompson-Robinson, UCLA (17 points)
Bryce Young, Alabama (17 points)
Most of the front-runners indeed picked up some points this week, while Penix reinserted himself into the discussion with a lovely performance in Washington's win over Oregon.
Since all of the players above are quarterbacks, I felt the need to mention two more players here: Marvin Harrison Jr. and Texas' Bijan Robinson each have 14 points, the most of any non-quarterbacks on the list. Michigan running back Blake Corum, who still has a decent shot of making it to New York as a Heisman finalist, currently has nine points.
My 10 favorite games of the weekend
1-2. No. 25 Washington 37, No. 6 Oregon 34; Arizona 34, No. 12 UCLA 28. The Pac-12 has improved dramatically in 2022, but that's a double-edged sword. While it means that quite a few teams have proven capable of playing at a top-15 level, it also means that the teams further down the list are better too. Oregon and UCLA found that out the hard way.
In a game in which neither team led by more than seven all night, Washington scored on two long touchdown passes over the final 21 minutes. The Huskies took a shocking lead in the final minute after Oregon's Noah Whittington slipped on a fourth-and-1 attempt and UW hit the winning field goal with 51 seconds left. A few hours later in Pasadena, UCLA, a 20-point favorite, absorbed some early blows from Arizona and seemed like it was in the process of taking control in the third quarter, but the Wildcats outscored the Bruins 13-7 in the final period and made two late fourth-down stops to seal a stunning upset.
3. Division III: No. 2 Mount Union 23, Baldwin Wallace 21. I usually reserve a spot at the end of this list for a smaller-school game, but this one couldn't possibly have ended up at No. 10. Unbeaten Mount Union took a 17-0 lead into the fourth quarter against a solid Baldwin Wallace squad, but the Yellow Jackets charged back, scoring twice on touchdown passes from Reese Wamer to Jake Novak, then taking the lead on a Wamer plunge with 22 seconds left. Unfortunately, that left the mighty Purple Raiders with 22 seconds too many.
One for the history books! What a way to clinch your 33rd OAC Title outright, 31st undefeated regular season, and 33rd NCAA Playoff appearance!#GoMountGo #SCTop10
— Mount Union Purple Raiders (@purpleraiders) November 12, 2022
(📹Image Video's Dean Marini) pic.twitter.com/PXl3EwpBNu
Granted, this would be like Alabama beating Mississippi State via a Hail Mary -- it would be a lot more fun if it was the other way around -- but wow.
4. UConn 36, Liberty 33. UConn's sixth win of the season was maybe its least likely -- Liberty outgained the Huskies by 156 yards with nearly double the first downs -- but two fourth-down stops and a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns gave Jim Mora's squad the upset.
5. No. 9 Alabama 30, No. 11 Ole Miss 24. Alabama just doesn't seem capable of putting away tough road games as we've grown accustomed to seeing, but Byron Young's pass-rushing and Will Reichard's field goals were just enough.
6. Vanderbilt 24, No. 24 Kentucky 21. A 72-yard touchdown from Chris Rodriguez Jr. gave the Wildcats a 21-17 lead into the final minute, but after a pair of fourth-and-long conversions, Mike Wright and Will Sheppard connected for an 8-yard score to end Vandy's 26-game SEC losing streak in shocking fashion.
7. No. 15 North Carolina 36, Wake Forest 34. Granted, this one almost felt like a letdown after these teams' last two games against each other -- wins of 58-55 and 59-53 for UNC -- but having four lead changes in the final 24 minutes is still awfully fun.
8. Cincinnati 27, East Carolina 25. Cincinnati is mastering the art of winning without covering, but after watching a 12-point lead turn into a deficit in the third quarter, the Bearcats took the lead back with 9:42 left and made two late stops to stay very much alive in the AAC championship race.
9. Boston College 21, No. 16 NC State 20. Boston College has suffered a lost season, beset by both injuries and poor development, but thanks to some heroics from receiver Zay Flowers and freshman quarterback Emmett Morehead, the Eagles pulled off a stunner in Raleigh, taking their first lead with 14 seconds left.
10. Arkansas State 35, UMass 33. UMass may be 1-8, but you can't say the Minutemen have quit on 2022. Down 35-19 in the fourth quarter, they scored twice and got to within two with 18 seconds left ... but couldn't complete a second 2-point conversion that would have tied it.