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          Rivalry Week recap: Ryan Day has Jim Harbaugh issue; CFP outlook

          • Bill ConnellyNov 27, 2022, 10:00 PM ET
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              Bill Connelly is a writer for ESPN. He covers college football, soccer and tennis. He has been at ESPN since 2019.
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          Congratulations, Michigan. You did it two years in a row. Kudos, Kansas State. You get a shot at a TCU rematch. Well done, Utah. Can you take down USC a second time? My compliments, Purdue. Divisions are outdated and dumb, but snaring a Big Ten West title while you still can is better than not doing it!

          A "Hear! Hear!" to UCF and Tulane. May your rematch in New Orleans be as fun as your first foray a few weeks ago. Good going, Ohio. Maybe this is the year you finally take the MAC. Props, Troy. You haven't lost since that Hail Mary against Appalachian State. Hooray, North Texas! May your second trip to San Antonio go slightly better than the first.

          Congrats to you, too, Caleb Williams. Avoid throwing about seven interceptions in Las Vegas on Friday night, and you'll be lifting a pretty big trophy in a couple more weeks.

          Rivalry Week did everything it was supposed to do: entertain us with tight (and often completely nonsensical) rivalry games, determine the remaining conference title game bids and tell us who's probably going to win the Heisman. It separated wheat from chaff, handed out a couple of College Football Playoff (and Big Ten West!) elimination losses to teams that turned out to be too flawed to remain in the conversation ... and gave us whatever the hell UCF-USF was. It was a delight from start to finish. Let's walk through some of the biggest takeaways from college football's biggest weekend.

          Jump to:
          TCU, USC can make this easy | Losing on fourth down |
          Non-bowl team all-stars |
          Heisman of the week | Favorite games

          Ryan Day has become Jim Harbaugh

          There might not be a stronger narrative device in sports than a nice rivalry streak, and going all the way back to the first few meetings between Michigan and Ohio State, there might not be a rivalry more driven by streaks than The Game.

          For most of the 21st century, the Buckeyes have owned the rivalry, and until about 53 weeks ago, that was a major problem for Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. Inheriting a program that had enjoyed just one AP top-20 finish from 2008 to 2014, he brought the Wolverines back to prominence, winning double-digit games three times with four top-20 finishes between 2015 and 2019.

          But with Ohio State at a higher cruising altitude than ever before, Harbaugh was 0-5 against the Buckeyes. It lorded over all of his accomplishments, and he almost got fired when things got weird and Michigan went 2-4 in the 2020 COVID-19 season. Every time I wrote about Harbaugh for years, I had to acknowledge the "Yeah, but ..." elephant in the room.

          Now we have to do the same for Ryan Day.

          In four seasons at Ohio State, Day is 42-5. His Buckeyes have never finished lower than sixth in the AP poll and probably won't this season. In 2019, they lost only to an absurdly talented Clemson team in the best game of the season. In 2020, they lost only to Nick Saban's most dominant Alabama team. They have lost only once to a team that finished worse than third in the AP poll.

          But they've now gotten the crap kicked out of them by Michigan two years in a row.

          Last year in Ann Arbor, they gave up 28 points and 265 yards (in just 24 snaps) in the second half of a 42-27 loss to the Wolverines. In response, Day brought in a super-aggressive, new defensive coordinator (Jim Knowles) and tried to reestablish the toughness that appeared to have been lost at some point.

          This year in Columbus, after all the change and a 52-week wait to redeem themselves, the Buckeyes gave up 28 points and 316 yards in the second half of a 45-23 loss to the Wolverines.

          In last week's Rivalry Week preview, I wrote that for all of the Buckeyes' apparent defensive improvement, we didn't know if they were ready for Michigan because they hadn't faced any team like Michigan. Turns out, they weren't ready.

          Attacking the line of scrimmage with abandon, Ohio State dominated the Michigan run game early; the Wolverines' star back, Blake Corum, was injured, and Michigan had just 10 rushing yards at halftime. Michigan was still in the game thanks to a couple of long touchdown catches by Cornelius Johnson, but it was fair to wonder if the Wolverines could win such a big game simply by going deep.

          They didn't need to. After another long touchdown pass -- this one to tight end Colston Loveland -- gave them the lead, the Wolverines began to dominate in the trenches. They forced four straight Ohio State punts and ground out a demoralizing 15-play, eight-minute touchdown drive to go up 11 early in the fourth quarter. When Ohio State got desperate and somehow started parking its safeties even closer to the line of scrimmage, Donovan Edwards burned them for touchdown runs of 75 and 85 yards.

          Ohio State spent all season remodeling its program to handle Michigan's rampant efficiency, then the Wolverines beat them with big plays instead -- five gains of 40-plus yards, all touchdowns. And now the narrative device declares that Harbaugh owns the Buckeyes and Day might be trending toward the hot seat.

          Is this all irrational? Of course. Day has kept Ohio State at a very high level over four seasons. But such are the hazards of taking a job so dependent on success in The Game.

          TCU and USC can make this easy on all of us

          As favorites of 9.5 and 4.5 points respectively this weekend, TCU and USC appeared vulnerable heading into their final regular-season games against Iowa State and Notre Dame. Winners of nine one-score games between them, they were given only a 61% chance of going a combined 2-0 on Saturday, per SP+.

          For once, these teams were in no mood for drama. TCU bolted to a 24-0 first-quarter lead, then just kept wailing away on the Cyclones, eventually winning 62-14. USC wasn't that resounding but still went up 10 points on the Fighting Irish in the first quarter and led by double digits most of the way in a 38-27 win.

          Because they both handled their business so capably, we have the cleanest CFP picture imaginable heading into Championship Week. Georgia and Michigan will command the top two spots in Tuesday's CFP rankings -- both teams are almost certainly in the CFP even if they suffer conference title game upsets Saturday -- while TCU will almost certainly rank third and USC fourth. If USC beats Utah in Friday night's Pac-12 championship game and TCU does the same to Kansas State in Jerry World on Saturday, the top four will be as obvious as possible, and the Horned Frogs and Trojans will each make their CFP debuts.

          Neither will be favored by much, however. USC lost at Utah in mid-October and was listed as only a 2-point favorite when lines came out Sunday. TCU needed a second-half charge to beat Kansas State in October and was favored by 2.5 points on the opening lines. SP+ suggests there's only a 28% chance of both winning.

          It's fun to root for chaos in college football; it doesn't really matter if we root for it or not, actually -- it's going to come for us regardless. But this silly sport has a way of using chaos to return to the status quo. In 2007, the wildest season of our lifetimes, Ohio State and LSU ended up playing for the national title after all. And if USC falls to Utah, it will almost certainly mean that either Ohio State or Alabama, who have combined for 11 CFP bids and four national titles in eight years, will sneak into the final four. If TCU loses, there's a chance that the Frogs snare a playoff spot regardless, but there's also a chance that both Ohio State and Alabama get in. Never will the status quo ever benefit more from upsets.

          There are a lot of ways to lose on fourth down

          There is no question that the influence of increased fourth-down attempts in the pros, plus the presence of companies such as Championship Analytics (and the success of some of its early adopters) has made it more acceptable than ever for coaches to go for it on fourth down. Fourth downs have long been the lowest of low-hanging fruit on the football analytics tree, and they're getting picked now more than ever.

          That is the case in clear and obvious situations at least. Punting on fourth-and-1 from your opponent's territory, for instance, has gone down severely over the past few seasons. But punting on fourth-and-3? Or going for it on fourth-and-1 from your side of the 50? Coaches still trend toward conservatism in those situations, and based on the reactions different types of calls get, it's not hard to see why.

          If you follow the CFB 4th Down Bot on Twitter, you are used to a relative deluge of Saturday tweets outlining particularly noteworthy go-or-kick scenarios. It's an informative account, not only for showing who remains ultra-conservative and who doesn't, but also in illustrating just how blurry the math can be. A lot of scenarios are firmly in the "toss-up" category, meaning the math does not fully support either kicking or going for it, and that a coach's own personality and preferences could justify either decision. But we react much more harshly to going (and failing) than kicking.

          Here are two case studies from this past weekend:

          After failing on a fourth-and-2 from the Michigan 34 early in the second quarter -- a pretty obvious go-for-it situation -- Ohio State's Ryan Day went ultra-conservative for the rest of the game. In the second half alone, his Buckeyes faced a fourth-and-3 from their 49 (with 8:58 left in the third quarter), a fourth-and-5 from the Michigan 43 (6:13, third), a fourth-and-3 from their 32 (11:46, fourth) and a fourth-and-4 from the Michigan 9 (7:23, fourth).

          In all four instances, the fourth-down bot suggested Ohio State's win probability was approximately the same whether Day decided to go for it or kick. In the second of the four, for instance, the Buckeyes' win probability if electing to go for it was 47% -- they had a 45% chance of succeeding -- and their win probability would have risen to 57% with a successful conversion and fallen to 39% with a failure. Quarterback C.J. Stroud, who had just completed passes for 13 and 14 yards to set up the fourth-and-short after a first-and-35 situation, was urging Day to keep the offense on the field.

          In all four instances, however, Day elected to kick. The Buckeyes punted in the first three cases and attempted a field goal to "take the points" and get within eight in the final case. Michigan scored touchdowns after three of the four kicks and ran away with the game while Ohio State's offense, which has spent most of this season in the top five of offensive SP+, stood on the sideline.

          (It should be noted that on one of the punts, Ohio State appeared set up to attempt a fake, and a couple of players seemed confused when the ball was snapped to the punter. So perhaps they intended to go for it on one of those instances. But if you're going to do so, maybe leave your Heisman-contender quarterback and all-world receivers on the field and run a normal play?)

          Day didn't catch much flak from the announcing crew for these decisions -- they were well within the realm of normal decisions even though they put pressure on the defense that it could not withstand and backfired terribly.

          It was a different situation in Corvallis.

          Oregon had watched a 34-17 lead get whittled to 34-31 in what seemed like a heartbeat; the Ducks had given up a short-field touchdown to Oregon State, then fumbled a punt snap to set the Beavers up at their 1-yard line. Two plays later, OSU was within three points.

          The Ducks faced a fourth-and-1 situation from their 29-yard line with 9:39 left in the game. The math said it was a pretty neutral call: Their win probability if they punted was 63%, the same as if they went for it. They had a 73% chance of converting, and if they indeed converted their win probability would rise to 69%. Considering how disastrous the last punt attempt was, and considering how efficient the Oregon run game has been -- the Ducks rank first in rushing success rate, with one of the highest short-yardage conversion rates in the country -- one could see how coach Dan Lanning might feel better about going for it.

          They did so, but quarterback Bo Nix made the wrong read on a zone read and got stuffed. If he'd handed the ball off, Oregon would have converted with ease, but he didn't. Oregon State took over and took the lead four plays later, and Lanning was destroyed by both the announcing crew and most of Twitter for his egregious error. And of course, everyone appalled by the decision bagged on analytics in the process, even though the stats themselves said it was a toss-up.

          (Lanning also caught grief for a failed fourth-and-1 attempt against Washington. He is evidently college football's Brandon Staley.

          It was rather disappointing to see how different the reactions were to Day's decisions and Lanning's when Day doomed himself with conservatism even more than Lanning doomed himself with aggression. For all the progress we've seen in the "going for it on fourth-and-1 from your opponent's 30" realm, it's pretty clear we've still got miles to go in the conversation about both fourth downs and analytics. It's also clear there are lots of ways to lose a game on fourth down.

          The "Loan 'em to a bowl team" all-stars

          For all of the wonders of Rivalry Week, it inevitably brings about a particular type of depressing revelation when watching certain players at some point: "I don't get to watch this guy play again this season." While more than 60% of FBS teams end up playing in bowl games in a given season, that still leaves the 40% or so that don't, and there are a lot of really fun players on those teams. Some will return next season, but next season is nine months away! So I'm here to propose a set of loan deals. Would the nine teams below please loan these 10 players to bowl teams so we can watch them play at least one more time in 2022?

          1. RB Devon Achane, Texas A&M. We start with the inspiration for this list. After missing two games because of injury, Achane finished his season by carrying 5-7 A&M to an upset of fifth-ranked LSU. The 5-foot-9, 185-pounder came into the season with track-star cred and some of the best high-end speed in the country, but he ended up carrying the ball at least 16 times in nine of the 10 games he played, and after a 25-for-138-yard performance nearly drove an upset of Ole Miss in October, he returned from injury and carried the ball 38 times for 215 yards against LSU.

          Achane got the ball seven times on third down, moved the chains five times and set up an easy fourth-down conversion on a sixth. He carried 16 times in the fourth quarter alone! He runs meaner than any track star you'll ever see, and I really wish we could set him up for one more game this season. (He might disagree with that from whatever ice bath he has probably been parked in since Saturday night's game ended.)

          2. QB E.J. Warner, Temple. If you know one thing about the true freshman Warner, it's that he's Hall of Famer Kurt Warner's son. He ended up starting for most of the season for the outmanned Owls (3-9), and while there were plenty of bumps in the road, he ended up with some high notes, throwing for 344 yards and two touchdowns in a win over South Florida, then 486 yards with three scores in a near upset of Houston. After a dud against Cincinnati, he nearly led Temple to an upset of East Carolina thanks to 527 yards and five touchdowns. He's just getting started! Don't let his season end!

          3. LT Peter Skoronski, Northwestern. Over the past five seasons, Northwestern has finished 97th, 120th, 100th, 118th and 110th in offensive SP+. The Wildcats have had one of the most consistently miserable offenses on the planet, one that stands out for its ineptitude even within the Big Ten West. But they've also had at least one incredible offensive tackle on the line during that entire stretch. Skoronski picked up where Rashawn Slater left off and could go in the first round of the NFL draft, just like Slater did. Give him at least a taste of an actually successful offense before he leaves, please?

          4. LB John Marshall, Navy. In 2019, Navy linebacker Jacob Springer ranked 25th in the nation with 16 tackles for loss. That's the highest ranking a Midshipman had managed over the past decade. Marshall ranks eighth with 17.5 TFLs, and he has one more regular-season game to play. The 6-2, 209-pound junior from Highland, Maryland, caught fire late in the season, recording 11 TFLs in his past four games and sacking UCF quarterback Mikey Keene four times in Navy's upset win.

          5. WR Trey Palmer, Nebraska. Over the course of three October games (two wins and a near upset of Purdue), the LSU transfer caught 19 passes for 458 yards and four TDs. He and quarterback Casey Thompson were developing an incredible rapport, but then Thompson got hurt, and Palmer disappeared. But after accumulating just 97 receiving yards in his past four games, Palmer went off on Iowa with Thompson back in the lineup. He caught nine balls for 165 yards and two scores, and his early 87-yarder set the tone for a 24-17 upset.

          6. LB Cal Haladay, Michigan State. Any number of bowl teams could use this 230-pound run-stopper from Elysburg, Pennsylvania. Haladay came into Rivalry Week tied for eighth nationally with 19 run stuffs and made a 20th in Saturday's loss to Penn State. The Spartans disappointed, but Haladay didn't, finishing with 11 TFLs among his 120 tackles.

          7. QB Jayden de Laura, Arizona. Arizona wasn't good in 2022, but the Wildcats were far feistier than usual thanks to an offense that finished 22nd in offensive SP+. The main driver of that improvement: de Laura, the Washington State transfer who threw for 3,685 yards and 25 touchdowns. The Wildcats scored 31 or more points eight times in 2022 after doing so just twice in their previous 20 games.

          8. WR Keylon Stokes, Tulsa. This probably isn't how Stokes envisioned his sixth season going: After back-to-back bowl appearances and a near upset in the 2020 AAC championship game, Tulsa fell back to just 5-7 this fall. None of that was Stokes' fault, however -- he caught 76 balls for 1,224 yards (16.1 per catch!) and eight scores. When he hit 100-plus yards, Tulsa averaged 36.1 points per game. When he didn't, the Golden Hurricane averaged 22.8.

          9. P Bryce Baringer, Michigan State. Baringer was arguably Michigan State's MVP in Saturday's loss to Penn State, uncorking a 72-yard punt and placing three of his five punts inside the 20. For the season, he averaged 49.0 yards per kick with a net of 45.7 -- opponents could return only 28% of his punts and averaged just 5.9 yards per return. He was a one-man field position winner.

          10. DB Kamren Kinchens, Miami. After a 2-0 start, Miami pretty quickly packed it in during Mario Cristobal's first season in charge. The Canes lost seven of their last 10 games and finished the year on a four-game home losing streak (with three of those losses by at least 24 points). But none of this was Kinchens' fault. The sophomore picked off six passes, returned one for a touchdown against Georgia Tech and allowed just a 11.1 QBR as the primary coverage guy.

          I'm not interested in altering the national title race by, say, sending Achane to Michigan or Kinchens to USC or something. I just want to squeeze these guys into the Potato Bowl or the Liberty Bowl. That doesn't seem like too much to ask, right?

          Who won the Heisman this week? (And who the heck is going to win it for real?)

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          Oregon State's defense shuts down Oregon to secure a 21-point comeback

          Oregon State's defense comes up big with a fourth-down stop late in the fourth quarter to secure an incredible 21-point comeback victory.

          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. Caleb Williams, USC (18-for-22 for 232 yards and one touchdown, plus 35 rushing yards and three touchdowns vs. Notre Dame)

          2. Bryce Young, Alabama (20-for-30 for 343 yards, three TDs and one INT, plus 48 rushing yards and a touchdown vs. Auburn)

          3. Sydney Brown, Illinois (six tackles, two interceptions for 39 yards, one fumble return for 53 yards, two touchdowns in one quarter vs. Northwestern)

          4. Cornelius Johnson, Michigan (four catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns vs. Ohio State)

          5. Donovan Edwards, Michigan (22 carries for 216 yards and two touchdowns vs. Ohio State)

          6. Devon Achane, Texas A&M (38 carries for 215 yards and two touchdowns vs. LSU)

          7. Michael Penix Jr., Washington (25-for-43 for 485 yards, three TDs and one INT, plus 34 rushing yards and two touchdowns vs. Washington State)

          8. Keaton Mitchell, East Carolina (27 carries for 222 yards and three touchdowns, plus 78 receiving yards and a touchdown vs. Temple)

          9. DeWayne McBride, UAB (16 carries for 272 yards and one touchdown vs. Louisiana Tech)

          10. Bijan Robinson, Texas (29 carries for 179 yards and two touchdowns vs. Baylor)

          Honorable mention: Nathaniel Dell, Houston (nine catches for 161 yards and a touchdown, plus a punt return score vs. Tulsa); Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma (28-for-40 for 449 yards, six TDs and one INT vs. Texas Tech); Riley Leonard, Duke (29-for-41 for 391 yards, four TDs and one INT vs. Wake Forest); Casey Thompson, Nebraska (20-for-30 for 278 yards and three touchdowns vs. Iowa); Deuce Vaughn, Kansas State (25 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown, plus 82 receiving yards vs. Kansas); Kimani Vidal, Troy (33 carries for 208 yards and four touchdowns vs. Arkansas State); E.J. Warner, Temple (45-for-63 for 527 yards, five TDs and one INT vs. East Carolina); Michael Wiley, Arizona (12 carries for 214 yards and three touchdowns, plus 51 receiving yards vs. Arizona State)

          In his least prolific game in weeks, Caleb Williams produced the Heisman moments we've been waiting for somebody to deliver.

          Somebody always makes a move in November, and while it certainly appeared that Williams was making up ground on leader C.J. Stroud -- both per the numbers here and the betting odds -- everything remained up for grabs. With Stroud and the Ohio State offense collapsing and Williams basically just teasing and toying with Notre Dame for 60 minutes, the award is up for grabs no more.

          Through 13 weeks, here are the overall point totals:

          1. Caleb Williams, USC (45 points)
          2. C.J. Stroud, Ohio State (39 points)
          3. Bo Nix, Oregon (38 points)
          4. Hendon Hooker, Tennessee (33 points)
          5. Drake Maye, North Carolina (26 points)
          6. Bryce Young, Alabama (26 points)
          7. Stetson Bennett, Georgia (25 points)
          8. Jalon Daniels, Kansas (24 points)
          9. Bijan Robinson, Texas (23 points)
          10. Michael Penix Jr., Washington (22 points)

          I love it when we have a neat and tidy ending. There are only two players within 10 points of Williams -- Stroud and Nix -- and neither will play during Championship Week. So Williams has clinched the win in this experiment, and unless he suffers the worst football game of his life against Utah in the Pac-12 championship, he'll win the real race, too. (He might even win it with the worst game of his life at this point.)

          My 10 favorite games of the weekend

          1. No. 21 Oregon State 38, No. 9 Oregon 34. Fourth-down second-guessing aside, this game perfectly encapsulated Rivalry Week. Oregon collapsed mentally -- which seems to happen more this weekend than any other -- and gave away a 17-point lead in five minutes, but the Beavers still needed a goal-line stand to secure the win.

          2. No. 16 Florida State 45, Florida 38. A four-hour adrenaline rush. Both teams took the lead three times. FSU seized control and went up 38-24 in the third quarter, only to see the Gators tie it in less than three minutes. Trey Benson's 17-yard touchdown gave the Noles the lead for good, and after a wild, 13-play drive replete with a pair of shaky officiating decisions, Florida turned the ball over on downs with 39 seconds left.

          3. South Carolina 31, No. 8 Clemson 30. A rarity: A punter was the MVP, and the game was still fantastic. The Gamecocks overcame a nine-point halftime deficit (and a couple of horrific interceptions by Spencer Rattler) to go up 31-30 in the fourth quarter, then repeatedly pinned Clemson deep with punts -- Kai Kroeger averaged 53.7 yards per punt and landed five of his seven inside the 10. South Carolina then recovered a fumbled return and was able to kneel out its first win over the Tigers since 2013.

          4. NC State 30, No. 17 North Carolina 27 (2OT). Former scout team quarterback Ben Finley outdueled Drake Maye, but Maye still created some late-game magic with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns. Overtime became a field goal contest, lost by the Heels when Noah Burnette missed a 35-yarder.

          5. No. 22 UCF 46, USF 39. Wonderful nonsense from start to finish. Needing a win to clinch a spot in the AAC championship game, UCF raced to a 28-0 lead but gave away fumbles three times in five second-half drives. The Knights suddenly found themselves down 39-38 in the final minute before Alec Holler saved the day.

          6. UNLV 27, Nevada 22. A 12.5-point underdog, Nevada raced to a 13-0 lead in the first quarter but quickly collapsed; by the fourth quarter it was 27-16 UNLV, but a Toa Taua touchdown got the Wolf Pack back within five. They drove to the UNLV 3 with time expiring, but Johnathan Baldwin broke up a fourth-down pass to Jamaal Bell, and the Rebels survived.

          7. Mississippi State 24, Ole Miss 22. Gotta finish drives. Ole Miss registered four of the Egg Bowl's first five scores but led only 16-7 late in the first half because of red zone failures. Mississippi State went on a 17-0 run to go up eight, but Dayton Wade caught a 23-yard touchdown from Jaxson Dart with 85 seconds left to get the Rebels to within two. One last goal-line failure, however -- an incomplete 2-point conversion attempt -- doomed Ole Miss.

          8. Arizona 38, Arizona State 35. Another adrenaline rush. This game saw runs of 10-0, 14-0, 21-7 and 14-0, and ASU looked like it was seizing control 35-31 with a Jalin Conyers touchdown with 11 minutes left. But Arizona needed only six plays to take the lead right back, then forced turnovers on the Sun Devils' final two drives to see out a testy win.

          9. Nebraska 24, Iowa 17. Three Casey Thompson touchdown passes (two to Trey Palmer) gave the Huskers a shocking 24-0 lead in the third quarter, but then nature very nearly healed itself. Nebraska gained 9 yards in the final 10 minutes as the Hawkeyes charged back to within one score. Iowa had two possessions to tie the game but couldn't get past its 33 on either drive and blew a shot at the Big Ten West crown.

          10T. Southeastern Louisiana 45, Idaho 42; West Florida 38, Delta State 27; Ferris State 17, Pittsburg State 14; Delaware Valley 39, Randolph-Macon 32; Keiser 29, Morningside 28. Smaller-school playoffs always deliver. We had #CollegeKickers moments in both FCS (Idaho missed a 39-yard field goal with six seconds left) and Division II (Pitt State missed a 44-yarder with three seconds left). We saw West Florida score 28 fourth-quarter points (including a late pick-six after taking the lead) to beat Delta State in the Division II quarterfinals, and we saw Delaware Valley unleash a 21-0 fourth quarter to beat Randolph-Macon, scoring the winning touchdown with 24 seconds remaining.

          We also saw the NAIA's Bama go down: Keiser scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to take a sudden 29-28 lead over Morningside -- the 2018, 2019 and 2021 national champion -- and then forced two turnovers to run out the clock and advance to the semis.

          Whew.

          We really could have made the whole column out of my favorite games this week. Here are a few honorable mentions for posterity: SMU 34, Memphis 31; No. 19 Tulane 27, No. 24 Cincinnati 24; Texas Tech 51, Oklahoma 48 (OT); Duke 34, Wake Forest 31; Kent State 30, Buffalo 27 (OT); Georgia Southern 51, Appalachian State 48 (2OT); Missouri 29, Arkansas 27; UTSA 34, UTEP 31; Middle Tennessee State 33, Florida International 28.