One of the main topics of the offseason was the distribution of known stars at quarterback. The most proven guys were at schools outside of the top five, while most of the top five teams were replacing multiyear standouts. Would that disrupt the balance of power a bit? Would all of the newbies thrive?
On Saturday, the marquee newbies indeed thrived. Georgia's Carson Beck, Michigan's J.J. McCarthy and Ohio State's Kyle McCord completed 73% of their passes for a combined 928 yards and seven touchdowns, with a couple of rushing scores thrown in as well, as their unbeaten teams won by a combined 140-40. In addition, Alabama's Jalen Milroe threw for 321 yards in a win over Texas A&M.
The known stars? They were awesome too. Drake Maye threw for 442 yards as North Carolina remained unbeaten. LSU's Jayden Daniels threw for 259 yards and rushed for 130 yards in a comeback road win at Missouri. Oklahoma's Dillon Gabriel threw for 285 and rushed for 113 in the biggest rivalry win of his career. USC's Caleb Williams led a comeback win. Michigan's J.J. McCarthy maintained his top QBR ranking.
It was quite a Saturday for quarterback play, in other words, and it could tell us a lot about where things are headed this season. Let's talk about what we learned about awesome signal-callers on a wild and, for the top teams, mostly resounding Saturday.
Jump to a section:
McCord ready | McCarthy the best?
Beck shows his stuff | Milroe coming along
Gabriel unrivaled | Maye's perfect present
Balance helps Travis | Daniels scary spoiler
Heisman of the week | Top 10 games
Kyle McCord is ready to take the training wheels off
Kyle McCord inherited one of the easiest and hardest jobs in college football. On one hand, the Ohio State offense has finished seventh or better in offensive SP+ for six consecutive years and annually possesses the best receiving corps -- or very close to it -- in the country. Put just about anyone behind center, and they'll post solid numbers.
On the other hand, after the work of Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud, the bar is absurdly high. And ranking eighth in offensive SP+ would be seen as disappointing. The Buckeyes are currently ninth.
McCord didn't score a commanding win over Devin Brown in the battle for QB1 in Columbus, but he eventually secured the job. His line has been breaking in new players, and along with injury issues for star back TreVeyon Henderson, the ever-reliable Buckeyes run game has been ineffective. Ohio State is 118th in rushing success rate, and without Henderson on Saturday against previously unbeaten Maryland, the Buckeyes averaged just 2.9 yards per carry (not including sacks and kneel-downs). That put a lot on McCord's shoulders. And after a dreadful start -- in the first quarter, he was 2-for-7 for 14 yards and two sacks -- he came through.
McCord went 17-for-22 for 306 yards and two touchdowns over the final three quarters, and his last three completions went for 37 yards to Marvin Harrison Jr., 44 yards and a touchdown to Cade Stover and 17 yards and a touchdown to Harrison. The game plan still called for lots of running despite total ineffectiveness -- Ohio State ended up with 32 pass attempts to 30 rushes -- and the Buckeyes led only 20-17 heading into the fourth quarter. (The only reason they had the lead at all was because of a second-quarter pick-six.) But the defense held the Terrapins scoreless over their final five drives, and the passing game clicked into place. Ohio State pulled away for a 37-17 win.
Ohio State has played against two top-40 defenses this season (Notre Dame's and Maryland's); there are five more left on the schedule, and aside from a single 61-yard burst from Henderson against Notre Dame, Buckeyes running backs averaged 2.9 yards per carry in these two games. You obviously can't completely give up on running the ball, but Ohio State is rushing 55% of the time on what I call standard downs (first downs, second-and-7 or less, third- or fourth-and-4 or less), and those plays are resulting in a standard downs success rate of just 48%, 66th in FBS. The Buckeyes are falling behind schedule a lot and making McCord's life more difficult. If Ohio State is going to make another CFP appearance, McCord is going to have to air it out more. The defense is doing great, but so are Michigan's and Penn State's. The passing game will have to help Ohio State stand out in what should be a dynamite Big Ten East race.
J.J. McCarthy might be the best QB in college football (if he ever has anything to do)
Michigan's J.J. McCarthy is No. 1 in QBR at 93.6, ahead of Heisman favorites (Michael Penix Jr. is second, Caleb Williams eighth) and sleepers (Dillon Gabriel is third, Jayden Daniels fourth). He's third nationally in completion rate, behind two guys (Oregon's Bo Nix and Florida's Graham Mertz) who average far fewer yards per completion. Nearly two-thirds of his completions (63%) go for a first down, and nearly one-fourth (22%) go for 20-plus yards. Not including the three sacks he has taken in six games, he's averaging 9.1 yards per carry on the three or so rushes per game he's compelled to take.
Give him those numbers with Penix's or Williams' volume of dropbacks, and McCarthy is a pretty clear Heisman favorite. A co-favorite at worst. But his 22.2 dropbacks per game are the lowest of anyone in the QBR top 15 and second-lowest, behind only Louisiana's Zeon Chriss, of anyone in the top 35. We're midway through the regular season, and McCarthy has thrown all of four fourth-quarter passes. (Naturally, he completed all four for 46 yards.)
Michigan is just winning games too darn easily for McCarthy to get the full respect his early-season play has probably warranted. The Wolverines' schedule has obviously been too easy -- they have yet to play a team ranked higher than 58th in SP+ (and won't until Nov. 11), and their current SP+ strength of schedule ranks 114th -- but that's not McCarthy's fault. Besides, QBR and SP+ are both opponent-adjusted. McCarthy and Michigan rank first in them regardless.
Saturday's win over Minnesota was downright mean. The Wolverines scored 12 seconds into the game on a pick-six, then added another pick-six late in the third quarter. That means that, in a 52-10 win, both their offense and defense outscored the Golden Gophers. Before giving way for the second- and eventually third-string QBs, McCarthy went a tidy 14-for-20 for 219 yards and a touchdown, no sacks and two rushing TDs. Those numbers actually hurt his season averages. I was curious about how his receiving corps might fare this year, and we obviously don't yet know how they'll handle better defenses, but Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson are on pace for nearly 1,500 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns between them, and like the rest of the team, they've aced the tests that have been put in front of them. This team is a wrecking ball at the moment.
Carson Beck already has the training wheels off
Georgia has made a habit of coming out of the gate at a light trot this season. I, uh, may have talked about this once or twice. And Beck, the new first-stringer for the No. 1 team in the country, certainly wasn't asked to do much early on. Through five games, he was averaging just 52.8 first-quarter passing yards at 8.5 yards per completion. Georgia was averaging just 3.4 first-quarter points per game. Dink and dunk and go almost nowhere.
On Saturday, the Dawgs faced their best opponent to date, 5-0 Kentucky. It was time to actually open things up and play 60 minutes, and Kirby Smart and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo knew it. They put the game in Beck's hands from the start, and he rewarded them by going 11-for-11 for 146 yards and two scores in the first quarter. Georgia scored on each of six first-half drives -- four touchdowns, two field goals -- and led 34-7 at halftime on the way to an easy 51-13 win.
Beck finished 28-for-35 for 389 yards, four touchdowns and a third-quarter pick; he spread the ball pretty evenly between all-world tight end Brock Bowers (seven catches, 132 yards and a touchdown, Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint (four for 99 and a TD), Rara Thomas (four for 58 and a TD) and running back Daijun Edwards (six for 51), and Kentucky had no idea how to cope. And instead of playing the first quarter at half speed, Beck got to just go ahead and watch from the bench in the fourth quarter this time around.
Just as Ohio State's heavy(ish) run rates against Maryland suggested that Ryan Day might still be trying to keep the bumpers in the bowling gutters for McCord, Georgia's heavy early passing suggested that Smart and Bobo knew what gave them the best chance of quickly putting away a confident and physical Kentucky team. In three weeks, after a trip to Vanderbilt and a bye week -- I'm not mean enough to make a "So, I guess that's two bye weeks" joke here, but if it suits you, go ahead -- the Dawgs will play a Florida Gators team that wants to play physically and dares opponents to beat them downfield. I bet we see Beck throwing quite a bit then, too. (And I bet it works.)
The Jalen Milroe version of Alabama is coming along
It really was like a brief experiment. Seemingly knowing that it would take a miracle for South Florida to come anywhere close to Alabama's level over 60 minutes, Nick Saban used the opportunity to make sure Milroe was his guy by ... not playing Milroe. After the Tide's jarring 34-24 home loss to Texas, in which Milroe completed just 14 of 27 passes with two costly interceptions and five sacks, Saban started transfer Tyler Buchner at USF. When Buchner bombed his audition (14 passes, 34 yards), Ty Simpson saw out the discouraging 17-3 win with an equal number of completions and sacks (five each) among 14 pass attempts.
It was crystal clear who the best option was at this point. Saban handed the reins back to Milroe, and Bama has since gone 3-0 with a blowout of Mississippi State and tighter wins against Ole Miss in Week 4 and Texas A&M on Saturday.
Since the job was handed back to him, Milroe is 18th in Total QBR. He's completed 73% of his passes in that span and rushed about seven times per game (not including sacks) at 7.7 yards per carry. He's still thrown a pair of picks, he's still taken a dreadful 14 more sacks and he will still alternate between mystifyingly poor passes and perfect ones.
It's all part of the package, along with iffy-at-best pass protection and occasional bursts of penalties (7.2 per game, 108th nationally). But that package also includes major explosiveness -- Jermaine Burton caught 45- and 46-yarders en route to a career day in College Station, Isaiah Bond caught a 52-yard touchdown as well and Milroe now has 11 completions of 30-plus yards in five games -- and a run threat that neither Buchner nor Simpson can offer.
Whether it has anything to do with Milroe or not, the package also includes a pretty fierce defense. Since the Texas loss, the Tide have allowed just 12.5 points per game despite playing teams currently ranked 16th (Ole Miss), 27th (Texas A&M) and 41st (Mississippi State) in offensive SP+. They're 15th in QBR allowed, 20th in rushing success rate allowed and seventh in sack rate. They render you one-dimensional, then tee off on your quarterback.
I don't think we've seen nearly enough to think that Bama is a genuine national title contender. But per SP+ they now have a 67% chance of winning the SEC West, a 32% chance of winning the SEC and, yes, a 5% chance of winning the national title. Saban probably isn't going to pull off a miracle and snag another title ring. But "probably" isn't "definitely," and Milroe is offering quite a bit.
Dillon Gabriel was born for a big rivalry game
The three biggest rivalries Gabriel has been a part of in college -- at UCF from 2019 to 2021 and Oklahoma from 2022 to 2023 -- are the War on I-4 (UCF-USF), Bedlam (Oklahoma-Oklahoma State) and, of course, the Red River showdown.
He missed a few opportunities because of injuries in both 2020 and 2022, but he's now played in four of these rivalry games. His teams are 4-0, they've averaged 39 points per game and he's thrown for 1,150 yards, 9 touchdowns and 2 interceptions while rushing for 174 yards and three more scores. Pretty good.
In the biggest game of the Brent Venables era at OU, Gabriel was brilliant. His rushes -- 13 of them for 114 yards, not including one sack -- constantly caught Texas' defense flat-footed. And his ball distribution was just as important. He completed passes to eight players, from Jalil Farooq (five catches for 130 yards) to Drake Stoops (two catches for 39 yards on OU's last-gasp, game-winning drive) to Nic Anderson (the winning TD catch).
Dillon Gabriel finds a wide-open Nic Anderson for a 3-yard touchdown and the lead.
Gabriel has been one of the most steadily successful quarterbacks in the sport in recent years. From 2019 to 2022, he racked up 11,205 passing yards and 95 touchdowns with a Total QBR between 64 and 76 -- very good but not necessarily elite -- every single year. He's played in some of the most up-tempo attacks in the country and won 23 of 38 games, but it wasn't clear whether he had one more level to his game and whether he could help OU engineer a big rebound in 2023.
This sure looks like a new level, doesn't it? Gabriel's Total QBR is currently 91.0, behind only J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix Jr. He's completing a career-high 72% of his passes at 9.2 yards per dropback, and he's on pace to finish with a career high in both rushing and passing yards. Oh yeah, and OU is unbeaten and up to fifth in the AP poll. SP+ gives the Sooners a 60% chance of winning the Big 12 -- highest odds of any power conference team to win its league -- plus an 8% chance at winning the national title, fourth-best odds.
OU is a projected double-digit favorite in every game between now and a potential Big 12 championship game rematch with Texas. The defense has gone from below average to good, and the offense has greatness potential it seems to be fulfilling. If you weren't already, it's time to take the Sooners very, very seriously.
The present is getting a lot more interesting for Drake Maye
In 2022, Maye took over for the prolific Sam Howell at North Carolina and proceeded to one-up him in just about every relevant way. He threw for 4,321 yards and 38 touchdowns, and not including sacks he rushed for 902 yards as well. His big arm and well-rounded athleticism make him an obvious future pro, but because of a mediocre defense and a lack of help in the run game, it felt like we were mainly skipping ahead with Maye in a way. Sure, UNC won nine games last season -- the Heels' best total since 2015 -- but that was primarily due to an unsustainable run of close wins early in the season. The Heels ranked 55th in SP+, barely ahead of where they were in 2021. Maye would play out another season as the best player on a flawed team, and we'd go on speculating about whether he might go No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4 in next year's NFL draft.
Let's maybe pause the draft talk for a bit. UNC is 5-0 -- with only one win closer than 14 points -- and has exceeded projections on offense and defense in four of five games each. Following a 40-7 rout of Syracuse, it's up to 12th in the AP poll and 18th in SP+. Its defense is up to 35th in points allowed per drive. It's not a great D, but it's been good enough to give Maye the help he needs.
UNC is deeply enmeshed in the ACC title race; SP+ gives the Heels a 19% chance of winning the title, behind Florida State (31%) and Louisville (26%) and ahead of Duke (12%) and this coming Saturday's opponent, Miami (7%). Maye isn't having to do quite as much now, averaging 41.8 dropbacks per game compared to last year's 45.6, but he's still got a shot at 4,500 passing yards, and UNC has a shot to match, at the very least, its best-ever win total (11). Even with Miami's shocking collapse against Georgia Tech on Saturday, this coming week's game is huge, and we should probably spend a bit more time talking about what Maye is doing instead of what he will do in some other uniform in the future.
Balance will create a better Jordan Travis
All things considered, things are going well in Tallahassee. Mike Norvell's Florida State Seminoles are 5-0 for the first time since 2015, and they're fourth in the AP poll. They're even getting a first-place vote! They scored a pair of marquee September wins in cruising past LSU and outlasting Clemson in overtime. Granted, both of those teams have lost other games and aren't quite the résumé-boosters they were expected to be; still, the Noles are the ACC favorites and projected favorites in every remaining game. Life is good.
For life to remain good, Travis could use more of the help he got Saturday. FSU ranks a dismal 123rd in rushing success rate and 65th in overall success rate. The Noles are falling behind schedule more than expected, and while Travis is typically good at bailing them out, even good QBs will struggle if they're off schedule too much. In Saturday's win over Virginia Tech, Travis attempted nine passes on what I define as passing downs (second-and-8 or more, third- or fourth-and-5 or more). He completed five of eight passes, but he took a sack and the five completions gained just 38 yards. Success rate: 22%. Despite FSU building an early 22-0 lead, Virginia Tech was able to cut it to 5 early in the second half. But the Florida State defense was too much for the Hokies' offense, and the Noles got enough big runs to eventually cruise 39-17.
By his standards, Travis struggled, taking two sacks and averaging just 9.4 yards per completion. Receiver Johnny Wilson left the game with injury too. (It sounds like he's likely going to be fine moving forward.) But FSU won comfortably because for one of the first times all season, the run game worked. Travis had only nine passing-down attempts, after all, and both Trey Benson (85- and 62-yard touchdowns) and Lawrance Toafili (28-yard run) gave the Noles the explosiveness the passing game wasn't providing.
This was lovely, complementary offense, and it's something FSU has been missing here and there. The less it has to rely on Travis creating magic, the more magic he'll probably create, and the better odds FSU has of winning the ACC title and remaining in the CFP race.
Jayden Daniels is the scariest of spoilers
Even if there are some increasingly awesome quarterbacks among the current batch of likely title contenders, others are more than capable of ruining someone's plans.
Tennessee's Joe Milton III still has an all-time cannon for an arm, even if he's still figuring out how to use it effectively, and the Volunteers -- who have one loss themselves (and are therefore not eliminated from title contention just yet) -- get shots at both Alabama and Georgia in the coming weeks. Ole Miss' Jaxson Dart is on pace for 3,500 passing yards and has already completed 32 passes of 20-plus yards. He and the Rebels play Georgia in November.
Maryland's Taulia Tagovailoa is also on pace for 3,500 yards and gets November home upset opportunities against Penn State and Michigan. UCLA's Dante Moore is young and (increasingly) inconsistent, as one would expect from a true freshman, but his blue-chip arm remains a weapon, and the one-loss Bruins, who are in no way out of the Pac-12 championship race yet, get a shot at USC in mid-November.
In terms of upsets and chaos potential, however, no one holds a candle to LSU's Daniels.
The senior from San Bernardino, California, has become the scariest dual-threat in the country, and he painted his masterpiece Saturday in Columbia, Missouri. In the second half alone, Daniels completed 10 of 13 passes for 189 yards and two scores and rushed seven times for 97 yards and another touchdown. After an early deficit against 5-0 Missouri, he gave LSU its first lead with a 42-yard pass to Brian Thomas Jr. When Mizzou took the lead back, he rushed for a 35-yard score on third-and-3 to seize it again.
Jayden Daniels shows off his speed with the go-ahead touchdown for LSU.
At least two defenders thought they had the angle on him and were proven horribly, horribly wrong. Still, Mizzou responded again, and Daniels did the same, with a five-play, 75-yard drive and a 29-yard touchdown pass to Malik Nabers. Finally, the host Tigers blinked, and Major Burns' late pick-six sealed a 49-39 win.
Daniels finished with 259 passing yards and 134 rushing yards (not including two sacks). He's now on pace for more than 4,000 of the former and 1,000 of the latter. Granted, LSU is only guaranteed one more shot at a title contender -- and that's only if you consider Alabama a contender -- but if the Tigers beat the Tide, they could still be well-positioned to defend their West division crown and earn another shot at Georgia. LSU's defense almost certainly isn't good enough to damage the Dawgs' attack (we'll see about Bama's), but you simply do not want any sort of hopes or dreams to hinge on having to stop Daniels. He's too dangerous right now.
Iowa points watch
Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz needs the Hawkeyes to score at least 325 points this year to reach his full incentive bonus. After Saturday's 20-point showing against Purdue, they have scored 131 points in six games. They need to average 27.7 points the rest of the way to win the Drive to 325. They have scored more than 27 points once this year.
(Also: Iowa's 5-1 because who needs offense to win games?)
Who won the Heisman this week?
I am once again awarding the Heisman every single week of the season and doling out weekly points, F1-style (in this case, 10 points for first place, 9 for second and so on). How will this Heisman race play out, and how different will the result be from the actual Heisman voting?
Here is this week's Heisman top 10:
1. Jayden Daniels, LSU (15-for-21 for 259 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 130 rushing yards and a touchdown, against Missouri)
2. Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma (23-for-38 for 285 yards and a touchdown, plus 113 rushing yards and a touchdown, against Texas)
3. Drake Maye, North Carolina (33-for-47 for 442 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 55 rushing yards and a touchdown, against Syracuse)
4. Carson Beck, Georgia (28-for-35 for 389 yards, 4 touchdowns and an interception against Kentucky)
5. Jermaine Burton, Alabama (9 catches for 197 yards and 2 touchdowns against Texas A&M)
6. Antario Brown, Northern Illinois (13 rushes for 280 yards and 4 touchdowns against Akron)
7. DJ Uiagalelei, Oregon State (19-for-25 for 275 yards and 5 touchdowns against Cal)
8. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan (14-for-20 for 219 yards and a touchdown, plus two rushing touchdowns, against Minnesota)
9. Edgerrin Cooper, Texas A&M (11 tackles, three sacks and a forced fumble against Alabama)
10. Chris Hardie, Jacksonville State (9 tackles, 4.5 TFLs, 2 sacks and an interception returned for 58 yards against Middle Tennessee)
Honorable mention:
• Trey Benson, Florida State (11 carries for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 15 receiving yards, against Virginia Tech)
• Devin Grant, Buffalo (4 tackles, 3 interceptions and 2 pick-sixes against Central Michigan)
• Frank Harris, UTSA (25-for-33 for 338 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus a rushing touchdown, against Temple)
• Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State (eight catches for 163 yards and a touchdown against Maryland)
• Kimani Vidal, Troy (28 carries for 245 yards and 3 touchdowns against Arkansas State)
• Jacob Zeno, UAB (19-for-25 for 353 yards, 4 touchdowns and an INT against USF)
Through six weeks, here are your points leaders:
1. Jayden Daniels, LSU (28 points)
2. Michael Penix Jr., Washington (27 points)
3. Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma (25 points)
4. Caleb Williams, USC (21 points)
5. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (16 points)
T-6. Brock Bowers, Georgia (10 points)
T-6. Travis Hunter, Colorado (10 points)
T-6. Jack Plummer, Louisville (10 points)
T-6. Tyler Van Dyke, Miami (10 points)
T-10. Quinn Ewers, Texas (9 points)
T-10. Cameron Ward, Washington State (9 points)
It was a costly bye week for Penix, who watched Daniels make his lead (and Missouri's) disappear. But the thing about bye weeks is, everybody gets one! Daniels' comes in a couple of weeks, while third-place Dillon Gabriel is off this coming Saturday. Plus, at this stage, Penix and Gabriel are far more likely to be playing in a conference championship game than Daniels. But for now, we have a new leader.
My 10 favorite games of the weekend
1. No. 12 Oklahoma 34, No. 3 Texas 30. Last year's blowout was evidently a blip. This rivalry returned to its "classics only" ways with the Sooners' last-minute win.
2. Georgia Tech 23, No. 17 Miami 20. Honestly, this will be the game we remember most from the week, and wow, did Georgia Tech show perseverance and boldness in forcing the last-minute fumble and then driving the length of the field for the win. No matter the circumstances, this is an incredible way to end a game.
Miami's choice to run the ball leads to a crucial fumble, which Georgia Tech recovers and later completes the miracle comeback.
But this one gets a bit of a point deduction for Mario Cristobal's maddening decision-making. Five years ago, Cristobal's Oregon team lost a game to Stanford because CJ Verdell fumbled as the Ducks were trying to run out the clock; the Cardinal recovered, tied the game on a late field goal, then won in OT. Plus, Kevin Steele, Cristobal's defensive coordinator last year at Miami, lost a game in even more ludicrous fashion long ago as Baylor's head coach. If any coach in the country should have been conscious of the risks of running the ball instead of simply kneeling out a win, it's Cristobal. I'm pretty sure running back Donald Chaney Jr. was down before he fumbled, but the replay angles weren't completely conclusive. Either way, this game should have ended on a Tyler Van Dyke kneel-down.
3. FCS: Central Arkansas 38, SE Missouri State 33. On their purple and gray home turf, UCA trailed 30-6 heading into the fourth quarter, missed three 2-point conversions and had to score five touchdowns in the final 14:15 to win. But that's exactly what the Bears did. They picked off a Hail Mary pass in the end zone to seal the win after leading for only 19 seconds all game.
IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL IT'S OVER#BearClawsUp x #FearTheStripes pic.twitter.com/GC2dIJ1tvO
— 𝗨𝗖𝗔 𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗢𝗧𝗕𝗔𝗟𝗟 (@UCA_Football) October 8, 2023
4. Div. III: No. 14 UW-La Crosse 37, No. 3 UW-Whitewater 34. How do you end a rivalry losing streak? With a big crowd and a big leg. In front of 20,113 in Whitewater -- according to D3football.com, the largest on-campus crowd ever for a Division III game -- UW-La Crosse watched a 14-point fourth-quarter lead disappear but got a career-long 51-yard field goal from Michael Stack to win at the buzzer to beat mighty UWW for the first time since 2004.
5. No. 9 USC 43, Arizona 41 (3OT). Ugly? Yes. One hell of a bad beat (if you happened to bet the 72-point under and just needed USC to make that easy field goal at the end of regulation to win)? Yes. Dramatic and memorable? Absolutely.
6. Wyoming 24, No. 24 Fresno State 19. Wyoming has now beaten two ranked teams in Laramie this season, each with last-minute heroics. (In this one, big lineman Cole Godbout batted and picked off a pass with 46 seconds left to foil a Fresno comeback attempt.) In between, the Cowboys beat Appalachian State with a late-game blocked field goal return. They have given season-ticket holders their money's worth in 2023.
7. No. 23 LSU 49, No. 21 Missouri 39. This game gave us 1,060 total yards and five second-half lead changes. Hard to ask for much more than that.
8. Colorado 27, Arizona State 24. Even while held captive on the Pac-12 Network, Colorado games still produce constant drama. Trailing heading into the fourth quarter, CU took a 7-point lead, only to watch ASU tie the game with a Trenton Bourguet-to-Troy Omeire pass in the final minute. But Shedeur Sanders threw a 43-yard bomb to Javon Antonio, and Alejandro Mata knocked in a 43-yard field goal at the buzzer.
9. Oklahoma State 29, Kansas State 21 (Friday). Over the last nine times Mike Gundy's Cowboys have been home underdogs, they've won eight. That's ridiculous.
10. FCS: Southern Utah 27, Tarleton State 26. Down 20-0 at halftime, Southern Utah had gotten within 26-21 in the final minutes. Then the Thunderbirds took the lead in a most unlikely way: SCOOP AND SCORE.
D-TD @joshlopez_25 with the scoop and Score to put the Birds Up!
— Southern Utah Football (@SUUFB_) October 8, 2023
⚡️: 27
🤠: 26 pic.twitter.com/hdCjCZQz2Z
What a delightful and delirious weekend of football.
The midweek playlist
Between now and my Friday preview column, there are quite a few games you'll want to track.
Liberty at Jacksonville State (Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., ESPNU). Both the Flames and Gamecocks are 3-0 in Conference USA, and both offenses are fun to watch.
Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State (Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2). One of the Sun Belt's increasingly bitter rivalries, this one should be exciting even though Coastal is a disappointing 0-2 in conference play.
West Virginia at Houston (Thursday, 7 p.m., FS1). West Virginia is second in the Big 12 at the moment! The 4-1 Mountaineers aren't playing pretty ball, but they're winning, and they'll take on a speedy and desperate Houston squad.