Well that was something, wasn't it? Week 7 of the college football season gave us two Hail Mary (or close to it) finishes and a Game of the Year candidate -- the biggest game of the week was also the best, which always provides quite the boost to a given Saturday -- plus maybe the best set of pre-Saturday games we've seen, a couple of massive comebacks and what might turn out to be a Heisman moment.
That was one hell of a way to reach the midpoint of the season.
So, to reflect on both a fantastic week of action (it was almost literally a full week too!) and everything we've seen this season to date, I'm going to hand out some awards, recognizing some half-season Heismans, games of the year so far, the biggest surprises and disappointments and much more.
Jump to a section:
Half-season Heisman | Defensive Heisman
Games of half-season | Coach of half-season
Best surprises | Biggest disappointments
Favorite transfers | Favorite freshmen
Best, worst overreactions | Best conference races
Heisman of the week | Games of the week
Half-season Heisman
1. Michael Penix Jr., Washington. Joe Burrow's 2019 season is the model for CFP-era quarterback perfection. In 15 games, LSU's Heisman- and national-title-winner threw for 5,671 yards, 60 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions. His Total QBR rating of 94.9 has been topped only by Alabama's Mac Jones in 2020 and Oklahoma's Kyler Murray in 2018, and when you add an element of volume (Burrow had 606 dropbacks that season, compared to 435 for Murray and 424 for Jones), he trounces both.
If Michael Penix Jr. gets a chance to play 15 games -- which would require his 6-0 Huskies to not only reach the College Football Playoff but also win at least one game there -- here's his current pace: 5,752 passing yards, 50 touchdowns, 8 interceptions. That's pretty much Burrowian right there.
Penix threw for only 302 yards in Washington's epic 36-33 win over Oregon on Saturday, the last 18 of which provided the decisive points. He fell into a bit of a midgame funk, going just 6-for-13 for 47 yards with a sack and a bad interception from the last drive of the first half through the first three of the second. The Huskies took a 29-18 lead early in the third quarter but scored only once in a five-drive span, opening the door for Oregon to take a 33-29 lead deep into the fourth quarter. But after a fourth-and-goal failure nearly shut the door on UW, the Huskies defense made a huge fourth-and-3 stop with 2:11 left. Then Penix and his receivers did what they do. Penix connected with Ja'Lynn Polk for 35 yards, then hit Rome Odunze for a touchdown.
ROME ODUNZE SAID GIMME THAT‼️
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 14, 2023
WASHINGTON TAKES THE LEAD WITH LESS THAN TWO MINUTES LEFT 😤 pic.twitter.com/b0LH7cdEQ3
It was almost too clean and easy, and it gave Oregon time to drive for an attempt at a game-tying field goal. But Camden Lewis' 43-yard effort sailed wide, and Washington had its biggest win in years. It's only mid October, of course, and the next seven weeks will provide countless plot twists. But Penix and Washington were the story of the first half of the season.
2. Jayden Daniels, LSU. That Penix is the Heisman favorite at the moment is fine. That's what happens when you threaten to throw for 5,000 yards and 50 scores for a CFP contender. But we need to talk about Daniels for a second: After Saturday's effort -- 20-for-27 for 325 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 93 rushing yards in a 30-point win over Auburn -- the Arizona State transfer is nearly on pace for 4,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards. That's Kyler Murrayian. Over the last three weeks, he's gone for 998 passing yards and 322 rushing yards. Ridiculous.
Even if LSU's sketchy defense keeps him from winning the Heisman (because that's how these things work, as silly as it sounds), Daniels has to at least be a finalist if he keeps this up.
3. Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma. Granted, Gabriel didn't throw a single touchdown pass this weekend, the slacker. (OU was off.) But after a brilliant performance against Texas in Week 6 -- 285 passing yards, 113 rushing yards and the game-winning TD pass with 15 seconds left -- Gabriel and the Sooners are well-positioned for a run to both the Big 12 championship game and College Football Playoff. He's on pace for about 4,500 passing yards and 40 TDs, and if healthy he should top 15,000 career passing yards.
4. Caleb Williams, USC. Williams and his Trojans suffered a dismal showing in South Bend on Saturday: The defending Heisman winner threw three interceptions for the first time -- he had only thrown 10 in the first 31 games of his career! -- and USC fell 48-20. Per Caesars, his Heisman odds fell from +260 before Saturday (equivalent to a 28% chance) to +2200 (4%), which seems like quite an overreaction, honestly. But with a number of tough games left on the schedule, he'll have an opportunity to either surge back toward the top or disappear from the list altogether.
5. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan. Seven games in, McCarthy is still first in Total QBR. And he's still thrown only four passes in the fourth quarter. Per play, McCarthy might be the best quarterback in college football -- he's completing 78% of his passes at a solid 13.6 yards per completion -- but Michigan is winning games by too much for him to rack up gaudy volume stats. That will probably hold him back in this race, but his brilliance shouldn't go unnoticed.
Half-season Defensive Heisman
1. Dallas Turner, Alabama. Alabama lost Will Anderson Jr., and both its pass rush and overall defense have improved. Why? Because of Turner, who has seven sacks and a pair of forced fumbles. He's a solid pursuit guy too, with 29 overall tackles.
2. Edgerrin Cooper, Texas A&M. Texas A&M is in the middle of another 7-5ish slog of a season, but you can't blame the defense for that, and you most certainly can't blame Cooper. The Aggies are eighth in defensive SP+, and Cooper leads the team in tackles (45), tackles for loss (13.5) and sacks (6). We've seen only two players reach 25 TFLs in the last four seasons, and Cooper is on pace to become the third in five.
3. Cooper DeJean, Iowa. Per SP+, Iowa has a 50% chance of winning the Big Ten West despite the offense ranking 121st overall. The Hawkeyes are 6-1, and it's entirely because of a defense that somehow improves every year. DeJean is the standout: He's got two interceptions and three pass breakups, and among his 36 tackles are 1.5 TFLs. Oh yeah, he's got a punt return score too.
4. Jason Henderson, Old Dominion. In terms of raw stats, Henderson is putting together an all-time season. The junior from Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, leads the nation in tackles (86) and run stops (19), and he's only half a TFL behind Cooper for first in that category, too. He's the best tackling linebacker of the 2020s.
5. Jonah Elliss, Utah. Despite a dreadfully inconsistent offense, Utah remains a factor in the Pac-12 race because of a defense that ranks 10th in defensive SP+. Elliss has been the Dallas Turner of that defense, only with better stats: 29 tackles, 13 TFLs and 9 sacks, plus a pass breakup and a forced fumble.
The 10 best games so far
I can't promise that the order of these games won't change when I do my postseason Top 100 Games list, but we've had some absolute doozies so far. And Saturday afternoon's battle in Seattle might have been the best of the bunch.
1. Oct. 14: No. 7 Washington 36, No. 8 Oregon 33. Nothing against the lovely home crowds in Tuscaloosa, Columbus and Ann Arbor, but there's always an extra buzz when a game has this level of national significance and takes place in front of a crowd that doesn't see these games all the time. It comes through the television. The first-ever battle of top-10 teams in this storied and intense rivalry somehow exceeded massive hype.
After suffering misfires to start, the Washington and Oregon offenses scored touchdowns on five straight possessions, and the Huskies took a 22-18 lead into halftime. But the defenses held their own throughout, especially in a second half that featured only four scores and two lead changes.
The game was of course defined by fourth downs and all the second-guessing that came with Oregon coach Dan Lanning's aggressive decision-making. The Ducks went for it on fourth-and-3 on three occasions, including once at the end of the first half and once with a chance to clinch the game in the final three minutes. It was unorthodox, and since they somehow went 0-for-3 -- they've gained at least three yards on 70% of their snaps this season and went 0-for-3! -- they were deemed by many as the wrong call. Granted, Washington's Kalen DeBoer also elected to go for it on fourth down three times, and the Huskies converted a fourth-and-1 in their territory, plus a fourth-and-6 in the fourth quarter before failing on fourth-and-goal late in the game.
2. Oct. 7: No. 12 Oklahoma 34, No. 3 Texas 30. Gabriel's heroics and a Sooners goal-line stand defined a classic Red River Showdown and gave OU a leg up in the Big 12 and CFP races.
3. Oct. 13: Stanford 46, Colorado 43 (2OT). One of the wilder Friday night games you'll ever see ... and somehow only the second-best game in the Pac-12 in Week 7. Colorado bolted to a 29-0 halftime lead, but the Buffaloes were overtaken by some combination of complacency and a Stanford charge. The Cardinal won the second half 36-7 and, thanks to Elic Ayomanor's third (and most disrespectful) touchdown of the day -- Ayomanor finished with 13 catches for 294 yards -- and a Joshua Karty field goal, Stanford pulled off the upset.
HOW DID HE CATCH THIS!? 😱 pic.twitter.com/en7FMEHfsu
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 14, 2023
4. Sept. 30: No. 20 Ole Miss 55, No. 12 LSU 49. This was the first game of Jayden Daniels' particularly incredible three-game run, but Jaxson Dart and the Rebels got the last laugh in the best extreme track meet of 2023 (so far).
5. Sept. 16: No. 18 Colorado 43, Colorado State 35 (2OT). Somehow the second-best night game of the season in Boulder. What a ride it's been this fall.
6. Sept. 2: Colorado 45, No. 17 TCU 42. It felt like an absolute paradigm shifter at the time, but it's merely been the third-best Colorado game of the season.
7. Sept. 30: Baylor 36, UCF 35. Unfortunately for Dave Aranda and the Bears, this wasn't a signal of a season turnaround -- they got blown out at home by Texas Tech the next week -- but it was still awesome: Down 35-7 late in the third quarter in Orlando, they scored the game's final 29 points to steal an upset.
8. Sept. 23: No. 6 Ohio State 17, No. 9 Notre Dame 14. After a wobbly start to 2023, Ohio State is starting to cruise, but the Buckeyes needed some late heroics to survive this epic night game in South Bend.
9. Oct. 12: Houston 41, West Virginia 39. After giving up a shockingly easy 50-yard touchdown pass from Garrett Greene to Hudson Clement with 12 seconds left, the Cougars benefited from an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that got them close enough to try a game-ending Hail Mary.
THE HAIL MARY FOR THE WIN!! @UHCOUGARFB GET THE GAME WINNER WITH SECONDS LEFT!!! 🙌 😎 pic.twitter.com/4jE0xAxO94
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 13, 2023
This was the third-best game of the week.
10. Sept. 2: Wyoming 35, Texas Tech 33 (2OT). A personal favorite. Wyoming has won games in Laramie via a 2-point conversion in double overtime, a blocked field goal return and a big-man interception this season. And this week's game at Air Force -- a 34-27 Falcons win that turned on a late blocked PAT, missed field goal and 58-yard touchdown run -- also was delightful. Thank you for your commitment to entertainment, Cowboys.
Half-season Coach of the Year
1. Kalen DeBoer, Washington. The Huskies were supposed to be good. They weren't supposed to be the story of the first half of the season.
2. Troy Calhoun, Air Force. Calhoun's 17th Falcons team might be his best. Air Force is unbeaten and might be in the driver's seat for the Group of 5's New Year's Six bowl bid. Can you imagine being an awesome power-conference team -- say, an Oklahoma or Oregon -- having an awesome season ... and having your reward be a Fiesta Bowl trip against this hard-hitting, option-happy and extremely annoying opponent?
3. Mike Elko, Duke. Duke was far better than expected last year, and Elko got a lot of credit for that, but his Blue Devils relied heavily on turnovers luck to get to 9-4. This year, the Blue Devils are just really good. They beat Clemson to start the season and clocked NC State 24-3 with their backup quarterback Saturday. Their only blemish: the last-minute heartbreaker against Notre Dame that cost them both their unbeaten start and, for a little while at least, starting quarterback Riley Leonard. Either way, Elko has done an absurdly good job.
4. Dan Lanning, Oregon. Hell yeah, I'm putting him here despite Saturday's loss. Like Washington, Oregon is even better than expected, and Lanning plays to win.
5. Curt Cignetti, James Madison. James Madison has won 14 of its first 17 games as an FBS team. If the Dukes were eligible, they would be the clear favorites for the Sun Belt title and a contender for the G5's New Year's Six bowl bid. (I know, I know, they agreed to be ineligible when they came up to FBS. I don't care. It's stupid that they're not eligible.) We knew Cignetti was awesome because of what he did with JMU at the FCS level, but good gracious, is he doing a spectacular job in Harrisonburg.
Best surprises
Texas State. Obviously there's going to be a lot of overlap between a "coach of the year" list and a "best surprises" list, but while I tried to keep the above list tied to those getting lots of poll votes, G.J. Kinne's first-year performance at Texas State has been jaw-dropping. The Bobcats haven't bowled in their first 11 FBS seasons and only once finished above .500. But after Saturday's last-minute win over Louisiana-Monroe, they're 5-2, and per SP+ they've got a 97% chance at bowl eligibility and a 46% chance at what would be a school-best FBS record of 8-4 or better.
OK, fine, Kinne should have been on the Coach of the Year list.
Duke. The Blue Devils were projected 49th in SP+ at the start of the season. If we were to take preseason projections out of the rankings entirely, they would currently rank 10th. Tenth! Duke!
Air Force. The Falcons were projected 70th, and in the same "no preseason projections" list, they'd be 19th. Their schedule has not been particularly strong, but they most certainly have.
Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights went a combined 12-22 in Greg Schiano's first three seasons back in Piscataway, and that was a sign of undeniable progress -- they had, after all, won just 13 games in the previous five seasons before he returned. But they're 5-2 this season after Saturday's comeback win over Michigan State. Their offense is competent, their defense is good, and while they haven't beaten any SP+ top-50 teams, handling your business against beatable teams is still pretty awesome when you haven't finished over .500 in nine years.
Jacksonville State. After they went 9-2 in their transitional season before jumping to FBS, it was fair to assume that Rich Rodriguez's Gamecocks would hold their own in Conference USA. But like Rutgers, they've very much handled their business, losing to the two SP+ top-75 opponents they've played but beating everyone else and fielding one of the most surprisingly decent defenses in the country. RichRod: still pretty damn good at his job.
Most disappointing teams
Baylor. Aranda's Bears are 8-11 since winning the Big 12 in 2021. They were projected 35th in SP+ to start the season, and if you removed preseason projections they would currently rank 100th. They're 2-4, and it took a miracle in Orlando to avoid 1-5. What on earth?
Minnesota. After going 9-4 with SP+ top-20 finishes in each of the last two seasons, the Gophers seemed to have the pieces to at least threaten in a pretty weak Big Ten West. Instead, they're 3-3, having been blown out by the two top-50 opponents they've faced -- North Carolina and Michigan beat them by a combined 83-23. Even more damning, they blew a lead and lost to a Northwestern team that barely beat Howard in Week 6. (If you're playing the transitive property game, Howard got blown out by Harvard on Saturday, which of course means that the Crimson would blow out Minnesota.)
Arkansas. Granted, Sam Pittman's Hogs are victims of a ridiculous schedule -- they've played four straight teams currently in the SP+ top 20, and they lost those four games by just a combined 25 points. But they also lost to a seriously shaky BYU team, and their 28-6 win over Kent State was not the kind of resounding win they should have had over the second-worst team in FBS. Injuries haven't helped, but this team just hasn't clicked. And now they need to win four of their last five to bowl.
Boise State. A former star linebacker and proven defensive coordinator, Andy Avalos seemed like the perfect Boise State hire. But after 16 consecutive SP+ top-50 finishes in Boise, the Broncos slipped to 59th last season despite a late hot streak, and after a shocking late collapse and Hail Mary loss at Colorado State, they're not only down to 66th, they're also under .500 at 3-4. They will have to beat at least one of Wyoming (5-2), Fresno State (6-1) and Air Force (6-0) to salvage bowl eligibility.
Alabama. I'm sorry, that's just where the bar is set. Nick Saban's Crimson Tide slipped back to ninth in SP+ after Saturday's narrow win over barely-top-50 Arkansas. They haven't finished that low since 2007, Saban's first season.
My five favorite 2023 transfers so far
1-2. QB Shedeur Sanders and CB/WR Travis Hunter, Colorado. Granted, the bloom's coming off the rose a bit in Boulder following Friday night's collapse and loss to Stanford, but the Buffaloes are still 4-3 and have already won three more games than they did last season. Deion Sanders brought in more than 50 transfers for his first season in charge, but honestly he probably could have stopped at about five as long as these two were among them.
Granted, Shedeur Sanders takes far too many sacks (34 in seven games), and Sean Lewis' offense asks for way too much from the quarterback position -- the run game and any semblance of game management seem secondary to having the QB rack up stats. But that doesn't change the fact that Sanders has a shot at 4,500 passing yards and 40 touchdowns, at least if the Buffs can get bowl-eligible. Hunter, meanwhile, immediately resumed his 100-plus-snaps-per-game pace after returning from a lacerated liver and produced a stat line we've come to expect: 13 catches, 140 yards, 2 touchdowns and 5 tackles. He took some serious hits, and he got Moss'd by Elic Ayomanor at the end of the game, but he's still CU's second-best player at absolute worst.
3. WR Keon Coleman, Florida State. With battery mate Johnny Wilson out with injury, Coleman stepped up and caught nine passes for 140 yards and a touchdown. Here's one of those catches:
Keon Coleman gets Florida State into Syracuse territory with a miraculous one-handed catch.
Oh yeah, and he also ripped off a 72-yard punt return. He's got a shot at 1,000 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns in his first season in Tallahassee, and his technique and ability to high-point balls and catch contested passes is hypnotic. I love watching him.
4. QB TJ Finley, Texas State. The Auburn transfer has found his home in Kinne's offense. He's thrown for 1,941 yards and 14 touchdowns, and even in an otherwise poor performance Saturday night against Louisiana-Monroe, he still went 4-for-6 with a perfect 22-yard touchdown strike on the game-winning drive.
5. WR Adonai Mitchell, Texas. He's the No. 2 receiver behind Xavier Worthy, but the Georgia transfer scored twice in the fourth quarter as Texas was pulling away from Alabama, and his 141 yards against Kansas helped turn a tight game into a laugher. He's Georgia personified -- roll along in cruise control, then shift into World Beater mode when it's required.
My five favorite freshmen so far
1. WR Zachariah Branch, USC. He's still figuring out what he's doing in the passing game -- he's got 15 catches for 195 yards in five games, plus 48 rushing yards -- but he's averaging 24.4 yards per punt return, and he's scored on both a punt return and kick return. He reaches full speed in about a step and a half. You hold your breath when the ball's in the air and coming down toward him.
2. QB Zeon Chriss, Louisiana. Louisiana lost starter Ben Wooldridge to injury and somehow got better when the redshirt freshman Chriss stepped into the lineup. He's 18th in Total QBR, ahead of the likes of Alabama's Jalen Milroe (20th) and Notre Dame's Sam Hartman (22nd), and he's averaging about 200 passing yards and 80 rushing yards per game. Just imagine what he might do when he's actually got experience.
3. DE T.J. Parker, Clemson. After a quiet debut, the top-100 recruit has recorded 8.5 TFLs and four sacks in his last five games. He's already the most productive Clemson defensive lineman, and, well, the bar's typically pretty high for Clemson defensive linemen.
4. S Caleb Downs, Alabama. The five-star freshman has immediately become an anchor in the back of the Tide defense. He leads the team in tackles, and while it's typically not an encouraging sign for a safety to lead in that regard, he's basically proving to be both a safety (one INT, two breakups) and linebacker (20 of 53 tackles made within three yards of the line of scrimmage) at the same time.
5. QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, Colorado State. The redshirt freshman from Aledo, Texas, took over in Week 1 and hasn't come close to relinquishing the job. He's thrown 111 passes in the last two weeks -- 57 in a loss to Utah State, 54 in the shocking comeback win over Boise State -- and if CSU makes a bowl game (a 44% chance, per SP+), he'll likely top 4,000 yards, 30 touchdowns and, yes, 20 interceptions. Nothing like learning on the job.
Best and worst overreactions
I always write early-season overreaction columns, and the art of a good overreaction is a tricky one. You don't want to overdo it and end up whiffing on all of them, but you also don't want to hit on all of them because that means you didn't overreact enough.
Looking back at my Week 1 overreactions piece, I am thus far splitting the difference nicely.
Good overreaction: Washington indeed has the best offense in the country. The Huskies are No. 1 in offensive SP+, and their starting quarterback is the current Heisman front-runner.
Good overreaction: North Carolina indeed has its best defense since 2013. The Tar Heels are up to 42nd in defensive SP+ -- not the highest bar, but still -- and have held four of six opponents to 24 or fewer points. That's given Drake Maye and the lovely UNC offense more than enough space to operate. Even when the Heels allowed 31 points to Miami in Saturday's 10-point win, 14 of those points came in the final eight minutes, after they had built a three-touchdown lead.
Bad overreaction: Call me crazy, but I'm not thinking Colorado is going to have multiple Heisman finalists. Probably won't even have one at this rate.
Bad overreaction: Auburn and Miami are ... not back. Auburn has dropped three in a row to fall to 3-3 after a reasonably bright start, and while Miami was brilliant throughout a 4-0 September, they are 0-for-October thus far in falling to 4-2.
Favorite conference races
Sun Belt. Granted, James Madison would be the obvious favorite if the Dukes were eligible, but while their ineligibility might annoy me, it's opened the door for a fascinating title race.
In eight of 10 conference title races, one team has at least a 37% chance of winning the title, per SP+. Liberty is at 75% in Conference USA, Air Force 67% in the Mountain West and Oklahoma 64% in the Big 12. But as things currently stand, no one has a better than 22% chance in the Sun Belt. A whopping 10 teams (of 13 eligible) still have at least a puncher's chance.
Current Sun Belt title odds, per SP+: Troy 22%, Georgia State 15%, South Alabama 13%, Louisiana 11%, Marshall 8%, Georgia Southern 8%, Appalachian State 7%, Texas State 7%, Coastal Carolina 5%, Old Dominion 3%.
Texas State's odds might be a bit low -- SP+ hasn't yet caught up to how good the Bobcats have turned out to be -- but this could be an absolutely madcap few weeks in conference play.
Big Ten. This is the other of the title races without a clear favorite. For all intents and purposes, it has three clear favorites.
Current Big Ten title odds, per SP+: Michigan 32%, Ohio State 26%, Penn State 20%, Iowa 10%, Wisconsin 8%.
Iowa has a 50% chance of winning the West (and basically a 20% chance of winning the title game), but picking an East winner among the Wolverines, Buckeyes and Nittany Lions remains fraught. The picture might get a little clearer after this Saturday's Penn State-Ohio State game, but only so much. That's only Game 1 of the round robin for the trio.
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. They have scored 146 points through seven games, a 20.9-point average that ranks a dismal 115th in FBS. They need to average 29.8 points the rest of the way to win the Drive to 325. They will almost certainly not do that ... but they still might win the Big Ten West. After Saturday's 15-6 win at Wisconsin, they're the favorite.
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. It was a funky week -- seven of the 10 are making their first top-10 appearance of the season, including two of the top three.
1. Elic Ayomanor, Stanford (13 catches for 294 yards and 3 touchdowns against Colorado)
2. Jayden Daniels, LSU (20-for-27 for 325 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception, plus 93 rushing yards, against Auburn)
3. Ollie Gordon, Oklahoma State (29 carries for 168 yards and a touchdown, plus 116 receiving yards and a touchdown, against Kansas)
4. Michael Penix Jr., Washington (22-for-37 for 302 yards, 4 touchdowns and an interception against Oregon)
5. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan (14-for-17 for 222 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 27 rushing yards, against Indiana)
6. Tez Walker, North Carolina (6 catches for 132 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 19 rushing yards, against Miami)
7. Keon Coleman, Florida State (9 catches for 140 yards, a touchdown and a highlight-reel grab, plus a 72-yard punt return, against Syracuse)
8. Xavier Watts, Notre Dame (a pick-six among two interceptions, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery against USC)
9. Daequan Hardy, Penn State (three punt returns for 129 yards and two touchdowns, plus a tackle and two pass breakups, against UMass)
10. Grayson McCall, Coastal Carolina (19-for-28 for 373 yards and 2 touchdowns against Appalachian State)
Here are some honorable mentions:
• Kelly Akharaiyi, UTEP (8 catches for 223 yards and 2 touchdowns against FIU)
• Kyron Drones, Virginia Tech (20-for-29 for 321 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 59 rushing yards against Wake Forest)
• Noah Fifita, Arizona (34-for-43 for 342 yards against Washington State)
• Omarion Hampton, North Carolina (24 carries for 197 yards and a touchdown, plus 20 receiving yards and a touchdown, against Miami)
• Ashton Jeanty, Boise State (31 carries for 212 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 42 receiving yards, against Colorado State)
• Antwaun Powell-Ryland, Virginia Tech (four sacks against Wake Forest)
Through seven weeks, here are your points leaders:
1. Jayden Daniels, LSU (37 points)
2. Michael Penix Jr., Washington (34)
3. Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma (25)
4. Caleb Williams, USC (21)
5. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (16)
6. J.J. McCarthy, Michigan (12)
T-7. Elic Ayomanor, Stanford (10)
T-7. Brock Bowers, Georgia (10)
T-7. Travis Hunter, Colorado (10)
T-7. Jack Plummer, Louisville (10)
7-T. Tyler Van Dyke, Miami (10)
Again, I know why Penix is favored, and I'm fine with it. But Daniels is playing otherworldly ball right now.
My 10 favorite games of the weekend
I guess we've already covered some of these.
1. No. 7 Washington 36, No. 8 Oregon 33.
2. Stanford 46, Colorado 43 (2OT) (Friday).
3. Houston 41, West Virginia 39 (Thursday).
4. Colorado State 31, Boise State 30. The second of our two Week 7 Hail Marys:
🙏THAT'S A CATCH! pic.twitter.com/mIbjum8Wqm
— Colorado State Football (@CSUFootball) October 15, 2023
5. Air Force 34, Wyoming 27. Just a delightful back-and-forth game that Air Force used to seize control of the Mountain West.
6. FCS: Idaho State 42, Eastern Washington 41. The West just delivered constantly this weekend. ISU trailed 41-14 with 16 minutes left but charged all the way back, took the lead with 52 seconds left, then watched EWU miss a 38-yard field goal try at the buzzer.
7. Oklahoma State 39, No. 23 Kansas 32. OSU has won nine of its last 10 games as a home underdog following this back-and-forth affair. Ollie Gordon's 284 combined rushing and receiving yards and Alex Hale's three late field goals drove a game-ending 15-0 run for the Pokes.
8. Illinois 27, Maryland 24. I mean, who doesn't want to kick a game-winning field goal into Kevin James' face??
Kicking a game-winning field goal with three seconds left, right in @KevinJames' face. pic.twitter.com/Y1NWycxHLo
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) October 14, 2023
9. Texas State 21, Louisiana-Monroe 20. Poor ULM. Two weeks ago, the Warhawks lost to App State via a last-second 54-yard field goal. On Saturday, they forced TXST into maybe its worst performance of the season and lost in the last minute again.
10. Coastal Carolina 27, Appalachian State 24 (Tuesday). One more game-winning field goal for the road.
Coastal Carolina kicker Kade Hensley splits the uprights with the winning 24-yard field goal against Appalachian State.
The midweek playlist
We're coming off maybe the best set of pre-Saturday games we've ever seen, and there are some more fun games on deck between now and when my Friday preview column goes up. Here are three:
Western Kentucky at Jacksonville State (Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., ESPNU). Even if JSU isn't eligible to win Conference USA, the Gamecocks can continue to do damage to those teams that can. But can they contain the prolific WKU passing attack?
New Mexico State at UTEP (Wednesday, 9 p.m., ESPN2). One of the more delightful, off-the-beaten-path rivalries in college football. NMSU has won four of six and has a 66% chance of bowl eligibility, per SP+, but UTEP is coming off by far its best performance of the season.
James Madison at Marshall (Thursday, 7 p.m., ESPN). JMU's unbeaten push faces a severe challenge from a Marshall team that can't figure things out offensively but features one hell of a pass defense.