The Week 10 slate offers both a glimpse of this season's true powers and more than a few reminders of just how wrong we might have been in predicting who those powers would be way back in August.
Start with the Cocktail Party, where Georgia looks like a true playoff contender, but some luster is off this rivalry game, as Florida has struggled through a difficult first half and now will play its first game after firing head coach Billy Napier.
Move to the Big Ten, and what looked like perhaps the game of the year before the season kicked off now appears to be yet another speed bump on Ohio State's road to the conference title game. Penn State fired James Franklin after a dismal three-game losing streak, and quarterback Drew Allar is out for the season. So much for a playoff-caliber showdown. The Buckeyes are favored by three touchdowns.
Remember when SMU, Texas and South Carolina were all ranked inside the top 16 teams in the preseason? That feels like a different era now. The Mustangs are fresh off a devastating last-second loss to Wake Forest and now find their ACC title hopes on life support. Texas has gone to overtime in back-to-back weeks against teams that combined have won only one SEC game in the past two years. Another loss for the Longhorns against Vanderbilt probably would be the end of playoff hopes. And South Carolina, on the brink of the playoff a year ago after a magical second-half run, isn't likely to rekindle that same excitement this November. Last week's blown lead to Alabama was just the latest in a string of disappointments, and a loss Saturday to Ole Miss almost feels like a foregone conclusion.
But if Week 10 provides a difficult look back at all the ways those preseason prognostications went wrong, it also serves as a reminder of how much joy can be found in the season's surprises, from Vandy getting its shot at another top-25 win to Virginia trying to keep its playoff hopes alive at Cal to Cincinnati aiming to cement its spot atop the Big 12 standings with a massive trip to Utah. -- David Hale
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Gunner Stockton | Oklahoma-Tennessee
ACC title race | Quotes of the week
Georgia's Gunner Stockton playing for more than a win vs. Florida
Even with a potential SEC title and College Football Playoff appearance on the line, Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton might have more motivation to beat rival Florida at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday.
Gunner's grandfather, Lawrence Stockton, died of a heart attack in a parking lot outside of the stadium following the Bulldogs' 34-31 loss to the Gators on Oct. 30, 2010. It was the only game to go into overtime in the 103-year history of the border rivalry.
"He had a heart attack there at the stadium," Gunner Stockton told ESPN. "Every time we go to Florida, I really want to beat them bad in Jacksonville."
Fifteen years ago, the Bulldogs trailed 21-7 at the half, but rallied and tied the score at 31 on Aaron Murray's 15-yard touchdown to A.J. Green with about 4½ minutes to go in regulation.
Murray's pass was intercepted in overtime, and the Gators won on a 37-yard field goal by Chas Henry to beat the Bulldogs for the 18th time in the previous 21 meetings.
Lawrence Stockton, who graduated from the UGA School of Pharmacy, was talking to a friend about the game when he died. He was 63.
"He said something about [then-Bulldogs defensive coordinator] Todd Grantham and collapsed," said Suzanne Frederickson, Lawrence Stockton's widow.
Lawrence Stockton spent much of his free time hunting and fishing with Gunner in the north Georgia mountains.
"He lived on the lake, and he always treated us so good and spoiled the grandkids," Gunner said. "He was just a great granddad."
Gunner once trapped and released gators with then-Bulldogs safety Dan Jackson and a licensed nuisance hunter in Macon, Georgia, as well as with his uncle, Allyn, in Florida.
On Saturday, he'll try to bag the Gators for the first time as Georgia's starting quarterback.
Georgia has defeated Florida in seven of the past eight games, winning by two touchdowns or more in its current four-game winning streak against the Gators.
In his first season as the Bulldogs' full-time starter, Stockton has completed 70.5% of his passes for 1,553 yards with 10 touchdowns and one interception, while running for 279 yards with seven scores.
Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart has been impressed by his quarterback's decision-making as much as anything.
"I want to see him continue to grow, take what the defense gives him, understand what we're trying to do," Smart said. "We give Gunner a lot of latitude and options, in terms of the playcall. It's more about putting us in the right play to be successful based on what they're in defensively. I don't think he gets enough credit for that decision-making process."
Gators interim coach Billy Gonzales, who was promoted after Florida fired Billy Napier on Oct. 19, said his team's defense will have to pressure Stockton.
"The main thing for us is to hopefully be able to cause some pressure to him, and to cause pressure means being able to cover in the back end, as well," Gonzales said. -- Mark Schlabach
What do Oklahoma and Tennessee need to capitalize on to win?
Oklahoma: October losses to Texas and Ole Miss mean No. 18 Oklahoma must win at least one of its next two games -- at Tennessee on Saturday and a Nov. 15 trip to Alabama -- to maintain even a semblance of a place in the playoff hunt.
The central story of the Sooners' stumble over the past month has been quarterback John Mateer, an early-season Heisman Trophy hopeful who has struggled since returning from surgery on his right (throwing) hand against Texas on Oct. 11. Mateer threw a career-high three interceptions and completed a season-low 52.6% of his passes in a Week 7 loss to the Longhorns, and his accuracy dipped again in Oklahoma's 34-26 loss to Ole Miss last weekend.
"It's definitely not my thumb, I'll tell you that. I'll stand by that. My thumb is perfectly fine," Mateer said Monday. "... I'm still confident in what I'm looking at. It's just a couple [throws] that I missed and that happens. It just happened to be a bad time."
The good news for Mateer and the Sooners in Week 10? A critical rebound game at Neyland Stadium comes against a Tennessee secondary that ranks 124th nationally in pass defense and allowed Kentucky redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley to set career highs in passing yards (330) and touchdowns (5) a week ago. If Oklahoma's teetering offensive line can protect the pocket against the SEC's fourth-best pass rush (27 sacks), Mateer & Co. should have the platform to bounce back in a big way this weekend. Even a little bit of juice from the nation's 99th-ranked rushing attack (130.1 yards per game) wouldn't hurt the Sooners, either. -- Eli Lederman
Tennessee: After falling to Georgia and Alabama, the No. 14 Volunteers probably have no margin for error if they're going to return to the CFP for the second straight season.
To knock off the No. 18 Sooners, Tennessee's defense is going to have to perform better than it did in last week's 56-34 victory at Kentucky.
The Wildcats piled up 476 yards of offense and controlled the ball for more than 36 minutes. Quarterback Cutter Boley threw for 330 yards with five touchdowns and one interception.
Tennessee should have a good chance to get pressure on Sooners quarterback John Mateer, who hasn't played as well since returning from a broken bone in his throwing hand on Oct. 11. In the past three games, Mateer has completed 57.9% of his passes with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
The Sooners have given up nine sacks in the past three games. The Volunteers rank seventh in the FBS with 3.4 sacks per game.
"The quarterback is a playmaker," Vols coach Josh Heupel said. "He extends plays when the initial reads aren't there and does a great job on scrambles, keeping the play alive, throwing it down the field and using his feet when it's not. Everything's matched up, so you got to apply pressure to him, but you got to try to find a way to keep him bottled up, too." -- Schlabach
How could Miami-SMU affect the ACC title race?
Two weeks ago, Saturday's showdown between Miami and SMU might've been one of the marquee events of the season, a matchup between arguably the ACC's most talented team (the Hurricanes) and the one on the longest regular-season winning streak (the Mustangs). Instead, after Louisville scored an upset win over Miami and SMU fell in dramatic fashion to Wake Forest, Saturday's matchup has morphed into what might be an elimination game for both teams.
In the crowded ACC race, Georgia Tech and Virginia are still undefeated. Pitt, Duke and Louisville all have one loss in conference play, alongside Miami and SMU. Whichever school lands loss No. 2 will be relegated to the back of the pack and almost certainly out of contention for the ACC title game, barring the type of chaos that used to be reserved for the ACC's Coastal Division.
The key for both teams Saturday will be establishing the ground game. In Saturday's loss to Wake Forest, SMU mustered only 75 yards rushing, led by Chris Johnson Jr.'s 29 yards. The Mustangs are still trying to find an adequate replacement for all the production they received from Brashard Smith a year ago, and while it's unlikely anyone emerges as a true workhorse, Johnson has the potential to be a consistent threat.
"He hasn't played a lot of running back, and he's probably 10 pounds lighter than he needs to be to be an every down back," head coach Rhett Lashlee said. "But we've seen the explosiveness he can provide, and hopefully he and [T.J. Harden] can be a good 1-2 punch and we can get a little more consistency out of the run game to take a little bit of pressure off of us. That's what we've been lacking."
For Miami, last week's win over Stanford was a revelation for the power run game. Mark Fletcher Jr. led the way as the Canes rushed for 199 yards and five touchdowns. Far too often this season, Miami has been running into a loaded box. The emergence of Tony Johnson as a deep threat (three catches, 69 yards vs. Stanford) might help open up things more for Fletcher & Co. moving forward. -- Hale
Quotes of the week
Lane Kiffin snaps back at Brent Venables after the Oklahoma coach said the Sooners were the better team after Ole Miss' win.
"I started off as a junior high coach at Edna Karr that became a high school assistant that became a 26-year-old head coach ... so I'm a part of the fiber of this state, of an earnest high school football, youth football, that is extremely humbled, extremely honored to be given this opportunity," LSU interim head coach Frank Wilson said. "It's something that you would dream of. Something that you don't know if it would ever come true. But something you prepare yourself for."
"I know [they have] high expectations. I coached at LSU," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on LSU's decision to fire coach Brian Kelly. "A guy once told me, 'That office you're in, that's not your office. You're borrowing it.' I knew right then that if you didn't win, you wouldn't be there long."
"I think our crowd at home is a distinct advantage," Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said ahead of Saturday's prime-time visit from USC. "Not to steal it from [Texas] A&M, but it's a true 12th man. We're Nebraska nice -- I get all that. But let's have a real game-day environment."
"That's an interesting take," Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said, responding to Oklahoma's Brent Venables calling the Sooners "the better team" in the Rebels' 34-26 win in Week 9. " ... I wouldn't have thought that people watching would say that."
"My health is not going to increase sitting on the lake fishing. My health is not going to increase sitting at my property in Texas, having a good time or sitting back, drinking some sweet iced teas and eating some honey buns and watching television," Colorado coach Deion Sanders said on his health concerns and questions about his future. "I'm not damaging or putting my health at risk by doing what I'm doing. Matter of fact, it's enhancing my health, doing the things I do."
Former LSU coach Ed Orgeron on his interest in LSU's head coach opening: "Are you kidding me? Hey, I'm one phone call away. I just gotta get in my truck; I could be there today."