Week 12 brought dominant wins, wild comebacks and three Top 25 teams falling to their unranked opponents. With only two weeks left in the regular season, what else might we see the rest of the way?
No. 15 Miami, which is coming off a dominant 41-7 win over NC State, is currently fifth in the ACC standings. Despite the Hurricanes having the most talented team in the league, they might not make the ACC title game or the College Football Playoff. No. 1 Ohio State has shown its dominance all season long and two freshmen are making themselves known as they're enhancing the Buckeyes' ground game. And following a win over North Carolina on Saturday, Wake Forest, under first-year coach Jake Dickert, is showing that it's a team to keep an eye on.
What does Miami need to do in the final two weeks to boost its chances of making the 12-team CFP? What might we see from the Buckeyes' young running back duo as the team heads into the postseason? What makes Wake Forest one of the most surprising teams in the nation this season?
Our college football experts break down key storylines and takeaways from Week 12.
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Miami's CFP hopes | Ohio State's young RB duo
Oklahoma's defense | Wake Forest's rise
USC back in the spotlight
ACC's best team might be left out -- and has only itself to blame
The selection committee has gotten this right: Miami is the most talented team in the ACC. Its inconsistency, though, is its greatest flaw. Again. The Canes' losses to Louisville and SMU -- by a combined nine points -- have reduced their chances of reaching the ACC title game to 6.1%, according to ESPN Research. Georgia Tech versus Virginia is the most likely matchup, with Miami having the fourth-best chance behind those two teams and SMU (39.8%). Because of that, Miami's chances of reaching the playoff are only 10.9% -- just behind Tulane and ahead of Vanderbilt.
The picture could change, as losses by teams above the Hurricanes and back-to-back road wins against Virginia Tech and Pitt could give Miami some incremental upward movement in the committee's rankings, but ... Texas is playing Texas A&M. USC is at Oregon. Vandy is at Tennessee. Michigan has a shot at No. 1 Ohio State. Georgia Tech gets a chance at Georgia. If Miami doesn't get a boost in Tuesday night's ranking from thumping NC State on Saturday, the likelihood of jumping into the top 10 on Selection Day for an at-large bid continues to shrink. And that's how high Miami has to climb in the next three weeks to earn a spot in the field. It's not insurmountable, but if Miami is excluded from the CFP, this doesn't expose a flaw in the system -- it reinforces Miami's inability to play at a consistently elite level. -- Heather Dinich
Freshmen Jackson, West power Ohio State's surging ground game
Through the first two months of the season, Ohio State's rushing attack underwhelmed, especially compared to last year when current NFL starters Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson led one of the top ground games in the country.
But over the past month, a pair of freshmen -- Bo Jackson and Isaiah West -- have given the Buckeyes' running game a major jolt.
In Saturday's 48-10 win over UCLA, Jackson rushed for a career-high 112 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. West chipped in 61 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. Veteran James Peoples added a dazzling hurdle on a 19-yard touchdown run. And, in turn, Ohio State totaled 222 yards on the ground -- its most of the year in Big Ten play.
Through October, the Buckeyes ranked just 10th in the Big Ten, averaging 4.58 yards per carry and 151.7 rushing yards per game.
But over the past three games since Nov. 1, Ohio State is fourth in the league with 5.15 yards per carry and fifth with 185.3 rushing yards per game.
Behind quarterback Julian Sayin and wideouts Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, the Buckeyes already boast arguably the top passing attack in college football. With the running game also beginning to roll behind the freshmen, Ohio State's offense is rounding into an absolute juggernaut right in time for the postseason. -- Jake Trotter
Oklahoma making CFP run in Venables' image
When the season began, Oklahoma's path to improvement -- and possibly its first College Football Playoff berth since 2019 -- seemed fairly straightforward. The offense would take a massive step under new coordinator Ben Arbuckle, and transfer quarterback John Mateer would be a Heisman Trophy contender.
The offense has improved and Mateer has delivered some great moments, but Oklahoma finds itself squarely in the CFP picture because of its defense, molded by fourth-year coach Brent Venables. Silly us. We should have known all along.
Oklahoma ended Alabama's 17-game home win streak Saturday despite generating only 212 yards -- its lowest total in a win since 2001 against No. 5 Texas -- and only one offensive touchdown. Mateer supplied that with a brilliant 20-yard dash but finished with only 138 passing yards, the third time in four games he has been held below 160 yards. He has only one game with multiple touchdown passes, the opener against Illinois State.
Venables' defense was once again the star against Alabama, which it kept out of the end zone in last year's win and often tormented when he was at Clemson. After allowing a 75-yard touchdown on Alabama's first possession of the second half, Oklahoma stifled the Tide's last four drives.
"Our coverage was a little better," Venables said. "We turned up some pressure a little bit, some timely pressure got to them and created some negative plays that really made it hard for them on a couple of those drives. We just started getting into a rhythm."
Oklahoma has collected six takeaways in its road wins against Tennessee and Alabama, and Venables made it clear Saturday that it hasn't been fluky.
"Our guys were attacking the football, and they were relentless," he said.
The Sooners ultimately will need more from their offense to finish off this season and advance in the CFP. But Venables is quickly shaping the program in his image.
"He's done a great job with defense through the years," Arbuckle said. "I mean, he's the absolute best in the business at what he does, and I'm thankful to be on the staff with him." -- Adam Rittenberg
Wake Forest is one of the nation's most surprising teams
The handshake was brief, but the message seemed clear: Bill Belichick had no time to exchange pleasantries with Jake Dickert after Wake Forest beat North Carolina 28-12. Rather than Belichick and North Carolina engineering a quick turnaround this season, it has been Wake Forest that has emerged under first-year coach Jake Dickert as one of the best stories of the season.
Dickert did not receive the same sort of publicity as Belichick when he arrived in Winston-Salem, taking over from Dave Clawson after leading Washington State. Instead, he built this program "in the dark," as he often says -- piecing together a roster with less time and financial resources than his counterparts in Chapel Hill, while doing it completely under the radar.
The results speak for themselves. Rather than chalk this season up as a "rebuild," the way Belichick did at the midway point in the season, Wake Forest put everything it had into this season and is sitting at 7-3 -- already three wins better than last year. North Carolina, meanwhile, needs to win out against Duke and NC State to reach bowl eligibility.
"This one felt different," Dickert said after the game. "It's a momentum builder. We talked a little bit about: Let's make some people in this state respect the W-F. I think our guys wanted to go prove who they are, and they went out and showed that. It's a big pride thing."
Dickert is now tied with Bill Dooley for the most wins in school history by a first-year head coach. He can break that record against Delaware on Saturday. Wake Forest sits as the best team from North Carolina in the ACC this season, after being picked to finish 16th in the preseason poll. Wake Forest has used a mix of veterans -- receiver Demond Claiborne, safety Nick Andersen and safety Davaughn Patterson -- with an influx of portal players to turn around the program. Wake Forest beat Virginia and SMU this season -- two teams fighting for a spot to make it to the ACC championship game.
But Dickert also knows it only gets harder from here.
"We're way ahead of schedule but sustained success is really difficult," Dickert said. "Especially in today's college football, there's no secret -- everyone in the country's going to be scouting our guys. ... We're changing the expectation, but that's why we talk about built in the dark. You have to stay there." -- Andrea Adelson
Welcome back to the spotlight, USC
It is a rare sight to see: USC, of all programs, flying under the radar for most of this season only to emerge in November as a top-tier team in the Big Ten with a very clear pathway to the College Football Playoff. If the Trojans win out, they likely are in.
That's easier said than done, of course. One of the strange hallmarks of Lincoln Riley's tenure at USC has been that his teams have not exactly made it easy for themselves, even when the Trojans have been at their best. Last year, they went 2-5 in games decided by seven points or less; this year, they are 2-1 in such games -- none perhaps more impressive than what they did Saturday, coming back from being down 21-10 at halftime to beat a tough Iowa team 26-21.
"That's a culture win, right there," Riley said Saturday. "If there ever was one, that was a culture win."
It's remarkable to think that USC is a 2-point loss at Illinois away from being undefeated in Big Ten play. Aside from the drubbing it took at Notre Dame, the Trojans have been able to ride their formula of a high-powered offense with a defense that makes important adjustments all the way here.
The Trojans' talent is undeniable -- just look at what wide receivers Makai Lemon and Ja'Kobi Lane have done this season -- but their ability to fill in the gaps at other positions has been equally crucial. They've lost key players such as their two top running backs Eli Sanders and Waymond Jordan, only to have walk-on King Miller step up and lead a rushing attack that has improved by the week.
Meanwhile, their defense has been far from perfect, but its slew of playmakers (see Bishop Fitzgerald's five interceptions) have made key plays at the right time. It has all added up to a season that hasn't exactly looked the part of a playoff team but amounted to a record that, should they pull off an upset at Oregon next week, will be undeniable.
"This team's resilience, whether it's a tough stretch of plays, whether it's losing some players here and there throughout the year," Riley said. "We just keep coming, and we have all year." -- Paolo Uggetti