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Week 8 didn’t have quite the degree of thrilling last-minute victories that Week 7 had, but it was a slate full of surprises and fun nonetheless. The suspense started on Friday night, as BYU stayed undefeated with a go-ahead 35-yard touchdown with just ten seconds on the clock to topple Oklahoma State.
Saturday’s early slate included a Miami road win over Louisville while Indiana dismantled Nebraska. Brady Cook left the Missouri game to go to the hospital, came back, and led a game-winning drive that resulted in a touchdown with 46 seconds left. UCLA upset Rutgers on the road while Cincinnati landed a huge home win over Arizona State. Oklahoma flipped back to Jackson Arnold in a deafening home loss to South Carolina, Tennessee knocked Alabama down for the second time in three years, and Illinois upset Michigan, marking the second straight Michigan upset.
The late slate brought us an incredible Maryland comeback, dominant Colorado and LSU victories, a last-minute touchdown to keep Iowa State undefeated, a Michigan State upset win, and the big one - Georgia rolling over Texas in Austin. Texas may have suffered a loss, but college football itself remains undefeated. Let’s dig into risers and fallers this week.
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Stock Up
Miami Hurricanes
Cam Ward, Mario Cristobal, and the Miami Hurricanes came out of Louisville with a win, checking off what appears to be their largest obstacle prior to the ACC Championship. It wasn’t an easy win, as the sixth-ranked ‘Canes survived 52-45, but they never trailed past 5:05 remaining in the first quarter.
Cam Ward looks like a legitimate Heisman contender after the 319-yard, four-touchdown performance. Miami is not locked into the playoffs but will be favored in the rest of their regular season games and should be locked in should they avoid an upset. The remaining schedule: Florida State (1-6), Duke (6-1), at Georgia Tech (5-3), Wake Forest (3-4), and at Syracuse (5-1).
CAM WARD. EFFORTLESS 🚀
(via @ACCFootball)pic.twitter.com/tgfr2VgaeD
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 19, 2024
It appears inevitable that the ACC Championship will be Miami-Clemson with a playoff bye on the line. This team has had a lot of success this season and has put themselves in a prime position to lock up a playoff spot early.
Indiana Hoosiers
Indiana is hands down the biggest surprise to this point, and the Hoosiers just keep on surprising. After going 3-9 a season ago, Curt Cignetti has this program at 7-0 with an average margin of victory of 35 points. That’s right, five touchdowns. The argument that they haven’t played anyone is dead in the water after the 56-7 thrashing of Nebraska.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke suffered an injury to his throwing hand in the dominant win, and he has already been ruled out for this week’s game against Washington. Backup quarterback Tayven Jackson, the half-brother of Trayce Jackson-Davis, will start. It appears that Rourke's injury is not bad and he is in consideration to return the following week against Michigan State.
Sources: Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke’s injured thumb is improving enough where he could be back for Michigan State on Nov. 2. He’s still doubtful for Saturday against Washington, but there’s more optimism about the immediate future. pic.twitter.com/SHtjJvVRly
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 22, 2024
Even without Rourke, it is time to take Indiana seriously as a playoff contender. The remaining schedule is made up of all very winnable games aside from Ohio State: Washington, at Michigan State, Michigan, at Ohio State, and Purdue. If they go 11-1, the Hoosiers should find themselves in the playoffs with how dominant they have been.
Illinois Fighting Illini
The Illini notched a massive win this week, dominating Michigan from start to finish in a 21-7 victory to improve to 6-1. Illinois’ season hits a crossroads this coming week, as they travel to Eugene to take on the No. 1 team in the nation.
Bret Bielema’s team is massively underrated, sitting at 25-point dogs against Oregon this week. This is a well-coached, fundamentally sound team that has won every game aside from Penn State on the road at night. It is time to take the Illini seriously after their dominant win over Michigan.
Georgia Bulldogs
There were a lot of doubts surrounding the Georgia football program after their sluggish start in the Alabama game was followed up by a narrow win over Mississippi State last week. All doubts were put to rest on Saturday night, as the Bulldogs’ defense looked like the best in the country.
Carson Beck threw three interceptions and there was still little doubt that Georgia would ever let this game get away from them. They consistently applied pressure on Quinn Ewers and won this game through their defense, as they’ve done all along throughout the Kirby Smart era.
The Dawgs still have Ole Miss and Tennessee on their regular season schedule, but there is now little doubt that this team will be competing in the new iteration of college football’s postseason as one of the most serious contenders.
Stock Down
Arizona State Sun Devils
Kenny Dillingham’s program hit a high last week as they rose to 5-1 with a win over Utah. In the Big 12, anything is possible and the Sun Devils still had hopes to qualify for the conference title game. Then quarterback Sam Leavitt was ruled out prior to the Cincinnati game, leaving Nebraska castaway Jeff Sims to start.
Sims just could not get the Sun Devils’ offense moving, and the Bearcats glided to a win. Without Leavitt under center, this is a different team. The remaining schedule is much tougher than the front end: at Oklahoma State, UCF, at Kansas State, BYU, and at Arizona. They only need one more win to make a bowl game, but it could be a battle.
Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Brent Venables may officially be on the hot seat following a 35-9 shellacking at home against South Carolina. The Sooners are banged up, but this looks like a team with no hope. After back-to-back defensive touchdowns, Michael Hawkins Jr. was pulled for initial starter Jackson Arnold. The result was much of the same, as the Gamecocks continued their dominance. Venables pulled the plug on offensive coordinator Seth Littrell after the embarrassing showing.
BREAKING: Oklahoma has fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, per @SoonerScoop. https://t.co/u1GbnVxxN5 pic.twitter.com/zBEh8PKEgn
— On3 (@On3sports) October 20, 2024
Oklahoma still has get-right opportunities on the schedule against vulnerable teams in Missouri and Alabama, but this team has shown nothing to make us believe they are capable of turning the season around. It is very possible that the team could look to move in a different direction should this season continue to plummet.
Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama
After starting hot early in the season, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe has fallen off. Any first-round whispers have disappeared as the Crimson Tide sit at 5-2. Milroe completed 25-of-45 passes for 239 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions in the loss to Tennessee while also rushing 14 times for 11 yards.
The blame for Alabama’s poor start cannot be placed solely on their quarterback, but he has done nothing but lower his draft stock over the past few weeks.
Lincoln Riley, USC
Another coach who is rapidly approaching hot-seat territory is Lincoln Riley. Riley is now just 3-4 in his first season of Big Ten play after the Trojans choked away a multiple-possession lead late against Maryland to fall 29-28.
Did Lincoln Riley set 2 bluebloods back a decade in one move? Pretty impressive.
— Jared Followill (@youngfollowill) October 19, 2024
USC has now dropped three straight after the season started on a promising note with the win over LSU. Riley won’t be fired after this season even if the Trojans continue to trend downward, but his seat sure is a whole lot warmer.
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