College Football Risers and Fallers: Week 7 NCAAF Stock Watch

College football never fails to excite no matter what the slate is. Did anybody anticipate Georgia Tech-Miami to be a matchup one week after Georgia Tech was blown out by Bowling Green? Not at all. How about Louisville steamrolling Notre Dame? I can assure you not many saw that coming.

While the top teams in college football separated themselves a bit more, the middle of the pack got very interesting in Week 6. The 12-team playoff doesn’t start until 2024, but this season would be a whole lot of fun and madness with 12 playoff teams.

Before looking ahead to an exciting Week 7, let’s recap Week 6 with four risers and four fallers across the nation. Coaching proved to be key this week, and we tabbed two coaches as risers with four falling down the chain.

Stock Up

Matt Rhule, Nebraska

Matt Rhule has won everywhere he has gone in college football, but in the past, it has taken him a season to get his feet under him.

Matt Rhule games needed to get 3rd win by school:
Temple - 13 games
Baylor - 14 games
Nebraska - 6 games

— Arbitrary Analytics (@arbitanalytics) October 7, 2023

Rhule has already had his best year 1 of his college coaching career, and he sits at 3-3 six games into the season. It wasn’t pretty, but Friday night’s road win over Illinois was huge for the Huskers. In a horrible Big Ten West, getting to a bowl game for the first time since 2016 is very possible in year 1 under Rhule and would have to be considered a smashing success.

Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU

LSU’s star quarterback continues to light up box scores, passing for 259 yards and three touchdowns while adding 130 yards and a touchdown rushing in Saturday’s 49-39 win over Missouri. The win was huge for the Tigers, keeping them afloat in the SEC East. The Tigers can’t afford to drop another game if they want to keep their SEC title hopes alive.

Top Teams

College football’s current top-four ranked teams all enjoyed blowout wins over the weekend, with Georgia and Michigan separating themselves from the pack looking like the most complete teams in football. Ohio State and Florida State both also ran up the scores against Maryland and Virginia Tech, respectively. The Bulldogs and Wolverines both cleared 50 points and held their opponents under 14, dominating on both sides of the ball.

Brent Venables, Oklahoma

Oklahoma landed a huge win over hated rival Texas, moving to 6-0 on the season after going 6-7 in year 1 under Brent Venables. The rest of the schedule looks like cake for the Sooners: vs. UCF, at Kansas, at Oklahoma State, vs. West Virginia, at BYU, and vs. TCU. If all goes according to plan, which it often does not in college football, we should get a Texas-Oklahoma rematch for the Big 12 title and potentially a playoff play-in game. 

Venables has quickly turned this Oklahoma team around after being written off prior to the season. His coaching job is looking like a smashing success.

Stock Down

Brian Ferentz, Iowa

Iowa’s offense might be in worse shape than ever before. After losing quarterback Cade McNamara to a season-ending injury, backup Deacon Hill is under center. Hill completed 6-of-21 passes for 110 yards with a touchdown and an interception with plenty of missed throws in the win over Purdue. While Iowa is 5-1 in a horrifically bad Big Ten West, Ferentz’s job has to be on the line as his 25-point average threshold is going to be tough to clear with Hill under center.

I just fixed Iowa’s offense and all I needed was a video editor

Deacon Hill ➡️ Cooper DeJean TD!!!! pic.twitter.com/WuLCduWscy

— Chris Hassel (@Hassel_Chris) October 1, 2023

Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame

Notre Dame’s young head coach has suffered a number of bad losses since taking over last season, but Saturday’s blowout loss to Louisville may be the worst of them all. With the season on the line, Freeman’s team softened up on both sides of the ball and let the Cardinals run away with the game. The Fighting Irish’s playoff hopes are practically gone, but all eyes will be on them again this weekend as they have a chance to redeem themselves against USC.

Mario Cristobal, Miami

We all saw what happened in Miami on Saturday night. With the game in the bag, all the Hurricanes had to do was take a knee and the game was over. Mario Cristobal elected to run the ball and Miami running back Don Chaney fumbled, giving Georgia Tech possession. Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King connected on a 44-yard Hail Mary with Christian Leary, ending the game with a stunning 23-20 victory.

The worst part? Cristobal lost a game in similar fashion in 2018 at Oregon.

The craziest about the Miami end-of-game debacle is that this isn’t Mario Cristobal’s first time losing a game by not taking a knee.

This is from 2018 at Oregon.

Wow.
pic.twitter.com/iSNEAoI1KN

— Adam Breneman (@AdamBreneman81) October 9, 2023

How has he not learned his lesson? What does he gain by running the ball there? Lots of head-scratching questions for the Hurricanes’ head coach.

Alex Grinch, USC

It is well known that the USC Trojans’ defense is no top unit, but they caused a near-loss at home against Arizona on Saturday night in a triple-overtime win. Alex Grinch has never been known for good defensive units. His 2018 Ohio State unit struggled, and Oklahoma was famously known for explosive offense and a porous defense during his and Lincoln Riley’s time there. It’s more of the same with USC. The writing may be on the wall for Grinch if the Trojans’ defensive struggles continue.

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