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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
In a season littered with unlikely twists, in a sport defined of late by overwhelming change, it’s nice to know some things remain as steadfastly certain as the morning sunrise.
Well, unless you’re a Penn State fan.
On the surface, we had a top-five showdown of Big Ten powers to headline Week 10, but it hardly felt like the Penn State-Ohio State matchups of old. This is, of course, a new-look Big Ten, and Ohio State had already suffered the consequences of expansion three weeks ago in a narrow loss to Oregon, as Will Howard slid too late and the clock ran out on any comeback bid. The Buckeyes arrived in Happy Valley as a case study in modern college football economics, too, sporting a roster valued at roughly the gross domestic product of Luxembourg. Penn State, too, was billed as a new-look version of its former self, one bolstered by a more creative offense led by new coordinator and Dairy Queen enthusiast Andy Kotelnicki, who promised to avoid the same malaise that had dogged the program in so many prior top-10 matchups and offer, instead, the occasional open receiver.
And yet, what we got — an erratic, exhilarating, physical 20-13 Ohio State win — looked just like old times, for better and for worse.
Never mind that the offensive line was patched together with duct tape and popsicle sticks, like some sort of HGTV rehab project property owners can’t wait to flip. The front still won every consequential battle in the trenches, turning third-and-short into a near automatic first down again and again, devouring clock like it was Halloween candy, including an 11-play drive that began at the Buckeyes’ 1 and soaked up the final 5:13 and included two critical third-and-short conversions. The defense, meanwhile, utterly flummoxed Penn State yet again, taking away any threat of a downfield attack and stonewalling the Nittany Lions at the goal line twice, including on four straight plays from inside the 3 late in the fourth quarter.
When Penn State hired Kotelnicki this offseason, it was with the expressed purpose of scripting a new game plan for exactly this moment. Again and again under James Franklin, the Lions have come up short against the top teams in the Big Ten, including, now, a 1-10 record against Ohio State. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus is punished by the gods for tormenting guests to his kingdom, doomed to a life pushing a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down the other side, on through eternity. It would be an apt analogy for Franklin’s career at Penn State, except the Nittany Lions are always so welcoming when Ohio State or Michigan come to town. The only explanation is that this is punishment for making Vanderbilt good in the 2010s, and someone should tell Clark Lea to cool it before he ends up going 9-3 at USC for a decade straight.
For Day, this wasn’t the ultimate referendum on what has been a spectacular, though incomplete, résumé at Ohio State, but it was a needed win after the stumble at Oregon. His success is not measured by mere victories, but in how many of the tallest mountains he has scaled, and while Penn State is hardly his Everest, it wasn’t a face-plant down a flight of stairs either.
It was a game between two quarterbacks who grew up dreaming of playing on the opposite sideline — Ohio native Drew Allar for the Lions against Pennsylvania native Will Howard for the Buckeyes. Of course, all residents of Ohio and Pennsylvania ultimately hope to move to a condo in Boca Raton, but these guys at least hoped to stay close to home for college. Neither was spectacular Saturday, and each threw a critical interception — Allar’s on a wacky play at the back of the end zone and Howard’s on a brutal pick-six throw that begged for the losing-contestant jingle from “The Price is Right” to be played over any subsequent replays — but it was Howard who prevailed and, like in the Oregon game, scrambled and slid late to run out the clock. This time, a celebration followed the final ticks.
It was a game that, at least in practical terms, meant little for the Big Ten race or the College Football Playoff. Oregon and Indiana are now the league’s lone undefeated teams, but Ohio State and Penn State still seem all but certain to land a bid in the playoff. And yet, each yard Saturday felt important, each play a chapter in an epic tome about two coaches hoping to avoid another pitfall and two teams looking to prove something significant — to themselves as much as to the rest of the college football world.
Perhaps that’s the real takeaway from Ohio State’s performance Saturday. Yes, it felt in some ways like a cut-and-paste to games past, when the Buckeyes enforced their will and the Nittany Lions fought against the impending darkness; when Day proved once again why he’s Ohio State’s best chance at a national title and Franklin shoved that boulder a few more inches up the hill, knowing full well the abyss that awaited on the other side. It’s a movie we’ve seen before, but it’s always nice to rewatch the classics.
Jump to:
Five unbeatens left | Miami throttles Duke | Throwing Darts
Pavia 3-0 vs. Freeze | Georgia holds off Florida | Vibe shifts
Heisman five | Under the radar
And then there were five
Iowa State and Pitt both went down in Week 10, leaving just five remaining unbeaten teams in FBS.
The Cyclones had lived much of the season like your buddy who you leave broke at the casino only to find him at the breakfast buffet the next morning with a mile-high stack of waffles and a fistful of hundreds. On Saturday, their luck finally came to an end against Texas Tech. Rocco Becht led a touchdown drive to take a 22-17 lead with 2:11 to play, but the Red Raiders wouldn’t go away, marching 71 yards in 1:47 to pull out the 23-22 win.
Pitt enjoyed no such drama. The Panthers’ trip to SMU was an unmitigated disaster, with the ground game stifled, Eli Holstein struggling, and not a single barbecue spot in Dallas that would put French fries on a brisket sandwich. Brashard Smith was the star of the game, carrying 23 times for 161 yards and two touchdowns in the 48-25 win.
With those two losses, Oregon, BYU, Miami, Army and Indiana are the last remaining teams without a defeat.
Army upended Air Force 20-3 on Saturday, despite playing without QB Bryson Daily. Instead, the Black Knights relied on tailback Kanye Udoh, who carried 22 times for 158 yards and two scores. Army still has not trailed in a game this season.
Indiana entered Week 10 without playing from behind either, but Michigan State jumped out to a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. But Kurtis Rourke decided to start trying in the second quarter, and things got ugly from there. Rourke finished with 263 yards passing and four touchdowns and the Hoosiers rolled to a 47-10 win. Indiana is 8-0 an is winning by an average of 33 points per game.
Miami mauls Manny
With 13:51 to play in the game, Duke kicked a field goal to pull to within 1 of Miami. Eight minutes of game time later, the Canes were up 53-31, marking the second-most unpleasant thing Miami has done to Manny Diaz in the past three years.
Diaz, who coached at Miami, first as a defensive coordinator and then as head coach, from 2016-2021, made his return to South Florida with his 6-2 Duke team and, for three quarters at least, put up a good fight.
The problem? Cam Ward is a magician.
Just some more Cam Ward magic for your timeline 🪄
📺: ABC #GoCanes | #HE1SMAN pic.twitter.com/OpPUUF7iQX
— Miami Hurricanes Football (@CanesFootball) November 2, 2024
Ultimately, Ward threw for 400 yards and five touchdowns, pulled a live rabbit out of his helmet and sawed Mario Cristobal in half.
Miami’s defense continues to be a concern, however. The Canes allowed 325 yards passing to Maalik Murphy, but also picked him off three times to escape trouble. That they didn’t break out the turnover chain after each one to taunt their former coach did feel like a missed opportunity though.
Throwing Darts
For much of the season, Ole Miss had been the chief culprit in using fake injuries to gain an advantage in games, but last week, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a letter to schools alerting them the practice must stop immediate or there would be fines and, possibly, suspensions. And yet, not even that warning could stop Arkansas‘ defense from rolling over and playing dead on Saturday.
Jaxson Dart threw for 515 yards and six touchdowns in Ole Miss’s rollicking 63-31 win, becoming the first SEC player ever with six TDs, no picks and more than 500 passing yards, according to ESPN Research. The bulk of Dart’s production was shared with receiver Jordan Watkins, who hauled in eight catches for 254 yards and five touchdowns.
After the game, Lane Kiffin praised his team’s emphatic performance and warned Sam Pittman to avoid any airport tarmacs for a few days.
Pavia’s Sweet Home
Diego Pavia threw for two touchdowns as Vanderbilt upended Auburn 17-7 on Saturday, Pavia’s third win in as many years against Tigers’ head coach Hugh Freeze.
At New Mexico State in 2022, Pavia was a 23-point underdog against Freeze’s Liberty and won 49-14. In 2023, Pavia led the Aggies into Auburn, where Freeze had taken over as head coach, as a 25-point underdog and walked out with a 31-10 win. Then Saturday, Vandy was an 8.5-point underdog at Auburn and won again. Aside from Houston Nutt’s lawyers, no one has caused more damage to Freeze’s career than Pavia.
Pavia is also now 3-0 career against teams from the state of Alabama, and he became just the 13th QB in the past 20 years to pick up wins against Auburn and the Tide in the same season, joining stars like Joe Burrow, Johnny Manziel and Matthew Stafford and somehow also Mitch Mustain.
Vandy is now bowl eligible for the first time since 2018 and has won four SEC games for the first time since 2013, when James Franklin was head coach. So, at least Franklin is being mentioned in something positive today.
It’d be easy enough to come away from Saturday’s latest installment of the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party wondering what’s wrong with Georgia. Certainly the offense has sputtered at times, and Carson Beck once again threw three picks, bringing his season tally to 11. The lackluster performance against Florida follows similar games against Kentucky and Mississippi State, along with a first half against Alabama so dismal it cost the Dawgs the game.
But the most logical explanation is Georgia wanted to toy with Billy Napier.
With a little more than 4 minutes to play, Florida was tied with Georgia at 20, and Napier was poised to save his job.
The Gators were riddled with injuries, losing QB DJ Lagway with a hamstring issue, and were forced to survive with a number of backups and a few of the guys working for the moving company who were packing up Napier’s stuff in anticipation of a blowout loss. It wasn’t always pretty.
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Florida botches the FG and Georgia recovers in great field position
Florida mishandles the field goal snap and Georgia recovers the ball in Florida territory.
Still, Florida kept hanging around. But this is how Georgia rolls. It toys with teams, gives them a false sense of confidence, then sneaks up behind them and pulls their underwear up over their head.
After Florida tied the game, Georgia engineered a 75-yard touchdown drive, picked off QB Aidan Warner one play later, then scored again to turn the close game into a blowout.
Week 10 vibe shifts
Each week, the college football landscape is reordered by surprising outcomes in big games. But many smaller shifts take place, too. We track them here.
Trending down: Big 12 preseason favorites
In the preseason Big 12 media poll, the top five were Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Arizona.
At least K-State looks good.
It’s been a nightmare for the rest of the group, including Arizona’s 56-12 dismantling by UCF and Oklahoma State’s 42-21 loss to Arizona State on Saturday.
Along with Kansas and Utah, those four teams are now a combined 12-22 overall and just 3-18 in Big 12 play.
Trending down: Love for Lincoln
The Lincoln Riley-USC relationship appears to be destined to end in tragedy.
Miller Moss threw three picks, and USC lost for the fifth time in its past seven games, falling to Washington 26-21 on Saturday. The Trojans are now 4-5 overall and 2-5 in Big Ten play. Worse, USC is now 5-11 in its last 16 overall after Riley opened his tenure there by winning 17 of his first 20.
The remainder of the schedule — vs. Nebraska, at UCLA and hosting Notre Dame — makes a bowl bid a possibility but far from a certainty.
Riley has already cut off practice access to the media and he has cut back on player interviews, too. His next move is to cut back on players’ screen time, have the media report all stories via Morse code and cancel Moss’s birthday party. Sure, the deposit on the clown is non-refundable, but drastic times call for drastic measures.
Trending up: Points for Iowa
Iowa trounced Wisconsin 42-10 on Saturday, crossing an unlikely threshold in the process.
Iowa has now scored 40+ points in a game 4 times in 2024.
It’s the 1st time since 2016 the Hawkeyes have scored 40+ points in 4 games in a year.
It’s also the 1st time since 2011 Iowa has scored 40+ points in 3 straight homes games.
Offensive explosion. pic.twitter.com/JTJFW05fdj
— Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) November 3, 2024
Iowa has now scored 277 points this year, or one-and-a-half Brian Ferentzes, if you’re keeping track at home. More troubling, the Hawkeyes are averaging just four punts per game, which may be a violation of the Geneva Convention.
It should be noted, however, that Iowa has scored 111 more points through nine games than it did last year, but it has lost one more game than it had at this point last season. So let that be a lesson to you, Florida State. Be careful wishing for too much offense.
Trending up: Oklahoma‘s offense
Here’s a fun fact: Oklahoma has averaged 36.5 points per game over its past two. Now, please don’t dig any deeper into that statistic.
The Sooners got 203 yards and three touchdowns from Jovantae Barnes, while QB Jackson Arnold threw two touchdowns and went the entire game without splitting his pants or falling asleep in the huddle. In other words, it was an incredibly good day for Oklahoma’s offense. Yes, it was against Maine, which is technically an FCS team, but there are only roughly 45 people who live in Maine, so we assume at least half its defense is just moose and bears, which can’t be easy to run against.
Trending up: Boat rowing
After an ugly 2-3 start to the season, PJ Fleck has the Golden Gophers riding high. Minnesota knocked off No. 24 Illinois — its second ranked win in four weeks — 25-17 behind 131 yards and a touchdown from tailback Darius Taylor.
Minnesota lost on a late missed kick in the opener against North Carolina and lost by 3 to Michigan in a game it allowed just 241 yards early in the year, but the Gophers have rebounded by winning four straight and now look like the clear-cut No. 5 team in the Big Ten, which is essentially the same as being the fifth-best member of Van Halen. Sure, most folks stop counting after Sammy Hagar, but nobody wants to be behind Gary Cherone.
Trending down: Nebraska‘s bowl hopes
The Huskers, once 5-1 and ranked in the top 25, have now lost three straight after falling 27-20 to lowly UCLA on Saturday.
Nebraska looked all but assured to make its first bowl game since 2016 this year, but suddenly the odds aren’t quite so good. This was the Huskers’ 36th one-possession loss since that last bowl game, seven more than any other FBS team and 13 more than the next Big Ten school.
The remaining slate — at USC, vs. Wisconsin and at Iowa — offers no easy wins, so it could be an uphill battle to snatch victory No. 6. On the plus side for Nebraska, no one there expects good things to happen to them anymore anyway.
Trending down: FSU’s bragging rights
A quick refresher on Florida State‘s season: The Noles opened No. 10 nationally, lost in Ireland to Georgia Tech, lost later to Mike Norvell’s former school, lost badly to rival Miami and lost for the first time in program history to Duke.
But at least there was still some positive history on FSU’s side Saturday, as Mack Brown and North Carolina came to town. Brown is an FSU alum, but he has never beaten his alma mater, and certainly the Seminoles would be motivated to keep that streak alive and — sorry, we’re being told Omarion Hampton just scored again.
Indeed, Hampton and the Heels romped, 35-11, handing Brown his first win against Florida State in 12 chances as a head coach dating back to 1985. Next, Florida State plans to announce that “Smokey and the Bandit II” wasn’t really that good, thus flushing yet another piece of its rich history down the drain.
No matter how many times we’ve assumed they’ve hit rock bottom, these Noles just keep digging. You really have to admire their determination.
Heisman five
The favorites held serve in the Heisman race this week, and it’s increasingly looking like a four-man race, but we’d nevertheless like to offer some Heisman love to Duke offensive lineman Micah Sahakian for providing us with the best chyron of the season.
— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) November 2, 2024
Believe it or not, Saturday’s win over Duke was Ward’s first time this season with at least 400 yards passing and four touchdowns. He had 400 yards twice before, and this was his fourth time with at least four touchdown passes, but they had never overlapped in the same game. This was basically Ward’s KFC Double Down game, where the big plays are both the bread and the meat.
2. Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty
On Friday, San Diego State’s defensive scheme basically amounted to putting eight players, a set of road flairs and a few of those inflatable waving-arm guys in the box to stop Jeanty at any cost. Turns out, the cost was QB Maddux Madsen throwing for 307 yards and four touchdowns in a 56-24 win. Oh, and Jeanty still had 149 yards rushing (plus 31 receiving) and two touchdowns.
3. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter
Colorado was off in Week 10, which begs the question of why anyone even bothered to watch games. Still, Hunter remains the most dynamic player in the country, playing 858 snaps already this year despite missing the better part of two games and having to constantly fend off DJ Khaled on the sideline constantly pushing for them to leave the game early and hit up White Castle.
4. Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel
Gabriel threw for a touchdown and ran for another in Oregon’s 38-17 win over Michigan, but honestly, it’s really not even fun to watch the Ducks demolish opponents anymore. Gabriel and tailback Jordan James should have to tie their legs together before each snap like some sort of potato sack race just to make Oregon’s games more interesting.
5. Spot reserved for Army QB Bryson Daily
Daily missed Army’s 20-3 win over Air Force with an undisclosed injury. Or perhaps he was on a top-secret mission to infiltrate a top military target, or battling Hugo Drax’s henchmen on an international space station before they wipe out humanity. Either way, we hope he’s back soon.
Under-the-radar play of the week
Louisiana-Monroe‘s hot start has come to a screeching halt, with the Warhawks dropping back-to-back games, including Saturday’s 28-23 defeat at the hands of Marshall.
Perhaps the symbolic low point for ULM came just ahead of a fourth-and-1 play with 11:43 to go in the third, when offensive lineman Drew Hutchinson offhandedly suggested that Taylor Swift’s “Tortured Poet’s Department” was meandering and self-indulgent, to which O-line coach Cameron Blankenship strongly disagreed.
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ULM assistant coach has meltdown in face of own player
Check out ULM’s assistant coach Cameron Blankenship going absolutely ballistic in the face of his own player, offensive lineman Drew Hutchinson.
In fairness, you really shouldn’t mess with Swifties.