College football's 11 undefeated teams, plus Penn State's nifty trick play vs. USC

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Sup, Jason Kirk here, playing Arch Manning to Jayna Bardahl’s Quinn Ewers. Just like Arch, I have multiple uncles, after all.

The Undefeateds

Ducks dump Bucks from the ranks

We’re down to 11 undefeated teams in FBS play.

A few years ago, I looked up some things, finding that the average season has about seven or eight unbeatens as of Week 10. So as we enter Week 7, we’re right around the usual pace.

But something is different this time. The 12-team College Football Playoff means going undefeated as a power-conference team is no longer just about remaining in the hunt for a title, but more specifically about chasing a first-round bye. (And for Group of 5 teams, such a feat will all but guarantee a nearly unprecedented Playoff shot.)

Regardless of how the Playoff works in any given year, undefeated status always has meant something extra romantic in college football. With that in mind, let’s see who has made it roughly halfway there, as of yesterday:

Quarterback Quinn Ewers returned to Texas’ lineup on Saturday and led the Longhorns to a rout of rival Oklahoma. (Kevin Jairaj / Imagn Images)

No. 1 Texas 34, No. 18 Oklahoma 3: These Longhorns haven’t yet faced many tests, but they’ve aced them all. To that list, we can add a QB’s entire injury absence and one of the country’s traditionally most chaotic rivalry games. Ewers is back, throwing for a rusty 199 yards, not that it mattered much against the helpless Sooners. Up next, a midterm worth an all-nighter: Georgia visits Austin for the first time since 1958.

(Meanwhile, Brent Venables is 20-12 at Oklahoma. Are these multi-flawed Sooners going to win any of their remaining SEC games?)

No. 3 Oregon 32, No. 2 Ohio State 31: Seven lead changes. An Autzen Stadium-record crowd. Approximately a million wacky little moments. Classic. Run it back. Even though the Ducks were not considered even remotely a Big Ten program until realignment news broke about a year ago, they are now the Big Ten favorites. They’ll likely be favored each week until they reach Indianapolis, and maybe even beyond.

No. 4 Penn State 33, USC 30: After a 45-minute Nittany Lions comeback, plus a quick overtime period, your new hero is Penn State tight end Tyler Warren. He entered the record books with 237 all-purpose yards on 19 touches, including maybe the national play of the day, when he snapped the ball — and then caught it in the end zone:

Double pass TD for @PennStateFball to start the second half! 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/54lph5ddUw

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 12, 2024

There are three weeks until Penn State welcomes Ohio State. For USC, a 3-3 record (and a trip across Earth toward Maryland up next) has the pressure rising on Lincoln Riley.

No. 6 Miami (bye): Road trips to Louisville and Georgia Tech remain, but the Canes’ path is relatively clear.

No. 11 Iowa State 28, West Virginia 16 and No. 14 BYU 41, Arizona 19: As expected, the new Big 12 mostly looks like an unpredictable mess (that’s a compliment). Of course, its top two teams were picked sixth and 13th, respectively, in the conference’s preseason poll. The Cougars already have more wins than they had all of last season, including a blowout win over Kansas State, while Iowa State has yet to play the Wildcats.

No. 18 Indiana (bye): The Hoosiers, who already have surpassed their 5.5-win Vegas total for the year, have several winnable games before their trip to Columbus. #NineWindiana is real.

No. 22 Pitt 17, Cal 15: Every 2024 Pitt game is a dramatic win, regardless of what happens in the first 59 minutes. But 2024 Cal (3-3) games are often the opposite. Therefore, the Panthers won despite gaining only 277 yards, converting only one third down and losing the turnover battle.

Army 44, UAB 10: The nation’s most prolific rushing offense racked up 413 yards on the ground, plus a passing touchdown — its seventh on the year, actually. More on UAB below, but first, there’s something truly unhinged looming on the schedule …

Navy (bye): As we’ve been tracking for a few weeks, the two teams atop the AAC standings aren’t scheduled to meet until after the AAC title game. It’s possible Army and Navy will be favored in every remaining conference game (probably excluding Navy-Tulane), so we’re inching closer to one of the weirdest blasphemies in CFB history: an Army-Navy rematch.

Liberty 31, FIU 24: Likely a non-factor in the Playoff race, since the Flames have enjoyed the FBS’ easiest schedule to this point, per FPI, plus one of the easiest going forward.

Elsewhere

Maybe this is just your life now, Bama

For like a decade, whenever Alabama lost, every college football watcher dreaded what’d happen to the Tide’s subsequent opponent. Giving Nick Saban a reason to point out even more of his players’ mistakes? Are you trying to get somebody blown out by a thousand?

Well, that trope officially does not apply to the Kalen DeBoer era, at least not yet. Against South Carolina, a week after the Tide lost to Vanderbilt for the first time since 1984, they nearly assembled their first regular-season losing streak since 2007, Saban’s first season. If not for the 27-25 game’s two late overthrows by LaNorris Sellers, who was otherwise an absolute nuisance to Bama’s defense, the Tide might’ve been rolling into Knoxville week facing a potential three-game losing streak.

Quickly:

• Another Cam Rising return. Another Cam Rising injury. This time, his lower right leg, as the No. 16 Utah fell 27-19 to Arizona State on Friday night.
• No. 18 Kansas State held off Colorado 31-28 as a shoulder injury sidelined the Buffs’ two best players, Travis Hunter and Travis Hunter.
• No. 13 LSU is back on track, rallying to beat No. 9 Ole Miss 29-26 in overtime. The Tigers head to Arkansas next, while the Rebels have dropped two of three.
• Remember when Tennessee was the country’s best team against the spread? Now it’s following up a loss to Arkansas by squeezing out an overtime win against late-stage Florida.
• Lots of OT this week! How about this outburst: The pregame over/under for Purdue-Illinois was a modest 47.5 points. Each team topped that number in a 50-49 win for the No. 23 Illini.
• Can Ashton Jeanty be stopped? Boise State’s star had 31 carries for 217 yards and a touchdown in the Broncos’ 28-7 win over Hawaii.
• FCS check: No. 3 Montana State crushed No. 8 Idaho 38-7.
• By the way, after three straight blowouts, UAB’s Trent Dilfer is now 5-13 as a head coach. The interim coach UAB could’ve hired instead, Bryant Vincent, is 5-1 in his first season at ULM, within range of the Warhawks’ best season ever. (ULM beat UAB, ICYMI.) At the time, most of us argued against the Dilfer hire, but it now looks even worse than any of us imagined.

Quick Snaps

Tylee Craft, a former wide receiver at North Carolina who was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer in 2022, died yesterday, the program announced. He was 23.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, the displaced USF Bulls played with heavy hearts in Orlando, falling short against Memphis yesterday.

Florida State gained a few yards in its ongoing lawsuit against the ACC.

How will college football look in the future? However the Big Ten and SEC want. Scott Dochterman reports on their recent summit.

Yep, still thinking about Vanderbilt beating Bama. Checking in with the kids who got to carry Vandy’s goalpost to the river in celebration: “There is never going to be a point in college better than this.”

You can buy tickets to every college football game here.

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(Top photo: Chris Pietsch / USA Today Network via Imagn Images