It’s almost poll season in college football, and things got a bit messy three days before the College Football Playoff committee is set to unveil a 12-team bracket projection for the first time. SMU made a statement in Dallas, knocking Pitt from the ranks of the unbeatens. Texas Tech did the same in Ames, toppling Iowa State. Then there’s the heavyweight bout in State College where, for the eighth straight time, Ohio State took down Penn State.
Throw in a now-five-way tie atop the SEC, Clemson’s flop in Death Valley and a road statement by Oregon over the defending national champion, and it was a hectic weekend of college football.
Week 10 is over and you know how this works: Let’s run through College Football Overtime, highlighting everything you need to know from the week that was in college football.
ONE BIG TAKEAWAY: OHIO STATE-PENN STATE DEJA VU
A few games every season are a referendum on a program’s trajectory. You know the ones: The rivalry games. The ranked matchups. The top-10 showdowns. Ryan Day and James Franklin know the pressure of these well.
The Buckeyes, a blue blood of blue bloods, can overwhelm their opponents much of the year. Day’s war chest of talent has led to a 44-0 record against unranked opponents.
Yet Day is still seeking an elusive national title. The Nittany Lions, a proud program attempting to make the giant leap from great to elite, have finished in the top 12 of the CFB Playoff rankings in six of the past eight seasons yet have zero playoff appearances to show for it.
Thus, the programs met once again Saturday at an inflection point: Could Penn State finally push through? Would Day, with nearly every resource at his disposal, lose a fifth consecutive matchup against a top-five team?
Another year, another feeling of Penn State deja vu.
The No. 4 Buckeyes won, 20-13, giving them eight straight wins over the Nittany Lions.
No Ohio State win in that stretch came by more than 13. All of them were four-quarter games. In the end, the result is always the same: Ohio State knocks Penn State back down the mountain.
You shouldn’t dismiss the importance of this win for Day and the Buckeyes. A program that’s often been accused of too much finesse closed the game out with a goal-line stand on defense and 11 straight runs (176 yards, 4.4 yards per carry for the game) to kill the final five minutes of clock.
Ohio State’s top two left tackles missed the game with an injury. Didn’t matter. All-American left guard Donovan Jackson kicked outside and the Buckeyes still outmanned arguably the nation’s best defensive front seven with a mix and matched O-line.
Ohio State’s national title hopes are alive and well after a gutsy road win.
The loss for Penn State feels more burdensome. The defeat doesn’t disqualify the Nittany Lions from national title contention. With games remaining against Washington, Purdue, Minnesota and Maryland, they remain more likely than not to make the playoff.
But does that really matter if Penn State gets there and loses to yet another top-five team?
After all, the same issues still persist for Penn State against their Buckeye measuring stick. Skill pieces tend to separate the great from the elite.
Ohio State just always has more weapons, be it Quinshon Judkins (95 yards, 6.8 yards per carry) via the transfer portal or the No. 1 overall player in the country from the 2024 class, Jeremiah Smith (four catches, 55 yards). It was obvious during the game.
Penn State’s receivers combined for just three catches. No amount of offensive coordinator changes for Penn State — five since 2017 — has altered the ultimate result.
Not everything in college football is about talent. But it’s worth noting that the only offensive touchdowns of the game came via five-star receivers (Emeka Egbuka, Brandon Inniss). It speaks to the gap between No. 11 in the 247Sports Team Talent Composite (Penn State) and No. 3 (Ohio State).
Only a few games matter every season to programs like these. Day quieted his detractors for a few weeks. Franklin? He argued with his after another top-five showdown in which he failed to push the Nittany Lions into the elite stratosphere.
REPORT CARD
A. SMU
SMU’s administration and boosters made a massive gamble last September in joining the ACC. The Mustangs forwent nine years of ACC television revenue via ESPN — $24 million a year — to get that invite.
But SMU’s administration knew that the Mustangs couldn’t get left off the bus during this round of realignment. They needed to be in the mix.
They’re unquestionably in the mix now. SMU, in its first year of ACC play, is one of the hottest teams in the country. The No. 20 Mustangs decimated No. 18 Pittsburgh, 48-25, knocking the Panthers from the ranks of the unbeatens and snatching control of its destiny with the ACC title game in the process.
This isn’t really supposed to happen. Transitions from the Group of Five to the Power Four are hard, especially so when SMU really only had some 12 months to prepare for it. Yet SMU is the first team to make that transition to ever start better than 1-1 in its new league during a transition season, according to 247Sports/CBS Sports colleague Brandon Marcello.
Few programs utilize the transfer portal as well as SMU and Rhett Lashlee and his staff, 19-4 over the last two seasons, have shown an ability to stack depth and elevate retread talent that walks in the door.
Look no further than Lashlee’s old Miami players Brashard Smith (161 yards, two touchdowns) and Elijah Roberts — perhaps the best D-lineman in the ACC — who have thrived in a new place.
Throw in some big recruiting wins — like quarterback Kevin Jennings — and SMU’s team is showing proof of concept in the Power Four more quickly than anyone would have believed.
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