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College Football


COLLEGE FOOTBALL WINNERS AND LOSERS: GEORGIA KEEPS EVERYBODY GUESSING


THE BULLDOGS WERE IN A GRIND AGAINST FLORIDA BEFORE FINALLY PULLING AWAY LATE IN
THE FOURTH QUARTER.

17 min
123

Georgia quarterback Carson Beck threw two touchdown passes and three
interceptions against Florida. (John Raoux/AP)
Skip to main content
 1.  Georgia (winner, eventually)
 2.  Penn State (loser)
 3.  Mississippi (winner)
 4.  Iowa State (loser)
 5.  South Carolina (winner)
 6.  SMU (winner)
 7.  Clemson (loser)
 8.  Cam Ward and Xavier Restrepo (winners)
 9.  Houston (winner)
 10. Air Force (loser)
 11. Vanderbilt (winner)
 12. Nebraska (loser)
 13. Nostalgia for the old WAC (winner)
 14. Connecticut (winner)

Analysis by Patrick Stevens
Updated November 3, 2024 at 1:29 a.m. EDT|Published November 2, 2024 at 5:59
p.m. EDT

Another weekend of college football is in the books. Here are some of the most
notable winners and losers:


GEORGIA (WINNER, EVENTUALLY)

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What an odd day for the No. 2 Bulldogs (7-1, 5-1 SEC), who defeated Florida,
34-20, but had a truly roundabout way of getting there.

Georgia quarterback Carson Beck threw three interceptions, gifting the Gators
(4-4, 2-3) with short fields and leading to 10 first-half points. Florida
quarterback DJ Lagway — playing in part because of Graham Mertz’s season-ending
injury — got hurt in the first half, but the Gators still found a way to tie the
score on Ja’Kobi Jackson’s 15-yard touchdown run with 7:29 to go.



Beck ultimately piloted a go-ahead touchdown drive in response, and Georgia
generated an interception on the first play after that to set up an insurance
touchdown. And while the Bulldogs’ defense did what it normally does, it wasn’t
the most consistent day for Georgia.

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Some of that credit goes to the Gators’ own defense, which has acquitted itself
admirably since the start of October. But some of it stems from the fact that
Georgia isn’t scary good on a week-in, week-out basis as it was the past three
years.

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That’s an unrealistic standard to expect anybody to meet, particularly with
annual unrestricted free agency for every player. It’s not as if the Bulldogs
can’t meet it on occasion; just ask Clemson and Texas. But even if it can be
rationalized why Georgia hasn’t just clobbered everyone, it’s still striking to
see the Bulldogs navigate the ups and downs while showing a lot more
vulnerability than in recent seasons.


PENN STATE (LOSER)

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Ohio State absolutely needed to have Saturday’s game, at least if it wanted to
remain in the Big Ten title race and avoid a potentially perilous playoff
predicament. And the No. 4 Buckeyes did get it, a 20-13 road victory to improve
to 7-1 overall (4-1 Big Ten) and win their eighth in a row in the series.

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But at some point, the No. 3 Nittany Lions — and, by extension, Coach James
Franklin — absolutely need to have one of these games. Because at this point, it
almost feels as if every season is a bit of a repeat for Penn State (7-1, 4-1).

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Franklin is now 1-14 against top-five teams, which would be sort of shrug-worthy
if he were at, say, Vanderbilt (where he started his head coaching career) or
Maryland (his last stop as an assistant). But Penn State fancies itself a
national power, and at some point you need to topple a vaunted opponent to
persuade your fans they’re experiencing a Saturday in Happy Valley and not a
Groundhog Day about 75 miles to the west in Punxsutawney.

That lone top-five victory came back in 2016 against the Buckeyes, and since
then there have been a lot of times the Nittany Lions haven’t measured up to
Ohio State, Michigan or whatever other prominent program they’ve encountered.

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Saturday was a real opportunity for a rebuttal. Ohio State was coming off a
forgettable performance while edging Nebraska. Its offensive line was riddled
with injuries. And it had to travel to Beaver Stadium.

Instead, Penn State didn’t manage a touchdown on offense. (Its lone trip to the
end zone came on an interception return.) It got to first down at the Ohio State
3-yard line in the middle of the fourth quarter and came up with nothing, ending
the push with a frazzled play on fourth down at the 1 that never looked as if it
could produce a score. And it simply could not get a stop as the Buckeyes ran
out the clock.

And with that, Penn State looks a lot like what it has been for a good chunk of
Franklin’s tenure — somewhere between about the sixth- and 15th-best team in the
country. That may be good enough for a playoff berth this year if the Nittany
Lions beat Washington, Purdue, Minnesota and Maryland to close the regular
season. But an answer for whether Penn State can win its share against top-shelf
foes will have to wait a little bit longer.


MISSISSIPPI (WINNER)

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The Rebels have had problems with Arkansas throughout Coach Lane Kiffin’s
tenure. Not on Saturday.

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No. 19 Mississippi eviscerated the Razorbacks, 63-31, piling up 694 yards and at
one point getting touchdowns on three consecutive passes from Jaxson Dart. He
finished with a gaudy 515-yard, six-touchdown effort — five of the scores to
Jordan Watkins (eight catches, 254 yards).

The Rebels (7-2, 3-2 SEC) might have been hunting style points, a perfectly
understandable impulse for a team that entered the season with huge hopes,
breezed through four games with nary a feather ruffled and then … quit scoring
at a ridiculous clip.

A 20-17 loss at home against Kentucky is the biggest blot on the profile, but
there’s also a 29-26 setback at LSU. Even last week’s 26-14 defeat of Oklahoma
wasn’t a show of force.

Saturday was. Mississippi averaged 20.1 yards per completion, finally looking
like the ruthless machine it was for much of September. And just in time, too:
The Rebels’ margin for error to earn a playoff berth appears limited, and they
absolutely need a signature victory to make a compelling case. Georgia comes to
Oxford next week, an opportunity vastly more valuable than a trip to Florida or
the Egg Bowl against Mississippi State to close November.




IOWA STATE (LOSER)

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The Cyclones entered the weekend at 7-0, matching the best start in school
history. It beat Iowa on a 54-yard field goal with six seconds left. It beat
Central Florida on quarterback Rocco Becht’s one-yard touchdown run with 30
seconds left.

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Iowa State’s good fortune ran out Saturday against Texas Tech.

Tahj Brooks’s five-yard touchdown scamper to the right side with 19 seconds left
sent the Red Raiders to a 23-22 victory in Ames and knocked the No. 11 Cyclones
from the small group of remaining undefeated teams.

There is a decent chance this doesn’t significantly damage Iowa State’s Big 12
title hopes. If the Cyclones (7-1, 4-1) win out, the worst situation they could
face would be a tie for second with Colorado, which they don’t meet in the
regular season.

But it probably does cut off Matt Campbell’s team from the possibility of
slipping into the playoff with a loss in the Big 12 title game.


SOUTH CAROLINA (WINNER)

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The Gamecocks caught Texas A&M at the right time … and the Aggies caught South
Carolina at the wrong time.

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Shane Beamer’s bunch administered a 44-20 drubbing, dealing 10th-ranked Texas
A&M its first conference loss of the season and delivering an instant deflation
to a program coming off a memorable triumph over LSU just seven days earlier.

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Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed, who did as he pleased in relief last week, was
mostly bottled up on the ground. Texas A&M (7-2, 5-1 SEC) wasn’t sharp on
defense. Last week may have been the Aggies’ Super Bowl (though that regular
season finale against Texas could be a second one). There just wasn’t much in
the tank Saturday night.

But even if there had been, guess what? South Carolina (5-3, 3-3) was more than
punchy enough after an open date to beat a top-10 team.

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The Gamecocks have been one of the more curious non-playoff contenders to track
all season. They barely escaped their opener against Old Dominion … then
pulverized Kentucky and made life difficult for LSU the following week. And that
was all by mid-September.

After a noncompetitive showing at home against Mississippi, South Carolina
barely lost at Alabama and then ambushed Oklahoma in Norman with 21 points in
the first six minutes. Now this.

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What went right? In addition to the defense forcing Reed to air it out, the
Gamecocks had several standout offensive showings. Quarterback LaNorris Sellers
threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 106 yards and a score.
Raheim Sanders managed 144 yards and two scores on the ground. Joshua Simon had
132 yards and two touchdowns receiving. And the Gamecocks’ offensive line didn’t
give up a sack and opened holes for a running game that averaged 6.7 yards.

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What’s next for South Carolina is anyone’s guess. The Gamecocks visit
Vanderbilt, return home for Missouri and Wofford and then close the year at
Clemson. Anything between 1-3 and 4-0 seems reasonable over that stretch.

But given South Carolina’s growth over its past three games, something on the
higher end of that band is the most probable.




SMU (WINNER)

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The No. 20 Mustangs lived a charmed life last week at Duke, overcoming a
minus-six turnover margin to win. Nothing fortuitous was required to manhandle
No. 18 Pittsburgh, 48-25, in a matchup Saturday of teams unbeaten in ACC play
entering the weekend.

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Brashard Smith rushed for 161 yards and accounted for three touchdowns for SMU
(8-1, 5-0), which is one of two remaining teams without a conference loss. Win
out against Boston College, Virginia and California (combined ACC record: 3-10),
and the Mustangs will head to the league title game in their first year in the
ACC.


CLEMSON (LOSER)

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What. Was. That?

The Tigers were thoroughly out of sorts throughout a 33-21 home setback against
Louisville as their hopes for an at-large playoff berth probably slipped away.

No. 11 Clemson couldn’t contain Isaac Brown (151 yards), who scored the
game-sealing touchdown with 5:50 to play, and were unable to impede the
Cardinals’ rushing attack. Louisville (6-3, 4-2 ACC) didn’t always finish
drives, settling for four field goals, but it still managed to score on five
consecutive drives during the second and third quarters. It also blocked two
Clemson field goals.

Meanwhile, Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik looked closer to the version of
himself from 2023 and in this year’s season opener against Georgia. It doesn’t
erase how much more settled he was after Labor Day weekend, but he generated
almost no vertical attack. Clemson’s longest pass play went for 22 yards.

Coaches often praise their teams for playing complementary football, or bemoan
how one area prevented that from happening. This was an archetype for
anti-complementary football; not much worked, especially when it mattered most.
It was a dud, and now the Tigers (6-2, 5-1) are going to need some help to make
it to the ACC title game.


CAM WARD AND XAVIER RESTREPO (WINNERS)

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The key components in Miami’s explosive offense did their part to help the
Hurricanes rally from an 11-point deficit in the second half of what became a
53-31 defeat of Duke.

Ward, one of the top Heisman Trophy candidates, threw for 400 yards and five
touchdowns. He now has 29 scoring strikes on the season for Miami (9-0, 5-0
ACC), which has three regular season games left.

Three of those touchdowns against the Blue Devils (6-3, 2-3) went to Restrepo,
including a three-yard pass to bring Miami within 28-25 and a 66-yard strike to
open a 46-31 lead in the fourth quarter.

Restrepo passed Santana Moss for first place on Miami’s career receiving yards
list with 2,573 on a day when he caught eight passes for 146 yards.




HOUSTON (WINNER)

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The same Cougars team that looked so rough in September, even getting shut out
in consecutive weeks to fall to 1-4, continues to show some bite.

Houston picked off TCU on a Friday night in early October, a game that looked
like an aberration when the Cougars came out of an open date and lost by 28 at
Kansas. But consecutive victories over Utah and now Kansas State — the latter a
24-19 triumph Saturday thanks to a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns — have
bumped Houston to 4-5.

Do the Cougars reach bowl eligibility in Coach Willie Fritz’s first season?
They’ll have to beat two of Arizona, Baylor and BYU to do it. Houston’s chances
are better against the first two than the Big 12’s other Cougars, who are
undefeated and get that game in Provo.

But Houston’s in-season improvement is a reminder it understood the assignment
last offseason: Go out and hire a ball coach. Fritz has won, at the junior
college level (Blinn) to Division II (Central Missouri) to the Football
Championship Subdivision (Sam Houston State) to the Group of Five (Georgia
Southern and especially Tulane).

Given time, he probably will win at Houston, too. And the past month suggests it
might not be too long before he does, either.


AIR FORCE (LOSER)

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The Falcons’ miserable season only got worse Saturday with a 20-3 loss at Army
that sealed a losing season and left them without at least one victory against a
service academy for the first time since 2017.

While the Black Knights (8-0) played without star quarterback Bryson Daily, it
didn’t matter much because Air Force (1-7) hasn’t been much for offense this
season. With 10 total points against Army and Navy (the Falcons lost, 34-7, at
home to the Midshipmen on Oct. 5), Air Force mustered its lowest combined point
total against its two academy rivals since the institution of the
Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy in 1972.

The Falcons also extended a truly quirky bit of ineptitude. They have been
outscored 68-0 in the third quarter, and Saturday’s game slipped away when
Army’s Kanye Udoh capped the first possession after halftime with a 12-yard
touchdown run to make it 13-3. Udoh finished with 158 yards and two touchdowns
for the Black Knights.


VANDERBILT (WINNER)

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The Commodores (6-3, 3-2 SEC) are bowl eligible for the first time since 2018
after dispatching Auburn, 17-7, on Saturday in a style perfectly befitting Clark
Lea’s team.

Take out a random loss at Georgia State in mid-September, and Vanderbilt has
been a steady, opportunistic team all season long. Sometimes it has led to
riveting victories (against Virginia Tech and Alabama). At other times, it
hasn’t been quite enough (against Missouri and Texas). And against the likes of
Kentucky, Ball State and now Auburn, it earned a result.

Vanderbilt hasn’t won seven or more games in a season since 2013. It will have
four chances — South Carolina, at LSU, Tennessee and a bowl game — to get there.
Expect more of the same from the defense-minded Commodores the rest of the way.


NEBRASKA (LOSER)

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The problem with the Cornhuskers’ 27-20 loss at home to UCLA on Saturday isn’t
the part that involves UCLA. The Bruins (3-5, 2-4 Big Ten) aren’t a dynamo by
any stretch, but they had shown a pulse and then some in their previous two
outings. They’re clearly better than what they were in early September.

No, the real problem for Nebraska was that it reached the midpoint of the season
at 5-1 and everyone figured it finally would end an eight-year bowl drought, the
longest among power conference teams.

Then it got blasted at Indiana. And then it gave Ohio State a good run before
falling last week.

UCLA was supposed to be the fire wall, a home game that could let Nebraska check
off a sixth victory and remove the viselike pressure on the program to
demonstrate … something this season. Or any season.

Instead, the Cornhuskers (5-4, 2-4) have a couple of weeks to stew over how they
never led — and never had the ball even in a tie game — and UCLA constructed a
20-point lead. And then they have to go west to play Southern California before
facing Wisconsin in Lincoln and traveling to Iowa the day after Thanksgiving, in
need of one win to extend their season to a 13th game.

That’s a bit more harrowing than needing one in six. And when you’re 1-11 in
November since 2021 — including 0-4 last year when just one victory would have
ensured bowl eligibility — it would be easy to understand if Nebraska plays even
tighter in two weeks than it did Saturday.




NOSTALGIA FOR THE OLD WAC (WINNER)

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Those of a certain age might remember a time when, for sheer entertainment
value, it was hard to match the Western Athletic Conference.

The WAC was a bit like #Pac12AfterDark long before #Pac12AfterDark — except
wide-open, high-scoring games were far more the norm there than anywhere else in
college football, and far fewer games were televised. BYU is rightfully
remembered for its part in that, but go back and look and there are plenty of
wild games involving Air Force, Utah, Wyoming, Hawaii and others.

So Wyoming’s 49-45 defeat of New Mexico on Saturday was a delightful throwback.
Both teams scored 35 points in the first half. There were nearly 1,200 yards of
offense. And those who caught a peek saw something rare indeed: The Lobos (3-6,
2-3 Mountain West) had a pair of 200-yard rushers (Devon Dampier and Eli
Sanders) in a loss.

There was also a comeback: The Cowboys (2-7, 2-3) erased a 10-point deficit in
the fourth quarter on Wrook Brown’s interception return for a score, followed by
Justin Stevenson’s 27-yard touchdown catch with 4:44 to go. Few leads were safe
in the wild, wild WAC, and that was certainly also true Saturday in Albuquerque.


CONNECTICUT (WINNER)

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The Huskies have spent enough time in the wilderness since the breakup of the
Big East as a football entity — whether as a poor fit in the American Athletic
or to a lesser extent an independent after the coronavirus pandemic hit — that
their work over the past two months should be acknowledged.

After opening the season with an ugly 50-7 loss at Maryland, Connecticut hasn’t
had a truly bad game. Sure, there were one-possession losses to Duke and Wake
Forest, but for the most part, the Huskies piled up victories at home.

And so it continued Friday, when Connecticut upended Georgia State, 34-27, to
become bowl eligible for only the third time since its 2010 Big East title. Mel
Brown ran for 138 yards and a touchdown for the Huskies (6-3), who close the
season with three road games (against UAB, Syracuse and Massachusetts) but are
in good shape to play in the postseason for the second time in three seasons
under Jim Mora.


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123 Comments
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