College Football Playoff Rankings: Biggest Takeaways from Week 9

Week 9 looked boring on paper and started as dull as it looked.

But then came the early-night games.

And suddenly, we had ourselves a week.

The ending of Duke-Miami will be replayed for decades, and close games in Notre Dame-Temple and Michigan-Minnesota concluded around the same time.

None of those great finishes rocked the shape of the College Football Playoff race, but enough happened in Week 9 to leave a lasting impact. It wasn't the best week on the schedule, but it served its role as an appetizer before a great Week 10 slate.

Let's take a look at what we learned.

Meet North Carolina: Your Official ACC Playoff Sleeper

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UNC beat Pittsburgh 26-19 on Thursday, winning the battle of quiet one-loss ACC teams and doing it on the road.

Quarterback Marquise Williams made the most of his 14 completions, throwing for 270 yards and two touchdowns. Explosive wide receiver Ryan Switzer accounted for 126 of those yards and both scores.

But the real key to UNC's season has been the defense. Under first-year defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, the embattled former Auburn head coach who won the national title five years ago, the Tar Heels have corrected their always-weaker unit, which raises their ceiling considerably. 

Yahoo's Pat Forde summed it up well:

If not for a fluky Week 1 loss to South Carolina—a game they would have won if not for two end-zone turnovers—the Tar Heels would be 8-0 and earning even more praise than Iowa. Instead, they are 7-1 and still trying to crack the Associated Press rankings.

But don't bury Larry Fedora's team just yet. Ohio State proved last season that an early-season loss is forgivable. If the Tar Heels beat Duke, Miami, Virginia Tech and North Carolina State—four solid teams but far from a murderers' row—they will enter the ACC Championship Game with one loss and a chance to score a signature win over Clemson or Florida State.

Would a 12-1 ACC champion make the playoff? Even with a loss to South Carolina? It depends on what happens elsewhere, but there's definitely a case to be made.

With Chizik running the defense and Fedora and Seth Littrell running the offense, this UNC team has a chance to be special.

Why did it take us all so long to notice?

Notre Dame Is Special

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Notre Dame rarely makes it pretty, but the Irish find ways to win. They beat the Owls 24-20 on Saturday.

Quarterback DeShone Kizer found receiver Will Fuller—who else?—for the game-winning score with 2:09 to play at Temple, leading them to 7-1 and setting the table for a playoff run. 

UNC exposed Pittsburgh on Thursday, so next week's trip to Heinz Field looks slightly easier. It's still not a cakewalk, but Notre Dame should win. The next two games are in South Bend against Boston College and Wake Forest: ACC teams with a combined conference record of 1-10. As long as they beat Pitt next weekend, the Irish will be 10-1.

From there, a win at Stanford would propel Notre Dame to the playoff—no ifs, ands or buts. Forget the conspirative "of course they'd pick Notre Dame to boost ratings" argument; the Irish would be 11-1 with their only loss coming by two points in a hurricane at Clemson.

Any way you swing it, that's a playoff resume.

And before you think of trolling: No, this was not a "bad win." Temple is a solid team. That defense is out of control, and the Owls played this game like the Super Bowl. Even so, Notre Dame would have won by double digits if not for red-zone turnovers.

The Irish are having a truly special season.

The Pac-12 Stays Alive...for Now

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The Pac-12 survived Stanford's trip to Washington State, where the Cardinal won 30-28 on a missed 43-yard field goal at the gun.

With just two one-loss teams (Stanford and Utah) remaining, the conference needed that result in a big way.

"We didn't play perfectly," Cardinal head coach David Shaw admitted on the ESPN broadcast. "But that's the sign of a good team: [When] you don't play your best, you can still pull out a win, in the rain, on the road."

Surely that's the sign of a good team, but the Pac-12 needs Stanford to be a great one. And right now, that's just not what it is.

An anemic pass rush leaves it vulnerable against Oregon (which is slowly improving) and Cal (which has Jared Goff) before hosting Notre Dame (see above) in the season finale. All three of those games are in Palo Alto, California, but still: The Cardinal need to win all three.

Utah, meanwhile, can never feel safe about winning as long as Good Travis Wilson and Bad Travis Wilson both exist. The up-and-down senior quarterback has played at times like an All-American, but he's always capable of throwing multiple picks, as he did in last week's loss at USC.

The Pac-12 needs one or (ideally) both of these teams to win out. Unless they both improve, that's unlikely.

Week 9 drove that point home.