College Football Winners and Losers from Week 12
What. A. Weekend!
Saturday started with unbelievable, last-minute wins for two of the College Football Playoffs' top four teams, and the exciting play continued throughout the day.
Every team in the top four of the standings was tested in a major way. Then No. 5 Tennessee was embarrassed by South Carolina, giving up 63 points to cap a wild-and-wacky day of action.
Nothing would top the drama from TCU rushing the field goal team onto the field in the closing seconds for Griffin Kell to boom a 40-yard field goal with the clock ticking to give the Horned Frogs a 29-28 win. Michigan followed not 20 minutes later with their own last-minute field goal to erase a 10-point deficit and beat Illinois 19-17.
Georgia and Ohio State followed with narrow wins over teams not expected to put up much of a fight. Then USC beat UCLA with a late interception in a 48-45 class.
It was a survival Saturday.
Winner: TCU in Dramatic Fashion to Stay Spotless
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If you're denying TCU is a team of destiny after Saturday's Wild Wild Waco win over Baylor, you're one of the few holdouts.
If you think it's exasperating the Horned Frogs beat the middling Baylor Bears with a last-second field goal, well, you haven't seen the way coach Sonny Dykes' team has come from behind and caused cardiac moments all season.
This is their M-O, and Saturday's 29-28 win left everybody's heart racing, whether you were a fan of either team or not.
With zero timeouts, 20 seconds left and in field-goal range after a dramatic last-minute drive orchestrated by Max Duggan, Dykes elected to run the ball to the middle of the field to set up a 40-yard field-goal attempt by Griffin Kell.
The clock was running, and Baylor could have substituted to let the clock run further but didn't. Instead, a scramble drill of TCU's offense sprinting off the field and the field-goal team running on ensued, and Kell calmly fired the field goal through the uprights for the win.
"It looks more frantic than it is, I promise you," Dykes told FOX after the game. "We're out of timeouts, so it was a little dicey there. We wanted it in the middle of the field; (Kell) is more comfortable from the middle. Got to give our guys a ton of credit. They delivered when they had to."
After Baylor took a 28-20 lead, TCU marched right down the field behind the leadership and gritty quarterback Max Duggan's terrific play, but a perfectly thrown ball to running back Emari Demercado on the two-point conversion was dropped. He could have walked in.
Baylor coach Dave Aranda and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes chose to play conservatively and a three-and-out led to a punt back to TCU. That's when Duggan (who completed 24-of-35 passes for 327 yards, a touchdown and 50 more rushing yards) took over, got them into field-goal range, and everything went down.
Loser: Tennessee's Deplorable Defense and the Potential Loss of a Leader
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Early in the day, Tennessee watched TCU and Michigan kick last-second field goals to impede the Volunteers' chances of making the College Football Playoffs.
Then, the Vols took the field at South Carolina and ended any chances of that happening with an inexcusable defensive performance in a 63-38 loss to the Gamecocks.
Once South Carolina took control, things only got worse for the Vols, who lost Heisman Trophy-hopeful quarterback Hendon Hooker to a leg injury in the fourth quarter. He limped off after fumbling, and that mistake led to another quick TD in what was a nightmare night.
Hooker's injury didn't look good, and it highlighted a night when so much was lost for the Vols and provided a hallmark win for Shane Beamer's Gamecocks.
A week after scoring just six points in a loss to Florida, South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler could do no wrong, leading touchdown drives on each of the first five possessions and never looking back. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the 63 points were the most by an unranked team versus an AP Top 5 opponent since 1936.
Given the stakes, this is one of the most gut-wrenching losses in recent memory for a Vols team that was set up to sneak into the playoffs if they took care of business. South Carolina could do no wrong, and this didn't look anything like the Vols team that looked like a playoff contender.
This was an embarrassment.
It was the type of loss a team takes when the moment is too big, and the Vols now are out of the playoff picture.
Winner: USC's Playoff Hopes
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With so much on the line in a classic showdown between two heated rivals, a former top-rated recruit who hasn't had much of an impact came through with the biggest play of his career to secure the win for USC.
In a game where defensive stops were as rare as Bigfoot sightings, Dorian Thompson-Robinson dropped back to pass on what was supposed to be the senior's historic, career-defining drive. Instead, Trojans sophomore Korey Foreman dropped back into coverage and intercepted the ball, allowing USC to go into victory formation.
They survived the Bruins 48-45 at the Rose Bowl, and coach Lincoln Riley's storybook first year continues as USC moved to 10-1 on a day when all the top teams struggled and Tennessee tumbled.
For all the scoffs at their resume, USC got a massive win over a rival and is heading to the Pac-12 championship game.
Trojans transfer quarterback Caleb Williams accounted for 502 total yards, the most by any single player in the famed series' history. He did it all, and having a healthy Jordan Addison was massive, too.
This game was a back-and-forth battle of outstanding offenses, and defense was nowhere to be found. You had to think if anybody came up with just one game-changing defensive play, they'd win.
Foreman did that in the game's biggest moment, and he provided the pedestal for Williams' terrific performance to potentially be Heisman-worthy with such a humongous win in a rivalry. Don't sleep on the Trojans making the College Football Playoff, with Tennessee out of the picture.
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Loser: North Carolina's Out-of-Gas Offense
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Even with a defense that routinely gives up chunk plays and lit-up scoreboards, the North Carolina Tar Heels surged to win nine of the season's first 10 games due to an offense that was the envy of everybody else in the ACC.
Nobody saw Saturday's shocker against Georgia Tech coming.
The Yellow Jackets smothered the Tar Heels' attack throughout the game, holding Heisman Trophy-hopeful signal-caller Drake Maye to 16-of-30 passing for just 202 yards, no touchdowns and an interception and somehow beat UNC 21-17.
In the game, the Heels were outgained 373-365, were 4-of-14 on third-down conversions and wound up with just 16 first downs. They picked an awful time to have their worst game of the season when they had the opportunity to move up the standings.
Maye, by the way, had become a dark-horse Heisman candidate with his brilliant, consistent quarterback play, but he never got it going against the Yellow Jackets, who moved to just 5-6 on the season.
Tech erased a 17-0 lead, giving interim coach Brent Key a 4-3 ACC record following Geoff Collins' early-season firing. He's making a major case for getting that full-time job, and this was one of the biggest upsets, not just of the weekend but of the entire season.
Winner: Michigan's Methodical Mess of a Win
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Sticking with the "Kickers are Heroes" theme for college football's top teams on Saturday, Michigan got a 35-yard field goal from Jake Moody in the closing seconds to beat Illinois in the Big House , 19-17.
It was a clunker of a game for a Wolverines team that played an awful out-of-conference schedule and wasn't big on style points. Of course, none of that matters in a survive-and-advance situation before next week's showdown with Ohio State.
We'd be remiss not to mention all the pertinent subplots that happened. Heisman Trophy hopeful running back Blake Corum injured a knee in the first half and was down in pain but walked off the field and was walking on the sideline in the second half.
The Wolverines didn't have Corum or backup running back Donovan Edwards, Mike Morris or Luke Schoonmaker, but the Fighting Illini were without defensive playmakers, too.
Perhaps the most worrisome thing for Michigan is, after a convincing game-opening touchdown drive orchestrated by quarterback J.J. McCarthy, he wasn't very good at all the rest of the game, and it's in question whether he can carry the offense if teams are able to neutralize the running game.
Despite all that, the Wolverines' defense played well enough to keep them in the game, coach Jim Harbaugh elected for a Moody 33-yard field goal with 3:13 left in the game down 17-10 in the red zone, relying on his defense to get a stop and get the ball back.
They did, and McCarthy was able to get Michigan in Moody's range again, converted a huge 4th-and-3 to get there, and the win followed. At this point of the season, that's all that matters. Next week, though, is huge in a winner-likely-goes-to-the-CFP showdown with the Buckeyes.
Loser: Georgia's Championship Swagger (But it Didn't Matter)
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At no point since being early-season darlings have the Kentucky Wildcats looked good enough to give a passing thought to as a contender.
Considering all the preseason hype surrounding the Wildcats and the talk about quarterback Will Levis being a potential first-round draft pick, it's been a disappointing year for coach Mark Stoops' team.
Saturday's 16-6 loss to the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs was a hard-fought glimmer of what the season could have been for the 6-5 Wildcats. Though they've been inconsistent on both sides of the ball, they were salty defensively against the Dawgs and Levis hit some deep shots to freshman star Barion Brown.
It wasn't enough to beat a UGA team sleepwalking through its road trip. The Bulldogs somehow survived their ugliest performance since a near-upset against Missouri and became the first SEC team since Alabama in 2008-09 to finish 8-0 in the league in back-to-back seasons.
Hey, every game isn't a Picasso, right?
Georgia didn't look like the defending national champion powerhouse it is. Quarterback Stetson Bennett made several ugly-duckling passes in the mid-20s Kentucky weather and the defense gave up too many deep shots, but Levis was never sharp enough to consistently threaten the goal line.
Thankfully for a UGA team that didn't need to win Saturday, it did because of a sturdy running game (245 yards) and a defense that bowed its back when it had to.
Winner: Ohio State, Behind a True Freshman Runner
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On a day when nothing came easy for the top-tier teams in college football, Ohio State found a savior in a true freshman running back.
With Miyan Williams unavailable following being carted off the field last week and TreVeyon Henderson not completely well and only in the role of a utility guy, the Buckeyes turned to Dallan Hayden, and the first-year Tennessee native answered the call.
He finished the game with 27 carries for 146 yards and a trio of touchdowns on a day when the Buckeyes couldn't muster the explosion from the passing game and the defense had few answers for Taulia Tagovailoa.
The Buckeyes recovered a strip in the end zone in the closing seconds to make the 43-30 final score look a lot worse than it was, but they had a very tenuous lead for much of the game as the Terrapins found their offense.
Stroud finished with 241 passing yards but just one scoring toss as the Terps looked to key on the pass. That's what made Hayden's breakout performance so important. He kept Maryland at arm's length behind a strong offensive line.
Hayden has been an afterthought for much of the year with Williams' emergence, but he still entered the game with 357 yards and a pair of touchdowns. On Saturday, he proved he could carry the load like his father, Aaron, a legendary Tennessee running back.
Dallan's brother Chase is also in the Big Ten playing for Illinois, but the youngest of the bunch may wind up the best of them all.
Loser: South Florida QB Byrum Brown's Quest for Perfection
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South Florida hasn't had much to cheer about this football season. The Bulls fired head coach Jeff Scott two weeks ago and limped to a 1-10 record with Friday night's 48-42 road loss to Tulsa.
If you tuned in to the game against the Golden Hurricane, it was either because you really love football or you had money on it. Either way, you were treated to a delight of a game between two awful teams that showcased explosive offenses.
The star of the show, though, was USF true freshman signal-caller Byrum Brown.
How good was he in defeat? Entering the game, he was just a talented youngster who'd accounted for 24 yards and a touchdown on 2-of-5 passing on the year. Making his first career start, Brown was golden.
The Rolesville, North Carolina, native completed his first 21 passes for 240 yards and three touchdowns. He didn't throw an incompletion until the Bulls were in comeback mode with 2:58 left in the game down 13, and while he closed with four consecutive incompletions in do-or-die mode, it was still memorable.
By the way, Brown ran for 76 yards and another score, too. Everybody not pulling for Tulsa was cheering for perfection, but it wasn't to be. Still, Brown finished with the most consecutive completions of any FBS quarterback this year.
Maybe it's too early to anoint him a star. He's still knocking off the rough edges, but there are a ton of positive traits around which to build as the Bulls look toward the next era. In his starting debut, Brown looked like a foundation block.
Winner: Jackson State Ready for 'Prime' Time
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When Deion Sanders started playing football, it was obvious he was destined for greatness. Though he wasn't one of the best baseball players in the major leagues, he achieved greatness there, too, just by being an everyday player at the highest level.
Now that "Prime" is a collegiate head football coach, it appears greatness isn't far behind in that category, too.
In just his third season at a middling FCS program, Jackson State, Sanders has transformed the Tigers into a powerhouse. They upended Alcorn State by a 24-13 score on Saturday to complete a spotless 11-0 record, the first undefeated season in school history.
He turned things around quickly, thanks to a culture change and his ability to lure top players. The best of the best was the star of the show Saturday.
That would be Travis Hunter—the top-ranked overall player in the nation last year, per 247Sports—who everybody wanted. Despite nursing injuries throughout this year, Hunter is now healthy and was a difference-maker with a pick-six and a touchdown catch.
Sanders' son Shedeur has been a breakout star at quarterback for much of the season and did a good job again against Alcorn, but the big story here is just what they've been able to accomplish in such a short time.
As Deion Sanders' name continues to be thrown around for jobs like Texas A&M and Auburn, he blocks out the noise and does the job in the SWAC, away from the spotlight. But it's finding him anyway because wherever he goes, greatness is sure to follow.
Loser: Kansas Defenders Trying to Tackle the Nation's Top Back
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Several times this year, we've alternated "Texas may be back!" refrains to "What's wrong with the Longhorns?"
It's been that kind of season once again for second-year coach Steve Sarkisian's team, which has far too much talent to be as inconsistent as they are. Last week's offensive no-show in a national-ramifications game against TCU was a season-low vibe.
But with quarterback Quinn Ewers still scuffling and the Big 12 title game an unlikely uphill battle, the Longhorns do have one good thing going for them: They have the highest-upside running back in college football in Bijan Robinson.
Michigan's Blake Corum has the Heisman buzz, Illinois' Chase Brown is a powerhouse star in his own right and Alabama's Jahmyr Gibbs can do it all.
But Robinson is a different-caliber, all-around 'back. As if his immense talent isn't enough, the production is through the roof, too, and he continues to shoot up draft boards and should be the top overall runner taken in next year's draft.
He's a game-changer, and with game-breaking speed and a 6'0", 220-pound stature, he's big enough to be an every-down back and fast enough to run away from defenders. He did it all Saturday against Kansas in a 55-14 annihilation of the Jayhawks.
They had no answer for Texas' biggest offensive weapon, who finished with 243 yards on 25 carries and scored four times. The epic performance gave Robinson 1,401 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns on the year. It was dominance in HD, and Robinson's biggest highlights are coming as the season matures. He's positioning himself to be a first-round pick.
Loser: The 'Fire Kirk Ferentz' Crowd
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A month ago, the Iowa Hawkeyes couldn't find the end zone. Now, they may find themselves in the Big Ten championship game.
Just the way we drew it up, huh?
Of course, in a division with no good teams that have beaten each other up all year, anything can happen. There are still several scenarios that can play out, but with Illinois losing a heartbreaker to Michigan on Saturday and the Hawkeyes winning at Minnesota, coach Kirk Ferentz's team controls its own destiny.
They still have a putrid offense, but they got by with a last-second field goal to beat the Golden Gophers 13-10. Yes, Ferentz's son, Brian, still needs to be relieved of his duties as offensive coordinator, but that's a conversation for another day.
If the Hawkeyes make it to the conference championship game, it's a major bonus considering from October 1-22, they lost to Michigan, Illinois and Ohio State while scoring 30 total points.
Since then, though, the schedule has lightened up a little, but they've taken care of business against Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin and now Minnesota to surge back into the picture.
Somehow, a team 124th in scoring offense and 130th out of 131 teams in total offense entering Saturday is 7-4. They withstood a 263-yard rushing performance from Mohamed Ibrahim by forcing a couple of turnovers and found a way to win once again.
Kirk Ferentz seems to be pushing all the right buttons now, even in the face of criticism.
Winner: Oklahoma's Bedlam Barrage
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Throughout a large swath of the first part of the Big 12 schedule, Oklahoma's defense was in complete shambles, and the Sooners lost.
When quarterback Dillon Gabriel got hurt, the offense followed in futility. Then, even with Gabriel healthy last week, the Sooners couldn't muster any passing game in a humiliating road loss to West Virginia.
All of that in time for Bedlam.
So, of course, coach Brent Venables' team would pick the rivalry game at home to play its best, most complete game of the season in a total destruction of Oklahoma State, 28-13.
Behind Gabriel's arm and Eric Gray's running, the Sooners busted out to a 28-point lead to start the game and never looked back. It was a near-perfect first half for a team that desperately needed some positivity in such a disappointing season. That outburst was all the Sooners needed.
Once former coach Lincoln Riley left for USC, where he's made the Trojans an immediate contender in the Pac-12, things appeared to be falling apart in the offseason, but Venables was hired and stabilized things. Still, he has looked in over his head at times this season.
But there were no growing pains Saturday as OU became bowl-eligible and plucked back in-state bragging rights in a big way. Now, it's Mike Gundy's Cowboys who are spiraling further into a topsy-turvy end of the year.
Loser: Ole Miss, amid the Kiffin Rumors
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No matter where you were this week, if you follow college football, you heard Lane Kiffin's name mentioned with the Auburn coaching vacancy.
On Saturday night, the Rebels played like they had a lame duck at the helm. Did that have anything to do with an uninspired performance at Arkansas? Who knows? But it certainly didn't look good a week after all the rumors.
Much like Tennessee, the Rebels had plenty to play for and fell flat. This wasn't just a loss, either. It was a bludgeoning. This was the Razorbacks team we all expected to see before the injuries, the offensive ineptitude and the midseason frustration.
Last week, they nearly upset LSU at home. This week, they completed the job with a dismantling of an Ole Miss team that previously had just two losses in a 42-27 win.
Despite Ole Miss getting 200-plus yard performances from running backs Zach Evans and Quinshon Judkins, they were upstaged in a major way by Raheim "Rocket" Sanders, who lifted off for 232 rushing yards of his own and three touchdowns.
KJ Jefferson played like everybody thought he would until injuries sidelined him and derailed his season, throwing for three touchdowns of his own. The Rebels had no defensive answers throughout the game for anything the Hogs threw at them.
It was a one-sided win, and now everybody will wait and see whether Kiffin remains in Oxford or the whispers turn into reality and he heads somewhere else. Motivation and focus seemed to be an issue for the Rebels in a humiliating loss.
Winner: Tulane's Bounce-Back
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Tulane knows how to put a forgettable performance in the rearview mirror. In the process, the Green Wave ran roughshod over SMU in a rebound win Thursday night.
They were coming off a major disappointment in last week's 38-31 loss to Central Florida when they played probably their worst game of the season and were knocked from the driver's seat in the AAC.
Instead of turning to low tide, tough, the Green Wave responded with a complete annihilation of the Mustangs with a 59-24 win that's actually a lot worse than the final score indicates.
During the previous two games, coach Rhett Lashlee's Mustangs had gotten back on the winning track, averaging 59 points per game, 597.5 yards per game and 7.9 yards per play with zero turnovers.
Tulane flipped the script, allowing 24 points, 470 yards (a large swath of that late in garbage time) and forcing five turnovers. They were dominant on defense.
Quarterback Michael Pratt was an efficient 9-for-14 for 141 yards and three touchdowns while running for 70 yards and three more scores, running back Tyjae Spears added 126 yards from scrimmage and three total touchdowns. They were dominant on offense.
Finally, kick returner Lawrence Keys III had two kick returns for a 59-yard average. So, they were dominant on special teams, too.
The complete victory set up a huge matchup with Cincinnati next week with an AAC championship game appearance on the line.
Loser: UCF, thanks to Navy's Unheralded Superstar on Defense
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One of the most intriguing NFL draft prospects in the nation is going to be Navy senior striker John Marshall.
At 6'2", 209 pounds, the outside linebacker whose specialty is rushing the passer, is not exactly a prototypical pro prospect because of size. Is he a player without a position? Where exactly does he fit on the next level?
The answers aren't clear, but it's certain somebody should take a chance on him. The Maryland native and leader for a rugged, hard-nosed unit has been incredible all season, an All-American candidate who doesn't get enough love from the media.
After Saturday's big-time, Marshall-infused win over No. 20 UCF in the "Bounce House", maybe he will. Simply put, he was unstoppable against the Knights, terrorizing quarterbacks to the tune of 10 tackles, a school-record four sacks and a forced fumble.
Somehow, a Navy team that entered the game 3-7 and looked like no threat to coach Gus Malzahn's team, neutralized a UCF offense that had averaged 35 points per game and torched Tulane a week ago.
While the Knights can still make it to the AAC championship game, the chances of hosting it in Orlando took a huge blow, thanks to Marshall and Co. The linebacker now has 10.5 sacks on the season, also the most ever in one season by a Midshipmen player.
He's a special college football player whose name you need to know.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
