Ohio State's Season Is Over and 8 Overreactions After Week 9 of 2026 College Football Season

If pandemonium is what you seek, college football is the sport for you.

There were upsets. There were near-upsets. There were shocking losses. There were enormous moments that will have an impact on coaches' jobs, the College Football Playoff and beyond.

For the third consecutive week, the No. 2-ranked team lost. In many respects, that sums up the current nature of the sport: unpredictable, volatile, delightful.

It also makes the prospects of generating overreactions awfully easy. With plenty of material to work with, let's overreact to what we saw—which was plenty—once again.  

DJ Lagway Will Still Be a Football Star...for Someone

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DJ Lagway

To say it's been an up-and-down few seasons for the former 5-star quarterback would be an understatement.

He began his career at Florida and showed flashes of brilliance as a freshman. As a sophomore, he struggled mightily with turnovers and then decided to head to Baylor over the offseason, choosing the Bears over other higher profile programs.

This year, Lagway has produced more flashes. And on Friday night against UCF, all of the talent—the size, the mobility and the arm—was on display. The Bears clobbered the Knights 41-9, thanks in large part to his four-touchdown performance.

The fact that Lagway has played at multiple programs that have fired head coaches certainly hasn't aided his development. Still, at 6'3" and nearly 240 pounds, the QB has the build NFL teams are in constant search of.

And then there's the arm. No one in college football throws a better football, and that isn't up for debate. Whether he's playing for Baylor, an NFL team or another college football program in 2027, the ceiling is still enormous, and the best is yet to come. 

Ohio State's Season Is Over

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Jeremiah Smith

Sure, we're in the business of overreactions, but this one feels appropriate.

Playing its first game without starting quarterback Julian Sayin, Ohio State lost to USC 30-18, although it never felt that close.

Quarterback Luke Fahey posted decent numbers, throwing the ball 38 times, but the offense clearly wasn't the same despite gaining more than 460 yards.

The offensive line didn't help matters, and neither did the 11 penalties. We can look at QBs if we want, but this was largely a mess all around.

As for what it means, it's hard not to overreact. Sayin will be out for at least the regular season—and perhaps longer—which puts this team in a bind. The Buckeyes still have games against Oregon, Northwestern, Nebraska and Michigan, and it feels likely that an additional loss is still coming.

A third loss would all but take Ohio State out of playoff consideration. But even if they somehow make it through, the ceiling on this team feels clear. Whether that next loss comes in the regular season or beyond, it's coming soon enough.

The Heisman Race Just Became Wildly Interesting

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One of the many impacts of Ohio State's loss is the fact that wideout Jeremiah Smith is no longer the favorite to win the Heisman, according to FanDuel.

Smith has been the favorite for the better part of the season, and he still caught 10 passes for 83 yards and a touchdown in his team's defeat. Still, it's clear the passing offense will likely be limited without Sayin, and that changes the entire outlook of the sport's most prestigious award.

As such, suddenly things seem incredibly wide open. Clarity, however, is coming.

Miami quarterback Darian Mensah is now the favorite, and his favorite target, wide receiver Malachi Toney, isn't far behind. Right behind him are Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr and Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.

As for that clarity, look no further than Week 10. Notre Dame will play Miami, and the winner of that game, depending on how things shake out, will impact this race in a major way.

Elsewhere, Ole Miss will take on Georgia in primetime, providing Chambliss with a gigantic spotlight to play his way back into the discussion.

Where will the Heisman moments come from? We shall see. But with a seismic lineup of games on deck, a shakeup is coming soon enough.

Georgia Is the Best Team in College Football...For Now

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A few weeks later, and it's hard to piece together how exactly this team lost to Auburn.

Regardless, Georgia looked like Georgia while playing Florida on Saturday, suffocating the Gators in all areas. The Bulldogs beat the Gators 27-8, rushing for more than 200 yards while forcing four turnovers on defense.

It was a complete effort, and it was needed after the team lost as a massive favorite a few weeks ago. It was also a critical performance given the timing. Georgia plays two of its next three games on the road—at Ole Miss and at South Carolina. In between, the Bulldogs take on a very capable Missouri squad.

While there are more explosive offenses around the country, Georgia has all the pieces.

At quarterback, Gunner Stockton, who wasn't asked to do much on Saturday, is still dependable. On defense, the Bulldogs have future NFL players at every level and a sensational talent in Chris Cole.

Then there's Kirby Smart, who knows how to navigate the ups and downs of a college football season.

The next two weeks will tell us plenty, although we're penciling in Georgia as college football's best team and not thinking twice.

College Football Kickers Have Changed the Sport

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There was a time when kicking across college football was unreliable. You remember those days: Even extra points were an adventure, and 35-yard field goals felt like coin flips.

Things are different now.

In the final 19 seconds of Indiana's game against Minnesota—a game that was far closer than anyone expected—we saw two 60-yard field goals. That's not a typo.

Minnesota's Luke Drzewiecki was the first to hit a 60-yarder, which gave the Gophers a 16-13 lead. Paddy McAteer then responded with a 60-yard field goal of his own for Indiana, which sent the game into overtime.

The Hoosiers ultimately won the game 23-16 in extra time, prevailing once again in ugly fashion.

As for the kicking, it's hard to find the words. To witness two 60-yard field goals with massive implications in a single game shows how different things are.

By no means is it perfect. We still see plenty of wayward kicks every now and then. But kicking across the sport has improved dramatically in the past five years, and we just witnessed how it is changing the way these games are decided.

Nebraska Is Cursed

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"Bad" feels a tad too harsh and "inconsistent" seems to miss the mark. 

Instead, we're declaring the Nebraska football program cursed, because it's hard to describe what we're seeing at this point.

With Nebraska leading 7–3, Washington faced fourth-and-18 with less than two minutes remaining. A stop would have all but ended the game, but the Cornhuskers allowed a 24-yard completion and a 25-yard touchdown two plays later.

The next drive, Anthony Colandrea threw an interception, which Washington returned for a touchdown. Just like that, Nebraska lost 17-10 at home, despite being more than a touchdown favorite.

Matt Rhule's team has now lost its last three games by a combined 13 points. And if that sounds familiar, that's because it is.

Since 2014, Nebraska has lost 51 one-score games, which is 12 more than any team in college football. It doesn't matter who the coach or the quarterback is; the theme has stayed consistent for more than a decade.

Bad? Probably. 

Inconsistent? Without a doubt. 

Cursed? Absolutely.

Utah Is the Sleeping Giant

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There's a reason we haven't talked about the Utes much this season. The strength of schedule early on was, well, lackluster.

Over the past few weeks, however, the Utes have showcased incredible balance. Utah's defense dominated in Week 8, and its offense blew the doors off Cincinnati in Week 9.

Yes, it was Cincinnati. But Utah clobbered the Bearcats 49-25, racking up 536 yards of offense along the way.

Quarterback Devon Dampier was electric, throwing for three touchdowns. Given how talented he is as a runner, it was refreshing to see the team's passing offense rule the day.

As the Big 12 has seen its top teams suffer loss after loss, Utah hasn't budged. Still unbeaten, the Utes will play rival BYU in Utah's biggest game of the season. A week later, this group will travel to Arizona, which won't be easy.

While there is still a lot to be decided, there's also a lot to like. Utah has played its way into the playoff conversation, and the team has all the major pieces to be a problem against every opponent moving forward.

Next up, BYU.

The College Football Playoff Rankings Mean Nothing Until the Very End

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Maybe this is more of a rant than an overreaction, but we're letting it fly regardless.

On Tuesday night, the first College Football Playoff Rankings will be revealed. It will be the first of five Tuesdays before the field is finalized the day after most conference championship games are played.

As a reminder, this is all in good fun. It's a way to draw attention to the postseason, which will be decided next month. It's a way to engage—and enrage—fan bases throughout college football's home stretch.

It's also, if we're being honest, pretty meaningless.

With a massive Week 10 on the horizon, the rankings that will be revealed on Tuesday will be torn to pieces only four days later. It doesn't matter how those games go; change is coming regardless.

That's not to say you shouldn't watch. The show, if nothing else, is wildly entertaining. Seeing the way the committee thinks about college football—especially in the midst of such a wild season—will be revealing.

This show was constructed to generate conversation, and it will do just that.

But the first Top 25 won't tell us anything at all. Thankfully, we have so much meaningful football still to play. The only constant over the next month will be change.