Four weeks in, there’s no real favorite to win it all or take home the Heisman. Here’s what we think we know.
In Friday’s Week 4 preview I wrote that Saturday would basically close the book on the first act of the 2025 college football season. That’s basically what happened.
Some wobbly teams lost further ground and nearly eliminated themselves from playoff contention. Others seemed to right themselves with playoff hopes intact. Upstarts made statements — Indiana humiliated Illinois, Texas Tech won a Utah-as-hell game over Utah, Ole Miss once again hinted at spectacular upside and hierarchies were altered.
Next Saturday, we begin Act II with a loaded week and a pair of epic evening headliners — Oregon at Penn State and Alabama at Georgia. But before we dive into that, let’s take a look at what actually changed over the first four weeks of the season. Which races have been completely scrambled? Which haven’t really been altered all that much? And who in the world is going to step up in the Heisman race?
One of the stories of the offseason was that it felt like the top of the sport was a bit more decentralized, that the best teams maybe weren’t quite as dominant and more teams had semi-legitimate national title shots.
As it turns out, we were underselling it. In the preseason, the Allstate Playoff Predictor gave Texas a 24.7% chance at the title, with four teams over 10% and 17 teams over 1%. Four weeks later, no one is over 12.5%, and 20 teams are at 1% or higher. Eight teams are within three points of No. 1 in FPI, and while Oregon has separated itself a bit in SP+, teams No. 2 through 14 are separated by less than a touchdown. Maybe the Ducks are indeed the best the sport has to offer this season; it’s hard to argue with a combined four-game scoreline of 203-37 (though Indiana’s 219-33 scoreline is even more garish). But it feels like we know even less about the top of the sport now than we did four weeks ago, and that’s an incredible feeling.
Largest increase in national title odds since the preseason:
• Oregon +8.4% (to 12.3%)
• Indiana +7.3% (to 7.5%)
• Ole Miss +6.4% (to 8.5%)
• USC +4.7% (to 5.8%)
• Miami +3.3% (to 4.7%)
Hello there, Indiana. We live in a world in which Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers have better title odds than Alabama, Texas or Penn State. That’s how good they’ve looked this year, and that’s the level of statement they made in Saturday night’s 63-10 humiliation of Illinois.
It started in the trenches. The Indiana running back trio of Roman Hemby, Khobie Martin and Kaelon Black combined for 36 carries, 261 yards and 3 touchdowns, and the Hoosiers defense sacked Illinois’ Luke Altmyer seven times while limiting Illini RBs to 2.6 yards per carry. Illinois’ Collin Dixon sprang open for a 59-yard touchdown early in the game, but otherwise the visitors averaged 2.3 yards per play. I mentioned in my Friday preview that it was pretty confusing that Illinois was ranked 10 spots ahead of Indiana heading into the game. The Hoosiers evidently thought that was a little strange as well and did something about it.
Largest decrease in national title odds since the preseason:
• Texas -18.1% (to 6.6%)
• Penn State -5.7% (to 3.1%)
• Notre Dame -4.8% (to 0.3%)
• Alabama -3.6% (to 7.2%)
• South Carolina -2.4% (to 0.0%)
These teams landed on this list in five different ways. Texas lost to Ohio State and has watched its offense stutter and stumble all season. The Horns potentially took a solid step forward in Saturday’s 55-0 blowout of hapless Sam Houston, but they’re still only 44th in SP+, and a lot of margin for error has seeped away.
Penn State remains unbeaten but has seen its odds dinged both by a series of merely good performances against poor competition and the relative rise of upcoming opponents Oregon, Indiana and Ohio State. The road looks a little rockier.
Notre Dame lost two huge games to start the season, and while the computers still like the Irish reasonably well, they’ll have to win out and hope to get a decent strength-of-schedule boost along the way.
Alabama laid the biggest egg of Week 1 and saw its rating fall accordingly (before rebounding a bit in Weeks 2 and 3). And now six of their next seven games are against ranked opponents. That’s great for resume-building, but it’s not great for maintaining a playoff-worthy record.
South Carolina’s offense started the year in neutral, and when the Gamecocks finally got going a bit Saturday, their defense dropped the ball. They averaged 5.9 yards per play against a good Missouri defense but allowed 6.1 and fell to the Tigers 29-20. They’re now 0-2 in the SEC and 2-2 overall.
A new week, a new low. Saturday’s 34-21 home loss to Syracuse left Clemson coach Dabo Swinney without all of his typical defiance and defense mechanisms. The Tigers outgained the Orange by 70 yards with a far better success rate (48% to 36%), but big plays, a minus-2 turnover margin and an early surprise onside kick from Syracuse did them in. All of Clemson’s old bad habits (a lack of big plays, a defense less effective than the sum of its parts) have reemerged, and their typical saving graces (an efficient ground game, a masterful middle eight) haven’t saved them.
The Tigers are 1-3 for the first time since 2004. They’ve fallen behind 16-0, 13-0 and 24-7 in their past three games, and while they battled back (at least somewhat) each time, they’re giving themselves too much of a burden to overcome. They’re also 0-2 in ACC play, meaning that even if they turn it on and win out, they’ll still need some help getting to the conference title game.
This has rather predictably redefined the ACC title race. So has SMU’s 2-2 start, even though both of the Mustangs’ losses were out of conference.
ACC preseason title odds per SP+: Clemson 18.8%, Miami 13.4%, SMU 10.4%, Louisville 8.7%, Florida State 5.8%, Virginia Tech 5.5%, NC State 5.0%
Current ACC title odds per SP+: Miami 26.3%, Georgia Tech 14.2%, Louisville 13.6%, Florida State 10.5%, Virginia 6.8%, Pitt 6.5%, SMU 5.5%, Syracuse 4.8%
Perhaps as you would have guessed, Miami now leads the way, and Louisville is rising, but Georgia Tech and Florida State have gone from also-rans to each having at least a 1-in-10 title chance. Miami knows as well as any team that the race is just beginning — the Hurricanes sure looked like favorites during a 9-0 start last season, too, especially during the first four games before their defense began to wobble. That they missed the title game altogether and lost three of their last four is a pretty clear reminder of how much work remains.
Still, they’ve done all they can through four games, especially on defense. They’ve allowed only one of four opponents to top five yards per play, and in Saturday evening’s methodical 26-7 shellacking of Florida, they hinted at having a lot of different ways to win a ballgame in 2025. They allowed just 4.7 yards per play with seven tackles for loss and eight three-and-outs. Against a dynamite Florida defense, Carson Beck threw for just 160 yards with a pick and a sack, but the duo of Mark Fletcher Jr. and Char’Mar Brown combined for 42 carries, 196 yards and 3 TDs. They had to get really physical to win, and they did so.
Other possible ACC contenders also looked the part this weekend. Florida State and Louisville beat overwhelmed MAC opponents by a combined 106-27, and unbeaten Georgia Tech handled a semi-spicy Temple team with relative ease. We’ll see who best takes advantage of Clemson’s early collapse (and who avoids a late-season collapse themselves).
It’s been a mixed bag for the teams atop this offseason’s returning production rankings. Clemson (No. 1 in returning production) has bombed, Arizona State (No. 2) started the season in second gear again, Illinois (No. 4) looked fine before getting crushed Saturday, and teams like Kennesaw State (No. 5), Rutgers (No. 8) and Baylor (No. 9) haven’t started this season any better than where they finished up.
Others, however, are still defending the honor of continuity. Oklahoma (No. 10) and Texas A&M (No. 7) are unbeaten, Texas Tech (No. 6) looks spectacular, and holy smokes, break up the Vanderbilt Commodores (No. 3)!
Clark Lea’s team is on a revenge tour at the moment. The Commodores pummeled South Carolina by a 31-7 margin last week (a 45-point reversal), and on Saturday against a Georgia State team that upset them 36-32 last September, they were ruthless, charging to a 42-9 halftime advantage and leading by as much as 55 in a 70-21 win. That’s a 53-point reversal. They’re now up to 16th in SP+ — the only time they’ve finished higher than that in the last 50 years: 2014 (14th) — and they have a 16% chance of finishing 10-2 or better, which is the approximate bar for getting into the CFP as an SEC team.
Some schedule strength differences aside, they’ve basically traded places with Florida.
Preseason SP+: Florida 16th (6.8 avg. wins, 5.3% chance of winning the SEC), Vanderbilt 54th (5.0 wins, 1.0% chance)
Week 5 SP+: Vanderbilt 16th (8.3 avg. wins, 5.6% chance of winning the SEC), Florida 40th (3.3 wins, 0.8% chance)
Up is down, left is right, and Vandy’s Florida now.
Meanwhile, back in the ACC, two rivals have traded places too.
Preseason SP+: Virginia Tech 42nd (7.0 avg. wins), Virginia 74th (5.4)
Week 5 SP+: Virginia 42nd (8.2 avg. wins), Virginia Tech 82nd (2.9)
Tech quickly fired Brent Pry after a dire 0-3 start — interim head coach Philip Montgomery led the Hokies to a 38-6 win over Wofford on Saturday — which made it pretty easy to forget that UVA’s Tony Elliott began the season with a seat even warmer than Pry’s. He loaded up with more than 30 transfers as an attempt to turn the tide, and damned if it hasn’t worked. Newcomers like quarterback Chandler Morris (North Texas), running backs J’Mari Taylor (NC Central) and Harrison Waylee (Wyoming), receiver Cam Ross (James Madison) and defensive ends Mitchell Melton (Ohio State) and Daniel Rickert (Tennessee Tech) have made an immediate impact.
After Saturday’s 48-20 thumping of Stanford, the Cavaliers are 3-1 with three wins by at least 27 points. They have a 14% chance of getting to 10-2 or better, and they’re now firmly in the « dark horse ACC contenders » group. Virginia! Contender! Granted, the thing about throwing a transfer Hail Mary is, once you’ve done it, you have to keep doing it every year. But for now, Elliott has transformed the Hoos’ trajectory.
With the new most famous booster in the sport, Texas Tech didn’t load up with pure quantity in the transfer portal like Virginia did. But the Red Raiders got some of the biggest names in the portal in an attempt to transform themselves into Big 12 contenders. And my goodness, has it worked early on.
Tech overwhelmed three outmanned opponents by a combined 174-35 to start the season, but Saturday’s performance in Salt Lake City was a statement of a different kind. Against a Utah Utes team that has won plenty of battles of attrition over the years, the Red Raiders let the Utes define the terms of the game — lots of punts, lots of field position maneuvering, lots of popping pads, even an injured quarterback (not exactly uncommon in Utah games) — and blew them out all the same.
The Red Raiders lost quarterback Behren Morton to injury midway through the game, and backup Will Hammond came in and went 13-for-16 for 169 yards, with two touchdowns and a 32-yard run. They made Utah quarterback Devon Dampier’s fundamentals disintegrate over time, and he finished with two interceptions and 3.9 yards per dropback. Their expensive new defensive front dominated Utah’s extremely well-regarded offensive line for most of 60 minutes.
New coordinator Shiel Wood — an acquisition as important as any that came from the transfer portal — has done an incredible job with an incredibly new unit. Of the 12 Red Raiders with at least eight tackles thus far, eight are transfers, including edge rushers Romello Height (Georgia Tech) and David Bailey (Stanford) and safety Cole Wisniewski (North Dakota State). Tech ranks 11th in points allowed per drive and ninth in yards allowed per play. They’ve finished in the defensive SP+ top 20 only once in 27 years, but they’re currently 22nd and rising.
The performance against Utah was a display of force we’re not used to seeing from this team. And it made the Red Raiders the new favorite in the Big 12 race.
Big 12 preseason title odds per SP+: Kansas State 14.4%, Utah 9.1%, Arizona State 8.8%, TCU 8.5%, BYU 6.4%, Baylor 6.0%, Colorado 5.0%
Current Big 12 title odds per SP+: Texas Tech 28.6% (up 20.7% from the preseason), Iowa State 9.4% (up 2.1%), Kansas 9.1% (up 4.7%), TCU 9.0% (up 0.5%), BYU 8.8% (up 2.4%), Arizona State 7.1% (down 1.7%), Utah 6.0% (down 3.1%), Arizona 5.2% (up 2.0%), Houston 4.9% (up 0.7%)
We can’t say that Tech is an overwhelming favorite by any means — a 29% title shot still means a 71% chance of not winning the title, after all, and TCU, BYU, Iowa State and Kansas have all shown hints of major upside. But Tech’s general approach in the new NIL world is to basically spend like a champion until you become one. And their odds of winning their first outright conference title in 70 years have more than tripled since August. That’s called return on investment right there.
We’re going to Dyer’s Burgers! We’re getting a Diver at Silky O’Sullivan’s! We’re grabbing some Germantown Commissary BBQ on the way out of town! Memphis is now the Group of 5 team with the best odds of reaching the CFP!
As with Miami, of course, we’ve been here before. Ryan Silverfield’s Tigers began last season 3-0 with what felt like a massively important win over Florida State at the time, but a track-meet loss at Navy knocked them down a peg, and an early November loss at UTSA finished off their chances. Still, with Boise State getting its doors blown off by USF in Week 1, and USF (against Miami) and Tulane (against Ole Miss) doing the same in recent weeks, Memphis’ comeback win over Arkansas put the unbeaten Tigers back in prime position.
The Tigers showed some spectacular resilience against the Hogs. They allowed a wide-open 62-yard touchdown pass to Rohan Jones on the third play of the game, then fell behind 28-10 late in the first half. But they outscored Arkansas 22-3 from there, got a 64-yard touchdown run from Sutton Smith with 4:51 left, recovered a shocking Mike Washington Jr. fumble at their 7 with 1:18 remaining, then iced the game with a muscular third-down run by backup quarterback Arrington Maiden.
Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Memphis Tigers: Full Highlights
This was a big one, both because of the obvious résumé-building effects of beating an SEC team — albeit one that seems to somehow blow games like this every week — and the fact that it basically bought them a mulligan. At this point, only two G5 teams have a greater than 16% chance of finishing the regular season 11-1 or better, per SP+, but Memphis is over 60%.
Odds of finishing the regular season 11-1 or better (Group of 5 teams)
• Memphis 60.6%
• North Texas 37.3%
• James Madison 15.7%
• UNLV 12.9%
• Fresno State 7.2%
• Navy 5.9%
• Texas State 5.2%
• Louisiana Tech 3.5%
• Boise State 2.2%
This is yet another race that is just beginning – among other things, the Tigers must still face fellow American Conference contenders USF, Tulane and Navy (albeit all at home), then maybe face the No. 2 team on the above list, a smoking hot North Texas team that just knocked off defending American champ Army at West Point.
Still, this race felt like Boise State vs. the field heading into Week 1, but after USF and Tulane both stumbled, Memphis enters Week 5 at the front of the line.
It appears the Heisman race is every bit as blurry as the national title race.
Each week I include a « Who won the Heisman this week? » section near the end of this column, in which I dole out weekly points, F1-style (in this case, 10 points for first place, 9 for second, and so on). Last year at this time, Miami’s Cam Ward and Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty had already asserted themselves in the top two spots, with eventual winner Travis Hunter not far behind. Two years ago, Michael Penix Jr. and Caleb Williams led the way after four weeks. (LSU’s Jayden Daniels would soon take over.) The stars usually don’t take long to emerge from the pack.
This year, after four weeks, your points leaders are . two quarterbacks who have gone a combined 4-3. The guy in fourth place is a backup. We knew this could be a funky season with so few top teams boasting proven quarterbacks, but safe to say, we head into late September knowing very little about how this race will play out.
Before we get to the point totals, here’s this week’s Heisman top 10:
1. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana (21-of-23 passing for 267 yards and five touchdowns, plus 18 non-sack rushing yards against Illinois).
2. Demond Williams Jr., Washington (16-of-19 passing for 298 yards and four touchdowns, plus 111 non-sack rushing yards and a TD against Washington State).
3. Eric McAlister, TCU (8 catches for 254 yards and 3 touchdowns against SMU).
4. Dylan Riley, Boise State (19 carries for 171 yards and four touchdowns, plus 84 receiving yards and a TD against Air Force).
5. Chandler Morris, Virginia (23-of-31 passing for 380 yards and four touchdowns, plus 23 non-sack rushing yards and a TD against Stanford).
6. Jayden Maiava, USC (20-of-26 passing for 234 yards and three touchdowns, plus 31 rushing yards and two TDs against Michigan State).
7. Robert Henry Jr., UTSA (21 carries for 144 yards and a touchdown, plus 76 receiving yards and a TD against Colorado State).
8. Mac Harris, USF (10 tackles, 2.5 TFLs, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble and a 93-yard pick-six against SC State).
9. Waymond Jordan, USC (18 carries for 157 yards, plus 25 receiving yards against Michigan State).
10. Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss (17-of-27 passing for 307 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 113 non-sack rushing yards and a TD against Tulane).
In his past two games, Fernando Mendoza has thrown nine touchdown passes to three incompletions. He’s gotten help from a relentless run game — four games, four 300-yard rushing totals — but I had to reward him for his near-perfection. Meanwhile, Demond Williams Jr. was nearly perfect in the Apple Cup, and current (Dylan Riley) and former (Eric McAlister) Boise State stars combined for 509 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns.
Honorable mention:
• Nnanna Anyanwu, UTSA (5 tackles, 4 TFLs, 3 sacks and a pass breakup against Colorado State).
• Cam Edwards, UConn (24 carries for 194 yards and 2 touchdowns against Ball State).
• Josh Hoover, TCU (22-of-40 passing for 379 yards, 5 TDs and an INT, plus 35 non-sack rushing yards against SMU).
• Jayden Jackson, Oklahoma (five tackles and 2.5 sacks against Auburn).
• Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt (18-of-24 passing for 245 yards and a touchdown, plus 86 non-sack rushing yards and a TD against Georgia State).
• Jadarian Price, Notre Dame (9 carries for 74 yards and three touchdowns, plus a 98-yard kick return score against Purdue).
• Kaidon Salter, Colorado (18-of-28 passing for 304 yards and three touchdowns, plus 100 non-sack rushing yards and a TD against Wyoming).
• Kenny Tracy, Miami-Ohio (16 carries for 104 yards, plus 84 receiving yards and two touchdowns against UNLV).
Through four weeks, here are your points leaders:
1T. Taylen Green, Arkansas; Ty Simpson, Alabama (15 points)
3. Jayden Maiava, USC (12 points)
4. Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss (11 points)
5T. Jonah Coleman, Washington; Fernando Mendoza, Indiana; Sawyer Robertson, Baylor (10 points)
8T. Rocco Becht, Iowa State; Gunner Stockton, Georgia; Vicari Swain, South Carolina; Demond Williams Jr., Washington (9 points)
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This race remains an absolute mystery. Oklahoma’s John Mateer is the betting favorite, and after a dire 8-for-19 start against Auburn, he completed 16 of his final 17 passes to lead a fourth-quarter comeback. He can score some style points with his legs, too. But he’s 36th in Total QBR, and OU’s defense has been by far the bigger driver in the Sooners’ 4-0 start.
Mateer has yet to show up in one of these weekly top-10 lists. Meanwhile, five guys have made the list twice, and I wouldn’t have predicted a single one of them: Simpson, Green, Maiava, Chambliss and Robert Henry Jr.
Honestly, I’d probably give the September Heisman to Maiava at this point. He’s No. 1 in Total QBR, he’s averaging a jaw-dropping 13.4 yards per dropback — only Florida State’s Tommy Castellanos can top him there, and Castellanos attempts far fewer passes — and USC’s offense has been absolutely dynamite during a 4-0 start.
I’d point out that Maiava is only the No. 11 betting favorite at the moment (+2200) and there might be some value there, but September Heismans don’t have the best track record of winning the actual Heisman, do they? I’ll do him a favor and award no September Heisman instead.
The SP+ rankings have been updated for the week. Let’s take a look at the teams that saw the biggest change in their overall ratings.
Moving up
Here are the five teams that saw their ratings rise the most this week:
• Missouri State (up 6.9 adjusted points per game, ranking rose from 129th to 122nd)
• Delaware (up 6.5 points, ranking rose from 118th to 93rd)
• Vanderbilt (up 5.8 points, ranking rose from 28th to 16th)
• Utah State (up 5.8 points, ranking rose from 99th to 80th)
• Mississippi State (up 5.1 points, ranking rose from 47th to 29th)
With respect to the two rising FBS newcomers (Missouri State and Delaware) and a delightful Utah State team that has lost only to Texas A&M, we’re going to focus on the other two teams here. Vanderbilt is on a revenge tour at the moment, as mentioned above, and Mississippi State is one of eight teams to have overachieved against SP+ projections in every game this season. (The others: Arizona, Bowling Green, Florida State, Houston, Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State and Old Dominion.) The Bulldogs are 4-0 for the first since 2014, and after collapsing to 88th in SP+ last season, they’ve jumped back into the top 30. They remain under the radar in a loaded SEC, but upcoming games against Tennessee, Texas A&M, Florida and Texas will give them massive opportunities to prove themselves.
Moving down
Here are the five teams whose ratings fell the most:
• South Alabama (down 8.2 adjusted points per game, ranking fell from 78th to 110th)
• California (down 7.4 points, ranking fell from 54th to 72nd)
• West Virginia (down 7.2 points, ranking fell from 55th to 75th)
• Tulane (down 6.8 points, ranking fell from 49th to 66th)
• Illinois (down 5.6 points, ranking fell from 18th to 36th)
There were quite a few disappointing performances in Week 4, and these five teams certainly all did their share in that regard. But the two biggest eggs of the week, to me, were laid by Illinois and Cal. Illinois was a slight projected underdog against Indiana, and Cal was a nearly 10-point favorite against San Diego State. They lost by a combined 97-10.
1. Memphis 32, Arkansas 31.
2. UNLV 41, Miami (Ohio) 38.
3. North Texas 45, Army 38 (OT).
We’ll bunch the three of these together since, in about a 10-minute span early Saturday afternoon, all three featured catastrophic lost fumbles. The college football was almost too college football-like. At this point, Arkansas is going to have its own « devastating late turnovers » section in my year-end Top 100 Games of the Season list. For the second straight week, the Razorbacks were driving for the potential winning points when they lost a fumble. This one, from poor Mike Washington Jr., allowed Memphis to run the clock out after a game with three long touchdowns and an 18-point Memphis comeback.
Oof, Hogs
Meanwhile, UNLV somehow remained unbeaten despite trailing by 14 on three separate occasions and leading for just 15 seconds. As Miami’s Kenny Tracy was charging inside the UNLV 20 to set up the potential game-winning field goal, he lost the ball. UNLV recovered and drove 78 yards in 2:17 to set up Ramon Villela’s 23-yarder for the win.
At West Point, Army also unleashed a fierce comeback after trailing 21-0 in the first quarter and 38-28 with less than three minutes left. Makenzie McGill II fumbled as UNT was trying to run out the clock, and Army sent the game to OT with a Dawson Jones field goal. But the Mean Green prevailed with a Caleb Hawkins touchdown and a stop in OT.
4. FCS: Campbell 50, Bryant 48 (2OT). FCS gave us quite a bit of overtime nonsense Saturday. In search of its first win of the season, Campbell tied the game with 2:58 left on a 77-yard Kamden Sixkiller-to-Randall King touchdown, then took the lead on another Sixkiller-to-King strike 103 seconds later. Bryant struck back with a 35-yard Aldrich Doe touchdown catch with six seconds left but played for OT instead of going for two points and the win. And in the second OT, they failed on a 2-pointer and Campbell survived.
5. FCS: No. 4 Illinois State 38, North Alabama 36 (2OT). A comfortable home favorite, ISU bolted to a 17-0 lead just six minutes in and led by 10 heading into the fourth quarter, but Ari Patu’s 25-yard touchdown strike to KJ Fields with 33 seconds left sent the game to overtime. In the second OT, Daniel Sobkowicz caught his second touchdown pass and scored the 2-point conversion, and ISU’s defense stopped UNA’s 2-pointer to salvage the win.
6. No. 11 Oklahoma 24, No. 22 Auburn 17. Killer environment? Check. Wild number of sacks? Check. OU took former Sooner Jackson Arnold down 10 times but still trailed with five minutes left until John Mateer’s short touchdown run and a safety-sack sealed the deal.
7. Arizona State 27, Baylor 24. Neither team led by more than seven in this one — Jordyn Tyson’s 19-yard touchdown gave ASU a 24-17 lead with 5:29 left, but Baylor quickly struck back with a 33-yard score from Michael Trigg. A pair of third-down penalties helped ASU inch down the field on its final drive, however, and Jesus Gomez knocked in a 43-yard FG at the buzzer.
8. Troy 21, Buffalo 17. This one seemed pretty straight-forward for the home team: Buffalo took a 17-0 lead early in the fourth quarter. But Troy scored on drives of 75, 66 and 50 yards, and Tae Meadows’ 20-yard touchdown with 45 seconds left sealed a stunning comeback win.
9. Division II: New Mexico Highlands 48, South Dakota Mines 42 (OT). Do you like track meets and wild comebacks? In front of 3,152 in Las Vegas, New Mexico, these teams combined for 1,063 yards and five TDs of 40-plus yards. That includes a 96-yard fumble return for Mines and a 99-yard score on the ensuing kickoff. S.D. Mines scored three times in the final 13 minutes to erase a 42-21 deficit and force overtime, but the Hardrockers (Hardrockers!) were stuffed on fourth-and-goal in OT, and Tevita Valeti’s 1-yard touchdown sealed a wild Cowboys win.
10. Division III: Coast Guard 92, Nichols 60. OK, but do you like track meets?? In front of 3,054 in New London, Connecticut, Coast Guard scored 64 points in the first half but kept having to score to assure an easy win in a game that featured nine touchdowns of at least 38 yards and 1,412 total yards. My goodness!
Honorable mention:
• D-III: Calvin 40, Heidelberg 37 (OT)
• Eastern Michigan 34, Louisiana 31
• No. 21 Michigan 30, Nebraska 27
• NAIA: Peru State 64, Central Methodist 43
• FCS: San Diego 42, Princeton 35
• San José State 31, Idaho 28
• UConn 31, Ball State 25
• FCS: No. 24 Youngstown State 31, Towson 28
Oh, and if you were curious about the Ferris State-Rio Grande game mentioned in Friday’s preview column, in which Ferris State was a projected 97.2-point favorite per SP+, the Bulldogs led 35-0 after 16 minutes before Tony Annese seemed to call off his dogs a bit. It finished a mere 76-0, and the only reason it probably even got that bad was that the Dawgs scored on a kick return, fumble return, interception return and missed field goal return.