Welcome to Week 14, everybody! Or, as most people actually call it, Rivalry Week.
All of college football’s biggest rivalries go down (or, at least, most of the sport’s biggest rivalries) go down this week, and there was no shortage of chaotic entertainment this week. In the midst of the NFL, NBA, and college basketball seasons, college football reminds us that it is still the most entertaining sport on the planet. Week 14 featured gutsy wins, back-and-forth seesaw battles, and a game that went to eight overtimes. Seriously, I’m not making that up. I probably couldn’t if I wanted to. And similar to last week, there will be some sections of this article that are titled something along the lines of “[insert team] has clinched a spot in the College Football Playoff”. Because that’s what happened this past weekend.
But they say save the best for last, so that’s what I’m gonna do. Anyway, let’s jump into some takeaways!
Penn State has officially clinched a spot in the College Football Playoff
Before all you guys flood my DMs screaming, “Thanks, Captain Obvious!”, I am aware that this was, in fact, relatively obvious before the Nittany Lions took on Maryland at home this past Saturday. Bear with me here.
On paper, there was a chance that this game could have been interesting, you know, with a possible trap game for Penn State and all. But the exact opposite happened in this one. The Nittany Lions absolutely cruised to a 44-7 win over the Terrapins. Drew Allar’s stats didn’t jump off the page in this one but they didn’t really need to. Allar completed 17 of his 26 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown. The real story of this one was Penn State’s ground game, as it has been for much of the season. Nicholas Singleton ran for 87 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries.
The defense was also very impressive in this game, because after a Penn State fumble on the first possession of the game led to a Maryland touchdown that put the Terrapins up 7-0, there were exactly zero points given up by the Nittany Lions’ defense for the rest of the game. Simply put, Maryland was largely unequipped and hopeless to stop Penn State’s rushing attack, and the defense made life a living hell for quarterback MJ Morris, as he ended up throwing three interceptions.
And now Penn State finds themselves at 11-1, and they have not only officially clinched a spot in the Big Ten Championship against Oregon this upcoming weekend, but at this point, it would be almost impossible to see the CFP committee keeping them out of the dance in a couple of weeks.
Indiana ended its regular season as well as anyone could have hoped
Literally.
It’s near impossible to find anything that didn’t go right for the Hoosiers in their 66-0 (!!) obliteration of in-state rival Purdue this past Saturday. It took maybe about half a quarter for Indiana to fully get going, but once they did, they pounded the hapless Boilermakers and didn’t look back.
Kurtis Rourke had a record-setting performance in front of the home crowd at a snowy Memorial Stadium, as he completed 23 of his 31 passes for 349 yards and an absolutely absurd six touchdown passes. He torched the Purdue secondary through the air and quite literally did whatever he wanted throughout the game. And the running game wasn’t too bad either, as Justice Ellison added 63 rushing yards and a score. And Ty Son Lawton got in on the action too, as he ran for 47 yards and a touchdown.
There isn’t a whole lot for Indiana to do but wait for the College Football Playoff selection show, as that will decide their CFP fate and it will more than likely determine which seed they will be awarded. Their 11-1 season should be more than enough to keep them in the dance, and a handful of other contenders losing this past Saturday definitely helped them out.
But in the meantime, the Hoosiers couldn’t exactly ask for much more than beating the brakes off your biggest rival to cap off a magical regular season.
Texas’ win over Texas A&M put the cherry on top of their excellent regular season
The Texas Longhorns have had another excellent year all things considered, and even though some questions hung around throughout the season in regards to this team, there is absolutely no denying that this victory over Texas A&M felt really good for the ‘Horns.
Texas’ offense was once again rather sluggish, as has been a recurring issue over the past month or so, but the Texas A&M offense was held in check thanks to a strong defensive performance from the Longhorns. Quinn Ewers was just okay for Texas, as he completed 17 of his 28 passes for 218 yards, a touchdown, and an interception, and there were points during the game where he looked like he was still shaking off some lingering effects from his ankle injury.
However, the Texas offense got an absolutely massive boost from running back Quintrevion Wisner. He was incredible against the Aggies’ defense all night long, as he carried the ball a whopping 33 times to the tune of 186 yards. Even though he was ultimately unable to find the end zone, he continually sucked the soul out of Texas A&M’s defense throughout the game.
The Longhorns’ defense only gave up seven points all game long, and that was courtesy of a pick-six by Ewers. But other than that, it was a dominant performance from Texas’ defensive unit, as they made Marcel Reed uncomfortable all night and forced him into an interception and a lost fumble.
Miami’s College Football Playoff fate hangs in the balance
The Hurricanes just made things a lot harder on themselves after this Saturday.
Coming into this week, Miami seemed to have a spot in the College Football Playoff locked up. They were facing Syracuse at the Carrier Dome and looking to wrap up an excellent regular season highlighted by a Heisman contender at quarterback. The ‘Canes surely thought that a good-but-not-great Syracuse team wasn’t going to be much of a challenge.
Well, the Orange didn’t get that memo.
Syracuse eventually outlasted Miami in a wild back-and-forth game (see what I was talking about with the seesaw thing in the intro?) that was one of the best of the weekend. The Syracuse offense absolutely tore up Miami’s defense. Kyle McCord, completed 26 of his 36 passes for 380 yards and three touchdowns. He also didn’t turn the ball over. It was pretty close to a perfect day for the exiled Ohio State Buckeye.
And even though his team ended up losing, Cam Ward was no slouch on the road against the Orange. He went 25-for-36 for 349 passing yards and two scores. And his connection with star wideout Xavier Restrepo was on point per usual, as Restrepo caught nine passes for 148 yards and was on the receiving end of one of Ward’s two touchdown throws. It was a perfect day for Restrepo, don’t you think?
Well, it wasn’t quite perfect. Restrepo made one crucial mistake in the third quarter that ended up swinging the momentum of the game for good.
It was incredibly back-and-forth in the second half, but Miami simply didn’t have enough to keep pace with Syracuse in this one, and the Hurricanes ended up dropping the game by four points. Miami now finds themselves with two losses and their spot in the Playoff, which once seemed all but certain, now finds itself anything but.
Michigan owns Ohio State
Yep, you all knew I would eventually get here. And there’s no denying that anymore.
I have absolutely no idea how Ohio State managed to lose this game. It was practically being gifted to them, as Michigan’s offense was once again largely anemic, just as it’s been all season. But the Buckeyes somehow could not take advantage of the many opportunities they got.
Michigan quarterback Davis Warren only completed half his passes and threw two interceptions. The passing offense was once again nonexistent. But where Michigan managed to stay in this game was with their running game. Kalel Mullings, who has taken over the RB1 role from Donovan Edwards this season, ran all over the Buckeyes’ defense to the tune of 116 yards and a score.
And not to mention the efforts of the Wolverines’ defense, who limited a normally dynamic Ohio State offense to a mere ten points. They limited Will Howard to 175 passing yards and picked him off twice. They limited Quinshon Judkins to 46 rushing yards and TreVeyon Henderson to just 21! They limited Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka to 35 and 51 receiving yards, respectively.
Simply put, for Ohio State, there was no reason this game should have been as close as it was as late into the game as it was. This game was tied at ten apiece with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. And when another Ohio State drive fizzled out and Michigan got the ball back, Kalel Mullings once again ripped the soul out of the Buckeyes’ defense in order to set up the game-clinching field goal.
Michigan kicker Dominic Zvada nailed the 21-yard field goal, and that was all she wrote, as the Wolverines picked up their third consecutive win and their fourth straight over their biggest rival. And you know what four straight wins over your biggest rival means, right?
That means something that we’ve known for a while now, but this game all but confirmed it. The Michigan Wolverines own the Ohio State Buckeyes. Point-blank period.
And last but not least…
Georgia-Georgia Tech was the game of the year
I am aware that I said the Georgia-Alabama game was the game of the year earlier in the season. But something that happens all the time in college football is that things change. And the absolute cinema that we saw when Georgia and Georgia Tech squared off this past Friday easily vaulted it into contention for the most entertaining and electric game of the 2024 season.
This game went into eight overtimes. Eight. That’s how bonkers this game was. And when a game goes into eight overtimes, it seems like every single player on the field finds a way to fill up the stat sheet.
For example, starting with the Yellow Jackets, Haynes King threw for 303 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. And while that’s a good game throwing the ball, he was spectacular on the ground, as he ran for a ridiculous 110 yards and three touchdowns. For Georgia, Carson Beck once again somehow didn’t throw an interception (sorry, I had to). Jokes aside, Beck was awesome in this game. He completed 28 of his 43 passes for 297 yards and five touchdowns.
But it was not Beck nor King that ended up being the hero in this one and finally deciding who would walk out of Samford Stadium in Athens as a winner. It was Georgia running back Nate Frazier, who punched it in for the game-sealing two-point conversion to give the seventh-ranked Bulldogs their tenth win of the season.
And not only did Frazier secure the win, he secured Georgia’s spot in the College Football Playoff. Georgia put in all the blood, sweat, and tears in order to take home this win, and they will earn a spot in the big dance because of it.
