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We are now 11 weeks into the college football season, and only three undefeated teams remain: Georgia, Cincinnati and UTSA.

Just as we all predicted at the beginning of the year.

Saturday saw Michigan rally past Penn State, Oklahoma have its bid for perfection end at the hands of Baylor, a game-winning 62-yard field goal and a wild overtime game between Texas and Kansas that ended with a stunning two-point conversion.

All in all, our reporters make sense of Week 11 and what happens next.

Steve Sarkisian needs answers, fast

The Texas-Oklahoma rivalry has often been a game where legends are made and coaches’ legacies are defined. In this year’s version, as we all know by now, Texas took a 38-20 lead into halftime and Longhorns fans were celebrating their new coach’s arrival on the scene.

Thirty-eight days later, it appears that was the beginning of a freefall for Texas. Oklahoma stormed back to win, the first of four straight games in which Steve Sarkisian lost a halftime lead. On Saturday, during Texas’ fifth straight loss — the Longhorns’ longest skid since 1956, the year before Darrell Royal was hired — they added a new historic footnote, becoming the first Big 12 team to lose at home to Kansas since 2008. That’s not the legacy Sarkisian envisioned when he arrived in Austin and proclaimed back in July, “We’ve got a roster that is one that is more than capable of being competitive at a high level.”

First seasons are rarely predictable. Nick Saban went 7-6 in Year 1 at Alabama, losing to a 6-6 UL Monroe team in the process. But Saban had a track record, having already won a national championship at LSU. Sarkisian, unfortunately, does too. He went 5-7 in his first season at Washington, but that was taking over a team that went 0-12 the season before, so there was optimism. Since then, however, Sarkisian has never lost fewer than four games in a full season as a head coach at Washington or USC. Last year, Texas lost three games by a total of 13 points and Tom Herman got fired.

The Longhorns are making the wrong kind of history. They entered Saturday 79-0 as a favorite of at least 24 points since 1978 — Kansas was 0-100 as a 24-point underdog in that same span — and yet the 31-point underdogs pulled off the win in Austin. Then there’s the soap opera factor: Off the field, discussions of late have centered on an assistant coach’s pet monkey, a starting wide receiver’s argument with Sarkisian and subsequent departure, and players leaking videos of angry coaches.

It’s fair to say Texas has hit rock bottom. This is one school that doesn’t like being embarrassed. And right now it is. — Dave Wilson

Let’s do a little blind résumé comparison:

Team A is 9-1 with a 5-1 mark against FPI top-50 opponents (with a 12.2 points-per-game margin) and three wins vs. teams ranked at game time. Its lone loss came on the road by three points to a preseason AP top-10 team. Its ESPN Strength of Record is No. 6 nationally.

Team B is 9-1 with a 4-1 mark against FPI top-50 opponents (with a 10.6 points-per-game margin) and one win vs. a team ranked at game time. Its lone loss came at home by seven points to a preseason AP top-10 team. Its ESPN Strength of Record is No. 9 nationally.

So, which team would you have ranked higher?

Odds are, most folks would say Team A, though it’s certainly close. But when it comes to the AP poll, the coaches’ poll and, likely, the College Football Playoff committee’s ranking, it will be Team B that’s ahead by a significant margin.

This has a lot to do with the things we, as voters, fans and analysts, tend to notice most easily. Team A is Oklahoma State and Team B is Ohio State.

The Buckeyes seem incredibly impressive because they’ve routinely put up a lot of points. But against good teams their margin of victory is actually less than Oklahoma State’s. Against teams such as Rutgers, Akron and Maryland, however, they’ve won by an average of 42 points per game. The Cowboys, on the other hand, blew out TCU on Saturday, but played close games against Tulsa and Boise State in September, which helped frame the narrative that they are a team that has been more lucky than good.

We also tend to lean more heavily on offense than defense as a metric for success, and on that front, no one outdoes Ohio State. The Buckeyes lead the nation in offensive EPA. On defense, however, Ohio State is barely better than the FBS average. Oklahoma State, on the other hand, has one of the nation’s best defenses, holding every team it has faced to 24 points or fewer (Georgia is the only other team to do that). It’s the antithesis of the Mike Gundy teams we’ve come to know over the years, but that doesn’t make it any less talented.

None of this should serve as an indictment of Ohio State, which certainly appears to be a supremely talented team, perhaps one of the few that could truly challenge Georgia. But if we’re going to appreciate the Buckeyes’ ceiling we need to also consider the Cowboys’ accomplishments. Through 11 weeks only Georgia, Alabama and Notre Dame have won more games against FPI top-50 teams, and only Georgia has more wins against teams ranked at game time.

Let’s stop overlooking Oklahoma State. The Cowboys aren’t winning the way we might have expected, but they are winning, and at this point, they belong in the thick of the playoff conversation. They should be in serious consideration for the committee’s top four. — David Hale

Why isn’t Dave Clawson linked to more job openings?

The biggest surprise of the ACC season has been the 9-1 start by Wake Forest, which beat NC State 45-42 on Saturday. The Demon Deacons — who are a heartbreaking field goal against North Carolina away from being undefeated — are 6-0 in the Atlantic division and on a collision course to face Pitt in the ACC Championship Game.

Reshaping the culture of a team isn’t a foreign concept to Clawson, who has a reputation for building contenders at each of his previous stops. In 1999, he earned his first head job at Fordham, where he took the program from being winless to winners of the Patriot League and earning a berth in the 2002 FCS playoffs. He was excellent with Richmond and Bowling Green as well.

Now, at Wake Forest, he has infused plenty of energy into the city of Winston-Salem as the Demon Deacons are knocking on the doorstep of their first conference game appearance since 2006, when they defeated Georgia Tech 9-6 to collect their most wins in program history (11). A victory over Clemson next week would give them 10 victories and secure a chance to tie the single-season win total.

This begs the question: With so many programs searching for their next coach, why isn’t Clawson’s name being attached to more vacancies? Aside from a down pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Demon Deacons have totaled at least seven wins each year since 2016. — Jordan Reid

Where’s the love for Ole Miss‘ defense?

The only time anyone dared to mention Ole Miss and defense in the same sentence a year ago was to talk about how bad the Rebels were on that side of the ball. Even earlier this year, after Ole Miss survived 52-51 against Arkansas, coach Lane Kiffin sounded anything but pumped about the Rebels’ defense.

“We stopped them on one play in the second half, so that’s a good thing,” said a shrugging Kiffin, whose Rebels gave up 676 total yards and 37 second-half points before the Hogs’ two-point conversion pass to win the game sailed incomplete.

Since then, Ole Miss’ defense has been one of the more improved units in the SEC, and the No. 10 Rebels (8-2, 4-2 SEC) are making a push to be the first Ole Miss team in school history to win 10 games in the regular season, with matchups remaining against Vanderbilt and Mississippi State.

In each of its past four wins, Ole Miss’ defense has given up 24 or fewer points, and it was the 31-26 victory at Tennessee the week after the Arkansas game that really showed the mettle of D.J. Durkin’s defense.

Kiffin told his players in the locker room after that game: “We’ve said for a long time when you go on the road in a hostile environment that you pack your run game and pack your defense. The defense showed up today and really won the game for us.”

Granted, nobody is comparing this Ole Miss defense to some of the better ones in the SEC, but the Rebels are tied for 66th nationally in scoring defense (26.2 points per game). That’s after finishing 117th nationally a year ago (38.3 PPG).

Kiffin told ESPN prior to the season that he would be pleased with a top-70 ranking in scoring defense, and Durkin & Co. have delivered. The Rebels have really helped themselves in turnover margin. They’re tied for second nationally at plus-12 and are second in the SEC with 19 forced turnovers.

Quarterback Matt Corral and the Ole Miss offense have still been the heart and soul of this team, but the defense has played well enough that the Rebels don’t feel as if they have to score 40-plus every game to win.

That’s a credit to Durkin and his guys for taking it on the chin a year ago (and taking some serious criticism) and coming back in Year 2 by doing their part to put the Rebels in a position to have a historic season. — Chris Low

Kansas looking to build on historic win

Before his team outlasted Texas in overtime on Saturday, Lance Leipold didn’t know Kansas had not won a Big 12 road game since 2008. The Jayhawks coach had only been part of this KU season and saw no value in looking back further.

What Leipold knew is a team that had accepted more than its share of change had been overdue for a win like Saturday’s. Leipold said the result can carry Kansas through the rest of the season and into 2022, when the team can realistically expect more.

“We made strides, we felt like we had, but it wasn’t showing up on the scoreboard,” Leipold told ESPN on Sunday. “We’re a long ways away from it right now, but if we ever want to play games in December, we have to play well in November. We’ve been selling that since the K-State game, and are going to keep emphasizing that.”

Kansas’ historic win featured plenty of surprising performances, none bigger than quarterback Jalon Daniels. The sophomore completed 70% of his passes for 202 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions, while adding 45 rush yards and a touchdown.

Daniels started six games as a true freshman in a hopeless situation last fall — he was only 17 years old for his first three starts. He only got the nod against Texas because of injuries to primary starter Jason Bean and reserve Miles Kendrick.

“He’s been through a lot, took a lot of hits last year, but he doesn’t flinch and he plays with extreme energy and confidence,” Leipold said. “That really sparked us. He can flush a bad play, but he didn’t have many, and statistically he did a lot of really good things for us.”

Leipold is the best coach to call Kansas home in quite some time. Those in coaching circles celebrated the hire Kansas made on the last day of April. Leipold understands player development and program development.

Kansas beat Texas with a third-string quarterback throwing to Jared Casey, a walk-on listed as a fullback who is actually Kansas’ fifth-string tight end (“because you don’t have many 5-9 tight ends in Power 5 football,” Leipold said). There are finally genuine reasons for KU fans to be excited.

“This group’s really accepted the change in the structure and the process that we’re expecting,” Leipold said. “We’ve been able to see a lot of differences in the small things that we’ve been doing, but it hasn’t correlated completely onto the field. To see them get this and complete a game and find a way to win it late, I’m really happy and proud.

“It also will help continue to build confidence within the program of what needs to be done on a daily and weekly basis.” — Adam Rittenberg

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Freeman confident in QB Carr’s future after loss

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Freeman confident in QB Carr's future after loss

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — There were a couple things going through Marcus Freeman’s head when he saw CJ Carr scampering around to extend the play then finding receiver Micah Gilbert in the end zone for the quarterback’s first collegiate touchdown.

“Throw it away! Throw it away! Throw it away!” Freeman, Notre Dame’s head coach, recalled repeating in his head after the game. “I couldn’t see exactly what was going on. I watched him spin out. And usually when you’re feeling pressure it’s like, ‘Throw the ball the away! Don’t throw the ball across our body! He kept his eyes down field and made a play.

“We don’t draw them up like that. But those are plays that CJ Carr can make.”

Carr had an uneven performance in No. 6 Notre Dame’s 27-24 loss to No. 10 Miami on Sunday night, but that touchdown pass — which tied it at 7 in the second quarter — was an example of the playmaking ability that won the freshman quarterback the starting job. And that gave Freeman confidence in Carr’s ability to respond strongly to Sunday’s loss, and potentially lead Notre Dame back to the national title game.

Carr hadn’t thrown a collegiate pass before Sunday — he appeared in one game last year, mop-up duty in a 66-7 rout at Purdue — but nearly helped the Fighting Irish rally from a 14-point deficit against the Hurricanes. The 20-year-old finished 19-of-30 for 221 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception, along with a rushing score with 3:21 left that tied the game.

“His ceiling is so high,” Freeman said. “He’s going to have to take this loss and not let it eat at him too much. He’s a gamer. He performs when the lights are on. He prepares his tail off. He’s going to do great things. It’s just the start for him.”

Freeman said part of the offensive gameplan was to create easy decisions and throws to help Carr establish a rhythm, heavily leaning on the run-pass option. Freeman added that Carr was making the right reads on the RPOs early, but as the game went on, the young quarterback needed to hand the ball to dynamic running back Jeremiyah Love to help establish the run game.

Love, who many believe will be the centerpiece to Notre Dame’s offense, finished with 10 carries for 33 yards and caught four passes for 26 yards, but there were times in the game that he was barely involved in the offense. The Fighting Irish were outgained on the ground 119-93.

“I need to continue to get a better feel for what our offense needs at the moment,” Carr said. “A lot of the time, it’s going to be Jeremiyah Love. On the pick, I should have just given him the ball. It cost us.”

Carr this year replaces former Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard, who led the Irish to 13 straight wins last season before falling 34-23 to Ohio State in the CFP national championship game. Leonard was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in April.

He’s from a family with a rich football pedigree — his father, Jason, was a quarterback at Michigan — and he knows how to respond to a loss.

“Tonight wasn’t good enough out of me specifically,” Carr said. “We’ve got to get better. My dad always said the only way to get rid of a loss is with a win.”

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‘Whatever it takes’: Canes top Irish in showdown

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'Whatever it takes': Canes top Irish in showdown

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Notre Dame had one last chance to beat Miami, 1:04 left on the clock, redshirt freshman CJ Carr charged with driving the Irish down the field.

Miami coach Mario Cristobal surveyed the field from the opposite sideline. He had a feeling his stalwart defensive ends, Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor, would come through and take advantage of the tired Irish offensive line.

Sure enough, Mesidor and Bain came up with sacks on back-to-back plays to end the game, sealing the No. 10 Hurricanes’ raucous 27-24 victory over No. 6 Notre Dame on Sunday night.

“You know the old saying, these are heavyweight bouts, and rounds 11 through 15 are going to separate the winners and the guys that don’t win it,” Cristobal said. “So we knew it was going to somehow, some way, get to this, and we just felt that if we were tired, that they were going to be more tired. And that was a chance at ‘whatever it takes mentality,’ and going to get it done.”

Perhaps even more gratifying was watching the Miami defense make the plays to seal a game. Last season, the Hurricanes lost a chance to play in the ACC championship game after blowing a 21-0 lead to Syracuse to end the regular season. Cristobal made staff changes, bringing in new defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman to revamp not just the scheme but the attitude with which Miami played.

Injuries hampered Mesidor and Bain last season. But leading into the matchup with Notre Dame, both talked about feeling healthy and ready to play well in the new aggressive scheme that would allow them to make plays.

“We go through the two-minute drill every single day in the hot sun,” Mesidor said. “When the lights are up, and it’s cool outside, and when the moment is right, we’re going to get after it.”

He then referenced their uniform numbers. Mesidor wears No. 3 and Bain wears No. 4.

“Three and four all day,” Mesidor said.

“All day!” Bain said in response. “Best in the nation.”

Both players said it did not go unnoticed that Notre Dame was the favorite in the game. Bain showed his cellphone lock screen during his postgame news conference, with a screen grab of an article that, he said, had negative things to say about him.

Perhaps that provided a little extra motivation. But it seemed renewing a rivalry with the Irish was motivation enough. Scores of former players and coaches, including Jimmy Johnson, Michael Irvin, Devin Hester and Ray Lewis, stood on the sideline in one of the most anticipated home season openers in recent memory.

Carson Beck made his debut for the Hurricanes, after transferring from Georgia, and helped get his team in position for the game-winning score after Notre Dame erased a two-touchdown lead and tied the game at 24 with 3:21 remaining.

Miami had dominated up front for a majority of the game, but after scoring on the opening drive of the third quarter, the play calling turned conservative, and the Hurricanes mustered 15 yards on their ensuing four drives.

Beck said he told his teammates when they got the ball back they were going to go down the field and score. He opened the drive with a completion to CJ Daniels, who wowed earlier in the game with a one-handed leaping 20-yard touchdown catch to give Miami the lead at halftime. From there, Miami handed off to CharMar Brown, who got the Hurricanes into field goal range.

That set up transfer kicker Carter Davis to line up for a 47-yard field goal attempt. Davis beat out two other kickers to win the starting job but had spent the bulk of his career as a kickoff specialist. Headed into Sunday night, he had gone 4-of-11 in his career on field goal attempts.

Beck said he was nervous as he saw Davis line up. Davis said he went through his mental checklist, trying not to let the sold-out crowd get to him.

“Once I looked up at it and I saw it was in, I’d say my heartbeat skipped, plus accelerated, because I was just so excited for it,” Davis said.

Beck finished 20-of-31 for 205 yards with two touchdowns. Carr, making his first career start, made some gutty plays throughout the course of the game — including a diving 7-yard run to tie the game up. But with the game on the line, he was unable to even get an opportunity for a score, thanks to the Miami defense.

Notre Dame has now lost seven straight road games to Miami.

“Tonight wasn’t good enough out of me, specifically. We’ve got to get better,” Carr said.

Coach Marcus Freeman said, “Every goal we have is ahead of us,” but added that the Irish have to play better on the offensive and defensive lines. The Irish had one sack and struggled to get after Beck.

“You’re not going to be really successful on defense if you can’t get pressure on the quarterback with four-man rushes,” Freeman said.

Miami did that, particularly at the end of the game, when it stepped the pressure up on Carr. The result was its first win over an AP Top 10 opponent since beating No. 3 Notre Dame 41-8 in 2017.

“It’s just an unbelievable night for so many people that poured so much into this,” Cristobal said. “Just grateful to be in this opportunity and really hungry and driven [for] the next one.”

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Verlander earns win No. 265 with 121-pitch effort

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Verlander earns win No. 265 with 121-pitch effort

SAN FRANCISCO — Wins have been hard to come by for Justin Verlander this year.

This one took 121 pitches.

The 42-year-old right-hander struck out 10 in five scoreless innings Sunday, helping the San Francisco Giants to a 13-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. With the Giants leading 7-0 in the fifth, San Francisco wasn’t about to remove Verlander, even as his pitch count climbed. He finally finished the top of that inning by striking out Gunnar Henderson and Ryan Mountcastle — and that allowed him to qualify for his third victory of the year.

It’s the 265th win of his career.

“In a day you feel like you’re penalizing someone if they throw 100 pitches, to throw 120 in five innings, he didn’t want to hear anything about coming out of the game,” manager Bob Melvin told the San Francisco Chronicle. “There’s a lot to learn from him.”

It was the second-most pitches thrown in the majors this season. Cleveland‘s Gavin Williams threw 126 on Aug. 6 against the New York Mets. Williams took a no-hitter into the ninth that day.

Verlander is just 3-10 on the season, but he lowered his ERA to 4.29 on Sunday and reached double-digit strikeouts for the 73rd time in his career. He allowed three hits and four walks.

“It’s hard for me because, especially the old school in me is, it’s only five innings,” Verlander said. “I’m not sure I go home and say that was a great start. End of day, I think they did a great job battling off good pitches and fouling off stuff.”

Verlander was winless in his first 16 starts for the Giants after joining them in the offseason. But now the three-time Cy Young Award winner has won two starts in a row. He also beat the Chicago Cubs earlier in the week.

This was his first 10-strikeout game since Aug. 23, 2022, when he was with Houston. The last time he threw this many pitches was June 19, 2018, when he threw 122 for the Astros against Tampa Bay.

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