Best of Rivalry Week: Saturday’s results offered a healthy dose of certainty

It was just a little more than 10 months ago that Ohio State won a national championship. In the time since, the Buckeyes have only offered further assurance of their greatness, marching through the 2025 season with one emphatic win after another, a convincing No. 1 team in the country entering Rivalry Week.

But, of course, none of that really mattered — not when Michigan still had the last word.

For every genuinely astounding new note on Ohio State’s résumé, there was always the simple retort: “Yeah, but … Michigan.”

For every big win the Buckeyes enjoyed, there was the reminder, like one of those signs that keeps tabs on how many days have passed since the last time someone needed medical treatment after getting their hair caught in the industrial sandblaster. By Saturday, Ohio State’s sign read: 2,191 days.

For all the superstars, high-priced transfers and NFL draft picks who have come and gone over the past six years, none of them could claim a victory over the most hated rival.

And then Saturday, it all changed.

Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin followed an early interception with a brilliant performance. Wideouts Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate were dominant. Bo Jackson powered his way through the Wolverines’ defensive front. The Buckeyes’ defense was stifling, holding Michigan to a mere 163 total yards.

When it was over, Ohio State had exorcised its greatest demon, toppling Michigan 27-9. And to paraphrase the great statesman Hans Gruber, coach Ryan Day could stare out across the vastness of the Big House and weep, for he had no more worlds to conquer.

The Buckeyes’ triumph was less a statement of their dominance; that much had been obvious all along. And while Saturday’s outing felt like affirmation of Sayin’s ascension into the rarified air of the nation’s top QBs, and while it was a performance in which so many of Ohio State’s stars shone their brightest, it was ultimately more of a relief than a victory. Nothing Ohio State did was surprising. This is the team we’ve come to expect. Only, we also had come to expect that in this game, all that makes the Buckeyes great could sneak out the back door, like a head coach facing NCAA sanctions for a comically overwrought sign-stealing scam.

Saturday’s outcome also was relief for Oklahoma. The Sooners’ 17-13 win over LSU was hardly a College Football Playoff-worthy performance. The offense was again frustratingly out of sync, saved only by a pair of big plays — a 48-yard catch-and-run by Deion Burks and a 58-yard bomb to Isaiah Sategna III that proved to be the difference. Instead, Oklahoma continued to rely on an intractable defense, one that held LSU to just 198 total yards and forced the Tigers’ QB into the worst performance by a Van Buren since the Panic of 1837. By the time LSU called a delayed timeout before a fourth-and-2 that would decide the game, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables looked as if he had just slipped a whoopee cushion onto LSU’s chair, his sly grin making it clear it was only a matter of time before the Tigers embarrassed themselves.

Oregon took a deep sigh of relief too after Dante Moore delivered a dart to Malik Benson for a 64-yard touchdown with 7:55 to play, securing a 26-14 win over Washington. The Ducks had controlled the game throughout, but a Denzel Boston touchdown had pulled Washington to within five and, suddenly, Oregon’s playoff spot didn’t feel quite so secure. In truth, this has been the story of Oregon’s season. Given the Ducks’ offensive weapons and relentless defense, this campaign has often felt just a touch too difficult, like trying to put plastic wrap on a casserole dish. But here they are, 11-1 and safely in the playoff, while Ohio State and Indiana head to the Big Ten title game. The Ducks are positioned like last year’s version of Ohio State — rested ahead of the playoff, its best football still ahead, biding its time, waiting to assert itself when the time is right, like a woman named Karen who’s displeased with her Panera order.

Perhaps no team felt more relief Saturday than Alabama. Logically, there was no reason to worry about this Auburn team, a program that had fired its head coach and frittered away every opportunity to win a big one. But this is the Iron Bowl: Strange things happen, and this contest had all the makings of another shocker.

The first half was a slog for Alabama’s offense, but its defense was virtually impenetrable, like a quarter-inch of snow on Interstate 20 through Talladega. After the break, however, the script flipped, and suddenly a 17-6 Crimson Tide lead disappeared, as Auburn’s Jeremiah Cobb rumbled into the end zone to tie the score at 20.

So, would Bama flop like the bangs that bear its name?

Alas, all the dark magic that resides within the storied history of this rivalry wasn’t enough to cover up what Auburn has been all season. A series of Tigers penalties kept an Alabama drive alive, and coach Kalen DeBoer opted to go for it on a fourth-and-2 from Auburn’s 6-yard line. Ty Simpson hit Isaiah Horton in the end zone for the score, assuring DeBoer would be allowed to return to Tuscaloosa without full-time security.

Auburn still had a shot to tie it, driving into Tide territory, but a Cam Coleman fumble effectively ended the comeback bid.

Ohio State, Oregon, Oklahoma and Alabama all now look like locks for the playoff. The same can’t be said for others.

Were Saturday’s results a relief for Vanderbilt, BYU and Miami? All three won, remaining alive for the playoff. But the lack of chaos around them only made the margin thinner. BYU controls its destiny, at least, getting a shot at the Big 12 title against Texas Tech. Vandy and Miami can do nothing more than wait and hope the committee reevaluates assumptions it has already clarified again and again.

For Miami, which utterly dismantled a ranked Pitt team 38-7, the wait is particularly galling. The Hurricanes are clearly the ACC’s best team but surely feel like a chance at a conference title — and the guaranteed playoff bid that comes with it — has been stolen from them like so many Lamborghinis in Carson Beck‘s driveway. Instead, 7-5 Duke will go to the league title game in Charlotte, North Carolina, to face Virginia, all because some convoluted tiebreaker scenarios are punishing Miami for losing a pair of games. Oh, and the ACC refs; they’re always helping out Coach K.

The last bits of stress before the College Football Playoff remain, but Saturday’s results offered a healthy dose of certainty, effectively stacking the deck and leaving Championship Week as a final chance to shuffle the cards.

No, the final chapter of the 2025 regular season didn’t upend the status quo. We end it all but assured of seeing Ohio State, Oregon, Oklahoma and Alabama in the playoff. But we learned something about each on Saturday in the way that they fought and survived and prevailed.

In January, there’s a good chance we’ll look back at what happened in Week 14 and see that the foundation for a national title was built among the chaos held at bay by teams that refused to loosen their grasp on a championship.

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Rivalry recaps | Trends
Under the radar | Heisman five
CFP takeaways

Rivalry recaps

Rivalry Week never disappoints, and the 2025 installment was another chance for hated rivals to add fuel to their longstanding hatred.

Lone Star Showdown

Texas‘ playoff hopes were on life support, but the Longhorns did what they had to do Friday to warrant continued consideration, knocking off previously undefeated Texas A&M 27-17.

Arch Manning recovered from a miserable first half to finish with 232 total yards and two touchdowns, including a 35-yard run that proved the dagger.

After the win, Texas rubbed a little salt in the wound, reminding Aggies coach Mike Elko of his statement that A&M was “the flagship program” in the state.

This, of course, forced A&M to retort with a brutal “I’m rubber, you’re glue” followed by Texas trumping the Aggies once again with a jumbled “alosersayswhat,” baffling Elko who was forced to ask for clarification, after which officials declared the battle over and Texas the victor.

A&M remains securely in the College Football Playoff field, but Texas’ case is one worth revisiting. Few contenders have a better track record against high-level competition, with the Longhorns now owning wins over A&M, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt — all top-15 teams — plus a one-possession defeat on the road against No. 1 Ohio State. And, while the committee isn’t supposed to consider dreaminess, Manning did state the Horns’ case by pushing his bangs back from his forehead nonchalantly and batting his eyes, to which committee chair Hunter Yurachek responded by fainting onto a couch and declaring he had “a case of the vapors.”

Egg Bowl

Unlike Lane Kiffin’s job search, Ole Miss had no trouble putting Mississippi State to bed Friday, as Trinidad Chambliss threw for 359 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-19 win.

The final score was of little consequence. There were bigger questions to be answered: Who stole Chambliss’ jersey from the Ole Miss locker room before the game? Would Kiffin leave for another job? Would he be allowed to coach in the playoffs? Would Marty Smith’s perfectly manicured beard survive another day in Oxford?

All those questions were left to simmer throughout Saturday’s action, with answers likely sometime Sunday. Our preference remains that Kiffin announces his retirement then buys a house right next door to Nick Saban in a “Dennis the Menace” situation wherein Kiffin routinely sets Saban’s lawn on fire while trying to turn his skateboard into a rocket ship; but that’s admittedly a long shot.

Instead, we’ll likely spend the coming weeks debating the moral implications of taking another job while your team still has playoff aspirations. Oh, we’re talking about North Texas‘ Eric Morris, of course.

Sunshine Showdown

Six days after Florida State announced Mike Norvell would return for the 2026 season, Norvell offered a clear response: “Seriously? Can’t we ‘Old Yeller’ this situation? I’m dying here!”

DJ Lagway threw for three touchdowns, Florida ran for 272 yards, and the Gators torched Florida State 40-21.

The loss means FSU won’t play in a bowl game, which is probably for the best given that Norvell had already printed out most of the Amazon return labels for the bulk of his roster and arranged a UPS pickup on Monday.

For Florida, it was a small consolation after a lost season that ends with a 4-8 record, a 2-6 mark in SEC play and a large floral display that reads “Welcome Lane” that it now has no use for.

‘Clean Old-Fashioned Hate’

Georgia toppled Georgia Tech for the eighth straight time 16-9, matching the longest streak by either team in the rivalry’s history (previously set by Bobby Dodd’s Yellow Jackets teams from 1949 through 1956). It was hardly a stellar day for Gunner Stockton, who threw for just 70 yards — the lowest output for a Georgia offense since 2019 — but still finished the game leading both teams with 23 “we’ll get ’em next times,” six “bless his hearts” and four older people helped across the street. Stockton’s Heisman campaign likely took a hit, but he remains the favorite for this year’s top QB who knows a really good fishin’ hole, and his touchdown-to-“aw shucks” ratio remains elite.

Territorial Cup

Kenny Dillingham’s elaborate ploy to convince Jeff Sims that the past six years of his career never happened and were instead just a horrible dream came to a screeching halt Friday when Sims glimpsed a Waffle House en route to the game, igniting a vivid flashback to his time at Georgia Tech, and suddenly the reality all became clear like the final scene of “The Usual Suspects.” Sims proceeded to throw three interceptions as Arizona State fell to Arizona 23-7.

Palmetto Bowl

A year after LaNorris Sellers bulldozed the Clemson defense in an upset win in Death Valley, the Tigers got revenge, sacking the South Carolina QB five times, forcing two fumbles and picking off Sellers twice en route to a 28-14 win.

Clemson finished the regular season with four straight wins, allowing Dabo Swinney to celebrate afterward by gleefully tearing up a piece of paper labeled “Guys I guess I have to go get in the portal for 2026,” then opening an envelope labeled “Christopher Vizzina Heisman campaign materials.”

Commonwealth Cup

For just the second time in 21 years, Virginia upended rival Virginia Tech, securing the Cavaliers’ spot in the ACC championship game with a 27-7 victory.

J’Mari Taylor, once a walk-on at North Carolina Central, led the way with 80 yards on the ground, 34 receiving yards and both a touchdown run and a scoring pass in the win.

It’s a watershed moment for Virginia’s program. Just three months ago, a Virginia team capable of making the College Football Playoff after knocking off the Hokies in emphatic fashion would’ve seemed like a unicorn or a leprechaun or some other sort of mythical creature. Instead, the Cavaliers are playing their best football of the campaign behind a dominant defense and a ground game that has blossomed down the stretch.

Now all that’s left for the Hoos is to keep the ACC from massive embarrassment. It might be their greatest challenge of all.

Victory Bell

Jayden Maiava threw for 257 yards and two touchdowns, King Miller ran for 124 and a pair of scores, and USC mercifully ended UCLA‘s season with a 29-10 win Saturday.

USC has now won eight of the past 11 against UCLA, including three of four under Lincoln Riley. If UCLA can’t turn the tables in the rivalry after moving to SoFi Stadium, the Bruins have promised to keep moving home games farther and farther away until USC gets so sick of traffic on Interstate 405 that the Trojans just forfeit.

Nameless NC State–North Carolina rivalry game

The Wolfpack wasted no time dispatching Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels 42-19.

North Carolina ends Belichick’s first season at 4-8, including an 0-8 mark against teams that finished 5-7 or better.

Belichick was tight-lipped about the future after the game, suggesting he would begin evaluating the team’s progress this week, having not given it any thought at all prior. But he is definitely committed to UNC and not just coaching out of spite (as he mumbled about Robert Kraft being a real jerk).

Governor’s Cup

Despite playing with a roster made up almost entirely of guys Jeff Brohm found at the KFC drive-through, injury-ravaged Louisville demolished rival Kentucky 41-0 Saturday. Miller Moss threw for three touchdowns, Louisville ran for 258 yards, the Cards’ defense picked off Cutter Boley twice and sacked him six times, keeping the Wildcats from becoming bowl-eligible in the process. After it was over, a defiant Mark Stoops sat at his kitchen table, sipped a coffee amid a blazing inferno, and announced, “This is fine.”

Week 14 vibe shifts

The regular season has drawn to a close, and it has been a wild ride. Some stories were impossible to miss — Lane Kiffin’s job search, Penn State and Clemson falling from the top five, shirtless men everywhere — but others were so subtle we might not fully grasp their impact for years to come. We’ve tried to capture those smaller vibe shifts here.

Trending up: A Big 12 showdown

Texas Tech and BYU clinched their spots in the Big 12 title game, setting up a rematch of the Red Raiders’ emphatic win from Nov. 8.

Texas Tech finished the regular season with a dominant 48-0 victory over West Virginia, the Red Raiders’ 11th win of the season by at least 20 points. In the playoff era, only 2018 Alabama (12 such wins) and 2019 Ohio State had done that — though both fell to Clemson in the College Football Playoff and did not win a title.

BYU also locked up its spot with a 41-21 win over UCF, ensuring Scott Frost’s sixth straight losing season as a coach after the famed 13-0 season with the Knights in 2017. After the loss, Frost returned to his office, unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk, pulled out an envelope and read the note that helped explain his career’s shocking downward spiral: “Never hold a parade after I win a title. I have powerful friends. – Nick S.” that helped to explain his career’s downward spiral.

Should the Red Raiders win the Big 12, plans are to immediately melt down the championship trophy, sell the gold at a local pawn shop and add the funds to the school’s NIL collective.

Trending down: NCAA eligibility rules

It’s possible — likely even — that Saturday represented the last regular-season game of Diego Pavia‘s career. If so, he’s going out in style, accounting for 402 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 45-24 Vanderbilt win over Tennessee, the Commodores’ 10th win of the season.

And sure, Pavia has been playing college football since the Carter administration, but that doesn’t change the fact that the sport is simply a lot more fun with him on the field. So, we beseech the NCAA to change its rules and allow him to keep playing for as long as he would like.

In a just world, we’ll all be settling in to our cryogenic pods to enjoy the 2056 Moon Bowl (which, despite its name, is actually played in Myrtle Beach) to see 73-year-old Pavia quarterback lead Akron past Space Force with 160 passing yards, 105 rushing yards and another 64 crypto-yards before retiring to the locker room, handing out hard candies to his teammates and regaling them with tales of embarrassing Hugh Freeze.

Trending up: Utah State‘s social cache

Utah State blew a 24-13 second-half lead and fell to Boise State 25-24 on Friday. It was a stroke of genius by head coach Bronco Mendenhall.

With the loss, Utah State falls to 6-6. Lose a bowl game and the Aggies will wrap up a season with a sterling 6-7 record, and as anyone under the age of 16 can tell you, there is no greater accomplishment in our current society than being 6-7. Even more impressive though is that this would make Utah State’s fifth 6-7 season of the playoff era, two more than any other team.

So, to recap, Utah State is the most 6-7 program in America and now awaits its invitation to the White House or the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

Trending up: Bird battle in Conference USA

Jacksonville State‘s Garrison Rippa booted a 28-yard field goal as time expired to lead the Gamecocks over Western Kentucky 27-24 and lock up a berth in the Conference USA championship game.

Jacksonville State will take on Kennesaw State, which upended Liberty 48-42 on Saturday, for a chance to hoist the Conference USA championship trophy, which, thanks to a nice infusion of cash from Missouri State and Delaware joining the league this year, is no longer just a Burger King crown that came with a value meal Rich Rodriguez ordered two years ago.

Trending down: Prime time in Boulder

Kansas State knocked off Colorado 24-14 on Saturday, ending the Buffaloes’ season with a 3-9 record.

Times are bleak in Boulder without Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. Colorado could never figure out its offensive identity, cycling through QBs repeatedly, and ending the year with five straight losses.

A year ago, Deion Sanders had Colorado at the tip of the cultural zeitgeist, with social media abuzz, games drawing big ratings and A-list celebrities on the sideline each week. This year, the TikTok algorithm downgraded Buffs content beneath videos of cats wearing mittens, and the biggest celebrities to attend a game were the surviving members of “The Love Boat” cast and the kid in the “Charlie bit my finger” video from 2007.

Trending up: Extraction missions

One of the season’s most memorable highlights came during Louisville’s come-from-behind win against Pitt, when a Cardinals ball boy was tasked with retrieving a pick-six from Rasheem Biles, who was having none of it.

Not to be outdone, a Texas A&M equipment manager tussled with an even more fearsome adversary on Friday as he attempted to retrieve a ball from Bevo.

Of course, none of that compared to the nearly impossible task faced by an Ole Miss staffer who was sent on a mission Friday to retrieve Lane Kiffin, who had boarded a Greyhound bus bound for Louisiana at halftime of the Egg Bowl.

Holding steady: James Madison playoff hopes

James Madison issued a statement to the playoff committee on Saturday by demolishing Coastal Carolina 59-10.

The Dukes, who remain unranked and behind at least Tulane in the race for the Group of 5 playoff berth, have played a relatively light schedule in a down Sun Belt Conference, but they’ve largely destroyed their opposition.

Yet while JMU was celebrating an easy win, its top competition — North Texas and Tulane — also won with ease.

The Mean Green demolished Temple 52-25, and Tulane shut out Charlotte 27-0.

A Tulane win in the American championship game would effectively lock up a playoff bid for the Green Wave. How the committee would view a comparison between North Texas and James Madison is tougher to figure, but a Mean Green win over Tulane would likely be a boost for UNT.

But thanks to SMU‘s loss to Cal, there is another option. The ACC title game will feature Virginia and Duke, a team with five losses, including two to teams outside the Power 4. Could that leave the door open for the Sun Belt’s champion to jump the ACC’s champion should the Blue Devils topple the Cavaliers?

Surely nothing that catastrophic could happen to the ACC, a league whose entire personality is basically that pharmaceutical commercial in which the lady holds up a cutout smiley face everywhere she goes so people won’t realize how miserable she is.

So, Duke or Dukes? Green Wave or Mean Green? The 11th and 12th playoff seeds might be the last truly interesting debate heading into Championship Week.

Trending down: Hope for Rutgers

Rutgers led Penn State 36-33 midway through the fourth quarter and appeared well on its way to bowl eligibility. But even in 2025, when Penn State misery would appear to be at its apex, it’s impossible to outdo Rutgers for sheer football ineptitude.

Driving deep into Penn State territory looking to go up two scores, Athan Kaliakmanis fumbled, and Penn State’s Amare Campbell recovered the ball and returned it 61 yards for a go-ahead touchdown.

Rutgers still had a chance, thanks largely to KJ Duff‘s miraculous one-handed grab on third-and-13, setting up another Scarlet Knights scoring chance.

Rutgers picked up 8 yards on first down but then went nowhere on three straight plays, turning the ball over on downs. Penn State ran out the clock on its ensuing drive, giving the Nittany Lions bowl eligibility and sending Rutgers home for another long offseason wearing track pants on a leather couch and rewatching the “Entourage” movie over and over.

Trending up: MAC parties

The hottest club in FBS is MACtion.

It has everything: Eddie George, feral raccoons, random Tuesday night shootouts and that thing where a giant bird does the Griddy with a bunch of sentient stuffed Christmas ornaments.

Anyway, congratulations to Western Michigan for wrapping up the MAC regular-season title, which we assume comes with a gift card to Culver’s and a framed poster of Jordan Lynch arm wrestling a kangaroo.

Trending down: Memorable UMass seasons

The Minutemen wrapped up their first season in the MAC with a perfect record, a 12 in one column and a zero in the other. No, no, don’t ask follow-up questions. Just enjoy that information.

Actually, UMass was 0-12, with only two games decided by single digits after a 45-14 loss to Bowling Green in Week 14. As bad as UMass has been since moving to FBS, the first winless season for a program that has gone 1-11 five different times (plus an 0-4 COVID season) since moving to FBS in 2012. Still, it wasn’t the worst recent FBS season — Kent State was demonstrably worse last year — and it probably wasn’t even the worst UMass performance. UMass’s 2019 campaign in which it finished 1-11 but was outscored by an average of 33 points per game almost certainly was worse overall. So, congratulations to 2025 UMass. The Minutemen even lost the battle to be the worst UMass team.

Under-the-radar play of the week

South Dakota State dominated New Hampshire 41-3 in the opening round of the FCS playoff Saturday, a win highlighted by a 42-yard touchdown reception by Jack Smith, who then celebrated with his teammates in a snowbank that, we assume, is permanently installed inside the Jackrabbits’ stadium.

The play marked the most notable snow celebration following a touchdown since Wisconsin’s Jim Leonhard enjoyed a big win at Camp Randall by adding an enchanted sweatshirt to a snowman, who then came to life and went on to a successful career coaching the Badgers, Arkansas and Illinois.

Under-the-radar game of the week

New Mexico‘s game against San Diego State on Friday had been a fun back-and-forth affair that, by the start of the fourth quarter, had devolved into an elaborate “Three Stooges” routine that lacked only someone dropping an anvil on Sean Lewis’ head.

The two teams combined for six fourth-quarter punts, SDSU took a sack with 17 seconds left to end regulation, then both turned the ball over in the first overtime. The Aztecs tossed a pick on their first play of overtime, with New Mexico only too happy to respond by fumbling away the ball three plays later.

But New Mexico found a little magic in the second overtime period, with Jack Layne connecting with Cade Keith for a brilliant one-handed touchdown grab.

The win moves New Mexico to 9-3, the Lobos’ best season since 2016, and it sets up a four-way tie atop the Mountain West that will be settled Sunday via either a combination of computer metrics or a rap battle, depending on whether or not Dan Mullen gets his way.

Heisman five

Next week’s Big Ten championship game between Indiana and Ohio State might also be the deciding factor in who wins the Heisman Trophy. This stands in stark contrast to nearly every other Big Ten game this season in which the quarterback position remains a theoretical anomaly Wisconsin’s finest physicists still haven’t proven actually exists in the real world.

1. Ohio State QB Julian Sayin

If there was a knock on Sayin’s Heisman candidacy, it’s that it felt buoyed as much by the talent around him as anything he had done himself. That myth was dispelled Saturday as Sayin lit up the Michigan defense, rebounding from an early interception to look poised, dynamic and aggressive, throwing for 233 yards and three touchdowns in a 27-9 win. Sure, he looks as if a sorting hat assigned him to the least likable clique at his high school, but the important takeaway is he finally took down Ohio State’s Voldemort.

2. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza

Mendoza was just 8-of-15 passing for 117 yards in his final game of the regular season, but that was still enough to account for three touchdowns and a blowout win over Purdue to secure the Old Oaken Bucket. As opposed to last year’s riveting rivalry win at Cal when Mendoza famously went “98 yards with my boys,” this was a bit more like “117 passing yards with some guys I met nine months ago against a team that hasn’t won a Big Ten game in two years,” which doesn’t have quite the same ring to it but we assume is special to Mendoza anyway.

3. Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love

Love carried 10 times for 59 yards and a touchdown before leaving Notre Dame’s game against Stanford with an apparent injury. Though he did reenter the game, we implore Notre Dame to keep Love covered in Bubble Wrap until we know whether the Fighting Irish are in the playoff or not.

4. Nebraska RB Emmett Johnson

Remember a month ago when everyone was so certain Penn State would hire Matt Rhule that Nebraska went out and locked him up through the 2032 season? Those were simpler times. Since then, the Huskers have lost three of four games and will finish with five or more losses for the eighth year in a row, the third-longest streak among Power 4 programs (trailing Boston College and Rutgers). Anyway, none of that should overshadow the fact that Johnson was one of the most prolific players in the country this year, including 217 yards rushing in a 40-16 loss to Iowa. How does a player rush for 217 yards and his team manage just 16 points? How does anyone give up 40 to Iowa? These are questions best posed to “Tungsten Arm” O’Doyle.

5. North Texas QB Drew Mestemaker

The Mean Green are 11-1 and headed to the American Conference championship game with a real shot at a playoff berth, and they’ve done it all with a QB who didn’t even start for his high school team. Mestemaker was a walk-on who got a chance in last year’s bowl game and won the job this year. He finished the regular season with another 366 yards and three touchdowns in a 52-25 win over Temple. For the year, Mestemaker has thrown for 29 touchdowns. In comparison, the entire Iowa team has 29 passing touchdowns over the past three years combined. So, we restate our longstanding theory that Iowa could’ve just found a guy who was the backup on his high school team and is now working the overnight shift at Walmart and gotten more production in the passing game than it currently has.