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    • Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri lose, throwing the SEC race into chaos
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    Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri lose, throwing the SEC race into chaos

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    Matt Hayes analyzes four hot topics from Saturday’s matches.

    First, chaos in the SEC

    All those one-possession games, all those one-possession losses. There had to be an end at some point, right?

    Welcome back to the sunny side of the street, Sam Pittman.

    Arkansas’ snake-bitten coach for the past two seasons — with double-digit losses in one-possession games (two this season) — finally got a breakthrough Saturday night in a 19-14 victory over No. 4 Tennessee.

    It took a late defensive stop after Tennessee allowed Arkansas backup quarterback Malachi Singleton to score to set up the final drive, but the Hogs won a big game under Pittman for the first time since the 2021 season.

    Arkansas did it by overcoming a dropped touchdown pass, a missed field goal, two failed fourth-down conversions and just 13 points in four trips to the red zone.

    It was the first time in SEC history that two top-five teams were upset on the same day. Vanderbilt stunned No. 1 Alabama on Saturday afternoon.

    The upsets of Alabama, Tennessee and No. 9 Missouri mean every league team except Texas has at least one loss. It also means that the weekly winnowing of elite teams competing for spots in the College Football Playoffs has begun.

    Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, Missouri, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Oklahoma all have one loss and all play multiple games against each other (and undefeated Texas) over the next two months.

    The overriding question after early setbacks left eight teams with one loss the week of October: Is it possible for the SEC to get a three-loss team into the CFP?

    Second: Texas A&M and motivation

    Let me reintroduce you to an age-old motivator, and how Texas A&M is back in the SEC race.

    The couch.

    Aggies quarterback Conner Weigman spent the past three weeks on the sidelines recovering from a shoulder injury while watching backup Marcel Reed play flawlessly and lead the Aggies to three straight wins.

    You see where this is going, right?

    Fighting for his job with his backup nearby in the rearview mirror, Weigman had a career game in a loss to Missouri – and the Aggies earned a significant SEC win.

    Where’s the motivation, you ask, in the age of NIL money and free agent moves? Where it has always been: the bench.

    While Aggies coach Mike Elko continued to insist that Weigman was the team’s starter when healthy, there is little doubt that Reed’s shadow as a legitimate option lit a fire under Weigman, who played poorly in the season-opening loss to Notre Lady.

    Fast forward to this week, and Missouri rolled into town on the heels of coach Eli Drinkwitz, who publicly stated that he believed the Aggies would play Reed because he makes them harder to defend. More fuel for Weigman.

    So Weigman went out and had the best game of his injury-filled career, completing 18 of 22 passes for 276 yards and rushing five times for 33 yards in a 41-10 win that keeps Texas A&M (5-1) undefeated in the competition. SEC.

    More: Alabama’s stunning loss, unmasking the winners and losers of Missouri’s best college football week

    Weigman injured his shoulder in a Week 1 loss to Notre Dame, played with the injury in Week 2 and then sat out the next three games — while Reed gave Elko every reason to stick with him as the starter.

    But Weigman is still the same player that NFL scouts say has Day 1 draft potential, and he completed explosion-play throws of 40, 33, 29, 18 and 13 yards on the No. 5 pass defense in the country.

    “That’s real arm talent. He throws a beautiful ball,” an NFL scout told USA Today on Saturday afternoon, asking to speak anonymously to protect his team’s draft information. “But it’s about consistency and accuracy, and can he really stay healthy? You can see what it looks like when he’s healthy and has time to throw it.”

    And if properly motivated.

    More: Army and Navy football starts are combined 10-0 for the first time since 1945, with wins in Week 6

    Third: the rise of the SMU

    They bought their way into the ACC. Threw $100 million at desperate conference chairs and secured a seat at the power conference table.

    Now the SMU Mustangs look like a legitimate threat to win the new, redesigned ACC (All Coast Conference) with the emergence of freshman quarterback Kevin Jennings.

    Playing on a field that Lamar Jackson made famous not long ago, Jennings looked very much like Louisville’s Heisman Trophy winner from a decade ago in a key 34-27 ACC victory.

    Jennings threw for 281 yards and ran for 113, and the Mustangs have been a very different team since replacing starter Preston Stone in an 18-15 Week 3 loss to undefeated BYU.

    SMU has won three in a row with Jennings starting, and should be favored in every game for the rest of the regular season (at Stanford, at Duke, Pittsburgh, Boston College, at Virginia, California).

    In the three games since taking over, Jennings has completed 74% of his passes, thrown for 672 yards and five touchdowns without an interception, and rushed for 166 yards and a touchdown in wins over TCU, Florida State and Louisville.

    More dangerous going forward: SMU’s offense has completely changed under Jennings.

    SMU’s defense isn’t exactly championship material, but with Jennings and his rare skill set, that might not matter. The Mustangs defeated bitter rival TCU and defending ACC champion FSU at home, never trailing in a tough road environment in Louisville.

    And the Mustangs haven’t reached their ceiling yet under Jennings.

    Fourth: Ohio State, Oregon set up a showdown

    They cycled and sometimes struggled during the first five weeks of the season.

    Now we get to see what Ohio State and Oregon are all about next week.

    The Buckeyes took on Iowa in Columbus on Saturday, and it wasn’t so much a 35-7 route as it was watching the paint dry. But despite a handful of ridiculous plays from freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith (good luck with him for three years, college football), Ohio State hasn’t really shown its full potential under new transfer quarterback Will Howard and tailback Quinshon Judkins.

    That all changes with next week’s trip to Oregon, that one. just like Ohio State, hasn’t really hit its full stride yet with a new transfer quarterback (Dillon Gabriel) running the show. The Ducks are finally getting consistent play from the offensive line and the offense is starting to look dynamic and dangerous.

    Ohio State has feasted on three overmatched Group of Five schools and two Big Ten rivals (Michigan State, Iowa) in rebuilding mode. Oregon, meanwhile, earned a narrow victory over Gruup of Five heavyweight Boise State, and posted similar victories over rebuilding Big Ten teams (Michigan State, UCLA).

    It could be the first of two or three games for the Big Ten favorites, both of whom are significant favorites to advance to the Big Ten Championship Game and the CFP.

    And the first time we find out how the Big Ten favorites react in a big game setting.

    Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X @MattHayesCFB.

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