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    • College Football Week 6 Winners, Losers: Alabama is upset and ahead
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    College Football Week 6 Winners, Losers: Alabama is upset and ahead

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    Beat Georgia one Saturday and lose to Vanderbilt the next.

    No team has had a week like No. 2 Alabama. After earning their most impressive win of September by knocking off the Bulldogs, the Crimson Tide started October with a loss at Vanderbilt that qualifies as one of the most shocking upsets in SEC history.

    Led by a near-perfect performance from quarterback Diego Pavia, a ball-handling scheme that kept Alabama’s offense on the sidelines and two big takeaways, the Commodores defeated Alabama 40-35 for the first win in program history against a top five. opponent. The win was the program’s first against the Tide since 1984.

    The toast of the town last week, Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer must now deal with the fallout from an epic flop. From here you can hear the Alabama fans: No, this would never have happened under Nick Saban.

    That’s a fact. Vanderbilt scored 13 points in four meetings against the Saban-era Tide, but was down 13 at the end of the first quarter on Saturday. Leading 23-14 at halftime, the Commodores withstood an Alabama surge and then delivered the dagger with a touchdown to make it 40-28 with five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

    Forget everything you thought you knew about Alabama: that this was an elite team, with an elite offense, an elite quarterback, an elite head coach and the opportunity to get better every week on the way to an SEC championship. This loss erases any good feelings from the win against the Bulldogs and threatens to swamp DeBoer’s first season.

    Meanwhile, Vanderbilt delivered a masterclass in how to upset an opponent with a huge talent advantage.

    The Commodores controlled the clock and held possession for more than 40 minutes. They avoided any turnover. Alabama ran 46 plays to the Commodores’ 73, 53 of which were on the ground; they had more carries than the Tide had plays, period. They were unique enough on offense to stagger Alabama’s defense. At times, the Commodores took what they wanted against a defense and staff that had no answers.

    And they were helped by the obvious: Alabama thought they were going to roll. Would that mentality have happened under Saban? The answer is debatable. Saban is gone, and things just aren’t the same anymore.

    This makes Alabama by far the biggest loser from week 6 of the regular season:

    Winners

    State of Ohio

    The first test of the season for the No. 3 Buckeyes went smoothly in the second half. The first wasn’t great: OSU led just 7-0 against Iowa at halftime after committing two turnovers with another turnover on downs. But the offense came alive in the second half, sparked by freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and established veteran Emeka Egbuka with a boost from the Hawkeyes’ own giveaways. Smith made a ridiculous one-handed touchdown grab to make it 14-0 five minutes into the third quarter, quarterback Will Howard ran one in on an Iowa fumble and Egbuka scored twice in the second half and three times overall as the Buckeyes pulled away to win 35-7.

    Washington

    Nearly nine months after losing the 2023 national championship to Michigan, Washington made a Big Ten statement with a 27-17 win at home against the No. 10 Wolverines. Michigan made a necessary quarterback change by bumping veteran Jack Tuttle into the lineup after trying Alex Orji, and Tuttle was better until a painful interception late in the fourth quarter that helped seal the Huskies’ victory. After a somewhat sloppy start, littered with painful losses to Washington State and Rutgers, the Huskies got a win they needed ahead of a tough stretch of Big Ten play.

    SMU

    SMU has been an unexpected success story as new members of the ACC. The Mustangs moved to 5-1 with a 34-27 win over No. 22 Louisville and are one of three 2-0 teams atop the conference standings, along with No. 14 Clemson and Virginia. (The Cavaliers are another great story under third-year coach Tony Elliott.) SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings had a career day against the Cardinals, setting new career records with 281 passing yards and 113 rushing yards to go with a touchdown. Because this team could be an interesting addition to the postseason race: SMU plays Stanford, Duke, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Virginia and California in the second half.

    Florida

    Does he beat Central Florida 24-13 just as Billy Napier saved his job and booked another season as Florida’s head coach? Let’s get serious. Napier is nearing the end of his tenure after three seasons and the Gators are still likely headed for another year before the postseason. But let’s give some credit here: UCF had this game circled, but never had a chance at what was easily the Gators’ best performance of the season. Beating the Knights is good for business overall — losing to a program that UF considers an upstart in the state would have been very tough to swallow — and marks the team’s second straight win en route to a brutal seven-game stretch, including games against Tennessee, Georgia and Texas.

    Army and Navy

    The two service academies continue to excel and create the possibility of the rivalry’s most hyped meeting in generations. Army put Tulsa to bed early, cruising to a 49-7 victory behind 321 rushing yards and an impressive 26.7 yards per pass attempt. Navy took care of business against the third wheel in the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, defeating Air Force 34-7, snapping the Falcons’ four-game winning streak in the series. The Black Knights and Midshipmen are a combined 10-0 for the first time since 1945.

    Indiana

    No. 24 Indiana has spent enough time under the radar – this is a team that deserves praise amid one of the best starts in program history and deserves a legitimate spot among the contenders for an at-large playoff bid. After beating Northwestern 41-24, the Hoosiers are 6-0 for the first time since 1967 and are in bowl play for the sixth time since 1993. Recreated this offseason with a number of top transfers from the Group of Five, led by former Ohio quarterback Kurtis Rourke, Indiana is averaging 47.5 points per game and has won in all three games in Big Ten play limit of 40 points exceeded.

    Losers

    Missouri

    Facing a legitimate team on the road for the first time, Missouri was defeated by No. 21 Texas A&M in a 41-10 loss, revealing the Tigers as College Football Playoff pretenders while the Aggies’ marked improvements under new coach Mike Elko are underlined. While Missouri was never viewed as a team legitimately capable of winning the conference championship, Missouri was expected to benefit from an expanded postseason format that could have room for every SEC and Big Ten team with fewer than three losses during the regular season. After opening the season with a double-overtime escape against Vanderbilt and getting run off the field by A&M, the Tigers can no longer be taken seriously in the playoff debate.

    Southern California

    Life in the Big Ten won’t be easy. The No. 15 Trojans expected tough, nationally relevant games against Michigan, Ohio State and the like, but Minnesota? That was one of Big Ten-run USC that would immediately move into the top third of the conference and annual playoff contention. That may be the case in the future; in 2024 that will not be the case. Despite the Golden Gophers’ stupidity and attempts to give this game back to USC, the Trojans lost 24-17 after giving up a short fourth-down touchdown run with less than a minute remaining. Three games into Big Ten play, two of which are losses, USC is starting to show what it will be like navigating a conference with more depth and fewer outs than you would ever encounter in the Pac-12.

    State of Florida

    Hey, another loss for Florida State. This one was a little more understandable. The Seminoles never really sniffed Clemson in a 29-13 loss, putting another major dent in their lingering bowl hopes with six games left in the regular season. There was a change at quarterback, but not a noticeable change from an underperforming offense: Brock Glenn averaged 5.6 yards per attempt replacing an injured DJ Uiagalelei and FSU gained just 22 yards on 23 carries. Now sitting at 1-5, the Seminoles still have to play Miami and Notre Dame, so reaching the postseason will require something resembling a miracle.

    State of Oklahoma

    This season was undone in one fell swoop. Two weeks ago, Oklahoma State was No. 15 in the country heading into its Big 12 opener against then-No. 1. 10 Utah. Three games later, the Cowboys are tied at 3–3 and at the bottom of the conference standings. If losses to the Utes (22-19) and No. 20 Kansas State (42-20) showed how far Oklahoma was from the top of the league, Saturday’s 38-14 loss at home to West Virginia says something worse: with the offense struggling and the defense falling apart, the Cowboys have gone from a potentially great team to battling for six wins.

    State of North Carolina

    They’re nowhere near Florida State’s disastrous level, but NC State has to be among the biggest disappointments in the Power Four at 3-3 and winless in the ACC midway through the regular season. The Wolfpack are ranked No. 22 in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll and have wins against Western Carolina, Louisiana Tech and Northern Illinois; blowout losses to Tennessee and Clemson by a combined 65 points; and a truly confusing 34-30 loss on Saturday to Wake Forest, which floundered out of the gate but stole a road win with two touchdowns in the final eight minutes.

    Alabama-Birmingham

    UAB is not Alabama, as coach Trent Dilfer said after last week’s loss to Navy. Yep, the Blazers aren’t Alabama A&M either. The worst coaching hire of this and perhaps any decade continues to pay miserably for UAB, which fell to 1-4 after a 71-20 loss to Tulane. (Not a misprint.) It turns out that hiring an unqualified, arrogant, unproven former NFL quarterback to lead one of the most consistently successful programs in the Group of Five was, in fact, a terrible decision. That’s way too good: Dilfer got a winner, pure and simple, and turned that winner into a punchline. The UAB fan base deserves much better than this.

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