It’s October, and the start of settling into school, which only means one thing–not school, not fall, but College Football.
Teams that have impressed in the first six weeks
Ohio State – The No. 1-ranked Ohio State (OSU) Buckeyes have lost many seniors to the draft this year, but they’ve filled holes mostly on defense. Their defense lost nine of its starters, forcing the Buckeyes to rebuild it from the ground up.
Despite this disadvantage, Caleb Downs leads the way for the Ohio State defense, which is the No. 1 defense in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) this year. Redshirt freshman Julian Sayin is slinging lasers to big-time wide receivers Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate.
Miami – Miami jumped up to No. 2 in the nation with a new transfer quarterback Carson Beck, from Georgia. Miami has shone with an electric defense that has forced nine turnovers in the first six weeks. Carson Beck has won everywhere he goes, at Georgia and at Miami, with a record of 29-3 while starting in college.
A major breakout player this year for the Hurricanes has been speedy freshman wide receiver Malachi Toney, with 29 receptions for 375 yards, an average of almost 13 yards per catch.
Indiana – Fernando Mendoza V has been a crucial addition to this Indiana team as a transfer quarterback from California. Mendoza has dominated his competition this year, with 16 touchdowns and only one interception. He has led one of the most explosive teams in college football with an average margin of victory of around 38 points.
The Hoosiers are fifth in yards per game, averaging 538 yards per game. On the other side of the ball, they are also top 5 in defensive yards allowed, with 221 yards allowed on average per game.
Ole Miss – Ole Miss lost star quarterback Jaxson Dart to the draft; he was the second quarterback picked in the first round. His replacement, Trinidad Chambliss, has led them to the top of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) with a big win over No. 4 LSU, and has the third-best quarterback rating (QBR) in the nation.
Ole Miss has some tough matchups coming up, with two of their next three games against ranked top-ten opponents. Both are SEC matchups, versus No. 10 Georgia and No. 6 Oklahoma in back-to-back weeks; those games will test whether Ole Miss is a playoff-caliber team or just a bowl-game team.
Teams that have regressed in the first six weeks
Clemson – Clemson has started very poorly, with a record of 2-3. Many fans are questioning whether Dabo Swinney, the Clemson head coach, should stay or be fired. They lost the first game of the season to a good LSU team, 17-10, but also suffered poor losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse, both Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) opponents. Many thought that Cade Klubnik was the Heisman Trophy favorite at the start of the season, which has turned out not to be true. He has a QBR of 54 (81st in the nation), which is not the expectation at an erstwhile powerhouse like Clemson.
Florida – Billy Napier, Florida’s head football coach, has a buyout of $21.4 million, or to fire him costs 21.4 million. This is obviously not the situation you want to be in for both sides. Napier or the fanbase. The fanbase has a coach who has not lived up to expectations, and his contract expires in three years. Napier is responsible for everything in the program–every time he wins, he is praised, and every time he loses, he is ridiculed and told it’s all his fault.
Star sophomore QB DJ Lagway has not played up to expectations with only 988 passing yards, seven touchdowns, and seven interceptions. Florida’s defense has been exceptional, allowing less than 13 points per game against top-10 ranked teams, but its offense has struggled under Lagway. The talent is there, but the play-calling is not, so Florida needs to hire a new offensive coordinator.
Penn State – A big takeaway from this year is that James Franklin is probably not the head coach you want for Penn State if you want to be a championship contender. Franklin is 4-20 against top-10 ranked teams, and 15-28 against ranked teams at Penn State.
This has been the pattern for Penn State, as they dominate unranked teams but struggle against highly ranked teams. The icing on the cake, Franklin needs to go, is this team losing to a winless UCLA team 42-37, that fired their head coach and both coordinators. UCLA also hadn’t led the entire season coming into this game.
Texas – After being ranked No. 1 at the start of the season, Texas dropped out of the top 25 after a loss to unranked Florida. That is their second loss of the season, with a loss to OSU 14-7 at the start of the season. It has been a struggle for Texas this season, to say the least. Arch Manning has been a disappointment. He has arguably some of the best weapons in the nation, but is struggling against unranked teams like the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), completing 44% of passes for 114 yards, throwing one touchdown and one interception against UTEP. Texas’ defense has held up well, only having played poorly against Florida.
