We had a really quality and entertaining week 7 in college football. We’ll talk about some MACtion, SEC battles, perhaps the best road win of the season, and Penn State having enough of the James Franklin era. That and more to come!
Here’s the latest poll from 18 Stripes:
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami | 5-0 | vs. Louisville |
| 2 | Ohio State | 6-0 | at Wisconsin |
| 3 | Indiana (+5) | 6-0 | vs. Michigan State |
| 4 | Texas A&M | 6-0 | at Arkansas |
| 5 | Ole Miss | 6-0 | at Georgia |
| 6 | Alabama (+1) | 5-1 | vs. Tennessee |
| 7 | Georgia (+3) | 5-1 | vs. Ole Miss |
| 8 | Texas Tech (+3) | 6-0 | at Arizona State |
| 9 | Oregon (-6) | 5-1 | at Rutgers |
| 10 | LSU (-1) | 5-1 | at Vanderbilt |
| 11 | Georgia Tech (+1) | 6-0 | at Duke |
| 12 | Tennessee (+1) | 5-1 | at Alabama |
| 13 | Oklahoma (-7) | 5-1 | at South Carolina |
| 14 | Vanderbilt (+1) | 5-1 | vs. LSU |
| 15 | Virginia (+1) | 5-1 | vs. Washington State |
| 16 | Notre Dame (+2) | 4-2 | vs. USC |
| 17 | BYU (+2) | 6-0 | vs. Utah |
| 18 | Texas (+2) | 4-2 | at Kentucky |
| 19 | Missouri (-5) | 5-1 | at Auburn |
| 20 | USC (NR) | 5-1 | at Notre Dame |
Dropped Out:
#17 Arizona State
Quarterback Sam Leavitt was a late scratch for the Sun Devils and things…did not go well in his absence. Backup Jeff Sims (formerly of Nebraska and before that Georgia Tech) threw the ball 38 times for an embarrassing 124 yards in their 42-10 blowout loss at Utah.
Top Games Recap:
We’ll start in Eugene where Indiana topples Oregon 30-20 with a strong defensive performance forcing 2 interceptions from Dante Moore. This was the Ducks first home loss since 11/22/22 against Washington, too. Can we comprehend the Hoosiers actually winning it all this year? Would that be Leicester City levels of accomplishment? Even more impressive? Indiana has an easy road until the postseason, too. They’re up to #3 in the latest SP+ rankings and the hardest remaining game is dumpster fire #18 Penn State followed by #31 Maryland.
Ohio State didn’t have many problems dispatching Illinois 34-16 in Champaign.
Ole Miss trailed Washington State late in the 3rd quarter but came through with a 24-21 win.
John Mateer wasn’t expected to play but didn’t anyway, only to throw 3 interceptions in a brutal 23-6 loss to Texas in the Red River Rivalry.
It was actually close this time as Alabama held off a late charge from Missouri to win 27-24. That loss to Florida State is looking worse and worse but this is 3 straight ranked wins for the Tide.
Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton got hurt again. It didn’t matter for the Red Raiders as they rushed for 372 yards in a blowout 42-17 win over Kansas.
A classic SEC slugfest saw Georgia win 20-10 at Auburn. The Tigers are 0-3 in the SEC now.
Penn State hit the eject button on James Franklin and is readying a large buyout check following a 22-21 home game loss to Northwestern. The Nittany Lions also lost quarterback Drew Allar to a season-ending injury.
Another SEC slugfest and same score as LSU beats South Carolina 20-10 in Death Valley.
The least talked about undefeated team has to be Georgia Tech who strolls past Virginia Tech 35-20 in Atlanta.
BYU traveled to Arizona and went to overtime to pick up a 33-27 win.
A big win for Deion Sanders and Colorado who upset Iowa State 24-17 in Boulder.
Interesting Games to Note:
USF 63-36 North Texas: Previously undefeated UNT gets smoked by the frisky Bulls.
UCLA 38-13 Michigan State: Two straight wins for the Bruins!
Cincinnati 20-11 UCF: The Bearcats moved to 3-0 in Big XII play.
Bowling Green 28-23 Toledo: The Rockets led this game 21-0, ouch.
Wake Forest 39-14 Oregon State: The Beavers fired head coach Trent Bray after this 0-7 start.
UNLV 51-48 Air Force: The Rebels scored 38 points in the second half and the team’s combined for 42 points in the 4th quarter.
Iowa 37-0 Wisconsin: Luke Fickell may not be able to survive potentially back-to-back home shutouts with Ohio State coming to town.
Opponent Recap:
Miami (5-0): A Friday night game hosting Louisville is coming up after a bye week.
Texas A&M (6-0): No upset to Florida, the Aggies keep things perfect with a 34-17 win.
Purdue (2-4): They led 10-0 and also led in the 4th quarter but couldn’t put away Minnesota in a 27-20 loss.
Arkansas (2-4): The Petrino 2.0 era starts off with a tough 34-31 loss at Tennessee.
Boise State (4-2): A nice bounce back win for the Broncos getting past New Mexico 41-25 with a big 4th quarter.
NC State (4-3): They finally get a bye week and then travel to Pittsburgh.
USC (5-1): Before coming to South Bend, the Trojans handily beat Michigan 31-13.
Boston College (1-5): Now it’s 5 straight losses for the Eagles after a blowout 41-10 home loss to Clemson.
Navy (6-0): A wild ending saw the Middies barely sneak past Temple 32-31 thanks to a 2-point conversion with just seconds remaining.
Pittsburgh (4-2): Florida State is exiting the national spotlight quickly as Pitt beats them 34-31 in Tallahassee.
Syracuse (3-3): The Orange were on a bye and face Pitt this weekend.
Stanford (2-4): SMU hosted the Cardinal and won easily 34-10.
Should USC be ranked higher?
I would say they have a better win than ND but, a worse loss than either of NDs. If they win this week(please no), they will move up 6-7 spots I’d say and their game with Oregon is a bigee. With 5 games between top 20 teams, this could be a volatile week.
I think that USC should be ranked higher…until this weekend. Let’s hope they continue to have bad games when traveling
Indiana national championship? Hard to believe. For the last 2 years IU has been the “Cinderella” of college football. But, according to Cignetti “All I do is win.” Could he be right?
Not sure it’s allowed to put in a link to the ND student newspaper, but if so, here’s my open letter to the ND Band (in pursuit of, you guessed it, more noise). If anybody knows anyone in the band, and concurs with my messaging, I’d appreciate you making sure this is read.
Just looking for incremental improvements on the margin, is all 🙂
https://www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025/10/dear-band-tktk
I never even thought of some of these nuances regarding the band, but they all make sense to me.
I hope it reaches the band!
Me too. But hope is not a method, hence my appeal for contacts!
I was at the A&M game, a section above the band. They basically didn’t ever even get the chance to play. It was constant music/announcements over the PA. They’ve been relegated to a side act at this point. I wonder if they even get to make any of these decisions anymore, or if everything is dictated to them by someone else in the stadium now.
To be honest, some of this is the band faculty’s issue. There has been a reluctance to be better coordinated and integrated. I’ll leave it at that, other than to say I went for an open letter to the students on purpose.
On the other hand, the overall management of game day atmospherics re: crowd engagement has its own issues — notably how the timeouts are orchestrated. Specifically, like for NC State, I am all in favor of the Recycling Team getting recognized — but pick a time out when we have the ball, not one when they have the ball and are threatening, and we should be getting everyone energized. But I am rambling on, sorry!
To be clear, I’m fully in agreement that things need to be fixed, I’m just not sure who has the authority there.