- No. 1 Ohio State defeated Washington 24-6, snapping the Huskies’ 22-game home winning streak.
- No. 11 Mississippi upset No. 4 LSU, positioning the Rebels as a potential College Football Playoff contender.
- LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas were among the week’s biggest losers after suffering significant conference defeats.
Facing a borderline Top 25 opponent in one of the unfriendliest environments in the Bowl Subdivision, No. 1 Ohio State combined superb red-zone defense and a solid, error-free game from quarterback Julian Sayin to beat Washington 24-6.
The Huskies scored just a pair of field goals on three trips inside the Buckeyes’ 20-yard line, including a crucial turnover on downs late in the first half.
That was the turning point: Leading 3-0, Washingto had advanced to the Ohio State 18-yard line before a sack on second down crippled the drive. A failed fake field goal gave things back to Buckeyes, which went 73 yards in 10 plays to take a 7-3 lead into halftime.
The loss snapped the Huskies’ 22-game home winning streak dating to former coach Kalen DeBoer’s debut in 2022.
Sayin completed 22 of 28 attempts for 208 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. The redshirt freshman is now hitting on an FBS-best 78.8% of his throws.
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Amid legitimate questions about the health of the defensive line following a rash of offseason departures, the Buckeyes’ defense aced this first road trip of the regular season by holding the Huskies to 61 yards on 30 carries with nine tackles for loss. Ohio State also had six sacks.
The defending national champions are building a blueprint that has successfully papered over some apparent flaws, including the rebuilt defensive front and a receiver corps that lacks reliability beyond superstar sophomore Jeremiah Smith.
In fact, the most positive development from the first month of the regular season is the play of the defense under new coordinator Matt Patricia. The Buckeyes have allowed just two touchdowns through four games, one with under four minutes to go in the opener against No. 7 Texas and the second on a defensive breakdown last Saturday against Ohio.
The offense might have some work to do. OSU averaged 9.5 yards per play against Grambling and Ohio but just 4.7 yards per snap against Texas and Washington. But there are elite building blocks in Smith, Sayin and true freshman running back Bo Jackson, who ran for 80 yards on 17 carries on Saturday.
Ohio State, Mississippi and LSU lead college football’s biggest winners and losers:
Winners
Oregon
The No. 5 Ducks seemed on the verge of pulling away from No. 2 Penn State with the score 17-3 with 12:25 remaining in regulation. The Nittany Lions responded, though, scoring 14 unanswered points behind quarterback Drew Allar to force overtime. In the second extra frame, the Ducks picked off Allar to seal a 30-24 win that should vault them to No. 2 in the Coaches Poll. While PSU can point to the comeback as something to build on, Oregon can tout the maybe the best win by any team in the country in the year’s opening month. Even more than that, the way the Ducks handled the environment in Beaver Stadium suggests they’re built to manage the pressures of making another run at the Big Ten crown. The game’s biggest star was sophomore quarterback Dante Moore, who hit on 29 of 39 attempts with three touchdowns and no turnovers.
Kalen DeBoer
An ugly 2024 season by Alabama’s recent standards and a loss to No. 8 Florida State in the season opener had DeBoer in some pretty dire straits quickly into his second year as Nick Saban’s successor. The 24-21 win against No. 3 Georgia puts his tenure back on track and reestablishes the No. 16 Crimson Tide as a team to watch in the SEC. Clearly a different quarterback since Week 1, Simpson carved up the Bulldogs in the first half and finished 24 of 38 for 276 yards and a pair of scores. The trick for Alabama will be avoiding the post-Georgia meltdown of last season, which saw the Tide go 5-4 after beating the Bulldogs to end September.
Mississippi
No. 11 Mississippi is set to rocket up the US LBM Coaches Poll after beating No. 4 LSU 24-19 behind 385 yards of total offense from backup quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, one of the breakout stars from the regular season’s first month. After the Tigers scored with 5:04 left to make it a single-possession game, Chambliss keyed an 11-play drive that included a game-sealing fourth-down conversion on a 20-yard completion. The Rebels still have road trips against No. 3 Georgia and No. 10 Oklahoma on the docket but are in terrific position to make the College Football Playoff.
Indiana
No. 12 Indiana broke a late tie against Iowa with a 49-yard touchdown pass by quarterback Fernando Mendoza and won 20-15 to take another step toward a return trip to the playoff. After blitzing No. 23 Illinois in last weekend’s 63-10 win, the Hoosiers had to grind out 337 yards on 5.4 yards per play against the upset-minded Hawkeyes, who have dropped two games against ranked competition by a combined eight points.
Diego Pavia
No. 20 Vanderbilt has never had a player win the Heisman Trophy or even come particularly close, unless you count center Carl Hinkle’s seventh-place finish in 1937. But after leading the Commodores to a 5-0 start for the second time in 80 years, senior quarterback Diego Pavia has to be counted among the award’s top contenders. Pavia ran for 79 yards and a score, threw for 321 yards through the air and tied a program record with five touchdown passes in the Commodores’ 55-35 win against Utah State.
Cincinnati
The Bearcats seem to have gotten on track in a must-win season for coach Scott Satterfield. After losing 20-17 to Nebraska in the opener, Cincinnati captured a third win in a row by beating Kansas 37-34 on the road. This was a quarterback battle: Jalon Daniels had 445 passing yards and four touchdowns for the Jayhawks and Brendan Sorsby threw for 388 yards and two scores for the Bearcats, highlighted by three huge completions to set up the game-winning touchdown run with 29 seconds left.
Losers
James Franklin
Another loss to a top-five opponent won’t help Franklin’s status with a frustrated fan base, which routinely booed the Nittany Lions’ sputtering offense and even unleased a smattering of “Fire Franklin” chants in the second half. A key season already has its early drama: Penn State has not looked good through four games, period, and does not resemble a team capable of winning the Big Ten, let alone the national championship. No coach in the country has as much job security but will face as much pressure the rest of the regular season.
LSU
Give credit to the Rebels’ defense and the Tigers’ miserable offense, which finished with a season-low 254 yards and has yet to gain more than 365 yards in four games against FBS competition. Brian Kelly asked after some grumbling over a 20-10 win against Florida earlier this month: What do you want? Well, a real offense that takes advantage of quarterback Garrett Nussmeier would be a start. LSU built its reputation on a 17-10 win against Clemson that has since become meaningless, so it’s beyond time to reexamine the Tigers’ place in the Top 25 and the SEC power rankings.
Auburn
Auburn’s offense was swallowed up by No. 9 Texas A&M in a 16-10 loss that dropped the Tigers to 0-2 in the SEC and reignites the pressure on embattled coach Hugh Freeze. While Auburn had multiple shots at taking the lead in the fourth quarter, the final score is a little misleading: A&M outgained the Tigers by 259 yards and didn’t allow a third-down conversion on 12 attempts just two weeks after giving up 40 points in a narrow win against No. 21 Notre Dame. Transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold threw for 124 yards on 3.9 yards per pass to continue his hit-or-miss start to the regular season.
Sam Pittman
Pittman is inching ahead of Florida’s Billy Napier as the Power Four coach next on the chopping block after Arkansas fell behind 42-13 at halftime and suffered a humiliating 56-13 loss in Fayetteville to Notre Dame. One of the largest crowds in Razorback Stadium witnessed the program’s eighth-largest margin of defeat at home and largest since losing 52-3 to Alabama in 2020. This is the team’s third setback in a row, following more competitive losses to Memphis and Mississippi, and things don’t get any easier with No. 15 Tennessee and Texas A&M up next.
Southern California
No. 22 Southern California’s 34-32 loss to No. 23 Illinois was a pure, Lincoln Riley-era loss featuring a dynamic offense and continued failures on defense, including a late breakdown that set up the game-winning field goal as time expired. The Trojans gained 490 yards on 6.3 yards per play and converted 12 of 19 chances on third and fourth down but gave 502 yards and had zero answers for quarterback Luke Altmyer, who averaged 12.6 yards per attempt with two passing touchdowns, one score on the ground and a fourth as a receiver.
Rutgers
Rutgers’ bowl hopes took a substantial hit after losing 31-28 to Minnesota to open 0-2 in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights led 14-0 early in the second quarter and 28-24 more than midway through the fourth but gave up a short Drake Lindsey touchdown pass with 3:24 to play, one of three on the day for the redshirt freshman. This was a must-have win given what’s ahead: Rutgers still takes on Ohio State, No. 2 Penn State and No. 4 Oregon, along with Washington and Illinois on the road.