- Oregon has emerged as a national championship contender after defeating Penn State on the road.
- Ole Miss is now considered a legitimate playoff contender after a win against LSU, though some question if they are overrated.
- Despite early losses, Notre Dame is still considered a viable candidate for the 12-team College Football Playoff.
∎ Kirby Smart can’t beat Alabama.
∎ James Franklin can’t beat the best teams on his schedule.
∎ LSU can’t move the ball.
∎ Sam Pittman entered the season as a fired-coach-in-waiting.
The weekend also re-established Alabama as a top-10 team, and reaffirmed field stormings are theatrical, but dangerous.
Here’s what else lingers on my mind after an eventful weekend of ranked showdowns:
Is Alabama football back?
If Alabama wants full adoration after beating Georgia, then it must beat Vanderbilt and Missouri. I’ll believe Alabama is ‘back,’ once the Crimson Tide show consistency, something never previously attained in the Kalen DeBoer tenure.
Remember, the Tide got up for the big games last season, too. They toppled Georgia. They thrashed LSU. They won the Iron Bowl. They also wilted against a pair of teams that finished the regular season 6-6.
“We didn’t handle success last year,” DeBoer acknowledged this week.
To wit, Alabama lost to Vanderbilt a week after beating Georgia.
Seismic though this latest takedown of Georgia was, Alabama looks more like a team positioned for repeated high-wire acts, rather than the destructive Tide of yore.
Stringing together wins against Vanderbilt and Missouri on the heels of this emotional triumph would show this year’s team is not a reincarnation of last season. These next two SEC foes are the type of meat-and-potatoes opponents Alabama must beat to inspire belief it’s built to endure the rigors of an unrelenting schedule.
Alabama has made strides since its season-opening loss to Florida State. Quarterback Ty Simpson progressed from question mark to marquee asset.
Nick Saban’s “Rat poison!” phrase became something of a laugh line, but the spirit behind it rings true. His best teams avoided the pitfalls after emotional wins.
The teams that emerge from the SEC minefield and advance to the College Football Playoff will be those that show the most consistency, and not the one-week wonders.
Which is Alabama?
Vanderbilt and Missouri will help tell us.
Is Oregon a national championship contender?
What’s in the water up in Eugene that Dan Lanning keeps pumping out electric quarterbacks? From Bo Nix to Dillon Gabriel and now Dante Moore, Oregon’s cycled through one tough-as-nails competitor after another.
Moore used his dual-threat talents to squeeze the Ducks past Penn State in a daunting road environment after a cross-country flight.
The preseason hype machine told us Franklin’s Nittany Lions were the Big Ten’s option 1B candidate for the national championship, alongside Ohio State. That hype ignored the reality, to win a national championship, Franklin would need to beat a few teams of Oregon’s caliber, and his teams perpetually wilt when the spotlight shines brightest.
Sure, Penn State rallied and made for an exciting finish, but how did the game end? With a Drew Allar interception. The same way Penn State’s playoff loss to Notre Dame ended.
Never mind the NFL mock drafts. Franklin and Allar aren’t a national championship combination, but Lanning and Moore might be.
Did Ole Miss go from underrated to overrated?
The Rebels were undervalued in preseason rankings. Voters have overcorrected. Ole Miss shot up to No. 4 in the US LBM Coaches Poll after a 24-19 win against LSU.
I’m in on the Rebels as a legit playoff contender. Their offense is punchy, and their schedule is accommodating. But, Ole Miss as the nation’s fourth-best team? I’m not there yet. How quickly we forget Ole Miss surrendered 35 points to Arkansas two weeks ago.
This was a huge moment for Lane Kiffin and his program, and the game cemented Division II transfer Trinidad Chambliss as a bona fide SEC quarterback.
Kiffin severely outcoached Brian Kelly, and Chambliss executed at a high level.
However, this result also served as a product of LSU’s month-long inability to ignite on offense. Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier isn’t throwing with his usual zip. Either he’s playing hurt, or, well, I don’t know how to explain it, but when you combine Nussmeier’s regression with LSU’s persistent lack of a ground game, LSU’s offense is limited.
Notre Dame still can make College Football Playoff, right?
Yes, yes, and yes. Was that clear enough?
Folks, it’s Notre Dame. Do you believe the committee is going to omit the Irish if they rip off 10 straight victories and finish 10-2? Notre Dame lost to a Group of Five directional school last September, and it not only made the playoff, it hosted a game.
Losses to Miami and Texas A&M add up to one loss to Northern Illinois. Bing, bang, bong, and the Irish are a No. 7 playoff seed again, touting a “signature” win against 8-4 Southern California, or some such thing.
Here’s the playoff pitch for the 10-2 Irish: Notre Dame’s redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr kept getting better, and the defense regrouped and improved after a bad start.
Oh, here’s the more succinct pitch: It’s Notre Dame.
The only thing that could keep 10-win Notre Dame out of a 12-team playoff would be Texas A&M tanking, after the Aggies beat the Irish in South Bend. No tanking yet for the Aggies. They’re undefeated. That’s great for Notre Dame. So is its remaining schedule.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.