Regardless of ranking No. 66 in the nation in sacks and No. 105 in takes on for loss, the Utah defense ranks No. 9 in the nation with a 19.6% havoc rate. Long time DC and first-year head coach Morgan Scalley likes to run an attack-style, Cover 1 defense that’s been understood to quit more than the periodic huge play. That design should not work without negatives, and they had none versus BYU: no deals with for loss and no sacks. It does when you can shape-shift into a bend-don’ t-break operation and force turnovers with protection disguises and simulated pressures. 2 of Bear Bachmeier’s 4 interceptions were captured by dropping linebackers or protective ends he stopped working to represent. Those 4 choices, consisting of one on third-and-goal from the two-yard line with 4:39 left and routing 28-20, represented -14.20 anticipated points and a win likelihood swing of 42.2%. Scalley turned Bachmeier into a dropback passer with a 57% pass rate for BYU and simply 56 lawns on 17 brings for BYU running backs, consisting of LJ Martin, who returned from injury. That strategy, plus an aggressive offending method that hunted huge plays, which netted an 11% explosive play rate and a 17% explosive pass rate, brought the Utes to a win in the greatest Holy War in the competition’s long history.
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 7, 2026
Now, Utah has breathing space in the CFP and Big 12 title race as it heads to Arizona next week, and BYU might not have an at-large course into the field and might require assistance to get to Dallas with 2 conference losses. 2. Kalen DeBoer cleared Tiger Stadium … once again
Alabama ran 49 plays from skirmish versus LSU and scored 31 points, in spite of balancing a pedestrian 5.84 lawns per play. LSU ran 81 plays from skirmish, consisting of 48 plays in Alabama area, and scored 13 points.
Kiffin isn’t going to go 0-4 on 4th down and cost himself 16% of win possibility weekly. His offense produced a 52% success rate versus the Alabama defense, and most of the times, that’ll suffice to win. Alabama DC Kane Wommack put a cover on whatever by living with two-high securities and attempted Sam Leavitt to be exact adequate to beat him without dynamites. To his credit, Leavitt ended up with 391 backyards and a 52% dropback success rate, however it didn’t come without the negatives, and the negatives eliminated drives. Leavitt was sacked 4 times and tossed a confusing interception over the middle of the field. That sufficed to offer Alabama a 13-yard average beginning field position edge, so regardless of acquiring simply 35% of readily available backyards to LSU’s 60%, Alabama managed the procedures the majority of the method. Wommack’s method is the proper way to play Leavitt in a vacuum. It’s particularly efficient versus an LSU offense that does not have a clear outside-the-numbers, downfield, jump-ball danger. For all Jackson Harris and Trey’Dez Green’s production, they’re both much better in between the numbers. Leavitt provided his receivers simply 4 objected to catch chances, none to Green, and tried simply 2 passes over 20 lawns downfield. 3. Notre Dame showed Miami isn’t Malachi Toney evidence
With Malachi Toney on the field, it’s difficult to play guy protection and blitz Darian Mensah. After suffering an ankle injury that needed tightrope surgical treatment in practice this week, Toney wasn’t on the field, and Notre Dame DC Chris Ash teed off. Notre Dame blitzed Mensah on 26 of his 44 dropbacks. And in the very first half, to excellent success. Ash didn’t fear Miami’s getting corps without Toney, and he has among the couple of secondaries efficient in manning up throughout the board. Mensah, without his simple button, looked overwhelmed. In the 2nd half, he got to some responses, with Elijah Lofton winning at the catch point and finding Cooper Barkate in the fast video game, and significantly, Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore going out with an injury for 2 drives, however it was too little too late. Eventually, even without Toney, this video game boiled down to Notre Dame moneying in all 3 of its red zone journeys for goals and Miami leaving empty-handed two times. Simply as Notre Dame’s loss to BYU was chosen at a loss zone. Miami is plainly dependent on Toney in a method it wasn’t, even in the CFP last year, and breakable without him in a method it would not have actually been a year earlier. Injuries have something to do with that on a defense that hasn’t been a constant dealing with system all year. As does offending line attrition, which has actually rendered Mark Fletcher Jr. ineffective. CJ Carr had company in the protective battles also, creating the most total video game versus a top quality challenger of his profession, tossing for 319 lawns and 3 goals. Whatever it might have appeared like if Toney were healthy, Notre Dame did what it required to successfully punch its ticket into the CFP. Perhaps Miami will get another chance at the Irish in the postseason. I ‘d take a rubber match after they divided the home-and-home. And with Toney, I ‘d take the Canes. 4. Georgia can blitz its method to the SEC Title video game
It’s normally scary to blitz an actually excellent quarterback like Trinidad Chambliss. He’s an especially quick processor who understands where to choose the ball and tosses with excellent precision and anticipation. Even versus fantastic quarterbacks, in some cases it’s finest to determine the terms. That’s what Brian Flores is performing in the NFL with extremely high blitz rates, and what Georgia did to break the Ole Miss offense in Week 10. Even a group that has fantastic responses for the blitz has a distinctly smaller sized menu of calls versus the blitz. When you bring pressure, as Kirby Smart and Glenn Schumann did on 66.7% of Chambliss’s dropbacks on Saturday, you’re instantly restricting what the offense can get to and how they have to live. Sure, Chambliss can eliminate you as a developer, and no, with simply 8 pressures and 2 sacks, Georgia didn’t continuously eliminate drives with blitz bundles. What it did was eliminate the Ole Miss RPO video game and dragged down Chambliss’s typical depth of target to the point that he balanced 3.40 lawns per dropback, below 7.87 in the Sugar Bowl in 2015, when he was blitzed less and not sacked when. If Georgia can deal with a 60+ percent blitz rate versus Chambliss, it can do it versus anyone. And I would not be amazed if the more it does, the much better it plays. 5. It’s not simply Luke Fahey, Ohio State does not have it
THE Ohio State Buckeyes had actually not quit 38 unanswered points because 1999. That’s what they performed in Columbus after increasing 14-0 on Oregon in Week 10. Dan Lanning chanced a variety of times, consisting of a phony punt pass from Teitum Tuioti to Matayo Uiagalelei, and the Ducks’ playmakers took control of. Ohio State included 2 goals in trash time to make the last rating (41-28) look less uneven, however this was persuading. All year, I therefore lots of others have actually blogged about how the Buckeyes do not have alternatives beyond Jeremiah Smith, and an absence of volatility on the ground left Fahey to toss it 50 times. The larger concern is defensively, with a pass-rush that forced Dylan Raiola simply 8 times on 41 dropbacks and didn’t sack him when. When pressured, Raiola went 2-for-8 for 10 backyards. He’s still simply as pressure-sensitive as ever. Oddly, an Ohio State lineup that cost over $50 million didn’t have any method to take benefit of that. Beyond Smith, there isn’t another first-round NFL Draft possibility, so possibly, after shedding all that skill into the league in 2015, Ohio State is lastly vulnerable to the ups and downs of lineup structure that apparently every other program in the nation is. Or possibly the Buckeyes simply lost their quarterback. In any case, with 3 losses, it’s over for this group. 6. Will Muschamp and Arch Manning send out Missouri packaging
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Steve Sarkisian has Arch Manning playing faster and the run video game working, so when Texas plays like that, there’s little embarassment in taking a loss. The story for Missouri is how Austin Simmons and the offense fared versus Will Muschamp’s primarily Colin Simmons-less defense. Simmons played 19 snaps as he continues to work back from injury, however he had simply one QB pressure. With Simmons’ fast trigger, Texas just pushed Simmons 8 times and sacked him as soon as. That’s far from the only thing the Texas defense is excellent for. Usually, a high blitz rate group can get burned by a QB with a time to toss south of 2.5 seconds, as Simmons had on Saturday. That didn’t occur to Texas, which restricted Missouri to simply 3-for-16 on 3rd down without a conversion of longer than third-and-four. On third-down, Simmons went 4-for-15 for 16 backyards and simply one conversion. Mizzou primarily spent time, however it required even more from Simmons and the death video game to provide the kind of program-defining win that’s long avoided Drinkwitz. That’s a substantial ask in this area, however that’s what it takes if you wish to be taken seriously as a genuine CFP competitor, not simply a load-bearing win for them. 7. Florida’s offense might just plan itself up until now
The Florida Gators balanced 53.5 points per video game over the very first 4 video games of the season. Throughout the last 5, that exact same offense, though with 2 various QBs and without Vernell Brown III, has actually balanced 15.6 points. Buster Faulkner’s system has actually scored simply 15 overall points throughout the last 2 video games, losing to Georgia 27-8 in Week 9 and to Oklahoma 23-7 in Week 10. Faulkner’s plan is still among the very best in the nation, leveraging pre-snap movement, developments, and run-pass dispute to produce dynamites. And when that run-pass dispute still exists, the offense has actually been mainly great, producing 0.01 EPA/play on early downs in this video game with a 53% run rate and a 52.6% hurrying success rate. On passing downs, with a run rate of simply 27%, Florida’s success rate dropped to simply 29%. In General, Trammel Jones balanced -0.34 EPA/dropback. For all Faulkner’s skills as a play-caller, an offense with a dripping offending line and doubtful quarterback play simply isn’t going to achieve success week-over-week in the SEC (or any Power Conference, for that matter). The Gators were just still on the periphery of the CFP race at No. 24, however it’s refrained from doing after this loss. And for the SEC, a win over Florida isn’t rather the resume line product it as soon as was. 8. Arion Carter buries Kentucky with his pricey outing
In a great deal of methods, Kentucky and Will Stein have actually been getting away with it. In spite of a No. 6 ranking, they entered into Week 10 at No. 34 in SP+ and No. 29 in offending effectiveness. That’s an excellent group. That’s most likely not the No. 6 group in the nation, and as Alabama did back in Week 2, Tennessee revealed that there are levels in the SEC, and up until Kentucky gets more skill, it’s not on theirs. Carter’s incredibly disruptive day led a defense that ended up with 4 sacks and 8 TFLs, costing Kentucky 77 backyards. The video game likewise cost Arion Carter a healthy portion of modification too. The veteran linebacker contributes cash to cancer research study for each sack, deal with, turnover and goal he tape this year, and for Week 10, he’ll be spending $6,124 of his NIL cash.
Arion Carter =excellent human pic.twitter.com/OdNhWz58RX— gmannVOLS(@gmannVOLS)November 8, 2026
Protective take on Xavier Gilliam has actually been the star of this Tennessee defense up until now, and while he’s been dominant in advance, it’s Carter’s athelticism and flexibility as a 6-foot-1, 238-pound off-ball linebacker with 17 QB pressures and an 11.1% pass rush win rate as a blitzer that makes this Jim Knowles defense truly sing. 9. UCLA rode the downfield Dieffenbach formula
Without a trusted down-to-down death video game because Nico Iameleava went down with a season-ending injury versus Oregon, UCLA is going to need to win with slim margins each week. Possibly the very best method to do that is to win the explosive play fight, and the Bruins definitely did that as Ty Dieffenbach went bombs away, creating a 24% explosive pass rate. If you remove out dynamite plays, Minnesota was more effective than UCLA in the Bruins’ 34-20 roadway win, with a -0.20 non-explosive EPA/play to UCLA’s -0.27 non-explosive EPA/play. UCLA created the dynamites, and Minnesota didn’t.Dieffenbach is far from best, however he’s browsed the pocket well this year, hasn’t taken lots of sacks, and plainly, he tosses a quite great deep ball. With the No. 23 run video game by success rate and an elite defense, you can win that method. A minimum of sufficient to make the CFP. 10. Texas Tech is various with Tommy C
Every declaration in this area needs to be couched in the understanding that Texas Tech got to play West Virginia’s defense in Week 10, which is a true blessing to all. Still, it’s tough not to be impressed with how this offense has actually changed given that Castellanos changed Will Hammond in Week 9. Castellanos is a run-first gamer, however that tends to open the pass. In Week 10, it opened to the tune of 362 backyards on 18/27 with 5 goals and a 26% explosive pass rate. Texas Tech has a skill edge essentially each week in the Big 12, which’s particularly real at the ability positions. While a Castellanos offense tends to be a bit heliocentric in a James Harden method, if it has the ideal pieces around it, can produce late-2010s Houston Rockets performance. 11. A healthy Alabama offense is a frightening Alabama offense
For all the consternation around Ryan Grubb from Alabama fans, he can call a heck of a video game when he has a complete, or a minimum of near to a complete, enhance of weapons. The Tide had a hard time to run the ball with center Racin Delgatty out and did not have the real danger of verticality in the offense with Ryan Coleman-Williams recuperating from surgical treatment. Both were back on the field versus LSU in Week 10, and all of a sudden the run video game had genuine traction, the death video game was explosive, and the aspects of Grubb’s offense, especially in other words yardage that are frequently reviled as too charming, were all of a sudden simply the correct amount of adorable. That consists of the short-yardage reverse to RCW off a zone-read phony, an old staple from he and DeBoer’s time at Washington.
Trickery from Alabama and Ryan Coleman-Williams strolls it in for 6 pic.twitter.com/NBh3bIFBqc– ESPN College Football(@ESPNCFB )November 7, 2026
12. The Owls knocked the Roadrunners of their American Conference perch
- the huge kids’ table for the Group of Six
FAU quarterback Caiden Veltkamp can actually spin it, and just Thursday night in Boca, he was dealing versus a UTSA defense that can be found in ranked No.
86 in protective performance according to SP +. For as great as Veltkamp was, hurrying for 339 lawns on 49 brings as an offense tends to make life simple on a QB.
If UTSA ran the table and ended up with its only loss to Texas, it had a legitimate shot to be thought about over Boise State. New Mexico, the other genuine G6 competitor, requires Boise State to lose, however
the Roadrunners might have possibly assembled a much better resume by themselves. Now, that ship has actually cruised, so it’s a two-horse race for the area, and it’s most likely not a surprise that the Broncos are winning it.
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