Here comes another last weekend in November, and there goes No. 1 Ohio State, northbound. The Buckeyes haven’t lost since the last last weekend in November, piling up 15 wins and one national championship even as some demanding fans might grouse that it wasn’t two. Now they go foraging back into what has become a thick, mysterious Michigan forest.
That last last weekend became a last lost weekend that left the Buckeyes in a stupor from a 13-10 home loss to Michigan, their record this decade against the rival they rather dislike at 0-4, and left all observers in a state of deathless bafflement. “They’re always in the back of our mind in terms of what we’re working toward,” Ohio State Coach Ryan Day told reporters Saturday after reaching an underappreciated 11-0 with a 42-9 victory over Rutgers. “We know this is the last game of the [regular] year and what it means to everybody here so, yeah, it doesn’t take long in the fourth quarter once the [Rutgers] game was in hand, everybody starts figuring out, you know, this thing is coming fast.”
The last weekend in November, a college football juncture often storybook, will find some teams in fresher terrain. Certainly nobody other than some residents of Oklahoma imagined the Sooners, who spent the end of last November plunging to 6-6 on a dreary trip to LSU, would stand one home win over LSU from the College Football Playoff. But that’s where wins at Tennessee and Alabama have taken No. 8 Oklahoma (9-2), and a lunch-pail 17-6 win over No. 22 Missouri prompted quarterback John Mateer to say, “Some people say we should win pretty,” but, “That’s a good [Missouri] defense, and that’s a good team.”
One might describe a century-plus of college football fandom and all its harrumphing as Some people say we should win pretty.
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Certainly Texas A&M, closing out a pretty good 8-4 regular season by barely budging in a 17-7 loss to Texas last last weekend in November, didn’t figure to refrain from losing ever since, save for a Las Vegas Bowl loss that very clearly stayed in Las Vegas. On Saturday, the No. 3 Aggies reached 11-0 as 104,877 watched them beat Samford even while knowing they would beat Samford, bringing the average home attendance to around 106,000, as Coach Mike Elko pointed out after the 48-0 victory. The 106,000 will take a deep breath as Texas A&M tries to reach its first SEC championship game — and tries to do so through Austin. “Obviously we know what’s in front of us,” Elko said, but what’s behind them has qualified as landmark.
As Virginia closed a 5-7 season in 2024 with the usual drubbing at Virginia Tech, this one by 37-17, certainly nobody thought of the Cavaliers as good bets for the perch they will find at opening kickoff 364 days later. That will come Saturday, when a third win in the rivals’ past 26 meetings would let Virginia (9-2) clinch a berth in the ACC championship game. And as Vanderbilt was dipping to a pretty fair 6-6 at home against Tennessee at the end of November 2024, the idea of being 9-2 and No. 14 and still hoping for a playoff berth might have seemed more than 364 days away. Yet 364 days from back then, the Commodores will go to Tennessee with a game-changing offense, with a bruising defense and with a blazing star in quarterback Diego Pavia.
“He tips the field when he steps on it,” Coach Clark Lea told reporters in Nashville on Saturday, right around the time Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops called Vanderbilt “a very physical team that’s definitely worthy of being in the playoff” and Pavia, having thrown for 484 yards in a 45-17 win, said, “I feel like I’m the best player in football right now.” Those observations would have seemed dreamy last late November, as would barging toward Knoxville with outsize confidence.
Nobody outside of Lubbock much noticed last year when Texas Tech reached 8-4 by clobbering visiting West Virginia; now everybody should notice if the No. 5 Red Raiders reach 11-1 should they win Saturday at West Virginia.
Some people seem similar to last time around. No. 9 Notre Dame (9-2) looks like an awesome force as it heads for Stanford. No. 2 Indiana (11-0), amid the masterful job done by Coach Curt Cignetti, heads for Purdue (2-9) and heads for the playoff. No. 4 Georgia (10-1) again looks as though it could beat anyone — and looks as though it won’t take eight overtimes with Georgia Tech this time (even as it didn’t look that way last year, either). Oregon was a lock for the playoff as it closed a 12-0 regular season last year by winning, 49-21, over Washington, and No. 7 Oregon (10-1) will be a lock for the playoff if it can win Saturday at Washington. Alabama looked through the window from barely outside the 12-team playoff field last time as it beat Auburn; No. 10 Alabama (9-2) should look out the window from barely inside the 12-team playoff field if it wins at Auburn this time.
Then there’s the program that stands out this late November and really across all late Novembers. In the past 156 years, nobody has been in quite the position of No. 6 Mississippi (10-1). It seems headed for Mississippi State on Friday and for the news conference dais on Saturday. The first trip could clinch a playoff spot, and the second trip could clear up some hubbub involving Coach Lane Kiffin as SEC brethren such as LSU and Florida mull poaching him smack amid a playoff chase. The commotion around that caused Athletic Director Keith Carter to issue an extraordinary announcement that went like this: “Despite the outside noise, Coach Kiffin is focused on preparing our team for the Egg Bowl, and together, we want to ensure that our players and coaches can concentrate fully on next Friday’s game. This team is on the cusp of an unprecedented season, and it’s imperative they feel the support of the Ole Miss family in the week ahead. An announcement on Coach Kiffin’s future is expected the Saturday following the game.”
That means that among all the last Saturdays in November through galloping time, the one upcoming could win the distinction as the most bizarre.
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