The last full weekend of the college football season is in full swing. This story will update as more results roll in, but here are some of the most notable winners and losers so far:
Texas (winner)
The Longhorns discovered a rushing game just in time. Quintrevion Wisner ran for 155 yards — 126 of them after halftime — in Friday’s 27-17 victory over Texas A&M. Texas (9-3, 6-2 SEC) rushed for 218 yards total, its most since Sept. 20 against Sam Houston and just two yards shy of its combined total in three previous November games.
That included Arch Manning’s 35-yard score with 7:04 to go to restore a two-score lead, a nearly immediate response to Texas A&M cutting it to 20-17 just a couple minutes earlier. And with that, the Longhorns at least salvaged something from a season that had felt lacking (particularly on offense) from the opening week.
What it probably won’t salvage is a playoff berth. Yes, there’s an argument that by substituting a victory over a punching bag instead of a 14-7 loss to Ohio State to open the season would have tilted things in the Longhorns’ favor. But they also lost at 3-8 Florida and needed overtime to escape harrowing games at 5-6 Kentucky and 5-7 Mississippi State.
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If the Ohio State loss is going to have nuance and texture to it, and it should since the Longhorns’ defense acquitted itself well that day, those scares against .500ish conference foes don’t simply get tossed into a pile of victories and go unexamined. And that doesn’t even delve into just how bad that Florida loss looks compared with other teams around the edge of the field.
Coach Steve Sarkisian is going to stump for his team, as he should. It’s his job. But his argument isn’t a good one. While a non-playoff bowl won’t be a great consolation, dealing Texas A&M its only regular season loss is a better one.
Georgia (winner)
The Bulldogs (11-1) had one task: Win at Georgia Tech in a game moved to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to accommodate a larger crowd (and make the Yellow Jackets more money) to ensure their only concerns when the 12-team playoff field was announced would be seeding rather than selection. A 16-9 victory, even if it was devoid of much offensive artistry, did the trick.
But things got even better for Georgia later Friday night when Texas A&M lost at Texas. That catapulted the Bulldogs into the SEC title game and a return trip to the same stadium next week. If Georgia can win a conference championship — its fourth under Kirby Smart and third in four years — it should net the Bulldogs a bye into the playoff quarterfinals.
Texas A&M (loser)
The Aggies won’t play in the SEC title game thanks to their loss at Texas, and it is unlikely (though not impossible) that they snag a bye into the playoff quarterfinals. That’s the extent of the concrete damage sustained Friday, which probably makes a national title a little harder to win but does nothing to take the possibility off the table.
That feels a bit antithetical to what college football has long been about — that every game matters, that any week could send a team’s season sideways. It’s no secret that an expanded playoff means that’s no longer entirely true, especially for a team entering late November without a loss.
But the thing is, Texas A&M (11-1, 7-1 SEC) is going to have to hear about it. Endlessly.
This could have been — and could still be — a breakthrough Aggies team, and it still will have to deal with the taunts from Longhorns fans for the next year (and maybe longer than that). Texas has moseyed into the SEC and denied Texas A&M a trip to the conference title game in back-to-back years. Last year, the Longhorns beat the Aggies to head to Atlanta. This time, Texas merely opened the door for someone else.
The identity of that someone else (Georgia) isn’t particularly relevant. It’s the act of deprivation that counts, and the Aggies and their fans wound up on the wrong end of it.
Indiana (winner)
The Hoosiers must be slipping a little bit; they let Purdue score this year.
Granted, Friday’s 56-3 thrashing of the Boilermakers in West Lafayette wasn’t as statistically lopsided as last season’s 66-0 thumping that effectively locked Indiana into the playoff. But this game accomplished the same task and sent the Hoosiers (12-0, 9-0) to the Big Ten championship game for the first time in the contest’s 15-year existence.
Thus concludes the first unblemished regular season in Indiana history and the Hoosiers’ first undefeated regular season since going 9-0-1 in 1945.
Massachusetts (loser)
The Minutemen reached the end of a winless season Tuesday with a 45-14 loss to Bowling Green. The score was quite indicative of the program’s past three months; it scored more than 14 twice on the way to an 0-12 record, and it allowed at least 40 on eight occasions (including four in a row to close things out).
Rather than dwell on a clearly bad year as the program returned to the Mid-American Conference, it’s wiser to look in the macro. And that’s somehow almost as unflattering and probably a source of even more frustration.
Since moving up to the FBS, the Minutemen have won 26 games in 14 seasons. They’ve topped out at 4-8, doing so in 2017 and 2018.
Joe Harasymiak, who just concluded his first season, is UMass’ fifth full-time coach (plus two interims) since it gave up being an average-to-good (and ever-so-rarely bad) program a level down for usually being one of the worst in college football’s top tier. It beckoned coaches back who thrived during the program’s FCS days (Mark Whipple and Don Brown). It tried the hotshot young coach (Walt Bell). Nothing’s worked.
And perhaps nothing will. The school is clearly betting on full MAC membership, a move that uprooted most of the Minutemen’s other programs from the Atlantic 10, enhancing its chances of thriving in football. A permanent home undoubtedly will lead to much-desired scheduling stability after nine years as an independent. But a lot more will be required if U-Mass. is to make any kind of football climb.
North Texas (winner)
The Mean Green is losing Coach Eric Morris to Oklahoma State, but he says he’s sticking around until the end of the season. North Texas did its part to ensure he has at least one more meaningful game to work.
North Texas (11-1, 7-1 American) locked up a conference title game berth with a 52-25 pounding of Temple on Friday as quarterback Drew Mestemaker threw for 366 yards and three touchdowns and Caleb Hawkins ran for 186 yards and four touchdowns. The Mean Green led 35-7 at halftime to extinguish any doubt about remaining in the playoff picture.
North Texas will visit Tulane on Friday if the Green Wave wins its regular season finale and play host to Navy if Tulane stumbles Saturday night.
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