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Who will win the last currently scheduled Bedlam rivalry game? Speaking of Bedlam, can OSU running back Ollie Gordon II go over 271 yards for 3 straight weeks and become a Heisman front-runner? Will LSU hand Alabama a second home loss in a single season? Does Missouri pull off the upset between the hedges?
Ollie Gordon II has gone over 121 yards for five straight games, and over 271 for two straight games. Gordon could make a late surge toward a Heisman Trophy if he keeps this up. His Oklahoma State Cowboys host the Oklahoma Sooners in the last Bedlam game that is currently scheduled.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma just hopes to rebound from the loss to Kansas and get back in the good graces of the College Football Playoff Committee which placed the Sooners at No. 9 in the initial rankings that were released on Tuesday.
It’s the 118th edition of Bedlam – and the final one for the foreseeable future. Oklahoma is off the SEC next season, putting the future of this great rivalry in jeopardy.
Fans in Stillwater will be more fired up than ever to give the Sooners a proper send off. Led by big-play RB Ollie Gordon II, Oklahoma State has reeled off four consecutive wins to shake off a rocky opening month. Gordon now leads the country in rushing and is the reigning Maxwell Award Player of the Week for his heroics in last week’s Cincinnati win.
Oklahoma, on the other hand, is looking to rebound from its first loss of the year and its first loss to Kansas since 1997. The Sooner defense, which had been sound all year, could not stop the Jayhawk running game. If Brent Venables and the staff can’t get those holes plugged fast, it could be a long weekend against OG2 & Co.
It’s not necessarily a divisional elimination game, and Ole Miss is still firmly in the hunt, but Saturday night in Tuscaloosa will go a long way to deciding the SEC West champ.
LSU and Alabama always matters, but it matters even more when both are bucking for an SEC crown. Each team has momentum. The Crimson Tide has won six in a row since its lone loss to Texas in Week 2. This isn’t Nick Saban’s best squad, but they’re gritty and they’ve found a winning formula around QB Jalen Milroe and a defense that hasn’t allowed more than 21 points during the current streak. Can that streak continue against the high-powered Tigers? LSU has rebounded with three consecutive wins since falling to Ole Miss Sept. 30 and the offense leads the country at 47.4 points per game. Jayden Daniels is as hot as any quarterback in America, with an FBS-high 25 TD passes and 11.5 yards per attempt. Dynamic receivers Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas have hauled in 20 of those scoring strikes, setting the stage for an epic game-within-the-game versus Bama DBs Kool-Aid McKinstry, Terrion Arnold, Malachi Moore and Caleb Downs.
Eli Drinkwitz is having a breakout fourth season as the Mizzou head coach. Saturday Between the Hedges, he and the 14th-ranked Tigers look to take this feel-good story to an entirely new level.
The Tigers have already surpassed their win total from each of the last four seasons. Like Drinkwitz, junior QB Brady Cook has turned the corner with 15 TD passes, and sophomore Luther Burden has bloomed into one of college football’s premier receivers. But this is top-ranked and two-time defending national champion Georgia… in Athens. The Dawgs have won nine straight over Missouri, and they’ve raised the bar in October after early close calls with South Carolina and Auburn. QB Carson Beck has been a microcosm for the overall uptick, becoming more and more confident with each passing week, even without injured top target Brock Bowers.
It’s Separation Saturday in the Big 12 as the league’s top six teams prepare to square off and jockey for positioning.
Kansas created hope for the rest of the Big 12 by handing Oklahoma its first loss of the year last weekend. Texas is now the league’s highest ranked team, despite losing to the Sooners on Oct. 7. The Longhorns successfully navigated their first game without injured QB Quinn Ewers by beating BYU, 35-6. The D and the ground game stepped up to provide more support to Maalik Murphy in his first career start. Next up is a visit from Kansas State, which has won three straight games, including the last two over Houston and TCU by a combined score of 82-3. The defense and the DJ Giddens-led rushing attack, staples under Chris Klieman in Manhattan, are sizzling just in time for the stretch run.
The Maxwell Football Club honors the nation’s best offensive player with the Maxwell Award. Here’s a look at last week’s standout offensive players.
This has become a familiar space for Gordon, college football’s hottest running back. Facing Cincinnati’s 18th-ranked run defense, Gordon exploded for 271 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries to join Barry Sanders in 1988 as the only players in school history to run for more than 250 yards in consecutive games. The sophomore from Fort Worth has also gone over 100 yards in five straight games to help Oklahoma State to a 6-2 mark and a four-game winning streak.
Points came at a premium in Saturday’s key ACC showdown with No. 20 Duke. And Jordan gave the Cardinals the offensive punch it needed to defeat the Blue Devils, 23-0, and take a big step toward a possible spot in the conference title game. Healthy again for the first time in weeks, the speedy Jordan pierced one of the league’s top defenses for a career-high 163 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries. He earned the third highest grade for a Week 9 back, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Yellow Jackets stunned No. 17 North Carolina Saturday night, 46-42, behind King to move to 4-0 versus ranked ACC opponents under head coach Brent Key. The Texas A&M transfer outplayed his more decorated counterpart, Drake Maye, to help keep Georgia Tech’s bowl hopes alive. King led the Jackets to 22 fourth-quarter points, accounting for 377 total yards and four touchdowns, including the game-winning pass to Brett Seither with 4:28 left.
The Minutemen got a career day on the ground from Lynch-Adams to upset Army in West Point and snap a seven-game losing streak. The junior, who began his career at Rutgers, weaved in and out of the Black Knights’ D for a personal-best 234 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries. It was the most rushing yards by a UMass player since Marquis Young went for 240 yards in 2015.
Nix has had better statistical games during his decorated career, but few bigger wins than this past Saturday in Salt Lake City. In a matchup of Top 15 programs, Oregon dominated Utah, 35-6, to snap the Utes’ 18-game home winning streak and remain very much alive in the College Football Playoff hunt. In his toughest defensive test of the season so far, Nix completed 24-of-31 for 248 yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers while adding another score with his legs.
Tyler Nubin is an All-Big Ten safety and a candidate for this year’s Bednarik Award. But Week 9 belonged to younger brother Jordan, who came off the bench for the game of his lifetime. With Sean Tyler and Darius Taylor unavailable, P.J. Fleck dug deep in Saturday’s visit from Michigan State. And Nubin, who had six carries all year, went all next-man-in by rushing for 204 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-12 victory.
With a decisive win at Western Kentucky last Tuesday, Liberty moved to 8-0 and punched a ticket to the Conference USA Championship Game. Salter, who began his career at Tennessee, has been the multidimensional catalyst throughout this perfect start. Running Jamey Chadwell’s downhill offense to near perfection, Salter rushed for a game-high 117 yards and a score while efficiently completing 10-of-15 for 169 yards and three touchdowns in the Hilltopper win.
SMU has found its offensive groove, and it could carry the program all the way to an American Athletic Conference title. The 6-2 Mustangs, whose only losses have been at Oklahoma and at TCU, have scored 124 points over the last two games. In Saturday’s 69-10 demolition of Tulsa, Stone was almost flawless in one half of action. He needed just 15 completions on 20 attempts to amass 371 yards and three touchdowns while earning Pro Football Focus’ highest passing grade of Week 9.
The Maxwell Football Club honors the nation’s best defensive player with the Chuck Bednarik Award. Here’s a look at last week’s standout defenders.
Cooper has been the brightest spot in this up and down season in College Station. The junior is playing at an All-American level in his fourth season as an Aggie, making his presence felt in every phase of the defense. Cooper is instinctive, has a nose for the ball and can make plays all over the field. In Saturday’s 30-17 win over South Carolina, the full array of his ability was on display. Cooper had seven stops, two tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble, a pass breakup and four hurries of Spencer Rattler enroute to being Pro Football Focus’ top-rated Week 9 linebacker.
After surprising Maryland Saturday as a two-touchdown underdog, the resilient Wildcats are 4-4 and just two more wins from bowl-eligibility. Northwestern rallied from an early deficit behind the passing of Brendan Sullivan and a sack-happy defense. Hubbard notched three of the Wildcats’ six sacks of Taulia Tagovailoa to go along with five tackles. The junior’s effort tied for second-most sacks in a game in program history.
The Boilermakers fell to 2-6 with a 31-14 loss at Nebraska, but Jenkins continues to make plays off the edge. While the Huskers jumped out to a 24-0 lead, there was never any quit in Ryan Walters’ D. S Dillon Thieneman once again performed like one of the nation’s premier true freshmen while Jenkins create havoc at the point of attack. The latter finished with eight tackles, 4.5 stops for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and a 55-yard fumble return for a touchdown.
The Broncos stifled Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti Saturday, 45-21, to pick up their first road win of the season. The defense ran amok at Rynearson Stadium, forcing four turnovers and directly scoring 12 points. Kneeland was the catalyst up front. The local kid from just up north in Grand Rapids delivered a career day with 11 tackles, four stops for loss, three sacks and a forced fumble that was scooped up by Corey Walker for a touchdown.
After three seasons in Gainesville, Powell-Ryland is proving you can return home again. The Portsmouth, Va. product is enjoying a breakout season as the Hokies’ most disruptive edge rusher. Powell-Ryland has gotten to the quarterback six times in the last two games, both wins, and now leads the ACC in sacks. In Thursday’s 38-10 rout of Syracuse, he had four tackles and took down Garrett Shrader twice as Virginia Tech evened its mark and remained in bowl contention.
Trice is one of the most destructive pass rushers in the country, even if it doesn’t always show up in a box score. To truly appreciate the junior from Phoenix, watching the film is necessary. This past weekend on the Farm, for instance, a 42-33 U-Dub win. Trice had four tackles and a sack, but spent all night in the Stanford backfield, recording 16 total pressures and a dozen hurries of Ashton Daniels. It was the most total pressures recorded by an FBS player so far this season.
The South Alabama O-line had absolutely no answer for Whitfield, who was virtually unblockable from start to finish in Mobile Saturday evening. The explosive Jack linebacker from Houston used his quick first step and closing speed to make seven tackles, 3.5 sacks and three forced fumbles in the 33-20 road win. Whitfield is the first FBS player this season to force fumbles in a game.
The Wolfpack faithful had plenty to celebrate on homecoming, highlighted by a 24-17 victory over Clemson. In a game littered with talented, next-level linebackers, no one was better than Wilson who is reminding the nation of his ceiling when he’s fully healthy. He helped shut down the Tiger attack with eight tackles, 1.5 stops for loss and a third-quarter pick-six that gave the Pack a cushion it would never relinquish.
Rich Cirminiello is the VP of College Awards at Maxwell Football Club.