College football winners, losers in Week 10: Ole Miss sizzles, Big 12’s at-large CFP bid hopes on life support

Week 10 seemed to be off to a slow start, but then a pair of Big 12 underdogs delivered knockout blows to top conference championship contenders. Suddenly, Iowa State and Kansas State’s place in the College Football Playoff was thrown up in the air and the league title race turned on its head. 

Elsewhere, No. 3 Penn State lost its 10th game to Ohio State in 11 tries as the Nittany Lions again proved to be a step behind top contenders. Auburn coach Hugh Freeze lost to a familiar foe to really put himself behind the 8-ball in the Tigers’ rebuild. Nebraska failed to get bowl eligible for yet another week, and now could be at risk of missing out on the postseason again. 

In the night slate, SMU and Pittsburgh vie in a battle of ACC championship hopefuls. Texas A&M hopes to live up to its sparkling top-10 ranking against South Carolina. Clemson also hopes to stay on track against Louisville. Here are the biggest winners and losers of Week 10 so far. 

Winner: QB Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt

Has there ever been a coach so individually and specifically tortured by a specific player as Hugh Freeze by Diego Pavia? For the third straight season, a Pavia-quarterbacked team played a Freeze-coached team. Amazingly, all three featured different matchups (Liberty vs. New Mexico State, New Mexico State vs. Auburn, Auburn vs. Vanderbilt). Not only is Pavia 3-0  against the Auburn coach, he has absolutely embarrassed Freeze each time. 

Pavia played all three games on the road and was a touchdown underdog each time. It didn’t matter. Pavia’s teams outscored Freeze’s by a combined 97-31. Pavia scored 11 touchdowns with zero interceptions in the three games. 

By the way, Vanderbilt had never beaten Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium before today. The Commodores have now beaten Alabama and Auburn in the same season for the first time since 1955. Pavia is on his way to becoming a college football folk hero. In Auburn, Alabama, though, he might become a perpetual bogeyman. 

Loser: The Big 12

The Big 12 was in a shockingly strong position heading into November with two undefeateds and a one-loss team all in strong contention for the College Football Playoff. After Week 10, the dream of a two-bid Big 12 is probably off the table. 

No. 11 Iowa State played with fire a week ago against UCF, and it finally burned them in a 23-22 heartbreaker against Texas Tech. The Cyclones outgained Texas Tech by nearly 70 yards, but two turnovers and poor efficiency on third down ultimately doomed them. Less than an hour later, No. 17 Kansas State lost a 24-19 shocker against Houston. 

While the losses are significant for each team’s Big 12 title chances, the implications will span past this week. Now, BYU is the only undefeated team left in the conference. More significantly, any team that loses to the Cougars in the Big 12 title game would have at least two losses. There’s still a narrow path two getting two teams in (it involves an upset in the Big 12 title game), but it’s not nearly as straightforward as it was before Saturday’s games.

Winner: Ole Miss

After a messy couple of weeks, it was good to see Ole Miss shake off some rust and put an opponent through a table. Quarterback Jaxson Dart became the first quarterback in program history to throw for 500 yards and six touchdowns as the Rebels obliterated Arkansas 63-31 to move to 7-2 and stay alive in the playoff race heading into a monstrous battle against No. 2 Georgia. Despite missing receiver Tre Harris and losing running back Henry Parrish Jr., the Rebels nearly reached 700 total yards and hit an absurd 16.5 yards per pass attempt. Ole Miss complicated its CFP case by dropping a clunker against Kentucky, but a home win over the Bulldogs next week can change fortunes. 

Loser: Penn State receivers

Penn State has put together some of the best recruiting classes in the country and stacked talent at almost every position. But in a a 20-13 loss to No. 4 Ohio State, the gap at wide receiver could not have been more stark. The Nittany Lions completed only three total passes to wide receivers for 49 yards, a brutal total for the No. 3 team in the country. Quarterback Drew Allar wasn’t awesome, but played well enough to win. Outside of tight end Tyler Warren, he got no help. 

Granted, Ohio State is the opposite extreme with its embarrassment of riches, but receivers are more important today than ever. Ohio State struggled in several aspects of the game, but got key plays in the red zone from Brandon Inniss and Emeka Egbuka to score. Penn State simply won’t be able to compete at the highest level until it upgrades its receiver room in a major way. 

Winner: Minnesota

Don’t look now but the Golden Gophers are quietly putting together a solid season. Minnesota came back from a fourth quarter deficit to shock No. 24 Illinois behind a go-ahead touchdown from quarterback Max Brosmer to Jameson Geers. The win was a fourth straight for Minnesota after victories over USC, UCLA and Maryland. Outside of a 17-point loss to Iowa earlier this season, the Gophers’ other two defeats came by a combined five points. PJ Fleck is quietly putting together one of his best coaching jobs. 

Loser: Memphis

The Tigers had a chance to solidify their path to an AAC Championship Game by beating a struggling UTSA team. Instead, a series of poor performances finally ended in a loss. The Tigers lost a stunner 44-36 against the Roadrunners as Memphis turned the ball over twice and gave up more than 400 yards. UTSA quarterback Owen McCown threw for 280 yards and four touchdowns in his 10th career start. Memphis headed into a culmination year behind senior quarterback Seth Henigan and senior running back Mario Anderson Jr. Now, any chance of contending for the first ever CFP slot is gone.