The 2024 college football season may end up being the greatest of all time. Ask most fans, at least in recent years, and that title belongs to a chaotic 2007 season which, among other things, contained Appalachian State’s landmark upset win against Michigan.
At least in terms of unpredictability, 2024 is matching 2007’s freak so far. Week 8 was a microcosm of it all. Top-ranked Texas fell at home to No. 5 Georgia 30-15. It was the largest home loss by a No. 1 team since 1982 Pittsburgh when Dan Marino was running the show and the second time this season that a No. 1 team has faltered. Former No. 1 Alabama set a high bar in craziness with its Week 6 loss to unranked Vanderbilt.
Anticipating that No. 2 Oregon, which earned its first top-three victory in program history by downing Ohio State last week, will climb to the top spot in Sunday’s AP Top 25, the Ducks would be the fourth different school to be ranked No. 1 this season. They’re one of just a handful of teams that remain unbeaten.
The remaining undefeated teams? Don’t look in the vaunted SEC. No. 3 Penn State and Oregon are two of three in the Big Ten, joined by 7-0 Indiana … just like everyone predicted. No. 9 Iowa State at 7-0 is off to its best start since 1938. No. 13 BYU has some magic mountain working in its favor amid a 7-0 start. No. 23 Army and No. 25 Navy are a combined 13-0 while ripping through opponents on a weekly basis.
That’s not to mention 7-0 Miami, which has provided a thrill a minute during its resurgence under coach Mario Cristobal; the No. 6 Hurricanes earned their third straight one-possession win Saturday by downing Louisville 52-45. Or 6-0 Pittsburgh, off to its best start since that 1982 Marino team. It truly feels like anything can happen on any given week.
This in a year where so many were ready to pile dirt on college football as a sport. It’s certainly not perfect, but 2024 is a reminder of its beauty.
Here’s some other overreactions we were able to pull out from a loaded Week 8 slate.
Pencil Indiana into the College Football Playoff
No. 16 Indiana is real, folks. The Hoosiers have been real for a while, but their dominant 56-7 dismantling of Nebraska Saturday afternoon should have quelled any remaining doubts about Indiana’s legitimacy.
Curt Cignetti’s a winner. By leading the Hoosiers to seven victories already, he’s ensured that he will have a winning record in all of his 14 seasons as a head coach. He hasn’t won fewer than seven games since 2018 when he was at Elon.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke has been a revelation for Indiana, which has struggled to find stability at the quarterback position in the post-Michael Penix Jr. era. Rourke had 189 yards passing and one touchdowns while dealing with an injury against the Huskers, and he’s currently third in the Big Ten with 1,752 yards passing this season. He’s playing his way into the NFL Draft conversation, and he’s a huge reason behind Indiana’s resurgence.
As a result, the Hoosiers may have just secured their spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff with the Nebraska win. Indiana has just one ranked team remaining on its schedule in Ohio State (Michigan is sure to drop out of the AP Top 25 on Sunday) and should be favored in each of its games against non-Buckeye opponents. Running the table is never a guarantee, but the Hoosiers control their own future from here on out.
USC needs to reconsider Lincoln Riley
Losing to a two-win Minnesota team two weeks ago was bad. Handing Maryland its first Big Ten win of the year — the same Maryland team that got run off the field against Northwestern in Week 7 — is unacceptable. This is Riley’s third year with the program and the Trojans are in a tailspin.
They have progressively gotten worse each year under Riley. USC now sits at 1-4 in Big Ten play, its worst conference record through five games since 2000, and is 2-9 in one-score games with Riley at the helm.
The Trojans clearly weren’t ready for the physicality that the Big Ten brings, no matter what changes Riley instituted in the offseason. Injuries haven’t helped, but USC constantly runs out of gas as games wear on.
Now there’s some doubt as to whether USC will even make a bowl game. The Trojans have to find three wins against a schedule that features games against Rutgers, Washington, Nebraska, UCLA and Notre Dame. UCLA’s the only one you can feel good about at this point.
That’s a sorry state to be in Year 3 under a coach that makes around $10 million per year. Riley hasn’t given any reason to think that a turnaround is in store now or anytime in the future. Riley’s buyout currently sits around $88 million, so it’s not an easy decision for administrators to make, but the Trojans seriously need to evaluate things before they spiral further.
It’s past time that West Virginia shows Neal Brown the door
Brown prolonged the inevitable with a strong showing in 2023, leading West Virginia to its first nine-win season since 2016 and earning a second bowl victory in a four-year span. Time has shown that last season was an exception in Brown’s tenure, not the norm.
Those nine wins are sandwiched between one of the most mediocre spans in program history. Brown had losing seasons in three of his first four years leading the Mountaineers, and 2024 is shaping up to be the worst outing yet.
With Saturday’s 45-18 loss to Kansas State, West Virginia fell to 3-4 on the year with a 2-2 showing in conference play. It was the Mountaineers’ third double-digit loss against Power Four competition this season. West Virginia is now 0-9 against ranked opponents under Brown since Oct. 30, 2021’s upset win against Iowa State.
We’ve already seen Brown’s ceiling, and it’s significantly lower than some of the most lackluster years under the likes of Dana Holgorsen and Rich Rodriguez. There’s no good reason to trot him out there anymore.
At least the tailgating is good in Morgantown, or so I hear.
SMU has the makings of an ACC champion
It was easy to write SMU off after it struggled against Nevada to open the season and then followed that up a couple weeks later with a loss to BYU. It was a lackluster start for the Mustangs, who fought hard to gain entry into the ACC and had dark horse hopes entering the season.
Well, they’re no longer dark horses. SMU looks like a legitimate conference-championship level team. That BYU loss must have awoken something in the Mustangs. With Saturday’s 40-10 win against Stanford, SMU improved to 3-0 in conference play. Two of those wins have come by at least 21 points.
A switch to Kevin Jennings as the full-time starting quarterback has worked miracles for SMU. He had 317 yards and three touchdowns passing against Stanford, marking his third straight game with at least 250 yards through the air and his second in that same span with three touchdown tosses.
Miami and Clemson are stealing all of the headlines, but SMU is right there with them in the race and has looked equally impressive thus far. It helps that the Mustangs don’t have to play the Hurricanes or the Tigers, and they may very well be favored in each of their five remaining games.
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