Moving the Chains: Takeaways from College Football 2026 – Week Nine

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#5 Notre Dame, with two weeks to recover from their loss to BYU, showed some rust in the first half against 2 – 5 Navy.  Despite holding onto the ball for 23:33 of the first 30 minutes, Navy trailed 14 – 13 at halftime.  A soul-crushing 52-yard TD run by Notre Dame with one minute left in the first half apparently took the win out of Navy’s sails (sorry, couldn’t help myself).  The Fighting Irish dominated the second half and went on to win with ease, 35 – 13.  

#4 Indiana dodged another bullet in overtime for the second week in a row, this time beating Minnesota 23 – 16.  In what was a 13 – 13 tie late in the game, the teams traded 60-yard field goals in the last 19 seconds of regulation to send the game into extra innings.  Ironically, the last-second field goal by Indiana came after the Hoosiers blew three field goal opportunities in the first half: one missed left, one was blocked, and one was never attempted because of a fumbled snap.  So far this season Indiana has had five close games in Big Ten competition (I don’t count the sixth game because it was against Rutgers).  They lost to Ohio State by 4, and beat Northwestern, Nebraska, Michigan, and Minnesota by 6, 3, 7, and 7 points, respectively.  I can’t explain it, but I  think Indiana continues to win because #7 head coach Curt Cignetti somehow wills his team to victory.  (Seriously.  I mean, have you watched Indiana play this season?  How would you explain it?)       

As a devout Florida Gator, I’ve lowered the bar when it comes to my expectations for the football team.  Only for the game against #3 Georgia, I didn’t lower it far enough.  Experts said that the Gators lost the game because they kept shooting themselves in the foot and were their own worst enemy.  I say they shot themselves in both feet with a double barrel shotgun.  In the first half alone, Florida’s QB threw an underhanded alley-oop pass to avoid a sack that resulted in an easy interception, a Gator defender ran into Georgia’s punter to give them an automatic first down, the same QB threw a catchable pass that went through the receiver’s hands that resulted in another interception, a Florida defender was called for pass interference that gave the Bulldogs another automatic first down, and the other Gator QB fumbled the ball which was recovered and returned by Georgia for another touchdown.  Halftime score: Georgia – 24, Florida – 0.  The experts failed to mention that Florida’s biggest mistake may have just been showing up.  On a positive note, the Gators scored late in the fourth quarter to extend their NCAA record by scoring in their 481^st consecutive game.  Final score: Georgia – 27, Florida – 8.  

# 11 Texas had an easy time with Mississippi State in a 31 – 3 in victory that was nothing but a tune up for next week’s game at #23 Missouri.  Meanwhile, #12 Ole Miss had an even easier time with Auburn, winning 45 – 15 in their tune up for next week’s clash against #3 Georgia in Oxford. 

Other key matchups next week in the SEC pit #10 Alabama against #15 LSU and #9 Kentucky taking on #16 Tennessee.      

In the Big 12 round robin for what likely will be their one and only spot in the year end playoffs, #6 Utah beat Cincinnati 49 – 25; #8 BYU beat Arizona State 27 – 20; #13 Texas Tech beat #22 Arizona State 34 – 26; and Iowa State beat #24 Oklahoma State 51 – 49.  Utah is now the only team in the Big 12 still undefeated in conference play (5 – 0).  

#7 UCLA improved to 8 – 0 with a pedestrian 27 – 0 win over Nevada.  Meanwhile their crosstown rivals, Southern Cal, hosted #2 Ohio State in Los Angeles.  The Trojans kept the Buckeyes out of the end zone in the first half and went into the locker room leading 20 – 9.  Things didn’t get much better for the #2 team in the nation in the second half.  Final score: USC – 30, Ohio State – 18.      

#1 Miami, one week away from their slugfest with #5 Notre Dame in South Bend, had a rather slow start at Chapel Hill.  At halftime the Hurricanes held onto a narrow 17 – 14 lead over Bill Belichick’s North Carolina squad.  A back-and-forth second half ended up with Miami coming out on top 38 – 35.  The Tarheels, after scoring a TD late in the game to pull within 3 points, tried an onside kick – not once, but three times – before Miami recovered the ball (third time’s a charm!) and ran out the clock.  As for the first two onsides kicks, the first one was recovered by UNC only to be negated by a penalty because one of their players was ever-so-slightly offsides, and the second one was also recovered by UNC but was negated by another penalty for one of their players making contact with a Miami player just ever-so-slightly before the ball traveled 10 yards.   It was reminiscent of the finish of Miami’s game against FSU when the Seminoles completed two consecutive Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, both of which were negated by two of the worst officiating calls in recent memory.    

At this point in the season, the Power Four conference leaders are:

• ACC – Miami, 5 – 0
• Big Ten – UCLA, 5 – 0
• Big 12 – Utah, 5 – 0
• SEC – Georgia and Kentucky, both 5 – 1

One more thing, and this may come as a surprise to some of you.  The Pac 12 is no longer one of the ‘power’ conferences.  That’s not surprising part; that would be that the Pac 12 is still a conference.  As for ‘who’s on first,’ that would be Boise State, now 4 – 0 after barely escaping with a narrow 46 – 45 win over the pesky Texas State Bobcats, who furiously clawed back from a 25-point halftime deficit to make it a close game.  

Now, a Heisman update:

• Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith had 8 receptions for 83 yards and a TD (the 40^th of his career, a new conference record).

Miami’s dynamic duo fared slightly better: 

• Quarterback Darian Mensah completed 22 of 29 passes for 274 yards and 3 TD’s.  He also ran for 36 yards on 4 carries.
• Receiver Malachi Toney had 7 receptions for 75 yards and 2 TD’s.  He also carried the ball once for 11 yards. 

At this point in the season the edge goes to either of the Miami players (take your pick) in lieu of the team’s undefeated record and #1 ranking.  Ohio State now has two losses and will likely fall out of the Top Ten. 

However, if the Heisman was awarded on the merits of a single play, the hands down winner would be USC’s Mark Bowman, who caught a short pass, took off running, completely jumped over – literally hurdled – his initial tackler, then broke two more tackles and ended up taking the ball 70 yards that gave his team the ball inside Ohio State’s 5-yard line.  If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out on YouTube.  Pay particular attention to the player Bowman hurdled.  

It’s worth noting that Miami has been very fortunate to hold onto their #1 ranking.  Fortunate calls on two Hail Mary’s and a pair of onsides kicks have kept their undefeated season alive.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Mario’s Cristo-ball is about to break.