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Just when we thought we had the SEC figured out, Oklahoma knocked off fourth-ranked Alabama 23-21 to vault itself into the College Football Playoff picture. 

This game was a Brent Venables masterclass. The Sooners took a bend-but-don’t-break approach to defense, giving up plenty of yards but getting stops when they needed them. Oklahoma picked off Simpson once, forced a pair of critical fumbles, held the Crimson Tide to under 2.5 yards per carry, and recorded four sacks and five tackles for loss. 

Oklahoma did a nice job of starting fast and finishing strong. The Sooners started the game with a quick field goal and soon after, picked off Simpson and returned it to the house to take a quick 10-0 lead. The Crimson Tide responded well, chipping in a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter, but the offense came up short down the stretch in the fourth quarter with the game hanging in the balance.

Alabama’s inability to consistently run the ball has been a problem for much of the season, and it reared its ugly head on Saturday evening. I have some serious questions about Alabama moving forward, considering the offense is so one-dimensional.

Oklahoma’s win immediately vaults them into the College Football Playoff party and shuts down any questions about Brent Venables’ job. Alabama’s undefeated SEC record is now gone. This loss might keep the Crimson Tide out of Atlanta and surely adds another wrinkle to the SEC title game race.

There are unravelings. There’s pooping your pants. There’s Kevin from The Office dropping a pot of chili in front of his coworkers. And then there’s whatever Texas A&M did in the first half on Saturday.

Through a half of football, the Aggies did everything in their power to stink up the joint against a three-win Gamecocks team, mere hours after news leaked that head coach Mike Elko was due to signing a monster contract extension. Texas A&M dropped passes, exhibited bad o-line play, missed field goals, and missed tackle after tackle. Up 27 points at the break, South Carolina looked primed for a Top 5 upset.

But then the game flipped on its head. I’m not sure what Elko said to his team at halftime. But whatever it was, it worked. 

The second half was a total 180 for the Aggies. Quarterback Marcel Reed was suddenly accurate again, zipping passes with poise. The receivers could catch. The o-line was opening holes and keeping Reed upright. And the defense was wreaking havoc on the Gamecocks offense. 

The Aggies survived the first-half swoon and scored 21 points in the third quarter. Then came the final period. Down six with the ball on his own one-yard line, Reed engineered a doozy of a 99-yard drive as Texas A&M punched it in to take a one-point lead. Later, the Aggies got a big-time, final drive stop to put the punctuation mark on the 27-point comeback win. 

With the win, Texas A&M remains undefeated and in the driver’s seat in the SEC’s race to Atlanta. South Carolina, on the other hand, must be in a puddle of misery. The loss was so bad, I even wondered to myself if this is something head coach Shane Beamer can come back from. I suppose time will tell.

In a game billed as the biggest showdown of the night, it was the quarterback without the prized family lineage that lit it up in primetime. Ultimately, Georgia proved to be too much for Texas as the Bulldogs pulled away for a 35-10 win. 

Much has been made this season about Texas quarterback Arch Manning. Fair enough. But on Saturday night? It was all about UGA signal-caller Gunner Stockton. 

Stockton delivered on the big stage and then some. Squaring off against a killer Texas defense, Stockton threw for over 200 passing yards and four touchdowns. He was ultra-precise, he was cool in the big moment, and alongside the defense, he was the reason UGA came out on top. 

Texas did a nice job of hanging around. But Georgia turned on the afterburners in the fourth quarter, chipping in three late touchdowns to pull away. Texas struggled mightily with drops in big spots and it made it pretty difficult to string together drives. 

Outside of Stockton, I was particularly impressed with the Georgia defense. I thought that unit did a nice job of squashing any semblance of the Texas run game (the Longhorns had fewer than 50 yards rushing) and blowing up plays at the point of attack. 

Georgia keeps on trucking and looks bound to represent the SEC in Atlanta for the Championship Game. Texas is likely out of the broader CFP discussion, but can still wreak havoc by knocking off Texas A&M on Black Friday.

Notre Dame essentially booked its place in the College Football Playoff field on Saturday with its 37-15 dismantling of Pitt. 

Entering the game, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi boldly claimed this wasn’t a “must-win” game. His team sure played like it.

For all the good things freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel has done this season, he looked every bit a freshman against Notre Dame’s nasty defense. He completed fewer than 50% of his passes, threw for just 126 yards on 16 completions, and spent the majority of the afternoon running for his life. 

Notre Dame looked every bit the part of a CFP-contending team. The defense ruthlessly swarmed Pitt’s offense. Quarterback CJ Carr overcame a pair of miscues to steer the ship to victory. And man, oh man, what more can you say about Jeremiyah Love? 

Love was a capital-D DAWG all afternoon. He finished with 147 yards on 23 carries and a touchdown. His lone score of the game was a 56-yard scamper where he spin cycle’d a Pitt defender so hard he went flying into a different zip code. It was an elite game from an elite player.

For as badly as this game went for Pitt, it wasn’t a conference game. The Panthers still have a big part to play in the ACC title race over the next few weeks with games remaining against Georgia Tech and Miami. If the Panthers can run the table, there’s a chance they’ll play for the conference crown in Charlotte.

For years, USC has perpetuated the California "soft" stereotype. When the Trojans joined the Big Ten, pundits said that games like this would prove they weren’t physical enough for their new conference.

But on Saturday, USC had a point to prove. The Trojans went toe-to-toe with a Midwest Tough Iowa team, rallying from an early deficit to win 26-21 to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.

Iowa jumped out to a 21-10 first-half lead, thanks to the strong play of quarterback Mark Gronowski. Through 30 minutes, Gronowski did a bit of everything—throwing, catching, and running for a touchdown in the same half. Iowa had its foot on the gas and looked like it was heading for a Hollywood ending against Lincoln Riley’s bunch.

But this version of USC doesn’t wilt so easily. In the second half, the Trojans got their act together, in large part because of the Jayden Maiava-Makhi Lemon connection. Lemon was a menace all afternoon, hauling in 10 catches for 153 yards and a touchdown. 

And how ‘bout that USC defense, huh? After giving up some early scores, the group buckled down and blanked the Hawkeyes in the second half. Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn remains perhaps the most important hire Lincoln Riley has ever made.

With the win, USC sets up a monster showdown against Oregon next week.

We were thiiiiis close to seeing Lane Kiffin lose to his potential next employer. But alas, the seventh-ranked Rebels used a late surge to stave off an upset in a 34-24 win over Florida.

Ole Miss spent a lot of time on Florida’s side of the field and largely failed to punish the Gators. Otherwise, the scoreline might’ve looked vastly different.

This game had five different lead changes with botyh teams trading blows like a heavyweight fight. The Gators punched first, putting up a 17-point second quarter to take a slim lead into the halftime break. But Ole Miss came out throwing haymakers and answered, in large part, with running back Kewan Lacy. 

Lacy entered the “Dude of the Week” conversation with his insane stat line against the Gators. He finished with 224 yards and three touchdowns on 31 carries. He got the hard yards, busted explosive plays, and finished drives with fury. He was the X-Factor in this game and was the reason Ole Miss escaped with a win.

Finding ways to win is the name of the game this time of year, and Ole Miss just keeps winning.

All year, I’ve found the American a perplexing league. It’s filled with good, not great teams. There’s been a logjam at the top of the conference standings for a while now. And every week, at least one of those core teams in contention takes an L and makes things murky. Saturday was no different.

Contenders Navy and USF squared off in a juicy battle with major conference title implications. Navy’s offense proved to be too much for the Bulls, with the Midshipmen holding on to win 41-38. USF quarterback Byrum Brown had a monster day, but it felt like a one-man band out there at times. With the loss, USF is likely out of College Football Playoff contention. I’ll be curious to see if Alex Golesh starts getting more serious sniffs from Power 5 openings now.

Elsewhere in the league, we saw fellow contender Memphis drop its third conference game of the season in a loss against East Carolina, while both Tulane and North Texas rolled to victory.

November is here in full force, and this conference continues to be wild. It now appears to be a four-horse race between Navy, North Texas, Tulane, and ECU to see who will win the league and possibly represent the G6 in the CFP. I say “possibly” because there’s a chance James Madison could come out of the Sun Belt and steal the playoff bid. Ultimately, the committee decide which conference it prefers.

Let's relive a wild Week 12 of college football. In this episode, we take a look back at the biggest storylines. Oklahoma knocked off Alabama in Tuscaloosa, giving the Sooners a signature SEC win and putting them in prime position to qualify for the College Football Playoff. Meanwhile, Georgia and Notre Dame padded their CFP cases with dominant wins, while both Texas A&M and Georgia Tech needed second-half heroics to survive against conference foes. Plus, Virginia made quick work of Duke and helped clarify the ACC title chase, while the race for the coveted G6 playoff spot got significantly more interesting.

We'll go through all the big results you need to know, play your voice messages, hand out Dude Alerts, and more!

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