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Ever since missing out on the College Football Playoff a season ago, Notre Dame’s mantra has been Leave No Doubt. In a had-to-have-it situation, the Fighting Irish left their fans sweating bullets, but pulled off a 31-24 win over top-ranked Miami to likely book their place in the 2026 CFP.

Notre Dame looked like the better team from the jump, in large part because of CJ Carr’s ability to make NFL-type throws. Carr was excellent Saturday night, probably playing the best game of his Fighting Irish career. He hit Jordan Faison on a rope for a 27-yard, first-half touchdown. Then he led the Fighting Irish on a crisp two-minute drill to close the half, where he connected on passes of 10, 10, 18, 19, and 18 yards to balloon the Notre Dame lead to 17-3. 

The Fighting Irish opened the half with a score, before things got tight. Backs against the wall, Miami slowly clawed back in the game. Quarterback Darian Mensah threw two touchdowns in a span of three minutes, putting a sizeable dent in the Notre Dame lead. 

With mere minutes remaining, Miami had a chance to tie it late in the fourth, but was on the receiving end of a controversial no-catch call that ruled what some thought was a touchdown an incompletion on fourth and goal. 

Notre Dame deserves a ton of credit for rising to the occasion. The Fighting Irish were down several key defensive contributors by the end, but stayed in the fight and did just enough to knock a depleted Miami off its game. 

By comparison, Miami played a well-fought, one-score game on the road without its best player in Malachi Toney. 

This is probably the rare situation where I felt better about both teams at the end. 

The biggest Holy War ever lived up to the billing, with No. 3 Utah delivering the fourth-quarter death blow to bitter rival BYU, and making its case for the top-ranked spot in college football in the process. 

After an offseason of upheaval and a season littered with schedule skepticism, the Utes silenced the doubters with a 28-20 win over ninth-ranked BYU, kickstarting a wild day of college football. The Holy War featured six turnovers, furious momentum swings, and shone a well-deserved light on the legitimacy of Utah as a Big 12-title-caliber football team.

Wars and college football games are won on the backs of heroes. Today, that hero was Utah quarterback Devon Dampier. 

Dampier met the moment, tallying four touchdowns and becoming one of the only players in recent memory to notch a 20-yard catch, 20-yard run, and multiple 20-yard passes in a single game. By comparison, Bear Bachemier, the face of the BYU program, had a four-interception day that highlighted many of the concerns ball-knowers had about him entering the day. 

Ultimately, this game came down to surviving furious momentum swings. 

Utah landed the first blow, jumping out to a blistering-hot two-touchdown lead after seven plays from scrimmage. The Cougars displayed incredible resilience and weathered the storm with 20 unanswered. Utah then pitched a second-half shutout and chipped in another 14 straight points to come out on top. 

Utes’ coach Morgan Scalley has coached his butt off all season and deserves some serious shouts for Coach of the Year. Utah is undefeated, and despite the tricky remaining slate, has a good path to the conference title game and the College Football Playoff. 

BYU is likely on the outside looking in after the loss, and probably needs help to get back in the CFP picture. The Big 12 tiebreaker scenario is gonna get messy.

Ohio State’s season went up in smoke Saturday evening after allowing 38 unanswered points to an Oregon team with a backup quarterback and brand-new playcaller. The Buckeyes will most likely miss out on the CFP. Meanwhile, Oregon is suddenly looming as a threat to get hot and possibly make a Big Ten title run. 

This game was a staggering indictment of Ryan Day and the mental makeup of this Ohio State football team. Losing with a backup quarterback is one thing. But losing in this manner is a new low for a proud program, calling into question how things went so wrong so quickly for a team with national title aspirations. 

Ohio State’s inability to run the ball and get stops on defense reared its ugly head on Saturday. The Buckeyes rushed for just 53 yards on 21 carries, and the defense got hit with wave after wave when Oregon had the football. Calling it an inexcusable performance would be an understatement.

Oregon deserves a ton of credit for not folding. The Ducks went down 14 points early, and could’ve thrown in the towel. Instead, a creative fake punt pop pass changed the momentum of the game and helped the Ducks create an offensive avalanche that swung the game. 

Buckeyes’ head coach Ryan Day is now 6-5 in his last 11 games. Fans are clamoring for the “glory days” of Urban Meyer. The vibes are downright rancid right now in Columbus. Could changes be on the horizon? 

Meanwhile, Dan Lanning suddenly has his team in a position to save the season. If the Ducks win out and a few things break correctly, there’s still a slim chance to make this a memorable campaign. 

Alabama might be back, folks. 

Fresh off a bye week, the Crimson Tide rolled into Death Valley and exited with a gigantic 31-13 win, likely cementing their status as a 2026 CFP team. 

Despite the advanced data loving LSU, the Crimson Tide looked the better team for four quarters. Quarterback Keelon Russell blossomed into a superstar, finishing with three passing touchdowns on a trio of wildly impressive throws. The bend-but-don’t-break Alabama defense did an excellent job of getting off the field in critical spots, holding LSU to 5-of-14 on third downs and 0-for-4 on fourth downs. It was a start-to-finish excellent showing from Kalen DeBoer’s bunch. 

Meanwhile, LSU fans have every right to be upset at how this season has panned out. Lane Kiffin assembled a wildly expensive roster, and the Tigers can’t buy their way to a ranked win. Kiffin is now 0-6 against Alabama in his career. Yikes. 

Alabama is now sitting pretty to make the CFP for the second straight season. LSU, by comparison, has three losses, has run out of wiggle room, and might need some help to make the 12-team field. 

No. 2 Georgia put belt to backside in an authoritative 42-7 win over No. 10 Ole Miss in Oxford. The main takeaway from this game is that Georgia is the crème de la crème of the SEC and should be viewed in a different stratosphere compared to other teams in this league. 

The Bulldogs opened the game with 35 unanswered points, with quarterback Gunner Stockton throwing four touchdowns on just nine completions. The run game got hummin’ too. When this team is fit and firing, it’s a mighty scary sight.

Georgia is winning its way, and that should terrify teams around the country. The Bulldogs are bullies up front, possess a menacing run game, and are squeezing the life out of their opponents. This is the best team in college football right now. Let’s not overthink this.

Without Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss is a one-dimensional offense that can’t hang with good teams. It’s unfortunate, because Trinidad Chambliss is electric. We might not see him in another CFP game. 

No. 7 Texas was the beneficiary of multiple controversial calls and pulled away from Missouri late to earn a 34-20 win in Columbia to keep its College Football Playoff hopes intact. 

Two things can be true: Texas keeps finding ways to win ugly. At the same time, on Saturday, it felt like the Longhorns had some help from the refs. 

The most influential call of the game was an apparent Arch Manning incomplete pass on a critical down. The call on the field was later ruled a fumble, which Texas recovered. That drive resulted in a crucial score, as part of three unanswered, second-half touchdowns from the Longhorns. 

Texas entered the game massively beat up. It took guts to win on the road. That said, I’m not sure how sustainable this good fortune is moving forward. It feels like the Longhorns are destined to run out of luck, take a third loss, and then turn into the most curious case of this year’s CFP race. 

All season, sixth-ranked Kentucky made a living by converting critical downs and not turning the ball over. It was a charmed existence, one that saw the Wildcats shoot up the rankings and see their coach in Coach of the Year conversations. 

Saturday night, the Regression Monster caught up to the Wildcats in a 34-6 blowout road loss to red-hot Tennessee. Kentucky went 6-of-16 on third and fourth downs, committed three costly turnovers, and never got a foothold in the game. 

Kentucky has been a feel-good story this season, but it always felt like the excellent vibes had a shelf life. Perhaps Saturday night was the end of the road for the Wildcats’ CFP dreams. 

Across the field, Tennessee deserves an immense amount of respect for putting its stamp on the game. The Vols are winning with a brute-force run game and excellent defense. It hasn’t always been pretty, but it’s effective. Suddenly, this team has gone up a level and could be earmarked to make a College Football Playoff appearance. 

Two teams near the top of the Big Ten standings held up their end of the bargain on Saturday. 

No. 8 and still undefeated UCLA punished Minnesota with a flurry of explosive plays in a 34-20 road win.

Bruins’ backup-turned-starting quarterback Ty Dieffenbach threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns on eight completions. Star running back Wayne Knight was predictably awesome. The defense had another great showing too, after limiting Minnesota to under 100 rushing yards. 

UCLA feels like the Team of Destiny. Bob Chesney is already one of the best coaches in college football, and his team just keeps getting it done. What a story!

Elsewhere, Iowa beat an Aidan Chiles-less Northwestern team 24-10 to move to 7-2 and keep pace in the Big Ten title race. 

The Hawkeyes won this game by playing their brand of football. Quarterback Hank Brown was effective. The run game gashed the Wildcats for 170 yards. In typical Iowa fashion, the Hawkeyes even had a long punt return touchdown. 

This team is damn good and should not be slept on in the Big Ten title race. 

There’s AI slop, there are ChatGPT flyers, and then there’s whatever Michigan put on the field in a 15-6 loss to Michigan State Saturday night. 

Without doubt, this was the most embarrassing performance from a Michigan team in some time. The offense had negative juice. Quarterback Tommy Carr was uninspiring. The run game and offensive line were putrid too. It was a demoralizing loss in every sense of the word, and it now casts serious doubts about Whittingham’s future with the program. It wouldn’t shock me in the slightest if there’s not a Year 2 for Whittingham in Ann Arbor.

Give credit to the Spartans for mucking this one up and snapping Pat Fitzgerald’s 13-game Big Ten losing streak. Michigan State is not a good football team and still managed to get one over on its rival. Take it where you can get it.

College Football Week 10 delivered one of the biggest Saturdays of the 2026 season, with massive wins, playoff implications, and plenty of controversy. Notre Dame took down No. 1 Miami in a thriller, Oregon demolished Ohio State in Columbus, Georgia made a convincing case to be the best team in the country, and Utah survived the Holy War against BYU.

We break down Notre Dame's statement win, what went wrong for Miami, and why Oregon's performance raises serious questions about Ohio State. Plus, Georgia steamrolls Ole Miss, Alabama makes a statement at LSU, Texas finds another gear against Missouri, and Tennessee brings Kentucky back to earth.

Elsewhere, UCLA stays unbeaten, Arizona pulls off a miracle against TCU, and the Big Ten race gets even more complicated. We also debate how our AP Top 25 ballot should change, and try to make sense of another crazy week.

Plus, your Week 10 Reverbs, Dude Alerts, and plenty more from a wild Seven Wonders Saturday.

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