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Curt Cignetti’s mouth has written plenty of checks since he arrived in Bloomington. On Saturday, the Hoosiers finally cashed one. Indiana lived out that Dr. Seuss/Lil Wayne mantra “I said what I said, and I meant what I said,” storming into Autzen Stadium and walking out with a gargantuan 30-20 statement win over No. 3 Oregon. 

This game was back and forth, highlighting the best and worst parts of both teams. We got a good glimpse at the struggling Oregon run game, which amassed just 81 yards on 30 carries. We saw a steely Fernando Mendoza, who came up big in big spots, time and time again. And we saw a Hoosiers defensive line make Oregon quarterback Dante Moore look mortal. But more than anything, we saw the power of belief and the impact it can have on a team. 

It was a duel between two coaches who never doubt themselves, but by night’s end, only one had a reason not to. 

It’s hard to overstate just how much this win means for Indiana in the moment and moving forward. Last year, the Hoosiers felt like a feel-good story, and in big spots, played like a team trying to convince both themselves and us of just how good they truly were. Now? This team doesn’t flinch, doesn’t fake, and doesn’t need to prove it anymore. They know just how good they are. 

Nothing summed up the year-and-a-half-long Alabama remodeling job quite like the sequence that unfolded late in the fourth quarter in the Crimson Tide’s 27-24 road win over 14th-ranked Missouri.

First, Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson laced a ball to an open receiver to help the Crimson Tide convert on a crucial fourth down with a three-point lead in Missouri territory. A few plays later on the very same drive, Simpson pinged a pass to an open pass-catcher to convert on fourth and goal to push Alabama’s lead to 10 points. It was Kalen DeBoer’s vision coming to life before our very eyes—a quarterback he hand-picked, coming up clutch in risky situations. It was the type of play-calling we didn’t often see in the Nick Saban era.

Missouri answered with a touchdown of its own and later forced a punt with one last chance to tie or win it in the final minute. But Tigers’ quarterback, Beau Pribula, sailed a pass over the head of an open man and into the arms of a Crimson Tide defender, icing the game for the road team. 

Other highlights in the game included a Kayden Proctor Big Man Wildcat near-touchdown and an odd choice by Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz to fake a punt in a big spot instead of just going for it on fourth down.

Simpson was mustard, finishing with 200 yards and three touchdowns. The Crimson Tide defense limited Ahmad Hardy to 52 yards and no scores on 12 carries. And just like that, Alabama has come out the other side of a grueling stretch that included games against Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Missouri unscathed. 

Missouri looked like a good team that came up short. Alabama looked like a potentially elite team that keeps finding ways to win in tough spots. 

For my money, Red River tends to be perhaps the most unhinged and truly unpredictable rivalry game in all of college football. Think about it, how many times has the game started one way, only for it to fly off the handle in the opposite direction? 

Saturday didn’t quite have that see-saw nature, but it did see a previously undefeated, sixth-ranked Oklahoma team get stonewalled by an unranked Texas team 23-6.

Nothing about this game was pretty. Texas quarterback Arch Manning was accurate and mistake-free, but averaged just a little over six yards per completion. Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer, just two weeks and change removed from hand surgery, was dreadful, barely completing 50% of his passes and tossing a trio of bad interceptions. All in all, it took a ridiculous 75-yard Texas punt return and a wildly successful defensive showing from the Longhorns to get out of there with a win. 

I walked away from this game feeling like both teams are extremely flawed and are, in all likelihood, not the cream of the SEC crop.

Rarely do we see a pair of teams with either lofty expectations (Penn State) or a monster early-season win (Florida State) fall completely apart by early October, but that’s what happened on Saturday. 

In the noon slate, 24th-ranked Florida State lost for the third week in a row, this time to a weirdly constructed Pitt team with a backup quarterback turned starter. Pitt’s Mason Heintschel threw for 321 yards, a pair of touchdowns, and led the Panthers to a 13-point fourth-quarter rally to win 34-31. 

Whatever we watched and thought about this Florida State team after whoopin’ Alabama in Week 1 is long gone. A fun fact courtesy of ESPN’s David Hale: Since September 22, 2024, 46 different schools have more wins vs. the ACC than Florida State does. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.

At this point, I think it’s fair to question the direction of this program and what the future might hold for head coach Mike Norvell. Could he be on his way out soon? Can the school afford to push him out? What’s the floor for this team? So many questions!

Speaking of force-outs and fading expectations, enter the discussion, Penn State. Two weeks ago, the Nittany Lions lost a double overtime nail-biter to Oregon and looked like a worthy (if even flawed) challenger for the Big 10 throne. 

But after a stunning loss to a previously winless UCLA team last week and dropping a 22-21 stinker to Northwestern today, it’s totally fair to write off this team the rest of the way. To make matters worse, quarterback Drew Allar got hurt late in the game, and head coach James Franklin announced postgame that Allar suffered a season-ending injury and that his college career was over. When it rains, it pours.

After the dust settled on Saturday’s loss, Penn State fired James Franklin around midday on Sunday. This is the first monster coaching domino to fall, with more fallout in the coming weeks a guarantee.

The Penn State job is a premier one, a position that will surely lure away a sitting head coach to Happy Valley. Is Penn State alum Matt Rhule a favorite to make that move? What about Syracuse’s Fran Brown? Make no bones about it, this is a monumental move that will shake up the sport moving forward.

Nothing sums up the bat out of hell nature of the Ohio State defense quite like the goal-line stands we saw in Saturday’s 34-16 win over No. 17 Illinois. 

On the first, Ohio State stuffed Illinois, forcing the Fighting Illini to kick a field goal. Later, Illinois scored, but it took every ounce of tooth, nail, skin, and a trick play to get the job done. My takeaway: even when you score on this Ohio State team, it’s exhausting to actually get the job done. 

Give Illinois some credit for scoring 16 points on this defense (that’s seven more than any other team had managed to this season), but the game never quite felt within reach. In a season with so many fun-but-flawed teams, Ohio State just might be the lone flawless group of the bunch.

Texas A&M and Texas Tech survived strong first-half pushes to stay undefeated midway through the season.

After giving up a pair of early touchdowns, the Aggies allowed just three second-half points in their 34-17 win over Florida in College Station. A&M’s defense was suffocating, particularly in the run game, allowing just 74 yards on 24 carries.

A&M checks a lot of boxes for a legitimate SEC contender. Good quarterback? Check. Vicious defense? Check. Well-respected head coach? Double check. 

Alabama is probably the best team in the conference, but I wouldn’t discount A&M. 

Texas Tech, on the other hand, needed a big rushing output after quarterback Behren Morton exited the game with a lower-body injury. Fortunately, in stepped running back Cameron Dickey, who had a career day with 263 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries.

Despite the ongoing injury concerns with Morton, Texas Tech looks like the real deal. I’d be shocked if they’re not in the Big 12 title game at year’s end.

On a night where a handful of SEC teams got tested, Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU all survived scares from SEC upstarts. 

Georgia needed a bizarre second-quarter goal-line stop to flip the field and suck the momentum out of Auburn. Garrett Nussmeier and the LSU defense did just enough to outlast South Carolina. And Tennessee got all it bargained for in a back-and-forth affair against Arkansas.

All three teams needed wins to keep pace with Alabama and Texas A&M and got ‘em.

Nothing screams preposterous Friday night football quite like an eight-turnover, 99-point game between American Conference teams, does it? 

USF started sloppily but finished strong in its 66-36 drubbing of a previously undefeated North Texas team. Bulls quarterback Byrum Brown continues to be HIM, shaking off a pair of early turnovers to produce a five-touchdown outing. 

North Texas felt a bit like a feel-good story in the lead-up to the game. I think the Mean Green are solid, but perhaps not quite ready to contend with the upper crust of the conference. USF has as good a shot as anyone to come out of this league to represent the Group of 5 in the College Football Playoff. I can’t wait to watch them square off with Memphis later this season.

What an absolute rollercoaster of a Week 7. In this college football podcast, we do our best to make sense of it all.

Indiana just went into Autzen Stadium and beat Oregon 30-20, holding the Ducks to 267 yards and looking like the more physical team in the trenches. We break down how Curt Cignetti's Hoosiers pulled off a statement win that has us reconsidering everything we thought we knew about both programs. Meanwhile, Penn State's season completely unraveled with a stunning 22-21 loss to Northwestern at home—their second consecutive loss as 20+ point favorites. We discussed James Franklin's future, Drew Allar's season-ending injury, and whether this program is heading for a complete reset. (Yes, we’ll cover the Franklin firing on our Tuesday episode.)

Beyond that, we cover Alabama's gritty road win at Missouri and Kalen DeBoer's lucky hoodie, Texas taking care of business in the Red River Rivalry, Ohio State's dominant performance over Illinois, and USC bullying Michigan. We also dive into Texas A&M's impressive 34-17 win over Florida that has the Aggies looking like legitimate SEC contenders, Pitt's road upset of Florida State, matching 20-10 wins for both Georgia and LSU, and all the other carnage from an action-packed Week 7 of college football.

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