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It’s been far from a Hollywood start for USC in the Big Ten.

The Trojans went 7-6 in last year’s inaugural season and looked out of place against a tough-nosed, ground-and-pound Big Ten slate. The Trojans struggled for consistency at the quarterback position between Miller Moss and Jayden Maiava. The defense improved in D’Anton Lynn’s first season as defensive coordinator, but probably lacked the necessary pieces to fully round into form. And the team struggled on the road.

Those question marks have been put to bed, if only for a minute. Head coach Lincoln Riley has this version of USC on the cusp of arguably the program’s biggest game since moving leagues when the Trojans travel to Eugene on Saturday to face No. 7 Oregon.

This game has all sorts of conference and playoff stakes attached to it. But more than that, it feels like an inflection point for the Trojans.

Lincoln Riley is one of the highest-paid coaches in college football and was hired to revive a sleeping giant in Los Angeles. The revival has been non-linear. It’s been messy, full of pitfalls, and with lots of lessons learned.

But it’s fitting, in a twisted way, that USC’s biggest Big Ten test is a trip back into old Pac-12 territory. The Trojans crossed the country for new challenges, but the road to the 2025 College Football Playoff still winds through one of their most persistent regional rivals. Progress isn’t always a straight line. Sometimes it loops back to remind you where you came from.

All that’s left now is to see if USC is ready for the moment. USC wanted a bigger platform and tougher path. It got both. And in Eugene, they’ll get the clearest picture yet of how close they are to becoming the program they believe they can be.

Haynes King is Georgia Tech’s superhero.

He runs the ball with the reckless abandon of the Hulk smashing through a brick wall. He pings passes to receivers with the accuracy of Batman handcuffing pesky villains. When he finds a sliver of space, he glides past defenders like Spider-Man, swinging from web to web through the cityscape. And when the game’s on the line, he has a Superman quality about him, dragging his team to victory despite what feels like impossible odds.

In a jumbled heap atop the Atlantic Coast Chaos Conference, he’s positioned one-loss Georgia Tech, with one conference game remaining, to punch its ticket to Charlotte and perhaps the College Football Playoff.

On Saturday, the Yellow Jackets will play host to Pitt, another one-loss ACC team. The stakes are massive. Can King do it just one more time?

I don’t see why not.

At the time of writing, the Yellow Jackets are slim 2.5-point favorites. They’ve got one of the best offenses in college football. And despite a narrow win over Boston College last week, King is playing like a man who will—under any circumstances—carry his team to victory.

No disrespect to Pitt, Pat Narduzzi, or anything the Panthers have achieved this season. Pitt, like Georgia Tech, has just one ACC loss and is very much in control of its late-season fate.

But if I were a betting man, I’d roll with the guy who might have a cape flowing out of his shoulder pads. My advice? Doubt Haynes King at your own risk.

UConn head coach Jim Mora has done wonders since arriving in Storrs, Connecticut.

Prior to his arrival, the Huskies were adrift as a college football independent and still reeling after coach Randy Edsall fell flat during his second tenure. Mora, himself, might’ve felt adrift too. Before arriving in Connecticut, Mora was fired in 2017 after a run at UCLA and spent a handful of seasons without a college head coaching gig. When he arrived in Storrs, the move was met with more questions than answers.

Why would he want this job?

Are we sure this is the right fit for both sides?

Is this going to be Randy Edsall 2.0?

Fast forward almost four seasons later, and Mora has UConn on the verge of a second straight nine-win (or dare I say a rare 10-win) season. He’s developed arguably the most efficient quarterback in college football in Joey Fagnano, who boasts a ludicrous 25-1 TD to INT ratio. To say he’s doing an amazing job would be an understatement.

A great deal has been written about this coaching carousel cycle. The first big domino fell earlier this week when former Penn State coach James Franklin agreed to become the next Virginia Tech head coach. Lane Kiffin’s decision still looms large. And there are bound to be at least a few G5 coaches who get poached for bigger jobs.

I’m not wishing this on UConn, but I think some athletic director with a job opening should at least inquire about Mora. He’s proven he can do more with less. He has a track record for developing quarterbacks. And, right now, he’s doing something few people can claim they’ve ever done: win games at a place like UConn.

The college football regular season is still a few weeks from being done and dusted, and yet the off-field storylines are starting to move to the front of the queue.

Lane Kiffin is playing chicken with his current employer while batting his eyelashes at LSU and Florida.

The Big Ten has been openly flirtatious with private equity.

And now this week, news circulated that Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt, the young man who helped lead the Sun Devils to a storybook, College Football Playoff finish in 2024, is at least considering testing the open market via the transfer portal.

Who could blame him for considering chasing a bag?

Who could blame him for trying to maximize his value?

Who could blame him for trying to do what’s best for his career?

All of those points are fair. But I’d still feel a little bummed if this came to fruition.

Leavitt, a one-time transfer already, left the mess that was Michigan State and became almost synonymous with what head coach Kenny Dillingham is building in Tempe. He had some great moments last season. If it weren’t for nagging injuries, who knows, ASU could be vying for another Big 12 title right now. (Technically, the Sun Devils still have a 1% chance of winning the conference.)

As exciting as college football is right now, the off-field issues bleeding into the on-field fun feel very NBA-like. Not complementary.

Leveling up is not a new concept. Getting a better job with a higher-paying salary isn’t new. It happens all the time in the real world. But from a fan’s perspective, this type of thing isn’t fun.

From Kiffin to Leavitt to the countless stories in between, it’s starting to feel harder and harder to get attached in college football anymore. And that’s a damn shame.

In the latest College Football Playoff rankings, Alabama dropped to No. 10 after a close loss to Oklahoma. We knew the Crimson Tide would likely fall in the rankings... but is this too far?

Arguing purely on a strength-of-schedule basis, I think the answer is yes.

Alabama has wins over No. 4 Georgia, No. 14 Vanderbilt, No. 20 Tennessee, and No. 22 Missouri. That’s three more ranked wins than Notre Dame and four more than Oregon.

Furthermore, the Crimson Tide’s four ranked wins are more than Ole Miss, Oregon, and Notre Dame combined. Plus, they have arguably the best win when they knocked off Georgia at the end of September.

I know people roll their eyes at the idea of little old Alabama getting screwed over. And perhaps “screwed over” is a bit harsh. But in this context, I think Alabama is getting dinged too harshly for a two-point loss against a team the committee clearly values as a Top 12 team.

Be careful before you sit! Week 13 may be short on marquee matchups, but with the college football season winding down and so much still in flux, there's more than enough potential for a contender to get bit. In this episode, we preview an eventful slate of games, as Oklahoma looks to seal its playoff bid, USC aims to knock off Oregon, BYU hopes to make the Big 12 title game, and Louisville, SMU, Pitt, and Georgia Tech are primed to be the ultimate agents of ACC chaos. Plus, we talk through James Franklin's move to Virginia Tech, Lane Kiffin's tour of LSU and Florida, and the latest batch of CFP rankings and projected brackets. And finally, a collection of awesome G6 games and an important Pat League Lightning Round.

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