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David Hale
There are 16 teams in the SEC, and nearly every one is either aiming for the playoff or considering a coaching change, with only Kentucky contractually obligated to move on to basketball season by the end of October. The point, however, is the stakes were high Saturday.
The SEC has a saying: “It just means more,” which is only slightly more famous than its bowl-season motto, “if we lost then it wasn’t really important anyway.” And this Saturday, as SEC communications guru Chuck Dunlap pointed out, there were more SEC games than ever before. So logic suggests that no Saturday has ever had as much meaning as this one.
Some slight SEC history on tap this coming Saturday, as there will be eight conference games played in a single day for the first time ever. This did not occur in 2024 and will not occur again this season.
— Chuck Dunlap 🏈 (@SEC_Chuck) October 13, 2025
At stake: Georgia ‘s status as a super power, Alabama’s dominance over rival Tennessee in Tuscaloosa, Billy Napier’s job, Texas A&M title hopes, Lane Kiffin’s Twitter mentions, Diego Pavia’s AARP membership, about a thousand Arch Manning jokes and the stitching on the pillow Brian Kelly screams into after another LSU loss.
So yeah, it was a big week in the country’s deepest conference, and if Saturday didn’t deliver many emphatic statements, it did offer a revival in Athens, history in Nashville, and vengeance in Tuscaloosa.
Georgia spent most of Saturday playing catchup, just as it had in past showdowns with Tennessee, Alabama and Auburn. If this isn’t a Bulldogs team on par with the talent of the back-to-back national champions of 2021 and 2022, they have at least proven to be Dawgs with every bit as much fight. They’ve approached every game like last call at Flanagan’s, refusing to call it quits until they’re ushered them out the door shouting they just want to hear the end of “Knuck If You Buck.”
On Saturday, Ole Miss led from 2:10 in the second quarter until midway through the fourth, but Georgia had answers at every turn.
Gunner Stockton was superb, answering any questions about his ability to win a shootout, throwing for four touchdowns and running for a fifth. Stockton, a QB so quintessentially Georgia the SEC ought to let him wear a helmet shaped like a John Deere hat just to complete the look, delivered one dagger after another, igniting the offense with the type of downfield explosiveness so often lacking a year ago.
But if Stockton was the star, the blood and guts of Georgia’s win came on the ground, where Nate Frazier and Co. ran for 221 yards — mostly hard, physical pushes through a crowded line of scrimmage — that felt like a statement that this team wasn’t just capable of taking a punch, but would respond with a flurry of body blows worthy of the greatest heavyweights.
Alabama could light up some stogies after upending Tennessee, 37-20. Ty Simpson continued to shine, throwing for 254 yards and two scores, and Ryan Williams emerged from a month-long hibernation we assume was the result of too much BBQ at Dreamland, reestablishing himself as an elite offensive weapon with 103 total yards.
It was hardly flawless — more worthy, perhaps, of a Swisher Sweet than a fine Cuban. The Alabama ground game continued to struggle. A pick-six just before half as Tennessee was knocking on the door of the end zone proved an important 14-point swing. But perhaps that’s the beauty of this year’s Alabama. In a season in which no one seems to be elite, the Tide win — and win emphatically — in spite of their flaws.
Speaking of flaws, the Texas A&M defense spent Saturday like a bachelor party at a craps table, caught up in all the excitement and incapable of tamping down the chaos. Arkansas put 15 points on the board in the fourth quarter, and despite never being in serious trouble, A&M escaped with just a 45-42 win. It’s the Aggies’ second win of the season when allowing more than 40. Still, Marcel Reed set the pace with four touchdowns, out-dueling Taylen Green, who threw for 256, ran for 85 and accounted for all five of the Razorbacks touchdowns.
That Georgia, Alabama and A&M are scuffling for space atop the SEC standings at least makes sense. That Vanderbilt is here, too, has all the feel of an ’90s teen movie plot, where the cool kids made a bet they could turn the wallflower into prom queen.
And yet, here we are. Vandy knocked off LSU, 31-24, to move to 6-1 for the first time in a half-century. Pavia continues to make the most of his college career before moving on to star in the next season of “The Golden Bachelor,” and on Saturday, he frustrated the Tigers’ defense repeatedly, accounting for three scores.
LSU has still not topped 24 points against an FBS team this year, and Kelly is perhaps one loss away from wandering into the woods to live a life of solitude rather than deal with this frustration any longer.
Fresh off a win over Oklahoma, there was reasonable hope Texas had shifted the narrative after a listless start to the year. Instead, against Kentucky on Saturday, Manning and the Horns’ offense penned a narrative befitting the bleakest Cormac McCarthy novel. Manning completed just 12 of 27 passes, Texas managed just 179 yards of total offense, and if not for two stellar punt returns and the utter ineptitude of Kentucky’s own offense, this might’ve been one of the biggest clunkers of the season. Instead, the Longhorns escaped 16-13 in overtime, and Manning could rest easy knowing that no more than seven members of his own family could’ve done better.
Florida somehow snatched a win from the jaws of defeat, picking off Blake Shapen on a second-and-10 at the Gators’ 29 to win 23-21, much to the chagrin of the Gators fans who thought blowing a lead at home to the Mississippi State would’ve been just the right note on which to end Napier’s tenure.
Hugh Freeze at least had the good sense not to upend his fans’ expectations, as Auburn blew a late lead, flubbed overtime, and lost another close one, 23-17 to Missouri. We’re getting ever closer to a time when a Houston Nutt discovery motion reveals that Freeze had actually just taken the Auburn job because he couldn’t get a good tee time elsewhere.
It’s a shame this is the lone Saturday with eight SEC games, because all of Week 8’s action in the conference was a delight.
For so long, there was an obvious hierarchy in the SEC. The names might change, but inevitably there were a pair of titans and a few challengers to the throne, and by year’s end, the battles yielded enough clarity to showcase the league’s overwhelming strength.
In 2025, the story is different.
Vanderbilt is a playoff contender. Georgia is the defiant upstart. Alabama is the wobbly giant. Texas A&M boosters are making back some of Jimbo Fisher’s buyout by betting the over.
It doesn’t make much sense, but that’s a sign of the times. This season was never intended to fit a script, and for all its boisterous aggrandizements, the SEC isn’t immune to the chaos of 2025.
But, perhaps that’s a good thing. SEC games might always mean more, but for too long, they’ve delivered less surprise, less fun, less of what makes this sport so routinely weird.
Finally, the SEC’s catching up — or being dragged back down — with everyone else.
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Under the radar | Heisman five
Week 8 vibe shifts
Each week, the biggest games set the playoff narrative, but there are lots of other smaller shifts in the college football landscape, too. We track those here.
Trending down: UNC controversies
Since North Carolin’s blowout loss to Clemson two weeks ago, the program has endured a dizzying array of blunders, from a canceled Hulu documentary to the suspension of an assistant coach for violating, presumably, the only remaining recruiting rule, to rumors of Bill Belichick’s departure. Then came the report that GM Michael Lombardi had traveled to Saudi Arabia to discuss an influx of cash into the program from a foreign government. Lombardi assured his bosses, however, that it was all a simple misunderstanding. He had been hoping to turn a structured settlement into cash now, but had misremembered the J.G. Wentworth song and accidentally ended up in Riyadh. Could’ve happened to anyone.
UNC’s Nathan Leacock fumbles in the final minutes. Cal puts this on the scoreboard as the win seems imminent for the Golden Bears: pic.twitter.com/4P5ex7OWBK
— Shelby Swanson (@shelbymswanson) October 18, 2025
On the field at least, UNC seemed to take a small step forward Friday, only losing to Cal by three points 21-18. Sure, it came because Cal continuously dropped easy catches, bailed out the Heels with numerous defensive penalties on third down and spent so much time during the week watching UNC film that everyone forgot how to tackle, but the point remains: For at least three hours this season, Belichick’s Tar Heels weren’t a complete embarrassment.
Trending up: Carson Beck’s completion percentage
The good news: 29 of Carson Beck’s 35 passes Friday were caught. The bad news: Four of those catches were by Louisville.
Miami fell behind the Cardinals 14-0 early, battled back and had a chance to win after Keionte Scott forced a fumble, and for the first time all night, Chris Bell didn’t convert a third down on Louisville’s subsequent drive.
Listen, Miami’s D might get beat by Chris Bell once. Or twice. Or three times. Maybe even four. Heck, possibly five or six times. Wouldn’t even shock me if they got beat by him seven times. Eight’s possible. And nine? Sure.
But that 10th time? No chance.
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) October 18, 2025
Miami then drove into field goal range with a pair of timeouts and 32 seconds to play, when Beck dodged a blitz, threw wide and was picked off for the fourth time to seal the loss.
Afterward, Miami was frustrated by its first defeat of the season but was buoyed by the fact that, for once, it wasn’t because Mario Cristobal mismanaged the clock. That’s progress!
Trending down: Fines in the Big 12
After the conference announced Texas Tech would face stiff fines if fans continued to throw tortillas on the field, the Red Raiders had little to celebrate, falling for the first time this season 26-22 to Arizona State.
Without starting QB Behren Morton, the Red Raiders struggled to score until a furious 95-second stretch in which they erased a 12-point deficit to take a 22-19 lead with just 2 minutes to play.
But Sam Leavitt and the Sun Devils weren’t about to roll over. Arizona State marched 75 yards on 10 plays, capped by a 1-yard run by Raleek Brown, then fended off the Red Raiders’ last-gasp drive for the win.
In keeping with conference directives, the fine citizens of Tempe didn’t shower the field with one of their most famous cultural foodstuffs, grapefruit High Noons.
In the aftermath of the loss, Texas Tech boosters vowed to get better by donating even more NIL money in 2026, then rode off into the sunset in a Cadillac with a cow skull on the hood, whooping and yelling, “That weasel Taft never should’ve let Arizona become a state!”
Trending up: Dogmatic disagreements
BYU staved off a late Utah comeback attempt to win this year’s in-state rivalry game 24-21. Bear Bachmeier had a passing and a rushing touchdown in the win, and the Cougars are now the first team to start 7-0 with a QB named “Bear” since the 1919 Baylor team was forced to use a team of real brown bears during the Spanish Flu outbreak.
BYU has now won four straight in the series after ending a nine-game winning streak for Utah in 2021. More importantly, with Texas Tech’s loss, the Cougars and Cincinnati are the lone remaining unbeaten teams in the Big 12, and BYU has now won nine straight and 18 of its past 20 games.
Trending down: Future USC-Notre Dame games
Jadarian Price racked up 209 all-purpose yards and two scores, Jeremiyah Love ran for 228 and a touchdown, and Notre Dame delivered what may be the final blow in a rivalry with USC, 34-24.
USC has suggested it may not continue the rivalry, which has been played 96 times dating back to 1926, and definitely not just because Lincoln Riley said it was making him look bad, and it’d be way more fun to play Portland State.
Instead, USC feels that, now that it’s in the Big Ten where it routinely gets to lose games to Illinois, Minnesota and Maryland, there’s really no need for higher profile losses out of conference.
Now, Notre Dame faces a bleak future of having to play an extra game against the ACC, and frankly, there’s only so many 30-point wins over Boston College anyone wants to see.
Trending up: Drama in the American
The battle atop the American took some major twists in Week 8, with Tulane narrowly hanging on to beat Army, UAB shocking Memphis, and Charlotte — well, OK, Charlotte lost badly again.
Tulane and Army were tied at 17 with less than a minute to play when Shazz Preston — whose name sounds as if he’s part of a Vegas magic act, and his catch only bolstered that likelihood — hauled in the game winner in dramatic fashion.
Meanwhile, Memphis had four plays from inside the UAB red zone with a chance to win, but two replay reviews, three penalties and three incomplete passes by backup QB AJ Hill dealt the Tigers their first loss of the year. UAB, wearing fluorescent uniforms found amid the leftover costumes from Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever,” pulled off the shocker for interim coach Alex Mortensen, who stepped in after Trent Dilfer was fired last week, and delivered the Blazers a victory in the famed “Battle for the Bones,” thus dealing Memphis the twin miseries of diminished playoff hopes and no postgame ribs. The Battle For The Bones trophy is back in Birmingham. pic.twitter.com/UW5sTDbf9R — Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) October 18, 2025 Tulane, Navy and USF are all undefeated in conference play still, while Memphis, Temple, North Texas and East Carolina all have one loss. Trending down: Ohio State’s strength of schedule The Buckeyes are the No. 1 team in the country, but it has been a bit since one of their games have been remotely interesting. Add Week 8 to that story, as Julian Sayin threw for three touchdowns in a 34-0 win over woeful Wisconsin. Ohio State has now allowed just 41 total points this season, has won its past six by an average of 31 points and didn’t even bother to stop for ice cream at Culver’s on its way out of Madison. If things have been far too easy for Ohio State, the opposite is true for the Badgers. Luke Fickell could be on his way out, as Wisconsin falls to 2-5 and 0-4 in the Big Ten, and he horrified fans afterward by finally admitting he has been lactose intolerant this whole time. UTEP’s Noah Botsford booted a punt in the first quarter of Wednesday’s 35-17 win over Sam Houston that would’ve been considered not-safe-for-work content in the state of Iowa. After the Miners’ opening drive stalled, Botsford punted from his own 33, which hit the turf at the Sam Houston 15 and took a perfect bounce before being downed at the 1 — a net 66-yard boot. There’s no such thing as a perfect pu-OMG! A PERFECT 66-YARD PUNT pic.twitter.com/IXqaYRSzj3 — CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) October 15, 2025 Citing “Highlander” mythology that there can be only one Punt King, the Des Moines town charter requires Botsford now serve at least two terms as mayor. But it wasn’t all roses for UTEP. Sam Houston followed the stellar special teams by marching 99 yards for a touchdown to take an early 7-0 lead. Nevertheless, UTEP was inspired by Botsford’s heroics, stormed back and won the game, sending Sam Houston to its seventh straight loss to open the year. The Bearkats, Oregon State and UMass are the last remaining winless FBS schools. Utah State booted two fourth-quarter field goals to upend high-flying San José State 30-25 on Friday night, but it was QB Bryson Barnes who truly stole the show. 0:23 Anthony Garcia brings down 74-yard TD for Utah State Bryson Barnes airs one out to Anthony Garcia who waltzes into the end zone for a Utah State touchdown vs. San Jose State. Barnes’ 74-yard TD pass to Anthony Garcia set the stage, the Aggies finished the job, and then Barnes — fresh off a 22-of-31 for 326 yards performance — added the coup de grâce by dashing off to the hospital to meet his wife. Bryson Barnes threw for 300 yards, fielded a press conference, and is headed now to the hospital for his wife’s induction. A busy night for Utah State’s signal caller — The Aggship (@TheAggship) October 18, 2025 A 74-yard touchdown, a win and attending the birth of a baby counts as the season’s second-most remarkable performance, only trailing the time Haynes King ran for two scores, removed his own appendix at halftime and helped negotiate a trade deal with Singapore during one fourth-quarter huddle against Wake Forest. Amid Vanderbilt’s historic win over LSU, Diego Pavia struck the Heisman pose, which, by law, requires us to now admit him into the Heisman five. It’s a silly rule, but it’s also the same way Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar. Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia hit the Heisman and paid homage to Johnny Manziel 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ukQZ67VIDs — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 18, 2025 1. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza Mendoza threw for 332 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-13 win over Michigan State that he miraculously managed to stay awake for the entire time. 2. Alabama QB Ty Simpson Simpson has been virtually flawless since the opening week loss to Florida State, adding to his sterling “résumé” with a pair of TD throws in a win over Tennessee on Saturday. 3. Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia Pavia threw for 160 yards, ran for 86 and accounted for three total touchdowns in Vandy’s 31-24 win over LSU. After the game, Pavia was asked how many more seasons of this his lawyers could get him, to which he said, “I don’t know, maybe… 6, 7? See, I’m young. I know young people lingo. What time is Matlock on?” 4. Georgia QB Gunner Stockton Stockton had 348 yards and five touchdowns in a raucous win over Ole Miss, after which the Georgia QB hopped into his F-150, pressed play on his Simple Minds cassette, and reminisced about how he had learned he was so much more than a jock from those other weird kids in high school detention. 5. Georgia Tech QB Haynes King There was a time when the ACC’s chaos was confined to the Coastal Division. But like Jurassic Park, the unquenchable hunger of Coastal Chaos couldn’t be contained forever, and the foolish administrators of the conference were more concerned with whether they could eliminate divisions, they never stopped to think if they should. Regardless, it has all played out perfectly for the ultimate chaos agent, Georgia Tech, which is now the last remaining undefeated team in the ACC, thanks in large part to King’s heroics. King led the Yellow Jackets to a 27-18 win over Duke on Saturday, throwing for 205 yards, rushing for 120, and scoring once. For the season, he has accounted for 14 touchdowns and one interception, and his life story served as the inspiration for the film “Him.”
Under-the-radar play of the week
Under-the-radar game of the week
Heisman five
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