College Football Awards, Week 10 (2025) November 3, 2025

Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.
Tags: Arizona, Auburn, Boise State, Boston College, Brent Venables, Clark Lea, college, Colorado, Commodores, Dan Lanning, FIU, Florida, Florida State, football, Fresno State, Gators, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Houston, Hugh Freeze, Indiana, Josh Heupel, Kentucky, Kirk Ferentz, Longhorns, Louisville, Mario Cristobal, Memphis, Miami (FL), Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Middle Tennessee, NC State, NCAA, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Sam Houston, SMU, Sooners, Steve Sarkesian, Tennessee, Texas, The Citadel, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Volunteers, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Willie Fritz
trackback

COACHES
Wish I were him:  Brent Venables, Oklahoma

Glad I’m not him: Josh Heupel, Tennessee

Lucky guy: Steve Sarkesian, Texas

Poor guy: Clark Lea, Vanderbilt

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Willie Fritz, Houston

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Mario Cristobal, Miami

Desperately seeking … anything:  Hugh Freeze, Auburn

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Florida State (defeated Wake Forest 42-7)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Notre Dame (defeated Boston College 25-10)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Colorado (lost to Arizona 52-17)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Purdue (lost to Michigan 21-16)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Fresno State (defeated Boise State 30-7)  

Dang, they’re good: Indiana
Dang, they’re bad:  Colorado

Can’t Stand Prosperity: Georgia Tech

Did the season start?  Miami, FL
Can the season end?  Auburn

Can the season never end? Ole Miss

GAMES
Play this again:  No. 5 Georgia 24, Florida 20

Play this again, too: SMU 26, No. 10 Miami 20, OT

Never play this again: No. 2 Indiana 55, Maryland 10

What?  UTSA 48, Tulane 26

Huh?  West Virginia 45, No. 22 Houston 35

Double-Huh?  SMU 26, No. 10 Miami 20, OT

Are you kidding me??:  No. 20 Texas 34, No. 9 Vanderbilt 31

Oh – my – God:  NC State 48, No. 8 Georgia Tech 36

Told you so:  Kentucky 10, Auburn 3

NEXT WEEK

rankings are current AP (week 11)
Ticket to die for:  No. 8 BYU @ No. 9 Texas Tech

Best non-Power Four vs. Power Four  matchup: none

Best non-Power Four matchup: San Diego State @ Hawaii

Upset alert: Cal @ No. 14 Louisville

Must win: No. 6 Oregon @ Iowa

Offensive explosion: No. 3 Texas A&M @ No. 19 Missouri

Defensive struggle: Florida @ Kentucky

Great game no one is talking about: Tulane @ No. 22 Memphis

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Dan Lanning of Oregon vs Kirk Ferentz of Iowa

Who’s bringing the body bags, B1G edition?  No. 1 Ohio State @ Purdue

Who’s bringing the body bags, ACC edition?  SMU @ Boston College

Why are they playing? The Citadel @ No. 7 Ole Miss

Plenty of good seats remaining: Sam Houston @ Oregon State

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  FIU @ Middle Tennessee

Week 10 [Random] Thoughts:

Texas played some of its best football all season – for three-and-a-half quarters, at least.  A long bomb to the end zone threatened to break favored Vanderbilt’s collective back, only to find out that the receiver dropped the ball upon further review.  That gave the Commodores enough time to regroup in an effort to overcome a three-TD deficit.  The Longhorns’ collapse of their defense late in the 4^th quarter almost enabled that.  Sloppy play on both sides of the ball that pushed Vandy’s on-side kick out of bounds finally sealed the deal for Texas.  But the final minutes of play left the 100,000+ faithful in DKR Memorial Stadium breathing a sigh of relief instead of belting out a massive cheer in celebration of this counterintuitive upset.

To zoom out the lens, Texas pulled off an improbably comeback on the road last week.  This week, they almost allowed for an improbably comeback at home.  Looks like Sark needs to teach his team how to play the whole 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, can Josh Heupel & Co. find a higher gear?  As good as this Tennessee teams have been these past few years, he cannot seem to be able to pick up a signature win against the heavyweights within his own conference, or even others (witness the drubbing the Volunteers took in Ohio Stadium during last year’s playoffs).

Oklahoma, conversely, picked up a quality win, which, ironically, gives hated rival Texas’ decisive win over the Sooners all the more quality.

Where has this Florida team been all year?  Notwithstanding their win over the Longhorns in the Swamp, the Gators have underperformed the rest of the year…until now, when they threatened to upset No. 5 Georgia at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville (yes, I’m still calling that), and it turned out to be the greatest game of the week.