College Football Awards Week 6 (2026) October 12, 2026

COACHES
Wish I were him:  Kirby Smart, Georgia

Glad I’m not him: Steve Sarkesian, Texas

Lucky guy: Brent Venables, Oklahoma

Poor guy: Ken Niumatololo, SJSU

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Steve Sarkesian, Texas

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Bob Chesney, UCLA

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Steve Sarkesian, Texas

Desperately seeking … anything:  Jon Sumrall, Florida

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Northwestern (defeated Ball State 45-14)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Indiana (defeated Nebraska 20-17)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Stanford (lost to Notre Dame 58-7)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Penn State (lost to USC 31-23)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Purdue (defeated Minnesota 41-13)

Dang, they’re good: Notre Dame
Dang, they’re bad:  Appalachian State

Can’t Stand Prosperity: Texas

Did the season start?  Florida
Can the season end? Northern Illinois

Can the season never end? Georgia

GAMES
Play this again:  Oklahoma 27, No. 1 Texas 24

Play this again, too: No. 2 Georgia 20, No. 6 Alabama 17

Never play this again: Oregon State 66, SDSU 14

What? No. 21 UCLA 17, No. 13 Oregon 15

What-what?  Purdue 41, Minnesota 13

Huh?  North Carolina 21, No. 25 Pittsburgh 17

Double-Huh?  Kentucky 34, No. 10 LSU 33 (OT)

Are you kidding me??  South Carolina 38, No. 16 Florida 19

Oh – my – God:  Oklahoma 27, No. 1 Texas 24

NEXT WEEK

rankings are current AP (week 7)
Ticket to die for:  No. 5 Ohio State @ No. 7 Indiana

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

Best non-Power Four matchup: Memphis @ Tulane (Friday)

Upset alert: Florida @ No. 7 Texas

Must win: No. 6 Alabama @ No. 14 Tennessee

Offensive explosion: No. 13 Missouri @ No. 9 Ole Miss

Defensive struggle: Penn State @ Michigan

Great game no one is talking about: No. 18 Oklahoma State @ No. 20 Houston

Also:  Washington @ Purdue

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Brent Venables of Oklahoma vs Will Stein of Kentucky

Who’s bringing the body bags?  No. 25 Northwestern @ Michigan State

Why are they playing?  Elon @ Stanford

Plenty of good seats remaining: Ball State @ Bowling Green

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  Rutgers @ Maryland

Week 6 Thoughts:

The Red River Rivalry did not disappoint in terms of delivering a dramatic game.  Having 92,000 fans in the storied Cotton Bowl stadium, evenly divided between fan bases in a bitter rivalry never fails in delivering an incredibly electric environment.

As far as the game itself and its dramatic outcome, there are lessons to be learned.  On paper, Texas should have put Oklahoma away early on.  The fact that they failed to do so, thus allowing for the Sooners to hang around, eventually got the underdogs thinking that they could win the game.  Some key errors late in the 4^th quarter, namely Steve Sarkesian opting for a [missed] field goal instead of going for it on 4^th and 2, and Arch Manning throwing a most-costly interception that put Oklahoma in position to kick a game-winning field goal in the final seconds.  So one lesson learned:  if you are the Number-one team, act like it, assert yourselves accordingly, and put your rival away without mercy.

As far as Arch Manning goes, it is beyond time to have a grown-up conversation that he is not as great a QB as hype would suggest otherwise.  That said, he does have the occasional flash of brilliance.  The long bomb into the end zone in the 1^st quarter was certainly impressive.  Sark would do well to sometimes get out of his way and allow for him to move the chains with his schoolyard ball-style heroics that did him so well against Ohio State.  The other lesson, should Sark thus heed it, is to take the straightjacket off Arch, who has clear limitations at this point, and let me run more with the ball.

In fairness, credit Oklahoma with their offensive line play.  They held off Texas’ killer front four the whole game, minimizing sacks allowed with their QB, Mateer, was underperforming throughout the game except for, inexplicably, the final series.

Elsewhere, Georgia beat Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, in a hard-fought game.  Many have speculated that the Bulldogs could be the best time in the country currently, but as good as they looked, it was against nobodies.  Now they played somebody in the form of Kalen DeBoer’s resurgent Alabama squad, and beat them at that.  Now we know that Georgia is for real after all.

Random Thoughts:

Don’t look now, but UCLA is 5-0 and just upset Oregon.  Given the offensive output of both teams going into that game, it seemed like an enticing prospect for an offensive explosion.  Inexplicably, it turned out to be a defensive struggle instead.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Purdue, who was one of the conference punching bags for a while, just beat Minnesota, in butt-kicking fashion no less.  Next up for the Boilermakers to prove they deserve more respect in the conference is a Friday night matchup against visiting Washington, a team that is trying to lick its wounds after taking a 41-24 shellacking at home against Iowa this past Friday.

Louisville remains the biggest mystery in the ACC.  After frustrating performances against both Wake Forest and NC State, they turn around and wallop Florida State, arguably a better team than either of the previous two.  If we did not know any better, we might assume that they flipped some magical, invisible switch that got the Cardinals to play good football again.

Florida’s decline seems to continue.  First they laid an egg last week against Missouri.  Now South Carolina embarrassed them at home.  Was their ripping victory over Ole Miss at Pyrrhic?

Back to Red River to offer a parting observation:  throughout that game, neither team’s QB elected to throw over the middle, despite it being undefended during the bulk of regulation.  No doubt this will be a vexing issue for both Texas’ and OU’s offensive coordinators to deal with this week during film study, and have a thing or two to point out to their respective QBs in the process.