College Football Awards, Week 9 (2025) October 26, 2025

COACHES
Wish I were him:  Mike Elko, Texas A&M

Glad I’m not him: Brian Kelly, LSU

Lucky guy: Greg Schiano, Rutgers

Poor guy: Barry Odom, Purdue

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

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Willie Fritz, Houston

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: N/A

Desperately seeking … anything:  Brian Kelly, LSU

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Indiana (defeated UCLA 56-6)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Oregon (defeated Wisconsin 21-7)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Oklahoma State (lost to Texas Tech 42-0)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  North Carolina (lost to Virginia 17-16)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Iowa (defeated Minnesota 41-3)  

Dang, they’re good: Texas A&M
Dang, they’re bad:  Oklahoma State

Can’t Stand Prosperity: South Florida

Did the season start?  Illinois
Can the season end?  Nevada

Can the season never end? Georgia Tech

GAMES
Play this again:  No. 10 Vanderbilt 17, No. 15 Missouri 10

Play this again, too: No. 4 Alabama 29, South Carolina 22

Never play this again: No. 2 Indiana 56, UCLA 6

What?  Virginia Tech 42, Cal 34, 2OT

Huh?  Memphis 34, No. 18 South Florida 31

Are you kidding me??  Houston 24, No. 24 Arizona State 16

Oh – my – God:  Washington 42, No. 23 Illinois 25

NEXT WEEK

rankings are current AP (week 10)
Ticket to die for:  No. 18 Oklahoma @ No. 14 Tennessee

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

Best non-Power Four matchup: Navy @ North Texas

Upset alert: No. 17 Cincinnati @ No. 24 Utah

Must win: No. 9 Vanderbilt @ No. 20 Texas

Offensive explosion: Baylor @ No. 24 Cincinnati

Defensive struggle: Kentucky @ Auburn

Great game no one is talking about: No. 15 Virginia @ Cal

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Lincoln Riley of USC vs Matt Rhule of Nebraska

Who’s bringing the body bags?  No. 12 Notre Dame @ Boston College

Why are they playing? N/A

Plenty of good seats remaining: Louisiana @ South Alabama

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  Sam Houston @ Louisiana Tech

Week 9 [Random] Thoughts:

Vanderbilt, the perennial punching bag of the SEC, is now ranked in the top ten for the first time since 1947.  Let that sink in for a moment.  How did this come about?  The likely answer is, a number of factors.  Clark Lea certainly had a vision, greatly aided to fruition by talented QB Diego Pavia.  But surely other talented players have been key factors in this fascinating development.  That is where the combination of the transfer portal and the NIL come into play.  Vanderbilt has enjoyed the well-earned reputation of being the most prestigious school in the SEC, and with that surely comes some reasonably deep pockets to fund a strong NIL collective, to say nothing of its location in growing corporate hotbed Nashville.  As fans of college football, let us embrace the opportunity to witness this further develop, for if nothing else, it gives us all the more great SEC matchups to enjoy every Saturday.

Texas pulled off an improbable comeback in the 4^th quarter at Mississippi State.  Arch Manning went 29-35 for 346 yards and 4 touchdowns, with one interception, and that came from a deflection off the hands of a receiver.  In the 4^th quarter, Manning went 12-20, passing for 169 yards and two touchdowns.  Yet the biggest irony of all was when he went out, concussed, in overtime.  Backup Matthew Caldwell went into the game, and executed in a massive way, throwing the game-winning touchdown.  Could it be that the biggest untapped strength of this young, unstable Texas team is its backup QBs?

Is the Brian Kelly experiment in Baton Rouge about to come to a sudden, ignominious end?  Texas A&M embarrassed LSU in Death Valley, 49-25.  Early in the 4^th quarter, fans started to empty the stands in droves.  Such is hardly the look the powers that be in LSU’s athletics department like to project during a primetime game on ABC.  But in Kelly’s defense, the Tigers’ three losses all come to current, top-ten teams, those being Ole Miss (currently No. 8), Vanderbilt (currently No. 9), and now Texas A&M (currently No. 3).  Can some blame be nevertheless placed at Kelly’s feet for not having an optimal season?  Surely, yes.  He certainly has failed at designing an offense to play to QB Garrett Nussmeier’s strengths, but that also assumes that he has any strengths worth noting in the first place.  But while many are now calling for Kelly’s head, some context in this situation might be a benefit to everyone.

Meanwhile, Ole Miss seemed to pass a key test by defeating Oklahoma on the road, 34-26.  With a reasonably clear path to win out in the regular season, it is quite reasonable to conclude that the Rebels control their own destiny to make the playoffs this year, surely legitimizing Lane Kiffin’s tenure in Oxford in the process.