Week 12 brought dominant wins, wild comebacks and three Top 25 teams falling to their unranked opponents. With only two weeks left in the regular season, what else might we see the rest of the way?
No. 15
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Oklahoma ended Alabama’s 17-game home win streak Saturday despite generating only 212 yards — its lowest total in a win since 2001 against No. 5 Texas — and only one offensive touchdown. Mateer supplied that with a brilliant 20-yard dash but finished with only 138 passing yards, the third time in four games he has been held below 160 yards. He has only one game with multiple touchdown passes, the opener against Illinois State.
Venables’ defense was once again the star against Alabama, which it kept out of the end zone in last year’s win and often tormented when he was at Clemson. After allowing a 75-yard touchdown on Alabama’s first possession of the second half, Oklahoma stifled the Tide’s last four drives.
“Our coverage was a little better,” Venables said. “We turned up some pressure a little bit, some timely pressure got to them and created some negative plays that really made it hard for them on a couple of those drives. We just started getting into a rhythm.”
Oklahoma has collected six takeaways in its road wins against Tennessee and Alabama, and Venables made it clear Saturday that it hasn’t been fluky.
“Our guys were attacking the football, and they were relentless,” he said.
The Sooners ultimately will need more from their offense to finish off this season and advance in the CFP. But Venables is quickly shaping the program in his image.
“He’s done a great job with defense through the years,” Arbuckle said. “I mean, he’s the absolute best in the business at what he does, and I’m thankful to be on the staff with him.” — Adam Rittenberg
Wake Forest is one of the nation’s most surprising teams
The handshake was brief, but the message seemed clear: Bill Belichick had no time to exchange pleasantries with Jake Dickert after Wake Forest beat North Carolina 28-12. Rather than Belichick and North Carolina engineering a quick turnaround this season, it has been Wake Forest that has emerged under first-year coach Jake Dickert as one of the best stories of the season.
Dickert did not receive the same sort of publicity as Belichick when he arrived in Winston-Salem, taking over from Dave Clawson after leading Washington State. Instead, he built this program “in the dark,” as he often says — piecing together a roster with less time and financial resources than his counterparts in Chapel Hill, while doing it completely under the radar.
The results speak for themselves. Rather than chalk this season up as a “rebuild,” the way Belichick did at the midway point in the season, Wake Forest put everything it had into this season and is sitting at 7-3 — already three wins better than last year. North Carolina, meanwhile, needs to win out against Duke and NC State to reach bowl eligibility.
“This one felt different,” Dickert said after the game. “It’s a momentum builder. We talked a little bit about: Let’s make some people in this state respect the W-F. I think our guys wanted to go prove who they are, and they went out and showed that. It’s a big pride thing.”
Dickert is now tied with Bill Dooley for the most wins in school history by a first-year head coach. He can break that record against Delaware on Saturday. Wake Forest sits as the best team from North Carolina in the ACC this season, after being picked to finish 16th in the preseason poll. Wake Forest has used a mix of veterans — receiver Demond Claiborne, safety Nick Andersen and safety Davaughn Patterson — with an influx of portal players to turn around the program. Wake Forest beat Virginia and SMU this season — two teams fighting for a spot to make it to the ACC championship game.
But Dickert also knows it only gets harder from here.
“We’re way ahead of schedule but sustained success is really difficult,” Dickert said. “Especially in today’s college football, there’s no secret — everyone in the country’s going to be scouting our guys. … We’re changing the expectation, but that’s why we talk about built in the dark. You have to stay there.” — Andrea Adelson
Welcome back to the spotlight, USC
It is a rare sight to see: USC, of all programs, flying under the radar for most of this season only to emerge in November as a top-tier team in the Big Ten with a very clear pathway to the College Football Playoff. If the Trojans win out, they likely are in.
That’s easier said than done, of course. One of the strange hallmarks of Lincoln Riley’s tenure at USC has been that his teams have not exactly made it easy for themselves, even when the Trojans have been at their best. Last year, they went 2-5 in games decided by seven points or less; this year, they are 2-1 in such games — none perhaps more impressive than what they did Saturday, coming back from being down 21-10 at halftime to beat a tough Iowa team 26-21.
“That’s a culture win, right there,” Riley said Saturday. “If there ever was one, that was a culture win.”
It’s remarkable to think that USC is a 2-point loss at Illinois away from being undefeated in Big Ten play. Aside from the drubbing it took at Notre Dame, the Trojans have been able to ride their formula of a high-powered offense with a defense that makes important adjustments all the way here.
The Trojans’ talent is undeniable — just look at what wide receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane have done this season — but their ability to fill in the gaps at other positions has been equally crucial. They’ve lost key players such as their two top running backs Eli Sanders and Waymond Jordan, only to have walk-on King Miller step up and lead a rushing attack that has improved by the week.
Meanwhile, their defense has been far from perfect, but its slew of playmakers (see Bishop Fitzgerald‘s five interceptions) have made key plays at the right time. It has all added up to a season that hasn’t exactly looked the part of a playoff team but amounted to a record that, should they pull off an upset at Oregon next week, will be undeniable.
“This team’s resilience, whether it’s a tough stretch of plays, whether it’s losing some players here and there throughout the year,” Riley said. “We just keep coming, and we have all year.” — Paolo Uggetti
