It’s sometimes easy to overlook the reality that there are more than just the members of the Power Four conference that are viable candidates for the NCAA college football championship series. And no, I don’t mean the Oregon State Beavers–even though they finally earned a victory over the vaunted Lafayette Leopards that somehow qualified as worthy for national broadcast TV last night (OK, it was the CW, so partial credit only).
No, it was the heretofore out-of-sight but never fully out-of -mind gang in stormy South Bend that served notice to a far more wide-reaching national broadcast TV audience via NBC (and, yeah, Peacock for you cord-nevers) last night. THE ATHLETIC’s terrific trio of Antonio Morales, Pete Sampson and David Ubben were all over it:
Powered by its tremendous running back duo, No. 13 Notre Dame beat No. 20 USC 34-24 on Saturday to clear one of the most significant hurdles on its path to a return trip to the College Football Playoff.
Jeremiyah Love rushed for a career-high 228 yards, while backfield mate Jadarian Price added 87 and returned a third-quarter kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to put Notre Dame (5-2) back ahead after the Trojans briefly took the lead with a long touchdown.
Love has had Heisman Trophy moments before, but never a game like the one he posted against USC with 24 carries for a career-high 228 yards and a touchdown, plus five catches for 37 yards, as he rampaged through the Trojans defense from start to finish…This was Love’s night to shine, delivering much more than a singular highlight or hurdle, going beyond that 98-yard touchdown run to open the College Football Playoff or that 2-yard epic against Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Love was the best player on the field on Saturday night, perhaps belatedly launching a Heisman Trophy campaign that felt impossible after Notre Dame’s 0-2 start.
And while there are plenty of other 5-2 teams right now–not the least of which is USC itself–somehow the powers that be in college football give more street cred when those numbers appear next to the words Notre and Dame. As a wise friend and contributor observed earlier this morning if somehow the Notre Dame football program were shut down overnight they’d still be ranked number eight in the next poll. Lo and behold, based upon what else transpired in the last 48 hours they may very well wind up there–or perhaps even higher–for realsies.
To wit, FOX 5 Atlanta’s
No. 9 Georgia overcame No. 5 Mississippi’s powerful offense to rally for a 43-35 win over the Rebels on Saturday…Gunner Stockton passed for 289 yards and four touchdowns, including three to tight end Lawson Luckie. Stockton completed 26 of 31 passes and added a 22-yard touchdown run in the crucial SEC matchup. Gunner Stockton passed for 289 yards and four touchdowns, including three to tight end Lawson Luckie. Stockton completed 26 of 31 passes and added a 22-yard touchdown run in the crucial SEC matchup.
Meanwhile, another SEC team that was ahead of the Irish also went down, per Aria Gerson of Nashville’s TENNESSEAN:
Vanderbilt football notched a 31-24 win over No. 10 LSU with a strong offensive performance at FirstBank Stadium on Oct. 18, becoming bowl eligible for the second straight season.
Diego Pavia hit a Heisman pose after a touchdown in the fourth quarter, which ultimately proved to be the game-winning TD for the No. 18 Commodores (6-1, 2-1 SEC)…LSU’s defense has been one of the top in the country so far this season. That was no matter for Vanderbilt’s offense, which was still able to move the ball.
And beyond those confines yet another pretender to the throne was exposed, as duly noted by THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC’s Jeremy Cluff:
The Arizona State football team picked up a huge win on Saturday, Oct. 18, knocking off previously undefeated Texas Tech, the No. 7-ranked team in the nation, 26-22, in front of a sold-out crowd at Mountain America Stadium.
Texas Tech took its first lead of the game on ASU football with 2:00 left in the fourth quarter, 22-19.
The Red Raiders had scored 15 points in 1:45, and it appeared that the result of the game might be a huge collapse for the Sun Devils.
But Sam Leavitt, back from missing last week’s 42-10 loss for ASU with an injury, helped ASU drive 75 yards in 10 plays, taking 1:26 off the clock, with Raleek Brown running it in from 1-yard out to give ASU a 26-22 lead with 34 seconds left.
And let’s not forget that all of this was on top of what previously went down in South Florida. UNTIL SATURDAY’s Jason Kirk certainly did not:
Louisville 24 (5-1), No. 2 Miami 21: Friday night, Carson Beck’s four INTs muddied what’d once looked like the smoothest Playoff path in the country. I still believe in this defensive line, but … same ol’ Canes?
Kirk actually chose to cite some gospel truth to provide some sort of divine guideance:
(F)or now, I’d just say: College football gets especially wacky every few years, and that has been the case since long before NIL. As the book of Ecclesiastes notes, nothing is ever really new, mainly because everything has always been new.
I suspect he’d fit in well with the good folk in South Bend this morning. Let alone all others who might celebrate–or lament–a Notre Dame squad back in serious post-season consideration.
Courage…