As the Misery Index counts down to the end of yet another season, it’s time to honor a team that doesn’t generate much publicity outside of the Mountain Time Zone. But if you were to stack up all this year’s disappointments from Florida State to Southern California, it would be professional malpractice to skip over the stunning collapse that has occurred this season in Salt Lake City. 

Utah has not only been among the best programs in the Western half of the country over the last decade, it has been by far the most consistent. From 2014 to 2023, it finished in the Top 25 six times with no losing seasons and consecutive Rose Bowl appearances in 2021 and 2022. 

The Utes’ move to the Big 12 was not supposed to change the narrative. They were favored to win the conference, and a 4-0 start to this season launched them into the top-10.

But since then? It’s been nothing but bad news, culminating with Saturday’s 49-24 loss to Colorado and a sixth consecutive defeat that puts Utah on the brink of missing a bowl game, which has only happened three times in Kyle Whittingham’s 19 seasons as head coach. 

Saturday’s result was jarring. It’s only the third time Utah has lost to Colorado since they resumed their annual rivalry in 2011, and the talent disparity was alarming. Utah finished with just 272 offensive yards and turned the ball over four times, undercutting any hope of pulling an upset. 

That pathetic effort comes on the heels of a season-defining moment for Utah just one week earlier when it blew a 21-10 halftime lead and lost to rival Brigham Young 22-21. That game turned on a defensive holding call against the Utes with 90 seconds to go that bailed the Cougars out of a bad fourth-and-10 play and ultimately a certain defeat. Given another chance, BYU marched down the field and kicked a game-winning, 44-yard field goal. 

Mark Harlan, Utah’s athletics director, made the unusual decision to come into the press room and say that the game was ‘stolen from us,” adding, ‘We were excited about being in the Big 12, but tonight I am not.” 

STAR TURN: Carson Beck shows up when Georgia needs him most

UP AND DOWN: Florida, Colorado lead Week 12 winners and losers

We don’t like to tell people how to spend their money, but the $40,000 fine levied against Harlan was an Enron-level bad investment. Not only was the holding call correct — or at least correct enough that you can’t say Utah got robbed — it’s quite a price to pay when you consider where Utah sits right now at 1-6 in the Big 12 and completely off the radar in the larger context of the College Football Playoff. Even if you believe Big 12 refs got that one call wrong or cost Utah the game, it does not change the fundamental calculus of what a mess this season has been, including offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig’s resignation in October. 

The main excuse for Utah’s problems, especially on offense, has been the absence of quarterback Cameron Rising, who suffered a hand injury in Week 2 and played just one game since before another season-ending injury. 

But here’s the problem with that. Rising has been in college since 2018. A combination of injuries and the extra COVID year has allowed him to extend his eligibility beyond anything that would be considered normal. He’s 25 years old for goodness sakes. If your entire program hinges on a guy who should have been out of college football long before now under normal circumstances, you haven’t done a very good job of building your team. 

Rising may have masked some problems if he could have stayed healthy, but he couldn’t have carried a load this heavy. Utah is just a bad football team, and the entire athletic department hasn’t handled it very well. 

That’s why the Utes are No. 1 in the Misery Index, a weekly measurement of which fan bases are feeling the most angst. 

Four more in Misery

LSU: The entire theory of Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame for the Bayou three years ago was that he didn’t believe the Irish could win a national championship in this era of college football. ‘I loved my time at Notre Dame,” Kelly told the Associated Press in 2022. “We were on different paths and that’s fine.” What he meant was that after reaching the College Football Playoff a couple times only to get blown out by Clemson and Alabama, he felt like he’d maxed out at Notre Dame and wanted to see if he could reach the Holy Grail at a place without some of the stuffy restrictions around collegiate and academic life that Notre Dame clings to in this era of college football professionalization. Also, LSU is just a flat-out great job where its last three coaches had all won national championships – even Ed Orgeron. 

It’s hard to screw up LSU. And yet, here we are.

In Kelly’s third season, he’s 6-4 after a 27-16 loss at Florida. There’s no way to spin this. It’s a stunning, resounding dud of a year. Meanwhile, Notre Dame is likely to cruise into the playoff under Marcus Freeman. Maybe life in South Bend wasn’t so bad after all. 

But this isn’t about Notre Dame. It’s about Kelly being an awkward fit at LSU and not winning nearly enough, yet having no obvious exit ramp and more than $60 million guaranteed on his contract. They are seemingly stuck with each other long past the honeymoon phase, and the way LSU has collapsed over the last three games without showing much fight suggests the problems are deeper than X’s and O’s. Whether Kelly still has command of that locker room is now a front-and-center issue that will define whether LSU can find its way back to contention or is stuck with the sunk cost of a splashy coaching hire that looks more like a mistake every week. 

Kansas State: Among the country’s college football tastemakers, a consensus formed this season around the idea that Kansas State was really the best team in the Big 12. This happened even though the evidence suggested otherwise, including a 29-point loss to BYU and a ghastly loss last week to a Houston team that is now 4-6. Still, the Kansas State believers pressed on, insisting that the Wildcats would somehow find their way into the Big 12 championship game and make the CFP, where they were supposed to be all along. Uh, no. 

It’s hard to say how such a misguided narrative took hold so deeply in the minds of people who should have known better, but thank goodness nobody has to pretend anymore that Kansas State is anything better than the non-threatening Big 12 team that it is. Reality slapped the Wildcats in the form of a 24-14 loss at home to Arizona State, and their path to the Big 12 title game is all but blocked. In a vacuum, Kansas State could feel good about a 9-3 season if that’s how it ends up. But in this new era of the 12-team playoff, the disappointment at Kansas State will be about having the best team on paper in the conference and coming up woefully short of cashing in that opportunity. 

Nebraska: This week marked the sideline debut of new Huskers offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, the former West Virginia and Houston head coach who strikes a remarkable resemblance these days to the late, great Jimmy Buffett. But Nebraska football is no Cheeseburger in Paradise at the moment. And the Changes in Attitude that Holgorsen was supposed to bring didn’t stop a fourth consecutive loss, 28-20 to Southern California, that truly imperils Nebraska’s bowl prospects. Unless the Huskers can beat either Wisconsin or Iowa, it will be a stunning eighth consecutive year without the postseason after starting this season 5-1. The sharks are starting to circle around head coach Matt Rhule — Fins to the left and right, you might say — which accounts for the desperate offensive coordinator change at this point in the season. But Come Monday, it’s the same old story at Nebraska. Rhule is 2-9 in one-score games, following in the footsteps of Scott Frost’s 5-22 mark that caused a Volcano of Big Red rage to blow all over his coaching career. The margins are as small as a Pencil Thin Mustache, but all losses count the same. In the state of Nebraska, that’s like Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season. 

Charlotte: There has been a trend lately where schools like Charlotte with nothing to lose make non-traditional coaching hires and hope to strike gold. Biff Poggi fit the mold. Though his life story can’t be told in a paragraph, the gist of it is that he was pursuing two careers as a young man — one as a football coach, the other as a hedge fund manager. He made a ton of money but kept coaching high school football for nearly three decades, hooked on with Jim Harbaugh at Michigan a few years back as something akin to a consigliere, then got hired at Charlotte as a 63-year old with very little college coaching experience.

Poggi likes to stir the pot on social media, and his in-your-face personality isn’t for everyone. That would be tolerable if he were winning, but he’s not. Poggi is 6-16 as a head coach, and he was asked after a 59-24 loss to South Florida how he’d grade himself this season. 

“Terrible,” he said. “It all starts with me, and it ends with me, and the entire organization looks like it looks because it’s the way I chose it to look. So all of the blame squarely needs to go on me and these are the kind of games that when you have as coach and your team is 3-6 things don’t end well. so I’m fully aware of that, but I’d say my grade has been not good.”

We appreciate the honesty here at the Misery Index, and we couldn’t say it any better than Poggi said it himself. 

Miserable but not miserable enough

Missouri: Last week, a jubilant coach Eli Drinkwitz walked off the field after a wild win over Oklahoma and declared that it kept the Tigers in contention for a CFP bid. “That’s right, I said it – playoff hunt,” he told the SEC Network while looking straight into the camera. Drinkwitz, who so desperately wants to be this generation’s Steve Spurrier while possessing only a fraction of his wit, charm or trolling talent, might have been vindicated had the Tigers held on for another white-knuckle victory at South Carolina. But for teams like Missouri, the water usually finds its level. The Tigers were never really in the playoff hunt except as a spasm of Drinkwitz’s unyielding desire for attention, and thanks to South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers we no longer need to do the mental gymnastics to wonder if he’s right. After Missouri’s Brady Cook threw a 37-yard touchdown on fourth-and-5 to take the lead with 1:10 left, Sellers marched South Carolina 70 yards down the field to one-up him with just 15 seconds to go for a 34-30 victory. It’s a pretty gutting way to lose for Missouri. On the other hand, given that the Tigers had gotten every break imaginable in razor-thin wins over the Sooners, Auburn and Vanderbilt, they probably had it coming. 

Pittsburgh: When victory was in sight Saturday — and it would have been a massive victory against Clemson — all the Panthers needed was to do something they’d done successfully the entire game. But after giving up just eight net rushing yards and pretty much stoning Clemson at the line of scrimmage, Pitt somehow allowed quarterback Cade Klubnik to escape their grasp on the final drive and run for a 50-yard touchdown with 1:16 remaining. Clemson’s 24-20 victory keeps the Tigers in the hunt for the ACC title. And in an otherwise really good game for Pitt’s defense, one bad call against the quarterback draw did them in. But the bigger disappointment for Pitt fans is a season that started with visions of the CFP decomposing into ‘meh’ territory. After starting 7-0, the Panthers have lost three in a row including a horrible home loss last week to Virginia. 

Arkansas: When Razorback fans are done with a coach, they don’t play by normal rules. They’ll get phone records and look for something mildly embarrassing (Houston Nutt). They’ll raise a ruckus over attending a Friday night high school football game to watch their son (Chad Morris). And now they’ll apparently buy billboards on the highway near Fayetteville: “Thank you for 5 great years Sam. A change is needed in order to compete in the SEC.” Tough gig, the Arkansas job. Sam Pittman is finding out, even though the Hogs should clinch bowl eligibility for the fourth time in Pittman’s five years next week against Louisiana Tech. Yes, the bad moments look bad — like a 20-10 loss to Texas in which the Razorbacks were held to 231 yards of offense with two turnovers. Is the overwhelmingly negative sentiment toward Pittman a slight overreaction? It’s not like the bottom has fallen out.  On the other hand, Arkansas fans see traditional SEC also-rans like South Carolina and Ole Miss ascending — even Missouri was really good last year — and wonder, “Why not us?” 

Tennessee: We can’t make too much of one game, given that the Vols still have a good chance to make the playoff. But if Georgia coach Kirby Smart owns Tennessee to such a degree, he should probably move into the governor’s mansion in Nashville just for fun. Not only has Georgia won eight in a row against the Vols, the combined score of those games is 303-104. A complete whitewash. It was no different this time in Georgia’s 31-17 win in Athens, putting the Bulldogs back in the playoff mix and SEC championship race. Though Tennessee has reversed its fortunes lately against Alabama, its other historical rival, the Georgia game remains as lopsided as a bug versus a windshield. 

(This story was updated to change a video.)

Tennessee came to Athens for the second straight time higher in the College Football playoff rankings, and left with a loss once again.

“We’re not playing the College Football Playoff committee,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Saturday morning on ESPN’s College GameDay. “That’s not who we’re playing against. We’re playing against Tennessee. We’ve got to focus on the task at hand. The rest of it will take care of itself.”

Georgia should pass Tennessee in the CFP rankings Tuesday night, with the Bulldogs going from last team out and ranked No. 12 but behind an automatic conference champion to in the field inside the 12-team bracket.

OPINION: SEC only has itself to blame when CFP-worthy teams sit home

The Bulldogs are considered in the playoff by most if they finish 10-2. Georgia plays UMass Saturday and then Georgia Tech on Nov. 29.

Georgia dropped nine spots after a 28-10 drubbing at Ole Miss in part because committee chair Warde Manuel said “their offense hasn’t been consistent.”

If the 13-person selection committee was watching this one, they saw a Bulldog offense put up more points and yards—453—than anyone has against Tennessee all season.

The previous high points was by Arkansas in a 19-14 Razorbacks win.

“I don’t know what they’re looking for,” Smart said in his postgame press conference, echoing what he said on the field in an ABC interview. “I really don’t. I wish they could really define the criteria. I wish they could do the eyeball test where they come down here and look at the people we’re playing against and look at them. And you can’t see that stuff on TV. So I don’t know what they look for, but that’s for somebody else to decide.”

He added: “They’ll probably look at this week and say, well, we just played against one of the best defenses in the country. And we went for 453 on them, and it could have been more. So it’s just the tale of each week. And we’re trying to be the cumulative, whole, really good quality team. And not be on this emotional roller coaster that’s controlled by people in a room somewhere that may not understand football like we do as coaches. We as coaches look at people and say, what can we do better? How do we get better? I respect their decision. I respect their opinion but it’s different in our league.”

For the record, the committee does include coaches including a former SEC coach in Gary Pinkel who coached in the league from 2012-15 at Missouri. It also includes former Nevada coach Chris Ault, former Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe and former Oregon State and Nebraska coach Mike Riley.

ADs on the committee include Arkansas’ Hunter Yurachek and Virginia’s Carla Williams who was a senior athletic administrator at Georgia until 2017.

Georgia’s wins at CFP No. 3 Texas, No. 7 Tennessee and No. 20 Clemson are going to be hard to match by other contenders.

The SEC has 9-1 Texas and five teams at 8-2: Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Tennessee. Two of those teams could be left out.

Asked where he thinks his team is in the playoff picture, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said: “I have no idea, man. All I know is this league is college football as good as it gets. It is. Teams get beat on the road sometimes.”

Georgia’s Carson Beck, whose 12 interceptions were as hard apparently for the committee to watch as it was for Georgia fans, threw none Saturday but did light up the Vols for 347 yards and 2 touchdowns on 25 of 40 passing.

Beck spoke to the players Monday after a team meeting. Beck said some players had reached out to Smart who said they wanted to make other guys aware of how significant the Tennessee game was.

Beck spoke as did Jalon Walker, Tate Ratledge and Malaki Starks.

He said his message was “as long as we want this thing to keep going, we got to win. Backs against the wall, it is what it is. Let’s go roll and let’s go have fun.”

Said Walker: “Nobody likes to lose. It’s what we don’t do here at Georgia. We love to win football games and we had an opportunity to do that tonight.”

Smart, whose team won back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022 and went 13-1 last season, said when asked about navigating the SEC and going 6-2 in the league, that everyone thinks Georgia should win every game.

“How you handle losses says a lot about you,” he said. “And these kids are going grow up to be contributors to society and how they respond to tough situations, man. They’re so much more prepared for bad things to happen in their life because of what they do in this organization and what they go through and the criticism they take. They’ll never be as criticized as they are by the outside world in this sport. And I’m proud of the way they stuck together and kind of bonded and came out and played well.’

(This story was updated to add a video.)

The Los Angeles Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals are set to party like it’s 2020 on ‘Sunday Night Football.’

That’s largely because a marquee quarterback matchup featuring two of the 2020 NFL draft’s best passers is taking center stage on NBC. Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow will meet for just the second time in their NFL careers in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

Both quarterbacks have cemented their status as some of the league’s best young passers, and both have eerily similar stats over the courses of their careers to show for it: Herbert has thrown 125 touchdowns to Burrow’s 121. Burrow has the edge in INTs, having only thrown 41 to Herbert’s 43. The edge is even closer in yards per game, in which Herbert has averaged 269.2 yards to Burrow’s 270.2.

Outside of the stats, this game has massive playoff implications as races heat up. The 4-6 Bengals are clinging to their playoff hopes after a Week 10 loss to the Ravens, and the hyper-competitive AFC North may be out of reach. That means every win against conference opponents should mean a little bit more as they chase a wild card spot.

That means the Chargers are in a unique position to deal a blow to Cincinnati’s playoff chase on Sunday. The Chargers (6-3) are making major headway into

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

The AFC playoff race hits the next gear on Sunday night. USA TODAY Sports will provide live updates, highlights and more from the Week 11 ‘SNF’ game below.

Chargers vs. Bengals start time

Date: Sunday, November 17, 2024
Start time: 8:20 p.m. ET (5:20 PT)

The Chargers and Bengals game will wrap up Sundays Week 11 of the 2024 NFL season with ‘Sunday Night Football’ at 8:15 p.m. ET. 

Chargers vs. Bengals TV channel

Cable TV: NBC 
Streaming: Peacock | Fubo

Stream’Sunday Night Football’with a Peacock subcription

Chargers vs. Bengals picks, predictions

Here’s how the USA TODAY Sports staff feels the Week 11 ‘SNF’ matchup between the Chargers and Bengals will shape up: 

Lorenzo Reyes: Bengals 24, Chargers 20
Tyler Dragon: Chargers 23, Bengals 22
Richard Morin: Bengals 26, Chargers 24
Jordan Mendoza: Bengals 23, Chargers 20

Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker is the all-time career record holder for field goal percentage, but he has struggled mightily converting on his kicks in 2024.

Tucker entered Week 11’s matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers with the lowest field goal percentage mark of his 13-year career. Those woes continued during the first quarter on Sunday, in which Tucker missed both field goal attempts – one from 47 yards out and another from 50 yards out.

According to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, Tucker has already missed his entire missed field goal total from the 2023 season (five). He has never missed more than seven field goals in a season in his career.

A seven-time Pro Bowler, Tucker had done plenty to establish himself as one of the best kickers in NFL history over his 13 seasons with Baltimore. In addition to his Pro Bowl nods, the Texas product earned first-team All-Pro honors five times and second-team All-Pro recognition three times.

Tucker also ranks 12th in NFL history with his 410 field goals made entering Sunday’s game.

All things Ravens: Latest Baltimore Ravens news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

Justin Tucker missed field goals vs. Steelers

The Ravens’ kicker has missed two field goals from within 50 yards through the first quarter on Sunday.

His first miss came from 47 yards out.

Tucker’s second miss was from 50 yards away.

Justin Tucker stats

Through the first half of Week 11, here’s how Tucker’s stats look:

Field goal attempts: 21
Field goals made: 15
Field goal percentage: 71.4%
Extra points attempted: 38
Extra points made: 37
Extra point percentage: 97.4%
Longest field goal: 56

His field goal percentage is currently a career low, but his extra point attempts and makes led the NFL to begin Week 11.

Here are Tucker’s career stats over his first 12 and a half seasons:

Field goal attempts: 457
Field goals made: 410
Field goal percentage: 89.7%
Extra points attempted: 508
Extra points made: 501
Extra point percentage: 98.6%
Longest field goal: 66

In addition to his all-time career record in field goal percentage, Tucker is also the active leader in career field goals made and extra point percentage. His 66-yard field goal is also the longest field goal made in NFL history.

Justin Tucker age

Tucker is 34 years old as of the Ravens’ Week 11 game against the Steelers. He will be 35 on Nov. 21.

Justin Tucker contract

Tucker signed a four-year, $24 million extension with the Ravens in 2022, with $17.5 million guaranteed. The agreement came one year before his previous four-year, $20 million extension – which he signed in 2019 – expired.

Notably, the Ravens placekicker’s contract includes a potential out after this season. Baltimore can cut or trade Tucker and suffer a dead cap hit of just $7.5 million for the remaining three years of his current deal.

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua suffered an injury in the second quarter against the New England and Patriots in Week 11.

The star wide receiver exited the game and entered the blue medical tent on the Rams sideline with an apparent injury after reeling in a 12-yard touchdown.

Nacua has suffered multiple injuries this season, and Week 11 marked his fourth healthy game since missing Weeks 2-7.

Here’s the latest on the Rams’ wide receiver’s status:

Puka Nacua injury update

Puka Nacua left the game in the second quarter with 5:45 on the clock. After leaving the tent, he remained on the sidelines with his teammates.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

He returned to the game on the team’s next drive. The team has not provided an update on the nature of the evaluation in the tent.

Nacua hauled in an outstanding 12-yard touchdown catch from Matthew Stafford. On his way to the ground, he appeared to be shaken up. Following the catch, he remained down and would be evaluated by a team doctor and an independent evaluator in the tent.

The 2024 Heisman Trophy race is down to just a few contenders as the college football regular season comes to close.

With only two weeks remaining in the regular season, the top competitors for the sport’s most prestigious award are hoping to close out their remaining schedule with perhaps their Heisman moment.

There’s still some room for other players, as well, like Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who has a chance to knock off No. 2 Ohio State in Week 13 in what would be likely the Hoosiers’ best win in program history.

Here’s a look at the latest Heisman odds after Week 12 of the college football season:

Heisman Trophy odds

According to BetMGM’s latest Heisman odds, the race is down to Hunter, Jeanty, Gabriel and Ward, with Rourke and Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe looming on the outside.

Hunter has seen his lead extend in recent weeks as the clear favorite for the award.

Here’s a breakdown of the current leaders, according to BetMGM:

1. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter (-500)

Hunter extended his lead by +350 with a sensational performance in Colorado’s 49-24 win over Utah on Saturday, as the two-way superstar caught five passes for 55 yards, along with a five-yard rushing touchdown and an interception.

Offense: 74 receptions for 911 yards with nine touchdowns; Two carries for five yards with a touchdown
Defense: 23 total tackles with eight pass deflections, a forced fumble and three interceptions

2. Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty (+425)

Jeanty saw a 25-point boost in his odds after he ran for 159 yards and three touchdowns in Boise State’s 42-21 win over San Jose State on Saturday night.

Jeanty, who leads the nation in rushing, jumped from third to second in best odds for the Heisman after Week 12.

Rushing: 256 carries for 1,893 yards with 26 touchdowns
Receiving: 17 receptions for 98 yards with a touchdown

3. Miami QB Cam Ward (+1400)

There’s a big gap between Jeanty and Ward, who comes in at No. 3 in Heisman odds. Ward saw his odds fall from +850 to +1400 after Week 12.

Ward still has a chance, however, the get back into the top of the race, as Miami could win out and take the ACC Championship en route to a College Football Playoff berth.

Passing: 241 of 361 passing (66.8%) for 3,494 yards with 32 touchdowns to six interceptions
Rushing: 50 rushes for 182 yards with three touchdowns

4. Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel (+2200)

Gabriel saw his odds fall tremendously after Week 12, as he went from +375 to +2200.

Gabriel struggled as Oregon nearly fell to Wisconsin on Saturday, as he was 22 of 31 for 218 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. However, the sixth-year quarterback still plays for the No. 1-ranked team nationally, and could climb back into contention with a few big games.

Passing: 259 of 351 passing (73.8%) for 3,066 yards with 22 touchdowns to six interceptions
Rushing: 54 rushes for 155 yards with six touchdowns

T-5 Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke, Alabama QB Jalen Milroe (+3000)

Rourke and Milroe both have outside chances and would need some huge moments down the stretch to break into top status for the Heisman.

Rourke has an upcoming game against Ohio State, where he could have a Heisman moment, whereas Milroe is hoping to put Alabama in the SEC Championship game.

Rourke passing stats: 171 of 238 passing (71.8%) for 2,410 yards with 21 touchdowns to four interceptions
Rourke rushing stats: 30 rushes for 17 yards with two touchdowns
Milroe passing stats: 160 of 237 passing (67.5%) for 2,232 yards with 15 touchdowns with six interceptions
Milroe rushing stats: 120 rushes for 608 yards with 17 touchdowns

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Week 11 of the 2024 NFL season features plenty of action across both conferences. Tampa Bay, Carolina, Arizona, and the New York Giants all have a bye but there’s must-watch football all day.

The AFC takes the headline matchups, starting with a battle between AFC North powers Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Later on, Buffalo hosts Kansas City in another edition of the conference rivalry.

There are just three divisional matchups of the day but plenty of important games for the postseason. But who will be out of action this week?

USA TODAY Sports will provide live updates on the latest actives and inactive players heading into NFL’s Week 11 1 p.m. ET slate of games on Sunday:

Week 11 inactives

Players’ names which are italicized indicate they are listed as questionable entering today’s games or did not practice on Friday.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Atlanta Falcons

LB Troy Andersen (knee)
LB JD Bertrand (concussion)
CB Dee Alford (hamstring)
CB Antonio Hamilton (pectoral)
CB Mike Hughes (neck)
TE Charlie Woerner (concussion)
T Brandon Parker

Baltimore Ravens

CB Arthur Maulet (calf)
RB Rasheen Ali
FS Eddie Jackson
C Nick Simac
WR Devontez Walker
OLB David Ojabo

Buffalo Bills

WR Keon Coleman (wrist)
TE Dalton Kincaid (knee)
G/C Will Clapp
T Spencer Brown (ankle)
CB Kaiir Elam
LB Eddie Ulofoshio

Chicago Bears

T Kiran Amegadjie (calf)
T Teven Jenkins (ankle)
DB Ameer Speed
DL Dominique Robinson

Cleveland Browns

T Jedrick Wills (knee)
WR Jaelon Darden
RB D’Onta Foreman
CB Chigozie Anusiem

Denver Broncos

S Brandon Jones (abdomen)
CB Kris Abrams-Draine
T Frank Crum
G Calvin Throckmorton
TE Greg Dulcich
DL Eyioma Uwazurike

Detroit Lions

TE Sam LaPorta (shoulder)
S Loren Strickland
OL Giovanni Manu
DL Al-Quadin Muhammad
OL Christian Mahogany
OL Colby Sordsal

Green Bay Packers

S Kitan Oladapo
T Travis Glover
CB Robert Rochell
DT Colby Wooden (shoulder)

Indianapolis Colts

T Bernhard Raimann (knee)
DE Genard Avery
WR Anthony Gould
S Darren Hall
TE Will Mallory
G Josh Sills

Jacksonville Jaguars

RB Tank Bigsby (ankle)
QB Trevor Lawrence (shoulder)
CB De’Antre Prince
DT Maason Smith (ankle)
DT Esezi Otomewo
OL Javon Foster
LB Yassir Abdulah

Kansas City Chiefs

DE Cameron Thomas
RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire
OL C.J. Hanson
T Kingsley Suamataia
DT Marlon Tuipulotu

Las Vegas Raiders

TE Harrison Bryant (ankle)
CB Nate Hobbs (ankle)
C Andre James (ankle)
G Cody Whitehair (ankle)
S Trey Taylor
RB Dylan Laube

Los Angeles Rams

OT Rob Havenstein
OT Joe Noteboom
NT Neville Gallimore
CB Charles Woods
RB Cody Schrader

Miami Dolphins

CB Kendall Fuller (concussion)
CB Ethan Bonner
RB Jeff Wilson Jr.
FB Alec Ingold (calf)
LB Mohamed Kamara
OL Andrew Meyer
WR Dee Eskridge

Minnesota Vikings

CB Dwight McGlothern
CB Fabian Moreau
DL Levi Drake Rodriguez
C Dan Feeney
T Walter Rouse

New England Patriots

OLB Ochaun Mathis
S Marte Mapu (neck)
DT Jaquelin Roy (neck)
G Tyrese Robinson
DE Deatrich Wise (foot)
WR K.J. Osborne

New Orleans Saints

S Millard Bradford
RB Jamaal Williams
LB Jaylan Ford
G Lucas Patrick
WR Mason Tipton
DT Khristian Boyd

New York Jets

G Jake Hanson (hamstring)
LB C.J. Mosley (neck)
T Tyron Smith (neck)
CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse
DE Braiden McGregor
RB Israel Abanikanda

Pittsburgh Steelers

LB Alex Highsmith (ankle)
TE MyCole Pruitt (knee)
G Max Scharping
RB Jonathan Ward

San Francisco 49ers

DT Kevin Givens (groin)
CB Charvarius Ward (not injury related, personal)
OL Ben Bartch
DL Khalil Davis
TE George Kittle (hamstring)
WR Ronnie Bell

Seattle Seahawks

TE Noah Fant (groin)
TE Brady Russell (foot)
CB Nehemiah Pritchett
WR Dareke Young
DE Myles Adams
G Sataoa Laumea
LB Trevis Gipson

Tennessee Titans

CB L’Jarius Sneed (quadricep)
T Leroy Watson IV (back)
LB Cedric Gray
CB Justin Hardee Sr. (groin)
OL John Ojukwu
RB Joshua Kelley
TE David Martin-Robinson

Is Tennessee football a CFP team? Maybe, maybe not. Are the Vols a national championship contender? Absolutely not. Not with this offense.
Tennessee showed its lack of weapons in loss to Georgia that leaves Vols squarely on CFP bracket bubble.
What happened to Josh Heupel, once an offensive savant?

ATHENS, Ga. – Tennessee did not provide a definitive answer Saturday night to the question of whether the Volunteers are a worthy College Football Playoff team.

Know this, though: Tennessee’s 31-17 loss at Georgia confirmed the CFP selection committee’s weekslong concerns about the Vols’ offense and hurt Tennessee’s playoff stock.

Know this, too: Regardless of whether Tennessee (8-2) makes the postseason, this team is not built to pursue a national championship.

The Vols don’t possess an offense that can win an SEC title, let alone a national title. They don’t have an elite quarterback, at least not at this stage in redshirt freshman Nico Iamaleava’s development. They certainly don’t have the necessary wide receivers. They just don’t have much offensive punch at all beyond workhorse tailback Dylan Sampson.

Iamaleava tossed 33 passes against Georgia (8-2). His longest completion went for 17 yards.

In Tennessee’s 19-14 loss to Arkansas earlier this season, Iamaleava tallied only one completion for more than 17 yards.

Dink and dunk and hand to Sampson. That’s this offense. Tough to beat playoff-caliber teams that way.

‘There’s some things that we’re close on,’ Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said of his offense.

The Vols are running out of time to put it together.

Tennessee loss leaves CFP bracket bid hanging in balance

Beating Georgia not only would have solidified Tennessee’s playoff chances, it would have positioned the Vols to either secure a first-round bye by winning the SEC or host a first-round playoff game at Neyland Stadium, where Tennessee has lost only one game in the past three seasons.

Now, Tennessee’s cleanest avenue to the playoff would be finishing 10-2 and Notre Dame suffering a second loss. Otherwise, undefeated Indiana losing in lopsided fashion at Ohio State next weekend would be a boon for the Vols.

Those aren’t the only avenues, but it’s difficult to envision a situation in which the Vols would be seeded better than ninth in the CFP bracket, if they’re fortunate enough to qualify.

Such seeding would mean Tennessee would go on the road in the first round. Gulp. Tennessee’s point totals in three road games this season: 25, 14 and 17.

‘We knew what was at stake,’ Tennessee defensive lineman Jaxson Moi said of the playoff implications of Saturday’s game.

‘Obviously, we treated it like another game, but we had that in the back of our minds.’

And with the playoffs on the brain, the Vols got outscored by 24 points in the final three quarters. They can only hope the selection committee opted for an early bedtime.

A week ago, Georgia’s defenders were helpless to cover Ole Miss’ receivers, but they had no trouble blanketing the Vols.

Not hard to see difference in this Tennessee and 2022 Vols

If you’re looking for differences between Tennessee’s high-flying 11-win team from 2022 and this one, start the conversation at quarterback.

Veteran Hendon Hooker proved a maestro at operating Heupel’s up-tempo spread offense two years ago. He became a dangerous deep-shot artist, and star wide receiver Jalin Hyatt put fear into opposing defenses.

Nobody would confuse Iamaleava with Hooker, and nobody in Tennessee’s wide receiving corps mimics Hyatt’s ability to strain an opponent’s secondary by taking the top off the defense.

Heupel looked like an offensive savant two years ago, cooking up a savory dish with players signed by predecessor Jeremy Pruitt.

Now, Heupel produces results more akin to Pruitt’s attack, best described as punt and pray.

Average quarterback production and middling wide receivers don’t add up to a national championship contender.

Tennessee’s defense powered it to this point, but it required a dose of its old offensive flair to beat Georgia, and it produced little of it, and even less after a 10-point first quarter.

Georgia’s ceiling remains that of a national championship contender, because when the Bulldogs play at their best, they reach a high gear on both sides of the ball.

Tennessee doesn’t do that.

The Vols depend on their defense, and that’s been enough more times than not, but it’s tough to win that way when the opposing quarterback plays as well as Georgia’s Carson Beck did.

Beck shook off a slump and used this game to cure what ailed him. He completed 25 of 40 passes for 347 yards, and he would’ve had several more completions if his receivers were more surehanded.

Tennessee never sacked Beck, either.

‘Carson played a tremendous game,’ Georgia offensive lineman Jared Wilson said.

Tremendous, indeed, while the Vols’ offense played typical to what it’s been all season. Tennessee amounts to a fringe playoff team that lacks national championship potential, because of an offense that simply cannot muster much firepower.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.

Jennifer King had always been a dancer. What she didn’t realize, until that day she stood in the long line outside an airport hotel, is that she was a cheerleader, too.

She had danced growing up, and she minored in it as an undergraduate. She took dance classes while she attended PCOM, short for the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

She had no idea what she was getting into when she complained to a classmate about the lack of adult hip hop and jazz options.

“The Eagles are having auditions this weekend,” the classmate told her. “It’s a free class.”

So there was King, two years into medical school, standing in a line that wrapped around a building near Philadelphia International Airport, dressed for a dance audition.

“Ballet clothes and hair in a bun and no makeup,” she remembers. “Everyone else was dressed like they were ready to hit the field as an Eagles cheerleader.

“And then I ended up making the team.’

She wound up learning stunts – and how to remain stable when teammates tossed her up in the air – while getting on-the-job training about the inner workings of a sport that pushes the anatomical limits of athletes even further today.

“We expect 12 year olds to do what we expected 17 year olds to do 20 years ago,” King tells USA TODAY Sports. “So I think with that comes inherent risk, because they’re trying to do things that they might not be developmentally ready to do, especially because you can pretty much YouTube any skill you want to learn and then try to figure it out on your own.”

She’s now the section chief of Pediatric Sports Medicine at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu and a mom of two teenagers (Jude, 15, and Eva, 14). She’s the co-author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ most recent policy statement for cheerleaders: “Safety in Cheerleading: Epidemiology and Recommendations.”

The policy was updated last month at a time when more than 3.5 million youth (mostly girls starting at 6 years old) participate in cheerleading and, according to one estimate, 35,000 cheer athletes are injured each year, mostly in the 12-to-18 age group.

Cheerleaders also face concerns about body image and a culture in which they feel less important than athletes who play other sports. USA TODAY Sports consulted with King and Brittany Poinson, a neurologist at Children’s Hospital New Orleans who sees patients (including cheerleaders) for concussions, about how they can manage their unique challenges.

Many of the physicians’ health and safety recommendations, though, can help all youth athletes compete with confidence.

Cheerleaders are elite athletes, and they still feel inferior

Two decades ago, during her medical fellowship at Rutgers, King remembers an athletic trainer telling her cheerleaders don’t come to see him.

“They don’t get injured,” he said.

“They actually do,” she replied, “but they just don’t come to you because they feel like they’re just not seen as competitive as some of the other team sports.”

A stigma persists, King says, which still affects injury prevention and treatment.

“Because a lot of people don’t technically see it as a sport, they don’t always seek medical care the same way that a football player or soccer player would,” King says. “A lot of the cheerleaders won’t go to get seen because they feel like they’re a second tier to the football players or basketball players.

“It’s changing, especially when people actually watch what they do at cheer competitions. … A lot of the things they do is even more extreme than what I see ballet dancers do now.’

Cheer is present scholastically and at club and recreational levels. High schools not only have traditional cheer to support athletic team during events, but “competitive spirit,” which pits schools against one another in high-stakes arrays of jumps, tumbles and complex stunts.

The sport has become a vehicle for kids, and their parents, to seek notoriety and admission to college in both traditional and STUNT cheer.

Like with other youth sports, the expectations, as well as injury risks, have crept down to the youngest age levels.

‘We have some of the cheerleaders that will cover Pee Wee football,’ King says. ‘They start really, really young.’

COACH STEVE: 70% of kids drop out of youth sports by 13. Why?

Concussions are a primary injury risk with cheerleading; do you realize you have one?

When she cheered for the Eagles, King was asked to judge local cheer competitions. During her first, a flyer was dropped during a stunt and briefly lost consciousness.

“I don’t even know what concussion this is. Is it six? Is it seven?” King recalls the girl’s mom telling her.

“She’s in ninth grade,” King replied.

“Well, she’s a cheerleader and she flies, and that’s pretty normal,” the mom said. “She’ll get better.”

A concussion, we know from more advanced research today, is not just getting your bell rung. The effects to your physical and mental health when you sustain one are potentially debilitating and long-term.

Concussions accounted for 31 percent of cheerleader injuries, according to a High School Reporting Information Online (RIO) database King cites in the AAP policy statement.

“Cheerleaders are tough because most of them have a very type A personality, like they’re the kids that are doing honors classes and AP classes,” she says. “So concussion management for those type of kids are just harder because they don’t want to stop.”

Concussions don’t require loss of consciousness. King says it’s common among seventh and eighth graders to not even know they have one.

“They just feel like, ‘Well, I’m playing football now, and I hit people, so of course, it’s gonna hurt, of course gonna have headache and be dizzy,’ ” she says.

According to King’s research, most cheer-related concussions resulted in a loss of time from sport of one to three weeks, but concussion was the leading cause of cheer injuries resulting in time loss of three weeks or more.

You’re especially at risk for a concussion when you’re practicing; here are steps to stay safe

Cheerleaders are especially vulnerable in practice, when they’re trying skills that aren’t natural to them.

Poinson, the New Orleans-based neurologist, has a checklist to ensure they’re practicing safely.

Teaching and technique: “Coaches should provide ongoing instruction to ensure that all athletes are performing skills safely, gradually advancing skills once basics are mastered,” Poinson says.

Most high school athletic associations require coaches to get certified for spotting, safety and injury management through USA Cheer’s safety and risk management course. (Thirty-two of these associations recognize girls competitive cheer as a sport, according to the latest National Federation of State High School Associations participant survey.)

Tools: Practice on a safe surface like a mat and avoid surfaces that are wet or uneven. (If you are performing on a hard surface, King says, modify your routine so you don’t get hurt.)

Training: Use a spotter, something King also recommends to athletes who are itching to play as a team before a school’s official start date.

“I would not recommend that for any sport to do really high level skills without someone (such as a coach) there,” she says. “I think if they’re learning routines and choreography, that’s probably fine, but it’s more when they start to get into more of the tumbling and stunting.”

‘You don’t need to look like the person next to you’

It was hard growing up in dance, King says, because all of the classes were in front of a mirror. You saw yourself against everybody else.

Cheer, too, is a sport that has historically emphasized a slim, lean body. Cheerleaders, she writes in her policy, are at risk for body image dissatisfaction, inadequate caloric intake and bone stress injuries.

“A lot of it is, is just a reinforcement that everyone’s bodies are different and you don’t need to look like the person next to you,” she says.

COACH STEVE: How a cheerleader overcame cyberbullying in the social media age

Cheer, unlike dance, requires strong people. Its athletes can benefit, Poinson says, from a conditioning program that strengthens the neck and core muscles because a strong core can help stabilize the body and prevent injuries. Similarly, girls need muscle mass when they serve as the base of a pyramid, which the NFHS recommends should not exceed the height of two and a half people.

Ask your child’s doctor about a healthy weight and reinforce a healthy lifestyle. Athletes, King says, need a snack 30 to 60 minutes before practice, and they need to refuel again (perhaps with dinner) within 45 minutes afterward.

And as you train, understand your body is changing.

“We know that for most kids, when they go through adolescence, they go through this little bit awkward phase when things start to fall apart, so skills that became easy for them are becoming harder, and so part of that is because they’re getting into that adult skeleton,” King says. “So now that their hips and knees are fully forming, they might not be as flexible as they were when they were younger, and then they get frustrated because that flexibility goes away.”

But a coach, she says, can tell a kid: “This is normal. We’re just going to figure out a way for you to do this skill because your body’s a little bit different than it was last year.”

Sleep is crucial: How much does your athlete need?

We know from numerous studies that getting adequate sleep drastically reduces your risk of injuries or accidents, whether you are a kid or an adult.

King, who suggests teens average eight hours a night, puts it this way: How does a kid from Hawaii jump on a redeye for a cheer competition in Florida and expect to compete the next day?

When you don’t get enough sleep, you dull your coordination and reaction time.

Sleep problems in teens can continue well into adulthood. According to UCLA Health, crashes related to drowsy driving take the lives of more than 1,550 people every year. These crashes are most often caused by young people under 25.

Check in with your athletes: Allow them to say no to an activity, but maybe not to Bon Jovi

King cheered for the Eagles for two years, then a third for the Philadelphia Soul, an Arena Football League team that a rock and roll legend helped bring to the city.

“Long story short, it’s really hard to say no to Jon Bon Jovi,” she says, laughing.

She was now a second-year resident now, though.

‘I kind of prefaced it, with, ‘I can only do this for one year because it’s just gonna to be crazy to try to juggle it,’ ‘ she says. ‘(It’s) super fun too, a different feel being inside the arena.’

As a physician today, she offers her patients ‘five pillars’ for success: Food, water, sleep, physical activity and stress reduction.

Encourage kids, she says, to have a stress reduction method they can go to for a few minutes that’s not their sport. A meditation app, music, a book or even Netflix.

She suggests to periodically check in your kids to make sure a team environment is right for them. If your teenager offers little communication, check with his or her coaches.

Don’t ask about playing time; just make sure your kid is in a situation to thrive.

We help our kids pursue their athletic goals, but we also need to be prepared to support them if they don’t.

“If they burn out, it’s usually kind of in that middle to late high school years, and then they just feel so guilty because they know the investment the parents have made for them to continue to cheer,” King says. “So sometimes they’ll kind of push through even though it’s not something they love to do anymore.”

Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.

This decision may end up being one of the smarter economic allocations in recent Bowl Subdivision history. In a dream scenario, Napier’s program turns a corner over the next year. If not, the Gators fire him next November or December and pay a smaller buyout number.

The future is uncertain, basically. But the present isn’t all that bad: Florida beat No. 22 LSU 27-16 for what may be the hallmark win of Napier’s tenure. And with freshman quarterback DJ Lagway back in the lineup after missing last week’s loss to Texas, the Gators seem poised to earn a bowl berth and potentially post a winning season for the first time since 2020.

Lagway largely outplayed LSU junior Garrett Nussmeier in completing 13 of 26 passes for 226 yards and a score. Nussmeier threw for 260 yards but averaged a season-low 5.5 yards per attempt.

Crucially, Lagway avoided any turnovers in a game that went back and forth until freshman running back Jadan Baugh’s 55-yard touchdown pushed Florida ahead by two possessions with just under four minutes to go.

The Gators will be heavy underdogs in next week’s game against No. 11 Mississippi but are poised to capture bowl eligibility in the season finale against rival Florida State. Given the drama of this season — from Napier’s job security through quarterback Graham Mertz’s season-ending injury through the nastiest schedule imaginable in the SEC — that this team could reach a bowl game should be applauded.

Hold your applause for LSU, which as a specific team and program is clearly trending downwards after a nice run through the start of SEC play. In the past three games, the Tigers have been blown away in the fourth quarter by No. 15 Texas A&M, blown out from the start by No. 9 Alabama and then lost to the Gators.

That’s not good news for coach Brian Kelly, who missed the chance to capitalize on some early success and might be better off packing up his Foghorn Leghorn-style accent and doing a reverse carpetbagger back to the friendlier confines of somewhere in the upper Midwest.

Florida, LSU and Colorado lead Saturday’s winners and losers:

Winners

Georgia

Carson Beck had 340 yards and two touchdowns without an interception and No. 10 Georgia scored a huge 31-17 win against No. 4 Tennessee to vault back into SEC and playoff contention. With their back against the wall ― a third loss would’ve been an eliminator ― the Bulldogs weathered the Volunteers’ early surge, made a series of halftime adjustments on defense and saved their season. Still, it wasn’t perfect. Georgia’s running game continued to struggle, gaining 106 yards on 31 carries after going for 59 yards in last week’s loss to No. 11 Mississippi. Luckily, Beck turned the page on what had been a very tough run through SEC play with his best performance on the season.

Colorado

Beating Utah 49-24 brings No. 20 Colorado one step closer to the Big 12 championship game. This one was never in any real doubt but got a little out of hand late, with two Colorado touchdowns in the final five minutes after the Utes had cut the score to 35-24 midway through the fourth quarter. As has been the case through this streak of seven wins in eight games, the Buffaloes were driven by sheer star power: Shedeur Sanders had 340 yards and three scores, senior receiver LaJohntay Wester had a season-high 10 receptions for 77 yards and Travis Hunter had 55 receiving yards, a rushing touchdown and an interception.

South Carolina

LaNorris Seller found Raheim Sanders from 15 yards out with 15 seconds left to lift No. 23 South Carolina to a 34-30 win against No. 21 Missouri, the Gamecocks’ fourth victory in a row. This has turned into the SEC team no one wants to play: Since losing 27-25 to Alabama last month, USC has turned in a series of impressive wins and soared into the US LBM Coaches Poll and playoff rankings. And on the flip side to Pittsburgh, this is a seven-win team that could easily have eight or even nine wins thanks to narrow losses to LSU and the Crimson Tide. After a bit of a dip last year, this rebound shows the program is in very good hands with Shane Beamer at the controls.

Tulane

Tulane will play for the American Athletic crown for the third year in a row after smashing Navy 35-0. Defensively, the Green Wave held the Midshipmen to just 113 yards, the program’s worst total since a loss to Air Force in 2021. This continues a trend: Tulane has given up just one touchdown in three November games, on a long Temple touchdown run last weekend with the Green Wave already ahead 52-0 in the fourth quarter. For one, it’s clear that Tulane is extremely overdue to be ranked in the US LBM Coaches Poll, though that should change on Sunday. For another, the Green Wave are angling into position to reach the playoff should Boise State not take home the Mountain West title with their matchup against No. 17 Army in the AAC title game set.

Ohio State

Held scoreless by Northwestern until midway through the second quarter, the No. 2 Buckeyes scored three times before halftime and won 31-7 to avoid a faceplant in advance of next Saturday’s matchup with No. 6 Indiana. Will Howard stayed hot with 247 yards and two touchdowns on just 24 passes, giving him multiple scores in every Big Ten game, and running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson combined for 150 yards on 5.7 yards per carry. Northwestern’s touchdown in the second quarter was just the second offensive score the Buckeyes have allowed in over a month.

Oregon

Top-ranked Oregon faced a major test at Wisconsin and barely escaped with a 16-13 win, marking just the Ducks’ second game in Big Ten play decided by fewer than 21 points. Unlike the up-and-down win last month against the Buckeyes, this one was a slow-paced, defense-oriented, traditional Big Ten matchup that clearly had the Ducks out of rhythm and often out of sorts. That extended to the sidelines: Dan Lanning had the weirdest coaching call of the weekend when Oregon opted for a fake field goal when up 16-13 with under two minutes left. That was stopped short, giving the Badgers a shot at tying or winning the game. An interception two plays later saved the day for the Ducks.

Losers

Tennessee

The Volunteers aren’t mathematically eliminated from playing for the SEC championship, but the odds are very low they finish no higher than tied for third in the final standings given the depth of contenders battling to meet in Atlanta. The bigger question is whether Tennessee can get into the playoff as an at-large bid at 10-2, especially given how Alabama and Ole Miss did what it did not: beat the Bulldogs. On the other hand, the Volunteers did beat the Tide. But that’s the only win of consequence on the docket, making Tennessee’s case for the playoff one that will almost certainly end in controversy. Another question is how far this team can really go without trusting Nico Iamaleava and this mediocre passing game to help carry the load. Only a freshman, Iamaleava’s best days are ahead of him.

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh trailed No. 16 Clemson 17-7 heading into the fourth quarter, led 20-17 with 90 seconds left but lost 24-20 after allowing Cade Klubnik to race 50 yards nearly untouched for the go-ahead score with 1:16 to play. The win keeps the Tigers alive in the ACC race, hoping for another Miami loss, while the Panthers have now lost three in a row and are dumped from ACC contention. Looking back, think about how different this year would be had Pittsburgh not pulled out borderline miraculous wins in September against Cincinnati and West Virginia; this team could be 5-5 or worse after winning just three games last season.

Kansas State

No. 19 Kansas State is out of the running for the Big 12 crown and the playoff after losing 24-14 at home to Arizona State. That’s the second loss in a row for the Wildcats, clearly indicating a major hangover after pulling out a thrilling 29-27 rivalry win against Kansas to end October. All year long, this has been a team that alternated between looking like the class of the conference and looking like a team barely deserving of a bowl bid; K-State has wins against Tulane and Colorado along with a loss to Houston and a shocking meltdown in a road loss to No. 8 Brigham Young. Still, to fall this flat in November is extremely disappointing.

Nebraska

Twenty-nine days ago, Nebraska was 5-1 with an overtime loss to Illinois and ranked No. 25 in the US LBM Coaches Poll. After losing 28-20 to Southern California, the Cornhuskers are limping into the final two games of the regular season at 5-5, facing the very distinct possibility of a second late-season collapse in as many years under coach Matt Rhule. A year ago, Nebraska went into November at 5-3 but lost four in a row to continue the longest bowl-less streak in the Power Four. To get into a bowl game, the Cornhuskers will have to win one of two against Wisconsin and Iowa.

Miami and SMU

No. 12 Miami was off this week, giving the Hurricanes more time to stew over a recent loss to Georgia Tech, and No. 13 SMU pulled away late for a 31-28 win against upset-minded Boston College. But the news isn’t good: No. 24 Louisville blew a 35-21 lead in the fourth quarter and lost 38-35 to Stanford, giving away the game late with a crucial offsides penalty that set up Emmet Kenney’s 52-yard field goal as time expired. This loss impacts both ACC frontrunners by removing the one win each team had against an opponent in the playoff rankings, increasing the odds the ACC ends up a one-bid league.

Oregon State

These are some dark days for the Beavers. Oregon State has dropped five in a row and is teetering on the brink of missing the postseason after getting blanked 28-0 by Air Force, the program’s first shutout loss since 2015. This stretch comes after a 4-1 start, with the lone loss coming to rival Oregon — and by the way, that the Ducks are the best in the FBS makes this stretch of play under new coach Trent Bray all the worse. Remember that Oregon State is no longer in the Power Four, so these five losses aren’t coming to world-beating competition: Nevada, UNLV, California, San Jose State and the Falcons.

Hawaii

The Warriors had seemed to turn a corner the last three times out, beating Nevada and Fresno State and then giving UNLV a major scare before losing 29-27. That momentum and the chance to make a bowl game were erased with a 55-10 loss at Utah State, which went into Saturday having allowed at least 38 points in all but one of eight games against FBS competition. This marks the fourth year in a row Hawaii will miss the postseason after making a bowl in four of five seasons from 2016-20.

(This story has been updated with new information and to change a video.)