Nobody in college football has punched above its weight in the name, image and likeness era more than Ole Miss. 

For years and years before it was within the rules to pay players, Ole Miss would catch the suspicious glare of opposing fans and pique the interest of NCAA investigators every time it landed a big-time recruit. That was the way it used to work in college football when you’re not an Alabama, Ohio State or Southern Cal.

But now? NIL has brought it all out into the open, and Ole Miss has truly knocked it out of the park under Lane Kiffin. Though the actual numbers are opaque, The Grove Collective is widely viewed around the industry as one of the best-run and most organized groups in the country, raising a ton of money and helping Kiffin put out competitive offers for top talent.

“I don’t know what they’re spending, but they’re right there with Ohio State and Texas and all those schools,” former Florida and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said recently on longtime journalist Pat Dooley’s podcast. Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek lamented during a booster function that Ole Miss has 5,000 people giving to its collective while the Razorbacks have just 1,000. 

The point here is that Ole Miss has gone all-in on NIL as its path to the top of the sport because it’s the only way Ole Miss can get to the top of the sport. Last year, it got the Rebels to 11-2 with a Peach Bowl win. This year, after Kiffin added even more talent, they started at No. 6 in the US LBM Coaches Poll. And now, despite the expectation that the Florida job is going to come open after this season, there’s a legitimate debate about whether Kiffin should take the job because of how well things are set up in Oxford. 

That’s how much NIL has changed the narrative around the Ole Miss program. 

And yet on Saturday, the Rebels lost 20-17 at home to Kentucky of all teams. It’s not a loss that necessarily wrecks their season. They still have opportunities to get back in the College Football Playoff race against Georgia and LSU. 

But it is the first really deflating loss Kiffin has suffered in the NIL era against a team that he was supposed to beat, and the psychology of it is going to be fascinating. 

Ole Miss has spent the past few years hammering the necessity of fans giving money to its collective in order to compete with the Alabamas and Georgias. And the fan base basically made that happen. 

But now before they see the ultimate payoff of a playoff berth, they lose to … Kentucky? 

Will that motivate fans to spend more and give Kiffin even more resources to go buy players? Or will the willingness fans have had to reach into their pocketbooks fade if the results make it clear that even trying to buy a championship-level roster isn’t good enough?

That conundrum puts Ole Miss at No. 1 on the Misery Index, a weekly measurement of which fan bases are feeling the most angst. 

Four more in misery

Baylor: Being a good guy, a thoughtful guy and even an elite football mind doesn’t get you much benefit of the doubt. Dave Aranda is all of those things. He’s also clearly in trouble after a 34-28 loss to BYU that leaves the Bears at 2-3. A week ago, it was a come-from-ahead collapse against Colorado after giving up a long touchdown on the final play of regulation and then losing in overtime. This time the Bears were down 21-0, got all the way back within six points, then threw an interception with 59 seconds left when they had a clear opportunity to win. 

Aranda is now 11-19 since winning the Big 12 title in 2021, and it’s going to be hard for athletics director Mack Rhoades to justify patience if this turns out to be a third straight losing season. Baylor doesn’t need to be a juggernaut every year to satisfy its fan base, but expectations have been raised and the resources are there to be better than this. 

Despite Aranda’s credentials as a defensive coordinator and the fact that he’s well-liked and respected by everyone in the game, his low-key philosopher-king style works against him when fans want to see fiery indignation about the current state of affairs. 

Virginia Tech: There is no solace in being unlucky. A loss is still a loss – and it feels even worse when you think you won. For a few minutes Friday night, Hokies fans thought quarterback Kyron Drones completed a 30-yard touchdown pass as time expired to beat ACC favorite Miami. They believed it because that was the call on the field amidst a mess of bodies fighting for the ball in the back of the end zone.

But after a controversial replay, officials determined that receiver Da’Quan Felton never had control of the ball before it got jarred loose by a Miami player who was out of bounds, thus making it incomplete. Miami won, 38-34, and some Virginia Tech fans were crying about bias as the Hurricanes are in the playoff chase and the Hokies are not. But if you want to assign blame, more should go to Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry, whose poor timeout management on the final drive left his offense with too little clock. At 2-3, the experience-laden Hokies are one of the nation’s biggest disappointments. 

Alabama-Birmingham: After decades of pain and irrelevance, the Blazers suddenly got good by hiring a career-long grinder named Bill Clark, who had spent two decades tearing it up in the Alabama high school ranks and then winning big for one year at Jacksonville State.

But when Clark retired after the 2021 season due to health issues, athletics director Mark Ingram went in the opposite direction after the 2022 season, hiring former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer, who came with a high profile because of his time on ESPN but a thin coaching résumé (he led a private school in Nashville for four seasons). 

It smelled like UAB trying to draft off the excitement and publicity Deion Sanders generated at Colorado, and it was also confusing. UAB, particularly coming off five straight winning seasons under Clark and one under Bryant Vincent, is the kind of job a lot of experienced coaches would want. 

But after a 41-18 loss to Navy in front of a smattering of fans, Dilfer is now 5-11 at UAB with two of those wins coming against FCS competition.

Improbably, Dilfer made it worse when he told his kids to come sit with him in the postgame news conference and made an off-hand comment that “it’s not like this is freaking Alabama” in reference to the number of reporters in the room. What Clark built was special because he acted like UAB was special. What Dilfer’s building is crass because he’s acting like UAB is lucky to have him there. 

Florida State: This is the last time the Seminoles, the nation’s most disappointing team, will appear in this ranking. From here on out, there is no choice but numbness and acceptance of how badly Florida State and its coaching staff have handled the last nine months from roster-building to expectation-setting to game-day coaching. But even if Florida State fans have known for a few weeks that this season was going nowhere, it’s still a whole different level of disaster to get embarrassed 42-16 by newly-minted ACC rival SMU. 

Though quarterback isn’t the only problem at Florida State, it’s the one that needs to be fixed before the other problems are even relevant. DJ Uiagalelei, whose career has taken him from Clemson to Oregon State to the Seminoles, is not working out at all. He went 12-for-30 for 222 yards with three interceptions against SMU, and it wasn’t a surprise because that’s basically how he’s played all season. 

Once a five-star recruit that everyone in the country wanted, his lack of mobility and pocket awareness and overall accuracy was apparent before he got to Florida State. The question is why Seminoles coach Mike Norvell ignored all that and bet the entire 2024 season on Uiagalelei fulfilling the potential people once believed he had. 

It will go down as a transfer portal/NIL cautionary tale, an example of how quickly a program can go into the tank if it goes for a quick fix at the most important position and makes the wrong choice. 

At 1-4, this is as bad as anyone could have possibly imagined things getting for the Seminoles, and it’s so bad that Norvell may need to rethink his entire approach to recruiting and roster-building before he lands on the hot seat.  

Miserable but not miserable enough 

Auburn: If they weren’t already deep into the well for two fired coaches in the last five years – $21.7 million for Gus Malzahn, $15.3 million for Bryan Harsin – you could see the notoriously twitchy Auburn boosters start to get their buyout muscles working again. Hugh Freeze has not just been a disappointment at 8-10 overall, he’s a disappointment because his quarterback play has been worse than anywhere he’s ever coached. After losing 27-21 to Oklahoma when Payton Thorne threw a pick-six with 4:06 remaining, Auburn fans can abandon hope things will turn around this year. 

North Carolina: Though all the attention for North Carolina’s face-plant will go toward head coach Mack Brown, consider the plight of defensive coordinator Geoff Collins. Though his head coaching tenure at Georgia Tech was a total failure, he had been quite successful under Dan Mullen at Mississippi State and under Jim McElwain at Florida. But going back into the coordinator role in Chapel Hill has been ugly. After giving up 70 points last week in a loss to James Madison, the Tar Heels gave up 21 straight points to rival Duke after holding a 20-0 lead. At Georgia Tech, Collins was famous for walking around with a cup from Waffle House. Brown’s tenure might be smothered, covered and peppered at this point. 

Washington: Any excitement about joining the Big Ten this year had nothing to do with road trips to Rutgers. And yet, like an annual dentist’s visit, it’s just what you have to do. But not only do Huskies fans have to figure out how they have gone from playing for a national championship nine months ago to losing to Rutgers, 21-18, they have to watch former coach Kalen DeBoer lead Alabama to a win over Georgia in his first big SEC test. It’s hard to pick which one is more painful. 

New Mexico State: Though this program will rarely be mentioned nationally in any normal context, the Aggies have really outdone themselves this time. A year ago, they generated headlines when quarterback Diego Pavia (now at Vanderbilt) was caught on video allegedly urinating on rival New Mexico’s practice field. This year, it’s offensive coordinator Tyler Wright getting suspended after the Las Cruces Sun-News, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported that more than 150 social media posts of his dating from his time as a college athlete more than a decade ago contained slurs and derogatory language against various groups. These posts aren’t garden-variety jokes. This is seriously demented, hateful stuff, and it’s yet another embarrassment for a 1-4 team that wasn’t exactly thriving anyway with Wright in charge.   

Kent State: Since Sean Lewis left to become the offensive coordinator at Colorado last year (he’s now head coach at San Diego State), the Golden Flashes have won just a single football game – against Central Connecticut last season – in 17 tries. In short, this is the worst program in the FBS, and the indignity continued in a 52-33 loss to Eastern Michigan. Against four FBS opponents this season, Kent State has been out-scored 234-57. There’s a good chance it could go winless in the MAC over two consecutive seasons for the first time in history. 

(This story was updated to change a video.)

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson is out of the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 4.

Richardson took a hit in the red zone near the end of the first quarter that left him grabbing at his left hip area. He initially exited the game for only a couple of plays. On his first play back on the field, he took another hit on a quarterback run and was slow to get up. The second-year quarterback headed to the locker room after exiting the game following a second hard hit.

Indianapolis had initially listed Richardson as questionable to return with a hip injury. With 10 minutes left in the first half, the Colts have declared him out for the remainder of the game.

The gunslinger has had bad injury luck through the first few games of his NFL career. During his rookie season in 2023, Richardson suffered a concussion in Week 2 and a season-ending AC joint sprain in Week 5.

Here’s the latest on the Colts’ signal-caller:

All things Colts: Latest Indianapolis Colts news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

Anthony Richardson injury update

Richardson went to the locker room during the first quarter against the Steelers after taking a hit on a quarterback run. The departure came two plays after a temporary exit following a hit three plays earlier that saw the second-year gunslinger grabbing at his hip.

The Colts have declared Richardson out of the remainder of the game with 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

Indianapolis believes its quarterback suffered a ‘hip pointer’ during the 27-24 win over the Steelers. The injury is characterized by ‘a bruise near the top curve of the hip bone,’ according to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

UPMC also says the primary treatments of the injury are rest, ice and compression.

The Colts have hope that Richardson misses little or no time with the hip pointer injury, according to NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe. He will be evaluated throughout the week.

Colts quarterback depth chart

With Richardson out of the game, here’s how the Colts’ depth chart looks at quarterback:

Anthony Richardson (OUT, hip injury)
Joe Flacco
Sam Ehlinger (emergency backup)

(This story has been updated with new information.)

Tom Brady, now the lead analyst for FOX’s football coverage, responded to Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield’s recent comments about the ‘stressed out’ environment he claimed Brady created in the Tampa Bay locker room.

It just so happened that Brady was part of the broadcast team covering Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Midway through the first quarter, Brady directly addressed Mayfield’s comments made earlier in the week on the ‘Casa De Klub’ podcast.

‘I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings,’ Brady said during the broadcast. ‘There was a mindset of a champion I took to work every day. This wasn’t daycare – if I wanted to have fun, I was going to Disneyland with my kids.

‘There’s a way to approach this game and it’s with the right mindset to push each other outside of our comfort zone, and great teammates do that.’

All things Buccaneers: Latest Tampa Bay Buccaneers news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

Brady, 47, added that there were ‘no apologies’ for having competitive spirit.

After the Buccaneers’ 33-16 win, Mayfield said he felt that his comments had been misconstrued.

‘I think a lot of that got taken out of context, and none of it was personal by any means,’ Mayfield said in a news conference. ‘It’s just what he demanded of the guys, and that’s the aura of Tom Brady. And that’s what he did to bring a championship here.’

Brady joined the Buccaneers ahead of the 2020 season and played three years in Tampa. He led the team to its second Lombardi Trophy with a victory in Super Bowl 55 in February 2021. Notoriously exacting when he was a player, Brady led the NFL in passing yards (5,316) and passing touchdowns (43) the season Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl.

Prior to the 2023 season, Mayfield, 29, was brought in as Brady’s replacement in Tampa. He played well in his first season with the Buccaneers, earning his only Pro Bowl berth.

‘The building was a little bit different with Tom in there,’ Mayfield said earlier in the week about the culture under Brady. ‘Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out.’

Mayfield went on to say, ‘You hear some of the stories about if he didn’t like a certain play call and he didn’t like it throughout the week and they still call it in the game, there might have been a throwaway on purpose or throwing it at the running back or receiver’s feet. There were a lot of mind games going on.’

Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier has been named the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year.

Collier was a star on a Lynx team that finished the regular season as the No. 2 seed in the 2024 playoffs and won the Commissioner’s Cup. She started all 34 games she appeared in and was in the top 10 of several defensive categories.

Her 1.91 steals per game were second in the league behind Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale, and she was fourth in defensive rebounds per game at 7.5 and seventh in blocked shots per game with 1.41. Collier also led the Lynx to the second best scoring defense at 75.5 points allowed per game and a defensive rating of 94.8. This all came with Collier the leading scorer for Minnesota with 20.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, both rank in the top five in the league.

Collier received 36 votes from a panel of 67 sportswriters and broadcasters. Las Vegas Aces center and 2024 MVP A’ja Wilson finished second with 26 votes and Seattle Storm forward Ezi Magbegor was third with three votes. Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington and Minnesota guard Courtney Williams each received one vote.

The Lynx star also finished second in MVP voting behind Wilson.

2024 WNBA all-defensive team

Collier led the five players named to the WNBA all-defensive team. Joining Collier on the first team is:

Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson
Seattle Storm forward Ezi Magbegor
Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington
New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart

The all-defensive second team is:

Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas
Minnesota Lynx forward Alanna Smith
Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike
New York Liberty forward Jonquel Jones
Phoenix Mercury guard Natasha Cloud

A California bill spurred by the death of Katie Meyer, who died by suicide when she was a women’s soccer goalie at Stanford in February 2022, has become state law.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Saturday he signed into law Assembly Bill 1575, which requires public colleges and universities to allow students to have an adviser when facing an alleged violation of a student code of conduct.

In order to receive state funds for student financial assistance, the schools must ‘adopt a policy permitting a student to be assisted by an adviser if the student receives a notification of an alleged violation of … a student code of conduct.’

Meyer’s family, which filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Stanford nine months after Katie’s death, said the university provided inadequate support when Katie Meyer faced a disciplinary matter at the time of her death.

The bill was an outgrowth of Katie’s Save, a non-profit established by Meyer’s parents, Steve and Gina, who traveled across the country talking about the initiative they hope will become law in all 50 states.

‘The Meyer’s family has turned the tragedy of their daughter’s passing into a law that will provide protections for other college students,’ Jacqui Irwin, the state assembly member who authorized the legislation, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Through the Katie’s Save account on X, the Meyer’s family wrote in part, ‘Our public college and university students here in California are now protected under Katie Meyer’s Law. We are so grateful to everyone for your love and support.’

Katie Meyer helped lead Stanford to the 2019 national championship and was one of the team’s captains as a senior in 2022. She was waiting to hear back from the university’s law school at the time of her death, which the Meyers say stemmed from the disciplinary issue.

The matter surfaced after school officials determined Meyer may have acted in retaliation when she spilled coffee on a Stanford football player in 2021, according to court records.

The unnamed football player, who suffered burns on his back that required medical attention, had kissed one of Meyer’s teammates without consent a week earlier, according to the school’s records filed with the court.

On Feb. 28, 2022, the night before Meyer’s body was found in her dorm room, she received an email from Stanford informing her that she was facing a disciplinary charge stemming from the spilled coffee. According to a court filing, a five-page letter sent by email explained her degree was going to be placed on hold less than four months from graduation and the charge could result in her removal from the university.

On Nov. 23, 2022, Meyer’s parents filed the wrongful death lawsuit. The two sides have spent the past year in the discovery process and no trial date has been set.

If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call 988 any time day or night, or chat online. Crisis Text Line also provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they dial 741741.

Follow Josh Peter on social media @joshlpeter11

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Week 5 in college football taught us one thing.

Nobody knows who is really dominant, but we certainly know this week’s pretenders (here’s looking at you fans in Oxford) and whose season is over already (any team with four losses) before the calendar turns to October and it starts getting dark at 4:30 p.m.

The same goes for grading from last season: High marks will only be given to the spectacular, and failing grades have no chance of being reversed.

The Week 5 analysis of how fans, teams, players, and coaches fared: 

NIL money can turn into a SAG card

This is just a wild guess, but I’m going to assume that most of the Ole Miss football team is making some decent coin by the fact they are talented enough to go to school and earn a scholarship and the collective (mentioned later) will take care of their every need. With dozens of television cameras at every game and thousands of cell phones, there is nothing a peering eye won’t catch.

During Saturday’s game against Kentucky, Rebels running back Matt Jones fell to the turf with an apparent injury in the direction of quarterback Jaxson Dart.

That immediately got ABC play-by-play broadcaster Sean McDonough going.

“Matt Jones, fortunately, survived to walk off the field,” McDonough said. “Just a blatant fake injury.”

And it’s something you usually see on the defensive side of the ball. Rules analyst Matt Austin then explained there was nothing in the NCAA rulebook to prevent such acting.

“They ought to put something in the book when it’s that egregious,” McDonough said.

If Jones wants to head west to take his talents to Hollywood, the current national initiation fee rate for membership in the Screen Actors Guild is $3,000, with annual base dues costing $236.60. Pretty sure that NIL money, if he is getting any, can cover that easily.

3/4 of the way to an EGOT: F

Always trying to be first and clever

Pro-tip for social media managers: just stop.

I can’t understand why people won’t wait until the clock hits 0:00 before declaring a game over.

Don’t hit send: F

They said it

UNLV thinks Matthew Sluka is The Godfather:

“UNLV Athletics interpreted these demands as a violation of the NCAA pay-for-play rules, as well as Nevada state law. UNLV does not engage in such activity, nor does it respond to implied threats,’ the school said after Sluka decided to exit stage left when he didn’t get the money he alleges he was promised.

***

Last week, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze complimented Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin on his handling of his program’s name, image, and likeness.

“That’s nice of him. I’m sure he’ll try to steal Walker Jones like he did all our coaches,’ Kiffin said. Jones is the head of the Grove Collective, the school’s NIL initiative.

The worst and best of the rest

Tackling optional:

Blue turf boogie: Reservations for New York

Even Sean Miller is impressed:

What is that, velvet? F

Trickeration, flea flickeration alert:

Cowboy flyin’: A

100 plays and runnin’: Straight to the NFL

Cheerleader on player violence:

Crimson creamed: A

This week’s catches of the year:

No Stickum required: A+

The playmaker has a fit:

It ain’t that serious: F and a nap is needed

Stats for you

0: the number of points Houston has scored in the past two weeks in losses to Cincinnati and Iowa State.

3: Losses to Alabama by Georgia in its last 48 games.

45: Victories by Georgia in its last 48 games.

4: Teams that have not trailed in a game (Tennessee, Army, Indiana, Texas).

8: Consecutive Big 12 home losses for Baylor.

$800,000: Payday Louisiana-Lafayette received for playing Wake Forest. The Ragin’ Cajuns won 41-38.

The Dog of the Week

(If you want your dog featured, don’t hesitate to send a pic here.)

For the first of three times this season, the pups have the week off but enjoy this beauty above.

Follow Scooby Axson on social media @ScoobAxson

(This story was updated to change a video.)

If Florida plans to pursue Lane Kiffin if it fires Billy Napier, then Kiffin’s loss to Kentucky actually works in the Gators’ favor.
Mark Stoops would be an upgrade over Billy Napier, too, and he’d probably take the job.
Kirby Smart shouldn’t panic over Georgia loss, but he should be concerned.

While Mark Stoops got choked up after Kentucky’s 20-17 upset of then-No. 5 Mississippi, more than a few Florida Gators fans probably felt strong emotions, too.

Florida fans who crave Lane Kiffin as their coach need the Rebels to a lose a few games between now and Thanksgiving. It’s a fine line: Win enough to still look desirable, but lose enough for Ole Miss to miss the College Football Playoff and make Kiffin wonder whether he’s hit his ceiling with the Rebels and ought to uproot and resettle in The Swamp.

Kiffin admires Steve Spurrier, who remains the coaching standard at Florida, and his offensive acumen and ability to needle adversaries make him a kindred spirit.

“It’s his personality, and it’s how he walks on the sideline. It’s those great offenses and all those great receivers and quarterbacks,” Kiffin said of Spurrier 15 years ago.

The Rebels had none of that Spurrier swagger Saturday. Stoops bottled up Kiffin’s system. The Wildcats’ defensive front owned the Rebels’ offensive line. Kentucky’s offense played keep-away while mounting long drives, while Mississippi’s offensive display was so offensive it would’ve had the Head Ball Coach slamming his visor.

The Wildcats created and received more than a few breaks, too. They were 3 of 3 on fourth downs. Brock Vandagriff hit Barion Brown for a 63-yard completion on fourth down on the Wildcats’ go-ahead touchdown drive.

Kiffin coached more cautiously than usual. He went on just two fourth downs. Twice, Ole Miss punted on fourth-and-2 near midfield in the fourth quarter while protecting a one-score lead. Kiffin trusted his defense. That worked, until it didn’t.

MISERY INDEX: Mississippi’s playoff hopes fall flat after spending big

HIGHS AND LOWS: Alabama-Georgia classic leads Week 5 winners and losers

Kentucky’s winning score occurred on a fumble recovery. When Ole Miss defensive back Trey Washington dislodged the ball from Gavin Wimsatt’s hands, it shot straight into the mitts of Wildcats tight end Josh Kattus, who stepped into the end zone.

Then, Caden Davis, the Rebels’ typically reliable kicker, hooked his 48-yard field goal that would have tied the game.

“Very discouraging, disappointing,” Kiffin said of the loss.

Disappointing enough to consider a change if the Rebels don’t make the playoff?

Even a 10-2 record might leave Ole Miss on shaky playoff footing, because it plays one of the SEC’s weaker schedules, although LSU, Georgia and Oklahoma remain tricky games.

It would be easy to pile on Kiffin after the most surprising loss of his tenure, but Kentucky’s defense is stout enough to trouble SEC opponents. We saw that earlier this season when Georgia slipped past the Wildcats 13-12.

Overall, Kiffin’s Ole Miss tenure remains a hit, with 33 victories since the start of the 2021 season. He’s fizzled in big games against Alabama and Georgia, but who hasn’t?

It’s hard to imagine Florida hiring a better coach if it fires Billy Napier.

Kiffin’s got it good at Ole Miss. He doesn’t face the pressure of a blue-blood job, and yet he’s compensated at a clip of $9 million. The money doesn’t just flow into his pocket, it pours into the Rebels’ NIL collective, too.

Although exact dollars and cents of a collective’s ledger are not subject to public disclosure, those around the industry understand Ole Miss to pack a punch in the NIL space. It shows in how the “Portal King” annually stockpiles an impressive haul of transfers.

If the Rebels fail to make the playoff, though, after this massive investment, it suggests Kiffin hit his ceiling in Oxford. Of course, he’d need to rebuild Florida’s roster and invigorate its NIL arm, which has lagged behind SEC peers.

Would Kiffin’s ceiling really be higher at Florida? That’s debatable.

Would Kiffin, with visions of Spurrier in his head, think his ceiling would be higher at Florida?

Yeah, he might think that.

What about Mark Stoops for Florida?

Now, let’s consider the coach who won the game in Oxford.

Stoops has beaten Florida four times while at Kentucky, including the past three years. Saturday’s triumph ranks as the signature victory of his 12-year tenure.  

Florida could do worse than Stoops, who’d probably crawl through every Florida marsh to get to Gainesville after repeatedly bemoaning his lack of support at Kentucky.

It did do worse when it hired Napier.

Like Kiffin, Stoops enjoys a rich salary ($9 million) without national championship demands, but also without national championship possibility.

Would he value opportunity over security? Stoops flirted with Texas A&M a year until Aggies supporters shot down a trial balloon of that idea.

The trouble I have with the idea of Stoops at Florida: He’d be a defensive coach at a program that expects to not only win, but to be entertained with touchdowns.

Spurrier and Urban Meyer set a high bar for quarterback development. Stoops’ success comes in spite of having never developed a top-end SEC quarterback.

He’s a steady hand, but he’s not quite reached the heights Kiffin took Ole Miss to last season. He’s never coached a program with Florida’s expectations.

Either coach would be an upgrade over Napier, but if we refrain from becoming victims of the moment, we see that Kiffin offers Florida more of the style those fickle fans crave and a better chance for regaining an elite perch.

Here’s what else I’m pondering in this “Topp Rope” view of college football:

Are Georgia’s playoff hopes in trouble?

Kirby Smart showed no sense of panic after Georgia’s 41-34 loss to Alabama. Why should he? College football, at its core, remains a game of talent assembly, and Smart assembled more than most.

He should, though, be concerned, because seven of the past eight quarters, the Bulldogs have been rubbish on offense. Quarterback Carson Beck regressed his past two starts. Georgia’s offensive line and ground game got overwhelmed by two straight SEC opponents.

Georgia’s schedule features a few more landmines. Games remain against Texas, Tennessee and Ole Miss. The first and third of those games are on the road.

The Bulldogs are talented enough to recover, but flawed enough to finish 9-3.

Smart brushed aside his 1-6 record against Alabama as being no worse than other coaches. That’s true, but Smart enjoys a better roster than most of his peers.

Alabama isn’t his problem for the moment, though. If Georgia keeps playing like it did the past two games, it won’t have to worry about facing Alabama for the rest of this season.

Peep the top of the Big 12 standings

Raise your hand if you had Brigham Young, Colorado and Texas Tech as being the only Big 12’s only teams 2-0 in conference play after the season’s first month. Anyone? Anyone?

Iowa State, Arizona and West Virginia also are undefeated in conference play, although those three each have played just one conference game. Meanwhile, the Big 12’s preseason frontrunners (Utah, Oklahoma State and Kansas State) have combined for four conference losses.

Utah and K-State remain playoff hopefuls, while Mike Gundy’s Cowboys appear lost, because they can’t play defense. The Cowboys allowed 559 yards while getting whupped by K-State on Saturday.

In such an unpredictable conference race, a one-bid playoff outcome becomes more and more likely while teams beat up on each other. That means the Big 12 schedule will be full of potential playoff elimination games between now and December. Who says the expanded playoff stripped the regular season of drama?

Three and out

1. Hugh Freeze probably thinks that if Auburn played Oklahoma nine more times, it would beat the Sooners nine times. Trouble for Freeze is, he keeps losing games that are played on the field rather than in his mind. His Tigers squandered an 11-point fourth-quarter lead in a shocking 27-21 loss. Freeze is 8-10 on the Plains. His pitch toward receiving a third season is a recruiting class ranked No. 4 nationally in the 247Sports Composite. If the class begins to fracture, Auburn has no reason to retain Freeze, other than his buyout. And, as we know, a big buyout doesn’t stop Auburn from firing coaches.

2. Folks, Indiana is 5-0, and it’s not just the record, it’s the score differential. The Hoosiers own five lopsided victories behind first-year coach Curt Cignetti. They’re not scheduled to play a ranked opponent until November games against Michigan and Ohio State. Hold off on turning your attention to basketball season, Hoosiers fans, and smoke ‘em if you got ‘em with Coach Cigs.

3. The latest ‘Topp Rope’ 12-team playoff projections: Texas (SEC), Ohio State (Big Ten), Kansas State (Big 12), Miami (ACC), UNLV (Group of Five), plus at-large selections Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Penn State, Oregon, Southern California and Clemson. Next up: Missouri, Ole Miss, Notre Dame.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

The ‘Topp Rope’ is his football column published throughout the USA TODAY Network.

Subscribe to read all of his columns.

This story was updated to correct a typo.

Week 5 of the 2024 college football season has concluded with movement in the Heisman Trophy race.

Four of the top six contenders are quarterbacks, including Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe and Miami quarterback Cam Ward.

Colorado standout Travis Hunter and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty made a jump to reach the top six, surpassing several quarterbacks that were ahead of them the week prior. Nico Iamaleava saw a slight drop after being on a bye week with Tennessee while Jackson Dart slid down after a loss to Kentucky.

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Jalen Milroe takes the lead

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe made the jump from third (+700) to Heisman favorite (+175) in a 24-hour span after a strong first half against No. 1 Georgia.

Milroe had a fast start, scoring the first two touchdowns to provide Alabama with a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Milroe helped seal the 41-34 victory with a pass to receiver Ryan Williams for a 75-yard touchdown with 2:18 left in the fourth quarter.

He completed 27 of 33 passes for 374 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Milroe also rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries.

Who else is near the top of the rankings?

With Milroe taking the lead, Ward takes a step back and now finds himself second.

The Miami quarterback led his team in a close victory over Virginia Tech on Friday but did not have his strongest outing. Ward finished the night completing 24 of 38 passes for 343 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. He also rushed for 57 yards and a score.

Colorado’s Travis Hunter saw his stock improve after striking a Heisman pose after an interception against UCF on Saturday afternoon.

Ashton Jeanty remains a player to watch

The Boise State running back is a player to keep an eye on going forward. Jeanty made the biggest jump over the past week, from tied for eighth (+2000) on Sept. 20 to fourth on Sept. 29.

He is the only FBS player this season with four rushing touchdowns in multiple games this season. Jeanty rushed for 259 yards and four touchdowns on 26 carries in a 45-24 victory over Washington State.

Heisman Trophy odds list

Here are the odds from BetMGM, as of Sunday morning:

(This story was updated to change a video.)