We live in a society that struggles with the concept of age. People are living longer, working longer and becoming more resistant to the idea that they’re supposed to fade into the background and pass the torch to a new generation.

In some ways, it’s aspirational. We all want to be vibrant and productive in our 70s and 80s. At the same time, hanging on to power looks selfish and delusional when the results are no longer there. 

North Carolina coach Mack Brown, now 73 years old, has had an incredible life in college football. It began as a head coach in 1983 when Appalachian State made him a head coach at age 32. It brought him to Tulane, then North Carolina, then Texas where he won a national championship and had a decade-long run of success few have ever matched. 

Brown eventually went to the television booth when his run at Texas went south, but he always wanted one more shot on the sidelines. North Carolina and athletics director Bubba Cunningham gave it to him in 2019, when Brown vowed that his goal was to win a national title at a place that meant so much in his life and career. 

It seemed really romantic back then. Now, it seems ridiculous. 

Brown isn’t going to win another national title. Will he even make it through this season?

After North Carolina’s embarrassing 70-50 loss to James Madison on Saturday, Inside Carolina reported that Brown’s emotional speech in the locker room suggested he was going to walk away. But after cooling off, Brown told ESPN he would be back at work on Sunday. 

This isn’t sustainable. 

Here are the facts. In his second stint at North Carolina, Brown’s record is 41-28. In his first four years, the Tar Heels have been ranked at the end of the season just once: No. 17 in the final poll of 2020. That’s particularly disappointing when he’s had elite-level quarterbacks like Sam Howell and Drake Maye on his roster until this year. The loss to James Madison underscores the problems Brown has had with his defensive coordinators, from Jay Bateman to Gene Chizik and now Geoff Collins, the former Georgia Tech head coach. 

Has it been a disaster in the big picture? No, not at North Carolina, which has always been one of college football’s biggest underachievers. But has Mack’s second stint in Chapel Hill been a success? It would be disingenuous to say yes.

At an age when all of his contemporaries have left the stage, does it make sense for Brown to be hanging on? Not if the goal is for North Carolina to have a football program that contends for ACC and national titles. 

It’s sad and uncomfortable and uncouth to talk about so bluntly, but even a beloved Hall of Famer like Brown reaches a point where it no longer makes sense to run a college football program that is trying to win at the highest level. 

Losing in such awful fashion to James Madison will supercharge that conversation. And that’s why North Carolina is No. 1 in the Misery Index, a weekly measurement of which fan bases are feeling the most angst. 

Four more in misery

TCU: Since appearing in the College Football Playoff national championship game — and yes, said appearing rather than playing because the Horned Frogs didn’t play much football that night against Georgia — TCU has lost nine of its last 16 games. And the frustration of that predicament manifested Saturday when Sonny Dykes lost his cool on multiple occasions and was ejected early in the second half of a 66-42 loss to SMU.

When’s the last time you saw a college football coach get thrown out of a game for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties? Then again, when is the last time you saw a program get close to the pinnacle of the sport and then completely retreat to a level of mediocrity that looks far more permanent than the success they experienced two years ago? Let’s face facts. TCU’s 2022 season was a fluke. Maybe one of the biggest flukes in the history of college football. And now, TCU isn’t even the best program in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, much less the state of Texas, much less the Central time zone, much less the Big 12, much less the country. 

Virginia Tech: In mid-October last season, the Hokies were 2-4 and going nowhere. Brent Pry, the second-year head coach, was trending toward the hot seat. Whit Babcock, the longtime athletics director, was facing criticism for a second consecutive disappointing football hire.

But then the Virginia Tech turned it around, winning five of its last seven games to get to 7-6. Hokie Nation suddenly felt great. With more returning starters than anyone in the ACC, expectations soared. Pry was the toast of the town. The Hokies were back!

Of course, that was before any games were played. And now that we’re a month into the season, we can say definitively that the Hokies are not back. If anything, they’re back to irrelevance. They stink. 

Virginia Tech’s 26-23 loss at home to Rutgers leaves them 2-2 (they lost a season opener to Vanderbilt), and now we have to re-examine last year’s run to a winning record. The Hokies’ finish included wins over Wake Forest, Syracuse, Boston College, Virginia and Tulane. Not exactly Murderers’ Row. Maybe this year’s schedule will turn out to be just as weak, but nobody is going to be fooled. The Hokies have major problems. 

Auburn: The reason you want Hugh Freeze to coach your program is to score points. That’s why you overlook the NCAA violations at Ole Miss, the inappropriate phone calls that got him fired and the general sense of phoniness that has made him college football’s version of Jimmy Swaggart over the last decade. 

It’s not a bad tradeoff, in theory. If you believe the entire sport is a cesspool, then Freeze is worth the bad publicity — as long as he’s winning. 

But in two years at Auburn, the cost-benefit analysis on Freeze has hit a snag. His team doesn’t win. It doesn’t score points. It isn’t entertaining to anyone, unless punting and committing an unusual number of turnovers (14 through four games) is your idea of a good time.  

Auburn’s 24-14 loss to Arkansas, dropping the Tigers to 2-2, should absolutely put Freeze on a short leash. If you’re going to be an offensive guru, you have to do better than 14 points, which is what Auburn managed against the only power conference teams on its schedule thus far in California and Arkansas. 

Freeze version 2.0 just isn’t working in the SEC. And if you want to blame the quarterback position — neither Payton Thorne nor Hank Brown has looked the part — then you have to blame Freeze too. He’s had two years to improve that position, and so far there’s zero promise of a better future.  

Oklahoma: Jackson Arnold was one of the best quarterback recruits in the country, and it was a massive coup in January of 2022 when Brent Venables got the Denton, Texas, native to commit to the Sooners. But recruiting rankings don’t mean guaranteed success at the college level, and the Sooners are going through major growing pains with Arnold.

While the narrative of Tennessee’s 25-15 win in Norman will focus a lot on Vols coach Josh Heupel, who won a national title as Oklahoma’s quarterback in 2000 and was Bob Stoops’ offense coordinator for four years before getting fired, the actual story here is Arnold. 

He completed just 7-of-16 passes for 54 yards, threw an interception and fumbled in the first half when the Sooners were within sniffing distance of the end zone. He got pulled for Michael Hawkins, who wasn’t amazing but looked steadier and more confident in the second half. If Oklahoma had gotten decent quarterback play for 60 minutes, it might have had a chance to upset the Vols. Instead, the Sooners look a step or two below where they need to be in the SEC. The quarterback situation is going to be a key point of contention for Oklahoma in the second half of the season as they evaluate what’s necessary to compete at this level. 

Miserable but not miserable enough

Nebraska: Stop us if you’ve heard this before. The Huskers found a way to lose a game they absolutely should have won. It’s not as devastating this time because Nebraska is clearly on the right track under Matt Rhule, and quarterback Dylan Raiola is an insanely good freshman who should eventually get the Huskers in the College Football Playoff mix. Still, Nebraska missed a 39-yard field goal with 3 minutes remaining and then lost 31-24 in overtime to Illinois. That dropped the Huskers to 17-43 in one-score games since the start of the 2015 season. 

Vanderbilt: No program in the country is as reliably awful in crunch time as the Commodores. Year after year, coach after coach, recruiting class after recruiting class, Vanderbilt’s ability to lose winnable games is as consistent as the sunrise. The Commodores had their chances to register a huge win at Missouri on Saturday, but kicker Brock Taylor missed a 50-yarder with 3:06 remaining for the lead in regulation and a 31-yarder to extend the game to a third overtime as Vanderbilt lost a Missouri, 30-27. And it’s not like Taylor is a bad kicker: He made a 57-yarder earlier in the game but just couldn’t connect when the pressure was on. This is just what happens at Vanderbilt, where head coach Clark Lea is now 2-23 in the SEC.  

Northern Illinois: The Huskies had two weeks to bask in the glory of upsetting Notre Dame on Sept. 7, and they took full advantage of the interview requests and social media cachet that came their way. But the party ended on Saturday when the lost at home to Buffalo, 23-20, in two overtimes. Somehow, Northern Illinois’ defense only gave up 184 yards but lost when Upton Bellenfant — maybe the best name in all of college football — made a 37-yard field goal in overtime for the Bulls. 

Mississippi State: The Bulldogs are headed for their worst season in nearly two decades. Under Sylvester Croom in 2006, Mississippi State finished 3-9 and fired him two years later. That led to a long run of success under Dan Mullen, who raised expectations at one of the most challenging programs in the SEC. Needless to say, Jeff Lebby is going to struggle living up to those expectations. Mississippi State is now 1-3 in Lebby’s first season after a 45-28 shellacking by Florida at home, which came just one week after losing by 24 points to Toledo. To be fair to Lebby, most of Mississippi State’s team hit the transfer portal after last season when Zach Arnott was fired. But it’s now clear this going to be a really painful and long rebuilt. 

(This story was updated to add new information.)

In 28 years of the WNBA, no player has ever led the league in points, rebounds and blocks in the same season. 

A’ja Wilson changed that in 2024, as the forward from the Las Vegas Aces totaled a league-best 1,021 points, 451 rebounds and 98 blocks in a sensational display of dominance all season that has led to the 28-year-old winning her third MVP – this time unanimously – as announced by the league Sunday. 

Wilson received all 67 first-place votes. Napheesa Collier, of the Minnesota Lynx, got 66 of the 67 second-place votes. They were followed by Breanna Stewart (295 points), Caitlin Clark (130 points), and Alyssa Thomas (83 points).

Before Wilson only one other MVP in league history has earned every top vote: In 1997, Cynthia Cooper was the No. 1 selection on 37 ballots. 

The award is the latest addition to a sparkling résumé for Wilson, who led the American women to an unprecedented eighth straight Olympic gold medal in August. Widely considered the best player in the world at both ends of the floor, Wilson was named MVP of the Paris Olympic basketball tournament, too. 

Only three other players in WNBA history – Sheryl Swoopes, Lauren Jackson and Lisa Leslie – have won three MVP awards. 

On Sept. 15, Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to score 1,000 points in a season. 

Earlier this season Wilson set a record when she became the first player to score at least 20 points and grab at least 10 rebounds in eight consecutive games. Despite playing a career high 34.4 minutes per game this season Wilson is having a career year, turning in highs in points per game (26.9), rebounds per game (9.8) and steals per game (1.8). She finished the regular season with the highest scoring average in league history at 26.87, easily surpassing the record of 25.29 set by Diana Taurasi in 2006. 

Wilson is the defending defensive player of the year – an award she’s expected to contend for this season, too – and finished third in MVP voting last season. She previously won MVP in 2020 and 2022, and led the Aces to back-to-back WNBA titles the last two seasons. 

The Aces entered the 2024 playoffs Sunday as the No. 4 seed against the fifth seeded Seattle Storm. Las Vegas is trying to become the first team since the Houston Comets to win three consecutive titles (Houston won four championships from 1997-2000). 

This marks the first time since 2015 that the league MVP did not come from a top three team. That year, Elena Delle Donne took home MVP honors despite the Washington Mystics finishing fourth in the Eastern Conference. Delle Donne averaged 23.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks that season. 

Email Lindsay Schnell at lschnell@usatoday.com and follow her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell 

Caitlin Clark got her first taste of WNBA postseason action Sunday as the Indiana Fever lost to the Connecticut Sun in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round series.

Clark, expected to easily win Rookie of the Year, got popped in the right eye by Dijonai Carrington early in the first quarter when Carrington was going after the ball. No foul was called. Clark didn’t miss any time and it didn’t appear to affect her game.

She scored her first career postseason points on a reverse layup with 3:16 remaining in the first quarter. Clark finally got her first 3-pointer in the third quarter.

Clark finished with 11 points on 4-of-17 shooting, including 2-of-13 from beyond the arc. She also had eight assists and just two turnovers.

Game 2 is Wednesday in Connecticut at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Sun can advance to the semifinals with a win. The Fever must win to force a decisive Game 3, which would be in Indiananpolis.

(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)

Week 4 in college football was not good for certain schools in North Carolina (cheer up residents of Raleigh and Chapel Hill), and great for others around the country (here’s looking at you, Michigan, for winning without a passing game).

It’s Report Card time. The same thing goes as far as grading from last season: High marks will only be given to the spectacular, and failing grades have no chance of being reversed.

Here is the Week 4 analysis of how fans, teams, players, and coaches fared: 

Eli Drinkwitz, the Yoda of bad clock management

Sometimes, coaches think they are smarter than everyone else. And when you don’t take your opponent seriously or try to get cute to prove said smartness, it can backfire.

During Missouri’s game against three-touchdown underdog Vanderbilt, Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz decided to pull out some of his old (baffling) game management tricks.

With the score tied at 10 and Missouri facing a fourth-and-3 at its own 47-yard line with 13 seconds to go in the first half, what did Drinkwitz decide to do?

A: Punt?
B: Punt?
C: Punt?
D: Go for it and let his quarterback get sacked, turning the ball over on downs?

That’s right, folks; if you guessed D, you too could apparently coach at least one down of college football even without having any experience or knowledge of strategy. Vanderbilt turned that blunder into three points when kicker Brock Taylor drilled a 57-yard field goal to end the half.

Missouri had the ball again in the fourth quarter with the game tied at 20 and 53 seconds remaining, facing a fourth-and-1 from the Commodores’ 47. Drinkwitz chose multiple choice answers A, B, and C this time instead of trying to move in closer for a game-winning kick.

Tigers fans have seen this movie before. Last season, the Tigers were bailed out with a game-winning, 61-yard field goal in a defining win against Kansas State — despite some questionable clock management.

Drinkwitz was bailed out again Saturday when Taylor shanked the potential game-tying field goal in double overtime.

Pro tip: Drinkwitz should still stay away from his social media, at least for this week.

Tick, tock: F

Well, that didn’t last long

Here is how some of our favorite money makers this season fared on Saturday:

Memphis, which beat Florida State, lost to Navy.

Northern Illinois, which beat Notre Dame, lost to Buffalo.

The check still clears: F

The worst and best of the rest

Holy Hail Mary:

Prevent defense, better offense: A+++++

Punt return of the year:

No, no, no … yes: A+

Dan Orlovsky is smiling:

Cue Yakety sax: F—

Hustle man:

Martin Lawrence approves of this hustle: A+

Wait, what?

Mossed: A+

Game recognize game:

Yes, he left the house looking like that: Awarded Rhodes Scholarship

Scoopin’ and scorin’:

Reservations for 99: Graduation

Iron, too kind:

Doink you very much: A

Ref vs. student-athlete:

Smacked: Incomplete

This week’s one-handed catch tribute:

Inaccurate pass complete: Extra credit

They said it

‘The AP voters have done a complete disservice to Nebraska. The AP Poll is terrible. It is garbage,’ FOX college football analyst Joel Klatt said, while also saying his rankings are better than the writers’. ‘Nebraska is far better than the No. 22 team in the country.’

Days later, the disserviced Cornhuskers lost at home, 31-24 in overtime, to Illinois.

***

North Carolina head coach Mack Brown with the understatement of the year after the Tar Heels gave up 70 points to James Madison:

“Embarrassing day, shocking day,” Brown said. “You shouldn’t be at North Carolina and lose to a Group of Five team, period. There are no excuses. Our defense looked awful. We had communication problems, we had missed tackles. We had guys wide open for a touchdown. I got big shoulders, and I’m embarrassed for our whole program that we would put a product like that on the field.”

Stats for you

0: Turnovers forced by Troy in four games this season.

5: Hours it took to complete the first quarter of the East Carolina-Liberty game in Lynchburg, Virginia, after multiple weather delays.

25: Consecutive losses by Nebraska to ranked teams.

64: Yards of field goal made by Temple kicker Maddux Trujillo against Utah State, the longest ever at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.

800: Wins for Clemson’s football program.

1,217: Combined offensive yards for James Madison and North Carolina.

1,225: Combined offensive yards for Memphis and Navy.

$500,000: Payout to James Madison for its game against North Carolina.

The Dog of the Week

Houston at Cincinnati

Since the pups didn’t want to travel to see Kent State on the road (it lost 56-0 to Penn State while collecting $1.6 million for its troubles), a trip to Cincinnati was on the agenda to get a look at the Bearcats as they took on the Houston Cougars, who two weeks ago gave Oklahoma all it could handle.

But it seems Houston left all that momentum in Norman, as evidenced by a 34-0 whitewashing in Cincinnati … and it truly wasn’t even that close. Three turnovers, seven penalties, a missed 32-yard field goal, and 233 yards of total offense — yep, that will get you beat any day of the week at any level of football.

All seems to be well with those chili-eating compadres in Cincinnati, as the Bearcats have already matched their win total from last season with their third victory. It should also be noted that Kent State and Houston were the only FBS teams that didn’t score on Saturday.

BOULDER, Colo. – The fans stormed the field before the game was even over.

It was wet. It was wild.  And now the Colorado Buffaloes are on the march again after an incredible series of clutch plays at the end of a 38-31 overtime win at home against Baylor.  

Cue the celebration in the locker room under head coach Deion Sanders.

“It was a party, man,” Colorado receiver LaJohntay Wester said of the postgame scene. “I loved it, man… Ain’t nothing like here, man, especially after a win. There’s nothing like it.”

There was nothing like what happened at the end of the game, either. After falling behind by 14 points earlier in the game, the Buffs stormed back with a Hail Mary pass as time expired in regulation play, followed by a forced fumble in overtime to end the game from two-way superstar Travis Hunter.

“Great, great, great, great, great win,” Deion Sanders afterward.

And yet it all came so close to never happening. Here’s how it went down and what it means after Colorado survived – barely – in front of a sold-out homecoming crowd of 52,794 at Folsom Field. The Buffs are now off to a 3-1 start for the second straight year under Sanders while Hunter keeps finding new ways to steal the show.

The final drive in regulation for Colorado

Baylor (2-2) almost put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 45-yard field goal on its final drive of regulation with 2:16 remaining. If the kick succeeded, the Buffs likely would have lost. But the kick missed wide right, allowing the Buffs to get the ball back with Baylor leading 31-24.  

What happened next was a parade of close calls, near misses and “Perfect Timing,” which also happens to be the rap song of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s youngest son.

“They never gave up,” Deion Sanders said. “They never surrendered.”

At one point, Shedeur Sanders faced fourth down and 1 at the Baylor 46-yard line – a play that would have ended the game for the Buffs if he didn’t convert. Sanders instead got a first down on a 3-yard run to keep Colorado’s hopes alive.

Two plays later, Sanders threw a long second-down pass near the end zone to receiver Will Sheppard, a transfer from Vanderbilt. But Sheppard dropped the potential touchdown catch, stopping the clock with two seconds left.

“We should have had that one,” Deion Sanders said. “But we caught the one that we needed to catch.”

The Hail Mary, nearly 30 years after that other Hail Mary

After the drop by Sheppard, there was time for one more play – a 43-yard Hail Mary pass, nearly 30 years to the day of Colorado’s 64-yard Hail Mary to win at Michigan as time expired on Sept. 24, 1994.

“I just trusted God,” Shedeur Sanders said. “I just threw it up to God, and God answered the prayer for sure.”

Shedeur Sanders rolled left and lofted it to the left corner of the end zone, where Wester turned to catch it in the rain for a 43-yard touchdown catch with no time remaining in the fourth quarter. It helped that Baylor’s defense was paying more attention to Hunter, allowing Wester to free himself more easily to reel it in.

“It was a Hail Mary,” said Wester, a transfer from Florida Atlantic. “I was one on one. I just ran down there. I see him (Shedeur) rolling out, and then I see the ball coming my way. As a receiver, your job is to make the quarterback right whether it’s a good ball or bad ball, and I just made a play on the ball.”

After the extra-point kick, the game went to overtime tied 31-31.

Overtime and the fumble forced by Travis Hunter

Colorado got the ball first in overtime and drove 25 yards in seven plays, including eight yards rushing and 12 yards passing from Shedeur Sanders. “Whatever it takes to win,” Shedeur said.

Freshman running back Micah Welch rushed up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown to cap the drive, helping put the Buffs up 38-31.

But Baylor still had its chance to respond and even ran four plays to get to the Colorado 2-yard line, including a 13-yard run by quarterback Sawyer Robertson that would have been a touchdown if not for an open-field tackle by Buffs safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig.

One play later, the ball went to running back Dominic Richardson, who had a clear path to the end zone except for one player.

Travis Hunter.

Hunter stood his ground at the goal line, forcing Richardson to try to leap past him.  The ball then came loose and tumbled into the end zone.

“I knew that was coming at me,” Hunter said. “They don’t think I can tackle, so I had to show ‘em.”

Hunter finished with seven catches for 130 yards on offense and three tackles and the clutch forced fumble on defense.

The crazy postgame scene

After the fumble, the game was over. Buffs win.

Or so it seemed.

Colorado fans reacted to the fumble by storming the field in the rain, but game officials still needed to review replays of the play to confirm it. It wasn’t quite over yet, in other words, leading to a call for the fans to move back and leave.

“I want to apologize to the opposition, the way we stormed the field,” Deion Sanders said.

Sanders said he didn’t even get the chance to shake hands afterward with Baylor head coach Dave Aranda.

“I don’t like what transpired at the end of the game, but I love what transpired at the end of the game,” Deion Sanders said. “We have a fan base that’s phenomenal.”

After replays confirmed the fumble, the homecoming party kicked into overdrive while the Bears went home wondering what had just happened. Aranda called it a “heart-wrenching loss” and said his team was “gutted.”

For his part, Hunter celebrated afterward by rapidly crawling on his hands and knees through the end zone – a personal shoutout to popular online streamer Kai Cenat.

“I had to do it,” Hunter said.

The Buffs still kind of got lucky

They gave up two huge touchdown plays in the second quarter, silencing a crowd that had come to make noise. The first was a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Baylor’s Jamaal Bell down the right sideline. The second was a 45-yard fourth-down run from Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson, helping put the Bears up 24-10 with 4:19 left before halftime.

The Buffs also gave up eight quarterback sacks, just a week after only giving up one in a 28-9 win at Colorado State.

Shedeur Sanders called the win “a relief.” He completed 25 of 41 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns, including a 58-yarder to sophomore receiver Omarion Miller in the second quarter to help cut Baylor’s lead to 24-17 with 50 seconds left before halftime. Miller almost was tackled near the 35-yard line but kept going to score. But Shedeur found fault with himself and said he missed reads.

“You gotta understand I can’t have a game like that again,” Shedeur said.

The question now is whether the Buffaloes can sustain their success, unlike last year when they lost seven of their final eight games after starting 3-1. If they had lost a game like that against Baylor, they’d be facing a serious uphill fight to get the minimum six wins required to earn a postseason bowl berth.

Now they’ve got momentum heading into a cross-country trip to play Saturday at Central Florida (3-0), followed by a weekend off Oct. 5.

“I don’t like how it played out, but I loved the results,” Deion Sanders said. “I think we’re so much better than what we’re showing you at times.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Every Saturday, senior national college football writer Matt Hayes breaks down four trending stories, and a 12-team College Football Playoff bracket.

First Down: Michigan: welcome back, Bully Ball

Those bruising, battering runs from Kalel Mullings. Pounding and thundering and reverberating.

All the way to Columbus, Ohio.

Michigan found itself again Saturday, a punishing 27-24 rock fight of a welcome to the Big Ten defeat of No. 12 Southern California. But look deeper, everyone.

It wasn’t so much an upset win for the suddenly shaky defending national champions as it was recommitting to a powerful run game – and sending a message to the Buckeyes.

Because while Michigan has been grinding through the first month of the season with difficult games against Texas and USC, Ohio State has been frolicking through three guarantee games and barely breaking a sweat.

But just in case Ohio State – and everyone else in the Big Ten – believed Michigan had lost its way after dominating the conference the last three seasons, the game-winning drive against USC ended that narrative.

Eight carries from Mullings on the 10-play winning touchdown drive – 4 yards, 63, 1, 8, 2, 3, 2, 1 – capped an 89-yard drive where Michigan lined up with four minutes remaining and played bully ball. Like it did all game.

The drive ended, on fourth-and-goal from the 1, with Mullings ramming over the left side for the winning points with 29 seconds to play. How dominating was the drive?

Mullings’ 63-yard run, where he dragged USC cornerback John Humphrey for eight of the yards, was the highlight. But the underlying reality for USC (and, hello, Ohio State): Trojans coach Lincoln Riley started using timeouts after the 63-yard run because he knew his defense couldn’t stop the run ― and he was desperately trying to preserve time.

Michigan had 290 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 46 carries, and more important, left no doubt where the rest of the season is headed.

Tennessee: Big Orange D stops Oklahoma

They lost concentration in the fourth quarter, and the score of a big road win in the SEC doesn’t represent the carnage that played out on the field.

But Tennessee, everyone, has an elite defense.

Oklahoma could’ve played eight quarters and not scored enough points to beat a complete Tennessee team. It’s no longer all about Volunteers coach Josh Heupel’s Blur Ball offense.

The defense is beginning to look a whole lot like those elite SEC defenses of the College Football Playoff era. A 25-15 win at Oklahoma included two forced fumbles, an interception, a safety and 11 tackles for loss.

How very Georgia of Tennessee.

And that’s the point of Saturday night’s exercise in Norman, Okla. Tennessee had been defense optional for much of Heupel’s first three seasons in Knoxville.

Now this Tennessee team looks a lot like the Oklahoma team he quarterbacked to a national title in 2000. The ability to score big with the backbone of a stout defense.

Just how good was the Tennessee defense? The offense lost fumbles at its 20 and 35, and the game wasn’t really close.

Oklahoma rushed for 36 yards on 34 carries, and never really made any throws of significance ― especially when it mattered. Starting quarterback Jackson Arnold played so poorly, he was benched late in the first half for true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr.  

Tennessee has a defensive line that rivals the elite units of the late 1990s under coach Phil Fulmer. They’re athletic and active, and they dictate what offenses can do.

By the end of the game, Heupel did what he has always done at Oklahoma: 10 wins in 10 games as a player, and now one win in one game as a head coach.

Third Down: Utah’s statement

So a big game happened in the Big 12, and Utah officially introduced its new league to what its old league was forced to deal with for years.

A tough, talented team doing whatever it takes to win a game.

Like playing nearly flawless on the road in a difficult environment with a backup quarterback playing for the injured star. Or the tight end running Wildcat and scoring a short-yardage touchdown.

Or the defense – the trademark Utah defense – suffocating Oklahoma State in an important conference game that will have lasting impact in the College Football Playoff race.  

You want defense? Utah built a 22-3 lead with six minutes to play, and Oklahoma State had 158 total yards. Then the Utes dialed down the pressure to avoid giving up a big play, and got out of Stillwater with a deceiving 22-19 win.

“Made it a lot more dramatic than we needed to,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said after the game.

But think about this: Utah already has a win against one of the two teams that have the roster to beat the Utes ― and won’t play the other (Kansas State) unless they play in the Big 12 championship game.

In fact, Utah – which should get star quarterback Cam Rising back next week against Arizona – will be favored in all of its remaining games. The most difficult tests remaining appear to be a home game against Iowa State (Nov.23) and a road game against Central Florida (Nov. 29).

Fourth Down: The rise of … Vanderbilt?

Diego Pavia deserves better. Better than a hooked chip shot field goal in an overtime loss to Missouri.

Better than the Vanderbilt defense folding with a minute to play in last week’s loss to Georgia State, and giving up a 75-yard game-winning touchdown drive in 55 seconds.

Vanderbilt – yes, Vanderbilt – should be 4-0, and we should all be celebrating the most impactful transfer quarterback of 2024 instead of lamenting same ol’ Vandy.

More impactful than Dillon Gabriel or Will Howard or Riley Leonard ― all of whom landed on ready-made championship teams. Pavia has elevated one of the worst Power Four conference teams into the land of respectability.

But for a missed 31-yard field goal against Missouri, Vanderbilt could have eventually earned another significant upset (Virginia Tech) in the first month of the season behind the quarterback who last went viral for urinating on a rival’s practice field.

Pavia led New Mexico State to 10 wins in 2023, including a 21-point win at Auburn. He arrived at Vandy with former coach Jerry Kill joining Clark Lea’s staff, and has immediately changed the way the Commodores think about offense.

In four games, Pavia has accounted for 75.2 percent of Vanderbilt’s production, throwing for 543 yards and four touchdowns, and rushing for 279 yards and two more touchdowns. The Commodores get an open week, before getting another upset opportunity.

Against mighty Alabama on Oct. 5.

The College Football Playoff bracket

Four power conference champions ranked 1-4 with first-round bye, highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion, and seven at-large selections.

(1) Texas

(2) Ohio State

(3) Miami

(4) Utah

(12) Boise State at (5) Georgia

(11) Kansas State at (6) Alabama

(10) Missouri at (7) Tennessee