Daily briefing: On Justin Fuente, this week’s CFP rankings and Cincinnati

Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:

Justin Fuente won, just not enough

Justin Fuente’s bid to replace a legend at Virginia Tech lasted six tad-above-mediocre seasons. He was 43-31 – Frank Beamer went 40-26 over his last five seasons – and won one ACC Coastal title (but doesn’t everyone?). Fuente got off to a fast start in Blacksburg, going 10-4 and pushing national champion Clemson in the 2016 ACC Championship Game before losing 42-35. But the Hokies regressed to the mean over the course of his tenure. Going 4-1 against Virginia helped. Losses to Old Dominion (2018) and Liberty (2019) did not. But Virginia Tech went 1-7 against top-10 teams under Fuente. The win, 16-10 over North Carolina (5-5) to start this season, proved to be fool’s gold. Fuente won, just not enough and not the right games.

Not much change in the CFP rankings

The College Football Playoff rankings changed little from last week. The most interesting change occurred at No. 8, vacated by losing Oklahoma and filled by Notre Dame, which might be higher except that it has beaten exactly one team (No. 15 Wisconsin) that has won more than six games. It will stay that way: The Fighting Irish’s two remaining opponents, Georgia Tech and Stanford, have 3-7 records. The Sooners fell to No. 13, a real indication of what the committee thought about them, while No. 11 Baylor and No. 12 Ole Miss — both with two losses — rose on the basis of defeating ranked teams.

Cincinnati needs to recapture its verve vs. SMU

Cincinnati remained No. 5 in the College Football Playoff ratings and fell to No. 3 in the latest AP poll. The Bearcats haven’t covered the spread in years, and not that the spread should be vital to the Playoff, but how a team plays in relation to the spread is a good indication of how it’s handling expectations. The burden of being on top can be crushing for programs that aren’t used to it. Cincinnati hasn’t played the second half of the season with the same verve that it used to win at Notre Dame. The Bearcats have their toughest opponent since the Fighting Irish on Saturday. And unlike Cincinnati, SMU hasn’t struggled to play at a high tempo from week to week. If the Bearcats want to impress the selection committee, they need to find that fifth gear against the Mustangs.