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Sunday Superlatives: The best, worst and everything in-between from an action-packed Week 11

On3 imageby:Jesse Simonton•11/13/22•

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There’s no time to waste words on a pithy prelude to an action-packed Week 11. 

There’s too much to unpack. 

So here’s a loaded recap of everything — the best, worst and in between — in coaching this weekend in today’s Sunday Superlatives.

SMARTEST CALL OF THE WEEK

Remember back in August when North Carolina was purportedly staging a competitive quarterback competition during training camp?

Well, either Jacolby Criswell is the greatest QB secret in America, or Mack Brown was playing a little opossum. 

Why? Because through 11 weeks of the 2022 season, Drake Maye is the best quarterback in the country right now.

Fueled by another monster performance from Maye on Saturday in a 36-34 nail-biting win at Wake Forest, the Tar Heels clinched the ACC Coastal Division title and remain a darkhorse contender for the College Football Playoff. 

Maye threw for a career-best 448 yards, with three passing touchdowns, 71 yards rushing and another score. While former UNC quarterback Sam Howell cooked in Phil Longo’s QB-friendly scheme, Maye has been a one-man power keg — transforming the Tar Heels’ offense into one of the most explosive units in the country.

He leads the nation with 34 passing touchdowns, and ranks No. 4 nationally in yards per attempt (9.5), No. 5 in completion percentage (70.1) and No. 2 in yards per game (341). A legitimate Heisman Trophy contender, Maye is also North Carolina’s leading rusher in 2022 with 584 yards and five touchdowns. 

“I said if he goes to Winston-Salem and plays great on the road in a game that’s been a tough game for us, then he deserves all the credit in the world,” Brown said. 

“He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country so I can’t imagine him not being in New York.

Maye actually received a bit of help from UNC’s leaky defense on Saturday, too, as North Carolina allowed five touchdowns in the first three quarters only hold Sam Hartman and Wake Forest scoreless in the fourth quarter. 

Maye engineered the game-winning field goal drive inside the final three minutes after UNC stopped Wake Forest on downs and picked off Hartman. The Tar Heels then needed one final stop to win the game, and they got that, too. 

“I’m gonna start telling (the defense) it’s the fourth quarter to start the game,” Brown joked afterward, as the Heels have allowed just seven total points in the fourth quarter the last three games combined.  

“I think you gotta give credit to Gene Chizik for just continuing to work through the game and finding ways to make it work. That’s what he’s done his whole life, he’s really good at. If we can just keep scoring and hang in there, our defense is gonna make enough plays to win at the end.” 

UNC is now 9-1 with two more winnable games (Georgia Tech and NC State) before playing Clemson in the ACC Championship. If the Heels sweep the board, then they’ll give the playoff committee a lot to debate come the first weekend in December. 

It’s been a dream season in Chapel Hill so far, and none of it is possible if Brown doesn’t pick the right guy at QB three months ago. 

Considering how hard he worked to flip Drake Maye, a UNC legacy recruit now writing his own unique story at Carolina, from Alabama two years ago, here’s a hunch that Mack Brown knew who his QB1 was all along, though. 

COACHING CALAMITY OF THE WEEK

TCU’s upside-down win at Texas on Saturday was half the story in Austin. The good story. The feel-good story. 

Sonny Dykes’ Horned Frogs continue to silence their doubters, going on the road as a touchdown-underdog to grind out a 17-10 win to remain undefeated and the Big 12 title-favorites.

As they’ve done all year, TCU’s social media troll squad was ready with the goods after the win, too. 

But what about the story on the other sidelines Saturday?

Steve Sarkisian better be thanking his lucky stars each weekend that he has the Arch Manning golden parachute. 

After another offensive stinker — and one-score loss again, too — Texas’ second-year head coach would likely be feeling real pressure if he didn’t have the commitment from the No. 1 player in the 2023 recruiting class. 

A week after going on the road and beating a good Kansas State squad, the Longhorns looked to become a factor in the Big 12 championship race with a victory over an in-state rival. 

ESPN College GameDay was in town. A program showcase in primetime. 

Instead, Texas still can’t string together consecutive strong performances on both sides of the ball. Despite a great defensive showing, Sarkisian’s offense managed just 199 total yards and zero offensive touchdowns against a shaky Horned Frogs’ defense.

Quarterback Quinn Ewers (just 17 of 39) was bad again, while TCU totally stifled star tailbacks Bijan Robinson (29 yards) and Rochon Johnson (14 yards). The Longhorns had no rhythm — both with their play-calling or execution. 

“We were just off,” Sarkisian said, who is now 11-11 with UT.  

Something — and it’s a different something each week — always seems to be “off” at Texas. 

While TCU’s Hypnotoad magic is real and spectacular, as is the fact that Texas most certainly is not back. Ewers was supposed to be the savior, but he has as many touchdowns (four) as interceptions the last three games, and is averaging less than 5.5 yards per attempt.

The analytic models sure love the Longhorns, but that hasn’t helped them win games on Saturdays. The tougher team won Saturday in Austin — and as has been the case during the Sarkisian era — that typically isn’t Texas. 

Elsewhere, it was a no-good-very-bad-weekend for Pac-12’s College Football Playoff hopes on Saturday. 

USC won on Friday night to remain in the CFP picture, but it lost top tailback Travis Dye to a season-ending injury. 

Meanwhile, Chip Kelly’s UCLA Bruins came crashing back to earth with a pitiful 34-28 loss to a 3-6 Arizona. The Bruins had four shots at the end zone to avoid the cataclysmic loss, but Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw four straight incompletions — including a bad miss to a wide open Jake Bobo on the final play — to end the game.

UCLA is still alive for the Pac-12 title, but any ideas of making the CFP field are over. 

Same for Oregon, who lost a wild one to Washington 37-34.

The Ducks had more than 600 yards, but they couldn’t gain the one yard they needed when head coach Dan Lanning made the strange decision to go for it on 4th-and-1 from Oregon’s own 34-yard line with 1:41 left in the game. 

Star quarterback Bo Nix had been briefly knocked out of the game, but he was signaling on the sidelines to go back in the game, only for Lanning to stick with backup Ty Thompson for the pivotal play. The freshman QB then misread the RPO and handed it to tailback Noah Whittington, who slipped immediately for a loss.

With the stop, the Huskies milked most of the clock and kicked the game-winning field goal, snapping Oregon’s eight-game winning streak and any future playoff talks. 

“I don’t know if they stopped us there much in that second half. I think that was our only negative play in the entire second half in the run game,” Lanning said of his decision to go for it. 

“We felt like we were going to fall forward, we were a team that could consistently get one or two yards, and we didn’t get it there.”

Lanning has been a bit of a riverboat gambler all season. The Ducks also had a failed surprise on-side kick Saturday — one that led to a free field goal for Washington. 

Lanning’s aggressiveness worked against Washington State and UCLA, but it backfired badly on Saturday — and that mistake could be the difference in whether or not the Ducks play for the Pac-12 title or not. 

Honorable Mention: Good thing I pumped out my feel-good Bret Bielema take two weeks ago because Illinois has laid a pair of eggs at home in back-to-back weeks to squander its Big Ten West title chances. 

The Fighting Illini still hold the tie-breaker over Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota in a muddled division now, but the loss to Purdue on Saturday, coupled with the no-show against Michigan State last weekend has total tempered any enthusiasm in Champaign after a 7-1 start. 

Also, three coaches whose names have circulated among various job openings already this fall — Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, Baylor’s Dave Aranda and NC State’s Dave Doeren — all suffered embarrassing losses. Perhaps they shouldn’t go house-hunting elsewhere too soon. 

THE TAKIN’ CARE OF BUSINESS CUP

Top-ranked Georgia blasted the Mississippi State Bulldogs 45-19 behind a dominant second half (28-7). UGA wasn’t very crispy early, especially in the closing seconds of the second quarter when Kirby Smart tried to steal some late points only to see Georgia allow a long MSU punt-return touchdown. 

“Bad. Bad. It’s as bad as it’s been,” Smart said of how the final few plays unfolded for the Bulldogs, taking full ownership of some poor game management. 

“They only had one timeout, so we had three timeouts. Usually, you want to play that aggressively and use that, and it backfired on us.  … It was a very, very poor job of managing the before-the-half situation. It was as bad as I’ve ever been a part of.”

The score only seemed to make the Bulldogs wearing red and black mad, though, as they came out and scored a 70-yard touchdown on the second play of the third quarter to kickstart the rout. 

It wasn’t pretty, but thanks to 5-star freshman linebacker Harold Perkins Jr., LSU held on to beat Arkansas, clinching the SEC West. Brian Kelly has now won at least eight games in Year 1 at his fourth different stop (Grand Valley State, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and LSU). 

In Columbus, Ryan Day’s offense got cranking again, as Ohio State dropped 56 on Indiana in a wire-to-wire blowout. 

CJ Stroud tossed five touchdowns, while Miyan Williams had 147 yards rushing in the first half before suffering an ankle injury late in the second quarter. Already without TreVeyon Henderson, freshman tailback Dallan Hayden stepped up and had over 100 yards for the first time in his career. 

The status of Williams and Henderson is something to monitor with The Game against Michigan in two weeks. 

The Wolverines also handled their business Saturday, smothering Nebraska 34-3. Blake Corum continued his Heisman Trophy campaign, rushing for more yards (162) than quarterback JJ McCarthy  had passing (8 of 17 for 129). 

At this point, it appears too late for Jim Harbaugh to suddenly get something more from his starting quarterback. 

If Michigan is going to beat Ohio State for the second-straight season, it will rely on the same formula as in 2021 — a powerful rushing attack and a defense that gets after the quarterback. 

Finally, Clemson rebounded nicely from its no-show at Notre Dame, hurdling past Louisville 31-16 to clinch the ACC Atlantic Division to setup a showdown with North Carolina. 

But the hottest team in the ACC? How about Mike Norvell’s Florida State Seminoles. 

Seemingly forgotten after a three-game, midseason losing steak, the ‘Noles are suddenly a lot healthier and have rattled off three wins by an aggregate of 128-22.

They housed Georgia Tech 41-16 and blasted Miami (45-3) and Syracuse (38-3) on the road in back-to-back weeks. 

At 7-3, FSU might be the best three-loss team in the country, and Norvell has a real chance to deliver the Seminoles their first 9-win regular season since 2016. 

“We wanted to make a statement and they made a great statement,” Norvell said. 

I don’t think it’ll be the last one they make, either. 

THE RING FOR WHEN KEEPIN’ IT REAL GOES WRONG 

I respect Eli Drinkwitz for not taking himself too seriously. For not being afraid to poke fun at others within the sport of college football. 

But that can come at a cost sometimes!

It was far too predictable that Drinkwitz might end up eating his offseason words when he took some shots at Tennessee’s program — even if all the jokes were at the expense of former Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt. 

As Dave Chappelle says, “Sometimes keeping it real can go very wrong.”

Josh Heupel got the last laugh Saturday, as Tennessee bounced-back from last weekend’s loss at Georgia to splatter Missouri 66-24.

Up 49-24 to start the fourth quarter, Heupel kept mashing the pedal anyways, throwing bomb after bomb against a gassed Tigers defense. 

Tennessee scored 17 points in the final quarter, including a touchdown inside the final 35 seconds. 

Drinkwitz ate the blowout gracefully at least, taking “no issue” with Tennessee continuing to throw the ball deep late. 

“He coaches his team,” he said of Heupel. 

“I coach our team. I got no issue with their team and what they do.” 

THE SNAP THAT STREAK SCHOLARSHIP

Good for Clark Lea and the Vanderbilt Commodores. 

The team from Nashville were 17-point road underdogs at Kentucky on Saturday, but behind its best defensive performance of the season (just 322 total yards allowed), the ‘Dores stunned the Wildcats 24-21 with the go-ahead score inside the last 35 seconds of the fourth quarter. 

The win snapped a 26-game losing streak in SEC play. 

Vandy was playing with backup quarterback Mike Wright, who was benched earlier this season, but the junior led the ‘Dores with 184 yards passing and a 124 yards rushing and two scores — including the game-winning passing touchdown. 

“You got a bunch of guys that are fighting,” Lea said. 

“We’re building a program, and building a program’s hard. It takes people that are aligned, doing the right things the right way. And that’s what these guys are doing. I’m glad they got rewarded today.”

THE REALEST DEAD CAT BOUNCE AWARD

There was never a doubt! 

On Twitter yesterday morning, I joked that Auburn -1 vs. Zombie Texas A&M was my favorite Saturday sucker bet.

How could it not be, right?

Texas A&M, battered and beaten, riddled by the actual flu and possibly what CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson has aptly dubbed the transfer portal flu, too. 

Meanwhile, Auburn, fresh off a frustrating overtime loss at Mississippi State looked destined for a good cathartic cry with interim head coach Carnell “Cadillac Williams making his home debut on the Plains. 

And Vola! 

Some 60 minutes later of ugly football, the Tigers snapped a five-game losing streak to beat the Aggies 13-10, with Williams receiving an icy Gatorade bath on the sidelines. 

An incredible postgame scene then ensued, with Jordan-Hare Stadium going crazy like it just beat a Top 5 team, and Williams racing around the field celebrating with fans. 

“Auburn football’s going to be OK,” the former Tigers great tailback said. 

“It ain’t dead, baby. It ain’t dead. We comin’.”

I made the case last week that Williams must be integral in Auburn’s future plans — however its coaching search unfolds. Despite all the swarming negativity and dysfunction, he’s brought Auburn together and turned a nasty situation into one of hope and unity. 

Bravo. 

On the flip side, Texas A&M is in a spiraling black hole with no end. The Aggies have dropped six straight, and after another dismal offensive performance (just 135 total yards before a late, garbage-time touchdown drive), are guaranteed to miss a bowl game after starting the season ranked sixth in the country. 

“First time ever in my life,” Jimbo Fisher said of missing a bowl game. 

“It’s disappointing. But we’ve got to go back to work and fix it and get better.”

We’ve heard that a time or 10 from Jimbo already this season. Be sure to check back in next weekend when the Aggies struggle to put up points on UMass to hear what Fisher will repeat next. 

 THE LET’S GO BOWLING BONUS

Cheers to Jim Mora and UConn. 

The Huskies stormed the field Saturday after upsetting No. 19 Liberty securing bowl eligibility for the first time since 2015 with a comeback 36-33 win.

UConn was a two-touchdown underdog and beat a ranked team for just the fourth time in school history. 

“We showed a lot of willpower. That was about as complete a team win, team effort as we’ve had all year,” Mora said, who has widely exceeded expectations in his first season in Stoors.

UConn won just a single game in 2021, but under Mora, its turnaround has been rather remarkable. 

It has a functional offense and an opportunistic defense. The Huskies don’t constantly pee down their own leg. 

They have multiple upset victories this fall (Fresno State, Boston College and Liberty) and if they beat Army next weekend, would have their first seven-win season in 13 years. 

At this point, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Jim Mora’s name linked to other jobs. Seriously. 

THE THANK YOU FOR YOUR HONESTY HONOR

“I don’t really give a shit about how many yards we had; how close the game was. We didn’t win the game. We didn’t come here to cover spreads. … All this stuff, it doesn’t matter, we didn’t win the game.”

Lane Kiffin, ladies and gentlemen. 

College football’s best soundbite has no room for moral victories after his Ole Miss Rebels squandered chance after chance to upset Alabama at home Saturday. 

Trailing 30-24, the Rebels looked primed to deliver the Tide their third loss in 2022, holding the football with 1st-and-10 inside the red zone with under two minutes in the game. 

But after riding star tailback Quinshon Judkins for all 52 yards down to Alabama’s 14-yard-line, Kiffin got pass-happy, calling four-straight drop-backs for Jaxson Dart.

The USC transfer proceeded to throw a pair of incompletions sandwiched around a scramble for no gain and a big sack. 

Game over, and only questions about moral victories for a salty Lane Train. 

THE WE REALLY NEEDED THAT ONE CUP

A pair of coaches facing mounting external pressure grounded out gritty, much-needed wins Saturday. 

Neal Brown is routinely listed as coach on the hottest of seats in 2022, but the heavily scrutinized West Virginia head coach got a win over Oklahoma for the first time since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 in 2012. 

Despite coming into the afternoon with the worst defense in the conference, WVU held OU to just 22 points by playing great red zone defense and stopping the Sooners on 10 of 11 third downs. 

With a walk-off field goal to win 23-20, the Mountaineers, now 4-6, still have an outside shot at bowl eligibility. Saturday’s victory should at least cool some talk on a potential coaching change for at least a week, too. 

Meanwhile, although Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley received a vote of confidence a couple weeks ago from his AD, the Golden Eagles pulled off a major upset with a win at No. 16 NC State on Saturday — snapping an ugly four-game losing streak and beating a Top 25 team for the time in 25 games. 

Behind freshman quarterback Emmett Morehead, making just his second-career start, the Golden Eagles engineered a perfect late drive to cement the comeback win, scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 14 seconds remaining. 

“(Our players) needed some validation from all that hard work,” Hafley said postgame. 

“They needed to feel moments like this.”