Week 9 Stock Report: Georgia is the nation's scariest team, Maryland is in a free-fall, Dave Aranda job security check

Outside of Oklahoma’s upset loss at Kansas, Week 9 went chalk. But as we exit October and flip the calendar, that doesn’t mean we didn’t learn a lot about a slew of programs before we hit the stretch run of the 2023 season. 

Each Monday, I take note of whose stock — be it team, head coach, player, assistant, unit, Heisman candidacy, preseason narrative, etc. — is trending upward, whose is down and whose is holding.

Here’s the Week 9 Stock Report:

📈 Stock Up: Georgia remains the nation’s scariest team

I don’t know if the Bulldogs are the best team in 2023. They certainly haven’t been the most impressive team this season. But after putting Florida in a chokehold for 3.5 quarters in Jacksonville on Saturday, I do believe UGA is still the scariest team in college football. 

Halloween is on Tuesday and Mike Myers is back. Georgia went straight boa constrictor on UF, allowing an opening script TD drive and then cutting off the Gators’ oxygen until garbage time. They scored 36 unanswered points and bullied UF up front on both sides of the ball. After sniffing out Florida’s trick play on 4th-and-short, they made the Gators go backward on four straight drives — 16 plays for MINUS 24 YARDS!

Florida snapped it right through the quarterback's legs on a trick play…and it did not work. pic.twitter.com/fwS2byuRGv

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) October 28, 2023

That’s the type of dominant defensive showing we’ve become accustomed to with the Bulldogs. We also saw that this Carson Beck-led offense — even without star tight end Brock Bowers — is a top-flight unit nationally (No. 6 in yards per play, No. 7 in scoring). Ladd McConkey was finally healthy and cooked the Gators’ secondary (six receptions for 135 yards and a touchdown), while Dominic Lovett, Rara Thomas, Dillion Bell and others all chipped in valuable plays. As has been the case the last few seasons, Georgia’s OL (even still without its best player in Amarius Mims) came out of the bye-week punching teams. 

There’s no longer a question about Georgia’s upside. It’s simply a consistency issue. With three ranked teams in the next three weeks (vs. Missouri, Ole Miss, at Tennessee) that should be answered as well. 

📉 Stock Down: Maryland 

Three weeks ago, the Terps were 5-0 and leading No. 3 Ohio State 17-10 in the third quarter. Their season has pretty much gone off the rails since then. 

The Buckeyes scored 27 unanswered, and then Maryland lost at home to a Big Ten winless Illinois. The Terrapins then had their bye week, where co-offensive coordinator Kevin Sumlin was arrested for suspicion of a DUI. 

On Saturday, they went to Northwestern as a two-touchdown favorite and lost. Taulia Tagovaiola had a pair of costly turnovers (fumble and a pick), and the Terps allowed Brendan Sullivan to throw for a career-high 265 yards and two scores, averaging 11.5 yards per attempt — an-out-of-body performance for a QB who hadn’t thrown for more than 176 yards or more than 7.7 per throw in a game all year.

Suddenly, Mike Locksley’s team could legitimately miss a bowl game. They have a Top 5 hardest remaining schedule, per PFF, with home games against Penn State and Michigan, and road tilts at Nebraska and Rutgers. With the way they’re playing right now, there’s not a single gimme left on the schedule. 

Stock Hold: Ohio State’s chances to beat Michigan 

With the caveat that there’s still a lot to sort out with whatever is happening in Ann Arbor right now, as we enter November the Wolverines still look like the class of the Big Ten. 

But Ohio State has a month to gear up for that monumental matchup and change that narrative. For a program whose toughness has been questioned in recent years, the Buckeyes actually resemble a poor man’s version of one of Nick Saban’s early title teams at Alabama. 

They have a nasty defense, a game-changing receiver (potentially two if Emeka Egbuka can get healthy) and a totally mid quarterback (and Kyle McCord is now even more limited being banged up). Their offensive line concerns remain real, but TreVeyon Henderson gives Ohio State another gear if he can manage to stay on the field.

Instead of having to smash the Marvin Harrison button for every single big play, Henderson can provide some much-needed explosiveness for an offense that’s struggling to score more than 20 points. He rolled up 162 yards on a solid Wisconsin defense and put the game on ice with a 33-yard touchdown run. 

They need more of that if they’re going to upset Michigan. 

📈 Stock Up: Teams we wrote off in early September 

What do Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Virginia Tech, Northwestern and Iowa State all have in common? They all started the 2-2 — or mostly worse — and were completely cast aside as we focused on other teams. 

Well, spoiler alert: Their seasons weren’t over. They didn’t pack it in/ They just kept chopping wood, and lo and behold, all five teams have had a resurgence and are at or over .500 now with a chance to make a bowl game or better. 

The Pokes are a legitimate fringe Top 25 team, with the top tailback in the country in Ollie Gordon II (nation-high 1,087 yards) and real wins over Kansas, Kansas State and West Virginia. The Cyclones still can’t win one-score games, so instead they’re simply thumping foes. 

They’ve won four of five, and are tied atop the Big 12 standings. They’re currently on a three-game winning streak (all Big 12 opponents) by an average margin of 15 points, and they have a win over Oklahoma State as a tiebreaker.

Meanwhile, Matt Rhule has ripped off five wins in Nebraska’s last six games and has the Cornhuskers in real contention for the Big Ten West. Their offense is still an eye-sore, but after the change at QB, they’re not hemorrhaging turnovers and they have a Top 10 defense.

Va. Tech and Northwestern are both 4-4, and have boosted the narratives around two coaching staffs. Brent Pry looked like he could be facing the Chad Morris Year 2 plank after the Hokies started an ugly 1-3, but they’ve rebounded to win three of four ACC games after making a similar QB change.

Finally, the Wildcats upset Maryland to match their win total from the previous two seasons combined. David Braun has navigated the program through a messy transition and there’s a chance he could ditch the interim tag and get promoted to full-time head coach. 

📉 Stock Down: Dave Aranda job security 

The grumblings out of Waco are getting louder each week, as Baylor got blown out on homecoming to Iowa State on Saturday. The Bears fell to 3-5 and still have games remaining against Kansas State, TCU and West Virginia. 

Bowl eligibility looks unlikely, and that could prove to be the dagger for Dave Aranda’s job security. Aranda is one of the most respected coaches in the country, and if he were to lose his job, he’d he hired immediately as the most sought-after DC on the market (hello, USC?!?!). But aside from an outlier Year 2 when the Bears went 12-2 and won the Big 12, the results simply haven’t been there. 

Baylor regressed badly last season, slipping to 6-7 and now they’re positioned to finish under .500 again. They’re 1-4 at home (the lone win against an FCS team), their offense stinks (11th in the Big 12 in yards per play) and they have the worst defense in the Big 12. 

If Aranda is fired, Baylor would be a very attractive opening in the new-look Big 12. You’re in a fertile recruiting footprint, at a school that can pay real money, in a conference that won’t have a single superpower. 

So keep an eye on Waco for the rest of the season.