Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where the Bulls and Owls are adding another spicy element to the myriad Florida rivalries. First Quarter: Ten Angry Fan Bases. Second Quarter: CFP Selection Committee Questions. Third Quarter: The Ultimate Escape Plan.
Fourth Quarter: Get-Well Games
Players, coaches, units and entire teams that need to fix something in major games this week:
Garrett Nussmeier (31), LSU Tigers quarterback. A playoff elimination game and storied rivalry matchup with the Alabama Crimson Tide is on tap Saturday, and Nussmeier needs to not be loose with the football. He threw three interceptions in a span of 19 passes during LSU’s second-half meltdown against the Texas A&M Aggies—his fourth game this season with at least two turnovers.
Nussmeier has thrown 16 picks in his LSU career. The Crimson Tide are third in the SEC in interception rate, swiping 4.2% of opponents’ passes, so the fourth-year player will have to curb some of his enthusiasm for risky plays.
Jalen Milroe (32), Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback. The other quarterback in that matchup needs to step up his play as well. Milroe is coming off his three lowest-rated games of the season in terms of efficiency: 142.86 against the South Carolina Gamecocks; 98.61 against the Tennessee Volunteers; and 131 against the Missouri Tigers. Milroe was especially inaccurate in the loss to the Vols, missing open receivers several times during a struggling fourth quarter.
He would be aided significantly by a third receiver stepping up alongside freshman Ryan Williams and Washington Huskies transfer Germie Bernard. The LSU secondary is not great, so there could be some plays there for the making.
Carson Beck (33), Georgia Bulldogs quarterback. He’s another SEC QB who is throwing the ball to the wrong team too often. Beck has thrown interceptions in bunches this season—none in four games, but two against the Mississippi State Bulldogs and three each against the Crimson Tide, Texas Longhorns and Florida Gators. That’s 11 on the season in 290 attempts, after throwing just six last season in 417 attempts.
Georgia has thrust more of the offense onto Beck’s arm due to an inconsistent running game, so some of the interceptions are just part of that bargain. But he’s still thrown the most picks in the SEC (Nussmeier is second). In a showdown with the Ole Miss Rebels and Jaxson Dart, Beck will have to eliminate some of the bad plays while keeping the good ones.
Andy Kotelnicki (34), Penn State Nittany Lions offensive coordinator. Everything was going great until the Ohio State Buckeyes showed up, then the Penn State offense shut down again. The Nittany Lions scored one offensive touchdown against Ohio State last year, zero this year, most painfully leaving the potential tying possession on the 1-yard line after a futile first-and-goal series.
The biggest problem is a lack of playmakers at wide receiver, which also was the biggest problem last year. Tight end Tyler Warren is a stud and so are the running backs. Quarterback Drew Allar has elite arm talent. But if nobody in the wideout corps is open, nobody is separating and nobody is making defensive backs miss, the offense remains limited. In conference play, Penn State has just one passing play longer than 40 yards and four longer than 30, both ranking near the bottom of the Big Ten. Next up: Washington, which has done a good job of limiting explosive plays through the air.
The Pittsburgh Panthers defense (35). That unit went from dream to nightmare in consecutive weeks—from picking off the Syracuse Orange five times and returning three of them for touchdowns, to recording no turnovers and giving up season highs in points, yards and yards per play against the SMU Mustangs. Truth be told, the only takeaways the Pitt defense has produced in the last four games were the five picks gifted to them by Kyle McCord.
Pitt’s quest to stay in the ACC championship and College Football Playoff races now goes through the Virginia Cavaliers, who have hit the skids with three straight losses after a 4–1 start. The Cavaliers cannot run the ball and Pitt is good at stopping the run, so there could be opportunities to get after Virginia quarterback Anthony Colandrea and force some mistakes.
The Iowa State Cyclones’ ball security (36). Heading into last week, Iowa State was one of the few teams in the nation not to have lost a fumble. Then tight end Gabe Burkle coughed one up in the red zone with the Clones driving for a potential two-score lead against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, in what would be a one-point loss. Just like that, Iowa State was removed from the ranks of the unbeatens. For a team not blessed with overwhelming talent, the margin for error when trying to win a league title is slim.
This week, Iowa State gets an opportunity to bounce back against an opponent that keeps finding ways to lose the close ones. Kansas is 0–5 in one-score games.
The entire Utah Utes (37). The season has been a huge bust, going from preseason Big 12 favorites to 1–4 in the league, tied for 13th and on a four-game losing streak. The Utes have averaged just 12.5 points over those last four contests.
But the ultimate season-salvaging opportunity presents itself this week, if Utah can somehow summon its old winning pedigree. The Utes host their bitter rival BYU Cougars with a chance to spoil their undefeated season. If they can reengage leading rusher Micah Bernard that would help—he’s had four 100-yard rushing games this season, but accounted for only 106 on the ground in the last two combined.
Coach Who Earned His Comp Car This Week
Clark Lea (38), Vanderbilt Commodores. Vanderbilt owns the state of Alabama, having beaten both the Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers in the same season for the first time since 1955. Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia, the Albuquerque Tinkler, continued his mastery of Hugh Freeze by beating him for the third straight season involving four different schools. Pavia was the QB at New Mexico State when the Aggies shocked Freeze and the Liberty Flames in 2022; then repeated the feat last year with NMSU after Freeze relocated to Auburn, then did it again Saturday with Vandy. That is ownership, and it further validates Lea’s transfer acquisition of Pavia.
Vandy is 6–3, a nine-game mark that not even the James Franklin miracle years of 2012 and ’13 achieved. Last time the Commodores were 6–3 was 1982.
Coach Who Should Take the Bus to Work
Matt Rhule (39), Nebraska Cornhuskers. Here we go again, the second annual Nebraska stagger toward bowl eligibility. Last year, Rhule’s first at the school, the Huskers were 5–3 before going oh-for-November, finishing 5–7 and missing a bowl for the seventh straight season. This year, Nebraska reached the rarified heights of 5–1, and now the losing has begun again—three straight defeats, bottoming out in a home loss to the UCLA Bruins. The Huskers now have a week off to regroup before beginning a final swing at the USC Trojans, home against the Wisconsin Badgers and at the Iowa Hawkeyes in search of elusive win No. 6.
Point After
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Forde-Yard Dash: Seven College Football Figures With Something to Fix.
