Mandel's Final Thoughts: Alabama got its act together and looks Playoff bound … again

And now, 20 Final Thoughts from Week 11, in which Louisiana’s governor imported a rogue tiger from Florida to show off on the field before the Alabama game. (Yes, this really happened.)

1. Nick Saban won so many trophies in his 17 seasons at Alabama, it’s easy to forget all the times we thought no really, this time the dynasty is crumbling. Like when the Tide got trucked by Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott in a semifinal. Or lost to Ole Miss in consecutive seasons. Or gave up 52 points to Tennessee in 2022. Or, just last season, when they lost at home to Texas.

That team, like so many before it, got its act together in time to reach another College Football Playoff. And now, Kalen DeBoer’s first Alabama squad — the one that infamously lost at Vanderbilt and then at Tennessee — may be about to do the same.

2. In a de facto CFP elimination game, No. 11 Alabama (7-2, 4-2) went to rainy Death Valley and unleashed Jalen Milroe on No. 15 LSU (6-3, 3-2) in a 42-13 beatdown. Milroe ran 12 times for 185 yards and four touchdowns, including a 39-yard score on his team’s first drive and a 72-yard gut punch to go up 35-6. Alabama racked up 311 yards on the ground, and the Tide’s swarming defense did the rest. Jihaad Campbell’s strip-sack of Garrett Nussmeier allowed Milroe to put Alabama up 21-6 before halftime, and Deontae Lawson’s interception in the end zone on LSU’s first drive of the third quarter opened the floodgates.

This was the best Alabama looked since the first half of its 41-34 win against Georgia on Sept. 28. The Tide still have no margin for error, but with games against Mercer, 5-5 Oklahoma and 3-6 Auburn, they might not need it.

GO DEEPER

Jalen Milroe, Alabama send LSU to brink of CFP elimination in rout

3. The story of Brian Kelly’s first three seasons has been tantalizing teases (beating Alabama and reaching the SEC title game in 2022, Jayden Daniels’ Heisman run last year) and frustrating setbacks (season-opening collapses against Florida State and USC, imploding in the fourth quarter at Texas A&M two weeks ago). This debacle fits on its own shelf. Getting blown out at home to your biggest rival is never ideal for any coach, but this one comes in LSU’s first Alabama game since longtime nemesis Saban’s retirement. And now this will be Kelly’s third straight 9-3 regular season (at best).

Kelly left Notre Dame three years ago largely because he felt being at LSU gave him a better chance at winning a national championship. But first, he’s got to make a Playoff. Something his former school has a better shot at this season.

4. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin told reporters last December that his disgust following the Rebels’ 52-17 loss at Georgia last season spurred the program’s portal/NIL shopping spree for big, athletic defensive linemen. As of a few weeks ago, it looked like Ole Miss might have spent all that money for naught, having dropped from preseason No. 6 to the bottom of the top 20.

On Saturday, though, Jared Ivey, Princely Umanmielen, Walter Nolen and standout Suntarine Perkins (not a transfer) keyed an Ole Miss D-line that overwhelmed second-ranked Georgia’s offense in a program-defining 28-10 win. It was Kiffin’s first top-five win in five tries there, and the highest-ranked team the Rebels have ever beaten in Oxford.

Ole Miss (8-2, 4-2) is down to just 4-5 Florida and 2-8 Mississippi State on its schedule. Whether it gets back in the top 12 on Tuesday, a 10-win Ole Miss team is likely to get an at-large berth.

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GO DEEPER

Ole Miss fans carried out the goal posts — and the Rebels could be Playoff-bound

5. Georgia (7-2, 5-2) has now played four current Top 25 teams — three of them on the road — and it shows. The Dawgs look beat up. They committed three second-half turnovers when the game was still close. Quarterback Carson Beck (20-of-31 for 186 yards, two TDs, 0 INTs) was largely ineffective, and banged-up running back Trevor Etienne was limited to six carries. Now they have to turn around and host No. 7 Tennessee, which boasts its own dominant defensive front.

But if Georgia wins, it probably clinches a CFP bid. It would be the Dawgs’ third Top 25 win, on top of its season-opening rout of current No. 23 Clemson and Oct. 19 smackdown at No. 5 Texas. Several CFP contenders, including Texas itself, don’t even have one.

Lose at home, though, and the preseason national title favorite might miss the Playoff entirely. I say “might” because we’ve never done this before, so perhaps wise for now to avoid absolutes.

6. In the first season of the SEC’s 16-team configuration, half the league — Texas A&M (5-1), Tennessee (5-1), Texas (4-1), Georgia (5-2), Ole Miss (4-2), Alabama (4-2), LSU (3-2) and Missouri (3-2) — have either one or two conference losses. There are 28 possible championship game combinations across that group. (A trio of three-loss teams are still mathematically alive, but it breaks my brain to consider that.)

No. 24 Missouri managed to remain in the mix with a miracle finish against Oklahoma (5-5, 1-5). With 30 seconds left in a tie game, Mizzou’s Triston Newson stripped a scrambling Jackson Arnold. Zion Young picked up the fumble and ran it back 17 yards for a touchdown to win it 30-23.

7. Committee chairman Warde Manuel said last week that the “eye test” led it to rank Miami No. 4, a curious comment given the Canes had been playing with fire much of the season. It finally blew up Saturday, when Georgia Tech (6-4, 4-3) ran for 271 yards while throwing for just 99 in a 28-23 upset of the previously unbeaten Canes (9-1, 5-1). Cam Ward (25-of-39, 38 yards, three TDs, 0 INTs) was once again asked to do it all, but Romello Height’s strip-sack of Ward with 1:48 left sealed the outcome.

One loss doesn’t affect Miami’s CFP hopes, though it’s no longer guaranteed a spot in the ACC title game due to some hazy tiebreakers. SMU (8-1, 5-0) is now alone in first, and Clemson (7-2, 6-1) is a half-game up on Miami. It was, however, a costly blow for Ward’s Heisman hopes. He’s lacking a signature win, and he’s not going to get one against Wake Forest or Syracuse.

8. No. 8 Indiana’s (10-0, 7-0) dream season reached another milestone Saturday, in its closest call to date. Michigan, down 17-3 at halftime, got as close as 17-15 in the fourth quarter before the Hoosiers held on 20-15. This marks Indiana’s first-ever 10-win season, no small feat for a school that’s been playing the sport for 126 years. The two programs’ year-over-year reversals have been so dramatic — Michigan from 15-0 to 5-5, IU from 3-9 to 10-0 — that it’s now seen as a disappointment that the Hoosiers failed to cover the two-touchdown spread.

Indiana now has an off week before the defining game of its season: a Nov. 23 trip to No. 2 Ohio State (8-1, 5-1).

9. The first Big 12 edition of the BYU-Utah Holy War produced one of the rivalry’s wildest endings. On a last-ditch BYU fourth down with 1:35 left, it appeared Utah, up 21-19, sacked Cougars quarterback Jake Retzlaff at his own 1-yard-line to put the game away. But a defensive holding penalty gave BYU new life. Two plays later, Retzlaff threw a 30-yard strike to Chase Roberts to flip the field, eventually setting up a 44-yard Will Ferrin field goal to give the Cougars (9-0, 6-0) their first win at Rice-Eccles Stadium since 2006. It was the second time in No. 9 BYU’s last three games that it came back and won in the last 10 seconds.

Kalani Sitake’s team is enjoying a charmed season, and its luck may run out at some point. But the hated Utes (4-5, 1-5) are having whatever might be deemed the opposite of a charmed season.

10. No. 20 Colorado (7-2, 5-1) took an important step toward the Big 12 title game, winning 41-27 at Texas Tech (6-4, 4-3). While Shedeur Sanders (30-of-43 for 293 yards, three TDs, 0 INTs) and Travis Hunter (nine catches, 99 yards, one TD) were their usual productive selves, defensive tackle Amari McNeill stole the show. In the fourth quarter alone, he had 1.5 sacks (Colorado had six on the night) and stuffed Tech star Tahj Brooks on a fourth-and-goal at the 1.

11. The Buffs now control their path to the conference title game thanks to Kansas (3-6, 2-4) handing No. 17 Iowa State (7-2, 4-2) its second conference loss with an out-of-nowhere 45-36 win. The Jayhawks at one point led 31-13. Lance Leipold’s preseason Top 25 team lost five straight at one point but has since won two of three, with a last-second road loss to Kansas State in between. KU will have a chance to mess up someone else’s season when it hosts Colorado in two weeks.

12. Congrats to No. 1 Oregon (10-0, 7-0), which likely became the first-ever team to clinch a berth in the 12-team Playoff. (Again, I’m avoiding absolutes.) The Ducks got to the all-important 10-win mark with a 39-18 rout of Maryland (4-5, 1-5), and unlike 10-0 Indiana, they already have their signature win against Ohio State. Defensive end Jordan Burch was everywhere, with two pass breakups, a strip-sack that teammate Brandon Johnson returned for a touchdown and, most notably, a 36-yard run on a fake punt.

Also: Quarterback Dillon Gabriel made history, becoming the all-time FBS career leader in total touchdowns on a 3-yard pass to offensive lineman Gernorris Wilson. The sixth-year senior now has 180 across three schools, surpassing Case Keenum’s 178.

13. I’m mostly numb at this point to Florida State’s ineptitude — but please stop and consider just how extraordinarily the Noles have deteriorated in a year. No. 10 Notre Dame (8-1) blasted them 52-3 in a prime-time NBC event, dropping Mike Norvell’s team — which, reminder, finished 13-1 last season — to 1-9. I can’t think of anything like it in my career, save for when Southern Miss plummeted from 12-2 in 2011 to 0-12 in 2012 after coach Larry Fedora left for North Carolina. His replacement, Ellis Johnson, did not make it to Year 2.

But in this case, the coach who got FSU to 13 wins is the same one overseeing this otherworldly debacle. The eventual “30 for 30” on this team should be fascinating.

14. In 1984, future NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter set Ohio State freshman receiving records with 41 catches for 648 yards and eight TDs. None of the 11 first-round receivers to come through Columbus since then did better. His records stood for 40 years until a phenom named Jeremiah Smith arrived from South Florida.

With six catches for 87 yards and a score in No. 2 Ohio State’s 45-0 shutout of Purdue (1-8, 0-6), Smith now holds all of those records, with 45 catches for 765 yards and nine TDs. And he’s got at least another four games to go.

15. Fresh off an idle week, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers regained his early-season form, throwing for 333 yards and five touchdowns in the fifth-ranked Horns (8-1, 4-1) 49-17 rout of undermanned Florida (4-5, 2-4). Texas had allowed 11 sacks in its previous two games against Georgia and Vanderbilt but only gave up one this week on its first series.

Florida, down to a third-string walk-on quarterback, has more pain ahead with games against Ole Miss and LSU. AD Scott Stricklin’s announcement this week that third-year coach Billy Napier will retain his job means Gators fans will have to grin and bear it.

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GO DEEPER

Florida sticking with Billy Napier as football coach

16. Virginia coach Tony Elliott got the biggest victory of his three-year tenure when the Cavaliers (5-4, 3-3) went to No. 23 Pittsburgh (7-2, 3-2) and won 24-19. Virginia, which won just six games combined in Elliott’s first two seasons, came in on a three-game losing streak and looking less and less likely to end its five-year bowl drought. It still faces a daunting final stretch, visiting Notre Dame, hosting No. 13 SMU (8-1, 5-0) and closing at rival Virginia Tech (5-5, 3-3), but beating a ranked foe may help build confidence.

17. The last time Army was 9-0, Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis — Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside — led the Cadets to the 1945 AP national championship. Army got back there Saturday with a 14-3 win over North Texas (5-4, 2-3), its second straight week holding an opponent without a touchdown. Mean Green quarterback Chandler Morris came in as the national leader in passing yards at 359.1 per game but was 24-of-37 for 214 yards with two picks against the Black Knights.

After a week off, Army will play its most significant non-Navy game in decades when it faces No. 10 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium. Worth noting, that 1945 team faced the Irish at the old Yankee Stadium and won 48-0.

18. UCLA to its credit has not only salvaged its season after a 1-5 start but can realistically eye a bowl berth in head coach DeShaun Foster’s debut season. The Bruins (4-5, 3-4) notched their third straight conference win Friday, 20-17 over visiting Iowa (6-4, 4-3). The Big Ten’s 18th-ranked rushing offense rose up to gain 211 yards (125 from junior T.J. Harden). Meanwhile, UCLA’s defense held Iowa star Kaleb Johnson to a season-low 49 yards.

UCLA plays another Friday night game next week at Washington, before hosting USC and Fresno State. It’d be something if the Bruins got bowl-eligible before the Trojans.

19. Your weekly Ashton Jeanty update: The Boise State star notched his fourth 200-yard game of the season, rushing 34 times for 209 yards and three TDs in the 12th-ranked Broncos’ (8-1, 5-0) 28-21 win over Nevada (3-8, 0-5). Jeanty is now at 1,734 yards for the season and averages 179.8 yards in conference play. At that pace, he’ll finish the regular season (including the conference championship game) with 2,453 yards. That would be No. 2 all-time, behind only the great Barry Sanders (in 11 games) in 1988.

20. In the craziest game of the day, Jacksonville State quarterback Tyler Huff threw a 49-yard Hail Mary to Cam Vaughn with no time left that should have beaten Louisiana Tech 38-37 — except that Garrison Rippa missed the extra point. Fortunately for Rippa, the Gamecocks (6-3, 5-0) pulled it out in overtime, 44-37, to remain in first place.

Meanwhile, in an epic battle at the other end of the standings, UTEP (2-8, 2-5) went to double overtime to beat FBS newcomer Kennesaw State (1-8, 1-4), 43-35. Which itself bailed out kicker Buzz Flabiano for missing a 40-yarder at the end of overtime.

Forget the CFP race. Clearly, we need to start watching more Conference USA football.

(Photo of Jalen Milroe: Aric Becker / ISI Photos / Getty Images)



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