Back-to-back losses knock Lane Kiffin and Kentucky out of College Football Playoff contention
Kentucky and LSU played their way out of the College Football Playoff with consecutive losses.
The No. 13 Wildcats and 24th-ranked Tigers suffered their third and fourth losses of the season, respectively, Saturday night in Southeastern Conference action.
Unranked Florida, one of the most up-and-down teams in the country, dealt Kentucky a second straight loss, 21-14 in Lexington. The Cats lost last week at Tennessee.
Arch Manning threw a touchdown pass with 3 seconds remaining, rallying No. 8 Texas to a 22-21 win against slightly favored LSU in Baton Rouge. The Tigers and coach Lane Kiffin lost to Alabama last week at home.
Those setbacks should be enough to knock Kentucky (7-3, 5-3 SEC) and LSU (6-4, 3-4) out of CFP contention for good. The updated rankings will be revealed Tuesday night. The Wildcats entered the weekend at No. 11 in the CFP, 10 spots ahead of the Tigers who would have made a significant jump by beating Texas.
Other AP-ranked teams that lost this weekend: No. 14 Houston ( 42-32 at Colorado ), No. 15 USC ( 27-13 at No. 6 Indiana ), No. 20 South Carolina ( 34-6 at Arkansas ) and No. 22 Arizona (40-39 against No. 2 Utah).
No. 1 Georgia, third-ranked Notre Dame, No. 9 Tennessee, 10th-ranked Texas Tech, No. 12 BYU, 16th-ranked Iowa and No. 18 Oregon enjoyed comfortable victories in Week 11.
The Bulldogs scored the first 31 points against Missouri and won 48-21 for their third consecutive lopsided victory. The Fighting Irish beat Boston College 41-7. The Volunteers won 22-7 at reeling Texas A&M. The Red Raiders scored the first 21 points and cruised past Oklahoma State, 52-27. The Cougars beat Baylor 28-7. Iowa handled Purdue by the same score. And the Ducks kept alive their slim chances of making the CFP with a 31-7 victory against Michigan.
Miami and Wake Forest are headed for a rematch.
The ACC front-runners are closing in on the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, which would be their second meeting of the season. They played in mid-September, with the Hurricanes winning 33-20 in South Florida.
No. 5 Miami bounced back from a 31-24 loss at Notre Dame and handled Duke at home Saturday, tying a school record with its 11th consecutive ACC victory.
No. 11 Wake Forest, meanwhile, notched one of the more surprising wins of the season, thumping SMU 49-7 in Dallas as a slight underdog. It ended the Mustangs’ 10-game winning streak at home and was the kind of lopsided outcome that should vault the Demon Deacons into the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket.
Arizona State can celebrate its longest day long into the night.
The Sun Devils held a team meeting Saturday at 6 a.m. MST in Tempe, Arizona, and then boarded a flight to Orlando, Florida. They landed after noon EST, arrived at the Bounce House a few hours later and then dominated UCF from the opening kickoff in a 26-13 win.
“There are no excuses," ASU coach Kenny Dillingham said. “Just spot the ball and play your best football game, and our guys responded. I’m so proud of those guys.”
Cardae Mack led the way for Arizona State, finishing with 111 yards rushing and a touchdown.
The Sun Devils faced arguably the most daunting challenge in college football after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights nationwide for several hours Friday.
Many schools — including Utah, Texas and Tennessee — scrambled to figure things out. And conferences and TV partners helped by juggling start times.
ASU, meanwhile, agreed to travel and play on the same day — a rarity for major college programs.
“Our guys just keep bouncing back,” Dillingham said. “They keep fighting. They keep punching, and that's what this program is about, and that's what these guys are about. That's what this culture is about."
Five other college teams — Baylor, Florida Atlantic, Kansas State, Minnesota and Utah — also traveled and played Saturday. They were a combined 1-4, with Utah rallying to win at Arizona and remain one of two unbeatens (along with UCLA) in major college football.
No. 19 Mississippi defended the need to postpone its game at Oklahoma until Sunday.
While numerous teams maneuvered schedules to make games happen, the Rebels were unable to get out of Oxford, Mississippi, on time, and the SEC forced Oklahoma to reschedule the game. The decision drew the ire of Sooners athletic director Roger Denny, who said late Friday it wasn't “fair to our athletes” or fans but “we’ve been given no other choice” after “the wrong outcome was reached.”
Ole Miss responded Saturday, pointing to charter issues, flight crew issues and not wanting to bus eight or more hours.
“We regret that the game had to be moved, but we took every reasonable action in our power to avoid this scenario,” the school said.
Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith became the Big Ten’s career receiving yardage leader — the latest record for the uber-talented junior.
Smith finished with 117 yards and a touchdown on 11 receptions in the 21st-ranked Buckeyes' 28-19 victory against Northwestern. He now has 3,875 yards receiving, passing Purdue’s John Standeford’s previous league record in the second quarter.
He also tied Purdue’s David Bell and Michigan’s Braylon Edwards with his 17th 100-yard game.
Grant Wilson was ready to start a coaching career at Indiana this season. Then the NCAA granted him a seventh year of eligibility.
Now he has a win he’ll never forget.
The 25-year-old Wilson threw for 305 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception, in his first start at Indiana as the sixth-ranked Hoosiers beat No. 15 USC 27-13. Wilson spent three years at Fordham and two at Old Dominion before landing at IU.
He filled in for injured starter Josh Hoover (shoulder) and delivered the play of the game: a 42-yard TD pass to Charlie Becker in the fourth quarter.
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