Texas and Florida were among the big winners in Week 6 while UCLA and Michigan State were among the biggest losers.
This was a great week of college football. This weekend was a bit of an appetizer to the end of the season rivalry week. The Red River Showdown between Texas and Oklahoma, LSU traveled to The Swamp to play Florida and Miami and Florida State played the latest in a long line of games that produced great endings.
When the clock hit triple zeroes in those contests, Texas handed Oklahoma their first loss of the season, Florida did the same to LSU and Miami handed FSU their third, and most painful, loss of the season.
The week was littered with great performances by Heisman hopefuls, including a pair of quarterbacks who combined for 10 touchdowns in their team’s wins. But with the good comes the bad and there were some troubling performances by teams, players and coaches to round out the Week 6 winners and losers.
College Football Week 6 Winners and Losers
Winner: Tua Tagovailoa’s Heisman candidacy
Tua Tagovailoa threw four touchdowns as Alabama scored 65 points in the win against Arkansas and he didn’t even need to do anything after halftime. In fact, Tagovailoa has yet to throw a fourth-quarter pass all season. When you consider he’s already the runaway favorite for the Heisman and he hasn’t played six quarters this year, it’s remarkable how jaw-dropping his numbers would look if Alabama wasn’t destroying teams in the first 30 minutes. Tagovailoa has 25 incompletions and 18 passing touchdowns on the year.
Loser: Alabama defense
Only Nick Saban would be upset after a 65-31 win on the road vs. an SEC opponent. Sure enough, he was after seeing his defense allow 31 points and allow a 100-yard rusher in a game that showed some lapses in focus. Expect Saban to chew out his players in the film room and harp on them to be perfect in practice this week so they are ready to massacre every team put in front of them the rest of the way.
Winner: Texas is back? Texas is back!
Texas really needed this one. The Longhorns scored 48 points against Oklahoma to hand their rivals their first loss of the season and potentially prevent Kyler Murray from winning the Heisman. This was the most points scored by Texas in the history of the Red River Showdown and quarterback Sam Ehlinger is a certified legend now after accounting for five touchdowns in the win.
Loser: The Big 12’s College Football Playoff chances
The Big 12 was propped up by Oklahoma who gave the conference more than a 50-50 chance of making the four-team Playoff. However, after losing to Texas, the conference’s playoff hopes took a sizable hit. According to the ESPN playoff predictor, the Big 12 went from a 55 percent chance to make the playoff to a 38 percent chance.