College football winners and losers from Week 10: Oklahoma scores big while idle, Alabama & Ohio State raise questions
Breaking down college football’s winners and losers from an upset and scare-filled Week 10 with Alabama and Ohio State surviving and Michigan State falling.
How crazy is it that we’re now one week into the final month of the regular season in college football? It truly doesn’t feel like all that long ago that we were hyping up Georgia-Clemson to open the season. But now, the stakes are higher, the lights are brighter and it’s time for the contenders and pretenders to truly separate themselves.
We saw a bit of that on Saturday in Week 10. Georgia affirmed that it’s the best team in college football with another dominant victory. On the opposite end of the spectrum, though, we saw undefeated Michigan State and Wake Forest take their first loss of the year while Alabama, Ohio State, Cincinnati and more all struggled against inferior opponents.
And that’s just the 50,000-foot view of what happened this week. So to break it down even more, we’re handing out some winner and loser labels for Week 10 of the college football season.
College football Week 10 loser: Jimmy Lake
Honestly, Washington was going to be a complete afterthought for this column but Jimmy Lake wholly earned his spot as a loser of the week and, frankly, someone who should lose his job.
It does often feel weird to say that about someone because, simply, these are people and we’re talking about their livelihoods. But this isn’t about his senseless comments about recruiting for the Huskies or even the fact that his team is sub-.500 and underperforming.
In the matchup against Oregon, Lake claimed he was breaking up a skirmish between his players and the Ducks. However, the video shows a different story as he clearly struck one of his own players in the facemask and then pushed him in the back when he turned away.
That behavior from a head coach at any level of football can’t stand. Washington’s AD has already said they’re looking into the matter, which seems like the beginning of the end for Lake. And after the incident with his player, it damn well should be. Get that intolerable behavior out of this great sport.
College football Week 10 winner: Oklahoma Sooners
Lincoln Riley and the Sooners had to be sitting at home on Saturday reclining and enjoying the sights. Undefeated Oklahoma came in at a surprising No. 8 in the first College Football Playoff rankings but there is a clear path to the CFP for them still. And some of that unfolded on Saturday.
With Michigan State losing, Ohio State looking suspect, and Cincinnati not winning anyone over, Oklahoma is now in a much more favorable position. Of course, the next step is furthering that point during a brutal closing stretch against Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State but, if they take care of business, their path to the top four just became much more apparent.
College football Week 10 loser: The Unexpected Undefeateds
Coming into the 2021 season, Wake Forest had an over/under win total of 7.0. Michigan State was even lower at 4.5. Both teams had passed that, handily in the case of the Spartans, coming into Week 10 as they were among the few undefeated teams left in the sport. Unfortunately, that streak without a loss came to a halt for both programs on Saturday.
Michigan State met up with the David of college football, Purdue (and also David Bell), and crumbled like Goliath. Meanwhile, Wake Forest was an even tougher pill to swallow as they had North Carolina at arm’s length but choked away a lead late to give the Tar Heels the win.
The good news for the Spartans is that they are still alive in the CFP mix. The good news for the Deacs is that they are still undefeated in the ACC as this was a non-conference matchup on the schedule. But even still, it’s a bit sad to see two remarkable unbeaten runs come to a close for these teams.