Winners and losers from College Football Week 10: Jaxson Dart and Ohio State OL dominate, Clemson and James Franklin flop again

It’s been a long season for P.J. Fleck’s Minnesota Golden Gophers. After losing by just two points without their best player in the college football season opener, the Gophers’ two other losses came to Iowa and a then-ranked Michigan team. However, after taking down (24) Illinois on Saturday, Coach Fleck now has two wins over ranked opponents after previously beating USC too. Could the 6-3 Gophers be ranked next week? Their resume is respectable enough to earn consideration.

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Saturday’s Ohio-State-Penn State matchup was not a positive one for James Franklin’s resume. The 20-13 loss to the Buckeyes had fans chanting, “Fire Franklin” following the game. Keep in mind, the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 3 in the nation, and entered this week’s college football schedule with an undefeated record. But now he’s 1-9 against top five teams, and 1-7 against top ten teams when playing at home.

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Jaxson Dart and Jordan Watkins had games they’ll never forget on Saturday against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Dart completed 25-of-31 passes for 515 yards and six touchdowns while helping Ole Miss score 63 points. Five of those six touchdowns were thrown to senior receiver Jordan Watkins who also hauled in eight receptions for 254 yards.

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Looking to get on the field right away, Maalik Murphy transferred from Texas to Duke where he instantly became the Blue Devils’ replacement for Riley Leonard. Murphy came into the game doing a good job of avoiding turnovers, with a 17:5 TD-INT ratio. But his momentum quickly dissipated against a Hurricanes defense that averages 1.3 interceptions per game. Duke was never expected to beat the Hurricanes, but they might have had a chance if Murphy didn’t have three interceptions and a lost fumble.

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Already one of this year’s top Heisman candidates, Cam Ward strengthened his candidacy on Saturday with a five-touchdown performance. He also carved up Duke’s passing defense for 400 yards, but Ward also threw his sixth interception and lost his first fumble of the season. But he more than made up for it in the convincing 22-point win over Duke.

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Dillon Gabriel didn’t need to stick around with the Oklahoma Sooners to build upon last season’s strong performance. Now playing in the Big Ten instead of the Big 12, Gabriel brought the nation’s top-ranked team into Ann Arbor for a matchup against several future NFL stars. Yet, Michigan was no match for the Ducks as Gabriel racked up a cool 294 passing yards to go with two scores (one passing, one rushing). Most importantly, the Ducks aced another test with flying colors.

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It’s difficult to win on the road, though less so when your defense holds the opposition to a 25 percent third-down conversion rate with 1 turnover and only 232 total yards. None of that mattered on Saturday night for the Kansas State Wildcats because of Avery Johnson. He completed just 59 percent of his passes, the third time he’s finished with a sub-60 percent completion rate in 2024. He also threw 2 interceptions, his fifth game with at least one interception. With losses to BYU (38-9) and Houston, whatever remote shot K-State had at making the College Football Playoff is long over.

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College Football Week 10 proved to be a bad Saturday for undefeated teams. Taking on the Pitt Panthers, SMU Mustangs running back Brashard Smith led the way to early domination. He eclipsed the 100-yard mark with more than 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter, part of a dominant first half by SMU’s offense.

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Maybe it’s a good thing the release of the first College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday will be overshadowed by the election. On Saturday, three undefeated teams lost and even more ranked opponents suffered defeats. Even the Georgia Bulldogs’ win raised some questions about a team that entered Week 10 ranked No. 2 in the nation. While the first CFP rankings will be forgotten pretty quickly, the playoff committee’s job was made even more difficult because of Saturday’s results.

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Road games are always tough, especially in front of a hostile crowd. In college football Week 10, Texas Tech Red Raiders running back Tahj Brooks went into Jack Trice Stadium and devastated a previously unbeaten Iowa State program. Brooks, who entered Saturday on the verge of his second consecutive 1,000-yard season, easily cleared it with 122 rushing yards. He also served as the closer, running in a 5-yard touchdown with 20 seconds left for the game-winning score.

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If you wanted to be really kind to Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans, you could blame the previous four losses on travel (at Michigan, at Minnesota, at Maryland) and great competition (vs Penn State). Neither applies to Saturday’s loss to the Washington Huskies. Riley only lost 2 games every year at Oklahoma, recording 10 total losses in five years. USC has now lost 10 games in the last year, with a 6-10 record since needing triple OT to beat Arizona on Oct. 7, 2023. It’s time for USC to begin a coaching search, because these results are unacceptable.

The son of former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna, UAB Blazers signal-caller Jalen Kitna put on an aor sjpw om Weel 10. Entering Saturday night with 4 touchdowns in three games, Kitna accounted for 6 touchdown passes against Tulsa and recorded a season-high 404 passing yards. Not a bad night at the office for the junior quarterback.

If Dabo Swinney is going to put up coaching performances like this, his distaste for the transfer portal needs to change. The Clemson Tigers no longer have the talent nor depth to survive bad coaching performances against quality competition, Saturday’s home loss against Louisville proved that. Unfortunately for Clemson’s fan base, Swinney seems set in his ways. Even with a 12-team playoff, Swinney is now on the verge of not making the College Football Playoff for the fourth consecutive year. Oh well, at least he gets to maintain ‘his way’ of running a program.

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One of the biggest winners from Week 10 is easily the Ohio State Buckeyes offensive line. A weakness coming into November, injuries only made things worse on Saturday. Yet, against a strong Penn State front seven, this Buckeyes offensive line kept the pocket clean enough for Will Howard to throw two first-half touchdowns and it really opened things up for running backs Quinshon Judkins (95 yards, 6.8 UPC) and TreVeyon Henderson (54 yards, 5.4 ypc). Ohio State doesn’t win without this performance.

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