• Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff WriterDec 1, 2024, 06:55 PM ET
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      Bill Connelly is a staff writer for ESPN.com.
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Rivalry Week, college football’s most reliable source of chaos and upheaval, wasted no time this season.

By the time the Black Friday games kicked off, Tulane had already let a potential College Football Playoff bid slip through its hands, and Toledo had lost to Akron for the first time in 16 years. And things only grew more anxious from there.

We saw maybe the game of the year (Georgia-Georgia Tech) on Friday night, and we saw the No. 2 (Ohio State) and No. 6 (Miami) teams in the CFP rankings entering the weekend fall Saturday. No. 5 Notre Dame needed a pair of length-of-the-field pick-sixes to survive USC. No. 8 Tennessee had to rally after falling behind 14-0 within the first five minutes of its game with Vanderbilt. We got a strangely easy last-second touchdown in Winston-Salem. We got a game-winning hook-and-ladder in the Division II playoffs!

The most impactful Championship Week ever is just a few days away, but before we shift gears to that, we have to pause and reflect on what we just saw. Here are the 20 best games from the best weekend of the 2024 season to date.

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20 favorite games
Week 14 surprises
Heisman of week

1. No. 7 Georgia 44, Georgia Tech 42 (8OT)

You had to feel for announcer Joe Tessitore. The stakes in this game were pretty clear: If Georgia won, the Bulldogs would almost certainly clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff, because they would probably rise too high in the CFP rankings to fall out even with a loss in the SEC championship game. If they fell to the hated Yellow Jackets, however, they would likely be in a win-or-go-home scenario in Atlanta on Saturday. Every announcer wants to nail the call on the final play, but when the Dawgs and Jackets went a combined 3-for-14 on overtime 2-point conversions, each blowing chances to clinch the game, it was one false start after another for Joe Tess. “Georgia, for a spot in the playoff! No.” “Tech, with a chance to wreck Georgia’s playoff hopes! No.” “No.” “No.” “No.” “No.”

That the offenses misfired at the end of the game was a huge role reversal from what happened early on. Georgia Tech gained 563 yards, with Haynes King throwing for 303 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 110 and three more scores. The Yellow Jackets led 17-0 at halftime and should have led by more — they finished each of their first three drives of the game inside the Georgia 30 but got just three points out of it.

Still, they made it 27-13 on a King TD run with 5:37 remaining as Tech’s in-game win probability rose as high as 98.5%. But Georgia scored quickly with a 17-yard Carson Beck-to-Dominic Lovett pass, then Dan Jackson laid one of the hardest hits of the season on King, forcing a fumble and setting up another quick Lovett score to tie it with 1:01 remaining. Tech couldn’t quite maneuver into field goal position in the final minute, and the game went into OT, where both offenses scored quick touchdowns on each of their first two OT possessions … and then ground to a halt in a festival of failed 2-pointers (and Kirby Smart timeouts).

Eventually a Nate Frazier plunge gave the Dawgs the win and likely clinched a spot in the field of 12. It was their sixth straight win in the series and their 19th in the past 22, but it was also a reminder that “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate” can produce some of the strangest rivalry games imaginable. Here’s to a few more of these in the coming years.

2. Syracuse 42, No. 6 Miami 38

It came at the team’s detriment, but Miami’s commitment to entertainment this season is commendable. Through the first month of the season, quarterback Cam Ward and the Hurricanes left a trail of destruction, winning their first four games by an average of 52-10. But that wasn’t very sporting, so to give their opponents a chance, they stopped playing defense. They won consecutive games by scores of 38-34, 39-38 and 52-45, then took down Duke 53-31 early in November. The constant fireworks shows eventually backfired against Georgia Tech, when the Canes allowed touchdown drives of eight, nine and 17 plays (combined time of possession on these drives: 19:46) and fell 28-23. But they were safely in the CFP as long as that didn’t happen again.

It happened again. The Canes took a 21-0 lead on Syracuse early in the second quarter, but the Orange scored four touchdowns in their next five drives. They tied the game at 21-21 and 28-28, then took leads of 35-28 and 42-35.

With less than four minutes left and Miami down 7, facing a fourth-and-goal from the Syracuse 10, head coach Mario Cristobal’s innate conservatism backfired (not for the first time). He elected to kick a field goal and cut Syracuse’s lead to 4 points with 3:42 left, entrusting his defense to make a stop and get the ball back to Ward and the offense. You’ll never believe this, but that failed miserably. Syracuse moved the chains four times without even facing a third down and ran out the clock.

In two losses this season, Ward completed a combined 50 of 75 passes for 697 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. In losses. The Miami defense blew a spot in the ACC championship game — Clemson happily took its place and will play SMU in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday evening — and might have blown both a CFP bid for the Hurricanes and quite a few Heisman votes for Ward. (If Miami misses the playoff and Ward opts out of a bowl game, then it also blew any further chance we had of watching the incredible Ward in a Miami uniform at all.) And this is the unit Cristobal put his faith in with the season potentially on the line.

Hope is not lost just yet, but now Miami has to put its faith in a College Football Playoff committee that smiled on the Canes through all of November.

A few years ago, I learned that by combining poll averages (AP and coaches’ polls) with a computer average derived from both power ratings (SP+ and the FPI) and résumé ratings (résumé SP+ and strength of record), we can approximate the CFP committee’s thinking pretty well. This almost BCS-style rating has historically lined up pretty well with what the committee produces, enough so that when the committee strays into something different, it stands out. This season, the committee has been pretty inconsistent in its alignment with the formula, almost perfectly linking up one week, then straying slightly on a bunch of teams the next. But one thing has been consistent: The committee has repeatedly ranked Miami higher than the formula predicted.

Miami was projected to fall to 12th following the loss to Georgia Tech but instead only fell to ninth. The Hurricanes were eighth instead of a predicted 10th the next week and sixth instead of a predicted eighth last week. If they’re again higher than predicted Tuesday night, they could very well still snag a CFP spot. If they’re not, however, sayonara.

Here are this week’s BCS-style formula rankings. Projected conference champions are in bold.

1. Oregon (12-0)
2. Texas (11-1)
3. Penn State (11-1)
4. Notre Dame (11-1)
5. Georgia (10-2)
6. Tennessee (10-2)
7. Ohio State (10-2) — projected to fall five spots from last week’s CFP rankings
8. SMU (11-1)
9. Indiana (11-1)
10. Boise State (11-1)
11. Alabama (9-3)
12. South Carolina (9-3)
13. Miami (10-2) — projected to fall seven spots
14. Ole Miss (8-3)
15. Arizona State (10-2)
16. Iowa State (10-2)
17. Clemson (9-3) — projected to fall five spots
18. BYU (10-2)
19. Missouri (9-3)
20. UNLV (10-2)
21. Colorado (9-3)
22. Army (10-1)
23. Illinois (9-3)
24. Texas A&M (8-4) — projected to fall four spots
25. Memphis (10-2)

Projected bracket using these rankings:

9 Ohio State at 8 Tennessee (winner plays 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl)

12 Iowa State at 5 Penn State (winner plays 4 Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl)

11 Alabama at 6 Notre Dame (winner plays 3 SMU in the Peach Bowl)

10 Indiana at 7 Georgia (winner plays 2 Texas in the Sugar Bowl)

If the formula is right, Miami is the first one out of the bracket with no further opportunities to make up ground. But the committee could choose to keep the Canes ahead of Alabama and the other three-loss SEC teams. We’ll find out Tuesday night.

3. No. 15 South Carolina 17, No. 12 Clemson 14

With losses to both Alabama (by a little) and Ole Miss (by a lot), it’s going to be difficult for South Carolina to stand out in the trio of three-loss SEC teams still hoping to sneak into the playoff. The Gamecocks have far better losses than either the Crimson Tide or Rebels, but head-to-head results could doom them. Regardless, they kept a sliver of hope alive with a stirring road comeback and their second straight win at Clemson.

The Gamecocks have patented the art of all-or-nothing offense, but for a while Saturday they outdid themselves, having parlayed seven gains of 20-plus yards into just 7 points. But despite their fierce pass rush producing only one sack of Cade Klubnik, they held the Clemson offense in check and trailed only 14-7 heading into the fourth quarter. It was 14-10 after a 42-yard Alex Herrera field goal, and after a Clemson three-and-out, LaNorris Sellers drove the Gamecocks 75 yards in nine plays. The last 20 came on a glorious, meandering run that Sellers has almost copyrighted at this point.

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LaNorris Sellers scores incredible go-ahead TD for South Carolina

LaNorris Sellers uses his legs to convert on 3rd-and-16 and finds the end zone to put South Carolina up 17-14 late in the fourth quarter.

Clemson quickly responded with passes of 24, 12 and 6 yards to work into field goal range. But Klubnik threw a dreadfully inaccurate pass, and Demetrius Knight Jr. picked it off. Ballgame.

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South Carolina comes up with game-sealing INT vs. Clemson

South Carolina corrals the tipped pass and secures possession to seal its win over Clemson.

4. Michigan 13, No. 2 Ohio State 10

In naming new Ohio State quarterback Will Howard the most important player of the 2024 season, I wrote the following: “Last year’s starter, Kyle McCord, completed 66% of his passes, averaged nearly 14 yards per completion, threw four touchdowns for every interception and finished the season seventh in Total QBR. But he short-armed a couple of throws in a loss to Michigan and was therefore labeled an epic failure before transferring to Syracuse. … There’s no guarantee that [Howard] ends up better than McCord, and if he doesn’t, Ohio State might not reach the promised land.”

Howard suffered a clock-related brain fart at the end of Ohio State’s loss to Oregon this season, but he was good in the Buckeyes’ other huge game (Penn State). Granted, McCord would have almost certainly led Ohio State to a 10-1 start this season had he remained in Columbus, but the rivalry game against Michigan was Howard’s chance to truly stand out.

Instead, he couldn’t get enough on a long sideline pass early in the second quarter, and Aamir Hall picked it off, setting up Michigan’s only touchdown of the game. After averaging 7.6 yards per throw in the first quarter, Howard averaged only 4.9 from there. Michigan dominated Ohio State’s offensive front, allowing Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson just 67 yards in 22 carries, and as anxiety settled in at the Horseshoe — you could almost hear it on television — kicker Jayden Fielding missed field goals of 38 and 34 yards. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly found that he had no good plays to call when his run game couldn’t run and his passer couldn’t pass, and the Buckeyes’ last four drives produced another interception, a missed field goal, a three-and-out and a four-and-out.

This game might end up the most impactful of the season (especially if the Buckeyes lose in the CFP and Ryan Day gets fired), but it was not a fun watch, which is why it only ranks fourth. Michigan’s Davis Warren threw two foolish interceptions of his own, including one from the Ohio State 3 at the end of a 15-play, nine-minute drive. But with the game on the line, Michigan ran nine straight times for 49 yards, setting up a 21-yard Dominic Zvada field goal with 45 seconds left. Ohio State quickly sputtered, and Michigan kneeled out the most shocking win in this series in quite a while, one of many games that produced a postgame brawl.

Will Howard’s Total QBR rating this season: 83.1
Kyle McCord’s Total QBR rating last year: 83.8

By the way, I have a question for those who feared that Rivalry Week might be sullied by contenders sitting players or otherwise not giving their all in what are supposed to be the biggest games of the year: What do you think now? I would hope that your fears have been assuaged.

This game didn’t have a ton of impact on the CFP itself — basically, it relegated the Buckeyes from a bye (if they won the Big Ten championship this coming week) or a playoff home game (if they didn’t) to a likely playoff road game instead. That’s obviously costly, and their odds of winning the CFP won’t be as high because of it. But nobody sat out, everyone tried their hardest, and even with the Buckeyes positioned for a CFP slot, you can find plenty of columnists either directly or indirectly calling on Ohio State to fire Day immediately. These games still mean the world to players, coaches and especially fans. The CFP has added a completely new layer of inclusion and excitement for the sport, but rivalry games remain rivalry games. It’s the best of all worlds, and it’s one of the reasons why I wanted a bigger playoff ages ago.

5. No. 11 Slippery Rock 25, No. 3 Kutztown 24 (Division II)

Kutztown was unbeaten with what was, per SP+, the best defense in Division II. But on three occasions, the Bears needed a stop that never came. First, Slippery Rock’s Brayden Long found Kam Kruzelyak for an 8-yard touchdown with 1:53 left to force overtime. Then Long and Logan Ramper connected for a 28-yard score on third-and-13 in OT to bring the Rock within one. Then, on the game-winning 2-point attempt, it was HOOK-AND-LADDER TIME.

6. Duke 23, Wake Forest 17

How in the world does Jordan Moore get this wide open on the last play of the game???

This was Duke’s seventh one-score finish of the season; the Cardiac Blue Devils won six of them and now can secure the second 10-win season in program history with a bowl victory.

7. Wyoming 15, Washington State 14

It’s only slightly less inexplicable that John Michael Gyllenborg got so open on this fourth-and-ballgame pass.

8. NC State 35, North Carolina 30

One of our most reliably wild rivalries produced its third classic in four years (and a fourth straight Wolfpack win). NC State salvaged bowl eligibility when, after Omarion Hampton gave UNC the lead with a 47-yard catch-and-run with 1:15 remaining, Noah Rogers made an incredible 44-yard catch between two Tar Heels defenders and Hollywood Smothers scored the game winner from 2 yards out with 25 seconds left.

9. Marshall 35, James Madison 33 (2OT)

When 8-4 is your worst-ever FBS season, you know things are going pretty well overall. But Bob Chesney’s JMU Dukes lost their second game in a row Saturday night despite seemingly having the dagger in hand throughout. Marshall scored twice in eight seconds — first on a Toby Payne touchdown catch, then on a Jadarius Green-McKnight pick-six — to turn a 17-3 deficit into a 17-17 tie, and Braylon Braxton‘s 2-point pass to Tychaun Chapman in the second OT gave the Thundering Herd both the win and the Sun Belt East title.

10. No. 11 Villanova 22, Eastern Kentucky 17 (FCS)

Villanova was a comfortable favorite in this one, but EKU scored twice in the first 10 minutes and then held on for dear life. Nova went on a 22-3 run, but the Colonels still had a chance to win at the end. On the game’s final play, Matt Morrissey found Jackson House in the back of the end zone, but House couldn’t keep his feet in bounds, and the Wildcats survived and advanced.

11. Akron 21, Toledo 14 (OT)

Akron hadn’t beaten Toledo since 2013 and basically needed two tries to get it right. Leading 14-0 with 11 minutes left, the Zips gave up a pair of Tucker Gleason TD passes to tie the game, but Toledo’s Dylan Cunanan missed his third field goal of the day, a 29-yarder, at the buzzer. Ben Finley and Charles Kellom hooked up for a 25-yard score on the first play of OT, and CJ Nunnally IV sacked Gleason on fourth down to finish off the upset.

Akron finishes the regular season a happy 4-8 after back-to-back wins, while Toledo, which was at one point a clear MAC favorite, finishes a frustrating 7-5 after back-to-back losses. The Rockets will have to watch Miami (Ohio) and Ohio play for the MAC title from home.

12. No. 21 Missouri 28, Arkansas 21

Mizzou’s third straight win over Arkansas — and ninth in 11 meetings since joining the SEC — was certainly the most visually pleasing of the bunch. Following a mid-Missouri snowstorm, the Tigers scored 21 of the game’s last 28 points and, with help from a 30-yard Brady Cook touchdown run and a pair of fumble recoveries, finished the regular season 9-3.

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Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Missouri Tigers: Full Highlights

Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Missouri Tigers: Full Highlights

13. No. 10 Northwestern (Iowa) 32, No. 8 Montana Tech 29 (NAIA)

The 2022 NAIA champs advanced to the quarterfinals by the skin of their teeth. The Red Raiders led 29-14 heading into the fourth quarter, but a pair of Oredigger TDs tied the game until Eli Stader’s 51-yard field goal at the buzzer. I’m not sure it would have been good from 52, but it didn’t need to be.

14. Army 29, UTSA 24

Army clinched home-field advantage for Friday night’s AAC championship game, but the Black Knights did it the hard way. A 16-0 run gave them a 29-17 lead early in the fourth quarter, but Brandon High Jr. scored for UTSA to make it 29-24, and after a missed Army field goal, UTSA got the ball back with a chance to win. Gavin Shields picked off an Owen McCown pass at the Army 20, however, and the Knights kneeled it out.

15. Minnesota State 26, No. 7 CSU Pueblo 23 (Division II)

In the first two rounds of the Division II playoffs, Minnesota State has pulled two road upsets by a combined 4 points. In this one, the Mavericks trailed 16-6 with 10 minutes left but scored twice in four minutes. After a CSU-Pueblo response, they tied the game on a 40-yard Matthew Jaeger field goal with 1:00 remaining. Overtime? Nope! Cade Stingle intercepted a Roman Fuller pass, and Jaeger hit a 32-yarder with one second remaining. Minnesota State moves on.

16. San José State 34, Stanford 31

You don’t need high stakes to put on a fun show. SJSU moved to 7-5 and Stanford slipped to 3-9 after this roller coaster. The Spartans led 24-10 early in the third quarter after three Walker Eget touchdown passes (two to Nick Nash), but Stanford clawed ahead with two short touchdown runs and a fumble recovery score. The Cardinals got the ball back with less than four minutes left. QB Ashton Daniels threw a pick to Isiah Revis to set up a go-ahead SJSU touchdown, and with fourth-and-ballgame with 1:11 left, the ball slipped out of his hands and fell incomplete when he tried to stop his throwing motion. San José State kneeled out a wild win.

17. No. 11 Georgetown (Ky.) 27, No. 5 St. Thomas (Fla.) 21 (NAIA)

Georgetown has been one of NAIA’s most interesting teams this year, starting 1-2 against a rugged schedule but rallying for eight straight wins. The Tigers led most of the way in Miami on Saturday but missed a PAT after a 31-yard Darius Neal touchdown that opened a door for St. Thomas. But Georgetown closed it, blocking a field goal, moving the chains four times and playing keepaway for the last 9:22 to close out the upset.

18. Iowa 13, Nebraska 10

Remember last season, when Iowa parlayed a late turnover into a field goal at the buzzer and a 13-10 win? Well, everybody likes sequels, right?

19. Charlotte 29, UAB 27

One team recently fired its coach (Charlotte); the other team probably shouldn’t have hired its coach in the first place. With nothing to lose, both teams threw haymakers. UAB took a 20-19 lead early in the fourth quarter, but a field goal and a 46-yard O’Mega Blake touchdown catch — he had 32 receptions this year, 16 of them gained at least 24 yards and nine were touchdowns — made it 29-20 49ers with five minutes left. A short Lee Beebe Jr. score brought the Blazers within two points, and after forcing a punt, they set up a game-winning field goal attempt for Jonah Delange. He missed a 35-yarder, but Charlotte was called for a personal foul … and then Delange missed a 25-yarder, too. Ouch.

20T. Sam Houston 20, Liberty 18

Western Kentucky 19, Jacksonville State 17

At one point or another Friday and Saturday, three teams appeared poised to meet Jacksonville State in the CUSA championship game. First, it was Liberty, needing only to win as a 2.5-point favorite in Huntsville. But Sam Houston bolted to a 17-2 lead in the second quarter. It was 20-9 entering the fourth quarter when Liberty kicked a field goal and then scored on a 33-yard Kaidon Salter run with 1:10 left. But the game-tying 2-point pass failed (should’ve gone with a hook-and-ladder!), and Sam Houston prevailed. All the Bearkats needed was for Jacksonville State to beat Western Kentucky, and it would be two second-year FBS programs — JSU and SHSU — in the conference title game.

Leading 17-16, JSU’s in-game win probability crept past 80% in the final minutes, but WKU drove into Gamecocks territory, and Lucas Carneiro calmly booted a 50-yard field goal with three seconds left to punch the Hilltoppers’ ticket.

Their reward: a JSU rematch for all the marbles on Friday night.

The five most surprising results

Here are the five results that were furthest away from their respective SP+ projections. Call them either surprises or bad projections, I guess.

Florida Atlantic 63, Tulsa 16 (projection: FAU by 1.1). Ryan McGee shared a pretty mind-blowing nugget in his Bottom 10 last week: FAU entered the Tulsa game having lost to three straight teams that had just fired their respective coaches. They faced another one Saturday, but they countered that energy by firing their own coach (Tom Herman)! The gambit worked, apparently.

Colorado 52, Oklahoma State 0 (projection: CU by 14.3). Colorado keeping Travis Hunter in the game into the fourth quarter to rack up Heisman style points was certainly noteworthy, but for as exciting as it is that Colorado went 9-3, it is equally shocking that Oklahoma State finished 3-9. Mike Gundy has done repair jobs before, but assuming he’s still in Stillwater next year, he has his biggest repair project to date.

Texas Tech 52, West Virginia 15 (projection: Tech by 0.5). With rumors swirling about Neal Brown and WVU perhaps parting ways, Brown’s Mountaineers went to Lubbock technically still in the Big 12 race and laid an absolute egg. Over a 20-minute span in and around the second quarter, Tech went on a 39-0 run to turn this one into a laugher.

Arizona State 49, Arizona 7 (projection: ASU by 6.6). Three of the four most (statistically) unexpected results were all in the Big 12. It wasn’t a surprise that ASU overachieved against projections — the Sun Devils have been doing that for most of the season — but like Oklahoma State, Arizona packed things up after getting punched in the mouth.

Michigan 13, Ohio State 10 (projection: OSU by 25.4). I guess the only surprise here is that there were four results that were more surprising.

Who won the Heisman this week?

I am once again awarding the Heisman every single week of the season and doling out weekly points, F1-style (in this case, 10 points for first place, 9 for second and so on). How will this Heisman race play out, and how different will the result be from the actual Heisman voting?

Here is this week’s Heisman top 10:

1. Haynes King, Georgia Tech (26-for-36 passing for 303 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 111 non-sack rushing yards and 3 touchdowns against Georgia).

2. Travis Hunter, Colorado (10 catches for 116 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus an interception and two pass breakups against Oklahoma State).

3. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State (37 carries for 226 yards and a touchdown against Oregon State).

4. Donovan Ezeiruaku, Boston College (10 tackles, 4.5 TFLs, 3.5 sacks and 3 QB hurries against Pitt).

5. LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina (13-for-21 passing for 164 yards and an interception, plus 175 non-sack rushing yards and two scores against Clemson).

6. Quintrevion Wisner, Texas (33 carries for 186 yards, plus 21 receiving yards against Texas A&M).

7. Jalen Milroe, Alabama (18-for-24 passing for 256 yards and 1 interception, plus 105 non-sack rushing yards and 3 scores against Auburn).

8. Omarion Hampton, North Carolina (22 carries for 185 yards and a touchdown, plus 78 receiving yards and a score against NC State).

9. Kyle McCord, Syracuse (26-for-36 passing for 380 yards and 3 touchdowns against Miami).

10. Cam Ward, Miami (25-for-36 passing for 349 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 27 non-sack rushing yards against Syracuse).

A star-studded list. All three of your most likely Heisman finalists (Hunter, Jeanty and Ward) showed out, though Ward was once again let down by a Miami defense that allowed at least 28 points for the sixth time in eight games. Because our criteria tend to be pretty silly, that almost certainly means he’ll finish third.

As good as Hunter, Jeanty, Donovan Ezeiruaku and others were this week, however, the star was Haynes King. Georgia Tech’s offense was undone a bit by failed scoring opportunities, but King, banged up for most of the second half of the season, was magnificent all the same. He not only topped 300 passing yards for just the second time all season, but he also gutted out 24 carries (including one sack), getting hit countless times but continuing to fight on. A Rocky-like performance in defeat.

This is obviously an FBS list, but I have to call out two FCS performances as well, one incredible and one just plain wild. The latter: In his final collegiate game, Southeast Missouri State’s Paxton DeLaurent packed in two games’ worth of stats. He threw 85 passes, completing 48 for 557 yards and 4 touchdowns. Granted, he also threw five interceptions, part of SEMO’s eight turnovers — that the Redhawks lost by only 8 points (35-27) was incredible. But we’ll salute DeLaurent for going out in a blaze of glory.

Then there’s Montana’s Junior Bergen. Remember last year, when he returned key punts for touchdowns in back-to-back playoff games, sparking the Grizzlies’ run to the national title game? Well guess what: He returned two more for scores Saturday night. Good lord!

Eddie George’s Tennessee State gave Montana all it could handle, but the two Bergen returns and a delightful Eli Gillman touchdown run clinched a 41-27 Grizzlies win.

Honorable mention:

• Micah Alejado, Hawaii (37-for-57 passing for 469 yards and 5 touchdowns, plus 54 non-sack rushing yards against New Mexico).

• Bryson Barnes, Utah State (17-for-29 passing for 189 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INTs, plus 200 non-sack rushing yards and a touchdown against Colorado State).

• Tahj Brooks, Texas Tech (23 carries for 188 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 35 receiving yards against West Virginia).

• CJ Campbell Jr., FAU (15 carries for 100 yards, plus 118 receiving yards and a touchdown against Tulsa).

• Bryson Daily, Army (10-for-17 passing for 190 yards and a touchdown, plus 152 non-sack rushing yards and 2 TDs against UTSA).

• Christian Gray, Notre Dame (7 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 pass breakups and a 99-yard pick-six against USC).

• Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (34-for-41 passing for 438 yards, 5 TDs and 1 INT, plus 30 non-sack rushing yards against Oklahoma State).

• Cam Skattebo, Arizona State (21 carries for 177 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 8 receiving yards against Arizona).

• Bryson Washington, Baylor (28 carries for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus 14 receiving yards against Kansas).

Through 14 weeks, here are your points leaders:

1. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State (59)
2. Travis Hunter, Colorado (56)
3. Cam Ward, Miami (50)
4. Jalen Milroe, Alabama (32)
5. Dillon Gabriel, Oregon (29)
6. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (24)
7. Cam Skattebo, Arizona State (20)
8. Kyle McCord, Syracuse (17)
9. LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina (16)
T10. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (15)
T10. Miller Moss, USC (15)
T10. Tyler Warren, Penn State (15)

With both Hunter’s and Ward’s teams eliminated from their respective conference title races, that means Jeanty has officially wrapped up the title in this year’s Heisman points race. This is the third year of this exercise, and while it landed on the actual winner in each of the past two seasons (Caleb Williams in 2022, Jayden Daniels in 2023), I’m pretty sure that won’t be the case this season. Per ESPN BET, Hunter’s Heisman odds are now a cool -10,000, equivalent to a 99% chance of winning. The conventional wisdom seemed to coalesce around Hunter about three weeks ago, which I felt was ridiculously unfair to both Jeanty and Ward, but Hunter made plenty of plays in the homestretch. I guess the only uncertainty is his eventual margin of victory in the vote totals.