In an hour period Saturday night, there was overtime in Knoxville, overtime in Baton Rouge and a top-five showdown came down to the final seconds and a single point. And that was only the prime-time slot of games. College football delivered a banger week, in which a pair of top-10 teams went down and several other members of the AP Top 25 were pushed to the brink.
Week 7 is over and you know how this works: Let’s run through College Football Overtime, highlighting everything you need to know from the week that was in college football.
ONE BIG TAKEAWAY: THIS IS WHAT OREGON WAS BUILT FOR
Go West, young man — that is, unless you’re a Big Ten power. If this season’s proven anything, the West Coast is a tripwire for the old guard of the league.
Michigan? Lost on the road to Washington last week. Penn State? Needed overtime to topple USC. Ohio State? Down goes the conference heavyweight, tripping up in the final seconds of a 32-31 thriller won by No. 3 Oregon.
It’s a loss that snaps a 45-game win streak for Ohio State against non-Michigan Big Ten teams. It’s a win that gave the Ducks their first win over a top-two AP team for the first time in program history.
It’s an affirmation that Oregon belongs, and not just in the Big Ten. That much is obvious, as the Ducks topped one of the bullies of the conference.
Instead, this is proof of concept for the way that Dan Lanning built his Oregon program.
If you haven’t been paying attention, Oregon is operating like a blue blood on the recruiting trail. Sure, Nike money helps in the NIL era. (Just ask Kirby Smart how he feels about that.) But this is still a “$20 million roster” that the Ducks just toppled. That requires a requisite level of talent that Lanning’s ably stacked since taking over for Mario Cristobal.
Lanning’s first full recruiting class? No. 9 overall. Last year’s class? No. 3 nationally.
Those recruiting wins showed up. Five-star sophomore defensive lineman Matayo Uiagalelei had five tackles (two for loss) and a sack. Country-strong (or island-strong?) starting sophomore center Iapani Laloulu helped pave the way for a Ducks run game that averaged five yards per carry; the Buckeyes had held opponents to 2.25 yards per carry going into the week.
Really, though, Oregon’s roster has been supplemented through the transfer portal. The 16 the Ducks signed in 2023 earned the nation’s No. 9 transfer class. This past cycle, Oregon added 14 more transfers and the No. 2 overall class, an all-in portal effort aimed at fortifying a title-worthy roster.
Those players made all the difference. Dillon Gabriel (341 yards, three total touchdowns) played great. Evan Stewart (149 yards, one touchdown) stretched the field. Multiple secondary pieces like Kobe Savage and Jabbar Muhammad helped keep Ohio State in check.
Then there’s Derrick Harmon and Jamaree Caldwell. Those two started in the middle of Oregon’s defensive line. They represent everything about Oregon’s push. Those were two of the top 10 interior defensive linemen in the portal. Oregon already had talent at that position, with Jordan Burch leading a talented crew. But the Ducks signed them anyway, swatting aside those like Texas (Caldwell) and USC (Harmon) for their services. That pair was not cheap. Harmon was asking teams for NIL money the upper-six figures in the spring, per sources, but Oregon didn’t balk.
Championships are won up front, and those like Harmon (a forced fumble, three pressures and an 86 PFF grade) make all the difference. We saw that Saturday as the Ducks upset Ohio State without Burch, their best defensive player to this point.
That’s title-worthy depth built with championship intention. The Ducks got championship-level results Saturday.
So is it any wonder why Lanning quipped this after the moderator in his postgame news conference announced there will only be a few more questions?
“Good. I have to go recruit.”
REPORT CARD
A. Penn State TE Tyler Warren
Few offensive coordinators in the country are as creative as Andy Kotelnicki. He uses weird formations, puts playmakers in different spots and puts safeties in a bind from down to down with their assignments.
More than anything, though, he finds a way to scheme plays for his best players. We saw that Saturday as the No. 4 Nittany Lions (6-0) escaped Los Angeles with a 33-30 win over USC (3-3).
Nobody represents that creativity more than Warren, who set an FBS record for tight ends with 17 catches for 224 yards and a touchdown. Warren made plays from everywhere. He lined up in the backfield. He lined up attached to the line of scrimmage. He lined up in the slot. He lined up as an outside receiver. He threw a pass. He ran the football.
Warren is a high-level athlete who played quarterback for Mechanicsville (Va.) Atlee. He ran a 4.76-second 40-yard dash in high school, along with a 32-inch vertical and 4.31-second short shuttle — all at 6-foot-6, 235 pounds. That combination of size, speed and positional flexibility makes him an ideal toy for Kotelnicki to deploy.
And deploy he did Saturday.
Unlike in previous seasons, there’s no single blueprint that defines how Penn State will attack from week to week. It’s a shift that allows Penn State to win (and scale 14-point halftime deficits) in games like this.
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