College football doesn’t need massive upsets to be eventful. This week featured one historic Hawaiian passer, Oregon‘s Dillon Gabriel, passing another, Timmy Chang, for second on the all-time list for FBS passing yards.
It saw SMU lose the turnover battle 6-0 to Duke and still pull off the win. Vanderbilt had Texas on the ropes.
Nebraska did the same to Ohio State and Penn State had a scare — and still has one, pending Drew Allar‘s health — against Wisconsin.
Oh, yeah: You can probably still feel the aftershocks in College Station from what happened at Kyle Field, where the Aggies went to their backup quarterback and beat LSU.
Week 9 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: MIKE ELKO’S YEAR 1 SUCCESS
Transition classes and seasons are extraordinarily difficult to handle in this era of college football.
The good players you hope to inherit? They often leave.
The recruiting class you have to sign? Get it done in a few weeks.
The first season of your tenure? You’re usually taking over a roster that got your head coach fired the prior season.
Year 1 often feels like Year 0 in this era of college football. Just not for Mike Elko.
Elko took over a three-win Duke team following the 2021 campaign. The Blue Devils jumped to nine wins the following season — the second most in program history — as Riley Leonard became a national star and the defense went from one of the nation’s worst (123rd in yards allowed per play) to slightly above average (62nd).
Two years later, Elko inherited an arguably sticker situation at Texas A&M. The Aggies were talented dumpster fire in Jimbo Fisher‘s final season, and Elko needed to come in with a fire extinguisher.
He didn’t put out every fire. Hard-won five-star recruits for the program like Evan Stewart (Oregon) and Walter Nolen (Ole Miss) walked out the door along with 29 other players.
But Elko, A&M’s defensive coordinator from 2018-21, managed to hold onto plenty of key pieces, including those like defensive lineman Shemar Turner and left guard Chase Bisontis.
Then Elko and his staff attacked the transfer portal.
A&M had plenty of talent on the roster, but Elko didn’t settle — especially on the second level of the defense, where the Aggies lost almost every returning contributor.
No worries. Texas A&M gobbled up seven defensive backs like it was at an all-you-can-eat buffet portal buffet.
Those were hits, too. Texas A&M’s four highest snap takers in the secondary this season are all transfers.
It wasn’t just the secondary. The Aggies’ defensive front was a strength when Elko took over. Turner, Shemar Stewart, DJ Hicks and so many others were major recruiting prizes not long ago. So what did Elko’s staff do? It doubled down. In came Purdue transfer Nic Scourton, the Big Ten’s sack leader in 2023. So did All-MAC edge rusher Cashius Howell and former Wisconsin starter Rodas Johnson.
Elko knows that you need defensive depth to survive in the SEC. The Aggies attacked the portal and ensured that they had it in spades.
It’s worked out.
The No, 14 Aggies moved to 7-1 with Saturday’s 38-23 win over No. 8 LSU. Texas A&M is now 5-0 in the SEC and the only unbeaten team in conference play. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a program that, just a year ago, was so desperate it spent $75 million to buy Fisher out.
There are lots of areas to explore in Texas A&M’s win over LSU. The Aggies made another quarterback change — Marcel Reed is back as QB1 over Conner Weigman — and that reworked secondary came up with a trio of interceptions; UAB transfer BJ Mayes nabbed two of them.
Mostly, though, this win just says a lot about Elko and his staff.
Transition seasons aren’t easy, but Elko is showing to be an expert at navigating them. Duke is an academic-focused school that Elko made better by changing the mindset of the program and infusing a schematic spark.
Texas A&M is a different beast altogether, but Elko still managed to walk in Day 1 and change the tenor of the program.
That’s not easy in this era of college football. It says a lot about Elko’s ability to coach and, just as importantly, organize and execute a transition plan.
REPORT CARD
A. OREGON
Remember when Oregon had offensive line issues and couldn’t stop the run? That feels like forever ago. The No. 1 Ducks bullied No. 20 Illinois, 38-9, Saturday in Eugene.
All the attention postgame will go to Gabriel (291 yards, three touchdowns) for reaching No. 2 on the NCAA’s all-time passing list, yards and touchdowns, and deservedly so. But I’d contend that the best news for Oregon is just how good they look along the lines of scrimmage.
Illinois is a good defense. It entered the week ranked 22nd nationally in points allowed per game.
Oregon did whatever it wanted on the ground against that unit, rushing for 229 yards on 5.9 yards per carry. The Ducks allowed just a single tackle for loss, too.
On the other side of the ball, the Ducks limited Illinois to just 293 total yards and forced a pair of interceptions. They did that without the defense’s best player, Jordan Burch, too.
Something people tend to forget in college football is teams can get better as the season progresses. We’re seeing that with Oregon. Those non-conference weaknesses look like a thing of the past for a worthy No. 1 team.
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