CFB Blitz: Texas finding its running game tops Week 8 takeaways

The weekly CFB Blitz is the spot to catch up on the most important developments from the day's action and examine their significance moving forward.

Texas saves its season by finding running game

There have been three major criticisms of Texas over the past few weeks, which saw the Longhorns crash out of the No. 1 spot in the AP Poll with back-to-back losses.

• Poor play of Arch Manning
• Ineffective running game
• Inability to hold double-digit leads

With virtually no running game to lean on, Manning struggled against Oklahoma and Florida, which contributed to Texas blowing double-digit leads in both losses. That script once again played out Saturday as Ole Miss erased a 21-point halftime deficit in Austin to tie the game in the fourth quarter. However, the Longhorns' offense answered all questions with a narrative-shifting drive that put them firmly back in the CFP mix and took some heat off Steve Sarkisian.

Texas got the ball on its own 20-yard line with 11:23 to play and the score tied at 24. Manning's last pass had been intercepted, and Sarkisian clearly didn't want to put too much on his quarterback in the moment. So, he called a running play, and another, and another. The Longhorns used six straight running plays to go 80 yards in just over three minutes, and Manning supplied the final dagger on a bootleg touchdown run. While both teams later added a field goal and Ole Miss got a last-second pass attempt into the end zone to possibly tie the game, Texas' touchdown drive ended up providing the winning points.

The involvement of the run game completely changes things for Texas' offense if - and it's a big "if" - it continues moving forward. The Longhorns entered the contest ranked 100th nationally in rushing at just over 135 yards per game, but they put up 207 yards on 42 carries versus the Rebels. Raleek Brown led the charge with 157 yards on 23 attempts in the absence of Hollywood Smothers.

They say a running game is a struggling quarterback's best friend, and that was certainly the case for Manning on Saturday. Of course, Manning's two interceptions won't exactly diminish the attention on the famous passer this week in Austin, but at least this time it will follow a much-needed win.

Change is needed at USC

It's not a stretch to say the Lincoln Riley era at USC has been a massive disappointment, but through all the setbacks he's suffered, he's always been able to point to his offense as something that's working. Regardless of what you think of Riley as a head coach, he's undoubtedly one of the top offensive minds in college football. That's what makes Saturday's loss to Wisconsin so alarming.

USC struggling against a physical opponent after traveling multiple time zones is nothing new, but Wisconsin accomplished something that had never been done to a Riley-led team: It held the Trojans to just seven points.

The Badgers didn't just limit USC's rushing attack; they completely eliminated any threat whatsoever. The final tally is actually hard to believe: The Trojans logged an outrageous minus-17 yards rushing thanks to nine tackles for loss that totaled 68 yards.

The defeat dropped USC to 6-2, which isn't a terrible record in itself, but given the Trojans' remaining schedule, this year could well be the final straw for Riley. They host Julian Sayin-less Ohio State next week before traveling to Indiana, and we saw how USC looked on a long road trip to face a tough defense Saturday. Add in the season finale against crosstown rival UCLA - the best team in Los Angeles - and it's hard to imagine Riley ending this season with anything better than an 8-4 record.

That's not what USC signed up for when it lured him away from Oklahoma five years ago.

You gamble, you win in the ACC

You better be a gambler if you want to win night games in the ACC. There were two such matchups in the late window Saturday, and both were decided by gutsy calls from head coaches.

First, James Franklin, a man not exactly known for taking chances, showed off a new trick. Instead of kicking a game-tying field goal in the final two minutes at Clemson, Franklin's Virginia Tech team went for a touchdown on fourth down, and it was rewarded with a clutch grab by Luke Reynolds.

The late score gave the Hokies the lead and helped them secure their first victory over the Tigers since 2007, which only further demonstrates that Clemson's run at the top of college football is over. Dabo Swinney is now a shocking 2-8 in his last 10 home games against power-conference opponents and has lost at least three games for the sixth straight season. The Tigers didn't register three losses once from 2015-21. It might be time for Clemson's boosters to start digging under their mattresses for buyout money.

The other gamble in the ACC happened between Syracuse and North Carolina after the Orange missed a potential game-winning extra point late in regulation. Syracuse head coach Fran Brown went viral in 2024 for claiming he didn't shower after losses because "winners get washed." Well, much to the delight of those sharing the plane ride home with him, Brown opted to go for the win with a two-point conversion in overtime against the Tar Heels.

Bill Belichick and Co.'s latest defeat is a bad one, considering they entered the home game as 10.5-point favorites. Plus, it essentially kills any momentum the program received from back-to-back wins over Pitt and Duke.

BYU ends up on other side of officiating drama

BYU's dramatic win last week featured a timing error that robbed Notre Dame of one final play and a controversial no-call involving pass interference in the end zone. While the stakes might've made that an all-time finish for the Cougars, Saturday's ending may have actually been crazier.

Unless there's a BYU pennant hanging in your bedroom or a university-issued degree in your office, you probably didn't think the Cougars were actually the second-best team in the country after last week's result. To be fair, though, most of us probably didn't have them losing to a program that had never defeated a top-five team before Saturday.

But that's exactly what happened, as unranked UCF took down BYU in double overtime, and the officials played a major role in the result once again.

An overturned strip sack allowed UCF to retain possession in the final seconds of regulation, and a personal foul by BYU put the Knights in position to win with a field goal on third down. However, the Cougars rose to the challenge with an incredible block to force overtime - or so it seemed.

A replay review ensued as the Knights, who recovered the blocked kick, lined up for a second field-goal attempt on fourth down. The officials eventually ruled that a 10-second runoff would occur because kicker Will Stone's helmet came off during the previous play. Since UCF had no timeouts left, the clock ran out and the contest went to overtime. According to NBC Sports rules analyst Terry McAulay, the clock should have stopped as a result of the blocked kick, eliminating the need for a 10-second runoff.

Nevertheless, overtime began and the teams traded touchdowns to set up double overtime. BYU then seemingly held UCF to a field goal, only for the referees to extend the drive on a roughing-the-kicker penalty. We'll let you decide how to feel about the call.

UCF took advantage and punched in a touchdown as well as a two-point conversion to take the lead. As the Knights earned a defensive stop on the next possession, down went BYU, which became the seventh top-10 team to lose in the last two weeks.

Once you look past the drama, the impact of the Cougars' loss begins to show. They missed a golden opportunity to strengthen their grip on the Big 12 after Texas Tech fell to Cincinnati earlier in the day. The outcome likely means that the Big 12 champion will be the conference's lone representative in the 12-team playoff field, as only Utah remains undefeated.

South Carolina doesn't do normal

Good, bad, or ugly, South Carolina football simply refuses to be boring this season. Considering what's happened in the Gamecocks' last five contests, it's safe to say they might be the most nerve-racking team in the country.

• Week 3: Blow 13-point lead at home to Mississippi State
• Week 4: Put up 419 yards of offense but lose to Alabama by 31
• Week 5: Squander 17-point lead at home, lose in overtime to Kentucky
• Week 6: Hammer then-No. 16 Florida on the road by 19 points
• Week 8: Score 10 points in final 1:17 to beat No. 11 Tennessee

Saturday's win over Tennessee might have been the wildest of them all. South Carolina again blew a double-digit lead at home, only to later steal a victory with an outrageous finish. First, LaNorris Sellers went beast mode to tie the contest at 24 with 1:17 to play.

On the ensuing drive, Dylan Stewart appeared to be dissatisfied with the idea of getting a defensive stop to simply force overtime. He showed why NFL scouts are drooling over him by strip-sacking Tennessee signal-caller George MacIntyre, which gave the Gamecocks the ball back on the cusp of field-goal range. Kicker Malik Orsan did the rest to set off an insane celebration in Columbia.

With only one ranked team remaining on its schedule, South Carolina is in great position to take Shane Beamer off the hot seat and push for a bowl berth. Alternatively, the Gamecocks could fall to a number of teams by making more mind-numbing mistakes. Either way, it won't be boring.

Oregon is this year's Penn State

A team with an elite roster that carried a high preseason ranking lost its starting quarterback to injury and suffered three losses by mid-October. Oregon of 2026, meet 2025 Penn State. What's been a dismal campaign for Dan Lanning and Co. got even worse Saturday with a 21-10 loss to Illinois. The Ducks' offense was once again significantly hampered by the absence of Dante Moore, with fill-in Dylan Raiola unable to get much going in the passing game. The task wasn't made any easier by the fact that four of Oregon's top five receivers were ruled out beforehand.

Despite the significant absences, Lanning and the Ducks held a 10-7 lead at halftime. The second half was a different story, though, as Illinois, which owns the Big Ten's fourth-worst defensive unit, somehow shut out Oregon for the entire 30 minutes.

The loss effectively ends Oregon's chances of reaching the playoff - a shocking outcome given the team's No. 2 preseason ranking.

"Each person's got to look in their heart and respond and say exactly what they want to go attack and what they can improve and get better," Lanning said postgame when asked what his players have left to compete for. "That's really where the focus has to be.”

No, Lanning won't suffer the same fate as James Franklin at Penn State last season, but significant changes to the Ducks' offensive coaching staff are almost guaranteed to happen sooner than later.

2026 Indiana is different

Good teams find various ways to win games, and Indiana is clearly a very good team once again. However, seven games in, it's become glaringly obvious that this version of the Hoosiers can't match last year's team. Their defense is more than capable of making another run in the CFP, but Indiana's offensive limitations without Fernando Mendoza will eventually be too much to overcome.

Indiana feasted on bad defenses throughout September. But once it started facing teams with a pulse, the team's offensive performance fell off a cliff. The Hoosiers are averaging just 16 points per game over the last three weeks, with only four touchdowns in regulation over that span. Josh Hoover is clearly battling through injury, as his play has cratered of late. He's completed 40 of 80 passes over the past three weeks and went the entire second half against Michigan without a completion.

The good news for Indiana is that its schedule gets significantly easier the rest of the way, with USC being its only remaining ranked opponent. That should give Hoover and the Hoosiers' offense time to find their footing. However, it's fair to question whether that can actually happen when a top defense is lined up across from them.

QB change does nothing for Michigan

Six quarters of Tommy Carr as Michigan's quarterback have taught us one thing: Bryce Underwood might be a problem, but he's probably not the problem for the Wolverines' offense. After managing just two field goals against Indiana, Michigan has now failed to score a touchdown in four of its last five halves, with both Underwood and Carr seeing time at quarterback.

Carr's first career start Saturday went about as poorly as possible, as the freshman looked lost against the Hoosiers' dominant defense. He fumbled and threw an interception into quadruple coverage while Michigan's offense managed just 93 yards of total offense in the first half. The fact that the Wolverines trailed by only six points despite the poor offensive showing is a testament to how well the defense played.

Michigan scored six points in the second half, at least, but it still averaged just 3.1 yards per play. The Jason Beck offense under Kyle Whittingham isn't just bad; it's historically awful.

The results are even more shocking considering what the Beck-Whittingham combo posted last year at Utah, after the program led the nation in rushing and ranked fourth in the FBS in scoring at 41.3 points per game. Michigan would need to combine its last three games to reach 41 points.

So what's the fix? The Michigan crowd seems to know how to get things sorted.

The Wolverines' power running game that we've watched for years in Ann Arbor is nonexistent this season. Indiana overwhelmed the offensive line, recording 10 tackles for loss and holding Michigan to 1.4 yards per carry. Not even Patrick Mahomes could get offensive production in that kind of situation.

Toney torches Pitt yet again

Malachi Toney likely circles the Pitt game on his schedule each year and invites all his friends and family to watch. For the second straight season, he used the Panthers to pad his stats in the all-time Miami football record books, turning in an outrageous performance in the blowout win. After breaking the program's freshman receiving record in last season's victory at Pitt, Toney raised the bar in the encore performance.

Toney finished Saturday with a single-game program record of 16 catches for 194 yards and three touchdowns in the win, including this 53-yard gem.

While the Heisman has largely become a quarterback award, Toney and Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith are making a serious case that it should be a receiver-heavy field in New York in early December.

Leavitt cooking for LSU

LSU's margin for error is slim, thanks to the team's two early losses, but if this version of Sam Leavitt is here to stay, the Tigers are going to be a problem for everybody down the stretch. The Arizona State transfer has been absolutely cooking in Lane Kiffin's offense the past two games, producing 676 yards passing and seven touchdowns against zero interceptions.

Leavitt's lack of turnovers is perhaps most significant, considering he flirted with disaster far too often in the opening weeks of the season. His eight interceptions still lead the country, but he's now played error-free football through the air over the past eight quarters of action. Unsurprisingly, LSU has dominated during that stretch, outscoring its opponents 67-17.

Saturday's win at Auburn, which stunned Georgia on the road last week, further highlights how important turnovers are in the SEC. The Bulldogs' three turnovers were the main reason Auburn ended Georgia's 53-game winning streak over unranked opponents. Leavitt's ability to protect the ball versus the Tigers allowed the talent discrepancy to show through, delivering a comfortable win for LSU.