Miami, Texas headline college football winners and losers for Week 10

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An overtime loss to SMU dashes No. 9 Miami’s quest for an ACC championship by dropping the Hurricanes behind six teams with one or fewer conference losses, including the two teams that beat them – the Mustangs and No. 17 Louisville.

Failing to even reach the conference championship game threatens to ruin Miami’s at-large College Football Playoff hopes, too, setting up the possibility of a comparison with two- or three-loss Big Ten and SEC contenders with deeper résumés against stronger schedules. It does have a non-conference win against Notre Dame, but that may be enough to save the day against candidates with stronger schedules.

For the second time in three games, the Hurricanes couldn’t overcome a rash of turnovers from quarterback Carson Beck. He tossed four interceptions in the loss to Louisville and another pair in Saturday’s 26-20 defeat, the second coming at the SMU goal line in the first overtime. The senior’s nine interceptions are the most in the ACC.

Near the end of regulation, Miami defensive lineman Marquise Lightfoot’s unnecessary-roughness penalty on a hit of SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings extended the Mustangs’ drive on fourth down and set up the game-tying field goal with 25 seconds remaining.

The thought going into the regular season — one supported by non-conference wins against No. 12 Notre Dame and South Florida — was that Miami was too talented to be undone by the predictable in-game mistakes that had so far defined coach Mario Cristobal’s tenure.

These two recent losses prove the opposite: While the Hurricanes may have the most talent in the ACC, they’ve ceded control of the conference to upstarts such as No. 7 Georgia Tech, No. 15 Virginia and Duke.

And the Mustangs, too. SMU dropped games in non-conference play to TCU and Baylor but still has just one league loss, putting the defending ACC regular-season champions in position to book a return trip to Charlotte in early December.

The Hurricanes, Texas and Clemson top Saturday’s biggest winners and losers:

Winners

Texas

The No. 19 Longhorns are still very much alive in the playoff race after pulling out a 34-31 win against No. 11 Vanderbilt thanks to a career day from Arch Manning, who completed 25 of 33 attempts for 328 yards and three touchdowns without an interception after spending most of this week in concussion protocol. Leading 34-10 heading into the fourth quarter, Texas survived the Commodores’ 21-point surge to secure a key tiebreaker against a fellow at-large playoff contender and remain one of just five SEC teams with fewer than two league losses.

Ohio State

The theory that No. 1 Ohio State would find things a little more difficult against Penn State held true through two quarters, at least, after the Buckeyes committed a crucial giveaway deep in their own territory to help the Nittany Lions cut their deficit to 17-14 at halftime. But it was a rout from there: Ohio State scored touchdowns on three of four drives in the second half, not counting a clock-killing drive on the game’s final possession, to win 38-14 and take another step toward a perfect regular season. Julian Sayin deserves to be near the top of the Heisman Trophy list, coach Ryan Day said afterwards, and it’s hard to argue. Sayin completed 20 of 23 for 316 yards with four touchdowns, marking the fourth time this year he’s completed at least 85.2% of his attempts with three or more scores.

New Mexico

Count the Lobos’ Jason Eck among the most successful first-year coaches in the Bowl Subdivision after New Mexico topped UNLV 40-35 on the road to lock in the program’s first bowl bid since 2016. With one more win — Colorado State, Air Force and San Diego State cap the regular season — Eck will become the first UNM coach to post a winning season in his debut since Marv Levy in 1958. (Yes, that Marv Levy.)

Losers

Clemson

Clemson was dropped from the at-large picture by the end of September, eliminated from ACC contention by the end of October and now, one day into November, is in danger of missing a bowl game for the first time since 2004 and posting a losing record in conference play for the first time since 1998. Things have deteriorated with incredible speed — nearly as quickly as the Tigers gave away four second-half leads in a 46-45 loss to Duke. Down by a touchdown and starting 94 yards from the end zone with 5:14 to play, the Blue Devils scored on a 3-yard run with 40 seconds left and then converted the two-point try to land the program’s first win in Death Valley since 1980. Now 3-5, Clemson needs to take three of four against Florida State, Louisville, Furman and South Carolina to reach bowl eligibility.

Vanderbilt

The loss to Texas now demands a perfect close to the regular season to book an at-large playoff berth. More specifically, the Commodores probably need No. 14 Tennessee to win out leading into the finale to give them the best chance at boosting their postseason résumé against another two-loss SEC contender. Another fallout from Saturday is the damage done to Diego Pavia’s quest for the Heisman Trophy, even if the senior went toe-to-toe with Manning by throwing for 365 yards, running for a team-high 43 yards and accounting for four touchdowns.

Michigan State

Up 17-10 after a short touchdown run with just under two minutes to play, Michigan State sent the ensuing kickoff out of bounds to give Minnesota a short field, gave up the game-tying score with 29 seconds left and then lost 23-20 in overtime to drop a sixth consecutive game for the first time since 2016. The decision to replace quarterback Aidan Chiles with backup Allesio Milivojevic was a good one, as the redshirt freshman went for 311 yards and a score; this was just the Spartans’ fourth 300-yard passing game in the past four seasons. The loss casts significant doubt on coach Jonathan Smith’s chances of getting another year, especially with options such as former Notre Dame and LSU coach Brian Kelly potentially available.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football Week 10 winners, losers include Miami, Texas

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