College Football Week 11 Packout Recap
- Will Locks
- Nov 13, 2024
- 5 min read
We are starting to get down to crunch time in College Football season as teams are either backed into a corner and fighting their way back out to bowl eligibility or playoff hopes. November is always some of the best college football of the season because of this. Some teams, as we saw this week, crumble under the pressure. Lets unpack the results of some key games this weekend.
Jalen Milroe is officially the governor of Louisiana after the absolute dominating performance he had against the LSU defense. This game was over by halftime. The Bama defense seems to have finally remembered that their DBs have to actually cover the receivers as they forced two interceptions and only allowed one touchdown and 13 total points to, what people believed, was a good LSU offense led by Nussmeier. On the flip side, LSU defense unrolled the red carpet for star QB Jalen Milroe as he ran for a career-high 185 yards and four touchdowns in the 42-13 route of the tigers. This beatdown of LSU has people and teams wondering where this Bama team has been all season. This Alabama team is a legitimate national title contender if they continue to play this well on both sides of the ball. Bigger question is, what is next for LSU? Tigers are essentially out of the SEC Championship game now and with three losses essentially eliminated from playoff contention barring chaos happening. Will be interesting to see how Brian Kelly gets his team to respond and bounce back from the embarrassment at home.
Georgia Tech 28 - #4 Miami 23
The “U” is back! We hear this every single pre-season and every single year the Hurricanes turn out to be an afternoon sun shower instead of the Category 5 storm all the critics predict. With Heisman candidate Cam Ward at QB and a stout defense they looked to be legitimate contenders and live up to the hype so far this season. That is until they ran into the fighting Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. All credit to Georgia Tech for this win, they found a formula which kept Cam Ward in check and seemed to be the first team to have him rattled in the pocket, holding the Miami offense to a season low of 23 points. On offense the yellow jackets ran the ball at will against the Canes, racking up 271 total yards on the ground and two touchdowns. With this being said, it is safe to say that Miami has seemed to play with its food in every game this season until the fourth quarter where Ward takes over and help the Canes pull away from teams. Ward was not able to play hero ball this time as George Tech forced him to fumble the ball on the potential game winning drive, sealing the upset for the Yellow Jackets. My takeaways from this game is GT is a solid team who can hang with anyone in the country, while on the “U” side I would classify them as a Category 2 or 3 Hurricane and not the Cat 5 that everyone predicted…..Take Cam Ward out of the offense and they become a tropical storm at best. Miami still controls its own destiny and is still projected to win the ACC but has no room for error going forward.
I will eat my own words and admit I was wrong, Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss took care of business and did anything they wanted to do against UGA. Lane has taken an Ole Miss program and finally overcome the obstacle of winning the “big game” against a powerhouse team. Much respect to the rebels with the way they won this ball game. Right out of the gate we see and interception resulting in a TD for UGA as well as Jaxson Dart hobbling off the field and everyone expected it to be the same old story of UGA dominating this game. Ole Miss immediately responded and never looked back as the backup QB led them down the field to score. On the bulldogs side, it is official, Beck is a problem at QB and the dogs have a weak offense. We have seen throughout the season in the Texas game, second half of the Bama game, and the Clemson game that when the dawgs go at a fast pace and attempt to manufacture big plays they can do it. Biggest problem it seems is that the coaches believe they can play the standard UGA style slow methodic beat you down offense with long sustained drives but the opposing teams have caught up on talent and size, this tactic no longer works. Ole Miss was able to do whatever they wanted on offense as well as on defense and kept control of the entire game and I will say other than Oregon and Ohio State, I think Ole Miss is the most well rounded complete package as a team in the country right now. The Dawgs have an uphill battle now to even get into the playoffs, which I do not think anyone would’ve guessed we would be talking about the Bulldogs being a team looking from the outside of a 12 team playoff.
Michigan 15 – #8 Indiana 20
No surprise here as WINdiana continues to win. Although Indiana did not dismantle Michigan the way they have every other team on their schedule, the game never felt as though Michigan would win as Indiana had complete control. Indiana has a huge matchup coming in two weeks against Ohio State which will truly show us if WINdiana is the real deal. Now as a Michigan fan, you have to wonder, was it Connor Stalions or was it Jim Harbaugh that led to success? Coming off of an undefeated National Title year to follow up with this performance shows that Michigan is still not at the level of an Alabama or a Georgia and still has a lot of work to do. One would think they would be able to reload every year and consistently at least put together 9-10 win seasons, yet they have followed up a Natty with a year they may not potentially make a bowl game. Let that sink in Michigan fans…Although it could be worse and you all could be FSU fans.
#9 BYU 22 – Utah 21
The “Holy War” truly came down to prayers being answered as the referees became BYU’s guardian angels, giving their game winning drive new life on a defensive holding call. BYU went down the field and kicked a walk off game winning field goal to keep their magical season in tact. Utah’s AD decided to throw brimstone and fire at the Big 12 and the referees after the game in a rant I highly recommend you google and watch yourselves. Honestly I cannot blame the Utah AD and their fans for their anger, as I believe he was expressing his frustrations on the season as a whole. The Utes expected to just waltz into the Big 12 and run the conference easily based on pre season banter amongst the Big 12 fanbases. Problem is that Utah is in fact not good at football this year, and neither is the Big 12 as a whole if we are being honest. In summary, this game showed us that no team from the Big 12 Conference is getting passed the first round of the CFP.
Conclusion
College football 2024 season continues to entertain us all with upsets and surprises at every turn. With two weeks left to decide conference championship matchups and playoff teams, do not expect the chaos to stop here. All power conferences have scenarios where tie breakers will have to be used for multiple teams to figure out who plays for the conference titles. Come back on Friday for our Week 12 Tailgate Packing List as we go over key matchups to watch for this coming weekend.
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