Brian’s College Football Top 5: Week 10

Photo by Brian Bahr from Getty Images

Saturday, we saw the (hopefully temporary) end to one of my favorite rivalries.

And it ended exactly how it should have.

Here is the top 5 for week 10.

5. Indiana Hoosiers

It was looking like a very, very tough season upcoming for Indiana.

But lo and behold, they found a way to get a Big 10 win over Wisconsin and avoid going winless on the season.

It’s probably not going to save their season, but it has to feel good.

4. Clemson Tigers

Clemson is having one of their worst seasons in years. Dabo Swinney is getting yelled at by kids named Tyler on his radio show.

It’s been a mess.

But a big win over ranked Notre Dame does alleviate some of that pain.

Does it fix anything? Probably not. It confirms Dabo’s priors that his strategy of football and ignoring the transfer portal in this era of college football can be successful.

It can’t. Not if Clemson wants to win championships.

But it does show it won’t make them miss bowl games.

3. Arizona Wildcats

I told you last week.

Arizona is really good!

Jedd Fisch has done a great job and Arizona should feel very confident going into a weaker Big 12 conference without Texas and Oklahoma next year and an auto bid for the college football playoff.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility for them.

2. Army Black Knights

Air Force was 8-0 and had a chance to clinch a 2nd straight Commander-In-Chief trophy.

Army’s defense completely destroyed any chance of that happening, holding the Falcons to only 3 points and giving them their first loss of the year.

Now Army controls their fate to get the trophy back.

All they have to do is beat Navy next month.

1. Oklahoma State Cowboys

This season looked like a disaster for Oklahoma State.

They were playing 3 straight quarterbacks. They were getting smoked at home by South Alabama (who is currently 4-5, so that loss looks even worse) and it was just an overall disaster in the making.

Then, they figured out they could just play one quarterback and give the ball to Ollie Gordon and great things can happen!

They came into Bedlam with a 6-2 record, and would host Oklahoma for the last time in who knows how long, due to Oklahoma leaving for the SEC and refusing to honor Bedlam by making OK State one of their non conference games.

(I could do a whole post on how the NCAA should mandate rivalry games, but I’ll spare that rant for now).

So the Pokes welcomed the Sooners to Stillwater knowing this would be the last time they’d see them for a while, and they gave them the perfect goodbye, beating Oklahoma 27-24 and not only holding bragging rights for a while, but effectively ending the chance for Oklahoma to make the Big 12 championship game.

If Oklahoma State beating Oklahoma in 2021 to send Lincoln Riley was the peak, I think this one probably topped it.