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While you were sleeping… Washington State staged a fourth-quarter comeback against San Diego State, winning 29-26 and improving to 7-1. Wazzu became the first team to be eliminated from the AP poll last week. Maybe the Cougars will find their way into the top 25 today.

Rivalry results

Michigan-MSU, Kansas-KSU

• Michigan got competent QB play in Davis Warren and struck out Michigan State 24-17. The Spartans (4-4) came out of the gate with momentum, outscoring Michigan 135-15 in the first quarter. But a fumble at the end of the first half meant the Wolverines (5-3) were ahead. Michigan has won three straight times for the Paul Bunyan Trophy in this series.
• Kansas nearly spoiled No. 16 Kansas State’s season. The Jayhawks led the Wildcats by four points early in the fourth quarter, but Wildcats kicker Chris Tennant saved his team with a 51-yard field goal with less than two minutes left to secure a 29-27 victory . The Jayhawks (2-6) haven’t beaten the Wildcats (7-1) since 2008, or as one fan put it, 5,838 days.
• No. 12 Notre Dame ran away from No. 24 Navy for an easy 51-14 win. The Midshipmen entered the game with an undefeated record and had high hopes of making a statement with a decisive win. But instead they faltered and saw their chances in the College Football Playoff drop from 5 percent to 4 percent The athlete‘s model. Meanwhile, Notre Dame (7-1) has an 83 percent chance of getting on the field.

Trending this week

Backup QBs come through

📈 #1 Oregon. The Ducks defeated No. 20 Illinois 38-9 and improved to 8-0 for the first time since 2013. QB Dillon Gabriel threw three touchdowns, moving into third place on the NCAA list of career passing TDs, and scored another on the ground. Illinois was the last-place team on Oregon’s schedule, and while an upset is never out of the question, the Ducks’ path to the Big Ten Championship and CFP potential are becoming clearer.

📉 The viewing window at 3:30 p.m. When the Ducks beat Illinois, the other afternoon games didn’t offer much drama. No. 15 Alabama defeated No. 21 Missouri 34-0. No. 11 BYU (8-0) never trailed in its 37-24 win over UCF. The average margin of victory for the 16 games that began at 3:30 p.m. was 15 points. However, there were two one-point games: Tulsa’s 46-45 win over UTSA and TCU’s 35-34 win over Texas Tech.

📈 Backup QBs. Penn State starter Drew Allar did not play in the second half against Wisconsin after apparently injuring himself on a sack. But backup Beau Pribula performed well in the Nittany Lions’ 28-13 win. Over in College Station, Texas A&M (7-1) switched QB from Conner Weigman to Marcel Reed midway through the game, leading to a 31-point second-half score against LSU (6-2). Weigman was sacked four times early in the game, prompting coach Mike Elko to turn to Reed, who uses his legs a bit more as a runner. The move worked as the Aggies overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to win 38-23.

📈 Travis Hunter. Colorado picked up its sixth win of the season yesterday against Cincinnati. Hunter restarted his Heisman campaign after some injury issues in recent weeks, recording nine catches for 153 yards and two touchdowns, along with two tackles and four pass breakups on defense. He was on the field for a total of 130 snaps – 68 on offense and 62 on defense. The Buffs are in their second year of bowling under Coach Prime.

📉 Sales. Turnover is never a good thing. But they felt particularly damaging this week. It all started Thursday night when Syracuse QB Kyle McCord threw five interceptions against Pitt, three of which were returned for touchdowns in the first half as the No. 20 Panthers made their mark with a 41-13 win. On Saturday, No. 22 SMU committed six turnovers against Duke in a game that went to OT. The Mustangs escaped 28-27, which was just the 32nd time since 2000 that a team had six turnovers and won The athleteThis is Matt Baker. The other team with six turnovers on Saturday? Navy in their loss to Notre Dame.

📈 Cal. The Bears entered Saturday having lost their previous three games by a total of four points. But Cal broke through with a 44-7 win over Oregon State, as QB Fernando Mendoza threw for 364 yards and two touchdowns – including a 15-yard pass that he himself was credited with for the first score.

Quick snapshots… and scores

Stewart Mandel on the backup QBs who opted out Penn State And Texas A&M and more in Week 9 of college football.

One thing we were missing this Saturday was a Fieldstorm. To fill the gap, check out this story about Gary Morse, a Class of 2026 college baseball recruit who stormed the field on official visits three weeks in a row (at Vanderbilt, at Oregon and at Tennessee).

No. 4 Ohio State slipped past Nebraska 21-17, but the victory raised questions about the Buckeyes’ national championship ambitions.

No. 5 Texas survived a close opponent of his own No. 25 Vanderbilt with a 27:24 win. QB Quinn Ewers threw two interceptions while the Commodores hung around.

It wasn’t always pretty, though No. 6 Miami defeated Florida State 36-14. After the game, Canes coach Mario Cristobal wasn’t afraid to throw some shade at the other Sunshine State programs.

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(Top photo by Davis Warren: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)