Week 9 of the 2025 college football season featured a handful of ranked-vs-ranked matchups, and for the most part, those lived up to the hype. College GameDay was in Nashville for No. 10 Vanderbilt’s clash with No. 15 Missouri, and that game was a bit low-scoring but still exciting.
But with all those ranked-vs-ranked matchups, there were several teams elsewhere in the Top 25 that took care of business against, frankly, lesser conference opponents. We learned some good things about some of these teams, and we learned some…not-so-good things about some other teams. There have been surprises, and there have been some major disappointments. College football, baby!
Speaking of which…let’s talk about it!
There was no “trap game” for Indiana this week
Notice how I put trap game in quotes in the title because the fact that people were even potentially considering this a trap game for the Hoosiers was pretty ridiculous.
Indiana spent its first week ranked as No. 2 in the AP Poll dismantling a UCLA team that, while hot over the past few weeks, was nowhere close to the Hoosiers in terms of talent and structure.
Indiana jumped out to a 35-3 lead by halftime and never looked back. To be perfectly fair, the game was over way before that point. Fernando Mendoza continued to play like a leading Heisman Trophy candidate, as he shook off a somewhat shaky start to finish the game completing 15 of his 22 passes for 198 passing yards and three touchdowns. He did throw his third interception of the season, but he did a great job of immediately putting that in the rearview.
The Hoosiers’ defense absolutely shut down a UCLA offense that had quietly been playing very well over the past couple of weeks. Nico Iamaleava only totaled 113 passing yards, and he tossed two interceptions and posted a QBR of 18.4. Yes, you are reading that number correctly.
This was a complete domination in every sense of the word, and this game completely destroyed the momentum that the Bruins had built up over the course of the last few weeks. And for Curt Cignetti and Indiana, just another day at the office, apparently!
Oklahoma’s College Football Playoff hopes are on life support
The margin for error just became razor-thin for the Sooners.
One silver lining I will give them was that John Mateer did look better, although that isn’t really saying a whole lot. He was still a ways off from the Heisman form he showed at the beginning of the season.
Mateer only completed 17 of his 31 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown through the air. He also posted a 45.1 QBR. To be fair to Oklahoma’s quarterback, he did a good job of not turning the ball over.
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss generally played well throughout this one, as he completed 24 of his 44 passes for 315 yards and a touchdown. He posted a very good 90.7 QBR and he kept the ball out of harm’s way.
The key came down to which team would make more plays in order to win the game, and that team proved to be the Rebels. At the game’s most important position, Chambliss outplayed Mateer, and that was what mattered in terms of deciding which team would take home the win in this back-and-forth affair.
But something just seems off with this Oklahoma team ever since the Red River Rivalry, where I felt that Mateer came back too soon from his hand injury, and that was the biggest reason he looked so bad in that game. He did look better in this game, but the Sooners were unable to come out with the win, and they now have two losses and their College Football Playoff hopes are looking quite uncertain.
Georgia Tech’s game against Georgia will decide its CFP fate
Why am I referencing a game that is several weeks into the future when it comes to Georgia Tech’s season? Well, it’s because 1) it’s true, and 2) it isn’t difficult to envision a path where the Yellow Jackets are undefeated heading into that contest.
This week, Georgia Tech shook off a sluggish start to beat ACC rival Syracuse by a score of 41-16, and it was all Yellow Jackets from the second quarter onward. Quarterback Haynes King, who is known for his rushing ability, has improved dramatically as a passer this season. He completed 25 of his 31 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns. And the best part? He didn’t turn the ball over.
Oh, and not to mention, he added 91 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries on the ground. So, for those keeping count at home, that’s five total touchdowns in Georgia Tech’s win! That’s pretty darn impressive!
It also helped that the Yellow Jackets ran for 239 total yards as a team, and even though Syracuse’s offense looked okay for about a quarter and a half, Georgia Tech went up 10-3 in the second quarter and never looked back from there.
But like I said earlier, it is quite possible that the Yellow Jackets are unbeaten heading into their showdown with Georgia in Athens. And if that scenario does in fact become a reality, how they perform in that game could very well decide how their postseason shakes out.
Vanderbilt is flirting with a historic season
I briefly mentioned this game in the intro, so you already knew that I was going to give it its own section!
This game was one of those games where it was initially sluggish, and both offenses were sputtering and somewhat out of sync. However, in the second half, both offenses showed signs of life, and the game became much more exciting.
The game was knotted at 3 in the third quarter and like I alluded to, both teams’ offenses had underwhelmed up to that point in the game. Missouri was coming off a missed 29-yard field goal that killed any momentum that they had built up on the drive. Vandy was getting the ball back at their own 20-yard-line with a chance to gather some momentum of their own.
And then this happened on the first play from scrimmage.
Once that play went down, the Commodores took a 10-3 lead. However, Missouri got the ball back and made sure they were not going down on the road without a fight, as the Tigers drove all the way down the field and scored on a six-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Matt Zollers to tight end Jude James to tie the game at 10.
Vanderbilt saw that, and said that they can do that (again) too! The Commodores drove down the field in nine plays, and while they were helped out by a critical roughing the passer call at the Tigers’ 44-yard-line, they did still manage to punch it on off a rushing touchdown by quarterback Diego Pavia.
Missouri got the ball back and got in range for a reasonable Hail Mary attempt, but it came up (literally) one yard short, and Vanderbilt hung on for a massive win.
Forgive me for using two tweets in one section but this play was too hectic not to include here.
And for Vanderbilt, they are now 7-1 and this has the potential to be one of the most special seasons in the history of Vandy’s football program. I’m still uncertain that they are a legitimate contender for the College Football Playoff at this moment in time, but regardless, the possibility is strong.
Cincinnati is the hottest team in the country
Now where in the world did this come from?
Following Cincinnati’s Week 1 loss to Nebraska at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, I expected the Bearcats to have a solid season, but nothing spectacular. I was high on Nebraska at the time, and despite the fact that they won this week, the Cornhuskers have been just a teeny bit disappointing.
But I’m not here to talk about them! I’m here to talk about the Cincinnati Bearcats and how torrid they have been over the past several weeks.
They have only gotten better since that loss, and this week’s 41-20 home win over Baylor was the latest example of this. Quarterback Brendan Sorsby (former Indiana Hoosier, for those wondering) has elevated his game as the field general for the Bearcats. Sorsby was efficient and kept the ball out of harm’s way in this one, as he threw for 111 yards and a touchdown, and added 85 yards and a score on the ground on 11 carries.
The rushing attack for Cincinnati also tore up Baylor’s defense throughout the afternoon, as the Bearcats ran for 265 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Baylor’s offense put in a good effort, but it was clear that Cincy was far and away the better team.
The Bearcats are now 7-1 and look like one of the best teams in the Big 12, and a surefire contender for the Big 12 Championship. And for Baylor, I feel like not enough people are talking about the Bears as one of the most disappointing teams in college football this season. That defense of theirs is…yuck.
But it’s pretty difficult to find a defense that would be able to slow down this relentless Cincinnati attack at this point in time, because Cincy is the hottest team in college football right now.
And last but not least…
Texas A&M does, in fact, deserve its Top-3 ranking in the AP Poll
Well, I was wrong last week about Texas A&M. They pretty much ended a team’s season last night.
That was probably the most impressive performance this weekend. Maybe an argument can be made for Indiana’s win over UCLA, but this Aggies team going on the road into Death Valley and dominating LSU? That’s an incredibly difficult feat to accomplish.
But that’s precisely what Texas A&M did, as this 49-25 demolition of the Tigers in Baton Rouge was even more lopsided than the final score indicated.
And perhaps the scariest part about this game was that Marcel Reed was just, well, good (not necessarily great) throwing the ball. He did throw two touchdowns and posted a very solid 92.4 QBR, but he also threw two interceptions and completed 12 of his 21 passes.
But the way he primarily carved up a really good Tigers defense was on the ground. Reed ran for 108 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, and LSU was absolutely helpless to stop the Aggies’ running game. Texas A&M ran for 224 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, and just did whatever they wanted in that area all game.
LSU’s offense played okay, and there were instances in this one where it looked like they had momentum on that side, but Texas A&M just seemed to be one (sometimes two) steps ahead of the Tigers throughout the night.
And remember that thing I said at the very beginning of this section about how the Aggies ended LSU’s season? Well, they effectively ended their College Football Playoff hopes, as LSU is now 5-3, and all three of those losses have come in SEC play. It’s all but official that there will be no CFP berth in Baton Rouge this year, and the calls for Brian Kelly’s firing have become louder than ever.
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