College football Week 8: One-loss SEC powers face pivotal games in bids for playoff berths

Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee entered the season with high hopes, if not expectations, of making the 12-team college football playoff.

Each has one loss, and three of the four could have two losses after Saturday. A two-loss Southeastern Conference team wouldn’t be out of the playoff conversation, but their margin for error would be very slim.

No. 5 Georgia has a big chance at No. 1 Texas on Saturday night. A win keeps the Bulldogs in the thick of the race for a spot in the SEC championship game and cushions the blow of their loss to Alabama. A loss to the Longhorns, depending on what it looks like, wouldn’t be insurmountable with matchups against Tennessee and Mississippi between the remaining games.

No. 7 Alabama’s visit to No. 11 Tennessee looks like an elimination game. The Crimson Tide loss at Vanderbilt it’s a big blemish on his resume, and his two point win at home against South Carolina did not impress The same goes for Tennessee his loss to Arkansas and overtime home win against Florida.

No. 8 LSU’s playoff hopes would be in jeopardy if it doesn’t beat Arkansas. Each of the last four meetings has been decided by three points. The Tigers have recovered from theirs season-opening loss to a Southern California team this is a tough time in the Big Ten. Like Alabama, LSU struggled to defeat South Carolinaand last week the The Tigers beat Mississippi in overtime after scoring the tying touchdown with 27 seconds left in regulation.

In the Big Ten, defending national champion and 24th-ranked Michigan (4-2) can forget about a fourth straight playoff appearance if it doesn’t beat No. 22 Illinois (5-1), and we should ‘find out how good No. 16 Indiana (6-0, 3-0) really is when it hosts Nebraska (5-1, 2-1).

Arizona State (5-1, 2-1) visits Cincinnati (4-2, 2-1) for a meeting of two of the Big 12’s surprise teams. Their game is the conference co-main event with No. 17 Kansas State (5-1, 2-1) at West Virginia (3-3, 2-1).

Two key games in the Atlantic Coast Conference have No. 6 Miami (6-0, 2-0) at Louisville (4-2, 2-1) and Virginia (4-2, 2-1) at No. 10 Clemson (5-1, 4-0).

The best game

No. 5 Georgia (5-1, 3-1 SEC) at No. 1 Texas (6-0, 2-0), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ABC)

The Longhorns look like an SEC team in their first season since leaving the Big 12. The defense is the best in the country, and QB Quinn Ewers is healthy again and leads a top-10 offense .

Georgia QB Carson Beck threw for a game-high 459 yards against Mississippi State last week. But the Bulldogs need to strengthen their defense. They have given up more than 30 points twice and on Saturday gave up passing plays of 35, 42 and 72 yards.

BetMGM Sportsbook lists the Longhorns as 3 1/2 point favorites.

Heisman Clock

Clemson QB Cade Klubnik is in the second tier of Heisman Trophy contenders, tied for sixth with Georgia’s Beck at 14-1 odds among the betting public at BetMGM. Klubnik has the Tigers’ offense rolling for the past month and could put himself in the mix with big performances at home against Virginia and Louisville next week.

The Tigers are averaging 48.6 points per game since a 34-3 season-opening loss to Georgia, and have rushed for at least 500 yards in four of their last five games. Klubnik has thrown 17 touchdowns against two interceptions and is completing 67% of his passes for 254 yards per game.

Numbers to know

4 – Most FBS forced fumbles by Georgia Southern linebacker Marques Watson-Trent.

29-0: Iowa’s record since 2020 when scoring at least 21 points.

48 – Graham Mertz’s consecutive starts, the third-most among active FBS quarterbacks, before a season-ending ACL tear in Florida’s game against Tennessee last week.

56 — Current undefeated and No. 13 BYU players who have served full-time volunteer missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1960 – The last time North Carolina State, visiting California, played on the West Coast.

Under the radar

Nebraska (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) at No. 16 Indiana (6-0, 3-0), Saturday at noon ET (Fox)

Indiana has made it look easy, on paper, while averaging 47.5 points per game during its best start since 1967. The Hoosiers led their first three opponents by as many as 17 points at the half , but it took them until the fourth quarter to pull away. of Maryland and the Northwest.

Nebraska should be Indiana’s toughest test yet. Quarterback Dylan Raiola will look to bounce back after playing his worst half of the season against Rutgers in their last game. The Cornhuskers’ defense is second in the Big Ten in points allowed (11.3 points per game), leads the conference in sacks (18) and is tied with Ohio State for fourth nationally in yards allowed per rush (2.7 ).

heated seat

Will Hall is 14-29 in his fourth season at Southern Mississippi, 4-14 since leading the Golden Eagles to a Lending Tree Bowl victory over Rice to cap a 7-6 season in 2022. Just two of those four wins have come since then. against Bowl Subdivision opponents.

Hall hired new offensive and defensive coordinators in the offseason and has 51 new players on his roster after hitting the transfer portal. The Eagles are worse on offense, averaging just 16.7 points per game, and about the same on defense. Arkansas State visits Saturday.

Hall’s contract expires at the end of the season. It looks like his time at Southern Miss will be too.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP College Football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll i https://apnews.com/hub/college-football