Ninth-ranked Southern Cal and reigning Heisman Trophy-winner Caleb Williams needed triple overtime to survive an upset bid at home over scrappy Arizona; eleventh-ranked Alabama plodded through the first half against rival Texas A&M in College Station, then looked a little more like Alabama in the second half, getting out of Kyle Field with a 26-20 win; and No. 10 Notre Dame wasn’t as fortunate at Louisville.
Twentieth-ranked Kentucky’s unbeaten start to the season came crashing to a halt at top-ranked Georgia; Florida State stayed unbeaten with a win over Virginia Tech; and if you haven’t seen it, wait until you see what happened to No. 17 Miami and how they lost at home to unranked Georgia Tech: Georgia Tech Scores Game-Winning Touchdown With :01 On The Clock.
It was one heck of a college football Saturday, that Oct. 7, 2023.
Williams had far from his best statistical game – in fact, his counterpart, Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita, making just his second start ever, threw for five touchdowns and looked more efficient.
But it was the Trojans who managed to get the win, a 43-41 victory after Williams rolled to his right in overtime No. 3, and scampered into the end zone, edging the ball just inside the pylon for the go-ahead score. No. 9 USC avoids disaster, beats Arizona 43-41 in 3OT
Arizona called a running play, a pitch-out from Fifita to running back Jonah Coleman, on their two-point attempt to tie the game. But the Trojan defense collapsed on Coleman for a loss, and USC had won.
Southern Cal is now 6-0 with the victory, and likely finally has its signature win thus far this season.
Alabama, which looks more like the bruising, defensive-based team of Nick Saban’s early tenure in recent weeks than it does the high-powered offensive squad it has been in the last few seasons, needed most of the clock to get out of College Station with a 26-20 win over Texas A&M (
In fact, A&M coach Jimbo Fisher argued that the Crimson Tide should have needed every single second (Jimbo Fisher: Texas A&M football had 1 second left vs. Alabama).
With Alabama holding on to a 26-20 lead and at fourth-down-and-8 at A&M’s 35-yard-line, with seven seconds left, the last thing Alabama wanted was to allow A&M a last-second shot, even a Hail Mary throw or hook-and-ladder attempt.
After a time-out, Milroe dropped back and rolled to his right, hurling the ball downfield about 30, 31 yards trying to run out the clock.
The ball careened out of bounds. Referee Daniel Gautreaux almost immediately turned on his mic, saying Milroe was out of the tackle box and that the ball crossed the line of scrimmage, and that the game was over.
Fisher argued that the ball hit the ground, or something, before time expired, that there was actually one second on the clock.
“I thought there was one when the ball hits,” Fisher said afterward. “That’s a play everybody works on. You run down there and you do it and it takes about seven or eight seconds. I thought there was one, but I can’t see.”
Alabama moved to 5-1 on the season with the win, and is 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference with the win (wins over Ole Miss, Mississippi State and A&M, all SEC West Division opponents). The Tide is the only unbeaten team in the West.
Elsewhere: No. 1 Georgia got help from Kentucky in routing No. 20 Kentucky – and yes, you read that right (Georgia football and QB Carson Beck roll Kentucky Wildcats); No. 5 Florida State scored 22 first-quarter points and cruised to a win over Virginia Tech (Trey Benson runs for 200 yards, 2 TDs to help No. 5 Florida State beat Virginia Tech 39-17); No. 25 Louisville got huge home-field crowd noise in a 33-20 win over No. 10 Notre Dame (No. 24 Louisville beats No. 10 Notre Dame 33-20, with Jawhar Jordan running for 143 yards, 2 TDs); unranked UCLA got a home upset over No. 13 Washington State (UCLA rallies in the fourth quarter to take down No. 13 Washington State 25-17); No. 14 North Carolina got 442 passing yards and three touchdowns from quarterback Drake Maye to rout Syracuse, 40-7 (No. 14 North Carolina in full control with Maye accounting for 4 touchdowns in 40-7 win over Orange); No. 15 Oregon State won a road game, 52-40, at Cal (D.J. Uiagalelei throws 5 TD passes to lead No. 15 Oregon State to a 52-40 win over California); No. 16 Ole Miss has put together back-to-back wins after falling to Alabama, having beaten LSU last weekend and unranked Arkansas on Saturday (No. 16 Mississippi scores 10 points in fourth quarter to rally for 27-20 win over Arkansas), and we gave you the link to the story that told how Georgia Tech upended Miami on a near-last-second TD pass from Haynes King, after the Hurricanes were ruled to have fumbled in the game’s final seconds.
Among ranked teams, No. 6 Penn State, No. 7 Washington and No. 8 Oregon were all idle.
For the early games Saturday, including No. 12 Oklahoma topping No. 3 Texas in the final moments at the Cotton Bowl, click here: EARLY-KICK COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP | Gabriel leads late OU comeback to top Texas | The Football Beat
In other scores from afternoon and evening games around the country, Wyoming, playing at home, upset No. 24 Fresno State, 24-19; North Carolina State topped Marshall, 48-41; Texas-San Antonio went north for a 49-34 win at Temple; Buffalo beat Central Michigan, 37-13; Northwestern beat Howard, barely, 23-20; Iowa beat Purdue, 20-14; unranked Clemson (weird to type) beat Wake Forest, 17-12; Navy edged North Texas, 27-23; Louisiana beat Texas State, 34-30; Eastern Michigan beat Ball State, 24-10; Miami (Ohio) shut out Bowling Green, 27-0; Ohio beat Kent State, 42-17; Northern Illinois beat Akron (badly), 55-14; Florida got back on the winning track, getting an SEC East win at home, 38-14, over Vanderbilt; Kansas routed Central Florida, 51-22; Alabama-Birmingham won for coach Trent Dilfer, beating South Florida, 56-35; Troy almost shut out Arkansas State, 37-3; UConn beat Rice by a touchdown, 38-31; Florida Atlantic beat Tulsa, 20-17; coach Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes got a road win, 27-24, at Arizona State; South Alabama, who upset Oklahoma State earlier this year, beat Louisiana Monroe, 55-7; Old Dominion beat Southern Miss, 17-13; Texas Tech went into Waco and left with a 39-14 win over Baylor; Iowa State dealt TCU a 27-14 loss in Ames, Iowa; Utah State beat Colorado State by 20, 44-24; and in Mountain West play, Boise State trailed 27-13 at the half at home over San Jose State, but held SJS scoreless in the second half and won, 35-27.
