10 Takeaways from Week 14: Michigan stuns Ohio State, Miami stumbles and Georgia survives

College soccer is unpredictable and pleasant, which is why we reside for what occurs on Saturdays. And the ultimate weekend of the 2024 common season completely delivered, from a stunning upset (and an unpleasant postgame second) in Columbus to an eight-overtime thriller in Athens and a lot in between.

Each Sunday, I publish my greatest takeaways from the faculty soccer weekend. I spotlight probably the most fascinating storylines, monitor College Football Playoff contenders and particularly shout out particular person and crew performances that deserve the highlight.

Here are my high takeaways from Week 14:

1. Ohio State ought to transfer on from Ryan Day.

I don’t know if the Buckeye administration will pull the plug now forward of the College Football Playoff or it’ll wait to see if Ohio State can win a nationwide championship to make up for its fourth straight loss to Michigan. But something in need of a nationwide title coupled with Saturday’s embarrassing three-point loss to a deeply flawed Wolverine squad ought to result in Day’s dismissal. Your job as the top soccer coach of Ohio State is to beat Michigan, whether or not That Team Up North is nice, good or not-so-good. And Day can’t beat any of these variations of Michigan. The Buckeyes misplaced to a five-loss Michigan crew led by a quarterback who threw simply 62 yards within the recreation and tossed two interceptions.

Ohio State’s protection was terrific, however its offensive recreation plan was horrendous. The Buckeyes stored attempting to run the ball up the center, even after they couldn’t, they usually didn’t throw the ball to their otherworldly receivers almost sufficient. Freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith had a wide-open landing catch late within the second quarter … after which was solely focused twice in your complete second half. He was not focused at any level within the last 25 minutes of a one-possession recreation towards a hated rival. That is teaching malpractice. As was the late fourth-quarter penalty for unlawful substitution on third-and-two that gave Michigan a recent set of downs forward of the eventual game-winning subject purpose. And the lasting picture of the sport, Day standing on the sphere alone as his gamers fought Wolverines over a Block M flag planted on the sphere, Day doing nothing to intervene.

There’s not a lot left to say about Day’s tenure at Ohio State at this level. He’s misplaced 10 complete video games over six seasons, and 4 of them have come towards Michigan. His Buckeyes are way more gifted than the Wolverines this season — and his donors spent $20 million to retain and appeal to stated expertise — and have been 20.5-point favorites heading into Saturday’s version of The Game for a cause. This is a loss that can by no means be forgotten or excused, and it feels prefer it must be the ultimate nail within the coffin for a coach who wins loads of video games however not the massive ones.

2. Sherrone Moore’s Year 1 will probably be outlined by Michigan’s upset of Ohio State.

Forget in regards to the quarterback merry-go-round or the lopsided losses to Texas and Oregon. Moore’s first season because the full-time head coach of the Wolverines will probably be remembered for Michigan pulling off the most important upset within the historical past of its rivalry with Ohio State. The Wolverines have been 21.5-point underdogs on the street towards their hated rival, they usually not solely performed the precise recreation they wished and wanted to so as to have a shot at profitable, they really went out and received the sport regardless of an anemic passing recreation and a number of turnovers. Moore is now 2-0 towards Ohio State, and as we all know due to how scorching Day’s seat has gotten as a result of he can’t beat Michigan, beating Ohio State goes a good distance for the top coach in Ann Arbor. Plus, he’s bringing within the No. 1 general recruit within the nation in quarterback Bryce Underwood. How the tables can flip in just some weeks!

3. Miami would possibly very properly miss the College Football Playoff.

The Hurricanes have at all times been a deeply flawed crew regardless of having a sensational quarterback in Cam Ward. The protection was at all times leaky, which meant this was a crew that would lose to any crew with an important offense. And Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord has had a heck of a season, main the nation in passing yardage and main the Orange to a powerful 9-3 file. So in fact he’d be the quarterback to choose aside Miami’s protection to the tune of 380 yards and three touchdowns. It appears seemingly that No. 6 Miami might fall out of the CFP race after shedding to an unranked opponent, as a result of this specific choice committee has handled groups like this earlier than (BYU — after its first loss). Not solely are each of Miami’s losses to unranked opponents, each have come up to now three video games. Never say by no means, but it surely’d be exhausting to defend together with this crew within the last bracket.

4. Travis Hunter might have wrapped up the Heisman Trophy this weekend.

Hunter scored three touchdowns and grabbed an interception towards Oklahoma State on Friday, a highlight-reel efficiency worthy of school soccer’s biggest particular person honor. He was already the odds-on favourite heading into the ultimate weekend of the common season, and nothing he did in Colorado’s last win at dwelling did something to wreck that. Ashton Jeanty is an unbelievable working again who’s chasing Barry Sanders’ information, but it surely looks as if voters have already determined what he’s completed towards principally Group of 5 opponents isn’t sufficient to beat Hunter’s two-way workload. Hunter is each a top-10 receiver within the nation and probably the greatest cornerbacks within the nation. We’ve by no means seen somebody do what Hunter has completed, and it doesn’t look like anybody can catch him at this level. Cam Ward received’t be taking part in throughout convention championship week, and he was most likely the one participant who might dazzle sufficient to make up the required floor to make this a race.

5. Alabama was the most important oblique winner of the weekend.

The Crimson Tide took care of enterprise by beating Auburn to win the Iron Bowl, however that’s nearly a footnote to the day contemplating all that occurred elsewhere. Clemson shedding to South Carolina knocked the Tigers out of the Playoff as an at-large candidate (although they’ll have a shot at making the sphere by profitable the ACC’s auto-bid within the league championship recreation). And Miami shedding to unranked Syracuse will seemingly drop the ‘Canes out of the CFP bracket. So, Alabama is probably going going to be the final crew into the projected bracket this coming week. It appears becoming for a chaos-filled season {that a} crew that wanted fairly a little bit of assist to get again into the bracket … did get that assist! And nonetheless has a head-to-head win over South Carolina, a fellow bubble crew.

6. Notre Dame ought to rise within the rankings.

Ultimately, it may not matter a lot if the Fighting Irish are No. 4 or No. 5 within the subsequent set of CFP rankings, as a result of so long as they’re within the vary to host a first-round recreation, all will probably be properly. But now that Notre Dame has crushed USC soundly — a crew that Penn State eked previous in time beyond regulation — it’s time for the CFP choice committee to place the Irish above the Nittany Lions (whose loss to Ohio State depreciated a bit on Saturday). I perceive that Notre Dame has the worst lack of any CFP contender, however the choice committee has already determined it’s not a Playoff eliminator and that the Irish have greater than made up for it within the two-plus months since. So, at this level, I’m evaluating the Notre Dame resume the best way the committee is — and it looks as if the committee would possibly bump up the nation’s most dominant crew (over the previous two months) forward of a Penn State crew whose finest “win” on its resume is a detailed loss to Ohio State … which simply picked up its second loss.

7. We’ve acquired some fascinating convention championship recreation matchups.

There are a ton of first-year convention members taking part in for league titles (and potential computerized bids!) subsequent weekend. Oregon within the Big Ten, Texas within the SEC, SMU within the ACC and Arizona State within the Big 12 are all nice examples of first-year members making a giant splash of their new leagues. Of the group, solely Oregon and Texas have been the apparent picks again within the preseason. SMU doing this in Year 1 of a league it needed to primarily purchase its manner into is fairly exceptional. So is Arizona State! The Sun Devils received three video games a season in the past whereas coping with NCAA sanctions and have been picked to complete dead-last within the 16-team Big 12 again within the preseason. I’d argue that probably the greatest unwanted side effects of the brand new expanded CFP is the elevated consideration it’s dropped at the person Power 4 convention races. It’s highlighted what Arizona State, Colorado, SMU and others have completed this season in a manner I’m undecided it might have if the four-team subject was locked in prefer it often is by this level within the season.

8. Texas will get one other shot on the solely crew it misplaced to — Georgia.

The Longhorns made probably the most fascinating recreation of the weekend boring by simply dispatching rival Texas A&M on Saturday evening. But that’s what Texas wished to do, establishing a rematch towards the Bulldogs in Atlanta. It’ll be fascinating to see how totally different each groups are — and will probably be — from what they have been within the first matchup in subsequent weekend’s recreation. Georgia has been so inconsistent all season, and a lot will rely upon whether or not the ‘Dawgs can replicate the defensive effort (and effectiveness) from the primary recreation. Can Carson Beck be correct? Efficient? Effective? Or will Quinn Ewers (and perhaps Arch Manning, sometimes?) get their revenge with a first-round CFP bye on the road?

9. Does South Carolina have an actual shot on the Playoff?

The Gamecocks are one of many hottest groups within the nation, with six straight wins together with Saturday’s victory over No. 12 Clemson. Quarterback LaNorris Sellers was and is spectacular; he must be one of many greatest names within the sport heading into subsequent season for certain. But the query heading into Tuesday’s rankings is whether or not South Carolina has completed sufficient by choosing up a top-15 win at Clemson to surpass two of the groups that beat it (Alabama and Ole Miss). So far, the committee has largely adhered to head-to-head outcomes when evaluating two or three groups with comparable resumes. But might the Gamecocks do sufficient to offset that and provides themselves an actual shot at sneaking into the 12-team subject as the ultimate at-large crew?

10. College soccer’s gimmicky two-point conversion time beyond regulation format should go.

I perceive why the game’s leaders felt that they should change the time beyond regulation format after the grueling seven-OT LSU-Texas A&M recreation in 2018. They have been frightened in regards to the put on and tear of all of these further performs. But now, six years later, I’m satisfied that it was an pointless overreaction to a particularly uncommon occasion. There’s no good cause for groups to alternate two-point performs starting with the third time beyond regulation … besides to finish the sport within the flukiest doable manner, primarily based on whoever can execute their seventh-best two-point play finest? There are different — higher — methods to construction time beyond regulation that enable the sport to be determined by regular soccer performs. Copy the NFL! Or preserve the format that school soccer makes use of for the primary two overtimes and transfer the road of scrimmage as much as the 15- or 10-yard line for later time beyond regulation intervals, so there can be fewer doable first downs (and subsequent further performs). I simply need the sport to finish with an actual possession and a concerted technique, not random two-point performs run after gamers stroll forwards and backwards throughout the sphere. It’s anticlimactic. It’s awkward. And I’d truthfully slightly a recreation finish in a tie than with this loopy format deciding a significant common season contest.