College football’s Week 7 slate delivered a stunning series of upsets, with top-ranked Georgia falling to Auburn, Alabama suffering another disappointing loss to Tennessee, and Notre Dame getting knocked off by BYU. Meanwhile, Florida stunned Texas behind an impressive performance from backup quarterback Tramell Jones Jr., while Ohio State narrowly escaped Indiana to get a big win in the Big Ten.

From Georgia’s costly turnovers to Tennessee’s defensive dominance, Saturday exposed major concerns for national championship contenders and opened the door for multiple teams to push for the SEC and College Football Playoff races.

Auburn vs. Georgia

On what felt like an uncharacteristic day for multiple teams, Georgia played its most uncharacteristic game. We’re not used to seeing multiple turnovers from quarterback Gunner Stockton, but he threw two costly interceptions for the Bulldogs and lost a fumble. 

On top of that, Georgia made costly mistakes, including a roughing-the-passer penalty that put Auburn in position to kick the game-winning field goal. Linebacker Gabe Harris Jr. committed the penalty. 

This game exposed the lack of weapons on the Georgia offense, which limits their ability to run for the National Championship. When the running game isn’t working and they’re forced into a passing offense, the operation doesn’t look as clean. Even with getting over 100 yards on the ground, Auburn’s defense made crucial stops when it needed to. 

Defensively, the rushing defense wasn’t as stout as we’re used to seeing it — especially containing the quarterback. Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown ran for over 100 yards routinely, making big plays when the Tigers needed it. 

It’s a surprise performance given the fact that Georgia limited Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell to 41 rushing yards a week ago. 

Having players like Chris Cole, Khalil Barnes and Jordan Hall on the defensive end for the Bulldogs makes this performance even more worrying. It’ll be a good opportunity for Georgia to look at themselves in the mirror and respond. They have Florida, Ole Miss, and Missouri coming up and are still in the mix for the SEC Championship race. 

You have to give credit to this Auburn coaching staff and head coach Alex Golesh for having his team ready to play. Auburn got massive plays from its receiving core, with Chas Nimrod and Keshaun Singleton making the necessary plays to hurt this Georgia defense. 

With two losses already in the SEC, Auburn will struggle to make an SEC championship run, but for Golesh and his squad, this is a good stepping stone. They have a big matchup against LSU and, obviously, Alabama in the Iron Bowl, where they’ll look to play spoiler again.

Alabama vs. Tennessee

We’ve been wondering whether Tennessee can be the team we expected coming into the year. After a disappointing loss to Texas earlier this season and quarterback issues, hope for the Volunteers was slowly fading.

Well, this team and defense absolutely silenced the critics against Alabama. DeSean Bishop rushed for 159 yards and two touchdowns, gashing the Crimson Tide defense. The Volunteers have won three of the last five matchups against Alabama, and Saturday’s win handed Alabama back-to-back losses for the first time since 2007.

Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Knowles had his unit ready, holding Alabama to just over 200 total yards. Pass rushers Xavier Gilliam and Tyree Weathersby had the Alabama offensive line in anguish the entire day, being able to quickly win and get into the backfield of the Crimson Tide.

While it was an upset, it wasn’t the most surprising of the day. The Alabama offense’s slow starts are starting to affect game outcomes. The Crimson Tide rebounded from a slow start earlier in the season to beat Kentucky, but couldn’t overcome another slow start against Tennessee. Head coach Kalen DeBoer will have to figure out how to get his team to start faster, and it won’t be easy with Alabama losing wide receiver Ryan Coleman Williams for a couple of weeks.

For Tennessee, it was another confidence-building win. The Volunteers have two more games against ranked opponents this season: No. 15 Kentucky and No. 22 LSU. They can easily find themselves in the SEC championship if they don’t lose another game this season.

Notre Dame vs. BYU

What a gutsy performance from the BYU Cougars to get a big win over Notre Dame. Not only was it a big win for BYU, but also for the Big12 as a whole. Cougars quarterback Bear Bachmeier had 224 passing yards, two rushing touchdowns, and caught a touchdown pass. He was everywhere, making it hard for the Notre Dame defense to stop him.

The performance helped BYU get its first win over a top-10 opponent since 2018.

Even with the loss, it was still a good performance from the Fighting Irish. Down 11 points at halftime, Notre Dame fought back and eventually took a 24-21 lead in the second half. Quarterback CJ Carr threw for 261 yards and routinely made hard throws over the middle against a stout BYU defense.

Even with it, the Fighting Irish offense still couldn’t close out critical drives in the red zone and settled for field goals. It was the first major test of the season, so it’s a good opportunity to improve and come back from this loss.

BYU needed a cleaner operation. Special teams mistakes let Notre Dame back into the game, and BYU scored only one touchdown in the second half. While they made the necessary plays to win, it shouldn’t have been that close in the end. Still, it’s a big win for head coach Kalani Sitake and the overall culture he’s building in Utah. BYU has been a solid team over the years, but just missed that milestone win. Well, they got it and now are in control of their own destiny.

The Cougars have one more ranked matchup on the schedule, against rival Utah.

Texas vs. Florida

Don’t want to take away from Florida head coach Jon Sumrall’s coaching job. He had his team ready, especially with starting quarterback Aaron Philo missing. Tramell Jones Jr. stepped in and ran the offense efficiently and, most importantly, didn’t turn the ball over once.

The main takeaway from this game is how concerning the Steve Sarkisian–Arch Manning duo is. Manning doesn’t look comfortable at all within this Texas offense. He had an ADOT of 7.6 yards, which was his second-lowest for the season. For a quarterback who has been in college for four years, it looks like Manning is a true freshman. He stares down open routes and can’t handle pressure in his face.

Texas’ games don’t get easier. They face Ole Miss and LSU, games Texas will probably lose right now. Sarkisian’s seat should start heating up if the disappointing results keep piling up.

Florida seems to be operating ahead of schedule under Sumrall in his first year. This team is flying around, and it looks like Florida is back.

Indiana vs. Ohio State

We touched on this game yesterday in a game report. But there was a lot to take away from this game. No doubt both of these teams have some of the best defense in the country, and it showed on Saturday. Each quarterback struggled to find open receivers, and both took massive hits throughout the game.

The biggest takeaway is how Ohio State will operate without Julian Sayin for at least seven weeks. Head coach Ryan Day confirmed the second-year starter will miss at least the rest of the regular season, which hurts. The good news for Ohio State is that they have the best player in the country, Jeremiah Smith. No matter who is taking the starting quarterback snaps, they’ll have an easy time having a weapon like Smith.

Not only that, but the defense of Ohio State is again one of the best in the country. No matter what, that unit will keep this team in games and could even win them outright.

Indiana had an uncharacteristic day, but we learned major things about this team. The defense is for real, and they have two studs at wide receiver in Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh. Even though Marsh dropped the potential game-winning touchdown catch, he is still one of the best receivers in the country. This shouldn’t affect Indiana or how they operate for the rest of the season.