Alabama’s coach is screaming and cussing, Arch Manning is throwing a pick-six, Texas A&M’s coach is insulting a portion of the team’s fan base, Nebraska is choking, and Lane Kiffin is losing to Kentucky.
Suffice it to say, college football is in full sprint as we arrive at the season’s midpoint.
Here’s what’s left on my mind after Week 6:
Lane Kiffin on the Brian Kelly track
Will Stein is enjoying a better first season at Kentucky than Lane Kiffin is at LSU.
Let that sink in.
LSU’s 35-34 loss in Lexington supplied fresh evidence that Kiffin neglected to see the forest for the trees when he left Mississippi on the playoff’s doorstep in favor of what he deemed a glitzier job, where he thought he could win a national championship.
Never mind that Kiffin left behind a team and an Ole Miss
program good enough to contend for a national championship.
This loss to Kentucky doesn’t change the possibility that Kiffin might indeed win a national title at LSU, some years down the road. Or, he might lose as often as Brian Kelly did and get himself fired. Both possibilities remain in play.
What’s becoming strikingly obvious is Kiffin stands further from a national championship today than he did 12 months ago.
Ole Miss is better than LSU. Kentucky is better than LSU, too, or at least it’s good enough to humble Kiffin’s expensive roster in overtime in front of a sell-out crowd.
What Nick Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron achieved at LSU is ancient history from a bygone era. Fact is, LSU made the College Football Playoff just once in 12 seasons. After this season, it’ll be once in 13 seasons. Put differently, LSU has never made the playoff when Joe Burrow wasn’t its quarterback.
Sam Leavitt is no Burrow. Kentucky logged two takeaways from LSU’s turnover-prone quarterback, and the Wildcats also scored on a punt return.
College football changed forever with the dawn of NIL and transfer free agency. In this era, Kentucky can topple LSU behind a rookie coach and a transfer quarterback and another gutsy two-point walk-off for the Wildcats, and it doesn’t feel like a fluke.
Kelly, if you’re wondering, went 4-2 through his first six games despite inheriting a mess from Orgeron. So, LSU (4-2) sits where it did halfway through Kelly’s first season.
Oh, and the Tigers reached the SEC championship game in Kelly’s first season.
Check the standings, and you’ll see Kentucky is a couple of steps closer to the SEC Championship than LSU is, and Kiffin is a couple of losses away from his first season in the bayou being declared a bust.
Kalen DeBoer kills off one narrative
Remember the tale that Kalen DeBoer doesn’t cuss that emerged after Alabama hired him? Well, we can put that one to bed.
Amateur lip readers deduced DeBoer does, in fact, cuss. Or, at least he did during his sideline tirade directed at Dijon Lee Jr., after the Alabama cornerback’s bone-headed personal foul penalty allowed Georgia to go into victory formation and salt away a 20-17 victory.
Alabama lost the game, but DeBoer’s sideline demeanor has never been closer to that of the coach he replaced than when he chewed out the officials in the fourth quarter after they neglected to flag Georgia for what sure looked like pass interference. DeBoer saved another sideline rant for Lee.
As Saban would put it, those are called ass chewings, and Alabama fans must’ve liked seeing such fire from the typically mild-mannered DeBoer. They also must love what they’re seeing from quarterback Keelon Russell, who delivered some dazzling moments in defeat, even if Gunner Stockton proved one rung better.
Few teams come home from Bryant-Denny Stadium victorious, and Georgia earned its No. 1 ranking with this triumph. This is Kirby Smart’s best team since his back-to-back national title teams. Georgia is good enough to win it all, and Alabama isn’t that far off, especially if DeBoer’s ass chewings hit home.
Texas warts include Steve Sarkisian, Arch Manning
Why are Georgia and Alabama the SEC’s two most-trustworthy teams? In part, because they have two of the conference’s best quarterbacks.
Texas doesn’t.
As Arch Manning put it after Texas lost 27-24 to Oklahoma, “we beat ourselves." He’s correct.
The Longhorns had been trying to beat themselves for a couple of weeks. Finally, they succeeded, and Manning’s two interceptions played a direct role. So did Oklahoma scoring off a blocked punt.
Texas remains talented but untrustworthy, and Steve Sarkisian is taking heat for refusing to surrender play-calling duties. The play-calling narrative misses the point.
It’s not so much the calls as it is the ineffectual execution, like Manning panicking and throwing two avoidable and crippling interceptions.
Also, it’s not as if Sark has an obvious play-calling savant ready to take on those duties midseason.
Forget play-calling, because here’s the important question: Why can’t Sarkisian get more out of Manning? It’s not the plays. It’s the performance.
Sarkisian earned offensive guru status for his work calling Alabama’s offense in an undefeated 2020 season, but these last two seasons are enough to revoke his membership to "Club Guru."
Sarkisian is the first college coach in history who couldn’t develop a Manning into something more than an average quarterback.
Big Ten finds its playoff sleeper team
If Texas is the most untrustworthy team money can buy, then Oregon is the most mediocre team money can buy. We must take UCLA seriously as a playoff sleeper after the Bruins stayed undefeated by clipping the Ducks’ wings.
Southern Cal is the only ranked opponent left on UCLA’s schedule, and Bob Chesney is in a battle with Stein of Kentucky to be the most celebrated first-year coach.
With Oregon wilting, there’s room within the Big Ten for someone to rise up and join Ohio State and Indiana as playoff teams. Chesney’s Bruins staked their place in that conversation thanks to a defensive performance that bottled up all of Oregon’s expensive talent.
Three and out
1. In the aftermath of Texas A&M coach Mike Elko taking an foolish shot at “Billy’s cesspool” (a nod to Billy Liucci’s TexAgs website), some savvy thinker launched a new website that can be found at billyscesspool.me. I’m still finding my way around the new website, but the early returns are promising. The new site includes a hot-take generator. Here’s an easy take: Elko’s tenure hit rock bottom in a 27-6 loss to Missouri.
2. Wake Forest won again. The Demon Deacons are 5-1, and Jake Dickert is going to be the belle of the coaching carousel.
3. Perhaps Notre Dame ain’t played nobody, but I retract my previous statement that the Irish are overrated at No. 3. After Notre Dame stomped a hole in Stanford’s face in a 58-7 victory, no argument here about the Irish being ranked No. 3.
But, wait, what’s this I see? Notre Dame is now ranked No. 2? Just when I was beginning to accept the Irish at No. 3...
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lane Kiffin giving Brian Kelly a run for his money after LSU's loss to Kentucky
