Good morning, and welcome back to CFB Roundup from CFB Home – the first daily newsletter that’s all college football, all the time with no bias, no slant, and no fluff.

YESTERDAY’S RESULTS:

TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

Betting Information as of time of writing

Kyle McCord Throws 5 Interceptions, 3 Pick-Sixes and #19 Pitt Beats Syracuse 41-13

Rasheem Briles. Kyle Louis. Braylan Lovelace. Those are the three Pitt Panthers to take interceptions back for touchdowns against Syracuse and QB Kyle McCord in the first half.

By the end of it, McCord had thrown 5 interceptions while finishing 35-for-64 for 321 yards. He also added a rushing touchdown, one of two touchdowns on the night for Syracuse as the Orange lost 41-13 to #19 Pitt.

RB LeQuint Allen also struggled to get anything going, finishing with 32 rushing yards on 15 carries. He did add 6 catches, but for only 20 receiving yards. So, that’s 21 touches totaling just 53 yards.

As for the offenses, Syracuse technically had a better night in terms of yardage, outgaining Pitt by over 100 yards. And Syracuse also finished 12/27 on conversion downs, including going 6/7 on 4th down compared to just 2/9 from Pitt.

But where Pitt excelled, aside from the obvious of the 5 turnovers: Pitt averaged 4.93 yards per play. Not a great number, but certainly better than Syracuse’s 3.52 yards per play.

For the Panthers, QB Eli Holstein finished 11-for-15 for 108 yards and 2 interceptions before injury forced him out of the game and QB Nate Yarnell finished it off, finishing 5-for-7 with 36 yards.

Old Dominion’s Explosive First Half Propels Monarchs to 47-19 Win Over Georgia Southern

Old Dominion got out to a hot start en route to routing Georgia Southern 47-19.

After punting on the first drive, the Monarchs scored on 3 consecutive drives while it took 5 drives for Georgia Southern to get on the board. After racing out to the 20-0 lead, the score never got closer than 13. It was 30-7 at halftime, and was likely over, but it was definitely over after Old Dominion scored following Georgia Southern’s interception to open the second half.

For the Eagles, QB JC French finished 17-for-29 with 259 yards, 2 touchdowns, and an interception. He also added 23 rushing yards. RB OJ Arnold led Georgia Southern rushers with just 36 rushing yards on 7 carries.

For the Monarchs, QB Colton Joseph was supremely efficient, going 20-for-26 with 304 yards and 4 touchdowns while finishing with a 93.4 QBR. RB Aaron Young led all rushers with 77 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Joseph also had a nice night on the ground, adding 69 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Of the pass catchers, Isiah Page led all receivers with 100 yards on 7 catches, but Pat Conroy hauled in 3 for 83 and a touchdown, while Demariyon Houston caught 4 balls for 64 yards and 2 touchdowns. Senior Safety Will Jones also helped the Old Dominion cause with 2 turnovers, one an interception and one a fumble recovery.

Coach Deion Sanders on Need to Run the Ball Against Cincinnati

Coach Deion Sanders and Colorado have an interesting matchup this weekend against Cincinnati, a pair of teams who are currently exceeding the broader, national expectations in 2024.

For Colorado to win, Coach Sanders believes that running the ball effectively is going to be a key difference maker for the Buffaloes. In speaking on the Cincinnati defense, Coach Sanders shared that the Bearcats “drop eight tremendously. We’re going to have to run the football. Remember what I said? We’re going to run the football to really defeat this team, or catch them in blitzing situations, where they may go 1-on-1. They don’t do it a lot, but force them into those situations.”

Again, Coach Sanders separately emphasized, “you got to force them to do what you want them to do. You got to score some points where they have to get into something that they’re not comfortable with.”

Why this is a key point is that Colorado has struggled at times to run the ball, as they are 130th in the country with just 74.57 rushing yards per game.

Thamel: North Carolina Job More Coveted Than Florida Job

ESPN’s Pete Thamel was recently on the College GameDay Podcast and the discussion of both the Florida and North Carolina jobs opening was had.

On the podcast, Thamel – someone generally very-well in the know on things like this – shared that “people want that (North) Carolina job, by the way. I almost think more coaches want the (North) Carolina job than the Florida job.”

For the North Carolina job, the location is great, the institution is a good, well-funded one, and the schedule is not nearly as rigorous as a job like a Florida.

Neither jobs are technically open yet, but it is now being openly speculated that Mack Brown’s retirement and Billy Napier’s firing from North Carolina and Florida, respectively, are expected to happen in short order.

One of the last things Thamel said on the matter is “oh boy, does my phone ring about North Carolina,” so that will be something to monitor moving forward.

Mario Cristobal on Where Miami Could Improve Defensively

Miami’s defense has been allowing a lot of points lately, but generally, Mario Cristobal feels fairly good about the effort level of the Hurricanes.

In 3 ACC games, Miami is allowing 39 points per game, but Cristobal sees a lot of players playing at a high level, especially taking time to compliment the defensive line.

“They played at a high level. They really did. I think they fed off each other and competed,” Coach Cristobal said of the DL.

That being said, Coach Cristobal also shared, “we can get more out of them. We can. There’s more to be had there. And we’re going to push and test them this week, because they’re capable. And I think Saturday was an example of some of the things we can do.”

Injury Updates for Chris Hilton, Others in LSU/Texas A&M

One of the last injury reports before LSU plays Texas A&M was released.

Texas A&M has no one questionable, doubtful, or probable, just the 5 players who have been out for some time.

As for LSU, though, there are a number of key players questionable and probable, including Chris Hilton Jr. (questionable), CJ Daniels (probable), and Caden Durham (probable).

Additionally listed, Kimo Makane’ole is questionable and all of Greg Penn III, Austin Ausberry, and Miles Frazier are probable.

Steve Sarkisian After Loss: Every Week is Championship Game Now

Texas’ loss to Georgia really killed a lot of momentum for the Longhorns, but more importantly, it killed a lot of the cushion that the Longhorns had in the at-large discussion for the new 12-team College Football Playoff.

However, this is much like last season, when Texas lost to Oklahoma in October and then were forced to win out to reach the College Football Playoff, then with only 4 teams qualifying.

Coach Sarkisian shared, “We have to really make sure that we take care of our business one week at a time. We can’t just point to one or two games and say, ‘if we win that one, we’re going to be okay.’ It really feels like from here on out, we’re kind of in an SEC Championship game. That’s the same mentality that we had last year in the Big 12, that every game matters to that degree, and we have to put ourselves in Atlanta, right?”

The rest of the way for the Longhorns, there are some tricky spots where they can’t get away with coasting: this week they head to Vanderbilt before also having Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Texas A&M on the regular season calendar.

Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin on Oklahoma’s Offense: Similar with Arnold or Hawkins

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin has been preparing for Oklahoma this weekend, and even with Oklahoma making a chance at QB, going back to Jackson Arnold after previously having benched Arnold for true freshman Michael Hawkins, Coach Kiffin sees little difference in scouting the two QBs.

Coach Kiffin shared that he doesn’t see many different plays being called for either quarterback, and that the bigger difference, if any, will lie with the new play caller following OC Seth Littrell’s firing.

Last week against South Carolina, Hawkins played for the first 3 drives, while being responsible for all 3 turnovers. After switching to Arnold, he finished 18-for-36 for 225 yards and a touchdown.

EA Sports Updated Player Ratings for CFB 25

EA Sports announced some updates to CFB 25 recently, including overall and ratings changes for some players.

Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty has been improved from a 96 to a 97, which ties him with Travis Hunter and Will Johnson for the highest rated player in the game.

Some other big changes include the following:

San Diego State EDGE Trey White: 88 (+15)

Alabama WR Ryan Williams: 90 (+8)

Navy QB Blake Horvath: 85 (+8)

Army QB Bryson Daily: 83 (+8)

Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith: 90 (+6)

Utah OT Spencer Fano: 90 (+6)

Mississippi State’s Jeff Lebby Seeing “Great Improvement” from Team

Mississippi State is sitting at 1-6 and have lost six straight, but Head Coach Jeff Lebby feels that his team is coming along in a positive way.

Lebby, of his team, said: “I think, I feel and our guys inside the building feel every single day that it is an incredibly fine line to where we have a chance to have a happy locker room if there’s two things that are different inside the game. It’s that close. … There has been great improvement. We’ve gotten better, but we need to get better and we need to win. That’s what we’re fighting to go do.”

As for proof for how the Bulldogs have been getting better, Mississippi State did only lose to both Georgia and Texas A&M by 10 points each, losing to Georgia 41-31 and then losing to Texas A&M the following week 34-24.

This weekend, Mississippi State plays Arkansas before hosting UMass the following week. Then Mississippi State heads to Knoxville to play Tennessee before a bye week, then hosting Missouri, and then traveling to Oxford for The Egg Bowl.

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (88) EDGE Niklas Fisher flips from Texas State to Oregon State