There has been plenty of carnage this season, but Miami has remained spotless through seven games. The Hurricanes, who were only a couple of plays away from a national title last season, look like they're in a great spot to contend again. Is there anything the country's top team needs to fix before its matchup in two weeks against No. 5 Notre Dame?
UCLA is also still undefeated, but is its success so far a smoke screen, or are the Bruins for real?
Things aren't quite as bright for many of the other big programs. BYU and Texas Tech lost to unranked teams, leaving Utah alone atop the Big 12. Is there reason to worry about the Cougars and Red Raiders? And after a 24-7 loss to Wisconsin, is Lincoln Riley on the hot seat at USC?
Our college football experts are here to break things down.
Does Miami have something it needs to get fixed before facing Notre Dame in two weeks?
If we want to nitpick the Hurricanes, there are certainly areas of concern. The secondary is thin since injuries have sidelined a number of key contributors. That showed up in the Florida State game, when Zechariah Poyser was ejected for targeting early, and the Seminoles took advantage. Still, freshman JJ Dunnigan and transfer Ethan O'Connor have been better than anyone should've expected, and Bryce Fitzgerald has turned into a jack-of-all-trades in the secondary to help fill some holes.
On the offensive side, there are reasonable concerns about the run blocking, as Miami hasn't looked like the ground force it was in last year's playoff. Mark Fletcher has battled injuries, CharMar Brown is out for the year, and freshman Javian Mallory has had to carry a bigger share of the load. But it's a credit to the recruiting work Mario Cristobal has done that so many first-year Canes have stepped up.
Notre Dame will be Miami's biggest challenge of the year by far, but the Irish will have a few weaknesses the Canes can attempt to exploit, and there's still one fact that can't be ignored: Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney are basically unstoppable. -- David Hale
Texas Tech or BYU -- which loss by an undefeated Big 12 team is more concerning for the rest of the season?
Booster Cody Campbell talked about retribution this offseason, about how Texas Tech would get over on the Big 12 peers it beefed with during the Brendan Sorsby saga "when we're up by 40 and still throwing the ball in the fourth quarter." When the Red Raiders routed Arizona State 53-25 last week, it looked like they might finally be turning the corner and ready to play at that dominant level we saw so often last season.
Well, they never led by 40 against Cincinnati and haven't in any game this season. In fact, the Bearcats were the ones running it up Saturday with a 58-yard touchdown from Cole Tabb and a 2-point conversion attempt to try to extend their lead to 21 midway through the fourth quarter. The Bearcats deserve tons of credit for their 37-24 home rout of a top-10 foe, but that performance by Joey McGuire's squad was unacceptable in so many ways.
"We played about as bad as we could play," McGuire said.
The problem here is not just that Texas Tech has limited margin for error going forward with 6-1 Arizona up next and several losable games ahead. The Red Raiders have a lot to clean up in a short period of time, from their run defense to their slow starts and their penalties. This was a major setback in a week when the team needed to keep building up its confidence and consistency. -- Max Olson
The best 2-loss SEC team is... ?
I have a really hard time not buying into LSU right now. Go look at the way the Tigers dominated Mississippi State and Auburn in their past two games. See a final combined score of 69-17.
Everything is working for Lane Kiffin's squad: offense, defense, special teams. Blake Baker's defense absolutely shut down Byrum Brown and the Auburn running game. Princewill Umanmielen is a one-man wrecking crew off the edge with eight sacks this season. If Whit Weeks comes back, watch out because the linebacker corps is already solid as it is.
But it's the offense that's starting to look scary good. The return of star tight end Trey'Dez Green was felt against Auburn, not just with his touchdown catch but with the way it opened up more favorable coverage for the receivers. Jackson Harris has emerged as a true No. 1 target with nine receptions for 178 yards and two scores in this game. As Kiffin said afterward, quarterback Sam Leavitt is "off-the-charts efficient" right now, running and passing. He appears to have settled into the offense and gotten onto the same page with coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. And what gives it all balance is the hard running of Dilin Jones, who brings it every week.
Kiffin wanted the offense to come along faster, but as he said, "This is where we planned on being." This is the roster coming into shape -- and just in time with the next three games after a bye week against Alabama, Texas and Tennessee. -- Alex Scarborough
Can UCLA remain undefeated the rest of the regular season?
The Bruins have not played flawless football to get to 7-0, but they just continue to find ways to win. It's an admirable quality that clearly comes from Bob Chesney's own confidence and the way it has permeated throughout the team.
"They're all-in," Chesney said after UCLA's 28-10 win over Michigan State. "They feel like they're 100% positive they can win every single game when they walk on that field."
The potential for real adversity is still on the horizon. The Bruins' recipe of running the ball well and having a defense that plays physical and forces lots of (read: 22) turnovers is an ideal foundation. Yet with tricky, though winnable, matchups coming up, they're bound to have a game where the turnovers are not there to save them or the running attack just isn't clicking quite as well.
With Nico Iamaleava out, quarterback Ty Dieffenbach has stepped in admirably and is 2-0, but chances are that the deeper we get into the season, the better teams will be set up to try to force the Bruins into being a pass-first team. Will Dieffenbach be up for the challenge? He has shown flashes but also made rookie mistakes in the process. UCLA will need to rely on him to do more of what he showed Saturday, when he connected on a 63-yard touchdown pass with wideout Brian Rowe Jr.
It's hard to bet against what we're seeing unfold in Westwood right now because it's not smoke and mirrors. Chesney has not only turned around the program quickly, but he has given it an identity. Perhaps that alone will be enough to carry the Bruins through the final stretch of the season. -- Paolo Uggetti
Has Luke Fickell taken himself off the hot seat, and has Lincoln Riley put himself on it?
Yes, although Riley was already on the hot seat before Saturday's offensive no-show in Madison. He had briefly cooled things down with a rare Big Ten road win against Penn State, but his Trojans team emerged from the open week still very much in a fog. Wisconsin swarmed quarterback Jayden Maiava, held USC's run game to minus-17 net yards and looked like the much tougher team all night. USC recorded the lowest points total (seven) of any Riley-coached team.
The Trojans are likely one loss away from another missed CFP appearance under Riley, who has yet to get there with USC after four straight appearances as Oklahoma's coach. Throughout the offseason, Riley made it clear that USC was ready to break through, saying this spring: "It's time. The program's ready for it." But USC hasn't looked ready, getting steamrolled by Oregon backup quarterback Dylan Raiola at the Coliseum and then getting pushed around by Wisconsin despite being well rested. A loss this week to Ohio State would essentially eliminate USC and leave athletic director Jen Cohen with a decision on the coach, who would not be cheap to fire.
Fickell had already shown improvement in Year 4, especially with a defense that allowed 20 or fewer points in six straight games since the season-opening loss to Notre Dame. But after last week's loss at UCLA, Wisconsin needed a strong home performance to elevate excitement around the program. First-year athletic director Shawn Eichorst has focused on uniting Wisconsin fans and putting the program on stronger financial footing. He's not eager to change coaches and shouldn't need do, as Wisconsin is positioned to win eight or more games. -- Adam Rittenberg
