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The Mountain West Conference will survive! It was announced today that Hawaii will become a full conference member in 2026, giving the league the eight members required to remain an FBS conference. Hawaii has been a football-only member of the MWC since 2012 and in the Big West for most other sports.
Now on to our latest college football beef (or is it)?
College Football Beefs
Smart pushes MSU QB
Georgia’s 41-31 win against Mississippi State didn’t include a ton of dramatics when it came to the game. But a clip of Kirby Smart shoving Mississippi State QB Michael Van Buren Jr. gained traction online. After Van Buren scrambled to the sideline, Smart pushed him out of his way to say something to Georgia DC Glenn Schumann. Smart said he didn’t realize he had done it until he was asked about it after the game.
The “Until Saturday” podcast discussed the incident as one of the Criesmans of the week. Here’s an excerpt of their discussion.
🎙️Chris Vannini: “I didn’t think anything of it. The kid was just in the way. He wasn’t going aggressively at the kid. He was trying to get to the referee, I think, to yell at him or something like that. I didn’t think this was a big deal.”
🎙️Damien Harris: “I was going to say in retrospect, if a player pushed a coach, what’s going to happen? … You’re at least getting ejected, that’s for sure. I agree with Chris more so, I didn’t make too much of it, just from an accountability standpoint, because as players, you’re coached to never contact with an official, you never contact another coach or something like that, because this is what will happen. Granted, with Kirby Smart, it wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t malicious or anything, but I do think that there should still be that same accountability and that same precedent. You got to set a precedent that, yeah, it wasn’t malicious, but at the same time, a coach shouldn’t be contacting a player from another team.”
Listen to the full discussion here.
Smart said he called Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby on Saturday night and spoke to Van Buren on Sunday. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey weighed in on Monday and said Smart should have received a penalty during the game but was satisfied with how Smart handled it by speaking with Van Buren.
🧑⚖️The verdict: This wasn’t malicious and doesn’t need to be taken out of context. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was probably warranted, as Sankey suggested, but nothing beyond that is deserved. An MSU spokesman said Lebby “appreciated that Coach Smart reached out,” and now that the two sides have discussed the matter, it’s time to move on.
Heisman Poll
We’re watching Jeanty make history
Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty jumped Colorado WR/DB Travis Hunter for first place in The Athletic’s Heisman straw poll today. Jeanty has been appointment viewing since Day 1, and I’m glad to see his Heisman stock rising. Courtesy of Kennington Smith in today’s Week 7 recap, here’s how Jeanty’s first six games compare to the last four RBs to win the Heisman.
- Reggie Bush (2005): 86 carries, 761 rushing yards, nine TDs
- Mark Ingram (2009): 111 carries, 659 rushing yards, seven TDs
- Derrick Henry (2015): 120 carries, 665 rushing yards, 10 TDs
- Ashton Jeanty: 126 carries, 1,248 rushing yards (!), 17 TDs
Jeanty and the No. 15 Broncos are on a bye this week, so if you want to keep your eye on the underdogs, here’s your chance! The latest poll included a season-high nine players, including newcomer Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson. I asked Johnson’s voter to share the case behind their ballot today. Here’s what they said:
“Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty has gotten plenty of attention — rightly because I voted him No. 1 — but Kaleb Johnson’s haul is nothing short of impressive. He’s second behind Jeanty nationally in rushing yards, first in runs of 20-plus yards and fourth in touchdowns (12). Don’t forget that this was an abysmal Iowa offense last year; he already has more rushing touchdowns than the Hawkeyes had in 2023 (11) and equal to their 2022 total. Johnson mixes size, speed and stride that’s effortless. It’s like a Ken Griffey Jr. home run swing.”
Read the full Heisman poll here.
The Athletic 134
Wisconsin, Cincinnati rising
There’s a new No. 1 in Chris Vannini’s weekly ranking of all 134 FBS teams. The Oregon Ducks took over the top of the rankings thanks to a resume-defining win against Ohio State last week.
Other shakeups at the top of the rankings included Ohio State falling from No. 2 to No. 5 and Alabama falling from No. 3 to No. 7. Even though the Crimson Tide beat No. 3 Georgia earlier this season, they are ranked below the Dawgs because their too-close-for-comfort win against South Carolina raised more questions than it did answers in what should have been a rebound performance after the Vanderbilt upset.
- Jumps of the week: Wisconsin (4-2) rose from No. 65 to No. 40 amid a small (but mighty?) winning streak for the Badgers. Wisconsin outscored Purdue and Rutgers 94-13 the past two weeks. Cincinnati (4-2) is ranked No. 54, a 19-spot jump from last week, after beating UCF 19-13. Notably, the Bearcats’ two losses were close — a one-point loss to No. 20 Pitt on Sept. 7 and a 44-41 result against Texas Tech on Sept. 28.
- Checking on No. 134: Kent State (0-6) remains in last place despite putting up a good fight against Ball State. The Golden Flashes and Cardinals entered their game as the two lowest-ranked teams in total defense in the FBS. The lack of defensive prowess made for an offensive shootout with both teams eclipsing 400 yards of offense and combining for a 31-point fourth quarter. Kent State rallied from a 20-7 halftime deficit to make it a close one before losing 37-35.
Read Chris’ full ranking here.
Quick Snaps
How much of a mastermind is Dan Lanning? It turns out that the illegal substitution penalty against Ohio State — which burned critical time off the clock and still left the Buckeyes out of field goal range — may have been intentional.
At the season’s midpoint, Miami, Indiana and Iowa State’s College Football Playoff stock has risen the most while Florida State, Utah and Michigan have fallen the furthest.
Utah QB Cam Rising is out for the season after suffering a lower-leg injury in the Utes’ loss to Arizona State on Friday. It’s another brutal injury break for the seventh-year Rising, who could come back for an eighth year.
You can buy tickets to every college football game here.
For streaming info on Fubo, click here.
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(Top photo of Kirby Smart: Brett Davis / Imagn Images)
